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The world was on fire.
Sonic saw it every day when the Ark passed over the daylit side of the planet. He could sort of see out the window from his cell, but he didn’t have to worry about the views—Eggman and Infinite would always make sure he spent time looking down at the planet to show him how much they’d conquered. It had started small, and Sonic held out hope, but as more and more regions were taken under control, he could see the damage. Scars of burned landscape that used to be forests and towns. Smoke rising from fresh fires. Expanses of wasteland that were too open and vulnerable to support life anymore.
And it only got worse. Eggman’s forces advanced around the planet. Where Mobius used to be lush in forests and beautiful cities, after the conquest it just looked…dead. Brown and sickly and in pain. Sonic tried so hard to hold onto hope that his friends could stave off the attacks and eventually push back, but it was difficult to stay optimistic when he saw the world burning.
Plus, he had his own nightmare to deal with. By which he means surviving.
It was hard to tell reality from illusion. The Ark’s alarms would go off, and Sonic would gather up every ounce of strength he had left just to walk as his friends arrived at the door to save him. They’d lead him down the hall and towards the escape pods. Then they’d be ambushed and his friends brutally murdered in front of his eyes. And he’d wake up back in his cell, on the ground and crying with mocking laughs echoing throughout the room.
The only way he could stop it was to make himself numb. He wouldn’t fall for the trick of freedom. He couldn’t let his hopes guide him to a false sense of security. He had to believe that everything he saw was fake.
When Infinite realized, four months in, that his illusions weren’t working so well, he tried a different tactic of torturing Sonic.
Forcing him out of the cell, chased by a swarm of bots, all with his hands tied and shackles around his ankles. He couldn’t run or fight back. He was forced to hobble through the hallways and try to backtrack to his cell where it was at least a little safe. More often than not, the bots caught up to him. And they’d attack. Visciously.
Today was one of those days.
Infinite had appeared outside his cell. Sonic had been laying on the “bed” they provided—it was nothing more than a slab of metal—thinking about how he couldn’t tell if he was hungry anymore. The jackal had grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet with a cry of protest. Then the bots appeared seemingly from nowhere. The first one to reach him slashed at his legs. He avoided it by a hair.
Then he limped away.
His left leg felt like fire and he could barely put weight on it. The day prior, Infinite had summoned the illusion clones of Zavok and Shadow to fight him for no apparent reason other than the jackal’s amusement. He’d lost, obviously—he was severely weakened from months of mind games, neglect, and abuse—and illusion-Shadow had landed a nasty blow on his leg that immediately snapped the bone. Sonic had done his best to avoid moving for the rest of the day as he hoped his normally-speedy healing would take care of it.
He was proven wrong.
Trying to walk was a new brand of torture. Agony shot through his leg at every motion, making him see stars. It was so intense that he could barely hold himself off the ground, let alone walk.
So he didn’t make it far before the bots caught up. The first one tripped him and he went crashing to the ground with a pained shriek. Another placed a heavy metal foot on his back. Sharp claws dug into his quills and his arms and something tried moving his broken leg and he screamed—why did they have to do this to him, he was already down for the count, he couldn’t help his friends from here, just make it stop he’d do anything—
The pressure vanished.
Sonic cautiously opened his eyes. He was back in his cell. Of course the whole thing had been an illusion. But he’d thrashed around when his mind was trapped, and his leg burned with fresh agony. He painfully turned onto his side and tried to breathe through the pain.
“Anything?” Infinite mused. Sonic froze, breath catching in his throat, at the sound of the jackal’s voice. “Did I read that right?”
Oh, yeah. Infinite knew exactly what happened in the illusions, including Sonic’s thoughts.
“Interesting.” Infinite traced a metal claw on the bars, creating a painful screech of metal-on-metal. “I will consider your offer.”
Sonic didn’t like what that implied, but he found himself unable to protest.
Would he help Eggman if it meant freedom and an end to the constant pain?
Months ago he’d never even have the thought. But now…
He’d never been lower. And he was considering the option.
