Hello everyone! It's time for another chapter, but first the reviews from last time!

Void Reader: Elias has certainly become something very different from how we originally met him, and it's not for the better.

Haloixix13: Everyone's the hero in their own story. All the characters have their own opinions of what's right or wrong, and it's when those opinions clash that we get something interesting!

Perturbo: Fiona's change of heart is certainly something interesting, but with the Hooligans and Elias dealing with the Freedom Fighters personally, we'll have to see how things fair for everyone!

AndTails: Fiona's help certainly proved important, and it was the big reason the Freedom Fighters are where they're at now, we'll have to see the outcome of their little skirmish here this chapter!

1TGN: I laughed so hard when I saw your review, that's one of the downsides that come with writing multiple stories at once, but I think it helps with always having something new to write! Sonic's more than willing to help Tails no matter what it takes. Fiona was certainly a surprise to a few people, the Freedom Fighters included, the guilt from her being the cause of all of this was enough to convince her to try her best to undo as much as she could!

That's all, let's get this going!

Nightstalkers

Intervention

Sally activated her ring blades just in time to block a blow aimed for her head. Elias' sword deflected off the two blades as the other members of his group charged past and engaged the rest of the Freedom Fighters.

The green bird among them pulled a small device from his belt, tossing it at the other Mobians, Sonic and Knuckles took cover as quickly as possible before the device detonated, sending a spray of freshly fallen powder snow through the air. Knuckles gently set the kitsune over his shoulder against one of the nearby buildings where he would be safe, leaving his satchel nearby. The fox was still somewhat incoherent, and while he had regained consciousness during their escape he was still in no shape to fight.

Looking over at Sonic and the other assembled trio of Elias' goons, the echidna locked eyes with the polar bear, gathering the energy from his amulet around him, he met the much larger opponent as the two of them clashed.

Sonic meanwhile dodged out of the way of another explosive, he could feel the shockwave and flying snow from the explosion as he barely managed to escape its radius. Looking over the rest of the Mobians he spotted the weasel of the group lining up the scope of his rifle on Knuckles, who seemed a bit preoccupied with Bark for the time being.

The hedgehog sized up his target and closed the gap almost instantly, his speed, while unreliable and certainly something he couldn't call on at will, tended to respond quite well in dangerous circumstances such as this, the hedgehog always attributed it to adrenaline more than anything. Knocking the weapon out of the sniper's hands, he quickly found himself face to face with one angry weasel, who tackled the hedgehog, sending both of them tumbling to the snow. Before he could do anything further however, a bolt of plasma soared just over the marksman's head, distracting him long enough for the hedgehog to kick his assailant off of him. Surprised, Sonic looked over and spotted Tails, who had drawn his weapon from his bag. While the fox was still unable to stand, and in more than a bit of pain, he was quite safe from his position. The fox smiled at the hedgehog and Sonic couldn't help but smile back before turning his attention to Bean.

Sally meanwhile, continued to clash blades with Elias, their weapons cutting through the falling snow around them.

"Is this what you wanted!?" He exclaimed, "All this just to prove your loyalty to those monsters!?"

"I'm not here to help those monsters! I'm trying to stop you from killing my friend!"

"Friend!? He'd turn on you in an instant if he got the chance!"

Sally couldn't help but feel a sting of truth to some of Elias' words, memories of when Tails had turned against the three of them on the return trip to Knothole flashed through her mind, distracting her just long enough for Elias to break her guard, forcing her back toward the rest of the fighting as she dodged another swing.

The entire area had descended into chaos, Knuckles contended with Bark, the two trying to locate any opening in the other's guard. Sonic was busy dodging all manner of explosives, while striking back at Bean whenever he had the chance, and Eilas was dealing with Sally. As she scanned the area however, she spotted Fang, completely on his own. Having retrieved his rifle, he was busy lining up a shot on the assembled Mobians.

Peering the scope of his weapon, the marksman set his crosshairs directly between Tails' eyes, a slight smile crossing his face, the kid had been far too much trouble, and now it was time to take him out for good.

Tails' life flashed before his eyes as he spotted the scope of Fang's rifle pointed directly at his head. Fear filled his entire body as he instinctively closed his eyes while he waited for the inevitable. The sound of the weapon firing filled his ears, and he expected that would be the last noise he would hear.

The kitsune opened his eyes.

A thin barrier of bright green light stood in front of him, shielding him from any sort of harm he might have sustained.

His attention quickly turned to Knuckles who took his focus off of his own fight for long enough to hurl a spear of concentrated energy at the sniper, blasting him back into the snow and throwing his weapon from his grasp.

