Hey everyone! Here is another chapter for you which again, I am really excited to see your reactions for! It's a longer chapter this time and plenty is revealed about the background of one character in particular!

I hope you all have had a good week! I can remember mine this time, hehe! I didn't do all that much, I've been playing The Sims 3 for most of it. I did however, find the greatest Sonic the Hedgehog jumper ever! I do not regret a thing! ^.^

You can all read now, sorry to keep you waiting. Enjoy and I will see you all next week!

Arby xx


He wasn't sure as to how long had passed, but his instinct told him that it had been at least a few hours. Espio managed to take a quick nap, only to be woken up by a nightmare. It worried him if anything. The chameleon knew he wasn't the type to be frightened by something that he thought was insignificant. That's how he knew the city's current state was getting to him and his own situation definitely added to his stress.

His scales were now a darker shade of purple and his head had a constant ache. Tails and Vanilla had been in just before he dozed off. Arby now had a good amount of bandages wrapped around her which, for now at least, kept the bleeding to a minimum.

"All it took was for Knuckles to still be on Angel Island. All it took was for Shadow to not act on impulse. All it took was for you to not enter that portal." He jumped back when he realised that he was glaring at the still unconscious hedgehog.

"No." He growled quietly. "Nocturne won't get to me. This wasn't your fault, none of it." Espio continued to remind himself of it, but it seriously bothered him that he was beginning to get wound up at all. His mind was starting to strain. The ninja may have been smart enough to not fall for Nocturne's words at the start, but now that his mind was weaker, he knew he was slipping. Nocturne had to be stopped, if not, Espio simply didn't know.

"Hey." A strong male voice brought him from his thoughts. Espio looked up and nodded at the Guardian, who sat next to him on the floor. "How're you holding up? Or is that a stupid question?" The chameleon sighed.

"It is not stupid. I just wish I had a certain answer for you." Espio replied.

"I'm sorry, Espio." The reptile gave the echidna an odd look.

"What for?"

"For letting my guard down. Lately, I've been leaving Angel Island more often and now look. All of this could've been avoided if I had just stayed where I was." His face alone showed how guilty he felt.

"There was no way you or anyone else could have predicted this." Espio tried to tell him, but Knuckles was convinced that as a Guardian, he had failed.

"That is why I should have stayed on the island and never left it. Just because I can't see the future, doesn't mean that I shouldn't be prepared for it." The chameleon wanted to argue, but just didn't have the energy for it. In truth, he was looking for someone to blame just like Knuckles. It was odd how small changes like someone's location could change the course of action. "Look, I'm just sorry, okay? I'll make damn sure this never happens again… assuming we get out of this anyway." Espio didn't say anything else as the red guardian got up and returned upstairs.

Suddenly, movement caught his attention. He got up immediately when he saw that Arby was awake. She stared with a confused expression at the light above her before turning her head. Her eyes closed tightly as soon as she saw purple in her vision.

"Arby-"

"Don't tell me where I am!" She cut him off quickly. "Please…" Her voice gave the impression that she was about to burst into tears.

"Why not?" Espio asked. Arby's body shook the more she spoke.

"Eggman, he-" Before she could say another word, she fell to the ground and cried out in agony as the collar around her neck gave her a nasty shock.

"You bastard! Leave her alone!" He growled harshly, thinking that Eggman may be able to hear him through the collar. The shock only lasted a couple of seconds, but it wasn't exactly weak. It was intended for torture and that's exactly what she had to endure.

"D-don't give him an-any info!" She spoke weakly whilst on her hands and knees.

"Arby, he'll…" Espio trailed off.

"I know, b-but it's better than telling him where you are."

"Can he hear us?" The chameleon questioned.

"He can hear what I hear and see what I see."

"So, that's why." The chameleon thought angrily.

