When Sonic fell through space, he dreamed. He dreamed of Tom and the life they could've had together, with Ozzy and Maddie and Tails and Knuckles. He dreamed of endless camping trips with at least double that amount of smores. He'd laugh when Knuckles burned them.
When Sonic fell through space, he was burning. He didn't feel this, of course. The burning of the eclipse cannon turned every nerve in his body to acidic fire - even though he desperately tried to fight against the waves of unconsciousness grasping at his quills, he failed. His fight with Shadow had been taxing, and emotional. Sonic hadn't thoughtanythingthrough. All he felt was rage and the thirst for revenge.
It started with The Vault. Sonic wasn't a creature designed to be held in place, to be formed to remain still. The pressure was almost crushing to the point of pain. The metal rebars slammed into the ground, shattering it within a nearby four-inch radius. Maddie screamed in terror as it shattered within her hair's width. He'd lifted his hand, defying the gravity pull.
Another bar shattered into the ground, and he fought with all of his strength, curling up into a ball of energy. He spun, twisting to avoid the force. His spine bent and contorted against the pressure, but he pushed through. Exhaustion pulled through his muscles, tugging them to the ground. Tom screamed his name, and that was it.
He spun and dashed against the unnatural force, flying across the room and smashing into the boulder.
After spin dashing, Sonic would usually require several hours of rest to recuperate - especially after something as taxing as that. But as he sat there, his head spinning, he couldn't rest. Hewouldn'trest. Tom ran off after Rockwell, and by the time Sonic had stopped spinning in his mind, Shadow had already gotten involved. Sonic immediately feared the worst, his heart falling into his stomach, shaking his unresponsive dad. He twisted his ire to the ebony hedgehog. "What did youdo?"He seethed. Shadow glanced between them both, hesitating slightly. "What I had to." He hissed, teleporting away.
The next half an hour blurred by, with vague memories of threatening Knuckles, with bolts of chaos energy thrumming through his veins. The next coherent thing he remembered was hurtling through a glass window and tackling Shadow through the other side. "You hurt my family. This ends now!" They fought viciously, thumping and punching. For every calculated blow that Shadow landed, Sonic matched with fury and abetted rage.
When Sonic was knocked down, pain pulsating throughout his broken and drained body, charged only by fury and purerage,he paused to catch his breath. Shadow hovered above, completely unbothered, still as strong as he was at the start. Sonic rose to one knee, panting. "What kind of hero abandons his friends to pursue revenge? Abandons his family?" Shadow taunted. Sonic hissed. "Don't youdaretalk about my family." A warning as his quills rose, prickling with rage. "I thought you cared about them. Especially the one… what's his name? Tom?"
Sonic's actions didn't register until he heard Tom's voice in his head. "You didn't let your pain change who you are."
And he realised that he was on the moon… with Shadow's chest in his fist. Sonic felt nothing but anger and a thirst to kill him - until Shadow's breath hitched. Ever so slightly - but it was enough.
So, he sat, on the moon, mourning his past failures with the ebony hedgehog.
The longer they talked, the more Sonic realised he and Shadow were two beings of the same origin. Like Walters had said days previously. So he pushed away his hatred and focussed on saving the planet.
It gets a little blurry from there.
He remembers feeling like atotalbadass as he and Shadow decimate Eggman's (and Eggman's senior) bots, and he remembers liking the fight with Shadow - having fun for the first time since he met the death hog.
He also remembers the panic that turned his blood to ice as he and Shadow raced to meet the eclipse cannon in space, holding back the equivalent of the sun. If Sonic had ever felt pain before, it was nothing compared to what he felt at that moment. His body screamed for reprieve as he struggled to keep himself together. His body burned, and his muscles screamed. His head pounded against his skull, and his stomach twisted into knots.
At some point, his vision blacked out and he plummeted.
Sonic has no idea what happened between then and waking up in a cornfield, but he knows he hurt…badly.It was the kind of pain where you didn't feel the true force of the pain. It was like he knew heshouldbe in pain, but he was not. Phantom pain, he thinks it's called. He lay there for a moment, singed and burning, but alive. Tails said his name, so he dutifully stood, though nothing was registering in his eyes. It was as if he was underwater - which he tried to avoid. He leaned a little heavily into Knuckles, blinking slowly and justexisting.
"We should check if the Donut Lord is well." Knuckles spoke quietly. Tails mumbled something, buzzing into Sonic's eyeline. "Are you ok, Sonic? You look… burned." Sonic blinked harshly once, twice, then forced a small smile onto his battered face. "I'm fine. Just sore. Like an overworked muscle." Tails reached out to touch one of his quills, feather-light. Sonic winced, pulling away. "You don't look ok." The twin-tail insisted.
Sonic gently took his hand. "Dude. I'm fine. I'm shaken and sore, but I'm fine. I wouldn't lie to you." Tails huffed. Knuckles hummed. "I agree with the fox. I remain unconvinced." Sonic stretched slightly, biting back the waves of pain-inflicted sounds his body wished to make. "Well, it's a good job I don't have to convince you guys. So long as Dad doesn't know what happened yet, then it's a successful day." Tails snorted. "Pretty sure it's already successful, but I get your point." He paused. "But Knuckles used the last ring to save us… how are we gonna get to London?" Sonic sighed lightly and quietly. "I can run us… but we'd have to stop every hour for me to rest. I can get us there in under five hours." Tails' face wrinkled in protest.
"There is no need to exert yourself further, Hedgehog. I had taken the liberty to bestow ten emergency rings to the guardian. We will simply need to journey to the Wade Cave to retrieve them." Sonic slumped. "Oh thank god. Imma be honest guys, I don't think I could've run to London today." He dropped to a crouch, resting his head in his hands. Tails hummed. "We know. Our next plan was to sedate you and fly on a plane. But Knuckles thought ahead." Sonic raised his head to glare. Tails shrugged. "I would have no regrets. You have a bit of a track record for not taking care of yourself." Sonic narrowed his eyes. "If I wasn't so tired, I would kill you for that."
Tails snorted.
4,566 miles away, in London Bridge Hospital, Maddie sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair, holding her husband's hand, whispering affirmations. "Come on, baby. I can see you're awake. You're here." The nurses and doctors had removed the medication keeping Tom in his coma, allowing him to wake up naturally - which he had begun to do almost immediately.
Then, by a beautiful miracle, his eyelids slipped open, revealing the beautiful forest-green eyes that she'd fallen in love with over a decade ago.