Sonic sighed as he hopped off the tornado. The flight back had been pretty quiet, and honestly he'd not been expecting that. Surely Super should have had something to say after their win, but the other hedgehog remained silent. Idly he listened to the conversations between the others while trying to see if he could get anything from Super. It felt almost like there was a wall between them; which Sonic didn't even know was possible. "Yo Super, you there?" Sonic thought. Nothing. Not even a stirring of emotion that could indicate Super was listening. Frowning, he tapped his chin in thought. He waved down Tails who gave him a confused look.
"What's up Sonic?" Tails asked after wandering over. "You look… well you don't look like you just won a battle against Eggman." Tails smiled.
"Super's… not talking to me. It's like he isn't even there at all." Sonic crossed his arms. "I didn't even know we could do that."
The fox frowned, concern clear. "Really? That seems… odd. Any idea why?"
Sonic shook his head. "No… I thought he'd have something to say about all this. Maybe bragging or something." He shrugged. "It's weird that he'd go completely silent on me."
"That is weird…" Tails placed a hand on his chin. "Also kind of concerning…"
Sonic flicked an ear. He glanced over at Shadow who gave him a questioning look. It looked like Knuckles had already left to go back to the master emerald. Sonic turned back to Tails. "We should probably try and figure this out. Just to be safe."
Slowly Tails nodded. "Yeah. That seems like a good idea. I guess technically he did keep up his end of the deal…"
"I don't think he'd go straight back to how he was before though." Sonic sighed, pinning his ears against his head. "It felt like we were getting through to him."
Tails' frown deepened. "Yeah…" Suddenly Tails got a determined look on his face as he hopped up to the tornado to retrieve the chaos emeralds. They'd managed to grab the rest of them before leaving Eggman's base. "I might have an idea." He looked up at Sonic as he walked back over. "Do you trust me?"
"Of course, bud." Sonic grinned. "Did you even have to ask?"
Tails smiled. "Then let's go back to where we were training and see if this works."
Sonic waved to Shadow just so the other wouldn't follow them. "Don't worry about us Shads. Just taking care of some business. I know you won't listen to me but you should get some rest."
The other hedgehog huffed. "I could say the same to you." He shot back, but still went to walk off back towards the shrine. Probably so he could meet up with the rest of team dark. "Try not to do anything too stupid." He added.
"No promises!" Sonic called out to Shadow's retreating back. The black hedgehog didn't even acknowledge that. He turned back to Tails. "Alright. Let's do this."
The fox nodded and led them to the spot that they'd used when Sonic and Super were training together. "Ok. Sit down." Tails gestured with his head to the ground. Without a word Sonic sat down. Tails began to set the chaos emeralds down around him. Sonic could see where this was probably going. Though neither of them had any idea how this would interact with Super. Clearly the fox's goal was to draw him out, but would this work? Or would Sonic just transform into his normal super form? There were a lot of unknown factors in this plan, but that just proved that Tails wanted to help. The fact that the fox was willing to try something he wasn't sure would work just meant he wanted to do this as quickly as they could. "Alright… you've probably guessed what I want you to do…" Tails paused in front of Sonic after he'd finished placing the chaos emeralds.
Sonic nodded. "Yeah, that much is pretty clear. Do you think it'll work though? I haven't tried to go super since all this."
Tails folded his ears down and looked away. "I… don't really have any other plan. Sure chaos energy has allowed him to take control before but that was all his choice as well. We've seen that he can choose to not take control if he wants to. This was the only thing I could think of that might force him out."
Sonic nodded slowly. "And it's the best shot we have." He agreed. "All we can do is try and hey worse thing that happens is we have to go find the emeralds again after this." He tapped his chin. "Well… we'll probably have to do that anyway but…" He shrugged.
"Yeah." Tails chuckled. "You ready?"
"I feel like the better question is if you're ready." Sonic leaned back. "We don't know exactly how this might work, so you might end up being the one that has to talk to him." Tails looked at him and blinked. "Don't worry, you've got this. I know you do." Sonic shot the fox a reassuring smile.
Tails perked up, a determined look on his face. "R-right. I'm ready."
"Great. Let's hope this works then." Sonic closed his eyes and reached out for the chaos emeralds. They responded just as quickly as they normally would. Now to focus. He didn't want to draw out his super form with them but instead draw out… Super. That was mildly confusing. He shook his head as he tried to focus on any sign of the being living in his head. There. A slight stirring, likely due to the sheer amount of chaos energy. It was hesitant, but it was there and Sonic gripped on tightly. He could feel Super resisting, which was odd, but Sonic was nothing if he wasn't stubborn. Super wouldn't be slipping away that easily even if Sonic had to backseat himself for a while to do it. "Nice try dude, but you're having this talk whether you want it or not." He thought as he gave one last yank; more or less mentally throwing Super into control. He could feel himself fading, but that was fine. Tails had this.
Super gasped as he was forced into control, he looked around wildly. The chaos emerald floated peacefully around him. His panicked gaze eventually fell on Tails. The fox was giving him a concerned look. He had to quickly turn away; he didn't want to see that. "So." Tails started and Super couldn't help but turn back to look at the fox. "What's going on? Sonic says you went quiet after you two beat Eggman."
"I-" He pinned his ears against his head and looked away. "I don't owe you an explanation."
"No, you don't." Tails agreed easily. "But I can ask for one, as someone who's worried about you."
Super turned back to face the fox and bared his teeth. Maybe if he could scare the fox off this whole conversation could be over faster. Deep down he knew that wasn't going to work though. "Why would you be worried about me?"