"He can also talk to us, or me to give me orders. If I disobey…"

"Sweet Chaos! You're practically his slave!" Arby could only nod and shiver. Fast footsteps could be heard approaching. Espio was quick to explain before any of them began to question.

"You will tell me where they hide!" Eggman bellowed from a hidden speaker installed inside the collar before shocking her again.

"Fuck you!" She screamed whilst dealing with the immense pain and collapsing on the floor.

"Tails! You have to get this thing off of her!" Espio demanded, but the fox was quick to point out a few flaws.

"It's not that easy, Espio! Firstly, no one here is trained for surgery, especially surgery involving the head. Second, based on where those wires are, removing them would also take away her ability to see and hear!" Time seemed to freeze upon Tails' last comment. Espio looked with fear to the hedgehog that refused to look up from the floor. It internally broke him to see tears fall from her face. How much had she endured? Yet the thought of being deaf and blind was what scared her the most?

"There has to be something! Anything!" The chameleon pleaded as he helped the tortured mammal to sit back on the bed, but Tails was right. No Mobian there was capable of something that advanced and even if someone was, it would take away her hearing and sight. How did the doctor even get them on in the first place? Espio didn't want to know.

"Looks like you don't have a choice." A sinister voice sounded from around Arby's neck.

"Why?" Espio growled with the purest of hatred. "Why on Mobius would you do this to someone who has done literally nothing to you?! How can you not see the pain you're causing?!" Everyone was stunned as Espio didn't relent. Tears streamed freely from him as he tried so hard to make the pain stop. A few of the others cried themselves as they listened. Espio was usually the quiet one, the one that always kept his composure no matter what the circumstances. It hurt them to see him hurting.

"Espio-" Eggman tried to speak, but the chameleon silenced him.

"No! You listen to me! Listen to one of the many voices that detest you! You will hear the pain you have caused! I have lost everything! My home, family, friends, possessions! Everything! Do you have any idea where my one last hope was?" He paused briefly to catch a breath before shouting. "With the one Mobian that you have effectively stolen a life from! Her!" Multiple pairs of eyes widened, Arby's included as she kept her gaze on the floor. The ninja's words were the last thing she expected. "I know she can stop Nocturne. I have complete faith that she can, but you have stopped her! You, a self-proclaimed genius, have ruined us and for what? Just so you could gain some kind of advantage, am I right?" The madman was silent on the other end and the other Mobians were just as quiet. "I hope you're proud of yourself. I bet your grandfather is." An uneasy silence lasted for a few minutes. No one had the courage to speak.

"You really have a way with words, don't you? You little pest." Espio only glared at the collar his voice was coming from, but noticed that his voice sounded a little off. He continued when the chameleon didn't reply. "I let my guard down when releasing that psychotic chameleon from my ship. I knew of her powers, but in her state at the time, she was next to useless. I had no idea that she would awaken so quickly."

"You can thank Shadow for that." Arby muttered coldly.

"Assuming he's still alive." Espio spoke sadly. "He helped me bring Arby back to the Chaotix, before I found out it had been burnt to the ground. It was a warzone back there."

"You underestimate him. My grandfather created him as the Ultimate Lifeform. A few bullets won't be enough to kill him. He's probably hiding until he can regain his strength." The doctor told them.

"That's not going to make a difference. Alive or not, he can't touch something that is impenetrable." The chameleon reminded him.

"That's where Arby comes in." Eggman continued. "One thing that you may need to know is that I have not been shocking her with electrical energy."

"I don't want to know how you tortured her!" Espio snapped with disgust, but Tails was the one to hear the man out.

"Wait a second, Espio!" The fox then turned towards the hedgehog, as if turning to Eggman. "What kind of energy have you been using?" He asked.

"Whilst… in my care, let's say…" Espio growled lowly in his throat. "…It had come to my attention that she was utterly powerless. One of my goals was to remedy this problem. My method of doing this, whilst keeping her disciplined, was by shocking her with Chaos energy."

"That's… crazy." Knuckles whispered.

