Summary: Tails finds himself in mortal danger, and who will save him? The Kitsune Clan's problems seem to have only just begun, and hope seems lost. They aren't the only ones with sinking feelings, as Sonic and the others begin to realize they may not be going home with their foxy friend in hand.

Canon Characters in this chapter: Sonic, Antoine, Bunnie, Sally, Tails
Non Canon Characters in this chapter: Kinzoku, Azami, bit parts by others.

Note1: A reminder that the Confucian Elements involve Wood and Metal.

Kitsune
by WingedHippocampus

Chapter Five: Betrayal

"Prower-san!"

"Tails!"

Antoine and Azami blinked at each other as they realized they had spoken nearly in unison. Different words, same concern. A look of understanding passed between them, swordsman to swordsman, and they both lowered their weapons in wordless truce. Elsewhere, Bunnie's foxfire prison would fade as well.

"This way, quickly," the kitsune said before sprinting off.

Tails fell back against a wall, hot blood from his ear trickling down to soak his fur. If he hadn't used those remarkable tails of his to give himself a sudden boost, he'd never have been able to dodge in time, and he would have been far more injured, perhaps even dead.

"What are you doing?!" he squeaked fearfully, casting about desperately for a safe exit. Kinzoku advanced on him, long claws dripping with the kit's blood. The boy watched in mixed horror and fascination as the fur on the Kitsune of Metal's tails seemed to melt, forming into eight sharp blades that then spread to either side, preventing him from trying to escape around the larger fox, and there wasn't enough room to fly over him without being struck.

"I don't know if you are the missing Kitsune of Wind or not," Kinzoku laughed coldly, "but the possibility that you might be makes you quite a large inconvenience for me."

"What are you talking about?" Tails pressed himself to the wall, trembling. "You brought me here!"

"No, that fool Azami did, or more specifically, one in his employ. It hardly matters. With you gone, all hope for creating the kiyome ishi will vanish. The ninetails is too mad to eat or sleep, he will spend himself out and die soon enough. Once he is gone, the most powerful eight-tails will rise to fill his position…"

Now Tails understood. Azami had said there could only be one ninetails in existence at a time. Kinzoku wanted to be the next ninetails, but that meant the current one had to die. If Kinzoku had been chosen to help create the kiyome ishi, then surely he was the most powerful eight-tails, and therefore his place was assured. All he had to do was make sure the ninetails could not be saved. Tails was young and vulnerable, the easiest link to knock out of the elemental chain. Kinzoku had stayed behind with the child, then waited until the other Kitsune were gone so he could kill him at leisure.

"You…you did this to him?" Tails asked in a quavering voice. "You made the ninetails turn into a monster?"

"Of course not," Kinzoku smiled, and Tails was quite sure he was showing all those sharp teeth on purpose. "The old fool thought he could heal the land ruined by Robotnik's activities. He tried to purify the inland provinces, and he took on too much. All that poison and decay, laced with the sheer power of his own spells backfired, and he became a stupid, rampaging animal. I did not cause this, but I know a golden opportunity when I see it." The kitsune held out his reddened hand, his claw tips flashing silver as they grew into ice-pick like, metal spikes. "I would discuss it with you further, but I am afraid it is pointless to lecture to dead children." Kinzoku drew back his claw, preparing to thrust those deadly spines into the poor kit.

Azami seemed to appear from nowhere, pouncing Tails's attacker to the ground and angrily shouting at him in Enjouan. Then the world suddenly pitched around Tails, and he panicked, squirming.

"Chill out, big guy!"

"Sonic?!" Sure enough, he realized he'd been scooped into the familiar hedgehog's arms. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, you know, I hear Enjou is beautiful this time of year, so I figured, what the heck? Just watch out for the mint ice cream in these parts." the hedgehog screeched to a halt just outside the room and handed the bleeding fox over to a waiting Sally, who gave him a grateful squeeze before examining his ear.

