One thing Gadget quickly learned when he and Zerinn took their first steps into the desert he hadn't been prepared for the blistering heat during the harsh mornings of the desert. Unused to the heat, dust, and sand, Gadget spent a miserable day taking cautious sips of water. Zerinn followed his lead looking almost comfortable in the extreme conditions. On the other hand, the cold night desert breeze was a mixed blessing. It was a relief to no be hot anymore at least. The icy winds made Gadget shivering trying to warm himself up. He tried to suppress the shivers that crept up his body, noticing Zerinn didn't even seem bothered by the cold.

Gadget paused, seeing something out of the corner of his eye. He tilted his head, looking up at the vast night sky. There were many stars. It was wondrous. There were millions of stars that lit up the sky. Gadget stared up entranced by the beauty his tail wagging ever so slightly a look of wonder in his eyes. Gadget had a feeling that he could look at these vast starry skies forever.

"Come on! You need to keep moving!"

Zerinn's harsh voice snapped Gadget out of his thoughts seeing Zerinn glare at him for a second before he turned on his heel with a huff of annoyance. Zerinn resumed his fast pace, indicating that the sooner they got to Saharais the sooner he could leave Gadget to find his Aunt and Uncle. It would also free up Zerinn to return to his family the weight of the wolf's fate would be no longer be on his conscious.

True to character Gadget opened the sack to check on their supplies. Their bottles of water filled up with water at the tiny oasis that Zerinn had found. Zerinn reassured Gadget that the water was untainted. The fruit Gadget had stolen from the refugee camp was consumed otherwise they would've rotted rendering them not fit for consumption. Their trek through the desert under the relentless heat of the sun had been arduous.

Zerinn kept up his steady pace, turning his head back ever so slightly to see Gadget keeping pace with him a determined expression on the wolf's face shivering ever slightly. He was still walking in silence the corners of his mouth were turned down in a small frown betraying. Zerinn felt a little bubble of guilt gnawing away at his chest. Even though Gadget convinced him to take him to Sunset Heights, the wolf looked miserable wrapping his tail around his legs, rubbing at his elbows to keep himself warm.

"Hey, you're not too cold back there, are you?"

Gadget's head shot up in surprise seeing an odd expression on the jackal's face. "I'm a little bit cold, yes, but you must be warm with all of that thick fur."

Zerinn let out a low sigh slowing down, allowing the wolf to catch up with him. He saw the grateful expression in the wolf's eyes who pressed ever closer to him feeling the warmth of the jackal's fur.

Gadget ran his fingertips over the dense fur, Zerinn tensed tilting his head. From the corner of his eye ever so slightly seeing Gadget stroking his coat in wonder. Zerinn wasn't comfortable with physical contact especially with a stranger that just walked up to him to touch him.

"Stop it!" Zerinn's shouted harshly. "I'm not something that you can touch."

Gadget recoiled as though he'd been just stung withdrawing his hand from Zerinn's side.

"I'm sorry, it's just that your fur's so soft," Gadget replied pinning his ears back against his head. "I didn't mean to upset you Zerinn."

He heard Zerinn sigh still not even bothering to move away from him. Zerinn was an enigma. Gadget wanted to understand why the jackal was angry all the time. To Gadget the jackal couldn't be more than ten years old, but to be so mad at the world around him.

I want to help you.

Gadget looked all around the desert looking around nervously. The desert sands seemed quiet. The wolf couldn't shake the feeling that there was something out there watching them and was it his imagination or was a pair of eyes watching his and Zerinn's progress. The pair of eyes moved away as Gadget made out three shapes slowly following a fair distance behind them running from the rock pile to rock pile keeping their distance. There was no doubt someone was following them.

"Hey, Zerinn are you sure that there aren't any monsters out here?"

Siren paused in mid-stride, looking back at Gadget nervously glancing around at the vast desert sands expecting a monster to pop out of the dunes that would eat them. Here was the thing though. Zerinn was bored trekking across the desert playing escort to a naive wolf who resorted to the puppy dog eyes to get him to agree to take him to Saharais.

At the mention of the word monsters, an idea began to take place in Zerinn's mind. He let out a low, chuckle underneath his breath confident that the wolf was going to fall for it. It reminded him of a game that he used to play with Kaito. Zerinn took several steps towards the young wolf who froze in place. "Oh, some big hairy snakes are lurking beneath the sands out here," Zerinn said smiling. "They love to snap up little wolf children who stray across the desert sands at night."

