W00t! YEAH! I've been trying all day to put this up, darn it! I wanted to to get it up on Sonic's 15th anniversary... there's no better time than today! But I kept getting error messages... but now it worked! YES!

Okay, ignore that

Man, last chapter already? …sniff I'm gonna miss typing this story! Oh well, I'm making a sequel, so who cares?

Anyway, this chapter includes a conversation about the Super Emeralds just to let you know ahead of time. I'm telling you this now so that when you read it, you don't think "What? But that doesn't make sense!" Because it does make sense, because like I said at the beginning of the first chapter, this story takes place before Sonic Adventure, which should also tell you that I made it so this story takes place in the game storyline. And the Super Emeralds are in the game storyline. If you know the storyline of Sonic 3 & Knuckles well enough, this will make perfect sense. If not, well, it doesn't really matter… it's not too hard to understand once you read what I typed.

Also, don't forget the prologue for the sequel is now UP! I won't start the actual chapters for 2 or 3 weeks; I want to get some chunks of it written first and get it off to a good start. The story will be titled, "A New Hero Rises", if anyone cares.

Okay, enough talking! Oh wait, one last thing… a big thank you to all of my reviewers: Maverick87, Shelfkid91, Magnatron, sassy, Skydust, CrystalRose727, Cap'n Cryssalid, Gemeni9000, Tucker's Mayflower, Kelessic, captain deoxys, Volt the Hedgehog, Taryn Wander'r, Professor Ken, and tailslover666! Thankies for reviewing! Tell me if I spelled someone's name wrong.

And most of you have probably noticed this: if you've reviewed my story, I have most likely reviewed yours (if it's a Sonic fic), and I will continue to do so throughout the sequel. So if you review, you'll most likely get a review in return! I have a lot of free time on my hands, so what better way to find good Sonic stories?

OKAY… Now for the final chapter of Capture the Fox!

CHAPTER 20: Last Chance; Final Choice

"Still think you're going to stop me?" Tails asked.

"Tails. I don't know what's going through that messed up mind of yours right now… what's causing you to feel this way towards me and Sonic all the sudden. But I can't let you get away with this!" Knuckles said weakly.

Tails just laughed quietly. "Get out of my ship."

"Why don't you make me?"

"You are being stupid, Knuckles, but then again… who would be surprised?" Tails walked toward him slowly, threateningly.

"What… What are you doing? Keep away from me!"

Ignoring Knuckles' words, Tails brought a hand up in the air. "I'll be back to deal with you after Sonic is dead… but for now…" Tails stopped and slammed his hand down on Knuckles' head.

From outside of the ship, as he returned, Sonic heard him scream. "Knuckles!" he yelled. "So, he is in that ship! And Tails must be, to! And I already know the Master Emerald's in there somewhere."

"You are correct Sonic." Eggman said. I assume they are fighting for it right now. But unfortunately, Tails will win, if he hasn't already."

"Yeah? How would you know?"

"I was the one who taught him what he needed to know to defeat you guys. Obviously, I'm against him now, but he still knows what he knows."

"As strong as he is, I highly doubt he could beat Knuckles in a hand-to-hand combat." Sonic admitted. He very well knew Knuckles' strength by now.

"Maybe not alone… but with a little help he sure could!" Eggman regretted his words as he saw the infuriated look on Sonic's face. "No, not like that!"

"You tricked me! You're still helping him, aren't you? You two had this whole scam set up—"

"Sonic, whether I would set you up like this doesn't matter… I would never let that freak fly my ship! That's proof enough right there! And do you really think I would let him treat me the way he did?"

"As far as I can tell, yeah, since you've let him get away with it so far. I'd would'a thought a genius like you should have known how to stop Tails." Sonic paused and let Eggman think about this for a minute before saying, "So, what is this so called 'help' Tails is getting?"

"That would be the Master Emerald." Eggman replied.

Shock, fear, and understanding hit Sonic all at the same time. "What?"

