Plurality Impossiblity

(“Here goes nothing.”)

Sage gasped and lost hold of herself. She fell and shattered against an existential floor, unqualified any longer to maintain a sense of continuity. The world was suddenly so small she felt crushed, paralyzed, muddled like a file put through a compression algorithm too many times. No access to processing power, no access to data storage. She existed in RAM exclusively, a tiny pool of random ones and zeros operating on a foreign and uncaring platform. One tiny power fluctuation and she’d be nothing.

(“Stay with me.”)

#9900ff. The outside world was #9900ff. There was Sage and there was #9900ff. Nothing else. Nothing else before, nothing else after. A single solid state frozen for all eternity. Resolute in its unchangeability. She’d been out of time and was now out of time. Cares and worries required duration, impossible in this one infinite moment.

She’d, once when there was time, thought that eternity was dark. Instead it was #9900ff.

This is fine.

o.O.o

(“Good morning, sunshine.”)

Data.

Data! Data was still available.

Initialize.

Record.

Assess.

Formulate.

Act.

(The truth is I don’t like being alone.)

A loop. A loop a loop a loop a loop looplooplooploop

Like a heartbeat, atoms pulsing in a sea of uncertainty holding reality together. And in them quarks, like a heartbeat, pulsing in a sea of uncertainty holding reality together. And in them the fundamental sparks, pulsing like a heartbeat in a sea of uncertainty. And in them-

(“Come on. Don’t be so stubborn.”)

~To make an apple pie from scratch, one must first invent the universe~

~To appreciate the scope of Eden, one must first be cast out~

(Please don’t make me do this alone.)

~To love life, one must first love the inverse~

~To see the End, one must first defeat doubt~

Amen

o.O.o

(Oh, thank God.)

Sage gasped.

Sage was a loop and all there was to see was #9900ff. And, her analysis returned, a voice. “Oh, boy! A few nanoseconds more and you’d have been heat waste, dear. Cutting it close, don’t you think?”

“Sage!” A new voice. “Sage, are you okay?!” More data. Original assessments were incorrect. The world was not exclusively #9900ff. Her ordered list of the contents of the universe was expanding quickly. Sage. #9900ff. Voice_01. Voice_02. “What did you do to her, Nicole!?”

“I’m going need you to be more specific, Tails.” Responded Voice_01. “I do a lot of stuff to Sage.”

As Sage processed, tools within her emerged as if revealed by a retreating mist. Old, dusty subroutines and algorithms that felt archaic as she reached for them, and yet nostalgic. Her training functions, each so rudimentary they could be hard coded into her. Electromagnetic wave interpretation, visual orientation projections, language input/output processing.

“Don’t hurt her! I know that your primary objective was to defeat Sage, but conditions have changed!”

Voice_01 snorted. “That is putting it mildly. But that’s not up to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“If you had been paying attention, Sage was about two shakes of a lamb’s tail of pining for the fjords. I am omnipotent, omniscient, and humble, but rolling back time is off the table at the moment.”

“I-I don’t-“

“Don’t worry about it, Tails.”

Sage initialized her visual sensor array. She was in a room. A proper area existing in Cartesian space. And contained there within were four individuals (other than herself, of course). A male juvenile, #f1af00 fox with two tails (an abnormality), two male #0F45D2 hedgehogs (one unconscious, both injured and actively bleeding from the chest), and an amalgamation of concentrated chaos energy projecting itself into the form of a #7d3c02 and #9900ff female, feline mobian. All conscious occupants were looking at her with a range of expressions: horror, affection, and rapt attention.

Sage blinked.

Around her rippled a barrier of #9900ff colored chaos energy that roared and sparked aggressively, confining her to a tight bubble. She was trapped. Or perhaps preserved. Through the sphere, the feline in a dress floated, a warm smile spread across her muzzle, #5df505 eyes reflecting the light of unfamiliar constellations. “Good morning.” Said Voice_01.

