the home stretch.


XXV.

null (nəl)

[noun]

zero.


The clock was ticking.

This he knew, as he flashed around Infinite and spindashed into his side.

This he knew, as an illusory red blade reached for him and sliced across his chest, across his scar.

His Chaos energy was his lifeline, but it was progressively draining away and soon the Null would consume him wholly, just like the deteriorating corpses of badniks, just like the collapsing interior of the dome.

Blood clotted along the cut in dewdrops. Sonic stumbled back, hissing at the sharp sting that slid across his chest in a vengeful echo of Infinite's sword, and pressed his hand against it to repress the pain. It hadn't cut very deep, luckily. He pulled his hand away after a second and frowned at the blotchy dark stains on his glove.

Infinite tried to swing at him again but Sonic roared out vehemently, still fast enough to dodge under the scimitar and dive into him. They rolled to the glitching floor in a mound of discordance, of scrambling claws and clashing glows of gold and red. Sonic ended up on top, and he wasted no time in seizing the advantage to slam his knee against Infinite's hips and land a hard punch across his face.

His knuckles griped at the force of the punch but it only made Sonic more rejuvenated. The ache felt exhaustively good. He punched again, trading between his fists for each hit, and he reveled in the glory of Infinite being stunned and weak as blood spurted through his clenched teeth.

"You killed my friend," Sonic snarled, pummeling him into the ground. Infinite slowly brought a shaking hand to the ruby in his chest but Sonic caught it and pinned his wrists down with one hand to continue his attack with his other. "You—you terrorized innocents. Slaughtered innocents. You tortured me for months. What's the point?! Why have you done this?!"

Infinite sparked so suddenly back to life that Sonic was too caught off-guard to prevent his retaliation. He yanked his hands free and pressed one hand sloppily over Sonic's face, and then the other hand rammed against the side of his jaw. It was a strong enough punch to send Sonic sprawling like a ragdoll. He could see the venomous glow of the Phantom Ruby through his closed eyelids, and a tense fear rolled over him as he began to comprehend just how much stronger Infinite was becoming in the Null. And, perhaps worse—how much weaker Sonic became in turn.

The clock was ticking.

When he blinked open his eyes, his vision was spinning more than he would've liked. The pressure of the Null Space gripped his head in a nauseating headache, and his heart thudded wildly in his chest. The gold of his fur was already flickering to blue every so often.

He looked over to see Infinite crawling back onto his feet, and Sonic knew he needed to do the same but he felt so debilitated by the Null that he simply couldn't. Infinite staggered closer and a jagged smile pulled at his lips.

"I am but a servant to the Phantom Ruby," Infinite exhaled, and there was something haunted about him, something in the way blood oozed down his chin as his gaze fixated intensely on Sonic. "The ruby will reign supreme, and I will see to it. The Null Space will only grow larger and eventually it will consume everything in its path, and it will fuel Phantom Ruby's power. It will be unstoppable. We will be unstoppable."

Infinite held the tip of his scimitar to Sonic's neck as he stood over him. Sonic flinched and lifted his head away as much as he could. "You're fuckin' insane." He gasped for air and his lungs weren't satiated. "If—if everything's just gonna be consumed by the Null, then what? Soon enough nothing will be left. Maybe it'll even kill you too. And then—then all that'll be left is that dumb rock. How do you benefit from this?"

"The Phantom Ruby is all that matters," Infinite persisted, and Sonic was starting to think that conversation was fruitless. He wasn't talking to a person, just the incarnate of an evil, magical stone. "It's all that will ever matter in the end. I wanted to make you understand, because you're strong like me, but you had to go and run away and fight back."

The blade started to dig against his throat and it pushed a rough, savage instinct to surge over him. Survive and fight. Sonic grabbed onto the end of the blade, screaming in an outburst of emotions, screaming as the blade cut into the flesh of his hand. He pushed it away enough to roll aside and try to escape, but he was already at too much of a disadvantage now. He was already growing too weak from the Null.

