A/N- Alright these questions have kind of piled up and a lot of them are just from guest accounts so we'll just answer 'em here since I can't do it direct.

"What's the deal with the hallucinatory Sorun-double that Sorun sees sometimes?"

I get it's weird that got introduced and Sorun had zero reaction and just rolled with it like it was nothing new, but this is one of those "it'll make sense later when it's retroactively explained" deals. Even then I still haven't completely settled on whether to go with that or just call it a case of "the stress from dying made Sorun slightly cracked in the head".

"Is the Rubrum guy working for you?"

Working for me? Author-person? I don't really give spoilers like that, but in this case I feel it's safe to say, no, I'm not going that meta with it.

"Why is the story called Recursion Error?"

We'll get there. I will say that chapters 11 and 83 both have segments that shift to first person in the perspective of an unnamed character, and in both instances it's the same person. It's the only hint I'll give.

"Lemons?"

Ha ha, no. Never. Absolutely not.

"Are you gonna go to IDW?"

Nah, I'm trying to focus on Archie exclusively.

"Shorts?"

Story's long enough as it is without padding in more filler.

"Will *insert character here* ever show up?"

Already said I'm not answering questions like this.

"Will *insert story event here* happen?"

See answer to question above.

Recursion Error

Episode 92- The worst detective that ever detected: that guy

By and large Sorun greatly disliked the diner that Sonic's uncle Chuck ran. Cleverly named Chuck's Diner.

He didn't have anything against the man personally. In that same vein of thinking Sorun didn't really have anything for him, either. Seemed like a good guy but that was pretty much the extent of their relationship: he was some guy Sorun knew and had a couple conversations with in the entire duration he'd been on this planet. That was it.

Normally that'd be the end of it, except for the fact that fast food wasn't really a concept here, so Chuck's Diner was about the closest experience Sorun could get unless he went outside the city to Overlander territory or Station Square. Fine enough, he liked diners anyways, except for the part where he sold those god-awful chili dogs as some sort of grand staple. And Sorun could ignore that if it weren't for the fact the man didn't sell french fries, which made Sorun question the diner's legitimacy.

Could have been worse; at least he didn't have to live in a world completely deprived of fries. That being said nobody in New Mobotropolis sold them, but fortunately he'd found a small little family-owned grocery store in Station Square that sold bags of the things. And they were actually pretty great, much to Sorun's delight. So that problem was solved. Didn't change the fact Chuck's Dinger was a sham as far as Sorun was concerned. And normally this wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact Silver wanted to talk to him about something and wanted to eat out. So here they were eating lunch at what may be the last place Sorun wanted to eat lunch somewhere at.

The milkshakes were pretty banger, though, Sorun'd give Chuck that much.

"You know what astounds me to no end? Almost every single Sonic we ran into during that big multiverse jaunt we did made a reference to eating these things," Sorun said in a voice full of disdain as he looked down at the paper plate containing the offense in question. The dreaded chili dog. Because Silver wanted to try one and Chuck threw in another on the house for Sorun 'cause Chuck was just that swell a guy. "It means his addiction to these things is so strong it transcended universal boundaries. I don't understand it."

Silver stared at Sorun from the other side of the outdoor round table they were sitting in, cancer in a bun in-hand and halfway to his mouth, but he'd froze when he heard Sorun talk. "Sorun, it's just a hotdog," he said, blankly and with a bit of disbelief.

"It's a statement," Sorun denied.

"S-statement? For what?"

"Look, it's simple math," Sorun began. "Sonic likes these things. Ergo I can't be seen eating them because otherwise it associates me with him, because the guy's so popular everyone knows he has an addiction to these things. He hogged a whole category of food, don't you see that?"

"... What is this conversation? What does any of this even mean, Sorun?"

"Look, I just don't like them, alright?" Sorun said as he pushed the chili dog towards Silver. "More'n that I actually just don't like how they taste."

"Well, I think you're crazy, 'cause these things are great," Silver proclaimed. He ate the hotdog, much to Sorun's disgust. And he even seemed like he was enjoying it, which was even more sickening to his eyes. There had to be something going on with Mobian hedgehog tastebuds that was different from everyone else; there just had to be. Sorun wouldn't except any other answer. "Hey, where does the meat for these things come from, anyway?" Silver asked after swallowing that thing.

"Silver, I've been asking myself that question ever since I got here," Sorun honestly answered. He held his hand out, extending three fingers while counting down and tapping them with the finger on the other hand. "I've got it narrowed down to it either being cloned meat, synthetic, plant-based meat, or there's a Mobini meat industry I'm unaware of and somehow haven't noticed yet. Don't really see how that last one's possible; there's not a meat processing plant anywhere and there's not really a whole lotta foot traffic coming through the city for it to be delivered, and this was true for Knothole, too, so either Chuck is personally going out into the woods to hunt and bring Mobini back to turn them into hotdogs or something's up."

"You really think so?"

"Here's the thing: I know back in Knothole Rotor and a few other Mobians used to set traps in a nearby river for fish. There's still a few people that do that here, I think. I know for a fact Mobians eating Mobini is a real thing, it has to be if they eat wild fish, but I haven't seen it. But the meat's gotta come from somewhere," Sorun reasoned in a somewhat lost, confused tone. "So either I've just missed it this whole time or it's fake meat. Or, I dunno, maybe Mobians are just cannibals." He glanced up at Silver. "Did you ever eat any other Mobians for survival in your time, Silver? Honest question."

"No!" With how appalled and shocked Silver looked he had to be telling the truth. "I never even saw any other Mobians other than Master and Edmund! And even then I wouldn't have! I ate fish and vegetables and fruit, and whatever else Master ever made!"

"Alright, fair enough." Back to square one. Sorun hummed, holding his chin in thought, but after a few more seconds he sighed and threw his hands up in defeat. "Eh, whatever, it's too hard a mystery for me to bother. I give up."

Silver reared back in his seat in surprise. "You're giving up just like that!? We could just ask someone!"

"Man, I got enough mysteries to worry about. How Tails uses his tails like a helicopter without wringing the flesh and twisting them right off, the mysterious red guy, where Amy keeps her hammer. I suspect magic hammerspace because it's punny and something this world would totally do just to irritate me."

"Whoa, wait, back up a bit," Silver requested, shaking his hands at Sorun. "'Mysterious red guy?' What's up with that?"

"Oh, yeah, there's a weird guy dressed in red running around that Shadow told me about that knows impossible information." Sorun's lips thinned in thought. He clasped his hands and glanced down in thought. "Come to think of it, Sonic in the future said that by now that guy killed Eggman. That should have happened by now, but it didn't, which... makes me suspect that whoever that guy is he's aware of the time stuff I did if he was able to choose not to do it this time. He set up that last Chaos Emerald for me to get, too, according to Shadow, so... I kinda wonder if he set up other stuff. Hm."

Silver stared. "Sorun, this sounds like the most important thing you've told me so far. Why am I only hearing this now?"

"Because I'm retired, man, and I just don't care," Sorun breathed out as he leaned back tiredly in his seat. "I mean, should I be concerned some weirdo's running around doing stuff behind the scenes? Probably, man, but it's just not my business anymore and I don't wanna think about it. I'm a courier. I only wanna worry about courier things. Everyone else can deal with it if it ever becomes a problem."

"That's..." Silver sighed, and began rubbing at his eyes. "Okay, if you say so. I doubt some guy you've never even met is the traitor so I'll just ignore that for now."

There was a loud slap! sound as Sorun palmed his own face. "You're still going on about the traitor thing?"

"According to the journal-"

"Oh, the journal, the most credible piece of information this universe has ever seen," Sorun dryly remarked. He was given a flat glare by Silver as he slid back in the chair, raising his arms in the air while shouting, "Lawd, praise be! Praise be the all-knowing journal in its vague and uninformative glory!"

"Sorun, this is serious!"

"And I seriously refuse to entertain the notion one of the Freedom Fighters is a traitor," Sorun replied in a serious tone as he pulled the chair back up to the table. "I'll buy brainwashing or evil clone, but not one of them actually betraying everyone else. But brainwashing or an evil clone is more a spontaneous thing we'll just have to react to instead of something we can prepare for. And by we I mean you. 'Cause I'm not actually fighting when push comes to shove."

"Yeah, I know." Silver crossed his arms with a disgruntled expression. "Nicole asked me to try and convince you to sit out the heavy stuff like this."

"She would," Sorun muttered off to the side before turning back to Silver. "Well, I don't need much convincing. But, uh, you know, it's not like I'm leavin' you out to dry or anything. I'll be there. You know... on the sidelines. Offering moral support." He gently waved his right hand back and forth. "Wave a li'l flag that says 'Go Silver!' if I find one."

Silver chuckled a bit. "Well, thanks for that." His face turned serious. "But with something this big I don't want to just 'react' to it, Sorun. We need to be sure and get on this right now. There's too much at stake."

Waving a hand, Sorun said, "Sure, but you have absolutely zero starting points on this. There's no leads. There's nothing. How're you gonna 'get on' nothing?"

"Sure there's a starting point. The Freedom Fighters."

"Eh?"

"We ask them," he elaborated at Sorun's confusion. "You know, like, um, like a detective! We ask them all about this and, hey, if one of them really is the traitor maybe they'll slip up and we'll learn something! And I know," he said quickly when he saw Sorun open his mouth, "I know we've been keeping the traitor quiet from the others because you thought telling them wasn't a good idea, but I don't have any other ideas on what to do."

Sorun closed his mouth, and then spoke plainly after a few quiet moments. "... Silver, as much as I wanna go around accusing my friends of wanting to betray everything they stand for, wouldn't you know it I just don't want to go and do that." He breathed in heavily, and while his outward appearance seemed calm and bored he couldn't help but feel a bit irritated and just a tiny bit angry with Silver's assertions. He thought it was a fair enough reaction hearing one of his friends being accused of ending the world with no proof. "It's a stupid plan and you're wrong. Think of something else."

"But Sorun-!"

