Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

3:00 am. Or as Sonic liked to call it, active hours. He stood in the darkness, in front of the kitchen sink, drinking water avidly. It was strange, he thought to himself, that he was so thirsty. Normally, the only time he would be drinking water is once he’s reached the ‘head pounding, throat raw, eyes burning’ stage of dehydration, but now, the repetitive movement of refilling the glass and dunking it into his mouth was almost soothing. It’s not like he was desperate to go back to sleep either. He had noticed that any lack of movement made him feel…uneasy, to say the least. He guessed it was to be expected, after almost non-stop running for several days. The glass clinked against the surface of the kitchen table as Sonic placed it, face down on the counter. He itched his left arm, and stared as the water slowly slid along the interior of the glass, on to the table top. His foot tapped impatiently, and he unconsciously started picking at the edges of his gloves. He looked at the clock. 3:03 am. The lack of time passing made him more uncertain. He needed to run. He slipped on his shoes as quietly as he could, to not disturb Tails’ slumber, and he gently unlocked the door. Instantly, a cold breeze swept in, invading the warm interior of the house with its presence. He shut the door behind him, and he ran.

He ran, and ran, and ran.

He started to feel it taking over his body, a cold slick substance growing over his left arm. He clenched his hands and squeezed his eyes shut. It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real. He sped up, breezing past trees and animals, scattering as he ran by, leaving a trail of upturned leaves as he went. The whirring in his ears from the speed drowned out his treacherous thoughts. As he exited the forest, the trees thinning out into a meadow, he slowed down, panting for breath. Unusual, he noted, as he normally did not get tired while running. He leaned against a lamppost, and looked up from his feet around the village he had happened to walk into. To say he knew where he was exactly would be a lie, but he was sure he had been here before. Maybe it was one of Eggman’s countless battles. Maybe it was for a quick pizza run. He stood for a second, thinking. Then he felt a small drop of freezing substance fall onto his cheek. It slid slowly, down to his chin.

He felt every hair on his body stand on end at the uncomfortably familiar sensation. He rose a trembling hand to his face and roughly brushed off the water. It’s just rain, he tried to tell himself. It’s just rain.

But the cold clung to his skin the same way it had back then.

He tried his best to glare his shaking hand into submission, but it might have come off as more of a wearily frustrated expression instead. He sighed resignedly, and checked the clock tower above the Town Hall just opposite him for the time. 3:38 am. His foot started tapping yet again, and he walked to the nearest house. It was the same as all the other buildings on the street: white walls, brown tiled roof, two windows on either side of the door, with the curtains drawn. He sat down gently on the side of the house, next to the recycling bin, and drew his legs up towards him. Sonic rested his head on his knees and drifted off to sleep.

Sonic woke up from his (albeit light) sleep to faint murmurs to his left. His ears flicked to the direction of the noise, while he remained still, trying to mentally brush off the exhaustion that clung to him venomously. He caught a few words:

“Sonic…okay?…unconscious…dead…help?”

The worrying nature of the talk gave him the energy to stand up from his sleeping position and stretch exaggeratedly, stealing a glance to his left, to look at the people talking. They were two Mobians, one with a child holding her hand, as they gazed concernedly at Sonic. His eyes flicked over the two people’s forms, noting the shopping bag one was carrying. He brought his hand down from being stretched up into the air to rub at his eyes, before quickly zooming over to the pair as a streak of blue light. He adopted a friendly smile, and did a little bow in front of them.

“Morning ladies! You guys are up quite early for a grocery run, aren’t you?”

He saw both the women relax as he seemed livelier than when they first found him, and one of them responded, “Oh yes, well, we thought that now would be a good time to refill on food, since our stores were strewn everywhere on the floor after the…well…”

Sonic could feel his smile freeze at the realisation of what exactly she was referring to. He straightened, and cleared his throat uncomfortably.

This is what you have done to the world.

“Well, how about I give you a hand then? Especially for the little guy.” He winked at the young boy, who relaxed his grip on his mother’s dress and smiled back at him.

The two seemed delighted to have the hero of Mobius help them with their shopping bags, and gladly let him take them. The three of them walked back to the house jovially, engaging Sonic with cheerful small talk. He noticed that thankfully, they had both left the concern over him sleeping in such an awkward spot behind them. He glanced at the Town Hall clock tower as they passed by. 5:34am. He grimaced. That rest hadn’t been as fruitful as he had first thought. He dropped off the bags; exchanged a few more pleasantries with the pair; ruffled the kid’s hair; and sped off with a fleeting glance back and a shining smile that everyone had come to know him for.

His short excursion with the two women had cut him short for time, as he sped up and down the hills back to his and Tails’ place. Tails was a very orderly person, especially for someone his age, and had been getting up at 6:00am regularly for the past 2 years. Sonic, however, was the very opposite, and as a result, sped up even faster as the minutes went by; the time was 5:53am.

He reached the door finally, bumping against it roughly as he couldn’t slow down fast enough. He hurriedly wiped his shoes on the doormat outside and unlocked the door, ears listening carefully for any signs of disturbance. Sonic heard none, and let out a small sigh of relief, before kicking off his shoes and sprinting upstairs to his room.

Pushing open the door with his foot, Sonic properly looked at the mess that was his bedroom. He was well aware how unorganised he was, but a nagging thought told him that maybe this was a bit too much. He stepped around discarded gloves and socks on the floor, realising he could barely see the wooden planks beneath them, and heavily sat onto his bed, a puff of dust flying into the air as a reminder of how little he had been sleeping. He leaned backward and fell onto it, splayed out, and stared at the ceiling. He looked at the glow-in-the-dark stars he and Tails had stuck when he had first brought him in and smiled. Tails had been too scared to sleep in the dark, and at the time he didn’t have a room to himself, so Sonic let him sleep in his bed with him, gazing at the lit ceiling before drifting off. As time passed they had started peeling off; it was a thought that did upset Sonic (not that he had admitted it out loud), but he still looked at them fondly. He couldn’t remember the last time he had done something fun with Tails, what with the War, the time he spent captive, the Restoration efforts, and the Metal Virus happening one after the other. Perhaps a movie night would be good.

You left him alone for six months. He would hate doing that with you.

Sonic frowned. “Shut up.”

He looked at the clock, and sat up surprised as it read 7:13am. He wasn’t aware of how quickly the time had passed.

I’ll just wash my face and go downstairs, he thought, maybe I should pose the question to Tails too.

Basically sliding down the banister, Sonic went downstairs to be greeted by the smell of toast and tea. He looked into the kitchen and smiled as he saw the young fox at the kitchen desktop, fiddling with a small gadget in his hands, unaware of Sonic at the doorway. The way he stuck his tongue out while screwing things into the device was cute, he thought to himself, a reminder that he was still a kid. Sonic softly cleared his throat, and Tails’ head shot up to the doorway, before his face broke into a wide smile.

“Hi Sonic! You slept in a bit more than usual. You’re normally up about—“ he paused to look at his watch, “—24 minutes before now.”

“Woah, have you been watching me? Should I be worried about that?” He was joking, but the way Tails’ smile faltered gave way for concern. “Tails?”

“I haven’t really been watching you, but… sometimes I just… get bad dreams, about…the war.” His voice trailed off, and there wasn’t much question about what specifically he was talking about. “I just need a reality check, you know? T-to make sure you are still…here.”

You should have tried harder to escape; you subjected him to this. He’s suffering because of you.

Sonic walked over to Tails and placed a hand on his shoulder. “I— I’m sorry bud.”

Tails wiped at his eyes, before looking up to the hedgehog in confusion. “Why are you sorry? It wasn’t your fault.”

Yes it was. He gets nightmares because of you.

“I just— never mind.” Sonic hesitated. Was it really okay to ask him of this? he wondered, he must be caught up with the rescue missions after what happened. He decided to just go with it. “Hey Tails? How about we do a movie night today? Just like old times?”

To his relief, Tails’ eyes lit up at the suggestion, and his tails started swaying around excitedly. “Yeah! I’ll sort out my stuff in the afternoon so I’m free.” He jumped down from the chair and hugged Sonic, who ruffled the fur on his head in response, and was about to leave before pausing and quickly saying, “Dibs on choosing the film!” then running down to his workshop.

Sonic smiled at Tails’ antics, his relief partially coming from the fact he had accepted in the first place. He grabbed an apple from the fruit basket lying in the centre of the kitchen desk and walked out. He looked down at his hands and realised he had been picking at his gloves again. The cuffs had grown threadbare, with loose strands teetering on the edges. He didn’t have any restoration duties like Tails or Amy, due to them both forcing him to rest and relax considering how long he had been running for during the epidemic, so he ironically decided to go for a run. It always helped him clear his mind.

Shadow had been feeling guilty about his actions during the Metal Virus. His thought — that he would be immune from the virus in the same way he was immune to disease — was foolish, and he admitted it. That being said, the only person he had told this regret to was Rouge. They were both sat on the couch, side by side. When Shadow had told his apologies, Rouge put down her phone and showed him a slightly weary smile.

“Thank you, Shadow. But…” she turned to face him properly, her expression turning mischievous, “I think your apology is owed to someone else too.”

Shadow looked at her with slight confusion, before his face dropped in realisation. He could feign ignorance, but he knew that would just prolong the torture. “No. I am not apologising to him.”

“Shadow.” She held up her hand and started ticking off the reasons. “You purposefully ignored his advice, ran head first into danger while calling him a coward for trying to fight off the infection, and told him he deserved to be infected with the Metal Virus. He deserves at least a drop of regret from you.”

Shadow winced slightly. He had forgotten that he had said that, but still held his ground. “We are talking about Sonic The Hedgehog. He is a celebrity, and has dealt with harsh words before—“

“But he shouldn’t have to, especially from his friends.”

“…Sonic is not my friend.”

Rouge rolled her eyes at him. “Have it your way, handsome, but I mean it. If I have to kick you out of the house, I will immediately.”

He scoffed at the threat and crossed his arms, not moving. Rouge passively noticed how he looked a bit like a petulant child. She muttered a soft “very well then”.

This is how Shadow found himself standing outside of their apartment, locked out. He was fuming, and although it didn’t show, he felt as though he was physically red with rage.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a stupid person, he thought as his vocabulary left him in his fury, he is brash, arrogant, and therefore, has heard millions of insults from people who wished to cut off his head, Shadow included, and while he did admit his accusation was harsh — his weary, confused face when he had said those damning words flashed in his mind — he would not be bothered by such a short statement. He should not be bothered.

As his internal monologue played in his head, his legs found themselves walking to the nearest park. By the time he was finished, he was stood just outside of the entrance. Shadow figured he should probably try to calm himself before going back and throttling Rouge, so he bought a bag of duck food at the shop on the side of the entrance, and (praying no one he knew saw him) headed down to the river. The sleek metal benches were soothingly cold, in contrast to the shining sun and stillness of the air. He sat down and ripped open the bag, throwing the staple to the ground, and almost immediately ducks started to swim towards him, recognising the familiar sound of food being served. Shadow carelessly threw a handful, a small smile flitting on his face as a duck managed to catch the crumb in its mouth.

“Well Shadow, what a cute activity for you to be doing!”

Sometimes, Shadow believes the Fates really do hate him.

The irritatingly familiar voice caused him to turn around. “I am not cute.”

Sonic was leaning on the bench beside him, looking at him with that god awful smile. The hedgehog that was the reason he was doing this in the first place. Shadow wondered whether throwing him or throwing himself into the river was the better idea. “I never said you were cute, what an odd way to interpret my words.”

He leaped over the back of the bench to sit beside him, slouching and leaning back with his hands behind his quills. He looked at him with an eyebrow raised, and Shadow got a proper look at him.

“So why are you here? Busy night?”

“You look like shit.” After saying that, he realised he was supposed to apologise, not to insult again.

Sonic faltered slightly at the blunt statement, then let out a soft laugh, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, and a hand went up to fiddle with his quills. “Yeesh Shads, always there with the delicate words aren’t you?”

Shadow wondered if Sonic was thinking about what he had said in the city during the epidemic when he said that.

“I just have a bad case of bed head. I wasn’t gonna really stop by any places but then,” his voice raised a note as he looked at Shadow gleefully, “I saw Mr. Ultimate Lifeform feeding the ducks, and couldn’t resist a little pit stop.”

Sonic was looking livelier than he had when he first approached Shadow, albeit for less than satisfactory reasons, and he took the time to look at the blue hedgehog carefully. His quills were straggled, unkempt, and thin, his fur lacking the soft sheen that he had been used to seeing on his rival; it was almost duller, turning from a deep vibrant blue to a more murky version of the same colour. His eyes were dull, permanently stuck in a half-lidded gaze, and had prominent eye-bags underneath them. A new thing Shadow had noticed was small scratches over his arms, possibly from impacts and tumbles, but considering the chaos energy in his body, Shadow was surprised they hadn’t healed yet. His left arm seemed to have got the worst of it, with rough patches scattered at the shoulder. The most noticeable thing about him though, was his heavy breathing. He was panting like he had sprinted from his house to the park. Well, he most likely had done so, but running never seemed to tire the hedgehog. The lack of stamina presenting now was…anomalous, to say the least. He suddenly realised he could just apologise to Sonic now and get it over with, and not have to wrestle Rouge to get back into the house.

“Sonic, I have something to say.”

Sonic picked at the cuffs of his gloves, and smiled at him. “Go ahead, Shads, I ain’t stopping you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Sonic stilled the second Shadow said it. He picked out a quill from his head casually and twisted it in his hands. “What are you sorry for?”

“In Sunset City, what I said when I dropped off the truck.” Shadow was watching Sonic carefully for a reaction.

“Oh right. Yeah. That.” Sonic pulled out another quill. “It’s— it’s alright. You weren’t exactly wrong about that, I should have let you just—“

“No.” Shadow shook his head fervently. “No matter what, you didn’t deserve anything.”

Another quill. “Mr. Tinker was— was a weakness, I should have just…let you kill him. You and Espio, I should have—“

This was the first time Shadow had heard Espio expressing the same opinion as him, but he didn’t dwell on it. “Do you really think you would have been happy if Eggman— no, Mr. Tinker was dead?”

Yanking out another quill, Sonic twisted his whole body to look at Shadow incredulously. “If I would have been happy? Shadow, this isn’t about me. This is the entire world, I— I endangered everyone.

Shadow noted how hesitant his speech was, and how his hands were flicking through his quills feverishly. “I should have listened to what everyone else was saying. I— I deserved—“

“Sonic.” Shadow had grabbed Sonic’s hand, and noticed it was trembling. “Your head, it’s bleeding.”

Sonic stared at him blankly, before raising his hand to touch the side of his head, and pulling back to look at the red stain blooming across his glove. Shadow didn’t know why, but Sonic had been pulling out quills harder and harder until he had broken skin.

Suddenly, Sonic stood up, and roughly wiped the bleeding spot on his head, wincing as glove met flesh. He looked at the clock tower in the distance, and the vacant, almost afraid look on his face vanished, replaced with a cheerful smile. He did a little mock salute towards Shadow.

“Well, uh—“ he cleared his throat uncomfortably. “It’s been fun talking to you like this Shads, but unfortunately, I have a movie night to set up with Tails, so we’re going to have to place this on hold. Enjoy feeding the ducks!” With a wink, Sonic sped off outside the park.

Shadow stared dumbly at the spot where Sonic had just been standing, still a bit lost on what exactly had just happened. He looked down at the ground around Sonic’s seat, and saw broken blue quills dotted on the ground, and a drop of darkening blood. He realised that he had apologised to Sonic, and therefore should be allowed to go home. Shadow got up, crumpling the now empty food bag and tossing it into a bin, before looking at the clock tower. The time was only 9:43am.

Something was wrong with Sonic.

Chapter Text

“Stupid, stupid, stupid…” Sonic muttered to himself as he zoomed out of the park. Shadow had to have caught on to his weird behaviour. Not that there was anything to catch on to. The last thing Sonic needed was a pitying stare every time he was among friends. The apology caught him off guard too; he wasn’t expecting Shadow to feel sorry for anything, let alone towards Sonic of all people. But, he thought to himself, he was wrong. Shadow had no need to be sorry. The Metal Virus was his fault, he knew it. It would have been unfair if he had got off free from any suffering while everyone else bore the brunt of his actions.

Sonic slowed down to a jog before stopping entirely, leaning against a lamppost. His breath was coming out in shaky gasps, and he brought an equally shaky hand to his chest in an attempt to even out his breathing. He looked at the clock inside a nearby coffee shop. 9:49am. He winced. His excuse of movie night preparations was looking weaker and weaker; of course someone like Shadow wouldn’t believe his hurry when it was still early morning. The warm lights and pleasant aroma coming from the building drew him in, and Sonic walked inside the cafe and slid down onto a chair, arms propping himself up on the table. He was tired. Unbelievably tired. And yet he couldn’t sleep. He didn’t want to sleep. His head was so heavy, so hard to keep up, and his vision was blurring. His arms slowly slid down and down until he was lying on the table. Maybe a short rest wouldn’t hurt. He felt his eyes slowly fall down, and he relaxed for the first time in a while.

Sonic sat on the hard metal bench, staring blankly at the wall. The scratches and scrapes were infinitely interesting to him (a short laugh escaped him at the pun) and moreover, he didn’t want to look anywhere else.

He didn’t want to know what would happen if he did.

The lack of chaos energy pulsing through his body left him in uncomfortable silence. It left him unaware of his surroundings, blind to the energy in the atmosphere. He looked down at his cuffed hands, the binds glowing blue. They were draining chaos energy from him, as a means to keep him inside, unable to run.

How long had he been here?

Sonic felt as though an answer to that question would only upset him further, so he pushed the thought away. He pulled his legs up to his chest, and sat there, waiting. The only thing he could do.
Suddenly, he heard a quiet clatter from above. Instantly alert, his head shot up to look at the ceiling. It was bare, apart from a flickering bulb in the centre, and a vent just next to it. He concentrated carefully on the vent, and he heard it. Another clatter. Sudden movement would be a mistake, as it would draw attention, so Sonic slowly unfurled from his position and stood up, standing a bit back so that if the cover were to give way, he would not get a concussion. The sounds came again, louder, and finally, the cover slipped, and fell with a loud bang onto the floor of his cell.

A familiar looking yellow face peered down at him from above. “Sonic! Hang tight, I’m coming in.” A gentle breeze blew over Sonic’s face as Tails slowly floated to the ground, twirling his tails. He looked up at Sonic with the biggest smile on his face the hedgehog had ever seen, though the redness around his eyes was not lost on him.

Sonic felt a flutter of panic in his chest, but quickly quelled it for the moment and pulled Tails into a bone-crushing hug, falling onto his knees. “Tails?! Oh Chaos, Tails!” He grabbed Tails’ face and twisted it all around, looking for cuts or bruises. “You aren’t hurt are you? Did you eat? Have you been sleeping?”

Tails laughed and placed his hands over Sonic’s. “I’m fine, if anything…” His expression shifted from joy to concern. “I should be asking you how you’re doing. You look rough.”

Sonic almost snorted at Tails’ words. There was no doubt he looked a lot worse than just ‘rough’. “Let’s focus on getting the hell out of here, then we’ll talk. Is anyone else with you?”

He nodded. “Yep, Rouge is here, but she wanted to deal with…Shadow, so she’s not up in the vent with me.”