Before he could fully get back on his feet, Infinite was after him. Sonic howled out a feral noise, his heartbeat in his head as claws glided around his throat and lifted him into the air. He squirmed and kicked even though he felt like he was stuck in molasses, and his muscles trembled uncontrollably, and he felt so close to death that his thoughts were wrapped in the pure drive of survival.

(—get off me get off me get off get away get away—)

He pulled uselessly at the hand around his throat but he was slick with sweat and blood and his fur was becoming more blue by the second. Infinite squeezed and Sonic gaped for air; wheezed.

And then he felt Infinite's free hand reach up to grab his metal shoulder. He let out a broken noise as talons slowly pierced into it, and his nerves somehow wired into the robotic arm caught fire as it burned, burned, burned like it was his own flesh. And then Infinite clenched his hand down harder, and he pulled, he ripped the limb open, off, completely, entirely, and Sonic felt his body trying to scream but it was so excruciating that no sound came out of him. His vision was obscured by moisture and a lack of oxygen.

Confined to the chokehold, Sonic could not move his head to look, but he could hear the metal arm clatter to the ground. And he could feel the overpowering sear and blister in his arm socket.

"It's such a pity," Infinite crooned blissfully, and his voice sounded warped and murky as reality slipped through Sonic's fingers. His arm was gone, it was gone, the bastard just tore it off—"It's such a pity that you have to die such a meaningless death now."


They made their way to the dome collectively, silently. There was no time to waste in dealing with the aftermath of Perfect Chaos. The immediate threat was gone so it was time to move onto the next. They landed the plane in a secure spot, and Silver carried an unconscious Shadow, and they entered the dilapidated building as they spoke to Rouge over the comms.

"We've had to keep pushing back," Rouge told them while they ran through the dark corridors. "The portal just keeps getting bigger. We're lucky this place is as fortified as it is, and that there's so many sets of doors to hide behind."

It didn't take long to find everyone. They all looked a little worse for wear, but that seemed to be a universal experience by that point. And as they cowered behind Eggman's walls and barricaded doors behind them with whatever scrap metal they could find, they all felt it come across them—the dark energy.

It was like a plague. Like it became denser in the air with each fleeting moment, and it would only continue to worsen. Immeasurable horror was engraved into each person but there was an even greater look of helplessness on their faces: an embittered realization that there was nothing to be done.

Tails asked them, quietly, even though he already knew the answer, "Gadget went in there?"

Bunnie nodded shakily. Antoine had an arm draped around her as she told him gravely, "Yes. He was goin' so fast that we couldn't stop him before he was already through the doors. I'm awful sorry."

Her apology remained unacknowledged. The pressing understanding that going in there was a one-way ticket went unspoken, though it sagged over the group like a wet blanket.

Rouge nodded at Shadow as Silver settled him on the ground. "Is he okay?"

"He overexerted himself," Silver said in place of a direct answer. "But he took care of Chaos. He—he's breathing, so."

The walls beside them began to wobble. Their barricade of broken bots and machinery shifted, and the Null thrummed greedily from the other side. Panic trickled through them all and Silver wordlessly lifted Shadow up again as they started to shuffle further down the hallway before working to barricade the next set of doors.

"It's just getting worse," Espio muttered. "We can't stay here."

"We can stop it somehow. We just need to figure out how to close it," Silver ventured boldly, although he felt less bold than he sounded.

Amy turned to him with a deepening look of severity. She squared her jaw. "You're kidding, right? Sonic and Gadget are in there. We can't just leave them."

Rouge eyed her sympathetically. "Nobody's saying we leave them behind. But he's right, hon. We're running out of time before this gets so out of control that all of us get sucked into there."

"They still have time, anyway," Vector threw in with a nervous look on his face that hardly passed for a smile. He couldn't quite reach a sense of optimism. "We'll start brainstorming what to do, and by then they'll probably get back out."