Tails gave him an unimpressed look and sighed. "Because like it or not Super I do… kind of care about you. This whole thing with Eggman has shown that you're more than what you claimed to be to me. You clearly want things beyond just death and destruction no matter how much you'll try to convince us otherwise. If that were true you would have betrayed Sonic and me the moment you had control of Sonic's body again. I had no chance of stopping you and no one else knew."
Super frowned. "Yeah sure, you can believe whatever you wanna believe fox."
Tails sighed in frustration. "Super you're not fooling anyone. Least of all me or Sonic."
"Maybe I'm just a better liar than you give me credit for." Super huffed, crossing his arms.
"Really?" Tails sounded entirely unconvinced. "If that's the case why are you still here?" Super looked at him in confusion. "You could easily run off now, and with all the emeralds." Tails gestured to the gems that were still floating around Super. "But you're still here. Talking to me. Trying to convince me that you're nothing more than something pure evil when your actions are saying something completely different."
Super looked down. Was he really being that contradictory? Surely not right? He was something born from the negative energy of the emeralds he couldn't just… not be evil right? That was his very nature! What defined him! Right..? It felt good to cause destruction, to fight, and harm things. On the other hand though it also felt good to explore, learn, and have positive emotions aimed at him. It was all just so confusing. He didn't know what he wanted anymore. What had once been so clear to him now seemed muddy and unsure. Did he really want to go back to how things were before? Constantly fighting Sonic for control? It would be so much harder to grab it now that Sonic knew how he did it. Not impossible, but harder. He couldn't see himself aligning completely with the ideals of these… heroes but maybe if their goals aligned he wouldn't be opposed to helping again…
He gripped his head and squeezed his eyes shut. This was all getting to be too much. He felt way too much. He wasn't made for all these emotions. He didn't know how to handle them. What was he supposed to do? How did people deal with this? Things were so much simpler when all he wanted to do was destroy things. Why did emotions have to be so complicated? He didn't wanna deal with this.
Suddenly his racing thoughts stopped as he felt something small and fluffy wrap around his chest. He opened his eyes and looked down to see Tails… hugging him with his face buried in Super's chest. Super felt like his brain had blue screened. Was the fox really hugging him? Why? Why did it feel… good? Hesitantly he wrapped his own arms around the fox. This was how hugs worked right? Yeah, this felt right. There was a warm feeling in his chest; he couldn't quite place the emotion but… he liked it. It was nice.
"Feeling a bit better now? I know Tails' hugs can have that effect." Sonic spoke up. Super could feel waves of sympathy and comfort coming from the hedgehog. It was almost overwhelming.
"Why..?" Was all Super could manage.
"Why? Dude you might have started off all evil and stuff but that wasn't really your fault. It was a product of how you were created. You were doing what you thought was right." Sonic started gently. "But you've changed. Seen there's more to life than what you thought. You're changing. And sure you're still you under there. Still want to do all the stuff you did before, but you can restrain yourself I guess. Know when's a good time and when's not. If you'll let us I know me and Tails wanna see if we can figure out something for us. Something that gets both of us what we want you know? Whether I like it or not I'm stuck with you at this point and you're stuck with me, so you better get used to this."
Super could feel a wetness in his eyes. He moved a hand to swipe at them and stared at the now wet spot on his glove. "You're… not going to try and get rid of me?" Super said out loud, not really believing it.
Tails finally broke the hug, Super felt mildly upset about that, and looked up at him with a small smile on his face. "Nope. You're a living, thinking being Super. Getting rid of you would put a bad taste in both me and Sonic's mouths." He tilted his head. "Is Sonic talking to you?"
Super simply nodded, he didn't trust himself to speak right now. This was all so overwhelming, but in a sort of good way. It was more than he would have hoped for after their agreement ended. "Suppose this means we should work out some ground rules huh?" Sonic said, a happy tint to his voice. "That can wait though. For now just try and calm yourself down dude. I know this is a lot for you. I can feel it." He chuckled. "But that's alright, you'll get used to it."
"You're so annoying sometimes." Super mentally mumbled.
"I think I've heard that once or twice." Super could feel the grin that Sonic no doubt had. "For now though I think we all could use some rest huh? I wanna make sure Tails gets enough sleep."
"Yeah… " Super nodded as he let Sonic slip back into control, the hedgehog didn't fight it. As Sonic's quills faded back to blue the chaos emeralds shot off to who knows where.
"Huh…" Tails glanced up. "Guess that sort of counted as using them?"
Sonic shrugged. "Guess so. No worries though. We can find them later." He stood up. "For now we all need some rest."
Tails nodded. "Yeah, agreed."
Super let his mind wander as they walked back to the shrine. Maybe this wasn't so bad, having people care about you. Having people that could understand, that you could talk to if you needed. Sure it was all overwhelming and yeah Sonic was right, he still had a want to destroy and hurt but maybe he could do something more… productive with those urges. He knew he wouldn't agree with Sonic all the time, but maybe he could try… Maybe they really could make this work. As Sonic began to drift off Super took in the sight of the starry night sky. It was so clear here. There really was so much for him to do and see in this world; he knew so little. Maybe this was for the best. He could be… dare he say happy with this. Things would be rough, but he could live with it. He was pretty sure they all could.
Finally he let his racing thoughts rest. He should sleep as well. As he drifted off he couldn't help but realize just how lucky he'd gotten. The path would be hard, but by chaos he was willing to take it. The future was uncertain, but at the very least he wouldn't have to face it alone.