"You know, I always seem to figure out something new about myself whenever we hang out," Sonic said with a smile. "We should really try and hang out more often. We've been friends for a long time, but it feels like I never see you guys anymore."

"Well, our crime fighting days are in the past for the most part," Mighty replied. "Unlike you, who's probably the only person from your old team still active in the crime fighting sphere. Doesn't really help that we both have crazy work schedules. I had to cater a private party at the diner of forty-something people the other night."

"And I had to cover for Becky, again," Ray grumbled. "Stupid bitch. Wish they'd just fire her already."

"Is that the girl they recently hired who spends all her time texting her friends instead of, you know, being a nurse?" Sonic asked.

The flying squirrel nodded. "Yeah, I wish Martha were still there. She just vanished one day. No one's seen her since… it's really worrying."

The hedgehog's eyes widened. "Martha? And she worked at a hospital? Would her last name happen to be 'Gates' by chance?"

Ray gave him a confused look. "Uh, yeah, why?"

Sonic pulled out his phone and flipped through some pictures, before showing one of them to the couple. It was a picture of a young cheetah woman with half open eyes. She looked tired and wore a typical nurse's uniform. "This her?" Sonic asked, a serious look on his face.

"Yeah," Ray replied with a nod. "Yeah that's her. Why do you have a picture of her?"

"A few months ago, she and two other people went missing on the exact same day at around the same time and haven't been seen since. The others are Alan Jobs-" he scrolled to the side to show a photo of a human male, "-and Daniel Musk." Sonic scrolled again, this time showing off a picture of a young ox boy who was smiling at the camera while sitting at a workbench of some kind. The hedgehog put his phone away and continued. "A nurse, an office worker and a young child all went missing at the same time on the same day. The only connecting factor is they all seemed smarter than those around them and had some interest in technology. It's a case I've been investigating for a while, but I've gotten no leads at all."

"No leads, huh?" Mighty chimed in. "You sure you haven't heard anything about them at all?"

Sonic hesitated. "No," he lied, unwilling to talk about his experience from the other day. "I haven't heard a thing. It's like they all just vanished and no one cares. Well, no one except Daniel's family. His dad still hands out missing person fliers at the mall almost every day."

"That's awful…" Ray muttered. "We'll let you know if we hear anything. You'll be the first person we tell, I promise."

"Yeah," Mighty agreed. "I'll tell Vector to keep an eye out for anything as well. He's a detective after all." The armadillo paused and rubbed his chin. "One of admittedly dubious quality, but still a detective."

Sonic smiled. "Thanks guys, I appreciate the assistance." He thought for a moment. "Hey, since when did you and Vector start talking again?"

"Oh, Espoo borough him over the other night," Ray explained. "We had dinner, worked things out, had a group hug, cried a lot… so yeah, now we're cool again."

"Well, me and Vector are cool," Mighty corrected. "You're still airing on the side of caution."

"Can you blame me after everything that's happened?"

"I'm not mad at you, honey. I understand you're just being careful. I just felt the need to point that out is all."

"If you say so…"

Sonic smiled at the two of them. "I'm glad you and Vector are talking again. How's he holding up these days?"

Mighty shrugged. "Eh, up and down. Broke. Got into a fight with Charmy. But he's got some kinda deal with an internet celebrity going on, so that's good."

"I've got a feeling he might be figuring out some stuff about his feelings and all that here soon," Ray said with a devious look. "The way he looks at Espio-"

The armadillo slapped his partner on the back. "That's enough out of you, mister!"

"I'm just kidding!" the flying squirrel defended. "Mostly…"

The hedgehog shook his head. "You two never change, do you?"

A soft beeping from the electronic watch on Sonic's wrist caught all three of them by surprise. "Oh, shoot," the hedgehog muttered as he checked the time. "Sorry guys, I gotta dash. I've got an important netting today I can't miss out on."

"Already?" Ray whined. "I was hopping we'd get to prod your brain a bit more."

"I think we've given him plenty to think over already, hun," Mighty replied. "We'll see you around Sonic. Feel free to ask us if you have any more questions about that kind of thing. We're always here to help."

"And we'll keep an eye out for anything related to those three as well!" the flying squirrel added."

Sonic smiled at the two as he stood up to leave. "Thanks guys, I'll definitely do some more thinking and soul searching. See you later!" And with that, he was off.

G.U.N. HQ. He'd been there, of course, but it hadn't been in a good long while. Sonic didn't really like hanging around G.U.N. soldiers. Call it paranoia if you will, be he didn't exactly feel safe around them. Probably because the first time he interacted with them, they had him locked up on an aircraft for something he didn't even do. Not exactly a great first impression.

