Chapter Text
New Yoke was as ugly as ever, the sky a mix of gray and a rusty bronze color. It looked more run-down than Nine remembered. He wasn’t sure how he’d gotten here.
He heard loud noises and a general disquiet in the atmosphere, but he didn’t see the Chaos Council. Or even the freedom fighters. All he saw as he looked around were people scattering. In an alleyway, he saw people running and disappearing behind buildings. He moved quickly down the streets, getting to an intersection and seeing more running citizens. But he couldn’t make out any faces, or any reason why they were running. It was stressing him out.
Then he saw Sonic. The blue hedgehog was near him, back turned to him, ambling away strangely.
“Hey, Sonic!” Nine called, trying to flag him down to see what the fuss was about.
Sonic took a glance over his shoulder. He gasped at Nine, then continued running.
“Wha- hey, wait up!”
Nine went after him. It only took a few seconds for him to catch up to Sonic.
He grabbed Sonic’s arm. “Whoa, hey, can you just-“
“Wha-aahh!” Sonic squealed. Nine saw his expression as he turned. Fear was written all over his face.
Nine was confused. “Hey, Sonic, can you tell me what’s-”
Sonic shook free of Nine’s hold, but did not run. He clumsily fell to the ground, then crabwalked backwards away from him, panting and making more whimpers.
Nine carefully followed him. He was in no danger of losing him, but he was very confused. “Sonic?”
The blind path Sonic was forging curved to the left, and he eventually backed himself against a building on the side of the street. As his back hit brick behind him, Sonic fell off his hands and onto his bottom. He was shaking.
Nine took a few more steps, slower, but in desperate need of information. “S-Sonic? What’s- what’s wrong?”
Sonic cowered. He put his hands out a few inches from his face, squinting and turning away like floodlights were pointed at him.
Nine, bewildered, took one more step to him. He looked down at him, trying to see over his hands to his petrified face. “Wha- why are you…”
Sonic crossed his arms over his head, weakly shielding himself. He shuddered and cried.
Nine’s mouth hung open. His eyes traced up the brick wall of the building, seeing the shadow of his extra robotic tails hovering behind him, spread out around his head and body.
Gears turned in his head. The creeping feeling of what Sonic was afraid of, what everyone in New Yoke was afraid of, moved from his subconscious to the front of his mind.
He looked over his shoulder, back towards the street. He saw no one. He scanned around, looking east, west, down an alley. All that were left were the echoes of footsteps, fading farther and farther away. With each turn of his head, more debris appeared in the city. Dumpsters were overturned and their contents strewn about. Buildings were chipped, roofs torn off. Floors had collapsed and spilled into the street.
Nine looked back at the ground in front of him. Sonic was gone.
He was alone.
When he wasn’t having nightmares, things were quite peaceful in the Grim.
Everything had been so frantic and stressful not long ago. However, since the fighting had stopped, Nine had been living out his wildest dreams. Every engineering blueprint, every creative impulse that came to his mind, was now just moments away from becoming reality with the paradox prism that sat in the center of his base. It was an unparalleled feeling. Although after some time spent getting used to it, now he almost couldn’t remember not having it.
His world was safe. He had also allowed the other worlds to go on living, even if he had almost wiped one of them out. Instead, he’d made Sonic press a button that deleted his bullies and a few extra jerks in New Yoke from existence, including the Chaos Council. It was a pretty reasonable compromise, Nine thought.
A few weeks in the Grim, and now he wasn’t thinking much about his old home. The power to get rid of all his enemies had been tempting in the moment. But now he didn’t really care one way or the other about New Yoke. He’d made an agreement with Sonic, and he wouldn’t go back on it. After all, he still considered Sonic a friend, even after what they had been through.
Time had passed since then. At least a few weeks, maybe it could be measured in months now. Nine had had time to think, mellow out, and come to terms with everything. Not just regarding Sonic, but all the others as well. After sending Sonic back home, Nine had used a little bit of prism energy to open portals and send everybody back to their world, which they all guardedly accepted. He made sure to close the portals to make it a one-way trip.