Amy stared between all the pairs of eyes drifting towards her in bewilderment. She shook her head, and she felt so wrong, she felt the blood on her hands, staining her skin. She felt Knuckles in her arms, and if she closed her eyes hard enough she could see the pile of corpses rising. She couldn't—she couldn't keep losing people, not anymore.

"Infinite's in there, too."

She snapped her eyes open to look at Tails. He had a sort of detached look on his face as he spoke, and she felt ice in her veins. Felt blood on her hands.

Tails rubbed his face and he repeated, once more: "Infinite is in there. And you guys are right. We can't wait forever. Maybe it's best that we close it before Infinite can get out again."

Amy felt the betrayal creep over her face before she could mask it. She furrowed her brows at him, and her jaw struggled to work for a moment, her voice dried out. "… He—he's your brother. They're your friends."

Tails did not falter. Even when the tears began to pool in his eyes. "We need to close the portal. We—we don't get to be selfish. I know that now."

It seemed that Silver was done debating. He pushed past the doors and attempted to use his powers against the Null Space, and from here, they could all see it in plain view. The dark void that writhed steadily closer, that rippled and squirmed like it was starved to live, to gain sentience, to destroy everything in its path. Silver tried to hinder it through a wall of turquoise light but the Null just engorged it in stride, as if that had only made it stronger.

Silver's footing was slipping. It was going to pull him in.

"Get back!" Rouge yelled, and with only slight hesitance did Silver oblige. He scrambled back and they shut the doors behind him, bunching up more scrap metal to blockade them. Silver breathed heavily, his eyes large and scared. His feelings were mutual.

"Fuck."

"We have to do something."

"How? What can we—"

Amy let her eyes fall shut as she tried, stubbornly, to block out everyone's clashing voices. She tried to think of something else because, contrary to what Tails thought, she direly needed to become selfish for just an instant. She needed to get out of her head, needed to think, especially if these were her final moments on Mobius.

So she thought of Knuckles.

She thought of a dark room, a shattered Master Emerald, a ruined world. But there was Knuckles. He was holding her hand, and she squeezed it reassuringly, and his cheeks had flushed red. She loved being able to make him all flustered like that. She loved—she—

Dark room. Trying to restore the Master Emerald. Trying, trying, trying. They had to keep it stable, had to—contain it.

Knuckles had taken a deep breath. I'm gonna teach you a prayer. When you recite it, it helps you call upon the emeralds' power. But use it sparingly—it can drain both your energy and theirs.

Amy's eyes darted to Silver. "What… is the Null Space?"

His face quickly twisted into confusion and frustration. "What? I—I don't know, but it's gonna kill us all if we don't figure something out soon."

"No, you said—you told us, back when you first got here—" Amy felt herself shudder with anxiety. "You called it, the epitome of negative Chaos. That's what you said, right?"

"I—yeah, I guess so. Why does that matter?"

And did it really matter, at all, at the end of everything? When they faced such an impossible task? When she hadn't even been capable of rescuing Knuckles from the airship. When the guardian, their guardian, had been killed so effortlessly. When she could hardly ever hope to be good enough to take his place.

A small voice in the back of her head protested. But, it whispered, and she wanted to ignore it at first until it kept talking. But—

But he had told her to protect them.

And maybe she at least owed it to him to try.

"I think that… I can stop it," Amy announced, her voice low and feeble as she moved to the doors. "Just trust me."

She could feel the cautionary looks that regarded her as she sifted through their makeshift barricade, but then the others gradually came to her side to help—even when this set of doors began to whine on their hinges and the Null Space began to catch up to them again. Even when imminent death awaited them on the other side.

Amy knelt in front of the closed doors and pressed her hands to them. She closed her eyes and she breathed. She felt the energy flow through her—even though it was darker and angrier she felt it, all the same, still ingrained within the essence of the universe.

Chaos, everywhere, in everything, in everyone.

She prayed that Sonic and Gadget would make it out in time, and she prayed. She prayed.

Amy pushed open the doors. The vacuum of the Null was cold on her face, and her hair was whisked forth, but she kept her eyes shut and she breathed and she swam in the energy, thrived in the energy.

