Mobius - Year 3268; 10:10 PM
King Sonic, along with Knuckles, Vector, Espio, and Tails, walked into the region of the Kingdom of Acorn. They were still talking about various topics that came to their mind. They were four minutes behind the schedule from reaching their destination. So far, the fox hadn't told them about the surprise party that he and the queen's group had planned for them.
"I cannot wait to get home, as I missed Sally, Sonia, and Manik a lot," King Sonic exclaimed.
"You're not the only one who missed his family. I want to see Julie-Su and Lara-Su," Knuckles reminded.
"For my part, I hope Argyle is not a nonsense only in these two weeks," Vector stuttered anxiously.
"I hope that Salma and Juanita have not been bored without me around," Espio monotoned.
"Everyone is excited for his return. I was with them all the days in his absence and he will be very happy to see them." Tails replied cheerfully.
Suddenly, everyone had begun to hear a sound that they hadn't heard in a while and looked around. That came from a few blocks ahead.
"Do you hear what I hear?" the hedgehog asked.
"They sound like the sirens of a fire truck or perhaps an ambulance," the echidna described.
"I bet that children should be close to solving whatever has happened," the crocodile guessed.
"We will follow that sound to see what happened, and if children are there and wanted to be surprised to see us supporting them in another of their missions - what do you think?" King Sonic suggested.
All of them nodded at each other and ran towards the scene without imagining what they would find there.
At the top of the building, there was a group that caused the explosion could see the Hero party and began to smile to see that the set-up was already much had been hoping for.
"Those fools so far do not know of what happened, but when they reach the castle, their lives are going to change," the head of beings replied.
"Master… no, it would seem better to observe everything from closer."
"Good idea! I like how you think!"
Those beings started jumping from building to building without attracting any attention.
The Hero party almost reached their destination, and they knew what was up with so many ambulances, fire trucks, and E.S.T. vehicles. What everyone missed the fact was that most vehicles were going in the same direction in where the Castle of Mobius was. They started to get a bad feeling and followed the path until they finally turned a corner and were shocked by what they saw.
Most of the castle was destroyed by the case of fire. There were police tapes around the street to prevent people from getting closer. Firefighters squirted water from trucks to douse the flames. Some of them left the castle after their search for people trapped inside were in vain.
"This cannot be, I hope everyone has gotten out safely. Hopefully they are not in yet," Tails mumbled aloud with some trepidation.
"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked, seeing the reaction in his friend.
"You're hiding something. I can see it in your face," Espio pointed out, staring at Tails.
"We are not afraid. Tell us what you know. Do you not trust us?" Vector convinced.
"Tails… please explain to us of why you reacted in that way. Nobody reacts so much unless it's something bad had happened," Sonic persuaded.
"Sally, Mina, Julie-Su, Antoine, Bunnie, the children, and I had set up a surprise party for you in the castle. So they stayed inside while I went to find you," the fox answered.
"What?! They all were in there!" the males replied in unison, pointing at the castle that is on fire.
After that, they began to worry about their families as they felt a sense of darkness within themselves. They walked through the crowd of people and asked if they had seen them out or if they had been taken to hospital. When they approached the security tapes, they began to shout, wanting to know what had happened to their families inside. However, they didn't receive any responses. Tiring of not get any response, King Sonic got closer to the tape to inquire about the whereabouts of the families inside. All he got was those two E.S.T. officers while they were within the perimeter.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, but you cannot pass this point," one of the officers replied.
"But we want to know if there are any survivor?" Tails asked.
None of the officers responded and returned to their posts.
The five decided to leave the crowd to find answer in other ways. They found the D'Coolette family at a secluded spot, learning that the family was very traumatized by the experience that they just live through. When Antoine, Bunnie, Jacques, and Belle saw Tails along with others, they couldn't stand it anymore. They began to mourn bitterly as they ran to the males, embracing them. After a several minutes, they finally calmed down to make a decent conversation.
"We are desperate. Please tell us what happened to our families. We can no longer stand not knowing of what happened to them," Knuckles asked.
"We ahah so sawrry… but they… they… they…" Bunnie tried to explain, let her sentence trailing off.
"They ahah cactus!" Belle finished, trying not to mourn.
"What? This must be a joke. That couldn't have happened," King Sonic exclaimed.
"Unfortunately, eet is non," Antoine added quietly, shuddering.
"Zee four of us saw everything," Jacques began with his tears drying up.
King Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Vector, and Espio remained pale upon hearing that statement. They would never lie about something like that. And as everyone looked at that time could be more serious. In five mobians' minds spent the last years memories of them with their former families as they began to mourn with severe pain in the depths of their souls. All of them remembered their respective weddings, the birth of their children, how they raised their children, and when their children formed the new Freedom Fighters. Since none of those memories made sense for them, they had vanished along with the lives of their loved ones.
"How did they die?" the crocodile asked, trying to stop mourn but it was in vain.
"I do not want to know. It waz very disturbing. We don't want you to imagine zat. Zeir deaths were horrible," Antoine complained.
"Please tell us. We cannot rest easy until we know how they died," the fox argued while he was getting comforted by the chameleon.
"Well… Juanita died with zee flagpole in her chest," Antoine started.
"Salmah 'n Mrs. Julie-Su bled to death because of the bloody shahrp crystal rayynin' on them that was unavoidable," Belle added.
"Lara-Su, Melody, and Mrs. Prower died via electrocuted. Argyle and Skye apparently were crushed by a wall," Jacques added.
