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

The sun hadn't even risen. Zero would've known; he fell asleep facing the 
window.

Zero sighed. He was always the first to wake up in the morning. Whether it was 
with his squad, or with almost anybody (except for that one night when he had 
helped Tails, but he hadn't gotten to fall asleep until really late that 
night), he was usually the first awake, the first one out of the door, first 
for everything.

Well, almost everything.

He pushed that thought into the back of his head; unpleasant thoughts lead to 
dark places and all that jazz. Regardless, after getting ready for the day, he 
decided to look out the upstairs window into the square.

It was early enough that nobody was awake and moving, so the view from the 
window was a serene sight. A Flicky flies overhead, perhaps coming to a stop in 
the middle of the field before going on its way. A Pocky hops across the field, 
a destination in mind.

Zero let himself get absorbed in these simple motions, as if he were keeping 
watch over the square; it distracted him from the unpleasant thoughts 
threatening to invade his headspace.

---


	
Meanwhile, later that morning...*


Gadget woke up with the sunrise, as he usually did. With the war being over, 
there was less and less of a reason to wake up super early. That being said, 
there were still skirmishes going on, like the one scheduled for today.

As Gadget went through his daily routine, his thoughts drifted. For example, he 
hoped his gift for Zero would work out. How was Zero doing anyways? The way he 
had reacted when Gadget showed him to his new room implied that Zero hadn't 
often had a room of his own.

After he finished his shower, Gadget walked up the stairs to see Zero staring 
out of the upstairs window. Not moving, not audibly breathing, just staring out 
the window, watching over the square. Was he awake? Did he fall asleep like 
that?

There was only one way to find out. Gadget walked over to Zero and put a hand 
on the jackal's shoulder.

Big mistake.

Zero, fully awake and not expecting the contact, immediately swung around and 
pulled Gadget into a headlock before realizing what was happening and letting 
go. He put a hand behind his head. "Sorry. Reflex."

Gadget made a mental note; *Zero doesn't like being touched unexpectedly.* He 
turned to Zero. "I've got something to show you. Follow me."

Gadget led Zero into his workshop. Immediately, a cyan Wisp flew over to Zero 
and started checking him out. Rather than run away or do anything to harm the 
alien, Zero simply held out a hand to it. The Wisp looked between the hand and 
the jackal attached to it a few times before checking out Zero's hand. After a 
few seconds, it seemed to decide Zero wasn't a threat, and it snuggled up to 
him, scaring him slightly.

Gadget smirked. "I see you've made a new friend."

Zero was still a little flustered that the Wisp had snuggled up to him. Could 
it really see through his tough-guy facade that easily? He realized Gadget was 
expecting a response. "Well, what can I say? I'm pretty good at... making 
friends..."

His mind went somewhere dark for a few seconds, but between Gadget and the cyan 
Wisp, they snapped him out of it quickly enough. Gadget seemed concerned. "Are 
you okay?"

Zero shook it off. "Yeah, I'm good now. Just... some bad memories, 'sall."

Gadget put his hand on Zero's shoulder. "Hey, if you need to talk through 
things, I'm here for you."

Zero grimaced. "I'm not so sure I'm ready to have that conversation..."

Gadget smiled. "Well, when you are, I'm all ears."

Zero smiled back. "...That's nice..."

Gadget decided to change the subject. "So, I remember you told me about your 
sword, and how badly you missed it. Well, I know I could never replace it, but 
I figured I could try to make up for you losing your sword..." He pulled out 
what appeared to be a sword hilt. "...with this."

Zero took the sword hilt from Gadget and looked at it skeptically. "No offense, 
but how is a sword hilt supposed to replace my sword? My sword had a blade-"

As if answering the unspoken call, the cyan Wisp flew into the hilt, and a 
brilliant cyan blade formed out of the top of the hilt. Gadget smirked. "I 
wouldn't have just given you a sword hilt for a whole sword."

Zero looked the new sword over, it now being fully extended. He tilted it back 
and forth in his hand; it was perfectly balanced. He smiled. "Sweet!"