Still, he had to let bygones be bygones. The military branch had proven to be helpful to them on several occasions, including the last stand against the Eggman Empire. That being said, he still felt uneasy walking into their headquarters. Perhaps it was for that reason they had asked the soldier he had spoken to a few days ago to escort him through the facility. That, or they wanted to give the nervous wreck of a coyote something to do that wouldn't involve him panicking and messing up something hi-tech and dangerous.

"I-I-I'd just like to say," Buddy stammered as he wiped nervous sweat from his brow, "th-that I'm h-honored to lead you through the f-facility today, Mr. Hedgehog, s-sir."

"Hey, the pleasure's all mine," Sonic said with a smile, trying to ease the man's nerves.

"Ahhh… y-you're too kind, sir. I, uh, I hope you didn't mind the guy at our, uh, clearance station. He's, uh, umm… difficult sometimes."

"That guy who patted me down? The only thing that annoyed me was him calling Tails my sidekick. I hate that that's all he's known as these days. He's his own person."

"Ah! Yeah, ummm… well, I, uh, don't think of him that way, umm, Mr. Hedgehog, sir!"

Sonic scratched the back of his head nervously. "Oh, I wasn't, like, accusing you or anything. I just meant people in general."

Buddy fidgeted with the buttons on his jacket nervously. "Uh, uh, I know! I was just saying… you know?"

"Ah, I see. That makes sense."

"Y-Yeah… umm…" The nervous wreck of a coyote pointed to an elevator at the end of the hall they were walking down. "Th-this over here is the elevator to where we keep Ivo Robotnik!"

Buddy swiped his card and the two entered the elevator. The two didn't really talk to each other during the ride down, which gave Sonic plenty of time to take in the music.

"Oh, well, imagine

As I'm pacing the pews in a church corridor

And I can't help but to hear

No, I can't help but to hear an exchanging of words

'What a beautiful wedding!

What a beautiful wedding!' says a bridesmaid to a waiter

'And yes, but what a shame, what a shame

The poor groom's bride is a whore'

I chime in with a 'Haven't you people ever heard of

Closing the goddamn door?!'

No, it's much better to face these kinds of things

With a sense of poise and rationality"

Sonic frowned. "What a weird choice of music to play In an elevator," he thought aloud.

Buddy chuckled nervously. If possible, he almost seemed more nervous. "Yeah, w-weird right?" he asked, tugging at his collar. "It's almost like…" That's all the hedgehog could make out before he started chewing on his sleeve and mumbling into it. The rest of the ride down was filled with an awkward silence. At last, it stopped and Buddy led Sonic out and down the hall.

The coyote stiffened as one of the two people guarding the door looked up. Almost immediately, he saluted. "Good afternoon Mr. Shadow, sir!" he blurted out, doing his best to not tremble at the sight of the so-called ultimate lifeform.

Shadow eyed down the coyote curiously, but didn't say anything to him. Instead he turned to the blue hedgehog behind him. "I was wondering when you'd finally pay the old doctor a visit," he grumbled.

"Figured it was about time," Sonic replied with a shrug. "You seem… well."

"Likewise."

The tension between the two wasn't helped by the shivering coyote between them.

"At ease, soldier," a voice said. The trio turned to see Rouge, a smile on her face. "I've always wanted to say that," she giggled. "But seriously, try and relax, hun."

Buddy relaxed almost instantly, resting his arm at his side. A warm smile crept on his face as he looked at her. "A-alright, ma'am. I-I'll do my best."

The bat smiled at the coyote. "There's nothing to worry about, sweetie. We're all here just doing our jobs. You're that new guy, Buddy, right? If you relax more, things will be a little easier." She gave him a wink before saying, "I hear girls like the cool, calm and collected G.U.N. soldier-type."

The coyote blushed furiously. "Golly… ya think so, miss? I reckon that's a neat idea to have a gander at." A look of fear washed over the coyote's face. "Ah! I slipped up! I lost focus and my dumb accent slipped out! Forgive me for being so unprofessional, Ms. Rouge!"

The bat giggled to herself. "Oh, don't apologize for that, silly. I think you happen to have a cute little accent."

A deep shade of red washed over Buddy's cheeks. "Y-ya think so, do ya? Golly-gee, I reckon that's the first time I ain't been called a hillbilly bumpkin for the way I done gone speak." He cleared his throat and straightened his body. "B-b-but in a professional setting such as this workplace environment, there's no excuse for using such unprofessional speech structure! That's what my ma and- what my mom and dad always told me!" The coyote looked around nervously. "Umm, uh, umm… Mr. Sonic! I'm gonna wait by the elevator until you're done here!" With that, Buddy ran back down the hall and stood by the elevator, looking away from everyone else.

Shadow shot a dirty look at Rouge. "You really don't have any shame at all, do you?" he asked her spitefully.

