Sonic, Amy, and Tails stood before the Council of Acorn, their arms bound in chains. Many of the citizens of New Mobotropolis were packed inside of the castle, watching intently, while everyone else in the city watched from home on their TC's (Telecrates) for this was sure to be the trial of the century for the very ones who were on trial were the two hedgehogs and two-tailed fox aforementioned.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Miles "Tails" Prower," King Elias began, "You three stand accused of being that which has been deemed illegal by the current King, myself, and still stands as illegal, now, under the joined jurisdiction of the Council of Acorn. You have been accused of being… Ixis wizards."

"How do you plead?" Asked Hamlin.

None of them said a word. Sally looked at them, expecting… or perhaps, more like hoping, that Sonic, at least, would say something. But none of them said a word. They merely kept their heads down, not looking at anyone. Sally sighed in defeat and walked up in front of them.

"My clients plead 'Not Guilty', your majesty." She said to her brother. "I, Princess Sally Alicia Acorn, have volunteered to represent them as their defense attorney."

The council responded to this by looking at one another for a moment.

"Though it is true that, as citizens of the Kingdom of Acorn, they have the right to an attorney…" Said King Elias.

"An heiress to the throne cannot represent a defendant!" Exclaimed Hamlin.

"Actually, there is nothing in the constitution that denies the princess the right to act as defense." Said Sir Charles.

"Given Sally's skills and knowledge in such fields, I believe that she has the proper requirements and capabilities to be allowed to act as defense." Said Rotor.

"All in favor of allowing the princess to act as the defendants' attorney?" Asked Elias.

"Yay." Said Rotor, raising his hand.

"Yay." Said Dylan, raising his hand.

"Yay." Said Sir Charles, raising his hand.

"Nay." Said Hamlin, grimacing while raising his hand.

"Nay." Said Penelope, raising her hand.

"Yay." Said Rosemary, raising her hand.

"Yay. Then the motion is carried." Said King Elias. "Let us continue on with the trial. We have numerous eye witness accounts from the Royal Guard, that these three were seen using Ixis magic, an illegal practice, during the battle that took place yesterday."

"I would like to inform the council that my clients have always served the kingdom, and the world." Said Sally. "While doing so, they have all been exposed to numerous forms of magic, one of them being chaos energy. As we all know, chaos is very unpredictable with unpredictable side effects. Clearly these new abilities that my clients have demonstrated yesterday are such side effects."

"The council would like to request Nicole's presence at this time." Said Hamlin.

Nicole's hologram form instantly manifested itself before everyone.

"Care to show us exactly what happened on the battlefield, yesterday?" Hamlin grinned as he said this.

Nicole, though hesitantly, then brought up multiple viewing screens. On each of these screens was a scene from the replay of the battle with Naugus' crystal soldiers. On the first screen was the scene were Sonic and Sally were struggling to stand on ice as Naugus' fire attack came their way.

"First, Sonic summoned a tornado from his hand." Said Hamlin as the screen showed Sonic preforming the act, sucking up the fireball in the process.

The screen then fast-forwarded to when Sonic lowered his hand and the ice beneath their feet suddenly melted.

"Then there was when the ice melted beneath the two of you not long after Sonic… 'coincidentally' lowered his hand."

One the second screen was the scene were Tails was falling out of the sky in his partially crystalized biplane, the Tornado.

"Next is when my son, Tails, was falling out of the sky thanks to Naugus' magic, and suddenly, a giant hand made out of rock appeared to catch his plane before it hit the ground." Said Rosemary as the screen showed this happening. "The only clues that linked the cause to the defendant, Amy Rose, was the fact that her own hand seemed to be mimicking the rock hand, and when she seemed to create an earthquake after making her hammer disappear."

The screen then fast-forwarded to show Amy slamming her fists onto the ground, creating the earthquake.

"We mustn't forget about your son's part in this either, Rosemary." Said Penelope, making Rosemary advert her eyes in nervousness.

The third screen showed Tails throwing his arms out, creating the crystal wall.

"He was seen using crystalline magic, an ability that we have only seen Naugus perform."

"Do the defendants have anything to say in their defense?" Asked King Elias.

Still, none of them said anything. Tails and Amy looked somewhat ashamed, but neither of them even so much as looked up. Sonic, on the other hand, was thinking back to last night.

FLASHBACK

Sonic, Tails, and Amy were each being kept in neighboring holding cells. Sonic and Tails' families came in earlier to try and speak with them. While Amadeus Prower and Jules and Bernadette Hedgehog promised their sons that they wouldn't stay in those cells for long, Rosemary Prower and Sir Charles Hedgehog told them that they only wanted to get everything straightened out, but still told them that they had the utmost faith that everything would turn out alright. Unfortunately, all three of them kept their backs to the cell doors, not saying word.

