New Mobotropolis, Northamer

Lunchtime

Although she had her hands full with Operation: Restoration in wake of the Phantom Ruby War, the pink hedgehog was able to finally get some time for herself just yesterday. That sheep who's been assisting her as a secretary is currently left in charge of affairs in her absence until she's ready to return to resume her management. Hopefully she can manage things just fine while she's gone.

All things considered, Amy really needed that time off given what's been happening with her friends recently and hating the fact she's been so busy while things went down despite their assurance. Feeling like she's been neglecting them with how absent she's been lately.

But she's here now and she's making the most out of her time for the month. All caught up to speed on the current situation with the Dark Legion and everything relating to it including the return of Mecha Sonic. Issues with her transport meant that by the time she arrived at New Mobotropolis, Vanilla and them had already left for Furville.

She had come to visit Tails at the hospital the other day. The fox has been making a steady recovery from the looks of things. Both them miss Sonic and wished he'd come home.

Damn those insufferable assholes at IGN for brainwashing half of the public against her friends with their disingenuous takes. Especially in regards to Vanilla who she consoled the other night and that wolf who came home looking just as crushed over the abduction of Cream and Cheese. Poor Akira must be blaming himself over it.

Speaking of Akira; Amy had just learned from Knuckles that he's resigned this morning. The echidna happened to be in the city to come check up on Tails and had paid Sally a visit when she told him about it when he asked about him.

That's why the both of them were heading on over to the wolf's house when they came across Chuck and Penelope who were also on their way down to the house to see him as well.

Akira's House, New Mobotropolis

Lunchtime

The wolf was nearly done packing up the last of his bags when he heard a knock on his front door. He ignored the initial knock and kept packing his last bag. They'll leave him alone eventually.

He didn't answer the second nor the third knock on the door. Just as he thought they were going to go away under the assumption he's not home, he hears his front door getting punched off its hinges before hitting the floor with a loud thud.

"KNUCKLES!" Gadget heard Amy's voice cry out immediately after the door was punched off by the echidna in question. "You didn't need to do that!"

"What? You guys can fix it up later." The echidna replied simply as he saw Gadget run out from his bedroom to see his door on the floor in front of the entrance as well as seeing him, Chuck, Penelope and Amy. "I thought you couldn't hear us from over there. Sorry for the door."

"It's no big deal…" The wolf sighed. It's not like he is going to be angry over it when he's leaving town.

He was about to turn away and return to his room to finish packing when Amy Rose stepped forwards. "Wait!"

Gadget stopped and looked over at the pink hedgehog in the red dress, seeing her concerned face. "Knuckles told me you've resigned this morning, is that really true?"

"Absolutely."

The wolf was about to resume what he was doing earlier when he suddenly felt an unexpected hug from none other than Amy herself who somehow went from being at the entrance to being next to him across from the bedroom door.

Finding himself blushing at this very physical form of contact from her. "W-What's the meaning of this!?"

"W-Why do you have to go away now!?" Amy choked out her words as she held onto him like he was Sonic as the latter had joked to him once. "D-Do you not like it h-here anymore? D-Do you not like us?"

"W-What? No!" The wolf replied as best as he could and seeing the other three visitors welcomed themselves into the house and freezing up in place. "I really do like you guys but I'm feeling homesick and think I should prob—"

"I know you're lying to us." Penelope sharply cuts through his fib and Gadget's ears recoil in response. "It's not about you missing home... It's about everything that's happened recently and you are not able to take it anymore. The pressure's gotten to you."

"Is that true?" Knuckles asked, looking at his greatest former wartime champion with a focused gaze. As long as he has known him for, he never thought of him as a quitter. His work against the Eggman Empire made it hard for him to believe he could even be the kind of person to give up the fight for freedom, liberty and justice like that.

Sensing the discomfort in the wolf with him feeling like he's being ganged up on in his own house and needing to do something or else, the senior blue hedgehog Chuck stepped forwards to calm the situation. "I know you're all still in shock over this but you all need to give him some space and let me speak with him alone. Please."

"Sir?" Chuck's fellow council member Penelope questioned him. The hedgehog puts a hand up.

"I know what I'm doing. Give us a few minutes."

With the older hedgehog seemingly having a better idea than they do, Amy, Knuckles and Penelope reluctantly went outside to leave two people alone together to chat in private. Gadget taking deep breaths to calm himself from his anxieties.

