A/N: Neo is a sigma male. Mecha is an alpha male. Silver is a gamer. That is all

Anyway! Robot daddy issues and depression ahoy

Everything comes to an end.

Even the stamina of the world's fastest hedgehog and his newest robot double.

Sonic trotted to a halt atop a grassy hill. His robot companion was close behind him. Silver bounced to a stop beside him, clearly not tired from their race at all. He jumped up and down several more times as if to shake the rest of his energy from his systems, but nothing sated the itch in programming to keep going. Overwhelmed by his own energy, the robot opened and closed his hands repeatedly and then shook them out.

Sonic noticed his robot double's behaviour and laughed. "I do that all the time! It's so hard to keep still, right?"

Silver met his gaze and gave him a sheepish look. "I'm not copying you, I swear! I just, I dunno what to do with all the electric stuff. The energy. I dunno what to call it."

"Then let's get moving." Sonic gestured for Silver to follow and broke into a jog. He could empathize with the robot's itch to keep moving, and seeing him need to get going ignited that urge in him too. "We can keep talkin' like this."

Silver followed after him eagerly with a grin. "You don't have to tell me twice!"

Sonic looked at him as they effortlessly picked up the pace. "So... what's going on with you, robohog? Why'd your older bros call me out here? It doesn't seem like a trap, for once."

"No, it's not a trap. We're murder machines, but I like to think that we wouldn't all come at you at once. That'd be cheap!" Silver told him with a laugh. "Besides, Metal would want all the glory for themselves - you're arch enemies after all."

A short silence followed. Silver looked down, then away, then back to him. It felt strange to be confiding in his supposed arch-enemy this way. Strange, but somehow, right. There were certain things that Mecha couldn't understand, that Neo wouldn't understand, and certainly things that his father wouldn't get either. He didn't wait for Sonic to reply before saying what was really on his mind.

"So... How does it feel to know that you can die?" Silver blurted out without really thinking about it. "Doesn't that freak you out?"

"Oh, jeez, kiddo. That's a heavy question." Sonic scratched the side of his head and gave him a concerned look.

Seeing his own feelings on Sonic's face had an odd effect on Silver. It did not lessen his pain or confusion but made it easier to bear.

"I know it is." Silver answered him matter-of-factly. He felt a twist of embarrassment in his tanks upon seeing his so-called enemy's concern but dismissed it after a second. "But I'm serious. You're organic, so your death is inevitable. How does that feel? How do you live with it?"

Sonic looked past the morbidity of the topic and smiled reassuringly at him. "Listen kiddo. Everything has its end. That's why we gotta live life to the fullest with the time that we have."

Silver sighed and met his eyes again. He tried to take those words in, and while they did soothe something in his processor, there were still so many dark fears lingering in him. No matter how many organics he asked, none of them would be able to tell him what happens when a robot gets destroyed. They would never experience it. This disconnect between machine and organic only seemed to get wider, and Silver struggled to comprehend how to deal with that.

"So what good is a world that goes on forever?" Sonic continued when Silver didn't respond. "Knowing that there's an end? It makes the time that we have precious."

Silver nodded and smiled, forcing himself to match Sonic's expression despite his worries. "Yeah, you're right about that, loathsome copy. Thanks."

"Just call me Sonic!" Sonic said with a wink. "I promise I won't rat you out to your robros for calling me that."

If only it was that easy.

Silver swallowed down his nervousness about doing that. Such a simple task, really, and yet so taboo. He had almost said the hedgehog's name a few times before, but... having the priority-one enemy telling him to do it himself was different. It was so instilled into his programming to refuse that name that it felt like untangling a thousand cables to even think about it. He inhaled deeply through his intake and let the air out just as loudly.

"Thanks, Sonic."

Silver's face went blank for a moment as he processed what he had just done. Then, embarrassment yanked his feet out from under him, and he stumbled over himself quite literally. He grimaced and felt his muzzle plate heat up in the ghost of a flush as he picked up the pace again.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Sonic laughed at him and pushed his shoulder. "Think you can do that from now on, buddy?"

Silver's embarrassment only grew at the hedgehog's question. He lowered his head as if to avoid the organic's eyes, but then unexpectedly veered off to the left and back around to the way they had come from. He turned his head away and revved his engine in protest.

"Wh- Hey! Easy!" Sonic turned on his heel and grabbed Silver's arm, dragging them both to a halt with his heels firmly in the dirt.

The robot and organic hedgehog stood silent for a long second, neither one of them speaking.

Silver finally processed what this feeling was.

It wasn't just embarrassment. It was shame.

He looked down at the ground and frowned. He clenched his free fist at his side.

"I shouldn't be talking to you like this. We're... we're not..." Silver started, but stopped. He couldn't fathom how to word how it felt.

"Friends? No." Sonic released his arm and walked casually around to face him. He put a hand on his hip and bent down slightly to meet Silver's downturned gaze. "None of us are ever gonna be best pals. I know that." He waited for a moment until Silver made eye contact with him, at which point he softened and smiled warmly. "But I don't need a reason to help someone out. Even if that someone is a robot. Even if said robot was made to kick my butt."

Silver took that in for a moment. The heavy feeling in his chest gradually lifted, becoming something more bearable, but he couldn't bring himself to answer Sonic's original question. It felt like a betrayal of his siblings, of his father, of his own programming to do this simple task. Luckily, Sonic dropped it, figuring it was best not to push the topic. Perhaps he had overstepped. He, too, felt regret about the interaction.

