A/N: Hey guys, I hope you have been enjoying this story so far and like the direction it has been heading. But we've spent most of the story in the tropical island setting with our main four characters. I think it's just about time to see what actually happened after they left, when Wave attacked and Vector siezed power. Wouldn't it be great if we could get it through the eyes of a secondary character from the first story? If the answer is yes, then you will love this chapter :P

Chapter 4

Tikal

"T-Tikal…?" Knuckles gasped, his mouth agape.

"Stay back," Sonic hissed, his instincts taking over as he stood in front of both Tails and Blaze, keeping them away from the echidna who ruined all of their lives by ousting Sonic and Tails' secret after discovering the journal in Sonic's bag.

"Wh-where am I?" Tikal asked, still quite discombobulated and disoriented.

"Don't answer that," Tails piped up. "It's just a trick. She is gonna tell the others where we are," he warned.

"No, that's not it at all," Tikal replied swiftly.

"Then how did you find us here?" Knuckles asked accusingly, stepping up next to Sonic after he shook himself out of his frozen state, standing between the echidna and Blaze.

"Knuckles… come on… it's me," she said, shooting him her signature puppy dog eyes that he could never resist and often melted under.

"He asked you a question," Sonic stepped in. "You've got five minutes so start talking!"

"Well… it's sort of a long story," Tikal reasoned with them.

"Time's ticking down," Sonic tapped his wrist.

"Okay, okay… well it all started about two months after the war broke out…" she began, addressing Sonic.

…

None of us expected it. you were still the talk of the town. Vector and Shadow especially were still quite bitter about the escape and people started turning on Blaze and Knuckles' parents, blaming them for the help that their kids gave you two in escaping. After a couple days, things started going back to normal, albeit some students and adults still had their hang-ups on the whole ordeal. We removed Big's body from the park and had a town burial for him, sending him up to Chaos.

That was when it happened. Suddenly, from the north, a large army led by Wave, whom we didn't know at the time, started marching down on a war path. Normally we would turn to Big, but since he was dead we were all running around like headless chickens. It didn't take long for us to realize why they were attacking, since we did find the dead bodies of a green hawk and silver albatross next to Big's corpse, and why this crazed bird was leading them but none of us had any experience. We all blamed you guys for the invasion and when we tried to form together a force to fend off Wave, we placed Knuckles and Blaze's parents on the front line…

…

"W-wait…" Blaze interrupted, tears welling in her eyes as she stepped in front of Sonic to look at Tikal. "Are you saying me that my parents…" Tikal nodded solemnly, not answering as Blaze burst out into tears. She ran over to bury her face into Knuckles chest who wrapped his arm around her protectively. Tikal raised an eyebrow at the motion, but disregarded it due to the situation.

"Continue," Sonic stepped in again, trying something to take Blaze and Knuckles' minds off of their parents. "You've got four minutes left."

…

All seemed lost. It seemed like we would be overrun and killed off by Wave, but that was when Vector stepped up and took charge. Nobody knew he had it in him, but he seemed to be somewhat of a tactical genius. He helped organize all of us, plan strategies to fend off Wave and eventually, thanks to his surprise leadership, he managed to push them back all the way to the forest.

He decided that he needed some trusted generals in his new army and turned to a couple people that he knew hated you two as much as he did. Shadow wasn't a stranger to Vector before the whole ordeal, but during that night when you guys all fled, they became closer and Vector offered him a high position. People complained about how a sixteen-year-old was in such a high position but Vector put them in their place. He introduced Vector to Amy, telling him about what she did and he gave her a position as well. That's also when I first met Vector officially…

A couple months passed and history seemed to be repeating itself, but with a crocodile rather than a cat leading the charge. Vector took up residence in that old, dilapidated castle down south that Large constructed back in the original war. Together, we pushed Aves back to their boarders and started on an attack force. Meanwhile, Vector also started sending people out in boats on search missions. Shadow and him had this theory that you guys must have survived and found a place to live and neither one has given up on one day finding you to make you pay.

As time went on, I started to feel more and more unsure of myself. Back at the party, when I first found that diary, my natural instincts kicked in and everything about you guys disgusted me. Since then I've done some reflection, mainly thinking about what Knuckles had said to me… and I started to see things slightly differently. It didn't help my thoughts that we had so many deaths and were in the middle of a massive war just because of a couple people's sexuality. Why would Chaos want this? It seemed more like an act of Iblis…

However, the turning point came for me when I was sent to help Shadow at the front lines with Mighty the armadillo. We were walking through the forest when we heard something which sounded like talking.

"You hear that?" he turned to me. I nodded.

"I think it came from over that way," I replied, pointing behind me.

