Everyone were surprised to see Espio appear in front of them, especially Y/N who's surprisingly not angry or hurt, just had a mix of how she feels about seeing him.

"YOU!" Ken growled in rage, walking towards Espio with his staff glowing. "You dare show your face to--!"

Sonic zoomed in between them.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Time-out!"

"He's a traitor to you and to his team!"

Y/N comes in next to Sonic.

"And he's been a friend for much longer."

Ken turned to her in disbelief.

"He attacked you! He punched you in the eye!"

"Yeah, he did. And it's unforgivable of him to do that." she said, glaring straight at Espio who glanced away in shame.

"You and I have gotten into three times as many fights. By that logic, I should be stomping you into the dirt." Sonic added.

Ken gritted his teeth.

"Fine. Have it your way."

"I usually do."

"First you go soft on Robotnik, now this guy..." Ken muttered, glaring at Sonic.

Sally walked up to Espio.

"Ken raises a good point, though. You've made it clear you're with the Iron Dominion. Why are you here now?"

Espio bowed to her.

"I don't want to debate semantics, but I am with the Shinobi Clan. I am only with the Iron Dominion through... extenuating circumstances."

"Knuckles mentioned something along those lines. But he wasn't sure what you mean."

"The Bride of Constant Vigil has been observing your efforts in trying to dismantle the Clan of Four Houses. I volunteered to guide you to a meeting with her."

Y/N really wanted to trust him, seeing that he's telling the truth fully but noticed Sally wasn't convinced.

"I'm sorry, Espio, but your word isn't good enough now."

Espio was silent for a minute before he spoke.

"Very well then. No more secrets. I'll give you all I have on each of you, removing any advantage I might have had."

Sally, Y/N, and Tails looked at each other nervously after hearing that.

"Secrets? About us? We're the heroes, Es. We're squeaky clean."

Sonic walked up to Espio.

"But if you think that will warm us up to you, fine. Hit me with your worst."

Espio suddenly smirked.

"The sneak."

Y/N immediately spitted saliva out of laughter, holding her stomach as she tried not to laugh. This left Sonic speechless.

"That was a one time thing... Just for laughs... How did you even...?"

Tails went next.

"I haven't been a Freedom Fighter very long. What do you know about me?"

"Captain Super Fox-Man."

Tails froze in surprise while Espio smirked still. Y/N had to cover her mouth to stop her laughter without making Tails feel embarrassed and hurt.

"Nobody was supposed to read that! I was just a kid-- More of a kid!"

Y/N walked up to Espio as they had been staring at each other for a while.

"You know I still see you as a friend and I trust you for that."

"I know and I'm really sorry for what I did to you. I wouldn't have, but I didn't have a choice."

"It's alright. What do you know about me?"

For some reason, Espio looked uncomfortable and a little mad.

"Your... first kiss was stolen by Shadow..."

Y/N's face went red.

"W-What?! How did you--?"

She gasped in realization and growled, feeling more embarrassed.

"Shadow!!! You blabber mouth! That was only once! Just once! Nothing more! We're not together or anything!"

Espio's eyes widened in surprise and felt relieved to hear that.

"Really? Then... that's great."

Sally went after Y/N.

"Well?"

"The location of your royal birthmark."

Now it was Sally's turn to blush and Espio looked a little embarrassed himself, causing Y/N's eyes to widen in shock. Did Espio secretly or accidentally became a pervert??

"When Elias came back, I had to verify his claim, so..."

Sally raised a hand to stop him, looking away.

"No, no. We won't speak of it further."

Ken came in last.

"Can we skip me and go back to Sally?"

"No. For you, I'm afraid I can only confirm there are other Khans."

"No, there aren't. I was an only child, and I know how my parents died."

"That's not what I meant."

"It's a pretty common family name. I'm sure there's lots of other Khans out there."

"Not families! You! Others like you!"

"What others like me?! I was the only one Robotnik managed to--!"

Sonic grabbed Ken's shoulder to stop him for getting into more argument.

"Easy there, Monkey-Boy. We've still got a continent to liberate and a city to rescue, remember?"

He then turned to Espio.

"So you've proved you've got dirt on us. What makes you think we trust you any more now?"

"Information is everything within my clan. I have left myself entirely prone to you. The fact I know any of these things just comes from doing my job."

"Which is what?" Sally asked.

Espio brought out five blindfolds.