"I apologise on their behalf if they made you feel uncomfortable. They're just concerned for you, that's all." The older hedgehog said to the wolf, taking a seat at the dinner table where a present from Sonic lies at. "You already have enough on your mind. Care to sit with me?"

"O-Of course!" Gadget wasn't going to turn down an offer from one of his idols and soon sat down with him. "H-How can I help you sir?"

"Chuck will do…" The hedgehog told him before enquiring the young mobian for answers. "I take it you thought about your choice for a while, yes?"

The wolf sighed softly. "...It's been on my mind since last week. I didn't want to do it but after what happened yesterday… I knew it was probably time to hang up the boots and walk away from it. You heard the news, right?"

"If it's from the usual suspects, I'm not too informed on the situation. I don't support an organisation who openly badmouths my own family and his friends just for views."

"I have been nothing but a punching bag for them in the last while. Anything disastrous that happens, they're always quick to bring me up." Gadget said with furrowed brows. "However, it's not what entirely pushed me to this. It's only just salt to the wounds that is my string of failures. Losing Lindsey twice when it was up to me and now, a teammate of mine is now off somewhere we can't find her at."

"It's not your fault."

"Yet it seems like it is with how my friends' public image has been looking these days."

"They have endured worse in the past and people eventually learn the truth. I understand what it's like to feel like you've caused nothing but misfortunes for others as someone who's created the Roboticizer and saw it be used as an instrument of terror on the world..." Chuck's face grimaces as he thinks of his invention when saying that. "It can be a hard burden to bear on your shoulders."

"You never meant the Roboticizer to be used for evil."

"And you never meant to cost your team their image either. These things happen whether we want them to or not. It's the hand we're dealt with and we have to play by that hand." The old hedgehog counters. "We all respond to failure differently from one another and how we pick ourselves up from it. It's often our greatest teacher."

Eyeing the present and picking it up, seeing his nephew's handwriting on the tag. "I know others have told you it isn't your fault for what had happened and all that yet you act it is. I commend you for owning up to your mistakes… However, it seems like to me there's more to this than what you're letting on and don't take that as me interrogating you but I've been around enough people to tell the signs."

"...That obvious, huh?"

"Whatever it was that happened in your past, it still has its claws in you and it haunts you even now." Chuck said, looking up from the present in his hands to look over at the younger mobian across from him. "Would I be correct in that assumption?"

Gadget hitched a breath at how on the ball the old hedgehog is. He knew he's intelligent but he didn't expect him to narrow down the root of his problem in just a few exchanges. It's like the hedgehog had known him for years since he was little with how perceptive he is.

With a slow nod from the wolf, Chuck knew he was onto something. "Would you like to talk about it? I understand if you don't want to."

He contemplated for a moment before asking him a simple question. "You know about my first run-in with Infinite?"

"You were with the Fordo Squad and the only survivor from that massacre." The hedgehog answered. "Knuckles and Amy have told me about it."

"Then you'd know who was leading the squad at the time."

"Yes, Lieutenant Riker. Used to be head of the Raoul Platoon until his death at that jackal's hands and leaving behind a family of three. Were you two close?"

Gadget closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. "I don't know if we were close and I don't know what his reasons were but he must have seen something in me because he took me under his wing and tried to help me become more than some civilian. He seemed to believe in me more than most other people did."

Opening his eyes. "He just might have been about the closest I had to an older brother. You can imagine how I took his death…"

Sir Charles 'Chuck' Hedgehog listened to the wolf air out what he's kept to himself for so long.

"Maybe I did something to alert Infinite to our location or he had picked up on my cowardice like a bad odour and chose to spare me. I often blame myself for him dying the way he did."

"Survivor's guilt. You thought you didn't deserve to live and the only reason you did was because that jackal saw amusement in it." Chuck says to him with no hint of disgust or pity. "His death must have gotten your cowardice killed and whipped you into shape it seems. Gave you a spark to start pushing back against Robotnik as hard as you did while Sonic helped you to sustain that fire whenever you met Infinite again."

"He carried me through all those missions we did…"

"Really? I heard differently from my nephew and said you carried him through them."

"Probably thought it'd make me look better in your eyes." The wolf ruefully remarks.

"I don't know. I think you both carried each other. I would say that you and him are very alike—"

"We're nothing alike!" Gadget snapped at him before quickly apologizing for the outburst. "Sorry… I can't go as fast, not as carefree as he is and I ain't got his confidence either. We're about as worlds apart as you can get. In what universe would someone say we're close to alike?"

"I would." Chuck replied calmly, looking the wolf in the eye. "Believe me, you and my nephew are far more alike than you think. Ever wondered why he took to you as he did?"

