A/N I'm really sorry this took so long. I think the passion to write is gone, sorry about that. Yes I hate myself for it.

"How long have we been going around trying to find a good hiding spot now?" Silver groaned. His feet were sore, and after days and days of walking his boots were covered in ash and dirt.

Blaze wasn't too much better, her shoes and lower pants had gotten covered in the same dust. She ignored it, unlike Silver. He got frustrated by it, the shoes being one of his few real possessions he'd had in his life.

"I'd rather not try and count it out" Blaze replied. She'd learned patience quite well in her life time, but even she was beginning to have a hard time avoiding getting frustrated.

Silver groaned and kicked at a rock as he passed it "We've found a bunch of caves, but the eggbots patrol by them, almost like they know to keep an eye on it"

"Yes, it seems Eggman has grown a large amount of paranoia during his two year rule" Blaze groaned.

"You can say that again" Silver sighed. He then asked "If we can't even find a place that's out of the way and safe from Eggmans eyes, then I can only imagine how impregnable his base is"

"Well, we've got the smartest people here to find a way to get in. So I'm sure we'll get something" Blaze tried to be positive. If the combined effort of Tails, Nicole and Shadow couldn't find a way through, then it truly was impossible.

"I hope you're right" Silver sighed.

Usually he was the one who was the optimist, but the last few days of searching everywhere and finding nothing was wearing on him badly.

It didn't help that the entire team was counting on them. They were the first step, if they couldn't find a hiding place then they simply couldn't move forward with the plan. It was too much pressure.

The duo had been walking for half the day. The sun was pretty bad today, nothing was going well today. The land was flat, they could see for miles. The air was dry, and both would really appreciate some water or shade.

"Is it hotter than no-AH!" Silver suddenly fell and began falling into gorge.

Blaze was quick, but not quick enough to grab him, he was clear out of reach before she even reach out to him.

She cried out worried he'd be hurt, but before the idea of him dying could pass through her mind she saw him glowing green and stop falling.

It took her half a second, but she remembered that Silver could make himself fly using his own powers on himself. She sighed in relief seeing he was ok.

"You ok?" maybe slipping off hurt his ankle or something.

"I'm fine, but where'd this gorge come from?" Silver asked looking around.

Blaze shrugged "Perhaps the heat dulled out senses"

"I guess so…. Hey, speaking of this gorge, I think I see a cave down there" Silver exclaimed suddenly excited.

"Really, help me down, we'll see if it is what we need"

Silver nodded and floated her down to his level, then they both descended to the bottom of the canyon.

At the bottom, the two stared at the large entrance. Definetly a big enough opening from what Tails wanted. And since it was pitch black they assumed it went deeper.

"I think we just found what we're looking for" Silver said, heavy relief in his voice.

"Yes, I believe this is the perfect place. The Eggbots probably don't come down here, plus it's off the normal patrol routes.

"This must be what we've been looking for then. We got to head back and tell everyone" Silver exclaimed excited to get going.

"Yes, let us get moving, we need to inform everyone" the cat nodded.

Within a few moments they were out of the gorge and began heading back. Finally, they could really get started.

"This gonna be great, everyones gonna be super excited" Silver cheered.

His happy attitude was back, Blaze liked that, it just felt different when he was starting to lose hope. With everyone slowly losing patience from being so pent up, Silvers ongoing good attitude kept her own spirits up. With this new discovery, it was higher than it had been in awhile.

Yes not since she was freed from her prison and realized her saviors were actually people had she been in such high spirits.

The two headed back for HQ. Both of them were sure that the rest of the team would be ecstatic to hear they found a place to hide anything they needed. They'd probably be back late in the day, better get moving now.

"You think we should run?" Silver asked, well more like fly in his case.

"No need to waste energy, everyone is working right now and will arrive after we get back even if we walk" Blaze replied "If trouble comes our way we'll need our strength" she continued.

Silver nodded seeing that as a reasonable assessment "Hey maybe we'll do something special to celebrate" Silver sort of side stepped, the normal bounce in his step continuing to show. Finding that cave had gotten him excited again. They could finally get this train rolling.

Blaze couldn't help but smile at him, his excitement and demeanor being infectious. Strange? Was she bouncing a little with her step too? Well that surprised her? Her upbringing compelled her to be proper, even the simple act of walking had to be done with perfection. Now she was breaking her own upbringing, she found it… relaxing.

