I do not own any characters in this story except for Ralph, his team, and the terrorists including Anonymous.

Chapter 26

Sonic the hedgehog hero of the planet Mobius sat inside the Eggcarrier staring blankly at the floor. The image of Tails falling over that cliff edge haunting his mind. He could not bear the thought that the fox was now… gone.

When he got to the carrier he was seen by Sally, Silver, and Eggman. They knew instantly that something was wrong. The blue blur just hugged Sally and shook with silent tears. He does not remember it, but they brought him inside to recover from his shock. Silver left to see what Sonic was mumbling about. He tried telling them what he witnessed, but the three could not believe what they were hearing. Rouge however heard it and had to leave because she just wanted to celebrate. This got Sonic so riled up that Metal Sonic and Omega had to hold him down. That was about a day ago though. Sonic barley moved that whole time.

Sally had gone to her room and has not come out again. It was Eggman that had to run everything around here. Never asked Sonic to do anything. Speaking of the doctor Eggman came walking in with a cup. He handed it to Sonic "Here, drink this."

Sonic numbly took it and took a sip. It was milk, still cool too. Eggman must have a special storage for beverages. Sonic whispered a thanks. The doctor nodded and walked off. Sonic then lifted a photo. He had left this in his room while everything was going on. It was Tails, smiling. The only photograph he was able to have Tails in smiling. The day everything started. The day they met the Babylon Rouges. As promised he deleted it from the camera… after making nearly a hundred copies. He gave some to all those who befriended Tails. Ralph, Sally, Eggman, not Silver but he would take one for his… girlfriend? A girl that is a friend? The hero could not remember at the moment.

Someone sat next to him on the couch and the hero looked to see Sally "He looks so happy there."

"Yah." He looked back at the photo. "He was laughing when I took that." The fox was kneeling in front of his plane, goggles on his forehead, bright blue eyes, golden fur, and the cheeriest smile the hero ever saw. The hero had to look away from it.

The door suddenly banged open and the hero jerked his head up. "YOU CANNOT JUST BARGE IN HERE LIKE THIS! SONIC AND SALLY NEED-!"

"Silence!" Shadow walked in "Sonic, Sally. You need to come with me."

Sonic dropped his head as Sally held his arm "Could you give me a break, Shadow? Can I not just mourn for my brother?"

"Why?"

The hedgehog slowly lifted his head with spite in his eyes "'Why?'"

Shadow crossed his arms not intimidated "Yes, why? He's not dead."

Sonic's eyes widened "What?"

"He's not dead."

Sonic leapt up "How? What? When? I checked! There were no signs that he was alive!"

"We were tricked. Anonymous did something. He's not saying anything though. Said he'll explain everything when you get there. I've been looking for you the whole day yesterday. Come on, I'll take you to the hospital."

"Hospit-?" Sally was about to ask but Shadow interrupted.

"Just follow me."

Sonic shoved his picture in his glove, picked up Sally, and ran off after Shadow. Eggman jumped up and into his new pod which was then carried by Metal and Omega. They all then flew off toward the castle.

The group came up to the castle and it was crowded with every citizen of the city. They had to travel through it all and walked inside. Shadow waved them over to the computer room, which was actually a dining room, where Tails 'reveled 'that he was actually evil the whole time. They entered and noticed that the whole room underwent dramatic change. There was a heart rate monitor placed beside a mattress that held Miles 'Tails' Prower. The fox was also attached to another machine that was humming. Everyone was there huddled in a group near him whispering. The Babylon Rouges, Ralph and his friends, Anonymous, Knuckles, Amy, Cheese, Cream, Seven, Blaze, and now the newcomers. Silver and Rouge were missing, but considering Silver left to check Sonic's story he was out there searching for the bat.

Sonic felt his hope took a plummet. The heartbeat monitor was flat; no pulse detected "What is this? I was told he was alive!"

Anonymous raised a hand "Give the dialyzer time to do its work."

Sally nearly jumped at this "A dialyzer? Why are you filtering his blood?"

"I'm helping his kidneys by taking a load away from them. Those nanites need to come out before causing any internal damage."

Sonic blinked "Nanites?"

