It had been a long silence after the fight, a very long and gruesome fight. Nobody knew that Eggman would up his game, this was definitely not a laughing matter.

Everyone was tired as dusk began to set across the sky, bringing the evening breeze along with it. For miles, there were a lot of broken or burned up pieces of metal and debris and there were still a lot of fires.

But although the battle was finally over, it was quiet... too quiet. Then everyone realized why, Sonic was nowhere in sight. In fact, after he sent a distress alarm, which he rarely does, he was not seen or heard. There was no Sonic boom or no loud remarks, absolutely nothing.

Tails and the others began to search for him, calling his name, tracking his communicator or just calling it and they didn't get a response, not one. Shadow even tried tracking his chaos energy, cause even he agreed this was very unlike Sonic, and he still found nothing.

Night began to set in as nocturnal life started taking over, crickets chirping, owls hooting and bats in the air. But they were still searching. Rouge, Cream and Tails taking the air and the rest dividing the parts of the forest.

Shadow turned a corner and what he saw made his eyes widen, his mouth fall slightly open and his arms to drop to the side. He began to fumble to get his communicator on and when he did, many voices of concern, worry and slight irritation were heard. " I found him..." Shadow mumbled so quietly, no body could actually hear him. " Found what?" Amy said feeling annoyed, " I found him, I found Sonic.

No body said a word, no body. They all just stared at the terrible sight in front of them. Some couldn't take it in and just had a look of disbelief and shock across their faces while others accepted what happened and slowly began to grieve.

"It isn't true. No...please... it's too soon" Tails pleaded in his mind," I refuse to believe this, it's not possible". Amy had already fallen on her knees and started to sob, thick tears already falling from her eyes as her eyes gripped her chest. Knuckles just stared at what he saw in front of him, his face looking blank. Rouge eyes were filling with tears, and Shadow just turned his head away. Blaze's eyes were wide and her hands were on her mouth and Silver had the same reaction as Knuckles but his mouth was slightly agape. Little kids like Cream and Charmy were already crying out loud and their respective guardians were trying to comfort them, key word: try.

Some people also joined Amy and began to cry too, some even fell on their knees but were picked up and held by family or friends.

But overall they still looked at the sight, It was Sonic... just the state they. ever wanted to see him.

He was dead, gone. He had a bullet wound in his side and on his leg and had a lot of open wounds. His head looked pretty banged up, and blood was leaking from his mouth and his nose. But the most traumatizing sight was his...eyes, they were opened. This was supposed to be the sign he was still alive, still kicking. But his eyes' spark was gone and glazed over and looked like he was staring at nothing.

Tails was in a trance as he began to hyperventilate and his eyes began to dilate and all of a sudden broke out of his trance and began to run towards Sonic, he would've gotten there if his arm wasn't held firmly.

He began to tug and pull on whoever was holding his hand but the grip just began tighter. He finally looked up to see it was Shadow, who wasn't looking him in the eyes. " I'm sorry but he's gone, that's why I couldn't track his chaos energy. It's gone."

After he said does words, Amy just cried louder and so did some other people as well. 'No...no.. I refuse to believe this' Tails thought. Tails' eyes began to feel with more tears until they over flowed. "No...h-he promised.. he promised that he would s-stay with me..." Tails whimpered. Shadow closed his eyes "I'm so sorry" He said.

Tails began to mumble quietly and quickly. "Tails" Shadow called firmly, Tails either ignored him or just didn't hear him. "Tails" Shadow called again, a bit louder. Tails voice finally became audible, in little bits they heard what he was saying. "Why...no...n-not fair... impossible..." Tails began to tug again.

He began to hyperventilate again " Tails-" Shadow started, "NOOOOOOO" Tails shrieked and began to hit Shadow's arm. "LET ME GOOOOOOO" Tails shrieked again, tears falling down his face as he continued his struggle.

Shadow began to look for anyone who could help but Amy was sobbing hysterically, Vanilla and the Chaotix were comforting their little ones and Knuckles was out of the question. Silver and Blaze were not doing well at all and he would have called on Rouge but her shoulders were starting to shake. In conclusion, this meant only he and Omega could be of help at the moment.

After some time, Tails grew tired and stopped hitting Shadow, he just dropped to his knees and started calling for Sonic and got no response in return. So he just stopped and continued crying but could you blame him? Sonic was the one who saved him and accepted him, helped him through the hard times and taught him how to face the world with a smile, he was the one that made sure he didn't feel alone, comforted him and was his brother and first best friend. It wasn't fair, it was not fair at all.

When Tails had dropped unto his knees, Shadow had taken that as an opportunity to round the team up and get everyone out of there. He gave Tails to Rouge and began to guide everyone gently to where they were. When Shadow was done, he pulled out a chaos emerald. Tails started to struggle in Rouge's hold, but was too late after Shadow shouted the two words "CHAOS CONTROL".