She prayed.

"… The servers are the seven chaos."


Gadget thought, fleetingly, that he had died as soon as he entered the Null Space. He took one step in, felt its venomous, cumbersome embrace furl around him like a cobra, and fell to his knees. There was hardly any air in here. And he felt the way the Null cleaved onto his flesh, gnawed at him, threatened to spill into his mouth and pour down his throat and take him entirely.

He felt, for the first time in his life, his core reserve of Chaos energy deep inside himself, and he felt it come alive as the Null pulled at it, tried to burn it all up like it was oil. Gadget scratched his fingers flimsily against his chest, choking on the agony inside his body. He blinked rapidly, but his surroundings felt all too overwhelming. It was so dark in here. It was so empty in here.

Something glinted in his periphery.

Gadget managed a rattling breath and looked. It was—it was Infinite's mask, discarded on the floor. Parts of it had chipped off, and fractures ran along its surface. He had never seen the thing so vulnerable, but there it lay, in a puddle of red pixels, getting eaten alive alongside himself by the very atmosphere they were both attempting to last in.

Had it already taken Infinite—Zero? Was that mask all that was left?

It was a possibility he refused to accept just yet.

In a pitiful, struggling effort, Gadget fought to feel the ground beneath his feet again, to get off his knees. It took several seconds to get there, and even then he felt himself buckle forward against his will, clutching his legs for support, trembling. It was like the Null had ripped up his guts, and he was malnourished, parched, starved of oxygen.

He wasn't dead yet, but he would be soon if he didn't hurry.

And so Gadget stumbled forward on weary legs, glancing around foggily, sick to his stomach. It didn't take long to spot the distinct glows of light not a few hundred feet up ahead, through the endless expanse of nothingness everywhere else. Gold and crimson, a stagnant finish line awaiting him just over the horizon. Gadget picked up his pace.

There were few thoughts on his mind as he waded forward. There was a point to all this, a goal: he needed to save Zero. He needed to end things, because there had to be another way to end things than through violence. And he needed to end things himself, because he had spent far too long neglecting reality.

Reality snapped its mighty jaws at him when he drew close enough to truly decipher the scene before him.

Infinite held Sonic up in a chokehold. They both had blood on them, though Sonic appeared to suffer the more egregious injuries. In fact—if he squinted through the blur of his vision, past the lightness in his head—Sonic seemed to be missing one of his arms. The prosthetic one, Gadget deduced with an exhale of relief, if it could even be called relief when he was still drowning in so much fear. There remained nothing but a metal nub on Sonic's right shoulder.

He was still Super Sonic, but his energy was running out. The iridescence was dulling to a standard blue. He wriggled against Infinite but couldn't seem to escape him. Neither of them had noticed Gadget—Infinite faced his direction, but was too concentrated on his opponent, who blocked his view anyway.

"Gonna—" Sonic gurgled, his one hand loosely clawing at Infinite. "Gonna kill you. I'll—k-kill you."

"Get over yourself," Infinite said back disinterestedly. "I'm growing tired of this innate desire you have to prove yourself. Just get over it," and he began to squeeze harder, and Sonic threw himself around as much as he could, "because you can't kill me. You won't."

"Zero."

Regret lanced through Gadget as soon as the word slipped from him but it was already out there, and there were no take-backs. Infinite shifted Sonic to get a clear look at Gadget, snarled, and then casted Sonic aside like he was nothing. Sonic spiraled to the ground in a heap of yellow and blue and blood, and he coughed violently as he collided into a floor of glitching cubes but he could barely get himself to even lift his head up and stare at Gadget.

They exchanged a quick glance that Gadget didn't dwell on. Sonic was looking at him absurdly, as if to ask, what the hell are you doing here? But Gadget just shifted his attention to Infinite, and they stared at each other for a long stretch of time, and Gadget felt himself shake all over and he felt his eyes sting as he raked them over Infinite's face.

