Good New Years to everyone! I hope your holiday was fun, and relaxing. I'm sorry it's been a while since I've updated, but we had company come down from Massachusetts and I've been a little occupied. Couple that with some writers block, and things haven't been hot for my writing (I am actually updating from the FSU writing lab). I want everyone to extend an extra special thanks to Cyrex, who gave me a big hand with one part of this chapter. Hopefully, the rest of it is good enough that his advice and council was not wasted upon me.

Again, to everyone who has read the story, I thank you for the time and effort you have put into this. To those who have reviewed, I hope I have responded adequately, and that I haven't driven you away with my drivel.

Lawyers- You know the drill. I no own, you no sue.

&

Man in the Iron Mask

She moved deeper into the underground stronger hold, her azure eyes on the look out for the wraith that resided within Stonehenge.

Sally Acorn would have appeared to all the world to be the very definition of the word calm at the current moment, but inside she was anything but. Her thoughts tumbled about and anxiety ran rampant within her. How should she go about this? If Sonic really was Norrack, and there was still a doubt or two that lingered , then how would he react to her suddenly confronting him after all these years? What guilt and pains did he have shackled within his own mind? What scars did he have after nearly ten years of being trapped within himself?

The hairs on the back of her neck raised up and she paused. It was that strange feeling that she was being watched again. She looked around. Nothing. She knew the feeling, though. She'd felt it back at the Neo Crusader base… had thought it had been Shadow trying to torment her from a distance.

But it hadn't been him, it had been the other ARC, it had been Sonic.

The ground squirrel took a deep breath and allowed herself to relax. This place was massive, and the person she sought could have been anywhere. But, if Sonic was watching her now, how far away could he be? If he, like Shadow, had some psionic capabilities, how far could he project them?

The princess frowned and crossed her arms. Her booted foot began to tap against the metal floor. She closed her eyes, exhaled, and then opened them again. A door behind her suddenly opened, and she twisted about. She'd half expected the large cyborg to confront her then, but she discovered it was just one of the maintenance droids.

"Hey," she called to it.

The droid paused and twisted around on its wheeled base. It chirped at her, and if it had had a face, the princess knew it would be twisted into a frown of curious irritation.

"Where can I find Norrack?" She knew that these models, even if they spoke in their own computer tongue, could understand what she was saying.

The machine warbled and twisted around again before it began to move back through the door from which it had come. Sally didn't know if it had opted to ignore her or was telling her to follow, these Great War model robots could be notoriously fickle at times, but she decided to follow it. It couldn't be any worse than wandering around this facility until Sonic decided to come find her.

Ahead of her, the droid twisted and turned down the various corridors. The princess vaguely recognized this kind of place. It was a barracks for housing and training soldiers. Somehow, it made sense that the hedgehog would be found here. He was, after all, a born… no, that wasn't the right word, unfortunately… he was a created soldier, a living weapon brought into existence for the purpose of ushering in a new age and breed of infantry unit. He and his brother had been callously created in order to cause so much death and destruction that the Overlanders would have had no choice but to surrender.

A tear tried to form in the corner of her eye as she thought about it. About him…

A door in front of her hissed open and she saw a vast room. She recognized it. A large holounit made for training soldiers. It could create anything from plains to mountains, desert to tundra.

But her attention wasn't focused upon the room, so much as what was inside of it. She saw him there. His back was to her, and there was something about him she could immediately put her finger on. His shoulders were slumped, his head bowed, and his right hand was clenched around something. There was a chain hanging out from between his fingers, the ferrosteel caught the lights from above and sent a small sparkle through the room.

She took another hesitant step towards him. The door closed behind her as the droid left. It was just the two of them now. The princess's mouth was suddenly dry, and had to swallow. She steeled herself, no turning back now.

"How did you figure it out?" The cyborg's tone was like his stance: broken, defeated. "Did Bunnie tell you?"

"You… you called me Sal," she paused to swallow again, "I'd, forgotten about it until now."

"Always the little slipups that get me." Bitter laughter followed the remark. "How many times did you warn me that forgetting some little detail would get me hurt?"

"Sonic…" She walked up behind him, placed a hand upon his left shoulder. He recoiled as if struck by a vibro blade, twisted away from her violently and spun around to face her.