"As I said, the bride of my clan will reveal all. Please accept these blindfolds so I may take you to our secret headquarters."

Sally looked at Sonic and Y/N who shrugged. She then took the blindfold and tied it around her eyes.

"Alright, Espio. We'll follow your lead for now."

"Thank you, princess. I promise you won't regret it. And Kirby, it's best if you keep this secret once you see the headquarters since you have three eyes."

"Pooteetah." Kirby saluted with a smile, while secretly giving Y/N a wink telling her he will tell her about the secret headquarters.

She silently giggle and wink back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later, Sonic and the others are wearing blindfolds as Espio led them to who knows where. Except for Kirby who's the only one without blindfold as he saw everything with a smile he's wearing like he had seen something so amazing.

"It's bad enough we're going so slow, but I can safely say I'm totally lose now." Sonic said with his hands on his hips.

Espio removed his blindfold.

"Good. That was the point."

Everyone took off their blindfolds and found themselves standing in front of a chasm in a cave with the opening to another cave that's on the other side.

"Welcome to the Way of the Blind. You will find my master if you can reach the other side."

"Okay, cool— Wait! What do you mean 'if'?!" Sonic exclaimed.

"I'm sorry. This is our way."

Espio started to disappear.

"Espio, wait—!"

But he was already gone without a trace.

"Hmph. Ninja."

Tails began spinning his twin tails and went up in the air.

"Don't worry, Sonic. I can fly us across!"

Before he could fly, Ken grabbed his foot.

"No, you can't..."

He lifted up his staff and lightning came out to show hidden dangerous traps on the ceiling of the cave.

"I've had some dealings with the Shinobi Clan. They're experts in hiding traps in plain sight."

"And I almost flew into that!" Tails exclaimed in fear.

Sally knelt down and grabbed a handful of dirt.

"'Way of the Blind.' Invisible objects... Hmmm..."

"Think you've got something, Sal?" Sonic asked.

Sally threw the dirt towards the pit, but instead of falling into the darkness, it showed some kind of path hovering in the air.

"I thought so! There's a hidden pathway leading across the chasm."

Y/N turned and noticed the excited look on Sonic's eyes and knew what he was going to do.

"But I've got a bad feeling about this. It's undoubtedly a maze or laden with traps... If we take it slow, maybe we can—"

Suddenly, Sonic zoomed past them, holding an armful of dirt and started laying it out in front of him as more paths are shown.

"'Slow'? What is this 'slow' you speak of?"

"Sonic! Be careful!" Y/N warned.

"'Careful'? So many foreign words today!"

Sonic stopped to see the dead end.

"Whoops!"

He then zoomed back towards them covered in dirt.

"Espio may have had some 'dirt' on us, but now I have dirt on his tricky little path."

They all walked along the path of the dirt until they made it to the cave on the other side of the chasm.

"I never knew you to play dirty, hedgehog." Ken said with a smile.

"Leave the jokes to those of us with the wit, Monkey-Boy."

Tails started brushing the dirt off of Sonic with his tails with the help of Y/N's fan as she fanned off the dirt.

"We're about to meet the last leader of this region. You can't go in looking like that!"

"Everybody's a critic!"

"Okay folks—Focus. We've overcome their first challenge. Let's be ready for anything." Sally said.

They soon entered the cave and found Espio serving tea to a female light purple chameleon with four yellow horns and golden eyes. She wears green kunoichi outfit with red sash and golden jewelry as she's sitting on a pillow. She's the Bride of Constant Vigil.

"Your trepidation is unnecessary. Come in and we will speak plainly."

Sally, Y/N, Kirby, and Ken bow to Constant Vigil.

"Thank you for seeing us. I am..."

She cut Sally off.

"You can forego the honorifics, princess. I am well aware of who you are."

"Very well, then. The Clan of Four Houses..." Ken started, but she finished it for him.

"...is evil, and its support crumbles. I know you are here to convince us to break away."

"I like your directness, lady. So? Will you drop the Iron Jerks?" Sonic said with a smile.

"Yes. You have my word of honor. The Clan of Four Houses is no more." Constant Vigil said, sipping her tea.

"Sweet! That was easy. Thanks for your time. We know the way out."

Sonic began to leave when Ken stopped him.

"WAIT JUST A MINUTE!"

"You can't let it be simple, can you?"

"It's not that simple! We spent days traveling here and risking our lives to convince each clan's bride! You had to leave your family and friends behind in the hands of those monsters! And the Dragon Kingdom Freedom Fighters—!"

