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It was a normal day in Green Hill.
At least it seemed to be. Sonic had met up with Tails, he had found the energy signature of one of the Chaos Emeralds, and they were ready to take off after it.
He was excited for where the emeralds would take them. No matter where they land, it's always an adventure.
No wonder a world like this would have Sonic.
“Where do you think it landed, little buddy?”
“I think there's a canyon that way. Also a really big lake.”
“I hope it's not the lake…”
“If it is, we'll figure it out.”
“As long as I don't have to go in, sure.”
Tails got a good chuckle out of it. “Come on, let's go!”
Sonic started going after him.
//////////
SONIC!
Sonic saw Amy.
She was so small.
So scared.
About to fight him.
Why-
He was back in Green Hill with Tails. He was on his knees, shaking.
“Sonic? What's wrong?”
“Something’s wrong… I- I saw Amy. In Starfall Islands…”
“Yes. You did, Sonic. And then- you forgot.”
\\\\\\\\\\
“I haven't seen Amy in a while. Wonder how she's doing.”
“She's hanging out with Sticks, remember?”
“Oh right.”
“Don't worry. As long as I'm around, you'll always have a-”
Sonic quickly covered Tails’ mouth. “Don't, just don't- don't do that.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“It's not funny, Tails.”
“It's a little funny.”
It was a normal day in Green Hill.
…
Until it wasn't.
___
//////////
The more his friends fought, the more the cracks were starting to show, the more his memories of what happened were coming back.
He did not defeat The End.
He did not leave Starfall Islands yet.
The End took its chance with him. Took over his body. A violation he could never place into words.
But it was coming to an end (ha). He can tell that the assailant in the real world gets weaker as this happens.
Its illusion of Tails was getting more deformed as he refused to accept the manufactured reality.
Using the image of his little brother to try to use his body to destroy the very same.
…
Despite that, he still can't bring himself to attack. Especially when it just cowers away as its machinations are brought down.
“ We don't understand… ”
“Oh, do tell, maybe I can explain.”
“ We created this reality. Catered to your every want and desire, even the ones you didn't know you had. And you still refuse it. Still fight it. Why?! ”
Hearing that voice coming from anything resembling Tails was upsetting.
“That's easy. This reality might be something I want, deep down. But what I want is not as important as what we want. And I know that I do not want a world made solely for me. I want one where we all worked together to make our dreams a reality. That's why.”
“ ... Together… ”
“Yeah! Hard to wrap your head around that, huh?! (do you even have a head…)”
Sonic heard a familiar sound behind him. A gate identical to the ones he used to escape Cyberspace appeared behind him.
“Guess that means you're done. In the end, you can't compete with all of us together!” Sonic made his way to the portal, to his freedom and the defeat of this terrible enemy.
“That's always your excuse.”
Was that… Tails? No, it's still The End. It's still trying to mess with him, after all that. It's not going to work.
“Any time I try to do something nice for you, you always try to shift the credit.”
Sonic was done with The End’s games. He turned around to try to talk it down.
He only saw Tails, on the verge of tears.
“Every time you save the day, we always talk about doing something special to celebrate and you always talk it down!”
It's not real, it's not
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“T-tails, those aren't-”
Tails started wiping them away. “Yeah yeah, I know, “we all chipped in”, “everyone contributed”, “this is everyone’s win”, I get it, I heard it a lot.”
“Well, then-”
“The only time we can do anything like that is for your birthday and even then, something always goes wrong! Like, remember the Time Eater?!”
“Yeah we all-”
“No! You saved everyone! You gathered all the emeralds! You fought the Time Eater all on your own! Oh wait, you had someone to help you there, who was it again,oh that's right, YOU AGAIN! All I could do was stand on the sidelines and cheer you on, twice, four times if you take into account that's all the other me could do too!”
“I-”
“Sonic, we just came back from Starfall Islands, and I had to watch you throw yourself into danger over and over, lie to me about the corruption not hurting you and I couldn't do anything to help!”
Sonic ran out of words.
“I set all this up, just for you. Can- can you be selfish? Just for today? For me? Please.”
Sonic took one good look at his little brother.
He walked away from the portal, and gave him the softest hug he could manage. Tails cried again.
It was a normal day in Green Hill.
“I'm sorry little buddy.”
Until it wasn't.
“That's not who I am.”
//////////
Tails sniffled. “Okay…”
“Hey, we'll do something special after this, okay?”
“Alright…” Tails broke out of the hug. “I… shouldn't keep too much of your time. You can leave.”
Sonic started walking towards the portal again. No more interruptions.
I saw your mind as you ran through my prison
I saw his mind too
Sonic turned around.
It's just Tails.
He started walking again.
I will not be the last
No matter what form I take
Sonic turned around again.
Tails was waving him goodbye.
Sonic waved back and started walking again.
“The End comes for you. Always.”
A new voice. One he's never heard before.
It wasn't… grand like The End he was fighting. It seemed like… a person.
He knew if he turned around, he would not have seen Tails. He did not.
“I'll keep an eye out.”
He stepped into the portal.
He had something in his hand. It was small and scared.
It was Tails. He went to try to touch him with the other hand but it was large too, and scared his little brother, making him flinch.
He was really big and scary and robotic, not unlike the Titans he had fought.
“S-Sonic?”
He looked at his little brother at the palm of his hand, whatever metal composed this new form grinding as he did.
“H-hey little buddy…” he looked down at his body. “We can fix this, right?”
“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh”