Recursion Error

Episode 30- Ring-around


"... You're a cruel person. You know that?"

"Yes, I'm the absolute worst for giving you a simple delivery job you don't even have to leave Knothole for. How could I possible by so absent of morals as to give you such an easy assignment?"

The human laying on the couch responded with a low, deep sigh, and then rose up one of his arms to drape it across his eyes while saying, "It's bad enough you limited my fix of the things. You gotta dangle 'em in front of my face and taunt me with them now?"

"Sorun, I'm just asking you to deliver a few Power Rings to people that need them. I'm not taunting you with anything."

"Ugh..." The human settled deeper into the couch. "Do I have to, Sally? I'm tired. I don't want to."

Sally, who stood in front of the couch the human was laying on, rubbed at the space between her eyes in slight frustration. She'd seen Sorun go through a lot of change since he'd become a Freedom Fighter, most of it good, some of it bad. She didn't remember laziness being one of the bad traits that had formed over time, though, even if it was in line with a lot of his habits.

It still amazed her how he'd gone from being the weak, timid human who was so reluctant to do anything involved with fighting to the person she was looking at right now. Excluding times like right now, he was a model Freedom Fighter if such a standard existed: he was powerful now due to the Chaos Emeralds, but more importantly he had the heart to help others and save people at his own risk. He never acted like he did. Sally couldn't even recall the last time she saw him give a genuine smile, and he still tended to avoid most people more often than approach them, though this behaviour had been lessening to some degree as of late. He never gave the impression of being a Freedom Fighter, but he acted like one.

Of course, his negatives shined through fairly clearly, and while Sally often found herself rolling her eyes at that side of Sorun's personality, she oddly found it comforting that Sorun wore those bad qualities on his sleeve as opposed to hiding them, as it made it easy to read him. She suspected he was the inverse of most people, actually: that he displayed all of his bad traits while actively hiding his good traits and generous heart. And she knew he was a good person, as he had just done too much to say otherwise. And furthermore she suspected he just lived this way because he suffered from overbearing shyness and couldn't handle friendliness from other people. She'd seen the signs, like the way he grew all flustered whenever Bunnie or Antoine acted friendly around him or how he would flounder around simple things like somebody giving him a friendly hug or even just a pat on the back. But he was trying. She couldn't fault him for that. And she was rather proud of how far he'd grown into being a Freedom Fighter.

But laziness? Sorun was a lot of things. Sarcastic to an exhaustive point. A bit more blunt and tactless than she would have liked. Perhaps a little too apathetic. But she'd never seen him outright refuse to do something she would ask of him just because he didn't want to. He always complained, as was to be expected, but he never said no.

Sally placed a hand on her waist, the other clutching a small, brown backpack. Its top open to reveal a small amount of golden rings nestled inside of it. "Can I ask why you're refusing to do this?" Sally asked, her voice slightly stern.

Sighing again, Sorun sat up on the HQ's couch to look Sally right in her eyes. "It's not a refusal. I'm telling you I am physically too exhausted to accomplish the task." He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry, Sally, I'm just... I'm not feeling it today."

She opened her mouth to refute this. She wanted to say that Sorun was being ridiculous and that he was just using exhaustion as an excuse to get out of doing a bit of work. But then she got a better look at his face, and she clamped her mouth shut immediately.

Sorun looked awful.

Having seen other humans in the past from Station Square, Sally had a fair idea what they were supposed to look like. Sorun always had a bit paler shade of skin than she'd ever seen on humans, but when Sorun had explained away and said that it was due to a lack of sunlight in his earlier life, she'd accepted the explanation. But his color looked slightly different now. It wasn't the clean kind of lightness she'd known him for, but a milkier, almost pallid look. She was fairly certain those dark circles around his eyes weren't supposed to be there, either. His disposition as a whole just looked haggard.

"Sorun, are you... are you okay?" Sally asked, concern growing in her face as she leaned closer towards him. "You're not sick, are you?" She hoped he wasn't sick. She didn't know how close human illnesses translated to Mobian illnesses, and while she would have liked Mobian medicines to work on humans, she wasn't an expert in this kind of field.

For some reason his facial features twitched at the question, followed by him shaking his head. "No, I just haven't been getting a lot of sleep."

"You have been getting kind of sluggish lately," Sally noted, her features creasing in worry. "How come you haven't been getting much sleep?"

"Just haven't," Sorun vaguely answered, turning his head towards the side to avoid Sally's gaze.

The chipmunk found herself frowning at Sorun's action. "Sorun, I can't take an answer like that. You're a vital part of the team, which means your health concerns are my health concerns." She felt the stern look drop off immediately when she saw Sorun's flinching face and conflicted eyes, her voice softening completely when she then asked, "Are you still upset at your hom-?"

"Jesus, gimme the bag. I'll do it," he grumbled out, his hand snatching forwards and grabbing the backpack out from Sally's grasp. "So who am I dropping these things off to?"

The stern look returned to Sally's face, not having appreciated the sudden turn Sorun had taken. "Sorun-"

"So how have you been?"

"Sorun, come on, that wasn't even a good attempt," Sally chastised with a shake of her head.

Looking up from the bag in his hand at the princess, Sorun watched the serious expression that had grown on her face for all of two seconds before sighing and going limp the couch. "It's not that, alright? I've been getting better with that. It's... I don't know, the whole-"

The human was cut off when a pained grimace lanced across his face. Much to Sally's confusion, he sat forwards on the couch while holding a hand up to his chest, around where his heart was. He coughed a couple of time, and then held a hand towards his back while giving a very concerned Sally a reassuring look.

"Uh, sorry about that. Crick in my back, this couch is horrible for laying on, you know?" Sorun apologized, letting off a dry chuckle that quickly tapered off into a withering sigh.

His assurances did nothing to quell the uneasy look Sally still had on her voice, her concern for the other teen still dwelling in her. "How badly has this been affecting you?"

"Hn, Sally, just drop it. I've been working on it," Sorun responded with a low groan. "Between home and fighting all the time and other stuff it's been a lot. But like I said, I'm getting better. Talking with Nicole helps, and believe it or not I'm actually getting used to going around fighting robots. It's kind of becoming, I don't know, routine for me? Which I think is good? But at the same it's like, is this a healthy thing for me to grow numb to? Because I don't... agh, it's weird." He lowered his shaking head and cradled it in his hand. "I know it doesn't really mean much to somebody like you since you've been doing this almost your whole life, but for me it's still..."

"No, no, I completely get it," Sally assured him, stepping a bit closer to Sorun. "Honestly, there's not a lot of people I would have expected to adapt to this kind of lifestyle while juggling, well, everything else you're having to deal with, so by all means you're doing really well!"

She'd thought he'd been doing spectacularly, actually, right before she found him in this state. She'd been happy he'd been talking over his issues with somebody in the effort of working through them. Seeing him like this still had her mildly concerned, but she could understand. She and everybody else had practically their whole lives to get used to the lifestyle of resisting Robotnik. Sorun barely had two months. If anything, the progress he'd shown so far was astounding. He'd even been becoming more and more active in missions, going as far as to even volunteer sometimes, which she attributed to his lack of sleep.

"Maybe you should be slowing down a little," Sally suggested to him. "You've been doing a lot lately, and I know with all the swords and the wings and whatnot you're good in the field, but you can't keep going forever."

An odd, dissatisfied look crossed Sorun's face. "Sonic acts like he does," he argued in a quiet voice.

"Well he's... special, in his own way. He acts like that because he can, but even he has his own limits." A frown creased her features as she looked to the side. "Even if he doesn't act like it sometimes..."

"Yeah, I get it." That dissatisfied look was still on Sorun's face, though it slowly disappeared when he let a calming breath out. "Right, well... other than that, I'm doing good," he said, giving her what she assumed was his best attempt at a reassuring smile. It didn't come out great, as it only half-formed and he'd darted his eyes to the side to avoid looking into her eyes. "By the end of this I, uh... I won't really have to worry about fighting anymore anyways, so... so yeah."

Sally nodded in understanding. "See, that's the spirit. This isn't going to last forever."

"Boy, don't I know it," Sorun mumbled under his breath. He sighed, and then looked towards Sally's eyes. "Hey, you didn't answer me when I asked how you were doing."

She found herself blinking in surprise. "I thought you just said that as a poor attempt at deflecting my question."

"I sort of did, yeah, but I was still serious."

"Really now?" Sally found herself crossing her arms, the amused smile she found forming on her face hiding the inquisitive look in her eyes. "I didn't realize you cared. You never seem like you do, especially after that once conversation we had after that thing with the first Emerald." She said this mostly just to tease him, of course. She knew at some level he cared about those around him, even if he refused to admit or show it. But it was still a bit of fun seeing the look on his face whenever she teased him like this.

The look like the one he was displaying right now. The semi-embarrassed, and a little to her surprise, slightly regretful look on his face. "I'm not allowed to be concerned over the wellbeing of another Freedom Fighter?" he airily asked, rubbing at the side of his face. "Geez, you're making me sound real shallow here."

Sally laughed a bit at that, and then chose to sit down on the couch next to him. "Oh, alright. I've been doing fine. As fine as can be expected these days, at least."

"So same old, same old?"

"About that, yeah," Sally agreed with a nod. "I... still worry a lot, about how the war against Eggman has been going," she silently admitted, followed by her beginning to wring her hands together. "We've been doing everything we can, but we still haven't been making any progress towards defeating him. If anything, we're just barely surviving here while helping out everybody we can."

It was a point of great frustration for her, as well as the rest of the Freedom Fighters. In the past whenever they'd thwarted his plots, it'd felt like they were making an actual, tangible difference. Tiny, minute differences, but she still saw them as taking steps forwards towards freedom. But nowadays, it didn't feel anything like that. It just felt like they were all struggling to stay up on their feet as opposed to slowly but surely winning.

"Even after all the trouble you went through with that tablet, we're still on a losing front, huh?" Sorun's words brought Sally out from her thoughts, causing her to look towards the human. "Man. What a bummer."

"I-I didn't mean to say... Sorun, you know we all know you've been doing good work out there-" She cut herself off when she saw a the small smirk beginning to grow on Sorun's face. She huffed out, and then turned her head to the side. "That dry humor of yours is unbecoming of you."

"Dry humor's all I got going for me," Sorun shot back, grin still on his face. "You said it yourself. War won't last forever, right? 'Sides, I got a feeling it'll end well."