"How can you call me that?" he asked. His voice was ragged, cracked. He clenched his right fist, brought it up to his visored face. "After all I've done, after all the death and destruction that I've caused? Have you forgotten what I did nine years ago?"

"That wasn't—"

"It was!" Sonic cut her off with a slicing motion. "How many times did I try to fight that chip's control of me? How many times I failed… how many died because of it? Because I was too weak?" He stared down at his hands, stared at them as if they were still coated in the blood of his many victims. "I killed so many… I nearly killed all of you… Tails… you… Saria…"

Sally took another step towards him. She would not let him keep this up. He would see the truth.

"That's not true," she said as she stared right into his face. She forced herself to look past that mirrored computer interface. "That was Robotnik, not you. You never hurt us. You've fought for us; you've protected us from everything, even from that monster you were turned into. Listen to me!" She reached out and grabbed the sides of his helmet, forced him to meet her eyes. "Don't keep doing this to yourself. Let me in, let me help you! You're not going to keep facing this alone!" She paused, and she felt the tears try to well up inside her again. "Let me see the real you… let me see the man I fell in love with all those years ago… the man I still love and who's underneath this shell."

She let go of him and took a step back. Her heart was hammering inside of her chest, but she knew that he had to make the next move.

For some moments, Sonic merely stood where he was. His gaze drifted between her, the princess that was trying to save him, and her right arm.

In that one moment Sally wished she could go and rip the blasted cybernetic limb off. How much agony was that piece of hardware causing him?

He took a step back, and turned around. The princess felt hope begin to die within her chest and she bowed her head.

Then she heard a hissing sound and looked up at him. A jet of pressurized air shot out of the side of his helmet. He reached up, and the armored headgear came off a moment later. The blue hedgehog knelt down and placed both the helmet and whatever it was that he'd held in his hand upon the ground.

Next came the caster and harness for his kaiburr swords, followed by the massive utility belt and various other weapons that he had strapped onto his Aratech suit. Then the torso armor came off as he opened it along a seam that Sally had never even known was there.

She had to stifle a gasp as the primary bit of the armor came off. The scars… there were so many of them. His fur was covered in the discolorations, but most of them followed a uniform pattern: his skeletal system. She brought a hand to her mouth and images flashed through her mind. She saw him strapped to a table, helpless and unable to move as he was sliced open and ferrosteel grafted to his bones.

There was a series of small holes in his back as well, right up the spine. Small metal studs surrounded them. The neural interfaces for the power armor that he wore. What allowed him to link up and control its functions with his very thoughts.

His extremities became exposed next and the ground squirrel saw the cybernetic limbs for the first time. They were not like Bunnie's. Hers had been designed as a utility droid's, large and bulky, with the purpose of heavy lifting in mind. Sonic's were streamlined and melded perfectly into his flesh and fur. Had they been covered in clothing or the like, one might never have been able to guess they were artificial.

His left arm reached up and yanked a small bit of cord free. His quills had been tied up in something that resembled a ponytail, and they were now free. They were longer than she remembered, stretched down to about the small of his back, covering his scars. With his armor laid out at his feet, he stood once more. His back was still to her, and she had to resist the urge to go up and turn him around. This was his decision, in the end, and she couldn't force his hand, no mater how badly she might have wanted to.

He turned.

She almost took an involuntary step backwards.

His face was so like Shadow's that it was disturbing. The same scar pattern, the same white eyes; eyes that despite their lack of pupils seemed to bore into her. Several other scars crisscrossed his visage, and he seemed haggard. The fur along his jaw line was somewhat ragged and unkempt, which gave him a feral and predatory look.

For a moment, she just stared at him. Sonic closed his eyes and lowered his head, his ears drooped. He looked like a wounded animal even more now, and it tore at the princess heart.

"Do you see what I've become?" Sonic's voice was flat, dead. "What I've been reduced to, the monster I've turn into?"

"What I see is a man who buries and chains himself with guilt over something that is not his fault," Sally replied as she stepped forward and placed both hands on his shoulders. "I see someone who's been trapped in Hell for nine years, but who's kept going in spite of it. I see an angel that's kept watch over us, even when there was nothing to force him to."

He looked into her eyes, stared down at her with an expression that was unreadable. Ever so slowly cracks appeared in the iron mask that he wore upon and within himself. The cracks grew, and he began to tremble. The air seemed to rumble in sympathy with him. Then they reached a point where they could not be closed, and shattered.

