Recursion Error
Episode 56- Respawn
And just like that, Sorun woke up. There wasn't any bright lights, no fanfare, no rush of energy and vitality as he regained his life. He'd simply woken up, right there on the corpse cabinet table. Staring up at the morgue's ceiling.
"... Wait, seriously? That's it?" Blinking his eyes, Sorun sat up on the table. "I just snap back to life just like that? I don't even get, like, a little energy confetti explosion or-" The green Chaos Emerald whizzed by Sorun's head. "Damn!" he screamed out as he ducked down.
He dove right down onto the table and looked out to the morgue. Much to his shock, he saw all seven of the Chaos Emeralds bouncing off the walls, floor, and ceiling of the room. A chaotic rainbow of bouncing objects that, on any other day, Sorun would have found pretty. But then he remembered if one of those just happened to slam into him he'd absorb it by accident and be left with powers killing him again.
And so, he did the first thing that came to mind. He gripped the opening of the corpse cabinet, pulling the table along with himself inside the actual cabinet, and then closed the door behind him, sealing him into darkness. He heard the plinking and thudding sounds of the Emeralds bouncing around from even inside there in that small cramped space. He even heard the occasional metallic ting! of one of the Emeralds hitting the small, square door sealing him in the cabinet. Sorun, meanwhile, had breathed out a small sigh of relief at having successfully secured himself safely away from the flying Emeralds. He decided he would just wait there until the sounds disappeared.
It took some waiting on his part. It felt like whole minutes had passed of the Emeralds bouncing around everywhere in that room, with Sorun just lying on the table and waiting. For a bit he was almost worried the sound wouldn't go away and they would keep bouncing around, but eventually he noticed that the volume and frequency of the thudding sounds were decreasing. Slowly, but it was happening. More and more they were decreasing, until, suddenly, they stopped altogether. He heard the sound of multiple objects rolling along the floor after, and then, nothing. Absolute silence.
Another minute passed of Sorun remaining in that corpse cabinet just to make sure things outside were clear. Afterwards, the door to the cabinet was cracked open, and Sorun peered out. From his vantage point he caught sight of a couple of the glowing Emeralds lying harmlessly on the ground, immobile. He breathed out a sigh of relief, and then opened the door entirely to look out into the entire room. All seven colored Emeralds were sitting motionlessly on the floor.
"Ah, man, that was a close one," Sorun muttered as he pulled the table back out from the corpse cabinet. "I guess they tried to fly out and scatter across the world again like when I first got here. Sonic said that's what happened. Nicole must make these nanite walls sturdy if they ended up trapped in here..." The table was pulled out all the way, after which Sorun swung his body around so he was sitting at its edge, with his feet hanging off. "Well, I... guess I managed to do it..."
There he was. Alive. He did it. He revived. Got his second life. Athair pulled through for him. His premature death at the hands of powers, the sickness associated with it all, the lying, the stress of it all, it... it was all gone. Over.
He couldn't describe how it felt. There was such a mix of emotions going through him that he couldn't put it into words. Ineffable amounts of relief, happiness, shock and disbelief, uncertainty of what he was supposed to do now. He could have cried, laughed, and fallen unconscious from it all right there with how he was feeling. That's what all his emotions amounted to- a jumbled together mess of confusion. He could still even hardly believe he was sitting here, alive and witnessing this all.
Just to be sure, he held up his arm and felt it with his other hand. He felt a pulse, rushing blood, warm flesh. Felt the air going through his mouth and nose and into his lungs. He felt... alive. Better than he had in months, really. Better, but... also slow, in a way. Sluggish. He realized why when he brushed some hair out from his eyes, and saw it had returned to its natural black color. Devil's Body and all the physical enhancements it gave him was gone.
"What a weird feeling..." His eyes widened. "Wait, hold on." He looked downwards at his own torso, and then reached down to lift his shirt up.
... His abs were gone.
"Dammit, my gains." Feeling disappointed, he lowered the shirt back over his flat stomach, and then tried holding his hand out. He reached for the same feeling he always felt for whenever he wanted to manifest Yamato, but nothing appeared. Not the katana. Not the Summoned Swords or Bringer Claws or his Doppelganger. He couldn't teleport or stop time. Nothing.
All of his powers were truly gone.
"It really did work," he whispered to himself. An uncontrollable smile broke out over his face, and he'd even laughed a bit. "They're... they're really gone. I'm cured. I'm back... I'm alive..."
He spent some time just sitting there, quietly laughing as he held his head in one hand. Drinking it all in, enjoying it all. He was there, alive and well. He didn't have to feel sad about dying anymore, or be sad about everyone being sad that he was dead. It was over. He did it. He was alive again.
The laughter eventually died out into a happy sigh, followed by Sorun looking back down at the seven Emeralds. He gave them a curious look, and then slid off the table. His black boots hit the ground, and he walked over to the one closest to him. The green one.
