Recursion Error
Episode 55- +1 life
The only other time Sorun remembered having ever been so intensely focused was actually in recent memory. During that last stretch when he'd gone to go kill Eggman. Nothing, absolutely nothing else, registered in his very being than the goal he'd been staring at. Not the sights of the world around him, not the sounds or smells, nothing. Even his own thoughts had been solely aimed at that one objective: cut his head off.
And now, for a second time, Sorun once again had that focus. It was almost like his body had been on autopilot when he tore the portal open with his sword. He didn't recognize the world that seemed to be made of golden clouds that he stepped into. All he could think about were the two echidna that lived here. The ones that had dragged his consciousness here when he got that first Emerald.
The ones that apparently had the ability to revive the dead.
"Aurora. Athair. What the hell are you two playing at with me...?"
So now all of a sudden people could be brought back to life. It'd been that way Tails had said it, just the way he described Knuckles being revived one time being so... nonchalant. Like it was a common occurrence on Mobius. For all he knew it was, because everything fucking weird happened on that planet. And he knew Knuckles knew them, he told Sorun so himself. Would have also been nice if he'd mentioned they'd revived him at one point, but it was a moot point now.
"Sorun, please, reconsider!"
A pair of arms grasped Sorun's right and halted him. He stopped, and then turned around. He saw Tikal clinging onto his arm, having run through the portal he came from and neglected to close. She had a pleading look in her eyes.
"I just want to talk to them." Sorun pulled his arm from her. "Go home, Tikal. This has nothing to do with you."
"Then why do you feel like this?" She stepped to his side, still looking into his eyes. "I... feel so much anger, so much rage... it reminds me of how Chaos felt, when the Servers were threatened, but... this feels so much worse..."
"I just found out the same people that forced me to go through all these hoops that lead to my death might have the power to bring me back, and they said nothing about it. How am I supposed to be feeling?"
Tikal flinched back at Sorun's cold words. "I... just do not want you to do something you would regret..." she mumbled out.
By just the barest amount, Sorun's expression softened. Tikal was a caring person to be going this far for somebody she barely knew for a day, he'd give her that much. Her just appearing like that managed to calm him down just that much. "Like I said. I just want to talk," he repeated, hoping to put her somewhat at ease. "But... fine. Come along if you want. Portal's right there when you wanna go back."
He walked away before she could get a response in, though he saw her still following him from his peripheral. He didn't much care. She could do what she wanted. He just wanted to find those Neo-Walkers.
It'd taken some time walking through all the golden clouds, enough time he felt like they'd been going in circles and were lost, but eventually he spotted a large clearing of the clouds, an open spot in this place that mimicked a golden sky. He faintly saw a pair standing off down there in that direction. And as such, he'd Tricked right in front of them.
Sorun had appeared right in front of them, hands in his pockets and a face that would have appeared completely calm if the fury in his eyes didn't give his true emotions away. Right in front of him were the exact two he was expecting to find. The same two echidna from all the way back then. An old male echidna. A younger-looking female echidna. Athair and Aurora. Aurora and Athair. Neo-Walkers.
"Yo. It's been a while," Sorun greeted in a quiet, blank voice. "You sure look surprised to see me."
Surprised they did indeed look, with their eyes so wide it was comical. Aurora even had her mouth gaping open in surprise she seemed so shocked to see Sorun standing there. Like they couldn't believe what they were looking at. It was enough that Aurora had slightly stuttered out a bit before she began speaking.
"This shouldn't be possible," Aurora had whispered out while looking at Sorun.
Sorun made a "tsk" noise. "Those ain't the words I wanna hear."
Athair spoke up next. "How... how did you manage to breach our Virtual Zone?"
"How do you think?" Sorun glanced back and forth between the two of them once. "For beings toting themselves as all-seeing gods... you're not so good at the 'seeing' part, are you?" One of his eyelids began twitching. "I've been having a lot of bad luck with echidna calling themselves gods. You two, Enerjak-" Aurora flinched at the mention of Enerjak's name, "-, it's just all so absurd. And not one of you ever made the impression of being gods to me. Just posers with powers."
Tikal chose that moment to run up to the three, and then stopped at Sorun's side, panting softly while holding her knees. The two Neo-Walkers shifted their gazes to her while Sorun glanced to the side at her.
"Tikal-"
"You two!" The sudden shout that interrupted Sorun caused him to flinch back from Tikal, mostly from not having expected her to raise her voices like that. The other two echidna, meanwhile, grew a bit nervous as she began to stomp towards them. "What do you two have to say for yourselves!?"
Athair blinked in surprise at the younger echidna, and then squinted and leaned his head in closer to get a better look at her. His eyes then widened in realization when he seemed to recognize her. "You... you're the caretaker of the seven Servers and their protector," Athair said, causing some surprise to show on Aurora's face. "What... why are you here?" He glanced at the side at Sorun. "You're with him?"
"I saved him when I sensed his soul lost between realms," Tikal informed them. She tried to sound calm, but there was a hint of anger to her tone that made all three around her back up a bit. "He told me everything you've done to him."
At that, both the red echidna glanced at each other. Sorun felt his anger spike when they had the audacity to actually look ashamed of themselves, after which they turned back to Tikal.
"Caretaker, please try and understand our position," Aurora attempted. "We foresaw the entire world of Mobius at stake. There was no other... he was unwilling-"
"And that gave you a right to take matters into your own hands!?" she shouted at her. "He told me you'd placed a curse on him that prevented him from speaking of his ailments! You... you used him! A living creature with their own will and desires!"
"And what good it managed to do," Sorun drawled out, still standing behind Tikal with his hands tucked in his pockets. "I played your song and dance, got killed off by the Emeralds, and Eggman's still running around free and alive. Hope you're happy with yourselves."
"Yes, we... we know this," Athair informed them, looking down to avoid eye contact with the pair. "We were not able to view those events as they transpired, so we'd assumed the worst in that you failed."
Sorun scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Nice to know you care. And that you really are terrible at watching things from your high perch."
"We were blocked," Aurora cut in, sternly looking at Sorun. "There are many thing that are... blocked, from us surrounding you."
"Blocked?" Sorun repeated, with an air of disbelief to his voice. "By what?"
Both Athair and Aurora glanced at each other. For some reason, for just a second, they'd looked fearful. And then it was wiped away when they looked back at Sorun. "We can't tell you," Athair said in a grim tone.
"Can't tell me- you know what, fine, I don't care." Shaking his head Sorun began to walk towards Aurora. "You used me. Put that curse on me, had your pal Merlin keep tabs on me to make sure I kept dancin' to your tune. I don't even know how many times you made my heart stop with that curse." He stopped right in front of Aurora, barely any more than a nose's length away from her. "You forced me to kill myself for some cause I never signed up for."
Unlike Athair, who stood off to the side in mixtures of nervousness and shame, Aurora stared into Sorun's eyes with a steely, adamant gaze that directly competed with his furious eyes. "I forced you to do nothing," she stated, and the sheer defiance in her voice only made Sorun that much angrier. "At worst, I encouraged you. You had the ability to remove the curse yourself with that sword, and yet you refused. You chose to chase the rest of the Emeralds. You chose to uphold the mission of saving the world. You dying was your choice. The curse was simply meant to ensure you could never inform the others and jeopardize your path for when you changed your mind."
"Oh, and you were so sure I'd go along with it, huh?"
"Did you not?" Aurora challenged.
She had him there. All the curse did was keep his mouth shut about the fatal side effects of the Emeralds. At the end of the day, he'd been the one to absorb the Emeralds just to amass power for no other reason than he wanted enough power to kill Eggman. They hadn't been the ones that brought him here, nor did they even force that first Emerald on him.