"And what makes you think that?" Sally asked, turning her head back towards Sorun.

The human shrugged. "Eh, just a feeling I got. But going forwards thinking we're gonna lose isn't really conducive towards performance, and I try to keep a positive mindset." He leaned forwards a bit, breathing lightly through his nose. "I mean, I always fail, but I think the idea that I at least try more than makes up for it."

"The self-depreciating humor isn't really becoming of you, either," Sally quipped, shaking her head at the human's words. "But I agree that keeping a positive attitude is important, especially these days. I'm a little surprise to hear you say something like that, though. No offense, but you never pegged me as a... optimistic person, Sorun."

"I'm usually not. But this feeling I have seems pretty spot-on. Just trust me." He held up the backpack containing the Power Rings to Sally's view. "Alright, enough of that. So who am I delivering these things to?"

The sudden shift in the conversation caught Sally off guard, but the question made her realize she'd almost forgotten why she'd sought Sorun out in the first place. She needed him to deliver those Power Rings. "Oh! Let me think..." Sally tipped her head up towards the ceiling, clicking her tongue in thought. "Rotor and Sonic's uncle, Chuck, were asking for a ring to run some experiments of theirs, and Tails' uncle Merlin asked for one, too."

"..." Sorun had been nodding along to the names rattled off, though his eyebrows lifted up a slight amount at the last name. "Tails has an uncle named Merlin?" A wry grin grew on his face. "Does he wear a robe and pointy hat and cast spells?"

"I've never seen him in a hat, but he does practice wizardry arts, yes." The completely innocent answer from Sally caused Sorun's expression to fall completely flat for some reason. "I think he lives in a hut near Tails' home. You might try asking around for it if you get lost."

"... World's messing with me at this point," she heard Sorun mumble under his breath as he stood up to his feet. "Okay, I'm heading out. Not really feeling up to it, but I'll do what I can."

Sally felt a playful smirk form on her lips. "Oh, I'm sure Sorun the Great Deliverer can handle a simple delivery job like this easily enough."

"I dunno. Last time that guy did a job a train got derailed," Sorun dryly remarked. "Is Rotor in the lab or at home?"

"The lab, I believe."

"Then I'm headin' there first." With that, he began walking towards the lab, twisting around just briefly to meet Sally's eyes. "Don't worry too much about Eggman. Remember, feeling."

"Feeling, sure," Sally demurred, watching as Sorun walked off towards the lab. "If gut feelings were all it took to win wars we would have been done with Eggman a dozen times over by now..."


"Yo, Rotor. Got a special delivery for you."

He'd been in the middle of a very delicate procedure when he heard that voice sound off behind him. That lethargic voice tinged with just a bit of mischief that he'd grown accustomed to hearing all throughout the owner's stay in Knothole. Putting down the small, tweezer-like tools he'd been holding in his claws, Rotor swiftly inhaled through his nose and turned his head around.

As expected, the purple walrus immediately saw the human leaning against the open door frame to the lab, holding a small backpack in his grasp while looking towards Rotor.

"Delivery, huh?" Rotor repeated, spinning around in the stool he sat on to fully face the human. "What is it?"

"Just a Power Ring Sally said you asked for. She's having me go on a delivery run," Sorun explained, pushing off of the frame and walking into the lab. "Beats getting smacked around by robots, so I thought why not? Anyways, here."

Sorun dug into the bag for a brief moment after stopping in front of Rotor, and then pulled out a shining, golden ring before offering it to Rotor. The walrus took the ring immediately, giving it an appraising look for a brief moment and then nodding. "Thanks," he said, setting the ring down on a nearby table. "Is this your way of making up for taking rings out of my stash that one time?"

"Ah, come on, man, I said I was sorry about that," Sorun said, rolling his eyes while beginning to lean against a table.

Rotor gave him a skeptical look. "Were you really sorry?"

He wasn't surprised at all when Sorun shook his head. "No, not at all, but I wanted to be polite about it."

The response had been an expected one, but it still caused Rotor to let out a light scoff as he turned back towards his work. He couldn't really hold it against Sorun whenever he did things like that; he didn't want to say the human's unfortunate circumstances gave him a free pass to freely be an annoyance, but he'd go as far as to admit it got him some leeway whenever he did something less than virtuous. Like stealing Power Rings from his stash of equipment so he could play video games with the resident AI.

At the very least, Sorun knew to reign it in and never go as far as to genuinely make somebody upset with his antics. Rotor personally thought his cold sarcasm was a bit much at times, but he at least never took it as far as to be demeaning or offensive to anybody. And he knew he and Sonic had a habit of playing small jokes and pranks on each other, but with how long Rotor had known the hedgehog, he was surprised the human hadn't been driven insane living with him. So he figured a small prank here and there was actually pretty tame all things considered.

He didn't really have many bad things to say about Sorun other than that. He wasn't even that upset about the Power Rings, as quite honestly, he couldn't be bothered be to upset at loosing what basically amounted to a renewable resource. Rotor wouldn't say he had a lot of good things to say about him, either.

Rotor reached for his tools again, and then paused. No, that wasn't right. Sorun was a... he was a good person in Rotor's opinion. He made some mistakes, but so did everybody. He was a fellow Freedom Fighter who saved people's lives and fought alongside the rest of them, so he couldn't say there weren't any good things to be said about the human. It was just that the two had never really connected on a personal level.

It wasn't for a lack of trying. The two had been on some scarce missions together, though usually they were done with an unusual amount of silence on both their parts unless necessary. They'd exchanged some words in passing during their free time, but most of these were just short conversations or just passing greetings if anything. Rotor suspected that it was just due to a lack of commonalities between the pair. Rotor was a tech junkie who loved nothing more than working with machinery, he'd freely admit that, and Sorun... well, Rotor didn't know much about what he liked. Video games. Sleeping and wasting time in random places. Those sodas that he seemed to hoard at times for whatever reason. That was about it. Outside of training he rarely hung out with many people, too, though on occasion it did happen. More frequently, too, now that he thought on it.

They simply just didn't have any interests that coincided. Rotor was fine with that, and he was fine with Sorun. He honestly would have liked if the human was a bit more open and socialized a bit more, then maybe he and Rotor could have something beyond a professional relationship, but he was keenly aware Sorun still held some hesitancy over this due to his out-of-zone situation and his thoughts on the Freedom Fighters' part in that. So he accepted it for what it was and chose just to roll with it.

The light, hissing sound of soldering soon appeared as Rotor got back to work on his project: a small, disassembled wrist communicator laying on the table in front of him and disassembled, with Rotor's tools rooting around in its electronic guts. Through his work, he noticed a pair of eyes looking at him, and when he turned his head just the barest amount he saw that the human was still leaning in the same spot while looking right at Rotor.

"Whatcha doin'?" Sorun asked.

"Just doing some repair work on some of the team's wrist communicators," Rotor replied as he turned back to his work. "This one is Knuckles'. I'm thinking of outfitting it with something to make it more shock-absorbent, because I swear it's always his I'm having to fix the most out of everyone else's. His and Mighty's. I think it's all that punching they do with that insane strength of theirs."

"I hear that," Sorun agreed. The human teen decided to finally remove himself from the table, and then stepped up directly behind Rotor to look over his shoulder. "So you're a big tech guy, right?"

"That's one way of putting it, I guess," Rotor responded. "I probably specialize into it more than anybody else. Tails and Nicole are probably the only ones that even compare. Oh, and Chuck."

"Cool," Sorun said from behind him. "So, uh... just out of curiosity, are you, um... are you the one that programmed Nicole?" he heard him ask. "You or Tails? 'Cause I don't really know where she came from."

Rotor felt his eye ridges raise at the question. With how much time he spent around Nicole, he would have figured he would have already asked her this question himself. Or Sally, since she was the one who had Nicole on her person at almost all times. He paused in his work and turned towards Sorun.

"Why are you asking me?" he asked the human.

"You mentioned Nicole, and it just came up in my head," Sorun answered with a shrug. "So did you?"

"We actually don't know where she came from," Rotor admitted to the other teen, which caused his eyes to widen slightly in surprise. "Yeah, way early on when we formed the Freedom Fighters she just kinda... showed up. Dropped in from the sky in a little pod and everything. She doesn't have any memories of it, either, so she's just as clueless to her origins as we are. We have a small betting pool to what the truth is. I threw five mobiums in on her being sent from the future by one of us."

They were strange circumstances to be sure, but by now everybody had stopped questioning it and had just accepted that what happened had happened and that Nicole was one of them. The why of it never seemed important compared to the now and all that. Sorun seemed completely mystified by the explanation, though, as his entire demeanor had went rigid, and for whatever reason a nervous looked formed on his face. "The future, huh?" he muttered. "So have you all, uh... ever had to deal with time shenanigans or anything like that?"

"Not... really, no. I think?" He paused to think, and then shook his head. "Yeah, no," Rotor denied with a shake of his head. "Why?"

"Ah, it's... it's nothing. It's just some things not adding up here and there I've noticed. I don't think it's anything, though." Sorun shook his head and waved a hand to the side. "Probably just me being a bit paranoid is all. Eh-heh." He exhaled, and then looked off in a random direction. "You guys really lucked out with getting Nicole just like that."

"Oh, don't I know it," Rotor agreed with a nod, a small smile forming on his face. "Can't even tell you how many situations she's gotten us out of and just how useful she is. She's a really great friend."

"Yeah," said Sorun, slowly and with a nod. "Yeah, she... she really is." He flicked his eyes back towards Rotor. "Really amazing how she evolved a real personality and everything."

"She wasn't always like that," Rotor told him as he spun back towards the disassembled wrist communicator. "Back when she first got to us I could barely tell her apart from a Badnik from the way she spoke. She just kinda... got that way on her own over time." He began soldering at the communicator's internals again. "I'm happy for her. It's nice that she was able to get the ability to have her own feelings. Really helped transition her into being her own person."

From behind him, Sorun gave a small hum of agreement, shifting uncomfortably on his feet.

"What was that hum supposed to mean?" Rotor questioned, turning his head to face Sorun again. "You don't think she's real?"

"I have a very biased view on AI and their status as real people due to my voracious consumption of various entertainment media, Rotor," Sorun answered as he walked back to the previous table only to once again lean on it.

Rotor, not understanding a word of what he just heard, gave the human a confused look. "Huh?"

