Recursion Error

Episode 52- Game Over


Something was weird.

"You know, I expected to find, I don't know... resistance? Some robots guarding the Emerald? Something?" Sorun's single eye glanced around the area as he and Shadow continued walking down a metal corridor, cutting through one large room to the next large room.

It'd be foolish to think that Eggman would just leave a Chaos Emerald sitting around without it being guarded. Both Sorun and Shadow had taken the portal to the storage facility expecting a fight. Sorun himself had walked right out of the portal with his sword in hand, while Shadow had walked out with green energy crackling around his hands.

Except... there was no resistance at all. There were robots, for sure. Dead robots. Everywhere. Badniks that looked like they'd been crushed, stabbed, and cut to pieces. Freshly destroyed, too, as some of them were still smoking and sparking.

The both of them had given each other strange looks before proceeding down further into the facility. The same sight greeted them at every turn, and at every room. Destroyed Badniks. Not a single one was left alive. On one hand it was making the mission a breeze so far, but Sorun couldn't help but feel something was amiss from how strange this all was.

"This is extremely peculiar," Shadow agreed with him, his own eyes scanning any destroyed Badniks they passed. "There is absolutely no way he'd leave the Chaos Emerald unguarded."

"Maybe he was betting on us being so busy about the attack he didn't think we'd spare people to come get the Chaos Emerald," Sorun reasoned as he stepped over an Egg Pawn that'd been cut in half.

"He's not supposed to know we're retaliating," Shadow reminded him.

"Smart guy like that? He knows we know."

"Hmph. That doesn't explain all the freshly-destroyed Badniks all around us."

"Does it really matter?" Sorun asked him. "As long as the Emerald is still here then it's no skin off our backs."

Shadow turned his head to the human with a scowl on his face. "And if it turns out whoever did this did so to acquire the Emerald for themselves? What then?"

"Then we forget about it and just go to the ship where the fight's taking place," Sorun smoothly answered. "Nothing we can do about it if that's true."

Shadow hummed, but said nothing as he turned back forwards. For as much as Sorun could tell that meant he agreed with him as well as was troubled. Admittedly it mildly unsettled Sorun as well. Partly because nobody but them should have known about Eggman having the Emerald, and partly because he didn't know anybody that could do this. He'd heard some hubbub about there having been some prison breakout back in New Mobotropolis that had some people mildly concerned, but he didn't know if it'd been one of them or not.

Well, as he said, nothing to do about it if the Emerald was actually gone. He'd just go attack Eggman with one less power. It wasn't optimal, but if everybody else was there, Sorun wasn't as concerned. They'd have to make do.

As they crossed past another room of dead robots, Sorun spoke out to Shadow. "So Rouge is just gonna join us midway through the fight there?"

"I believe so, yes," Shadow answered.

"You believe so," Sorun echoed. "She didn't tell you?"

"She told me she was investigating a lead, and left it at that." He made a low hum as he glanced to the side at an Egg Hammer that looked like it'd been torn to pieces. "She does what she deems appropriate at the time. But she gets good results, so I pay no mind to it."

"Doesn't really sound like a mindset somebody in the military should have," Sorun noted.

"We're agents. It's different," Shadow corrected. "And she's an agent along with me for wholly different reasons than mine."

"Oh, yeah?" Sorun airily replied. "And what'd that be?"

"She had an impressive set of skills in subterfuge, espionage, infiltration, stealth and stellar hand-to-hand, as well as other talents," Shadow said. "They were ideal traits for an agent, and G.U.N. had no access to a Mobian as skilled as her. She took the job because it paid and she's good at what she does."

Sorun rose an eyebrow in surprise. "Pretty impressive," he commented. "What'd she do before coming to G.U.N.?"

"She doesn't speak much of her previous life. All I know is that she stole rare treasures for a living."

"Ah." There was a pause as Sorun thought for a bit. "She's kind of flirty with Knuckles sometimes."

"Hn." All Shadow offered in response was a grunt of acknowledgement as they'd entered a hallway.

"It's just kind of weird," Sorun continued, "since, you know, Knuckles is already in a relationship with Julie-Su. And the guy's kinda clueless about women, so whenever she makes a pass at him it goes right over his head. Saw it a couple times back when you two lived at the HQ."

"I don't think things like that matter for her. She goes for what she wants."

"... That's kind of messed up, isn't it?"

With a small sigh, Shadow shrugged his shoulders. "I work with her because we were paired up due to being Mobians, and because her skills make her a highly valuable partner. I talk with her so we can better communicate on the field and because she's not as naïve as the average Mobian. That's the extent of our relationship. What she chooses to do in her personal life is her business."

"Hn." Sorun mimicked Shadow's earlier hum of acknowledgement. Wasn't his business. He was dying too soon to care. He personally thought Rouge was wasting her time with Knuckles the way she was going, guy was straight enough to cut grass by laying on it in Sorun's opinion, but he had more important things to worry about. Like the Chaos Emerald.

The... Chaos Emerald that was just sitting over at the end of the room they'd just walked into...

They'd just opened a door at the end of the hallway they'd entered previously when they saw it. The door lead to a large, wide, and round room. More robots lied around in heaps. An inordinate amount of Badniks that practically littered the whole ground of the room. And just there, in the center of the room, was a pedestal holding up a Chaos Emerald that glowed a bright cyan color.

Cautiously, both Sorun and Shadow had stepped into the room. Both kept a wary eye out, scanning the walls for any possible traps, or on the robots in case any were just playing dead. But nothing happened. There were some turrets sticking out of the wall in some locations, but like they Badniks they, too, were damaged beyond functionality.

The room was genuinely cleared.

"This is just weird," Sorun muttered under his breath as he and Shadow both relaxed at sensing a lack of danger. "We're just gonna get it for free? I'm not complaining, but still."

"Hm..." While Sorun began to approach the Chaos Emerald, Shadow had stopped when he felt his foot impact something. He looked down in interest and bent down to grab an object that lied at his feet. He picked it up to examine it, but to his visible disappointment it was just an ordinary duffel bag.

With a huff, he discarded the bag by dropping it back onto the ground. He then turned towards Sorun, who was standing in front of the Emerald. Just staring at it, with an unreadable expression on his face. It carried on long enough that Shadow decided to speak his name up.

"Sorun?"

"Kind of weird it's another blue one, huh?" Sorun asked. He'd found his own voice to grow quieter at the sight of it, of its bright blue glow. A glow that promised an end for him.

This was it. Once he reached his hand out an absorbed the Emerald... that was it. It'd be over for him soon after. How soon he didn't know exactly, but he didn't imagine he'd make it to see the end of the day. Something inside him just made him feel this.

Oddly, he felt a bit victorious. He never thought he'd even make it this far to get to the final Emerald. He figured a robot would have taken him out at some point before he got here. And admittedly, he did almost die at various points, but... here he was. Plain old Sorun, who managed to fight all the way to this point, all to give everything up to have one last shot at Dr. Eggman. His heart couldn't help but ache terribly at the thought of what was to come. A great pain that was, oddly enough, mixed with a bit of accomplishment.

"Kind of feels like I just got the last achievement or trophy or whatever in a video game," Sorun thought to himself as he gazed unblinkingly at the Emerald. "Just... wish it didn't have to hurt so much..."

"What color?"

"Huh?" Blinking his eye, Sorun turned back to Shadow, who was looking at him expectantly. "What?"

"What color did you expect the last Chaos Emerald to be?" Shadow reiterated.

"Oh. I don't know. Orange, I guess. But this rounds out the colors well enough, too."

A beat passed as the two stared at each other in uncomfortable silence.

"... Well? Aren't you going to absorb it?" Shadow asked.

"... Yeah. Gimme a sec." With a deep breath, Sorun turned back around to the Emerald. The final Chaos Emerald. He slowly exhaled as he brought his flesh and spectral hands up. "C'moooon DT..."

And then, without delaying a moment longer, he placed his hands on the Emerald.

It was the same show as always. Blue sparks of electricity, the Emerald dissolving into pure energy and absorbing through his arm and into his body. He felt nothing at the exchange but a lukewarm feeling, his hands dropping back to the sides once the Emerald vanished.

He felt the change seconds after.

Shadow saw it from where he stood. The chin-length black hair adorning Sorun's head began to change. It began to grow lighter and lighter from the hair tips all the way to the roots, like dark ash or ink was being washed out of it by some invisible force. In mere seconds Sorun's purely black hair had changed to hair that was as white as pure snow. It was an appearance that otherwise looked out of place on Sorun's youthful face.

"Oh. Oh, wow." Sorun held his right, spectral hand up to his face. The Bringer Claw had disappeared. In its place was different spectral arm. A blue arm that was much more dim and transparent, but was shaped exactly like his flesh and blood arm used to be, and was adorned with swirling, ripple-like patterns. The arm began to brighten in intensity until it glowed a solid blue, and as Sorun watched with a curious eye he saw, felt even, something grow from his shoulder all the way to his fingertips over the glowing arm to replace it.

And then, in less than a tenth of a second, it was just there. His normal right arm. It'd regenerated so fast it almost hadn't grown so much as instantly appear. His true, pale right arm. He flexed it, feeling with great satisfaction the pressure of his tendons extending, the feeling of blood rushing through the veins of his new limb.

"Oh, sure, now you give me the ultra high-speed regeneration," Sorun grumbled under his breath. He looked to the side towards Shadow, who was giving him a wide-eyed, surprised look. "Pretty neat, huh? It's not Devil Trigger, but I'll take a Devil's Body any day of the week."

"What exactly has happened to you?" Shadow asked, his voice having trailed off as he stared at Sorun's regenerated arm.

"I guess the Emerald gave me Dante and Vergil's freaky human/devil hybrid biology. Or some emulation of it at least. Did it really have to go all-out with the white hair, though?" he mumbled as he flicked away one of the white locks from his face. "Makes... kind of sense, I guess. I mean, that Enerjak guy was regenerating whole limbs and organs from those cyborg echidna he de-borged just by looking at them. Geez, even you can regenerate, can't you?"

Shadow made a slow nod. "Yes. How are you feeling?"

"To be honest? I don't think I've ever felt any better, actually." He wasn't even exaggerating when he said that. The feeling he had throughout his entire body was nothing short of incredible. It was like experiencing the energized, good feeling of waking up from a good nap and having shed off hundreds of pounds of weight at once all rolled into one feeling, perpetually felt through Sorun's body. He just felt so... light. Free. Powerful. It was intoxicating to the point he made a small laugh. "Yeah, this feels amazing," he commented as he reached his new right arm up.

His fingers grasped around the eyepatch covering his right eye and ripped it away. The long, ugly scar running through his empty right socket was revealed, only for blue energy to then run through the scar. Almost instantaneously, the scar thinned, and then disappeared completely to leave Sorun's face unblemished of any scars. And then his right eye opened to reveal a perfectly functioning blue eye.

