Recursion Error

Episode 11- Weird sky people ruin my life even further


None of this was right. I don't recognize where I am. Everything around me is wrong and I don't know why.

Too scared to even think straight. Too confused to try and piece it all together. I-


It was raining. I was cold and in pain. Too much was going on at once and I couldn't even think straight where was I why were all those things done to me why did-

"H-hey! Are you okay!?"


Time passes. Months of it.

Everybody here is so friendly even though I look so different. They even-


There had been an explosion during a fight. One of my new best friends was so badly hurt. Nobody knew if he would wake up. Nobody even knew if he would survive his wounds. It hurt everybody. It hurt me. And there was nobody that could help him.

Nobody but me. Consequences be damned. I'm tired of the fighting. I'm tired of seeing my friends hurt. I'm tired of seeing my friends die.

I look down at the sword in my hand.


"I don't care how many times it takes... I'm going to save everybody..."


Sorun woke up.

"Agh... that really fuckin' hurt..."

He just couldn't get a win, could he? Oh, no. That'd be too much for Sorun, wouldn't it? After everything he'd been through, he couldn't have his one, single victory. After blowing up all those Badniks with Tails' plane and feeling so good about himself, and then getting the Chaos Emerald which made him go from feeling good to feeling great, he couldn't end the day on a high note.

No. Instead he got to end the day with getting electrocuted by the blue rock. And to get... whatever that memory was when he came to in a semi-lucid state.

"What even was that dream? Somethin' about... rain or... I forget. Eh, whatever." He quickly lost the memory of that vision and pushed it to the back of his mind as he forced his eyes open. "Ugh... where...?"

Sorun's vision was bleary, but it was slowly coming back and he could recognize the HQ's ceiling with what little sight he had so far. He felt sore all over, and there was a dull throbbing in his head, but it was all going away. He blinked a few times and held one of his hands up. Surprisingly, it didn't look like a burnt mess. It looked completely fine, actually. Small miracles.

Groaning softly, he slowly sat up. The first thing he saw was the couch that had been knocked over when he'd been flung, which lead Sorun to believe that not much time had passed since the Emerald shocked him. His theory proved sound when he saw Sonic from the corner of his eye crouch down next to him and gently place a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorun? Buddy? You okay?" He gingerly shook Sorun's shoulder. "You had us worried for a minute there. Are-"

A wave of nausea hit him. "Please don't shake me," Sorun requested, and he felt Sonic take his hand off of him. A quick look around with his eyes confirmed that the others were still there, too, and were looking at him with concern equal to Sonic's. "I... got knocked out, right? How long?"

"Just a few minutes," Sonic answered.

All things considered, that wasn't very bad at all. He would have preferred not being shocked into unconsciousness, but he at least seemed to have pulled through alright. "Cool," he grunted as he looked down at his hands. They were empty. "Huh? Where'd it go?"

He didn't see the Chaos Emerald in his hands. A quick look confirmed that nobody else was holding it, and when he looked around he didn't see the gem on the ground or anywhere else. So where had it gone?

The pale teen turned his head to Sonic, who still had some worry written on his face. "Where'd the Chaos Emerald go?" he asked. "You guys finally manage to pull it out of my hands or something?"

The worry on Sonic's face turned into an uncomfortable expression, and Sorun found himself not liking it very much. "Um, uh... we don't really know," Sonic admitted as he rubbed at one of his arms. "The Chaos Emerald was-was shocking you and you were screaming, so we tried to get it off but there was a flash of light that knocked us off, and, uh... you passed out. And the Chaos Emerald was just gone."

Well, now he was wide awake. That didn't sound good to him at all. "What do you mean it's just gone?"

There had been an angered edge to his voice, and Sonic must have picked up on it as he'd turned his head to the side to avoid Sorun's glare. "Maybe you just dropped it? It's kind of round, so it probably just rolled under something. Are you sure you don't remember?"

"Do I reme- no!" Sorun shook his head in denial while waving his right hand in front of him. "All I remember is grabbing the Chaos Emerald-" he waved his hand behind him, "- then it goes and sticks to me, and while-" his hand waved in front of him, "- that was happening it-"

Bring! Shck!

Sorun paused, as did everybody else. There'd been a sound- a single, low ring that tickled the back of Sorun's memory for whatever reason, followed by the sound of something stabbing into the ground. The teen looked around in confusion, and he saw that everybody's attention was drawn towards something nearby that was glowing blue. He began to sigh in relief as he turned towards the object.

The sigh became choked in his throat when he saw something that was definitely not the Chaos Emerald.

There was a sword sticking into the ground. A blue, translucent straight sword with a W-shaped guard. A sword that, upon looking closer, seemed to be made of energy from the way its entire surface was constantly shimmering and wavering randomly.

And then, just like that, it shattered much in same way a glass would shatter if one were to throw it on the ground. The sound of breaking glass even accompanied it as the entire sword shattered to pieces, which then dissipated into nothing.

Nobody said anything. Everybody, even Sorun, looked completely bewildered at the sight they just witnessed. Sorun himself had went as far as to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, and while the sword was indeed gone, the small indent its blade had made in the ground was still there. He wanted to believe he was hallucinating, but the astonished faces on everybody present told a different story.

"Uh..." The silence was broken by Knuckles, who blinked heavily at the indent at the ground and pointed at it. "You guys saw that too, right?"

Tails slowly nodded. "The weird blue sword? Yeah."

"That was real?" Sorun mumbled.

"We all saw that," Shadow confirmed before looking at Sorun. The dark hedgehog looked just about as lost as everybody else, but there was an inquisitive edge to his eyes as he looked at the teen. Specifically, at his hand. "Sorun. Was that you who did that?"

The human looked up at Shadow only to tilt his head to the side. "Huh? Me? Uh, no. Powerless, remember?" Had he? No. There was no way. It was somebody else in the group that had a weird power. Had to be.

"You... were waving your hand around a lot, and after what happened with the Chaos Emerald..." Sally, who stood near the back, trailed off before turning her gaze to Sorun. "Can you try again?"

"Wha? What are you- guys, come on." Rolling his eyes, Sorun waved his right hand around. Nothing happened. "Look, see? Nothing. It was one of you."

"Nobody here has the ability to create something like that," Shadow informed him. "Are you absolutely sure? You didn't feel anything strange or out of place?"

"Man, I'm not feeling much of anything after that jolt from the Emerald," Sorun grunted as he stood up to his feet. "Look, I don't know what that was, but-"

It was right when he was calling on the memory of the sword and denying it was him that it happened. That sound appeared again, and accompanying it was a small flash of blue light and a small burst of blue particles on his right side. Sorun's head snapped towards the sound, and he could practically feel his pupils shrink when he saw it. That same blue, translucent sword, floating in the air besides him and pointing outwards with small amounts of blue, ethereal smoke wafting off of it.

By now, Sorun was in deep belief that he was still hallucinating, or that this was some kind of fever dream induced by the Chaos Emerald. It had to be. There was no way that sword could exist. He recognized that sword, and it shouldn't be something that could be real. Especially in this world.

"That's..." he mumbled, stepping backwards. The sword followed him and stayed in its position at his side. "That can't be... that's... isn't that V-"

There was a throb of pain in his head, and the break in his concentration caused the blue sword to shatter to nothing. His feet wobbled, and right as his vision began to darken he could see Sonic reaching out to try and catch him.

Sorun passed out before he could see if he succeeded or not.


"Uuugh... I'm gonna get a concussion at this rate..."

Had he fallen on his head? It sure felt like he'd fallen on his head. Why did it always have to be his head that was hit?

Mumbling a quick string of curses under his breath, Sorun planted his palms on the ground and slowly picked himself up. "Alright, where-" he began to ask, but stopped cold when he saw his surroundings. "Aw, no."

His surroundings were that there were no surroundings. More accurately, he looked like he was in the middle of nowhere- in the sky. All around him he was surrounded by white and golden clouds, and above him was an endless sky that shined a corona of colors so bright it was practically white.

Gulping, Sorun looked down. There was no floor he was standing on; just more clouds. He did feel solid ground when he tapped his boot on where he was standing, but he sure didn't see it, nor did he actually hear the sound of his boot making contact. In a quick experiment, he clapped his hands together, and sighed out loud when he heard the clap.

So he wasn't deaf. That was good. He didn't know where he was. That was bad.

"What is all this?" Sorun quietly wondered as he began walking in a random direction. "I finally die and escape this nightmare? Is this, like... heaven or something? 'Cause I'll take it if that's the case. I practically deserve it at this point after everything I've been through."

