Scuffing footsteps and labored breathing echoed in the caverns of planet Marto. A small figure grunted, adjusting his hold on the body of a Mobian hedgehog draped over his back. He half-crawled, half climbed down the cavern crevice. Again, he slipped to his knees. He paused for a second, bent under the body, panting for air.

He dared to lift his head. A speck of light reflected in his blue eyes.

He let out a long breath of air.

"W-we m-made it," he gasped out, barely whispering the words. "Y-you're…you're g-gonna be okay, Sonic."

He continued to stare ahead, unmoving, his large ears pricked forward.

Then, he swallowed and began to wedge himself out from beneath the body. He lay the blue Mobian hedgehog's head down to the rock floor, stood up, and scrambled back up the tunnel.

There, on the ground, the pinprick of light cast a soft shine over the hedgehog's blue head spikes and closed eyes. He breathed softly, dirt and scabs streaked across his face, his fists clenched.


Sonic lay on Uncle Spark's bunk, letting the mattress push his headspikes flat against his shoulders. He glared up at the ceiling as he walked his feet up the wall next to the bed. "…An' now they make me wear a dumb strap to "keep me still," they say. It's like a babyseat strap or something, and they've got one for my wrists too 'cause I kept taking the headphones off to ask questions—they hate it when I ask questions. They don't let any of the kids ask questions and they're bossy and always trying to tell me what to do for no good reason—"

Uncle Sparks paced the room. He wasn't wearing his commander's shoulder piece, but he did wear his mesh under-suit and wine-red cape. The cape whirled around him as he walked.

"And the worst part is, the shots—they give me these shots to keep me quiet and hold still, and the shots make me sleepy and give me headaches and I hate 'em so bad," Sonic said. "Can't I fight them when they try to give those to me? If I could use my Speed, I could really give 'em somethin' to think about the next time they try to stick me with any drugs—"

"So, you ran away?" Uncle Sparks said in his commander tone.

Sonic smirked. "Yeah. Fooled 'em good too. They didn't see me use my Speed or anything, and when I'm moving so fast, their radars lose me."

Sparks was silent for a moment.

Sonic glared. He normally didn't want to make Uncle Sparks mad, but he didn't care as much this time. He was sick of being shoved around just because he was a kid when he should-and could-be fighting Deks and protecting his bothers and mom and the city. He shouldn't have to hide his Speed in the first place. It was nothin' to be ashamed of.

Someday, he'd show them.

"Well, you weren't coming, and Mama and Pops weren't coming, so thought as well I'd come and find you," he added.

"You abandoned your post," Uncle Sparks said.

"Yeah, cause it was a dumb post," Sonic blurted.

Uncle Sparks stared at him. "Attending Dr. Nikolos' school was the assignment your parents and I gave you. We did not say it would be easy."

"You don't get it, I keep tryin' to tell ya, but you don't get it!" Sonic huffed, wanting to run and hit something. "It's not even a real post," Sonic crossed his arms and lifted his chin. "It's a cheat post, because Mama is scared again. She doesn't think I can fight Deks, so she thinks putting me there will keep me safe. I'm not learning anything. I'm bored. You're supposed to be teaching me how to get my Speed stronger and be a warrior and a guardian—I should be here."

Here. Uncle Spark's bunker. The underground private quarters of the Commander of forces in New Mobius. Small, dingy, but his uncle had wanted that. It was a warrior's place. There was an arsenal at the back of the room, at least fifty types of blasters. There was a restroom and sink and burner and a cupboard of nutrition capsules and whole foods-everything a guy needed to stay alive. There was writing on the walls, and books. Books his Uncle was writing, some of them for him. Books his Uncle had found himself, books about space, about wars, about tech weaponry and aircraft, about heroes and warriors and cruel overlords that needed the living daylights punched outta them.

The only place that'd be better woulda been a spaceship. He was gonna live in one of those one day, and no moderator bot was going to stop him.

"I'm going to stay with Mama and Comet and Daddy," Sonic said. "And ditch that dumb school, and if Deks are coming like Dr. Nikolos says they are, then I'm going to stick around and fight 'em!" He slammed his fists into the mattress. "With you! And you can train me again an' we'll be ready for them!"

Uncle Sparks had listened in silence. He began pacing again.

Sonic crossed his arms hard and waited. He pushed the toes of his red sneakers over each other.

Finally, his Uncle stopped. "I'm going to tell you something classified."

Sonic whipped up and wormed around on the bed to face Uncle Sparks. "Yeah?"

Uncle Sparks turned around and crouched down by the side of the bed. His eyes were serious. "I don't want you to be at that school either."

Sonic's eyes widened.

"I do not like how they are treating you," he said. "…But I have to be able to trust you to stick this through."

Sonic didn't know what to say. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth, then shut it.

"Sonic, there are some things going on right now with Dr. Nikolos that I cannot talk to you about. It is the reason why I haven't come to visit you. In addition to the extra duties he has assigned me, I am undergoing my own investigation."

Sonic narrowed his eyes, ears flicking forward. "Can I help?"

"Not if you abandon your post. I have to know that you can take orders. The "schooling" is a very important part of your training. It's another test to try your patience, endurance, and my trust in you."

Ugh, the patience tests were the worst.

"I can't trust someone who just gives up," Uncle Sparks said.

"I don't give up on stuff," Sonic said, crossing his arms and stretching his legs. "So…does this mean you have a real mission for me at school?"

"I do," he said. "But first, I do not want to hear any more reports from your mother or the schooling bots telling me that you are being cheap. You know what I mean, right?"

Sonic shrugged.