"Oh, man, I almost forgot what depth perception felt like," Sorun gasped out in wonder, blinking both of his eyes as he looked around the room. "Christ, Shadow, is this what you feel like all the time? Just straight health?"

"I don't... exactly know..." Shadow found himself at a loss for words as he watched Sorun crouch down a few times, and then spring up straight and hop on his feet, laughing lightly all the while. "I take it this is good?"

"Yeah, yeah it's- oh, wait, what the...?" He paused, a look of confusion crossing his face. He opened his mouth and stuck his fingers inside, and then made a strangled sound of surprise as he took his fingers out. "Oh, wow, that one tooth I lost a few years ago when me and the guys tried playing tetherball with a bowling ball grew back."

Shadow heavily blinked, the mystified look on his face refusing to leave. "What...?"

Sorun seemed to ignore him completely, instead choosing to look down towards his midsection. "This is really great. Like, like this just feels really- MAN I'M CUT!"

In the process of examining himself Sorun had reached down and pulled the black shirt under his white coat up to examine his torso. He'd been pleased to find all the scars created when he'd been hit by all that shrapnel in the fight against Eggman had vanished completely. He was beyond pleased to find that where there had once been a flat but fairly unimpressive stomach was now a muscular abdomen with a six-pack.

It wasn't just his abdomen, either, now that he more closely examined his body. It was almost like his entire musculature system was redone completely, or that what had already been there was so improved by whatever the Chaos Emerald had done to his body it may as well have been different. He'd gone from having a below-average build to having what may as well have been a build reserved for the peak of humanity. Still thin, but muscular. Lean.

Goddamn, he looked good.

"I would have given up literally any power to have gotten this one first before anything else," Sorun said to himself as he lowered the shirt. "Why did the best one have to be saved for last? Seriously, look at this!"

The white-haired Earthling walked over to one of the dead Egg Pawns lying on the ground near him. He'd crouched down, and then picked the robot's body up above his head. Effortlessly. With a single hand. He didn't even feel any strain from holding it up the body felt so light to Sorun. He made a small scoff and then lightly tossed it. And evidently that was still too much power, as he ended up accidentally tossing the robot body all the way across the room.

It was a healing ability and strength that was completely foreign to Sorun. Something that felt so out of place but at the same time so right. Even when he punched outwards to experiment with his speed he couldn't help but be surprised. His punch was one with such speed his arm was little more than a blur that slightly distorted the air around it when he punched forwards. He did it over and over, admiring the black speed lines that appeared alongside his punches.

This was the one thing he wanted above all else. It wasn't Devil Trigger, but it was the next best thing. Physical ability on par with a Mobian. Far above, even, if these results said anything.

"I take it you're satisfied?" Sorun quit punching the air and turned towards Shadow. He'd managed to get over his initial surprise, and had approached closer to Sorun. He'd crossed his arms while his crimson eyes had given Sorun an appraising look, and just barely there was a hint of an amused smirk on the corner of his lips.

"Satisfied doesn't come close," Sorun told him. "It's-"

He was interrupted with a cough. Multiple, consecutive coughs that sounded much more severe than they should have been. Or maybe they sounded just right, seeing as every single cough was accentuated by blood being coughed out from Sorun and splattering against the ground. Shadow had been so surprised by the sight he'd stepped back in shock, the smirk dropping right off him as he looked down at the blood. Sorun, at least, had stopped coughing after a bit. His face had fallen into a stony expression as he gazed at the blood on the floor, followed by him sighing.

The good feeling he got from his white-haired body was all but gone. Dropped in an instant by the cruel reminder he wouldn't be able to enjoy this new physique of his for long. He wouldn't be able to enjoy anything for long. That Chaos Emerald was the last one. He didn't have much longer left. All he had left in place of all the joy from earlier was an empty, sad feeling.

"Way to kill the mood. Hm?" He felt something tingle on his throat. It was a strong enough sensation that he lifted his fingers up to feel at his throat, only to recoil them away when he felt something lift up off of it. He watched as a small vapor cloud of purple energy floated up to his face, and then quickly dissipated right in front of him. The tingling in his throat disappeared soon after.

He knew instantly what that cloud had been.

"You choose now of all times to remove it? So, what, I can get the truth out to somebody so they know why I'm about to keel over? 'Cause nobody can stop me at this point?" Sorun bitterly thought to himself. "Fuck you, Aurora."

"Sorun?" Hearing his name get called out made Sorun straighten up. He turned towards Shadow, who looked to him in concern. "What's going on?"

"Well... there's an important detail nobody but me ever knew about absorbing these Chaos Emeralds, Shadow." He decided to just come out and say it. For simplicity's sake and for the sake of time, which he was running out of. A large part of him felt scared for doing so. A larger part told the other part it didn't have time to worry. "There's a reason I was so resistant to you back then when you tried forcing that red Chaos Emerald on me." He glanced back to the pedestal the Emerald had sat on, and then looked back at Shadow. "These things are killing me. I'm gonna die pretty soon here."

There'd been little to no emotion in Sorun's voice when he said it. It came out as quiet and low, and slightly cracked, and all he could manage to do was stare impassively at the dark hedgehog standing in front of him. For his part, Shadow had denial flicker across his face. Not shocked disbelief. Pure denial, like he just didn't believe Sorun's words. He shook his head and looked down, appearing more confused than anything else.

"No. No, that doesn't... that doesn't make any sense." He looked back up at Sorun. Not upset. Just confused. "Chaos energy doesn't work that way. An overabundance of it can't harm you, Sorun."

"Humans like me can't handle Chaos energy," Sorun hollowly replied. "No Chaos Force link. Remember?"

Now the understanding was beginning to show. The denial Shadow had was beginning to fade away while realization slowly set in. "No, you're... that isn't true..."

"It happened right after the first one. While I was unconscious." Sorun turned away from the Mobian. "I don't know if you've ever heard of them, but Aurora and Athair are the ones that laid it all out for me. They're these, uh... ghosts, I guess, real close to the Chaos Force. Knuckles knows them, talked to 'em before. Ask him about them when you get a chance. Pulled me in a vision, said each Emerald would take years off my life since my species just didn't evolve to use this Chaos stuff." He turned his head back to Shadow. "I-"

Sorun's words were cut off when a gloved fist hit him square in the center of his face.

The unfortunate aspect of having a regeneration ability now was that his pain receptors weren't fried anymore. He still had an unusually high pain tolerance even among his fellow humans back on Earth, and it seemed that this body made him somewhat further resistant to pain seeing as being punched hard enough to get sent flying across the room and into a wall hadn't resulted him feeling the worst pain imaginable. It still hurt a lot once his back slammed into the wall, resulting in him sliding down into a slumped sitting position.

"Pretty sure he broke my entire face with that punch," Sorun thought with a sigh. By the time he began thinking the bones and muscles in his head had already healed. "Man, what the f-"

His thoughts ended when Shadow appeared right in front of him. His hand shot downwards and snatched onto the collar of Sorun's shirt, after which he was hauled upwards so his face was directly in front of Shadow's. He was about to say something, but Sorun's words died on his lips when he saw the state that half-alien hedgehog was in. A strange combination of his mouth being in an angry snarl while his eyes looked like he was in despair.

"Why wouldn't you tell us!?" a distressed Shadow screamed at him. Sorun had found himself so taken back by how distraught he sounded he couldn't help but go limp in his grasp. "You fool... you idiot, why!?" he screamed out again as he roughly shook Sorun.

"I couldn't," Sorun quietly said. "Aurora used her powers to put some... curse thing on me. That purple thing you saw earlier. Every time I tried telling someone my heart stopped."

"That's why...?" A look of realization came over Shadow's face, and he became so shocked he'd inadvertently dropped Sorun back on the ground. "That's why you acted like that... you, you kept pausing-"

"Yeah, you kept making my heart stop with the questions," Sorun groaned as he sat back up. Shadow, meanwhile, had bowed his head while he rubbed a hand over the side of his face.

"Why wouldn't you just remove it with your sword?" Shadow asked him.

At that, Sorun made a hollow chuckle. "You have no idea how much it hurts knowing you figured that out in seconds when it took me three and a half months-"

"Stupid!" Shadow lashed out again, this time punching the wall next to Sorun's head hard enough that the metal wall heavily dented. Sorun, who didn't even flinch from the hit right next to his head, glanced at the fist before turning his eyes to Shadow who was heavily breathing.

"Shadow, by the time I figured out I could it was way too late. I already had six in me." He looked down at the floor. "Besides, Athair and Aurora, they... they have this limited ability to see into the future. They didn't imply it was very exact or clear, but they had a bit of foresight. They said if I didn't collect Emeralds to get as much power as possible to take Eggman out he'd win. Flat out. They envisioned a future where he won if I didn't do anything." Shadow's breathing calmed down slightly as he listened to Sorun. "The future where I went ahead with it wasn't certain, but it was better than certain doom at Eggman's hand." Sorun shook his head. "I-I couldn't do it, Shadow, I... I tried, I tried running away because I didn't want to die, but I just. Couldn't. Do it. I didn't want the planet to turn into some smog-filled wasteland. I didn't want everybody to die, to see a future where all the Freedom Fighters and my friends get captured, have unspeakable things done with them, get executed, I... I couldn't bear the thought, Shadow." He pressed his palm on the floor and slowly picked himself up to his feet. "I don't want to die. I really don't. But I wanted that future to happen even less. So I decided to go through with it. Even if I knew I could have used the Yamato to remove the curse I probably wouldn't have. I was that desperate to ensure that future wouldn't come to pass that I just went along with it even though it's been eating at me every single day since."

He picked his head up to look at Shadow. He had such a pitiful look on his face that all Shadow could do was silently stare at Sorun.

"I... I'm so messed up, Shadow, but I just don't have time to tell you everything," Sorun mumbled out.

"Just take them out," Shadow tried in an uncharacteristically small voice. "You can separate things with your sword, so why-?"

"Tried. Didn't work."

"But-but your regeneration, can't it-?"

"It appears that isn't so." Shaking his head, Sorun began to slowly walk past Shadow. "Even Vergil had a limit to his regenerative abilities, and since the powers are tied to my heart and how I interpret the powers from the games, the limits I know of are imposed on me. Years of constant fighting cumulated in so much damage that his body was falling apart faster than his ultra high-speed regeneration could fix him." He held his hand up to examine it. "I'm not literally flaking apart into pieces, at least, but the end result will still be the same. The regeneration can heal everything, but it can only go so far. My stamina is high - likely much higher than humanly possible - but no matter how absurdly high it is, even with this body there's still a limit. I can't go forever." The white-haired human turned to the black-furred hedgehog. "That is why... we really must be going. I don't have much more time left, you see."

"..." A look of pure confliction settled on Shadow's face, overtop the distraught look. He tried to say something to Sorun multiple times, but looked so lost that he wasn't able to form words. Eventually, he seemed to come to a decision, and then shook his head at Sorun. "No."

Sorun's shoulders slumped as his hand fell. "Shadow..."

