Chapter Text
When Tails rescued Sonic from the Death Egg, he wasn’t sure what to expect. Rouge had been vague. “He looks healthy. He- well he’s been up there for six months. I- he needs to get out.”
It was a message that had left him with more questions than answers, and Omega had had to talk him down from a panic attack. “Rouge would have told you if that was the case,” he said as Tails gasped out worse and worse scenarios. “She did not. Sonic is probably physically healthy, and mentally struggling.” The frank assessment made his tails go limp. “Rouge told you because she thought you deserved to know, and because she believed you were in the best position to act.”
Tails tried to slow his breaths. Between finally getting Omega online, and Rouge calling the minute she saw Omega’s communicator activate, this was more social interaction than he’d had in weeks. Thankfully, Omega stood quietly as he waited for Tails to calm down. Of course. He was friends with Shadow, of course he knew what to do during a panic attack.
Tails’ face soured, and he turned away. Omega hadn’t believed him when he’d told him of his teammate’s betrayal. When Rouge called, the robot asked her for confirmation, and Rouge’s voice held that same denial it always had when she said “I guess the kid ran off again. You know how it is.” Omega had accepted that, somehow.
Tails sighed. “Okay,” he sighed.
“What will you do?” asked Omega, turning his head toward him.
Tails bent down and started shoving tools into his bag. “Sonic’s alive. He’s on the Death Egg and he needs out.” He zipped the bag and slung it over his shoulder. “Rouge is calling the Resistance, but they’re stretched thin. If they had the resources to assault the Death Egg they would have done it by now.”
“Rouge has given me access to sensitive intel regarding the Death Egg,” Omega said, turning to follow Tails as he scurried away, each of his clanking steps equaling five of Tails’.
“You’d help me?”
“Affirmative. I assume you wish to rescue your teammate?”
Tails swallowed, and tried to push away the images of Sonic covered in bruises, covered in blood, writhing in pain or deathly still, and replace it with Sonic in a cell. Alive. Needing to get out. “Yeah.”
So Tails didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t this.
The moment he and Omega had hacked into the Death Egg systems, Tails had gotten access to Sonic’s biometric data. His heart rate was slightly higher than normal, jumping in time with his breathing at seemingly random, but frequent intervals. That was actually normal; Sonic had always been hypervigilant. Tails routed the sound of his heartbeat into his earpiece as he scurried down the halls.
Sonic’s cell was in the heart of the Death Egg, next to the generator and past the harshest security. Tails maneuvered and hacked his way towards him, Omega in his ear giving updates and occasionally bemoaning that he couldn’t be there to blast the security systems away. Tails made it to the cell block, dashing as fast as he could until he was in front of Sonic’s cell.
There he was. Whole, blue fur duller than normal but not drastically; bony, mostly healthy-looking, were it not for the way his whole body slumped as he stared at the wall, eyes almost crossed. That hardly mattered. He was here, he was alive, and Tails felt his throat clogging with relief.
“Sonic!” he choked.
Sonic jolted, and in his earpiece Tails heard his heartbeat jump. His eyes snapped from the wall to Tails. Then, strangely, he sighed.
“Hey, buddy,” he said, falling back on the bed. “What’s Egghead want with me this time?”
Tails blinked. “What? I- no time. Omega, open the door.”
“Affirmative,” said Omega.
“That’s new,” said Sonic to the ceiling. The lock clicked open and Tails hurried to yank the door open, then launched himself into the air and grabbed Sonic’s hand.
“I’msorrytodragyoubutwehavetohurry,” Tails gasped, already halfway out of the cellblock. "Follow my lead, kay? Omega, are we still clear?”
“Avoid hallway 6A up ahead. It is being patrolled by a squad of badniks that, while well within your abilities to defeat, would alert others to your presence.”
“Got it,” Tails said, pushing open the door and hurrying through. As he flew, he glanced back at his brother- his uncharacteristically silent brother. “Sonic?”
“Yeah, sure, buddy,” Sonic said, bright voice belying the way his eyes wouldn’t leave the floor. “Lead the way.”
Tails redoubled his grip on Sonic’s hand, heart beating hard as they maneuvered the halls using Omega’s instructions. Sonic stayed silent, holding Tails’ hand as loosely as Tails held his tightly, and the small part of Tails’ brain that wasn’t busy spun with worry.
They turned a corner and Sonic’s grip tightened as his heart rate jumped. Tails swallowed a shriek. He growled at the dark figure blocking the final hallway before the hangar- Shadow.
“I get it now,” Sonic said, voice calm despite the way his quills puffed in terror. “Well? Bring it on, big guy!”
Tails wanted to scream at Sonic, at the way he said that so casually, already flinching as his whole body bristled. Tails gripped his hand tighter and growled at the traitor.
Shadow blinked at them. His eyes darted from Tails to Sonic and back again.
Then, he stepped aside.
Tails blinked. Shadow met his eyes, and held out his hand with a little flourish towards the hangar.
Tails’ mind whirled. He didn’t have time to question this. He shot forward so fast Sonic’s feet skidded across the ground, past Shadow, nearly knocking the door down as he burst into the hangar.
The stolen GUN transport ship Tails had used to get here was straight ahead. Tails turned away from it, instead dragging Sonic to one of the escape pods. Tails shoved him inside before climbing in and closed the latch behind him, hands already stretching to push buttons. “Omega, get us out of here!” he screamed as he hit the final button and started to strap himself in.
“Affirmative,” Omega said, voice shockingly even, even for a robot. Tails got halfway through securing himself before realizing that Sonic hadn’t moved.
