Sonic, using Chaos Control, teleported himself, Omega and Ruby back to the airships (much to the human girl's excitement) where everyone was relieved to hear the news that Phantom Shadow had been defeated. After making sure everyone was safely strapped in they flew back to the base on Angel Island.

The hangar for the airships were full of non combative members of the Resistance. Doctors and nurses before the war, and some apprentices they took under their wing or were already studying medical topics. They all were ready to immediately take care of the rescued civilians. Many of them were beyond exhausted, mentally and exhausted, and needed to be under supervised rest, to see what kind of deficiency's they had. And that was not even counting all of the people that got seriously injured.

Among the medics of the Resistance where Knuckles and Amy to supervise that everything went along smoothly.

"Good work everyone. Taken three areas at once from Eggman and saved many civilians as well."

Sonic hold up the red Chaos Emerald with a grin and said in a triumphant tone, "Not to mention one less fake Shadow on the enemy side and one more Chaos Emerald on ours. Plus a possible idea how we can find the real Shadow."

The faces of his two friends lit up.

"I think Rouge will be pleased with that. Let's all gather in the main room for discussion," announced the red echidna.

The activity inside the wide hangar came to an abrupt halt and everyone looked at their leader with with a tired and disgruntled face. Amy gave her friend a slight nudge.

"Knuckles, can't you see how tired and exhausted they all are? And how some have don´t have time for a gathering? Not to speak about how Sonic had gotten a beating, his face is all swollen shut."

The blue hedgehog groaned. "Amy, its not as bad as it lo-"

"Nonsense! You need time for a well-deserved break. All of them do."

Knuckles nodded.

"Yeah you´re right. Sorry everyone, just got a little ahead of myself. We can hold the meeting tomorrow."

Sighs of relief echoed through the hall. Everyone continued their activity. Soldiers went to their private dorms. Sonic wanted to follow their example but an overly caring Amy had other plans. She took hold of her crush´s hand and started dragging him to rapidly filling hospital wing.

"Amy, I already told you that it isn't that bad. There are other people who need treatment more badly than I am. Can´t you see how full everything is becoming?"

"I know. But we wont need a room, just some stuff I will borrow from Vanilla." The pink hedgehog lead the speedster to a more quite part of the wing. She turned towards him with a serious expression. "Stay here. I´ll be back shortly. And don't you dare to just run away while I´m gone!"

Amy narrowed here eyes at Sonic with both hands on her hips. Knowing her and her temper (and her skills with the Piko Piko Hammer), Sonic just hold up his hands in a defensive manner.

"Alright I´ll just stay here, okay?"

Despite his reassurance, Amy hurried along of getting some disinfectant and cooling from Vanilla and taking care of Sonic´s face.

"Come on, hold still!"

"I try to! Do you have any idea of much this stuff burns?"

"Oh quite you! You act like some little boy scared of getting his shots!"

Sonic sighed.

"Why are you making such a big fuss about this?"

Amy stopped and lowered her gaze. "Why? Because I´m worried about you. Not knowing if you were alive or not while failing to save the world from Eggmans takeover was one of the hardest times of my life. And even when you were freed from the Death Egg, you didn't slow down once to take a break."

Sonic shrugged.

"I´m Sonic the hedgehog, being fast is my thing."

"Don't act all nonchalant about this! I… was worried about you. Still am. You always throw yourself into danger, and this time it had lasting consequences. While Eggman decided to just taunt you with his victory, thanks to his ego, it could have all taken a different turn. I know you want to save the world, something I always admired about you. But…" She took her crush´s hand into hers and gave him a gentle look. "…this is much bigger than all the other stuff we´ve faced. I know everyone, including you and I, needs to do their best to win this war. But I want you to remember that even you have your limits and it is okay to take a break."

Sonic´s gaze softened. The hedgehogs greens eyes looked into each other.

"Amy… I…"

He was interrupted by loud, metallic footsteps closing in on him and Amy. The two of them looked up.

Omega came towards them, followed by Rouge. The latter asked with a serious expression: "Omega told me you have an idea of finding Shadow?"

While the blue speedster had been whisked away to get personal treatment, the red one just stumbled around in exhaustion until she was found by Tails.

"Ruby, there you are! I was searching all around you. I bet you´re tired. Come, you can lay down in my room until we assign one for you."

The fifteen year old just gave a thankful nod and let her friend lead her to his room. It was rather sparse, having just a bed, a desk and a closet that was filled more with trinkets and tools than clothes. Blueprints lay scattered on the desk. Most of it was covered in a thin film of dust that was just recently disturbed.