But there was still the principle of the matter there for Sorun. Regardless of intentions, regardless of how it swung in the end, they still did all that with the intent to use him, to have him go on a suicide mission. They still treated him like a sacrificial pawn even if he eventually agreed to it without even regarding his feelings towards the matter. That, he couldn't forgive. The principle of it. The total disregard for his life in their eyes.
"You used the excuse of saving the world to end my life. You're manipulative scum."
"And you are the height of supreme arrogance to think your life is equal to billions," Aurora said back in an icy tone. "A foreigner to this world who had no regard but for a handful who reside on Mobius. I have no regrets."
"Tch." Sorun began backing up away from them. "At least tell me if I did enough to save the future or not," he said as he stopped at Tikal's side, who was still silently fuming at the two.
"..." A deep sigh left Aurora. "We don't know."
"What she means to say," Athair quickly added at seeing Sorun grow visibly upset, "is that our foresight into the future has been significantly disrupted." A small sigh left him as the aged echidna clasped his hands behind his back. "You were never supposed to arrive on Mobius, Sorun," he explained. "The future we saw, the visions given to us by our closeness with the Chaos Force, never foresaw you. Your mere appearance in this world had changed the visions. A path of destruction should you do nothing by Robotnik's hands-"
"- And a future of uncertainty should you act," Aurora finished. "But the longer you carried on, the more you ingratiated yourself with the world and changed natural events, the more blurry our sight of the future became." She paused, her expression changing to looked unsettled. "Simply put... your actions have been so significant that it is impossible to tell what the future holds. You changed too much. And that sword you carry doesn't help." She looked almost disgusted when she said the word 'sword'. "That... thing passively disrupts time and space just by existing. It would be harmless on its own, but it contributed towards the degradation of our ability to see the future. I can't tell you if your actions were able to save the future or not, because we simply cannot tell anymore."
So that was it. He'd made too many waves, did too many things. Their foresight was ruined as a result.
Sorun couldn't help but deeply sighed as he turned away from all three echidna. The Neo-Walkers looked towards his back, while Tikal stared towards him in concern. Sorun, meanwhile, couldn't help but to run his hand over his forehead as he took a shuddering breath. The uncertainty of it all, it killed him. Dying knowing he saved everyone was one thing. Dying knowing he failed everyone was another. But dying and not knowing? It at least had a chance of everything working out, but that hope, that poisonous hope that filled him with nothing but worry and doubt... somehow it gave even more anxiety than knowing he failed. Because he didn't want to hope it'd work out only for the world to die anyway.
But want it or not, the hope was there. Maybe the Freedom Fighters could win after all; they were certainly playing with a stacked deck since New Megaopolis was mostly destroyed. But Eggman was so dangerous, and... and he didn't know. Then again, they'd been dealing with him for a majority of their life, since they were kids. Him and a previous version. They knew how to deal with him. Maybe they could pull a win off and save the world all on their own. The chances were honestly quite high from where he was seeing them.
"... Okay, fine. Maybe I did enough to save the world. And I can tell we're never gonna agree on that curse, so let's just drop it so we don't spend forever arguing." He turned towards the Neo-Walkers and Tikal, the latter of which had calmed down some. "Fact is with the way I left things there's actually a pretty good chance the Freedom Fighters will win. Nothing to do there but hope." He slowly breathed out as his eyes narrowed at the two red echidna. "What's done is done. Just tell me if it's true."
"Is what true?" Aurora asked.
"Did you bring Knuckles back to life once after he died?"
He didn't even need an answer from them; their reactions said enough. The wide eyes, their feet shifting uncomfortably, the worried looks and slight grimaces. That was all Sorun needed to see if it was true or not.
"Ha ha..." Sorun couldn't help but laugh. A dry, humorless laugh made with a broken voice as Sorun began to approach them. "Wow. Ain't that something." He stopped right in front of Athair. "You send a guy to die and don't even offer to bring him back afterwards." His hands shot up and gripped the old echidna's shoulders, and before he could do anything he began to shake him. "Why!?" Sorun shouted out in a frantic voice. "Why would you do that to me!? WHY DID YOU MAKE ME GO THROUGH ALL THIS DRAMA IF YOU COULD HAVE JUST BROUGHT ME BACK AFTERWARDS!?"
The calm, cool façade he'd tried to use cracked apart. He couldn't keep it up at that point. He wanted to know. He needed to know why they didn't offer to bring him back, why they wouldn't offer it even now. He didn't want to be dead anymore.
His shaking was stopped when an orange-furred pair of arms grasped at Sorun's own arm. When he stopped, Sorun looked to the side at Tikal, who was giving him a pleading, sorrowful look. He sighed and relaxed at the sight of her eyes, and then relented by letting go of Athair's shoulders and stepping back. Tikal let go of him after.
"Sorun, in truth, we can't even understand how it is you're here speaking with us," Athair said, making Sorun look back up. "You have no link to the Chaos Force. You are not even from this world. We'd known right away that you wouldn't have been bound for the afterlife, let alone be here to give us an audience. We didn't know what would happen to your soul once you, well... expired."
"I went somewhere really dark, that's where I went," Sorun snapped at him. "What, I'm not from here and don't have a link, so instead of going where everyone else goes I had to go to that... that void? Is that it!?" Sorun began to grow livid again. "You thought once I died I'd never be around to bug you again so you never even bothered to offer me a chance at revival!?"
"Sorun." Tikal placed a calming hand on the teen's shoulder. He huffed out in anger, but calmed down afterwards. The orange echidna removed her hand, and then faced the other two echidna. "You truly did not know what would become of him once his life ended?" she asked.
Both red echidna shook their heads. "You have to understand that he is a true enigma," Aurora stated in an attempt to explain. "We didn't know what the consequence would be of him not being able to enter the afterlife due to his lack of a natural Chaos Force link. We still struggle to comprehend how his species can even exist. How were we to know he would end up in... what did you say it was?" She looked back to Sorun. "A void?"
"There was nothing there," Sorun said. "Nothin' but black. Don't even know how long I was there, it... I didn't have an awareness of time there. Coulda been seconds, coulda been years, I-I don't..." He got a headache just thinking about it, and then shook his head. "I won't speak of it. Don't even remember much of it," he said as he looked back up at the echidna, who had all widened their eyes at him. "I cut my way out of that place with the Yamato. Still have my powers, you see. Ended up here with..." He trailed off, and then rose his hands up to his face. "... How did I touch you?"
Athair blinked in confusion. "Pardon?"
"The last time I was here, when I tried touching you, I just kept going through you," Sorun mumbled out. "But just now, I touched you. Shook you."
"You were a mental projection back then," Aurora helpfully supplied. "But now, somewhat like us, you're an intangible being. Though while we're beings ascended due to our closeness with the Chaos Force, you... seem to have so much energy yourself that your non-corporeal form seems to exist in a somewhat similar state as we do."
"So what you're saying is... I can touch you..."
"Yes, it seems so. I would actually be fascinated to learn just how you are still connected with the Chaos Emer-"
"So what you're saying is... I can use violence..."
The world around them seemed to go quiet. Sorun continued to blankly stare at his hands. Tikal stumbled back a bit, a shocked expression growing on her face as she looked towards Sorun. The Neo-Walkers began to grow extremely uncomfortable, and began to nervously glance at one another.
"Sorun?" Tikal meekly called out. "W-what do you mean by that? You aren't... please do not say such things..."
The white-haired Earthling was still looking at his hands, silently contemplating his options. The facts of everything that had happened, what he could and couldn't do, what was most likely to work and what wasn't. All these thoughts passed him in a flash, aided by the focus gained by his broiling anger. And eventually, he came to a conclusion.
