apologies for the long wait! had to get through the final slog of senior year but i'm officially graduated from high school :)

my goal has always been to finish this story before i start college, so i don't know how realistic that is, but i'm gonna be pushing myself to crank out the last few chapters this summer. thank you all again for this wild journey—we're nearing the end. and buckle up, this chapter is very long and very intense.

ONE MORE THING. i recently discovered adokle on tumblr has made some beautiful fanart for this fic that i've somehow never seen? but it's amazing stuff. give them some love. (i know ffnet is finicky with links but hopefully you can copy & paste these into your browser):
[ post/187375962701/till-we-touch-the-sun-food-for-thought-by-joeadok ]
[ post/619266679944396801/a-till-we-touch-the-sun-based-sonic-just-a ]

now on with the show!


XXI.

void (vȯid)

[adjective]

completely empty.


The airship nearly blended in with the clouds. They almost missed it, despite its gargantuan size, if not for the dull roar of its engines—and the stifling Chaos energy that seemed to seep through its cracks.

It resembled the shape of other aircrafts Eggman had often piloted in his many attempts at world domination. Large and foreboding, baring his wicked insignia on every feasible surface. Except, this one was clearly meant to be much more inconspicuous, with its thousands of reflective panels that made it nearly invisible from afar.

Amy could practically smell the Chaos from how thick it lay in the air.

Sonic brought the Tornado around to drift beside the ship, and fiddled with some controls; Amy felt the plane slowing down to keep pace, as the airship was only circling lazily above Westopolis. They clearly weren't in a rush to get anywhere—for whatever reason that may be—just stalling.

Eventually he seemed content, and pulled himself from the pilot's seat to stand beside her on the wing (she assumed there must be some autopilot settings in the Tornado—Tails was smart enough to install a feature like that). They looked at each other for a moment, and Amy tried to size him up, but if she hadn't been able to read him very well in the past, she certainly couldn't now. Sonic was always good at putting up a front when he wanted. He liked to wear a mask.

They hadn't spoken much since departing from Knothole, and Amy appreciated it. But they needed to discuss what they were going to do now that they were here.

Sonic raked his eyes along the belly of the beast, searching for openings and weak spots. There were a few potential entry points that Amy could easily pick out just from a glance. It didn't seem particularly shatterproof, although the true danger probably awaited them deeper inside.

"I don't think we'll have much time once we get in," he said, keeping his voice deliberately low and soft. It was a little disconcerting how grave and serious he acted, but she could catch that same hyper-focus in his eyes, that adamant nature. It flowed freely through him; she had known it since he first saved her all those years ago on Little Planet. "Just as easily as we tracked down Chaos' energy, they'll be able to sniff us out pretty quick: we're both prominent users. This need to go just right, or else—"

"I know," she told him, and when she did he turned to meet her eyes again. Both of them knew what they had gotten themselves into. There was a good chance this wouldn't go very well. But neither of them had the self-restraint to stop themselves anymore.

The closest way inside seemed to be a vent just a few feet away. They could both easily jump to it and crawl in, but Sonic would need to break off the front plate first with a homing attack. It was unspoken, but they seemed to grasp this simultaneously, and so he wordlessly got ready to leap off the Tornado wing.

But Amy wavered. Her heart twisted up as her thoughts started spiraling and she got to thinking more and more about all the different ways tonight could go. How very few of those ways would end up okay.

She grabbed his arm, and he stopped and looked back at her questioningly.

Amy chewed her lip, and then said, "You're the fastest of the two of us, hands down. If it comes down to it, you need to prioritize getting Knuckles out of here."

Sonic's face screwed up miserably, as he seemed palpably aware of the implications of that. "Ames."

"I need you to promise me," she pressed on. Quite decidedly, she bundled up all her doubts and fears with a neat bow and threw them out the window. Harsh yet honest, she added, "There are some things that are more important than me."

Frustration set in over his sorrow, and Sonic pulled away from her grip on his shoulder. "Would you stop with the self-sacrificial shit? You're not getting left behind tonight. Nobody is. End of discussion."

"And I really hope you're right," she said, "But I'm being serious. It's not just about me, it's about all of us. Knuckles is—Knuckles is the only person that can fix all of this. He can fix Chaos and the Master Emerald. Nobody else."

She could see the contempt on his face, stewing in his eyes. It wasn't aimed towards her, just everything else. And she could see the way he wanted to argue with her, but the way that smoldering disapproval settled uncomfortably in his features and told him to swallow it and accept reality. He knew exactly what she meant.

Sonic huffed, and his gaze fell, and he turned his back to her so he could jump to the vent again. "Let's just stay focused on the task at hand."

The momentum he gained from homing into the vent was strong enough to punch it inward. Amy was quick to follow suit, leaping off the biplane and pulling herself less gracefully than him into the open vent. It was a little disconcerting, how flimsy this all seemed—both the airship and their plan and Eggman, Infinite's possible resolve. Would things really be this easy?

