HELLBOUND {Sequel}

Epilogue

__It hadn't been all that easy after Doctor Eggman's invasion. While there weren't any major problems for any of the Freedom Fighters to face, it hadn't been too peaceful yet.
__Before Sonic could have his proper coronation, he and his brother Manic were making sure to help rebuild their beloved city for the people. Doctor's Eggmans attack, despite the real end goal, really did a number on the entire town. Most normies had to be given temporary homes to stay at while the city was being worked on while others had to move to the neighboring towns and cities.
__The Freedom Fighters had asked G.U.N. not to dispose of Doctor Eggman's body. It took a bit of time, but Sally and Tails prepared a special area in the Freedom Fighter's private park to bury the human. There was a large statue that was built at his grave, and his tombstone read, 'Julian Ivo Robotnik: the one villain Sonic couldn't defeat in the end'. When word reached the normies, there were some uneasiness, but they were able eventually to accept why they had this made. Despite that Doctor Eggman was everyone's most dangerous, most hated enemy, he had helped them grow into who they were proud to be now. He had to be properly thanked for that at least, especially after how long they've known each other.
__Not long after Sonic made his announcement about becoming king was when Zonic came back and asked him and his friends to accompany him back to Zone Jail. They needed to tell Pallas about the Kumori Jewel at least, and the manual had gotten back to being aggressive, so they mainly wanted Scourge to keep him calm. Tails and Fiona tailed along, of course.
__Once they were in the Zone Jail, they all met with Pallas in the cafeteria. Zonic held out a table that displayed a video of the Zone Patrol putting the Kumori Jewel back in its original zone while Sonic (while Scourge glared at the manul) explained to Pallas everything that happened. The manul seemed very relieved and pleased to know his precious jewel was finally back home.
__While Fiona went to catch up with Abby, Tails couldn't help but gaze around at the cafeteria. He didn't know what he was looking for until he saw a big brown grizzly bear eating with Smalls and a few other big guys. He recognized him immediately and couldn't help but growl quietly as he walked over. Eventually the brown bear looked over at Tails and looked annoyed as he leaned back.
__"Oi, the hell are you gawking at?"
__This made Tails cross his arms and scoff. "A pedophile. That's what." Tails then proceeded to punch that bear in the face and knock him onto the floor. There were so many other pedophiles and groomers that harmed his friends Tails wanted to hurt, but this was enough for now.
__This made both Sonic and Scourge turn to look as Tails walked back over. While the bear stood back up, the other prisoners started circling him and spouting their confusion and anger.
__"You're a what!?"
__"I fucking told you guys!"
__"He always did get too interested in Snot, didn't he?"
__"I'll beat up a kid, but who'd actually assault one like that!?"
__"Nasty old fuck!"
__"I can't believe I let you in my gang!"
__This caught the guards attention as they ran over and shooed away the prisoners. Two went ahead and grabbed the bear. Tails couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were taking him out of the cafeteria. Tails just hoped that fucker ends up getting what he deserves.
__Scourge was watching the guards remove the older bear before he looked at Tails with his arms crossed. "So... you saw that memory, huh?"
__Tails nodded. "Just the part of you running away and hiding from him the first time. I really needed to punch at least one pedophile in my life."
__Scourge smirked as he started rubbing the top of Tails's head. "I honestly made myself forget about that, but thanks, man."
__Tails then looked around again. "Anyone else here caused you problems?" This made some of the prisoners scoot away.
__Scourge lightly shook the fox's head. "I appreciate it, but I already got my revenge on all these assholes the first time I broke out."
__Tails started laughing as Scourge pulled him into a noogie while Sonic went to join them. This made Fiona roll her eyes as she smiled while Zonic put away his tablet. It wouldn't be long before everyone went back home.
__Tails had many personal projects at home to work on, but first and foremost, Sally's foot. Sally had to stay at his place while he worked on making her a new prostetic foot. It took days, but he eventually made a perfectly functional left foot for Sally. It would take at least two weeks for Sally to get used to walking on it, but that didn't stop her from doing her duties.
__They did end up giving that large sample of crystal to the moebians. Tails forced Scourge to be the one to deliver it to them. He just thought it would be funny. Oddly enough, the Suppression Squad showered Scourge with respect and even properly thanked him for the crystal. They did want to apologize to him about the past, but Scourge refused them. Whether he was still mad about that or not, he was happy where he was. He saw no need for apologies. He and his mother still never made up, nor did they ever plan to, but Scourge did end up earning a little of Bernidette's respect as a powerful figure. She even admitted that she acted too hasty for wanting to abort him when she was pregnant. Again, that didn't mean shit to Scourge. Now Scourge was no longer feared as an evil monarch in Moebius after word got out about their collaboration. And again, Scourge did not give a shit.
