35 - The War Is Lost

When Shadow and Scourge clashed for the final time, the impact blew them both away. The impact was so large, the entire city was nearly cleaned off of the planet. Both hedgehogs twisted their bodies in the air so that they would land on their feet. Shadow landed with wobbly legs, and a once again weakened body. That was a lot of power he just used, and he could feel Dark Sonic and his lover losing their power as well. His regeneration was taking even slower to effect him, and that wasn't good. He could feel that the transformation was going to fail very soon.

Scourge landed on his feet with more grace. He was panting, and he looked frustrated. He had to have been tired just as well. Scratches and cuts on their faces and bodies, blood dripping from their wounds. They were both at their limit, but they both refused to stand down. That was until Shadow's knees buckled, causing him to kneel down involuntarily with a grunt. Scourge stared at the ultimate life form with great hatred and jealousy, wishing nothing but death and misery on his head. With a lengthy silence, Shadow slowly lifted his head to glower Scourge right in the eye.

"You'll never have him." He murmured, but he knew damn well Scourge could hear him.

Scourge raised a brow. "Say what now?"

"You," Shadow struggled to stand back up. He was way too weak to fight anymore, he could feel Sonic and Dark Sonic's influences fading from his head. "You will never, ever have Sonic. Ngh...!" Before Scourge's eyes, a dark glow emanated from Shadow's body. It grew, and spread out all over his form. Two forms phased from out of his figure, separating themselves from him permanently. A black being made completely of dark matter instantly disappeared into black embers the second he made contact with the world. As for the other person, it was his beloved blue hedgehog, Sonic. He was out of breath, laying on the ground with sweat beading all over his body. He was back to his cobalt blue self, the dark spirit completely absent. Shadow's black and bright red striped fur returned, that negative aura no longer surrounding him.

Shadow collapsed onto the ground alongside him, closing his eyes tightly as he fought to stay conscious. All that power put too much of a strain on his body, and both hedgehogs were on their last leg. He moved his head against the ground, to try and look over at his lover. Sonic was also in dire pain, as he had never fused with both his own super form any another person before. He could barely keep his eyes open, he's been through so much today. Shadow almost smiled, he was still so beautiful even now. At the very least, they would perish together.

"Too many people," Shadow weakly croaked. "Are willing to die for him. Willing to stand in your way, to protect him from a monster like you."

A cruel sneer swept across Scourge's face. "Willing to die for him? You must love him almost as much as I do." Almost as much? That was perhaps the most scathing insult he's ever given him, Shadow thought. "And if you're willing to die for him that much," Hi anti-double summoned a new spiked bat into his palm. "I'll happily send you to an early grave." He slowly stepped in front of Shadow's body. "Say hi to my dad for me in hell. Oh wait," Scourge chuckled. "Fake people like you don't get to have a hell or a heaven, because you're not real." He then frowned deeply. "You're just a fake-ass excuse of organic life. All you'll see when you die, is nothing."

"S-Scourge," Sonic hissed as he tried to sit up, and he instantly fell right back down on his face. "Scourge, don't.." He whispered as he tried to push his body up from the ground again.

"Blue," His green evil twin stressed. "I'm not gonna listen to you."

"Please, don't do this." Sonic begged with desperation. "Come on, please," He said. "I'm begging you, don't kill him."

With a roll of his eyes and a heavy sigh, he glanced at Sonic with his bat still raised in the air. "Why?"

"Because I love him-" He flinched when Scourge moved to swing. "N-No! Wait!" He saw Scourge pause, and glared at Sonic with anger. "Just, listen to me. I'll...I..." Sonic stammered. He didn't know what to say next.

"You'll what?" Scourge growled. "Give yourself up and let me take you to my castle? Sacrifice yourself for your hubby in the name of loooove?" He lowered his bat and turned completely around to face Sonic.

"Yes!" Sonic cried. He somehow mustered up the last of his strength to push himself up off of the ground and stand up on stumbling feet. He almost fell over, but he tried his best to keep still to negotiate. "Just take me, and leave everyone else alone. You just want me, don't you? So just take me, don't kill Zonic and don't kill Shadow!" He closed his eyes, as he couldn't believe he was saying this. "I'll let you do whatever you want to me. Anything."

Now that, perked Scourge's interests. The green hedgehog narrowed his eyes and put a hand on his hip. "Anything, huh? So you'd let me take you away and, do whatever I want to you? To your body? To your mind?" He as going to take a step closer, but he felt something hold him back. He sucked his teeth and looked down below to see Shadow gripping his ankle.

