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Chapter Text

𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄

“Hurry! He’s not going to make it”

Tensions on the Kraken were high. Shadow would’ve been happy that this nightmare was almost over, however they were not out of danger yet. Sonic writhed in pain on the floor. With each passing second, his body faded into transparency. Thorn Rose crouched over his body, trying to provide any support she could give.

“I’m doing me best, but this bucket of bolts is barely holding together!”

The ship shook harder with every rock it slammed into. Sonic cried out as his disintegrating body jostled back and forth.

“HOLD IT STEADY, I WILL CLEAR A PATH,” Rusty Rose yelled as she launched towards a gun. Sonic groaned again and curled into himself as electricity ran through his body.

It was only a matter of seconds before the gunfire missed a rock and the damned thing careened into the side of the ship, taking a propeller with it.

“NO, I’M LOSING SPEED”, Black Rose screamed. Rocks hurled past.

Slowly the ship came to a stop. Black Rose slammed her fist onto the control panel in frustration. “Black Rose. You’ve taken us far enough. I’ll take it from here.”

Shadow approached as Thorn Rose helped Sonic onto his feet. It was only after wrapping his arm behind the other’s back that Shadow could feel how hollow Sonic had become. In the short time it took to fly this far, Sonic’s body decayed at an accelerated rate. His weight was near to non-existent. Shadow tried to walk Sonic across the ship as gently as he could. Sonic said his final goodbyes to the three Roses, and they were off.

Unfortunately, there was no way to be gentle when one was skyrocketing through the void. Shooting from rock to rock took a harder toll on Sonic’s body. His knees hit the floor as soon as they landed on the next stable surface. They were still so far away from the gateway. They couldn’t stop here. Shadow scooped Sonic into both of his arms and launched towards their home.

Weakly, Sonic laughed, “I never knew you were a hugger.”

For fuck’s sake, this buffoon is joking NOW? “Do you want me to save you or not?”

Suddenly, electricity coursed through Sonic’s body and he fell into unconsciousness. Shadow was running out of time, and they were still too far away from the gate. They surged forward into the open air. Once they landed on the next rock, Shadow paused and directed as much power as he could into his shoes. The engines in his soles ignited and they blasted forward. Three sonic booms exploded outward as they broke through the sound barrier.

“HANG ON SONIC!” Shadow tightened his grip on him, his finger starting to phase through where Sonic’s body should be. The gateway drew closer and closer, with only a matter of seconds they would be through. Tension ross in his shoulders, ringing deafened his ears, light from the gate blinded him.

And then,

Nothing.

Shadow stood in a white void. Somehow, the nothing was painful, as though his senses were on overdrive. Slowly, his vision came to and he realized he was standing at the base of the mountain in Green Hill. The real Green Hill, with all its vibrant colors and natural sounds.

However, there was still an ever present nothing. Specifically, the empty space that now filled his arms. The void of where Sonic should be.

The air left Shadow’s body. He didn’t make it in time. After all of Sonic’s failures, the only one to ultimately fail was still standing.

“SONIC, NO!!” a chorus of voices yelled from above. Shadow’s mind went blank. Why would they say that if-

Shadow shot up the side of the mountain. Sounds of fighting grew louder as he climbed higher. Finally, he reached the entrance of the cave. Dr. Eggman (in his ridiculous robotic suit) stood with his back to Shadow, his large head blocking most of Shadow’s view.

“- the result is inevitable,” Eggman finished his speech and stomped further into the cave. He leaned forward and over the doctor’s shoulder, Shadow saw him. There Sonic stood, body fully opaque, looking healthier than he has in a while. Sonic’s eyes zoned in on Shadow, and the idiot’s expression slipped into one of shock. Shadow held out his hand and vanished chaos emerald reappeared right in the palm of his hand. Sonic wordlessly beamed at him, and nodded.

“This world is MINE!” the Doctor continued.

Without further ado, Shadow blipped off the face of the mountain and onto the top of the Prism.

“SHADOW! What the heck are you doing here?!” Eggman yelled.

The audacity.

“I am the ultimate lifeform. I go wherever I want.” Shocked and confused faces all over the room stare blankly at him. All except Sonic, who was wearing the largest smile.

Holding the emerald high into the sky, Shadow yells “CHAOS CONTROL.”

The cave disappears, and all that is left is Shadow and the prism. Finally, the nightmare is over. The prism will be placed in a safe spot, where no one could mess with their reality again.

Chapter Text

𝗡𝗶𝗻𝗲

“Take care of eachother, okay?” and with those final words, Sonic flew off on the back of Thorn Rose’s bird. The rest of the Roses’ left soon after with Shadow on their ship. Everyone waited with bated breath as they watched their friends get farther and farther into the distance. Collective gasps and comforting hugs were given around as the group watched Sonic and the Roses’ face setback after setback. Of course, none of that comfort was directed Nine’s way. He wouldn’t have accepted it anyways. Besides, he too was focused on watching the tiny figures in the distance. At their vantage point, Sonic was a small blue dot. They mostly kept track by watching the rockets firing out from Shadow’s feet. The dots gained faster speed, and skyrocketed into the white light of the gateway.