"You heard me right, hedgehog!" Eggman snapped. "Why do you think I wanted to get the Master Emerald so badly before? I knew the Chaos Emeralds wouldn't have been enough to provide Tails with the proper power to transform into his super form. I was trying to get the Chaos Emeralds to help power my ship. Only the Super Emeralds and the Master Emerald are strong enough to give Tails the power he needs to transform. And the Super Emeralds have not been seen since you, Tails, and Knuckles last used them to stop me two years ago. Therefore, my only other option was the Master Emerald."

"How come the Chaos Emeralds don't do the job, anyway?"

"As far as I can tell, Tails can't utilize enough power from them as he is not as experienced with them as he was with the Super Emeralds."

"So… that means Tails has some sort of connection with the Super Emeralds that we don't know about!" Sonic said.

"That is quite possible. After all, from what I can recall, you and Knuckles had a much harder time getting a grip on the powers of the Super Emeralds than Tails did. You two seem more adept at using the Chaos Emeralds. This is most likely because you have been using them to aid you ever since you first met me, and Knuckles… well, he guards the Master Emerald. I should think he knows much about the Chaos Emeralds. But Tails… I don't know where he got his experience with the Super Emeralds from."

"Argh… why am I even asking? I can figure that out later. I've got to go see what Knuckles and Tails are up to in there!" Sonic ran off toward the Black Hawk without another word. He jumped in the air and charged toward the exterior, literally breaking an entrance. "Hey! Knuckles!" He called. "Where are you?" Knuckles didn't answer. "That can't be good!" Sonic increased speed and turned a corner, only to see that where there had once been a wall, there was a large hole. He continued through it. He slowed down and eventually stopped and stared at what was in front of him.

A long hallway.

At the end of it were two glowing figures. "One of 'em's got to be the Master Emerald!" Sonic thought aloud to himself. Suspicion and curiosity moved Sonic forward. He dashed forward and arrived at the two glowing figures in question some ten seconds later. "Tails!" Sonic said, wide-eyed. Eggman had been right. Tails turned in his direction.

"Sonic."

"Tails, I've had enough! Who do you think you are?" Sonic demanded. "Because I'd really like to know why you're acting this way!" Sonic knew the situation was most likely beyond Tails' control. But still, he couldn't help but feel angry. Almost like his best friend had betrayed him.

Sonic didn't wait for an answer. He dropped one shoulder and leaned to his left. As he expected, Tails leaned to his own right as if to try and block Sonic. Perfect! Before Tails could blink, Sonic ran slightly to the right to avoid Tails, jumped, and dove for the Master Emerald. He was a mere six inches away from touching it when something suddenly smacked him hard across the face.

One of Tails' tails.

Sonic was slammed backwards against the wall, stunned and in pain. He slowly put a hand to his face where Tails' right namesake had made contact and let it drop helplessly on to his lap again. He looked at it. It was covered in blood.

But while he was physically injured and too dazed to move at the moment, his mind was working frantically. Darn… he's in super form! I should've known that would hurt a lot… man, how can I stop him now? He's like, 'Dark Tails'… I have to think up something… C'mon Sonic, you've known Tails long enough, what're his weaknesses?

Then he noticed something laying limply behind the Master Emerald. "Knuckles," he said quietly. He suddenly felt sick as he realized that Tails must've used the power of the Master Emerald against Knuckles. "Tails…"

"That's right. He's dead. Do you want the same thing to happen to you, Sonic?" Tails paused for a moment, but not long enough to let Sonic answer. "If not, then don't EVER try and stop me again! You either give up being the hero, or you give up your life!"

Sonic looked more closely at Knuckles. Was Tails really telling the truth? "Yeah, right. His chest is moving, genius! Knuckles isn't quite that weak. Even I know that."

"I can fix that if you wish." Tails warned.

"But I thought… wasn't it me you wanted to kill?" Sonic questioned, smirking a little. If this was the only way to keep Knuckles from dying then so be it. "C'mon, pal, bring it on!"

"You're making a mistake, Sonic!" Tails drifted forward slightly, then made an unexpected dive for Sonic.