Sonic momentarily winced. Rouge must be dealing with the worst of it about Shadow’s side switch. “Alright then, let’s leave before we attract any more attention. I have a suspicion Eggman has a camera in here somewhere.”

Tails grabbed Sonic’s hands and flew him up into the vent. Once they were both in, he gestured to his cuffs. “You got anything for these?”

The fox shook his head sorrowfully. “Sorry Sonic, I didn’t have access to any information about your cuffs, so I couldn’t make a key.”

“S’alright, bud. I’m sure that Knuckles has a solution.” They both giggled at the small joke.

Tails seemed to have access to a plan of the vents, and Sonic, not understanding anything he told him, chose to just nod and follow him obediently. This routine seemed to carry on for a while, and the cramped spaces of the vents were making him feel like running even more. If he weren’t crawling, he was sure he would be tapping his foot by now.

All of a sudden, he heard a loud, familiar voice. “The blue hedgehog has done what?!”

“Ah, guess Eggman noticed me not being there. Can we hurry up a bit buddy?” Sonic looked over to Tails. He had stopped moving, and didn’t respond to Sonic. “Tails?” He crawled a bit closer to him, but he remained still, silent. Sonic felt uneasy at the fox’s lack of response. He gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “Tail—“

With a snarl, Tails turned around and launched him at the hedgehog, who yelped and tried to scurry back, but was pinned down by him with a slam. His claws dug into Sonic’s wrists, with a pinprick of pain telling him that he was drawing blood. Sonic had squeezed his eyes shut at the pain of hitting the metal surface, but slowly opened them, about to ask the fox what the hell he was doing, but stopped at the sight before him. Tails’ fur had gone from soft and silky, to hard and shiny; his tails, which were swaying ominously behind him, had grown hard spikes; his claws were sharper and longer; and most noticeable of all, his eyes had gone from a sky blue, to a deep obscuring red, his sclera a similar shade too. Sonic felt his throat constrict at the painfully familiar transformation, and panic filled his body as he felt the virus spreading from where Tails’ hands were pinning him down. He tried to ignore the freezing, metallic substance covering his arms and yelled to Tails. “Tails! Stop! Look at what you’re doing! You—“

“Look what you have done.” His voice grated against Sonic’s ears, harsh and industrial, like a broken voice box. “You did this to me. You did this to all of us. You must pay for your crimes.”

More arms were holding Sonic’s arms and legs, but he was too fixated on Tails to notice them pulling him down. He closed his eyes as the fox drew nearer.

“Always so carefree, not thinking about consequences or repercussions. This pain is justified.”
Sonic frantically pulled at the hands of all he had failed to save, trying to stay with Tails, no matter how hurtful the words were. He felt a cool drop fall down his cheek, unable to tell if it was the virus or his despair. He tried to yell for Tails, but no sound came out of his mouth. Tails stood up, and looked at him — cold and indifferent.

“It’s what you deserve.”

“Whew! I’m exhausted from all this work.” Amy sighed, feet dragging as she trudged along the pavement.

Flying by her side, Jewel the Beetle giggled at her antics. “You did brilliantly Amy, clearing all the rubble from the village can’t have been easy.” She brushed out her pencil skirt, her expression faltering. “It’s always better than whatever I do; I always end up on the sidelines.”

Amy stared at her. “Jewels, you got everyone out of the village, in an orderly fashion, and also ran into a crumbling house to save a kid. I’m surprised your wings are still working,” she deadpanned.

“I mean, it hurts a bit, but not any more than my feet, I mean—“ she gestured to her heels-clad feet. “I’ll take flying all day with an injured wing over walking in my heels a second longer.”

“That’s true, we should definitely go shopping sometime: I’ll get you something to wear besides a suit and heels.” Amy playfully nudged the beetle. “You deserve a break for all you’ve done for us. And some shoes.”

The soft aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the air as the two walked past a cafe. They both stopped. Amy looked sideways at Jewel, putting on her best puppy-dog expression. “Can we…?”

“Well…we need to meet Silver and Tails at 1:45 to tackle some collapsed houses, and the time is…” Jewel checked her watch, before looking at Amy with a small smile. “…12:53. Fine, we can go in.”

Amy let out a cheer and hugged her friend, then practically dragged her into the shop. Jewel said to her, “you know, normally I would expect the begging to eat to come from another hedgehog I know—“
“Sonic?!”

“Yes, Sonic—“ she looked over to where Amy was staring, and realised she was not answering her, but pointing to the very hedgehog she was talking about, sitting facedown at a coffee table.

Amy ran over to him and sat next to him, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. She noticed and gently brushed against a dark red patch on the side of head, pulling away when Sonic winced at the touch. Jewel knew that although she’d stepped down as Leader of the Restoration, Amy was as busy as ever — managing village after village, rubble after rubble. Amy herself regretfully knew she’d only managed a single hug when Sonic returned from the Sol Dimension. He’d looked rough, sure, but she’d figured a week of sleep would fix it. She looked back to Jewel, worried.

Jewel pulled up a chair and sat next to Sonic, looking at him carefully. It was interesting, yet completely expected that Sonic had ignored Amy’s and Tails’ instructions to relax and stay at home, but seeing him passed out in a coffee shop was not something that could have been predicted. Jewel noticed Amy seemed to be getting more and more distressed, so she calmly took her hand. “Amy, how about you go bring us all some coffee to drink?”

Amy looked to her friend, then to Sonic. “But— what if—“ Honestly, she was afraid. She didn’t want to leave his side; she wanted to wait until he woke up, to finally ask how he had ended up like this.

“If he wakes up, I will be here, facing him. I have a feeling you will overreact the second he wakes. He needs a calm reaction,” Jewel said, soft but firm.

Amy sighed and got up. “Alright then. Caramel Latte?”

“Yes please.”

Amy left to go order, and while waiting in line she realised it was a good idea that Jewel had sent her to get the drinks. The moment to herself helped her understand that frantic questions were not a good idea for someone who looked so…frazzled.

Meanwhile, Jewel watched her leave, before looking back at Sonic, placing his hand in hers and rubbing it soothingly. She gently brushed through his quills with her free hand, her fingers snagging on tangles as she combed. He was not brushing them, though whether that was just Sonic being Sonic or not she didn’t know. She straightened the cuff of his glove absently, grazing his wrist as she did so, but at the contact he flinched and murmured something Jewel thought was “Tails”. A pit of unease built inside her, and she decided to try and wake him up. Slowly leaning across the table, she whispered, “Sonic?”

No response. She tried a bit louder.

“Sonic??”

Sonic shot upright from his resting position, rattling the table. Jewel gasped at the sudden movement, fanning out her wings instinctively, pulling back her hand and leaning away from him. He looked at her vacantly, as though he could see through her, and she could feel the table tremble slightly as he rapidly tapped his foot. He looked around frantically, like he couldn’t place where he was, before resting on Jewel again, this time his gaze sharpening.

“…Jewel?”

The beetle tried her best to get rid of the alarm showing on her face, replacing it with a soft smile. “Hi Sonic. You were sleeping quite well weren’t you?”

Sonic seemed to visibly relax at her words. He stared at his hands — which, Jewel noted, were slightly shaking — and sighed. “Sleeping…” he looked up at her with a vivid smile, a shocking contrast from his earlier state. “Yeah, it was a good sleep. But enough about me.” He propped his head up with his arm, leaning it against the table. “What brings you here, Miss Leader of the Restoration?”
Jewel couldn’t help but blush at his words; the title still hadn’t quite solidified in her mind. “Well me and Amy were just dropping in for a bit of coffee before heading off to our next village, when we saw you, apparently lying dead on the table.” She decided to try and probe around a bit, and let her features take on a more serious look. “About that…Sonic, have you been actually taking it easy?”

Sonic laughed at her words. “Jewel, my entire life has been a massive vacation, with a sprinkle of world saving. I think I have relaxed at least once.”
She allowed herself to smile at his words. “I guess that’s true. Well, I guess that means you’ve been sleeping a lot. Tails talked a lot about how you used to sleep wherever possible, while he was dismantling Eggman bots.”

“Yeah, I really did sleep everywhere. Of course, my sleep schedule isn’t the best now…” He raised a hand to scratch at his quills, looking a bit sheepish.

“Oh it isn’t?” Jewel asked, pointedly ignoring the eye-bags on his face that had betrayed him.

Sonic looked a bit hesitant, like he was about to say something he shouldn’t. She tried to softly encourage him. “Have you been feeling well since the Met—“

“So sorry for the wait! The queue was devastatingly long and—“ Amy had come back at what Jewel considered to be the worst possible moment, as Sonic had immediately clammed up, looking surprised at her. Amy had told herself to go in calmly and quietly, but seeing Sonic’s face sent her spiralling once again, and she bombarded him with questions, almost dropping the tray trying to hug him. “Oh Sonic! You’re awake! Are you feeling okay? Why were you sleeping in a coffee shop?” She set the tray down and took her seat next to Sonic. She took his dishevelled appearance in, though she didn’t show her reaction on her face (much to Jewel’s respect), but she noticed her hand clench as she looked at him, nails digging into her palm as she fought to keep a neutral face. Amy’s eyes drifted back to the red spot on the side of his head, oozing a bit —he stretched the scab when he got up. She reached out to feel his forehead for a temperature.

He flinched backwards from her.

The reaction was small, and quickly covered up, as Sonic looked at her casually, as thought nothing had happened. Amy noticed it, but dwelling on the matter would not help anyone, so she, with great effort, forced herself to not react to his sudden movement, feeling his head and using her other hand to feel her own, before shaking her head and pulling both her hands back. Jewel looked to Amy, as if to confirm whether his flinch was real. She glanced back, nodding slightly.

She tried gently starting conversation. “I took the liberty of getting you a hot chocolate, is that okay?” She looked at him sweetly, before taking her own mocha off of the tray, then Jewel’s latte, handing it to her.

“That’s alright Ames, it’s better than coffee.” He picked up the mug, leaning back on his seat in an effort of nonchalance, though a small wince broke the facade. “I think Tails would murder me if he found out, especially if you remember that time I tried eating coffee beans like Shadow.” He looked at Jewel and grinned. “I was practically bouncing off the walls with energy.”

Amy felt a small swell of happiness in her heart as Jewel giggled at Sonic’s storytelling, thankful to her friend for engaging with him. She replied with a smirk, “Honestly, you could probably sleep through a hurricane if one came across you.”

He rubbed under his nose with a finger, his signature move. “What can I say? I guess I’m just special.”

Jewel smiled politely at the quip, letting herself sink into the background as Amy talked with Sonic. She was aware of how much closer the two hedgehogs were with each other than she was with Sonic. Taking small sips of her latte, she passively listened to their chatter.

As Sonic raised his arm, Amy noticed small scratches on his shoulder; she was certain those weren’t there when he had come back from the Sol Dimension. She gently placed a hand on those scratches and asked, “what happened here?”

Sonic froze. “Uh—“ it was unlike him to be stumped at a simple question. “I just fell a few times while running around, not a big deal.”

“Sonic.” She had a feeling that he was lying to her, and tried to ease the truth out of him. “These aren’t scrapes from falling, but I think you know that already.”

Amy was quite familiar with Sonic’s issue of skirting around problems — she had seen the full force of it after all, with her crush — and was not surprised when he refused to cooperate with her.

“Ames, I’m telling the truth, I just fell.”

Amy looked at him disbelievingly.“Sonic, you never fall when running.”

This was true; Sonic was extremely adept at running, and stumbling had only been an issue if he was fighting or something else at the same time. Still he didn’t relent.

He was about to retort back, when Jewel suddenly stood up and banged her hands on the table, causing Sonic to flinch harshly, spilling hot chocolate over his fur. “Oh no! It’s 1:38 already?! Amy, we’ll be late to meet Silver and Tails!”

Amy got up too, looking apologetically at Sonic. “Sorry Sonic, Restoration duties are calling! I’ll come drop by soon okay? And please…make sure to take care.” With that, both Jewel and Amy left the cafe, running to catch the bus to the next village, leaving Sonic at the coffee table, slightly dazed.

They were making excuses; they don’t want to be around you.

For about the fifth time today, Sonic mentally told himself to shut up, but he felt like there was some sentiment of truth behind the words his head was relentlessly telling him. Sitting at the table in the shop, he realised he missed the company of the two, thought they had only just left. He got up, dabbing at his fur with a tissue and grimacing. He hated the way the hot chocolate felt: sticky and uncomfortably hot. Still it was a pleasant change from the phantom cold he often felt nowadays.

Do you deserve peace?

The question made him pause. The safe answer would be of course, everyone deserves peace, but now Sonic found himself struggling to say yes. He had caused so much suffering to everyone: Cream seeing her mum turn into a zombot, Espio losing Charmy and Vector, and Rouge losing Shadow, to name a few. And that was only in the Metal Virus epidemic. If it was a villain, like Eggman, it would be easy to justify that they should deserve a second chance; they were committing crimes out of will, so it would be easy to stop. For someone like Sonic, who attracts, even causes trouble wherever he goes, there is no control about it.

Often, he would think about distancing himself from others, just so that they could stay safe when he inevitably screwed up again.

Think of Tails, he’s just a child. And so smart too.

Tails was the very definition of child prodigy: operating the Tornado from such a young age, always building new gadgets with more and more helpful uses, being quite literally the brains of any Team he’s in despite often also being the youngest. He should be in school, putting his skills to good use outside of this. Sonic was holding him back.

Knuckles has duties guarding the Master Emerald, and what do you do?

Always bring the trouble to him, in his own words — Exhibit A: four days ago, Metal Virus. Sonic constantly pesters and bothers him, when he has made clear he would rather be alone. He never respects Knuckles’ wishes.

And dear, sweet Amy, passionate and brave.

Sonic sees her efforts: she always tries to make everyone around her comfortable, and incredibly sharp at reading people’s emotions. She was a brilliant leader of the Restoration, and why did she leave it? To have more time to herself, to spend with Sonic. She shouldn’t feel the need to be responsible for him, to babysit him.

He should try to let them be themselves more often. He must be overbearing, a pain in the side, doing nothing but making things worse. Sonic got up from his seat and left the shop, taking a deep breath, before racing down the street, back to his and Tails’ home. A quick shower would be good, to clear up the hot chocolate, and then he had to set up for movie night with Tails.

Chapter Text

Sonic was feeling happier than he had all day as he went around cleaning the house, waiting for Tails to return. He checked the clock. 7:03pm. He had been so excited that he physically couldn’t hold his energy, so he had cleaned all the dishes, vacuumed the whole house, cleared up his room (at least, the floor) and had ordered pizza for dinner. He sat down on the couch and watched the clock impatiently as it struck 7:05. His earlier texts had promised Sonic that he would be there by 7:10, but he knew the fox always liked to show up earlier.

You shouldn’t bother him with such trivial matters. He has responsibilities, unlike you.

That was true. Sonic often found it humorous that Tails had more commitments than Sonic — the older of the two, and his guardian — did, but on second thought, maybe the movie night was an unnecessary burden on him, an extra event on his already packed schedule. He thought briefly about cancelling, but remembered the fox’s delighted face from the morning, and decided against it.

The time was 7:17, and Sonic was slightly drifting off on the couch, hugging a pillow covered in Tails’ tail fluff, from him shedding. It reminded him about how he had forgotten to comb them for him, before he left. It was a comfort ritual for them both; sometimes, there was enough fluff for Sonic to make a mini-Tails, with some craftsmanship and quills. He remembered fondly how Tails had almost cried of laughter the first time he had done that for him, because the eyes and nose had fallen slightly, and the legs were uneven, so mini-Tails had looked extraordinarily sassy.

In the midst of his memory trip, the doorbell rang, making Sonic jump. He mentally scolded himself for that; he noticed he had become more jumpier lately, and was trying to force it out of himself, to almost no avail. It didn’t stop him from trying though. He leapt over the couch and ran to the door, opening it with a wide smile.

“Hey Tails—“

He stopped mid-sentence. It was the pizza delivery, not Tails, and the half-response confused the delivery guy, who looked around before asking, “uh— you talking to me?”

Keeping the smile on his face, Sonic replied with a short “no sorry thank you” before taking the pizza and closing the door. He worriedly checked the time. 7:21. Tails should definitely have been back by now. It was very unlike him to be this late.

Perhaps he’s got himself into an accident, or maybe Eggman ambushed him on the way back, or what if he’s been captured and taken hostage?

Or he just didn’t want to see you, wanted to skip movie night, he hates you—

The voice’s monologue was interrupted by Sonic’s communicator going off loudly by his side, and he eagerly picked it up. “Hello?”

To his delight, it was Tails on the other end. This thankfully meant he didn’t get into an accident. “Hi Sonic! I’m so sorry but—“

“Where are you bud? Pizza’s come already! I’ve got everything ready for you to come home to, even the movie, so just press the play button and we can watch!”

“…Sonic, I thought I was choosing the movie.”

Sonic winced. He had forgotten about Tails calling dibs. “You’re right, sorry bud. You can choose the movie, but for that you need to come home.”

“I’m sorry Sonic but…” Tails sounded rather strained, but apologetic, and Sonic knew what he was going to say. “…I’m not gonna be able to come tonight, Amy and Jewel missed their bus and came an hour late—“

That must have been your doing, wasn’t it? Your fault.

“—and from then our schedule kind of snowballed. I’ll only be back around midnight-ish.”

Ignoring the pang of guilt he felt over Amy and Jewel, Sonic pushed on. “Come on Tails, you’ve been working since the morning! You deserve a break, it’s not like the mess is going to go anywhere. You can continue your work tomorrow. Come home, let’s watch!” He felt a strange, tense silence on the other side of the phone, though he wasn’t too sure why. “Tails?”

“Sonic.”

The firm, cold tone of his voice was unexpected, and he was shocked into silence. “This work I’ve been doing non-stop is your mess. We’re all working day and night to fix the damages you made by letting Eggman unleash the Metal Virus, I can’t just skip out while everyone else is trying so hard. You don’t seem to value or respect the effort everyone is putting into the Restoration, but I do. We’re all tired here. You could learn to have some responsibility for once, Sonic.” There was a small silence, in which neither of them spoke. “I’ll be back around midnight, don’t wait for me. Goodnight.” A small beep on the other end told Sonic that Tails had cut the call.

Sonic was left at the doorway, communicator limp in his hand, staring at the black screen. It started trembling, but he made no effort to stop. He heard a laugh, bordering on cackle, echoing in his ears, before harsh words started crashing down on him.

Look what you did. You managed to scare away the one person who would have always been by your side. No one wants to be near you, to be with you. They all despise you. And all in just four days. Impressive.

“Shut up.”

This is what you wanted, isn’t it? Now you can distance yourself from them, from everyone. They’ll all be safe. They’ll all be happy. Happy without you.

“I said, shut UP!”

Sonic grabbed a fistful of quills and pulled on them, yanking harder every time the voice spoke. But they were right. He had wanted to distance himself. He should be happy. He should be glad they didn’t want to be with him anymore.

So why did it hurt so much?

Sonic smiled, chuckling slightly before it erupted into a full laugh, and he sank down onto the floor, discarding the communicator and bringing both hands to his quills. He knew why it hurt. Because he was a—

Coward.

He was scared, and he was—

Selfish.