"And what exactly could we do that's special?" she asked. Their rations were rather boring and not much leeway for preparing it differently.

"Well maybe we could have a bit of a party?" Silver now walking backwards looking at the cat.

"A party? Aren't parties loud?" she asked back, they had to be quiet or risk being detected.

"Ya well…" he scratched his quills "We could keep the music down and make sure Scourge doesn't start yelling" he shrugged while grinning clearly his answer wasn't that serious.

"The music, perhaps, but keeping Scourge quiet, fantasy" Blaze joked back.

Silver chuckled but shrugged again "Ah, well he's been pretty good at that recently"

"That is true, he's been quiet. Kept to himself mostly" Blaze agreed.

Silver briefly looked like he was trying to remember then said "Well Nicole talks to him sometimes. She seems to have decided to keep him company a lot"

Blaze nodded, though her face wasn't as amused as his "Yes, I find it rather strange. I knew Nicole back then, I'm rather surprised she spends so much time with him. They just feel like total opposites"

"Hey if it works then it works. Who are we to argue when it's keeping him quiet, and more importantly keeping his temper down"

Blaze had to agree with that and nodded, though went silent clearly thinking.

"Something on your mind?" the white hedgehog asked.

"I started thinking about Tails and Fiona, they seem to be working well together. Tails is less agitated now than when we met him" Blaze recalled when she met with them and was freed.

"You have no idea, when Shadow and I met them they could barely stand being near one another. Tails had that look in his eye that gave me chills. Like at any second he'd blow her head off. Shadow had told me tales of a kind fox who couldn't hurt people, even if they hurt him like she did. But when we reached his bunker Shadow warned me to be extra careful what I did. I think he could see the fire in his eyes as well" Silver recalled back then as well. There were already large differences between Tails now and the Tails back then a few weeks ago.

Blaze tried to imagine Tails in such an angry state. She, just like Shadow remembered quite a different boy, the man she met after all those years was drastically different.

She stepped from those thoughts and said "But back to my original point, it made me think of Shadow"

"What about him?" Silver asked, a little confused. He didn't seem to different.

"He seems far more focused. He's subtle about it. I just get this sense that something else is driving him" Blaze thought back to a few days ago. He once again returned with nothing to really report and seemed angry. He was one of the most composed of the group. He even seemed to slowly take on a role of second in command to Tails.

She even recalled Shadow offer words of wisdom and keeping Tails on track with their goals.

"Well he basically ran the camp we lived in. He basically supervised everything that happened in that town. He's learned to work with people much better and keep priorities in check" Silver explained.

"perhaps that is it" Blaze shrugged.

Both went silent for a time until Silver said "I got a way to pass the time, I spy with my little eye something that is… grey"

Blaze groaned, it would be a long walk…

Hours later the duo finally returned to Metropolis, it's destroyed remains constantly reminding them of all the people who died. No amount of good news could make them forget that. Only entering one of the tunnels would save them from that sadness.

So they quickly found one of the entrances to the escape tunnels and made their way back to HQ.

Like always Silver went up through the hatch to enter the building first and offering a hand to Blaze, she'd take it and get hoisted back up to his level, but instead of reporting nothing the duo went to find Tails immediately.

That wasn't a hard task, he was in the workshop, like always working on stuff. Fiona had taken a break for now so it was just him. Blaze knocked on the door and within a few moment the fox answered.

"Hey, anything to report?" he asked not really expecting anything. Clearly he didn't notice the smile they had plastered on their face.

"Actually we do have something to report" Blaze started.

"We found a cave!" Silver said excitedly.

The foxes ears perked up almost immediately "You did, that's great! It's well hidden right?"

They nodded.

"And large enough o store anything we need?" he asked further.

They nodded again.

"And you're sure it's out of the way of patrols?"

Silver scoffed "Come on Tails, we've been turning down places for days, we found a good one ok?"

"Just making sure, that's all" Tails said, a little annoyed by Silvers response. Though he didn't voice his opinion about it. "Go give the coordinates to Nicole, now all we need is a target to hit. I'll have to go to Eggmans base and scope it out as well and…." His speech devolved into mumbling as he thought and stepped away from the duo. He was now officially in his head thinking things over so Blaze and Silver assumed the conversation was over.

