I'm running out of things to say. Anyway, why I said this would be a downward spiral is that I ran into a conflict when I was thinking up a plan. Oh well.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7: Discovery

"Sally honey, ya can't do anything about this... I think you should let go for a while, ya know? Tails insn't gonna die… Just take your mind of it, ok?" Bunny said gently, trying to cheer Sally up a little as she offered her another tissue.

"Bunny... I can't... It's just that today's Tails' thirteenth birthday, and... today should have been the happiest day of his life. But Bunny, when I stared into his blank eyes, I get the feeling that... I may never see Tails again..." Sally said grimly

Bunny's eyes became a little watery...

"Don't say that... Tails' gonna live, I promise."

The 2 girls continued to walk down the path, as the sun started to set, and the moon started to rise, alongside with the stars, which started to appear.

Suddenly, Bunny stopped in her tracks...

"Wait... Where's sugar-hog? Shouldn't he... be back by now?"

Sally shrugged, shocked that she herself had not noticed the blue hero's disapperarace.

"Well, I think he's run off again. Should kinda have known better than to put him on patrol... Never mind, the later he hears about this, the better, I think. Oh, and Bunny, have you gotten the video footage from all the hut's cameras yet?"

"Yup" Bunny replied.

Unknown to them, there was no orange star in the sky that night...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"and, I was the one that injected the poison into you, Tails. I did it for my father..., he didn't get killed by a snow monster up in the mountains, instead, he was captured by him, for trying to save me, when he could have... run away. You wouldn't understand, my father really loves me, and I want to do the same, Tails. And I..."

"Tara... te.. tell.. tell them." Tails slurred as he turned his head to face Tara, who was just kneeling beside him.

"Huh? But..." Tara was cut short by the fact that she was now staring into Tails' half open eyes.

"Tara, tell them... They'll know what to do..." as he reached out his hand to her.

"But…"

"You caused enough trouble. Please... just... go..."

Suddenly, Tails' eyes closed shut, as he slumped back into the bed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first homing attack may have been below par, almost allowing Sonic to get shot while in the air, but after that, it all came back to him, and soon, he was fighting SWATbots as skillfully as 2 years ago.

"Poof!" went the last metallic piece of junk as Sonic cut through the middle of the robot, which didn't even get a chance of using his laser. Looking at the remains of the unprepared robots, he slowly put a grin of satisfaction. But not long after, he retained the frown that he was wearing, and without a second thought, he charged straight in the nearest door he could find, completely ignoring the voices at the back of his head to turn back and tell the others. No, he was going to put things back to where they should be.

Robotnik watch intently as he switched changed the live satellite footage to the surveillance camera view, not bothering to sound an alarm. So far, all was according to the emergency plan he implemented with every of his structures in case Sonic came. He may not have expected Sonic to come so early, but, actually the sooner the better.

Suddenly, a message box appeared on his monitor, covering his view of the movie screen in front of him. His spy again… The message was simple, all chaos emeralds found! That was astounding, even in Robotnik's eyes. And it was only 20 minutes after he ordered it to do it because Tara was unproductive. This was very good news... his software was perfect! He grinned a wide one... Now back to the action...

A hovering sound was made, a very familiar one, which made Sonic turn his head away from the empty control panel. A glimpse of his mustache! Quickly, he ran through the door to where he thought the green hovering chair was headed.

To the left!

It was pitch-black, but Sonic knew that Robotnik was somewhere here, he could tell from the sounds.

Getting closer...

Suddenly, the sound abruptly stopped. The lights turned itself on, and Sonic found himself in an all too familiar tube.

The screen, not very far from him, flickered to life, showing Robotnik's obnoxious face, with a mocking look, tinged with a little disappointment.

"Robotnik." Sonic muttered.

"I always expected this day to be more dramatic, a tough battle, a difficult clinch. But it seems that you have literally walked into my trap. A disappointment, a terrible one, don't you think?

"When will you learn to give up?"

"I've seen my actions have bore fruits."

Sonic paused, looking around to see a possible way to escape, then tried to homing attack the glass to shatter the glass, to no avail.

"Don't worry, Sonic. You're mine."

"But… but you were supposed to be dead." Sonic said, obviously devoid of a sarcastic remark.

"Ah, yes. I always have a little escape plan just in case something happens. But I see you obviously don't have any."

Sonic shook his head in disbelief. "You couldn't have escaped, nothing could have survived that explosion."

Robotnik smiled. "Oh?"

He pressed the big red button in front of him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic looked down, tears of defeat dropping down onto the glass bubble beneath him, now charging with electricity. It won't be long now...

How could Robotnik win so easily?"

He ignored Robotnik's mocking remarks; he ignored the slight pain tingling through his body, and could not help, but imagine, himself slaughtering the freedom fighters, first Knothole, then shortly after, every single village.

He imagined, Sally, Tails, Bunny, all the others, at his feet, desperately crying out to him to remember. But those cries would be unheard, and soon, their blood would be splattered on his shining metallic quills.

He imagined, standing beside Robotnik as his most "honorable" soldier, with tens of thousands of robotcized animals bowing down in front of him, their souls crying out for the once-world's greatest hero to kill their master.

He imagined that these would become a reality.

The incredible pain quickly surged through his body, so painful that he felt like dying. Robotocization was that bad. His instinct was to throw up, but he could not do that as the menacing blue sparks consumed his whole body, and slowly turned his skin into the cold, hard metal that would soon be him.

Before all went black, he heard the evil laughter in the background.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robotnik was unable to control his happiness. Finally, what was once fantasy has become a reality.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Err, Sally? I think you had better come and see this." Said Bunny from the main computer room, with the frozen image of Tara holding the needle gun and a shrapnel coming out from it.

From the serious tone of Bunny's voice, she could see that it was important. Quickly, she walked over to Bunny's terminal, and stared in disbelief at her screen. At the top right hand corner was the number 419. That camera belonged to Tara's hut.

"Tara was the person?" Bunny asked.

"But...but how could she? She... she's only 8 years old..." Sally asked, looking dumbfounded.

Bunny shrugged.

Sally retained her serious look. "It dosen't matter, we have to find her, she's out to kill Tails. Where was she last..."

The two girls froze in horror, looking at each other. Immediately, Bunny pressed a button. In the screen showed Tara, dangerously approaching Tails... Wasting no time, they ran out of the central hut.

Unfortunately, in their haste, they did not run the rest of the tape.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robot X-19 was walking by the side of the prison cells, so far lucky to have not received any maintenance orders from the big boss. Unfortunately, what was just beside of him would enable it to follow protocol and inform Robotnik about it. It was a body, a fox male in his late 40s, with a glass piece dug into the left part of his chest.

If its head had been more flexible, it would have shaken his head. Entering the number key in the keypad, it silently hoped that the fox would still be alive, saving him the trouble. It went over and scanned his body. Nope, he was gone. Disappointed, it opened his wrist communicator and beeped. "Dead body found in cell 32."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tara was in a daze. How could Robotnik be so unreasonable? No, she couldn't kill Tails... Yet, Robotnik said he was now obsolete to the plan, and said that this was the final order, or her father would die. She felt very, very dizzy and confused, what was she to do? She was becoming torn apart.

The door of the clinic suddenly burst open, showing Sally and Bunny, angrily looking at her. Seeing this, Tara broke down and cried.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But inside the brain of the two-tailed fox, the chip was beginning to feed on his precious memories...