Gadget picked up a piece of firewood and tossed it gently in the air towards 
Zero. "Think fast!"

Zero swung the sword at the firewood and chopped it in half, blade cutting 
through the wood like a knife through hot butter. His smile intensified. "Oh, 
this is nice. I could get used to this."

Gadget smiled back; he was glad to see Zero was enjoying his gift. "Oh, and 
there's one more thing about the sword I'd like to show you, but we should 
probably head outside first."

---

After a nice breakfast, once they were outside, Zero turned to Gadget. 
"Alright, what's this 'one more thing' you wanted to show me?"

Gadget pointed at a small button near where Zero's thumb usually rested. "Do 
you see that button right there?" Zero nodded. "Well, if you press that, then 
some of the Hyper-go-on energy will be redirected from forming the blade to 
grant you extra speed in a similar fashion to the natural Color Power of the 
cyan Wisp, while reducing traction and being harder to handle around corners 
and such."

Zero looked lost. "Gadget, we're good friends, but I didn't understand a word 
you just said. Can you say that again? In 
'someone-who-doesn't-know-how-to-design-a-lazer-sword' terms?"

Gadget sighed. "If you press the button, some of the Wisp's energy will make 
you faster. It's harder to handle around corners-"

"So it's best for straight-line speed. See? Was that so hard?"

Gadget sighed. "You can be a pain." He smirked. "Race you to HQ!"

And without another word, Gadget took off towards Resistance HQ, using his 
grappling hook to move at great speeds. Zero smirked to himself. "If he wanted 
a race, all he had to do was ask." Pressing the button, he started after 
Gadget, making sure to disengage the boost when going around corners.

Still, on the final stretch to the HQ, Zero found himself far behind Gadget. It 
was at that point that the cyan Wisp disengaged with Zero's sword. It looked at 
him, and he knew what it was suggesting.

The cyan Wisp phased into Zero, and he could feel the Color Power. He pointed 
himself in the direction of the HQ door, and off they went, leaving Gadget in 
the dust. As the transformation ended, Zero stumbled, but he managed to recover 
by half-running, half-stumbling up the stairs, turning around, and leaning 
against the wall, as if that had been his plan the whole time.

A few seconds later, Gadget appeared, almost out of breath. "H-How?"

The cyan Wisp phased out of Zero, taking a place over the jackal's right 
shoulder. They shared a fist-bump, and Zero looked to the Wisp. "I think I'll 
call you Cy."

Gadget looked puzzled. "Cy?"

"Yeah, like Cy Young, the pitcher; well-known for his *fastball*." He turned to 
"Cy". "What do you think?" Cy thought for a second, and then nodded. "See? He 
likes it."

"If you two are done yakking, we've got a battle to fight."

Knuckles was standing in the doorway, looking more than a little tired. Zero 
decided to pick on him. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

Knuckles grabbed Zero by the chest fur. "Listen, I don't know how the hell you 
got Sonic to trust you, but I've got my eye on you. You'd better not mess this 
up."

Zero put his hands up defensively. "Jeez, alright, you don't have to murder me. 
Point taken." Knuckles let go, and Zero dusted himself off. "Are the watchers 
on the wall yet?"

Knuckles nodded. "I'm still not sure why we need to keep soldiers up there, 
when we could use the help on the ground."

Zero let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not sure what you don't get. We need to 
know what Starline is up to at all times. If he shifts his troops around at any 
moment, we need to know and be able to adjust accordingly."

Knuckles let out a sigh of his own. "I still think we could use the help down 
here, but I guess whatever you say goes."

Zero smirked. "Of course it does. They don't call me 'Mr. Grand Master Strategy 
Man' for nothing."

Knuckles facepalmed. "You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Of course not."

Zero and Knuckles were interrupted by some shouting from the wall. Knuckles 
yelled up to the people on the wall. "What's going on?"

A soldier looked back down over the wall, and seemingly immediately regretted 
looking down. "They're saying some troops are coming to the south."

Knuckles smiled, though it was a vacant smile. "Well, here we go. Let's send 
the whole army-"

Zero put a finger to Knuckles' face. "Gimme a second." He yelled up to the 
soldier on the wall. "About how many are coming?"

