Disclaimer: Grapes is my own creation, nothing else, so back off.

Author's note: It's a bit A/U since I'm combining a few elements from the comic series and maybe a bit from the games as well. Some things may be off because I've lost track of most of the comics, and what not. You have been warned.

Past:

Sonic - 18

Amy - 16

Tails - 10

Knuckles - 18

10 years later

Sonic - 28

Amy - 26

Tails - 20

Knuckles - 28

Future

Sonic - 37, deceased

Amy - 35

Tails - 29

Grapes - 8

Knuckles - 37

"Blue bomber down! Blue bomber down!" A small purple hedgehog flew up in mid air while doing a double somersault, his cries for help virtually ignored. Jumping off a blue snowboard, he pretended he was jumping off a crashing helicopter.

"Whoosh! KABOOM!" he cried as he landed on his quills.

"GRAPES! What did I tell you about touching my equipment?!" A voice roared from the distance, which were soon followed by heavy footsteps.

"Aw shoot! I'm dead meat if Uncle Tails catches me, but how can I juice on outta here without attracting attention to myself?!" the little hedgehog named Grapes said to himself as if the act would help him concentrate.

"I swear, if I lose another piece of equipment to Grapes, I'm gonna spank him with a cattle prod!" The two-tailed sidekick of Sonic the Hedgehog thought to himself.

"Well, at least a yardstick." He amended his previous statement after thinking about Sonic. He finally reached his laboratory with some effort. The cane in his hand did nothing to help his speed but he could still fly with the best of them.

Age had nothing to do with it.

Thanks to Robotnik, his right leg was roboticized a long time ago. It would have been worse if not for Sonic. He grimaced at the memory and pressed the entry code on a nearby control panel to open the security doors. It seemed no matter what Tails did or programmed, Grapes would find the necessary loopholes to do whatever the hell he wanted.

"Grapes! Come out now!" he hollered. His gaze wandered over to his equipment, some which were either desecrated by his infamous tag, (either YAD or GTH) which was all thanks to Knuckles' influence… Or slightly bent, broken, tilted over, or just plain out broken which is was would usually happen when Grapes was in his laboratory or his room.

"Come out now, don't make me look for you!" Again, Tails was given no response. "Fine, fine! Stay where you are. I'll just tell your mother about this!" he pretended to walk away, just waiting for the young hedgehog to give himself up but nothing happened.

"I'm sure she'll be very disappointed in you." Tails said over his shoulder as he leaned on his cane. There was still no response and he was starting to get agitated again. He really shouldn't lose his temper; his doctor said so, his blood pressure and all.

"So disappointed, that you can just kiss those chilidogs good-bye!" he shouted once more for good measure and walked out in a brisk pace, all a big show really. And then the telltale sign of a little stomach growling at the thought of the famous snack went off, revealing Grapes' position. Tails hovered a few feet into the air and swung his cane to his right, hitting the wall. Or at least it was supposed to, since it hit something solid first, knocking a young hedgehog to the floor as if he appeared out of nowhere.

"Trying to use that little parlor trick on me again I see… hand it over…" Tails muttered dryly as his foot rapped against the wooden floor much like Grapes' father did at one point in his life. Grapes took out a small handheld device the size of a small rock.

"Using my inventions to try and escape eh?"

"Uh---Heh,heh… Heya, Unc!" Grapes said half-heartedly. "So, how 'bout them Mobius Angels eh? Buncha bums, losing to the Red Squirrels like that-"

Tails shot him a look and turned his back, walking away. Grapes gulped. Normally Tails would be yelling and ranting away like his life depended on it, but it was different this time. He quickly caught up to Tails.

"Please don't be mad! I… can't help it! You just got so much cool stuff in there! And it's so boring out here all by myself!" Grapes explained in a rush. Tails looked at Grapes solemnly.

"You have me, as well as your mother, so you're not alone. And as for my 'cool stuff', it shouldn't be messed around with unless I'm around!" Tails took a breath and smoothed out his ruffled fur. "Just like your father, always impatient. Easily bored too."