The next several minutes were spent in a silence drowning with sweat, the grunts of crawling through a cramped ventilation system, and pure exhaustion. Neither of them had gotten much rest at all since their respective emerald missions, and it was clearly taking a toll on them—particularly Sonic. Amy's mission had been stressful and tense, yes, but her body was in decent condition and with a power nap she'd be good as new. But from where she crawled behind Sonic, she could see how he trembled slightly from exertion, and how some bruising was starting to form on visible skin. Abrasions of all sorts, new and old, decorated his body like confetti.

As much as she appreciated his help, she still wished she had gone alone. She made her peace with possibly having to sacrifice herself for this cause, but not for Sonic to do the same. The resistance still needed him.

When the vents diverged into multiple paths they would take the higher route, because they had entered from a low point and they were hoping to converge with some actual hallways or rooms. Eventually, Sonic came to a stop, and Amy could just barely see artificial light peering through what could be some kind of grate. He fussed with it for a moment, and she could hear tinny metal bits jostling around, before he finally lifted the grate up, along with some loose bolts in his free hand.

Shooting her a warning glance, poignant with now we really need to be careful, Sonic hopped down below. Amy shimmied up to the open grate before doing the same, and making sure to pull the grate back down behind her while still being as quiet as possible.

A quick study of the hallway told her that this place was probably a labyrinth on the inside, something only a robot or evil mastermind that had been living here for a while would truly know how to navigate. The walls and floors blended together in a deep gray, and lighting was minimal, and the amount of turns and offshoots of other hallways was dizzying.

What was perhaps the most off-putting, however, was how thick the Chaos energy rustled through the air; it felt like they were breathing static electricity. She knew Sonic felt it too, from how on edge he looked, how he'd grimace in sync with her every time it felt like it randomly spiked—as if they were bound a machine that would suddenly crank up to five hundred volts. It made Amy's stomach uneasy. And she knew she wasn't crazy, that Sonic had to hear the distant cries of Chaos deeper within the airship. It sounded ballistic.

It unleashed a particularly terrible scream that made the walls shake, and that was when Sonic decided to nod his head towards what seemed to be the right direction. "It's gotta be that way."

"We don't know for certain if Knuckles is nearby. They could be keeping them on opposite ends of the ship."

Sonic just frowned, continuing forward. As if it were even possible, the energy felt even thicker the further they went. "I really hate to say it, but there's always a chance we'll just need to prioritize getting Chaos out of here, if we have the opportunity."

Amy didn't respond, because she didn't know how. She didn't want to have a conversation about that. It nauseated her, and something told her that it would even if it didn't feel like they were about to suffocate from Chaos-poisoning.

After weaving through more corridors, they came across a larger, more fortified door than any others they'd seen, and it had a keypad. But the way she could see flickers of red snaking out through the cracks, and the way the energy felt so overwhelmingly potent now, so visceral and smothering; the way its screeches felt like they tore through her bones and turned her to rubble. It seemed very clear that Chaos was just behind that door.

They stood there for a moment, silent, thinking.

"Do you think he's in there?" Sonic asked.

Amy looked at the keypad; pondered the question—she wasn't entirely sure if he meant Knuckles or other, more unfriendly faces, but it was likely that any of them could be in there. "Let's look around more, first."

And so they pushed on, even as they got further from Chaos, and as Amy started to notice more just how disheveled Sonic's quills had gotten. When was the last time he'd taken a real shower, or gotten real sleep? She was a little astonished at just how much he maintained his composure and his keen eye.

It wasn't like it was particularly needed. If she didn't know any better, she'd almost think this place was abandoned. Aside from dodging the occasional security camera awaiting them at the end of the corridor, they hadn't encountered a single badnik or scientist or jackal. Which certainly wasn't a bad thing, but it did make her uneasy. She could tell it wasn't sitting right with Sonic either.

After a while, they reached a staircase that lead downward. This was relatively novel, considering how accustomed they had become to the winding hallways that all seemed to stay on the same floor and twist and turn forever. It was enough to make them halt in their steps and hesitate.

Exchanging a look, they seemed to mutually decide that this could lead somewhere important, so they picked up the pace as they made their way down the steps. It felt a little dimmer in here, even though the rest of the facility wasn't exactly gleaming with light. The air ran dry—almost like Chaos had just disappeared, or sprouted wings and started to fly away.

It made her nervous. Sonic furrowed his eyebrows at her, but Amy disregarded his judgement and briskly jogged back up the stairs. Surely enough, the residual Chaos energy skittered back around her, hot on her skin, angry in her lungs.

Sonic blinked at her. "What's up?"

She slowly descended once more to catch up to him, intensely aware of how it grew colder and darker, and the air more shallow. "I think there's some kind of effect down here. It's blocking off the Chaos energy, don't you feel it?"

He seemed to consider this for a minute, narrowing his eyes. "Hm. Hadn't really noticed before, but, yeah. I think you're right."

