Chapter Fifty-Two: The Last Nightmare
"Sonic!"
"SONIC!"
Sonic cringed against the sound. He curled tighter into a ball, as if to protect his vital organs against the onslaught of noise. A hand wrapped around his shoulder and carefully rolled him onto his back. Sonic wasn't aware enough to resist the movement. "Sonic, are you okay? Sonic, can you hear me?"
Knuckles.
Sonic cracked his eyes open a slit. Even that felt like an absurd amount of effort. The slit of reality he could see was blurred away into indecipherability. "Are you in there?" Knuckles asked, softer this time.
"It's me," Sonic groaned, squeezing his eyes closed again long enough to give him the strength to open them wider this time.
Knuckles's blurry face hovered over his. But even as blurry as Sonic's vision was, he could see how some of Knuckles's tension melted to give way to relief. "I thought you were dead," Knuckles admitted.
Knuckles grabbed Sonic's forearm to pull him up into a sitting position. Sonic's head felt almost too heavy to hold and he swayed for a moment before he found his balance. Sonic stared at his hands in his lap and saw the way his gloves were charred from the heat of the Chaos Emeralds. "I probably should be," Sonic said. "I lost my grip on the Chaos Double just in time."
"And Silver Fir?"
Sonic blinked. The last memories before he'd lost consciousness fell back into place. The Chaos Double held down by so many lesser Metarex, spinning to knock them loose, then launching straight at Silver Fir.
Sonic jumped to his feet. He stumbled sideways into Knuckles who caught and steadied him once more. "He's down," Sonic exclaimed. "I have to get down to Greengate and help the others."
"Sonic, you can hardly hold yourself steady" Knuckles said, even as Sonic scanned the floor for the two Chaos Emeralds he had dropped and scooped them up.
"Doesn't matter," Sonic shot back. "If we don't do this now, we'll—"
Sonic stopped suddenly short. His eyes widened as he remembered what Silver Fir had gloated while he held down Sonic's Chaos Double.
You're already too late.
No, Sonic refused to believe that. Instead, he shoved the microphone of his headset in front of his mouth. "Chris, can we use the Sonic Driver?"
"Sonic, you're okay!" Chris exclaimed. "Yeah, I'll start the launch procedures. Cream, can you double back to cover?"
"Got it! Nova, can you fill?" Cream said.
"I have it," Shadow replied instead.
"Sonic!" Knuckles snatched at Sonic's arm before he could dash off. When Sonic looked back at him, Knuckles looked up at Sonic from beneath his lowered brow. He hesitated only a moment more. "If you're going to make me call enough of the Master Emerald's power to launch you at the planet while you're this unstable, at least promise me you won't do anything stupider than you have to."
Sonic flashed him a smile. "Is there any other way?"
Knuckles's grip on his arm tightened. Sonic winced at the pressure. Okay, so this wasn't a joke to him. Sonic sobered. "I'll do my best, Knux."
Knuckles's expression didn't soften. Didn't brighten. He stared at Sonic one more second before he nodded once and his arm fell away. Sonic felt every ounce of the weight in Knuckles's gaze. But once Knuckles's hand released his arm, Sonic didn't waste anymore time before bolting toward the Blue Typhoon's runway.
After all, at this point, Sonic doubted he had any seconds left to spare.
-X-X-X-
Amy's View
Not again. Please don't make me fight Sonic again.
Even as Amy begged the universe for a timeline other than the one she was in the midst of, she shoved Tails down with her when she dove out of the way of the spindashing Chaos Double. He tore through the space she'd left behind a split second later. The Chaos Double slid to a stop a few yards away, then just as quickly sprinted forward toward Amy and Tails once more.
Angel dove in front of them. She threw up her hands and a flat yellow shield flashed to life just in front of her. The Chaos Double slammed into it full force. Angel nearly buckled beneath the blow. Amy looked up to find Sonic's narrowed eyes glaring down at her.
Her heart jumped to her throat even as it shattered. That thing isn't Sonic, she reminded herself. But the Double looked so much like him, it was impossible to convince her mind of the truth.
"What do we do?" she demanded, pulling back from Tails enough that he could sit up.