He changed the topic.

"So what happened back home? Tell me about it." Sonic asked, genuinely interested. "If it's too heavy to run with, let someone help you carry it."

"... You'll probably get what I mean." Silver started, hesitance in his voice. He started walking, and Sonic followed by his side. "It sucks. It sucks when your family is in constant danger." Sonic nodded in acknowledgment, prompting him to continue. "For starters, I saw Neo- uh, Metal, dead. Like, an actual corpse."

"When did that happen?" Sonic asked, surprised by that. He furrowed a brow in confusion.

"After what happened when he tried to take over the world." Silver elaborated with a tinge of sadness in his voice. "He couldn't take the thought of something like that happening again. He knows he was wrong. He begged our dad to kill him. So... he did. It was really sad." He almost cringed at how childlike he sounded in that moment, and he grimaced, changing the topic slightly. "It's not easy to see someone you really care about in that state of mind, just... completely suicidal. We weren't close when it happened, but I've seen him in dark places since then, and it's terrible."

"I'll bet he wasn't happy about being brought back." Sonic acknowledged him with a sympathetic smile. "I didn't realize things were so bad for the guy."

Silver sighed as he moved on to his oldest sibling. "You know about the Mecha situation firsthand. He... he was tortured." He frowned at his own words, not wanting them to be true - but the truth was cruel, cold, and hard, unchanging. "He's traumatized. He has flashbacks all the time. He has panic attacks. And Metal and I have to hold his hand and tell him it'll be okay. I hate that this happened to him, and I hate that I can't just... erase his pain. I've seen him cry, for chaos' sake. The strongest of all of us, he cries now." A miserable expression came over him. "Seeing him cry is the worst feeling in the entire world."

Sonic nodded as he listened. "I know he was pretty banged up, but I didn't think it would affect him like that." He almost felt ignorant, but at the same time, his rivalry with Mecha had never been as intense as his rivalry with Neo. He didn't know Mecha like that.

"And as for me, well... Let's just say I've kind of... woken up." Silver broke into a jog again, subconsciously running from his own words. "A robot didn't take too kindly to Metal's whole Overlord escapade. They became hell-bent on revenge and teamed up with the military to get it. They tried to take over our flagship, but Mecha and Metal were smart as always and stopped them through the control system. Oh, aaaand then I nearly died."

"Woah, woah, back up! I think you skipped a few chapters there." Sonic exclaimed, wanting him to backtrack. "What happened?"

"I got cocky, the robot was actually kinda strong, ended up with a cannon to my CPU." Silver rushed through the explanation with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Mecha and N- Metal came just in time, we had a cute little moment together, updated everyone's security settings, happy ending all around apart from the extra trauma. And then I had an epiphany that I can actually, like, die. Get destroyed. Whatever."

Sonic nodded, glad to hear that the robot's siblings had arrived on time. "Good riddance to that other ro-butt. But also, that part about the military? That's worrying, dude."

Silver nodded too and looked down briefly. "Yeah. I, uh... I was gonna ask something." He met Sonic's eyes again. "You got any contacts who could see what data they have on us? After what happened on our ship, it's kind of a problem. They have some really important stuff on all of us and they'll use it again, for sure." He rubbed the back of his head without thinking about it, subconsciously guarding his own CPU. "If they took Mecha or Metal prisoner, I don't think they'll waste time being slow about it the next time around. I hate to think of what they'd do."

Sonic thought about it for a second. "Hmm... Actually, yeah. You wanna come with?" He gestured with a thumb over his shoulder to back the way they had come from. "Tails and I are holed up in a hotel for the night whilst we're out adventuring. If anyone can help, it's my lil' bro. Aaaand we may or may not know a couple peeps on the inside too. Just tell your bro to keep the thunder and lightning away from Tails, okay? He's sensitive about it."

Silver lit up like a Christmas tree. The prospect of getting a good lead for his siblings, as well as meeting someone new, was very exciting. He bounced for a few steps before continuing to run, and then turned around and looked up to get Neo and Mecha's attention. He waved at them and bounced backwards until he came to a stop.

"Hey guys! Come down, we have an idea!"

Almost at the same time, Neo and Mecha came down with a loud thud - Neo behind Sonic, and Mecha behind Silver. Neo stood just a little too close to Sonic, and Sonic side-stepped away from him instinctively. The two exchanged looks of distaste for a moment - Neo at Sonic for just being there, and Sonic at Neo for behaving the way he was. Sonic did feel for Neo's situation, and Neo did hold more respect for Sonic now, but they certainly weren't friends.

Silver snapped his fingers to get their attention as if breaking up two dogs ready to fight.

"Ladies, ladies, no fighting. As I said, I have a lead." Silver proudly stated with his arms out. "If you would care to listen."

Mecha stepped closer to his little sibling and nodded. "My auditory receptors are adequately tuned. Speak."

Neo nodded and folded his arms. He took a couple of steps away from Sonic and tapped his foot impatiently.

"Okay listen up. We've got beef with hog here. Obviously. But what's more important right now is..." Silver hesitated, feeling his siblings' confused and irritated stares on him. "Is getting the military to delete what they've got on us. Because who knows what technology they have, what infections they could be concocting, passcodes to bases, anything. They probably have it all by now. S- The hedgehog and T- the fox can help."

