A/N: If you dislike fan characters, you may want to hit the "Back" button, as one of the main characters (and two others) is a fan character. You may have guessed from the title that my character's name is Esplouge (pronounced similarly to 'espionage'). The other two characters (Arcane and Blaze) appear in later chapters.

Disclaimer: The only things I own are the plot and Esplouge. Blaze the hedgehog belongs to Dark Dragon Kyra, and Arcane the albatross belongs to TigerOfTheSpear. The rest belongs to Sonic Team.

--

After being unconscious, dead in that void of nothingness, he could feel consciousness begin to return to him. His fingers twitched, a familiar tingling sensation ran down his arms. A headache began to surface and he felt dried blood down his back. Brief flashes danced across his mind, too quickly for him to fully catch what they were. He remembered something, but he wasn't quite sure what it was, or if it was something real or fake. But it was a memory of some sort.

His eyes finally opened, empty voids of red. He sat up with some difficulty and rubbed the back of his throbbing head.

"I was wondering... how long it would take," he muttered to himself, looking up at the sky. It was early in the morning and a little foggy. "It's about time."

He stood up awkwardly, took the time to get his legs used to walking again. He looked around, wondering where he was. Eventually, he spied one of Eggman's bases far in the distance. Factory smoke poured out of a few tall shafts, a sure sign that the base was still in use. Perfect.

He smirked. "Well, it looks like it's time to pay the old doctor a visit."

--

"Finally, after months of modifications, Metal Sonic is fixed!" Eggman praised himself, as he always seemed to do. "It's about time you..."

Eggman was cut off when the alarms began to sound. He looked to the monitors, sure that the security cameras had caught whoever was stupid enough to break into his base. A few of the cameras were out, but other than that, nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Metal Sonic, scan the area for intruders," Eggman ordered angrily. It was early in the morning, he had been working on Metal Sonic for the past eighteen hours... He wasn't in the mood for this.

Metal Sonic's eyes began to glow a bright red as he used his scanners. "My scanners detect that the intruder is an artificial life form. It is currently heading for this room."

"An artificial life form? Do you mean Shadow?"

"Yes and no. The creature has DNA similar to that of project Shadow's, but this creature is a fox."

Eggman froze. There was only one being he knew of that matched that description. But it had died almost a year ago. How in the world could it possibly be back, most likely destroying everything in the base? It didn't make sense.

"Where is it now?" the scientist asked urgently. When the robot didn't respond, Eggman grew impatient. "Where is it?!"

The door flew open, causing nearby shelves to fall over and break, their contents spilling all over the place. Eggman froze when he saw the brown fox standing in the doorway. The fox smirked.

"E- Esplouge..." Eggman muttered.

"I've come back, Master Robotnik," the fox sneered, taking a step into the room. He moved with a sense of boldness, as though nothing could hurt him, and although he was smirking, his eyes held an obscene amount of contempt for the scientist standing in front of him.

Eggman himself was in shock. He hadn't been expecting to see Esplouge again, especially after the last 'incident'.

"E- Esplouge!" he greeted, his voice shaking in his pathetic attempt at sounding happily surprised. "H- how good to see you again! So, how has it been these...?"

Esplouge's cold, red eyes narrowed angrily. "Shut the hell up before I rip out your vocal chords." He picked up a broken piece of one of the shelves and threw it past Eggman's face, close enough for it to cut the side of Eggman's face. The broken piece of wood hit the wall and fell at Metal Sonic's feet.

"You know how much I'd like that," Esplouge continued, smiling indifferently.

"No one threatens Doctor Eggman," Metal Sonic growled. "You must be terminated."

Esplouge laughed. "Aww... Don't remember me, do you?" He looked to Eggman, somewhat confused. "How'd your fancy robot get amnesia? Are you seriously thatincompetent, Eggman?"

Eggman honestly was not sure how to answer the question.

"... Why are you here?" Eggman asked. "What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Esplouge seemed surprised that Eggman would ask such a question. "Isn't it obvious?" His expression darkened, his voice lowered. "I want you dead."

Metal Sonic stepped toward Esplouge threateningly. "Don't you darethreaten Doctor Eggman!"

Esplouge's glare shifted to Metal Sonic. He raced over to the robot, pinning Metal Sonic to the ground. "Shut up!"

"Esplouge, stop this!" Eggman ordered, receiving a death glare from the fox. "You're acting insane! Calm down!"

Esplouge stood up without a word, even going so far as to offer a hand to help Metal Sonic back up. Metal Sonic accepted and immediately regretted doing so. Esplouge grabbed Metal Sonic by the arm and ran toward Eggman. Esplouge forced the robot's razor- sharp claws into Eggman's chest and throat, twisting the robot's arms slightly to increase the pain. Eggman fell down, dead, while Esplouge merely smiled.

"No. That's insane."

Metal Sonic backed away from his dead master, blood dripping off of his claws.

His blood...

He couldn't believe what just happened. His master couldn't be dead. He just couldn't. "M- Master...? Master, wake up! Please wake up! Master!"

Esplouge placed a hand on the robot's shoulder. "Master is dead now," he explained, his voice showing absolutely no signs of regret. "You're just going to have to get used to it. It won't take too long."

"D- dead?" Metal Sonic asked, falling to his knees. "N- no. No. No, why would... ? Why would you... ? Why?"

"... That is no concern of yours, robot. What's done is done. Your master is gone and you'll just have to accept it."

Esplouge turned to leave, feeling Metal Sonic weakly punch his back. He back-slapped Metal Sonic angrily, forcing the robot down to its knees.

"Goodbye, robot."

And with that, Esplouge was off.