Zerinn stood close to Gadget lifting his thick tail getting ready to drape it across Gadget's shoulders. "Oh no! There's one about to attack!" Zerinn cried out in mock horror. Gadget tensed feeling something thick and heavy drape on his shoulders. The wolf stiffened trying to jerk away from the object. He panicked for a moment his brain sending him messages that a big hairy snake had rested on his shoulder, prompting him to squirm batting away at the furry thing.

So this is it. I'm going to die. Gadget thought. Well, I'll guess that I'll be seeing mommy and daddy soon.

Gadget closed his eyes the tips of his nails digging into the thick hairy thing to dislodge it from his shoulders, hearing a quiet amused chuckle coming from Zerinn's direction.

"Gadget relax," Zerinn smiled, fighting the urge to laugh. "It's just my tail."

Gadget blushed in embarrassment, seeing that it was indeed Zerinn's tail draped across him. He glared. "'Zerinn! That wasn't funny!"

"Yes, it was," Zerinn doubled over in a small fit of laughter. "You should've seen your face!"

It was a bizarre difference. One moment Gadget was dealing with an angry jackal who appeared to hate the world but seeing Zerinn smiling and laughing it was like the jackal had dropped the cold barrier around him showing a different side to Zerinn.

"How far are we from Saharais?" Gadget questioned seeing the small smile fade from the jackal's mouth. He heaved a sigh pointing towards several silhouettes of tall towers in the distance that was several meters away.

"You see those tall towers in the distance? That's Saharais. We usually have lookouts stationed on top of them to warn the civilians if there's any danger heading their way."

Gadget shrugged feeling small butterflies in his stomach. The truth was yes Zerinn was still cold towards him, there had been brief moments that they'd talked when Gadget confirmed yet again he did have relatives in Saharais which seemed to ease the jackal's suspicions.

"So what happened to your parents then?"

Gadget's ears drooped slightly. The familiar ache of grief wormed its way up his stomach through the prick of tears threatened to spill out from the corners of his eyes. It still hurt so much. Even though it had been over three years since they died, he missed them every day.

"They were Agents of G.U.N," Gadget said sadly. "They died when Eggman launched an attack on Cyber City, and I still have nightmares about it." The wolf's eyes became watery for a brief moment.

Zerinn paused in his stride, feeling the wolf bump up right against him with tears in his eyes. He'd heard of the latest Eggman attack having overheard his parents discussing it late one night wondering if there was ever the chance that Eggman would ever set his sights on their small desert town. Zerinn recalled his father laughing at his step mother's concerns, claiming that their city was lacking in metals that Eggman would need to build his armies of robots.

Secretly there were times when Zerinn longed for both of his parents to drop dead. His father was the leader of the Jackal Squad for he'd decided long ago that despite his son's deformities Zerinn would be his heir pushing him relentlessly. He would also deprive Zerinn of food when he didn't do well enough in his training.

"You were lucky to have good parents," Zerinn said with a frown. "I think that mine just wants me and my younger half-brother dead."

His ears twitched hearing the small gasp of horror when a sudden impact told him that Gadget was wrapping his arms around his shoulder, drawing him into a hug where he awkwardly returned the hug, holding the sobbing wolf close to him rubbing a hand on Gadget's back in a circle hoping to soothe the wolf.

"My mother died after I was born," Zerinn said quietly. "My father and older siblings have hated me ever since then."

"That's awful, and I'm so sorry to hear that," Gadget mumbled. "I do mean it by the way."

Zerinn lifted his hand off on the young wolf's back. They resumed their walk in silence the only sound was their footsteps sinking into the sand. The tall wall that Gadget seen slowly rose up into view as a low howl cut through the nighttime air. Gadget stiffened. He would know that howl anywhere. He saw Zerinn tense looking around the area his large ears were twitching, trying to detect the source of the sound.

"Well well lookie at we have here."

Gadget felt a chill down his spine seeing Chad stepping out of the shadows with Mara and Aster following right behind him the three bullies formed a line between the duo and Saharias with a nasty grin appearing on Chad's face.

"I suppose these are the Mobians that want you dead," Zerinn whispered underneath his breath, seeing the terrified expression on Gadget's face. "We can take them."

"Yes, they are."

"Hey jackal hand over the Machine lover, and we'll let you go on your way," Mara said coyly her ears pinning back sizing up Zerinn. "Although I don't mind roughing you up as well."

