The Fox and the Seedrian: Frontiers

by milesprower06

Chapter Twenty-One

After Tails retired to get a few hours of sleep, Chris had picked up where the fox had left off, slowly and methodically disassembling the armor that now only half-cradled the unconscious Seedrian on the steel table. Since he had already safely detached the life support suite from the rest of the armor, it was just a matter of removing the rest piece by piece.

"Do you ever miss home?"

Chris turned to see Shadow looking at him from the open doorway of the highsec room, as he held the red Chaos Emerald in his right hand. The young man had to remember that Shadow likely wasn't privy to the last decade of events here on Mobius, since he hadn't made the return trip with them.

"After Cosmo's sacrifice, when we got back here to Mobius, I had every intention of staying, before Doctor Eggman offered me a one-way trip home. He told me if I wanted to make it a round trip, I had to figure it out myself. When I got back home… It didn't take me very long to regret it. The de-aging effect that the Master Emerald had on me, that wasn't reversed, so I was six years younger than all of my friends. And worst of all… My grandfather passed away while I was here fighting the Meterex with all of you. So it didn't take me very long to start working towards making it a round-trip back to Mobius, and when that time finally came, I never really felt like I was leaving very much behind, especially since Helen came with me. So to answer your question, Shadow; no, I don't really miss home anymore, because Helen and I have considered this our home for the ten years that we've been back here."

With that, Chris walked around to the far side of the table so he could continue working while continuing the conversation with Shadow.

"So ten years is a long time. What have you been up to?" Chris asked.

"Wandering. Going from place to place, seeing how worlds were healing when the planet eggs returned… Helping when and where I could," the hedgehog answered.

"A noble pursuit as any, to be sure. That was my goal when I got here. Just… Help. To help Mobius see a better side of humanity after all the troubles Eggman put this world through," Chris replied.

"With the Master Emerald being here, I'd certainly wager on the doctor not even being a drop in the bucket that is this world's history of troubles."

"Not that we have to worry about him anymore," Chris added.

"No?"

Chris shook his head.

"That's how I came back here. When Cosmo was resurrected from her tree, it didn't take very long for Eggman to stir up trouble again, and she got hurt. Tails… Snapped. Actually achieved a super state with the chaos emeralds, and sent Eggman back to where he came from; my world. That temporarily strengthened the connection between dimensions, and that's when I took advantage, and came back here, for good."

"And he won't be a threat to the innocent life in your world?" Shadow asked.

"The military apprehended him almost instantly when he returned. Tails must have done something when he initiated Chaos Control; he didn't have any idea who he was. And if the time dilation between dimensions is still what it is, then he's likely passed away from natural causes by now," Chris offered.

"Mm," Shadow replied.

"So what about you? All this wandering for ten years, and you never set down roots anywhere? No place to call home yet?" Chris asked.

"No. I made it a point to keep a healthy distance from anyone I helped. Getting too close never felt like a good idea," the hedgehog replied.

"Well, from your experiences, I guess I can understand why," Chris offered, before returning to work on the back half of Red Pine's armor. "If you ever change your mind about that, I'm sure there's a place for you here."

Shadow didn't get a chance to respond before he heard footsteps behind him, and stepped aside to let Tails come into the room, which made Chris glance at the clock.

"Morning already?" He asked, before motioning to a datapad on the back counter. "That's my initial idea for an exoskeleton. Just the bare essentials, let me know what you think."

Tails went over and picked up the pad, looking over the schematic that Chris had drawn up before getting to work on removing the existing armor.

"Body-wide movement enhancement, remote-controlled and encrypted lockdown, only needs charging once a week… Looks good, Chris. If he wakes up, I'll get Bokkun to start machining this together," Tails told him, setting the pad back down on the counter.

"Speaking of him waking up, how are we looking, on that front?" Chris asked.

I called Topaz Harbor General just a few minutes ago, right after I got up. Doctor Skyler is the head of the Neurology Department, and he'll be here shortly," Tails answered.

"Your daughter and I spoke briefly last night," Shadow began, still back in the doorway. "I believe you have even more guests at your house."

"I'd imagine it's Amy, Aurora, and Helen," Tails said. "Sonic called Amy to update her on the situation before getting some sleep late last night. No doubt everyone wants to be close by, because none of us are going anywhere until we're sure it's safe."

"Aurora?" Shadow asked.

"Sonic and Amy's daughter," Chris answered, as he pulled away another small piece of armor plating from Red Pine's left arm. "Ten years is a long time, Shadow."

"Yes, and I imagine after coming so close to the edge of galactic oblivion, families are started and nurtured. Yet, here you are, tinkering away on one of the harbingers of that oblivion," the hedgehog stated.

"We're all well aware of what they tried to do," came another voice, as Shadow turned to face Sonic as he walked in. "You don't need to keep reminding us as if we all have short-term memory loss," the blue hedgehog chastised.

"Hmph," was Shadow's only reply as he left the room, and began walking back up to the observation room.

"Anyone else famished? Wonder if they've started breakfast up there," Sonic said, stretching his arms.

"I'm sure it's coming along, especially with there being almost as many in the house as there is down here now. Lily said Amy, Aurora, and Helen got here last night," Tails told him.

"Had a feeling that might happen. Ames sounded like she wasn't comfortable being that far away during something like this," Sonic replied.

"And being repetitive or not, Shadow might have a point. We're all comfortable having them this close?" Chris asked.

"I think everyone needs to give everyone else a little more credit," Tails answered. "We all had no trouble getting into the Blue Typhoon and chasing after the Meterex all those years ago. There's being cautious, and there's being overprotective. I'm really trying not to be the latter."

"You're right, sorry," Chris apologized, returning to work on the armor.

"It's alright. We've got enough to worry about down here already without worrying about family upstairs that have always been able to take care of themselves when it's counted the most," Tails reassured him.

"So," Sonic began, tapping his foot. "Now that we've all decided not to be overbearing dads and husbands, who's going to go check on breakfast?"