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-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Everybody was in the living room. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Most of the 
main crew was in the living room. The entire Resistance wouldn't fit in the 
living room; they probably wouldn't even all fit in the stronghold, and the 
stronghold itself was quite large.

But logistics aside, most of the main cast was in the living room; Sonic wanted 
to talk to them. "I guess I should come clean. I've been... struggling with 
mental health. For a while now. And after I ran off yesterday, Zero and I came 
to the startling realization that many of us are also struggling with mental 
health issues. I mean, we're *children* who just fought a *war*, for Chaos' 
sake!"

Rouge piped up. "Hey, we're not all children-"

He was having none of it. "Rouge, I can literally count the number of *adults* 
I know on one hand. You, Vector, Vanilla, Zero, and I think Gadget's 18. That's 
it."

She shrugged. "Fair enough."

"As I was *saying*, it's also come to my attention that some of us may have... 
other issues, other than trauma, that also need addressing. Also, that maybe 
piling all of our issues on Amy and Silver isn't exactly healthy for anyone."

Amy and Silver looked at each other. It was true; they were usually the people 
the Resistance came to with mental health problems (although Silver got many, 


"As such, Zero and I decided to look around, and we managed to find a therapist 
who would work for us *pro bono*. Each of you will be seeing Dr. Williams once 
a week for the foreseeable future."

Tails seemed a little upset. "Why? I'm fine; I don't need someone prying at me."

Sonic and Zero looked at each other, with an expression on each of their faces 
that read "yeah, right". Sonic turned to Tails. "Tails, you're going to therapy 
and that's *final*."

Zero chimed in. "Yeah. Don't worry; if you're fine, you shouldn't need to go to 
therapy for too long." There was an implicit "but you're not fine" in there, 
but either Tails didn't notice or he didn't care enough to raise a fuss.

Knuckles smirked. "Let me guess, you're finally going to get me anger 
management classes?"

Sonic smiled an almost vacant smile back at him. "Of course I am. Don't think I 
didn't catch you threatening to kill Zero the day of the battle." Knuckles' 
expression immediately fell, and he shrunk back to his corner.

Zero piped up. "Any questions? ...No? Good. Meeting dismissed. Let's go get 
some breakfast."

---

It had been a few months since that meeting, and everybody seemed to be a 
little cheerier for it. Sure, Eggman came back, and so did Starline, and one 
time they even joined forces. Still, it was nothing compared to the toll of a 
full-on war, and the Resistance was able to weather the storm.

As for Zero's secret, Sonic had been quick to kibosh any inquiries into Zero's 
past. It wasn't important, Sonic reasoned, as even if he was Infinite, he had 
very clearly turned over a new leaf. As far as the Resistance was concerned, 
the past could stay in the past forever.

Meanwhile, everybody was getting better at the things they were having trouble 
with. Knuckles got his anger under control, Tails made great strides towards 
treating his astraphobia and separation anxiety, and everybody in general 
seemed to be handling stress a lot better than they may have had in the past.

On this particular bright afternoon, it was board game day. All around the 
stronghold, Resistance members faced off in games ranging from Chutes and 
Ladders and UNO on one end to Blackjack and Hold'em Poker on the other (blame 
Rouge for those ones). In particular, Zero, Gadget, and Sonic were currently in 
the middle of a heated game of Monopoly. At the moment, Zero and Gadget were 
arguing over the houses. Gadget was arguing that Zero had to convert his 
4-house properties into a hotel, while Zero argued that no such rule existed. 
Eventually, Sonic managed to find the rulebook hidden in the couch and told 
Gadget that Zero was right; he could use all of the houses he wanted. Gadget 
muttered something about Zero being unfair, and they went back to playing.

Zero had managed to get himself in Jail on his next roll. He was easily the 
farthest ahead in the game, owning half of the game board by himself (which at 
this stage, especially with Sonic competing, was an achievement).

Gadget rolled a 9 and landed on one of Zero's properties; he sighed and handed 
Zero his money. "[I'm so done for. I've already mortgaged most of my properties 
and I'm almost broke.]"

Zero tapped his shoulder. "[Hey, I'll give you 1000 dollars if you give me 
Strand and Picadilly. I need those for my color sets.]" Gadget handed over the 
mortgaged deeds, and Zero handed over the money. Almost immediately, Zero 
turned to Tails and forked over more cash. "I'll just unmortgage these." He 
swapped out some 4-house properties for hotels on his other color sets, before 
moving the 4-house sets to the new Red and Yellow monopolies he owned.

Sonic gawked. "That's not fair! If I knew you were going to give him Strand and 
Picadilly for *that*, I would have offered you more!"

Gadget shrugged. "[Your fault for not learning sign language.]"

Zero nodded. "Yeah, if you want to get ahead of the ball, you have to learn 
sign language."

Sonic sighed. "Note to self: learn sign language so your canine friends can't 
cut you out of negotiations in Monopoly."

Tails suddenly came running to the doorway, stopping to catch his breath. 
"Uh... Zero? You might want to see this."

Zero smiled before getting up. "Alright."

Sonic spoke up. "What about the Monopoly game?"

Zero pondered for a second before smiling. "Gadget gets all of my money and 
properties. Have fun!" He turned to Tails. "Lead the way."

He didn't know what he did to deserve this.

But that was okay; he'd take it one step at a time, and let the infinite 
possibilities come to him.

---

Chapter End Notes

> Welp, with that last title drop, that's the end for now. I've got ideas for 2 
> different ways I could continue this story, and I think I'll eventually get 
> around to both (split timelines, anyone?). For now, though, I think I'll let 
> this story rest.
>
> I'll take this moment to plug my [Tumblr](https://minerobber.tumblr.com/). Have 
> a wonderful rest of your day (and if you're reading this in the US when it's 
> posted and you can vote, go vote! it's important!).