Hey-hey!

I'm not dead, I'm still here trying to update stuff, honest! I'm just really bad at motivating myself. Seeing all your lovely comments really does help me though, so please leave a review if you're enjoying this story. It lets me know there are people out there who actually want my crappy writing. I've had this chapter ready to go for about a week now - apologies, I was trying to find the motivation to edit the damn thing. But now I've finally got it... maybe. I'm not sure. I might end up re-editing it later, but it's almost one in the morning for me so I'm going to post it anyway and I might check it later. I have a plan to start trying to get a roughly consistent upload schedule - but if you've read my other stories... you know me promising something usually means it doesn't happen because I end up feeling pressured and then writers' block hits and well... I'm trying, and I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I've got several chapters of a new story written up already so I might start with that for a few weeks and we'll see how it goes from there. Cool? Cool.

Ok, rant over, sorry!

~Fortune

Chapter Three

It was pitch black outside when Sonic finally felt calm enough to enter the house. He was hoping Knuckles had gone to sleep already; he couldn't face the echidna right now for what he'd done.

Sonic snuck in through the front door and, like a spy in his own house, he crept upstairs. He managed to avoid every squeaky floorboard… until the one two steps from his room. He froze. Across the hall, a door opened. The spare room. Knuckles' room. The echidna stepped out into the hallway and looked at him like a disappointed mother who had just caught her son sneaking out.

'Screw him, it's my house,' he thought.

Knuckles looked like he was about to open his mouth, but Sonic turned away and walked to his room before the echidna could say anything. He heard the other call his name, and he flipped him off over his shoulder. It was immature, sure, but he was past caring. If Knuckles wouldn't hear him out or speak to him civilly, neither would he. Sonic didn't slam the door in his face for the sake of his likely sleeping brother, but Chaos he wished he could have.

Apparently, this wasn't much of a hint for the echidna. Knuckles ended up opening his door again before he had a chance to lock it. Sonic knew that if he fought against the echidna to keep the door closed, not only would he lose that fight, but there was also a chance of making more noise. Knuckles also must have realised this. Bastard.

Sonic folded his arms and glared at Knuckles. "Get out."

Knuckles sighed, "Sonic-"

"No, I don't want to hear it. I said get out."

"Hedgehog-"

"Out."

"Are you going to let me speak?"

"Did you?"

They stared at each other in silence for a while. Sonic broke eye contact and turned his head away. Knuckles sighed and opened the door behind him.

As Knuckles was leaving, he said, "We'll talk tomorrow."

Sonic huffed, "No thanks."

The echidna lingered in the doorway for a moment with a frown. He looked like he wanted to say more, to argue, but clearly he thought better of it. Knuckles closed the door softly and Sonic could hear his footsteps out in the hallway get quieter as he walked away.

He sighed, feeling his shoulders sag in exhaustion. He didn't want to have to be snappy with Knuckles, but the echidna wasn't giving him much choice. It was hypocritical of Knuckles to expect to be listened to when he wouldn't hear him out. It made his blood boil. The blue hedgehog collapsed onto his bed, flat on his back. For a long while he just glared at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to come.

Turning on his side, Sonic set his alarm for early the next morning. He was going to be up and out of the house before Knuckles could have that stupid talk he wanted. Maybe he'd leave a note for Tails though. It wasn't fair for the young fox to be caught up in their argument.

"He was just… talking to himself?"

Shadow shook his head, "He was talking to Metal, but…" he paused, "Obviously Metal doesn't speak. I honestly have no idea what was happening."

Rouge tapped her chin. "Maybe Big Blue's finally lost it?"

"But the way Metal was reacting… it was like, somehow Sonic could guess what he was trying to say."

"That is bizarre… Looks like we're definitely keeping an eye on Sonic."

Shadow nodded. "There's more to this situation than it seems."

"We have the week off. Let's follow him tomorrow, see if we can see any other strange behaviour."

Sonic kept his promise to himself the next morning.

After leaving a quick note in Tails' workshop – and avoiding looking at anything and everything in the room – Sonic left the house at six in the morning. He hadn't got much sleep during the night, he had too much on his mind, too many questions. And still no answers.

How could he prove to his friends that Metal could be trusted?

Sonic sighed, running his hands through his quills as he looked up through the trees at the slowly lightening sky. The sky was lilac-grey, not a single cloud. It was pretty but did nothing to calm Sonic's nerves. He closed his eyes and lowered his head, burying his face in his hands. Then he felt something cold against the top of his head.

He looked up, surprised to see Metal standing in front of him.

"Oh, hey Metal."

The metallic hedgehog patted him on the head a couple times before stepping away. Sonic supposed that was just Metal's greeting now. Oh well, he could deal with it. It was kind of nice. Metal was really positive this morning; to Sonic it felt like he was smiling. That weird connection they had was making him feel better. Huh. Maybe that's why Metal was happy.

He was trying to cheer him up.

"Thanks buddy," he whispered, hugging the other.

Metal's body was ice cold, but he tried to ignore it. The poor robot had been outside all night, no wonder he was freezing. At least Metal couldn't feel it, he supposed. He felt his body shiver. When he pulled away, Metal seemed even more fired up. Sonic's ears perked up. He couldn't hear any words in particular, but he could gauge a vague feeling…

"You want to hang out?"

