Rouge watched from the balcony with James and Mateo as the scene before her unfolded. Everyone complied. They put their hands behind their head and knelt on the ground. Even Blaze who was clearly in pain. "What now?" Rouge whispered urgently to James. "If we attack, she'll hurt Miles. "Sonic, what is going on? Who is this? Please don't let her hurt me." Tails said while Sonic gave assurances. "It's okay, Tails. We're okay. We're going to be okay. Everything will be okay. I'll make sure your safe, I promise."

"Will you two shut it!" January shouted, causing Tails to cry more. "If I use my power, we will we just remind her that there are more of us." Mateo said. "One more minute." James said. "What?" Rouge and Mateo asked at the same time. "We just have to wait one more minute. Then she should lose Silver's power." Rouge began counting the seconds as January pulled another knife out of her pocket. "I do deeply apologize for this. It isn't in my nature to kill. Because that would make me a villain, and I'm not a villain. I'm just doing what's best for my kingdom."

"But you are a villain." Sonic says. "35, 34, 33," James counts quietly. "I am not!" January temporarily loses her cool demeanor. "30, 29, 28," January regains her composure and then seems to begin to contemplate. "May as well put you out of your current misery." January says and turns to Blaze. She doesn't seem bothered. Silver, however, is pissed. "Don't you touch her."

"19,18,17,"

"Would you rather I kill you first?" January asked the boy. "Yes." He responded without hesitation. "You idiot." Blaze hissed. "Don't you dare." She told him and January. "9, 8, 7,"

"I don't really care which of you dies first, so we will just go with my original plan, unless you want the child to die too."

"3, 2, 1." James finishes his count down and the only things that happens is that Tails starts screaming in agony as January squeezes and then to further make her point, throws a knife in Tails direction, grazing his cheek. "Nothing is happening." Rouge whisper shouts. James looks shocked. "I was so sure." He says. "I'll go first, just don't hurt my brother any more." Sonic begs. January walks over to him. Prepared to strike. January steps behind him, prepared to slit his throat. "Can I just, say one last thing." Sonic asks. "I suppose so." January relents. "I'm sorry Tails. I love you. And Shads, I love you." Sonic lets the tears run freely. "I love you too." Shadow replies, crying as well.

Before January can finish what she started, Rouge decides she can't take it anymore and dives at her, launching her across the room. January loses concentration and Tails falls to the floor. "What took you so long?" Shadow asks, almost sobbing. "Ask James." Rouge says and punches January in the face while also dodging the knife. Rouge knocks the knife out of January's hand with her foot. James comes down from the balcony, as does Mateo, with a swarm of bugs which he uses to attack January. Mostly mosquitos. Sam gets the collar off of Sonic and Sonic rushes over and puts it on January. Then he runs over, unties his brother, and ties January. Tuma, Roxanne, Mateo, and Sam take over with January. Grabbing actual handcuffs and arresting her.

After a few seconds, EMT's and other Secret Society members rush in to finish up. Sam and her group escort January outside. Blaze, Knuckles, and Tails are escorted outside by EMT's for treatment. The others, who are not actually bleeding, are seen as less of a priority. But after it is determined that Knuckles, Blaze, and Tails need an actualy hospital, they are all loaded into an ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital.

Sonic and Silver pass each other again and again as the pass and wait for news of their loved ones. "Would you two stop that." Shadow grumbled. They both mumble their apologies. "We're just worried you know." Sonic says sadly. Shadow stands up and gives Sonic a hug. "I know. But pacing isn't going to help anyone."

"He's probably traumatized." Sonic mumbles into Shadow's chest. "He'll be okay." Shadow says. "Knuckles wound was big."

"He's strong."

"Blaze was stabbed in the leg."

"She's one of the most determined people I know. She knelt there with us, with a knife still in her leg no less."

"Yeah, yeah. She'll make it. She'll be fine." Silver tried to reassure himself. Shadow sighed and waved Silver over. Silver toddled over to Shadow and enjoyed the comforting and awkward pat that Shadow gave him. "This is all my fault." Rouge said finally. The three boys turned to her. "What?" They all asked. "If I had just gone to James, or not even done anything in the first place this never would have happened."

"How is any of this your fault?" Silver asked. "You're not January. You didn't come to our school and spy on us. You didn't set up cameras to learn our secrets. You didn't come down from the ceiling and try to kill us. You didn't still Sonic's power. You didn't steal my power. You didn't stab Blaze. You didn't cut Knuckles. You didn't threaten Tails. All you did was save us." Shadow tells her. Rouge starts to cry. Shadow sighs and waves her over as well. Rouge runs and gets a hug from her friend as well. Shadow comforts the three other teens as the cry and worry about the fate of their friends.

