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Sonic awoke to his alarm. It was time for him to do his daily run, and to check 
on the new path, as he had planned.  He quickly shut off his alarm and put on 
his shoes. As he left Resistance HQ, he could just barely see the sun rise over 
the east wall. Perfect. All of Eggman's prior attacks had been around noon, so 
Sonic had plenty of time on his hands. He ran his entire normal route in 45 
minutes (a new record for the hedgehog, although Sonic admitted to himself it 
was because of his curiosity for the new route). He decided to take his time 
running down the new path, if only because he was unfamiliar with the route and 
had time.

The path rounded lots of bends and went very deep into the forest. He'd never 
been this deep in the forest before, but he was willing to keep going for 
curiosity's sake. Eventually, the path rounded one last bend and went into a 
straight shot to a clearing, where, unbeknownst to him, a certain jackal was 
hiding.

---

Zero had woken up with the sunrise and had finished his packing from the last 
day. He put his fire out and started disassembling his makeshift tent.

He was going to miss this place. There was no question about that. The river 
nearby, the trees giving lots of shade, every last bit of it was loved. 
However, he knew that his leaving was for the best. After all, if he got 
caught, he'd probably be put to death. When he was Infinite, he had done some 
terrible things, and if killing him was meant to make up for those atrocities, 
that's what they'd do. That being said, he had no intention of getting caught.

As he finished packing his tent, Zero suddenly froze. He heard a twig break 
down the line from his path, and then another, and then another. It was clear 
to him that he had a visitor. Zero hid his backpack in the bushes and hid 
behind a large oak tree by the treeline furthest from his path. He hazarded a 
look over his shoulder and gawked when he saw just who his visitor was.

---

Sonic walked into the clearing and studied it religiously. For instance, there 
had clearly been a fire here recently, judging by the pile of charred wood in 
front of him. To the right of the remains of the fire, a lighter patch of grass 
clued him in that a tent had been there recently.

And yet, he still couldn't see anybody in the area. He mentally cursed himself. 
Of course, he had just missed the opportunity to meet the mystery hermit. 
Clearly, whoever had been there had fled before he could arrive. He sat down on 
a stump, presumably the remains of a tree that had been chopped down for 
firewood, and pondered the thought. Who had been there? Why had they left? Were 
they an associate of Eggman? If they weren't, then there would be no real 
reason for them to leave, unless they were nomadic. Even if they were nomadic, 
there were still plenty of resources to be had around here, meaning there was 
no real reason to move on...

Wait.

What was that sound? It sounded like rustling leaves and snapping twigs.

Sonic turned around and spotted somebody fleeing the scene. Bingo.

He sped up and tackled them before they could leave. When he saw who he had 
caught, Sonic couldn't believe his eyes.

---

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Sonic was here. Sonic was here. Why was Sonic here?

Zero mentally facepalmed. For one, he hadn't really done a good job of hiding 
his tracks. He didn't even try and disguise the point where his special trail 
branched off from the main trail. Of course, the cobalt hedgehog wasn't an 
absolute idiot and had followed the path down to the clearing. However, for 
another point, he should have left the previous night. If he had, then Sonic 
would've simply shown up to an empty clearing without any traces of him, and 
Zero would've been free.

Regardless, Zero saw his opportunity to leave when Sonic sat down on the stump 
of the first tree Zero had cut down. He quickly fished his backpack out of the 
bush and tried to run away, only to get flattened in an instant by a certain 
cobalt hedgehog. Emerald green met blue and yellow, and for a second, Zero 
thought Sonic didn't recognize him.

---

What was Infinite doing in a Resistance stronghold? Why didn't he have his 
mask? What was going on?

All of these questions and more weighed on Sonic's mind as he sat outside 
Infinite's cell. The jackal had sworn up and down that he was innocent, that he 
wasn't Infinite, that he wasn't spying on them. Anything that the jackal could 
possibly be charged with, he had denied. Still, Sonic knew it wasn't true. This 
was Infinite, who had killed so many Resistance soldiers Sonic couldn't even 
begin to put the death toll into perspective. This was Infinite, who had 
tormented Sonic for 6 months on the Death Egg while the latter was in captivity.

So why did something seem different about the jackal who was pacing in the cell 
in front of Sonic?

---

Zero couldn't believe his terrible luck. Sure enough, Sonic had recognized him 
as Infinite and had dragged him to the Resistance HQ, where he was currently 
cuffed and in a cell underneath the headquarters. He paced back and forth 
across the cell.