"Do you think it could be Aves?" he whispered, lowering the volume of his voice as the severity of the situation dawned upon us. It was just him and me, two sixteen year olds alone in the middle of the forest, but people surprisingly high up in our little army.

"I'll go this way, you go that way," he said in an alarmed tone, making sure to keep his voice as quiet as possible. "Signal if you see or hear anything else." With that, he swiftly raced off in the other direction, making almost no noise compared to the speed at which he was running through the trees and shrubs.

I turned, heading off in my direction, trying my hardest to keep quiet but the loud sounds of leaves crunching under the soles of my feet would have given away my location to anybody who was watching me. Yet… nobody came and nothing happened. I was confused, but I kept searching around. That's when I stumbled upon a small, hidden little log cabbing constructed between a couple of trees. I gasped, wondering how I didn't see it sooner.

I exercised caution as I tiptoed closer to the house and around the side, making sure to make as little noise as possible, before making my over to one of the small square windows situated on either side. I steeled my nerves, taking a deep breath as I peeked inside and saw…

…

"Tikal, I don't need to hear the freaking play by play," Sonic interrupted her, getting fed up by the echidna. "Stop stalling and speak."

"Geeze, sorry for trying to set up some atmosphere," she pouted. Sonic and Tails both glared back angrily at her and the echidna shied away slightly.

"Sorry if we are not in the mood," Tails began coldly. "We were just trying to repair the lives we were forced to make for ourselves after you ruined our old ones." Tikal stared, stunned at his words before looking down at her shoes, mumbling something inaudible.

"What was that?" Sonic asked.

"…sorry about that…"

"Sorry about that?! That's all you have to say after-" Sonic began to raise his voice but he felt a hand on his arm, pushing it down. Sonic stopped and turned to look at Blaze, the light shimmering off the remainder of the tears.

"Sonic… she's not worth it," Blaze stated coldly. Guilt washed over Tikal as pain and regret flooded her eyes.

"You still never got to why you're here?" Knuckles asked, trying to defuse the tension that was slowly becoming heavier and thicker.

"O-Okay… thanks Knuckles…" Tikal smiled slightly. Blaze turned her head to glare at Blaze but he didn't look at her, opting to focus on the echidna instead which only further angered the violet feline. "So I peeked my head over the window sill…"

…

That's when I saw them. No, it wasn't an Aves assassin like we both feared but two young girls huddled in fear in the single room. I tapped on the window with my fingers, gaining their attention and they instantly shied away, dashing behind a couch in hopes that I didn't see them.

"Hello?" I called out. "I won't hurt you, I promise." Eventually after a couple minutes of trying to talk to them through the glass, I heard the distinct clanging of a metal chain before the door to the cabin slowly creaked open.

"Come in quickly, one of Shadow's commanders is lurking in this forest," the girl whispered towards me. I quickly hurried over to her and was pulled inside by my shirt, the door slamming closed behind me. As my eyes adjusted to the dimly lit light in the cabin, I realized that I knew the two girls. Both of whom were in a couple of my classes back at school.

Basically, I was talking to them and they were telling me how scared they were of Vector and his rule. I opened up to them about my grievances with him and how I wasn't quite sure about what we were all doing either and, eventually, one of them mentioned how they were both together and hiding from the masses of fear of being lynched like Scourge and Manic were earlier this year or how they drove you guys out of town.

But… I didn't mind. I didn't act weird about it… it just all seemed… okay. Like, when I found out about you two I had this feeling deep inside of disgust and truly felt with my entire being that it was wrong but after everything that has happened I couldn't help but empathize with them. Weird right?

They helped me understand the truth. They showed me a different way to perceive the world. I could see that they were in love, and it wasn't a bad thing. It was beautiful in a way. It wasn't any different to the way I used to feel about Knuckles. They helped me see that Mobianity wasn't about discrimination, about belittling others based on sexual preference but instead it's about love and acceptance.

Anyway, after that I knew I had to help them. I offered to take them towards the beach and try to scrape together a boat for them with my connections with Vector, making up some excuse about going out to search for you.

Some time passed and the three of us made it to one of the boat sheds near the same beach that we chased you to that fateful night and I managed to acquire a boat. As we prepared for the trip and got some supplies together, Amy Rose stumbled upon us and began to ask what we were doing.

To keep a long story short, I tried to act casually towards her but she knew something was fishy because of the two girls I was with. She kept asking questions and… it just kinda slipped out. I didn't mean to say it and I don't know why I said it… I broke their trust and I'm the reason that they are now…

Well Amy over-reacted and pull out a gun, shooting both girls on the spot. She turned to be, her chest heaving with anger as she stared deep into me.

