Hello everyone! Welcome back to another chapter of Nightstalkers! Sorry it's been so long but I actually came down with Covid last week, so it's been pretty difficult to write, but I'm fine now, so hopefully it'll be back to normal! Before we begin though, it's review time!

Guardian of 2fort: Tails' secret is certainly a source of problems for the group, and it'll certainly be much more difficult to keep hidden from this point forward. How exactly things go from here for the fox you'll have to read to find out!

Void Reader: Elias knowing at least something about their little secret really can't be good, what exactly his intentions are going to be we'll have to see.

Perturbo: I've been really trying to give these characters some depth and it's good to hear it's been paying off! I've been enjoying playing with their personalities to really make versions of these characters that feel familiar, but are still adapted to the world they're in!

1TGN: Tails is certainly going through a lot at the moment, lots of things have changed for him recently and he's justifiably stressed about it! With Knothole figuring things out slowly, we'll have to see how this all plays out for the kitsune!

AndTails: Tails and Knuckles' feud is certainly an interesting part of their relationship, and where it goes or what it becomes from here we'll have to see! Fiona's surveillance makes things much more interesting for Elias and for the Freedom Fighters in the future!

That's everyone, let's get started!

Nightstalkers

Trials and Tribulations

The kitsune's vision returned to focus as he felt his mind snap back to consciousness. All at once, his brain was attacked by the image of blood red snow near him, he noticed the destroyed carcass of a small animal nearby, flooding his brain with panic and almost causing him to vomit. It never got any easier… Still, it was much better than turning on Sonic or anybody else.

Taking a step away from the carnage the kitsune had caused, he looked himself over, noticing some splotches of blood stained into the white fur on his chest. He figured it wasn't too bad, it'd be easily concealed once he got his cloak back.

After taking a second to calm his racing heart, he started back toward the sanctuary, it was still very dark so he hadn't been gone long, but he figured he'd get back before anyone noticed. The trek back felt different this time, normally these quiet moments were time for him to reflect about himself, but now his brain focused on the other Freedom Fighters. Sally knew about his night time hunts now, and she seemed genuinely concerned for him. Sonic at least knew about his true nature and he didn't seem to mind so much, maybe they could talk more once they were on the way to Angel Island again tomorrow.

The walls of the sanctuary came into view as the kitsune crept through the darkness. Coming to the base of one of the walls and grabbing the rope he'd lowered for himself earlier, he climbed back up to the top, pulling himself up and back to his post. He grabbed his cloak which sat in a heap nearby and wrapped it around himself, taking care to cover the bloodstains on his chest. He'd wash them off in the morning, for now, he took a deep breath, watching the faint clouds his breath made as his mind returned to his guard duty.

-X-

As the sun rose on a new day, Sonic rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Sally seemed to be doing the same in the bunk across from him in the barracks, Knuckles still seemed somewhat asleep in the bunk above hers. Tails was nowhere to be seen, though that didn't really concern Sonic, especially considering that he was most likely on guard duty right now.

Stretching his back, the hedgehog made his way to his feet. Today was the day they set back out for Angel Island, after meeting with Elias that is. He likely still wanted to have a word with them before they left. In the meantime however, he figured he'd go check on how Tails was doing.

Stepping outside, the hedgehog was met with the frigid morning air, wrapping his cloak around himself, he started up the stairs that led to the top of the wall. Upon reaching the top, his eyes landed on the kitsune, who looked back over at him and smiled.

"Hey, Sonic." The fox spoke, his cloak wrapped around himself, as his twin namesakes flicked behind him.

"Hey, you doing alright up here? How was last night?"

"Fine, but… There's something I need to talk about…" The fox glanced around, almost making sure he was alone before continuing. "It's about… Something I do at night while I'm guarding sometimes, I go out to hunt… I think it helps me control myself better, and so I don't attack anyone…"

"What do you…" Sonic began, "What do you hunt? If you don't mind me asking?"