Neo froze. His anger was quick to surface. Tails would likely go into fits of terror, or joy, whichever, upon hearing that Neo needed his assistance. Disgusting. Let alone the way the hedgehog would smirk at him! He defensively narrowed his optics and signed "fuck" to himself without thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Mecha considered the proposition carefully. "Indeed, this might be a plausible solution. However, the doctor should be working to remove that data, should he not? Will our plans not hinder his own?"

Neo shook his head sharply. "Forget it. We cannot trust anything he says or does. We are better off handling the situation by ourselves."

Sonic looked at him and raised a brow curiously. Neo met his eyes for a split second before looking away, disgusted. He drummed his claws on his arms to try to settle himself. It was a strange feeling... Something akin to suddenly running out of rocket fuel at a thousand feet. It was nauseating and confusing. Could Sonic understand him when he spoke that way? Perhaps that time before hadn't just been a coincidence. He was reminded of Mecha's invasion of his privacy in the past and found bitter amusement in the irony. His organic copy was probably doing the same thing right now, listening to him when it wasn't asked for. Curse that hedgehog.

Neo had been too absorbed in his inner monologue to notice that Sonic had already called for Tails. Figures. The hedgehog and the fox were inseparable, and Tails had been close by the entire time. Likely in case if something went wrong. The thought mildly amused Neo. It wasn't as if Tails was a threat to him.

He was drawn out of his thoughts when Sonic greeted the aforementioned fox.

Tails landed neatly a few feet away and waved. "What do you need Soni-" He stopped dead with his mouth open as his eyes scanned over the three killer robots. He knew they were going to be nearby for the meeting that Neo had arranged, but somehow, having them right in front of them was a different story altogether. He gulped noisily.

Neo watched him intently with brightly glowing red eyes. Privately, he pulled up his file on the fox, "Miles Prower," and studied it almost dismissively. But, begrudgingly, he did note that Tails was very well known for his high intelligence. He could be useful to them... Neo settled for that and closed the file.

"Hey lil' bro! I've got a favour to ask." Sonic greeted him optimistically. He sheepishly grinned an apology to the fox after that and gestured to the three robot brothers. "These guys need our help."

Silver waved to Tails and smiled, not an ounce of animosity to be found. "Hey!"

Mecha acknowledged Tails with an incline of his head.

Tails waved back, looking confused at the robots' friendliness for a second. Over his shoulder was a backpack, which he slung off onto the ground. "What do you need help with, Sonic?" He avoided addressing any of the robots directly.

"We need your smarts, lil' bro. The military has classified stuff on these guys and I think we should help them." Sonic explained, sounding confident. But as he spoke, he realized just how insane the proposition was. He became very much aware of Mecha and Neo staring at his back. He turned ever so slightly to acknowledge them without looking. "If anyone's gonna take Egghead down, it's us, and we'll do it fair. The military is playing dirty with them. Taking prisoners like they've done? That's not how we roll."

Tails nodded, fresh determination coming over him at Sonic's words. He loved being able to use his intelligence to help others, even if the circumstances were bizarre. "I've built a TV out of paperclips. I've programmed a supercomputer using a toothpick. So look, deleting stuff from a database? That's about as difficult as a walk in the park!"

Sonic laughed and patted the fox's head fondly. It was a rolling laugh that invited everyone else to join in, ever infectious. "You got that right lil' bro! As long as we can do this without it coming back on us, we'll be fine."

Neo made a point of looking away now. Seeing the hedgehog interact with the fox as adoptive brothers stirred a deep discomfort within him. It was like seeing his own traits mirrored in front of him. It was disturbing. After all of his work to be more of his own person, it was like unraveling a thread, and painfully, frighteningly fast. His hand moved to the tangle around his wrist, and he messed with it absent-mindedly. He had been able to resist it in front of those Egg Pawns, but he was truly suffering now.

Neo found a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head and looked up at Mecha, who rubbed his shoulder plate supportively. They said nothing to each other, but they didn't need to, anyway. Mecha turned his gaze to Sonic and held it there protectively.

Tails opened his backpack and started to rummage through it. "Are we all going back to the hotel?"

Sonic nodded and looked thoughtfully at the robot trio. "Yeah. Slight problem, though. They're not exactly... subtle?"

Tails pulled a pile of clothing from his bag and held it out to Sonic with pride. "Then it's a good thing I always come prepared!"

Sonic ruffled the fox's fur and grinned at him. "Nice. I can always count on you!"

Neo shivered. Disgusting. Repulsive. Mecha checked him by gripping his shoulder plate just a little tighter. Neo turned his head ever so slightly to acknowledge him and forced himself to relax.

This was about protecting his brothers now.

He put his hatred aside one more time. As he did, the rain started to fall.

The mismatched group, part robot and part organic, rounded a street corner, where a cheerful yellow glow lit up the robots' armour.

Neo hissed at the realization and looked sharply at his brothers, checking that they weren't too obvious - but neither of them seemed fazed by it. He swallowed down his anxiety and pressed on with his head low and shoulders tense. He briefly thought about the bright white arrows on his face, screaming "look at me! I'm a robot!" Most inconvenient at such a strange time. He almost wished he had just shapeshifted, but his brothers weren't endowed with the same abilities, and he wasn't going to abandon them like that.

He begrudgingly put on the blue hoodie that Tails had given him and pulled the hood as far over his face as it could go. He prompted his brothers to do the same. Mecha did so diligently, while Silver excitedly threw his own black hoodie on and admired how it looked. He privately found it hilarious that his two assassin siblings were dressed like organics, too. Sonic made a point of not looking - the tiniest smirk on his face would probably send Neo into a fit.