"I'm afraid that isn't the case."

A frightened yelp came out of Sorun as he whirled around. The golden clouds behind him parted, and a feminine figure wearing long, light-blue robes walked through. A human-looking figure, much to Sorun's absolute disbelief. One with a human face.

The woman flashed her light blue eyes at him and smiled. "Greetings. I am-"

Any further words were interrupted when a blue sword sailed through the air towards her. Unfortunately for Sorun, it seemed to phase right through the woman, who rapidly frowned at the teen's actions.

"Please don't do that. As I was saying-" Another sword passed through her. "Sorun, please-" Another sword. "Will you stop it!?"

"Fuck you and this mystical bullshit. What is all this?" Sorun snapped as another blue sword appeared next to his side, only to shoot towards and pass through the woman. "And somebody better explain to me what the deal with these swords are real quick."

Oh, he was so done with everything. He'd slowly built up a tolerance to all the nonsense but this was breaking down all the fragile barriers he'd managed to make. Between her and this weird sky place and the swords? He was done. He wanted straight answers.

The woman glared heatedly at him, but then relented under Sorun's furious gaze. "It was my hope that appearing to you in this form would calm you. Very well. Let us try this."

As soon as she finished her sentence, the golden clouds next to her began to swirl around her body, concealing her form as Sorun blankly watched from his spot. Seconds later, the clouds parted. The blue dress and the womanly figure remained. The species sure didn't: he was looking at a Knuckles lookalike in a dress. An echidna.

"There. My true form," she huffed out as she straightened her dress. "I will try once again to introduce myself so that we may talk." A forced smile found its way onto her face. "Greetings. My name is Aurora, and-"

Sorun decided to continue shooting swords at her at a more rapid pace. They were still just harmlessly phasing right through her, but seeing the grimace form on her face made it worth it in his eyes.

"That's enough now, young one." That was another new voice, this one male and aged. Sorun turned around to see yet another echidna standing behind him. Old and wearing ragged robes, with all sorts of trinkets hanging from his red, faded dreadlocks. "The you before us is nothing but a projection of your mind we have allowed into our zone. You have no physical presence to harm us with."

After a second's consideration of the old echidna's words, Sorun willed a blue sword to appear by his side before it flew forwards through his face. It phased through him like it did Aurora, and he sighed at the action.

"Did you not hear a word I just said?" he asked.

"Yeah, but it's still making you mad, and that makes me feel better," Sorun said. "So who are you?"

"Will you stop throwing those things if I tell you?"

Yet another sword was hovering at Sorun's side, but at his will it shattered into nothing, and then he shrugged. "Sure. Let's be amicable. That would be the mature thing to do, right? And we're all mature here."

A thankful smile appeared on the echidna's wrinkled lips. "Rightly so. I am Athair, and-"

A blue sword went through him.

"Are you quite done yet?"

"One more." As Sorun said this, one more blue sword flew through Athair. "Okay, now I'm done. Talk."

"As I was saying-" Athair's mouth clamped shut when, of course, another sword went through him.

The human teen flashed him a cheeky grin. "I had to get one more in. I'll stop for real now."

"... As I was saying," the echidna ground out, "The current circumstances surrounding the world has forced our hands. We must speak."

"Oh, we must, huh?" Sorun scathingly remarked as he watched the old echidna walk next to the younger, female one. "All this time I've been here and it's only after I touch that Emerald and get a weird sword power you wanna talk with me. A very specific sword power. A sword power I have a lot of questions about."

The two echidna cast nervous glances at each other. Sorun couldn't help but wonder why they looked so nervous. "We two are beings intrinsically connected with the Chaos Force," Aurora explained. "The Virtual Zone you are currently standing in is a zone removed from all other zones that-"

"That's cool and all, but I really don't care," Sorun interrupted. He didn't even understand half of what she just said, but he just couldn't stomach all of this nonsense enough to try and comprehend it all. Or care at that. "Just... who are you and what does all this have to do with me?" he asked as he rubbed at his throbbing forehead.

There were little micro twitches on Aurora's face that showed her frustration. The older echidna next to her looked more composed, but the way his eyes were narrowed slightly suggested some level of annoyance. Sorun counted it as a small, petty victory, but one he could call his. Because with how he was feeling right now, he needed it.

"We were tasked with watching the world after the previous Walkers... passed on," Athair explained. "It's only through the powers granted to us through our connection with the Chaos Force that this is possible."

"Walkers. Right," Sorun scoffed, and then looked down at the clouds at his feet. "Well, I'll say this much: you're doin' a pretty awful job." He looked back up at the echidna's with a scowl on his face. "You seen the state of the world? Place is a mess. Some crazy nutjob's using robots to take over the world."

"That which we must watch entails more than just Mobius. It entails the whole universe." The female echidna rubbed her hands together nervously. "That said, we... feel for the plight of Mobius. At one time in our lives, it was both our homes. What is happening is truly unfortunate, and we wish to help."

There was something about her tone that made Sorun skeptical about how saddened she really was over Mobius. Her tone wasn't exactly flat, but the emotional impact was far from somebody who was upset about their world, or previous world, or whatever she considered Mobius to be, under siege by robots. Hell, Athair looked more upset over it, and Sorun couldn't tell if those wrinkles were from frowning or from age.

But, he truly couldn't care less about their feelings. He just wanted answers.

"And I fit into all this how?" the irate teen asked.

"You are somebody who does not belong in this world who was brought here through unnatural means. We did not truly understand the gravity of this until after you came into contact with that Chaos Emerald," Aurora said. "The Chaos Emeralds are linked to the Chaos Force as we are, and act as conduits for Chaos energy. By touching that Emerald, you... absorbed it into your very being and managed to create a link of your own with the Chaos Force. A weak link, unfortunately, but a link nonetheless."

Blinking in surprise, Sorun looked down at his own chest. "What, I ate it?" he muttered before looking back up. "Why me?"

"Tell me," Athair began, "before coming to Mobius, had you ever heard of or experienced Chaos energy?"

Sorun slowly shook his head. "No...?"

"As we thought," Athair said with a nod. "You and your zone are unique, in that you both are completely cut off from the Chaos Force. It's hard to imagine such a world can exist- Chaos energy is the fundamental energy of all life throughout the multiverse- but your zone is so removed from all other zones that Chaos energy just simply doesn't exist there. That extends to all beings from that zone, including you."

"You are completely empty," Aurora continued. "All beings in all zones possess some quantity of Chaos energy in them. It may be so small that it is inconceivable even to beings such as us, but it exists. But you are unique in that you are truly empty, Sorun. From the second you arrived on Mobius we observed you because of this curious phenomenon, but it was only after you absorbed that Chaos Emerald did we understand what it truly meant."

"... Huh...?"

Aurora saw the visible confusion on Sorun's face, and rubbed at the side of her face as she thought of a better way of explaining. "Chaos energy flows to wherever it pleases, such is its nature. Like fluids, it will naturally gravitate towards empty spaces to occupy as much space as possible. Since you are something with no Chaos energy of your own, unlike everything else, you naturally absorbed the Chaos energy to form a weak link with the Chaos Force. Is that understandable enough?"

It barely was, but he thought he got the gist of what they were saying. "Yeah, uh... Chaos energy everywhere in everything. Except me. I get, uh..." There were a lot of concepts being thrown at him all at once, and Sorun found that he was having trouble sorting through it all. He understood the "Chaos energy is a fundamental aspect of the universe" bit, but the rest was slowly escaping him. "... My zone's special, so by extension I'm special because I'm nothing..." he muttered, "so... touching magic rocks gives me powers?"

They both winced at what he was sure was a butchered version of their explanation, but he saw Aurora slowly nod. "Yeees, that is... more or less the heart of the matter."

"Ah. Cool. Cool." Food for thought he could chew on later, but he had more important things to address right now. "Okay. So," he said, and then held his index finger up. A blue sword appeared right over it in a horizontal position and began spinning around like a helicopter blade. "Do you wanna explain to me why the power I got was fucking Vergil's Summoned Swords?"

It's what they were: the power that was supposed to belong to a character in a video game. He knew because he recognized the swords. He'd played enough 'Devil May Cry' games to know those swords from anywhere. So Sorun was extremely confused over why, out of all the powers in the world, the Chaos Emerald decided to give him this one. A power from a video game. It made the least sense out of everything.

And he didn't like how they looked so confused at that.

"Chaos energy is infinite, shapeless energy. That energy can shaped by the heart of those with a connection to it," Aurora clarified. "There are many with strong connections to the Chaos Force who can manipulate Chaos energy to make various techniques using it. This appears to be a technique you've created."