"Oh, Miles!" she gasped. "That needs to be stitched up soon or you're going to have permanent notches there. Bunnie, do you have any gauze in one of your compartments?"

"Ah think so," Bunnie nodded, touching a button on her bionic leg to open a hidden storage area.

"Wait, what about Azami?" Tails pushed Sally's hand away from his ear and he moved for the door, only to have his kimono collar seized by Sonic.

"Whoah there, buddy, there's a killer psycho in there, remember?"

"We gotta help Azami!" Tails protested, giving Sonic a large-eyed, pleading look.

Before anyone could respond, two more kitsune appeared in the hallway. Tails recognized the blind Danica and the previously unpleasant Hikari.

"Danica's hearing is rather exceptional, even for a kitsune" Hikari said, eyeing the little knot of strangers. "She said she had heard something unusual. Intruders, is it?"

"Nevermind, Azami's in trouble!" Tails pointed almost desperately to the closed door. "Kinzoku tried to kill me and now they're fighting!"

"What?" That got a startled blink out of both women, and before Tails could say any more, they were gone. Sally took this opportunity to grab Tails and pull him back so she could tend to his torn ear.

"No, let go, let go!" Tails squirmed in her grasp. Sonic sighed, scratching his head.

"Don't worry about it, lil bro, I'll make sure he's okay!" Sonic was gone with a flash of blue.

As soon as the blue hedgehog entered the room, he could tell it was already over. All signs pointed to a short but nasty battle, and all four kitsune were bloodied. Three against one, eight-tails or no, Kinzoku had fallen. One of the females was apparently unconscious, but Azami and the blind kitsune turned to regard Sonic, who gave them a weak little wave.

"You intruders must be the kit's friends," the three-tails said with a bloodied little smile. Those white robes of his were nearly red by now. The six-tails wasn't looking much better. "Forgive me for attacking, my servant came to me in quite a panic, you understand." Azami said in a pained voice.

"We'll talk about that later, you guys need a medic or something," Sonic replied, shaking his head.

"If you could find the aforementioned servant, a cat in a lavender kimono, she will know what to do. You can find her three halls down in the kitch-" Azami stared as the oddly colored hedgehog seemed to have simply vanished. "-en." He jumped in astonished surprise as he reappeared, bearing a wide-eyed, fear-frozen Miyuki in his arms. "You…you are quite fast."

"The name says it all! I'm Sonic! OW!" Miyuki scrambled out of his hold, nearly knocking him over.

"Azami-sama!" the cat cried in dismay at his wounds. Sonic's speed would be put to work again, as Miyuki began requesting medicines and supplies. The room was closed off to allow other servants to clean up the mess, and the injured were moved to another part of the residence, far from the evidence of battle. The other kitsune were called back from their preparations, and everyone, including the Freedom Fighters, gathered.

"I do believe we have reason to start over," Azami had been treated and bandaged, and was now in a fresh kimono, though he hadn't the strength left to do more than lean heavily on a worried Miyuki.

"Why don't you start with why you kidnapped a ten-year-old child and dragged him to another continent?" Sally demanded, crossing her arms and glaring challengingly. To her surprise, Tails moved defensively in front of Azami to answer.

"It's okay, Aunt Sally, it was kind of a mistake. Taking me without asking I mean. They really need my help right now, and I wanna do it! I'm not ready to leave yet! There's this monster, only he's not a monster, he's a fox like these guys, and he's a monster because he's sick, see, and we need to make a medicine stone thing to make him all better and not…monster-y."

"Tails, I don't know if-"

"You never let me do anything! I'm a Freedom Fighter! Just like the rest of you! I want to do what's right. The monster is hurting people just like Robotnik hurts people, and besides, it's his fault anyway!"

"What?" Sally frowned, a little confused.

"Robotnik's pollution made the land bad, and the leader of these guys tried to make it better and it hurt him instead. That's why he's a monster, and why he's being mean. Especially because it's Robotnik's fault, we can't just leave things like this!"