With a cry of agony, the hedgehog fell to his knees, and a shockwave flew out from him. Sally was blown backwards as it hit her and she came to a skidding halt some fifteen feet away. She got up with a groan and looked over to the man that held her heart.

He was curled up in a ball, his quills stuck out, like a child that had just awoken from a nightmare and didn't want to face the world, afraid that the terror of the dream would manifest itself.

She crawled over to him. Silent sobs wracked his body, and tears trickled down his scarred face. A single question went through her head: why? Why had Sonic been the one to suffer this fate? Why had it been him that had been forced to watch as a prisoner within his own mind as he'd slaughtered former comrades? Why had he been torn away from his friends and family in what should have been the happiest moments of his life, and thrust into this decade long nightmare?

Sally reached out and gently pulled the hedgehog into her lap. She encircled her arms around him, and felt his heartbeat against her chest.

"Let it out, Sonic, let it out," she whispered to him. Her voice was soft and gentle, like it had been years ago when Tails had been a child, his dreams haunted by vague memories of what had happened in Robotropolis.

Sally reached down and stroked Sonic's head, pulled him closer and held him as tightly as she dared. Tears formed in her own eyes as she felt his sobs reverberate through herself. She felt his drip against her fur, and she looked down at it, at the darkened patch on her arm.

How long had it been since he cried? How long had the self loathing and hatred and sorrow been bottled up inside of him? How long had he stoically kept himself behind that masked helmet?

The difference was harsh and glaring, the wounded young man, trapped within the body of a cybernetic super soldier. He'd become what he'd been born to be… a warrior that hid his scars from the world, hid himself in shame and fear.

The princess rocked the ARC trooper back and forth. He made no struggle against her, just continued to weep, to bleed out a decade's worth of pain and anguish.

She had no idea how long it had been, hours, perhaps? When he finally stopped and lay limply in her arms, curled up like a child.

"It wasn't your fault," she whispered to him, a hand turned his gaze to hers. "Please… understand that."

"You… you don't understand…" His voice was weak, broken.

"Then let me… show me!" There was a pleading tone to her voice, a desperation that he had never heard before… it scared him.

"What do you mean?" His gaze was at the floor again, unable to bring himself to stare the woman he loved in the eye.

"You can go inside a person's head, sort through their thoughts, right?" She asked, and got an affirmative nod. "Can you make the link work the other way?"

"Yes," he said, his head bowed low.

She lifted up his chin, forced his white eyes to meet her blue ones. There was steel in her gaze, one he remembered very well, but there was softness present as well. It wasn't anger… it was a need to understand.

A war raged on inside of the blue hedgehog. A hand slowly closed into a fist as he contemplated the possibilities. He could show her… but would she despise him then? Hate him for his weakness. And could he taint her like that? Memories that scarred the soul…

"Please." She looked him in the eye again.

His resolve wavered, teetered upon the brink. Then the last of the walls collapsed and he stared back. He felt the world around him going dark as he lost himself in the eyes of the woman he loved.

Both the Sally and Sonic slumped to the ground a moment later, as they fell into the oblivion of another world.

She tried to open her eyes, but found that she could not. Her whole body ached, and a pain like nothing else coursed through her like some hellish river. She couldn't feel her arms or her legs, and it hurt to breathe.

She felt something on top of her, metal by the feel of it. It cut into her skin and she could feel blood running down her back. She wanted to cry out in pain, but her lungs refused to allow that. She could barely get enough air into them as it was.

There was a slight whirring sound. It was faint, distant, yet close at the same time. The sound was familiar, what was it? An image came to her mind, a small machine, built upon treads, with two arms and a visor across a saucer shaped face. A Tech Bot, that was what was making the racket. Why was one here? What was it doing?

The noise stopped, and for half a second, the blinded girl wondered what it was doing. Fear clutched at her, mindless, nameless, feral.

"Life sign detected," it droned. "Scans indicate match with priority one alert, requesting Swat Bot assistance."

The fear blossomed to a whole new level, and she tried to move, to thrash about and get free of this metal cocoon. All she did was gouge herself more. The blood was everywhere, so much of it. How was she still alive?

Thunderous clanking filled the air and a light so bright that it blinded her filled her vision. A choked cry came from her throat. She tasted blood. They'd found her…

Darkness came again.