"It looks like they all just fell out of me like Athair said they would," he said to himself as he crouched down in front of the Emerald. "Seven gems of unlimited power just... sitting here. I'd be worried if they were anywhere else but New Mobotropolis, but this might as well be the most secure city in the whole world right now." He began to reach for the Emerald. "Guess I should gather them u- ooh!"
He'd come within centimeters of touching the Emerald before he remembered touching them was a bad thing to do, after which he reoiled his hand back to himself. He clicked his tongue, and then glanced around the room hoping to find something to help him gather the gems up without needing to touch them. His answer came when he saw a broom leaning against a nearby countertop, and a burlap sack right on top of said countertop.
"Yeah, that'll work."
A couple of minutes later, Sorun had carefully used the broom to sweep all seven of the Chaos Emeralds into the burlap sack, and then tied the top of it closed. He then set it down on the ground in front of the corpse cabinet table, and then hopped back up on the end of it. He placed his hands in his lap, legs freely swinging as he looked down at the sack of Emeralds in front of him with a contemplative look.
"Well now what am I supposed to do?" Sorun asked himself. "I, uh... guess I should go and... tell everyone I'm alive. How the hell am I supposed to go and do that?" Sorun asked himself. "They're probably gonna freak out, and that's just- ugh, it's gonna be so awkward and I don't know what I'm gonna do. And the Emeralds are all just... kind of here now... huh..."
He found himself focusing back on the bag. The bag that contained the Chaos Emerald. All seven of them.
"... Should... should I just go back home...?"
The sound of a far away door opening and shutting distracted Sorun and made him turn towards the door to the morgue. It was still closed, though he heard a pair of voices nearby, likely in the hallway connecting the morgue to the hospital's basement entrance. This caused Sorun to freeze a bit in panic and, not at all prepared to reveal to anyone he was back to being alive, he did the first thing that felt natural to him: lie back down on the table like he had been while dead to appear he was still dead.
Cowardly, maybe, but he needed all the time he could get to figure out what he was gonna do and to steel his nerves.
"Man, I hope they don't notice my hair turned back to black... or that I'm breathing. Who is it, anyways?" He strained his ears to better listen to the pair of voices that were steadily coming closer. "Male and female... accents... Southern and... French- oh, it's them."
He heard the door leading into the morgue open, but couldn't see anything due to having closed his eyes while trying to remain as still as possible. He didn't hear anything, either. Neither voices nor footsteps. It seemed they'd just opened the door to the morgue and just stopped there. And then he heard a deep sigh.
"Ah'll... leave ya with him." That was definitely Bunnie's voice that Sorun had heard. She said that sentence, and then he heard a single, heavy, metal set of footsteps exit the morgue and close the door. From there he assumed Antoine was standing over at the other end of the room, likely staring at what he thought to be Sorun's corpse. He was silent enough that Sorun almost thought he'd been mistaken before he heard the Mobian take a deep breath and slowly walk in Sorun's direction.
"I guess Antoine's here to say his final goodbyes to me or something... HOLY SHIT I GOTTA PRANK HIM." When was he ever gonna get another chance like this? It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He'd be a fool not to take it.
"Err, uh... uh... hello zere, Sorun." Antoine's voice was close enough that he sounded like he was standing right next to the table Sorun way lying on, almost right over him, even. He sounded unsure and also sad at the same time. "I, um, apologize for having taken so long to do zis. Eet 'as been, how you say, a... I do not know what you would say in ze face of zis," he sadly admitted. "Eet iz unfortunate you are being dead. Y-you left before you evair had ze chance to taste my fine cuisine. H-heh... heh..."
He sounded like he tried laughing. It came out sounding more unenthusiastic and sad than anything even resembling happiness. It was almost enough to make Sorun reconsider pulling a fast one on his grieving friend. Almost.
"Zey are saying ze Chaos Emeralds made you sick and end up like zis. I am not knowing what to zink of zis," Antoine quietly said. "I am not wrong in saying we would nevair 'ave let you go around touching zem eef we knew, but I am supposing eet iz too late to be saying such zings." He paused, and then made a deep breath as he laid a hand on Sorun's shoulder. "You were very special to me, Sorun. Ze others, zey are family to me, always will be. It would being impossible to not see zem as so after so long, but... you were special, and I had held you in ze same place as zem. Zey are always being ze big teases about moi accent, Soneek especially, but you nevair did. And nobody else evair practiced ze swordsmanship with moi." A short, empty laugh left him. "Not once did you evair beat me, and yet I had more fun practicing with you zan evair weeth myself." The hand on Sorun's shoulder began gripping him harder. "You... you were truly ze bestest of friends..."
It was when the tears started falling down on Sorun's face did he decide that maybe playing on Antoine's grief to play a prank on him wouldn't have been the nicest of things to do, as appealing as the opportunity was. But he was smart enough to understand some things just weren't worth it. Even if they were really tempting.
"He just had to break out the tears, didn't he?" Sorun thought with an internal sigh. "So much for pulling a Joseph Joestar on him. Ah, well..."