"You're not wasting any more energy by fighting." His shoulder roughly brushed past Sorun's shoulder as he quickly stomped away. "You're staying right here until I get you help."

"There's no helping this-"

Shadow whirled around at Sorun. The angry snarl returned to his face. "I'm not letting you die!" he screamed at him. Sorun was frozen to the spot, while Shadow heavily breathed out from having raised his voice. "I don't want to lose you, too," he'd whispered under his breath, almost too quietly for Sorun to hear, before turning back around. "You're not fighting, and that's final. You're going to stay and rest until somebody figures something out-"

"Shadow, I beg of you!" Sorun had shot forwards and gripped Shadow by the wrist, stopping the hedgehog in his tracks. He turned his head back around to yell at Sorun again, but stopped when he saw the pleading look on the human's face. "This is my final request," Sorun continued in a soft voice. "Nothing can be done to save me. And if I'm to die, I want it to at least mean something. I don't want my friends to be hurt, and believe it or not that includes you. So before I die, I want to drag Eggman down to hell with me."

"... If your soul is bound to wind up anywhere, it wouldn't be there." With a resigned look, Shadow pulled his wrist free from Sorun's grasp. "We'll go."

Sorun blinked in surprise. He stared silently at Shadow for some seconds, and then turned away from him at the same time Yamato appeared in his grasp. A blue cross was quickly cut into the air in front of him, following which it folded inwards into a portal.

Once the portal was opened, Sorun sheathed the katana back into the scabbard held in his left hand. He waited a moment, and then turned his head halfway so one of his eyes met Shadow's eyes. "Thank you, Shadow," he said. "I don't think I'll have time to explain to the others, so... do me one last favor and tell them for me, will you?"

"... Tsk. You have a lot of final favors, Sorun." Whether he was being sarcastic or not was unclear to Sorun due to the low, downcast tone Shadow had adopted. Sorun made no outward reaction, and then turned to the portal.

"Sorry for asking so much." He began stepping forwards. "Come on."

Without another word, the two of them silently walked through the portal.


The scene on the other side of the portal may as well have been a war zone from what Sorun saw.

It was a somewhat familiar sight. Like he was standing near the end of a giant, floating aircraft carrier's runway, with clear, blue sky all around. In fact he was fairly certain this was the exact same model of ship as the one he, Sonic, and Tails had acquired the first Chaos Emerald from, all the way back then. Might've even been the same specific ship, really, though there was no knowing how many of the same types of ship Eggman had built before Enerjak destroyed most of them.

The runway was littered in the bodies of Badniks of various types, too. When Sorun looked to his right he saw everybody just to the side of him and Shadow. Both the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix, all huddled up into a singular group and fending off any robots that came their way. Some must have noticed their arrival, as quite a few pairs of eyes had turned over to look at them.

And then Sorun got impaled through the chest when he heard heavy footfalls. He'd managed to turn his head just in time to see the red Egg Pawn that had rammed its lance through him.

"... Fucking ow." He hadn't made any sound in response to the impalement, or to the Badnik still running forwards and carrying Sorun along with his body hanging off the lance held in the robot's hands. He just continued to stare down at the lance carrying him with curious eyes. "Wow, this hurts, but... oddly enough not as much as I thought it would. This body's weird."

It still felt like a giant, sharp, metal object pushed in through his chest and out his back, which in of itself was excruciating, but it wasn't an overwhelming type of pain. He found it curious.

He'd made it all the way to right in front of the group of Mobian before he felt another burst of pain on his left shoulder when an Egg Pawn from behind lanced through his shoulder, stopping his momentum. It didn't even stop there when a third and final Egg Pawn ran up from the side and ran its lance all the way through Sorun's right thigh.

All the sounds of fighting that had been going on all around went silent. Everybody, even the surrounding Badniks, had gone completely still as everybody present looked towards the skewered human standing in front of the Freedom Fighters. Sorun himself had turned his head towards the group, his face remaining impassive when he saw everybody staring at him with wide, horrified eyes.

And then he looked ahead and downwards at the lance impaling him and made an annoyed sound. "I just got this coat."

His palm shot outwards and hit the face of the Badnik standing in front of him that'd impaled his chest. Much to the surprise of everybody staring, its face had crumpled in and its body had been sent flying back a good twenty meters before sliding to a stop. The other two Egg Pawns impaling Sorun silently turned their heads towards the Badnik that had been knocked so far back, with another dying when Sorun's hand grabbed its mechanical head and crushed it completely in his grasp.

"I freakin' swear, that crazy cat'd kill me if I wasn't already dying if she saw this," Sorun grumpily thought to himself. He turned around and began to approach the Freedom Fighters, having removed and tossed away the lance in his leg in the process. The final Egg Pawn, the one holding onto the lance stuck into his shoulder, was dragged right behind Sorun as it maintained its hold on its lance. Sorun briefly paused, reached behind him, and then grasped the lance only to pull it out of his shoulder. And then he threw the lance, the Badnik skirting away after losing losing its hold on the lance, and then fell onto its back.

It hadn't been able to get up before Sorun tore the lance out of his chest and threw it with enough force that it buried itself all the way to the hilt in the robot's midsection. Its lights dimmed immediately after.

"Ahhh..." With a satisfied sigh, he ran a hand through his white hair, and then turned around to the Mobians behind him. He found it a positive they didn't look horrified anymore. More bewildered than anything else. He turned his head to the front of the pack, where he saw Sally standing closer to him than anybody else. She had the same deer-caught-in-headlights look that the rest of the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix had. "We're not too late, are we?" Sorun asked her in a bland tone.

"Um... no, you're a bit earlier than expected, actually..." She said. Sally then quickly cleared her to regain her composure as she looked Sorun in the eyes after forcing herself to look up from the hole in his chest that had sealed itself. "Are you okay? You just, um... got stabbed."

"Yeah, 'cause guess who got a sweet new regeneration power from the last Emerald?" He waved his regenerated right arm at the group, and then pointed at his right eye. "Do you see the point?"

There had been the beginnings of smiles that began to spread around to everybody when they saw Sorun's condition. And then he'd made the pun, and all the growing smiles dropped right down to flat looks all around, all directed at Sorun. Flat stares and an awkward silence that made Sorun unconsciously shuffle his feet as he began to regret what he'd said.

"... Ohhh, I get it! Eet iz because he iz having both of ze eyeballs now-!"

Somebody punched Antoine's arm. He shut up with a startled yelp.

"This is why I don't do puns," Sorun groaned to himself as a scowling Shadow walked to his side. "Alright, bottom line, thank you for the concern but I am quite literally better than ever."

"Are you sure there isn't anything else worth mentioning?" Shadow asked. Sorun turned to him to see the dark hedgehog's eyes boring into his own. "Something vitally important?"

Sorun shrugged. "Eh, it can wait. No need to distract anybody right now. 'Sides, it ain't all that important."

Shadow blinked, giving Sorun a look like he'd just been slapped across the face. "Not important...?" he'd repeated in a quiet voice. If Sorun's vision wasn't so good right now he would have thought he'd hallucinated seeing Shadow actually look hurt for a second there. But he'd dropped that look immediately, going back to his normal scowl as he turned to the side towards Sally, who was looking back and forth between them with an odd look. "I noticed not everybody's here," he said.

"Well, Rotor's flying around in the Special to draw this ship's attention-" Sally began, though was cut off when Shadow held his hand up.

"No, I mean Rouge," he clarified. "Did she not show up?"

Sally shook her head. "We haven't seen her or heard any word from her."

A look of surprise flashed across Shadow's face. "That isn't right..."

"Maybe she got lost. No helping it now." Sorun nodded his head behind him as he turned around. "We still got all that to deal with."

The runway on the ship was still filled with robots that were all staring at the massive group. Sorun was less focused on them and more on the giant ship behind them all that the runway was attached to. He stared with loathsome eyes at the robots blocking the way as Yamato appeared in his hands.

"Useless pests." Slowly, he began to draw the sword from the scabbard. "Serious question. Eggman on the ship somewhere?" Sorun asked as he turned his head to Sally.

His eyebrows rose a bit when he saw her nod. "As far as we can figure, yes. He taunted all of us through the ship's loudspeaker a bit before you got here."

"Sounds like him." Just when the sword was fully removed, Sorun heard a zipping sound right next to him. He glanced to the side just enough to see Sonic looking at him with a half-exhausted, half-relieved look.

"Man, Sorun, why do you gotta act so scary all the time?" he asked with a loud sigh. "I know you can heal now and everything, but do you really have to go and get stuck like that? Doesn't it hurt?"

"Ehhhhh I pretty much just ignore it," Sorun lightly replied.

Sonic sighed and shook his head. "You really do have a high pain tolerance, huh?" He looked past Sorun and at Sally. "So what are we doing here?"

"I was thinking..."

The rest of what Sally was saying was tuned out by Sorun as he continued to stare ahead. A slight scowl formed on his face at the sight of all the robots. The incredibly weak robots, at least compared to how strong he was now. Robots that only served to stall him and waste more of his time. "Maybe during all the fighting I can pull time stop and slip past 'em all. Most of the forces are probably out here, so the inside should be relatively clear. Even if it isn't, well... doesn't really matter now, does it?" His grip tightened around Yamato's handle. "No matter what, I need to get to him before I run out of time."

"Alright, so we're just gonna blast our way forwards?" Sonic's voice drew Sorun's attention, causing him to glance towards the hedgehog again as he continued talking to Sally. "Kinda a blunt plan for you, isn't it?"

"Well, we don't really have a lot of choices right now, do we?" she countered as she nodded to the horde of robots all in front of them. "It's all in or bust at this point. Our only option's to push onwards."

"So we're going with charging forwards with reckless abandon?" Sorun asked. "Yeah, sure, I can get behind that."

Without another word, he Tricked right in front of the closest Egg Pawn.

"Alright, let's see if I can actually get this to work..." He knew early on trying to mimic the movements and sword techniques of a video game character was fruitless. Not because he didn't know the moves. He knew them intrinsically from burning every frame of their animations into his memory just to get through those games on all the highest difficulties, to visualize the hitboxes. Sorun knew the movements perfectly. The problem was at the time he wasn't a video game character like Vergil and just didn't have the supernatural hand-eye coordination or dexterity to pull Dark Slayer style off. So he'd had to rely on more conventional, basic swordplay to effectively use the katana he used.

With this body, that logic wasn't so applicable anymore.

It'd... half worked, somewhat, when he tried. The execution was flawless. Sorun had jumped in the air while spinning around with his sword at the same time, hitting the Egg Pawn and lifting it into the air right in front of him while doing so. The issue came in that he was still using a magical katana that cut through everything, and the Egg Pawn wasn't a video game enemy. So when it rose high up in the air along with Sorun, it fell away in two halves as a dropping Sorun watched them fall with a somewhat disappointed look.

