Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was an hour after the incident. The thought of what almost happened was still haunting Gadget. He was currently going up the stairs, after he had brought Zero something to eat and more pain killer.

If anyone could find out what is wrong with the ruby, it is Tails, so he had decided to ask the kit for help. He knocked at the door and entered the room after being invited inside.

Tails was laying on Sonics bed and scribbled something that looked like blueprints over a bunch of papers. His brothers were sitting infront of the play station. Sonic seemed to try and teach the echidna how to use the controller.

Since they were busy, Gadget just directly addressed his fox friend. “Could you help me with something?”

Tails put the pen aside and looked up at him. “Yeah, what´s up?”

“There´s something wrong the ruby that is hurting Zero and I need to find out why.”

Tails nodded as he quickly stacked all his blueprints together, before walking to his hammock and grabbing a few devices from it. “I´ll be there in a minute.”

“Whoa, whoa. Easy there, buddy.” Sonic had turned around to them, while still sitting on the floor. “It´s already dark outside. You know what mom said about staying up too late.”

“I know, I´m just gonna take a quick look at it.”

Sonic looked like he wanted to argue once more, but Gadget interrupted him.

“I´ll make sure he comes back up in time.”

He hesitantly nodded after a moment. “Alright, I count on you.” Sonic turned back around, only to see that Knuckles had beat him in the current level.

“Never get distracted during a battle, hedgehog.” Knuckles adviced, not even trying to hide his gloating.

“Not fair! I want a rematch!”

Tails followed Gadget outside and they walked down the stairs in silence. Once in view of the kitchen, they noticed Tom and Maddie sitting at the table having a conversation. Maddie noticed them.

“Gadget, we need to talk.” She called out in a stern voice.

“I´ll be there in a minute.”

She nodded and continued the talk with her husband as the two mobians kept walking towards the guest room.

Gadget knocked at the door. A monotone “yes” was heared from the other side, much to their surprise. They exchanged a quick glance, before the red wolf opened the door.

Zero was sitting on the bed again, with an empty plate infront of him. He side eyed them, but mostly the young fox, who seemed to shrink under his stare.

“What do you want?”

Tails nervously fiddle with the device in his hands. “G-Gadget asked me to take a look at that.” The kit tried to hide behind said wolf as imperceptible as possible. Zero looked over at him in a silent question.

“It might help.” Gadget shrugged and took a step aside to let Tails through.

“Yeah right...” He turned his head away and just stared at the wall infront of him. Gadget did noticed the glint of tiredness in the jackals eyes, so at least the medicine was starting to work. A few moments past and nothing else happened.

Gadget looked over at Tails, who was rooted at the spot. “Are you alright?”

“Y-Yeah, totally.” It was an obvious lie. “It´s just... Can´t you stay here?”

“Sorry, they´re waiting for me. Don´t worry, you´ll be fine. He´s not gonna bite you...” Gadget looked over at Zero. “...right?”

It took the sleepy jackal a moment to realize that he was spoken to and rolled his eyes. “No, I won´t.”

“See?” Gadget placed a hand on the kits shoulder. “I´ll be back as soon as I can.” Tails hesitantly nodded, so he left the room and quietly closed the door. He then walked towards the kitchen to the waiting parents.

Walking into the room, their eyes were immediatly on him. “Take a seat, please.” Tom gestured at the chair on the opposite site of the table.

“How is he?” Maddie asked him once he sat down.

“A little better, thanks to the medicine.”

“Good to hear.”

“That´s great and all, we still have a few things to discuss.” Tom added with a stern voice. “It can´t keep going like that. Not after what almost happened today.”

“I know...” Gadget agreed.

“We were lucky it wasn´t loaded.”

“Tom.” Maddie tried to interrupt his rambling.

“Heck, the safety was even still on.”

“Tom!” She placed a hand on his forearm. “Calm down.”

“Right, sorry.” He took a deep breath. “Just been a long day.”

“It was my fault. I should´ve noticed something was wrong sooner.” Gadget told them, as he looked down at the table.

“No, it wasn´t.” Maddie disagreed with him. “He is my patient, so it´s my job to make sure he´s fine.”

Gadget was silent after that, definetly not agreeing with her. It just made him feel worse that Maddie blamed herself for what happened. Tom and Maddie looked at each other for a moment.

“Is there, anything else wrong?” Tom eventually asked.

“I-It´s just...” Gadget thought about what to say for a moment. “I´m really thankful that you let me... let us stay here.”

“But...?” Maddie asked as he was quiet again.

“But, I feel like we don´t belong here. And I don´t mean this world. Just, this home. It feels like we are a burden. You´re trying to adjust to some big changes and we´re just in the way.”

“I know it hasn´t been easy lately, but we can find a way to make things work.”

Gadget shook his head. “No, you already have three kids to take care of. You shouldn´t have to worry about two more people living here.” He looked up at them with as much confidence as he could. “We should move out.”

Their expression changed from surprise to sadness and finally acceptance.

“Alright. We can help you find a new place to stay tomorrow. It´s too late for today.” Tom eventually said.

“As for Zero, we should get...” Maddie began, but was interrupted by Gadget.

“Don´t worry about him. Like I said, you should focus on your own family. I´ll make sure something like this won´t happen again.”

“If you say so...” Tom said, not sounding very convinced.

Gadget then got off his chair. “Speaking of which, I should go check on him.”

They wished him goodnight and watched the wolf leave the room.

“I hope he knows what he´s doing.” Tom muttered under his breath. Maddie only nodded in agreement.

Gadget quickly made his way over to the guest room. Just as he was about to open the door, it suddenly swung open and Tails rushed out of it, almost crashing into him.

“Ah, sorry.” He took a step back to let the fox pass by. “Found anything?”

Tails had to suppress a yawn before answering. “Maybe, I´ll need to analyze this first.”

“That can wait til tomorrow. You should get some rest.” He looked towards the door. “Is he still awake?”

“Mhm, kinda. Anyway, I better go now. See ya tomorrow.”

He watched Tails leave, before entering the room.

Zero was still sitting on the bed, just a bit closer to the back of it.

“Hey.” The jackal gave him a short nod. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired.”

“Well...” Gadget fiddled around at his gloves. “Let me know if you need anything.” He picked up the empty plate from the bed and turned to leave.

“Wait.”

He looked back over his shoulder.

“Could you...” Zero took a deep breath before he continued. “Could you stay here?”

“Oh.” He placed the plate back on the nightstand. “Of course.” Gadget walked to the bed and Zero scooped over to make room for him. They sat side by side in silence. Zero soon leaned over and rested his head on the others shoulder.

It took five minutes until he was asleep. Gadget waited another minute, before carefully laying the jackal down onto the bed. He then picked the plate back up and quietly left the room.

By the time he reached the kitchen sink he had already convinced himself that Zero´s recent behavior must´ve been due to the medicine. Theres no way the jackal would´ve otherwise asked him to stay until he was asleep.

Right?

Chapter Text

He woke up alone again. Last nights events slowly came back to him. It just felt more like a dream. Perhabs it was?

Not like he could blame Gadget for leaving as soon as he could. He groaned as he forced himself into a sitting position, his head was spinning from the sudden movement.

And with the movement, the pain returned. At least it wasn´t nearly as bad as before. Once the dizziness was gone, he looked towards the window.

It was still dark outside. He listened closely for a few moments to make sure no one else was awake and then got out of bed.

Without putting his shoes on, as they would make to much noise, he sneaked towards the back door. As he opened it, he noticed that it must be close to dawn now. The sky wasn´t completly black anymore, just a dark blue.

Before he could even take one step out of the doorway, a dark shadow moved through the air towards him. He barely had enough time to shield his face with one arm as one of the ravens downright attacked him.

It was to dark to see which one it was, not like he really cared at the moment. He pushed the bird away with his other arm and darted back into the house, closing the door right behind himself. The sound of scratching was still audible from the other side of the door for a moment.

“What the hell...” The jackal muttered under his breath and headed over to the bathroom. Just as he reached the door, Gadget walked around the corner into the hallway and stopped. The wolf sluggishly rubbed his eyes, he might´ve just woken up from the commotion outside.

“You´re up already?” He asked with a sleepy voice. Zero wordlessly disappeared into the bathroom and turned the light on. Gadget looked after him with a hint of worry in his eyes. “Hey, what´s wrong?” He quickly followed him inside.

“What´s wrong?” Zero had his back turned to him as he answered. “One of your pests just attacked me, that´s wrong.”

He checked his arm for injuries, but couldn´t find any. Just lot´s of ruffled fur. Gadget was immediatly at his side and repeated the same thing he just did. So he shook himself to both flatten the fur again and get rid of the wolf gripping his arm.

“That can´t be...”

Zero crossed his arms with a sneer. “Think again.”

“Did you provoked them somehow?”

“No, I was just standing there.”

“They never did that before.” Gadget thought for a moment. “Why were you even outside?”

Zero shrugged as he tried to come up with an excuse. “Getting some fresh air.” Gadget didn´t looked convinced, but didn´t said anything about it. So he turned to leave, only for the wolf to rush past him and block the exit.

“Since you´re already here, one more thing.” He sniffed the air for a second. “You need a bath.”

An hour (and lot´s of arguing and convincing) later, a freshly bathed jackal returned to the guest room, while Gadget headed for the kitchen to get them some breakfast.

He just grabbed two bowls from a cupboard as their human hosts joined him. They greeted each other and Gadget walked over to the fridge.

“You´re up early.” Tom noticed as he turned on the coffee maker.

“Mhm, couldn´t sleep.” He pulled out the milk and placed it on the kitchen table. “We might have a problem. One of the ravens attacked Zero earlier today.”

“Really?” Maddie looked over from the stove. “Why?”

“We don´t know. He said he was just standing there.”

“There could be several reasons for that behavior.” She opened one of the higher cupboards, grabbed a box of cereals and handed it to Gadget, since he wasn´t able to reach it. “We should check the nest later to be sure.”

She focused on making breakfast again and Gadget filled the bowls. He then quickly headed back to the guest room.

Zero was once again sitting on the bed. Gadget handed him one bowl, before sitting down on the chair and eating from his own bowl. They finished their breakfast in silence.