And so, with his decision finalized, Sorun made a groan and lifted his hand up to his face to wipe the tears off of him. Antoine had completely froze as a result.
"Ugh, man, you're really- I was gonna pull this whole zombie bit on you, but if you're just gonna go and cry on me-"
"L'ES UNDEAD!"
Apparently Sorun hadn't even needed to do the bit the begin with; just talking and moving like that had been enough to frighten the poor coyote. He shrieked like a girl and fell completely backwards onto his back he'd been so scared of Sorun's sudden resurrection. Sorun, meanwhile, was laughing. He'd sat upwards and was laughing hard enough that he had to hold a hand to his head just to steady himself. It continued for minutes, Sorun just sitting there on the table laughing while Antoine sat on the ground staring up at Sorun in absolute disbelief, completely stupefied by the mere sight of his living form.
The laughter faded away eventually, thankfully enough. Sorun sighed out the last laugh, and then looked down at Antoine. He was practically frozen there, staring up at him with those wide eyes. It brought enough amusement to Sorun that he was smiling at the sight, though he seemed to lose all energy despite the smile when he realized he'd have to explain himself.
"Guess the cat's out of the bag, now," he mumbled, and then waved down at the Mobian. "Hey, Antoine."
"Sorun...? Antoine sounded one-part in wonder and one-part completely baffled as he stared up at the human, with a myriad of wild, unreadable emotions flashing over his face. "I- I don't- zis is... y-you're... ze opposite of dead...?"
"Apparently I had an extra life," Sorun replied in a low drawl. He made a short sigh and slid off the table. "Lemme tell ya all about it..."
And so, Sorun told him. Everything from his point of death to how he managed to come back. Some parts were appropriately abbreviated for Antoine's sake. When it came to the Neo-Walkers Sorun said he'd just "smacked 'em around a bit 'til they saw some sense" and left it at that, and Antoine took his word for it. The concept of that void he'd ended up in was left out entirely. Otherwise he'd laid it all out for the coyote. The events for the most part, his feelings on it all, everything.
That lead them here. Both of them sitting side-by-side on the ground and leaning their backs against a nearby table. Sorun was just getting to the end of speaking while Antoine just watched him.
"And... and I don't know, Antoine, I..." Sorun exhaled through his nose, lifted his hand up, and let it drop back on his leg. "Say something."
"What am I to say?"
"Something, anything, man I don't know!" Sorun turned his head to Antoine. "You're just sitting there looking at me, I don't know what to do with that, I..." His fingers started to run through his hair as he looked down. "Just say something."
"... So... your kind really do turn into ze ghostie types when you die...?"
Sorun scoffed out a short laugh. "I missed you, Antoine. I really did," he said. "Nah, that was... Chaos energy shenanigans or something, I dunno." He shook his head. "I'm less worried about the why of things and more about what's gonna happen next. Ugh, man... what am I supposed to say to them all, Antoine? I'm at a loss at what I'm supposed to do."
"I am not understanding..."
Sorun breathed out and shook his head again. "'Hey, guys, I found a way to come back to life.' Am I seriously just supposed to lead with that?"
"What else are you to do?"
"Got me there." Wasn't really any other way to go about it, really. He was more nervous about the reactions more than anything else. He almost told Antoine as much, but when he turned around to do so he saw Antoine giving him that unreadable look again. His ears were down a bit, too. If Sorun didn't know any better he'd say he looked sad. Or maybe Sorun didn't know any better and he actually was sad. He decided to ask. "What's with the face?"
Antoine seemed to flinch back a bit, almost like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have. He shrunk back a bit away from Sorun, and then looked down a bit. "So... you were died..."
"Dying. And yes, I was." Sorun relaxed against the table he was leaning against as he gave Antoine an apathetic look. "I know it looks bad. You guys pull some random guy away from his home to help with your problems and he ends up slowly dying as a result." Antoine flinched again, and his ears lowered a bit more as he began to look guilty. Worried, even. "Look, I'll be real, I wasn't exactly thrilled about the whole thing, but it's not like I blame you guys or anything like that. Was my choice to go around collecting the Emeralds. If I really wanted to I could have just abandoned you guys altogether and not have bothered."
Antoine's ears rose up a bit. The worried look and uneasiness began to fade, though he still looked a bit uncomfortable. "I... I am not knowing what to say," he admitted. "Why didn't you?"
"Come on, man, do I really look that shallow to you?" He made a small laugh and looked ahead, though he still noted that Antoine was looking at him from the corner of his eyes. At that, he felt the small smile he had on drop. "Because I wanted to, alright? Because I didn't want to see Eggman win."
"Because of zat prophecy, non?"
"A prophecy that's becoming less credible by the second," Sorun demurred. "I talked to the Neo-Walkers while I was dead. They don't got a clue on what's gonna happen since me walking around doing stuff messed up their foresight so bad it just doesn't work anymore. So I dunno what's going on. But they did straight-up tell me it would have went bad if I did nothing, so..." He trailed off, and when he saw Antoine still looking at him, he shook his head and looked away. "I like you all too much to see that happen. What do you want me to say? It doesn't go any deeper than that."
