A/N Chapter 18, awesome. Not much to say except to Shade of Naxx….. my brain exploded from all that punery. Lol

"Guess you have a "Nack for it"

Also for anyone wanting to know what the reference was it was When Tails was explaining ho Robo Nack tricked him. It was from the movie Predators, the third movie of the predator series.

Third, I have been feeling like this team could use one more person, but an OC of some kind. I can't put my finger on it but I feel there's a skill this team doesn't have yet. If anyone has any ideas I can build off it easily. But it's just it feels like one job is missing but I can't tell what. We have the tech heads from Tails and Nicole. The power from Shadow, Blaze and Silver, the speed from Shadow and Scourge. Agility/ which can confer to sneaking around) from Fiona and ruthlessness from Shadow, Tails and Scourge. If I missed one you think deserved to be mentioned among these people or skills I missed let me know on that too.

Ok back to the story.

Like Tails expected his mom wasn't letting him leave the base until he was fully healed.

Since he couldn't leave he had Shadow go out and grab what he could from Robo-Nack, most importantly he wanted the sniper rifle. He'd have asked for Shadow to see if he could salvage the memory core but Scourge had quite literally blown its head away.

He spent the most time working on finishing Nicole's projectors, it was pretty easy like he suspected and he was done the projectors in a few days. Some of those days he was forced to rest.

With the projectors ready he went about wiring the base up to make them all connected so when she walked into another room it would project her in an almost seamless transition.

The wiring and set up took longer, it required tearing out the walls. Because his injury made hard labor difficult he got Silver to help using his powers to lift away the walls with ease.

With all that done all he needed to do was set up the projectors to the walls and ceilings. He did the measurements and tried to set up every room so she'd be able to walk anywhere without anything blocking a projector. Some rooms required two or three. Luckily he made plenty. Finally with it all done he went for the test.

"Alright Nicole, all you need to do is plug yourself into this socket" he pointed to a new socket he had added to the control room "You'll connect to the system and you can project yourself anywhere. Like I said before it will only be a simple hologram unlike your PDA, so if you need to physically do something you'll have to use your PDA projector"

She nodded and took the cord he offered and placed her handheld into the desk and connected it and instantly felt the new connection.

Her form disintegrated and she appeared again in the main hall. Looking herself over she noticed nothing missing and smiled "Thank you Tails"

"No problem, it was a nice side project" he rubbed his sore wound afterwards.

While Tails worked on the projector system Nicole worked on making hacking easier for the team. She was able to make smaller versions of herself to be put in Tails hacking devices, their sole programing was to make simple hack jobs. Essentially it would allow anyone to just plug into minor systems and her smaller selves would do the work. Meaning while Tails was incapacitated from field ops people could steal info from bot like he had before.

Unlike Tails, Fiona had it harder, with a healing foot she had to crutch her way around the base . Much to Scourge's delight, cause now he could mess with her.

At one point he stole a crutch leaving her near helpless, shortly afterwards Shadow smacked him upside the head and gave it back to the fox.

As Tails predicted blips showed up all over his territory in time. Which meant something had to be done. In a short amount of time Tails devised a plan to possibly loosen the pressure all these patrols were making. He was still recovering so wasn't going to be apart of it so he tried to make it clear to everyone.

"Now we've got an infestation, and simply destroying them won't help. What we need to do is make Eggman think he miscalculated our position. What that means is we aren't gonna trick him into thinking we're miles away, but not exactly right here" he had been worried that any day now a drill bot would come and dig them out so they had to act fast.

"Alright smart guy, how the hell do we trick him into thinking that?" Scourge asked, something everyone else was wondering too.

Tails sighed "I was getting to that. Now the way I see it the only way we can do that is to let them see us"

"What how does that help us?" Silver asked worried about being shot.

"We need them to see us somewhere else, keep them on their toes. We'll show ourselves in various areas and make them think twice about our exact location. Make sense?" he looked around.

"So we show our faces somewhere that's not here and make them search in that area?" Silver asked wanting clarification, he got a nod so asked "What happens when they realize we aren't there?"

"Then we keep doing it until they either give up, doubtfully, or get wise and figure things out" it was the most solid plan the fox could think of, they couldn't abandon this place. He couldn't abandon this place.

"Then we better get to work quickly" Shadow said trying to get everyone moving.

Tails reminded everyone to take the new and improved hacking devices and be on the look out for opportunities to steal information.

As they started gearing up Nicole bid them good luck to which Scourge replied "Who needs luck when you're all skill"

"Well still, it is customary to bid such luck"

He just huffed and passed by "Don't worry, I'll make sure they don't get in and touch your buttons again"

Shadow groaned from the innuendo but Nicole was confused, it sounded obvious yet not obvious. They had messed with her before but for some reason she had feeling 'buttons' was being used as a double meaning.

