I know the new movie is out, and I didn't finish this in time, but I decided to try to finish it anyway.

I own nothing, but the work I put into this story with others' characters and world building, though I did a little of the latter myself.

Please enjoy for free.

Also, this and the following chapters will be written in the first-person of Longclaw's perspective.

In the following months, boats from other islands came to Judgement Island. They carried warriors mostly, but some brought a few villagers. There was one female hedgehog who walked into the village square to stare at me with not narrow but widened eyes. I met her gaze. She had a few grey hairs and almost invisible wrinkles were forming on her face now, but otherwise looked just as a she had before.

I tried to give her a small smile only she would notice, but my skin felt like stone. I had sent her son alone to another planet. Though I had saved his life four years before and raised him all that time till six months ago had I really done the right thing?

Over nearly half a year I had imagined him there in that place I just briefly visited while he slept on our island. Was he cold shivering in the woods or too near a heat source that species who lived there so affluently had made and soon to be seen? Already seen? Was he afraid? Did those creatures so much larger than he scare him? Did their machines scare him? Was he hungry? This last seemed unlikely with all the food those creatures just threw away. He might be eating better there than he had with me. But he was alone. I'd told him to always be alone. His mother nonetheless returned my small tight smile with one of her own, then turned and swiftly walked away.

I understood. I was chained. Many guards surrounded me with spears.

Finally, about three months after my arrival, my wings were bound, but legs set free. One chain was attached to the bindings wrapped around my wings. I was led by this by three strong warriors down a trail away from the village. At the end of a trail was a circle of cleared, hardened dirt almost like stone. A perch was set up in the center of it for me. At the bottom of it, they put a new chain around one of my ankles, attached it to a stake in the ground and then freed my wings.

I didn't wait to be ordered to do so. As soon as my guards stepped back out of range of a wing sweep, I flapped a few times trying to get the feeling and use back into the muscles before flapping harder, lifting my talons off the ground, and rose higher into the air before landing on the perch. From there, I looked around.

This perch in the middle of this hard patch of ground was surrounded by circular benches rising up above and behind each other, so all those sitting on them could view me. They included foxes, echidna, chameleons, and a few hedgehogs including one with tears in her eyes. A young echidna warrior, I recognized, strode away from where he'd been standing before some of these benches and toward me. He glared into my face so hard I could barely see his eyes and could almost see all his teeth. About a wing-length from me, he turned his back on me and spoke to the crowd.

"This is a warrior who has done what none of our ancestors have! A living thing, a mere villager, 'landed' on the chaos emerald! Having slipped through her guard, he absorbed its power! I saw it flowing through his quills, fur, and eyes! Many other warriors saw it including that elder there!" He pointed indeed to the leader of the guards on our island. At least he used to be, now with the grey feathers he wore, I knew. He was in charge of keeping all emeralds on all islands safe ... in charge of hunting down threats to all emeralds safety. He also stared at me jaw jutting out, eyes narrowed, and arms crossed over his chest as the younger echidna went on. "This young hedgehog became what we feared most: a living being imbued with the power of a chaos emerald! He could destroy the universe! And she protected him from our wrath! She risked the universe to defend him!" He held out his arm and gestured to me with a clenched fist.

I turned my eyes from it to the scowls aimed at me. They'd grown deeper. Eyes wide before had grown wider. Some leaning in bared their teeth at me. Others who'd leaned back before were leaning father back heads slightly turned from me.

I raised my own eyebrows and asked, "Am I being hated and punished for protecting a child?"

Many eyebrows and heads rose upon hearing this. A few mouths opened. Some squinted and leaned forward. I continued. "The hedgehog could barely speak when this happened. He wondered away from his mother and siblings. When he realized he'd gotten lost in the forest, his rolling became faster and more erratic. He rolled too near the hole and fell atop something he couldn't know was there. I allowed it to happen. Punish me for that, but do not hunt him. Being separated from the rest of our people so long has already been punishment enough for such an accident following a mistake many children have made without such odd consequences following. It was mostly my fault for letting such extreme consequences follow his childish actions."

The young echidna turned back to glare at me. "He was infused with the blue emerald's power! His next mistake could kill millions! Making useless the sacrifices of our own people for generations to prevent that!"

One echidna villager rose to her feet with a child in her arms and glaring at me shouted, "He could kill our children, brothers, sisters, us all!"

I opened and raised a wing cutting it through the air as my voice rose, "Must we kill the innocent before they commit a crime to guard the rest of the innocent?"

The echidna pumped both fists in the air staring and yelling at me. "That is why we guard the emeralds so carefully! Why villagers keep so far away from the openings into the caves and buildings they are hidden in!"

The echidna elder raised a hand and intoned, "Enough."

I looked to him. The echidna warrior accusing me turned the back of his head to me in order to turn his face to his elder. The warrior with grey feathers took a slow, but unfaltering step toward me. His gaze met mine unblinking and wide waiting. "Did the hedgehog form an emotional bond with you?"

I first widened and then narrowed my eyes back at him. "Yes?"

He nodded. "Then our only hope is to keep you alive and healthy. If he reappears as a destroyer with the power of the blue emerald in his fists, what will you do?"

My eyes widened. I stood straighter on my perch, but my answer came honestly and quickly. "Stop him. For his sake as well as everyone else's." I knew the soft heart of my hedgehog. I thought he was the kind to get angry quickly, act quickly, and regret quickly. Cause harm quickly, yes, which is what I most feared for him. Carry out long conquests that took planning and patience though, no. I would be more surprised than angry to see him doing that. But I would most certainly try to stop him if I saw him using his powers in a tantrum whether he be old or young by then. I'd consider it my duty as a guardian and care-giver.

He nodded. "Then keeping you safe and healthy is what we must do." He turned and began to step slowly away.

The still young echidna whose first guarding mission Sonic and I had ruined shouted. "What?!" He leaned toward the elder echidna's back, though it wasn't facing me, I imagined the eyes in his face wide and mouth open.

The older warrior turned back to the both of us. "She may be the only advantage we have against a powerful being. If he is bent on destruction and conquest only she might get closer to convince, distract, or kill him. She may be our only hope."

What do you think?

God bless

ScribeofHeroes