💾 Archived View for tilde.team › ~khuxkm › writing › infinite_possibilities › ch11.md captured on 2022-06-04 at 01:38:03.
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It took a while of looking at the stars, but finally Sonic spoke up. "You know, those six months on the Death Egg were real torture." Zero nodded. "I can't even begin to imagine what that must have felt like for you." "Just... sitting there, not being able to help my friends as they lost battle after battle. That really gets to you after a while, you feel me?" "I feel you. Not being able to help your friends... I've been there before." Sonic sat up suddenly. "I'm sorry, I wasn't even thinking-" Zero put his arm out and gently pushed Sonic back down. "No, no, this is about you. We can worry about my issues later." After a few more seconds, Sonic continued. "And then when I got out, I had to pretend like everything was sunshine and roses, or my friends would be worried about me instead of the war. Every time I faced Infinite, I was terrified, but I bottled it up because there were more pressing issues than my fear." Zero caught on to what Sonic was implying. "But when the war ended, nobody knew you had a problem..." Sonic nodded. "...so I had to keep that inside. I figured it'd be easy, what with Infinite being gone..." "...but then I just *had* to show up in your woods and make the whole thing a million times more complicated." Sonic nodded again. "At first, I was super defensive, expecting 'Infinite' to want revenge or to hurt my friends, but... you helped Tails with his fear of lightning, and you helped us win battles we might have lost otherwise, and suddenly I wasn't so sure. And then I found out that Infinite wasn't entirely your doing, and I was even less sure of myself. It all came to a head there in HQ; my head was screaming 'run', even though you were just chilling on the couch with Gadget. The whole thing just made no sense, and when the world isn't making sense..." "...you go for a run to clear your head. I understand; sometimes that helps me, too." Zero shuffled from his laying position. "Well, I'd like to apologize for what happened with Infinite. I should have-" Now it was Sonic who put his arm out, this time to shush Zero. "No, no, it's not really your fault. Still, apology accepted; I feel better already. Now let's talk about you." Zero shook his head. "No, no, we'll be here forever, I've got too much." Sonic smirked. "Well, if it'll take a while, let's get started." Zero sighed; Sonic wasn't going to take no for an answer. "Well, there's not really that much to talk about. As we talked about literally a couple hours ago, I wasn't able to save my squad from Shadow. I was sad, and angry, and embarrassed..." "...So you became Infinite?" Zero shook his head again. "I mean, yes, in a grand sense that's what happened, but what actually happened was that Eggman baited me into becoming Infinite by promising me revenge." Sonic nodded; he was starting to understand. "But obviously, that didn't work out..." "...because Infinite just wanted death, destruction, and despair. He didn't want revenge on Shadow; he didn't even know or care about who Shadow was. It was all just a ploy to get me to agree to be a vessel to... to that *thing*." "...Huh." Sonic paused for a moment. "You know what I just realized?" "What?" "In a weird roundabout way, Eggman's responsible for both of us being traumatized. I mean, he didn't kill your squad, but he tricked you into becoming Infinite; and because he's responsible for you being Infinite..." "...He's responsible for you being tortured. Chaos, this is complicated." "Tell me about it." The two sat there for a minute or two, pondering the implications of that revelation. Zero eventually spoke up. "But what does that even mean, in the grand scheme of things? I mean, we were both already opposed to Eggman, so this doesn't really change who we consider our enemy to be." Sonic thought for a moment before answering. "Well, it changes what we think about him. We've got even more of a reason to fight against him, since we both suffered because of him." "But still, that doesn't mean much." Zero shrugged. "I dunno, I guess I just expected that reveal to be something big." "Maybe it is," Sonic reasoned, "and we just haven't figured out what it is yet." "Fair enough." Zero paused. "...So now what?" Sonic raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'so now what'?" "Well, what do we do? We've both got issues, we've admitted it ourselves, so now what do we do about it?" "Well, Amy usually plays the therapist for the group-" "Amy?" Zero rolled over on his side to face Sonic. "Sonic, she's twelve.