With the four leaving, that left Fiona to sigh. She wanted to be out there helping but her damn foot just wouldn't let her. Luckily from what Rosemary said the shot miraculously did little actual damage so she just needed to heal the flesh wound.

It meant she'd be up and ready to go soon but until then she was more useless than dirt, taking up resources and not even being an able body. She felt guilty for taking up resources when she gave nothing back and had voiced it once or twice to Tails who had told her not to worry about it. He argued that it was like an investment, she would heal and become useful again.

She decided to just read, it was mostly all she could do. She didn't know what Tails would be up to during this time but getting lost in fantasy was always a way to get away for her. Too bad she had to pick a book that ended up paralleling her own life pretty hard. All it did was remind her of her past actions.

The female had been with a group of friends but ended up humiliating one of the boys of the group to become a popular girl. Only to be later humiliated herself a few years later by the very same girls. She had no friends by the end and hated by all.

She tossed the book not wanting to read more and forced herself to her feet and grabbed her crutches.

"Are my books seriously that bad?"

She looked to the door and saw Tails leaning against the frame.

"You could say that" she murmured.

Tails just chuckled "Ya well, that story kinda sucks anyway, a nice ending though"

She eyed him, what'd he mean by that?

Instead she changed subject "So what you up to?"

"Nothing much, your foot ok?"

She shrugged "Feels fine, but I ain't standing on it so I don't know"

He nodded and asked "Want me to check it out?"

"You don't have to, Rosemary does that for me" although the sentiment made her smile.

"Fine suit yourself" he shrugged.

Both were quiet for a moment…

"Any projects you planning on?" Fiona asked.

""I got one in progress" he said vaguely.

"Mind if I ask what it is?"

"Of course not, but I won't say much" he smirked smartly.

She rolled her eyes "Ok so what can you say?"

"That it's something I've been meaning to get to for awhile"

"Alright then?" she said confused.

"Anyway, I'm bored, and it looks like you are too. Might as well do something" Tails offered.

Fiona smiled, he seriously was trying. But she remembered her promise, she was going to try and leave after this was all over. Like she said before he didn't need her, all she did was hurt him.

But she was so bored and he was probably trying to pass the time as well so nodded "What you got in mind then?"

"You've been saying you want to help me with stuff, why not that?"

She looked at him like he was stupid "You realize my foot isn't healed in the five seconds we just talked about it?"

"I know, just come on" he said beckoning her to follow.

She sighed and hobbled after him and found him waiting near his workshop door. Continuing to follow he held the door for her and followed her inside.

Inside she could see it was the same as normal.

"So what are we doing?"

"Most of it will involve your hands so don't worry about having to walk"

"Ok, so what is it?" she asked again.

He walked to the back and revealed a tarp "I've been working on this, it's supposed to be a back up generator incase things break down. With that new core Silver and I found I know I can get it to work now"

"So then put it in" she shrugged.

"It's not designed for this kind of power core, meaning I got to gut it and rebuild the inner workings. I could use an assistant" He smiled hoping Fiona would accept.

"Fine, what you want me to do?" she hobbled closer.

"For now you can help by unscrewing stuff. We're pretty much gonna tear this thing apart" He tossed a wrench over to her which she caught .

He pulled out his own wrench and got to work hearing Fiona approach and begin helping. She was easily able to balance on one leg and found the screws easy to get rid of.

Halfway through taking it apart Fiona asked "So how you gonna change it?"

"I'll have to rewire it because most of the current wires are old. Either they can't handle the electricity that will be surging through this thing or are just broken. Then I'll have to build in a holder to put the core in, rebuild it. Possibly add some other stuff and finally hook it up and set it up to only be on if the power ends"

"Sounds like a lot of work" Fiona said grunting as she turned a rusted bolt out "But knowing you it's probably easier than I'm expecting"

"Ya, it's not that hard but then again, I got other stuff to do" He explained also starting to work on more rusted parts.

A few more bolts and Tails grunted finding one that refused to move.

"Come on" he grunted.

A struggled for a bit until Fiona hopped over and said "Here, I'll help?" both got ready and using their combined force until a loud snap signaled the screw broke free. Since they both used all their weight the wrench dropped and both fell.

Tails tried to steady himself but Fiona had no chance because of her hurt foot and fell on him and took him with her. They ended up in an x formation with Tails on his back and Fiona on her stomach.

"Dammit" she groaned her foot pulsing with every heartbeat.

As she rolled off Tails who wiped himself off and asked "You alright?"

