A/N Ah ok so this is the next chapter, maybe I'll get a lot done because I randomly got a three day work week. Whatever, I'll see if I can use it.
Also 'guest' thanks for the kind words, it's reviews like that that make me go all introspective and wonder "How am I fooling all these people into thinking I'm a good writer?" but seriously thanks for the kind review, those keep going when I get writers block
Morning came and Fiona got up from bed still very tired. She wanted to go back to sleep, but she had other things to do.
After a quick stretch and some bones popping she used a small half broken mirror to check herself. Not too bad considering everything.
With that done she went out to meet everyone, if anyone was awake yet.
Unsurprisingly Nicole was up, although she technically never slept. Fiona noticed she didn't look too happy and didn't even notice her approach.
"Nicole, what's up?" she asked taking a seat at the small table that had become the dinner table.
"Huh? Oh… sorry I didn't notice you come in" the lynx apologized trying to get back to her normal state, and failing pretty bad at it "I am doing fine" she wasn't very convincing.
"You don't look very fine, I'm your friend you can talk to me" she felt like Sally saying something like that to the lynx.
"No it's ok I'm….." she frowned taking half a second to reconsider "… What would you do if someone was trying to stay away from you?"
That was an oddly specific question, what would possess her to say that? Fiona looked to the lynx and noticed she was avoiding her gaze. What was going on?
"What would make you want to ask that during all of this?" the fox asked.
"No reason, I-I…. I remember that experience happening in the past and not knowing what to do. Always trying to learn…. Right?" she clearly sucked at lying.
Fiona almost prodded for more but perhaps she could get it more subtly "I'm gonna need more information to answer that question. Like is there a particular reason I want this person to stop ignoring me?"
"Well…. Ummm, you feel bad when they are avoiding you?" she half asked.
Nicole nodded "Yes, I thought they liked me being around but they just stopped" she continued to lie about this person being in the present and not the past.
Fiona quickly figured out who she was talking about, it almost made her roll her eyes. She still had to help and said "Well maybe h-they needed time. Maybe they wanted to come back but just felt like being on their own a think" if this was about something in the past that might have been what happened but she knew from her vague hints that it was someone in the here and now, and she knew who.
Nicole thought it over and nodded "Yes, maybe that was the problem, I will- should have done that" her little mess up made it clear it was about someone right now. It was a small pool of people to choose from and narrowing it down was easy.
"Your welcome Nicole, now I got things to do, Tails is planning to start scavenging around the city for supplies and I plan to see him off" the fox already getting up to see if he was awake yet.
"I'm sure he will appreciate your support" the lynx smiled looking a little better then when the fox first appeared.
"Talk to you later" the fox waved and walked off to Tail's room.
She must have timed it right because he was walking out just as she rounded the corner. He looked tired still, one half of his face was squished and messed up, he must have slept on his side. His tired eyes almost didn't notice the vixens approach.
"Morning sleepy head"
He made a tired smile "Mornin Fi, how long you been awake?"
"Only a few minutes. Talked with Nicole for a minute or two" she explained trying not to chuckle at his bed-fur.
"Oh alright" he rubbed some sand from his eyes with a yawn "Anyone else awake?"
"Not that I'm aware of, but who knows. Besides Shadow, Scourge and Blaze are all good at being quiet and being by themselves"
He nodded in agreement "You aren't wrong there"
"So you still gonna go and scavenge for parts?" Fiona changed subject.
"Yup, we won't have much of an arsenal without it. Eggman won't need to defeat us if we have no way of attacking"
"I don't think I've heard true-er words in awhile" the vixen agreed.
Tails began walking with Fiona. Tails still didn't seem to notice his bed fur.
"You better be careful" Fiona spoke up softly.
He smiled glad she was worried "I will Fi, you know me. Smart and fast, and I got the suit anyway" he had confidence in his mechanical and physical skills to keep him safe.
She sighed sadly "I know it's just….. well you know…. I… care about you… and-"
"And that makes you worried, know Fi" he smiled holding her hand to reassure her.
Despite what she admitted she hated to admit she was worried for him. He'd be alone out there and if he got in trouble she wouldn't be able to help.
"Remember, if anything happens I'll have my radio connected to Nicole. I can call her and she can send out Shadow and Scourge" Tails had everything planned out "I even have a route that I will give to Nicole so she'll know exactly where I should be. It's marked with segments, emergency escape routes and even places I remember that might have good chances to have salvage. I could name things and she'd know exactly where to send Shadow and Scourge" he explained his entire plan. Hopefully he didn't miss anything.
"Well… it does sound as full proof as it can be, so I will be able to worry less. But I will still worry" Fiona smiled, he was a smart fox. She almost forgot he didn't do anything without a plan.
He chuckled and said "Well atleast it's less"
Their hands broke apart as they met up with Nicole again, they still wanted their relationship to be a secret.
