Hello everybody. I just came back from my trip to Japan. I was a bit tired so I took a break until my body was awake and accustomed to the time here as my body clock was messed up after staying in Japan for 8 days and the 2 nights of flight from Japan to the U.S.

This is my fourth chapter of 'The Growth to Bravery', I got some suggestions and help on how to start this chapter. I don't know if I'm going to make 15 or 20 chapters for the story. This is still new to me, so if anything feels rushed, remember that this is my first time making a fanfiction story. All in all, enjoy the chapter and send any reviews on how you like the story so far.

All Characters are owned by SEGA.

Chapter 4: Past Tragedies & Discomfort

It was starting to become noon, he felt his head feel dizzy, he felt sick. He knew that these things would affect him poorly, but he could manage. He had experienced and done these things before and would always be scolded and have a talk with Sonic, who worried about his health doing these things.

I miss him

The capture of Sonic had weighed down on Tails a lot. He tried not to be brave and show calm after Sonic had been captured, but he knew that the others were giving him looks of sympathy as he had lost the closest person he called family. Tails would always remember the times he and Sonic would be having fun and how they always defeated Eggman. Even Though it has been days, he still misses him.

Pathetic, you had been without him for a longer time. Why are you still sobbing, you have work to do, you know you can help Sonic.

Before Tails was able to think more, he heard a knock. Then a soft voice speaking.

"Hello, Tails are you in there." It was Cream. Tails scolded himself, checking the time to realize that he missed breakfast. It didn't matter much to him, but it would always worry Vanilla and Cream whenever he didn't come to eat. He could also have missed the meeting that they had for today. He was too tired to hear Cream opening the door. He heard Cream gasp at him sleeping on the floor.

"Tails wake up, I'm sorry if I disturb your sleep, but you have to wake up." tapping at Tails face until he started to react.

After some time, Tails was finally fully awake, bags under his eyes which showed his exhaustion of working until late last night. He slowly got up until he was finally sitting. He was now facing Cream. He was able to see Cream's shock expression as she saw his tired face. He knew that she was going to scold him, but he knew that it was only because she cared for him just as much as the others do, such as Amy, Vanilla, Knuckles. He was still young, an 8 year old shouldn't be looking this tired. That was the mindset of the others. They knew that he was the genius of the group. He was able to do and plan things that the others would have difficulty with. Yet, he always pushed himself to his limit, damaging his health in the process.

"Tails, you look terrible, have you been sleeping? Have you even taken care of yourself?". Tails could only turn away from her gaze as he felt guilty for making her worry.

"I'm fine Cream, I'm just tired after working on the drone."

"I know you work hard, but that doesn't mean that you must sacrifice your well-being to save Sonic or to help others. I know you want to save Sonic, we all want to rescue him, but if you keep putting yourself in constant pressure to save Sonic, how can you save him when you couldn't save yourself?"

He could only listen to her, he felt more guilty now, he wondered how the hole in his heart grew even larger than he thought was possible.

"I care about you Tails, we all do."

He was silent. He felt angry and stupid for making the others worry about his health.

"I know Cream, and I'm glad that you and the others care about me. But I promise that I will take care of myself better." He said while looking at Cream's gaze, just that it made him feel a form of tingling inside, a burning feeling in his heart, like butterflies in his stomach.

"Thank you Tails. You don't know how much this means to me.". Cream then hugged Tails. He was shocked and didn't respond for a few seconds, until he returned the hug. Both of them stayed like that until Tails remembered that he needed to send the drones up in the air. He had made 6 others the night before, he didn't remember when he did the last 6 as he was too tired to notice. He politely ended the hug before he went to his desk. He grabbed each drone, set them outside and sent each one to different parts of the world. As each drone left to their destination, 6 monitors lit up, all with cameras to see where they were going and what they saw. They arrived at their locations in mere minutes. All he and the others could do was to wait for anything to come up.