"This should only take approximately a minute." The terrorist turned and walked up to the fox. He knelt down and looked at the fox before looking up at the heart rate monitor and standing "There you go Sonic."

The hero looked over at the monitor and his heart skipped a beat. It was picking up a signal, faint but there. It was steadily growing stronger and stronger until it was a regular heart beat. Suddenly Tails look a deep breath and then exhaled. He was alive.

"What?!" Everyone turned to see Rouge walking in with Silver "I thought he was dead!"

"That was my intentions." Anonymous responded.

"Why did you have to disappoint me?"

Sonic took a deep breath and exhaled "How? How was there no pulse?"

Anonymous lifted his hand and a needle came out "For those near Tails, remember when I grabbed his shoulder? I actually was injecting him with some of my special nanites. When they register that great amounts of trauma is about to be inflicted upon its host they activate and protect all the organs and vessels in the body. However, this only provided a special protective measure against the trauma. I may have something programmed that renders the individual torpid, or in a dormant form similar to hibernation that seemingly deactivates the vitals, but Tails' robots were innovative and my nanites might not trick them if the fox attempts to enact his plan."

"What plan!?" Sonic nearly shouted.

"After our encounter at this very spot Tails implemented a program. If any of his robots were to seemingly kill him all of them would self-destruct. I had no way of tricking his robots about his death until I learned that Tails deluded Alpha Omega One, his second most advanced robot, with Ralphs's death. Did you really think with my lack of knowledge of the fox's technological features that I could repair you Ralph? One other reason I sent Wave off to find Tails instead of I is that I wanted to find the programming used to trick Alpha One. I then found it, downloaded its signal into my nanites, and then when I saw Tails at that cliff I injected him with them in case he would jump."

Everyone was silent at this. Shadow huffed "You knew he was alive the whole time and even hinted at it. Why did you let us continue to believe he was actually dead?"

"So that those whom seemingly despised him would rethink everything they thought about him." Anonymous turned to Blaze. The cat did not respond. She only stood there stiff as a board staring at him with wide eyes. "Did it work your highness?"

The princess looked away and down averting her gaze from the terrorist. She then turned to face Tails lying on the cushion still unconscious "I… I don't know."

"Then yes. It did work. You are starting to reconsider what you originally thought about him."

Blaze bit her lip and crossed her arms "Maybe."

Eggman took a step forward "Pardon me, Anonymous." The terrorist politely turned to face Eggman "But did you know what Tails' plan is? It would seem you know some."

"I know very little then what I let on. I knew he had nanites inside him that made him act the way he did. When I found the rouges I took their gun and scanned that needle they were suppose to fire. I detected the deactivation codes inside them. I partnered up with him because I knew that the fox's plan was to get you all to his base so that when he did come to you would all be there to fight them when they were their weakest. In case that would not happen though I asked him to come to our world and destroy it quickly. He agreed as long as I helped him with getting you all there and helped him make his weapon."

Ralph scoffed "Typical. Always having a plan b."

"You can never be too careful. I never had enough time to hack that clue search you underwent Eggman, and even if I did I would be unable to hack it from the lack of power. I presume you know it all in detail then."

Eggman nodded "Yes. As it turns out Tails had this all planed out for a long time. He never made all this in a short amount of time. He had a contingency method of dealing with these robots in case they were never defeated. He made everything before hand and brought them with him in secret containers. Part one was to set everything up for us to figure out he had a plan and give someone his anti-nanites without them giving away the plan. He could not tell a single person about it so that we would never give it away. Step two was to wait until the robots give him a signal that they are ready for him then he would inject his special nanites.

"The nanites did nothing to him physically, thankfully, and affected his brain. It turned off his nice and kind side so he did not have to act and pushed subjects and ideas into his subconscious so he would unknowingly start causing his robots' downfall. So him giving us hints. That was his nanites telling him to give us the hints. Step three was to trick the robots into building a special bomb he developed in his mind. The bomb would decimate everything organic except for the ones inside the protected area; I'm guessing you knew this."

