I didn't deserve to be liked by them. I didn't deserve their company, or their words, no less their gratitude. But if it taught me anything, I learned from the incident what I truly was. A thief. A gluttonous, indulged thief of their trust and their secrets. Of all the painful moments I experienced, that was the worst; sitting outside the cell of the two convicts, waiting for execution, and being thanked.

"At least we'll go out with a bang."

Karia, for all her cowardice usually, had dropped hope entirely. For once, Prower and her did not make a yin-yang balance but a full circle of energy and bravery. She and her partner didn't seem to fear death any more, but they did fear for the harm of a single individual.

Nobody had checked on them but me, although there was no chance of their escape; people were on high alert, curious and watching. So I was the first but them to see him, and the sight of him broke my heart more than the death of those two might have. Something so innocent and new and pure, yet instantly doomed. If the Tribe saw him, he was sure to be killed. Nobody would have mercy on him. They might do, on a simple child, but this was not a baby that the authorities nor anyone else under them would ever accept.

He wasn't red or white like his parents but a strange, unique orange. His eyes were like his mother's- blue and bright and it gave the little fox the image of innocence. All these factors were in his favour of being spared, but there was one thing, one mutation that would surely have him killed.

A mutation.

The child had a second tail.

I swallowed, suddenly speechless at this child- this child with a life ahead of him and no sin- who I had condemned to death. I inhaled, tried to speak, and failed; I pushed my hand in through the bars and he clutched it with a tiny white one of his own.

I managed to summon words away from the guilt. "What's his name?"

"He doesn't have one," said Karia softly. "I don't know if we have time."

Prower was enchanted by this new cub, too intoxicated with love to be afraid, but when he pushed his face up to the door and looked at me, he still burned with resolve. Brighter than ever. "You've done far too much, Miles. I don't know how I can possibly ask you for more, but..."

But. He left the word hanging. He could not die happily unless he knew this child wouldn't follow him. And he also knew that nobody would take pity on his son, nobody but me.

Or that was what he thought.

I unlocked the door. The three stood together for one last time, one moment to be a family, and then passed me the two-tailed cub. He began to whimper, unhappy at being separated from them and into the hands of this strange new person.

I looked at him, and then back up. It was night.

"Goodbye." Prower gave me a grin, still strong. Amazingly so. Karia smiled with him, I left the door open for a moment. "And thank you. For everything."

I was silent, and I shut the door softly.

"Don't thank me," I replied quietly, and turned away. The child was small enough to conceal, and the tribe was empty enough at this hour. Enough to sneak him out of the prison.

I would be persecuted. I knew that much. Perhaps, if I tried, I could leave, but where would I go? Who knew where this tribe was in the middle of the world- how big was the world, even? The patch of land was the only thing I had ever known.

Growing up among innocent outsiders was maybe something of me, but I wasn't an outsider.

I thought I was different, but I never was.

The world outside scared me.

I saw something, though. A chance to...do something, something to change this. I had dreamed of leading the tribe into justice, and I had convinced myself otherwise when I grew up. But my childhood and my adulthood swirled, and the world changed with it. I saw the collective evil society, but I saw all the innocent people within it. The innocent people who were distorted, but not enough to condemn a child.

But distorted enough to condemn a mutated one.

I stared down at the baby in my arms. It was raining, storming, but he seemed more comfortable with me. I had made my way to the edge of the tribe, by the weak fence that didn't prevent anybody from escaping yet was passed by nobody. I could leave now, perhaps, with the child, but then what? If I left, I might survive; yet my world and my life were contained inside the walls, and my morals were too closely knit to them for me to break away. Several forces tried to influence me. One was a recognition that I might, just might be able to turn the Tribe around.

My childhood had been based on that. My dream was that one day, Miles would be the one who united the Tribe with the world. Miles, who fought for justice. Miles, who was destined to change the world for the good.

I cradled the child closer and whispered to him.

"Your name is Miles now."

He looked up at me. Of course he was too young to understand, yet I could have sworn he was listening.

"I always wanted Miles to be associated with something good and pure."

