Chapter 37: The Breeze Heart

Tails moved silently down the dark halls back towards the bridge. He was now in the lead while Chris followed closely with the flashlight. Cream and Cheese had fallen behind Chris and were now walking as close as they could get to his light while Rouge soared above their heads, using her sharp echolocation sense to navigate.

Tails suddenly came to an abrupt stop in front of a room that branched off from the hallway.

"Ow!" Chris cried, bumping into the frozen fox.

"What happened, Chris?" Cream yelled, frightened.

"It's nothing, don't panic, Tails just stopped in front of me and I didn't notice in the dark."

"Even with the flashlight?"

"Well…" Chris said embarrassed.

"That's why it's better to be a bat. I know where I'm going no matter where I am," Rouge said smugly from above.

"Hey guys!" They heard an excited Tails call from inside the room. He had walked in while they were talking to discover the source of the curious smell he had come across. "Come look what I found!"

"Tails, we don't have time for this," Chris said walking in after him and shining the light around the room. He saw that Tails had found an ammunition room full of the latest weapons from Eggman's inventive mind. Tails was excitedly dashing around as if he were looking for something.

"Hmmmm, some of this might be useful," Rouge commented on entering the room and glancing around.

Tails moved a box aside and came back into Chris' light holding up a blue bow and arrow set. "See, it belongs to Breeze," he said happily.

Chris smiled, glad that the fox was starting to cheer up a little. "That's great, Tails, but now we need to go find her and get it back to her."

"Let's not leave without some of these laser weapons," Rouge said and tossed one at Chris who almost dropped the flashlight in order to catch it. Tails picked one up too and they left the room again, each with one of Eggman's guns and Breeze's bow.

The group moved down the halls again at a quick pace. Pretty soon they could hear the sounds of a battle not too far ahead. Sonic and the others must already be fighting off Eggman's robots. Tails wondered if they had gotten inside and found Breeze yet. They turned the last corner and ran right into the middle of the fight.

Sonic was busy dashing around the confused robots while Amy knocked one after the other with her hammer. Knuckles smashed them with his iron fists and sent robots flying into the walls. They were fighting in the dark so most of their attacks were wild guesses and aimed at the bright lights each robot had on their heads, but once Chris entered the hall and shone his light wildly around, the robots and fighters looked around in confusion.

It didn't take the robots long to begin firing at the new comers and Chris took action immediately, firing at the robots with his new laser gun. Rouge attacked from above and Cream, with her chao friend, huddled in a corner, wishing there was something they could do to help.

Amidst the struggle there came a sudden flash of light and the door to the bridge of the ship blasted open. The fighters snapped around to see Shadow standing in a pile of wreckage and smoke. He had destroyed the door with the chaos emeralds and was now stalking silently into the room in front of him. The robots immediately took off after him, and Sonic and his friends followed, ready to help Shadow if he needed it. Shadow whipped around and blasted the robots to pieces with his powers. No one would stand in his way this time.

"Good going, Shadow!" Sonic called, but then everyone went silent when they heard Eggman's cackle from in side the room. They turned to see the evil genius standing in the center of the room, his control panel blinking eerily behind him in the dark, and a struggling vixen in his grasp.

"Hehehehe! Did you really think you could stop me?" the Doctor laughed. "You're silly stunt with the light won't deter me from finding what I want, I still have the key right here in my hands."

"That's why we're here to take her from you," Shadow said threateningly.

"Take her from me! Ha! You've fallen right into my trap! I know you have those chaos emeralds and now that you're here, you can hand them over."

"Never."

"All right then," Eggman smiled and then yelled, "Seize them!"

Robots burst into the room out of no where and bore Shadow to the ground. He struggled to get away from them and Sonic dove in to help him break free, but the robots, with their clinging hands, had already grasped the chaos emeralds and retreated back behind Eggman. They handed over the precious gems and drew their weapons, all pointing at the confused fighters.

Shadow rose to his feet and shrugged Sonic away, glaring at Eggman with such a stare that it could have melted him on the spot. Eggman laughed again and watched as all seven of the chaos emeralds began to circle him. He ordered his multitude of fighting robots to hold Sonic, Shadow, and the rest of the group at bay with their formidable weapons while he turned towards Breeze in the darkened room, holding her out away from him, "Alright, little vixen, find the Breeze Heart for me or your friends die."

Breeze glanced at her friends, each with a frightened look about them, except of course Shadow's killer glare and Sonic's determined face. She hesitated, but then remembered that one of Eggman's emeralds wasn't real. The real one had a signal coming from Rouge's direction. It might just work that if she led Eggman to the Breeze Heart and he realized that his emeralds could not awaken it; they could escape in the confusion.

She nodded and focused all her energy on finding the elusive Heart of the Breeze. As they waited while Breeze concentrated deeply on what she was seeking, a strange light began to form around the small blue vixen. It was a blue light, and it glowed with a brighter force after each passing second. Eggman and the others stared at it in astonishment as Breeze slowly opened her eyes and said, confused, "I don't understand. I searched for it but it's like it's already right here. The pull I feel is sort of pulling inside of me, almost like the Heart is inside…whoa!" she yelled as she noticed the glowing light surrounding her. A light swirling wind had now started to pick up and was blowing around her in a circle. Eggman hurriedly dropped Breeze and backed away.

"What's going on!" the genius cried as the group all stared at Breeze in astonishment.

