A/N: Hey guys, I don't really have anything to say here so enjoy the chapter :)

Chapter 3

Aftermath

Time seemed to slow to a stop for the golden furred fox and the red echidna as they stood helplessly by the shore line, clutching the net between their hands, breath caught in their lungs.

All that could be heard over the deafening winds that howled loudly across the shore from the ocean where the fearful screams of Sonic, trapped inside the collapsing tree house that was breaking apart, and Blaze, standing underneath the falling house.

Blaze, a split second to react, quickly lunged forward, flying off her feet as she slid across the sand with a thud, barely managing to roll out of the way as planks of wood skewered into the sand all around her. She quickly moved her legs outward, narrowly avoiding one of the floorboards spearing into the sand just inches away from her pelvis.

The cat screamed, closing her eyes and placing her arms over her head to shield her face from the wooden planks that rained down from the sky like arrows. To add insult to injury, another branch from the tree bent in the breeze before snapping off with a loud break, plummeting swiftly to the ground.

"Blaze!" Knuckles yelled, breaking from the trance he was in as he rushed over to the cat but was too late to stop the branch. Luckily, the thicker part smashed to pieces' inches away from her head but small twigs and splinters peppered her body, scratching her delicate skin and drawing blood all over.

"Are you okay?" Knuckles asked, sweat on his brow as he bent down, scooping up her head in his hands as he looked upon her, studying her figure to make sure she wasn't cut too badly at any place.

"I'm fine…" Blaze breathed, still recovering from her shock. "Where is… Sonic?" she asked, pointing towards the mess of the former treehouse on the sand.

"Sonic…" Tails shouted in a panicked voice before shaking himself out of his own chance and took off, sprinting towards the pile, ready to feverishly dig out the individual planks until he rescued his beloved. However, in his haste, Tails continued to hold onto the net. The rope extended to its limit where Tails was less than a meter away from the destroyed house when he was pulled backwards by the rope, falling on his bottom.

The force of his running dislodged the thick, wooden post from its spot in the sand.

"Tails!" Blaze and Knuckles both screamed in unison as the saw a huge wave smash down onto the sand, washing away more of the sand that held the post in place. This was coupled by another powerful gust of wind that, thanks to the post's weakened state, broke loose of its sandy prison and flew through the air, smashing into the back of Tails' head.

All Tails could hear was the worried and frantic calls of his friends before he blacked out, falling backwards onto the soft sand below.

…

The wind began to pick up, whipping through the ebony hedgehog's quills as he left his house, geared up to return back to the battle field and his commander that was holding the front lines, Mighty.

He looked out towards the ocean, searching for something but was interrupted by a high pitched, angry voice scolding him from behind. Shadow spun around and sighed in annoyance as he came face to face with none other than Amy Rose.

"What do you want Amy?" He groaned.

"You're about to go back to the lines, aren't you?" She queried. Shadow nodded, his facial expression remaining unchanged.

"So?"

"So! So you didn't come up to see me at all since you got back. Am I just not good enough anymore?" She screeched at him.

"Amy, this isn't the time, I have to go," Shadow disregarded her, trying to walk passed her but the angry hedgehog stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

"All you care about is this stupid war. Why? Why is this so important to you? I know you're not doing this in the name of Chaos. You're far too selfish for that,' She narrowed her eyes, studying his reaction, noticing the disgusting, deep scar that trailed across his face.

"I serve Vector and Mobius. That's all," he replied bluntly.

"No, I know it's more. You've been pushing a conquering assault despite Vector's orders to defend. You've been so antsy to break through Aves, but why?"

"You're crazy," Shadow waved her off, pushing her aside as he grabbed his bag and began setting off on foot down the road, heading north.

"No I'm not. I think I know. The only time you ever come see me is when I get back from the boat searches for Sonic and Tails. You were always mad that Vector put me on the case and not you."

"Amy, stop," Shadow growled, freezing in place before facing her.

"No, I won't! I finally figured out why you are so adamant about getting through Aves. You want to march into Vapos, capture the territory just so you can utilize their aquatic equipment to be able to search for Sonic and Tails."

"Enough!"

"You never even loved me, did you? You only went with me just to make Sonic and Tails mad. You've always had a sick rivalry with Sonic and always hated Tails, and when you found out about the two, you did everything to make their lives miserable. They are all you think about. All of your actions have something to do with those two in some form or another," Amy continued.