"... Nothing, I am supposing."
"Suppose," Sorun quietly corrected.
"Oui, merci." A few silent moments passed before Antoine spoke up again. "You... truly did zis wanting to sacrifice your life for ours..."
"Hey, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Sorun said, shaking his head in denial as he looked back at Antoine. "I... I didn't... there wasn't a better opt- stop looking at me like that!" When he saw the grin slowly growing on Antoine's face, he faced forwards and crossed his arms in a huff. "Ugh, so what if I did?"
Sorun's answer came when Antoine reached to the side and wrapped Sorun's head in a one-armed headlock. The black-haired human quickly found himself missing his enhanced strength, as, despite his frantic flailing, he was unable to free himself from the Mobian's grip. Antoine, meanwhile, was laughing lightly while using his other hand to gently ruffle the top of his head.
"Ahh, look at you, Sorun, being ze modest type you are-"
"Get off, get off!"
"- I 'ave always been knowing you to be ze shy type, but I did not zink you would be zis scare-ed of showing a heroic side-"
"I regret it all!" Even after Antoine finally released him, still laughing all the while, Sorun maintained his flustered look as he averted his face from Antoine. "Shoulda left you all out to dry, can't believe I gave my life just for this..." The look fell off his face as his shoulders went slack, and when he looked to Antoine again, he saw him still smiling at him. "... I ain't a hero, Antoine. I just didn't want anyone to die. That's all. Fact I died in the process was just a... I dunno, a side effect or somethin'. Stop looking so far into it."
He didn't know why something like the title of "hero" just made Sorun so grossly uncomfortable he wanted to avoid anybody calling him one in any way possible. It just was. He felt like he didn't deserve it, and the word alone made his skin crawl for some reason. He didn't like the attention or implications behind it, none of it.
"Non, Sorun, I am afraid zat nobody will see it ze way you do," Antoine said, making Sorun loudly sigh and hang his head. "Mon ami, you will be having to hang away zat shy side of yours. I am not zinking it would do well to look so fluster-ed in front of ze others."
Sorun ran a hand over his ragged face. "Woulda stayed dead if I knew I was just gonna come back to this," he jokingly stated, though he saw Antoine shift nervously next to him.
"Eh, Sorun, do not... do not say such things, s'il vous plait. I am glad you are back." Antoine's face made an uncomfortable twitch. "I am... not so glad you had to suffer through months of dying..."
"... Eh, it's fine." Wasn't really, but Sorun was desperate to put Antoine at ease. "Who hasn't suffered continually for months on end? It's over now, though. Feel better than I have in a long time."
"Oui, I... would know some about zat."
"The, uh... the half a year thing you mentioned once? During the whole train thing?"
Antoine nodded. "Did anyone evair tell you of Moebius?"
"The weird evil mirror version of this world, yeah," Sorun answered with a nod. "What about it?"
"I had been... abducted iz ze word, oui?" In addition to widening his eyes, Sorun nodded at him. "Ze other Antoine had abducted moi and 'ad swapp-ed our places. I was forced to pretend to be him for six months while he replaced me here. Eet had nearly destroyed my life and relationships weeth ze others, but, eventually, all was set right. Not without... some costs, we shall say, but otherwise all had ended well zat... ended well, I do not know ze expression," he said with a shake of his head. "I am not claiming to know exactly what you had been going through zese last few months, but, well... I suppose-" When Sorun nodded at the correct pronunciation, Antoine smiled a bit, "- I may know a detail or two. Eef you need one to talk weeth."
He hadn't known how severe that whole "half a year" thing had been for Antoine, never having known the details. He knew he felt angry at hearing it, and he would have been enraged knowing some evil doppelganger tried stealing Antoine's life if the man himself wasn't alright and here telling Sorun about it. Past all that he felt... some good feeling. Thankfulness, perhaps, that he was willing to just be there and listen to him. It made him calm down, and a bit happy, even. But on the other hand he didn't want to bother Antoine with the extra baggage, so he shook his head.
"N-nah, man, but... thanks. Y'know, for the... the offer an' all that, you know, j... just thanks- hey, I should get going," he suddenly said in a raised voice, causing Antoine to jump back a bit at his sudden rise in volume. "As much as I'd like to stay in this morgue forever to avoid seeing the others and the awkward mess that's gonna follow, I, uh... prolly shouldn't do that."
After a few seconds of looking at Sorun with a strange look, Antoine got Sorun's meaning and nodded his head. "Ahh, oui, right..." he said as he calmed down some. "What were you zinking on doing?"
"I don't know, man." Sorun looked off to the side and gestured towards the nearby, filled sack. "All the Chaos Emeralds fell out of me because of the whole revive thing, so I gathered them all up in that sack over there."
"Do you plan on doing zomething with zem?" Antoine asked.
"... Not sure yet. Still thinking." Sorun stood up to his feet, groaning a bit from the sensation of his legs having fallen asleep from sitting so long. "For now, I'm going to the park."