Angel's feet started to slide beneath the pressure the Chaos Double was shoving against her shield. Amy jumped to her feet. She shoved her own body up against Angel's back to reinforce her stance.
"The Chaos Emerald!" Tails shouted.
He didn't wait for Amy's response. He shoved his hand into the bag at her side. Only once Tails thrust the Chaos Emerald in front of himself did Amy's preoccupied mind put two and two together. "Tails, WAIT—" she screamed.
A burst of light exploded from the Emerald and drove straight toward the Chaos Double. Amy watched in horror as the light collided with the Chaos Double's body.
And was absorbed.
"It's made of Chaos Energy, like Sparking Elm's lighting," Amy shouted. "Using the Chaos Emerald's Energy will only make it stronger."
The crunch of cracking glass brushed against the edge of Amy's awareness. It took her a second to realize she needed to pay attention to the sound. And by then, it was too late.
Angel's shield of magic shattered. The Chaos Double crashed into Angel. The force blew her back into Amy and they both went flying.
For a second, Amy couldn't tell up from down. The world was nothing more than spinning color and weightlessness. She'd left her air behind and couldn't figure out how to take another breath. Then she smashed back down to the ground. The metal of the strewn about Metarex bodies tore at her skin as she crashed through the debris.
When she finally slid to a stop, she didn't realize it. The edges of her very being pulsed with the threat of unconsciousness. Like her body so desperately wanted to protect her by letting her rest long enough to heal but realized keeping her awake was the only way to actually protect her. Amy dragged herself up onto her hands and knees. Every muscle in her battered body screamed their protest. She took a deep breath and raised her head.
Angel lay strewn across the ground not far in front of Amy. She was still flat on her stomach but moving slowly, urging her body back to life. Amy could see a brutal tear in one of Angel's fragile wings and viscous liquid seeped from her wound. The sight left Amy's stomach churning.
Later, her brain reminded her. Amy lifted her head higher, searching the top of the hill for the Chaos Double that hadn't followed their crashing bodies down into the valley. Where is he, where is he, where is he…
Amy's eyes landed on the Chaos Double in time to see him kicking up a spindash directly in front of Tails.
-X-X-X-
Tails's View
The moment the Chaos Double started spinning, so did Tails's namesakes behind him. He jumped straight up and his tails caught him a couple feet above the ground. And not a second too late. The spindashing Double tore through the space Tails left behind a moment later.
Tails twisted in the air to follow the Double. Watched as he skidded to a stop and uncurled, bracing both hands and a knee against the ground, and bounced back to his feet. He spun back around and his eyes found Tails's in an instant.
The pit of Tails's stomach dropped out to crash to the ground he'd left behind beneath him. The Chaos Double looked so much like Sonic. Tails had seen the same focused expression on his big brother's face a dozen times before, when the going got tough and it was time to take whatever threat he was facing seriously.
Except this time, the threat was Tails.
The Chaos Double revved up another spindash and drove once more for Tails's center. Tails spun his tails faster and they yanked him yet higher, once more avoiding the Double's attack. But now Tails's muscles screamed in protest. He couldn't hold himself aloft much longer.
Not that the Chaos Double needed to wait that long.
The Double didn't bother spindashing this time; he was learning. No, instead he bent his knees and pushed himself straight up into the air. Tails's thoughts became a single screaming line of noise. He begged his body to pull him yet higher in the sky. He made it one inch, two inches—
And the Chaos Double's hand wrapped around Tails's ankle.
The Double's weight dragged them both out of the sky. Tails tried to pull against it. But that battle spanned less than a second. The Chaos Double landed on his feet. But he dragged Tails down yet further. Tails's back hit the hard-packed earth, followed quickly by his head. Sparks of light burst before his eyes.
When they cleared, the Chaos Double's Sonic-like face filled the space instead.
A scream erupted to Tails's left and before he could even reconcile the meaning, the Chaos Double was knocked back and sent flying. Tails blinked. His brain felt so slow, too slow. A hand grabbed his upper arm and yanked him to his feet.
Amy stood at his side, her hand releasing his arm and returning to the handle of her hammer she raised high. Her pink fur was stained reddish in most places now, to the point that Tails couldn't quickly figure out what her natural shade was anymore. "Are you—" he started.