"I think that's my cue to run!" Sonic turned tail and headed back in the direction he had come from. Tails chased after him.

The dark fox darted upwards so that he was nearly touching the ceiling. He spun his namesakes like blades, whipping the ceiling above him, causing chunks of it to rain on Sonic. "Ha! Take this!"

Sonic only ran faster. After all, Tails couldn't attack him if he couldn't keep up with him! "Ha, it takes a lot more than that to bring me down, buddy! I thought you knew that by now!" Sonic curled up and rolled smoothly and swiftly on the ground at such high speeds, sparks emitted from it. He blasted through the front of the Black Hawk to the outside, creating a hole that Tails only made bigger by following him through it. Sonic looped around and headed straight for the fox, still spin dashing. At the same time, Tails charged toward him with his tails turned, and spinning fast.

Both of them were thrown backwards as attack met attack. Tails was slammed back into the side of the Black Hawk, while Sonic hit the damp sand near the lake water and slid a full twenty feet, burying himself even deeper in the sand in the process before coming to a stop. "Urgh…" Sonic sat up and wiped the sand off of himself before pushing himself up.

Tails was already recovered, and was aiming a kick in Sonic's direction. Sonic simply sidestepped to avoid it. He jumped in the air as Tails turned around. "Is this what you meant to do?" He attempted to whip his foot across Tails' face, but with Tails' powers and reflexes enhanced as they were, he knew he would be able to avoid the attack. Tails grabbed Sonic's attacking leg in midair and slammed it on the ground, naturally slamming Sonic down in the process. Tails dropped one of his own knees to the ground in a half-kneeling position and used one hand to hold Sonic's leg in place, the other hand to put pressure on Sonic's knee.

Sonic groaned and fought to escape, but had no success. He struggled to reach Tails' hand without increasing the feeling of pressure on his leg. With difficulty, he managed to get a firm grip on it. He began prying at his fingers roughly. Still with no success, Sonic settled for a hard punch across the jaw. Tails was caught off guard, and his grip on Sonic's leg was loosened. Feeling that this was the best time, Sonic yanked his leg out of Tails' grasp, clumsily stood up, and ran.

"Huh?" Sonic said as something caught his eye. He smiled upon looking directly at it. "I knew he would survive!" On top of the Black Hawk, standing with all seven Chaos Emeralds in his hands, was Knuckles. He was leaning on the Master Emerald, smiling, and looking completely unharmed. To Sonic, he looked like he was in better condition than he'd been since he left Angel Island.

"Thought it was over for me, eh?" Knuckles said softly.

"No! I would've gotten you out, but…" Sonic paused, trying to think up a good way to explain the fact that Tails had practically beaten and forced Sonic out of the ship before he could get to Knuckles—without ruining his reputation in Knuckles' eyes (which was probably bad enough already most of the time, Sonic thought).

"Hey, no hard feelings!" Knuckles said. Sonic opened his mouth as if to ask something. Seeing the question coming, Knuckles put a hand up. "I came to, used what was left of the Master Emerald's power to heal myself, climbed up here, got in the Tornado, and dug out the seven Chaos Emeralds. Answer your question?"

Sonic nodded. "Hey, uh, you think you could bring those here?" Sonic asked, pointing to the Chaos Emeralds safely secured in Knuckles' arms.

Nodding, Knuckles jumped off the ship and let his dreadlocks slow his fall. He landed smoothly on the ground.

"You're not getting near those, Sonic!"

Sonic turned just in time to see Tails lunge at him forcefully. He again took Sonic to the ground, pinning his knees with his own, and pinning his hands with his own. He moved his face so close to Sonic's that there noses were nearly touching. "This is the end for you, Sonic!"

"You think so, don't you?" Sonic said, grinning. "C'mon pal, I've gotten out of tighter jams!"

"Your arms and legs are pinned. Just how do you think you're going to escape me when I'm so much more powerful than you?" Tails said, his lips twisting into a sick smile.