Sorun spluttered at that, and the break in concentration made the sword he was spinning shatter. "B-but he's a video game character," he argued. "It's from a video game! Why did I get this out of everything else!?"

"As I said, Chaos is formed by the heart. For some the manipulation of Chaos energy can be... innate. On a subconscious level," Aurora confessed. "Certain mental biases, likes and dislikes, can influence these subconscious manipulations. Strong memories of recent events or actions could also be a contributing factor."

He did really like that game. And he always did like playing as Vergil, if only because his moveset was borderline busted in how powerful it was. His choice in color had definitely helped. And it was with a dawning realization that Sorun remembered that the last video game he'd played before coming to Mobius had been 'Devil May Cry'. The third one, while playing co-op with David. And he'd been playing the fourth one before that. And both times he'd been playing as Vergil.

Suddenly it was starting to make sense, and he almost hated how much it made sense.

"I seriously just got Vergil's Summoned Swords because I liked playing as him a lot...?" Sorun silently bemoaned as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Oh my... that's such a stupid reason for... You gotta be kidding me..."

Powers were nice, but Summoned Swords definitely wouldn't have been his first choice. It was far from the worse, but he could already imagine dozens of other powers he rather would have had. And he didn't even get a choice in powers? It was all subconscious? It just wasn't fair.

"Okay. Alright, that's... yeah." Sorun had to rub at the temples of his head to alleviate the headache coming on, but it wasn't working. "What do you two actually want with me?"

Because that's what he cared about above everything else. Meeting the two divine echidna or whatever they were had been interesting, getting Vergil's power from a glowing rock had been a shock he needed to fully digest later when everything calmed down, but he still wanted to know why he was even here.

"The days on the planet Mobius have grown dark," Aurora said. "All because of Dr. Robotnik and his evil ways. This has always been true, but... somethings has changed." Her face minutely scrunched up into some expression. Confusion? It was too subtle for Sorun to tell. "As we are connected to the Chaos Force, we are granted all knowledge from past, present, and future. The Chaos Emeralds used by the evil Doctor were, for the most part, to remain in the Special Zone under its caretaker, Feist."

"But something disrupted the universe's path by destroying Feist and the Special Zone, taking the Emeralds, and giving them to Robotnik," Athair continued. "And we know nothing about this... entity, for reasons we cannot even begin to fathom. It remains out of our sight. Elusive." He sighed deeply. "It is as vexing as it is baffling. Something like it shouldn't exist, yet does. And because of its actions, the future of Mobius has been thrown off kilter. It's fated for complete destruction at the hands of the Doctor because of this, Sorun."

Oh, so that was the issue. The semi-omnipotent echidna knew the world was doomed because something gave Eggman the Emeralds. What else was he supposed to expect at this point?

And the worst part was that Sorun could see it happening, too. The Freedom Fighters had grown so desperate fighting the man they'd let him of all people join the fight. Sonic himself admitted they were losing ground by the day. Eggman taking over the world fully at one point? It wasn't just feasible anymore. Practically everyone and their mother was telling Sorun it was fact.

What did that mean for Sonic and the other Freedom Fighters once they lost? For everybody in Knothole? More importantly, what did that mean for him?

"Well, there's gotta be something," Sorun tried as he thew an arm up in frustration. "You can't tell me there's nothing anybody can do."

Athair, seeing the distress on Sorun's face, walked forwards and placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him down. "If there's anybody that can do anything, it would be you," he said. "You managed to form a link with the Chaos Force by absorbing a Chaos Emerald, granting you an ability. It is doubtless that absorbing more Emeralds would strengthen this bond and endow you with even more abilities- we can both see it. You have that potential."

Staring at the aged echidna, Sorun circled his hand around in a "continue" gesture. "And!?"

"Your future is a... murky one," Aurora admitted. "Perhaps it is because of your kind's disconnection with the Chaos Force, or because you are not a natural inhabitant of the zone Mobius lies in. Even the methods used to bring you here and the very reason for it are a mystery to us. But the Chaos Force shows us a possible future of Mobius free from Robotnik. A future that is only possible because of you and your potential." She clasped her hands together and hung her head. "We, the Neo-Walkers, are asking you- begging you- to go and seek the other Emeralds. To gather strength and join in the fight. We do not want Mobius and all that live there, be it Mobians or humans, to suffer at the hands of that man. Nobody deserves that fate."

"Get rocks, get powers, save the world? That about sum it up?" Sorun gently removed Athair's hand from his shoulder and stepped back so he could address them both. "Okay. Say I do all that. Get the Emeralds, power up, help the Freedom Fighters stop Eggman. All fine and good, sure." He didn't want to, like always, but the prospect of getting actual powers made the load on his shoulders more bearable. Suddenly the impossible seemed doable, albeit barely. "If I do all of that... then can I go home? I can go back to Earth once I help the Freedom Fighters save Mobius, right?"

That uncomfortable, nervous look returned to their faces, and now it was making Sorun nervous with the frequency it was appearing. They looked at each other with resigned looks on their faces, and subconsciously Sorun felt himself tense up. Why did they have those looks on their faces?

"He must know," Athair told the other echidna. "To not tell him would be unconscionable."

Aurora grimaced, but then slowly nodded her head. "I know," she whispered, and then took in a large breath before facing the human. "Sorun. Your kind is unique in that your lack of natural Chaos energy allows you to artificially form a bond with the Chaos Force. While this is true... it is still an artificial means of acquiring power. Your species did not evolve to have natural bonds with the Chaos Force, such as the Mobians did. To put it in terms you would understand, your species' bodies are not built to withstand Chaos energy."

There was a pit of dread forming in Sorun's stomach. He didn't like that at all. "What is that supposed to mean?" he demanded in a low voice.

"We have insight into the effects on your body due to our own abilities," Athair said. "There is no easy way for us to say it, Sorun. Your body simply can't handle these new abilities. It's causing strain that it can't compensate for, and any new abilities will just increase that strain more and more. To put it quite simply...

"For every single Chaos Emerald you absorb, you will lose roughly twelve years of your life."

Utter silence between the three of them. Athair and Aurora were giving expectant looks to Sorun, and both looked incredibly worried at what response he would give. Sorun was gawking at the two of them in stunned silence, his body completely immobile and his face shocked frozen even as a light breeze blew his black hair over his face.

And then he laughed.

The two echidna glanced at each other, dour looks in both of their eyes. The laughter coming from the teen was low and bitter, lacking of any joy at all despite how hysterical it sounded. He was laughing so hard that Sorun had to hold a hand to his face just to steady himself, and this seemed to continue for minutes until he breathed out a long sigh as his hand limply fell to his side.

Powers at the cost of his life? Right. He wasn't dealing with that. No way, no how. He was done.

"Great story, really. You guys should go into show business. You'd be killer," Sorun sarcastically stated before turning his back to them. "I'm gonna go back. Seeya never, hopefully."

Aurora's eyes widened as the teen began to walk away, and she reached out to him. "W-wait! You cannot-!"

"Nope. I'm not dealing with this," the teen called back. "It's not happening. I feel for everybody on Mobius, really, I do, but I'm not giving my life up for them."

He would have kept walking, but the golden clouds in front of him all flowed together and condensed into a wall. He stopped, and then slowly banged a fist on the cloud of wall. He wasn't surprised to see it bounce right off, but it did anger him significantly.

"The hell is this?" Sorun whirled around to face the two echidna again. A deep scowl had settled on Aurora's face as well as Athair's, but Sorun ignored that in lieu of the hot anger that was beginning to course through him. "Let me out."

"Sorun..." Aurora looked away for a brief moment, but then her features hardened and she faced him once again. "No. I cannot. You must-"

"I don't have to do anything!" he yelled at her. "Are you- are you serious!? T-twelve years? Twelve years!? I'm not doing that!"

"You wouldn't physically age-" Athair tried, but was shut down immediately from the glare Sorun sent him.

"You shut the hell up," he hissed before turning back to Aurora. "So, so what, I've already lost twelve years of my life for Summoned Swords? And if I got the rest, I'd..." He did the math quickly in his head, and then balked when he thought the number up. "I'd be a hundred..." he realized in a choked whisper. "How long would I even live after I got all seven?"

Aurora blinked, and then sighed. "Likely not very long," she admitted. "While your body will remain young, the strain put on it from Chaos energy flowing through you would still exist. You would quickly reach the end of your life after absorbing the last Chaos Emerald."