"... Why do I even try anymore?" He mentally sighed at himself, and then Tricked in front of a whole group of Badniks. He'd appeared in a low stance, sheathed katana in his left hand with his right hovering over the handle. He grabbed it, pulled the sword out in a single slash, and then pushed it back into the scabbard only to pull it out again. Over and over he'd rapidly pull the blade in and out of the sheath, unleashing countless slashes the robots and rending them to pieces in a blink of an eye. "This new body really is too great."

He slashed out one more time with enough force that Sorun's body slid forwards, behind the robots. He spun the sword around in his hand, and at the exact moment he'd slammed the sword back into its scabbard the robots fell apart into pieces. He spun on his feet and dashed forwards in a straight line, rapidly slashing at anything in his way before abruptly stopping and sliding on his feet until his momentum gave out. Again, he spun around and sheathed his sword, causing white sparks to fly out where the bottom of the sword met the scabbard. And again, a handful of robots became undone by his sword.

"Okay yeah, no, they're just way too weak for me now." He looked backwards, past all the robot corpses he'd just made. Both the Chaotix and Freedom Fighters were holding their own against the robots attacking them. And faring fairly well, too, seeing as the Badnik numbers were dropping while the Mobians looked to be just getting started. "Screw it, they can handle themselves and I'm just wasting my time with the basic fodder. I'm cutting my way to the final boss."

If things were different, and he wasn't so limited on time, he would have stayed with them. Maybe showed off a bit more in front of some people just to try and milk some praise out of it, maybe even try and wow Antoine with the sword skills he could use now. He doubted anybody even saw him do any of what he just did since they were all so preoccupied fighting. He didn't even have enough time to stop and appreciate just how strong he'd become now to consider killer robots he'd once feared as mere fodder. Annoyances to be cut down without a thought.

He didn't even have enough time to think about how much of a shame it was.

To that end, he'd used Quicksilver to stop time completely. He sprinted past all the frozen robots at speeds he was sure normal human senses would have grown nauseous over, and in a time so short he could scarcely comprehend it Sorun had made it all the way to the front of the ship the runway was connected to, at the back of the Badnik horde. He barely held back the scoff that formed on his lips before he turned around and cut an entrance into the ship.

He heard a peculiar sound just as the hole was made by the cut. A loud spinning sound mixed in with the sound of countless robots behind Sorun being shredded. He turned around, shocked to see a blue form spinning through dozens and dozens and dozens of robots as it span through the air right towards Sorun. In the span of what Sorun counted to be one or two seconds Sonic alone had cut through what was probably around a hundred Badniks of various types before stopping on his feet right in front of Sorun. He didn't look the least bit worst for wear. He was even smirking at Sorun.

"Hey, man, what's the hurry?" Sonic asked a wide-eyed Sorun in a carefree voice. "Fight's back there."

"Hhh..." Getting over his shock quickly, Sorun nodded his head at the entrance into the ship he cut in. "Everybody out here has things handled. I figured I'd take a shot at the big man while a majority of the robots out here are distracted."

"Yeah, I kind of figured you'd go and pull a move like that," Sonic commented, yet again making some surprise grow in Sorun. He was surprised for a third time when Sonic glanced over his shoulder, shrugged, and looked back at Sorun. "I guess you got a point," he admitted. "No way a bunch of two-bit bots are gonna get the better of all of them, especially when they're together like that." He gave Sorun an even bigger, almost competitive smirk. "You got a whole lot more than just healing and a new hairdo out of that Emerald, huh? I saw those moves back there."

Sorun perked up a bit in silent pride. "Maaaybe," he evasively answered in a coy tone. "Were they a bit too fast for you to make out?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "You're pretty fast now, but you ain't that fast," he said. "Seriously, though, what's with the hair?"

"It turned white on its own, I don't know, is this really the time?"

"I guess not. I swear, those Emeralds give you the weirdest stuff..." Sonic clicked his tongue and pointed a finger gun at Sorun. "I think it's a neat look for ya, actually. I bet Nicole'll really like it!"

Sorun's entire body flinched. He deeply frowned at the reminder of her, and then turned his head away from Sonic. "Why did you have to go bring her up?" he quietly asked.

"Ahh, no reason. Just teasin'." Sonic stepped forwards a bit so he was at Sorun's side, his green eyes staring at the hole in the ship. "Anyways, if you're heading directly towards Egghead himself I may as well join in. Everybody else has our backs covered. Sound good?"

No, it assuredly did not sound good. Sorun didn't want anybody getting in his way of killing Eggman, and Sonic already proved he was somebody that would actively get in the way of him doing just that. But unfortunately, saying no to something as sensible as Sonic's suggestion without a good reason wouldn't deter him with going ahead with accompanying Sorun anyways. And try as he might, Sorun couldn't think of a good reason to get Sonic to stay behind.

And so, with a sigh, Sorun nodded his head. "Fine. Just don't slow me down."

"Hah! All that new power the Chaos Emerald gave you is going to your head a bit, isn't it?" With a laugh, Sonic began walking towards the hole in the ship. "Well, come on, Sorun! Let's do it to it!"

The words he'd heard elicited an almost pained groan from Sorun. He stared after Sonic's spiky backside, and his face wrinkled in an unpleasant way at the hedgehog's phrase. "I'm almost glad I'm dying just so I never have to hear that again," he quietly muttered under his breath as he began following after Sonic.


There were all sorts of humbling experiences Sorun had experienced in life. Humbling experiences that served educational purposes he begrudgingly accepted. Seeing Mobians in the Freedom Fighters that displayed abilities far above his own, at least months ago, had always made some hopeless pit form in Sorun's stomach at seeing just how generally better or smarter or more powerful everyone around him was and how he was basically nothing compared to them.

Things like being beaten at video games by Nicole was humbling in that it was exciting. She was his only equal there in that area. The only person that could challenge him and make him really enjoy his favorite pastime. The constant back-and-forth between them was exhilerating. But everything he did with her was exciting, so he didn't know if that counted.

Then there was this. Seeing Sonic cut through swarms of Badniks as he and Sorun pushed deeper into the ship. If they bothered to keep track of the numbers, Sonic would be far ahead of Sorun in terms of the sheer number of robots he'd dismantled. Even before that, on the runway on top of the ship when Sonic had blown through a hundred robots in the blink of an eye Sorun had begun wondering.

"I always knew he was powerful. Still though..." He'd known all the way back when he'd watched Sonic cut through anti-air guns probably thirty or fifty times his own size like they were nothing while Sorun watched from the safety of a circling plane. He knew when he fought with him at that factory that Sonic was a lot more powerful than he acted. That little display of Sonic's on that runway, though, with all those Badniks. Even now, as the two made their way through the interior of the ship, with Sorun merely lazily slashing away at the odd robot while Sonic effortlessly blitzed through the rest. Even with his newfound speed it seemed to Sorun like Sonic was just making a light jog to keep up with him and destroy all the robots in their way.

"Just how strong is Sonic really?"

"Kinda feelin' like you're slacking here, Sorun!" Sonic called out as he spun through yet again another robot. He landed on the ground already matching Sorun's pace as they ran through the metal halls. "And here I figured you'd wanna show off your new powers a bit more!"

He did, once. Until Sonic started showing off. And the knowledge of the time limit he was on in the back of his mind was still keeping Sorun down. "I think I showed off enough," he replied in a terse voice.

"Why you gotta be so serious? We're doing great," Sonic boasted. "'Sides, we've cleared out so much of this place I doubt there's much else left."

"You say that now..." Sorun muttered in response. They were coming up on another large door, one of many that had been blocking their path forwards deeper into the ship. Like the previous doors, this one had been swiftly cut through by Sorun's Yamato.

The two of teens had slowed down to a small walk, and then stopped completely when they came to the next room. Massive. Spacious. Circular. The kind of room Sorun had grown accustomed to Eggman using whenever he wanted to throw something big at someone, which made his shoulders slump a bit. The fact there was a giant TV monitor hanging on the other end of the room did nothing to curb his suspicions.

And just like clockwork, the TV flickered to life. It went through some static at first, and then switched to a broadcast of Eggman. Nothing surprising there. Sorun focused less on the man himself and more on seeing as much of the background behind Eggman as much as possible. He was pleased to find that most of the metal interior he saw greatly resembled what he and Sonic had seen as they ran through the ship. He most assuredly was somewhere close.

"Well, if it isn't Sonic and... Sorun?" Hearing his voice drew the white-haired Earthling's attention towards the screen. Eggman, oddly enough, looked a bit confused as seeing Sorun standing next to Sonic. "What are you... wait, did you- did you dye your hair?" He leaned closer to the monitor and readjusted his blue-tinted spectacles. "I-I'm confused, what's going on here?"

Sorun blinked. He didn't know what to expect out of him, but that kind of reaction hadn't been one he'd ever dream of. Him being clueless as to why Sorun was standing there. What had he expected after having just left the Emerald there for him to grab?

"It's from the last Chaos Emerald," Sorun announced to him in a slow voice. "The one you so graciously left for me in that storage facility."

"... No?" The explanation for some reason only served to make Eggman even more confused. "I'm, uh... I'm pretty sure that was a fake signal I set up. There wasn't a Chaos Emerald there. Just a trap." A beat passed. "How did you get past my trap?"

It was Sorun's turn to look confused. "There was no trap."

"Come again?"

"There was no trap."

His lips thinning, Eggman tapped at the side of the monitor at something. The microphone, Sorun assumed, from the small booming sound that came from the monitor's speaker. "Err, Sorun, I don't think the audio receptors here are picking up the sound right. Finicky things, you know how it is. Could you speak up louder?"

"Eggman, there wasn't a trap," Sorun called up in a slightly louder voice. "There were a bunch of busted-up robots, but no trap. The Chaos Emerald was just sitting there waiting for me. I'd thank you for just giving it to me freely, but... well, I'm starting to think that wasn't your intention."

"But that doesn't make any-!" Eggman cut himself off at the same time his entire body went rigid in realization. "Oh, that interloper..." He'd venomously hissed out. There'd been so much spite that seemed to be running through him that he'd even went as far as to bang his fist on something nearby.

Sorun blinked again and tilted his head. "Does he know the Emeralds are... no, that's impossible, and it doesn't explain the dead robots. What does he mean by interloper?" he thought. Sonic, meanwhile, had placed his hands on his hips and began to impatiently tap his foot on the ground at a rapid pace as he glared up at the TV screen.

"Save it for somebody who cares, Doc," Sonic called up. "Come on, we all know the drill at this point. Show us the big, bad new Badnik you cooked up so we can whoop its butt and move on to you."

"You obstinate... ergh, fine. Have it your way." Eggman extended his finger and reached out to press a button that was outside the viewing of the screen the two teens were watching. "We'll see just how far that attitude of yours will carry you when you get a look at my newest creation!"

A loud whirring sound reached the ears of both Sonic and Sorun. They looked up towards the ceiling, bored expressions plastering both their faces, as a large aperture in the ceiling began to open up. No sooner did it finish opening did something large drop in from the new hole in the ceiling, and then land on the ground in the center of the room with enough force that the ground underneath the teens' feet shook slightly. They both continued to watch with bored, unimpressed faces as the new Badnik in front of them began to slowly stand up.