"Yes, I was able to see the diagrams of his weapons and ordered my men to set up metallic structures and rocks to hide behind so they could come out in a surprise attack after Wave shoots him. I could tell from the designs that since the bomb only killed biological objects it will not pass anything non-biological; the reason the fox had that base in a deep area. The blast only killed every tree and plant there and could not go around the planet. It only seemed as if it did to keep tricking the robots all the while creating an open area for an easy assault."

"Well… you just said step four so I will continue to step five. If we were unable to destroy all the robots he would sacrifice himself to destroy them all. It did warn though that Alpha One and Phi will not be a part of the programming to self-destruct. Luckily we don't have to worry about that now."

"Destructor was not a part of it either I bet. Heh… heh…" Silver chuckled.

"So…" the room looked at Blaze as she continued "He planed… for everything… he made himself look bad… to be brought into the robot's inner circle to destroy them."

"Yes, but a side effect of the nanites it that under their influence he will not remember what he did when he come out of it. The fact that the nanites were still in his system was the reason he told you, Sonic, that he did not trust himself. He was afraid that the tiny robots would reactivate while in super form and you would have had to fight him again." Eggman looked at the blue hedgehog.

Sonic nodded "Yah… that does explain it… it explains everything… I still cannot believe what he was about to do. What he tried to do."

Cream walked up to Tails holding Cheese "What about that flower crown?"

Eggman's brow rose "That was not in his files. I'm guessing he brought it because he was trying to work up the courage to give it to you himself. You just found where he hid it by accident."

"Oh… why isn't he awake yet? Isn't it the nanites that keep him asleep?"

Anonymous walked over and gently directed the rabbit away "Yes, but not anymore. According to my calculations-."

Lee mumbled "Which are almost always right."

Anonymous continued as he turned off the dialyzer "-less than one percent of the nanites are now in his blood. So he could be awake but his body will keep him under."

"Why?" the little rabbit asked worried.

Anonymous knelt down "The nanites I used protected his organs and the blood vessels. His bones, unfortunately, are a different story."

Eggman spoke up "Blood vessels go through bones!"

"Yes, but bone is not a blood vessel. They will be covered in cracks. His entire skeletal system will be fragile at this point. Though his healing abilities are quick, I doubt he will be able to walk on his own for at least a few weeks." The fox suddenly shifted and moaned "There you are Cream. He's waking."

Sonic walked over and knelt beside the bed "Hey buddy."

Tails' eyes opened and tears began to flow out "S… Sonic?"

"Hi. How ya feeling?"

The fox blinked and fidgeted. Sonic raised his arms as if to grab him "No-no-no-no. Don't move. Anonymous says your bones will be covered in cracks."

"Ex-explains all the pain." The fox whimpered. He looked around the room "Wh-why aren't I dead?"

Sally knelt next to him "Anonymous gave you protective nanites of his that faked your death."

"That explains th-that stinging… in my shoulder…" The fox's eyes widened "B-but the robots… th-th-that would not… trick them!"

Sonic was quick to reply "He took the signal you used to fake Ralph's death and used it with you."

The fox relaxed a bit "S-so all the robots are gone."

Sonic nodded "Watched them blow up myself… but why would you do that bud? Why? I understand finally being rid of these things but… why?"

Tails began to blink furiously "Everyone just hates me… hate me… I just… I just don't see the point of living any more. Even if I were going to be a great hero in the future… I'm only a villain now… Why should I live in a world where everyone hates me?…" His voice began to die out "I just want the pain to end… I just want to be forgotten… I want everyone to stop picking on me, insulting me, shiver when they look at me or even get aggressive. I just want to be me… why do I have to be that villain everyone sees me as?"

Sonic closed his eyes as tears threatened to form. Sally rested a comforting hand on the fox's head "You're worth living to me Tails… please… get some rest… feel better."

The fox's eyes slowly fluttered closed and his breathing leveled back down. He was asleep once more. Everyone just watched that fox sleep peacefully. That pain and torment he showed minutes ago were now gone and replaced by the peacefulness of his sleep.

