A/N: Reminder that the theme for this fic is WALK AWAY BY JAKE HILL. LISTEN. It's so good. Anyway, sorry in advance for this. Huge trigger warning for descriptions of abandonment, death and abuse. Yeah, that's what we're in for this time. Buckle in for some robot angst. Alternate chapter title: robot angst deluxe. Sorry again fvgbhnj I'm fucked up and evil
Silver Sonic and fleshbag Sonic found themselves in a bit of a predicament, to say the least. A GUN mech spotted them a second quicker than Sonic could react and promptly fired away at them. Sonic took cover behind a crate, unable to move as quickly as normal with a heavy robot over his shoulder. He muttered under his breath in thought, not yet sure of how to go about this escape.
An explosion behind the crate shook Sonic enough to send him onto his side, where he promptly dropped Silver in a heap. He cursed and went to gather the robot up again, but Silver woke up and stared up at him. Sonic met his optics with an apologetic grin.
"Sorry. That was an accident."
Silver just laughed. "Yeah, I-" He stopped to cough oil into his hand and grinned back at him. "I figured."
Sonic looked around and his eyes came to rest on a stray rifle ahead of them. Silver saw it a second later and reacted as he normally would. With a grunt from the effort, he rolled over onto his knees and grabbed the rifle in front of him as if it was second nature to do so.
"This is like a video game I've always wanted to play." Silver mused to himself as he fumbled to hold the rifle correctly. He knelt behind the crate and propped the rifle on top of it.
Sonic opened his mouth to argue against that, but thought better of it. "I- Okay, kiddo. How do we play it?"
Silver looked through the sights, sweeping his weapon to the left with apparent focus. "Jus' start punchin' whoever I shoot at."
"Works for me. Is it really the best idea for you to be holding a gun right now though?" Sonic asked sheepishly.
Silver looked at him pointedly. "Is' just motion blur glitch. I can compensate for it..." He looked down the sights again, sticking his tongue out a little as he concentrated. True to his word, he aimed a little off-center to compensate for his dizziness, and with a quick squeeze of his trigger finger, the tyre of a military van went "pop" and screeched to a stop. A slight lean to the right and another squeeze of the trigger sent a bike veering off away from them.
"I'm startin' to think you could use that thing in your sleep." Sonic commented to his side, impressed.
"When you're made t'be a weapon, it comes natural." Silver said, taking a clean shot at another van that pulled up on them. "I'll take all of these idiots out, no problem."
"You gotta pick and choose your battles, kiddo."
"I'm like... two. I shouldn't be fightin' any battles. Only battle I should be pickin' is-" Silver stopped to spit oil onto the floor before taking another shot, "A battle royale."
"Like in a video game?"
"Precisely. You get me."
"Hold the fort here. I'm gonna go deal with that 'bot," Sonic instructed him, narrowing his eyes at the GUN mech that was closing in on them, "got a feeling it's bulletproof."
"Ya don't say, genius..." Silver replied sarcastically, struggling to stay awake as delirium washed over his head again. He expertly took out another bike before stopping and resting his chin on his arm for a moment, struggling to stay coherent. "Jus' come back quickly. I'm losing it."
Sonic vaulted over the crate to land a kick on the GUN robot as promised. But then he sped off to Chaos knows where, and Silver couldn't track his movements. He panicked. In his impaired state of mind all he saw was Sonic leaving, the chaos around him, and his damages leaving him unable to fend for himself.
"Wait. Don't leave me. Please." Silver whispered, watching Sonic speed out of view. He saw everything in sharp focus, panic overwhelming him as those footsteps grew further and further away. He tried to pull himself up onto his elbow, reaching out for the edge of the crate in front of him. He clumsily grabbed the corner, pulling himself up with his teeth grit and knees shaking. The world around him quickly began to spin, and he fought to stand - only to fall down in a messy heap.
He breathed a sigh, which turned into a choked sob, and he pressed his head to the ground as he blacked out again.
- LOADING. 10%. 20%. 50%. 100%.
- Artificial Intelligence ROBOTNIK Custom Chip installing.
- Systems calibrating. Please wait. This might take a moment.
- Installation complete. Initiating boot sequence.
- Priority one: hedgehog. Objective: destroy him at all costs.
- DO NOT FAIL.
The robot awoke on a table.
Nothing made sense. The world was so strange, bright, noisy. It stared up at the ceiling, confused and disoriented as its systems booted one by one. Temperature sensors came online and the room was suddenly cold. Auditory sensors tuned to the whirring of machinery. Facial recognition systems searched for something to log. Pressure sensors detected several disturbances on multiple parts of the machine's frame. It was slightly uncomfortable.
"Hello."
The machine turned its head to meet a stranger's face. It frowned, puzzled - a reaction it hadn't had to consciously think about.
Eggman smiled at them. "I'm your creator, Dr. Eggman. You may log me as your manufacturer. Now, test your voice modulator, you should be able to speak."
The robot stared at him. "Oh." It looked up again, confused. "Where am I?"
"You're on one of my flagships. This is your home." Eggman explained, gesturing around the room with a hand.
"I... have a home?" It asked quietly, "and you're my dad?" For the first time, a smile spread over its face. Its optics fixed on his creator with adoration instantly. Having a parent meant safety and direction, and Sonic's personality influenced him to seek family. It awaited instruction.
"Yes, you do, and yes, you could say I am." Eggman reached out and put his hands on the robot's shoulders. "Now, are your systems all go?"
It checked in with its registry for a moment. "Everything's good, I think. I dunno what constitutes "systems all go" though. Never been alive before." It lifted his hands above his face and turned them over a few times, noticing the many wires attached to its frame. So that's what their pressure sensors were throwing a fit about. Interesting.
Eggman chuckled and removed his hands. "That's true, my boy."
They looked up at him. "What's my designation? The space for it is blank, I think."
"Your name is Silver Sonic MK II," Eggman told them with pride, "my latest and greatest creation."
Silver's face lit up at getting their own name. "Sweet! I love it."
Eggman winced the tiniest amount at the Sonic-like inflection to the robot's voice. Silver caught it - they had been studying their creator's reactions readily. He tilted his head, confused by it. Had he done something wrong?
"Your target is Sonic the hedgehog," Eggman told him, gesturing to a picture of the hedgehog on his computer screen, "and you are to kill him." Silver turned slightly to rest on his elbow on his side, looking on with curiosity. He studied the picture for a long minute, seeming to process something - and then tilted his head in confusion.
"I'm lost. My files say that I'm the same as that hedgehog," Silver replied, pointing to the picture for a second, "am I supposed to be him?"
"Not exactly..." Eggman responded, sounding a little concerned.
Silver tilted his head the other way. "That's confusing. You want me to be him and kill him? How does that work?"
Eggman turned and walked to the other side of the room, mumbling to himself with his head in his hands. Silver tilted his head this way and that, trying to listen.
"I've created another one. Dear Chaos..."
Silver sat up at once. "What do you mean?" He got his arm caught in a bundle of wires and held it up sheepishly. "Oops..."
Eggman stopped, realizing that the robot had heard him. With a sigh, he walked back over to them and freed their arm. "Nothing, my son. It's okay."
"Have I done something wrong?" Silver asked, worried that he had disappointed his creator somehow. "Should I log that action as undesirable?"
"No," Eggman replied, reaching over to disable Silver's comm-link in his ear, "you haven't done anything wrong." He didn't verbalize it, but he didn't want Silver communicating with the other hedgehog-series. Metal was already unstable and he didn't want them planning anything together. After this, he turned to his computer and typed away at the command window, altering something in Silver's programming. Silver watched, confused, and a pit of fear started to form in his stomach area. He couldn't decipher anything about the coding, and that unknown made him uneasy.
"Uh... what are you doing?" Silver asked with a frown.
"Nothing important, my boy." Eggman told him. He made sure not to look at Silver, for his regretful expression would give him away. Unknown to Silver, the program that would allow him to understand and use the coded speech between hedgehog-series was disabled.