The anger rose up a bit as Sorun leaned across the table. "Okay, let's run down the list since you're so insistent on this. Let's play 'which one of my friends wants to end the world'." He started counting off his fingers, slamming the digits together so hard a loud smack! sound was heard. Silver jumped in his seat at the noise. "Sonic? Certainly has the power for it, but while that guy irritates me he is, at the same time, quite literally the last guy I would ever expect to end the world. Too pure of heart." Another smack as he slammed his finger down on another finger. "Sally? Don't see it. I swear she loves her people more than she loves herself, so I don't see her rallying an army to roll over the world." Another finger, another smack. "Tails? Sure, I'll admit it, you can never underestimate a genius. I don't think there's a single person in this whole world that'll make that mistake 'cause of Eggman. He could probably actually do it if he set his mind to it, but the problem here, Silver, is that I don't know many happy eleven-year-olds with a loving family that wanna end the world." Every single name listed off by Sorun was punctuated by increasingly loud and meaty smacks on his finger. "Rotor? Same boat as Tails, but he's a crippled politician now, not an evil mastermind. Amy? What's a girl with a hammer gonna do, get real. Bunnie? A single cyborg, c'mon, not a lotta destructive potential there. Antoine? Antoine? Antoine!?"

That last name was said alongside Sorun slapping his whole hands together in a frenzied manner. Silver was flinching back with each smack, eventually crying out, "Okay, I get it!" when Sorun wouldn't stop doing it. He did so, sighing and leaning back in his seat and then taking a large breath in an attempt to calm himself down. It didn't help all that much.

"My point is," Sorun continued after his breath, "nobody, not a single one of them, is a guilty culprit 'cause there is no guilty culprit, Silver. Not unless it's a evil clone or brainwash situation, which is the third time I've said it in this conversation alone but for some reason you're refusing to see it that way."

"I'm not leaving the possibility out," he denied, "I'm... look, the wording in that journal was really specific, okay? I'm not saying you're wrong; I'm just saying something like that wasn't mentioned and I really feel like it would have been if that was the case." Silver sat back in his own seat, arms crossed and eyes furrowed in concentration. "And you left out Nicole," he noted.

There was utter silence between the pair of them. Silver kept staring on silently, while a surprised looked bloomed on Sorun's stunned face, not believing he just heard Silver say that. The kind of stunned silence where one just sat there wondering if they really had just heard what they just heard with an almost dazed expression.

And then he started laughing. A low, dry laugh with no amusement behind it, with Sorun covering his incredibly small smile with his left hand while bowing his head forwards and shaking it. The combination of his fingers covering his face and hair obscuring him hid his eyes briefly flickering between blue and green colors through the laughter. Silver himself began shuffling around in an uncomfortable manner on his seat, looking half frustrated at Sorun and half concerned at his behavior.

In an instant, it all stopped. Sorun's head straightened up completely with a flat, unamused expression, blue eyes glaring into Silver's yellow. His hand flopped back down to his side. When Sorun spoke he sounded more than a bit miffed, with no indication he'd just been laughing.

"Silver, buddy, I like you. I really do. But you really can't go around trying to accuse someone's girlfriend of wanting to end the world. People don't appreciate things like that."

"Sorun, you know I don't want to." There was an intensity in Sorun's gaze that made Silver avert his own eyes away from him. He didn't want it to show on the outside how much it unsettled him; how quickly Sorun shifted from one mood to the next with no warning or indication. He'd never seen Sorun wear such a cold expression but it unnerved him greatly. "It's the end of the world here. You saw what it's like in the future. I'm trying to make it so that billions of people don't die and you're acting so... so... dismissal of it when I'm just trying to do my best," he said in a frustrated tone. "I only have one shot at this, so sorry if I'm just trying to be sure here."

Tentatively, Silver looked back at Sorun. He was still glaring at him coldly, but then he'd sighed, and just like that, like someone snapping their fingers, he turned back to his normal, bored expression and lazily laid back in his chair. "There's still the whole red eyes thing. Which gives even more credence to my clone or brainwashing theory. Since nobody in the Freedom Fighters have red eyes."

"Yeah, true," Silver admitted, settling in easier to his seat. "Kind of wish we'd brought that journal with us; we really could have used a third set of eyes."

"Oh, yeah." Sorun perked up a bit in realization. "What happened with that?"

"I left it where I found it before we left the future."

Oh, cool, their one piece of physical evidence. Lost to them forever. Sorun rolled his head up at the sky. "Well, that was shortsighted of you."

Silver huffed a frustrated breath. "Yeah, I know, Sorun, but that's part of why I need to go around asking people about the traitor because I got nothing else, okay?"

"... You're gonna get punched in the face, dude, I swear," Sorun sighed out, rubbing a hand over his face. "Which is impressive because I really thought nobody could... eh, Sally would," Sorun mumbled out, absentmindedly holding a hand to his cheek while glancing away. "I wouldn't bug her with this. Really don't bug anyone with this but especially not her."

"Kinda have to bug everyone with this, Sorun."

"Then it's been nice knowing your face." Sorun rolled his head back down to look past Silver's shoulder. He saw a blotch of familiar color at another table at the other end of the area full of tables in front of the diner, with the owner of that color seemingly eating lunch. She didn't seem to have noticed them, too focused on the food in front of her. "Hey, look, there's your first victim over there, Amy," Sorun pointed out, making Silver turn around. "Bubbly, cute as a button, will actually assault you if you go through with this. Go get 'er!"

He'd said that last part with a burst of mock joy while pumping his closed fists up and down. It didn't seem to encourage Silver in the slightest, who turned back to Sorun with a very hesitant, bordering-on-scared, look.

"You'll help me out, though, right?"

"Pfft. As if. I'm not shooting my social status in the foot with this," Sorun scoffed out. He waved a hand in Amy's direction. "But please, by all means. Go! Detect away!"

Silver didn't depart with a goodbye of any kind. He merely stood up out of the chair, shaking his head while mumbling something under his breath as he turned around to approach Amy. Sorun watched them converse briefly from a distance. And then he saw Amy get upset at something Silver said. And with a completely straight and unflappable expression Sorun watched as Amy got out of her chair, physically picked Silver up, and carried him all the way towards the trashcan that just happened to be nearby where Sorun was sitting. And then she slam dunked Silver into the trashcan.

"RUDE!" Amy screamed out at the trashcan. And then she kicked it, causing it to tip over and for Silver and a bunch of trash to spill out. She huffed, crossing her arms and turning towards Sorun's with with a displeased look. "I don't know why you're friends with that guy, Sorun," she muttered out as she angrily stomped away.

"Nice seein' you, too, Amy," Sorun called out as he waved at her back. And then he looked down at Silver, lying flat on the ground and with his face pressed against it in misery. "Man, you're really lucky. I thought for sure she was gonna hit you with the hammer. I'm pretty sure she can swing that thing faster than you can think."

With the rest of his body motionless, Silver picked his head up off the ground to look at Sorun, trash falling off his head. "You could help out, you know!" he yelled out.

"..." Sorun grabbed the milkshake sitting next to him and drank out through the straw. "And deprive you of this educational experience?" he asked, sitting the shake back down. "You wanna go to the castle now since you're dead-set on continuing this folly?"

"Why? Who's at the castle?"

"I think Sally lives there." Sorun's expression became a bit clouded. "She lives there, right? Yeah, she lives there. Right." He focused back on Silver, who was giving him an odd look. "Also Elias invited me to lunch and the only thing I had here was a milkshake. I'm starving. So we might as well kill two birds with one stone."

"Uh... alright," he said, pushing up off the ground and standing up, brushing some of the loose trash off of him. "So we're going to talk to her?"

Sorun shook his head. "You're going to talk to her, against my strong recommendations. Alternatively we could just go home and avoid all this foolishness once I'm done with lunch. Play some video games. I'll make some french fries, how about that?"

"Sorun. I have to do this." It would have been easier to take that steely expression of Silver's more seriously if he still didn't have some loose trash clinging to him.

Sensing the hedgehog's resolve and realizing his totally right argument was being ignored, Sorun sighed and pushed himself out from his chair. "Alright, but we're gonna need to stop for some ice along the way."

It was somewhat of a mystery to Sorun's eyes why Elias considered him a friend. They talked sometimes. Sometimes Elias even went out of his way to talk to Sorun. And while that surely rose their relationship just slightly above the level of mutual acquaintances, Sorun still found it odd, because he would have considered being a king and having a wife and step-kid before he was even twenty-five was already a lot on his plate. Somehow he found enough free time to squeeze Sorun in between all that.

Maybe it was all that personal introspection he'd done with Elias during Sorun's low points. Something that might have enkindled some sense of friendship in Elias' eyes when, to Sorun, it was just him venting and indulging in Elias' whims whenever he wanted to talk. Or maybe he just didn't have a lot of guy friends; Sorun certainly never saw any. Then again he didn't exactly follow the guy around, so who knew?

Either way free food was free food, and Elias was easy to tease, so Sorun went with it. And it was an excuse to get Silver to Sally. More importantly it was an excuse to get him there while Sorun could be in an entirely separate room from what was undoubtably a disaster in progress, but hey, that was Silver's problem, not Sorun's.

"Oh, my. Inviting me for lunch, Elias? Again?" It wasn't even in the castle's dining room; it was on a balcony outcropping from one of the castle's rooms that gave them a view of the city. It was all the more ammunition for Sorun to use, his body having been turned away, a hand covering his mouth in feigned embarrassment. "I truly appreciate the gesture, Elias, but we really must stop meeting like this. We're already in established relationships. What would Nicole think? Or your wife? Scandalous."

On the other side of the table Elias made a strained chuckle that sounded both nervous and weary. "Ah, yes, Sorun, that... that joke surely hasn't grown old yet. I can hardly see how a simple rendezvous between friends can be construed as anything other than us having lunch together."

It would have been easy to point out the venue they were currently eating at, all alone like this, and the fact he used the word "rendezvous", but Sorun decided he'd tortured the poor guy enough and dropped it, turning back to Elias while draping his arm over the velvet-lined chair that probably cost more than Honey paid him in a year. "Hey, what's a little teasing between friends?" he lightly remarked.

Elias made a withering sigh, but still smiled all the same. "And even after I had the cook specifically put enough sugar in your tea that I'm confident I could have just bought maple syrup and you wouldn't have noticed. Just for you," he lamented, eyes focusing down on the cup sitting in front of Sorun. "I still can't comprehend how you stand to drink such a thing."

