Sparkling blue eyes that matched crystal oceans flickered to look at the taller, older figure standing before him with his back towards him. Royal cobalt blue quills brushed down moved gently, swaying back and forth from the wind as he stood still, arms drawn up into a fighting stance with a foot stepped behind him and a cocky grin on his lips that he knew was there. It always was. He hated it.

The owner of the blue eyes, a sunshine yellow fox with two tails stared worryingly at his brother who stood in front of him carefully and cautiously ready to strike out an attack at the enemies surrounding them. His brother took a brief glance behind him, his emerald hues meeting blue whilst flashing a quick smile to the fox. "I've got this under control! Just stay back so ya don't get hurt 'kay?"

"But- I-" The child didn't get to finish as his brother ran forward and instantly spin dashing in the air, cutting through the metal badniks belonging to their enemy Eggman with his sharp long quills. Though said enemy wasn't here with them, these were only robots patrolling Green Hill that happened to find them walking through the grassy plains enjoying the crisp fresh air and lovely sights of fields filled with colorful flowers. The boy went by the name of Tails due to his two twin namesakes that he could use to fly. "I want to help..." He uttered weakly, knowing that Sonic wouldn't hear him through the sounds of battle filling the air. "I can help."

When the dust settled in the air both figuratively and literally, Tails watched around fifteen or so metal badniks fall apart into useless scraps with tiny sparks emitting from their frames and dark smoke wafting up into the air when he could finally see Sonic dusting himself off, an overconfident grin tugging at his lips as he gave Tails a thumbs up as if that would make up for leaving Tails behind like that. Again.

Frustration gripped at his chest causing him to clench his fists tightly, lock his jaw while grinding his teeth, his fur became ruffled and out of place as he could feel the vexation grow because of Sonic. It was patronizing, Sonic never let him help. Sonic never ever stopped to allow Tails to help at all, he treated him like a helpless child and Tails hated it.

Tails has contributed much over the years, he has proven himself worthy to be seen capable of capable, independent and a viable part of aid. Yet Sonic never saw that, he only saw Tails as the kid who couldn't take care of himself. This was one of the first of many similar memories drifting through the kitsune's mind that all surrounded around him and Sonic.

Days where Sonic had to save the day and treat Tails as a civilian who needed protection but the fox didn't need nor want to be protected. No, he could handle the chaos. It was just the problem of his brother, he was capable but he wasn't mature about it. Another thing that bothered Tails so, was that Sonic didn't or couldn't take things seriously. As a hero Sonic is a role model, people expect many great things from him so he should mess that up by goofing off or other silly things like that. At least, that's what Tails thought in his mind.

. . .

. . .

Amy stared down the commander of G.U.N. with defiant jade eyes, barely trembling with fear from the human. Separating the two was a heavy set of bars, the commander stood on the free side while Amy glared from the imprisoned side.

"You can't keep me here like this. I did nothing wrong-" The pink hedgehog was cut off from her whining by the commander after he sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers, with a scowl on his face.

"You bit and scratched two workers as an escape attempt. A poor attempt might I add. We have every right to keep you locked up in a cell, your evaluation results have proven how unstable you are. And you proved that with your little stunt, it's worrying how you can't see that."

"I just want to be with my Sonic." Amy pleaded. "The one you should be worrying about isn't me, it's that freak Shadow!"

"Agent Shadow? A word of advice, Ms Rose. Don't speak ill of one of my best agents, it won't bode well for your case." The warning was clear in the man's voice, yet Amy shook her head. Stalking closer to the bars Amy glowered at the military official.

"But he is a freak! And he's corrupting Sonic! I can prove it! Shadow is just as bad as he was back when those ugly Black Arm aliens invaded, he's trying to use Sonic!"

The commander was known to be brash and bold with his decisions, there was a time when he despised Shadow's very existence but now that things have been cleared up and secrets were revealed he knew now not to be so hasty with the pink hedgehog's opinionated declarations. The human could feel another growing headache coming on so he came up with a quick solution.

"Right. Then I'll have an 'agent' come and listen to what evidence you have." He told her, Amy perked up quickly, losing her glare and not noticing what his words truly meant. By agent, he means have one of his medics who weren't afraid of the girl give her another mental evaluation. Amy thanked him while the human only nodded before walking out of the cell barracks making his way straight to his office to pour himself another glass of whiskey. Dealing with the delusional whining girl had wore his patience down so much. 'I'll be sure to make agent Rouge aware of her escape attempt. But after my drink.'

. . .

Knuckles paced forwards then turned on his heels to pace in the opposite direction, with him was Rouge who could only watch him continue pacing. She'd rather have him pace like this until he could become calm and not storm into Tail's lab and strangle the kitsune teen into oblivion. But with Rouge's insistence he hasn't done that...yet at least. His footprints were embedded in the wet earth from the rain that has ceased it's storming, which led to mud staining his shoes but he could care less about simple shoes.