"It's gotta be on purpose, right?" she said, mostly just talking aloud to herself. Excitement began to build up in her chest. "It would be the smart thing to do. If you're holding one of the strongest Chaos users on the planet hostage, you don't want them having access to the energy."

Nodding along, Sonic almost tripped over himself upon not paying attention to where he stepped. The staircase ended, leveling out to another long corridor that looked as though it stretched out infinitely. It was so dark down here.

What was more important and captivating, though, was the fact that lining this hallway were not walls, but cells. Vacated ones at that, but cells nonetheless, complete with shabby cots and pitiful buckets and iron bars. It made Amy shiver to think about the conditions Knuckles had been dealing with. And, stealing a quick glance at her clearly uncomfortable companion, this was likely reminiscent of what Sonic had dealt with not too long ago.

The hallway came to an end after a while, and there was one cell awaiting them that seemed grander than all the rest. This far down, buried in the dampening effects of the prison, Amy felt she could barely breathe.

But, surely enough, there he lay. Knuckles, a brave and compassionate asset to their team, one of the strongest—reduced to a quite miserable sight. He barely looked conscious, crumbled on the ground in the cell, turned on his side. He was muttering something too soft to discern.

Both Sonic and Amy started forward when they saw him, unaffected by the state he was in. That wasn't important now; what was important was that they found him, and he was still breathing. They had a chance.

"Knuckles," she urged, crouching down to try and meet his eyes as she grasped the bars of his cell. "Are you okay? Can you hear us? Can you speak?"

Sonic was busy pacing, inspecting the lock, scouring their surroundings, trying to figure out how to get the door open. That was fine. Someone had to do it, and Amy, personally, just wanted to be able to speak to Knuckles for a moment.

The echidna began grumbling to himself, squinting his eyes at her. They frankly looked a little glassy, and his lips were dry and parched, but she could just barely pick up on his slurred, "Rose. You're… not real?"

"Are you hurt?" she continued to question, not letting herself get deterred by his frail state. "We're—we're here to save you. I need you to sit up. Can you do that for me?"

Knuckles started to blink more rapidly, shifting his limp body as though testing the waters, uncertain of what to make of all this. He started to slide towards the wall so he could begin propping himself up, and he used his free hand to rub his forehead as his frown deepened. "Is this some kinda trick…?"

"Amy," Sonic cut in, very suddenly. His looked critical and jumpy. "Your hammer. I don't see any other way, you just need to bust the door open. We shouldn't stay here longer than we need to."

Nodding slowly, she kept her eyes trained on Knuckles. "You need to scootch back," she told him, as she held out her palm and conjured her Piko Hammer. Before doing anything, though, she looked back to Sonic. "Are you sure? It's going to set off an alarm, if they aren't already onto us."

"Well, I think we both already signed our own death warrants the second we got into the Tornado."

And that was sufficient enough for her. Knuckles had abided by her request, moving himself to the further corner of his cell but still looking understandably skeptical and not entirely here. So she lifted the hammer, and slammed it into the door. Again. Thrice. Once more.

It finally gave, spewing violently off its hinges, and Amy caught a good whiff of the utter stagnation on the other side of the bars once it did. Knuckles was being completely deprived of Chaos energy in here. The idea of that sent a gross scowl running jagged across her face. Resentment mounted deep in her gut.

Sonic seemed quicker to move past it. He was on high alert and clearly had one goal in mind: get out alive. Get out alive, with everyone. He moved inside the cell and hooked an arm around Knuckles' waist to help him to his feet, casting an expectant look to Amy. "You gonna help?"

She did, of course, rushing over to support Knuckles from the other side. She could feel the quiet way he shook uncontrollably, slumping nearly all of his weight into his two friends, as though his time here had sapped him of all his strength. His eyes were half-lidded, dejected, and he looked beyond exhausted. Part of her wanted to ask him a million questions—what did they do to you?—but part of her held back; now wasn't the time.

Knuckles released a breath of air, blinking slowly. "You guys shouldn't be here."

"Too bad," Sonic quipped back, looking straight ahead as the three ambled at a slug's pace down the hall. Knuckles could barely move on his own two feet, rendering him dead weight. Which meant saying goodbye to a swift escape, unless they decided to split up. From the way Sonic reacted earlier, though, when Amy had suggested the idea of him having to leave her behind to save Knuckles, she had a feeling he didn't plan on letting either of them out of his sight.

"No," Knuckles persisted, his voice heavy. "Chaos. You need to get Chaos out. Important."

Amy thought of the door, the pounding energy on the cusp of bursting through from how destructive, burning it felt. She thought of hot air and red light and felt her stomach turn. "Chaos is going to be a bit more challenging to break out than you were."

"It doesn't matter," Knuckles said, and he turned his head the best he could to look her in the eyes. His were piercing; alight with something she had never seen in them before. "I promised Chaos I'd free him. I told him—you guys would help, but that means you need to help Chaos. I am not a priority."

"You're the reason we came here," Amy told him, as if it weren't obvious.