"... You're asking me to sacrifice my life for Mobius." It was a statement of fact that Sorun could see neither was going to deny from the looks in their eyes.

The female echidna slowly breathed out, and then nodded her head in affirmation. "Yes. We are asking that you give your life for the sake of the world."

"Oh. Then no." It was quietly mumbled out, but there was no hesitation in Sorun's words as he shook his head in denial. "I'm not doing it. Go to hell. I'm not dying for Mobius."

"Sorun, please." The fact that Aurora had the actual gall to sound so pleading made the human absolutely livid, and his eyes shot right up to her when she stepped forwards with a look of anguish on her face. "The entire fate of Mobius depends on it! All the lives of those who live there depends on it! Not just the ones you've already met, but the entire planet! Possibly other planets, maybe even other zones should the Doctor succeed in his ambitions! You must-!"

"I'm a white kid from Detroit!" Sorun screamed at her. "I don't... I can't do this! You can't make me!" He started to actually shake as he backed off from the two echidna. "I'm not, I, I-I-I'm just some guy. Y-you can't make me do this. I don't want to die, I don't wanna be some, some jacked-up hero, I don't want any of this!" He waved his hand behind him. "I just want to go home! Why can't you let me go home?"

A low rumble left Athair, who lowered his head before speaking to Sorun. "There is no way for you to return even if you refuse," he told the human, which caused Sorun to shake even more. "There... is no way to remove the Chaos Emerald you have absorbed from your body," Athair informed him. "As we understand, you need all seven Chaos Emeralds to return using the machine that brought you here. But with that one in your body, all seven will never be gathered together again. We understand your desire to return, but it is impossible now."

"No, it... no..." He started breathing. Hard. The shock of the information given to him had passed rapidly and now in its place was fear and denial rocking his very core. "I... I just wanna go home..." he whispered as he continued to shake his head. "I don't wanna die for them. I don't want powers. Just let me go back. I-I'm not even s-s-supposed to be here."

He wouldn't do it. He absolutely refused. He was too scared to die, and he simply didn't like Mobius or anybody on it. He never asked to be abducted to an alien world only to give his life for it. All Sorun wanted was to go back to Earth. He missed his home. His friends and his mother. The whole life he had made for himself there. He wasn't going to give that up for Mobius.

"We would not be asking if there was any other way," Aurora told him. "This is a... terrible, awful thing to ask of you, I know. But would not such a noble sacrifice for all those on Mobius be more than worth-?"

"Fucking. Stop."

And then there was them. The two echidna who were all but demanding he throw his life away. Just who were they to ask such a things from him? A couple of random echidna with deep connections to the Chaos Force pretending to be gods or whatever it was they were? And they thought he was going to throw his life away just because they asked?

He was just so upset. Angered beyond words at them. Thrown into despair over the prospect of him not being able to go home because he'd absorbed the Emerald. His life being cut short, and him possibly dying because of the Emeralds. It was too much. He couldn't handle this.

"Just let me leave," he pleaded them, hot tears beginning to run down his face. "I-I don't- I can't- I don't want- j-just please stop it. Please. I just want to leave."

"It cannot be done, Sorun," Aurora said with a shake of her head. "I'm sorry."

That word. That word caused Sorun's head to fly up as his face twisted into one of rage.

"Sorry?" he venomously hissed out. "Don't use that word! You wouldn't be doing this if you were sorry! Y-you wouldn't be killing me if you were sorry! You're just trying to be nice because you know the world is fucked unless I help out, but you know what!? I'm not gonna do it! I'm not gonna go around collecting powers if it's gonna kill me!"

And there was the trigger he needed. Aurora's face instantly went from apologetic to strained, and he knew he was right. All it did was make him more mad. "Sorun, you cannot-!"

"I'll tell Sonic," Sorun suddenly threatened, and both Aurora's and Athair's eyes widened. "I'll tell him and all the other Freedom Fighters everything you've told me. They won't let me near any more Chaos Emeralds if they know they'll kill me."

Aurora's lips pursed, and her hands began shaking at her side. "Sorun, I'm warning you..."

"Or what!? What are you gonna do!? I'm not gonna-!"

He didn't expect a lot of things to happen in the next instant. He didn't expect Aurora's body to slide forwards at a frighteningly fast pace, and he really didn't expect her hand to begin sparking with green energy before she reached out to Sorun's throat. She didn't physically touch his neck, but something did happen to it. Because the second she lifted her hand up he felt his throat become alight with something. He dropped down and began scratching at the pain burning in his throat as his blazing eyes glared up at Aurora.

Behind them, Athair was looking at the display in shock, but didn't so much as raise a hand to stop Aurora, who slowly lowered her hand while she looked down at Sorun in pity. The look alone would have made Sorun lash out at her if he didn't already know it would be useless.

"I've used my power to place a restriction on you," she informed him with a tight voice. "You will not be able to tell anybody of our exchange here. You will not be able to tell anybody that the Chaos Emeralds have a detrimental effect on your body. If ever you try to convey this information to anybody in any form, the restriction I've placed on you will temporarily stop your heart." Sorun's heart practically did stop already when he heard that. "I truly am sorry, Sorun... but the fate of Mobius is too important. As much as it pains me to say it, the life of an interloper such as you is... inconsequential, compared to everything else."

"You crazy bitch, you're insane...!" Sorun gasped out as he scrambled away from Aurora while still grabbing at his throat. "If you care so much about Mobius, then why don't you do anything!?"

"It is our duty as the Neo-Watchers to watch. Directly intervening is... outside of our capabilities. Placing our trust in you is us doing something." As she said this, golden filaments began to float off of Sorun's body as he slowly began to disappear piece by piece. "I am sending you back," Aurora said. "I cannot directly force you to do anything, but please... consider what is at stake. I am sending you back with the hope that you will eventually see what must be done. It's for the good of everybody."

He didn't listen to a single word she said, and she must have understood that by the way she was looking down at him so sadly. But he couldn't speak; he felt so terrible between all the thoughts running through his head to his throat still slightly burning, so he tried to give her the most hateful glare he could muster.

Except it didn't even come out as that. Because of all the emotions running through him, his glare wasn't a hateful one, but a frightened, wide-eyed look of despair that Aurora was forced to stare at with pitying eyes. All that proved to do was add yet another layer to the pile of emotions tearing the teen apart on the inside.

And then just like that, he disappeared.


They didn't say anything after Sorun disappeared. There was a long moment of silence between both echidna as they stared at the spot the teen had been. Aurora wouldn't even raise her head, and Athair had turned his own head away so he didn't have to look at the display. There wasn't any regret in their eyes at all, but all the same they looked deeply disturbed by what just happened.

How sickening.

"Wow. You guys really are sick in the head." The new voice along with an accompanying clap startled the both of them and caused them to spin their heads in his direction so hard that their dreadlocks whipped into their faces. "There are no words. Seriously. There are literally no words in the dictionary that describe how disgusting that was. That's how terrible you two are."

Their gazes turned to the shocking sight of a figure wearing a red cloak, whose entire head was covered by a hood. He was sitting down, with his human hands slung over a single raised knee as his covered face looked at the two echidna.

Athair simply stared. Aurora was less passive, and let green Chaos energy roil up and down her arms as she practically snarled at him.

"You!" she screeched. "You... you are the one that killed Feist and gave that abhorrent fiend the Emeralds! You-!"

"Hey. You saw what I did to Feist, right?" the cloaked man asked. "You really wanna continue that thought?"

She stopped speaking, and the green energy around her arms faded. She still looked incredibly angry at the sitting man, but chose to back away from him.

"How is it that you have entered the Virtual Zone?" Athair asked in a neutral tone, his eyes boring into the hooded man.

He shrugged. "Same way I got into the Special Zone: nunya business," he answered.

"And what do you want?"

"Hm? Want? Lotsa things," he answered as he rose up to his feet. "But from you two? Nothing, really. I just came by to make sure everything here went okay."

The answer caused Aurora's features to wrinkle in anger once more. "You have the nerve to call us ill?" she asked, glowering at the red cloaked man. "After everything you've done? It is because you handed Robotnik those Chaos Emeralds and all but doomed Mobius were we forced to act in such a manner!"

"Hey, I'm not the one that just consigned a kidnapped teenager to death. That was all you," the cloaked man said as he rose his hands in defense. "But I guess I can be a... little sympathetic, all things considered. Not like I enjoy runnin' around doin' all this scary shit. But it's all in accordance with His will, so whatever." He hummed. "Nope, changed my mind. You're both still rotten."