This distinctly organic behaviour made all three of the robots feel out of place to varying degrees. But it would have to do if they were going to get in. They each made a point of dimming their optics to mask the glow as best as they could.

"Don't worry, guys." Sonic told them all over his shoulder. "As long as you do it with confidence, you can get away with anything. Just watch."

Sonic went first. He walked to the main doors and pushed them open, where he stepped into a warm room lit with bright lights.

"Yo! Just headin' back to my room with a few guests, that cool?"

The receptionist looked up from their newspaper and smiled as the odd group entered. "Ah, yes! Hello! Come in, quickly. Terrible day to be out adventuring. Still out saving the day in this weather?" Their eyes rested on the wet hoodies that the robots were wearing for a very brief moment, but as always, Sonic stole the show as the world's greatest hero - the strange robots were hardly acknowledged. As they looked to Sonic, Neo's shoulders relaxed instantly. They were in. For once, the hedgehog's ego and reputation were a blessing. Tails was also helpful, for he stood in front of the trio and pretended to check for something in his bag. The trio stayed turned away from the desk to avoid reflecting the lights.

"It's a 24/7 job, I'm afraid!" Sonic mirrored the receptionist's attitude with a chuckle before gesturing to his newfound companions. "Mind if we get my friends here dried off?"

"Not at all. Have a good evening Mr. Hedgehog." The receptionist went back to their newspaper and didn't give the group a second thought. In that moment, they must have been the luckiest killer robots alive.

Sonic led the group away quickly. They passed by several doors, finally coming to his own about a minute later. He pushed the room door open and the lights flicked on as he entered. Neo was the last to enter, so he closed the door behind himself. His hand lingered on the door handle for a moment. He considered walking straight back out to be rid of the burden of being close to the hedgehog.

How horrible. He needed the hedgehog's assistance.

He let go of the handle slowly, but stayed facing the door. This was a small, confined space, and he was practically in the hedgehog's shadow. He was trapped. He pressed his forehead into it and shut off his optics, privately battling with his anger and his need to protect Silver. Being better than his programming was indescribably difficult. Everything in his being was screaming to either get violent or run away. Or both.

He continued to suppress his hatred as best as he could for his siblings.

The room was small and clean, contrasting Neo's dark mood, and the window was cracked open ever so slightly to let in the fresh air. There was an adjoining bathroom, which Tails quickly disappeared in to so that he could towel dry himself.

"All right!" Silver exclaimed, looking around the four walls in awe. "This is more like it." He bounded about the room, exploring everything. It was all so different from the cold metal base that he had been raised in. Where were the reinforced doors, and the buttons on the walls, and the many-coloured lights on the ceiling? It was bizarre.

Mecha noted his brother's amazement and chuckled quietly. "This is an average Mobian settlement. You will find that most other buildings resemble this one." He looked around for a moment until his gaze rested on the window. "I will stand guard outside. If any trouble approaches, I will alert you at once." Without hesitation, he popped the window the rest of the way open and hopped into a tree outside, where he clambered up a few levels and crouched neatly in the shade of the leaves.

Neo finally looked over his shoulder to watch Mecha go, and his optics softened all too obviously as he did. He didn't want Mecha to go alone, but he also didn't want to leave Silver alone with the hedgehog. If Sonic dared put a scratch in his brother's paint, Neo wanted to be the first to make him pay for it. As he got lost in thought, he didn't notice Sonic looking at him - but when he did, he angrily beeped and turned back around to face the door.

Sonic had seen that tiny moment of softness, and it brought a small smile to his face.

Silver sat on the bed with his legs crossed next to Tails, who was fluffed up from his quick towel dry.

"This place is so cool!" Silver remarked to himself, still not done looking around. "But where do you keep the weapons of mass destruction? And the alarm systems? And the guns?"

Tails wasn't exactly sure of what to make of the robot yet, but he let himself laugh quietly. He looked over to Sonic nervously, and Sonic winked and gave him a thumbs-up, silently telling him that Silver was okay to interact with. The fox reached under the bed and pulled out a laptop bag, from which he pulled out his device and plopped it onto the bed. Silver eagerly bounded over and sat down next to it, and Tails hesitantly joined him.

Sonic was satisfied that everything was in order for now. He gave Tails a reassuring smile before disappearing to the bathroom to dry himself off.

The organics and the robots had an unspoken agreement here. If Neo hurt anyone, then his brothers would become Sonic's targets too. If Sonic hurt either of the two siblings, Neo would be there to do something about it. For now, there was a truce, albeit a very tense one.

Ironically, brotherhood was what kept them all apart and brought all them together at the same time.

But that still left Tails alone with two killer robots. And a third one hanging around outside. The thought made the fox's fur bristle, and he couldn't hide it.

Despite his stress, Tails swallowed down the worst of his fear and looked over to Neo, forcing a smile. He wanted to be kind.

"C-Can I get anything for you, Metal?" Tails asked as confidently as he could. He started pulling up the GUN database on the screen as a distraction.

Neo barely shook his head in reply.

"He said no." Silver "translated" for him, earning a sharp glare from the older robot over his shoulder. Silver grinned back in reply.

