Chapter 28: Day 27: Aleena's Guilt.

Sonic was in his room, fast asleep late at night, when he suddenly felt someone shaking him.

"Sonic." said a voice. Sonic stirred, but didn't wake.

"Sonic." said the voice again. Once again, he stirred, but didn't wake up. The voice sighed before a hand held a chili dog under his nose. Sonic's nose started wiggling as he sniffed before he opened his eyes a little and shot awake at seeing the chili dog. He grabbed it and downed it like Scooby-Doo.

"Good morning, honey." said Aleena, who was the aforementioned voice, as he looked at her and she smiled at him.

"Morning, Mom." Sonic said with a yawn. As he looked back at her, he saw Sonia, Manic and Sam outside his door.

"What's up, sibs?" Sonic asked. The other three hedgehogs shrugged. Aleena smiled as she walked out of Sonic's room with Sonic following her.

"Come downstairs. I have a surprise for all of you." Aleena said before she hurried downstairs. Sonic and his siblings followed her to the dining room. Aleena opened the doors and Sonic and his siblings gasped at seeing a huge array of desserts. Ice cream, cakes, pies, fudge, chocolate, and muffins as far as the dining table would stretch. "Woah." was all Aleena's children could say as she walked over to them with a smile and kneeled down.

"Go on and dig in, my children. This is all for you." she said.

Sonic smiled at her and said, "Thanks, Mom, but our birthday isn't for another month."

Aleena smiled a sad smile before she said, "I know. This is an apology to you and Sonia and Manic."

"What for? You haven't done anything, Ma." Manic said.

Aleena shook her head before she said, "I did. After I had to give you three up, I was constantly on the run, not just from Robotnik, but also from you three." At this point, Aleena had tears pooling in her eyes. Her children looked at her in worry as she continued.

"I was worried that if I reunited with you before the time was right, something terrible would happen to you. That's why you kept failing to reunite with me despite all you did. It tore me apart every time I had to flee from you. I'm so sorry, Sonic, Sonia and Manic. If I could have done something about it, I would have." Aleena said before she covered her eyes and started crying, tears falling down onto the floor. Sonic walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him.

"Mom, listen, we understand. It wasn't your fault that you were on the run from us, it was Robotnik's. We know you were just trying to protect us, even if we didn't understand our constant failures. Those were on us, we didn't know you were worried about our lives. If anyone's to blame, it's us." Sonic said, Manic and Sonia nodding.

Aleena smiled before she said, "Thank you, my children. I love you so much." and stood up before giving them all a hug. The 4 hedgehogs smiled before hugging her back.

"Now, who's ready for dessert?" Aleena asked.

"YEAH!" her children cheered before they walked over to the table and began to eat. By the time they were finished, their stomachs were full.

"Ah, delicious." Sonia sighed as Sonic cleaned his teeth with a toothpick.

"I couldn't eat another bite." Sam said as Manic burped.

"Pardon." Manic said.

Aleena smiled, "Glad you liked it, my children."