Tails was still completely stunned by what had happened as he tried his best to calm his nerves and racing heart. Didn't Knuckles hate him? Why would he be protecting him like this?

His mind snapped back into focus as yet another powerful wave of pain washed over him, they'd been relentless since he'd woken up. While he'd been able to hold off unconsciousness for a while, this one finally did him in as the fox's entire body felt heavy. He collapsed into the snow, his eyes slowly closing as he finally succumbed to exhaustion.

Knuckles landed another punch on the polar bear, discharging a shockwave of Chaos Energy that he'd gathered around his fists to further increase the strength of the impact. Despite how the Freedom Fighters seemed to be doing well, Knuckles knew they were fighting a losing battle. Down a member and slowly being backed to the wall, it was only a matter of time until one of them slipped up, and from there it would be all over, something about their situation needed to change, and although he wasn't quite sure what, he hoped that Sally or somebody had a plan for when it did…

-X-

Curiosity flooded Amy's thoughts as she heard the commotion from across the sanctuary. She found herself fearing the worst, but as the sound of explosions reached her ears she found her suspicions that Nightstalkers had broken in faded away, still that didn't do much to remove her concern.

While she and the other Freedom Fighters were nowhere near as experienced as Sally's team, they were still more than capable of keeping Knothole protected from any type of threat.

The other two Freedom Fighters had heard the explosions from the barracks and quickly located Amy who'd been on watch for the day.

"What's going on out here?" Bunnie asked, the rabbit had lost several of her limbs to Nightstalkers long before becoming a Freedom Fighter, leaving several portions of her body made of metal prosthetics.

"Whatever it is, it can't be good…" Cream responded, her loyal chao Cheese followed nearby.

The other two joined behind Amy as they quickly crossed the sanctuary. As they turned the corner into the street they were shocked by the sight before them.

The entire area had exploded into chaos, Elias was here, along with several other Mobians. What concerned Amy most however is that it appeared that Elias was fighting the Freedom Fighters, before she could reflect any further on the issue however, Elias' voice made its way to her ears.

"You three!" He exclaimed, "Don't let any of the traitors escape!"

"Traitors?" Amy thought, "What is going on here!?"

She knew the other Freedom Fighters, Sally was her friend and Amy knew she'd never even dream about doing anything that would hurt Knothole.

Another explosion ripped the hedgehog from her thoughts and immediately she resolved in her mind what she was about to do, she looked at the other two Mobians with her and from the expressions on their faces, she could tell they had the same thought she did.

"We're almost certainly going to get locked up for this…" Bunnie spoke, "But I suppose we've got to do something."

Amy didn't respond as she joined the fray, wielding her usual hammer as she interrupted the duel between Sally and Elias, taking a swing at the councilman and forcing him to dodge backward to avoid being flattened.

"Amy what are you-" Sally began, only to have the hedgehog glance at her from the edge of her vision. Sally understood everything she needed, they were here to buy them time. She quickly abandoned her duel with Elias as she moved to help Sonic break free of his engagement, only to find Cream and Cheese already assisting the hedgehog as the chao tried its best to catch Bean's explosives and toss them back before they even had the chance to land.

"Sonic we're getting out of here." Sally began, ushering the hedgehog behind her. He quickly fell in line with the group.

"I should have known something like this would happen…" Elias growled, "You'll all be arrested for treason, mark my words!"

As if to punctuate his sentence one of Cheese's thrown explosive charges landed at his feet. Amy had just enough time to get clear of the blast before it detonated, blowing the sanctuaries' leader back into a nearby snowbank, his sword flying from his grasp and impaling itself in the wall of a nearby building, Elias did not stand up afterward.

With that matter settled, Amy's attention turned to Fang, who scrambled to dodge a swing from the hedgehog's hammer, narrowly avoiding the attack.

Knuckles meanwhile joined Sally's group once Bunnie had taken over his fight for him. They made a dash for the stairwell that led to the top of the sanctuaries' wall, he grabbed the once again unconscious Tails as he passed, along with the fox's satchel and weapon, both of which he handed over to Sonic. As they ascended the stairs and ultimately reached the top of the wall, the group lowered the ropes and started to descend, Knuckles doing so a bit more carefully due to the fox slung over his shoulder.

The trio set foot on the snow below and set off into a run, escaping into the trees, they didn't slow down until the walls of the sanctuary were long out of sight.

Taking a moment to catch their breath and process everything that had happened, Sonic was the first to speak.

"Well… What now?"