“We need to check on the birds later.” Gadget eventually said. “Wanna come with us?”

“Why?”

“It would help to find out if they only act like that around you or all of us.”

“Fine, whatever.”

“Great, I just need to talk to Tails before we go.”

The jackals ears perked up and he turned them towards the attic. “They are all awake.”

“Alright, Ill be back in a few minutes.”

Zero nodded as he placed the empty bowl on the nightstand. Gadget made his way up the stairs and entered the room after knocking. Sonic was sitting on his bed reading a comic and Knuckles was meditating in a corner of the room.

Only Tails was busy working on a device in his hammock. He instantly got excited as he noticed the wolf, almost falling off his sleeping spot.

“Perfect timing.” The kit exclaimed with a mixed expression.

“You found something, I assume?”

Tails hopped off the hammock and landed infront of Gadget.

“I got good and bad news. Which ones first?”

“What are the good news?”

“The ruby is not overheating.”

“That´s a start.”

“No, I mean it never was in the first place.”

Gadgets brows furrowed in confusion as he waited for the fox to continue.

“I completly checked it and there was no sign that it ever overheated like that in the last few months.”

“Then what happened three weeks ago?”

Tails shrugged “My guess is that it was just an illusion.”

Gadget was quiet for a moment. “And the bad news?”

“Something is still draining it. It´s using most of it´s energy, but I couldn´t find out for what exactly yet.”

“Can we do something about it?”

“An additional power source might be able to stabilize it until we find out what´s the problem.”

Sonic walked over to them. “That will have to wait til after breakfast.”

The others agreed and all four walked down the stairs. Gadget then headed towards the garden, while the three siblings went into the kitchen. Zero was already waiting for him at the backdoor.

They walked out of the house together and the same thing from earlier was repeated. Dawn swooped down from the nest and Zero had to shove him away again.

The angry bird landed in the grass infront of them, his eyes still locked onto the black mobian. Only as Dawn stared at Gadget and was about to charge him, Zero snarled at the raven, making him second guess his decision.

He instead flew back up to the nest and angrily cawed at them from there.

“At least now we know that they aren´t just after you.” Gadget determined sheepishly.

Zero hummed in agreement, not taking his eyes off of Dawn. Tails joined them a few minutes later.

“Hey guys. Mom said you need help with something?”

“Yeah, we need to check the nest. Could you get up there?”

“I-I don´t know. She said they were being aggressiv.” He nervously looked up the tree.

“We can try to distract Dawn in the meantime.”

“Okay.” The kit nodded and waited for them to do their part.

“And how do you plan to distract him?” Zero asked with suspicion.

Gadget evily grinned at him. “With bait, of course.”

The jackal groaned and pinched his nose at the allusion. “Let´s just get it over with.” He walked closer to the tree, while the other two stayed behind.

As he got too close, Dawn flew down and attacked him again. Tails quickly used the opportunity and flew up. He hovered infront of the nest and moved his hand towards Dusk. The bird hacked at him in return, making him quickly pull his hand away again.

In the short moment Dusk moved her body upwards to attack him, he saw the reason for their behavior. Tails was about to leave to tell the others as something else in the nest caught his attention.

Back on the ground, Dawn had realized what was going on and was about to fly back up to the nest. So Zero grabbed him with both hands and pressed his wings against his body.

The bird tried to wiggle out of the others hold, his legs uselessly moved through the air. As this wasn´t working, Dawn turned his head around and pecked at him instead.

“Hurry up!” Zero yelled up the tree, as he held the bird as far away from him as he could.

Gadget noticed Tails grabbing something from the nest before landing again. Once he was down, Zero let go of the raven and watched him fly up to the nest.

He walked over to the two waiting mobians, as he got rid of a few feathers still stuck to him.

“Found anything?” Gadget asked troubled.

“Yeah, there were eggs in the nest. They´re gonna be parents.” Tails excitedly announced with a bright smile.

Gadgets face lit up at that aswell. Only Zero looked disturb by the news. A angry shout from the tree let them know that they better go inside again.

Zero disappeared into the guest room and Gadget followed Tails.

“I saw you grab something from the nest.”

“Yes.” He stopped and turned towards him with a sheepish grin. “I found a solution to your energy problem.”

Tails held out his hand and slowly opened it, revealing a red emerald laying on his palm.

“Wait, is that...”

“A chaos emerald.“ The kit confirmed. Gadget looked at it in confusion. “What´s wrong?”

“Nothing, it´s just... Why is it so small?”

“It is like it is.” Tails shrugged.

“And you´re sure this can fix our problem?”

The fox turned back around and kept walking. “Let´s find out.”

He walked towards the garage and Gadget hurried after him. They entered the room and Tails headed for a small makeshift workbench.

“Just give me a few minutes.” Tails grabbed a few tools from a wooden box right next to it. “And you might wanna wait outside.”

So he left the garage a little disappointed, but he didn´t wanted to argue with an inventor. Especially not after seeing Tails pull out a blowtorch from the box.

Gadget leaned at the outside wall of the garage as he waited for Tails, watching a few people and a single car move past their driveway.

The fox came out ten minutes later with a selfmade bracelet. “Here, give that to him.” He handed him the bracelet.

As Gadget turned it around, he saw the red emerald was embedded in it. "Are you sure we can entrust him with it?”

Tails looked at him with an unreadable expression.

“That´s up to you.”

Chapter Text

Over the weeks, Tom and Maddie became more and more suspicious at their oldest son´s behavior. Knuckles would go out into the garden at random times of the day for no apperent reason. They first thought he was just having fun outside, even so they never saw him do anything there.

It started with one or two times per day at first, but became more and more often over the weeks. And curiosity eventually got the better of both of them. They needed to find out what their son has been doing all this time in the garden.

Maddie was currently making breakfast, while waiting for her kids to come downstairs. Sonic and Knuckles soon entered the kitchen and they greeted each other. Ozzie followed them inside.

Tails was most likely still asleep, Maddie figured as she placed two plates with pancakes on the table. The young fox contiuned to stay up late to work on some of his inventions.

Just another problem they need to adress soon.

She continued to cook as Knuckles was feeding Ozzie again. Maddie soon turned around to put her own plate on the table, to only see Sonic sitting at the table. Knuckles plate was gone aswell.

“Sonic, where´s your brother?”

“Went out into the garden again.” He shrugged and was about to eat another piece from his pancake.

“Could you go get him?”

“Sure.” Sonic placed the fork back down and walked dramatically slow outside. He came back a few moments later. “He´s not there.”

“What? Where else could he be?”

“I don´t know.” He sat back down. “But he´s usually never gone for long.”

“You´re right.” Maddie sat down as well. “We can look for him when we´re done.”

They quickly finished eating and just as Maddie put the plates into the sink, Knuckles came back into the kitchen. He handed her his own plate and she added it to the pile. The echidna was about to leave, but Maddie stopped him.

“Knuckles, can we talk for a second?”

He turned back around and nodded solemnly.

“We´ve been wandering what you´re doing in the garden so often.”

“Yeah, I was just out looking for you, but couldn´t find you.” Sonic added.

“That´s...” He looked away from them. “I can´t tell.”

“It´s alright.” A forth voice said. Everyone turned to see Tails standing in the kitchen doorway. “They should know it.”

“Very well. Follow me.” He walked out of the kitchen again.

Maddie quickly put a few pancakes on a plate for Tails, before following Knuckles and Sonic. She found them at the back door waiting for her.

Knuckles opened the door and they walked towards the shed, while staying as far away from the tree as possible.

Maddie watched as Knuckles placed his palm on a metal square right next to the door. He moved it downwards, revealing a keypad. After pressing a few numbers, the door opened and he waved them inside.

She stepped inside and looked around. Somebody definetly made a lot of changes to the small shed. Something just felt odd, the whole thing almost looked like an elevator.

Sonic was about to enter as well, but Knuckles blocked his way. “Only one at a time.” He closed the door, leaving his pounting brother outside.

Knuckles pressed another button and her suspicion was proven right as the floor suddenly started to move downwards. It took only a few seconds for them to reach their destination.

Maddie couldn´t believe her eyes as she suddenly found herself standing in a small, round room. The walls and ceiling were made of metal plates and the floor was mostly covered by a old, red, patterned carpet. A lamp was hanging from the ceiling.

But what caught her eye the most was the master emerald in the center of the room. It was floating in the air on Knuckles eye level and above a small pedestal. It was very slowly spinning around it´s own axis.

Between the emerald and the walls was enough room for three people to stand shoulder to shoulder. The rest of the furniture was a beanbag, a small bookshelf with a few books and a small fridge.

“I... I don´t know what to say.” She walked a circle around the emerald. “How did you do all this?”

“Tails helped me build it. I dug it out and he made the rest.”

Maddie looked up at the ceiling. “You have electricity?”

“There´s a generator hidden in the shed.”

She thought for a moment. “Wait, what happened to all the earth?”

“I distributed it in the forest.” Knuckles shrugged.

Maddie walked over to the bookshelf. She moved her hand over the highest board, leaving fingerprints in the thin layer of dust. “And this?”

“We´ve been to the junkyard a few times. Some of it was broken, but Tails managed to fix it.”

“That´s... unbelieveable.”

“You´re not mad?”

“No, of course not. Just, tell us if you wanna build a bunker in our backyard next time.” She walked back to the elevator, but a thought made her look over her shoulder. “This is the only one, right?”

“The one and only.”

“Alright, let´s go back up before Sonic get´s worried.”

They were back in the shed a few moments later. She opened the door and Sonic showered her with questions that were too fast for her to understand.

Maddie stepped outside to let him in. “You should see for yourself.” She closed the door and made her way back towards the house, while thinking about how to explain this to her husband.

Chapter Text

“Are you ready?” Tails placed a laptop on the kitchen table and opened it. His brother were standing on either side of him. They eagerly nodded, with their eyes glued to the screen.

The kit pressed a few keys and outside in the garden, a small machine took off and flew up the tree. It hovered infront of the nest and two annoyed ravens were staring back at it. Dusk still refused to get off her eggs, so Dawn tried to get rid of the intruder instead.

He snapped after it, only for the thing to dodge to the left. He attacked again and it flew to the right. The bird soon had enough and quickly attacked it a few more times until he finally got it.