He walked forwards, but stopped when he made it between the two echidna who were giving him cautious glares.

"... I'm gonna give you some advice," he said. "I get you're frustrated over the fact you don't know what's going on. But as it is, you Neo-Walkers are all pretty much just bystanders in this giant mess He created that I'm trying to fix, so don't interfere. It'll go bad for everybody if you do."

"Don't interfere?" Aurora repeated in disbelief. "It is our duty watch after and ensure the safety of Mobius! We cannot simply-"

"Ensure the safety of Mobius? Way too late for that, lady." With that, the red cloaked man continued walking forwards. "I gotta go tell Eggman about Sorun now. You, uh... keep creeping on everybody from your high perch or whatever you two do all day."

There was a shocked gasp from behind him. "You mean to actually inform him of... why!?" Athair asked in a cracked voice. "For what possible reason could you possibly have!? Haven't you done enough!?"

"I'm doing it because of bullshit, arbitrary reasons I don't feel like explaining. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta put on my 'cool mystery guy' persona. 'Cause fuck my life." He stopped briefly, and the cloaked man's hooded head turned back to address the two echidna. "Oh, one more thing. Don't tell Sorun about me. Ever. That would be bad. And that goes for Tails' uncle, too. I know he's in on this Neo-Walkers thing even though he's still on Mobius." He turned his head back forwards and kept walking. "This is the first and last time we'll ever see each other. Remember what I said: watch all you want, but don't interfere. You two already got that down pat anyways, so it should be a cinch."

A passing golden cloud briefly passed by him, and it was revealed that he was gone by the time the cloud left the spot he'd been on. The two echidna were left behind, and could only cast worried glances at one another.


With a gasp, Sorun sat right up as his right hand flew to his heart. It was beating uncomfortably fast, and he had to tightly clutch at it just to try to calm himself down.

The deluge of terrible memories flying through his head made it a poor effort.

"I don't, what, I... sky people, swords, twelve years, I don't- powers from Chaos- just- WHAT!?"

There was too much. There was actually too much new information to process all at once, but at the same time he remembered everything that had been explained to him and there were so many mixed feelings swirling in him that he felt like he was going to throw up.

But there was one feeling superior to all the other ones tearing him up inside. Something stronger than the interest he had over the new power, or the anger and disgust he held over those two strange echidna, or the fear of everything else. His main concern was the Chaos Emerald inside of his body that had sapped twelve years off his life in exchange for Summoned Swords.

"Get it out." He didn't want it. He didn't want any kind of power at the expense of his life. And he really didn't want one of the items needed to get him back to Earth gone forever if what Athair said was true. He needed to get the Emerald out of his body. "Get it out get it out get it out-"

"Sorun, calm down!"

The teen had stopped scratching violently at his chest when he noticed somebody crouch down next to him out of his peripheral vision. He turned his head just slightly to see that it was Tails that was kneeling down next to him. It was only then did he realize that everybody was still there.

"T-Tails...?" he mumbled out.

The fox nodded at him. "Yeah, Sorun, it's me. What's-?"

"Get it out of me." His hand shot to the startled fox's shoulder and shook it roughly. "You have it get it out of me. I don't want it. Get it out...!"

"O-okay! Just please calm down!" Tails gave him a rapid nod and placed his own hands on Sorun's shoulders in an effort to calm him. "We're... we're gonna go to the lab now, alright? We have some equipment in there we're gonna use to take a look at you. Okay? You're fine."

"Fine? Yeah. Yeah, it's... I'm fine." Shakily, he nodded his head as he slowly stood up. "Yeah. Lab. Let's go do that."

He severely hoped that they could find something out in that lab. Because he didn't know what he was going to do with himself if everything those two echidna said was true.


A bit of time later found a more mellow Sorun sitting on a metal table in the HQ's lab. Multiple sensors were suction cupped to his arms and face, with wires connecting those sensors to a computer Tails was sitting at. Sonic was pacing nervously back and forth next to the table.

He didn't really know what these sensors stuck to him were reading. Tails had tried to explain it, but with everything going through his head all Sorun had only managed to do was pretend to understand. Something about Chaos readings and energy signatures or something like that. He was grateful that there was at least that much he could count on, and that Tails was helping him with this.

"Where the hell do those two get get off? What, I'm supposed to be fine over getting abducted so I can give my life for an alien planet?" He held in the scoff if only because he didn't want to disturb the sensors attached to him. "Nerve doesn't even begin to describe that insanity. I just... ugh. I'll figure it out later. Just wanna wait to hear what Tails has to say first."

There was a lot to unpack. A lot to think about. He had the time for it, but he wanted to get as much information as possible so he could think before acting. Because now apparently not only was his life in jeopardy, but his very means of returning to home was in jeopardy as well, now more than ever. This made him incredibly worried over everything else. But he'd wait a bit longer, if only because he didn't want to screw his situation up any more than what it already was.

"So what gave you the idea that you... absorbed the Emerald?" Tails asked as his eyes scanned over the monitor he was staring at.

He wanted to be completely honest with them and tell them everything that had happened in the Virtual Zone, but Aurora's warning stayed his tongue, both figuratively and literally. Knowing that his heart would temporarily stop if he tried telling them was a fairly powerful motivator in that regard. Sorun honestly hoped that it had been a bluff, but that burning sensation he'd felt while up there had sure felt real. He felt fine now- his whole body felt fine- but he regarded even speaking with trepidation now. He had to be careful.

"Because the Emerald disappeared after the whole shock thing happened. And now I have this." He held his finger up and caused a spinning, blue sword to appear over it. "I dunno. Chaos energy doesn't exist where I'm from, so maybe because I don't have any my body just... absorbed it. For some reason."

It was a bastardized version of the explanation given to him, but it was still technically the truth. But more importantly, it hadn't set that curse off. So far good progress.

Tails momentarily looked away from the computer monitor to stare at the sword spinning over Sorun's finger. Sonic had stopped and did the same. "So... those swords-"

"Summoned Swords," Sorun supplied. If he was really gonna run with this, he was gonna use the proper name at the very least. "My power, so I'm naming it. Summoned Swords."

"Right, those," Tails said. "If that Chaos Emerald really did give you some kind of Chaos Control, why... why the ability to make swords out of all things?"

Sorun shrugged. "I dunno. Just happened." Because powers based on subconscious desire or whatever it was were fickle like that, he supposed. He still wasn't happy that he didn't even get a choice in powers, but at least it was a halfway decent one. And they were cool enough for him.

Tails hummed, and turned back to his monitor. Sonic chose that moment to stop next to Sorun so he could admire the spinning sword. "Well I think it's neat," he commented as his eyes followed the sword. "I just didn't think Chaos energy could make something that, well, specific. It always seemed a bit, you know. Chaotic."

"Chaotic. Right." The sword shattered, making Sonic flinch. "That's an appropriate word if any." Sorun turned to Tails. "So? What do you think?"

"I don't really know. The study of Chaos energy isn't an exact science currently, but Sonic's right. It is weird how specific it is. Shadow can use Chaos Control to make these things called Chaos Spears, but even they're not as uniform in shape as your... what did you call them? Summoned Swords? They don't look like any Chaos ability I've ever seen." Tails shook his head. "It's just weird. All of this is so weird."

On that, Sorun was in agreement. He'd been in agreement with that sentiment since day one. But the tidbit about Shadow and Chaos Control was an interesting thing to note. What made Shadow so special that he could use something like that?

"Or maybe he just happens to be special. Maybe people like Sonic have abilities because they just happened to be born with a special link to that Chaos Force thing they were talking about. Or maybe I'm completely wrong and it's something else entirely." Sorun silently groaned and hung his head. "Why's this gotta be so confusing?"

"So did you get any other powers?" Sonic asked him. "Or was it just the swords?"

Sorun picked his head back up to address Sonic. "Pretty sure it was just the swords," he answered. "I don't... feel anything else, if that makes sense." He barely even felt the Summoned Swords, but he knew the power was there. A strange, innate feeling spread throughout his body. It was weird, but he could at least identify it. And he only felt the one power.

"No, it does. I've always been able to kinda feel out Chaos stuff, so I totally see where you're coming from."

He was glad at least one person could even if he couldn't.

"Well, I think your theory actually has some merit, Sorun," Tails said as he read whatever it was that was being displayed on his computer monitor. "I'm picking up readings that are awfully similar to a Chaos Emerald from your body. It's faint, but it's there, but I'm not detecting anything physical stored away inside of you." He pushed away from the computer on the wheeled chair he sat in and rolled in front of Sorun. "So... yeah. It looks like you absorbed the Chaos Emerald and gained an ability out of it."