"Tails wasn't about and had to make do with me. I was the only help he had coming off the Death Egg. My membership to Sally's group was his way of repaying the favour even if I never asked."

"Wrong. I believe he saw a lot of himself in you and I trust his intuition because I can definitely see it as well." Chuck smiled. "He used to think he couldn't be as heroic and brave as Captain Rescue and Sonic Joe. He thought he was weak, wasn't cool enough to be seen as the guy and lacked the courage required to take on evil despite wanting to do good. Remind you of somebody?"

"...I know what you're trying to say but the difference is that he learned to grow a backbone himself and learned to be confident in himself." Gadget shook his head with a sigh. "I only got here because of the war. In another life, I would just be another face in the crowds."

"So would he. Despite having his core beliefs and his speeds from the beginning, the rest of him weren't there just yet when he was a little hoglet named Nicky. Confidence was something he had to gain first and the only thing he had at the time that set him apart from the ordinary is his uncanny athleticism." The old hedgehog told him and the wolf listened. "He'd put on a mask of coolness to hide what he called his lame self and thought people would respond more to a hedgehog with attitude. Trying to fit in because he believed that's the key to success in the days before the dark times."

It was hard to imagine the idea of Sonic going through the same struggles as he did yet he couldn't dismiss it as the truth. He's seen the real Sonic and the hedgehog with an attitude that everyone knows him as is only one part of who he is. Never made him feel like he was the runt between them and treated him like he matters.

"In the years I wasn't there for him, he had to learn how to take care of himself and survive in Robotnik's world. Becoming like his own father." Chuck was wistful over the fact he never got to see his nephew grow into the person he'd become in the years he'd been a robian. "And I can see that little good natured boy I had raised within you."

Setting down Sonic's present right in front of the wolf. "I think whenever he looks at you, he also sees a lot of himself in you and perhaps he wanted to do for you what Riker had done before him. It's a shame it had to end like this but for what it was worth, you're a good kid with a lot of potential and a lot of heart. Your parents are lucky to have you for a son no matter what any naysayers will tell you."

There was an old myth about a pair of twins with one of them born a god and the other as a mortal yet were very close despite that. By the way Sir Charles puts it, he's the Castor to Sonic's Pollux. He wanted to refute him but he couldn't come up with anything to counter his statements and tell him otherwise.

"...Thank you sir." Gadget uttered, finding himself reaching a hand up to his eyes and lifting up the glasses to wipe away something wet under his eyelids. "I-I mean it. I had others telling me it's not my fault or this and that… But I-I think you're about the first one here I've actually told any of this to."

"It might be fear, it might be reluctance or something else but you're keeping everyone else at arm's length because you find it would hurt less that way. All the misfortunes Sonic and them have suffered might have been reminding you too much of what happened to your old squad." Chuck said sympathetically. "It's why you really wanted to leave this behind because you're tired of being reminded about it. I understand and anyone who says you're weak for walking away from this are people who never faced any hardships like we both have."

Eyeing his nephew's present in front of Gadget. "I wonder what Sonny got for you in there."

The wolf looked at the present Sonic had left him. A present he was planning to open on Christmas Day but after talking to Sir Charles and figuring he may as well have a look before he heads back over to Soumerica. Let the older hedgehog see what his nephew had left behind for the wolf.

Unwrapping the present to be greeted by a nondescript brown box and opening it to see the gifts inside that earned a quiet gasp from the wolf. There were a lot of goodies inside the box but two things caught his eye the most; a pair of red grind shoes with attachments on the back and a brown neck scarf. Pulling out both for Chuck to see.

"Those are Sonny's. He must have wanted you to have them." The senior mobian immediately recognises the items in the red wolf's hands. In addition to the new stuff that Sonic had brought recently, a few items from his past were included as extras including a bounce bracelet.

Gadget would soon spot a white envelope in the box and open it to find a handcrafted letter inside. Taking a look at the handwriting, he saw Sonic's message to him.

Dear Akira Amamiya,

Hey Buddy, this is Sonic. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a good year.

By the time you see this letter, you'd already have seen the gifts I left for you. A few from my past adventures including my beloved scarf. What was mine is now yours' and hope they'll be of help to you now or you find them cool enough to hang onto as mementos. The scarf might catch you a soulmate someday if you believe it as a good luck charm.

I ain't great with overly sentimental stuff like this and Tikals knows how many times I had to keep redoing this. Now I know how Amy feels.