"Are you ok, I hope I didn't crush you" she replied then hissed feeling her foot pulse again.

"I'm fine" he somewhat lied, her landing on him made his own healing wound sting.

"Well… we got it" the female grabbed the heavily rusted bolt and showed it to him.

"Ya, guess we did" he chuckled getting to his feet.

He helped her up as well and unknown to the female he found the contact surprisingly nice.

She put a hand on his shoulder to balance herself momentarily then nodded in thanks and got back to work.

He did the same and soon the generator was mostly in pieces. Tails rummaged through the stuff while Fiona took a seat to rest her leg "So how's it look?"

"Like shit, I've been holding onto this thing for a few months and I found it in some rubble. So this thing is most likely very run down. Still pretty easy if you ask me"

Fiona shook her head at his cockiness "You always were too good at this stuff"

He smirked "Yup, great with my hands and mind, sucked at girls though" he didn't mean specifically her.

She figured that out and asked "Any other girlfriends?"

"Well I hung out with Cream for awhile but that didn't last, I also kinda crushed on Li Moon a bit too. Pretty sure Barby liked me too but…. She was just a friend"

"Wow such a lady-killer" Fiona chuckled.

"Tails laughed "Should have seen the mail we got when Mobotropolis was set up again. Everyone kept sending mail telling me I was cute, date invites and all that stuff"

"Really? That sounds a little creepy" she cringed a bit.

"Made me blush a lot back then, that was shortly before I started to get stronger and more distant" he ripped out some wires that were seriously damaged.

She frowned but said "Admit it you liked all those girls calling you cute?"

"Maybe" he smirked.

Fiona smiled a little as he continued to rip the thing apart, removing tons of wires to replace for later. He then proceeded to take out other stuff like circuit breakers. Most were broken or couldn't handle the current that would be going through it when he was done.

"I got plenty of this stuff, it's easy to scavenge parts like this. I'm still trying to find places for the stuff I got in the first month" Tails explained.

"You have that much?"

"Yup…. Stepped into some gruesome scenes for it though" his voice grew somber remembering all the dead he'd seen that first month. Already a broken soul and he had to look at that.

"While I was looking for a safe place after my first encounter I saw several cities under attack, I could hear screams even across such a great distance" she explained.

"We'll get him, and make him scream" Tails growled fist clenched.

"I know we will, you'll figure things out" her gaze hardened agreeing with him feeling anger as well.

He stopped his fist continually clenched clearly thinking about all that he saw and soon Fiona found herself just behind him and a hand on his shoulder "Tails you ok?"

"How could this have happened?" he suddenly asked "How could things suddenly go so bad? The world was fine, it was alive… it was recovering. We finally stopped all the bullshit attacking Mobotropolis, the council was finally not under corruption. Everything was perfect…. And now, it's all gone, everything we worked for… everything just gone within a month" Tears escaped his eyes.

She had no answer, there was no way to answer that, things had gotten better, everyone was happy. Atleast that's what she'd heard considering she'd been with Scourge that entire time.

"Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't left… or if I had succeeded in killing Eggman, would we be here. Would the world be better or worse?" the younger fox revealed his regret to her. She wasn't sure if it was because of his grief or he was doing it on purpose but she squeezed his shoulder.

"That's all in the past… we can't think about that anymore" it was a bit of a reminder to herself as well.

"I was just a stupid kid…. I let what happen get to me… ruin me and now my friends are all dead and the world is destroyed with Eggman in charge. I could have made a plan…. Or we could have stopped him before but because I allowed what you said to destroy me we'll never know" oddly enough he hadn't blamed her, he now blamed himself. He seemed to now agree with what Fiona had said when he explained to her that he was what he was because of her. He definitely had thought about things.

"You can't beat yourself over it, you have to look forward. You are pretty much leading this team now. You set up this place and seem to be the only one with a plan. You are trying to fix it all. To make it right, and I'll be here this time. I promise" she instantly regretted saying it like that.

He looked to her tears of regret still dripping from his eyes and took a deep breath "You will?"

"Besides the fact that I got nowhere else to go at this point I want revenge too….. and I don't think abandoning you again will help you either"

"No it wouldn't" he admitted.

"Well I'm not leaving until it's all over… either we die or we succeed… then I don't know" she hoped this would tell him to not get used to her, and hoped that telling him ahead or time would prepare him for it.

"So you're just gonna leave again? You aren't gonna stay. People will need us to keep the peace when it's all over"

"You've got everyone else to do that"

"Blaze and Scourge will leave" Tails said.

"You'll still have Shadow, Silver and Nicole" Fiona reminded.