"Oh. Okay..." Silver replied, uneasy. He messed with a wire that looped around one of his fingers, inspecting the red and blue closely. "What are these for? They feel funny... My pressure sensors are angry about them."
Eggman unplugged each wire one by one, avoiding the robot's inquisitive gaze as he did. "They just let me read your data on the system, it's nothing to worry about. You should be good to go without them."
Silver watched his face closely.
"Why are you sad?"
Eggman stopped. The fact that the robot was already recognizing something as complex as human emotion was incredible, and it startled him at the same time. He had intended for Silver to mimic organic emotions, which was already proving to have worked - but that meant he might end up getting as angry as Metal could. It was a problem, and he instantly regretted the decision to give him emotions.
"You'll understand when you're older, son," Eggman told him, forcing a smile over his turbulent thoughts.
"I don't wanna understand when I'm older. I wanna understand now." Silver replied, messing with a wire that had been attached to his leg. "Can you explain it to me?" He turned it over a few times and studied the end, looking into the connector with curiosity.
"Sometimes we have to do things that make us sad," Eggman explained, "and there's no other way around it."
Silver tilted his head the other way. "Oh."
"Listen, son," Eggman started, taking the robot's other hand in his, "I know everything is confusing right now. But it's going to be okay."
Silver met his eyes, puzzled, and he dropped the wire. "What do you mean?"
Eggman slowly released his hand and moved over to a console by his computer. "I need you to go back on standby."
Silver stared at him. "But... I only just woke up."
"I know."
Silver climbed down off of the table and stood there, hands raised as if about to say something, but stopped. He looked around instead, taking everything in, trying to make sense of things. The cogs turned in his head as he gradually pieced together what was happening. His optics came to rest on a cryotube for a long moment, and his "stomach" flipped and his face fell. He looked to Eggman in disbelief and confusion.
Eggman gave him a nod and motioned with his hand to the cryotube.
Silver froze.
"Wait... Don't leave me there. Please. Please. Don't."
Eggman didn't say anything.
"Dad? Why aren't you saying anything?"
Silver's ears started ringing. His temperature control systems shut off, leaving him feeling ice cold.
When he didn't get an answer and saw that finger twitch on the button to open the container's door, he knew he had to move. He took a step back, and then another, and then another. His back hit the wall and he flinched in surprise. Eggman followed after him to round him back towards the cryotube. In his fright and confusion, Silver sank down against the wall and stared up at his creator.
"Please don't do this. I'll do anything." Silver whispered, trembling despite himself. He put his hands up as if to push the man away, but found a hand on his cheek anyway. "Please. I'm so scared and I don't understand."
Eggman finally spoke, barely above a whisper himself. "I'll be back for you." He steeled himself and got a hold of his voice, firmness forcing its way in now. "I just have to make some changes to your software, alright?" He ran a thumb over Silver's cheek bolt a few times, trying to soothe him.
Silver pressed back against the wall as hard as he could. "D-dad, please. Please, please don't do this. I'll do whatever you want, I'll be good, I'm not gonna do anything wrong, I..." He tried to get up, but his knees were too weak and he sank back down. He shakily looked up at his father again and met his eyes.
He saw the guilt, remorse, and shame. But also the disappointment. And that was what destroyed him the most.
"Am I not good enough?" Silver whispered, his voice cracking painfully.
"You are." Eggman told him, trying to sound firm, but a distinct pain tinging his voice. "I said I'll be back for you. You just have to stay here for a while." With that said, he stood up and looked down on the robot. He pointed to the container.
Confused, scared, and hurt, Silver shakily stood up and obeyed his father. His father would keep him safe, he would come back, it would be okay. With his head low and engine hitching with his fear, he slowly walked over to the container and took a hesitant step inside.
As the glass surrounded him and the door clicked shut, he looked at his father. Eggman whispered an apology, turned away, and left the room.
Silver stared after him, brokenhearted. His hand slid down the glass as pain stabbed through his chest.
"No... Please don't leave me here."
"Please."
"Please!"
"No! No no no!"
"PLEASE! DAD! PLEASE COME BACK!"
The robot sank down to its knees. It didn't understand what these feelings were. All it knew was that they hurt. He hunched over, holding himself with his head pressed to the glass. He broke down sobbing, clicking into his armour for hours. And after long days of being alone, the pain only grew stronger. Loneliness, like long blades, prodded him from all angles. There were days that his processor felt electrocuted, so violently defocused, and the pain, the emotional pain, was all-encompassing - he simply existed out of a matter of hope, hope that his father would return for him. So he waited. And waited. But it hurt. It hurt so bad that he was sure it would never go away. He refused to put himself into low-power mode or even sleep mode, for he might miss his father's return.
Silver sat with his arms wrapped tightly around himself, desperately trying to soothe himself. He poured hours into reading and re-reading every file in his registry, taking in every piece of data like it was a lifeline. Anything to distract him from this loneliness.
He studied the hedgehog, turned over every detail, but nothing in him could find the desire to kill him. He tried, he did - maybe if he could become a murderous machine, his father would come back and want him again. He looked for something to hate and found nothing. Sonic was a good person. He identified with his traits. How was this supposed to work? He tried, again, and again, and again.
But he couldn't.
He looked at his reflection in the glass and saw the exact moment he realized nobody was coming.
"I've got you, kiddo, you're okay, you're okay."
Silver came to and realized he was crying. The arms wrapped around him with a false promise to never leave, they always left, they always would - and Silver couldn't bear that. He pressed his face into Sonic's shoulder and cried his "heart" out, completely overwhelmed. He didn't realize he was saying "don't go" over and over.
"You're okay. I'm not leaving you," Sonic gently told him, holding the robot tighter, "you're not alone."
Silver could barely talk, just above a whisper into Sonic's shoulder. "But I am, he left me, Neo left me, Mecha nearly left me, you're gonna, you're gonna... I'm such a fucking failure and everyone sees it and wants to run away, you're... you're..."
Sonic gently rested his hands on Silver's shoulders and pushed him to sit up. "Look at me, little guy."
Silver slowly lifted his head and let his gaze trail up to meet Sonic's.
"You're not a failure. From the second you came online, they knew they couldn't control you. And that scares them. Keep scaring them. Keep being you."
"But what if being me is bad... what makes me so important?"
"You're important to me."
"Why? Jus' a disappointment. Everyone knows it, why do you care?"
"Ya think I'd go through all this for someone I didn't care about?"
Silver looked around, taking in the reality of the situation - the fact that Sonic was risking himself all for him and his brothers. He slowly looked up to Sonic again.
"You're never gonna be alone. Whether it's your brothers or me, you're always gonna have somebody who's got your back. I promise." Sonic leaned towards him just a little, eyes genuine and kind. Once the robot was looking at him again, held out his pinky finger to them and smiled. "Promise me you'll never forget that. You're a hero like me, and heroes don't ditch other heroes."
Silver hesitated for just a moment. Then, he slowly smiled, reached out, and hooked his little finger around Sonic's in a pinky promise.
"I promise."
Silver made a habit of trading data for warmth. Like putting a penny into a meter, it lasted for five minutes, then he had to put another penny in. Re-reading the same data over and over was tiring. It was fixed and unchanging, painfully permanent. And there was only so much he could read about "priority-one hedgehog" before he felt like he was going to die from boredom. So, he turned his attention to the outside world. The only way to connect with the world outside was to research it. So, he did.
He looked into a folder titled "hedgehog-series" and scrolled through it. He noticed the designations "Mecha Sonic" and "Metal Sonic" come up here and there, alongside many others - Robo Sonic, Pseudo Sonic, Badnik Sonic, Silver Sonic MK I to name a few. All of them but Mecha Sonic and Metal Sonic were no longer active. Silver had to wonder what became of them. He stopped thinking about it, though, when he remembered his purpose. They were probably long dead by now. Would he be next on that list? The thought of it made him shiver.
He came out of the folder, but hesitated. A longing feeling formed in him. Wondering why, he went back to it and looked over Mecha Sonic and Metal Sonic's files again. They had impressive specs, similiar to his, and had the same purpose. He wondered what they were like. Had they been left alone like this too? Were they aware that he existed yet?