Sonic was leaning against the wall that separated his and Tails' cells. Amy was leaning against the wall that separated hers and Tails' cells. Tails was alternating between the two walls of his cell. After the parents had eventually given up trying to talk to the three of them and left, the next to come and visit them were the Freedom Fighters; unfortunately, they were met with same reaction. One by one, they left until the last one to leave was Sally. But she didn't leave… she couldn't leave, not until she was sure.

"Sonic?" She asked, receiving no reaction. "Does the name… 'Little Acorn' mean anything to you?"

It was at that moment that she had noticed one of Sonic's ears twitch and his head slightly jerk up. To her, that was all that she needed.

"I promise you, I am going to do everything that I can to make sure that you get out of here."

Sonic kept thinking back to when she said that and couldn't stop. The trial went on for hours and Sonic, Amy, and Tails had said nothing throughout it. Sally was at the end of her rope. She had done everything that she could possibly think of, but the evidence and eye witness accounts were too overwhelming. She couldn't think of any possible way to prove their innocence. The more obvious that her struggling became, the more worried her friends became. However, Antoine blamed Sonic for Sally needing to struggle so much. If Sonic could only explain what he did himself, then everything would be fine, right? Or at least, that would probably help. Unfortunately, throughout this entire trial, the three defendants neither said nor did anything.

"Uh… my, er… clients would like to… state that…" Sally began, but she couldn't think of what to say to defend her friends.

"Sonic!" Exclaimed Antoine, who was tired of watching Sonic stare at his shoes instead of speaking to help Sally defend him. "Stop with zee staring at zee floor and say something!"

"Antoine!" Exclaimed Bunnie in surprise.

"Mr. D'Coolette, you will be silent—!" Warned Rosemary, but Antoine wasn't listening.

"After everything zat Sally has been doing zis whole time for you, and you don't so much as say a word to help her!"

"Guards, please escort Commander D'Coolette—" Said Elias before he was interrupted by Antoine's outburst.

"For zee heaven's sake! Say something!"

"Get him out of here!" Penelope loudly ordered.

"Tell them zat you are not zee monstaîr zey think you are!" It was at this time that Bunnie tried to get her husband to go with her outside the room. "Tell zem zat you three are not zose vile, villainous, evil…"

As Antoine continued to state his thoughts about Ixis Wizards, Tails felt a great deal of impatience welling up inside of him as horrible memories of childhood nightmares flashed into his mind.

"… treacherous…!" Bunnie along with a few guards were now trying desperately to get Antoine out of the room. "… despicable…! Monstrous!"

"STOP IT!"

Tails had had enough. He threw out his hands and in an instant, large, green crystals emerged out of the ground before Antoine, Bunnie, and everyone around them. His handcuffs were also turned to crystal and then shattered as he threw his hands out. For the first time since the incident during the battle against Naugus, Sonic, Amy, and Tails all had their heads up.

"Antoine!" Exclaimed Sonic.

"Bunnie!" Exclaimed Amy.

Sonic quickly zoomed passed the guards that surrounded him, then around the crystals that Tails had summoned to make sure that his friends were alright. He released a huge sigh of relief when he saw that they were all in one piece, despite the fact that Antoine was hyperventilating and everyone else was backing away from Sonic, looking at him with fear.

"S-Sonic!" Called a terrified Tails. "A-Are they…?!"

"They're fine, bud!" Sonic called back. "Just shaken up… among other things, I bet."

Sonic then made his way back to him and Amy. Tails was quite shaken himself, as well as everyone else in the city that saw this.

"I-I'm sorry…" Tails fell to his knees as tears of extreme guilt started to well up in his eyes while Amy held him trying her best help him.

"Miles!" Exclaimed Rosemary, forgetting about legal protocol, and hurrying to her son's side.

"Son!" Exclaimed Amadeus, doing the same.

"I-I'm so… so sorry…!" Tails was full-on crying as his parents, as well as Amy, were now attempting to tend to him. "I… I didn't mean to…"

"Hey, Tails. It's okay—" Sonic consoling words were interrupted by Tails' mother.

"Stay away from him!" Rosemary shouted at Sonic.

"What?!"

"M-mom?!" Asked Tails.

"I don't know how or why, but I just know that you are the cause of all this!" Rosemary shouted again.

"How dare you!" Exclaimed Bernadette Hedgehog as Sonic's family approached.

"Bernie, dear, please calm down." Said Jules, attempting to calm his wife.

"'Calm down'? 'Calm down', Jules?! This woman blames our son for something hers clearly did, and you want me to 'calm down'?!"

"Getting worked up over a few harsh words aren't going to help us at this point, Bernie." Said Sir Charles as he approached.

"If 'harsh words' aren't enough," said Rosemary as she arose and approached the Hedgehogs, "I have a few more choice words for your boy."

