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That… thing was following Miles around.
Ever since the incident with the bullies, every so often he would catch glimpses of a familiar-turned-terrifying blue out of the corner of his eye. Miles tried to ignore the creature. He was reluctant to look at it directly, as its uncanny form made his heart twist painfully. It looked so much like Sonic, but wrong . It stood as a reminder that his friend was missing and possibly in danger.
Miles refused to give in to the thought that the only family he had was gone forever, so he worked tirelessly on a machine that could track him across dimensions. The fox had a theory that the thing that replaced his closest friend was some twisted version of Sonic from another plane of existence altogether, which stood to reason that his Sonic was still out there somewhere. Maybe they swapped dimensions. Miles would find him.
If only the Sonic that was currently in Miles’ dimension would stop distracting him.
It didn’t take long for the strange blue hedgehog to become impatient and start planting itself in his direct line of sight, but at a distance. It just watched him tinker and go about his day, outside or in his workshop. Those horrible eyes followed his every move with unknown intent, and Miles was growing tired of it.
He both anticipated and dreaded the day the creature finally approached him like it so obviously wanted to. At least then the trepidation that plagued the fox day in and day out would go away.
It was only a few days after Not-Sonic had begun showing itself fully did it finally, finally , say something.
“ What Are You Doing? ”
Miles jumped in fright at the sound of Not-Sonic’s strange voice. He slowly turned his head away from the machine in which he was currently elbows deep, keeping a tight hold on a bundle of volatile wires lest the whole thing blow up in his face.
Not-Sonic was standing uncomfortably close, easily leaning over Miles to peer into his invention. The fox suppressed an uneasy shudder at the feeling of warmth the creature radiated, practically pressed against his back as it was. Did it not understand the concept of personal space?
“Can you back up a bit?” Miles mumbled irritably.
He’d grown somewhat desensitized to the presence of the impostor over the course of the two weeks it had been stalking him. After it protected him from those bullies and left without tormenting him, Miles figured that it meant him no harm despite their previous altercation. Even so, the thing freaked him out to no end, and he wouldn’t trust it as far as he could throw it. He was positive that it was the reason Sonic was missing.
Not-Sonic chuckled, causing the fur on the back of Miles’ neck to bristle, but it did as told and took a step back. Miles felt his tense muscles relax just a bit. He carefully secured the wires he held and pulled his oil-covered arms from the machine. Sighing, the little fox turned and walked to a nearby work table, pointedly ignoring Not-Sonic as he began wiping grease and oil from his fur.
The creature didn’t catch the hint and approached once again, intently watching Miles with those unnerving eyes.
“What do you want?” Miles asked, barely holding back a growl. His theory that Not-Sonic wouldn’t hurt him was shaky at best, so he’d try to not provoke the thing no matter how much he hated it.
Not-Sonic tilted its head with what seemed like curiosity.
“ What Are You Creating? ” It asked, turning to look at the contraption Miles had just been tinkering with.
Miles felt a pang in his heart. Nobody but Sonic ever asked about his inventions, and he was happy to ramble for as long as the hedgehog’s attention span would allow. He missed their chats so very dearly.
“Why do you want to know?” Miles asked skeptically. He immediately regretted asking when Not-Sonic turned its freaky eyes back to him. Miles would never get over how off the thing looked.
“ You Are Entertaining. You Do Entertaining Things .” It said.
That did not answer Miles’ question, and it frustrated him to no end, but he’d already decided to humor the impostor and try not to provoke it. Maybe it could even give him information on Sonic’s whereabouts.
“It’s a transdimensional tracking beacon. I’m trying to find Sonic.” Miles mumbled, slapping the soiled rag he used to clean his red fur to the workbench with more force than necessary.
“ I Am Sonic .” Not-Sonic stated, pointing at itself with an arm that did not bend as arms should.
Miles gritted his teeth, anger flaring hot behind his ribs. He reminded himself that shouting at the violent dimensional interloper was a bad idea. Oh, how he wished he could take his grief and frustrations out on the creature that was the cause of his suffering.
“You’re not my Sonic.” Miles bit out.
It felt wrong calling Sonic his . Sonic was a free spirit in every sense of the word. The fact that he accepted Miles into his life as his family always astounded the little fox when he dwelled on it. It was true, though. Sonic was his brother. Miles was Sonic’s little buddy.
The impostor seemed oblivious to the turmoil the fox in front of it was going through, as it merely shrugged.
“ I Suppose Not .”
Miles took a deep breath, and then slowly let it out. He forced his overwhelming sadness and anger down. He could deal with it later, while not in the presence of the thing that nearly drowned him a month ago.
“So,” Miles began, picking up a wrench from the workbench and approaching his unfinished beacon. “We’ve established that you’re not Sonic, but I can’t keep calling you Not-Sonic. What should I call you, then?”
As Miles began work on the machine once more, he waited for the creature to reply. He didn’t have to wait long.
“ I Am God .”