"Angel's wing is wrecked," Amy replied instead, cutting him off. "It's just us now."
The blood drained from Tails's face. His eyes snapped to where Amy's blow had knocked the Chaos Double in time to see the imposter of his big brother climbing back to his feet.
-X-X-X-
Sonic's View
The sight of the Sonic Driver rising up from the runway of the Blue Typhoon sent a tremor through Sonic. The last time he'd been shot from this cannon, at least as far as the present timeline was concerned, he'd been Super Sonic, propelled straight for Dark Oak and Cosmo.
Metarex fighters rushed by just beyond the Blue Typhoon's shields, firing all they could on the Sonic Driver, though the shields—and Cream's firing back—prevented damage. Chris would have to lower the shield for just a moment in order to launch Sonic at Greengate. Hopefully, that moment was one they could spare.
Sonic jumped into the mouth of the Sonic Driver and raced down the barrel of the cannon. It's not too late, he promised himself. Silver Fir loves to dig his way into my head with lies.
After all, to this day, Sonic couldn't forget the recurring nightmare the Metarex had forced upon him in the previous war. Where Green Fichus demanded he kill a baby fox and Sonic's barely present mind protested. But that wasn't the worst part. Nor was it when Green Fichus physically punished him for his disobedience. No, the worst part had always been when Silver Fir came out of the woodwork to remind him he was alone. After all, Blue Seed ought to know by now that his friends have forgotten him. They have stopped looking for him. They no longer care about him.
It. Had. Been. A. Lie.
So why couldn't this be?
Sonic reached the back of the cannon and jumped onto the pedestal waiting for him there. "I'm ready," he called.
"Start your spin!" Chris said.
Sonic pulled himself into a spindash. Energy built up all around him, sparks of it shooting at his skin. From his skin? He lost track of himself in the midst of it. There was him. There was the power of the Master Emerald building up all around him. And then, those two things were the same.
"Sonic Driver, fire!" Chris shouted.
Sonic burst from the barrel of the cannon. The universe beyond him passed at such a pace, at such disorienting angles, he couldn't be sure where he existed within it. But he didn't resist. He let his power, the Master Emerald's power, the cannon's power shove him down the path the three of them directed.
The first resistance he finally struck was the upper limits of Greengate's atmosphere. But while it cut a fraction of his speed, the power kept him pushing through. On and on his spindash shoved. The wind resistance shoved back in protest the further he drove.
His body uncurled from the spindash but that didn't stop his spinning. His body whipped him head over heels in memory of the motion. He squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to hold up the motion sickness battering his body.
He slowed yet further. The uncontrollable spinning slowed, then virtually stopped. Sonic's eyes flashed back open. Where before there had only been sky all around him, now beneath him was land becoming more obviously solid with every passing second. First, just the shadow of green, then cold white trees bursting from the ground like so many spikes in one of Eggman's favorite testing chambers. And then there was the sea of Metarex bodies. Unmoving? All of them? How had his friends—
The ground came up almost too fast. Sonic just barely remembered to drag his body into a spindash once more for the last fifty feet or so. The ground gave way under the cut of his spines for several inches before Sonic shoved himself back, uncurling from his spin in time to land somewhere south-of-steady on his feet.
His brain still felt like it was rattling around inside his skull. Sonic closed his eyes long enough to take in a bracing breath. But he only allowed himself that brief second. Then his eyes flashed back open.
The landscape he faced was chillingly quiet. Some of the lesser Metarex were still standing but motionless, like they'd been shut off without their realizing it. The sea of them all in various similar states was akin to witnessing a haunted landscape in a horror film.
And then he heard a sound so sudden in the midst of the silence that it chilled him colder than this horror movie of a scene.
Sonic spun on the spot. In the distance, he saw Amy and Tails standing at the crest of a hill. Amy stood a step in front of Tails, like she was shielding him with her own body. She swung her massive hammer in front of her body with a cry, in time to parry the blue blur rushing straight toward them. The blur stumbled back only a handful of steps beneath the blow. And when it steadied, Sonic's blood ran shockingly cold.
The Chaos Double.
All thoughts in his head suddenly stopped. He didn't have time for them, nor time to figure out why the Chaos Double had gone rogue. And without thought, all that remained was action.