Back in the kitchen, Sonic and Knuckles were staring disappointed at the now black screen.

“I think it worked.” Tails exclaimed cheerfully.

“What do you mean? They destroyed the camera.” Sonic looked over at him.

“That was just a distraction.” Tails closed this window and opened a different one. It showed the nest from above, with Dawn currently busy dismantling the other device.

They waited for a few minutes, until Dusk finally decided to stand up for a moment.

“One, two...” Tails immediatly started to count. Gadget and Zero came into the kitchen just as he was done counting.

“What are you doing?” Gadget asked and walked over to the group.

Sonic turned towards him “We set up a camera to spy on the nest.”

“There are five eggs in it.” Tails happily added.

“What do you think we should name them?”

Zero soon got tired of their conversation and decided to eavesdrop on the two humans in the living room instead.

“They sound really excited.”

“I know. I just hope they won´t get disappointed.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ravens don´t usually nest in the middle of autum, Tom.”

“Yeah, but... Maybe we can bring them inside before it gets too cold?”

“With how agressivly they protect the nest...”

A hand waving infront of his face brought the jackal back to the kitchen.

“Huh?” He looked over to Gadget. “What?”

“You ok? You just zoned out for a bit.”

“Yeah, it´s nothing.”

“If you say so. Maybe we should come back later.”

Zero followed his line of sight to the three siblings still staring at the screen. He nodded and they quietly left the kitchen again.

A few hours later, Zero woke up with a start from a loud crash somewhere outside the house. He instantly sat up straight in the bed and looked out of the window. It was pitch black outside. A quick glance to the new alarm clock on his nightstand told him it was close to midnight.

His gaze wandered down to the bracelet that Gadget had recently given him. It did help alot against the pain, but it was annoying as hell to wear it. So it just laid on his nightstand most of the time. At least he didn´t had to wear it for the effect to work. It was enough to just be near the emerald.

He was about to reach for it as the sound that woke him up got repeated. A loud crash broke through the noise of the strong wind. It sounded like tree branches hitting the roof because of the storm. But there was something else...

Zero had to strain his ears until he found out what it was. It was barely audible over the wind, but he could hear the birds calling for help.

Before he could think of anything else, his feet had already carried him out of the room and towards the back door. As he tried to open it, the wind immediatly slammed the door shut again.

It took him a few attempts to open it far enough to squeez through, only to almost get blown off his feet as he got outside. He had to shield his head with one arm as he looked up the tree.

Dusk was standing over her half-destroyed nest, trying to keep it together with her weight. Dawn was nowhere to be seen.

Zero made his way over to the tree, silently cursing to himself for not bringing the emerald. And it was too late to go back now.

He reached the tree and started to climb up the side that was shielded from the wind. Once at the branch with the nest, he had to dug his claws into the bark to not get blown off as he slowly crept forward.

Zero then reached for the nest, only for Dusks head to whip around and hack at the approaching hand. The attack caught him off guard and he lost his balance, hanging upside down from the branch now. It took him a moment to get back up. There was less left of the nest with every second.

“You leave me no choice.” The jackal apologized in advance as he shoved the raven out of the nest. She got caught by a gust of wind and tumbled through the air for a moment, before getting her balance back and landing somewhere in the grass below.

Now that the bird was gone, Zero saw that only one egg was left. He quickly grabbed it, just as the wind ripped away what was left of the nest.

Once back on the ground, he quickly headed back to the door and pried it open again. He walked with the egg back to the guest room and started to work on a makeshift nest. He used his pillow as the bottom and curled his blanket around it until it approximately had the same size and shape like the old nest.

Zero placed the egg on the pillow and then headed back outside to get the parents. Dusk was laying a few feet away from where she previously landed, pressing her body close to the ground to not get blown away.

He picked her up and then looked around for the other raven. There was still no sign of Dawn. Zero was about to give up as a movement caught his eye. On the other side of the property were piles of branches and twigs, that got stopped from being blown away by the fence.

He walked over to the fence and soon found Dawn stuck under a branch. The bird was frantically trying to free himself.

Zero placed Dusk down against the fence and then started to untangle her mate from the twigs.

As soon as he was done, he picked both birds up. With one bird under each arm, he walked back to the house. Since it was impossible for him to get back in through the back door like this, he walked to the front door instead. The wind wasn´t nearly as bad at this side.

He placed Dusk on the ground, grabbed the spare key from under the doormat and opened the door. The key was hidden under the mat again and he picked the raven back up. Once inside, he decided to just kick the door shut.

It turned out to be a bad idea, as there was immediatly shuffling coming from the living room and Gadget walked out of it a moment later.

“Oh, it´s you...” The wolf mumbled still half asleep, but as he noticed the birds he was suddenly wide awake. “What´s going on?”

“The nest is gone.” Zero handed him one of the ravens and headed for the guest room. Gadget stood there perplexed for a second, before following him.

“What do you mean it´s gone?”

“It got destroyed.” The jackal said without turning around. They soon reached the guest room and entered it. Zero placed his bird next to the new nest and Gadget quickly did the same.

Dusk immediatly hopped into the nest and made a few adjustments, before sitting down on the egg. Dawn soon joined her and started to work on the outside parts of the blanket.

Both canines watched the birds settle in, before wordlessly leaving the room.

They of course had to tell the others what happened. The three kids were devastated by the news. Tails refused to leave the attic for hours and kept crying, while Knuckles spend most of the time in his burrow.

Tom, Maddie and Sonic did their best to comfort them, despite mourning themselfs. It had somewhat calmed down towards the afternoon.

The family worked on a small wooden cross together and placed it right infront of the tree. They later bought some Chrysanthemums from the local flower shop, only Sonic placed a single sunflower on the empty grave.

Dawn watched the funeral from the rooftop and later added a red rose he stole from one of the neighbours gardens.

Since the guest room was now occupied by the ravens (they left the window open, so they can leave if necessary) Zero had to move into the living room. A small bed was set up for, consisting of a small matress, two blankets and a bunch of pillows.

In the following night, Gadget found himself stuck in another nightmare. He was back in his home town, trying to fight against Eggmans forces. People were dying all around him.

Wether they were strangers he just met that day or friends he knew for years, it didn´t mattered in the end.

They all shared the same fate.

While he cowered behind a broken wall, too scared to do anything.

He suddenly heared the haunting sound of cubes materalizing to his right and covered his ears with his hands to blend out the noise.

Gadget closed his eyes and found himself back in the living room as he opened them again. Only the sound from his dream was still there. He looked to his right just in time to see Zero disappear in a cluster of red cubes.

The Rookie immediatly jumped up, grabbed his glasses and started to check the other rooms, only leaving out the attic and the humans bed room.

There was no sign of the jackal anywhere. Gadget was about to give up as he suddenly had a weird feeling. Something was telling him to go to the roof.

It was like a pull, he eventually decided to follow.

So he quietly walked out the back door. The storm had by now passed and light rain had taken its place.

He used his grappling hook to get up on the roof. A familiar dark figure was sitting on the top. Gadget started to climb up, taking slow steps to not slip on the wet surface.

Once he reached the top, he sat down aswell. Zero had his ears pinned down against the rain.

A few moments passed, until Zero broke the silence with a sigh. “What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for you.”

“Why?”

“Just making sure you´re ok.”

“Yeah right...” Zero sneered cynical. “Do I look ok to you?! I screwed up again!” He turned away from Gadget. “Every fucking time I´m trying to help, it ends up with someone dying!”

“That´s not tr...”

Zero cut him off. “Luna. My squad. Those darn birds. They all died because I wasn´t strong enough to save them.”

“The last egg would´ve got destroyed too if you haven´t grabbed it. And you went back to bring Dusk and Dawn inside aswell.”

“You don´t even now if it will make it.” Zero looked back at him.

“Of course I do, I´m sure it will be alright.” He moved over to the jackal, until they were sitting shoulder to shoulder. “Have a little faith.”

Zero looked straight ahead as he shook his head. “You´re so naive...”

They fell into silence again, that lasted for several minutes. Gadget was the one to break it this time.

“Can you tell me about your squad?”

“Huh?”

“Like, how did you met them?”

Zero was silent for a moment before he answered. “You know what happened that night in the alley, right?”

Gadget nodded, already feeling a little bad for asking.

“It was three days later when they found me. They had followed the trail I accidently left. I don´t remember much of what happened after that. It was all in a blur. They later told me I was kicking and screaming at them as they tried to get me away from her. Since I had nowhere to go, they let me stay with them.”

“I´m sorry, for what happened to you.” Gadget placed a hand on his shoulder. “It might not be much, but what do you think about having a new squad?”

Zero looked at him in confusion.

“Just the two of us.” Gadget clarified.

“No.” He unsuccessfully tried to shake the others hand off. “I already lost two families. I-I can´t do that again.” Zero was once again avoiding the wolfs gaze.

“You should now I´m not that easy to get rid off.”

The jackal ignored him.

“How about this: I promise to not get myself into trouble, when you promise to stop blaming yourself for everything that happened in the past.”

“You can´t promise that.”

“I just did. So, what do you say?”

Zero sighed. “Fine, I promise.”

Gadget smiled and leaned against him. Another minute went by in silence, until Gadget kept talking. “By the way, thank you for saving the birds. I thought you don´t care about them.”

“I don´t. But you do.”

They spend the rest of the night on the rooftop and watched the sunrise.

Chapter Text

Not being allowed to run at full speed inside, or even around, the house took a toll on Sonic. It was just slightly annoying on some days and unbearable on others.

Today was one of the worse days. It had been raining for hours. Not that he actually couldn´t leave the house, he just hated water. So he was stuck for now.

He walked very slowly into the kitchen with a grumpy expression. Tom, Tails, Knuckles and Gadget were already sitting at the table and ate breakfast. Ozzie was laying and waiting under the table, in the hope that one of them might drop some of their food.

Sonic was usually one of the first to greet them, but now he just grumbled a ´mornin` after everyone else greeted him.

“Bad day again, huh?” Tails asked his older brother, who just nodded in return.

“Don´t worry, buddy. The rain won´t last forever.” Tom ruffled through the fur on top of Sonics head. “I´m sure tomorrow will be perfect weather for going outside.”