Tails lowered the lid of his laptop for a second and realized that his back was soaked with sweat. He had been so tense that his hands were shaking. With a sigh, he leaned against the bedpost until the spell passed and his head cleared. Metal was the enemy of all enemies, and having him just stand there like that was unnerving... Especially with those new white markings all over his body. It reminded Tails of his last encounter with the robot, who had been deep in the grips of psychosis and self-hatred at the time.

But, he had just spoken to Metal Sonic, and the robot hadn't tried to kill him again. The realization almost made him giddy.

Silver picked up on the fox's anxiety easily. He scooted across and whispered in his ear. "Seriously, don't worry about him."

Tails flinched slightly and folded his ears back. He stole a glance over to Neo, who pretended not to notice him staring. "I-I know, but... He..."

Silver prodded the fox in the side. "Listen, he's not gonna do anything. Not whilst I'm here." He gave a wink and a reassuring smile. "They're all talk. Or, erm, sign language. Is that offensive?"

Neo picked up Silver's remark and shot a sarcastic glare at him, one optic squinted slightly at him.

"Hey, it's not my fault I'm not programmed to understand your beep-boop language. If you or our pops would, I dunno, make me a program for it I wouldn't have to make comments like that."

Neo rolled his optics at him and finally turned around. He leaned back against the door and signed, "I will consider it. Not promising."

Silver grinned challengingly at him. "Sarcasm, the first sign of a damaged CPU. Other symptoms include being hit in the face."

"That can be prevented by me hitting you in the face first." Neo purposely switched to code to rile him.

"Aghh! I hate when you do that!" Silver held his head in his hands before pouting at him. "Just sign if you're gonna insult me back. I can take it."

"No." Neo disregarded him and looked away. Silver didn't need a translation to know what his brother had just said.

"Ouch. Tongue still sharper than your claws. And to think we used to be best bros. I'm hurt, Neo!" Silver put a hand over his chest to feign a hurting heart.

"You hear that?" Neo signed back at him, "The glorious sound of past tense."

There was a long silence, but it was a much more comfortable one. Tails was secretly marveling that he wasn't afraid of the robot brothers right now, for his anxiety had lifted into something much more tolerable. Metal and Mecha had haunted his nightmares for years, and here he was, witnessing a completely normal conversation between Metal and his little sibling as if they weren't made for murder. Specifically the murder of his own adoptive brother.

In a way, Tails found himself actually liking the robots, for under their viciousness they did have some things in common with him: a passion for learning, a keenness for building things, a strong brotherly bond, and certain insecurities, too. And Tails had supposed that the robots had weaknesses before, but now, their own seemed so much like his - anxiety and fear among them - that Tails identified with them. That, and they were incredible works of technology. He had to appreciate that, at the very least.

With this liking for the robots came the desire to be their friend... and to have them share friendship with those he loved. Sonic included.

The fox found himself talking before he really processed what he was going to ask.

"Metal, do you still hate Sonic?"

He instantly regretted asking such a question and flinched back into himself. It was too late to take back, though, and he forced himself to sit upright to face the repercussions. The mood in the room shifted dramatically. Neo's body language stiffened and his claws tensed dangerously as he signed his reply.

"Yes."

Tails frowned at him. "Why?"

"He is my enemy."

"R-Right, but aside from that! If you had beaten Sonic, would you still hate him?"

"Yes."

"Why is that?"

"Because..." Neo paused, his hands frozen for a long moment as he mentally fumbled for words. "I just do."

Tails frowned again. "Even after he helped to save Mecha Sonic? What does he have to do to make you not hate him?"

Neo faltered again. The idea of not hating the hedgehog was so strange. It had been his primary pastime, apart from fixating on surpassing him. But Tails was right. Sonic had not only helped to free Mecha, and had protected Silver from harm, but had let him walk away without so much as a scratch. He had tried to make amends after contributing to Mecha ending up in that situation the first place.

It was truly awful.

Neo suddenly hated him worse than ever, but this time, his hatred was fuelled by guilt. The guilt that Sonic wasn't acting like his arch-enemy. Sonic was trying to make amends, and this meant that Neo was morally "in the wrong" to keep on hating him this way. It was so much easier when Sonic just hated him back. He could deal with that. But Neo's own development had been hindered by his hatred, and it wasn't until he learned to set it aside from that he could concentrate on other things, like... Neo stole a glance across to Silver and paused.

His hesitancy twisted into sharp and defensive anger. He turned on the fox in fury and took a step towards him.

"It is none of your business." Neo sharply told him. "The hedgehog put you up to this, yes?"

"N-No he didn't, I'm sorry." Tails looked down, guilt and anxiety punching him in the gut instantly. "I didn't mean to make you mad."

A long, stoney silence followed. Neo folded his arms and avoided meeting the fox's eyes for some time. His claws drummed antsily against his arm plating and his optics darkened and narrowed in a glare.

Silver sighed through his vents and poked Tails again to get his attention. "Like I said, he's all talk, so don't worry." He whispered before leaning in a little closer with a guilty look. "He's still sensitive about the hedgehog stuff. We're, uh, working on it."

Tails nodded and tried to focus on his work. Hearing Neo's sharp claws clink against his armour was unnerving, though - a reminder that the robot could tear him to shreds if he decided to. He cast a few more uneasy glances across to the killer robot, and Neo couldn't ignore them anymore. He gave an angry beep and stormed off to the window to join Mecha outside, cursing in code several times as he went.

Tails flinched into himself as the robot strode by and jumped out of the window.

"He's just a bit of a fixer-upper, like, emotionally." Silver reassured the fox beside him. "I would say don't take it personal, but... it kinda is. Not gonna lie."

