hello hello! i'm hopefully still on track to finish this fic before school starts up. enjoy the read :)

XXII.

descent (dəˈsent)

[noun]

dropping, falling, sinking.

Tails was, if nothing else, a very average kid. He was born with a mutation that gifted him the power of flight, though it was unsustainable in the long term and he hardly considered it to be a true gift. He was smart, most assuredly, even brilliant, but still hindered like everyone else to a life of humanity and turmoil; he sweat when it was hot out, he grew tired as the stars and moon rose up, and just like nearly everyone else on the planet, he had no special connection to the Chaos Emeralds.

Chaos was something as essential to their world as oxygen, infused into the very atmosphere. It flowed through every being's blood—mobian or human or anything else—and rumbled like a thunderstorm in heavy swells through the air. But Tails, just like most others, drew no further connection than that. As fascinating as the energy was, it was nothing he had any control over. The population of true Chaos Users ran thin on Mobius.

So to wake up in the early hours of the morning, before the sun was even awake, to a sudden spike of Chaos energy so intense it could be equated to a gunshot, was startling to say the least. Tails thought, as he threw his blankets off himself and ran to the door, that something must be terribly wrong.

He hated to be right.

It seemed he wasn't alone in his awakening. Many of the residents and refugees of Knothole were creeping out of their homes out of concern or curiosity or a mix of the two, and the sight awaiting them in the center of town was a sickening one.

Sonic, Shadow, and Amy were huddled together, residual Chaos energy a heady stench wading away from them, as though they'd warped here in a hurry, and from so far away that it required an immense output of power. But where had they been in the first place? And—and in her arms… was that—?

Oh, Chaos.

The burial was quiet.

It didn't entirely feel right to do it so soon, so quickly, but there were greater battles to be fought and they didn't have the time to plan out a proper funeral. They had some other resistance members who never really knew Knuckles dig the hole, and it was Silver who volunteered to speak during the ceremony. The body was lowered into the ground, and Silver's solemn words drifted around the gathering, and then it was done. They shoveled soil back onto him, and then it was done. Loved ones got to pay their respects, leave flowers and prayers, and then it was done. That was it. As soon as daylight broke, Silver decided to take a group of resistance members with him to Red Mountain to continue the hunt for the final emerald.

Amy hadn't spoken a word the entire time. She hardly even moved, and if Sonic didn't know any better, he'd say a part of her died back on that airship alongside the late guardian. He stared at her more than he stared at his own best friend—brother—sinking into the ground, never to be seen again, and felt like he was on fucking fire.

She hovered over the burial site; she'd been almost directly beside Silver during the ceremony. And when the crowd eventually began to thin and disperse, she lingered there, her eyes on the span of disturbed dirt. Somehow she kept a sobered, straight face. She was complete stone, and Sonic felt his insides twist up as he slowly approached her.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't even seem to notice him when he was nearly right in her face, and she did not stir until he grabbed her arm.

They locked eyes, and Sonic lost his breath as she waited for him to act. She was stone, and he was on fire, and in that moment he wanted nothing more than to be six feet under in Knuckles' place.

And he tried, he tried so hard, to find anything to say. But his throat was dry and nothing seemed sufficient enough. Nothing would suffice. Nothing could bring him back. Instead Sonic opened his mouth and closed it again, lip quivering, and he shook his head, and he knit his brows together, and he looked at her and she looked at him and words were simply not enough.

For the first time since arriving back in Knothole, tears poured down Amy's face. Sonic felt himself fall apart, but Tails was beside them swiftly, taking her in his arms as her precariously pieced together strength seemed to flee from her body. Sonic watched them like he was behind a glass wall, and then he turned and walked away.

He didn't entirely know where his feet were carrying him, but he made it out the front gates of Knothole, and through the forest, and he felt maybe the beach was the best place for some needed seclusion. Foliage blurred past him in a sea of green and he felt so out of place, so wrong, so angry. He felt like he'd melt the whole world with his bare hands.

Stumbling into the clearing, Sonic struggled to regain himself. His throat burned as he hiccupped over breaths and his feet moved slow and heavy in the sand. The morning had found them with proper sunlight but it lurked behind misty grays that hung low over the horizon. Part of his body seemed to be working on autopilot, because suddenly he was sitting down.

Sonic looked into his palms: both of them—even the one that was metal and red and still didn't seem quite right, even after Tails replaced it.

He looked at his palms and thought about wind biting his face; pinning down Infinite, choking the life out of him. He thought of the power rippling through him, the gratifying sense of control, his false hand poised against that damned mask, the minigun on his arm at the ready.

