Oh boy, it's been a while.

Rejoice though, next chapter is almost done ;)

"They'll likely arrive from here." Knuckles pointed at a northern trench of the canyon, where the terrain was steep but arid, devoid of the dangerous murky swamps. "That would be as close as the transport robots will be able to get them before the tar pits and mud lakes get them."

"How do we know they won't use a drop ship?"

"Canyon's too narrow for that, and the thick vegetation makes it impossible for them to find stable ground." One of the officers said gruffly. "If Robotnick was stupid enough to do that, there's a high chance the robots would land in a pit and sink."

If only it would be that easy. Sonic hummed softly as he looked over the map spread out on the worn metal table, ignoring the hustling and bustling of the military troops outside, preparing for the approaching battle. The air was thick with the smell of metal, gunpowder and sweat, the mixture of scents a looming weight over the hero's shoulders, making him ever more aware that while he could dodge bullets just fine, the humans and mobians he was surrounded by were not as lucky.

Despite spending years saving people, he had yet to get used to the fact that sometimes, he just couldn't be fast enough. There was no illusion in Sonic's eyes; someone at the end of the day was going to get mauled by the machines, or killed.

The only thing he could do as their Commander is minimize the damage.

"How long until they arrive?"

"Estimated to be around twenty minutes, Commander." One of the soldiers reported as he circled the map. "We have snipers in these locations-" He gestured several red dots scattered across the map. "-they'll relay any signs of the army to us, then hunker down in their hideouts as they pass by. Unless the new model is equipped with new scanner technology we've never heard about, the camouflage suits that Mr. Prowder designed will block any attempt at finding them." Tails nodded sharply at the praise, his cheeks faintly dusted with red.

Ten minutes passed by with his captains explaining their strategies for the upcoming battle before the cobalt hedgehog was satisfied. Just to make sure, Sonic surveilled his commanding officers one by one, going over their duties before nodding and waving the men off.

"Good." Sonic said without further ado. "Dismissed."

The soldiers quickly scurried away without a second glance, loudly shouted orders permeating the air as everyone rushed to prepare for the upcoming fight. Sonic looked at the map one last time before stepping out of the tent, a strange sense of calm falling over him as his nose picked up the overwhelming scent of steel and gunpowder. After years spent fighting, it was something he'd grown used to.

Doesn't mean it gets any easier. He thought sombrely, reminding himself what came after a fight of this scale. From the corner of his eyes, Sonic noticed a certain echidna and fox scurrying off, and was quick to follow them. Faster than a human can blink he was in front of the duo, hands on his hips.

"Where are you two going?"

Tails paused mid walk as he met the bright green eyes of his brother, his namesakes twitching restlessly behind him.

"I need to look at the Tornado one last time -I want to make sure it's ready." The fox responded hesitantly, offering his brother a small smile. Sonic faltered as he sensed the nervous undertone in his brother's words. Oh. "I don't want it malfunctioning on me during the battle." The boy continued, referring to the last time it had happened.

Sonic grimaced internally at the reminder, not wanting to show his displeasure to his sibling. It had been during a pivotal fight against Robotnick, which had contributed to his shame. Tails had flown overhead to provide aerial support, but one of the mounted guns had a jammed chamber and resulted in the Tornado's left wing exploding in flames.

Only his older brother's timely intervention had saved him, and with a child in tow, he was forced to retreat. The battle resumed a hour later, but it had been costly.

It was clear that the accident had scarred the kitsune. Not to mention, he was a child. A genius one, yes, but each time they went to battle it always left a bad taste in the Blue Blur's mouth. I really shouldn't be dragging them into this. He realizes tiredly, not for the first time, as he takes in the sight of the kit and the echidna standing side by side.

Sighing, Sonic bent down slightly to the fox's level and cupped his face carefully, cutting the boy's rambling off.

"Miles." He said softly, startled blue eyes locking with fierce green. "You can back out at any time. I mean it." The fox shivered, closing his eyes as if looking at his friend and brother was physically painful. "I won't blame you if you do it."

They could feel Knuckles' presence at their left, the biggest of the three mobians warning off any human that tried to look at them with dangerous hooded eyes. Even if he was half the size of a adult man, the echidna was strong enough to break their spine with ease, and they knew it. With such a guardian no men or woman tried to spy on the duo's conversation, leaving them well alone while the protective mobian stood guard over his friends.