That was what he had been afraid of. He supposed he couldn't have expected anything else, but hearing it from Tails for some reason hit deep.

But Sonic didn't look nearly as disturbed as Sorun was or as puzzled at Tails was. If anything, he looked happy, which earned an annoyed glare from Sorun. "What's got you so giddy?" the human gruffly asked.

"Huh? If anybody should be happy, it should be you!" Sonic stated with a wide smile. "You got a power! It's a weird one, yeah, but it's something! You don't have to feel bad anymore since you can actually learn to fight with the rest of us now!"

Sorun had to take in a deep breath. He couldn't be upset at Sonic's words- he didn't know- but boy, if his words weren't irritating him beyond relief. "Tails," Sorun said as he turned away from Sonic and to the fox, "can you remove the Emerald?"

Sonic blinked in surprise, and one of Tails' tails swished behind his back. "Huh? Why would you want to remove it?" Tails asked him. "You'd probably lose your new power."

"Don't care. Can it come out?"

"Whoa, hey, Sorun." Sonic waved his hands in front of Sorun with a questioning look on his face. "What's gotten into you? Why would you wanna get rid of your new power?"

Sorun sent him a harsh glare. "Because it's-!"

Thump-thump.

A deep pain in his chest forced Sorun to gasp out in pain as he reflexively held his chest. To his horror, he couldn't feel a heartbeat under his hand. He heaved a loud breath out five seconds later when his heart started to beat again, but that pain temporarily lingered in his chest from some time.

"Damn it all. She wasn't bluffing. I really can't tell them these things are killing me." That was going to make things complicated. He really didn't like that. "Fuck. Could I write...? No, that wouldn't work. She said something about conveying information in any form, so... dammit. Well, fine. Want me to keep my mouth shut? I'll keep my mouth shut and I won't tell them that I could get more powers out of more Emeralds." It was a short-term solution made out desperation, and his main fear was that somebody in the Freedom Fighters would suggest he eventually touch another Emerald to try and get more powers, but he could think of something better later. For now he had to deal with this.

"Sorry. Aftershock or something. I'm fine now," he gasped out to address the concerned looks both Mobians were flashing him. "I want to get rid of it," he continued, "because I need all seven Emeralds to go back to Earth, and we can't do that if one of them is inside me."

Realization slowly began to dawn on the two, making them both shy away from Sorun. "O-oh. Right." Sonic looked towards Tails. "So can they?"

The look Tails gave them both didn't give Sorun any confidence. "I'm sorry, but frankly, I don't even know how Sorun managed to absorb the Emerald the way he did to begin with. It looks like it's been converted to pure energy and has completely fused with his body. I wouldn't even know where to begin taking it out of him." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Sorun, but I don't think it's possible to take the Emerald out of you."

"... Oh. I see." He thought that he was prepared for that answer. He really wasn't, because it felt like Mighty just punched him in the gut. "I'm out of here," he mumbled as he ripped the sensors off his body.

The sensors gathered in his hand were thrown roughly on the ground, and Sorun just missed trampling over them as he slid off the table. Sonic watched as the human stomped away, and then reached a hand out to try and stop him. "Sorun-!"

"Not now." Sorun opened the door to the lab and practically slammed it behind him as he left. Sonic looked towards Tails who had the same troubled expression on his face that he had, which caused the hedgehog to groan out loud and follow Sorun.


He wanted to say he'd made it about ten steps from Freedom HQ's door before he heard it open behind him. Sorun didn't even need to turn around to know who it was, though he did stop and take a deep breath to calm himself.

"Go away, Sonic," Sorun ground out. "Seriously. I'm not in the mood."

"I'm not going away until you tell me what's wrong." Sorun sighed at hearing that, and turned around. As expected, Sonic was there with his arms crossed and one foot tapping at the ground as he looked at Sorun's face with an expression mixed in seriousness and worry. "What's wrong with you? Talk to me."

"Why do you always...!?" The pale teen grunted out in frustration and ran a hand over his face. "Why do you even care...?"

Sonic stepped forwards. "Because you're my friend," he said, "and-"

"We. Are not. Friends," Sorun hissed out, causing Sonic to flinch back with widened eyes. "I am never going to be friends with any of you. You're all a bunch of anthropomorphic animal aliens that abducted me and forced me to fight in a war, and now this!" he yelled out as a Summoned Sword appeared next to him. "I have yet another layer of nonsense to deal with on top of everything else!"

The hedgehog looked taken back by Sorun's words. "You still feel this way?" he quietly asked, his voice wavering. "Sorun, I thought... I thought you finally moved past this. You were acting so friendly with everyone..." He blinked, and his eyes turned half-lidded when sadness overtook his features. "And it came out of nowhere, but I thought you'd be happy to have a power now. What happened?"

Sorun took a deep breath, and the sword next to him shattered. "I just want to go home, and these powers are in the way of that. Why is that so hard for you to understand?"

"Is that the- Sorun!" Sonic stomped forwards, and while there was still sadness in his features, it was quickly being overwritten with discontent. "I know it looks bad now, but we can figure that out later! After we've finished fighting Eggman! We can find a way to get the Emerald out of you!"

"And what if we can't, huh!?" Sorun argued. "What if I'm stuck here forever because I touched that Chaos Emerald!? What am I supposed to do with that!?"

It wasn't even a fear of him dying, or the fact that his life had been cut short because he'd absorbed that Emerald. Those were factors, but the main fear was that he couldn't go home. And after both Athair and Tails told him extraction of the Emerald was impossible, he felt liable to believe them. And that scared him even more than getting years taken off his life. He could deal with that, eventually. He could avoid dying by just avoiding the other Emeralds. He could maybe survive now with Summoned Swords. That was all manageable.

Home, though? The prospect of never going home again? That scared him. It scared him because it seemed like such a certainty now and he just didn't know how he was supposed to deal with the fact he might never see Earth again.

"I..." Sonic held out a hand to Sorun, but stopped himself halfway. The hedgehog frowned deeply, and then hand went limp at his side. "I'm sorry, Sorun. I'm sorry I pushed you so hard."

Of all the things Sorun expected, an apology along those lines hadn't been one of them, and now he was genuinely confused. "What?"

"I know you never wanted to join the Freedom Fighters. I know I... kind of pressured you into it, even though I knew you couldn't do much. And yeah, maybe... maybe we should have just called it when you got hurt in that mission, but it's- it's so bad out there, Sorun. Eggman, he's... everything is turning so awful," Sonic admitted with a shake of his head. "So I kept pushing you to try different things to be useful somehow because we all need something to help us out, you know? I know it was wrong, and I'm really sorry, but I'm just... we're all so worried over the world, over everyone!

"But you have powers now!" Sonic shouted with a hopeful gleam in his eyes. "You don't have to be scared about being too weak anymore! You can help out! You can be useful! And we all... we all really need your help Sorun, because I..." He choked something back and look down. "I don't think we can do it on our own anymore. Eggman just had too big of a lead when he got those Emeralds."

Sorun could believe. He all but had to when those two sky echidna flat out told him the world was doomed unless he got powers from the Chaos Emeralds and helped defeat Eggman. But none of that changed the fact that he didn't want to. "I already told you I don't even want this power, especially when it-!"

Thump-thump.

"GodDAMMIT...!" Sorun internally screamed as he held his chest once more. Even after his heart started to beat again, he wasn't able to look back up at Sonic. Not from the pain, even though there was plenty of that.

Frustrated. He was just so goddamned frustrated with everything. It was the only word he could think of that described how he felt. Over this whole situation. Over those echidna. Over the Freedom Fighters. Sonic.

Sonic. Why did it all lead back to him? Him and the Freedom Fighters?

They'd stolen him from his home. They didn't force him to fight, but they may as well have, especially with all the effort Sonic put it. And now there was this business with the Chaos Emeralds. Emeralds that gave him powers in exchange for years off his life. He'd already lost so much because of that one Emerald, and now he likely was never going to see his home again, and it was all their fault because they were the ones that physically dragged him through a portal.

And what if they found out he could get more powers from other Chaos Emeralds!? What if they forced more on him? They'd be actively killing him at that point so he could save their world while his remained all the way on the other side of the multiverse, and he didn't want to die, and he couldn't even tell them any of this because of goddamn Aurora...!

He was so frustrated. Frustrated at Tails for pulling him through the portal. Frustrated at the Freedom Fighters because they were unintentionally killing him. Frustrated at Sonic because he kept raising good points that even Sorun agreed with, but didn't want to. Frustrated at the world. At Eggman. At himself.