Instantly, an unsheathed Yamato appeared in his right hand, and after quickly cutting a cross in the air, a portal was made. Next his left Bringer Claw formed, shot out, and grabbed Tikal by the waist. She'd cried out in surprise as she was lifted up.
"Sorun! Please don't do this!" When he looked up at the echidna girl, to his surprise, he saw her giving him a pleading look. Not a look that was scared by being held up like that, but a pleading one. She was even crying. "I-I know you are deeply upset, but violence-!"
"Tikal... you're probably the kindest person I've ever met." Sorun's soft voice cut her off and made her elicit a surprised gasp. "You went up to bat for a guy you just met. You sacrificed your life just to watch over Chaos and those Chao. You're... truly, you're a saint. And I thank you for everything you've done for me. You deserve nothing but the best. But this is my life. And I'll do whatever is necessary to reclaim it." He looked to the side at the portal. "You don't need to see me do that. So I'm sending you back. Tell Chaos I said goodbye."
Ignoring her pleading cries, Sorun threw Tikal through the portal. He then swiped his sword over it to close it immediately after, and then he dispelled the sword completely. Before either Aurora or Athair could get a word in edgewise, he Tricked right behind them, and slowly and gently wrapped his arms over their shoulders as he leaned forwards between them.
"Buddy...! Pal..." Both echidna stiffened up at the sound of his voice so close to them. Unusually happy, which fit the small, genuine grin on his face, but there was an undertone of something sinister to his voice. He looked at Aurora in particular. "Listen, I won't lie. I came in here ready to plead for my life. I would have thrown myself to your feet, crying and begging for you to bring me back. I would have reduced myself to a pathetic mess if it meant even a chance at going back. But if I can just punch you in the face...? Well, that changes the whole game, don't it?"
He let go of them both before they could say anything and began walking forwards. "Here's the deal," he said with his back to them. "I did what you asked to the best of my ability, died, and cut my way outta hell just to get here." He stopped and turned back towards them. The smile was gone. "So you owe me. I want my revive."
"You're demanding we help restore your life?" Athair incredulously stated. A deep frown settled over his face. "And you're threatening to attack us if we don't cooperate?"
"Nah, you both are getting your asses kicked regardless," Sorun corrected him. "What I'm saying is either I smack you two around a bit and you bring me back to life afterwards, or you refuse. In which case, ooh..." He slowly exhaled and shook his head. "It's a fair trade, all things considered. You don't even lose anything from it. Just bring me back."
"It is not that simple," Aurora stated with a shake of her head, causing Sorun to look towards her.
"Enlighten me, then," he responded in an impatient tone. "If Knuckles could do it, then why can't I?"
"There were special circumstances regarding him," she explained. "His unique lineage, the tampering of his body to be more in-tune with the Chaos Force, all of these factors culminated into him becoming the equivalent of a living Chaos Emerald. He'd ascended to our level, was slated to enwrap himself with the Chaos Force to become one with the cosmos... until he gave it up just to return to Mobius," she added in a slightly bitter tone.
"Yeah, well, you see Knuckles possesses something I'm pretty sure a majority of echidna don't possess: common fucking sense," Sorun said in an equally bitter tone, making the two echidna bristle a bit. "And he became a living Chaos Emerald? Good for him. I have seven of them in me. If it's an issue of power I don't see how I don't got it."
Athair shook his head. "It's not just about the power. A Mobian who wishes for a second chance at life must be worthy of it."
"What the- wor- what the fuck kind of bullshit, arbitrary criteria are you pulling this from!?" Sorun shouted at him. "'Gotta be worthy', alright, okay, the hell does that mean? The power, 'cause I got that! What, what did me sacrificing my life not constitute as being 'worthy' enough to be brought back? I'm failing to see what the fuck Knuckles did that was so special that he was deemed worthy that I didn't do!"
"It's a process that's never been tested on one who is not a Mobian!" Athair argued. "Or even one such as you that lacks a link to the Chaos Force for that matter!"
"So what!? I have got literally nothing to lose and everything to gain on this!" Sorun argued back. "And, and what, it's a definite rule it don't work on non-Mobians? You tested it?"
Both the Neo-Walkers gave each other unsure looks. It made Sorun groan out loudly at the sight, causing him to shake his head.
"Okay, so no, then." He inhaled deeply, clapped his hands together, and pointed the tips of his fingers at the pair. "I'm losin' my patience. You two owe me for all the grief you've put me through. Just bring me back and you'll never hear from me again. I'll drop everything I have against you two if you just bring me back."
"Perhaps... perhaps he is right." Aurora looked to Athair in surprise when he said that. Sorun himself stopped speaking to silently observe the pair. "He's a young lad who had no business in getting caught up in all this to begin with. And what he speaks is true... he would indeed be deemed worthy for the second life."
While Athair looked to be considering the argument, Aurora looked the exact opposite. Disagreeing and seemingly completely against the idea. "I don't want him existing on Mobius or anywhere else in the universe with that sword," she said. "You know as well as I do the destructive potential the thing holds just by looking at it! Somebody like him can't be trusted with an object such as that! It's pure evil!" She cast a narrowed, heated look towards Sorun. "And I have to question just how worthy he can really be, seeing as it was his heart that spawned that abomination."
Sorun offered her a flat look. "Lady, it's a sword I copied from a video game."
"Would that even be an issue?" Athair questioned, drawing back the attention of the other two. "The process involves sacrificing one's Chaos-derived abilities in order to return. That is the cost of the worthy attaining their second life. He would lose all of his powers just as Knuckles did, the sword included."
"Well, that's even better!" Sorun exclaimed. "I get rid of the powers that are killing me, you don't have to worry about the Yamato anymore, not that you needed to, but whatever, it's a win-win! There's no reason not to do it if that's the case!"
He hadn't even known losing all his powers would be a part of the deal of this "second life" business. He probably should have figured there'd be some price to pay to have a second chance at life, and as far as they went, it made enough sense. Admittedly he'd been wondering in the back of his mind what he was gonna do to circumvent the powers that were actively killing his real body, but if he'd just completely lose them upon coming back, then it worked out perfectly.
"Kinda figures that the only thing that can remove the Chaos Emeralds is me dying and coming back to life... sheesh..."
"Knuckles regained his base abilities," Aurora hissed at Athair. "There's no guarantee Sorun will not do the same."
"Ah, yeah, 'cause I'd be so heartbroken about losing the powers taking years off my life that I'd scramble at the first opportunity to get them back," Sorun sarcastically remarked. "Aurora, come on," he continued in a serious tone, "I hate these powers. They're cool, sure, but I don't want them if they're costing me my life! Why would I be fighting so hard to go back to being alive just to kill myself with the powers again!?" He shook his head at her. "It doesn't make sense! I don't want powers! I just want to live!"
It was such a good argument that Sorun would have thought it was infallible. They wouldn't lose anything, and he wouldn't be a danger without his abilities. Nobody stood to lose anything while he stood to gain everything. It was beyond reasonable from his perspective.
But then Aurora went and shook her head, and Sorun went completely still as a result.
"I'm sorry, but I can't agree to it," she said. "It poses too great a risk. That sword... that rancid, dark energy it uses... I don't want something like that on Mobius. I'll say it as many times as needed, but you and I both know the destructive potential it holds, and I do not trust him to use it responsibly or to never regain-!"
Sorun Tricked right between them. His right fist swung backwards, and he backhanded Aurora right in the muzzle. Her head was whipped backwards from the contact with the fist, followed by her entire body being launched backwards. She flew back a whole ten meters, and then rolled across the golden, cloud-like floor for another five meters before stopping.