He heard Infinite walk away. As soon as he was sure that the jackal was out of earshot, Sonic released the breath he’d been holding and sank into the floor with a whimper of pain as his beaten mind came to one conclusion.
He’d give anything for this all to be over.
Weeks later when the alarms blared, Sonic didn’t move.
An old illusion, and one he thought he’d escaped by numbing himself to the effects. Infinite hadn’t used it on him in a couple months. Or at least, he thought they were months. The world was still on fire and there were only a select few locations unaffected by the raids. Time was tricky when he spent half of it in alternate realities within his own mind.
They couldn’t trick him again. He wouldn’t let Infinite have the satisfaction of watching his despair when he saw his friends die or realized the rescue was fake.
He didn’t move when clone-Zavok stormed past his cage. Nor when he heard fighting.
It was an unusual illusion, but there was no way it was anything but. Besides, even if he wanted to find out for sure, he could barely move. He hadn’t eaten in days and clone-Metal Sonic had snapped his right arm, then tossed him around like a ragdoll. His mind was a foggy mess.
Footsteps came closer; right up to his cell.
The door banged open. Sonic still didn’t move.
Reddish fur entered his vision. Hazy eyes glanced up at an unfamiliar face; a wolf with a headset and glasses that almost seemed too big for them. They glanced between him and the cell door and tapped their headset. Sonic didn’t know if that was some kind of code, nor did he care.
It was a good illusion, he’d admit that much. He was confused about this newcomer invading his mind. But he didn’t put it past Infinite and Eggman to try and trick him into another fake rescue by using a new tactic.
But then—
Yellow fur. Terrified blue eyes. Two tails swishing with anxiety.
Sonic went rigid and squeezed his eyes shut. No, no, no thanks! Using Tails as bait was a low blow that Eggman knew would work. Sonic refused to let it.
“Sonic?”
It was the first word he’d heard in hours. Somehow it pierced through the heavy fog in his mind. Possibly because it was his little brother’s worried voice and his big sibling instinct to protect immediately kicked in.
“Go away,” he weakly rasped.
“Sonic, we need to get you out of here.” Ah, there it was. The line they’d almost always use to drag him to his feet and out the door. “Amy and Knuckles can’t keep the clones at bay for long.”
An unusual statement for an illusion, but Sonic refused to let it trick him. He tried to push himself away from the two clones in front of him. “Y-you can’t trick me again.”
Something touched his shoulder. Sonic screeched and violently flinched away, which made his arm move and sent agony shooting through him. He stared in terror at the illusion clones. “Get back!”
Clone-Tails and the newcomer stared at him in shock and heartbreak. “Sonic,” Tails started slowly, lowering himself closer to the ground to become less of a threat. The wolf followed suit. “We’re here to rescue you.” He pointed to the wolf. “This is Gadget. They found you. Now we’re all going to get you out.”
Gadget? Not a very Eggman-like name. Still, Sonic didn’t believe a single word. They’d done this to him before. “You can’t trick me, Infinite!” He shouted, glancing around as if he could spot the jackal through the illusion. “I’m not doing this again!”
Grief clouded Tails’s expression. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get you out sooner, Sonic,” the fox whispered. “But we’re here now and I’m not leaving without you.”
Sonic bared his teeth and puffed out his scraggly quills. “Go away.”
To his horror, Tails scooted closer. Sonic hissed and backed away, holding his broken arm close to his chest, until his back hit the bars behind him. Dammit. Cornered. Rookie mistake.
“How can we prove we’re not an illusion?” Tails asked quietly.
Again, weird for a clone to say. But a harmless enough question that Sonic could indulge without risking anything. Besides, he knew the consequences of not answering a question.
He glared at clone-Tails and clone-Gadget. “Tell me something only you’d know,” he replied.
In all honesty, he didn’t expect a reply.
Until Tails deflated a little. “After you told me to run…” Sonic barely remembered doing so, back before he was captured, so he could try to protect Tails. But it was far from private knowledge. “I went into hiding. Found Omega pretty banged up and fixed him. I guess I was kind of a vigilante for a while.” He rubbed the back of his neck and his ears drooped. He glanced at Gadget, who shrugged and backed away. Then Tails returned his attention to Sonic, who listened raptly for any sign of truth or lies. “Silver found me and brought me back to the Resistance.”
