Chapter Text
There was a clearing in the woods near to the mountains that overlooked Central City. And, by extension, the remains of Restoration HQ. There was a swingset, a tree stump, a short log, and a big rock all arranged in a circle around the dirt patch.
Tangle gripped the chains of one of the swings hard. She looked up nervously at the others sitting around her. Lanolin was to her right, on the stump, twiddling with her thumbs. Bean on the left, laying over the rock. Whisper sat on the log next to him, brandishing her Wispon. Across from Tangle, Bark simply stood, with his arms crossed and a stern, but dower look on his face.
The wind cried like a ghost through the trees. Birds chirped from their branches. It was a lovely day, but nature’s serenity did not help to calm Tangle’s nerves. Bark was not the only one who was silent, and somber.
Lanolin frowned, looking down at her hands clasped together on her lap. Whisper’s brow scrunched against her eyes, her tail curled in towards her legs. Bean…well, it was hard to read him, like always, but especially when the lemur literally couldn’t see his face.
“Welp,” the bird eventually said, pushing himself upright, “What now?”
“What now?” Lanolin repeated, “There is no ‘what now.’ It’s over.”
“What? Over?” Tangle asked, slightly pained, “You mean, like, the Restoration?”
“Yes, but…more than just that…” Lanolin sighed heavily, “This…is the end of the Diamond Cutters.”
Tangle’s eyes nearly popped out.
“What?!”
“We just have to face the facts, Tangle. We were the Restoration’s Rapid Response Team. The main line of defense and offense for the organization…With it gone, and no chance to rebuild…The Diamond Cutters are out of a job.”
“We’re homeless!!!” Bean wailed.
“No, but…there is no place for the team anymore.”
Tangle’s heart sank. She looked to the others. Bark shook his head towards the ground, but said nothing. Whisper’s head sagged a little too. Tangle stared at her girlfriend for a good long while.
“Whisper…we named this team after your old one…surely you don’t want it to be over? Not again, right?”
Bean and Bark raised a brow each. Whisper hummed quietly. She looked at her reflection in the polished casing of her Variable Wispon, and sighed.
“…This is better than how it went last time. How it could have ended. I’d rather say ‘see you later’ than ‘goodbye.’ Better to end it on our own terms.”
“Uhh, yeah, that’s fair…” Bean drolled, “But, um…what’s that about an ‘old one’? Was there a Diamond Cutters Senior?”
“They haven’t told you guys yet?” Lanolin asked, “Don’t you literally live together?”
“I thought what we had was special!!” Bean clutched his heart.
“Sorry. We got kinda…busy every time I thought to tell you,” Whisper rubbed her neck, “Yes. There was a Diamond Cutters team before ours. Team of five, like it is now. But…had a rat…We were tricked and betrayed by one of our own. I was the only survivor, other than him.”
Bark’s mouth opened slightly in shock. He remembered what Shadow had told him when they first met. He uncrossed his arms and walked over to her. Sitting down next to her on the log, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Whisper leaned into him, accepting the touch with a soft, nostalgic whine.
“It isn’t how I wanted it to happen…Neither is this. But, this is much better than how it ended then. No betrayal. No one lost. Just a choice to end it when we want to.”
Tangle looked on in horror. She was even more petrified to see everyone else nodding along with Whisper’s mini speech. The knot in her belly, tightening by the second, created enough friction to light a fire inside her. Before Tangle even realized it, the words came up from her throat.
“No…”
Everyone looked at her.
“No, this can’t be how it ends,” the lemur stood up from the swing, “It shouldn’t be. It won’t be!”
“Tangle…” Whisper cautioned.
“Why are we throwing in the towel like this?” Tangle questioned, “We’ve never given up before! I’ve never given up in my life! I’m not going to start now!”
The others were surprised at her sudden proclamation.
“Tangle, this isn’t- We aren’t just ‘giving up,’ we’re facing reality,” Lanolin said, “This isn’t like when I was…feeling off about fighting the Crystal Beauty. We were a part of the Restoration, and with it gone so is our team.”
“Says who? Huh? Where’s the paperwork forcing that? Where’s the written down law saying the Diamond Cutters can only work under the Restoration?”
“In the documents you all signed when our team became official,” Lanolin retorted.
“Do those even exist anymore, though?” Bean asked, “Pretty sure they got smushed with the rest of the building.”
Lanolin opened her mouth to respond, but said nothing.
