Okay, this is the final chapter. Once you've read it, please review.

While we're here, I'd like to thank my co-writer, my brother mg34 (who has proved that he can write serious stories despite what he has put on this site), all my reviewers, and those of you who helped with you're suggestions and information. I will be starting a squeal imminently. Thanks.

11. Losing your Values

Nack chewed on his gum for a moment, before spitting it out onto the floor, just missing Sonic. He pushed the gun against the hedgehog's head, who was knelt on the floor.

"Don't move Sonic," Nack said, "even you aren't faster then my finger, from the floor anyway!"

Sonic was rigged and tense. Tails stayed stock still; he was still handcuffed to Sonic. Sonia started to get up. Nack shot her a look.

"Don't move," he said snidely, "unless you want you're father shot."

"You killed them, didn't you!" Sonia hissed at him. Nack laughed.

"Only because he asked me too," he said, gesturing to Sonic, "but he never paid me, probably because of his miserable attempt to cancel the contract. My contracts can not be cancelled." He sneered at her. Sonia nearly exploded.

"YOU BASTARD…"

"Stay where you are Sonia," Blossom said. She was a good ten metres away from the others. Nack semi-turned towards her, but he kept half an eye on Sonic and company.

"I would have thought you'd be dead by now," he said. "Not many people escape me. You and you're luck daughter make it four people in thirty years."

"You shot me?" Blossom automatically reached up to her wound. Nack smiled evilly.

"Yes, and it appears you got away with it. But yet it never be said I'm not a creature of honour…" Tails laughed. Nack filched his gun hand for a moment, and the fox was silenced. "So I'll give you a deal," the weasel continued. "If you leave now and don't say anything, I'll let you, your daughter and the rest of your family live."

"And what about Sonic, Sonia and Tails?" Blossom asked firmly.

"Well, Sonic will return to Mobious with two more murders in on his record, and I'll collect my reward for capturing him. Tails and Sonia, well, you know. Not too much to ask for your families safety, isn't it?"

"If that's what you think." Blossom was unmoved. Nack scowled.

"You're a fool," he said. Sonic laughed.

"The line between genius and insanity is very fine," he said very calmly for someone with a gun against his head. "Some people walk alone it, others are miles into the insane zone."

Nack whirled back round to Sonic, and pistol wiped him. "You can't be so smart now hedgehog, I have you at my mercy…"

With the weasel momentarily distracted, Blossom eye-zapped the gun out of his hand. Before the bounty hunter could react, Sonic did. He swung Tails round, who raised his feet to catch Nack just under the chin. As he staggered back, Blossom zipped across towards him, and punched him into a pile of spare aircraft parts. But she'd stressed her gunshot wound, and she instinctively reached up for it. Sonic scrabbled to his feet.

"Tails, get these things off!" he said, shaking the handcuffs.

"Shadow's got the key!"

"Brilliant," said Sonic. Blossom flew over too them.

"I'll get that!" she said, and she yanked the cuffs apart, just as Nack emerged from the heap, brandishing two machine guns.

"Eat this!" he screamed, filling the air with lead. Sonic, Tails and Blossom split in three different directions. Nack laughed manically, but not for long, as Sonia hit him over the head with an iron bar. He staggered forward, as Tails shot down from above to kick him in the chest. Nack reacted quickly though, and he grabbed Tails' ankle, and used his own momentum to hurl him into Sonia, rendering him unconscious.

Blossom threw a punch at Nack, which he somehow managed to duck, and hit her with the gun butt in the ribs. Blossom staggered back for a moment, and Nack took a small tube of liquid and hurled it at her. It smashed on contact, enveloping her in a gas. Blossom started coughing violently.

"That'll give me the time I need!" he cackled, and reloaded his gun. Sonic hit him in the side at full pelt, sending the two of them barrelling into a heap. Nack ended up underneath, but he smacked Sonic under the chin and ended up on top, drawing a knife.

"Dam the reward," he said though gritted teeth, "there will be no witnesses to what I did! Your dead hedge…"

He rolled off Sonic and collapsed in a heap on the floor. Sonic sat up and looked at him. He'd been shot in the head. Sonia was lowering the gun, the one that Nack had dropped earlier. She looked slightly pail.

As Blossom picked herself up and cleared the vile gas from her lungs, Sonic rushed over to Sonia.

"Sonia! You okay?" he said with the natural concern of a father. Sonia was shaking, struggling to believe what she'd done. She'd killed her mother's and brother's murder. He had been on the verge of killing her father. It wasn't as if he didn't deserve it. So why did she feel so awful?

Sonic could tell she was upset. For a moment, he regretted every moment he'd been on Earth, away from her. He'd liberated an entire planet for flips sake; he surely could have found a way to stay with her, rather then fleeing from her along with his past. These thoughts passed though, because he could try and help now.

Blossom was intending to leave them to it and tend to the incapacitated Tails, but just before Sonic reached his daughter, something occurred to the puff. A machine gun is very loud, so why hadn't any of the heroes outside entered to find out what had happened.

The answer was simple; they were about to. Sonic got caught mid-stride by a black flash, and was sent scraping along the hanger floor away from his daughter. For good measure, his attacker – Shadow – smacked Sonic's head into the ground a few times.