After some further shouts on the wall, the soldier had a response. "They say 
about 8 armored robots are inbound."

"*Eight*?" Zero turned to Knuckles. "This is a distraction. There's no way he's 
intending to take the whole stronghold with only 8 robots."

Knuckles sighed. "Whatever." He turned to one of the soldiers near him on the 
ground. "Send a few battalions to the south. Enough to hold it, but not too 
many." The soldier nodded and ran off to go gather the requested troops.

The soldier from the wall peeked their head over the battlement. "Uh, sir? 
There's a much bigger force coming from the north. Like, 8 thousand robots 
bigger."

Zero smirked. "And there's our invasion force. See? I know what I'm doing."

Knuckles sighed again; this whole thing was just not going his way. "Let me 
guess, you want to lead the army against the invasion force."

"Unless you don't have faith in your 'Mr. Grand Master Strategy Man' to win a 
battle." He leaned in towards Knuckles. "And to answer your question from 
earlier? Sonic trusts me because I've proven myself on several occasions. Maybe 
you can pay attention this time."

Knuckles was slightly taken aback, but he quickly recovered. "Whatever. Just 
don't mess this up." He turned to another soldier near him. "Gather the rest of 
the troops at the north gate. Tell them to take orders from the jackal." The 
soldier in question nodded and went to rally the troops. Zero seemed a little 
conflicted, before shaking his head and taking off for the north gate.

Gadget, on the other hand, wasn't so quick to hold his tongue- or, rather, his 
hands. "[He has a name, you know.]"

"Whatever. Get to the north gate already."

---

When the army had gathered at the north gate, they saw Doctor Starline barking 
orders at the mass of robots behind him. Zero picked up a rock and hit Starline 
directly in the back of the head, causing him to turn around in surprise. 
"What? How did you know I was here?"

"The Resistance is many things," Zero countered, "but we're not blind." He 
gestured to the many robots behind Doctor Starline. "Did you think we'd miss 
8,000 robots marching on our northern side?"

Starline thought about it for a second. "Fair." He shook it off. "No matter; 
you're going to lose anyways. Robots, attack!"

And so the battle began. Doctor Starline had apparently planned on a 
quantity-over-quality approach, as many of the robots went down in one hit, 
whether it was the swing of Zero's new Sword Wispon, or the flames of a Burst 
Wispon. Still, by their sheer numbers, it seemed like the robots were 
succeeding at pushing the Resistance forces back.

In one case, Zero had just sliced through a few robots, when he noticed a 
soldier being cornered by a robot with a blaster. Using the speed boost 
mechanic on the Sword Wispon, Zero easily sped over, sliced the robot in half 
and tossed the soldier their Wispon. He nodded to the soldier before continuing 
on.

Eventually, Zero caught on to Gadget signaling him, and the pair retreated to 
the back of the battle. Gadget went first, signing. "[We need to get a leg up 
on them, or this is never going to end.]"

Zero grimaced. "[I know. But how are we going to catch Starline off-guard?]"

Gadget shrugged. "[I mean, the guy seems kind of self-centered. Maybe if we 
fake a retreat?]"

Zero smirked, a plan already forming. "[Take some soldiers with you to the 
first chokepoint and build some fortifications. I'll call for the rest to fall 
back, and you can have soldiers spring from behind the fortifications and catch 
Starline off-guard.]"

Gadget nodded. "[Good plan.]"

Although not many soldiers knew sign language, one did not need a thorough 
understanding of Mobian Sign Language to understand "follow me" and "build 
fortifications" (the latter of which was basically just pointing the materials 
out, since the idea of building parapets was a given when behind the main 
battle lines).

Starline saw the troops falling back and smirked. "What's wrong, platypus got 
your number?"

Zero didn't dignify Starline with a response. Instead, he just started 
destroying the robots faster. The remaining soldiers, invigorated by Zero's 
example, followed suit.

Eventually, Gadget came back out. "[We're ready when you are.]"

Zero smiled. "[Just a few more robots first.]"