Seconds. He had been seconds away from putting a stop to everything, and yet he still failed.

"The kid's a real smarty-pants. Apparently he can control the Tornado remotely with his tablet; it's already flying back here."

The intrusion was startling at first, but Sonic quickly untensed at the familiarity of the voice. Shadow crept into his vision tentatively before gliding calmly to the ground beside him. They stared, together, out into the dark ocean as though the Tornado would appear over the skyline at any given moment.

Sonic struggled to get his tongue working, his jaw shifting. "They won't follow it?"

Shadow shook his head. "There's nothing left in that airship. I would guess they're too preoccupied with Chaos."

There was nothing more to say, and Sonic wanted to trust his words and not worry, for just a minute, about imminent death or endless fighting, so he said nothing else. He wasn't sure if he did something with his body language, or maybe it was the silence itself that set him off, but after a beat Shadow's hand found its way to his shoulder.

"I'm sorry."

Sonic sniffed; he felt himself harden up, lifting shields that were unnecessary but rote. "You don't need to apologize."

"I was never as close to him as you, but he was strong. He was a good one—a hero."

"He shouldn't have died."

"I know."

"He didn't—" he flinched and his voice cracked and Sonic felt part of himself die, too. "He didn't need to die."

"Death is…" Shadow paused, and seemed to consider his words carefully. "Cruel. And merciless. And it will never make sense to us, but it persists, anyway. Maybe all we can do is learn to accept it for what it is."

Sonic's eyes burned. "Doesn't mean it's right."

"No," Shadow said. "It also doesn't mean you need to shoulder all the blame."

Something hot snapped in his chest and Sonic whipped his head to look at his fiancé. He felt himself withering but Shadow met his gaze with something equally challenging, and tears welled in his eyes as his rage morphed into askance, as emotion threatened to spill over.

"You can't tell me it's not—not my fault."

Shadow straightened out and when he spoke, it was firm. "The only reason he's dead is because of that robot. And even Infinite, even Robotnik. But not you. Not me, not Amy, and not anyone else in the resistance. We did all we could."

"And look how far that got us!" Hot streaks slid over his face and he was a smoldering flame, cold in the deepest center of himself, beneath all the heat, but he was unperishable now. He sucked in air that felt like embers in his lungs. "It's my job to protect people. I'm the Hero of Mobius. And I got locked up in prison for months, I got reduced to a fucked up shell, a freak of nature with a robot arm. And I hate it, I hate my arm and I hate that they managed to best me, I hate that I failed everyone, but I just thought—the least I could do was make sure that never happened to anyone else.

"But look what happened," he sobbed. "Knuckles is dead. And he wouldn't be if they hadn't taken him in the first place, if they'd just taken me back instead. And—And even now, even now that I have control over my arm again, even when I felt strong enough to stop him—he fucking got away anyways. I failed. I failed everyone."

Stripped entirely raw of coherency, Sonic sunk into Shadow's arms and cried aloud, a hard and suffocating pain aching all around him, drumming against his skin. He was on the verge of bursting apart.

Shadow held him for such a long time that he eventually ran out of tears, and then he pulled away and even still, Shadow held his face in his hands.

There was absolution in those red eyes.

"Listen. You can think about the what if's as much as you want. You can beat yourself up for the rest of your life over this, but the fact of the matter is that it's done. Knuckles is gone, and it's not your fault, but you're grieving him, and you're angry, and we're so close to winning this. Don't let it all be in vain. It has to mean something, doesn't it?"

Sonic nodded, his heart pounding in his chest. "I'm gonna kill Infinite."

But Shadow pulled him closer, till their foreheads met and Sonic felt warmth, a good warmth, one that felt safe and encircling. Strong hands held his shoulders and he closed his eyes, Shadow's presence so intimately close and comforting.

"Let me help you. Let us help you."

On accident, Sonic clenched his jaw and ended up biting his tongue. Hissing to himself, it was enough to break the spell, and Shadow pulled back a tad to eye him with concern. Sonic shook off his look and squeezed his eyes shut and tasted the iron in his mouth. He thought of rage and black electricity and blood and death at his fingertips.

He opened his eyes. "I've never come so close to matching his power before."

Shadow frowned, as though wary to recall whatever it was Sonic had become not a few hours ago. "And… what exactly was that? The form you took." He exhaled. "It was similar to your Super form, except you grew darker instead of lighter and your eyes went blank. And—you didn't even use a single emerald."

"I don't know," Sonic admitted. "It just felt like my anger came to life and consumed me. It felt similar to going Super, though. Just—more out of control. Kind of… wrong."