When James walked around from the corner, he found Shadow holding Rouge on his left, Silver on his right, and Sonic in the middle, all three of them crying, and Shadow appeared to be trying to hold it together. "Sonic, the doctor said you can go see Tails." Sonic dried his tears and followed James. "Wait, what about Blaze and Knuckles?" Silver asked. "Knuckles is almost done getting his stitches and Blaze is still in surgery. But if you're wondering if she's gonna live, yes, she is going to live, she just won't be able to walk for a while." Silver sighed in relief.

Sonic walked with James to the room where Tails was. "Hi Sonic." Tails said. "Hey buddy. How you feeling?"

"I feel greaaaaat. When we got here, they rushed me into this room and then they gave me a shot and after that I felt fiiiiiine."

"What did they give him?" Sonic asks James. "No clue. Not one." Sonic sighs and grabs a chair and sits next to his brother. "I'm sorry Tails."

"Why are you sorry?" His baby brother asks a little too cheerfully. "I couldn't protect you. I really tried and I couldn't." He brother patted his cheek. "I'm fine, see." Tails smiled. Sonic smiled back, but it was a weak one. Tails let out a yawn and laid down in the hospital bed. "I'm going to sleep now." Tails said and was out like a light. Sonic watched his brother for a minute. Sonic knew that the doctors had said that Tails was fine, but Sonic just wanted the assurance that his little brother was alive. Sonic tried to assure himself that his fear was ridiculous. His brother had received a squeeze and a cut. But he just couldn't do it. He couldn't let go of the feeling that almost everyone he cared about had been in danger of dying. He himself had been mere inches from being killed. He shivered at the thought. Silver, Blaze, Knuckles, Rouge, Tails, and Shadow had all almost died tonight, and he was terrified.

"Blaze is asleep but the doctor said you could go wait in her room for her to wake up." James told Silver. Silver got out of the seat and followed James. He was honest to goodness terrified for his friend. Her life had almost been taken multiple times and she had suffered a severe stab wound. Even someone as strong as Blaze was bound to be a least a little shaken up. Heck, he was shaken, and it wasn't even him that had been stabbed (even though his life was also threatened, but we digress).

Silver opened the door and saw Blaze sleeping peacefully. He sat on a couch on the side of the room facing towards the door. He watched Blaze breath. He took her in. He hair was a mess. It's elastic having long been removed. It fell over her face in large strands. Her bangs were flat over her face, almost covering her eyes. She was in a hospital gown, in a color that didn't quite suit her skin tone. She was a little paler than usual, probably because of the blood she lost and the blood that had been put back into her body by the doctors, and just the general shock that her body would be experiencing. As peaceful as Blaze looked to an outsider Silver knew better. There was one tiny crease in her brow, one that had taken him years to ever be able to see. Silver walked over to her and moved her bangs out of her face. She always hated when the fell in her eyes. When he got closer, he saw some tears bad stained her cheeks. He wiped away what he could, but he didn't want her to get mad if she work ups and he was touching he, it had never happened before, but Silver was always trying to please.

Silver walked into the bathroom and decided to splash his face with some cold water. After doing so, he looked at himself in the mirror. He didn't want to sugar coat it, he looked like shit. It was clear he had been up all night from the bags forming under his eyes, and the fact that his eyes were red from crying didn't help. His eyeliner was everywhere. His face was streaked with tears, and the eyeliner his tears had taken with it made them more prominent. His hair looked like crap too. It stuck out everywhere. Not to mention he was wearing sweatpants and a worn t-shirt. He also has a bruise forming on the left side of his face. He wasn't really sure how it happened, but it was clearly there. So yes, he looked like shit. After using cold water to wipe his face as clean as he could, he walked back into Blazes hospital room.

After sitting down, he watched her chest rise and fall. The heart monitor connected to her helped assure him that she was breathing. He didn't have much to do sitting there, and he didn't really want to sleep right now, so her decided to think. These last 3 weeks had made him question a lot of things. His sanity, his grasp on reality, his vow to not murder James, the way he felt about more friends, his grasp of how the world worked, what he wanted in his life, and finally, his feelings for his best friend. What was Blaze to him? He wasn't totally sure until tonight, and what he knew now kind of terrified him. He was in love with his best friend.