“I wish it would be now and not tomorrow...” Sonic mumbled and started to eat his breakfast.

Maddie soon joined them in the kitchen, looking a lot happier then usual in the morning.

“You seem unusualy cheerful today.” Her oldest son noticed with suspicion. “Did something happen?”

“Not really.” She grabbed something to eat and sat down at the table with them. “Guess I just slept well tonight.” Maddie then noticed Sonics bad mood. “Are you ok?”

“No, it´s raining outside and I can´t even run inside the house as long as he is here.” Sonic explained in a matter-of-fact voice, with frustration seeping into it. “Why does that even affect him so much?”

“When you run fast enough, you create a high pitched noise in the ultrasound range.” Tails joined their conversation.

“Wh-Are you sure? How do you know that?” Sonic asked in confusion.

“I know that, because I had the same problem.” Everyone was silently staring at him, waiting for an explanation. “When I first saw you fight Eggman, I sometimes had to pause or mute the transmission. But I soon got used to it.”

“How come I wasn´t affected by it then?” Knuckles asked.

“The sound can probably only be heared by canines.” Tails shrugged, looking over to Gadget. “What about you?”

“It was just a bit annoying for me at first. I got used to it pretty fast.”

“So... It´s like a dog whistle?” Tom asked, exchanging a look with Maddie.

“Simply said, yes.” Tails confirmed.

Realisation flashed over both human faces.

“You know, when we got Ozzie as a puppy, he had started to bark at random times of the day for no apparent reason. It stopped after a while, so we thought he just missed his mother and siblings and needed a while to adjust.”

Ozzie came out from under the table as he heared his name and Maddie petted him a few times.

A minute later Zero came into the kitchen, looking even worse then Sonic. He ignored everyone and just went to grab some food from the counter.

“Morning, Zero.” Gadget chirped and then noticed the bags under his eyes. “You couldn´t sleep?”

Zero looked over at him with narrowed eyes. “Yes, since somebody...” He threw a side glance at Tom and Maddie “...couldn´t keep their voice down in the middle of the night.”

Tom choked on the coffee he just drank and had to cough a few times, while Maddie tightened the grip around her mug a bit.

Their kids just looked at each other in confusion.

“What is he talking about?”

“Nothing!” Both humans said simultaneously.

Chapter Text

It was late at night and everyone in the Wachowski household was already asleep.

Almost everyone, at least.

Zero carefully sneaked into the kitchen and to a specific cupboard, like he did several times before. The wrapping looked different today, making him pause for a moment.

He eventually shrugged it of and opened the box. The chocolate looked the same, so it probably was just a different variant or something. He ate the first one and almost spit it out again because of the bitter taste.

Why would anyone eat that?

Not wanting to waste the food, he swallowed it instead. And he waited, thinking about wether or not to keep eating this stuff. At least it didn´t smelled like it was spoiled or poisened.

He started to feel funny.

Despite his better judgement, he ate another one. He expected the weird taste this time, making it a little bit more bearable.

Before he knew it and much to his disappointment, the box was empty. He left it laying on the floor as he got up and stumbled around the kitchen.

There was something here that smelled similar to the stuff in the chocolate. It got stronger as he got closer to the fridge, so he opened it.

Zero searched through the fridge, until he spotted a few cans at the top. Since they were out of his reach, he placed a chair infront of it and climbed up. After grabbing three of the cans, he got back down and removed the chair again so that he can close the fridge.

The chair made some noises as he dragged it over the kitchen floor, but he started to care less and less about getting caught.

He sat back down on the floor next to the empty box and fumbled around with the first can, until he found out how to open it. Zero took a sip from it and had the same reaction like with the chocolate.

Only worse this time. At least the chocolate had helped to cover the bad taste.

The effect was worth it tho.

He felt carefree. If there ever was a time he felt like this before, he couldn´t remember it.

All his troubles and bad memories moved into the background.

The cans were empty a few minutes later and got added to the pile of trash on the floor. Zero got up on wobbly legs and stumbled out of the kitchen, completly forgetting about the mess he left.

His plan was to go back to the living room and pretend like nothing happened, but as he walked past the front door, he suddenly felt like he couldn´t stay in the house any longer.

He had to get out.

Zero was still thinking clear enough to remember the alarm Tails had installed and he just teleported himself outside instead of using the door.

He had no real destination, so he just picked a random direction and started walking. The entire town was quiet. There were no cars or other people moving around. Everyone was probably already asleep.

At least he thought so, until he came across a building with the lights still on. It was at the outskirt of the town and didn´t looked like a residential building.

What really lured him towards it tho was the smell coming from it. It smelled like the stuff from the cans, only mixed with other stuff and it was much, much stronger.

Curiosity got the better of him and he opened the front door. All the different smells hit him like a wave and caused his eyes to burn. It took him a minute to get used to it, before he entered the building.

There was a bar at the right side and a few tables with chairs at the left side. The wall at the tables was covered in pictures. Most of them had humans on them, either just a single person or a group. The group photos were more common tho. He recognized the sheriff on a few of them. The rest of the pictures were some sort of documents, that he didn´t bothered reading.

Only one picture caught his attention. It was a very bad drawing of Sonic with the words `Blue devil´ written over him.

He looked around the rest of the room. No one was behind the bar and the only occupied table was far in the back with a guy resting his head on the table top and quietly snoring.

Zero climbed up one of the barstools and immediatly had to hold onto the counter.

Was the room spinning or just the stool?

He closed his eyes for a moment and waited for the dizziness to pass. Once it was over, he opened them again. Now that he was on a higher vantage point, he was able to take a few glances behind the bar counter.

Dozens of colorful bottles were stored in some kind of wooden shelf. A door in the back of the bar suddenly opened and a man stepped through. They stared at each other in surprise, until the guy seemed to recognize him.

“Hey there, fellow. I wasn´t expecting anymore company tonight.” He placed the bottle he was holding on the counter and walked a bit closer. “It´s been a while, everything alright?”

Zero narrowed his eyes. “You know me?”

“Yeah, you´re the one we found near Carls cabin, right?”

“I guess?” He shrugged, still feeling suspicious about the guy.

“My name is Simon.” He waited a few moments for a reply. “And you are...?”

“Zero.”

“So, Zero. What can I do for you?”

He looked over to the bottle on the counter. “You sell that, right?”

Simon followed his gaze. “Yes, but...”

“I want some.” Zero interrupted him.

“I shouldn´t...” Simon muttered more to himself, getting uneasy. “Are you even old enough for that?”

“I´m not a damn child!” Zero was getting impatient.

They stared at each other for a moment, before Simon turned away and slowly picked up the bottle again. “I hope I won´t regret this.” He muttered as he opened the bottle.

Half an hour later, Zero was still sitting at the bar and drinking whatever Simon was placing infront of him. He had long given up trying to remember the names of the drinks Simon told him.

A few empty bottles and glasses were standing to his right on the counter.

Zero downed another shot and didn´t noticed the front door opening and someone entering the bar. Only as the guy sat down on the stool right next to him, he snapped out of his trance.

He side glanced at the newcomer in annoyance. Why did that guy had to sit right next to him? There were more then enough free seats in the rest of the bar, far away from him.

The man was wearing a black suit. He had a brown skin color and short, black hair.

“Good evening.” The guy greeted him, slightly turning towards him.

Zero tried to ignore him and waited for his glass to be refilled instead. Simon was working on something behind the bar and had his back turned towards them.

Great.

“You must be Infinite. “ Zero felt like throwing his glass at that guys face. “It´s nice to finally meet you.”

“What do you want?”

“I´m here to offer you a deal. We could really use your assistance for a few things.” While he was talking, he slid a small business card over the counter towards the jackal.

Zero instantly recognized the symbol on the card, making his fur bristle and a low growl form in the back of his throat. “No!” He placed his glass on the counter with enough force for a few cracks to appear on it. “Forget it.”

He tried to get down from his chair, but the guy stopped him from leaving by placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I would really advice you to rethink your decision. Your assistance could help us make many great changes.”

Zero looked down on the mans hand with disgust. One of the jackals hands was still on the counter and dozens of red cubes formed around it. They dissipated a moment later and Zero was holding his old sword in said hand.

Unaware to both of them, Simon had walked out of the back door with his phone.

Zero aimed his sword at the guy. “Let me get that clear...” He pushed the sword against the mans chest. Not enough to injure him, just to make a point. “I´m done playing guineapig for that maniac. So, fuck off.”

He took his hand away and watched the jackal leave. Once the mobian was gone, he pressed a button on the device around his wrist and talked into it. “He didn´t fell for it. It´s your turn.”

The bartender returned and pretended to not have noticed their little argument. He then looked around in confusion. “Where´s Zero?”

So that´s what he calls himself now, the man thought to himself. “Gone.” He simply answered.

“Your lucky day, then.” The bartender shrugged and placed a bill infront of the man. He sighed and reached into his jacket to grab his wallet.

Meanwhile, outside. Zero was torn between leaving or staying at the bar. He didn´t want to go back inside with that guy still around, but he didn´t want to go home either.

So he just lurked around the building, in what he assumed would be a safe distance, and waited for the man to leave.

All of that became instantly unimportant as he felt a familiar presence close by. He spun around with his sword still at hand and saw a dark figure slowly coming towards him.

“No, not you...” Zero took a step back. He hated how much his sword hand was shaking.

“Tsk tsk tsk. Is this how you greet an old friend?” The black hedgehog asked.

“W-We´re not friends!”

For each step Zero took backwards, Mephiles came two steps closer. Once he was within reach, he grabbed the tip of the sword and it vanished.

“No, we were so much more.” He started to slowly circle the jackal like prey. “We were unstoppable.”

Zero first tried to keep an eye on the other, but eventually gave it up.

“We were indestructible.”

The world around them suddenly changed. He wasn´t in Green Hills anymore, instead he was floating over a burning city that he had destroyed. Mephiles stopped moving and was standing behind him.

“We were infinite.”

The same feelings he had felt back then washed over him. He felt strong. Victorious.

“And we could be it again.”

Mephiles grabbed his arm. Zero barely noticed it, as he had only eyes for the destruction taking place under them.

