Prologue (Full Synopsis in the next chapter)

It had been almost a full year since the Eggman War ended. The remaining Badniks had been dealt with by the former Resistance- now known as the War recovery Effort- who were helping to rebuild the world once the war had been finished. And Eggman, of course, had vanished after fighting Alexis, Sonic, and Classic in Null Space, but Sonic knew he'd be back.

"You never get a break when it comes to Eggman, do you?" Alexis said to her brother one day, a teasing note in her voice.

"Nope," said Sonic cheerfully. "But that's what makes it all fun!"

"You have a very strange definition of the word fun, Faker," said Shadow casually.

"Are we still going on with that?"

Shadow rolled his red eyes as Alexis and Sally giggled. Sonic and his sister were walking around the Acorn Kingdom with Princess Sally and Shadow the Hedgehog. The black hedgehog along with his team had decided to take a break with hunting down the final Black Arms alien, Shadow's 'brother', Eclipse, and spend some time in the old kingdom. Why they had taken a break they refused to tell, although Sonic had a nagging suspicion that it had something to do with his sister considering that he could see Shadow often casting Alexis a few nervous looks. And was he blushing?

"Wouldn't it be nice though?" said Sally, rapidly changing the subject before the two hedgehogs got into an argument. "Have someone else save the world for you while you take an extended vacation? A break?"

"I took a break for six months, Sal'," said Sonic, rolling his green eyes. "And look what happened while that was going on!"

"That was before I got there," said Alexis, nudging her brother's shoulder. "After that, it only took a few days to rescue you and a little less than a month to take back the world! It's not always on you, you know."

"Alexis is right, Sonic," said Shadow, looking at his look-alike. "The only reason why I wasn't able to help was because the world thought I was a traitor. And when my name finally got cleared, the battle went pretty quickly. You never have to fight alone."

Sonic cast Shadow a surprised look. "Since when did you start siding with my sister, Shadow?"

As Alexis cast the black hedgehog a surprised look as well, he blushed again and looked away. Alexis looked away as well with a slight blush on her face, not noticing that Shadow was blushing as well.

Unfortunately, Shadow and Alexis were still in the dark on knowing that they loved each other. So as Rouge would put it to Sally, who giggled as she thought of it, "They're as nervous around each other as if they're frenemies. And I know they're not."

"But yeah," said Alexis, once her blush had faded, "what Shadow said. You don't have to carry the burden on your own. You're not the only one whose been affected by Eggman you know."

"Yeah, but I'm the only one who can fight him!" said Sonic.

"Says who?" asked everyone.

"Me! And several other people."

"And how many is several other people?" asked Sally with a small grin.

"Ooooooh... couple of hundred."

"Yeah right," scoffed Shadow.

"Oh ha ha." Alexis pulled on her brother's quills. Sonic batted her away with a playful grin.

Just then, Nicole materialized in front of them, a look of alarm on her normally calm face. "Guys!"

"Nicole! What's wrong?" asked Sally.

"Looks like Eggman is back. He's attacking the east side of the Acorn Kingdom!"

A faint explosion caused everyone to turn to their right, where a faint plume of smoke rising on the edge of the city. And as if it was a small signal, hundreds of warships suddenly appeared out of thin air, the Eggman logo faintly seen on a few of them.

"Never get a break, huh?" asked Alexis, turning to look at her brother.

"Nope," said Sonic, tugging on his white gloves. "Back to work, everyone!"

"Nicole," ordered Sally, "Get the east side of the city evacuated. If the fight starts moving inward, start evacuating the whole city. Have all medics on standby and tell all the rest of the Freedom Fighter head to the fight."

Shadow was talking in his communicator. "Knuckles, this is Shadow. Eggman's back and he's attacking the Acorn Kingdom. He brought his whole fleet with him and we need reinforcements over here now!" He then hung up and pulled out the Green Chaos Emerald. "Ready?" he asked Alexis.

She responded by pulling out the Cyan Chaos Emerald, which she had found a few weeks previously. "Let's roll!"

()

Tails fired his arm gauntlet into the oncoming hordes of Badnik robots. Amy stood beside him, her hammer swinging in rythm with each one of his blasts. "There's too many of them!" she yelled, pulling her hammer out of a broken robot.

Silver was firing psychic waves into the ranks of Badniks. "How did Eggman get this army?" he asked. "I thought we destroyed the army!"

"He must've hidden a smaller army when he realized that he was losing," said Rotor, using his Hammer Wispon while standing back to metal back with the recently arrived E123-Omega, who was unloading his blasters into the robot hordes.