Rouge and Shadow sat and waited. They were waiting for a lot of things. Shadow had his eyes closed and leaned against the wall. Rouge was leaning forward, playing with an imaginary piece of lint on her pajama pants. "What's wrong." Shadow asked. "I know you meant what you said earlier, because of all the things you are, dishonest is not one of them. You also aren't great at the comforting thing, so you meant what you said. But I still can't help but feel that this whole situation is my fault." She confided in her friend. "And in the end, I also know that each one of us was inches away from getting killed. Especially Tails. How can Sonic not blame me?"

"Because I told you earlier, this wasn't your fault." Rouge didn't reply. Shadow put and hand on her shoulder, getting her to look at him. "We could play the blame game all night long. It's your fault for telling her you knew she was there, it was my fault for convincing you to not go to James because I thought we could handle it, it's James's fault for being so lax with security, it's Sam's, Mateo's, Tuma's and Roxanne's fault for ticking her off, it's Knuckles fault for letting his guard down. I could keep going. But in the end, I stand by what I said. This was a situation beyond our control. January made her choice. She chose to come and spy. She chose to attack. She chose to attempt to kill. She chose to kidnapped Tails. She chose to stab at Blaze. She chose to hurt Knuckles. She chose to steal our powers. All of those choices were hers and hers alone. You can keep blaming yourself, but for all we know, you saved us from being killed in our sleep, you could have saved many secrets, heck, even after things went off the rails we only survived because you attacked at the right moment. So, stop blaming yourself. It won't do any good for you or anyone else, because in the end, whatever mistakes you made were righted." Rouge stared at Shadow, flabbergasted. "Do you think the others blame me?"

"I think you're the only one who blames you." Rouge smiled tearfully at her friend. "When did you get good at this stuff?"

"No idea." Rouge let out a laugh. James came around the corner again. "Doctors have attempted to sedate him, but it didn't work great. They were finally able to finish his stitches. Some of what he says doesn't make a lot of sense, but you can go see him and the others eventually. But Knuckles is currently the only one awake." James told them. Rouge got up and followed James. Shadow followed behind. "I was actually wondering if you could take me to Sonic?" Shadow said. "Yeah, I can do that." James said. James showed Rouge the door and she opened it. Knuckles was currently arguing with a nurse about having an IV. "You need it, you've been heavily sedated, and your arm is deeply infected by the wound."

"I need no such thing woman! I am the prince of the Echidna tribe. My sister and I have dedicated our lives to preserving our kingdom and our family's legacy."

"Knucklehead." Rouge said from the door. The nurse and the boy in question turned to her. "Just accept the IV and move on." Reluctantly, he agreed. "I must do one thing first." Knuckles told the nurse. "What?" She asked. Knuckles got out of bed, much to the nurse's behest, who tried to get him to get back in bed. "Ma'am, it is my arm. I do not currently need to be in bed. I have something important to do." Knuckles walked up to Rouge. "Princess Rouge. We almost just died." He began his speech. "I think we established that." She raised her eyebrow. "Give me a second, I'm trying to be serious and eloquent." Rouge paused. What was he going on about? "Princess Rouge, we almost just died. Tails, Blaze and I ended up in the hospital. We are all probably traumatized."

"Thank you for summing it up. I didn't already feel guilty." Rouge said. "Well, don't. Because you saved our lives. I would probably not be standing here without you. Turns out that January had a slow painful poison in those knives, and it is now out of my system. But had I not been given medical attention when I did, I would not have been as okay. But I am a strong warrior, prince or not, so I think I would have been fine. But that is not the point." Rouge looked at him. "Then what is the point, handsome?"

"Look. When we first met in that classroom, you chose to flirt with and annoy the hell out of me. And as our group has grown closer, your efforts to do so have seemed to only increase."

"I'm glad I annoy you." Rouge rolled her eyes. "I'm not done. Give me a minute, I told you I have a point."

"Could you move it along then?"

"I just, want to make sure I say this right." He said sheepishly. "I think it started that day in the elevator, but I can't be sure. But the truth is Rouge, I like you. I like you a lot. I like you like more than a friend. I like like you, and I don't know how to deal with it. I like your sly grin when you know something we don't. I like the way your eyes shine. I like the glint you get in your eye when your about to say something that will fluster me, make me mad, or someone else mad. I like the way your voice sounds. I like that always have a comeback. I like your determination. I like how observant you are. I like how crafty you are. I like how smart you are. And I think you are beautiful every time I see you, even now after we've just had a near death experience in our pajamas. And tonight, when January was about to kill us, I thought I would never get the chance to tell you, so I'm saying it now." Knuckles face was about as red as his hair as he said this, and Rouge wasn't much better off. She was shocked. "When Tails first arrived, he tricked Tuma into asking us how we felt about each other. You admitted that on some level you liked me, and I admitted the same, whether it was by choice or not. And we both said that we would like to go on a date with the other, and if you still feel the same, I would like to take you on a date. So will you go on a date with me?" Rouge stood on her tiptoes, giving Knuckles a kiss on the nose, the likes of which caused a certain knucklehead to go two shades of red darker in the face. "I would like that very much." She told him and flashed him her signature smile. He had the biggest grin on his face that anyone had ever seen on him.