He roughly wiped at his eyes as his vision grew blurry, looking surprised that his glove was damp when he pulled it back. He felt drained, like he could collapse right then and there. He folded his legs beneath him, and sat there, just in front of the doorway, staring catatonically at the floor in-front of him. He sat there, still, as the house swam around him. Sonic’s fingers had let go of his quills, his arms now lying gently on his lap. His eyes felt heavy, so heavy, and he could no longer fight to keep them open.

His world went dark, and a single voice rose.

You deserve this.

Sonic was running: his eyes would barely stay open: his limbs felt sluggish; and he could feel the virus crawling across his body, his quills, his chest. His left arm was already entirely covered. He tried vainly to scratch off the freezing metal substance. No matter how fast he ran, the infection wasn’t slowing down the same way it used to, but steadily growing, impervious to what once had stopped it. All around him he could hear people crying out for his help, to save them, but he couldn’t go; another hit from a zombot would fully infect him.

At the end of the hill were the seven chaos emeralds, arranged in a ring, inviting him enticingly. He knew that he just had to get to them, and turn Super, and he could get rid of the virus once and for all. But the trek was so long, and the road seemed to stretch out longer and longer before him. He tripped over a rock and stumbled into a citizen, their expression of relief twisting into horror as Sonic’s left arm had transmitted the virus to them. Sonic was struck with guilt and panic as they started crying, their body slowly succumbing to the infection.

“I— I’m sorry—“ Sonic tried to say, but he had to dodge quickly as the person leapt at him, their eyes dyed red. He shook his head vigorously and continued racing up the hill.

The prickling of his skin under the metal sheen of the virus was painful and he wanted nothing more than to rip it all off, but he knew he couldn’t, he just had to keep going, keep running.

He made the mistake of looking back.

A mass of zombots was on his tail, mobians from all over, victims of what he had done, what he had caused. One slip would be fatal. He urged his legs to keep going, though they were visibly shaking, his mouth felt dry and thick, hard to swallow. His eyes were burning and he had to remember to blink — the constant screams and cries coming from all sides drowned out his thoughts as he pressed on his ears, desperate to block them out. He could make it, just a little bit more, press a little bit harder—

“Sonic!”

Sonic’s head snapped to the direction of the voice and he saw it. Tails was desperately trying to escape the zombots, flying high above with his tails. His flight was staggered; one of his tails was injured. In a moment of weakness, Tails fell down in to the mass of zombies below him with a shriek. Sonic felt his stomach drop and instantly tried to veer towards him, to try and save him—

A sharp pain erupted in his chest, staggering, mind-numbing pain.

Sonic gasped at the crashing sensation, and slowly looked down. A long white spear was protruding from his torso, just under his ribcage, the tip was coated in deep, wine-red blood. A small whine escaped him at the sight as he fought to not throw up, but he quickly looked back to Tails, helplessly watching as he stood unable to move with the beam of light penetrating him.

He saw Tails’ panicked face look at him in horror, before a zombot tackled him from behind. It brought up its hand, knife-sharp claws glistening in the light, and quickly slashed down onto the fox, 3 jagged lines marking his face, blood dribbling as his head rolled back, his eyes open wide.

Sonic screamed.

“Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight. You apologised to Sonic, and he instantly started having a mental breakdown?”

Shadow rolled his eyes at Rouge. “Not instantly, he had broken speech and was very certain that he did deserve being infected because he didn’t let me — and apparently Espio — kill Eggman.”

They were both in the kitchen, Rouge at the kettle and Shadow sitting on a chair by the island. She turned it on and turned back to Shadow, raising an eyebrow. “And you…left him like that?”

“He ran away.”

As she reached to open a cupboard overhead, he heard her mutter, “wasn’t expecting you to actually say sorry”. He chose to not comment on that.

“He was acting weird. Weirder than usual. He pulled out his quills so hard he started bleeding.”

Rouge whipped around to look at him in disbelief. “You’re joking.”

“He didn’t seem to know he was doing it— what are you making?”

After pouring the water from the kettle into a mug, she held it up to him, before taking a sip. “Lemon tea. Helps me sleep at night.” She thought for a while, looking at Shadow, before turning back around and reaching for a tin of coffee grounds. She walked over and handed them to Shadow. “Here, go give this to Blue.”

Shadow looked at her in disbelief. “Why would I do that?”

“I remember him saying coffee makes him sleepy, and given the eye-bags you described, he hasn’t been sleeping.”

“Rouge, it’s 10 o’clock. He shouldn’t be awake— and how does coffee even make him fall asleep? That makes no sense.”

“Does anything make sense with Blue? Now go give it to him.” She shoved the tin into his hands.

“And what if I say no?”

Rouge looked at him, hands on hips. “Do you really think that Sonic should be alone right now? I know that Tails is still working at the Restoration.”

Shadow glared at her, before snatching the tea from her hands and drinking it all in front of her. He placed the glass down and, ignoring her protests, flipped her the finger, leaving the apartment and softly closing the door behind him.

Sonic woke up with a jolt. He gasped and immediately clutched his left arm. The Metal Virus was gone. It was gone.

But the cold was still there.

He looked at his arm properly, examining the peach fur. It was fine. He was fine, but his skin crawled with the sensation of metal creeping up, overtaking his flesh. It was like it was under his skin, unrelenting, penetrating, corrupting him from the inside.

He needed to get it out.

“It’s not real, it’s not real, not real…” Sonic whispered desperately, hoping to will the feeling away.

It stayed, mocking him, in a place he couldn’t reach, just under the surface.

He dug his claws into his skin, and scratched, panicked, hoping to be rid of it. In quick swipes, he agitated the surface, growing into a raw pink from the friction.

Harder, deeper.

It wasn’t enough. The feeling wasn’t going away.

He dug in harder and harder.

His white gloves tore as his claws broke through the fabric, the edges blooming red from the blood leaking out from his scratches. Sonic didn’t notice. Didn’t care. He needed it out, the metal creeping, just out of reach, spreading, eating him alive—

“Go away, go away, go AWAY—“ he begged, pleaded. His panic turned to fury, and he tore at his skin like a feral animal, teeth clenched from the pain.

“GET OFF!”

Finally, the crawling broke through, out into the open, and the cold stopped.

Sonic’s scratching halted. A few beats of hearing nothing but his own shallow breathing passed. He withdrew his claws harshly from the depths of his flesh, not even wincing at the pain, and he stared at his half-gloved hand, the tips of his fingers bare where the fabric had torn. The blood dripped slowly, down from his claws, to his fingers, then to the edge of the glove, where it bloomed across the white surface.

He looked at his trembling, mutilated arm, frenzied cuts scattered all over his shoulder like patchwork, quietly leaking blood down to his forearm. He felt his stomach churn looking at them.

They looked like the work of a madman.

Well, Sonic sure felt like he was going mad.

He felt paralysed, unable to move. Helpless. Hopeless.

A small weak laugh escaped him. This is him, he thought, the hero of Mobius. Sitting in a pool of self-pity.

He tried to stand up, to get to the bathroom to rinse the blood off of his body, but his legs gave out before he could even reach a crouch. The cuts hadn’t stopped bleeding, and he was beginning to feel lightheaded. Sonic sighed and closed his eyes.

That’s okay. Maybe a few minutes’ rest wouldn’t hurt.

Chapter Text

Shadow admitted that part of him was concerned for Sonic. Seeing him like…that… at the river was worrying, even more so, seeing how easily he brushed it off. But this wasn’t the first time he had been alerted to Sonic acting strange. The first time was probably just after he had come back from the 6 months he spent in the Death Egg.

Everyone had been overjoyed to see the Blue Blur back from the dead, his friends most of all, and Sonic — as Shadow had recently learned — was great at appearing completely fine. To the general public, it looked like the hero of Mobius was back once more, better than ever. Shadow couldn’t speak for his friends, but he knew that things were not perfect with the hedgehog.

It was only small signs: flinches, stumbling over words, becoming overly defensive at questions regarding his health. And yet, Shadow wondered why no one reached out properly to help him. Why no one beyond his closest friends seemed to notice.

He didn’t need to think for more than a second before getting the answer. Sonic the Hedgehog is a hero.

And heroes never hurt, never suffer, always putting on a brave face.

No one asked if he needed help, because no one was sure what they would do if he said yes. The freedom that literally everyone else had — even Shadow — of being vulnerable, was not something he, the one who needed it most, was allowed.

For the first time, Shadow began to wonder if maybe Sonic wasn’t as “free” as he always claimed, always appeared to be.

Approaching Sonic and Tails’ home, he stopped about two feet from the door. He still wasn’t certain he wanted to do this. No one had noticed him too, so he could easily just run away, stash the coffee behind a bush—

“Do you really think that Sonic should be alone right now?”

Shadow curled his hand into a fist and sighed. Rouge was right. Sonic clearly wasn’t in the right state of mind this morning, and probably wasn’t right now either. He summed up all the courage he had in his body, and approached the door. He looked around and spotted a doorbell, just underneath a kid’s doodle of Sonic and Tails in crayon. He thought about how long Sonic had been raising Tails for. In truth, he had no clue how old the fox was now. Sonic would know.

Shadow rang the doorbell. It rang with a pleasant little tune, uplifting and sweet. No one came to the door.

He tried again. Still no answer.

Ignoring the pit of dread building inside him, he tried the doorknob. To his surprise, the door swung open. The ground floor lights were all turned on — a sure sign Sonic was still home. A cold, metallic smell wafted through the door.

He took a step into the home and called out. “Sonic?”

Just next to him, a weak voice replied, “Long time no see… Shadow.”

His head snapped to his right, looking down, and he stepped back in alarm.

Sonic was leaning against the wall to the left of him, sitting on the floor, and — Chaos, Shadow felt awful just looking at it — his shoulder was mauled, covered in small, deep, frantic tears, oozing blood down his arm, to the cuff of his glove. There was a small pool underneath his elbow, telling him that Sonic had been sitting like this for a while. His right hand was draped over his midriff, and Shadow saw that his glove was torn at the fingers, blood slowly climbing up the white fabric, reaching his knuckles. His fingers too were covered in darkened blood, staining the fur on his hand a dark purplish black. Shadow could hear his shallow breathing, and panic fluttered in his chest as Sonic’s eyes started drooping lower and lower.

“No Sonic— Sonic look at me.” Shadow quickly knelt down and placed his hand on the fur surrounding the cuts, gently shaking him awake.

Sonic looked at him vacantly. “Shadow? When did you get here?” His breath caught in his throat and he winced slightly, shifting his shoulder away from Shadow’s touch.

He didn’t look like Sonic.

He looked like hell.

He shook his head. Now wasn’t the time for thoughts like that. He walked around and held Sonic’s right arm, draping it over his shoulder. He gripped his waist and slowly stood up from his crouch. Sonic also tried to stand, but his legs weren’t supporting him at all, shaking so hard it was very noticeable. Shadow understood why Sonic hadn’t moved.

“Do you have a first aid kit?”

Sonic looked at him blearily, and Shadow had a suspicion he didn’t process anything he just said. If they didn’t have any medical supplies, then Shadow would need to run out and get some, but he didn’t know this area well, and he had no idea where the pharmacy was. He could call Tails to come over and help.

Shadow was slowly walking over to the bathroom with Sonic. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to answer, but he asked anyway. “What’s Tails’ number? Does he have a phone?”

To his surprise, Sonic reacted. He suddenly tried to pull away from Shadow, almost falling over, before he caught him again. He looked up to him panicked. “No—“ His voice cracked. “No Tails.”

“What?”

“I said, don’t tell Tails. I’m fine.”

Shadow blinked at him, looking in disbelief. “Can you see yourself right now? There are blood puddles on the floor. This—“ He gestured to Sonic’s arm, “—is not fine.”

Was Sonic ashamed? Shadow thought as he gently set Sonic down on the edge of the bath tub, before removing his own gloves and turning around to wash his hands. He realised his choice of words were blunt — he wasn’t used to comforting people, especially Sonic. He wondered if bringing Rouge or someone else here would help. But if Sonic freaked out by mentioning Tails, of all people, then he would blow a fuse if Shadow brought in anyone else. He came to the unsatisfactory conclusion that he would be doing this alone. He turned around back to Sonic, who was looking away from him pointedly. That was a good sign he was coming out of his confusion.

Shadow tried to ask again. “Do you have any medical supplies here? And a cloth?”

“There’s peroxide. the— the cabinet.” Sonic seemed to still be having trouble stringing together sentences. He lifted his arm to point to the cupboard above the sink. “Cloths… check under the sink.”

Shadow reached up and opened the cabinet. He saw the peroxide bottle Sonic was talking about, but no gauze or padding. Maybe he was going to have to call Rouge after all. He grabbed the bottle and placed on the table by the sink, then crouched down and opened the cupboard beneath it. Luckily, Sonic had remembered correctly, and Shadow grabbed a small white towel, examined it carefully to see if it was clean, then rinsed it under the tap and tossed it to Sonic. He fumbled the catch, landing on his leg instead.

“Press down on the wound with it. Keep it like that for 5 minutes.” Sonic looked blankly at him, then down to the towel. He wasn’t sure if Sonic could understand directions, given his dazed state, but to his surprise, he obediently brought the towel to his shoulder, slowly dyeing it red. A small nagging thought told him maybe, Sonic had done this before, but he pushed it aside.

At least he now had an answer as to why Sonic’s scrapes weren’t healed. They were too recent.

Making sure Sonic still had a grip on his shoulder, he helped him into the tub. He looked at Shadow, confused.

“The wound is too big to use the sink. A shower head would be more efficient.”

“Oh.” Sonic sat down, pulling his knees to his chest, and hugging them with his free hand.

Shadow couldn’t help but think, this is Sonic. This is the Blue Blur, the cocky hedgehog who made insanely bad quips and drove him up the wall, but always managed to save the day. The person now lying in the bathroom, curled in on himself, with half his shoulder ripped out.

After a moment, Sonic pulled the cloth away from the wound, and he could see the bleeding had slowed down considerably .He grabbed the shower head and turned the knob, and warm water started spraying from the nozzles. Gently, he held it over the now scabbing wound, feeling guilty when Sonic let out a small yelp in surprise and pain as the water flushed out the cuts. It was surreal, watching Sonic’s blood flow down the drain. The matted purple-black fur surrounding the cuts had lightened to a colour closer to his typical blue, but was still rough in texture. Mentally apologising to Sonic, Shadow started to softly comb through the fur, ignoring the occasional gasps of pain that came from Sonic as he did so. After about 10 minutes of continuous rinsing, the wounds looked clean enough to be bandaged.

“I’ll come back in a second.” Shadow patted Sonic’s (not injured) shoulder, to which he got no response, and got up from his spot sitting on the edge of the tub. He left the bathroom and walked all the way into the kitchen, to be certain Sonic couldn’t hear him, then quickly rang Rouge.

“Hey handsome, how’s the date going?”

Chaos, he wanted to kill her. “Horribly, Sonic’s bleeding out in the bathroom. Can you bring some gauze and bandages?”

“I’m sorry, he’s what?!”

“Thank you. See you soon.”

“Shadow T. Hedgehog, You—“

He ended the call with a satisfying beep. He could show his anger in other ways. Assured that Rouge would be coming over soon, he went back to the bathroom and sat back down on the side of the bathtub. Sonic hadn’t moved since he left, staring into space vacantly. He murmured something that sounded vaguely like a “shut up”, and Shadow wasn’t too sure if he should be offended. He chose not to comment on it.

“…How did you get that injury?” Too forward. Shadow knew he wasn’t going to get any information from that.

Sonic looked at him in surprise, as if he hadn’t noticed Shadow come back in, and brought his good hand up to scratch at his quills sheepishly. “I uh— I was running, and I collided with a tree. A really spiky tree. The branches they—“ He gestured at what Shadow assumed were the “branches” stabbing his shoulder. “Scraped me up. Really bad.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it.” Shadow mentally winced at his words, still too harsh. He wasn’t cut out for this. He really hoped Rouge would come soon. “What really happened.”

Sonic glared at him — something Sonic had never done to him before — and said, “I’m telling the truth. I was a bit clumsy while running. The trees were really dense and I struggled to get through without hurting—“

“If you were in the woods, why aren’t your shoes dirty?”

Sonic froze. Shadow knew he had caught him. “It’s uh— it’s—“

“I understand if you don’t want to tell me, but—” Shadow paused, seeing the look of shock on Sonic’s face. It made his face grow hot, and he wished he’d just stayed quiet. “What are you looking at me like that for?”

His face twisted into a grin, an expression Shadow didn’t know he was happy to see. “I wasn’t expecting you of all people to be patient. Then again…” Sonic made a deal of checking his nails, while saying, “I guess you have to be when you’re as slow as you are.”

Shadow couldn’t even find it in himself to be angry at the insult, and just smiled slightly, more in relief than anything else. Sonic had started to get his attitude back, and was more like himself now.
He was about to ask whether Sonic had any other injuries, when the doorbell rang. Must be Rouge, Shadow thought, and got up from the edge of the tub to go get the door, when he felt a wet glove grab onto his arm. He looked down to see Sonic staring at him, slightly panicked.

“What time is it?”

“What? It’s—“ Shadow looked out of the door, to the clock in the hallway. “It’s 11:52. Why?”

Sonic started to shakily get up from the tub, but stumbled on the wet surface. Shadow hastily pulled him up before he hit the floor. He asked again. “Sonic, why is that important?”

“It’s Tails, he’s gonna be back by midnight, I can’t- I don’t want him to see me like this.” He resumed trying to hastily get out of the tub, stepping one unsteady foot outside.

Shadow didn’t stop him from getting out, supporting him, while saying, “It’s not Tails. It’s Rouge, I called her over because you don’t have any bandages. I need to dress the wound.”

Sonic stepped out of the tub entirely, grimacing at his now wet socks, before looking at Shadow once he processed what he had said. His face twisted into a mock thoughtful expression. “Why? Is it going out to dinner?” Sonic smiled at Shadow. “Sorry, shitty joke, I know.”

Shadow looked at him disdainfully, telling himself that joke wasn’t funny and he shouldn’t laugh. “Hilarious. Now either come with me, or all three of us can sit in the bathroom and do nothing.”

Sonic let out a laugh. “I didn’t know you could joke too, Shads.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

— • —

Sonic sat on a chair Shadow had pulled from the kitchen — “If you lean on the couch, your blood will stain the fabric, and I thought you didn’t want Tails to notice,” he had said — and was waiting for Shadow to return from answering the door. He looked down passively at his shoulder; the wound had definitely started clotting, and what was once a gush of blood had slowed down to an oozing instead. At least he didn’t feel nauseous looking at it anymore, like he did in the bathroom. He hoped Shadow didn’t notice it.

Not like it mattered, as Shadow had seen everything else.

He still felt nervous about that fact, though it was put at ease slightly by Shadow’s cooperation in hiding from Tails. He glanced at the clock. It was 11:54pm. They both had 6 minutes before potential disaster.

He called out hesitantly. “Shadow??”

Just then, Shadow walked back in, carrying a roll of bandages and gauze pads. Rouge flew in behind him, looking delighted upon seeing Sonic.

He was about to ask why she was inside before she swooped in and gave him a hug. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay! Shadow didn’t give any context for how bad you were hurt.”

Sonic brought up his good hand to hug her back, looking at Shadow questioningly. He shrugged back.