"Ze park?" Antoine repeated in a questioning tone. His head followed Sorun as the human went to the burlap sack and picked it up. "Why ze park?"
Slinging the bag over his shoulder, Sorun turned back to the coyote. "Need some fresh air, gotta clear my head. Maybe wait until somebody I know wanders by and just sees me sitting there, because I got no clue how else I'm supposed to reveal myself. Too nervous to just do something like go to Sonic's house and knock on his door. Or the castle. Or the... server rooms in the science center..."
He just realized he was gonna have to deal with Nicole. And he also realized he didn't have the slightest idea how to go about doing that. In fact, he was scared of just seeing her again.
"Eh, I'll think of something.
"...
"... Fuck, who am I kidding?" Shaking his head, Sorun waved at Antoine with his free hand and began moving away. "Do me a favor and keep my resurrection on the down-low for a bit. Still trying to wrap my head around all this."
"I am not zo sure zis iz ze best way of going about zis, but alright," Antoine agreed. "What am I to tell my wife who iz waiting for me?"
Sorun sighed and flipped his hand up. "I mean, I'm not asking you to lie for me, so go ahead and tell Bunnie, I guess." He began walking towards the door to the morgue. "Eh, to be honest with you there's no way people in the hospital aren't gonna see me, so I doubt I'll even make it to the park. But it's all I got." He stopped at the door, and right before he opened it he turned his head back to Antoine. "Thanks, Antoine. F-for being here."
"I am happy to be zere for you, Sorun." Antoine offered him one last smile. "Welcome back."
"... Yeah. Good to be back."
Shockingly enough he actually had made it to the park without being accosted by anyone. He'd gotten some stares from random Mobian citizens, who all probably thought he was dead only to see him walking around. He new Dr. Quack had seem him when he passed through the lobby and distinctly heard a clipboard being dropped on the floor. Hell, even Bunnie had seen him.
The first thing Sorun had done when he walked through the hospital doors was take his first breath of fresh air since coming back to life. He exhaled, and then looked to his left. He made absolutely no reaction when he saw Bunnie leaning against the hospital wall next to the door. Staring at him like he was a ghost with her jaw dropped open.
"... 'Sup." That's all Sorun gave her before turning back forwards and walking to the park. She hadn't called or even chased after him; probably too shocked to do anything except stare after him. He'd trust Antoine to fill her in on the details. He just didn't want to deal with it.
For sure the rumors - the very, very true rumors - that he was alive and just walking around would circulate like wildfire. Wasn't even a question that somebody would find and confront him within the hour, which would lead to him explaining everything to everyone down the line. Probably Nicole, seeing as all she had to do was glance at the security system, see Sorun, and teleport to his location. Oddly that hadn't happened yet. So either she hadn't gotten wind of him yet, which wasn't likely, or, like Bunnie, she was so shocked she didn't know what to do, which was... marginally more likely.
He didn't care either way since he managed to make it to a bench in the park. So he set the bag full of Emeralds down, sat his ass down on that bench, and decided to just take it all in. Clear midday skies, the pleasant, rustling sound of leaves and the quiet sound of the city behind him, the clean smell, wind on his face, the sun warming him. The fact he was alive and moving around again. The dread at having to talk to everyone over it.
But then his attention kept getting drawn down to the bag at his feet. The burlap sack with all seven Emeralds. The things that'd kill him if he touched them all. And also the things that were responsible for the portal that brought him here to begin with. And, with all seven of them gathered like this... potentially his ticket back home to Earth.
"I can go home with these," Sorun thought. "But if I do... it's one-way. The Emeralds scatter after use, and there's no way we could set up any form of communications over that distance. If they make a portal back home and I go through, that's that. They'd never have a reason to hunt around for all the Emeralds again and open the portal back up, and even if for some reason they did I'd have no way of knowing about it so I could be there when they did. So there'd be no going back.
"But... I'd get to see mom again. And Dave, and the rest of my friends. Hell, I could get my life back. I was really only gone for... what'd it be, almost five months now? I'm not dying anymore, so that's almost nothing. I can get it all back. My life, friends and family. And having my games back would be nice, too.
"What about the ones here, though? Some of the people here are practically family to me, too."
"You're seriously gonna choose them over our real family? Don't tell me you actually wanna stay here."
"No, it's not that, it's..."
"They don't need us anymore. Eggman's at the end of his rope and we're powerless now. They can handle everything on their own. They're good. I know it's gonna be hard to leave them forever and everything, but we got a life to get back to. You're not gonna stop being friends just 'cause we leave and never see them again. There's a slew of movies and games and anime I can pull from our memories with the same message of them 'remaining in our heart' and all that tripe."
"..."
"It's Nicole, isn't it?"
"She-"
"You are not fucking stranding us in this world over a girl."
Sorun sighed, and then looked to his side, where he saw himself sitting next to him. "Yeah, I know," Sorun thought at Sorun. "I'm just... I'm really gonna miss her. I've never liked anybody like I like her."