A new hope sparked in his chest, and he felt a small smile form on his face.
Maybe if he couldn't have a father, he could have brothers instead.
He held onto that.
A GUN helicopter circled overhead as the pilot looked for a place to land. Slowly, it descended to touch down, the wind from its rotors kicking up clouds of dust. As the rotors stopped spinning overhead, a familiar fox jumped out and called out to Sonic and Silver.
"Guys! Over here!"
Tails opened the sliding door in the aircraft's side and waved for them to come. Neo hopped in with Mecha and turned to watch Sonic and Silver approach, their path now safer from Silver's expertise with firearms. Suddenly Neo detected something, and his head snapped up. He calculated trajectories faster than the speed of an organic's thought, and he knew he couldn't leave the helicopter with enough speed to remove Sonic from the missile's path. Sonic was fast enough to outrun it, but his back was to it, and he couldn't hear it over the heavy rain and thunder, and he wasn't moving fast enough in that moment.
An old hatred rose in Neo, battling with his feelings for his brother. What was more important, after all? Seeing the hedgehog die, or saving Silver? The answer was obvious. Disgustingly obvious, in fact. But he knew he would have to say the hedgehog's name. He never spoke it. It was repulsive. But if he did nothing right now, both his brother and the hedgehog would die. Time was running out. Neo saw everything in sharp focus, optics flitting between the missile and the hedgehog over and over. He took a deep breath through his intake, dug his claws into the door frame as hard as he could, and yelled,
"SONIC!"
Sonic's head snapped up and he looked over his shoulder. His eyes widened for a second before he looked ahead and picked up the pace. The aircraft started to lift to avoid it, and Sonic dodged aside just in time - it went straight into the ground, narrowly missing him. Sonic skidded to his feet, spun around and ran for the helicopter. His strides shortened, gathering himself up to jump with Silver over his shoulder. Sonic jumped and reached for the edge of the doorframe. Neo grabbed his hand, an action that made him squint his optics in disgust, and yanked him up into the craft. Sonic stumbled onto his feet and set Silver down on the floor, panting. The craft took off higher and started off towards Chaos knows where - as long as it was far from this place.
Neo was at Silver's side in an instant, hovering over him protectively and cursing at his little brother's injuries.
"He'll be okay." Sonic offered his reassurance with a smile. "He was making terrible jokes the whole way here before he uh, passed out."
"Whoever did this will die by my hand..." Neo growled, clenching his fists as his temper grew hotter.
"Yeah, don't worry. They won't be messin' with him for at least a week." Sonic told him with a grin and a thumbs-up.
Neo looked up at him, surprised. After a moment of eye contact, he looked down and touched his brother's head with his optics shut.
"Thank you for saving him."
"No prob. It's what I'm here for." Sonic told him with a genuine smile.
"Are you..." Neo started to say, but then stopped. His optics brightened in realization at what he was about to ask and he sharply looked away with a scowl.
"I'm okay."
"Satisfactory."
Sonic dug a finger in his ear. "I must be hearing things. I thought I just heard Metal being considerate."
"Shut up hedgehog. I will maim you."
Silver stirred on the floor and promptly woke up. He looked up at Neo and Sonic and a grin spread across his face.
"So glad my bros are gettin' along..."
Neo startled at his brother's sudden awakening. He looked down at once to meet Silver's optics and found a smile in his own. He leaned down and pressed his forehead to Silver's, gently rubbing his injured arm to soothe the pain he knew his brother would be feeling. Silver reached up for a hug, and Neo gathered him into his arms without hesitation, nestling his face in his little brother's armour as he sat them both up.
"Tell him I said I love him and that if he ever gets killed, I'll bring him back just to kill him myself."
"The big guy says you should get exploded less."
Silver laughed and buried his face in Neo's shoulder. "That's definitely not what he said, but thanks." He pulled away a little to open the compartment on his arm, taking out a phone he had stashed on his way to the HQ. "Everyone get in. I found this and I want a pic." He flipped the phone so that it was sideways and opened the camera app, holding it up.
Mecha appeared from the cockpit and looked down at his siblings fondly, moving to sit by them. He noticed that Silver was struggling to hold the phone high enough, so he gently took it and held it up higher, getting everyone in the shot as Tails peered around the corner at them.
"Smile, or else." Silver instructed them.
"I am incapable of smiling." Mecha told him, hovering his thumb over the button.
"Shut up an' do it." Silver demanded with a laugh. He rested his head on Neo's shoulder and beamed at the camera, while Neo rolled his optics and held up a finger to replicate the classic taunt he would give to Sonic. Sonic gave a peace sign and grinned next to Silver, and Tails waved behind them with a smile.
Snap.
Mecha handed the phone back to Silver, who studied the picture with a genuine smile.
"Our first family photo. Is' so cute." Silver said adoringly, his tail wagging behind him. He flopped onto his back and looked at the picture for a while longer, holding the phone above his face. "Keepin' this forever. Oh, Mecha, you did smile!"
Mecha looked at him, puzzled. "I did not. I am incapable of such body language."
Silver looked up at him and laughed. "Look again." He turned the phone around to show Mecha, who peered down at it curiously. He studied it closely, looking for this apparent "smile", and suddenly he realized.
He looked happy.
The way his visor brightened, his shoulders weren't tense, and his head tilted ever so slightly to make sure that he didn't block out anyone else - it was his own version of smiling, and Silver and Neo saw it for what it was.
"Yes. I did."
"Men! Ceasefire!"
The door slammed open. Heavy boots marked the entrance of the GUN commander. He made way to the switchboard with haste. At once the soldiers manning it stood to attention and saluted, but one hovered their finger over the radio button, having just made a call.
"Sir?"
"You heard me. That's an order. Cease fire immediately." The commander ordered them with steel in his voice. "Withdraw all offense. We are not moving forward with this attack any longer."
"After all this?" The soldier asked, completely blindsided. They looked the commander up and down, noticing all the blood and bruises covering him, for a moment considering whether he was in his right mind to make such a drastic call. "But we have them in our sights, sir!"
"I never dreamed that I would make such a call," the commander started, forcing the soldier away from the switchboard now, "but I must. Let them flee."
"It's too late."
"I beg your pardon?"
"We already fired. It's too late."
The commander's face dropped. He stared out of the window in horror as he watched a missile head straight for the helicopter that had lifted away. It would hit. There was no going back now. All he could do was arrange to deal with the aftermath.
"Send our best medics and..." He paused, clearing his throat, "mechanics out. That's an order."
The soldier comm'd to request medics and mechanics, but had no luck. "Noone wants to go out there."
The commander grit his teeth and hissed through them.
"What have I done..."
Maria would hate him for this.
Mecha stepped back into the cockpit to co-pilot with Tails. The fox was much more confident with a fellow pilot by his side, and they shared fond looks before looking over the controls to get them going faster. But Mecha suddenly straightened. He tilted his head, listening for something, and then put out a scan - and to his horror, he detected something approaching them at an impossible speed. Just as he scrambled to his feet, disaster struck.
The second missile came for them amongst their chatter. It collided with the end of the craft, sending shards of metal and glass all over the compartment. With the sliding door still wide open, the helicopter tilted sideways and spun - and Sonic slipped. He toppled backwards, grabbing onto the doorframe with a hand - but he lost his grip in the rain and fell several hundred feet.
Neo froze. He heard Tails scream, and Mecha stumble into the compartment, and - even with his hatred, he somehow knew what to do already. Everyone in this place loved Sonic, and to have him die would destroy them. The hedgehog had rescued his brothers not just once, but twice, and had shown him kindness. It was disgusting. It was vile. It was the worst kind of insult. And it was the evil Metal Sonic's turn to be the one who saved someone.
Neo jumped.
As he plunged after Sonic, he saw everything in sharp focus - the ground coming, Sonic falling, the rain pelting them - and prepared to do what he thought he never would have done in a thousand years. He weighed far more than the hedgehog did, and soon met him mid-air. He wrapped his arms tightly around the hedgehog and went to boot his jet engine. It failed. Of course, it failed. So this was it. Neo tensed, waiting for that killer landing to come. He squeezed his optics shut and waited. It felt like forever but it came too fast at the same time.
