Hey everyone!

Here we are, my final fanfiction story for a while. If you want to continue sending requests, you can but I may not get to them soon if at all. Hopefully I'll be back writing sometime next year but I'll still be online reading all the great stories! This was a request sent in by SoraRose7, hope you all enjoy!

Ciao! xx

There's no doubt in any Mobians' mind as to why Sonic and the gang are their heroes. Without fail, every time a new threat presents itself, they're all there to protect innocent civilians, their loved ones and their homes. However, just like any other Mobian, man, woman or child, they need their rest. Not only that, they need time to themselves and time to spend with each other that doesn't involve an intense battle.

Alas, over the past few months, this just hasn't been the case. The entire gang have barely said two words to each other unless they were in battle, the rest of the time they were sleeping. Day after day, sometimes even night after night, the entire gang had to come together to take down familiar and even unfamiliar threats to them and the rest of Mobius.

Just this past week has been maybe the fifth or sixth time in the past few months that the Anti-Mobians have made it back into the realm of Mobius, attacking at night, attempting to take down either the gang themselves or the city's people. When it's not Scourge and his Queens' minions, it's Eggman, trying to take things above and beyond his last creation.

Over these past few months, everyone has been injured a least once, some worse than others. One time a few weeks ago, when Bunnie was captured after her mechanical limbs failed her, thanks to Scourge of course, the gang came to rescue her. While the gang were taking on their counterparts, Cream snuck around to save the captured, feminine rabbit, only to be tackled by Fiona just after Bunnie was freed, the vixen smashing Cream into the ground repeatedly until her shoulder shattered.

After Tails fixed her up, now the young rabbit's shoulder recovering and rehabilitating slowly, it wasn't long until Knuckles ended up with a deep and nasty gash across his torso thanks to Eggman's creation of the day. It took some time, but he eventually allowed Rouge to stitch it up, choosing not to comment on the noticeable tears stinging at her eyes as she did so. Maybe he'd find out the truth behind that sometime.

Just today, Sonia took a bullet to her upper arm, Scourge's weapons and skills increasing each time they assault. She got incredibly lucky, the bullet missing everything major and going straight through. Once they had sent the Anti Mobians away, not for long they suspected, they all stayed with Sonia in a bed in the garage, monitoring her and making sure she went to sleep. After they all left, the magenta hedgehog remained at Tails and her brother's home so the fox could look after her.

After he had injected all her pain medication into her drip and made she was sleeping peacefully, the young kitsune made his way upstairs, headed for bed at one o'clock in the morning. He was so tired, so certain his body was going to collapse before he made it to his room that he almost didn't see the familiar silhouette on the living room balcony, body hunched over as the palms held them up over the railing.

'She's going to be fine, Sonic,' Tails said as he met Sonic out on the living room balcony, 'she got very lucky. If she'd been facing only a little further around to Scourge, it would've gone straight through her heart.'

'That's true. I still wonder how many more fatal injuries it will take before we can all get some damn sleep.' Sonic huffed through exhaustion.

'It's been a rough few months, huh.' Tails sighed, leaning on the railing himself.

'You got that right. How's Sonia?' The cobalt hedgehog asked, concerned about his sister.

'She's fine, sleeping soundly. We need to get some sleep before we get woken up again by Chaos knows what, it's just-'

'I can't go to sleep, I need to stay up and keep an eye on Sonia.' Sonic cut him off, a little too harshly.

'Sonic, she's fine. A few more days on pain meds and-'

'We won't have a few more days, Tails! Odds are we'll have to be awake again in a few hours because Eggman is up for a bit of fun.' Sonic snapped.

'Alright, I'm just suggesting you get some sleep.' Tails surrendered as he made his way to his room.

The sapphire hero let out a frustrated sigh as his brotherly figure walked away before he slouched back over the rail, his eyes only squinting open as he looked out at the horizon. He forced himself to stay awake, listening out for his sister waking up or the sound of an incoming attack. Things were so quiet though, so peaceful... so… so… asleep.