A blur of half memories and hazy images followed. Distorted voices filled her ears, and she had a distinct feeling of floating. She still couldn't feel her limbs. The animalistic fear still clawed at the back of her mind. They had caught her. They had her.

Her body wasn't as sore as it had been, and the slashes on her back no longer throbbed and bled… a bacta tank. She was being healed. Why?

A flash. Pain, liquid fire running through her veins. Something cutting, slicing into her, putting something in her flesh. Wanted to scream, had to. Couldn't.

Another flash, and she found herself upright again. Robotnik and Snivley were both on the other side of an energy containment field. The fear was still there in the back of her mind, but for the moment, rage had overpowered it. She slammed a fist, a metal fist, into the field, and screamed in a voice that was not her own that she would rip the overlord's heart right out of his chest for what he had done to her.

A laugh and a mocking reply were his retorts. Snivley pressed something on a control remote, and then there was pain unlike anything she had ever felt before in her whole life. The feeling of a thousand fiery knives slashing away at her brain. A scream tore its way from her throat. She pounded her head against the field. She wanted it to end, anything to make it stop. Voices screamed in her ears.

Goddess, why wouldn't they let it end? Roboticization, death, anything but whatever in the Nine Hells this was.

Darkness rose up, but it did not end the pain, the screaming voices that raged within her mind. She tried once again to scream, for someone, anyone, to come and save her, to rescue her from this hell that she'd become trapped in.

No one answered… no one came.

She opened her eyes again. It was dark, no light entered the room that she was in, but she could still see. The air around her was clean, sterile. There was a helmet on her head. She looked down to find that her hands, legs, and her body were encased in some manner of armored suit.

Her spine ached and she had the feeling that she was somehow connected to this thing that was around her. She tried to move, but found herself restrained. However, there was a hiss, and the restraints soon popped off. She took a step forward, and almost stumbled. Whatever it was that had been done to her was wearing off, but the after affects were still there.

The voices were silent now, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Now she just had to figure out how to get this helmet off.

But as she reached up to try to remove it, a door hissed open and light flooded in. The visor across her helmet immediately polarized to adjust to the sudden change in illumination. There was a room ahead of her, large and circular. A way out, perhaps?

She walked forward, her eyes darting about. Her fur stood on end and she felt her body tense. There was something wrong here.

"Welcome, my dear hedgehog," the voice of Julian echoed over a hidden loudspeaker.

She snapped around, her gaze flying about as she tried to locate her antagonist. She felt something as well, and out of the corner of her eye, saw a strange gun up on her shoulder. It moved with her gaze, and she felt a bit of nervousness claw its way up her spine. Why had she been given a weapon like this? What was that fiend's plan?

"Where are you hiding?" the voice that was hers and not hers growled.

"Where I can see you." The tone was chiding, mocking. "Tell, me, hedgehog, do you know anything about a project named 'ARC'."

"Should I, Buttnik?" She kept her eyes peeled. There had to be some way out of here.

"So, the old fool never told you…" Laughter split the air again, and rage came into her once more.

"Let's hear your dastardly plan, then, bullet head. I don't have all day, and I know you're just dying to spill the beans." She threw her arms out in an exaggerated sigh.

"I know you don't have much of a mind for this sort of thing, rodent, so I'll make it short and sweet," Julian snickered. "Suffice to say that during the Great War, the king and a few others got it into their heads to try and win the day by creating an army of unstoppable cyborg fighting machines. These Advanced Recon Commandos would have ushered in a new age of combat. They would have been inhumanely strong, have reflexes almost a dozen times faster than the Mobian norm, and have been able to put up with abuse that would have killed ordinary soldiers with no trouble whatsoever. They would have been armed to the teeth with state of the art weaponry and encased armor that would have practically made them walking tanks as well.

"In the end, though, for 'ethical reasons,' the project was shut down. I suppose it's to my advantage." His voice sounded nostalgic, almost grudgingly so. "If there had been a force of them around, it's possible my coup might not have gone quite as smoothly as it did. You see, these soldiers would have been so powerful that… special requirements, would be necessary to ensure their loyalty to the people of Mobius, and to no one else."

"Are you going somewhere with this, because I still have to pay you back for what you did to me," that distorted voice snarled again.