Rouge pulled back and scrutinised him carefully. Sonic didn’t miss the swift glance she made at this shoulder. “Unfortunately, I have some more business to take care of at G.U.N, so I can’t stay.” She planted a small kiss on his cheek before walking back to the entrance of the kitchen, where Shadow was standing. “I’m sure Mr. Broody over here will patch you up right. Ta-ta!”

As she walked past Shadow, she flicked his nose with her finger, causing him to stagger back, sputtering and clutching his nose in shock. He glared at Rouge’s retreating figure, while Sonic fought the urge to laugh at his reddening face.

“Right, well—” Shadow took a breath and walked over to the kitchen table, grabbing a few tissues. He went to the sink and wet one of them, before going back to Sonic and kneeling by his arm, wiping away the small beads of blood that had returned. “You have lipstick stains on your cheek by the way,” he said, not looking up as he worked.

Sonic brought up his hand to brush off his cheek, but was met with hard, crusted, slightly wet fabric instead of his regular soft gloves. “Ah. Right, forgot about that.” He looked down at his torn, bloody remains of a glove, clinging to his hand.

Shadow noticed him looking and stood up. “Where is it?”

“Where’s what?”

“The cupboard you keep your gloves in. Where is it?”

Sonic straightened his back, about to get up from the chair in panic. “Oh no— you don’t need to—“ The last thing Sonic wanted was for Shadow to see his pigsty of a room.

“I know I don’t need to. I want to. So where is it?”

“I— uh—“ Sonic could feel he was losing this exchange, and ultimately he slumped down into his chair, defeated. “It’s in the drawer by my bed. You walk in and to your right you’ll see it.”

“And where’s your room?”

“Just go upstairs, it’s the room that isn’t a closet.”
Shadow nodded affirmatively, and swiftly left the kitchen, leaving Sonic in his thoughts.

He’s acting weird, Sonic thought to himself, I don’t think he’s ever acted like this towards me before. It was…caring?

But this wasn’t the Shadow he was familiar with. Sonic was used to boots in his face when he was around the guy. What had changed?

He pities you, isn’t it obvious? Poor little baby, unable to cope like everyone else.

Sonic bristled at the thought. That look in his eyes…it was pity, wasn’t it? Shadow pitied him. While everyone else was moving on, Sonic was stuck in the past.

Sonic let out a small huff of laughter at that. Normally, Shadow was at the receiving end of that line.

He should tell Shadow to stop this, to stop pitying him, to get him to leave the house so that Sonic could do it all by himself, like he had before. If there was one thing he hated, it was being seen as weak. And Shadow…

He’d seen a lot of that now, hasn’t he?

But against his will, deep down he knew, he should let him do this. Shadow was trying to help. And Sonic — as much as he refused to admit — was in need of said help. It wouldn’t be the end of the world to let Shadow help just once. So Sonic waited. His foot tapped, he flicked through his quills, and his mind screamed at him to run away, get away from him, if you leave he’ll get the message and never come back, but he stayed.

Shadow came back into the kitchen at that moment, nose scrunched, holding a pair of Sonic’s gloves. He looked at Sonic with disdain and pity—not pity, with care. “Your room is a nightmare. I don’t know how obvious it is, but you should clean it up.” He walked back over to where he was kneeling earlier, tossing the gloves at Sonic on the way. “I also opened a window, to get rid of that stench.”

“You did? Amy always says the hinges on the windows are impossible to deal with. You figured out how to open them?”

“…”

“…Shadow how did you open it?”

Shadow cleared his throat and dusted his glove, what seemed like tiny glass fragments flying off of it. “I’ll pay you back.”

“Yeah you will.”

Shadow tied up the arm and fastened it with a safety pin, then stood up. “I’m leaving.”

Sonic looked around the kitchen. Nothing seemed to be out of place. Shadow was throwing away the waste anyway. “Okay then, um—“ Sonic didn’t know how to phrase this question without being suspicious. “Could you leave through the back door?”

Shadow looked at him, eyes narrowed, wanting an explanation. “Because…?”

“I don’t exactly want Tails to see you coming out of the house.”

Shadow looked at him for longer than Sonic was expecting, before walking over to him. “And the back door is?”

“Oh uh, it’s the one behind me. I need to lock it anyway so you can go.”

Before he could finish, Shadow had opened the door and briskly walked out.

“Wait, Shadow?”

He looked behind, back to Sonic.

“Thank you.”

Shadow paused for a second, before speeding off without a second word. Sonic watched as the red streak sped over and around the hills, disappearing into the horizon. Once he was out of sight, he closed and locked the door.

The time was 12:24am. Tails finally made it home after being kept in for extra work.

“Bye Tails!” Amy had dropped him off at home, being a kid, it was probably for the best he didn’t roam around alone at midnight.

He gave her a small wave back, before opening the door and walking into the home. All the lights were off, which Tails assumed meant Sonic was asleep. He locked the door behind him and kicked off his shoes, taking off his bag and dropping it next to him. He couldn’t be bothered to hang it up right now. He went into the living room to see it tidier than it had been when he left. A small pang of guilt welled in his chest seeing the popcorn bowl sitting on the coffee table by the TV, closed with another plate on top as a lid to stop flies. He walked past the couch and TV and headed upstairs to Sonic’s room.

Trying his best to not step on the creaking floorboards, he ascended up the stairs to come face to face with Sonic’s room. Gently, he opened the door.

Sonic was lying on his bed, flat on his stomach. His face was pointed away from the door, but Tails assumed he was sleeping from the position he was in. He grimaced at the mess on the floor. Sonic should really clean up soon. He was about to leave when a small tap could be heard from the room. He quickly looked back, searching for any disturbance, when he saw a small glowing spot on the floor. Against his better judgement, Tails walked into the room, over to the spot and looked at it.

It was a glow-in-the-dark star. Tails looked up at the ceiling, and smiled sadly. All the stars were still up there, shining dimmer but still bright. It reminded him of the days when he had just come to this house, and Sonic let him sleep with him to calm his nerves. He didn’t know if Sonic had, but Tails remembered that first night, he had wished on a star.

“I wish we can be together forever.”

Tails softly spoke the words he had said in his mind so many years before. He looked down, back at the star. He picked it up, and walked back to the door. Before he left, he turned back and whispered, “Goodnight Sonic.”

He closed the door quietly and made his way to his workshop, where he flung himself onto the bed. He held up the star he had taken from the floor. It was worn, but the only problem was the glue, which had dried entirely. He sat up, and grabbed a hot glue gun from his workbench. He gently set a small spot on the wall next to his bed, then quickly pushed the star onto the blob. After holding for a few seconds, he let go. The star stayed, shining dimly in the dark. Tails set down his glue gun, and crept into bed. He would apologise to Sonic tomorrow. While he hadn’t meant to say his words so rudely, he knew there was some semblance of truth in them. He would talk to Sonic about it tomorrow.

Everything would be fine.

Chapter Text

Shadow sat on the couch in his and Rouge’s apartment, combing through his quills with his hand, lost in thought. Opposite him, on the table, was the tin of coffee grounds he had forgotten to give to Sonic.

Just what exactly had happened last night? Why was Sonic bleeding out in his own home? Was it an Eggman attack? But that meant Sonic was hurt by Eggman of all people. It was nigh impossible.

Maybe he had been telling the truth, and it was a rogue tree. But he’s never that careless when it comes to running, which would imply something was wrong with him anyway. And his shoes were completely clean. Contradictory evidence.

Maybe it was an accident in the house. He fumbled while cooking. Or he slipped in the shower. But neither of those could make the kind of gashes in his arm that Shadow saw. And Sonic was simply too fast to be injured that badly in an accident.

So who could have done that to him? The only person that could have been fast enough to hurt him would have to be as fast as Sonic himself—

Sonic.

Shadow’s face darkened at the implications of that statement. It didn’t align with his view of him at all, but it made sense. His urge to hide the truth, the tears that looked like some wild animal had broken into his house and mauled him, and it was the best explanation that also answered why his glove was torn up. His claws must have ripped through.

But what was the intention?

And Tails was gone for most days too. Should he really be alone?

At that moment, a hand rested on Shadow’s shoulder, causing him to jump and turn around. Rouge was behind him, curlers still in, night mask on her head, and wearing her night clothes. “What’s got your quills in a twist, huh? Didn’t know you were a ‘thinking’ kind of guy.”

Shadow ignored the bait. “It’s Sonic.”

“Of course it is.” Her eyes drifted to the coffee tin on the table. “I’m assuming it’s more than ‘I forgot to give him the tin’?”

“He’s hiding how he got the injury.”

“Well…” she walked over and sat next to him, placing one leg over the other. “If I had to hide something like that, it would probably be because I was ashamed of it. And you said it yourself earlier: he is a celebrity. If he’s done something… unsavoury to get that injury, then naturally the press would want to be on top of that.”

“Do you think he—“ Shadow cleared his throat awkwardly. “—did that to himself?”

He turned to look at Rouge: she was looking down at her lap, one arm leaning back over the back of the couch. She made eye contact with him and smiled sadly. “Your conclusions usually tend to be right, don’t they?”

Sonic woke up the next morning to blinding light on his face and a dull throbbing pain in his shoulder. With a groan, he sat up in his bed; his head felt on the verge of exploding.

When was the last time I drank water? He thought passively. Maybe yesterday morning.

He looked to the source of the light, to find his window open, quite literally, jagged edges framing the sunshine beaming inside. On the bright side, Sonic had to admit his room smelled better than it had for days now. He looked around. The light from the window made the state his room was in painfully clear: socks and gloves strewn everywhere, closet left swinging open, clothes stuffed inside recklessly. It was like all the work he did yesterday was for nothing.

Oh, yesterday. Sonic had almost forgotten.

Would Tails be happy seeing him downstairs? Would he ignore him? Maybe just leave the second he came in?

He hates you, yesterday confirmed that. Leave immediately. No need to clog up the house by being here.

That was probably the best course of action, but Sonic needed confirmation that Tails was at least back home. He regretted not staying up until the fox had come back, but at the same time, he wasn’t sure whether him on the couch would have been the best thing for Tails to see. He brought up a hand to scratch at his shoulder, before retracting with a hiss as he aggravated the wound beneath the bandages.

Oh fuck, the bandages.

Tails couldn’t see them, it would instantly raise questions. Sonic wasn’t sure if he could handle another person knowing about what happened last night aside from Shadow. He debated just taking them off. Would the wound have scabbed by now? He did heal faster than others, bruises vanishing overnight and such. But how much faster?

He took a deep breath. If he didn’t remove the bandages now, Tails would definitely see and ask, but if he did, he could probably get away with hiding it, depending on the scarring. He unpinned the bandage, and removed it, then carefully removed the gauze pad. He set them both aside, and looked down at his arm. To his relief, the cuts had, in fact, scabbed, the smaller ones fading into the other scratches from previous incidents. However, there was a larger gash in the middle, darker in colour.

Looks like it’s here to stay.

Sonic frowned. That one would be hard to hide. He looked at the alarm clock on the bedside table. 6:04am. That was normal. That was a reasonable time for him to be up.

Sonic pushed off the covers on his bed, and swung his legs around so he was sitting on the edge. A small shudder passed through him; the room was a lot colder than usual. Just then, an idea hit him. If it was cold, he could wear a jacket, or a hoodie, covering up the cuts. That wouldn’t be suspicious at all. He grabbed a hoodie from his mess of a closet, and swiftly pulled it on. He closed the closet door and looked at the mirror on the other side of it. His quills were still messy, and his eyebags were very visible, but at least the scars were completely obscured.

Time to go downstairs.

Sonic opened the door to the kitchen, to find Tails standing by the toaster, texting someone. He stood in the kitchen doorway, not moving.

Come on, this is stupid, he thought. Just grab a mug and go, say good morning.

Sonic quietly walked up next to Tails, and reached up to the cupboard for a mug. Just then, he felt one of the fox’s tails brush his leg, and Tails turned around alarmed.

“Sonic?! I mean—“ Tails cleared his throat. “Good morning.”

Sonic tried to say good morning back, but the words felt stuck in his mouth, so he just smiled back. He wasn’t too sure how comforting that smile was though, when Tails’ face shifted into a grimace, before turning back to the toaster. A few moments of silence passed. Sonic wished desperately to just leave the room right then and there.

The toaster popped up, making them both jump at the sudden noise. Tails took his slice of bread and turned to leave. He felt his throat constrict as Tails started to head to the door. He needed to talk to him, to say something, to apologise—

Sonic grabbed his arm.

Tails looked back and stared at him. Sonic stared back. “Uh— I— I’m sorry.” He quickly let go, and turned back to the cupboard, frantically searching for some tea bags. He needed to finish what he was doing and run, leave the place, go away, get out get out get out—

He felt something soft hug him from behind.

“I’m so sorry— I— I didn’t mean anything— I was just—“ Tails’ speech was broken up by hiccups and sobs as his grip grew tighter around his torso. “I was— I was mean and— and stupid yesterday.”

Sonic swallowed the lump in his throat and turned around to hug Tails as well, rubbing his back as he cried into his hoodie.

He’s not the one who should be saying sorry, is he?

“I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have pressed. I’ll come back and help you guys.”

Tails pulled back and wiped his nose, before fervently shaking his head. “No no no no no, you haven’t rested at all these last few days, you can come back when you’re ready.”

“Tails? I am ready.”

“No you aren’t.” Tails stepped back and crossed his arms. “Your eyebags say otherwise. And why are you wearing a hoodie?”

“Oh uh— I felt a bit cold so—“ Sonic shrugged.

He squinted at him carefully. “To be fair, it is cold today…”

Sonic knew he wasn’t convinced.

“But that doesn’t explain how you’ve gone five days with no activity and you’re even more tired than the day you got rid of the Metal Virus.” His voice grew softer. “Is there anything you want to talk about?”

In a moment of weakness, Sonic actually debated it. He could tell Tails about everything. About the nightmares. The guilt. The voices. Maybe everything would be over once he said it—

“I just need a reality check, you know? T-to make sure you are still…here.”

Sonic shook his head. He couldn’t do that to Tails; he was already hurting, without Sonic’s baggage on top of that. He smiled and ruffled the fox’s bangs. “I’m fine. Nothing a good run can’t fix. However—” Sonic placed a hand on his shoulder. “You can always talk to me too, you know that?”

Tails looked at him silently, and Sonic thought he saw…disappointment?

As soon as it came it was gone, and Tails was smiling back up to him. “Of course!” He shoved the rest of the toast down his throat, before grabbing his tool belt that he left on the kitchen island and running out to the workshop, hand raised as a goodbye.

Sonic watched him leave and close the door to his workshop, the smile sliding off his face. The pit in his stomach told him he had done something wrong, but he couldn’t think of anything. He scratched at his arm, wincing as his nails scraped over the thin scar formed. What had he said just now? Nothing a good run can’t fix. A run seemed like a good idea now. He walked out of the kitchen, slipped on his shoes, and sped out of the door with a bang.

In the kitchen, his mug sat on the island: hosting a teabag, but no water.

Oh Chaos, Sonic was feeling better than he had for ages. Maybe even before the Metal Virus. The feeling of the wind in his quills, the leaves flying to the sides, paving the way for his run, the crunches of twigs beneath his feet and the sun shining down onto his face were an almost euphoric experience. He loved it. It was so perfect. Joy welled up inside him as he pushed himself, going faster and faster until his feet became red blurs below his body and the trees all melded into a solid wall of green around him.

He felt like himself again. He felt like the Blue Blur, The Hero of Mobius, The Fastest Thing Alive, and every other title that anyone had given him (aside from maybe Eggman’s insults), all into one. Untouchable, confident, invincible.

Fueled with emotion, he surged forward, dirt spraying as he passed through the forests and meadows. He could go faster, harder, better than ever before, by himself, alone, powerful.

Then he heard a soft whisper, just outside his ear.

Better off without them.

It was odd: it felt like someone was right there, next to him, murmuring words and phrases he could just barely catch, but he knew he was alone. He jumped over boulders, sprang over the unsuspecting cow or two as he ran through farms.

No one to pry, to nose around, to hold you back.

“Hello?” He tried asking out loud. He had no faith he would get an answer — who would be able to keep up with him? — and as such, the voice vanished. Maybe it was a one off thing. Maybe he just caught conversations from people he ran by. Or something.

The trees and grass faded out into tarmac roads and grey buildings as he entered a city. He slowed down so that he wasn’t a danger to any pedestrians, and watched idly as children walked to school, adults ran to catch the buses or trains, and couples kissed each other goodbye. He ran through a street market, the fruits and smells powerful and fragrant. The pungent odour of a fishmonger’s made his eyes water.

He blinked, and the road beneath him changed to mud and dirt, squelching with each step. When did he leave the market? The trees were a dark green, and he kicked pinecones as he ran. He grimaced as he looked at his shoes, caked with grassy mud. Those were going to take forever to clean up. He sped up, eager to be out of this forest. As he looked up to the sky, he could see the bright blue had been obscured by murky grey clouds, and a small drop of rain landed on his head. Rain was the last thing he wanted on his run. Slowly, the drizzle turned into a downpour, and Sonic slipped and slid around on the muddy forest floor. Dread filled him as he desperately tried to dash out of the rain, fighting to keep his mind blank.

And suddenly, he was back on the run to fight the virus off of him, the metallic liquid spreading over his chest slowly, envisaging him in a metal sheen that made his mind give way to panic, unable to run off the infection any longer, going faster and faster, needing to get out of the darkness, to hang on just a bit longer, and looking at his hands coated in steel, his limbs seizing up as his shoes turned from soft leather to heavy metal, the sounds muffling and drowning out in the deafening static that filled his ears as they got covered by the sheet of silver, plating his body like some fucked up armour and his legs wouldn’t stop hurting and his arm was stinging and prickling and his lungs burned as the rain replaced air and he couldn’t go on any longer—

He stopped.

His breath came out in desperate gasps, and he fell on all fours onto the wet ground, his vision clearing and noticing where he was, teetering off the edge of a cliff. The rain was softer, slowly taking the mud and grime off his knees instead of threatening to drown him in memories and guilt. Sonic looked to his shoulder. The fabric had started to turn a deep red, where the scab had stretched and torn open. He sat back on his feet and tried to catch his breath.

His chest was tight, and he felt…wrong. Off.

No. He shook his head, water spraying from his quills. Nothing was wrong with him, just bad memories. Everyone had them.

He looked up and around the cliffside. It was pretty, the towering fir trees seeming small as they meshed with the thousands of others all the way to the horizon.

But where was he?

He didn’t recognise anything here. He wasn’t sure he had even been here before. He pulled out his phone from his quills and turned it on.

The time was 5:04pm.

He stared dumbly at the dirty phone screen as it occasionally flickered on and off. There’s no way that was correct. He left the house at like, 8:00am, how could it be…how?

He looked to the sky once again, in search of the sun. He spotted it nestled among the trees, about halfway down to the horizon. So it wasn’t the phone that was wrong. He was in a location he didn’t know, and spent about, like, 10 hours to get there—

Just how far had he gone? For all he knew, he might have looped across the entire world.

He needed to get back, back to his friends, to Tails. If only he could remember the way he got here. He unsteadily got back up, and started walking backwards, following the skids and marks his clumsy footsteps had made.