__Shadow had kept his word. He, along with Rouge, had taken Sage in and were practically raising her. About once every two months, Tails would actually act as Sage's personal "doctor" whenever Shadow brought her over for a check-up to make sure she was always functioning properly. At the end of the second check-up, Sage asked Tails to lend her his ear.
__"I overheard them talking this morning," she said quietly. "Rouge was talking about getting married, and Shadow said that he wouldn't mind getting married in the near future." She then pulled away and giggled to herself.
__Tails couldn't help but titter as well at their little secret, though it was most likely Shadow could already tell what they were talking about since he was right behind him.
__Sage seemed quite happy staying with Rouge and Shadow, but of course, she was still upset by her father's death. Shadow would sometimes catch her sneaking out to sit by his grave, but he never stopped her. Despite their rough start, it was obvious that Shadow loved Sage. He always worked to give her a good life, like a father would.
__Tails had spent countless hours reattaching T-Pup's leg and fixing its throat and weapons. Once it was completely functional again, Tails pulled out the USB drive he got from his old T-Pup and explained to it what had happened. He then asked if it would be okay with downloading the last T-Pup's memories. Tails was dead sure it wouldn't. He would be satisfied enough with keeping them on his computer anyway, but T-Pup was hoping around the table happily as it stared at the flash drive. It was almost like it knew exactly how precious those memories were. Maybe perhaps it wanted to be the first T-Pup. Whatever the case, Tails inserted the drive into his robot dog and let it download everything inside. Once it was done, Tails removed the drive and watched it closely. T-Pup almost looked braindead for a minute before it looked up at Tails. Its eyes then lit up as it jumped into Tails's arms and started whining happily. Tails couldn't help but tear up. This wasn't his first T-Pup. This was still his current dog, now bearing the old one's memories, and he was super happy for it.
__While the city was being cleaned up, Tails had actually reclaimed Metal Sonic and brought it back home. He fixed it up, removed its weapons, and cleaned it up. He thought about turning it on, but Tails was pretty sure that once it learned about Doctor Eggman's passing, it would power itself off again. It's sole purpose was to remain by the late doctor's side and do his bidding after all. It had a deep connection to that fact and therefore had no reason to live. For now, at least, he was just going to leave it in his upstairs loft. Since this was the doctor's prized possession before Sage, Tails wanted to make sure Metal Sonic was take care of and in perfect condition.
__It took a little while, but Cream and Vector were finally able to make up. Tails had to be there as well to form a bridge between them. Vector was the first to apologize to Cream for stepping out of bounds with her since he and Vanilla got married. After Cream learned about Vector's late sister Nacy, she also apologized for being too harsh with him. After a long conversation between the two, they agreed to go back to being good friends, and they were happy again. Tails was happy enough that he didn't really need to do much to help them make up. That just proved that the two did indeed love each other and wanted nothing more than to be okay again.
__After making up with Cream, Vector took the rest of the Chaotix with him to find the organization that had taken his sister. Now that he had one clue, they were able to find them. The organization had no name, just a logo they kept hidden so they could continue their work without being caught. These people had been kidnapping children for over two decades and selling their organs to a bunch of anonymous rich people for either some form of illegal science experiements or surgeries. The Chaotix (with assistance from G.U.N. after contacting Shadow) apprehended everyone who were involved and managed to save a few of the children they couldn't harvest yet. Vector had finally been able to avenge his sister.
__Silver didn't go back to his time zone in the future. Instead, he went back with Blaze in her world. Apparently, those two had a thing going on for a while now. Silver actually spent most of his time living with her while only returning back to his future every once in a while to make sure there was nothing wrong. His last visit ended up being perfect timing. Nevertheless, they were able to get back together and rest peacefully again.
__Things were finally peaceful between the Freedom Fighters and the normies. After everything that went down, there was more favor for treating the Freedom Fighters as equals instead of these saints that could take care of themselves. Both parties treated each other with respect and familiarity. While there were still some normies Tails didn't want to mingle with, he was glad things were finally going back to the way things were before the Roboticization Era.
