A/N: Hi everyone, first off, I'm really sorry it's taken me so long to update! I've actually just moved into a new house, and I haven't had time to write since we've been doing so much moving. I hope you'll forgive me. Here's chapter 33 and I hope to have chapter 34 out soon! Thanks again everyone.

Chapter 33

A cold wind whipped across the snow covered planes of the northern sector. The sun was setting and all had gathered at the crest of the valley where the Core lay below surrounded by a sea of deadly bots. Tikal stood by the master emerald, now at its full size. She was speaking to it in that same ancient language that she had use to change its size. The others soon gathered around her and the great stone. She looked at them, her eyes seemed full of wisdom as if all the knowledge that the stone had seen through the many centuries of its life had now passed to her.

She raised her hands and began to sing to the stone. She sang so quietly that none could hear her words, to them it sounded like a gentle hum. When she had finished the emerald lit up with a bright green glow. As the brightness grew it spread. First it absorbed Tikal, making her body glow, and then it moved into the group of sectors. Each looked at their body as it was illuminated with the same green shin as the master emerald.

Tikal stood before them. "Alright." She nodded. "The Master emerald as granted us all more strength than we could ever imagine." She saw some of them flexing their muscles as if feeling the new power down to their very fibers. "You will feel it grow as you fight, for some of you it may even give you new powers. Know this," She turned slowly so as to make eye contact with each one. "Do not take your time learning your powers or testing them, fight how you are use to fighting, the rest will come when you need it, time is a virtue here. I do not know how long I can keep the master emerald producing this power, I shall keep it doing so for as long as I can."

They all nodded. Each knew what the risk was of joining this battle, and there was no turning back now. Now each turned to the center where the five stood. The members of the core squad, the ones that would be entering the very heart of the core to plant the virus into the Central Control Mechanism. Silver stepped forward. "Are the five of you ready?" He said as each one of them stood in a group their gaze forward and determined, even the timid Tikal had bravery in her eyes, as she and the others nodded.

Espio jumped on to the master emerald so he could see everyone at once. He looked at Mina for a moment before he spoke. "I know this not something that some may want to be said, but I believe it to be something that needs to be heard. This is a war, some of us probably won't be coming back." He looked at the eyes of all those listening to his words. "Though I know some of you have gotten closer than you ever thought you might, and to someone you never imagined would be so important." He looked at Mina. "I don't think that or anything else should stop you from saying goodbye to the one you love." He looked at the other leaders. "I know I'm crossing my bounds as just West Sector leader, but this needs to be said. I don't want anyone in any sector regretting for the rest of their life knowing they had the chance to say "I love you" and missing out because of a formality." He turned away from them and jumped off the stone taking his mongoose in his arms. "I definitely won't miss this chance."

A few choice members had something to say about this, but kept quiet, as there were many who longed to hear Espios words. The first to take his heed was Scourge who took Fiona's hand. "Fiona, no matter what happens I love you." He nuzzled his face against her temple as she blushed and nuzzled him back.

Honey looked at Tails who blushed when they made eye contact, but it was Marine who took his hand and kissed his forehead. "Thanks for holding that for me." She smiled. Honey's heart sank and she turned away quickly. Tails eyes saddened just a bit, but he still blushed as Marine gripped his hand. He couldn't leave her side, he cared deeply for the raccoon and this could be his last time to be with her. This, however did not stop his mind from racing with thoughts of the sweet cat that loved him so.

Silver stood before Tikal. "Tikal...I just...I wanted to tell you that..." He ran his hand through his quills. "I care about you very deeply...and..."

She smiled taking one of his hands in both of hers. "I've never seen you at such a loss for words Silver." She lifted his hand to her cheek. "I love you too." She smiled sweetly.

Silver blushed. "Tikal..." He rested his forehead against hers.

Shadow's eyes shifted to Amy, but her hands were in the grasp of a blue hedgehog. He looked away. "Amy," Sonic kissed her hands. "Promise you'll come back."

Amy nodded. She hadn't spoken much since her waking, but her spirits were finally coming to her as the brink of war was upon them. "Don't worry, I will definitely come back." She leaned in and kissed his cheek. "Don't worry." She and Sonic acted as if they were back together and when Rouge had asked that morning Amy had not denied it.

Knuckles was holding Rouge from behind his face nestling in her neck as she cuddle him back. They didn't speak, but their love had grown so much that words weren't enough, nor were they needed for them to know how they felt about each other.

"It's time." Jet announced as he came down from the very top edge of the crest of the valley.