"Perhaps, but effective. It may not be on the level of Shadow, but she can now use Chaos powers." Eggman said with some pride in his voice.

"Why should any of us believe you?" Espio questioned coldly.

"Your mistrust doesn't surprise me, especially after your moving little outburst earlier, but I can prove it."

"How? In case you've forgotten, Nocturne has all of the Chaos Emeralds." Amy jumped in, feeling a tad left out.

"If Arby would be so kind as to look in her jacket pocket…" The doctor trailed off, leaving everyone to stare at the hedgehog as she unzipped her pocket and pulled out a glowing, purple gem.

"What the fuck?" She whispered in disbelief, before putting it away again.

"That has to be a fake emerald." Tails pointed out.

"Of course it is, fox boy! Even a man as smart as I cannot get past that wall of uncontrollable power, also known as Nocturne." Arby rolled her eyes at this.

"So, how do I test this theory of yours?" The hedgehog female questioned.

"You just have to think about it and no, you don't have to shout it every time you use it. Shadow just loves the sound of his own voice." Eggman told her.

"No, he doesn't." Espio instantly thought since knowing the hedgehog more than most.

"I must warn you, your level of power is far smaller than that of Shadow or Nocturne. Using too much power or using them too often could drain more energy than you can handle."

"I knew there would be a catch." Arby thought, remembering how her run of luck usually goes.

"W-what do you mean by that?" The chameleon's stutter was certainly something that caught the hedgehog by surprise.

"You're basically saying that using my so-called "powers" too much will drain my life energy until I die, right?" Arby said with a good amount of frustration.

"Correct." Eggman confirmed.

"How did you know that?" Espio asked with worry.

"It's how my luck runs, Es." Her voice lacked energy and carried with it an uncomfortable amount of hopelessness.

"Then we have to find Shadow." The chameleon ordered.

"How? We run the risk of getting killed just by walking out the door." Amy reminded them with a clear amount of anxiousness. Cream and Cheese were also there, remaining by Vanilla's side. The younger rabbit was growing more fearful by the day, even with her mother's reassurance.

"I will look for him myself." Espio stated. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his wrist. He turned to see that it was Arby's. She was shaking her head as she spoke, still with her eyes to the ground.

"Don't even think about it. You've been through enough." The hedgehog tried to give her words some authority, but they only came out worried. "What about Sonic? Where the hell is he in all this?" Tails shifted awkwardly before delivering some unexpected bad news.

"Well umm, he tried to face Nocturne, but she…" The fox couldn't say any more, so Knuckles grimly finished it for him with anger.

"That bitch used her powers to pin him long enough so that she could snap both of his legs!" Espio and Arby both flinched at the thought.

"Fuck!" Arby exclaimed.

"He's upstairs now." Tails spoke sadly. "A-anyway, I still have my drones. I could send them out to at least look for Shadow overhead." Tails suggested. The others nodded in agreement.

"In the meantime, we should come up with a plan of action. If we're going to take that chameleon down, then we have to be prepared." Knuckles explained.

"If I'm not going anywhere, then I am staying down here." Espio spoke again.

"Maybe you can help Arby get used to her powers." Amy told him before scratching the back of her head and shrugging her shoulders. "Assuming Eggman is telling the truth."

"Of course I am!" The doctor shouted feeling insulted.

"I wish I could turn this fucking thing off." Arby groaned with annoyance before getting back on topic. "Anyway, I can't just get up and look around for obvious reasons." She reminded everyone.

"Turn the lights off?" Amy suggested.

"It'll be pitch black down here." Tails said with concern.

"Perfect." Arby said with a thumbs up above her head. Espio didn't like the idea, but it was what they had to work with for now.

"Okay… but for Chaos sake don't break anything." Tails warned, clearly concerned for the various equipment he kept in his bunker. Nonetheless, they all left the underground area and turned the lights off as they did so, leaving Arby and Espio in complete darkness apart from the dim glow of her collar.