Joking aside, I wanted to thank you for getting me off that Death Egg. The words thank you doesn't properly convey the gratitude I have towards you for saving my life back there and helping me save the world from annihilation. It's been a pleasure meeting you.

That chain ironball of self-doubt you're wearing is only holding you back because you're letting it weigh you down but when you realise it's all in the mind and you let your own willpower burst through those self-made chains, endless possibilities. You can do anything. The only thing stopping you from reaching out to those boundless skies is yourself and your spirit.

Anyone who has ever told you that you can't do it or you'll amount to nothing are people who don't have dreams and you shouldn't care what they think. These people were told the same tune by those like them and believed those lyrics were true. They don't know how to help others up and know only how to shove them down to their level. Caging the bird who yearns to fly and sing free.

I know you can do it because I've seen what the real Akira Amamiya is capable of and he will amount to greatness no matter what the naysayers say. There are those who find their calling and then those who have to be guided to it. I would know because I had to find mine largely on my own.

Whatever hard times fall, either one picks themselves up solo and rises from the fall or they have someone help them out of a hole like a friend and help them find their salvation and I'm no exception.

The people who do believe in you are the ones worth acknowledging. If you don't believe in yourself, believe in the Sonic that believes in you. Nothing starts until you take action. If you have time to worry, then run.

Best Regards,

Nicky 'Sonic' Maurice Hedgehog

Gadget sets down the letter and lets it all sink in. The sign off at the end caught his eye because he's using his real name. The hedgehog addressed him from the heart.

After reading the letter, that cynical voice in the back of his mind has gone quiet and he can feel clarity. He doesn't know how but the weights are off his shoulders and he can view the world with fresh eyes. A spark reignited within him.

"I think I was too hasty to quit. I let the negatives outweigh the positives, allow the pressure to get to me..." Gadget stood up from his chair at the table as Knuckles, Amy and Penelope came back into the house. "And I let my doubts get the better of me but I know better now."

"Gadget?" Knuckles questioned the wolf who turned and faced the other three house guests.

"I've reconsidered leaving here…" Gadget said to them with a new energy that stood in contrast to his earlier self and not sounding as mousey as he used to be. "And I'm thinking of rejoining the team."

"I'm so glad you changed your mind!" Amy rushed to hug him with a beaming smile and the wolf stood firm this time, accepting the elation from her.

Knuckles crossed his arms and smiled at the news. The young wolf has finally come to his senses.

"I don't know what you said to him to change his mind but thank you." Penelope said to Chuck who chuckled and shook his head.

"I think you should thank Sonic for that."

Gadget pulled himself away from Amy and looked over at all of his guests. "Speaking of Sonic, I need to go find him and I think I have an inkling on where he could be…"

Central Freedom HQ, New Mobotropolis

Lunchtime

"...What if in those missing years, he was being raised by somebody who knows all about the Chaos Emeralds and the secrets of the world?" Gadget was explaining to Sally and Nicole in the briefing room alongside a few other bodies present in the meeting. "Raised by a member of the Order of Sophocles who cared for him in that span of time."

"And makes you believe he's on South Island?" Sally asked him. "From what I know, the Order of Sophocles were thought to have died off around the fall of the Echidna Empire or in the years following it. There haven't been any sightings of them for centuries."

"We assumed they died off because the organisation itself doesn't appear to exist anymore in the present but there could be pockets of them still alive and well like the Lost Echidna Tribe." Knuckles points out. "Given everything we have seen and experienced, it's possible."

"It's also possible Sonic could have been taken in by one of their knights and gotten a lot of his knowledge from them." Chuck added. "I always assumed he had gotten his knowledge from me and my old research but thinking about it now, he also had knowledge that even I wasn't aware of and he couldn't have gotten it from me."

"When I was attending college back on South Island, I remember chatting with a student from Green Hills about Sonic and they had told me about these owl woman sightings from before Sonic made his debut." Gadget recalls something he had all but forgotten about until now. "No one knows what her name is or where she's from but appears to be something of a recluse who lives around the more remote parts of the island with the Labyrinth Zone being our best guess as to where she lives at. Rarely seen around civilisation."

Tapping his chin. "If my history knowledge is correct, there are legends of a chapter from the order having made their way to the island prior to the emergence of the Chaos Emeralds myth and largely kept to themselves until they disappeared from the history books. The unknown owl woman's description and reclusive nature would match up with what we know of the Sophocles."

"And what's this to do with Sonic?" Nicole questioned the wolf. Gadget turned to her.