There was a commotion as Blaze turned to quickly leave. Sonic watched her and pardoned himself as he followed. He exited the room and turned to see Blaze nearly jogging up the steps to the second floor. The hero followed. He continued to follow until the cat entered a room and did not close it. He walked in to see a strange bed room. It was covered in dust and brick and on the bed sat Blaze. She was looking at the floor with a blank gaze, one hand folded over the other on her lap. It was a sad sight to the hedgehog.

Sonic walked up to her "Do you mind company?"

She seemed to snap out of it and looked up at him. She then shook her head and scooted over "No." She whispered.

The blue blur then sat down facing forward "… I don't see what's so fascinating about that floor… so something must be bothering you." He looked over at her.

He just noticed but she was trembling. The feline was trying her best to hide it though. She took a deep raspy gasp to answer the hero. "What I heard… what I saw… I just…" She closed her eyes, straitened up, and took a slow deep breath to gain her composure "I just… can't believe it."

"Tails means good Blaze. He-."

"No not that…" She lifted a hand and quickly brushed away a tear from under her eyes "I believe what I heard to be truthful." She slightly looked over at Sonic "I just can't believe what I was doing to that fox."

Sonic looked at her in surprise "What do you mean?"

"You told me he has harbored feelings for me since the beginning. That he found me… attractive… I'll admit that I am not use to being told that and I found it disgraceful… but… what he's been through… what he wants to be-what he tries to be… how can I condemn him for wanting to be loved… to be liked at least, and all I did was insult him, yell at him, treated him like the monster I thought he was when… he wasn't." Tears welled up inside her eyes. She looked away and blinked back the tears. "Now I can't help but think I pushed the little guy to suicide." She lifted a hand and covered her mouth and the tears began to flow down her cheeks.

Sonic did not say anything. With everything that has happened to her, her country, her people, her gems he was surprised that she showed no emotion. Now here she is, crying from thinking that someone's near suicide was her fault. She cared more than she lets on, probably mourning for everything that has happened for the first time now. Now though, the time when everything is safe, was the perfect time to mourn. The princess sniffed and quickly rubbed under her eyes "I'm sorry. I'm being pathetic. I can't allow this to control me now, my people need me."

Sonic grabbed her arm and pulled it away from her face. She looked at him tears still trying to flow out but now she was fighting them "Blaze, your people need you at your strongest. You trying to suppress your emotions is only allowing them to eat away at you, making you weaker. Crying makes all that pain go away. All you're doing is making everything worst. As Eggman said last time we fought these things. Holding in emotions will have a soda bottle effect. You hold in the pressure when everything is shaking at it and soon it will explode and you with it. Then you will have no control and feel your worst." Sonic threw an arm around her "So… cry… besides… it can be our little secret. I won't tell anyone." He sat up and raised his arm in a vowing manner "Scout's honor."

Blaze laughed lightly and her tears began to slowly fall back out again. "Th-thank you."

Sonic smiled at her "Your welcome" He looked at her up and down and could not help but think of Tails "What's with good people and suppressing their emotions?"

"Huh?" She looked at him in inquiry.

Sonic twitched an ear. He did not mean to say that out loud "Just like Tails you try to hold in your emotion, trying to be strong… however we're just animals… not robots… emotions is what gives us strength otherwise how can we ever learn to overcome our losses. If we just hold that in… then that loss will never leave will it?"

Blaze chuckled "It never will… I was raised like this though… taught that a princess was to be strong and have no emotion… why does Tails?"

Sonic smiled "He just wants to be like his big bro. Sees me as this big tough hero that does not let anything bother him. He just does not know how much it bothers me seeing him like this. I hate it when others pick on him and I just… want to shout at them for it… but I don't because… I don't want to fall victim to my violence again."

Blaze looked at him in worry "Again?"

Sonic looked away from her in sadness "… Want to hear how Tails became that villain before I was able to pull him from that darkness." The hero pulled his arm away from around Blaze.

The cat looked at him unsure. "… Okay."

Sonic sighed "It all started… when I first met him… it was the day I made my biggest mistake… my biggest flop… and I don't know if I will ever forgive myself for it."

Please review. This chapter was made to allow understanding. It should have explained everything that happened in this story thus far. Please, if there is something that confuses you that you think I have not explained well enough tell me. I think I covered it all, but I might be mistaken.