Athair stared over at Aurora's body in shock, and upon hearing the sounds of rapid footsteps, turned his head. He'd done so just in time to see Sorun run up right to him, jump in the air while turning his body, and then kick the bottom of both of his feet right into Athair's face. The dropkick sent him sprawling back in the opposite direction Aurora had flown in, while Sorun had fallen onto his back from the resulting dropkick only to then slowly pick himself up.
"It's the smackdown of the century." Sorun slowly began to walk towards Aurora while the female echidna picked herself up, straightening out his white sleeves all the while. "You either bring me back or I spend an eternity beating your asses in. I'm content either way."
"Who do you think you are?" Shakily, Aurora looked up to Sorun with defiant eyes. "We-!"
"Don't give a fuck." Sorun Tricked in front of her, rose his foot up, and stomped it down on the back of her head so her face slammed into the cloud-like ground, making Aurora cry out in pain as a response. "I really... really don't care."
He removed his foot, and then crouched down next to Aurora's lying form. He reached forwards to grab a handful of her fleshy dreadlocks, and then pulled her face up so that their eyes were level.
"I get from your perspective I'm just some punk kid that means nothing to you all. I'm probably the most inconsequential thing in the goddamn universe compared to you immortal whatevers who are so close with the universe and the Chaos Force and all that shit. I bet I don't mean a thing to you," Sorun muttered out. "Well, it's not so different from my perspective. All your existence has done is cause me misery. I hear some people down on Mobius talk about you, but you don't do anything but send cursed kids to go do your dirty work while watching from up on high doing fuck all. You realize a good nine-tenths of your whole species is dead down there on Mobius? How the fuck can people see you as gods when you can't even protect your own echidna kind?"
He slammed Auroa's face down on his own knee, making her cry out in pain again. He rose it up so they could look at each other again, and though there was a line of blood trailing out from her nose, Aurora still had that defiant look.
"You're nothin'. Some random bitch and an old dude who fell into some power and don't know what to do with it. That's all we are in the end. Random fucks with more power than we know what to do with. We ain't special. We aren't better than anybody else. Which is why it really pisses me off when people like you adopt this high and mighty attitude, thinking you're better than everyone else."
"We are echidna chosen to uphold the mantle entrusted to us by the Ancient Walkers...!" Green energy began to surround Aurora's hand as her defiant look turned into an angry snarl. "We possess knowledge you could never even hope to fathom or comprehend! What could you possibly know about us!?"
She reached forwards and slammed her hand into Sorun's chest. It was done with enough force that he was forced to release his hold on her, and was sent sliding back across the ground. He stopped after a few meters, and with an annoyed expression looked sown at his chest, seeing a mixture of green and purple bolts of electricity arcing out of the spot on his chest Aurora had touched.
The next second found Yamato forming in his hand, followed by Sorun stabbing it right into his own neck. Aurora flinched back in shock at the sight, while Sorun grimaced a bit in pain from the implement sticking through him. Blue energy flickered along the sword's edge, and the small, sparking spot on his chest proceeded to float off, and then dissipate entirely once it was removed from him.
After that was done, Sorun tore the sword right through his neck. Despite the fact such a wound should have left his neck completely in half, it was completely intact. The wound had began healing once the blade started to move away from the wound. By the time the sword was almost out from his neck the wound was nearly healed. When it did exit, there hadn't been a single sign of his neck having been wounded. There was barely even blood it'd healed so fast.
"Your curse shit's getting real annoying," Sorun stated to Aurora. He'd taken one single step towards her, and then felt something slam into his back. Sorun stumbled forwards a bit as a result, and then turned around.
Athair was there, heavily panting with his hand extended towards Sorun, with some vestiges of green electricity arcing around his fingers. The sparking began to increase in intensity as he seemed to be preparing another attack, but before he could let it loose, a blue, spectral leg flew in and kicked him in the face. The older-looking echidna was sent tumbling backwards, while a spectral ghost of Sorun looked towards him.
"I'll beat you both at the same time if I really have to," Sorun said, blue electric sparks periodically arcing around his body. "So," he continued as he turned around and kicked Aurora right in the face, sending her flying back, "you feel like bringing me back to life yet?"
The female echidna kept rolling along the ground until she finally came to a stop. A loud groan left her as she managed to rise up to all fours, though she froze when she caught sight of a blue glow just outside of her peripheral vision. She looked up towards it, only to then freeze in confusion.
A ladder. There was a ladder made completely out of Summoned Swords sitting right in front of her. She remained confused until she looked upwards, where she saw Sorun standing right on top of the ladder. And then he leapt off, his body positioned to the side with his right elbow aimed right at Aurora's head.
There was no moving out of the way before Sorun elbow dropped Aurora right on the back of the head after jumping off the ladder made of swords. She made a pained grunt as her face slammed back into the golden floor, and received no respite after Sorun kicked her in the stomach. She was sent flying away once again, though her flight was cut short after she collided with Athair, who had been thrown in the same direction by the Doppelganger.
Both echidna collapsed onto the ground. Athair moaned out in pain and remained immobile, while Aurora attempted to stand up to her feet. She only got up partway before two spectral hands clamped onto her head and forced her down to the ground. The echidna struggled in the grasp of the Doppelganger, attempting to free herself, but her struggles proved to be in vain as it wouldn't release her. She'd only been at it for a few seconds before she heard rapid footfalls, and looked ahead just in time to see Sorun sprinting in front of her. Using the momentum of his sprint, Sorun had reared his foot back, and just as he passed Aurora he delivered a full-force kick right to her mouth while she was still behind held down by the Doppelganger.
Blood, spit, and a handful of teeth flew out from Aurora's mouth as her head was whipped back from the force of the kick. The Doppelganger disappeared at the same time, though in that same moment a clawed, spectral hand reached out and grabbed at the pained echidna's face as she was gasping for breath. Her eyes had widened, and she'd made a muffled scream into the palm of the hand as she was risen up from the ground by her head. Her feet continually kicked at the air as she clawed at the Bringer Claw holding her up, but no matter how hard she tried it gave no give to its grip. Right besides her was Athair, who was struggling equally as hard at the Bringer Claw holding him up by the face.
The two Bringer Claws moved back a bit, and then raced forwards while still holding the echidna. They slammed their bodies together forcefully enough a small shockwave had been made in addition to the sound of multiple, visceral cracks and pops. Athair's limp form was tossed to the side, while Aurora was roughly thrown onto the ground. Mere moments after she hit the ground the Bringer Claw grabbed her again, this time by the back of her head, rose her up, and then slammed her face into the solid, cloud-like floor. She screamed out in pain and reached back to try and grab at the claw, but all this did was make it lift her back up only to slam her face down again. Before she even moved, it rose her up and slammed her face back down once again. And then again. And then again. Enough times that, eventually, Aurora had gone completely limp in its grasp with her arms hanging downwards as it lifted her up. It still kept slamming her face into the ground until Sorun decided to will the Bringer Claw to just throw her away.
Watching Aurora's body tumble to a stop a fair distance away from him, Sorun let out a short breath and dispelled the Bringer Claws. He looked to the side just in time to see Athair shakily getting up to his feet. He began stomping towards him, a large blue flash going off in his hands as an object appeared: Summoned Swords position in a way that mimicked a folded-up folding chair. Once he got close enough to Athair, he swung the sword-chair right at his face. The object shattered over him, causing the dazed echidna to drop back to the ground. Sorun stared coldly down at him for some seconds, and then looked over at Aurora and began to walk towards her.