"Sorry if it isn't the most hospital of places. I spend most of my time in the weaponry and workshop. Or at least I did before I ran away and was non available for the Resistance. I hope-"

Tails was interrupted by Ruby, who, after seeing the bed, threw herself onto it. She didn't care that it was mobian-sized and therefore to small for her, the human girl´s legs dangling over its edge. Ruby just lay there, her face buried in the pillow.

"Uhm… Ruby, are you alright?", Tails asked, a bit confused by this behavior.

"Hrmpfmbmmhhh," came her voice from the pillows.

"Everything okay?"

The human girl stayed silent for a bit. Then she sat up on the bed´s edge with a tired expression and sighed.

"Everything on the mission went well. And it wasn't the most physically demanding experience I've had. But there was just a moment where I…" Ruby´s thoughts went back to the moment of her freezing up, Lola´s near death and the vision of Pyrrha. "I´m not sure how to describe it."

Tails walked over to her and sat down next to Ruby.

"It's okay. Take your time. You also don´t have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Ruby stayed silent for a while, being deep in thought. Then she shook her head.

"No. No, I want to talk about it." She took a deep breath. "Everything went well, even after Sonic decided to face Phantom Shadow on his own. I was worried about what might happen to him and I´m sorry I left him alone despite saying we would stick together…"

"Ruby", calmed the little fox her down. "You don´t need to apologize. I was honestly expecting for something like that to happen. That's just the type of person Sonic is. Just tell me what´s gotten you so worked up."

"Right… thank you Tails." She continued with her story. "I stayed behind with other people from the Resistance to safe civilians from robots with knife hands. Unfortunately, there was a brief moment where a little girl almost got stabbed by one of them. When it happened there was nothing I could do." Ruby shook her head, her hands clenching the hem of her battle skirt. "No I could´ve done something. But I frozed up. I saw Pyrrha in the girls place and how she was killed by Cinder. Fortunately, Silver was able to prevent the worst and save the girl. But if it wasn't for him… I don't know why I had this vision there and not when we were fighting Cinder."

Tails´ analytical mind immediately came up with possibilities about what he just heard.

"Perhaps because you are not afraid of Cinder herself, but of not being able to save someone again. In our time together we have all been able to defend ourselves and no one has gotten into serious trouble."

"Eggman wanted to dissect you with the Egg Dragoon's buzz saw."

The Mobian flinched when he was reminded about that predicament.

"Okay there were some tight situations but we had the time and ability to get out of those. What happened with you may have been to fast. And maybe there was something that could've reminded you of Pyrrha?"

An answer came immediately to Ruby.

"The girl did have green eyes, just like her. And her death wouldn't have been to dissimilar. Except for the burning…"

Ruby sighed. "I guess all of this makes sense. But that's not the only thing that happened. When I had this vision, I had felt my eyes wanting to unleash this light again. It was responding to my need to protect another person's life. But for some reason it didn't activate this time."

"Perhaps your... desire wasn't strong enough?"

"No, it was just as strong, but the light just didn't… no, couldn't appear. It was like something was missing."

Tails put his finger on his chin while mentally racing trough all the information he had about Ruby and her silver eyes. Be it from what she told him… or other sources…

"Didn't Cinder say in Mystic Jungle that your eyes no longer affected her? This confirms that the silver eyes require, besides an emotional drive, a certain external factor to activate."

Ruby just hummed. She now had, at least seemingly, some answers. But not all of them, she was sure of it.

There was a brief silence between the two for a while. Tails remembered one more thing about Ruby's eyes.

"During the meeting where you told everyone about your world and how you got here, I noticed that you didn't tell anyone about the light from your eyes."

"True. I didn't want to say it in front of such a large crowd because…" She sighed again. But this time she sounded much more resigned. "Back in Remnant, I had trouble interacting with people, and much preferred to just focus on my interests. My sister used to tease me about it, saying I needed to be more social. The thing is, I like making friends. But… others didn't make that always easy."

Ruby wrapped her arms around her torso. Her voice, usually so loud and cheerful, was nothing but an anxious whisper.

"Before I went to Beacon, I met a lot of people who made fun of me stumbling over my own words or just being `creepily´ enthusiastic about weapons and stuff. And some made fun of my eye color. Silver eyes aren't really that common on Remnant. Apparently they are rare enough that they thought it looked unnatural."

A knot formed in Tails´ stomach and his heart felt heavy. What Ruby was saying sounded all too familiar for him.

"The worst part was when I found out some of my 'friends' were gossiping behind my back about my eyes as well. That… stung. And seeing that huge crowd in the conference room, I was afraid some people would treat me like a freak here too, knowing how weird my eyes are."