Sonic tried his best to keep Scourge's attention off of Shadow. "Ignore him, just look at me!" Sonic desperately said. "I mean it, you can do whatever! You could, you could mind control me, you could hurt me, you could do whatever you want. Just don't touch Shadow!"

"You'd let me fuck you too?" Scourge asked with a tilt of his head. He felt the grip on his ankle tighten ten fold. "Without the mind controlling? Right in front of Stripes?"

"Yes." Sonic replied without hesitation, making Shadow's eyes widen.

Scourge felt the grip on his ankle loosen completely, and the green one started to snicker. "Are you for real right now?"

"Yes!"

"Heheheh," Scourge laughed harder. "You're lying straight through your teeth and giving me what I want to hear. Funny thing is, I know you're playing me, but seeing Stripe's distraught lookin' face down here," He pointed with his bat to Shadow, who stared at nothing as he laid on the ground. "Was very worth it." So in other words, Scourge wasn't buying that. Sonic cursed to himself and clenched his eyes shut, this really was it. "You gotta understand something." He said, making Sonic slowly open his eyes back to him. "I made a name for myself so that you couldn't call me just an 'evil twin'." That's right, he was more than that, he was a monster. "No matter how much you beg, no matter how many people I have to kill, I will never stop." He shrugged with a smile. "And there ain't a damn thing you can do about it, Blue. I'm just trying to help you."

"With what?" Sonic asked. "What do you want from me?"

"Something that'll take days, maybe even weeks to explain." Scourge nonchalantly said while digging up his nose with his pinky. "Not worth talking about it. Instead, I'm taking you to my castle just like you promised me." He held up a finger and shook it back and forth with a smirk. "But," He turned to Shadow with an evil expression. "Not without wasting this bragging prick first."

"H-Huh? No! Scourge, you can't-!"

"No exceptions, Stripes!" Scourge grinned malevolently as he held up the bat high, right above Shadow's skull. "Get ready to die!" He yelled.

Sonic tried to run to him with his hand out stretched. "NO!"

Scourge brought down the spiked bat down upon Shadow's head, Sonic's hand reaching out to stop his evil twin was in vain, until something hopelessly unpredictable happened right then and there. A looming shadow stretched across all three hedgehogs, making Scourge cease at the very last moment. Sonic stopped as well, and did the same. Why did he suddenly stop? Slowly glancing at each other, as if they both new something wasn't right, they slowly turned their heads and looked up into the sky where the shadow emerged. The blimp was there. Why was the blimp there, right above them? Then, they both heard extremely loud noises, and a planet trembling tremor. They turned in the distance, in the direction of the HQ's tower. It was moving and shifting again, the ultimate weapon preparing yet another attack.

A missile would shoot from it's structure, it would be heading directly their way. Before they could even move or react, they both had the sudden instinct to look back up directly above them. Something was dropping down at high speeds from that blimp, heading straight for them. Sonic was fine, but Scourge shouldn't have looked at all.

Because when he did, a black military boot landed right onto his face.

Sonic's eyes were as big as saucer pans by now, and he was pretty sure his jaw was dropped. Everything he was feeling, his fear, his desperation, even his own physical pain from chaotic strain was just thrown immediately out of the window. Because just now, his blue twin dropped down from the blimp, and drop kicked Scourge directly in his face. Landing boot first, square, in his face. The green hedgehog was so flabbergasted by the events progressing around him all at once, that he couldn't even move from Zonic's sudden drop down. With speed and momentum becoming Zonic's deadly allies, the drop kick was more devastating than the green hedgehog could handle.

Scourge's bat flew from his hand, his head painfully twisting to the side and his body flinging backwards into the ground. When Scourge roughly landed, his body made a few rolls before eventually stopping, laying on his side in silence. After blinking several times to make sure this wasn't a dream, Sonic picked up his jaw and glanced over at his twin. Did he really just do-Holy crap. Sonic instantly froze, Zonic looked freaking irate. That's the angriest he's ever seen him. He looked so wrathful, he himself took a few steps back to get some space away from him. Zonic's face was darkened, but it didn't hide his piercing, now bright green eyes. His fanged clenching teeth, his slightly trembling posture. He was shaking because his nerves were on fire from how furious he was.