"That's better." Arby stated as she finally lifted her head and rubbed the back of her neck. The ninja stood nearby was quiet, even by his standards. It stayed awkwardly silent for about 30 seconds until the hedgehog broke it. "You've got a lot on your mind, haven't you?" She asked.

"Your intuition is getting better." Espio chuckled nervously.

"The darkness helps. At least I can't see you staring at me." The dark female saddened upon remembering what Espio had said earlier during his little breakdown. "Es, about what you said earlier… I have no idea what to say."

"It's fine." He said dryly.

"It's not." Arby replied just as bluntly. "You're hurt, I know you are and your reaction to Eggman only proved it." The chameleon remained silent, not feeling completely comfortable with the sudden turn of attention. "I know you're trying to keep strong and all that, but you and I both know that what Nocturne did has hit you hard."

"And what you've been through means nothing?" Espio said with an edge to his voice. "You're acting as if I'm the only one hiding what I'm really feeling, but I know that what you've endured is tearing you apart inside. So, why aren't you showing it?" The hedgehog turned away from where his voice was coming from.

"Because I know crying won't reverse it. Screaming won't solve my fear. Begging won't make any of it better. I'm not showing it because I've given up on it. I could do whatever I want, but I will still be tortured one way or another." The purple ninja couldn't see much, but his eyes couldn't look away from her general direction. A disturbing thought came to his mind, which he had to voice.

"Arby, you weren't… tortured back home, were you?" His anxiety was clear, but Arby didn't mind his dark curiosity.

"Not this badly." She said depressingly.

"You-you were?" She grinned at his stutter, finding it cute.

"In short, I was bullied, abused and beaten all throughout my childhood, most of it by my own father. If that wasn't enough, my best friend was in a car accident that left him in a coma for about half a year before passing away." Espio's jaw hung. The chameleon had no idea. What could he say to that?

"Uh…" That was about all he could force through his throat. Arby let out a chuckle before continuing.

"It's alright. It's not a big deal." Espio was only stunned further by this.

"Not a big deal?!" It then suddenly hit him; her emotional numbness.

He remembered being woken up by Nocturne's voice outside. He got up and went to the roof via his window and observed. Arby soon joined her and sat on the front doorstep as they talked about their condition. He didn't believe it then, but he did now. "You can't feel it, can you? Just like way back when Nocturne came crawling back to you with her tail between her legs." Arby had no idea what he was talking about to begin with, until she remembered her sister's return after joining Shadow and Rouge.

"How do you know about that?" She questioned, her face going red from embarrassment. At least he couldn't see it.

"I heard you both talking, but it makes sense now. You literally have no idea of the severity of what you've been through." His voice suddenly conveyed sadness. "You don't have a clue how tragic that is."

"Why is it tragic?" Arby asked, proving his point.

"Exactly. It's dangerous. Anyone could take full advantage of you, but you wouldn't feel the emotion to do anything about it, making you vulnerable to it happening again." The reptilian, after feeling his way around, sat next to the hedgehog and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't understand. It bothers you that I'm not a complete wreck?" The hedgehog questioned.

"No, it bothers me that you're hollow." Arby was still lost, but then flipped through everything she knew about him and his mind.

He had nearly broken down when giving Eggman a piece of his mind. Way back on Shadow's rooftop, he seemed upset when he had to leave her behind. Thinking back further however, she remembered the comics, when his clan was forced to bow to the Iron Queen. Once she had been defeated, he had to confront the rest of the Chaotix and tell them the information that he had secretly been gathering on them. She could never forget that one, solitary tear that fell as he hid his face in his hand. It may have taken a lot, but at least Espio could understand how devastating a situation could get.

"How do I fix it?" She asked, but then froze upon remembering hearing that exact line before from none other than Nocturne.


"So, how did you fix it?" I felt a stab of guilt. Was she really that naïve?