Tails nervously laughed and scratched his head. "Yeah, I figured."

Silver scooted across and opened the laptop lid again to get a look at the fox's progress. "Hmm, yes, very good. I sure know exactly what all of this means."

"You don't really, do you?" Tails stated more than asked him. "I'll teach you some stuff if you want-"

Silver's optics lit up at the proposition and he scooted even closer, now practically leaning against the fox. Tails let him, feeling more comfortable in the young robot's company now.

"Wait a sec." Silver tilted his head to one side in thought, already distracted by something else. "Do you have games on your laptop?"

For a split second, Tails thought he had imagined the murder robot saying that. He looked at Silver, only to find the robot's expression was serious. He swallowed down a laugh and nodded. "Y-Yeah, I have a few. Why?"

Silver held the fox's eyes for several long moments as a smile lit up his face.

"Alright alright! Just don't tell your brothers I'm doing this, okay?"

Silver was about to yell with excitement but quickly slapped a hand over his mouth before he could. He used his other hand to punch the air and a high-pitched beep escaped his vocalizer.

"Shh! Just let me connect controllers really quick." Tails tried to hush him as he scrambled for the devices in his laptop bag.

"I'm so gonna destroy you, fox boy." Silver prodded him with a grin. He leaned over to watch what the fox was doing. "You won't even see it coming!"

"You don't even know what games I have yet!"

"Doesn't matter. I know games like the back of my hand." Silver proudly told him with his chest puffed out. Even though he had never played a game in his very short existence. "You'll see."

"You sound just like Sonic right now." Tails snickered as he sat up, controllers in hand. "But you know what? It's good to see any Sonic."

Sonic walked back in with a towel slung over his shoulders and a grin on his face. "Hey, robohog's got nothin' on me." He sat down by the bed to watch the impending epic battle between the eight-year-old fox and the fresh-out-of-the-cryotube machine. "Now get playing! I wanna see how this goes down."

Neo his surroundings diligently, looking for Mecha. He picked up the other robot's signal and noted that it was a short distance above him. He looked up to see the older robot perched higher than before. Neo cast a quick glance around before jumping up to a branch, scaling it with ease to meet his sibling.

Mecha acknowledged him with a nod, but didn't say anything. He looked straight ahead and continuously scanned his surroundings, making a point of avoiding catching Neo in his scans for once. Neo let the silence continue for several minutes, content to just be in his sibling's presence. But Mecha's prolonged silence confused him after a while, and he turned his head to look at him.

"Are you alright?"

Mecha slowly nodded, as if unsure of himself.

"You seem uncertain." Neo regarded him with concern. "What is bothering you?"

Mecha finally dragged his optics away from the world around him and looked at Neo. "This situation is difficult to navigate."

"I agree." Neo settled on the branch, figuring that they would be here for some time now. "Subduing our programming is most difficult."

Mecha looked down. "It is not just that." He paused, considering how to word his question. "What transpired between you and the doctor? What is the reason that we are all here, in actuality? I do not understand and lacking data is not something I can tolerate."

Neo hesitated. "We had a disagreement."

Mecha looked at him again, silently prompting him to continue speaking.

"He was unusually dismissive," Neo explained carefully. "It bothered me, so I sought to understand why he was behaving that way. It turned into an argument. I told him that our brother is suffering and he said there was nothing he could do about it." The robot's fists clenched slowly as he recalled the conversation. "In essence, he told me that he cannot "coddle us" anymore, but that is not what I was asking of him."

Mecha regarded him with confusion. "That is strange. He recently treated us like-"

"Like people? Like his sons? Yes. I know." Neo cut him off sharply. "I hate it. It feels like it was a lie."

Mecha thought about this, unbothered by being cut off. "Humans are fickle and primarily driven by emotion and instinct." He noted Neo's frustration about the situation, and the irony of his own words. "It appears that time away has given him another perspective on his relationship with us. And perhaps it is understandable to some degree. We are both war machines. We were not built to be cared for in such a manner. This entire relationship was unintentional."

Neo shook his head fiercely, optics blazing angrily. "It does not matter. He cannot just rip that out from under us when he feels like it. It is unfair on us, and most definitely unfair on our brother."

Mecha went down the logic route again. "There is an unspoken line that the doctor must walk in regard to us, I believe. He desires a relationship with us, but simultaneously, we are creations made for the destruction of a target. We are family, yet weapons. It is most conflicting to have these two qualities warring with each other. What is one to do in that situation? Is it correct for him to be close to us, only for us to be destroyed later on if we depend on him too much? Or is it better for him to allow us to fend for ourselves and remain at a distance, lessening the chances of an inefficient attachment for all parties involved?"

Neo almost scoffed at Mecha's words. "For a robot who says they do not process empathy, you are becoming too adept at seeing things from another's point of view."

Mecha shrugged a shoulder. "Perhaps. I am not limiting myself."

Neo looked down at the ground below them. "It hurts, Mecha." His optics softened as he spoke, and he held onto his arms with his hands. "I thought I was..." He paused, almost not wanting to say it. "I thought I was his son." His claws started to dig into his paint ever so slightly.

"You are his creation." Mecha prized Neo's hands away from his armour as soon as he caught the behaviour. "Therefore, you may call yourself his child if you wish."

