Another Scourge story, I think for all the bad press he gets as an obvious fan character and a gary-stu, the guy has so much potential. The concept of he and Sonic being more alike than they'd care to admit is an interesting one, so I had to explore it :)
Behind those metal bars, life is dull and slow and monotonous. It's like every single second takes a life time, perhaps even longer; the hands of the clocks on the grey-washed walls never seem to move. Time drags.
It's torture.
Scourge can feel his mind slipping, can feel his power wasting away; all that potential – wasted.
And it's killing him.
In here, Scourge isn't the hedgehog he used to be; everything that he ever was, anything that ever happened to him seems like a far off memory now.
His last battle had been one of the most glorious moments in his lifetime. He had defeated everybody! No one could stop him: not the Suppression Squad, not Silver, not Shadow …not even Sonic!
… he'd just lost on a technicality, that was all.
For one true moment in his life, he had been the most powerful thing in existence, he had been a god amongst mortals.
Now he finds himself in the dirt, his face buried in the mud, his only companions the worms trodden in there with him.
Scourge – former King of an entire planet and a very real threat to several others – is now the punch bag for every single low life that ever existed.
And it's killing him.
He's a laugh, a joke, a mockery. He catches sight of himself in the mirror and feels like vomiting, because the hedgehog looking back at him isn't anybody he recognises. His reflection loathes him, shows him for what he really is, just another petty criminal who got too big for his boots.
Scourge is a nobody once again. No, he's worse than a nobody. He's a has-been.
A has-been that reeks of failure.
Everyday it's the same routine. He starts the day with a bitter taste in his mouth and ends the day with blood in it instead. It's hard to tell now if he's green because of his transformation or because he's spent the afternoon having his lunch kicked out of him.
It's literally killing him.
But despite all of this: his freedom suffocated by concrete walls with his sole comfort being the memories of glorious days gone by and the only physical interaction he receives being a fist in his face or his gut or his crotch… it isn't the hedgehog's biggest concern.
When Scourge struggles to sleep at night, it isn't because he fears what injuries the next day will bring, it isn't because the injuries from the previous day are starting to ache, and it isn't because Smalls the Cat on the bunk above is so heavy the entire bed is crushing him.
It's because of him. Sonic the Hedgehog.
When Scourge catches sight of himself in the mirror, sometimes he feels like vomiting because the hedgehog staring back is someone he recognises. Having the face of your enemy can really, really have some negative effects on your ego. And a lot of the time the hedgehog feels like he may as well have his reflection throw him down in the mud, seeing as it's the face of the guy who put him in here in the first place!
… except, it's not that that's necessarily the problem. In fact, the real problem is a whole lot worse.
When Scourge catches sight of himself in the mirror, it's not what he sees that scares him, it's what he remembers…
"It's because all it would take is a bit of selflessness… a little bit of decency… and you'd be just like me."
When Scourge catches sight of himself in the mirror, he sees his potential. He sees the hero he could be, the tiniest gap that separates him from his heroic counterpart.
Those words haunt him. Because in all seriousness, Sonic wasn't far from the truth.
Sometimes, Scourges catches himself thinking about what life would have been like if he'd broken away from the chains of Anti-Mobius, if he'd had the courage to be someone different, and to challenge the norm. Would it really have been that bad? After all, he had the power to quell the Suppression Squad, he would have had powerful allies too… and he would have been honoured and admired and respected… he would have been a hero.
And then he realises what he's thinking and curses the day that Sonic placed those thoughts in his mind.
It's not enough though. Those green eyes are burned into his memory, that look of satisfaction as they stare down on their enemy won't ever leave him.
At that moment, Scourge and Sonic knew that very little separated them, the thinnest of lines prevented them from being one and the same. And when Scourge looks into a mirror, he sees that the distance between them is nothing at all anymore.
Scourge sees the criminals around him, almost watches at a distance as they pummel him further into the ground and feels nothing. He isn't like them anymore. He isn't a criminal.
All that potential – wasted. Because Scourge could have been so much more.
And it's killing him.
Fires devastate his surroundings, engulf anything in their path; the sky above is as orange as the flames. He's surrounded by the wounded, the crying, the broken… their lives shattered into thousands of tiny fragments, their worlds destroyed.
