Hey everyone, here's the next chapter! I'm sure you know what time it is before we begin however!
Perturbo: They're certainly pretty cute together, Sonic and Tails have a very close personal bond, so it's been fun getting to write that under the different circumstances in this fic. I'm glad you enjoyed the fight as well, they're generally not my strong suit, so it's good to know this one turned out well!
Haloixix13: There's certainly an ideological clash between the two groups, and as for the character list, hopefully sticking with the smaller main cast keeps things alright!
AndTails: The other Freedom Fighters timing was certainly good for our little group! As for how things are going for them now, it'll be for fate to decide.
1TGN: Their help bought the small group enough time to successfully escape, but now on their own, we'll have to see what the next move will be! Tails' injuries are quite bad, but luckily they seem to be slowly getting better!
That's everyone, let's go check in on the group!
Nightstalkers
Guardian
Night descended over the group as they settled into sleep. Sonic had agreed to take the second watch from Knuckles during the night so that the echidna could have a chance to rest. The sedatives in Tails' blood had slowly started to wear off, leaving him more than a bit loopy, but they'd eventually coaxed him into falling asleep, hoping that he'd be back to his normal self by morning.
That of course left Knuckles with plenty of time for his own thoughts.
The guardian's brown and white trimmed cloak blew in the faint breeze as the snow that had kept falling from earlier in the day continued to gather on the cloth. He reflected on the things that had occurred recently, in a very short period of time he'd met the other three members of the group, been attacked by a Nightspawn, became part of a situation at Knothole, and now was a fugitive on the run from the leader of Knothole who almost certainly now wanted them dead.
Needless to say, quite a bit had happened, and Knuckles wasn't sure what to feel about it. He enjoyed the adventure and excitement it brought, but the other half of him longed to be back to his relatively quiet life on Angel Island.
They'd be returning to his home Sanctuary soon, but as for what exactly the plan was when they arrived, none of them were sure.
"If Sonic's really what Myriam thinks he is…" He thought to himself. He'd been thinking about that for a while in fact, and while deep down he hoped she was right, he had no way of confirming it until it could be put to the test.
But they'd have to get back to Angel Island first, once things were safe and once they had the opportunity to figure more than a couple things out, then his and Myriam's question could be dealt with.
Glancing back at the three sleeping Freedom Fighters in the cave, he couldn't help but notice Sonic resting his head on one of Tails' large fluffy namesakes, using it as a pillow. The guardian sighed, his and the fox's relationship had been rocky to say the least, and his vocal opinions about Nightspawns in general hadn't helped. Still, he really didn't hate the fox, since he'd spent more time with him and got to know some of the difficulties that came with being half monster from overhearing other conversations, he'd become more sympathetic to the kit's condition.
It didn't seem like his own sympathy had much effect, but he'd noticed the somewhat confused and surprised look on the kitsune's face when he saved his life earlier, maybe perhaps that would be the start of a change for the better.
The echidna continued to reflect on his thoughts, ultimately however, things would have to wait until morning…
-X-
The group woke early with the rising sun, Sonic returned from his post at the mouth of the cave as the other three rubbed the sleep out of their eyes.
"How'd everyone sleep?" He began.
"It's already morning?" Tails asked.
"The sun's coming up, so I guess so." The hedgehog answered, smiling internally at Tails' usual morning protesting.
"I don't think I ever slept that hard in my life…"
"Well, you did have some help from the sedatives, how you feeling now?"
"Much better, it doesn't hurt quite as bad now."
"That's good to hear," Sally interjected. "Are we ready to get moving? The last thing we want right now is Elias' goons catching up to us."
"That's assuming they're even following us," Sonic responded.
"I figure we're better safe than sorry. Hopefully the other Freedom Fighters are alright, they really got us out of a jam back there…"
"I really hope so too…"
The hedgehog made his way over to Tails, gently picking him up and setting him on his back, holding him underneath both the kit's legs. "I figure we don't have to put you over Knuckles' shoulder anymore, so how about we try this?"
"Feels fine to me." The fox answered, letting out a yawn as the last of his sleepiness drained out of his body.
"Once we're down the cliff we should be safe." Knuckles spoke, adding his own thoughts to the conversation. "I doubt they'll follow us that far out, it'd be dangerous to do so."