And without another minute wasted, his anti-double got right back up on his feet while rubbing his nose and mouth. They both were bleeding. Scourge looked angry as well, at first. "Who the fuck-" Then he realized who was walking towards him with a very livid glower. The look on Zonic's face was terrifying, Scourge even flinched and immediately shut his mouth while backing away. "W-Woah." He mused with some fear. He smiled nervously while continuing to move backwards. Zonic would not stop coming closer, and Sonic couldn't even say anything to stop him. Rather, he wouldn't. "No need to look like that, okay? We were just wrapping things up-"

"Ogilvie..." He whispered in the greatest and most poisonous venom he could muster.

"Holy fuck," Scourge started to move faster, but so did Zonic. "You are actually really scary right now-Yo, could you stop coming closer to me please? WOAH!" The anti double yelped as he dodged a right hook. "Fucking chill out-Sweet Christ, will you stop!?" He cried as he continued dodging punches and kicks. That's when Scourge fully turned around and move to sprint away from his former prison guard. "Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it...!" He whined while covering his head with his hands in fear of being hit. A good part of him was still treating this like a game, Sonic noticed as his twin calmly chased his anti-double while speed walking. This is the most serious Zonic's ever been, and if Scourge didn't take this earnestly, he was going to- "Oh shit-!" -Regret it. Zonic had leaped and tackled the green hedgehog down.

Again, extremely surprising considering Zonic was the one doing this. The commander snarled and gave a good left hook to Scourge's jaw. The green hedgehog tried punching him to get him off, but Zonic just...He just wasn't even phased by it. As if he never hit him at all, the lieutenant general just continued to punch the Moebian over and over, every swing of his fist making him grunt with both anger and strength. Scourge tried to wrestle Zonic off, and he even managed to kick him in the abdomen to get him to move back a bit, but this only worked for so long. Just as Scourge moved to crawl backwards, Zonic immediately reached down to seize his ankle and yanked him back to where he was. As his twin continued to brawl with his anti-self, Sonic's jaw slowly started dropping again. Was this really happening right now?

His Zonic was no brawler, not at all. Not even at his angriest. He didn't fight like that, he didn't fight thugs like a street grappler. But here he was, giving his anti-self some of the worst damage he's gotten all day. Apparently, Zonic's punches were so strong, it was enough to get Scourge stunned and even genuinely frightful. Even fused with a super form and a Chaos born, Shadow was still no match for Scourge. Granted, Zonic may only be getting good hits in because Scourge was tired now, but still. He was wrecking him.

Growing increasingly irritated by Zonic's violence, Scourge growled and began to develop some power in his hand. He also stared Zonic right in the eye, ready to mind control the commander. However, it didn't work. He was starting to panic, why couldn't he control him? Another punch in the face with a rough shove onto the ground cut off his train of thought. Zonic used his thumb to jab some blood off of his own lip from the previous hit Scourge somehow managed to hit him with earlier. "I've awoken my own ability to use chaos." He said, shocking both his twin and Scourge.

"You're fucking lying." Scourge murmured. "There is no Overseer in history, who can use chaos as freely as we can!" He yelled while shoving a double kick into Zonic's chest to knock him off again. This time, it worked. "That's," He stammered as he quickly stood up and backed away. "That's impossible, you're not meant to have that much chaos power!"

"That much? I didn't even know I had the ability to use it at all," Zonic admitted as he got right back up and dusted himself off. And once he did, he continued to walk towards Scourge all over again. "Until I woke myself up from Dark Sonic's Dark Coffin. While I am obviously still ignorant to the Divine Spirits' ways, I've a lot of studying to do when I return to home." He held up his hands and slammed his fist into the other. He cracked his knuckles before wringing them out and flexing his fingers. "But as for now," He said with a gravely dangerous tone. "That ability of yours no longer works on me at the moment. I presume that when you're tired like this, it's not strong enough to penetrate the mind of a chaos user. Either that, or you're too scared of me to use it properly."

A vein developed on Scourge's face. "Bastard," He hissed. "As if I'd ever be scared of one of you again!" He stopped moving backwards, but he shouldn't have. Zonic began sprinting, leading a royal blue streak behind him. Scourge was stunned at how fast he was moving, it was almost as if he teleported.

"You shouldn't have stopped running Ogilvie!" Zonic announced before charging another painful jab into his stomach. It knocked all the wind out of his system, making Scourge's knees buckle with a strangling gasp.

