Hello everyone! Sorry about the long wait, I was on a vacation in New York and didn't get much time to write! With the break over however, I think its about time I got back in the swing of things!

AStoryTellerBook: The color scheme gave it away didn't it. ;)

SharpDragonKlaw: Considering the history the two have with one another, I don't think it's going to be smooth sailing, at least not for a while.

Remnants of Fantasy: Having both foxes alive at the end of the day is an obvious plus! I've got plenty of ideas for interactions between the two of them!

Alright! Before we start, I've published a new story! You can find it on my profile! Let's get going!

Subject #4261

Trial by Fire

Fiona was completely surrounded by fire, she could feel the heat physically licking at her fur and clothing. She desperately tried to escape, practically tumbling down the stairs as she ran. She continued to hear the sounds of blaster fire outside, along with the terrified screams of the other Mobians. Her mother still was within the house with her, attempting to bar the doors to prevent anything from entering. Her father was busy trying to fight off the unending swarm outside.

"Fiona! I told you to hide!"

"The house is on fire! There's nowhere to hide!"

Another blast tore through the nearby wall, sending fragments and pieces of it scattering to the floor. A portion of the first floor roof gave way, raining flames down atop them.

While Fiona wouldn't comprehend at the time, she figured out that leaving the house would mean certain death, or worse, at the hands of Robotnik's minions.

The roof continued to collapse inward atop them, and eventually, the main walls of the structure were too weak to support themselves. The entire building crumbled atop Fiona and her mother. Forcing the two to crawl out of their cover.

The area outside was a battleground, the Mobian villagers were using everything that they had to defend themselves, currently, it didn't seem like there was much they could do. Debris of homes and robots laid strewn across the snow, surrounded by small patches of ash. The air was filled with smoke from the fires that had started.

Fiona's mother picked up a nearby plank and attacked one of the Swat Bots surrounding the house. Denting it's armored plating and sending it staggering backward. She yelled at Fiona to run as more approached, which she quickly obeyed. She would never see her mother again.

The voice echoed overhead and all around her, "This will all just be easier if you stop!" A singular Swat Bot noticed her and opened fire. She ran around a nearby corner and face first into a nearby figure. They both fell to the snow below from the sudden impact. As her vision adjusted, she found a cloaked orange fox by her, he was about her height, and seemed a kid like herself. However, what surprised her the most was the twin robots flaking him on either side. The fox smiled at her.

"Well, I'm happy to see some of you understand." She recognized his voice, it was the one that she had heard after fleeing her home. She turned and tried to run, only to quickly encounter two other Swat Bots who blocked her escape.

"Put her with the others…" The other fox spoke, as she was dragged away, she noticed the orange fox's twin tails, which stuck out slightly from the bottom of his cloak. She put two and two together and realized, she had just been face to face with Miles Robotnik.

As she was being dragged away and rounded a corner, a carefully placed pair of shots struck the robots from behind. She bolted toward the location of the shot and found her father, he had a pair of blaster pistols he had gotten from the small armory. He pulled Fiona into a hug.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"They got Mom!"

She saw a look of shock cross her father's face, before it was replaced with pure anger. He told her to wait here as he left the cover, she watched as he lined up two carefully placed shots toward the fox she had just ran into a while back. The shots whizzed across the clearing and struck the fox in the back, he fell down into the snow, the remaining Swat Bots turned to face their new opponent. He managed to hit one, bringing it down as the younger fox stood back up. He was clutching his shoulder in pain, the pistol shots burning holes through his cloak and into his uniform. As Miles stood back up, he was instantly struck again and fell down to the snow, completely unconscious and bleeding heavily. Fiona's father smiled at his victory, before being promptly shot in the side, the high power causing the blast to pierce completely through him. While he had been distracted, reinforcements had arrived and completely caught him of guard. He felt to the snow, and succumbed to his wounds. Fiona, completely devastated by the scene, ran off into the forest, doing anything to get away from what she was seeing.

The screams slowly faded away and Fiona found herself completely alone she didn't know what to do, she had never thought this would happen. The snow started to eat at her after a while, she had no warm clothing to protect her from the snow and after a while, she fully collapsed into the snow.

She woke up some time later, she was cold, too cold. Her mind was cloudy and she found herself unable to think straight. Nevertheless, she marched onward, hugging herself to try and keep warm. After a while, she collapsed again. She felt herself becoming covered with snow as she drifted back off into the inky black

-X-

Fiona's eyes shot open and she tried to calm her breathing, she was alright, nothing could hurt her. Her eyes adjusted to the dark and she scanned around the room, the only other living soul was Tails, whom was obviously enjoying his dreams.

She resisted the temptation to attack him and turned to face away from the other fox. Just seeing him made her blood boil, especially after the memory she had just had. She wondered if her parents would still be around if it wasn't for Miles.