So the two left and Silver realized "So what are we gonna do everyday now that we did our job?" it would be pretty boring if they were stuck here now.

Blaze thought over that question as well but replied "I could try teaching you to meditate again?"

"Ya that would take up a lot of time for sure" Silver joked about himself.

The jest against himself made Blaze chuckle lightly "But I'm sure you could do it in time" she encouraged.

"Well, I got to relax my mind, and with everything going on I doubt I really could" he admitted.

"Anything in particular troubling you?" Blaze asked, if he was having a hard time focusing perhaps some talking would help.

"Just…. Doubting whether we can actually beat Eggman… and if we do what will we have to sacrifice to do it" Silver may have been hopeful, energetic and excited but he carried very real doubts. They were taking on an empire, and they were just seven people. There wasn't much chance they could get through this unscathed on the other side.

"Silver you can't think about that kind of stuff" Blaze said softly, admittedly she also worried "There might be few of us, but there is always a chance we can win. We have Tails and Shadow thinking up ideas on how we can win. They're both smart and can make brilliant plans. If anyone can make the perfect plan it's those two"

"But even the most perfect of plans can go wrong" Silver frowned "I just…. I don't know what I'd do if any of us were killed. Shadows been a mentor to me and you…" he paused looking at her with sad eyes "I'd die before I see you get caught again, or killed" he admitted.

It was true, the hedgehog already risked himself to save her before. When metal Sonic attacked he stood in the way even when he knew Metal's plating would make his powers useless.

Blaze just stared at him and after a few moments of silence she wrapped him in a gentle hug "Don't say things like that, I don't want to think about that" she whispered softly. She was very composed and in control of her thoughts for the most part. She'd kept those thoughts away, except when Silver got himself hurt for her. She hated thinking about him being killed, and if it was for her, she'd feel too guilty.

"I'm sorry" he mumbled

Blaze nuzzled into him "It's alright" she reassured him.

They soon had to end the hug. Blaze quickly tried to think of a way to lighten the mood. But Silver beat her to it.

"Hey, maybe some food will make us feel better?"

She nodded, food was always nice after walking all day.

Elsewhere in HQ…

Fiona made her way back to the workshop, man this was getting monotonous. Everyday was the same thing, work in the workshop to either make ammo, or making the HQ more homey. She couldn't blame anyone, they were doing their best. Unknown to her progress was finally made and she'd soon hear about it.

She had passed by Blaze and Silver on the way back, they looked a little different today, less tired? Eh whatever, not her business.

She reached the door and knocked before coming inside. Immediately she noticed Tails was pacing back and forth thinking about things. Usually he was focusing on work. So something happened.

"What'cha thinking about?" she asked walking further into the room.

"Blaze and Silver just came back, they found a cave that's hidden, away from patrols and large enough to store anything inside" he explained.

"They did, finally some progress" Fiona was relieved, some good news was already lifting her spirits.

"Now that we have a place to put things, we can looking at potential targets. Scourge, Shadow and Nicole have been doing that for days now, we got plenty of targets. Just need to work with Shadow and Nicole to figure out which ones would be easy yet worthwhile to raid" he continued to think aloud and explain at the same time.

"Great, so go talk to them both once Shadow come back" Fiona shrugged.

"Ya I'll do that" he nodded back still thinking. He'd spent some time looking at targets already and was now thinking on the ones he could remember at the moment.

Fiona could see the spark in his eyes, that hadn't been there for a few days. Guess standing idle like that had made him sort of turn off. But it was good to see him using his head again. Just had to wait for Shadow and the real planning could begin.

So Fiona just got back to work while Tails ran ideas through his head. For the most part the sounds of Fiona's work was all that could be heard. Tails wasn't even angry about the noise, he was far too focused to be distracted by her work.

Eventually Shadow came to the door of the workshop, he'd done his work for the day and went to report into Tails, like always.

He was about to speak but Tails cut him off "Silver and Blaze found a cave to hide everything"

Well that definetly got his attention "They did? Good"

Tails just walked to the door to leave and said "Come on, we got to figure out what we're gonna hit, I'm sure there's atleast one place we can reasonably attack" he said.

Shadow followed agreeing with making a plan sooner rather than later. With him Gone Fiona was left alone who mumbled "Don't even say hi…"

The males headed over to the computer an immediately began going through files and notes made by Nicole.