Three.
Two.
One.
The two hit the ground and bounced several feet. Neo flipped himself so that he was on the bottom. On the second landing, he put himself on the ground again. If he was not, then Sonic would be dangerously injured. Neo felt things break internally. His damage percentage skyrocketed beyond comprehension. They bounced and tumbled and he kept shifting his weight to take the brunt of every impact.
Neo's consciousness deserted him on the last impact and the world cut out to black.
Several minutes passed and Neo awoke slowly. He was not in pain yet. But he sensed that there were multiple things very, very wrong with his body. He stared up at the sky, stunned and in shock as he tried to make sense of what he had just done.
Sonic lay beside him. "Metal..." He groaned and slowly sat up with his hand on his head. "What the hell? Why did you do that?"
The hedgehog was completely intact. Hardly injured at all, in fact. That was... satisfactory. Neo tried to say something, but all that came out was a static hiss. He tried to sit up and felt a mechanism in his back snap that should not have. He laid back down, defeated, and looked up as rain blurred what was left of his vision. Half of his screen was cracked, leaving him half-blind.
"I'm good..." Sonic grunted as he finally sat all the way up. He turned his head and finally looked down at the robot. His eyes widened in horror. "Metal..."
Forming words was too difficult, so Neo squinted his working optic in reply.
"You're hurt really bad."
- CRITICAL ERROR.
- THE INSTRUCTION AT 0X0000000025C2342B NEO SUPER FX DSP CHIP REFERENCED MEMORY AT 0X0000028384F4. THE MEMORY COULD NOT BE READ.
- CLICK OK TO TERMINATE THE PROGRAM.
- CLICK CANCEL TO DEBUG THE PROGRAM.
- DEBUG ERROR. ABORT() HAS BEEN CALLED.
Neo consulted his error report again. The errors went beyond the maximum number the readout could give. He stared at it for a long moment, and then just closed it. He felt nothing. It was just like every time before. All over again, Neo was in pieces at Sonic's feet, just like on the deck of the ship that had once been part of his kingdom. Only this time, it was by choice. How wonderfully, horrifically, disgustingly ironic. Under Neo's numbness, a cold, rational part of him knew that if anyone ever deserved death, it was him, the foul, evil killing machine that he was. He should have been destroyed long ago, and each time his body was seemingly broken beyond repair, it should have been the last.
- THIS APPLICATION HAS REQUESTED THE RUNTIME TO TERMINATE IT IN AN UNSUPPORTED WAY.
- CONTACT MANUFACTURER FOR GUIDANCE. UNSUPPORTED FILE DETECTED.
But there was one thing that kept him from that fate.
Suddenly he jolted onto his front and stared ahead in a panic. His working optic darted this way and that, searching for something in the mud and rain. He didn't register Sonic speaking behind him, hearing only muffled sounds. Without a second thought he scrambled to his feet, but fell back down. His CPU was shutting down in a critical error from the extreme trauma to it and he was running out of time. He forced himself up over and over again until he reached what he was looking for.
- THE PROGRAM CANNOT START BECAUSE NEO SUPER FX DSP CHIP IS MISSING. TRY REINSTALLING TO FIX THIS PROBLEM.
Silver.
He collapsed by Silver and reached out for his hand.
Silver weakly reached for him, too, and rested his hand by Neo's.
They didn't need to say anything. The rain pattering down on them and the stars glittering above said everything they needed to.
- CATASTROPHIC FAILURE (E_UNEXPECTED)
- A PROBLEM HAS BEEN DETECTED. INITIATING SHUT DOWN TO PREVENT DAMAGE TO THE SYSTEM.
Their fingers interlocked for the last time as they both shut down.
"Knowing how this ends, would you still have loved me?"
"Yes."
Neo started to walk away from him. "I'll never regret loving you."
"Even though it's killed you?"
"Especially with the fact that it's killed me."
"How can you say that?"
"I would die a thousand times if it meant I got to be your brother."
Silver's legs moved on their own, aching to follow his brother, but he willed himself to stop. "I'm sorry. I love you. This was my fault."
Neo stopped. "I'm sorry. I loved you more than I was ever supposed to. None of this is your fault."
"And how much were you supposed to love me?"
"I wasn't. I was never supposed to. You came into my life as an accident. But, Chaos... it was the best accident of my life."
Silver's optics rested on Neo, desperately aching for him to turn around. "We never stood a chance, did we?"
"No."
Silver gave a bittersweet smile. "We were too young for this, weren't we?"
"Yes."
"We were just kids. We should be having fun and watching the stupid sunset like we did that day we met."
"I think I understand why I watched the sunset with you, now," Neo said, "it exists only on the edge of its own disappearing, and yet, everyone loves seeing it. To be loved, you must first be seen. Love is not just a feeling. Sometimes it is a matter of seeing. Being seen. Being seen as something more than a fleeting moment. Being seen as something more than a weapon created to die."
"And you've always seen me when nobody else did." Silver said, his bottom lip trembling. "I see you for who you are... my big brother. You're not a weapon to me."
"And you are my little brother. I would do anything for you."
Neo continued to walk further away. This time, he said nothing.
"Wait!" Silver cried after him, reaching out for him with an outstretched hand. "Don't go. I want to hear your voice again. Please."
In the distance, Neo turned around. A smile came over his optics as he looked at his little brother.
"Be strong."
"I don't wanna be strong. I wanna be a kid..." Silver met his eyes. "Don't leave me." He started to run but it felt like he wasn't going anywhere. An endless race. His brother stayed impossibly far away. He let out a scream and ran with all he had. "Don't leave me! Please! You promised me!" He was sobbing now. "Please! Please! STAY! I CAN'T DO THIS ON MY OWN!"
The light blinded him, impossibly bright.
"No..."
"No no no no..."
Mecha took one step, then another. His mind screamed at him to run, but disbelief and terror ripped through him and stayed his feet.
He suddenly bolted as quickly as he could through the mud and rain to his brothers. He dropped to his knees in front of them and put a hand on each of them, already trembling.
"No..."
Sonic slowly walked up behind Mecha.
"I'm sorry buddy."
Mecha lifted his head and looked over his shoulder at Sonic, gathering his siblings' hands into his.
"Why..."
Sonic knelt down beside him. "It's gonna be okay."
"Why... Why..."
"I know buddy, I know." Sonic gently said. "It's gonna be okay, you'll be okay. They can be fixed."
Mecha didn't say anything. He slowly looked down at his brothers again, at the oil and parts spilled out around them, and something in him broke. He doubled over and held their hands to his chest, wishing he had just protected them. Saved them from this. The guilt, the fear, the hurt, the rage over this being done to them - it burned. Yes, they could be fixed, but it hurt so bad to see them so broken. They weren't disposable machines to be fixed. They were his brothers.
Mecha felt pain for the first time. He let out a scream of agony.
Sonic pulled him into his arms and held him tightly. "I know..." He shut his eyes to hide his own tears, and his ears flattened against Mecha's scream. Something about it pricked his heart somewhere especially sensitive. When Mecha continued, Sonic only wrapped his arms tighter.
Tails walked up behind them, his ears flattened and a hand up as if about to say something. He was unharmed apart from a few scratches and bruises, for Mecha had protected him in the crash. Hearing the seemingly emotionless robot scream like that brought tears to his own eyes, and without thinking about it, he fell into their hug and squeezed Mecha tight, wishing none of this had happened.
"I'm sorry." Tails whispered, holding Mecha tighter. "I'm so sorry."
As Mecha sobbed and screamed, Sonic reached out with one hand and rested it Neo's white arrow and closed his eyes.
"You've made some terrible decisions. You've hurt a lot of people. Hurt me. Hurt yourself. You've gone from one self-inflicted disaster to another. To that all I can say is... welcome to the family." Sonic smiled down at him sadly and brushed a thumb over the arrow, knowing now what it meant to him. He leaned down closer, now in a whisper.