"I mean, hey, if it can't disintegrate your teeth then what's the point?"

"... I worry for your health sometimes, Sorun." The worst part was Elias sounded sincere when he said that.

"'S fine, I got a magic rock back home that regenerates me if I want. So, you know, really hoping I never need my wisdom teeth taken out. 'Cause they'll grow back if I use that again." Sorun absentmindedly tapped the table. "Lotta... lotta stuff grew back with the white hair I had. Some of which I'm too embarrassed to talk about."

"Okay?" Elias shot him a confused look, but then quickly shook it off and gestured to the small item sitting on the table next to Sorun. "And what purpose does an ice pack serve?"

"Oh, I need that for later."

"Why, pray tell?" He only sounded a little worried.

"Eh, don't worry about it."

Elias' confusion didn't fade at all, though he made a bemused chuckle and shook his head. "You're so confusing sometimes, Sorun," he said, looking down and poking a fork at the plate of whatever was served to them. A lotta green and cuts of meat that Sorun had no idea of its origin and was even more confused on where it came from in the first place. He remembered hearing the meal's name but it was one of those fancy names he was pretty sure was made up and he forgot it instantly.

Meat was good, though. If only he knew where the hell it came from.

"Well, in any event I just wanted to check in on you," Elias informed him. "I hear you've settled in well."

"You hear things about me, huh?" Sorun commented.

"You are a direct friend of my sister. And one of the council members," he reminded him.

"Fair," Sorun conceded. "But ain't this still a bit much? Inviting me out like this? You could've just popped by my house and said 'hi' or something."

Elias made a pensive face. "Perhaps, but I don't have many friends outside of family I get to do this often with. If I made you uncomfortable in any way-"

"Nah, nah, it's... it's nice, this is nice." Alright, maybe Sorun read too far into thinking there was something wrong with inviting someone to lunch. He'd made worse mistakes. "I'm just not really used to this. Things like this. Nobody ever invited me to things before." He drank the syrupy concoction in a cup near him. It calmed his nerves down more than he thought it would.

"Oh!" Elias' ears perked up and he made an understanding hum. "But, you have been doing well, correct?"

"Oh, yeah, totally," Sorun told him, finally feeling comfortable to talk about something. Because when was talking about how his life wasn't in shambles anymore not great? "The house is looking great, the job is pretty steady, city's nice, people are nice, french fry supply's secure, relationship's going good..." He had to glance away when a light blush crept on his face. "Place would be paradise if the games from my old home were here. So here's hoping the Steam servers survived the apocalypse if I ever decide to find and rip all the data out of them." He'd probably have to ask Nicole or Tails to make him something that could actually do that. Even then he was still pensive on the idea seeing as there were a lot of games from Earth with a lot of stuff in them he didn't actually want people here to see. And yet he still wanted to play them again. It was a frustrating conundrum.

Elias' eyes blinked a few times, seemingly not understanding what Sorun just said. "Steam... servers?" he replied, sounding unsure. "Your people had servers that stored steam? How does that even work?"

He couldn't help it. He'd been too slow in stifling the laughter before some slipped through, but Sorun hadn't been able to help it. "Y-yeah, man, all the steam was stored on those things."

Elias made a pout. "I feel as if you're laughing at something at my expense but I can't place what."

Just barely managing to contain his laughter, Sorun waved a hand and assured him with, "No, not at all, you're right on the money. Servers full of steam, pft..."

"Hmf..." The pouty look stayed on Elias' face, and he turned away in light frustration when he wasn't able to understand what Sorun was not-so-subtly laughing at. The pout went away when a somber question seemed to come to him. "So, from the way you phrased all of that... I assume you're planning on returning there eventually?"

Well that killed Sorun's mood really quickly. The laughter died off right there and made Sorun blink in surprise at Elias. Both for posing that question and for looking kind of sad at it. "I mean, uh... been thinking about it, yeah. Not permanently or anything. I just wanted to grab stuff to bring back here."

The explanation made Elias sag in relief and caused a smile to grow, and it made Sorun wonder if the squirrel was actually thinking he was planning on retiring to his dead, barren wasteland of a world. It seemed like an absurd idea but Sorun didn't know how else to explain that look. "What, you thought I wanted to move back there?"

"Oh, not at all!" Elias instantly denied, shaking his head. "I care for the wellbeing of every citizen here, physical or otherwise, so when you said you wanted to return I thought you hadn't yet, well... adjusted, as it were..."

Ah. Yeah, Sorun would be tripping up on his words, too, if he were trying this. "I think it's more one of those things you learn to live with than get over. But everyone's been helping me with that. Things are fine now." He tried his best to put some levity into the situation by giving Elias a small, reassuring grin. "Not like I was going there for a funeral dirge or anything. Just wanted some cool stuff. Or at least to see if my old PC is still there, 'cause I got a lot of Steam stuff in there..."

"Ah, okay. That's good to hear," Elias said, seemingly happy with the response, or that Sorun seemed to be doing well. And then he'd put on a questioning frown. "But answer me honestly, because I'm struggling to wrap my head around why you keep mentioning steam. Do you mean to say you had steam-powered computers?"

Nope, that'd been the last straw. Sorun couldn't control it when he burst out laughing, keeling over on the table while banging it with his fist. This only seemed to send Elias into deeper distress, because for whatever reason he seemed desperate to unravel the mystery of what Steam was.

"Sorun, I'm serious! What is it!?" Elias asked in a playful whine. Sorun wasn't even sure he wanted to tell him if it made him to continue to give hilarious guesses like that. "It's a simple question, you could at least be courteous and answer! I had lunch brought to you! Sorun!"

"Ah-ha-ha! Y-yeah," Sorun laughed out, tears prickling the edges of his eyes as he waved a finger around in a circle. "My computer was steam-powered and there was a little hamster that ran around on a wheel to boost the power. I had to dangle a nut on a little string every time I wanted to use it."

The best part was he bought it. For like a single second Elias' eyes shone in wonder before his expression darkened upon seeing Sorun laugh even harder at it. "That's not true at all! Sorun, tell me! I'm your king, I order you!"

"You can't order me!" Sorun laughed out. "I'm technically more royal than you!"

Elias sputtered out at that. "Th-that's preposterous! How!? In what way!?"

"Ahhh, think about it, Elias." The laughter calmed down as Sorun's smile turned sly. "I'm the sole surviving member of the dominant species on the planet I'm from. And seeing as humans were the only sapient species able to lay claim, that, by default, puts me as the inheritor of the whole planet." He leaned back to look out at the city view. "Your territory consists of, what, this city and everything the forest touches? 'Bout half of what the US used to inhabit? I got a whole planet's worth of land and ocean, buddy. If you really think about it I conquered more land than Eggman ever did and I didn't even have to lift a finger."

For the first second Elias sat there, looking absolutely baffled at the claim. In the next second the baffled expression was replaced by a smug look, which instantly had Sorun wary. "I hardly think there are many who will put stock in a vast amount of land you solely have access to, Sorun."

The smile dropped off Sorun's face when he realized Elias was right. "Wait, hold on, I didn't think this through-"

"Furthermore," he continued, a sly smile growing on his face that mimicked the one Sorun had a minute prior, "you signed off any rights of ruling on sovereign authority when you decided to live here and pay taxes to the Republic. It's a sign of fealty."

"That's a rule?"

"Last but not least... those lands of yours have no people in them. And I hardly think anyone will pledge themselves to somebody who carries packages around for a living."

It was a statement said in jest, but it still made Sorun blow out in a petulant manner and sit back in his chair, arms crossed. "Alright, fine, I don't have any people or actual authority. I still got resources and stuff over there," he bitterly mumbled.

"Which, again, people would have to go through you just to access. And nobody is particularly hurting for resources at the moment." A small frown formed on Elias' face. "Which... actually begs the question, now that I think about it. Can you actually access your old home using that sword?" he asked. "I was lead to believe it was notoriously difficult. The others needed all seven Chaos Emeralds just to briefly open an entranceway there."

"I think I can?" The way Sorun said that and the way he was looking down in thought didn't make it seem that he was so sure, because in reality he wasn't. "I haven't actually tested it. Been, um... too nervous to."

"Well if you don't even know-"

"I've..." Sorun cut himself off with a deep sigh, and then looked back up at Elias. "I just haven't had much reason to work up the nerve. Things here have just been working out so well, you know? Job, relationship, other things. I took up reading again."

The squirrel perked up, looking genuinely happy at that. "Oh, that's good!"

"Yeah, but going back there? Uh, I might. One day. Still deciding."

Elias nodded. "That's quite understandable. I don't think you should be pressured by-"

A knock on the faraway door to the room was heard, making Elias straighten and Sorun to twitch his eyes to the door. "Ah, sorry about that," Elias quickly apologized as he sat up from the table. "There was a, er, issue earlier this morning and we lost a lot of paperwork. Some of the councilors said they'd come by later on with some documents I need to re-sign."

Sorun blinked in curiosity. "What happened?"

"Councilman Rotor decided the paper shredder was 'running too slow' and elected to modify it for our convenience." Elias' eyes squinted into a displeased look as he excused himself from the table. "On an unrelated note we no longer have a paper shredder. The guards had to destroy the last one after they caught it."

"W-what?"

"Speaking of which I would very much consider it a personal favor if you procured a new paper shredder for us the next time you go to Station Square, Sorun. I'd reimburse you, of course."

"Sure...?" That seemed to be the end of the matter as Elias had left the table and went to the door. Sorun was barely managing on running through the words Elias said to him and decided halfway through that he was better off not looking into it. And it was right at that moment Elias decided to return back to the table with a somewhat embarrassed smile on his face. "Yes?"

"Right, hello, Sorun. Um, somewhat of a bluster on my part, I didn't think of bringing a pen to eat and I need to sign these documents. You wouldn't happen to...?" he trailed off in a hopeful voice. It was hard not to notice Elias was putting a lot of effort towards not looking at the impatient Mobian woman standing behind him with a large sheaf of papers in her hands.

Sorun gave him a regretful look and flopped his hands up. "Sorry, man. Left it at home."

Elias made a hiss. "Okay. Alright, that's quite fine." He glanced over his shoulder towards the back of the room. "I think I might have something lying around here. Miss Prower if you'll just excuse me for a moment..."

