AN: Hi again guys! Hope you're not too tired of Snively, because he's back again! Don't worry - this is the last you'll see of him for a couple chapters. Otherwise, do enjoy this chapter, and I hope things are starting to warm up now after a relatively slow beginning!

16:45 HOURS LEFT / THE OTHER LETTER

"Sonic, I literally cannot believe you."

"Accidents happen, Sal. We'll find him!"

"Sonic, this is so much worse than an 'accident'! You could have just revealed the location of Knothole to Robotnik!" Sally screamed. She had trusted Sonic to do one thing and he had screwed it up about as badly as it could be done. As usual, she supposed. All of this was probably her fault. If she hadn't been stupid and allowed Sonic to keep an eye on Snively, none of this would have happened. He was so irresponsible!

"Snively won't find a way back out of the Great Forest. We're almost dead center of the one of the largest forests in the world, Sal. He's got a real long walk back to Bot-town," Sonic said. Sally had given him the responsibility of looking after Snively just when Rotor needed him most. He'd left Snively a good way away from Knothole then gone back to help Rotor out for ten minutes or so, and when he'd came back Snively had gone. All that was left was an old birch leaf.

The two turned their backs on one another and folded their arms. They stood in silence for a second, and both considered turning back and apologising, but the door to the hut opened again, and Antoine and Bunnie walked in.

"Hey, y'all. What's the matter?" Bunnie asked. Both Sonic and Sally humphed and looked away from each other again.

"Oh dear. I am thinking zat zis is ze inappropriate timing to be talking. We shall go now, goodbye!" Antoine began, turning to leave, but Bunnie stamped on his toe. Antoine yelped and hopped backwards, out of the hut and out of view.

"Ignore him. Look, I have some good news," she explained as she held up a letter. "It's from Chuck."

Both Sonic and Sally turned at the mention of the letter. Sonic's Uncle Chuck had been silent for almost a whole week, and the prospect of some intelligence now was a beacon of hope. Bunnie opened the letter and cleared her throat.

"Sonic and Sally,

You must be careful. I have met with your friend the time traveller, and as of yet I have no reason to trust him. Be wary, and don't believe everything that he says. There's no evidence against him, but like I've always said, you have the power to make your own decisions. Good luck. Write to you again soon,

Uncle Chuck."

Everything was quiet for a while. Even Bunnie's reading had petered out in confusion towards the end.

"Mondo weird," Sonic finally said, breaking the silence. "Since when has the time-traveller met Uncle Chuck? Think he knows a way into Robotropolis that we don't know about? I thought Rotor and Ari said their guard was super high," Sonic pointed out. Sally nodded.

"He knows something we don't, that's for sure, and he hasn't informed us about it yet. Chuck is right, we should be more wary of this time-traveller than some of us have been."

It was then that Bunnie held up something else, reasonably small and handled delicately between her organic forefinger and thumb. Sally noticed, and stepped forward to get a closer look. "What's this, Bunnie?"

"Ah was hopin' y'all would know what it was. Antoine found it in a clump'a hair on his chair in the meetin' hall," she sighed, placing it in Sally's hand.

Antoine appeared in the doorway, still hopping one one foot and clutching the other. "Yes, oui, oui, I did zat!"

"Oh, you're kiddin', Antoine, it can't still be hurtin' now, can it?"

The following conversation about Antoine's foot being deformed forever was ignored by Sally, who turned to Sonic. "This is very suspicious, Sonic. I don't know what's really going on with that time-traveller, but we're going to find out," she said defiantly, looking at the chip. "And I think we've narrowed in on the prime suspect for whoever was searching the meeting hall... We just need to find out why."

Sonic nodded. "I'm with ya, Sal. Once we go get this chip checked out with Rote, then we can really start asking questions."