He couldn't do this right now. He just couldn't.

"Just leave me alone," Sorun moaned out as he turned his back to Sonic. "I need to be alone. It's too much. We can do all this later."

"Just wait a second-" Sonic stepped forwards again, but then leapt back when a blue sword embedded itself into the ground in front of him. He snapped up towards Sorun with wide, shocked eyes, but they quickly softened when he saw the anguished look in Sorun's own eyes.

"Please... just... leave me... alone," Sorun begged.

Sonic looked like he wanted to say something more, but held his tongue and gave Sorun a reluctant nod as he watched the Summoned Sword in the ground shatter. "Okay, Sorun. If that's what you want," he agreed in a level tone. "Are you coming back home later?"

"... I don't know. Probably not. Might just crash on the couch in the HQ." The human shook his head and stomped forwards towards the direction of Knothole City. "I just want to think. I don't want to deal with anything else right now."

He was thankful that Sonic chose to respect his wishes and not follow him, because the last thing he needed was to hear more words from him. Or anybody else in the Freedom Fighters for that matter. Anybody period, really. He just wanted to be alone with his own thoughts so he could figure out what he was gonna do.

The problem was he had no idea what he was going to do.

"Home, the Chaos Emeralds, these powers... Eggman..." With a sigh, Sorun held up a finger as he walked and let a blue sword appear so that it could spin above it. He found himself lost in its almost hypnotic spinning. "I don't know what to do..."


New Megaopolis. Once it had been called New York, but that was in a forgotten age thousands upon thousands of years. And during that time it had been a home to millions of humans and had been considered one of the biggest metropolitan cities in the whole world.

Now it was inhabited by a legion of robots and two flesh and blood people: a diabolical Doctor set on conquering the entire world and his nephew. Said doctor was in the highest room in one of the tallest towers in his city, admiring the view of his sprawling, metal city through large plate glass windows at the end of the room.

A tired sigh escaped Eggman, and he could see his own mustache droop along with his shoulders.

"It's been too easy," he lamented. "My complete and utter takeover of Mobius is all but assured at this point. The only pocket of resistance left in the whole world with a leg to stand are those furry fools over in Knothole, but even that can be ended at any time. My conquest is almost at an end, and yet..." He frowned, and his hands tightened at his side. "I'm not satisfied. I came into this knowing I'd be the victor at the end, but it wasn't supposed to practically be handed to me! Sure, I could go around and burn the few Mobian villages not occupied by me to the ground. Keep pounding Knothole with robots over and over until the kingdom falls. Send every single one of those pesky Freedom Fighters into utter despair before finally crushing them once for all. Maybe even do it all at the same time in front of Sonic to break him completely just for the fun of it!" He briefly smiled, but his mouth soon settled back into a frown. "Oh, but where's the amusement in that? The thrill!? A victory like that is meaningless without effort, and yet my victory thus far has been effortless.

"It's all because of that man," Eggman claimed as his features wrinkled. "That man who gifted me those Chaos Emeralds all those months ago. Had I known that possessing all those gems would make my Eggman Empire's campaign so trivial I would have outright refused most of them. How I loath him for taking my victory away from me. Because this?" He gestured to the windows and city with his hands. "This just doesn't feel like a victory." He sighed, and then ran a hand over his bald head. "Maybe it's time to call it curtains and end it all already. To stop dragging things out and take it all. I've milked this planet for all the fun it's worth, but in the end I got even less enjoyment out of it than my original zone. It appears my own supreme knowledge has cursed me to forever be confined within the doldrums. Wouldn't you agree, Snively?" There was no response. "Eh? Snively!"

Thwack!

Robotnik jumped at the solid thud, and spun around. The rest of the room, once the penthouse to a high-rise buildings, was littered in cables and fitted with computers at each side, and Snively was supposed to be occupying one of those computers. But behind his tinted glasses Eggman had widened his eyes when he saw his short nephew unconscious and being held up by the same red cloaked man the Doctor had been so bitter over previously.

A long, content sigh left the man. "I really needed that. You seriously have no idea," he muttered as he dropped Snively's sleeping body on the ground before his hooded face turned to Eggman. "Hey. Been a while, huh? Few months or something like that, right?"

"You..." Eggman seethed, and then dramatically pointed his index finger at the red-dressed intruder. "How dare you... you...! What did you say your name was again?"

"Huh?" The hooded man made his way to the center of the room, and then turned his body so that he was directly across from Eggman. "Oh, I never did give you a name, huh?" he realized. "Gimme a second to think of a fake one real quick."

The finger being held out to the man practically deflated at the sheer flippancy the man was exuding, and Eggman couldn't help but sputter as the cloaked man began to mutter to himself.

"Should I... no, that's lame... red was... what was red in... redrum? No, rubrum. Yeah. Rubrum? Eh, sure." He snapped his fingers and looked up to Eggman. "You can call me Rubrum." He paused. "Man, I already hate that name. Sounded way better in my head."

"I don't care what ridiculous name you've chosen for yourself," Eggman growled at him as he held up a clenched fist. "It's because of you my conquering of Mobius is ruined!"

"... Ruined?" Rubrum echoed. "Last I checked it was goin' pretty well."

Eggman waved his clenched fist to the side. "That's the problem! It's going too well!" he shouted. "Claiming Mobius for my own was meant to be a triumphant victory. Something to savor. But then you had to go and break the game for me. You just had to give me those Chaos Emeralds and make everything so easy for me." His shining head drooped. "Finally defeating the blue rodent and destroying all his friends, family, and that insipid kingdom has no meaning now. I'll still do it just because I hate them, but it's almost too much to bother with at this point. And it's all your fault."

There was a moment where Rubrum's hooded face just stared at Eggman, as if he was struggling to comprehend the words he'd just heard. Eventually he took a deep breath and spoke out in a disbelieving voice. "You're upset because you didn't have fun ruining everyone's lives?"

"Of course I am," Eggman replied in a tone that suggested it was so obvious. "What's the point otherwise?"

Slowly, Rubrum shook his head. "I... I got nothing," he mumbled, completely at a loss. "You are actually just the worst. Bar none."

"Well, you're entitled to our own opinions. Even when they're wrong." At that, Eggman snapped his fingers. "Metal Sonic, if you would."

To Rubrum's right was a pair of elevator doors. At Eggman's command, the doors slowly slid open. From the elevator stepped out a Badnik styled after a specific blue hedgehog, right down to the color. The robotic hedgehog flexed its metal claws before its red eyes snapped towards Rubrum, its face expressionless due to a lack of a mouth.

Rubrum hummed at the sight, but otherwise said nothing.

"I've grown tired of you, Rubrum. You've insulted me, ruined my game, trespassed on my territory, physically assaulted my zone-removed nephew... but above all that? You held a sword to my throat." Eggman shook his head. "I'm done with you. Consider this your execution for your crimes against the Eggman Empire."

"Aw, you don't wanna do that," Rubrum said in an indifferent tone.

"Oh, but I do." With that, Eggman turned his tall, round body back towards the window. "Metal. Exterminate."

There was the sound of a roaring turbine as the Badnik flew towards Rubrum to undoubtedly tear him limb from limb. Eggman allowed himself a small smile for that much at least, but he froze when the sound of Metal Sonic moving suddenly cut out into utter silence.

"Finished already, Metal?" Robotnik asked as he began to turn around. "A pity. I would have at least liked to have heard that cretin's death rattle before- huh!?"

The sight that greeted Eggman when he turned around put him at a loss for words. Metal Sonic was destroyed. Completely. His parts were scattered all around the room, seemingly cut to pieces. Rubrum was still standing in the same spot he'd occupied before Eggman had turned his back, holding Metal Sonic's severed head in his hands.

But that didn't make sense to the Doctor. He'd only turned his back for a single second. There was no sight of the sword Rubrum had held when last Eggman saw him to cut Metal apart. There was no possible way a sword could even scratch Metal, let alone sever him to pieces. And by all appearances, Rubrum hadn't even moved. There hadn't even been any sound.

That was impossible. There was absolutely no way one of his most powerful robots had been destroyed in under a second. But Eggman was forced to accept this as fact, because no matter how many times he blinked he kept seeing a room full of bits of blue metal and a man in a red cloak holding Metal Sonic's head.

And now, he was growing nervous. Because Rubrum had just dismantled Metal Sonic with seemingly zero effort, and his hooded face was now facing him. He cursed the bead of sweat that was beginning to roll down his face.

