A/N: I'm sorry for the long delay but chapter 15 is finally here! I'm still working hard on the musical chapter (next chapter) which is almost halfway complete and already 6000 words long. It is quite the endeavor but i am very excited to see how you all like it. The plot is really heating up now as we get into the home stretch of the story. The "finale" so to speak which you can treat as a sort of 4 chapter finale is going to start at chapter 20 so we are almost there. I hope your excited! And please, don't forget to review!

Chapter 15:

The Stake

Sonic stopped beside the flower bed, sniffing in the sweet scent of the new spring air. Collections of violet tulips, yellow dandelions, pink lily's and white daisy's. He leant down, placing his hand over one of the rose bushes that lined the streets. He pinched his thumb and forefinger together around one of the spiked stems, being careful to avoid the pointed thorns that protruded out of the stem and plucked it. He brought the brightly coloured rose up to his nose, pushing his black appendage up against the rose and sniffed deeply, exhaling calmly. For Sonic, although he loved to run at breakneck paces, he also enjoyed relaxing and taking in the scent of the newly bloomed flowers.

"Sonic!" A voice called out from afar, getting progressively louder as the pink figure came closer and closer.

"Oh, hey Ames, what's up?" Sonic asked, waving his hand at her as he continued to walk, hoping she would get the hint that he didn't want to be disturbed.

"Did you pick that flower for me?" She asked, fluttering her eyelashes at him as she wrapped her hands around his middle and pulled him in close for a hug. However, something about this hug was different, more sensual. It wasn't the normal, friendlier hug that she gave him.

"Whoa, what are you doing?" Sonic asked, pushing her off of him.

"What do you mean? Your girlfriend should be able to do much more than hug you," she chuckled lightly. Sonic's eyes narrowed slightly as his palm was brought up to his forehead.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. I am not, and I will never be your boyfriend. Just stop!" Sonic shouted, raising his hands high into the sky to symbolize his annoyance at her. Amy put on a fake pout and turned, hiding the smirk that crossed her face.

"Yeah, you're already taken anyway aren't you?" Amy asked, holding back her laughter at her brilliant plan.

"No I'm not, I'm just not looking for a relationship," Sonic replied calmly.

"You might not be looking for one but your tongue certainly has been adventurous," Amy turned, narrowing her eyes to stare into his, looking for any sign of fear or weakness. Still, her hints at his secret went straight over his head.

"Amy, there is no girl in my life at the moment, that's not the reason I don't want to be with you," he said exasperatedly, getting frustrated by her persistence.

"I know."

"Good," Sonic stated plainly, turning and walking off in the opposite direction.

"One last question."

"What is it now?"

"How does the inside of Tails' mouth taste?" Sonic stopped in his tracks, arms ridged by his side. "Did you think I didn't know about that? You're sick," she spat at him. Sonic dared to turn around, looking at her in the face. All the colour drained from his face and was replaced with a ghostly pale shade of white. It was almost as if a phantom had stolen the life right out of him. One look into Amy's eyes told him that she was serious and, somehow, she knew about their relationship.

"Please, Amy, I'm begging you to not tell anybody," Sonic pleaded, falling to his knees and pressing his hands together, praying to her.

"If you go on a date with me tonight," Amy stated.

"Okay, you win," Sonic slumped his head down, admitting defeat. "Just don't tell anybody and please don't tell Tails you know about this. He shouldn't have to worry about all of this."

"Cute, it's like you care about him. Don't worry Sonic, I won't tell anybody, except Blaze since she was the one who found out first. What else are girlfriends for? See you tonight!" she giggled, rushing off before he could say anything else.

"Blaze… I thought we were friends," Sonic sighed, tears running down his cheeks as depression and pessimism filled him inside. It was as if his whole world was caving in around him.

…

"How could you do this to me?!" Sonic screamed, smashing his fist against the hard wood door, anger flowing through him, fueling the flames inside of him. Blaze opened the door, clearly startled by this sudden outburst and calmly invited him in, trying to calm her friend.

"Calm down, Sonic. Tell me what happened," she began.

"I thought you and Tails were inseparable! I thought we were friends too!" he stammered, tripping over his words in his angst and fury.

"We are, what is this all about?"

"You told Amy about me and Tails!" he shouted, punching the dry wall. Unfortunately, he was far too strong for the flimsy construction and his fist went straight though the dry wall, causing a shower of dust and debris to shower him, covering him and turning his fur into a creamy colour.