"You're one to talk," she spat back at him.

"As much as I would looooove to sit through you're little lover's quarrel," Sonic said sarcastically, "I kinda have a meeting with the old egghead."

"Just let him in before we get told off again," Rouge grumbled.

"Told off? Who told you off?"

"Your arrogant little brother," Shadow muttered as he grabbed Sonic's arm and pulled out his Chaos emerald.

Sonic blinked. "What?"

"Forget it."

The green light absorbed the two of them and in an instant, they were inside the cell. Shadow didn't even bother to say anything before immediately getting out of there, not that Sonic minded. The less social interaction he had to have with Shadow the better. The blue hedgehog looked around the room, adjusting his eyes to the overwhelmingly white walls and furniture. His eyes landed on the table in the middle of the room. More specifically, the man dressed in white at the table.

"Hello, Sonic," Doctor Eggman said with a smile. "It's been… quite a long time hasn't it? I… sincerely hope you are well."

The hedgehog frowned as he took a seat in the chair opposite him. "No need to pretend to be all nice now, egghead," he replied coldly. "What do you know about the missing people? I was told you'd have info."

The old doctor frowned. "Missing people? What missing people? What makes you so sure I'd know anything about that? I haven't been outside this facility in a decade, Sonic."

"Don't play dumb with me, Robotnik. Alan Jobs. Martha Gates. Daniel Musk. Any of those names ring a bell?"

Eggman scratched his chin. "Hmm… maybe? Perhaps I read those names in an old newspaper… I don't remember. Why would those names matter to me, exactly?"

Sonic stood up and leaned over the table, glaring at Robotnik. "I don't have time for this!" he growled. "I know that you're connected to this somehow, Eggman. This guy, he called himself TimeWalker, he came out of a portal and told me you would know something. Alan was… was fused to some kind of machinery. Tell me what you know, now!"

"I don't know anything, you insufferable rodent!" Robotnik spat, trying his best to remain calm. "Maybe someone is repurposing my old machinery, I don't know! Certainly wouldn't be the first time that's happened, I imagine!"

"How do I know you're not in on this? Or that you're secretly behind it all?"

"I've been stuck in a government controlled box, underground, for a decade. How could I possibly do anything from here?"

"How do I know that you don't have any connections to the outside wor-"

"Connections?!" Eggman burst out into laughter. "Connections, he says! What a joke! Best I've heard in years!"

Sonic frowned. "What's so funny, egghead?"

"What's funny? What's funny is you actually think that the most objectively hated person on the planet right now has any kind of 'connection' with anything. I mean seriously, do you hear yourself talk?"

"There's no way you're not somehow tied into this-"

Robotnik slammed his hands on the table and stood up, leaning in so he could yell in the hedgehog's face. "LISTEN TO ME YOU IDIOT! What do you not understand, you moron?! I'm finished! You won! I lost! I can't do anything from here in this stupid box underground! All I do these days is sit around and wait to die! I don't know what's happening in the outside world apart from what I read in the papers, so how do you expect me to understand even a little bit of what you're running your mouth about?!" The doctor took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm a fat, old, single, loser who will die alone in this room. And you know what, you blue rat? I'll deserve it. You know why? Because instead of trying to make the world a better place, I wanted to control it."

Eggman sunk back into his chair, a depressed look on his face. "I don't have any reason to want to hurt the world more than I already have. I've wasted my life on that enough as is. All I want to do now is help make this world better in some way, as some level of atonement for my actions, but all I get is this box, these big white walls. I'm not upset, not really. I have no right to be. I'm reaping what I sewed." He let out a sigh.

"Why now?" Sonic said at last, clenching his fists in anger. "Why do you only have remorse for your actions now, huh? Why not the many other times you hurt people? Why didn't you regret things then?"

Robotnik was quiet. "It's not really a good excuse, but… when death is near, you start to reflect on things."

The hedgehog eased up. "Death? What are you…"

Eggman smiled sadly at the blue hedgehog. "I'm dying, Sonic. I'm not sure how much longer I have left."

Sonic sunk back down into his chair. Had he heard that right? Of course he did. Was it a trick? It had to be, right? No, there's no way it was. Not after such an emotional outburst. The words hit him like a truck. His arch-nemesis, dying? He'd soon be living in an Eggman-free world? Where did that leave him, then? What was Sonic the Hedgehog with no Dr. Eggman to fight? He had spent a decade certain the old doctor would escape somehow and they'd fight each other again. Now, it was abundantly clear that was never going to happen. A million thoughts rushed in his mind. There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but only one escaped his lips.

"How…?"