"I don't care," Knuckles rasped. "Chaos is becoming more unstable by the second… Chaos is—that vision we sent to you, that was our last shot. Please."

They were nearly at the staircase that led back up to the labyrinth of hallways. Amy was decently confident that they could retrace their steps.

"Take a deep breath, buddy," Sonic said, grunting as they started to move up the stairs. "We'll figure out a way to save Chaos too. Right now, our focus is just on getting you out. We're not leaving you b—"

"You know, you rodents have really been sticking your noses around where you shouldn't be quite a lot."

Amy felt her heartbeat stumble over itself as something sinister shot down her spine. The robotic lilt of that tone was unmistakable, and it seized her in pure fear like a vice for several seconds as the three stopped in their gait upon reaching the top of the stairs.

Metal Sonic stared them all down from several meters away, although its presence was nevertheless terrifying. And, she realized, her throat gone dry, it seemed to have gotten a fresh coat of paint as well. Its metal spines ran longer, silver points running along them, and the rest of its limbs looked to be lankier, bulkier. A long, dark cape clung to its waist, and the sharp gleam of its optics felt like it could cut them all in two just from the way it glared at them.

Sonic shifted his footing anxiously. "Looks like you got quite the upgrade since I last saw ya'."

Metal kept its form composed, confident. "To better match my true caliber."

"Or," Sonic countered with a thin smile, and Amy could see the panic stricken through him, the edge to his voice, the way he was so clearly just buying time. "You're just so wimpy that you need your old man to rebuild you all the time from scratch."

"Sonic," Amy began in a low voice, not once tearing her gaze from the motionless robot down the hall. "I think this is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about before."

He shot her a scathing look. "I'm not leaving you here, Ames. I barely handled this guy last time with a whole team having my back; you certainly can't handle him alone."

And Amy didn't know what else to supply, other than to slip her arm away from Knuckles and take a step backwards. Sonic's gaze intensified, but he maintained his grip on Knuckles anyways, unmoving. She struggled to find the right words for a moment, and hoped her face could express everything she wanted to. It pained her to see the understanding trying to break through Sonic's stubbornness, the desperation in his eyes that spited his deeply drawn brows.

"We don't have any other choice," she whispered. Sonic opened his mouth and then closed it again. He thought for a second, then looked back to Metal, who was still just observing them from afar.

"Fine," he said, resentfully, although for who the resentment was directed towards, she wasn't entirely sure. It could have been towards her, or perhaps Metal Sonic, maybe himself. He straightened out and narrowed his eyes at her anyways. "But I'll be back for you, just hang on."

Amy clenched her jaw, facing Metal again, because she couldn't look at either Sonic or Knuckles anymore without feeling a terrible, wretched sorrow rumbling around her chest. She held out her palm for her Piko Hammer, and then spat out loudly, "Alright, tin can! Show me what you got."

Thankfully, Metal reoriented itself towards her, baring its serrated claws dangerously. The engine on its back began thundering to life, flashes of searing orange climbing up its long, unnatural spines as it crouched lower to the ground, ready to pounce. It took the bait and rushed forward like a comet, with a tail of flames in hot pursuit. Sonic took the opening to dash past Metal, and Amy hunkered down to brace for impact before rolling out of the way at the last second, leading the robot to crash into the wall behind her.

She grinned a cheeky grin of victory, watching as Metal struggled to pull itself to its feet, and looked over her shoulder at the direction Sonic had taken off in with Knuckles. They would be safe, and that was all that mattered to her.

Except.

Except, not a second later, Sonic and Knuckles came flying back down the hall, colliding against the wall of the corridor, groaning abrasively. Red flickers of energy encircled their torsos before dissipating as they both collapsed to the ground, and—and Infinite rounded the corner, levitating just enough to let the toes of his shoes barely graze the floor.

No, no, no.

Too distracted, Amy forgot completely about Metal in the moment, and was overtaken by it easily from behind as it sprung forward and pushed her down, sending a steel boot into her stomach and stealing all the air from her lungs.

No, no, no, fuck. Fuck—!

She threw her hands behind her wildly, her body desperate for air and working on autopilot, but from her position on her stomach she didn't have much leverage, if any. Metal actually seemed quite calm: it drove its weight down measuredly, otherwise standing still and watching its master suspend her two friends before himself in red vapor. She ground her teeth, sucking in greedy, strangled gasps.

"What should we do with them?" Metal asked Infinite, entirely uncaring of her struggles.

Infinite thrusted his palm out, and Sonic and Knuckles flew back against the wall in synchronization. Knuckles was already far too weak to withstand much more, but Sonic, headstrong, slid his hands against the wall and shifted his feet on the floor, urging himself to rise up even against the pain she could see spattered across his face. He was a force of nature. A fierce storm, static in the clouds, sparking with energy.

And it settled within her, sickeningly, as Infinite strolled forward easily and merely clenched his fist, that he was just toying with his food. As his fist balled up, a vice of red tethered around Sonic's throat, pinning him to the wall. He rasped out choked, deprived noises that made her twist uncomfortably beneath Metal's boot.