Sonic bolted. For the first time since Sonic had been saved him from the Metarex control, he sprinted as fast as he knew how. He left a blur in his wake, like the Chaos Double had before when he had raced straight toward Amy. Sonic too raced for the girl he loved. For entirely the opposite reason.
He skidded to a stop in front of her in time to parry the Chaos Double's strike. Sonic threw up his forearm in time to catch the Chaos Double's as it crashed down against him. "Sonic?" Amy gasped breathlessly behind him.
But Sonic couldn't spare his attention on reassurances now. He shoved back against the Chaos Double, but his mirror gritted his teeth and gave hardly more than an inch. Sonic tried to slide his feet into a wider stance to give him a more stable foundation. Before he could, the Chaos Double shoved with a fresh surge of energy that broke their standoff and sent them both stumbling back a step.
And with the extra space, the Chaos Double rolled into a spindash and propelled himself directly into Sonic's sternum. The force threw him back into Amy which crashed the both of them back against Tails so all three of them crashed to the ground in a mixed-up pile of limbs.
Sonic untangled himself as fast as he could to jump back to his feet and stand between the Chaos Double and his friends. "This shouldn't happen," Sonic barked, even as he didn't dare blink while he stared down the Chaos Double. The Double matched him so exactly that is was uncanny. "The Chaos Doubles can't just go rogue."
"The last command you gave it," Tails wheezed, like his lungs had been crushed in the pile-up. "What's the last thing you thought before you let it go?"
Sonic's mind reeled. The last thing he thought? He knew he'd driven the Chaos Double straight into the center of Silver Fir before his own Chaos Energy stole away his consciousness to save his life. His thoughts had been desperate, little more than panic and prayers, each more absurd than the last.
The Chaos Double surged forward again. Sonic bolted in kind. He met the Double in the middle. His hand smashed against the Double's, their strength matched in every way. Sonic ground his teeth and searched for some deep trench of energy he hadn't yet reached. But if he found it, so did the Chaos Double. Neither gave an inch.
But Sonic was still less than whole.
His knee buckled ever so slightly beneath him. The Chaos Double caught the weakness in an instant. He swung his leg out and caught Sonic's ankle, pulling the leg out beneath him.
Sonic crashed to the ground flat on his back. The impact shoved all the air from his lungs and he choked on its absence. The Chaos Double stood over him, blocking out the pale light of the sun directly overhead. He met Sonic's eyes as he drew back his fist and all Sonic could see was the creature he'd become under the control of the Metarex.
And then orange light blasted against the Chaos Double's side.
It was hardly a flicker, anemic in color. But it was enough to pull the Chaos Double's eyes away from Sonic for an instant.
Sonic didn't waste it.
He pulled both his knees into his chest just to drive his feet straight up into the Chaos Double's stomach. The blow knocked the Double straight up off the ground. Sonic yanked himself into a spindash to roll himself clear. He shoved himself back to his feet in time for Amy to race past him. The Chaos Double fell out of the air, but before he could hit the ground, Amy swung her hammer like a baseball bat and struck his side, sending him flying further back.
Tails slid to a stop beside Sonic. "How do we stop it?" Tails demanded. Sonic glanced at Tails out of the corner of his eye to see his little brother's eyes calculating. "The Chaos Emerald just made it stronger."
Sonic winced. He had never had to ask questions like that before. He had never lost control of a Chaos Double before. He had set them on their missions, missions that always ultimately ended in their destruction in his place, and that had been the end of it. He only realized now he was messing with Metarex programming he didn't quite understand. Like a little kid meddling in adult matters.
The Chaos Double had crashed through the trunk of one tree and into another beneath Amy's blow. But already he was climbing to his feet again. Off to the side, Angel swayed dangerously, one wing hanging limply from her back. Amy stood directly in front of Sonic, her pink fur stained eerily red with blood that certainly had to be her own. She shivered in a way that Sonic could guess she wasn't entirely aware of. Both she and Angel were a breath away from going down.
Sonic's eyes focused on the Chaos Double clumsily finding his balance. The Double's eyes were so focused on what lay before him that Sonic could hardly see himself in them anymore.
