-Sonic-
"Uhhh..."
Wh...what...? What... what happened...?
Don't you know?
My eyes snap open, and I jump to my feet, only to collapse again as the room spins around me. Could – could it have been...?
No, of course it couldn't. He's dead. But...
Images replay before my eyes as I stare at my own dull reflection in the metal floor, only hazily aware of my injuries, of my torn ear. Past and present whirl in my head until I can barely separate one from the other. Metal, slamming into me, throwing me back; me, chasing him as we race for the future of our world. Knocked down, sliding across broken glass; remembering moments from my own unconsciousness through Metal's eyes. That voice in my mind, my voice and not, red eyes looking into my own. Red eyes, blue metal, red eyes, black fur. My reflection, twisted by smoothly curved metal. Delicate-seeming yet deadly metal, echoed again in Shadow's left arm, calling Metal back to my mind from so long ago...
And now he's here...
No! No, this isn't Metal! I've fought plenty of robots that looked like me. Only one of them was ever Metal, Hyper Metal Sonic... only one of them was ever different.
Only one of them could ever have been anything else...
I shake my head and twitch my ears, almost welcoming the pain. It brings me back to the moment, and that's all I care about, all I'll ever let myself care about. Standing up again, slower this time, I look around myself. There's nothing, really, just an empty room, walls, floor, and ceiling plain metal, my bloodied reflection mocking me as it stares back from every wall. It looks... haunted...
I shake my head again. It's over, Sonic, over! It's part of the past now, same as everything else! I'm not like this, what's behind me stays behind me! It's just been harder than normal since I woke up, that's all!
Hey... hey! The door's open! When did that happen! I start for it in the same instant as something grabs my arm from behind, and I whirl, find myself looking into glowing red eyes, reflecting my green ones, and I remember...
I remember reaching down... I remember my hand being knocked aside...
And I stumble as the robot jerks me forward, pulling me out of the cell. This is crazy; I've got to stop this! I do my best to focus on what's happening, on the walls, on the floor, where I'm headed, what I'm going past, and it seems to work, at least mostly. I just try not to look at the robot, or at our reflections. Trying to see everything as I walk by it, I don't notice what's coming up ahead until we actually walk in. It's some kind of control room – and Eggman's there, standing in the centre of it, waiting for me!
"Ahh... if it isn't my old friend, Sonic!"
"Hey, Egghead! I-"
"Silence! You will call me Emperor Robotnik!"
"Whatever you say... Egghead!" I snap back. No way am I ever going to call him that! Heh, looks like it's annoying him, too!
"You won't be so insolent when you witness your friends' destruction, hedgehog!"
"Huh, there's no way you could get them! You've been trying for years, and you couldn't even finish me off!"
He glares at me. I act like I couldn't care less, like this is all a game, but somewhere deep down, I'm more than a little worried. And what if... but no. No, there's no way I'm going to lose! No way they're going to!
"I can now, thanks to you, Sonic!"
What! No... no, he can't have! He... can't. I twist to look at the robot, and it looks back impassively. He can't have copied my mind, like he did before, can't have...
"What do you mean!"
"After you so kindly collected the Chaos Emeralds for them, Sonic, I've been able to target their exact location! And now you're here, it's time to finish them off once and for all!"
What – no! No! I struggle desperately, but the robot's too strong for me, and I can't pull away. He can't – he can't do this! I can't let him! It can't be over...
I stop struggling in the end, look down at the floor. It is over... and there's nothing I can do but listen to him laugh...