"Stop," she heaved, but she was invisible to them.

Sonic clawed at his throat, but it was as useful as grasping at smoke. Infinite just watched, nearly bored, but nevertheless fixated on Sonic. "Hmm. Not sure, yet."

"I will exterminate them all on your orders," Metal supplied, and it was in moments like these where Amy questioned the extent of its sentience. It was in moments like these where she could hear the bloodlust in its tone.

"Ivo wouldn't be too pleased," Infinite muttered. "Although, now would be the prime time to do something, if we wanted. He's certainly not here to bear witness. We could just say…" He crept closer to Sonic, curling his claws around his neck. Sonic seemed to be getting just enough air to stay conscious, but he was quickly losing this battle. "A little happy accident occurred, couldn't we?"

Amy had given up at trying to move Metal's foot from her back, and instead shifted her attention to grabbing the Piko Hammer that was just barely out of her reach. Anxiety trickled through her with each fingertip that just barely skimmed its handle, each wobble of the hammer, each passing second as the color drained from Sonic's face. Knuckles was still immobile on the ground, and time was running out, and she needed her fucking hammer.

Then she felt a strange pull in her chest. And it tingled slightly, like an incoming wave of energy that raised all the hairs on her arm. She couldn't quite place the feeling aside from its familiarity, its promise of safety, and with the way Infinite started to bristle, she knew it had to be good news.

In a last ditch effort, Amy bucked her prone body as hard as she could, enough to startle Metal, and was able to just barely get a grip on her out-of-reach hammer. She threw her wrist back impulsively and was satisfied to hear a harsh clang of steel as the mallet made contact with her target, and Metal stumbled away just enough for her to roll to the side. In the havoc she caused, both Metal and Infinite turned to stare at her in confusion and frustration.

And, like a godsend, Infinite was too distracted to notice the flash of white behind him, nor the black hedgehog that appeared in its place.

Shadow seemed to take about less than a single second to soak in the entire situation, before raising his hand and firing a Chaos Lance into Infinite's back. The jackal cried out and fell to the ground as he was struck, thus freeing Sonic from his stranglehold and drawing all the attention away from Amy once more. She met Shadow's eyes only briefly, but she knew he was going to prioritize protecting the other two for now, and so she made it her unspoken mission to take on the weakest of their targets.

Its back to her, Metal couldn't react in time to her swinging her hammer full force against it. The robot recovered swiftly and spun around, immediately aiming the laser canon in its stomach at her, but by the time it fully charged and fired she was already ducking to the side and lunging forward. She brought her hammer down on its right leg and sent it to the floor, just as Shadow yelled to her from down the hall. When she looked up at him he was already flying towards her in a spindash, so she readied her Piko Hammer, and redirected his force right back towards a recuperating Infinite.

Shadow skidded to a stop, narrowly dodging a swipe from Infinite's newly withdrawn sword of red energy. The blade flickered with animosity, a manifestation of the fury brewing within Infinite, as he missed another stab when Shadow slid to the floor and swept his feet out from under him.

Preoccupied with that scene, Amy was startled to feel metal hands reaching for her feet, and as Metal Sonic attempted to get back at her, she smashed her hammer directly into its skull, sending it careening backwards several meters into a wall. That seemed adequate enough for now, so she took the opportunity to sprint over and swing at Infinite, but he seemed to anticipate her assault and warped out of the way. A wall of red materialized and, like a tidal wave, shoved her back.

Shadow was busy helping Sonic to his feet, who rubbed at his throat and stood on trembling legs and asked, "What're you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same."

Shadow grunted as he chucked another Chaos Spear Infinite's way, who was stalking over to Amy. The wind was still knocked out of her, as she caught her breath on the floor, so she appreciated the assist.

"But I suppose I already know the answer," Shadow continued, almost laughably unbothered. Amy didn't have the humor left in her to find any amusement in the situation, though. "I got worried when you never came to bed. And I know your Chaos Signature well enough to trace it pretty far, so I came after you as soon as I realized you had left."

Sonic huffed, his eyes trained dangerously on Infinite. "We're handling it."

His first response was Infinite slicing his hand through the air, which sent large, spiky red disks plowing forward at his command, directly towards their group. Sonic lurched to the left, swiping up Knuckles from the ground, and Shadow did the same with Amy to the right. The apparitions fizzled out after colliding into the walls, although Amy was no less assured of how painful it would have felt to get hit by one.

"Yes, clearly," came Sonic's second, brusque response from Shadow. He was swift to help Amy to her feet, though, as they rushed over to the other two. Knuckles was in poor shape, and the rest of them were nearing their limit. Pure numbers clearly didn't seem to matter much with Infinite—he was just too powerful.

Red light swam over the three of them (as Knuckles was already motionless) and pushed them back with biting force into the wall beside them, and they all fell to the ground. Infinite approached, burning red snapping in his hands. "Enough with the games."