"Perhaps. But it does not feel like I am." Neo responded with a touch of bitterness in his voice. "How can he be my father when he denies me? When he denies all of us?" His bitterness twisted deeper as he thought about Sonic being close by. "And now this... Seeing the hedgehog treat that fox like a brother... perhaps our father is right to deny me. I am just a copy."

Mecha didn't answer that first question, but asked something else. "As a robot, why is family so important to you."

The question caught Neo off guard, and he looked up to Mecha in surprise. "Because..." He looked down, stumped. The cynical side to him sunk its claws in when he started to think about it, and he glared at the tree trunk below him as if blaming it for his problems. "I could prove that it is written in my coding from the hedgehog just as much as I could prove that it is my own choice to find it important."

"Precisely."

Neo looked up again and his optics brightened in confusion, not expecting Mecha to actually agree with him.

"Consider this: the desire for family was originally written in your data, as you acquired it from the hedgehog. In acquiring it from him, you inherited his desires, including those for kinship with another." Mecha let his words sink in for a second before continuing. "However, it is no longer basic coding, rather, it reflects a decision. You have discarded many of the traits that you inherited from the hedgehog, and have chosen to keep this one and make it your own. It demonstrates a choice you have made, whether it was conscious or not. So, it is yours. You sought this relationship by yourself just as much as you were programmed to."

Neo held his head in his hands as if struck by a headache. "I feel as though I am glitching right now." He slowly dragged his hands down his face. "Why do you stick around with me, Mecha?"

"You are not glitching." Mecha patted Neo on the shoulder before resuming his scans of the environment. "I do not possess the hedgehog's data for myself, so my choice to maintain this relationship with you is my own choice. At first, it merely benefitted my own survival to treat you this way. However, I am no longer simply attempting to survive in your presence."

Neo gave him a long look. "I never would have harmed you."

"That might be true." Mecha met his look with a blank expression. "But I could not have accurately gauged that during your reign, thus I always presumed that I was taking a calculated risk when interacting with you. Your moods were extremely volatile."

The other robot's honesty gripped Neo somewhere painful and deep. The only solace was knowing that, back then, Mecha couldn't feel fear at all. He wasn't scared of Neo, just... trying to keep functioning. But still, it wasn't nice to hear. Neo signed an apology and looked away. His regret twisted into anger again all too quickly. His mind jumped ahead a few paces, seeming to process what Mecha had previously said a bit too late. He pointedly moved away from Mecha, as if avoiding taking anything out on him.

"This is simply more proof that I am not real- not what I think I am." Neo hissed out. "I cannot truly care for another! It is just an instinct programmed into me. I only form attachments with those who aid my survival. That is all it is. It has to be."

The other robot's outburst didn't faze Mecha. He simply continued with what he was going to say. "... I learned that acting as a sibling to you not only worked in my favour, but aligned with my own desires, too. The more time I spent with you, the more I learned about things that did not revolve around battle. So, you have taught me several things about this world, and I am grateful for that." He found Neo's angry optics on him and met his gaze, unafraid of him.

Neo slowly relaxed again, feeling more guilty than anything. His previously grim mood lifted into something much more tolerable. The two fell quiet for a few minutes before either of them spoke up again.

"I am still concerned for our brother." Neo admitted, bitterly recalling his conversation with Eggman again.

"As am I." Mecha echoed him. "I do not wish to see him suffer any further."

"Me neither. He deserves better." Neo replied, his optics sad. "As do you."

The siblings startled upon hearing a loud "thud" noise coming from the hotel room, and Neo immediately looked down to the window to see the shadow of a controller fly across the room. Bewildered and confused, he narrowed his optics and jumped down into flight. If Sonic or Tails had just hurt him there would be hell to pay...

Silver beamed with pride as he beat his organic companion once again. He punched the air with a fist and laughed to himself as Tails slumped down in defeat beside him, now controller-less.

"This isn't fair! You're a robot!" Tails complained to his side, sneaking a jealous glare at Silver.

Silver snickered at him, not even holding his cockiness back. "So? I wasn't built for playing games! I was built for literal, actual murder." He pointed two fingers at Tails, mimicking a gun, before making a "pew" sound at him. "And I just feel like murder isn't a valid game format. Unless..."

Tails looked pointedly at the robot's fingertips, from which missiles were obviously supposed to be fired. "You're not actually loaded, right?"

Silver shook his head and withdrew them. "Nah. These bad boys are "Sonic-tracking" only, which is pretty lame actually." He studied his fingertips with a pout. "It's a kinda stupid design if you ask me, and I can't overwrite the programming. Or, if I can, I don't even know how to." To emphasize his point, he pointed at Sonic, who put his hands up in a mocking "surrender" gesture.

Tails gave a sigh of relief at the news and laughed. "Okay, good to know. At least I know you can't accidentally shoot me now!"

"Shoot you?! I'll have you know I've not committed any violent crimes, whether intentional or accidental." Silver stated proudly and folded his arms. "I'm an upstanding citizen."

"You should've been charged for breaking and entering a military base." Tails reminded him with a smirk. "Or did you forget about that?"

"Hey! If you can't handle me at my "minor" felonies, you don't deserve me at my-"

Silver felt eyes on him and looked up to find Neo knocking on the window. Neo glared at him and pressed a finger to his muzzle plate, silently telling him to quiet down. Silver squeaked out a beep of surprise and ducked his head down. Neo shot a glare at Sonic and Tails before disappearing back to where he had come from.

"Is he always like that?" Tails whispered, flattening his ears against his head. "So bossy."

