Eric, Alura and Violet ran through the halls of the hospital on their way up to Sonic's room. The lone shuttle that had escaped the Highwind's destruction had landed on the roof of the hospital. Eric had been told all three occupants were admitted to a nearby military hospital and was given his son's room number. At Sonic's floor they nearly trampled a male duck doctor who muttered something about "unruly, ungrateful Vanguards" but Eric let the insult slide. As they approached the desk they saw a familiar face.
"Adrian? Why on Mobius are you here?" Eric asked Dr. Osaka. The aging lynx thanked a nurse and handed her a stack of charts before turning to his childhood friend.
"There are enough doctors back in New Mobotropolis," he explained, putting his hands in his doctor's coat. "Besides, I'm a war medic. This seemed like the natural place to be until I'm needed back home."
"What about Sonic?" Alura asked. Dr. Osaka pulled out a chart and scanned over it.
"Right this way," he said and led them to a room near the end of the hall. There in the bed with an IV in his arm was Sonic, battered but no worse for wear. Violet was the first to run up and hug him, a gesture he gladly returned.
"You're okay, big brother!" she exclaimed.
"Good to see you again too, munchkin," Sonic said mussing up her hair. Eric and Alura were next, nearly smothering their recovering son. "Okay, guys. I'm here to get better, not for you to give the doctors more work."
"When you were captured we thought the worst had happened," Alura said as they parted, tears falling from her eyes.
"This is what I get for giving you an exciting first mission," Eric scoffed swearing at himself. "I nearly got you and Mina killed."
"It could've been worse though I'm not all that sure how," Sonic admitted as his hand wandered to his right leg. "Imagine my surprise seeing doc as my attending physician."
"Fate has a funny way of working these things out," the lynx said with a chuckle from the doorway. "Physically Sonic and Mina are fine though Mina has some damage done to her right leg but it seems to be healing nicely." His look turned serious. "There's also the matter of her...other injuries. Again, she's physically fine but that says nothing to her state of mind."
"And how about yours?" Eric asked, turning to Sonic. The younger hedgehog said nothing as he stared at his right leg. "Son?" Dr. Osaka pulled Eric away from the other three off to a corner of the room.
"We ran some tests on Sonic and we're having a hard time figuring out what, if anything, is wrong," he said quietly. "Every test shows no major physical changes but..." He opened a file on the desktop computer and several scans of Sonic appeared. "The first thing we noticed when we brought him in was the number of surgical scars he has. It looks like this woman was poking, prodding and cutting both at random and with purpose." He brought up one that had several spots highlighted on Sonic's skin. "These are the ones we found. Notice anything interesting?"
"There aren't any scars on his right leg," Eric said as he stared at the scan.
"None," Dr. Osaka confirmed. "Not a single surgery scar, no signs of remodeled fractures, no artery damage. There is absolutely nothing wrong with his right leg."
"There's also no sign of the growth spurt either, something his resurrection wouldn't account for," Eric agreed with a nod. "Why would Cidana not mess with his right leg of all things? What about the other scars? Were you able to figure out what she was trying to find?" Dr. Osaka entered a filter and several of the highlights vanished.
"If I didn't know better I would say she was taking samples," he explained. "To what end I'm not entirely sure. His physical makeup is close enough to Mobian that it shouldn't have made a difference." Eric was silent as his friend glared at him.
"What the hell did you want me to do?" he said finally. "You know how Max was. Anything that wasn't Mobian wasn't worth keeping. Damn it, Adrian, he would've had my son killed minutes after he'd been born!"
"Do you think I would have turned in my best friend especially considering that we're no different?" Dr. Osaka snapped back.
"You I trusted but I knew that your staff wouldn't have been as quick to commit treason." Eric closed his eyes, calming down. "Was there anything else?" Dr. Osaka was obviously not ready to let it go but did anyway.
"Sonic's never been afraid of needles," he answered after a moment. "Not to say that he liked them but he's never had any issue with them. This time he gave two of my nurses concussions and nearly put a hole through the wall when they tried to get a blood sample. I had to use my abilities to knock him out before we could get anything done. Even then we had to keep him restrained just so he would tear everything out when he came to."
"I noticed," Eric said staring at the leather straps on the side of Sonic's bed. "What's up with the markings on them?"
"I had to break out the sorcery to make sure he didn't just tear them off the bed," the lynx admitted. "I don't like using it on my friends but he didn't leave me any choice."
"And Mina?" Adrian shook his head.
"She's basically catatonic," he answered. "She hasn't said a word to any of the staff even when we drew blood and set her IV up. Her brother's in there now and she's barely said two words to him. Physically she'll be fine in a couple days. Mentally...well, I wouldn't leave her alone any time soon."
