Hello everyone! It's time for the next chapter in this short story! I've got reviews so I'm not going to waste any time!
Obliviblur: Tails' leg is, not great… Especially considering the state he and it are in. Hopefully he'll get better, but they're going to have to do something about his infected limb.
SuperTailsFan0812: He's messed up pretty bad, but hopefully he'll get better as time goes on!
Alright everybody, let's get going!
Waves
Incisions
Tails groggily opened his eyes to several blurs, almost instantly, he heard a somewhat familiar voice.
"Tails, how ya feeling?"
His vision slowly came into focus and he noticed Bunnie was in the room with him, checking on his injuries. "I'm doing alright, I guess…"
"That's good to hear, does it hurt anywhere right now?"
"I guess my leg a little, but it's not too bad…"
The rabbit nodded her head, she continued checking on his appearance, finally, she asked a rather important question. "Tails, could I take your bandages off, we're not sure how bad that incision is…"
The fox hesitated for a second, but then nodded. Bunnie carefully began to remove some of the cloth bandages that covered his chest, as she got a first layer off, she noticed the second layer had a large bloody patch in its center, directly over where the injury would be.
She gently removed the second layer of bandages, taking care not to injure Tails in the process. After the last bit was gone, she finally got a good look at the grisly sight that lay before her. A long incision into the fox's fur was clearly visible, especially due to the bloodstained fur that surrounded it. She gently moved her hand down to it and peered inside, which wasn't much better. Some of the blood had started to clot, but it was still really bad, that was definitely going to need surgery, and more than a few stitches…
She backed away and gently placed a set of fresh bandages around his chest, "You did great Tails," She told him. "Didn't even move!"
The kitsune smiled, still most likely not grasping the full extent of his own injuries. Bunnie made her way out of the room and out of earshot, where the rest of the Freedom Fighters were assembled.
"It's bad, he's going to need surgery, like serious stuff."
"But we can't do that!" Sonic responded, "I mean, the most experienced with this stuff is Rotor-"
"And that's a bit beyond my comfort zone…" The walrus responded.
Sally sighed, "Well, Rotor, I think you know what you're doing today, right? That thing needs to come off…"
"I know Sal, although I don't like it."
"I don't think any of us want to Rotor, but it has to be done…"
The walrus nodded, "I think it's about time, he had his first dose of painkillers today, it should be in his system by now. I'll get ready."
Sonic followed behind as the walrus made his way to the infirmary, where he found Tails' room, before entering however, he turned to Sonic.
"I'm going to need you to leave before I do this, you can see he before, but once I tell you, I need you out."
"I'm not just leaving him!"
"You have to, it's going to hurt, even with the painkillers, I don't want you doing anything brash because he's in pain."
Sonic sighed, "Alright, I'm still going to see him before."
"Please do, it'll get him to relax a bit."
Sonic followed him into the room and found Tails where he had been yesterday, the kitsune did appear to be a little bit more alert, but Sonic knew what was about to happen, and the fox's enthusiasm for seeing him drilled a hole in his heart.
"Hey Sonic."
"Hey bud, how you feeling today?"
"A little better, everything still hurts though…"
"Sorry to hear that, I wish there was something I could do to help."
"You're already doing enough by coming to see me. Even if I do know why you're here…"
"Then what is it?"
"Rotor's here to cut off what's left of my leg…"
At that sentence, the two other Mobians felt a pit develop in their stomachs, Tails knew about it.
"Tails, bud, we didn't want you to find out, we thought it'd make it so you didn't want to."
"You always forget I have sensitive hearing, even though I'm stuck in this bed, I can still hear what's going on outside. And, I knew it had to happen eventually…" The fox continued, pulling the sheets off of him and exposing what was left of his leg. "I understand we're not going to be able to save it…"
"Tails bud I'm sorry, I didn't want to alarm you…"
"Its alright, let's just, get this over with…"
Rotor took this as the moment where it was time to get started, he told Sonic to leave the room and prepared a surgical saw, he strapped the kit down to his bed and instantly, the kitsune began to have a panic attack, hyperventilating as the memories from his imprisonment started to rush back to him.
"Tails. I'm just doing this for your own safety. I don't want you thrashing around and hurting yourself. I know you don't like it, especially after what Robotnik did to you, but you're going to be ok…" He reassured, repeating the last bit of his statement. Slowly but surely, the kit calmed down as he was fully secured.
Rotor slowly lowered the saw to the edge of the infected area, "Tails, this is going to hurt. It's ok if you scream or cry."
The kitsune nervously nodded and closed his eyes in anticipation. Rotor placed the saw to his exposed skin, and pulled back.
All Tails knew was pain, he screamed at the top of his lungs as the blade moved back and forth across his skin, severing it from his body. It was the most pain he had ever felt at once, including when his leg had been removed for the first time by Robotnik.