Amy's mind was abuzz. With the Phantom Ruby's power still grasping them, they couldn't just Chaos Control away. Infinite was too strong to fend off on their own. Becoming rather detached from the situation, either from how overwhelming it was or from the primal instinct to become unattached for what must happen next, she came to an understanding: they were not all making it out of here alive. Their best bet was for her—the slowest of them—to somehow distract Infinite long enough for one of the other two to get out with Knuckles, and ideally, Chaos.

She wanted to say as much, or express this some other way to Shadow and Sonic, but them something exploded through a wall. Metal was back on its feet, its engine roaring in a fiery blaze, and its eyes gleaming something deadly.


Through what could barely be described as cognizance, the burst of navy blue from behind Infinite was enough to startle Knuckles from his agonizing stupor. All of him ached, and Infinite was getting closer, and none of them could move. Metal Sonic, its armor fractured and its cape torn, still managed to maintain its steady stride as it rejoined Infinite by his side. It was, albeit, pretty beat up and barely standing.

The two skimmed their gazes over them all like they were deciding who to kill first. Knuckles knew, in spite of the dullness clouding his thoughts, that something needed to be done. Upon further study, however, he noticed something strange.

When he squeezed his fists in frustration, he was almost taken aback by the freedom he still had over his motor control. His three comrades were frozen in place, cemented against the wall behind them in a film of deep red. And yet Knuckles could shift himself around—he seemed only limited by his fatigued, weakened condition.

Better yet, Infinite and Metal were far too preoccupied with the other three to notice this. Apparently he'd become akin to dead weight or canon fodder amidst the battle.

Infinite, busy with his thoughts, gave pause at the robot's urgency to finish the job. Knuckles kept his eye on them as he slowly, almost imperceptibly, began to scoot further away from them. He could use this to their advantage, somehow.

"The doctor would be rather displeased at their execution," Infinite muttered irately, as though this had become a long-exhausted debate.

Metal watched him with burning, hungry intensity. "He does not understand the goals of the Ruby. These pests will only continue to get in the way."

Infinite fell quiet, cupping a hand over the jewel embedded in his chest. Knuckles inched away further, tempted to test his feet. He was still swathed in pinpricks and enervation.

While it wasn't much, he almost felt safe enough to pull something. Some sort of ambush, something to catch them off guard. Perhaps he could make a run for Chaos—try and free it.

But apparently he got a little too ahead of himself.

Knuckles tried to push himself onto his feet, and promptly lost his balance, his vision blurring around the edges as he fought for consciousness—because he was their last chance, he had to—

Metal Sonic took notice. Its head snapped to him and its arm canon was erected in an instant; Metal was instilled with an evil sort of temperament he could never comprehend.

It fired at him without a second thought, and Knuckles felt a thunderbolt pierce through him, and all fell silent as he dissolved to the floor.

A scream tore out from somewhere, though he couldn't decipher its source. Almost as soon as it was quiet, pandemonium erupted. Infinite turned to Metal in shock and rage, ranting on in a chastising, embittered sort of way—What have you done, We needed him, The Ruby needed him—and why was he so worked up all of a sudden?

Apparently Infinite released his hold on the others in all the chaos, because now Amy was at his side, fingers slipping over his body, desperate to pull him into her arms. He tried to say something to her but his voice felt like it was pulled out of his throat, and he could only groan weakly, and why was everything so gray, why was Amy holding him, why, why—

"Oh fuck," Amy gasped, absolutely wrecked. "Don't look, baby, don't—" she told him as he looked down at himself, at the strange feeling of electricity tearing him open. The entirety of his stomach was painted dark, with thick, warm liquid pooling down in his lap and spilling onto the floor. His flesh was charred, the pain rippling through him was so intense it was almost numb, and the coldness draining his entire body was petrifying.

There was a gaping hole in his chest and the world was stealing away all his blood and breath too fast for him to take it back.

Knuckles opened his mouth, tried to say something—anything, her name, but his mouth was so dry, his throat so raw, and everything was so dull. Amy shushed his meager attempts to speak as though soothing him, though utter misery reigned over her features in a deluge of tears.

Infinite was too caught up in yelling at Metal to care much about Knuckles' state, and part of him wished something else would just happen, but nothing did. In this moment, he was frozen in time. Amy cradled his decaying body, and Sonic and Shadow watched from a foot away in varying states of shock. They all stared helplessly as he melted in agony, unable to cling to any more words or coherency, and his last few seconds escaped him far too quickly.

"You're okay," Amy told him, even though they both knew he wasn't. "You're going to be okay."

"A-Amy…" he managed, his tongue heavy, and everything was fading, he couldn't—wasn't fair, wasn't fair—needed more time. "You," he whispered, and she held his face, and she cried, and he blinked at the dark spots in his vision. "Protect them."

She shook her head and cried more, and Knuckles felt it all caving in around him, felt himself dissolve, felt the profuse blood pouring over him, sinking into the floor.

He looked at her, and begged with whatever he had left in him, "Please."