"Morning Nicole" Tails smiled.
"Good morning Tai-" she stopped and began giggling.
"Uhhh, what?" The kitsune asked confused "Is my shirt inside out?"
"No" she snickered "You have very bad bed fur"
"I do?" he felt around his face and felt his cheek fur squished up against his face.
Fiona finally began laughing at him as well "I…. wanted to see…. How long… it'd take for…. Someone to tell you" she spoke through her own laughter.
He gave her an annoyed face and began fussing with it to straighten it out a little.
Both girls quieted their laughing until their giggles died down. Nicole quickly asked "So Fiona said you were going to go scavenging?"
He nodded and began reaching into his pocket "Yes, I have a whole route mapped out for you to download and bunch of other information. So if I get in trouble I can give you exact directions so Scourge and Shadow can respond as fast as possible" he pulled out a small memory stick he'd found somewhere in his old workshop.
She smiled taking the memory stick and put it into her PDA quickly downloading the info to her memory.
"You better hope nothing bad is in there" Fiona smirked.
"It's clean of anything along those lines" Tails rolled his eyes.
"I don't know, you were a maturing little boy back then 'anything' could be on it" she continued to tease making him blush.
"Well I made sure it was clean" he said again.
Nicole spoke up "You sure?" she copied Fionas smirk.
"I-I…. I know I wiped it clean" Tails faltered for a moment blushing badly now.
Fiona nearly keeled over in laughter "Nope, we caught ya, you naughty fox!"
Nicole joined in the laughter as well and said "Oh wow, I didn't realize you were into that"
"WHAT!?" Tails lost his composure now believing her.
Fiona needed the table to support herself so she didn't fall over as the laughter quickly hurt her sides.
Tails just groaned, she was definetly gonna ask him about that stuff later.
Nicoles laughter died again and went back to a more professional tone of voice "Well anyway I think it's a good plan and route"
Tails just groaned "Thanks…. I'm gonna go get ready" he just wanted to get away from the girls.
Fiona was going to catch up and see him off but turned to Nicole "Was there anything actually on there?"
"Nope" the lynx chuckled.
Fiona stared at the lynx for a moment and said with a impressed smile "I must have missed you grow up a lot" she was frankly amazed that she had developed enough make a joke like that so convincingly.
The lynx modestly smiled "Yes" her smile twisted into a sort of sad smile "I remember Sally was so proud of me and how far I've come"
Fiona frowned at the mention of her old rival. Sally hadn't seemed very forgiving to her back then. She actually sucker punched her once. Of course she was trying to talk up Tails at the time, but still, a simple push would have worked.
Although now that Fiona knew the anger was temporarily from the betrayal and more from disappointment she couldn't be mad at Sally anymore.
"If it means anything I'm also proud to see you come so far" it wasn't much, and she admittedly sucked at this, but she hoped it helped.
The lynx smiled "Thank you, it is good to have you as an ally again"
"Strangely enough, despite everything going on around us, it's good to be back" the fox smiled before heading back to meet up with Tails.
The fox went to the workshop and found Tails starting to get ready. He was picking up the helmet and gave it a quick inspection. His armor looked so lonely on that shelf. It used to be filled with tons of stuff he'd made. The only things left of his old stuff was some useless wires, and scrap metal. Eggman might have taken some of his stuff when he captured Sonic, or maybe some scavengers came through and took what they could.
'No wait!' Fiona thought 'He took all his stuff to his base when he moved' she frowned again, ya….. it was definetly all gone.
Tails must have been thinking the same thing because he looked at the shelves as well. His ears folded back as he sighed.
"Sad to see your toys all gone?" Fiona asked walking over to him. The way she said it wasn't joking or mocking, she sort of missed it all too.
"Ya" he sighed again keeping his eyes along the rows of empty space "It's all back in that crater I called home"
"Hey, hey don't go and have a flashback on me now" she tried to keep him from getting despressed and thinking about his mom again.
"No I mean, it's kinda weird is all" his ears raised back up "Brought all my belongings to that place, made it my home. Now it's all gone and I'm back here wondering why I ever moved"
"We all make mistakes, look at me, I'm like a walking tutorial to mistake making" she joked.
"I know…. I'm just wondering if I'd be happier dying with all my friends instead of all this. I would have died among friends….. family"
"Please don't say stuff like that Tails, I know things have turned out bad for the world. I know…. People have died…. But if you had died out there I'd still be on square zero on my plan to kill Eggman. Shadow and Silver would still be endlessly defending that town. Blaze and Nicole would still be trapped in jail, and most importantly Sonic would be working for Eggman forever… and you and I…" she looked down, she hated the idea all of that staying the way it was.