Zerinn inhaled deeply his chest rose as he did so before letting loose a loud howl causing Gadget to flinch putting his hands over his ears protecting them from the noise. He saw the group of bullies recoil from the loud noise with Chad scowling at Zerinn.

"Shut up you weak little pup!" Chad cried out as Zerinn cut his call short racing across the sands to collide with Chad. Zerinn dodged the first punch tripping Chad up planting his tail on the ground, landing a couple of kicks on Chad's side. The maned wolf grunted in pain.

Gadget faced both Mara and Aster who turned their attention towards him. He ducked to the ground, breaking into a run tripping up Aster who collided with Mara sending the two of them sprawling on the desert sands.

"Get him! Kill the machine lover!"

Aster was the first to get to his feet a snarl on his face; he ran at Gadget again stepping on Mara's tail in the process, hearing a yelp causing her to tackle Aster knocking him back on the sound a cloud of sandy dust rose up from where their bodies hit the dunes.

"Come here you little freak!"

Mara stuck Gadget hard across the muzzle knocking him flat on his back with Mara pressing down on his chest a small clenched in her left fist. Aster ran over to help hold Gadget down while she ended his life. Gadget thought his fingers were quickly grabbing the sand beneath his fist throwing it right at Mara's eyes who turned her head away, dropping her dagger to rub at her eyes allowing Gadget to kick her in the abdomen.

"Oh, that's it! No one messes with us and lives!" Aster snarled.

Gadget wasn't going to be afraid anymore; he clenched his fist tucking his thumb on the inside of his fist punching with all of his might landing a blow on Aster's nose who reconciled with a pained howl for Gadget winced feeling his thumb on his left-hand break from the impact.

Gadget hissed in pain emitting from his thumb, but the sight of Aster staggering around with a nosebleed was worth it. Over the last few years of Chad's group bullying Gadget. A small bubble of pride rose up in his chest. He'd did it. He had fought back against his tormentors.

"Gadget!"

Gadget turned hearing Zerinn's voice around to see Chad wrestle Zerinn to the ground, placing a foot on the young jackal's back, pinning him in place bending down on one knee to land several punches in a row hearing the jackal yelping in pain.

"You punk I'm not weak!" Zerinn placed his hands on the sandy floor attempting to push himself up off the ground openly to hear Chad laugh applying pressure to his aching back forcing him down to the desert sand. He hated this feeling of weakness all he wanted to do was to scream in frustration. If any of his family saw him now, he knew that the teasing would never stop and his siblings would never let him live it down.

"So then you're going to find out exactly what happens to those who protect machine lovers."

Chad smirked slowly removing the small dagger from its sheath preparing to stab Zerinn only for the sounds of heavy breathing a lightweight slammed into his side. The pressure was on Zerinn's back from the corner of his eye; he saw that Gadget had tackled Chad wrapping his arms around the maned wolf's chest preventing him from moving.

"You damn little punk!"

Gadget could feel Chad's furious struggle to get to his feet. Zerinn was already getting to his feet racing over to lend him a hand only to hear the sounds of footsteps. Three jackals came running from seemingly out of nowhere for the leader of the trio of jackals had many scars on his body, and in his right hand, he was clasping the hilt of a short crimson sword embedded with several smaller sapphires.

"Jackal Squad! Subdue the intruders!"

It was all over in the blink of an eye. The first thing that Gadget felt was a rough hand grabbing him by the sack tossed away to the ground; he'd briefly glimpsed the battle-scarred jackal snort pinning Chad to the ground resting the tip of his sword against Chad's throat.

"Don't move if you know what's good for you punk."

Mara and Aster had been subdued by the other two jackals who slowly walked back towards their leader underneath the midnight glow of the moon. The jackals were deaf to the coyote and other jackal's protests demanding that to let them go.

"Cassius, what do we do with these three?"

The leader of the jackals who'd led the attack turned to regard the bullies who had a look of fear plastered on their faces for Cassius looked equally unimpressed with them.

"Take them back to the camp and keep an eye on them," Cassius turned a small scowl forming on his face spying his son hurrying over to where Gadget lay on the ground. "I need to talk with my son."

'Gadget are you okay?"

