Happy early birthday to me. I'll just go sit in my corner now.
Mephiles stared at the fence as he walked, carefully measuring each step even as he forced himself to move at a normal pace. The topmost bar was maybe an inch wide, requiring careful attention to maintain his balance, but that was the point. He only had so long before the energy wave passed and his mind reverted to its other state. He wanted - he needed to make the most of this time.
"Oh hey Meph, what - whoa!" Silver jumped forward to catch Mephiles as he slipped off the fence, startled out of his focus. "Sorry, didn't mean to distract you," he said a bit sheepishly, setting Mephiles back on his feet.
Mephiles brushed imaginary dust off his arms and cast Silver a Look from the corner of his eye. "Did you need something? I'm a bit busy."
Silver blinked. "Busy doing what?
He sighed and climbed back on the fence, adjusting himself to resume his balancing act. He heard a scuffing noise that told him Silver was following. "Practicing balance. You should try it - you rely on your powers to maintain stability more than I ever have."
"Wait, you use your powers to...?"
Mephiles stopped, fortunately on a more solid post, as he immediately spun with wide eyes to stare at Silver. "You didn't know-?" Even in his other state, he'd been sure that everyone had noticed.
Silver shook his head, his expression confused with no hint of deception. "I can't tell at all. What's the big deal, though? I use my powers to keep my balance, you use yours for the same thing. Nothing wrong with that."
Well at least he wasn't responding poorly. Fortunately there was no need to make sure his counterpart knew of this development, since he wouldn't realize that Silver had ever not known. Though you'd think that going from shambling like something out of a zombie movie to walking as smoothly as a natural being in the space of days, weeks if he was generous, would spark at least some curiosity. Maybe Tails or Shadow realized, they were at least better at noticing when he was regressed...
Which reminded him that he'd been staring Silver in the eyes for too long, risking recognition of his slit-eyed state. He turned away and resumed walking. "It's a bit different for me. Explaining is... it's complicated, and a bit personal, but it would be best if I learned to move without needing to balance myself artificially." A bit closer to the truth than he was strictly comfortable with, but every good lie - even a lie by omission - contains some grain of truth.
Silver made a thoughtful sound but didn't say anything, apparently content to follow just behind Mephiles in silence.
The fence ended, replaced by a brick wall. It wouldn't make for good practice, but Mephiles continued anyway, unwilling to face toward Silver again.
Silver spoke suddenly, breaking through the quiet with a suddenness that almost startled Mephiles off the fence again. "I was actually headed over to Tails' place, so I'm going to go now. You're welcome to join though."
Mephiles felt a pang of - of some indistinct feeling that he refused to identify. He shook his head and looked vaguely in Silver's direction. "I'll stay here, but thank you for the offer."
Silver lifted off the ground and gave a wave. "Alright, see you around!" he said before flying off at a frankly impressive pace.
Mephiles watched him leave, then closed his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. When he opened them again, they shone with quiet purpose. He vanished a moment later.
Mephiles examined the sticky notes on his desk, a conversation with himself held through several hours and two separate regressions. The number of episodes had increased over the past several days, though they weren't any longer as far as he could tell.
While they made taking time to himself a bit difficult, and almost always left him drained of energy, he at least appreciated the chance for more of these little conversations. Realizations regarding his mindset during regressions had left him craving answers, answers that he could only provide himself. But the latest sticky notes were an answer to a question he hadn't intended to ask.
He considered writing a return note, then decided against it. The conversation had more or less concluded itself, and he'd know how he felt about this either way when the next regression came. So he left the notes in their neat column and turned to his computer.
Silver didn't notice. If he mentions fence walking, it was during a regression.
Can they not tell anymore?
I don't know.
Mephiles leaned back against the chimney, one hand steadying himself on the roof tiles as he summoned a ball of black-purple energy in the other. He watched the ball swirl for a moment before pulling on a less innate set of powers, adding streaks of yellow green crisscrossing the surface, caressing and caging.
