"Where, am I?" groaned Cosmo, waking up in a warm, soft bed.

She slowly lifted her head up and looked around the room. The girl could not believe her own eyes; all around the room, her friends were there with her but asleep, some on the floor, some on chairs in the room.

But where was…

"Cosmo, you're awake." said a familiar voice.

Cosmo looked towards the door to see Tails standing their looked back at her.

"Tails, you brought me back.", yelled Cosmo jumped out of the bed and over some of her sleeping friends right into the into Tails' arms, hugging him tightly.

Everyone was now waking up because of Cosmo's cry of joy. Each person's gaze was on the two crying happily in each other's arms.

Amy was so heart warmed by the scene playing out before her, she was also crying, grabbing the person next to her- who was, in fact, Sonic, and laid her head on his shoulder. Sonic, who was holding back some tears of his own, let Amy hang onto him.

After everyone had calmed down, they went outside, not just to get some fresh air to help them think clearly, but to allow Cosmo to enjoy the castle's plants and flowers, too.

"So...how'd you do it?" asked Manic, smirking knowingly.

Sonic looked over to make sure Tails was still walking with Cosmo around the garden, then looked back at his brother, "I didn't, Zalost did."

The whole group looked at Sonic with a stumped look, "I don't know why he did it."

"I know getting Cosmo back is great, but what are we going to do about getting Sonia back?" asked Manic, beating his drumsticks on his knees.

"I got an idea!" stated Knuckles, "Shadow is the ultimate life form. Maybe he can break the barrier."

Shadow looked at the dark castle in the distance, "I could give it a shot. I do have teleportation."

"I was designed to destroy Sonic, so barriers should not be any trouble for me, either," Metal said, looking at the Castle now, as well.

Knuckles got up from his chair, "Aleena we will get Sonia back!" he then ran toward the Castle with Shadow and Metal following behind.

Sonic stood up to go after them, but the soft hand of his mother grabbing his arm caused him to pause and look back at her.

"Sonic, I have already lost one of my children to Zalost...don't let me lose you, too."

Sonic looked back to his friends, who were now far off in the distance.

"...alright mom...I'll stay."

Back in Zalost's castle, Sonia was walking alone after her long tour of the castle, her mind trying to get past the fact that she may be trapped here, and trying to keep her mind off her stomach that was growling at her for not eating anything today. Wade had shown her many rooms and things, but the one thing she cared for was the fact that she was allowed to go outside whenever she wanted and at anytime, but she was restricted to how far she could go because of the barrier that protected the castle.

Sonia did not care about how far she could go as long as she could get some fresh air. It helped calm her mind and made her forget the hunger. The large door of the castle was easy to open and she walked out into the cool outdoors. She looked out in the distance where she could see her mother's castle almost glowing like a diamond from the sunlight.

"Sonia?"

The girl turned her heard to see Knuckles waving at her, and an unconscious Shadow in the arms of Metal, most likely from trying to teleport through the barrier. Sonia ran towards them her heart filled with so much joy that she forgot about the barrier.

"Stop!" shouted Knuckles, which made Sonia freeze only a few feet away from her friends.

Knuckles lifted his hand up and touched invisible barrier that would have hurt Sonia.

"Can you weaken it?" asked Sonia

Knuckles looked over at Shadow, "Even together we could not weaken it."

He looked back to Sonia, "You should...wait..how did you get out of the dungeon?"

"I was never in a dungeon," Replied Sonia.

"So...you are more like a guest?"

"Kind of...in an odd way."

Sonia now began to feel horrible for stabbing Zalost who had been treating her so kindly.

"Get back inside before they check on you and see us talking with you," ordered Metal, "We will head back to castle to form a new plan."

"Tell my mother and brothers I love them," She said, then quickly went back into the castle while Knuckles and Metal headed back to the kingdom of Mobius with the unconscious Shadow over Metal's shoulder.

When Sonia closed the door and looked back at the main hall of the castle, she saw one of the doors that had been opened slightly and could see a light from the crack of the door. The girl wanted to see to what was inside and made her way over to the door and peaked inside to see Zalost sitting in a large black chair, reading a book in the light of the fireplace that was ablaze.

Sonia took a deep breath to gather her nerve, then opened the door. Zalost looked up from the book and gazed at Sonia with worried eyes as if he expected her to be yelling at him soon.

"How is your hand?" asked Sonia looking at the bandaged hand.