"Yanno, Sal," Sonic murmured, "the kid's got a point. Robotnik's influence reaches a lot further than our own homeland, and anyway, what'll happen to the people here if we don't do something? Are we Freedom Fighters or aren't we? The big guy can help them with this, I'm sure."

"Well," she sighed, looking first at her own little group, then at the quietly gathered kitsune. "Alright. I can't say I approve of your initial actions, but your cause is noble. Perhaps you are right, it is time to start over. Allow us to introduce ourselves. This is Sonic Hedgehog…"

"Hey, how's it goin'?" Sonic stepped forward with a big grin and a wave. Some of the kitsune seemed to recognize his name, and they began speaking quietly amongst each other until Sally spoke again.

"That is Bunnie Rabbot…" Bunnie went through the motions of a curtsey in response. "Antoine Depardieu is the one currently having his side stitched up, and I am Princess Sally Acorn." She immediately regretted adding the 'Princess' title, as every kitsune in the room other than the injured Azami went silent and bowed deeply. Her royalty had never been something she threw around, and she preferred to think of everyone in Knothole as equals.

"Sally-hime," Azami made do with a nod, "it is an honor to meet all of you."

"What did he call you?" Sonic asked, frowning.

"Princess, Sonic. And before you ask, 'san' is a gender-neutral Mister or Misses, and 'sama' indicates great respect."

"Hey, I wasn't gonna ask!" Sonic protested.

"I am Azami Kitsunebi, master of this house and keeper of the Kitsune no Kami shrine. I further apologize for all that has happened," he sighed. "Prower-san, my heart is warmed by your determination to aid us, but I fear it is no longer possible to create the kiyome ishi at this point."

"What?!" Tails cried in dismay. "But…your ninetails, he'll die, and he's gonna take more lives before he does!"

"The creation of this level of purification stone requires eight powerful kitsune affiliated with one of each of the elements. We have lost Kinzoku, the Kitsune of Metal, and there is no one to take his place. In addition, even if we did have a Kitsune of Metal, Danica, Hikari, and myself are badly injured. To give our energy for the kiyome ishi at this point would mean death for us and possibly failure of the entire procedure. If we had a Kitsune of Metal, we would gladly risk our lives, but as things stand, there is no hope for success. We have no choice but to do the unthinkable but necessary thing; destroy the monster before any more damage is done."

"There has to be a way," Sally asserted. "It's too soon to give up. Azami-sama…" She would pause to kneel in proper Enjouan fashion. "This is important to Miles, and therefore important to me. What is more, I cannot stand by and let people suffer. Please, before you give up on this, allow me and my team some time to try and come up with a solution."

Tails brightened. His Aunt Sally was smart, and with Nicole at her side, he was confident that there were very few problems she couldn't solve. Azami looked to his bleak-faced brethren, then nodded.

"It is not as though we've anything to lose tonight. Sally-hime, you and yours may remain here for the evening. Miyuki here will show you to your rooms."

"Thank you, Azami-sama, we graciously accept your hospitality." Sally rose, and Miyuki would step away from Azami to begin leading the foreigners away.

"So, what's the plan, Sal?" Sonic asked, falling into step beside the princess.

"I don't know, Sonic, I'll have to think on it," she sighed. "It's my problem right now. Your concern should be Tails."

"Huh? Aw, he's fine, you can barely see the stitches."

"That's not what I mean, Sonic," she paused, nodding back to where Tails was cheerfully chattering at a patiently smiling Azami. "I mean, are we going to be able to take Tails back home with us when we leave?"

"What? Of course we are, we came all this way to get him, they'd better let us have him back."

"I think at this point, it's his choice," she sighed, moving again. "We don't quite know what Tails is, we never have. Maybe the kitsune didn't make a mistake. Maybe he really is one of them. This very well could be his extended family, and this may be the better home for him."

"What?" Sonic remained frozen to the spot, his face stricken as what she was saying sank in.

Sally was telling him that he may have to say farewell to Tails.

To be continued….