Things Best Forgotten
Disclaimer: You know, I seriously doubt that anyone even checks for these, if they're even still required in the first place. But, Sonic, Tails, and all other characters belong to Sonic Team and Sega, even Tails Doll if you really know your hedgehog history.
You know what I just noticed? It's been almost half a year since my last addition to this story, and it's my most popular one besides Lethal Mutation! I've gotten a lot of reviews from people begging that the story continue, too. Well, this is my time to fix all that with a no doubt long anticipated chapter! However, this chapter itself may not be the glorious, lengthy comeback everyone may be expecting, so please don't flame if it seems to be over too quick when you read. I will simply give my assurance that the next chapter won't take another six months to post again. XP
Chapter 8: Doctors' Orders
"I… I just can't believe it, Sonic…" Tails remarked sullenly as the two finally walked back into their shared home from their somewhat urgent trip into town today. Tails hadn't been too excited to know that he had to see a psychiatrist just to satisfy Sonic's concerned disbelief in the first place, let alone how the young fox had felt once they'd finally arrived and the session began.
First off, was how Tails had now come to understand just why everyone called doctors of that particular profession 'shrinks'. True, the pediatric psychiatrist Sonic had taken him to was a bit on the short side to begin with, but the real meaning of the derogatory nickname, Tails realized, was how they could pick apart every little detail of what you said and seem to see almost a bigger picture that left you feeling rather small once the 'shrink' revealed it to you in the form of short, seemingly profound advice that seemed equally lofty in wisdom as well. It was like they could literally shrink their patient down to a unicellular size and put them under a microscope to see every last detail of that person, or at least in the mental sense, anyways. This alone made Tails extremely nervous during the ordeal since he almost felt like he was taking a test on how well he actually knew himself and felt that somehow the psychiatrist would know if he used the wrong words to describe anything they discussed. Like how telling a doctor wrong symptoms might lead to improper prognosis and the wrong medicine for whatever illness you really had. Combine that pressure with the oddness of the situation, the unfamiliar location in one of the psychiatrist's plush offices, and Sonic's presence throughout practically the whole thing as Tails was prompted to talk about somewhat sensitive topics he and his brother may or may not have discussed in any depth before, and it was a wonder Tails had actually gone through with the whole process voluntarily instead of by physical restraint.
Of course, the worst part was at the end after all of Tails' logical and calm pleadings as to the source of all these recent events, including that same visit, being a demonic, soul devouring doll that unexplainably followed him around, when the doctor had pulled Sonic aside briefly and handed the hedgehog a slip of white paper Tails then discovered minutes later had a prescription written on it for some kind of drug he'd never even heard of before. The instructions Sonic had also been given concerning Tails' treatment were even more destructive to the young fox's horrified mind as he finally realized that he hadn't, despite telling nothing but the absolute truth, passed the psychiatrist's professional exam of his sanity, one which Tails had been completely sure he would pass since he knew he wasn't really crazy. It felt like he was an innocent man convicted by a jury and unable to do anything about it now but serve his undeserving sentence quietly. Now that a professional had deemed Tails mentally unstable, he knew he'd never get Sonic or anyone to believe his stories or even trust him the way they used to either. That realization was a huge bombshell to the already distraught kit, leaving him feeling almost like something had gone off inside him and hollowed out his insides on the run all the way home from the pharmacy with Sonic constantly attentive at his side.
"Believe what, little bro?" Sonic responded, eagerly sharing the first conversation the two had begun since the end of the psychiatric evaluation session almost half an hour ago.
"That the doctor thought I was crazy, Sonic! I'm not! I know I'm not! I can't explain why, but I just know!" Tails pleaded, knowing full well how useless the attempt would be now that Sonic had a professional's opinion to contradict the fox's frantic claims.
"Tails," Sonic sighed heavily, seeming to curse himself or anyone else he could blame as well for being in the current situation he was right now. He'd never had any reason to doubt his little brother before, and Sonic would usually be more than willing to believe anything Tails ever told him as true in a heartbeat, but now… "Tails, bud, I want nothing more than for you to be actually tellin' the truth right now, honest, but you gotta understand why I can't just trust ya without any kind of proof either. I mean, you agreed with me to see that professional and take whatever advice he gave us, and it's kinda hard to not believe someone who knows a lot more about these kind of things than either of us do, you know?" Sonic reasoned with Tails, hoping the fox might eventually understand why he was taking such drastic and hurtful measures right now with the desperate fox, and that Sonic also hated himself for every moment of it as well.