Only as the hedgehog tried to pull the bracelet away from his wrist, he snapped out of it.

His bracelet.

Gadget gave it to him.

Without hesitation, he spun around and tried to claw at the other mobian.

Mephiles barely managed to dodge the attack. He looked at something to his left. “Fine. I´ll give you some time to think.” He vanished in a cloud of dark purple smoke. “Don´t let me wait too long.” His last words echoed through the air all around Zero.

With him, the vision of the city also disappeared, reminding Zero how cold and dark it actually was. He heared footsteps coming closer. The last thing he saw was an old man with a checked shirt approaching him before he passed out.

At the next morning, Tom and Maddie were woken up by an early phone call. Tom picked up, talked to the person on the other end for a moment and then handed the phone to his wife.

“It´s Carl. He wants to talk to you.” Tom explained, before leaving the room and heading for the kitchen. He turned on the light and immediatly saw the mess on the floor.

Maddie followed him a minute later. They decided to leave the trash for now and waited for their kids to come downstairs. In the meantime, Maddie told Tom what Carl had said over the phone.

A few minutes later, all three kids walked into the kitchen. They stopped walking as they noticed their parents standing next to the mess.

“Can one of you explain why the kitchen looks like this?” Maddie asked them.

“Well...” Sonic eventually started. “You know how somebody kept stealing your chocolate?”

“Yes...?” Maddie picked up the empty box from the floor and read the ingredients.

“So I set a little trap.”

“Great job.” Tom said, crossing his arms. “We just got a phone call from Carl. He said he had to come pick up Zero from the bar last night.”

Sonic was silent for a moment as he tried to come up with an excuse. “At least now we know who stole it?”

“Sonic!”

“Alright, I´m sorry. I didn´t thought he would eat all of it.” He tapped with his foot against one of the empty wrappers.

“We´ve been over this before. You need to be more responsable.”

“I know...”

“So what do you do now?”

“I apologize to him. Wait, you´re not letting him get away with the stealing, are you?”

“No, we´ll talk to him about that once he is sober again. But that doesn´t mean you´re off the hook.”

“I´ll go get him now.” Maddie explained and grabbed her car keys.

“I´m coming, too.”

They turned around to see Gadget standing in the doorway. Maddie nodded at the wolf and went to fetch a few more things they might need.

Chapter Text

Finding a new place to stay was easier said then done. Both Tom and Maddie had asked all their colleagues if someone was willing to take them in, but to no avail.

And to rent an apartment, they would obviously need to have enough money. Unfortunately, the search for a job was going just as bad.

Gadget walked out of a small shop after another failed attempt. He looked down at the job advertisment in his hands, before crumbling it in frustration and dropping it in a nearby trashcan.

There are still a few hours of day light left. I still have time before I need to go back. The wolf thought to himself as he looked up at the sky. He walked further away from the Wachowskis house without any clear destination.

A few minutes went by in silence, until he walked around another corner and noticed a familiar person on the other side of the street.

“Hey, Carl.” Gadget called and walked closer to the other, as Carl turned around to the voice.

“Oh, hey.” He watched the wolf coming closer and put the bags he was holding down to the ground. “It´s been a while. How have you been?”

“Good, I guess? Just getting used to live here.” His ears dropped a bit at that.

Carl hummed in thought. “How come that sounds like it´s a bad thing?”

“What about you?” Gadget changed the subject. “I´ve never seen you around here since we arrived.”

“Oh, I usually stay at my cabin or look after the forest. Just came to town to buy some groceries.” He gestured to the bags at his feet.

Gadget looked down at the bags aswell with concern. “How far away is your cabin?”

“Don´t worry about it. I´ve already walked there with much heavier stuff then this before plenty of times.” He picked one of the bags up, but as he reached for the second one, Gadget picked it up instead.

“I don´t mind carry that for you. I still have more then enough time before I have to go back.” The wolf quickly explained.

“Alright, thank you. It´s this way.” He gestured with his free hand towards the forest and they started walking.

“So what brings you to this part of town?” Carl asked after a few moments.

“I´ve been looking for a job. Had no luck so far.”

“What do you need a job for?”

“I want to rent an apartment for me and Zero, but I need money for that.”

“Why do you wanna move?”

“I´m glad Tom and Maddie let us stay with them, they just seem to already have their hands full with their own kids.”

They had reached the outskirt of town and followed a dirt path into the forest. As they walked past the first few trees, the wind suddenly picked up.

“It´s just harder then I thought to find a job here and we can´t go to any other town. Tom said the people on this planet aren´t used to see Mobians and leaving Green Hills would just lead to problems.”

“He´s right about that...” Carl agreed with the sheriff, before he suddenly stopped and looked up at the sky.

Gadget had stopped aswell as he noticed the others absence. “What´s wrong?”

“Strange...” Carl looked back down at the watch around his wrist. “The sky shouldn´t be so dark at this time.”

A strong gust of wind hit both of them, nearly making Gadget fall over.

“Looks like a storm is coming. We better hurry.” Carl explained and kept walking.

Gadget silently followed him, while keeping an eye out for falling branches. They had to stop a few times along the way, as Carl got exhausted and he had to rest for a moment.

Just as they reached the cabin, it started to rain and both hurried inside. He followed Carl into the kitchen and placed his bag next to the other one, leaning against an old looking cabinet.

Carl had meanwhile walked to the window and moved the curtain a bit away. “Doesn´t look like the storm will be over any time soon.” He turned around to the wolf. “You might be stuck here for a while.”

“But I have to go back.”

“It´s too dangerous going out in that weather. And it´s only gonna be worse once it gets dark.”

Gadget sighed in defeat and walked over to the window as Carl started to sort through his groceries. “What about your car?” He pointed at the caravan standing outside nearby. “Can´t we use that?”

“The engine died a few days ago. I otherwise would´ve used it to get to town.” Carl explained while placing a few cans in a cabinet.

“They´re gonna get worried if I don´t come back.” He said without turning away from the window. The rain was getting heavier.

“I can call the sheriff later and let him know what´s going on. You can stay in my guest room for the night. No one really uses it anymore.”

Gagdet turned around. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, let me just finish this then I show you where it is.” Carl kept placing the food in his cabinets and frigde, while Gadget continued to watch the rain hammering against the window.

After he was done a few minutes later, he lead the wolf down a short hallway and opened the door to the guest room.

“You can take a look around if you want. I´ll be in the living room calling the sheriff.” With that, Carl walked back down the hallway.

Gadget stepped inside and looked around the small room. It had a bed, a small night stand and a wardrobe that left barely enough room to walk around them. And everything was covered in a thin layer of dust.

“Could´ve been worse...” He grumbled, trying to cheer himself up. Since there was nothing else to see, he walked back out and followed Carls voice to the living room.

Carl ended the call just as Gadget entered the room. “It´s all settled. Tom is gonna come pick you up tomorrow morning.” He sat down on the couch. “Wanna watch some TV?”

-Meanwhile at the Wachowskis house-

The sound of a phone ringing made him wake up. Zero relucantly sat up on the couch and looked around in annoyance. It took a few moments for the ringing to stop and being replaced by Tom´s voice coming from the kitchen.

As the sleep slowly left him, he instantly knew that something was wrong. He slowly got up and walked out of the living room, getting more uneasy with every passing second.

Zero soon wandered out of the house and to the garage. As he got outside the strong wind ruffled through his fur. At least the canopy over the way there kept him dry from the rain.

He was expecting to see Gadget in there, maybe helping the fox with one of his inventions, but he found the place empty.

Without bothering to close the garage door, he rushed back to the house and up the stairs to the attic. As he slammed the door open, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles startled looked at him, stopping what they were doing.

Zero looked around the room for a moment with narrowed eyes. There were only the three teens here.

“Where is he?!” He yelled at no one specific, baring his teeth.

“What do you...” Sonic started, but without waiting for an answer, Zero had already turned around and ran back down the stairs. The brothers looked at each other and then followed him down.

They found him in the kitchen with Tom, looking even more agitated then before and sparking with white electricity.

“What do you mean he´s not here?!”

Without wasting time, Sonic and Knuckles got between their father and the raging jackal. Tails hesitantly followed them and ended up standing a bit hidden behind Sonic.

“Hey! What´s the matter with you?” Sonic asked, glaring back at Zero.

“Get out of my way!”

Tom quickly dropped his phone on the nearby table and tried to defuse the situation. “All of you, calm down.”

Zero stared back up at him “Where is he?!”

Instead of answering, the sheriff turned his attention back to his kids. “How about you three wait outside while I explain everything to him.” He puts his hands on Sonics and Knuckles shoulders and moved them towards the door.

It took a bit of arguing, but he eventually managed to get them out of the room. They decided to wait in the living room until everything is clarified and to still be nearby in case something happened.

After 10 minutes going back and forth, Tom finally managed to convince Zero to stay at the house. They soon heared a car stop in their driveway and saw Maddie and Ozzie quickly making their way through the rain and into their home.

Her kids immediatly came out of the living room to greet them and then followed her to the kitchen, while Zero soon retreaded back to the living room to avoid all of them.

While Tom started to make dinner, he explained everything that happened since Carl called him to them. Once they finished eating, Maddie took another plate with food and went with it to the living room.

Zero was laying on his back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling and completly ignoring her. So she just placed the plate on the nearby table and decided to leave him alone for the rest of the day.

As it was getting late, all the other residents went to bed. Only he was unable to fall asleep as his thoughts kept him awake. His food on the table had long since grown cold and remained untouched til the next morning.

Gadget woke up the next morning to the sounds of footsteps going past his door. He startled looked around the unfamiliar room in confusion for a few moments until he remembered last evenings events.

He quickly got dressed and then followed the sounds, until he found Carl standing in his small kitchen, starting to make breakfast.

“Good morning.” Gadget said while keep standing in the doorway.

“Good morning.” Carl looked over for a moment, before focusing back on his work. “Have you slept well?”

“Yeah. Can I help you with something?”

The old man hummed in thought. “You could set the table if you want.” He pointed at a cabinet next to him and Gadget took two plates out of it for them. After finding everything that they need and placing it on the table, he sat down on a chair since there was nothing else for him to do.

“You know, I was thinking last night.” Carl eventually broke the silence. “If you want to, you two could stay here.”