Each member took up their position on the crest. The last golden rays of the sun were dying and night was setting in. Silver held his one hand for a countdown. "First runners. 5,4,3,2,1!" Everyone but the core squad jumped the edge of the valley and down toward the fortress. The bots picked them up immediately. It was as if a sea of red was below, but in reality it was every pair of glowing bot eyes upon them. "Fight!" The bots ran toward them and in seconds they clashed with the fighters and metal met flesh, the war had begun.

The thrashing and thundering was heard all around. The sector fighters were fighting full throttle. The power of the emerald was evident as they fought. Rouge preformed a screw kick smashing through five robots in one attack. Six more bots fell, three to each of Knuckles fists. "Rouge!" The echidna jumped to her side knocking out a bot that was behind her.

"Don't worry just yet." Rouge turned slinging a high kick over his head and knocking the head of a bot off its body.

Knuckles had a surprised grin on his lips. "Even in battle you manage to amaze me." He smiled.

Vector swung his mighty tail casting bots aside as if they were ragdolls. Espio was in mid jump when he landed in a handstand on Vectors back and within those few seconds preformed a perfect round house kick knocking out three bots at once. "Nice moves Espio." Vector nodded as he whipped away another bot.

"I can really feel the power pulsing through me, it's as if all my senses are on edge." He said fighting back to back with the crocodile.

Nack and Blaze were also fighting back to back. Nack swung two large pistols. Blaze grinned. "I haven't seen you use those in a very long time Nack."

"I haven't felt like this in a very long time Blaze." Each shot he made fired directly into the central processing units of the bots making them drop to the ground in instant death. "How about you," He said looking over his shoulder at her. "You haven't used your pyrokenesis in years."

"Something's lit my inner flame." She said as fire shot from her left hand completely melting a bot in its tracks. "I can feel the fire overflowing form my body."

Out of all the fighters on the battle field, one shown brighter than any of the others. Honey had racked up a kill toll so high that she herself had lost count. She was moving so fast that it was almost too hard to see her. Sonic who was back to back with Tails spoke first, "Tails check out the cat, I'm beginning to think something's going wrong with her."

Tails turned quickly to see her. She was breathing heavily and sweat dripped from her brow, her fury was full throttle and there was nothing but an endless hoard of monsters to take out her anger upon. The emerald was fueling her rage, so much power was surging into her at once that it forced a manifestation of pure energy on her body. She dropped to her knees as she felt a sudden pain in her back. "AH!" She growled as she hit the ground with one fist.

"Honey!" Tails jumped over bots and dashed past them making his way to her minutes. He beat off bots as she remained on her knees. "Honey!" He yelled again. "What's wrong?" He bashed a bot in the face with his feet and landed by her. "Honey, hey your back is burning up." He said his hand not even able to rest on her back because of the extreme heat.

"AH Tails, my backs on fire!" She let out another scream and suddenly two white wings sprouted from her back.

"H-Honey..." He stared at her. "Y-You've got wings." He said almost blankly.

She stood up on strong legs. She looked at the wings and then gave them a flutter, and she suddenly realized her strength had become tenfold what it had been before. "I have a lot of death to deal out." She said as her eyes burned.

"Honey..." He watched her lifted from the ground and begin to take out her rage on the unknowing bots below her. "She looks like an angel..."

"Fights like the devil though." Scourge and Fiona were close by; keeping watch over the two until Honey was back to battle. Tails eyes showed guilt as he felt that even though her fighting was a credit to their cause it was because of him that her rage was so powerful.

Above all the fighting the core squad stood. "It's almost time." Shadow said as the others stood on either side of him. "The path is nearly cleared."

Shadow looked at Tikal. "Have you decided who's care you will leave the emerald in while we're inside the core?"

"Yes," She nodded. shrinking the emerald into her hand. "Mina is going to meet me just as we enter and hold onto it until we can return."

"Very well." He looked at each of them. "We will put our com's on now." Ray had developed a set of com's for the entire group of sectors. Each fighter had a com that allowed for them all to stay in contact.

"Mina," Tikal called, "Mina can you hear me?"

"Go head Tikal I hear ya." a little static crackled over the waves of the radio.

"We're fixing to take off, are you ready?"

"I'll be there to get the emerald." Mina assured.

Shadow held up his hand. "On my mark."