"Yes, rodent, I am. You see, while the ARC project might have been cancelled, there were two ARCs that were created, prototypes designed to see if the genetic modifications would work… Care to take a guess as to where I'm going with this, Sonic?"

"I'm not in the mood for games, Buttnik, so if you could kindly hurry up."

"My boy, you mean to tell me you have seriously never wondered where your speed comes from? Why you are so strong? Why your rings only work for you? A hundred questions that you could ask, and not one of them ever occurred to you?" He paused for a moment, and a slight snort echoed over the intercom. "You are one of those prototypes, Sonic. You're a living weapon, whose purpose in life was to kill."

The prickling fear worked its way back up her spine. She tried to deny it. He was lying. This was another one of his tricks or mind games. Just had to be strong. Had to ignore him and find a way out of this. She'd done it before, she could do it again, reduced to cybernetic limbs or not.

"I wonder what Sir Charles would say if he could see his little pet 'creation' now?"

"Shut up!" the voice hissed, cold poison within it.

"If he could see what you were about to become."

A door hissed open and a group of Swat Bots walked in, a young mouse held between them. She shook visible, and her face was streaked with tears. There was a silent plead in the eyes, a plea for mercy.

"How I wish he could be here to see this. Watch as his beloved little hedgehog is transformed into what he was meant to be."

The girl looked up at Sally, and for a split second, there was a faint shimmer of hope within those eyes.

Then the voices came, and the pain. She reached up and grabbed her head, thrashed around. Wanted it to stop. Wanted it to end. What did it take? She was being told to do something, but what? She couldn't concentrate through the agony. She would die if this kept up, she knew it.

Then the voices stopped. The pain faded. Sally blinked a few times to clear the spots from her vision, and took a deep, ragged breath.

"Well done, Sonic, well done," Robotnik cooed. "Took a little longer than I expected, but you finally wised up."

"What?" she muttered, and looked forward.

Terror surged through her heart again. The mouse girl was impaled upon talons set into her left arm. Blood was everywhere, on the claws, her hands, the Swat Bots, and the ground. She stared into the dead girl's eyes. They were a mask of pain… and 'why' seemed to be written into them.

A cry of fear erupted from her throat, and she fell backwards, desperate to get away.

"No…" the voice that was not hers begged.

Robotnik cackled like a madman, his voiced echoed throughout the room and her head.

It continued, day after day, victim after victim. Always, she tried to resist. Always, she failed.

The slayings grew more vicious as the days wore on, as what little resistance she could mount against the voices crumbled. A decapitation. A disembowelment. Slicing the femoral artery and watching the victim bleed to death. Ripping out a heart and holding it in front of the person's eyes. Tearing out a spinal column like the person was fish.

Then it happened. She stopped fighting. She broke. The voices ravaged her mind, robbed her of her memories, and then… then the most horrifying thing of all happened.

She began to enjoy it. Not so much the brutality of her work, but rather, the rewards that came from it, the praise that Julian heaped upon her whenever she killed something, or whenever she destroyed a Freedom Fighter squadron in a holodeck.

Then came the first real test: Gunter's squadron. Sally ripped through them like a vibro blade through butter, all the while drinking in the accolades that Robotnik whispered into her ear.

The attack on Knothole was a blur. Slaughtering people, blowing up Wraiths, destroying the command hut. Then the ensuing hunt through the woods. There were times when she resisted the commands of the voices, tried to find another way, tried to remember something she knew she had forgotten, but in the end, she always did as she was told.

It all slowed down when it came to the climax. She saw herself through the shattered visor, the conflict as blade and claws crossed. The gun exploding, her being blinded. A scream of pain. A scream she knew she'd heard before.

It was then that something else had surged forward, and she remembered. Even then, she was too weak to fight back. She couldn't overcome the compulsion. She'd tried, tried so hard it made her want to sob in despair, but she had lost the fight. A final, plea to her foe, silent and desperate. The message got through. The wounded princess charged and leapt.

There was a sense of vertigo and then she was falling.

Years passed in seconds. Julian's death, the exile into Stonehenge, knowledge that made her gasp. Loneliness and guilt mounted up, driven home by hellish nightmares and flashbacks. Thoughts of suicide became normal, became welcomed. A decision to end it all, to drown out the memories before what was left of her sanity was stolen away.