"What do I mean?" he said in his commander tone.

"Name calling and stuff," he replied back. "Sir," he added.

"If they are treating you unfairly, there are better ways to fight. We've been over that before, correct?"

"Correct, sir," Sonic said, crossing his arms.

"Tell me about it, Sonic. There are two warriors. Which one are you?"

Sonic flexed his hands, remembering. "There's the warriors who just fight and stuff," he said. "They may look cool and have all the good moves and they may help people, but they only fight on the outside, not on the inside. They don't actually care or anything. Then, there's the true warriors, and they're the ones who fight on the outside and the inside, and they fight for other people, not just for themselves. They fight to keep people alive and safe 'cause they hate evil and death and all those other things that have happened to Marto, and 'cause they hate it, they fight it."

"Yes. There is a warrior's code. A warrior's source." Uncle Sparks said. "The code springs from the source. The first warrior can follow the code and still be fighting for all the wrong reasons. The second warrior follows the code because the source fuels everything the warrior does and no one can stop it."

His eyes looked kind of glazed over. Sonic cocked his head.

Sonic followed his Uncle's gaze to the hand-carved sheet of metal plate hammered into the door of his Uncle's room. The metal plate that held the code that his uncle had spoken over him from the day he was born.

Name the Warrior's Source and what is your Code? The Code given to you who are the most brave?

It is Patient.

You endure the murmurings of the heart when it begs for ease and satisfaction. You endure pain inflicted by the enemy with the knowledge it will not last. And you endure disappointment and apathy from the home front. Whether the time of testing is bitter and brief, or dull and long.

Sonic bit into the side of his mouth and smirked, looking away for a moment. He raised his gaze again, scanning over the titles of the remaining descriptors.

It is Kind. It is not Envious. It is not Vaunting. It is not Arrogant. It is not Dishonoring. It is not Selfish in Pursuits. It is not Quick in Temper when Provoked. It is not Unforgiving. It is not Impressed with Evil. It Gains Delight in what is True. It Carries Burdens. It Believes on. It Hopes on. It Endures on. It will Never Fail. This has been etched and engraved into the framework and structure of every universe, galaxy and soul in existence.

Name the Warrior's Source.

This is the code given to you who are most brave, though bravery may not be all that it seems.

The Warrior who bows and takes this Source will operate in step with the greatest Force, the greatest Person, beyond the Cell of Time.

Sonic would never feel like he completely understood what all those words meant, but it was okay. Something inside him understood, even if he didn't know what it was and why.

He realized Uncle Sparks was watching him.

"I know what the source is," Sonic said. "But…it's not the kissy kind," he added, feeling his cheeks getting hot. "It's the kind that's brave. People dying and stuff,"

"Well, yes, not the "kissy kind"…though, those words should describe the "kissy kind" too, but we'll go over that more when you're older," Sparks said, mumbling to himself. He cleared his throat. "Any matter…Sonic," his blue eyes sparked, electricity snapping behind them. "I know that you want to be this warrior, but it is going to take all your life to learn how, and there will always be things trying to slow you, or tear you down altogether..."

"I gotta go back to school, don't I?" Sonic said, frowning at the Warrior-Source code.

"I hope you do, and when you are ready, I will give you your mission," Sparks said.

Sonic took a deep breath. "Nuts. Okay. I can do it, Uncle Sparks, just you watch me—I'm gonna become a real warrior so fast—I do everything fast—you'll be able to trust me with anything you tell me to do! Like, maybe helping you fight Deks and stuff?"

Uncle Sparks pinched his mouth, which meant he was trying to keep from smiling. "Well, we don't have any Deks invading yet…" His eyes burned.

"Yeah," Sonic huffed. "Uncle Sparks, I will go to school and things, but it's really hard. I know I'm still trying and there's the patience tests and everything, but I'm not really fighting anything."

Sparks stared at him, a hollowness in his eyes. He lowered his voice. "You will, Sonic. You wouldn't have been gifted with Speed otherwise. You, me…we Gifted are born for times of…of great trouble…"


Well. It's been really, really long time, ya'll. But Part 3 is done and it's ready to be uploaded. For those who don't know Uncle Sparks, he's kind of an OC I created back in the really early stages of this story. His design is based after Archie's Zonic and Sonic Mobius Prime.

To all those who are actually still following me after all this time: I just want to thank you all so, SO much. I hope you enjoy these final installments of "Rupture". I'm not going to make a definite uploading schedule, but I will say, I intend to update this pretty consistently from now on.

Also, I'm taking this story to Wattpad pretty soon! But since you all were my first readers and have born through all my drafting and editing you all deserved to get the Part 3 updates first. ;-) The Wattpad version will be the final draft and will probably have some art/elements that Fanfic doesn't, so if anyone would like to see that when it's out, keep your eyes peeled for the link!

Hmm, any other updates...? Oh yes. I have edited some of the scenes from Part 1 and 2. I'm going to update them on here soon, but the only big change you need to know about is that now instead of Sonic and Tails just going to the trial, they actually used the trial as a way to try to warn the People's Council that Robotnik had the missiles and was planning to use them to destroy Aero. Of course, it didn't really do any good. But yeah. XD That happened.

As always, I love hearing from ya'll! If you have any questions or just want to Sonic chat, message me! I am not the speediest reply-er, but I'll always get back eventually. Also, if you want to see more Rebels of the Mobian Restoration art and stuff, I have an Instagram account for this story those_mobian_rebel_kids. ;-) There could be spoilers there though.

Thanks again! Whatever your fights may be, keep fighting.

To Infinity and Beyond,

Connie