Nine could check in on them. Sometimes he occasionally peeked into New Yoke, using prismatic power to see it from an aerial view. He could get a perspective from anywhere, a free-roaming camera like a video game. Unlike before though, he kept his audio muted and his face invisible. On the streets, there was a lot of cleaning up being done by various citizens. Debris had been everywhere not too long ago, when the war for the shards was going on. All the architecture had Egg-symbols, but now, Nine noticed them being torn down on his most recent look.
It gave him a mild amount of enjoyment, seeing the Council’s empire come to an end. But his apathy was stronger. If the freedom fighters were leading New Yoke out of the dark ages as they appeared to be doing, fine. If something else happened, fine. He would let them figure it out for themselves, as long as they left him and the prism alone. He had his own world, and he was satisfied.
Well…mostly.
Nine had not checked on Green Hill. He didn’t want to. What might he see when he checked? Just the thought of seeing Sonic out and about with his other friends made his stomach sick. Nine knew it was wrong of him, but there was a slight risk he would go spiraling into depression if he saw it.
Sonic probably still thought about him. But was it positive? Negative? Or was he already fading from his mind?
It was troubling to consider. But if he just waited around forever, then they would just drift further apart. If he wanted to make sure their friendship was intact, Nine needed to see him. And he needed to apologize.
Even though he still thought he had a valid point, to get Sonic to see his perspective, Nine also knew that Sonic had been through a lot. He had put himself on the line, potentially sacrificing himself for the rest of the shatterverse. Nine had put him through it too, resulting in their most recent quarrel.
And for as angry he had initially been at Sonic’s fixation with his old friends, now as Nine lived alone in the Grim, he started to realize the kind of pain Sonic was burying the entire time. The pain of missing people you hoped you get could back, but didn’t know if you were ever going to see again.
But Nine could do anything. Literally. And this was something he couldn’t deny wanting, no, needing to do.
He had spent enough days apart from him in the Grim. Tomorrow. Tomorrow he would apologize.
Nine got everything set up. He had a mental checklist of everything he needed.
First, upgraded shoes with regulators for his prismatic energy. They would be just like the ones Sonic wore. Nine had enough control of the prismatic energy where he only needed two, unlike Sonic when it had been part of his very being.
On top of this, he’d have a few gadgets, including a watch with a screen. He also wore a small keyboard with a cover over it on his forearm, just in case he needed a computing system for informational purposes, or navigation.
The coordinates to Green Hill were set. Anywhere he wished, Nine could open a portal.
He visualized the conversation. He could hear Sonic say, “Hey there, buddy,” just a little surprised, but relieved at the same time. Maybe Sonic would be a little unsure too. Nine couldn’t deny that with everything that had gone down between them, there might be some lingering doubts. Sonic and Nine had made up…sort of. Sonic had returned home with Nine unsure of the status of their friendship. Sonic almost seemed prepared to sever it, or at least put it out there as a possibility.
So, Nine would apologize immediately. He was prepared to say what he needed to say to make him happy and earn his forgiveness. Anything if it meant seeing the best friend he’d ever had.
Sonic would give Nine a chance, he was sure. They would reconcile. It was practically a given.
He kept telling himself there was no need to worry.
Nine found himself back in Green Hill. Sonic was there, sitting on a ledge at the base of a mountain, about ten feet up, not appearing to be occupied with anything. His head was turned away from Nine. The sky was an orangey-yellow, feeling like the evening, or dusk to Nine, though he wasn’t quite sure.
The fox walked up to him. He made a noise, not a word, trying to get his attention. Sonic’s head was still fully turned away from him, and Nine couldn’t meet his eyes, which shouldn’t have been possible at this angle. Nine was right in front of him.
“Sonic,” Nine said.
Sonic’s head moved quickly at first, then slowly settled on him. His expression was blank.
Nine plunged right into it. “I’m sorry that I took the prism shards, and drained your energy, and uh, all that stuff I did in New Yoke. And uh, No Place, too, I guess. And the Grim.”
Sonic’s eyes flashed. “Hmm…”
Nine watched Sonic think, with a frown.
Finally, Sonic’s grin surfaced. But it wasn’t friendly. He chuckled to himself. “He-heh. Well, pal, sounds like you need a little sense knocked into ya.”