Knuckles and Rouge were working together as well, punching and kicking respectively. "Is it me," said Rouge, screw-kicking into a robot, "or is Egghead getting smarter?"

"Jus' ye, Bat-girl!" yelled a passing Bunnie Rabbot, fighting alongside her husband, Antoine D'Coolette, "He still has his dumb stuff!"

"Heads up!"

A burst of fire and Chaos Spears appeared out of nowhere, causing several Badnik heads to be blown off. Everyone turned to see Sonic, Shadow, Alexis, and Sally standing behind them, the female hedgehog's hands ablaze. "Get it? Heads?" joked Alexis.

Everyone rolled their eyes. "You're as bad as Antoine," said Rotor, pulling his Wispon out of a Badnik.

"Iz zat a compliment?" asked Antoine, "Or an insult?"

"About time you got here," Tails told them.

"Sorry we're- late?" Sonic started, pausing on a confused note as the Badniks stopped attacking. Everyone else got confused when they alls suddenly teleported away in bright flashes of blue light. When they looked up as well, they saw that most of the fleet, except for what appeared to be the main flagship, was suddenly gone as well.

"Oh-kay," said Sally, "They all suddenly leave when we show up?"

After a few moments of silence, Omega suddenly blared, "ALERT! INCOMING HOSTILE! SCANS SHOW THAT IT IS DR. EGGMAN!"

Alexis peered upwards, seeing what Omega had spotted. "Big and overcompensating? Yeah, that's Egghead. TAKE COVER!"

Everyone jumped out of the way as the object impacted the ground where they had been standing a few moments previously, sending up a large plume of dust into the air. A crazy-sounding laugh caused everyone to look up to see a slightly smaller Egg Dragoon-lookin robot looming over them, vibrant colors coming from it's light-up parts. The top bubble of the cockpit opened, revealing a familiar figure. "Eggman!" called out Sonic, standing up, "We were wondering if you were ever going to come back out so we could kick your tail again!"

"And you will soon be wishing that I didn't come!" retorted Eggman. "I am once again on the verge of retaking the world from you 'Sonic Heroes' once again!"

"Sonic Heroes? Seriously?" asked Alexis.

"Sonic's idea," Shadow told her.

"No duh!"

"Are you two mocking the name?" asked Sonic, looking back at them.

"No."

Sonic stared at the two of them for a few seconds, then turned as Eggman said, "You know Sonic, you were only able to defeat me because your precious friends were able to rescue you!"

"And what do you call me?" called out Alexis, "A coincidence?"

"Yes, actually!" said Eggman, "And you shall forever remain that!"

"He's gonna regret that," said Sally worriedly.

"And to make matters worse for you," continued Eggman, "This Egg Dragoon is powered by the five Chaos Emeralds that you haven't been able to acquire! And you should recognize this chemical, Sonic! It's what I used a long time ago to help your sleep! Sayanora!" And then he teleported.

Alexis suddenly realized what Eggman had said. "Sonic! Run!"

As Sonic turned, a metal hand appeared out of nowhere, grabbing the blue hedgehog. Sonic gave a scream of pain as the hand squeezed him hard. Then, he felt something inject into his shoulders.

"SONIC!" yelled Alexis, watching her brother's head slump down suddenly. Shadow instantly acted. He teleported on top of the hand, pulling the injectors out of Sonic's shoulders and snapping the hand open. He grabbed Sonic just as he was about to fall.

"I'm getting him to to he hospital!" yelled Shadow.

"Hurry!" yelled Sally. Shadow nodded and teleported away, carrying the limp Sonic.

Eggman's evil laugh went through the air again. "Now then!" he said, "Let us see how well you do without your precious hero to- WAUGH!" The sentence ended in a rather startled yelp as a firey bullet punched through the middle of the Egg Dragoon. When he turned, he saw Alexis floating behind him, the Chaos Emeralds swirling around her as her mismatched blue eyes turned gold.

"Time to go!" yelled the evil doctor. His Eggmobile disconnected from the Egg Dragoon and quickly scuttled off back to te airship as a massive fireball and lightning strike turned the machine into a pile of scrap metal.

Alexis landed on the ground as Sally said, "And there are reasons why we never make you mad."

"A coincidence?" asked Silver in shock, "Eggman's gonna eat those words soon enough."

()

[A few hours later- Acorn Hospital]

Alexis paced in front of the ER in the hospital, often looking up at the red light above the door. Whenever she saw it, she gave an angry sigh and resumed pacing.