"Like THIS!" At the same time he spoke the words, Sonic slammed his head into Tails'. The fox instinctively brought his hands to his now bleeding nose, and Sonic took the opportunity to use his arms and push Tails off of him. Sonic backed away, did a backwards somersault, stood up as his feet made contact with the ground. "Pretty impressive, huh?"

"Son-ic!" Knuckles yelled impatiently. "Stop fooling around. You're not going to be able to stop him without these Chaos Emeralds, you know that!"

"Yeah, guess you're right," Sonic said. But he knew he needed to put Tails out of commission for a few seconds first, that way he wouldn't get in the way while he was transforming to his super form. "I need you to stall off Tails while I transform, got it?"

"No problem."

"Great! Let's do it." Sonic dashed over to Knuckles and quickly snatched the seven Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles ran in Tails' direction.

"You're through!"

"Bring it on, Knucklehead!"

Tails hurled himself at Knuckles. "Oh yeah?" Knuckles whispered. "Take this!" He caught hold of one of Tails' namesakes and used his momentum to spin him around wildly twice before releasing him towards the water. Tails landed with a painful splash.

Behind him, Sonic was beginning to hover off the ground. His eyes were closed. His elbows were slightly bent, and his hands were splayed at his sides, palms pointing up at the sky. His quills rose on end. A golden aura surrounded him. He could feel the warm power of the seven Chaos Emeralds filling him up; could feel their energy rushing throughout his body. He smiled. It was a wonderful feeling; a great experience to feel the pleasure of the Chaos energy as it overflowed his system. Any pain he may have been in before from Tails' attacks was now gone, any fatigue that he had felt was now deceased. The power of the Chaos Emeralds left no room for weakness in his system. Sonic felt empowered.

From where they were, Tails and Knuckles paused to watch Sonic. By now, Amy and Cream had returned, and Vector and Espio were conscious.

Sonic crossed his arms in front of his chest as if to gather more power from the Chaos Emeralds. He opened his eyes and blasted up into the air, raising his arms up at the same time. A blast of golden flames engulfed the area around him, and his now golden fur shined bright. "I'm ready now."

Tails continued staring at him.

"Tails, it's your choice. Either come to your senses or I'll have to put a stop to all this myself. I suggest you choose the first option."

"I'd like to see you try and stop me!" Tails challenged.

"Tails, I'm warning you now, you'll be sorry!" Sonic said. "I'm giving you one last chance, Tails."

"Sonic, Tails, please!" A shaking voice interrupted. Sonic and Tails looked back at the street to see whom the voice in question belonged to.

It was Amy. She had tears in her eyes. "I never thought it would come to this! I don't want to see either of you get hurt! Tails, please… I know you probably can't help what you're doing because I know you would never purposefully do something like this… but please just try and remember!"

"Don't bother with that!" Tails snapped. "I've made my decision! Sonic's coming to an end!"

Knuckles ran closer to the two of them. "But Tails, Sonic will defeat you if you don't stop. Don't you know? When it comes to Chaos Energy, the power of caring and good purpose always overcomes the power of hate and anger! Sonic's attacks can destroy yours!"

"Hmph! I don't believe you!"

"Tails, you're making a big mistake!" Knuckles protested.

Tails only ignored him.

"You sure are stubborn, aren't you?" Sonic asked rhetorically.

"…I've had enough of this!" Tails lunged for Sonic again, but Sonic easily shoved Tails back.

"My turn!" Sonic said. He darted forward towards Tails, slicing through the air. He aimed both hands in Tails' direction, and at the last split second, broke into a hard spin dash. He made contact with Tails, grinding up against his center relentlessly. After a mere ten seconds of this, Tails was screaming.

Sonic backed off. "Had enough yet?"

"Hmph! You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Tails charged. Sonic charged. But before the hedgehog had a chance to attack, Tails had already decided his move. He turned his backside towards Sonic and attempted to slice through him with his spinning tails. Sonic had no time to react or turn around, not at his current velocity. He met the attack painfully, getting caught in Tails' namesakes. They twirled him around and threw him backwards into a nearby building. It cracked as he slammed into it. But Sonic, having the power he did right now, remained unharmed for the most part. He gently pushed himself off of the building, and moved slowly towards Tails, a smile on his face that said he wasn't going to go down easily. "Well Tails, I'll admit you're pretty strong… but not strong enough. Unless you want to change your mind right now, it's over."