"W-Wha-" Scourge couldn't believe this. Once he fell onto his knees, Zonic stepped behind him and yanked him back up on his feet. He had his arms pulled behind his back, painfully in a submissive position. "A-Ah...! Fucking stop!" He winced.

"Screw your chaos abilities," Zonic spat. "You're mine now, and I will never let you escape from me again!" He furiously yelled as he pulled his arm even more, threatening to break his limbs. Scourge's pain tolerance was high, but he could still very much feel that.

"...!"

"You're a murderer, a thief, a rapist-"

"T-The rape allegations aren't true and you fucking know it! They raped me-!"

"Are you joking!?" Zonic hollered into his ear with the upmost amount of rage. He twisted the green hedgehog's arm completely behind his back a cringe worthy crack echoing throughout the ruined city. Sonic winced and turned away quickly. "Does it matter?! You're a damn monster! My superior is in a coma, around two thousand of my men are dead, my boss has broken bones, my champion was nearly killed, and you destroyed my damn city! Sonic prime's home is a barren wasteland because of you. Thanks to you, I failed my job as his Overseer!"

"Motherfucker, you were my Overseer too! You did this to me! You failed me!"

Zonic's green eyes were shrunken with animalistic pupils. "Not anymore, I'm not. You are the worst living creature alive, and you deserve the worst punishment imaginable Ogilvie!"

Through his grinding teeth as he tried ignoring the pain of his now broken arm, Scourge angrily tried shoving Zonic off of him, but it was no use. "Capital punishment's one of the reasons why I became a monster in the first place, you son of a bitch! Don't you idiots ever learn?!"

"And though that may be true," Zonic kicked Scourge in the back to force him down to one knee. "It's far too late to show mercy as of now! You're finished!" He wrapped one of his arms around Scourge's throat, and continued to force his body down with his own knee pushing into his spine. With this tight hold, Zonic was now able to use his other arm freely, holding it up to his collar to press in his transmitter. "Zector, Zespio, it's time!" He then quickly glanced over to Sonic, making grunt as he made small struggles to keep Scourge down onto the ground. "Sonic prime, retrieve Shadow prime immediately."

With a startled yelp, Sonic nodded quickly. "U-Uh, okay!" He cautiously jogged over to Shadow, still with shaky legs, and used what little energy he had left to help him up off of the ground. He managed to get the biohog to slump against his shoulder, limping with him away from the violent scene. The looming shadow of the blimp was still very much above them, and more people dropped down. First Zector, then Zespio. Those shoes of theirs must have been great for long falls, because their legs should have been broken from impact after dropping from that distance. Once the commander's elites landed, more people dropped down. High ranking soldiers that he remembered from the battle field, now covered head to toe with gauze or bandages, rushing in with medical supplies. They immediately ran to Sonic and Shadow's side, doing the best they could to tend to their wounds while calling in for back up on their own built in transmitters.

Zespio was doing the same, only he was giving orders to HQ for something else. "Launch it now!"

Zector pointed for the others to move out of the way. "Get some distance!"

With Shadow falling in and out of consciousness, he slowly looked up from all of the yelling and commotion, turning to his partner who was helping him move along with the rest of Zonic's medical team. He looked just as confused as Sonic did. In the midst of havoc, a few patrol cars zoomed into the city directly to their location. Medical staff began to push Sonic and Shadow in to get them to escape, until the No Zone HQ tower began to move once again. A metal sleeping giant now awoken from it's slumber, it's structure altered and shifted, before launching yet another missile to the city. Sonic became shocked. "No way..." He whispered. They were going to shoot that missile into Scourge.

Chaos.

Scourge began to panic with shrunken eyes.

His power, where was it?! It was gone, why couldn't he use Fleetway!? Why did his body feel so sore all of a sudden? Why was this happening?!

Sonic and Shadow turned to look back over from several yards away at Zonic, who now had Scourge in a full nelson. Scourge couldn't get away, no matter how much he kicked and struggled. He couldn't use chaos energy, Zonic was putting his entire mojo in disarray. Though he didn't wear gauntlets, his own new found chaotic abilities were doing so without his knowledge, and it was screwing up Scourge's entire matrix. He was utterly vulnerable. He screamed and hollered curses, yelling for Zonic to piss off. Zector and Zespio ran to their side, and immediately got behind their boss. They both wrap themselves around both him and Scourge to keep the former inmate still. Even more surprise by what they were doing, Scourge immediately became extremely and uncharacteristically defensive. He didn't like so many people crowding up on him at once like this. "W-What the fuck are you doing!? Get off of me..!" He said in a rather flustered fashion.

