Awaking in the morning, Soni pulled herself out of Knuckles entanglement and looked out the window to see gentle snow falling on an already covered ground, she glanced around the corner to see a dark vehicle speeding up to the Chaotix building. Soni panicked and flipped backwards, on her fall down she grabbed Knuckles accidently and pulled his sleeping figure off the bed with her. There was commotion outside the front of the building which had woken up Vector in a frenzy, he stomped out to the door and raised his voice at the people outside, Soni's publicist had told Vector to tell Soni that the court date had been expedited to the 14th. It was set to be a one and done trial, whatever the verdict, would be the final curtain call on other side. Many of the news writers wanted details on what they were gonna do to Shadow and what was gonna happen to the band, but, Vector made them all leave as he didn't want to deal with this so early in the morning. Slamming the door shut Vector slithered back to bed. Soni wrapped herself around Knuckles kissing his now beaten up head from pulling him off the bed, but she passed the news of the commotion onto Knuckles, already a court date and it wasn't going to be a long trial. Soni whined that it was on Valentines day and she wasn't going to have it with Knuckles, but, he said they'll have many more in the future to enjoy. Soni went downstairs with Knuckles to indulge in some breakfast with the group and talk about what was going to happen. The Chaotix weren't lawyers but they were going to have to defend her in court even if they had to get some help, they had all the officially checked DNA evidence, audio and video evidence there was no way she would lose the case.
A knock on Shadow's door. He started packing up to leave, escape the hammer that was going to be brought upon him, but, it was too late. The police barged in and pinned him to the floor, cuffing him and telling him his rights, he was to be in custody of law enforcement until his court date. The news was constantly showing Soni's interview and people talking over it, agreeing with her and hoping she gets her wish, people saying that Shadow is horrible for his actions etc. It bothered Shadow to no end but, he was actually fearful of what was going to happen to him, but he felt he was safe, Soni wouldn't want him to live a terrible life, she was too nice and too much of a pushover for her to put that on him. Shadow had his own lawyer but even the best of the best wasn't going to be able to spare him and if he did it would only be a shorter sentence. Shadow kept blind trust in his former love Soni, she wasn't going to confess everything like that, she was too soft spoken and kind plus she had no evidence of anything that happened to her other than being locked away. Although...Who was going to believe her? Shadow had already destroyed her hope and confidence at least in his eyes, that girl was weak and mindless at this point the court case might as well be dropped. Shadow sat back and watched the news and all the people outside the police station trying to break through the police doors and question Shadow on everything happening. He scoffed at the situation and laid back in his cell, after all, to him, what did he need to worry about?
After breakfast Soni offered for the group to take a day out of the office and do something nice for themselves for all their hard work, she handed her credit card to Knuckles with a soft smile, she really only trusted him to not lose it. The Chaotix wanted her to go with but she politely declined, after all, this was for THEIR hard work, not hers. The hyper ones of the group got up and started getting ready for the day out while the calmer ones began questioning Soni's choices, she justifies herself by saying she knows they cooped themselves up in the building for quite sometime and needs to leave for the day. They all geared up to get out to the mall and arcade per what they planned from Soni, Soni laughed at their excitement and wished them all a wonderful day out, Knuckles gently kissed Soni on the lips and said his goodbyes too. Before he walked out the door he asked that Soni don't leave the house for anything, Soni agrees and makes a promise to not leave as she had plans of her own while they were out. Knuckles wanted to question his blue babe but, he trusted her to not do anything reckless in his absence. Knuckles got in the van with the others and headed off, Soni waved at them through the window and turned around to start her plan. Soni pulled her quills back with a headband she kept spare there since last year, put on some spare clothes she hid in Knuckles room and headed for the back door, swinging it open she brought in a bunch of cleaning supplies that look like they were secretly dropped off at the back along she brought in some cans of paint and what looked like giant sheets of decals. Soni also brought in packs of blinds and curtains, rolls of area rugs and plenty of new pillows and blankets, now she had to get to work although bringing all this in on her own exhausted her enough, she wasn't use to being this thin and basically without muscle. Soni went around the house and checked every room for their current living space and most were trashed, even Knuckles room was messy from him just throwing things onto the floor and never putting things away. Soni went through each room and pulled all the sheets, blankets and pillows off the beds, then taking down all the curtains and pulling out the old dingy rugs, they didn't look like they put money into anything other than their own beds and the couch downstairs. Soni knew they didn't make a whole lot of money cause most people saw their dynamic as unproductive and lazy but, she knew they were hard workers through and through, after all they did save her!
