~ Act I ~

Sonic, 20

Tails, 15

Knuckles, 22

Amy, 18

Rouge, 21

Shadow, ?

Prologue

Chaos.

It was pure Chaos.

Everything was fine thirty minutes ago. His attack had come out of nowhere.

You saw your occasional badnik, only to be crushed by your everyday heroes. Threats being made in the air from Eggman, and snarky remarks coming down from Sonic. A few small explosions, here and there. That wasn't where everything had turned.

More robots came from everywhere, on the ground and in the air, surrounding them.

Okay, Sonic, think. What's the safest move here? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Knuckles and Amy battling. And not too far from them, Tails was by the Tornado, shooting lasers at the minions, defending the two while he shot close in their direction, too close for comfort.

"Tails!" Sonic called out. "Get her out of here!" Tails acknowledged the order and hovered towards Amy, dodging flying scraps of metal. Knuckles repelled a piece of robot away from Amy and Tails' way. Amy continued to fight, but was limited to her abilities.

"Get her somewhere safe," Knuckles said. "I'll cover you." And he did, as Tails led an exhausted Amy to the safety of the Tornado. He air lifted her into it, and started the plane, striking any enemies in their path.

"Go!" Sonic yelled, not looking back as the two slowly began to accelerate. "We'll meet up later."

"Sonic!" He looked over to Amy, with a look of exhaustion and fear.

"I'll be okay! I'll see you soon." He reassured, his voice strained.

"Be careful!" Amy called out, not feeling anything but worry for her hero. "I love you!"

"I love you too! Now get to safety!" And with that, they were off.

The two were in the air, flying away from the chaos below. Amy was panting. Tails looked over his shoulder, and saw her leaning forward in her seat.

"Are you okay?" He asked, concerned.

"Yeah, just tired. I usually don't get tired this quick in a battle." She said, leaning back.

"I mean, we can all understand why. Have you seen yourself?" The two looked down to her belly, bigger than usual, and round. "We should've gotten you out of there sooner. You know that's too risky."

"I just feel so useless. I'm ready for it to be here." Tails, chuckled, scanning the area with his eyes.

"Don't worry, Amy. Only three more months to go. And just one more week until we can stop referring to it as, well, it." Amy groaned, looking back at the battle. The two stayed silent, listening to the battle going on below.

"I'm worried, Tails."

"Don't be, Amy. They've got this. We've got this. So stay calm."

"Doesn't mean I can't be concerned for everyone's safety." Tails turned to give her a reassuring smile.

"That's not what I meant. All I'm saying is, has Sonic ever let you- AMY, GET DOWN!" Instinctively, Amy whipped her head around, but immediately felt Tails' hand on her shoulder and pulled her down as the plane was struck, and began to shake. She again pushed herself up straight only to be pushed back down by Tails, who then turned his attention to his plane. Amy choked on the smoke flying in the air.

"Tails!"

"Stay down!" He yelled, flipping switches and pushing buttons.

"What's happening!?"

"A missile hit the back right elevator! We can't fly without it!" Tails called back, struggling to keep the plane level as it descended at an uneven rate. "We're going down!"

"Be careful!" She said, leaning forward towards him.

"We'll be fine. Just stay covered." Tails ordered, looking down below.

"Sonic!" Knuckles called out. Sonic finished spin dashing a buzz bot and landed, looking over his shoulder to Knuckles. Nothing else needed to be said. Sonic saw the trail of smoke following the plane, as it was quickly declining towards the ground. It seemed Tails had it under control, but he wouldn't be able to focus until he knew Amy and Tails were safe and unharmed.

Sonic drop kicked an egg pawn out of his way and began to speed off towards where they were about to land. Something from behind tackled him to the ground. As he rolled to a stop, he saw none other than Metal Sonic, pushing himself off the ground.

"Agh, I don't have time for this!" Sonic said, wiping the dirt off his face. Before he could turn back towards the others, Metal swept his foot under Sonic's, bringing him back down to the ground. He felt his back quills crunch under his back, and screamed out in pain. His metal counterpart was already on top of him, quickly bringing his arms towards Sonic's throat. Sonic reacted quickly, locking his hands with the others, and pushed back with all of his might. Through clenched teeth, he spoke in a deep growl.

"You… are not winning this. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever." He narrowed his eyes, swinging himself around, bringing him on top of his rival. He found an opening, ripped his left hand away, and forced it through his exterior. "You stay the hell away! From me, my friends, my family!" With a loud cry, he yanked his hand back, with a fist full of wires. Before he could do enough damage, something pulled at one of his fingers. He tried again, but it only got more stuck. Metal Sonic was still functioning, but remained still, his red eyes still glowing. Sonic looked closer to his hand, to see what was stuck. He saw a wire, that had somehow managed to wrap around the small gold band on his ring finger. His eyes got even more narrow as he grit his teeth, trying to break free, whether it was to rip out his wiring, or get his wedding band to slip free.

"Commencing Self Destruct in: Sixty Seconds." Sonic's eyes grew wide, and began to panic, doing anything he could to free his hand and get away before he blew up... with Sonic on top of him. A loud crash sounded in the distance, and he jerked his head up to see the Tornado sliding to a stop. With one last attempt to free his hand, he knew what he had to do.

"Knuckles! Go!"

Knuckles wasn't far, and ran in his direction, stopping when he saw his hand inside of the robot beneath him.

"What are you doing?!" Knuckles yelled, throwing a hand in the plane's direction. "We gotta get them out of here!"

"I know! My hand's stuck. Go help them!" Knuckles didn't understand what was happening. He drew a fist back, ready to break Sonic's hand free. Sonic waved his free hand to stop him. "No! He's about to self destruct! Get away and go help them!" Knuckles looked from Sonic, to his hand lodged in the metal, to Sonic again, to the plane, and back at the struggling Sonic.

"But Sonic, you-"

"Self Destruct in: Thirty Seconds."

"There's no time to think!" Sonic said, a pained expression in his eyes.

"Sonic…"

"Knuckles, please…" the blue hero begged, his voice heavy with agony. "Go. Protect my family." With one last look at his friend, the red echidna blinked back tears, and ran towards the crash site, calling for Rouge and Shadow over his ear piece. Sonic looked on as he saw Rouge and Shadow appear in a flash, hopping onto the plane, reaching for Tails and Amy. As Shadow raised his emerald, his eyes met with Sonic's. There was no time to dwell on it, but in that moment, Shadow revealed an expression of sorrow. He gave one subtle nod, and in a flash, all but Knuckles were Chaos Controlled out of sight.

"Self Destruct in: 10… 9… 8… 7…"

"SONIC!" Knuckles screamed out, running as fast as he could to his rescue.

"3… 2…" Sonic squeezed his eyes shut, tears streaming down his face. His final moment, his final breath, his final words…

"I'm sorry… I love you all."

"1…"

"NO! SONIIIIIIC!