"You dare, and I swear you'll regret it!" Said Bernadette, approaching Rosemary.

"Speak to me like that again, and I'll bring you up on charges!"

"Your position of political power doesn't give you the right to accuse my son of anything!"

"Actually, it does, and the way I see it, the only one who should be standing here on trial is your son!"

"Excuse me?!"

"Your boy has always been dragging ours on his adventures. What he's currently able to do is no doubt a result of that! My Tails is a victim of your son's irresponsibility!"

"If you think I am just going to stand here and—!"

"Enough! Both of you!" The sound of the King's voice roared after he appeared between them, making them both stop their argument.

"Your majesty, please spare our son." Pleaded Rosemary. "I know that it isn't his fault. This can only be Sonic's doing."

Jules and Sir Charles had to cover Bernadette's mouth to keep her from saying anything that could get her arrested.

"Interesting accusation…" said Hamlin as he approached from behind the king, "coming from the mother of the one who cast the magic."

"What are you implying?"

"How do we know that Tails' abilities are not genetic or family trained?"

"You're accusing me of being an Ixis wizard?!"

"Or perhaps your husband? How do we know that you both aren't withholding important information from the council? And let's not forget about Amy's and Sonic's families."

"After everything that all of us have been through since the first Robotnik War," Sir Charles said angrily, "you dare accuse our families of being part such a disgraceful cult?"

"The Hedgehogs and the Prowers could be wizards like Naugus?!" Said a random spectator.

"Who else has been lying to us?!" Said another.

All around them, Amy, Tails, and Sonic could hear all kinds of paranoid accusations being thrown around the room. People were suspecting their fellow citizens of being Ixis wizards. Tails clung to Amy nervously. Amy wanted to comfort him, but she too was also feeling quite anxious. Sonic noticed this and had had enough!

"ENOUGH!" He shouted, throwing out this hands as far as they could go while chained, making a gust of wind blow in all directions, silencing the whole room. "WE ARE THE ONLY WIZAAAAAARRRRRDS!"

For five whole seconds, everyone was in silent shock before Hamlin grinned victoriously.

"Yes! A confession!" He then pointed to the Hedgehog and Prower families. "Guards! Place them all under arrest!"

"What?!" The two families said in unison.

"You can't do that." Said Sonic.

"Why not?" Asked Hamlin.

"Because they aren't our real blood parents!"

Sonic's last words rang out and echoed through the hall. Everyone was just shocked to hear this. The two mothers held their mouths in shock, for even though they both knew that it was true, to hear her own son blurt it out so loudly so that everyone could hear it, Bernadette couldn't help but be shocked as did Rosemary. Rosemary refocused her vision on her son, who didn't look the least bit surprised that the secret that he had begged them to keep for three years since they adopted him had just been exposed.

Meanwhile, during all of this drama, Team Dark had been watching the entire trial from above. Shadow had Rouge make up an excuse to the Commander as to why they weren't back yet.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that." Commented Rouge. "What about you, Shad—"

Rouge stopped speaking when she realized that her partner was nowhere to be seen. She then angrily pressed the button on her mini earpiece and spoke into it.

"Where are you?!"

"I'm… busy." Shadow responded. "Just let me know if something interesting happens."

"Sonic just shouted to everyone that neither he nor Tails are related to their families."

"What?!"

Suddenly, the line went dead.

"Hello…? Shadow?!" She then angrily removed her earpiece. "He does this to me one more time, I am gonna…"

She finished her angered statement with an angry, strained groan and then focused back on the events at hand. Sonic's angered expression then changed into a saddened one as he lowered his head for a second.

"B-but…" Said Penelope. "But I've seen baby pictures of the both of you in their houses."

"They're fake." Tails confessed. "I doctored the photos myself. Sonic and I have only known the Prowers and the Hedgehogs for three years."

As everyone stared in silence, Sonic turned to look at Nicole, whose holographic form was still physically in the vicinity.

"Nicole?" He asked her with a solemn tone. "These cuffs are made out of nanites, right?"

"Y-yes, they are," she answered, "but… w-why—?"

"I'm sorry, Nicole. Believe me when I say that I hate to do this." Sonic then turned to Tails. "Tails?"

Tails lowered his head and said not a word. Suddenly, Sonic and Amy's handcuffs were turned into crystal and then shattered.

"They're escaping!" Shouted Hamlin. "Stop them!"

"Guys!" Sonic turned to the pink hedgehog and yellow, two-tailed fox. "Grab on!"

Amy and Tails both grabbed ahold of Sonic's arms. Sonic, with the two of them in tow, then dashed off to a random wall.

"Amy, I need you to break that wall down!" Ordered Sonic.

"R-right!" Amy said nervously, readying her hammer.