"I was thinking the same thing," Sally added. "Everybody got everything?"
Knuckles retrieved Tails' satchel, but after that, the group nodded and set out back into the snow. The faint snowfall from yesterday had stopped, allowing most of the trip to pass in relative silence and peace.
As the cliffside approached, Sally made her way forward to test the rope. It still seemed securely tied to a rock at the top.
"Well, hopefully that'll hold." She said, "I figure we'll have Sonic go first, you might have to have Tails go with you."
"That's fine," The hedgehog replied, looking over his shoulder at the kitsune. "Just make sure you hold on alright? The last thing we need is you falling and breaking something."
The kitsune nodded and Sonic very carefully made his way to the rope, carefully lowering himself down; it seemed more than capable of holding their combined weight, which was good.
He'd managed to climb about halfway down before Sally and Knuckles, who were waiting at the top of the cliff heard the one noise they didn't want to hear. A low pitched snarl made its way to their ears. The duo quickly turned around and found themselves face to face with a Nightstalker, the three eyed beast sizing up the two of them as it emerged from the shadows of the trees. Behind, two other shadowy forms could be spotted behind them.
The first of the monsters lunged forward as the mobians barely had time to evade the attack, preparing their weapons as they turned to face the monsters. Before it could lunge again, Knuckles hurled a bolt of concentrated energy at it, the energy projectile sent the monster reeling backward, though it failed to deal any serious harm as the beast roared in rage.
The two had their attention turned to one of the other monsters they had seen earlier in the shadows as it charged to meet them. Sally blocked a swipe from its claws, deflecting the blow to the side and away from the two mobians.
"Knuckles you get out of here, I'll cover you for a second, just get down as fast as you can!"
The echidna nodded, from what he'd seen of the chipmunk, she was more than capable of handling herself. He quickly made his way over to the rope, dodging out of the path of a strike from the third monster as he started downward.
"Alright." Sally thought to herself, "You just need to buy some time here. How hard can it be?"
As if to answer her question one of the monsters lunged at her, forcing her to dodge and block a swipe from another of the monsters with her ring blades just before it struck her in the face.
"Spoke too soon…" She thought, delivering a counterattack to the side of one of the nearby beasts as the third monster approached.
The injured monster roared in anger as it rushed forward in an onslaught of claw swipes and lunges, the other two beasts used their own attacks in an attempt to back the mobian into a corner, applying further pressure to her and forcing her blocks to become more and more frantic.
"Well Knuckles, hopefully that's enough time." She thought, sidestepping another of the monster's attacks, and delivering a strike to the side of the already injured Nightstalker before breaking into a sprint toward the rope which led down the cliff. Reaching the rope with the three monsters right on her tail she practically threw herself down it. Managing to get about halfway down before one of the monsters on the cliff above slashed the connection to the rock, snapping the rope and forcing her to fall down to the bottom of the cliff. The fresh snow that had gathered there from the night before breaking the bulk of her fall.
"Sally!" Sonic exclaimed as Knuckles helped her to her feet. "You alright?"
"Yeah… I'm alright." She answered, honestly shocked at the answer herself as she brushed the snow off her cloak.
The assembled mobians looked up the cliff and noticed the three Nightstalkers at the top growling at them from above, one turned to the other and exchanged a trio of growls and snarls before they moved away from the edge of the cliff and vanished from view.
"That…" Knuckles commented, "Was way too close…"
"They'll be back tonight." Tails added from his spot on Sonic's back. "They said they'll follow us and attack when it's dark."
"Wait," Knuckles responded. "You can understand them!?"
"Yeah, half of me comes from them you know…"
"I just… I never really thought that anything they said would make sense."
"You'd be surprised, they're smarter than we give them credit for, they're probably looking for a gentler section of the cliff to make their way down to come after us."
"Seems like you being half monster comes in handy sometimes!" Sonic added.
Tails smiled, "I guess so, they won't even know what hit them."
The group continued onward, with the rope broken, there was no way for anyone to climb back up so their only place to go was further toward Angel Island. Eventually, as the sun set they arrived at the cave they would sleep in for the night before setting off for the final stretch tomorrow.
As the group settled in for the night, Sally remembered something.