With a sudden and shaky smile Ruby added: "Not that I think you and your friends would do something like that!"

"Ruby…"

"You've been a great help and I trust you! And you always spoke so highly of your friends so I trust them too. Especially after hanging out with Sonic. I´m probably just being silly and-"

"No Ruby", Tails said in a soft voice, softer than the human girl ever heard the fox Mobian talk. He turned towards her, his eyes glistening with some tears.

"What you just described… I know how that feels. Believe me I know it all too well."

Ruby gave him a concerned look.

"Before I met Sonic, I was bullied a lot because of my two tails. They all said how my parents rejected me because of this mutation and I deserve to be alone. And, with my engineering talents, I would be no better than Eggman."

"Tails..." Ruby's own eyes filled with tears.

"But then came Sonic. He accepted me and even more, he showed me that my peculiarities weren't bad and could be used for good things. He adopted me as his brother and gave me a family."

Tails wiped his eyes dry.

"Do you know what I mean by that? It doesn't matter what other people think of you when you have people who care about you. And that you're just a freak if you act like that. There will always be people who despise you, for one reason or another, but since I've been helping Mobius, there have been so many who look up to me. And the same goes for you. You are a good person Ruby. And since the silver light is connected to your desire to protect others, it can only be good. Don't think you're wrong or unnatural in any way. You´re awesome."

He gave her a wide smile. Ruby, overwhelmed by this sudden support, began to cry. She put her arms around Tails. "Th-thank you," she sobbed. "Th-that w-was so sweet of you to say!"

The yellow fox hugged her back while patting her shoulder reassuringly. "That's what friends are for."

It took a while before Ruby calmed down.

She let go of Tails, whipping her tears away.

"Sorry for just dumping all of this on you. I… usually don't talk about this with anyone."

"What about your family? If you were bullied, surely you would have told someone?"

Ruby just snorted.

"My family is the overprotective bunch. Especially my sister. If any of them would have found out about this… no, it wouldn't have been worth the trouble."

Tails was unsure how to respond to that. He could understand Ruby´s notion of not wanting to talk about it. Especially when the bullying was seemingly over and there were more urged problems to take care of. Why even bother trying to talk about it, right?

However, Tails had been once in a similar position like the silver-eyed girl besides him. When he became friends with Sonic, he just wanted to forget about his past. But the blue hedgehog taught him that it was important to talk about it and face his demons head on. Ruby, for all her liveliness, had gone trough a lot and Tails was unsure how she was handling all of it. Well, she seemed willing to at least be open about it, so that was an open start.

Having a look at Ruby´s still solemn face, Tails decided to continue this later. For now he would focus on cheering his friend up.

"Hey Ruby?"

She gave him a curious look.

"Do you remember how I said before your mission how I want to modify your weapon so that it can act as a Wispon. The offer still stands. Would you like that?"

"Really?" Ruby´s face livened up immediately, like a wilting rose that came into contact with sunlight after a long time in the dark. "Yes, please!"

She pulled out Crescent Rose, still folded up, and excitedly patted it.

"Give my baby that alien power!"

Tails couldn't help but to chuckle. He flew to his closet to collect some gadgets. Then he went out of the door and motioned Ruby to follow him. She followed him, trough the busy halls and floors of the base, until they reached the steel door of the armory. Tails put in a code on the pad besides it and it opened with a hiss.

Once Ruby stepped trough she was greeted by her version of Wonderland. Weapons upon weapons were mounted on the walls by holder, every single one of them neatly lined up. Wispons of all colors of the rainbow, each corresponding to the Hyper-go-on energy of a Wisp. But Ruby also saw some Weapons that reminded her of the ones atlesian Soldiers used. Simple pistols and guns of varied models. There were also some weapons for closed combat. Swords, trowing knifes, axes, many of them over sized, only able to be carried by a strong Mobian.

Ruby just starred open mounded at the massive artillery, wandering and looking around like a child in a toy store.

"This is so amazing", she muttered in awe.

"If you think this is cool, come and see where the true miracles are happening."

Tails lead the Huntress-in-training trough the weaponry, until they reached a side door. Behind it was a workshop. Instead of weapons, tools hung from the walls. Several desks and crafting tables stood around, mounted by blueprints, Weapons of varying stages of dismantling/repair and single mechanical parts.

The smell of gun oil, metal and smoke penetrated the air, all to familiar for Ruby after spending many hours on Crescent Rose in a workshop on Remnant.

"Tada! My little paradise. Ever since I came back, I spend my time here to make sure everything was in order and no one touched anything. Of course I also had to rectify the fallout of the Arnold-incident. So… what do you say?"