__After two weeks, Scourge and Fiona went back with the Destructix to their house. Now that they knew where they lived, Sonic and Tails would try and visit as often as they could. Some of the other Freedom Fighters would actually take the time to visit as well. This had made Scourge uneasy, but he got used to it after a while. It was quite relieving to Tails that a lot of his friends were finally trying to be genuinely social with him.
__Cream had decided to stay with Tails after Scourge and Fiona moved back out. Tails had offered to let Cream have the couch, but she insisted on keeping her corner in his bedroom. Needless to say, the two finally started dating. It was really awkward at first, but they were happy and in love (as cheesy as that sounds). Eventually, they got comfortable enough to where they moved on to sleeping next to each other in bed. They never had sex, though. After some discussion, they decided they wanted to wait for a little bit, whether they were waiting to get married or not. That didn't stop them from making out, though. Cream was not as innocent like Tails would have imagined, and he liked that. He felt lucky to be able to have the best of both worlds.
__Sometimes Tails would catch Cream in his workshop working on her own personal projects. Tails had listened to Cosmo's wish and stopped watering the tree, but Cream had been making pretty little ornaments and carefully hanging them on it's branches. It confused Tails the first time he saw her hanging an ornament on the lowest branch.
__"What're you doing?"
__Cream had a warm smile on her face as she backed away over to Tails and admired the glass snowflake ornament she had just put on the tree. "Figured she'd enjoy some accessories."
__This made Tails smile as he wrapped his arm around her.
__Knuckles found himself staying on Angel Island close to permanently. With Julie-Su's pregnancy, they didn't want to have to keep traveling from island to island unless there was something important going on. Tails was pretty much the only one who would take the time to visit after he fixed his plane. He always tried to help them out as best he could, and somehow that brought him and Knuckles even closer than they already were.
__Two months after the invasion was when Sonic and Amy were getting married. Everyone was excited. The ceremony was huge. So many friends and family showed up for the reception. Of course, Tails and Knuckles were Sonic's best men while Cream and Sticks were Amy's bridesmaids. At the front row sat Sonic's family, Scourge and Fiona, and Rouge. Sage was sitting to her left while Rouge held Eli in her lap.
__Tails was getting a good look at Sonic. Like him and Knuckles, Sonic was wearing a fancy black suit. All the women forced the men to wear full-body clothes for the wedding. The betrayal. Sonic had a fancy white rose on his left chest to match his best men (despite that the three of them were not pure at all). He was even wearing his sister's medallion over his suit. Sonic looked very composed, but Tails knew he was nervous as hell.
__Everyone went quiet when the music started playing. The audience then stood up and turned to where Shadow was standing at the beginning of the aisle. He was also forced to wear a fancy black suit. From the corner came Amy. Instead of wearing a white wedding dress, she wore a very light blue dress with a matching veil over her face. She was very beautiful, and it was definitely touching everyone's hearts. Although Tails couldn't see her face from where he was standing, he knew Amy was smiling and excited as she held her white rose bouquet against her chest.
__Shadow held out his right arm to Amy. Tails didn't think anyone here, except maybe Rouge and Sage, knew that Amy had asked Shadow to walk her down the aisle. She didn't have her parents, but it was still so surprising. It was more surprising that he agreed to it. Perhaps he felt like he owed it to her after what happened on the Ark.
__Amy made sure to hold her flowers in one hand before she intertwined her left arm around Shadow's. The two exchanged some words before Shadow began walking her down the aisle. Everyone kept their gazes glued on Amy. Many of them were tearing up. Tails could see Cream on the other side trying to cover her smile while she cried. Cheese was sitting by her feet while he mimicked her. Seeing and feeling everyone's emotions were making Tails tear up as well. He tried not to cry, though, as Shadow finally escorted Amy over to Sonic.
__Sonic carefully went to pull the veil over Amy's head before he looked at Shadow and smirked. The black hedgehog rolled his eyes before turning to Amy. The pink hedgehog smiled and leaned closer as Shadow placed his lips on her cheek softly. He then pulled away and bowed at the couple before he went over and sat in between Rouge and Sage as everyone started to sit down. Rouge was smiling as she muttered something into his ear and gave him Eli. Shadow remained silent, but he actually looked flustered by whatever Rouge just said.