Sorun blinked at the look, and then shook his head with a sigh. "Real is relative to the personal interpretation of the person asking the question of what is real and what isn't. In terms of Nicole's status as a real person, yes, I do honestly think she is one. Though that doesn't really mean much coming from me."

Rotor blinked in surprise at the statement, more at Sorun's actual words than his statement, though he did feel relief that Sorun shared his opinion. "That's... unusually deep, coming from you."

"I have my moments," Sorun defended.

"Apparently," chuckled Rotor. "I didn't know you could string together thoughts into words like that."

"Yeah, some old habits of mine have been slipping back into place." With a sigh, Sorun began rubbing at the back of his neck. "Kind of annoying, but it's whatever, you know?"

"Not really," Rotor denied with a shake of his head. "Well, whatever the case, I'm glad you agree with me about Nicole. Guess I kinda expected it, though. You spend a lot of time with her," he noted.

Sorun paused at Rotor's words, blinking once before sighing and letting his hand flop to his side. "Yeah. I think it's beginning to become a problem," he quietly admitted, almost low enough that Rotor almost hadn't heard it. He had, however, heard it.

"Why would it be a problem?" the walrus asked in genuine curiosity.

"... It's nothing," Sorun said, shaking his head as he turned back to Rotor. "I never really could get into the tech stuff. I kinda had an interest as a kid and did a little research into it here and there, but to be honest with you the most technical I ever got was when I built a computer. I never really did anything past that. Stuff never stuck with me."

A part of Rotor wanted to return to the earlier subject, though this new one Sorun had brought up about building a computer made all of his interest instantly shift towards that. He eyed the human with surprise, having all but forgotten his soldering tools as he once again fully turned to face the human. "You built a computer?" he asked, a bit of incredulity in his voice.

Sorun shrugged. "Well, if by 'built' you mean 'I bought a bunch of parts, slapped them together in a case, and then loaded a pre-programmed OS into the thing', then yeah, I built one. Coulda just bought a whole one already built, but I liked having a custom rig."

Any feelings of being impressed of the human's exploits dropped right there for Rotor, causing him to smirk in the other teen's direction. "Oh, so you didn't actually build and program a computer. You just put one together."

Having sensed the teasing tone in the walrus' voice, Sorun rolled his eyes. "Whatever, man, it totally counts. I couldn't program a computer to save my life, anyways. I only ever took the one programming class, and it was an introductory course at best."

"Oh, so you have some experience?"

"Eh, I could tell you the difference between a boolean and an if-then-else variable, but otherwise I kinda forget a majority of the stuff it's been so long."

"Ahh." Rotor gave the human a nod of understanding. "I getcha. So how'd your rig perform?"

"Decently enough," Sorun answered. "Parts weren't premium grade or anything like that, the cost of some of those CPU chips were a flippin' racket, but it ran smooth enough for my purposes." Sorun stopped to take a breath, and then groaned slightly as a thought came to him. "I'm really gonna miss that computer, man. I put my heart and soul into making it. I mean, not a huge amount and I had David help, but she was a thing of beauty."

"David?"

"Yeah, real great pal of mine from back on Earth. He's actually the one that convinced me to go ahead and build my own rig, said something like 'a true man builds his own machine' or something like that. Guy, uh... guy was kinda weird like that sometimes. Hope he comes through with that pact we made in the event one of us goes missing and deletes that unnamed folder I had on there." Sorun looked expectantly towards Rotor, mouth open and waiting for him to respond. When Rotor just stared at him blankly, he sighed out and shook his head. "'S just a stupid joke, I never... anyways, yeah, he was a great dude."

Rotor honestly didn't have a clue what it was Sorun was talking about, but he quickly found himself losing interest as he turned back towards the communicator. "I don't really get it, but I hope that works out for you. Whatever 'that' is, anyway."

"There's nothing to work out, I was kidd- ugh, nevermind."

"Oookay." Rotor reached towards his tool. "Well, I know you've probably heard this a lot, but for what it's worth I'm sorry about you losing your friend. And computer."

"Mm." Rotor only managed to pick up his soldering tools for a few seconds before he heard Sorun ask, "Hey, by the way, I've been wondering. Power Rings. Why do you all use rings as a power source?"

Keeping his focus on the electronics he was working on, Rotor answered with, "They're a clean, renewable source of energy. Why wouldn't we use them?"

"Yeah, I got that, but... but why are they rings? And also what are they?"

"Oh, right, we never told him about Power Rings, did we?" It was often that Rotor and the others forget about things like that. Things that seemed so commonplace to them due to having been exposed to it their whole lives being completely alien to Sorun, as, well, he was technically an alien that had never encountered these kinds of things in his own world. They of course always made time to clarify things to him if he ever grew confused, and usually Sorun just accepted any explanation without too much questioning. Even if he did seem to somewhat wither almost every time for some reason.

Well, whatever the case, Power Rings were an important aspect of their world. He supposed he'd take it upon himself to explain it to Sorun.

"Power Rings are a byproduct of the planet being saturated in so much Chaos energy from the Chaos Emeralds," Rotor explained. "Think of them like Chaos Emeralds. They're conduits for Chaos energy, but unlike the Emeralds they have a limited lifespan. They basically 'burn out', for lack of a better term. Why they look like golden rings, though, I couldn't tell ya. They just do."

"Oh, okay." A pause from Sorun. "How come they spawn out of a lake?"

"The Ring Forge." A few moments passed, and when all Rotor heard was silence on Sorun's part he realized he wouldn't know what that was. "It's an invention from this Overlander we knew. Nate Morgan," the walrus clarified. "He made a machine capable of creating Power Rings. Guy was a... he was a real genius, to tell you the truth. Some circumstances lead to his invention winding up in the lake, so now it just pumps out Power Rings. I've heard they can appear in the wild on their own, though apparently that's exceptionally rare."

"An Overlander, huh?" Sorun voiced from behind him, sounding more interested than Rotor had probably ever heard him. "You really liked him?"

"Sure. Everybody liked him," Rotor answered. "He even taught at the school we had set up for a bit that one time before we all had to get back into Freedom Fighting, around when the first Robotnik was defeated. He was, uh..." He had to take a deep breath to steady his suddenly shaking hands. "He was a really great person. Always tried his best to help people."

"... I'm guessing from the fact I haven't seen him around and your heavy use of past-tense that Nate isn't around with us anymore," Sorun quietly said.

Rotor shook his head. "No. He isn't."

"Oh. That's too bad. He sounded like a solid dude."

"The solidest," Rotor agreed.

A whole minute of silence passed. "... You think I could get powers out of Power Rings?" Sorun suddenly asked. "I mean if it's just Chaos energy like the Emeralds-"

"Yeah, but the Emeralds are unlimited wells of Chaos energy since they don't wear out. Rings do," Rotor denied with a shake of his head. "It is possible to channel some power out of them. If you really know what you're doing you can temporarily enhance your natural abilities with one."

A loud scoff was heard from Sorun. "Natural abilities? Right, and what 'natural ability' of mine is a Power Ring supposed to enhance? Snark?"

Rotor laughed a little at that. "Knowing you, probably." The light grin that had form settled into a contemplative frown. "I don't know, Sorun. Maybe if you rounded enough up together you could get something out of them, but I don't know. Sonic's more of an expert on using them than I am. He's gotten more mileage out of those things than anybody else I know."

"Really, now? What do you mean?"

"Well, he had this one kind of transformation he used to go into a lot when he wrangled together seven Chaos Emeralds from back when they were all separated and fifty Power Rings. Past that, uh... there was that thing that happened when he gathered a billion of them."

A loud crash was heard. Rotor, startled by the noise, immediately set his tools down and whirled around in his seat in concern at the sound. The sight he was greeted to was Sorun, sprawled out on the ground with a wide, disbelieving look in his eyes.

Any other time and Rotor would have made a joke about Sorun being so amazed he evidently fell off his feet. But right now he was just a bit worried in that wide-eyed look Sorun had.

"Billion? With a 'b' billion?" Sorun uttered in a disbelieving tone. When Rotor nodded his head in an affirmative, Sorun outwardly groaned out. "What in the... where did he find the time to gather a billion of those rings...?"

At that, Rotor shrugged. Honestly, he didn't rightly know where Sonic had found them all, either. Just around on his journeys around the world, he supposed. He'd never cared enough to ask. "I don't know. He was always gathering the things for power boosts to use against Robotnik, and when he absorbed his billionth one he... well, he got tough. Like, real tough. I don't think I've ever seen anything hurt him ever since he got that billionth Power Ring," he told Sorun. "But, that's Sonic for you. He's always been weirdly drawn to Chaos stuff. Just the way he is, I guess."

"... Yeah, of course he's special like that. Explains a lot, actually," Sorun finally said after a few moments of contemplative silence. A small, envious look, unseen by Rotor, briefly flashed over his features, though it quickly disappeared as Sorun settled into a neutral expression. "So. Seven Emeralds and fifty rings for a... a what, transformation?"

"Yeah. Hard to say if he could ever do it again since you're carrying around a few of the Emeralds in you, but yeah, he used to have this really cool transformation. Called it Super Sonic."

"'Super Sonic'." An amused scoff sounded from Sorun. "Lemme guess, his quills stand up on end and his fur turns gold. Pfft, yeah, that'd be the day..."

"Actually, that's pretty much how it looked. How'd you know?"

The moment Rotor confirmed Sorun's guess, the human's face went through a myriad of shifts. He froze at first, his features slowly turning into one of bafflement and utter shock before morphing into disbelief as he sent a glare towards the walrus. "C'mon, Rotor, get serious. There's no way."

Confused, Rotor turned his head to the side while squinting in Sorun's direction. "What do you mean? I am serious. That's what he looked like whenever he went Super."

Sorun continued to scrutinize the walrus' face for what felt like an eternity, trying to discern any hint of a lie in the Mobian's features. He wouldn't find any, however, as Rotor was being completely honest with the human. He seemed to realize this, too, and for reasons beyond Rotor's knowledge Sorun slowly lowered his head and cradled it into his hand. Rotor almost found himself asking if Sorun was alright, but stopped when Sorun began laughing while shaking his head in his hand. A low, bitter laugh that lacked any and all amusement.

"You know, sometimes I wonder if all of this is just a crazy fever dream as a result of me being put in a coma after getting hit by a truck or something after leaving that grocery store," Sorun confessed to the walrus, raising his head back up to look the purple Mobian in the eyes. "Like, am I just the Azathoth to my own insane fantasy world my drug-addled brain thought up after the doctors pumped me full of who knows what trying to save my life? Is all of this gonna disappear when I wake up to the sound of a flatline? It'd help explain all this Chaos insanity. It'd explain everything, actually."