"Ken? Take a minute." Y/N said sternly.

Ken looked ready to explode, but he took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"I've heard the Shinobi Clan call themselves the protectors of these lands. If that's true, why didn't you help us fight? Why did you side with the Iron Dominion?"

Constant Vigil sipped her tea again.

"Generations ago, we thought as you did. We've fought openly against the other clans. We tried to police the Free People of the Dragon Kingdom. We were nearly wiped out for our efforts. So we adopted our shadow ways to survive. We learned to do more with less."

Espio poured her more tea after handing her cup out to him.

"The Shinobi Clan is small. If we had chosen to stand and fight, the Iron Dominion and its enslaved houses would have wiped us out once and for all."

She sipped her tea again.

"The destruction of your Freedom Fighters proves my thinking was correct. We did as we have for generations: watch and wait. But..."

Espio placed the teapot down on a nearby table.

"Sometimes actions must be taken. Espio has shown me this by deviating so greatly from his mission."

"What mission? We all thought he was a native to Angel Island?" Sonic asked.

Espio turned to Constant Vigil.

"Well... With your permission?"

Constant Vigil placed her cup down after sipping her tea.

"Speak."

"I was the most recent sent to monitor the Guardian of Angel Island."

"You mean you were spying on Knuckles this whole time?"

"More or less. Knuckles comes from a long line of guardians called the 'Brotherhood.' The Brotherhood took it upon themselves to monitor Mobius for threats against Angel Island. My clan didn't think such a powerful, species-centric organization should go unchecked. Each generation, one of us is chosen to keep track of the active guardian to protect Mobius. My mentor was Valdez. He was monitoring Guardian Locke and his dealings with the Kingdom of Acorn. He helped me settle in Rainbow Valley and build my identity as just another local. I was meant purely to observe Knuckles and report any dangerous decisions he made. I was only allowed to reveal myself if the situation was sire— such as when Dr. Robotnik captured you all on Angel Island. I wasn't supposed to work closely with him. I wasn't supposed to join the Chaotix. I wasn't supposed to become his friend."

Espio glanced at Y/N and muttered quietly, though Constant Vigil noticed it and heard it.

"And I wasn't supposed to fall in love with someone..."

"Espio has broken the taboo of his station, but I cannot ignore that it has been the right choice."

Espio turned to her in shock.

"Wh-What?"

"I order you to return to your station on Angel Island. You have permission to act freely and as you see fit."

"Really?! I can?! I— You— Just— YES! Thank you, mo—"

He stopped to see her glaring at him and cleared his throat.

"Ahem! Master. Please excuse my outburst."

Y/N held in a giggle, knowing who he got his personality from and could see some resemblance.

"Before you go, retrieve the mystical Fan of Fen Xing and bring it to New Mobotropolis. Your friends will need its power."

"At once."

Espio ran past them and gave Sonic a high-five.

"See you back in the city!"

"You better. You're way behind on your heroism quota."

Before he leave, he gave Y/N a smile and in return, she gave him a hug. He blushes and hugs back.

"See you, Espio."

"Yeah. See you."

Soon, he disappeared in the darkness.

"You may have broken the Clan of Four Houses, but your work has just begun, King of the Free People." Constant Vigil said.

Ken removed the power ring from his head.

"I know."

He held it and in a bright flash, it changed to look like his original crown before placing it back on his head.

"With this crown, I swear I will do my best to both protect my people and to honor the authority of the clans. You have my word of honor. I just hope I can live up to the hype."

"I know you will." Sally said with a smile.

"We all do." Y/N added.

"You will have my Shinobi Clan ensuring a safe departure from the Dragon Kingdom."

Sally, Y/N, Kirby, and Ken bowed to Constant Vigil again.

"Thank you, Bride of Constant Vigil. We appreciate all you've revealed to us." Sally said.

"Are you sure you can spare the extra muscle? I mean, you don't even have guards in here." Sonic asked.

"Oh? Did you truly believe I would leave myself totally prone to such powerful outsiders?"

"S-Sonic! Y-Y/N! Look!" Tails stuttered, looking up.

Sonic, Y/N, and Kirby looked up and saw multiple colorful chameleon ninjas appear on the wall above them.

"Wh-Whoa! Okay, I admit it, that's pretty cool!"

"No kidding, bro! I wish I'm her!"

"Pooteetah!"