The youngest of the trio sucked a deep breath before opening his eyes again, sapphire orbs sharp and aware. "No. We're brothers. I want to do this." He grabbed Sonic's wrists and held them a bit too tightly, as if to prove that he was there, he was real, and he was strong. The cobalt hedgehog smiled softly, eyes slightly glassy. "I go where you go. That's how it works. No war is going to stop that."

The young Commander couldn't help but let a small smile bloom at his declaration, his chest becoming tight with emotion. This was one of times he felt as if he wasn't worth such praise. And yet, here they were. They've done so much for me.

Sonic nodded softly, sensing that nothing would change the boy's mind. "Good." He stood up again, straightening his back as he turned to the silent echidna. "Knuckles, please stay with him."

"Always." His friend said with a solemn seriousness as he followed Tails towards the familiar purple plane. The duo turning around a corner of a tent and disappeared, lost among the crowd of personnel.

With his friends gone, he was left with nothing to do but wait. Sonic watched the soldiers run around, captains shouting out orders as their subordinates scrambled to prepare for the upcoming battle. The hustle and bustle was almost comforting in its familiarity, but this feeling quickly faded when he was reminded of why they were here.

They seem pretty busy... His eyes darkened somberly as he chewed on his lower lip, feeling dejectedly useless at the moment. Sonic had nothing to order them; each soldier knew exactly what to do, and was doing so faithfully. I can't just stand there and do nothing. There has to be something I can do to help.

Sonic sighed heavily as he headed into the bustling horde of personnel, grabbing the vest of a passing human. A captain judging from the decorated uniform, the man opened his mouth to question his interference only to go stiff when he noticed whom had accosted him. His expression hardened when the cobalt hedgehog asked him if he could do anything for help, understanding in his eyes. The human quickly fired off a small list of task for the hero to do, which Sonic scrambled to complete. It was grunt work, but at least it kept his mind off the upcoming battle.

It would be far from his first fight, and yet he couldn't help but feel as if something was looming over his head, heavy and dangerous, just begging for the smallest of breezes to sent it crashing down.

xxxxxxx

"Are you sure about this?" Rouge said gravely as she lifted her gaze from the stack of papers Shadow had dropped onto her desk when he'd stormed her office less than ten minutes ago. "You know this can be faked-"

"I checked. It's Robotnick's handwriting." The Ultimate Lifeform cut off, passing around the room. Any faster and wear would show on the carpet. "I know what he's like. He's not one to start on a project without finishing them."

"The prints look pretty complete." A irregular spread of papers were missing, but Rouged chalked it up to them having been damaged during the heist. "His hatred for the new Commander is legendary. If this new model can do what it says here, that blue hedgehog is going to be in mighty be trouble." She leaned back, suddenly thoughtful. "How much do you think G.U.N. would spend to get their hands this?"

Shadow barely restrained himself from letting out a long suffering sigh at her behavior. Despite her sense of righteousness, as bent as it was, Rouge was first and foremost a business woman. If there was the slightest chance she could make a profit, she would grab that chance and squeeze every ring out of it.

A knock on the door startled the two out of their conversation, just as the Ultimate Lifeform got ready to remind his informant of whom had brought the blueprints to her. Shadow glanced at the bat, who stood up and went to check on the door's hole to see who it was, her footsteps as silent as a feral cat despite her high heels.

The charcoal male watched her move with narrowed eyes, fingers twitching, ready to summon his signature attack at any sign of hostilities. While the apartment complex across her bar was heavily reinforced and guarded by her henchmen, the obsidian hedgehog wasn't one for fully trusting others.

To his mild relief things didn't go south. Apparently satisfied by what she saw, Rouge opened the door, revealing a purple chameleon standing on the other side. The mobian was familiar to Shadow as one of the many detective agencies the master thief gained control of over the years.

What had been its name again? Chaotix? He distinctively remembered hearing her complain about a over energetic bee on its team that drove her up the wall until she's threatened to crush it with a boot. A flash of wariness surged through him at the thought. The Ultimate Lifeform examined the amethyst reptile more closely, trying to figure out what quirk this mobian had.

He looked professional enough with his straight posture, neutral expression and the tablet he clutched against his chest, but Shadow wasn't one to judge solely on appearance. The way the mobian moved was of a trained warrior. Definitively someone Rouge would have in her payroll.

"Ah, Espio!" Rouge exclaimed with a purr as she opened the door wider. "Anything for me, darling?"