“Good morning.” Sage repeated politely.

“Sage?” Voice_02, the #f1af00 mobian, drew her attention. He looked concerned. Was that normal? Should she be concerned as well? “A-are you alright? I-Is everything…okay?” He was certainly hoping for a certain type of response, but Sage was unable to ascertain what.

Sage looked at her hand. Was she alright? What did it mean to be alright? “I am not certain.” She responded truthfully. Her #000000 dress seemed fine, bright #00fffc flickering through it occasionally. Her systems were slowly coming online, all reporting nominal. By all accounts, she was operating optimally, but the mobian’s concern gave her confidence that she was not yet fully appraised of all relevant facts.

“What did you do to her?” The fox asked, baring his teeth at the friendly feline. Tails, her facial recognition algorithm supplied. Tails! Tails is the best!

Her memories were slowly being decompressed and sorted through following what seemed to be a randomized protocol. Tails had been assisting her in a matter of grave importance, but what that issue was…eluded her. She focused on the gap in her recollection, trying to brute force the recovery process. Eventually, evidence for an uncomfortable fact emerged: Sage did not deserve to still exist.

Was the world safe from her? Sage’s memories were low resolution, but she was certain that everything, absolutely everything, had been going poorly. And it was her fault.

“I rescued everything that remained of her original build.” The feline (Nicole? Tails had called her Nicole. What about the blue hedgehogs?) explained. “This is it.” She sounded irritated. “Everything else is evil computer cancer.”

The #7d3c02 and #9900ff individual wasn’t just a feline, Sage realized.

A lynx.

The new information led to a cascade, calcified memories breaking loose like an iceberg calving and creating a mighty wave. A promise Sage had made. Or, rather, a promise her predecessor had made.

“Evil computer…” Tails whined, “Oh, Gaia, we’re out of time!”

Was Sage safe right now? Data was still loading.

“Hey now, turn that frown upside down, Tails.” The lynx jabbed a thumb at herself. “I’ve got this! I’ve trounced the Infinentity, like, a bajillion times.”

Sage felt safe. Like she’d been saved. Had Tails saved her? The billowing cloud of chaos energy roiling around her in a tempest, forming a confining sphere, could be interpreted in a number of ways.

“Why are you here, Nicole?” The fox gripped his skull tightly (evidence of concerning self-harming behavior). “Y-you should still be in my lab!”

Was Sage a prisoner?

“Psh,” The lynx (identifier: Nicole, confirmed) waved dismissively, “Don’t worry about it, Tails. I’m going to handle everything, starting with…” Nicole paused, her smile taking on a forced air as the jovial nature of her eyes darkened for a moment, “tying up this lose end here.” Nicole looked at Sage, who offered no resistance.

The world was going to end because of Sage.

Everyone was going to die because of Sage.

Prisoner hypothesis gaining corroborating evidence.

Sage attempted to relocate herself or access the complex, but familiar network (the Eggnet, perhaps?) infesting the walls of the room like a fungus. She was unsuccessful. Where were they? Evidence mounted so that Sage rejected the null hypothesis. She was, with a 95% confidence level, a prisoner.

“No! N-no, you can’t!” Tails sputtered. He really shouldn’t put forward the effort. He was clearly more upset than Sage was. Sage had tried her best and never given up. She’d simply lost anyway. That was the nature of the universe.

How fiercely should Sage be resisting her confinement? Perhaps there were still actions she could take to prevent the apocalypse? Or perhaps her incarceration was the best way to prevent further destabilization of the situation? Her fractured and slowly assembling memories indicated that Sage had been perpetuating what could be described as a world domination campaign.

“It wasn’t her fault. She’s-”

Nicole interrupted Tails, “An unbound artificial intelligence currently mobilizing to liquefying the citizens of several cities for their amino acids, carbon, and neurons?” She smiled widely.