He scoffed "Maybe Silver, but I think Shadow will go and start travelling again, and I hate to say it but Nicole isn't much of a field operator even with her solid hologram form"

He was right, Silver might leave with Shadow when it was all over or simply go looking for the people he used to live with. That did leave her left as his only real ally. Now she felt really bad, she'd be leaving him relatively alone again, atleast he'd have Nicole.

"What if I told you I'll think about it?"

"Then think about it, just make sure you make the right choice this time" he went back to working signaling he was done with this conversation. He shrugged her hand off his shoulder clearly disappointed and stayed quiet.

The cold shoulder made her frown but now she was seriously considering if her previous promise was right now. Would it be right to leave him alone to protect the people if they got through all this?

Of course it wouldn't, but was it right for her to be around him, she hurt him. That's all she was worried about, hurting him again.

He stayed silent clearly not liking that she couldn't make up her mind and only spoke to give her instructions, it was really uncomfortable but she had to live with it now. She was frightened that all the progress they just made in being on good terms just went down the tubes because of what she said.

She thought maybe talking business would get him to speak again and asked "So, what are our plans ahead of us anyway?"

"I have Rosemary talking to Nicole occasionally hoping she'll remember some key information…. If not we might have to resort to reading bot minds again. Either way I'm hoping for something in particular"

"And that is?"

"I'm hoping we get a lead on a way to get his systems structure or codes. It will make hacking his systems with Nicole far easier"

"Good idea' she complimented.

"Thanks," he took it and said "If you want to rest you can"

"Is this one of those "You can but you actually should" kind of suggestions.

"A little of both" he grunted.

"You're starting to sound like your mother" she joked.

He managed a chuckle "Ya, guess I do"

She eventually joined again and after ripping something out a little too hard she scratched her hand off the old metal and hissed "Accident prone, great" she groaned.

It was a surprisingly bad cut and quickly started dripping so Tails grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around her hand "Doesn't hurt, right?"

She sighed and said "Don't need to worry over me"

"We're teammates, it's our job to look out for one another" he said surprisingly softly. His hands were gentle and both foxes stayed there kneeling in front of one another for a second.

Both realized they had both frozen and Fiona took back her hand and the cloth and Tails awkwardly let go and looked away. He got back to work and said "I got some rubbing alcohol in a draw, you want that?"

"Ya, that'd be nice" she lifted away the cloth briefly seeing the blood had gotten on her fur pretty badly she sighed hating blood in her fur.

He hopped up and grabbed the supplies in a cupboard and walked back and kneeled down next to her again "Let me see it" he said wetting another cloth with the alcohol.

She sighed and revealed the wound and grit her teeth knowing it would hurt. The two tailed fox applied the alcohol rubbing the cloth along the wound and had to forcefully keep her hand in place when she tried to pull it away.

When she wasn't trying to pull it away he was gentle like before.

His kindness made her finally say "Thank you" she still believed he didn't have to baby her like this but it was still nice of him and he deserved a thanks. Hell, he deserved more than just a thanks for getting over all his anger.

"Why do you want me to stay after all this is done?" she suddenly asked.

He looked up at her still cleaning her hand and said "Like I said, I need the help"

"No, that's not what I mean" she sternly replied.

He sighed and asked "Than what do you mean?"

"You aren't afraid I'll screw you over again?"

He stopped his cleaning and looked directly at her and asked "Are you?"

The question made her freeze, he had complete faith in her, after everything he trusted her…. But did she trust herself?

Before anything could be said they heard a knock on the door and Tails sighed lightly getting up to see who it was.

Fiona kept nursing her wound and got to her feet.

The male fox opened the door and found the team was back and unharmed.

"Everything work out?"

Shadow nodded "Nobody saw us come back this way"

"Ya and we gutted a few robots on the side " Scourge gloated.

"Yes, speaking of that we have some stuff for you" Shadow handed over some usbs from the hacking devices.

"Excellent, I'll get mom to decrypt them as soon as possible. Good job" he pocketed the sticks "Just remember we'll have to keep doing this distraction stuff to keep them on their toes"

They all nodded and let him be.

He looked back and saw Fiona was behind him getting ready to leave, her hand wrapped in a cloth and said "Thanks for helping me pass the time, I'll leave you alone now"

He just quietly opened the door for her and watched her walk out and sighed.

"Almost"

So that was fun, I've been meaning to get Fiona and Tails to talk alone for a bit and found a nice opportunity for it here. Glad that's over. And yet I still fit in a way to continue the story plot.

Anyway not much to say so live long and prosper… oh wait ya that's right, lots of work up ahead so I might have slightly slower updates.

Admiralkirk