On the horizon, the remainders of New Mobotropolis burn to the ground. Nicole's nanites are all gone; her holographic form wanders the crowd near him somewhere, flickering and faint, her spirit beaten.
Tails stands in front of our hero, his eyes welling with tears, his fur spotted with soot and ash; Amy Rose stands beside him, trembling fingers interlocked with his, blood running from fresh cuts and grazes. The pair stands mute, engulfed in their shared pain, their shared sense of loss.
Fingers gently touch his palm; he looks to his side to see a pair of sky blue eyes gazing at him, sky blue eyes that reflect the suffering of an entire city; Sally Acorn: his leader, his guide, his friend.. his former lover. And what was he to her? A mistake? A nuisance? Or worse, a failure?
"Sonic, please… I recognise that look; please… don't blame yourself. This isn't your fault."
"Then whose is it, Sal'? What am I good for if I can't even protect our homes and our families and our friends? I'm supposed to be the hero! The hero! Instead I'm just a failure… all of this: it's my failure. I deserve the blame."
"Sonic, don't say that! Please don't…"
Sally grabs his hand, moves closer to him, buries her head beneath his chin; but as the tears roll down her cheeks and onto his chest, and as her breath warms his neck, the hedgehog remains stationary. He feels nothing. He is distant, separated, lost in a world of darkened thoughts.
Thoughts of anger and revenge and of raging disappointment; every failure floods back into his memory, every beating he took, every time that he bled – he remembers. He's supposed to be a hero, but the council ignore his views. He's supposed to be a hero, but his friends have so often doubted his judgements. He's supposed to be a hero… but whenever a girl gets close, his heart always gets broken.
He's been jailed, accused of treachery, ignored, bested, replaced, dumped.
He's been at this job for years, and what does he have to show for it? Sally left him because he wanted to do his duty and be a hero – but Bunnie and Antoine are happily married and for years the coyote was a damn coward! Tails distrusts him because of Fiona, thinks he doesn't care about his feelings when all Sonic ever wanted was for his little bro' to be strong! Elias had been prepared to hand over his crown to Ixis Naugus, the crown that Sonic has fought for and protected since he was eight years old!
So much for being a hero. Where does it get you exactly?
Something inside the hedgehog snaps. Why should he be the hero? There's plenty of other people perfectly capable for the job! Shadow's got chaos control, Silver has mind powers – why don't they step up? But Sonic the Hedgehog is a failure, a washout, a nobody… no, worse than a nobody. Sonic the Hedgehog is a has-been.
"Sonic, are you alright?"
He turns to stare coldly into those sky blue eyes one more time but catches sight of his reflection instead, well… it's certainly someone's reflection; someone just like Sonic, and someone entirely different. Sonic doesn't see Sonic staring back… he sees Scourge.
Because the hedgehog looking back at him is everything Sonic could be, it is his potential. Because what's the good in being a hero when the world decides you're not one any more?
This hedgehog has had his day.
Nothing separates him anymore from the villain he put behind bars, except that one of them got the girl, one them conquered a planet, one of them earned the respect of millions. When you're a villain like Scourge, you're respected for life; when you're a hero like Sonic, one false move and you find your face in the dirt.
Sonic feels like being reckless, feels like taking revenge on those enemies who have caused him to suffer. When you're a hero, there are guidelines and rules to follow… but when you're not, you can do anything you like. You have the freedom to take matters into your own hands. You decide who lives, who dies. You can be anything you ever wanted.
The blue blur shakes himself from Sally's grasp, pulls his hand away from hers; she tries to hold on but backs away in fear when she catches sight of his face. It isn't her Sonic looking at her, it isn't her hero; it's the face of someone else, someone familiar… someone a lot like Scourge.
Sonic turns his back on the burning city, turns his back on the crowd filled with the injured and the weeping, turns his back on his friends, only the only girl he's ever really loved and begins to walk away.
And then he hears those words that he'd pushed aside all that time ago, the words he'd laughed at because they'd been so unbelievable. Words from someone he swore he'd never become.
"As for you, … I've got you figured out! I know why you hate me. I know… it's because that all it takes is one bad day, and you'd be just like me."
Today was Sonic's bad day.