Miles cursed and flailed when that frankly insane response hit his ears and caused his elbow to slam into solid metal. He whirled around to stare at Not-Sonic standing behind him, straight faced like it didn’t just say something so ridiculous.
“ What? ” Miles spluttered, laughing uneasily. “I’m not calling you that .”
What kind of messed up dimension did this Sonic-lookalike even come from?
The hedgehog’s ever-present smile thinned, and Miles’ heart dropped to his stomach. Oh no, he offended it. He internally cursed himself. What happened to not provoking it!
“S-Sorry, that’s just- just such a silly thing to call someone!” Miles babbled, waving his paws anxiously. “Do-Don’t you have another nickname?”
Not-Sonic did that weird tilting-bobbing motion with its head, humming. It didn’t look angry, luckily, just irritated and contemplative. Maybe? It was hard for Miles to read its facial expressions when they hardly changed.
“ You May Call Me… ” it paused for a moment.
Miles held his breath, half expecting something even weirder to come out of its mouth.
“ Rewrite .”
The breath he’d been holding left Miles in a relieved laugh. That was an odd nickname, for sure, but still leagues better than God . Though, with the way the newly-dubbed Rewrite began chuckling to itself, Miles had the feeling that he wasn’t privy to some inside joke.
“O…kay.” The fox was a bit peeved from being laughed at, but he didn’t want to offend Rewrite any further. “Rewrite it is, then.”
It felt so weird to be having a civil conversation with the creature that had been terrorizing the population of Green Hills for months. Based on their first meeting, and what he’d heard from others, it seemed Rewrite got some kind of sick enjoyment from causing people fear and even pain. When it had pushed Miles into the river, it just watched him struggle to swim as if it were the most entertaining thing it had ever seen.
But then it scared off Miles’ bullies, and now it was, what, interested in his hobbies? Talk about mixed signals. It made no sense. As far as Miles knew, he was the only one Rewrite had ever really talked to, at least without it preceding some dangerous game of chase.
This impostor was a puzzle that confused Miles, and he hated being confused. He didn’t have time to solve this puzzle. He still had to find his Sonic. Though he resented Rewrite, maybe it replacing Sonic wasn’t by choice. Miles hadn’t considered that until now, with the strange hedgehog actually talking to him civilly. Maybe Rewrite was just as lost as his Sonic was, out there somewhere in a strange new dimension.
Miles spared a glance over at the ‘Sonic’ currently in this dimension. It was watching him raptly, so he had to look away, shuddering. Even if Rewrite wasn’t at fault for the swap, it still creeped the hell out of him.
The little fox sighed and set down his wrench. Without looking at Rewrite, he begrudgingly mumbled, “Thank you… you know, for chasing off those jerks. You didn’t have to help me, but you did, and I never really thanked you for it, so… yeah”
That was awkward. Miles didn’t know how to talk to this version of Sonic. It was nothing like the Sonic he knew. They had to have some similarities though, right? If it protected Miles, they must share some tiny bit of personality.
“ You Do Not Have To Fear Those Three .” Rewrite said with an eerie chuckle.
Miles smiled a little. Yeah, this Sonic must be at least a bit like the Sonic he was familiar with. No version of Sonic could sit around while someone was being bullied. He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of his tormentors in several days. That made his fear of the creature ease a little.
“ They Are No More .”
Miles’ smile dropped along with his heart to his stomach. His blood ran ice cold.
“…what?” He whispered, staring down at his suddenly trembling hands braced against his machine, knees threatening to give out.
“ Those Three Are No More. I Have Taken Them. See ?”
Miles felt the unsettling presence of Rewrite approach, and he reluctantly turned to face the impostor. His heart was hammering against his ribs, and he reflexively squeezed his eyes shut tight before they could meet those of Rewrite. He didn’t want to look at it. Not if it was admitting it did what he thinks it did.
“ Look .” Rewrite said in a joyful yet insistent tone.
Miles fearfully obeyed, opening his eyes to stare at what the terrifying hedgehog was holding out to him in its large gloved hand.
It was… a power ring, but Miles had never seen one like this in his years of studying their secrets. It was a bloody shade of red, and pulsed with a light that felt alive in the most sickening way.
Miles gulped, suddenly feeling nauseous. He didn’t know what he was looking at, but he knew it was something awful beyond words.
“What… is that?” The little fox asked in a tiny, trembling voice.
Rewrite’s unsettling smile widened.
“ It Is A Soul. ” It stated matter-of-factly, looking proud of itself. “ This One Belongs To The Purple One. ”
Rewrite reached behind itself and produced two more of the horrible red rings and dropped them into its palm to join the first. They clinked and chimed against one another with a resonance not of this world. Miles watched, frozen and horrified, as the demented hedgehog pointed to the rings one by one.
“ This One Belongs To The Fox, And This One Belongs To The Bird. ” Rewrite slipped the three rigs onto its index finger and twirled them playfully. “ Their Mortal Bodies Are Gone And Buried, But Their Essence Is Mine .”
Miles’ world was spinning. He had to force down a whimper, eyes locked to those gleaming rings spinning ‘round and ‘round on this monster’s finger.