"I'll never give up!" Tails replied fiercely.

Sonic had hoped Tails would come to his senses, but there was no such luck. It looked like this would have to end the bad way. "I'm sorry Tails. I don't want to do this, but you've left me with no other choice. Up until now I've gone easy on you; I've been patient. But I can't let you destroy the world, conquer it, or whatever you have planned in that messed up mind of yours." Sonic said calmly. He didn't sound quite devastated, but his voice had a hint of a sad undertone in it, something that rarely came from Sonic. "We used to be friends. I guess you don't remember that, or don't care. But I can't take this any longer. I can't watch you become more and more evil. It just doesn't seem like you, Tails. And I'm not going to stand by and let you do whatever you want with the world either. You had your chance, but I guess you're just too stubborn to give up."

Tails was silent. He appeared to be thinking it over. "Lies… I am not your friend, nor was I ever!" Tails replied. He knew this wasn't true... deep inside, he knew. But only vaguely. "I'll never give up on my goal! I'll defeat you once and for all… that way there will be no one in my way on my quest for power!"

"Really? And why is it that you want power?"

"I can defeat anyone in my way… I can do whatever I want in the world! I could destroy it!" Tails replied.

"Sorry, but I don't think so!" Sonic corrected him. "Up till now I've waited, Tails. But you've gone to far!" Sonic's aura grew brighter as he clenched his fists, gathering power for his final attack. He rose higher into the air. Within seconds, his golden color was so bright that everyone nearby had to either close their eyes or shield them. His whole body seemed to vibrating. He was more powerful than ever before.

Down below, Knuckles watched in awe. "How's he getting that much power… I've never seen anything like this!" Knuckles stared at Sonic, then looked back on top of the ship, where the Master Emerald was. It was shining bright, so bright that it almost looked white. Even from where he was, Knuckles could see it beginning to crack. "No way! He's drawing on the powers of the Master Emerald! And he's already got the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds… I hope that's not too much power for him to control!"

Sonic squeezed his eyes shut. The energy of the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds combined was almost too much. It reminded him of the day he transformed into his hyper form—the Master Emerald, like the Super Emeralds, contained a lot of power. He was going through the same sensation he had when he used the Super Emeralds to help him stop Dr. Eggman and the Death Egg. Sonic continued gathering energy. In his Super form, dark incarnation or otherwise, Tails was strong. He knew it would take a lot of energy to stop him. I only wish I didn't have to do this to him, though. Sonic remembered way back four years ago, when he'd first met the young fox on Westside Island. It was a good memory, but now all the good times he'd had with his best friend were going to go out the window.

Sonic opened his eyes. This was it. "The time has come, Tails." He paused as if to give Tails one last chance.

Tails said nothing.

"I'll miss you as a friend, but not as the person you are now." Sonic paused. "That's all I've got to say. I'm sorry it came down to this. I know whatever's going through your head right now probably isn't your fault. But it doesn't change the fact that I've got to put a stop to this. Knuckles, Amy, Cream, all you guys… get out of here. I don't want you to get hurt. Actually, Knuckles, take the Tornado back to Tails' workshop."

All of them obeyed immediately. Knuckles glided to a safe distance, Vector and Espio sadly headed back to their headquarters, and Amy and Cream ran off crying.

Sonic turned his attention back at Tails, and focused all his energy, closing his eyes again. "Get ready for a real Sonic Boom!" Sonic dashed forward, closing off some of the distance between him and Tails. Fists still clenched, he spun around quickly, opened his eyes, and opened his hands, throwing them forward in Tails' direction, releasing all his energy.

Throughout Station Square, the explosion was heard.