"What are you plotting?"
He watched the energy swirl above his hand for another moment before turning reptilian eyes toward the speaker. "You're assuming I'm plotting anything."
Shadow snorted. He balanced on the peak of the roof as easily as if he were on flat ground, and paid it as much attention. "I know you well enough to be sure you are."
Mephiles' eyes tilted. "What happened to me and my counterpart being the same? Do you assume he's plotting too?"
"Of course I do."
That made Mephiles pause for a moment. He closed his hand, banishing the entwined energies. "Oh?"
Shadow sighed, shifting his position the slightest bit. "You're the same person we fought before. You don't know how to interact with the world without manipulation."
Mephiles blinked, head tilting to the side. "Well that's hardly my fault, is it?"
Shadow went silent and very, very still. Then he sighed again with a different tone and let his shoulders drop, raising one hand to massage his forehead. "Just don't let whatever this keep you from meeting your own needs. Don't think I haven't noticed." He looked up, eyes narrowing. "Because if this keeps up I will not hesitate to make you take a nap the hard way."
Mephiles stared as Shadow turned to swing down off the roof. A few moments passed before he shook his head and returned to his previous activities.
Silver paused before entering his room, hearing sounds echoing from Mephiles' slightly open door. He considered for a split second before crossing the hall and knocking. "Meph? You there?"
No response beyond the tinny sounds of voices.
This presented a slight dilemma, as Silver didn't want to intrude, but dang it he was curious. At the same time, he was a little concerned now...
He cracked the door open and peeked in.
Mephiles was laying on his desk, eyes closed. The sound was coming from his laptop. Seeing this, it wasn't hard to figure out what happened.
Silver opened the door the rest of the way, careful of the creaking, and stepped inside. He paused the video Mephiles had left playing with barely a glance at the contents and put the computer to sleep before turning to Mephiles himself. Fortunately he'd fallen asleep in an easy enough position to pick him up without too much jostling. Silver did just that, using his powers to both ease the strain and reduce jarring. He'd noticed how tired Mephiles seemed lately; he wasn't going to wake him up if he'd finally gotten to sleep.
A few steps over and Silver set Mephiles on the bed with as much care as he'd taken picking him up. He pulled a loose blanket over him, smiling a bit as Mephiles hugged the blanket closer in his sleep. Task completed, he slipped out of the room as quietly as possible.
He missed a pair of sleepy green eyes blinking open for a moment to watch the door swing shut. Their owner made a thoughtful noise, looking at the door for another moment before his eyes slid shut once more.
Tails scanned the lines of data progressively faster, thoughts blurring into a mess that could only be summarized as oh shoot we're screwed. If he was more of a coder than an engineer maybe he would have seen it sooner, but - no, he'd seen in a while ago, he just hadn't believed it. Because it wasn't possible, Sonic had -
But it was possible. He already had proof that not everything was gone. No explanation yet, maybe never, but he did have an example.
Tails turned to the table beside him, having to dig for a moment before finding his com and starting a call with fumbling fingers. The call was answered quickly, and he didn't wait for the other's greeting before blurting, "I need you to come to the lab right now."
There was a beat of silence, then the tone of the call ending.
Barely a second later Mephiles materialized in the middle of the lab, visibly concerned. "What did-"
"Did you know?" Tails asked, pointing at the screens with a shaking hand.
Mephiles, to his credit, managed to put two and two together without wasting time on either elaboration or deflection. "I suspected, but I didn't have proof."
"Then why didn't you say something?"
The question was more pleading than accusing, but Mephiles still flinched. "I didn't - it was obviously possible, considering myself, and some of what I recall - but it doesn't make sense, and I couldn't be sure-"
"But now we barely have any time to do something! How are we supposed to-"
"That's why I'm trying to fix it myself!"
That shut both of them up for a split second before both of them spoke at the same time.
"You are?"
"Wait, I am?"