"Heartbreaking, I know," the other Sorun said, "but dude, come on. If there was ever a reason to stay here... this ain't it. There's nothing for us here. Some friends, that's about it. We don't belong here, don't have a place here. Back home on Earth we do. Our own place in life, our own people, friends, family. In a world that doesn't constantly try to mindfuck us every single second with its twenty-four seven spew of insanity. We can't just abandon all that. Abandon them."
"I know. You're right." As much as he'd like to stay, which, in all honesty, he didn't... he couldn't stay. He'd left too much behind when he was dragged through that portal. More than that, he just wanted to go home. It was his goal since the second he came onto Mobius. A goal once seemingly unattainable now sitting right there at his feet.
His mind was made up.
He was going home.
"Ugh... Not saying you gotta go immediately or anything," Sorun said to Sorun. "Take your time, say your goodbyes or whatever. But we really should be getting back to Earth right after."
"Sounds good." Sorun blinked, and he was left alone sitting on the bench. "Eh, it's not like Nicole likes me in that way anyway. It'd probably be really stupid to stay here for a girl not even interested in me." He sighed, leaned back on the bench, and kicked his feet out as he looked up at the sky. "It really is a nice day out."
He could spend all day here just sitting at this bench and looking out at the park and sky. He'd give one thing to Mobius, if nothing else. It really was a beautiful place. Too crazy for him to keep living here, but beautiful all the same.
"S-Sorun...?"
Ah, there it was.
There was absolutely no bracing for what was about to happen, so after quietly sucking in some air through his teeth Sorun just decided to turn his upper body around to address the person he heard speak from behind the bench. He'd already known who it was from the voice alone. Seeing Nicole with his own eyes was a different matter entirely. She had that same look Bunnie had when she saw him walk right out the hospital completely fine: that stunned, bewildered beyond words look. There was something else though that he couldn't quite pin down in that expression, something he couldn't describe. It made something in his chest wrench, though, seeing her face look like that.
As for Sorun himself, he just sat there looking at her with a completely straight face. He didn't have a plan on what to say to her, not even the faintest idea, like almost always. He decided to just try and act normally.
"So the secret I wouldn't tell you about was that I was dying." He rose both his hands up, palms facing forwards, and gently shook them. "Surprise...~"
He didn't know if normal, human reflexes would have been sufficient in catching Nicole when she jumped right at him. It was just too fast for his eyes to keep up with. He was able to perceive her leaping forwards, phasing through the bench and tackling him to the ground, but he hadn't had enough time to even think about moving. By the time Sorun's thoughts did catch up with him he was already on his back, with his arms pinned to the sides of his body due to the fact Nicole was lying right on top of him with her arms wrapped around his torso.
"..." Sorun tried moving around a bit. Nicole's grasp was too tight for him to budge. He sighed and let his head fall back against the grass. "Can't help but notice I never got that statue," he said. "I know I said it was optional, but c'mon, I died."
He didn't get a response.
"Nicole?" Sorun picked his head up. "I'm just kidding around, I don't actually care about a..."
Sorun trailed off when he saw what she was actually doing. She was crying. She was burying her face into his chest and softly crying, while at the same time he felt her whole body shuddering on top of his. Any words he planned on saying died off right there. He just plainly couldn't speak while he saw her in that state.
So, instead of saying anything he just silently laid his head back on the grass with the intent of waiting her out. He had all the time in the world now, after all. He could spend a few minutes waiting for her to calm down. And despite the circumstances, he liked the way she was holding him too much to complain.
There wasn't a point where Sorun counted the time Nicole had pinned him to the ground. Minutes, he'd estimated, a lot of minutes. She'd finally calmed down enough to speak after she found it in herself to lift her face up off his chest.
Then she started grabbing at his face...
"N-Nicole-"
"It's really you?" There'd been absolutely no willpower on Sorun's part when Nicole, still lying on top of him, grabbed both sides of his face and began moving it left and right as she examined it. "You... y-you're... I don't understand, this shouldn't be..." She looked down at Sorun's body, and then looked back at Sorun's face. "You're truly back? Sorun?"
"Of course it's me," he said, not bothering to ask her to let go of his face. She still held on as a result. "It's me, not some clone or android double or something wacky. I came back to life. Morgue's empty if you really wanna check."
"No, I believe you. I saw you walk out of the hospital on the security cameras..."
"Had me pinged since then, huh?" Sorun thought. "So I guess you want me to explain how I'm walking and breathing, huh?"
"That would certainly be ideal, yes..."
And so he'd given her the same spiel he gave Antoine, once gain toning down what he'd done to the Neo-Walkers and omitting the void entirely. Somewhat to his disappointment she'd gotten off of him, leading to them sitting next to each other on the park bench as he explained everything.
Throughout the entire explanation Nicole had kept one of her hands on his. Not to grab it or anything. She was just letting it lay there on top of his as he talked, like she needed some physical reassurance that Sorun was there alive and talking with her. She wouldn't stop looking at him, either. Wouldn't so much as turn her head away from him. She just kept staring at him.
