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Part 1: Adrift
“HEDGEHOG. PRIORITY ONE.”
The three words echoed deafeningly in the restless chipmunk’s mind, just as they had every night since she had arrived. Sally Acorn sat up in the bed of the small hotel room, breathing heavily, dried tears on her face. The image of a robotic arm outstretched, clenching the throat of a panicked blue hedgehog was burned into the backs of her eyelids. The things she said, the carnage she'd caused. She had nearly killed her friends, her people, her love. Not only was she awake and a witness to every second of it, it felt like her doing it. The hate, the malice, it all seemed so terrifyingly real. Yet somehow, that was only the surface of the dread that she was overcome with.
At the height of her roboticized rampage was a white flash, and she'd find herself in a place she didn't recognize. Over a few days, she’d explore, trying to piece together what happened and where she was. It would soon dawn on her that this wasn’t the Mobius she knew. This was a world where the freedom fighters, Mobotropolis, Dark Egg Legion, and Kingdom of Acorn seemingly never existed. Like someone had reached out and rewritten everything. Multiple times, even. Not everything was gone, there were some things she did recognize, but they were… different. Rearranged. Places she knew weren't where they should be. The entire world map was different.
Yesterday, while looking for answers, she ran into a certain two-tailed fox in a hardware store, looking for parts.
“Tails…? Tails!”
He was the first familiar face Sally had seen, causing her to run to him and hug him with relief. But it would be then that her worst fears were fully realized.
“Woah, uh, hi there... Do I know you?” The fox replied awkwardly, blindsided by the chipmunk’s hug.
She let go of him, a sinking feeling enveloping her. “Wait, you don’t… recognize me…?”
“I don’t think so, I’m sorry. Have we met before?”
It was like a thousand needles digging into her from all directions.
“...No. I think… I might have you confused with someone else. I’m sorry…” She lied, leaving the confused fox be.
The implications made her sick to her stomach, she barely made it back to her hotel room before breaking down completely. She cried herself to sleep, refusing to eat anything the rest of the day. Now she lay restless in the middle of the night, haunted by the same robotic night terror, over and over again. Unable to fall asleep again, she would go back outside, walking the quiet streets of Central City in the yellow light of the street lamps.
Adrift in a sea of pain, she wandered aimlessly, equipped with only a dead-eyed gaze. What could she even do? Was there even a way back home? Did the home she knew even exist anymore? Did she even deserve to come home, after everything she did? Was this her punishment?
Her feet stopped and her thoughts went blank as she saw something ahead. A park with a lake in the middle, water flowing into it from a rocky stream.
Was it…? It couldn't be.
She stepped through the gate, looking at the clear water and lush greenery. It was like a memory frozen in time within the park’s walls. She took a seat under the shade of a tree, next to a familiar bed of flowers. It was the Lake of Rings. The last place she and Sonic were alone together.
“...I guess I can slow down for you.”
Dehydrated tears rolled down her cheeks as the hedgehog’s words from that night haunted her. She was sickened by herself. Finally getting back together after so long only for her to nearly kill him. She put her face in her hands, sobbing before screaming in anguish into the night.
On the other side of the lake, a blue streak speeds by.
Part 2: A Distant Memory
Sonic the Hedgehog was no stranger to weird stuff happening to him, he'd always take it as he went, rarely letting it get to him. But these past few days were different. Since his return from the Sol dimension after saving the world from the metal virus, he was met with strange dreams of another world. A world similar to his own, but not quite.
All his friends were there, so was Eggman (because of course he was), but things were different. There were… others. People he didn't recognize, yet felt this deep connection to, like he'd known them all his life. But there was one who, every time he saw her, made him feel daggers in his chest. He couldn't remember what it was that happened between him and her, but he felt all of it. A love that seemed like it had been there since the beginning, one that saw its ups and downs, laid dormant before blooming again, only to be ripped away in an instant.
The dreams were like shattered glass, fragments of some bigger picture. He couldn't quite understand what they meant, but they always ended the same. A scene of a robotic chipmunk, her arm outstretched, squeezing his windpipe.
Normally, some robot trying to kill him was par for the course in his life, always had been, but the dread he felt when he saw her face was unlike anything he'd ever experienced. It was like something he worked so hard to protect was just… gone. Like it disappeared in a white flash in the cruelest twist of fate he could imagine. This wasn't just loss. This was grief manifest.
Tonight's dream however, would mark the turning point. He and the mystery chipmunk were walking under a starry sky in a beautiful stretch of forest. The two would sit in a clearing near a bed of flowers, overlooking a lake, rings shimmering beneath the water. The two flirtatiously teased each other, her replies always the perfect foil to his cocky demeanor. Their teasing would simmer as she leaned against him.
“Yeah… I guess I can slow down for you.” He had said, the two of them leaning against each other before their peace came crashing down. Her soft, warm face turned to cold, hard metal, her eyes now black with digital blue irises, glowing with a foreign malice.
“WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE BRAINS WERE HANDED OUT?”
Sonic sat up from his bed in a cold sweat. That sentence awakened something within him, a deep-seated terror nestled between layers of unknown memories. He got up and looked through the gap in the curtains, seeing a familiar starry sky. He thought back to the lake he saw in his dream. He'd been there before. In fact, he'd been there recently. Since his return, he'd found himself drawn to a local park in Central City called Ring Park. Something about it soothed him, made him feel… at home.
Once again it called to him, like a lighthouse in the fog. He was loaded down with questions, and it was likely he might find some answers there.