Mephiles' eyes went wide. He spit out something that would probably have raised some ratings and grabbed a sticky note pad and pen from Tails' desk.
"What's going on?" Tails asked, wincing immediately after at how childish he sounded. Not that Mephiles seemed to notice.
"Not now," he hissed under his breath, more to himself than Tails. "I'm not-" He froze, cursed again, and vanished, the pad and pen falling to the ground with a thud and clatter.
Tails stood frozen for a moment, then managed to take a few steps forward to retrieve and recap the pen before reaching for the pad. He didn't think Mephiles had finished writing it, but what he had written was barely legible, letters shaky and smeared from writing too fast.
He stared at the note for a second, then reached for his com again, calling someone he could thankfully dial by heart at this point. "Sonic, I need your help."
Silver flew over the streets as fast as he could toward the coordinates Tails shared. The fox had messaged Sonic, Shadow, and himself about Mephiles' sudden departure, though he hadn't said much aside from expressing concern about his state of mind. Silver hadn't pushed for details, though the rapid pinging from his watch indicated that at least one other person probably was. For now, he was probably the closest to where Tails said Mephiles reappeared, and he needed to make sure his friend was okay.
He touched down when he reached the place, checking that nobody was staring at him before beginning to scan the area. His eyes were drawn to a passage between buildings that was just the kind of shadowy space Mephiles seemed to prefer.
Silver entered the alley, giving his eyes a moment to adjust from the bright sunlight outside as he glanced around. He noticed a familiar figure to one side and focused on that. "Meph?"
The figure turned slightly. "Silver? Why are - never mind, just go away!"
Silver did a double take as his vision adjusted. Mephiles was leaning against the wall with one hand clutching at the dusty brick like it was all that held him upright, the other half covering his face but not fully concealing how wide his eyes were. Even his tone was less angry and more - more something else.
"Mephiles, what's wrong?" Silver tried, his voice carefully soft. He took a step forward, trying to keep his movements slow and even, like he knew what he was doing. (He really didn't. Last time he'd been in this particular situation had been on the other end, and under no circumstance was he copying Sonic's solution.)
"None of your concern," Mephiles said through gritted teeth. Impressive considering he had no teeth. "If you could just leave, I will be perfectly fine."
He took another step forward, then a third when Mephiles didn't react. "No way! You look like you're about to collapse. At least let me-"
"I said go away!"
Silver barely registered being yanked backward, eyes still focused on Mephiles as he made a sharp gesture with energy flashing at his fingertips. He stood for several seconds, trying to process what just happened, and why Mephiles was now looking at him like...
He dimly registered the pulsing heat on his face, vaguely aware that it had probably been there the whole time. He raised one hand to touch it, looking down to find his glove stained red, then back up at Mephiles.
Mephiles, whose eyes were wider than before if possible, the hand that had covered his face half dropped so that his expression was fully visible, horrified shock, reptilian pupils, and all. In the next instant he blurred into a shadow and vanished.
"Wait-" Silver reached out, far too late, then looked again at the color on his outstretched hand. He probably could have stared at his own blood for an hour if someone hadn't taken him by the shoulder and turned him around.
Shadow stared intently at his face, nodding after a moment. "Long, but superficial. You're lucky I pulled you out of the way or it could have been much worse."
"We need to find him," Silver said, barely hearing what Shadow said. "We-"
"What we need," Shadow cut in, tone brooking no arguments, "is to get you medical attention before this gets infected. Mephiles can wait."
"But it wasn't his fault! He was-"
"Silver." That one word was spoken with enough force to knock him halfway back to the present. Shadow took a deep breath. "Right now, Mephiles is acting like a cornered animal. He needs to calm down, and you need a bandage. Do you really think going after him looking like this will help him at all?"
What Shadow was saying made sense, but... "I'm scared." The words didn't nearly convey what Silver really meant, but it was the best he had.
Shadow looked at him, then turned away as he dug a chaos emerald out of his quills with one hand and took Silver by the arm with the other. "Don't be."