Sensing a change in subject, Grapes quickly went for it. "Speaking of which, can you tell me about him? I'm eight now, I think I'm old enough to know more about him." Grapes said in a self-important tone. Tails smiled ruefully at him and motioned Grapes to walk with him as he spoke.

"Honestly, I don't think you're ready, not even if you live to a hundred years old. But a little boy like you needs his superheroes. So why not your dad right?" Tails looked over to Grapes who nodded eagerly.

Chuckling, Tails took Grapes' hand and walked him over to another room. Instead of an actual private room with a bed and a wardrobe or a dresser, it was just a small room. To the left was a bookshelf, two of the five shelves filled with thick texts while the top three were filled with picture frames, each one holding a memory for Tails. In front of him was a desk, cluttered with papers and documents, many of which are already yellowed with age.

"You probably never went in this room before, since I find that everything is always where I left it last." he smirked at Grapes. "I hope you're still not afraid of the dark…"

"Huh? M-me? Never!" Although his knees knocking together like a motor told a different story.

Tails looked over to his right and flipped the lights on. Grapes closed his eyes first since his eyes had to adjust to the light but was soon amazed. "Whoa! How did you do that?"

Tails laughed. "This thing here is called a lamp. Back then we had to turn the lights on ourselves instead of telling the computer to turn it on for us."

Grapes looked at it with wonder but soon his curiosity took over and he pointed over to a picture frame that caught his eye. In it, was a hedgehog that looked remarkably like himself, except his quills were stuck out to the sides and back, while Grapes' were mostly going back while a few in the front were constantly covering his eyes and sides of his face, like his mother.

"That's him, isn't it?" he said in an awed tone. "It has to be! Tell me all about him! How strong was he? How fast? Did he break the sound barrier like I did? Where is he now? Why won't mom talk about him?" Grapes asked at a rapid fire pace.

::Tails sweatdrops:: "Hey, one at a time!" For one, yes he is your dad, and for a time he was my father, brother, uncle, and grandfather all rolled into one. He knew everything and taught me what I had to know. If it weren't for him, a lot of things today would never be possible, like you for example."

Catching the look in the child's eyes, he continued. "He kept everyone safe, he was a superhero, the superhero. We saved the world so many times; it was like a game after a while. How fast can we save the world this time? Can we do it with on arm hand tied behind our backs?" Tails laughed and he looked over to Grapes who was giggling also.

"Keep in mind, strength isn't everything. That's why your father was so fast, that he just did his best and kept on going! To him, it never mattered. He didn't care much for anything else. Maybe chilidogs… And yes, he broke the sound barrier, he was the first to do it too." Tails placed the frame back on the shelf and walked out, closing the lights in the process.

"C'mon, it's time we get home to your mother. And don't think I won't punish you somehow. I'll think of something later."

Grapes sighed at his being punished by his mother, but then looked at his Uncle with a confused face, his head slightly tilted.

"But you didn't tell me what happened to him! He got taken away by some bad guy right? And he's gonna bust out soon right? That's why you make so many inventions, you're gonna save my dad?"

Tails ignored the child's comments and walked steadily. "Something like that, but I'll tell you someday later, Grapes. Just not now... C'mon, let's hurry." His voice choked for a few seconds but he ignored it. He picked Grapes up and slowly hovered into the air and flew away with a straight face on, not daring to speak anymore for fear of letting Grapes know.

That, and because he can't let the truth out that Sonic the Hedgehog, Grapes' father, is dead and long gone. and his body never found to this day.

Amy Rose wiped her brow, admiring her handiwork. She wasn't the best cook on the face of the planet but she knew her way around the kitchen. Thus, made a happy family of two hedgehogs and a two-tailed fox.

< Tails must have been hung around Sonic too much; he's starting to eat like a hog. > Amy thought to herself. Before she could do anything else, the doorbell rang once. Then it rang ten more times in rapid succession and was soon followed by someone yelling at the front door, a meek 'sorry', and then finally, ten more rings but at a slower pace...

