Meanwhile, the Freedom Fighters, back on Mobius Prime, were in the middle of dealing with Ixis Naugus after he became a major threat again, and Tails and Sonic were sent around the world looking for Chaos or Super Emeralds to stop him. Unfortunately, Ixis managed to intercept Tails after he detected that he was holding a few emeralds, trapping him in an electricity cage with another electricity cage separating the two of them. Tails, trying to avoid looking terrified, pointed the emeralds in his hand at Ixis, but before he could do anything with them, Ixis said, " Ah ah ah, hold on a minute, boy. I think we can make a deal. "
Tails, outraged at the idea, exclaimed, " A deal with you?! " But upon Ixis shapeshifting into earth fusing with the ground below and moving the ground to dig something up in a more impressive-looking way, Tails was completely stunned and gasped at what used to be buried in front of him. Ixis taunted, " Remember her? I found her, your little girlfriend that you callously left behind on that artificial island of Robotnik's! " Some wind from below brought what was once below him right in front of him, causing Tails to whimper sadly, " Fiona?... "
The robot duplicate of Fiona from all those years ago, was lying in a coffin inside of a roboticizer, her eyes closed in deactivated sleep and her hands on her chest, looking just as young as Tails used to be when he first met her. The same short, brownish red hair and yellow bow. Tails exclaimed full of shame, " I didn't MEAN to! I didn't mean to abandon you, Fi, I'm sorry! Darn it, I said I'd make Robotnik fix her! " He promptly felt even more ashamed, both at the fact that he still cared about her, and the fact that he actually thought that plan of his would work. " Why oh why didn't I go get Rotor to go find her?! Why'd I have to be so easily distracted? " he thought berating himself.
Ixis then snapped his fingers and made a ring of fire around her, causing Tails to scream pounding the roboticizer's wall, " Fiona! " with tears running down his face. He had just gotten her back, and he might see her taken away again. Ixis taunted, " How do you like what I stumbled upon, mutant? All I have to do is press this button, " with his finger just above the button of the roboticizer, " and the machine will blow up, because she's already a robot to begin with. "
Tails shouted, " No! " feeling old wounds figuratively sting again as he remembered her rusting from the water, and felt all of that heartbreak return. He wanted to have gotten over it, especially after what the real Fiona did to him, but her being threatened brought it all back. Ixis asked with an amused smile at what he considered to be a mere game, " But why do you care? She's just a robot! And of a filthy traitor at that, " knowing that it would manipulate Tails into standing up for her and feeling his love return even more. The child was feeling the heat from the fire and electricity nearby making him sweat from it.
Tails exclaimed crying, " NO! She's not just a robot! Even after I found out what she really was, I still couldn't bring myself to hurt her! And she's not really her! So she's a better person than her! She was my first love, I don't care, I'll reprogram her! Please! I'll do anything! " Tails exclaimed crying, completely overwhelmed by painful emotion and wishing that the deactivated android could just hear him.
" Anything? How about the emeralds you possess? I won't tell anyone! And remember, I can destroy her just like that, " Ixis manipulated. His finger was drawing closer and closer to the button. What followed was a tense silence, which Tails was finding unbearable.
" Fine! " Tails shouted, throwing them to the ground in front of him just barely missing his head. Before the sheer impact of what he had done could sink in, Ixis had granted him his wish and teleported away with the robot free of the roboticizer, and with the emeralds in his possession. It had all happened in an instant, and as it finally dawned on him, Tails thought, " What have I done? " and fell to his knees crying into the chest of the one he never got over.