Then something changed. She saw his first encounter with Saria. Hope came back, a faint candlelight in the darkness, so weak that a sturdy breeze might blow it out. But it was there, and that flame grew as the days passed.

She observed from the shadows, watched unseen as the girl grew up next to her mother. Always watching, never approaching.

Then another incident, some years later. A run home after a day of watching. A prickling sensation in the back of her mind. Someone watching her. She stopped and stared around, her eyes on the woods. A loud racket, armored boots upon leaves. She spun and drew her sword while unsheathing her talons.

The sight that met her eyes made her gasp. She saw herself, or someone just like her emerge from the brush.

"There you are," the other armored figure said, a smile in his voice.

"Who are you?" She was wary; there was something about this individual, something that didn't feel right.

"Someone who knows all about you," the enigma replied as he crossed his arms. "I know who you are, who you were, and what you are becoming."

"You still haven't answered my question." She assumed a combat stance, left fist cocked back, right hand a held a little further out, ready to ignite her kaiburr sword.

"No, I suppose I haven't," the man responded. His tone was still friendly, but there was still something about him that disturbed her. A feeling in the back of her head that warned her to be on guard; his body language, and his equipment, there was something not right here. How did he get his hands on an Aratech suit? She was wearing the only one in existence supposedly. And those were kaiburr swords on his back. "My name is Shadow, I'm certain you've heard of it… brother?"

Recognition sparked. The files made mention to another prototype, but there had never been any information on what had happened to him. Now her sibling stood before her. As if to try to prove his point, his helmet hissed and he removed it. His scars were identical to hers, his eyes now the same milky white.

Questions bombarded her mind. Where had he been? Why was he revealing himself now? Where had he gotten the equipment necessary to make what he was wearing? Finally, how had he known where she had been?

"Confused? I'm not surprised. I'm officially listed as deceased." A smile was on his face, but it was cold and did not reach to those eyes. "I've been looking for you, little brother. I have a need for you."

"What do you mean?" She couldn't understand this. It was too much too fast. Neurons fired like machineguns within her brain in a vain attempt to make heads or tails of this strange, surreal scenario.

"You've felt it, haven't you?" he asked, his head cocked to one side. "The power beginning to grow inside of you. Their attempts at genetically engineering us to be the next evolution in warfare turned out to be a little more literal than they'd expected, didn't it?"

"What if I have?"

"I can teach you to control that, brother. You've been crippled, but I can help you rise up and become greater than you ever were before." He extended a hand.

"What would this 'power' be used for," the voice that was hers and not asked. It sounded too good to be true.

"I would think it obvious, Sonic." Shadow seemed genuinely shocked. "Taking our rightful place and restoring order to this chaotic world."

"Another coup d'état?" Sally felt fury rising inside of her.

"If necessary, but coup d'état is such a vicious term… I would prefer something more elegant and refined. Say, 'regime change', or 'revolution.'" He chuckled in a wicked manner. "Those Acorn fools don't deserve stewardship of this planet. I intend to put it in the hands of those who are a little more… gifted."

She gave no warning, no indication of her intentions, she just lunged at him. Before she'd gotten halfway to him, his weapons were out, both blades ignited and glowing furiously. Blades and claws clashed with such swiftness that the untrained observer could barely have followed them.

Sally felt surprise inside of her. His reactions were faster than hers, like he knew it was coming. She lashed out a dozen times in the period of three seconds. Ever time her assault was defeated. She tried t fall inwards, to call upon her own ability to see, but found that she could not. What was going on? Then she felt something… alien, inside of her, a consciousness that was not her own. Her brother was doing this, he was suppressing her own abilities.

She lost the offensive a moment later, as he strikes were knocked wide and she herself blown off her feet. There was a humming sound, followed by a pulsing explosion and she couldn't feel her left arm. She looked down. It was gone past the elbow, claws and all. The kaiburr energy blade had cut through shield, zersium, and the ferrosteel arm like it had never even been there.

She hit the ground hard, and there was a blade at her throat a moment later. "I understand your loyalty, brother, and I commend you for it." Shadow said as he reached down and picked his helmet back up. He slid it down over his head and it sealed itself to the rest of the armor. "But your loyalty is wasted upon them. They are not worthy of you. You, like I, can become a god among insects, and I can help you."

There was a loud roar and a ship descended into the forest. It hovered up at the top of the trees, some fifty feet off of the ground.

