Chapter Text
"Have you ever heard of the phrase, 'Too much of a good thing is a bad thing?'" Sonic asked to himself, because there was no one there to hear it.
He didn't get up from the ground this time. It happened every few loops, where he simply couldn't do it, couldn't look the day in its eye, and just stayed where he was. He was so familiar with the area now, its spotted sunlight that doted on him through the leaves, the trees that hid the sky for only a mile, and the oak tree he always woke up with, its base his resting spot the night before. On April 13th, anyway.
He was sick of it. It made him nauseous now because he knew what would happen. Every little detail. Every mistake, every word, greeting, ray of light, all of it. He knew it intimately, and he hates it. Despised this carousel of repetition. But there was truly nothing he could do to end it.
Sonic was balancing on a thin line between 'keep trying' and 'I just can't.' He didn't want to give up, but there comes a time in life where even he must admit that he just can't keep going. All of his speeches and morals about never giving up and being undeterred by failure felt like they were hypocritical now, at least, if you negated the fact that he was slowly going insane being trapped in this cage of a day. It wasn't like he could talk about it either, except to Dr. Eggman, who likely felt the same way. It just proved that even the toughest minds have their limits, and this was theirs. It made Sonic extra grateful that it was only them. The idea of his friends being stuck in this loop with him felt nauseating. It did make him wonder though, was life still going on around him? Was this loop theirs and theirs alone? Was it all a terrible nightmare and he'd wake up in a field next to Shadow or something instead of underneath that damn tree? One could wish for it, right? He certainly was. All he had were wishes now, because he'd tried just about everything they could, and although Eggman had initially started teaching him robotics so that Sonic could help build a machine to escape the time loop, it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest. They didn't have a full 24 hours, since Sonic's day started at 7 A.M and Eggman's day started at 7:45 A.M, with the day ending at exactly 11:48 P.M, meaning they only had 16 hours and 48 minutes total to do anything, and whatever device they could've ended this with would probably need more than 16 hours to build.
At the end of the day, it didn't matter, because it stopped existing once the day restarted.
Which is why Sonic spent cycle 69 not moving or doing anything. He let himself think, just this once. He was always hungry at 3 P.M, always sat down to watch the sunset at 10:30 P.M or so, and he always saw Shadow after 9 P.M. Well, maybe once or twice he didn't. Cycle 68, Shadow wasn't there, and Sonic had to assume that he'd just been too late. He'd seen Shadow early during cycle one, did he not? Maybe? It'd been a while since Sonic checked on Shadow earlier then nine. He could always check later. He had all the time in the world now.
Funny how 'all the time in the world' ended up being less than a full day. Couldn't his time loop have been a little more decent and given him all 24? That's just his luck, it seems. Awesome.
And you know, just this once, couldn't he do something he's always wanted to? It resets, right? He knew the hard way (his way, really, he actually enjoyed it when it happened) that his body is the same as when he wakes up. Any damage done to it is erased, like it never happened in the first place. There were plenty of thing's he knew of, just from life experience alone (aka fighting Eggman for the majority of his life), but what did the big stuff feel like? What would happen if he died? Would he be reset, alive and well with only the sharp memory of death left to exist in his mind with nothing to match it to? Or would the loop end?
Only one way to find out, right?
It was late in the day, at this point, the morning sun having moved around the shadows on the forest floor before liquid gold came and lit it all back up again, like it was on fire. Where did the day go? Right, he spent it thinking, even though he'd spent the last week's worth of cycles trying to avoid such a terrible thing, and he'd come up with some horrible idea's. But he had a feeling that the loop wasn't going to accept what he was about to do. After hours of laying on the ground, standing up to stretch was a little painful--he was stiff, from head to toe, but it wouldn't matter if he was uncomfortable or not. He stretched enough before racing off to a different part of the island, looking for a familiar cliffside. He didn't bother using his eyes. His feet could take him there backwards at this point. There was something horrifying yet freeing about leaping off of it, feet ushing away from land before he began a freefall towards the water below. He could not swim, but he wouldn't need to this time. He was so tired, and it wasn't like the time loop would let him leave like this anyway, right? There was no doubt. Absolutely none. He hit the water hard, salt stinging his eyes and forcing him to keep them shut. He flailed a little out of instinct, lungs burning as he sank, his chest getting tighter and tighter until panic finally took over and water entered his lungs. Everything felt like it was on fire, until it just kind of settled, letting a new feeling in. It was peaceful down here, when you thought about it, and without thinking he opened his eyes.
It was beautiful down here.
How could he have ever been scared of this before?
...
He woke up on the start of cycle 70 gasping for air, choking on water that wasn't there anymore. He calmed down after a minute, but his brain was completely addled by what had happened.
He'd drowned. He knew he did. After the pain came the peace, then the darkness. Then he'd woken up, like it was all but a dream, despite it being real. But he'd proven to himself that there was no way out. Not even death was an escape here. The time loop wouldn't allow for it.
'Guess it's hopeless after all...' he thought, and something in his chest started to hurt. His eyes felt wet even with there being no water around him, and that cycle was the first one where he'd finally broken down and cried. He cried long enough to get about half the pain out before trying to wipe the tears away. He was very aware of the salt in the air, now overpowered by the salt from emerald eyes. Maybe today was a day to just build, distract himself from the fact that he was, without a doubt, trapped in the time loop forever.
Not even death would save him.