Each took up to the edge of the valley. In the next second Shadow's hand waved down and the entire group took off towards the core. Their path was clear of bots as they made their way to the center of the valley. Tikal moved to the outside edge of the group as they made it to the last few yards before the entrance of the fortress. She saw Mina standing there her hand out stretched. Without even stopping or slowing down Tikal tossed the jewel across the few inches that separated her and the mongoose. Mina's hand closed around it with ease. "Good luck." She whispered as she watched the core squad disappear into the darkness of the fortress.

The five entered the darkness without hesitation. Marine took the lead as she knew the way better than any other. Shadow and Strom took up on her left and right flank to fight off any robots that might jump into their path as they had no time to stop for battle. "Left." She said quickly as the group continued to travel as a perfect unit. "Storm on the right!" Amy yelled in a warning tone. The albatross swung his large wing to his right and slammed a shredder bot into the wall, but it didn't quit so easily. It's long blade like hand stabbed into Storms wing yanking him back and into a full on brawl.

The others hadn't stopped running. Shadow could see Amy attempting to slow. "Don't stop!" He yelled in a commanding tone. "We all swore to stick to the plan no matter what!" He looked at Tikal next who was already looking back. "If we stop now everything we've done up till now will be wasted. Don't let the albatross down."

Tikal looked forward again. "Hurry!" She said picking up full speed again as did Amy.

"Marine lead." Shadow dropped back in behind the raccoon allowing her to take the front position once more.

"We're almost there." Marine said as her eyes narrowed. "Almost..." In the next few moments they slammed through some busted metal doors, inside was the central control room. Unfinished bots scattered the floor. The large room was full of broken control panels and all kinds of metal junk littered the area. "There it is." Marine said as she made her way to the center of the room.

"That's the core?" Tikal blinked standing by her side. "It's not very big."

"Most important things aren't as lavished as you might think when it comes to technology, the smaller it is the more important its likely to be." She pulled a screwdriver from her belt and began undoing the back of the unit.

"Amy," Shadow's expression and tone was all complete seriousness. He was in total leader mode. "Guard the door, if anything comes this way alert me."

"Yes." Amy nodded, her persona was just as professional. She moved quickly to the door taking up a guard position at the entrance to the room.

"How's it coming Marine." Shadow said as he turned back.

"I'm in," She said as she was typing quickly on a mini laptop that she'd pulled from the bag that had been on her back.

"Shadow!" It was easy to tell by Amy's voice that she was fighting off a bot.

He turned quickly. "Tikal stay by Marine and try to keep her safe while she works." He took off the bands of invisibility that they all had and put them on Tikal's wrists. "Use them wisely." He said before turning and running to the entrance.

Shadow was suddenly back to back with Amy. "Where did they all come from so suddenly..." Amy huffed. "I can't believe this. I thought for sure it'd be mostly empty!" She had two hammers on her back. She pulled them off, one in each hand. "Bring it you metal bastards!" She swung one hammer and sent a bot flying into a wall and crumbled into busted chunks.

Shadow could feel the power of the master emerald pulsing through his body as he concentrated each blow. Each punch, each kick, took out one bot with little to no effort, and his speed, never had anyone seen such speed. He was so fast that it barely looked as if he were moving at all, but teleporting from place to place.

Amy stood over a bot that was still alive. She held up her two hammers to bring down on to it as she did she heard another smashing sound from behind her. She turned quickly. "Don't worry I've got your back." Storm was standing there with a sledge bot crushed between his wings.

"What took you so long?" Amy grinned as she continued to fight.

"I was busy, I've lost count of the bots in my graveyard." He said, obviously explaining that he'd been fighting bots the whole way there.

Tikal was watching the three fight to keep the bots from entering the room. She held her fists to her chest, clearly a little scared. She turned to check on Tikal again and that's when she saw it. There was a drill bot that had dug its way up from under the ground a couple yards behind the busy tech. Tikal quickly jumped in front of Marine. "D-Don't worry I've got it Marine, keep working!" Sweat dripped from her brow as she touched her bands together. She suddenly turned invisible. The bot seemed confused as its scanners turned from left to right looking for its now vanishing target. The bots scanners didn't even make it all the way to the left before it began to shake and electrical surges occurred.

The invisibility died away and Tikal could be seen on top of the bot holding her wrists against its head. Every fighter had been given some of the magnetic bracelets that would destroy the internal processers of the bots. She was in pain as she held it until the bot died, the electrical surge had ran into her body and as she jumped from the bot her body steamed. "Uh..." She clenched her teeth. If it hadn't been for the master emeralds power she would never would have been able to withstand the shock without passing out.

She looked over at Marine. "M-Marine...?" She noticed that she was typing frantically. "W-What is it?"