Gadget looked to see Zerinn holding his hand out, allowing Gadget to take it, he shakily stood up on his feet. Aware of the glare that the scarred jackal shot him, he opted to keep quiet for the scarred jackal got to his feet forcing Chad to walk with him. Zerinn turned to face his Father a defiant expression on his face seeing Cassius come to a stop a small scowl forming on his face. Gadget could feel the tension in the air between father and son. Gadget could see the way that Zerinn's tail lashed from side to side, glaring in anger at his father his fists clenched.

"So you passed your trial after all."

"I did, and this is Gadget," Zerinn introduced Gadget. "He's heading to Sunset Heights since he has relatives there who are willing to take him in."

Cassius still kept an ironclad grip on Chad narrowed his eyes staring Gadget right in the face scrutinizing every detail of his face. He heard an annoyed sigh coming from the bigger jackal who shot a glare at Zerinn. Father and son did lookalike especially since they both shared the ribcage stripe pattern on their bodies and the long white mane of dreadlocks.

"Hi, I uh, met your son and I think that you know my Au-"

"I know about the wolves that you're looking for," Cassius growled. "I was near Sunset Heights pursuing a thief when the coward ambushed two wolves who looked a bit like you and shot them dead. Don't mourn for their deaths; wolves are backstabbing liars anyway."

Zerinn glanced over at Gadget seeing the wolf's eyes closing in in grief. Cassius said nothing glaring down at Gadget his lip in a snark. His face contorted into a hateful expression. The wolf was aware of the cruel laughter coming from Chad hearing a sharp smack silencing Chad. Cassius walked on ahead pulling Chad along with him the other two jackals walked ahead of them with their prisoners in tow.

"Come on. I'm sorry for your loss."

Gadget felt Zerinn drape a gentle arm around Gadget's shoulder. His Aunt and Uncle were gone too. Deep down Gadget wanted to scream in both frustration and sadness. He had to wonder what he'd done to deserve losing his family members.

"We're heading back to our campsite," Zerinn said. "It's nothing fancy since you'll most likely have to share a tent with my half-brother and I. If someone dared to hurt Kaito I would have no idea how I would react."

"Whose Kaito?" Gadget asked, wiping away a tear on his face.

"Oh, he's my younger half-brother, and he's, uh pretty excitable," Zerinn said smiling softly. "I think that you'll like him."

Gadget looked all around at the vast streets and the buildings carved from stone with a dull interest in vain trying to ignore the weight of his breaking heart inside. He had no home, and he still let a few tears slip down his face. He was scared due to not knowing what was going to happen to him.

"You can say with us," Zerinn said. "I'll have to talk to my dad, but I'm sure that you can."

Gadget's ears twitched a tiny smile appeared on his face, his tail wagged slowly in mixed feelings. He felt Zerinn sling an arm around him gently guiding Gadget into unknown territory. The only thing that comforted Gadget was the fact he had Zerinn at his side.

Disclaimer I don't own anything, not the characters and everything else since it all belongs to SEGA. The only things I own are my OCS and Saharais.

Author's note.

Well, with three chapters in and Zerinn is slowly starting to warm up to Gadget after the tense start between the two of them.

The scene where Infinite pulls a prank on Gadget was inspired by the Sonic wiki where the article on Infinite states that he hates boredom and it gave me an opportunity to show of Infinite's more playful side since at this point he's escorting a young wolf who is naive and new to the world.

Now then time for the review replies.

Guest Thanks! Yeah well, the bullies were part of Broken Friendship, and it was always the plan to bring them back for the rewrite. They'll get what's coming to them later on.

SD321 Thanks! Zerinn I'd imagine even as a kid he was hostile towards strangers, and he doesn't like to have his way be challenged, and it presented an opportunity for me to show that their first interactions didn't go so well, but it will improve with time.

TGN Thank you. Well considering that they met just last night they're still at the acquaintance stage and as the story progresses, there is going to be a friendship between the two of them.

Arctic Starflower Thank you for the review. They are so young and naive especially Gadget while Zerinn is a bit more knowledgeable about the world and you'll have to wait and see how they'll play off one another.

Turquoise Triangle I know that Wolf hunting is an awful suggestion and on the subject of Mobians hating machines, the Mobians aren't afraid of devices that will benefit them such as cars, dishwashers and hair dryers. They are scared of the machines that are used as weapons, and that's why most of the refugees are wary around Gadget.

That's all for now, please don't hesitate to leave thoughts, suggestions, and reviews which are always welcomed and appreciated and I will see you guys soon with the next chapter.