This place is strange. It's the thought that keeps plaguing Sonic. A future where Eggman finally gets what he always wanted, and all of the hedgehog's friends are rough and tumble freedom fighting rebels. Where Amy is a towering cyborg and Tails wears pants.
Sonic still couldn't get past how odd that was to see, even if he looked good in them.
The new outfit aside though, Sonic couldn't think about his young fox friend without his insides twisting into a knot. He wasn't augmented like Amy, or littered with scars like Knuckles, but there was clear damage there. Sonic could see it in the cold, dull blue eyes that glared his way.
Even older like he was here, the age in those eyes had no place being worn by someone so young. So innocent still, in their home dimension, even after all their adventures over the years.
So what could have possibly done this to him?
Sonic is pulled from the whirling storm clouds of his thoughts by the sound of the boy's voice, muffled but stern.
"Go away Knuckles."
Knuckles? Glancing up from the ground, Sonic notices one of the doors ahead of him is open slightly, warm yellow light spilling out into the dim, industrial hallway.
"Not until you talk to me," He hears the Echidna say, voice firm but surprisingly gentle. Another oddity in this world overflowing with them.
In a step Sonic is on the other side of the open door, pressed against the wall and peeking through the gap beside the door frame. The two boys in the room both have their backs to the door, Knuckles simply standing in the middle of the floor, focused on Tails' back as the fox is tinkering with something on his work bench.
"I don't need to talk, I need to work." Tails says, annoyance obvious in his tone. Clear in a way Sonic doesn't think he's ever heard before. "So leave me be."
Silence follows his words, the statement not leaving much room for argument. Quietly, Knuckles bends his head, but moves no further.
"It's tearing you up inside, isn't it?" He says softly, almost too quiet for Sonic to pick up. "Seeing him again."
There's a heavy thunk of metal against the rubber surface of Tails' workbench, his small shoulders rising. And it's obvious that he has to force them back down, the white coated tips of his tails flicking low against the ground.
"I don't know what you're talking about." The words leave his mouth in a seethe, a warning that rings clearly to the hedgehog's ears.
But Knuckles barely reacts to it, doesn't seem to register the suggestion to back off before he makes it worse. Or maybe he just ignores it, pressing forward without hesitation. "I know that having him so close hurts. It hurts me too. But he isn't the same Sonic we knew, Tails." He starts off, taking a step forward towards the fox as he speaks. "He isn't ours."
Sonic thinks he can see Tails trembling, and almost wants to step in. Put a stop to this if he can. But would that only make it worse? And he can't deny that he wants to understand. Wants to know why this Tails looks at him so coldly, so harshly.
But then he can hear the sound of laughter, low and bitter. "You're wrong," Tails practically spits, tapping the tool in his hand against the edge of the table in front of him. "He's exactly the same Sonic, that's what makes me so fucking mad!" The kit all but yells the last part, slamming his wrench down hard enough to make the wall shudder, jostling shelves full of half built gadgets. "Don't you see it in his eyes? In that stupid grin he's always got on?" There's so much anger in his voice, so much that if Sonic were just a little closer he might be recoiling from the venom lacing Tails' words. But Knuckles doesn't flinch, doesn't even blink back as the boy spins around to face him. "He doesn't have a damn clue! He has no idea what we're up against, what we've been through," Tails takes several steps towards the echidna, thrusting his wrench towards the older boy as he goes off. "But he just waltzes in like this is all some fucking game, like now that he's suddenly here everything is going to be just FINE." His voice cracks over the word as he screams it, crumbling under the force of his own anger.
Breathing harshly, the kit spins on his heel again, stomping away from Knuckles and striking out at the hunk of machinery in progress on his table. Hits it so hard that the object is thrown from the surface and straight into the wall, smashing into bits of metal and circuitry that are sent scattering over the floor.
And then it's quiet, only the sound of Tails heavy breaths filling the suffocatingly tense air.
He's never, not once in all the years he's known the boy, ever heard Tails sound like this. So full of rage. Of hatred, even.
And Sonic can't stand it. Hates hearing him this way, without any trace of the sweet, happy boy he knows so well.
But an even worse sound reaches his ears then. A sniffling, hiccupping noise, that has Sonic's stomach sinking through the floor where he stands.
That sound is what finally has Knuckles moving from his place, steps heavy as he closes the distance between himself and Tails. Pulls the smaller boy into him, arms fitting around his slight, trembling shoulders. A hand guiding Tails' head to press into his chest, stroking gently over his fur. It only makes their friend's crying worse, his muffled hiccups giving way to wet, heavy sobs that shake through his whole body. His hands clutching against Knuckles' back, squeezing him close.
"I can't go through this again, Knux," The fox sobs quietly against him, his cries breaking up the words. "I'm not strong enough, to lose him all over again."
"You won't have to," He hears Knuckles saying, voice soft but full of an unshakable conviction. "Things will be different this time, I won't let it be the same."
It does little to stem Tails' crying, the sobbing that floods his words, but it seems to ease the tension in his frame as he sinks heavily against the echidna. "I miss him so much."
"I know," Knuckles says gently, a kind of softness coming from the warrior that's just as strange to see as Tails' anger. "I do too." The hold encircling the fox shifts then, Knuckles easily scooping the younger boy up off his feet, and into strong arms. And Tails allows it without any complaint, any fight left in him having evaporated with the tears that have slowed to a steady snuffling.
He lets Knuckles carry him over to the bed against one wall of the room, the older echidna settling him on the dark gray sheets. Tails only moves enough to fall onto his side, his namesakes curling over himself protectively.
"Will you stay?" He asks weakly, catching Knuckles' wrist when he tugs the blankets over Tails.
His answer comes after a beat of thought, Knuckles giving a curt nod before climbing beneath the covers to settle in beside the fox. Not hesitating even for a second to pull Tails into his arms once more, pressed close against his chest and tucked under his chin. Presses a kiss to the top of the boy's head, with the ease of a deeply familiar action.
Like holding the fox as he sleeps comes naturally, their bodies slotting together as if shaped to fit just so.
For some reason— one that Sonic can't explain even within his own brain, just to himself —it scares the hedgehog. Has his insides shuddering as if he's been thrown from a cannon, even as he stays perfectly still.
A feeling that doesn't ease when he bolts from the spot.
Not even when he hits the building's outer platforms, the hot air rushing through his quills as Sonic races to the very top of the structure.
Running always clears his mind.
So why won't that sight leave the stage of his thoughts?