"Aw, don't tell me that's Tails' mom." With a remarkable amount of willpower Sorun managed to keep a straight and bored face on as he watched Elias leave him behind to the woman standing on the other side of the table. Lethargically, Sorun turned his head towards her. "Aw, don't tell me he left me alone with her. What if she starts talking?"

He was already worried due to the fact she was dressed more professionally than any other Mobian he'd ever seen. Didn't much look like Tails with the brown fur, auburn and all; really the only relation he saw were the eyes and that she was a fox, too, and even then he only knew she was a fox because of her last name; it being the same as Tails' somewhat cinched that. What really made him worried was, at one point in time in a past conversation, Elias made a comment that she didn't like Sorun so much because he "caused her son stress", as if getting pulled into an alternate dimension wasn't stressful for him. He didn't think the time he threatened to beat her husband's face in with an IV pole for inciting a revolution helped her opinion of him.

Maybe it never came up at dinner.

"Hey." A harmless greeting and a little wave by Sorun. That had to be construed as friendly, right? "We haven't met, I'm Sorun."

"Hello." Sky blue eyes that were the same as her son's were worryingly glaring at him. "Yes, my son spoke of you plenty. As did my husband about a conversation you two once shared."

Damn, it came up. "Um... okay." He clicked his tongue and rapped his fingers against the table. "Pretty tense atmosphere you're projecting there, huh?"

"I wouldn't go that far," she denied. "I would just rather be somewhere else right now that isn't in your direct presence."

Wow, well, if she was going to go right out the gate and say it suddenly Sorun felt a lot less awkward and more... relieved? It was strange to feel that way but at the same time it felt like a breath of fresh air to act honestly when Sorun stopped nervously tapping on the table, shifting his hand into a fist to rest his head against as he matched the fox's glare with a bored stare of his own.

"Don't gotta outright say you don't like me," he teased in a blank tone, face unamused. "What have I ever done to you?"

Her expression subtlety tightened. "Nothing directly. I'm sure you're a very upstanding individual." She sure didn't sound like she believed that. "It doesn't change the fact that, during your first month in this world, my son had trouble sleeping due to the guilt he felt over your circumstances and you constantly reminding him of the matter didn't help."

Sorun breathed in deeply. "Alright, I see," he breathed out, eyebrows raised as he glanced down. "Jerk move of me, yeah. I wasn't in a good state of mind back then." He glanced back up at Rosemary. "You're a good mother, looking after your son like that. Everyone should have a great mother like you. I had a great mother like you. Too bad I was never able to say goodbye to her since, you know, your son kidnapped me in the middle of a grocery store. She'd dead now. Glad Tails has such an upstanding mother to support him, though. Good for him. Really."

The words themselves were friendly, but they were delivered with such a dry, bland tone that they could be construed as anything but. The lack of subtlety was something Rosemary obviously picked up on from the quiet crinkling sound of her fingers digging into the stack of papers she was holding, but otherwise she was keeping up a professional face.

"I found a pen!" The tense silence between the two was broken by Elias, who stepped into the conversation while holding up a pen in a victorious manner. It didn't do anything to break the staring match Sorun and Rosemary were having, making Elias appear visibly nervous as he turned to the fox woman. "If I could just take these, councilwoman..."

It took some tugging, but eventually Elias managed to free the papers from Rosemary's grip. He immediately set to work on setting the papers down on the table so he could sign them. He was working unusually fast as the two continued to glare at one another.

"King Elias," Ms. Prower began in an icy tone, "I have to question the decision to allow a private citizen of the Republic, who, regardless of past affiliations, is not a member of the royal military nor even a Freedom Fighter anymore, to remain in possession of an object of great importance such as a Chaos Emerald when it was agreed such objects of power that can prove to be a danger in the wrong hands were to be guarded under lock and key."

Sorun almost laughed at the audacity. "Would you consider the one I'm currently possessing to be in 'the wrong hands', councilwoman Prower?" Sorun asked her in a tone mixed in sarcasm and innocence.

"I would argue I am reasonably justified in my concerns. You have displayed a multitude of questionable choices that call to question your character, with one of your more egregious actions being to crash my son's beloved airplane on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean while inebriated."

"I believe that was ruled as an accident."

"You're an unstable individual, Mr. Sorun, and I don't believe someone such as you should be the one safeguarding one of the seven Chaos Emeralds."

Elias' scribbling turned noticeably feverish. Sorun's eyes darted to him for a second and then went back to Rosemary.

"Well, that's the thing, ain't it? The one I have isn't one of the 'seven' Emeralds. It's an eighth one I fluked into existence via time travel, so I don't see it as being part of the set since I made it," Sorun argued. "Technically doesn't even exist to people who don't know about it. It's mine."

"Regardless it is identical in both form and function to Chaos Emeralds, and there are many who see those Emeralds as objects of danger due to their potential uses," Rosemary coldly responded. "It's a dangerous item that deserves to be in a vault, not your house."

"Hey, my kitchen sink is very secure, what are you talking about?"

Elias made a small groan and visibly withered at Sorun's remark; Rosemary rankled at it. "King Elias, with respect, surely you agree something as dangerous as a Chaos Emerald needs to be protected for the safety of the people, and not left in the care of him?" she snapped, gesturing towards Sorun.

The king looked very uncomfortable at the question and bent his body to be closer to the papers he was signing, as if he were attempting to sink into the papers themselves. "I'm rather busy at the moment-"

"You're really doing this?" Sorun asked, utterly ignoring Elias as he spoke to the councilwoman. "Really? Because you don't like me?"

"This isn't about you; it's about the people of New Mobotropolis and every citizen under the protection of the Republic of Acorn."

"And wouldn't you know it, but I just happen to be one of those citizens," Sorun shot back. "And believe it or not I'm financially dependent on that Emerald because of the portal ability my special sword has. I'd argue it's a lifeline to Honey's business because of how lucrative it's been. You're gonna take that away over something as paper-thin as safety?"

"'Paper-thin.'" The way she repeated that almost made her sound disgusted at Sorun. By now Elias was writing so fast Sorun wondered if the signatures would even be legible. "The government is supposed to trust that you, an individual of dubious ability, is capable of protecting the Chaos Emerald from a hypothetical third party that could potentially attempt to take it from you for the purpose of nefarious deeds against the Republic's interests? Especially when you're using that thing to teleport all around the world, well outside of our protection? If, say, Dr. Robotnik or someone under his employ were to move against you, we're to trust you'd handle it appropriately and not lose the Emerald to someone who wants to use it against us?"

"Does he even know I'm alive?"

"Irrelevant, Mr. Sorun. You surely see the issue here."

To be fair, she had a good point. It was actually one of the few things left Sorun was paranoid over: someone attempting to try and take the Chaos Emerald from him. Which, on its own, was a fair enough assessment; things were practically weapons of mass destruction in the hands of people who knew how to use them. He was somewhat confident if someone did try he'd make it out fine, and it wasn't as if he advertised his possession of it outside of the city so chances were low something like that would ever happen, but... well, at the end of the day it was an item that could be stolen very easily from Sorun if he wasn't quick enough, and without powers he was quite possibly the slowest being on the planet. It was something he tried not to think about. The fact he'd gotten so far without issue helped to quell those thoughts. But he would begrudgingly admit having him carry around something as important and dangerous as a Chaos Emerald may be, admittedly, alarming.

But Sorun didn't care. The Emerald was his; it belonged to him and nobody else. It wouldn't even exist if it weren't for him. It was his power. His. Nobody was taking it from him.

When Sorun spoke next, his voice was low and derisive. "Well, councilwoman Prower... if you really want the Chaos Emerald so badly, you're certainly welcome to try and take it from me."

She balked at him. "If you are implying what I think you are implying then I warn you-!"

"Ah, there, done!" Elias frantically announced, haphazardly throwing the pen over his shoulder to the back of the room while holding up the sheaf of papers. He then immediately thrust them into Rosemary's arms, quickly saying, "Councilwoman Prower I understand your concerns, and while they are justified I think Sorun has proved through numerous past valorous actions that he is more than responsible enough to looking after the Chaos Emerald."

The councilwoman took the papers offered, though her angered expression didn't look like she agreed in the slightest. "You cannot seriously-!"

"I would think," Elias interrupted, handing her the papers, "that a bit of trust is warranted after all he's done for us. And it's bad practice to be seizing property without just cause."

Though she accepted the papers, one of Rosemary's eyes was visibly twitching. "We're considering Chaos Emeralds personal property now?"

"It's a special case, Rosemary," Elias sighed out. "Can you please just let it go?"

She opened her mouth, and then closed it, her face set in a deep scowl. She looked like she wanted to argue the point more, but then decided against after making a short sigh. "Thank you for the signatures. Good day to you, Elias." The fox didn't even bother to glance Sorun's way as she turned around to storm out of the room. Neither of them missed how hard the door was closed behind her, with Elias jumping a bit from the loud slam.

"... Well, she seemed nice," Sorun remarked, grinning wryly as he glanced over at Elias. The king made a loud groan and slumped down in the nearest chair, head in his hands as Sorun continued with, "Really an upstanding woman. I can see why people voted for her. Really great scolding voice."

Elias looked up at Sorun, and then groaned at seeing Sorun's grinning face before sinking his own back into his hands. "You enjoy needling people," he accused.

Sorun made a mocking gasp. "I do not! And even if I did, can you blame me? Humans thrive off conflict. I need it."

"That's not a healthy mindset."

"Well, really, every sapient species needs conflict to avoid stagnation, so if you think about it Mobians aren't an exception-"

"Not a single word you just said excuses you antagonizing her," Elias groaned out as he let his hands slap against the table. "'You're certainly welcome to try and take it?' What did you even mean by that!? Were you planning on actually fighting guards if they were sent to your home to confiscate it!?"

"... Would I be allowed to?"

"No! No you wouldn't!"

"Ah, hm. Oh." Sorun sat back in his seat and rubbed his chin in thought. Would he have actually gone that far? Maybe even go to the lengths of cutting himself and stuffing the Emerald in his body just so he could use Devil's Body to fight them off? Tenable idea, except for the fact it'd probably get him thrown in jail. Or kicked out of the city. And with that realization Sorun made a sigh and the grin dropped off his face. "On second thought if you'da just asked Nicole to demand it off me I'd've given it up," he answered truthfully.