Metal nodded.

A smile broke out across his face, "Sounds fun. What do you want to do?"

He saw the image of a familiar building on fire… He blinked. Huh.

"You want to blow up an Eggman base?" he chuckled, "Alright, I'm game. You're gonna have to show me where his new base is though."

There was a rush of excitement through Sonic's body – a feeling from Metal. The blue robot nodded and pointed behind him. A broad smile lit up Sonic's face.

"Straight in that direction?" A nod. "You wanna race?"

The word "yes" rang through his mind clear and strong. Without needing any other prompting, Sonic stepped up next to his metallic counterpart. He tapped his feet on the ground one by one and looked over at Metal. After a brief nod, they both took off. The rush of seeing the world go by in blurs beneath his feet never got old, but seeing Metal beside him and not having to worry about incoming attacks was wonderful. He never had this with Shadow either. They were always hurling insults at each other or trying to slow the other down with attacks. Racing with Metal with the freedom to just enjoy it was such a new feeling. He didn't want this feeling to go away.

As they narrowly avoided trees and ducked under low hanging branches, Sonic kept his eyes ahead. He wanted to stop just short of the base once it came into view so he could assess the area. He made sure his counterpart knew this.

When they both slid to a stop they were just on the edge of the trees. Tie. Before them sat a building so massive, Sonic often wondered how it was so hard to find in the first place. The smooth, metal walls were so distinct and, in Sonic's opinion, ugly as sin. Sonic put one hand on his hip and tapped his chin with a hum. Eyes quickly scanning the side he could see, it suddenly occurred to him that he did not have to do this.

"Hey Metal, there any areas with weak security we can take advantage of?" he asked.

Metal sent him the image of a ventilation system. After he asked Metal to lead the way, the two snuck around the side of the base. Once they were on the other side, Metal pointed to the vent cover, high up on the wall. Looks like the mad scientist was learning. Unluckily for Eggman, Sonic had a flying robot companion now.

Sonic gestured to the vent cover, "Can I have a boost, buddy?"

Metal grabbed Sonic under his arms and launched himself up. When they reached the vent, Metal remained as steady as he could as Sonic placed his feet against the wall. Sonic prised the cover off the vent and threw it aside. Metal suddenly flew higher up, startling Sonic. Then the metallic hedgehog dropped him against the wall, Sonic's hands and feet sliding against the flat surface, scrambling for purchase. He panicked briefly until his hands found the lip of the vent. He looked up, and Metal gave him a thumbs up. Despite the heart attack, Sonic supposed that worked out fairly well. Maybe he'd have a talk with Metal about safety later.

Shaking his head with a chuckle now that his heart had slowed down, Sonic pulled himself into the vent. Judging by the echoing metal-against-metal scraping, Sonic could assume Metal wasn't far too behind. Sonic hoped it didn't sound as loud outside as it did inside the vent. He shrugged it off. So what if Eggman hears them coming? The whole place will be up in flames before the scientist can even blink.

Rouge started as a cloud of smoke and embers erupted in the sky ahead of them. She exchanged a look with Shadow before they both took off towards the explosion. The white bat beat her wings to keep up with her partner. He wasn't running too fast thankfully, so they were still side by side when they came to a stop, hearing the laughter at the same time. They crept forward, keeping low, ensuring they were hidden by the bushes.

The blue hedgehog they were looking for was jumping up and down a few metres from the bush they were crouched in. Beyond him lay the remains of what appeared to be an Eggman base. As Sonic was cheering, Rouge noticed Metal Sonic Standing nearby, head seemingly moving up and down with every jump from his organic double. Sonic whooped, spinning around to face Metal.

"That explosion was epic! You were right about the power cells increasing the size," he looked towards the flaming rubble, scratching the back of his neck, "We may have used one too many though…"

Sonic turned back to Metal, ears perking up like Shadow had described yesterday. Rouge frowned. It really did look like Sonic was hearing something they couldn't. She perked her own ears forwards, straining to pick up even the tiniest noise but, like Shadow, she could not hear anything either.

"Huh… I guess," Sonic looked back towards the destruction the two had caused, "We could have achieved the same effect with a little less firepower, but oh well. It did look cool. But next time…" he looked back at Metal with his hands on his hips, "Maybe don't drop me?"

Metal stared at Sonic for a moment, then he started to walk away.

"Metal? You're not gonna do that again, right?" Sonic called, running after the silent robot, "Metal?!"

Rouge elbowed Shadow next to her, "We going to follow them?"

Shadow nodded, "But let's keep our distance for now."

Side by side, the two agents shadowed Sonic and his robotic counterpart. Sonic was still yelling at a passive Metal.

"It's not funny!"

Metal stopped and turned to look at Sonic. His head was cocked to the side. Rouge thought he almost looked inquisitive. There was a moment of silence between the two. Sonic shook his head.

"I'm not made of parts, Metal," Sonic explained slowly, "It's a little harder to fix bones than it is to fix your limbs, do you understand? If I'd broken my leg, I'd be out of commission for at least a few weeks."