The old doctor looked away, smiling somberly. "Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome. They detected it seven years ago. I've tried all the treatments, donated to improve those treatments. Became a vessel of science and gave blood samples… everything. None of it's working. There's no cure." He looked up at the hedgehog that he once considered his greatest enemy. "Our life long back and forth has come to an end, Sonic. You won. Carry that knowledge with pride."

Sonic stared at Robotnik, at a loss for words. This was the last thing he was expecting to hear today. He didn't know what to feel. Joy? Sadness? Relief? All of them? He didn't know. He didn't want to process all of these emotions inside of him. Certainly not alone.

Busy. Busy, busy, busy. That's the only thing that showed up when he called Tails. He tried shooting his friend a few texts. Didn't bother even looking at them. Miles Prower was too busy for Sonic the Hedgehog right now. Sonic felt like an entitled brat for feeling so bitter about this, but he couldn't help it. The one time Tails was too busy to talk to him just so happened to be the day Eggman revealed he was knocking on death's door to him.

He let out a frustrated sigh as he put his phone away and headed for the elevator of the office building he had just entered. Talk about the worst possible timing. Why, oh why, did he ever think it would be a good idea to schedule his meeting with Eggman on the exact same day as his meeting with Amy? The drastic, sudden tonal shift of consoling a dying man he had always thought he hated contrasted with the bright and bubbly pink hedgehog excitedly measuring him up and down made the whole thing seem so… surreal.

He managed to maintain his best composure throughout the whole process though, for her sake. He suggested she ditch the ripped denim jeans in exchange for some good quality running shorts. The jacket could work better as a comfy hoodie to help keep him warm as he broke the sound barrier. The soap shoes were staying, those were classic and he loved how they felt. With his help, she'd have no trouble securing that brand deal.

"Are you ok?" Amy asked him. "You seem a little… out of it. Is it something about the outfit?" She looked at him with concern in her eyes.

"Oh, no nothing like that, the outfit looks amazing," he reassured her. "It's just, umm… I've had a pretty long day. I wanted to talk to Tails about it, but he was busy."

"Ah, I see. Yeah, he's been busy recently. He hasn't responded to my messages in two days. Knuckles said he was overworking himself on something someone asked him to fix."

Sonic let out a sigh. "Yeah, that sounds like him alright. Hope he's alright…"

"Knuckles said he's keeping an eye on him and making sure he eats and all that still."

"That's good. Maybe I'll swing by and see how he's doing soon."

"I was thinking the same thing! What a coincidence."

The two fell silent. Sonic was visibly a little uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Umm… was there anything else you wanted to specify about this design?" Amy asked him, pointing to the current mock-up of his outfit.

Sonic looked it over. "Actually," he said softly, "there is one thing I'd like to specify."

"What's that?"

"The colors of the outfit. I want clothing that expresses… me, if that makes sense." He smiled at her.

Amy blushed a little. "Sure, that's not a problem at all. What colors did you want?"

Sonic took a deep breath. "Dark and light green, white, black, light and dark gray, and purple."

Amy gave him a puzzled look. "That's pretty different from what you normally go with… are you absolutely sure that's something you'd wear?"

Sonic nodded. "I'm sure. I think… I understand myself a little better now. Those colors reflect that new understanding perfectly."

The pink hedgehog smiled. "Then I have no quarrels. I'll let you know once I've got the prototypes done."

"Thanks Ames. If we're done, I'm gonna head home. I really need to lie down."

Amy looked a little sad for a moment, but caught herself and smiled at her hero. "Yeah, that's all I needed. Have a goodnight, Sonic. I hope you feel better in the morning."

"Goodnight Ames."

As Sonic reached the door frame, he stopped and turned back to her. "Hey, uh, Amy?"

Amy looked over her shoulder. "Yes?"

"Let's hang out sometime, just the two of us. We haven't done that in ages."

The pink hedgehog's face lit up with joy. "Let's do that, for sure."

"We'll plan something out later. See you around!" And with that, he was off. He didn't want to stay. He liked Amy, he liked her a lot.

As a friend.

He didn't feel anything romantic or otherwise towards her. He'd never felt that way about anyone in his life. He always thought that was strange. Sonic had always felt like an outsider because of the way he never felt a romantic attraction to someone. Who would've guessed that reconnecting with two of his old friends would help him learn what was wrong with him?

Namely, that nothing was wrong with him. He was proud of who he was.

As he ran home, his mind drifted away from himself and towards his oldest foe. Instinctively, he called Tails' number again. Busy. Sonic sighed as he put his phone back in his pocket. He'd have to check up on him later. For now though, only one sentence echoed in his mind.

"I'm dying, Sonic."

Author's note: For those of you worried about that last chapter, don't worry. Tails will get another chance. If you know the significance of those colors, you might realize what's going to happen soon... but don't say anything. Spoilers! Hope you guys found this chapter interesting at the very least.