Third Person

It has been days since Havoc had taken over the castle and used the royal family like slaves to do his bidding. Word had traveled fast around the kingdom of the hedgehog that had overthrown the king and queen. It struck fear into many Mobians' hearts to hear of their wise king in the state that he was in so to also hear that hedgehog had some followers of his own roaming around, that just forced many to stay in their homes out of absolute terror of the hedgehog hurting them. No one had stepped away from their safe-haven not to even see how King Max was so no one outside of the castle knew what these hedgehogs even looked like. All they know is that he was a hedgehog with powerful abilities beyond anyone's imagination.

While her father and brother had more cruelty forced upon them due to them rebelling beforehand, Sally Acorn had it easy compared to them. Sure the work she was forced to do had to have her being a scullery maid at times or just being a personal bug that any of the hedgehogs would throw around - punching her, spitting at her, even going so far just to purposelessly make a mess just to force her to clean it up. They had also tried molesting her once but that got boring real quick because none of them wanted 'A pathetic waste of space around'.

Sally tensed as she felt red eyes pierce through her. She didn't know why but it seemed that as of late, any red eyes that were around whether they be swirls, dots or just plain red, they seem to always look at her for some unspoken reason. Like she would ever figure out what was going on in their demented heads.

"C-C-Can I H-Help Y-You?" she asked as she leaned back from her position on the floor so she was sitting on her legs and the wash rag clenched tightly in her fist. Her eyes drifted into those red dots she had come to hate of the blue hedgehog. Out of them all, Blue was the one that seemed to watch her more than everyone else. Did he have some weird fetish with just watching people or things in general?

"No." he blankly stated as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the door frame -still watching her.

'Don't do anything' Sally thought to herself 'No sudden movements, no big reactions, emotions are my enemy. Stay calm and mom won't get hurt.' she repeated those words to herself whenever she wanted to do something about all of this. She had learned or more like her brother had learned the hard way on their first day of work when he rebelled against the hedgehog. Havoc wasn't happy about Elias's attitude so to put it into simple terms, Elias didn't get hurt but rather their mom did. Havoc had specified that if they were to rebel then their mom would get the severe beating. Elias has then done something that Sally wasn't expecting. He had literally gone onto his knees, hands folded together and in front of his face, eyes shut tightly, head hung down and begged Havoc to stop. But do you want to know what Havoc did instead? He continued the beating. They could barely even recognize their mother after they were done. Purple bruises littered her body, blood flowed at a constant rate and her arm was dislocated. But they somehow were able to keep her living just to make sure they stayed in line.

"O-Okay." she whispered and turned back around to continue her cleaning job. When it came to pecking order, it was quickly revealed on how much authority each hedgehog actually had. First came the leader of the pack - Havoc - or most of the time called Master by his brothers. Next after him is his right-hand hedgehog Gold or as Elias called him 'the Cold-Stone' due to his serious attitude that he always had and the cold emotionless look in his eyes. Just like real rubies. After him came the big ball of anger or just simply known as Navy. Then there was White the happy looking but also demented hedgehog. Because of his childish attitude, a few inches shorter than the other hedgehogs and his knack for looking and acting innocent, Sally almost got pulled into his act just to make her stop working so they could beat her mom up again. After him came Golden -not to be confused with his look-a-like Gold. While Gold was serious, Golden was childish at times and sometimes but not always oblivious to most things. Blue was next in line but sometimes him and Golden would always switch up who was leader between the two of them. Violet, Knight and Beast all came after him. Though after White, all hedgehogs below him don't really care who is in charge as long as one of the other hedgehogs were around.

"Hmm..." Sally didn't bother turning as she heard him hum. What was it that he had to stare at her? She had many questions but none could be answered. She didn't have to wait long before Blue stood up and she heard him walk in her direction. She watched as the hedgehog passed her while also looking at her from the corner of his eyes. All of a sudden, he stopped and an evil smirk played on his lips. Before the female chipmunk had time to react, Blue kicked the bucket that had the dirty water used to clean the floor all over Sally. She turned her head away and brought her arms up in a weak attempt to stop herself from getting wet. Blue let out a laugh as he walked away not even bothering to look over his shoulder to the soaked princess. Sally looked down at herself with disgust before glaring at where the dark blue hedgehog was. She huffed then stood up and picked up the bucket, pulling at the corners of her dress.