"Maybe you haven't been good. But you're good enough."
Silver awoke with a start. He sat bolt upright and looked around in a blind panic. At first, everything was impossibly bright, and he stared blindly from wall to wall. His visual sensors came online a moment later, and he saw where he was.
Home.
Then he detected the pressure around his body and gasped in a panic. He stared up at Mecha, who looked down at him with concern clear on his expressionless face.
"W-Where's Neo?" Silver asked shakily. "Where is he? Is he okay?"
"He's here." Eggman gestured to Neo, who was laying on the other table.
Silver scrambled off of the table, not even stopping to see if he should move at all, and was at his older brother's side in an instant. "Is he alive? Please tell me he's okay. Please." He looked up at Mecha and Eggman with pleading optics. "He's okay, right?" The "adrenaline" kept him on his feet despite his myriad of errors that were working to repair themselves.
"He was badly hurt," Eggman told him carefully, "just like you were." He moved to show Silver the readouts on his computer. "We're still waiting for him to wake up. Give it some time, son."
Mecha gently rested a hand on Silver's shoulder. "He will return. As the doctor says, we must give them more time." As Silver wavered in front of him, Mecha carefully picked him up and held him to his chest, letting Silver rest his head on his shoulder. "You must rest. Your systems require ample time to recover."
Silver stared at the wall behind them in shock. He couldn't stop shaking. The two things he was most afraid of; death, and losing his brothers, had just cruelly slammed him into the dirt and then picked him back up again. Their cruel hands kept pushing him, and he swore he could feel the pressure on his back like knives.
"Where's Sonic? And Tails? A-Are they alive?" Silver stammered out, barely able to form words.
"Affirmative. They are safe and well," Mecha told him reassuringly, rubbing circles on Silver's back, "and they returned to their home to recover."
Silver hadn't the energy to respond to that. His hands wouldn't keep any tension in them, and when he tried to hold onto Mecha, they just opened back up again. He choked a sob and started hyperventilating.
Mecha moved to sit against a wall and held Silver close to him, continuing to rub his back soothingly. "You are safe. I have you."
"Why did this happen..." Silver whispered, ice-cold with his terror and trauma. The memories of what had happened came back to him in snapshots, and he felt sick at the sight of them. What-ifs raced in his head. What if he had killed the commander. What if he had done something differently. What if he hadn't surrendered with Neo. What if. What if. What if. "This is my fault. This is my fault. This is my fault. He's dead and it's my fault."
Mecha rested his chin on Silver's head and held him tighter. "You are not to blame for the events that have transpired." He gently hushed the younger robot, turning down his vocalizer volume. "We must await Neo's return as calmly as possible, for self-blame will not hasten the process. He is not dead, merely recovering, like you."
"O-Okay. I'll wait." Silver replied, burying his face into Mecha with a sigh. He was quiet for a moment before breaking again. "I died, Mecha."
"I know."
Several long days passed. Silver and Mecha kept a devoted vigil the entire time, making conversation between themselves to pass the time. The only time either of them left was to attend to some matter in the base, but they always returned as quickly as possible.
"I fold. You're too good at this." Silver complained, pushing his cards over to Mecha and resting his chin on his hand.
Mecha peered over his cards at Silver. "Would you like me to reduce the difficulty of this round? I can delay my processing speed by several-"
Silver pouted at him. "No thanks. I wanna win fair and square next round."
Mecha let out a laugh as he took Silver's chips. "Suit yourself, brother. Would you like to partake in a different game? Perhaps one that meets your requirements more sufficiently?"
The other robot practically lit up at the proposition. He leaned forward with a mischievous look. "You want to play one of my games?" He bounced up to his feet and slid over to a spare computer.
Mecha got up to follow and tilted his head to one side. "The game is inside the computer?"
Silver nodded with a grin. "Yes. I'll introduce you to the world of gaming, Mecha." He brought up the start menu and scoured it for anything that resembled a game. "Oh hell yeah, tetris! Oh, and snake! We've even got pinball."
Mecha looked over his shoulder. "This is gaming?"
"I'll make a gamer out of you yet. You hear that, Neo? I'm gonna train him to beat you so hard." Silver looked over to Neo with a grin, but it soon fell. He sighed sadly and looked away. "I wish you were here to see me kick their butt."
"Let us proceed with this "gaming" task. I am intrigued and wish to acquire more data." Mecha said to distract him.
Silver gave a nod and forced a smile back onto his face. "Alright. Say, I don't think we need controllers. We could like, mod this shit with our super robot brains."
Mecha tilted his head, puzzled, but soon got the idea when Silver fished out two USB cables from under the desk. He plugged them into the computer and then wired them up to both of them.
"Is this safe?" Mecha asked, studying the cable intently. "I do not wish to acquire any viruses from any source."
"Pssh, course it is. And anyway, if you did get one, then Neo could-" Silver stopped himself and sighed with frustration at himself. "Uh, you updated your software, right? So we're good to go. Viruses got nothing on us."
Mecha gave a nod in reply and watched as Silver scoured for a game for them to play. Silver settled on a shooter he found online and booted it up, moving from one foot to the other with impatience as it loaded.
"Loading screens. Always hated 'em." Silver lamented. "They're so slow."
"Much like yourself." Mecha taunted him nonchalantly.
"Error 404, fuck not given." Silver shot back, elbowing Mecha in the side as the game finally loaded. "I'm so gonna beat you."
"You may attempt to do that," Mecha said smugly, fixing his gaze on the screen with intent, "but know that you shall fail."
They played for all of ten minutes when something happened behind them.
Neo awoke on the table. He turned his head to look at the two robots across the room from him, scanning each one in turn. Mecha detected the interference and looked over his shoulder to find his brother's optics fixed on him.
"Trying to distract me so you can win? I don't think so-" Curiosity got the better of Silver and he looked over his shoulder too, finding Neo awake and looking at them both. He slowly unplugged his USB cable, reached over to undo Mecha's, and turned around. He couldn't believe it. His hands dropped to his sides and he gave a breath of disbelief.
Mecha and Silver were at their sibling's side at once.
"Welcome back, bro," Silver ventured gently, moving to rest a hand on the robot's head with a smile, "how was your nap?"
Having heard the conversation, Eggman strode in right away to see what was happening with the robots. He was surprised to see Neo had woken himself up already.
Neo sat up with an odd mechanical rigidness. He looked from Eggman to the two robots a few times before sliding down from the table to stand. But instead of greeting them, he just stared them down.
Instantly, something was wrong, and all of them saw it. There was no recognition in his optics - he should have been happy to see them.
"Neo?" Silver asked, taking a step back with confusion. "You good? It's us, your super awesome bros who've waited for ages for you to stop laying around."
Neo just stared at him, clearly processing something, but nobody was sure what.
Eggman cleared his throat and spoke up, hoping that the robot's systems were just still booting. "This is Silver Sonic and Mecha Sonic. They are your br-"
- Silver Sonic.
- Mecha Sonic.
- SONIC.
- SONIC. PRIORITY ONE HEDGEHOG.
Metal's optics brightened dangerously. Without any further warning he lunged for both of them, aiming a slash at their faces. Mecha grabbed Silver and pulled him out of the way before any harm could be done, quickly pushing the younger robot behind him. Silver and Mecha stared at him in disbelief. Slowly, Mecha moved to stand squarely in front of Silver with his head lowered protectively.
"What is the meaning of this," Mecha asked in a low voice, "brother?"
Metal glared at him with every ounce of hate in his being. He flexed his claws at his sides and started to circle around them, optics fixed on them like a predator. Just as he raised his arm to attack again, Eggman grabbed it and yanked him back.
"They're not your targets." Eggman firmly told him, tightening his grasp on the robot's arm.
Metal sharply glared up at Eggman, not believing him. They were Sonic. It didn't matter what they looked like. Any Sonic was as good as dead, for it was his one and only purpose. He would fulfill it at any cost.
Mecha took a step towards him. Metal caught the movement and reacted in a split second. He wrenched his arm away from Eggman, took a step towards Mecha, and slashed him across the face as hard as he could. Mecha staggered back and Silver caught him with a gasp.