"Anyways," Rubrum said as he nonchalantly tossed the head away, "I just came to talk. No fighting, no more gifts, just talk. That's all."

"... Talk," Eggman repeated as he cleared his throat and regained his composure. "You've made it clear multiple times you have no love for me, so why would you bother coming all this way just to talk?"

Rubrum shrugged. "Because it's all in accordance with His will. You know how it is." He paused. "Er, well, you don't, I guess. Eh. Is what it is."

"And there it is. 'He'. You keep referencing a He," Eggman noted. "Is this oh-so-mysterious He the one that put you up to all this?"

"Who, Him?" Rubrum actually laughed out loud at that. "Hah. Nah. He's dead. He's long, looooong dead. I think? Eh, doesn't really matter. He's gone either way." He placed his hands into the pockets of his cloak. "But despite Him being long gone, I gotta follow His will. To not do so would be... exceptionally bad for everyone."

Eggman huffed. "And just why would that be?"

"Good question." Instead of answering, Rubrum swiveled his head around the room they were in and briefly glanced out the window behind the Doctor before turning back to him. "You've sure been busy since we last talked," he observed. "Built up your Empire and practically took over the whole world. Why, you could have finished it at this point if you weren't dragging your feet to the finish line." He leaned forwards slightly. "Or is that really the case? Can't help but notice those Chaos Emeralds I so generously gave you are nowhere to be seen. Don't tell me you lost them?"

"Feh. So those obnoxious Freedom Fighters managed to swipe the Emeralds from under my nose. So what?" Eggman turned his large nose up in the air. "Everything was going so dull that I practically let them take the Chaos Emeralds, but what do they do with them afterwards? I haven't a clue, but whatever they did scattered the Emeralds all across Mobius. They can't even utilize stolen resources properly!"

"Yeah, those dastardly Freedom Fighters. Fighting so that their friends, family, and, oh, everyone else isn't enslaved and killed. How dare they?"

"Hmph." Eggman turned back to the window once more. "If all you've got for me is petty insults, than I refuse to listen to you further."

Rubrum let out an "ah" sound. "Sure, yeah, I get how it is. Don't you want to know what they used the Emeralds for, though?"

That gained Eggman's attention, as he whirled around with a look of interest plastered over his devious face. "You know?" he asked him. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the slightest bit curious over what they used those Emeralds for."

"Oh, then you'll love this. They used them to summon a human here from another zone."

There wasn't any outwards reaction from Eggman at first as he processed Rubrum's words. Soon enough, though, the features on his face began to flatten. "You can't be serious," he replied in an incredulous tone.

"Nope. Completely serious," Rubrum said, and then began to examine his right hand while he rubbed his thumb and index finger together. "The guy's a sixteen-year-old named Sorun. All in all, nothing really special about him. Pretty plain. Bit ornery. Not very strong, either, 'cause one of your Egg Pawns almost brained him before some dumb luck saved his life."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Eggman claimed. "Sonic and his miscreant friends are no strangers to zone travelling. They wouldn't have blundered so hard as to lose all the Chaos Emeralds bringing somebody from some random zone here. I can't even fathom why they would make such a thoughtless decision like that. I half expected them to just give them to Sonic so he could turn Super and bum rush my capital in an ill-fated attempt at stopping me. I made traps and everything."

"Mm, couldn't tell ya why they brought the guy here, but from what I know the zone they brought him from is pretty far from the Prime Zone. I'm talkin', like, ass-end of the multiverse far. Place is so removed from all the other zones that it's not even connected to the Cosmic Interstate, so they needed the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds just to bring him here. They scattered right after."

Stroking his mustache, Eggman gave a half-interested hum. "Fascinating, truly," he drawled, "but yet another useless runt is hardly of any concern to me."

Rubrum gave him an agreeing nod. "Yeah, guy's pretty useless all things considered." He stopped rubbing his fingers together and reached into his hood to scratch at his chin. "Except for the fact he gets powers off of Chaos Emeralds. That's probably important."

Eggman's hand froze mid-stroke. "Say that again?"

"Sorun. He can absorb Chaos Emeralds and get powers off of them," Rubrum clarified. "He just recently got his first one."

"Impossible," Eggman claimed. "I would have known if such a thing were possible. Nobody has ever exhibited an ability to do such a thing."

"Ah, but that's the beauty of it. See, Sorun's special. His zone? There's no Chaos energy in it." That caused Eggman to raise a hairless eyebrow in interest. "Don't really know how it's possible; his whole world's a big, cosmic mistake, I guess. But because he doesn't have any innate Chaos energy of his own, he's an empty vessel for the stuff. A power sponge, basically."

"Huh. Interesting," Eggman hummed. "He's just able to acquire abilities just like that? With absolutely no negative repercussions to his body whatsoever?"

Rubrum hesitated before answering. "... No, of course not. Why would it?" He shook his head. "Point is, as he is now? Sorun's not much. He gets a few more Emeralds and powers up a bit more? Who's to say how much of a problem he'd be for you?" He shrugged. "Those Emeralds get permanently stuck in him, too, so no chance of depowering him."

Crossing his arms, Eggman gave the red cloaked man a slight scoff. "Hmph. It's doubtful he'd ever pose a problem, even with his unique... circumstances. It would be absolutely no issue whatsoever crushing him like all the rest."

"Yeah, sure, crushing him's always an option. Why not recruit him instead?"

As he said this, Rubrum reached into his cloak's pocket as Eggman watched him warily from behind his dark glasses. What he pulled from his pocket was a small tape recorder, which Rubrum looked down to stare at. He quietly sighed, and then hit the play button on its side.

"You know what? You're right," the recorder said. "Problem's me. I'm sorry I'm up here doing a job that, let's be honest, anybody else could do but at least it's something for me to do instead of nothing. I'm sorry I chose to join the Freedom Fighters when, let's face it, I don't belong with them! I'm sorry I'm a normal human and can't fight like a Mobian! I'm sorry I was minding my own business before I got dragged into some other universe's war!"

Rubrum stopped the recording and pocketed the tape recorder. "That was Sorun," he explained. "Surprise surprise, he's not all too thrilled over being abducted. To put it lightly, he completely resents the Freedom Fighters for what they did to him. And there aren't any Mobians where he's from, either, so that's a whole 'nother layer of weirdness he's been trying and failing to cope with. So who's to say what a guy like that, who really hates pretty much everybody around him right now, would do if approached a fellow human... Overlander... former robot-turned-flesh... whatever the hell you call yourself."

"And why would I ever want somebody like him with me?" Eggman questioned. "I've all but won at this point. What use have I for any further resources?"

"Have him fight the Freedom Fighters or something," he suggested. "Back your own forces off and let him do everything. Guy could never beat them all on his own, but he can stall them. Let them grow strength so that when they come for you, it turns into a half-decent challenge. You could go as far as to offer him a way home since you're so brilliant. Hell, the fact you're not even a Mobian might be enough to entice him." At that, he spun on his feet and turned his back to Eggman. "But that's all food for thought. Choice is yours at the end of the day. I got things to do. See you when I see you."

There were further questions Robotnik had for Rubrum, but as the red cloaked man was walking away he had blinked. And when he opened his eyes again, Rubrum had completely vanished from sight.

He jumped in surprise, but quickly huffed before crossing the room towards the discarded pieces that once made up Metal Sonic. He bent down and picked up the severed head, brushing some dusk off its face before giving a contemplative hum.

"Don't ever think I'll ever forgive your transgressions, Rubrum. It's completely preposterous, but... what he says does have some merit. I have to wonder..." He turned the head over in his hand, towards the neck where it had been severed from the rest of the body. He frowned deeply when he saw the clean, straight cut that had went through all that metal and wiring. A cut so clean and straight it almost seemed unnatural.

"Well, nothing a trip to the repair shop won't fix," he decided as he dropped the head, and then looked towards the sleeping body of the short Overlander nearby. He sneered at it. "Very well then. I haven't anything to lose at this point, and I could use the diversion. We'll just have to see for ourselves who this Sorun person really is once my good-for-nothing nephew wakes up, won't we?"


A/N- So I know that so far this whole story was gearing towards a "powerless but still significant/ strength without power" kind of vibe, but that's not what I'm going for here. It's a big shift in tone to be sure, but there's gonna be a lot of that, hence why I'm pacing the story out like this. And I know the biggest concern is power creep, but I'm mitigating that with heavy restrictions while organically threading it through the plot. It's all planned out.

Anyways, that's it for this one. Thanks to all for the reviews; you're all awesome. 'Til next time.