The reptile's gazed flickered between her and Shadow, taking in the appearance of the weapon of mass destruction in his boss' office with slightly wide eyes. He then coughed softly and turned fully towards the pale bat, ignoring the red streaked hedgehog completely.

"I've been keeping a eye on the Commander's actions, as per your request. He's made a move." The purple mobian stated softly, turning the tablet around to show to the jewel thief. "Take a look."

He activated the device, playing what appeared to be the recording of a newsfeed. Shadow peaked over Rouge's shoulder as the winged female leaned in, intense aquamarine gaze fixed on the small screen.

"-as things settled down at the capital, rumors have arrived that Commander Sonic has left his post to head back to the warfront in the Frontier Canyon. While no speaker for G.U.N. has confirmed it, sightings of the Blue Blur heading south have been numerous. If this was true, why would he need to leave his new post so soon? Is there a new danger the public has been left in the dark about? What if-"

Espio had the sense of mind to shut the device down at the point the newsfeed turned to pointless conspiracies for the sake of riddling the audience. As Rouge and Shadow exchanged glances, the purple chameleon pulled the tablet away before speaking:

"One of our contacts inside G.U.N. has confirmed that the Commander has left the base and is participating in a front line mission in the Canyon with Tails Prower and Knuckles the Echidna. It's our belief that it has something to do with the new ground model Robotnick has recently deployed."

"Thank you Espio."

The chameleon respectfully bowed before leaving without a sound. Rouge closed the door softly behind him before walking over her desk and dropping into the chair.

"That was informative." She sighed, her eyes darting to her wine cabinet, fingers itching for a glass to ease her nerves. "It doesn't add up, does it?" The jewel thief complained with a groan. "Why would he deploy that new foot model now, alone, and in the swamps of all places? And why is the blue boy heading off to fight them, when he had a entire army to do it for him?"

Shadow was puzzled by this too. Why would the blue hedgehog be so interested in this new development anyways? Why was he so eager to return to the fight? According to the merger information he was able to collect, the brat is known to be impulsive and borderline suicidal. Shadow could sense that with a glance -the memory of a young male staring up at him with defiant green eyes and a breath that smelled of alcohol as he told him off came to mind.

But was he that desperate to find something to do? Unlikely. He had plenty on his plate; it seemed as if every Zone wanted a piece of the mobian. And why would Ivo risk sending in the new models in a place he knows he can't assist them with the proper equipment to fight off the Blue Blur? Shadow's gaze fell down on the blueprints.

It clicked.

"He's not."

Rouge straightened up in her seat as the black hedgehog abruptly spoke, breaking the thick silence that had spread across the room..

"What?"

"He's not just sending the ground models." He marched up to her desk and grabbed the first page of the stack of documents, the dark outline of the mobian-shaped machine glinting under the light flirting through the windows. "They were bait, to spike the brat's interest. He's going to deploy this too."

Realizing what he was saying Rouge stood up and slammed her hands onto the desk with enough strength to send a glass of water crashing to the floor, staining the expensive carpet. Neither even glanced at the shattered glass.

"That little shit for brains." The jewel thief hissed, her voice filled with menace as she gathered up the documents in her hands. "If you're right-" Which both mobians knew he was, Shadow was rarely wrong. "-then this is a fucking trap. He's going to plunge us into a full on civil war if someone doesn't stop him."

xxxxxxx

It watched the man slowly suffocate in its grasp, red eyes taking in the purplish skin and the desperation in the snivelling creature's eyes as it faintly tried to reach for its communicator. It tilted its head to the side, debating on how to proceed.

Lifeform is attempting to obtain communication device. It processed using the data gathered from his sensors. If subject achieves its goal, target will be alerted. Mission will be compromised. Target must not know about the operation.

Solution: Eliminate lifeform.

Without further ceremony, it crushed the neck of the human, quickly ending its life with a broken spine.

Emotions were such flawed concepts, but in this case, it couldn't help but feel satisfaction. The machine coldly dropped the cooling corpse off the side of the tree, watching it splatter to the ground with a resounding crunch, hapless limbs twisted around its body like a stringless puppet. Had he been alive, he would have screamed from the pain of several broken bones. No amount of armor protected the creature from the unforgiving embrace of gravity.

Observation: Fleshbags are fragile. Pathetic.

