Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Decided I should post the first chunk of this and see what folks thought. It was born mostly out of annoyance at 'it didn't happen' style endings, then snowballed. Quick disclaimer: I wrote the earlier parts of this a long time ago, so some of the writing might be subpar. I've edited as best I could without destroying the plot's flow. That aside, please R&R so I can see if anyone is interested enough for me to keep posting this. ^-^

A pair of lime green eyes blinked open. Their owner stared at the cloudy sky above him, feeling disoriented and more than a little confused.

Sitting up, he glanced at his surroundings. He was in an alley, laying in a box of what appeared to be packing peanuts. He raised an arm and grimaced when the staticky foam clung to his fur. His first order of business was clear.

Five minutes later, the dark furred creature was standing (mostly) foam free in the middle of the alley, brushing some dust off his arms. He looked around, thinking back and trying to remember why he would be-

He froze.

He couldn't remember what he been doing last.

More than that, he couldn't remember anything he had seen or done before this moment. He couldn't even remember his own name.

Amnesia. That's what it was called. He had amnesia. How that happened, he didn't know, and there weren't any passersby to ask. And if waking up in an alley was any indicator, he probably couldn't ask his potentially nonexistent friends.

Friends. He cringed as the word set off a stream of half-formed images – several people talking, running, fighting each other and him. His mind recoiled from what he presumed to be memories (and a probable headache). The figures were blurred and unrecognizable, but the pain was clear and sharp. He was afraid to wonder what caused that particular association.

Shaking his head to clear it, he debated what to do now. He clearly didn't want to run into any of those people... But they would probably recognize him on sight. He wouldn't have that advantage. Staying here wouldn't do anything though. The only real option was to go out and hope he wouldn't be seen.

Frustrated, he turned and blasted the box to bits. He didn't have time to be surprised at producing the blast before being pelted with bits of foam. He took a moment to simply stand and loathe the existence of packing peanuts. At least now he could defend himself... assuming he could figure out how he'd done that.

After testing this attack (and shaking off the packing peanuts again), the dark one decide to get going. Someone was going to check out the noise soon, and he didn't want to know what would happen when they saw the former pavement.

He looked out at the street, then began walking with a reasonably casual air.

As he walked, he noticed that some places triggered a flashback. Several buildings made him go tense for a moment before, with an increasingly shaky sigh, he relaxed enough to keep moving.

He kept this up for what seemed like forever. Finally, he paused under an awning near some store. He folded his arms and stared, seemingly lost in thought, at a nearby park. The sky was turning red and gold, but a few families remained. He watched a mother raccoon try to coax her child home, eventually giving up and scooping the reluctant cub into her arms. The dark one looked away as the mother consoled the whining cub.

"Shadow?"

He turned slightly toward the speaker, surprised to realize he was being spoken to. The silvery white hedgehog gave him a strange feeling, making him wary, but it wasn't altogether bad. A part of it was just… familiar. He decided to wait and see what would happen. And what was that thing he said? "Shadow? What does that mean?"

The hedgehog looked blank, then resigned. "Oh, right. Sonic said you get amnesia sometimes. Uh… you aren't going to attack me, are you?"

"Why would I do that?" The dark one tilted his head in a confused gesture.

"Apparently it's a thing you do sometimes… something about revenge on the world. If you're not going to attack, I guess it doesn't really matter." He frowned. The dark one found himself feeling envious. Unlike him, most of the creatures he'd seen had mouths to express emotions. Actually, all of them did. Maybe he was just strange.

The other's next comment snapped him out of his thoughts. "Wait a- you're not Shadow! He said he was going to be at the lab today. Who are you?"

The dark one turned to face him, planning to say something like "Why don't you tell me?!" But as soon as he turned, the other tensed and dropped into a fighting stance. "Mephiles," he hissed. "I thought you were dead."

Now alarmed, he prepared for a blast attack, only to find his hands immobilized. "No way," the other said. "I'm not about to take a blast to the face again. Now why are you here? How are you even alive?"

He quickly realized the invisible restraints weren't going to give, and gave up trying to free himself in favor of glaring at his attacker. "How should I know? You seem to know me, so why don't you tell me!"

The other's face went blank. "You… don't know who I am?"

His eyes widened as he realized what he'd said. Way to give your amnesia away to an obvious enemy. Bravo. He tried yanking his hands free again, with no effect. In his panic, he missed the other's expression turning thoughtful.

"Hey." The dark being froze and looked at him. "Does the name Mephiles mean anything to you?"

He flinched, curling in on himself with a confused expression. The hedgehog nodded like he'd confirmed something. "It's your name. I guess it makes sense that you'd forget everything…" His eyes narrowed. "Unless you're tricking me again."

Silver was struck by the realization that Mephiles actually appeared to be bothered by that comment. If this was a trick, he was a better actor than Silver thought. But he'd been tricked before... embarrassingly easily. He needed another perspective.

A few taps on his communicator and he heard a familiar greeting. "Hey, Sonic," he said. "I need help with…" He paused, noticing how Mephiles had flinched and flattened his quills, his expression a mix of fear and anger warring with confusion. The mixed signals reminded him of other experiences with flashbacks, when what you knew and what you 'knew' didn't seem to line up. "Silver? You still there?" He snapped back to the present at Sonic's worried query.

"Yeah, sorry. Could you come here? I need your thoughts, but you have to see this yourself."

A moment's pause. "What's going on? You okay?"

Another glance showed that Mephiles was listening closely. Not sure how much he should hear, Silver worded his reply carefully. "It's not an emergency… yet… but I want to be safe. I… think it's related to the… everything that didn't happen. And you should come alone."

"If you say so. Where are you?"

Silver rattled off the coordinates and ended the call. He knew it would be a couple minutes before Sonic got there. For one thing, GPS ran a lot slower than the Blue Blur; for another, since this wasn't an emergency, he would probably run to the outer edge of whatever zone he was in before heading back, aka 'take the scenic route.'

He tucked his communicator away in his quills turned back to the apparent amnesiac. "If I let you go, will you try to run or attack me?" He shook his head warily. "Good. I'll hold you to that." Silver dropped the telekinetic restraints and heaved a mental sigh of relief. Keeping something that focused for so long got ridiculously tiring. He watched as Mephiles backed up a few steps to shelter in the shadow of a dumpster. To Silver's surprise, he actually didn't try to attack or make a run for it. He took a moment to really look at his (former?) enemy.

The dark one's expression was now defiant, most of his fear hidden. But his spines lay back, practically radiating fear and uncertainty. After meeting other hedgehogs, Silver had observed that it was nearly impossible to fake the emotional responses of one's quills. You could suppress them some, but not really change the signal. One of his first priorities for living here was to learn 'quill-speak,' and he was better at it than even Amy. If Mephiles had even a little hedgehog instinct with that form, he couldn't fake the emotion. And he'd never shown any real signals before. Meaning – wait, huh?

"Uh… Mephiles?"

He looked up, vaguely curious. "Yes?"

"Why do you have packing peanuts in your quills?"

Mephiles' face went completely blank. He slowly stood, turning to face the dumpster, before suddenly kicking it hard enough to flip it on its side. Silver jumped, surprised at the sudden display of violence. "Damn demonic little foam-"

When Sonic arrived, he was treated to the sight of a dark-furred hedgehog standing by an overturned dumpster and ranting about the 'foam scourge of the earth' while Silver watched bemusedly. He took a moment to wonder if he was hallucinating, then shook his head to clear it and strode up to Silver. "You know, you could have told me Shadow's gone off the deep end over the com."

Silver turned to him, expression becoming more serious. "Guess again. It's not Shadow; he's at the lab, remember?"

Now that he mentioned it, that did sound vaguely familiar. But if this wasn't Shadow… His eyes widened as he observed some key features. Or lack thereof, in this case. "Mephiles is back? And he went nuts?"

Silver gave a long-suffering sigh. "No to the second. At least, I don't think he did."

"Then how do you explain-?" He gestured at the absurd scene in front of them.

"I have no idea. But he didn't start this… whatever it is until I asked why he had packing peanuts in his quills."

"I see." The pair watched in silence as Mephiles continued his rant.

"-one box of the things!" he said, spinning to face them. "What did I even do in my last life to-" He froze, eyes locked on Sonic. His quills puffed out and he dropped into a defensive stance. "What do you want?" he hissed.

Sonic raised an eye ridge, about to make a snarky reply, but paused. "Silver, is my quill-speak getting rusty, or…"

"Not unless mine is too. Meph, he doesn't want anything. I just need to talk to him."

"And why should I believe that?" he demanded. Now that he was looking, Sonic could see the 'aggression' in Mephile's quills wasn't anger or a show of superiority, but an instinctual attempt to seem bigger when confronted. In other words, he was scared.

When Silver failed to reply, Mephiles scowled. (Well, his eyes narrowed at least.) "I don't actually care what you want with me. I don't know why you're mad at me. Just leave me alone!" Sonic darted forward and caught his wrists before he could more than start to aim a Chaos Blast. "Silver, little help?" he called as the dark one struggled.

Silver pulled himself together enough to remake the restraints and allow Sonic to release his hold. Silver looked at Mephiles with a disappointed expression. "I thought you said you wouldn't attack." He looked down, kicking sadly at a pebble. "Guess you didn't change after all."

Since Silver wasn't looking, Sonic was the only one to see Mephiles flinch and flatten his ears briefly. Since when did he react to anyone's opinion about him? Actually, his behavior overall was really strange. It suddenly seemed obvious why Silver wanted a second opinion. He wouldn't trust his own judgement after being tricked before.

But even with his penchant for trickery, this sort of act would be outside Mephiles' limits. He wouldn't humiliate himself that way. So if this was for real, and Mephiles had honestly agreed not to attack, why had he broken that promise? Why had he even made the promise?

Sonic shook his head. As far as he was concerned, that was too much thinking and not enough action. So he just went with the first thought that came into his head. "Hey, Mephiles." Two pairs of eyes turned to him. "What's the difference between me and him?"

The dark one looked at him like he was mentally deficient. "Everything?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Not what I meant. It sounds like Silver didn't have issues with you taking your chill pill, but I walk in and it's like I took your last chili dog. What's with that?"

Mephiles took a moment to process the metaphor before answering. "You remind me of… something." Sharing his amnesia blatantly seemed like a bad idea. Silver gave him a funny look (oh right, he'd figured it out already) but didn't comment. Sonic beat him to it.

"That's all? Must be one heck of a memory."

Blink. Blink. "Uh… yeah." He didn't know what he could say without compromising himself further. Then he noticed Sonic was looking sort of past him instead of making eye contact. Strange.

"You know," Silver said suddenly, "If you can't remember why we'd attack you, there's no reason for us to fight."

"Huh?"

"He's right," Sonic said with a growing grin. "After all, we were only enemies because you were doing bad things. If you keep the world-destroying to a minimum, we'll do just fine."

The what? Mephiles was beginning to seriously question just what sort of person he'd been before losing his memory. He didn't voice his thoughts, instead saying, "Fine. Can I have my arms back now?"

Silver and Sonic exchanged a look. Sonic shrugged, so Silver dropped the restraints. "I'm not giving a third chance," he warned. Mephiles rubbed his wrists and didn't reply.

"So!" Sonic clapped his hands once. "Now that's settled, I say we introduce ourselves. Again." He rolled his eyes as Mephiles attempted to look confused. "Look pal, I'd be more shocked if you hadn't forgotten everything. I'll let someone who knows what they're talking about explain, but it's definitely normal."

"Oh, really." Mephiles crossed his arms and gave Sonic a doubtful look.

"Yes, really." Sonic imitated the pose, but ruined the effect with another grin. "Anyway, I'm Sonic, he's Silver. Let's see if we can't start off on the right foot this time."

There was silence for a moment as the three ran out of things to say. Silver broke the silence when it began to feel too awkward. "What now?"

Sonic shrugged. "We could go back to the lab. Not like we can leave our new friend alone, and I'm betting he doesn't have anywhere to stay." He moved as if to pat Mephiles on the shoulder, then stopped almost before he'd started. Mephiles still noticed, but decided not to comment.

It occurred to him that Sonic wanted some kind of reply. He thought for a moment. "Not unless you count a blown up box of packing peanuts."

Sonic snickered, and Silver looked distinctly amused. "Is that why my comment set you off earlier?"

Mephiles shuddered. "Those things are pure evil."

"Whatever you say." Sonic shrugged. "Now are we going or are we going?"

"We're going, already! Learn a little patience."

"What's that? Can't hear you over my sonic boom!"

Mephiles had just enough time to wonder why Silver had clapped his hands over his ears before the aforementioned hit. He could barely hear his own surprised (and slightly pained) yelp over the ringing in his ears. Silver was saying something, but it sounded like his voice was coming through several layers of cotton. "What?" he asked. Based on Silver's flinch, he must have been louder than he'd realized.

Silver leaned in to yell in his ear. "ARE YOU OKAY?"

"I will be," he said, trying to keep his volume more reasonable. The ringing was beginning to die down.

"Good," Silver said with a relieved sigh. "Sonic could afford to think about others before pulling these stunts." He shook his head rapidly before refocusing. "Are you ready to follow? He'll call us slow anyway, but he might as well be wrong."

"I'm fine. Let's just go."

"Okay, follow me!"

As he followed the telekinetic, Mephiles realized that he was already getting used to these two. He decided that was best kept to himself until he figured out how he felt about it.

Chapter Text

Given the interest I've seen in this, I'll aim for weekly updates about this long. If I can find the time, I'll try to post twice a week, but don't count on it. (If you'd rather have shorter chapters more often, message me or leave a review and I'll see what I can do.)

Sorry for the slow-moving plot. But hey, it means they get to just chill for a bit before the storm, so that's something. :)

The lab was only a couple blocks away, so the walk took maybe ten minutes at most. Of course, Sonic spent those ten minutes waiting, and tapped his foot pointedly as they approached. "Come on, already! Can't you hurry up?"

"How about no?" Silver snapped. "Just because you run all the time doesn't mean we can, or even want to!" (Sonic decided not to point out that Silver did want to, and had said as much several times.) "And with all that time, did you bother checking for triggers?"

Sonic gave him a blank look before facepalming. "Damn it, Sh- you know who is here. I'll be right back."

As he zipped inside, he heard Silver say, "As you can see, Sonic's brain isn't as fast as his feet."

"I heard that!" he called over his shoulder.

"Heard what?" Sonic turned to see that he'd gained the whole room's attention. "Is someone else there?" Tails asked, setting down the gizmo he'd been holding.

"Well, yeah," Sonic said, trying for a relaxed stance as he counted heads. Shadow was just sort of standing there, and Knuckles was eating a sandwich. "Hey, Shads, could you-"

"I've told you not to call me that," Shadow growled.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry about that," he said quickly, glancing back automatically. What if Shadow's voice…? No, that was paranoid. "But could you, just, step outside for a sec?"

"Why?" Shadow looked at him as though he'd suggested inviting their worst enemy to a celebration of his defeat. (Which, come to think of it, was partially true.)

"Oh, nothing big," he said, casually leaning back on the door frame – and almost falling over when he missed.

"Uh…Sonic, are you okay?" Tails asked, frowning as he righted himself.

"Me? I'm fine, obviously."

Knuckles fixed him with a doubtful look as he headed for the kitchen. "Sure, that's totally believa- what is he doing here?!" The echidna was pointing past Sonic. Toward the door. Er.

"Knux, calm down," he said quickly. "I'll explain, we're trying to not-"

"Mephiles? How is he even alive?"

Sonic grimaced, realizing that Shadow had come over without him noticing. And if Shadow could see Mephiles…

Sonic spun to face the door. Silver was saying something, then stopped and shrugged helplessly at Sonic. Mephiles was frozen, staring at Shadow.

"Great, we were hoping to prevent another flashback," Sonic said as he stepped outside. "Silv, what's he-" He stopped talking when he heard Mephiles' rambling.

"-dark here someone let me out what did I do it wasn't me why am I here not my fault what happened to-"

"He started when he saw Shadow," Silver said. "And I can't snap him out of it."

Sonic grimaced. "Well that's just great." He turned to the trio of confused faces behind him. "Shadow, get somewhere out of sight. I'm not dealing with this again." Shadow nodded, but glared at him to make his wish for further explanation clear before leaving. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief, then turned back to Mephiles. He gripped the dark being's shoulders and shook him. "Mephiles. That's a memory. You aren't there, you're here. Listen to me. That isn't happening."

Mephiles' voice got quieter as Sonic spoke. He shook his head as though waking up and blinked almost sleepily at Sonic. "…Did something happen?"

"Whew," Sonic said, releasing him. "I mean, nothing important." He gave a surprisingly convincing smile.

Mephiles looked at him doubtfully, but shrugged and dropped it. "Why are we here? You never told me." He looked at the unnamed pair warily.

Knuckles folded his arms and glared at the two hedgehogs. "That's a good question. Why is he here?"

"Knuckles, please just-"

"No," he snapped, cutting Silver off, "I will not calm down. Not until I get a good explanation for this. Or is there one?"

"Come on, Knux, do you really think I'd bring our enemy here without some reason?"

"I never know with you. And no offense, Silver, but he's tricked you before."

"Well it's true. Why do you think I called Sonic?"

"If you were going to call this moron-"

"Hey, wait just a-!"

"-you could have called-"

"Hey." Everyone turned to Tails, who was watching Mephiles. "Do you know who I am?"

All eyes turned to Mephiles, who looked like he might turn and bolt. After a tense moment, his shoulders slumped in defeat. "How do all of you know?" he asked, voice soft and almost childlike.

Tails stepped to one side, gesturing toward the door. "If we're going to talk, how about we do it sitting down?"

"You can't be serious!" Knuckles said. "You're just letting this go?"

"Knuckles," Tails said, voice calm and even, "his life never happened."

"Exactly! So how is he-" Sudden pause. "Oh." He looked at Mephiles again. "Oh."

The dark one tensed. "What do all of you expect to learn by staring at me?" he said, most definitely not whining.

"Uh… sorry." Knuckles averted his gaze and quickly went back inside. The others followed.

A minute later, they were settled in Tails' living room. Silver and Mephiles sat on one couch, Sonic and Knuckles on the other, and Tails took one of the arm chairs. ("Shadow's going to kick you out. That's his favorite spot." "Shut up, it's my house and I can do what I want.")

One quick explanation later, Knuckles was a lot less hostile. Mephiles, on the other hand, had pulled his knees up to his chest and only offered monosyllabic responses to direct questions.

"Will he be okay?" Silver asked.

Tails looked uncertain. "I think so. You did this a few times when you came… returned… joined us in our time."

"I did?"

The fox shrugged. "I think it's the memory overload. The rest of us had fewer flashbacks, since most things we saw were familiar before… the thing, but everything caused them for you. But you never commented on it, so nobody else did."

"What now?" Knuckles asked. "We've got an amnesiac hopefully former enemy who looks like Shadow. What do we do about it?"

"Well," Tails said, "we'll have to tell the others at some point. We don't need another showdown scene." Silver looked sheepish. Sonic gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "And he'll need to stay somewhere, unless he already has some idea."

Sonic shook his head. "We asked, and he said unless we counted a box of packing peanuts-"

Mephiles sat bolt upright and glared at Sonic. "Those things are the work of the devil!"

Tails and Knuckles seemed too stunned to comment, and Sonic only seemed capable of facepalming, so Silver spoke up. "Of course," he said, using a tone like one might use to calm a child or a feral animal. "We know. Let's not think about that, okay?"

The anger drained out of Mephiles and left him looking confused. "…Okay? What's going on?"

Tails' eyes brightened. "Ohhhh. He latched onto it as a trigger. Like the green thing."

Silver groaned and buried his face in a pillow. "Can we please stop talking about my weird memory issues?" he said, voice heavily muffled. "We get it, I'm the weird one, let's move on please."

"And we've got more important things to talk about," Sonic said. "Like, what are we gonna do about housing? He can't stay with us because of… you know."

Tails shrugged. "He can stay here, if he's okay with the noise." They turned to Mephiles.

"…Noise isn't a problem. Why would it be?"

Sonic raised a brow. "Some of us sleep better when there's not constant clanging going on."

"Sleep?" Mephiles tried to place the word, then gave up. "What's that?"

Silence.

"You know," Sonic said, "if it was safe for Meph and Sir Ultimate out there to be in the same room, they'd be fast friends."

"Sonic." Silver sighed. "Mephiles, sleep is something most beings do to heal and replenish energy. Maybe you don't have to."

"Oh," he said, hoping his sudden discomfort didn't show too much. Why was he so different from other people?

"Welp," Sonic said, jumping to his feet, "I'll go talk to our friend. Be right back." He dashed out.

The remaining four stared at each other in awkward silence. Silver's gaze happened to fall on the TV. "Hey, Mephiles. Are you familiar with video games?"

"You're kidding me," Shadow said flatly.

"Nope. It does sound pretty insane, huh?"

Shadow sighed. "Not as insane as some of your adventures. At least this one is somewhat logical."

"Should I be offended by that?"

"No. It's simple truth." Shadow easily dodged the clod of dirt kicked at him. "Mature."

"Whatever. That isn't the point."

"No, the point is that you're taking one of our most powerful enemies at his word."

Sonic shot him an exasperated look and folded his arms. "You just said you believe it."

Shadow replicated the pose. "I said it's logical. You can't tell me this isn't suspicious."

"Of course it is," Sonic groaned. "But it makes sense. His whole life was centered around Solaris, so he lost all his memories."

"And there's another problem. How does he still exist?"

Sonic flung his hands up in the air. "How should I know! He still exists, he's got the weird memory thing, and he thinks packing peanuts are evil!"

Shadow's face went blank. "Packing peanuts."

Sonic shrugged. "Tails thinks it's like Silver's green thing. Honestly, it was funny the first time, but now it's just kind of weird."

"Very well. I believe you."

"About the packing peanuts?"

He received a scathing look. "About his memory. Mephiles never had much sense of humor."

"Okay, what?" Now Sonic was annoyed. "So him acting scared wasn't enough to convince you, but being angry at packing peanuts is?"

"He did what?!" Saying Shadow was shocked would have been a massive understatement. Sonic might have pronounced himself pregnant with Shadow's child and gotten less reaction.

"I did mention that," Sonic said. "If you'd been listening-"

"Mephiles acted scared?"

"That's what I just said. Again."

"…I can't picture it."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "If we can get you two in a room without him blue screening, you won't have to."

Shadow frowned thoughtfully. "Would he? The worst flashbacks were usually caused by new inputs, blackouts aside. So the problem should be lessened by exposure."

Sonic blinked a few times. "Didn't think of that. Don't think Tails did either."

"Go ask," Shadow said, barely getting to finish his sentence before Sonic was already back inside. "Idiot," he said, smirking.

"Back," Sonic said, skidding to a halt. He stopped and stared. "What?"

Nobody reacted to his arrival. Silver and Mephiles were too focused on the game, and the others were trying not to laugh.

"No, you're supposed to use the wisp on – okay, that works. You're on my head. Why are you on my – oh for Chaos sake!"

"Well if these 'controls' made sense, you wouldn't have fallen into the pit!"

"Whatever. You'll get it eventually. Wait, stand on my head!"

"You just said-"

"I know, but here we can- yes! Super drill!"

Tails finally looked up. "Oh, hey, Sonic. Silver decided to introduce him to video games."

Sonic snorted and leaned on the couch. "I noticed. But Sonic Colors? Really?"

"It's a good game," Silver said, not looking away from the screen. He paused when they hit a checkpoint and turned to Sonic. "So?"

"Weeeell," he said, "he was wondering if seeing each other more would stop the flashbacks. It's mostly new stuff that caused them, right?"

"Wait one second," Knuckles cut in. "You're saying he wants to cause a flashback on purpose?!"

"Knuckles, wait," Silver said quickly. "He has a point. We know repeated exposure is a thing."

The echidna still looked unconvinced. "Tails, what do you say?"

"Hmmm… I can't say for sure. But Silver has a point." His face took on a determined look. "We can't know unless we try."

"Wait, what are we trying?" Now that he wasn't focused on the game, Mephiles remembered that he probably shouldn't let his guard down around these people. Especially the red one.

Silver hesitated. "Well… we think that you might get fewer flashbacks if you're exposed to more triggers. And our friend is a major one."

"How can you tell?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

Sonic shrugged. "Because you had a blackout flashback when you saw him."

Mephiles started to speak, then clamped his mouth shut (metaphorically), looking faintly queasy.

Silver cautiously placed a hand on Mephiles' shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, I got some bad ones too."

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "Every time you met one of us."

"Give me a break, I lost a huge chunk of my memory!"

Mephiles ignored this exchange, staring at Silver's hand with an unreadable expression. He slowly reached up, took hold of Silver's arm, and pushed it down to the seat between them. Everyone watched this procedure in silence.

Silver spoke up after a moment. "…Can I have my arm back?"

Mephiles blinked, realizing he hadn't relaxed his hold on Silver's arm. He chose to pretend he hadn't heard the question.

"Sooooo… should I get him?" Sonic asked eventually.

Tails nodded. "The sooner we know, the better." And Sonic was off again. "By the way, in case you missed it, I'm Tails. I'm a mechanic, mostly, but I know a lot about medicine from being Sonic's best friend. That's Knuckles. Don't let him scare you, he's just stubborn and protective."

"Don't tell me you're just going to trust him!"

The fox gave Knuckles a look. "Come on, you're supposed to be one of our more observant people. Don't you remember signals at all?"

"What are-" The lightbulb above his head was almost tangible. "Oh."

Mephiles narrowed his eyes in a scowl. "What is this subtle sign that makes everyone trust me? Please, I'm dying to know."

The door creaked before anyone replied. Everyone turned as the two hedgehogs reentered the room.

If Mephiles were more familiar with typical biology, he would have said he heard his blood rushing in his ears. As it was, he only knew that all sound vanished, and a series of images and sensations passed through his head: glass, movement, running, darkness.

The moment passed and he began to regain his senses. Someone was talking.

"-go? Okay, seriously, ow. Tails, do you have a crowbar somewhere? I can't get him off."

He blinked a few times as his eyes refocused. Then he glanced down and realized he was holding Silver's arm far too tightly and oh shoot that's blood. He yanked his hand away like it was on fire and squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for whatever they would do.

"Well, Sonic," an unfamiliar voice said, "I believe you now."

"Shadow, now is not the time. Silver, are you-?"

"I'm fine. Mephiles, you okay?"

He cautiously opened one eye a crack and saw Silver giving him a worried look. "You… aren't mad about…?" He glanced at Silver's arm, where pale grey fur was turning red.

"Huh? Oh, this?" He shrugged. "I've done worse to myself tripping on nothing."

"…"

"What?"

"How?"

"Enough." Everyone jumped at Shadow's voice. "The point of this exercise is not to discuss Silver's clumsiness and its defiance of basic physics. Mephiles."

Mephiles looked steadfastly down at his shoes. "I'm fine. A little disconcerted, but that's all."

"In that case, I'm a bit more offended by my arm."

Mephiles looked at Silver, face carefully blank. Silver held up his hands. "I'm kidding, don't worry so much."

"What makes you think I was worried?" More like how did you know, but he wasn't about to say that.

"Well." He glanced at the others, who shrugged or turned away. "Wow, helpful. It's because you aren't suppressing your signals at all, so anyone with decent empathy can read them."

"Okay. Now explain in a way I actually understand."

"It's kind of-" Tails began before being interrupted by Silver.

"Hey, Sonic, maybe we should call Amy, she could explain better."

"What?! I mean, uh, let's not. Heh." The momentary shock vanished behind Sonic's usual grin, but he still seemed nervous somehow.

"Okay. That was an example of how the signals work." He ignored Sonic's annoyed reply. "Basically, it's a form of species-specific body language. It's easy for me to understand hedgehogs and similar species, but I'm not as good at reading, say, Tails."

The thought of having his emotions on obvious display was not pleasant. "You said it can be suppressed?"

Tails nodded. "Right. It takes some effort, but once you get it, you're set."

"I'd be happy to teach you," Silver said.

Mephiles shrugged. "If you want." From Silver's smile, he concluded his gratitude was showing more than he'd intended.

Silver blinked and looked around. "Hey, where'd everyone go?"

They were surprised to see that Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles had all vanished. "That explains the weird silence," Tails said. "But I'm surprised we didn't notice."

"Well, they were in a hurry," Sonic said as he rejoined them. "Knux and his emerald as per usual, and Shadow has some sort of GUN mission."

"They could have said something."

Sonic shrugged. "You know them as well as I do, so not really. Anyway, I have a date with Egghead to finish, so… catch you later!" the vacant space finished.

Tails sighed in fond exasperation. "Can't even stick around to finish his sentence."

Silver snorted and stood. "That's Sonic for you. Anyway, I should go tell Blaze and Amy the news."

"Can't you just call?"

Tails and Silver both looked at Mephiles. "Why?" Silver asked. "It's not far, and this sort of thing goes better in person."

Mephiles was silent. He wasn't about to admit that he didn't really want Silver to leave, especially since he wasn't exactly sure why. "It just seems like a waste of time."

Silver and Tails exchanged a glance. Silver shrugged. Tails shook his head slightly. "It can wait. They'll be by later to pick up Amy's toaster."

"Still with the toast genies?"

"I did warn her about Sonic's experience, but she didn't realize how frustrating it would get."

Mephiles shook his head slowly. "I will never understand any of you."

"Probably a good thing." Silver flopped back down on the couch. "I think it's about time we changed games. Tails, Olympic Winter Games?"

"Only if I get to play too."

"Well, yeah!"

These jokes are amazing and nobody can tell me otherwise.

Chapter Text

Meant to get this up earlier, but got delayed. Sorry about that. Also, I'm kind of surprised at the attention this is getting. Thanks so much for reading!

Sonic dropped the controller in disbelief. "What the heck, Silver!"

Silver smiled at him, the picture of innocence. "I get bombs, I use them."

"On me? Every time?"

"Maybe."

Tails laughed and picked the next game. "C'mon, Sonic, how about we take him down in Dream Hockey?"

"Is it different from regular hockey?" Mephiles asked, studying the controls.

Silver shook his head. "Not really. Except there are power ups and stuff to make it more exciting."

A few minutes later, the round ended on a tie. "Oh, come on," Silver grumbled. "Playing this as a skill type sucks."

"It's not that bad," Tails said. "But it is getting kind of boring. Sonic, d'you think we could play as characters other than ourselves?"

The blue hero gave an exaggerated sigh. "Fiiiiiine. But after we finish the tie breaker."

"Obviously," Mephiles muttered with an eye roll. (He was playing as Shadow, since he didn't have a character.)

They had just finished the tie breaker ("In your face, Silver!" "Sonic, shut up." "No.") when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Tails stood, only to be stopped by Sonic.

"Nah, I'll get it. In return for making stupid rules." And he was off.

Tails opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head. "It's probably-"

They heard a feminine shriek, a startled yelp, and a painful thud in quick succession. The three exchanged glances and went to investigate.

Amy had stood up and was bouncing in place with a bright smile on her face. Sonic was picking himself up off the ground (somewhat less brightly). "You should have told me you were here, I would have come sooner! Then we could have gone to the park sooner. The flowers are so pretty this year, it would be so nice and-" She stopped and looked briefly confused before her eyes filled with flames and an oversized hammer appeared in her hand. "Get away from them!" she yelled, charging.

Sonic stepped in front of her, hands out. "Wait a sec, Amy!"

Mephiles took an involuntary step back. "Is everyone I meet going to try to kill me?!"

Sonic laughed nervously, but Amy cut in before he could reply. "Of course! You killed my Sonic!"

Tails yelped and clutched his head as her words unexpectedly triggered a memory. Silver only flinched. Sonic gave them a surprised but sympathetic look.

Amy blinked. "I thought we'd regained all our memories already?"

"Looks like we were wrong," Tails said, wincing. "I just don't get why you never mentioned it."

"It only came up that once, so I assumed we weren't talking about it!"

"Forget that for a sec," Silver said. "We've got more sorting to do."

"Does it involve me dying?" Mephiles asked. "If so, I'll be leaving now."

Silver crossed his arms. "You aren't going anywhere, and nobody is going to die. We already decided you get a free reset, and you haven't messed it up yet. Amy put the hammer away."

Mephiles hmphed and looked away, not even really caring that he was probably projecting relief. He heard Amy make a startled sound and turned back to see her staring at him in shock. Great, what stunning thing did he do this time?

"Oh," she said quietly. "I didn't think… sorry, I hadn't realized. Eh… would you get mad if I hugged you?"

"Yes." He scowled pointedly.

"Anyway," Tails said, "it's getting late." He pointed through the open door at the dark sky. "Anyone not sleeping over should probably head home."

"If you don't mind, I'll stay," Silver said. "You know my night vision sucks. And I'm not sure I want to leave you two alone. No offense, Mephiles."

Mephiles shrugged. "There's no reason to trust me. I don't especially care."

"If that's settled, me and Sonic can be going!" Amy said.

Sonic smiled awkwardly. "Yeah… I'd rather go alone." He zipped off before she could protest.

Amy hmphed and turned to Tails. "So where's my toaster?"

"In the lab, follow me." The pair walked off, Tails adding, "By the way, why'd you decide to get it this late at night?"

Silver watched them leave, then turned back to Mephiles. "I doubt I'll be able to sleep for a while. Want to watch a movie?" He took his noncommittal shrug as a yes. "Okay, I'll see what there is."

A few minutes later, Tails joined them. He looked at the screen, raising an eyebrow. "Comedy? I thought you liked cheesy explosions."

"Not this close to sleeping," Silver said with a shudder.

Tails made a face. "Right, nightmares. I forgot about that."

"Why fire?" Mephiles asked. "It hardly seems dangerous to a telekinetic."

The other two looked at him in silence. "We could explain," Silver said, "though it might be simpler to trigger a flashback… then again, that wouldn't be very-"

"Do it. They're not that bad."

Silver gave him a doubtful look, but didn't argue. "Alright, I'll list a bunch of things that could trigger something. Let's see… Iblis. Iblis Trigger. Solaris. Flames of Disaster." Silver frowned when Mephiles failed to react. "Uh… Soleanna. Princess Elise. …That's all I can think of. Nothing?"

"Nothing. You'll have to explain after all."

Something beeped in another room. "I'll leave it to you two. I need to check that." Tails scurried out.

Silver sighed. "Alright, here goes. Though it's weird you aren't getting flashbacks to it. It's your history we're talking about."

Elsewhere, the sound of keys tapping permeated a mostly abandoned laboratory. Two figures stood at a console, studying it carefully as a third typed. From time to time, they glanced back at a large tube in the center of a room. Something akin to a miniature sun pulsed gently behind the glass.

Mephiles was silent for a moment when Silver finished speaking. "Strangely, I find your story believable. But it doesn't sound at all familiar."

"That is weird. But I don't think it's worth worrying about." Mephiles made a neutral sound. "Let's just watch the movie." He hit the play button with his powers.

Tails came back as the credits were rolling. "Sorry, that took longer than I thought. Want me to show you to the guest rooms?"

"Nah. I kind of like your couches, and Mephiles doesn't seem to mind."

Mephiles stirred at the sound of his name, but quickly settled again, eyes not even opening.

Tails was surprised, but quickly regained his composure. (He'd had a lot of practice over the years.) "In that case, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure. But let's go somewhere else. I'm not sure how heavy a sleeper he is."

They ended up in the kitchen. "So what's up?" Silver asked, leaning against the kitchen.

"It's about Mephiles, actually. Do you know why he's so attached to you?"

He blinked. "Huh?"

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed. He's doing that clingy denial thing."

Silver's eyes widened slightly. "You're right. I hadn't thought of that."

"Mmhmm. And I have an idea, but I wanted to hear from you first."

"The only reason I can think of is that I met him first."

Tails nodded. "And defended him when everyone else was doubtful. My guess is that he remembers you being with him more or less, at least subconsciously, so you're less threatening to begin with."

"I'm not sure I like that idea much, since he tricked me into being on his side back then."

"Sorry. It's just a guess, though, so it could be wrong. And the other things probably have some effect."

"True." Silver yawned. "I think I'm gonna sleep now. Night, Tails."

"Night, Silver."

The next morning, Sonic and Shadow came knocking at Tails' door bright and early. There was some muffled shouting back and forth before Silver opened the door, looking remarkably cheerful for that time of morning.

"Hey guys!" His smile dimmed a little when their eyes zeroed in on his face. He self-consciously covered his bruised eye with one hand. "Trust me, it's not as bad as it looks."

Sonic edged past him to the entryway. "What did you even do? Bash your face on the doorknob again?"

"First off, that was one time. Second, never wake Mephiles before he's slept out. He's less of a morning person than Shadow."

"That's actually possible?"

"He hit you?"

The pair spoke at almost the same instant. Sonic's amusement faded as he registered Shadow's words.

Silver was quicker to see the dark aura around him. "It wasn't on purpose! And besides, I've taken worse hits in matches with you guys. It just looks bad because he got my eye."

"So you're just going to let it go?"

"Shadow." Silver gave him a look. "You've done the same a few times. It's only fair for him to get the same treatment."

Shadow gave him a doubtful look, but continued past him into Tails' main workroom. The sounds of a conversation floated back.

"You're okay, then?" Sonic checked.

"My sight's a little off, but otherwise yeah. Black eyes always worse on me, remember."

"True. So how's our new friend? Aside from cranky."

"Not so cranky now that he's awake."

"Yeah, about that. I thought he didn't need to sleep?"

"That's what it sounded like. Who knows?" Silver headed for the entertainment room. "It's not like I asked before the memory wipe."

Mephiles glanced up as they approached, then turned back to the TV.

"Tom and Jerry?" Sonic sat on the untaken couch. Silver sat beside Mephiles.

Mephiles shrugged. "It's amusing."

"It's also the first thing we agreed on."

"TV isn't that interesting."

Sonic chuckled. "Have to agree with you there. I'd rather be out running."

"I've noticed," Mephiles said in a dry tone.

Sonic jumped to his feet. "I have an idea! How about we test your combat ability?" He received two shocked looks. "Come on, it'll be fun! And we can help Mephiles figure out his powers before something important explodes."

Silver turned to Mephiles. "He has a point. How much control do you have right now?"

"I can make explosions somewhat reliably, if that's what you mean."

Silver stood and held out a hand. "Then show us."

Mephiles looked at him a moment before standing, pointedly ignoring the proffered hand. He turned to Sonic. "Lead the way."