“Even if that crap was written into the stars, who the heck says we can’t adapt? Evolve?” Tangle asked, walking into the center, “We don’t need the Restoration to work together! We can work just as fine without it!”
“But, Tangle,” Lanolin said sheepishly, “The Diamond Cutters only worked under the Restoration. We formed thanks to it, and got all our info for battle strategies from it.”
“That’s only because the Restoration made all that easy!” Tangle pointed harshly, “But that’s not why our team worked! Bean and Bark didn’t join under the pretense of a Restoration sponsored Rapid Response team! They didn’t even know the Restoration existed.”
“We sure didn’t!” Bean said proudly.
“They fought beside me and Whisper because they wanted to help. You made this team because you wanted to help, Lan. You didn’t do it for the Restoration, despite how you once worded it. We all did what we did because we wanted to help.”
Lanolin’s eyes widened. She sat up straight, staring in awe at the lemur.
“So why the heck should we stop now?!” Tangle spun around, addressing the whole team, “We still want to help people out, don’t we? Eggman’s still gonna be out there, makin’ trouble and doing his whole shtick!”
She turned to Bean, “There’s gonna be more of his stuff to blow up!”
Bean stuck his tongue out like a panting dog.
Tangle whipped around to Whisper, “More of his bots to shoot!”
The wolf smiled slightly, and wagged her tail.
Tangle gestured to Bark, “More giant machines to get pummeled into the dirt!”
Bark grinned, bearing his teeth.
Tangle turned back to Lanolin, “And there’s always going to be more people to help. So why stop?”
Lanolin blinked, still in complete awe. She only broke eye contact with the lemur when she looked down, finger against her chin.
“…B-But…the Restoration was still key to our ability to help so many people. We had an entire department that gathered data and assigned missions to us. How are we supposed to stop Eggman’s plans before they happen when we’re completely cut off from that kind of intel?”
“Simple! We get nosey!” Tangle pressed her finger against her nose, cheekily, “Get all up in Eggman’s business! Or, if we don’t know where to look, we ask around. We aren’t alone in this fight! We’ve got tons of friends who’ve been doing this longer than any of us! Tails or…Rouge or- or the Chaotix would know a bunch of ways to knock Eggman down a peg!”
“Could that…really work? Without any professional assistance or data collecting? I hear you, Tangle, I really do, b-but our team was founded under an institution. Could we really still work the same without one?”
“Of course we can! Everyone else has for years! The Chaotix are self employed! Team Dark work great alone! Heck, Sonic’s never even been officially affiliated with the Restoration! The Restoration was not our bloodline. It was our…springboard! It got us on the right track for bustin’ up bad guys, but we’ve got the experience to do it ourselves now!”
Lanolin was amazed. The corners of her mouth curled up into an impressed smile. Tangle smiled broadly back before twirling around like a ballerina.
“So who says we need to be stuck with some big organization, huh? We shouldn’t be institutionalized! I know I sure can’t be. Heroes like us, like Sonic or Tails or Shadow, we save the day because we know it’s what’ll bring us all a better tomorrow! Not because some big shot behind a desk told us to!”
“…The ‘big shot’ in our case was Jewel…” Whisper mumbled in confusion.
“We’re free spirits! We’re capable of running out into the world, and making it a better place all on our own! All we need is the help of each other, and our friends!”
“But!” Bean suddenly interjected, “We’re still missing a piece of the pie…A symbol of proper togetherness and valor! We need a base of operations! A hideout, a secret club, a…headquarters, if you will.”
“…I don’t know how, but he makes a good point,” Lanolin said, “That is the one thing that Restoration HQ undeniably did for us over anything. It gave everyone a place to congregate and strategize, and it gave us a home to keep all our important battleplans and data.”
“Well, sure, that sucks for the group, but we can just…move somewhere else. I mean, that’s another reason why I think disbanding the team is stupid!” she wildly gestured towards Bean, Bark, and Whisper, “Four of us live in the same house! We’re still gonna meet in the same place every day, and we’re sure as heck gonna keep working together, right?”
“Mhm,” Whisper smiled.
“I don’t see why not,” Bean shrugged.
Bark nodded confidently.
“Exactly! So if four out of the five members are gonna stick together…” Tangle slowly turned back to Lanolin, “Why keep out the fifth?”
Lanolin gasped quietly to herself.
“…You…You really want to keep me on the team…that badly?”