That missile was heading closer, gaining even more speed as it moved and dove towards them. It's target in sight, Scourge. Sonic and Shadow watched in astonishment as the entire team of medical soldiers rushed from the couple's side and made their way to their commander. They all yelled orders to assist their lieutenant general, and one by one, they all wrapped themselves around Scourge and their boss to keep him from getting away. He wouldn't escape, he wouldn't move one inch. He'd take this attack by full force, with absolutely no protection.

"Stop it! Get off of me! Get off! Get off, get off GET OFF OF ME!" Scourge screamed to the heavens, his voice having hints of both fear and trauma.

The missile headed closer and closer, Sonic and Shadow watched every second of what happened next.

"Let me go...!" Scourge shook his body but could not move with all the arms and hands grabbing at him to keep him still. "What is this...!?"

The missile now right in front of the hedgehog, dived even lower, and made a direct hit into his stomach.

The force of the artillery was so strong, it knocked back every single person who was behind their commander to hold back Scourge. In an instant, a royal blue chaotic field surrounded both himself and the rest of his soldiers standing right behind him to hold Scourge back. They never let go, taking the brunt of the force just as well as Scourge, only not as intensely. Silently, Zonic could feel that the missile was just about to explode. "Move!" He shouted. All of his soldiers wasted no time to let go of each other and their leader to jump out of the way. Zespio moved out of the way as well, but not Zector. As the missile's nose dived into Scourge's stomach, Zonic let go of the former inmate and kicked him forward into the missile even more. Zector yanked his commander away from Scourge's doom and shielded him with his larger body while barrel rolling away from the upcoming blast. That chaotic force field around their commander disappeared.

An explosion erupted from within the city, along with a bright red light illuminating the planet.

All anyone could hear, was a painful scream from the anti-Sonic.

Once the smoke settled, drifting and fading into the skies. That red light from before had also vanished, but Scourge was still there. Only, his body was on the ground, battered and burned in some places. While the explosion wasn't big enough to destroy the entire city or even the block, it was still strong enough to kill anyone who was directly hit by it. Scourge definitely wasn't dead, but he was surely out cold. Sonic and Shadow may have been a good distance away, but the blast radius still pushed both them and the patrol cars back a bit. Some rubble even flew by them, to which they thankfully missed. From their distance, they saw Zonic's soldiers struggling to get back up. Fortunately, they managed to do so, and no one else was seriously hurt. They dusted burnt debris off of their clothing, coughing from the smoke they may have ingested from the explosion. Zonic was already standing, helping the colonel of his navy back on his feet as well. Zector's back was injured and burned from the explosion, but he was still okay. He gave a weak thumbs up to his commander, and even bowed in respect.

Soon, all of his men bowed just as well, before standing up straight and saluting confidently. Even with their comrades dead, even with all the loss and grief they've suffered through this battle, they were all still willing to die for their leader. Zonic's pure anger seemed to have diminished, as he watched all of his men surround him, and salute him with teary eyes. Even with their injuries, they would still move their bones to give their leader the upmost respect that he deserved. Zector looked down at his commander, watching him become shocked at their extreme act of loyalty. He couldn't even believe that they did that for him, willing to sacrifice themselves all for his sake. With a heavy heart, Zonic placed his hand on his heart and bowed back. A form of gratitude for all of their actions today.

Zespio turned to the side, pressing his fingers in his collar. "Did you get all that Miles prime?" He asked into the hidden transmitter. "It's finally over."

The blimp's screen flickered with some static, before revealing a yellow-orange fox's ecstatic face. Other Mobians crowded beside him, watching with excited and cheerful faces. "Are you kidding me? Of course we saw all that, that was freakin' awesome! Everyone was amazing!" The kitsune cried. Sonic's entire body stopped just to give his full attention to the flying aircraft. Sonic's breath was stuck in his throat once he heard his little brother's voice echo across the ruined city. His buddy was up there, they were able to connect him to the video screen. Sonic absentmindedly started to smile. Shadow weakly did the same, as he saw Rouge and the others. They saw the fox peer downwards on the screen, his smile growing even bigger. "You all did it, Sonic!" He waved, and the others greeted them with just as much excitement.