"It's gonna take a lot more than some quick footwork and a new hairstyle to take this one down, boys." It was a much sleeker robot than most of the other ones of Eggman's make that Sorun had encountered. A thin, bipedal form with sleek, nearly seamless silver plating. A thin torso and limbs, and a head that was actually shaped like a head and featureless save for two round, red sensors for its eyes. Its left hand, both of which sported pointed, metal fingers, was empty. In the right one, which earned an eye raise form Sorun, was a katana. A gigantic, thick katana whose blade length looked more than twice as long as Sorun's whole body. "I've taken to call this one the Egg Ninja."

"Egg Ninja, huh?" Sorun looked down at the katana held in his right hand, scoffed, and then looked up at the giant Badnik four times his size standing in the center of the room. Both he and Sonic slowly began to walk towards it side by side, with Sorun raising his left hand and slowly wagging his finger left and right at the robot. "You should come to realize that copying my weapon will serve you no good."

"A cheap imitation ain't gonna get ya anywhere, Eggman," Sonic added. "Just give it up now so we can save everyone some time and go home."

"We'll just have to see about that, won't we?" Eggman snarked back at them. "Egg Ninja! Attack them!"

The large Badnik, practically skeletal from how it was constructed, swiveled its head down to look directly at the two teens that stopped right in front of it. For a brief second, red light flared out from its round, red eye-sensors, and soon after it had rose up its huge, broad katana. Sorun rose his eyes up to lazily follow the machine's movements, and right as the katana was risen far above its head, it swung down towards Sorun in particular.

Slow. It was the only word he could use to describe how slowly the edge of the large katana was bearing down on him. Not that the machine itself was slow- in fact, Sorun suspected if he was running on normal human reflexes it would have swung too fast for him to react in time, and he would have had to rely on Sonic to save him. But with this new body and its reflexes, the blade was slow to him. Painfully slow, almost. So much that, when its edge had just reached him, all he had to do was lazily hold up his own katana to block the Egg Ninja's.

A loud clang! sound resounded throughout the room from the contact of the blades. Sparks flew out from the contact, the force from the strike had blown some of the teen's hair back, and while Sorun's arm and sword were completely still, he could see and even feel the Badnik's arm and sword shake from the effort of keeping the deadlock between them going. For Sorun, all he felt was a moderate amount of pressure pressing down on Yamato. Sonic stood off to the side, arms crossed and mouth in a smirk as he watched the display.

"Not bad for a new haircut, huh?" Sorun muttered out. Blue energy flowed up the length of Yamato, after which Sorun pushed the blade further. It effortlessly cut through the Egg Ninja's katana with such force that the half of the blade that had been cut away flew high and above Sorun and Sonic, spinning end over end through the air before it fell to the ground. Its tip impaled the ground just behind Sorun and Sonic, who stood unflinching as they glanced at each other.

"Alright, alright, not bad," Sonic complimented. "You got the cool factor down pat, the one-liner was on point, and the sharp bit landing behind us was a nice touch. I'll give it a eight outta ten."

Sorun made a half-amused snort. "Such high standards," he drawled out in response. "You wanna finish it off? I can't be bothered to fight a knock-off."

"Yeah, sure thing." Sonic looked back up at the Egg Ninja, which began to back off away from the two. "What was that thing you said once? Spin to win?"

"You got it." There was a blue flash as one of Sorun's Bringer Claws appeared. It opened its hand up to the ceiling and hovered next to Sonic. "You ever hear of a Fastball Special?"

Sonic looked down at the large, blue hand next to him. His smirk grew into a wide grin. "Nope, but I think I can figure it out." He looked up at Sorun. "We throwin'?"

"We throwin'."

A look of complete understanding was passed between the two of them. Without needed any instruction Sonic jumped up into the air and began spinning. His spinning, spherical blue form fell right into the open palm of the Bringer Claw, which began to rear back in preparation. Blue, ethereal sparks began flying to the sides of the palm as Sonic's spines inadvertently ground into the spectral hand holding his spinning form. Sorun paid this little mind, and instead focused on aiming at the center of the Egg Ninja.

Sorun's Bringer Arm threw Sonic soon after.

Even Sorun's newly-enhanced perception couldn't keep up with Sonic as he flew threw the air. It was less his ball-like form collided with the Badnik and more like a straight, blue line had just instantly appeared in the air and punched right through the silver robot's chest. The line went all the way to the back of the room, to the TV that had once displayed Eggman's shocked face before Sonic had made contact and shattered the monitor completely. His body continued to zoom around, his ball-like form trailing a blue speed line behind him as he passed through the Egg Ninja multiple times, separating limbs, its head, and rendering its torso to smaller and smaller pieces.

It'd all taken place in a fraction of the time it took Sorun to blink.

Once he had blinked the robot was already falling to the floor in pieces, with Sonic standing right there in front of Sorun. He looked as smug as ever, and even a bit excited.

"Whoo! We gotta do that one more often!" A light chuckle left Sonic as he made a small hop, stretching his neck left and right while Sorun stared at him. "What'd you call it? Fastball Special? Yeah, yeah I really like it. It's got a real nice ring to it."

"... Your speed's kind of scary, Sonic," Sorun breathed out as he sheathed Yamato. "I'm probably fast enough to catch bullets out of the air now and I still can barely follow you when you move like that."

"Ah, well, what can I say?" Sonic asked with a wide grin and a shrug. "Speed's my game, and I'm the best player in it."

"You're the kind of person that dumps all their points into dex, aren't you?" A sudden sound reached Sorun's ears and made his head perk up. Metal footsteps on a metal surface. "Mm?" He turned his head around. "Shadow?"

The unexpected appearance of the black and red hedgehog caused surprise on the part of both Sorun and Sonic. Sorun more at seeing that look he had on his face. He looked disturbed and angry at the same time, though he was trying to hide it from the slight strain Sorun saw on his face. He didn't seem to be doing a good job of it, and somewhere deep down he felt a bit guilty at seeing the expression on Shadow's face.

Sonic didn't seem to pick up on it, though, perhaps mistaking it for Shadow's usual dour mood, and chose to wave at the other Mobian. "Yo! Shads! How's everything going outside?"

Somehow, Shadow managed to add a grimace on top of everything else on his face. "Not poorly, but things could be better," he said. "How's the situation in here?"

"Well, Eggman had this shiny-new death bot all ready and waiting for us," Sorun said, right before softly kicked at one of the pieces of the Egg Ninja that'd rolled to his feet. "Wanna say it lasted, like, a minute. And most of that was just Eggman monologuing." He looked back to Shadow. "Probably not much more resistance in here with everything we cut through to get here and all the robots that're outside."

Sorun looked right into Shadow's eyes when Sonic finished speaking. The unsaid message seemed to be received by him based on the deep sigh he gave. Following that, he turned towards Sonic.

"I think the others could use our assistance outside with the remaining Badniks," he said, and then turned to Sorun. "Could you deal with the Doctor before he escapes?"

"Yeah," Sorun said. "Of course."

Sonic, still acting as his usual self, interlocked his hands behind his quills while looking at Shadow. "The 'Ultimate Lifeform' can't handle a bunch of bots with everyone else helping? Eh, I guess there were a lot of 'em. Wouldn't want anyone to get hurt." He glanced back at Sorun. "Hey, go try and capture him if you want, but if it's lookin' too dicey just fall back." He gave Sorun a pointed look. "Capture. Got it?"

"'Course."

Sonic maintained that look he was giving Sorun for a few moments. Long enough that the Earthling began to assume he didn't believe him when he said that. But then he'd simply began grinning a bit and turned around.

"Alright, I'm out. See you in a bit, Sorun!"

He zoomed off in a blue blur right after, back out the way he and Sorun had come in originally. Both Sorun and Shadow stared after him, and once he'd disappeared from their sight they turned towards each other. That angry, disturbed look remained on the half-hedgehog's face, while Sorun's devolved into a sad frown.

"It really looking bad out there?" Sorun asked.

Shadow shook his head. "No. There's still many out there, but everybody's dealing with them handily. But it should be enough of a distraction for the blue hedgehog that you can proceed uninhibited to Robotnik."

"..." Sorun looked off to the side. At an open corridor that likely lead further down into the ship. Towards where Eggman was. "Thanks, Shadow." He looked back at the Mobian. "Are you coming with?"

"I'll... stay with Sonic and the others," he said. "To try and stall them. Give you time to do what's needed." He made a deep breath. "How are you feeling?"

"... Tired," he admitted to him. "Not by much. It's getting worse the longer I go on. And when I finally go to sleep, I... I don't think I'll wake up." Sorun exhaled through his nose and turned away. "I... I, I never managed to think up any last words. Don't got any final messages or anything like that for anyone. So this is goodbye."

"Sorun." He only made it a few steps before Shadow called out his name, making him stop. "I... I'm sorry this happened to you."

"What are you sorry for? You're the only one that didn't agree to use that portal to drag someone into this world." He began walking forwards again. "At least tell the others I don't blame them. Especially Tails. This might mess him up a bit. And tell Nicole..." He stopped to consider his words, but then shook his head and kept moving on. "N-never mind, don't tell her anything. It's not important."

He felt a hand roughly grab his shoulder and whirl him around before he could get any further. He was met with Shadow's crimson eyes staring directly into his blue orbs. Pained and conflicted, looking like he wanted to shout at Sorun. All he could manage was to deeply sigh and let go of Sorun as he stared at the hedgehog with a lifeless, sad look.

"You shouldn't have to be going through this," Shadow mumbled out. "There's truly nothing I can do to help?"

Sorun's eyes glanced away from Shadow. He made a small sigh, and then placed his right palm on Shadow's shoulder. "It was real knowin' you, Shadow." The hand limply slid off his shoulder, followed by Sorun turning around. "I don't have time to mope about myself anymore. I have a job to do."

He started walking forwards again. Shadow's arm twitched when it threatened to reach out to him one more time, but with a subdued breath he had it stay at his side. He whirled around right after, and the two took off in opposite directions.


"Useless things everywhere."

Slash!

"Where is he?"

Slash!

"Where where where...?"

Sorun hadn't pictured the end of his life being a mad dash through the metal innards of a flying ship as he desperately searched for a mad scientist to kill him with a magic katana from a video game, but here he was, doing just such a thing. He hadn't imagined it'd be while he was so young, either, but he made do.

He hadn't been embellishing that much when he told Shadow he'd been feeling a bit tired. That's really all it had been: a bit of exhaustion. The deeper he went, though, and the longer he spent looking and cutting through any robots in his way, the more that sensation grew.

There wasn't any pain. Just growing exhaustion. Weariness. Weakness. He could even feel his heartbeat begin to slow. Not at an alarming pace. It was more gradual, slowing at such a minute pace he hadn't noticed it until the change was significant, and even then Sorun was too preoccupied cutting through all these Badniks as he searched for Robotnik.