"Great... just what I need..." she muttered angrily then sighed. "Soon... soon dad will find out what his weakness is then we will use it to kick that demon out of here." she smiled softly while gazing up at the moon that shone through a high window in the room. "Someday... everything will get better..."

While the princess was still in the room, Blue had wandered through the castle to the throne room where his Master and one of his brothers were talking. They had gone straight to work when it came to completing their objectives they were assigned. Even if it wasn't serious, they didn't complain. After all, they were only puppets on strings controlled to do one job and one job only: to make sure Havoc got what he wanted. Blue was no stranger when it came to following orders and neither were any of them.

"One emerald is already in our possession, the Master Emerald hasn't been located and those two haven't resurrected yet." Gold reported with his hands behind his back as Havoc paced back and forth, one hand on his chin and the other also behind his own back.

"...Alright..." Havoc stopped pacing and turned towards the golden hedgehog "Get back to work Gold." his eyes narrowed slightly as he leaned forward. "And don't disappoint me."

Gold sharply nodded at his orders as he began to walk away. "Yes Master Havoc."

"Havoc?" Blue questioned as he stepped farther into the room drawing attention to himself as the cobalt hedgehog turned to him with a blank face but that changed to a smirk.

"Ah, Blue. Just the hedgehog that I want to see." Havoc put his hands on his hips while Blue moved closer to his Master. "Any luck with the little princess?" his face turned sour at that as he shook his head.

"No. Even with the constant physical strain, she still has the spirit of a fighter." The cobalt hedgehog scowled at that and growled lightly.

"Is that so?" he drew out and the other hedgehog nodded without hesitation. "Damn." he turned away and closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead. "She's more troublesome than I thought."

"Master if I may," Blue started but stopped as Havoc abruptly turned to him.

"Well?" he raised an eye ridge. "Don't keep me waiting Blue. Talk."

"I have been thinking about Sally Acorn and well..." he suddenly felt shy all of a sudden for two reasons. One, for thinking this possibility and two, for what his Master would think of him after this. "I believe that Sally Acorn might be Eve." Havoc looked at him with an emotionless expression blinking once, twice, then growled and glared.

"What?"

"Hear me out!" Blue shrieked in terror, cowering under Havoc's hateful gaze with his hands held out in a submissive manner knowing that if his Master gets angry then it would be his head on a silver platter. "Why would that princess fight back even after she saw her own mother's life was on the line? Why is her spirit unbreakable? This has to be the reason! This has to be the reason why we could never find Eve before. She was underneath our noses this entire time!" The cobalt hedgehog narrowed his eyes farther as his hands clenched into fists. He had to admit, he had a point.

Havoc stared into Blue's eyes and -like always- he spoke of the truth. The dark blue hedgehog really did think that the little princess was Eve - the first female mortal Mobian to ever come in contact with the gods. She and her mate Adam -the first male mortal Mobian- was put in charge of part of Havoc's power so that he may never leave chaos and destruction in his wake. Too bad that Chaos was a foolish coward and didn't want to come out of his precious Master Emerald just so he could face the cobalt hedgehog but, then again, that also left the problem that if he did leave the Emerald, its location will be revealed and be ripe for the taking.

Havoc stood up straight, his hands unclenched and a frown on his face. When has any one of them ever lied to him? Never. "Fine." he spat. "I guess that gives me an idea of what I could do next." he looks away with the corners of his mouth twitching upwards at the idea brewing in his mind.

"Master..." his glare snapped back to red dots as Blue had almost curled up into a ball from how much trouble he would be in for speaking out of line. And what he was going to say next wouldn't let him leave unscathed. He may have gotten lucky with what he said before but then and now are a lifetime apart.

"What?" he seethed.

"... Maybe... maybe in order to get Sally Acorn to talk... we... have to be... nice... to her..." Blue made sure to draw out his words calmly so that he wouldn't get the full force of his punch. But he was proved wrong as he was sent flying in the opposite direction and slammed directly into the wall, sliding down it like a rag doll with his eyes clenched tightly shut. He yelped and his eyes flew open as he was lifted up by his neck and stared deeply into Havoc's emerald eyes.

"WHAT!?" he roared, making Blue's ears snap backward submissively. "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?"

"Master Havoc." said hedgehog growled as he slowly turned to the voice only to find White bowing down. "If I may answer in Blue's place..."