He hadn't done anything wrong. Well, that was a lie. He had stolen 30 rings 
(although he didn't want Sonic to know that), but other than that his record 
was clean. Now, Infinite, on the other hand, had a rap sheet long enough to 
wrap around the planet 5 times, and a body count that was astronomically high, 
to the point where Zero questioned if the numbers were inflated somehow.

Infinite had done so much wrong, and now Infinite was gone and Zero had to pay 
for it all. It just wasn't fair.

---

Sonic had plenty of questions for Zero, but before he could ask any questions, 
the jackal surprised him. When Sonic approached, Zero turned around and stared 
at the cell wall opposite the door. Sonic simply shrugged it off and went back 
to where he had been sitting the whole time. Suddenly, he heard a voice come 
from the cell.

"That'll teach me to return a wallet."

Sonic was stunned. Infinite had been the good Samaritan who returned Tails' 
wallet? "Wait, that was you?"

Zero smiled to himself. "Yes, sir. It was sitting in the middle of the street, 
and I picked it up and returned it."

Sonic remembered a discussion he had with Tails later yesterday. "Yeah, and you 
took 30 rings from it."

Zero simply turned around to look at Sonic. "Would you rather I took the whole 
500 rings? Besides, it was sitting in the street for a while. Are you sure 
somebody else didn't take some?"

Sonic prepared himself to ask another question, only for a familiar buzz to 
interrupt him.


	
BZZZT!* **CODE RED! BADNIKS SPOTTED AT THE NORTH GATE! ALL HANDS ON 

DECK!** *BZZZT!*

Sonic swore under his breath and hopped up, walking over to Zero's cell. 
"You're lucky."

The jackal looked at him incredulously. "*I'm* lucky? How am *I* lucky?"

Sonic smiled. "I can't bug you for more answers right now, because I have to 
get to the battle. The badniks are attacking again."

Zero was confused. "I thought you guys already defeated Eggman?"

"We defeated his empire, but he's still around and trying to attack us."

"Ah. Well, good luck with *that*."

Sonic didn't grace Zero with a response, simply running away. Zero curled into 
a ball and was probably about to cry when he noticed something shiny on the 
floor just outside his cell.

Sonic had dropped his keys.

Seriously? Of all of the *deus ex machina* things to happen to him in the past 
day or two, this had to take the cake.

Zero was able to fit his hands through the bars and pick up the keyring, which 
he used to uncuff his arms and unlock his cell. He looked around, rubbing his 
wrists, when he noticed that everybody was gone. Sonic must not have been 
lying; everybody was off fighting the badniks. Zero went up the stairs and 
decided to have a look around this headquarters. It was clearly originally a 
house, with a living room in the front, a staircase setting off 2 floors of 
rooms to the right of the entrance, and a kitchen-turned-war-room to the left. 
He decided that was enough exploring for now, and that he wanted to prove his 
morals to Sonic. He saw his backpack on the table, and fished out his 
sunglasses, putting them on. He noticed a discarded Wispon lying on the table 
next to his backpack, and he decided it would be the last thing he ever stole. 
He picked up the Wispon and walked outside.

It was mayhem. People running every which way, collecting supplies from the 
armory, collecting supplies from wherever supplies could be found, scrounging 
up a kind of defense system.

Zero stopped one soldier who was running towards the armory. "Where's the 
fighting?"

The soldier barely had time to stop and tell him. "The badniks are advancing to 
Red Gate. We're trying to build a defense before the rear guard gets pushed 
back there." They immediately continued their run.

Zero simply nodded. "Alright." He decided to first check out the north gate, 
and then eventually find his way to Red Gate to help in the defense of the 
stronghold. That would prove his morals, wouldn't it?

He ran along the top of the west wall to the very north edge of the wall, and 
noticed that in all of the mayhem, nobody had closed the gate. Of course, that 
meant that any badniks destroyed could just be replaced with fresh bots from 
outside. Well, Zero was going to put a kibosh on that. One lever pull later, 
and the gate was closed. Any new badniks would have to somehow get through or 
over the wall.

That settled, Zero ran back along the west wall, looking for this "Red Gate" 
the soldier had told him about. It was hard to miss.

It was literally a big gate, like the north gate, but without the mechanism to 
close it. It was painted bright red (take a wild guess as to why they called it 
Red Gate), and soldiers were frantically building fortifications in front of 
it. Zero dropped down and decided to ask the soldier in charge what was 
happening.