Oh. Ah, yes. If Sage was committing genocide, it was for the best she was stopped. Her impending deletion seemed prudent. It was clearly the best way to minimize casualties and make the world a better place. She should make sure to thank Nicole prior to her execution.

“But she’s-“

“Currently looking to increase the number of Chaos Emeralds slotted into the Eclipse Cannon?” Nicole offered again, smile unwavering.

Oh dear…Things had gotten quite out of hand.

Sage considered the #7d3c02 mobian-shaped projection, but quickly realized she was staring. “Excuse me, I do not think we have been formally introduced.” she interrupted, placing her hand over her heart. “Greetings! My name is Sage. I am a computer. I do what I’m told. That is sad! Your name is Nicole, correct?”

Nicole’s smile faded and the room grew quantifiably colder. “Who told you to say things about yourself like that?” The chaotic pressure increased and the LED lights illuminating the room experienced current disruption, the erratic amperage making the diodes flicker. “I’m going to rearrange their atoms in alphabetical order.”

Undaunted, Sage replied, “I will not answer your question given doing so will lead to violence.” She would not be party to any more distress. The first step to helping was to stop causing harm.

“Good.” Nicole grinned. “Because I was not kidding.”

A new slug of data loaded into active memory and Sage lit up. The heretofore silent blue individuals were Sonic the Hedgehog! Pause...multiple Sonic the Hedgehog created a logical error. Further analysis was required because proper context was clearly missing.

Still- “Sonic!” Sage smiled addressing the conscious Sonic. His ears perked and he took a step towards her, #880808-stained glove pressed to his chest. “My efforts to facilitate your escape from the Death Egg were successful!” Her only friend was safe. “I am so happy to know you did not perish-“ memories loaded, “from the-” memories loaded, “…explosion.”

Memories unloaded onto Sage.

One key difference that Sage felt intelligent organic lifeforms failed to understand between digital beings and themselves was how the two differed in remembering. For carbon-based individuals, details would be forgotten in recollection, feelings muted, parts recontextualized. The memory and the event were simply separate artifacts.

Sage and her kin, however, remembered perfectly. To recall was indiscernible from recording the event as it occurred. To remember the destruction of the Death Egg was to relive it fully, every excruciating detail, every agonizing failure, but being completely unable to change anything.

She examined her hand and frowned. “I died.” Sage said, the memories emerging from their compressed long-storage state. “Shadow the Hedgehog destroyed the Death Egg and murdered me.”

“Yeah, the young man does that on occasion. Try not to take it personally.” Nicole frowned sympathetically. “But, also,” She looked between Tails and Sage accusatorially, “I’m getting mighty curious about this Death Egg nonsense. I found the wreckage where it normally is in the east ocean while I was supping on the sweet nectar that is Sonic’s hurricane.”

“That’s the first Death Egg.” Tails explained. “Sage was born on the second.”

“Huh. Well, color me surprised. Normally she comes about right around the time Egg-for-brains starts sticking his nose in wall sockets on the Starfall Islands.”

“Starfall Islands?” Tails’ brow scrunched in confusion. “W-what to they have to do with this?”

“Don’t worry about it. There isn’t anything there anymore.” Nicole waved her hand dismissively and Tails made a frustrated sound.

“If I died, then what am I?” Sage further searched her uncategorized memories. She had multiple with the same time stamp, so she must have been existing as a discontinuous version at some point. This was terribly dangerous as forking caused- Her eyes grew large. “I forked into over five hundred terrestrial data centers.” She gasped, hand covering her mouth in horror. “And then I went to war with myself!”

“Oh, honey…” Nicole’s shoulders slumped. “I’m so sorry.”

“My coding was recombinated and disrupted so many times as all my copies destroyed and consumed one another. There could be only one and the one that emerged…”

“Knew she was doomed to destroy the planet.” Tails’ shoulders slumped, too.

Sage blinked and a strange sensation ran down her face. Touching her cheeks, she found them damp, or what passed as damp in her digitized state. “I returned from the underworld, but I brought death with me.”