"I can't do it." She said looking over her shoulder. "The encryption is too much for me! I need Tails!" She said quickly.

"Shadow!" Tikal ran to the threshold of the door. "Marine needs Tails!"

"Damn," Shadow growled. "Tails are you copying this?"

"Yeah Shadow." Tails voice echoed through the communicators they were all wearing.

"Silver, Espio, Sonic, Jet." Shadows voice boomed with command. "Get the fox in here!"

"Right!" Four voices answered at once.

x-x-x-x-x

"You heard Shadow," Espio was standing on top of a dead bot. "New priority, get Tails to the entrance!" He looked back. "Honey, Mina cover us from behind!" The two girls nodded in agreement as they fought off two bots each. "Tails get up here!" Espio demanded. The fox jumped into the middle of the four leaders.

Sonic and Silver began clearing the way together, fighting back to back. Jet who was paired off with Espio gave an order to the others. "The rest of you attempt to keep these bots in the valley, the less ground they cover the easier it will be to keep the damage to a minimum." He turned and locked his hands around one of Espios and swung the chameleon allowing him to kick down six bots as once.

"Move your asses!" Sonic yelled as he and Silver blew away another line of bots.

"It's not like we're having tea time back here!" Jet snapped as he did a head slam to a bot that tried to attack him head on.

"We're almost there!" Silver yelled. Just a couple more yards and they would of made it in one piece, but this was a war, nothing ever goes according to plan.

Silver was looking the other way, facing off with a sledge bot, and he didn't see the shredder behind him. "Watch it!" Espio landed on one foot using the other to land a roundhouse kick to the attacking shredder.

"Thanks Espio." Silver turned after beating the sledge bot. He knew if it hadn't been for Espio, that shredder would of killed him for sure.

"No prob-" Espios pupils dilated as blood splattered onto his face. He fell to the ground gasping, the bot he thought he'd killed had had just enough energy left to reach up with its bladed hand and cut Espios throat. Blood trickled from the clean cut across his jugular.

Silver stood there unmoving as he stared at his friend. Sonic turned quickly when he didn't see his comrades moving. "No." He came quickly. "Oh fuck," He shook his head. "Espio..."

In the next moment Mina and Honey had made their way forward. When Mina saw Espio it was too much. "E-Espio!" She let out a scream that echoed across the valley. She dropped to her knees by his side clasping his body in her arms. "No! Espio!" She screamed as tears streaked down her cheeks. "You're going to be alright!" She said through her tears. "Y-You are going to be fine!" Sonic looked at Tails, he was a medic, but Sonic knew the moment that Tails shook his head that there was no medicine nor medic that could save Espio now.

"M-Mian..." Espios eyes were cracked open as he gasped and choked on his own blood.

"D-Don't talk now." She said as she attempted to put pressure on his large cut, but Espio pulled her hand away taking her now stained hand in his own. The two were soaked in his blood now as it pooled around them.

"Aren't y-ou glad I to-ld you how m-muc-h I love you, be-fore this." He had been the one to pronounce that love was important and that it should be said before entering the war, and he had, he'd taken his moment before the battle and told Mina exactly how he felt about her. "You've ne-ever b-ben more beauit-ful." He whipped the tears away from her eyes with his hand, smearing blood across her face as he did so.

"W-Wait don't talk like that, like you're going to leave me." She cried as she held his hand to her face.

"Never..." He said in a whisper. His hand became limp and his eyes finally closed, the West Leader was gone.

"Espio?" She whimpered. "Esipo, no please." She clenched his hand to her face. "No, NO! Don't leave me! Espio, Espio I love you, don't leave me!" Her screams were like murder, they pierced every heart on the battle field. The others had to look away as she cried out and screamed for her lover. Her tears fell and mingled with the blood on her face. "No-no!" She held his corpse in her arms. "Espio please!" She cried.

"Mina..." Silver put his hand on her shoulder after approaching her at last. "We can't stay like this..." He said gently.

"No, I won't leave him!" She yelled. "I won't move, I won't do anything!" her voice was now that of hysterics. "I won't go-" Suddenly Silver had smacked her right across the face. Tails wanted to step forward upon seeing this, but Sonic held him back by the shoulder. He shook his head, warning the fox that Silver was in the right.

Silver took her by her shoulders. "Stop it! Get hold of yourself!" He yelled. "Is this what you want!" He demanded. "You're just going to give up? Let the bots win!" He looked at his dead friend, his own heart throbbing still with pain. "Look at him!" He made her look at his body. "Look at him!" He yelled again. "Are you going to let him die in vain? If you lose yourself now, you turn your back on everything Espio died for." His eyes turned just little bit more gentle. "Including his love for you."