"You were helping them escape willingly?!" she screamed at me.

"Amy… c'mon, you know that this is the wrong thing to do. Big filled your head with these false illusions and Vector has only amplified the situation to unbelievable heights. This is getting ridiculous; would Chaos really want this?" I tried to reason with her.

"Iblis' lies have gotten to you!" she spat back.

"Amy… all this bloodshed, all this anger, all this war… this isn't what Chaos would want. This is the actions of Iblis brought upon by the actions of a power mad, disillusioned man bent on killing two of our best friends!"

"You've been tainted. You're just as bad as them… as all of them!" I knew I couldn't reason with her and I knew that she was so close to pulling that trigger. I thought quickly, kicking up a cloud of sand at her. The granules stung her eyes and she stumbled backwards in pain, shrieking as she tried to rub the sand out of her eyes so that she could see. I took this opportunity to seize the gun from her.

"What are you going to do? Shoot me?!" Amy growled at me, spite and hate infecting her words.

"No… I'm done with violence. This needs to end, now and I know some people who can help," I replied before turning around and diving in the boat, paddling away.

"They are all dead, and soon you will be too!" She called out after me but I didn't look back. I just kept paddling out into the vast abyss of the ocean, hoping beyond hope that I could find something, anything that was better than Mobius. Unfortunately, or maybe it was an act of Chaos, that massive storm picked up and a gigantic wave crashed over the top of me and my boat and the next thing I knew, I was lying face down on the beach and looked up to see you guys…

…

"And you really expect us to believe you?" Sonic asked, still sceptical about her whole story. "How do we know it isn't a lie?" Tikal didn't say anything, just looking at the four of them. She looked at Sonic, his cold, unwavering eyes staring at hers as if he was challenging her. She shifted her sight to the golden fox standing next to her, his calculating eyes feeling like they were looking right through her, trying to solve some unseen problem about her story. She looked over to Blaze, who was still standing behind the red echidna, her eyes devoid of any emotion as she stared blankly at Tikal like she was a ghastly apparition.

"Kn-knuckles?" Tikal asked as she stared deep into his eyes. He looked back, his eyes shimmering with doubt, pain and conflict.

"Last time we gave you a chance, you ruined all of our lives…" Knuckles finally breathed.

"I don't think we can trust you," Tails added solemnly.

"But I need you… Mobius needs you-"

"Don't," Blaze interrupted coldly. "Just don't. You've caused too much pain and damage already."

"Okay… I'll just leave then," Tikal sighed as she gave Knuckles one last pleading look. "Goodbye," she said before she turned and began to walk away, her gaze fixed on the sandy beach below her feet.

"Wait…" Knuckles caused out, a wave of hope washing over Tikal as she turned her head.

"Knuckles…?" Blaze, Sonic and Tails all asked, looking to him. His emotions collided together, waging a war inside of him. The inner turmoil he felt was evident to his companions by the look on his face. "I… I believe her!"

"You do?" they all replied in unison.

"You do!" Tikal gasped happily.

"I do… I don't know why guys, but I think we should trust her. The whole story could be fabricated but does it matter? If she was sent here to find us, surely she would have been accompanied by others. If she came to kill us, she would have done it while we were arguing."

"But Knuckles-" Blaze argued but he silenced her.

"She knows how to get back and came here in a boat. She can take us back to Mobius… we don't really have a way to live here anymore…"

"But Knuckles-" Blaze protested again.

"I agree," Tails suddenly spoke up, once again interrupting the frustrated purple feline. "I still don't trust her, but Knuckles makes a good point. I think it is time to go back. Besides, if what she says is true, Wave could use all the help she can get."

"Well, if Knux and Tails think it's a good idea, then who am I to argue," Sonic smirked. "Besides, somebody has to take dad down and that somebody should be me."

"But-" Blaze tried again but all three pairs of eyes suddenly turned on her. She gulped before crossing her arms over her chest. "Fine." Knuckles smiled, ushering the ecstatic echidna over to the group.

"Well, it's settled then. So Tikal, where is the boat?"

"Well… about that…"

A/N: And thus, they decided to return to Mobius and see for themselves what has really happened to their once loved community. But, there is one issue that is standing in their way... what is that? Well, you'll just have to find out next chapter :P Thanks for reading and I really hope you guys are enjoying this story so far. How do you feel about the re-introduction of one of the most hated characters from DCT? Are you happy she is getting a bigger role or just want her to die already? And do you believe her or do you think she is just lying through her teeth and is leading Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Blaze into a trap? Leave a review to let me know your thoughts and as always, I hope you enjoyed.

Next time on Sontails: War of Faith - Chapter 5: Goodbye Paradise