Author's notes Oh man after hearing about Sonic Mania plus and Sonic Mania adventures, and because I'm a fan of the Sonic and Tails brotherly bonding aspect in the series which inspired me to type up this little one-shot focusing on my headcanon what took place after Classic Sonic returned to his dimension.
I refer to Modern Sonic and Tails as the alternate Sonic and Tails to help clear up any confusion. Also, expect to see a lot of heartwarming moments between Sonic and Tails, mostly me loving the bond these two characters share. I couldn't resist writing up a one-shot focusing on their friendship.
Disclaimer I do not lay claim to any of these characters Sega/ Sonic Team own them.
The long war against the Eggman empire finally had come to an end. Sonic stood hands on his knees slightly bent over panting in exertion from the long battle, but he'd also fought alongside the other Sonic and Gadget, they'd been successful in destroying the Phantom Ruby saving the world in the process. Sonic distantly heard the rest of the Resistance cheering in the background. He risked a look at his own hands; they were beginning to fade out of sight along with sparkles of blue light ascending into the air.
I guess with the Phantom Ruby destroyed; I'm going back to my dimension. Sonic thought to himself, looking up hearing a small soft gasp coming from the direction of the alternate Tails who took a hesitant step forward with a somber expression on his face.
"I guess that this is it, huh?"
Sonic knew straight away that the other Tails was putting on a brave facade. He saw the pain in the young fox's eyes and the way that he smiled sadly it reminded him of Tails back in his dimension.
Oh, man Tails must be worried sick about me by now. Sonic thought to himself with worry about his best friend. He saw the other Tails walking towards him fighting back the tears in his eyes, reaching forward to shake hands with him. The alternate Sonic flashed him a thumbs up with
"Please have a safe journey back to your dimension," Tails said. "Thank you for everything you've done, Sonic."
"I will, and you stay strong okay?" Sonic asked a small smile gracing his face.
Sonic smiled holding his fist out for a fist bump feeling the alternate Tails return it. The sparkles of blue lights surrounded him, and he began to fade out even quicker than before. The least that he could do was to give Tails one last wave and a smile in an attempt to reassure the fox that he was going to be okay.
With that Sonic vanished in a shower of blue sparkles the last thing he saw was the other Sonic coming over to comfort the other Tails gently placing a hand on his shoulder in a gesture of comfort.
Tails sniffled turning to Sonic with a sad smile on his face.
"Do you think the other Sonic will be okay?" Tails asked softly.
"He's me I'm sure that he'll be fine," Sonic responded a small smile on his face. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that his Tails is waiting for him in the other dimension. I'm glad to be back with you Tails; you're my best friend."
Tails smiled leaning into Sonic's gentle embrace resting his head on his shoulder.
"You're my best friend too, Sonic," Tails whispered hugging Sonic back, "I will do my best to help you out from now on, I won't be afraid anymore."
It had already been three days. Three long days ever since Little Planet had vanished in a shower of blue sparkles, just three days ago had Dr. Robotnik's latest plan had been foiled, and yet Sonic had failed to return something that sent the small fox into near tears at the thought he would never see his big brother ever again.
He wouldn't move from this spot. Not until Sonic came home. Tails mused to himself sitting down on the ground near the warm, gentle green glow of the Master Emerald. Knuckles stood near the giant Emerald his arms were folded across his chest, shifting his weight from one foot to the other unsure of what to say to Tails.
"There's no way that Sonic's dead," Tails said in slight anger in his voice was trembling at the last word. "I know that he's not."
"He's gotten out of tough situations before." Knuckles said, hoping to reassure the kit seeing his tails twitch ever so slightly. The fox nodded, looking up at the skies hoping to see any sign of Sonic his heart would race whenever he saw a shooting star just shooting overhead.
Please, I want my brother back. Tails thought to himself. Knuckles meant well, but the lump of sadness in his stomach wouldn't go away. The first night when he'd realized that Sonic hadn't returned was more than enough to punch a hole in his heart. The young kit began to tremble all over he did nothing to stop the stream of tears slipped down his face.
"I-I don't want -a-anything bad to- to happen to Sonic." The young kit was openly sobbing now his shoulders shaking with the amount of crying he'd been doing. "He's my brother please say that he's not dead!"
Knuckles remained silent, unsure of how to deal with the young fox's sudden outburst of emotion. He did know for a fact that both Sonic and Tails were extremely close, almost like brothers. Ever since he could remember he'd been alone, the first encounter between Sonic and him hadn't exactly gone over so well.
If Sonic ever came back, the guardian promised himself that he would punch Sonic in the jaw for making Tails worry like this.