It looked around, vermilion eyes turning gold as its sight altered itself. Details and colours faded away as the machine looked around as if it had entered a whole new world. Faint lights cluttered the darkened forest, vaguely humanoid as they huddled stealthily among the trees, unaware of their approaching fate, the natural Chaos in their bodies unknowingly spelling their doom.

Deep within its chest cavity where a heart would be if this creature was of flesh and bones, a purple stone pulsed within a nest of wires.

xxxxxxx

Shadow sped through the earthly landscape of the Acorns Kingdom, gritting his teeth as he forced more Chaos through his strained shoes. He mentally kicked himself in the head for not having visited the battle-torn Zone of the Canyon previously as it was now costing him precious minutes. If he had visited the location before, he would already be in the middle of the fight by now.

This had to be rectified in case a similar situation happened in the future. A lot could change in few minutes while in a battlefield. For all Shadow knew, his target could be already dead and Eggman declaring a full-on war upon the weakened Zones under G.U.N. jurisdiction on every media channel in the world.

He couldn't allow himself to fail.

(Why did he care so much about this anyways?)

He forced down the growl threatening to escape his lips. Shadow grudgingly knew the answer to this. The blue attention was different from anyone else he'd met; rare were the ones who caught his interest, even rarer were those who managed to surprise him. Sonic had not what he had expected from the successor of Abraham Tower -in fact, it was as if his very existence was a challenge for everything he'd learned about mortals' destructive natures.

Wether he liked it or not, Sonic faintly reminded him of his sister's own stubbornness. Maria had never known when to quit. Even as Shadow had threatened to kill him, the azure one had refused to back down, boldly defending both himself and the people he was bound to protect. Had Towers been in his shoes, the human would have found a way to compromise or throw someone in between Shadow and himself if things went south for the manr.

It had happened before, when he'd just escaped his icy prison after a malfunction in the cooling system of the cryogenic chamber. Back then he only existed for revenge, and his only wish was to defy the expectations set by humanity. G.U.N. wanted a obedient little weapon, who would complete any task set by them; what they got instead was the complete opposite.

During his first years of freedom, Shadow tried to kill anyone related to the ARK massacre, convinced it would be the only way he could redeem himself and avenge his fallen sister, took several killing sprees for him to cool down and realized what he had done...how many people died caught in the crossfire, just like Maria. It was then the veil of rage that had clouded his eyes had lifted, and he'd understood that if he wanted to keep his promise, he couldn't go about it that way.

Sonic however placed himself front and center, defiant despite his precarious position. His sheer determination to push change through despite opposition pleasantly surprised Shadow. Not even a week was over since their meeting and the cobalt hero had pushed through several new laws and accords that had tightened the alliances between G.U.N. and the Zones, increased transparency and stimulated the economy.

It had been interesting and troubling move for the Commander in the eye of a public that couldn't quite make up their mind about him. Too young to be in that position, some said, he had to be a puppet -yet at the same time his battle prowess and his achievements in the field had earned him a reputation few could ignore. After spending decades under Abraham Tower's rule, it was understandable that they would be unsure of this new leader.

As much as the countries had legal power over their territory, it was a unspoken truth that G.U.N. was the largest military power on Mobius, and thus truly ruled. Whoever sat in the position of Commander had a foot in nearly all of Mobius' governments. Their influence and reach was great, and with a army at their fingertips, it was hard to argue otherwise.

Given this, it was hard to acclimate to the idea of a Commander without a malicious agenda. Thus why Shadow was so skeptic of the blue hedgehog. There was no way someone could be that genuine and end up with one of the most powerful positions on the planet. The food chain didn't work that way; Shadow had long forsaken the illusion than anyone of G.U.N. or in any position of power could have a shred of decency, nevertheless the desire to better this world. They were sharks, all of then.

And yet for now, there was no evidence of otherwise when it came to Sonic.

Despite how sure he was of his conviction, he had nothing to bring up against the mortal, and thus the logical part of him understood that what he knew did not apply to the speedster. Not yet, at least. This infuriated Shadow. Made him want to rip his quills out in frustration at this blatant defiance. It went against everything the black hedgehog had learned since he'd escaped his containment on Prison Island. It should not happen.

He hated G.U.N. and anyone working for them, but he hated even more being wrong about something when his instincts roared that it couldn't be true.

Which is why Shadow wasn't going to let this enigma die such a careless death.

It simply wasn't about saving someone, or keeping the peace. He wouldn't allow Robotnick to steal his chance at being proven right.