-Crossfire-
A sound across the peaceful night silence. I say silence. Traffic noise, city sounds, the usual, but for us, silence, being used to it. Then, a noise - and not a noise, at the same time. Felt, not heard, at the deepest level of sensing. My little brother straightens, tenses; he hears it too. His eyes widen slightly, then a new look settles across his face. Seconds suddenly drag out, time... space... distorted... his motion one step sideways jerky, lasting forever, as though I watch a slow-motion replay through several metres of water, clouded, and something will happen, but I can't reach, and my eyes taking a thousand years to open wider and wider in shock and horror because I know, too, without knowing, what he sees, but I can't move... And a rumble that would be a swift bang, but time is dragging out and a second is forever and the sound is stretched, stretched, and the shaking underfoot is slow, slow, but reactions are slow, so slow, and I'm off-balance falling through treacle to the floor... And I see, see-feel-hear the cracks spreading so-so-slowly across the wall, wallpaper tearing, impossibly slow, and then suddenly everything snaps back into normal time, speed now, fast, and the last thing I see through the dust and the falling ceiling pieces and pain is little little brother with big open eyes staring and knowing, and the dust clouds up and the ceiling falls and the pain takes me into darkness.
Darkness...
Light. Eyes flash open, quick, where am I? Looking all around, time... memory. Memory comes flooding back, and I know who I am, and where I am. Little brother looking into my eyes, reflecting mine I suppose, but you can't tell the difference. They're the same colour, same shade, but something different behind them to mine, but you can't see that in reflection so well. I'm taller, he's taller, since then. He extends a hand so seriously, I don't need it, but it's part of the way he is. I take it and get up. We've aged since then, but I'm not sure he's changed, ever since he hauled me from the rubble of our old house and just sat down to wait 'til I woke up. I asked him, what would you have done if I hadn't woken up? And he said, oh, but you were going to wake up, so I didn't have to. I said, didn't have to what? He said, I didn't have to know that. He said, I knew you were going to wake up now. I asked, how? He just shrugged. It was something he knew, was all. I looked into his face and his somehow different eyes, and saw no sadness, and I shouted, do you know our parents are in there somewhere?! And he answered, yes. Well, I said, don't you care?! And he said... he said, I know that it happened. I know that we won't see them again. But I know that they were. And I stared at him.
Since then, I've learnt it was Robotnik who caused that explosion that brought our house down, Robotnik who killed them. But he didn't even notice - he didn't even care. Since then I've fought him with all I have and all I am. And everywhere I go, little brother comes too, always knowing everything before it happens, never hating, forgiving everything like he knows all the secrets of life. I should get furious with him for that, but I don't, because we somehow exactly complement each other. He always steps aside just before something happens in the point where he stood, not like he's avoiding things, just like he knows that he and it won't be in the same place at the same time. Ever. That's how he comes out of everything unscathed, while I've got enough scars for the both of us.
I look around. Looks like everybody's here but for Shadow, 'here' being the entrance to the 'control room', where Amy works with the maps and plans our tactics. But everyone seems excited, and I can feel that something's happened... something besides, of course, getting attacked by missiles. And part of me knows, but I can't quite see what it is...
My little brother, who they call Blaze now, speaks up. "Sonic's awake."
Of course. When he says it, it's like I knew already, like I just needed to be reminded.
"Sonic, awake, huh. So he's going to fight Robotnik with us. Lot of good that'll do. I can just see all those robots keeling over 'cause he waved at them. Sure, and he'll walk up to that big wall, and it's going to split down the middle, and then he'll just walk up to Robotnik, who'll fizzle away in a cloud of smoke? Fat chance. Fact is, nothing's gonna change around here, except that someday we're going to die. Maybe we'll get another robot each, or ten, or twenty, but then that's it, 'cause everybody runs outta luck sooner or later, and the robots only have to get lucky once, but we gotta be lucky every time!"
It looks like Gaze is about to cry. Even Tails, who looked so happy before I started talking, is hanging his head.
"Face facts. Life's tough, and we've got no chance, and there's no way to change it."
Gaze sniffs. "M-maybe, if we had the Chaos Emeralds..."
I whirl on him. "Yeah, right. The Chaos Emeralds. Well, maybe they would have given us a chance once, but in case you hadn't noticed, Mr. Head-in-the-clouds, one of 'em's been destroyed! What use are six Emeralds when you need seven?! That's assuming we could even get them in the first place!" I turn and walk off, back down the corridor. Life isn't fair, and ends soon, and all we can hope for is to take as many of them as we can with us. I learned that a long time ago.