"That student once saw her with a child at a clinic one night in 3327. Said he looked like he had gotten into a fight and had a swelled up eye. Also said the child stank like he's been in a dumpster..." The wolf told her and Sally. "From what he could remember from that night; the child was a hedgehog, blue in colour and wore red shoes. I had chalked it up to him remembering things differently and as another of those alleged stories but now I'm thinking he really did see Sonic that night."

"If that's the case and you're correct here, then he's presumably somewhere in Labyrinth Zone. The last place anyone would think to find him at." Sally surmised her thoughts. "Though, I wonder why he never talks about the fact he was raised by someone from the Order of Sophocles… I suppose only he himself knows the answer."

"Sonic is definitely on South Island and we haven't searched that island yet." Gadget gestured to the pink hedgehog and red echidna at his side. "Plus we have Amy Rose here who could help lead us to his current whereabouts, Julie-Su to watch our backs and Knuckles to help us navigate the old ruins. If what Mecha said about Sonic is true, perhaps I should be the one to speak to him and maybe he'll listen to me… I know that sounds far-fetched."

"It isn't. You're about the only person in this room who could get through to him while he would just push away the rest of us if we tried to come close… I just know it." The chipmunk looked at the wolf. "We need Sonic's help and you could be our best hope of us getting those two back safely. I know I'm asking a lot out of you given everything that's happened but Akira Amamiya, can I entrust this mission to you?"

The once conflicted and doubtful red wolf contemplated the weight of this task; what's being asked of him. If she had asked him earlier this morning, he would have refused out of fear of screwing up again. It's what the other Akira would have done.

This Akira has a clearer mind now because he's shut out that negative voice. When the lives of Sonic and Cream are at stake, he has no time for that constricting snake or what it has to say to him.

Giving the chipmunk a confident nod. "I'll see what I can do. I'm ready to resume my duties."

"Then I therefore reinstate Akira Amamiya back to active duty. Effective immediately." Sally declared much to the cheers of everyone present. "Welcome back."

"Thank you." The wolf nodded. "What are your orders?"

"You, Knuckles, Amy and Julie-Su are to head over to South Island as soon as possible. You may take a few others with you if you deem it necessary."

"Me?"

"Unless you wish to hand command over to Amy here, I deem you best suited to lead the mission. Any objections?" Sally looked over everyone present and heard no whisper of an objection. "The mission is all yours' Mister Amamiya."

Gadget nodded and looked at Nicole. "Nicole. Who else is in the building?"

"According to my scans, Johnny and Manic are down in the lounge room." The holo-lynx told him. "You'll have to take the Freedom Stormer since the Freedom Fighter Special is currently down at Seaside Island and it's slower in speed but it should still get you to your destination all the same."

"Hai."

"Please bring him home." Chuck put a hand on Gadget's shoulder. "Let him know how much he's missed here."

"I'll try sir." The wolf assured the older hedgehog with a smile. "It's the least I could do for you."

Amy spots Penelope smiling to herself while she looks on at her old friend. The councilwoman was happy to see him be the Akira she once knew. Someone who would happily lend a helping hand to others.

King Frederick Airfield, New Mobotropolis

Lunchtime

A few minutes later, Gadget and his team were boarding the Freedom Stormer II. An aircraft based on an old biplane that the group once used years ago for missions outside of Knothole and according to Manic, the original model was crudely cobbled together from whatever parts they could get their hands on; even calling it a flying death trap.

Largely relegated to the role of emergency aircraft since they have access to faster airborne vehicles but besides the F.F.S, none of them have the capacity to carry Gadget's whole team and many of the faster options are either under repairs or were destroyed during the war. The wolf thinks Sally and them are having the worst luck with these inconveniences. Hopefully, nothing else happens while they're out.

It'll take longer to reach South Island with it compared to the alternatives but it should be able to get them to and fro safely on short notice.

"...Mister Amamiya?" Sally called his name when he was about to board the plane and Gadget turned to face her. "I know I'm putting a lot on your shoulders but I meant what I said about you being our only hope of him coming back."

"I wouldn't have gotten this far without him having that faith in me. You and the other guys did just as much for me for better or worse. Your great patience with me for one thing..." One corner of the wolf's mouth curved upwards. "I can definitely see why Sonic gets on well with you despite your differences."

Sally smiled at that. "Likewise. You saved his life once and I ask you on behalf of everyone here to do it again even if he doesn't come back."

"I'll see what I can do. I owe him that much."

"Then good luck to all of you." The chipmunk told him. "We'll keep you updated if anything else develops here."

