Alter Egos

Chapter 15

It went surprisingly smooth on the way there, which was both a good and bad sign. There were barely any robots patrolling the area and the only thing they really had to worry about were the cameras, but Sonic was still wary as they ran down the empty metal halls. Eggman wasn't so stupid as to just leave the entrance to his base unsupervised, right? Or maybe he had called back all his robots for something? The thought didn't do exactly much to cheer him up. Also, there was no telling if Achlys was lose in here, there was a high chance that they could even run into him, according to Tails.

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts he almost didn't notice when they arrived to the central area of the base. Shadow went forward and short circuited it by stabbing it with a chaos spear, to which both Sliver and Sonic flinched from the sound. Before the doors could finish slowly sliding open, Sonic had already slipped inside and was looking for a place to plug in the USB. He found it and plugged it in with a small click, and then a small loading bar flashed onscreen with the words "5 minutes remaining"

Now, there was nothing to do but wait.

The minutes slowly ticked one by one until one and a half minutes remained. Sonic was feeling pretty hopeful, maybe they could do this without getting caught! He got up from where he was sitting on the floor and walked towards the USB intending to wait out the rest of the time there, but the doors behind him exploded open.
Sonic's heart stopped as he felt the dark energy emitting from behind him. Shadow and Silver got into battle positions as Sonic turned around.

It was Eggman and Achlys.

Achlys didn't say a word, he just stood there in the doorway. Menacingly. Eggman however, grinned in triumph. "You were right, they were in here." As he stepped into the room and snapped his fingers, hidden doors opened up and dozens of robots came pouring out. The doctor pointed at the three hedgehogs and muttered a single word. "Attack."

"Shit."

The surrounding robots all rushed forward simultaneously, whipping out weaponry and firing lasers. Silver flew upward and began to immobilize some of the robots by crushing them with his psychic power, Shadow had some guns of his own and was shooting both those and his chaos spears at the same time, and Sonic?
He was doing what he always did. He went fast.
Together, they managed to destroy most of the robots in the room, leaving the tougher ones for last, and Sonic ran back to the computer to grab the USB.

But then that's when Achlys decided to join the fray. No one noticed him, or even realized yet what had happened. Sonic had just wrapped his fingers around the USB, then he felt  a sharp burst of unexplainable pain, then he felt a fist, and then found himself flying at the wall. And he slammed into it. Hard. Sonic was dimly aware of two clawed hands around his neck, but he couldn't escape. He tried to attack but was stopped by the hands tightening around his throat and the sharp burning all over his body.
"I guess this is it then..."

"No. It's not your time just yet."

He suddenly felt a surge of energy flow into him, and Achlys dropped him to the floor, reeling back in midair in shock. Sonic was confused as to where that burst came from but now wasn't the time to think about that.

Dr Eggman said something indecipherable, but Sonic was already on the move. He ran up the wall and launched himself at Achlys, swinging his arm back. "Payback time." His fist slammed into Achlys, knocking him out of the air and sending him hurtling to the cold metal floor.
As he landed, the lights flickered unnaturally.
Achlys was staggering slightly in pain but still had a triumphant, maniacal smile on his face. Why was he still smiling? Hadn't he just been-

Then Sonic finally felt it.

He looked down and saw red all over his chest, hands, and feet.
"Uh oh."

"Damn it, damn it, damn it-"
"Nononono-
"Don't you fucking die on us-"

Sonic was faintly aware of dropping to his knees as the sounds of exploding robots ricocheted off the metal walls.

He looked up. Silver was in front of him now, he looked as if he was on the verge of tears, screaming at Shadow.

Eggman was laughing, but it sounded muffled, like he was under water.

Sonic felt dizzy. He felt himself collapse.

"Oh no."

Shadow finally turned around and froze.

Sonic had never seen him like this before.

His eyes had dilated in fear. His hands started to shake uncontrollably. He dropped his weapons and was next to Silver in an instant, saying something to him before picking up Sonic in his arms, hugging him closely to his chest.

They rushed out of there, as multiple, muffled explosions rang out behind them.

Sonic was beginning to lose consciousness.

Shadow had tears running down his face.
He kept muttering the same thing over and over.

"Not again. Not again. Please not again."

"Shadow, it's okay, I'm right here."

He wanted to say so badly.
He wanted to comfort him.
He wanted to tell him it was going to be okay.
He wanted to be there for him and Silver.
He wanted to wrap his arms around him.
He wanted to...

...But he couldn't.
Then the world went black.

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Had to throw something like this in here eventually. It's like a big angsty salad.
(I'm sorry)
(Don't worry next chapter things'll be better )
Happy reading?