Elias looked a bit relieved at that. Not much, but a little. "It's admittedly a bit of a hot topic, you and that Chaos Emerald, Sorun."

"Oh, don't tell you people have debates over it," Sorun groaned out.

"It's a somewhat touchy subject between the councilors. Myself and councilors Chuck and Rotor try to speak in favor of you. Councilor Prower... well, you just heard her stance on the matter. And the other three councilors are otherwise indifferent on the subject," Elias informed him. "It's not an issue I would take too seriously, Sorun. Though, since we're already discussing your use of that Emerald..."

"Hm? Oh, no." Sorun could spot the look of someone getting ready to ask someone something a mile away. "No no no, Elias, do not tell me you dragged me all the way to lunch just to ask me to do favors for you using Yamato."

To his credit the king looked a bit offended at the insinuation. "No, of course not! Why, to even suggest I had some ulterior motive beyond just inviting a friend out to lunch... I'm almost hurt by the notion." Elias darted his eyes to the side and turned away a bit. "That being said the Republic is a major world power and we are required to keep in constant communication with the other world powers, namely the president of Station Square and the Overlander representatives. Usually video conferences are suitable enough but now and again there are official documents that need to be physically delivered all around. And the normal couriers try to be expedient, but, quite honestly, a large majority of the time matters get stalled because of how long those papers take to get to others and we've been looking for a quicker means." His face wrinkled a bit. "And a less expensive one."

Sorun tilted his head back in surprise. "Okay, seriously, how much are those couriers charging that both you and Honey are complaining about them?"

"A bloody fortune," Elias muttered out in contempt, shaking his head and then looking at Sorun. "I don't blame them since they're quite literally carrying packages past whole continents, but... well... you're here."

"I already got a job," Sorun protested, raising his hands up. "Honey'll kill me if I quit. I'm too convenient."

"That's a bit of a morbid jest-"

"'Cause it ain't one!"

Elias momentarily winced at the shrill cry. "Truth or not, I'm not asking you to quit your job! Just to take five minutes out of your day to teleport somewhere to deliver important documents to foreign government officials!"

The offer calmed Sorun down somewhat, and he lowered his hands. "Okay, so... once in a while I just get a letter from you in the mail and I gotta take it somewhere? That it?"

Elias shook his head. "Oh, no, these aren't the type of papers I can simply mail. They'd be hand-delivered to you by a guard."

"Dude..." Sorun groaned out, rubbing at his face.

"You'd be doing your Republic a valuable service," Elias attempted, flashing Sorun with a winning smile full of bright teeth. And damn him and his charisma, but it was working because Sorun was starting to consider it. "More than that it makes you look favorable to the councilors, who would think twice of wanting to confiscate your Emerald if it meant being deprived of a useful service."

He had a strong point, and Sorun liked it. "But I'd get paid too, right?"

The winning smile Elias wore withered greatly. "W-well, Sorun, considering the extremely minimal amount of invested time and effort on your part I'm not sure such a service constitutes-"

"But I'd get paid too, right?"

"You'd... yes, I'd send you a small remittance for services rendered," Elias sighed out, slumping a bit in his chair. "I assume that's a yes, then?"

"Yeah, sure, I'll help you guys out from time to time." If it got Tails' mom off his back about the Chaos Emerald so he'd stop worrying about it then Sorun was all for it. Elias had reached out for a handshake - Sorun responded by gently slapping his palm with the back of his hand, and then the back of his hand with his palm, and then wiggled his fingers in a mystical manner as Sorun pulled his own hand back. The human got up from the table with a victorious grin. Elias remained rooted to the spot, staring at his own hand in a bewildered manner.

"Is... I was going for a handshake, Sorun, not... whatever that was," Elias told him. He couldn't stop looking at his own hand.

Swiping up the icepack from the table, Sorun said, "It's a common traditional handshake on Earth."

"I don't believe you," he whispered out, focusing on his own hand like his life depended on it. To be fair to Elias he was right, Sorun did make that up, but he had no way of knowing that.

"Mm. Well, anyways, thanks for lunch and the side gig. Nice talkin' with ya." The king was still looking at his hand by the time Sorun began walking his way towards the door, waving at Elias as he left. He'd only managed a sort of half-wave back at Sorun because he was so focused on trying to figure out what kind of handshake Sorun gave him like it was the most important puzzle in his life. It got to the point that halfway out the door Sorun was looking at Elias in confusion and wondering why he was putting so much thought into an unconventional handshake he made to have a bit of fun with Elias.

Mobian culture, fixation on handshakes, he didn't know, whatever, he was out.

Shrugging, Sorun exited the room and closed the door right behind him... only to then be met with Silver in the hallway, who seemed to have been waiting for him. He had a somewhat forlorn expression on his face. Might've had something to do with the large, red handprint throbbing on his face.

Automatically, Sorun offered him the icepack he was holding. "I tried to warn you, man," he told him as the white hedgehog accepted the ice.

"Thanks," he mumbled out, pressing the ice pack to his face. "... Sorun, it's melted."

"Yeah, I was wondering why it felt like I was holding a bag of water." Silver didn't look amused. "Man, what do you want from me? I bought that a while ago."

"Ugh, I know. Thanks anyways." Silver lowered the ice pack off his face, but then winced and put it back on the angry hand mark. Probably figured it was at least cold enough to help with it somewhat.

"So it didn't go well with Sally?" Sorun guessed.

Silver sighed. "No. I talked to her and then she yelled at me. And hit me. And then yelled some more," he lamented. "She's not a very nice person."

"Aw, don't say that. She's super sweet to her friends," Sorun denied with a wave of his hand. "And to every single person who lives in the Republic. And total strangers who seem alright. Really she's nice to everyone not trying to kill her. Man, you must have made a terrible impression, huh?"

"I don't feel like this is very constructive, Sorun."

"I disagree."

"Disa- you're barely taking this seriously!"

That wasn't true at all: Sorun wasn't taking this seriously in any amount. Of course he didn't say that to Silver's face to avoid is ire. In Sorun's defense it was hard to get onto the idea one of his friends was trying to do something as insidious as end the world, and he was pretty sure his brainwash/clone theory was dead-on. But for some reason, some unexplainable reason Sorun just couldn't figure out, Silver was barely considering that idea and was stuck on this traitor thing. Maybe because that journal specifically had the word "traitor" in it, which wasn't really a word that applied to brainwashed/cloned people. Unless it was taken out of context. Or any other number of things, which Sorun couldn't say for certain because he hadn't read the damn journal and he couldn't go get it to fact-check Silver.

And he got it, he really did. Fate of the world and all that. He didn't blame Silver going to these lengths. Except he could because he wasn't getting anywhere and Sorun warned him how bad an idea this was. But even if it meant the slightest possible iota of forwards progress Silver was apparently willing to go to all sorts of lengths just to get that much closer to solving the problem. Maybe there was a way to work around that - be constructive, like Silver suggested.

"Silver, hear me out. Maybe... don't randomly accuse good people of plotting crimes," Sorun suggested. "I mean have you considered, man, I dunno... joining the Freedom Fighters just so you could observe them from the inside? Gather evidence, or lack thereof, on the inside, get to know them in a way that would go a lot easier for them than if a stranger just walked up to them saying crazy stuff like what you're doing? For crying out loud, you have TK powers. That's already a better powerset than most of them have. Wouldn't even be hard for you."

To Sorun's great frustration, Silver shook his head. "I don't want to be distracted. Plus, what if me helping out so much derails the natural course of time, throws off what little we already know? Can't risk it."

"I think you're vastly overestimating the Butterfly Effect here," Sorun muttered out with a shake of his head. "Look, Mogul of the future said the end of the world don't even happen for twenty-five years. We have so much time; why are you rushing? Besides the whole I-wanna-meet-my-family thing, which I understand, but twenty-five years, man!"

Again, Silver shook his head. "World ends in twenty-five years, yeah, but the red-eyed traitor that kickstarts it shows up sometime this year. It's what the journal and all the other research I did suggests, and Master agreed."

Sorun sputtered out and threw his hands up. "S-so what, they show up and take a nap for a couple decades before ending the world? Spend twenty-five years building up a power base to end it? Gets sent twenty-five years into the future? Coma? Imprisoned? 'Cause future Sonic didn't mention any of this happening." Wasn't even clear if there had been a traitor to deal with after Sorun got sealed in the Master Emerald, because he never referenced it. Which made even less sense because then why would there be one in this time? Nothing changed. But there'd been so much happening and so little time maybe Sonic just hadn't seen fit to mention a so-called traitor. Maybe the end of the world was slated to happen but the time anomaly Sorun had to put the kibosh on interrupted it. Too little information.

"I don't know, Sorun, okay, that's as much as we learned!" Silver exclaimed. "We have this amount of information! Okay!? That's all! I'm trying to work with what we've got!"

"But why can't the others help if you told them all this when-!" Sorun stopped dead when Silver grew an apprehensive look mid-sentence. His eyes narrowed. "Silver. How much did you tell them when you gave the Freedom Fighters your whole little debrief thing when you first got here with me?"

Seemingly sensing his growing frustration, Silver grimaced and avoided Sorun's gaze. "The... bare essentials," he admitted, making Sorun's eyes narrow further. "I mentioned the threat and how bad of shape the future is in. Nothing else."

"You didn't tell them the timeframe." Rubbing his hand over his face and through his hair, Sorun made a great groan of frustration and leaned back until his back hit the wall. "Du-u-uude, why!? Why are you doing- you're hiding information now, seriously!?"

"Because I didn't want to tip the traitor off that I knew more than I was letting on!" Silver argued. "They were all there listening to me!"

"But they already know you're looking for them because you decided to go and ANNOUNCE it so what difference does it make if- ugh, ugh forget it!"

Maybe it was Sorun's fault for not seeing it. For assuming that someone who spent their whole life only having social interactions with a walking thesaurus and an old hermit would translate into Silver having something even closely resembling social tact. He certainly couldn't blame Silver; this was just... what he grew up to be, as a result of his environment. And his environment in no way could have ever prepared him for the social-fu it would have taken to play mind games, observe from the shadows, and subtly gather the information he needed to sus out whoever this culprit of his was. He'd already thrown all that out the window with quite possibly the bluntest strategy Silver could have employed to solve this mess.

