The next Robotnik that Scourge and Fiona were going after was a surprising one to them. When Scourge created the portal to the next dimension and located the next Robotnik with it, he saw what looked like a hideous female version of Robotnik with long orange hair and a purple sorceress' dress, threatening Sally Moon, Chibi Amy, and a version of Tails with a brown streak of hair hanging down and a green scarf. They were all trying to dodge her thrown fireballs in her dark castle, and Scourge decided on moving the portal to above her head so that when he jumped through it from his end, he'd land on top of her. " That'll be funny, " Scourge thought with a smile and his hand on his chin. He pressed the second button to officially create the portal connection from one dimension to the other, having not done so earlier because Robotnik would see the portal before he'd be ready to go in.

But before Fiona could shoot her with the paralyzing ray gun-taser through the portal's other end, Scourge jumped into the portal early by accident and landed on top of her before she could pull the trigger, reacting too quickly for her. This meant that after he landed on her and said standing on her back while she was collapsed on the floor, " Surprise! " deliberate movement was still possible for his enemy, and as a result, some lightning bolts were thrown desperately from her in the seconds it took for Fiona to react, readjust her aim and hit her with the paralyzing electricity, and one of those lightning bolts, hit the two-tailed fox in the room.

" NO! " everyone screamed at seeing the child get electrocuted and collapse to the stone floor, looking heavily burnt to a crisp. From the sight of seeing someone resembling his little brother figure meet an untimely demise, he went from looking completely panicked and devastated to enraged in a second, stealing a Chaos-Emerald-powered-wand full of electricity and terminating the life of the one responsible with everything in him. When he was done smacking his enemy with his eyes closed from the tears, there was nothing but sizzling ashes left, and he was panting on the floor too exhausted to attack anymore, leaving him too tired to be angry with anyone but himself.

There was a dead silence, as Fiona walked through the portal to meet with him looking about as devastated as he was, and saw him walk towards the badly burned Tails and sit down with his knees facing the floor, and place his hand on the kid's chest, pointlessly waiting for a pulse. Sally Moon and her young pink-haired sidekick were right in front of him looking miserable and shocked at what had just happened. The former said sadly, " If only Knuckles had been here, maybe he could've pushed him out of the way! Maybe he could've defeated her before it happened! But instead he's… We've got to bur- "

" Leave, " Scourge said quietly with his eyes closed to hide the increasing moistness in them. Chibi Amy said in a cracked voice, " What? But we- " " LEAVE! " Scourge shouted standing up, disguising his inner turmoil by acting as angry as he could, and this caused the two of them to run out of the room in a panic, not trusting him not to hurt them after what he did earlier. Then he went right back to looking heartbroken, mournful, and worst of all for him, ashamed. He sat down in anguish frustrated at himself for caring at all, and as the tears welled up, he thought, " It's not Miles! It's not MY Tails! Why does he have to look so much like him?! Why do I have to care?! Damn it, I could've done something different! If I had just not jumped in so soon and she got shocked right away… It's all my fault! And now someone I should've protected is… "

While Scourge was sitting next to the burnt fox with his eyes covered by his hands, Fiona was having almost the same devastated reaction, tears streaming down her face as she checked for a pulse by the neck and mentally scolded herself, " If I had just pushed the damn button in time instead of reacting to him going in that portal early, he'd still be alive! STUPID, STUPID! "

But she kept her reaction from Scourge the best that she could, and simply whispered with her hand on his shoulder, " I'll wait for you outside, " before running out of the room with him nodding at it and thinking, " Good. I don't want her to see me like this anyways. " He put his hand on the fox's chest again, hoping in denial that he'd feel a heartbeat or the rising and falling from breathing, and thought looking angry, " I shouldn't care! He's not the same Tails that I had such good times with! The one that I taught to dip Oreos in milk to make 'em taste better, squeeze the last of the toothpaste out of the tube correctly, make snowmen, and snowboard! The one I showed around my city and gave a few music teachers, comforted and got dozens of hugs from and was treated the best by outta anyone else I met in my whole damn life. One of the only people I could relate to. But just because he looks like him, it completely… devastates me? Why?!… "

Unable to resist any longer, he buried his head in his chest, seeking comfort from the physical contact with his warm and soft fur and body, and wished as hard as he could that he could do something, anything, to get the kid alive and smiling. He even hoped that he could somehow transfer some of his own power from the Master Emerald into him, but he didn't have the ability to do that. Starting to panic and stubbornly refusing to accept what had happened, he tried shocking him in the chest with the lightning wand nearby to restart his heart and pounding on him with his fists to no avail, only stopping as the desire to avoid causing any more damage overwhelmed him, like a voice in his head scolding, " Haven't you done enough? " And to add insult to injury, that voice sounded like Sonic's.

Scourge hated feeling that way because he didn't think he should feel anything about causing damage to the kid when he was already gone, but it still felt like crossing a line. After briefly considering CPR, he soon thought, " It's pointless. He's gone… " He briefly caressed the kid's head like he would with Miles, and continued thinking looking angry, " because I didn't protect him! " clenching his fist with a newfound hatred of Robotniks in general.

This led Scourge to stand up from the floor looking determined and wipe away the last of his tears, thinking, " I'm gonna make damn sure that from now on, this'll never happen again. " He took a deep breath making sure no more tears would escape, took the lightning wand with him, and ran out of the castle to meet up with Fiona, who was crying on the ground of the wasteland the castle was in. He turned off the wand to put it in his jacket pocket, put his arm around her sympathetically to let her cry into his shoulder, and said,

" From now on, Fi, we'll do a countdown to make absolutely sure I won't go into a portal early. That way, you'll have shocked the Robotnik the second the portal will be made, and he won't be able to do nothin' until we're done with him. I know neither of us should care, because these aren't the Tails we know. But there's no denying that we do, so we're gonna make sure this never happens again. We're gonna protect him, no matter what. We'll never be responsible for this again. A-Although it was 99% Robotnik's fault. Remember that."