"I'll leave you to think about it. Consider my proposal, brother, and consider it well… for we are the future of this world."

With that he leapt up, bounded back and forth between the trees, and disappeared into the back of the sleek craft, before it rocketed away at hypersonic speeds.

Then things blurred forward again. Four more fights. Kicked over a railing and falling a hundred feet. Blown through a wall by a telekinetic attack. Nearly cut off at the kneecaps and retreating. Being nailed by repeated overcharge shots and fleeing away with her suit's generator about to overload and go critical.

Always the despair was there, the knowledge of being outclassed. Always, though, memories of the princess, of Saria, of Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor, Tails, and the others would surface. Attacks became ever more ferocious, until Gamma Base.

A kilometer wide fireball rose into the air and pain lanced through her skull. So much death, all caused by her.

Another flash, another scene. Snow on the ground, a river, Saria going through the ice. A desperate bid to save the girl, to protect her daughter. Prayers of a grateful individual that no permanent harm came.

Then a surprise: for the first time in years, joy. The little girl wanted to be her friend. Playful games of tag and snowball fights out in the woods. Making a snowman, and hide and seek.

Darkness began to engulf her, and the last thing she remembered seeing was Bunnie charging out of the woods, her hold-out blaster blazing.

She awoke with a gasp. Her heart hammered within her chest as she looked over to Sonic. The hedgehog was slowly rising, his gaze upon the ground. Once again she reached out and cupped his chin, lifted his eyes to meet hers. He tried to resist, she could feel it, but in the end he surrendered to her.

Words tried to come out, words of solace and comfort; reassurance for his battered spirit. None came, none could force their way past the lump that had formed in her throat. She just threw her arms around the man she loved then.

"Why don't you hate me?" His words were like a child's. Confused, unsure, small.

"Because it wasn't your fault," she answered again.

"How can you say that? How can you?" His tears stained her vest and the fur on her shoulder. "You know how it was… He was praising me for what I was doing and I ate it up!"

"That wasn't you, Sonic," she whispered as she cradled the back of his head, tears in her own eyes. She felt a metallic bump underneath his quills, the access port where all the information had been uploaded into his cybernetic mind. "It was the chip they put inside of you. I don't blame you, and don't, for one single second, think that I hate you."

She picked up his head, looked into his eyes. "Nobody hates you, nobody that knows the truth, they hate what was done to you."

She felt the sensation in her mind again. He was inside. The feeling began to withdraw, and Sonic's face looked apologetic, like he'd done it without thinking. She didn't let him withdraw, and instead thrust an image upon him. It was one of her and everyone else. They stood at a table, their heads bowed in silence. Grief was etched into their faces. In the center of the table was a hologram of him and the rest of them. In silence, glasses were raised, a toast to a fallen hero.

Another one followed it, Saria asking her mother and Tails about what her father had been like. It was followed by another, and another…

"Don't you see?" the princess asked, her tone soft. "We need you… Saria needs you… I need you. Come back to us, Sonic."

"I…" he looked back down, his mind a tumble.

It was like he was about to fall. A bridge was collapsing, and the girl in front of him had her hand out, offering to save him. It became so crystal clear then. He could reach out and take it, save himself. Or he could fall into darkness, and continue as he was.

Moments passed, a minute that seemed an eternity. The flame within his heart flicked, as if fading. Images flashed through his mind. He saw Knothole, as it had been years ago. Pristine, unravaged by his hand, beautiful. He saw the woman in front of him as she had been twelve years ago. She was sitting on a stump, facing the Ring Pool.

He snuck up behind her, tapped her gently on the shoulder. She turned to face him as a breeze caught her crimson hair. With a roguish wink, he leaned down and gave her a flower that he had picked earlier. Sally's laughter split the air and she gave him a thank you. He simply smiled in return.

He remembered that night… the soccer match with her and Tails, the walk around the village, the time they'd spent with each other. Holding her close, talking softly, dreaming of the future. It was the happiest day of his life.

The flame burst anew, and he looked up at the girl standing up above him. He thrust his hand out, and she grabbed it. Servos whirred as Sally yanked Sonic to his feet. There was a triumphant smile upon her face, and she threw her arms around him.

"There's the Sonic I know and love." Her tone was quiet, and she patted him on the back and listened to his heartbeat.

