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"Remind me again why I'm putting up with this?"
"Because you don't want me attached to you and I don't want to be attached to you, and this is our only plan to unattach me."
"But it's so awkward," Scourge whined. "I feel like a third wheel except they don't even know I'm a third wheel. Do you know how weird it is to listen to your pals cry about you when I can hear you bitching about Amy's plans in the other room?"
"I'm sorry my death is such an inconvenience to you," Sonic said dryly.
"Yeah, you should be," Scourge huffed, although his heart wasn't fully into it. It really wasn't fair that Sonic got to hold the "I'm dead" trump card. "Fuckin' dragging me into your shit, making me do hero work and deal with your friends and their feelings all because you went and got yourself killed."
"Hey, it's not like I meant to get crushed by a collapsing building!"
"And you didn't even have the decency to go in a more badass way."
"Thanks for the feedback. I'll be sure to take that on board next time I die."
"If I die," Scourge started, picking through the pile of trash he'd been asked to root through, "I'll make sure I do it better than you. Something to do with fire. I wanna go out in style."
"If? It's gonna be when if you don't stop bitching and start focusing, because I'll kill you myself."
"I am focusing!"
"You just threw away the key you need."
Scourge swore, twisted to face the direction Sonic was pointing, and started digging again.
"That's what I thought."
"It's your fault for distracting me."
"You're distracting yourself by complaining about my friends."
"Well they shouldn't be so easy to complain about!"
Sonic sighed, rolling his eyes so hard Scourge was sure it would hurt if he was alive. "Fine, since you won't get it over with and tell me, I'll bite. What did they do this time?"
"Interrogated me for thirty minutes about what they should do to honor your memory. As if I'm supposed to answer that like you're not running around fucking with the lights to scare the shit out of Turbo Butt."
"My options to pass the time are limited, cut me some slack," Sonic said. Then he blinked, losing some of his permanent scowl as he registered Scourge's words. "They want to honor me?"
"They went through forty seven different ideas, so yeah, I fucking guess so."
"Oh."
Sonic looked down, curling in on himself, a new tension in his shoulders. It was a tension Scourge was becoming increasingly familiar with the longer they spent time with the Freedom Fighters.
Guilt.
Shit, should Scourge say something? What could he even say? Tell him it wasn't his fault he died? Reassure him he deserved to be honored by his friends? Ew, sappy, Scourge wasn't touching those emotions with a ten foot pole. Fuck, he was too much of an asshole for this, but he couldn't say nothing-
Apparently he could, because Sonic pulled himself together before he could figure out what to say.
"Well, that's not a surprise. I am amazing, after all." He was smirking when he lifted his head, but it was a little weak. Nothing Scourge would have noticed if he hadn't seen that same smirk in the mirror countless times before.
Fuck, it was disturbing how alike they were, sometimes.
"A statue, though," Scourge complained, pausing his digging to gesture wildly. "There's a fucking war going on and they want to build a statue."
"Only a statue?" Sonic looked insulted. "I deserve a holiday at least."
"They mentioned a festival, too."
"That's more like it."
"Yeah. Apparently they've had that idea for weeks now. Ever since they found your body. Wonder who they got the idea from." Scourge shot Sonic a dirty look. A whole festival dedicated to any Sonic sounded like a nightmare, but a festival for this Sonic? Unbearable. No way he didn't have a hand in putting that idea in their heads.
"Don't look at me, I was still dead at the time."
"You're still dead now."
"Shut up, you know what I mean. Before I became this."
"Sure, okay, you never mentioned anything they could do to 'honor you' and boost your ego while you were alive. I totally believe you."
"I said we should name a Zone after me, not throw a festival for me," Sonic said. "It's not like I meant to die."
There was a slight bitterness in Sonic's tone, and despite his own callous attitude, Scourge couldn't help but wince. Their situation sucked enough on his end, stuck in a dimension he didn't give a shit about with a mouthy ghost that accidentally formed an attachment to him, but even he could admit it must be so much worse for Sonic. Invisible and mute to everyone he cared about, forced to watch and never able to act, not even getting the peace that was supposed to come with death...
Yeah, it was the shitty end of an already shitty stick. And he got stuck with Scourge, of all people, as the only one who could see him. No wonder he was bitter.
"They probably won't stop at the festival," Scourge said at last. He went back to digging. "Fucking interrogated me for thirty minutes, and I bet they'll just go with everything on the list anyway."
"As they should," Sonic sniffed. "One way to honor me for every major plan of Robotnik's I single handedly stopped. You're about to throw the key again, by the way."
Scourge caught himself just in time, clutching the key to Robotnik's newest fortress tightly in his fist. Seriously, what dumb fucking badnik threw a key like this in the trash? "Why do we even need this key? Why can't I just bust down the door?"
"Beats me. That would've been my strategy."
"I bet Amy fucking loved you."
"Nah, it was Porker who hated my strategies. Amy just let me get on with it 'cause she knew I knew what I was doing."
"And it gave her a chance to boast whenever it went wrong?"
"Shut the fuck up."
Scourge dodged Sonic's swipe with a cackle, tucking the key into his glove for safekeeping. Climbing out of the trash heap, he shook off the garbage attempting to cling to his fur and shot off, letting Sonic guide him back to the base with minimal complaining.
He hoped he could finish up this unfinished business of Sonic's soon. So Sonic would get off his back, of course. And so he could go home and wouldn't have to listen to any more crying over the Hero of Mobius' death.
And maybe because if he did, Sonic might smile instead of scowl for once.
Scowling didn't do his face any favors, after all.