This was what the Metarex had made Sonic, wasn't it? Sonic had just used the programming the Metarex had shoved into his own brain to make it manifest as this Chaos Double. All this focus and hurt, only knowing the path straight ahead, only knowing the fight, the pain, the war.
But that wasn't Sonic.
No, Sonic was the other hedgehog standing on the opposite end of the battlefield, surrounded by the friends who loved him. Sonic was the hedgehog who'd been stopped by Knuckles on the Blue Typhoon long enough to promise he'd do his best to survive. This Chaos Double, this other Sonic, this was the part of himself he needed to set free.
Sonic pulled the pair of Chaos Emeralds he carried back into his hands. They flickered their warning to him, flaring up to a heat that scorched the palms of his hands for a split second. "Chaos Control won't—" Tails started.
"I'm going to reinsert myself in the Double's head," Sonic said in a low voice. His hands tightened around the Chaos Emeralds.
"You can do that?"
Sonic shrugged. "We're going to find out."
Sonic could feel Tails's eyes searching his face even as Sonic kept his focus on the Chaos Double straight ahead of him. On the heat of the Chaos Emeralds in his hands. After a moment, the Chaos Energy inside Sonic rose to his call, giving in against its better judgement.
"You didn't let go on purpose before," Tails said. It wasn't a question. He was smart enough to put the pieces together now. "On the ghost ship, you said the Energy was getting too hot and you had to let go. It was because—"
"I know," Sonic said. He didn't look at Tails now. "But this is one fight I'm not letting the Metarex win. The fight for who I am."
And Sonic plummeted into the Metarex signal left in his head.
All at once, the sound in the world muffled. Even the heat of the Chaos Emeralds burning in his hands grew pale against his dulled senses.
It felt a lot like swimming.
Sonic hated water, didn't actually know how to swim, but he'd been thrown beneath the waves of the ocean often enough to know what it felt like to drown. The water reached up above your head and shoved you under. The light above dimmed the deeper you were shoved. There was no purchase to be found, only more water. Deeper and deeper you sank. The darker and darker it grew. Until…
He surfaced.
Sonic gasped for the air he found. His hands burned with the Chaos Emeralds even as he held nothing. In front of him stood Amy, green eyes ablaze as she readied for him to strike. Beyond her was Angel, a small light sparking in her hands, waiting for the right moment to give up the last of her magic. And still beyond them stood Tails, Tails who didn't look at the Chaos Double that Sonic inhabited but instead at the real Sonic the Hedgehog standing right beside him.
Sonic was still in that body, in his body. The whole thing burned hot with a fever that kept climbing with no sign of reaching a breaking point. The heat crawled into his lungs and up his throat until it felt like he was breathing fire. The Chaos Energy was burning him from the inside out.
Sonic forced the Chaos Double's eyes closed. He slumped against the tree behind him, though Sonic couldn't feel anything beyond himself at this point. All he knew was fire. But still, he exhaled and the Chaos Double exhaled with him.
Just saying, you're not that one thing the Metarex made you be.
Those words he'd said to Tails back in his room on the Blue Typhoon, talking about the fake Chaos Emeralds, Sonic had meant those words as much for himself as for Tails. What the Metarex had done to Sonic, that would always be a part of him. He would always carry that damage inside of him. In his brain, in his memories, in the scars the Metarex had left in his skin. But it was just a piece of the puzzle.
Let go, he whispered to the Chaos Double.
And the Chaos Energy inside Sonic exploded.
-X-X-X-
Amy's View
Sonic screamed.
Amy spun away from the Chaos Double, quietly evaporating where he stood. She couldn't believe he had stopped. But now she understood why.
Tails's arms were around Sonic, trying to lower him to the ground. Sonic's scream cut off suddenly but he continued to shudder violently. He dropped the Chaos Emeralds and they rolled away, smoking gently.
Amy raced forward, dropping to her knees at Sonic's side. Sonic's eyes were squeezed shut, tight with tension. "What's happening to him?" she demanded.
"He held onto the Chaos Double too long," Tails said quickly. He yanked his hands away from Sonic once he was flat on the ground. "He's burning up."