"I…I didn't mean to," Blaze admitted, sadness gripped with fear for this display she was witnessing washing over her.

"Well you ruined both of our lives!" he berated her further, pulling his hand from the wall as more of the plaster broke away and smashed onto the hard-wood floor. That was the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back. Blaze stood up straight, walked over to Sonic and began to yell at him.

"I ruined your life! I did not! Your disgusting urges and gross, unnatural brain screwed up your life." The static bias and hatred that had been instilled within not just her, but all people in the southern Mobian community since a young age had been unearthed and reignited by the sudden outburst by Sonic.

"How could you say that to me? We are friends!"

"Are we? You just came in here yelling at me! I didn't screw you up, you should have just liked girls like… like a normal person!" she screamed. She covered her mouth with her hands as she said that, realizing what a horrible person she was. This wasn't her. She didn't really believe that, did she?

"I see how it is," Sonic sighed, allowing the depression to sink in again, drowning out his anger and extinguishing the flames inside of him. "I'll just go now, I have to get ready for a date with Amy that she is bribing me with. See ya 'round."

"Sonic, wait," Blaze sighed, rushing up to grab his hand before he was able to leave the room. "I'm sorry, I don't think you're weird, I just don't know if I can ignore this. I don't know if I can be supportive of you and Tails. You were two of my closest friends but suddenly this bomb shell was dropped on me. Part of me thinks it is wrong while the other half want's to support my friends no matter who they love."

Sonic said nothing, he just turned around and gave Blaze a big hug. "Thanks." The word managed to escape his lips, barely audible. "Just please, don't tell Tails that anybody knows. I'll just keep Amy happy with whatever she wants so she doesn't tell anybody our secret. He shouldn't have to worry."

"You… you really do love him, don't you," Blaze sighed. Sonic couldn't bring himself to speak to her anymore, realizing that he couldn't uproot the brainwashing that all children had gone through during primary school. He just nodded before closing the door behind him and running through the empty streets before Blaze had anything further to say.

"What do I do?" she cried.

…

The moon was still low in the sky as Sonic approached the quaint little red-brick restaurant. Circular tables with two metallic chairs sitting on opposite sides facing each other dotted the sidewalk adjacent to the restaurant. The lights glowed warmly, inviting the sapphire hedgehog into the room.

"Sonic, over here," Amy squealed, her high pitched screaming echoing through the place, causing the glassware to rumble, nearing the verge of shattering apart into thousands of tiny pieces. Sonic shuddered, the squeal vibrating through his body, tensing his muscles and droning against his spine. He felt like he wanted to vomit but knew he just needed to toughen out the night so that Amy would back off.

"Take a seat," she giggled, pointing to the chair opposite her. Sonic sat down and buried his face into a menu before Amy could say anything else. She coughed loudly into her hand, trying to get the hedgehog's attention but when he clearly refused to even acknowledge her, she decided to speak up.

"Aren't you going to tell me that I look pretty?" Amy questioned, signaling to her new jet-black dress with rose-red straps.

"What? Oh yeah, you look good Ames," Sonic brushed her off, continuing to pretend to be completely immersed into the wondrous variety of dishes that were presented with frilly fonts on his menu.

"You don't seem quite yourself today," she said, pretending to sound like she cared when really she just wanted him to pay attention to her. "Something on your mind?"

"You know exactly what is wrong. Don't play this game with me," Sonic slapped down the menu onto the table, staring daggers at her.

"Baby, you seem tense. Oh, I know! Let's ditch this place, there is something that I need to show you that will perk you up right away." Before Sonic had a chance to respond, Amy was already on her feet and rushing out of the restaurant, beckoning him to follow her.

The two walked in silence, Sonic following in step with Amy until they noticed a faint glow in the distance, growing steadily bigger.

"Where almost there," Amy cheered. As his eyes began to adjust to this new light, he could see the silhouettes of hundreds, if not thousands, of people crowding around, holding what appeared to be torches.

"Hey Ames, what is this? It's like the whole community is here." Amy laughed without saying a word as she continued on her path. Sonic noticed that they were heading to the northern border. Curiosity took over as he sped up his pace, rushing ahead of Amy until he reached the back of the crowd.