In a nutshell, she was a mess. Even after he stopped a few meters away from her, he could clearly see the damage. Her once illustrious light blue dress was torn and tattered. She was covered in bruises and bent in odd angles all over her body, though as Sorun watched he saw the bruises begin to recede and her bones shift back into place. Even as she looked back at him, her body raised up by her arms pushing against the ground, he saw the damage on her face disappearing and the teeth he'd kicked out slowly regrow.
"So you can regenerate, huh?" Sorun observed. "Well, now I'm really not gonna stop 'til you send me back."
"Why do you even want to go back!?" Aurora screamed at him. It was done in such a raised, shrill voice, and with such anger behind it that not only that voice, but the question itself, gave Sorun pause. "What difference does it make?" Aurora asked him between heavy breaths. "What does it even matter!?"
"What... does it matter?" Sorun softly echoed, so bewildered by the question that he couldn't immediately form a response. "What kind of question is that? It's my life! It matters to me!"
"You'll just die again," Aurora panted out. "You. Your friends. Your family. Every single person and life you've ever touched, and every life they've touched. That's the curse of mortality, Sorun." With a grunt, she placed a foot on the ground. "Mortals are doomed to die. That is life, pure and simple. What difference does it make whether you die now or die decades from now if we did bring you back?" she asked as she stood up to her full height. "The end result... is the same. There's no point-"
A Bringer Claw shot forwards and punched Aurora right in the center of her face, sending her flying right onto her back.
"You think life is meaningless... just because it's limited...?" Sorun muttered out, eyes coldly locked onto Aurora's form as the Bringer Claw hanging from his shoulder disappeared. "Life has meaning because it's limited, you goddamn bastard," he angrily stated as he began stomping forwards. "Of course it ends at some point. Everything does. That's the pain of living life. How are you supposed to appreciate all the joys in life without all the pain, too? That isn't living. That's just existing. A meaningless existence." He stopped right in front of Aurora, who had looked up at him with her eyes. Even now, even after all the beating and the words he'd said, she still looked like she completely disagreed with Sorun. "Has being some immortal god living up in the clouds really made you forgotten all that?" Sorun asked her.
"There's no meaning to anything you speak of," Aurora denied. "I forsook all that when I ascended to this plane of existence. I cast it all aside to gain intrinsic knowledge of the cosmos. Of everything! How could living a life so short it couldn't even be measured be worth more than what I and Athair have become!?"
"And where's all that knowledge gotten you?" Sorun questioned. "Getting kicked around by me?" He gave her a flat look as he glanced around. "Through your own means you got to this grand status. Got titled Neo-Walkers by the Ancient Walkers, whoever the fuck those guys were. But I guess even gods can die if they're not around anymore." He shook his head. "Gettin' off topic. My point is... what's the actual point of being what you are? You know every single secret in the cosmos. Good for you. Evidently you don't know every single little thing since you can't seem to figure out anything around me, but that doesn't matter. You ascended up to this immortal plane and get to look over everybody else like gods. Sure. But what the hell's the point of that?"
Sorun grabbed Aurora by the shoulders, and then smashed his fist into her face. She didn't even make a sound and continued to glare at him. "The Ancient Walkers did jack shit when the first Robotnik laid waste to Mobian civilization and roboticized all those people. They just sat on their asses and watched as a group of kids had to sacrifice their childhoods to go and save everyone." He roughly threw her body away. "They died and left you to take the reigns, and they were probably happy to leave your dumb asses filling the seats. And what did you all do? Keep watching? Sent me when things got bad 'cause your future vision got fucked with my mere presence? You call yourselves gods that people pray to?"
"You know nothing..." Aurora spat out as she sat up to look at Sorun as he approached her. "Nothing of what we do, what we know, what we exist to do..."
"Yeah, you're right, I don't. Because I've yet to see the results of what you Neo-Walkers existing even accomplishes," Sorun said. "And you know what? At the end of the day I don't care, because evidently it doesn't fucking matter since it doesn't affect anybody on Mobius. Or maybe it does and I just don't know it because my puny mortal brain can't comprehend it. Whatever. It still doesn't matter." He backhanded Aurora and sent her sprawling to the ground. "You really piss me off talkin' like life doesn't matter, Aurora. You don't know what the value of a life is."
Aurora coughed, and then rolled onto her back. "And you do? You know what the value of a life is?"
"It's priceless. Irreplaceable. You can't put a value on a life," Sorun said as he looked down at her. "I never wanted to kill Eggman. I would have done it because he's somebody who doesn't value life at all and snuffs it out or enslaves it just for the fun of it, and because I genuinely believe he'd never change and is too dangerous to be kept imprisoned, but I didn't want to. Killing him would have been just as wrong as killing anyone else. But I would have done it anyway, if only because I didn't want my friends to suffer anymore. I wanted to do it so nobody else had to. Or would, even." A short sigh left him. "As bad as you are, I'm not gonna kill you or Athair. You're just not worth it, and I really don't know if killing you would invite a whole bunch of catastrophic consequences or not, because I don't know how important you Neo-Walkers actually are. I'm serious about beating you two up until you agree to bring me back, though."
"You'd truly spend an eternity doing this to us? Out of what? Spite?"
Sorun gave the echidna a look that almost seemed disappointed. "Bitch, I literally have nothing better to do." He stomped down on Aurora again, causing her to yell out in pain. "Not gonna lie, though. I stopped getting any satisfaction out of it pretty damn fast."
And so he kept beating her and Athair. Again and again, over and over. He ran out of the mental energy needed to be creative with it pretty quickly. It'd devolved to just punching and kicking the both of them, repetitively to a nauseating degree. He stopped bothering to use his powers at some point. He just kept assaulting and beating them, relentlessly, without end.
It became tiring to him so quickly. There'd been so much satisfaction from it at first. The release of all his stress, the vindication for having been dragged through all this grief for nothing, his frustrations released every time he punched one of them in the face. It felt great at the beginning when he was beating them senseless without end. His attacks fueled by the memories of that first meeting, what they'd said and done to him, what they refused to do now. But it faded over time, quickly. Soon enough there wasn't any joy in it. No pleasure. No satisfaction or vindication. All he was doing was beating on these two helpless echidna. Some woman and an old man.
But the knowledge he could go back spurned him on. Knowing he could return to his life, that he could have it all back, that the only reason he couldn't go back was because they were being so damn stubborn. Every time a fist or a foot landed on one of them he'd plead in the back of his mind that they would just give up and bring him back already. He'd gone from being glad he was beating on them to just being apathetic and sad over it, but over time that apathy just began to fester into anger the longer this went on. The longer they held on for no other reason than they wouldn't bring him back.
"Just... give up already...!" His movements began becoming more frantic, more savage as Sorun grew more angry and desperate. Limbs were being clawed at and snapped at opposite angles. Bones were broken and shattered. They'd heal their wounds only for Sorun to inflict them all over again. But no matter how far he went they just wouldn't give in. "Do you really hate me so much that you're trying to see if your spite can outlast mine? Or are you so worried about the power behind Yamato you'd endure this just to protect the planet from it? I don't want to hurt anyone with it. I don't even want the Yamato itself. I just want to live..."
He never understood why people were so scared of the Yamato whenever they felt it. Sonic and Knuckles had been off-put by it when they felt it. Shadow had been cautious of it. Enerjak feared it, Finitevus seemed enthralled by it, and the Neo-Walkers seemed to fear it just as much as Enerjak did. Sorun didn't understand why. Just because it felt evil? Just because it had a massive amount of power behind that feeling? Was that truly it? It was just a powerful sword that felt evil? It was just a sword. A sword from a video game. What could they possibly know about it? He knew more about it than anybody else on Mobius!