But it’s nice isn’t it? The quiet. The peace. Maybe you could stay here forever. Just you and—

“Oh Chaos—“ Sonic tripped over a root and fell face flat into the mud. This was going to take a while.

Sonic finally made it out of the forest, to be greeted by a setting sun. He was certain he could have made it a lot faster if his legs weren’t constantly on the verge of giving out the whole way. It really gave him an idea just how far he had run.

He spotted a village in the distance. For a second, he thought about maybe just renting a room for the night, but if he did, then the headlines would be horrible for tomorrow; he looked far from perfect right now, covered in mud and leaves and damp from the rain.

He found a massive tree, one that easily towered over the others in the region, being seen for miles. There were small nails, some rusted and brown, and others seemingly new, embedded into the tree trunk, some tied with ribbons around them, flowing in the gentle breeze. Maybe it was a tradition. He leaned against the bark and slowly slid to the floor, relief overcoming him as he could finally let his legs rest. His phone pinged, and he took it out from his quills.

Tails: staying overnight at hotel near a village will come back tmrw eve

Tails: Eattttttt >:(

He smiled at the messages, before turning his phone off and closing his eyes and trying his best to relax against the nails digging into his skin. At least there was no rush to be back by tomorrow morning.

Chapter Text

Pain tore through Sonic’s ankle as he half-hobbled, half-ran past the lines of cells and metal walls surrounding him. The sterile setting was starting to give him a headache from the brightness. He looked down. His left foot was dragging along the floor by him, lying at an odd angle. He fought the urge to throw up at the sight of it, instead bringing his attention forward. He skidded as he ran at a sharp turn, the soles of his worn-down shoes loudly clanging against the metal floor. All of a sudden, an alarm sounded, large red lights emerging from the ceiling, spinning like ambulance sirens — seriously, did Eggman always make his inventions so comical? Sonic tried his best to stay fast, but the pain in his leg was almost unbearable, especially when he was using it so much.

Were the corridors always so winding in the Death Egg?

The cells he passed were all empty, and he tried to not think about where those prisoners could have gone. The ones he couldn’t save. The aim was to find someone, anyone he knew and get out.

Of course, he didn’t remember escaping his cell, so he didn’t know if anyone friendly was on board. He hoped they were.

He turned another corner and tripped, falling onto his broken ankle with a hiss of pain. He had to get up, there was no way there weren’t badniks — or worse — coming after him right now. He looked up to see the long metal hallway stretching further and further into the vanishing point. He got up slowly, and continued to run.

He heard a voice yell his name from a past cell, and he backtracked. There was a mother and a child, locked away behind bars. He gave them a swift thumbs up, before looking at the lock. There was no keyhole, which meant the only way he could break it off was with brute force. He tried hitting down on it, to make it dent, to no avail. He braced himself with his foot on the wall, and tried to pull it off, but it didn’t break. He took a deep breath, preparing himself for pain, and launched into a spin dash at the lock, pressing harder and harder, trying his best to sever the lock. He came out of the dash, panting heavily as he fought to not cry at the pain his ankle was giving him. He looked at the lock. It was like he didn’t even do anything to it.

He heard the sound of metal scraping against metal coming from where we ran from, and he looked. Looking right back at him was a familiar jackal, metal claws scraping against the wall and he slowly walked forward. Sonic felt his stomach drop at the sight, and tried again to pull off the lock. Nothing was working, and Infinite was advancing on him. He pulled harder, frantically. The child started to cry from the aggressiveness of his efforts and the mother held her tighter.

The lock wasn’t coming off.

He took a look backwards. Infinite was coming closer, his footsteps becoming louder and louder as he drew near. Sonic was starting to believe the lock would never come off. He looked at the mother and child, who looked back fearfully, hopefully. He felt the pit of guilt grow in his chest. He painfully got back up.

And he left.

What kind of hero was he? Not even able to bust the lock off some measly prison cell. He rounded a corner, and the screams for help from the cell died away. He felt useless. He left them alone, scared. He should have never tried to help them, to give them hope, if he was going to leave at the end.

What kind of shitty hero thinks of himself before others?

Infinite’s footsteps faded as Sonic managed to put in some distance between them. As he turned from yet another corner, he wondered if he was going in circles. He could have sworn the Death Egg wasn’t this big from the outside. He hoped someone would just drop down from one of the vents and escort him out of this purgatory.

He went around another bend, and there was a figure at the end of the corridor, facing away from him. Taking a gamble, Sonic ran towards it, hoping desperately it wasn’t a trap or an enemy. He saw black, and red, and gold—

Oh thank fuck, it was Shadow.

Sonic half-crashed into his back, causing him to stumble forwards.

“What the- Sonic?!”

“Shadow— Shadow wait there’s Infinite coming— he’s—“ He pointed backwards, but Infinite was nowhere to be seen.

Shadow grabbed his arm. “We have to go. Did you get the mother and child?”

Sonic stared at him, his heart sinking that Shadow knew about them. “I—“

“Where are they?”

“The lock— it was impossible— I couldn’t break them out.”

Shadow furrowed his eyebrows. “Did you spin-dash?”

“Yes, the lock wouldn’t break, and my foot—“ Sonic looked down and gestured to his broken ankle. “Couldn’t do anything with this.”

Shadow looked to his foot, then back to Sonic, and his stare turned cold. “So it’s not that you couldn’t, it’s that you didn’t try hard enough.”

Sonic froze, then looked back up to Shadow, who looked back at him, glaring, careless, with his—

Green eyes?

Before he could question anything, Shadow spun him around and threw him against the wall. Sonic let out a gasp of pain at his ankle being twisted and screwed his eyes shut, trying to get up, but he was quickly held down by him. When he spoke, his voice didn’t sound like Shadow at all: it was deeper, and echoing, like his voice was coming from all corners of the corridor.

“DO YOU SEE, SONIC? SEE WHAT’S HAPPENED BECAUSE OF YOU?” The voice seemed to bounce around in his head. “LOOK AT ME. FUCKING LOOK AT ME, COWARD, FILTH.”

He was speaking with a venom and rage that Sonic wasn’t quite sure what he did to deserve.

Just open them, he said to himself, just open your eyes and look at him. Just open your eyes, just open your eyes, open your eyes—

“I said—“ Shadow pulled him back and smashed him into the wall again. “—LOOK AT ME.”

Sonic opened his eyes, to be met with a grassy field, overlooking a small village.

Shadow stood outside Sonic’s door for the second time in 12 hours. The lights were off, and he couldn’t hear any commotion inside, so most likely Sonic wasn’t home. He sighed, and turned around, leaving. He didn’t know why he came there in the first place.

He had been running back for only a short while, when a familiar blue streak came racing through the street.

Speak of the devil.

Shadow was about to call out to him, when he realised too late Sonic was headed straight for him. They crashed into each other, sending them both to the floor.

The first thing Shadow noticed was the smell of mud and metal coming from him. The second was that he was wearing what appeared to be a hoodie, though it was completely torn.

Sonic immediately got off from him. “Ah— Sorry Shadow, didn’t see you there.” He got up, offering a slightly muddy glove to him.

Shadow looked at him in disgust. “I’m not taking your hand, you look like a wreck.” He got up by himself. “Where have you been?”

“I went for a run.” Sonic looked away nervously. It seemed like he was telling half-truths.

“A run to…?”

“Beats me. Almost fell off a cliff. And if you’ll excuse me—” Sonic sidestepped around Shadow. “—I need to go and take a shower. So will his majesty please pardon me?” He bent over in a mock-theatrical bow, though Shadow didn’t miss the small wince in doing so.

“Is your arm muddy too?” He attempted to pull him up to a regular stand, stepping forward and grabbing his good arm.

Sonic immediately whacked his arm off and stepped back. Shadow withdrew his hand quickly. He did grab his good arm, right? Sonic looked at Shadow momentarily with a panicked expression, before running away without warning. He debated calling out to him, but it would have been useless anyway.

Shadow looked down to his glove: some of the mud from Sonic’s sleeve had rubbed off onto it. It was definitely his good arm that he held. So what caused such a reaction? Was he hurt, or was it something else? He watched as the blue streak ran across the hills until it was no longer seen, then continued running back home. It was a new piece of evidence that would help him figure out just what the hell was going on with Sonic.

Sonic rubbed his right arm where Shadow had grabbed it, unable to get rid of the sensation. The dream by itself was weird enough, he would rather forget about it entirely. He shouldn’t fear Shadow because of one measly nightmare. A twinge in his shoulder reminded him of the open wound; he would need to sort that out too once he got home.

There was something so…familiar about that voice in the dream.

Sonic quickly went inside the house and kicked off his muddy shoes. He had to get cleaned up quickly before Tails came home — weird that this is the second time he’s hidden from Tails — and grab a new hoodie and patch up his shoulder. Tails said he would come back at around evening, which really meant he was coming back at 6:00pm precisely. Sonic looked at the clock. It was 2:03pm. He should probably start clearing up now if he was going to finish it with time to spare.

Just as Sonic had predicted: at 6:00pm, the door swung open and Tails walked in. He saw Sonic sat down on the couch and ran over to him with a smile.

Sonic smiled back. “Hey bud! How was your super important work today— or I guess, yesterday too.” He pulled the fox onto the couch next to him and hugged him.

Tails giggled as Sonic ruffled his hair. “Yeah it was— hey stop it!— it was great. We basically finished clearing an entire village of debris, and Amy managed to get them recovery supplies super fast, so now we’re ahead of schedule!”

“That’s great! I’m happy for you guys. Speaking of which, I feel fine now, so I’m sure I could help—“ He cut himself off when he felt Tails’ glare, and sighed. “May I help you guys with the restoration now?”

Tails continued to glare at him, as if testing to see if he was okay. Sonic could feel himself getting more and more nervous.

“I’ll think about it.”

Sonic let out a groan. “Come on! I’m going to die of boredom if I don’t do something.”

“And I said, I’ll think about it. Not no.” Sonic would have been impressed at Tails’ performance if it weren’t against him.

There was a moment of silence, before Tails asked, “So…what did you do while I was gone?”

“Ah, well, just me relaxing at home.” Sonic realised him not going out at all was probably as suspicious as what he was actually doing.

“Okay then…so why are your shoes muddy?” Tails pointed over to the shoe rack, where his incriminating shoes lay. They were very muddy. He should have cleaned them.

“It was— I went for a run.” A half-truth, not the worst.

Tails looked at him suspiciously. “Okay, but why would you lie about that?”

“It’s just that—“

“Can I not trust you anymore?”

Sonic felt his heart sink at those words, and he looked back at Tails, who was looking at him concerned. “What did you say?”

“I asked you why you would lie about that?”

“No no— after that.”

There was a pause, where Tails’ face scrunched up, confused. “I…didn’t say anything after that. Are you okay?”

He clenched his fist at the look on Tails’ face. Pity. He’s pitying you. Tell him to fuck off, you don’t need pity, you don’t need pity, you don’t need pity, you don’t need any of it, anyone—

Sonic stood up quickly, accidentally shoving Tails off of him. “Sorry, I—I think I’m gonna go to bed now.” His head was so loud, he could barely understand Tails.

He made to leave, but Tails grabbed his hand. He turned back to see the fox looking at him defiantly. “No Sonic, you need to talk.”

“Tails, please, there’s nothing— we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“But you know we won’t talk tomorrow! You’ll probably run off anyway!”

“I can’t deal with this now, leave my hand.”

“Sonic just answer me—“

“I said, let go of my fucking hand.”

Tails abruptly let go of Sonic’s arm, withdrawing like he’d been burned. Sonic let it fall to his side, not looking at Tails’ face.

He felt so angry. Unnaturally angry. Like he could crush someone’s head and throw them into the pavement.

As quickly as the rage came, it immediately went, and Sonic realised he’d sworn at Tails. He rarely swore. He looked back at Tails.

The fox was just standing by the couch, looking at him warily. His stance told Sonic he’d taken a step back.

He’d scared him.

He’d scared Tails.

Sonic quickly left the living room, heading for his room. He swallowed the lump in his throat, and gently lay down onto the bed. He looked at the alarm clock on the table next to him. It was 6:14pm.

Sonic closed his eyes. That’s late enough to sleep.

Chapter Text

It had been 6 days since the Metal Virus ended, and Sonic still hadn’t returned to duties. As such, Shadow tended to be called in as a substitute, though mainly as a heavy lifter. Something about him “not being a friendly face”, at least that was what Amy said. He had to agree with her; he knew he wasn’t a very approachable person.

As far as he knew, there were only a few more villages and one major city to tackle in terms of clearing debris and restoring buildings. The city was the main goal for today, so the operation was based on shifts rather than everyone going in at once. Right now, him, Rouge, Tails, Amy, Silver, Blaze and what he assumed were other members of the Restoration he didn’t know were standing in the centre of the city, and Amy was walking through the protocol for the day.

She stood up on the ledge of a fountain nearby and called everyone over. “Alright guys, this is the last big job we have, so let’s make it a good one, okay?” The crowd responded with cheers. She smiled at the positive response. “That’s what I like to hear. Okay, so we should follow the same strategy that we’ve been doing for most of the towns: Silver and Shadow—“ she looked over to where Shadow was standing. “—you guys go in and take all the big chunks of rocks from fallen buildings and such and get them out of the city. Got that?”

Shadow gave her a small nod, and Silver walked up from behind him. “Of course Amy!” He smiled at Shadow. “We can handle that.”

“That’s good, but we’ll need you to stand down for a bit so that we can clear anyone in the city. Don’t want anyone getting hurt after all.” Amy stared at the two for a bit, before saying,”Oh, actually Silver, I’m gonna borrow you too for this part, so it will be just Shadow sitting on the bench. Sorry Shadow.”

He shrugged. “It’s fine.”

Amy turned and started talking to the other members, giving instructions, and Silver patted his shoulder in farewell, before heading over to the side of the crowd she was talking to. Shadow dipped back, out from the group of members, and leaned against the wall of a nearby building. looked around. Rouge was looking at Amy — pretty good considering her tendency to not listen — but seemed pretty bored. He brought his gaze over to Blaze. Shadow wasn’t entirely sure why she was here; she wasn’t officially part of the Restoration, but he suspected she felt guilty for not being aware of the Virus when it was active. If that was the case, it would make sense why she would be helping. Silver, Amy, and Tails were all part of the Restoration. He briefly glanced over Tails, before stopping and looking at him again, properly. He looked…sad. Maybe agitated. He wondered what that was all about. Shadow thought back to Sonic begging him to not call Tails when he was injured. Maybe the fox found out?

He seemed to have zoned out while the rest of the instructions were given, because he noticed that the group had dispersed. A gentle hand on his shoulder caused him to look to his side, where he saw Amy leaning on the wall beside him.

She smiled at him. “You alright? You were really lost to the world.”

“I’m fine.”

“Of course you are.” Shadow felt a strange sense of Deja Vu at that sentence. She let her hand fall from his shoulder, and stared up at the sky. “Nice day, isn’t it?”

“Mhm.” Why was she making small talk with him? He immediately felt like running away as he registered his dry response. Chaos, he was awful at this.

“I’ve noticed you bump into Sonic a few times.”

This caught Shadow’s attention. He turned his head to face her.

“Sonic…” She fiddled with the hem of her dress. “Have you noticed something…off about him?”

I’ve seen enough to know he’s more than just “off”, he thought to himself.

“Yes.” He figured Sonic might actually murder him if he said anything about his injury.

Amy’s expression slipped into one of relief. “Oh good— I mean, not good, but at least I’m not crazy.” She cleared her throat. “So, uh— about maybe the day before yesterday, me and Jewel—“

Jewel and I, Shadow thought to himself, probably best to not say that out loud.

“—found Sonic sleeping in a cafe. Which isn’t really that strange, but still, he’s on rest. If he wanted to sleep, he would have done so at home, right?” Amy looked at him for confirmation.

Honestly, Shadow wouldn’t have marked it as abnormal at all for Sonic, but Amy was a lot closer to him. He nodded.

“I went to go get drinks, but Jewel told me while I was gone, he woke up really panicked, and like he didn’t know where he was, but when he focused on her, it was like a switch! He went back to almost normal instantly.”

This behaviour was consistent with how he behaved that night, Shadow noted. It implied he did that enough to be proficient in doing so. He wasn’t quite sure why Amy was telling this to him, but it was useful information. “Almost normal?”

She nodded. “Yeah, he was still a bit iffy, he flinched away from me.” Her voice wavered as she spoke. “And he seemed to be in pain when moving. Oh and he had these scratches on his arm, like right here—“ she pointed to her left shoulder. “Which was weird because he normally heals super fast, and they were from what I assume was fighting in the Metal Virus.”

Shadow had to give her credit: she reached the same conclusion as him (before he found out the truth) from one interaction. It also gave him comfort to know that at least he wasn’t the only one who noticed this. Wait, why did that give him comfort—

Amy interrupted his train of thought by letting out a sigh, and looking to the floor, a frown on her face. “It’s just— I wish he would talk to us. But no, he has to play hero all the time—“ she stopped, before correcting herself. “Well, I guess he is a hero.”

She was clearly worried for Sonic, and Sonic wasn’t giving her any peace about it either. Before he could stop to think about it, Shadow put his hand on her shoulder, making her look up to him in surprise. “Sonic is an idiot. But he is, like you said, a hero. And people don’t like heroes to be weak. He is just used to pretending.”

She laughed a bit at his insult. “Yeah, he is an idiot. I just wish I could get him to stop pretending, at least just around me or Tails.” She wiped her nose. “Tails and him fought about it last night. He’s just so—“ it seemed like she was going to start ranting about him, but instead she just let out a deep breath. She placed her hand on Shadow’s, on her shoulder, smiling at him slightly wearily. “Thanks, by the way. It helped, talking to you.”

He blinked, and then withdrew his hand. “Oh, yeah.”

They stood in awkward silence for a bit, then Amy got up from her leaning position, and grabbed her hammer from seemingly thin air. “Well, I think I should start guiding the civilians to a base camp while we work. See you!” She grinned at him, before running off, hammer braced behind her.

Shadow nodded at her in response, then got up as well, seeing Silver coming towards him from the corner of his eye.

“Well then, shall we get started?” Silver cracked his knuckles, waiting for a response.

“Try to keep up.”

He believed that the Restoration was the first time Shadow had properly worked with Silver for a while, and as he smashed boulders to rubble, while Silver gathered and deposited them all outside the city, he thought they actually worked quite well as a team. Shadow looked back to see Silver suspended in the air, hands out, quills slowly wafting behind him as he worked. He was a decent person, always willing to help and all, but he also was a lot less confident than the other two hedgehogs were. Shadow wondered if maybe it was a side-effect of being from the future.

With the last pieces cleared, Silver gently landed beside him and gave him a thumbs-up. “And that’s all of it! We should probably meet back with Amy.”

At that moment, Amy appeared from around the corner, and immediately beelined for the two. “Have you guys all finished? Awesome!” She responded before either of them could give an answer. “Okay so now, the truck delivering supplies should be coming shortly, so maybe I should bring the citizens back into the city, but then again it’s not like the other villages, so repairing homes will take longer than normal…” Amy seemed to be talking more to herself than to Shadow or Silver.