"We keep moving," Sally responded. "We can't go back to Knothole… Even with the other Freedom Fighters and Fiona helping us, it still isn't safe for us to stay… Elias and the Council are certainly not going to show us any mercy if we return…"

"We'll head to Angel Island." Knuckles added, "Once we get there we can take some time to regroup and figure out what our next move will be."

The rest of the group agreed and set off on yet another trek down the mountain, and it seemed this time, they wouldn't be returning…

-X-

The trio arrived at the first of the two safe caves on the way down. They'd decided to stop there as the sun had started to descend, continuing the trek in darkness would be dangerous.

They started a small fire and settled in for the night. Tails had woken up somewhat recently and was sitting against one of the rocky walls near where he'd been set down, the pain from his injuries still flaring up occasionally.

"How you holding up bud?" Sonic asked.

"I'm alright," The fox answered. "Still hurts pretty bad…"

"Sorry to hear that… But at least Elias isn't around anymore."

"Yeah…" Tails responded, the recent events had been the only thing on his mind. It had been only a few days since his true identity had come out, and in that time he'd not only been shot, but had managed to get their entire group exiled from their home. Needless to say, his confidence was at an all time low.

Sonic went to talk with the echidna at the cave's entrance, leaving the kitsune to his thoughts. The other thing that was on his mind was Knuckles going out of his way to save him earlier, it still didn't make sense to the fox, Knuckles wanted him dead, so why protect him like that?

"Tails?" Sally began, jolting the fox out of his thoughts. "Do you mind if we look at your shoulder and leg?"

The kitsune nodded allowing her to carefully remove the cloth bandages from the wound on his leg, a bright red strain was easily visible on the bottom layer of the covering as the injury became completely visible. It didn't take her long to notice something wrong.

"Tails… You wouldn't happen to know if they took the bullet out of your leg would you?"

The fox shook his head, further growing Sally's concern. "Well that's probably why it hurts so bad, there's still two bullets in you!"

Investigating the injury a bit further, Sally's suspicions were confirmed. "We're going to have to take those out," She continued, ruffling through the contents of Tails' satchel. "Hopefully there's something here that can help."

It wasn't long before she located what she was looking for, a few instruments that would help as well as a dosage of very potent sedatives had wisely been packed by Fiona before reuniting the fox with them back in Knothole. Sally silently thanked the vixen.

"Well, the good news is that I can probably get it out. I'll have to put you to sleep though, is that fine?"

The fox nodded once again, leaving the chipmunk to gather some of the equipment, she called Sonic back over and quickly explained the situation.

"So what do you want me to do?" The hedgehog asked as he knelt next to the kit. "I mean I'm not really sure how to deal with any of this medical stuff…"

"I just need you to be here for moral support." She responded before turning her attention to the kitsune. "Alright Tails, you'll feel much better once you wake up, just relax…"

Gently injecting the sedatives into the fox's arm, the effects quickly set in. His eyes and entire body suddenly felt extremely tired, and not long after she finished administering the dose, Tails' eyes closed and he slumped over as he fell asleep, resting his head on Sonic's shoulder.

The procedure went without a problem, and soon, both projectiles had been removed from the fox's injuries. Before bandaging his wounds once again however, Sally called Knuckles over from his post at the front of the cave.

"Could you maybe do whatever it was Myriam did back at Angel Island? I just want to get him patched up as fast as we can…"

"Sorta," The echidna answered. "I'm not as good at it as she is, and it's pretty deep, which only makes it more difficult, I can certainly try."

Gathering the energy from his amulet around his hand and focusing himself, he gently placed his hand over the injury, trying to work as best as he could. After a moment he removed his hand, while the injury wasn't gone, it had noticeably improved.

"Well, it's not quite all the way." Knuckles continued, "Unfortunately I can't just do it again, putting too much Chaos Energy into someone can outright kill them… He'll need some time to let it wear off before going at it again."

"It looks quite a bit better," Sonic commented, gently flicking the bangs of the fox still resting on his shoulder.

"That much is good, thanks for your help." Sally added.

"Not a problem," The echidna responded. "It's the least I could do."

As he went to return to his guard duty however, Sonic spoke.

"Oh and… Thanks for saving his life earlier… Really means a lot to me."

The guardian smiled, "I can tell, let me know when he wakes up."

The hedgehog nodded and allowed Knuckles to return to his post at the cave's mouth, while none of them were sure what lay ahead of them, hopefully, it would be for the better.

Alright everybody, that's all for this update, let me know your thoughts on how things went in a review! I'll see you all next time!