"Oh, Tails." She began, drawing the attention of the fox sitting near the fire. "Fiona told me to tell you she loves you too."
The kit's face instantly took on a bright shade of red, "O-Oh." He stammered, "T-Thanks…"
"You don't need to pretend like you're not in love with her you know, I mean I think we can all see it."
"I-I'm not in love with her!" The fox spoke, his embarrassment only growing. "I just… Think she's cute and…"
"Tails…"
"Alright fine I love her! I just didn't think she'd be interested in someone like me… Not to mention the whole half monster thing…"
"You know, she told me that after she found out. So it doesn't seem like that's as big of a problem as you thought."
Tails' thoughts lingered on her words for a bit, the blush still firmly on his features. Maybe Fiona really did love him. He did remember her helping him out back at Knothole, he really hoped she was safe…
Before any of the group members could completely settle for the night however, the group of Nightstalkers from earlier returned. But with one of the three monsters injured from before, and without the element of surprise on their side, the beasts didn't stand a chance. That battle was short lived and soon, the small group of mobians were left to themselves for the night. Keeping the rotation for who would take watch for the night, it was agreed that Sonic would take the first watch and switch out for Knuckles for the latter half. With that decided, the hedgehog took his post at the mouth of the cave as the rest of the group slowly fell asleep.
-X-
Tails bolted awake, his breathing panicked and covered in sweat. The trembling fox felt his racing heartbeat as he tried his best to calm himself, the flames from his most recent nightmare fresh in his mind.
Trying and failing to shut the thoughts and images that came with his recurring nightmare out of his head. The kit's fearful trembling only intensified as a few distressed whines escaped him. It wasn't before long his panic attack drew the attention of another member of the group.
"You alright?" Knuckles asked, immediately he noticed the fear present in the fox's blue eyes as he looked up at the echidna.
"W-Why's it matter to you? I thought you didn't care…" Tails responded, feigning the anger he'd often expressed to the echidna. Truth was, the fox was still wondering about what Knuckles thought of him, especially on account of the echidna saving his life not too long ago.
"You just look like you've got something on your mind."
Tails sighed, he wasn't even sure talking to Knuckles was a good idea, but it seemed that he genuinely wanted to help. Maybe he could trust the echidna. "It's just… I have these nightmares… About my mom and…"
The echidna sat next to the kit, who was having some difficulty keeping the emotions that always came with these memories at bay.
"It's all my fault…" Tails sobbed, "If I just hadn't lost control the way I did I…"
"What was she like?" Knuckles asked, trying his best to help the fox take his mind off of the guilt that had consumed his thoughts.
"She just… She was just amazing… My mom did so much for me, she didn't care that I was a monster… I was still her kid…"
The fox removed the headband that covered his third eye, holding it in his hand and simply looking it over in contemplation as he continued, "She taught me how to deal with everything that comes with being half Nightstalker… How to hide what I was… Deal with whatever hunting urges I got… We both learned together, but she just did so much so that I could be safe… I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for her…"
"Was she the one that taught you how to talk to Nightstalkers?"
"No, I've always known that…" The fox answered, finally getting a hold of his emotions. Knuckles getting him to focus more on the good parts seemed to be working. "It's always been something I could just do, I never had to learn it or anything, even when I was really young I could still speak it decently. It's a weird language… You can't write anything in it, we tried to see if that was even possible, but it just doesn't work…"
"Well, it's interesting to say the least, not to mention helpful."
"Yeah…" Tails responded, the two mobians sat in silence for a bit before he spoke again. "Knuckles I'm… I'm sorry… I'm sorry for just being mad at you. I know you didn't mean what you said."
"No it's my fault, I'm sorry for what I said about you, and for what it's worth, you're a good kid."
"Thanks for saving my life back there as well…"
"Don't mention it." The echidna replied, "Now get some sleep, it's going to be a long day tomorrow."
Tails nodded, replacing his headband as Knuckles returned to his post at the mouth of the cave, it wasn't long before the fox fell once again into a deep peaceful sleep, leaving the echidna alone with his thoughts once more until morning…
Alright everyone, that's all for this update, a bit slower of a chapter but we'll get to some more exciting things soon! Leave a review with your thoughts and I'll see you all next chapter!