Nothing mattered to him but finding and killing that man before he died. It was his sole focus.

His sword cut through yet another robot. More, dozens and dozens more, stood in his way in the wide, metal corridor Sorun had found himself in. He breathed in and out heavily, dark oil dripping off the edge of his katana as he stared at the crowd of robots with hateful eyes.

"I know Robotnik programmed you all with limited intelligence and fear." Sorun began to quickly walk forwards while brandishing his sword. "So unless you want to die, I suggest YOU GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!"

Some actually had moved aside to allow Sorun to pass. Around half of them. They'd begun shaking, some dropped their weapons, and they moved aside to allow Sorun to run through. Others didn't, and tried to run him through with their own weapons. They were all cut down in what may as well have been an instant.

He didn't stop to look at the Badniks as their pieces hit the floor. He only continued moving forwards.


"Well, maybe we can make it a regular thing. Yeah, after the big mission tomorrow we'll all come here to celebrate. We could even make it a regular thing after missions. It'd be really nice, huh?"

Sonic's words kept getting stuck in Sorun's head as he continued cutting through robots.

What would Sorun have given just to have a quiet day enjoying time at a diner with everybody just like old times? Like at that party they'd all had? Times where he could shut out the world's problems and just enjoy life, if just for a few moments. Mobians were the kind of people that acted like that's what they always wanted to do. Sorun could respect it, strive to live like that, in fact. Maybe that's why he liked them so much.

Mobians were simple. Easy to understand, generally enjoyed living life for the sake of life. Had a tendency for wanting to preserve nature and life. Sally had once told Sorun Mobians avoided going into an industrial revolution just so they didn't pollute the environment. Didn't stop them from developing highly advanced technology, but Chaos energy in the form of the Power Rings and such made this kind of thing a possibility. For all the trouble it caused Sorun personally, it was actually the cleanest source of energy imaginable. That and all the weird sorts of technology and apparent magic this world had was probably the only reason Mobians made it so far without poisoning the planet on their end.

It was something that resonated with Sorun. The desire to preserve life. Most Mobians he met possessed this quality to some extent. Annoying at times, such as when Sonic stopped Sorun from killing Eggman, but... he still thought it was nice. That they thought all life was a precious thing that needed to be protected so everybody could live in peace. It was a philosophy of theirs developed to a point it wasn't some naïve, innocent idea but a true code they lived by. The Freedom Fighters being formed and the lengths they'd gone to protect as many people as possible and overthrow Eggman to save the world said enough about their tenacity in defending this point. They simply did it because they wanted everybody to be free to live happily, and even if they had to go so far as to fight for it, they'd fight for it. Not naïve. Just determined, hopeful.

Sorun liked that about them, could even understand the logic. He'd be a fool going this far to save them if he didn't.

But there was just something to their pure nature that was so alluring to him. He just couldn't tell why. Traits they all wore on their sleeves that made them so easy to read and be around. Antoine and his loyal and cowardly nature, the latter of which Sorun had seen him drop when it was most important. Sally and her love of all the people that lived in the Republic of Acorn. Sonic and that childish, competitive attitude of his that fitted over his desire to help others purely because he was that good a person. Most Mobians were good like that. They had their ugly sides, too, but who didn't? Sorun'd be more worried if there weren't flaws. At least with them they were easy to see. Another nice trait he liked about them.

Part of why he just couldn't find it in himself to damn them to a doomed future was just because he liked these people too much. They were just too... good. In every sense of the word. And he liked them. Liked being around them. Liked not having to think so hard just to interact with them, that he could just relax around them and focus more on enjoying life. He simply enjoyed living with Mobians.

He would have liked little more than to just hang out at a diner with all his friends and not have to worry about him dying just so he could save them.


"Getting closer..."

He was down there, cutting through swarms of Badniks just to get to Robotnik. And he'd get there, too, which was the problem. Why he was needed here, Rubrum supposed.

He couldn't let Sorun kill Eggman. As much as he'd love to see Sorun cut him down with his sword, or even do it himself, he just couldn't. Wasn't in His backwards-ass plan Rubrum couldn't comprehend. It was maddening to know the why of why he had to stop Sorun and not know the why of why it had to be like this specifically. But what did he know? He was just the idiot following what the list told him.

It'd be leagues easier if he didn't have to do it without Sorun seeing him, though.

"Ugh, what a pain..." With a sigh, Rubrum looked down from his position, at the large bridge Sorun had just run through cleaving down robots left and right. He rose his right hand up from his side, arcs of red energy and red, ethereal cubes flowing around the appendage. "I guess I'll have to twist reality a bit to make this work."


"Hey. Nicole. I want to ask you something."

The edges of his vision were blacking out. His heartrate was at a rate he didn't want to think about. Exhaustion was making him breath heavily. His whole body was feeling more and more heavy by the minute.

"Hm? Of course, Sorun. What is it?"

He remembered this conversation. They'd had it at the hospital, when she'd found the time to play some games with him after he'd taken the game system from the HQ. It'd been a question he wanted to ask her for no other reason than it had been at the back of his mind, bugging him. And deep down he'd already known the answer. But he couldn't help from asking anyways.

"How... how upset would you be if I died? Just, you know, hypothetically speaking."

She'd paused the game and then slowly set the controller down, and then turned to him while giving him a quizzical look. "Why would you ask such a question?"

"... Morbid curiosity?"

Her ears had flattened a bit, and she'd given him a look that almost seemed disappointed in some way. "I'm not sure what would cause you to think up such a thing." Her ears had straightened out as she looked down in thought. "I would understandably be quite distraught, as I'm sure would be the reaction of everybody that knows you, Sorun. Is that not the appropriate reaction to somebody close to you dying?"

"Is that what we are, Nicole? Close?"

"We are friends, are we not?"

Sorun had been forced to look away from her. "The best," he'd said to her. "You were the only one I felt comfortable with befriending before anybody else. I never did tell you thanks for putting up with me for so long."

"I've never felt burdened by being with you, Sorun." He looked back to her in surprise when he heard that. He'd felt complete shock when he saw the lynx smiling at him. "I thoroughly enjoy spending time with you. You're... quite special to me. Which is why I would be so distraught should you meet a premature end to your life." Without missing a beat, she'd picked the controller back up to return to the game. "But you're well on the way to recovery. There's no need to worry about you dying."

"Yeah," Sorun confirmed as he grasped his own controller. "Of course."

A Judgement Cut sliced a Egg Hammer that had been standing in Sorun's way to pieces. "Why does it feel like I'm just as worried over hurting you as I am dying, Nicole?" Sorun wondered to himself as he continued running forwards. "Why, in these final moments, did it have to be you in my thoughts? Why does just thinking about your name keep pushing me forwards? It's not like I'm doing this just for you. It's for everyone. So why?"

He'd turned a corner so fast he was forced to drag his hand along the ground just to turn sharply enough without losing much momentum. He'd pushed his fingers into the metal ground hard enough to leave small trenches.

"It's always been you that I think about the most. I don't know why. Because you were the only one that brought some sense of normalcy in this fucked up situation of mine? Because we got along and bonded so quickly? Because you were there for me?" Sorun thought. "Did I really, truly like you that much? I'm glad I never told you so I didn't make it any worse for you, but... I don't know. I don't know what I'm even supposed to do with those kinds of thoughts."

More robots in his way. More cutting. More exhaustion and greater weakness in his body.

"What would you say to me if you knew what I was doing to myself, Nicole? Would you call me a fool? Try to stop me, talk me out of it maybe? What could you do?" Black oil stained the walls as Sorun cleaved through yet another group of Badniks. "Nicole. Nicole, Nicole, Nicole... I just don't know how to deal with any of this."


He'd had to take a small break somewhere down the line. Inside some large hallway with exposed, open holes in the walls that revealed more of the hollow interior of the ship beyond it. There'd been a small stack of metal crates nearby Sorun that he'd chosen to sat down in. He'd heaved out a large breath once he settled down on the crate, sheathed katana loosely held in his left hand as he held his forehead with his right.

Just a few minutes. He just needed some time to rest before he kept going forwards.

"How big is this fucking place anyways?" Sorun quietly gasped out as he shook his head. "Goddammit, you couldn't have made it easy for me in this last stretch?"

"When's it ever been easy, bro?"

It was a voice that sounded close and distant at the same time. Like it wasn't all the way there. It was familiar, too, though at this point even if he wasn't exhausted Sorun didn't think he would have been surprised to hear it. So what he'd done was simply let his hand fall away from his head as he looked to his left.

There wasn't any reaction at all when he saw a blonde-haired human sitting next to him, smiling wide enough to show teeth as he looked at him.

"What is this, some near-death hallucination shit I'm pulling on myself now?" Sorun muttered to him.

The blonde human shrugged. "What kind of friend would I be if I wasn't there for you right before you died?" he asked. "That said, I don't have a clue what's happening, either. Hallucination's only thing that makes sense to me, so, eh, let's go with it."

"Fuck it, why not?" Sorun made a half-wave and turned his head towards the ground. "Hey, Dave." He was too tired to think about it. And it this point he'd take some familiar company, even if it was in his head. He didn't care anymore. He wanted to talk to somebody, even if they were an illusion.

"Yo," David greeted back. "Sorun, man, nice to see you." He glanced up at the ceiling. "Yeah, nice to see you in this... weird, dank-ass metal hallway. Where the hell's here, anyways?"

"You won't believe it. I got sucked into a world full of furry people and super powers and all other sorts of crazy shit," Sorun said. "All because I made the mistake of wanting to buy some orange juice on a school night. Like one of those freakin' isekai shows. 'Cept I didn't get a Truck-kun. I got a desperate fox kid that pulled me through a magic portal 'cause I was supposed to be the last, grand hope for the planet." A sardonic, mocking laugh left Sorun. "Some savior I am. All I am is somebody who got crushed under all the pressure and has to hallucinate his best friend just to cope with it all now. It's driving me insane, Dave. It all is."

"Heavy."

"Mm," Sorun hummed out in agreement. "I even got some powers of my own now," he continued, lifting up the katana for Dave to see.

He heard a disbelieving scoff from the hallucination. "You ganked Vergil's shit?" Dave said in disbelief. "I knew you really liked him, dude, but come on. You didn't have to go cosplay the guy."

"It's unoriginal as hell, sure, but I'm not gonna fault it considering everything the powers let me do," Sorun said. "Be even cooler if they weren't killing me, but what are you gonna do?"

There was a momentary pause. "Kind a deal breaker, yeah," Dave admitted, voice a bit quieter. "Damn, man... didn't realize that's how you were going out. That super sucks." A quiet moment passed. "So what are you gonna do?"

"Some magic echidna people said some maniacal scientist guy's gonna wreck the world unless I kill him before I die," Sorun explained. "So I'm on my way to go do that, since, well... the people here are alright, you know? Figured if I ever did anything decent with my life it might as well be this. I mean, psh, I'm not good for much all else."

"Aw, come on, man, don't put yourself down like that," Dave admonished in a teasing tone. "... Hell's an echidna?"