A minute later, the trio was standing in Tails' spacious backyard. Various obstacles and bits of machinery were scattered across the space. Several platforms stood a few meters above the ground, as well as a pile of scraps that might once have been another tower. Everything was heavily splattered with paint.

"Why-"

"-does it look like a unicorn threw up?" Sonic grinned.

"I was going to ask why everything's covered with paint."

"Exactly!" Sonic barely dodged the glowing block thrown his way. "Not nice, Silver."

The glowing aura around Silver's hands vanished. "We don't joke about paintball."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Just because you were green for one week-"

"Do I need to throw another block?"

"I'm good, thanks. Now, Meph, how about we get started?" He picked up some kind of remote and pushed a button. A nearby sphere glowed orange, sprouted helicopter blades and began hovering at about chest height. Sonic turned to speak again, but paused. "What's with that look?"

"Did you just call me Meph?"

Sonic shrugged. "Well, yeah. I call most of my friends by nicknames."

Mephiles suddenly went unreadable. "Oh."

Sonic blinked. "Silver already taught you suppression?"

Silver shook his head. "I gave him a short explanation and he figured it out himself."

"Apparently I'm a fast learner."

Sonic whistled. "I'll say. I'm awful at it, and I've had my whole life to learn."

"Maybe it's cause your quills are more straight back," Silver suggested.

"Or time travel."

"Shadow didn't time travel much."

"He, sort of did? But he also had time to learn."

"Is there a point to this?" Mephiles cut in.

"Mephiles, you'll soon see what the rest of us have come to realize: that nothing Sonic does has a point."

Sonic shoved Silver into a pile of tires. "Shut up." He turned back to Mephiles. "Anyway, see if you can Chaos Blast that thing."

Mephiles raised a brow. "You regularly destroy your training devices? Sounds wasteful."

"Nah. They're made of the same stuff you find on game dungeon floors, it's pretty much unbreakable."

Mephiles just gave him a confused look.

Silver sighed. "Don't worry about it. I'd be worried if that made sense to you. Just try and blow it up."

He focused on the thing and tried to blow it up.

"Nice," Sonic said, poking the blackened ground with his toe. "You only do that on command, right?"

"As far as I know."

The white hedgehog visibly relaxed. "That's good news. Say, is chaos blast the only thing you know?"

"Of course not. I know a lot of things. For example, I know this is stupid."

"Wise guy."

"Hey guys!" The trio turned to see Tails waving from the doorway. "Can you come inside for a minute?"

Sonic shrugged. "Not like we had time to do much of anything yet, but okay." He followed Tails back to the main room, the others close behind.

Chapter Text

This is unbeta'd, so please tell me if you find anything weird. Also because I'd like to hear if anyone has theories on what's going on. Because there is a method behind the madness. Mostly. (Random question: what do you think of the sort-of philosophical chapter titles?)

Shadow was focused on a portable screen on one table and barely looked up when they entered. "As far as I can tell, all the readings are stable."

"Let's see." Tails stepped up as Shadow moved aside. He tapped the screen and the display changed. "Looks good to me. Could you tell them what you told me earlier?"

"I don't see why you can't explain."

"Because you understand chaos energy a lot better than I can."

"…Fine." Shadow turned to the rest of the group. "Mephiles' chaos energy is… strange. I know this is a given," he added, seeing their unimpressed looks. "But it's different from when we were enemies. More… natural."

"Natural?" Sonic said. "That doesn't tell us much."

Shadow scowled. "Be quiet, faker. I wasn't done."

"Not my fault you're talking too slow."

Silver coughed to get their attention. "If Shadow could finish?" he said pointedly.

"Thank you. Now as I was saying, his chaos energy is more natural now. I expect everyone remembers his true form? …No, you morons, the crystal one. Solaris doesn't figure in this at all. Mephiles' chaos energy used to be mostly stationary, like the crystalline form he took. Right now, it's flowing like that of a normal sapient, but slower."

A moment passed before anyone spoke. A sly grin grew on Sonic's face. Shadow saw, but was disinclined to do anything about it.

"Awww, Mephy's becoming a real boy," Sonic cooed. He smirked at Tails and Silver's annoyed (and Mephiles' confused) expressions. "Come on, that's obviously what's happening. Who cares why?"

"Does that make you the blue fairy?" Shadow asked.

"Nah. I'd say it's the silver fairy this time. Or white or gray, whatever you wanna go with."

Everyone turned toward the implied character. Silver blinked. "What? Why me?" He frowned when Sonic and Tails exchanged a Look. "I know we've been getting along," he glanced pointedly at Tails, "but you're talking like this is some sort of shipping fic." Sonic tweeted a whistle he'd gotten out of nowhere. Silver rolled his eyes. "I know, fourth wall. Still."

"You know," Tails said, "I called you inside so we could get some readings on Mephiles' chaos energy." Seeing Mephiles' doubtful expression, he quickly added, "You don't have to. I just figure we might be able to understand what's going on better with some data."

Mephiles still hesitated. "What do you do to get these readings?"

Shadow gestured toward the lab. "There's a machine in there. You stand in a tube and it scans your chaos signature. It doesn't harm you."

"But it feels weird," Sonic said with an exaggerated shudder. "Like being squashed between two water beds."

Silver shook his head. "Sonic, you know it varies by person. It could be anything, but it's usually uncomfortable."

Shadow nodded. "The sensation isn't painful. But having your life energy looked at is unpleasant."

"This isn't making me feel better about this."

"It really won't hurt you," Tails assured. "After all, everyone who uses it comes out fine."

"…Fine."

Five minutes later, they were gathered around a screen in the main lab (Mephiles still rubbing at the numbness in his arms). Tails hit a button, bringing two images up on the screen. Both looked like a model of a body's veins done in green. The color moved around on a five second loop.

"Shadow's and Meph's energy?" Sonic guessed.

Tails nodded. "Exactly. Now we can't be certain, but…" He pushed a few more buttons and a third, mostly stationary image appeared. "Shadow, does this look anything like the old Mephiles' chaos energy?"

Shadow examined the image and nodded. "It's reasonably close, considering the limits of a visual representation."

"…Right. Well, Mephiles' current pattern is right about midway between the two."

"So Mephiles actually is becoming more like a living being?" Silver asked.

Shadow shrugged. "In terms of chaos energy, at least."

"That's all we can say for now," Tails said. "I can look into this, but that'll take a while. Until we get a better understanding of Meph's… status… we should proceed with caution." The fox thought for a moment. "Since you're going to ask anyway, I don't think there's a problem with you using chaos techniques. Just be careful."

"On that note, what were you three doing in the yard?" Shadow asked.

"I was asked to demonstrate my abilities."

"I see. Will you continue the exercise now?"

Mephiles looked at Silver and Sonic, who shrugged. "If there's a chance of learning something new, then yes."

"In that case, I'll assist. These two can't teach you anything useful."

"Hey!" Silver protested. "It's not my fault nobody taught me chaos powers."

"And mine are fine, at least when I've got an emerald," Sonic huffed.

"Exactly. Neither of you would be any good at teaching, because you aren't familiar with the subject matter. Do you object?"

Mephiles shrugged. "Do what you want."

The four headed back outside. Silver telekinetically grabbed a remote, then bashed it into his face. "Ow. Stupid depth perception," he grumbled, tapping the buttons to activate a few robots.

Shadow gave him a flat look. "You say this as though it could actually worsen your clumsiness."

"Excuse me, but I'm usually fine with my powers."

"He's got a point," Sonic said. "I mean, that is why he's clumsy in the first place." He zipped up one of the towers. "Are we starting yet?"

Silver flew up next to him (and had to be balanced when he almost missed the platform). "I'm sure we'll start once the banter stops."

Shadow ignored them and turned back to Mephiles. "From what I understand, you only know how to use a chaos blast. Those take too much energy to be used consistently. As such, you should use them only when necessary."

"What do you use?"

"Chaos spear. It's easier to control and uses a more sustainable amount of energy. You simply do this." He gathered energy in his hand. "Chaos… spear!" The energy shot out and hit one of the hovering robots, causing a not insubstantial explosion. "Now you try."

Mephiles thought for a moment. It didn't seem too hard. He looked down at his hand, trying to focus his energy like he had for the blasts. Much slower than Shadow's demonstration, energy began to gather around his hand… then fizzled out.

Five minutes later, he still hadn't made the energy stay for more than a second.

Shadow, neutral expression unchanged, finally spoke. "It appears we need to work on sustaining charged energy first."

Mephiles whirled to glare at him. "You think?!" he snapped. He then yelped and jumped back as an explosion singed his fur.

Shadow, having noticed the gathering energy, was less singed but equally surprised. He quickly collected himself. "It seems I overestimated your control. We'll need to work on that first. Though you do display unwonted skill for a beginner."

Mephiles wasn't sure whether he'd been complimented or insulted. Silver quickly spoke up. "He means you did pretty well, with the experience you have. Now that I think about it, I don't think I saw you use chaos powers before." He shot a questioning glance at Shadow, who nodded, and another at the hedgehog shaped vacancy next to him, which failed to respond. "Where – no, when did he leave?"

Shadow shrugged. "Hardly matters. We'll see him again when it's least convenient." The end of his sentence was partly drowned out as Mephiles managed to throw a small energy ball a few feet away, where it promptly exploded. Loudly, and with a lot of smoke.

Silver watched them cough and wave away the smoke until the air had mostly cleared, then jumped down beside them. "Nice start. When I was learning my powers, my first mistake almost knocked me off a skyscraper. By comparison, that actually wasn't too bad." They both gave him unimpressed looks. "It's not like you can even see it on dark fur, so you can just stop that."

Sonic chose that moment to reappear behind Silver, now carrying a large bag. He began rummaging through it as he spoke. "Sorry 'bout that. I was getting hungry, so I decided to go get snacks for everyone. Hey, Silver, think fast!"

Silver yelped and dove to the side, barely dodging what appeared to be a banana cream pie. The projectile carried on its merry way until it encountered its inadvertent target – Mephiles.

Sonic choked on a laugh, Silver stared wide-eyed, and Shadow facepalmed, muttering about immature pranks. Mephiles just stood there a moment, posture practically radiating 'unimpressed.' He slowly reached up and took hold of the pie plate, pulling it off and beginning to scrape filling off his face. "I don't understand-" Whatever he didn't understand went unspoken. He froze mid-sentence, then began scraping filling off almost frantically. Once he'd cleaned off most of the mess, he turned back to them, very distinctly freaked out. "What was that?"

Sonic blinked. "…Banana cream pie. Something wrong?"

Mephiles just stared at him, looking completely lost. Silver spoke hesitantly. "Mephiles… what happened?"

Mephiles calmed down enough to reply, albeit shakily. "I don't know… it just felt weird." His eyes narrowed. "And I think some of that went up my nose."

Sonic chuckled weakly as everyone glared at him. "Shoulda thought that one through a little more, huh?"

"Probably," Silver said. "Meph, if you want to avoid our whole prank war, I'll be happy to get revenge for you."

"Prank war. This is an actual thing." He was unsure whether to be amused or nonplussed.

Shadow tossed him a damp cloth. He caught it without questioning when or where he'd gotten it. Shadow spoke as he wiped his face clean. "Unfortunately, yes. Though I still don't know how I became involved in this nonsense."

"Blame Sonic," Silver advised. "Anything like that without apparent cause is probably his fault."

"Hey, the cooking thing was on both of us."

"Faker, I'm not the one who instigated any of those incidents, nor have I ever burned juice."

Mephiles coughed to regain their attention. "So. Cooking. Great. Could we move on to something productive? Like explaining how to manage chaos energy? Not to belittle the importance of petty revenge schemes."

Shadow shrugged. "Feel free. The whole thing is inane. Now let's follow through with your suggestion."

Less than five minutes later, Shadow and Sonic were arguing again. Mephiles watched them briefly, then shrugged and turned to Silver. "You know what you said earlier?"

Silver blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The bit about revenge for the pie."

"Oh. Yeah, what about it?"

"Whatever you plan, count on an accomplice."

A slow smile spread across Silver's face. "Can do."

The lesson was eventually paused as everyone decided to break for lunch. (Mephiles was just happy not to burn himself for a while.)

Silver glanced around, frowning. "I feel sort of bad. We're all eating except Meph."

Mephiles shrugged. "Don't. I don't see that it's a problem. Eating seems like a waste of time."

"You might need to deal with that time waste eventually," Tails said, stepping into the room. He began to fix himself a sandwich, seemingly oblivious to the confused looks thrown his way.

Silver eventually spoke up. "Are you going to explain that?"

He looked up and noticed their faces. "Sorry, I'd assumed it was obvious. With Mephiles' energy becoming more natural, he's acquiring some natural traits. Like sleeping or emoting. Sooner or later, he might show more. But I'm hoping that needing food won't happen without some way for him to actually eat. Hey, are you okay?"

During this speech, Mephiles had begun looking pale. He shook his head when attention turned to him. "Fine. Just fine. Let's all hope that doesn't happen anytime soon. I'm going to go watch that cartoon some more." He got up and left without waiting for a reply.

Everyone stared blankly at the door. "He must really not like the idea of eating," Silver said. Sonic snorted, and they continued eating.

Silver stood and watched Mephiles' game for a minute before sitting on the couch next to him. "You done freaking out?"

Mephiles' character fell down a chasm. He stared at the Game Over screen before turning with narrowed eyes to glare at Silver. "I wasn't 'freaking out.' I was removing myself from an unpleasant situation. Calmly."

"Meph. I understand not wanting to talk about things. But don't even try that. Seriously, you're worse than Shadow at plausible deniability, and that's saying something."

Mephiles exited the screen, but remained on the main menu for several seconds. "I think I might have that eating adaptation."

Silver was very glad he'd finished eating. Otherwise he might have choked. "You what?!"

He continued to look away. "Earlier, when Sonic threw the pie, I felt… some of it was sort of absorbed, and I smelled it, but it wasn't smell."

"Tails might be able to help more than-"

"It was weird," he continued, as if Silver hadn't spoken. "Not in a good way, but not really in a bad way either. Just really, really weird. And I'm not sure how I feel about it being necessary to live." His eyes flicked over to Silver, then darted back to the screen.

Silver sat in uncertain silence for several seconds, trying to formulate a response. "I don't really know how to help," he finally said. "Tails could answer any questions on the science behind it, but I don't think anyone could help you deal with it otherwise. The closest I've come to gaining a new sense like that is… well, when I first came to the past and realized that green and blue were colors that existed outside of stories. But I'd always been able to see, so I guess that isn't all that similar. Sorry."

Mephiles shrugged. "I don't expect anyone to understand. And hadn't expected you to try. I… appreciate the effort."

"You're welcome, I guess. But why did you decide to tell me? Just because I came in here first?"

He snorted. "Hardly. I wouldn't have said that much to just anyone."

"How come?"

"I'm… not sure. But you're… you feel safe. I'm not as worried about what I tell you." He spoke hesitantly, avoiding eye contact as he did.

"Yeah, Tails had a thought about that."

"He has thoughts about everything, doesn't he?"

"Better for one person to have most answers than everyone to have none."

"Hmph."

"Anyway. I'm paraphrasing some, but during the… adventure, we were allies for a while."

"I thought I was the bad guy."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't experienced with trickery. The point is, you might remember me as being on your side on some level."

Mephiles scrunched one eye in a sort of grimace. "That's a positive start."

"Not my idea. Not even a sure thing. Just a possibility."

He remained silent and started his game. He's really like Shadow at times, Silver thought. "Okay, enough about that. Doesn't matter much anyway. What do you say we plot that revenge?"

Mephiles didn't even need a mouth to express his evil smirk. "Sounds good."

Mephiles jolted awake. He stared wide-eyed at the ceiling, trying to get his bearings.

After spending most of the day practicing with his energy, he would have happily collapsed on the couch. But nooo, Silver insisted on dragging him to the kitchen for some kind of eating experiment (thank chaos he couldn't remember how that went) before sending/shoving him into one of the guest bedrooms with a comment about not sleeping on the couch again. He thought Shadow might still be there, but wasn't sure. Silver he knew was there. He was sleeping in the bed across the room. Or not. Now that Mephiles looked, Silver was sitting up and rubbing his eyes sleepily. Now if only he knew what had woken them before the sun even thought about rising.

CLANG.

Mephiles suddenly found himself staring at a surface inches from his face and barely stopped himself from trying to sit up. That would have gone real well. Now where was he?"

"Meph?!"

Still in the room, it seemed. "What, Silver?"

Footsteps approached him, and something was pulled up to show Silver leaning down to look into the space. "How did you get under the bed?"

"No idea." He reluctantly took Silver's extended hand and pulled himself out. "But I have a more pressing question: what was that noise?"

"I can answer that."

Mephiles jumped at the unexpected input. He and Silver turned to see Shadow leaning on the door frame, looking much more awake than either of them. The dark being narrowed his eyes. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough. Do you want your question answered?" Mephiles remained silent. "I thought so. Based on Tails' comments when he passed me in the hall, that was one of his projects. I recommend getting used to it for as long as you stay here. On a side note… my compliments for managing to phase through the bed on accident. That takes skill."

Mephiles blinked. "I what."

Silver's eyes widened. "Oh. That explains it."

"If people could stop being pointlessly cryptic and explain things before being stunned-"

Silver glared at him. "Shut up. Shadow was talking about your dark powers, which we don't actually know much about."

"So because you didn't know about them, you didn't bother mentioning them."

"Er, well-"

"Hardly," Shadow said over Silver's stuttering. "It hadn't come up yet." Mephiles gave him a suspicious look. Shadow gave him a dry one. "Name one good reason for us to withhold that information."

"Caution. Or spite."

"Spite for what?"

"I don't know, maybe everything I did before I lost my memory?!"

Silver stepped between them. "Enough already! This is pointless. Meph, you should know we don't hold that against you. And Shadow, do you have to pick fights at two in the morning? Honestly." He shook his head before glaring at each individually. "I'm going back to sleep now. If you two keep arguing, do it somewhere else or I'll throw you out the window." He turned, climbed back into bed, and pulled the blankets over his head.

Shadow shrugged and left, closing the door behind him. Mephiles decided he ought to get some more sleep as well. He'd need it to survive another day in this crazy place.

Chapter Text

Sorry for posting a day late. It's still less edited than I'd like, though, so please do tell me if you spot anything that seems especially awkward. Hopefully I'll get a chance to fix it up soon.

Also, quick warning: there's been a time skip since the end of last chapter. Further explanation is there, but I figure it might be disorienting if you haven't seen the last bit for a week.

"Meph, if you're in there, this is your warning. I'm starving."

Mephiles threw his bowl at the kitchen sink. "Fine. I was already done anyway."

Silver entered the kitchen and began fixing himself a bowl of cereal. "You know, eventually you'll need to get used to eating in front of people. What if someone was visiting and you needed a snack?"

"I would rather wait a week than eat in front of anyone. Note that this is nearly the length of my conscious lifespan."

"We've explained why you can't do that. At least twice, since you plugged your ears and 'la la la'd through the first time." He sat across from Mephiles, but didn't start eating just yet. "Anyway, once you change houses, you'll have to deal with eating in other peoples' presence."

"Remind me again why I'm moving to hedgehogtopia."

"Because you didn't listen last time, or because you want to argue?"

"Take your pick."

Silver facepalmed. "I can't even – you know what, I don't even care anymore. First, it'll make it easier for Shadow to monitor your energy. Now that your powers are really starting to emerge, that's important. Second, we all know full well you won't bother to get out of the house at all once I'm not here to make you."

"And why are you leaving?"

"That would be reason number three. We've had maybe two nights when one of Tails' projects didn't wake us up in the middle of the night. Even for a semi-organic like you, sleep's important, and there's no way you've been getting enough." Mephiles' eyes scrunched in a yawn. "I rest my case."

"Shadow doesn't sleep."

"He sleeps a few hours every week. Besides, he's the ultimate lifeform. Sharing his appearance and sharing his abilities are two separate things."

"Is sharing a central location somehow relevant to either one?"

Silver gave him a flat look and took a bite of cereal. Mephiles sat and watched for a minute before deciding that watching someone eat was kind of creepy. He stood and turned to leave.

"Fourth reason."

He stopped and looked back at Silver, who was slowly stirring his cereal.

"The three of us know more about dealing with the nightmares and blackouts than anyone else. Key players and all that. So we should stick together."

Mephiles was silent as he considered that. It hadn't been brought up in their last discussion.

"And for Chaos' sake, stop leaving dishes in the sink!" Silver huffed. "It takes maybe a minute to-" His head snapped up at a quiet whoosh, only to realize it was a phasing-through-walls-to-escape-chores kind of whoosh. He shook his head and shot an exasperated half-smile at the empty space.

"Are we there yet?"

"Knock it off. What are you, three years old?"

"No, I'm eight days old."

Silver shoved Mephiles sideways. "You're channeling Sonic. Stop it before you end up on the list."

Mephiles' expression morphed into one of exaggerated scorn. "You would prank me? Clearly you overestimate your abilities." Silver turned and walked away. Mephiles' eyes scrunched in a sort of smirk as he fell into step beside him. "What? You dare walk away? But I obviously am too important to be ignored. Just ignore the fact that I can only look at my feet or the sky."

"Telling you about the old you was such a bad idea."

"If you say so. At least I'm only doing a bad imitation instead of still being him."

Silver stopped midstep. Mephiles kept walking a few steps before noticing. He turned just in time to see Silver almost fall over as physics reminded him that freezing that far through a step wasn't actually possible.

Mephiles snorted. "What's wrong now? Drop something? Wait, no, that can't be it. Quills don't drop things easily."

Silver rolled his eyes. "Knock it off. Your comment surprised me, that's all."

"My-" He paused to consider. His face took on a faint olive flush as he realized he'd said that aloud. His eyes darted around, searching for a change of topic. "Is it just me, or does that park look familiar?"

Silver looked over and nodded. "Not surprising. That's the park where I first ran into you." He motioned toward a nearby storefront. "Pretty sure you knocked their dumpster over while raging about… yeah, I'll just stop there," he said, noting Mephiles' narrowed eyes.

"Wise decision." His next statement was cut off by a loud crash and the shockwave that followed.

Silver was knocked over, but Mephiles only slid back a few steps. He raised an unimpressed eye ridge, then offered Silver a hand up. Silver took it without looking at him, too busy staring at the park. Mephiles finally turned to see what was going on.

The thing now sitting by the swings shared a passing similarity with some of Tails' projects. The main difference between it and them was the thing's ridiculous size. The robot had noodle-jointed arms ending in what looked like alligator clips. Otherwise, it was your typical stout metal-plated giant robot. It turned and tripped over the swings, which collapsed under its weight.

"I liked that swingset," Silver said, confusion taking any edge out of his voice.

A small egg-shaped pod floated down and hovered just above the robot. It sprouted several speakers circling its middle. "Attention, citizens! This is your last chance to surrender before your city is burned to the ground!"

Silver finally shook his shock off enough to be annoyed. "He's a day late."

Mephiles observed the logo liberally applied to the machines and made an educated guess. "Eggman?"

"Looks like."

"You said he's a day late."

"Yeah. His next attack was supposed to be yesterday."

Mephiles gave him a flat look. "Your main enemy gives you a schedule for his attacks."

Silver shrugged. "It's unofficial. Sometimes Egghead doesn't even show, so we get the day off. But he usually shows once a week unless he's plotting something major." He cringed as the biggest slide crunched under the robot's clumsy foot. "Let's talk later. Follow me."

Mephiles watched the thing for another moment before dashing after Silver. They stopped near a large tree. "What now?"

Silver kept his eyes on the robot. "Now stupidity." He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Hey bolts-for-brains! You're off a day!"

The pod pivoted slightly. "What are – Shadow? Silver? This has nothing to do with you, so butt out!"

Mephiles stared flatly at it for a moment. He turned to a tree and banged his head against it three times, then remained in that position.

Silver stifled a snicker. "I'm sure they'll get it eventually."

"Before or after we all die of old age?" Mephiles grumbled into the tree.

The robot began emitting a low buzz. "I have no idea what you're talking about," the pod said, "but I do not appreciate being ignored!"

Mephiles spun at Silver's startled exclamation and had barely enough time to react as the alligator clip arm phased through him and hit the tree, which promptly caught fire. He gingerly stepped out of the arm before allowing his form to solidify. "That was uncalled for," he snapped. He watched Silver examine the other arm, now surrounded by a teal glow, before flinging it back and burying it in the robot's body. He dusted his hands as the robot collapsed. "What he said."

The pod emitted several seconds of incomprehensible sputtering before giving any understandable statement. "Since when could you do that?"

Silver looked at Mephiles. "Is he talking to you?"

"Yes, Silver, he is talking to me, unless your powers are less widely known than I've been led to believe." He endured Silver's glare and refocused on the pod. "Really, though, is it so hard to realize that I'm not Shadow? Our colors are pretty different, and it's too bright out to claim you can't see."

Several seconds of silence passed.

"Mephiles," the voice said with dawning comprehension. "So that's what happened."

Silver gave it a puzzled look, then shrugged and ignored it. "You do realize you're late, right? Your attack should have been yesterday."

Another pause, accompanied by some tapping and beeping noises. "Hm. That's embarrassing." An arm popped out of the pod's bottom and attached to the robot. "I'll be going now." The pod flew off over the rooftops with the robot in tow.

Silver watched, shaking his head. "That was worse than his usual stupidity. Keeping track of the date can't be that hard with that many computers around.

Mephiles shrugged. "Maybe he got caught up in a project. Now can we go already?"

Silver sighed and started back toward the road. "Come on."

Silver pushed the door open and stepped inside. "We're here!"

Mephiles followed him in and took a quick look around. The door opened onto a short hallway, ending in a large room. A kitchen counter could be seen on the right, while what sounded like game noises came from the left. A staircase to the second floor ran parallel to the hall. On the other side of the stairs was a room with just enough space for a table and chairs.

Shadow was sitting at the table. He glanced up at Silver's announcement, then turned back to his laptop. At the same time, the game noises paused, and Sonic's head poked out from the left area. "Took you long enough! It's only a couple miles between here and Tails' place."

Silver shrugged and headed down the hall. "Eggman forgot what day it was. We were delayed dealing with him."

Mephiles followed him, continuing to examine his surroundings. To the right was a decent sized kitchen. There was an island with some stools in the center and a counter circling the whole room on three sides. Several pictures and lists were stuck to the fridge with a strange assortment of letter, planet, and element magnets, with an occasional lego or magnetic clip. A large pot full of water sat in the sink. To the left was an entertainment center facing a couch that currently held a confused blue hedgehog. "How do you forget the date with that many computers around?"

"It takes a special kind of skill." The three turned to see Shadow standing in the doorway. "Eggman mastered it long ago. Some members of the group are similarly adept at it." He walked over to the TV and set his laptop on a shelf.

Sonic frowned. "Not gonna ask who you mean by that. What're you doing now?"

"Setting up the screen." He plugged in a cord and tapped a button. The TV screen switched to a map with several points marked. "There have been some strange energy signals appearing lately. Tails has been tracking them – don't ask how, it's technical – and is attempting to determine the cause. These are some of the strongest and/or most extended ones detected locally. If you have information to add, do so."

Mephiles pointed at the screen. "Isn't that where we just fought Eggman?"

Silver squinted. "Putting aside the fact that nobody can tell where you're pointing, I think you're right. And there's another one over Tails' place."

Sonic rested his chin in one hand. "Maybe it's something Meph's doing."

"The problem with that-" Mephiles began, but Shadow interrupted.

"Unlikely at best. He can't have been to all of those places, and we should have noticed if he used his powers at range. But he may be involved with a few of them."

Mephiles scowled. "I could have said that."

"Perhaps," Shadow said with an indifferent shrug.

"Let's not argue about this," Silver said quickly. "Are we supposed to do anything about this, or just keep an eye out?"

Shadow tapped a few more keys and zoomed the display out, a few spots blinking in different colors. "Tails asked if anyone was free to help install some machines of his. They can't be transported at high speeds, so installing them alone would take a long time."

"So we'll all do a part and be done faster," Mephiles said.

Shadow glanced at him, then turned back to the screen. "We'll need partners to do parts of the setup, so Tails arranged a meetup tomorrow morning. Though I notice we have an odd number right now, so we'll see how the pairs go."

Sonic, who had been looking at the screen silently, finally spoke up. "Shadow, I found something weird."

Shadow raised a brow. "Really? What?"

"It looks like-" He hesitated, then frowned. "Let's go upstairs for a minute."

Shadow shrugged and disconnected the laptop.

Silver watched them go around the corner before flopping down on the couch and grabbing the remote. "They'll probably be a while, so-" He cut off, noticing that Mephiles hadn't moved. "Meph?"

"They really don't trust me," he murmured absentmindedly, gazing down the hall.

Silver sighed and leaned against the back of the couch. "I'm sure they'll come around eventually.

Mephiles' head snapped over to him. He blinked rapidly as he came back to the present. Then his expression abruptly went flat. "I doubt it. They have more reasons for distrust than trust."

"Maybe so, but most of those reasons are obsolete. You aren't a villain now."

Mephiles turned away. "Still, I doubt they'll ever really trust me."

As much as Mephiles tried to conceal it, Silver was all too familiar with that tone and stance. He remembered using them himself when he'd 'returned' to this time and doubted his chances of ever really being one of the group, especially with his history. With a past like Meph's, it had to seem even more hopeless.

Silver stood and approached Mephiles, slowly reaching to place a hand on his shoulder. The dark being looked up with a startled expression, but didn't move away. Silver took this as a good sign. "Don't worry about it too much. Even if they're wary now, they'll come around in time." He gave a reassuring smile. "If nothing else, I trust you. That's something, right?" Mephiles looked away with a vague noise. Silver frowned jokingly. "What, I'm not as good as them?"

Mephiles closed his eyes and sighed heavily. He took a hold of Silver's wrist and lifted his hand away. He paused briefly, then simply released his grip and letting Silver's arm swing back to his side before making eye contact again. "It isn't that your opinion is less important," he said, voice void of emotion. "But it's biased by your interactions with the old me."

Silver's mind froze for a moment. "I don't – Meph, that's just a theory. And even if it's right, my trust in you is based on the you of the present, not the you that tricked me."

"You said you trust me."

"Of course I do!"

"Then your opinion is biased."

"That isn't-" Mephiles turned away as Silver tried to speak. "You're being unreasonable." No response. "I know you know how immature the silent treatment is." Nothing. "Arg, fine!" Silver said with a frustrated groan. He turned back to the TV and began forcefully pressing buttons, rapidly cycling through the channels. "Have it your way. Don't let me be a decent person. It's whatever."

The sound of channels changing stopped at about the same time as his tirade. He glared at the screen, arms folded tightly. He wasn't going to look at Meph right then, no matter how much he wanted to. That would be like admitting defeat. (He'd never said he was any more mature.)

Because he was so busy not looking, he didn't see when Mephiles looked over at him, or the flash of guilt clouding his eyes, or the brief hesitation before he closed his eyes and forced himself to silently turn away.

Even with the TV playing, the room was coated in an oppressive silence.

Sonic chose that moment to pop back in. "Hey, we were thinking…" His grin faded as he caught the mood. "Is something wrong?"

He received two emphatic "No!"s without either party looking up.

Shadow joined Sonic and quickly took in the situation, particularly Silver's choice of entertainment. "So. Paid programming."

Silver continued staring at the screen. "Yep."

"Selling what appears to be eye shadow."

"Yep."

"Sparkly eye shadow. And possibly lipstick."

"Yep."

"Are you actually watching this?"

"Nope."

Shadow picked the remote up and turned the TV off. Silver continued staring at the blank screen.

Sonic blinked a few times. "Ooookay then. Anyway, me and Shads were thinking, since we don't have anything planned today, we could show Meph around the neighborhood." (Everyone ignored Shadow's grumbling about the nickname.)

Silver finally looked up, jumping to his feet and pasting on an overly large grin. "Great idea! I was thinking that earlier, but since someone else suggested it, maybe it's actually a good idea! Right?"

He turned to Mephiles, who quickly concealed his shock at Silver's outburst. "You have good ideas on your own just fine. And yes, that is a good idea."

"Great, let's go!" Silver turned and marched past everyone. Sonic glanced between him and Mephiles a few times, then shrugged and followed.

Mephiles moved to join them until Shadow stepped in his way, frowning. "What did you say? Silver hasn't been this upset since paintball."

Mephiles directed a level gaze at him. "One day someone has to explain paintball. But what makes you think I said something?"

"He seemed upset, while you do not."

Mephiles continued to hold his gaze. "I said nothing you would disagree with." He pushed past Shadow. "And I resent the implication that upsetting him wouldn't bother me."

Shadow watched him for a moment, then followed the rest.

Mephiles coughed and waved the dust away with one hand. He kept the other clamped over the lower half of his face, making his voice come out nasally. "How often does this happen?"

Silver glared at the pair of blurs now almost out of sight over the horizon. "Fifty-fifty chance every time they argue. They'll be back before dark, though. They've learned."

"So we're on our own for a bit."

Silver paused at Mephiles' level tone. He faced him and returned the neutral stare. "You'ure right. And if you want, we can go back. But I thjink you need to give yourself a little more credit for working to be someone others will trust. After all, it's why we're friends." He managed a small smile. "So, back to the tour?"

A tense silence followed. Mephiles' expression held no sign of his thoughts. He kept that neutral expression as he finally nodded. "Lead on."

Silver's grin was so big his face hurt, but he didn't care. He turned and pointed forward with a sweeping gesture. "Let's go!"

Mephiles stifled a snort and followed, allowing a small smile to shine in his eyes.

Parallels are fun. Just saying.

And no, that isn't the end of Meph's problems with trust. That would be too easy. Sorry Meph. -n-

Chapter Text

Maybe I ought to make Sunday the official posting date. Not that it'll matter for a while, because all stories will be on hold for the duration of November due to NaNoWriMo. Sorry about that, but it'll be taking up all the free time I would otherwise use on Wake and other fanfic.

In happier news, we've finally gotten through all the older stuff as of this chapter. Hereafter everything will have been written more recently, so hopefully events will make more sense, and trees will not be left on fire. (If you don't get it... reread last chapter. It's in the Eggman encounter.)

And since I probably won't be able to post anything tomorrow, happy early Halloween!

"That's where Shadow goes to buy books." Silver pointed out a quaint brick building. "Sometimes he'll pick one or two for me. He gave up on Sonic immediately. Actually, we should figure out what books you'd like so you can start your own collection."

"Keep in mind that I have no idea where to start, except that it won't be romance." He glanced over and stopped. "Silver?"

Silver didn't respond. His face had gone slack and his eyes unfocused, staring at nothing. Mephiles facepalmed. "Why do I have to deal with this?" he grumbled, looking around for something he could use.

"Are you two alright?"

Mephiles looked up and spotted the speaker in the bookshop doorway. "I'm fine, but he needs help. Do you have any old boxes, or something else large, light, and disposable?"

The stranger didn't so much as give him a quizzical look before going inside, returning a moment later with a battered cardboard box. "Will this work?"

"Yes." Mephiles took the box and eyed Silver carefully, doing some quick calculations. Too far he'd miss, wrong angle it might hit someone, too close he might hit someone. He took a deep breath, readied himself to throw, yelled, "Hey, Silver, it's no use!" and let fly.

Silver jolted and flung his hands toward the box. With a crackling crunch, the box compacted into a tight cardboard wad surrounded by a teal glow. The glow faded and dropped it on the ground. Silver's eyes cleared. He dropped his arms to his sides, blinking like he'd just woken up. His eyes wandered until they focused on Mephiles, who somehow managed to smirk without a mouth. "Welcome back. Did you enjoy your trip?"

Silver's confusion changed to annoyance. "I'd say thanks for waking me, but I think you enjoyed it too much."

Mephiles' 'smirk' grew. "You're welcome."

The stranger finally spoke up again. "If you're both fine, I'll be getting back to work. Hopefully our next meeting is for sale of books." He gave a little wave and vanished back into the bookshop.

Silver noticed Mephiles' puzzled expression. "That was the shop owner. One or another of us comes by often enough for blackouts to be expected."

"I see. What were you remembering?"

Silver shuddered. "One of the moments we're denying ever happened."

Mephiles' face went blank. "Wait, right before this we were discussing-" Silver grimaced, and he wisely cut the thought short. "Alright. Anything else planned for this tour?"

"Nope, this was the last stop." Silver checked his com. "I'd suggest going somewhere for lunch, but we both know how that would go. Instead, I vote we get something to go and head back. Sound good?"

"As long as they have mint chip shakes."

"Did you expect anything different?"

"Pull that again, I dare you," Silver warned.

Mephiles' head snapped over him. The shock on his face quickly changed to innocence. "Trick? Whatever could you mean?"

Silver narrowed his eyes. "You know exactly what trick I mean. And if you leave me to clean up alone again…" He trailed off ominously.

Mephiles dropped the innocent look in favor of mischievous amusement. "What? You'll yell at me?"

"You won't get any dessert."

His expression went shocked again, this time with a trace of horror. (Silver marveled internally at how expressive he was for someone without a mouth.) "You wouldn't."

"Try me."

A stare-off commenced, neither one moving for a long moment. Mephiles finally turned away and began collecting empty containers.

"That's what I thought," Silver said with incorrigible smugness.

"Be quiet. Aren't you going to help?"

"Nah." Silver crossed his arms behind his head and leaned his chair back, eyes closed in relaxation. "You owe me for this morning."

"It was one dish, you lazy bundle of spines. And I will laugh a lot when that chair tips over."

"Won't. Telekinetics."

"Spoilsport."

"Is that what it's called when you don't want a concussion? Guess I learned my new thing for today."

"Congrats, you're one of the ten thousand." Mephiles dumped the last few containers into the trash and returned to his seat across from Silver. "What do you expect to happen tomorrow?"

Silver cracked one eye open partway. "What, the machines or – you mean partners? Not sure, really. I bet Tails'll take on an overseer role, if you're thinking about the odd numbers thing. And there's the usual Amy and Sonic shenanigans, but otherwise it's kind of a tossup. Why, worried about who you'll be stuck with?" Mephiles rolled his eyes and didn't answer. "Well good, cause you shouldn't be. I bet we'll be partners since we're close and all. Besides, I can work with just about anyone."

"You don't believe it certain that you'll be working with Blaze?"