She held him in her arms until he fell unnaturally still, and he was too cold to the touch, and there was too much blood. She held him even after that, and stared into his empty eyes trained on her, and thought, surely that's not it? Surely he's not gone, just like that?

She looked upwards to the other two, the desolation on Shadow's face, the devastation on Sonic's.

The devastation shifted very rapidly into fury.

It all happened so fast.

Knuckles was gone, and then Sonic was too—in spirit. Deep, violet energy wafted around him, threaded through his quills and stained his fur black, and suddenly his eyes were blank, pure whites. A new power took hold of Sonic, and maybe it had something to do with Chaos' capture, the Phantom Ruby—or just from seeing Knuckles.

Shadow might have yelled something as Sonic exploded with wrath. Something like, We need to leave now, stop—but Sonic was already gone and Amy was deaf with a corpse in her arms.

She didn't know how it happened, but in an instant, Sonic wasn't there anymore—he arose from the ashes greatly changed, trembling with rage, and with a ruthless howl for blood.


In the end, there was a downpour.

Sonic felt it trickle down his brittle body and dry and thicken up in his blood like cement, liquid brutality in the flesh. He felt it burn in his fisted palms, he felt the grief pooling in them, the wet on his cheeks.

But more than anything, he felt the outrage resonate throughout him and clang against the walls of the airship like a bell sounding a cry for war.

The edges of his vision quickly darkened, reddened, and with it a pounding focus came to him. There was only ever one target, and he would deal with it. Kill it.

Infinite stood with a wavering posture as he slowly turned towards Sonic—who was a newfound torch of dark Chaos energy that had managed to capture everyone's attention in his transformation. Infinite always seemed incapable of duress, and yet as Sonic concentrated on him, he could notice the subtle shift in weight, the minute tremble in his fingertips, and some cruel part of him reveled in his poorly-masked fear. It was hard to tell what was going through Infinite's head, but Sonic knew what was going through his own.

(Kill, kill, kill.)

He killed him.

(Kill, kill, kill.)

Infinite killed him.

(Blood blood blood.)

Like a violent beat of the drums.

(Bloodbloodblood.)

A prelude; a harbinger.

(—redredredredredredred—)

The very escalation of his own heartbeat.

Time was at a standstill, but Sonic wasted not a second longer. Infinite's demise was in his eyesight and he would not let it go until the deed was done.

In the instant that he pounced forward, feral and bloodthirsty, Sonic felt himself bursting through a glass ceiling. He was never one for savagery. He was always one for salvaging the peace, maintaining the welfare, becoming the protector.

Not this time. Not with Infinite. There could be one exception to the rule.

They danced around each other like gods toying with life and death, because that was what it really boiled down to. Nobody could do a thing about it without the risk of getting caught in the crossfire, and maybe it was better that way. Sonic didn't think he could handle anymore unnecessary bloodshed.

Infinite slammed into him and the force was so much that they tore through the wall, and now they were outside of the airship, hovering beside it. The burning hatred rampaging through Sonic empowered him to fight, and he was faster, stronger, better for it. Good enough to glide past Infinite's attacks with ease and return back each punch tenfold. For once, he carried competency on his shoulders, the ability to hold his own, finally, and it came to him with a sense of duty.

Infinite's bloodshed was necessary.

They skirted around each other for several minutes, passing hits, trading bruises. Sonic was numb to it; all his sensations felt funneled towards his one goal, unable to permit him any outside awareness. Though able to rely on this instinct while maintaining the offensive, this also made him immensely disoriented and weighed with such a deep sorrow that he felt he'd go blind from it. It was enough to allow Infinite some leeway in their battle.

"Aw," Infinite crooned as Sonic missed another swing of the fist from his unraveling focus. His foe was practically a disembodied voice, because they were both in constant motion, strafing past one another, blurs of searing energy. "His madness is poor Sonic's enemy!"

For the first time in their scrimmage, Sonic managed to gain a solid hold on Infinite's shoulders and put a stop to his games. Sonic shoved downward with the might of Gaia, slamming Infinite against the steel exterior of the airship and immobilizing him beneath his iron grip.

Half of him wanted to tear his mask off so he could see the fear in Infinite's eyes, and yet petulance twisted in his chest at knowing he'd never be gifted with such a sight—even now, Infinite just watched him in curiosity, unaffected by his vulnerable state in the moment.

Half of him wanted to smash Infinite's brains in.

—Knuckles was a pile of rot and blood and death on the floor right now—

(Should've been you.)

Sonic threw a single punch, and a fracture split up along the silver mask in a fine, serrated line.

Sonic kneed Infinite in the gut and watched the jackal groan and writhe in pain, and he felt a wrong sort of triumph from it.

(He killed Knuckles.)

Sonic thrusted his hand out to encircle Infinite's neck, and his palm felt on fire as he squeezed out the air.

(Dead, dead, dead, and it should have been you. Not him. Never him.)