To his surprise, he noticed the scent of Miles nearby with his heightened Mobian sense of smell, heard him running up to him, and then felt his arm around his back comforting him. Tails, feeling guilty, looked up at his sad-looking evil twin, and said while crying, " I don't deserve any sympathy! I let all of my friends down! I be- " Before he could finish the sentence, Miles hugged him in a protective embrace, wrapping his soft tails around him as well, and reassured him, " Shh, it's okay. You didn't mean them any harm, so it doesn't really count. "
Stunned by all the compassion and pity, Tails replied, " But you're the one of us who hates traitors the most! Y-You said they disgust you! " Miles said sadly looking awkward, " You're clearly upset at what you did, and it's not like it really matters, because Sonic could get those emeralds back, he's probably found more than you have, and Rotor's just about done making the device that would defeat him once and for all. You had a once in a lifetime opportunity, you had to take it. This was just a minor setback, that they don't even have to know about. If you were genuinely betraying them out of hatred and bile, that'd be different, and I'd be calling you out on it, but it's obvious that's not the case here, and I don't think you deserve everything you've done for them being ignored in favor of this one moment of weakness. So, we can just keep this our little secret. You just happened to stumble into her, and you tripped and dropped your emeralds into a lake. " He briefly ruffled his hair in a reassuring caress in much the same way Sonic would, which caused Tails to relax his shoulders and sigh in relief.
" Thanks, Miles. You're a true friend, " Tails said to him looking into his eyes full of sincerity, and when the hug ended, he caressed the robot Fiona's head gently reassuring her, " Don't worry, Fi. Me and Rotor will reprogram you to get that nasty ' Robotnik wanting you to hurt me ' code out of your system, and give you free will so you can think clearly again. And we'll use nanites and stuff to get you an organic body with Nicole's help! Then you'll be good as new! " Miles, holding back from snarking about how she can't hear him since it might just make Tails cry again, simply commented, " We might need to give her a new name, though. And a bit of a ' make-over, ' as Bunnie calls it, because if she reminds Sally too much of Fiona, there could be a little problem. "
Tails, briefly picturing the robot Fiona with her hair in a loose bun, a lab coat, and some rose-tinted nerdy glasses, giggled a little and said, " How about I call her Phoebe? Fi for short. You know, Fi, bee, " and lifted the limp robot duplicate into his arms to carry her to Rotor's lab with Miles at his side. Miles waved his arms in a circle to create a miniature tornado that would carry the two of them to the lab at a fast pace, freezing the air below them after they were lifted up so that they'd be able to sit down on some ice with Tails holding Fi more easily, and brought them all to the lab.
Tails gently put the robot Fiona down on a workbench in the middle of the room for a days long project, before putting pillows below her to make it more comfortable, even though she couldn't feel it. The entire time, Miles could think of nothing except, " That boy is one of the most compassionate people I've ever met. And to think I'm still a little envious of him. I hope Sally and the others won't give him too much of a hard time, or her. She'll be the new awkward outcast of the group, and as a kindred spirit of hers in that respect, I suppose I should give her support. "
The Freedom Fighters had finally developed a way to permanently depower and seal away Ixis Naugus once and for all, thanks to a combination of Rotor's inventing skills and some shards of Super Emeralds. But unfortunately, the other day, before Miles could use what he had dubbed their Scepter of Sealing, Ixis escaped through a portal to another dimension, though not the Zone of Silence since that had been destroyed earlier. Rotor, standing in Sally's castle with everyone else, asked, " So what do we do now? " Sally said with her arms crossed, " Well, we can't just shrug it off like it's not our problem anymore! Even if he is in another zone, he's still the Prime Ixis and that means he's our responsibility! We've got to go after him! "
Rotor asked after reluctantly giving her and Sonic two zone-link teleporters, " But Sally, what if we don't make it back? Who will fight for our world, then? " Sally said, " That's a chance we'll just have to take. Come on, everybody! Rotor, Antoine, Nicole, you guys stay here. We can't put all our eggs in one basket. The rest of us will go after him! " With that, most of the Freedom Fighters went into the portal that Ixis in his panic had failed to close up, leaving Antoine, Nicole and Rotor slightly annoyed that they weren't allowed to come with them.