He jumped down from his ledge. His quills seemed darker, but it could have simply been from the lighting.
“What?” Nine asked.
“You think that will make me not want to kick your butt? You should have stayed away from my world, intruder.”
“I-I don’t want to fight you!”
“Too late, you’re already here,” the hedgehog tutted, unknown energy visibly coursing through him.
“SONIC!!” Nine shouted. “I just- wh-why are you doing this? I just wanted to see you again! I-I’m sorry!”
Sonic blinked. He was still grinning, but his head tilted downwards so that Nine lost sight of it.
“You’re about to be way past sorry when I’m through with ya, pal.”
Zoom!
Whooshing air filled Nine’s ears. He put his hands out and screamed.
Nine bolted upright in his hammock.
Sonic wouldn’t act like that. He would never. It was all in his head.
Nine got out of the hammock, as if he could leave his thoughts behind in his bed. He rubbed his arms, settling down.
It was irrational, certainly. That wasn’t how Sonic felt about him. But he needed to prove this. He needed to see it for himself.
Nine gazed out from his vantage point in his base. He had made lots of robots, and upon seeing him, several of them turned to face him. Nine was used to it. He waved at them, like saying that he’d be stepping out for a little while.
He checked on his regulators on his shoes. They had a white glow to them, the color of a completed prism. He opened and closed the screen covering the keyboard on his forearm.
It was time.
Immediately tracking anyone who came to mind was a neat little perk of the all-powerful prism – augmented by his tech, of course. On his screen, he found Sonic. The blue hedgehog was sitting, arms behind his head, under the shade of the treetops. He seemed totally at ease.
Nine put the exact coordinates in for the portal he would open. He would put some distance between them so he could just walk up to him, not just pop out right next to him. Plus, the portal needed to be secluded and away from anybody. By Nine’s understanding, it was impossible that anyone could make the jump without some kind of prism energy themselves, but it was a worthwhile precaution.
The portal was ready. He opened it with a tap of a button.
Nine walked to the portal. He looked into it.
Next, he pinched himself. He was awake, not dreaming this time.
He took a deep breath, and stepped into a different world.
As Nine stepped through, he was greeted by wonderous hues of green and blue. It was a completely different place than New Yoke, or the Grim.
He smiled, unable to help himself. Just seeing the beauty of it all was enough to bring joy. No wonder Sonic was always cheery. Growing up in a place like this, the opposite of New Yoke, certainly would certainly have long-term positive developmental effects.
Nine took to the air almost unconsciously, spinning his tails. The scenery spread out below him. He rose up above the trees, and the rugged, steep hills became more visible. A beach off in the distance separated the blue ocean from the grassy hills that rolled on as far as he could see.
He was so enthralled by the colors, he almost forgot why he was here. Realizing he was a hundred feet up, he snapped out of it and descended back down.
Getting down to ground level, Nine felt brighter. This world was really amazing. Sonic had it good.
Feeling the sun’s rays, he spied a small, forested area ahead. He put his hand over his eyes to squint in the distance. Lying on a small inclined patch in the shade was Sonic.
Nine smiled again for a moment, then abruptly stopped walking. He knew that this might be difficult. Sonic would probably be distrustful. Nine might have to listen to him give him a stern talking-to about changing as a person, protecting the world, opening your heart, that kind of thing. Nine was prepared to listen. If he wanted Nine to use the prism for acts of good, he was prepared to do most of them. Some of them. Well, most of them. Some of them, at least. Definitely a few of them to show Sonic that his word did mean something to Nine.
Would things be worse than that? Would Sonic hate him?
It was a frightening thought. Would he scold him, tell him off so badly that he needed to come back another day? Nine hoped not. But if it was necessary, he could remain silent and accept the disappointment and anger that his friend felt towards him, if it meant their friendship could move on from their most recent spat. Nine knew he could rule out being immediately attacked, too. That was just plain ridiculous, a figment of his imagination.
But there was the other frightening option. The one that his other dream had been warning him about.