Fiona smiled through the tears, reassured by his statement, and started finally feeling some hope. " Let's go visit that injured Tails again, " she said, wanting to feel better and immediately remind herself that there were more of them out there. Scourge said happily, " Took the words right outta my mouth! " He handed her the small golden sceptre from his pocket saying, " Here, Fi, a close-range weapon just in case. The button here will fill it with electricity! Any time someone threatens ya from too close, you can pull this out on them! " She took it with a grateful smile giggling a little and put it in her pocket, and Scourge continued, " Also, we gotta come up with a nickname for the little guy. Saying Tails or Miles or ' the hurt Tails, ' isn't cuttin' it. Maybe we can figure out if he's capable of any cool stuff and name him based on that. "

After Fiona nodded in agreement, Scourge used the teleporter to warp them both to the Tails with the bandaged head, who was lying in bed on his back playing the DS that Scourge had given him with some hot cocoa near him when he noticed them show up. " Hey, little buddy! Ya feeling better? " Scourge asked him with a smile, hoping that it didn't look like he had been crying recently. " K-Kind of, still healing. Why are your eyes all red? W-What's wrong, Fiona? " he asked sadly, since Fiona still looked pretty obviously upset.

" Are you sure you can handle it? " he asked nervously as Fiona sat beside the kid and threw her arms around him for comfort. The two-tailed fox nodded looking unsure because he was curious about what had just happened, and Scourge sighed, before explaining, " Well, we hit a snag on our mission, because, an alternate version of you… we couldn't stop the Robotnik in time. He's, gone. From now on, we're gonna make extra sure that nothing like that will happen again. "

Looking sad, the kid asked, " What?! How'd that happen?! " and Fiona explained with her voice breaking after stopping the hug, " Lightning. W-We w-were dealing with a w-witch Robotnik and he jumped into the portal early. I couldn't taser her in time before she… " pulling the small ray gun out of her pants pocket to show him at the final sentence. The kid was stunned at finding out that an alternate version of him had suffered that kind of fate, but since Scourge and Fiona looked so ashamed from not preventing it, he couldn't bring himself to be upset with them. Instead, he reassured them, " It's okay, guys. At least most of the other versions of me are okay. Why don't we have some ice cream and watch TV in my room? Sonic and his siblings are busy trying to look for their mom, so I'd like some company. "

He then reached over to his cocoa to drink it, complained, " It went cold, " and then closed his eyes holding onto the cup tight, before drinking it again. Scourge, with his mouth agape at what he might have seen, touched the cup. It was warm. " Hey, fire powers, that's cool! " Scourge commented with a grin. " Huh? No, not fire! I just warm stuff up, " the kid said nervously. " You have the potential, though. Keep at it. I got a friend lookin' just like you who can do way more than just that, " Scourge replied looking impressed, sitting beside him at the edge of the bed with his arms and legs crossed trying to look like a rebel.

" Really? Why aren't you hanging out with him? No offense, " he said. " 'Cause Miles and I have different ideas of what we wanna do in life. He's happier being with some other people. It's a shame, I'd love to have him with me, but he'd be, well, not appreciative, if he was here, " Scourge explained casually. The kid replied, " Miles? That's my name. W-Well, obviously. He's another version of me. "

Scourge then complained, " Yeah, and we can't call you Tails either, because Fiona already knows one. " Fortunately, the two-tailed fox said, " You do? Huh. Maybe you should have a nickname for me, you know, a nice one. " After some brief thinking where Scourge discarded the names of Inferno – too long and intimidating – Fire, Lava and Magma for being too obvious, and Blaze, he said, " Well, what about Flame? " almost all out of ideas.

" Okay, " he replied, and Scourge happily put his arm around his yellow furry back in a sideways hug to hold him closer to him, saying, " Awesome! Flame. You know, assuming Sonia and Sonic won't mind me hanging out with you too much, I think this could be the start of somethin' special. When we're not busy doing somethin', like gettin' our livin' cash, maybe we'll go hang out with you. At the very least, I could try to teach you to get more proficient with your powers! " Flame wasn't entirely used to getting so much affection yet, especially not from a criminal who killed Robotnik right in front of him, but he couldn't help but find the whole situation heartwarming nonetheless. But not enough to keep him from being nervous.

" Why? I mean, what do you like about me? " he asked. Scourge replied sincerely, " A sweet and adorable little kid like you? What's not to like? You're endearing to us, what can I say. Besides, you're smart, and I respect that. " Flame said while blushing from all the compliments, " I don't know about that. You really think I'm smart? " Fiona, able to talk without her voice breaking again, said cheerfully, " Tails certainly is! Why not you? And I agree with everything he said, there. Every so often we'll pop in for a visit. It'll be nice! "

Flame finally began to smile at the thought, deciding to let himself trust them, and Scourge said casually, " Yeah, we have an hour or two to spare! Why not? Now come on, I'll get us some ice cream before ya can blink, " immediately came back after leaving in a green and black blur, and gave them all bowls of mint ice cream with some spoons and sat down on the bed. He then picked up the TV remote and said, " Let's see what's on, " and after he turned on the TV, Fiona said, " Yeah, and if two out of three wanna stay on the channel, he will. Right, hun? " slightly teasing him at the end. Scourge rolled his eyes at potentially having to be unselfish and watch something he didn't care for, and said reluctantly, " Sure, babe. Just 'cause I actually like ya both. " As far as he was concerned, it would be worth it as long as he would still be spending time with the two of them.