Gadget looked up in surprise. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. No one is using the guest room anymore and I wouldn´t mind some company.” He turned around and placed the finished food on the table between them. Gadet noticed the mans hands shaking for a few moments while doing so.

“I would love to if you really don´t mind.” Gadget smiled, but it quickly turned into a frown. “I´ll just have to ask Zero if he´s ok with that, too.”

They fell back into silence as they were eating. A few minutes went by until they heared the sound of a car coming closer.

Carl put his silverware down and looked at his watch. “He´s way to early...” The old man muttered as he got up from his chair and peeked out of the window. Sure enough, he saw the sheriff´s car pulling up in front of his cabin and Tom exiting the vehicle.

“Wait here, I´ll go talk to him for a moment.” Carl then left the kitchen, leaving Gadget alone to finish his breakfast. He could hear their muffled voices coming from outside, but couldn´t understand what they were saying.

As he was done, he put his dishes into the sink and went outside through the front door. Tom and Carl were standing next to the car, seemingly just ending their conversation as Gadget walked up to them.

The sheriff quickly greeted him, looking somewhat impatient.

“Hi. Is everything alright?” Gadget asked, getting a bit worried.

“Don´t wanna rush you or anything, but we should really go back now.”

Gadget quickly got on the passenger seat of the car, while Tom said goodbye to Carl before getting on the driver seat. Carl was standing at his front door and watched them drive of.

“What´s wrong?”

Tom sighed. “Zero had freaked out last night as you didn´t came back. He was ignoring us since then, not eating anything and the way he looks not sleeping either.”

It was now Gadgets turn to get impatient, anxiety slowly building up as he waited for Tom to bring him back as soon as possible.

After what felt like an hour, they finally reached their destination. Both quickly got out of the car, walked to the front door and Tom opened it.

“He´s in there.” The sheriff pointed towards the living room, before disappearing into the kitchen.

Gadget stopped infront of the living room door, took a deep breath and then slowly opened it.

Zero was sitting on the couch, staring down at the table infront of him.

“Zero?” Gadget walked closer as the other wasn´t reacting. As he got closer, he noticed the dark bags under the jackals eyes.

“What do you want?” He hissed with a hoarse voice, clenching his fists.

“Just wanna make sure you´re alright.” Gadget answered with a hint of confusion.

Zero huffed, still refusing to look up. “I don´t know if you´re just pretending or really mean that anymore.”

“W-What? Why?”

“You just left.”

“I didn´t ment to be gone for so long, but the weather forced me to.” Gadget slowly sat down on the edge of the couch, leaving some room between them. “I came back, didn´t I?”

“What if you didn´t? What if something had happened?”

“It was just a rain storm. I survived worse.”

Zero huffed in annoyance. “That´s not what I ment. Mephiles is still out there, somewhere.”

“Oh...” Gadget leaned back against the couch. “Right. Any idea where he might be?”

“No, not really. But as far as I know him, he won´t get far away for too long from this.” He tapped against the ruby and then crossed his arms.

“I´m sorry I just left like this. But at least one good thing happened cuz of that.”

The jackal raised an eyebrow and halfway turned towards, waiting for him to continue.

“We might have a new place to stay now.”

“Where?”

“Carl offered to let us stay with him in his cabin. Only if you want to, of course.” His last sentence was filled with uncertainty, as he waited for Zero to make a decision.

“Anything is better then staying here.”

Gadget sighed in relief and got up from the couch. “Great, I´ll let him know.”

“You´re leaving again?” Zero grumbled behind him.

“I can just call him.”

“Yeah, right...” The jackal curled up on the couch and was immediatly asleep. Gadget sighed again and pulled a blanket over him before leaving the room.

They moved two days later. Gadget was carrying the few books and puzzle, he managed to collect during their stay, to the car, while Zero brought nothing besides the clothes he was wearing.

Gadget put his belongings into the trunk of Tom´s car and then came back to say goodbye. He got almost knocked over as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all hugged him simultaneously. Zero stood nearby and silently watched the grouphug with an unreadable expression.

After the kids let go, they just half-heartedly said goodbye to Zero. None of them wanted to get close to the jackal. Both canines soon got into the car, the drive back to the cabin was spend in silence.

As they got there, Carl was already standing in the doorway waiting for them. Gadget grabbed his stuff from the trunk and they then followed him inside.

He showed them, but mostly Zero, around the house. The short tour ended in the guest room, with Carl leaving them there to settle in while he would make something for lunch.

After putting his things into a drawer, they followed Carl and helped him in the kitchen.

Later that afternoon, Gadget was busy trying to fix Carls caravan. Carl had hesitantly agreed to let the wolf take a look at it. Zero was nearby keeping an eye on the other mobian and occasionally helping him with his work.

Before they knew it, it was already getting dark. Carl soon stepped out of his cabin and called them inside, claiming that the car can wait till tomorrow.

Gadget went to the bathroom to get the dirt out of his fur, while Zero waited with their host in the kitchen. He joined them a few minutes later, sitting down at the table, too.

As they got to their new room after dinner, they ran into the first problem.

There was only one bed.

Gadget stared at it for a few moments, before turning towards Zero. “Who is gonna...” The jackal interrupted him as he already guessed what the other would ask.

“You can have the bed. I´ll find somewhere else to sleep.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Zero turned around on his heels and left the room without saying another word.

Gadget sighed and sat down on the bed, trying to ignore the feeling of guilt washing over him. He spend the rest of the evening reading one of his books.

As he was getting tired, he placed the book and his glasses on the nightstand to his left and turned off the light.

Later that night, Carl suddenly woke up to the sound of footsteps. He stayed in bed and listened to them until they stopped. It sounded like someone was trying to sneak through the cabin, but the old wooden floor made it impossible to walk quietly.

After a minute of silence, Carl got out of bed and walked around his cabin for a moment. As he got to the living room, he saw despite the very dim light that the couch was now empty. He walked back towards the guest room and noticed the door ajar.

Carl slowly pushed the door open and saw the missing jackal sleeping on the bed next to his wolf friend. He carefully closed the door shut to not disturb them.

Chapter Text

It had been a week since they moved to Carls cabin. Gadget was still half asleep laying in the bed.

His mind drifted back to the first night they had spend there. How startled he was as Zero climbed into the bed, too.

The jackal was gone the next morning, returning to his couch shortly before Gadget woke up.

It kept happening all the following days. Gadget always pretended to not noticing and Zero also didn´t mentioned anything about it.

But this morning was different.

It took the sleepy wolf a few moments to realise what was wrong.

Zero was still sleeping next to him.

He then noticed what caused him to wake up so early.

His phone was ringing.

Gadget grumbled and reached for it. He got out of bed as he answered the call and walked away from the bed.

As Gadget had his back turned to him, Zero took his chance and quickly sneaked out of the room.

He walked to the kitchen and started to set the table like every morning. Carl soon joined him in the kitchen.

They greeted each other and Carl then helped him prepare a few things for breakfast.

By the time Gadget finished the call and came to the kitchen, Carl was cooking some food and Zero was sitting at the table.

“Good morning.” He happily greeted them. “I got good news.”

“Is that so?” Carl asked, more focusing on cooking then the conversation.

“Tails just called me and invited us over. He said he wanted to test something.”

“Did he told you what exactly he wanted to test?” Zero asked suspicious.

“No, he didn´t. I think it´s supposed to be a surprise. He just said to make sure that you bring your bracelet.”

Their conversation was cut off as Carl suddenly had a coughing fit. Gadget quickly grabbed a glass of water, while Zero got up and helped Carl sit down on a chair.

“That sounds bad.” Gadget noted as he handed him the glass.

Carl waved him off, dismissing the wolfs worries. “It´s probably just a cold or something. Don´t worry about it.” He said after he catches his breath.

Gadget and Zero were both unconvinced, but didn´t said anything about it.

They stayed for another hour after breakfast to make sure he is alright. As nothing else happened, they eventually headed out to the Wachowskis house.

Once in town, they walked around the corner into the street and saw Sonic and Tails already waiting for them outside infront of their house.

They quickly got up as they noticed the two approaching canines.

“Good that you´re finally here.” Tails greeted them, not wasting any time. “I have to show you something in the back.”

He headed towards the back and into the garage. The others followed him a bit slower.

“He seems excited.” Gadget noted as he watched the fox dissappear into the garage.

“Yeah, we were barely able to calm him down since yesterday.”

“What happened yesterday?” Gadget asked as they walked into the garage.

Knuckles was already waiting for them inside. Tails was working on a strange looking machine standing in the middle of the room.

“Tails?” Sonic tried to get the kits attention.

Said fox quickly looked over his shoulder. “Oh, right. Hold on.” He pressed a few more buttons before turning around towards them. “The reason I asked you to come over is that I think I found a way to send you home.”

“Are you sure this will work?” Gadget asked hesitant.

“Thats what I wanna find out. Can I have your bracelet please?”

Zero held out his hand and Tails hesitantly removed the emerald from it. He then placed it in the machine and kept pressing buttons.

“Wait, what if it does?”

Tails looked back at him in confusion.

“We haven´t even said goodbye to the others yet.” Gadget glanced over to Zero and he looked equally conflicted by the situation.

“I can just do a test run without sending you back to see if it will work.” Tails suggested.

Gadget thought about it for a few moments and eventually agreed.

Zero started to look more worried as Tails turned the machine on.

It started to glow in two different colors and made a humming sound that got louder with every passing second.

As it suddenly started to smoke and spark, he hit a big red button on it´s side and it got turned off.

Sonic quickly opened the garage door, while Knuckles was going for the windows to let the smoke out.

“So much for that.” Zero said, sounding unusual reliefed.

“It should´ve worked. I don´t know what went wrong.” Tails checked every part of his invention, but couldn´t find the problem.

Sonic put a hand on the fox´s shoulder to calm him down. “I´m sure you can figure it out.”

Tails and Knuckles decided to stay and keep an eye on the machine, while Sonic led their guests back outside. Zero just took his emerald back before leaving the garage.

“So, what happened yesterday?” Gadget asked again.

“Right.” Sonic stopped at the front door. “I went for a run and found another chaos emerald.” He opened the door and invited them in.