The hard punch that he'd delivered to the hedgehog's jaw, knocking him out of his super state, stealing the Chaos Emeralds he believed belonged to him. The guardian felt a slight pang of guilt after willingly allowing himself to work with Eggman. Because of his gullibility, the Master Emerald had fallen into the mad scientist's hands, thus endangering Angel Island and all of Mobius because of his Angel Island had almost sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
No, it had been Sonic who'd willingly risked his own life to confront Dr. Robotnik returning the Master Emerald to Angel Island thus showing the guardian the error of his judgment.
"You're welcome here, and I'm sure that Sonic will be okay." Knuckles turned on his heel to look down at Tails the fox was loyal towards Sonic; the wrecked Tornado lay not too far away from the Master Emerald still bearing damage from the last time it was used. Three days after throwing Robotnik's newest plan to use the strange Phantom Ruby, Knuckles had found it crashed on the border between Mushroom Hill and Sandopolis.
The Tornado had sustained some damage from Heavy Magicians' attack. The propeller had snapped in half there were deep gouges in the plane's wings as the paint had been torn off exposing the metal beneath. The Tornado had seen better days even after the time Tails piloted it in pursuit of Robotnik when the mad scientist escape to his Death Egg.
The kit sniffled slowly rubbing his eyes getting unsteadily to his feet walking over to the ruined biplane heading over to where the damaged Biplane was. The young fox slowly ran a hand over the smooth surface of the vehicle.
A memory came unbidden from the depths of his mind. The young fox closed his eyes wanting to be lost in the memory the smooth metal of the plane was cold to the touch.
Sonic stood next to the Tornado, the gentle breeze blowing past his quills looking up at the skies of Mobius his hands on his hips, looking up at the blue skies with a small content smile on his face. Tails remained sitting in the pilot's seat of the Tornado; he'd just saved Sonic from plunging to his death seeing the blue hedgehog
Tails paused stood on the edge of the plane's wings. "Hey Tails, I just wanted to say thanks for your help."
The kit turned to look down at Sonic who was looking up at him with a small smile plastered on his face. The young fox wound his two tails together flying out of the cockpit landing on the ground facing Sonic.
"It's no problem," Tails said earnestly. "I guess that this is where we part ways, huh?"
It was inevitable Sonic would part ways with Tails. Sonic was Mobius' hero. Everyone knew the blue hedgehog preferred to travel on his own. Tails had heard stories of a pink hedgehog girl who was hopelessly in love with Sonic and the hedgehog had run away from her every time he saw her.
He saw for the briefest moments a look of shock that appeared on Sonic's face.
"What after just one adventure?" Sonic shook his head from side to side "I know that without you and the Tornado I wouldn't have been able to take down Robotnik this time and he will be back to try again."
He saw the white-gloved hand extended to him. "Besides, I want you to come with me since I believe we're friends now."
Tails in stunned silence looked at Sonic's hand. He took it with trembling emotion. He wasn't going to be left behind Sonic wanted him to come along he threw his arms around the blue hedgehog hugging him close.
"Tails! Tails!"
Tails jerked up at the voice snapping him out of the memory; he looked up to see Knuckles looking at him with a look of concern on his face.
"Oh, hey Knuckles." Tails tried to hide the disappointment from his voice.
"I was just checking up on you to make sure that you were okay." Knuckles looked up to the sky the young fox following his gaze the thick grey clouds were slowly drifting in front of the moon blotting out the starry sky slightly. The echidna rested a heavy hand across Tails' shoulders.
"Tails you can't stay here forever," Knuckles said. "If Robotnik does launch another attack and if you're still here, then he's going to find the Master Emerald."
Tails flinched feeling the stab of guilt forming a knot in his stomach. He knew that Dr. Robotnik once he finished rebuilding his resources he would mass his forces and try to launch another attack on Mobius yet again in his never-ending quest to conquer Mobius for himself.
"Please, can I stay here for a few more days?" Tails begged the pain was all too clear in the fox's sky-blue eyes, his lips trembled at the thought that if Sonic did come back from that portal, then he wanted to be here to welcome his brother home.
Sonic's most likely dead. Knuckles thought to himself. He didn't want to say it out loud to upset Tails even further. The young fox didn't need any more emotional stress placed on him, and Knuckles saw Tails keeping his gaze trained on Knuckles. The fox was silently pleading with him.
"Please Knuckles, I just want to know if Sonic's going to be okay," Tails begged his tails swishing anxiously against the leaf litter. Tails' hands clasped together, hoping that the echidna wouldn't have the heart to say no.
