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That night, after Knuckles' boring speech, everybody went to bed. Amy found some extra blankets and pillows so Zero could actually have something resembling a bed while they tried to find somewhere for him to live, while everybody else just went back to their rooms and slept. Well, almost everybody slept. A certain cobalt hedgehog, on the other hand, was lying awake in his bed. He tried to hide it from the others, but the 6 months he was captured were real torture. He kept his face up, but inside, he was a broken mess when the Resistance finally got him back. He was able to eventually pick up the pieces well enough to fight Infinite again, but he was still partially dealing with the trauma. And then, the very same jackal who tormented him for 6 months with visions of his friends dying, of forests burning, of the world falling under Eggman's control, that very same jackal walks into his life, comes up with a battle plan to defeat the badniks, helps Tails with his fear of lightning, and then almost kills Eggman to save him? What's going on? Infinite always struck fear in everybody. Sometimes, even Eggman seemed afraid of Infinite, and the Doctor was on Infinite's side. But Zero seemed different. Zero just seemed like you wouldn't want to be on his bad side. If you were friends with him, he didn't have any problems with you, but if you were on his bad side, may Chaos have mercy on your soul and all that jazz. Sonic didn't imagine this much of a heel-face turn from the jackal, especially considering the torment Sonic faced those 6 months. Every day, it started with a fake rescue attempt that ended in one of his friends getting shot to death, then the jackal would laugh at him. They'd play card games until the jackal got bored and then Sonic would be "set free" into a jungle that would soon be set on fire like Angel Island Zone. Eventually, Sonic would wake up in his cell again, and Infinite would force him to watch Eggman's empire expand across the Earth in real-time. Then, Sonic would fall asleep for real, and the cycle continued the next day. The faked death of a friend, the use of illusion powers to cheat at card games, the jungle burning to the ground again and again, and real-time updates on how his friends were failing without him, while he was powerless to help them. Day after day, week after week, for 6 months. How could somebody be that awful? Sonic's thoughts wandered back to what Zero said to Eggman. "You've wronged me." What could that possibly mean? Don't get him wrong, Eggman has done plenty of things wrong, but what could Doctor "gonna blow up the world because I forgot it needs to be intact for me to be able to rule it" Eggman do to somebody to make them mad enough to want to blow his face off? He saw the look in Zero's eyes, he knew the jackal wasn't bluffing. Either way, his mind came back to the issue at hand: what changed? How exactly do you get from Infinite, who strikes fear into everybody around him, to Zero, who you didn't need to fear unless you were on his bad side? How do you go from torturing someone for 6 months to helping them defeat their enemy? Maybe the jackal was bluffing with his help and hiding his demeanor in a desperate bid to save his life. It would make sense, seeing as how being Infinite all over again would lead to, probably, death. Still, if Zero truly feared for his life, he'd have ran away after getting out the first time and not helped them defeat the badnik onslaught. Maybe there was more to him than met the eye. Honestly, this just made his current quandary even worse. He's not even sure he wants to put Zero in jail anymore. If you had asked Sonic immediately following the end of the war, he might have even wanted Zero dead. But ultimately, he wanted Infinite dead, and he wasn't entirely convinced that Zero and Infinite shared more than a body. He rolled over in his bed. There was no use arguing about it now. He'd have to ask Zero about it in the morning, although how much the jackal would divulge might not be enough to settle the war in Sonic's heart and mind. Unbeknownst to Sonic, Zero was also having a quandary in the cell below. A very similar quandary, but from a different perspective. --- Something about this didn't feel right. Zero tried to fall asleep, but his mind was going a million miles a minute. He should have ran away a long time ago. His original plan, after all, had been to disappear into the woods without a trace. But now, not only had he basically joined the Resistance, he had tried to blow Eggman's face off. Granted, the nimrod deserved it for what he did to Zero's squad... but still. He tried to blow Eggman's face off in a gambit to save Sonic and the Resistance. It had worked, but it left him with one burning question... why? Why did Gadget, who had been at practically no risk of being injured, follow the badniks in to help Zero defeat them? If it had been Zero in that position, he would have ran away... well, no, that was a lie. He'd have ran into the room to save Gadget, but that was because this entire gambit was his idea, and the only person he felt safe sacrificing was himself. But why wouldn't Gadget be willing to sacrifice him? He barely even met Zero! If a character with a shady past who was distrusting of an authority figure showed up, talked to Zero, and then asked him to put his life on the line in a final gambit to save the Resistance? Zero would have laughed in his face and ran away! Furthermore, why was everybody in the Resistance so willing to accept him into their ranks? Infinite would have wondered why he didn't just throw off the mask, hide the Ruby with a scarf, and waltz into a Resistance base asking to join. But that was Infinite, and that was exactly why he expected some sort of, well, resistance to his being in the Resistance. But there was no such difficulty. Everybody was just so willing to include him in their group! Zero guessed he'd have to confess eventually to having been Infinite, but what was there to say? They didn't share much more than a body (although Zero wished they had shared more, as having to watch some other being control your body is very, **very** disturbing). Still, he guessed that nobody would believe his story. Why would they? They had no reason to. He had been Infinite, and to many, that was horrible enough to call for his execution, not to mention a lifetime in prison. But then, things seemed to be different than he expected. After his *tour de force*, he expected the mouthful from the red echidna (who Gadget told him was named Knuckles). What he hadn't expected was for Sonic to stand up for him, not to mention the pink one (named Amy) had actually offered to get him blankets and pillows to put in his cell. Why? Why were they so willing to help him? He guessed it was probably partially because he had saved their lives, and partially because- Zero still wasn't sure how many people knew his secret. Sonic knew, and Zero had told Tails himself. But apart from that, Zero didn't know who was aware of it. Things would have been much easier if that blue hedgehog hadn't got involved. Zero would be off in the woods, making himself a cabin, and he wouldn't have all of these questions. Like, why did Sonic defend him? Why was Amy so willing to help him? Why did Gadget put himself in danger to save Zero? Why did things have to be so difficult? --- Chapter End Notes > My plan is to post on the 1st and 15th of each month. I have plans up to > Chapter 8, and I've written to Chapter 7. The main issue is trying to make a > schedule that works within the confines of my currently-hectic real-life > schedule, but 2 updates a month should suffice.