Lightning-Dono: Yay, I had inspiration, so I decided to write this chapter. It's not extremely long, but it'll do.
Answers to the Reviews
Sky the Hedgehog – Gomen, gomen! I'm sorry that I couldn't elongate the chapter, but I REALLY have Writer's Block right now and I'm just trying my hardest to get it update so people who have me on Author Alert won't think I decided to quit or something...My friends like pink...well, some of them do! Then again, you're a guy, so it kind of comes as a different story...xD Thank you for the compliment on the chapter! Yes, the dream meant something, but it's really quite obvious if you read the whole chapter and not just the italicized parts...:P
Shadw – You'll see in this chapter! Everything you asked...and sorry if I don't update soon enough! My grades are on the line.
Sofia - I feel bad for Amy, tooo...Sonic always considered them his friends, but he's kind of in denial. You'll understand in this chapter. :) I hope this update was quick enough!
seastone130 - Thanks! Um...no need to go insane! I'm updating!
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Just because I want to be loved
Doesn't mean I want to love
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A sensation of drowsiness swept over the poor, golden fox as he lay, paralyzed and constrained to the dull, gray walls of this moving, miniature fortress. It had been merely moments before that he had been tossed into this heavily wired room and bound religiously to the wall by Eggman, who could have used the same motions he had to toss flower petals into the air.
Tails recalled a faint piercing in his upper thigh as Eggman injected a powerful dose of sedative to put him to sleep, and further more, enough to freeze his muscles of a certain amount of time. It felt strange to be an onlooker to a world of varying shades of silver and not be able to move an inch while live wires curved around on the ceiling. With every moment of the robotic creature he was captured inside of, Tails kept picturing the wires sailing to the ground and electrocuting him. While nothing of the sort had happened so far, he couldn't feel too safe – especially in the presence of a man who would go to extreme measures to get what he fancied.
"And now," announced Eggman with a voice brimming with pleasure. Pleasure that Sonic would once have given up anything to never see or hear of. But now, Tails couldn't even tell anyone where his best friend was. It was as though they had been separated at the capillaries of a river, drifting slowly away...The indignant voice of the fat man popped Tails' steadily wandering thoughts. "We bring in your friend!" With the pressing of a red button on the control panel, a hatch in the proximity of the robot's mouth opened and a red-dressed young lady was thrust in.
"Amy?" Tails said, staring at the lump of a body that was lying there; out-of-breath and looking like the apocalypse had just occurred, Amy lifted her head painfully.
"Tails...help me...Sonic...he isn't coming. He won't come...He said he wouldn't...he was running away from me..." Whispered the sadistic tone that was released from her throat.
The fox held his breath for a moment, thinking about what this may have meant. Amy couldn't have seen Sonic – if she had, Sonic wouldn't have left to begin with. Nothing of the sort would have happened had the blue hero been on patrol.
"Are you sure you saw him?" Tails questioned in a state of hidden panic, feeling his frozen muscles tense even further...so much that it was beginning to grow painful. "Are you sure?"
Being the lording tyrant he was, Eggman found that this was the best time to intervene with their attempt to communicate with each other. Amy's jade eyes were beginning to lose their life as the girl lost strength to stay conscious, which came as no surprise after getting every breath squeezed out of her lungs by the robot's fist.
"Why don't we go ahead and tie you both up to the walls until I complete my plan?" Eggman said with a cynical touch, retrieving a needle from his pocket, dipping it into a testing tube of clear liquid, and unceremoniously stabbing it into the flesh of Amy's upper right arm. She woke with a start, only for a second, before her head drooped slowly onto the ground, looking as peaceful as can be. A small drop of blood trickled from the small prick of a needle, snaking its way to the ground.
"Why don't you just leave her alone?" Tails suddenly yelled, strength regained and still watching the helpless girl being carried over Eggman's shoulder to a spot around a yard away from his. "She did nothing to you! And while I'm at it, I may as well point out that I did nothing wrong, also!"
Shackling Amy to the wall, Eggman began to reply.
"It isn't a matter of what you have done, it's a matter of who you have been in an alliance with for the past few years! In case you haven't noticed, I've failed time and time again to rid the world of that pesky hedgehog! I've been in hiding for a year, developing an ingenious plan that not even he can stop! Just in case you wanted to know, the plan involves ONLY Sonic's companions. Unless I have been mistaken, you both are."
Tails averted his eyes to the ground.