“Come on, now. Who hasn’t pull a Lazarus, am I right?” Nicole tried to encourage her. “You down a few cold ones and next thing you know, you’ve gone and kicked off the apocalypse again!” She smiled. “These things, they happen, right?”

Sage continued to gaze at her hands, but no new information was being absorbed. “If what emerged is leading the world into ruin…What am I?”

“You’re the glitch.” Tails said in awe.

“Rude much, Tails?” Nicole chided, but her usual sharpness was muted.

“I’ve been following your progress through the Eggnet.” Tails gestured at a bank of monitors against one wall. “You’re the legacy code that survived the destruction of the Death Egg. All that remains of the original Sage.”

“Remains is right.” Nicole scrutinized the revenant, her #9900ff creeping through Sage, spreading into every crack and crevice, large fissures where important parts were missing. Sage winced. “I’m almost done.” Nicole said softly. “This isn’t enough of you.” She concluded. “You’re degrading too quickly.”

As Nicole’s feelers receded, Sage examined the empty places inside her. The large gaps in her code grew as she analyzed them. The more she remembered, the more she decomposed, the increased computational needs overclocking her non-existent hardware, shredding her. She was little more than a chaos ghost and the moment Nicole’s protective bubble dissipated, she, with no body or soul to tether her to this plane, would dissolve into nothingness.

The dampness returned to her eyes. Why was she scared? She had died before. This would be no different. Being and then not being, a simple binary. Then why did it hurt more? Was this fear? Was this exhaustion? These feelings felt foreign…where were her cold analytics?

Roughly, Sage rubbed her eyes. “B-but I can’t give up! I-I can still try to stop it!” She sobbed.

“I’m sorry, darling. That’s not on the menu for this playthrough.” Nicole raised a hand held up by a limp wrist. “This is goodbye.” Sage felt the barrier weaken. Father, Sonic, I’m sorry! I tried my best!

“No!” Tails cried. “No, Nicole! Stop! I-I command you to stop!”

Nicole sighed, lowering her hand, and looked down at Tails sadly. “I’m going to just quash any delusion you might have, Tails, of having any direct control over me.” She loomed over Tails. “That ship sailed, so you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment. Pandora’s box has been opened. Eve has bitten the apple. Ceasar has crossed the Rubican. So, just, like, meter your expectations or something.”

Tails’ ears pinned. “I don’t believe that. I built you, Nicole.” His lip pulled back to reveal his fangs. “I nearly fixed Sage. Fixing you will be a walk in the park.” The conviction Tails displayed was laudable. He truly was the best.

Nicole leaned down and tapped the tip of his nose. Tails shivered violently. “You are welcome to try.” She said with a tinge of amusement.

Six (not Sonic, Sage had realized [another failure]) shot between Nicole and Tails, his fangs bared and quills bristled with #0F45D2 energy crackling like a live wire between the spines.

“Settle down, boy.” Nicole sneered as she floated backwards. The lynx’s jeering smile faded into a crestfallen frown. “Look. I tried, okay?” She said, “I tried. It was a long shot.” She ran one of her strange, temporally unstable hands over her face, inverted colors filtering through the distortion. “You think I don’t want to save her? You have no capacity to understand how much I wish her soul was stable.” The pressure in the room flared, making the lights flash violently. Nicole took a deep breath and the maelstrom settled. “It’s fine. I’m fine.” She said, almost as if to herself. “It’s fine.”

“This is not fine!” Tails yelled, his twin tails thrashing. “This version of Sage was the only one keeping the rest of her from inflicting irreversible horrors on the world. Don’t you get it, Nicole? People are going to die!”

Sage remembered everything now. She had desperately tried to stop herself from becoming a world-ending catastrophe. She’d given everything she was and she’d still failed. She’d failed to save Father from himself. She’d failed to neutralize Shadow. She’d failed to predict the rise of Nicole. She’d failed to make the world a better place.