Silver opened both eyes fully and looked carefully at Mephiles. He appeared merely curious, but that didn't mean this wasn't a loaded question. He dropped the chair back on all four legs. "Nope. We pair up a lot, but she can't always come. And like I said, I can work with anyone. I switch around a lot. So like I said, don't worry about it too much, cause we'll probably be partners."

"I know." Mephiles pushed his seat back and stood. "I'm going to check your game collection again."

"Want to try Colors multiplayer again?"

"…Not right now. I'd rather stick to single player games."

"Suit yourself."

…

Why can't I see anything?

…!

What was – is someone there?

Self.

What does that mean? Who are you?

You. Us. Pieces.

Oooookay. That's helpful.

Called. Meant for together.

Called? Together?

Parts attract. Want unity.

I'm not going to get a straight answer, am I?

You called. Loneliness. Hurt. Wrong.

That's… how-

Stop. Don't.

Don't what?

Link break. Stay.

I'm not going anywhere. What link?

Mephiles was roused from his slumber by the sound of hurried footsteps. It took him a long, groggy moment to register that it was way too late (or was it early?) for anyone to be up, except maybe Shadow. His curiosity pried him from the warmth of his blanket nest and led him to the door.

Nobody was on the landing, but one of the other doors was cracked open. He could hear someone talking, too softly to make out the words.

He silently approached the door and peered through the crack, poised to pull away in an instant.

Sonic and Silver sat at Shadow's sides, listening intently to his monotone dictation. Shadow gave no acknowledgement that they were there. His expressionless gaze was fixed on nothing, and his voice held no emotion. The words were still impossible to make out, but Mephiles didn't need them to realize Shadow had had a nightmare.

He decided not to make his presence known. It wouldn't do any good and might make things worse. There weren't any good reasons to do so. He simply slipped back to his room and closed the door without a sound.

After reestablishing himself in his nest, Mephiles finally took the time to consider his dream. It was too nonsensical to be one of the memory dreams, but too real to be a normal dream. He wasn't entirely sure he believed in visions, but that was the only idea he had. But there weren't any images. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that there hadn't been any sensations he'd felt with his normal senses. There had been a presence, and a voice, but it spoke with concepts and emotions. And it couldn't seem to give a straight answer.

The one thing that he knew for sure was that it believed them to somehow be part of the same whole. What whole it was talking about, or why them being its parts was so important, he couldn't say – but he had a feeling he should.

He shook his head rapidly. Speculation wouldn't help much at this hour, and he'd need sleep for tomorrow.

It would be over an hour before he drifted off again.

Sonic and Silver looked up from their breakfasts as Shadow entered the kitchen. Sonic gave a wave and an attempted "Morning, Shads!" that would have gone better if he'd swallowed first. Silver gave him a disgusted look. He grabbed a napkin to wipe bits of egg off his face before throwing it at him.

"It is certainly morning," Shadow deadpanned. "Though with a start like that, it's as well you omitted the 'good.' Is Mephiles still sleeping?"

Sonic tossed the napkin in the trash. "Seems like. Time eating for time sleeping, I guess. Lucky."

Shadow raised a brow at Silver, who subtly shook his head. Sonic still caught the motions. "What's with the secret codes?"

"Nothing important," Shadow assured with a wave of his hand. "Besides, it's your fault we were out so late. I suggested we head back multiple times. You kept refusing."

"Faker, you should know by now that I never surrender."

"Beyond any boundaries of common sense. Now someone needs to wake Mephiles or we'll be late."

"On it." Silver dropped his dishes in the washer and headed upstairs.

Sonic gave them a puzzled look. "How would he make us late?"

"That's his business."

Sonic shrugged and continued shoveling food in his mouth.

Silver returned a minute later, dragging a sleepy Mephiles y the arm. He released his hold and turned to scowl at him. "Well?"

Mephiles blinked most of his sleepiness away and shot Sonic a sideways glance. Silver facepalmed. "He's got to know eventually, you know. It'll just be more trouble than it's worth."

"Not really. Impractical, perhaps."

"Whatever. Breakfast is reheated eggs, microwave bacon, and orange juice. Here."

Mephiles made a face and took the plate, then left the room. Sonic watched him with a puzzled expression, then shrugged it off.

The trio made small talk until Mephiles returned and put his empty dishes away. Shadow glanced at the stove clock. "We'll be early if we leave now."

Sonic hopped to his feet. "What's wrong with being early? Let's go!"

"You're really early," Tails observed, waving them inside.

Silver gestured at Sonic. "Not surprising with him around. Anything we can do to help while we wait?"

"Only if you've studied doctorate-level physics and chemistry. Anyone else should probably keep out for a while."

Sonic turned to the others with a mischievous grin. "In that case, how about a match?"

Silver eyed min warily. "What rule set?"

"Air match with random stun."

"…If you're that eager to lose, I'd be happy to hand you your rear."

Sonic's grin didn't fade in the slightest. "Meph? You in?"

Mephiles shrugged. "What he said."

"Then let's go!"

A minute later, Sonic finished setting parameters and hit start. Several spherical machines floated up and hovered at varying heights above the yard. He zipped to the top of his chosen tower and checked that Mephiles and Silver were already on theirs. "Everyone ready?"

"We've been ready," Mephiles said.

Silver snickered. "What he said. Obviously you're too slow for us."

"Oh, it is on!"

A countdown signaled a momentary lapse in their banter. All three jumped at the same time, landing among the spheres.

Sonic's chosen foothold buzzed almost before he hit it, and he jumped to a new sphere with a startled yelp, feeling static electricity crackle in his fur. "That was too close," he said warily before jumping when that one buzzed.

"Having an issue there?" Mephiles asked from his perch. He sat with his face resting calmly in one hand. A slight ripple passed through him as he phased to avoid a shock, but he didn't react otherwise.

Silver hovered above another sphere. "I don't get why you decided on this setup. You're at a serious disadvantage."

Sonic steadied himself on yet another sphere before shooting him a cocky grin. "What's life without some challenge? Besides, I have a few tricks up my sleeves!" He kicked a buzzing sphere at Mephiles as he finished speaking. Mephiles looked startled for a moment before failing to look like anything due to not being visible anymore. The sphere passed harmlessly thought he empty space, but Mephiles failed to reappear.

Sonic blinked, then hastily vacated his sphere before giving a sheepish grin. "Uh… oops?"

Silver snapped out of his surprised stupor and gave Sonic an unimpressed look. He began scanning the area. "Meph, you still here? Sonic, if he isn't, you're finding him."

"I'm here, I'm here. Give me a moment to pull myself together."

Some of the shadows on the ground snaked toward each other, forming a central point. The point rapidly darkened until the shadows bubbled up into a solid figure. A moment later, Mephiles opened his eyes and glared at Sonic. "Is you throwing things at me going to become a trend?"

Sonic shrugged. "Twice isn't really a trend."

"Three times."

"The pie was an accident. The water balloon you had coming. This was a fight, and that was fair game. By the way, you're out."

"So I noticed. Care to join me down here?"

"Nah, the air down here is quite- ack!" Sonic's cheery rebuttal was cut off as a glowing sphere hit him from behind. He managed to avoid faceplanting but couldn't avoid hitting the ground.

Silver smirked. "How's the air down there compare?"

"It seems fine to me. Perhaps cooler than up there, with all the hot air that's been blowing."

Everyone jumped a little at the unexpected input. They turned to see Blaze watching from the patio.

Silver dropped down with a wide grin. "Hi Blaze! Why are you here so early?"

"Allowing time for delays. You know how it is with dimensional and temporal warps."

Silver nodded understandingly. Mephiles looked confused. Sonic rolled his eyes with an air of 'been there, heard the explanation, still don't get it, still don't care.'

"So you dodged the turbulence?"

"Mostly. Slipped on a loophole and had to create a new vortex, but it was a minimal delay."

"What kind? Doesn't sound like the usual maneuvers worked."

Sonic noticed that Mephiles' eyes were glazing over. He elbowed him to get his attention. "Don't pay attention to that, I'm pretty sure most of that stuff is made up so they sound sciencey. Space-time travel is mostly about smashing through things."

Mephiles considered, then shook his head. "That just makes it more confusing."

"You probably have to do it yourself. And, uh, remember doing it."

He grimaced. "Maybe. I won't be trying it anytime soon."

"Fair enough. Want to run a course or something? They'll talk for hours about nothing once they get started."

Mephiles hesitated, glancing at the pair briefly, then shook his head. "I think I'll go see what's on TV for now."

"Suit yourself." Sonic ran up a tower and jumped into the bunch of bots they'd neglected to turn off. Mephiles watched him for a moment before turning to head inside.

"Hey, Meph!"

Mephiles turned slowly back to Silver. "What now?"

Silver blinked. "Just wanted to know where you were going. Is something wrong?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Nothing is wrong. I was just going inside. You looked busy."

"Not busy, just talking. You and Blaze haven't met yet, right?"

He sighed and walked over to them. "This better not take too long."

Blaze raised a questioning brow, but didn't comment on his attitude. "I've been told that your memories were reset. My condolences for the trouble that must have caused you. However, I'm pleased to hear you're on our side now." Her tone contained a questioning note.

Mephiles stiffened minutely. "I certainly think so. But I'll understand if you don't believe it."

She shook her head. "I believe it. I merely wanted to hear it from you. That aside… do your abilities always cause trouble, or was that a fluke?"

"Depends," Silver said. "Whose definition of trouble?"

Blaze looked at Silver, who gave her a flat look, then at Mephiles, who gave her an innocent look. "…Allow me to rephrase. Can you typically control your abilities?"

Mephiles dropped the exaggerated innocence and shrugged. "Usually. Don't surprise me and nothing will happen."

"I see."

There was a long, awkward silence when none of them had more to say. Mephiles watched idly as Sonic ran among the bots. Silver shifted uncomfortably, grasping for something to say. Blaze seemed content with gazing off into the distance.

After a moment, Silver couldn't handle the oppressive silence anymore. "So what do-"

"Um, gusy?" Tails called, poking his head trhough a window. "Everyone's here, so unless someone objects, we can start now."

Sonic bounced down and deactivated the bots. He nturned and headed inside, Blaze close behind.

Silver hung back a little to speak softly to Mephiles. "Hey, are you-?"

"We should go too," he interrupted, quickly following the others, gaze locked firmly ahead.

Silver stared for a moment, stunned. Then he shook his head and hurried to catch up. He could look into his friend's strange behavior later.

Chapter Text

I'd like to apologize for taking so long with this update. Rather than offer excuses for the delay, I'll just say thank you to anyone still with this. Updates may be sporadic for a while, real life demanding attention and such, but I'll aim for my original once a week. With all that said, please enjoy!

Everyone gathered in the main room, casting curious looks at the contraptions scattered across the tables. Silver took note of those assembled, surprised at just how many of them had shown up. A few others had arrived while they were outside, including Rouge. The bat spotted them and made a beeline in their direction.

"Well, well," she said, looking Mephiles over. "Seems a certain Ultimate Lifeform may have some competition in the looks department, hmm?" She looked over at the being in question, who pointedly pretended not to hear.

Mephiles blinked. "O…kay?"

"Just ignore her," Silver suggested quietly.

The dark being looked at him, then turned away before nodding slightly. Silver tried not to be too bothered by it. Rouge eyed them both curiously but didn't get to speak before Tails called out.

"Alright, everyone. Anyone need a recap on what we're doing? No? Okay, great." He waved a stack of papers so everyone could see. "Steps for setting up the sensors are written on these, each pair gets one. Pairs are Sonic and Knuckles, Rouge and Shadow, Amy and Blaze, Silver and Mephiles, and me back here in case there's a problem." There was some complaining, especially from Amy, but nobody was too vocal about their displeasure. Mephiles tensed minutely but didn't speak up. "Each pair take a box and a paper. Locations are listed on the page. Again, I'll be here if there's a problem, so don't try to wing it. Please."

Mephiles stepped forward to get one of the sheets, so Silver waited beside an unclaimed box. The dark being joined him and offered the paper. Silver frowned as he scanned it. "Meph, can you wait here for a moment?"

Mephiles shrugged and nodded. Silver ducked into the lab where Tails had just vanished. "Hey, Tails? All our locations are in Soleanna."

Tails looked up from the screen he'd been examining. "All your – oh." He grimaced. "Sorry. I put close locations together, but I hadn't considered that you two might get that one. The others already left, right? Maybe I should call and-"

"It's fine," Mephiles said. "And you should know that I can hear you."

Tails and Silver exchanged sheepish looks before rejoining him. "Sorry," Silver said. "I just… didn't want to worry you." You seem to be having a bad enough day already, he thought but didn't say.

Mephiles gave him a look, then shrugged. "It's fine. Let's just get this over with."

Silver nodded and lifted the box with his powers before following him out the door.

"Can you grab me that plate?"

Mephiles picked up the piece in question and tossed it in Silver's general direction. It stopped before hitting the ground and hovered in place, wreathed in turquoise light. Silver paused his work to frown at Mephiles. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. What is your problem?"

Mephiles glanced at him, then crossed his arms and turned away.

"Don't give me that. You're acting weird, and I want to know why." Silver set the device down and fixed him with a serious look, arms likewise folded.

The dark being huffed. "Maybe I just want to be left alone."

Silver stared at him in astonishment. "Seriously? You?"

He finally made eye contact, but only to glare. "Did it not occur to you that I don't like being around all these strangers constantly? I barely know any of you!"

Silver's expression softened. "I hadn't thought about it like that, but you're right. Sorry."

"Then you have your answer."

"Nope. I want to know what else is wrong."

Mephiles grimaced and grumbled something under his breath.

"What?"

He glared again. "I said it's none of your business! Let's just get this finished so we can go home." The dark being picked up one of the partial contraptions and resumed working.

Silver kept glancing at him while they worked, but he refrained from saying anything, which was more than Mephiles had hoped.

Once they'd finished the setup, Silver retrieved the box and checked their next destination. "Next up… okay, follow me, I think I remember this next location."

"Like you remembered this one?"

"Hey, I found it eventually!" Silver objected. It was more a token protest than anything. He was just relieved to hear Mephiles cracking jokes rather than moping at some unknown problem.

"One more to go," Silver said, checking the paper again. Not that he needed to; this location was one that he remembered distinctly and brought back bad memories. Chaos knew how Mephiles would react to the visit.

"It's about time," Mephiles said, snapping Silver out of his thoughts.

It took him a moment to recall what Mephiles was responding to, at which point he blinked. "Oh?"

A low growl answered before Mephiles could. He flushed a bit and folded his arms huffily. "So maybe it's past lunchtime, alright?"

Silver carefully suppressed his amusement. Mephiles was acting more or less normal again, and he was not going to ruin that with poorly timed snickers. "We can get lunch once we're done."

"You mean at the house, right?"

"Works for me. But first we have to set up the last sensor."

Mephiles sighed. "Alright. Where to next?"

Silver checked one last time, vainly hoping that it had somehow changed in the last minute, or maybe that he'd misread it all dozen or so times he'd checked already. Sadly, neither had happened. "Outside Aquatic Base."

"I don't get it," Mephiles said as they worked. "What's so bad about this place?"

Silver flinched, fighting back memories of a dimly lit laboratory, a bright explosion, a small girl… He shook his head to clear it. "Same as all these places. Bad memories. I'm just surprised you aren't getting flashbacks." He couldn't help but feel slightly envious, even knowing how unreasonable the feeling was.

Mephiles blinked. "I have a history here?"

Another memory flickered in Silver's mind – chasing a living flame down one hall as his companion followed liquid shadows down another. "You could say that."

Mephiles thought for a moment, then shrugged and returned to his work. "It can't be that important if I completely forgot it."

Silver decided not to argue. It wasn't like they knew how to undo whatever caused those memories to vanish so completely. And maybe… maybe it was for the best if Mephiles didn't recover them. It can't have been anything other than traumatic.

They worked in silence for a while. Silver finally set the last part in place, dusting his hands off and turning to Mephiles. "I'm done. How's your part going?" He received no answer. "Meph?"

Still Mephiles was silent, staring sightlessly in the general direction of the base. Silver realized something must have finally triggered a memory. Meaning he had to deal with the flashback.

He sighed and approached with due caution, not wanting to cause another disappearance. Once was bad enough. Mephiles didn't react, so he was apparently successful.

Silver paused beside him, not quite sure what would be the best course to take. "Mephiles-"

He jerked his head around at the sound of his name, staring at Silver with unnerving intensity. There was something almost reptilian about that stare. Silver had to fight back a nervous giggle as he realized he could almost see cartoon flames burning in Mephiles' eyes. Something told him now was not the time for laughter. "Um-"

"This isn't real," he said, voice empty of all that emotion his face currently held. Suddenly he was right in Silver's face, gripping his shoulders in an unyielding hold. "They don't know what they're doing, keeping things this way. They can't see the truth. Only the real truth can-!"

A dull thud echoed through the clearing. Mephiles froze for an instant before collapsing on Silver, who squeaked and just barely caught him. The telekinetic lowered him to the ground before pulling out his com unit and sending a call.

Tail's voice crackled through the air. "Hi Silver. Problem?"

Silver glanced at the unconscious form by his feet. "You could say that. Is anyone back yet? I'm not sure I can safely carry Meph and the box at the same time."

There was a beat of silence. "What happened?"

"I… may have hit him in the head with a rock."

Another beat of silence, then a long-suffering sigh. "I'm not gonna ask. I'll see if anyone's free."

"Thanks." Silver ended the call and settled in to wait. This could take a while.

Barely five minutes later, a whoosh and a dark blur signaled Shadow's arrival. He glanced around briefly before approaching. "Sonic offered to come, but he wasn't finished working," he said with a hint of smugness.

Silver nodded and gestured at the sensing apparatus. "We, um, got interrupted before finishing with this one."

Shadow scanned the pieces again and picked one up. They began working without further conversation.

They soon got the sensor operational and packed up the rest of the gear. Shadow hefted Mephiles over his shoulder and turned to Silver. "I'll take him to the lab."

"Meet you there."

He nodded and vanished in a dark blur. Silver waited for the dust to settle before lifting the box and following after.

Mephiles was confused. The last thing he remembered was working on the sensor with Silver. So why was he lying in bed? It wasn't even his bed.

Upon opening his eyes and looking around, he concluded that he was in Tails' guest bedroom. Something must have happened in the underwater base place. If only he could remember what.

He got up and went downstairs, following the sound of voices into the lab. Rouge and Shadow were watching Tails point at various screens. They looked up as he entered.

"Glad you're awake," Tails said. "How are you feeling?"

"Mostly fine. My head hurts."

Shadow snorted.

"Oh, shut up," Silver huffed from behind Mephiles. The dark being glanced back, surprised to realize there was someone else in the room. He observed Silver's embarrassed irritation and decided not to ask.

Tails shot Shadow a look, then turned to Mephiles with a smile. "Glad to hear that. Not about your head, the other part." Then his expression turned serious. "Do you remember what happened before you lost consciousness?"

He shrugged. "I remember doing setup. Why, what happened?"

The others exchanged uneasy glances. Mephiles found himself mirroring the sentiment. Tails turned to Silver. "Maybe you should tell him."

"Not much to tell," Silver said with only a little hesitation. "You started acting weird and talking about something not being real. It was like you were hypnotized."

"And we don't know what caused it," Shadow said. "It wasn't anything obvious."

Silence fell as that processed. After a moment, Silver broke it. "Anyone else want some lunch?" He shrugged at the perplexed looks he got. "What? I'm hungry. Tails, can I borrow the kitchen?"

"Uh, sure. Just make something for me too."

"I'll make something for everyone. Meph?"

Mephiles rolled his eyes and followed Silver toward the kitchen. "One of these days I'll make you find a different helper."

"But not today, obviously."

Rouge waited until they'd left before smirking. "I see Silver's got him well trained."

Shadow snorted even as he rolled his eyes. "Very funny. We should return our attention to important matters."

"All right, no need to get so excited."

He didn't respond, but in truth, he was excited (at least relatively speaking). There was a chance they might finally find answers to some of their newfound questions.

Chapter Text

Hey, I'm alive! And still writing for this, in case you were wondering. Don't worry, I intend to finish any work that I post online or I wouldn't post it in the first place.

That said, I rolled a die to choose my camp nano project, and guess what it landed on. This work. So have this mess I had mostly typed a few days ago, and know that you can look forward to a higher chance of updates in the future. (Probably not during the month though, since I don't usually edit during nano events.)

And with that, enjoy the chapter!

A blue blur burst through the door and resolved itself in the form of a grinning hedgehog. "Hey guys, what's- oh, sorry, Silver."

Silver just managed to catch the plates he'd dropped and levitated them back into his hands. "It's fine. What took you so long?"

Sonic rolled his eyes and shot a look of exaggerated irritation at the door as it opened again. "Well someone didn't want to go too fast."

"Caution is not a bad thing," Knuckles retorted, shifting his grip on the box and closing the door with his free hand. "Especially not when you broke your only spare parts."

Sonic cheerfully ignored him. "Is the food for us?"

"It's for everyone. Sandwiches are ready now, soup is… in progress." He set the plates on the table and waved at them. "Help yourself."

Silver returned to the kitchen as Sonic did so. "You know," he said through a mouthful of sandwich, "I don't see Meph. Wonder where he got to."

Knuckles scowled. "I don't know why we give him so much freedom. We're practically begging him to stab us in the back."

Amy and Blaze entered just in time to hear the end of that. Blaze frowned. "I assume you mean Mephiles? He seems trustworthy, from what I've seen, though a certain degree of caution is advisable considering the situation."

"A certain-! We're letting him act like one of us! And you know who he was, so how can you be so casual about this?!"

"He has a point," Mephiles said, holding back a snicker when they all jumped and whirled. "Don't mind me. I heard my name and wanted to see what was happening."

He glanced back at a beeping from the kitchen, leaving to check it just as Silver came out with another plate of sandwiches. He glanced around and sighed. "You guys are louder than you seem to think." He set the plate down on the table and turned toward the lab. "Sandwiches are done!"

A moment later, Tails, Shadow, and Rouge came in, still discussing something technical-sounding. Shadow glanced around and frowned. "Where's Mephiles?"

Silver nodded toward the kitchen. "Making soup."

"…What kind?"

"Cream of mushroom."

He held Silver's gaze for a moment longer, then facepalmed. "Of course. Why am I not surprised."

Sonic blinked. "Um. Am I missing something?"

"No, you're fine," Silver said. "Now I'll be right back, he'll need a hand with the bowls."

Shadow followed him to the kitchen without a word. The others exchanged curious or unsettled glances as they found seats.

A minute later they returned with Mephiles, each holding two bowls and Silver levitating the rest. They passed the bowls out to their confused friends.

Sonic was the first to speak, pointing at his bowl of bright blue liquid. "What kind of mushrooms did you use?"

Tails almost choked on a spoonful of orange soup. He wiped his mouth and grinned at Sonic. "Meph likes colors."

"As it were," Shadow said dryly, stirring his own black soup. "Though I prefer this over red."

"Burned over spicy, huh?" Sonic joked, glancing over to see how Mephiles was taking their teasing. He was confused to see that neither he nor Silver were paying attention. They were locked in a stubborn staring contest, holding some kind of silent argument. Then he realized that Mephiles hadn't gotten any food for himself.

He thought back to Meph's strange behavior that morning, then to a few other incidents, and things clicked. Now how to help discreetly…

Mephiles gave a startled yelp when he was suddenly yanked from his seat and into the kitchen, barely catching something that sounded like "HeyMephgotsomethingIneedtoaskrealquick!"

Everyone else sat in stunned silence for a second before someone spoke. "What just happened?"

As the conversation started back up, Silver and Tails exchanged a look. Shadow glanced at the door, expression unreadable, before returning to his food in silence.

Once in the kitchen, Sonic released Mephiles' arm and spun to face him. "When's the last time you ate?"

Mephiles rubbed his arm gingerly, scowling. "Why does it matter?"

"Because based on the staring contest between you and Silver, I'm guessing you plan on skipping lunch."

He crossed his arms and turned away. "I still don't see why it matters."

"That's easy. It matters because if you don't eat enough, you'll get hungry, being hungry makes you feel bad, and feeling bad sucks." He waited, then continued when Mephiles only stared at him. "Look, just eat a little, alright?"

Mephiles hesitated, glancing sideways toward the door. "I'd… rather not."

Sonic suppressed a sigh. A short moment and one blur later, a bowl of blue-gray soup was shoved into Mephiles' hands. Sonic turned to face the doorway. "Eat it. I'll wait."

Mephiles looked between him and the bowl several times before reluctantly obeying. He neglected the spoon in favor of gulping it down as fast as possible. When he finished, he lowered the bowl and tapped Sonic's shoulder. "Done."

The bowl was whisked out of his hands to be washed, dried, and put away before Mephiles had time to register its absence. Sonic popped up in front of him with a wide grin. "Ready to go back inside?"

Mephiles gave him a flat look. "We are inside."

The speedster rolled his eyes and took his arm again. "You know what I meant. Come on."

He shook the arm off and followed under his own power.

Conversation paused again as they returned. "What was that about?" Silver asked.

Sonic plopped into his chair and returned to his food. "Secret."

Mephiles took his seat, and Silver turned a burning look his way. The only response he received was a short, "Eat your soup."

Strangely, that comment caught a fair bit of attention. Silver blinked a bit before relaxing visibly. Shadow glanced over briefly while continuing to eat. Tails froze for an instant, then continued eating as though nothing happened. Each of these reactions happened lightning fast – but that wasn't fast enough to escape Sonic's notice. The speedster raised a brow, but decided to ask later. Food was much more important.

Sonic didn't look up from his game when the door opened. "Hey Silv."

"How'd you do that?"

He looked over as Silver took a seat beside him. "A and X buttons mashing?"

Silver coughed in a failed attempt to not laugh. "Eh… No, not the game. I meant…" He paused, then nodded at the door. "How did you get him to eat something?"

Sonic paused the game to stare at him. "How'd you know?"

"He actually mentioned food. If he was still avoiding eating, he wouldn't do that. I think it's a variant on the 'I can't see it, it can't see me' logic."

"That's… something."

"It really is. So." Silver clasped his hands at chest height and stared at him earnestly. "Teach me your ways, o great one."

It took a while before Sonic stopped laughing long enough to answer. "I didn't do much, really. Just pointed out that he'd feel bad and dyed a bowl of soup. Plus not watching him eat, but. Uh. Why are you giving me that look?" He eyed Silver's sparkly delight with a hint of apprehension.

Silver's grin didn't fade one bit at his comment. "You managed to tell him you were worried about him, but you didn't just say it. Meaning he might actually believe it."

"Actions louder than words, you mean?"

"Yep." Silver sighed and settled deeper into the couch. "Now we have to wait for Tails to analyze his shiny new data."

Sonic scowled at the TV screen. "It better not take too long. Patience isn't one of my strengths."

Silver gave him a flat look. "I noticed."

He offered an unabashed smile. "Speed's my thing and I can't deny it. Say, where's Meph now?"

"Getting a checkup."

"Seriously? I know his energy changes fast, but didn't he just get one yesterday?"

Silver focused intently on the pause screen. "Tails wanted to check in light of… recent events."

Sonic blinked, but took the hint and changed topics. "We haven't hung out much as a group yet, right?"

Silver eyed him warily. "We who?"

"You, me, Meph, Shadow. Major player crew. Though, really, for any group with Mephiles it's still true."

"Well, yeah. Your point?"

He beamed. "What if we did a group activity?"

Silver gave him a dubious look. "With his control of his powers?"

"What makes you think he'll need his powers?"

"Um, because I know what kind of group activities you plan. Obviously."

Sonic shrugged. "Fair enough. But I was thinking of some pretty basic exploration. There's an emerald signal in a remote jungle-"

"And how is he supposed to get there?"

That only made him pause for a bare second. "Shadow can Chaos Control us or I'll fly the Tornado."

Silver sighed. "You aren't dropping this, are you?"

"Nope!" Sonic's grin was far too pleased.

"…Let's just see what Mephiles says."

"I can't believe I agreed to this," Mephiles grumbled.

The wind carried his words, low as they were, back to Silver. The telekinetic suppressed a grin and flew up beside him. "This isn't the worst thing Sonic's gotten someone to agree to. He's just that convincing."

Mephiles grumbled inaudibly. He was sitting in the back seat of the Tornado as they soared much too far above the ground. He hadn't felt like trying anything with 'chaos' in the name without a carefully controlled environment, especially with his present experience with chaos energy. And since he'd said yes to this expedition, that left the plane.

Sonic checked the instrument panel. "Landing now. Hang on, Shadow!"

Shadow gave him an unimpressed glare and didn't adjust his position on the plane's wing.

They landed not long after that. Mephiles didn't even wait for them to stop completely, phasing out of the metal death trap almost before the wheels touched the ground. He steadied himself as Silver landed beside him.

"You okay?" he asked with a worried look.

"I'm fine." Seeing Silver's doubt, he amended, "Or I will be."

Thus appeased, Silver watched the others disembark and join them. "We're here," Sonic announced with a snicker, glancing at Mephiles. He looked fine, so Sonic allowed himself to turn to more important matters. "Let's go find the emerald!" He pointed into the jungle and charged ahead. The others exchanged good-natured eyerolls before following.

Finding the gem was made easier by Silver having remembered to grab the emerald tracker. Sonic hadn't thought of it, Shadow didn't care, and Mephiles hadn't known the thing existed. But the search was made undeniably faster with the device in hand. Less than an hour later, they were back by the plane with a shiny purple gem.

Sonic was torn between being pleased they finished so fast and disappointed to be going back so soon. He pushed those thoughts aside when he noticed Meph's expression. Coming to the obvious conclusion, he patted him on the shoulder. "Don't sweat it! You can ask Shads to chaos control you back if you don't want to fly. He's done it in way worse situations than this."

Mephiles jumped a little at the unexpected contact, then frowned slightly. He shook his head. "No, it's fine."

"You sure? Cause it's no trouble really. Just ignore it if he complains." Shadow gave him a dirty look, but didn't say anything. "See? That's just how he is."

The dark being continued to shake his head. "No, no, that's not it. I just…" He looked at the purple gem and grimaced. "Bad memories."

The others exchanged confused looks. "What do you mean?" Silver asked.

Mephiles hesitated, then waved at the emerald. "That's the one I use when I… you know." When they continued to look confused, he reluctantly added, "When I… freed Iblis."

Sonic's eyes widened as he snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah! Though, I'd kind of forgotten until you brought it up." He paused. "Wait. How did you remember that?"

"…Excuse me?"

He gestured aimlessly. "That – didn't you forget everything about Iblis and Solaris?"

Mephiles blinked.

"He's right," Silver said. "We couldn't trigger any of those memories, even though we tried a lot of trigger words."

Mephiles blinked.

Shadow frowned. "Even so, we don't know much about his… condition. It could be that we triggered a memory without realizing it. And with that in mind…" He narrowed his eyes at the dark being, whose eyes had glazed over in all too familiar fashion. "Mephiles."

He jolted, giving Shadow a wide-eyed stare that quickly settled into a sneer. "Yes, Shadow?" he said, voice coated in sugary sweetness.

He chuckled darkly at their expressions. "Oh, if only you could see yourselves. You seem confused. What, did you forget who I am?"

Sonic and Shadow exchanged an apprehensive look, then realized they were missing someone.

"Hey, Meph!"

Mephiles whipped around to snarl the speaker. "Do not call me-" He was cut off by a box landing on his head. There was a long moment of silence as Mephiles stood frozen and Sonic and Shadow stared at Silver with matching shocked expressions.

The moment was broken when Mephiles shoved the box off his head, spluttering furiously and swiping bits of foam away. He paused to scowl at them once the worst of it was gone. "What was that for?"

Silver shrugged. "I didn't feel like dealing with that."

Mephiles blinked. "Then something happened?"

"Flashback," Shadow said, cutting off Silver's response. "Though the method of awakening is suboptimal."

"Well, turnabout is fair play," Silver said, giving Shadow a concealed look for that deception. Shadow didn't acknowledge it.

"I'd like to know the story behind that," Sonic said, "but we should get going."

They started for the plane, but Silver stopped Shadow with an invisible tap on the shoulder.

Shadow stopped and waited for Silver to approach, continuing to face forward. "It wasn't a lie."

Silver scowled. "Yeah right. That wasn't-"

"It was." Shadow turned to face him. Silver was shocked to see traces of actual worry on his face. "Or… It was if I'm correct. I hope I'm not." He turned and walked away without another word, leaving Silver to ponder what that meant.

Tails was waiting outside when they returned. "Finally! I need to show you something." He dashed inside, tails propelling him forward. The others exchanged glances and hurried after him.

They gathered around the screen in the main lab. Tails tapped a few keys and brought up a map. "See those dots? There was another surge not too long ago, and it was strongest in those areas."

"Any progress finding the cause?" Shadow asked without turning from the screen.

Tails frowned. "Not yet. But I'm hoping, with the sensors in place, we might be able to find out more. Hopefully before something else happens."

Mephiles pointed at one dot. "Like that?"

"Sorry, what?"

"That's the jungle we just visited," Sonic said. "Do you think it could be related to the emeralds?"

"No way," Silver said. "There's too many points." He glanced at Shadow, still examining the screen. "But it might be having some effect."

Shadow frowned, then sighed and inclined his head. "True. It may be what caused the odd flashback that Mephiles had."

Mephiles gave him a puzzled look. "I didn't think there was anything strange about it."

Silver winced. "Yeah… there actually was? I mean, your memory is skewed like it would be. Please stop looking at me like that."

Mephiles crossed his arms, eyes narrowed. "Not until you explain why you didn't tell me."

"Because I told him not to." Shadow's voice was toneless, a simple statement of fact. He remained neutral when Mephiles' glare was turned his way. "I believed it to be the best course of action. There was no purpose in you knowing."

"Maybe I should decide that."

"Oh, come on," Sonic said. "Just explain already."

Shadow glared at him. "I was about to. From what I saw, he regressed to his original personality."

There was a moment of total stillness.

Mephiles tilted his head. "Hm. That's odd."

Getting into the major theme of this work. Comments would be greatly appreciated!

Chapter Text

I return with more words! Lots of them. Very messy though, so I make no promises regarding update speed aside from the fact that it will be faster than the last few. Also, chapter length may vary.

That said, let me know if there's anything you want to see in this world. I make no promises, but I enjoy writing side ficlets once in a while. You may see a few of those cropping up in the future.

And with that, enjoy the story!

It didn't take long for Shadow to explain his conclusion. Whatever happened had temporarily returned Mephiles to his mindset during the adventure. Silver throwing the box had brought him back, much like a typical blackout flashback. The only real difference was his external reaction.

Tails was first to speak when Shadow finished. "But what made him act like that? None of you ever did that, even during the worst blackouts."

Sonic looked at Mephiles. "Meph had the most change, right? Silv was pretty different from me and Shads. Maybe that's all it is."

Mephiles picked up a stray crystal and examined it. "Nope. What's this?"

Tails blinked. "Um. Not sure. It looks like a leftover from – or, wait. What you mean nope?"

"I mean that's not it." He held the crystal up to a light and squinted one eye shut. "this makes some nice color patterns. Maybe I should take up rock collecting."

Shadow scowled. "If you have an idea, share it."

Mephiles turned to look at him. "I don't see why I should. After all, there's no purpose in you knowing."

Shadow slammed him against the wall, a hand around his neck. "Do you think this is funny?!"

Mephiles met his fury with impenetrable calm. "No. I think it's no different from what you did. At least I didn't get violent."

They both blinked as a turquoise glow enveloped and separated them. "Enough," Silver said, waving to place them on the floor with a good distance between them. "Fighting won't help us figure this out."

Shadow continued to glare at Mephiles. As soon as the glow vanished, he turned and left. Sonic glanced around the room before hurrying after.

Silver folded his arms and scowled. "What's with you, Meph? It's not like you to pick a fight like this."

Mephiles folded his arms likewise, but looked away. "As far as you know," he muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." He closed one eye and looked at the wall over his shoulder. "I'll be outside when you finish." He melted away before they could respond.

Tails stared blankly at the vacant spot. "What was that?"

Silver shook his head. "I have no idea. He's been acting weird all day." After a moment's hesitation, he added, "We should see what we can come up with. Maybe he'll be willing to help later."

As they returned to the board, Mephiles settled himself on one of the towers outside. He already made sure Sonic and Shadow had left, so he was fairly confident of a few minutes' peace.

Once settled, he raised his hand, examining the crystal still clutched in it. He been joking about the rock collection, but it actually wasn't a bad idea. After all, he didn't have much of an identity, so might as well start somewhere.

He clinched his hand into a face around the stone as the thought reminded him of why he'd sought solitude. The suggestions and comments were innocent enough, but they reminded him that he had no idea who he really was. And they didn't either, even if they thought they did. Besides… he didn't particularly want to be the version of himself that they were familiar with. And if he couldn't recall what had happened during that episode…

His little pity party was interrupted when Sonic came through the back door, dragging a clearly reluctant Shadow behind him. Shadow pulled his arm free and growled something at Sonic. At Sonic's murmured response, he glanced around the yard until his eyes settled on Mephiles. Something seemed to twist in his expression. He aimed one last glare at Sonic (which only earned him a grin and a thumbs up) before taking a running leap and landing at Mephiles' side.

There was an awkward pause as neither of them spoke. Mephiles kept his eyes pointedly forward, ignoring Shadow's gaze boring holes into him. He wasn't going to be the one to break the silence. Shadow would have to explain himself first.

After a few minutes, he finally did. "You believe I should have informed you of the incident."

Mephiles gave him a disbelieving sideways glance. "…Yes?"

Shadow nodded curtly. "Very well. I won't make that mistake again."

There was another long silence. Mephiles slowly raised his head to stare at Shadow. "Seriously?"

"Did you expect something else?"

"Actually… you know what, never mind. We should return inside." He jumped down and headed inside without another word.

Sonic watched him pass before approaching the tower. He noticed the thoughtful frown on Shadow's face as he hit the ground. "Not exactly what I had in mind when I said you should apologize, but looks like it worked. Nice job."

"Perhaps," Shadow murmured, still frowning at nothing. He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and walked inside. Sonic blinked but shrugged off the strange behavior and followed him.

Tails examined the machine in front of him, then hopped up the stepladder to check a paper and retrieve a tool. Mephiles glanced up at the motion, then returned to his idle study of a crystal chip. It was smaller than the one from earlier, but just as satisfying to look at.

