HELLBOUND {Sequel}

Twenty-seven

__Tails felt someone shaking his shoulder and woke up. Scourge was shaking the fox while Fiona was helping Cream and Cheese back inside. It was daylight. Tails groaned as he folded up the blanket and followed Scourge back inside. Fiona was grabbing a cup of coffee off the dining table and reluctantly gave it to Tails. There was no breakfast. Just like Tails, no one felt like eating right now. He brought his attention to the front door. T-Pup was laying down by the door with it's back faced to everyone. It just kept whining. Cream had sat in the living room chair. She was hugging her knees while she hid her face in them. Scourge and Fiona had sat back down on their couch. The vixen was leaning against Scourge while he wrapped his arm around her for comfort. Tails felt completely empty.
__Tails jumped when his phone started vibrating, making him spill a bit of his coffee on his shoes. He stifled a hiss as he put the mug on the coffee table and started shaking his feet from the hot liquid. He pulled out his phone and saw Cliff was calling him. He had forgotten about his exchange. He sat down where he was and answered the call. "Hey," he muttered out.
__"I have everything you need, Tails," the older bandicoot said tiredly. "If you're ready I can bring them all over in the afternoon."
__Tails took a couple seconds to look at T-Pup. Even when it was upset, it could still use its sensors. As long as there weren't any threats, everything should be fine. "Sure thing, Cliff. I have your money ready, too. I'll be here." He didn't wait for any goodbyes. He just hung up the phone and set it on the table in exchange for his coffee.
__"You're going to get to work right away?" Fiona asked slowly.
__Tails nodded. "Nothing's changed. We're on a mission, and we have to see through to it."
__Scourge had taken a while to speak up as he kept opening a closing his mouth. He then sighed and brought himself to speak. "Shouldn't you... hold a meeting for the others...?"
__Tails stopped himself and took a deep breath. As much as it started to bother him for others trying to make decisions for him, he needed to learn to not let it get to him. He couldn't control how people acted. He could only fix himself. Oh, how a terrible way to learn. He shook it off and crossed his arms. "Let me deal with Cliff first." He then held up his left wrist but stopped. Part of him wanted to leave Nicole alone. He couldn't even imagine what she could be doing now Sally was gone. Perhaps she wanted to stay in her old device for most of her time now. He decided to leave her be as he set his left hand back down and grabbed his phone. He sent a text message to all of the Freedom Fighters to meet up at headquarters tonight.