It was a bit before three in the morning that Sonic snapped awake at the sound of an explosion. He whacked his head on the rail as his body snapped into attention. He got to his feet shakily and looked over the horizon to his right, seeing a fiery, luminous light coming from the city. He sent out an SOS to everyone's communicators before running to wake up Tails. After the young fox fell out of bed, he dashed down to Sonia who had already woken up and was ripping off her monitors.

'Sonia, what are you doing?!' Sonic screeched.

'I'm fine, Sonic, now where is everyone?' Sonia sighed, hiding her pain, as she got to her feet.

'Sonia, you need to rest,' Tails said groggily as he stumbled down stairs, 'Sonic, I can see the others almost here. When they get here-'

'What's going on?!' Cosmo exclaimed as she entered the garage, Shadow on her tail.

'This had better be good because I was actually sleeping for the first time in months!' Shadow snapped.

'Calm down, Shadow, it must be something important!' Knuckles exclaimed as he, Tikal and Rouge followed behind Cosmo and Shadow.

'Sonia! What are you doing out of bed?!' Tikal screeched.

'You need to rest, sis.' Manic said sternly as he, Cream and Amy entered.

'I'm fine, I just-'

'You're not fine,' Blaze cut her off as she and Silver Chaos Controlled into the room, 'you were shot yesterday.'

As half the gang got into a battle over Sonia staying down to rest, the others that hadn't already had their say were still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes as they forced themselves to stay awake. As Rouge and Cream tried to break up the battle over the injured, magenta hedgehog, Amy and Silver walked over to Sonic and Tails who were sighing in frustration.

'What's going on?' Silver asked simply.

'There was an explosion in the city, Anti-Mobians no doubt.' Tails answered.

'Then what are we standing around here for?' Amy questioned in frustration.

'Everyone break it up!' Rouge bellowed at the top of her lungs, 'We're wasting time!'

'Sonia, you're staying here with me so I can look after you. No questions!' Cream snapped, allowing Sonia to finally take the proposal seriously.

'Fine, but you need to rest too. I know your shoulder is still in pain, and Knuckles is lucky I'm not keeping him back here.'

'You know as well as anyone else that it's just a scar now, Sonia. You were shot not twelve hours ago, you're staying down this time.'

'Alright, so Sonia and Cream are staying back. The rest of us need to get to the city, now!' Sonic exclaimed.

As Sonia let out a defeated sigh, allowing Cream to put her back down to bed with the necessary medication, the rest of the gang were quick to load up in the Tornado and get to the city. Tails was doing his best to keep his eyes open while driving, the hedgehog trio struggling so much they almost ran into trees a time or two, Rouge almost plummeted to the ground after closing her eyes for only a second, and the rest of them were trying to stay awake for the others' sake.

When they landed in the city, it was like a war zone. Explosions, fire, smoke and rubble was everywhere, polluting the air with its toxins and scary audio. Screams and cries of innocent Mobians filled the air as they ran the streets, either fleeing from the danger or scrambling around to find their loved ones. Scourge and the others had really stepped it up this time. How could five Anti-Mobians do so much damage in a matter of minutes?

Tails unloaded everyone from the Tornado except Cosmo, suspecting he would need her help in the skies while the others spread out to either look for Scourge and the gang or help civilians to safety. Sonic and Shadow were quick to zoom around the city, Silver coming across a trio of abandoned kitten children, crying out for their mother.

Rouge stayed in the skies, just above the tops of the skyscrapers, an eye out for Scourge or Prower. Tikal and Blaze were on the ground, opposite sides of the city from each other to use their powers either to help or hurt. Blaze tried to manipulate the fires down to a small flame but even she had never dealt with explosions like this. These bombs were definitely the work of Fiona and Prower. Tikal managed to find Rosy attacking families, the peach echidna wounding her with her persuasion, despite how hard it was with how messed up the pink Anti-Mobian was.

