The Gang's All Here

15: Three-Fourths of the Way

Sonic froze. Surely he'd heard wrong?

Fleetway was confused. "What's the matter?"

Sonic, trying not to sound nervous, asked, "You said it was Mephiles? Mephiles was your friend?"

"Best friend, yeah. You're acting worried. Do you know what happened to him?"

How was Sonic supposed to break the news to Fleetway, then live to tell the tale?

Fleetway grew suspicious. "Sonic, did something bad happen to Mephiles?"

Sonic began shaking.

Fleetway noticed. "What happened to him? Is he okay, now?"

"Well... He was doing a lot of bad things, so he had to be stopped..."

Hovering toward Sonic (who was looking away), Fleetway asked, "Did you do something to him?"

Sonic backed away. "We had to stop him. There was no other way."

Finally, Fleetway understood.

"You killed him."

Sonic suddenly found himself pinned to the wall by his neck.

"You killed him."

"Please, listen to me. I didn't want to do it. He had to be sto-"

The hand around Sonic's neck tightened, forcing him silent.

As Sonic lost air, something quickly built up in Fleetway. It was a icy hot feeling growing in his chest, his stomach, and his mind.

Rage.

Sonic began losing consciousness.

Just as quickly as it came, Fleetway's rage died down into a shaky, lonely feeling, spreading throughout his body. He'd felt this before, but this time, it was much stronger.

Grief. In it's purest form.

After a moment, Sonic came to, and he was slumped against the wall, on the floor. Slowly, he stood up and looked around.

Fleetway was sitting on the arm of the sofa, his hands covering his face. Sonic, confused, carefully walked over.

Fleetway was crying.

Sonic didn't know what to do. After all, how would you respond to seeing someone that was just about to kill you, suddenly sobbing in the living room?

"I... You're not gonna strangle me?" Sonic asked.

Fleetway gave a reply, "What's the point? *sniff* Mephiles is gone, killing you won't bring him back. I just don't know what to do, now..."

Sonic was considering calling the police to take Fleetway away, when

*KNOCKKNOCKKNOCKKNOCK*

As Sonic left to answer the door, he heard Silver muttering "Please be home. Please be home."

Once the door opened, Silver and Shadow rushed in.

"Sonic, thank goodness you're home. We've got good news and bad news." Silver said.

Sonic sighed. "Good news first, please."

"I thought my house was haunted or something," Shadow said. "Silver helped me figure out that that wasn't the case."

"...then what was it?"

Silver answered, "That's the bad news."

Shadow stepped aside, and Sonic saw...