When they got to the other dimension, Tails was immediately shocked to see that among the alternate Sonic and Antoine was an alternate version of Fiona wearing an eye-patch and a purple jumpsuit with steel boots, with Ixis of course nowhere to be seen anymore. " Fiona?! " he exclaimed, which didn't surprise any of his friends in the least, and ran up to the alarmed and confused group, hugged the other Fiona getting an immediate hug back and said happily, " You're a Freedom Fighter again! That's great! What made you leave Scourge?! "
" Scourge? What kind of a name is that? His parents must have hated him, " One-eyed Fiona remarked while appreciating the hug, causing Tails to let go looking confused and embarrassed. Miles, who was standing between Sonic and Bunnie, commented unhappily with his ears drooping, " You wouldn't be far off the mark there. But he chose that name for himself. Was never a fan. " As Sally stared on with her arms crossed annoyed and Sonic was full of sympathy, Tails asked desperately, " You know, Scourge, your old boyfriend? Green hedgehog? "
Sally put her hand on Tails' shoulder saying impatiently, " Tails, she's not the same Fiona, let it go, " irritated just at looking at any Fiona Fox. One-eyed Fiona put her hand on her chin and said, " Green hedgehog? That seems to fit the description of the guy who took down Robotnik yesterday! " Then the alternate Sonic, who was wearing a sailor costume, said putting his arm around her casually, " Yeah, I saw it with my own eyes! Though it was pretty gruesome, he and his redhead girlfriend were really laying the beatdown on him, and his girl was keeping him paralyzed with this electrocuting ray gun. She looked a lot like my girlfriend, here! That was confusing. " Sally wasn't too keen on seeing that the alternate Sonic was dating the other Fiona, either, causing her to wonder at the sight of the glaring princess, " What's wrong with her? "
Tails sighed sadly, his hopes dashed, with Miles reassuring him with a pat on the back. " Is this your twin brother? " an alternate Antoine asked, to which Miles quickly replied, " Yes, " before anyone could launch into a long explanation otherwise. Sally looked at him in confusion before it dawned on her, and she smiled briefly before explaining calmly, " We're here because we're after the Prime Ixis, who escaped from us to your world. We're trying to use this Scepter to depower him and seal him away. " Sonic exclaimed, " Wait a minute, didn't you hear what he just said?! Scourge was here! And he killed this world's Robotnik! Isn't anyone concerned that he's out of prison? "
Sally said in annoyance, " We DID notice, Sonic, but if he was planning on threatening this world, then why didn't he stick around and try to conquer it by now? He's not our primary concern right now. Let's wait until he tries to threaten us first. Especially since we have no idea where he is. He probably left this world by now. " Sonic said with his hand on his chin looking suspicious, " What's his game? " as Miles awkwardly avoided looking at anyone, hoping that nobody would question him about Scourge's mission. Fortunately for him, they naturally assumed that he had come up with whatever plan he had on his own, and Sally ordered giving Sonic the Scepter, " Sonic, run around the planet to see if you can find Ixis. " Sonic remarked, " I could've thought to do that myself, you know, " ran away in a blue blur, and six seconds later, he returned and said, " I went in through another portal after him, he went to this dimension, " and pressed the right arrow button on his teleporter to have the screen on it display a representative image of the zone Ixis went to.
One-eyed Fiona asked quizzically, " Why can't Sonic just seal him himself instead of going back to get you guys? Wouldn't that be, like, faster? " Sally looked at her irritated thinking, " Of course you'd advocate him doing something without us, " seeing her as disloyal, and Bunnie explained, " Miles is a weather mage, he's the only one of us powerful enough to make the Scepter really work. The magic inside of him helps make it that extra bit more powerful to affect Ixis despite his enchantment on himself! " Tails said with a bashful smile, " It was nice to meet you, Fiona! Why don't we come back here after dealing with Ixis to go have lunch with you guys or something? "
This caused Sally to say looking irritated, " Tails, we're not- " and get interrupted by her, " Sounds good to me, " partially wanting to spite Sally for glaring at her like she was some kind of monster. Sally complained, " Tails, we're only allowed to do zone-hopping like this because Ixis is our responsibility, I don't know if the zone police would approve of us doing it just to have lunch with her! "
" She's not her! " Tails said to her in annoyance, which confused and worried the alternate Freedom Fighters. " What's her problem with me? Do I have bad breath or something? " One-eyed Fiona asked with her hands on her hips, being sarcastic at the end. Before Sally could say the answer, Tails interrupted her, " Just a petty childhood grudge, that's all. Let's go! " and pushed the button on the teleporter to warp himself and his friends away.