"This… is… AMAZING!" Ruby looked wildly around. "I cant wait to work here with you and give Crescent Rose updated no one on Remnant ever could've imagined in their wildest dreams! Wait, could I also help you out with some other stuff? Because…" Ruby wandered towards a crafting table and rummaged trough the parts of a dismantled drill and fire Wispon. "…just looking at these beauties gives me many ideas."

Tails curiosity peaked and he opened his mouth to ask his friend what exactly she had in mind, when the door opened.

Sonic, Rouge and Omega stepped in.

"Hey Tails, we need your help."

"Oh, is this about that plan you mentioned to Omega", Ruby recalled, while also giving a nod to greet said robot.

"Yes. I wanted to ask if it would be possible to build a wide ranging Chaos Emerald detector, but specified to Shadow´s energies."

"So that's your plan", Tails said. He pondered it for a while before nodding. "Yes it should be possible. But I would require the exact frequency of Shadow´s Chaos energies…"

"I CAN PROVIDE THE DATA NEEDED. I HAVE SCANNED MULTIPLE TIMES TO KNOW THE EXACT WAVELENGTH AND FREQUENCY OF HIM."

"… and having access to a Chaos Emerald would be helpful as well."

Omega scuttled a little bit away from Ruby and Tails after hearing that, still a bit sore about them making heavy changes to his system with the lighting dust and green Chaos Emerald without his permission. Sonic on the other hand stepped for and held up the red one.

"I got that covered. Just give it back to me once your finished. Something tells me that Chaos Control will be very useful in future."

Tails nodded and took the Chaos Emerald. He turned to the single human in the room.

"Sorry Ruby, but it looks like we need to put our personal project aside for a while. Would you like to instead work on this for the time being?"

She thought about it.

"Its not exactly my field of expertise…" She shrugged. "Eh, but why not. It sounds interesting and this could help me familiarize myself with Mobian technology and gadgets."

"Right. Then lets get to work."

Another chapter done. One where both Roses are pouring their heart out. What do you people think about my addition to Ruby´s background. It was honestly kind of a spur in the moment kind of thing. I hope it feels like I´m adding more to her character instead of causing unnecessary drama.

Next chapter a Team will go and try to find Shadow. It will also touch upon what Rouge has been up to and shed some more light on additional characters.

To Guest: Honestly I am not quite sure myself. I have basically the whole script for everything, but the finer details I plan every week before writing the chapter. Ruby could be annoyed at some puns while finding others actually funny. But in general Ruby will enjoy hanging out with Sonic.

To AruguableReader: Vanilla is one of the nurses in the hospital wing. Not only was she mentioned here, but she literally appeared in in chapter 9. Cheese didn't appear because it was early in the morning when Cream brought Ruby her clothes. So he simply slept in.

Both Amy and Knuckles have learned during their adventures with Sonic what it means to fight for others and taking responsibility. I also chose to have Knuckles remain the leader of the Resistance because I imagine he spends a lot of time studying the ruins and history of his people and learned a lot about the workings of war. He basically uses Pachachamacs warmongering for something good.

Oh I totally going to make the Rose scene you describe happening. That would really be gold.

Yeah I wanted to give the Chao more attention because they are an important part of the Sonic franchise and I thought it would be cute if Ruby interacted with one. Happy to see you like the appearance of the Wisp as well, since I saw many Sonic fans despise them.

Okay I get now what you mean with Infinite and the OC. Honestly, I think you might be onto something. It would explain why Infinite was rather generic as a villain. To fit with whatever self-insert the player had.

The Nega Mother Wisp was the final boss of the Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors. In may interpretation the events of Sonic Colors was a mixture of the regular version, the Nintendo one and the Deluxe one.

You will find out more about Rouge next chapter.

Silver really is a great character. And if Sonic 06 wouldnt have been Sonic 06, not only would Silver be a more beloved character, but we might have Mephiles as a reoccurring villain and maybe the state of the Sonic franchise would be better overall. But the way it is now, the fans just have to work with what we have. I will try to give Silver times to shine in this fic.

Lola was here to give a certain trigger for Ruby and help figure out more along the way about the silver eyes, just like it happened in this chapter. Besides that Lola will not have much importance but she may appear here and there as a side character to show how the civilian side of the Resistance handles the whole conflict.

Phantom Shadow was supposed to be a caricature of Sega´s (and some fans) interpretation of that character: A cursing, asshole edgelord.

Well, Light Gaia is basically god in this world, so I thought it would make sense if Mobians say `Thank Light Gaia´ instead of `Thank God´.

To Monster King: I´m glad you think so.