__Tails had a big smile on his face as the ceremony began. The way Sonic and Amy held hands (Sticks was holding her bouquet) was filling him with all kinds of emotions. He still couldn't believe this was actually happening. Sonic was finally ready to settle down for a commitment, while Amy's lifelong dream was finally coming true. While Tails had never really pressed the issue or showed that he cared all these years, he had hoped that this would eventually happen. They both deserved to be happy.
__Tails really had to start fighting his emotions when it was time for them to speak their vows. Amy had to be the one to go first. By this time, so many people were already crying enough, but they started bawling when she spoke.
__"You already know how hard I fell in love with you the first time you saved my life," she began softly. She was trying not to cry, but her voice was betraying her. "Despite all the relationships you had already been in, I still loved you enough to respect your position and left you to it. I never lost hope, though. Part of me knew that we'd eventually be here one day, and I couldn't be happier." She stopped for a second to breathe. She and a few others started laughing at her attempt not to cry. "It was so hard for me to come up to you for that favor, and honestly, it was one of the best things to happen to me. Despite your intentions, I'm happy things turned out the way they did. No matter what anyone else says about us, I love you, and that'll never change."
__Tails was barely able to breathe when Sonic started talking. The blue hedgehog didn't try to make eye contact at first. This had to have been difficult for him. "All of this is still so hard to believe. I've never actually thought I'd be willing to commit enough to a relationship. Not after Sally and I had our differences, and then Fiona cheated on me..."
__Sonic made a teasing glare at Fiona. The red vixen looked around in confusion before she smiled innocently at him. "Oop! Sorry about that!"
__"I'm not," Scourge scoffed. This made a lot of people laugh.
__Sonic took a bit to simmer down his tittering before he looked back at Amy. "Things really started to get hard for me when I was younger, and I never once thought to reach out to anyone about them. Every bad thing that happened, it just became easier and easier to blame myself for them, whether they were indeed my fault or not. It... forced me to make the wrong decisions for my own right reasons. I could never apologize enough for what I did to you, but never let it be said that I didn't care about you. It was hard for me to want to go out with you when I believed at the time I didn't deserve that kind of happiness." Sonic finally made eye contact with Amy and smiled as he squeezed her hands. "Amy, I have and will always love you, and Eli is proof of that. I promise to keep trying to be better for this family."
__Tails finally broke. He felt the tears streaming down his face and was trying to wipe them away. He could feel Knuckles patting him on the shoulder blade to comfort him.
__They continued on with the ceremony. Little Avery had been the one to walk over with the wedding rings. Once Sonic and Amy slipped them on each other, Avery went back over to her parents while they finally said their "I do's." After the officiant gave his last conformation, Sonic and Amy leaned in to kiss each other as the crowd stood up and rejoiced. After what Tails had heard about their living situation, he had to assume this was their first real kiss with genuine love and no self-doubt.
__The rest of the night would go on peacefully and happily. When it was time for Amy to throw the bouquet, Sonic had made sure to whisper something to her first. Knuckles and Tails made sure to spread that same message to the other girls. Once the majority of the women backed away, Amy got ready to toss the flowers. She didn't even turn around. She just looked and tossed the bouquet over to Fiona. The vixen had a slight panic as she caught the flowers and made a happy smile. This made Sonic and Tails tackle Scourge with a tight bro-hug as they cheered and started laughing.
__Less than a month after the wedding were Sonic and Amy's coronation. Holy shit, was it a big deal? Not only their city, but people from all over the world were trying to watch the ceremony in person. G.U.N. had to get involved in order to calm the people and only let a certain amount of them into the castle. Of course, every Freedom Fighter and royal figure had the luxury to take up the entire throne room to see it in person. Anyone else who was forced to wait outside or go home had to watch a livestream of the event.
__Sonic was the first to be crowned, and his father Jules was the one to pass it on to him. Next up was Amy. Manic was holding onto Eli, and she was able to be given an adorable little silver crown. It would tilt and almost fall off most of the time, so Manic had to fix it often.
__After all three of them were crowned, the entire castle erupted in chaotic cheering. Tails was probably the loudest out of all of them, especially since he had lost his voice the next day.
__As the days, weeks, and months went on, Tails and Sonic would be able to message and call each other often on their phones. But that coronation was the last time Tails would see Sonic for a while.
__Ever since Doctor Eggman's death, there was no more villain uprising. The Freedom Fighters had no reason to keep the peace anymore now that it was finally accomplished. While they did disband, they kept their government position and extended it out to the normies. The Freedom Fighters, however, still stayed as one big family. They always will be.