"Damn you, Cidana," Eric swore. "The initial report I was given said that there were three survivors. Who else made it off the Highwind?" Dr. Osaka flipped through several charts before handing it to Eric so he could read it. "You're kidding me."
"Dead serious," Dr. Osaka replied, taking the charts back. "Unfortunately his psyche is completely snapped. He can't recognize anyone or anything right now. I'm not sure if his mind will ever fully recover."
"And Sonic and Mina?" Dr. Osaka shook his head.
"I'm no psychiatrist," he explained, "and I can't even imagine what those two have been through, especially Mina. Neither one will talk about it, not even how they escaped. Give them time, Eric. It may take years before they're willing to talk about what happened." Eric thanked his friend before the lynx left to check on his other patients. He turned back to his family to see Sonic removing the IV and cautiously standing. He was favoring his right leg, further deepening Eric's curiosity as to what had happened.
"Shouldn't you be getting rest?" he asked and Sonic shook his head.
"Rest isn't going to help," he said simply. "If you guys don't mind I wanna go see Mina on my own for now." His parents looked at each other and nodded. They watched with their daughter as Sonic walked past them and into the hallway. For a moment Eric thought he heard the clicking of metal but chalked it up to stress messing with him.
As Sonic walked into Mina's room he saw a black-haired mongoose sitting next to her bed. He turned to face Sonic, his rose-colored pince-nez glasses sitting on his nose.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded as he stood up. "It's because of you that Mina is in this state!" When Sonic said nothing the male mongoose took a swing at Sonic, scoring at hit on his left cheek.
"That's enough, Ash!" Mina said. Ash Mongoose stared at his sister before glaring at Sonic again. "If it wasn't for Sonic I'd be dead right now or worse." Her elder brother muttered a curse and stormed out of the room. "Sorry about that. I imagine that punch hurt him more than it did you." Sonic gave a weak smile before sitting down in Ash's seat.
"How you doing?" Sonic asked. Mina swallowed nervously before shutting her eyes.
"Every time I try to get some sleep I see myself back on that slab as Cidana's men just..." Her voice trailed off as tears formed at the corners of her eyes. "I can't think, I can't sleep, and I'm barely eating." She held the arm with the IV up. "I'm getting more nutrition from this thing than I am from the hospital food."
"I'm pretty sure that's normal," Sonic replied with a chuckle. "At least the food bit. As for the other things..." His hand rested on his right leg again. "I kinda know how you feel, about not forgetting and replaying everything in your head."
"She really took your leg, didn't she?" Mina asked and Sonic nodded after a moment. "At least we can take solace in the fact that she died when her ship exploded."
"I kept telling her that I'd kill her," Sonic admitted. "I wanna believe that bitch is dead but part of me just won't believe it. At the same time I know there's no way she got off the Highwind before the last reactor went critical."
"I've been wondering about that," Mina interrupted. "How did we not get caught in the explosion?"
"Apparently my old man had teams in place with mobile shield generators," Sonic explained. "It took all four to hold it back and it burned out three of them in the process. If they hadn't been ready..."
"We'd be dead too," Mina finished and Sonic nodded. "Kinda glad the military had my back for once." They were both silent for a moment. "I never got to properly thank you for getting me off the Highwind," Mina said. "To be honest I think that I wanted to die rather than live with what they did to me." Her hand reached for Sonic's and squeezed it. "Thank you. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have a reason to live. That's why I wanted to ask you..." Mina swallowed nervously. "When I get out do you wanna go out somewhere?" Sonic cocked an eyebrow curiously.
"Get out of where?" he asked.
"I'm admitting myself," Mina said and handed Sonic a brochure for a mental institution. "Ash thinks I'm crazy for even considering it but after everything we went through it seems to be the natural course of action."
"I'll be sure to visit," Sonic told her placing his free hand on top of hers. "So long as the cookies have nuts."
"Seriously?" Mina groaned but laughed at the bad joke. "Thanks. I'd really like that."
As Sonic worked his way back to his bed he thought about Mina's decision. It wasn't a bad idea and would give her a chance to work through everything. Personally, he couldn't stand the idea of being cooped up like that and was sure it would drive him crazier than being robbed of his one true gift. He looked out his window to see a silent Sylvanix sitting on the sill and staring at the cityscape.
"Move ever forward," Sonic said, echoing the words of the Magan from their first encounter, "because if you stop you will swallowed whole by despair. It'll take time but I promise that I'll move forward. For now I just need time to adjust and accept." The Magan stared at Sonic and gave him a sad smile, leaving Sonic to rest before fading from view.