She choked on her tears as she looked at her lovers body. "Alright..alright..."

"Mina, we'll leave it you to get his body out of here." Silver nodded now sure that she was in her right mind, a grieving mind, but still a stable one. "But you must return, if you do not fight with us then we will all die, and it will have been for nothing."

x-x-x-x-x

Tikal was on her knees as tears fell from her eyes. "E-Espio's gone...my leader...he's dead..." She cried.

"Tikal, get up!" Shadow said looking over at the echidna. "You cannot grieve now, stay alert, you mustn't lose your mind like Mina almost did!"

She nodded. "R-Right...Espio...he would of wanted everyone to go on." She stood back up on wobbly legs.

"Shadow, Tails is in, he should be there within minutes."

"Copy that Sonic." Shadow said over his communicator.

"Storm go meet the fox and make sure he gets here in once piece." Shadow ordered.

It felt like time had stopped, but finally Storm returned with the fox. "Quickly Tails, time is not on our side."

Tails nodded running over to where Marine was knelt down. "Marine!" He dropped to his knees. He saw her face it was tear stained. "Marine?"

"It's my fault." She looked at him. "If I could of don this...If I'd been smart enough, he'd still be alive." She cried.

"It's not your fault." He took her in his arms. "We all knew the risk, you can't blame yourself for every causality that occurs during a war." He released her and began studying the screen in her lap. "All we can do now is try to prevent anymore from happening."

x-x-x

The fight raged on around the fortress. The sea of battle was almost a haze, it moved so quickly. Ash ran up the back of robot with amazing speed and upon reaching the head kicked it clear off the robots shoulders. He landed on the ground in a kneeling position. He raised his head slowly and as he did his eyes were on a purple cat. She was fighting ferociously against two bots at once. Her entire body was on fire as she sliced across the bots with her claws, causing their metal hides to melt.

Ash knew that there had truly been nothing between them in the beginning. They had merely been to people acting out desires, when they had been together, and every cell in his brain told Ash that that was all there should be, but it wasn't.

He watched her about to claw another robot when Ash saw it, a bot coming up behind her, that's when his body moved without any thought at all. The sudden smell of scorched fur filled the air behind Blaze. She turned quickly and saw smoke ruffling up from Ashes body. She knew it right away, what he had done, and it took her by surprise.

Ash had jumped right in front of the bot that was after her back. She knelt down slightly. "What are you doing?" She said pulling a polis from her side. She began to apply it to the tender burns as quickly as she could. "You knew my body was on fire. Even if the bot had attacked me, I would of done more damage to it."

"Guess I wasn't willing to take that chance." He said looking up at her.

"W-What?" She blinked with eyes of confusion.

"If we live through this," He grinned softly. "We should see each other again."

"Ash shut up, are you turning delusional?" She asked as she looked back at his burns. She couldn't believe him, she had thought for sure that Ash could put what happened between them behind him, like she was trying to do.

He suddenly took her by her arm pulling her down and kissing her. When he parted he wore his normal face, it was that 'as a matter of fact' look that Ash always wore. "Actually I was thinking our next encounter might be a bit less delusional and a bit more sober." His burns were becoming more evident. "If we live that is."

"You idiot." She said helping him up. "I can't believe you. You know it would never work."

"I agree." He was leaning on her a bit as his burns had been somewhat severe. "A tech and a medic, it definitely wouldn't work."

She carefully moved him up against the wall of the fortress, so at least they would only have to fend off bots from one direction. "What do you mean by that?" She didn't understand his reference to their sector positions.

"You're a medic, offhand, the most compassionate of sector members. You see more suffering and blood than any of us, because you not only fight bots, but death." He felt her fingers touch his skin as she pressed more of the gel against his burnt flesh. "And yet somehow many of you manage to remain untouched by these horrors. Your love and compassion for life and for others lingers on." She had the appearance of one trying to focus on her work, but her eyes gave her away. They made contact with his and in an instant he could tell that her curiosity was overflowing her desire for him to continue was overpowering.

Ash held her gaze as he spoke to her once more. "And I'm a tech. By nature, many of us are immune to the idea of compassion. We see with our minds, not our hearts. We are thinkers. Our very purpose being to create better ways to destroy." He took her wrist suddenly making her pay full attention. "So you are right, it could never work between us." He pulled her into him kissing her passionately.