Hell, these are things Sorun himself wasn't confident he could say he could do, and he was at least cognizant of the concept. With Silver Sorun wasn't even sure the hedgehog knew these kinds of concepts existed, and why would he when he grew up alone in an apocalypse with a single person looking after him?

So yes. Maybe it was Sorun's fault for realizing that, at the end of the day... Silver just wasn't good at this. Terrible, in fact. Just wasn't in his skillset. And maybe Sorun should have seen that and tried steering him just a bit, but he had been, and still was, so skeptical of the traitor idea he just didn't want to entertain it. But now because of that they were in this situation where Silver was making himself look like a paranoid weirdo to everyone else, and that was probably gonna end up being counter-intuitive to his end goal of finding the damn traitor. Which Sorun was sure didn't even exist. And yet the world would end. So there had to be some truth there somewhere.

It was such a stupid situation and Sorun had no idea what he was supposed to do about it. He was supposed to be retired, dammit. Not dealing with this. Not playing spy games with someone so woefully underprepared to be playing spy games they already lost the spy game and thought they were still playing the spy game.

"Maybe we should split up." Case in point. Now Silver was suggesting ideas like this. "We'd cover more ground if-"

"I want you to run that back in your head, and then I want you to remember the part where I told you I wasn't gonna go accusing my friends of being a traitor," Sorun said, back still flat against the wall as he glared up at the ceiling. "It's gonna be a hard no from me."

"Sorun-!"

"We said we were gonna be reactive with this, Silver. That was the plan. That was the strategy devised from all the no-information we have." His head tilted down to look at Silver. "This is a pretty proactive approach you're taking."

"Because I just don't think 'oh, we'll react to it when it happens' is a very reliable plan, Sorun," Silver shot back.

Sorun winced. "It ain't, granted, but-"

"If we get the traitor then they can't somehow end the world in twenty-five years." Silver's voice came out more somber and sad than Sorun like, and it stirred something inside of him that didn't feel good. "We can just cut it off sometime this year. Everything'll be saved and I can go back to the parents and family I was supposed to have." The Mobian looked frustrated as he looked down at his feet. "I know you don't like the idea of the traitor, Sorun, and I'll agree that there's a chance you're right, even if the journal didn't imply it, but... I'm trying my best here, alright? I know I might have messed up in a lot of places but I'm really trying here."

"Why can't shit ever be simple?" He'd be lying if he said he wasn't as concerned about the future and world as much as Silver, but it kept coming back to the concept of a traitor in the Freedom Fighters. Silver was so stuck on the idea he wouldn't move off it and Sorun just didn't believe it. Stick up for his friends and he's leaving behind the one person trying to solve this in the dust. Stick with Silver and... well, yeah, that would involve accusing his friends. Seemed like a loss no matter what he did. "Screw it, I'll play along a bit."

Silver already blew his chances on playing the passive observer, but Sorun was in a prime position to do that. And unlike Silver he actually had subtly and a modicum of social skills. So maybe... he could just say he was investigating the matter but in reality was doing nothing and just watching for anything out of place. And if he did see something off he'd just bring it to Silver's attention.

So basically what he was already doing. Just a whole lot of passive watching.

But hey, Silver didn't have to know that.

"Alright, fine," Sorun sighed out as he pushed off the wall. "I'll 'investigate the matter' if it pleases you so. Gonna come up with a fat lotta nothin', though, just getting that outta the way right now."

Well, that's what he promised, but at the end of the day Sorun just had zero reason to suspect any of his friends, so "investigating" was more "kind of just goofing around talking about whatever". It was arguably the same vein of thought, though. Sorun thought so, anyways.

"You wanna hear about the future?"

Sorun hadn't even been the one to initiate the topic of the future. When they split Silver wanted Sorun to talk to Tails, because apparently he really took the whole "you can't underestimate a genius" thing Sorun offhandedly said to heart and he was somewhat suspicious of him. For no other reason than that. Seemed ridiculous to Sorun but he needed to appease the guy, so off to the fox he went.

He was pretty sure he lived in the hangar at this point, because Sorun barely ever saw the kid anywhere else. To the point going home for dinner probably felt more like a visit to his folks. Between that and going out on life-threatening missions Sorun'd probably be worried in their shoes, but there were others always looking out for him, so Sorun thought it was fine. He'd been at it long enough to be fine on his own anyways.

And... the plane got fixed, it looked like. After Sorun totaled it. He did his best to not even look at the plane when he walked into the hangar just to talk to Tails at Silver's behest. He'd looked up from whatever he'd been working on, smiled, waved, they made some small talk, and then Tails came right out of left field with that question about the future. Sorun didn't really know what he was supposed to talk about, but he for sure knew what topics to avoid. Namely the killing. And threats against his future kids. Should probably leave the Mina thing out, too, 'cause he wasn't risking tempting those butterflies.

"Well, yeah, you went there, right?" Tails asked as he turned back to working on whatever was on the table in front of him. Some sophisticated thingamajig by the looks of it, with an exposed panel leaking wires that the fox was poking around in with a pair of tools. Sorun was sitting on a stool right next to him. "What was it like? You don't talk about it."

For a lot of good reasons, but none of those could be said. He chose not to even bring up the alternate future and skipped straight to armageddon. "Well, I met Silver there, and uh... yeah, looks real bad," Sorun confessed. "Dunno, he's, uh, trying to fix it. But yeah. Can't really say much since most of it was... you know. Rubble."

"Oh." His ears sagged down a bit at hearing that. "I was just wondering 'cause I figured the tech a few centuries ahead would look pretty wild, but... yeah, you're right." A few electrical sparks jumped out of the thingy Tails was working on. "I'm glad you made it back though," he added, giving Sorun a smile. "I know you had it really rough for a while there but you look like you're doing good now!"

Sorun rubbed the back of his head and glanced away. "Yeah, things are going great," he agreed. "'Cept with Silver. He's going really ham on this whole 'save the future' mission."

Tails face soured. "Oh, yeah. Him." He turned back to whatever that electronic contraption was. "No offense to him, Sorun, but I don't see how somebody from the future could have so few answers on how to actually save it."

Sorun couldn't refute that. "Silver means well," he carefully said. "He's just... not really going about it that well. Because apparently he thinks that one of the Freedom Fighters is the threat he mentioned and thinks it's one of you."

There were a few sparks that came out of the device that came when Tails sharply twisted his wrist, like the news Sorun gave him was so startling he'd done it on reflex. "He said what?" he asked, almost sounding scornful as he turned Sorun's way.

"I know, right? It's crazy," Sorun scoffed out, rolling his eyes. He was glad to see his statement caused Tails to grow a relieved look. "I tried telling the guy there's no way any one of you would wanna end the world. Be another matter entirely if one of you were brainwashed or cloned. Would explain the whole 'the traitor has red eyes' thing since stuff like that usually causes that kind of effect. Oh, he said the traitor has red eyes," he added at Tails' confusion.

He nodded, and turned back to the gizmo he was dissecting. There was a rattling sound as Tails poked around its insides with his tools. "Well geez, Sorun, that sounds almost logical," he remarked in a sarcastic tone. "You didn't tell him that?"

"I did, but he's not buying into it so hard. Barely acknowledges it as a distinct possibility," Sorun said. "According to him it doesn't really line up with the wording of a journal he read of someone who knew what the deal actually was, but I didn't get a peak inside the thing so I don't know what he's talking about. But I can't believe one of you would do something like that." A beat passed. "I mean if you were to go about ending the world how would you even do it?"

"Doubt I could do it if Robotnik couldn't," Tails truthfully admitted, not even bothering to take his attention away from his work. "Kinda doubt anybody could, actually. I mean... through what means? Robotnik tried everything and we always stopped him. I don't think there's anybody in the world who could end it if they tried."

"Psh, I could do it. Easy," Sorun replied in a joking manner.

Tails rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. How?"

"Just use Yamato to separate the world from the ozone layer and let the sun cook the planet in rads. Kill off all plant life, work up the food chain. Take a while but it'd work."

The quiet rattling sound of Tails' tools stopped. The fox slowly put the tools down on the table, and then swiveled around in his stool to regard Sorun with a cautious look. "Um... your sword can't actually do that, can it?" he asked.

Sorun met his cautious look with a serious gaze of his own... for approximately five seconds, after which he barked out a laugh and shook his head. "Nah, something like the ozone ain't solid enough for me to stab and separate. But I really had you going there," he laughed, making Tails pout and cross his arms in a disgruntled manner.

"Where do you even come up with stuff like that?" Tails grumbled out, looking at least slightly amused, if annoyed, at Sorun's antics.

"Stuff like 'Worm' were really inspirational sources on creative power usage." At seeing Tails' questioning look, Sorun elaborated with, "It was a, uh, book. Yeah. Book."

"Oh. What was it about?"

"It's~a~story~I~can't~talk~about~'cause~you're~too~young~" Sorun chimed out, each musical syllable punctuated with him tapping Tails on the forehead.

"Quit it!" he laughed out, waving his arms in front of him to get Sorun to stop. And then he made a mad sort of pout again. "And I am too old enough! I'm old enough to go on missions with all the other Freedom Fighters but I'm not old enough to hear about a story!?"

"Oh, no, 'Worm' is one of those stories that's firmly in the 'I can't ever talk to anybody about this ever because it's too dark' box," Sorun corrected, though this just made Tails look more confused. "It's in the same box as 'Berserk'. Which... hurts, Tails, not being able to talk about 'Berserk' with anyone here. Almost as much as not seeing how it ends."

With a sigh and a shake of his head, Tails went back to work on the gadget. "I don't really understand how a story could be so dark you won't even talk to anyone about it," he said, "but if that's the case can't you just reinvent it or something? Just change things so it's child-friendly so I can actually hear the stories and understand what you keep referencing?"

"Child-friendly 'Berserk'? Child-friendly 'Berserk'?" That sounded like blasphemy to even speak. Thinking about it sent Sorun reeling in horror. "Tails, you don't know what you're asking, that's not- alright, fine, let's try," he said, more out of morbid curiosity than anything else. "Our story starts with Gu- Gatsu sounds more friendly, we'll use that. Gatsu was born and... uh, yeah, he was born, that was it. Yep."