They started with separating the worst facilities, or one they were sure wouldn't have things they needed.

"So what equipment will we need?" Tails asked him and Shadow.

"That depends on what our plan is to take on the Dr" Shadow replied.

Tails thought that over and said "I'm going to have to look over Eggmans base then. If I can find any weaknesses I'll take advantage"

"That would be a good idea" Shadow agreed with a quick nod "Maybe you should do that tonight? Getting so close to his main compound would be easier under the cloak of darkness"

"Ya, I think I'll do that" the younger fox agreed.

Behind them Nicole and Scourge entered the room and saw the two males mumbling to eachother over the computer. This immediately tipped them off that something was up.

"What are you two doing?" Scourge asked bluntly.

Tails turned his head swiftly to the new voices, when he realized it was Scourge and Nicole he looked back to the screens "Blaze and Silver found a suitable cave so now Shadow and I are trying to choose our next move"

Nicole visibly got excited "They did, that is wonderful, what do you plan to do now?"

Shadow answered "I suggested he scout out Eggmans fortress tonight, so he can devise a plan of attack. Then attack a smaller facility for the equipment we'll need to set the plan in motion"

Nicole smiled "That is a good idea!"

"Then I will start getting my stuff right now" Tails began walking back to his workshop where all his equipment was left.

Scourge watched the younger fox walk out of the room and huffed "Well hopefully that means we can stop running around looking at facilities all day, about damn time" He looked to his jacket and shoes "Look all covered in dust from running all day, everyday"

Despite his complaining, which nobody really cared for Shadow had to agree, though he put a hand on his bad leg massaging it a little. A futile action to stem the pain, but it was beginning to become subconscious.

Scourge of course didn't really care to notice, but Nicole did and asked "Are you alright?"

Shadows hand looked to the linx, a little surprised by her question feeling it was unprovoked. That is until he realized he was rubbing his leg. He pulled it away and shook his head "Fine, I'm fine"

Nicole looked unconvinced but she didn't push the subject "Ok, just making sure" she pretended to believe him.

Scourge was done kicking off all the dust his could from his shoes and said "Well I'm hungry" walking towards the kitchen. Nicole held her PDA in her own hands so him leaving didn't effect her.

Nicole began to follow but stopped and saw Shadow once again rubbing his leg, she didn't ask this time but simply said "Get some rest"

The dark hedgehog neither denied anything was wrong nor agreed and simply made a sound to acknowledge he atleast heard her.

A few hours later…

Tails was back in his full gear, minus his mask. The armor had been collecting on the shelf and a little was still on it despite it finally being moved.

Fiona was fastening the last piece they had just put on and grunted "Man, how'd you get this thing on before I showed up?"

Tails smiled "Very carefully" Adjusting his gloves a little.

She made a quick chuckle and wiped off some dust from the larger shoulder pad and said "You be careful out there alright?"

"I survived on my own for 2 years, I do a simple walk through the dark" he boasted.

Fiona rolled her eyes crossing her arms "Just promise to be careful"

Tails nodded, his cocky smile disappearing "Ya, I promise"

"I know you can handle yourself Tails, but I still worry when you have no backup at night and close to Eggmans fortress"

Tails had to nod again seeing her point "I'll make sure to keep my eyes and ears open"

"Oh and don't be afraid to call for help if you need it" Fiona grabbed his shoulder.

Tails looked back and found her normal . calm and beautiful face was filled with worry. He frowned turning to her "Fi, you worry too much"

"I don't think I am, you're gonna just stroll over to Eggmans largest stronghold, the heart of his empire. If even one thing goes wrong you're most likely dead" Fiona explained looking very worried.

Tails sighed looking away for a moment "I know, but I don't want to bring any if you to your deaths either"

"If you die then this whole cause goes down"

"What!?" Tails said in surprise "No that's not true, you'll all still be here"

"Yes, but without you we lose our best plan maker, we lose the guy who can make the best equipment, and if that's not enough we lose one of the seven people on the team. We're already up against impossible odds, losing someone else would make it that much harder"

Tails groaned rolling eyes, but his face went back to a frown "Thanks…. No pressure"

"I'm sorry…." Fiona sighed slowly wrapping her arms around him.

He did the same "I'll be careful, I promise"

She smiled lightly and kissed his cheek "Ok, just get back here, and good luck" she slowly ended the hug. She looked into his eyes for a moment.