Dawn appeared out of nowhere, landed on the floor and cawed at the visitors. Gadget took a few steps towards the bird, while Zero kept standing right next to the door.

“Hello to you too, Dawn.” He held out his hand and petted the raven after he made no move to attack him. “He seems to be in a better mood.”

“Yeah, they´ve been acting different since a few days. Mom said it might be because their baby has hatched.”

Gadgets eyes lit up at the news and he quickly stood up again. “That's awesome. Have you seen it yet?”

“No. We tried a few times, but Dusk isn't leaving her nest anymore.”

Dawn had meanwhile used the distraction to sneak past them and walked to Zero. He jumped a little as the raven suddenly bit down on the tip of his tail.

They quickly found themselves in a tug war as Zero cursed and tried to get away, while Dawn was pulling in the opposite direction.

The other two watched the scene for a few moments until Gadget went to help him.

Dawn eventually gave up and walked back down the hallway.

Tails suddenly walked through the door and joined them inside. “Oh, good, you're still here.”

“Yeah, is something wrong?” Sonic asked him.

“I just wanted to let you know that I double checked the entire machine again. Everything was fine with it.”

“Then why didn't it worked?” Gadget asked.

Tails put his hand under his chin in thought. “When my machine isn't the problem, then something else obviously has to be. Perhabs it has something to do with you.”

“What do you mean?”

“We might need to do everything exactly again like as you got send here.”

“So we need…”

“The same emeralds and the same people.” Tails finished his brothers sentence.

Gadget and Zero looked at each other as they understood what that means.

“No.” Zero angrily glared at them and took a step backwards towards the front door.

“Calm down.” Gadget reached out to him, but he kept backing away.

“Forget it.” Zero then spun around without another word and walked out of the house.

“I'll go talk to him. Thanks for your help.” He called over his shoulder as he tried to catch up with the jackal.

“Zero, wait.”

“Why should I?”

“So we can talk about this.”

They by now had reached the end of the street and walked around a corner to the next one.

“There's nothing to talk about. You know what he was implying and I'm not gonna do that.”

“I understand that you don't like it, but what other choice do we have?”

Zero had reached the edge of the forest and finally stopped walking, causing Gadget to almost run into him.

“We don't even know where Mephiles is. And even if we knew, there’s no guarantee we can trap him again.”

“So you're not even gonna try because it might not work?”

“Let’s say we actually manage to do it. Then what? What if the whole thing starts all over again?”

“You’re scared to loose control again?”

“Do you really wanna risk that?”

“It doesn't has to be like this.” Zero still had his back turned, so Gadget put a hand on his shoulder to turn him around. “You're not alone anymore. I'm not gonna let it happen again.”

Zero sighed and put his hand on the others hand still on his shoulder. “Don't promise what you can't keep.”

Gadget eventually had to pull his hand away as Zero turned back around and kept moving.

“Can we just go back now?”

He hurried after him until they were walking side by side. “You still don't like them?”

“I don't like these birds.”

“Why?”

Zero thought for a moment. “Theire eyes creep me out.”

They walked the rest of the way in silence and reached the cabin a few minutes later.

After letting themselfs in, they first checked on Carl, before going to their room.

“I'm going outside for a bit. Wanna come with?” Gadget asked as he started to gather a few tools.

“Maybe later. I'll go sleep for a bit.”

The wolf soon left and continued working on the car outside. Zero had meanwhile sat down behind the curtains and kept an eye on him.

An hour went by as Carl got up from his couch and walked outside aswell.

He watched them talk for a bit, before Carl got into his car and Gadget took a few steps away from it.

The caravan sputtered to life after a few trys and soon got shut off again.

Gadget then hurried back into the house and Zero quickly laid down on the bed to not get caught spying. The door swung open a few moments later.

“Hey Zero!”

Said jackal pretended to wake up by opening one eye and then sitting up on the bed. “What?”

“I finally managed to fix the car.” Gadget announced happily.

“That's great.”

“And Carl asked if we wanted to make a campfire today.”

Zero got lost in his thoughts for a bit before nodding. “Yes, does he need help with anything?”

“He said no, but I think we should still see if we can do anything.”

He hopped off the bed and both walked outside. Carl was already busy chopping firewood at the back of the cabin.

The old man already looked exhausted, even so he just had started working.

Zero walked over to him before he could do another swing. “Can I try?”

Carl placed the axe down with the blade towards the ground and leaned on the handle with one arm.

“Are you sure? This thing is pretty heavy.”

Zero took the axe from him and lifted it up a bit.

“Should be alright.” He brought it down on the wood still standing on the block and split it clean in half.

Carl looked impressed at him for a moment, before turning around to Gadget.

“Alright, we can go gather some sticks in the meantime.”

“What do we need those for?” Gadget asked as he picked up a few sticks.

“To help the fire build up. It's easier with those. “

They kept collecting sticks until they had enough and went back to the cabin. Zero was also done with his work and sat next to a pile of wood waiting for them.

They put the sticks down and Carl told them what to do next. While both mobians got rid of everything flamable around the area where they would build the campfire, Carl went to grab a few stones he had stored nearby.

He placed the stones in a circle, while the others brought him the wood for the fire.

It was already afternoon by the time they were done with it. They went back inside to get some food ready for later.

Carl opened his fridge and found it almost empty.

“Looks like I need to go buy a few things.” He announced and closed the door again.

“Can we come with you?” Gadget asked.

“Alright, we're gonna take the van then.” Carl went to grab his keys and all three left the cabin.

Gadget got on the passenger seat and Zero got in the back.

They soon stopped at the near empty parkinglot of a small store. Carl grabbed a shopping cart and walked towards the entrance.

“If there’s something you want, feel free to put it in the cart.” He said to the two canines following him, who nodded in return.

Zero tried to stay with the others, but soon started to wander off. Carl and Gadget kept walking straight, while he walked around the corner to a different aisle.

It took them a minute to realise that he was gone. Gadget decided to go look for him and Carl continued alone for now.

He soon found him infront of a shelf full of all kinds of spices.

“Found something?”

Zero turned towards him, revealing several small bottles he was already holding.

“Yeah, there's a lot different stuff here.” He turned back around and reached for another bottle.

“Need help carrying them?

“It's fine.” He grabbed the bottle and added it to the pile. “I got all I wanted.”

Zero walked past him and Gadget followed close behind. The jackal suddenly stopped and looked over to a different aisle.

Gadget followed his gaze and went into said aisle as Zero kept walking straight ahead.

He looked around the different candys, until he found what Zero had been looking at. The chocolate was luckily in an easy to reach height, so he grabbed two boxes and hurried after the others.

He hid the chocolate behind his back and gestured for Carl to come over, while Zero was distracted with putting his bottles into the cart.

“Something wrong?” Carl asked as he was close enough.

“I wanna buy something for Zero, but it's supposed to be a surprise.” Gadget explained as he showed him the boxes.

“I see.” He thought for a moment. “I can give you some money so you can buy it yourself. You can hide it in the car while we stay in here.”

“That would be great.”

Carl handed him the money and went back to his cart. He then walked with Zero further away from the checkout to buy Gadget some time.

After paying for it, the red wolf quickly got to the car and hid the chocolate in the glove box.

He then decided to wait in the caravan for the others. They came a few minutes later out of the store.

Gadget got back out and helped them put the groceries into the car. Once they got back home, he remained sitting on the passenger seat until Zero was out of sight and then sneaked with the chocolate back to their room. He quickly hid it in one of the drawer and locked it.

The wolf then left the room to look for the others. They walked out of the kitchen, while holding some bowls with food, just as Gadget stepped out in the hallway. He followed them outside and they set the bowls down on a table nearby.

Carl then went to grab the folding chair from his shed and hummed in thought as i placed it near the campfire. “There was only one chair there. Maybe we can go grab some from the kitchen.”

“That won´t be necessary.” Zero took a few steps towards the campfire and the ruby started to glow a bit brighter. A log suddenly appeared near it.

“Alright, just gotta go get one more thing.” The old man walked back into his house. Zero took one of the smaller bowls from the table and sat down on the log. Gadget quickly followed him and sat down right next to him. Carl soon came back outside again, holding four bottles.

Zero turned around with narrowed eyes and stared at two of the bottles. “No, not this again.”

“You don´t have to drink it if you don´t want to.” He put the two beer bottles under his chair and handed the water bottles to the mobians.

“Is it really that bad?” Gadget asked as he put his bottle on the floor next to his feet.

“Yes.” Zero grumbled, while doing the same.

“You just completely overdone it that day. It´s fine as long as you don´t drink too much.” Carl pulled out his lighter and crouched down next to the campfire to start the fire.

“Can I have some?” Gadget asked, earning a side-glare from Zero.

“Ok, but only one.” Once the fire was burning, Carl got back up and grabbed one of his bottles. He held out the bottle, but then looked over to Zero still glaring at him. “Can I give it to him without you biting my hand off?”

Zero huffed and looked away. Gadget quickly took the bottle and placed it next to his other one.

“Why dont you go grab the other bowls?” Carl asked them and headed back to his shed. Gadget got up and grabbed the two remaining bowls from the table.

He soon came back, holding a bunch of long sticks. He handed them both a few and took one of the bowls from Gadget before sitting down in his chair.

Gadget got a little lost as to what to do with them, but he saw Zero stick his meat on the sharp end of the stick, so he did the same. All three then held their sticks over the fire and waited for the food to cook.

“Did you had fun at the Wachowskis today?” Carl asked them after a few moments.

“More or less. Tails thought he found a way to send us home and wanted to try it out.”

“You were gonna leave without saying goodbye?”

“No, of course not.” Gadget quickly added. “It didn´t worked anyway.”

“What a shame...” Zero mumbled absently, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

“Sounds like you don´t want to go back.” Carl looked over to him.

“There´s nothing there for me to go back to.”

“I will still be there, whatever happens.”

They fell into silence again, until Carl decided to change the subject. “Have you ever done something like this before?” He gestured towards the fire.

“All the time.” Zero answered with a nod.

“Not really, I never had much time to go outside before, let alone go camping.” Gadget sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

“It´s alot easier here when you don´t have to watch out for sand getting onto your food or putting the fire out.” The jackal explained as he turned his stick around.