No, that was truly beyond reality. And wildly out of character. There was no chance Sonic would be scared of him. He had tried to intimidate him and tear him down before. Sonic refused to show fear.
But if he started to… well, Nine was going to need to find a way to fix it. He wasn’t sure how.
He sighed. He needed to clear these thoughts from his head, and focus on looking relaxed, sorry, and non-threatening. His robotic tails folded behind him.
Nine began walking. A small trail led him under the trees, into the shade. Sonic was still relaxing, arms still behind his head, eyes closed. Nine saw a butterfly on his nose.
Getting about fifteen feet away, Nine stopped. He wasn’t sure how close he wanted to get just yet. Sonic’s eyes were still closed.
Nine cleared his throat.
“H-hey… Sonic.”
The butterfly on Sonic’s nose flew away. Sonic himself did not move, but he opened one eye to look at Nine. His face was tough to read. There was the hint of his typical expression, light and easy, a half-grin ready to spring up. But it was held back by just a little wariness that Nine was not used to seeing.
“Hey there, pal,” he said, tone neutral.
“So, um,” Nine scratched his shoulder. “You might be wondering…”
“…Why you’re glowing?”
Nine stopped, and looked at himself. He hadn’t noticed before, but with the regulators on his shoes, there was a small glow emanating from them and going up the rest of his body. It didn’t make him seem ghostly, like Sonic was when deprived of prism energy. Rather, he seemed fuller, like he was on a sharp LED screen.
Nine gave a light snort. “Heh, guess it’s the prism… It can work in mysterious ways sometimes.”
Sonic tilted his head a small amount. He kept watching Nine, waiting.
Nine took a sharp breath, having stopped breathing for an instant. “I, uh, I- I have something I want to say…”
Opening his other eye, Sonic looked at him. “Okay…”
“I, uh…” Nine suddenly felt a twitch in his nose, like a sneeze was coming on. He tried to clamp down and stifle it. He waited.
It felt like it had gone away. He sniffed through his nose. Then it came back again. He put his face into his elbow and tried to hold it back, but sneezed.
“Ugh…” he said, blinking water out of his eyes.
“Allergies?” Sonic asked. Nine gave him a puzzled look. “You know, pollen season.”
The hedgehog gestured around. Nine now registered the small particles blowing in the breeze around the trees.
“Oh…huh, yeah,” Nine said.
“I’m lucky. I don’t get them,” Sonic added.
Nine would need to do a better job preparing for the properties of this world. He filed that away in his mental notebook.
The fox refocused, and took another breath, deeper. Then it all spilled out. “I’m sorry…about everything. I’m sorry I took the prism for myself. I’m sorry that I was…hurting people to try to get you to give me your energy. And I’m sorry about all the fighting. And I’m- I’m sorry I made you…” he swallowed.
He was getting to the worst part, the part where he forced Sonic to decide between allowing Nine to destroy New Yoke, or saving them by killing just a few handfuls of who Nine deemed unworthy. Sonic had his brow arched, though his eyelids were half-down over his eyes.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down a sec, pal,” Sonic said.
Nine blinked. “Oh, um, sorry… Look, it’s not easy for me to say, and- I kinda want to move on from it, too…” he rubbed his neck. “But I’m sorry about…”
“No, wait, hold up, seriously,” Sonic said, putting out a hand. “I think you’ve got the wrong hedgehog.”
Nine stopped.
“Sounds like this important, so I don’t want you saying it to the wrong guy,” Sonic continued. “Do you know where to find them? Town is that way, if that helps.” He made a gesture with his thumb down the trail.
Nine was momentarily paralyzed. He didn’t know what Sonic was talking about. “…Sonic, it is you. You’re the guy,” Nine said, restarting his faculties. He exhaled sharply. “And hey, it’s me, Sonic. I thought you’d be-”
“You are not Tails.” Sonic put a hand to the ground, pushing himself up. He slowly rose to his feet.
Nine stopped again. He was happy that Sonic had gotten this through his head, sure. But what did that have to do with what he’d just said?
“…Um, yeah, I’m not…”
Sonic nodded. “Right. And normally, I’d love conversations with mysterious strangers, but like I said, this sounds like pretty serious stuff. Wouldn’t want you to have to say it twice.”