This couldn't be real. He had to be dreaming. Miles didn’t believe in souls, but looking at those red rings, something primal inside of him was thrashing at the very sight. Everything in his being was screaming at him with a cacophony he was sure could be heard miles around. He had no doubt in his mind that what Rewrite said was true, and if it was true, that meant-
“You… you killed them.” It wasn’t a question.
Suddenly, the sight of the rings were replaced by that of Rewrite’s face, inches from Miles’ own. Those horrible, horrible eyes scrutinized him with a weight he was sure would crush him. He couldn’t even flinch. He was frozen with terror.
He was going to die here, wasn’t he?
“ Are You Afraid? ” Rewrite asked, head tilting to the side and smile thinning. “ Why Are You Afraid? What does it feel like? ”
Miles couldn’t even muster a response. Yes, he was afraid. Very, very afraid. And it felt like his soul was going to leave his body.
Rewrite’s head spun until its uncanny face was turned completely upside down. It gave the impression of frowning even as its strained smile stayed firmly on its muzzle. Two large gloved hands appeared in Miles’ peripheral vision, but he couldn’t look away from the eyes boring into his own.
Miles felt the rough material of Rewrite’s gloves press against the sides of his head, long fingers wrapping nearly entirely around his cranium. He braced himself for whatever it was about to do to him. Was it going to crush his skull? Twist his head off?
How could Miles have ever thought that this monster was anything like his Sonic? Was he really so lonely that he’d welcome the company of someone who literally tried to drown him? He let his guard down, and now he was going to die at the hands of something that shared the face of his brother.
Miles managed to let out a frightened squeak when the hands began moving his head, but while the motions were not gentle, they weren’t painful either. It was just… moving him around. Rewrite stayed mere inches away as it studied every square inch of Miles’ face, tilting the fox’s head this way and that as if searching for something.
Miles’ heart was beating like the wings of a hummingbird, still expecting the firm hold on his face to become crushing. He could only watch in confusion as the creature who just admitted to killing three people handled him like a kid inspecting a weird bug. The longer this went on, the more irritated rather than afraid Miles became. He was still terrified, yes, but he wanted this thing to just get on with it!
“What are you doing?” The fox demanded in as firm a voice as he could muster. It still came out shaky.
Rewrite hummed. Miles could feel the vibrations of the sound with the hedgehog standing so close. Strangely, he couldn’t feel the brush of breath against his face. Did Rewrite not breathe ?
Before Miles could ponder that conundrum, it spoke,
“ Why Are You Afraid? ” Rewrite asked, repeating its earlier question and pointedly not answering Miles’.
The fox growled and finally managed to push past his fear to bat away the hands still against his face. Rewrite obligingly let go and stepped back.
“Because you just admitted to killing three people!” Miles shouted as he smoothed back his ruffled fur.
Rewrite blinked slowly. Miles didn’t know it could blink.
“ Yes. Why Does That Make You Afraid? ”
Miles nearly began screaming and pulling at his own ears. Why was it so hard to get a straight answer from this thing? Did it enjoy speaking in riddles?!
“Because killing people is wrong! It’s literally the worst thing you can do!” Miles snarled, throwing his hands up in frustration. “How do I know you aren’t going to kill me too?!”
Rewrite blinked again, head tilting like a curious dog. “ You Care About The Lives Of Your Tormentors ?”
“Yes! I never wanted them dead !” The fox exclaimed. Why did it feel like he was explaining this to a toddler?! A very, very dangerous toddler.
“ I See .”
Miles waited for clarification, frustration mounting as the silence continued and Rewrite just stared at him. What did that even mean? It wasn’t lost on Miles that Rewrite had avoided telling him whether or not it would kill him . It felt like a thinly veiled threat.
Maybe he shouldn’t be shouting at the violent murderer.
Luckily, it seemed that Rewrite was content to do nothing but stare once again. It felt like they were back at square one. Miles, terrified that the thing would kill him any moment, and Rewrite just silently watching from a distance.
He thought they’d made progress earlier. They were having a civil conversation, but now Miles knew the extent of this monster’s depravity. It can and will take the lives of others without remorse. His previous fears were not unfounded, and he would not make the mistake of letting his guard down again.
Rewrite hummed, finally breaking the suffocating silence, and turned away from Miles. It began to walk toward the workshop exit. The fox relaxed minutely with every gangly step away it took. Please please leave, Miles silently urged it along. It stopped at the bay door and looked back.
“ You’ve Given Me Much To Think About .”
That’s all that it said before lifting the door with one hand and slinking out into the jungle. The silence left behind in the workshop was deafening.
Miles’ heart still hammered, and his breathing had yet to slow. He felt like he’d just narrowly escaped death. Amid his racing thoughts, one stood out starkly, making the little fox’s heart hurt for a whole new reason.
‘You care about the lives of your tormentors?’ It had asked.
Did Rewrite kill those three mobians… because of him?
Was Miles responsible for the deaths of three people?