"You can keep that."

He almost fell off the table. Steadying himself, he looked to see Tails digging in his contraption. The fox's face suddenly lit up, and he pulled a strange, gear-like object out. "A-ha! That's what wasn't- ahem." He set the piece on a suspended shelf and clambered down again. "Sorry, but I've been trying to figure that out for days. Any case, I don't need those crystals. They don't have the right frequency, so I had to get new ones."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Totally unrelated, but could you not sit on the tables? There are chairs if you need one."

Mephiles looked at him for a moment, then rolled his eyes and slid off. "Peh. Bribery."

Tails beamed. "It worked, didn't it?" His expression turned more serious. "Mephiles, you know you can tell us if something's wrong, right?"

Mephiles was suddenly entranced by the crystals again.

Tails resisted a sigh and glanced at the door. The others had left to various tasks and most likely wouldn't be back that day. Meph had opted to stay and make his own way home when he was ready. But Tails was at a loss as to why. He'd spent the last few hours sitting and doing nothing much, not really responding to questions or anything else.

Mephiles sighed and straightened halfway. "Do you believe I'm the real Mephiles?"

Tails paused briefly before answering. He hadn't expected that question. "Uh, yeah? Unless you're secretly robot double or something. I hear it's happened."

"…Right. That wasn't exactly what I meant. I…" he paused to consider his words. "If I regress, is that the real me? Or is the me right now real?"

Tails frowned. "Interesting question. I think they're both real, but this is the real you right now. That was the real you in the past. Why do you ask?"

He rolled the crystal around in his hands. "I think the regression is caused by memories."

"…Come again?"

Mephiles sighed and met his eyes. "Memories make a lot of someone's personality. So if I changed that much, it might mean my memory is being affected."

Tails nodded slowly. "Interesting theory. And if it's memories… Maybe something's suppressing the memories from this week, so you don't think of us as friends."

"Could be." He didn't quite conceal the note of doubt in his tone, but Tails didn't seem to notice, too busy scurrying over to the main console and pulling the display onto the screen.

"We still don't know what's causing it," Tails said, "but I'm looking to see if I can link the regressions to the energy surges. If they're connected, we're that much closer to solving both mysteries. Or we'll be down one possibility. That could happen too."

Mephiles watched him work with mild amusement. After a minute, he glanced at the time, his expression falling. "I suppose I should head back soon."

Tails paused his monologue, studying Mephiles with a slight frown. He leaned down to pull something out from under the console. "I just remembered I've been meaning to give you this." He held out a com unit, like the ones the others wore but colored Mephiles' shade of blue-green. "You've probably seen some of us using the com units, though others prefer to keep them off. It'll help keep in touch if you want to do stuff on your own. But it might take awhile to show you how it works. Is that OK?"

Mephiles relaxed almost invisibly. "That's fine. Thank you."

"Sure thing!"

It was getting late when Mephiles solidified in the hallway. He heard the TV running and briefly debated the chances of reaching his room before being noticed.

"Oh, hey, Meph."

So much for that idea. He gazed impassively at the head poking over the couch. "Hello, Silver."

Silver leaned out of sight for a moment and the TV sounds stopped. He stepped around the couch to face Mephiles with a faintly uneasy smile. "You were out for a while. Everything okay?"

He shrugged. "Tails wanted to explain the communicator to me. Is there food around or do I have to make something myself?"

Silver gave him a subtle once over and nodded. "We've got some stuff. I'll show you."

As Silver turned away, Mephiles' casual stance melted into weariness. He glanced at the crystal still clutched his hand, then tucked it in his quills and followed Silver into the kitchen.

Shadow isn't making the best choices here. Honestly, he should stop making things harder on himself, he'll have enough trouble when Mephiles remembers-

Er. You saw nothing.

Thanks for reading, and please review - it really makes my day!

Chapter Text

Sonic dodged a strike aimed at him and shot his opponent a confident grin. “Missed me!”

“I noticed.” Mephiles swept a hand out as Sonic aimed a spin dash at his face. The speedster was flung back by an invisible force.

Sonic righted himself and landed on his feet, immediately charging in to initiate a close-quarters brawl. He couldn’t use his speed to best effect at this range, but neither could Mephiles focus enough to use his powers. They grappled for several seconds before Mephiles suddenly shoved him away and leapt backwards. Sonic didn’t have time to resolve his confusion before something large and heavy hit him from behind.

Mephiles watched as Shadow tried to get up, failed due to quills making poor footholds, rolled over, and climbed to his feet, all while Sonic remained faceplanted and groaning.

Shadow looked down, expression impassive. “Get up, faker. I’ve seen you survive worse.”

“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.” Sonic’s words were muffled by the dirt.

Silver finally got tired of hovering above them and dropped to the ground. “Does that mean we win?”

“Maybe…” A blue blur whipped around, knocking Silver and Mephiles over before stopping at Shadow’s side. “If you can beat that!”

Silver was slow to right himself, but Mephiles immediately melted into the shadows. Sonic yelped as Mephiles materialized right beside him and swept his legs out from under him. “I just did.”

There was a brief moment of silence. Then Sonic burst out laughing. The others exchanged confused looks as he almost started rolling with laughter.

Sonic wiped away a tear as he finally regained control of himself. “Oh man. Meph, never change. That was great.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Mephiles knew his tone and posture were a bit stiff, but nobody seemed to notice. “Does that mean we win?”

The ensuing argument lasted until they reached the house.

A few days had passed since what they’d dubbed the regression incident, and they hadn’t found any new information. So the Squad had spent their time racing around zones, letting Mephiles get acquainted with the group’s shared history while practicing his abilities in various remote locations. That was how they’d ended up in an impromptu paired sparring match in this secluded forest. It wasn’t anything like the strangest place they’d been.

Shadow left with a vague mention of a mission when they arrived home, but the others decided to stick around for the moment, even Sonic. Mephiles sequestered himself in his room, as had become his habit, and Sonic convinced Silver to play a game with him (albeit reluctantly).

They’d just finished a level when Shadow came bursting through the door, wide-eyed and harried. “Where’s Mephiles?”

Silver looked up with a puzzled frown. “In his room. Why?” But Shadow had already vanished upstairs. “What was that about?”

Sonic shrugged, already on his feet. “Dunno, but-”

His sentence was cut short when they both heard yelling from the second floor. Without even a glance needed between them, they sprinted toward the sound.

Shadow stood near Silver’s door, eyes wide with shock and – was that hurt? Mephiles stood across from him in the doorway to his room, arms crossed and eyes colder than Silver could ever remember seeing them.

No, that wasn’t quite right. He’d seen those eyes before, in a desolate world of flame and ruin, on someone he’d thought he could trust. The juxtaposition made him suck in a startled breath.

Their heads whipped around at the slight sound. Shadow looked shocked, eyes darting to Mephiles as the other’s surprise faded to something vaguely sinister.

“Hello,” he said in a near purr. “We were just talking about you.”

Shadow scowled. “Don’t involve them.”

“Oh, but they’re already involved, aren’t they?” Mephiles said, tone oily slick. “They’ll find out sooner or later, you know.”

Silver glanced between them, suddenly uncertain. “What are you talking about?”

Shadow sighed, still glaring at Mephiles. “He’s regressed again.”

“Though the term is inaccurate,” Mephiles said, almost thinking out loud, “given it implies a negative effect. I’m more myself now than before.”

“How does losing part of your memory make you more yourself?”

Mephiles shot Shadow a smug look. “Misinformation can harm, you know.”

Shadow’s glare didn’t waver. “I’m not the only one who failed there.”

“I think you’re referring to the other me. He has different priorities.”

“You’re the same person.”

“Hardly. We happen to have certain attributes in common, but as I retain my memories of his waking periods, I can state with certainty that we are not the same.”

Silver paused as that sank in. “Hold on. You keep those memories?”

Mephiles gave him a scornful look. “Obviously. I only become that other self when I lose access to key memories.” His expression changed to one of dark mirth. “Why are you so shocked? You should know better than anyone that I can’t be trusted.”

Silver ignored Shadow’s uneasy look. “Yeah, well, I’ve seen that you’re capable of good too, when you’re not… like this.”

“Ah, yes, my ‘normal’ state.” He didn’t go as far as making air quotes, but his tone made them perfectly clear. “That state in which some of my memories are unavailable. Tell me, do you see the flaw in this logic?”

Silver held out a hand to stop Shadow from speaking. “And that means that your other state somehow doesn’t count? Listen, Meph-”

Mephiles’ face was suddenly inches from his own. “Don’t you dare call me that,” he snarled. “The other me might allow it, but I refuse to-”

“Meph, Meph, Meph, Meph, Meph. By the way, Tails says the energy surge is dying down, so say goodbye for now.” Sonic held up his wrist to show the chart on his com unit.

Silver blinked. “When did you get here?”

“Same time you did. Seemed like you had things covered, so I checked in with Tails. Now what’re we doing about him?” He nodded at Mephiles, by now seething at being ignored.

Shadow frowned. “He should return to normal soon. Though I wish I knew what exactly was causing this.”

Mephiles got an ominous glint in his eyes. “Oh, that’s easy. The seal has begun to crack, and soon we will complete our objective.”

Sonic blinked. “Say what?”

“Oh, you’ll see. While you run around blind, the time approaches. Soon you’ll… see…” His eyes slid closed, and he slumped to the floor, cracking his head against the boards.

Silver winced at the sound, but waited a couple seconds before cautiously approaching. When Mephiles didn’t stir, he carefully lifted his unconscious form and carried him into the room.

Shadow placed a towel-wrapped bag of ice on Mephiles’ forehead and secured it with a few loose layers of gauze. He gestured at the door and left. Silver hesitated briefly before following, closing the door on his way out.

He found Shadow at the table downstairs, head resting in his hands. Sonic was once again nowhere to be seen, so Silver settled across from him.

Shadow didn’t even raise his head as he spoke. “I suppose you want to know what we discussed.”

Silver blinked. “Um. Not really? It’s between you two, and since Meph wasn’t himself, it’s up to you.”

Shadow raised his eyes, gaze inscrutable. “Is that how you see it then?”

“I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t.”

Shadow sighed and allowed his hands to fall to the table. “I’ve kept information from you recently. Some of it things that should be shared. However… for various reasons, I intend to continue withholding some things.” He couldn’t quite meet Silver’s eyes. “Mephiles… became more aware of this while regressed. He challenged my choices. As you saw.”

Silver was silent for a moment. Then he sighed. “I can’t say I agree with that choice. You know how I feel about keeping secrets. But…” He paused, waiting until Shadow raised his eyes once more. “I trust you to make the best decision you can. And I’ll respect that.”

Shadow watched him with an unreadable expression for a long moment. Then he closed his eyes and bowed his head slightly, the faintest trace of a smile playing across his lips. “Very well then.”

A muffled thump and curse from upstairs interrupted their conversation. Silver sighed and rose to his feet. “I should-”

Shadow placed a hand on his shoulder. “Allow me.”

Silver gave him a puzzled look, but settled back in his seat as Shadow headed upstairs.

Mephiles was curled up on the ground when Shadow arrived. He clutched at his head, eyes squeezed shut in obvious pain, ice pack and gauze lying on his pillow. Shadow suppressed a sigh and retrieved the ice, holding it against Mephiles’ head until Mephiles took it, eyes opening to look up at him with more than a little trepidation. “Regression?”

“It would seem so.” Shadow waited for Mephiles to stand, not bother with an offer of help that would be refused anyway.

Mephiles shifted his hold on the ice. “There seems to be a correlation between regressions and head injuries.”

“You passed out and hit the floor before anyone reacted.”

He raised a brow. “Even Sonic?”

Shadow frowned. “He keeps disappearing. Most likely he was nowhere nearby at the time.”

Mephiles nodded, glancing downstairs at an especially loud noise from the TV. “You came to check on me.”

“I did.” He paused briefly before answering the unspoken question. “I have some questions the others ought not hear.”

Mephiles tilted his head, then nodded. “Alright. But I won’t promise to answer.”

Shadow concealed his surprise that Mephiles was cooperating at all by jumping right into the questions. “To begin with, have you regained any new memories?”

Mephiles looked at him like he wasn’t quite sure the question was serious. “How would I know? I can’t distinguish that easily.”

“It seemed worth asking. The memories gained during regression might be more distinctive.”

“Gained?”

Shadow winced internally when he realized what he’d said, but didn’t bother trying to backtrack. “You mentioned it while regressed, among other things.”

His expression darkened. “I can guess what he said.”

Now it was Shadow’s turn to be thrown off. “He?”

“We aren’t exactly the same person. It seems unreasonable to refer to him as myself.” His eyes darted away for an instant before settling back on Shadow, who didn’t react to the subtle tell, expression remaining cool and calculating.

“So,” he said, “because your memory is affected, you aren’t the same. Does that mean one of the two is less real for it?”

Mephiles’ eyes darted away again, but this time he kept his gaze fixed on a corner of the room. Shadow took note of this and waited patiently for Mephiles’ response. “Maybe.”

“Idiot.”

He snapped his head back to face Shadow, startled green locking on cool red. “Wh-what?”

“If you honestly think that, then I severely overestimated your intelligence. Memory may affect your views and change how you behave, but losing or gaining them does not make the other states less valuable. I should know.” He turned toward the door, concealing his expression. “Silver will be wondering what’s taking so long.”

Mephiles watched him leave, still a bit stunned. He managed to shake it off after a minute and followed him downstairs.

Silver perked up immediately upon their entrance. “Hey Meph. Your head okay?”

“Relatively. The rock incident was worse.”

“I said I was sorry.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Sonic called, bursting through the front door, “but Eggman’s causing trouble. Anyone up for smashing some bots?”

“I am.” Everyone turned to look at Mephiles. He shrugged. “I need a destressor.”

Silver grimaced. “Good point. In that case, I’m in too.”

Shadow shook his head. “I have other business to finish first. Don’t contact me unless it’s urgent.” He pulled out his chaos emerald and teleported away without another word.

The others exchanged looks, then shrugged. “It’s near the jungle from the other day,” Sonic said. “Meet you there?”

Mephiles nodded. “I can teleport over.”

“Alright, see you in a few!” Sonic waved and took off.

Silver watched Mephiles with a slight frown. Mephiles noticed after a moment and gave him a quizzical look. “Is something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, uh.” He shook himself a bit to escape whatever hazy stupor he’d achieved. “Not really. Just… contact us if there’s a problem, okay?”

Mephiles appeared doubtful, but didn’t press. “Of course. Don’t take too long getting there.” He melted into the shadows, vanishing almost as fast as Sonic.

Silver stood alone for a long moment before hurrying after as fast as possible.

Mephiles was never quite sure what to make of fights with Eggman. He hadn't seen too many, with how little time he'd been around the others, but he'd seen enough to get a feel for the strange system they had outside of larger adventures. The heroes got some good exercise out of it, and Eggman got... who knows, a chance to test his robots maybe. He certainly wasn't taking it all that seriously. Regardless of what he was getting out of it, it was certainly a strange system.

But it wasn't just that throwing him off. It was the strange feeling Eggman gave him. He always seemed to just... know something. Like that first time they'd met, with his all too knowing comment, as though his presence had merely cemented some theory. It was unsettling, and more than a little concerning.

That didn't much affect the simple joy of destroying bots and having him rage though. It was strangely exhilarating to be on this side of the fight. He had some memories now of his time as a villain, albeit rather spotty ones, but he couldn't recall ever feeling the same sort of satisfaction that he did fighting mechanical baddies with the others.

(Not including a few memories that he tried not to think about too much. They reminded him of dreams that felt too real for his liking.)

He ducked under some kind of mechanical arm thing as it swung at him while keeping part of his mind focused on his power usage. As great as phasing through things was, it did have its limits when it came to power use. He couldn't just do it endlessly, especially not if he wanted to use his other powers as well. Speaking of...

Silver jumped a bit when Mephiles melted into existence behind him, but seemed relatively calm about the situation. Or as calm as someone throwing crates at enemies could seem.

Mephiles ignored him for a moment in favor of taking out a couple enemies attempting to sneak in from Silver's blind spot, receiving an appreciative nod for his efforts before the telekinetic threw one of the trashed machines at a particularly tough looking enemy.

Mephiles admired the hole through the thing's middle before slipping back to his corner of their formation. (Sonic took point, mostly because he'd been here most often, though he also had a coin flip in his favor. Silver was none too pleased about that.) He turned to face another enemy, settling into a fighting stance.

Colors, but not, it was all black and darkness, what is this where am I this can't be real but here is a safe spot hidehidehide-

Silver saw Mephiles jerk and stop short, frozen as though he'd been hit over the head, before collapsing to his knees. The telekinetic cursed internally and tossed his current opponent to the side, ignoring the set of tiny robots it crushed as he rushed to Mephiles' side. "Sonic, heads up!"

Sonic called something back, maybe an affirmative, maybe a question. It didn't much matter when nothing good could have caused that reaction.

He swept robots aside as he raced forward, not really noticing whether he'd properly crushed them or just pushed them away in his haste. When he finally reached Mephiles, he fell to his knees in front of him, hands hovering above his friend's shoulders uncertainly. This looked like a blackout, but it had hit as hard and fast as a brick to the head. Those were always the worst for helping someone through.

(He didn't let himself think about the possibility that it was another regression. They'd handle that if it came to it.)

"Mephiles," he finally said, "can you hear me?"

Mephiles looked up, meeting his worried gaze, but his eyes were blank and unseeing. He didn't speak.

Whatever was going on, it was definitely looking to be one of the worse blackouts. Great. This would be fun.

Well, at least it wasn't another regression. Once in one day was plenty.

"You got him?"

Silver didn't look up when Sonic spoke. "I hope so. He's pretty deep in."

Sonic glanced at the robots hovering uncertainly around them. They'd stopped attacking a minute ago for whatever reason. He wasn't about to question it. "Did you try yelling yet?"

"That's a last resort for a reason."

"Did you try everything else?"

Silver finally looked up at him, but only briefly. "Not really. I don't know what memory he's in."

"Talk to him. Maybe he'll tell you."

Silver grimaced, but decided it was worth a shot. Certainly better than doing nothing. "Mephiles. I need you to tell me what's happening. What can you see? What do you hear?"

"Bright..."

The whispered word surprised them both, but it left Silver with no small amount of relief. "Okay. Good. Keep going. Anything else?"

"Color," Mephiles said, still in the barest whisper. "Too many. Not the same, too much dark, too much bright, need to get away, need to hide hide hide..."

His already quiet voice receded into a mumble, but they'd heard enough to proceed, if not enough to know what he was remembering. Silver took a deep breath, releasing it slowly before speaking. "Alright Meph. That's not happening right now. You're here, with me and Sonic, in the jungle, and we were fighting some robots. Sound familiar?"

The mumbling faded to nothing, which Silver took as a good sign. "Can you hear me?"

There was a painfully long pause. Then, finally, Mephiles nodded the slightest bit.

"Are you with me?"

"Yeah." Mephiles uncurled a bit, some of the cloudiness in his eyes fading. "I'm. Going to go home for now. I'll talk to you when you get there."

Before anyone could respond, Mephiles melted into the shadows. When he didn't reappear for several seconds, Sonic shrugged and jerked a thumb at the enemies still hovering uncertainly behind them. "Back to the fight, then? These bots won't smash themselves you know."

Silver tried not to feel too irritated at Sonic's apparent lack of caring. He knew it was the other's way of trying to handle the uncertainty, and hopefully help Silver do the same. So instead of getting mad, he stood, brushed himself off, and nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

Shadow hadn't expected anyone else to be home when he returned from his mission. With as late as they'd headed out, he would have thought they would camp out somewhere for the night. Sonic generally preferred that anyway, and Silver didn't mind too much after growing up camping most of the time. (Not to say that he didn't appreciate modern conveniences, but he didn't get too out of sorts without them.)

Though, after thinking about it, he realized that he had no idea what Mephiles thought of sleeping outside. The dark one himself might not even know. So perhaps it wasn't so surprising to find him sitting on the couch instead of out with the others.

Still, it would be rude not to at least acknowledge him. "Mephiles. I thought you were out with Sonic and Silver?"

"I was," he said, not looking away from the TV. "I decided to return early. I assume they chose to stay out longer, given they aren't here."

"Indeed." Shadow frowned, walking over behind the couch. "Have you been sitting here with the TV off for long?"

"Maybe."

So presumably as long as he'd been home. Who knew how long that might have been. Shadow waited for a moment to see if Mephiles would elaborate, then turned to go upstairs.

"Say, Shadow..."

He paused, turning slightly toward Mephiles, noting that he still hadn't moved. "Yes?"

Mephiles sat in silence for a long moment, then suddenly shook himself and stood. "Nothing. Never mind. I'm tired, I think it's time for me to go to bed."

Shadow let him pass, watching as he climbed upstairs before following without a word.

Silver looked up from his breakfast at the sound of footsteps, still a bit bleary eyed from adventuring and lack of sleep. "Morning Shadow."

"Good morning." He paused for a moment, then asked, "Did anything happen yesterday with Mephiles?"

"Blackout. We're not entirely sure what memory it was, but he decided to come back early after that. Why?"

"No reason," he said, serving himself some breakfast. And that was the end of it.

Chapter Text

Mephiles woke up disoriented, as he often did when he woke at night. The darkness wasn't complete, thankfully, but it was enough to make him feel... uneasy.

He reached over and lit the bedside lamp, relaxing as gentle light filled the room. But even as his fear vanished, he turned to self-deprecation. What kind of logic was that, someone who commanded darkness being scared of the dark?

Well. Scared of the dark wasn't exactly the phrase he'd use. But it was easier to accept than what he knew to be the entire problem.

Having calmed himself a bit, he adjusted the cover on the light so it would shine mostly away from him and slipped under the covers again, curling into the patch of warmth he'd left. It was fortunate that he didn't need as much sleep as the others. More than Shadow by a great deal, but still less than anyone else. He'd noticed that even with the three or four hours of unbroken sleep he was sure of getting, he functioned just fine most days. Six hours seemed to be ideal and the most he'd managed at a time was eight hours. Though he still appreciated the little joy that laying in a warm bed could bring.

When he opened his eyes again, faint light was peeking through the curtains. He turned off the lamp (no need to waste more power than he already had) and rolled over, putting his shoes on before heading downstairs.

For once he was the first one up. Though that made sense, considering that included the sun just barely peeking over the horizon. He allowed himself a laugh, so soft it was more an outburst of breath than an actual noise, before moving to get some food.

By the time he'd finished his small breakfast, soft sounds of movement could be heard from above, the household so used to catching sleep in scraps when they could almost unable to sleep in without an exhausting adventure behind them. He debated saying hi to the others, then decided against it. They knew by now that he tended to head out early when there weren't any plans in place. And unlike Sonic, he kept his com unit on most of the time. They could contact him if something came up. So he simply melted into the shadows, picking a location somewhat close for a change of pace.

He materialized in an open patch of air, looking around curiously. He wasn't too concerned about appearing somewhere dangerous (it only happened once, no matter what the others thought), so he could take the time to appreciate the flower-speckled meadow as the lovely, bright place it was.

Zone hopping wasn't a half bad hobby. It was nice wandering around without any particular goal in mind. And as a bonus, usually he didn't have much chance of running into the others, excluding Sonic since the speedster could visit the whole globe in a day if he really wanted.

"Oh! Hi, Mephiles. I didn't expect to see you out here."

Then again, there were exceptions to every rule.

Mephiles looked up from gazing idly over the meadow to find Amy holding a young rabbit by the hand. He debated ignoring them, then decided that was a bit ruder than he felt that day. "I could say the same to you."

Amy smiled, though it was a little shaky. He gave her points for effort anyway. "We usually come out to a meadow once or twice a month to make flower crowns when it's the right season. This is Cream. She's been on some of our adventures with us." The rabbit girl dipped in a slight curtsy as best she could without releasing Amy's hand. "And Cream, this is Mephiles. He... er..." Amy faltered, apparently lost for words.

Cream gave Mephiles a curious look, seemingly not noticing Amy's sudden hesitance. "Mister Mephiles, are you Mister Shadow's brother?"

Mephiles snorted. "No, we aren't related."

"Oh, okay." She dropped Amy's hand and skipped away to pick some flowers, apparently satisfied with that answer.

Amy hovered for a moment, then lowered herself to sit at Mephiles' side. They watched the young girl with only the sound of the breeze for a few minutes. Mephiles was content with staying that way. Amy, it seemed, was not.

"So Mephiles," she said, breaking the peaceful silence, "I've been meaning to ask. Are you... are you mad about the hammer thing? When we met at Tails' house?"

He looked up at her, surprised by the uncommon timidity in her tone. "No? Why would I be? You have every right to be angry for my past actions, even if they were undone."

She relaxed a bit, but seemed to gain a different sort of tension, managing to meet his eyes properly with a bit of worry in her expression. "You do know I'm not exactly mad, right? You're different from the way you were before, and you wouldn't do any of that again. Right?"

It took Mephiles a moment to remember that only a few people knew about his regressions, those being Tails and the three hedgehogs. They'd collectively agreed that it would be best not to concern the others with that whole mess until they had a better idea of what was going on themselves. It seemed unwise to scare them without anything solid to go off if it wouldn't actually help anything. Especially when they were beginning to get along with Mephiles.

(The dark being wasn't so sure about that last one, but he wasn't particularly eager to talk about his situation with the others, so he let it slide.)

"I don't intend anything of the sort," he said simply, sidestepping the issue in what he hoped was a discreet fashion. He didn't especially want to lie to Amy - she seemed like a nice enough girl, from what little he'd seen - but he also didn't feel like meeting the business end of her hammer. Not that he wanted to go against the agreement either but that went without saying.

"That's good," she said, smile becoming a bit more genuine. It almost made Mephiles feel guilty about his little lie by omission.

Almost being the operative word. He really didn't feel like introducing his face and that hammer. And no, he wasn't scared. But he couldn't deny that Amy alarmed him a bit with her endless enthusiasm. He'd noticed that even Shadow sometimes lost a touch of his stoicism when she got serious.

The two of them sat in silence for a bit longer, just appreciating the breeze and the gentle scent of flowers.

"I like it out here," Amy said suddenly, getting Mephiles' attention. "It feels so fresh and clean. Nothing like back in the city. I like it there too, but..."

"It's not the same?" he prompted when she failed to continue.

She smiled at him, though it seemed a little melancholy. "Yeah. Besides, I think Sonic likes these open areas more, so it's best if I spend more time out here, right?"

...Er. "I suppose so," he hedged, not really wanting to get involved in the 'relationship' between the two of them.

Amy gave him a faintly suspicious look at his response, apparently sensing his thoughts to some degree, but seemed to dismiss the thought a moment later. "Anyway, what brings you out here? If you don't mind me asking."

He shrugged, trying to hide his relief at the narrow escape. "No real reason. I've been exploring a bit when the others are busy. Everyone needs a hobby, and this seems to be mine now."

She nodded, clearly satisfied with that answer.

"Miss Amy, Mister Mephiles, look!" Cream came running up, grinning wide.

"What is it, Cream?" Amy asked, sitting up properly.

"I made crowns for all of us!" she said, holding up three pink, blue, and purple flower crowns with clear delight. Then she hesitated and looked at Mephiles. "Is... is that okay?"

Mephiles blinked at her, not even noticing Amy watching him closely as he tried to understand the question. "Of... course it is?"

Cream's smile came back as sunny as before. "Alright! Here, it should fit okay." She placed the crown on his head, not having to reach for it since he was still sitting on the ground. He still bowed his head slightly, lifting it as she turned to put one on Amy's head as well. "Well? What do you think?"

He resisted the urge to touch the flowers, worried he'd knock the fragile crown off his head if he did. "It's very nice. ...Thank you."

Amy smiled, recognizing the sincerity in Mephiles' thanks as Cream beamed. Maybe he was more of a good guy than she'd given him credit for. He may have been her enemy before, but it was time to put the past in the past and help out instead of making things harder for her new friend and teammate.

It was past lunchtime by the time Mephiles returned to town, but he stopped to pick up food anyway. After getting through the expected curious questions ("No I don't have a mouth, yes that's unusual, no it doesn't prevent me from eating, no I do not need lactose free I would have asked, just give me my food please") and heading out, he decided to make a quick stop by the bookstore before heading home.

Books and music were the other hobby he'd picked up recently. That so many brilliant concepts and visions could be condensed into ink on paper never ceased to amaze him, and music held so much emotion with simple notes and modulated sound. He found himself slightly inclined to nonfiction, but fictional universes held their own intrigue. Music, he tried not to limit his intake.

Not romance, though. Never romance. Not books, not music, not movies. The subject was... inherently unappealing. He couldn't understand why the raving masses so enjoyed the vision of two paper-thin characters going through countless trivial encounters before engaging in the pursuit of physical pleasures of some sort together.

He might take Amy up on her offer to watch a romance movie though. Mostly because his wish to stay in her good graces outweighed his wish to avoid romance.

As he approached the bookstore, he happened to notice Shadow in casual conversation with the store owner. (Jason? Jake? The jackal had introduced himself at some point, but the name had slipped his mind.)

Mephiles paused on the other side of the street, debating. He had something else he had to do still. And that should happen before he spoke with Shadow without one of the others, so...

Decision made, he vanished into the shadows, headed back to the house so he could eat before making his stop.

"Do you know that hedgehog that looks just like you but with a different color scheme?"

Shadow paused in his discussion with Jacob, turning to the girl shelving books behind them. "I do. Why?"

She nodded toward the door. "He was across the street looking this way. First time I realized how alike you two look. Long lost brother?"

"Sarah!" Jacob hissed, plainly appalled by her nosiness.

She held up her hands in surrender. "Just asking."

"We aren't exactly related," Shadow said. "It's complicated. And I'd rather you not mention even that much to anyone else."

"Our lips are sealed," Jacob assured as Sarah mimed zipping her lips. "Anything else I can help you with?"

"No, that will be all, thank you. How much?"

Sonic watched curiously as Mephiles snarled and paced, mumbling something under his breath. Coming across the dark being during a run wasn't uncommon(simple probability - he visited so many places on any given day that it would have been strange not to find him once in a while), but he usually seemed relatively calm. And while this wasn't destructive in a way that concerned Sonic, it was far from calm. Even without that, why would he come here of all places?

"Damn it," Mephiles growled, stopping to glare at the ground in front of him. "Stop being such a coward. There's no danger, it's - I have no reason to be scared. I'm stronger than that anyway. They couldn't... I'm safe. There's no danger. So why can't I just- hey!"

Sonic jumped, then smiled sheepishly as he realized he'd been spotted. He waved a little. "Hey Meph. You doing okay?"

Mephiles growled, fixing him with the same glare he had pointed at the ground moments before. "Why were you watching me?" he asked, apparently ignoring Sonic's good-natured inquiry.

The speedster didn't worry about it too much. He was extremely used to prickly personalities. "No real reason. Saw you while out running and stopped to say hi, but you didn't seem like you'd appreciate it much."

"Not in the least. Goodbye."

Sonic watched him melt away, then shrugged and turned to continue his run, not too put out by the attitude. Mephiles' attitude tended to be more abrasive when regressed so...

Wait. He looked over his shoulder, frowning. "Was he regressed? Didn't think to check, but why else would he come here?"

He puzzled it over for a moment before putting it out of his mind. He could talk to Silver about it later.

(He forgot.)

Mephiles arrived in his room with plenty of time before their usual dinner hour. He paused before exiting to look over his collection of crystals, scattered across the desk in whatever fashion pleased him at any given point. It wasn't a huge collection, since he'd only started very recently and didn't have any income, but a few gifts from the others (mainly Sonic's explorations) meant it wasn't a bad size for a fledgling collection.

As often happened, Mephiles' eyes drifted toward the neat row of sticky notes on the other end of the desk. No new ones, so he shouldn't look at them again. It would only bring his mood down.

Against his better judgment, he scanned the notes, reading each line as though he hadn't memorized the whole thing.

You're an idiot. A clueless idiot who doesn't even know enough to realize that much.

I know.

Don't say that. I know because I know more than you. But you can't know because you know less than me.

That I know less is obvious.

Is it? If it was, why would you say 'I know' like you actually do? Don't say I know unless you really do know, even with your minuscule knowledge.

I know enough to understand why you're angry.

As there weren't any new notes, there was nothing left for him to do there, so he turned and left the room feeling a bit disheartened. That conversation was always draining.

The sound of a game on the TV greeted him as he descended the stairs. Sonic was shooting snappy remarks at Shadow that were occasionally returned in kind (much to Sonic's apparent delight) as Silver looked on with mild bemusement from the kitchen island.

The telekinetic glanced up when Mephiles entered and waved, remaining silent to avoid disturbing the heated match. Mephiles wandered over and raised a brow at him, his question clear. What in the world are they doing?

Silver shrugged and offered a wry grin. Who knows with them.

Conversation concluded to both of their satisfaction, they turned to watch their housemates beat each other into the ground in some game.

Mephiles' com pinged on his wrist, and he glanced at it, eyes widening briefly before his expression went flat. "Well that's unfortunate."

Silver gave him a puzzled look, but didn't get a chance to say anything before Mephiles gasped and fell forward, just managing to catch himself on the island. He froze as the dark being heaved a ragged breath, torn between staying back - the smart choice, now that he'd realized what had to be happening - and the wish to help his friend.

As it turned out, it didn't much matter; Mephiles righted himself a moment later, breathing returning to normal. His eyes met Silver's, slit pupiled and seeming to glow faintly. Without a word, he turned and stalked upstairs.

"What was that about?"

Silver suddenly realized that Sonic and Shadow had paused their game and were watching with clear concern. He tried not to grimace too obviously. "Nothing much. Mephiles regressed again."

Shadow simply nodded, the explanation all he was after. Sonic, on the other hand, tried for a reassuring smile. "Well... at least this time he didn't start throwing insults at everyone?"

"Is that really a positive though?" Shadow said, though it wasn't quite a question.

Sonic and Silver stared openly at him. "What."

He shrugged, setting his controller on the table and turning to better face both of them. "Mephiles has been intentionally antagonistic while regressed. We've all noticed this, even though we've only seen him regressed a few times. I imagine there must be a reason behind it. So why would he change his behavior so suddenly?"

Sonic and Silver exchanged uncertain looks, not sure how to reply. Shadow nodded like they'd confirmed something. "Exactly. It means something is different this time, and we don't even know what caused his original pattern of behavior. This obviously isn't the best state of affairs, but there isn't much we can do."

"It might not be that big a deal," Sonic said, though the slightly higher pitch of his voice made it less reassuring than it might have been even as he tried to regulate it. "I mean," he added, a bit calmer this time, "maybe he's just tired?"

Shadow frowned. "Sonic... is everything alright?"

"Of course," he said, pulling out a grin that was enough to reassure Silver but had Shadow's frown deepening. "I just don't want us worrying about nothing, you know?"

Silver shrugged. "Fair enough. I'm gonna get some food started now if you don't mind."

As he turned to begin working, Silver heard Shadow growl something under his breath, then receive a few equally soft words in response. He pulled out a pan and some ingredients without muffling the noise as much as he usually would. No need to eavesdrop if he could help it.

Mephiles opened his eyes, blinking sleepily as he tried to figure out what woke him. More importantly, though, why had he been asleep? It was broad daylight outside.

Then it came back to him. Another regression. Right.

His eyes skated over to the desk before he even began dragging himself out of bed. (Sleep during the day was easier to come by, but almost always left him more exhausted than he started. It was an unfortunate tradeoff.) It looked like there was another note, but from this distance...

There was, in fact, another note, and his expression darkened a bit as he read it. He pulled another note off the nearby cube, scribbled a message, and stuck it at the bottom of the trail, turning to leave before he could think better of it.

I hate you.

I know. Me too.

Chapter Text

Mephiles cursed under his breath as he once again failed to throw a properly formed chaos spear. The few times he'd succeeded in making one, it was rough and difficult to control, making it almost impossible to use effectively. There was a reason he used his shadow abilities more often, especially in combat situations.

Still, from what Shadow had explained, having enough energy to use chaos abilities made it important to use them. He was a bit hazy on the details but knew the results of containing that much energy could be explosive in the most literal sense. So he was trying to burn off the excess energy by learning how to use it while Shadow watched.

At least, an onlooker could be forgiven for thinking that was all he was doing. Save for the occasional offhand remark, he wasn't exactly taking an active role in Mephiles' education. Yet Shadow suspected it was because of this detachment that he could provide any sort of useful guidance. He was fully aware that a more hands-on approach on his part would likely speed up the learning process, but with Mephiles' strangely distant attitude it seemed unwise. Especially since he wasn't sure of the cause. Mephiles had seemed to be warming up to their merry band, but out of nowhere he suddenly returned to his previous wariness. He hadn't heard anything from the others about it, so presumably it was some action of his own that caused the sudden change. But until he had some idea of what it might be, not pushing too hard seemed the best course of action.

Not that it was all that serious a delay. In the past weeks, Mephiles had gained enough control over his energy emissions to at least keep them from burning any sentient beings in the vicinity (himself included), though the few weeds that had survived long enough to sprout in the yard weren't so lucky. It couldn't be called massive progress, but it was enough for someone who didn't plan to use those powers for anything requiring finesse.

"That's enough for the day," Shadow said suddenly, ever conscious of his student's chaos reserves.

The tension in Mephiles' shoulders eased as he released the tight hold on his energy. Chaos wasn't his original energy source, and he obviously had more trouble managing it than he did his shadow abilities. Though Sonic had mentioned him wielding his shadows much more naturally when regressed, so what would that mean for his chaos skills?

"Is something wrong?"

Shadow blinked, breaking out of his thoughts to find Mephiles looking at him. "No, nothing's wrong. It just occurred to me, would regression affect your ability to wield chaos energy?"

Mephiles continued to look at him, unmoving and unblinking. "I can't say, but I doubt my regressed self would be willing to experiment with you."

"Oh?"

"He... is holding on to a bit of a grudge."

Shadow frowned. "Because of Solaris?"

Mephiles turned away, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. "Maybe. Who knows. I'm going to head home now."

"Wait-" Shadow held a hand out, then dropped it once it was clear Mephiles had already vanished. He stood there for a minute in silence before turning to go inside.

Silver looked up when Mephiles entered the kitchen, starting to smile but letting it drop when he saw Mephiles' expression. "You okay?"