"Just… Small animals, not much really…"

"Well, if it works, I don't see any reason to be mad at you, why'd you want to talk about it?"

The kitsune opened his cloak a little, showing a small red splotch on his chest. "I- It happened last night…"

"You're… You're not hurt are you?" Sonic asked, concern filling his voice.

"I'm fine… Just gonna go wash it off…"

"A-Alright…" Sonic spoke, still somewhat taken aback. "Do you want me to cover your watch for a second or…"

"That'd be great, thanks Sonic."

The fox made his way down the stairs that led off the wall, being careful not to leave himself out in the open for too long. After he left, a thought entered Sonic's head.

"There's a lot more to this little secret than we thought…"

-X-

After the group was completely ready to set out once more, they exited the barracks and started toward the main building. Elias had mentioned that he'd wanted to send the group off himself last night.

As they made their way toward the council chambers, they found Elias waiting for them outside, his red cape and blue Council uniform making him stand out against the snowy backdrop.

"We meet again…" Elias began, "I hope everything went well last night."

"It did, ready to send us off?" Sally responded.

"Yes, but before I do, I just have a few words to share with you."

A loud bang suddenly shook the air and Tails felt white hot pain shoot through his shoulder. His eyes went wide in fear as he instinctively moved his hand up to apply pressure to the spot that hurt. As he did, and before his thoughts could even fully register what had happened, a second bang erupted and he felt something strike his leg. The same pain shot through his body again, this time, overwhelming his panicking mind.

"They know…"

That last thought crossed his mind as his brain was completely overtaken, he felt his limbs give out underneath him, his mind going black as he felt himself fall toward the snow below…

Knuckles caught the kitsune before he could hit the ground, as the rest of the group had panic flooded their senses. Sonic wasn't sure what exactly had happened, all he knew was that Elias had planned all of this.

"Well with that out of the way," Elias spoke. "Sonic the Hedgehog, Sally Acorn, and Knuckles the Echidna, you are found guilty of high treason against the sanctuary of Knothole. You will be taken before the Council to decide your fate, resistance will be met with immediate execution."

As Elias continued, a duo of Mobians emerged from around the corner of a nearby building, one a large polar bear, his face partially obscured by a beanie and scarf. The second was a much shorter green bird, he wore a backpack and a belt which had all manner of what looked to be small explosive devices attached to it. Sonic also noticed the glint of a sniper scope pointed at him from a rooftop elsewhere in the sanctuary, while he couldn't quite make out the wielder, he was no doubt working for Elias as well.

"So…" Elias concluded, "What'll it be?"

-X-

The group really didn't have much of a choice, down one member and pinned against the wall, it would have been suicide to resist. The three members of the group surrendered and allowed themselves to be escorted inside the council building. Sonic took a moment to look over Tails, who was still unconscious and being carried by Knuckles. The kitsune was alive, that much was good, but a noticeable hole sat on his right shoulder, a bullet hole, no doubt from the unidentified third member of Elias' enforcers.

The trio was led down a set of stairs and into a narrow hallway, filled with several small holding cells, Elias followed behind the group.

"Bark," The chipmunk said, gesturing to the polar bear that escorted the group. "See that the three of them are kept here. I want them in different cells."

Elias eyed the group, his gaze eventually settling on Knuckles, more specifically, the kitsune slung over his shoulder. "The fox comes with me…"

The polar bear escorted each of the Freedom Fighters into their respective holding cells, as the small bird with him shut each door with a key card, locking them in. As Knuckles was placed into his cell, Bark pulled the kitsune from the echidna and placed him over his own shoulder. As he did so, the third member Sonic had seen earlier on the rooftop, a purple weasel with a rifle strapped to his back, entered into the room.

"I thought I told you not to hurt him that badly…" Elias commented, a tinge of anger and disappointment in his tone.