Speaking of which, as almost a cruel form of punishment, the pain triggered memories of the first time, which surged through his skull like lightning.
"Please! Anything else! Anything!"
"Tell me what I want to know, and I'll stop, but otherwise…"
"I- I…"
"You what?"
"I won't tell you…"
"Well then, you know what happens."
Tails snapped back to reality and the pain which he was going through and screamed anew, pain overwhelming his body until mercifully, he passed out…
Sonic heard the scream from across Freedom HQ, all the other team members, who were gathered in the living room, turned their heads as the sound of Tails' screaming reached their ears. Sonic wanted nothing more then for it to stop, he could almost feel the pain Tails was going through, and he wanted nothing more then to be there for him.
Sally grimaced, she had seen Tails almost like her son, and knowing what she was going through completely destroyed her emotionally, without knowing, she began to cry.
"Sal, he'll be alright." Bunnie responded, noticing her distress. "He's a tough kid."
"I know, I just- We shouldn't have let this happen to him in the first place…"
"We tried Sal, but nothing we did worked."
The team sat in silence as the voice ceased for a moment before starting anew, seemingly louder the second time around. Every Freedom Fighter wished there was something they could do to help, but none more then Rotor.
Rotor felt incredibly guilty, causing so much pain to the kit, he was rather happy when the fox finally passed out, as at least now, he wouldn't be in any more pain. At least, not until he woke up.
Tails had only been unconscious for a few moments before he came back to his senses, screaming out one final time, Rotor finished his procedure and quickly wrapped the new cut with bandages to stop the bleeding that was now occurring. Blood flowed out of the new wound like a tap, trickling down to the floor beneath him. Tails heart rate began to slowly drop.
"Tails stay with me, ok!?"
The blank expression on the kit's face and the glazed over look in his eyes however said otherwise. He quickly turned to his medical supplies and found nothing that would help stop the flow any more then he had, and what he had currently done wasn't enough.
In desperation, he tried to create a truncate out of bandages by tightly wrapping them around the fox's leg. Mercifully, it seemed to work and did stop a good chunk of the bleeding. Rotor let out a sigh of relief as mercifully, the kit's heartrate began to stabilize.
Tails had long since passed out from exhaustion and low blood pressure when Sonic burst into his room, his eyes going wide at the amount of blood present on the bed and the floor of the room.
He made his way in where Rotor was busy checking his vitals. "Is all of this Tails'!?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah… It's a lot more then I would have thought. Somebody's going to have to keep an eye on him from now on…"
"Why's that?"
"Because I almost lost him…"
Sonic felt his whole world shatter at that sentence, he had unknowingly been so close to losing his best friend and little brother. Tails meant the world to him, and knowing that the fox had just had a close brush with death, along with the imagery of a blood covered infirmary room and Tails on the edge of death would haunt him for the rest of his life.
Rotor gathered himself and grabbed a needle and thread from the nearby table, before setting it back down. He had debated on trying to fix his chest injuries while he was here, but considering how much blood he had just lost, he'd rather not press his luck, plus, he wasn't the best at it anyways.
"Well," Rotor began. "He'll hopefully be awake in the next little bit, probably feel a bit off from the blood, but otherwise, it should have dealt with the infection rather well, we're going to try and keep it clean so it doesn't happen again.
Sonic nodded, "I'll just be here, I want to see him when he wakes up."
"Alright, I'll put you on first watch then."
The walrus left the room and Sonic pulled a chair to the side of the bed and waited…
The first thing that Tails did when he woke up a few hours later, was scream. He had passed out because of severe pain, and as such, his nerves were freaking out. Sonic instantly noticed this and calmed him down. The fox was left out of breath and for some reason, was a bit lightheaded.
"You did great Tails," Sonic began. "Honestly, I don't know of anybody else your age that would have done as well as you did."
"Y- Yeah…"
Sonic frowned, "Tails, you're shuddering. You only do that when you're nervous, what's wrong?"
"I- It's just, I had that memory come back… When Robotnik-"
"It's alright bud, he can't hurt you anymore, I'll make sure of that."
"But, I'm not going to be able to come with you guys any more! I can't even walk!"
The fox burst into tears, Sonic gently grabbed the distraught kit's hand. "Tails, you're the smartest kid I know, if anybody can fix this, It'll be you! I honestly can't wait until you're back with us, just take some time off ok? You lost a leg for crying out loud, it's ok, we're not going anywhere."
The fox wiped the tears out of his eyes, and weakly smiled. "Alright, thanks Sonic…"
"No problem bud." Sonic responded, pulling the kit into a hug, from which the fox slowly returned. Sonic could care less about the blood on his fur, what mattered was that Tails was his brother, and nobody was going to change that…
Alright everybody, that's it for this chapter, a bit more lighthearted, but still rather grisly. Let me know what you thought! Until next time!