"But, Sonic…!" Tails began to protest before simply giving up on the comment before it started. He knew full well that at this point persuasion would be simply impossible with the blue hedgehog as Sonic had already hardened himself on his current position with the fox, probably reasoned away in his thick head as 'For your own good, Tails,' no doubt.
"Look, Tails, I really don't want to do this anymore! I know that you're going through something really big right now, but just try to understand what I have to do here!" Sonic snapped back, Tails' pleading finally causing him enough mental distress to register as a thumping pain in the hedgehog's skull. Instantly, however, the look of shock and sadness that he saw registering on Tails' face as a result of his short outburst made Sonic regret saying anything at all just then. "OK, Tails, look, I'm sorry," Sonic immediately spoke again in a much softer voice as he reached a hand around Tails' shoulder for the kit's comfort. "Thing's won't change because of this, bud. I'll still be right here, and I'll always trust ya no matter what, got that? Regardless of everything else, that doll's gone now for good and things can get back to normal a bit more, 'kay? You just promise me to take this medicine stuff when you're supposed to in case it helps and just stop thinking about the whole thing so much. Some things are actually best forgotten, bro," Sonic gave Tails his best reassuring talk in hopes of mending the growing strain between the two before it could get out of hand like he felt it already was.
Tails thought the offer over a bit before he accepted. After all, even though he knew he'd eventually need to compromise with Sonic somehow in order to get past this current falling out, Tails also had no intentions of agreeing to anything that would force him to admit what he knew was false either. Luckily, this was no such agreement, just a pact to forget and take only one simple measure just in case the problem really was prevalent somehow. Tails believed that the drug, most likely a depressant of some sort to get him to settle down and not drive himself mad with his raging thoughts and/or emotions, shouldn't even be necessary because he wasn't really crazy, but it also wouldn't hurt him any to still take it for Sonic's sake regardless as a small compromise. Convinced that he could live with this arrangement, Tails nodded once in approval while Sonic finally cracked a smile in satisfaction and relief while releasing his loose but cautious hold on the kit's shoulder.
"Glad that's all taken care of, then," Sonic spoke again with obvious relief in the way his stance relaxed back to how it normally was and his voice also seemed to return to its natural tone and mood. "Now, the doc said ya just needed to chill for a while, bud, so why not finish up some more of those plans for that new plane of yours while I round us up some grub, huh?" the hedgehog proposed in a helpful voice as he personally knew that he'd feel better knowing Tails was preoccupied with something other than thinking about all that had happened today and the last couple days as well.
"Yeah, a little time in the workshop couldn't hurt, I suppose," Tails agreed, now equally ambitious to get as much of this whole thing behind him as possible. The fact that Sonic still believed that he wasn't wholly mentally stable hurt only a little less after their short talk just now, but Tails at least agreed with Sonic's philosophy of just trying to ignore or forget the whole thing for the moment. It wasn't a big problem anymore for Tails how everything still didn't line up quite right even now, since the whole thing should now be in the past anyways. The sooner he forgot that stupid doll of himself, the sooner things would get better for him here. If only the same could be said for his memories of his recently lost friends, however…
"Tails? Mobius calling little bro, come in please?" Sonic spoke up worriedly as he caught the fox seeming to simply stare right through him and the wall behind the hedgehog as well. He knew that look meant that Tails was lost deep in his own thoughts now, which was precisely the last thing he felt would be good for the unstable fox at the moment and had prompted Sonic's interruption.
"Sorry, Sonic. It was just… Knuckles, Cream, Vanilla… What will it be like now without them?" Tails had to ask, despite dreading many of the possible answers that Sonic might come up with for that question.
"I'm not really sure, bud. It will be different, you know, but somehow we'll get used to it," Sonic offered his best attempt at optimistic comforting, even though his words sounded pretty hollow even to his own ears regardless.