At the other dimension, Sally asked, " Why did you embarrass me like that?! ' Petty childhood grudge. ' Why, I oughta- " and Tails told her, " Because just because your Fiona did something bad doesn't mean you have the right to get any other Fiona's friends turned against her for it! It's wrong! " Sally was stunned, speechless as she knew at heart that he was right, but still didn't want to so much as see another Fiona again. To break the awkward silence, Tails quickly continued, " Now come on! My Ixis locater says we're right on his trail! Miles has to get him from behind or he'll teleport again, " looking briefly at the device strapped to his wrist.
Fortunately, everyone complied, understanding what mattered more at the moment, and before they knew it, Miles had run up to Ixis from behind spinning his tails to make himself faster and blasted light out of the Scepter at him, sealing him away powerless, landing on the ground from jumping at him. When he looked up and Sonic and Tails caught up with him, Tails carrying Sally, he could do nothing but stare at the statue in front of him. It was of Fiona.
" What's this?! " Tails exclaimed, and went up to the inscription in a stone tablet in its pedestal, reading, " In memory of a cherished heroic Freedom Fighter. Fiona Fox. RIP? " He backed away from it and looked around the nature reserve park they were standing in, realizing that surrounding the statue were various pillars with paintings on them and words inscribed below them detailing everything she did as a hero.
Before anyone could say anything, an alternate version of Sally walked up to them from behind one of the pillars, wearing a green dress and a crown with some Freedom Emeralds on it, asking, " What was all that commotion over there? " confused at seeing alternate versions of her friends. Tails explained to her, " Miles over here just sealed away and depowered our version of Ixis, who escaped here, " and then asked sadly, " What's all this about? " as him and his friends were staring at the statue sad and speechless.
The alternate Sally told him unhappily, " It's a memorial to one of my old friends, a brave and heroic Freedom Fighter that we lost too young. " Sally went up to her and asked, " What happened to her, if you don't mind me asking? " and then hoped this wasn't a bad idea since Tails was right there. What none of them were aware of, was that the Prime Fiona was there, too. She and Scourge had heard the commotion with Ixis screaming and being sealed away, and hid behind some bushes to listen to them, shocked at seeing what looked like her old friends there. Naturally, Scourge whispered, " I'm gonna get some snacks, be back later, " making up an excuse to take off to avoid Sonic seeing him to possibly disastrous consequences, leaving Fiona to watch the scene in front of her alone, sad and conflicted at seeing how distressed her old friends looked at learning that an alternate version of her had died.
After some brief hesitation, the alternate Sally sighed and said, " S-She t-took her own life, " so quietly in her sad tone that the only reason Fiona could hear was because she was hiding behind the bushes right behind her. Tails and Bunnie gasped at hearing that while Sonic and Sally looked alarmed and upset, and the alternate Sally explained full of shame, " It's all my fault. Well, me and my version of Sonic. After we found out she had a past where she had to break the law to get food and water for herself, we had a much harder time trusting her. It made her feel like an outcast. We were even sending her on pointless fake missions to get rid of her so we could have meetings about whether we should trust her anymore, and the fact that some of us were defending her didn't make her feel any better. I think being treated with suspicion by Sonic was the worst of all. She said she expected better from him. Eventually, I told her I wanted her out, and she said we were the only people she had for support and she didn't want to go back to being alone! She was devastated, and she, she, jumped off the roof of the castle. " Tears welled up in her eyes and she wasn't the only one, as Tails and Bunnie were struggling not to cry as well, and Sally looked stunned, completely speechless and full of worry, wondering if the same thing could've happened in her world.