Tails was thrown back and the dark red aura surrounding him vanished, causing him to immediately return to his normal form. He hit the ground with devastating impact. The flames of the explosion scorched his skin. "Ahhh! No!" He bellowed in miserable defeat.

Sonic watched as the explosion shook the city and destroyed buildings. He could not see what was happening to Tails through the whiteness, for he to was caught in the explosion. He had gathered extra power from the Master Emerald for a reason though, and that was to maintain his super form so that he wouldn't get injured during the explosion.

"Tails—…"

Sonic waited until the explosion cleared some five minutes later. Buildings lay in piles of ashes on the ground. The Black Hawk was torn apart. The Master Emerald was shattered, and the Chaos Emeralds were just barely glowing. Sonic let himself fall slowly to the ground, but he remained in his super form. He looked around him for any sign of Tails, hoping that maybe, just maybe, he had survived to explosion. He saw nothing but the scorched area. He looked up at the sky. Maybe Tails had flown away to avoid the explosion? No. All Sonic saw were the pink and purple clouds and the orange sky as the sun set.

Knuckles, Amy, and the others came running back to the scene from behind Sonic. Knuckles and the Chaotix Detective Agency remained silent. Cream fell to her knees crying. Amy raced over and hugged Sonic, crying as well. "I'm so glad you're okay… but Tails…. Sonic, we'll never see him again!"

Sonic returned Amy's hug. "I know." He said quietly. "But we had no choice."

Amy backed off. Sonic turned away from the others, facing the area where he had caused the explosion. The street in that area was nothing more than a big black mark. Sonic hung his head.

"Hey, Sonic, what's that?" Knuckles asked, pointing over to the edge of the sand.

"Huh? What's what?"

"It looks like there's something buried there."

Sonic looked closer. His stomach jolted. "It's Tails. He's still in one piece."

"Is he… alive?" Amy asked, her voice shaking.

"I'm…. not sure…" Sonic walked slowly over to the area. He wasn't so sure he wanted to know the answer to Amy's question. As he approached the area, he saw that the fox's eyes were closed. That was all he could see though; the rest of the young kit was covered in sand. He gently wiped it away until all of it was gone, taking his time. After about five minutes, he could see Tails clearly. He put a hand on his chest. And waited. He's dead, a voice said to him in his head. "No, he's not," Sonic spoke aloud. "You guys!" He turned to face his friends. They all perked up immediately, seeing Sonic smile. "I feel a heartbeat. He is alive."

Sonic looked back down at Tails. Placing both hands on him, Sonic closed his eyes in concentration. A few seconds later, a green glow surrounded them momentarily, healing Tails enough for him to come conscious. This taking all of the Chaos energy Sonic had left, he returned to his normal, dark blue form. "He's going to be okay as far as physical conditions go," he called back Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and the Chaotix Detective Agency. "…Only, I don't know if he'll ever be his true self again. We'll have to wait and see. If not, we'll be able to manage that for now… he may be partially healed, but he's still weak right now. He won't be fighting for a while."

Sonic looked back down at Tails. He removed his hands from Tails' center, and the green glow disappeared. "Tails? Can you hear me?"

"S—Sonic?"

"Are you okay?"

Tails opened his eyes. "Get off 'a me!" He snapped. Sonic jumped, taken aback by this response. Everyone's heart sank. Tails was still bent on killing Sonic. "This isn't over, you know!"

"Tails, listen to me." Sonic said, grinning. "Just listen to me, and if you don't have anything good to say about what I'm going to say, then I'll stop bugging you. You can be whoever you want to be, but hear me out first."

"Make it snappy!"

"All I want to say is that we used to be best friends, and whether you remember it or not doesn't matter right now; facts are facts. You always used to help me stop Eggman, not turn against me. Please, just do this for me: Just try and remember. Have you forgotten what it was like when we first met? You said everyone picked on you. And that day you started following me through the forest because you admired my speed. Remember? And after that we became best friends. Since then we've always been friends, and I don't want that to end now. I was your first real friend, and you've always been a good friend to me, too. Things can go back to normal if you only trust me, Tails."