"You've given us all a goal, even Scourge, and a chance to be heroes one more time and give this planet a chance to survive. If you died that day all hope would have been lost. These chain of events may be the harder of the two, but if we succeed it will be the better outcome"
Tails looked to her sadly "Fiona…. I'm sorry… I didn't mean to make it sound like I don't understand all that and definetly don't think I don't appreciate what's happened through all of this. Especially with you and me" he smiled warmly to her letting her know he wouldn't trade that for anything.
He cleared that up "But…. I just hate being the center of attention and being the most important thing. It's so much pressure…. I have no idea how Sonic and Sally could handle it and the responsibilities, and having all these peoples lives hinging on my words"
Tails covered his face groaning "I'm sorry Fi, it's just-!"
Fiona put her hands on his shoulder "Look at me Tails"
The fox kept his hands over his face.
"Move those hands before I move them myself" she growled.
He sighed and revealed his face to look at a frowning face.
"Tails you aren't alone here. We talked about this, we're all a team. You are not alone to make descisions. Besides, we are all following your orders of our free will. We all follow your orders because we trust you, but we know when to chip in our own ideas or question anything" Fiona sternly explained again.
"But if they die?" Tails asked barely holding back tears.
"Then we died doing what we know is right. We're all here because there is no other sensible option" Fiona explained.
"I…. Yes…. Ummm"
"Just don't think about it ok? You got important stuff to do ok?" Fiona pinched his cheeks trying something silly to make him feel better.
Tails rubbed his cheeks a little but managed a small smile.
Fiona smiled back and said "Now how about we make a deal. While you're out scavenging, you aren't in charge, I'll be in charge. It can be like that anytime you go out scavenging. You can just forget about being the leader and just get lost in your salvage and tech stuff" clearly in reality he'd always be the leader of the team but sometimes pretending was all you needed.
He thought about it "But I-"
She quickly put a finger to his lips "Ah, ah, ah. Don't talk, just get ready, get out there and get lost in the fantasy alright? I will keep everything under control while you're gone" she smiled reassuringly "And no, before you ask I won't go all power hungry psycho bitch alright?"
Tails chuckled "Oh good, I was worried for a second"
Both foxes chuckled that out and Fiona said "Now get your stuff on and be careful" she gave him a peck on the cheek then shoved his helmet into his hands.
He smiled and was already looking more confident. He put his armor on and put on a large empty pack.
"If I find something to large then we'll try to figure something out for later" he took a deep breath "Alright I'll be back"
"Better be" Fiona mumbled.
"You have something planned for me when I do?" Tails asked voice being filtered by the helmet now.
"Mayyyyybe" she smiled deviously "But you'll have to come back in one piece for that, so no taking chances got it?"
"Ya alright" he fake sighed, like being told not to take chances wasn't fun or something.
With that he walked out of the building, activated his stealth systems and just like that, he was a ghost now.
Fiona was sure he could handle himself, he'd made nearly two years by himself and had been causing trouble to any robot who got into his territory, so she was sure he could avoid being spotted.
She had other work to get to anyway. The fox walked back into the building and began searching for a hedgehog, a green one. She needed to figure out what was going on with him. He usually enjoyed Nicoles company, even she could see that. Now he was avoiding her, why?"
"I told him that if he messed with her, or hurt her he'd have me to worry about" she mumbled to herself.
She suddenly realized she had no idea where he even slept and sighed in annoyance.
Fiona searched for about half an hour before finding Scourge sitting alone deep in the basement. Chaos is had become an absolute wreck down here. If Tails had no brought the power core and been able to keep the whole building lit she'd have never been able to find him down there.
He was currently sitting against a wall arms crossed and half looking to the floor.
"What you doing down here?"
His eyes shot up to her "Could ask you the same thing"
A predictable response from him "Looking for you, now why are you down here?"
"Because I want to, why aren't you on the heels of your old squeeze?" he mocked.
"He's out scavenging and I need to talk to you about something" she crossed her arms quickly trying to avoid the subject of Tails.
"No I'm not gonna give you a quick ride for old times sake" Scourge huffed chuckling at the remark.
"Shut up asshole" she growled, the very idea disgusted her now. Her time away from Scourge had allowed her real personality to flourish again, she didn't have to convince herself she was someone else once she was away from him.
He rolled his eyes "What do you want?" he wanted her gone.
"What the hell is going on with you?"
He looked at her like she was stupid "What's going on with me, what the hell is that even supposed to mean?"
"Why are you avoiding Nicole?" she clarified.
He faltered ever so slightly, so small that only someone who had known him long enough would notice, for a split second he showed vulnerability in his eyes. It quickly disappeared.
"Because she's annoying me, I was being nice letting her hang around me at all" he growled defensively.
"Bullshit! If she annoyed you that much you'd never have let her come back at all, but you didn't. You allowed he to continue to hang out and you enjoyed her company. Trust me I know you" she sneered at him daring him to lie to her again.