"That confirms it then," Shadow said decisively, narrowing his eyes. "Some of them are heading to Red Mountain for the final Chaos Emerald today. You and me, even Rose and Silver—if all of us go Super, Infinite wouldn't stand a chance against us."

"And—" Sonic licked his lips, still a bitter flavor at his palate as uncertainty pawed at him. "And what if we mess up again? We can't afford to mess up anymore."

"We won't," Shadow told him simply. "This time, we'll have everyone at our side."

An aspect of coldness met the air of the laboratory, and Dr. Eggman stiffened up. It was a herald of Infinite, of course, who made his entrance in a burst of angry red, Chaos in tow, as he seethed and urged his feet back onto the ground. The two kings of the world met each other's eyes, and although Infinite wasn't really seeing, Eggman watched him intensely.

Chaos' energy cage fizzled unsettlingly, as Infinite had apparently teleported with the entire damn thing, and some bleak part of Eggman wondered how much longer it'd be till it broke free.

Taming a god was always a fool's dream.

"The echidna is dead."

Eggman looked up fully from his work at his desk, dropping his hands down harshly. "What happened?"

"Your trigger-happy robot happened. If you're going to keep rebuilding that thing, at least learn to keep it on a fucking leash," Infinite said in a scalding voice. Beside him, still confined, Chaos writhed uncomfortably. Red veins rocketed through it like streamers and the membrane floating around in its head was deeply saturated with Phantom Ruby clusters, almost so seemingly sentient it was like they were sinking their teeth into Chaos.

They were nearing a successful meld, and yet it was still so volatile.

"Metal Sonic is dependable." The doctor looked over Chaos for another moment, and then returned to the machine on his desk as he finished linking up the last few wires.

Infinite scoffed at him. "They broke it again. That's, what, the third time in the last few weeks?"

"Enough," Eggman snapped. "Don't pretend like you are of no fault. You let the situation escalate. Obviously so much that you had to flee with Chaos."

Infinite tipped his head down slightly, though it was not to be mistaken for subordination. Instead a deep, smoldering rage could be seen in his gaze, teeming with indignation. "I… underestimated their abilities. The hedgehog unleashed a power that rivaled my own." He huffed. "We need to act fast. They've already stolen two of our emeralds—how much longer till they have all seven?"

Sighing, Eggman rose from his chair and gestured to an Egg Pawn lurking nearby to heft up the machine on his desk and follow. Presently, they still had that clunky black engine hooked up to Chaos' cage. It not only charged Chaos' cage, but also conducted an impressive amount of energy that acted as a meager substitute for the real Master Emerald to feed the hungry Ruby clusters. Eggman had spent the last few days working on a prototype for something more refined and powerful though, and since Chaos was here, it might as well get tested out.

His Egg Pawn set the revised conductor on the ground and Eggman began to rewire the cables leading to Chaos. When all was done, his new engine roared to life before settling into a smooth purr that was amply pleasing to Eggman's ears. Chaos' cage shimmered and the god cried out as red lightning surged through it more intensely than before. A success.

The doctor stood again to face his accomplice. "We need to tread lightly for the time being. With the echidna gone, we have nothing to placate Chaos moving forward, which means we must be extremely careful to not provoke it too much. This base is also much more secure and hidden than the Egg Carrier, and surely losing Knuckles will be a hefty blow to the rodents' morale, so we have the time to spare."

Infinite said nothing but his eyes burned with a thousand words. Eggman frowned.

He rehashed severely, as to leave no more room for argument, "We will lay low. No point in expending resources taking out the rebellion, especially without any Chaos Emeralds. Right now, Chaos is our key to victory."

Infinite growled to himself and marched towards Chaos, pressing his hand to the electric walls of its cage. Red light spread out from his fingertips, which only elicited more pained and agitated noises from the god.

"Stop it!"

"How?!" Infinite pressed. He removed his hand, to Chaos' and Eggman's relief, but maintained eye contact with the doctor as he paced forward. "How is this our key to victory? It actively rejects the Ruby's power. It isn't obedient. It's as good as a wild animal."

Eggman ran his hands over his face. "We just need to be patient. In due time, I believe that—"

"I'm tired of waiting! We are letting the resistance get away with sabotaging all of our plans and haven't made any significant headway since they took the Master Emerald from us. I say we up the pressure now. We need to force the bond."

As subtly as he could, Eggman moved between Infinite and the conductor. Ideally, this would not lead into a physical battle. Eggman wouldn't stand a chance against him—he just needed to stick to his own strengths and talk Infinite down with some carefully calculated words.