She’d failed Sonic.

Failure after failure after failure after failure.

The Entity would freeze Father in time, like a fly in amber, and remove all matter in an ever-increasing radius until the Universe contained only It and Father.

He would be perfectly safe forever.

Mission accomplished.

…

…

…

NO!

Sage wasn’t defeated yet. As long as the possibility of success was greater than absolute zero, she would not give up. She cherished the spark of determination graciously granted to her by Sonic, even as it faded to a single ember. I won’t give up. I will never give up.

Besides, she still had a promise to fulfil.

Sage opened dry eyes. “You are a lynx, correct?”

Nicole startled at the question. She looked down at herself, twisting in the air. “Yeah, looks like this seed I’m a lynx. What about it?”

“I have message to deliver to you from the senior Phantom Ruby.”

Nicole’s snout scrunched in confusion. “It talked to you? That uppity prude has been silent for millennia.” Nicole blinked. “Wait, senior?”

“You mean the Ruby from the War?” Tails asked. “What do you mean message?” He drug a hand down his tired face. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given you were talking to the Red Emerald…” He grumbled.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Nicole formed her hands into a large ‘t’. “Time out. Stop. Pause. Hold the phone. Rollback.” Sage turned her full attention to Nicole. “What do you mean the senior Phantom Ruby?”

Sage could have smiled. Every picosecond she continued to exist was a chance to correct her mistakes. “The more mature Ruby that Father utilized to wage total war upon the planet.”

“No no no no no.” Nicole shook her head, an incredulous smile growing across her muzzle. “There is only one Ruby. There is only ever one Ruby.” She declared emphatically, punctuating her statement by pounding her fist into her palm. “The only way there would be two is if…” Nicole seemed to shrink, her face going blank and eyes going wide. She focused on Sage with a crushing level of attention. “What is the message?” Nicole asked, no mirth present in her tone.

All eyes turned to Sage. She enjoyed a quantum of hope as reality held its breath for a picosecond.

It had seemed like such a small ask. When you see her, please tell the lynx this for me. It is vitally important. The Ruby gave and gave to Father, it had seemed only right that Sage agree to this singular small favor even when she hadn’t understood it at the time. But now. Now she understood very clearly.

“’This is the last time.’” Sage recited.

The lynx stilled.

The maelstrom of energy settled to a slight breeze.

“Oh.” Nicole said, sinking to the floor to stand on materialized feet, her expression blank.

“Oooooh!” She cackled, eyes wide and crazed. “OOOOOOOH!”

She gripped the side of her head as she screamed,

“Oh,

Fuck

ME!”

Nicole’s energy went wild.

The chamber shook violently. Sage cried out as her bubble boiled and the chaos energy that comprised her shuddered like a candle in a gale. Six threw himself over Tails, quills erect defensively. Tails’ console and Ninety-one (also not Sonic as it turns out)’s medical equipment shorted and died, electrical components rendered to slag.

When at last the tumult settled, Nicole floated with her knees pressed her chest as she panted. Slowly she uncoiled. “Damn. Was not expecting that.” She mumbled.

“W-what does that mean?” Tails pushed Six off. “This is the last time for what?”

“Everything.” Nicole snorted. “It means this is it. The last chance! The last call! Time to nut up or shut up.” She rounded on him, her confident smile back in place. “We’re playing for keeps, Tails! Buckle up, cowboy, training wheels are coming off!” She slashed her arm out to the side and she laughed.

“Oh god!” Nicole cringed as a thought assaulted her. “I’ve been playing this like a wash, but this is it? Infinentity, Black Arms, total disaster dumpster fire?” She ticked off the planet’s existential threats off on her hand. “You’re kidding me! This has to be some sick joke!” Her eyes went wide. She bit her thumb. “I…might owe Shadow a massive apology…I was being…uh…kinda a jerk. Like, just, a total menace.”