"It's better," Zalost replied, closing the book. He lifted it towards Sonia for her to take.

Sonia looked at the title to the book and saw that it was the same book she let him borrow, "You can hang on to it, I will be here for a while," she handed it back to him.

"I am sorry for speaking ill of...your mother," said Zalost, placing the Book on a table, next to his chair.

"Do you have a way to make your cabinets from just giving dramatic clothing? (Not sure how that sentence was supposed to go)" joked Sonia noticing Zalost wearing a red suit colored almost like the white one he had on earlier this morning.

"Do you wish to change?" asked Zalost a tone of kindness in his voice.

"If you can get me my normal clothes, I would be fine with that," replied Sonia.

Zalost snapped his fingers and a black mist surrounded Sonia. When it faded away, she was wearing her normal attire.

"Thank you."

Sonia then took a seat in front of Zalost, "Why do you hate my mother?"

"All in good time Sonia," Zalost smiled calmly.

Sonia sighed. She then noticed the many books on the shelves around the room.

"Don't tell me you own all of these."

"All 458."

"You are joking right?"

"Nope, I have read each one at least two times."

Without warning, the door opened, startling the two hedgehogs. They both looked up to see Wade looking back at them calmly; "Dinner is ready," he said, a smile on his face.

As the two followed Wade, Sonia noticed that they were not going towards the place at which they had eaten this morning. In fact, it was a whole new area of the castle that Wade had not shown her on the tour.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

Zalost just smiled not saying a word, Sonia was annoyed that she was not given an answer but she trusted him.

After a few minutes of walking, they soon stood at a large black door.

"I hope you like the room," Zalost said with a smile as he opened the door to reveal a table for two in the middle of the room surrounded by paintings and plants that gave the room a peaceful feel to the dark castle.

The beauty of the room brought joy to Sonia, she walked past Zalost and looked at the pictures; each painting impressed her, but soon she came across one that caused tears to roll down her cheeks. The painting before her was of her mother in her white dress and crown, the kind eye of the painting almost looked as if they were gazing at Sonia.

"I am sorry; I thought it would make you happy," Zalost said, disappointed to see her tears.

"No, I am happy it's just that I miss her."

Whiping the tears away she took a seat at the table, followed by Zalost.

Wade entered the room, placing a plate of pink salmon in front of both of them.

"Thank you Wade," said Sonia placing a napkin on her lap.

Zalost handed his plate back to Wade; "Thank you Wade but I don't think am hungry"

Wade took the plate and looked at Zalost worried; "Master, I'll keep it warm for you." He then walked out of the room leaving the two alone once again.

Sonia who had not eaten all day felt like her brothers as she quickly began to devour her food. As she chewed, she could hear snickering; looking up, she saw that Zalost was trying to hold in laughter and was using his hand to hide his smile.

"Sorry," Sonia said, embarrassed, but even more so now because she was talking with food in her mouth, seeing that the masked Hedgehog busted out in laughter, not a cold laugh but a heart filled laugh that made her fill strangely more relaxed like she had been hearing that laugh her whole life.

After swallowing her food, she had to ask something that was plaguing her mind, "Zalost, you are nice to me, but when we were at my home, you took me away from my family. Why?"

Zalost gazed went from Sonia to the table, "Where I was raised, you have to be cold to keep from being killed by the people who live there, when your friends and family would not hand over the emeralds I could feel the tension rising in them. I took you so they would learn a lesson."

"What lesson?" asked Sonia, interested.

"That nothing is more important than the life of one's own child." replied Zalost taking a sip of water from his glass but when he removed the cup from his lips Sonia gasped in shock as blood began to run down his nose.

"Are you ok?" asked Sonia.

Zalost's face began to turn pale as he quickly got up from his seat and ran towards the door only to stop a few inches from it then vomited red blood.

"Wade!" yelled Zalost falling to his knees in his own blood that spread on the floor.

The door quickly opened and Wade looked at his young master with terror on his face.

"Zalost!"

Wade ran over and placed his hand on the hedgehog's chest and closed his eyes, " You used too much power," Wade said, opening his eyes.
Sonia looked at the scene in terror, "What is wrong?"

Zalost turned his head towards Sonia, "Go…leave this place."

The hedgehog snapped his fingers, "Outside, there will be a ride waiting to take you to the castle."

Sonia's heart was filled with an unknown sense of dread for his life, "Zalost, come with me. We can help you."