16:25 HOURS LEFT / THE LIAR

Tails was sleeping peacefully now. Rosie was sat back in her rocking-chair, and Snively was squatting on a small wooden stool. It had only been about an hour, but it felt like an extraordinarily long time to Snively. At least back in Robotropolis he had not only his watch but Robotnik's angry demands to keep track of and pass the time with. He'd never had any 'free time'. Robotnik had declared the concept revolutionary and disgraceful upon Snively's proposal. "You want 'freedom', do you, Snively?" he'd hissed into Snively's sweat-dripping face. "You want to associate with the rodents in the Great Forest, do you? Get back to work!"

"What did you say your name was again? I apologise, it's been quite a stressful day!" Rosie asked. Snively was finally snapped out of his daydream and looked blankly at the squirrel.

"Oh, my name, um..." he began, and immediately started to feel the familiar trickle of sweat running down the side of his face. "It's, um, Miles," Snively finally blurted out. Rosie laughed, and Snively glared at her. She didn't notice.

"Oh, isn't that a lovely coincidence!" she laughed. Snively's expression changed to look rather confused.

"I-I'm afraid I don't understand," ...sir, he was tempted to add. It was such a repeated phrase it had almost lost its meaning to him.

"It's Tails. His real name is Miles, you know?"

Snively put his best attempt at a smile on. He didn't need a mirror to know it needed a lot of work.

"I've never met you before, I suppose," Rosie said, leaning back in her rocking-chair after a couple of seconds of slightly awkward silence. Snively scratched the back of his head.

"I... don't come around here often," he admitted. He was certainly telling the truth, albeit vaguely. That always seemed to work when Robotnik was forcing his unreasonable demands down Snively's throat.

"Where do you live, then, Miles?

"Quite far away," Snively said simply. Rosie seemed not to be bothered with his vagueness.

"And how is it there? Has Robotnik been causing you grief too?" Rosie asked. She looked genuinely concerned, too, which surprised Snively. He'd always believed idle talk to be entirely idle.

"Oh yes. Very... very much so."

"Sometimes I wonder if he ever even tried being nice! I remember when he was War Minister for the King. Even then, he never seemed genuine."

"He-" Snively stopped himself. "He probably wasn't..."

Tails mumbled and both Snively and Rosie turned at the same time. Snively stood up and walked over to the bed, looking closely at the young fox. He was still asleep, and nothing appeared to be wrong. It was a good thing that he had learned first aid when he was younger. Sometimes he missed his younger years, but as he thought of the power he controlled, even under Robotnik, he got a little tingle. He'd convinced himself that his subconscious was willing to aid this child only so that he could be robotisized later, and potentially be used as a weapon against the Freedom Fighters. They wouldn't hurt one of their own, he had thought morbidly.

He jolted himself back to the real world yet again and turned back towards Rosie. "He's alright. There's, um, nothing wrong."

"Oh, good," Rosie said simply. Snively went back to his stool and sat down.

"So, what's your job, then? Back in... wherever you live, that is?"

Snively was completely unaware of the infrastructure of the freedom fighters, except that they had a leader. "Sorry, I... don't quite understand."

"Your job, everyone has a job. I'm the Nanny, I take care of the young ones. Sonic's the leader, Rotor's the technician, and so on. So, what's your role?"

"I... err... I'm the technician. And... analyst. And supervisor."

"Well! Doesn't all that sound important! You must be very clever and highly trusted to do all that."

Snively almost blushed. "Well... thank you." Her words almost gave him a new sort of respect for Robotnik trusting him so much. Then again, where trust ended and confidence in his threats began was a blurred line for Robotnik, giving Snively a brief thought of the time-traveller.

"You have to be careful these days, you know. Trust is rare. You should hold onto it as well as you can, as difficult as that might be..." Rosie said solemnly. She was looking out the window again. It was a bit of a sudden mood change, something Snively hadn't seen from her before. He supposed that being a Nanny was a pretty boring job, and she must get a few negative thoughts. In fact, he was tempted to nod and agree with her statement, but she was wrong. He knew that you just had to be lucky to get trust, and he was having a lucky day.

Rosie looked back at Snively, who was now also looking out of the window. Snively noticed the lack of grey. It looked strange.

"Are you alright, dear? You look a little... forlorn," Rosie asked.

Snively didn't reply.