Chapter Text
Whisper was the first one to notice.
That meant nothing against the other members of the Restoration. They were all empathetic and emotionally aware in their own way, but they were used to peace. They could tell when wasn't eating right or were sitting in the corner at parties. Whisper was the veteran. The Diamond Cutters, the old ones, were small, intimate. Their lives depended on all of them being perfectly in sync – all it would take was one of them faltering once for it all to end. (Whisper tried not to think about their last mission, about whether or not she could've done more to save them). They were close, too. All that time together and the team got to know each other very well.
So when Lanolin started to be distracted during mission briefings, during training, during their time off, Whisper saw it almost immediately. It started small: Lanolin needing things repeated her more than usual or slowing down in the morning. After a few days with no change, Whisper tried to talk to Lanolin, but she was brushed off. Whisper hoped that it was just a weird time and Lanolin would move past it.
That was three weeks ago. It got worse.
Jewel had called them back to Restoration HQ for a new mission. It was just the four of them in meeting room, a cramped, windowless room with a rickety table and a few mismatched chairs. Blue light from the screen illuminated their faces. No other lights were on – it was the middle of the night and the rest of the base was running a skeleton crew. All of them seemed a little tired – Tangle was loudly yawning and Jewel's eyes kept fluttering shut despite the coffee in her hands. That was understandable. It was late.
What was less understandable was Lanolin. She was usually the leader, the most disciplined member of the group. Instead, she was staring off into the distance. She hadn't looked at any of them since the three Diamond Cutters met up at the entrance, much less said a word. Lanolin didn't look tired, she looked absent.
"Sorry to call you in so late, but we've got trouble," Jewel said.
Tangle yawned again. "In the middle of the night? Seriously?"
"Sounds like an emergency," Whisper said.
Jewel nodded, her face serious. "Restoration members were ambushed in the middle of the night by Badniks. They were carrying medical supplies to help Emerald Town after its recent attack."
Tangle gasped, standing up from her seat. "Oh no! We gotta go help them!"
"Actually, no," Jewel said. "They've all reported in and are receiving medical treatment. No, the issue is that they say that they couldn't see the Badniks."
Tangle said the question that was on Whisper's mind: "Wait, like they're invisible? The entire time?"
"Right. If Eggman figured out how to make invisible Badniks, they're a threat to everyone. I was hoping you all would figure out what happened and destroy them if you can."
"Of course!" Tangle said, all fired up. Whisper merely nodded, but she felt the fire within her start to flare up. They all turned to look at Lanolin, who was in her chair, still staring off into the distance.
The three of them turned to look at each other, discomfort clear on Tangle and Jewel's face. Whisper guessed they didn't want to say anything, so she knew she would have to. "Lanolin!" Whisper said as loudly as she could.
Lanolin jerked up and turned to Whisper, looking shocked. She recovered quickly, as if she thought she was fooling anyone in the room. "Oh, uh, yes. Let's go," she said, nodding quickly. Then she stood up and quickly walked out of the room.
When she left, the remaining three looked back at each other. There was silence for a few painfully long moments. Eventually, Jewel broke it. "Is she okay?" she asked.
Tangle winced. "I don't think so. She's been like this for a while. I tried to talk to her about it, but…" she trailed off.
Whatever was going on had moved from frustrating to dangerous. Enough was enough. "I'll talk to her," Whisper said as she walked out.
It didn't take long to find Lanolin. She was standing in the middle of the main hall, looking up at the ceiling. What was usually a bustling center of activity was dead silent. There were few lights and fewer people. What sound was there was being dampened by the plants, which acted as privacy barriers. Normally, Whisper didn't like to stay here too long, but at night, it was peaceful. The quiet and the protection of being at HQ meant that her guard was lowered as much as it could be.
Whisper marched right up to Lanolin, who didn't even move to look at her. Either she was being deliberately or accidentally ignored. Both were bad.
"Lanolin," Whisper said. "What's going on?"
"Nothing. Are we ready to go?" Lanolin replied.
"You're not coming."
Lanolin's head whipped around. Her expression was mixed with shock and confusion. "What?! What are you talking about?"
"We're hunting unknown Badniks. You're distracted. That means you're a liability."
"I'm fine. I want to do this. I have to do this." Lanolin's expression was determined, focused. It was the most present Lanolin looked in too long.
Whisper almost second-guessed herself, dropped the whole thing, but she put her mask instead. "Lanolin, do you want to help people?" Whisper asked.
"Of course."
"Then either talk about what's going on and help us work it out as a team or stay behind."
Lanolin stayed angry for a moment, but quickly deflated. "I haven't been of any use recently, have I?" she said quietly. Whisper shook her head. She waited for Lanolin to continue, to start talking about her problems. But that was all she said.
Nicole knew Sally better than anyone else. It wasn't just because they grew up together. Nicole was in love with her. Long before Nicole could a put a word to the feelings, it was there. In Sally's support of the slow growth of Nicole from a mere object to a sentient person. In the quiet moments of grief after Eggman's invasion, when Nicole had no ability to comfort her and all the desire to. In the complete trust and honesty the two had in each other and how honored Nicole felt to have that. And, though they hadn't said as much to each other, Nicole thought Sally was in love with her too.
So why did it feel like Sally was pulling away from her?
Eggman had been quiet since they sealed Dark Gaia. The Freedom Fighters had mostly been flying around on the Sky Patrol, checking out the places that were damaged the most when the world shattered and helping where they could. Occasionally, an Egg Boss like Clove or Thunderbolt would make trouble and they would go to fight them back, but it was a time of rest and recuperation on all sides.