“Sonic,” he said. Sonic jolted, blinked at Tails and followed his gaze to his own restraints.
“Ah, right, sorry,” Sonic said, fumbling with the straps. Tails finished with his own, and Sonic clicked the final strap into place as the whole pod rumbled, then shot out of the Death Egg with a force that made Tails dizzy.
“Ughh,” he groaned. Across from him, Sonic clutched his own stomach absentmindedly, staring at the wall above Tails’ head.
“Shadow…” he whispered. Then, suddenly, softly, “Am I dreaming?”
“No,” Tails said, choking on his eagerness to finally, finally comfort his big brother. “This is real.”
Abruptly Sonic laughed. “You always say that.” Then, as Tails stared in shock, he tipped his head forward and went to sleep.
Sonic opened his eyes to a white room.
His heart jumped to his throat as he frantically looked around. He was in a hospital bed, which was better than an operating table but still not pleasant. No restraints but that didn’t mean anything, running would probably end with him stumbling into a worse nightmare.
On cue the door opened, and Amy Rose stepped inside. Sonic’s throat tightened- he hated these dreams. He forced his face into neutrality as Amy stared, eyes filling with tears.
“Sonic!” she said, achieving the perfect balance between a scream and a whisper. “You’re awake!”
Sonic bit down on his grimace. “Sure, Ames,” he said. It would have been better to stay silent, but he was incapable of being mean to any version of Amy, even nightmare versions. He laid his head back and closed his eyes. “Just- get on with it.”
A beat of silence. “Okay, I’ll be quick,” Amy said. “The doctor already got your bloodwork- I’m just checking your vitals and asking some questions.”
Sonic frowned. “Okay?”
“Can you sit up?”
Sonic complied. He felt a little dizzy but that was normal. Amy walked forward and took his hand, and Sonic flinched.
Amy let go. “Sorry. I- can I touch you?”
Sonic nodded, dreading what came next, but instead Amy turned to the desk and picked up a stethoscope. Sonic frowned down at the metal circle as Amy pressed it to his chest, listening to his heart and his breathing.
She set it aside, looked in his eyes, ears, nose, mouth. Gently took out the IV. Turned to place everything on the counter, all without twisting any metaphorical or literal knives.
“What’s your game,” Sonic breathed. Amy’s ears flicked back.
“What?”
Sonic winced; he should have stayed quiet. Too late now. “I said, what’s your game? I know you can hear me, Infinite.” He turned, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. “Usually you’d have Amy hurting me by now, or something. Or have we not gotten to the interesting part yet?”
Amy looked stricken. “Sonic-”
“Sorry!” he squeaked, then- “Sorry, sorry, I’ll play along. I know.”
Amy took a step towards him. He flinched, and she stopped. “Sonic, you’re safe. You’re not on the Death Egg. Tails rescued you.”
“Uh-huh.” Sonic didn’t look the illusion in the eye, focusing on keeping his voice level. They’d done this song and dance before- though, this was the first time he could actually remember the supposed escape. Huh.
Was Infinite stringing scenes together now? Maybe he was dreaming up a sequel to yesterday’s illusion? He hadn’t escaped, that much was obvious.
“Can I sit next to you?”
Sonic shrugged. Amy didn’t move.
“Go ahead,” he said, and she walked slowly over and eased onto the bed next to him. She looked at him. He looked away.
“Sonic…” Amy’s voice trailed off, uncertain. “Could you talk to me?”
“Talk to you?”
“Whatever you want to say. I’ll listen.”
Sonic laughed. Once he started the sound didn’t want to stop, and he doubled over, wheezing for what felt like hours. “Nice try,” he said finally.
Amy didn’t answer. When he looked back she was still watching him, hopeful. Quietly, she said, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
Sonic sighed. Of course Amy would say that. But he was used to Illusion Amy barreling on without regard for what he said, so this was a little strange.
“What do you want me to talk about?” he sighed.
“Whatever you want.”
Sonic eyed Amy. A challenge, then, whether she meant it or not. He smirked.
Sonic talked about butterflies. He talked about sewers, then about sewer design, and that one phase Tails had when sewer design had been his special interest. He talked about cooking, and chili dogs, and this one time Knuckles had tried to feed a chili dog to a chao. He talked about chao, and then about poetry, and then he recited the entire first act of Macbeth, and Amy was still listening. Smiling, even.
He ran out of boring subjects, so he started talking about the wind, and how it felt to slice through it knowing that no matter how many robots Eggman built you would always be faster. How he could barely remember that feeling, because he hadn’t run in months. He talked about steel. How he hated it. How it was a dumb material and ought not to exist, except maybe in Tails’ workshop because Tails was a genius and not a jailer, but no steel anywhere else. Because it was a dumb material. That’s all.
His throat was sore. He flopped back on the bed. “I’m tired,” he said, forgetting for a moment that he wasn’t talking to the real Amy. He froze once he remembered, but Amy didn’t retaliate.
“Okay,” she said. “Thank you for talking. I’m sorry we didn’t rescue you sooner.”
Sonic didn’t respond to that. She stood.
“Tell us if you need anything, okay? There’s a button by your bed, see it?”
Sonic nodded. Amy smiled at him, and left.
Sonic shuffled back onto the bed, pulling the flimsy covers over himself. That… that was confusing. And good. Somehow.
Amy- Illusion Amy- maybe Amy- yeah this didn’t make sense unless it was Amy. She had been kind to him. But he hadn’t escaped. He knew better than to think that.
Maybe it didn’t matter. She’d been kind, and that was nice. He could enjoy it, fake or not, while it lasted.