Maybe that was why, he'd realized as he tossed Aurora's body away for what felt like the millionth time. They just didn't understand the Yamato, why behind all that power it felt so evil. They feared what they didn't understand, so they'd rather quarantine Sorun here as a ghost with them if it meant it wasn't on Mobius. Even if it meant Sorun torturing them like this for the rest of eternity.
He didn't want to regain the Yamato if he lost it. He didn't want to keep beating them like this anymore. He just wanted to go back to being alive.
"Aurora... listen..." Sorun tried, sounding tired himself. "I... I seriously just want to go back to being alive. I don't want the sword. I don't have any desire to reclaim it once I've lost it. It's not worth losing over a decade of my life."
"I can't trust that..." After coughing a few times, Aurora picked herself up into a sitting position and looked towards Sorun. "I won't allow... that thing to exist on Mobius..."
"Why are you so frightened of it? It's just a sword!" Sorun shouted. "What do you think I'm gonna do with it, huh!? What do you people keep seeing in it that makes it so bad!?"
"I don't know what it is!" Aurora screamed at him. "Only that it's wrong and it shouldn't have that much power! That sword is something that has enough power to potentially bring ruin to the world! That much power, with how wrong it feels, held in the hands of somebody like you-!"
"It won't even exist anymore if you bring me back!" Sorun argued back. "Why don't you believe me when I say I'll never try and get the Yamato back!?"
"Why would I trust you to be truthful?" Aurora asked him. She was still grimacing in pain despite her healing body, but she'd managed to get up as far as her knees as she continued looking towards Sorun. "An impulsive... young and foolish human like you... that can't even comprehend the magnitude of power he carries in that sword, who is outright defiant towards anybody he doesn't like and craves power. Do you think I was not watching you during the duration of your life on Mobius after out meeting?" She shook her head, and then proceeded to glower up at Sorun. "You're an impertinent, shameless individual who cares not for how his actions affects others. If there is one person who should never hold that kind of power... it's you, Sorun."
Anger flared in Sorun at Aurora's remark. His fists clenched, and he began stomping forwards. "You don't know a thing about me, about the Yamato, about anything!"
"I know there's a chance you would consider regaining your powers if it was a matter of your friends' safety." Aurora's words made Sorun pause in his steps. "Perhaps somebody would be in danger. Maybe you would seek to regain some of your abilities, including that sword. Maybe you wouldn't. Maybe somebody hoping to exploit your abilities would force them back onto you. Maybe you would accidentally stumble back onto them! Even if you're truthful and truly don't wish to regain your powers if you regained your second life, Sorun, I just can't trust that you would remain true to your word, willingly or not, because there are simply too many variables to account for. I can't trust you with that power. And I can't trust you to never regain it. That is why I will not bring you back."
She was dead serious. Sorun saw it in her eyes. Past all the physical pain, she was willing to let this continue probably forever if it meant there was no possibility of Yamato going back to Mobius. She'd damn herself to an eternity of this hell just because she was that afraid of the Yamato, and saw Sorun in such a low light. Had such a low opinion of him.
He would have said he didn't blame her if he didn't know she and everyone else that saw Yamato were blowing its abilities out of proportion. He knew it better than anyone. He knew it wasn't capable of the things they were claiming it could do. The potential to bring ruin to the world? It couldn't do that. It was just a sword with powers. That was it. He was right. They were wrong. All of them were wrong. And it made him so furious that he was being refused a second life just because everybody but him was wrong.
Sorun started walking back forwards. He didn't care how long it took, how much he had to brutalize her and Athair until he got his way. He was going back. He-
A pair of arms wrapped tightly around his midsection from behind and stopped him in his tracks. Sorun growled out loud as he looked down, expecting it was Athair who had grabbed him from behind, looked down expecting to see his red-furred arms. But when he saw orange arms instead of red, he stopped completely with a gasp as his eyes opened wide. Not Athair's arms. And if they were orange...
"Sorun... Sorun, please stop..."
It certainly wasn't Athair's voice that sounded like its owner was crying. He didn't sound that young. Or female, for that matter. And he was able to put the pieces together quickly enough to figure out who it was.
"How... I left that first portal open," Sorun realized as he craned his head behind him. It was Tikal, with tears streaming down her face. She looked up at Sorun, sorrow and anguish filling her features with her arms still holding onto him, and all Sorun could do was stutter out her name. "T-Tikal..."
"T-this isn't right, Sorun," she wept at him. "I know how upset you are, I know how unfair this is to you, bu-but please, please just stop... this isn't the right thing to do..."
"Don't listen to her."
Sorun gasped out again, and looked to his left. He saw a mirror version of himself, standing right there besides him and looking him in the eyes. And evidently he was the only one that saw him, as no one else paid him any mind. The other Sorun, meanwhile, just continued to stare into Sorun's eyes.
"She forced that curse on us, treated us like an item, like our life didn't have any value, and now she won't bring us back just because she doesn't like us and the sword?" the other Sorun asked. "What right does she have to make that kind of choice? To keep our life away from us?"
Sorun didn't have an answer to his mirror image. All he could do was hold a hand to the orange ones pressing against him as he looked down.
"I..." Sorun attempted to say, but words failed to come out of him. He didn't know what to say.
"It's not too late, Sorun, you haven't done any permanent harm." Tikal had pressed her tear-ridden face into his back while also squeezing him harder. "Just please stop, I beg you. We'll find a way to bring you back, I promise. Just please... please stop hurting them..."
"We deserve our life back," the other Sorun said. "I don't care who we have to hurt to get it back. And them? They deserve it more than anyone." He leaned closer to Sorun's ear as he continued to look down. "It's all Aurora's fault. Brutalize her. Eviscerate her. Gouge out her eyes. Tear out her organs. I. Don't. Care. And if you end up killing her? Well, we still have Athair over there..."
"Please, Sorun..."
"Take back our life."
"I..." Sorun began shaking in Tikal's grasp. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do..."
"I'll give you your second life."
Sorun felt his own head snap upwards when he heard that voice. Tikal had gasped out behind him, and the other Sorun had vanished right at that instant. Aurora was gaping towards something at his right side, causing Sorun to turn in the same direction.
It was Athair. He looked worse for wear - probably because Sorun suplexed him - and was limping towards the group with his back hunched, though his physical wounds were slowly healing before Sorun's eyes. He stopped right in front of Sorun, looking up at Sorun with an expression he couldn't quite read. He looked... thoughtful, Sorun supposed. That was all he could think of to describe that look. Thoughtful and a bit ashamed. Whether it was at himself, or Sorun, or both, he wasn't quite sure of.
"Athair!" Aurora cried out as she stood to her full height. "You cannot mean to say-!"
"Regardless of what umbrage we hold him in, the boy is right," Athair interrupted while giving Aurora a stern look, freezing her in place. "We used him when we had no right to, and he's done enough to earn his second life. For us Neo-Walkers to deny him that after all this would be... hypocritical of us, would it not?" He grimaced a bit as he turned to the side. "Besides. I'm an old man, immortal or not," he grumbled as he rubbed at his neck. "My neck can't handle being slammed like that."
"Yeah, sorry about hitting you with the Canadian Destroyer..." Sorun quietly apologized. "I'm, uh... I'm real desperate here, y'know?"
No further words were said between the four of them. Tikal had unwrapped her arms from Sorun and stepped to his side while nervously glancing back and forth between the three of them. Athair continued holding his expression, Aurora looked upset, and Sorun was just straight confused at what was happening at the moment.
"You're taking his side in this?" Aurora asked in a low tone as she turned to Athair. "You did the exact same thing when we had this incident with Knuckles. You always-!"