Manic, Knuckles and Amy were working together, using all their strength to clear the rubble leading out of the city and making a path for the citizens to escape. If they were going to find their evil counter parts, they'd have to lessen the numbers. Amy fled the scene, knowing the two guys had it under control, in search of the Anti-Mobians, now that they should be easier to find. She whipped out her hammer and ran into the centre of the battle.

She was quick to see a flash of an ugly, sap green in the corner of her eye, forcing her to whirl around and find Scourge pinning down Sonic, teeth gleaming as his lips pulled back in a snarl. Before her brain could stop her, she dash towards them before knocking Scourge a few hundred metres away, allowing Sonic to get to his feet and flash the pink heroine a grateful smile.

Before she had a chance to smile back, the King of the Antis was charging forth again, and this time Fiona was right on his tail. Sonic instinctively pushed Amy back, as if demanding her to run and keep herself safe, but alas, she stood her ground and charged for the slinky vixen. As she swung her hammer, Fiona grabbed it, manoeuvring her body over the fuchsia hedgehog and trip her from behind. The sapphire hero tried to break away to help her, only to be tackled by Scourge.

'Trying to save your girlfriend, Hedgehog?' Scourge snickered.

'She can take on Fiona, not much of a challenge.' Sonic smirked loud enough for Fiona to hear.

'You need to teach your stupid 'hero' boyfriend to keep his abnormally large trap shut!' Fiona growled as she pushed the handle of Amy's hammer into her neck.

'Oooh, scared he might be right, Fi?' Amy snickered, earning her a lack of air supply.

The two duos continued to battle it out, both Sonic and Amy desperate for back up. They assumed the others had either found the other Anti-Mobians or were still helping families, and they'd be right, but if they didn't get help soon, they knew they were going to be overpowered. Not just them, but the rest of the gang too, were so weak from no sleep, they questioned how long they could go on.

Sonic was growing more and more frustrated, his entire body refusing his will to fight back at his evil counterpart. His fist was desperate for the strength to flash up and smack that stupid smirk of Scourge's face. As the sinister hedgehog began to wrap his fingers around Sonic's neck, pressing down harder and harder, Sonic couldn't help but turn and look at Amy as much as he could, the bubble-gum teen in the same position as him, now turning to look at him, a tear full of pain leaking from her eye.

'I've finally done it,' Scourge snickered in a whisper loud enough for Sonic to hear, 'I've worn you out to the point where you barely have so much as the will to fight back.'

'You haven't won yet.' Sonic growled lowly.

'Oh, but I have, and once I finish you off, I'm going to personally finish off your little girlfriend.' The sap hedgehog cackled, 'Painfully, and full of agony. You'll be able to hear her screams from your grave.'

Sonic felt something snap inside of him as those words left Scourge's mouth. Amy's eyes widened as she noticed his entire demeanour change, something was wrong with him, besides the obvious. Sonic bared his teeth, his eyes homing a crazy glint before what looked like smoke or dry ice began to emit from his body. His fur was slowly turning from its beautiful royal blue into a midnight colour, almost as black as Shadow's fur.

'Oh, my God.' Amy whispered, confusing Fiona enough to turn and see what was happening.

Before even Scourge had a second more to register what was happening, it was too late. Mobius' hero hedgehog let out a blood-curdling roar, so loud even Blaze who was on the other side of the city and Manic who was buried in the forest with the civilians could hear it, sending shivers down their spines. It was only for a split second, but the fear even crossed Scourge and Fiona's faces.

'What the-'

Scourge was cut off by an amazing surge of strength from Sonic leaping forth and pinning the ominous hedgehog to the ground, taking him only seconds to put Scourge in the most deathly head lock possible. The twist of an arm and he'd be gone forever. Fiona watched on in body-freezing fear as Amy watched on in shock, trying to compute seeing her hero in his darkest form. As she watched his muscles about to end Scourge's life, she came back to her senses.

'SONIC! NO!'