But he'd finished, again, from the point he'd died to now, again. And now all that he saw that was left to do was apologize.
"And so, now that you know everything... I wanted to say I was sorry."
"You're... sorry?" Nicole repeated. "Sorun, I don't understand. What could you possibly be sorry over?"
Sorun made a small hum, and then turned away from Nicole. He couldn't help still being aware of the hand overtop his. "Told you while I was dead I was kinda just... floating around as a ghost for a bit. During that time I decided to go see how people were doing, so... after I visited my body in the morgue, I went to the science center to see if you were there." He saw Nicole go a bit still from the corner of his eyes, and her fingers lightly gripped around his own. "Saw you in a bad way, talking with Sally, holding that controller like it was my last surviving memento-"
"It was your last memento."
"Okay, regardless," Sorun continued with a half-bemused smile, "I never wanted you to end up like that. I shouldn't have... the whole reason I tried avoiding you that one time was because I wanted to avoid that happening."
He stopped talking and then looked back at Nicole. She was giving him... well, frankly, a lot of looks. Lots of confusion mixed in with the earlier bewilderment, and some relief was showing as well. Relief he was alive, he supposed. But it was buried under all the confusion.
"It was this whole big plan I had," Sorun said as he looked back forwards, going as far as to sweep his hand out in front of him. "If I just pretended to be some unlikeable, unapproachable jerk nobody likes, then no one will care when I finally die so I don't leave people hurt."
"Sorun..."
"But you all just had to be too likeable for me to pull it off. I really tried, but I just couldn't go through with it." He glanced at Nicole. "You especially. I... could never even merely act that way around you, so I tried to just avoid you, but not even that worked. I never thought I'd grow to like you all so much, but I did. I never expected to grow so close to you specifically, but I did. So this ended up happening." He looked back ahead and briefly tossed an arm up. "I died, evidently for nothing, and left all this heartache behind. Heartache that could have all been avoided if I didn't cave into my desires and just toughed it out to the end, but I couldn't even do that. Couldn't go on without your support. Everybody would have been fine if I managed it: you never would have cried, and I wouldn't have turned into the most deplorable human in existence just because I was some weak-willed-"
A brown and black-furred pair of arms found themselves going back around Sorun's torso. He found himself being pulled into another hug by Nicole, close enough that their heads were forced to rest on each others' shoulders. It was a move that deeply startled Sorun, who himself couldn't find the words to say as a result of the hug.
"Stop it. Don't say such things about yourself," Nicole whispered out. "You shouldn't have to apologize for being friendly. You shouldn't have to apologize for anything. You died. You continued being a Freedom Fighter knowing you would die. You're not at fault for anything."
"I..." The words stunned Sorun. Enough that he'd went limp in Nicole's grasp while staring blankly ahead over her shoulder. "I still... you're not mad at me...?"
"Of course I'm not mad." Nicole pulled away from Sorun, though she kept her hands on his shoulders as she looked him in his eyes. "I'm vexed beyond words that you were forced to endure such an ordeal, and frustrated that you were barred from the possibility of even consulting anybody on the matter. But I'd never want you to lie to yourself like you wanted to do just to try and spare everyone's feelings."
"But-"
"Sorun, no." Nicole silenced him by placing one of her hands on his cheek. He froze up at the contact, at the soft sensation of her hand on his face, and he found himself relaxing into it. "I wouldn't have traded the time we spent and all the memories we created together for anything. What I experienced when you died was... quite frankly, it was the worst sensation I'd ever experienced in my entire existence, Sorun," she admitted to him with a sad look. "I told you, back when you almost died fighting to bring everyone to this city, that I never wanted to experience something like that again, but when I thought I'd truly lost you, I... words alone cannot describe it. I lack the descriptive capacity to do so. I felt like I'd been shut down but was still active at the same time. Like a part of me was lost." She looked a bit to the side. "You really do have a habit of teaching me new aspects of life. Even the bad ones, it seems. But I digress." She looked back at him, and began smiling again. "Despite how terrible that experience felt, I truly would rather have suffered through that and have been left with those memories of us than to never have had them to begin with. I recently learned through Sally that this is a sentiment others agree with. Logically it makes no sense, I realize this. Even I struggle to properly rationalize this to myself. But after having experienced it firsthand I think I finally understand why this is so, even if I can't rightly explain it in words. Just... feelings." She repositioned both of her arms so they were both over Sorun's shoulders in another hug. He was too flustered and focused on Nicole to make a single move. "It doesn't matter, anyways. You came back. You don't have to feel any amount of guilt, Sorun, because you came back. And I don't blame you a single bit for anything that happened. If anything, I... truly believe you're one of the strongest individuals I've ever met, to have gone through what you have and ended up where you are now. I sincerely mean that, Sorun."