They both exchanged a look, and Silver cleared his throat, drawing Amy’s attention to him. “Uh, do you want us to do anything else, or—“

“Oh no no no! You’ve done your job, you guys can leave now. It may be better to do so quickly before I accidentally assign you something.” Amy let out a nervous laugh, before she walked off, mumbling tasks to herself like she was reviewing a checklist.

“Isn’t Jewel supposed to be helping her?” Shadow asked Silver.

“I’m not too sure why she’s not here either. Maybe she’s busy?” He shrugged.

There was a moment of silence between the two, before Shadow spoke. “I’m going to leave. Goodbye.” He turned around and started walking to the entrance of the city.

“Ah— wait, Shadow!” Silver’s voice calling to him caused him to turn around. “I was wondering, do you want to come over to the garden? I was going to do some work.”

He was planning on denying the offer, but the urgency in Silver’s voice made him relent. “Okay.”

It had been 15 minutes, and all Silver had done was garden. Shadow was beginning to question if he misunderstood Silver’s tone back then.

Shadow was sitting on a bench nearby the vegetable patches, while Silver was plucking out the weeds. “So— did you bring me here just to watch you garden?”

Silver looked up at him and started laughing. “Oh no, I was waiting for you to start talking.” He stood up and scratched his quills with his gardening glove. “I was just wondering if you were okay and all after the Virus. This is the most I’ve seen of you in a while you know?”

“Oh right. I’m fine.” Better than everyone else is, he thought to himself. “You have some dirt in your quills, by the way.”

“Oh do I?” He took off one of his gloves and dusted out his quills. “You know, tackling Eggman and the Virus at the same time was a mess. We really did have it rough without you—“ Silver cut himself off abruptly as he realised how that sounded out loud. “Not that it was your fault— I mean— I was just saying you’re a really good fighter and all and— crap—“

Seeing Silver so flustered was amusing to Shadow, and he smiled slightly. “You’re right, I fucked up. It was stupid. And I’m sorry, for doing that to all of you.” Apologising to Silver was so much easier than to Sonic.

“Well, it’s all in the past now. And I do mean it, it wasn’t your fault — from what I’ve heard, anyway.” He dusted off his hands and switched his gardening gloves with his regular ones. He fastened them onto his golden cuffs, and they both began to glow like they usually did.

Shadow watched, curious. “What do those actually do?”

“What— my cuffs?” He shook one of his wrists, and the cuff grew brighter momentarily. “It’s similar to your rings, helps me regulate my abilities. Walking around with them off is fine as long as I don’t try to use my powers, else I might suddenly start throwing chairs at everyone instead of the person I want.” That outcome seemed a bit too specific to Shadow.

Silver walked over to the bench where Shadow was sitting, and sat beside him. There was a small moment of silence, before Silver spoke up again. “Sonic hasn’t been back for a while now.”

“No, he hasn’t.” Seems like more people had noticed than he thought. Then again, Sonic was a very main-character person. “Have you noticed anything…off about Sonic?”

“Well, him not being here by itself is pretty suspicious, but Tails often talks about him too. I remember him saying that Sonic got really mad last night.” Silver looked at Shadow. “Getting mad — especially at Tails, of all people — is not like Sonic at all, right?”

Shadow hoped he didn’t look as shocked as he felt. “I agree. He looks like shit too. Tired and messy.”

“You’ve seen him?”

“Not by choice. He ambushed me at the river.” He decided to not mention him tearing his shoulder off.

“At least he’s going outside.” Silver looked out, over the garden. “You know, it’s been a while since we’ve talked like this. Definitely a big change from getting kicked in the head,” he said drily.

Shadow stared at him. “I didn’t do that.”

“Oh— uh— never mind.”

Shadow felt like there was more to that line than it seemed, but he let it go.

Silver spoke up again. “So, have you talked to him then? Did he say what was wrong?”

“Has Sonic ever told someone when he wasn’t okay?”

“…Fair point.” Silver got up from the bench, looking to the sky. “I think I’ve kept you for long enough. Are you busy?” He looked to Shadow.

He got up too. “I should leave.”

Silver nodded. “Okay then— oh wait—“ He ran over to a few of the plants and ripped out some carrots. He handed them to Shadow. “Payment for your time.”

Shadow took them, dusting off some extra dirt. Rouge could probably do something with these. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Shadow nodded at him to say goodbye, and headed towards the exit, before stopping just by the gate. “Actually… he didn’t seem okay at all. He was tired, and he—“ Shadow hesitated. “He was distracted. Talking to himself.” He remembered Sonic telling no-one in particular to shut up in the bath tub.

Silver frowned, eyebrows furrowed. “He was talking to himself? That doesn’t—“ He paused for a bit, trying to find the right words. “—fit in with the rest of the stuff you’ve described.”

“It was only once, so I may be wrong.” He didn’t believe his words as he spoke them out loud. Shadow was certain about what he heard. “And he refused to tell anyone about it when I asked him. Do what you want with that information.” He wasn’t quite sure what made him tell Silver all of this, but he was fairly certain he was trying to find out about Sonic as well.

Shadow didn’t turn around to look at Silver, but after a short pause, he spoke up. “Thank you for sharing. I won’t tell anyone. I was actually planning on seeing Sonic tomorrow.” Shadow felt an unspoken invitation when he said that. Both of them stood in silence for a moment. “Well, goodnight.”

Shadow continued walking, and left the Garden. He considered taking up Silver on that offer.

Silver waited for Shadow to exit the Garden, disappearing behind the wall. He grabbed the rest of the tools he had taken out while gardening, and walked towards the shed.

Fatigue, speaking to himself, constantly alert, irrational anger, and a reluctance to seek help, Silver thought to himself. These were all the things other people had seen in Sonic. It made Silver worried.

He had noticed a certain weariness from Sonic when they turned Super to defeat the Metal Virus that had made Silver feel uneasy, but he had dismissed it as part of the exhaustion of running non-stop for days. Now he wasn’t so sure.

Either way, tomorrow would help him to decide whether this was something Sonic could face alone.

Chapter Text

Sonic had sat inside for an entire day. Sonic the Hedgehog had not gone outside once in 24 hours.

Oh, how low he had fallen.

He sat up groggily in his bed, sunshine glaring onto his face for the third morning in a row. He tried to glare back, but only succeeded in getting black spots in his vision. Rubbing his eyes, he sighed heavily, and moved to the side of the bed, swinging his feet over the edge. He got up unsteadily, and a wave of dizziness instantly came over him, causing him to stumble slightly as he made his way over to the bathroom. He swung open the door and grabbed at the edge of the sink, eyes closed as he rubbed the side of his forehead. He had a killer headache; Sonic didn’t remember drinking anything yesterday, or the night before, so that may have been why.

He opened his eyes and looked in the mirror, to be met with a pale, half-lidded version of himself, eyebags visible, quills spread out. His eyes drifted to his left arm. The scar had faded almost entirely, only a shortness in fur evidence as to what happened a few days ago. He didn’t think he needed to wear the hoodie anymore. He turned on the tap and splashed his face with cold water, trying to unsuccessfully wash away the exhaustion from his eyes.

He definitely looked worse than the last time he had seen himself in the mirror.

He walked back over to his bed and sat down, grabbing his phone from the bedside table. No messages. Turning it off, he mindlessly played with it in his hands. It wasn’t like he was expecting any messages. Not much to talk to him about when he wasn’t doing anything useful. A simple greeting would have been nice though. May a small “are you ok?” to not act like he was dead to the world.

Can you blame them? What are they going to get from talking to you?

They were his friends. If one of them had gone no contact for a while, he would have messaged them too.

That’s an unfair comparison; all of them bring something valuable to the table. They deserve to be okay. What do you do besides cause trouble?

“Shut up.” He whispered. It was slowly becoming his catchphrase.

He should probably get out of his room. Sonic didn’t think he even left it yesterday. He got up and went to the door, and slowly opened it. The lights were on, glaring into his eyes as a reminder of how he had not been outside since the day before yesterday. He grumbled as he shielded his eyes. Tails must have left them on. He always turned on the lights in the day, no matter how much Sonic reminded him to turn them off and open a window instead.

Thankfully, Tails seemed to be out for the day again. Sonic wasn’t sure if he could face him right now.

Just then, the doorbell rang. Sonic froze in the doorway to his room, staring at the front door. Visitors were possibly the last thing he needed to deal with today. If he just ignored the ringing, then maybe the person would just leave by themselves.

But the lights were on, so it would be safe to assume someone was home. The doorbell rang again. Yep, they definitely thought the house was occupied. He would have to answer the bell. Slowly trudging towards the door, he opened it, his face shifting from a dull expression to a slightly weary smile.

Silver was standing on the doorstep, an awkward grin on his face, and carrying a basket of what looked to be a bunch of vegetables. “Hi Sonic! Mind if I come in?”

Sonic quickly looked behind him. The house itself wasn’t too much of a mess; as long as Silver didn’t enter his room, it should be fine. He turned back to him. “Sure, get inside. How are you?” Silver walked past Sonic, and he locked the door behind him. “Sorry for the mess, you can just sit on the couch.”

“Mess? This place is shining!” Whether he was exaggerating on purpose, or if it was just in his nature, Sonic wasn’t certain. Silver collapsed on to the couch with a sigh, and Sonic sat next to him. “Oh Chaos, these past few days have been hectic and I haven’t seen you since the end of the Metal Virus, so I thought that a visit wouldn’t hurt.”

“Haha…yeah.” He had realised the same thing when Silver had knocked on his door. Not the most polite of him to vanish like that, especially when it was someone who had helped him save the world. “Sorry about that.”

Silver waved his hand dismissively. “No need, it’s as much my fault as it is yours.”

They both fell into an awkward silence, neither of them too sure what to say. After a bit, Silver piped up again. “Oh yeah! I also brought you these—“ He handed the basket to Sonic. “It’s just a bunch of things from the garden I’ve been tending to. They’ve been turning out a lot better since Blaze burnt the entire place down.” This earned him a concerned look from Sonic, to which he explained hastily, “it was a good thing, she suggested it, no fighting or anything.”

Sonic wasn’t too sure how that would help, but he accepted it. “Thanks for the stuff, man.” He set the basket to his side, and leaned back, hands behind his head. “So, uh, how’s work?”

“It’s almost done really, just a few small vill—“

“It’s almost done?!” This was news to him, and he sat upright. “What do you mean, ‘it’s almost done’?! I haven’t done anything to help!” He’d been sitting here, useless, letting everyone else fix the damage he had caused—

“I uh—“ Silver was caught off guard by his outburst. “—it’s only like, 5 more villages to clear up, then I think Amy needs to sort out some things with supplies, and then it’s finished. Anyway, what have you been up to?” He was trying to change the subject, but Sonic wasn’t willing to let it go so easily.

“But then I’ve just been sitting here, useless—“ he spat out the word. “Not helping anyone with anything that I did. It’s my mess!” He sat there, hands on knees, brow furrowed. His leg started to jog up and down harder.

“It’s not your mess, it’s Eggman’s… and uh— did you ask Amy about coming back?” His voice was tentative, but he was doing his best to try and help Sonic with his inexplicable anger.

“Amy isn’t gonna let me do shit. I’m relaxed! I’m chill!” He turned to Silver, grabbing his shoulders and twisting him so they were face-to-face. “I’m chill, right?”

Before Silver could answer, he let go, standing up, before pivoting back to continue his rant. “I’m perfect! I’ve been going on runs, I’ve been talking to people, there is nothing wrong with me. I repeat: nothing is wrong with me. But no, I’m a fragile baby, tiptoeing around me like they’re walking on eggshells. They think I don’t see the look in their eyes: it’s pity. They pity me. Sonic the Hedgehog! I don’t need pity, I don’t want pity, I don’t des—“ he cut himself off, clearing his throat. “I am in peak condition. I’m better than I’ve ever been!”

Sonic was realising his words sounded like the ramblings of a mad man, and he faltered, letting Silver take the chance to get in a word. “I’m sure they don’t pity you, Sonic, it’s probably just them caring about you. Tails doesn’t seem to think you’re doing the best, so maybe the worry is coming from the right place. You just need to trust them—“

Sonic glared at Silver. “Tails is a child, he’s just worried, and he’s overworked, and I’ve just been bugging him this whole time too, so— so his judgment is invalid, and Amy’s just— it’s all fine but she just refuses to accept it—“

“Sonic, you’re making them seem like they’re unreasonable people—“

“Well, maybe THEY ARE BEING UNREASONABLE. Did you ever think about THAT?” His voice was the loudest it had been for maybe months now, and the echoes in the silence just made them that much louder.

Silver was looking at him with confusion, shock, and some other emotion that Sonic couldn’t quite decipher. His gaze turned cold, and before Sonic could process anything, Silver grabbed Sonic’s arm and pulled him towards the couch, standing up and flipping him so that his face pressed against the pillows with enough impact he could have sworn his nose was broken. Silver was bending the arm he was holding back behind Sonic, the other hand pressed between his back quills as he stood over him. He tried to ignore the panic rising in his chest; it was an uncomfortably similar situation to his dream. “What the hell are you doing?!

Silver spoke in a low tone. “Get out.”

Sonic wasn’t sure he heard him correctly. “What?”

“I said,” his grip tightened on Sonic’s arm as he pulled it further backwards, and pain burst at his shoulder. “Get the fuck out of him.”

“Ow, chaos— get what out? What are you on—“

“Stop MESSING WITH HIM! I know you’re in there, I saw you, and now fucking leave him alone.”

“Silver, please let go of my arm— fuck— Silver let go! I don’t know what you want me to do, and my shoulder’s gonna snap!”

There was a moment of silence, and just when he thought Silver was going to snap his arm off, he felt his hands withdraw. Sonic quickly pulled himself up and turned around to sit on the couch, massaging his shoulder. Luckily, it wasn’t the one that had been injured a few days prior.

Silver silently walked towards the door and was about to open it, hand on the doorknob. He muttered a soft “sorry” before quickly leaving the house. Sonic stared at the open door.

What was that about? And what kind of asshole restrains his friend in his own house?

What did he see? He sat there in silence, dread pooling in his stomach, though he didn’t quite know why. He didn’t understand anything that just happened though. Maybe ignorance was bliss right now.

…yeah, what an asshole.

Silver had quickly left Sonic’s house purely because he did not want to have to explain his actions right now. He wasn’t too sure about what just happened, honestly. He thought back to when Sonic was yelling.

“Sonic, you’re making them seem like they’re unreasonable people—“

“Well, maybe THEY ARE BEING UNREASONABLE. Did you ever think about THAT?” He was basically shouting at Silver, and he was beginning to feel increasingly helpless in this situation. He looked at Sonic, who was glaring back at him. Silver had to admit, he agreed with Tails and Amy: he did not look like someone who was “in perfect condition”. His quills were messy, he was irrationally angry, and had visible eyebags under his—

Green eyes.

Silver paused and looked at him again. Green eyes. No. Not Green like they normally were; not a vivid, neon green, but a pale, discoloured green.

Slits for pupils.

He wasn’t entirely sure why, but the sight immediately put him on guard. There was something wrong with Sonic. No, not something.

Someone.

He didn’t realise what he was doing until he heard Sonic swear beneath him, struggling feebly. Silver had really been running on autopilot for the last 2 minutes. He abruptly let go of Sonic, and watched him dumbly as he scrambled to regain control.

He didn’t know why he had attacked him, but he was certain that it wasn’t an unfounded action. He just had to think about why those eyes unnerved him so much.

He couldn’t explain anything to Sonic right now, it wouldn’t make sense. He needed to leave.

After all, how do you tell someone that you aren’t talking to them anymore?

A hand on his shoulder brought Silver back from his thoughts, and he looked to his right to see Shadow standing next to him. He was looking at him with an eyebrow raised. “Why are you leaving Sonic’s house?”

“Ah— uh—“ Right. Silver had almost forgotten he had invited Shadow. He cleared his throat, not making eye contact with him. “Could you go check on Sonic? I might have— uh— wrestled him without warning.” Silver could feel Shadow trying to figure out what exactly happened, so he added on, “I’ll tell you what happened later. Just make sure he’s okay.”

“And you can’t do it yourself because…?”

“I would need to…explain why I did that to him.” His voice grew smaller. “I’m not too sure why myself.”

For a moment, neither of them said anything, and he prepared himself for Shadow to try and argue for a reason, but nothing came, apart from a single “okay.” When he turned back, Shadow was walking to Sonic’s house, not giving him a second glance.

Silver breathed a sigh of relief, and continued walking, back to the garden. He knew he had the answers to his actions in his mind, he just couldn’t remember, like a mental block in his brain. Just thinking about those pale green eyes made his quills bristle and fists clench. Maybe talking with Shadow would help clear things up at least.

Chapter Text

Shadow approached the open door, knocking on it as an act of courtesy before going in. He found Sonic sitting on the couch, leg bouncing up and down rapidly, head in his hands. He cleared his throat, causing Sonic to look up instantly.

“Oh— uh— hey Shads, you’re a bit late to the party.” A nervous laugh escaped from Sonic.

“Silver passed me on the way here. He said he beat you up.”

Sonic scoffed at that. “Well— he didn’t beat me up, he just uh— restrained me.” He rubbed his right shoulder subconsciously. “Painfully.”

“And why did he beat you up?”

“He didn’t— I don’t really know. I wish he would have told me at least, but—“ Sonic sighed and leaned back, staring blankly at the coffee table in front of him. Shadow noticed his hand tightening his grip on his arm, nails digging into skin. “I trust him. He probably did it for a good reason, and he’ll tell me when he’s ready.”

Shadow stared at him, wide-eyed. How does one trust another right after they ambushed him in his own house? He didn’t even look angry. He chalked it up to Sonic being Sonic, and left it aside.

“You know…” Shadow stopped his train of thought and focused back onto Sonic. “…Silver was yelling at me to ‘get out’ and things, like proper exorcism style.”

“…mhm.”

“It was intimidating, definitely. But honestly?” Sonic picked at the cuffs of his gloves, staring down at his lap. “It made me feel relieved. It was just— he did—“

Sonic fell silent abruptly; he wasn’t willing to elaborate further, leaving the two in awkward silence.

“Okay…” Shadow walked over to the couch, leaning on the back of it with his arms. There really wasn’t any reason to be here, and he was aware of it. If they stopped talking, then he would have to leave out of respect. He was barely any closer to understanding what happened. “Do you want some water?” Basic response.

Sonic looked up at him, relieved at the topic change. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

Shadow turned around as if to head for the kitchen, but then paused, turned back, and asked, embarrassed, “uh— where is your kitchen?”

He was waiting awkwardly for an answer, when he heard what he definitely knew was suppressed laughter coming from Sonic. He turned around, smiling — the first time in days Shadow had seen him do so. “I’ll come over, hold on—“ He got up from the couch, and walked over to where Shadow was standing. “It’s just down this hall.”

Sonic and Shadow both sat at the kitchen island. Sonic had a glass of water at his side, a hand wrapped loosely around it. It remained full, despite Shadow filling it up a while ago now. He, too, had a glass next to him, which was empty. He had thought that Sonic would feel less awkward if they were both doing something, but clearly he had been wrong.

“So, uh— how’s Rouge doing?”

“She’s fine.” He paused for a second, before adding on, “Annoying.”

“Oh yeah?”