Normally, Sally would be the one pushing them to be more proactive. She would talk about ways to undermine Eggman or find a new ally that they could talk to. However, for the past few weeks, it was like she was sleepwalking. She was spending more time alone or in bed and whenever she would talk to the other members of the group, she would be talking less. It scared Nicole. What scared her even more was that none of the other Freedom Fighters seemed to notice. Granted, they were all tired and spending time alone after the recent crisis, but everyone else was on the upswing. Sally was just getting worse.
By the time Sally didn't get out of bed for the entire day, Nicole knew she had to do something. When she was connected to the Sky Patrol, she could appear at any part of the ship instantly, but she knocked on the door out of respect.
"Come in," Sally called. When Nicole entered, she felt a sinking feeling when she saw Sally's room messier than it had ever been. Granted, that was still cleaner than anyone else's room on the Sky Patrol, but still. There were clothes all over the room, her energy swords was spread out haphazardly across her desk, empty coffee mugs piled up. It wasn't like her.
"Hi Nicole," Sally said, sitting up in bed. She had a small smile on her face. "What's going on?"
"Are you okay?" Nicole said, sitting on the bed.
"Yeah, of course!" Sally said, looking confused. "Of course I'm fine."
"I don't think lying in bed all day counts as being fine."
Sally waved her hand dismissively. "Sure it does. I'm just tired from our last fight with Eggman."
Nicole just raised an eyebrow at Sally. "Everyone else rested for a few days at most. Besides, you haven't been talking to anyone else much."
Sally looked into Nicole's eyes, intense and straight-faced. "Nicole, please. I'm fine. As soon as Eggman strikes again, I'll be leading the team just as I always have."
Nicole almost believed her. But she knew Sally too well. The look she was giving wasn't her confident look. It was her bluffing look. "Sally, please. Talk to me."
Sally's face fell. She didn't say anything for some time. As Nicole waited, she looked out the window by the bed. Above the dark clouds, looking so thick that Nicole thought she would be able to walk on them, the sky was bright blue. Every part of the outside looked so close she felt like she could reach out and touch it, but she knew if she tried, she would fall to the ground below.
Eventually, Sally lay back down, head resting on her pillow, staring up at the ceiling. "I've been having a recurring dream lately. It's more vivid than any other dream I've had in my life. In it, there's no Eggman, no Badniks, no violence. I feel like a kid again. And then I wake up. And it just gets a little harder to come back every time."
Nicole didn't know what to say. She never had a dream before. This was all she had. She felt like she did back before she had sentience, where there was an unbridgeable gap between her and the rest of the world. "Sally, we need you here. I need you here," she said, desperate to communicate the longing she felt for Sally.
Sally looked back at Nicole and gave a little smile. "I know. I need you too."
Their conversation lapsed into silence again. Eventually, it turned into night, when the rest of the Freedom Fighters would go to sleep. Nicole desperately racked her brain to find some way to connect to Sally, but all she could come up with was sleeping in the same bed.
"Sally…" she started, looking down at the space in the bed and feeling foolish for even asking. However, Sally scooted to the side, giving her the space she wanted.
Nicole lay down next to Sally. They both were facing the far wall, Sally's back to Nicole.
It was a beautiful sunny day. On the rolling hills, gently sloping up and down, the wind quietly rustled the grass. There wasn't a cloud in the sky to block the gentle warmth on Sally and Lanolin. Lanolin was lying on her back, while Sally was on her side, facing her. There was nothing else around them: no trees, no animals, no traps, no Badniks.
Sally was in the middle of an old story about Sonic, back from when they were just starting the Freedom Fighters. When they were so young. "So we're just sneaking in to one of Eggman's bases. I tell everyone to be careful, because it might have traps. What does Sonic do? Run in, take out one Badnik, and then set off an alarm."
Lanolin smiled. "Yeah, that sounds like him. Every time I'm on a mission with him, I need to specifically tell him to be cautious. Half the time he doesn't do that anyway."
Sally snorted "Yup! But we love him, of course."
"Of course," Lanolin said nodding.
The conversation went quiet, and despite herself, Sally spent that time just staring at Lanolin. She'd be fascinating on her own, a normal person with no training stepping up to be a leader against Eggman, but being in this beautiful dream and talking about a similar but different world, she felt mystical. And that was before factoring in her gorgeous puffy hair and beautiful blue eyes and strong arms and all the other parts of her Sally couldn't take her eyes off. She was unreal, maybe literally, and that only made Sally more interested.
Slowly, Lanolin turned over to her side as well, facing Sally. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, until, in one smooth motion, Lanolin turned over and climbed on top of Sally, blocking out the sun.
They weren't touching, but Lanolin was propping herself up just above Sally, her face inches away and her arms just to her side. Sally could feel Lanolin's warm breath on her face and she could feel herself blushing more and more. Just as Sally felt like she couldn't take it anymore, like she had to do something with all this teasing, Lanolin leaned down and kissed her.
Their kiss was slow, even lazy. Sally didn't want to escalate it any further and Lanolin didn't seem to either. Eventually, they separated, staring back into each other's eyes.
"Hi," Sally said.
"Hi," Lanolin said back. They giggled, although nothing was really funny about it.
Slowly, the moment started to pass. The smile slipped from Lanolin's face and Sally felt the lightness leave her body. The two of them sat up, still close to each other but not touching.
"We can't keep doing this," Sally said. "This isn't real."
"I know," Lanolin said. "It's… it's affecting the people I love in real life."
"Mine too," Sally said. Still, despite their words, Sally still felt the temptation to stay. Not just with Lanolin someone she loved, but to stay away from Eggman and the destruction he caused. She almost felt like the girl she could have been if he never showed up. The girl who wasn't carrying around so much pain and baggage. Maybe they could just be free.
Wordlessly, they lay back down, holding each other until the inevitable dawn.