"Tired from chaos practice this morning," he said, taking a seat at the island and resting his head on his arms. "I'll be fine once I get something to eat."

Silver contemplated for a moment, then nodded as he came to a decision. "Want to go get takeout? We'll eat here obviously, but I hear that new place a few blocks over has good shakes."

Mephiles' raised his head a bit to shoot Silver one of his strange mouthless smiles. "That sounds like an excellent idea."

"How do you drink with a straw, anyway?"

Mephiles glanced at Silver as he placed his bags of food on the counter and sorted through the contents. "I have no idea. How do I eat in general?"

Silver tilted his head, thinking, and nodded slowly. "Good point. I was just thinking, it has to be harder than eating otherwise, so why bother with things that you have to use a straw for? I know you avoid using utensils if you can help it, but you're obsessed with those mint chip shakes."

Mephiles looked away, using the excuse of peering into one of the bags. "I'm not sure. I just... really like colors, for some reason. And that's more or less my color, if it weren't so bright. This one's yours."

Silver took the bag from him. "Thanks. Mind if I eat out today? There's somewhere I should be in a bit."

"That's perfectly fine." He hoped the unspoken thanks at the subtle out would be audible regardless.

Silver nodded and shot him a smile before leaving.

Mephiles ate quickly, debating his options for a bit before deciding to head over to the lab. He wasn't much in the mood for exploration today, and he doubted Shadow would still be around.

"I don't think they'd expected there to be so many options! I sure didn't. How many different shaped lights do you need?" Sonic laughed, a bemused but still perfectly cheerful sound.

Tails smiled at his brother's tale. "I guess they want to provide a bunch of options. Did they manage to pick one?"

"Yeah, a chao-shaped one. I think Cheese picked it, actually. Bet it'll be easier for them to reach the bathroom at night now."

"I expect so." He turned and jumped, startled to see they weren't alone. "Oh, hi, Mephiles. I didn't hear you come in."

The dark being shrugged and leaned against the wall. "I only just got here. What were you talking about just now?"

"Sonic helped Cream and Cheese pick out a new night light since the old one broke. Their room gets too dark at night to , and Vanilla was busy, so Sonic offered to help."

"Hm. Seems fair."

Despite Mephiles' carefully upheld nonchalance, Sonic thought he could sense a spark of curiosity, or even interest, in his eyes. It only took a moment for him to realize why. But he hesitated before speaking up. He knew how important it was to treat people's emotions with care in this kind of thing. Especially since Mephiles had almost definitely kept it secret on purpose, and probably wouldn't appreciate Tails figuring it out because of a lack of subtlety.

That problem was solved fairly fast as Mephiles tilted his head, looking faintly puzzled. "Is something burning?"

Tails' eyes widened. "Shoot, I forgot!" He rushed out of the room.

Mephiles gave Sonic a bemused look, but only received a shrug in return. "Probably cooking something. Anyway, if you're interested in getting a night light, just say so. I'd be happy to show you the store."

Mephiles' expression went perfectly neutral. "I'm a creature of darkness. Why would I need a device used for children afraid of the dark?"

"Art? Not tripping over stuff in the dark? There's ones with a switch if you want to be able to turn it off without unplugging it."

The casual misdirection didn't seem to convince him. Sonic sighed and ran a hand through his quills, debating. He wasn't planning to say this, but...

"Did you know I can't swim?"

The dark being's neutral expression shifted to confusion at the seeming nonsequitur. "What?"

"Yep," he agreed, deliberately misinterpreting his confusion. "Sonic the Hedgehog, world saving hero, can't swim. Can't go near big bodies of water at all, actually. I'm hydrophobic, so anything bigger than a bathtub is..." He shuddered at the thought, then managed to meet Mephiles' eyes again. "Kind of embarrassing, but there's not much I can do about it. So I work around it. And that's okay. It's okay to be scared of something silly. You can't control how you feel."

(Okay, so maybe he was borrowing from someone else's speech, but the point was to make Mephiles more comfortable.)

Mephiles looked at him for a long moment. Finally, he nodded. "I could use more colorful things in my room."

Sonic grinned. "Alright! I agreed to listen to Tails' technobabble for a bit, but after that what say we head over?"

"That would be fine."

Tails came back into the room and returned to his console, grumbling quietly. He was too grumpy about his burnt spinach puffs to notice, but the air in the room had subtly changed, as if some strange sort of understanding had been reached.

Mephiles jolted awake, breathing heavily (which really sucked without a mouth). It took him a moment to calm down and realize he must have had another nightmare.

Well, nightmare wasn't the best word, based on the single one he could remember. From the times and dates he'd received from Tails, it was likely that they were caused by regressing in his sleep. Hence his inability to remember the actual content of the dreams. But somehow, despite never getting any residual effects during waking regressions, he always got this horrible dread after sleeping ones.

A knock against his door got his attention. "Meph? You awake in there?"

He blinked, mildly taken aback by the unexpected voice. He knew Silver had an almost supernatural instinct for when the others were having a rough night, but that wasn't Silver's voice. "Uh... yeah?"

The door creaked open, and Sonic's head poked through, just visible in the night light's glow. "Hey. Had a feeling you might appreciate some company. Was I right?"

"I suppose I'm not against it," Mephiles said, resisting the urge to curl deeper into the blankets.

"Cool. Oh, uh, Shads and Silv are here too, you okay with them coming in with me?"

That was... surprising. Silver he could understand, having received a couple unexpected midnight visits before, but Shadow? Why would he even care? "...Yes. They can come in too."

Sonic pushed the door open and quick stepped his way to the bedside table, half sitting on the edge. Silver entered more slowly and settled on the end of the bed with only a brief glance at the light in the corner. Shadow left the door half open behind him and hovered uncertainly just inside the room. Mephiles didn't make any move to help him with that. He wasn't entirely sure what to say, even if he had the energy to care.

"Do you remember what happened?" Silver asked. He didn't elaborate; there was no need. All but one time he'd come to Mephiles' room at night had been for a similar reason. (One thing they all had in common. Nightmares were a regular thing in their house.)

Mephiles shook his head, succumbing to the urge to pull his knees to his chest and wrap his arms around them. "No. Regression. Not that knowing it helps."

Sonic looked confused, a look that only intensified as he realized nobody else seemed surprised. "Say what?"

"Regressions while I'm asleep cause unpleasant dreams," Mephiles said when the others didn't speak up. "At least, I assume they're unpleasant, since I wake up feeling awful afterward, but I never remember what happened during the dreams."

Sonic winced sympathetically, but said no more. Mephiles wondered if it was because he realized how useless words would be, or if he was just tired.

"Can we stay with you until you fall asleep?" Silver asked, voice soft and gentle, as though afraid of spooking him. Not that such a fear was entirely unfounded.

But at the moment, Mephiles found he wouldn't mind the company. "If you want. But only if you stop hovering. You're making me tired just looking at you." He glared at Sonic and Shadow, albeit without any real malice.

Sonic held up his hands in surrender, moving to take Silver's spot as the telekinetic rolled to Mephiles' other side. "Alright, didn't want to invade your space. Shadow, you coming? There's a reason we got big beds."

Shadow turned to Mephiles, an unspoken question in his eyes. Mephiles hesitated for half a second (not least because he didn't think he'd given Shadow much reason to doubt; clearly he needed to work on his attitude) before nodding. "There's space, if you're alright with being a little cramped."

The dark hedgehog nodded and unfolded his arms, making his way to the edge of the bed. Sonic apparently deemed his pace too slow and yanked him down with a firm but gentle grip. The following untangling left them in a slightly haphazard row, with Silver against the wall, Mephiles beside him, Sonic on Mephiles' other side and Shadow on the far edge. Sonic and Shadow's shoulders were overlapping a bit, and Silver pressed back into the wall to give Mephiles room, but they managed to fit without being too horribly squished.

Silver leaned down and pulled a sheet over all of them. "Think you'll be able to sleep alright like this?" he asked, just to be sure.

Mephiles pondered for a moment, then nodded, trying not to poke anyone with his quills as he did. "This is fine." Besides, with the solid silence coming from the outside edge of the bed, he had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't the only one who'd been having a rough night.

Speaking of. "How did all of you end up coming over here?"

Silver shrugged as if to say 'same way I always know,' which was as valid an answer as any.

"Had a feeling," Sonic said, "and I trust my gut to know what's best."

Shadow took a moment to respond. When he did, it was with a simple, "You move a lot when you're having a nightmare." He kicked at the air to demonstrate, making the bed rock and bump into the wall that separated their rooms.

Ah. That explained it. "I'm sorry for disturbing you then."

"Don't be. I'd rather be awake right now."

There was a brief pause. Then-

"Today's supposed to be one of your sleeping nights?" Sonic asked, sitting up to stare at Shadow. Mephiles couldn't see his expression at this angle but his tone said enough.

Shadow failed to conveniently sink into the mattress, though not for lack of trying. "Well-"

"Nope, enough chit chat, we're sleeping. And you have the nerve to mother hen me for my sleep habits."

"In general you need more rest than-"

"Shush. Sleep time."

Mephiles could feel Silver shaking from repressed laughter and found himself suppressing a snort of his own.

Chapter Text

Mephiles stood in the shade of a tree, watching curiously as the robot in front of him skillfully destroyed Eggman's robots. Though perhaps skillfully wasn't the word when his main technique consisted of raining countless bullets on anything that walked in front of him. Still, there was a strange sort of grace to the complete and utter destruction Omega cast upon his enemies.

Then again, maybe Mephiles just had strange standards. Wouldn't be the first time.

When the last robot fell, Omega turned to face his observer. "Designation Mephiles. State your business."

Mephiles almost melted back into the shadows without a word to avoid the unexpected confrontation, but decided against it. Rouge had said Omega was briefed on his new status(translation, knew he wasn't their enemy), so there shouldn't be any danger. And he owed the robot a conversation at least after spying on him. So instead of teleporting away, he shrugged and leaned against the tree. "I wondered what all the noise was. When I saw you, I decided to stay and watch."

Omega didn't move, making it hard to tell what he was thinking. "Is my destruction of Doctor Eggman's machines satisfying to watch?"

"I suppose. You certainly have a way with your weaponry."

The robot emitted a quiet whirring noise. "Was that an attempt at humor?"

Mephiles blinked. "Pardon?"

"Rouge has been teaching me to recognize humor. I interpreted your statement as a possible attempt at humor, since I fought you when we were enemies. Was I mistaken?"

It took a moment for Mephiles to recover from his momentary confusion. "Er. I wasn't trying to make a joke, no. I wouldn't have thought bringing the past up would be funny." It certainly wasn't funny to him, so doing so wouldn't have occurred to him. At least, not in this context.

"I have no standard formula for response to a joke. But complete annihilation of my enemies is, as Rouge would say, very funny."

"..." Mephiles shook his head a bit. "Alright then. It's nice to meet you properly, now that we aren't enemies."

"I agree. But if you try to hurt Shadow or Rouge, we will be enemies again."

"I'll keep that in mind." He nodded in farewell, then headed on his way, speculating on where he could go that wouldn't lead to more unplanned company. He still had some thinking to do.

Silver yelled a greeting as he entered Tails' house, following the response to the lab. He noted the fox busily working at something while Knuckles looked irritated and impatient. Not unusual. But there was one aspect of the scene that surprised him.

"Meph isn't here?" Silver asked.

The look Tails gave him was equally surprised. "I thought he was home or with one of you guys."

"Nope. Haven't seen him all day. I figured this was the most likely place after that, but..."

Knuckles growled, catching both their attention. "Why does nobody listen when I say we need to watch him?"

Tails looked blankly at him, then turned to Silver, tails curling around him almost protectively. "I can check the location of his com, if that would help. He usually keeps it off but my main console has an override that..."

He trailed off as Silver shook his head, pulling out his com. "Nah. I'll shoot him a message. It might have been better to do that in the first place, but what if's aren't good for much." He finished typing and pressed send, ignoring Knuckles' venomous glare. A moment later, he got a response.

S: hey, where are you?

M: on top of a skyscraper. downtown. why?

S: just wondered, haven't seen you today. also knuckles is mad again.

Silver cursed internally after hitting send. That was probably the last thing Mephiles needed to hear. He stressed about the echidna situation enough already, not that he'd ever admit it. Heck, Knuckles was half the reason they'd decided not to mention the regressions to anyone who didn't already know.

He was startled out of his thoughts as a video call request popped up on the screen. Curious, he accepted.

Mephiles' disgruntled visage filled the small screen. "As you can see, I am indeed atop a skyscraper," he said, the whistling wind making his words ever so slightly harder to understand. "Hopefully this is satisfactory as proof."

"Seems fine to me," Silver said, restraining his amusement as Knuckles' grumbling took on a more embarrassed tone in the background.

"Excellent. I expect to be back in time for dinner, but no need to wait if I'm not." A half second's pause. "And Silver?"

The hedgehog in question blinked. "Yeah?"

"Thank you." Mephiles sent him one of those odd crinkling smiles, then signed off.

Silver wasn't sure what he was being thanked for, but decided not to question it. Meph was happy and safe. That was all that mattered.

Sonic entered the kitchen early one morning to find Mephiles sitting at the table, stirring what might have been cereal if it hadn't been sitting in milk for so long. "Uh... need me to leave so you can finish?"

"No, I'm done."

He nodded and turned to the fridge, keeping half an eye on Mephiles as he poured a cup of juice and put jam on a slice of bread. "Everything okay?"

Mephiles sighed and pushed the bowl away. "How do you handle doing the same thing every day? It feels somewhat... pointless."

Sonic shrugged as he took a seat, taking a bite of bread and swallowing before responding. "I guess I don't have much of a problem with it. Might be because I spend a lot of the day sleeping when I have free time, but who knows." He paused. "Say, wanna go egg smashing? That helps cheer me up on down days."

There was a brief pause, and Sonic wondered if Mephiles might actually turn him down. But eventually the dark being nodded. "Alright. Seems like as good a use of time as any."

"Yeah. And it'll have us out of the house when Shadow opens his closet."

"...You know what, don't explain that. Please. I will not be an accomplice."

"Whoa!" Sonic yelped, dodging back as a robotic fist slammed into the ground where he'd been standing. He spin dashed the robot responsible into spare parts, then turned to check on his companion. "How you holding up, Meph?"

"Just fine," Mephiles responded, using his own variations of attacks to take down their adversaries. Spin dashing just wasn't as practical for him, lacking Sonic and Shadow's speed as he was.

"Alright, talk to you later!" And with that, Sonic jumped back into the fray.

The next few minutes were filled with enough bot fighting to hold Sonic's attention, but eventually the swarm ended, and he took a moment to relax, breathing labored but victorious. "Well that sure was some fight, eh Meph? ...Meph?" It was then that he realized his friend had vanished.

Eggmanish laughter flooded out of hidden speakers. "Ohohoho! You should keep better track of your allies, Sonic. Now that I've captured him, you're on your own!"

Sonic raised a brow, unimpressed. He pulled out his com, turned it on, and typed out a quick message.

S: leave part of the base for me?

M: Don't worry, I'll wait in this cell until you arrive or need help. It's surprisingly comfortable in here. Have fun.

He shrugged and tucked it away again, though he left it on in case Meph changed his mind. Not because a cell could keep him contained, but to make meeting up easier. Teleportation was not a precise skill as they had discovered.

Maybe an hour later, he'd cleared enough robots to reach the base. He sent Mephiles a quick message before moving on with the actual destroying the base part. Might as well get it over with.

When he reached the corner that held the cells, Mephiles was laying on his back in a cell that was really rocking the medieval aesthetic. By which he meant it only had iron bars, plus what appeared to be cuffs bolted to the walls, one set locked despite being unoccupied.

"He tried to handcuff me, but he put the cuffs on too tight so I removed them," Mephiles said simply, continuing to stare at the ceiling without otherwise acknowledging Sonic's presence.

Sonic snorted. "Right then. Aren't you worried about getting sick? These floors aren't that clean."

"I'm only semi-organic. I'm more likely to get sick than Shadow, but it's still not likely." Nonetheless, he stood, dusted himself off, and phased through the bars. "Now. Time to finish up?"

"Yep. I betcha Egghead has his usual doomsday robot around here somewhere."

They raced around the building, smashing bots and trading one-liners (mostly directed at each other, seeing as smashing the bots wasn't really hard enough to inspire anything good) until they reached an oversized door. Sonic stepped to one side and bowed. "After you, my friend."

Mephiles rolled his eyes and kicked the door. It creaked slowly open much to both of their amusement.

"Well that was sure something straight out of a cheesy horror movie," Mephiles said, entering the room as Sonic sniggered behind him. "Except just a bit too high tech."

"Eggman should've had the door open on its own, that would have been perfect," Sonic said. Then he glanced around and grimaced at the empty room. "Shoot. Meph, don't move."

Mephiles gave him a confused look, but didn't move to protest his strange request. Then the lights turned off.

"Welcome," boomed a loud voice, "to my magnificent evil lair. I hope you've enjoyed your stay because it will be your last!"

The lights came up, revealing yet another generic giant robot that was at least a little tougher looking than the generic giant robots sprinkled liberally across an equally generic adventure landscape. Mephiles had to admit he was impressed with Sonic and Eggman's tenacity - doing this so often would have left him bored to the point of quitting long ago. But for the moment he was less focused on that odd admiration and more on clinging to the hand Sonic had helpfully placed on his upper arm. And slowing his pulse to a more normal rate. That would be nice too.

Eggman's cackling broke off abruptly as he realized neither of his opponents were paying him much attention. "Hello? I'm up here?"

"One sec," Sonic called, barely glancing over. "Meph?"

"I'm fine," he said, though his heavy breathing didn't sound fine. And that was only stating the obvious. "Focus on the robot."

Sonic nodded, albeit reluctantly. He released Mephiles' arm and fell into a fighting stance, signature grin falling into place. "Time to crack this egg!"

It didn't take long to destroy the robot. It was obviously not Eggman's best work, but none of them expected otherwise. They were still between major plots after all.

"Meet you at home?" Sonic said, though he didn't make it as much of a question as he usually would have.

Mephiles nodded, not speaking a word as he melted into the shadows. Sonic turned to head on his way as well, ironically by the slower route. But it beat shadow travel as far as he was concerned.

When the door opened, Mephiles didn't even look up from where he'd perched on the back of the couch to see what had caused the sound. So he was caught off guard when a large, fluffy blanket hit him in the head.

He spluttered a bit, clawing the soft fabric away to glare at Sonic. "What was that for?"

"You're still shaking," Sonic said simply. "Sit down. I'll get you a hot chocolate."

There was a brief stare off, but rattled as he was, Mephiles didn't have the energy to resist. He moved over to sit on the couch, taking the hint and wrapping himself in the blanket. The fluffy texture was remarkably soothing. He shuffled his feet, awkwardly bending his knees to his chest without putting his shoes on the couch cushions and huddling in the warm softness, humming something mindless under his breath.

Sonic came over with two mugs of warm beverage. "It's just packets of instant, I'm not doing Silver's fancy thing, but what matters is that it's warm."

Mephiles made a noncommittal sound and accepted the drink, careful not to meet Sonic's eyes. The hero's gaze softened with understanding. "Hey," he said, taking a seat beside Mephiles - not close enough to be touching, but close enough to communicate his presence. "It's okay. You can't control how you feel, and there's nothing shameful in it."

"I know." And his tone made it clear that he did. Even so...

"There's a difference between knowing it's okay and believing it?" Sonic guessed, smiling wryly when Mephiles nodded. "I get that. Maybe we can help each other with it. Be a reminder when it's hard to believe. How's that sound?"

Mephiles was silent for a long moment, gaze fixed on his shoes. Then he nodded ever so slightly. "I think I can do that."

Chapter Text

Shadow was watching TV at home when he felt the couch shift next to him. He didn't bother looking up, being engrossed in the documentary currently playing and not too interested in the new presence. If they wanted his attention, they'd have to ask for it.

"I heard you were wondering about my ability to use chaos."

He turned, surprised by the unexpected speaker, only to meet slit-pupiled lime green eyes. Mephiles sat against the opposite arm rest, one foot casually crossed over the opposite knee and cheek resting on his fist. His expression could only be described as smug, though how he managed it without a mouth Shadow wasn't quite sure.

"That's correct," Shadow said, realizing a response was probably expected of him. "Are you...?"

"There's not much to tell," Mephiles said with a shrug. "I never used chaos before my sort of reformation, so it's not something I have experience with. Which probably answers your question, not that you really needed me to help with something so simple. After all, you're a professional when it comes to collecting information, isn't that right?"

Shadow narrowed his eyes, detecting subtle traces of mockery in Mephiles' words. "By some standards, perhaps," he said, "but that hardly helps when only one person knows the information I seek. In this case, you."

"Shame. Collecting the information is sometimes easier when you tell people what you want it for, you know?" He raised a pointed brow after the comment.

"Where are you going with this?" Shadow allowed his tone to shift toward a growl, fully aware that Mephiles' behavior was intentionally provocative when regressed, but not caring all that much.

"Nowhere particular," he said with a shrug, though the glint in his eyes said otherwise. "Then again, neither are you."

"You're welcome to provide further information," Shadow said pointedly. "It would certainly simplify matters. But you're not likely to do so that easily. Correct?"

"Of course not. Despite my other self's attitude, we are still enemies."

"If you're so insistent on seeing it that way, I suppose I can't change your mind."

Mephiles paused, hand falling from his face. "Sorry?"

Shadow didn't so much as blink. "I have trouble believing you're truly acting as our enemy if you insist on bothering us. Wouldn't it be better to convince us you're an ally, then strike when you get the chance?"

Mephiles stared at him, then narrowed his eyes. "An interesting theory. One I will neither confirm nor deny. Farewell."

Shadow waited for him to vanish, then turned his documentary back on.

Mephiles watched Tails work in silence, settled comfortably on a backward chair. The fox was more than a little uncomfortable with the prickling feeling of eyes on him but was more satisfied with his victory regarding the counter debate. Said victory being that Mephiles still acknowledged his request to not sit on the counter while regressed.

Anyway, the silence was preferable to the nonsense Mephiles usually spewed at them while regressed. He'd mostly quit it around Tails after it became clear that he wasn't getting a reaction, and the fox was actually grateful to those anti-bullying lectures from when he was smaller. The fact was, nothing he'd said or done was more than irritating, which while odd was kind of reassuring. His first reaction to the regressions had been distinct unease, if not outright fear - if Mephiles was turning into their enemy again, what might that mean for them? But as far as he could tell nothing bad was happening. He wasn't about to let Mephiles out of his sight during a regression, but his concern about being alone with the hopefully reformed villain was somewhat alleviated.

The door banged open in the other room. "Hey Tails!"

Oh no. Knuckles. Tails gave Mephiles a meaningful look and mimed zipping his lips, optimistically interpreting the other's blank stare as agreement, before returning the greeting. "Hey Knuckles! We're in the lab."

"When are you not?" Knuckles said with a note of good-natured grumpiness. He paused when he noticed Mephiles. "Oh. You're here too?"

"I am," Mephiles said, neglecting to offer any further details.

Tails noticed Knuckles' dissatisfaction with the response and quickly moved to intervene. "He sometimes comes to watch me work. Anyway, if you're checking on the progress of that project you asked me to work on, I've not gotten much further than last time."

"Nah, just stopping by to say hi." He squinted suspiciously at Mephiles. "Something's different about you."

Mephiles shrugged and leaned his chin against the chair back. "Exhaustion? I haven't slept very well this past week."

"Nah, it's not that. Are you... wearing contacts? Cause I swear it looks like your eyes are glowing. And kind of snakey."

Tails was becoming increasingly concerned about this conversation. They'd agreed not to talk about regressions, but if Knuckles kept pushing...

Mephiles seemed to not have quite the same concerns. He sat up and narrowed his eyes at Knuckles. "Why don't you just come out and say it? Subtlety is not your strong suit."

They had a glare-off for a long moment. Surprisingly, Knuckles' patience seemed to snap first. "You've been remembering things," he growled, "and I've seen you like this a few times. It's linked, and you know it. Why haven't you mentioned it?"

"He's not the only one who knows," Tails said, shrinking back as Knuckles' attention snapped to him. "It's, uh, me, Sonic, Silver, and Shadow all know. So we can keep an eye out. It's all safe, you know?" He winced internally at his wording, but Mephiles didn't look bothered. Rather, he looked annoyed, but that seemed more directed at Knuckles than him.

Said echidna appeared to be putting two and two together and not liking the result he was getting. "Wait. Then it is dangerous?"

"Hardly," Mephiles said in a bored tone. "I'm slowly regaining access to sealed memories, so they thought it was best if someone keep an eye out. After all, regaining memories of the adventure wasn't exactly easy on anyone when you lot did it, correct?"

"I guess not," Knuckles said, looking like he was buying the story... until he saw how nervous Tails looked and his suspicions all came back. "That's not all, is it?"

Tails looked at Mephiles helplessly. The dark being heaved a tired sigh. "You should really work on your poker face, fox. It's bound to cause trouble one of these days if you can't learn to keep a secret properly. And no, that's not all. But the four of them decided they had the situation under control, and alarming the rest of you would be pointless. Not that I much care."

"Are you going to say what else is going on or not?!?!"

Tails had curled in on himself at Mephiles' comment, but uncurled a bit at Knuckles' frustrated response. No need for him to leave without correct information if they'd already come this far anyway. "He's regressing. At least, we call it regression. It's when all his memories come back for a little bit and his personality sort of reverts to how it was on our adventure."

Knuckles tensed up, looking at Mephiles with no small amount of apprehension. "And you just let him run around like that?"

"There's frequently someone around when I regress," Mephiles pointed out, voice a slow drawl. "Besides, there's hardly enough time for me to do much of anything, even if I wanted to. These things have never even lasted a full hour."

"He's right," Tails said when Knuckles glanced at him for confirmation. "It seems to be caused by those energy spikes I was measuring, and none of them last very long. And it's not like he spends much time on his own." He pretended not to notice Mephiles rolling his eyes behind Knuckles' back. Okay, maybe his information was out of date there, but he'd given enough away as it was.

Knuckles looked doubtful, but seemed more or less appeased by that explanation. "Alright then. As long as you're careful, I don't see why it should be a big deal. But you oughta tell the others."

"Not until we have more information." Tails made his voice as firm as possible for that statement. He didn't want to spread this around until he was sure it was accurate and not just scaremongering. All he could do at the moment was make them scared of what Mephiles might do, which wouldn't help anyone.

At least Knuckles seemed willing to accept that response. "Well... okay. But you had better be careful."

"Believe me, I will be."

With one last glare at Mephiles, he turned and stomped out of the lab. A moment later the front door slammed open and shut.

"Well that went well," Mephiles said, and promptly passed out before Tails could ask whether he was joking. The fox sighed and went to adjust him to a more comfortable position. He always complained of feeling tense after a regression, no need to make it worse.

Mephiles resettled, Tails turned to the task of notifying the others. Better they find out now than be surprised later.

Mephiles woke slowly, noting he was now on Tails' couch with his usual detachment. After a point, finding himself in new locations with a blank in his memory became less concerning than it probably should be. He focused instead on stretching out, since as per usual he was tense as heck. Honestly, his other self could stand to relax a bit.

Then again, if he was right about why he was so tense... well, he didn't think about that often. After all, the more often he thought it, the more likely he was to remember it while regressed. And that wouldn't be good under any circumstances. Especially if he was right.

Ritual stretching completed, Mephiles stood and headed for the lab, where he could hear several  voices he'd been trying and failing to ignore. While he wasn't exactly eager to get involved with whatever conversation was going on in there... well, it was fortunate he hadn't copied Blaze's form or he'd be dead several times over.

He paused and leaned against the doorway, waiting for someone to notice him. Though it seemed like it might take a bit if he didn't speak up. Sonic and Shadow were locked in a stare-off for some reason while Tails watched, fidgeting uncertainly.

After a moment, Shadow nodded. "Very well then. Hopefully Silver arrives soon, though, because I'm very curious about what could be important enough to call us all here on such short notice."

"I'm a bit curious myself," Mephiles said, deciding it was high time he made his presence known. He didn't especially want to eavesdrop but none of them were paying much attention to their surroundings.

Sonic in particular jumped a good foot in the air and whirled to face him, wide-eyed shock fading into a wavery grin. "Oh hey Meph. Uh, how much of that did you hear?"

"Just Shadow's comment after your staring match. I only woke up a couple minutes ago."

"You were regressed for half an hour," Tails informed him, "and passed out for a little less than that. Shadow helped me carry you to the game room because I'm not entirely sure you could breathe in the position you were in. And you should definitely hear this too."

The door opening caught everyone's attention, so they were all looking up when Silver entered. The telekinetic glanced around and rolled his eyes. "Right. Still the last one to arrive I see. So what's up? Your message sounded pretty urgent."

"It kind of is," Tails said, falling into a more serious demeanor. "Knuckles came by while Mephiles was regressed earlier. He made some pointed comments about him seeming different and, well, now he knows about regressions. He's not gonna tell anyone else, but I thought everyone should know."

Silver frowned. "That's... not good, but not as bad as I'd thought. Couldn't you have told us by message?"

Tails shrugged. "I needed help carrying Mephiles. He kind of passed out sitting on a chair backward. And, uh..." He turned to Sonic, looking somewhere between sheepish and forlorn. "I feel like we haven't talked much recently, so I thought maybe we could all hang out for a bit?"

Several indistinct emotions chased each other across Sonic's face before he grinned and leaned forward to ruffle Tails' head fur. "Sure thing, buddy! You know I'm always happy to spend time with you, just say the word."

Tails mock-scowled and batted his hands away, but he was grinning as well.

Mephiles smiled a bit as Sonic began plotting potential activities with Tails, dragging Silver into it and trying to add Shadow to their planning circle. Fortunately that particular lost cause allowed Mephiles to fade into the background and just watch the others play-arguing.

He could worry about Knuckles some other time. For the moment he wanted to enjoy spending a little time with everyone.

Chapter Text

"Ha ha! Too slow, Egghead!"

"Curse you, hedgehog!"

Mephiles rolled his eyes as he pushed through the crowd. Even without directions and the visual of flailing robotic limbs over people and shorter buildings, the sound of overused phrases would have led him right to the fight. He'd rather be home reading a book or out relaxing somewhere, but Sonic was apparently in the mood to have a partner in their regular Eggman fight and the others were busy elsewhere. Which meant he got stuck helping the hyperactive idiot (Shadow's words, not his, honest).

Of course, he couldn't do much until he got through all these onlookers. Honestly, they were lucky these battles weren't too dangerous. If this were a serious fight, someone would definitely have gotten hurt by now.

Finally he reached the front of the crowd, only to be blocked by a police officer. "Excuse me sir, but it's dangerous to get any closer."

He gave the officer a flat look. "It's dangerous to be even this close. In any case, I'm with them."

"Sorry sir, but unless you're on the list I can't let you through." A pause. "Say, weren't you there for a recent attack?"

"Unfortunately yes. I participated in halting it. Can I pass now?"

"Afraid not. Rules are rules. Although..." The officer winked. "If you're supposed to be on the list, I won't be able to stop you if you try to get past, now will I?"

"True." Mephiles melted away, reappearing by a lamppost past the police barrier. "Why did nobody mention a list to me before I came out here?"

Sonic hopped back, turning to him. "Ah, right! Forgot about that. Everyone else is already on it."

Mephiles watched him dodge a light bullet rain. "Next time try not to forget. Being stopped by police concerned about civilian safety is irritating."

"Yeah, okay, you gonna join in or not?" He did a cartwheel over the robot's shoulders, making it hit itself in the head almost hard enough to crack the semi-clear dome on top.

Mephiles took on a pondering expression. "I don't know, you seem to have this under control. And technically I'm not supposed to be out here, so..."

"Stuff the passive aggressive thing and move your butt!"

That got an eye roll, but Mephiles was more amused than irritated as he dashed in. He ducked a flailing limb, brushing fingers lightly against its underside and gluing it to the ground with his shadows. A bit more dodging around had enough limbs immobilized for Sonic to spin-dash straight through the thing's torso, leaving a sparking hole as it fell over.

Sonic skidded to a stop at Mephiles' side, grinning and holding up a hand. "Nice job out there!"

Mephiles blinked for a moment, puzzled, before registering the gesture and hesitantly returning the high five. "You too."

A creaking noise pulled their attention back to the robot as it dragged itself upright despite the gaping hole in its chassis.

Sonic sighed. "Great. Multi phase enemy. Ready for this, Meph? Second phase is always harder!"

"I am aware. And yes."

"Then let's go!" The speedster followed this cry by promptly springing forward, leading the notably faster limbs on a wild chase around the machine's center in an attempt to tangle them up.

Mephiles crouched slightly, preparing to join him - then froze, eyes fixed sightlessly on the ground.

Sonic and the robot noticed this at the same time. Unfortunately, at that moment Sonic was stuck holding back one of its limbs. His eyes widened in panic as he saw one of the robot's free arms lash toward Mephiles. "Meph!"

One of Mephiles' arms shot up. The robotic limb froze, encased in darkness for an instant before crumpling in on itself and falling to the ground. Mephiles raised his head slowly, arm falling just as slowly to his side. "You know, this whole activity seems rather frivolous. Do none of you have anything better to do with your time?"

Sonic dropped out of the fighting stance he'd assumed after the unexpectedly violent attack, assuming a more relaxed pose. "Tell that to Egghead. You regressed again?"

"It was directed at him as much as you. Not that he seems to have noticed." Mephiles sent a disparaging glance at the unmoving robot next to them. "But yes, I regained my full memory. Seeing as you insist on calling it that. Though you're acting less concerned about it than your companions."

Sonic shrugged, eyeing the robot with concealed unease. That wasn't enough to stop it, if it had a second engine, so why wasn't it moving? "I'm not going to get all worked up over it. You're Mephiles either way. Facets of the same person."

"More like he is a facet of me. I am the whole, and he is a mere part."

Sonic's smile didn't falter. "Okay. If you say so."

Mephiles eyed him suspiciously, seeming to conclude something after a moment. "Then if we're clear-"

A robotic claw slammed down on Mephiles, creating a metal cage around him as the robot leaned in. "A-ha! So your original personality still exists, does it?"

The attempted threat garnered only a raised brow. "You do realize that I have both teleported and crushed one of these arms you though to cage me with in the last few minutes, correct?"

"...It's symbolic. And that's not the point! Why are you hanging with Mr. Goody Two-Shoes over there? Change of heart?"

"Hey Eggman, he's-"

"I don't see that I'm obligated to tell you anything," Mephiles said, cutting off Sonic before he could finish saying much the same thing. "Now are we here to chat, or destroy your latest unimpressive creation?"

"Wh- how dare-!"

Sonic choked back a snort as Eggman continued to splutter. "Hey, good point! Meph, countdown to final blow in three, two-"

"Wait just a-"

"One!" He smashed the clear head, bouncing out of the way so Mephiles could safely tear apart the inside. This time, the robot fell over and stayed collapsed.

"Nice lines," Sonic said, grinning at Mephiles, hand again extended for a high five.

Mephiles looked at him for a moment before his expression abruptly shuttered. "You forget, I'm not your friend. I just happen to dislike Eggman more than you." He made a quick exit into the shadows.

Sonic blinked, looking around briefly before concluding that yeah, Mephiles had just vanished while regressed. He shrugged and turned to wave at the onlookers before heading home, firmly pushing any worries aside. Mephiles hadn't tried anything while regressed before. It would be fine.

"Hey there."

Tails looked up and grinned. "Hey Sonic! Uh." His smile faltered briefly. "Wasn't Mephiles with you?"

Sonic shrugged, leaning against the wall as casually as if he'd always been there and not run in faster than the eye could see. "He regressed mid-fight and teleported out."

Tails' eyes went wide. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, but that robot sure isn't. He had way better control of his shadow powers."

"Interesting... but where is he now?"

"Dunno. He teleported, so could be anywhere."

"True." The fox's eyes narrowed as he studied Sonic's face, nodding at some inward decision. "I'll see where he is."

Sonic frowned, but didn't comment as Tails tapped a few buttons, pulling up a map. He checked something on a smaller screen, then turned to face Sonic again. "He's in Tropical Jungle. Could you go check on him?"

Sonic scratched his ear, looking uneasily at the screen. "I dunno, Tails. Maybe we should give him some space."

"Sonic..."

He tried not to flinch at the tone Tails used, pasting on a grin. "Okay, okay! No need for theatrics, I'm going."

Sonic skidded to a stop on a platform not far above the water, looking down with more than a little amusement. "Having fun there?"

Mephiles cracked an eye open, not bothering to sit up from where he lay sprawled on the back of a large turtle. "I was until you interrupted me. What do you need?"

"Just checking in. You vanished before we got a chance to chat."

"Well you aren't going to get a chance now. I'm busy."

"I can see that." Sonic hopped over a platform, trying to stay in range of the slowly swimming behemoth. "Think you'll be back before dark?"

"How should I know? I'll only be around for a few more minutes. Let me experience them in peace."

"Alright, lord grumpy. You could give Shadow a run for his money in the extra angry growling department. See ya!"

Mephiles returned to his relaxing once Sonic had vanished, but not before releasing a snort that almost sounded amused.

Mephiles arrived at Tails' house to find more activity than he'd really expected. Usually it was much quieter. It really said something for Knuckles' decibel level that even the workshop could be considered quiet when he left.

He was therefore less than enthused to find Knuckles yelling when he arrived back from his trip. Especially since that same loudmouth was the least happy about Mephiles being around in the first place, and seemed to be making another complaint to that effect.

"I'm not saying we kick him out," Knuckles growled angrily. "I'm saying we need to watch him. That's the complete opposite of kicking him out. And leaving him on his own while regressed is a horrible idea."

"Well, so's the fashion statement you rocked last Halloween, but-"

"This has nothing to do with that!"

"I'd be interested to see that fashion statement," Mephiles informed Sonic as he entered the room. "And while I won't oppose Knuckles' point, do you really want to spend however long watching someone sleep on a turtle?"

Knuckles' expression went from angry to completely flat at a speed that would put Sonic to shame. "What."

"I woke up lying on a turtle's back. I may not be able to recall what my counterpart was doing, but I can put context clues together."

"Sounds right," Sonic agreed. "He was just chilling when I left. And that wasn't super long ago, so he can't have done much between then and now."