He hadn't—he hadn't seen his face in so long. It had always been hidden behind that mask, but now, here—

The eyes were the same, in a physical sense. Observant and keen, clashing against one another, and so vivid. Amber and sapphire. The frown was atypical but not something entirely foreign to his face. His white hair had grown longer, more wild and frizzy, but it was the same—in a physical sense.

Everything, in a physical sense, was exactly the same about him aside from the Phantom Ruby sunken into his chest.

But, Gadget accepted, as a slog of frost slowly fell over him and his feelings became entangled in his head, but. This wasn't Zero. It—it never was Zero.

He stared at a man driven to utter wrath. He stared at a man steeped in madness.

And as slowly as the frost dragged through him, understanding hardened up in his heart, solid and swift, and he just knew.

He knew what he had to do.


Shadow pulled himself back to the surface because all he ever knew was stubbornness. It was a trait he'd come to accept ran deeply intertwined between himself and his partner.

"Look!" someone exclaimed. "I think it's working!"

He wasn't really sure where he was or who he was with or what he should be looking at that was supposedly working. When he lifted his eyes open there was a swarm of people standing before him, though all of their backs were to him. There was an immense darkness just beyond them, through a set of metal doors, but rising before that darkness was a subtle sheen of light and purity.

Everything was impossibly loud. Shadow thought it may have just been himself, the hammering in his head, the aching in his body, but a large element of the noise came from his surroundings. It wasn't even the people around him, standing above him. It was the blast of winds flowing to the dark, writhing blotch. It was a voice, cutting directly through the cacophony, chanting something. Serene and sure.

He'd heard that chant somewhere before. It took his mind a few minutes to catch up and begin to digest what the strings of words meant, but they rung through.

… The servers are the seven chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos. The servers are the seven…

Shadow dug the heels of his palms into his eyes to try and ward off the throbbing in his head. "What's—"

"Shadow!" That voice was different than the one that was chanting. It was poignant with stress and concern. Rouge knelt beside him and helped him sit up. "Are you alright? How do you feel?"

"Like shit. What happened? What's happening?"

Her face creased with deeper concern. "You stopped Perfect Chaos, but the Null Space is still getting larger. Amy's trying to suppress it and close it."

Shadow frowned to himself and then tried to stand up. It proved to be somewhat of a challenge in his current condition, but Rouge noticed and helped him onto his feet. He walked forward like a creature possessed, losing her in the crowd before he could stop to consider it or ask how she was. Shadow squeezed past everyone, and he earned some watchful looks that he disregarded as he approached the front.

Amy kneeled in the doorway, her hands held up, and shimmering light burst forth from her as she recited the prayer. It jabbed and pressed back against the Null, and indeed, Shadow watched as the Null yielded. Amy commanded a large tide of positive Chaos energy that crowded over the portal and herded it back like a wise shepherd. Amy persisted, and the Null cowered away, and it was like yin and yang, like a balance was being restored.

Shadow thought of what had happened before he'd lost consciousness. Of responsibility, and doing his job.

He did his job already.

Now it was onto the next.

He started advancing again, but before he could pass Amy and even begin to near the vortex, a hand clamped onto his arm and dragged him back. Shadow awkwardly lost his footing and stars flickered before his eyes. He still felt impossibly drained from the earlier fight.

When he turned around, Tails was glaring at him, and he didn't release his arm even after he'd caught his attention. "Don't."

"They're in there," Shadow said, and he looked back. The Null was rapidly losing this battle. It was falling shut. The doorway was growing smaller. It was only a matter of time before it sealed up again and then it was wiped from existence.

Tails looked at him hollowly. "I know."

"So I need to go in there. I'll get them out."

Tails tensed his grip on Shadow's arm. "I know you want to, but you can't. We can't—we can't get caught up in our emotions. We still have jobs to do."

"I'm not just going to stand here while-!"

"You have to!" Tails cried. "You have to. No more being selfish. I'm tired of people sacrificing themselves. So just don't. It's already over."

