The Tale of the hedgehog brothers

Chapter 9: Loyalty and Brotherhood

As they got closer to the emeralds, the gang came to some old ruins ahead. "Look at those castle ruins. What a wreck." Knuckles said looking over the ruins. "Do you think Dark Manic hid the emeralds in there?" Cream asked. "According to these readings, the chaos emeralds' energy should be coming from there." Tails told them while looking at the scanner. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Sonic said and then ran off. "Wait Sonic!" Amy called out to him, but he was already gone. Blaze crossed her arms and stated "Does he ever learn to slow down?" Then Silver stepped up and said "I'll go after him." And flew after him.

Sonic was running closer to the castle ruins when he tripped and was about fall until someone grabbed him. He looked and saw Silver holding on to his arm. "What is it with you falling off things today? You gotta watch where you're going." He told and pointed down to where there's a wide canyon that Sonic almost fell into. The blue hedgehog looked at his silvery-white friend as he helped him up right. "Thanks Silver." He said.
Then Tails and the rest of the gang came over. "Great. Now how do we get across?" Knuckles said looking at the canyon. They looked around until they spotted something near by. "Look! There's a bridge we can use." Said Amy. But as they took a closer look, they saw that the other end of the bridge wasn't attached to the poles on the other side. "Now what?" Sonic said. Then Silver stepped up and said "Easy, I'll just go fly over there and fix the bridge for you guys." So he flew over to the other side.

Once Silver reached there, he began to tie up the other end of bridge when he started to hear voices. "Who's there?" He asked while looking around vigorously. Then came a real ominous sounding voice. "I've been watching you Silver. And I must say, you are quite a talented young fellow. Something I could use." The voice sounded more clear as the owner and the whole area were covered by mist. "Use my talents? For what? Show yourself!" Silver yelled out. Then a figure came out of mist and showed to be a hunched person with a green cloak. "I'm just a humble man who wishes to make you greater with your abilities. I can make you stronger, faster, better than anybody." He said with a low toned voice. Silver looked at him with interest, "You can really help me improve my powers?" He asked. The cloaked man grinned and said "Of course. With great powers like yours, no would ever treat you badly. I just need you to do one thing."

Meanwhile, the whole gang is waiting for Silver to finish fixing the bridge. "What's taking Silver so long?" Sonic said impatiently. "I don't know. He should have been done by now." Blaze said with concern. She looked at him closer and saw him with a green cloaked figure. "Oh no." She said and tried to call out to him. "Silver! Silver over here!" But Silver was still talking with the cloaked figure. "So you can really help me with my powers but I can't let my friends through?" He asked. "Don't you want to be great? It's either me, or them." The cloaked figure told him sternly. Then Silver heard his friends calling out to him, "Silver! Don't listen to him!" It was all he heard when the mist started to get thicker until he couldn't see them. "Well?" The cloaked man waited for his answer. Finally, Silver turned to him and answered, "Thank you for the offer. But I have to say no." So he used his ESP to finish tying the bridge and flew back to his friends. The cloaked man snarled, then turned into a dark green mass and floated away.

When Silver got back, everyone greeted him excitedly. "Great job Silver." Blaze said while giving him a hug. Sonic came up to him and said "Gotta say Silver, you had us worried for a minute there." "Come on Sonic, I would never leave my friends behind." Silver said to him. "Come on guys. We can all cross now!" Tails said and the whole gang walked across the bridge.
-
Finally, after their long journey, they finally made it to the ruins where the Chaos Emeralds were. "Finally! We made it!" Knuckles said with relief. "Alright Tails, what does the scanner say?" Amy asked him. "According to here, the chaos emeralds should be hidden somewhere in this building. But there is a lot energy here that it's hard to tell where." Tails explained. "If there's more energy here than there should be, then that means Dark Manic must be near by." Blaze said thoughtfully. "If he's here, then where is he?" Cream asked. "He must hiding and waiting for us." Silver said while looking around. Then Knuckles asked "Then how do we find him and the emeralds?" That's when Sonic stepped up and said, "We aren't looking for him. You guys try and find the chaos emeralds. I have to find and face Dark Manic alone." 
"WHAT! Are you nuts?!" Knuckles told him. "He's right Sonic. You can't face him alone." Silver said. "We all helped you get this far, so let us help you face him." Amy told him. "I know. You guys are the best and I can always count on you. But this is between me and Dark Manic. If he has the chaos emeralds, then he'll cause havoc everywhere and destroy everything. But I'm the one he wants so I need to do this." Sonic explained to them. "Then let us help. You said it yourself, the last time you fought him he almost killed you." Said Blaze. "Aren't you scared to fight him?" Cream asked him. "I have to Cream. Besides, it's all my fault that he's like this. If I had stopped our argument sooner, he wouldn't have gotten the emeralds by mistake and turn dark." He said with his ears down. Then Tails stepped up and said "But you need us, and we need you." Sonic looked at him and for a moment, he saw young Manic before he went dark. He walked up to him and put his hands on his shoulders. "Look Tails, I'm sorry but I already lost one brother, I'm not losing another one." And with those words he walked towards the castle looking back at them sadly then finally speeding off to find Dark Manic.
-
While Sonic was searching for Dark Manic, Tails and the rest of the gang searched the rest of the ruins for the emeralds. But he was still worried about Sonic. "Have you guys found them yet?" Silver asked. "Not yet but we'll keep looking." Said Amy. Cream noticed how quiet Tails was being and went to check on him. "Tails, are you okay? What's the matter?" She asked. "I'm worried about Sonic. I know he said he needed to go alone but I'm still afraid of what's gonna happen to him." He said "We're all worried for him Tails. But like he said he has to do this alone." Blaze told him. "Besides he said he doesn't want to lose another brother." Knuckles told him while looking for the emeralds.
At those words, that's when he realized something. Sonic has always been there for him ever since they met. He never wanted to lose him like he lost Manic all those years ago. He always had his back no matter what, even if it meant getting in more trouble. Now he has to face his past where he may not return from. That's when Tails realized that he needs to be there for Sonic. He didn't want to lose his brother.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone shout out "Found them!" The whole group came to where it came from. "What did you say Silver?" Amy asked him. "I said I found the chaos emeralds." As he said that, he held out seven different colored glowing gems. Then Knuckles stepped up and said "Great! Now let's get these emeralds out of here before Dark Manic gets here." But before they left, Tails stepped up and said "No. We're not leaving yet." Everyone turned to face him. "What do mean?" Amy asked him. "I know Sonic said that he wanted to do this alone and didn't want us to get hurt. But he won't be able to defeat Dark Manic by himself. He's always been there when we needed him, now we need to return the favor. Are you guys with me?" And when Tails was done with his speech, he waited for his friends to respond. They looked at each other for a minute until Knuckles said "We did say that we were gonna stay with him till the end. So let's go find him." "Yeah!" They all cheered and set out to find Sonic.