"If we overdo anything," Eggman stressed, "Chaos will kill us all. We won't be able to keep it contained. We need to rely on controlled experiments for now."

"Control?" Infinite barked, and his tone veered into a sort of hysterical laugh. "You want to talk about control? Take myself—look how much the Phantom Ruby has improved me. Look how much more powerful I have become. If I can control this, surely we can control Chaos."

Eggman stared at him and felt a strong wave of sudden doubt. Infinite, as much as he may have convinced himself otherwise, was the antithesis of controlled. He was a mess, a washed-up joke, bleeding out in an alleyway on some random night, and he just happened to become the needed test subject for the Phantom Ruby that Eggman had been experimenting with. If the Ruby could manipulate reality, what affects would it have on a living being?

Infinite was a walking chemical reaction, and Eggman still wasn't sure if it was a successful one or not. He bonded wonderfully with the Phantom Ruby, he was immensely powerful, strong enough to get them both this far—but he was arrogant and violent and a threat. And he certainly wasn't the dying college student he picked up off the side of the road all those months ago. Eggman would argue that he was nothing more than a vessel for the Ruby. Infinite was the real puppet. He didn't seem to have any real control over himself at all.

That damned Ruby gave him an overinflated ego and if Eggman didn't put him in his place, he'd probably commit mass genocide or something equally ludicrous.

"You need to understand that there are simply forces in this universe that you cannot mess with," Eggman hissed, jabbing a finger in Infinite's direction. "I know you're new to this line of business, but coming from a scientist who has dedicated his life's work to studying Chaos and several other otherworldly powers, you can't exactly control a god."

Infinite's laugh came sharp and bitter. "I am a god, you petulant little tool. I am more powerful than anything on this wretched planet. I will tame Chaos, and put an end to this ridiculous war. We can kill them all, Ivo! We could be unstoppable."

The situation was getting well out of hand. Infinite was shaking, and the Phantom Ruby was glowering in a harsh light, and there was a tiny smidgen of fear in the back of Eggman's mind that told him, maybe he was going to die right now. Part of him thought he'd go mad from another one of his creations turning on him.

Eggman leaned over to power down the new energy conductor. It maintained Chaos' cage but at the lowest output possible, and Chaos visibly relaxed. He felt his face going red as he fought to stay composed. "You're being insane. Leave my lab—I don't want you near this until I can finish my research. You're just going to screw us all over."

But, to his growing dismay, Infinite did not waver. Red particles expanded around him as he rose up into the air, the power of the Phantom Ruby crackling in his hands, a sinister look beneath the mask.

Infinite chuckled, and Eggman stumbled over himself as he backed away slowly. "It amuses me immensely that you think you can boss me around. That you ever thought you were in charge. That you ever thought I wouldn't cast you aside once I was done using you."

Eggman rasped for air, feeling rather dizzy. The whole room seemed to emanate a sickly red now.

"Your plans have always dragged us down, always led to failure and weakness." Infinite lurched forward and gripped onto Eggman's torso, holding his deadly sharp claws to his jugular. "Well, now, I'm in charge. And first order of business—you're fired."

He threw the doctor across the laboratory with such a force that he never thought he'd be faced with. Eggman had witnessed a handful of Infinite's atrocities, how he could decimate populations in minutes, but to be at the brunt of just a sliver of his capabilities was enough to steal the air from his lungs. Eggman crashed through the wall, and dust and rubble crumbled in after him.

Through spinning vision, Eggman watched Infinite turn his back to him disinterestedly, not even bothering to finish the job as he instead approached Chaos. Infinite planted his hands onto the generator, and a burning red gleamed from him like he was a beacon, and raw energy seemed to flow directly from him, through the cables, and into Chaos.

Chaos shrieked like a dying, pitiful creature being disemboweled. Ruby light shot through the intangible clear-blue, and Chaos' eyes were pure red, and the clusters on its brain seemed to thicken and spread. It swelled up like a rising wave, and Eggman could see the failing energy cage struggle to contain it.

It was too much. It was too much for Chaos.

"Going to…" Eggman slurred out softly, trying to crawl back to his feet and slink away in the shadows. "He's going to kill us all."

He was gone before he could witness the scene worsen any further. He charged down the hall until he reached the docking bay, and jammed in a code with a trembling hand into the keypad by the entrance. A small Egg Mobile whizzed over to him instantaneously and he climbed inside, rocketing through the exit until he was back above ground, safely escaped from the hidden bunker, and soaring well above Station Square into the clouds above.

He felt—

He felt like—

How should he have described it?