Amy sighed to herself. She walked to her door and opened it to find herself thrown into a spin by Grapes running to the dinner table. Tails caught her in time and steadied her almost immediately. "Sorry, I tried my best to teach the kid some manners. He's just like his dad." He said with a grin.

::CHOMP! CHOMP! GULP!:: ::CHOMP! CHOMP! GULP!:: ::CHOMP! CHOMP! GULP!:: "Hey, this need more chili mom!"

"No, really? You think?" Amy asked sarcastically. "I'm surprised he could actually taste, with the way he eats." The two walked into the dining room to find young Grapes eating his chilidogs with extra vigor than usual. Next to him was a bowl of chili for the chilidogs.

"Might as well get started before we miss out like last time!" Amy said cheerfully, and they dug in while Grapes continued on anyways, uninterrupted by the earlier statement.

It was hours after dinner and the sun had finally set. Like many nights past, it was beautiful, with all the stars out shining and watching over the planet's inhabitants as they sleep peacefully in their beds. To Tails, it was danger all around. The enemy has always struck at night and this night may not be an exception.

It was how he operated, how he managed to destroy the one hero in the world that would dare oppose his rule.

Lost in his thoughts, he never failed to notice Amy quietly walking down the stairs. "About time he's asleep. It's like he's hooked up to a chaos emerald or something!" he said with a quiet laugh. Amy smiled but then noticed Tails had stopped laughing and pain crossed his features. She became extremely tense and ran over to Tails.

"Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"Your cooking perhaps?" Tails asked as he started to straighten out but the look of pain was still etched in his features as well as his voice.

Amy smashed him into the floor with her hammer. "Serves you right! How dare you, after all these years--!" Amy leaned impatiently against her mallet, supporting her like a third leg; waiting for Tails to stand back up again so she could take another hit off him.

"I was just playing around! And not to worry, it's just this hunk of junk…" he said as he knocked on his metal leg. "It's really starting to act up now more than ever."

Amy gasped in horror. "What's wrong? Can it be fixed?"

Tails only shrugged. "I've seen this before. You remember Bunnie Rabbot? Yea, I thought so. Well, she was roboticized but was saved at the last minute by Sonic, like I was. She had this problem, where her mechanical parts were starting to decompose, if you will, and I'm starting to experience that same problem. All because we were partially roboticized…"

"Normally, it could be fixed, upgraded. But I don't have the equipment that Mr. Nate Morgan had, or Rotor. My skills in mechanics aren't even close to theirs, and my medical standpoint is even worse. My time isn't long, Amy. If it doesn't kill me, it'll be amputated." Tails said with a sigh.

"There's gotta be a way, we just have to look for it right?" Amy asked.

"No worries, I'll be fine. I've been through worse." Tails said with false bravado. Amy only sat down on a chair, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.

"It only seems like yesterday, you were Sonic's best man at our wedding! And now you're worried about death!?" Amy didn't dare shout but she didn't held back either. "You're not even thirty and death is just around the corner waiting for you!"

Tails walked over to her and put a soothing hand over her shoulder. "Truth be told, I'm 29. Nice estimate by the way, but don't worry about it, I'm not!" Amy looked up at him with a disbelieving look.

Tails sighed. "If you want another reason why I'm not too worried about dying so soon, is that at least I'll die young! You think I want to wither into a prune? I'm too pretty to die!" he said half jokingly. Amy was still depressed, from the way she looked.

"This isn't about me is it?"

"Huh?"

"You're worried about me, but you're still thinking about Sonic… You're still not over his death are you?" Tails asked sadly.

Amy didn't reply, they both knew the answer. "What happened to you and Sonic… I can't help thinking about it. He saved my life so many times, and he died! Because of me! How am I going to tell Grapes that his own mother is the cause of him being fatherless? That it was me that killed him!"