Tails just half-nodded in response, actually taking a bit of assurance in Sonic's less than perfect consolation. "Yeah, I guess so…" Tails answered before turning to descend into his basement workshop, hoping, as Sonic also was, that some kind of manual or mental labor would chase away the feelings of pain and hurt Tails felt coming from almost countless sources at the moment. And if all else fails, a large wrench won't be too hard to use as a sedative either, would it? Tails found himself thinking, and it worried him by how practical that last intended joke seemed to sound as well while he sat back down to work on the tedious planning of his new plane's wiring and lost track of everything else.
"Forgive me, officer, but I believe I have been more than cooperative in your investigation so far," the slightly elderly and bald headed man protested in a mildly annoyed tone. "You have no evidence or proof that I am in any way involved with these killings, and, I assure you, I most certainly am not! Now, if you'd be so kind as to show yourself out; I'm a very busy man, you know…"
"I'm not so easily brushed aside, Doctor," the large and imposing police chief hound that had terrorized Tails no more than a day ago answered, clearly unsatisfied with his findings still despite almost an hour of interrogation with their only real remaining lead. "Someone or something was spotted stealing the bodies of the three deceased victims from the crime scenes and running off with them into the hills. Minutes later, your giant airship takes off from those same hills and flies off without so much as a single threat or warning, which you'd customarily provide at that time as well. I may believe in coincidences, Eggman, but this stretches the imagination just a hair, wouldn't you agree? So tell me, where are the bodies?"
"I haven't the foggiest idea what you're blathering about!" Eggman immediately responded in a ploy to cover his shock at the circumstantial evidence mounted against him already. "I'm sorry, officer, but I am well aware of my rights in this situation. Unless you show me a warrant, I suggest you and your small team leave at once," the obese mastermind finally demanded.
"Very well. Good day to you, Dr. Robotnik," the chief muttered through invisibly bared teeth at his need to be so civil with someone so clearly evil and dangerous. He personally believed that Eggman, as the single largest threat to Mobius as a whole, should just be locked up on sight without even a trial or immediate good cause. However, the justice system he lived to uphold forbid such things, even in Eggman's case, leaving the officer's investigation on this end doomed to fail without enough evidence to prove the Doctor's involvement for a warrant. And the chief knew that should Eggman have earned even half of his reputation, the necessary evidence would never be found either, thereby making his only and best suspect untouchable. Slowly, he led his other two officers out the door of Eggman's newest lab without a further comment other than a barely audible low growl.
Eggman breathed a sigh of relief at the departure of the policemen from his home without incident. Normally, he wouldn't even be obliged to allow the said officers onto his property, warrant or not, simply due to his army of robotic sentries and security systems meant to stop a foe far quicker and more powerful than any police Mobian. Still, he needed to appear somewhat cooperative so as not to draw any attention to himself and had allowed the interview to take place willingly. At least, that was his plan before he found out just a second ago why the police where so interested in him now…
"I've returned, Doctor," a gruff voice seemed to materialize from the space behind Eggman's hovering chair as a somewhat familiar figure also seemed to appear from a flash of light.
"I take it you found the doll then?" Eggman quickly swiveled his chair around to address the black hedgehog standing behind him. Oddly, the Doctor seemed to sound a bit more genuinely concerned than usual at the moment upon mention of the doll.
Shadow caught the obvious hint of concern in Dr. Robotnik's voice and pondered for a moment if this doll had any special reason to frighten him more so than anyone else. Then again, Shadow thought in response to his own suspicions, what being could be any more frightening then one that can steal your very soul? Putting his questions aside without his stalwart face even revealing that he had ever had them in the first place, Shadow promptly produced the sinister-looking box which he had shut and closed the padlock back on with the demonic mannequin inside, both obtained minutes ago from Tails' house. Without a word, he passed the ghoulishly ornamented chest to Eggman so he could prove to himself it was indeed real.
"Ah, yes, yes… Oh Ho! I would recognize this box anywhere! How it escaped my possession in the first place I'll never know, but I will most assuredly not lose it again!" Eggman seemed to be on the brink of doing some kind of embarrassing happy dance as he clearly felt very glad to have back the small chest once more. His face grew very serious just a moment later however as he then returned a sharp gaze down to Shadow before asking another important question. "It is in here, Shadow, isn't it?" Eggman seemed to need concrete assurance that the closed box was occupied by what it was designed to hold.