Silver shook his head and sighed. "It's my fault. We're literal felons and we can't be drawing attention to ourselves." He forced himself to get serious again. "Well, let's get back to business."

The robot's reluctance sent a pang of sympathy through Tails. He grabbed a tin of something from the nightstand beside him as he thought about something.

"Do you ever get to act like a normal kid?" Tails asked, genuinely interested. "Do you get to have fun? What's it like being Eggman's kid?"

Silver's voice stayed low. "Does getting shot at by the military or being held hostage by a crazy Egg Pawn count as being normal?"

Tails carefully stuffed a mint in his mouth as he listened, so when he spoke his voice was slightly muffled. "I can't tell if you're being serious right now."

"I dunno. Am I?" Silver asked, his tone unusually flat. "I dunno what "normal kids" do with their time. Do you do normal kid stuff?"

"Sure! I hang out with Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Big, Charmy-" Tails had been counting on his fingers quite proudly, but trailed off, finding Silver staring at him. What?"

"You have so many friends." Silver commented, almost in a whisper. "I don't have any. How do you do it?"

"Well, we're friends, aren't we?" Tails asked, stuffing another mint in his mouth as he went to retrieve the controller.

Silver dodged the question and pretended to study the laptop screen especially hard. He rested his chin on one hand and stopped himself from sighing.

"You'll make friends!" Tails reassured him as he came back. "You're very friendly and people like will that. It doesn't matter that you're a r-" He trailed off, finding himself hesitant to call the child next to him a mere machine.

Tails could appreciate a well-built machine. But Silver was obviously different from his own projects. He wasn't just some thing to be tinkered with, or some new model to be studied.

Silver let that sigh out, noting the fox's hesitance on that word. "Maybe." He glanced out of the window, looking for Neo and Mecha without really thinking about it. "I just have to keep holding onto this small, childish hope that there's a place out there in this world completely meant for people like me." He watched Mecha point something out to Neo, who looked on curiously. "People like us."

Tails closed the game on his laptop and went back to the GUN database. "Well if you guys would stop trying to take over the world with Eggman..." He trailed off and looked at Silver, recalling that the robot had already said he hadn't exactly done anything yet.

Yet.

The idea of this young robot with a mind so much like his own committing anything like murder, or anything close to it, was almost unthinkable. How on earth was Eggman going to get him to do anything evil? He certainly didn't seem evil. He looked at Sonic, who smiled sadly and shrugged. He knew exactly what the fox was thinking and echoed his worry.

Silver looked between them a few times, confused. "What?"

"Nothing. Don't worry about it, kiddo." Sonic reassured him with a smile. "Let's just get back to business, robohog. The sooner we get moving, the sooner you can go back to your pops with good news."

Silver avoided their eyes, but knew that they were both looking at him. Silently, he asked them to stop it, but they weren't mind readers. After a few more moments he couldn't take it. Their worry was almost infectious, and now that Eggman was part of the conversation...

He finally cracked. Holding back a sob, Silver curled into himself and buried his face against his knees.

"Woah... " Sonic climbed up onto the bed and sat by Silver's side, putting a hand on his knee gently. "Easy, kiddo. Talk to us, what's wrong?"

Silver kept his face buried and gripped his armour tightly. "I miss my dad. I miss my brothers being okay."

Tails mirrored Sonic, hesitantly putting a hand on the robot's other knee. "W-well, you can go home to your dad soon, right?" He looked to Sonic and bit his lip. Was it even a good idea to encourage him to go home?

Silver shook his head and lifted it slightly. "You don't get it. I... I don't think my dad loves me anymore." He turned his head slightly so that his cheek was resting on his arms. "Something happened back home, I know it. Metal won't tell me what happened, and neither will Mecha. Metal's pissed off, so it can't have been good. It's got to be about me, or all of us. I just... I'm not good enough. I never have been, it's why he kept me-" He paused, hiccuping static. "It's why he kept me locked away."

Sonic and Tails exchanged solicitous looks before focusing on Silver again.

"I'm sure it was a misunderstanding, lil' buddy." Sonic offered his reassurance. "He fawns over all of his 'bots like they're his kids."

"Yeah! Even the mass-produced ones!" Tails added with optimism. "You and your brothers were made by hand. I'm sure he loves you."

Silver hesitated, both wanting this kindness and support, but finding that his programming wanted him to reject it all. "I hope so." He sighed and rested more weight on his arms.

Tails grinned and held up Silver's controller. "How about another round?"

The robot gave him a sidelong look. He held it for a moment. Then, he looked down at the controller. And back at Tails again.

Tails waved it tauntingly at him.

Silver let himself smile the tiniest amount. "If you think you'll win because I'm all moody, that's not gonna happen. It's also really cheap on your part."

Tails handed a third controller to Sonic. He raised a brow at Silver and smirked.

He just had to pull the priority-one hedgehog move!

That tiny spark of motivation in Silver burst into a flame right away. He sat upright and gave his opponents challenging looks, and Sonic and Silver's eyes met with the same defiant look.

For that brief moment, Silver thought about something that turned his view upside-down completely.

If Neo was his brother, and Neo was constructed using Sonic's own biological life data... then Sonic was family, too.

The realization turned everything around for him, and he grinned with fresh fire in his optics. He had told Sonic earlier that they weren't friends, and it was true.

They were something else entirely.

"Oh, you're on, meatbags. Your asses are going to Stardust Speedway and back just as I promised!"