Sonic hadn’t even known Silver was down there. But he wasn’t surprised. If Eggman’s conquest meant the world would burn, of course the future-hedgehog would show up to try and stop it. Even Eggman knew about Silver’s time travelling.
To Sonic’s surprise, Tails suddenly smiled small. “And you hate strawberry shortcake.”
Sonic went perfectly still.
He remembered that day fondly. Amy had invited only him, Tails, and Knuckles over to her house. She’d made strawberry shortcake in preparation for Cream’s upcoming birthday and asked them all to try it so she could perfect the recipe. Sonic had taken one bite and loudly rejected it, to Tails’s and Knuckles’s amusement and Amy’s exasperation.
They’d never mentioned it again. No one else knew about his dislike for the dessert, not even Eggman.
So it was impossible for Infinite and his clones to know that too.
Why hadn’t clone-Tails—or regular Tails—just started with that?!
“T-Tails?” Sonic whimpered in a tiny voice. He finally looked—really looked—at his brother. There were tiny details Infinite never included in the clones, like the little scar on Tails’s ear or the shade of his fur. If he hadn’t been so self-absorbed earlier, maybe he would’ve realized sooner…
“Hey, big bro,” Tails replied shakily. He shuffled closer to Sonic and the hedgehog didn’t move. Tails looked like he could barely hold back his tears, which was better than Sonic—they pooled in his eyes and flowed freely down his face.
Was he…really saved?
Seeing Sonic’s lack of reaction to his proximity, Tails kneeled right by Sonic’s side. He offered his hand and waited for Sonic to make the first move.
The hedgehog stared at his brother’s dirty and scruffy glove. Then his face. Tails looked older. Not just from a few months of separation, but…like he’d seen things no one his age should see. And Sonic wasn’t there for him.
But maybe now he could be.
Slowly, with part of his mind whispering how fake this could still be, Sonic let his uninjured hand fall into Tails’s.
He was warm. None of the clones emitted heat.
Real.
“Tails,” Sonic whimpered, and immediately folded into his brother. Tails didn’t hesitate to carefully wrap his arms around the hedgehog and bury his face in the older’s shoulder.
“I missed you,” Tails choked out.
Sonic inhaled shakily. “M-missed you t-too,” he managed.
They stayed like that for another moment, but suddenly Gadget spoke up. “We need to go now. Eggman’s forces are closing in on the escape pods.”
Tails sniffed and gently pulled away but grabbed Sonic’s hand. “Okay. Lead the way.” He helped Sonic off the ground, and when the hedgehog cried out in pain as his arm moved, Tails froze. His gaze immediately locked onto the broken limb and his expression turned cold.
It was so unlike Tails that, for a moment, Sonic wondered if this was an illusion all along.
But his brother shook his head and turned his expression carefully neutral. “We’ll worry about it later. Gadget, we’re right behind you.”
Tails took most of Sonic’s weight as they limped towards what Sonic presumed to be the exit. His left leg ached from the poorly-healed break from a while ago. He said nothing as he let Tails and Gadget take him away from that forsaken cell.
For the first time in what felt like years, a tiny flame of hope ignited in Sonic’s heart.
He spent most of the first week asleep.
The Resistance base wasn’t exactly a five-star hotel, but it sure felt like it after so much time of nothing but metal. Six months, Tails informed him once he’d woken up the first time, confused and disoriented and panicking. He’d been up there for six months.
After regaining enough energy to walk on his own and stay awake for more than a few hours at a time, Sonic began exploring the base and learning everything he could about the war. Almost all of his allies were somewhere in the base, relatively unharmed and accounted for. They were the only thing standing between Eggman and total domination over the world, and they refused to back down, even an inch. Hope spread like wildfire once word got out about Sonic’s return. But Tails and Amy kept everyone well away from the still-recovering hedgehog. Knuckles created attack plans and kept the Resistance occupied. Sonic wouldn’t know, but to everyone else, the halls seemed a little brighter now that he was free. The air seemed a little lighter. Their eyes sparked with newfound energy.
