A/N

Here comes another chapter! I have a strange feeling that I am going to get a lot of hate for this chapter. A couple characters will die or are revealed to already be dead.

Sonic's POV:

We got back to the base and I helped Tails get out of the vehicle. When we got inside, Nicole treated Tails wounds. He had a broken tail, a broken leg, and a major concussion. How he had managed to escape is beyond me.

I was happy that I was able to rescue Tails, but I was still nervous. After what Tails had told about what Him and the others went through, I wanted to get out there and free the others ASAP. But Elias and Nicole won't let us until they're ready.

My wounds were beginning to heal and I could finally take off the bandages around my arms and chest. Although I was healed, I did gain a nice scar on my chest. I big white streak stretched across my chest as a reminder of that day.

Throughout the rest of the day, we went out and found a few more survivors. We found Mina and her band on the outskirts of the city. They were coming back from their big concert when the attack happened. Espio was able to find us. He, Vector and Charmy were ambushed by SWATbots, only Espio survived the attack.

I went to see Elias and Nicole to ask if we can attack. I found them in a dark room, a holographic map was centered in the room. They were formulating a plan, finally.

"So," I asked the two, "how's the plan going?"

"Not so well, Sonic." The king responded. "The castle is impenetrable."

"Elias is right, Sonic." said Nicole, "I designed the castle so that it was impossible to infiltrate, ironic isn't it?"

"We will find a way." I said to reassure them. "Maybe we can..."

Suddenly I was cut off by the alarms. We ran to the main computer to see what was wrong.

"Who'd we find this time?" The king asked

Nicole did nothing but stare at the computer in a freaked out daze. I tried to snap her out of it, until I saw what she was looking at.

"Oh...my..." I said.

"God..." Elias finished.

On the screen was Shadow the hedgehog, dragging a body with him. It was a female chipmunk, and she was in terrible condition.

"SALLY!" Elias and I both screamed in almost perfect unison. Just by looking at her I could tell her arms and legs were broken. She was bleeding heavily from almost every area of her body and was unconscious, most likely from the blood loss.

Shadow was shouting something, but the computer volume was muted.

"Nicole, turn up the volume." I say to her. She does so.

"Sonic!" He shouts, "I know you can hear me! I know you have Elias with you! If you ever want to see your precious girlfriend again then I want Elias! You have thirty minutes before I snap her neck!"

Both Elias and me were terrified. In order to get Sally back, we had to trade the king for her. There was no telling what would happen to him after. Would he keep Elias prisoner? Would he kill him?

"Let's do it" The king said bravely

"What?" I say to him. "He'll kill you!"

"If we don't do this he'll kill her."

"If we do, he'll kill you. Then most likely kill her too."

"I don't see any other way, Sonic."

After a few more minutes of arguing Shadow once again spoke up.

"The clock's ticking, faker!"

"I've already made up my mind, I'm doing this." Elias stated proudly.

I had no choice but to go along with this, he is the king after all. Elias, Nicole, Tails, Espio and me all left the base. We entered the tank that Nicole made and we drove off to trade Elias for Sally. I still didn't think this was going to work.

Sally's POV:

It was about an hour or two after Tails escaped, I had no idea whether he made or not. Cream never lost hope in her boyfriend, even after a few of us did. Suddenly the door slammed open and a large group of people walked in. Leading the pack was Shadow, followed by Eggman and several SWATbots, carrying in another victim. This time it was Mammoth Mogul, he was still unconscious as they chained him to the wall, in Tail's old spot.

The doctor turned to the black hedgehog and grinned happily.

"That's two down, only two more to go." he said with a smile on his face.

"Three to go." Shadow corrected. "Our deal isn't over until all five are taken care of. And that miserable faker is still alive."

"Uh...Shadow, you still haven't told me who the last one you need is."

"I told you doctor, that one is special and I shall bring him."

The doctor shrugged it off as he began to walk away. I thought Shadow would leave too, but he turned to me and grabbed me by the throat. He got closer to me and looked me in the eye.

"Your boyfriend survived." He said angrily. My heart skipped a beat as he said that.

I knew that he would be okay. I felt like I could burst into tears of joy, but then I noticed Shadow's face which was grinning at me with an evil look. He could tell I was happy about the news, he was going to fix that.

He grabbed my arm and yanked it as hard as he could, breaking the shackle that covered my arm, and my arm in the process. He repeated the same process with my other arm and legs. After he was done, I was on the ground, in a fetal position. My arms and legs were either fractured or heavily hurt. I was unable to prevent him from beating me senseless.

He was showing no mercy on me, even grabbing a still lit torch and burning me. My friends could do nothing but watch, Cream began to beg for him to stop. He walked up to her and gave her a back hand across the face. With what little strength I had, I threw a punch at him, but he reacted and dodged. He was behind me now, he made a swift kick movement and broke my leg.