Tails glanced to the side to give Sorun an incredulous look. "You have to edit his birth? Seriously?"

"Yes. And after being born Gatsu had a childhood where he did things as a child. And then he grew up," Sorun continued. By this point Tails had shaken his head again once more returned to his work. "And then he met this cool guy and his friends, and they did stuff together! As friends! And then, uh... after that- this is stupid, I give up," Sorun sighed out. "Look, I can't do 'Berserk' dirty like this, Tails. It's like trying to separate moisture from water. The two are intrinsic; it can't be done!"

"I don't even know what you're trying to separate here, Sorun," Tails said, sounding thoroughly uninterested. "Never mind, this story sounds boring."

More blasphemy. Sorun excused it on a foundation of ignorance on Tails' part. Just barely. "Yeah, well, your mom'd try and get me if she found out I was telling you scary stories anyways." He started to gently claw at the air in front of him. "She'd be like one of those really annoying Home Owner's Association people from Earth that'd hit you with every minor infarction in the book and drown you in fines just to annoy you."

One of Tails' ears twitched in annoyance. "She'd never do that! She's way too nice!" He paused. "Wait, did you meet her?"

"Yeah." He really didn't like her. "She seemed like a nice enough lady." He thought about complimenting her on how she seemed competent, but that was the only compliment Sorun could think of and thought it'd sound a bit weird, so he chose to keep it to himself.

Well, then again, she had to at the very least be a decent mother if Tails was singing her praises, and he could respect that. Was probably the only reason Sorun didn't outright hate her - she was a good mother. He could tolerate a lot as long as she held onto that title.

He glanced back at Tails. Looked like he went back to being so absorbed in the thing he was working on he was barely registering Sorun's presence. He knew enough about him that at this point it'd probably be an effort in futility trying to talk to him - more likely he'd just end up bugging the Mobian for interrupting his technological guru flow state or whatever. He got testy when people did that.

"Alright, well, good talk. Seeya later," Sorun sighed out as he spun around and hopped off the stool. There'd been some small sound that left Tails mouth, a murmur that might have possibly been construed as "goodbye", but more than likely he'd just made a noise acknowledging Sorun was leaving. The teen shook his head as a result and walked away towards the hangar exit.

"Wonder if Silver had any luck on his end?"

"So no luck, huh?"

"It's no use, Sorun." It was a sorry state he'd found Silver in when he returned to the house. Flopped onto the couch with an arm and leg hanging off the side wearing a dead, forlorn expression, the aura of sullenness radiating out from him. It was a pathetic-enough looking state to appear pitiable. "It really is no use."

"Well, I coulda told ya that. I did at the onset of this, actually. Multiple times over if I recall," Sorun lightly replied as he sat down at the other end of the couch. "So how bad did it go?"

Silver's head listed off to the side, and he sighed out. "Pretty bad..."

"Um... so I can't just go in and talk with the councilor? You're sure?"

The Mobian clerk sitting on the other side of the check-in desk to the castle lobby regarded Silver with an uncaring, deadpan stare. "No. As I said, councilman Rotor is extremely busy. If you want to make an appointment with him you're gonna have to fill out a 58-B form."

Silver groaned and pinched at his nose. "Okay, fine, so if I fill one of those out then can I go see him? It's important!"

The duck on the other side of the desk shook his head. "No, you misunderstand. A 58-B form is a prerequisite to get your name on the waiting list of people requesting an appointment with the councilor. Once your 58-B form gets approved you're put on the list, and once you're next in line a 35-C form will be mailed to the residence address provided by you in the 58-B form. You'll need to get an approved 35-C form if you want an appointment with the councilor."

"And then can I talk to him!?"

"No, a 35-C just guarantees you a spot to wait in line on the day the councilor is accepting appointments," the duck drawled out. "I'd recommend getting here early on that day. Please bear in mind a spot in line doesn't necessitate you an actual meeting, variable by how his schedule is looking that day and what other matters he's beholden to attend to."

"O-okay, fine, how long does all of that take?"

"Usually about a week to process all the necessary paperwork."

Silver flinched heavily, but then took a breath to steady himself. "Alright, then can I have a 58-B form, please?"

To the hedgehog's frustration, the duck secretary shook his head. "No, sir, you'll need to see the clerk at our Forms & Registrations desk in order to get your hands on a form 58-B."

Silver's nose sucked breath. "Okay. Where do I find that?"

The duck didn't answer him. Instead he reached out to the little triangular plaque on the desk that read 'Front Desk' and turned it over backwards. An indescribable feeling of frustration welled in Silver when he saw 'Forms & Registrations' stamped on the other side.

"Hello and welcome to Castle Acorn's Forms & Registrations desk, how may I assist you?" the duck clerk asked in that same deadpan drawl.

"You- you could have just told me at the beginning that-!" Silver stopped himself, biting his lower lip as he did his best to contain his outburst. "Never mind... Can I please get a-"

"Sorry, sir, but you'll have to take a number before I'm able to help you," the duck interrupted, and then gestured to the strange dispenser item nearby that had a paper ticket stub sticking out of the bottom of it.

Blinking once, Silver turned around, noting how he and the duck were the only two Mobians in the lobby. He processed the empty sight for a single second, and then turned back to the clerk. "There's nobody else here, though," he whined out in protest.

"..." The duck's thousand-yard stare was uncompromising. Unflinching. Still enough that Silver would think him to be a statue if he hadn't heard him speak prior. It was disturbing enough, in fact, that instead of arguing the point Silver just awkwardly shuffled towards the dispenser. He pulled a ticket out, and then shuffled back to the desk before softly putting it down on the desk. "Um, here," he politely said.

Not even blinking, the duck picked up the ticket and read the number. He put the ticket down, and then cried out, "Number twenty-three!" Somehow he still sounded like he was on the brink of exhaustion despite yelling out like that.

Awkwardly, and not sure what else to do, Silver raised his hand. "Hello?"

"Hello and welcome to Castle Acorn's Forms & Registrations desk, how may I assist you?" the duck robotically recited in a voice that was completely identical to the first time he said that.

"You... what..." Silver quickly shook the confusion from his mind and calmly asked, "Can I please get a 58-B form, sir?"

"Certainly, sir, of course. Here you go."

Silver didn't like how, barely a moment after the duck finished speaking, he'd already had the form in hand and slapped it right on the desk in front of Silver. He'd even narrowed his eyes at the act, but then let it go and grabbed the nearby pen chained to the desk as he began filling the form out. Not even thirty seconds in he had a question. "Hey, so I'm staying at a friend's house right now so is it okay if I just write down his addre-?"

"The residency address to the domicile currently being inhabited by the applicant of form 58-B must be provided as stated in the directions outlining that requirement."

"But I don't live here, I don't-"

"Oh, then excuse me one moment." Without missing a beat the paper form was snatched right out from in front of Silver. He'd barely managed to let out a cry of "Hey!" before the duck, before Silver's eyes, shredded the form right then and there. His mouth dropped open, unable to even comprehend the act that had just been perpetrated before him.

"W-why?" he feebly asked once the white hedgehog gathered enough willpower.

The duck readjusted his glasses before speaking. "I'm afraid only citizens are eligible to receive form 58-B. Visiting members of New Mobotropolis require an escort of no less than one guard to accompany them in order to receive form 46-I in order to obtain form 58-B so that form 35-C can be obtained. Foreign dignitaries require no forms in order to seek an audience with the councilors or the king but do require a foreign diplomat visitation badge and express permission from the king." He took a slow, methodical look around and then looked back at Silver. "You have no guard escort."

Why did there have to be so many hoops involved with getting to talk to somebody? It didn't make any sense to Silver; already his patience was thin enough that he wanted to quit right there and just leave. "The future, Silver, think of the future," he mentally reminded himself, steeling his features and regarding the clerk with newfound resolve. "Is there really no other way to see him?"

Humming, the duck suggested, "If you applied for citizenship to New Mobotropolis you would eventually be eligible to receive form 58-B directly."

A smile broke out over Silver's face. "Yes, that's perfect! How do I do that!?"

"Sorry, but I can't help you." The smile dropped off Silver's face. "You'll have to go to the Department of Immigration in order to get that sorted."

Even more hoops than before, but this one Silver could at least understand partially. "Okay," he mumbled out, "so where's that?"

He could literally feel his face twitching in irritation when the duck clerk took the plaque off of his desk, and then reached under that very desk to put a new plaque on top of it. Somehow he wasn't surprised to see 'Department of Immigration' stamped on it.

"Hello and welcome to Castle Acorn's Department of Immigration, how may I assist you?"

"... Can I please apply for citizenship?"

"I'm sorry, sir, but due to a recent dispute with a rogue paper shredder any and all documents relating to citizenship application have ceased to exist. Maintenance staff is currently working to rectify the issue. If you have any further questions you'll have to ask them."

Silver groaned. "Okay, fine, then where's the nearest maintenance person that- no, come on don't, please- agh, come on!" he yelled out when, once again, the duck flipped the plaque around so it now read 'Maintenance Manager'.

"Hello and welcome to Castle Acorn's Maintenance Management desk, how may I assist you?"

"How many jobs do you have!?" Silver screamed out. "No, you know what!? Forget it! Can you please just tell me how long it'll take to fix whatever went wrong so that-!?"

Before Silver could continue the duck slid a new sign in the center of the desk that simply had the word 'closed' printed on it. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm on lunch. Please return later if you have any additional questions."

By that point Silver decided to leave before he accidentally crushed that desk with his mind.

"I mean how many one jobs can a single person even have!?" Silver screamed out in frustration, looking ready to tear his own quills out. "It doesn't make any sense! And the way he acted, it... rrrgh, he spoke in so many circles for no reason!"

Sorun only needed a moment to recognize the person Silver was talking about. "Oh, yeah, I know that guy. That's Dale. He's one of the Mobians that got roboticized for a whole decade 'til that one alien came and fixed all the roboticized Mobians. Rumor has it he was really traumatized from the experience so everyone thinks he works a bunch of jobs to take his mind off it. Elias told me he lets him since he felt bad and needed a bunch of superfluous positions filled that nobody wanted to do."