"You can't be sure about that. He can teleport, for all you know he went somewhere as soon as you left then came back before he turned back!"

Mephiles rolled his eyes and turned to Tails. "Those machines you had us distribute allow you to track the energy surges once they appear, correct?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Could you create a program to notify you when I am in one of those locations, so you won't need to check my location personally, but can track whether I move too far away? You can even send someone to check the first few times, if you feel the need."

Knuckles scowled. "What's stopping you from taking your com off?"

"I could message him periodically," Tails said tentatively. "That way he can't risk leaving it behind without us finding out."

Mephiles nodded at the fox, then returned his cool gaze to Knuckles. "Will that satisfy you?"

Knuckles still looked unhappy, but couldn't seem to find anything concrete to complain about. "...Fine. But if you slip up even once, we get a stronger system."

"Understandable."

The echidna took a last moment to glare at him before stomping out in a huff. Mephiles watched him, restrained neutrality tainted by the slightest bit of disappointment. Just enough that Sonic could see it. "Something wrong?"

"For a moment I hoped his distrust was more directed toward my regressed self," he said. "But I suppose that was too good to be true."

Sonic and Tails exchanged a look, then grimaced. They knew first-hand how impossible it was to predict Knuckles' reaction to anything suspicious. He didn't exactly have the best track record with being tricked. As nice as it was if this was his attempt to turn over a new leaf, it was a little hard on Mephiles.

After a split second's hesitation, Sonic rested a friendly hand on Mephiles' shoulder. "Don't worry. He'll come around sooner or later."

Mephiles startled a bit, then settled again. "Perhaps. But I'm not holding my breath."

"Yeah, please don't hold your breath, " Tails said, making a tentative attempt at a joke. "Oxygen is kind of important to your health."

Mephiles turned to him, once again surprised by the attempt to comfort him. His surprise quickly relaxed into amusement. "True. But as a semi-organic, perhaps I'd have a better chance."

There was a brief pause, then all three of them burst into laughter. It wasn't that funny, really, but the sudden release of tension did wonders for lifting the mood.

Silver followed the coordinates Tails gave him surprisingly far, out past many of the nearby zones until he found himself on the other side of some mountains. Fortunately it didn't take him too long as the bird (or in this case hedgehog) flies, since he could go at full speed without worrying about obstacles. He hadn't flown into a telephone pole, despite what the others seemed to think, and wanted to keep it that way. In any case, going at full speed got him there in about fifteen minutes, slower than Sonic or Shadow by a long shot but not half bad for a hedgehog who'd only begun using his powers for extra speed in the last year.

When he finally got there, he was surprised to find a sparkling lake nestled in between two of the taller peaks, hidden by trees and more mountains. Getting closer revealed a small spike of land jutting out into the water with what seemed to be the remains of an old stone building. The sandy land would probably become an island when the thaw came, but for the moment, there was a narrow dry path with occasional puddles dotting the earth.

Silver landed on the dry ground just off the bridge, wondering why Mephiles was hanging around here. For that matter, he wondered how he'd found this place at all.

"That program isn't very useful if it takes this long to follow the coordinates."

The telekinetic startled and looked up, finally seeing Mephiles nestled on top of the wall, beneath what could have been either a second story or some decorative architecture. His dark fur blended well enough with the shadows to render him nearly invisible, especially when approaching from above as Silver had.

Mephiles smirked at his reaction. "Did you really not notice me? For a hero, you aren't especially aware of your surroundings, are you?"

Silver frowned. "Shut up, you're pretty well hidden. And how come you're still regressed?" Since it was obvious from the odd light in his eyes that he hadn't turned back, there seemed to be no need for clarification on that point.

"I couldn't say. It's been less time for me than the alert would indicate, but I didn't bother checking the time. And that's another thing. Tell that fox kit to look into false positives. My counterpart was rather puzzled by that alert for a while before I took over."

That was an interesting bit of information. Silver turned it over in his head for a minute before setting it aside to tell Tails later. He'd have a better idea what, if anything, that meant. "Alright. Mind if I stick around for a bit?"

Mephiles shrugged and leaned back against the wall. "Be my guest. Just don't expect me to be a good conversation partner."

Silver nodded, then sat back and leaned against the wall Mephiles was sitting on, stifling a yawn behind his hand. Flying at that rate took a fair bit out of him. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he took a few minutes to rest. The grass was soft, the shade so cool and welcoming...

Mephiles leaned out to look down at Silver, then hopped off the wall, landing lightly in the grass beside him. He knelt down, looking at the sleeping hedgehog thoughtfully. After a long moment, he sighed and picked the other up before pulling the both of them through the shadows as smoothly as he could and depositing Silver in his room. He returned to his own room from there, though not before shutting Silver's door, still careful to be as quiet as possible.

Chapter Text

Silver woke up in his bed. He took a moment to reorient himself, since the last he could remember was visiting Mephiles in some ruins. Waking in his own room was more than a little unsettling without context, but presumably he'd fallen asleep and Mephiles had taken him back after the regression ended. He really needed to keep better track of his energy usage or one of these days he'd pass out at a critical moment.

But that was something to worry about when he hadn't missed dinner. Silver climbed out of bed and headed downstairs, mentally cataloging what they had available to eat.

He paused on the stairs to let Mephiles pass with an armload of sleeping blue hedgehog. Silver restrained his curiosity for when asking wouldn't wake someone and continued downstairs, fixing a simple but filling breakfast and digging in. He eyed the empty dishes sitting on the table but shrugged it off for the moment.

Mephiles joined him after a minute, clearing away the dishes and taking a seat. "Sonic apparently took a nap at the table. I thought he might sleep better in his own bed."

"I guess it's your job to put us to bed now," Silver joked. "By the way, thanks for that."

Mephiles tilted his head, looking blank. "For what?"

"Taking me back here yesterday. Sorry for falling asleep when I was supposed to be watching you, but I haven't seen you do anything bad while regressed yet."

Mephiles remained still for long enough that Silver began to get worried before nodding. "Of course. I wouldn't just leave you." He glanced at the microwave, eyes narrowing. "Well, not in that case. But I think I should go get a bit of rest. Didn't get much last night."

"That sucks," Silver said. "Hope your nap goes better than your night."

"Me too." He nodded and headed upstairs, ducking into his room and closing the door without a sound

He stood in the middle of the room for a minute, thinking, before turning to study the sticky notes on his desk. Nothing new. Not that he'd expected anything after hearing Silver's story.

With a thoughtful hum, he settled himself in bed. Food for thought or no, he hadn't been lying about not getting enough rest, and he'd rather not follow Sonic's example.

When he woke some time later, he checked the house for everyone else before even glancing at the time. Sonic was still asleep, but the two of them were the only ones home. Unless someone managed to sit still enough that their shadow blended with whatever they were next to.

Snorting at the ridiculous image (mostly because he was pretty sure that wasn't how it worked), he flipped over to his other side to check the time. Not yet noon. Great, he had some time to himself. Plenty of time to go check a thing.

Sonic yawned, tipping forward a little but jerking upright before he could faceplant in his food. Fortunately nobody was around to notice. Apparently he'd fallen asleep when he tried to get breakfast earlier, but despite someone moving him to his bed, the extra sleep hadn't done much to cure his exhaustion. Frustrating, but not a big deal. He'd be fine once he woke up more.

Once he finished eating, Sonic quickly cleared his dishes and headed out.

He skidded to a stop outside Tails' house - the one near the mystic ruins, not the place in the city. Most of their stuff had been moved over the last several months, but a decent number of photo albums were still out here. It was rare that anyone cared to look at them, with all the most interesting and newest ones more easily available, so there wasn't much need to have them taking up space. That was fine by him; the chances of him running into anyone else here was low.

He was surprised, then, when he went to retrieve the key from its hidden spot under a roof tile, only to find it missing. A quick check revealed the door to be already unlocked.

Puzzled and a bit unnerved, Sonic nonetheless opened the door with his usual confidence and glanced around inside. He blinked in the faint gloom, idly noting the key sitting on the sideboard and wondering why whoever was here hadn't turned on the lights. Then he saw the figure by the bookshelves and understood.

"Hey Meph," he said, striding forward with a more confident grin. "Looking through old photos?"

Mephiles looked up from the album he was examining, placing it back on the shelf at Sonic's approach. "I was curious about some of your adventures. You've certainly had a lot, haven't you?"

"Heh. Guess so." Sonic scratched his nose, glancing away for a moment before restoring eye contact. "But there's a bunch of albums in the lab in town. No need to come all the way out here."

"I suppose not. But here I can look through pictures in relative solitude. Besides, I should know how to get down here on my own for the future."

Sonic nodded understanding. Tails had been making offhand comments about wanting to move back to his larger space now that they'd mostly handled the whole memory deal. Sure, Mephiles was still a big question mark in that respect, but if anything did happen it would be best for Tails to have full access to his equipment. Besides, the fox missed being able to fly the Tornado whenever he felt like it.

They stood in silence for a moment as Mephiles flipped through another album, pausing briefly on a particular page before placing it back on the shelf. He left his hand resting on the book's binding, eyes faced forward. "You know, I really envy you."

Sonic blinked, then grinned. "No surprise there. What for? My eternal awesomeness? My insane coolness?"

"No. For your ability to keep smiling regardless of how you actually feel."

With those last words, the dark being vanished into the shadows, leaving an unnerved hero behind him.

Sonic stared blankly at the spot where he'd been standing for a moment, then sighed and smiled, though his smile had a bit more melancholy to it than usual. He pushed the albums slightly to the side and pulled an album so thin it was more like a folder out of where the book case's edging had concealed it, flipping through empty pages until he reached the back of the book. One slot had a slightly sketchy drawing of everyone who had been on the Soleanna adventure standing together. The other had a picture of most of them, taken shortly after Silver and Blaze had arrived.

He let out a small laugh, tracing a finger across the laminated image as though hypnotized. "Gee, Meph. Way to call a guy out."

Shaking off the strange spell that had taken hold of him, he replaced the folder in its nook and pushed the other albums to cover it again before turning to leave.

Mephiles watched the speedster's departure from his perch on the roof, a spark of something unknown visible in his eyes just before he vanished.

"Hey Tails," Sonic said as he popped into the lab, apparently not noticing Silver in the corner. Though, with how uncommonly tired he sounded, it wasn't all that shocking.

Tails was too engrossed in his project to notice. "Hey Sonic. Sorry, gotta focus."

"I distracted him last time he tried this," Silver admitted, frowning when Sonic jumped in surprise. "Long day?" he asked, holding back his concern with a milder query than the one he was thinking of. (It was also a bit more polite than 'what the heck is wrong with you???')

Sonic smiled and shrugged, tone carefully kept steady and neutral. "Not really, I'm just a little tired today. You know how it is."

"Yeah, I get that," Silver said, doing his best to mask his worry. There wasn't any point in pushing if Sonic didn't feel like talking about it. He could be as bad as Shadow sometimes. But it left him grasping for a subject change. "Want to head out back so we don't ruin anyone's concentration?"

Tails grumbled something inaudible, which Silver ignored. (He wasn't about to call the fox out on his sleep-induced grumpiness in front of his brother. Youngest team members' unspoken pact.)

"Alright," Sonic said with only a puzzled glance at Tails before waving toward the door. "Not like there's any shortage of things to do."

"True," Silver said, managing a smile and moving to follow. He paused as he felt something buzzing in his quills. Pulling out his com revealed a new message from Mephiles.

M: Keep an eye on Sonic.

S: Why?

M: He's acting weird.

S: Is he ever not acting weird?

M: Just watch him.

Silver sighed and tucked the com away, resolving to at least keep an eye out. After all, Mephiles wasn't wrong. Sonic was behaving strangely.

Still, their sparring match wasn't any different from normal, and Silver didn't think too much of it when Sonic said his goodbyes sooner than usual.

Sonic ran through zones, colors racing by faster than even he could make out properly. Usually he'd go a little slower - not much, just enough to appreciate the scenery - but today he just needed to run, and run, and -

Oh hey, that was a suspiciously fast black streak over to the right.

He grinned and adjusted his speed slightly to let Shadow join him more easily. It wasn't often they ran into each other during a run, so most likely Shadow had sought him out. Why, he couldn't guess, though he imagined Shadow would share soon enough.

The conversation that followed was conducted in a bizarre combination of hand signs, expressions, and pointed glares (which were not just expressions and definitely required a category of their own). Spoken conversations were a little hard when those talking were moving faster than sound, and Sonic wasn't in the mood to slow down. That said, a spoken version of their conversation would go something like this:

"Sonic."

"Hey Shads."

"Stop calling me that."

"Nah, your reactions are too good. 'Sides, all my friends need nicknames."

"Even the pink hedgehog girl?"

"Eh... she's got one, I just don't use it. Sounded, uh, romantic."

"Hmph. We're getting off topic."

"Was there a topic?"

"Shut up faker."

"I didn't say anything~"

"Stop it. Sonic, we need to talk."

Sonic skidded to a halt and waited as Shadow stopped a good mile further and raced back to him. "We need to talk?" he asked, not entirely sure of his interpretation. The gesture had involved Shadow pointing at both of them, then at his throat. That was the only thing Sonic could think of, unless Shadow was trying to let him know about a sore throat. Which made no sense in an ultimate lifeform that couldn't get sick.

Shadow folded his arms, regarding him seriously. "That's correct."

Sonic blinked at him for a moment, then smiled. Not for the first time in the last few days, it wasn't a happy smile so much as the one he wore when headed into battle. "Okay, Shadow. Let's talk."

Chapter Text

Silver was more than a little puzzled to find Mephiles sitting on the porch when he got home, but he tried not to let it show. "Uh, hey Meph. What's up?"

The dark being glanced at him, then resumed staring at nothing in particular. "Keeping watch. You may not want to be home."

Before he could question that comment, Silver spotted Sonic jogging up the street. He was beginning to wonder if this was some kind of prank, but discarded that idea when he saw Sonic's expression.

"Hey guys," he said, attempting a smile and giving up almost immediately. "Have you seen-?"

"Shadow isn't here," Mephiles said. "He had some work to do with GUN, so he'll be away for a couple days."

Sonic hissed something under his breath and gave Silver an apologetic look. "I probably won't be home for dinner today. Or tomorrow either."

"We won't send out any search parties," Silver said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Sonic returned it with an unsteady smile of his own before turning to head off who knows where. After taking a deep breath, Silver turned to Mephiles. "What's going on?"

"Sonic's an idiot," Mephiles said simply. He shrugged when Silver frowned at the unsatisfactory answer. "They're arguing again."

"Oh," Silver said, instantly understanding. It wasn't uncommon for those two to trip over themselves and end up fighting, but it sucked that it went bad at such an inconvenient moment.

Or maybe it wasn't so inconvenient. "Is Shadow actually on a GUN mission?"

Mephiles shrugged. "He stopped by to pick up a few things and ask me to tell Sonic he was with GUN if he came asking. Make of that what you will."

"You don't think he is, though."

"No."

Silver frowned as he realized Mephiles wasn't going to elaborate. Probably with good reason, since those two rarely liked other people getting involved at times like this, but still. "I hate being out of the loop like this," he grumbled, brushing past Mephiles to go inside.

Mephiles turned away as the door closed behind him and resumed staring into space.

Silver picked at his food listlessly, painfully aware of the silence that had settled over the house. It wasn't that uncommon for him to end up eating alone, at least before the last month or so, but somehow it felt more uncomfortable when he knew the others weren't out on a casual run or something. Mephiles was upstairs, doing who knows what, still uncomfortable with the idea of eating in front of anyone. Sometimes he'd come sit with Silver anyway on days when they were the only ones home, just to keep him company, but it seemed today was not one of those days.

He sighed and put the rest of his food away, aware he wouldn't eat any more that night. He'd have to cook something the next day, that usually helped his appetite.

Cleanup handled, he headed upstairs and knocked on Mephiles' door. "Don't forget to eat something, you should have the kitchen to yourself now." He waited for a moment but received no reply. "Meph?"

"I heard, I'll get something later."

"Alright." He left it at that, sensing the other's reluctance to interact and not wanting to push. Especially not when they were already both stressed.

Mephiles woke up in the middle of the night, unsettled but unable to place the cause. He was fairly calm about it, though. By then it had become fairly normal.

So instead of panicking quietly like he had the first few times, he went over his mental checklist. He couldn't remember any nightmares, though that didn't have to mean anything. His light was still plugged in and working (unsurprising now that he knew how to use an outlet properly, but he still liked to check). And the others were...

No, just Silver. Shadow was 'on a GUN mission' and Sonic was out somewhere. Mephiles' mood dimmed further at the memory. But he could worry about that after his list. Silver, check on Silver.

Unsurprisingly, the hedgehog's sleep was clearly fitful and uneasy. Even with the limited awareness he possessed through his companion's shadow, he could feel Silver tossing and turning in his bed, more than was normal for him. Mephiles silently crept out of bed and across the hall, ready to run interference.

At least he's still in his bed this time, he thought, phasing through the door to avoid creaky hinges. Last time he'd checked on Silver for nightmare patrol he'd had to deal with him insistently rolling out of the bed. Eventually he'd made a blanket nest on the floor, which seemed to soothe him, but it didn't seem like it would be an issue on this occasion.

He sat carefully on the edge of the bed, humming softly. Silver whimpered and curled closer to him without waking up. One ungloved hand just brushed against his leg as the restless hedgehog finally settled into deeper sleep.

It always amazed him that Silver trusted him enough that he relaxed unconsciously at his mere presence. It made sense directed toward their other housemates, but Mephiles had done everything to deserve the distrust, anger, and hurt that should have been thrown his way. Instead, he'd been welcomed by some of the people he'd hurt most, and accepted by most of the rest. As much as it warmed him, he couldn't help feeling like he didn't deserve it. Especially when he couldn't be sure what he might do if he stayed regressed sometime. Especially since he knew his presence was hurting them even now. Shadow and Sonic's dispute was part of that.

After a few minutes, he rose and left the room as softly as possible, which was pretty dang quiet. He needed to at least try to get some rest. Silver was going to be worse off than him in the morning, and helping his companion cope with his friends fighting was the least he could do.

The front door opened with a bang, startling Mephiles and Silver enough that one almost dropped a pot and the other fell off the counter. Mephiles sat up, rubbing his head, and peered warily around the island as Silver did the same.

Rouge stomped over to them, plainly seething, and dragging a pained-looking Shadow by the arm. "Apparently this idiot has a death wish," she hissed, yanking Shadow forward.

A second glance was enough to realize that Shadow was more than just a little ruffled. What looked like a bit of dirt, understandable after being on a mission for the last few days, was actually half-dried blood matting the fur in several places. And that was just what was visible against the black.

Silver turned off the stove and stepped forward, first aid knowledge kicking in. "What were you even doing?" he asked, handling Shadow's less damaged arm much more gently than Rouge had as he checked for any unseen injuries. Shadow endured the treatment in silence.

"Ask him," Rouge said with a sharp wave at Shadow. "He never properly explained why we had to visit Eggman's base. I was hoping maybe Sonic could remind him of the recklessness status quo, but he doesn't seem to be around." She trailed off a bit when she saw Mephiles flinch, eyes narrowing further.

"I got what I went there for," Shadow ground out, only serving to return the full force of his partner's ire to him.

"And you still haven't told me what that is!"

"I'll tell you once the fox kit tells me. Until then I'm not sure- hrrk!"

"Sorry!" Silver yelped, pulling his hands away like he was the one in pain. "I can't really see where you're hurt, I swear this happens every time... well, of course it does, but anyway I think we need the big first aid kit. Are you good to go upstairs?"

The look Shadow gives him communicated his opinion of that question quite clearly.

"Erm, right. Rouge, feel free to get a drink, we've got a few kinds of juice. Cups are to the right above the sink. Meph, get off the floor already."

"Thanks for the offer," Rouge said, slightly distracted by Mephiles' shock at Shadow's comment. (And the fact that he seemed perfectly comfortable on the floor, but to each their own.)

Silver waved Shadow forward, letting him go first and following at the same (slightly slower than usual) pace.

There was a beat of silence after they'd disappeared. Then,

"Alright, spill."

Mephiles blinked up at Rouge from where he'd settled comfortably against the island. "What?"

Rouge frowned down at him, though it was a little hard to keep her stern demeanor when looking at someone sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floor like a grade schooler. "What's going on with Shadow?"

He glanced away, pulling his knees up and hugging them close so he could rest his cheek on them. "It's really none of my business. But Sonic and Shadow aren't on the best of terms right now."

She narrowed her eyes. None of his business, huh? "So where is big blue?"

"Out somewhere. When he heard Shadow was on a mission, he decided to go out running for a while. He said not to worry if we didn't hear from him for a few days."

"Sounds like him. But where did he hear that from?"

"Me." He raised his head slightly to look at her. "Shadow said if Sonic came looking to tell him that he was on a mission with GUN." Explanation given, he dropped his head again.

That seemed like something Shadow would do, and Mephiles seemed to be telling the truth, so she decided not to push. Her intuition told her this wasn't the full truth, but she doubted she'd get anything more out of him. Besides, she couldn't bring herself to push when he looked so... exhausted.

...Well, why not.

"Hey now," she said, squatting down in front of him, "didn't Silver say you should get off the floor? It can't be a very comfortable seat."

"It is, actually."

"But wouldn't the couch be more comfortable?" she coaxed, noting the similarity with some of Shadow's episodes back when he'd been living with her. If it was a memory thing, though, there wasn't much to do but wait it out.

"Hm, I guess."

Rouge waited a moment, unsurprised when he failed to get up. She reached for the memories of when Shadow got like this and moved to take Mephiles by the arm. "Alright there, let's get you-"

Mephiles jerked away from her, fear flashing in his eyes for a moment. "Huh?"

She blinked, then frowned. "Is something wrong?"

He shook himself before settling again, looking a little more aware this time. "No, not really. Why would there be?"

"Honey, you jumped about a foot when I tried to touch you."

"Oh." Mephiles looked a bit confused, then shook his head. "Sorry, I just. Wasn't expecting that."

"Alright then." Slowly this time, so as not to startle him, she reached over and took hold of his arm. When he didn't respond visibly, she pulled him to his feet and over to the couch. He came with surprisingly little resistance, almost collapsing when she nudged him to sit. When she tossed a blanket at him, he wrapped it around himself without comment.

"I'm going to get a juice," she said, turning toward the kitchen. "You want anything?" Not that she expected he would, but it was only polite to ask.

"No, I'm fine."

She nodded and went to get the juice.

Silver stepped down the stairs as carefully as he could, fully aware that while Shadow may have passed out from exhaustion, his injury-induced sleep tended to be a lot lighter than his regular sleep (on the rare occasions he bothered to get any).

Luckily, the others downstairs were being fairly quiet. Too quiet, actually. Silver frowned a bit as he peered over the banister, trying to discern what they could be up to.

All he could see was Meph's ears over the back of the couch, so he carefully crept down the rest of the stairs to see better. To his surprise, Mephiles appeared to have fallen asleep, slumped over and curled up on the armrest of the couch. Rouge was leaning against the kitchen counter, sipping a glass of juice. She smiled and gave Silver a little wave when he looked at her, then motioned him closer.

"He fell asleep as soon as I got him off the floor," she whispered, by way of explanation. "I suppose Shadow is in a similar state?"

Silver nodded, glancing at Mephiles' slightly awkward position. "Shadow was falling asleep as soon as I started putting pain reliever on some of his nastier wounds. I think adrenalin and pain was all that was keeping him up. And Mephiles... hasn't been doing too well since Shadow and Sonic got into their fight. Don't let him know I said this, but he's more empathetic than you'd think from the way he acts."

"I can understand that," Rouge said, though she decided not to share exactly why she could understand. Mephiles had always been a master manipulator; him being good at reading others was no great surprise. The fact that he was bothered by others' pain might have surprised her had she heard it earlier, but after seeing how he was coping (or not) with the situation, she couldn't bring herself to view him as the cold-hearted monster that had tried to hurt them during the adventure. That didn't stop her from wondering what happened to that part of him.

Silver nodded, then leaned against the counter across the sink from her. Well, maybe collapsed would be a more accurate term, or at least slumped. The exhaustion he moved with couldn't be contained with the simplicity of the word 'leaned'.

"You don't look so good yourself," Rouge remarked.

He managed a weak smile. "Yeah. I still can't handle it when my friends fight like this."

Rouge's eyes softened with sympathy. She set her glass down and pulled Silver off the counter, gently pushing him toward the stairs. "Go get some rest, sweetheart. I'll keep an eye on sleepy here."

Silver resisted a bit, looking at her with no small amount of concern despite his exhaustion. He didn't seem as tired as Mephiles, but he wasn't in good shape besides. "Are you sure? I don't want to keep you here when you've got work to do."

"It's fine, today's my day off. Besides, you'll need your energy to take care of the ultimate baby when he wakes up."

That startled a laugh out of Silver, and he finally acquiesced and headed for the stairs. "Alright, I'll take a nap. Thanks Rouge."

"Not a problem." She waved him off, then paused as memory struck.

A look over whatever Silver had been making revealed something a little more complicated than what she usually cooked. She ran a bar, not a restaurant. But this didn't look that hard, and Silver had left the recipe (written in his own handwriting but it was much better than Sonic's), so she could handle this. No need to let it go bad.

Chapter Text

Mephiles blinked sleepily over the back of the couch. "What are you doing?"

Rouge yelped, spinning and flaring her wings to cover the pot of bubbling, oddly-colored froth behind her. "Nothing much. Just a bit of cooking. Did you have a nice nap?"

"I guess." He rolled off the couch, letting the blanket slide off his shoulders and padding over to her side, still sleepy. "Move over, let me see."

She did as he asked, looking more than a little sheepish. "Sorry, I thought I could finish up while Silver got some rest."

"Well at least you got him to rest. Better than I've done this past few days." He glanced over the recipe, stealing brief glances at the pot.

Rouge debated asking what he was doing, then decided against it. "Maybe because he thought you were being hypocritical? You can't have been sleeping well either, you were out like a light for half an hour."

"No, but he wasn't sleeping well even when he slept. He's doing better right now."

"How can you tell?"

Mephiles suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. "I, er, can tell what people are doing using their shadows. It's very limited, and I swear I don't use it to spy, but it helps me check on the others without bothering them. By the way, if you use one of Silver's recipes, do any chopping before you start. He likes to make his vegetables as fresh as possible by chopping them right before going into the pot but you can't get most of the timing right if you aren't telekinetic." With that, he turned on the sink and dumped the mess down the drain, looking at Rouge until she caught on and covered her ears before running the garbage disposal. A moment later, he turned the thing off and ran some water in the pot.

"That seems a somewhat awkward way to write recipes," Rouge said as she watched him.

He shrugged, turning off the water. "Silver's been the only one cooking here for a while. I don't exactly do much either. So there's no reason to write recipes for anyone but himself."

"Understandable," Rouge said, though inwardly she was coming to a dawning realization about the conversation and not really listening that closely.

Before she could say anything, footsteps sounded overhead. Shadow came down the stairs a moment later with various bandages covering his nastier scrapes and bruises. He glanced at the pot in the sink, then at the spilled substance on the stove, before turning a flat look on Rouge.

She held up her hands in playful surrender. "Alright, you caught me cooking again. Though in my defense I was trying to make sure it didn't go bad while Silver napped."

"And that seems to have gone very well for you," he observed, eyes trailing to where Mephiles was busily scrubbing away at the sink.

Rouge huffed. "Well excuse me, I've never followed one of Silver's recipes before. How was I supposed to know to prepare things first?"

"I recommend reading through a recipe in advance in the future to know when that's necessary. I assume Mephiles explained that particular strategy?"

Rouge waited for Mephiles to respond for himself. This decision resulted in a slightly awkward silence as he failed to do so. She glanced over at him, puzzled, but decided he must just be too focused on his dish washing to notice. "That's right. Nice to know there's a gentleman in the house, hm?"

Shadow didn't bother to respond. He was busy giving Mephiles an inscrutable look.

"Shadow?"

"Hm? Oh. Rouge, you know I don't care for your games."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. These hedgehogs, really. "Your loss. I'm sure Mephiles appreciates me, right?"

"Sure," Mephiles said, tone clipped. He rinsed the pot and put it on a towel to dry. "I'm going upstairs. If you need me I'll be in my room."

Rouge watched him go, then turned her confusion toward Shadow. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No. Don't worry about it."

Oh, that was certainly not going to make her worry. But she would set that aside for the moment in favor of her initial concern. "Say, Shadow... do you know if Knuckles has had a real conversation with Mephiles?"

Shadow narrowed his eyes, clearly wondering where she was going with this. "I doubt it, considering every time Mephiles comes up he makes a comment about us trusting him too much. Why? What are you plotting?"

"Oh, nothing much," she said with a smile.

"And that," Rouge said, waving a plastic fork for emphasis, "is why you don't challenge Shadow to a dance off."

Silver chuckled at the story, and even Mephiles snorted a bit. They'd decided to go out for food once everyone woke up, despite Mephiles' lack of enthusiasm and Shadow's clear displeasure, and eventually ended up sharing stories over burgers and fruit. But even now Shadow looked extremely unenthused by the whole venture.

"We should have gotten our food and went back," he grumbled once again.

Rouge raised a brow at him. "Not that I'm disagreeing, but why? There's no rush."

"He doesn't want Sonic to return to an empty house," Mephiles said while still intensely focused on stirring his untouched shake with a straw.

Everyone else stared at him for a moment before he looked up at them. "What? Am I wrong?"

"...No," Shadow admitted, though he seemed to be forcing the word out through clenched teeth. "That's correct. How did you-?"

"That's the obvious reason. Are we going back now? I would like a chance to eat."

Rouge and Silver exchanged glances, then looked at Shadow for confirmation before agreeing. They all headed back shortly thereafter.

Rouge left their group after they finished cleaning up, since her house was in the opposite direction. So they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

It wasn't a long walk, but it seemed longer because of the heavy silence over them. Any attempt to start a conversation fizzled out quickly. When they did make it, Silver reached for the door with no small amount of relief.

He paused before actually opening it when he felt a hand on his arm. Mephiles looked at him solemnly, then turned and walked the few steps back to Shadow as they watched, confused. Then he shoved Shadow toward the door hard enough to make him stumble.

Silver's jaw dropped.

"What in the name of Chaos-" Shadow snapped, regaining his balance and spinning to glare at Mephiles. He froze in place, caught in the steady gaze aimed his way. All the anger (or at least most of it) drained out of him, and he turned to the door. Seeming to steel himself, he opened it and went in.

Silver moved to follow, but was once again stopped by a hand on his arm. This time, Mephiles followed up by pulling him away from the door. The confused hedgehog followed reluctantly.

"So, uh, where are we going?" he asked as Mephiles failed to let go, though he at least moved his grip to Silver's wrist for both of their comfort.

"Nowhere particular," he said. "I was going to visit the park. You can do what you want. I just felt we should give them some space to sort things out."

What was... oh. "Sonic's home?"

"Mhm. I assume he arrived while we were out. Hopefully they can come to some sort of agreement with their problems."

"Yeah. Are you... going to let go of my wrist anytime soon?"

Mephiles stopped dead, and Silver was forced to stop just as suddenly. The dark being turned to face him. "Should I?"

Silver pondered for a moment, then shrugged internally. "If you're going to the park, I'll probably just come along, so I guess not."

"Then let's go."

Silver watched Mephiles, trying to pretend he wasn't doing so. He doubted he was doing a very good job of it but Mephiles hadn't called him out yet. That had to count for something.

They were sitting on the (recently replaced) swing set, pushing idly at the ground without intent to really swing. It was around the time most families headed home for dinner besides being a weekday so they had the place to themselves.

Mephiles was taking advantage of the peaceful air, gazing off at some distant point beyond Silver's reach. He hadn't made a move to speak since they'd agreed to come here together and Silver was reluctant to break the silence. The last few days had been hard on all of them, but Mephiles...

Silver got the impression that Mephiles was taking on some of the blame for this, and he wasn't sure why. Maybe for the same reason he'd felt bad about past fights, back when it was just the three of them. That little voice saying that he was there and should have intervened before it reached this point. But something told him it was more than that. That same something made him sure Mephiles wouldn't tell him if he asked about it.

He breathed a huffy sigh and kicked off the ground, finally swinging with intent. Mephiles looked up as he whooshed past. The dark being watched him swing back and forth a few times, quickly building momentum, before copying his movements with a bit less grace.

Silver glanced down at him, smiling as Mephiles fell into a rhythm before turning back to the sky and closing his eyes. The wind whistling past reminded him a bit of flying, though not nearly as much fun. But it was a small joy he could have with far less effort.

He jumped at the peak of his next swing, sailing through the air with a laugh and landing on his feet with just a little help from his powers. A moment later, Mephiles landed beside him, though he managed to land on his feet without tricks before flopping down on his back in the grass.

Silver watched him for a moment, lips quirked into a small smile, then followed his gaze to admire the sky. Even with all the buildings covering the horizon, he could see a ring of orange turning the clouds pink and purple. It was a nice sunset. Would have been nicer if they'd been at a beach or something where they could properly see it. He wondered whether Mephiles was thinking about the sky as well, or maybe their friends at home.

"The tree's still there."

Silver blanked for a moment before turning to stare at him. "Sorry, what?"

Mephiles had turned to look at something over to one side, and pointed in that direction. "The tree. It got set on fire, it can't be more than charcoal now. But it's still there."

There was a beat of silence. Then Silver sighed, offering a hand and a wry grin. "I'll never know what's going on in your head, will I?"

"Perhaps not." Mephiles accepted the hand up and dusted himself off. "Probably for the best," he added, much softer.

Silver pretended not to hear.

They decided it was probably safe to head home when the streetlights started turning on. Still, they tried to be quiet when they entered, in case they needed to slip back out again. The house was quiet aside from the gentle ambiance of the TV. Silver and Mephiles exchanged a glance before sneaking over to check on the situation.

Sonic sat on one end of the couch, watching some mindless TV , while Shadow sat at the other end reading a book. They glanced up when the others approached despite their care.

Sonic grinned. "Hey you two. Nice to see you didn't burn down the house while we were gone."

Silver rolled his eyes, deciding to drop the caution. Straightforwardness worked better with Sonic anyway. "You have no right to make that joke after the last time I left for a day. One. Day."

He tilted his head, creating that picture of innocence that could have been real or fake. "Insurance covered it, I don't see what the big deal is."

"The big deal is, I'm not the fire hazard around here." He cut Sonic off before he could continue. "Anyway, how have you been?"

Sonic's smile shifted a bit as he heard the familiar words. It was an open question, one that had served them well after other fights. Sometimes during as well. "Not bad. Doing better."

"We came to an agreement," Shadow said. "We'll be fine."

"Glad to hear it," Silver said.

At the same time, some of the tension left Mephiles' stance. He moved from behind Silver to get something out of the fridge, pausing to meet the others' confused gazes once he'd completed his retrieval. "What? I never got to eat."

Silver mentally smacked himself. "Oh right, that's - wait, is that from the fast food place? How'd-?"

"Teleportation. It's tricker to manipulate things other than myself, but it seems to have worked fine this time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have important matters to attend to." He gave a somewhat sarcastic bow and vanished.

Silver rolled his eyes. Dramatic idiot. He shot the others a small smile on his way out. "I'm gonna head  up too, might go to bed soon but feel free to get me if you need anything."

"Will do," Sonic called.

Shadow remained silent, but he nodded his acknowledgment as Silver turned the corner and vanished upstairs. A moment later, his eyes landed on Sonic, a brow raised in pointed question.

Sonic's smile faltered, and he looked away. "'Course I didn't say anything," he said, careful to stay quiet. "You know why."

"I do." He paused for a moment before continuing. "After today, I suspect Mephiles is blaming himself for our argument. He's too perceptive not to suspect something."

"I know. And I'll talk to him, but..." Sonic pulled his knees up to his chest, curling into a ball, staring very hard at a corner of the coffee table. "Not yet."

There was a heavy, resounding sigh before Shadow spoke again. "Get over here."

Sonic blinked, turning to see Shadow holding out an arm. He hesitated for a second, but not more than that, before scooting over to lean against Shadow's side. Shadow wrapped the extended arm around his shoulders without a word.

They sat there, unmoving, for a good while.

"I'm still not the best person to advise," Shadow said, the words a bit stilted, like he wasn't quite sure how to say them. "But I can say this. If you talk to him, I'm sure it will go fine. You're good with people, and with knowing the right thing to say."

Sonic blinked, then broke into a wide grin. "Aw, Shads, that might be the sweetest thing you've ever said to me."

"...Assuming you make use of that skill," Shadow added before shoving him off the couch.

Chapter Text

Brrrrng. Brrrrng. Click.

"Hello?"

"Hi Amy, it's Silver. Is Blaze there?"

"Sure, I'll get her. Gimme a second."

Silver adjusted the phone, listening to the muffled voices on the other end of the phone while he waited. There was a brief burst of static.

"Hello Silver."

He smiled at his friend's voice. "Hey Blaze. Been a while since we talked, hasn't it?"

"It's only been a few days."

"Oops. Has it? It feels like a lot longer." He chuckled, though it wasn't as happy as he'd meant it to be.

There was a brief pause. "Where are we meeting?"

"Huh?"

"Silver, you sound terrible. If there's something wrong, I want to talk to you in person. Not over the phone. So where are we meeting?"

"Uh. The forest? That area by the stream, with all the rocks?"

A crackle of static came across the phone. Silver could easily picture Blaze pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing. She seemed to do that a lot around him. "You're lucky I know what you're talking about. I'll meet you there in half an hour, alright?"

"Alright. Bye." He ended the call, pausing for a moment to smile to himself. Blaze was always so blunt. Occasionally it was frustrating, even for him, but just then it was nice. Refreshing, really. Besides, he needed a little time away from his roommates. Sonic and Shadow were still walking on eggshells, and Mephiles...

He wasn't going to think about Mephiles. Not while he still had to sort himself out.

Silver replaced the phone and hopped downstairs with due speed, only catching himself with his powers once on the way down. "I'm headed out!" he called, receiving some vague sounds of acknowledgment and something soft landing in his face. He spluttered a bit, pulling the scarf off his head and turning to glare at the empty hall.

"It's cold out," Mephiles called from the kitchen. "Wear it or don't, but don't complain if you come back chilled."

His scowl morphed into a grin as he wrapped the scarf around his neck. "Thanks Meph!" he called back, ignoring the "yeah, yeah" he got in response.