She could not recall how long they'd stood their, embraced as they were, but when they finally pulled away, she saw him smile. His face was scarred and damaged, his eyes unnerving to the layman, but his smile… his smile was still the same as it had always been.

"Sal," he said, his eyes on hers, his hands gently cradling her smaller ones, "I'm… thank you."

"What's a friend and soulmate for?" She flashed him a coy smile.

The next thing she knew their lips met. For the first time in nine years, they shared a kiss, felt each other's heartbeat through their chest. Sonic's hand closed around her back, as it had those years ago. When they broke away, an expression of joy was on her face.

Slowly they broke apart and walked over to wear Sonic had placed his armor. The princess knelt down next to the pile, and noticed the chain he had set down. The ring was there, charred and battered. Curious, she picked it up and looked at it.

"Is this?" She turned to face him.

"I planned on giving it to you in a little while, once we'd taken Robotnik down." He rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner, and the ground squirrel swore that she saw a blush begin to form on his face. She looked back down at the ring. It was blackened and reflected no light, but as she stared at it, thought of the hands that shaped it, hands that were normally impatient and twitchy. The many hours that Sonic must have spent on this.

Sally moved the chain around, found what she was looking for, and undid the catch. Then she slid the ring down onto her third finger. The little circle fit snugly around the cybernetic digit, and despite its battered condition, she had never seen anything quite as beautiful as it was.

She looked back up at Sonic, whose eyes were wide as he stared at her. She held the hand up. "A promise, to both of ourselves."

He nodded his head, before he walked up and embraced her again. For the first time in years, hope flared within him. It would not be easy, he knew, but now he realized that the two of them could rebuild and reforge everything they had once had. They held each other close, until something pulled them apart.

The door hissed open, and a droid came in, cheerfully chirping in its own language. It spotted the two, and a loud bleep of alarm came from its vocal emitter. It promptly wheeled around and left the room. Two startled and confused Mobians remained behind, both of them blushing furiously.

"Well, that was awkward." Sonic muttered. "I feel like I'm a teenager again." He shook his head and looked back over to Sally. "You should probably be getting back soon. Considering what happened the other day, I imagine palace security is going to go batty when they can't find you."

He was right unfortunately. A frown came over her face.

"I know," she said with a sigh. "I also can't help but wonder how we're going to explain this to Saria."

"She's a smart girl, just like her mother," he gave a smile at the memory of the girl as he reached down and began to suit up again. "I'm worried about everyone else… I don't think I can face them all… not yet."

"We'll take it one step at a time." The princess knelt down next to him, placed her hands upon his shoulders again. "One step at a time."

"Okay." He nodded, and then frowned for a moment. "If it's possible, though, when things calm down… do you… do you think you could bring Saria and… and my father here?"

"Uncle Chuck?" A smile came to her face again. "I'm certain he'd be overjoyed."

"Thanks."

The LAAT set down again, as it had a couple of days before. This time though, the ship came to a full stop, and the two Mobians came out of the cockpit side by side. As Sonic opened the side hatch, he turned around to face the woman behind him. The woman he loved with all his heart and soul. The woman who had saved him, time and again. Once more they threw their arms around each other in a fierce embrace.

"You take care of yourself, you hear me," Sally said with a fierce glare in her eye.

"I will." Sonic nodded. His tone was sober, deadly serious.

One final kiss, and then she pushed her hover cycle off, started it up, and raced back towards the city. Sonic stood where he was, partially out of the open door, until she was out of sight.

He walked back up to the cockpit, put on his helmet, and lifted off.

Once he got back , there was some data that he needed to try and slice, to see if there was anything useful from it. As he stared in the direction of Mobotropolis, though, he thought about what had transpired over the past few hours, a smile came over his face. His brother might have been out there, might have still been the better fighter and had an army of hundreds of thousands of ruthless Mandalorian clones at his back, but Sonic still felt happier than he had in years.

Maybe, just maybe, thing were finally going to work out.

&

Okay, hope that was worth it, and not overly over the top. Next chapter's already in the works, so it shouldn't take quite as long to get it turned out. As always, if you have any advice, ideas, or things of that nature (I even take flames, as my Dorm gets surprisingly cold during the winter) feel free to let me know.

With that, I bid you all farewell, and hope that until next time, fate and life treat you well.