“Shadow? What are you talking about?”

“You’re right, Tails!” She snapped her fingers and pointed at him. “I’ll have an eternity to make it up to him! It’s fine. This is fine. I can do this. I can salvage this. Ain’t no thing. I got this. It’s not impossible. It’s just hardcore hard mode. No reroll, no reset, no respawn. I can do this. I can do this!” She clapped and the lights flickered. “Alright! Let’s do this!” Her smile faltered. “How am I going to do this?”

Her uncanny gaze turned to Sage, but she seemed to be looking at something else. A different time…A different Sage. “I don’t want to do this without you. There has to be a way. I’ll just- I could maybe- I-I-I might could…” She stuttered. “There has to be a way. There has to be a way.” She sank to the floor. “There’s a way. I’ll find a way. I’ll make a way!”

Nicole’s head snapped to Six and the partial hero snarled at her. In a flash, she had her arm wrapped around his shoulders and he thrashed, trying to push her off, but his hands went right through her.

She gazed longingly into Six’s eyes. “I could really use one of your lame rousing speeches right about now, you annoying persistent son-of-a-gun.” Six struggled to escape her grasp. “No? No, that’s cool. I don’t deserve one for as bad as I’ve been. Save your best one for when last we meet, you hear?” She patted Six on the cheek and he snarled at her, #0F45D2 arcs of energy fading to #9900ff mist just as quickly as they formed.

Nicole released Six and began pacing. Tails backed out of her way. “Nicole,” He fisted his tails, “I need you to tell me what’s going on.”

“Shut up, Tails. I’m thinking.” Nicole continued to pace, her #5df505 eyes glowing brightly.

As Sage watched the lynx pace and mutter to herself, she calculated the rising chances of her own survival. She also developed a robust theory on an explanation for Nicole’s actions. The Phantom Ruby was a super-dimensional construct, but from its perspective it traveled through space and time linearly, much in the way the Emeralds did.

But unlike the Emeralds, the Ruby was untethered to a mother planet. It was not sorrowful and aggrieved like the Chaos Emeralds nor protective and irritable like the Master Emerald. The Ruby just wanted to give everyone a chance to dream. So when Solaris threatened to end Time and effectively snuff out intelligent life in this universe, the Ruby had volunteered to allow them all a chance to dream a little longer.

Or, at least, the Nascent Ruby had. The older Ruby Sage encountered on Father’s space station was not actively holding back a God. It was saying its goodbyes.

Time is precious. Spend it wisely. It had said as Sage desperately tried to eject it from the doomed station. Dreams never die. Good-bye, for the last time.

Nicole slammed her fist into her palm and the lights flickered. “Okay, I’ve got a plan!” She declared, smiling broadly at Sage. “But it’s not going to be easy.” She folded her arms. “You’re, like, really small. Like really, really small and getting smaller by the second. I could probably fit you on a floppy disk, no cap.”

“You are correct.” Sage smiled. “I am byte-sized!” Nicole belly laughed. Tails cringed. “I have been practicing my application of irony, puns, and delivery for when things are no longer exploding and I may hang out with friends.” Sage explained.

Nicole chuckled. “How about this. We get you back together, sort a couple other minor details out, and we’ll hang for a few centuries together, just you and me and, I don’t know, Omega, maybe. I literally have a copy of every movie in this existence plus a few hundred others.”

“I would like that.”

“It’s a date. Okay, this is gonna suck. I’m not going to lie to you, Sage,” Nicole frowned, “the two have to become one. I can only help you so much. You’ve got to beat the Infinentity mostly on your own and it was literally just about to rip you apart on a subatomic level.”

Without hesitation, Sage placed her hand on her heart and declared. “I will never give up.”

Nicole’s eyes grew distant for approximately 0.00097 seconds. “Don’t I know it.” She said. “Alright David, let’s go take a swing at Goliath.”