"Oh, hey Sonic, do you know what this is about?" Tails asked him, running up to him when he spotted his cobalt fur from across the crowd. Blaze and Silver joined him after and Silver greeted the hedgehog with a high-five but Blaze looked away, not bringing herself to look at Sonic after their fight that previous afternoon.

"Now that everybody is here, let the festivities begin," Amy snickered, pushing her way through the crowd, followed by the rest of them. She stopped at the front of the crowd, waving Shadow over to join the group when she spotted them.

"This is going to be good. They deserve what they have coming to them," he laughed deeply. Sonic and Tails swiveled their heads around, searching for the reason that the community was gathered. That's when they saw the mayor, leading two green hedgehogs. One small, with crazy hair that looked like a jumbled mess of lanky spider legs protruding from the top of his head and the other, the school bully who used to torment Sonic, Amy, Tails, Blaze, Silver, Knuckles, Tikal, especially Cream and even Shadow on occasions.

"Scourge and Manic?" Tails questioned, looking to Amy and Shadow who had big grins on her face. He turned to ask Blaze what was going on but she looked sickly green, as if she was about to throw up so he decided to just leave her alone and watch what was happening.

"These two were discovered in the middle of," the mayor paused. "Heinous acts together this afternoon and as such, are banished over the border. You all know the rules about same sex relations! They are forever banished from our corner of heaven."

"But mayor, it's suicide crossing the border. You know we will be killed on sight," Manic begged, falling down on his knees to her and hugging her knees.

"Get off of me you disgusting excuse for a Mobian." She slapped his hand away, applying hand soap to the place of her leg in which he touched.

"Mum, dad?" Scourge looked to his parents who turned their noses up at him in disgust.

"You're no son of mine," his dad scoffed, pushing him along, towards the boarder.

"WAIT!" a voice called out from behind. Big, the large, purple cat rushed through the crowd and took the stage. "My friends, this isn't the way."

"You were the one who taught us that this was wrong in the eyes of our lord, Chaos!" A bystander called out from the crowd.

"Exactly! Banishing them is letting them off far too easy. They must burn at the stake!" he bellowed, opening his arms and puffing out his chest, staring evilly into their eyes. An eruption of cheers echoed through the crowd as they all raised their torches in the air. Big waved his hand and two men dressed in white robes walked through the now parted crowd, carrying two large stakes and positioned them into the ground. Following them were a group of young children, each carrying a log of wood and threw them at the bottom.

Big, along with the mayor and a couple other members of the crowd, including Vector, seized the two males and tied them tightly to the stakes with rope.

"Now, they will be cleansed!" Big shouted, signaling his arms outwards. On his command, all the torches were thrown at the two, landing on the pile of logs. Slowly, the wood caught fire and in a few seconds flat, a wild fire grew, engulfing the whole area.

"Manic, I…I love you," Scourge shouted. "Don't be scared!"

"I love you too, Scourge," Manic yelled holding his hand as they both closed their eyes and waited for the inevitable. A cloud of dark, thick smoke drifted up from the pile, obscuring the view of the two. The only indication that they were still alive were the agonizing screams of the two, so loud and filled with pain that they basically drowned out the cheering of the community.

Sonic and Tails looked around in horror at their friends, family and members of their community cheering, turning into savages as two of their classmates were being burnt alive in front of them all. It was too much for them. The screams of the two hedgehogs would haunt their nightmares forever. Tails and Sonic turned and sprinted out of the crowd, refusing to look back as they escaped into the night, trying to find solace back in their warm beds.

Amy watched them leave, a gigantic smile taking up most of her face as she laughed triumphantly. Meanwhile, Blaze stood behind her, a frown that would rival the size of Amy's smirk plastered across her face. The two girls watched the boys slowly disappear over the horizon as the smoke rose further and further into the sky, engulfing the view of the ravenous crowd, gaining size with the flames. The screams continued to echo through the sky, terrifying even the furthest of the twinkling stars.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Quick notice, I have posted one of the 12 songs from the next chapter on my youtube channel (TwoTailedFox) entitled 'Take Them Down' which is a duet between Amy and Blaze. Please check it out and let me know what you thought. If you like it, you are going to love the next chapter :D

Please review and let me know what you thought. I love reading your theories on where the story will go and how you think/hope this will all turn out. Quick question: How are you liking the mini ark of the growing feud between Blaze and Amy?