Shadow looked the kid over, drank in the anguish written all over him in messy scribbles, and he swallowed his fire. He sank a little into himself, and yet again Shadow felt useless, absolutely useless.

They both turned to watch Amy force the portal shut in a thunderous, afflictive silence.


"Why do you insist upon calling me by a name that does not belong to me?"

Maybe it was a miracle that Infinite hadn't killed him already. They stared at each other in something that couldn't be described as mutual respect, but there was an uncertainty, a prying curiosity that demanded attention. Infinite's guard was down. His arms hung by his sides, and a red, magic sword dangled from one hand but he seemed in no rush to use it. They just looked at one another, and Infinite seemed vaguely irritated, and there was a brutality on his face, but he seemed like he just wanted to see how this would play out above all else.

The bottom line was that Gadget stood no chance here. Sonic was bleeding on the ground, nearly back to normal already (and Chaos, he didn't want to think about what the Null would do to the emeralds once Sonic fully lost his grip on them). Gadget was effectively unarmed: his wispon was deactivated and clipped onto his belt. He stared into the eyes of a killer, offering himself up, and the Phantom Ruby's aura grew more vicious as Gadget approached.

"It did belong to you," Gadget told him quietly. A bleak part of him wondered—hoped—Infinite would remember. The stronger part of him knew better. "A long time ago."

Infinite's lips curled down, twitching to reveal glimpses of deadly fangs. Even so, he didn't move. His patience was just ebbing. "Must I remind you of my power? I am Infinite. The ruby is infinite. And you—you are a fool, for coming in here. For thinking you can stop this."

"I know." And he did, now. He understood. He thought about seeing Infinite for the first time in the junkyard, and then again in Knothole. How easily Infinite wrought destruction, because that's all he was in the end: a being of destruction. He was a part of the Phantom Ruby, and the Phantom Ruby was a part of him, and Gadget understood now that there was nothing to be done about that. "I—I know."

Infinite narrowed his eyes. "So why do you bother? Why did you come here?"

A thickness rose up in Gadget's throat, and saline flooded his eyes. He tried to blink away the tears but they were coming too fast, and then, even as he started to cry, he couldn't help but smile. He smiled, as Infinite pinned him down with an abrasive stare, and he wished he was in another world where he could hold him and touch him and be with him as he once did, once was.

"Y-You know," he started, his voice wobbling and wet, "all this time, I thought I could save you. I thought I could just—snap you out of it, wake you up. And I know that even if you were still in there somewhere, Zero, you would have been able to fight it yourself. Not because of me, but because of you. Because you're—you're the strongest person I've ever met."

Infinite's expression worsened. His hand tightened around his scimitar.

Gadget sniffled, and it was so much harder to breathe in the Null when he was congested. He had to stop speaking for a second to catch his breath. He felt his surroundings starting to dull.

"I realize now that I'll never be able to save you from this. Not in the way I had ever wanted to. And I'm so sorry for that. B-But—I'll make sure you can be at peace now."

Perplexity struck through Infinite's face, and the anger warped nastily against the confusion. Gadget savored the ghost of Infinite's breath rolling across his face for one last time; the only reprieve from the bitter cold that sunk through the skeleton of the Null Space. And he couldn't shake his smile, even as the tears ran freely down his face and he tasted salt on his lips.

In a thoughtless, quick motion, Gadget unhitched the electric wispon from his belt, activated the saber, and drove the blade straight through Infinite's gut.

Infinite sucked in a pained breath of air, and so much shock, and so much confusion, and so much rage rolled up into an ugly conglomeration plainly across his face. It hurt Gadget so terribly to see that on him. They both stared down at the outcome of Gadget's action, and time was frozen. The blade of vibrating, gilded lightning impaled him cleanly—as clean as such a thing could be. Blood began to sneak through the seams, began to drench Infinite's lower half.

And before anything else could be done, before Infinite could come to his senses or even think to react, Gadget grasped onto the Phantom Ruby that jutted from him in its unnatural, despicable way.

He grasped onto it, and he pulled.