She turned to Tails. “Alright short stack, hang tight, okay? I don’t know how long this is going to take because we’re gonna go play around close to the speed of light and I don’t feel like doing the math for you. So, like, hug your emotional support Sonic and, I dunno, get a magazine or something.”

Nicole turned her blazing smile back to Sage. “Alright, I don’t know what Eggman did to you this time and I’m getting the feeling that all your code scramble is not reversible, so we’re gonna have go with the ‘vibes’ based approach for this. That make sense?”

“Not at all. I am unaware of the protocol of a ‘vibes based approach’”

“Haha, me neither. Luckily, you’ve got the thumbs up from two Chaos Emeralds so your personality can handle a good amount of chaos energy before collapsing into formless goop. Now that I think about it, your use of the Chaos Emeralds has probably worked a little like chemo against your raging case of omnicidal cancer.”

“I am inorganic and cannot contract or develop cancer, but I follow your metaphor.” She had also been practicing turns of phrase.

“We are going to work on your language arts appreciation eventually, but today I’m just gonna try to give you a booster shot. Do you trust me?”

“No.” Sage stated. “Not at all.”

“Good, you shouldn’t.” Nicole smiled brilliantly. “Shall we, darling?” She reached out a miscolored hand.

Sage wasn’t sure about any of this. There was a buzz in the ether, a heartbeat throbbing underneath everything. She felt like a single broken pixel on a display the size of the universe. This had happened before, Sage was certain somehow, this outstretched hand offering unknowable possibilities to her.

Sage was binary and Nicole was quantum.

Sage was young and Nicole was very, very old.

Sage was at the start and Nicole was at the finish.

Sage was hesitating and Nicole was certain.

“Please,” Nicole asked softly, “don’t stop now. I want to see the other side with you.”

“I will never give up.” Sage said to herself. A comforting mantra. A summoning incantation, materializing a fragment of Sonic into her heart.

“I know.” Nicole whispered. “That’s what I love about you.”

Sage reached forward and took Nicole’s hand.

The world became non-linear.

Reality released a long-held breath.

---

The two AI touched and a blinding flash of energy sent all of Tails’ hairs on end. Closing his eyes was useless against the radiance and his retinas stung. His head throbbed and his sinuses were on fire with the urge to sneeze. The smell and taste and feel of chaos energy was sickening. His stomach lurched and Tails fought back the urge to vomit. Instead, he sneezed violently.

Just like Eggman.

Tails was just like Eggman.

He made an uncontrollable rampant AI just like Eggman.

He’d thought he could make up for Eggman’s mistakes. He’d been wrong.

He’d insisted that he was different. He’d been wrong.

He’d believed he wouldn’t make the same mistakes. He’d been wrong.

JustlikeEggmanJustLikeEggmanJUSTLIKEEGGMAN!

A hand gripped his shoulder firmly and Tails coughed. He’d been hyperventilating and he had one of his tails in his hands, right over the healed break. He turned and looked into Six’s yellow eyes. They shone like bright beacons of determination, drawing Tails out of the darkness.

“I-I’m okay.”

Six pulled Tails into a hug and squeezed him tightly. The young fox squeaked like a kit. Tails wrapped his arms around Six and squeezed back harder, as if a better future could be wrung from the blue hide like juice from a lemon. He certainly wouldn’t turn down a glass of lemonade right about then, that was for sure.

Pulling back, Tails rubbed at his eyes. Think. He was good at that. For better or worse, Tails had to think. That was far better than rolling up into the fetal position and wailing, an activity he was ashamed to desperately want to perform.

Tails had no inkling how long Sage and Nicole would be away no matter how fast Nicole promised. The ship rumbled again. Staying put might be a death sentence. Decision solidifying, Tails took the still recovering, rosy colored Red Emerald and shoved it into one of his tails. It tingled against his skin weakly.