"What did I just say? I still feel it now. That hypothetical hole where something should be but isn't. The hollowness that follows me every damn second. There is no 'fixing it', Nocturne. You've got to learn to live with it."


Espio didn't have time to answer.

"Holy shit…" She whispered.

"Arb?" The ninja questioned.

"There is no fixing it…" She repeated her sister's words from long ago. Espio didn't know what to do in this situation because he had never been in it before. Apparently, trying to avoid personal situations wasn't going to work anymore.

"Arby?" He questioned once more.

"Espio, I can't be cured or fixed or whatever and you're right, I really have no idea how truly tragic my situation is. All I know is that I cannot feel happiness or love or anything like that. It's just a fact that I thought simply didn't matter, but you're making it sound like it does." She explained with a voice that was monotone and lacked emotion altogether. Espio's sounded uncharacteristically sad.

"I remember you saying this before, but I never believed it. Happiness doesn't mean smiling, singing and skipping down the street. To me at least, it's looking around at what you have and not wanting to change it for anything." Unexpected droplets of water escaped his faded, amber eyes. Arby couldn't see them, but his broken voice had her in tears herself. "You have no clue how much it hurts that you've never felt such a blessing; that you've never in your life felt safe, secure and happy." Arby sniffed before she spoke. How was he so upset over something he didn't have?

"I can only feel the bad things, Espio. Sometimes when I was lying in bed back on Earth, my thoughts got the better of me and I swear I could feel my mind ripping itself apart. Nocturne used to comfort me until I had cried myself to sleep." She paused and closed her eyes tight, lowering her head again. "I don't have her anymore. She-she got her own body and left me. I can't blame her. I deserve to go insane alone. I have no right to drag her down with me." Without another word, Espio wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

"You don't need her and dammit you don't deserve any of that!" He spoke with tears still falling. One gloved hand gently caressed the side of her face as she cried into his chest. "She may have lost her mind, but you haven't and you won't. I know you won't. Please, don't fall to your voices." His pleading was tearing her apart and her break down was letting him know that.

"Why are you saying this?" She managed to say between her uneven breathing.

"To make you feel something." He answered, holding her tighter. Before she could say anything else, a deafening boom sounded from above them and the entire world began to shake violently.

"What was that?!" Arby shouted in a panic. Espio said nothing and reacted immediately. More explosions went off as he dragged her underneath the medical bed. The hedgehog shook with fear as Espio kept a tight hold of her, comforting the mammal as he did so. After a few minutes, the quakes subsided and the volume was nearly silent, apart from the faint sound of flames from above.

Espio crawled out while Arby could barely move.

"It's alright." He spoke softly before gently grabbing her arm and helping her up.

"W-w-what was that?" She repeated, this time a lot quieter.

"Come." He instructed as he made his way to the ladder, which was now visible because of a distinct orange glow coming down from it. His golden eyes looked up to see dense smoke clouding the now visible sky. With one hard swallow, he began to climb with an anxious Arby following close behind. Part of the ladder was completely missing, meaning that they were greeted with the aftermath a little bit sooner. Upon reaching the top, it was clear. History had repeated itself.

Nothing was left. What used to be a safe haven for most of the Freedom Fighters was now a pile of blackened and fiery debris. They were both silent. Arby shook her head slowly as her watery eyes looked at the devastation that had been left behind. Espio's eyes matched the flames around him. The others didn't stand a chance and it caused a white rage to bubble in his gut. His golden eyes looked towards her until she looked back at him, their eyes locking.

Without saying anything, he held out his hand. Arby looked back forth between it and his eyes until she placed her hand around his, holding it tightly just as he did in return.

"No more of this." He stated.

"But… it's just us." She spoke with a hint of fear, but nothing would deter the chameleon this time.

"'Us' is all we need." Keeping their hands locked, they walked away with only one thought.

"Revenge. No matter what the cost."