Chapter Text
Act 1 - Hidden Sanctuary
The blaring city lights can be seen even from here, nearly an entire continent away. Here Neo wandered the derelict hills they originally thought was theirs. Now however, Neo knows these fields were rarely visited by them unless if it were for the express purpose of conquering or destroying it for the Empire, an empire they were only interested in due to their own programming and orders, not allowed to want it for personal reasons. Not back then anyway. Neo carefully walked through the plains, careful not to scare any of the scarce few Mobini that were lucky enough to freely roam the hill. Neo's navy blue paint, yellow accents, spiked knuckles, and silver highlights on their quills made it so that no matter how delicate Neo was, most, if not all, of the animals would avoid them. Neo traced their long sharp metal fingers across the many mountain walls that populated Green Hill until Neo found the rock face they were searching for. Donning a heavy leather glove on their right hand before crawling into a crack in the wall, soon emerging into a large cave that was populated with nearly every flower Neo needed. Neo walked carefully along the outskirts of one of the many curated flower beds, scanning the entirety of one in a second, then another, then another, then another, then- Neo was pushed back, crashing into a wall with a thunderous crack! Before Neo can effectively scan the area for their attacker, they were grappled and tossed to the ground before being mounted by a short black and yellow robot.
Gemerl raised heir fist high while pinning the threat down with the other before rapidly striking into the badniks's face repeatedly, aiming specifically to crush it's long pointed nose, calculating that such an attack would aggravate them and make any potential counter attack attempted much more predictable and- "MR. GEMERL!" immediately his head spun to turn to the voice before his arm was grabbed by her, stopping his nearly perfect attack plan "Miss Cream, please do not interfere in-" but the words died in their nonexistent throat when she easily lifted him above the ground by the arm and off of Neo. "We've talked about this I don't know how many times, you can't just go around attacking random people!" she chastised with a sigh "I am so terribly sorry for Mr. Gemerl's behavior, Mx. Neo. Mr. Gemerl, please apologize to Mx. Neo" Gemerl looked to Neo and back to Cream "Negative, 'Neo' could still be a potential threat, possibility of being reprogrammed by enemy combatants is above 35%, please release me." she glared at him in the same terrifying manner as the late Mrs. Vanilla would and Gemerl immediately knew that the only available recourse would be to do as she said. He slowly turned his head away from the horror and faced Neo "I apologize for presuming you meant harm to me and my compatriot, unless if you do mean to harm us."
Neo grunted for dramatic effect and held the gloved hand to their bent nose, the first time this had happened Neo was livid, but by now it was practically their way of saying hello to each other. Neo begrudgingly gave a curt nod, there was more important matters they still had to attend to, as much as they would've enjoyed the chance to beat Gemerl. Cream faced Neo with a half earnest smile "Would you like to look with us for flowers, Mx. Neo?' she offered her hand before Neo looked up at her. Cream wore a dull blue skirt and vest, a bright orange shirt with rolled up sleeves, and traditional gardening gloves. She was as tall as her mother was. Neo carefully accepted her hand, nodding as Cream helped lift them back to their feet. Cream's smile became wider and motioned for Neo to follow her. Gemerl walked behind Neo and retrieved a small straw hat that must've been blown off when Gemerl rushed them, he carefully swiped the dust of it and promptly placed it back onto the large yellow fin on his forehead, before returning his attention to scanning the environment for danger while following Cream. She lead the two to one of the smaller flower beds that neighbored a long river. "What were you looking for, Mx. Neo?' Cream asked as she carefully tip toed into the patch of flowers. Neo had a hard time explaining to her without words what they desired, eventually they found a flower they used last year while shaking their head, "No sunflowers?" Cream asked, she felt like the two were playing charades. Neo continued shaking their head no. She put a finger to her chin as she studied them "No flowers from last year?" she guessed and Neo began nodding. Cream hummed in thought before picking up an Amaryllis and an Angelica, handing the former to Neo "I believe I suggested this one last year, but you had better ideas." Neo studied the flower before nodding more eagerly, Cream smiled as she brushed the dirt off her skirt with her free hand "There are some similar flowers, both in color and meaning, on the other side of the river. If you want to look." Neo pointed to Cream then shrugged. Cream tilted her head before suddenly understanding what Neo was asking, putting a hand to her chin "Hmm, OH! if you'd be so kind to please bring me a yellow spider lily, though it is a bit further up stream." Neo gave a thumbs up and added it as a mandatory objective to their personal directory "Thank you, Mx. Neo!"
