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Chapter Notes > Strong language ahead. I try to avoid cursing when not absolutely necessary, > but I feel like the 2 curse words in this chapter were kind of important, just > to capture how the characters are feeling at the moment. --- When Gadget got to HQ, most of the lights were out. Interestingly enough, there was a lamp on a side table that was lit, and Sonic was sitting on the couch near it, reading some heavy-looking book. "Gadget? What are you doing? It's, like, midnight." "It's Zero. He's gone." At once, Sonic was raising full alarm and waking everybody up. Sure, Zero might not have the Phantom Ruby anymore, but he could still raise hell enough without it. Sonic's plan was simple: if Zero's in trouble, help him, but if he's causing trouble, stop him. Knuckles came out of his room. "Ugh, what's happening?" Sonic was already looking over a map, assigning different sectors to different people. "Zero ran away. We need to figure out what's going on-" He didn't even get to finish his sentence before Knuckles cut in. "See, I knew I couldn't trust that jackal." Something welled up in Gadget's eyes- anger, tears, whatever- and he turned to Knuckles. "HE HAS A NAME, ASSHOLE!" Gadget promptly turned on his heels and stormed out of the room. Knuckles was caught off-guard. "Jeez, who pissed in his cereal this morning-" Sonic had had enough of Knuckles' bullshit. "What the hell is wrong with you? Gadget comes to us with a serious problem and you can't keep your Chaos-damned mouth shut for 10 seconds and help out? You and your anger management issues are probably why he ran away in the first place!" Knuckles was mad. "But I was *right*, wasn't I? I said he couldn't be trusted, and now he's run off with our secrets-" "*Will you shut up about that for, like, **five seconds?*** Right now, our priority should be figuring out what's going on. Don't jump to conclusions yet." "But I'm-" A chorus of voices came up, Sonic, Amy, Tails, and a few others in the room. "NOBODY CARES!" Knuckles sulked off, back to his room, and Sonic's eyes lingered on Knuckles' door frame for a few seconds after the door had been unceremoniously slammed shut. "I gotta go clear my head; I'll take the forest as my search area." He took off towards the forest, and his usual running path. He ran the whole length of the path, up and down, three times, four times, five times, but still, his head wasn't clear. He then suddenly had a thought: what about the path to the clearing? At this point, he wasn't even thinking about finding Zero; that could wait. The clearing was nice and peaceful, and maybe it would clear his head to relax there for a while. He found where the fork branched off from the main path and took it. As he ran down the winding and curving path, he thought back to the first time he had run this path. He had finally gotten time to go down the path by waking up early that morning; he had run down the winding path, just as he was doing at the moment. The path may have been long and winding, but Sonic noted how nature had been mostly left undisturbed apart from the path; Zero had obviously just followed a natural path through to the main trail. His thoughts drifted back to Zero; he was worried for Zero's safety, sure, but he knew the look he saw in Gadget's eyes well. That wasn't just the look of concern for a friend; that was something much more. He wondered if Gadget knew, but ultimately decided it wasn't that important. Regardless, he was doing this for Gadget's sake, much more than Zero's sake or his own sake. Sonic's thoughts drifted back to *finding* Zero; wouldn't it be funny if he rounded the last turn into the clearing and- There he was: Zero, sitting on the river bank with his back to the trail. Sonic smirked, before calling out to Zero from a distance. "A lot of people are looking for you, you know." Zero's head swung over his shoulder to see who his visitor was. When it clicked, Zero let out an exasperated sigh. "Why is it that every time I try to disappear, you always find me?" Sonic thought about it for a second. "I dunno. Maybe Chaos just finds it convenient." He joined Zero on the river bank. "It would help if you varied your hiding spots." Zero sighed again. "It's a good place to sit and think." He thought for a second. "I don't even know why I bothered looking over my shoulder. You're the only other person who knows about this place." Sonic smiled. "True that." After a second, he decided to cut to the point. "So, why'd you run away?" He feigned hurt. "I thought we were getting along..." "That's the problem." Zero was almost deadpan. "I'm getting along with people... which knowing my track record... isn't a good idea." Sonic was lost. "...what do you..." "Mystic Jungle; about 8 months ago. My squad and I were defending an Eggman base there, when this black hedgehog attacked. He spared me, but he killed the rest of my squad. I was so devastated by the loss, I became Infinite to get revenge..." "Wait... black hedgehog..." The pieces clicked into place, although Sonic hated to admit it. Everything suddenly made sense; who had attacked an Eggman base in the Mystic Jungle area 8 months ago? Who wouldn't object to murdering anything or anyone in his path? Who caused the entire war to happen through what he did that fateful night? "Shadow. I can't believe it; I'm going to give him hell when I see him-" "Don't. It's not his fault." Zero stared blankly into the murky depths of the river. "I'm the one who couldn't protect his friends." "Don't say that. If he weren't so trigger-happy, we might not even be here. Either way, dwelling on your past mistakes won't fix anything in the present-" "Yeah, it won't, but I'm taking steps to fix things now." Sonic was still livid, but he decided to humor Zero. "And how is running away going to fix anything?" "Well, if I stay gone, eventually Gadget will forget about me. We won't be friends, and so, he won't be in danger." "I don't know why you're so worried about something happening; you're on the right side of the conflict now-" "I thought I was on the right side when I was with Eggman; see how that ended up for me? You assume the side you're on is the right one, but no matter who is right, you're always in danger from the other side." "...I can't argue with that." Sonic really couldn't; that was a good point. He couldn't really guarantee Zero that he and his friends would be okay, because maybe Eggman would attack them-- maybe even Starline could attack-- and something could happen. They sat there in silence. After a while, they laid back on the bank and looked up at the stars. Just to the left of the moon, Sonic could see the Death Egg floating by, and he pointed this out to Zero, who simply hummed an acknowledgment. Eventually, the answer came to Sonic. He turned to Zero. "You know, I was thinking it over... they say if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat it, right?" Zero scoffed. "Yes. That's why I'm staying away from making friends; when I made friends, they got killed." "Except, that wasn't what you were supposed to learn from that." Zero was lost. "How is that not the lesson? I wasn't there to save them-" Sonic jumped slightly. "**That's the lesson!** You should be there for your friends! Sure, Chaos didn't need to have Shadow kill your squad to teach you that, but Chaos also destroyed an entire city. He's not exactly known for his good decision-making." There was another prolonged silence. Sonic figured it would be best to let Zero digest what he said; after all, Sonic hadn't fully considered his words, and he was the one saying them. It made sense; the real lesson Chaos was trying to teach Zero was to be there for his friends, not to avoid making friends altogether. Also, Chaos *had* destroyed an entire city before. Maybe he wasn't the one to go to for sound decisions. Zero sat up suddenly. "Chaos, you're right. By ditching Gadget, I might have put him in more danger." He scrambled to his feet with a scared look in his eyes. "Come on, let's go back." Sonic let a smirk appear on his face as Zero started down the track; Zero was totally in love with Gadget, if he knew it or not. He eventually caught up to Zero, and walked him back to HQ; well, it was more of a brisk jog for the hedgehog and a sprint for the jackal. They got back to the HQ, and as they walked in the door, Gadget was sweeping the living room. Sonic smiled. "See? He's fine." Gadget looked up, and orange eyes met blue and yellow. He almost dropped the broom where he stood. Sonic smiled; this was going to be fun. --- Chapter End Notes > So I was rereading the story, and I kept getting romantic undertones from it. > Like, Gadget cares about Zero a little more than you would expect someone to > care for this random stranger they just met a few days ago. So, basically, > whether I intended it from the start or not, they're gay now, and that's fine > by me.