Chapter 25

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Several hours later…..garbage dump outside of Robotnik's lair

Elias was lying on top of some waste that had been emptied from the lair. He lay motionless still from the pill he had taken earlier. More waste was dumped, yet he continued to lay unmoving.

However had anyone been paying attention, they would have noticed a small twitch on Elias's face from the trash dumped upon him.

Several cleaning droids appeared for their daily cleaning routine and began to move the waste and other garbage toward the incinerator. Elias was pushed out from the trash and rolled down the mountain of trash and onto the ground. His life saved by sheer luck. It wasn't long before the drug he had taken earlier wore off.

"Urgh….wow….where am I?" Elias said as he looked at his surroundings.

"Something smells." Elias said sniffing the air. He looked down and realized what the smell was.

"Oh…its me."

"Great…"

Elias took off his tunic and threw it up into the garbage mound. His undershirt smelled much better. After brushing himself off Elias muttered to himself and walked off.

"I swear I will get you back Zac. I did all of this for you, and only for you. Robotnik will pay."

Elias looked toward the great forest and furrowed his brow. "I am going to have to side with that hedgehog….as much as I detest him. I cannot do this on my own."

With that, Elias began sprinting toward Springwood so he could see his sister and begin anew. If they would allow him after all he had done.

Springwood

Sonic and Tails were standing out by the fountain square when Will and Preston came up from the base.

"Sorry if we are late, we had trouble getting these suits on. They are really tight." Will said.

"Yeah, it like cuts off circulation." Preston said.

"Well…they were made for normal Mobians. You are far from normal." Sonic said with a wink.

"Funny guy there." Will growled.

"Smart-ass" Preston growled.

"Hey, I was kidding. Geeeez!" You guys don't have a sense of humor at ALL." Sonic said.

"How could you be so cheerful?" Will quipped.

"I learned a long time ago that humor makes these desperate times more tolerable."

"Gotcha Tails. Alright troops let's go!"

Robotnik's Lair

Bryson and Austin were still in the laboratory when Robotnik walked in.

"Robotnik?" Bryson gasped.

Robotnik said nothing and grabbed the boy and placed the small computer on Bryson's head. He suddenly stood silent and stared straight forward. Austin tried to fight back, but Robotnik overpowered him and placed another computer on him as well. Both boys could not fight the program that was being downloaded into their brains. As minutes went by, both boys became more and more machine-like, until their brains were roboticized. Once the computers finished their jobs, Robotnik took them off and spoke to Bryson.

"Boy, how do you feel?" Robotnik said with a sneer.

"Master, I do not have emotion, thus I cannot feel."

"That is what I wanted to hear. Take me to the dragons. I want to do the same to them."

"As you command."

Within two hours, Robotnik had turned Elias's most trusted and newest warriors into mindless killing machines. Once he found where the Freedom fighters were hiding, they would be destroyed.

"I should have kept Elias around long enough to find out where the freedom fighters are hiding. Things would be so much easier." Robotnik thought for a moment. "Wait. Dragons, I want you to fly over the great forest and look for a settlement. If you see anyone, kill them. If you find a base, come back and I will send out the force to destroy them."

The dragons bowed and sped off and took to the skies.

The forest

Elias was lost again. He knew he should have paid more attention to the land marks when he was mapping the location of the freedom fighter hideout. He was running west, at least he thought it was west.

"Shit."

Elias heard something from above and quickly fell to the ground.

It sounded like dragons flying. Crap. He had already turned them. Elias was running out of time. Once he was sure the dragons had moved on, he stood and began running as fast as he could westward again.

That is until he ran into some unexpected people. The fox boys pulled out their weapons and pointed them directly at Elias's head.

"YOU?" Sonic screamed. "What are you doing out here."

"S-sonic I-I" Elias studdered.

"Answer me now. No excuses. What are you doing and why are you out here with just that undershirt on. That very stained undershirt at that."

Elias was scared now. He had run into the wrong people. Four very angry soldiers that were out for HIS blood had come across him running toward their home.

He just had to come out with the truth.

"Sonic. Robotnik is back. He took my brother. He took him….he took Zac…..I couldn't stand watching it happen. I snapped back to reality. For the first time in at least five years I realized the error of my ways."

Will couldn't believe what he was hearing. This man was trying to talk his way out of death. He hadn't given his family a chance to talk. He hadn't given him a chance to talk when he took Preston from him.

Although he did spare him.

"Why….did you take my family…" Will said sadly. "We did nothing to you."

"I was building an army. I didn't check to see whose family I was taking. I would have taken you too had you not had that clan necklace. You know that Zac is your real brother. You should want to save him as well."

"What? My real….brother?" Will said in shock.

"Yes he is like a mindless beast now, thanks to Robotnik."

"No…" Will said.

Tails stood by silently for most of the conversation trying to understand everything going on. He finally spoke up when he had his thoughts together.

"Elias, what you are telling me is that after hypnotizing us, brainwashing us, killing us, basically wiping out entire clans and basically making all of our lives miserable, you want us to forgive you?"

"Until Robotnik is dead, yes I want you to work with me. After that you can try and finish me if you wish. However, I plan on leaving as soon as I can get my revenge."

"You'd better run as soon as we win, because I swear I will keep right on rolling and take you out too. We aren't making the same mistake again. I will make sure all of you are dead and gone." Tails said bluntly.

Sonic nodded. "I'll make sure you are dead along with him if you stay even one-minute after he is killed. We have enough to fix without you here."

"Fair enough. I will warn you though; Robotnik has all of the Draconians from the dragon summit under his command. They are looking for Springwood. I trust you have the real base underground?"

"Yeah."

"Good, because everyone will be dead if it isn't."

"Sounds like we have little time to waste Sonic." Tails said. "Let's get a move on."

With that the five warriors nodded in agreement and started back on their journey to Elias's…no Robotnik's lair. Time was no longer on their side. If they were going to win this war, they would have to destroy Robonik and whatever else stood in their way. Alive or robot it didn't matter anymore.

Sonic and Tails knew the moment they agreed to allow Elias to travel with them that drastic measure would have to be taken. Not harming slaves was no longer an option.

This war had to be won by the time the sun rose that next morning.