The Grim exploded into cheers. All around him, people jumped into hugs and clapped each other on the backs. The two other parallel versions of nine tackled each other. The red one from New Yoke cried happy tears. The pirates were probably the loudest of them all.

Nine was silent. He felt light. They made it. Sonic was okay.

The thought shook him, and the guilt of the last day rushed back in. Quietly, Nine separated himself from the group and sat on the uncomfortably familiar hammock in his lab. No one else noticed his disappearance. They didn’t care.

After a while of continuous celebration and heartfelt goodbyes, the group went their separate ways. No one said goodbye to Nine. If they had, it would have made him feel worse.

Finally, the broken corpse of the Grim was silent. The only light left was the electronic glow of Nine’s monitors.

He just sat there, in his empty home. He achieved what he always wanted.

But did he?

—

Over the next couple of days, the Grim slowly reformed into the deserted wasteland it once was. Nine focused on making the space his home. The first issue was food. When Nine had controlled the prism, he could alter the chemical make-up of any material object, practically making food out of thin air. Without it though, Nine was lost. At least the palm trees he created grew coconuts, but that wouldn’t sustain him forever.

If only he didn’t get captured by the Chaos Council in New Yoke back then. He could’ve spent so much more time preparing the Grim into a livable habitat for him and-

And Sonic.

Nine had tried to repress most of his thoughts about Sonic, too worried that the guilt would knock him down again. But he also couldn’t deny the ache that was left in his heart.

At least, after everything Nine had done, Sonic was able to make it safely home. However, there was still something that bothered Nine. There were too many uncontrolled variables surrounding Sonic’s exit. Nine couldn’t be sure that entering his correct shatter space would’ve rejuvenated Sonic. The thought terrified him.

What if Shadow landed on the other side of the gate, and Sonic continued to decay until he was nothing.

Maybe food wasn’t Nine’s biggest problem at the moment. He got right to work in his lab. If he could just make a camera that he could send to their realm, then he could set his worries aside.

Sure, Nine didn’t create enough food storages, but he did recreate his lab with all the necessary materials. Nine had to hand it to himself, he had interesting priorities.

Within the span of an afternoon, he created a tiny remote-controlled flying camera with audio capabilities. After connecting the video feedback to his monitors, Nine stepped outside to launch it. The Grim’s sunset glowed a beautiful purple. Setting the camera on the ground and stepping back a safe distance, Nine finished the preparations. He was moments away from hitting the launch button, when his hand hesitated.

Nine would be seeing into Sonic’s realm, with all his friends there. Nine would see Tails. The bitter feeling of anger rose in Nine before he could stop himself.

It doesn’t matter. All that mattered was making sure that Sonic had made it through, and then Nine could continue to live without guilt holding him back.

His hand hits the button and the camera shoots into the sky. In his lab, Nine uses his remote to dodge the floating rocks of the inbetween space. It’s not hard, but it does take a while before he reaches the yellow gate.

“In and out,” Nine says to himself, “no need to linger.”

Slowly, the camera flew to white glow of the gate's entrance. With one last deep breath, Nine sent the camera into the portal.

However, the camera didn’t enter. Rather, it just bounced off the white glow.

“What?”

Nine tried again and again. The camera continued to bounce off the portal and float back into the void.

“No”

With all his might, he held onto the forward button and watched as the camera tried to force its way into the portal. A rainbow of color shot around the camera’s video, then the video showed the camera being slingshotted from the gateway’s entrance and straight into a nearby rock. The camera’s video stream cuts out.

“NO!!”

Why? Why did this happen? Sonic’s shatter space is locked? What does this mean?

Is that a good sign? That maybe all the intended persons are safely returned, and that there is no need for a connection to the outside?

If anything, it’s not much of a sign at all! This answers none of Nine’s questions or settles his anxieties. If anything, his anxiety has shot through the roof. What does this mean?

He can never contact Sonic again? Nine didn’t have any specific plans to do so, but now that he knows it's impossible the ache in his heart grows stronger.

What does this mean?

Chapter Text

𝗡𝗶𝗻𝗲

After he finally calmed his nerves, Nine determined that he didn’t have enough information to make any conclusions about the situation.

But he would find his answers. He threw himself into his work. He had used portals before to travel through the parallel worlds. Maybe the same line of thinking could be applied to this case. Granted, Nine had the shards when he portal jumped in the past, but there must be a work around. There must be some kind of solution.

When his stomach grumbled, he scraped coconut meat out of the hard shell and returned immediately to his research. When his eyes closed of their own volition, he forced himself to focus.

He would try one theory, and ultimately watch it fail. Back to the drawing board.

The Grim’s dusty sunlight didn’t reach the inside of Nine’s lab, so time became an irrelevant feature of his life.

Try another theory. Fail.

Another theory. fail.

Another. Fail.

Fail.

Fail.

At a certain point, Nine stopped getting frustrated at his constant failures. He would just blink heavily at the wreck of his newest invention, and then robotically return to the work desk.