"Nicole! Stop them!" Hamlin shouted.

Suddenly, just as they were in striking distance of the wall…

CRASH

… something burst in through said wall, knocking the three of them back. As they got to their feet, they suddenly realized that the one who was preventing them from leaving was Shadow, who appeared to be holding three cardboard boxes. The sounds of footsteps caught their attention and looked around to see the Royal Guard surrounding them. Suddenly, two things fell down from the ceiling. One was big and the other was small. It was Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega of Team Dark.

"Great timing, Shadow." Commented Rouge. "So you dragged us here just to keep an eye on these three so they wouldn't escape. I never pegged you as the kind of guy to care about things that don't concern you. Oh, well."

With a shrug of her shoulders, she approached three on the floor.

"Omega, break out the old-fashioned cuffs. Guess Shadow wants us to make sure these three don't go any—"

VREE-POW

Rouge was interrupted by something hitting her in the face, stopping her approach. Omega turned to respond to this immediately, but as soon as soon as he focused on the speeding object, he hesitated, giving the one responsible for disabling Rouge time to grab him by the arm, flip over his shoulder, and slam him onto his head, into the ground. Then, the individual started taking out the Royal Guard, one by one. As soon as they were all taken out, the individual returned to his position before the three wizards. Rouge quickly recovered from the attack, as did Omega, and they both looked at the individual who had attacked them.

"Sh-Shadow?!" Rouge couldn't believe what she had just seen.

Shadow stood before all of them as they looked at him in fear, waiting to see what he would do next. The Freedom Fighters were waiting for Sally to give the word to attack, but Sally wanted to see what it was that he wanted. Shadow just stood before all of them, eyeing them all menacingly before speaking.

"Don't any of you dare touch my family."

Once again… shock. Shock was all that anyone felt, sans the three wizards. Shadow then approached his family, the three wizards, and stood before them.

"Shadow." Said Amy, but Shadow simply raised a hand to silence her.

"I don't suppose any of you can remember how old we are?" He asked them.

"Beats me." Said Sonic, looking at the ground.

"Same." Said Amy, adverting her eyes.

Tails didn't answer, but Shadow could tell that not even he knew.

"Regardless," Shadow started, "we have been around for quite some time now… I guess it was only a matter of time until this happened."

For a second, silence.

"You were right, Amy. I perhaps would've done the same thing if I were in a similar situation."

"Perhaps it was for the best." Suggested Amy, looking at Shadow. "We couldn't truly keep this secret forever."

Suddenly, something had collided with Sonic's face. It was one of the cardboard boxes that Shadow was holding. Sally remembered that Nicole mentioned that the three of them had cardboard boxes that weren't made of nanites stashed under their beds. Shadow then proceeded to toss the other two boxes to Amy and Tails.

"The time has come." Said Shadow. "Put them on and let's go. Mine is back at G.U.N. H.Q. We can pick it up after we leave."

"Leave to where?" Asked Amy.

Shadow didn't say a word. He instead walked over to the hole in the wall and leaned against it as the nanites' auto-repair programming continued to make it smaller and smaller. The three of them then arose from the floor, opened their boxes, and removed a single item from inside of each of them before closing them. They all removed the same thing from each of their boxes, a maroon, hooded robe with golden designs and symbols sewn into it. The three wizards dawned theses robes, leaving their hoods off, and walked over to Shadow.

"W-what is everyone just standing around for?!" Asked Hamlin. "Someone! Anyone! Arrest them!"

But no one did anything except for Sally.

"Wait!" She called to them. "Don't go!"

"Sorry, Sal, but we have to." Said Sonic.

"Our secret has been revealed." Said Tails. "I'm sorry, but… we can't stay."

"I guess this is… goodbye then." Said Amy, sadly.

"But…! But…!"

"Y-Your majesty!" Exclaimed Hamlin. "Are you just going to let them leave?!"

But Elias didn't say a word.

"Your majesty!"

Again, nothing. As the three wizards walked over to join Shadow beside the hole, which was already halfway fixed, Sally approached. It wasn't until Shadow was about to leave with the three of them, that he noticed her.

"Shadow."

"Hm?"

"… I have so many questions that need answered… Please."

Shadow wanted to leave, but looking at the princess, he couldn't just leave her like this. He then turned his head before speaking to the whole room and though unintentionally, to everyone who was watching at home.

"Come back here tomorrow. We will reveal everything before we leave… for good." With that, Shadow turned around, used his chaos spears to take out the lights above, and said one last thing to Sally. "Every gardener feels so much pride when his favorite 'Little Acorn' becomes a great, strong, beautiful oak tree."

Whoosh

Once the last traces of sunlight were no longer upon the three wizards, Shadow waved his hand, and they all vanished into the shadows. Sally stood there, once again… shocked.