“She steals my emerald all the time. Damn nuisance.” He sighed, and rubbed a hand over his face, remembering. “Once, I left to go to Holoska with her on a mission; she suggested splitting up to search for an item, but forgot to give me back the emerald. I slid down a ravine under the impression I could chaos control back up.” Shadow felt the anger welling up in him as he thought back, and he clenched his fist. “Imagine spending several hours in an icy canyon, with no help. It was a miracle she found me, but she clearly didn’t learn anything from that experience.”

Sonic let out a low whistle. “That sounds rough. But not unexpected.” He sat back, absentmindedly swirling the water in his cup. “And you? How are you doing?”

“Fine.” Shadow was aware of Sonic trying to keep the attention off of himself. “What have you been doing since yesterday?”

Sonic stilled his hand, the water in the cup splashing up onto his glove at the abrupt stop. “I uh— went for a run—“

“Day before yesterday. Try again.”

“…I went again.”

“Shoes had dried, crusted dirt on the floor around them. Undisturbed from the day before yesterday. Third chance.”

“It was— I did— Chaos, Shadow—“ He was steadily pissing Sonic off more and more. “Maybe I don’t need to catalogue everything that I do to you, huh? What if I just don’t want to tell you?”

“…Fine.”

“I said— what?” Sonic looked up from the table, incredulously.

“If you don’t want to share, then I won’t try to get it out of you.”

“Wha— then why did you keep pushing me for the answer?!”

Shadow looked at him almost scornfully, but lacking the malice necessary. “You tiptoeing around the subject pissed me off. Just say it straightforward.”

Sonic stared at him dumbly, before rubbing a hand over his face with a groan. He had covered his eyes, but Shadow could see his smile from underneath. “You’re a nightmare to deal with, you know that?”

Shadow leaned back, a victory smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I get that often.”

He noticed the clock above the doorway, behind Sonic; it was almost 11. Shadow hadn’t realised how long he had been here — he was meeting with Rouge soon. “I should leave. I have plans.”

“Already?” For a second, Shadow thought Sonic sounded disappointed. However, in an instant, he added on, “what, you don’t wanna hang out with the Hero of Mobius? Maybe someone’s got an inferiority complex?” Instantly, he was convinced him he was imagining the tone of his tone.

Shadow scoffed at the idea. “Hardly. To me, you’re just the blue hedgehog who is slightly… slower than me.” He had paused on purpose to see Sonic’s face shift from disbelief to amused disapproval.

Shadow got up from his seat and headed out of the kitchen; small steps told him Sonic had followed him to the front door. “Thanks, by the way, for stopping by. Good to see you.”

Shadow simply nodded in return. He slipped on his shoes and stepped out of the doorway, before he stopped.

He still wanted to see what had made Silver act like that.

“Sonic.”

He looked up as Shadow addressed him. “Yeah?”

“Rouge and I are heading to an Eggman base tomorrow. Do you want to come?” This was only for analysis, he thought to himself, just that, no other emotions are playing into this decision.

Sonic’s eyes instantly lit up at the prospect of doing something productive after almost a week of nothing. “Hell yeah I would! Thanks Shadow!” He lightly punched the other’s arm. “This is new for you, do you feel bad?” Shadow didn’t miss the small inflection in tone as he said that. “Well, I’m glad you care about me so—“

“This offer is not out of pity. Take it or leave it.”

Sonic blinked. An emotion flitted across his face too fast for Shadow to decipher. He either hit a nerve, or said something important. “Right, right… what time should I meet you guys?” Seems like it wasn’t a nerve, then.

“2 pm, in front of—“ Shadow looked around briefly, before pointing to a small hill in the horizon. “That. Don’t be late.”

“I would never dream of doing so.”

With a small nod of acknowledgement, Shadow left the house, the door swiftly closing behind him.

Blaze sat on a bench on a cliff, overlooking the beach and sea. She wasn’t the biggest fan of heights, or water, but she did appreciate the breathtaking view it made. She was certain they had these places in the Sol Dimension, but her duties had made it so she had never had the time to admire them. She would have to arrange a day off when she got back.

Blaze closed her eyes, listening to the gentle lapping of the waves hitting the shore, punctuated by delightful screams of children and laughter of people visiting the beach in the good weather. The cliff made it so she didn’t have to interact with anyone while still getting the view. All she needed to do was not look over the edge. Tea would be good right about now.

“Blaze!” Rapid footsteps behind her were heard long before the cry of her name, and she was already turned around, to see Silver haphazardly running up to her. He stopped next to her and leaned on the bench, catching his breath. “Chaos, how do Sonic and Shadow do this?”

“Take your time.” She watched, amused, as Silver glared at her.

“Yeah, yeah, anyway…” He stood back upright, and turned to her. “How much do you remember of Soleanna?”

Blaze didn’t expect the question, and looked at him confused. “As much as you do. What is the reason for this?” She couldn’t explain it, but she felt a certain dread creeping up on her. “Why is this necessary?”

“Okay, okay, so: I visited Sonic today.” Silver had been worried about Sonic for a while, and had voiced his concerns very loudly to Blaze several times. “And he was clearly not okay, like— he looked awful, his quills were all—“ He circled his hands around his head in an attempt to mime…something. “Everywhere, and he looked like he hadn’t slept since he went Super and threw away the virus, and—“

“He looked bad, I understand. What about Soleanna?”

“Oh right, yeah. He got really angry at me because I suggested something he didn’t like? I think, at least, that’s what it was, and then he yelled at me, but that’s not the point: when he yelled at me, his eyes turned green.”

“…Silver, his eyes are green.”

“Nono, not like chaos emerald green, like pale green, like a snake, which is weird right? And—“ Silver hesitated, looking guilty. “—something about that really set me on guard, and I might have leaped on him.”

“You jumped him?” Blaze stared at him, bemused. What kind of sequence of events was that? “Why was that your response?”

“That’s what I was thinking! So I was thinking about why those eyes unsettled me like that and here’s the thing—“ Silver took a deep breath, potentially for dramatic effect. “I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember.” Blaze could see where he was going with this. “So, because you don’t remember, you think that it’s tied in with what happened with Solaris and Princess Elise? That’s a good thought but there’s one problem — we both remember everything that happened then.”

Silver took a seat next to Blaze, staring out to the ocean as he spoke. “But that’s the only way I could forget something! Don’t give me that look, this isn’t like regular forgetting, it feels like a mental block, I have the information but I can’t grasp it.”

Blaze brought a hand to her chin as she looked into her lap, thinking. “Okay… how about we retrace all the events and see if something is missing?”

“Alright then: Iblis was terrorising the future, and you and I were trying to stop it, so we went to the past.”

“Yes. Sonic was there because of the Festival of the Sun, and Shadow came in on GUN regulations after Princess Elise was taken by Eggman.”

“I was trying to find the Iblis trigger, which was supposed to be Sonic.”

Blaze sat back, looking up at the sky. “And then we have the whole thing with Elise sealing away Iblis inside herself, and then Sonic died, and came back with the whole—“ Blaze hesitated; that scene was far from pleasant to recount. “—thing, resurrecting Sonic, then you three fought Solaris, and returned the Flames of Hope.”

“That’s all of it, right? What are we missing?” Silver clenched his fists on his knees. “We aren’t getting anywhere with this. This story, this summary, it feels…wrong. 2D, like we’re missing something big—“ Silver stopped, cutting himself off. He stood up and walked towards the edge of the cliff, staring out at the horizon.

“Silver?” Blaze watched as he didn’t respond. She looked at where he had crossed his arms, a finger tapping at his elbow, showing he was lost in thought. She would have gone up to where he was, but the big drop from the cliff stopped her.

“Why did I know?”

“…Why did you know what?”

Silver turned around, eyes twinkling; he clearly figured something out. “Why did I know that the Iblis trigger was Sonic? Where did I get that information?”

Blaze frowned. “Well, it was—“ she stopped. Her frown deepened as she thought carefully. “I don’t…remember.”

“Exactly! And how did I know Sonic was in the future?”

“And Solaris!” Blaze stood up too, showing a rare side of her, excited. “What is the difference between Iblis and Solaris? Something else has to be there, else they wouldn’t have different names.”

“Oh Chaos—“ Silver grabbed Blaze’s shoulders. “Who killed Sonic?”

Blaze looked back at him, mouth slightly agape as she realised. “We are missing something after all.” The excitement left her, and was replaced with seriousness. “But, this means that whatever was missing is still here. We didn’t erase it.”

Silver let go of Blaze, the severity of the situation creeping up on him. “So…this thing is still creeping around. Of course—“ he let out a nervous laugh. “We don’t actually know anything about this. Is it a person? Or an entity? Or maybe it’s an object? Did he swallow it or something?”

Blaze looked at him, an eyebrow raised. “Sonic is not that stupid. But you raise a fair point. Of course, what you saw in Sonic was a one-time thing. No—“ Blaze held a hand up to Silver to stop him from protesting. “No matter how sure you are about this, there is no consistency. We need to continue to collect evidence about this. I mean— you do.” She mentally cursed herself for forcing her way into Silver’s investigation: where were her manners?

“Could you help me?” He posed the question almost immediately after Blaze’s backtrack, and warmth bloomed in her chest at the prospect. Silver cleared his throat, scratching at his quills. “I mean— you’re a really big help, so we should work on this together you know? And Shadow. He’s doing his own thing, I’m certain.”

“Alright then. I can afford to spend some more time here.” Blaze turned around and started walking away from the cliffside, before looking behind her. “Well? Come, let’s go to your garden. We can discuss more while not being in public.”

Silver smiled, and ran up to walk beside her. “Oh yeah, that’s probably for the best. I should probably call Shadow over, I told him I would update him about what happened.”

“You did? That’s the most I’ve seen you interact with Shadow outside of work for a while.”

“I guess he’s just as concerned over Sonic as I am.”

Chapter Text

Sonic stood by the kitchen island, calmly cutting onions on the cutting board while softly humming to himself. His foot tapped to the beat as he worked, deftly splitting them into thin slices and sliding them to the side with a scrape as he moved on. It had been a while since he had cooked — possibly the last time had been before the war — and more importantly, he wanted to apologise to Tails.

Is this what puberty feels like? He thought passively to himself. Sonic still wasn’t certain what had provoked him to feel so… angry at the fox, or even towards Silver. Actually, Silver’s was easier to explain: He had just got himself worked up over not being able to help with any of the recovery. His grip tightened on the knife as he continued to chop. He’d been sitting here, useless, and let everyone else clear up the mess he had made. He should have let Shadow just kill Eggman, all of this could have been avoided.

He shook his head, hand stilling as he did so. There was no point in dwelling over the past. What happened had happened; not even Sonic could change that. He moved over to set the knife aside, when he snagged his finger on the edge. He let out a yelp, letting the knife drop onto the kitchen counter with a clatter. Sonic looked down at his finger: the cut had torn through his glove, the frayed edges slowly turning red as his finger throbbed.

“Ugh…another pair of gloves ruined.” He threw them into the basket next to him, where 2 other gloves sat with similar abrasions. His hands were shaking too badly.

Sonic was starting to believe it would be impossible to do anything related to sharp objects without incurring heavy prices, so he walked out of the kitchen, heading to the bathroom to rinse his cut for the third time. His claws gently brushed at the edge of the gap, sending a small shot of pain through his arm. His quills bristled, as Deja vu hit him. Right. It had happened before. A situation similar to this one.

“Agh!” Sonic yelped, and sat back from his squatting position, clutching his hand. He looked down at his finger: it had cut through the (albeit worn) fabric of his gloves, and he could see small beads of red forming where it had broken skin. He let out a shaky sigh, clenching his fist to still his trembling hands. It had been a week into his imprisonment on the Death Egg, and no one had come for him. And Sonic…

Sonic was going to die.

His first night he had expected to be out in no time, smugly retaliating against Infinite’s jabs, being, on the whole, an uncooperative prisoner. He had scanned the entirety of his cell, but found no trace of weakness that he could exploit. It was no matter; Tails was probably hacking into the system right then and there. It would only be a matter of time until he would get his chance to escape.

Infinite handed him a tray of food: a small sandwich and a cup of water. He immediately stood up to leave, but before turning around, he spoke. “I have some news for you, Hedgehog.”

Sonic gave him a side-glance from his lying position on the cot. “Better be interesting, Infinite, I’m nodding off already. Of course, I wouldn’t expect—“

“We have plans for you. In a week’s time.”

“…Plans?”

He was wearing his mask, but Sonic felt a sense of unease: was he smiling underneath it? Not a good sign.

“Yes, plans. You’ve been a pain in the doctor’s side for too long. In a week’s time, is your execution.”

Sonic blinked. Then blinked again. “Wh-what? I don’t think I heard you.” He let out a nervous laugh, as he felt his throat constrict. The dead silence of the room made sure he had heard correctly, but he didn’t want to admit it.

Infinite let out an uncharacteristically theatrical sigh. “Execution, Hedgehog. Enjoy this week, because it will be your last.” He turned briskly, and walked out of view from the cell bars, but the footsteps came to a stop instead of fading out. A taunting voice rang out. “Try to enjoy it.”

Sonic stared blankly at the place where Infinite had been just moments before. He had to be joking. Yes, it was an intimidation tactic, and Sonic wasn’t stupid enough to fall for it. He wasn’t serious. Eggman wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

The day after, Infinite had taken him out of his cell to blunt his quills, leading him into what seemed to be some kind of operating room. He had plucked one of them from the hedgehog’s head with no warning, and once he was done, he had given it back to Sonic, as a ‘souvenir’. He wasn’t sure if he could hate the jackal anymore than he did now.

The rest of the days passed with no mention of what Infinite had said on that first day, and Sonic was starting to believe that maybe he dreamed the entire scene, but his anxiety spiked as the days passed and the week was coming to an end. On what he assumed was 6 days since he had been captured, Infinite came like usual to deliver food. It was the same morsels as there were everyday, but Sonic had stopped eating them for fear they had been tampered with. He slid the tray into the cell through the little hatch at the bottom of the door. Sonic made no remark.

Infinite got back up, and Sonic saw that the jackal had his mask off for the first time. The large gash through his left eye did nothing to distract him from the leering smile Infinite had on his face. “So, Hedgehog…” he let out a soft, demeaning laugh.

“Ready for tomorrow?”

Oh.

He didn’t imagine it.

He was really going to die.

Infinite left without waiting for an answer, leaving Sonic in the endless chasm of silence that enveloped him. He looked down into his lap, clenching his trembling fists tightly to stop them shaking, quills unconsciously bristled. Fuck, he was going to die tomorrow. Die alone, in the cold harsh metal cage that was the Death Egg, no one by his side.

Sonic was afraid of dying.

Dying without comfort by his side.

It was the seventh day again, and he was cradling his scratched finger, pulling off the glove with shaky hands and using it to wipe off the blood. With panic, he quickly looked around the floor of the prison cell, before spotting his quill under his cot. Relief filled his body as he lunged for it, inspecting for damage: aside from the blood at the tip where he had snagged it on his finger, it wasn’t dented. He turned the quill over mindlessly in his shaking hands, before looking at the wall he was working on.

The small, crude drawings of Tails, Amy and Knuckles he had been engraving into the wall stared back at him: Two small tufts around Tails’ head for his tails, a poor drawing of Amy’s hammer, and Knuckles’ blocky, oversized fists accompanied their faces. They stood as a source of comfort against his metal reality.

At least this way, he wouldn’t die completely alone.

“—and then, he said “Well, I don’t have any money, I thought you were paying,” which is already a stupid assumption because it’s not like he had confirmed that this was a date, but even if it was, wouldn’t the stereotypically correct version be assuming that he would be the one to pay?” Rouge leaned back in her chair and sighed, sipping from the Frappuccino she was holding. “Such a puzzle, that one is.”

Opposite her, Shadow sat stiffly in his seat, a cup of coffee lying next to him, untouched. “You brought me here…for gossip.”

“That’s only half the reason, handsome.” She leaned in, theatrically whispering, “The guy behind you is the one I’m really here for. Big drug ring.”

He spared himself a glance behind, spotting a seemingly well-kept raccoon in a blazer sitting not too far from where they were. He turned back to Rouge. “Not generally in your interests to deal with things like this.”

“Normally, but Tower caught me shopping online on duty.” She grimaced, remembering the fury emanating from the man’s figure. “I was assigned this as a form of redemption, I guess.”

“You don’t normally slack off like this.”

“…yes I do? You’ve seen me do this before.”

“I meant letting yourself get caught.”

“Ah. Guess I was distracted.” Rouge eyed Shadow analytically, before asking, “so, how’s Blue doing?”

He raised his eyes, making eye contact with the bat. “He’s… not good.”

“Not good? Must mean a lot coming from the guy who said Sonic could “take care of himself.” “

“I…regret dismissing the situation like that.” He picked up the cup of coffee for the first time, taking a small sip. “Silver went to Sonic. He’s concerned about him.”

“Oh good for him, but your tone makes it seem like it didn’t go well.”

“I don’t know the details very clearly, but Silver basically restrained him,”

Rouge suddenly leaned over, like she was about to spit out her drink. She started coughing, before hoarsely speaking, “he did what?”

“I think he saw something… he said he would talk about it late—“ at that moment, a notification rang on Shadow’s phone. Looking at the display of an unknown number, he opened it.

Unknown: hey shadow its silver

Unknown: im free to talk now if u want

Unknown: also blaze is here

“Speak of the devil.”

Rouge leaned over the table to look at Shadow’s phone. “Silver? Wonder how he got your number.”

Shadow got up from his seat. “I’m going to meet Silver. I can’t bear to sit like this any longer.”

“What? You mean here with little old me?” She let out a hurtful sigh, a hand resting against her chest. “You wound me.”

“Uh-huh.” He moved to leave, but his phone buzzed again.

Unknown: wait did u see the news

“The news?”

“Odd question. Also hun, I’m gonna need you to either leave or sit back down.” She held his hand, casting a side-glance behind him. “The guy’s gonna leave if you act even vaguely suspicious.”

“Did you read the news?”

“I said you need to sit.” She yanked at his glove hard enough for him to sit back down. “And no, I didn’t read the news. Did Silver say something?”

“He asked if I read the news.”

“Yes I figured that out, I meant if he sent a link.”

“No he didn’t—“ his phone buzzed again. “—yes he did.”

Without hesitation, Shadow opened the link that Silver sent him, to see big, red, glaring headlines flash at him. A small pit of dread grew inside him as he quickly flicked through the article, his breathing hitched as he looked through, further and further. He clenched his fists, grip on the phone tightening.

Rouge looked at him pensively. “Shadow? What does it say?”

“…Fuck.”

She blinked, noticing the increasing anger showing on his face. “Shadow, what does it say?”

“FUCK!!” He stood up violently, his chair falling behind him with a clatter. Most of the people surrounding them had now turned to stare.

“Ah, shit!” Rouge looked behind him, watching the raccoon flinch at the noise and rush out of the cafe nervously. She got up deftly and moved to trail him, placing a hand on Shadow’s shoulder as she passed him. “If it’s that serious, go talk to Silver.” After a small pause, she added a quick afterthought. “And you’re paying me back for scaring away my target.” Rouge patted his shoulder softly before flying out of the room.

Shadow stood there, as the other customers eventually looked away and continued their conversations, albeit slightly hesitantly. He relaxed his hand, bringing his phone up to look at the title once again. He noticed a crack in the screen that wasn’t there before.