"Will you get into your bed now?" The nurse asked. "Way to ruin the moment lady," Rouge said. "Apologies, but it is for the best." The nurse said. Knuckles sighed and climbing back into bed. Begrudgingly accepting the IV. "Would you like to stay?" Knuckles asked Rouge. "I would love that." She told him and sat on the corner couch. They both smiled like idiots.

Shadow walked in to find his boyfriend watching his little brother sleep with his back to the door. "Sonic." Shadow said. He turned around. "Hey Shads." He smiled weakly. "How are you?" Shadow asked, seemingly unsure, rubbing the nape of his neck. "I'm fine." Sonic turned around and started watching his brother sleep again. "I understand that I'm not the best at reading others, but I'd like to think that I know you better than that. Which is why I'm pretty sure you're lying."

"Why would I be lying? How could I not be fine? I just went through a life-or-death fight for the first time. Just about everyone I cared about was in the line of fire. Turns out all of the knives were laced with poison that caused a slow and painful death. My brother/best friend and my other best friend are in the hospital. I almost lost all of you. I almost died to save my brother. My best weapon was taken from me with a small touch. And finally, this first time I told my boyfriend I loved him was because I was convinced we were both about to die. So, yeah, why would I not be fine?" Shadow just stood there, thoroughly unconvinced. Shadow walked around the hard hospital couch in the corner of the room and sat down. He patted the spot next to him and Sonic took the hint, sitting next to his boyfriend. Shadow not really sure what to do at this point, started rubbing Sonic's back. Sonic leaned into the touch and into the former. "I'm not fine."

"I know."

"I'm downright terrified."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Sonic looked up at Shadow, surprised. "But nothing scares you?" Shadow creased his brow in confusion. "Everyone is scared of something. No one is immune to fear, despite what they might tell you."

"So what are you scared of?"

"I almost just lost you after I got you, and after you said you loved me, I was terrified."

"Well, if what you say is true, and everyone is scared of something, you must have had some fear before tonight. So what is it?"

"Hospitals." Shadow admitted sheepishly. Sonic looked around them. "We are in a hospital, how are you not freaking out?"

"Courage is not the absence of fear, merely the ability to look fear in the eye and face it anyway." Sonic stared at his boyfriend. "Where did you steal that from?"

"My sister, who probably heard it somewhere else." Shadow admitted. Now that Maria was mentioned, Shadow's fear of hospitals made sense. He'd probably been to many ever sense he was little and seeing someone you cared about hooked up to a bunch of machines was not pleasant, even as a teen. "Thank you, for being here with me."

"When I said I love you back, it meant something, and now that we hare here and alive, it means more. I will always be here to protect you, I'm here for you. We are partners, and that means we help each other, right?" Sonic gave Shadow a quick kiss, leaving him flustered. "I guess it does." Sonic smiled. The two of them sat there for a minute, just holding each other close. "Hey Shads?"

"Yes."

"I love you."

"I love you too, Sonic."

James decided to do a round to check on all of his students. He looked into Tails' room. Tails, Sonic, and Shadow were all sleeping, exhausted by the events of the night. Sonic and Shadow were snuggling on the small couch in the corner.

When James opened the door to Knuckles room, he saw Knuckles and Rouge talking about some kind activity. To James, it almost sounded like they were planning a date.

James then looked in Blaze's room. Blaze was sleeping, but not Silver. Silver was mumbling something to himself and watching his friend's chest rise and fall. To James, it looked almost as if Silver was trying to convince himself that his best friend was still alive. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard what Silver was mumbling. "It's okay, she's okay, she's alive, she's okay, it's okay. This is fine. She's fine. It's okay, she's okay. We're gonna be okay." James decided that he should probably intervene. James sat down next to Silver, who didn't even seem to register the new presence. "Silver." James said. Silver looked at him. "She's okay." James put a hand on Silver's shoulder. "I know. I mean, logically I know. But there is that part of me that's wondering if she didn't die back at the school. Or if she isn't gonna die at any second. Especially after learning that the dagger was laced with poison. And I know that there are a whole bunch of problems that could arise for her after this whole ordeal. And this whole thing was freaking traumatizing. I almost died multiple times."