After slicing his way through 5 or so robots, Zero, true to his word, called 
out the order. "Fall back!"

Starline chuckled. "You're really just going to let me in your walls? How nice 
of you..."

He pressed a few buttons in his mech, and the robots started following the 
soldiers back. Starline finally got his mech inside the walls...

...only for the gate to close behind him. Sonic smiled from the wall. "Hey, 
wanna hear a joke?" Sonic jumped down from the wall, sticking the landing on 
the ground. "It's you, Doc. You're the joke."

As soon as Sonic landed, some soldiers jumped out from behind the defenses. 
Rather than target any of the robots, these soldiers went directly for Starline.

Zero smirked and turned to Gadget. "[Get that idea from me?]"

Gadget smiled and shrugged. "[Hey, if it ain't broke, right?]"

In the ensuing mayhem, Starline was able to escape. The same could not be said 
of the remaining robots, which were all summarily reduced to scrap metal. Sonic 
let Zero borrow his communicator to call Knuckles. "Well, Commander, we've got 
a victory here in the north. The new Doctor got away, but we got all of his 
robots down."

Knuckles sighed. "Well, the forces in the South just got done with their 
robots, so I guess the battle's over. Bring the robots back to HQ; maybe Tails 
can reverse-engineer them."

"Got it. Not too shabby for my first try as the battle planner, eh, Commander?"

"Shut up and bring the robots to base."

Zero sighed and handed Sonic his communicator. "Knuckles woke up on the wrong 
side of the bed this morning, and he seems to want to take it out on me."

"Don't worry, he's not usually that mad." Sonic rubbed the back of his head. 
"It does seem to be aimed more at you, though."

"Eh, whatever. Let the red echidna stew, I guess."

---

Later that day, after a nice shower, Zero laid down on his bed. He was feeling 
pretty happy, all things considered. Sure, Knuckles was a pain in the butt, but 
that was expected. He felt like there was nothing he couldn't do; with Sonic 
and Tails backing him up, Knuckles couldn't really act on his anger. Besides, 
in Gadget, Zero had finally found a friend.

He had finally found a friend.

...Oh no.

All too quickly, Zero's head reminded him of what happened the last time he 
made friends. He didn't really want to dwell on it (in fact, the last time he 
had even thought about it was that morning), but he certainly didn't want a 
repeat of that.

Altogether too quick for the decision to be rational, Zero made up his mind. If 
he ran away, maybe Gadget would forget about him. Maybe Gadget could be spared 
of the fate that befell Zero's last 4 friends. Zero packed his bag, with his 
makeshift toolset and sunglasses, and took off.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Zero, a certain Wisp saw everything that happened. Cy 
flew over to Gadget's room and shook the wolf awake. Half-asleep, Gadget 
stumbled out into the hallway. After a few seconds, some things registered in 
Gadget's head.

One, Zero's bedroom door was wide open, meaning there was no way Zero could be 
inside (Zero slept with the door shut, and was very particular about that). 
Two, there was no light coming from downstairs, which meant Zero couldn't be in 
the bathroom (when the light was on in the bathroom, there was a little light 
that would seep out from under the door). Three, the workshop door was still 
closed, which meant Zero wouldn't be in there either (Gadget didn't hear the 
door open, and the workshop door was long overdue for a greasing). Four, Zero 
was nowhere to be seen in the kitchen or living room areas.

Eventually, it clicked.

Zero was gone.

Gadget broke out into a full sprint. He figured he could get help finding Zero 
from HQ. As he ran, thoughts flashed in his head. *Where could Zero have gone? 
And why was he in such a hurry?* Gadget didn't know. All he knew was that Zero 
was probably in need of some serious help.

---

Chapter End Notes

> I realized as I was writing this chapter that I've been kinda glossing over 
> Zero's trauma in the previous chapters. I mean, he still has to deal with the 
> trauma of what happened at the Mystic Jungle base.
>
> ~~Why does every version of Zero I try to write have serious unaddressed mental 
> trauma and a need for therapy?~~
>
> As we approach the final act of this story, both boys will need to handle their 
> individual traumas before they can let this whole "Infinite" thing lie.