Rotor quite frankly didn't have a single clue what it was Sorun was talking about. He felt himself become slightly disturbed at some of the things he did manage to understand, though. Mainly the coma bit. "Sorun, I can tell you for a fact I've been alive for a long time. Long before I ever met you. Pretty sure this isn't a dream."

The pale human sighed. "Yeah, I know. It's easy to live in denial though. I'm still waiting for it to turn into 'Bloodborne'. I'm gonna start accruing unknowable knowledge and suddenly I start seeing eldritch horrors hanging off the sides of buildings." Rubbing a hand along his face, Sorun turned towards the backpack he'd set down earlier, bending down to pick it up and sling it over his shoulder. "Christ, nobody told me Super Saiyans were part of the deal," Rotor heard the human murmur under his breath.

Much of what Sorun said still confused Rotor, who only continued to stare on in uncertainty at the human. He chose not to pursue it any further, though, as Sorun looked rather exhausted and he himself just wanted to get back to repairing the communicators. He sighed a bit in relief when Sorun stopped in front of him, and then gave Rotor a small two-fingered wave.

"Well, Rotor, it's been enlightening. I'm gonna go now," Sorun said. "Gotta get these rings to a couple other people. Have a good rest of your day."

"Well, alright. Same to you, Sorun." He watched as the human left the lab, waited a few seconds after the door closed behind him, and then let out a soundless breath of relief as he went back to fixing the communicators.


"Super Saiyan hedgehogs. Sure. Why not?" If there was one single good thing he would say about this world, it was that Sorun was impressed with how it consistently kept surprising him around every single turn. Rotor's little history lesson about Power Rings had been... it'd been something. The whole "billion rings" bit still had him reeling. The Super thing even more. Along with everything else going on in his life at the moment, all culminating into whatever the rest of his very short life was now.

He was on his way to Merlin's place, another subject that was throwing Sorun for a loop. Wizards were a thing apparently. So he supposed it was safe to assume magic was as well, but maybe that was to be expected. Most of the things he encountered in this world were practically magical. Sonic and anybody else with powers may as well have been magic. His own abilities were magic. This thing Aurora attached to him that kept giving him heart attacks was magic. Chaos. Magic Chaos. Was there even a difference? He didn't know, he didn't care, and he just wanted to deliver these rings and be done with the day.

So Merlin's place. He'd asked around. Got pointed to a small hut down the way in Knothole. He was walking there now.

"Ugh, man, it's-it's all coming back again." Sorun felt himself begin to rub at the bridge of his nose in an effort to quell all the negative emotions that began to roil in him. "I- why do I even bother talking with people? I can't- I don't know how much longer I can do this. All the-the lying, and pretending that everything's okay when nothing is okay and I don't, I can't, fuck, why am I like this...?"

It was a paradox that kept tearing him in half every single day. On one hand, he liked talking to everybody. He was beginning to like socializing and becoming what basically amounted to a normal person. It calmed him down and made him feel at ease.

He also absolutely hated it because he had to keep lying to people about himself and his impending death. He hated having to keep pretending to be okay when it felt like every single day he was falling apart at the seams and was on the verge of breaking down and snapping into a state of insanity. He wasn't okay. 'Okay' wasn't his body failing on him. 'Okay' wasn't feeling absolutely loathsome about himself and being in a perpetual state of self-suffering.

Some days were easier to deal with, which was good, because if days like today were a continuously repeating thing he was dead certain he wouldn't have made it this far. That one day where he'd been able to air at least some of his thoughts to that deer person helped a little, but that hadn't lasted. Days where he was able to distract himself doing missions or something else passed the time and took his mind off things since he could just shut those thoughts away for a time and focus on more pressing matters, which more often than not was surviving a fight. And wasn't that messed up? He was finding himself starting to actually want to go on dangerous missions, because risking his life doing something for the Freedom Fighters was a better alternative than stewing with his own abysmal thoughts.

Then there was Nicole. Sorun almost forgot all of his problems whenever he was with her. He was practically a drowning man at this point clinging to her like she was a life raft in the middle of an ocean actively trying to drown him, and he was completely disgusted with himself over the fact. He tried limiting his time with her, even tried avoiding her, but the emphasis was on the word 'try'. Because not once did he ever succeed. He'd try, and then cave in to his own desires to just feel normal if only for an hour or two. And after seeking her out and hanging out with her for a bit the high of escaping from his problems for just a little bit wore off and he'd find himself hating himself even more for giving in. So that was that loop.

And, of course, there were days like this. Days where he'd be reminded of it all talking with people, or some other random occurrences would just force it all to catch up to him at once. Days where he just crumbled and needed to find somewhere to just deal with it without anybody noticing because if anybody ever saw him in this state it would raise questions he couldn't answer and concerns that would inhibit his mission. In this case he was huddled up in an alley behind some random person's house after losing control of his emotions halfway to Merlin's hut.

"God, I'm so fucking pathetic." The backpack holding the remaining two rings was all but forgotten, discarded to the side on the ground next to him. His hands were busy cradling his head, his entire body shaking against the house he was leaning against. "A terrible person lying to all his friends because he wants to save their lives. It's so goddamn hard sometimes. I, I don't, I don't know how much longer- but I have to. I have to keep doing this until I die- I don't want to die, why did it have to be me, why the fuck did I have to be so weak and give into attaching myself to them when I should have kept my distance so they wouldn't care when I die? Why do I have to die, why does, I can't, this isn't-"

He grew aware of the fact that his breathing was beginning to pick up at an uncomfortable pace. His heart was hammering in his chest, and his shaking increased more and more as feelings of intense fear and anxiety began to assault him. Fear over dying, hatred over himself and his actions, the sinking, helpless feeling of despair that kept running through him-

In a flash of blue, Yamato appeared in Sorun's grasp. He immediately pulled down his shirt and hoodie, and then turned it around and stabbed it into his shoulder.

A cry of pain left Sorun when he felt the blade's edge dig into his body. A few beads of blood began to leak out of the wound and intermix with the cold sweat drenching his body, but it wasn't too deep a wound. Just good enough for his purposes. He watched blue energy run up the length of the blade, and with another cry of pain that was halfway to being a sob he removed the tip of the sword out of his shoulder. He dropped down into a sitting position right after, his legs utterly failing him in that moment. He panted heavily, wet eyes staring out towards the tip of the sword that was smeared in blood and a clear fluid.

Norepinephrine. His norepinephrine.

He still remembered those conversations he'd have with his mother. Occasions where Sorun would be curious and ask her things, or she'd just tell him random medical facts as parts of conversations they would have. He remembered quite vividly about one talk she'd had with him about a patient she'd been attending to who suffered from constant panic attacks due to a genetic abnormality they had that caused them to overproduce a certain hormone that induced panic. A chemical imbalance, she'd described. One she'd eventually solved by prescribing that patient a bunch of medicines to balance the chemicals in their brains. His mother told him that patient had gone on to become very productive in their life afterwards. He was happy for them. Happy for that patient getting their life back together through medicine and happy for his mother for looking so happy over having helped saved somebody's life.

He missed her so much.

Well, from what he remembered, that specific chemical that had been causing that patient so many problems was a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine. A chemical that induced panic in flight-or-fight responses. Probably good for surviving in the wild. Not very good for a teenager being crushed under an ungodly amount of stress every single day. And some days, like today, he simply just wasn't strong enough to deal with it and got beaten. And then this would happen. The terrible thoughts and the panic attacks.

They were a problem, because he couldn't control them and he kept fearing somebody would one day find him in this state, and hell if he knew how he was supposed to solve that problem. And more than that, he didn't want his friends worrying even more than they needed to. He didn't even want to think about the faces they would make, all at his expense. So he sought out a solution to control these episodes of his, and came to the same solution he had for almost all problems: just stab it.

So that's what he started doing: using Yamato's power of separation to separate the norepinephrine from his body whenever his levels were too high because life decided to take him to the back yard and beat him over the head with a rusty lead pipe. It worked for the most part. He'd immediately feel the edge be taken off of him once the chemical left his body, and he'd feel just a little bit better about himself. It wasn't permanent, as he wasn't removing the actual glands in his body that produced the substance. He'd entertained the idea of removing the amygdala from his brain for a little bit before deciding lobotomizing himself with a magic sword probably wasn't the best idea, and this method worked well enough when he needed it to. He wasn't so sure he liked the fact he almost looked forward to him separating norepinephrine from his body. To get that warm feeling of wellness wash over his body that made him feel better. That same feeling he got whenever he was with Nicole. The feeling of just escaping for a bit.

It wasn't what he would call a long-term solution, as he was sure there was probably some medical problem he was overlooking here with regards to ripping hormones straight out of his body, and even if there wasn't he was almost certain stabbing himself over and over was not a good answer to his problems. Fortunately, he didn't need long-term solutions. Because he wasn't going to have a long-term life. So if this is what it took to keep himself going until the end, then so be it. It was all for their sake.

"Fuck was I doing? Rings?" Rubbing a clammy hand over his face, Sorun groaned and dismissed the Yamato before looking out for the bag he'd dropped. "Y-yeah, I gotta... drop them off, yeah... Merlin's place? Yeah."

Shakily, he'd gotten up to his feet and scooped up the bag off the ground. He made sure to wipe the excess tears from his face and cover his wound up with his shirt to make himself look at least halfway presentable, and then set off out of the alleyway and back onto the main street.


He finally found the place after a bit of searching. Merlin's hut wasn't terribly out of the way of Knothole, but at the same time, it wasn't exactly easy to find, either. He found it, though, which was all he cared about.

For now he was stable, so at least there was that. Anxiety for now was gone and he felt his thoughts beginning to normalize again. He hoped it would stay that way, but he knew they wouldn't. Right now he just wanted to drop the rest of these rings off and end the day.

"Tails' uncle, huh? Merlin. Mr. Wizard Extraordinaire," Sorun sarcastically thought as he made it to the hut's front door. "Fuckin' hell, what's next? A shapeshifter? Wait, that already happened. Eesh..."

Shaking his head, Sorun reached forwards and knocked on the hut's door. He heard footsteps immediately approach from the other side, and before he could even begin to wonder what Merlin would look like, the door opened. Sorun would admit he was somewhat surprised to see a shorter fox Mobian with two tails standing on the other side.