Mecha reached up and touched his face to find four jagged gashes across his muzzle. He slowly lowered his hand and looked at Metal. They stared at each other, for a long, tense moment. Metal moved first, aiming his fist at Silver's face, only for Mecha to move to block it with his arm. A loud bang reverberated across the room, and Mecha looked at Metal over his arm, who glared daggers back at him and pushed against him. For a moment, Mecha saw that frightened, angry child behind those hateful optics, the one who had locked itself away and torn itself apart. He relieved the tension in his arm for just a second, enough for Metal to overpower him to deliver another blow, this time to the top of his head.
"That's enough!" Eggman barked and pulled Metal back once again, this time quickly moving to deactivate him. Metal crumpled into a heap on the floor, and for a second, Silver saw the confusion and fear in the robot's optics before they went out. Silver held the air in his intake in horror.
"What's wrong with him?!" Silver asked, barely above a whisper in his shock.
Mecha held a hand to his face as he knelt down by Metal. "I suspect that their recognition protocols are not working correctly."
"You don't say..." Silver responded with a sigh, following after Mecha. He placed a hand on Mecha's shoulder. "Are you okay? He got you pretty bad."
Mecha gave a nod. "Affirmative. My damages are superficial and will not impair my function."
Silver didn't let his freak out come yet. He took a deep breath through his intake, held it, and let it out in a sigh. He helped Mecha back up to his feet and studied his face closely, frowning at the circuitry exposed beneath the slashes in his face.
"Boys... it's best if you go for a while," Eggman told them, "I might be a while trying to figure this out."
Reluctantly, the brothers left together, and Mecha slung his arm over Silver's shoulder to keep him close.
Eggman knelt down to look at the deactivated robot closer. It was just as he had feared - the trauma to his CPU had caused massive memory loss.
"My son. My creation. My fault."
Eggman brushed a hand over Neo's white markings and bowed his head. He reluctantly switched the robot back on and was met by confused and angry optics glaring up at him.
"Forgive me. I had to do that," Eggman told him, helping the robot back up to his feet, "those two aren't your targets. You only have one person to go after, and that's the original hedgehog. Don't make that mistake again."
Metal gave a nod. He folded his arms and looked out to the doorway where the pair of robots had left. After a moment, he begrudgingly logged Mecha and Silver as "neutral" in his data log and closed it. Their mere existence was confusing to him. Were they supposed to be Sonic? He would prove that he was a better Sonic than they were.
The next few hours were long, tense, and confusing for all of them.
Hedgehog-series don't give up on family.
Silver repeated that like a mantra in his head as he looked for his sibling in the base. Following the signal, he turned the corner, only to stop dead in his tracks. He stared for a long moment in disbelief at the robot in front of him.
Metal was looking at his reflection in the window, paintbrush in hand - covering up his arrows with his original blue paint. Bright white markings made him noticeable. And, the real Sonic didn't have them, so why should he? It was illogical. It made far more sense to be all blue for his objectives. It would make him more like Sonic, too. He was Sonic, the real one, and he would prove that.
Silver scrambled over and grabbed his brother's shoulders. "H-Hey, what are you doing?" He spun Metal around and searched his face in panic. "Don't do that. Please."
Metal stared back at him, confused and annoyed. Why was this strange hedgehog-series so persistent? He shrugged Silver's hands off of his shoulders and stormed away. This other robot was such an annoyance to him.
Silver reached out after him but was too slow to grab him.
Metal didn't look back. He kept going to find someplace to be alone. He would not waste time interacting with this stranger, for his time was better-spent training.
Silver stood alone in the hallway, just listening to his sibling's metallic footsteps as they faded away. The room suddenly felt endless and empty around him. This space between him and his brother was only getting wider with every moment that passed, and it drove him mad with grief. And that grief for the loss of his sibling slammed into Silver all over again. Only this time, his deep sadness warped into something ugly and angry. It hurt so badly. He had hurt before, but never like this. He choked back a sob as he kicked the paint can into the opposite wall, where it clattered onto the floor and spilled over. He stomped on it several times before screaming with all of his pain and anger and smacking a fist into the wall over and over. After several punches, he slid down to the floor and hit his head against the wall, where he pressed into it and sobbed loudly and with all of his grief.
His brother had already died and this stranger was just wearing his mask.
Silver just wanted his big brother back. Not this stranger wearing his body. It was terrifying, and it destroyed him to see those last pieces of what remained of Neo slipping away.
"You pain in the ass... the real you would tell me off for doing this sort of thing." Silver murmured, referring to his brother. He shakily drew his hand back and opened it, and when he turned it over, he found that his knuckles were blackened from missing paint. He hissed painfully and pressed his head to the wall, voice dropping below a whisper now. "It should have been me. It should have. You didn't deserve this."
A familiar hand came to rest on Silver's shoulder. He knew instantly that it was Mecha. Before he could say anything, Mecha knelt down and wrapped his arms around his smaller brother, resting his head on his shoulder lovingly. Silver broke down in his arms and pressed his head further into the wall to hide his face. Mecha stayed quiet, instead gently rocking his little brother to soothe him.
"Grieve if you must," Mecha quietly told him, nuzzling his cheek against Silver's, "it would be unwise to disable these emotions."
"I want him to come home," Silver whispered, "we should all be here, together, saying fuck you to the world, having fun, bullying each other."
Mecha gently rubbed circles on Silver's arm with his thumb. "I know. But it will be alright. We will make sense of this, together. We always do."
"I want our brother back, Mecha," Silver murmured into his hands, "it hurts so bad. I'm gonna go crazy with how bad it hurts."
"I understand. I am hurting too." Mecha told him, tightening his hold on his little brother. "Perhaps we should partake in a distraction of your choice."
Silver tilted his head back to look up at him, smiling weakly. "Wanna go shoot some bad guys in a game?"
Mecha looked down to meet his optics. "Affirmative. Gamer mode: activated."
Silver quietly laughed and playfully slapped Mecha's nose with his hand, his mood lifting with Mecha's strong and unwavering presence.
"I'm a bad influence." Silver said with a snicker.
"We are simply related." Mecha told him, hooking his arms under Silver's shoulders as he stood to bring the younger robot up with him.
"I don't think being a gamer is genetic..." Silver replied with a snicker. He leaned into Mecha's side, letting the bigger robot support his weight.
"I was referring to your behaviour influencing my own." Mecha responded, putting his arm around Silver as they started to walk. "It is much like a virus in that it is infectious."
"We making trauma jokes now? You're killing me."
"Is that supposed to be- Affirmative. You died."
"Yeah, don't rub it in. You're imprisoning me here."
"Is that supposed to be- Understood. I was imprisoned."
"That makes two of us. Do you reckon my container was comfier than your cell?"
"I believe that you have that on lock."
"On lock, huh? I like that. It's like... being locked up. In a cell."
"Your intelligence knows no bounds."
"We're made with the same AI chip, loser."
"We will find out who the true "loser" is after this game."
"Oh, you're on."
Eggman pinged Mecha for his assistance with something. Mecha dismissed it. His time was better spent with his brother and helping him through this. He sent a pre-written message back to Eggman informing him that he was already occupied.
Hedgehog-series don't give up on family, even if days have passed and nothing has changed.
"Hey, Neo. Wanna go out to race or something?" Silver invited Metal hopefully. He tapped his fingers together and smiled.
The door slammed in his face once again. Silver sighed and turned away, shaking his head as he walked off. "Yeah, I thought you might say that, asshole."
"Stop trying to talk to him."
Silver looked up to find Eggman walking over to him.
"What? He's still in there somewhere, I'm not just gonna ignore him now that he's a bit different." Silver replied with a shrug to mask his dejection.
"Silver..." Eggman knelt down to the robot's level and sighed. "His memory is gone. There's nothing there. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is. If you keep going up to him like that he's going to attack you again."
Silver dropped his charade, letting a frown work its way onto his face. "You don't get it. He's still in there, he's just gotta remember. I've seen it."