"Got you this time!" he sneered, as Sonic's mouth filled with blood.

"No, wait…" wailed Sonia, tears now beginning to well up in her eye.

"Take Tails and join Knuckles on the ship!" ordered Shadow.

"But…"

"THAT'S AN ORDER!" Shadow bellowed, ramming Sonic's head against the floor as he struggled for a moment. Sonia stifled another whimper, but took Tails and left. Blossom stepped forward. The hanger was full of superheroes now, she'd only ever seen this many in one place during the general meetings… and when they were queuing for lunch. Just as they'd been four days ago, when Sonic had humiliated her in front of them all. Back then she'd have given almost anything to see him dragged away in pain. But a lot had happened since then. She approached Shadow, who was cuffing Sonic's hands and feet.

"Would you like to know what actually happened in here?" she asked, "rather then jumping to immediate conclusions?"

In all jobs, you have to work with objectionable people. Brick swung the scythe and cut Nack's soul from his body. The weasel looked around irritably.

"I HAD THEM!" he hissed, "HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?"

Brick shrugged. "These things happen," he said distractedly. He was looking at Blossom. He could have shouted to her, but there was no point. For starters she was busy, and secondly, it wouldn't help. Blossom could only see Brick if she knew he was there (unlike MJ, who could just see him.) Brick supposed that she wouldn't expect him to come for a weasel. That didn't stop him from looking at her though.

"HEY," Nack taped him impatiently on the shoulder, "what happens now?"

Brick reluctantly tore his eyes away from Blossom and looked at his paperwork. "You're on the list for the bad place, so I'll take you to see the boss, and then he'll confirm it I suppose."

Nack gulped. "Is that it?" he asked.

"Yep," said Brick, as he took the weasel to the waiting Katharine (his horse, in case you've forgotten), "but I can do one thing for you."

"What?"

"Make sure you're among your own kind once you get down there, rather than with all the humans. You know, send you to Mobious' bad place."

Nack swallowed hard. He expected that when he got there, there would be a few people that would want to talk to him…

Shadow had listened to what Blossom had to say. He considered it carefully.

"There isn't any actual hard proof that Nack did it, is there?"

"No," Blossom admitted, "but proof could be found, if you looked for it." Shadow shook his head, as the other superheroes closed in, to listen more closely.

"It doesn't work," he said firmly. "I think Sonic paid Nack to say all those things, as soon as Nack had taken him to his ship, they would have exchanged money and gone their separate ways. And the rumours would have improved Nack's bounty hunting reputation, which is all he really cared about. It would have worked for both sides."

Sonic swallowed the Blood. "You can't possibly believe that!" he said.

"I don't know," said Batman flatly, "those sorts of things do happen." There were murmurs of agreement from the other heroes.

"All the evidence points to you Sonic," said Cyclops, "if your stories true, where is the forensic evidence at the original murder to support it, or the signs of a struggle?"

"They were there!" Sonic snorted, "They just didn't look for it!"

Blossom was not happy. She could tell that the mood of the surrounding heroes was that Sonic was lying; even Bubbles and Buttercup were nodding their heads in agreement. Still, she had time.

"We can discuss this all later," she said confidently, "you still need to find your Chaos Emerald."

"No we don't," Shadow replied, "I know it was you puff's giving off those Chaos Energy readings, so there isn't an Emerald here. We'll be taking Sonic and leaving, unless you have any objections.

(Bubbles was now hopeful. Blossom could hardly delay Shadow by giving him the Emerald. So she could take it for her self. As long as Buttercup didn't suspect anything…)

Blossom couldn't think of anything to say. Or anything useful anyway. How do you argue with a fanatic?

"I think he's innocent," she said. Shadow chuckled.

"If you're right, I'm sure the jury will agree." He turned to leave, dragging Sonic off with him, towards the ship. Sonic twisted himself round to face Blossom as he was dragged away.

"Don't listen to him Blossom! They'll kill me!" he shouted. Blossom wanted to stop them. She wanted to help. But she was aware of the muttering of the crowd behind her, and that some of them were filtering way. Shadow stopped and turned back to Blossom.

"If you don't want any one to know where we found him, I suggest you keep quite," he said coldly.

"Blossom, Please!" Sonic shouted to her, "you know I'm innocent, please help me!"

Blossom blinked. She was scared now. What if Shadow did say, any chance of getting the leadership job would be gone. And she really wanted it. She glanced around, looking for any support from her colleagues. There wasn't any forth coming, in fact, the rate at which they were leaving increased. Sonic was a little way away now.

Suddenly she was aware of Buttercup beside her. As she put a hand on Blossom's shoulder, Bubbles also moved in.

"Come on Blossom," she said, "it's not any of our business anymore." They turned away, and started followed the rest out.

Blossom just stood there, watching. In a few days time she'd be confirmed as the new leader of the SSR, her salary increase would have removed any of her financial worries and for the first time in years, she'd look forward to going to work.

But for now, as she closed and her eyes and turned away, none of that floated in through her mind. The only thing in there was Sonic's echoing screams for her help, as he was dragged away.