I screamed at the top of my lungs and hit the ground hard, causing my nose to bleed. I was in so much pain that I didn't care about a simple nose bleed, not there was much to bleed anyway since most of my blood was either on the floor, wall, my friends or shadow.

"So princess," Shadow said calmly as he picked me up by the scruff of my neck. "I am willing to bet that your boyfriend misses you dearly. But don't worry, he will get his chance to see you..."

He began to drag me out the door, I began to lose consciousness at that point. Everything was fading to black as I took one last look at my friends, I gave them a slight smile. Hopefully, they would understand that I would be okay.

"...And this opportunity will be a chance to die for!" laughed the hedgehog. The slamming of the dungeon door was the last sound I heard before blackness took me.

Sonic's POV:

I was lost in thought as Nicole continued to drive the six of us to Shadow's location. I couldn't help but think that this was going to go horribly wrong, somehow, someway. It's a good thing that we brought Tails and Espio, even though I begged Tails not to join, he was adamant about coming.

"We're here." stated Nicole. "And there he is."

I got out of the vehicle, and looked to where Nicole was facing, and across the street was Shadow and Sally. She looked even worse than on the computer, she needed to have Nicole treat her immediately.

"Alright," said Elias as he approached me. "Let's do this."

Tails and Espio were off to the side, just in case any trouble should stir. We just stood there and stared at each other for what seemed like hours. Shadow gave me a slight smirk as her softly stroked Sally's hair.

"So glad you could make it." he said. "I thought you weren't going to show."

I was getting agitated. "Let's just get this over with."

"Yes, let's. This is how we are going to do it, the king is going to begin to walk over to me. When he is about half way between us, I will send her to you and me and the king will be on our way."

Elias began to walk towards the dark hedgehog and the half conscious chipmunk, until I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Elias," I say, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I will not let her die, Sonic, I must do this." He broke away from me and walked towards Shadow.

When Elias was about halfway there, Shadow smirked and put his hand on my girlfriends shoulder. This was the moment of truth, would he send her to me or betray us again?

"It's been fun, Princess." said the hedgehog. "Chaos control."

Sally disappeared and landed right in front of me. I picked her up and gave her a big hug. She looked at me and smiled.

"I...I kn...knew that...you...were alive." she said weakly

"Well," I said, tearing up, "You know me, nothing can stop this hedgehog. Come on let's get you out of here."

Elias arrived near Shadow and was greeted warmly. He put his arm around the kings shoulder and began to walk off with him.

"What an honor it is to see you again, your highness." sarcastically said the hedgehog.

"You're never going to succeed, Shadow" Elias said.

"Watch me." he said.

Shadow quickly spun around and took out his favorite gun. He aimed at me and fired. I saw the bullet and covered Sally, praying that I would get hit instead of her. The bullet flew towards me and I shut my eyes tight. I heard the bullet penetrate and rip through, but I was not hit. I opened my eyes and looked around.

I looked down and to my horror, saw who got hit. Standing directly in front of me was Tails, on the ground, with a massive hole through his chest. A pool of blood surrounded him.

"TAILS!" I screamed as I rushed to him.

Nicole got Sally and brought her into the vehicle, as I picked up Tails and put him in there too. Espio stayed behind to give us some time. Nicole sped us off to the base as I held on to Tails.

"T...tails..." I managed to sob out, "Please...h...hang on j..ju..just a little l..longer."

Tails opened his eyes and smiled weakly, he knew he wasn't going to make it. He grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes.

"H...hey, I...I t..old you that I w...would a..always h..have your b..back."

I cradled him in my arms while I begged Nicole to go faster. He was fading fast and I could already tell we weren't going to make it there in time. I continued sobbing and holding him. With what strength he had left, he pushed away just enough to talk.

"S...sonic" He gasped. "Pl...please...when th...this is over...T..tell Cream th..that I...l...love h..her."

"Y..you can tell her t..that yourself." I say to him, sobbing after each word. "When we g...get back to the b..base, Nicole will heal you."

"P...please...p..p..promise me t..that y..you w...will..."

It took me a long time to say anything, but I managed to choke out a small "yes..."

And with that, he closed his eyes and fell asleep. But only this time, he would never wake up. The rest of the ride was spent sobbing over Tails' bloody corpse. Shadow is going to pay for what he has done, and I am going to make sure of it.

A/N

Oh my god, I just killed off Tails! *cue evil laughter*

Don't worry though, this death is just going to make the ending even better!

Anyway, I need some help with something small, I don't know whether or not to kill off Espio. He isn't going to have a major role in the ending if he lives. But I would like to know your opinion. Leave your opinion in the reviews, or you can message me (I don't care which)

So please read and review and don't flame (no matter how much you want to!)