Nine had no idea how many days he had been at it when his senses began to slip. He could no longer hold his head up long enough to look at his notes. So, he unwillingly dropped his head on his desk and let go. The warm feeling of having his eyes close felt like bliss.

Of course, it wouldn’t last. An explosion blew out the side wall of Nine’s Lab. Nine hadn’t noticed.

“HAND OVER THE CRYSTAL, YOU WIESEL,” a katana was leveled at his head.

“He looks dead.”

“Hey dimwit, the prism is GONE!” grumbled one of the voices, “youths these days.”

“Well, he must’ve hidden it somewhere. What happened to him, anyways, he didn’t look this dead last time we saw him.”

“Oh, get out of my way!” a hand grasped onto Nine’s collar and lifted him high above his chair. “Wake up, you pathetic waste of space!”

Only then, does Nine crack his eyes open to see the blurry image of five people standing in front of him. “Ah fuck, not you guys”

“Yes,” proclaimed the man holding him up, Mr. Dr. Eggman, “It is us, the Chaos Council! Now where have you hidden the crystal? Tell us and you may live to see another day.”

Nine hardly listened to his threats and just weakly rubbed at his eyes. How long had he been out for?

“Didn’t you guys vow to never bother me again? Whatever happened to that?”

“When have you ever seen us uphold a promise?” asked Dr. Done-it.

“Fair enough.”

“Enough of this”, Mr. Dr. Eggman shook his body, “tell us the location of the prism! NOW!”

“WHy would you think it’d be here?!” Nine grasped onto the hand holding him up.

“This was the last place we saw it” Dr. Don’t sassed.

“Yea, and? That was- How long ago was that?”

With a sigh of frustration, Mr. Dr. Eggman threw Nine back down onto his seat. “If not here, then where? You must know!”

The thing was, Nine didn’t know. The prism just vanished into thin air. He had his suspicions that it ended up in Sonic’s realm, but it very well could’ve just disintegrated into nothing.

Nine scowled, “Listen here, I don’t know where it is. And even if I did know, what in your idiotic brain makes you think I would ever tell you?”

“We have ways of making you talk.”

“Oh yea? And why did you not use your ‘ways’ in the past? Your bluffing is so bad, it makes you look stupid.”

“These methods worked so well on your friend, so why not you?”

Suddenly, Nine’s mind flew back to a memory. His hands in chains, standing on the mothership. Sonic holding a shard on a nearby mountain peak. Electricity.

Nine’s mechanical tails shot to the floor, “Your methods only worked on Sonic because he made his weak spot so obvious! I do not have that same vulnerability!” With every word he rose himself higher and higher, til he was eye level with Mr. Dr. Eggman

The room was stunned silent. That was until, “pftt-”

That disgusting baby began laughing and spitting all over itself. A moment later, all the other eggmen join the baby in cackling. It was bizarre to Nine, until it was just plain out annoying. How did he end up with the Chaos Council all laughing in his face again?

“You think of yourself as so reserved and unreadable,” Dr. Deep says as he picks up a discarded blueprint for the portal, “but you are not as strong as you make yourself out to be.” The building threat makes Nine deeply uncomfortable. Nevertheless, all of this is pointless.

“You’ll never make it to him. And even if you had him, I would not tell you.”

Mr. Dr. Eggman stared into Nine’s tired eyes. Somewhere in his eyes, he must’ve found some answer, for he smirked. “Don’t hold your breath, kid.”

Then all of the eggmen filed out of the room. Through the hole that used to be his wall, Nine watched as the eggmen climbed aboard the Kraken. The missing propeller and holes had been fixed. And they took off. Just like that.

Nine blinked heavily as he watched the ship direct itself straight towards-

Green hill.

Nine’s breathing picked up.

It’s Fine. His shatter space is locked. Nine has tested that. There’s no way these buffoons could get in. It’s fine.

Nine raced to his pile of failed inventions. His spacecraft was abandoned in New Yoke a long time ago, but at least he still had plenty of tiny rockets just in case his portal needed to be in close proximity to the realm. Grabbing a roll of electrical tape, Nine strapped the small rockets to the sides of his shoes. With one final prayer that he wasn’t about to explode his feet off, he hit the rocket’s activation button.

Nine shot into the night. He was off course, but with some slight angle adjustments he was following closely behind the Kraken. The ride to Sonic’s dimension was much faster with the Chaos Council’s ship deflecting all the rocks.

Nine’s heart was still beating too fast for his own comfort. There was no reason for him to freak out. The realm was locked. These idiots were not going to make it inside. Nine was just too tired to think about it rationally. At least he was now close enough to watch them make fools out of themselves.

However, as they approached the gateway of Green Hill, the Kraken came to a creaking stop. And then, nothing. The ship did nothing. Nine scrunched his face in confusion, and eventually settled into a scowl.

Was he going to have to jump all the way back home for nothing?

Suddenly, a ray of light shot out from the Kraken and into the gateway. The ship dispersed into thousands of particles, all of which were then sucked into Sonic’s shatter space.

Huh?