Nine’s mouth hung open. “S-S-” he stuttered, then took a deep breath. “Sonic, I don’t know why you’re joking, but we’re not strangers. So stop making this more difficult than it already is. It was tough for me to come here. Now, are you gonna let me speak?”
Sonic’s mouth drew in a frown. He tapped a finger to his chin, thinking. Then, he shrugged in acceptance.
Nine gave a short sigh in exasperation. “…Like I was saying. I’m sorry about… well, everything. The…fighting and the destruction. I think you and I both could have made some better choices before it got to the point it did. And…I hope you understand that I was just doing what I needed to survive. We didn’t need to fight. Also, I hope you know that since I used your energy to preserve the rest of the shatterspaces, I’m not… you know, not…ki- hurting any… I’m not doing anything you might object to, as far as the other worlds are concerned. So just-”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Sonic waved his hands in front of him again. “But I have to stop you again, bud. This isn’t making any sense to me.”
Nine, growing unnerved, waited for Sonic to continue on. But oddly, he didn’t. “What do you mean, not making sense? I’m trying to make it- I just wanted to say- You shouldn’t have to worry! Things have been…fine!”
“See, but that is worrying me, actually. Sounds like some pretty heavy stuff. And honestly,” the hedgehog said, voice getting lower, “With a list of apologies like that, it’s making me a little uneasy, bud.”
Nine’s eyes were getting more watery, and only partially from the allergies. He stumbled through over his words. “S- listen, Sonic- I just- Why- Wha…”
“Hey, it’s alright,” Sonic said, flicking his wrist in Nine’s direction. “We’ll just chalk it up to a miscommunication, and we can each go about our days. Like I said, town is that way. Hopefully you can find who you need there.”
The hedgehog lowered himself back to his spot on the small grassy knoll. He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes again.
Nine was stunned.
He didn’t know what to do. He had been going over the potential list of reactions he would get from Sonic. But this, whatever it was, was not one of them.
Nine was frozen for a few more seconds. His mind felt fuzzy. He pinched himself. Then again. Then again with his robotic tails. The last one really jolted him. But he was here, in Green Hill, wide awake.
Now, he started walking over to the unbothered hedgehog.
“No, wait…”
Sonic opened an eye, then closed it.
Apprehensively, Nine knelt down next to him. He stared at his face for a while. Sonic’s eyes were still closed. He couldn’t detect anything coy, or any hint that this was a performance.
“Hey…hey!” Nine waved his hand in front of his face. “Come on! It’s only been… I don’t know, three weeks? …A month?”
Nine wasn’t sure because the Grim always had similar lighting, day or night. He had slept about three weeks’ worth of sleeps, but back in his old lab in New Yoke, he was wont to pull all-nighters without even planning to, getting lost in his projects. It could easily be a month or more. Two? Maybe at maximum.
“What were you were doing three weeks ago?”
Sonic shrugged, eyes still closed. “Probably similar to what you’re looking at now.”
“Or… a month ago?”
“Like I said…”
“The- the paradox prism? Don’t you remember that?”
Sonic opened his eyes. He thought for a moment. Then another moment.
Then he shrugged again. “Not ringing any bells, sorry.”
“You don’t remember that at all?”
Sonic just shook his head, closing his eyes.
Nine took a shaky breath. “…Or…me?”
In a small movement, Sonic shook his head.
Nine withdrew, straightening back. His eyes moved away from the blue hedgehog, and into the trees on the other side of the trail. But his gaze was unfocused.
It turned out there was one reality even worse than Sonic hating him, or being afraid of him. Nine felt like his heart had been punctured. He continued staring a thousand yards away as pain seeped out from his center.
How was this possible?
A new thought surfaced. Nine quickly opened the keyboard on his upper forearm and typed, checking the screen on his watch. He sought confirmation, and found it. This was the correct world. This should have been the correct Sonic. This was Sonic. Sonic had never been shattered, there was no other Sonic. But if that was the case, how could he not remember?
Nine looked back at him. He searched all over his face again for more information.
“Sonic, snap out of it. Please.”