His two tails wrapped around my arm and I begun to lower to the ground, strangely filled with dread that was too old for him, too old for a child to feel. Fear that no cub should have.

"I have no use for it any more."

I lifted up the fence, pushed him under it, and dropped it again. He looked at me, and there was a flash of lightning. He waited, wondering why he had been left here.

"I'm sorry." I said and turned around, leaving the child alone in the rain. I kept going, but there was no obstacle for a while, and when I looked back- maybe hoping that I would stop, run back, and take him back to me, he was gone. He had disappeared into the forest, and I hoped his death would be a quick one.

Karia and Prower died happy. I didn't go to see them; how could I? I had ruined their future and their life, I had killed their child and their freedom. Sometimes I tell myself that I wanted them to die thinking that all was well, to die at peace. Other times, I am unable to justify what I did.

The tribe was shocked when the news spread. The couple had a child. A child, only a few days old. A normal child. Its father was an outsider, but it was nothing. It was too new, too untainted.

And the authorities had taken the child and killed it.

Anger grew. People questioned the rights of it. Slowly, painfully, a doubt begun to grow. If this was wrong, what else was? The Tribe dragged the fence open, and one by one begun to disintegrate. First it was a few who left to see the Outside, then those who went to join them, and people came back with newcomers who had been never seen before. It took years, yet it was also lightning fast. The dead child was the incentive, and the Tribe collapsed into a dead village where evil used to live.

I had played a part in it, certainly. And Miles was the name of the one who brought justice to the people. I have no name now, I am just the one who did it. The one who crossed the line and committed the sin. People don't know it was me, but that didn't matter. I did.

Sometimes I walk into the cell where they were and I stay there, hoping to waste away eventually, suffer the same fate as their child did. But righteousness abandons me as it always does, and I stop pretending that I can make the right decision. I leave, I eat and drink again, and then I come back. I cannot face the world outside. The others moved on and accepted it, became a part of it- the prisoners gave me a glimpse and a part of it, yet I cling onto the last remainder of the tribe that lives inside me. Evil was not in corruption or in morals. Perhaps it was committed the way I did it. Wanting to change the world, but too scared of the result. The buildings were frail and old-fashioned, yet the prison was the only sturdy place left. Here, I am left. In the last remaining part of the Tribe and I am the last member. Some days I hope to change myself and leave, but inwardly I know I never can. I am chained to this place by the Prowers, and forbidden to leave by the past. I wait now, although I don't know why. Perhaps to finally repent. Or perhaps to see Karia and Prower, and let them know the truth. So I can die the demon that I am.

He watches his little brother with concern. He has entered the workshop for a night sheltered from the storm, for a change, to find him asleep on his makeshift little bed, although hardly soundly. He tosses as if he has a fever, delirious, sweating and whimpering with pain or misery. He is frozen for a second, but eventually the hedgehog reaches over and gives him a shake. The yellow little fox gasps, wakes up, and sits stiffly for a moment.

"Tails?" he asks softly. Light blue eyes stare at him in terror for a second, before relaxing slightly, and he realizes that the eight-year-old is crying. "What happened?"

The vulpine slips onto his feet but almost falls, and the teenager catches him. At his touch, he bursts into fresh tears, acting his age for once in the prodigy's lifetime.

Sonic just lets him for a little while, holding his little adoptive sibling for as long as he needs to. Finally Tails lets go, and stares out at the rain pounding the windows.

"I remembered something," he says shakily. The lightning flashes, and with it the root of the fear it always brings is refreshed; a fence, a silhouette backlit by its light, and then the figure turns and walks away.

"Huh? You remembered something?"

Tails gets up, and walks towards the glass. Placing a hand on it, he collects himself after the rather embarrassing outburst, and finally speaks firmly. "I have to know."

"Know? Know what?"

Sonic stands up and walks a little behind him, surprised to see such resolve on his friend's usually mild face.

"What happened."

"...what...happened?"

"What happened before." The kid's eyes narrow. "I have to know what happened to them. My parents."