For his part, Sonic simply rested and recovered his strength.
Tails properly set and splinted his arm, and with more food than he could eat at his disposal, Sonic’s quick healing started to take care of the break. He didn’t have much of an appetite, but Amy insisted, saying he needed it. He knew it must be hard to come by food with farmlands burned to ash, but he didn’t protest. He did need it. Desperately.
He was called to the main war room. It had been cleared out of most activity by the time Sonic arrived. It was his first time in the room, and he was grateful to not be overwhelmed by friendly faces. He’d seen too many up in the Ark.
When he entered with Tails by his side—the fox had been inseparable from him—his gaze immediately jumped to all the people in the room. Knuckles and Amy, smiling warmly at his arrival. Silver on the far end, sending him a single wave. Vector and Espio near the table with maps strewn across the surface, both nodding politely. Sonic was grateful they hadn’t brought Charmy; he loved the kid, but the bee’s energy would be a little too much. Rouge across the table from the Chaotix, and behind her—
Shadow.
Sonic froze.
His head slammed into the metal ground as Zavok threw him across the room. Shadow leaped through the air, boots ablaze, and landed perfectly on Sonic’s leg enough for the bone to bend until it snapped—
Suddenly Sonic found himself on the ground, the room empty except for Tails and Amy, who knelt next to him with worry plastered on their faces. He couldn’t breathe. This was a cruel illusion; thinking he was free for days, letting him be comfortable for once in months, showing him his friends and then bam Shadow’s there, one of the clones who Infinite constantly sent after him, his cold red eyes that held no life staring into his as the clone-hedgehog twisted his heel into the already-broken bone and caused pain so bad Sonic blacked out—
“Breathe.” Amy’s voice cut in through the ringing in his ears. “Sonic, you need to breathe.”
His chest shuddered at a poor attempt to bring air into his lungs. His claws dug into his quills as he gripped his head. His injured arm ached at the motion but he didn’t let up. “H-he’s h-h-here,” the hedgehog choked out. “I-I knew i-i-it had to b-be fake—a-another illusion—” He sucked in a quick breath that he immediately lost as panic stole the air from his lungs. “J-just e-end it, p-please.” His vision went blurry with tears as he waited in horrible suspense for the pain and mockery that was sure to come.
“You’re free and safe now, Sonic,” Tails told him. “This isn’t an illusion. Remember the strawberry shortcake?”
Amy sent the fox a confused glance, but Tails didn’t take his eyes off Sonic, who managed to take a full breath of air at the reminder. Maybe if he wasn’t in the middle of a crisis he’d laugh about how absurd it was to be grounded in reality by strawberry shortcake.
It took him a while to calm down and follow Amy’s breathing technique. When he did, slouched against the wall and exhausted, he buried his face in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“Don’t apologize,” Tails sighed, putting a light hand on Sonic’s uninjured arm. “I should’ve realized that seeing him was a bad idea.”
Sonic shook his head. It wasn’t Shadow’s fault, not even a little—if he was here, it meant he was fighting for freedom, and Sonic couldn’t ask more from the other hedgehog. Sonic was the one who was messed up. “There’s something wrong with me,” he choked out. Finally admitting it aloud.
Something was very wrong with his mind.
“No, no,” Amy hushed. “You’ve been through something traumatic. It doesn’t mean something’s wrong with you. It means you’re just like the rest of us.” When he cracked open an eye, confused and shaken, Amy smiled sadly. “It means you need to heal, and we’re gonna help you for every second of it.”
Sonic glanced at Tails, who nodded earnestly. “Anything you need.”
Gratefulness and love flooded through Sonic’s mind and a single sob ripped free from his weary body. Amy and Tails immediately settled on either side of him, touching comfortably but with plenty of room for Sonic to escape if he needed to. He allowed himself to lean on them.
“Love you guys,” he whispered, barely loud enough for them to hear.
Amy squeezed his hand and Tails snuggled a little closer.
“Love you too, big bro.”