"Get on with it." White stood up with his hands behind his back as his eyes flicked towards Blue

"What Blue is trying to say is that Sally Acorn is a born fighter. Even with everything that we do to her, she will always be able to come out on top." he looked back at Havoc glad to know that he was getting through to him by the fact he was just simply frowning now and his grip on Blue lessened so that he wouldn't go unconscious from lack of oxygen. "If we want to get through to her, then we will need to draw her in just to get her guard down so that we may succeed. But that will only be accomplished if we are the ones that are acting all nicey nice." the cobalt hedgehog glanced towards the dark blue hedgehog who nodded his head quickly to agree with the white hedgehog. He growled lowly at the thought of acting 'nice' towards anyone, tossing Blue to White's feet and just simply watched as the white hedgehog helped the dark blue one up onto his feet.

"Fine." he spat. "I'll be... nice... to her but only if you think that she is Eve."

"If Blue could talk right now, then I'm sure he'll tell you just how right he is." White said as Blue coughed while nodding.

"Go bring her and her family to me." Havoc ordered making the two bow while simultaneously saying 'Yes, Master Havoc' but while they walked away, Havoc tilted his head as he watched them leave. "Hmm... I should put you two together more often..."

Shadow's p.o.v.

I groaned at the stiff feeling my whole body made. I haven't felt this much pain since the Ark incident and even then, I'm sure that was like rain compared to this. I slowly but surely opened my eyes also groaning at how even my eyes hurt. I squinted as the bright light hit me but as soon as my eyes adjusted, I'm pretty sure that I had the most confused look on my face right now because I was staring at a brown ceiling... I started to think the worst as I began to panic. Did Sonic get so bored of me and as punishment for betraying him back in his mind that he buried me alive!? I started to hyperventilate, my eyes darting around the room frantically searching for a way this wasn't real... wait! Is that a light bulb up there!?

I turned my attention back to the light bulb and as it turns out, it was a light bulb... the only question I could come up with was where the hell was I? I let the soft light calm my nerves as I served the room. Turns out just by the look of the walls, I really was underground. The room was small, only letting a bed and dresser with the Chaos Emerald sitting on top and a door on the opposite side. As I turned my attention back to the emerald for some odd reason, it seemed to taunt me.

Not wanting to find out what that was all about, I threw the covers off... only to stare directly at light pink bandages practically covering my whole stomach. I blinked then shook my head and looked again hoping that somehow my mind was playing tricks with me. But... I really was injured. I winced as I fully sat up taking in my whole body. If I didn't know it, I would've called myself a mummy. There were smaller bandages littered around my whole body but it wasn't as severe as the ones on my left arm and leg. How could this have happened? The last thing I remembered was cornering Sonic, him accusing us then... oh boy... I shivered as I recalled what he did and how much pain I went through. He outright exploded. The force of the blow felt similar to when I used Chaos Blast before but it felt different. Angrier and like getting dropped into a volcano about to blow its top. Not that I haven't felt something like that but if I did, then that would most likely be the correct assumption.

I looked at the emerald slowly picking it up and staring into its abyss. I felt the twinge of energy slowly flowing through the jewel to me trying to heal my wounds but it wasn't working. I frowned as I looked at my stomach again. Why hasn't my own natural Chaos Energy healed me yet? Sure I hadn't gotten injuries this severe before but I was sure that when I was unconscious that my body would at least try to take some of the pain away. It was only a few hours since we last met up with Sonic and he used that strange move... right?

I looked around the room again thinking back to how Sonic had looked at me. I could see the burning desire to kill me deep within his eyes but the more I thought about it then I questioned why he didn't do anything else. He just simply stepped back and let the others come running up to me. Didn't he want to make an example of me? Me, the Ultimate Lifeform, would've been a good target because of my reputation. Sonic could've easily made an example out of me and yet, he didn't. I sighed and looked around the boring room once more and slowly stood up. My wounds were screaming at me to lay back down but I got curious as to where I was. It only took me seven steps to reach the door but as I was about to reach for the handle, my ears perked at hearing the door begin to open. Because of how small the room was, I had to sit back down and lean back so I wasn't getting smacked in the face. I watched the door open and what greeted me was a very surprised Vanilla Rabbit looking better then when we had met her.

"Oh, Shadow, You're awake!" I nodded not sure what to say and when she came up to me, she immediately looked serious. "We need to talk."