He laughed "Oh so you think you know me, you should remember I like woman and is definetly not a bad looking lady. Maybe I like having something nice to look at all day" he smirked.
"No I don't think that's what it is. She seems really upset that you are avoiding her. She really liked being around you"
"Not my problem" he snorted.
Fiona snarled "Oh it is your problem. I told you that if you hurt her you'd have me to worry about. We don't need her worrying about whether you don't like her in a battle"
"She's an AI she can get over it, besides" he paused "She shouldn't be caring about someone like me"
Fiona was quiet looking at him, he was right, but it sounded like he meant more to it. He was suddenly avoiding eye contact again and lost a lot of his defensive stance. She looked at the hedgehog for a moment tried to choose her words carefully.
With a much softer tone she asked "What's going on Scourge"
He contoured to stay quiet but her change in tone made him tense up, she was on the right trail and he knew it.
When he still didn't answer she continued "Listen Scourge, I know you don't think I like you after you left me behind. To a certain extent I do still find it hard to trust you, but you have been proving me wrong so far. Now I also know I was one of the closest people to you back then and I know when something is eating away at you"
"You don't know me" he growled making her flinch back instinctively already subconsciously fearing him due to what he'd done to her in the past.
But it never came and she opened her eyes to find him facing away again. His one hand covering his face.
"Thanks for reminding me why I'm doing this" he mumbled.
She cautiously went back to her full height and chose her next move very carefully "What….. What are you doing?"
Scourges hand balled into a fist as he grit his teeth. His body tensed an he took a deep breath. Once again she thought he was about to lash out at her but very suddenly his arms went lax, his shoulders dropped and his head tilted back to face the ceiling. A loud depressed sigh escaped his throat and he slowly turned.
"I'm protecting her" his normally angry eyes were now filled with rarely seen emotion. His features soft and had lost all the hard features in his face.
"Protecting her? You've protected her a bunch of times already…. Very uncharacteristically of you might I add" she hoped the blunt comment wouldn't shut her out or provoke his anger.
"That's the point" he said a little anger coming back, he sort of hoped she'd understand what he meant by now but clearly not, he really didn't want to have to explain these feelings and motives to her.
"Scourge just explained, ok?" she encouraged seeing him get angry again.
He clearly hated hearing that and growled "Damn it" he mumbled grinding his teeth for a moment as he thought out whether he should tell her.
Finally with another depressed sigh and his face turning soft again he said "I'm protecting her from myself"
She honestly never expected him to say such a thing and for a moment had no idea how to even respond to that. Protecting her from himself? It was so selfless, he'd never carried that tone around her before.
"Protecting her from yourself?" she asked cautiously, he'd already said so much and it made her wonder if he felt he'd told too much.
He got more aggressive again "Don't you remember Fi, remember all that I did to you. Or did you do that thing where you forget to avoid the pain?"
"Oh I will never forget what you did to me and made me do" she said with quite a lot of venom in her voice "So why does she deserve it more than I did?" god that sounded a little like jealousy, but it was more of her wanting to know why he even considered doing this for her.
He bore his fangs angrily at her, his teeth began to grind against eachother once again debating heavily whether he should tell her. Was he ready to admit his feelings to someone else? He may have been terrible to her but she had also been the closest person he'd ever been to.
Fiona patiently waited, she was willing to wait for this answer, she could see he was debating hard about it. She already had a ton of reasons in her head which were narrowing down the longer he debated.
Sadly the suspense led to nothing as he huffed and walked past her "None of your business"
"What? Wow, no you don't get to walk away after all that!" she stepped in his way.
"Yes that is where I stop!" he growled threatening to push her out of the way.
"You care about her don't ya, she was nice to you and you think you'll only hurt her?" Fiona growled back.
"Out of my way" he shoved her aside avoiding talking about it.
She yelped and turned to try and stop him but in the time it took for her to recover and turn he'd ran off. She growled at this but took a deep breath to calm down and realized she got quite a bit out of that conversation anyway. It was clear Scourge cared about Nicole and was protecting her. He was afraid he'd hurt her or begin to manipulate the lynx he had to herself.
In a way she was angry at Scourge for making Nicole worried and sad but now she couldn't help but agree. He'd broken her to believe she was someone else after awhile. At first she was lying to herself to live a new life away from Tails, but it was Scourge who had whittled her down and made her actually believe that was who she was. She wouldn't want Nicole to go through that.
The fox decided to keep this quiet from even Tails and began heading through the base again trying to find a way to pass the time. Mostly she ended up thinking over what she learned.
I'm gonna be honest I feel like this is a good spot to stop even though I don't think anything happened. I just wanted to get some interactions going and junk like that. So I truly hope you guys like this chapter.
Live long and prosper
Admiralkirk