"Okay, Tails you can stay here, just for a few more days," Knuckles replied with a low sigh. He felt an impact on his chest for Tails had wrapped his arms around Knuckles in gratitude. "Thank you Knuckles I won't be a burden I promise!"
The guardian felt uneasy with the physical contact gently pried Tails off him. He heard the young kits footsteps rushing through the grass hurrying over to the Tornado so that he could begin the task of repairing the Tornado.
Another two weeks had passed, and there was still no sign of Sonic. The Tornado was fixed. Tails ran a critical eye over the Tornado. Repairing the biplane had been no problem.
Tails had left Angel Island like he said he would only to return every few days to place a chili dog on the plate, hoping that the smell of Sonic's favorite snack would be enough to lure the blue hedgehog back home. Knuckles knew that the gesture was well-meaning, he hid his annoyance as well as having to dispose of the never eaten moldy chili dogs.
One night, however, was when the miracle that Tails had hoped for finally happened at a point where he least expected it.
"He's not coming back." Tails said, looking over at the dozing guardian lying next to the emerald, the deep green glow of the gem was the only light source in the darkness that had fallen over the island. The gentle hum of the crickets was singing their evening songs, and a general sense of quiet had settled over the island.
Suddenly a flash of purple light lit up the sky, startling awake the dozing Flickies who took to the skies in a shower of feathers screeching with fright. Tails saw the purple portal open as a familiar light blue hedgehog casually leaped through the portal landing effortlessly on his feet. The strange purple portal closed behind him.
Sonic slowly turned around the small smile gracing his features smiling warmly in Tails' direction for the young kit's body began to shake with excitement. It had to be a dream, something out there in the wide ever-expanding cosmos had heard Tails' wish and had brought his brother back, safely home.
"Hey there, Tails long time no see.'"
"Sonic!" Tails' yell startled Knuckles out of his slumber, he jumped to his feet, his fists raised in case an intruder had snuck onto the island while he was fast asleep only to see Tails wrapping his arms around Sonic tackling him to the ground embracing him tightly tears of joy erupting from the young fox's eyes.
"Hey there Knuckles. Did you miss me?"
"Sonic how?" Knuckles was an in a state of disbelief that he'd seen Sonic vanish and now, he was back if Tails' reaction was one of pure happiness. There was only one reaction that would be suitable for this reunion. Knuckles came up to Sonic and punched him hard hearing the hedgehog yelp in pain.
"Oh, come on Knuckles what was that for?!"
"That was for making Tails worry about you," Knuckles replied curtly. The Guardian landed another punch on Sonic ignoring the hedgehog's pained yelp.
Knuckles allowed a grin to appear on his face hiding his relief at the fact that Sonic was real and even though the guardian, he wouldn't admit it, it was an emotional weight off both his and Tails' shoulders.
"It's a long story, and I'll tell you everything with some chili dogs." Sonic's stomach rumbled ever so slightly.
"Cross-dimensional travel works up an appetite."
A couple of hours later a small campfire was blazing in the middle of Angel Island's eastern coast with the waves gently lapping at the beach's edge. Sonic consumed two chilidogs since Tails had made another trip to get some more chili dogs and all of their stomachs were full for Sonic was reaching the end of his cross-dimensional experience.
"So then the other version of me, a red wolf named Gadget, and I we plowed through the middle of this giant white robot destroying the Phantom Ruby, and Eggman was defeated," Sonic explained. "The world was saved, and so I ended up back here."
"Wow, you crossed dimensions?" Tails' eyes were wide with amazement. "That's so cool!"
"Wow, so the other me in another dimension led a resistance," Knuckles replied deep in thought. " Heh, even in another dimension I knew I would make a great leader after all."
Sonic made sure to give Tails a soft, smile seeing the young fox's eyes light up with happiness. "There was one thing that the other me in the different dimension had in common," Sonic said looking over at his younger adoptive brother's face. "I missed you guys when I was trapped in that other dimension."
He felt Tails launch himself from the log wrapping his arms around Sonic drawing him into a hug. "I missed you so much, and I-I'm glad that you're back." Tails stuttered no longer bothering to hold back the happy tears streaming down his face.
"I promise to try not to get caught up in any more interdimensional portals little buddy."
Sonic replied, seeing the small smile that Knuckles aimed in their direction. The guardian of the Master Emerald wouldn't admit it, but he was glad that Sonic was back and to see Tails being happy again was a nice bonus.
"It's good to have you back Sonic."
"Yeah, it's great to be back," Sonic replied for the three friends settled down next to the dying embers of the campfire watching the stars in silence. Mobius was safe for now, and there was no telling when Dr. Eggman would strike again, but for now, the three friends knew that they could rest easy for now with Sonic back amongst them things were right with them on Mobius.