As he walked down the street, his smile faded a bit. He fingered the scarf thoughtfully. It was just a spare they kept in the closet, probably whatever Mephiles' teleportation trick had grabbed, but it was a thoughtful gesture that only someone who knew him well would think of. It wasn't all that cold at this time of year. But growing up surrounded by fire and lava affected your perceptions of temperature. He buried his face in the warm fabric, breathing a heavy sigh that cast humid heat back into his face.

Looking up, he noticed that he'd wandered past the point where he usually started flying. He must have been buried in his thoughts for longer than he'd realized. Shaking his head to clear it, he did a quick check of his surroundings before taking off.

Blaze was already waiting when Silver reached the small waterfall. Though calling it a waterfall was generous considering it was maybe a foot tall. Still, the water falling over the ledge provided a nice soundtrack that blended well with the forest's rustling leaves, and a nearby tree's roots had grown out of the ground enough to provide decent seating. Above, a leafy canopy just beginning to change color with the seasons kept the space cool and dark. Below, the remains of old leaves mixed with the dry soil to create a spongy mixture that crunched softly when stepped on. Overall it was one of Silver's favorite places to hang out.

Blaze offered him a small smile as he landed and approached. "It's good to see you again."

"Same. Been a while since we could meet in person. Are you sure you have time now?"

"I can make time for a friend who needs it," Blaze said firmly. She waved for him to sit down and settled across from him, hands folded neatly as she gave him a curious look. Or his wardrobe, at least. "Is it getting cold already?"

He pressed a hand to his scarf, then shrugged. "Don't know. Mephiles threw a scarf at me, and it seems cold enough, but you know I have no cold tolerance."

"True enough. Though I have to ask... Mephiles threw a scarf at you?"

Silver shrugged again. "It's his weird way of looking out for me I guess. You know him."

"Not as well as you. We haven't spent much time together since he... reappeared."

"I guess not," Silver said, his gaze growing distant.

Blaze waited a moment, then, when it became clear Silver was lost in thought, sighed and snapped her fingers. "Silver."

He jumped and stared at her, eyes wide. "Huh what?"

"You spaced out for a moment." She paused, frowning. "This isn't about his history, is it?"

"Oh, no, not at all," he reassured her quickly. He was surprised to realize that he hadn't even thought about Mephiles' initial role in a while, even with the regressions. But that was a thought for later. "It's just... a lot has happened lately, and Mephiles is just as stressed as me, but he's still looking out for me."

She considered him for a moment, then smiled. "I'm glad you're getting along. And that you have someone besides me to look after you."

Silver pouted. "Excuse me, I can look after myself."

"Of course you can."

There was a moment's pause before Silver burst into giggles. Blaze allowed herself a small smile as she waited for him to calm down.

"Thanks, Blaze," he said, once he'd recovered himself. "I needed a break." More than he'd realized, but what else was new.

She hummed quietly before responding. "Did Sonic and Shadow fight again?"

"Yeah. I guess you've seen enough fights to know the signs by now, huh."

"Mhm." Her expression turned worried again. "Are you alright?"

He shrugged. "As alright as I can be. I'm more worried about Mephiles. He's not used to it." He fiddled with the ends of the scarf, eyes dimming as he thought. "Blaze... am I a good friend?" He quickly began to backtrack when he saw her expression. "Sorry, that was a weird question, I'll just-"

"Why would you think you aren't?" she said, cutting him off.

Silver blinked at her, then looked down again. "Because... even though he's handling this worse than me, Mephiles is still trying to make sure I'm okay. And I'm not exactly doing much in return."

She regarded him for a moment, then sighed, smiling slightly. "Oh Silver."

He tensed a bit, recognizing the tone. "What did I do now?"

"Nothing," she said. "But if you were a bad friend, you wouldn't be so worried about it. Besides, if he's anything like you I'm sure he appreciates having someone to relate to."

Silver was silent for a moment more, then launched himself at her in a sudden hug. "Thanks Blaze," he said, letting go before she could do more than be mildly surprised. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Fortunately you won't have to."

They talked for a while longer, though not about anything else important. Little things. Recipes he'd tried, incidents she'd handled, jokes that one or the other felt worth sharing. By the time it was time to go home, Silver felt much better, and Blaze waved him off with a smile.

That smile faded a bit as Silver vanished into the distance. "I hope you're right about him," she said quietly, eyes burning with a familiar fire. "You don't deserve a repeat of last time."

Mephiles had relocated to the couch and was playing a game, only half paying attention, when Sonic made an appearance. The speedster zipped into the kitchen, grabbed some indeterminate food item, and stuffed it in his mouth before noticing Mephiles sitting there. "Mrmng mmph," he called, letting the fridge fall closed.

"Morning to you too," Mephiles said, not bothering to pause his game. "Sleeping in?"

Sonic swallowed the massive bite of food and offered a grin. "Sure. Gotta get enough sleep, right?"

"For once," Mephiles said, giving him a Look. Sonic chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck, but didn't say anything. "So should I expect you to stick around for the day, or keep earplugs on hand?"

"Ha ha," Sonic said, but he looked amused. That faded a little before he spoke again. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you."

Mephiles' hands tightened slightly on the controller. Otherwise he didn't respond visibly. "Oh?"

"Yeah." He folded his hands, shifting slightly from one foot to the other. "You actually playing that, or...?"

"Not really." Mephiles paused the game and set the controller aside, folding his hands neatly in his lap. "What did you need?"

Sonic seemed to hesitate, watching his hands instead of meeting his eyes. "Are you okay?"

Mephiles tightened his grip for a moment, but relaxed just as fast. "That seems more like a question you should be asking Silver."

A flash of guilt crossed his face, then vanished. "Yeah, well, Silver's not here, and I'm asking you right now."

"Fair enough." Mephiles was silent, focused on brushing his thumb across the base of his pointer finger. "In truth? I don't know. I doubt it though."

Sonic blinked. "Oh. That's..."

"More candid than you expected?" Mephiles suggested, eyes crinkling at the corners as Sonic floundered. "I see no reason not to answer with all honesty, since I know where your concerns are coming from. But," and his expression hardened a bit, "I expect you to offer the same in return."

"To... tell you if I'm okay?" Sonic tried, still plainly off balance.

Mephiles began to shake his head, then stopped. "Well, yes, I do want to know that. But more important, I want you to be honest with me. And I want to hear what it is that's been causing you so much distress lately."

There was a brief moment of silence as Sonic mentally regained his footing. "Well," he said, much less sure than he would have liked, "it's not really anyone's fault, but-"

"No," Mephiles said, cutting him off mid-sentence. "I meant for you to say what the problem is. Because I think we've both figured it out, and the fact that you of all people are dancing around the subject is the opposite of reassuring."

When Sonic failed to respond beyond gaping like a fish, Mephiles sighed and continued in a strangely gentle tone. "Should I say it?" Sonic could only nod, momentarily mute. "Okay. I think the problem is, even though we're in a much different situation now than before, you're bothered by the things I did back when we were enemies. And you know what? That's okay."

"No it's not!" Sonic snapped, sitting upright and almost glaring at him. "It's not okay that I can't feel totally comfortable when I'm alone with you, or that a part of me is sure you'll do something bad when you regress, none of that is okay! You're my friend, Meph, and I shouldn't let stuff that you wouldn't even do now affect me." He turned away, unwilling to see the pity or hurt that would fill Meph's eyes. He wasn't a charity case, and he didn't think he could take the second. That's what he'd been trying to avoid by keeping this to himself.

"Sonic..." The tone Mephiles used was, strangely, not pitying in the least, nor did it sound hurt. It sounded, of all things, rather unimpressed. Sonic got the impression Mephiles was trying very hard not to sound too condescending. "It's okay to be upset at me for making a successful attempt on your life."

There was a beat of silence.

"Well, when you put it like that, it sounds pretty stupid," Sonic admitted, turning slightly to meet Meph's gaze. Surprisingly enough, he looked almost amused, prompting a half grin from Sonic as well. Then he snorted, which turned into a giggle, which turned into a full-blown laughing fit that had him leaning against the back of the couch for support. Mephiles joined in, though with just a touch more restraint.

"Oh chaos my kidneys hurt," Sonic finally wheezed, breathless from laughter and still breaking into little giggle fits. At least Mephiles didn't look much better off. "Where did you even get that?"

At that, Mephiles sobered abruptly, causing Sonic to stare in total lack of comprehension at the sudden regression in the mood. "It's something I can understand," he said, "so I can see where you're coming from with it."

Sonic blinked. "Really? How come?"

Mephiles was silent for a moment, and Sonic waited patiently for his answer. Or maybe not so patiently. But hey, at least he wasn't prodding Meph to hurry up! Heated stares notwithstanding.

After a minute, Mephiles sighed. "You aren't going to give this up, are you?"

"Nope. You said it's kind of like my thing, and look where that went."

"That... is surprisingly logical."

Sonic narrowed his eyes, sensing a thinly veiled insult there. But, no, distractions.

When his gaze remained steady, Mephiles sighed again. "Alright. I'll explain, but not everything. Some of this is a bit personal. Besides... you already know parts of what I have to say."

"I'm home!" Silver called. A few vague responses came from the living room, so he dropped his scarf on the side table and headed over to check on his roommates.

Sonic and Mephiles were playing some sort of co-op platformer. Silver couldn't tell for sure which was which, but from looking at the players, he suspected the one carrying the team was Mephiles. Sonic looked a little out of it.

"You know," Silver said after watching for a moment, "being blue isn't required for a BSOD, but I wonder if it makes them any worse."

Sonic jumped a good foot, but Mephiles just paused the game and turned to look at him. "I'm sure that would be funny if I had the slightest idea what you're talking about."

"It's a trope. Blue screen of death. Usually occurs when a character, in this case Sonic, encounters something horrifying and their brain shuts down. Not that there's that much of a difference here."

"Oh shut up, you - you banana," Sonic grumped, dropping his controller and tossing his hands in the air.

Mephiles raised an incredulous brow as Silver snickered in the background. "Banana?"

"Let me have my stupid insult, I'm processing."

"Noted."

"But seriously," Silver said, holding back his giggles in interest of satisfying his curiosity. "What's got you so shocked?"

"Well..." Sonic glanced at Mephiles, seemingly hesitant to continue.

Mephiles seemed to catch his meaning. "We were talking about some personal stuff, and it got a bit emotional," he explained. "Especially the..." He tapped beside his eye. "You know."

Silver's expression fell into carefully schooled neutrality. "Ah. I guess that makes sense."

"Not really," Mephiles said with a shrug. "I mean, it sucks but it's not as big a deal as you seem to think."

Sonic looked at Silver, and got a small head shake in return, which he accepted easily enough. "Right then. Anyway, yeah, we talked about some stuff that was on my mind, and some stuff on his mind, and it was... a lot. But it's probably good we talked about it."

"Glad to hear it," Silver said, settling on the arm rest of the couch. "You going out for a run anytime soon?"

"Probably. But I wanted to talk to you first." He glanced at Mephiles, suddenly looking a bit anxious.

Mephiles didn't respond with the same anxiety, just said, "Silver, take my controller." and rose to his feet, quickly vanishing upstairs.

Silver watched this process with some confusion, especially when the controller in question was shoved into his hand, then turned to Sonic for some sort of explanation.

Sonic shrugged. "He probably guessed I wanted to talk to you alone. Not because I'm saying anything secret, but..."

"But?" Silver prompted when he didn't continue.

"I'm sorry for stressing you out so much recently," he said quickly, like he had to rush his thoughts out before they burst free on their own. "None of this was that big a deal, so it's not fair that I took it out on all of you. Me and Shadow talked, and I'll be dealing with it better now, but I shouldn't have been acting that way in the first place."

Silver waited for a moment after he'd finished, making sure he was done before responding. "I forgive you. Not that there's anything to forgive. Shadow's the only one that you actually did anything to, and I'm guessing you already talked it out. You don't need to apologize for having emotions."

"But whenever me and Shadow fight-"

"I don't like it," Silver finished. It wasn't exactly a secret. "But that's something I need to deal with myself. You two don't argue like that over just anything, and I'm used to your usual banter. Like I said the last time we had this talk, and every time before that, it's just how you interact. And expecting you not to have serious arguments is unrealistic - nobody gets along perfectly all the time, no matter how close they are. Sometimes things happen. Sometimes people get upset."

"I guess," he mumbled, thinking back to heated words exchanged with Tails for no reason other than because they were both upset at the wrong moment. Then his eyes narrowed. "Wait. How'd you know what happened between me and Shadow? You weren't there."

Silver just smiled. "Because, blue. I know you two. I might not know exactly what went down, but I saw you when you came home looking for Shadow. It was your 'I really screwed up this time' look. You don't get that from regular banter."

"Huh. Am I really that obvious?"

Silver shrugged. "No idea. I know you pretty well, and I'm good at reading people, so I'm not exactly the best point of reference."

"True."

Sonic let his head fall back, sinking into the couch cushions with the heaviness of a tired body after a really long day. Or multiple long days. Silver followed his lead and slid to sit in Mephiles' previously vacated seat, though with a little less heaviness. He wasn't quite so tired as Sonic seemed to be, but that was okay. He could still appreciate a bit of sleepy quiet.

Of course, with Sonic there, the silence didn't last long. "So wanna continue the game?"

Silver raised a brow at him, then glanced at where the two characters' scores could be seen behind the pause menu. "If you really want to when you're that behind already."

"Eh, you'll need the handicap," Sonic said with a cheeky smile.

"Oh, it is on!"

The dark being leaned back in his chair, hands folded over his stomach and eyes fixed on the ceiling. What he was looking at, who could say. He watched that point with a calm, disinterested air, never looking away, but neither taking on the cloudy eyed expression of someone lost in thought.

His ear twitched as someone's voice sounded from downstairs, reflexively straining to hear the words before lowering by conscious decision. He continued to sit without any apparent care for what he might be missing.

After a few minutes, he sat up properly, eyes skimming over his desk before landing on the trail of sticky notes. He paused, hesitating briefly before scribbling out a new one and turning away as the ink dried. He rose from the chair, smooth movements not reflecting his long immobility in the slightest, and crossed the room to collapse across his bed. He laid there for a moment with a stillness similar to moments previous. This time his eyes fixed on the doorknob.

Long moments dripped by like gobs of viscous fluid, sometimes seeming too thin for time to truly be passing, sometimes seconds slipping past in great lumps without notice.

Finally, he reached up and grabbed his pillow, punching it into shape before laying it under his head and closing his eyes. He didn't get up to turn out the light.

Chapter Text

"So you're going to go exploring again?" Silver asked, though it wasn't really a question. They both knew it too.

Sonic nodded anyway. "Yeah. I hate to leave at a time like this, but, well..."

Silver remained quiet, waiting for Sonic to find the right words.

"I'm worried about Shadow," he finally finished.

Silver hummed softly before speaking. "I'm worried about both of you."

Sonic laughed, but it wasn't directed at Silver. "You and me both. Anyway, we shouldn't be gone more than-" He blinked, surprised at being cut off by a hand over his mouth.

"No," Silver said, firm as he could make it. "Don't set a time. Take however long you need." He leaned back, removing his hand and managing a wry little smile despite the worry he couldn't quite conceal. "Just, try not to vanish for a month this time, kay?"

"We won't. If nothing else, we need to be back to help Tails in a couple weeks."

"True."

There was a pause as both of them fell silent, running out of things to say. After a moment, Sonic ventured, "You know, you could come along."

Silver was already shaking his head almost before he started speaking. "I can't. Someone needs to be here for Mephiles, and all of us going isn't an option."

Sonic would have liked to disagree, but he knew Silver was right. So he just sighed and nodded. "Alright. Shadow's at Club Rouge right now, so I'm gonna stop by the lab before heading over there."

"Alright, see you in a week or so."

He nodded and shot him a last grin before heading for the door. No packing necessary when the whole point of the adventure was to shed ties for a bit.

"So you'll be gone for several days?"

He turned to see Mephiles sitting on the stairs, ignoring what sounded like GAME OVER music from his handheld. "Uh. How long have you been there?"

"A few minutes. I didn't hear more than the first bit, if that's what you're concerned about."

It was more the fact that he hadn't even noticed Mephiles arrive, but that was reassuring. If nothing else because he really did want to trust Mephiles. No matter what his instincts were saying. "Not really, just wondered. But yeah. Me and Shads will be traveling for a few days."

Mephiles nodded. "Alright. And..." He hesitated briefly before finishing. "Be safe. Both of you."

Sonic's grin returned in all its radiant glory. "Will do."

It felt quieter with Sonic and Shadow gone. Even with the little time he'd been there, Mephiles had gotten used to having someone around at least half the time. And while Silver was still there, he didn't take up space the way Sonic did. Even Shadow had an undeniable presence to him. Maybe that was just him, but the difference was palpable nonetheless.

When he poked his head around the corner, Silver was still sitting at the table, staring at nothing in particular with a thoughtful furrow in his brow. Mephiles crept upstairs quietly to avoid disturbing him.

In his room, door shut, the emptiness didn't feel as heavy. He could feel the absence of their shadows, but his room was often quiet. It wasn't so unusual. The slightly greater comfort and illusory distance from the situation gave him a little space to think.

It really was strange to feel so... empty, for lack of a better word, when nothing was that different from usual. The last few days had been stressful enough that he hadn't really noticed, but this more official absence felt entirely different from the regular missions or explorations that usually left the house empty. It was more concrete, knowing it would likely be days before they returned. It... lurked.

He tried to push the unpleasant thoughts away, focusing on his rock collection. He picked up a small piece of quartz, examining the way the light fell through its facets. It was soothing in its normality. It always worked the same way, following clear rules. If only everything was that simple.

Silver was watching TV when Mephiles came down for breakfast. He looked up and smiled as he entered the room. "Morning Meph. Getting food?" Mephiles nodded. "Alright, give me a second." He turned off the TV and rose, vanishing down the hall and up the stairs.

Mephiles prepared and ate breakfast in perfect silence. Once his dishes were cleared, he turned the TV back on, turning it to a music channel and settling in.

Silver came down a while later, poking his head around the corner and taking stock. Mephiles had the TV playing music he wasn't really listening to, staring blankly at nothing. "Everything okay?"

"How can you act like everything's normal?" he asked, turning to  Silver with nothing but confusion. "It's so... with them gone..."

He shrugged. "I'm more used to it, I guess. Sonic and Shadow have always spent a lot more time away than here."

Mephiles blinked. "So it's only while I've been here that they've been home so constantly?"

"Pretty much." He paused, something in Mephiles' eyes making him uneasy. "Is... there anything else?"

"Not really. It just seems like a remarkable coincidence."

That... was an exceedingly casual tone. "I guess," he said, trying to guess what Mephiles was getting at.

"Almost like it wasn't a coincidence at all," he said, still with that same nonchalance. "Don't you think?"

Silver shifted uneasily. "I guess? I don't know why they would..." He hesitated, trying to find a phrasing that wouldn't sound bad.

That hesitation was all Mephiles needed. "Are you sure? Because I can think of at least one reason. And I think you can too. A few days is one thing. This long? We both know what they were doing. They were keeping an eye out."

Silver stood, frozen in place, through the unexpected flow of words. When Mephiles stopped to take a deep breath, he took a smaller one of his own before speaking. "Meph-"

He didn't get any further before Mephiles vanished.

Silver stared at the place he'd stood for a long moment, shock fading into frustration and something less concrete. His eyes suddenly squoze shut, hands clenching into fists that scrubbed furiously at his face for several seconds before he slumped into the nearest chair with a groan.

In a small but dense forest sat a rocky hill. A dark figure sat curled in a shaded corner between two rocks, eyes staring blankly ahead. Slowly his eyes closed, then opened again. He gave no sign that he was at all aware of his surroundings.

There was no telling how long he sat there before the fog in his eyes cleared the smallest bit. By then, the sun had crossed a wide expanse of the sky, shadows shifting to face in new directions. He blinked once to clear his vision, eyes skipping sideways across the landscape like they couldn't quite focus on anything. Another blink, and he buried his face in his knees.

A few minutes passed before he moved again. When he did, it was with slow, stiff motions, like he'd forgotten how to move right. By the time he made it to his feet he was moving more naturally, though it still looked just a bit off if you watched closely.

"Alright," he murmured, pausing at the disjointed sound of his own voice. "Alright," he repeated, slower this time, rolling the syllables around in his mouth like grapes. The words settled and gained strength as he continued. "It seems spending that much time in the shadows is a poor decision... which does make some sense, I suppose." Another pause. "I suppose," he added, again drawing out the sounds and emphasizing the shapes of the letters, "I should get home now."

He stiffened all at once, realization flashing across his face as memory of why he'd been in the shadows returned. "Shoot."

The figure vanished, leaving the hill empty once more.

Mephiles appeared on the front porch, feeling a bit more solidly attached than he had before the jump. Not that it helped with the churning pit in his stomach. There was a good reason he'd landed on the porch instead of just inside like he usually did, and it wasn't because Silver kept complaining about being surprised when he appeared out of nowhere. Or, not just because of that.

He paused at the door, trying to figure out what to say. But he wasn't entirely sure how Silver reacted to his outburst earlier. He hadn't been there to see the other's response. The whole thing had gone by too fast. He'd reacted too fast. For a moment, he cursed his impulsive words, then pushed those feelings to the side. Planning wasn't useful, thinking only hurt. All he could do was go inside and try his best.

After a moment's consideration, he entered through the door. "I'm home," he called, heading toward the back. Silver seemed to be moving around in the kitchen. Neither Sonic nor Shadow was in the house, though there was no way of knowing if they'd been by earlier and left.

His observations were confirmed when he passed the corner and found Silver messing with his usual assortment of cooking utensils. He didn't even look up. "Oh hey Meph," he said, his voice distant. "This might take a while, feel free to grab something if you get hungry."

Mephiles blinked. "O...kay?"

Silver did look up this time, but his expression was hard to read. He didn't seem upset, exactly, just... just something else. "What? It's around the time I usually make dinner."

"I know." Well, he did now. He hadn't actually bothered to check the time since regaining his faculties. It wasn't so much Silver cooking that surprised him as the lack of confrontation. Without that direct sort of interaction, he wasn't sure how to respond, or if anything he said might set off a land mine. So he stayed silent. Silver seemed disinclined to speak, though, so Mephiles had plenty of time to find words. "I... wanted to apologize for earlier."

Silver didn't stop working, but one ear twitched back toward him. The small, almost unconscious gesture helped bolster his courage. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, or ran off right after, even though I was upset. I'm sorry."

There was a brief silence while Silver finished preparing ingredients and dumped them into a pot. Mephiles didn't try to break it.

Finally, Silver gave the pot a last stir and set the heat low before turning to face him. He looked... confused. "I didn't think you would say anything."

Mephiles blinked. "You what?"

"I mean," he said, slow and halting, "I kind of figured it was the same as any other argument you've run off from. Where we just pretend nothing happened, you know? Cause who needs to talk these things out when you can ignore the whole thing?"

"Silver... what are you..."

Silver smiled at him, a brittle, unhappy thing that had Mephiles taking a step back. "Oh that's right, you can't remember that stuff. I actually envy that right now. No chance of blackouts to those times, right?"

Wait. "You had a blackout?"

The smile broke and faded. Suddenly Silver couldn't meet his eyes. "Yeah, it... Could you maybe pretend I didn't say anything? I, I wasn't planning on..."

"Planning on what?" Mephiles took a careful step closer, keeping the corner of the kitchen island between them. "What did you see?"

Silver shook his head, eyes still averted. "I wasn't planning on telling you."

"Then it's a memory with me."

"Yeah."

Mephiles held back a sigh. That answered most of his questions. "Silver, I'll be fine. Tell me."

"Maybe I don't want you to hear it."

Mephiles blinked. "What?"

Flat amber eyes finally rose to meet his with a watery but firm gaze. "Maybe I don't want you to hear it. Maybe it was a complicated situation, and maybe I think it will just make you more upset about things you can't undo." His voice rose with every word, voice too clogged with emotion to be considered yelling but no less forceful for it. "Maybe there are things that I wish had never happened, but at least I don't run away from my problems!"

They stood near motionless for a moment, Mephiles frozen much as Silver had been in their initial confrontation, Silver breathing hard as the tears finally fell from his suddenly very wide eyes. He turned to scrub at them before Mephiles could regain his senses. "Please just go," he managed, all the force of the last moments vanishing into a threadbare whisper. "I'm sorry. I just... I can't deal with any of this right now."

Silence settled thick and heavy over the room, choking off words and motion alike. Mephiles finally managed a nod, even though Silver couldn't see it. "I'll be at the lab if you need me."

With a last beat of hesitation, he teleported away, leaving Silver to stand alone.

Tails looked up with a grin when Mephiles appeared at the lab doorway. His smile faltered at what he saw. "Uh, hi Mephiles. Everything okay?"

"Fine," he said simply, dropping into his usual chair sideways and spinning it to better watch Tails work.

When no further answers came, Tails mumbled an uncertain "Alright then..." and resumed working.

They were quiet for a good long while, Tails casting the occasional concerned glance over his shoulder, Mephiles bouncing a leg idly and apparently intent on what Tails was doing.

Finally Tails couldn't take it. "What happened to you?" he blurted, before clapping a hand to his mouth in horror.

Mephiles' leg stopped moving. He sat perfectly still for one, two, three seconds. "I yelled at Silver and ran off, he yelled at me when I got back. I'm giving him space."

"Oh," Tails said, dropping his hand when he realized it was still there. "And you're...?"

"I've been worse." He tilted his head in a birdlike manner. "You have some black stuff on your face."

Tails looked at his hands, covered in machine grease, with a familiar resignation. "It happens. But you didn't really answer."

Mephiles shrugged. "I don't have an answer."

"Oh... okay." Tails chewed the inside of his lip, unsure what else to say. Mephiles was far more approachable than Shadow, but he didn't know him as well as Sonic. His 'something is wrong' alarms were blaring, but there wasn't much he could do. So he returned to working in silence.

After a lot more time passed, he dared another glance back, only to realize Mephiles' eyes had closed. "Mephiles?"

No response.

He set his tools down as quietly as possible and grabbed a rag, wiping off the worst of the grease before tiptoeing closer. "Mephiles? Are you awake?"

Mephiles grunted softly, one eye cracking open. "Some. Too much travel time."

Tails blinked. He tried to comprehend why someone with teleportation powers would be tired from travel time, concluding that he was probably getting incomplete or inaccurate information and resolving to ask at a more opportune time. Namely when his informant wasn't on the verge of falling asleep.

Speaking of. "Why are you here then? Wouldn't it be better to stay home, or find a camping spot somewhere?" (Or at least more expected. Tails was kind of glad that Mephiles wasn't off on his own in this state.)

"No. Silver."

Another unclear answer, but the presence of intent was clear enough. "Okay. Go sleep upstairs, I'll handle it."

It took a bit of encouragement (and some pushing) to get Mephiles into a guest bed, and by the time he made it downstairs Tails was wondering if he should get some sleep too.

He glanced at the project sitting on his worktable. Well... maybe a few more minutes.

The phone rang before he more than picked up his tools. He resisted a sigh and picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey," said a soft, scratchy voice. "It's Silver. Is Mephiles there?"

"Yeah, but he fell asleep already. What's going on with you two?"

A crackly sigh, the emotion it contained unreadable over the phone. "I had... we both did some stupid stuff today. I'm more worried about him than myself though. He... I'm worried about him."

Tails kind of agreed with that sentiment, but thought it tactless to say so. "Do you want to stay over too? There's plenty of space."

"It doesn't matter if he's already asleep. I'll stop by tomorrow if he's still there. And... let him know I called, okay? Tell him hi for me."

"Can do. Night Silver."

"Night."

Tails stood holding the phone for a long minute after Silver hung up. He wished Sonic was here. Not that he'd be able to handle things any better, but at least it would be a comforting constant.

Chapter Text

Mephiles stumbled downstairs before noon, but not by much. Tails glanced up from the thick tome he was reading, took one look at his expression, and pointed at the kitchen. "Painkillers in the cabinet above and left of the sink. You know where the cups are."

The frazzled being followed his pointing finger without question. He reappeared a minute later and flopped in the chair across from Tails, chin resting on his arm and just as grumpy as before.

Since he wasn't the target of the grumpy glare so much as in its general direction, Tails left Mephiles to wake up in peace. He'd learned to recognize and manage 'morning after [insert stupid stunt here]' situations a long time ago. No need to worry too much unless the painkiller and water didn't help.

Fortunately, the storm cloud mostly cleared in the half hour it took the painkiller to start working, and Tails deemed it safe to attempt interaction. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"I remember none of it, so I assume so," Mephiles responded. Tails smiled at the sound of his usual snark. "In any case, I must apologize for not asking or at least explaining before taking a nap in your house."

"Don't worry about it, you're basically the only one who bothers to ask anymore. Just make sure nobody's claimed a bed before you crash in it."

"Duly noted," Mephiles said, expression perfectly serious.

Tails cracked a smile, then let it settle into a curious look. "Anyway, why were you so tired? I've never seen you crash like that. Besides passing out from flashbacks or regressions, but that doesn't really count."

Mephiles grimaced. "Ah, yes. I... may have spent too much time in the shadows." Tails pushed his book to the side, hands folded and the full force of his attention on Mephiles. Mephiles continued, unphased by the intense scrutiny. "When I teleport, I don't just disappear and reappear elsewhere, much as it may look that way. In truth, I become a shadow myself for a moment and join the other shadows, passing through them to some other point. But when I spent too long before exiting this state..." He grimaced. "The side effects were... unpleasant, to put it mildly. I suspect this is caused by my current semi-organic state, but I couldn't say for sure without full memories of my original state. It might happen even if I was pure shadow."

"Interesting," Tails murmured, gears beginning to churn behind his eyes. "What kind of side effects? If you don't mind me asking," he added quickly.

Mephiles shrugged. "I don't especially, but I'm not sure what you'll get from the information. I couldn't maintain my shadow form, and ended up forced into a solid state in some forest somewhere. And everything was." He paused, struggling for words. "Cacophonous? I can't think of a better word. It's like everything around me was trying to get my attention at the same time, forcing my mind to split between all of it. And none of it really made sense. If I focused I knew I was seeing or hearing or feeling things, but otherwise it was a mishmash of random sensation, filling my mind until there was no room for any thoughts or feelings of my own. Eventually it settled enough that I could grasp actual meaning, but it was still far too much at once."

Tails hummed thoughtfully. "Neuroscience isn't exactly my specialty, but that sounds like some sort of sensory issue. This is only speculation, but it may have been caused by your consciousness settling back into a solid form after adjusting to a more fluid state. If your shadow form doesn't experience those senses the same way, or as strongly, there might be an adjustment period when you switch back similar to the time you spent as a shadow."

Mephiles tilted his head to one side. "So it won't happen if I don't try that again."

"Probably. Let me know if it does happen again, though. It might be the sort of sensory issues a lot of people experience, but if it's about your current form we might need to take precautions. There's not much I can do without further data either way, but if you're okay with it I'd like to scan you to make sure there's nothing obviously wrong."

"...Do I have to use the chaos scanner again?"

Tails' apologetic smile was answer enough.

Mephiles sighed and nodded. "Alright. Make it quick."

One round of partial numbness later (and was it just him or was the feeling more unpleasant every time?), Tails was on his computer analyzing data with Mephiles attempting to follow along. "The readings from today are less stable than your previous data, but it isn't too serious. They ought to settle on their own in the next couple days. Still, I'd appreciate if you stop by to get another scan in a few days. Just in case."

Mephiles nodded, though he looked less than thrilled at the prospect.

Tails suddenly sat up straighter in his chair. "Oh right! Silver called last night, after you'd gone to sleep. He asked me to say hi for him."

Mephiles' gaze sharpened on him. "Was he alright?" he asked, tone rising in intensity without getting any louder.

"Um." Tails curled his namesakes around his ankles, folding his hands tightly in his lap. "It's hard to tell over the phone, and he didn't say much. But he seemed okay. He was more worried about you, actually." Silver probably wouldn't have wanted him to mention that, but it seemed like the thing to say.

Mephiles seemed to deflate. "Of course he is," he said quietly. "I don't think he's capable of holding a grudge."

"Outside the prank war, you mean?" The comment was somewhat tentative, but still plenty loud enough to be heard.

It had the intended effect. Mephiles' eyes crinkled in a small but genuine smile. "The prank war has its own unique rules. Normal logic does not apply."

They shared a laugh at that.

Silver woke up feeling strangely cold. It only took him a moment to realize that it wasn't just because he'd kicked all the blankets off. There were no sounds anywhere in the house, and a general feeling of emptiness that could only mean one thing - Mephiles hadn't come home yet. Maybe (hopefully) he was still at Tails' house. Otherwise his location was an unknown. And it would be Silver's fault.

He cut that train of thought short and dragged himself out of bed, any wish to drowse a bit longer dispelled by his rapidly darkening mood. It was late morning, but he'd slept uneasily enough that the extra rest wasn't worth much. And since he wouldn't get any joy out of being lazy, might as well see if cooking could break his mood.

Or he could drag himself into the kitchen, compare his usual recipes to his current energy level, and conclude that a bowl of dry cereal and some cheesy cartoons would be better. At least the cartoons made him smile.

The phone rang as he finished eating. He put his bowl down and checked the phone, surprised to see it was a familiar number and not some solicitor. But surprise was no reason to be rude. He answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Silver! It's Amy!"

"I noticed," he said, once he'd stopped wincing. Amy was nice enough to talk with in person, or even over the coms, but somehow her particular pitch traveled very badly through the phone. Nobody dared tell her, though, and they mostly used the coms anyway so it was generally a non-issue. Speaking of... "Why didn't you message me on my com? I could have been out somewhere and missed your call."

"Well, I didn't want Sonic to hear, and I know he and Shadow are camping."

"Grapevine?"

"Maybe," she said with a light giggle. "Anyway, if you were with him, he might see or hear by accident. And it's supposed to be a surprise!"

"Okay," Silver said, curious despite himself. "What kind of surprise?"

"Come over to my house and I'll tell you. Bring Mephiles too if he's available."

Erk. "I don't know if he is," Silver tried, wondering if maybe she'd let him sidestep the issue.

"Oh, okay. Could you message him and ask? I have a few things to do before you get here."

Sidestep sideswiped. "That might not be the best idea," Silver finally said, deciding maybe partial honesty would be his best bet. "Me and Mephiles had an argument, so we're cooling off a little right now."

There was a silence on Amy's end that was a bit too long for comfort. "Oh, okay," she finally said, the lack of questions filling him with relief. "But you can come over, right?"

"Sure. Give me about fifteen minutes, and an extra five unless you leave a window open."

"No need to rush, I told you I have something to finish up. "

"Right. See you in twenty." He hung up and heaved a sigh. With Amy, you never knew if a surprise would be good or bad. (You also couldn't use more specific words, because the brands of good and bad were so widely varied.) He felt a bit uncertain about this one, but figured it was worth seeing what she wanted. And possibly helping keep her in check if her boundless energy started getting out of hand. Maybe contact with that same boundless energy would be just what he needed to break out of this funk.

Silver had barely knocked before Amy opened the door and pulled him inside. "Hi Silver! So good to see you, it's been a while since we met up hasn't it? How are you doing? Can I get you something to drink?"

Silver waited until she paused to take a breath to attempt a response. "Yeah, I've not been keeping up with everyone, but I'm trying to fix that. I'm doing alright. And, water I guess."

"Alright! Sit down, I'll pour you a glass. Go ahead and sit, there's chips and fruit on the table."

He nibbled on a chip while she got the water, more out of politeness than actual hunger. The cereal he'd eaten earlier was almost too much. But the water was very much appreciated.

Amy waited for him to thank her and take a sip of his drink before speaking. "So," she began, "some people in our group don't trust Mephiles as much as they should, right?"

Silver winced internally at her wording, suddenly very grateful that Mephiles wasn't present to hear that. "Yeah... maybe don't say that in front of him, though."

"Of course I wouldn't!" she said quickly, eyes going wide with unfeigned shock.

"...Amy. You wanted us both to be here."

"I would have said it differently if he was here."

Silver sighed internally. "Amy, Mephiles is really bothered by the whole trust issue. Dancing around the subject will not make it better because he'll still know what's being talked about." She blinked at him without comprehension, so he just shook his head. "Never mind. Just. Try not to mention it at all, okay?"

"Alright," she said, apparently satisfied with this request, even if she couldn't seem to grasp the issue. "Anyway, I thought that it would be both fun and beneficial to get everyone together and do some trust exercises. It's an opportunity to strengthen our team's bonds and deal with the trust issue, all at once!"

Silver made a thoughtful sound. He couldn't bring himself to be quite as optimistic as her, but at least he couldn't see any way for it to go horribly wrong. Worst case, someone got dropped on a trust fall and was cranky. It wouldn't be enough to sever any existing bonds, and the relationship between Mephiles and, say, Knuckles wouldn't be any worse for it. "Sounds like a decent plan to me. What do you have so far?"

"Well, I've got a few exercises written down, and I want to hear your thoughts on-"

A knock sounded at the door.

Amy jumped to her feet immediately, cutting herself off mid-sentence. "Oh, excuse me, I'd better get that."

Silver waited patiently as she went to the door. She hadn't mentioned inviting anyone else, and Blaze had a key for when she was around, so probably a solicitor. Which meant he'd probably have a minute while Amy chased them away if they were determined enough to go door to door in a building like this.

He was more than a little puzzled when he heard "Oh, hi! Come on in and sit down!"

"You were ex...pect..." Silver trailed off mid-sentence when Amy reappeared with a bright smile, followed by someone he hadn't expected to see. Mephiles looked just as surprised, frozen mid-step with a deer in headlights look fixed on Silver.

Amy either didn't notice or chose not to acknowledge it. "I heard you two were having some problems," she explained. "So I thought I'd hurry things up! Now stop avoiding each other and make nice. Have fun!" She gave them a cheerful wave before vanishing into the back hallway.

The pair watched her disappear, then turned to look at each other. Silver turned away again almost immediately, not really sure if he could hold Mephiles' gaze at the moment and not wanting to find out. "Sorry about that," he finally managed. "I, uh, didn't know she was going to pull something like this."

He heard a soft huff and dared a glance at Mephiles, who seemed almost amused as he settled in the chair catty corner to Silver. "It's not your fault. I should have expected something like this when she called me over."