Everyone else sat around the door, either watching it or Alexis. Some of Sonic's closer friends, like Sally and Tails, were fidgeting nervously or leaning against the wall.

Shadow was watching Alexis pace, his ruby eyes following her movements. His white-gloved hands twisted together slightly in worry. He was worried about Sonic, but he was also worried about Alexis. He didn't know what to do, or what to tell her. Yup, he was still having admitting problems.

Suddenly, the light vanished above the door and everyone stood up as Dr. Quack came into the hallway. "How is he?" asked Alexis, "Is he alright?"

Dr. Quack stayed silent for a few seconds, then asked, "Do you want the good news or bad news first?"

"I think we could all use some good news right now," said Knuckles, getting off the wall.

"Very well then. Sonic will live, that's the good news."

"And the bad?" asked Shadow.

Dr. Quack stayed silent for a good few seconds, then said, "Eggman injected a chemical into him that attacked his systems. We managed to give him the antidote, but... there was a lot. He's... he's in a coma again. The best we can hope for is to keep giving him the antidote, but if he'll wake up again, or when...I can't say."

There was dead silence in the hall for a few minutes. Then Antoine turned to Alexis, whose skin had turned white, and asked, "Can you not heal him?"

"...it is the external wounds that heal the quickest," she finally said. "Internal ones, and chemicals? ...I can't..." She stayed silent for a few more seconds, then darted past Dr. Quack into the ER.

"Alexis-!" started the doctor, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. When he turned, he saw Shadow, who gently shook his head. "Let them have some time alone," said the black hedgehog. Dr. Quack finally nodded.

Knuckles held up his com-link and listened as a soldier reported to him. When he hung up, he said, "We've got a problem."

The rest of the doctors had left the ER, leaving Alexis alone with her comatose brother. His normally peach skin was paler than before and his breathing was weak and labored. A breathing mask was secured over his face, and bandages were wrapped around the places where the injectors had touched Sonic. An IV line was already secured on his wrist, which was attached to an IV bag that was full of fluids.

For a few brief moments, Alexis found herself standing back in a cell on the Death Egg, looking at a badly beaten Sonic. She shook her head and slid he hand underneath his. "Oh Sonic," she whispered, tears coming to her eyes, "Why can't I save you this time?" She stood there for several seconds, trying to control her emotions.

Suddenly, his hand tightened slightly. She looked up to see his mouth move slightly. She leaned forward in time to hear him say, "Up... to... you... sis'."

Alexis stood there frozen, a shocked look on her face, then she nodded. She straightened, pulling off her silver cloak with the green stone pin. She held it in her hands for a few moments, then carefully laid it on top of Sonic, acting as another blanket. Her hand then moved to the cylinder on her waist that was her sword. She unclipped it from her belt and laid it on the bedside table. She wouldn't need them for what she was going to do.

She then leaned forward again and gently kissed her brother's forehead. "I love you, brother," she whispered. Alexis left the room then, turning to look back at him at the doorway. She gave a small pained smile and left the hospital room.

()

[Acorn Kingdom throne room]

"Satellites finally found Eggman," said Knuckles in the throne room, where they met up with King Max and his wife. "He and his fleet are above Mobius. Looks like Eggman is getting ready to bombard the planet."

"We're outnumbered with that fleet," said Sally, her eyes still slightly red from crying.

"I'll go and stop-" started Shadow, but was interrupted.

"No. I'll go."

Everyone turned to the door.

Alexis Rey Hedgehog stood at the doorway, her eyes still glowing with a mismatched gold from the Chaos Emeralds that were currently absorbed in her body. She no longer wore her silver cloak and her sword was gone. Now she was just wearing her black and silver jumpsuit with her silver belt buckled around her middle. Her blue and silver combat boots echoed across the stone floor as she rubbed her wrists, which had silver bands wrapped around the, her left band being a small communicator.

"Alexis," started Shadow, but she interrupted him. "Eggman said that I was a coincidence. I know very well that I'm not. That mad-man has messed with my family too many times. It's time for me to stop this once and for all."

Everyone looked at Alexis for a few moments, then Shadow nodded. He stepped up to her, handing her the Green Chaos Emerald. "Good luck," he told her.

Alexis nodded to him. She started to turn, but then instead gave the black hedgehog a hug. He stood there in shock for a few seconds, then returned it. For a few moments, a gentle smile graced his face.

They then parted, and Alexis raced outside. She lept into the air, flames bursting around her. She sailed into the air, her golden eyes shining brightly.

Sonic, she thought, this one's for you!

No flames please, & R&R.