“I bet it is.” Carl opened his bottle and took a sip.

“Is it safe to have a fire out here tho?” Gadget asked, suddenly getting uneasy. “What if some of the shrubs or trees nearby catch fire?”

“The summer is pretty much over, so its not too dry anymore. As long as we make sure to put it out when we´re done, there shouldn´t be anything able to happen.”

They all then took their sticks away from the fire and ate the meat from it.

Gadget looked confused over to what Zero was eating. “Why does yours smell better then ours?”

“I added a few things to mine.” Zero smirked and held out his bowl to him. Gadget took a piece of meat from it and put it on his stick.

“What? You don´t like my cooking?” Carl said, with fake hurt.

“I wouldn´t really call that cooking.” Zero teased him back, making the old man laugh.

He took another long ulp before answering. “If you´re so good at it, then why not keep doing it.”

That made the jackal pause for a moment. “Really?”

“Of course. Just try not to burn down my cabin.” He laughed again, a bit quieter this time.

“Alright.” Zero eventually agreed. They spend the next few minutes in silence as they waited for their food to be done again.

After eating his second portion, Gadget started to fumble at the cap of his beer bottle and eventually got it open. He took one sip and immediatly made a face.

“Why would you drink something like that.”

“You´ll get used to it.” Carl explained, drinking some more himself.

“Why tho?” Gadget looked sceptical down at the bottle.

“Drink some more and you´ll find out.”

The wolf still looked sceptical, but did as he was told. Carl soon got up to grab some more firewood and sat back down after he added it to the campfire.

They kept cooking as it was slowly starting to get dark. Carl eventually finished his bottle, while Gadgets was still half full.

Their host suddenly looked at Zero for a long moment before speaking. “You know... Have I ever told you that you remind me of someone?”

Zero blinked in surprise. “No, I don´t think you have. Who?”

Carl sighed and looked down at the fire for a bit. “My brother.”

Both canine looked at each other for a moment. “You never mentioned that you have a brother.” Gadgets ears perked up.

“It´s just... I haven´t seen or heared anything from him in many years.”

“When was the last time you spoke with each other?”

The man quickly counted in his head. “Should be around 50 years now.”

Gadget and Zero were speechless for a few moments.

“That´s... What happened?”

“Beats me.” Carl shrugged. “He had never been much around when we were younger. Always moving around with our father and barely telling me anything of what they were doing all the time. And from one day to the other, he just stopped answering my calls. Not even answering my letters. Nothing.” He wanted to take another sip from his bottle, but then realised it was already empty.

Carl stood up with a sign, taking his bottle and his chair with him. “That´s it for me tonight. You two can still stay here if you want. I´ll leave the back door unlocked for you.”

“How do I remeber you of him?” Zero called after him as Carl was almost back at the cabin.

He looked back over his shoulder at him. “It´s your eyes.” With that he stepped into the house and closed the door behind him.

“You wanna stay here or go inside too?” Gadget asked him.

“I´d rather go inside. It´s getting cold here.”

“Really? I don´t feel cold.”

“Jackals aren´t made for cold weather.” He was about to get up, but a sudden weight on his shoulder pulled him back onto the log. “What are you...”

“Aw, need someone to keep you warm?” Gadgets word started to slurr a bit.

Zero sat frozen on the log as Gadget sneaked one arm around his shoulders. He quickly snapped out of it and slightly shoved the wolf away from him. “Stop that. Just help me put the fire out so we can go inside.”

He got up from the log without interruptions this time and started to put the fire out. As he noticed that Gadget wasn´t coming over to help him, he looked over his shoulder and saw him hurrying to finish his bottle.

Zero grumbled in frustration as he was unable to stop him before the bottle was empty. Once the fire was out, he walked over and stood infront of the swaying wolf. “Are you happy now?”

“Very.” Gadget smiled at him, his tail wagging behind him.

Zero shook his head with a sigh. “Just get inside, before you do anything else stupid.” He then herded his red companion towards the house and made sure he would go into the right room.

It took him a bit to convince Gadget to lay down and sleep it off. Once he got him into the bed, he was about to turn and leave, only for something to stop him once again.

Gadget had one hand around his wrist and had no intention of letting him go this time. Zero tried to pry his hand free, but eventually had to give up.

“What do you want me to do? Stay up like this the whole night?”

The drunk wolf mumbled something incomprehensible and scooped over to make room for him in the bed.

Zero grumbled, but laid down in the bed anyway. “There. And now sleep.” Gadget nodded and threw his arm around Zero, catching the jackal off guard again. “Stop that.” He quickly pried the arm away and turned his back towards the wolf.

It just took a few seconds for the hand to appear on his side again. He turned around on his other side and was then face to face with the wolf. “Just sleep already.”

The hand was soon back around him again. Zero ignored it this time, hoping the other would quiet down then. Gadget cuddled as close to him as the ruby would allow him and finally stopped moving. Zero put one hand around him aswell, before falling asleep too.

Chapter Text

To say Tails was excited would´ve been a huge understatement. Since Gadget and Zero had moved out, the young fox had tirelessly worked on a new project. Hours went by in no time and it was only for his brothers and parents that he hasn´t completely overworked himself yet.

They would ever so often check on him and remind him to eat something, to go to bed, or just to take a break in general.

Tails still mostly focused on getting his new invention up and running. If this machine works, he would finally be able to send Gadget and Zero back home.

After making another successfull testrun, it was finally time to see if it works for real. He grabbed his phone and invited both canines over.

They arrived a few minutes later.

Tails got the machine ready, but had to settle for another testrun after Gadget seemed worried. It turned out to be the right decision as the machine soon started to smoke and had to be turned off.

He kept checking the machine to find out what went wrong, while his visitors left the garage. Finding no problem with his invention, he figured something else must´ve been at fault.

Once he was alone, Tails looked around the cramped garage. It made him realize that it was time for him to expand.

Good thing he already had the perfect place to set up his new workshop. After letting his family know about his plans, they all agreed to help him move his belongings.

Thanks to Sonic, it was all done in no time.

A bunch of G.U.N. soldiers kept lingering around his new workshop, so he quickly installed a security system to keep them out.

Tails spend the next few days organising all his tools and devices. He also figured he should go back to his workshop on Mobius to grab the rest of his stuff from there.

It was early the next day when he finished the pair of handcuffs he was working on. He was about to continue working on the other machine as a siren suddenly went off.

Chapter Text

It was late at night when he found himself back at the city. He was floating in the air and could only helplessly watch as Mephiles forced his hand up to kill all the people below him.

Smoke and dust filled the air from all the destroyed, burning buildings around him. Zero watched as Gadget came out of hiding, picked a gun up from the floor and aimed it at him with shaking hands.

His own hand came up again, but instead of the ground, it aimed straight at the red wolf this time.

Zeros other hand curled around his wrist and tried to pull it away, to no avail. It didn´t even moved an inch.

He watched in slow motion as the shot hit Gadget, killing him instantly.

Zero shot up with a silent gasp, sitting straight up in the bed. It took him a minute to calm down again.

Just another nightmare.

He looked around the room. Gadget was laying next to him, still asleep.

Zero was about to lay back down when he noticed the scent of smoke still in the air. He first shrugged it off as side-effect of his dream, but instead of getting weaker, the smell was getting stronger.

The jackal jumped out of bed to turn on the light and then saw smoke coming in through the window. He rushed back to the bed to shake Gadget awake.

“What...?” The sleepy wolf grumbled.

“There´s a fire.” Zero said just as a flame shot up outside the window, lighting the room in an orange glow for a moment.

Gadget quickly got up and both canines headed for the door to go and wake up Carl. As they left the room however, the old man was already coming down the hallway towards them.

“Get to the car.” Carl instructed them, before getting cut off by having another coughing fit.

All three quickly headed outside and saw the bushes and a few trees to the right of the cabin all covered in fire.

They reached the car and Gadget helped Carl, Zero moved around it to get on the passenger seat. Before he could get in, he heared them argue about something. As he walked back around the car to see whats going on, he saw Gadget running back to the cabin just as the fire had reached it.

Zero was about to go after him, when Carl grabbed his arm and pulled him back as a burning tree came crashing down between them and the cabin.

“Let me go!” The jackal hissed.

“Just be carefull. It won´t help him if you get yourself killed.” Carl scolded him before letting go.

Zero looked for a way around the tree, but then decided that would take too long and jumped through an opening in the fire. He ignored his singed fur as he ran towards the cabin. Its right side was already covered in flames and the smoke inside made it near impossible to see anything.

He luckily didn´t had to go far in as he found Gadget laying unconscious near the front door. Zero quickly picked him up and ran back outside to the car.

Carl was still coughing, but managed to drive. Zero was meanwhile sitting on the passenger seat with Gadget on his lap, trying to wake him up again. He eventually did and looked around the car with unfocused eyes.

“Gadget?”

The dazed wolf looked up at him. “M´sorry...”

Zero sighed as he tried to calm down. “What were you thinking?”

Instead of answering, Gadget reached for the bag on his belt. He pulled Zeros scarf out of it and handed it to him. Zero just stared at it in disbelieve, so Gadget tried to put it around the others neck himself, but wasn´t able to.

The jackal put a hand over Gadgets to stop him from trying.

“You ran back just for that? Are you crazy?” He tried to keep his voice down, but nearly yelled at the end of his sentence.

“Love you, too.” Gadget mumbled, before falling unconscious again.

His mind went blank as he caught up with what the wolf just said and then paniced as he went limb in his arms again. Zero frantically tried to shake him awake again, to no avail.

He only noticed that they arrived at the vet clinic as Carl opened the passenger side door. Carl tried to take Gadget from him, but was meet with an angry growl, so he just held the doors open for them.

As soon as Chloe saw them walk in, she called for Maddie and they were brought to the back. While Maddie was treating him, Zero was standing at the other end of the room and anxiously watched her work.

She eventually was done and told Zero to come get her if his condition is getting worse, before leaving the room. Zero walked over to the bed, unaware of all the chaos going on outside.

The fire had continued to spread and the people of Green Hills and other nearby towns were trying to put it out. Chloe had meanwhile offered to take Carl to the nearest hospital as his coughing also had gotten worse.