"Stop… I won't warn you again," Shadow warned in a threatening tone, walking closer so that he was standing right in front of her. Amy puffed out her chest, engrossed by anger.

"You know what I think. I think you have some sick obsession with them. Your life revolves around them, always has and always will, and in some perverted way, you need them. You thrive off your hatred off them and since they are gone, you're nothing. No, you're less than nothing… You're-"

Amy was immediately silenced by a slap across the face by Shadow. Amy gasped, looking into his hate fuelled crimson eyes. He let out a deep, guttural growl as he stared daggers in her eyes. There was barely an inch separating their faces as Amy shrunk backwards, feeling like she was looking into the face of Iblis incarnate.

"You got one thing right," he stated coldly. "I never loved you," he whispered hatefully into her ear before turning around and walking off, never looking back.

…

Tails floated around in a vast blackness. Emptiness stretched for miles in every direction around him, nothing at all to be seen anywhere. Tails scratched his head, trying to recall what happened and where he was when a familiar voice broke through the silence.

"Tails? Hello?"

Tails darted his head left and right, trying to find the source of the noise but could still see only darkness. The voice came again, this time in a more worried tone.

"Tails, please be okay buddy." The voice was sad and was followed by some muffled sobs. Tails immediately knew who it was. It was Sonic.

Tails laid on the beach, eyes closed on his back as Sonic, Blaze and Knuckles all crouched around him, trying to get him to regain his senses.

"What do we do?" Knuckles asked.

"Let me think," Blaze responded quickly, flustered. "Now if I can remember what my mum taught me… when a patient is knocked unconscious we should-"

Before Blaze could recall what she had been taught, a soft, barely audible moan escaped Tails' lips.

"T-Tails…?" Sonic asked, his eyes widening with hope. The golden fox's eyes began to flutter before shooting open as Tails hurriedly sat up, his head darting left and right.

"Sonic! Sonic! We have to help him," he yelled frantically, trying to stand before a splitting pain hammered into his head. Tails felt like he had just been smashed in the temple and quickly stumbled over, falling back down as he held his head.

"Whoa, take it easy buddy, I'm right here," Sonic soothed, kneeling down to look Tails in the eyes. Without warning, the fox burst out into tears, falling into Sonic as he wrapped his hands around the hedgehog and buried his face into his chest.

"Calm down Tails… it's okay I'm right here," Sonic whispered delicately into his ear, rubbing his hand smoothly over his back to calm the fox down.

"I-I thought y-you were…" Tails mumbled through his gasps, tears trickling down his face as he clung tighter to the other boy.

"Hey, now you know how you made me feel back at the park," Sonic tried to lighten the mood with a joke, earning himself a small punch in the arm by Tails who began to gather his composure and sit back up on his own.

"Not funny."

"Sorry," Sonic apologized, as Tails held his head in pain, a splitting headache still slamming him.

"Wait, what happened? How long was I out?" Tails asked, noticing that the storm had subsided as the winds had reduced, the tides had receded and there was only a light rain pelting the teenagers.

"About half an hour?" Sonic responded, looking over to Blaze and Knuckles to see if they had any better idea. The duo just shrugged as Sonic returned his attention back to the fox. "We tried to wake you but I thought… well, let's not go into what was going through my head."

"I thought the same thing about you," Tails frowned. "How did you survive the treehouse?"

"Well, I was inside when it gave way but managed to quickly jump out the window just as it completely fell apart. Despite a sprained ankle and a few cuts and bruises, I'm fine," he replied, pointing to his ankle that appeared to be slightly swollen and purple.

"It looks like we both can't help but keep getting hurt at the same time. First our shoulders, now your ankle and my head," Tails giggled slightly.

"We might be cursed."

"If I had to be cursed, I'm glad it was with you," Tails smiled.

"I'd still rather not be though," Sonic laughed before he leant in and pressed his lips against Tails'. After a few moments, the two pulled apart and helped each other stand up, both needing the other's support as they looked around at the devastation caused by the freak storm.

Tails, Sonic, Blaze and Knuckles took in their surroundings, mortified at just how quickly their paradise had turned into a graveyard. Their once humble abode was now a mess of broken planks of wood jutting out from the sand, sharp splinters protruding from the pile like the wreck of a ship at the bottom of the ocean.

Their farm that they worked so hard to create and cultivate from the seeds of plants and trees that they found in minimal amounts on the island completely destroyed. A large, thick post that was previously stuck into the sand with the fishing net attached to it lay over top of the farmed soil and budding crops, burying them underneath. The hoe lay to the side, broken clean in two. The spears that they had created for the fish were nowhere to be seen, presumably washed away by the crashing waves that pelted the island severely, eroding away a lot of the sand with them.