"And just maybe you have a small crush on her?" James asked. "I don't see how that's currently relevant."

"That wasn't denial."

"I wasn't trying to."

"How long?"

"Don't know." Silver shrugged. "But tonight is when I truly realized it."

"When you going to tell her?"

"Probably no time soon." Silver turned away from Blaze long enough to show James that he was listening by making a little bit of eye contact. But he didn't look at his teacher long, turning his attention back to Blaze. James rolled his eyes to himself. Teenagers making things complicated, all six of them. "Why?" James asked, pretty sure he already knew the answer. "I don't want to ruin our friendship." James rolled his eyes, yeah, he knew the answer. "How do you know she doesn't feel the same?"

"I don't. She's very good at not telling people how she feels. Sometimes I can figure it out, but she tells me it's a princess's duty to her people to act like nothing is wrong even when the world is crumbling. She's very good at hiding how she feels." He sadly stated, and it sounded like he was on the verge of tears. James let out a sigh. Despite being in a happy and stable relationship, giving relationship advice was not his forte, especially in this kind of situation. He'd never started out being in love with his best friend, his love becoming his best friend had come later. "I think that no matter what happens, you'll have friends old and new with you the whole way." Silver turned to his teacher. The warm smile encouraged him to give a small one in return. "You should get some sleep." James said and stood up. "I don't know if I can." Silver looked at his feet for a second. "At least try to close your eyes." Silver nodded, not looking up from his feet. James walked out of the room.

In the past, it had been him in one of these rooms, in one of these beds, recovering from being attacked, but what do you do when it's your students?

Blaze opened her eyes, and the burning she had felt in her leg earlier had dulled to a light stabbing pain instead. She looked around and realized that she was in a hospital room. She looked down and saw that her leg was wrapped up. She assumed they must have done some kind of operation, considering the wound that had been afflicted upon her. She had known the stab wound was deep. The only reason she hadn't been bleeding more was because she left the dagger in her leg. She looked around the room, there were only two differences between this room and a standard hospital room was the size and her friend.

"Silver?" She asked. He looked up from whatever he was thinking about and smiled widely, but it didn't quite fit the red eyes and tear-stained cheeks that he was wearing. "You look like crap." She told him. He laughed. "Two jokes in one week, that's a new record for you." Blaze smiled. "Why do I get the feeling that you have not slept." Silver looked down. "Because I haven't." He whispered, barely audible. "Silver." She scorned. "I was worried!"

"That is no excuse. Come here." She pushed herself into a sitting position with her hands. Silver walked over and sat on her bed, facing away from her. "What's wrong?" She asked him. "We almost all died."

"And you are scared." Blaze finished for him, and he nodded. "We are fine now. I am alive and well. My leg will heal in a few weeks. It is safe to infer that Princess January will be put behind bars and officially stripped of her title. Samantha, Tuma, Roxanne, and Mateo will make sure that she cannot hurt us." Silver sighed. "Blaze, I am fifteen years old. You are fifteen years old. I guess I kind of always knew death was a thing in the back of my mind. I mean, I never met my parents. My kingdom is currently under a regent. Much to his disgruntlement, my brother is preparing to take the throne, no matter how much he and his friends try to fight it. But until tonight, I don't think I had truly considered that death could be coming for me, or for you, or for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, or anyone else really. It just... became reality." Blaze put a hand on Silver's shoulder. "I'm fine. See!" She smiled. Silver thought the exaggerated and wide smiled didn't quite suit her, but he did appreciate the gesture. "Now lay down." Blaze commanded. He looked at her. "You have to sleep. And when were younger you always slept better when you knew there was someone next to you. So I'm telling you to lay here next to me and sleep." Silver hesitantly scooted more onto the bed but was very careful not to touch Blaze. Blaze sighed. "Silver."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"It's my leg on my other side." She grabbed his torso and pulled him closer. His breath hitched. She took in the comforting scent of sandalwood that he always had. She started ruffling his hair, something she knew he found comforting. He sighed and leaned his head on hers. He sighed, perfectly content. Blaze wouldn't admit it, but it was nice feeling his chest rise and fall, knowing that he was breathing and there next to her. Quickly, Silver's breathing relaxed and steady and she knew he was asleep, and she let herself fall into sleep as well.