Rouge and Vanilla blew out huge sighs of relief, while Knuckles pounded his fists together triumphantly. Amy was a cross between elated and anxious as all living hell. Probably was worried to death if they were killed. Feeling himself nearly release a tear, Sonic sucked it up like he always did and sniffed it away with a joyous expression. Once he heard some shuffling amongst the concrete, he saw that his twin and his wounded soldiers were limping their way back over to him. Seeing Sonic's overjoyed smile, was enough to make the commander sigh with one as well. Zector grunted as he tossed a green hedgehog in front of him, who was evidently knocked out and very much handcuffed. Even though he had a broken arm, they didn't want to take any chances.

Zespio held up his wrist, one of the gauntlets many officers wore, and spoke in it. "I'm going to disconnect you from the blimp and put your connection back in the reality room. We'll rendezvous very soon. Please hang tight until we send help to your world, Miles prime."

With a nod and a faltering smile, the fox nodded and waved goodbye along with the others to their friends. In seconds, the connection ended, and the blimp was now only showing snow.

Their plan came together and worked out in the end, the commander couldn't be any happier. And speaking of which...Zonic glared down at Scourge's body in disgust. "Of course, he'll be taken to a very special place underground No Zone Prison." He looked up towards Sonic. "A place where only the very worst of the worst go, a cell designed for Scourge and only just. The warden made plans for his perfect little safe haven in our HQ for months now, should we ever get the chance to detain him again."

"But, isn't your prison already underground?"

"Most of it is, for the most part." Zonic trailed off. "However, even farther down than that, deep within the planet's core, is a cell where no one except for both the warden and myself can enter unless given special permission to anyone else." He explained. "It is impenetrable, it is made of material more indestructible than anything you've ever seen before. Even without a guard standing by, Scourge will never be able to escape."

Shadow frowned, that sounded almost too perfect. "And you're sure he'll stay put?"

"Oh of course not." The hero's twin answered with a scoff. "Scourge is unpredictable, powerful, but most of all, he's cunning." He shook his head while continuing to speak. "There is no simple solution to detaining Scourge, it's just impossible. Some way, some how, he will find a way to escape and wreak havoc once again. Sadly," Zonic grimaced while looking back down at the anti-menace. "Similar to Sonic prime, he's beyond persistent. He simply won't stop until he's killed."

The very thought of executing the hedgehog left a foul taste in Sonic's mouth. "You're, not really going to do that, are you?"

"..." Zonic's silence, and his steady but solemn glare gave Sonic all the answers he needed.

"Zonic," Sonic protested. "You can't just do that-"

"I believe this is a talk we should have inside." He cut off his twin immediately, to which he could tell he clearly did not like. Sonic instantly scowled in response to that, but shut his mouth anyway. "Sonic," He sincerely pleaded. "We can discuss that later when you both are safe and healed. Your lives are a bigger priority right now, so drop it." He said with a more sterner tone. "Now. Please."

Dismissively, Sonic turned his head away and moved to take Shadow back towards the lightly disgruntled police car. "I'm way too exhausted to argue with you right now anyway..."

With another exhale, Zonic closed his eyes to take a moment in.

He slowly opened them up and turned to Zector, asking him to escort their new prisoner in one of the other cars.

The drive to HQ seemed to short, and in that time, Scourge had already awoken from his small dirt nap. When they arrived in front of HQ, the three hedgehogs left their patrol car first and entered. Zector meanwhile had no trouble escorting him out of the car in special handcuffs, since Scourge didn't even put up a fight. He looked slightly agitated, but that was it. He mostly just had a blank expression on his face. Barely blinking, never saying a word to anyone. Zespio along with several other officers, kept the green hedgehog under a watchful eye. Little did they know, Scourge had no plans of doing anything reckless as of now.

Zonic awaited for the crocodile to shove Scourge inside. The second he did, thousands of eyes glared holes into him at once. Any No Zone soldier or faculty gave him the deadliest of cold stares any living being could muster. He could feel their hate, disdain, bloodlust and vengeance writhing in their pathetic hearts. They wanted him dead for all of the lives he had manipulated and taken, but he obviously didn't care. He just continued to stare at nothing, and he didn't even make any comments or dirty looks at Sonic when he walked past him. Zonic walked along with the inmate and his colonels, then briefly turned to his twin. "We all have hundreds of questions to ask, and he will be interrogated tomorrow. It's almost evening, and everyone needs to rest as much as they can." He gave Sonic a soft expression, as he knew his champion was in a large mix of emotions right now. "Especially you two." He was referring to a nearly unconscious Shadow was well.