Infinite brought his eyes back up to Gadget lethargically, his jaw slack, air struggling to get down his throat. His body started to lose its strength, and through the fog of darkness Gadget could see blood pooling in his mouth. Gadget pulled harder on the Phantom Ruby, and he felt it scald his hand through his glove, heard it hiss at him to stop.

It was as though he were tearing off an appendage.

The ruby gave way slowly, reluctantly. Red energy began to cloud around the stone as Gadget continued to pull, and he kept his other hand firmly on the hilt of the wispon that remained embedded into Infinite's stomach. And he kept their gazes locked, even as he pulled, even as the Phantom Ruby tried to kill him.

It was almost imperceptible at first, but the burning eventually surmounted to something so indescribably, blindingly awful that Gadget couldn't refrain from crying out anymore. Red light wrapped around his left arm, the one bound to the ruby, like a vice. He watched in horror as the ruby started to separate from Infinite, and in the wake of the strings of tendons and flesh that snapped apart, a black evil coursed over Gadget in return. It seared up his arm carnivorously, and left deep, grueling, jagged scars to streak over his muscle.

His arm felt like it was set ablaze, and it felt like it might've withered completely to ash if he maintained his grip on the Phantom Ruby for much longer.

But he didn't let go. He didn't let go, because he shifted his eyes back up to Infinite, and he just felt bravery, he just felt love, he just felt strength. He just felt like—

Like a boy in college, not yet ready to face everything the world had waiting for him. And he was sitting on the floor, leaning against his old bed, pulling himself through a panic attack over his decision to switch majors. And Zero sat beside him and reminded him how to breathe, and he held him, and he wiped away his tears.

You just need to trust yourself, Zero had told him. I know you're going to do amazing things.

The Phantom Ruby broke free, and gore spewed out as it did. The fire stopped and he could feel the stone pulsate in his palm like a beating heart struggling to keep on going, after it had just been torn from the body it was supposed to keep on going for.

Gadget stared at the crater of raw flesh and carmine in Infinite's chest. The hole he had dug out. He stared back down at the Phantom Ruby and marveled as it began to dim in his hand. He ignored how his left glove had melted away in the haze of red; how his whole arm was charred black; how he swayed where he stood.

Because through it all, his tears still fell. And he still smiled, he smiled so much it hurt.

I'm serious, though. You're one of the bravest people I've ever met.

The Phantom Ruby continued to fade and lose all its light, because it had never been anything more than a parasite, a leech. And it started to flake away, as if he weren't holding a solid gemstone but instead a pile of soot that had become jostled by the breeze. It flaked away until it was nothing; it was gone. Gadget watched it go until his palm was empty.

He peered back up breathlessly, and he could hardly see through all the moisture in his eyes, could hardly stand. The red energy fell apart and it unraveled and it faded, and the Phantom Ruby was gone. The red phantom scimitar evaporated from Infinite's hand too, but Gadget's electric sword stayed stuck through his torso, anchoring him in place, like some pathetic attempt to keep holding onto him despite it all. Blood trickled down from the small cavity in his chest.

Their eyes connected.

And then—

And then—

And then Zero blinked at him, blinked so normally and so tiredly, blue and yellow, blue and yellow, and he breathed in. Zero breathed in, and Gadget breathed out, and for a moment it was only them, Gadget and Zero, at the center of the universe.

Zero's face became suffused with a beautiful sort of misery.

Gadget's chest panged with heartache.

Zero said nothing, and then there was resignation. "… Gadget—"

Nothing else came, because Zero lost his voice, and he lost himself. He started to dim as well, started to flake away, started to crumble apart. Gadget watched him go, and he whispered, hoarsely, resolutely, "I love you."

The Null hummed with an emptiness Gadget felt he could seek peace with. When he turned his head wearily to Sonic, Sonic already looked like unconsciousness was winning out against him. He was just blue now; deep blue fur, matted with blood, his metal arm too far out of his reach. It was time for fate to accept them both into its comfortable arms. It was time, Gadget assented as the Null finally engulfed them entirely, for it to be over.

