Chapter 10- Midnight is born.
Tails awakened inside of the volcanic base. She looked around carefully. Her body ached all over. She groaned in pain. She held herself as she shuddered.
"Ah, I see you have awakened. That's good. I was beginning to worry." Shadow's voice was distanced but it was very clear.
"What happened...?" Tails said between short gasps for air.
"You were caught in the explosion. I didn't think you survived, but you did." Shadow said approaching her. "You are very strong, young one. You know you've been in a coma for about a week right?"
"I can't believe I lived..." Tails sighed.
She tried to rise but was hurt to badly, which only resulted in her crying out in pain. She laid back down trying to rid herself of the pain. Shadow stood beside her bed watching. He strangly felt some sort of compassion for the fox. He gave her a small smile. She returned it and closed her eyes for some much needed rest.
Shadow walked away thinking. Has he grown attached to the small fox which he has made his apprentice? Or is he just overreacting?
"No, I'm being silly..." the dark hedgehog sighed.
Meanwhile...
Sonic has not come out of his room ever sincehe returned home from the tragedy. They lost all of the emeralds and Tails all in the same day. He sobbed quietly all day until he finally cried himself to sleep. His heart ached with sorrow and he thought it was all his fault. He just couldn't stand the fact that Tails as gone because if him.
Downstairs, all of Sonic's friends were talking after the first week.
"I can't believe this is happening... Tails is dead?" Amy said with tears in her eyes.
"No, at least not from what we saw..." Knuckles replied.
"I still don't understand why Tails lied to us like that..." Cream said sadly.
"Well none of us really got Tails... besides Sonic..." Rouge said slowly.
"But... why did she attack you Knuckles?" Vector asked. (A/N- I like the Chaotix detectives!)
"I don't know, but now that she's on the dark side... I don't think we can't trust her anymore..." Knuckles replied softly.
"There has to be a way..." Espio suddenly spoke up. He had been listening to the whole conversation by the wall. "Tails was't evil from the beginnig was she?"
"No..." everyone replied in unison.
"Maybe there is way to bring her back... it won't be easy. Eggman must have done something to make her the way she is." Espio said with deep wonder in his voice.
"Yeah! I mean no one in there right mind would paint themselves, right?" Charmy cried hopping up.
"Uh... Charmy?" Vector looked at the hyper active bee.
"We seem to recall you painting yourself green and blue not too long ago..." Amy said flatly.
"Oh... never mind..." Charmy sat back down.
"Espio, even if there was a way to change her back, how would we find her and Shadow?" Amy asked.
"Well if we find Eggman, we find Shadow. And if we find Shadow then we'll find Tails..." was the answer. Then Espio had nothing else to say.
"Espio's right!" Rouge cried. "We can't give up on Tails!"
"Let's find Tails and bring her home!" Amy shouted.
"You can't." came a low voice.
Everyone looked at the starirs to see Sonic leaning on the wall. He didn't look too lively...
"Knuckles, Rouge... you saw what happened... Tails died in that explosion... There's no bringing her back. She's been gone for a week. Don't you think we would have heard from her doing something along with Eggman by now?" Sonic said in an almost monotone.
"Sonic, she's still alive, I know she is. You can't give up hope just like that." Amy said with detemanation.
"But we can't trust her anymore even if she is alive. She's just another villian. She's one of them. She stole the chaos emeralds and gave them to Eggman, along with the master emerald shards. She's making him more powerful." Sonic growled.
"But Sonic..." Cream began.
"NO! She can't be trusted! She tried to kill me and Knuckles! She destroyed the base! She went willing to the dark side. She's no longer one of us..." Sonic said his eyes glaring.
Amy looked at all the bandages that Sonic had and sighed. "He may be right... even if we could bring her back, she wouldn't be the same..."
Knuckles just looked down. He didn't want to believe it but he knew Sonic was right. As did everyone else. Tehre was no telling what to expect now.
-3 days later-
Tails had recovered well under the watchful eye of Shadow. She had become stronger under the tough training showing her how to fight as well as he did. Her skills improved quickly and despite her injuries, she was able to do as Shadow instructed her.
"You have done well, young one. Although I've taught you alot, you still have many thngs to learn." Shadow said with a smirk on his face. "Now for a name... to fit your entire person..."
"Huh?" Tails looked at him with deep question in her eyes.
"You are a black and red fox with a dark and mysterious, like night... night... Midnight... that's it! I'm going to start calling you Midnight." Shadow said as if it was a command.
"I like it... it's perfect!" she exclaimed.
"It suits you wonderfully. It's dark and mysterious like you." the hedgehog said with slight amusement.
"Aren't you two sweet? Too bad I have to get rid of your little friend, Shadow." Eggman's voice boomed throughout the base.
Shadow and Midnight looked around slightly surprised.
"What do you mean, Eggman?" Shadow growled.
"Tails was associated (sp?) with Sonic. I can't have a goody goody two shoes hanging around. SH emight turn on us and run back to Sonic after learning about us." Eggman cackled. "Then he'll know how to take us down."
"Midnight wouldn't do that." Shadow cried.
"I know my place. I'm loyal to Shadow and would do nothing to betray him." Midnight shouted.
"Oh, I'm sure he'll remember you!" Eggman laughed evily.
Shadow and Midnight were unsure of what to do.They were ready to fight no matter what the circumstances.
-End of Chapter-