"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be like this either! His death and your roboticized leg… it's all my fault. You and Sonic would be alive and happy and having fun, enjoying life to the fullest. The world would still be safe…"

The veritable dam has just been demolished, leaving a broken Amy for Tails to take care of. For him, it seemed normal since Grapes always tells him how his mother cries every night since he can first remember. However seeing it in person has proved that much more disturbing. He's always seen her put on a happy face for everyone, but sometimes even that's not enough.

"He loved you, he died for you! If it weren't for you, your little boy wouldn't be here and Sonic would be some lone hermit living on some remote island!" Tails barked out. "Do you know how much of a difference you made in his life?!"

"If it weren't for me, maybe he'd be alive… I didn't do anything…" Amy half muttered.

"Tell that to Grapes and we'll see if you're right." Tails said with his back turned towards the pink hedgehog. He slowly watched the night sky and the stars that moved across the dark stretch. Even though he kept his composure but he still felt like liquefied pudding, especially with what's been happening of late.

"There's a reason why I couldn't come the last few months. The resistance, they really need me now, more than ever." Tails said shakily.

"I understand, you're their best scientist, I would never think otherwise!" Amy said, her troubles slightly leaving her. Tails only smiled patiently. He offered his hand and they slowly walked outside Amy's hut. Until they got to a small clearing about twenty feet away, then did Tails finally stop.

"I'm the best scientist they got, and now I'm the best chance they got to end this war with The Master." Tails choked out that name, the murderer that sent the entire world from hell into something far worse than the likes of Enerjak or Robotnik could ever imagine or devise. The very same person who killed Sonic in one blow, the one that'll die by Tails' hands if he had anything to say about it.

"What? How? The Master is too powerful for the entire resistance! Even after the alliance with the Dark Legion, The Brotherhood of Guardians, and the Acorn Monarchy, we're still shorthanded!"

Tails clenched his fist angrily as he looked to the stars for guidance. "You'd think that. So would he, to believe that he's invincible because he has fourteen emeralds in his hands. Well it won't mean anything anymore! Not now, not EVER!" Tails yelled out. He screamed his rage out into the night, pouring his heart out. The very ground began to tremble…

< Oh my god, the ground's starting to move! > Amy thought. She fell backwards, and then the giant flash of light that seemingly came out of nowhere, blinded her…

Seconds later, she finally understood what had happened. She focused her eyes and she looked for Tails. Instead, there was another two-tailed fox that stood in his place. His fur was a dark, coarse brown, he was taller, and he glowed with energy. His tails were whipping in the air behind him, filled with energy, and the tips of his hair on his head stood on end, electrified by the powerhouse that is now Turbo-Tails.

"Tails…" Amy breathed out. Without the chaos emeralds, it should have been impossible. But here stood Tails in his super form, all charged up and ready for action, just like in the old days.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to show you, that's all." Tails said. He quickly powered down, his fur became lighter and his frame that was bulked up and toned had reverted back to its slim and lean form. His hair was back to its usual style and the energy dissipated.

Amy quickly got back up to her feet and ran at Tails. She quickly engulfed him in a hug. "I just wanted to surprise you." Tails said sheepishly.

"You sure did! Look at you!" Amy said in wonder. "You're really gonna do it this time then aren't you? Finishing this war once and for all? Would we finally stop living in fear?" she asked. The hope in her voice was unmistakable and Tails didn't have the heart to tell her that it things might get worse before it gets better.

"No. I'm not strong enough. I will be, given enough time, but that's something none of us have left. It's now or never." Tails said gravely.

"But how?! You just said you're not strong enough!" Amy yelled.

"Simple. Either I kill, or be killed. No two ways about it. But just so you know, if I go, I won't be going alone. I'm going to take out The Master's entire fortress, with this." He pointed at his chest

"In order to make a long story short… I've created a machine that would harness the powers of the fake emeralds I've created so long ago, to duplicate the effects of the real emeralds and compress all that power into my body. Thus, giving me the permanent ability to change into my super form, by will or extreme emotion. Obviously it wasn't easy, and I won't bother you with the technicalities."

