S: My very first uploaded story, I hope I uploaded it correctly... anyway, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic or any related characters. What is your problem, SEGA?
How did it come to this…?
Did I know from the beginning that this would happen?
If Sonic could see me now…
No! If he could see me now then that would mean he'd be alive, and I wouldn't be here, so he can't see me now…
I can't tell whether I like that thought or not…
A lot of thoughts I had lately have been weird, and a lot of decisions too. But then again, why fight on the losing team, especially if you're the only one left to know, or care.
I've become his assistant now. His sidekick. I help design all of the new weapons, the ships, even the robots. He acknowledges me at least, for what I am. He knows I was his greatest intellectual rival, and now that we work together…
The world never stood a chance.
Not that it ever did anyway, in the end. He had armies, dozens of armies, dozens of fleets and battleships to carry them in. What did the world have? Some extremist military group who couldn't accept help until it was too late, and a small group of heroes who were willing to give that help… but then it was too late.
GUN had been annihilated; the human cities destroyed in waves upon waves of robotic armies. Most of my own species had been destroyed too, if by my species I mean not humans, because I really only vaguely have a species.
The mobians had been decimated after GUN was taken care of. The defenceless creatures never had a standing army or any sort of official protocol for war or politics. Protecting them was the job of us. Our little band of foolish children who followed a single thread of inspiration.
After Sonic had died the thread had unravelled, slowly but surely. We had tried mounting attacks, trying to save the day.
Ha! Like we could ever manage. Sonic was our whole world, even if we didn't realise it. Amy became our next leader, but she wasn't a patch on him. Sonic had charisma, charm; he was the very idea of the freedom and justice we wanted. Sure, Amy could talk just about anybody around, but she wasn't a symbol. She wasn't a rallying point.
That was probably why Knuckles left. He only really knew Amy through Sonic, and their disagreements constantly drove the group apart. I guess being the sole inhabitant of your own personal island kind of makes you unaccustomed to taking orders from anyone, especially not some upstart girl throwing her non-existent authority around. He went back to his island, and I've never seen him since. I tried finding Angel Island again, but he must have moved it. I don't blame him.
Rouge was killed when GUN was destroyed, and I don't think Shadow ever really got over it. I don't think he loved her, but she was his anchor, in a way. The guy never managed to fit in with the rest of us, all used to Sonic and his attention-seeking ways. Some black and red hedgehog who never spoke or even moved unless he had to stood no chance to our blind adoration of his cocky twin.
Rouge met Shadow first though, before Sonic. So I guess she could always pay attention to him instead of Sonic, and without that, Shadow must have drifted into himself. I realised recently that I'd never heard his voice for over a year.
Stark contrast to the girl whose voice I never stopped hearing. She's down there now, screaming her lungs out as I watch behind a one-way screen. She's been kept alive solely for his amusement, the sadistic bastard.
Anyone considered a threat was destroyed, and a threat was defined as anything with a free will. Robots could be programmed, as I knew all too well, but organic creatures took a bit more time to program in that way…
Their loyalty was always questionable as well. Look at me. Come to that, look at all of us. We felt sick at the very thought of turning against the side of good, the side of justice, the side of Sonic. But now…
Cream continues to scream. I wish she'd shut up. I know that there is a switch on my desk that could kill her, but to press it would kill me. She is the last remnant I have of my former life.
Everyone else had died in one of our ill-conceived attack plans. Trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds, what fools we were! Yet tried we did, spurred on by Amy's insistence that everything would be all right.
It could never be all right, stupid girl!
You never managed to break the subtle spell that Sonic wound around your mind. At the core you still were that lovesick little girl who followed Sonic around, to the point of ignoring everything and everyone around you.
Knuckles was put under the spell, to the point of nearly abandoning his precious Master Emerald and Angel Island, coming on more and more 'adventures' with us to stop the 'evil' Dr Robotnik, or anyone else it happened to be that day.
Sometimes it seemed everyone on the planet was under that spell of Sonics, cheering him on all the time, never even noticing us, the ones in the background.
To be fair, we didn't notice either, we were all too distracted by the godlike blue blur that stole your heart and mind instantly and wrapped it around his little finger for his own personal use. Only now do I understand. Only now do I see. After his death.
I became Sonics sidekick, the one trailing behind him. But I was too caught up in the moment to notice that everyone else was his sidekick too. Everyone but Dr Robotnik, who could see Sonic for what he was. Sonic commanded the people like he commanded his robots, used up and then thrown away like trash.
Useful only as mindless slaves…
Maybe Sonic didn't realise it. Maybe he was too wrapped up in his own self-importance to know that he had the world right where Robotnik had wanted it for years.
I'd never know now. Perhaps when I die, then I can ask him. I look back on my time with him and I see a damned idiot, a child following an arrogant hero.
Perhaps it's his fault. Perhaps it's mine. But I know that I never want to act like that again, never be under the hero worship spell of so long ago.
I don't want to see Sonic when I die. It would be too much.
I wish Cream would shut up…
But she is my only lifeline…
Wait. My past life is everything I've been trying to escape, to get away from the hell that a certain blue hedgehog created for me. To absolve myself of guilt, and finally get a grip on my new life, my real one. The one I was destined to have: building machines to my hearts content, with someone who really understands me and respects me by my side. Unlike the speedy hero, I spit the word, whom I now know used me for my talents without any respect at all.
The button is there, to end her life. I can't believe I used to like her. She's still as useless as when I met her.
This entire thing is a test! To see if I have truly embraced this new life. I see with glee the opportunity to prove my allegiance forever to someone who finally knows, who understands my pain and hardship, the jealousy of others towards their natural superior!
I press the button. The scream echoes and stops, the torture chamber silent again, a new corpse in its glorious grasp.
I stand straight, triumph filling me as I grin with pleasure. I had passed. My new master grins as well, I had performed admirably.
"Congratulations, Miles Prower. You have freed yourself at last."
I bow. "Thank you, Lord Robotnik."
I turn back to the chamber. If you really are watching, Sonic, I'm the sidekick of someone else now.
S: Hope you enjoyed this! A review would be most appreciated.
By the way, if you liked this, there is a sequel up called 'The Sidekick's Vengeance', which seems to be quite popular.
Thanks for reading!