The explanation served to bring realization to Silver's eyes. And then he grew a sad yet disturbed expression.

"Also he runs the local book club, too," Sorun continued in a completely blasé tone. "I might join it one day. Dunno. Still thinking about it."

A bunch of airy sounds left Silver's mouth that was hanging open. He looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words. Then he shook his head to get rid of whatever mental picture he seemed to have conjured, and then stopped when his normal expression returned. "Right, anyways, after that I went to talk with Antoine and Bunnie..."

"-and so I really need to talk to you two because this is really important and-"

"Ah'll stop ya right there."

When Sorun first told Silver about Bunnie he said she was one of the nicest people he'd ever met. In hindsight it didn't mean all that much, because according to Sorun everyone in the Freedom Fighters was the nicest person he'd ever met, but after he got slapped by one of those "nice people" for investigating who in their group would eventually turn traitor to end the world he was starting to doubt him. The "nicest people" he ever met. Nice people didn't throw people in trash cans.

He was hoping Sorun was only slightly wrong and Bunnie was an exception, and when he'd knocked onto the door to her home and she'd opened the door she'd been smiling. So the hope had been there. But then the hope was lost when her eyes took two seconds to recognize Silver, after which the smiling face turning into a wary face.

But he was new and Silver figured a bit of caution was probably warranted, especially after everything he'd said, so he decided to make his case to her in hopes that she would help. And now she was giving him a really cold scowl.

"So what yer sayin' is, ya think one o' us is gonna end the world," she drawled out. "An' ya don't know which one dunnit. So ya suspect ah'm some monster in disguise that wants tah end the whole world. Or one o' mah friends. Or mah husband. Or even the fella who's lettin' ya live in his home."

Silver shook his head. "No, it couldn't be Sorun. He's not a Freedom Fighter anymore."

("Wow, wait," Sorun interrupted while listening to Silver, "you... denied suspecting me but didn't disprove you thinking either she or her husband was a 'monster in disguise that wants to end the world,' Silver? Are you for real?")

("... You think that's why she ended up slamming the door in my face?")

("Gee, man, who knows. Could-coulda been anything, really. I mean, you think so? Could have just interrupted a marital spat between her and Antoine. Can't imagine she'd take offense to that. Being accused of plotting mass murder? Who'd get mad over something like that? Maybe she accidentally burned a pie.")

("I get it, Sorun, I get it...")

(Sorun had doubts Silver actually understood completely, but kept listening regardless.)

The scowl Bunnie was sending Silver became even colder, but for what reason Silver couldn't figure it out. "Not how the rest of us see it, even if he don't fight with us no more."

"Oh. That's, uh... nice of you?" The cold glare didn't subside in the slightest, making Silver nervously gulp. "So can I come in to talk to you and Antoine?"

"No. Get off'a mah lawn."

The answer had come so suddenly and harshly Silver had flinched from it. The mere delivery of it and how bitter the rabbit sounded almost made him shy away, but seeing her close the front door and the knowledge that he was losing his chance managed to keep Silver together. So, slightly alarmed, he jumped forwards and pressed his hand against the door to keep her from closing it.

"Wait, hey, this is really important!" Silver protested. "I know you probably don't want to hear it but I'm serious! One of you-!"

"Get yer hand off the door, friend." He did so, automatically, more because of the dangerous-sounding undertone Bunnie's tone had taken when he stopped her from closing the door. She kept regarding him with that cold look as he stepped back. "Listen', ah get where you're from they probably do things a bit different, but 'round here folks really don't appreciate it if ya start spoutin' nonsense like that 'thout a shred o' proof. 'Specially when ya ain't been here that long."

"You say that like I haven't been researching this for-!"

Bunnie promptly slammed the door in Silver's face before he managed to get another word out.

When Silver had finally gotten around to catching up to Sonic, a feat that was really harder than it ought to have been, he'd explained what the situation actually was to him in the hopes that he'd be of some help. So far it was really feeling like he was in the same mind on the matter as everyone else was, which was attributing to Silver feeling more distressed by the second.

"Alright, lemme get this straight." There was a heavy amount of skepticism on the other hedgehog's face as he leaned back, stretching his arms over his head. He regarded Silver with half-lidded eyes and a small, disinterested frown. "You're convinced one of us is gonna end the world. Even though we're spendin' all our time saving the world. How sure are you about this again?"

"I wouldn't be bringing it up if I wasn't sure, Sonic, and believe me when I say I am pretty sure," Silver stressed out.

"Ah-huh." He didn't look convinced at all. "And, uh, what, what does Sorun have to say about all this?"

"He's... pretty convinced I'm wrong and that it's not one of you, or if it is it's an evil clone or one of you got brainwashed."

"Huh. You know what, that sounds really smart. You should probably listen to the guy." Sonic pivoted around and turned his back to Silver. "Alright, I'm not listenin' to anymore of this. Later-"

"Hey, just listen a second-!"

"No, you listen." When he rounded back at Silver the skeptical look on Sonic's face was replaced by anger. "I've known all these guys practically my whole life. They're friends. They're family. I'd sooner believe Eggman woke up one morning and decided to be a decent person than believe a single one of 'em would ever want to threaten what we've been working our whole lives to save."

Silver slapped his hands against his own chest. "I know, okay, but I, the guy from the future who knows what happened, am telling you that-!"

"Well then tell me who did it."

"Huh?"

"If you're from the future and already know everything then tell me who did it!"

"I don't know who did it!" Silver shouted in frustration. "I wouldn't be here trying to get help if I knew who did it!"

"Then I guess you don't know a whole lot, do you!?" He stomped up to Silver and roughly poked his chest with a finger. "Look, you wanna crash on Sorun's couch and hang around here just to throw a bunch of accusations around at people? Fine, whatever. Do what you want. But I don't care whatever it is you got up to in the future, 'cause I'd bet my life on none of my friends ever doing the things you're saying one did. Which wouldn't be a hard win 'cause you don't even know who did what."

"I-"

"Zip it," Sonic snapped. "I know them, okay? You don't. If something does happen then we'll deal with it like we always do, and you can feel free to help out if that time comes, but I'm not gonna hear this from a guy that's barely been here for a couple weeks. Don't bug me or any of my friends with this again."

After getting the last word out Sonic disappeared, only leaving faint blue speed lines that near-instantaneously faded away into nothing. Silver stuttered out from the sight, having opened his mouth to try and argue the matter with Sonic before he'd sped away, leaving him alone in the middle of the street. Staring forwards at nothing with his mouth hanging out.

"He... he gave me the spare room..."

By the time Silver finished explaining Sorun couldn't help the pity he felt. On the one hand he shouldn't, because he'd warned Silver this was gonna happen. The whole reason he wanted to keep the traitor thing secret was because he saw this outcome coming a mile away, not to mention they were his friends, too, and he was essentially in the same boat as Sonic not thinking it possible any of the Freedom Fighters would turn traitor to end the world of their own consent.

On the other hand Silver was his friend, too, and it left him in the awkward position of having one group of friends hating another friend now because of what he said. The same friend that was probably the only hope for saving the doomed future Sorun had personally seen.

He had a job, dammit, why did he have to deal with this?

"Well, Silver, uh... hm. Yeah." He didn't even have it in him to keep ribbing Silver on his decisions anymore after how today had gone. He just felt plain bad for the guy - Sorun imagined he'd feel as terrible as Silver, too, if he invested a large portion of his life researching in these mythical hero figures and went back in time only for them to yell at him. But then he was reminded of how much it was Silver's fault, and while it lessened the feeling somewhat, he still felt... well, bad for the guy. "So no progress?"

"No. None," Silver sighed out. "Any luck with Tails?"

He could have responded by saying he'd approached Tails in a manner infinitely more tactful than Silver did and walked away without earning any scorn from the fox while simultaneously throwing Silver under the traitor bus the same way he was throwing himself under that very bus. Sorun gave Silver a break and didn't do that. "No."

Silver sunk lower in the couch. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. How am I supposed to save the future when I don't even know what I'm supposed to do to save it? Who I'm supposed to stop, what I'm gonna prevent?"

"..." After grimacing in sympathy Sorun reached forwards and gently shook Silver's knee. He tried his best to put on a reassuring grin, though his face didn't feel very assuring. "Hey, there's always the original plan. Good ol' wait-and-see."

"What, just wait until the traitor's revealed so I can swoop in and help everyone deal with the problem?" Silver sighed again. "I told you I don't like that plan, Sorun. It doesn't leave us any time to prepare. Just to act. There's a whole lot that can go wrong."

"As opposed to doing what?" Sorun asked. "Nobody believes you, so the Freedom Fighters ain't gonna help. At this point I'm pretty much the only guy in the whole world batting for you, and I don't even believe in the traitor thing. And if you wanted to spend time investigating you blew your chances to get close to any of them after this. Wait-and-see's all you got at this point."

It was probably the cold, hard reality of the situation that pressed Silver deeper into Sorun's couch, who was beginning to become slightly worried one of his quills would cause a rip. "I guess you're right." He sat upwards - Sorun was relieved to find the section of couch he was laying on appeared to be fine. "Nothing to do but keep an eye out. I just really hate the idea, though. Feels like I'm just hoping for the best." He curled his knees against his chest and glanced to the side. "It's really frustrating."

"Yeah, I know." Sorun felt himself awkwardly scratching the back of his head once an awkward silence rose up. "You want those french fries now?"

"Didn't you just have lunch?"

"Ah, I mean... that was a while ago. And there's always time for fries." Sorun sat up off the couch and gave Silver a friendly pat on the shoulder. "C'mon, you'll love them. I found this new brand of ketchup at this one organic store in Station Square and I think you'll really like it, it's got this kind of tang at the end of it that..."

Most of whatever else Sorun said was lost on Silver, since by then he'd gone too far into the kitchen for him to hear him properly. He still found himself feeling more at ease despite it all from hearing it. The friendly voice was a nice reminder he still had one best friend to lean on even if things were looking so bad. So it was with a smile he got up from the couch. "Yeah, Sorun, that'd be great."

A/N- I mean, listen, I try toning down how hard Silver goes on the whole "there's a traitor, hur-dur" thing, but this is the same guy that was straight-up attacking people on nothing more than hunches in the comics. There's only so much I can do with that.