Merlin was either a dead ringer for his nephew or it was Tails. Sorun hedged his bet on the latter.

"Tails?" Sorun asked, looking down into the young Mobian's eyes. "That you?"

"Sorun?" If the looks didn't give it away, the voice did. It was assuredly Tails. "What are you doing here?"

Holding up the bag of Power Rings, Sorun said, "Your uncle asked for a Power Ring, so I came here to give him one. He around?"

"Oh!" Tails' eyes lit up in recognition, after which he turned back into the hut while gesturing Sorun to follow. "Yeah, he's just inside. Uncle! You have a visitor!"

Deciding to follow Tails, Sorun stepped into the hut right behind him while taking a look around. It was about the size of most Mobian homes, maybe a bit smaller. Brightly lit despite the lack of windows and filled with shelves full of strange objects he couldn't quite place. Various colorful plants and oddly-shaped knick knacks. He even saw a crystal ball on a pedestal near the back.

"Yup," Sorun thought, "total wizard dweeb."

"I was just visiting my uncle to help out with some things. He's been having some trouble with the water line to his house and he asked me to take a look," Tails explained to Sorun as the human looked around the home. Sorun made a wordless hum in response, continuing to circle around and observe the place. He stopped when he heard Tails say, "Oh, uncle, there you are!"

Glancing down to where Tails was looking, Sorun followed the young fox's gaze to the other end of the house. There was another fox Mobian of similar eye and fur color to Tails standing there. Taller, and draped in brown robes and a hood. Otherwise he looked pretty average to Sorun for being called a wizard.

He was giving Sorun a kind of odd look, though. He couldn't really place it. Half-lidded eyes and a barely-suppressed grimace. Something that almost looked remorseful if anything. For the life of him, Sorun couldn't place why the wizard was looking at him with that look. Maybe he was having an allergic reaction to a bad potion or something.

"Ah, hello there." Merlin seemed to have tried his best to wipe that look off his face, but Sorun could still see vestiges of the expression as he bowed slightly towards the human. "You must be Sorun, the Freedom Fighter my nephew has been telling me all about."

"Yeah, something like that," Sorun confirmed with a half nod. He reached into his bag, and then pulled out a golden ring. "Here. Sally said you asked for one."

The Power Ring was lightly tossed through the air towards Merlin, who deftly caught it in his grasp. He gave the ring a single look-over, and then nodded in satisfaction and set it down on a nearby table. "Thank you kindly, Sorun," Merlin thanked with a small nod of his head. "Tails, were you not saying you needed to go retrieve some of your tools in the effort of fixing that pipe?"

Tails' face lit up with realization. "Oh, right! I almost forgot!" His twin tails immediately started spinning up, lifting his body up into the air. "I'll go back to my workshop and get my toolbox real quick! I'll be back soon!"

He took off towards the doorway before either of the other two could get a word in edgewise. Sorun stared after the young fox, simply blinking when he saw his flying body leave the open doorway so fast he hadn't even bothered closing it behind him. "I'm still never going to get used to the fact he uses his tails like a helicopter rotor. How does that even work? Are the bones jointed really weirdly so they can rotate, or... eh, I don't really care enough to think about it."

Well, he at least got that second ring delivered, so that was two-thirds of his mission done. All that was left was to get this final one to Chuck and he'd be done, and afterwards... Sorun didn't quite know what he was going to do for the rest of his day. Maybe just sleep in early or go for something to eat, he didn't think he'd had anything yet all day and he was feeling kind of hung-

"Er, young man, a moment please?"

Sorun had gotten one foot out the door before he heard Merlin call out to him. He stopped right where he was, and turned around backwards to face the wizard again. He had that same look on his face from earlier. That uneasy, almost remorseful-looking face that Sorun just quite couldn't place.

"Uh... Merlin, I'd like to stay and chat, but I'm real busy..." Sorun said, trailing off while leaning towards the doorway.

"I'm aware," Merlin assured him, "but I just wanted to have a quick word with you."

Sorun's eyes flicked to the open door, and then back to the fox. "I don't want to be rude, man, but I got stuff to do."

"Just... please, Sorun."

The confusion settling on Sorun's face was about equal to the amount of confusion he was feeling. He wanted to decline, but something about Merlin's expression stayed Sorun's words. "I guess Chuck can wait a few more minutes," Sorun finally reasoned with himself, shrugging and stepping back into the hut.

Merlin's eyes widened in almost surprise when Sorun decided to retreat back into his home. Sorun was almost surprised with himself, too, though this was overshadowed by the utter confusion he had over what Merlin, someone who he had just met a couple minutes ago, had to say to him. He supposed he would find out soon.

"Well, I have some time to spare," Sorun said, stepping near to where Merlin was and then leaning on a nearby shelf. "So what did you need me for?"

"I didn't need you for anything. I just wanted to speak to you." Merlin chose to remain near the back end of the hut, still facing Sorun and not standing near anything else. He gulped and twisted his hooded head to the side. "How have you been?"

Sorun found himself quirking an eyebrow. He knew Mobians were friendly, but didn't think total strangers asking stuff like that to each other was a normal thing. "I, uh... I'm fine?" he lied, sounding unsure of himself while shrugging.

Merlin turned his head back towards Sorun just the slightest amount, frowning slightly. "No, you aren't."

"... I'm sorry, but what is this?" Sorun asked, twisting his index finger around in a circle while pointing downwards. "Did Tails put you up to this? This some kinda weird 'get me to confess my true feelings to a random stranger' roundabout scheme, because if it is, he's let me down. That sounds like an awful plan."

"That can be construed as admittance that you are hiding your true feelings, you know."

"..." A twinge of annoyance flashed through Sorun when he realized that he was right. He scoffed, and then pushed himself off the shelf. "You know what, I got better things to be doing. I'm out of here. Tell Tails to mind his own business."

"Tails did not put me up to this." Sorun didn't even make it a single step away before Merlin began speaking again. "This is all of my own volition."

Inhaling deeply, Sorun turned back towards the old fox. "Okay, then riddle me this. Why is some random dude so interested in finding out how I'm feeling-?"

"I'm aware of what Aurora did to you and what you are going through."

It was a statement so unexpected and absurd that Sorun's mind went completely blank after hearing it. He'd just barely registered his jaw dropping open in surprise, and the rest of his body would have fell to the floor immediately if his feet weren't rooted to the ground.

His thoughts began to catch up with him after a time, and with them came a myriad of emotions. Absolute bafflement and confusion being at the forefront, with a great amount of suspicion right behind that. Because as far as he knew nobody was supposed to know that, and very great efforts had been taken to ensure nobody would ever find out. Sorun couldn't tell anybody even if he wanted to, and he'd tried when he did.

Yet, somehow, Merlin just said a single sentence that let Sorun know that he knew. A sentence that should have been impossible for him to say. He'd said her name. The name of that ethereal fiend that had cursed him was a name he never uttered aloud to anybody, but Merlin knew it. Sorun didn't know how, but he was gonna find out. Because past all of the suspicion and confusion he was feeling over that statement, there was the barest spark of hope that maybe the magic wizard he just met could do something to help him.

"What... I, how do... what?" Sorun stammered, shaking his head while looking towards Merlin with wide eyes. "What do you mean you know? What exactly do you know?"

Merlin sighed, lowering his hooded head just the smallest amount and looking almost regretful over his words. "I know that your body is having a negative reaction towards the Chaos energy you have been infusing into yourself. I know that Aurora... inhibited you from revealing this truth to anybody else."

"How could you possibly know any of that...?" Sorun whispered, having grabbed onto the nearby shelf to support himself and stop from falling down.

The fox Mobian took in a deep breath before answering. "There were once beings that watched over the cosmos of this zone. Beings elevated to a higher plane of being due to intense exposure to Chaos energy and a strong connection to the Chaos Force. Certain... events lead to their demise, though before they died, they left three individuals as their successors. Two of the individuals the Watchers chose were-"

"Athair and Aurora, yeah, I head them mention the name Neo-Walkers." Sorun blinked, and his eyes began narrowing at Merlin. "Oh, don't tell me. You're the third one?"

"... Yes," Merlin confirmed with a nod. "I am the third Neo-Walker."

"Ohhh, I see." Sorun's voice grew an edge to it. The suspicion from earlier had all but evaporated from his senses, along with the confusion. That spark of hope was beginning to flicker away, too. In their wake was a sense of clarity and something else that was beginning to build up in him. "So. Mr. Prower the Neo-Walker. Why don't you tell me why you're bothering to go through the trouble of doing this?"

"Because this was the first moment we've had together," Merlin explained, "and I wanted to ensure that your mental state-"

"Mental state? I'll tell you about my mental state: It's pretty terrible," Sorun hissed out, pushing himself off of the shelf he'd been holding. "You know, it's funny, you say you're the third Neo-Walker, but I don't remember seeing you up there with those two echidna."

"We keep in contact with one another," Merlin clarified. "Athair and Aurora have been elevated to their current status. I am... still part of the mortal coil, as it were, and not quite as close to the Chaos Force as they are yet."

"Ah, well, depending on how this conversation goes I might be able to help you along with that 'mortal coil' bit."

At hearing that, Merlin froze and stared towards Sorun. The teen's form had gone completely rigid, eyes boring straight into the fox with his face set in a rigid, cautious expression. Down by his sides his hands were twitching.

"Merlin," Sorun began, attempting to keep his voice even but failing in the way some of his anger came through, "if you're going to stand there and say you told me all of this just to 'check up on me' and not offer any possible solutions out of my predicament, then we're gonna have some problems."

Pursing his lips tightly, Merlin sighed out through his nose. "There are no solutions to the stresses your body is being put through due to the Emeralds. Please don't take this the wrong way, Sorun, I know the burden that has been placed on you is great, -" Sorun's shoulders tensed, and his eyes flared wider, "- which is why I just wanted to ensure that you were getting along well enough, as it were. The bleary future we Neo-Watchers have been able to foretell hinges on-"

"Is this your way of saying you agree with what was done with me?" Sorun asked, voice so strained in anger it was barely above a whisper.

Merlin, slumping his shoulders, said, "Sorun, I... yes, when we discussed the matter I agreed with their actions, but you must understand that none of us wanted-!"

Like that, the teen turned right around and began stomping towards the door to the hut. Merlin reached out towards him, but otherwise did nothing as the human reached the front door. He dipped his head downwards in slight shame, anticipating Sorun to angrily storm out of the hut to get as far away from him as possible.