"It's like an anteater or something, I don't really know to be honest," Sorun admitted. He made a sigh and lifted his head up, and then leaned it back far enough that his head thunked against the metal wall behind him. He was still able to make out Dave's visage from the corner of his vision. "I think I grew a huge crush on this one girl while I was here."

He saw Dave perk right up when he heard that. Could almost feel his large smile turn coy. "Ahhh, that's what's this is about," he said. "Surprised you even think you have a shot for how short you are."

"Fuck off, my height's average here," Sorun bit out. "You'd like her. She plays better than you."

"There it is, of course that's what it took for somebody to finally get your damn attention..." Dave sighed out. "Fuckin' known each other since we were kids and you never batted an eye at a single girl, but the second you find one that can keep up with your game skills suddenly you're all-"

"Man, would you give it a rest!?" Sorun shouted out as he turned his head towards David. "It's more than that, you know? She's, like, nice and considerate and all that stuff..."

"Mm-hm, sure. Didn't you say this was a world full of fur-"

"She's an AI."

"Christ, a virtual girl. It's worse than I thought," David muttered out while palming his face. "How far you've fallen, Sorun. You went the path of Master Chief and fell in love with the computer lady while cutting out the middleman of the weird Freudian mom thing."

Yamato sailed through the air and passed through David's body.

"You know, for a hallucination that's supposed to be comforting me in my final moments, you're doing a shit job," Sorun deadpanned. He sighed, and then turned his head back forwards. "I'm so fuckin' scared, man," he said in a small voice. "It shoulda been you that got sent here. You would have been able to solve this whole mess with half the powers I got. You were better than me at practically everything except games."

"Well, yeah, I had the common fucking sense needed to duck when the bowling ball came for my face. Unlike you."

"I froze up, fuck you, it's a perfectly normal reaction!" Sorun yelled out as he turned back to David. They stared at each other for a few moments, both staring into each others eyes. It was broken off when Dave started to breathily chuckle under his breath, while Sorun made a more broken chuckle.

"So what now?" Dave asked as his own laughter subsided.

Sorun slowly shook his head. "Gotta go die now, I guess," he answered. "I thought I'd be ready for it, but I'm really fucking not. But it's either I just sit here and die or I go out saving the world, so... yeah." He re-summoned Yamato and used it as a crutch to lift himself up off the crate he was sitting on. "It's a raw-ass hand I've been dealt, Dave. Don't know how to deal, don't know how to process, I'm just-just trucking forwards and hoping for the best at this point."

"Not much else to do in that regard, I guess." Dave admitted. There was some movement Sorun saw, causing him to look up. He was greeted to the sight of David giving him a thumbs-up along with his teeth-baring smile. "But hey, goin' out to save the girl? Sounds like something a true man would do to me."

"It's about more than the girl, you damn dumbass." Despite his bitter tone, a small smile still formed on Sorun's face. "It's all over for me after this, Dave. So I guess it's bye forever."

"Seems so," said Dave with a sigh, sounding a bit more somber. "We had a hell of a time, bro. Good luck savin' the world."

"Yeah." Sorun blinked his eyes. When he opened his eyes back up, he was completely alone. The spot in front of him was vacant. "I'll do my best."


"FOUND YOU, MOTHERFUCKER!"

Of course he'd been all the way at the end of the ship where the engines were. Of course Eggman had been as far away in this thing as he could have possibly been. And of course it'd taken Sorun so long to get here that he was barely maintaining consciousness.

Oh, but he'd found his second wind when he'd entered that large room that was more like a cavern. It housed the back end of the building-sized engines that propelled the ship, and the backside of the ship had exposed segments that let Sorun look outside. None of this even registered with him, though, because near the center of the room, floating above halfway to the ceiling was him. Eggman. Sitting in a floating saucer.

Sorun had practically forgotten all about his exhaustion when he saw him. He could have sworn some of the blackness in his perception even faded a bit. In that moment, everything disappeared. The fear and the dread of dying. The sorrow of leaving everybody behind. His anger and rage at the unfairness of it all, the feeling of weakness weighing down his limbs. All of it, in that single instant, was wiped out and replaced by sheer determination when he saw Eggman floating in the center of the room.

Eggman, unfortunately, had also seen Sorun. There'd been a small shuttle parked near the back of the room that he seemed to have been making his way towards before he'd turned around to Sorun. His face had alit with panic and he'd pointed out to Sorun while shouting something. Sorun hadn't even been able to hear it as his Bringer Claws exploded out from his back and took off so fast that he was practically a speeding bullet rocketing towards Eggman.

Some of the winged Badniks had immediately flown in from all directions in an attempt to intercept Sorun and stall him as Eggman made his escape. Cuts from the Yamato and Summoned Swords destroyed and grounded them before they could even touch him. When Eggman saw his robots were doing nothing to slow Sorun down, he'd turned his saucer around and attempted to fly away towards the shuttle.

Sorun had Tricked right onto the lip of the saucer before he even took off.

Breathing heavily, Sorun looked down at Eggman. The panic that he'd had on his face earlier was rapidly transmogrifying into fear. He'd even scrambled back as far away as possible away from Sorun. He'd begun saying some words as sweat heavily beaded down his face, words that were completely lost on Sorun as he couldn't even hear much of anything anymore past a dull ring in his ears.

Whatever words Eggman had been saying cut right off when Sorun rose the sword up.

"Bye, Ivo."

He swung the sword down.

Everything turned red.

It'd been for a split second. In that second, quite simply, Sorun's sight had turned completely red. He wasn't so sure why, and for whatever reason he felt a shift in his body. Like his entire being had been tugged a certain direction even though he hadn't felt himself physically move. He felt his sword stab down into something, so he'd assumed the red had just been Eggman's blood splashing into his face.

But then the red faded. It wasn't blood. Sorun didn't know what it was other than it had only appeared for that single second. And when his vision returned, he looked down and saw what he was stabbing into.

It was just the edge of the saucer. He wasn't standing right in front of the Doctor. He was... standing to the side of him, for some reason. He'd somehow completely missed him and cleaved into the saucer instead of Eggman. For some reason he wasn't standing in the same position he'd been in when he'd stabbed down at Eggman.

Sorun blinked in confusion, and looked to the side at Eggman. If the look on his face said anything, he was just as clueless and bewildered as Sorun was at the moment. He tried to pay it no mind and ripped the sword out of the saucer in an attempt to try and slash at Eggman.

Thump.

A strangled gasp left Sorun. A great pain instantly appeared in his chest when he felt one final beat of his heart, followed by a lack of the sensation. His heart wasn't beating any further. It'd stopped completely.

He'd stumbled back from the sensation. Yamato began to rapidly dissolve from Sorun's grasp, and the pain in his chest became so great that he wasn't even able to keep a hold of the sword. When he dropped it, it'd vanished completely before it even hit the saucer beneath his feet. Summoned Swords attempted to materialize themselves next to Sorun, but they'd appeared faded and cracked, and then shattered before he could even fire them off.

"Ngh..." Sorun had uncontrollably stumbled to the edge of the saucer. He maintained his glare towards Eggman, who just stared on in great confusion. The teen's body began to wobble when he began to lose all feeling, and by that point gravity had taken over and he began to tilt over. All Sorun could do was continue looking at Eggman. "D... damn it all..."

And then, he'd fallen over.


"Cutting it kinda close here, aren't I?"

On the ceiling in the room containing the engines, hiding amidst some metal rafters adorning the ceiling, was Rubrum. He watched as Sorun had entered the room, spotting Eggman almost in an instance. He'd shouted towards him, and had alerted Eggman to his presence. Eggman, in response, had sicced what little remaining Badnik forces on Sorun as he attempted to escape.

It was a fruitless attempt from what Rubrum saw. Even in his weakening state Sorun had been too much for those robots. He'd cut down multiple bots in milliseconds. He'd done it without ever taking his eyes off of Eggman his focus on the man had been so great. A kind of manic fervor tempered with so much concentration that Sorun's expression hardly looked human. It was more demented.

But he'd done it. Cut down all the robots in his way and teleported right to Eggman. And had Rubrum done nothing, he would have done it. Used the last few remaining embers fueling his life to cut Eggman's head right off of his shoulders. Sorun'd been that close.

And then, when Rubrum flexed his hand, Sorun's body had briefly glowed red. His position switched, as if he'd been forcibly teleported. Not very far. Just a couple of feet, as well as his orientation having been disrupted by just a slight amount. Enough that'd he'd missed Eggman and swung into the saucer instead.

As far as Sorun was concerned, he'd just think he missed. As simple as that.

The precious moments Sorun had needed to figure out his strike had missed and the moments needed to pull the sword out and ready himself to try and swing at Eggman again proved to be too much. In that moment, he'd ran out of time. His sword faded, and his body began to shut down. A precious few seconds was all he'd had, and would have been all he'd needed if Rubrum hadn't interfered.

Well, interfered he had. And now Rubrum had to watch as Sorun fell off the saucer.

"Sorry, Sorun," Rubrum thought as he watched Sorun's still body fall towards the ground. "Not yet. Not just yet..."

He saw the teen's body collapse on the ground. Eggman had stopped his saucer just so he could peer over the edge, and Rubrum saw he had a dumbfounded look on his face as he looked down at Sorun.

"Well, there it is." And then Rubrum went from looking from the rafters above to crouching on the lip of the saucer, right next to Eggman. The Doctor had spluttered out in surprise at his sudden appearance and had fallen on his back. Rubrum paid him no mind, and continued to look down at Sorun.

"R-Rubrum?" Eggman had chosen that moment to speak. The red-clothed man's hood tilted just the smallest amount as he looked back at the round Doctor. At his haggard appearance and his blue spectacles that were slightly fogged from all the perspiration still leaking from his face. "Where on Mobius did you come from?"

"I was around." Rubrum looked back down at Sorun. "Congratulations. You survived. Sorun died."

Rubrum had attempted to sound cynical when he said that, but at the moment he wasn't able to muster the feeling. So his words had come out blank and hollow as he looked down at Sorun's body. He couldn't help but to silently sigh at the sight.

"What?" The sweating on Eggman's face began to subside. His confusion, on the other hand, only grew. And he'd sounded as lost as he looked. "What... what did you do?"

"I just swapped his position a bit so he'd miss you. Otherwise I didn't do anything," Rubrum blankly replied. "I lied when I told you the Chaos Emeralds weren't having a detrimental effect on his body. His body wasn't built to sustain that amount of Chaos energy. That last Emerald I left for him sealed his fate."

He turned away from Sorun's body. He didn't want to see the sight of Sorun's body anymore. Eggman wasn't a much better sight, but Rubrum preferred that over seeing Sorun in that state, so he'd turned around and moved up a bit so he was crouching on the saucer's interior lip, his shadowed face staring straight at Eggman.

"You... lied...?" Eggman repeated. His earlier anxiety began to disappear as he slowly righted himself upwards.

