Tails coughed, struggling to see through the swirling dust clouds now that the horrendous clashes of screeching metal and blatant, pain-filled screams had settled down to leave only the droning hum of loping circuitry as it died out slowly. It hadn't been too long since he'd last been conscious, trying to escape with Cosmo from the Meterax general that had kidnapped them. He'd been cornered and took the blow meant for his friend, knocking him unconscious.
It was how long he'd been out that concerned him, however. When he'd finally started being aware of his surroundings, there was a huge commotion going on somewhere above him. Cries of shock and anger, and feral growls of some sort of monster that, Tails assumed, was attacking the machines for one reason or other. It didn't take much to hate the rather sinister race of heartless planet-killers.
Grateful for the distraction, Tails had managed to get their containment unit to unlock, freeing them both. Just after getting out, there was a large shake in the building's structure, rocketing layers of flooring downwards towards them. It was by a mix of luck and skill the Tails managed to evade the debris, Cosmo in hand, and get her outside, to safety.
Rather than going with her to the ship, however, Tails knew what he had to do. It was a gut feeling that would make him feel sick later on should he choose to ignore its warning sensation. Something he'd experienced before with regret, and knew better than to let himself go through once again. Tails managed to convince Cosmo to go ahead without him, as he knew that he had to go back inside. No matter the danger, there was something that just wouldn't set right with him, something that he wanted- no needed to investigate while he still could.
Giving a quick nod to reassure her and in short-term farewell, Tails ran back into the enemy base, which this time around was falling apart with the shudder of impact after impact. It didn't take a seasoned adventurer and hero to see the signs of a conflict going on. It did, however, take that criteria to be able to discern just how one sided a battle it really was.
The sense of dread ever growing, but determination resolute, Tails carried on, noticing how the Meterx forces had decayed rapidly, running into more and more bots still sparking, the pieces twitching. For something to have torn so many apart...
Tails's thoughts of worry over perhaps trying to leave now were interrupted by a yell that pierced through the cacophony. What sent chills down his spine was how he recognized who's voice it had come from.
Energy renewed, he navigated through the ever growing wreckage at speeds he forgot he could advance to, hallways blurring together with rooms not important to him as he ran with desperation to find his friend. When he finally got there, the place was in even worse condition than any other area, practically a warzone.
Almost pushed back out by the concussions via blows being delivered, Tails ducked behind a hunk of what used to by what could've been a thrown of sorts, or what was left of it anyways. It looked like it'd been bent into a knot almost-
Continuing battlefield sounds kept breaking into Tails's thoughts, keeping him in the present and aware of the tense situation. But there was nothing he could do. Whatever was fighting the Meterx was wild and enraged, probably past the point of reasoning by the minimal grunts and snarls it gave out on occasion that the fox could hear. His best friend was nowhere in sight, presumably in the middle of it somewhere. Without any tools, back up, or a clear view of what was happening other than off of sound- which was getting painfully loud now- Tails was helpless, forced to wait under the cover he'd luckily found until it.
Minutes that felt like hours passed, and then the last Meterx was crushed with a weighty finality. Trying to see through the dust clouds, Tails couldn't spot anything, or any one, until the sound of familiar shoes walking across the scarred metal floor caught his good hearing. Relief filling him, Tails picked himself up and started moving towards who he was sure was his friend. After all, who else could it be?
A hazy figure moved at a slow, steady pace, and while Tails keep running forward, his happiness began to stifle and wan at the hands of some sort of strange apprehension. As he drew closer, the figure's color remained black. Closer, and that face didn't hold the right smile. Closer still, and those eyes were void of their emerald irises, instead casting an intense white glow.
Tails stopped, a shiver running through him, smile wilting as the thing before him that resembled his friend, seemed like his friend, radiated an aura of wrongness about itself, almost visible in a blue-blackish tint. Tails tried to take a step back-
Suddenly the thing was all the closer.
Tails tried again-
And the gap between them shortened exponentially again.
Tails tied standing perfectly still, even forcing his tails not to flinch as that white, void gaze seemed to look him over, an emotionless mirror that reflected back only one solid color. 'At least it stopped moving to-' Tails began to think to himself, wondering just how to get out of the situation when, in the blink of an eye it was upon him.
Too taken off-guard to let out an initial scream of fear, Tails felt the cry die in the middle of his throat at the registering of something wrapping around him. Blinking, he realized that there was a grease-stained glove nuzzling his stray strands of hair that often stuck out in front of his face in a familiar manner. An odd calmness spread through him at the warmth conveyed by what Tails figured out was an embrace... and a protective one at that.
To his amazement, all sorts of emotions started t go off inside his head, like memories. Kindness, compassion, patience, love, understanding, sympathy, relief, joy-
Shaking his head to reassert his focus, Tails just barely caught what the creature whispered into his ear, as right before his eyes its spikes fell towards the ground, its black fur lightened to a matted, scuffed-up cobalt, and its eyes lessened their glow to reveal the green irises Tails had at first been expecting. Those eyes were dim, however, in exhaustion, the hug becoming more of Tails supporting Sonic's weight as the before kneeling hedgehog completely loss all strength in his limbs and slipped forward onto his pal, releasing a sigh of ease as his eyes closed.
'Of course NOW is when he decides to sleep,' Tails thought sarcastically, nervously laughing out of confusion and relief that his friend was still with him, and not... well, lots of other things Tails always tried to never think about during lonely nights alone in his workshop as his bro would often go on midnight runs across plains, hills, mountains or valleys. Anywhere those feet of his would take him- even right into the lurking traps of danger.
The young engineer waited there, using his tails as a pillow for his friend's head as they slept on, looking peaceful and serine. The utter opposite of the mess of what had once been a uniform base of operations that was still barely standing that surrounded them on all sides. It wouldn't take long for the others to find them, what with the signal he'd sent out. Giving a cleansing exhale, Tails gazed down at his friend, thinking over what had just happened, just what that form had come from and why, after destroying all those Meterx, it'd stopped rampaging and hugged him of all things. The frustrated and perplexed 10 year-old gave his beat friend in the universe a light, teasing punch on the shoulder. 'You have a lot to answer to when you wake up Sonic. And this time you are NOT getting off the hook.'
AN: The idea just formed itself, and I'm glad to have gotten it down. Basically, the episode where Dark Sonic makes his one-and only- appearance, it's very clear that his entire being seems to come from intense anger and hatred, something Sonic rarely to never expressed- or at least doesn't let himself express. The cool thing about Chaos energy, as well as the most dangerous, is how it feed directly into a person's emotions. It's seen with the ancient Echidnas, Chaos itself, the deity, as well as the fact that there's a strong positive energy and polar negative energy side to this force. Illustrated no better than with Shadow and Sonic, with each drawing upon a different side. That got me thinking, though, that perhaps the dark side of sonic personified in Dark Sonic -vs. something like the 7 Rings transformation- represents not just negative emotions, though those certainly are dominant, but rather excessive, strong surges of emotion that Sonic works on keeping in check so his chaos energy powers aren't thrown out of flux or his own control. As Dark Sonic shows how out of control simply being very upset can leave Sonic, I at least think it's a plausible theory. Also, yes, I did replace Chris Thorndike with Tails, because I thought that Tails would convey the situation better with his maturity and because of the relationship he has with Sonic being yet another reason why Dark Sonic responded to him as he did. Part 2 will have further explanation.