Tangle knelt in front of the sheep, “Can’t run a race without a brain, can you? You’re what makes this team work, Lanny. You keep everyone on track, and don’t let anyone go down with the ship. I mean, pfft, Gaia knows I couldn’t run this team. I’d get us all kidnapped in record time.”
Lanolin couldn’t help but chuckle lightly. She glanced over to Whisper, who was smiling sweetly.
“I’d be too scared to lose someone again, and would want to do everything myself,” she admitted.
“And not only do I have a list of reasons I shouldn’t be a leader,” Bean squawked, “But I’m probably on a list for leading the charge at some point.”
“And then there’s Bark,” Tangle jerked her thumb back, “Who’s just not great at communicating.”
Bark blew out a waft of air and rolled his eyes, much to Whisper’s amusement.
“Ah. So you don’t want me to stay on the team. You need me to stay on the team so you all don’t die,” the sheep smirked.
“Preeeetty much!” Tangle stood up, “You’re the one thing about the Restoration we are taking with us.”
“Awesome. How kind of you.”
“You should be ecstatic, boss lady,” Bean said, “You’ll still be on the team, doing all that ‘helping’ stuff you like so much, but it won’t be bogged down by all the paperwork and businessing crap you were stuck with. You’ll be freer than ever to fight Manegg, and get more time to hangout with us! Your bestest friends!”
Lanolin smirked, but the smile fell with a sigh, and she turned to look out into the woods. Just between the trees, you could see out and into the valley below. Central City was a blur in the distance, but you could still very clearly see the mass of rubble where a mountain once stood.
“Sure will…but it’ll take some getting used to, I guess…”
The others followed her gaze. Frowns were made to match hers, as all eyes landed on the same flat field of destruction far below.
“…Hey,” Tangle put a hand on her shoulder, “I know we’re in a rough spot right now. And, to be honest, this might just be the biggest loss we’ve ever had…”
“…But that only means we have to push through it harder,” Lanolin finished, “We don’t give up when we get knocked down, do we?”
“No. We don’t,” Tangle grinned, stepping back towards the middle, “We’ve never been knocked out of a fight, and I haven’t heard a bell now! It’s not what the people deserve! It’s not what our friends who have fought alongside us deserve! It’s not…what Amy deserves.”
Tangle finished her speech firmly, yet solemnly. Bean, Whisper, and Lanolin glanced downwards sadly. Tangle wiped a tear from her eye, and took a deep breath.
“No. It isn’t.”
Before she could speak, Bark did. Everyone turned to him, now standing up from the log. Lanolin in particular was surprised. Her jaw dropped hearing the bear’s deep voice and thick accent for the first time.
“We will keep fighting like we always have,” he went on, approaching Tangle, “And if we fought for the sake of the Restoration before, then we fight for the sake of Amy Rose today. The Eggman Empire will fall to our hands, as will any other foe in our way. In memory of her.”
He looked down at Tangle as he stepped alongside her. He grinned, and Tangle smiled gayly back.
“I will always fight for the memory of my fallen friends,” Whisper stood next, “Amy will be no different. And I’ll be honored to keep fighting for their sake, right alongside you all.”
She walked up, and wrapped her arm around Tangle’s waist. The lemur pulled her in tightly, grinning even wider.
“I love and cherish every bomb I set out into the world…” Bean lamented, tugging on his chest, “Every explosion is their life fulfilled, and their legacy lives on with the bombs that blow after them…”
He wiped a tear away, then happily scurried up to the others.
“But, that’s neither here nor there! You guys are cool, so I’ll stick right by your sides as long as you don’t go up with my artillery!”
While they could only chuckle or roll their eyes, Lanolin looked on from her stump. Her four teammates, huddled together with pride, hope, and vigor coursing through every word they uttered. The kind of courage to keep moving forward and never say die that she once could only dream of working alongside.
They looked back at her, waiting for her addition to their powerful declarations. The sheep smirked, and stood up from her stump. Without saying a word, she marched up to the group, and held her hand out in the middle.
“Diamond Cutters on three?”
Tangle beamed with pride, and immediately slapped her hand over Lanolin’s. Bark nodded with a huff, and put his over theirs. Whisper opened her eyes, her beautiful blue irises glistening in the sunlight, and put her hand over Bark’s. Bean couldn’t quite reach the top of the pile, so he went for the unconventional move of placing his under Lanolin.
“One. Two. Three!”
“DIAMOND CUTTERS!!!!”