What instead happened was that Sorun closed the door, sealing them off from the outside world. And, rather worryingly, he remained planted to the spot facing the door with his hand on the handle.

"Don't kill him. Don't kill him. Tails is coming back. You won't get away with it. Don't kill him." It was a mantra Sorun had to repeat over and over in his head, because as it stood, there was precious little stopping Sorun from turning around and skewering Merlin with a shower of Summoned Swords. He felt disappointed in himself for believing there was actually a bit of hope in somebody being able to help him, but more than that, the amount of raw fury coursing through him was so intense that he could barely even see straight, and his hand resting on the door handle was shaking hard enough it threatened to break off.

He tried forgetting it. Tried putting it in the back of his mind so he could move on, and it never worked, but he tried. And now here was Merlin, reminding him of everything all over again and trying to justify what had been done to him. That was what really set him off- him trying to say what was done to him was right. It was the same incomprehensible anger and unbearable frustration he felt when he first talked to Athair and Aurora, when they'd explained everything to him. He was experiencing it all over again, and it was making his heart race and his blood boil.

Except Aurora and Athair were intangible Chaos beings when he'd talked to them. And Merlin was a living, flesh and blood being, and Sorun was desperately trying to hold himself back from killing him.

"You know, Merlin..." When Sorun turned away from the door to face him, the fox had taken a step back in shock. His eyes were wide and manic, and the anger and stress on his facial muscles were so intense the corners of his mouth were lifted in a crooked, furious smile. "You really gotta learn to pick your words better for these types of things." He began to slowly walk towards the aged fox. "Anyways, you've got my undivided fucking attention now."

To his credit, Merlin stood his ground and didn't budge an inch when Sorun stopped right in front of him. He kept up a steely expression even under the manic look Sorun was giving him, though the human did notice him fidget the smallest amount. It did nothing to lessen the rage inside of him.

"Listen. Your Tails' uncle. And Tails? I like the little guy," Sorun said, his voice cracking slightly from the anger he felt. "I pretend I don't, but I really do. Killing his uncle would hurt him, and I wouldn't like that. But I like you even less than that right now. My problem is that, if I did kill you, and it got traced back to me, which it would, that would do nothing but cause me problems. So I'm not gonna kill you, Merlin. But you should know that there is nothing besides that one singular fact stopping me from cutting you down where you stand, because as far as I'm concerned, you're complicit in what the Neo-Walkers did to me."

An understanding sigh left Merlin, though he gave Sorun a hard glare. "Sorun. You are no killer."

"Really?" A humorless, dry chuckle left the teen. "That's what you people conditioned me for. Killing Eggman, right? Ain't that the whole reason you forced me into all this?"

"Nobody forced you to do anything," Merlin denied.

"Oh, yeah, 'cause the alternative is so much better," Sorun scoffed.

"It is because that alternative future exists that we were forced to act this way upon you!" Merlin cried out. "The fate of the whole world is dependent on-!"

"'The fate of the whole world', fuck you, you're not the one dying over this." Inhaling sharply, Sorun crossed his arms and leaned back on a nearby shelf. "Just tell me why in the hell you bothered bringing this up so I can leave. Basking in the presence of a real-life wizard has lost its appeal pretty damn quick."

Giving a stiff nod, Merlin breathed out heavily before speaking. "I am aware this is difficult for you. Aurora periodically keeps watch of you to keep track of your progress. She was sent in quite a panic when you left Knothole, and she almost forced me to come after you."

"Mm, good thing you didn't. I really would have killed you back then if you tried."

Merlin's face twitched in a grimace before continuing. "We know you've been struggling internally with all of this. We're incredibly grateful you've decided to do the right thing-" He paused when Sorun violently flinched, choosing to reword himself and say, "- that you've... endeavored to give yourself for the sake of the planet. With that and everything that has transpired with you due to our actions, we simply... we just wanted to offer you any help we could possibly give."

"... You three feel bad, so you want to do something for me to make yourselves feel better. That about sum it up?" Sorun asked, eyes full of spite.

"Sorun-"

"You know what pisses me off the most? You people don't regret a single thing," Sorun interrupted, his harsh tone making Merlin clam right up. "You can all say what you did is horrible all you want, but you'd still do it at the end of the day since it's 'for the greater good' or some tripe like that. What's the life of some random guy not even from this zone compared to the lives of everybody else? You people don't care about me. You care that I'll get the job done and save everybody. You're trying to absolve yourselves of as much guilt as possible with the shit you're pulling right now."

The silence following Sorun's claim was the only answer he needed. It was transparent enough that even somebody like him could see it. Trying to help to try and "make up" for what the Neo-Walkers did to him, possibly help ease him further into the idea. Maybe even go so far as to get him to agree with them that this was for the best, that one person sacrificing themselves for the sake of a whole planet was a noble cause and that he should be happy to have been given the opportunity.

Maybe such a thing was noble, and maybe he was willing to freely do that at this point, but it didn't change them slapping a metaphorical collar on him and putting him in a hopeless situation where he had little choice but to sacrifice himself. If they admitted to him what they had done was wrong, then maybe he could find some forgiveness. But they wouldn't. So he didn't care how "bad" they felt over him. He didn't care how much they thought they were in the right. He didn't think they were, and he refused to give them any sense of satisfaction over the act. He'd spite them to the very end.

"Sorun..." Merlin's voice came out sad and cracked, and all it did was infuriate Sorun even further. "We just... we just want to help you have some peace before you, well..."

"You're failing to a miserable degree in that regard," Sorun retorted. "Ugh... you wanna help? Tell Tails when we talked I seemed like a normal person. Make it seem like I'm doing better so he and the others stop worrying about me so much."

"You're asking me to lie to my nephew-" Merlin cut himself off and shook his head in denial. "Sorun, it is quite obvious you need some help-"

"Zip it, dumbass." Sorun groaned out in frustration and rubbed at his face. "You think I don't know I'm cracking to pieces here the longer this goes on? I'm fucking aware I'm going mental here, but them knowing that isn't going to help anybody, especially since Aurora made sure I can't even tell them what the problem is. You know what happens then? All the Freedom Fighters get worried over me, possibly hold me back until I'm alright again which I will never be, and then suddenly saving the world becomes harder than it needs to be since they're not letting me out to go get the Emeralds," Sorun ground out, glowering at Merlin all the meanwhile. "So yes. I'm asking you to lie to your nephew about my mental state so I can keep this fucking masquerade up and get to the end of this as smoothly as possible. Don't see what the problem is. Telling a white lie should be easy compared to literally damning me. And it's all for the sake of the planet, isn't it?"

His last words were hissed out with so much venom that Merlin visibly recoiled from him. Afterwards, though, he did give a nod, as small as it was. He didn't look the least bit happy about it, which Sorun didn't much care about. "Very well. If that's what you want, then... then I'll do it."

"Great," the human remarked, voice layered in sarcasm. "Look, I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because I don't have a better alternative and I've grown to actually like everybody here. So I'll do your dirty work, end Eggman, and save the world at the cost of my own life. But Merlin? If I get that seventh Chaos Emerald, and if I manage to kill Eggman and have some time to spare before I die, I'm coming straight back here to kill you."

The threat hung in the air between the two, Sorun's eyes betraying the seriousness of his claim while Merlin looked on with widened, shaking eyes. Outside of that, the fox said nothing and just hung his hooded head down once again in order to avoid the glaring look Sorun was giving him. The human scoffed, straightening up his back and turning away to walk out towards the door.

"If there was a better alternative, Sorun, we would have taken it." The human teen heard Merlin, but didn't so much as turn around to address him as he maintained his walk towards the door. "As limited as it was, the future we glimpsed into showed no other way. We simply love this planet and all that live on it too much for it to fall into the hands of that madman. I'm... I'm sorry that there was nothing else to be done, Sorun. We're sorry that we've done this to you."

Sorun stopped at the door, hand hovering over the door handle as he listened to Merlin's words. At the end, he inhaled a deeply and gripped the handle. "No you're not," he said, just loud enough for Merlin to hear. He twisted the door handle, and then tore the door right open.


It had taken some doing, but fortunately enough Tails hadn't encountered too much trouble locating the tools he needed. And so, walking along with a large box of tools in hand, the young fox had finally made it back to his uncle's home. And so, taking care not to drop the toolbox, Tails had slowly reached his free hand out towards the front door.

The door was flung wide open right before he managed to touch it.

Leaping back a bit in shock, tools rustling in the box he held, Tails looked up at the person who was on the other side of the now-open door. He immediately saw it was Sorun, who was looking down at Tails with widened, surprised eyes.

"Oh, hey, Tails!" Sorun greeted, clearing his throat while giving the fox a small wave. "You're uh, you're back already, huh? You get what you need?"

"Mm-hm!" Nodding, Tails lifted up the toolbox for Sorun to see, who gave a nod of his own in response. "I think I should be able to fix the water system now. From what I saw it has something to do with the water pressure, but I'll know more once I actually get in there. Oh, speaking of which, did you talk with my uncle?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah," Sorun said with another, more rapid, nod. "Cool, um, cool dude, your uncle. Really knows his stuff."

A tinge of happiness flashed through Tails, causing him to beam a smile up at the human. "Oh, that's great! Maybe we could all do something later on to get to know each other better!"

Sorun's face twitched. It was a small, imperceptible twitch that went unnoticed by Tails, after which he shook his head. "I don't know, your uncle seems like a really busy guy. I wouldn't want to get in his way or anything like that." He snapped his fingers and pointed at Tails. "Tell ya what, though, I gotta go drop this last Power Ring off to Sonic's uncle, but after I'm done with that and you're done with your water thing here we could do something."

Tails' ears had drooped the slightest amount when Sorun had shot down the idea getting to know his uncle better, but upon offering to do something with him his tails began to slowly and inquisitively swish in the air behind him. He cupped his chin in thought for a moment, and then looked up towards Sorun. "Well... there is this problem I've been having with the Tornado's engine. It's really deep in there, too, so I can't reach it without disassembling the whole engine. But if you could use your Bringer Arms to help out, it would really save me the time of having to take the whole thing apart just to get to the problem."

"Trouble with the plane, huh? I'm not really much of a mechanic, but if you're there to help guide me I guess it shouldn't be a problem." With that, Sorun shrugged. "Yeah, sure. I can do that. You need much time to deal with things on your end here?"