Sneaking out of Tails’s house where he'd crashed for the night, he wasted no time speeding his way to the park. As he approached the park gate, he heard a raw, blood-curdling scream come from within its walls. His first instinct told him whoever was waiting for him must be in trouble. Going into a full sprint, he rounded the lake only to find a single girl crying beneath a tree. She isn't in trouble, he thought, no… this is something else. He caught a glimpse of her silhouette and in an instant, the weight of her presence pulled on him like an anchor, bringing him to a stop as he pulled up behind her. Something deep stirred within him, causing him to instinctually smirk, like he was seeing an old friend.
Part 3: Anguish
“I didn't know chipmunks howled at the moon.”
Sally's heart dropped into the pit of her stomach as she heard a voice she knew all too well. She turned around and there he was: the center of her grief.
The hedgehog looked at her, his smirk fading, unable to stand up to the utterly broken look on her face. “Sorry, that was corny. Is this a bad time?” He said, the familiar stranger in front of him sniffling.
“N-no, I'm…” She could barely hold herself together looking at him, sobbing into her hands once more.
The hedgehog cautiously sat down beside her. “It’s okay, I'm having a bit of a rough night too.” How was he going to explain any of this to her? Just say he saw her in his dreams? Yeah, maybe if he wanted to sound like a total creep.
Of all people, of all places, Sally thought. Was this the universe's way of tormenting her for her actions? Showing her the one she cared about most, stripped of any semblance of a memory of her?
A moment of silent sobbing passed. “...Do you wanna talk about it?” Sonic would eventually ask. He wasn’t particularly good at this sort of thing, but he knew he had to try.
The chipmunk would clear her tears, taking a deep breath before speaking. “I don't even know where to start...” She said, looking out onto the lake to keep her composure.
“The beginning, I guess.” The hedgehog joked.
Sally let out a weak snort at his answer. There was no way he'd look at her normally with the kind of story she'd tell him, but she figured she might as well.
“I tried to sacrifice myself to help people I cared about, but ended up being driven to hurt them. Something happened, I don't know what, and now I can't get back home. I don't even know if I should.”
The pieces were starting to fit together in Sonic’s mind, but not all of them. Many were still missing, but one question came to the forefront. “What made you to hurt them?”
“I was roboticized and became Eggman’s slave.”
Sonic’s initial thought was of the metal virus, but he quickly remembered how it had quickly grown out of Eggman’s control. But that word. Roboticized. Despite seemingly never having heard it before, it filled him with a familiar, stomach-churning dread.
“Yeesh, that sounds terrible.” The hedgehog said.
“But that wasn't even the worst part, I could feel all of it. The hate, the terrible things I said and did, it all felt so genuine… Like I was in full control…” She shivered. “Maybe I don’t deserve to come home…”
“Hey. Everyone deserves a home, regardless of what they’ve done.” He replied, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I don't know the whole story, but my gut tells me that what you did wasn’t you. If Eggman’s involved, chances are you probably weren’t in control of yourself. Controlling people is kind of his whole schtick, anyway.”
Sally struggled to compose herself as he reassured her. “...Yeah, maybe.”
“Regardless, sounds like I'll have to pound the Doc extra hard next time I see him.” He smirked, punching into his hand.
“Thanks.” She smiled at the sentiment. Even if he didn't seem to remember her, he was still undoubtedly Sonic.
“So how'd you escape and become uh… un-robotized? deroboticized? Whatever it's called.”
“That's just it, I don't know. The last thing I remember was a white flash before waking up in a field.”
“Yeah, that’s pretty weird.” He looked over the lake with her for a moment, trying to make sense of it all. The white flash certainly rang a bell. “Oh, by the way, I don't think I introduced myself, I'm-”
“Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog.” She interrupted, finishing his sentence for him.
“...Yeah, I guess my name gets around quite a bit.” He said, holding out his hand for her to shake. “What's yours?”
She closed her eyes, feeling the question tearing at her heart.
“Sally. Sally Acorn.”
“Sally….” The hedgehog froze, his hand dropping as the name reverberated in his head.
Pandora's Box was now open.
He felt the world around him melt away as memories of another place, another time flooded his mind. Knothole. The Freedom Fighters. The Dark Egg Legion. New Mobotropolis. The Lake of Rings. The second Death Egg. The world roboticizer…
Mecha Sally.
Sally heard the hedgehog start to hyperventilate. She turned to him, alarm in her eyes. “Sonic, are… are you alright?” She said, holding onto his shoulders. “What's going on??”
Tears rolled down his face as the truth revealed itself to him. “Sal…”
The old nickname told her enough: he remembered.
Sonic broke down, falling into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably. “Sal, I missed you so much…”
“I missed you too, Sonic…” Sally started to tear up again, joining him in the cacophony of abject sorrow.
“How… *sniff* how did we even get here? I feel like I've been living two lives at once… What do I even do…?”
“I don't know Sonic, just…” She looked into his weeping eyes. “Hold onto me and don't let go.”
“I-I'll never let go, Sal…” He stammered, kissing her on the lips before breaking down again, burying his face in her furry chest. “Never… never again… never…”
The two cried together and hugged under the tree, drawing the attention of some of the park's Chao, who watched sadly.
“Rotor, Bunnie, Antoine, Nicole… They're just… ”
This was it, Sonic thought to himself. The two had overcome so many trials and tribulations, but now, it seemed they'd found their limit.
“No.” Sally stopped him, getting onto his lap. She wouldn’t let the tyrant who took her away from home win. She was done letting him control her. “They can't be gone. I refuse to believe it, and I'm not going to let you believe it either. If I managed to get you to remember everything, surely there must be some way, right?”
Sonic paused, looking up at her, seeing a shaken but determined look in her eyes. Through the tears, he smiled. “That's the Sal I remember.”
The lost lovers kissed once more.
“We’ll get through it, no matter what happens. Together.”
“I love you, Sally Acorn.”
“I love you, Sonic Hedgehog.”