Scarlet watched as he walked further from the safety of his home. This time she wouldn't fail. This time he would die.

She stalked him from a safe distance, careful to remain invisible. The last time she had been in this situation he had caught her, and Scarlet wasn't willing for a repeat.

Soon the two hedgehogs were far enough away from anything for them to go unnoticed and Scarlet decided to make her move. Slowly she slipped round the forest, until she was ahead of hr prey, been still unseen. One mistake could change the outcome of this fight, and Scarlet knew she had to be perfect.

Without warning the pink hedgehog sprung out of the trees knocking the elder surprised hedgehog to the forest floor. He was up before her, but she kicked his legs out from under him knocking him back down. The two hedgehogs stood back up almost simultaneously. Sonic grabbed Scarlet's wrists and tried to force her down, but she used the opportunity to flip him over her head, and kicked at his body as he tried to stand back up. Scarlet attacked her victim, but he was well trained and blocked her every move.

Sonic fought back and caught Scarlet's stomach with his fist. The strength of the blow pushed her through the air, slamming into a tree. Scarlet was up in seconds ignoring the terrible pain that she now felt and instead pushed her energy to cause him the same amount of pain. She managed to kick him hard in the side, but the blow seemed to have hardly any effect on him.

Scarlet took many more blows until the pain was overwhelming, but still she carried on fighting. She wouldn't let him win. Sonic had taken almost as many blows as his daughter, yet he stood there as if he felt no pain. He whacked Scarlet round the head, knocking her to the ground. She tried to get up, but he pulled her up before she had a chance, gripping her tightly, so that Scarlet couldn't move.

Scarlet was exhausted, and could see that Sonic had won, but she wasn't giving in. She hated this man with every ounce of her being. Scarlet brought all of the hate, the anger, the hurt to the surface, and suddenly she had a huge amount of strength. She ripped herself from his iron grip knocking her father into a tree. She sent blows at him from every angle, relentlessly attacking. Her sudden energy seemed to grow as Sonic weakened the force Scarlet had was too much to bear. Sonic was soon lying on the ground pathetically, but still Scarlet kicked at his body, until her strength subsided and she was too weak to do anything else.

Scarlet collapsed against a tree, her head was aching terribly, and all of the previous pains Sonic had dealt her came back. Her stomach felt like it was on fire, the pain was unbearable. The young hedgehog glanced back at her enemy. She knew he was dead before she looked, but she still had to be certain.

"Scarlet . . ." The voice was soft, scared. I turned my head away from the body, to Thorn. He looked shocked, scared, confused. He didn't know whether or not to comfort his friend. Thorn stared at his father, then back to Scarlet.

Scarlet smiled up at Thorn. The smile seemed happy, but at the same time, it scared Thorn. Scarlet stood up with the last of her energy, reaching into her pocket to take out a knife. Thorn froze. Scarlet mouthed the word "goodbye" to her friend, before plunging the knife into her heart.

Scarlet had been so confused, so lost for a while now, that her life had only one purpose, and now with that purpose dead, she had nothing left to live for. Nothing she wanted to live for. In a way, as she plunging the knife into her chest, the hole it made let all of her emotions, all of her pain, everything that hurt out, until she was just an empty, happy, shell. The loss of blood let the shell fade away, and as Thorn sat cradling his friend, one thought crossed his mind:

What should I do now?