"Everything… everything we built here…" Knuckles breathed slowly.

"It's all gone," Sonic completed his thought in a depressed tone.

"We can rebuild, right?" Tails asked in complete shock.

"It took us three months to make everything… and now it's all gone and we are worse off than we were that night," Knuckles replied, staring at the two, unable to bury down the thought that none of this would have ever happened if it wasn't for the two of them.

"Knuckles, everything is going to be okay," Sonic reassured him.

"Is it?" Knuckles raised his voice. "Look around. Everything is fucked! And it's all your fault."

"Whoa, Knuckles don't blame him," Tails defended the hedgehog.

"Don't think it's not your fault too," he shifted the blame. "If it wasn't for you two we wouldn't even be here in the first place."

"Knux, bro, that's not cool!"

"Yeah, we didn't ask you to help us."

"You didn't really give us a choice did you? We weren't going to just let them kill you. But now we are stuck on an island, with no food, water or shelter and without family or any of our old friends. Right Blaze?" Knuckles turned to her but she didn't make any motion. "Blaze…?"

Tails, Knuckles and Sonic all looked towards her in confusion, watching her stand frozen like a statue, her eyes cast of into the distance.

"Blaze?" Sonic asked, waving his hand in front of her face but still she didn't budge.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked, grabbing her hand for comfort.

"It's gone…" she whispered, still not shifting her position at all, her mouth the only part of her that moved.

"What's gone?" Knuckles asked but stopped himself when he saw where exactly she was looking. "Oh…"

"Blaze… I'm sorry…" Tails whispered. Suddenly, without warning, Blaze exploded in a fit of anger and fury.

"You're sorry are you?! That's all you get? Do you know how much shit Knuckles and I sacrificed for you and all we get is a sorry and a thank you? I know you didn't mean to but you ruined out lives. We can never see our families again… our friends… everyone," Blaze shouted, fuelled by all her pent up anger and depression that bubbled around inside of her.

"Blaze… come on, don't be like this," Sonic tried to defuse the situation. Slowly, Tails realized why Blaze was acting like this. He looked off to where he was staring to notice a small indent where a small tombstone used to be. Only now there was a pile of stone and rubble surrounding the area with the majority of the tablet washed off by the crashing waves.

"Blaze… I know you're sad but think what Silver would have wanted. He-"

"Don't ever tell me what he would have wanted," Blaze interrupted Tails harshly, a fire alight in her eyes. She was beginning to lose control, completely overwhelmed by all of the heartache that she had been burying down inside of her throughout the past three months. All her emotions were finally erupting out from within her like a dormant volcano that has become active.

"Blaze… please…"

"Come on Knuckles… let's go," Blaze announced spitefully, just needing to get away from the hedgehog and fox. She held out her hand, waiting until she felt the familiar grip as Knuckles stood up next to her.

"Where are you going to go?" Sonic asked, sadness evident in his voice.

"We'll find a place on the island to live by ourselves… alone," she declared.

"Knuckles…?" A voice called out, causing all of the four teenagers to suddenly freeze.

"Sonic? Tails? Blaze?" the voice called out confused, slightly disorienting in tone. The four turned their heads and their mouths fell open. Knuckles quickly tore his grip out of Blaze's hand and took a few steps away, not knowing what to do.

There, standing up from the beach with a hand on her head, was Tikal the Echidna…

A/N: Welp... looks like Tikal, the echidna that a lot of my readers hate has wormed her way back into the limelight, but why is she here, how did she find them and what is she going to do?

Looks like Blaze and Knuckles haven't forgotten about what happened to them. Although Sonic and Tails didn't mean to drag their friends into their mess, it is true that Blaze and Knuckles both sacrificed their families, lives and friends to help the duo and of course they can't push the underlying resentments away no matter how hard they try. All it took was a tragedy to bring these feelings to the forefront and finally be examined. If only Tikal didn't wash up on the shore, the four might have gone seperate ways. Also I just want to say a big thanks to all the people reviewing, it means so much and I love reading all of your reviews. I'm glad you are liking the story, and I'm glad that Blaze is more likable this story xD Please don't forget to leave another review for this chapter, it means a lot :) And... as always, thanks for reading.

Next Time on Sontails: War of Faith - Chapter 4: Tikal