As he saw Shadow just barely fighting to stay awake, with a battered Sonic helping him walk with a sad expression, Zonic felt even more responsible. He couldn't help but feel like all of this was his fault. He turned and gave a look to both Zepsio and Zector, gesturing for them to keep an eye on Scourge. They saluted him, and Zonic moved to walk in front of the heroes. He placed his hands on their wrists separately, with royal blue aura appearing and drifting from him to them. Sonic and Shadow didn't what the commander was doing at first, until they saw chaos energy move to etch onto their fur. They were shocked, to say the least. Soon, they could feel their wounds and scars heal. Zonic was actually healing them with chaos power.

This reminded them, didn't Scourge say something strange right before Zonic beat the living snot out of him back in the city?

"There is no Overseer in history, who can use chaos as freely as we can!"

If this was true, then why was he able to do it now? With widening lime green eyes, Sonic even realized that Zonic's eyes were practically just as bright as his own. Even after a horrible blood soaked battle, Zonic looked great after he digitized his uniform off of his body. His fur was a great shiny blue, his peach limbs and torso clean, and his posture seemed almost rejuvenated. "H-How..." Sonic whispered, not even able to finish his sentence. "How are you, doing this..?" He asked with wonder. Soon, Shadow no longer needed to lean on Sonic for support. He stood up on his own, moving his limbs slowly to make sure nothing was cramped or dislocated.

"Astonishing." Shadow murmured. "Not even my regenerative abilities work that fast." He stared at the commander in confusion. "Only those divine beings can heal like this."

Zonic was silent at first, letting go of their wrists while staring down at the floor. "I," He reluctantly spoke. "I do not understand what happened myself, but," He looked at his palms, watching the royal blue energy around his now bare hands fade away. "For some reason, I feel more powerful." He glanced over at his colonels and high ranking officers, before looking back at the two hedgehogs. "All of the men and women who came to help me neutralize Scourge back in the city, they were all unconscious. Passed out, bleeding. Somehow, I was able to heal them back to full health." He made a difficult expression. "If it wasn't for them, or these powers, I wouldn't have been able to stop him from hurting you."

Sonic slowly shook his head. Something, didn't seem right. Zonic told him before that he never shared any of his abilities, including chaos. So why could he now of all times?

"My abilities aren't that powerful, as you should still be a bit sore in a few places but, it's the least I can do to help you."

The two were grateful that he even had said powers to begin with. "No," Sonic protested. "Thanks, really."

"After I personally escort Scourge into his new cell, I'll be returning to the medical ward to help as many soldiers as I can." He walked back over to his men and their new prisoner, bidding his twin farewell. "Please, return home and get some rest. I can confidently say that things will be fine by tomorrow. We'll commence the interrogation before noon, it'd be wise if you attended." He gave them a small bow, before nodding over for his soldiers to follow him. As they walked off, other nearby faculty or officers continued to go about their duties as quick as possible. Mostly to attend to wounded soldiers, or to try and repair any damages on the HQ as much as they could.

With heavy hearts, both Shadow and Sonic faced each other. They said nothing, but they could feel each other's wavelengths. Things were, irreversible. Hundreds of people were dead, their city was destroyed, and their HQ was in shambles. Zonic, even with his new found power looked beyond stressed and perhaps broken. If Sonic didn't know any better, he'd say he lost his sanity the second he appeared to save them. Everything was just, shit.

Completely and utterly ruined.

Before they could walk away, they heard quickening footsteps run from behind them. They slowly turned around, only to see Zepsio jogging over to them. "Hey!" He called. He then stopped and tossed something over to the blue hero. Sonic caught it in his hands, and realized it was some kind of hand-held device. One wth a touch screen and buttons on the side. "Your friends are there, and they're fully online."

Out of curiosity, Sonic pressed one of the buttons on the side. Before their eyes, the screen lit up and showed live footage of their friends back in Mobius prime. They saw Tails and Amy waving at them with big happy grins on their faces. Just seeing them brought Sonic's heart in a much more serene state. Both he and Shadow slowly smiled. Sonic hugged the device to his chest, and Shadow quickly thanked the chameleon. "Thank you." He said.

He then gently grasped Sonic's shoulder and walked them to the entrance of the HQ.