"Of course, I locked it in there myself," Shadow confirmed, wondering if Eggman was either overly concerned or may have thought that he would try and trick the Doctor and keep the doll for himself, for whatever ludicrous reason Shadow would want a soul-stealing, demonic toy for in the first place. Which brought up the good question of why Eggman was so interested in getting this creature for himself now, too…
"Excellent. Very well done, Shadow. This should put an end to all that now for good," Eggman thanked the hedgehog while also seeming to talk just to himself at the same time.
"Pardon my asking, Doctor, but put an end to what?" Shadow no longer could hold his curiosity at the strangely acting evil genius and his equally bizarre mission which had just been completed.
"Come now, Shadow, surely you know what I was talking about," Eggman seemed to grin as he held the sinister chest in his lap with both hands. "Those mysterious killings will finally end now that I have possession of this demonic toy once more. No more collecting bodies or trying to cover things up now, Shadow. We're both home free!" Eggman spoke with a delighted laugh which only confused Shadow even more.
"So, why was I even doing those things in the first place?" Shadow again had to ask as even his cold restraints on his own curiosity had limits.
"It's a long story, Shadow, but suffice it to say that I lied to you when I said that the fox was responsible. The truth is, Tails never had any idea what this really was to begin with, something I'm sure he told you as well when you undoubtedly met each other a bit ago," Eggman confessed.
Shadow's blank expression changed during Eggman's explanation first to a look of slight shock at finding out Eggman had lied to him and caused him to yell at the already distraught fox for no reason and secondly to a small scowl as he realized that Eggman had been using him to cover up for his own dirty work the whole time. "So, you were behind this all along, and you were using me to make sure no one traced this doll back to you! Instead, you set it up to look like that fox was really to blame, is that it?" Shadow responded in a slight growl. He thought that he had finally figured it all out now, and he didn't like that he had just been Eggman's pawn in cleaning up after a supernatural killing spree he'd orchestrated to start with.
"Now, now, Shadow. I know what you're thinking about me right now, and I can assure you that you've got it all wrong. I never wanted this creature to be released ever since I found out the error of my ways in creating it," Eggman defended himself against Shadow's growing and well founded suspicions.
"Created?! You mean the Tails Doll was…" Shadow exclaimed in rare genuine surprise as his voice was soon interrupted quickly by Eggman's.
"Yes, the gem which gives the doll its power was a rare artifact I once found back on Mobius. I knew it possessed some incredible power of levitation, so I stitched together a body for it to be attached to in order to test its powers. Not my best work of art, I admit, but the crude thing did hold together in the end," Eggman explained while shrugging sheepishly at admitting the horrible stitch working was really his own pathetic attempts at non-robotic art. "However, I never realized that the gem possessed more powers beyond that of levitation, and, after I found out that the doll itself had actually become self-aware and somewhat rebellious, I stuffed the doll back in this box I'd found the gem inside to begin with and forgot about it until now," Eggman told his story of how the Tails Doll actually came to be.
"That doesn't explain how you knew it had the power to steal people's souls and sent me to capture it, Doctor," Shadow pointed out, skeptically seeing Eggman's entire story so far as being way too doubtful and coincidental.
"Ah, yes, well that, my curious friend, is because I recently came upon a translation of an ancient tablet found near the sight I recovered the gem which discussed a 'Great Evil' encapsulated within a 'Cursed Stone' that fed itself off the souls of others. So, naturally, I went to find where I'd stored that doll to make sure it was secure, but, to my dismay, over the years it had been lost somehow, in the destruction of one of my many bases, no doubt. Then reports of these strange killings got out, and I knew that somehow my creation which was possessed with this 'Great Evil' was on the loose. So, because it was too dangerous to trust any of my less than dependable robotic assistants to take care of things this time, I had to use you," Eggman finished, seeming satisfied with his explanation as he sat back with his fingers on both hands interlaced in anticipation of Shadow's response to the whole story.
"Still sounds pretty unlikely to me. So you just happened to come across that tablet recently and realized that the Tails Doll you created was actually stealing people's souls, is that right? Likely story, Doctor," Shadow answered while crossing his arms across his chest to show his unwillingness to believe Eggman's story just yet.
"Believe me or not, Shadow, what I said is still true regardless. At least now that the doll is finally secured back in its chest it can no longer harm any more people because of my mistake," Eggman finished the conversation as he maneuvered his chair to the door leading out of the room with the Tails Doll's small prison still sitting securely in his lap.