"C-c'mon... you're just saying that..." Sorun couldn't help the abashed smile that came to his face. One of his hands reached up to softly caress one of Nicole's wrists, but that was as far as he'd gotten in terms of actual movement. "I thought Sally was the mentally strongest person you've ever known."
"You give her competition," Nicole claimed, still smiling at Sorun. "I can't express how happy I am that you're alive."
"I'm... happy I'm back, too. And that you're okay." There she went again. In just a few short words Nicole made every single doubt and uncertainty in Sorun's mind fade away, just like that. One conversation with her and all he felt was calm and peace. Like everything would be okay. She always had that effect on him, no matter what. Suddenly having died and come back to life just seemed like a fleeting memory despite how recent it had been. She was right in that respect; it didn't matter anymore. He was back. With her. "Thank you, Nicole. For everything."
They sat there for what felt like minutes. Just the two of them. Nicole kept her arms draped over Sorun's neck, and he continued to stroke at her wrist with his fingers. He couldn't look away from her eyes which were staring into his own, and between that and the smiles they were giving each other, he felt... he didn't quite know. It was indescribable, the feeling. But it felt right. More than right. For some reason he felt like they could have remained this way for days. He wouldn't have minded one bit.
"Nicole, I... I have something I need to tell you," Sorun said in a soft voice.
Her warm smile grew even wider. "As do I," she said in an equally soft voice. "I wanted to ask you on the rooftop, if you'll remember correctly. Before that day."
"Right, I remember. Do you...?"
Nicole gently shook her head. "You can go first."
"I gotta go home."
The mood shattered like glass. Nicole had gone completely rigid, and Sorun had felt it seeing as her arms were still over his neck. She made a peculiar expression, too- her smile broke, confusion mixing in and freezing it in a strange, shocked smile. She'd blinked heavily a few times, that expression still frozen on her face.
"W-what?"
"Yeeeaah, look, here's the thing." Sorun untangled himself from Nicole's arms, blissfully unaware of the disappointment filling Nicole's eyes despite the frozen, shocked smile on her face. He didn't perceive it at all as he reached down and picked up the burlap sack near his feet. "The condition for getting my second life was that I lose my powers, so as a result all of the Chaos Emeralds were separated from me. So since I just have all of them now I can use them to go back to my zone using the portal machine Tails used to bring me here."
"Your... zone?" Nicole repeated in a quiet voice. "As in... Earth...?"
"Mh-hm, yeah," Sorun blithely confirmed with a nod. "I'm worried about my mom and friends and everything, so I kinda need to go back. I mean, I always thought I'd just be stranded here forever, but since the Emeralds are all just here now I can finally go back to my old home and life." He turned his head to Nicole and gave her a smile. "Isn't it great?"
She didn't respond at first, making Sorun's smile drop a bit. The strange, frozen smile had fallen off of her face completely, and she was left staring at Sorun and the bag he was holding with an odd look he couldn't quite place. It caused some confusion on his part, seeing that expression Nicole wore, but then she seemed to notice Sorun's staring at her and changed her face back into a smiling one. A noticeably forced smile, Sorun had seen. One that didn't hide the disappointment he saw in her eyes, and the way her shoulders had slumped.
He had no idea why she looked like that.
"Yes, of course... your family. Of course you would be concerned for the life and everybody you left behind when you were forced onto Mobius. I understand completely." Nicole stood up off the bench, still giving Sorun that same, fake look as his eyes followed her. "You'll be departing soon, then?"
"I, uh... was gonna say goodbye to everyone first, but yeah. Thinking of going tomorrow," Sorun slowly said. "You okay?"
"I'm functioning at full capacity, yes," Nicole said with a nod.
"Alright...? What, um, what-what was that thing you were gonna ask me?"
"Hm?" Nicole's ears lowered a bit, and she'd turned away too quick for Sorun to see the smile leave her face. "It was nothing. Just a silly notion of mine," she said. "Shall I go gather all the others for you?"
Slowly, Sorun nodded. "That'd be nice, yeah. Are you ok-?"
"I'll go do that, then." She turned back to Sorun and gave him a small, very small and very forced, smile. "Goodbye, Sorun. I wish you safe travels home and hope you'll be happy there."
Nicole's body vanished right after she finished speaking. Sorun was left sitting on the park bench, bag in hand and a perplexed look on his face as he stared at the spot she'd vanished from. He continued doing this for a few seconds, and then loudly exhaled as he sat back against the bench.
"What was up with that look on her face? Eh, whatever. I'm sure it's fine. Would have liked to know what she wanted to ask me, though," Sorun thought to himself. "Guess all that's left is to say my goodbyes and then head back home. 'Least I ain't gotta pack anything."
A/N- Alright, here's what you do. You picture Nicole's face during the entire exchange between her and Sorun. Sorun says he's going home, and you picture her face snapping from that to her reaction face. Then the GTA thing happens where the colors go grayscale and WASTED appears in big, bold, red lettering as the camera angle tilts and the sound effect plays while still focusing in on her reaction face.
Anyway, yeah, happy late Valentine's Day.