Yoso

Sonic was floating through an endless void of blackness. Around him, he could see things. He saw deaths, he saw Soleana, he saw different things he remembered but had dismissed as dreams.

Something walked beside him, behind him, far in front of him, watching his every move. A dull-eyed hedgehog of cobalt hue, staring at him blankly, drinking hot chocolate spiked with vintage bernkastel.

Watching, waiting…

For what?

And that was the question of this ghostly world.

The date was not kept track of before. My apologies.

Now, it will be kept track of. For prosperity.

Current World, 5 June, 2020

Sonic sat in a hotel room, sobbing his eyes out. He had seen the worst thing ever, and he had no idea where to begin with it all. He had to carry on, carry himself from this room.

He dragged himself into the streets outside, and watched the flames burning, the children crying, the dogs running. The flames spread all the way to the palace. Sonic watched as the royal barge carried Cosmo on her final journey.

He watched the police coming, doing a body count. The firemen put out the flames. Even humans gathered around. All was still and quiet—and yet a deafening noise he couldn't recognize or hear pained his eardrums incessantly as he watched the world go by, yearning to belong but at the same time only half in existence.

Location Unknown, Time and Date relative

"They're going to die."

It was like waking up from a dream, or coming out of a trance. "They're going to die. All of them."

"Yes. Yes they are."

Sonic touched the hand of the hedgehog who looked like him, as if he were standing in a mirror. They looked almost the same now—both slender and weak and sick from the strain of their travels. But…

"How did you know they were going to die?"

He chuckled, as if that was the most foolish question in the world. His voice was almost monotone, and sounded either bored or grave. "How did you know?"

"I was told." Sonic frowned, drawing his hand away. The other hedgehog who looked like him mimicked him.

"You're inside me, aren't you?"

"A brilliant deduction, and you are correct, Wakai Baka."

"Stop calling me useless names."

"That means 'young fool,' which you are. Young fool." He smiled, but it was an eerie, sad smile.

"You were in my world."

"Yes. I am."

"And you met someone…"

"Rouge."

"Who are you?"

"I am Cadeyrn, the Battle King."

Sonic grinned. "Okay, Katie."

Cadeyrn heaved a sigh.

Current World, 5 June 2020

Sonic watched the world passing by at supersonic speed. He saw that Shadow had blown himself up out of misery for his lost love. And, tragically, he saw his own dead body, spurting blood out of his chest and back.

The scars of an eternal war.

And Sonic began to understand, as the world went up in flames.

He began to understand…everything.

Location Unknown, Time and Date Relative

"Katie," Sonic mused. "What's that shadow on your chest?"

Cadeyrn pushed apart his chest fur with his palms. There was a dark void cut there—a vertical scratch, a hole—cut neatly in the center of his chest plate. Sonic reached out to touch it, and found there was a breeze coming from it. He poked his finger inside it, and felt the internal organs and the perfect fracture of the bone.

"Whoa…" He squeaked, amazed. "It goes all the way…"

"Yes," Cadeyrn replied, nodding. "It goes all the way to my back, and through it, just beneath my back quills."

"I don't have that."

"No."

"Does it hurt? I'm poking it." He wiggled his finger inside the wound, to see if it would bleed.

It didn't.

"No," but Cadeyrn still flinched. "It will bleed, occasionally, but no, it doesn't hurt unless it bleeds. If you had it, it would hurt."

"It…" Sonic stopped himself. "This killed me, didn't it?"

Cadeyrn laughed. "Decide that for yourself."

Current World, 5 June, 2020

"I died." Sonic said.

Location Unknown, Time and Date Relative

"I died." Sonic said.

"Yes. You died. This," Cadeyrn pointed at his wound, "killed you every time."

Sonic sighed. "I guess so."

"Come on, then. You're tired," Cadeyrn rested his hand on Sonic's shoulder, and hugged him to his chest. "Sleep now. Rest. I can feel how weak you are." Cadeyrn touched Sonic's lips with his own, and slowly pulled into a passionate kiss. Sonic relented to it, and soon collapsed. Cadeyrn lay his double down on a bed that appeared out of nowhere, and stared gloomily and intelligently at the world floating by around him.

"What's next, my dear?" He asked the darkness. "What's next…Iblis?"

And I'm tired, so tired,

I'm tired of this.

I'm tired, so tired,

This foretelling—we do this.