Sonic adjusted his hands. However, he did not speak.
“We’re friends…we go way back…” Nine continued.
Now Sonic spoke. “Think you’re confused, buddy.”
He recalled how when he had first met Sonic, Sonic was saying the same things to him. To somebody who truly had no memory of who he was, because he had never known who he was. It had confused and agitated Nine.
Nine felt another sneeze coming on. He stifled it as best he could. A small stitch in his neck flared up. He rubbed it, grimacing.
He looked back at Sonic. “This isn’t funny!”
“I’m with you on that…”
“Why are you being like this?”
Sonic looked over. “Like what?”
“So…cold!”
Sonic shrugged. “Just doing a little recouperation, buddy. If you’re not into it, you’re free to head off somewhere else.”
The words bouncing around his brain, Nine made meaning out of each of them. The worst part was processing the tone of his buddy. He said it casually. Nine had been used to hearing it so many times, but only now did he realize that each occasion he said it, from the very first time he’d met him, he’d been saying it with the genuine feeling of a meaningful connection.
But that feeling was no longer present.
Sonic’s eyes closed again. They sat in silence.
Nine’s heart was hammering. He felt his breaths growing ragged and labored. “S-Sonic… you- you have to remember…”
Sonic shrugged again. “Sorry, pal…”
Nine felt tears welling up in his eyes. He willed them back down, but his breathing was growing choppier. He channeled his feelings into clenching every part of his body, including his fists.
“Rrggghh… Sonic…” he growled.
Sonic made no response.
“Please, say you remember,” Nine said.
Sonic did not.
A tear came out of Nine’s eye. He convulsed as he strained to keep from breaking.
Then, he raised his fist. He punched the unsuspecting Sonic in the shoulder. Sonic grunted and his eyes flew open. “Ow!”
“You- stupid- hedgehog!” Nine cried, landing on top of him and continuing to throw punches. They were without form and glanced off Sonic without much impact, especially now that he put up his hands to guard himself. “You- have- to- remember!”
“Hey!”
Sonic prevented him from landing any more direct blows on him, and now tried to push Nine away. But Nine’s robotic tails extended and anchored himself to the ground, keeping him down, surrounding Sonic like prison bars.
Sonic pushed with his feet and flipped over, grabbing Nine at the same time. Like a wrestling move, Sonic landed on top of him. Again, Nine’s legs acted automatically, preventing his back from touching the ground.
His legs dug in, preparing to spring forward. It would be like shooting out of a cannon. Nine was ready to do it. But he didn’t.
He sniffled and sobbed. He clutched Sonic, losing energy. His robotics eased him gently into the ground.
Sonic saw Nine’s loss of fight, and calmed too. At first, he tried to get up off him, but now Nine wouldn’t let him. Resisting at first, Sonic eventually accepted it, with eyes pointed away and an impassive frown.
Nine heaved sobs, trying to keep the tears inside, holding him tightly.
Sonic waited another twenty seconds. Then he said, “…Uh, buddy…” He pulled slightly away again, trying to escape Nine’s grip. Nine finally couldn’t hold on any longer, and let him go.
Looking down at the claw marks on his chest, Sonic sighed. “Think I’ll get going now. You should probably do the same…”
Nine was still sobbing without tears. But his mind cleared quickly when Sonic spoke. “No, no, you don’t- you don’t have to go.”
Sonic paused briefly. Nine’s mind was momentarily blank.
“I’ll go… I’ll go.”
It was probably better if he demonstrated a little more control and sanity. He just needed some time to think through this all. Maybe there was just some simple problem he was missing with his setup. He couldn’t jump to conclusions yet.
It was difficult, but he got back to his feet. “Sorry for the trouble…” He began walking back where he had come from, toward the unseen portal.
He could feel Sonic watching him as he did it. He kept walking straight ahead, not looking back. Finally, he moved out of view behind some trees. Then he stopped.
After a few seconds, he peeked back out at Sonic. He was back in his spot, sitting down and crossing his arms behind his head again.
“This- this isn’t over,” Nine’s voice shook as he talked to himself. He watched Sonic adjust his arms behind his head. “…You’re gonna remember who I am…”