"Sonia and Manik were burned fahkin' alive, while Sally Gal got blown and fell down a staircase. Every bone in hah body was broken, which she died instantly," Bunnie finalized.
King Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Vector, and Espio were in shocking to hear that. And it was true, imagine those scenes that ran out of having their souls shattered.
"One last thing, and zis is for you, Sonic," Antoine said, showing a little nervous.
"What?" the hedgehog asked, almost unable to speak.
Antoine walked to King Sonic and handed three items to him; Queen Sally's shattered crown, necklace, and engagement ring.
"Well, this is not the best time to tell you but… Sally Gal was pregnant with another child of yours," Bunnie hesitated to answer.
That last part sent King Sonic into a deep depression and he fled from the scene without somebody do something to stop him.
"We're going after him. We do not know what maybe able to do this time," Tails urged, panicking.
All of them were about to leave when they noticed that Knuckles vanished from their presence.
"Now what do we do? We cannot leave them alone," Jacques asked.
"Vector and I are going to look for Knuckles," Espio suggested.
"Then the D'Coolette family and I will go on the trail of Sonic," Tails supported.
They agreed with the plan they had and they went on their separate ways. They were hoping that the hedgehog and the echidna were not going to do something crazy of being on their own.
"This was better than a movie," exclaimed one of the people that were near the ruins of the castle.
"Now they all have their souls shattered by the death of their pathetic families, and that will prevent them from being able to defend the Mobius from our next attack."
"Together, we will rule Mobius once and for all without the interference of the Freedom Fighters."
"And now, what shall we do?"
"For now, it's better to hide if someone comes to see us and will figure out that we were the one cause the destruction of the castle."
They nodded their heads. The lightning struck and lit up the whole sky. When the sky darkened again, all beings had vanished from the spot without leaving a trace.
Knuckles, without looking back, was running to his house; the pain of losing his wife and daughter was too much that he wanted to vent on his own. He did not want anyone to witness him doing it. Upon entering his house, he locked the door and looked around. He had decided that he could remaining on his own for the rest of his life. The depression was getting the better of him that he desired to vent it out by destroying all the furniture in his house. Meanwhile, outside of his house, Vector and Espio arrived at the door and tried to open the door. They figured that it was locked as they heard the sound of destruction from inside.
"We have to go inside, one way or other," the crocodile urged.
"Look up," the chameleon called out.
Vector quickly glanced at Espio then looked at the window on the second floor, finding that it was opened. They grabbed the ladder that was laying behind the house and put it in front of the house. They climbed to where the window was and entered the house through it. Upon reaching the room, they saw that the room was completely destroyed and Knuckles was lying on the floor on his belly, crying uncontrollable.
"Knuckles, are you okay?" they asked.
"Leave me alone. I want to be alone," the echidna mourned, refusing to look at them.
"But you have us very concerned."
"Worrying about your affairs, I'll worry about mine. Now get out of my house!"
"But we are your friends."
"I do not need friends. From now on, I do not want to see you two or anyone else, and I want everyone to leave me alone. Now get out or else, I will give you a beat until you wish you were not born!"
"Okay, we will let them know to not coming after you. No need to be so violence," Espio concurred.
"I hope you do well on your own," Vector assured.
They left the house through the window and threw the ladder back where they found it. They were concerned about the sudden change in Knuckles.
"So now what do we doing?" the crocodile asked.
"I have an idea. Let's see Kneecaps. He may be able to help us," the chameleon suggested.
"In case we can help him."
"He's Knuckles' half-brother, maybe convince Knuckle to be the same once again."
"Good idea!"
"For now, let's see if others have found Tails and Sonic."
"Yes, come on. I wish of what happened to Sonic's family not make him do something crazy."
Tails and the D'Coolette family were on the trail of King Sonic. They had already seen him running into the woods, but they were spotted by the King and he only saw five of them. He no longer wanted to stay alive. Learning that his wife and two children were died, which had shattered his soul. He also learned that his third child, unbirth child, was killed on the way led him into a depression. That made him thinking that the suicide was the best way to stop his suffering and being able to reunion with his family in the afterlife. Turning around to see that others did not following, he decided to end his life quickly before he was discovered. He saw a large tree in front of him and ran up to the branch at least three body-length above the floor so he could peel the layers from the branch. He used those layers to create himself a rope and wrapped an end around his neck and other end around the smaller branch. He jumped off the branch to let his life go. It did not coming and he felt two pairs of hands grabbing his arms. He raised his head and saw that Tails and Antoine holding his arms, preventing him from hanged himself. The canines worked on break the rope and they fell down to the ground safely.
"You're insane because you were going to do that," Antoine yelled.
"Because I no longer have any reason to live. I lost my house, my family… everything," King Sonic mourned.
"Don't be silly. You still have us, your friends. Never forget that accounts with us at all times," Tails pointed out.
"Right," a group of voice called out.
Turning to see the rest of the D'Coolette family alongside Vector and Espio; which just arrived onto the scene.
"We all are sugahs and we will not allah-ow yah to commit suicide," Bunnie supported.
"That's true. And do not forget, we will never leave you alone," Vector replied.
The D'Coolette children nodded their heads to King Sonic, showing him they too would support him. The blue hedgehog could see that his friends cared about him. It helped him to understand that it was too stupid to take out his life. Even he was surprised that Tails, Vector, and Espio were too quiet at all that considered they too had lost their families. That was a sign that they had more strength to overcome the tragedy. Everyone felt sorry for the blue hedgehog and began to hug him in a group hug so he could relax a little while his sobs were lost in the distance.