"You did this with Knuckles, too?" Sorun asked in disbelief. "Oh my god, I can't- you're just awful," he mumbled as he began rubbing at his temples. "I'm not even the first person you've done this to. What is wrong with you?"
"I told you that his circumstances were completely different from your own." She turned back to Athair. "You cannot seriously be considering-"
"Aurora, my mind is made up. The decision is final," Athair stated. "You cannot impede me, and we've too many responsibilities to be beaten senseless for the rest of time. Besides that, we've a title to uphold." His eyes glanced to the side at Sorun. "I title I fear we haven't done much justice in the eyes of some." He turned completely to Sorun. "I can't say I approve of the way you think of us and criticize us, and I agree with Aurora when she says you know too little of us to judge, but... many of your arguments are valid as well."
Aurora shook her head and took a step forwards. "The power in his sword-"
"It is a risk we are simply going to have to take," Athair said, interrupting her again. "Maybe you've lose faith in people," he continued as he gave her a stern look from the side of his eyes, "but I've still come to hold onto the belief that you can place faith in others, Aurora." He made a small "hmph" noise, and then turned back to Sorun. "We were watching when you confronted our friend Merlin, Sorun. In truth, if it hadn't been for the fact you spared him... I wouldn't be offering you this."
"... That so?" Sorun responded, voice a bit unsure.
"It is," he confirmed with a nod. "I can't rightly say whether I know what your alignment is, young man. Whether I can call you good or not."
"I can't just be Sorun?"
Athair made another "hmph" sound. "You strike me as someone who marches to the beat of their own drum," he said. "I struggle to see if it's just teenage rebellion or if you live just to spite others at heart, but regardless of all that, your words on life ring true to me. That along with your actions with Merlin say enough that, while Aurora may not place enough trust to give you the benefit of the doubt, I do. You've earned that much at least."
"Earned. Right." Lightly breathing out, Sorun glanced around at the three echidna and made a sigh. "So, what now?"
The portal Sorun had opened previously pulsed gently in front of them. Sorun casually blinked at the sight of it, and then turned to the side to glance at Tikal. She wasn't even paying the portal much mind, with her focus mainly situated on Sorun. She'd stopped crying, thankfully enough. She even looked a bit happy now if the small smile she had on said anything. He was glad that he got to leave her with a smile on her face.
"So you're going back to be with Chaos and the Chao?" Sorun asked her.
She nodded at him. "Yes. I belong with them."
"... Forever, though?" Sorun mumbled out as he looked to the side. "There's nothing I...?"
Tikal made a small laugh. "You're sweet to offer, but you needn't worry. I said I was content, did I not?"
"Yeah. You did." As long as she and the rest there were happy, he supposed he didn't need to worry too much about them. They seemed fine with their lot in life. It was enough for him to accept. "Thanks for, uh... you know... helping me and stopping me..." Sorun trailed off and rubbed at the back of his neck. "I kinda flew off the handle, admittedly. Just a little."
Maybe more than a little. Maybe forcing Aurora to bite down on a Summoned Sword so he could stomp on her head and break all her teeth had been a bit much. In his defense he'd been justifiably upset at the time and they could rapidly heal the injuries.
The smile on Tikal dropped off a little. "I've always abhorred violence in all its forms, Sorun. I realize not all situations can be resolved peacefully, but I still believe a peaceful solution should be sought out above all others." She glanced behind them, with Sorun following her eyes. The Neo-Walkers were standing a short distance behind them. "I can't say I approve of what you did to them. Nothing they did called for that amount of abuse, Sorun."
The white-haired teen found himself wincing at her soft, scolding tone. "They wouldn't bring me back to life," he weakly said in an attempt to defend himself.
Tikal made a small sigh. "Yes, I know. They shouldn't have done that, either. Or used you. It seems everyone is a bit at fault." They looked back into each other's eyes. "But it's nothing that cannot be fixed, correct?"
"... If they really do bring me back, sure," Sorun reluctantly agreed. "They said it's never been done on a non-Mobian. We don't even know if it'll work."
"I'm sure it will work out fine," Tikal assured him. "Just... promise me one thing, Sorun? Please try and remember what I said about violence. I want you to enjoy your next life, with others. With friends. And I don't want something like... like what you did with them to come between all that." Her eyes briefly flicked to the other two echidna before going back to a wide-eyed Sorun. "So just please try and remember not to turn to violence so easily? For me?"
"... Haah..." A sound between a sigh and a breath left Sorun as he turned away from Tikal while rubbing at the back of his neck. "Even after all this, you just want to make sure I end up happy, huh...?" He glanced back at Tikal. "You're too good for this world, Tikal. We would have been great friends if you were still alive."
"Are we not friends now?"
The question caught Sorun a bit off guard. Tikal had giggled at the expression Sorun made as a result, which made him laugh in turn at both her and the question. He made one last laugh, and then let his hand drop down to his side.
"You got me there," he admitted. "I'll try. Try to... just enjoy my new life. I never really even liked fighting if I'm being honest with you." He paused, took one last look at Tikal's face, and then looked back at the portal. "Bye, Tikal. Thanks for everything. Give the others my regards, would you?"
"I will." She gave him a final nod. "Goodbye, Sorun. I hope you find happiness in your new life."
She left through the portal right after that. Sorun closed the portal right behind her, and as Yamato disappeared from his hands he turned back to the Neo-Walkers. Aurora was still scowling at him, arms crossed, blue dress already repaired. Athair wasn't as expressive as her, more neutral than anything else, but underneath that was still that unreadable expression. Sorun couldn't figure him out. Didn't care to, either, seeing as he'd never see them again after this. At least he hoped so.
He began approaching them while trying to keep a straight face. He stopped right in front of them, and then turned to Aurora. The deep scowl wouldn't leave her face, but after everything, Sorun couldn't find it in himself to be mad at her for making that face. A bit exhausted towards her, maybe. But that was it.
"I'm being completely honest with you when I say I don't want to try and get the powers back," he told her for the last time. "You don't have to worry about the Yamato."
"So you say," she dismissively stated, turning away from Sorun. "... That sword. It's from a game from your world, yes?" she asked, still facing away from Sorun. "Is the reason the sword feels so evil hidden in those games? Why it's like that?"
"..." Sorun lifted up his left hand and let the katana spawn in his grasp. After all this, he supposed they deserved some answer. "The Yamato was a sword forged when a legendary demon of unparalleled power sheared off a third of his own soul to create it. He made a second sword that was the Yamato's complete opposite using the second third of his soul, a claymore named the Rebellion, and one day gifted them both to his twin sons, while the final third was kept to himself in the form of a sword named after himself." The sword disappeared, and when he looked back up, Aurora had turned her head back around to look at him. "That's how it goes in the games, at least," Sorun finished. "The one I have is just a replica. A perfect replica, maybe. But still a replica."
"A sword forged from the soul of a demon..." Aurora mumbled to herself. "Fitting. For how it feels." She paused. "Is that why it feels that way? That... dark aura? Is that sword alive?"
"Hard to say," Sorun honestly answered. "This specific one was made from a Chaos Emerald, not a soul. But it's also an exact recreation, or at least as close as my heart could make, so... I don't know. In the games making weapons from demons' souls was a common thing. But Yamato was only made with a third of a soul. And even then it was the strongest Devil Arm in that entire universe despite only being made from a third of a soul."
"The demon it came from was truly that strong?" Aurora asked. "Why?"