Shadow ran out of the cafe, before fishing through his quills for his emerald. He pulled out and muttered a quick ‘chaos control!’, disappearing from the street.

Shadow: Meet me at Victory Garden.

Tails ran desperately, panting heavily, his keys jingling in the palm of his hand as he approached the door to his and Sonic’s house. His hands trembled as he fumbled with the lock.

Sonic. He needed to get to Sonic.

In his left hand was his communicator, Amy’s voice coming through. “Tails? Did you get in yet?”

“No— no, not yet. It’s not— I—“ Suddenly, the door clicked, and Tails stumbled into the house. “Oh! Oh, I’m gonna hang up, Amy. I’m in.”

“Okay alright be saf—“ her voice was cut off as he shut off the communicator and stuffed it in one of his tails.

He gently shut the door behind him and kicked off his shoes. “Sonic?” He winced at how nervous his voice sounded. It was to be expected; it might have been maybe 2 or 3 days since they had last talked, and Tails, like the coward he was, had left the house before Sonic woke up consistently since then.

Tails looked in the kitchen, and called out again. “Sonic??” He wasn’t sure if he was even in the house. Maybe he had gone out for a run. That was normal for him, after all.

Tails let out a small huff of laughter. As if Sonic had been acting normal lately.

He quickly glanced in his workshop, not at all expecting Sonic to be in there, but it was worth a look. The dark empty room was only interrupted by the dim light of a glow in the dark star stuck above his pillow. He smiled gently, then closed the door again.

Finally, Tails came to a halt in front of Sonic’s bedroom door. His ears flicked as he listened carefully, a soft sigh of relief leaving him as he heard gentle breathing from the other side, and yet, the knot in his stomach grew tighter. He took a deep breath, and deftly gave two knocks on the door, swinging it open.

Sonic stood in the almost pitch black of his room, eyes staring down at the floor in front of him, his phone glowing dimly in his hand as he held it loosely by his side. Tails noticed a black spot on the side of Sonic’s head, but wasn’t able to see clearly what it was in the darkness of the room. His breath hitched as he saw a small line descend from it, down his head, to the crook of his neck. Broken, blue quills lay scattered around his feet. Sonic slowly lifted his head to look at Tails, and he could see slightly darker tracks running from his eyes down his cheeks.

Only his wide, green eyes rang true to their colour; the rest of his body looked faded, washed out.

Sonic let out a small huff, only his shoulders shaking serving as an indicator that it was laughter. He turned his head up to the ceiling, bringing up a wrinkled glove to his eyes, covering them, only letting his disconcertingly wide smile show from beneath it. Tails stood in the doorway, unsure what the correct move was.

He dropped his hand to his side, rolling his head to look at Tails, eyes lidded. The smile didn’t go away.

“Man…” The slight waver in his voice was not a lost detail. “No-one wants to just give me a fucking break, do they?”

Tails bit on his lip, his fist clenched by his side, until he could take it no longer. He ran up to his brother and hugged him tightly, silent tears spilling down his face as he squeezed. He mentally scolded himself for crying: if anything Sonic should be in his position, and Tails should be comforting him, not the other way around. A gentle hand found its way around his back, hugging him back much more gently, and a loud thud told him his phone had fallen from Sonic’s hand. Tails didn’t understand half of the situation he was in right now, but all that mattered at the moment was that they were both together.

The phone refused to turn off, white background and red text flashing spitefully at the pair, as they both did their best to ignore it.

“SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: TIMELESS HERO OR A THING OF THE PAST?”

Chapter Text

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: TIMELESS HERO OR A THING OF THE PAST?

Sonic the Hedgehog has always been considered the hero of Mobius; bold, flashy, witty, and always there to save the day. He’s become a pillar that our society has come to rely on in the worst of times.

But is he really as much of a trustworthy, unbreaking figure as he appears to be?

A few days ago, two women reported seeing him sleeping by the garbage bins of a house, apparently dead to the world. “He was unresponsive to our calls for a bit, it really scared me! I strongly believed he was at least unconscious at first, but then he instantly rebounded once he stirred, even helped me bring my groceries back home.”

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said that she thought for a split second he looked irritated at being disturbed. What an attitude! Is this really what we should come to expect from our beloved “hero”?

But that’s not all — apparently this kind of behaviour had been going on for a while, and reports stem back as far as from when he first returned from the Death Egg, seemingly unscathed after what was said to be “six months of torture”. Sightings of him had dropped to an all-time low in the rest period between the war and the Metal Epidemic, whereas other important figures in the safety of Mobius, including Amy Rose the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Miles “Tails” Prower the Fox, and several others have been seen completing their duties diligently. This begs the question: what has he been doing all this time? Sonic the Hedgehog has always been known for his carefree outlook, but it may be leading into becoming more careless.

Recently, a few residents from a small village at least 7,000 miles from Green Hill Zone, reported that he had been sighted running into the forest nearby. Specific details included him seeming disoriented, unresponsive to calls, and completely bedraggled in dirt and twigs, as well as having a bleeding wound on his shoulder. Their account holds that he slept by a tree near to the village overnight, and left again early morning. What could he have been doing there? Has he perhaps lost his senses? And the origin of the wound is still unknown. Potentially, he could have been fighting something, but never before had he been physically wounded as extensively as that in a fight. Is Sonic the Hedgehog finally losing his edge, or worse: his mind—?

“Argh!” Silver let out a loud groan as he slammed his phone onto the table he, Blaze, and Shadow were sitting at, before leaning over, onto the table in despair. “This is ridiculous…” his voice came out muffled as his face was lying against the surface.

“No one would believe this. The article is clearly structured for defamation, anyone with a brain cell would see how cheap this is.” Shadow took Silver’s phone and skimmed through the article once again. He clenched his fist as he read again, disoriented, unresponsive to calls, and completely bedraggled in dirt and twigs, as well as having a bleeding wound on his shoulder. It matched up uncomfortably well with the time he ran into Sonic heading back to his home.

“These eyewitness accounts are useful, however. It gives us more evidence and leads without us having to… provoke… Sonic.” Blaze looked next to her, where Silver was lying, and gently patted his back with a soft smile. “Get up, we’re still talking.”

“It’s just that—“ Silver suddenly shot upright, standing up and looking panickedly between the two. “Wait, Sonic! Should we see him? What are the chances he hasn’t seen this article yet?”

“If he has seen it, he wouldn’t be in a good state of mind.”

Shadow moved to get up from the table, but Blaze reached out a hand to both of them. “Stop, both of you. Amy told me Tails went to see Sonic already about it. I know they’re not on the best terms right now—“ She looked pointedly at Shadow, who closed his mouth. “But, I think they need this right now, so let’s trust Tails to deal with this. And don’t forget, we may be in the garden, but we’re still outside. Keep your voice levels down.” She glanced at Silver as she said so.

There was a small pause, before both hedgehogs quietly returned to their seats.

“Thank you,” Blaze said, “Now, Silver, you forgot the reason you called Shadow.”

“Whuh—? Oh yeah!” Silver looked at Shadow seriously. “Okay, so… to explain this properly, you need to trust me and Blaze on this one.”

“Okay.”

“Honestly? You’ll believe us completely.”

“Yes, just tell me.”

“Alright.” Silver eyed Shadow pensively, before bursting out with, “There was a timeline that we erased that we think has something to do with Sonic.”

Shadow stared at the two of them blankly.

“What?”

For the second time, Silver groaned. He turned to Blaze. “We sound delusional, honestly.”

“No, no it’s just—“ Shadow sighed, and rubbed his eyes. “Explain to me. I believe you.”

Whatever Shadow was expecting Silver to tell, it wasn’t this. The concept of an entire portion of his memory being gone wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling for him, but still concerned him all the same.

“—we think that me and Blaze still remember because of our alternate dimension roots, and that we space-time travel a lot, but maybe you and Sonic might have, like, dredges of memories?”

“It can’t be a lot, if Sonic hasn’t expressed any notion of knowing what’s going on with him.” Blaze looked up to the sky in thought. “However, Silver and I have recently discovered there are gaps in our own memories, and we suspect it has something to do with Sonic.”

“You wanted to know why I leaped at Sonic, right?” Silver raised his arm to scratch at the back of his head sheepishly. “It was weird, but his eyes were like, green.”

“…His eyes are always green.”

“No no, like a pale green, like the colour of dishwater. Wait, no, more rich than that. Actually it was like a bit blue—“

Blaze let out a small cough to interrupt his tirade. “Silver, you’re straying from the point again.”

“Right, sorry, but there was just… something about that colour that really set me off. I guess it just disturbed me and… I didn’t realise what I was doing.”

Shadow sat in silence, thinking carefully. “And you don’t know why?”

Silver nodded. “Yep, we think it might have something to do with the blank space in our memories, but otherwise—“ he shrugged his shoulders. “—we’re stuck.”

Blaze turned to Shadow, and asked in a serious tone, “I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but does anything we’re saying strike a memory in you? On the off chance you do remember something, it would be best to know.”

“I—“ He scraped through his memories, for any source of familiarity in Silver’s words. “—I think so?”

The interest was evident in the pair, as they both almost leaned in, waiting for Shadow to continue.

“It was— It’s—“ He sighed. “I can’t pinpoint it, but it definitely feels familiar. I’ll think on it.”

“It’s alright— I mean, hey, we’re closer aren’t we?” Silver looked between Blaze and Shadow. “Is that all the leads we have?”

“I guess so. Shadow, did you see anything else in Sonic apart from what you told Silver?” Shadow looked up to see Blaze staring back at him, analytically.

He stayed silent for a bit too long, before relenting. Blaze would have definitely caught on if he had tried to hide it anyway. “There was…an incident, a few days ago. I don’t really know what happened to Sonic, but I found him in his house, with his shoulder torn open.” He heard a soft gasp from Blaze, but pushed on. “He was almost unresponsive for a while. I caught him talking to himself faintly once, but dismissed it. Now, however, I’m not so sure.”

Blaze and Silver exchanged a look between them, before Silver. “I’m gonna assume you kept this from me because it’s Sonic’s private business, right?” A brief nod from Shadow confirmed his suggestion. “Well, there’s really not much more to discuss, since none of us can remember anything.” Silver got up from his seat at the table. “I think Amy wanted me to do some field work to cover for Tails today too, so I’ll see you guys later.” He turned to leave, before quickly spinning back. “And Shadow? Think over it please. We need something to follow.” With that, Silver dashed out of the Garden with a careless wave to the other two, only the nervous twitching of his ears giving away his concern.

Shadow and Blaze sat in silence for a bit. Shadow was about to speak, but Blaze stepped in first. “It’s nice seeing you engage with us more.” He looked up to see Blaze looking off to the right, where a few tangled vines were growing up the wall of a shed, adorned with fruit of varying sizes. “It’s not the most light topic to be talking about, but I feel we haven’t had a proper conversation like this for a while now.” She smiled slightly as she turned her head back to look at him. “And to think it would be on the topic of Sonic, of all people.”

“The hedgehog’s always in my life, one way or another.” He grumbled under his breath. A flick of her ear told him that Blaze caught what he said, but to his amusement, made no argument against it. He stood up, before speaking, this time clearly, “It has been nice talking to you too. I should leave.”

Blaze bade him farewell with a simple nod of the head, to which in response Shadow took his chaos emerald and disappeared with a green flash from the garden. The smile on her face did not fade, as she looked up at the brilliant blue sky. “On the topic of Sonic, of all people…” a rare chuckle escaped her as she sat there, lost in the peace and quiet of the Garden.

Tails watched the kettle boil intently, not letting his mind wander as the loud whistling filled his head. When the kettle lever flicked up but the whistling did not stop, Tails let out a theatrical sigh, before turning around to face behind him. “You know, you’re really chipper right now considering the state I found you in.”

Sonic sat at the kitchen island, idly balancing a spoon upright with his hand. He abruptly stopped his whistle mid-note and scoffed at Tails’ remark. “Wow dude, kinda cold, eh? It was online tabloid B.S. — I deal with it all the time. I’m fine.”

Only Sonic the Hedgehog says he’s fine after a reaction like that, Tails thought to himself, turning back to the kettle and picking it up, pouring Sonic a cup of coffee and himself a tea.

He slid the mug over the countertop to him. Sonic picked it up and sniffed it, before pulling back in thinly veiled disgust. “Coffee? Why didn’t you get me tea too?”

“Maybe because you haven’t slept in a while, Sonic.”

“I have—“

“Your eyebags disagree.”

“What—“ Sonic brought a hand up to his cheek casually, trying to shield his eyelids. “What eyebags?”

“If you’re hiding them, they have to be there don’t they?” Tails smirked slightly while hiding his mouth with his mug, taking a sip. “And fine is a low bar for you.” He said under his breath.

If Sonic had caught what Tails had said, he made no move of showing it, instead glaring at him petulantly, and grabbing the mug, taking a deep sip while staring at the fox. There was a deliberately long silence between the two, like they were both trying to make points the other wasn’t picking up on.

Tails sighed, before asking bluntly, “Are you going to tell me anything about what happened when I came home?”

The abrupt pause in Sonic’s sipping told Tails the answer would be no.

“I just uh— wasn’t expecting to see that.” He winced, then started to finger through his quills, gently tugging on them.

“Uh huh.” He’s lying again, Tails thought. “And the injury on your head? And don’t lie.”

Sonic closed his mouth at Tails’ accusation, setting the spoon down on the counter top and holding his mug instead. There was a long silence in which Tails thought he would never respond, but just as he was about to press onward, Sonic spoke up. “I— uh— I pulled out my quills.” His voice trailed off to a mumble towards the end, and the hand that was rifting through his quills gently touched the gauze slight above them, covering the patch of blood that had been where his quills were earlier.

Tails swallowed the lump in his throat; he had already expected that answer, considering the quills at his feet when he had found him, but the admission was more shocking than the actual answer. “You— you did?”

“Yeah, I— ow, fuck—“ Sonic looked at his hand, where a blue quill lay between his fingers. He let out a nervous laugh. “Didn’t mean to do that— just a bad habit I picked up somewhere.”

“…Does anything, like, trigger it?”

Sonic thought about it for a while, before deciding on an answer. “I guess it’s when I’m nervous? Or just spacing out. Or—“ Sonic cut himself off from finishing his sentence, falling back into silence.

“…Or?” Tails had a suspicion that this “habit” of his stemmed further than just being nervous.

“It’s nothing.” Sonic averted answering the question by drinking from his mug again.

“It wasn’t nothing, and you know that. Why won’t you open to me— to anyone?” Tails pushed his mug aside slightly, leaning over the counter slightly. “What are you so afraid of, Sonic? What aren’t you telling me?”

It was a foolish move from Tails from a strategic perspective, but his patience was reaching his limit. Naturally, Sonic put on a guarded expression. “It’s nothing, I’m being honest, Tails. Why won’t you just drop it?”

“Because I’m scared!” Tails heard his voice crack as he said so, and quickly cleared his throat. “You— you won’t talk to me, I don’t know what you’re thinking, and you’ve just been through hell, and you think “you’re fine”? You aren’t fine, Sonic, it’s clear as day, honestly.”

Sonic stayed quiet throughout the entirety of Tails’ tirade, not speaking even after he was finished. The fox sat down heavily, having exhausted the things he could think of saying.

Sonic’s voice came out quiet, resigned. “There’s something wrong with me.”

Tails perked up as he registered the words, giving Sonic his full attention. Sonic continued, “I think it might have been in the war, or around then.” He let out a short huff of laughter. “You’re definitely going to think I’m insane at the end of this.”

“I won’t.” Tails tried to assume a serious expression. “I will never think you’re insane.”

The surprise on Sonic’s face gave way to a soft, genuine smile that Tails hadn’t seen in a while. “Thanks, bud.”

“I never really told you much about what happened there, and I— I don’t really want to, not now, at least. But I think around a month in—“ Sonic took a deep breath. “—I started getting, like, really weird thoughts. Just stuff that made me doubt… things.” The strained tone of his voice made Tails think they affected him more than he was saying. “But I thought it was something Infinite did, to fu- mess with me.”

“You can swear in front of me, you know?”

“Didn’t get the best reaction out of you last time I did.” Sonic said it lightly, but there was a certain edge that made him feel guilty. Sonic must have noticed Tails’ reaction to the quip, as he quickly followed up with, “Sorry, yeah I’ll keep that in mind.”

“So, yeah, I thought it was a weird trick, but then once I got out, they didn’t really go away. It did put me off a bit, and I was going to ask about it to someone while Eggman was Mr. Tinker, honestly! But then, the Virus came around, and I wasn’t really in a place to, like, go to therapy or anything.” He sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “I thought I knew better than to listen to stupid thoughts like that, but…” Sonic didn’t finish the rest of the sentence, leaving it in the air.

Tails sat opposite him in silence, dumbstruck. “So all the instances in that article…were true? Like 100%, not exaggerated truth?”

“Wh— I wasn't slacking off! I did fall asleep that one time… and I did go for that run… and sleep again…”

“Sonic, what the fuck?”

“Hey, I might swear in front of you, but you can’t swear at me!”

“Sonic—“ Tails took a deep breath to try and calm himself. “Sonic, that is serious. Like, really serious! Why didn’t you want to tell us?”

“Well— it’s—-“ Sonic tried to grasp for words. “I’m a hero! I’m supposed to be fine, not tied down by things like this! What if Eggman comes back, or if there’s a new Dr. Starline, and I’m holed up indoors, not able to help anyone?”

“Sonic, first off, if Eggman comes back, then literally everyone else will go and stop him! You aren’t a one-man party; it’s not like when it was just you, or you and me. And second, you may be a hero, but you don’t have to act like one when you’re not in public. You don’t have to be a hero when you’re among friends.”

Sonic glared at the fox defensively, before placing his head in hands and letting out a deep sigh. Tails braced himself for more arguments, but instead he heard a soft laughter as Sonic’s shoulders shook. “Man… when you say it like that it seems so obvious, doesn’t it?” He let his hands fall to reveal a slightly glassy smile. “I guess it was just instincts keeping me from telling you all.”

Tails felt a huge weight come off his shoulders. “I don’t expect you to tell me everything at once, but just know that I’m here for a talk, alright?” He walked over and gave Sonic a side-hug.

Sonic reciprocated, squeezing him tightly. “Wow, you’re pretty good at this big-brother stuff. Maybe you should step up for a bit,” He said jokingly.

“No way! I’m so tired from yelling…” Tails moaned.

“Well… if His Majesty is feeling a bit weary, perhaps I should prepare dinner?” Sonic stood up to move in front of Tails, doing an exaggeratedly low bow in front of him.

Tails lightly swatted at Sonic’s bowed head, smiling at the soft “ow” it elicited. “Idiot. I’ll be back in 5, I’ve got some stuff to sort out in my room.”

Sonic watched Tails quickly run off into his room and close the door behind him, before turning around and picking up their mugs. Tails’ was finished, whereas Sonic’s was still half full. He swirled it around absentmindedly, reflecting on the conversation he had just had with Tails. A soft swell of happiness filled his chest at the thought that he and Tails weren’t fighting any more, and he brought the mug to his mouth, downing all the coffee in one gulp, before leaving the mugs in the sink and busying himself with cupboards and the ingredients he had left out earlier.

There were so many more things he had to deal with, but for now, he could just spend this time with his brother — article be damned.