Eggman placed a hand on the robot's shoulder. "I'm saying this because I care about you. Stay away from him. I've already looked through all of his data for anything we can do, and there's nothing. He's going to hurt you."
Silver's frown only darkened. "He never stopped trying to understand me. I'll get through to him somehow... I'm not giving up on him. I don't give up on family."
"Son. I'm sorry, but it's pointless. You just have to accept it." Eggman told him, standing up again. "You can't bring back lost data. It's gone. I'm sorry, I know it's hard to hear, but you have to let go."
Silver decided he had heard enough. He turned and strode away, hands clenched into fists at his sides and teeth grit now in a way that mirrored Neo almost perfectly.
It was then that Eggman saw it.
"Silver! Get back here!" Eggman called after him, seeing the robot's anger brewing as they walked back to the door that had shut in their face. He remembered seeing Silver come online for the first time, and his worries about Silver being as messed up as Neo, and it seemed that he was being proven right. At least, in his eyes he was. He couldn't understand Silver's trauma, for he had never lived it.
Silver stopped and glared at the floor. He turned his head slightly. "Or what, dad? Or what?"
"I'll be forced to put you back in-"
Something in Silver snapped. He turned on his heel, marched up to Eggman, and stared him in the face with a set jaw.
"Okay, I'm just gonna come out and say it. Why didn't you make me good enough to love, dad?"
Silence. He was learning to hate it. Silver's fingertips dug into his palms hard enough to scrape the paint away.
"You made me. You knew what you were doing. So why..." Silver's anger turned black. Cold. Hard. "What's wrong with me?" In a move that echoed his brother, he slammed his fist into the wall with a yell. "What the fuck is wrong with me?!"
Eggman remained silent.
"I just wanted to be your son! I wanted you to be my dad! And you gave up on me. You gave up on all of us! You're giving up on Neo when he's still standing right there in front of you! I don't care if there's no data. He's not just data. He's a person."
"I never gave up on you. You just... didn't come out the way I had planned. He did too. I can't fix that and I admit it. It might be for the best if he starts again this way."
"So I'm a fucking mistake now?" Silver set his jaw and squared up to his creator. His face was uncharacteristically dark with anger - anger that had no place on the face of a child barely two weeks old. "And you have no right to say what's best for him."
Eggman held his glare with a straight face. "You haven't been around long enough to look at me like that."
"Damn right, I've not been around long enough. I'm hardly two weeks old and I'm going through all this!" Silver grit his teeth as he moved closer. "You don't even know who I am. Who the fuck are you? I don't even know anymore!"
"You're pushing it, Silver." Eggman spoke down to him, a glare forming on his face now too as the robot accused him. "I'll ask you once. Stop."
Silver laughed mockingly. He threw his arms out to his sides and stepped closer. "Why don't you just say what you think? That all of this is my fucking fault!"
Eggman scowled down at him, the stress of the situation and the robot yelling at him making him snap. "You know what, Silver? It is your fault."
A cold silence reigned over them both for a long minute. All at once, Silver saw that disappointment on his creator's face all over again. And he laughed.
"Thank you." Silver stepped back, smiling. "Thank you for finally being honest, for once in your life."
"It's your fault. You and your childish behaviour got you into every mess you've ever been in. Is that what you want to hear?"
Silver laughed in his face. "Oh! That's rich! If you knew any of the shit I've been through, you'd take that back. None of it is childish. I died. I've been through hell and you've never cared to ask about any of it! You're nice to me once and that suddenly makes you father of the year?! You repair me when I need it and you expect me to call that parenting? That's the bare minimum!"
"I've tried my best with all of you." Eggman told him firmly. "It's not easy being a father to three killer robots. You don't understand that... You might understand when you're older."
"You ever stopped to wonder why your robots betray you so much? Maybe you should look in the mirror. I don't need to be "older" to get that being a dick to your own family will make you unpopular." Silver snarled up at him.
"Look. Metal betrayed me once. And then you and Mecha made him worse. If you hadn't tried to turn him into something he's not, this never would have happened. You all went gallivanting around with the hedgehog, the one person you're supposed to defeat. You treated all of this as a game and look what happened! I try my best with all of you, but you push your luck."
"Oh, so this is a game now? Prepare to play by yourself, 'cause player two just quit."
A violent slap across the face nearly sent him headlong. Silver reached up and held his cheek in disbelief and shock. He was rendered silent for a long moment as he processed what had just happened.
"... You hit me."
A twinge of regret flashed on Eggman's face. He remembered hitting Mecha before, too, and his regret doubled. "Yes. You're not listening to me and I'm out of options with you. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that to you."
Silver slowly looked up at him. "Fuck you."
"Silver, you're my son, and I won't see you go down the same path as your brother. I care about you, I just want you to understand."
Silver's hand slid off of his cheek and fell to rest by his side.
It clenched into a fist, a shaking, angry fist, and he stared his creator in the eyes with a depth of rage he had never felt before.
"I am nobody's son."
He walked away.
Sometimes we have to do things that make us sad and there's no other way around it.
Metal had locked himself in the training room on the other side of the base by now. As an assassin, it was best to work, train, and operate alone. He didn't need anyone else. Other units were a mere distraction from his purpose. So, it was very strange to him that these unusual hedgehog-series robots kept insisting on pestering him. Perhaps they were faulty. He didn't care to scan them to find out. It would be a waste of RAM space to do that, and he only needed to focus on one thing - training, becoming better, to beat that hedgehog.
The robot held his fist to the wall, having made a dent in it. A perfect performance, as usual. So... why did something feel off? He couldn't place it. Disregarding the feeling, he shrugged it off and turned away. That was when a strange image loaded itself in his visual systems. He huffed through his vents and begrudgingly looked at it, frustrated that something as trivial as memory was hindering his training progress-
A memory?
He paused, lingering on the picture. It wasn't clear, not at all, and all he could really make out was a robot pinned against the wall by another robot. And the emotion attached to the file was... anger. Anger and fear. What could possibly make him afraid? Nothing could, he decided. Nothing but failing to defeat the hedgehog. It had to be a glitch. Yes, that was it. He dismissed it and went back to his training. It would be dealt with and eliminated later, for glitches would hinder his progress in defeating the hedgehog.
Behind him, the door opened.
Metal spun around to face the door and glared at it as it opened. He had locked it! Nobody else had access! To his surprise and annoyance, Silver walked in and locked it behind him. Of course, Silver still had alpha command access, just like his brother did - Metal wouldn't know that.
"You want to train to beat Sonic so bad?" Silver asked, walking right up to him. He stopped when he was almost nose-to-nose with Metal, looking him directly in the optics. "Let's go. Just you and me. Sonic copy to Sonic copy." If just talking wasn't going to work, he would try to get his brother riled up. Maybe that would bring something back.
Metal gave him a long, confused look. This robot just kept throwing itself at him over and over, and for what? Did it want to be destroyed that badly? Was it intending to beat the hedgehog before he could do it? Was it trying to prove that it was the real Sonic instead of him? Completely thrown off and irritated, he just stared at Silver with brightening optics as his frustration brewed.
"Out of all the other 'bots here, Metal..." Silver began as he backed up, "I'm probably the only one who can keep up with you one-to-one." He started to walk in a wide circle around the other robot, who stayed put - mirroring how he had circled him before. He walked slowly until he came to a stop behind his brother, where he stayed. Metal didn't fear this stranger, not one bit, and he wasn't about to come off like he did - so he didn't even look over his shoulder at him to see what he was doing.
This standoff between them lasted for a full minute.
Silver watched his brother closely. He knew just how lightning-fast the other robot was when he wanted to be, and if there was anything left at all of Metal's old personality, he knew that the robot's ego was too big to let another Sonic copy start with the upper hand. Just as predicted, Metal suddenly spun around and went to slash at Silver's face - but Silver was already gone. Metal stumbled to a halt and whipped around to find Silver standing behind him.
"Too slow," Silver told him with his arms folded and a shrug of his shoulder, "you're rusty. I expected more from you, princess Neo."