But Sonic's greed got the best of him. He had no right to relish in Infinite's suffering now, let alone the time to. In the haze of his mind, despite the sinister power rushing through him, he wasn't fast enough to prevent Infinite from raising up his knees and kicking Sonic away. The hedgehog went spiraling through the air, and by the time he regained his bearings, Infinite was already tearing back inside of the airship. Sonic flew after him in hot pursuit, back through the original hole in the wall.

The surroundings of the ship's interior went by in a blur, but Sonic was locked onto the backside of Infinite as they raced down the winding corridors, and somehow he knew exactly where Infinite was going.

By the time they reached the door, Infinite was already inside.

Chaos thrashed around like a savage beast in its cage, and daggers and whips of hot red light snapped through its intangible, transparent form. It looked like a failed chemical reaction entrapped in a massive test tube.

The entire room was already glowing in red, and the Phantom Ruby on Infinite's chest was so feverish with energy it nearly looked purple.

"No!" Sonic screamed, and he dove directly into Infinite to tackle him to the ground, pushing his cybernetic hand against his face to hold him down. The minigun protruded out of the metal arm, aimed at his face, ready to kill.

Infinite was silent, clearly in a panic to get away, and Sonic basked in the glory of it all.

"I could kill you right now," Sonic threatened, and he ignored the small part of himself that shrunk from the sound of his own voice. He didn't—he didn't entirely sound like himself. His voice sounded drunk with the same strength he felt whenever he went Super, but it was also distorted and thorny; there was something inhumane to it. He trembled all over. "You don't control me anymore. I'm in control now."

Infinite managed to get a free hand, and he conjured something large and red and incorporeal to bash into the side of Sonic's head. He fell to the side, and it was just enough of a break for Infinite to slither away to Chaos' cage.

He was gone so quickly, too quickly for Sonic to even get back on his feet again, but there was a brief moment where they just stared at each other, both of them overworked with such a deeper energy that was almost too much for their feeble bodies to contain. Infinite, in that instant, looked bedraggled and torn to shreds. He slouched over in exhaustion as he backed against Chaos, and then the Phantom Ruby glowed hot white, and in a flash of red, Sonic was suddenly completely alone.

A painful groan burst from him, and then it morphed into a murderous cry as he stumbled back to the doorway, his head on fire.

He got away.

Sonic flew back down through the corridors, weaving around every twist and turn, some bleak hope within him that Infinite and Chaos were still inside somewhere. But he knew they were already long gone. He let them get away.

Fuck.

Eventually he found Shadow and Amy again, and his heart convulsed at the sight of slack red fur bundled in Amy's lap, unable to keep his eyes trained on it for long. If he concentrated on it too much, he would be sick.

Metal Sonic was gone however, he noticed, and it made him bounce back with reborn rage.

"Where is he?" Sonic demanded, blood roaring in his ears. Amy was still and silent, and Shadow stared at him with wide, frightened eyes. Had something happened in his brief absence? What else went wrong? "Where's Metal?"

Shadow took a precarious step forward, extending out a hand to place on his shoulder. Sonic, bathed in black electricity, still floated with raw energy, but his partner's touch subtly pushed him back on the ground.

"We took care of it. He was already weakened," Shadow assured softly. He still looked immensely tense. "… I need you to calm down, Sonic."

"I'm—" no, he needed to—this was the first time ever that he felt strong enough to actually put a stop to things. He had the ability to kill Infinite like this, if only he hadn't— "He got away. He just—he just took Chaos. They're gone."

His voice still sounded sort of wrong, and he was growing more self-conscious of it in the presence of his loved ones. The fear in Shadow's eyes… was it of Sonic?

"Okay," Shadow swallowed. "There's nothing we can do about that right now. You just need to breathe."

Shadow attempted to gingerly draw him into his arms, and Sonic, feeling himself shaking, feeling the last of his rage trickle out of him, allowed it. He let the warmth fall over him, exhaled the burning, muddled heat congealing in his head, until he was just left an empty shell, cold and hollow and on the verge of collapse.

"I tried to kill him," Sonic whispered into Shadow's shoulder, as more clarity returned to him. The tears continued to fall, and he realized that they hadn't stopped since Metal first shot Knuckles. The dark energy dripped away like thin, scarlet dewdrops from a papercut.

Shadow didn't say anything for a second, and then just: "It's okay."

"He… Knuckles—"

Sonic whipped away from the embrace to look back at his friend, and he felt himself fall apart as he did. Amy's eyes were shut but Knuckles' were still open, glossed over, grayed. Amy clutched the guardian with importance, like if she let him go then he'd simply disappear forever. There was something reverent in her protectiveness of him, in the vulnerability of his limp, bloodied, scarred body.

Wordlessly, Shadow guided Sonic closer to them with a hand at his back, and then he crouched down to place his other hand on Amy's shoulder, and with two words, they were warped instantaneously back to Knothole.

Sonic sunk into the black soil beneath his feet, and Amy bowed her head against Knuckles, and the brisk night air wept and moaned beside them.


:,)