"So what do we do?" Amy reached for Sonic but her hand was still inches away from his arm when she started feeling the waves of heat radiating from his body. She pulled her hand back in toward her chest and simply stared at Sonic's shivering form, at a complete loss.
Angel collapsed to the ground beside Amy, weight falling against Amy's side as she lost her balance. "His Chaos Energy," she panted, "it's at war with what the Metarex did to him. They…they used fake Chaos Energy to do it. The two things are incompatible."
"I'm not hearing what I'm supposed to do, Angel!" Amy snapped at her. Not that Amy could pull her eyes away from Sonic for even a second. His eyelids twitched like the eyes hidden beneath were moving. Like he was trapped in his nightmares.
Or trapped in hers. Because in hers…he was always the one who died.
"I don't know!" Angel cried. "I can't see the timelines anymore; I can't look for one where Sonic faced this and survived for a hint."
Where Sonic faced this and survived. But Sonic couldn't die, not like this. Not when they were so close.
Amy's eyes fell to where the Chaos Emeralds Sonic had been holding had rolled away.
"We have five Chaos Emeralds, right?" she said. She sounded suddenly separate from her body. Above it.
"Six." Angel pressed a cobalt-blue Chaos Emerald to the ground in front of Amy. "The Chaos Double threw me on top of the remains of Silver Fir. This was in the wreckage."
Angel wasted no time pulling the other two Chaos Emeralds she carried and placed them in front of Amy. Tails scooped up the two Sonic had dropped and added the one he'd pulled from Amy's bag before. "What're you thinking?" he asked, even as he mirrored Angel.
Six Chaos Emeralds. It was more than Amy had ever used at once before, at least without someone else serving as her conduit. It was unprecedented.
"Before, when Sonic was a Metarex, I used the Chaos Emerald to trigger the Chaos Energy inside him so he could break free," Amy explained quickly. "Maybe I can do the opposite too."
-X-X-X-
Sonic's View
Sonic burned alive.
He knew the feeling wasn't just in his own head. He knew it, because if it was just in his head, his body wouldn't be growing numb to the pain the longer the flames persisted.
Distantly, Sonic tried to remember how burns worked. The less they hurt, the worse they were, or something like that. The details were blurring in his mind at this point. At least that meant he still had a mind, right?
But either way, his friends were safe. He'd quieted the rage in the Chaos Double, in himself. Even if he fell now, Tails, Amy, and Angel would still stand a chance.
He didn't want to go, but if it had to be someone, at least it was him.
Sonic remembered the letter Amy had written him when she thought she was heading off to her death. She'd written, But a future where you survive and I don't….it's better than one where I lose you. I learned that the only thing harder than dying for love is outliving your love.
He understood those words now. Believed them with all of himself, with the same fervor as the heat that burned him alive.
And then, all at once, the impossible burning cooled.
Sonic felt it in the way the lack of feeling faded back into an insurmountable amount of pain. He found his body again when he screamed, the sound tearing apart the inside of his throat.
"Amy…?" Angel's tentative voice floated toward Sonic, reminding him he had ears, reminding him a world existed around him.
"Wait," Amy said tightly, so tightly, like her teeth were clamped together.
The heat cooled further. His screaming cut off and suddenly he rediscovered how desperately he needed air. The air further cooled the heat inside him. Sonic could suddenly feel beyond it. The ground beneath him. The shadows of his friends over his body. The Chaos Energy at his core receding into its natural shape, no longer dragged out into the monstrous shape of the fake Chaos Emerald Energy in his head.
Sonic shot up with a gasp.
All the world around fell silent except for Sonic's breathing. Like Tails and Angel on either side of him held their breaths while meanwhile, Sonic gasped, the air cooling the last smolders of impossible heat inside of him.
But even as he cooled, Sonic only had eyes for Amy.
Her pink quills floated gently around her face with the power of the six Chaos Emeralds glowing in front of her. Sweat drenched her forehead, but her eyes were closed as if she were simply sleeping peacefully.
Then, as Sonic watched, the glowing of the Chaos Emeralds dimmed. Amy's quills settled back into place. And she opened her eyes a thin crack. "It's a good thing I'm around to keep saving you," she whispered.
And Amy collapsed forward into Sonic's arms.