"I don't know!" Breeze yelled. She slowly started to levitate off of the ground and she looked wildly around at her friends, her eyes searching for help.

"It's almost as if…" Sonic started to say.

"…Breeze is the Breeze Heart," Tails finished in awe. Suddenly that awe turned to worry and he turned back to his friends, "We've got to do something!"

"Yeah, Eggman will use the emeralds to ignite some kind of power that apparently Breeze holds inside of her," Knuckles said.

"But what do we do?" Cream cried.

The others looked at each other in confusion and then at Tails, but for once the smart fox had no idea why and how Breeze was connected to the Heart. Eggman, who had been staring silently before, suddenly put his brain to work and turned to the seven emeralds that swirled around him. At least he would take advantage of the situation!

"It's too late now to save her. Can't you see she is connected to the Breeze that surrounds our world? Now I will activate the power she holds and use it to operate my inventions. I knew there was something about this little vixen that would come in use to me one day. I thought it was just for her seeking ability, but now I see just how powerful she really is!" the doctor ranted and then, using his hands to motion the emeralds forward he sent them flying towards Breeze.

Breeze's eyes widened as the emeralds started to spin around her. She knew it couldn't possibly be true…but here she was floating off of the ground, emerald's twirling around her, and a strange but powerful feeling welling up inside. She felt a pull as if something in her was trying to release itself…and then there was nothing. She fell to the floor and the emeralds clattered down with her.

"What?!" Eggman yelled. "Why didn't it work?"

Breeze looked wearily up and saw Tails trying desperately to reach her while his friends held him back, warning him to stay away. She smiled at him, trying to let him know she was okay, but she saw the hurt in his eyes and the panic that he was going to lose her just like he lost Cosmo.

Eggman had no such feelings. He walked towards her and picked up the emeralds, inspecting them and finally drawing the red one out and holding it up. It didn't sparkle, shine, or glow. It just lay there in his hand with a dull sheen. "This ones a fake!" the scientist said and looked at Breeze. "Where is the real one? Tell me!"

Breeze didn't open her mouth and Eggman frowned. "All right then, I'll make you talk." He motioned for one of his robots to bring Tails forward.

"No!" Breeze yelled at him as the robot tried to yank Tails away from his friends. Sonic and Shadow started to put up a fight but another protest from Breeze quieted them all. "Stop! It's no use there are too many robots! I don't want any of you to get hurt," she said and then stared fiercley at Eggman. "Alright, Doctor, I'll give you the last chaos emerald, but you have to promise you'll let my friends go."

"Of course I will, my dear. Once I have your power they won't stand much of a chance anyways and I can always track them down later."

"Breeze, what are you doing!" Tails cried. "Forget about us! If you give Eggman the emerald everything will end and Eggman will win! You might even die in the process if the energy is too much for you."

"Yeah, Breeze, we can stop him without having to give up the emerald," a brave Sonic added. Breeze shook her head sadly and picked herself up off the ground, her body still emiting the blue light and the wind still swirling around her. She looked at her brave friends and at Shadow. They didn't understand what she was feeling. There was more than their safety that was causing her to obey Eggman, it was the Breeze Heart inside of her. It hungered for the power of all seven emeralds and she did as well. She knew it was wrong and the great amount of power inside scared her, but she couldn't resist the drive.

"I'm sorry, Sonic, but it won't work. At least this way you have a small chance of getting away. I can't hold the power back—agh!" she cried out as a force inside of her jerked her back up into the air. The light shone more brightly and the six chaos emeralds Eggman was holding left his arms and traveled towards her. There was a gasp to the right as the seventh red chaos emerald was wrenched from Rouge's pocket and started to travel towards Breeze as well.

Eggman stared up at the vixen in wonder and fear. This was not what he had expected. He thought he would be able to control Breeze along with her power to use at his will. It seemed to him, however, that the control was slipping further and further from his grasp.

"This doesn't look good," he heard Decoe say in the background, echoing the Doctor's own thoughts.

They all watched in awed shock as Breeze began to twirl in the air, the wind surrounding her becoming loud and stronger until they could barely see her. The emeralds circled her like mad and soon became a ring of bright colors encircling a ball of violent blue colored wind.

"Breeze!" Tails yelled up at her in panic as the electrical equipment in the room started sparking and exploding. Eggman's robots were breaking down and crumbling into pieces on the floor, the ship was losing altitude and plummeting through the sky, the passengers were all looking for something to hold on to, and Breeze, unbeknownst to it all, was hidden from sight by the blinding light and deafening wind that surrounded her.

"Okay! You can stop now! I've changed my mind!" Eggman yelled at her, but she couldn't hear their voices or control the power.

"Breeze! Stop it! Let it go!" Sonic yelled too as he held on to a wailing Amy and tried to think of a way he could use his speed to stop this, but Breeze couldn't respond.

"What do we do?!" Knuckles yelled.

"I don't know!" Chris replied over the noise. He grabbed and held Cream and Cheese close as tears ran down their faces. Rouge slid down towards Knuckles as the ship pitched forward and clung to the red echidna. He held onto her with a strong arm as dark foreboding clouds began to cover the evening sky outside.

Wow it seems like forever since I updated this! Summer is a real distraction. Anyways, I know this story hasn't been perfect and a couple of the characters have gone OOC, but I am dedicated to finishing it and I am not at all listing it as a failure. I really have enjoyed creating and sharing it. This story has been a learning experience for me and I hope to do even better on my next one. Though it is coming to a close, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the rest!