He had bigger matters to take care of, like his best friend Sonic and his emotional mental well-being. The strains of being a hero weighing his friend down more than he could've thought. The guilt built up in Knuckles thinking about Sonic, he could've helped his friend, he didn't see the little signs he left and now he was more than a little hurt to the point where he was seeking comfort from Shadow of all people. Don't get him wrong, Knuckles is sure Shadow is an okay guy after you get past his impossible to break through walls, but even if he said he would he was having a hard time trusting the ebony hedgehog. Never in a million years did he think Sonic would chose Shadow as a...romantic companion, when he tried confronting Shadow about that the older hedgie looked genuinely lost as if he didn't know what Knuckles was talking about. While Knuckles mused his thoughts to himself Rouge brought him back to reality.

"Hon, he doesn't want us to hurt him. He only wants us to calmly bring him back." Rouge restated while gently tugging the echidna's hand, gripping onto it with both of her hands. Knuckles stopped pacing at the contact, the guardian of the master emerald let out a frustrated sigh as he grumbled.

"That brat deserves a butt-kicking from his behavior lately. He's the reason why Amy even knew where Sonic was. I'm not as forgiving as Sonic is, I don't know what was going through his mind to even think of forgiving Tails." That was a lie of course, he does know why Sonic was so quick to forgive the two-tailed fox after Knuckles explained how Amy found him, and not just that. He was his brother in all but blood, he was willing to put the kitsune's attitude behind him just so he could have his brother back. Even after being hurt time after time Sonic still had a heart of gold.

"Oh I agree, he's not the same fox we know from before. People change, for better or worse. If anything, I bet Blue wants to tell Tails everything, who knows that might make the kid actually think outside of his mind and ego." The echidna stopped his grumbling after taking in Rouge's words. As much as he would like to teach Tails a lesson with his own white mitts, he didn't want to go against Sonic's wish to have Tails brought to him safely.

"If I admit you're right am I allowed to get the brat then?" Rouge smiled, her teal eyes lighting up, black wings fluttering behind her as she pressed her lips against Knuckles cheek causing the guardian to turn as red as his fur. Now that Knuckles was back he and Rouge had a heart to heart talk about where their budding friendship had grown into a more romantic one, the two having decided to take it slow.

"Yes dear." Was the ivory bat's only answer before the two treasure hunters made their way hand in hand into the home of their friends to bring a reluctant Tails back into Rouge and Shadow's home.

Knuckles led Rouge inside the house, making a direct bee-line straight into Tails' lab, it was the most logical spot in where to find the teen most often staying at. And find him they did, the fox wasn't aware of their presence as he was absorbed in typing in different lines of code into a laptop most likely belonging to him. His lab was cluttered with scraps of metal, different kinds of tools scattered around and inventions plus gadgets lying amongst the desks he had standing in different corners of the room. Rouge having not seen the teen for a long time could instantly tell that Tails hadn't only changed in personality but physically as well. He was much more taller, more slimmer with golden yellow fur, his two tails much longer and his fur being more sleek. The bat was growing impatient so she cleared her throat loudly which resulted in Tails being aware of them standing near the doorway. He momentarily spun around in his swivel seat, pausing in his typing to get a proper look at the two.

"What are you two doing here? I'm kinda busy at the moment." Tails gave them no chance to even explain why they were there, he was about to turn back around only to have Rouge pull his chair away from the laptop, "Hey knock that off, I'm being serious!" His complaining fell on deaf ears after Rouge began to speak, still pulling on the chair leading it almost out the doors until Tails hopped off to give her an incredulous look.

"Come on kid, we've got serious business to discuss back at my place. Sonic's there waiting for you."

"Can't it wait? I've got-"

"Nope! Now let's going shall we?" A rhetorical question of course. Her persistence made Tails groan and huff in annoyance, "Fine. I'll go. This better be good."

"Oh it is." Rouge told him with a serious look as she led the three out of the house and well on their way back to her home. The teen could sense something was happening as he complained less until eventually becoming silent altogether. He tailed behind the hand holding couple with a frown on his face as he tried to come up with an explanation as to why these two even wanted him to go with them to meet up with Sonic. He could be doing better things like fixing up inventions to sell off for more rings, it was his favorite occupation at the moment.

Major oof on my part. I coulda sworn I updated days ago until I went to check up on the story and I saw this wasn't up. I apologize for this and hope this chapter was okay. Shads and Sonic aren't in this chapter for important reasons, the focus is more on the others while keeping them around still. I didn't want to move Knuckles and Rouge together too fast, they'll be slowly moving along. Did ya like the memory of Tails in the beginning?

SunSera: Many thanks for your reviews, and to answer your questions. No it's not dark Sonic, as much of an interesting/frighteningly cool character he is he won't appear in this story. I just very much like the idea of chaos roaming amongst the Sonic characters and how chaos reacts based on raw emotions which make the chaos energy in them unstable or crazy. For the spoilers sorry about that, the more I thought about it I can see it kinda ruins the story.

As always I love you readers so much and I always love to hear what you have to say or think on my story. Thanks for the support everybody!