Looking back over to the fox, the idea planted itself inside her head. He was fast asleep, currently completely consumed by his dream, she could…

She glanced down at her bag next to her bed, she knew there was a small combat knife kept just inside it would certainly be more than enough, maybe she could slip out afterward.

She mulled over the idea for a bit longer, she stood from her bed and produced her weapon. She carefully stepped toward the kit's bed, not wanting to wake him or Kay, who was underneath the fox's cot.

She raised her arm up, then froze. It would be so easy, just like that, he would be dead. Her parents would be avenged, she thought of not just her, but everyone else who had been hurt by his actions.

The kitsune rolled over in his sleep, Fiona froze as he did before he settled back down and was fast asleep again. She slowly lowered her weapon and sighed, she couldn't do it, not like this. She didn't want to admit it but her talk with Tails and seeing him around the base made her realize that he wasn't his old self. She just couldn't bring herself to kill him now, especially not while he was asleep. Fiona stowed her weapon and climbed back into bed, she'd see tomorrow, it could wait.

-X-

Fiona yawned and slowly sat upright, she went to stand up, only to find K.I.T. laying on the side of her bed, she gently moved the small robot aside and prepared herself for the day. As she went to return, she could hear Tails dressing in their shared room, she entered, and the fox quickly sound around and covered his upper body with the shirt he had retreaved. She swore she saw a flash of black on his fur but brushed it off. What she could see was the bright white bandage wrapped around the entirety of his chest, severely contrasting his orange fur.

He finished getting dressed, not saying a word to her, she took a glance at him. He was glaring daggers into her out of the edge of his vision. She was instantly on edge, "What?" She asked.

"You mind explaining what happened last night?" He growled.

Fiona went completely rigid, she slowly turned around to face the fox. "I- I debated on… I mean, I wasn't going to…"

"Liar!" Tails yelled tackling her to the ground, she swung at the fox and they began to brawl it out. Unbeknownst to them, Nicole was watching the whole thing, she hated seeing Freedom Fighters attack on another like this, but considering that Fiona had thought through attacking Tails last night, she figured there wasn't much of a choice. They would just have to figure it out. She debated on calling somebody in to stop them, but she guessed that would only postpone the problem. They just needed to settle their differences, one way or another.

The two still tried to beat one another up, throwing insults the whole time. Strangely though, they both didn't want to hurt the other too bad. The fight stopped when Fiona managed to land a punch to Miles' gut, directly where the bandages were on his chest, the kitsune doubled over in pain and Fiona took the opportunity to try and explain herself.

"Tails, you have to understand it was just an instinctive thing, I've waited for so long, I've wanted to kill you for my entire life. It was just too much."

The kitsune was still gasping for breath, the strike had knocked the wind right out of him, and stung like crazy. He felt really weak, he was having serious trouble breathing, he simply dismissed it as still trying to catch his breath.

"I'm sorry, but, you have to understand." Fiona continued.

She pulled Tails back to his feet. He was still a bit unsteady but otherwise, seemed fine. That was, until he collapsed. She caught him mid-fall, his breathing was raspy, and incredibly strained. She pulled him up and dragged him over to the cot, laying him down. Nicole witnessed the entire event and notified Bunnie, whom burst into the room.

"What's going on in here!?"

Fiona stepped back and let her investigate, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit him that hard!"

Bunnie removed the kit's shirt and bandages, taking a look at his old injury. The impact had broken a rib, worse then that, the rib had managed to puncture one of the kitsune's lungs. It had deflated slightly from what Bunnie could tell.

"He'll be fine for a bit, good thing is he's still breathing. I'd give about two hours before it finally gives all the way out. He's been needing to see Dr. Quack anyways so I figure this works."

Fiona couldn't help but feel guilty, she hadn't meant to hurt him, just, roughen him up a bit. "Is there anyway I can help?"

"Can you fetch me the medical kit, he's gonna need some fresh bandages."

She did as instructed, returning with medical supplies. She assisted in applying fresh bandages to the wound, as she did, she caught a glimpse of the kitsune's back, along with all of it's injuries. She winced and continued working. Several doses of pain medication later, the kitsune seemed much more relaxed and at ease. Bunnie informed the rest of the group on what had occurred, Sally and Antoine added their own assistance to helping Bunnie apply medical help, along with getting him to Dr. Quack. Meanwhile, Sonic confronted her on what exactly had happened.

"I didn't mean to hurt him, it was just instinct."

Sonic sighed, "Look, I get it, but the point still stands, you debated on killing a fellow Freedom Fighter. I know what Tails is, I've seen what he's capable of, but he's gotten better. He's obviously not perfect, but he's been doing better."

"Again, I'm sorry…"

"I'm not really the one you're going to need to apologize to. I will say, I see where you're coming from."

"Thanks…"

"No problem!"

Fiona still felt the guilt weighing on her shoulders, and she figures, this wasn't the last time it would happen.

Alright, that's it for now! Feel free to leave me your thoughts, as well as check out my new story! Until next time!