Tails did the same but he eventually turned away "Ok, see you later Fi" he tried to act natural now, have a little bit of confidence. Like Sonic. It didn't work very well, his drooping ears gave it away.

He placed the helmet over his head and the slightly filtered voice said "I'll be back" And with that he went outside the workshop to the escape tunnel entrance.

Along the way the rest of the team wished him luck, he was far more confident with them though. He made it to the hatch and went down and began his journey.

He soon left the tunnels and moved away from the city.

Night soon came and Tails turned on his night vision. There was nobody around so he kept going.

It was a lonely walk, reminded him of his time before Fiona found him. When he always walked alone. It felt weird to be alone again. He'd been alone for years, he'd left behind his friends and family. His anger kept him from noticing how lonely he was. Now that it was all gone there was nothing to distract his mind. He remembered what it was like to have friends again…. To be loved.

Now walking alone truly felt lonely, empty. He had a mission and he had friends to go back to if he was able to get this done. So that kept him going. For hours into the night he continued to walk, jog and run full speed. He had to reach the base before sunrise.

His lungs stung and his tails hurt badly from constant use, but he had learned to ignore the pain. Not that he didn't know his limit, he could keep this up longer.

Further he went until he could finally see the lights coming off the fortress, right where he saw it last time, nearly two years ago. In a lot of ways, it didn't change, still overly large, heavily fortified and seemingly impenetrable.

Beyond the outer defenses large walls surrounded the main fort, with one main gate leading inside. Along the walls were even more automated defenses and patrolling eggbots. There were so many turrets, rockets, and bots. There was no way they could get through it all.

The inner fort was tall and could easily look down all along the landscape. Once more the turrets were present along with eggbot snipers.

There had to be a way to bypass all that… or there was simply no hope.

Maybe…. Maybe they could steal a driller and tunnel under it all?

He shook his head thinking of that, not only would that be slow…. But it would set off a ton of seismic sensors, with all those above ground defenses he was pretty sure Eggman was paranoid enough to have underground detection.

"Ok, find some alternatives" he mumbled to himself.

He nearly went into deep thought when some loose stones moved behind him. In an instant he turned on his cloak and looked back. In the darkness about twenty meters away a patrol of Eggbots were just coming over the small hill. Those loose stones were his saving grace.

Still as a prey mantis he watched as the patrol walked closer, but he just couldn't move. They were so close any form of shifting in the quiet night would give him away.

The patrol just barely passed to his right, the stomping feet shaking the ground he sat upon.

Then suddenly he felt a foot step on his hand, god he never bit his tongue harder. He nearly let out the smallest of grunts but he grit his teeth and held down any noise.

The foot left his hands and the patrol walked away, his hand pulsed in numb pain.

"God dammit" he hissed softly his helmet keeping it from travelling too far "Son of a-….. Just get back to work"

Where was he? Oh right, bypassing the defenses…. No under ground…. What about….

Tails looked to the sky.

"Yes that could work, I mean, there's airships and fighters and other stuff, but Shadow could teleport us to the top of the fort, we find a door or hatch and boom we're inside. Just need to do a little more studying"

He pulled out a scanner aiming towards the base trying to pick up anything else useful. Most of it was stuff he knew probably existed already but one thing caught his attention.

"Some kind of chaos field… now it's different" he growled lightly in frustration, something was up… wait?

"It's an anti chaos field" Tails realized "No, how big could it be?"

He scanned around and realized it engulfed the entire fortress, even the outer defenses, but how high?

He looked up with the scanner and discovered it extremely high, they'd need more than a few seconds to find a hatch. They'd have to free fall through Eggmans entire fleet.

He shook his head "No, it's too far…. No wait….. I got it!"

Ok guys I'm super sorry I've been gone so long. I think I just kinda lost the spark to write. So I'm gonna just say, don't be hopeful for me to pick up again.

My real problem was that I knew what I wanted to do at the end of the story but I didn't quite know how to get there. Unfortunatly that's how I kinda self blocked myself. So I'm accelerating it. The original plan is there but I'm just gonna cut it down….. assuming I can finish more.

So here we go, gonna get this final battle going, and the other stuff I wanted to do, then find a nice place to end it all.

So until next and live long and prosper. Once again sorry for the massive delay.

Admiralkirk