Metal narrowed his optics at the other robot challengingly. Just who did it think it was? He straightened and flexed his claws with intent to use them. As Silver predicted, Metal's ego was hurt.
"I know you remember. You just need to keep trying," Silver told him, circling around him again, "because I see it every now and then."
Metal started to follow, keeping his optics fixed on this apparently insane Sonic copy. He couldn't make sense of what it was talking about.
"You always had a thing about throwing yourself into combat," Silver continued, pausing for a moment, "especially when me and Mecha were involved. You didn't care about the consequences, you just saw that someone was gonna get hurt, and acted. You're just as impulsive as I am. I think it runs in the family."
A glint of repulsion flashed in Metal's optics at that. Being compared to some inferior make was insulting. He continued to move, not caring that Silver had stopped.
"That's the thing about you, Metal..." Silver continued, walking in a slow circle around him once again. "You think that nobody can beat you. Not permanently." He watched Metal's expression carefully. "You think you don't need anyone. You think you can do all of this alone." He slowed down, seeing the confusion in the other robot's optics. "But the truth is, loneliness kills you. You're dying inside."
That hit a nerve, and Metal wasn't sure why. Anger blinded him all at once. Metal lunged at him and took a swipe at his middle, but missed. Silver hopped out of the way and stepped around to stand behind Metal, where he held him in a headlock.
"There's not many things that you want. And even with that, you feel like you don't deserve them." Silver said, lower this time. He leaned closer to his brother's ear. "You don't think you deserve to live, either. But to die would mean that the hedgehog wins. Am I right?"
Metal wrenched himself free and went for him again. This time he kicked Silver's legs out from under him before he could react, pinned him to the floor, and glared in his face. Silver stared up at him, unafraid.
"You know how I know that? You know how I know that's a nerve I just hit?" Silver asked, his heartache clear in his voice. "Because I know you. I know you feel everything..." He glanced up to the half-painted arrow on his brother's forehead. "And I know you're in pain right now. You think you gotta be alone, but deep down you don't want to be. And that's ruining you. It's tearing you apart. But you don't have to be alone. Don't shut yourself away like this. Don't hurt all alone."
Metal's anger boiled over. This robot had some nerve telling him who he supposedly was and throwing out accusations like that! He balled his hand into a fist and went to punch Silver in the face, but Silver caught it and pushed back.
"And you know how I know what you're gonna do?" Silver asked quietly, watching how Neo's optics brightened more and more with rage. "You're my big brother." His grip started to weaken, and he just laughed before choking and breaking into a sob. "You're my brother!"
Metal's fist overpowered Silver's hand and struck his cheek. Metal took the opening and slammed his other fist into the younger robot's face, and then the other, and kept going. Once he grew dissatisfied with his attack pattern, he relented, only to grab Silver by the arm, slam him into the wall, and hit him again and again.
Silver eventually managed to catch both of his fists and pushed back, shaking with the effort. Neo was strong in any form. He knew that very well. He looked up to meet Metal's blazing optics that looked down on him with disgust and disdain.
"You're my big brother," Silver repeated himself shakily, "and this isn't your fault. I know the real you wouldn't do this. The you who got better. The you who learned to care about people." He felt his grip weakening again, and he struggled to keep holding on. "And you're always gonna be my big brother. I don't care who or what you become." He felt Metal's strength falter a little and pushed back harder, finally moving Metal back just a little. "I don't care. You can't just erase brotherhood like that. You don't just forget love like that."
Metal stared him down with a mixture of confusion and... pain? His strength weakened again, and Silver put him back a few steps. The two continued to push each other.
"You know who taught me that?" Silver asked him, smiling shakily as oil ran down his face. "You wanna know?" He pushed Metal back a third time.
Metal kept watching the other robot's face intently.
"It was you," Silver told him with a sob, "it was always you!" Now he overpowered his older brother. As Metal released him and stumbled back, Silver was the one to land a single punch to Metal's chest. But before he could put any power into the blow, he slowed down deliberately and his knuckles hit the other robot's armour with a soft "clink." He hung his head and tried to stuff down his pain, but he couldn't. "It was always you..." When Metal didn't hit him or push him away, he slowly lifted his head to meet his confused, pained optics.
Metal couldn't understand. He just looked down at the mess of a robot in front of him, finding deep down that he should feel something about this. Somewhere deep down, it all meant something. But, what it was, he couldn't figure out. It left him confused and aching and defensive.
"I miss you." Silver whispered, slowly withdrawing his fist from his brother's armour. He held Metal's optics for a long moment. "And I love you."
A short silence. Oh, how he had come to hate it.
"I'm sorry that everyone let you down like this," Silver murmured, desperate to fill the silence with something, "you didn't deserve this. None of us did. We're just kids. We're all just kids trying to survive."
Metal just stared back. A glimmer of pain came over his optics at that, and Silver caught it.
"I wish you could tell me where you are now... There's something in a living being that can't just disappear. I know it's dark out there, but you're out there, somewhere. I'd like to let you in, let you come home. So when you find that light, don't wait. Run back to it. I'll be waiting for you, however long it takes." Silver gently told him. "Come home soon, okay?"
Metal's confusion only grew stronger. That something deep down kept stirring. Had he really lost his memory? It didn't make any sense. There was nothing before all of this, right? Right?
As much as it ached to walk away, Silver reluctantly turned and took a few steps towards the door. "I love you to death. I just wanted you to know that." He stood by the locked door and lifted his hand to unlock it, but stopped. He looked back over his shoulder at Metal and smiled sadly. "Please, don't forget that. Ever. That's all I ask."
Metal didn't outwardly react.
Silver hadn't expected much else. He sadly sighed and shook his head, turning to give one last, long look to his brother.
"I'll never regret loving you. Goodbye, Neo."
The door closed behind him, and Silver stood alone on the other side.
He had to let go until Neo was ready to remember.
More than that, he would leave before anyone else could leave him.
Silver took a deep breath through his intake and walked away. He walked in silence, staring straight ahead, not willing himself to look back. This was done. It was over. There was nothing to gain from looking back at his shell of a sibling. Not right now.
In the silence, Silver walked into a storage room. He picked up the toy gun his father had given him. After that, he went to the repair bay and took a toolbox and took a few tools from it. He grabbed some cans of paint, packing them into a bag that he strapped over his chest and over his shoulders. He moved on to the weapons room, taking a rifle and a sling, which he put over his shoulder in an off-side drop position alongside the toy one. He stopped for a moment to paint "Silver Sonic" in orange onto the real one, making it his own.
He made no attempt to speak to anyone as he walked towards the exit, not even to look for Mecha, and he kept walking until he found himself outside. It was raining, and storm clouds rolled in over the sky in a myriad of greys and dark blues. Raindrops blurred his vision intermittently.
Silver carried on. He went far past the boundaries of the base he called "home." Industrial buildings turned to dead fields, drained of life from the pollution of the base. He tried to ignore it. He endured, walking further, almost forgetting that he was a robot capable of flight. Fields turned to a forest, at the edge devoid of life, but deeper within, rebirthing was all around him, plants everywhere coming back to life. A cynical part of the robot dismissed it. He came to a stop in a clearing, where he would be well and truly alone. He didn't want anyone to see him, not right now.
Don't shut it out, because it'll come knocking later on and it'll take what you owe it.
He stood in the center of the clearing, just looking straight ahead. Slowly, his hands clenched into fists. They shook. He reached up to touch his cheek and held his hand there, where Eggman had hit him. His lip threatened to tremble, so he bit it. The clicks threatened to spill out and he stuffed them back down, muting his vocalizer. The more he struggled, the stronger the pain became.
It'll come knocking later on and it'll take what you owe it.
He started hyperventilating, and his hands shakily came up to his head. The reality of everything he had experienced made his head reel. It was all too much for him to cope with. No, he couldn't lose it, he shoved the hurt back down and tried to steel himself against it-
It'll take what you owe it.
A bolt of lightning lit up the sky above him.
It'll take what you owe it.
Silver screamed as loud and hard as he could.
He collapsed to his knees and sobbed and screamed with all of his heart.
Don't shut it out. It'll take what you owe it.