These small moments came to him, time to time, and it was like lifting his head from a fog. In these moments, the Phantom Ruby's hold loosened around his neck, and there was a fleeting glimpse of clarity, some sort of—sobriety, as though he didn't realize he was suffocating until he was already breathing again.

And it never lasted long. The moments were often insignificant and too short to make any note of. They were sporadic and pointless. Like now.

Like right now, as he infused the Ruby's power itself directly into Chaos, as he invoked his master plan (their master plan). Chaos was already enlarging and morphing, its shape deformed as red streaks thrashed through it, flashing and crackling. Its cage was no more, Chaos was too big, too strong, and the Phantom Ruby basked in the glory—Infinite could feel that in his chest, its gloating heat.

The energy conductor was also sparking with electricity and congested red energy. And as he maintained his hold on the machine, it almost seemed like it was caving in on itself.

What was he thinking about, again?

—Right. Those… moments. He was having another one of those weird moments, where, for just a blink of an eye, he was detached from the Phantom Ruby, they were yet again two separate entities, and he thought of thoughts that he normally couldn't think.

He was thinking of soda.

Infinite made a face to himself. Food and drinks and sugar were beneath him—the Phantom Ruby provided all the sustenance he ever needed. He was a god. He'd never even had a soda before.

Right?

(There was something, something. A hot summer day, flashing lights, red—? A carnival. Vendors, the smell of butter and salt in the air, crowds of tourists, chattering voices, and sweat was dripping down his face.)

He gasped, the press of the Phantom Ruby sharp against his chest. Chaos was almost large enough to burst through the roof now. It bulged and rippled and it unhinged its jaw to roar out monstrously. The Ruby hummed in delight. Infinite smiled.

(Soda, soda. It was a hot summer day at the carnival, and he wanted to get a soda. Did—did he want one? Did—wait. Who? Did who want one? I'm gonna go buy a soda, do you want one?)

(Who was he?! Who else was at the carnival with him?)

Red fur, gold eyes.

Infinite blinked.

Soda. That's what he felt like. Infinite felt like a shaken up soda can, compressing so much energy within himself, on the brink of exploding. It couldn't be contained. It had to spread. It had to control. The Phantom Ruby clutched to him and demanded for more.

Beneath his palms, the energy conductor collapsed inward so much it was like a vacuum, like a black hole devouring itself, and it crinkled up—aluminum, shriveled soda can, carbonated, volatile, explosive—until it was nothing.

And then the Null Space finally came. And then Chaos broke through the roof, and it continued to grow, and the Phantom Ruby flowed through it, and the Null Space grew as well. It began a speck, in the stead of the disappeared energy conductor, too overwhelmed with energy. Cables still linked to the base of Chaos into the Null Space, and maybe that was the key to it. Red jumped around between the god and the vortex, and the portal ballooned before him, swirling and dark, and it sucked in everything it could voraciously: bits and pieces of the doctor's lab flew in with no restraint.

How did he even know what the Null Space was? What exactly was it? What was on the other side of this black hole?

The Phantom Ruby buzzed and told him this was right. This was meant to happen and everything was going perfectly.

—How did he even know what a soda can was?

(Red fur, gold eyes. Red fur, gold eyes.)

The Phantom Ruby was hot cinders on his flesh, and Infinite became nothing but red. It was time to fulfill his purpose to the Ruby. It was time to destroy the world.

They received a call through the comms. It was Silver—from Red Mountain.

"Silver? What's going on, did you get the Chaos Emerald yet?"

"Um—" He sounded a little short-winded. "Yeah. Yes. We have the emerald."

"Is everything okay?"

A pause. "No. Something's—something's wrong. We can see Station Square from up here on the mountain, and—"

All of Knothole held its breath.

"It's Chaos. It—it literally just exploded out of the ground in the streets below, and it looks scary as hell. It's starting to flood the city 'cause it's gotten so out of control, and I think it's angry at us because it can sense our emerald."

"Is it Perfect Chaos? Does it look like Perfect Chaos?"

"I don't know! I think so? I've never seen Perfect Chaos before but from what I've read in the past, from what you guys have told me, I think it might be. But it's all red and—and glitchy. Everyone needs to get here, now, before it causes catastrophic damage to the city or before it gets any bigger."

"We're on our way. With all of the emeralds."

"Okay, okay, just—a warning, that's going to make us a huge target. I think Infinite might be here too. We—we're gonna need all hands on deck."

There was trepidation, but above it all, assurance; strength in numbers. "Nothing we can't handle."

i gotta say, this chapter was rly fun to write. shit's hitting the fan but that's the interesting stuff amiright!