They planned on returning back to the apartments nearby the HQ. Thankfully it wasn't very close to the main city, so it wasn't destroyed. The two hedgehogs didn't talk to each other, but they did speak to the smart device Zespio gave them earlier. Tails told them their story of how they crash landed to GUN HQ, getting Vanilla and Cream on their team along the way. How Scourge appeared and infested the world with his power, how he smacked Rouge over the head with his bat, and how he teleported over to No Zone. How the GUN commander shot himself, how they managed to capture Fiona, and how they met the anti-Omega. The very mention of an anti-Omega raised brows. Sonic told them he didn't even know one existed, and he never met it.

"Then this huge robot comes out of no where, all cyan and blue. He started using this riot foam stuff, then he blasted them at all these people-" As Tails was talking about the droid, he seemed very distracted. Like something was holding him back from talking as freely as he wanted. Sonic took note of this, his parental sirens going off the charts.

As they walked in front of the door to Zonic's old apartment, he narrowed his eyes and frowned. "Tails," He fully addressed with a very grounded tone. Tails flinched, as he knew what that voice meant. That was ol' big brother-slash-fatherly-slash-motherly Sonic coming out. "Are you okay?" He asked slowly.

Shadow noticed his tone, and stared at the screen with a similar level of suspicion.

"Uhh," Tails trailed off with a slightly nervous expression. Sonic could sense it, something wasn't letting him talk. "Yeah! I mean, the world's still really crappy but, we're all okay now." He gave Sonic a smile that seemed hopeful, but also fearful. Sonic knew him better than anyone else in the world, he knew Tails was anxious about something or someone in that room. However, he also felt that if he asked about it, it may blow the kitsune's cover. He'd have to play along just as well, and act oblivious.

With a long and hard stare, causing Tails to smile even more nervously, Sonic suddenly grinned. "Okie-dokie!" He said with a thumbs up. "No problem little bro, just make sure you keep your eyes peeled alright?" His grin fell into a flat line. "You, have no idea how worried we are about you guys. Everybody's been through so much and," He sighed with a grimace. "It feels like everything that Scourge has ever touched is falling apart. Even people."

They saw Knuckles place his hand over the fox's shoulder, leaning in the camera to show his face. "That may be true, but you can't give up now. You're this close to getting rid of that asshole for good."

As Sonic talked with them, Shadow realized this might be a good time to get the door unlocked and walk inside. Shadow chaos controlled the keys to his hand, stepping in front of the entrance. Sonic continued to speak with their friends in the meantime. "Yeah but, that's the thing." He said worriedly. "I, I don't think I can beat him without," He couldn't even say it. "Without, you know."

He saw Amy squeeze her face next to Tails. "What?"

Tails could pretty much figure out what his big brother was trying to say. "Killing him?" He replied softly.

Sonic exhaled heavily. "Yes." He heard a click, and saw that Shadow was standing by the door with his arms crossed. He was waiting for him to join him inside. That's when Sonic felt something wet and small splash the top of his head. He then saw some droplets fall on top of the screen, with more moisture developing on his body. It was raining. He covered the device's screen by hugging it to his chest and quickly walked inside. Shadow shut the door behind them, and traveled in the home to the bedroom together. "I honestly don't know what to do."

He heard some voice in the background on Tails' side as he stepped in the bedroom, with Shadow shutting the door. Sonic sat down on the bed, and the Ultimate life form soon sat next to him.

"Scooch over, Red." He heard a sensual voice say while shooing Knuckles away from the camera. He saw some feminine hips moving into the shot, gently pushing the fox out of view. "Move aside, honey." A white voluptuous bat sat in front of the screen, who turned to the side and moved to pull someone closer to her. She was pulling Amy close to herself, who looked just as puzzled as Sonic and Shadow did. While he was happy to see his GUN partner, he didn't know why she told the others to get out of the way. "Big Blue? That you, sweetie?" She asked while adjusting the screen.

Sonic nodded. "Yeah, I'm here. Something up?"

She pursed her lipstick lips and crossed her arms. "We need to talk."

END - 35

"You were my protector, too. I thought we were all brethren of Chaos blood. And then I found the truth amongst your corrupted words.

You lied to me.

You all...lied."

EDIT: I read all the reviews and oh my God, thank you all so much. You guys are really starting to understand where I'm trying to go here with this story. This story is indeed filled with my own passion, written with my own personal views of life and morals. How people treat criminals, how criminals see themselves, how listening to someone's final plea may just save their lives before it's too late. Thanks again, and stay tuned because this story is far from over. We're only a little more than half way there, so buckle up for a wild ride.