"No, it shouldn't take me that long," Tails said with a shake of his head. "Would an hour from now be okay for you?"

"Works for me." Sorun walked out of the doorway, passing by Tails while giving him a small wave. "Alright, I gotta go. See you later, Tails."

"Bye, Sorun!" As the older teen began to walk off, Tails waved after him in parting. In response, Sorun had reached his hand up over his head and gave Tails a two-fingered salute while continuing to walk forwards. Tails watched him until the human had walked out of sight, and then turned back to the hut.

"That was really nice of him, offering to help out like that. And it's nice that he's starting to open up a bit to other people, too. It's really looking like he's getting better. I'm glad for him." He was happy that it seemed that Sorun was starting to adjust more and more to life here, as well as becoming less standoffish towards others. He resembled less and less like the person he and the rest of the Freedom Fighters met the day he arrived on Mobius and more... normal. Easier to be around.

It made Tails feel better, knowing Sorun was adapting to living in Knothole. It was a hopeful sign that, maybe someday, he could learn to like living here and eventually start to even be happy with himself. Tails felt it was the least the human deserved, especially after everything that had happened to him and for everything he'd done for them. He just wanted the best for Sorun, and just knowing the possibility of Sorun finally learning to live a happy life here was enough for the fox to feel better over having been the one to build that machine and drag Sorun onto Mobius.

Perhaps one day he could even forgive himself fully for what he'd done. When Sorun was finally settled.

He was confident it would happen one day. Sorun's progress towards getting better was a slow- very slow, actually- process, but Tails could see it. Everybody could. He really was getting better the longer this went on, and if he was being truthful with himself, that alone was enough. But for now he was content on waiting to see what the future held for him, along with the rest of them.

Clutching the toolbox in his hand, Tails walked into his uncle's home with a small smile on his face. He only needed to look around for a second to see his uncle standing on the other end of the main room he'd entered. Merlin had been looking off towards the side, vacant look in his eyes, though his expression had brightened up immediately upon seeing Tails.

"Ah, there you are, dear nephew." A warm smile spread across the old fox's face as Tails approached him. "I trust you managed to procure your tools without issue?"

"Yep! I'm all set!" Tails confirmed. "How did it go with Sorun?"

The smile that had been on Merlin's face lessened to a degree, though he managed to hide it from his nephew by coughing into the sleeves of his robe. "A-ah, Sorun. Yes, he... seemed like a fine young man. Honestly, after all the fussing you've been doing over him I expected much worse, but if he truly is the same person you've been describing then he seems to be getting along fairly well."

"That's good." Turning around from his uncle, Tails began making his way down a nearby hallway. "Now I think I know what the issue is, so I'm gonna go take a look at some of the piping I was looking at earlier."

"Yes, of course. Lead on." Merlin turned to follow his nephew down the hall, making sure to keep to the younger fox's back. His face had morphed into a pained grimace in the meanwhile, the change of expression having gone entirely unnoticed by Tails as he began to happily hum under his breath.


"Hey, how much longer are you going to take with this, unc?"

"As long as I need to. Science isn't exactly an exact process, Sonic."

"Isn't that what science is supposed to be, though? The process of figuring out exactly how something works or something like that?"

There was a chuckle from the other hedgehog. "Life would be so simple if science was as easy as that, sonny boy. No, science is a grueling, arduous process that takes more patience than I care to describe in order to get the results you're seeking."

"Ah, right. Patience. One of my stronger traits," Sonic sarcastically remarked, turning towards a nearby stool and setting himself down in it.

His uncle said nothing in response, instead choosing to continue to mess around with the wires connected to the mechanical whatever-that-was sitting on the workbench in front of him. He didn't want to say he regretted coming all the way out to his uncle's workshop, because saying he regretted seeing a beloved family member was a terrible thing to say, but that wouldn't stop him from admitting that he was bored out of his mind watching his uncle work on that scrap heap in front of him.

He didn't know where they got the patience for this kind of monotonous work. His uncle and Tails and Rotor. Maybe it was because they were all geniuses in their respective fields and that somehow gave them the ability to actually enjoy sitting through this tedium. He'd never deny the results, but he could understand how they could walk the road there. He supposed that it was something only mechanical savants like his uncle would ever understand.

Well, Sonic was good with the fact he'd never understand what they saw in it. He'd just stick to running, thank you very much.

The hedgehog was knocked out of his thoughts when the garage door to Chuck's workshop opened up. He swiveled his head over to see who was opening the door, whereas Chuck merely flicked his eyes up from his work to observe who it was entering. Sonic found himself quirking an eye ridge up in surprise, immediately recognizing the figure coming through the door and approaching Chuck and his workbench as Sorun.

"Yo, got a package from the royal bank of..." The human cut himself off with a loud yawn, reaching a hand up and rubbing at his eyes as he mumbled something under his breath. "Man, I don't have the energy for this bit. Chuck, I got your Power Ring."

"Really, now?" Chuck picked his head up from his work just as Sorun stepped besides the workbench. He reached into the small backpack he was carrying and unveiled a Power Ring from its interior, which Sorun then proceeded to hand off to the older hedgehog. "I thought I asked Sally for this," Chuck said as he placed the ring down on a small space besides him.

"She asked me to deliver the rings to a bunch of people that asked for them," Sorun answered, settling to lean against a nearby support beam. "Don't know why she couldn't just do it herself, but I didn't ask and just went with it. 'Cause I'm a nice guy like that."

Sonic saw his uncle give Sorun a single lookover, and then heard him scoff as he returned to his work. "You've never really given me the impression you're one to help others out of the kindness of your heart," he said.

Sorun, hearing this, winced slightly and turned his head to the side. "Come on, man, that was a long time ago." When Chuck said nothing to this, he sighed, pushed off the support beam, and then walked past the hedgehog while digging into his pocket. "Well, think what you want, but here. Got this for you," he said as he removed a small bag from his pocket and tossed it on the workbench.

Once the bag hit the workbench, Chuck eyed it briefly before turning his eyes towards Sorun. The human teen locked eyes with him for the barest of moments, and then turned towards where Sonic was sitting as he made his way towards another stool that was on the right side of Sonic. Chuck watched him walk off, turned back towards the bag, and then reached for it and opened it. He let out a small hum of surprise when he gazed inside to see what was in it.

"Are these mobiums?" Chuck asked, turning his head up towards Sorun again.

"Yep. Twenty of 'em," Sorun answered as he sat down in the stool. "I owed you for that, that-that thing from, you know, back then. That thing."

"... Oh, right." A look of recognition flashed through Chuck's face. "You stiffed me for a chili dog. I believe it was only two mobiums you owed me, though."

The knowledge that Sorun had done such a thing was new to Sonic, and for a brief moment he felt a spike of irritation go through him as he turned towards Sorun. He almost went through with telling Sorun off for doing something like that to his uncle, but then he saw that look on Sorun's face. A remorseful look.

Sonic wasn't sure he'd ever seen Sorun look remorseful over anything before.

"Call it interest or something," Sorun muttered, waving an arm to the side. "I felt bad about it, alright? I'd rather not leave bad memories of me with people."

Blinking with an unreadable expression on his face, Chuck slowly pocketed the bag of mobiums while still looking towards Sorun. "Well... perhaps I was a bit harsh on you," the older hedgehog admitted, smiling lightly while rubbing the backside of his head. "I know Sonic has been singing praises about you up and down about your contributions to the Freedom Fighters."

"Have you? Have you now?" Sonic looked to the right towards Sorun, where he saw the human glancing towards him with a lazy expression. "You made sure to just tell him all the cool stuff, right?"

Feeling mischievous, Sonic shook his head. "Nah, it's mostly the embarrassing stuff. Like when you fell asleep during that mission in that swamp and woke up waist-deep in muck." It was still a funny memory for him, the teenage hedgehog laughing at the mental image. At having found Sorun angrily grumbling to himself as his spectral arms pulled his body out of the muck and how he'd had that indignant look of anger on his face for the whole rest of the mission. He'd warned Sorun things like this would happen if he kept neglecting his exercise, but despite the human looking more tired than ever, he just kept on ignoring Sonic. He figured it was probably a human thing. Or Sorun just being lazy.

"I'm never going in a swamp again, dude. Half the things that lived there tried eating me alive," Sorun mumbled, one of his eyes twitching at the amused smirk Sonic had. "And anyways," he continued as he turned back towards Chuck, "I... had a change of perspective, I guess you could say. Been having a lot of those lately." He sighed, and then crossed his arms while leaning back in the stool. "Don't look too deep into it. I'm just settling some affairs. That's all."

"Alright, if you say so." With that, Chuck turned back towards the mechanical bits on his workbench, small smile still on his face. "For what it's worth, I'm glad to see you changed your mind about your stance on being a Freedom Fighter. It looks to me like it's doing you some real good."

A small breath escaped Sorun, and he lowered his head as what Sonic assumed was a bashful look crossed his face. "Good. Right..." he murmured under his breath, almost too quiet for Sonic to hear.

Some time passed, mostly in silence save for the small mechanical clicks and whirs of the machinery Chuck was working on. Sorun seemed to be spending the time thinking to himself, arms still crossed with his head bowed down towards the floor. And Sonic was looking at the human from the side, smug smile on his face as he leaned back in his own stool. The look being sent towards him was not lost on Sorun, who deeply sighed as his eyes slowly drifted towards Sonic.

"What are you doing, smirking like that over there...?" Sorun quietly asked, not even bothering to move his head. When Sonic responded by sending him a pointed look while the smirk widened, he sighed again and dipped his head lower. "Don't you dare say what I think you're thinking..."

Well, with a request like that, Sonic just couldn't resist. "You know, I could have sworn I heard you complain about always being low on scratch, oh, I dunno, about a million times? Twenty mobiums is a lotta money to be spending for a guy as broke as you always say you are."

Sorun didn't say anything in response, choosing to remain quiet instead. It was more than enough for Sonic, though. Going out of his way to say sorry to a fellow Freedom Fighter after making a mistake was one thing, but from what Sonic knew he and his uncle weren't that close. Add that with the fact he evidently massively overpaid the debt he had with his uncle, and Sonic had to conclude that Sorun had just gone out of his way to be exceptionally nice to him.