"Relax," the weasel responded. "Didn't hit anything important, he'll be fine."

"I suppose you're right, you'll get the rest of your reward after this is all over."

Sonic, taking the opportunity to overhear their conversation, made a mental note that whoever these three Mobians were, they'd been hired by Elias, and for whatever reason they wanted Tails. The hedgehog was still busy trying to make sense of everything that happened, but there were still several questions he just didn't have answers to. The most pressing among them being why, why was Elias doing this?

"Boss, I've got the key right here!" The green bird exclaimed, "They're all locked up just-"

"Give me that!" The weasel responded, snatching the key card out of his hand. "Maybe we'll put this somewhere a bit more safe…"

Elias motioned for the group and the trio of mercenaries followed him out of the hallway, leaving the remaining Freedom Fighters to their own thoughts…

-X-

The group passed Fiona on their way to another portion of the building, the red fox found herself intrigued by the group, but quickly her curiosity turned to fear at the sight of Tails slung over the shoulder of a large polar bear amongst the group. Tons of thoughts instantly flew through her head, none of them were good.

"He wouldn't…" She thought to herself. She'd suspected that Elias might have done something like this, but she'd really hoped that she'd been able to talk him out of it last night. Seems that she'd been mistaken.

Quickly making her way to the front of the small group, she approached Elias, "What is going on here?"

"None of your business Fiona."

"Well certainly something here is my business, what did you do?"

Ignoring Fiona's question, the group reached their destination, a small infirmary room where they set the still unconscious fox down on a short table.

"Now…" Elias began, "Let's see what we're dealing with here…"

Removing the fox's cloak and headband, the chipmunk was taken aback by a third eye on the kitsune's forehead. His confusion however, quickly turned to fear. The only other thing he knew of that had three eyes was…

"What…" Elias stammered, "What is going on here?"

Fiona found herself equally taken aback, she herself suspected something was up with Tails after overhearing his conversation with Sonic, but she hadn't expected this…

"This fox some freak of nature or something!?" The weasel exclaimed, "What are you even getting us into!?"

"You're getting paid quite well for this Fang, so it doesn't matter one bit to you does it?"

Fang seemed to get the underlying message that it wasn't his business to be sticking his nose into, so he backed himself up and waited near the doorway.

"Perhaps this could take a little more time than I thought…"

-X-

After some unsuccessful attempts to figure out anything further from the kitsune, Elias returned to his office, with Fiona trailing close behind. The hired mercenaries made themselves at home in the council building, waiting for the Freedom Fighters' inevitable trial, and the rest of their pay.

"I still don't know if you're doing the right thing about this…" Fiona mused once the two of them had reached the office once more, "You're taking this too far…"

"They're dangerous Fiona," Elias responded. "We're not even sure how much so. This could be the biggest threat Knothole has seen in a long time."

"But what if it's not? What if this is a big misunderstanding?"

"Then we'll bring them to the Council and they'll decide what to do with them."

"What about the kid?"

"What about the kid?" Elias responded, seemingly musing over the question for a moment. "He's dangerous, we're not really sure even what he is… But one thing is for sure, he's not one of us…"

"That doesn't mean you can just take him and do whatever you want!" Fiona replied, a tinge of anger in her voice.

"Fiona," Elias spoke, his tone unchanged by his assistant's anger. "When I took this position as leader over Knothole, I told myself that it was my responsibility to protect this sanctuary. The Freedom Fighters have become a threat to this city, they've hidden one of those monsters here for years… Right under our noses… Nothing good ever comes from those… Things…"

That was a statement Fiona could agree with. "Still…" She continued, "Something about this doesn't feel right…"

"Maybe so… But it's what has to be done…"

After a moment of silence, Fiona made her way out of the office, still unsure what to make of the recent events…

Alright everyone, that's it for this chapter! Let me know your thoughts! We'll catch back up with the Freedom Fighters next chapter, I'll see you all next time!