Fiona thought, " I guess it's a good thing I went with Scourge, " while wiping away tears and trying to avoid sniffling to alert people to her presence. The alternate Sally continued while walking over to the pillars with paintings on their stone, " I blamed myself for what happened. I'm the leader of the Freedom Fighters, I could've let her stay if I wanted to, and if only I'd been more accepting and supportive of her, she'd still be with us. So to try to make it up to her in spirit, I ordered this memorial to be built, immortalizing her showing off every single thing she did to further our cause. "
Sonic was stunned at seeing all the different paintings there were, since most of the time Fiona was with his friends was when he was lost in space, so he barely got to see her doing anything useful when he returned home. To everyone else, though, it really opened their eyes, as they started remembering when their own version of Fiona was helping them out. Sally went back and forth in her mind over what exactly to say, not wanting to appear insensitive and not convey her feelings right, before sighing heavily looking melancholic, which revealed everything she wanted to. Even Miles looked depressed at the whole thing, thinking, " What if that could've been me? If they refused to accept me for who I used to be, I wouldn't have been able to handle it, either. "
Tails said sadly, " Was that what that was really about? She left us because… she was scared. " There was a silence, until Bunnie said reassuringly with a forced smile, " Well, we saw that other Fiona Freedom Fighter alive and well, so maybe most versions of her didn't meet that fate. Maybe most of them really were forgiven. And speaking of forgiven, how's about Sally and us go have that lunch with the eye-patch Fiona and work things out with her? " What she and the rest of her friends didn't mention was that they also wanted to remind themselves not every Fiona had suffered the same depressing fate, by being with one as soon as possible.
To Fiona's surprise, Sally admitted reluctantly, " You're right, we should. It wasn't fair of me to pass judgment on her when she hadn't done anything to us. She seemed nice enough, " and Sonic added, " And, while it's not easy for me to admit, I shouldn't have been a jerk to her either. It wasn't ' affecting the now, ' in any way other than the way it made us treat her. We let her past get to us, when she seemed to have gotten past it, but we weren't exactly being helpful keeping it that way. It was a disaster waiting to happen. I should've just said somethin' like, ' ah, don't worry about it, what's past is past! You're friends with us now, and that's all that matters to us! ' But I didn't. Well, I did most of the time, but not... "
Fiona wiped away some more tears very conflicted, considering over and over again whether or not she should go up to them and just have a talk with them confirming Tails' sentence to be true. She had never been fully satisfied with the fact that she never told them the complete reason why she left them, and just seeing Tails was bringing back an old memory that tore her up inside, but she didn't want to look weak and pathetic by going up to them while still all teary-eyed, and possibly choked up at that. She didn't want to disappoint them getting Tails' hopes up from her mere presence without Scourge making them think, for even a second, that she was going back to them, something she ultimately didn't want to do because her " free spirit " boyfriend made her happier than she had ever been. " Going back to being ordered around by the bossy princess would feel like a downgrade, " she remembered reasoning with herself in her head earlier. She feared the awkwardness of talking to them and potentially being yelled at and argued with, especially when she was already too upset and fragile at the moment to handle it, but most importantly, it was because of Tails.
She knew that if she showed up, he would go from being an excited little puppy at assuming she was coming back to even more heartbroken and devastated than he was before at learning that she was still happy with Scourge and wanted to be with him, and that would cause a lot more trouble than it was worth. She decided that ultimately, it was better she just stayed put, because they had already figured out what she wanted them to. But there was still that part of her still attached to them who was pining for them as friends, nostalgic for the good times, wishing that she could just go back to them or people like them and start over, especially as Sally came as close as she ever had to admitting that she was in the wrong for the way she mistrusted her before she had done anything to betray them. And Sonic had admitted it outright. She couldn't bring herself to truly hate him anymore after that. But she couldn't bring herself to abandon Scourge either, especially considering how attached he was to her. He would be devastated, and she didn't want to think about what that'd do to him considering she was one of the only people who brought out his soft side. So with all of her reasoning in mind, she watched as her former friends warped away, and tears rolled down her face. " I'm sorry it had to be this way. "
When Scourge came back, by which point Fiona didn't look like she'd been crying anymore, he said to her holding the teleporter in one hand and a chocolate bar in the other, " I was lookin' at the teleporter, flipping through all the zones and I realized, there are MILLIONS of zones. Millions! I gotta step up my game. 'Cause if we just continue on this ' ice one Robotnik a day ' thing, I don't think I'm gonna get rid of 'em all before I've got gray hair! Don't worry, though, I won't overwork us, that'd be stupid. Let's just try to get as many as we can every day, and take lots of breaks to do some other stuff. " Fiona said happily, " That's a great idea! " and gave him a kiss, and with that, they went out for lunch.