Neo Made as much distance to the flower banks as possible, before their back went a lit with a pink flame that allowed them to take flight and fly over the quiet river and land safely on the other side, before following the stream up north, passing various other flower beds and even mass gatherings of fungus. The quiet drips of water along with the gentle sound of the running stream was pleasant, Cream's harmonious hums echoed throughout the large chamber further adding to the peaceful atmosphere that Neo nearly lost themself to if not for the sighting of their target, the yellow spider lily. Neo carefully got onto their knees before laying flat on their chest, eyeing the base of the flower carefully before gently using their ungloved hand to nip the spider lily from the lowest point of it's stem and retrieved it with their gloved hand, before Neo could begin the search for more flowers, they spotted another patch of spider lilies, red spider lilies. Upon consultation with their internal index, that was based off of past expeditions into the hidden cave with Cream and Gemerl, Neo thought the flowers were perfect for the bouquet. Neo picked two before using their flight to gain a better vantage, until they spotted Cream signaling them down. Neo flew down gently and handed her the yellow spider lily "This is perfect, thank you again Mx. Neo." she eyed the variant Neo held "Red spider lilies? I-" Neo could tell Cream wanted to question them about the choice but she simply shook her head "Its not my place to ask, is it? Me and Mr. Gemerl are about wrapped up here, would you like to come with us to..." Cream looked down, a tear almost escaping her eye "Y'know." Neo shook their head, but bowed to her, grateful for Cream's assistance. She smiled, again half heartedly. "Anytime, Mx. Neo. Please keep out of trouble." she said before waving goodbye. Gemerl eyed Neo before waving goodbye as well, Neo returned the gesture, watching them leave the same way Neo entered until the two were gone. Neo slowly rose into the air and resumed their flight and search for flowers.
Act 2 - Immortal Guardian
Sometime later, Neo held the carefully curated bouquet carefully as they made their way slowly up the rocky hill. Being careful not to drop it or have their ungloved hand accidentally destroy the bundle they had spent most of the morning collecting. No doubt the inferior original would've found the effort put into their work tedious, unnecessary, or boring. He did not understand nor care about the delicate meanings of the flowers that other organics attached to them, yet Neo did, at least ever since Amy and Cream got them interested in those sorts of things.
With a grunt of effort, a sound they made purely for their own satisfaction, they had climbed to the top of a large mountain that surveyed the entirety of Green Hill, it was here where he was now found, or at least his body. Neo walked slowly to the grave where many other bundles of flowers could also be found, based off Neo's data profiling and past events. The two nearly biologically perfect sunflowers were from Tails, the carefully curated and perfectly cared for bouquet was from Cream and Gemerl, a yellow plant resembling a Venus fly trap was from shadow, and a metal sunflower had to be from... her. Neo stared at the metallic copy of the sunflower for a few moments, comparing it to their last scan of the same type of flower placed there a year prior. Other than a few otherwise insignificant changes, the two were completely identical, and like last time, the metallic sunflower held no secret sinister purpose.
Neo placed their bouquet carefully next to Cream's before it's gaze lingered on what was inscribed on the grave: 'Here lies Sonic The Hedgehog: a fighter, leader, brother, and an inspiration to all.' Neo found themself feeling hollow reading those words again, every day it felt almost like the blur would reappear like nothing ever happened and go right back to crushing badniks and undoing all that had happened since the 47 years since he ceased operation due to natural causes. Neo only saw the body once at the funeral and the sight alone made them flee the scene without saying a word, it didn't feel feasible, didn't feel right, that he was dead. A being they were built specifically to copy and destroy being terminated should've brought joy to their circuits but instead it only summoned a feeling of inescapable emptiness. Sonic should've been destroyed racing them, or battling their Metal Overlord form, or defying the Empire. Instead, he died in bed with a smile on his face. Neo was robbed, robbed of the chance to fulfill their purpose! Or maybe robbed of something else.
Neo's thoughts were interrupted by their motion detectors sensing something approaching fast with powerful psychokinetic powers. Neo immediately concluded who it must've been and forced themselves back onto their feet. "Oh, hey Neo. I thought you would've been gone by now." Silver said, almost apologetically, Neo answered with a simple beep of acknowledgement and sidestepped to the left to allow Silver room to place their own flower "Have you visited Amy's yet?" Silver asked as he kneeled down and gently placed their dandelion down, next to the sunflowers. Neo shook their head to Silver's question. "We could go visit her together then." Silver looked up to Neo with a small reassuring smile, but Neo seemingly froze, before facing Silver while shaking their head again. Silver's smile faltered and he eyed Neo "It doesn't have to be just on their anniversary you can visit them y'know." Neo turned their head, and began walking away from the grave, discarding the heavy brown glove from their hand. Neo's engines roared to life and their red eyes, displayed on their cracked monitor, blared briefly before their attention returned to the suffocating city in front of them "I will wait for you in the sewers of subsector C. If you aren't there in 2 hours, I will proceed alone." Neo said with the familiar voice of Neo Metal Sonic, before they soared forward with a thunderous boom!
Silver sighed and returned his attention to the grave, letting out a sigh. A death like this didn't truly feel like it mattered, not when Silver could simply travel back and visit Sonic in his prime with the Time Stones, but nothing he did in the past could change his present, at least not for the better. Not even destroying her can stop it, Eggman always had a back up or a copy or was so furious with her destruction that his fury created an even worse present that had to be reverted back to the timeline he was now seemingly stuck in! The only meaningful difference he made was somehow giving Neo the chance to change, a decision they refused time after time again until Tails found a way to give Neo back all the memories previously deleted from their memory bank but even that nearly ended in disaster when Neo made a beeline to Eggman to get their revenge. A choice that, if they were successful in, would've resulted in the present being reduced to a smokey oily wasteland where no life could be found. Metal Overlord impaled on an even larger, unnatural, rock formation, their wound still oozing out oil like a waterfall. Overlord's mouth stuck in a permanent roar or perhaps a scream.
Silver rubbed his temple trying to summon forth any new ideas, anything that could stop this future from happening. "If only if you were alive for just a bit longer, you'd know what to do." he sighed and took his leave, following the pinkish after trail Neo made when they took flight.