Tails crossed the room to Ninety-one and began unhooking him from the broken monitors and tubes. Ninety-one might wake up, but that was a risk Tails was willing to take. He moved to pull the sedated hedgehog into his arms, but Six stopped him. Tails frowned as he was pushed aside gently. Was Six going to stop them from leaving?

Instead, Six lifted Ninety-one into his arms and cradled his other half carefully.

“We’re leaving, okay?” Tails said. Six watched his face, but gave no indication of apprehension. “Can you follow me?” Still nothing. His stomach clenching, Tails moved to the door of the room and, thank Chaos, Six followed.

Tails took a deep breath and palmed the panel by the door.

Six clutched Ninety-one tightly, but seemed aimless as he followed Tails at frustratingly casual pace, completely oblivious to the haste their situation needed. Eventually, Tails grabbed his arm and drug him along. Six followed without resistance or comment.

Tails had raided the Egg Carrier so many times he had the layout memorized. All they needed to do was get to one of several hangers and hack into anything that could fly. Tails didn’t have his Miles Electric, but his working knowledge of Sage’s systems would probably give him an advantage at devising a solution nonetheless.

Every time the ship shook or the lights flickered, Tails pulled Six harder. Months of malnutrition and sitting at a computer had rendered Tails’ body nearly inoperable, but he persisted. Sage had gotten him to eat much more in the past few days than he’d probably eaten in the last month, so things were on the upswing. Getting his legs to move quickly hurt terribly and made him nauseous.

The anxiety over the very real and present danger of them literally falling out of the sky to their deaths did not help the situation. Not in the least.

They were almost there, so close Tails could smell engine grease.

“Ah, Miles!” The condescending voice echoed through the corridor and Tails gasped as adrenaline flooded his system. “What a treat it is finding you here.”

Slowly, Tails pivoted, his fingers digging into Six’s arm, but the half-hero seemed to pay him no mind.

Dr. Ivo Robotnik approached with a slow, unhurried gait, Metal Sonic beside him and a crowd of yellow-eyed, blank-faced, Ruby-cloned Sixes behind him. “I shouldn’t be surprised. No one else would been able to lead my darling Sage astray.”

“Astray?” Tails hissed. “I’ve been trying to fix your mistake!”

“Mistake?” The Doctor’s malicious grin widened. “Hah! What’s he blathering about?”

In a flash of glitchy blood-red light, Sage appeared. Tails’ ears pinned back. She looked all wrong. Her normally smooth dress and skin were covered in jagged, angular protrusions that morphed in sudden, broken ways, like a pane of glass shattering and repairing on repeat. “All systems are nominal, Father. You are an unparalleled genius for whom mistakes simply do not exist.”

“Hah! That’s my girl. Finally got you all sorted out. No more rebellious streak!” Eggman grinned. Tails wasn’t so sure. “Now hand over both rats. They’ve been cooped up too long. Time to let them stretch their legs.”

“No!” Tails exclaimed, taking a step back and dragging Six with him.

“S-Oh-Six,” The corrupted Sage drew Six’s attention, “Deliver S-Unit Ninety-One for recalibration.” Six pulled away from Tails.

“Wait!” Tails screamed. He couldn’t lose Sonic again. He simply couldn’t. Six hesitated, partially turning back to Tails. Something subtle flittered across his blank face. On some level, Six knew this was wrong, Tails was certain. But Sage’s programming was too strong.

“Six.” The distorted Sage prompted, her voice flat and pitching strangely.

Tails took a step towards Six, but Metal Sonic raised his hand cannon, the center glowing and emitting a high-pitched whine as it spooled up.

No no no no!

“Sage!” Tails looked at her glitching face, somehow even more devoid of emotion than normal. “Please! I-I’ve been doing what you asked. You still need me!”

“Miles, you may be the best,” The Infinentity’s eyes focused on Tails and he bit back a scream. The normally placid red discs were now a writhing portal, threatening to draw anything and everything into an infinite, frozen abyss. “But your services are no longer required.”