1 month later

He had been looking at the screens for many days now. He was tired and frustrated. He had no luck in finding where Eggman could be hiding, nor did he find any clues to where he could be. He was growing tired. He had grown more, but he hadn't realized it until recently. Whenever he looked at the mirror, he looked older, stressed. He had turned 9, but he didn't celebrate his birthday, nor did he remind the others about it. His fur was starting to become dry and matted as he didn't take care of his fur for most of his time trying to find Sonic, Eggman, or any clues to his location of capture.

He had been going out with the others scouring Eggman's old bases for any clues, but anytime that they went into one. They would always leave more tired than before. He knows that due to Sonic, many, except Amy, Knuckles, and himself, have had trouble trying to take down the badniks. Now he was hearing news around the world about a new being, they said that it was a hedgehog, he had a black aura, he was even faster than Sonic, which actually blew his mind. They say that he felt uncanny, like something that you would see in a nightmare when you were a kid. He has dealt terror and destruction to many places, and there had been many casualties of injury and others who had been captured by Eggman.

Tails could only place his head on his computer as his head was filled with migraines. Now he had two things to worry about, how to rescue Sonic and how to defeat this new enemy. He was also worried due to the things he has done to others and how the new guy can defeat them, or worse kill them. He was also worried that the new villain was something that Eggman did with Sonic after his capture. His appearance and him being a hedgehog was a coincidence that he didn't want to think of. He could only imagine how Sonic must have felt, being tortured by Eggman, being forced to do these actions against his will.

Tails couldn't sleep due to these thoughts, he had experienced so many nightmares that he's scared to go to sleep having to see those images and hearing their cries. He knew that he was suffering from insomnia. He had many cups of coffee and energy drinks on his table, but would always throw them away if someone was coming to check on him. He had trained himself those past years with Sonic to act okay and would be very careful in how he acted so as to not cause any suspicions. He failed when he was younger, but he was becoming better at it. He was even able to lie to Sonic and his friends whenever he got hurt in battle or experienced a traumatic event that would almost kill him. He hated himself for teaching himself that because it has caused a lot of trouble to many of his friends.

*BEEP*

Tails heard it and looked up into the monitor, he found that one of his drones was able to find Eggman and the new being talking in a secluded area around the forest.

'I need to tell the others'

Tails turned his communicator on and called the others. He was slightly guilty of waking everybody up in the middle of the night. He waited until Amy, Knuckles, Vector, Espio, and Shadow called up.

"Huh?" Amy said groggily "Tails? What happened? Why did you call us in the middle of the ni- ?" Amy was interrupted when Knuckles yawned loudly in which it even shocked Shadow due to how loud it was.

"As I was saying, why did you call us Tails?"

"I also want to know the answer fox" Shadow asked. The term "Fox" had always infuriated him, but he decided to not correct him.

"Guys, the reason why I called all of you is because one of my drones found Eggman and the new guy in a secluded area of a forest."

"Great, where is the forest located so that we can attack them and try to find Sonic's location."

"Hang on" Tails then checked the map and data of where the drone was, but by discovering it, it caused his soul to leave his body. The location was somewhere he didn't want to go back. Something that he wanted to forget. His past traumas were in this place. His doubts, his insecurity came from his hell hole.

"Where is it Tails?"

"It's in Westside Island".

I

Thank you everyone who read my fourth chapter of my story. I must apologize to those who waited on me to write the fourth chapter. As you may have known, I went to Japan for two weeks. When I came home, my body was still jet lagged and I messed up my sleep schedule after sleeping from 4PM to 10PM. Finally, after many days of sleeping early and being too lazy or tired to do any work on the chapter, I finally finished it.

Reading this, you might see what my story is inspired by. That's right, Sonic Forces, but the story is just inspired by it, so, no, it's not a fanfiction about Sonic Forces, but something that inspires it into the story. I also had some other inspirations from other fanfictions that I have read.

I will tell you that the story will take a dark turn which will affect Tails' life and his actions in the future. The story will be more dark the further you read and will show how Tails' health declines.

So, Thank you for reading and I hope y'all liked it.

All Characters are owned by SEGA.