Zero's ashes disappeared into the darkness of the Null, and he took all the blood and pain with him. Gadget flicked the wispon off, because there was nobody to anchor here anymore, and let it clatter to the ground.

He felt, at the crux of it all, a sort of catharsis wash over him. Infinite was gone, and the ruby was gone, and Zero was gone, and Gadget let himself slip away too.

The Null Space took him with a smile on his face.


Sonic was underwater. There was no more salvation, and death looked him in the eyes tirelessly as he sunk lower, lower, into the Null. He witnessed, in a mute, broken awe, as Gadget killed Infinite. The Phantom Ruby turned to dust, and then so did its host, and he felt the warmth of liberation sink against him.

He watched Gadget stand, smiling, as he turned to look back at Sonic.

He watched Gadget collapse, even with peace on his face. He wore a smile, but he also wore the welts of endless tears.

And then they were both limp on the ground, and Sonic felt his eyelids droop, the Null sucking him dry of his soul, and he knew it was done.

But his eyes wouldn't close.

They wouldn't leave Gadget's prone body.

He—he had watched the kid fall—and—

And it wasn't just Gadget. It wasn't just this. No, Sonic saw—he saw a fifteen-year-old hedgehog with bright blue quills and a dauntless grin, and he saw how he faced everything with sheer willpower, with heart. And he got that through his friends. He—he had so many friends, and they made him feel unlimited, boundless.

Nothing could've gotten in his way. Nothing could've ever hoped to stand in the way of a kid who carried no fear because there was no need to, when surrounded by such infinite love.

Sonic watched the kid fall and he watched himself fall too. He hurt, so irreparably deep in his bones. Since when had he ended up alone? Since when—since when was he meant to die alone? Who decided he was supposed to give himself up for the greater good? And—and the kid, the kid wasn't supposed to—

Oh… oh, where had he gone so wrong?

He grappled onto whatever strands of energy were left in his pile of desolation, the wreckage of his body, and he groaned and pulled himself forward with his only arm left. He worked his legs too, and soon he was crawling, even as it sent spires of agony through every nerve that composed him.

Fighting was always in his nature, he supposed. Never went down without a fight. Too stubborn.

Sonic patted his clammy hands over Gadget, who he wasn't even sure was breathing anymore, but it didn't matter, because he had to be fine, he just had to be. Grunting, Sonic pushed himself up, and his own body fought against him as he did but he pushed through it with gritted teeth. He pulled on Gadget with the little strength he still clung to and slung him over his shoulder and looked up.

That white entrance from before remained. Tendrils of overwhelmingly bright white, a promise of return, stared at him from afar. And it was shrinking steadily. Closing off. And it was so far away.

But it was still there, and everything he ever cared about was waiting for them on the other side.

"C'mon," Sonic exhaled, as he lugged them forward. He felt the Null ripping him to shreds from the inside, breaking down his defenses, but he kept going. He limped forward as slowly as he did, with Gadget's body draped against him. "C'mon, buddy… Not your time yet. Not our time yet."

He came to the somber understanding, as he kept pushing onward, that they wouldn't make it in time. Even despite his brute force, even as he fought against the odds and continued to pull them forward, the gateway was closing. The portal was closing too quickly, and they wouldn't get there fast enough. Sonic didn't let it deter him. He kept going, even as he mulled over this hopelessness. He kept going.

Infinite's mask laid discarded on the ground. Half of it was decayed by now, decomposed by the hunger of the Null Space. Sonic eyed it as he staggered past it.

The piercing glow of the portal became nothing more than a small keyhole into the other side. The Null dug its teeth so ruthlessly hard through him that he fell to the ground, and Gadget fell with him. He couldn't breathe.

The Null told him, dotingly, that it was okay to just let go now.

(It'd be so easy.)

The portal sealed, and then all he knew was the total darkness. The shadows of red.

He was almost gone before the light came.


the final chapter (an epilogue) will be posted soon