Eventually, he found somebody who looked like a general or at least a sergeant. 
"I'm here to help. What's the plan?"

The sergeant looked at him, surprised to see somebody actually caring about 
battle plans. "Well, we're building fortifications to hold back the badnik 
onslaught. When the rear guard gets here, we'll push forward."

Zero simply shook his head. He knew all too well how the Doctor's badniks 
operated. "I have a better idea, but I'll need some soldiers to come with me."

The sergeant looked at him as if he had grown a second head. "And who are you 
to tell me how to plan my battle?"

Zero smiled to himself, as he already knew his cover story. "Someone who's 
spied on Eggman for a while. Look, if you want to have to keep falling back, 
you can go on with your plan. It doesn't seem to have worked out for you so 
far." He had a point; Red Gate was the fourth chokepoint, and the second to 
last before the badniks would be able to attack the main stronghold with 
impunity.

The sergeant simply shook his head. "Alright there, stranger." He turned to 
some of his soldiers. "Half of you go with the jackal. He thinks he has a 
better idea of how to battle than I do."

Zero knew an egotist when he saw one, but he ignored the urge to verbally dress 
down the sergeant. "Bring materials for more fortifications!"

His plan was simple; block off some room near the west wall to funnel the 
badniks towards the east wall, and then flank the badniks when they least 
expected it.

He addressed the soldiers, who listened to him for the most part because their 
sergeant had told them to. "When we charge, I want some of you to attack behind 
the badniks and try to hem them in. If they can't retreat and regroup, we'll 
finish this battle easily."

Suddenly, Sonic appeared in front of the sergeant. "The badniks are coming. We 
held out as long as we could."

The sergeant smiled. "I know you did. Tell half of your soldiers to go to the 
west wall; I have a contingency of soldiers there who can explain the plan of 
attack."

The rear guard arrived, with the badniks not far behind. Sure enough, half of 
the soldiers, led by Tails, immediately turned and went behind the 
fortifications by the west wall. Zero explained the gist of the plan to Tails, 
who relayed the information to the rest of the soldiers.

As the badniks approached, Zero stared them down. "Attack on my signal."

Tails repeated this information to his soldiers, and Sonic repeated this 
information to his soldiers. They were to wait for a signal and then make an 
attack.

The badniks flew into the area slowly but surely. Zero saw the soldiers raring 
to go. "Steady..."

The badniks near the back of the battle formation were decreasing in number, as 
more of them had entered the area. The soldiers were itching to jump over the 
fortifications and attack. Zero remained calm. "Steady..."

The last badnik entered the gate, and Zero could see that no more were 
entering. "Attack!"

It was no contest. The badniks were immediately hemmed in, and without any 
backup coming from the north, they were easily defeated. The sergeant grinned. 
"Another of my plans seen to perfection."

Zero immediately took offense. "Another one of *your* plans? You wanted to 
attack head-on, same as you did at the last 3 gates."

The sergeant looked at him in disgust, while Sonic had a moment of realization. 
That voice, it sounded familiar...

Zero walked up to Sonic, smiling. He pushed his sunglasses down his snout, 
revealing his eyes, and held out a keyring to Sonic. "You dropped your keys."

Sonic was mad, but at the same time, he was impressed. He didn't peg Infinite 
to be the type to work well with others. "I don't know what I'm going to do 
with you..."

Zero smiled at him, the same cheeky smile Sonic had shown when the latter was 
first brought in front of Infinite. "Throw me in jail? That's what you did the 
last time I helped you."

The whole thing overwhelmed Sonic, and he simply shook his head. "Like I said, 
I don't know what to do with you."

Zero offered another smile. "I'll sleep in the cell for now."

Sonic simply smiled. "Good. We'll discuss things later."

Everybody looked on in shock, as Sonic and the jackal walked back to HQ. They 
didn't know what was going on. Who was this jackal? Why was he in jail?

None of these questions would be answered until much later. But for now, Sonic 
walked Zero back to HQ with newfound respect. He was still on edge about 
Infinite, but at least Infinite had decided to help the Resistance hold off 
Eggman for now. Nobody knew what the future would hold, but for now, they were, 
at the very least, allies.

---

Chapter End Notes

> Welp, I can toss the split-perspective stuff in the trash for now. In case you 
> couldn't tell, the last horizontal rule was a shift to an omniscient 
> third-person perspective.