-

Tails' eyes shot open suddenly. His entire body shook uncontrollably as he began to remember bits and pieces of his dream.

(It was raining heavily, and there was Esplouge in the distance, staring at him. They were alone, and Tails began to notice a familiar red liquid covering Esplouge's hands, and...)

Esplouge couldn't be back. There was no way. Esplouge was dead, they all had seen it. It was just a dream, but it still gave him a bad feeling.

He got out of bed and walked over to his chaos emerald. It rested in its spot on his table, just as it had for the past couple of weeks. It was light blue, like his eyes. He remembered that whenever Esplouge was near a chaos emerald, the jewel would shine red instead of its natural color. The emeralds had stopped doing that after he died, of course.

However, a faint red light filled the room, its sourse the chaos emerald. Tails backed away from the jewel, frightened.

"S- Sonic... Sonic!"

The young fox ran through the house, screaming for his blue hero over and over. He ran downstairs to find Sonic sitting on the couch, annoyed with being woken up so early.

"Tails, what is it?" he asked, still half-asleep. "What in the world is so important you just had to wake me up at five in the morning?"

"E- Esplouge... Esplouge's back!" Tails explained, trying to stop himself from shaking.

Sonic gave Tails a surprised look. Esplouge couldn't be back. He had died almost a year ago. "What makes you think he's back? He died, we all saw his corpse, remember?"

"I... We were wrong. He's not dead."

"How do you know you're not wrong now? We all saw his body. You checked for his pulse yourself."

"Look, I don't want to argue with you, Sonic. I just want to know where I can find Shadow."

Sonic was confused. "Why do you want to find Shadow?"

"Don't you remember the last time Esplouge was here? He told me he only kidnapped me to lure you and Shadow there. He didn't seem to care much about killing you, but Shadow... Esplouge is obsessed with killing Shadow. He ranted to me about it all the time."

"Okay then. Shadow's usually around the outskirts of the city. You know, in the forest," Sonic explained. "Go there if you want, just don't act like a spaz, okay?"

Tails bolted out the door. Sonic laid back down on the couch, drifting slowly back to sleep. Or so he thought.

-

Tails was running as quickly as he could, trying to find Shadow before Esplouge could. It had begun to rain not long ago, and the rainfall just got heavier and heavier.

(It was raining heavily, and there was Esplouge in the distance, staring at him.)

He could barely see three feet in front of his face. When he finally reached the forest, he found Shadow resting on a low tree branch.

"Shadow!" Tails called, feeling guilty about bothering the hedgehog so early in the morning. But he knew this was more important. "Shadow, I have something important to tell you! Wake up!"

One of Shadow's eyes twitched open. He looked to the fox sleepily, yawning. "What is it?"

"Esplouge... Esplouge isn't dead," Tails explained, trying to catch his breath. The cold air wasn't helping in the least.

Shadow, who had appeared to be tired and unwilling to wake up just a moment ago, was now sitting up, looking more alert.

"I... I know you probably think I'm just being paranoid..." Tails gasped, still tired from his run. "But I'm sure of it. You believe me, don't you?"

Shadow let himself drop from the tree, landing somewhat awkwardly on tired feet. "Yes, I believe you. You would never lie about something so serious. But how can he still be alive?"

"I don't know," Tails admitted. "But... But he's... I'm scared. He's... He's going to try to kill you again. He's had eleven months to think of new plans. What if he succeeds this time? I don't want you to die, Shadow!"

"Calm down. Esplouge isn't that strong, I can take whatever he throws at me. You, however, should get back to Sonic as fast as you can. We don't want Esplouge kidnapping you again."

Tails nodded and was off again. When he got about halfway to his house, he heard a hollow laugh drown out the sound of the falling rain. He paused, not sure where the familiar laugh had come from.

(It was raining heavily, and there was Esplouge in the distance, staring at him.)

"E- Esplouge?" Tails asked timidly.

Please just let this be my imagination playing tricks on me, please don't let him be here, please...

(They were alone, and Tails began to notice a familiar red liquid covering Esplouge's hands, and...)

Esplouge walked up to Tails, almost seeming to appear from out of nowhere. His fur was soaked from the rain. Blood dripped from his gloves. A large smear of blood was around his mouth. Tails flinched at the sight. Esplouge simply smirked.

"Hello, Tails." His voice was cold and filled with hate.

It hadn't changed a bit.

"I was wondering when I'd see your face again." He brushed the bangs out of Tails' eyes and looked into them fiercly.

"Your scared, timid little face..." He laughed. "So, how's it been these past few months? Have you been thinking about me?"

He licked his blood-covered lips hungrily. Happily. Something Tails had gotten used to seeing eleven months ago when he was a hostage.

"I've been thinking about you, Tails," Esplouge continued, squeezing Tails' shoulder slightly, causing the smaller fox to flinch. "A lot. More than I've thought about Shadow and Sonic and everyone else combined."

Tails was horrified. How could anyone speak so calmly with blood smeared across their face? Esplouge's hand moved to Tails' cheek, the tips of his fingers on Tails' neck. Tails shivered and backed away.

"N- no... No, go away!" Tails pleaded. "I... I don't want to be a part of your plans!"

Esplouge's bloody hand reached out and seized Tails by the arm.

"Well that's too bad. Because you're coming with me, like it or not."

He pulled Tails closer to him, looking almost lecherously into Tails' wide, frightened eyes.

"I'm not going to repeat past mistakes."

He stroked Tails' chin with false affection, feeling Tails quiver at his touch. Just like old times.

"This time..." He licked his lips again and snickered. "This time, I'm going to kill Shadow."

(And he just knewEsplouge was going to kill him...)