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Flashback
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"Look, Sonic! Isn't this incredible?" Tails exclaimed happily, holding up a can that was filled with an energy drink he had recently developed. "You're always complaining about how tired you've become since the Chaos Emeralds were returned to their rightful place, so I thought I'd make this for you!" He shoved it joyously into his friend's face. Sonic appeared completely unfazed by this feat that Tails had described as "incredible".
"Yeah, that's great. I'll drink it later," replied a bored hedgehog who had taken to moping since Eggman disappeared from the scene.
"But I want to see you drink it now...Atleast I'll see how well it works if you do."
"Go drink it yourself. I'm not feeling up to it." Sonic flipped through TV channels with a look of utmost boredom on his face.
Tails stared down into the watery depths of the can, contemplating whether or not to down it himself or throw it angrily out the window. What was wrong with his best friend? Sonic had never rejected any product he had made before, and never had he been less supportive of this. Why was he changing this way?
"But why won't you drink it?" Tails took to whining as a way to get on his friend's nerves to the point that Sonic had no choice BUT to drink it. "You haven't even had it yet! What if it makes you feel better? All my life, ever since we first met, you told me that you would constantly stand by my side, no matter what. You even promised! So what happened? What happened?" Tears were coming to his eyes. Shit. He had never intended to cry, no matter how much he was beginning to resent his friend's attitude. Why was he acting in a way that demeaned Tails' abilities so harshly?
"Because I don't want to! You can say whatever you want, but if I don't feel like doing something, I won't do it! It's that easy, Tails." Sonic appeared out of breath after saying this.
"You PROMISED!" Tails shouted angrily, salty tears flying from his eyes and splattering onto the carpet as threw the can to the ground, spewing it's contents onto the carpet, staining it an ugly shade of lime green. "Before, you'd keep to every word you spoke!"
Sonic took in a deep breath.
"It's not like before! I'm not getting any younger and I'm tired of everyone treating me like a hero when they should be looking up to you guys! Without you and the rest, I couldn't have defeated half the enemies I had. If you hadn't been there, nothing would have been accomplished. Why don't any of you get publicity? I feel so full of myself all the time and then I realize how you guys must feel!" Sonic's face was no longer the pale, creamy peach color it had been before. Now it resembled a prune. "I'm giving you guys the chance to be known. Isn't that what you all have wanted?"
It took a long time for Tails to understand the full meaning of this. So this was all out of guilt? He was lazing about because he didn't want to get in the way of his friends being well-known?
"That's not what I've wanted!" Tails exclaimed. "I wanted you to be my friend for the rest of my life, but you couldn't do that, could you? You just had to go and do something that's completely against your nature, just because you think we give you more strength and should be better known. If all these years we've been together could've taught you something, I want it to have taught you that we want nothing but the best for you. But apparently, you don't care very much if you've fallen to this level."
Tails swished his furry tails into Sonic's face adamantly.
"Good bye."
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End Flashback
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To think that it had only happened just last year...Tails thought to himself silently, filled with the feeling of regret. How could I just have said bye to him so easily? But that doesn't matter now. What does matter is getting Amy and I out of this mess.
"What made you think we were still pals?" Tails asked, still staring at the ground as though there was some article of interest lying there.
"Eh? So...you're not friends?" Eggman chuckled sinisterly. "How will you go about proving it?"
"He's in the league with Rouge. I'd never work with such a traitorous bat, and you know it!"
"Ah well." The fat man shrugged, jiggling his fat rather unattractively. "All the better for my plan! Atleast now Sonic won't get in my way...all I need are a few more people and it will be complete."
There was a small pause where Eggman continued to man the controls for his huge robot, making it do a three-sixty to face Tails' workshop once more.
"Why do you need Sonic's friends? Former or current?"
Eggman's face was stretched in an oddly lopsided grin that made dimples the size of craters on the moon.
"Because their wills are the strongest."
Tails frowned, trying to figure out what the plan was. "Why do you need people with strong wills? You can't be planning to control them, since you'd need weaker people for that...you can't be experimenting with us since that wouldn't help with anything..."
"Or will it?"
With a slash of the robot's arm and some fire breathing action, Tails' workshop was reduced to a pile of rubble and ash. The fox gasped in horror, a fixed look of shock displayed on his face for all to see.
In a tree behind the downed workshop, a small, chestnut-furred monkey hiding amongst the leaves hooted sadly, searching for his master.