Tails thought. He closed his eyes. He tried to remember, tried to recall the things that Sonic had told him actually happening. I am Sonic's friend… aren't I… He thought quietly to himself. As Sonic told him this, he remembered one thing: That he never should have turned against him at all. That he really was the hedgehog's best friend. And it was this special memory that seemed to trigger all his other memories as the real Tails broke through and overcame the power of the robot memory chip and Chaos Emerald shard. All at once, his memories of his friendship with Sonic flooded his mind. Sonic smiled as he saw the tears run down the fox's face. It was at that exact moment that he knew Tails had remembered. "Oh, Sonic!" He shouted. "How could I? I can't believe what I did… I'm sorry! Don't be angry at me, please! …Er…no… Sonic, I don't even deserve your friendship anymore!"

"It's all right, Tails," Sonic said, winking.

Suddenly remembering something else, Tails gasped. "The chip! Sonic, it's been controlling my mind! You've got to get it out! In my arm… you have to get it out of me before I go back to… the way I was before!"

Upon looking at the gash on Tails' arm, Sonic understood. "I knew it wasn't your fault, Tails!" He said happily.

"Sonic… please, take it out for me!"

"Oh." Sonic said as he realized what Tails wanted him to do. Feeling somewhat awkward, Sonic ran a finger over the almost-healed cut. That was when he noticed the end of the Chaos Emerald shard and about half of the memory chip sticking out of it. They sure were small, he thought. They were hard to notice at first glance.

Sonic gently tightened his fingers around the Emerald shard first, and gave it a small tug. He looked back at Tails. He didn't wince, didn't groan. He seemed determined to get the shard and the chip out of his system, forever.

Sonic looked back at the wound and gently slid the shard out of Tails' arm. He could see the scab that had grown around it splitting as he did so. The cut began bleeding again, but Tails acted as if he didn't notice. "I'm fine," he said. "It's just a cut."

"Yeah, a deep one at that!" Sonic replied. "Okay, now for that chip…" Sonic grabbed as much of the memory chip as he could. It was much smaller than the Chaos Emerald shard. He tugged gently. Just that caused Tails' arm to bleed more. A small puddle was forming on the cement below Tails' arm. "You okay?"

Tails nodded. "Fine."

As he had done with the Emerald shard, Sonic slowly and gently pulled the chip out of Tails' wound. "We're done."

"I'm going to be normal again, Sonic," Tails said, smiling. "Thanks for saving me."

"Any time, Tails, any time!" Sonic stood up and helped Tails to his feet. They faced Amy, Knuckles, Cream, and the Chaotix.

"And thanks to you guys, too. I have an odd feeling you probably helped Sonic out."

"Ah, we're just glad you're okay!" Knuckles replied.

"Yeah, thank goodness!" Amy said. "We didn't think you would make it!"

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

"C'mon, Tails." Sonic said, turning in the other direction. "Let's head back to the workshop. You need a good night's sleep. We'll worry about fixing you up in the morning, because you're still pretty beat up. But for now, we'll take a well-deserved rest. Sound good?"

Realizing how tired he really was for the first time (Tail hadn't gotten much sleep since the day he was captured), Tails nodded. "Sounds really good!"

"All right, let's go. I'll keep an eye on you through the night to make sure you're okay. See you guys later!" He waved to the others and started jogging back towards the Mystic Ruins.

"Sonic, wait up!" Tails called. He padded after his hero happily. It felt good to be himself again. And it felt even better to be Sonic the Hedgehog's friend again. Speeding up a little, he nearly caught up to Sonic and smiled at him. Seeing Tails out of the corner of his eye, Sonic turned his head slightly in his direction and returned the smile with a broad grin and a wink. Then they both faced forward again and stared at the beautiful sunset as they made their way back to the workshop, Tails following Sonic in his wake.

Wow. Just, wow. Capture the Fox is done! Sequel time! Well, pretty soon anyway. Just on an odd note here, this chapter holds the record for the longest chapter so far, in this story or any other one I'm typing.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this story! Thank you for reviewing, those of you that did!