Metal took a step forward, extending his arm above Sonic's head. As gently as he could, he patted Sonic on the head like a dog. She rose a brow at Shadow, who whispered back that the robot had done the same thing the day before. Sonic's eyes closed with every pat. He pulled a face, but let the robot continue his strange gesture. When Metal stopped, Sonic sighed.

"I know you're sorry. I probably would have been fine this time – it wasn't that high," Sonic mumbled with a frown, "But I need you to understand that my body is a little more… fragile than yours. I may be tougher than your average mobian, but I'm still mobian, ok?"

Metal nodded, startling Rouge. That was almost assuredly a direct response to what Sonic had said. How were they having what appeared to be a full conversation, when one couldn't even speak? Sonic seemed able to infer even the most specific of responses from nothing but body language – and Metal certainly looked like he understood Sonic. Words and actions must be easy for a machine to process, but how the hell was Sonic doing the same with only body language? From a barely responsive machine, no less?

And what was all that about Sonic almost getting hurt?

Tails sighed. In the living room, Knuckles was pacing, ranting about how Sonic wasn't willing to explain himself properly and that he was a coward for leaving early. The young fox was starting to get a little defensive about his brother. He wanted to know why Sonic was being so weird about Metal, yes, but he also knew from experience that pushing Sonic was the worst thing you could do. Knuckles couldn't see that he wasn't giving Sonic the chance to explain himself; he wasn't being patient enough. Tails had learned over the years to simply trust the blue hedgehog. And that's what he was going to do.

Sonic had left a note in the garage. Tails hadn't shared it with Knuckles.

It made him angry though. His brother had felt the need to apologise to him. Apologise. As far as Tails was concerned, Sonic hadn't done anything wrong. Knuckles was being unfair; everyone was being unfair. But he still apologised. Why couldn't everyone just trust him?

"Knuckles."

The red echidna looked to where Tails was sitting on the settee. He blinked when he saw the young fox was glaring at him.

"Just leave him alone."

Knuckles opened his mouth to protest, but Tails stood from the settee and cut him off.

"If you want to corner him, push him away, that's your prerogative. But you'll have to leave. I can't have my brother sneaking around his own house because he wants to avoid you. It's not fair."

Tails was aware of how cruel he was being. Knuckles often stayed at their place so he wouldn't be alone up on Angel Island all the time. It was Sonic's suggestion. The blue leader didn't want his friend to be isolated. Even though Tails could tell sometimes that Sonic would rather be alone, he sacrificed his own comfort for the sake of Knuckles.

Why couldn't Knuckles do the same?

He didn't even wait for the echidna's response. Tails spun around and made his way to the garage, slamming the door behind him. He had to call Sonic, let him know that if he found Metal he could bring him back to the house. Anything that happened in this house was the business of him and his brother, not Knuckles. He was like a semi-permanent guest. This wasn't his house, it was theirs. Tails just had to let his brother know he was on his side all the way. Hopefully he had his communicator.

The vibration against his wrist made Sonic stop in his tracks. As if knowing he stopped before even turning around, Metal stopped walking too. Sonic was ready to ignore the call, expecting it to be Knuckles. The glare slipped from his face when he read Tails' name on the display instead. He frowned. Why was his brother calling him?

He accepted the call. "Hey bro, what's up?"

"I asked Knuckles to leave."

Sonic blinked, startled.

"What?"

There was a sigh from Tails' end, "I told him if he couldn't leave you alone, he had to leave. If you end up finding Metal, you can bring him back home."

Sonic's ears perked up, "You're… ok with that?"

"I trust you," was Tails' response.

"Is… Is Knuckles going back up to Angel Island?" Sonic asked, feeling his ears lower when he realised what Tails meant.

He didn't want the echidna to be alone. In a perfect world, both his teammates would trust his decision with Metal, and they'd all be happy. In a perfect world, Knuckles would stay. Pushing Knuckles away meant forcing him to be isolated again, cut off from the rest of his team. What was a team when its members were divided?

"I don't really know," Tails said, "I gave him the decision. I don't know what he'll choose."

Sonic leaned against the nearest tree, his ears fully flattened, "I don't want Knuckles to leave…" he mumbled.

He felt awful. This was his fault. Sonic didn't want to be the reason why his team was fragmented, but he was quickly becoming a wedge between Knuckles and Tails already. He'd never forgive himself if this was what broke up his team. What if Knuckles became distant because of his decision? What if Knuckles hated him? He'd unknowingly turned his brother against the echidna – that's not what he wanted. He didn't want his friend to go.

"I know. I don't either," Tails mumbled, ending the call when Sonic remined silent, "I'll see you later."

Sonic felt his shoulders slump. He didn't want this. Metal walked up beside him. It would be unfair to blame this on Metal. None of this was Metal's fault, none of this was his choice. It was Sonic's choice. Sonic's fault. He leaned against the side of his robotic double. His eyes wouldn't leave the floor.

His heart shattered when he heard Metal's thoughts echo across his mind. He turned and embraced the robot.

"No, Metal. None of this is your fault," he whispered, "None of it."