Sorun shrugged. "Who's to say why Sparda was so strong? The story didn't go into much detail," he said. "It's said he found love in the human race and awoke to justice in the wake of the enslavement of humanity perpetrated by all demon kind. He was the only demon to ever do such a thing, and that love awakened a power that made him stronger than the strongest of devils and mad demon kings who gorged themselves on fruit made from human blood all for the sake of power. Strong enough to beat all of hell, the entirety of the demon world, singlehandedly. Or maybe he was just born that tough. Or both. If you want my interpretation, it was both." He rose his hands up and interlocked them behind his head. "But he did find love, and later, long after liberating the human race and separating the human and demon worlds with the Yamato, found an even deeper love in a human and married her. After that they had the twins I mentioned. One that dressed in blue, and one that dressed in red. Twin half-devils that were fiercely competitive, to the point that, if the swords gifted by their father were alive, were only ever truly alive when they clashed."
A deep hum rumbled from Athair's throat. "Swords coming to life just to fight one another, eh...?"
"It was a deep rivalry," Sorun explained. "Between both the twins and their swords. That was just the way it was. The one who wields Yamato, and the one who wields Rebellion, are destined to fight. There's no getting around it."
"... And you said the twins dressed in blue and red."
"Yes, that's right."
"What color did the twin who used the sword opposite of yours wear?"
"The one who used Rebellion?" Sorun asked. "Red. The Yamato wielder wore blue."
For some reason, his answer caused unsettlement between the two echidna. They both glanced at each other with worried looks, making Sorun look at them oddly as his hands dropped back down to his sides. Eventually, they both focused back on him.
"Something the matter?" Sorun questioned.
Athair shook his head. "It's nothing you should concern yourself with."
"Okay...?" Weird, but he didn't want to stick around much longer to puzzle the two out. "Can I please go back now?"
"Yes, of course." Athair rose his hand up to Sorun's chest, and pressed his palm against the teen's body. It began to grow a soft green. "With Knuckles, he was able to do this under his own power. I suppose we'll have to help you as your own powers are so... rigid, so to speak." He looked up to Sorun's eyes. "Remember that the second life only works once. If you die again, then that's it. There are no third chances."
"Bit contrived, but alright." Sorun glanced down at the hand on his chest. "So this is it, huh?"
"You don't seem too excited," Athair noted, with just the barest hint of amusement to his voice.
"I'm leaving all the excitement for if this works and I do come back to life."
"Having doubts?"
"Some," Sorun admitted. "You said this has never been tried with someone like me before." He saw that his body was beginning to disappear from his limbs up. Their colors would shift to a green color, and then begin to vanish entirely. "If I'm to be truthful, I really don't know if, when I open my eyes, it'll be on that metal bed in the morgue. I hope it is, but... this just seems too easy. To just get a second chance like this." He looked up at the two echidna. "Guess this is goodbye. No hard feelings?"
The unamused looks they gave him said enough. Considering all he'd put them through, he couldn't blame them. He'd be incredibly salty, too, if somebody whooped his ass as bad as he'd done them. He didn't find himself caring at all.
"Yeah, I don't like you either," he said. His torso and head was beginning to vanish. He turned to Aurora. "I don't really have any final words for you. Just... I don't know, try never doing what you did to me to anyone else ever again?"
She wouldn't even look him in the eyes. Understandable given it all. Sorun didn't think they'd ever get along. Aurora just seem so detached from mortals that he didn't even know if she realized it. To that end, he almost felt sorry for her. Sorry, but held no pity. This was a life she'd chosen, after all. If she was fine with it, then more power to her. He couldn't care less and it didn't matter to him. As long as he never got to see Aurora again he could live with it.
"... A demon using his evil power to protect others." Aurora talked while still facing away from Sorun, though her words drew an eye-raise from him. "I'll admit it's an intriguing concept. I do hope you keep your word and never seek out the Yamato again, Sorun. And if, for some reason, you do, I hope you can follow that demon's example. For all our sakes."
"... Try my best, I guess," Sorun said. "You just gonna leave it at that? No sorry for cursing me, no apology for trying to keep me here? No nothing?"
"Will you apologize for kicking my teeth out?"
"Nope."
"Then you have my answer."
With a sigh and shake of his head, Sorun turned away from Aurora and to Athair. "Thanks for this. You may not believe me when I say this, but... I'm grateful to you for bringing me back."
Athair hummed, but said nothing else. Sorun never could figure him out. He seemed more levelheaded than Aurora. Maybe it was the visible age that just made him wiser. Or the fact he hadn't been a Neo-Walker as long as Aurora. He was able to put together from everything he heard from Tails and Knuckles that they knew him back when he was alive, so there was no way he'd been in this god gig as long as Aurora had. Maybe that was the sole difference between them. He still knew the value of mortal life, while its meaning had faded from her. Or maybe he just was wiser. Sorun didn't know, but whatever the case, in the end he'd been the one to bring him back. And unlike Aurora he seemed to truly regret what was done to Sorun. So he could afford some small amount of begrudging respect for him.
"What do you plan on doing when you wake up?" Athair had asked, rousing Sorun from his thoughts.
"If this actually does work? Dunno." Sorun's torso had vanished. His head from the neck up began to disappear as well. "I think maybe I'll take Tikal's advice and try to enjoy it..."
And with that, the rest of him disappeared.
A/N- So the whole "second life" thing is actually a thing that happens in the comics, for those of you that never got into those. I think it was #125 or somewhere around there, but the basic gist of it was, in a nutshell, "if you're cool enough you get a second shot at life". And that's all I can say about it because it was only ever brought up in that one comic and they were super vague about the whole process. The exact workings of it were never clear other than you get to sacrifice your powers in exchange for a second life.
Is it a bit of a deus ex machina? Most definitely, yeah, but it's canon to the comics, so as far as I'm concerned it's free game to use. Besides, people die and come back to life left and right in that comic. It's a comic. It's just a thing that happens. I mean it's not Dragonball levels of death just not mattering, I don't think anything will ever surpass that, but you get what I mean.
But the plan was always to bring Sorun back. Him dying wasn't the end of the story, and we got a long way to go from here 'cause the story as a whole ain't even close to being done. But the whole gag curse/Emeralds killing Sorun slowly and all the drama involved with it is done. It's done, gone, played its part. And I know there were a lot of people super frustrated at Sorun and how the story was going regarding his death, but it was all to lead to this point. And... yeah, I probably did drag it out longer than I ought to have, never imagined it'd take this long to get here, but we got here.
Imagine if I really did kill Sorun here and had, like, his friend David or some new human OC take over for the rest of the story. Or another idea I had was him leaving the Yamato behind for Sonic or Shadow to keep for the rest of the story, maybe even have a whole thing where everyone starts fighting over it because it's the last memento of Sorun but also an object of great power. Deep in the initial planning phases of the story I almost did some of these things, but decided to go with the revive route. Even played around with maybe turning him into a Mobian, but that was scrapped way early on, too. Just, uh... yeah I'll be completely honest, I didn't feel comfortable with the idea, and I think it would have taken away more than it would have offered. Then it was the matter of playing around with how to bring him back, I saw one review mentioning Sorun using Yamato to separate himself from death which I'll admit was one thing I was considering, but... come on. That'd basically make him unkillable. Can't have that. I still put the small bit of him trying in to establish it doesn't work while also highlighting just how loose Sorun's Yamato's interpretation of separation really is, though, so there's that.
I did plan on dragging out the period Sorun was dead for a while, too, get scenes in with every character he interacted with, even get a few chapters in without him, but it just seemed like it'd be too much since I was just bringing him back to life later anyways, so a lot of that was reduced. Even the chapter where Sorun went around saying goodbye to everyone before the "final mission" was reduced since I was just gonna revive him, so I didn't wanna spend too much time on it.
But anyways, yeah, he's back. More on that next chapter.