The wolf nodded and watched the noblewoman give the aircraft some space to go to the lifting platform before going inside. The Freedom Stormer II piloted by Manic makes its way over to the platform that brought it from the underground to the airfield hangar up on the surface.

A minute or two later, the aircraft exited the hangar and moved through the runway while gathering momentum with speed until eventually lifting to the air when it got to the rampways. Flying off in the air on a mission to South Island.

Central Freedom HQ, New Mobotropolis

Afternoon

While Sally awaits word from Bunnie's team over at Seaside Island in their search efforts, hear from Gadget's group at South Island and any intelligence update regarding the Dark Legion, she sat in her office. Mull over things as she looks over some documents like Akira Amamiya's file to write a retraction over his membership.

With how bleak things had seemed just a few hours ago, this was a turnaround miracle she had hoped for. She's not sure what Sir Charles and them had said to him at his house but they certainly helped him to change his mind. Perhaps this could be a sign of better thi—

"Sally!" Nicole calls her from the chipmunk's communicator. "The S.I.D had just received a video transmission that's addressed to both you and Sir Charles. They're trying to figure out where exactly it was sent from and trace its source."

"Any idea who made it?"

"Yes. The Dark Legion…"

"...If you truly value the life of this brat and her friend, you'll give me what I wanted."

In the briefing room, Sally, Nicole and Chuck were watching the hostage video made by the Dark Legion. Seeing Lien-Da and Tarek with a tied-up Cream and a caged-up Cheese. A distressing sight for Vanilla or Amy if they were here with them.

"Any idea where this could be?" Chuck asked Nicole.

"We're still trying to identify the origins of this transmission. Appears they were using VPNs and other forms of communication trickery to make it difficult to trace." The holo-lynx told him. "Wherever this video was taken, we're trying to ID where they could be at."

"We know you have one of our Shards in your custody. No doubt you are well aware of its capabilities and have come to the same conclusion about what it is being used for." Tarek spoke calmly to the camera. "It appears we were at a stalemate for a while until now when we took two of your own the other day. We know you're unwilling to sacrifice their lives and we also know Sonic the Hedgehog is not with you right now."

"Wouldn't reflect well on you if the press found out you allowed something terrible to happen to these ones…" The smugness in Lien-Da's voice really pisses off the chipmunk. "You're in no position to dictate any terms with us when we hold all the cards."

The Grandmaster gestures to her prized hostages. "Your Shard in exchange for their safety."

Tarek interjects. "You have all but exactly one hour to decide and if you haven't decided by the time our messager comes to your HQ to give us your answer, you know what the consequences are."

"Should you undoubtedly accept our terms, we'll give you a time and place for the exchange point." Lien-Da said in the video before adding; "Don't even try to think about getting clever with us like you tried to do back on that island because you'll only receive the data until after you accept our deal. Also we'll know if you try to hand us a fake."

Tarek points at the camera as if addressing the trio in the briefing room. "I want you, Sally Acorn and Sir Charles Hedgehog to make the exchange with us at a designated location of our choice. If we as much as see one more with you, the deal is off. You have no other choice if you want to save these ones. We'll be waiting for your answer."

The video ends and Sally slams a fist on the table with a frustrated sign. She absolutely hated the arrangement and knowing Lien-Da, she sure as hell ain't going to that exchange without backup in case she pulls a fast one.

"Nicole. Is Miraju medically cleared to go?"

"I'm afraid he's still in rehab at the moment and would have been our best bet at rescuing Cream and Cheese from their captors." Nicole reported with a grimace. "I would recommend taking a team of R.A.A Commandos with you to the exchange."

"I think that's what I'll do." Sally agreed with her assessment, looking over to Chuck. "I don't know why they want you with me but I reckon Tarek's the reason."

"Probably to do with Project Lazarus..." Chuck surmised. "I'm not exactly thrilled at the idea of a reunion with Xavier…"

"Same here and I have a sneaking suspicion that it's all a trap but on the other hand, they got Cream and Cheese. It's their safety I'm more worried about."

"And the Shard?"

"Afraid it'll have to be taken along. They'll know it's a fake if we take an imitation with us." The chipmunk rubbed her temples, trying to come up with a plan to counter whatever Lien-Da had in store at the exchange. "We're going to have to do the exchange and they're not giving us much options here…"

Author's Note: Uncle Chuck makes a timely save, Amy is here and we finally get to see what that present is at last. With that turnaround, the road to the resolution is set in stone.

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