__That afternoon Tails was organizing his workspace in the garage. He had already paid Cliff and gotten all the materials he needed. He had a safe corner in his workshop where he made all his rockets and missiles for his plane or other machines. But he wasn't even sure if these were worth it now. Building rockets took a large amount of time. Usually with Sonic or Sally in charge he could have all the time he needed to work. But now that he was in charge, he needed to put all his focus and effort on his friends and their safety. It was times like this he wished he followed Doctor Eggman's influence on creating more help to do the work for him.
__Tails's ears twitched when he heard knocking on the garage door. He turned and saw Cream standing at the doorway while holding the door open. "Need something?"
__Cream shook her head. She let go of the door and walked over to Tails. She didn't look at him. She just cupped her behind her as she looked at the workbench in front of them. "If you want... I can see if I can get Gemerl over here."
__Tails was pulling all his papers and blueprints together and stacking them neatly. "For what?"
__"I know you're worried," Cream said softly. "Gemerl can help you with this."
__Tails set the papers in the far corner of the workbench and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, Cream. As much respect I have for him, I don't know if I can trust him to make this all on his own."
__"Think about it at least." Cream suddenly scooted closer to Tails and put her hand on his shoulder opposite to her. "I wanna be able to do all I can. I've only ever been backup for everyone. Even when the Metal Virus was spreading and I was able to get the Chaos Emerald from Zeena, I still got infected and was useless. No more Plan B. I need to be in the front lines. After all, I'm not a kid anymore."
__Tails looked at Cream. She didn't look upset anymore. On the outside, she was standing straight and was determined. He had to admit, her determination was contagious. But naturally, of course, the most innocent one would have to most confidence. "Whatever you feel is right. Just... when it comes to it, be careful."
__Cream finally looked at Tails. "I'll be fine. You're the one I'm worried about. I know you're strong, but you haven't been acting like yourself in a long time."
__Tails sighed. "That time I took to be on my own after we discovered that frontier... I guess that was the start of it. Everyone changed, and so did I."
__"Do you regret it?"
__"I don't know. Everything was perfect before we grew up." Tails was fighting to contain his emotions. "We lost so many people over the years. Things are not okay. Everything's becoming hopeless." Tails winced when Cream started squeezing his shoulder too hard, making him pull away and glare at her. "Ow! What the fuck!?"
__"Stop it!" Cream hissed. The angry look on her face made Tails flatten his ears. "I know we've lost a lot of our friends, but we still have others as well as new ones. We can't let Sally's death bring us all down. That would give Eggman the win, and so help me, Miles, he is not winning. We have to work to protect what we have now. We can't let him take anyone else."
__Tails was rubbing his shoulder. He was feeling very conflicted about Cream right now. "What is with you? You think I don't know this already?"
__Cream backed away and looked down at her feet. "There's nothing wrong with a loud reminder. Besides..."
__"Look," Tails interrupted. "This isn't easy for me right now, okay? I'm supposed to keep everyone together right now more than ever. Do you think anyone will trust me to lead us now after I led Sally to die!?"
__Cream was starting to get frustrated again. She walked back over to Tails and actually slapped him in the face, and that slap hurt. It had knocked Tails onto the workbench. "I told you to stop it!" She shouted. "You're not doing yourself any good! No one ever said you weren't allowed to be angry at her!"
__Tails was now more confused than ever as he rubbed his stinging cheek. He got back up and began his tumult to the rabbit. "What the hell is going on with you!? You try to help and comfort me, and now you're acting out!? I don't fucking get you!"
__"Don't let yourself think you did something bad!" Cream retorted. "You'll just keep letting things get worse for you! If that does end up happening I'll never forgive you!"
__Tails braced himself to get hit again, but Cream had turned and stormed out of the garage. She stomped past Scourge and Fiona as they walked in to check what was happening. They both looked nervous and confused as Cream slammed the door shut. Scourge let out a nervous scoff as they walked over to Tails. "What's her problem?"
__"I don't know!" Tails said too quickly. "She was acting so sweet before she escalated into hurting me out of nowhere! She's getting fucking pissed off over my emotions while still trying to make me feel better!?"
__Scourge leaned over to Tails as he grabbed both of his arms. "Woah. Woah. Slow it down."
__"I just don't understand!" Tails snapped at him.
__"She's a girl, Tails," Fiona said in annoyance. She had her arms crossed while her tail twitched every so often. "You know what happens when we try to bottle up our emotions for way too long? It gets out of hand and we often don't know how to properly handle it. Hell, we never want to admit to these things when we're upset. The poor thing's just severely upset, and she cares about you too much. You don't need to understand what she's trying to do. It's what she's really feeling that's bothering her." She then sighed and looked over at the door to the living room.
__"What Cream said to you just now," Scourge muttered to Tails as he pulled away. "Doesn't that sound familiar?"
__Tails wasn't understanding what Scourge meant. He tried reviewing their argument over and over again, but he wasn't getting it. He then found himself looking at his plane where it said SONIC near the tail. This made Tails let out a quick sigh as his eyes grew wide. He now remembered how he had gotten mad at Sonic for allowing himself to believe he did evil for putting that dying woman out of her misery, making his life miserable for not wanting to see things in a different light. Tails had been upset that his best friend was letting himself fall. He should have seen that in Cream. He was so stupid sometimes.
__He started walking back into the house, ignoring T-Pup when it ran over to him as he walked through the living room. Cream was sitting down on the couch while rubbing her eyes. Cheese was sitting on the coffee table across from her. Tails slowed his pace as he made his way over to Cream. The rabbit looked up at Tails before looking back down and scooting away, giving Tails room to sit down. She let out a sigh as he wrapped up drying her tears. "Look... I'm sorry I..."
__Tails immediately pulled Cream into a tight embrace. She had let out a surprised gasp before quickly hugging him back. He didn't say anything. He didn't know why. There was a lot he wanted to say right now, but he couldn't make out what to say. He was grateful, though.
__"I just don't want to keep seeing you hurt, Tails," Cream croaked.
__Tails had a small smile on his face. "You know... I really need you right now more than ever. We were the kids left behind who wanted to be grown up like the others. Now we have more than we bargained for."
__Cream pulled away from him and held up her right hand. She extended her pinky while she nodded. "You needn't ask. Here 'til the end. Just remember you have others, too."
__Tails was feeling warm again as he brought up his right right and interlaced his pinky with Cream's. Although he knew the mood would definitely change once they met up with the others, he was enjoying this moment with Cream right now. The feeling was... familiar.
__"Aw!" Tails jumped when Scourge suddenly said obnoxiously behind him. "You're adorable!"
__Tails was now grumbling. Moment ruined.