Soni cleared out the rooms and took everything to a very large laundry room, she got out the soap and started the first load, of which the water got dark from the filth within their sheets. They really needed a woman's touch to survive in this world. While the laundry was running Soni continued around the house pulling down more curtains and taking down destroyed blinds, rolling up nasty filthy rugs and tossing then out the back door. Soni had her work cut out for her, she set up trash bags in each room, pulled things out and began sweeping the hardwood floors all over the house. Next she moved onto scrubbing down the walls and cleaning the fridge, it was filled with so much old food its a wonder they haven't gotten sick from it. Soni cleaned all the dishes and reorganized them as she put them away, she scrubbed clean the the appliances that never got used unless from her, the walls were almost a new color from cleaning them and now the floors were to be steam cleaned and polished. The kitchen was spotless, the new valances and café curtains were up and now she was onto the dining room, she scrubbed and treated the floors, laid down some runners with some grips so no one would slip, she cleaned up the nasty table and hung up new curtains that made the room pop. "Another room finished!" Soni thought to herself. Now, to continue laundry and work on the rooms upstairs, switching over the laundry and hanging things up to dry Soni carried the new sheets upstairs and began with Vector and Mighty's room. So much trash. So much old food. Soni felt sick to her stomach but she had to continue here, she popped open the window, which, looked like it hadn't been opened in years, just so she could breath better. Soni pulled everything out and threw away what felt like pounds of nasty trash, she scrubbed the floors and laid down a new area rug that would help drown out the sound in their room. Hanging up new blinds and curtains, laying out new bed sets Soni left the room and moved onto the other three. The repeated action of scrub this and clean that along with new curtains and bed sets kept Soni busy for a few hours time.
6 hours since they left. No word from Knuckles on their return. More time to work. Soni pressed on with laundry constantly folding and hanging stuff up to dry she was getting worn pretty thin, she finished the rooms and headed to the living room which was the worst of all. Food stains all over the couch, food clumps caked all over the room, crumbs embedded everywhere, the rug ripped up and the couch included. The TV stand was even busted all up the TV too, Soni made a phone call to Honey to bring a new stand and huge TV with the works, she wanted to fill the stand with plenty of games especially for the younger ones. While she waited she faced her toughest task yet, she scrubbed the walls and floors clear, rolled up the smelly nasty rug, polishing the floors and mini table. Soni threw all the trash out back and went to work on the couch, vacuuming up all the crumbs and taking to sewing up all the tears in the furniture to make it look brand new. Soni added blankets on the back to make it more homey then came the drop off of the stand and new TV after the drop they picked up all the trash, Soni thanked them from the window and went out to bring everything in. Soni removed the old stand and TV and installed the new set including the game systems, she laid down the new rug and with it the living room was finally complete. Soni made her way back to the laundry room to finish the last little bit of folding before taking everything to the empty closet to put everything away, Soni moved to the front space and looked at the challenge ahead, she could only do so much before she would collapse from the stress. Soni wiped the windows inside and out, dusted and swept the room, she scrubbed the floors and counters and put up the decals on the window but covered it with a white sheet so they couldn't see the surprise. That was it. Soni couldn't press on. She moseyed upstairs to the bathroom and took a nice hot shower, while in the shower Knuckles texted her back saying they were on the way back. Soni got out and slipped into a pair of Knuckles boxers and went to his room to finish drying off but soon passed out asleep on his nice new sheets, it was pretty late and they were out all day while she cleaned from dawn to dusk.