Shadow only stood rooted in place as he watched the Doctor retreat through the door and out of the room hastily. And since when has Eggman cared about preventing harm to other people? Especially since that doll was found in the same house of his most troublesome rival as well. If he really had wanted to get rid of Sonic and that fox buddy of his, why not let the doll do so for him? Shadow only shook his head slowly to himself in response to these thoughts while he double checked to see that he was truly in this room alone now as an impulsive precaution. Why should I care what goes on in Eggman's scrambled brain anyways? It's all done with now…
One thing still bothered Shadow about this whole mess, however. For the life of him, Shadow didn't understand why Eggman had insisted on his gathering of the bodies of the Tails Doll's victims in the first place. After all, the police at the rabbit's home at least would surely have had enough time to give the bodies of Vanilla and Cream a good once over, more than enough to show that at least those two died without any sort of typical murder wounds. What else Eggman was afraid of the police finding was beyond Shadow's comprehension. Was it possible that he'd been ordered to collect the bodies of the Tails Doll's victims just so Eggman could be absolutely sure no one could ever divine the true cause of Knuckles, Vanilla, and Cream's deaths? If so, then even Shadow considered Eggman's orders to be far beyond the pale this time. Still, Shadow wouldn't put it past the evil Doctor to do just that. He of all people would know the wonders of modern technology and many of its uses in forensics as well, so it seemed the only logical reason Eggman might still insist on holding the three Mobian corpses.
Regardless, Shadow still doubted that the police had any sort of device to tell whether or not a murder victim's soul had been stolen as the cause of death, which made the Doctor's overly cautious behavior all the more difficult to support. After all, he'd never gotten to bury Maria's body after she was tragically murdered either, and to this day Shadow felt a lack of comfort from not knowing exactly what happened to his only true friend. After seeing how distraught that poor fox cub had been over the loss of three of his friends, Shadow believed that only the most cold-hearted monster would put Tails through the same situation he'd been through with Maria, only three times as worse. Yes, Shadow worked for Eggman for many good reasons, all of which that added up to the dark hedgehog's surprising loyalty to the evil mastermind, but that didn't mean Shadow wasn't capable of thinking and acting alone when the situation so called. Eggman may not like it, but Shadow would make sure that what happened to him with Maria wouldn't happen again to this poor fox cub. He at least owed Tails that much after blaming all their deaths on him in the first place, at Eggman's prompting though, of course. Besides, now he also needed to send a message to Eggman that he couldn't just be used to do all the evil genius's dirty work regardless of morals.
Snarling angrily to himself in a low growl of sorts, Shadow finally left the meeting room to find the cold storage unit he'd been instructed to deposit the three corpses in after the airship had landed yesterday evening. The room was in the back of a storage area which took up half or more of Eggman's actual base itself. With his speed, Shadow could be there in just a few seconds should he want to, but, as not to arouse the Doctor's suspicion, Shadow instead walked in that direction through the maze-like base as if he was simply wandering aimlessly. Of course, Shadow still made it to his destination in just a couple minutes regardless as he saw no reason to be overly cautious either.
Knowing that opening the door to the cold storage units in front of him would be logged into the security system's computer as unauthorized access and surely get Eggman's attention, Shadow took the smarter approach and used one gloved hand to wipe away the heavy condensation and frost from the small window in the large metal door to peer inside. He knew he'd been instructed to carry the bodies to the back and hide them, but still Shadow thought that it would be rather simple to spot them again since he was the one that hid those just hours ago. However, despite giving the giant, walk-in freezer several hard glances from the window, he could find no trace of the bodies he was on a personal mission to 'rescue'. "Eggman," Shadow only growled in irritation. He must have seen to it that the bodies were relocated again because of the chance that Shadow might attempt to take them back just like he was trying to now.
Shadow realized that Eggman had won this round. After all, if he suddenly showed up so soon asking where the bodies had been moved to, Eggman would know his intentions to steal them back in an instant and refuse to tell him their location. Searching Eggman's extensive base for their new hiding place would also undoubtedly bring up an alarm to the wily Doctor. No, Shadow's only safe bet now would be to simply wait until his chance to learn about the three corpses' locations and then retrieve them quickly once he did. It wasn't like they were going anywhere on their own anytime soon either…