It was this and all the other little things Sonic had been noticing coming up with Sorun. The way he was slowly becoming more approachable with the others, or the way he'd been volunteering towards some of the more dangerous missions more and more. But being remorseful over somebody he interacted with very little like Chuck was what did it for Sonic. That and the story Mighty had told him about Sorun having entertained a bunch of children during a mission he'd had with him.

He was changing, and for the better. Sure, he would always try to deny it whenever Sonic brought it up. But the cold, uncaring persona Sorun had been wearing all this time was cracking more and more, and at this point Sonic wondered if the human was even putting in the effort to keep it up and maintain it. What confused Sonic was that Sorun wasn't dropping that mask. He was happy, beyond happy, at the change Sorun was going through, but the fact he still held on to that aloof mask of his both confused and frustrated him.

"You know, Sorun, one of these days you're gonna have to learn to drop the act and just act normally around everyone," Sonic said, choosing to confront the matter directly. "You're just trying to go for the cool look, ain'tcha? Just admit it. You like us."

"No, I don't," Sorun denied.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "You're not even trying to hide it anymore. What's even the point?"

"I got no idea what you're talkin' about." Sorun lifted his head up and turned his eyes up towards the ceiling. "All I see when I look around me is a buncha desperate Freedom Fighters that pulled me into this zany world. The fact I'm sympathetic guy who likes doing nice things from time to time has nothing to do with that."

"Ah-huh, yeah." Crossing one leg over the other, Sonic looked up at the ceiling along with Sorun while asking, "So what are you gonna do when we finally beat Eggman and you don't have the excuse of focusing on fighting for freedom to hide behind?"

"This seriously the conversation you wanna have now? The future convo? We could talk about anything else, but this is what you settle on?" A scoff left Sorun. "Do you even know what you're gonna do when this is all over?"

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, I don't let things like that tie me down. Whatever happens in the future happens, and I'll just roll along with it."

"Pfft. That's so you." From the corner of his vision, Sonic saw Sorun's eyes, still affixed towards the ceiling, become half-lidded as a low, shaky breath left him. "I don't like thinking about what happens at the end of the road."

"'End of the road'?" Sonic repeated.

"Yeah, you know, end of the road of the war, Eggman's end of the roa- end of all the fighting," Sorun clarified with a frustrated huff. "There's nothing for me anyways."

The hedgehog's head turned towards Sorun, surprised look growing on his features. "That's not true at all. What makes you say that?"

"What makes me say that? What exactly is there for me here past the Freedom Fighters?" The human flung his arms up, and then let them limply fall to his side. "Fight in the war, sure. That's a straightforward enough goal. After that, though? What do I got after that?"

"A whole city of accepting folk? A group of friends?" The tone Sonic had adopted was one of utter bafflement, and light frustration at the train of logic Sorun was choosing to ride. The more he spoke, the less he understood why it was Sorun was thinking the way he was despite all of the obvious answers, and it made Sonic frustrated seeing it. He knew Sorun wasn't that blind. So what was it? Was he just ignoring what was sitting right there in front of him?

None of it made any sense. Things rarely did with Sorun.

"A city full of a bunch of random people and a group of comrades-" Sorun emphasized, glaring at Sonic from the corner of his eye, "- that took me away from my home, yeah, real great. The opportunities are endless," he retorted.

"You already said you don't hold that against us, so why do you keep bringing it up!?" Sonic asked, voice growing a bit heated at Sorun's logic. "You know we wouldn't have done that if we knew, you admitted it yourself, so that isn't the reason! So what is it!?"

"Have you ever considered I just don't like any of you?" Sorun asked. His voice remained level, though the cold, clipped tone it had betrayed his anger. "Do you really think that I'm over it yet?"

Sonic nodding his head must not have been the reaction Sorun had been expected, as his eyes widened the barest amount when he saw it. "Yeah. I do. I think you really do like us and you just won't admit it to yourself."

"Name one example-"

"You're friends with Nicole. You said it right to my face."

Sorun's body went completely straight, and he inhaled deeply through his nose. "Mention her again," he said, voice low, "and I leave."

Undeterred, Sonic continued listing off examples. "Alright, fine, then what about the fact you've been helping out with people more and more, or that you're talking to some of the others so frequently, the money thing with Chuck, the lack of angry outbursts you used to have all the time, the fact your cold shoulder's practically melted?" Every single fact said by him was accentuated by counting off his fingers, and he could see that every single thing he said made Sorun visibly more upset.

After he finished, the two teens full turned towards one another. Sonic's face was settled in a deep frown as he affixed Sorun with a accusing glare. Sorun just looked visibly bothered to an extreme degree: his hands were shaking, his eyes were wide, and he seemed to be breathing heavier than normal. It was a heavy enough reaction that Sonic's own anger was dialed back just a bit, and he was even getting ready to ask if Sorun was alright before he spoke first.

"Fine. I might have grown to like some of you. And maybe I'm mostly over all that." After saying this, Sorun's eyes took on a more conflicted shape, causing Sonic to sit back a bit in surprise. "I'm still figuring things out, alright?" he said, rising up off his stool. "Can we just leave it there?"

He didn't want to, but considering the words he heard Sorun say was more than he'd almost ever gotten out of the human, he was willing to leave it there. And that strange, mildly panicked look on Sorun's face had him a bit worried that he may have pushed him a bit too far, even if he didn't have a clue on how such a thing was possible with such innocent questioning. So he relented and gave Sorun a nod.

Sorun blinked at the nod, almost in relief, and then immediately turned away and made his way towards the garage's open door. "I gotta go. I promised Tails I'd help him out with the plane," Sorun said as he walked past Sonic.

As he passed him, another smug grin grew on Sonic's face. "Oh, hey, look at you helping out Tails like that. Sounds like something a friend would do, doesn't it?"

Not even bothering to turn back around to address Sonic, Sorun exited through to the other side of the garage door. Sonic's words did seem to anger Sorun somewhat, however, as he actually growled out in frustration as one of his Bringer Claws manifested, reached up to the garage door, and slammed it closed hard enough that the noise jostled both Sonic and Chuck.

"Ah, man." An exhausted sigh left Sonic as he ran a hand through his quills. "I swear, I can never figure out that guy's deal."

"Nor can I, but if I could give you some advice, sonny?" The younger hedgehog looked over to his older nephew, who looked at Sonic from the side with his hands still messing around with whatever he was working on. "I don't think Sorun likes it when you continue to bring this up with him, so maybe leave the matter alone and let the boy figure things out himself."

Sonic tilted his head to the side at his uncle's words, unsure of them. "I'm only trying to figure him out so I can help him, Chuck. Sorun, he just... confuses me so much, and I- agh!" He gripped his quills tightly as a frustrated grunt left him. "You know how hard it is trying to help somebody like Sorun when he acts like that all the time!? All-all... that!?" he asked, gesturing wildly towards the garage door.

It was only whenever they talked about things like this, too. The jokes Sonic played on him didn't bother him nearly as much, and sometimes Sorun would even fire back on him. Any other time it was normal conversations, and he still acted a bit cold, but he was otherwise calm and...

Sonic blinked in surprise. "You know, he only ever does get mad when we talk... huh." He saw the smirk that formed on Chuck's face, huffing and resting his head against one of his palms. "Fine, I get it. It's not like I'm trying to antagonize him or anything, though."

"You just want to understand him, I know," Chuck finished for him. "I get where you're coming from, but ask yourself this: who would know Sorun best?"

"Tch. A genie?" Sonic remarked with a roll of his eyes. "There's nobody that gets that guy except himself."

"Exactly." Chuck's simple response caused Sonic's eyes to drift back towards him after widening slightly. "Nobody would know Sorun better than Sorun himself, especially with the way he acts towards others. If everything you said is true, though, it does seem he's making strides towards figuring himself out. So you want my advice? Let him be," Chuck instructed him. "Let him figure things out for himself. I know sitting around and waiting isn't really your style, but you'd be surprised in how exercising some patience can get great results."

"I ain't exactly popular with the wait-and-see approach, unc, you know that. But... but I guess, you know, with how Sorun has been... I guess that's probably a good idea." The progress was there after all. Nobody, not even Sorun, could refute it, though the human certainly did try his hardest. And that was mostly on his own, with some time mixed in. He hated waiting when it came to helping friends, but what was he to do when it seemed like waiting for Sorun to set himself straight was the only thing that worked?

"Okay, Sorun. Go ahead and keep your act up." A self-satisfied smirk settled on Sonic's face as he reclined back in the stool and interlocked his fingers through his quills. "We're both seeing how you're turning out. You can try to keep it up for the rest of your life if you want, but there's no way you're gonna make it that long. Not even close."

Unfortunately, it seemed that reclining back in a stool that lacked anything in the way of back support was a mistake, as Sonic had accidently fallen off of the stool amidst his thoughts. His uncle had chuckled heartily at the sight, while Sonic himself remained still on the ground with a defeated sigh being his only reaction to the tumble.


A/N- This chapter's the bane of my existence, and I'll tell you why.

First and foremost there were some times near the end there I couldn't even log onto the site. The boys behind the curtain were doing some server maintenance work or something, I don't know, and if I'm being honest it wasn't really that big a deal since it only interrupted the editing process. A tiny inconvenience that didn't really matter. Still happened, though.

Then there was the face my decades-old, hand-me-down laptop went and bit it. Wifi adapter wouldn't work and the thing ran slower than something really slow, so I had to get that sorted and get a new one. Happy to say this new one runs like a dream and it's refreshing to not work with something that takes a whole thirty seconds to load in a page and has a battery life longer than an hour. But yeah, there was a whole week there I couldn't actually do anything. I tried doing it from my phone.

Here's some advice for anybody trying to use the fanfic site to write/edit chapters through a phone: don't do it. It don't feel good. Unless it's an emergency, don't do it.

Third, eh... I don't really like how this chapter turned out. Felt really repetitive in some parts. To be honest when I planned this arc out I structured it in a way where there's the chapters that advance the plot with character development and the introduction of various things and Emeralds and whatnot, and then there's intermission chapters like this one where that mainly serve as a status check on Sorun's mental state which has been slowly declining over the course of the story. I try to avoid making straight filler, though, so I try putting important things in this chapter beyond just more time with the characters, Sorun learning about the Power Rings and the whole "Sonic got a billion rings and got a permanent defense buff" the main takeaway among other things. But yeah. I'm subtle with some things and about as blunt with a hammer with other things, and I feel like here specifically I kinda went a bit too hard on some things. But eh, it's fine.

Anyway, that's all I got. Seeya in the next one.