"The drawback… The power is unstable, more so than the real emeralds. The way I see it, the gold rings were meant as a stabilizer for the emeralds, and since I'm operating on only an emeralds' power supply, it's a lot more than just unstable. If given the proper fuel, the energy could backfire on me and kill me. If I use it for long and not rest in between, or if my body isn't adapting to it properly, it could kill me."

"Anyways, if I can't get rid of that bastard and his minions with this upgrade, I'll do the next best thing, I'll self-destruct... And to seal the deal, I'll be carrying two things on me. A zone generator to take us into another zone so the damage to the world would be non-existent, and a powerful explosives pack I've devised… There's enough power in that little thing to take out half the planet, at least when combined with the energies that I'll be expending…"

"You can't do this!" Amy yelled. She backed away from Tails and looked at him. "You can't do this, not to me, not to Grapes! He needs a father in his life, you can't kill yourself!"

Tails smiled sadly. He walked over to her and with one hand she smoothed out her hair. "He needs a mother even more. I came to say good-bye…" With that, Tails finally picked up the courage to do what he wanted all these years… He slowly pulled her closer to him and placed a soft kiss on Amy's lips. They stood there for a while, under the pale moonlight.

"Sonic, he was a lucky son of a hedgehog. But I could never do that to him. Now then, not now." Tails murmured softly in her ear.

"Then-"

"Why?" Tails interrupted. Amy nodded slowly. "Because this is pretty much my last night on this world, so I might as well enjoy it. Maybe you'll give me the courage to do this, and maybe I'll give you the courage to live on." He leaned in once more and kissed Amy again, but with the passion that burned both their souls to the core, although Amy enjoyed every second of it, her heart still belonged to Sonic no matter what.

"Don't tell Grapes, make up a story if you have to. And one other thing… please take him to my workshop when you think he's old enough to know the truth about everything... His father, my death, my discovery, and my gift…

"There, there I'll give him the greatest gift and the greatest curse he will ever know. It's a heavy price to be a hero, especially for Grapes, but the world may need one, one day. Good-bye… Amy Rose…" Tails smiled one last time as he powered up to his maximum, becoming Turbo-Tails once more.

He reverted back to his cold, stony, expression and took to the air in a blazing streak of light, and quite possibly to never to be seen again. That night, Amy cried that much harder. Now, Grapes was the only person left in her life that she still loved dearly and still could be counted among the living...

10 years later…

"I'll kill you! I'll kill every… last… one of you!" The sound of metal against metal rang throughout the forest. Explosions and a single person's war cry could be heard. Screams of terror pervaded the area, the destruction of machinery and mechanical parts becoming just another sound in the great forest. The youth that screamed the war cry finally dropped down from the skies, where he was just battling a horde of flying robots in the shape of giant pterodactyls.

Walking down the path of the great forest, the young hero had heard the troubled cries of an elderly echinda couple and a young child, four at most, probably their grandchild. He did what came naturally and ran with all the power he could muster, stopping one of the the mechanical beasts from killing them in one blow, managing to stop the giant claws that were centimeters away from the family.

Soon enough, a flock of them appeared, and the small family thought it was over… Until the mysterious youth, disappeared in a blinding flash of light. Then and there stood another mysterious stranger, except he was gold in color instead of the soft lavender that covered his fur and his green eyes became blood red. His quills stood straight on end and he radiated power, enough to make the echidnas wary of the stranger just as much as the strange beasts.

He turned to face the family. The elderly gentleman walked over to the strange youth and thanked him for his services, although he was slightly cautious of his intentions. His skills showed him as one who had trained to fight, to kill, fueled only by vengeance and revenge.

When upon asking his name, the family trembled as his soft voice that seemed to shake the very mountains that surround them… floated in the air like a butterfly with a poisonous sting…

"I am Grapes… The Hedgehog…"

Without a moment's delay, he disappeared, leaving a trail of dust leading into the horizon.

A/N: Thanks to all who took the time to take a look at this! It's a bit confusing maybe, weird, but I promise at least an explanation behind Grapes! I have this thing mostly planned out. When I get enough reviews (hint, hint!), I'll put out chapter two.