Rubrum shrugged. "I told you I do that a lot."

"You mean to say at any moment I could have just given Sorun the Emeralds and he would have croaked on his own?" It took an inordinate amount of willpower for Rubrum not to hang his head when he heard that. The second Eggman had said that any and all traces of his earlier anxiety and panic ceased to exist. He looked completely normal. A bit satisfied, even. And then he began to look a bit questioning as he looked towards Rubrum. "I don't understand. If you were just going to kill him with the last Emerald, then why lie to me about it? You could have given me a head-up, you know. Or at least have done it quicker so I could finally put him out of my mind."

"For the same reason I do anything. For insane, arbitrary reasons even I don't understand, Eggman," Rubrum answered, bringing no end to the confusion wrinkling Eggman's face. "It's all on His instruction, nothing more, nothing less. Why He structured this all in such a way is something I gave up on figuring out. Not like I can ask Him. Hell, I've never even met Him." He folded his hands over his knees. Rubrum's form slumped forwards, and a long, drawn-out breath left him. "It's always gotta lead back to Him. Because it's all in accordance with His will."

His right fist curled and banged down on the saucer hard enough to dent it. Eggman hadn't flinched from the reaction, though he did keep a wary eye on Rubrum as he continued to just sit there in front of him, unnaturally still and eerily silent.

"... So, it's back the drawing board for you, then?" Rubrum had suddenly asked. His earlier, sullen tone had disappeared, being replaced by a more neutral voice. Eggman had started a bit at the sudden shift in his demeanor, going as far as to cautiously move back a bit to his own end of the saucer.

"I believe that is my business," Eggman answered him. "You've hardly convinced me that we're allies met to be sharing plans back and forth." He leaned back a bit, propping his shoulder up on the saucer. A small confident smirk played across his lips. "How about you?"

Beneath his hood, Rubrum frowned at that smirk on Eggman's face. He was either happy over the fact that Sorun was dead or he was picking up how upset Rubrum felt at the moment and was taking joy from it. He hated both options in equal measure. "I still have things on my list to cross off," he answered. "This is the last time we're gonna see each other for a while." He paused, and took a quick glance around. "Snively not around?"

"No, he's back in New Megaopolis. Or what's left of it, at least," Eggman answered with a shake of his head and a slight frown. "Why? Don't tell me you wanted to pummel him again."

"I just wanted one more punch for the road. Not really gonna have another chance to... eh, never mind. I guess it doesn't really matter." With another sigh, Rubrum stood up to his feet. "We'll meet again right before you hit the big button."

When Eggman blinked his eyes, Rubrum had been gone by the time he opened them back up. All he offered in response was a simple "hmph", after which he grabbed the controls of the saucer and began steering it towards the nearby shuttle.


What had it all been for in the end?

He'd blacked out when he fell off the saucer and hit the ground. When Sorun opened his eyes, it was when he was flat on his back, looking up. He was greeted to the sight of Eggman's shuttle taking off right then and there, with the man himself likely inside of it, probably laughing at Sorun, who could do nothing but watch as the shuttle flew through the open portion of the ship and disappeared out of sight.

So that was that.

He failed.

"Well. This sucks."

Sorun still couldn't feel his heartbeat. His body's regeneration was probably the only thing keeping him alive at this point, but even that was failing. He could feel it. Could feel himself slowly slipping away, his body finally giving out for good. These were his last moments, and he got to spend them as a failure.

"I really am a royal screwup, aren't I?" With his last remaining strength, Sorun rolled onto his stomach, and then began crawling forwards. "All you had to do was land one shot... and you couldn't even do that..."

How much depended on his landing that hit? The lives and futures of his friends? The Republic of Acorn? All of Mobius? Everybody? All he had to do was connect with him. To make one single, clean strike against Eggman's neck to finally end it all. That's all he needed to do.

What did he do instead?

He missed. Sorun simply missed.

"I don't even know what happened. Vision went all screwy, I... I must've gotten disoriented..." With continuing grunts of effort he continued crawling forwards, towards a raised section of the wall that was slanted by a great amount. "How could I have messed up so badly...?"

The pain was fading away. It was just pure exhaustion now. He couldn't even feel anything anymore. Merely thinking was taking a toll on him. But he pressed forwards, through it all. At the very least he wanted to see something other than cold metal as he died.

"It was all for nothing. Everything I did, all the effort I put into getting these Emeralds, taking this big, final shot... I couldn't do it. I can't... why can't I ever do anything right...?"

This wasn't a feeling Sorun was well familiar with. The sensation of failure couldn't accurately be described by the word "failure" alone. It was such an intense, ineffable feeling assaulting him that, if he wasn't dying and so exhausted at the moment, he probably would have broken down right there. The despair alone might have been enough to kill him.

But he pressed on. Because there was nothing else for him to do but prop his dying body up so he could see the sky one last time.

"Some prophets those Neo-Walkers turned out to be," Sorun had internally scoffed. "What was it all for? Why was I brought here just for me to die for nothing? Were they wrong? Was I just that terrible at accomplishing one simple task? Why? What was the point? Why did I have to die for nothing? Why...?"

With great effort, he'd managed to stand up, only to then crash on the raised, slanted section of wall in a leaning position. Panting heavily, Sorun looked out towards the back of the ship, towards the sky. The sun was just beginning to dip down towards the horizon.

"Maybe I was never meant to kill him?" Sorun thought. "I mean, it... it wasn't for nothing, right? I did things. Significant things. Saved everyone when Knothole was bombed, helped with Enerjak, did all those missions and helped everybody out for all that time... it all has to mean something, right?" Maybe it was just him being hopeful. Trying to cheer himself up or convince himself that he'd done enough. He didn't know if he believed it. "I mean... New Megaopolis is practically gone. They all fought him for over a decade working with way less. Eggman's resources are dwindled, and they have the nanite city. They'll... they'll be fine, won't they...?"

Maybe he was right. Maybe he wasn't. Sorun didn't know. There was nothing he could do about it anymore. He tried his best. It wasn't good enough, but... he'd tried. It was such a small comfort that it didn't even register with Sorun, but as opposed to nothing, it was something.

"I'm sorry, everyone, I... I tried. I really did. I just wasn't good enough."

Sorun's vision continued to rapidly turn black. Even so, he kept his eyes turned up on the sky.

"It's... really beautiful, this world. I never stopped to appreciate it before. I hope they'll be able to save it. Not mess it all up like I did. I... please let everything I did be enough... I don't want them to die..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... I really would have liked... to have had one last game with you... Nicole..."

With a final, rattling breath, Sorun's body went still.


"Hey! Sorun! Where'd you go!?"

It was minutes later that two new forms entered the large, cavernous engine room through a door at the far end of the room. One was a blue hedgehog, who was casually walking across the room with his hands cupped around his mouth as he looked around. Behind him was a black-colored hedgehog with red stripes whose expression was severely more downcast than the face the Mobian in front of him wore, which was more or less in a lighthearted grin.

"Man, where'd he go? All those cut-up Badniks lead to here," Sonic said as his hands lowered to his side. "Geez, we passed past so many of them it felt like there were more in here than there were out there. You really oversold how bad things were going on outside, Shads."

"I was just being cautious." Shadow's voice had come out quieter and more somber than normal, though it was a change too subtle for Sonic to pick up on. "Perhaps he-"

"Ah, no, there he is."

Shadow's red eyes picked up when he heard Sonic speak out. They instantly locked onto the form of a white-haired human body in a slightly tattered white coat leaning up against a slanted section of the wall. Completely still and not moving. He'd known just why that was the second Shadow had caught sight of the still body. His breathing had become disrupted and he'd felt a shock from the sight alone as his body stiffened up.

Sonic, however, hadn't picked up on why Sorun wasn't moving, and began to make his way over to him. The movement was enough to shake Shadow out of his stupor, and upon seeing the direction Sonic was heading in, he tried stopping him.

"Sonic," he attempted while weakly reaching out to him, "wait-"

"Sorun, buddy! There you are," Sonic called out, his voice jubilant. He stepped right behind Sorun, who was still facing out towards the open end of the ship at the sky that was nearly in sunset, and reached out to shake his shoulder. "What're you doing? Everybody's wondering where you-"

The shaking from Sonic's hand caused Sorun's body to slide off of the slanted section of the wall. It'd lifelessly collapsed on its back right in front of Sonic, who'd reached his hand back and stepped back in surprise at the motion.

"Er, uh... y-you're kinda tired from the new power, huh, Sorun?" Sonic said in a light chuckle. The chuckling began to die off when he looked towards Sorun's face. "Sorun?"

The pale Earthling's face was completely still. Eyes half-opened, unfocused and unmoving like the rest of him. There wasn't even any sign of Sorun breathing.

"S-Sorun?" Seeing immediately that something was wrong, Sonic got down on his knees and began to shake Sorun's shoulder again. "Co-come on, Sorun, what's the matter?" His shaking began to become a bit more frantic. The nervous smile Sonic had adopted was slowly shifting into an intensely worried expression the longer this went on. "Sorun, seriously, this isn't funny!"

"Sonic..."

A gloved hand gently settled on Sonic's shoulder. He froze at the contact, and then looked up to see Shadow looking at him. He didn't have his usual scowl on. He looked sad, which began to make Sonic's heart sink at the implication.

"He's... he's gone," Shadow said in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

"Gone? What-what do you mean gone?" Sonic looked down at Sorun's body. "He's just- he always gets tired when he gets a new power, doesn't he? He's just sleeping, right?" He looked back up at Shadow. Despite his disbelieving words Sonic's eyes were already beginning to grow damp. "He can't be gone. He isn't- Sorun isn't-"

"Guys? What's going on?"

The question that had cut Sonic off caused both hedgehogs to look towards where'd they just come from. They saw everybody crowding near the doorway, looking towards them all with unsure, questioning looks. Right in front of them was Sally, who'd been the one to voice the question. She'd motion to speak further, but then stopped completely when she looked down at the body lying right in front of Sonic.

"I... I'm unsure how I'm... He..." Shadow, who had tried to explain but wound up tripping over his words in his own grief, made a deep sigh and shook his head in defeat. "I don't know how else to say it. He's gone."

Quiet acceptance grew on Sonic's face at the same time tears began to freely flow from his face and hit the metal floor under him. Sally began to freely cry as well while also taking some steps back and holding her hands to her mouth as she stared at Sorun's body in grief. Others in the group behind her had started to look towards Sorun's corpse and began to come to the same conclusion. Some began to openly cry while others tried and failed to bite back their tears as they looked away.

"He said they were killing him," Shadow mumbled out, drawing Sonic's attention once more. "The Chaos Emeralds. He said they were causing his body to fail."

"That can't be true," Sonic whispered out in disbelief, shaking his head. "He-he would have told us. He would have told us if they were doing something like that!" he shouted, voice growing hysteric. "That doesn't even- how could they have been hurting him!?"

"I'll tell you what he told me," Shadow said, though his words did little to calm Sonic. "What he told me was that..."