Silver shrugged, folding his arms and not quite looking at Mephiles. "I mean, I'm pretty sure she actually had something to say, and just used the chance to get us in a room together." He wasn't sure he liked the implications in Mephiles' statement, but he couldn't think of any way to refute it that didn't sound pushy. Pushy was the last thing he wanted to be just then. With that in mind, he decided to try for some awkward smalltalk. "So, uh... did you sleep well?"

Mephiles' cheeks flushed faintly. "I did, actually. I, may have overextended myself yesterday."

That got Silver's attention. "What?"

Now Mephiles was the one not quite meeting his eyes. He shifted his weight back and forth in a gentle rocking motion. "I spent a bit too long before exiting the shadows while teleporting. It's nice in there, sometimes. But I couldn't hold it, and..." He shrugged. "Overextended."

Silver's arms fell to his sides. "Geez Meph! Are you okay? What happened?"

"Tails said I seem fine," he said quickly. "My perception of just about everything was a little off for a while, that's all. It wasn't that much different than usual, just more intense. In any case I don't plan on doing that again anytime soon, so there's no need to worry."

"Good," Silver replied, with enough vehemence to startle Mephiles. "Yeah, I'm upset you got hurt. You're my friend! I've told you this so many times, but you still..." He shook his head, realizing he'd been raising his voice again. "Sorry. It's been a rough few days."

"Both of us are tired," Mephiles said, a simple phrase that conveyed so much more.

"Yeah." A single word, but holding just as much weight as Mephiles' statement. "But you know," Silver said, voice soft, "we all care about you. Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Amy." He met Mephiles' eyes, projecting his earnestness as strongly as he knew how. "Me."

Mephiles didn't look away, but he didn't respond either, something soft and almost fragile growing in his eyes. When he didn't seem about to speak, Silver continued, careful to keep his voice gentle. "I get that it's hard to believe," he said, "especially with our shared history, and the ways that some of us care for each other. Even more when we screw up. But I promise you, Meph, you're our friend and we really do care about you."

Mephiles blinked forcefully a couple times. "I suppose I can accept that."

There was another pause as they hesitated, neither of them quite sure how to proceed. After a moment, Mephiles gave a shaky sigh and fixed his eyes on something past Silver's head. "I'm... I don't think I'm ready to actually talk about it, just yet. We need to, I know, but." He trailed off, the words fading to nothing.

Silver listened in neutral silence, then nodded, managing a shaky smile. "It's okay. I'm not ready either. But it means a lot that you actually want to talk about it."

Mephiles made a sound almost like a laugh. "Want is perhaps the wrong word, but I can promise you that I won't avoid it forever."

That earned him a small, understanding smile.

They hadn't really addressed more than the bare surface of what had been said, especially Silver's outburst, but just that talk made things a little easier between them. Even though he would have preferred a little more time, Silver couldn't bring himself to really be mad at Amy for her little act of subterfuge. It was kindly meant, and it didn't go as badly as it could have.

Silver suddenly thought to wonder whether maybe he and Mephiles were actually closer than him and Amy. Their connection was similar to the one between him and Blaze... but now wasn't really the time for thinking about that. He trusted Mephiles, just like he trusted his other friends, that was what mattered. He had a harder time trusting himself.

"I think that's enough emotional discussion for one day," Mephiles said, breaking Silver out of his darkening thoughts. He jumped a bit, flushing when Mephiles chuckled at his absentmindedness, then joined in the laughter a moment later. (And wondered in a distant corner of of his mind whether Mephiles had intentionally snapped him out of it.)

Silver informed Amy that they were headed home, since after that whole mess he wasn't sure he was up to handling any more of her antics. She seemed happy enough to know they were talking again and waved them out with a smile.

"You know," Silver said once they got to the ground floor, "we didn't really need her intervention."

"True," Mephiles said. "Though she may have sped things up. I wanted to think things over and talk about it sometime in the next few days, depending on how soon I thought of something to say."

"Why am I not surprised that you wanted to plan things out in advance," Silver said, smiling to ensure Mephiles knew he was teasing.

"Well I am a manipulative villain, what else would you expect?" he said, dropping the affectation as Silver laughed. "I will say, it's easier to have some idea what I want to do before going into an important situation. It might be because that's how I learned to act. It might be something inherent. I couldn't say, but I do like it better."

"Fair enough. But we're getting away from the point I was trying to make."

Mephiles raised a brow. "Oh?"

"Well... from her point of view, Amy just succeeded at breaking up our argument."

There was a pause as that sank in.

"Ah. Well, we'll just have to make sure she doesn't hear about any arguments going on."

"Good luck with that," Silver said with another laugh. "She knows almost as much as Rouge."

Mephiles shook his head. "Witchcraft. No other explanation."

Chapter Text

The walk home seemed to take no time at all, even though they weren't moving especially fast. But all too soon they were standing in the foyer, staring at each other in awkward silence.

Silver wasn't sure what to do in that moment. Should he say something? Act like everything was completely normal? He didn't want to make things more awkward between them by doing the wrong thing, but how could he be sure what the right thing was?

At least Mephiles seemed to be in the same boat. His arms were crossed, fingers pulse squeezing his elbows harder than could be comfortable. He had that look where he wanted to say something, but didn't quite have the words.

So Silver decided it was on him to make the first move, and thus went with the first thing that came to mind. "I think I'm going to see what's on TV. You're welcome to join, if you feel like it."

Mephiles' hands relaxed, though he kept his arms folded. "I'll pass, but thank you. If you need me I'll be in my room."

Silver hummed acknowledgment and waited for him to vanish upstairs (humming something quietly, it sounded like) before heading for the TV. Maybe they could manage some semblance of normal until they were ready to talk.

They couldn't do normal. Silver wasn't surprised, really, but he was frustrated at himself for getting his hopes up.

Mephiles hid out in his room for the rest of the day, only going downstairs (hopefully to eat something) after Silver had retreated to his room for the night. Silver waited until the footsteps died down and the door closed once again before screaming into his pillow.

He went to sleep feeling frustrated and conflicted. It wasn't an especially restful night.

The next morning wasn't much better. Silver came downstairs to find Mephiles rushing the last of his breakfast, cleaning up with a speed that would put Sonic to shame and leaving the room with barely a "Good morning" to acknowledge Silver's presence.

Silver sighed, content in knowing that the sign of frustration wouldn't be heard and overanalyzed. This was almost worse than the first few days after Mephiles appeared. At least he would talk to them then, albeit with a good bit of wary hesitation. This, on the other hand, was just ridiculous.

Realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere just standing there with his thoughts, he ate quickly and headed out for a walk. Before leaving he paused by the door, hesitating briefly before scooping the scarf off the side table and tossing it around his neck. "I'm going out!" he called, waiting for a somewhat muffled "Alright" to carry down the stairs before leaving.

As he walked down the street, he found himself thinking back to the last time he'd gone out like this, when he'd been seeking comfort in Blaze's presence in the middle of Sonic and Shadow's fight. Mephiles had been looking out for him then, throwing this same scarf at him to help handle the slight fall chill. He couldn't help wondering if the event hadn't repeated because he already had a scarf, or because of the tension between the two of them.

Shaking off the thought before it could develop into a negative spiral, Silver turned his focus toward walking. The park wasn't far, and it would be a good place to clear his mind.

Silver spent most of the morning on the swings, for once grateful to the sharp breeze for keeping most families home. (Or maybe it was a weekday, he never could keep track.) He wouldn't take up a swing if a kid wanted one, but the opportunity to have a peaceful moment to himself was nice.

Swinging was one of those activities that he couldn't explain his enjoyment of. He could fly with his powers, not even straining himself unless he had to focus on several other things at the same time, so the feeling of wind in his face was already a familiar one. But there was something about the mindless back and forthing that was freeing in a way that flying never quite achieved. Not that he didn't enjoy flying. They were just different.

He got a late lunch at one of the many chili dog stands that dotted the area, not really ready to go home just yet. As he munched, he noticed a group of school age kids staring at him from closer to the play equipment and waved. They shrieked and scattered, hiding among the bits of equipment. He held back a laugh as he finished his food and headed home.

The sky was just changing colors as he arrived home, staining the house with pale shades of gold. Silver paused briefly to appreciate the effect before moving on.

He only noticed Mephiles by chance, the way he was sitting. Or more like laying. The dark being was slumped over on the couch, head on the armrest and knees pulled up under his chin. A thinking pose, Silver surmised, but he wasn't sure it was a good one. Especially after the last couple days.

He hesitated briefly before leaning over the back of the couch, far enough to see part of Mephiles' face but not enough to intrude on his space. "Made it home. Do you need anything?"

"I noticed. And no." His tone was tired, sullen, disinterested, an assortment of less than subtle clues that Mephiles was not in the mood to talk.

But it didn't take a genius to realize that none of those emotions went more than skin deep. Which was worrying in itself - Mephiles was usually a better actor than that - but more so was the general unease that Silver was picking up on. Mephiles was prickly, sure, but not in the way he was pretending to be.

In a Sonic-esque move of impulsive action, Silver jumped over the couch back and swung his legs around to land in a seated position at Mephiles' side. Mephiles jerked up to stare at him when the couch bounced, but quickly curled in on himself again and returned to resolutely staring at nothing (perhaps with a touch more aggression). Silver suppressed what could have been a sigh or a smile. Some things never changed.

He settled himself a bit more comfortably and dug briefly behind the couch cushions before pulling out a handheld console. Mephiles might not want to talk, not when he was in this kind of mood, but he could at least hang around until his presence was unwanted.

They sat quietly like that for about half an hour before Mephiles spoke. "Existing is hard."

Silver blinked at him. "What?"

A good two or three minutes passed as Mephiles seemed to think and rethink his words. "This isn't... what I know best. I'm not familiar with..." He extended an arm in a general gesture. "All this."

As vague as that response was, Silver still managed to make some sense of it. He scooted a little closer and laid a hand on Mephiles' arm. "It's okay. We're all figuring it out together, right?"

Mephiles tensed at the contact, but relaxed so fast that it could have been Silver's imagination. "True."

Silver waited a moment before withdrawing his hand, stuffing the game console back into the black hole beneath the couch. "I'd go cook something, but I actually just ate. Are you good with leftovers?"

"That's fine. I'm not hungry yet anyway." He maneuvered himself upright in a strange sort of rolling motion, continuing the roll to slide onto his feet. "I'll be upstairs if you need me."

"Kay."

Mephiles left as Silver stretched and turned on the TV. His ear twitched at the quiet sound of a door shutting. Silver allowed himself a small sigh of relief before his expression slipped into a frown. Something about that, in particular something about the moment when their eyes had met... it was probably just him, but he had a nagging feeling that there was something strange going on. He tucked the thought away to marinate in the back of his head and focused on picking a TV program.

Upstairs, Mephiles closed the door to his room softly and turned to the mirror, slit-pupiled green eyes meeting their mirrored copies with no small amount of confusion. Perhaps a bit of relief, too, not that he planned to continue that line of thought.

After a moment, he looked away, examining the most recent sticky note on his desk. It was the one written just after his counterpart's conversation with Sonic. Despite knowing what it said, the line made him snort.

Feelings are hard.

With an unusual burst of whimsy, he took another note and scribbled a message, sticking it somewhat haphazardly below the old ones before moving to curl up in bed.

You said it.

When Silver came downstairs the next morning, Mephiles was already clearing his breakfast things. "So much for my plan," he said, a little louder than he'd intended.

Loud enough that Mephiles heard and gave him a quizzical look. "Morning to you too. Plan?"

"I was going to make pancakes," he explained. "Yesterday was kind of rough."

"I suppose it was," Mephiles said, after a moment's pause.

"Well at least you look like you're doing better," Silver added quickly, sensing Mephiles' hesitance. He didn't want to come across as too pushy.

"Much," he said, looking at Silver with a thoughtful expression. "A good night's sleep makes all the difference."

Silver nodded and opened his mouth to agree but was interrupted by a loud growl.

"Perhaps you should eat something too?" Mephiles suggested with a perfectly straight face.

"Great idea," Silver agreed with a slightly less straight face.

They talked some as Silver fixed and ate breakfast, but mostly they stayed quiet. It was a slow, lazy kind of morning, and they came to an unspoken agreement to preserve the peace of the moment. Besides, the silence felt a little more comfortable between them now. Still delicate, but more balanced, more natural. (And somehow it wasn't creepy at all having Mephiles stare silently as Silver ate.)

When Silver rose to put his dishes in the washer, Mephiles stood as well. "I'm going to head upstairs," he said. "Call if you need me for something."

"Will do," Silver said, turning to finish cleaning up before heaving a sigh. Well, at least this was progress.

Changing.

You're not wrong. But it won't make a difference, will it?

Change, different. Stay.

The new does not preclude the old. Stop worrying.

No. Stay.

Honestly, it's like talking to a child. You trust me, no?

...

I thought as much. ...I'll be back soon enough. Wait for me.

Wait. Time.

Indeed.

Mephiles sat in the kitchen, watching his mug like the tea would try to pull something if he looked away. The red-brown liquid was almost black in the dim glow of the nightlight over the sink, making it hard to see past the surface, but aside from a few ripples it wasn't doing anything in particular.

He sighed and stood, turning to pour the tea down the sink with barely a swallow less than he started, watching the drain for a good minute after the dark liquid swirled away. He finally turned to face up toward Silver's room, pausing for another moment before vanishing briefly into the shadows and reappearing in his room.

Resituating himself in the tangle of bedding took only a moment, but his eyes remained open and his mind refused to settle. Images of a different dimly lit room danced behind his eyes whenever they closed, the gentle orange glow both familiar and not in ways that left him uneasy.

Sleep was slow in coming, but he managed to get a few hours in before the sun began seeping through cracks in his curtains. At that point he gave up on the grounds that his time was better spent being awake than failing at sleep.

Silver came downstairs bright and early to find Mephiles laying facedown on the kitchen table. "Morning, Meph," he said, for lack of anything better to say.

Mephiles made a sort of grunting noise in response and didn't move. Silver contemplated him for a moment, then decided that it was too early for this and made himself breakfast. When after consuming nourishment and clearing its receptacles Mephiles still hadn't stirred, he leaned over and poked his friend's shoulder. "You awake there?"

A strange noise somewhere between a groan, a shriek, and a cry of anguish emitted from around Mephiles' face area. Which meant it probably came from him, and Silver had learned something new about his friend's vocal abilities. He continued to not move, so Silver decided to take that as an answer. "I'll take that as a yes to awake, and no to okay, so I'll skip that question."

"The sun is the bane of my existence," Mephiles informed the wooden surface.

"That makes most people in the morning. Anything I can do to help?"

"Unless you can summon rain clouds, not really."

"Nah. I've been banned unless it's an emergency."

Mephiles turned slowly toward him, cracking an eye open enough to offer an incredulous look.

"Trust me, you don't want to know."

Mephiles nodded as best he could with one cheek pressed against the table, then slowly returned to his original facedown position.

"So... is there anything I can do that doesn't involve manipulating the weather?"

"No. I'll drag myself back to my room shortly."

"Alright," Silver said, heading for the couch and started up a game.

Eventually Mephiles did wander upstairs, leaving Silver to his exploits. Silver glanced up as he left, then refocused on his game. Mephiles would reappear when he felt up to it. That's all there was to it.

Mephiles cursed as the GAME OVER screen appeared again. "How are you so good at this?"

"Lots of practice," Silver said with a laugh. His smile dimmed a bit as his thoughts drifted back to the niggling thought that had been bothering him off and on all day.

Mephiles gave him a sharp look. "Now?"

Of course Mephiles would recognize the turn his thoughts were taking. Though, maybe they should... but it had only been a day. But, if that was enough time for Mephiles... "Only if you're ready," he finally decided.

"I doubt I will be anytime soon. Now is as good a time as any."

Silver laughed again, though it came less easily than before. "At least we're on the same page there."

They fell silent after that, Silver's laugh trailing into nothing and leaving them staring at each other with blank expressions. Silver wracked his brain for the words he needed, never his greatest skill to begin with. It didn't help that he couldn't begin to guess what Mephiles was thinking.

Whatever it was must have been more coherent than Silver's thoughts, because he was the first to speak. "Alright. I'll start."

Silver blinked. "Really?"

"Yes, really. It seems only fair."

Silver wondered why that was fair, exactly, but decided it wasn't that important. He leaned back, head tilted slightly as he prepared to listen.

Mephiles paused, closing his eyes for a split second before opening them again, glazed as he gazed at a distant place.  He tapped a finger against his knee without intent. "I thought a bit about this the past few days, and I still have some thinking to do on my own before I'm ready to talk to anyone else. Or maybe I never will be. For now, I'll say this much. I jumped to conclusions regarding the others' frequent presence and took out the resulting frustration on you. It wasn't fair to any of us, least of all you, and for that I apologize." He paused, watching Silver intently.

Silver wasn't sure what Mephiles expected him to say, and he still hadn't come up with a good way to explain things, so he decided to just go for it. It seemed to be working so far. "It's fine. I... think I get it, kind of. And you're not the only one around here with an explosive temper." He hesitated a split second before adding another thought. "For what it's worth, I think they've been around more because they worry for you than about you."

Mephiles went absolutely still. A strange look, for someone Silver had realized was usually moving at least a little. It was like seeing Sonic stop moving. It just didn't happen. Then the spell broke when he blinked. "You'll have to forgive me if I find that hard to believe, especially after recent events."

"I get that. I just remember them doing the same when I first got here, not that I realized it was weird back then."

Mephiles offered a hum of acknowledgment but didn't speak. Silver suspected that was the best he'd get for the moment. He didn't really expect Mephiles to believe they trusted him, any more than he had when he first appeared. Not when he kept remembering the things he'd done to them. "By the way," he said, the thought reminding him of that particular regression side effect, "have you noticed any new memories lately?"

Mephiles did a sort of shivery squirming motion, stretching and rolling his shoulders like a cat. "I... have," he admitted, the words coming out slowly, like he had to feel them out to make them come out right. "I would rather not talk about them though."

"Alright. Then we won't." This wasn't a conversation about that, except indirectly. No need to make a hard topic harder. "So I guess that makes it my turn now?"

Mephiles slumped ever so slightly, relief at the subject change clear. "Please."

Silver nodded, then closed his eyes, much as Mephiles had earlier. He kept them closed, though, scenes he'd worked hard to regain and harder to bury drifting through his mind. "We... nobody but Blaze knows, and I wanted to keep it secret from you too, but I guess you'll remember sooner or later so it doesn't matter. You didn't tell us to go kill Sonic right after we met."

Mephiles stared at him, expression utterly blank. "I didn't?"

Silver winced internally. He didn't expect this to be an easy conversation, but better to mention it now than risk Mephiles remembering on his own and adding ammunition to his self-loathing cycles.  "No. Blaze wouldn't have trusted a total stranger that easily, right? You convinced us you were trying to find a way to fix things, but not strong enough to do it alone. We worked together for a while, sort of. And eventually you said you found an answer, and that's when we went back in time."

Mephiles nodded slowly, visibly processing the new information. "Understandable. If I was supposed to be doing research on what caused Iblis' release, it would make sense for me to spend time with individuals who took it upon themselves to subdue Iblis whenever it appeared."

It was hard to tell what Mephiles was thinking, but Silver decided to go on regardless. He'd come this far already. "Yeah. I mean, you weren't always the perfect teammate, but that wouldn't have been too believable. Sometimes you got into situations where we had to rescue you-" Mephiles snorted at that, and Silver smiled in agreement; the idea of having to rescue Mephiles from a team of Iblis creatures seemed ridiculous now that he'd seen Mephiles' powers in person. "Yeah, I know. But you were someone who knew stuff we didn't. Suspicious, sure, but worth enough to risk it."

There was a brief pause as Silver waited for Mephiles to respond. So far talking about it hadn't sent him into a flashback, but that didn't mean anything for what he might be thinking right now. When he did speak, though, it wasn't what Silver expected.

"What caused the blackout?"

Silver blinked. "Excuse me?"

And there was some of the emotion that had been absent these last few minutes. The mild exasperation was definitely preferable to the still blankness of before. But Mephiles was still talking, he needed to listen. "Something caused you to have a blackout, which put you out of sorts enough to say things you hadn't planned on revealing. I suspect it was something about my actions earlier, but I can't be sure without you telling me." He folded his hands and waited expectantly.

Silver winced internally, then offered a wry smile and a shrug. "Well, kinda. It's... sometimes when you argued with one or both of us, you'd just leave. Vanish without a trace for a day or two. And then you'd refuse to talk about it, changing the subject or just refusing to talk at all if we kept pushing." He shrugged, eyes falling to the coffee table. "I guess when you left like that, it reminded me of those times. Caught me off guard. I still shouldn't have yelled all that at you, but you were going to find out sooner or later. I'm sorry for how I reacted, and for not telling you any of this before."

There was a small creak from the couch as Mephiles shifted, reaching over to rest his hand gingerly on Silver's shoulder, like he feared the gesture would be rebuffed. "I... appreciate you telling me now. I understand why you didn't want to talk about it, but I'd rather know these things before the memories come back. That said... I know it doesn't mean as much now, but I apologize for my past actions."

Silver managed to raise his eyes to Meph's. "Why? It wasn't really you, not like you are now."

Mephiles let his hand drop before turning away, looking at some distant point Silver couldn't reach. "I suppose not."

There was a moment of quiet, Mephiles lost in his thoughts, Silver lost to where to go next. After a moment Mephiles came back with a brisk shake of his head and focused back on Silver. "I'm glad we talked about this, but I'm tired now."

Silver managed a weak laugh. "Yeah, emotional conversations will do that to you. We should get a snack or something and go to bed."

"Sounds like a good plan to me."

Tails growled quietly as he tapped at his computers. He knew he could use the information Shadow had given him, he just had to-

"Problem?"

"Kind of," he muttered. "I don't have the equipment here that I need. So analyzing the material Shadow provided is a lot harder than it should be, and taking a lot longer too."

"Not that it would do you much good even if you could analyze it. It's likely useless."

Tails' expression went flat. "Oh yeah. Forgot you're regressed for a second."

Mephiles stretched leisurely and lounged back on the chair. "You and all your friends forget that far too easily. You should be thankful I don't have time to do anything truly malicious, or you might be in trouble."

"Uh huh. If you say so."

Tails idly noted the huff and grumbled insult that followed, but decided to ignore them. Not worth the time it took to process the important parts. He'd taken to listening for the things that went unsaid when Mephiles was regressed, and it was surprisingly informative. In a somewhat backwards way.

But for the moment, he had more concerning things to consider. "This doesn't make sense," he muttered. "It reminds me of... but I can't be sure without... never mind, doesn't matter. If I can just manage to pin down a few things..."

There was a soft, vaguely familiar puffing noise. Tails glanced over, unsurprised to see that Mephiles had vanished. Well, whatever. He was regressed, but he'd turn back soon enough anyway. Probably just went to take another nap on a turtle. Checking in properly could wait.

Eggman tapped rapidly at his main console, muttering under his breath. A series of diagrams were displayed across the monitors all over the room with some densely packed tables of data mixed in.

The scientist himself was perspiring slightly as he worked despite the low levels of physical activity required. He tapped a button, and a robotic assistant appeared to mop his brow with a handkerchief before the sweat could drip in his eyes. Now was not the time to be distracted. Especially not if Shadow had given that data to Sonic and his friends - no doubt those fools would come to all the wrong conclusions and cause further setbacks.

He couldn't afford further setbacks. There was so little time to begin with.

"Hello doctor."

He cursed and spun toward the voice, knocking the robot on its side with his unexpected flailing. Nobody should have been able to get in here without his alarms picking up something - except, apparently, someone who could teleport. "Mephiles," he said, regaining his composure and folding his hands with an oily smile. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

The dark being was perched on the edge of a workbench, one leg folded casually across the other knee. Vaguely reptilian eyes regarded Eggman calmly, but with an air of curiosity. (Or perhaps it was contempt. Eggman wasn't about to pretend his expertise extended to this being's moods, however widespread it might otherwise be.) "I understand we have similar goals."

That gave Eggman pause. He very carefully did not glance at any of the screens around him. "We do?"

Mephiles rolled his eyes and hopped off the bench, striding over to a lower console - intended for use while  seated, but a perfect height for him to point at one screen in particular. "If this plan fails," he said, "or even if it merely never goes into effect, it would be disastrous for more than just you, doctor."

Eggman bristled. "I am aware, thank you! Why do you think I'm working so hard to-"

The full weight of acid-green eyes turning on him had him falter mid-sentence. "I know. But sometimes, stating the obvious can help simplify what would otherwise be a tangle of misunderstood loyalties." Mephiles turned fully toward Eggman, but made no move to come closer. "Your expertise is invaluable here. If you are willing to trust me, then I can offer information possessed by no other." He paused to shrug. "Or you can continue your work with conjecture and theory. It's your choice."

There was a long moment of silence as Eggman considered the offer. It wasn't a bad one, exactly, assuming he could trust Mephiles' word. Which... "Why would you help me? You've shown loyalty to those pe- er, Sonic and his friends in our previous encounters, and in this particular case-"

"I have my reasons," he said, cutting Eggman off with an airy wave. "Reasons I cannot disclose, I'm afraid. You'll have to trust my word when I say that I will cooperate fully with you, at least in this instance."

Eggman was silent again. Considering Mephiles' history, trusting him was foolish. But...

He looked at one of the diagrams, with all its time-sensitive warnings and angry red notes. And he made a decision.

"Very well," he said, once again meeting Mephiles' steady gaze. "You have a deal." He didn't offer a hand to shake.

Mephiles' eyes glinted with satisfaction. "Excellent. Let's begin right away. I'd rather be away when my other half makes a reappearance."

Chapter Text

Silver sat on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and watching with half-open eyes as Mephiles messed with some game or other. He was saying something, too, but honestly it was too early for proper conversation and the words faded into a drone.

He felt something nudge his shoulder and opened his eyes (he'd closed them? whoops) to Mephiles giving him an amused look. "You could go back to bed if you're that tired."

It took a moment for the suggestion to properly register. Silver shook his head. "No, it's fine. Just waking up a bit still. I like hanging out with you, or I guess being in the same room." Mephiles turned away without speaking, and Silver was immediately concerned. "Unless you want me to leave?"

Mephiles spun back quickly, eyes wide. "That's not- it's fine, you can stay if you want!" He blinked, apparently taken aback by his own vehemence.

"Okay, okay," Silver said, as startled by the intensity as Mephiles looked. He readjusted the blanket so he could bump Mephiles' shoe with his own. "Are you okay? You seem... jumpy."

Mephiles was quiet for a bit. As the seconds ticked past, Silver noticed something that made him blink. "Are you... blushing?"

Mephiles smacked himself in the face in an awkward attempt to cover it. "Absolutely not! I'm-"

"You are!" Silver sat up to look at him properly. "What, cause I said I like hanging out with you?" Mephiles mumbled something mostly unintelligible about compliments. Silver decided to take pity on him and changed the topic. "By the way, I think you should check the TV."

Mephiles looked up and hissed something displeased at the GAME OVER on screen. He jabbed the buttons to continue playing with more force than strictly necessary as Silver restrained a laugh.

The front door burst open with a bang that made Mephiles fumble the controller. "We're home!" Sonic called, appearing behind them to lean over the couch with a grin. "Hope you didn't have too much fun while we were out."

"Of course not," Mephiles drawled, almost entirely back to normal if you ignored the slight coloring of his ears. "We've been completely petrified with boredom. I'm not sure we would have survived another day without your presence.

Shadow snorted as he passed them, digging briefly in the fridge before returning with a pair of juice boxes. "If you need more excitement, I can suggest better options than this idiot." He stuck a straw into one of the juice boxes and pressed it into Sonic's hands before stabbing his own and sipping pointedly, ignoring the looks everyone shot him.

"Well this idiot is perfectly capable of taking care of himself," Sonic harrumphed before slurping his juice noisily. Mephiles and Silver both bit back laughter as he paused, registering his own words.

"So how was your trip?" Silver asked before he could start awkwardly backtracking. "Set anything on fire?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Hardy har har. I don't set things on fire that often."

"Not when I'm in charge of cooking at least," Shadow said, dropping his empty juice box in the trash. "Which I was, on the few occasions we had a cooked meal. The wilderness is not well suited to finding ingredients."

"Just got to know what you're looking for," Sonic chirped, suddenly much more cheerful. He leaned over and whispered something that made Shadow stiffen before backing off to chew on his straw with a pleased expression.

Shadow, for his part, visibly forced himself to relax before stalking out of the living room and up the stairs. A giggle escaped Sonic in the following silence.

"No slammed door," Silver observed. "Should I be more or less worried?"

"He's fine," Sonic said, managing to restrain his laughter but not his grin. "We had a, heh, a bit of a moment the day after we left and Shadow's still sulking."

"He might stop if you let it drop."

Sonic raised a brow, which could have meant 'do you know him?' as easily as 'do you know me?'

Silver sighed. "Yeah, didn't think so. Anyway, I didn't make anything for breakfast but I'm assuming you already ate."

"Yep. Think I'll go nap for a few." He offered a jaunty salute and zipped away, the back door opening and closing in a snap.

Silver turned to Mephiles. "Roof?"

"Roof. Shadow's in his room. And the door is in fact closed."

"Figured." Silver sighed and stretched a bit. "They seem better at least. I mean, they usually do after a week away, but it's nice to see anyway."

Mephiles eyed him thoughtfully, but turned back to the game when Silver looked at him. He considered asking, then shrugged internally. Meph would tell him if it was important, and for now he'd rather enjoy a moment of peace.

Shadow left the house barely half an hour later with a comment about checking in at GUN, but Sonic remained on the roof until past noon before reappearing with his usual boundless energy and a suggestion that really shouldn't have surprised them.

"So you want us to spar with you," Mephiles said, Silver listening from where he stood clearing the lunch things.

Sonic shrugged. "Well, yeah. I'm not the kinda guy who sits still for long, y'know? At least when I'm awake," he added quickly before Mephiles could do more than look mischievous.

"That sounds like a good plan, actually," Silver said as he walked up behind Mephiles. "We probably should get out of the house for a while anyway, and we always go to Tails' to spar."

Despite fully meaning what he'd said, Sonic and Mephiles exchanging a look made him pause. "Something wrong?"

Sonic grinned. "Nah. Meet you there!" He didn't vanish fast enough to knock anything off the walls this time, but the sonic boom that followed his exit was clearly audible even inside. Mephiles cast Silver an almost apologetic look before melting into the shadows.

Silver cursed and ran for the door. Of course he would be the slowest again. Though at least he could outrace Mephiles when he didn't use the dang teleporting.

"Hey guys!"

Mephiles finished rolling under a well-timed kick and came up facing toward the voice. He could hear scuffing behind him as Silver hit the ground with a bit less grace and Sonic moved to steady him. "Yeah Tails?" Sonic called back.

The fox lowered his hand and dashed off the porch as the spar came to a pause. "Sorry to interrupt, but I didn't know when I'd catch you in person again. I wanted to ask if any of you have been feeling anything strange lately?" The question was directed at all three of them, but Mephiles noticed Tails watching him in particular. He kept his expression blank.

Sonic scratched his ear. "Not really, no? What's going on?" Silver looked similarly confused.

Tails didn't respond for another moment, still searching for who knows what. He finally sighed and turned to face Sonic instead. "Those weird energy waves I've been monitoring have been getting stronger lately. It's not affecting the chaos field much, but I thought if one of you could feel it..."

"Shadow might have noticed something," Mephiles said. He twitched when everyone turned toward him but otherwise remained impassive. "He has more practice manipulating chaos directly, correct?"

"Yeah," Tails said, a bit of reluctance leaking into his tone. "I was hoping he'd show up with the rest of you, but..."

"He's probably busy," Silver said. "Now that he's home, he'll probably spend all his time working for a while."

Sonic grumbled something that everyone chose to ignore for plausible deniability purposes.

"Perhaps one of us could ask," Mephiles offered. "Someone should see him at home eventually."

Sonic shook his head. "Nah, when he gets like this the only time anyone besides Rouge sees him is if you chant his name to a mirror three times at midnight. Mostly so he can ask what the heck you're doing but that's also the only time he's home."

Mephiles hmm'ed. "I suppose it would be easier for someone to call him then, since it isn't wise to waste sleep time." Sonic gave a nervous laugh, and Mephiles eyed him sideways. "That wasn't meant to call anyone out but I'm not taking it back."

Silver sighed and refocused on Tails. "So do you want us to see if we notice anything, or...?"

"No, I just wanted to know if you already had." His voice dropped, and Mephiles glanced up curiously to see him speaking softly to Sonic, whose expression flashed concerned for a moment. Tails nodded, face serious, before stepping back again. "I'm glad you haven't, though. That would be... not very good. Anyway, sorry to interrupt, have fun, uh... doing your thing."

They watched him leave, then Sonic shrugged and cracked his knuckles. "Welp, I think we were in the middle of me kicking your butts, so - whoa!" He laughed as he spun away from the angry crackle of telekinetics. "Got a problem with that, come prove me wrong!"

"Oh, I plan to," Silver said, arms outstretched and eyes shining menacingly.

Mephiles leaned back against the shed, content to let the two forget about him for the moment and focus their attention on each other. Good strategy and all, let his opponents use up all their energy on each other and step in when they were already exhausted. Also it was just entertaining to watch the cocky hero get telekinetically dangled upside down in midair.

Sonic flailed a bit, then went limp. "Welp. Now what?"

Silver eyed him, then smiled. "Admit that I'm the one doing the butt kicking around here and I'll let you down."

Mephiles snickered, drawing a glare from Sonic before the speedster turned back to Silver. "Alright, fine, you beat me good. Put me down."

"What do you think?" Silver asked Mephiles. "Is that good enough?"

Mephiles hummed, pretending to think about it. "I'm not sure. That really was a rude thing to say, so I think he should do better than that."

Silver shrugged and gave Sonic a falsely apologetic smirk. "You heard him. Try again."

Sonic made a frustrated sound and moved like he was trying to do a knee-up before dropping down again, arms crossed huffily. "Sorry for saying I was kicking your butts (even if was true). Let me down please? The blood's all rushing to my head."

"Eh, good enough."

Silver released his power, leaving Sonic to flip out of the air and land on his feet. He gave Silver a glare, then turned it to Mephiles, before kicking a box at the dark being. Mephiles rolled his eyes and knocked it aside with one hand.

Energy flared for a moment, and instead of just being knocked aside the box was shredded by dark energy. The three paused, staring at the remnants as they fluttered to the ground.

"Wow," Sonic said. "That's a new trick. How'd you learn to do that?"

"Lots of practice," Mephiles responded, regarding his hand with a sort of irritated realization visible on his face. "In any case, I think I'll leave you to it. Good luck to the both of you, I'll be inside if you need me." With that, he melted into the shadows.

Mephiles lay on Tails' couch, hands folded on his chest, knees hooked over the armrest, and eyes on the ceiling. He'd been there for some time now, relatively undisturbed beyond the occasional shuffling of someone peeking through the doorway before wandering off again.

That peace was interrupted by a fuzzy shadow appearing above him. "Having fun there?" Sonic asked with a grin, leaning over the backrest to stare at Mephiles.

Mephiles stared back without blinking.

Sonic rolled his eyes and flipped over the couch, landing just to the side of Mephiles' head and bouncing lightly a few times. "No need to talk my ear off there. Anyway, what didn't you tell Tails earlier?"

Mephiles stared at him for another moment, then sighed and looked back at the ceiling. "Nothing important. I'm less experienced with chaos energy than you, so there's not much for me to say."

"Sure, but what about the other energy stuff? The kind that's being weird, or your shadow energy thing?"

There was a short but tense pause, the silence seeming to grow louder with every moment Mephiles failed to dismiss Sonic's question. After a minor eternity, he rolled into a more traditional seated position, now looking at the blank television. "Nobody needs unnecessary worry right now."

"But you did feel something," he said, bluntly pointing out the elephant Mephiles had been carefully sliding away from. Well now the elephant had noticed them and was sliding right along in hot pursuit.

Mephiles made a quiet hissing sound and finally turned to face Sonic again. "I can sense when a regression is about to happen, okay?"

Sonic blinked. "Say what?"

"You heard me. You'd have to ask me while regressed but I'll bet I can sense when one's going to end too. Now if you're quite done-"

"Wait," Sonic blurted, grabbing Mephiles' arm before he could fully rise from the couch. "You can - how can you tell?"

Mephiles looked at him, eyes divulging nothing of what he was thinking. A beat passed, then he said, "I don't see why it matters." And he melted into the shadows, leaving Sonic with his hand still outstretched, grasping at nothing but air.

Mephiles appeared at Sonic's elbow, and he barely avoided dropping his game controller. "Yeesh, Meph, make a sound or something when you 'port, that's twice in one day!"

"No thank you. Your reactions are amusing." He moved around to the other side of the couch, but hovered rather than taking a seat.

Sonic noticed and waved at the cushions. "Well? It's not going to sit on itself."

"I should hope not," Mephiles mumbled, but finally settled, carefully settling not too close to Sonic yet not so far he looked about to flee. Sonic eyed him sideways, but returned his attention to the screen.

The room went silent besides the sounds from Sonic's game. He occasionally glanced over at Mephiles, but otherwise left him to himself.

Finally Mephiles spoke. "I'm sorry about earlier."

Sonic didn't drop his controller this time, though he did press the wrong button and drop his character into a pit. Rather than focusing on that, he turned to stare at Mephiles even as the dark being kept his eyes turned down. "You're sorry?"

Mephiles shifted, pressing his hands together. "Yes. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, and I don't want it to make things awkward. You were only trying to help."

Sonic shook his heat to try and clear it. "Trying to- Meph, I'm the one who should be apologizing. I shouldn't have pushed like that. You only yelled at me because I wouldn't leave you alone."

"I suppose, but-"

"No buts," Sonic said, doing his best to sound firm but not angry. "I'm sorry that I kept bugging you when regressions are such a touchy subject."

There was a tense pause, several seconds ticking past before Mephiles' shoulders slumped. "I suppose they are."

Sonic leaned one arm on the coffee table, twisting until he was almost at a right angle to watch Mephiles' expression, trying to guess whether that was a positive or negative response. "Hey... I get it, you know. It's totally okay if you don't want to talk about him, or any of that stuff, most of the time. But maybe you could tell Tails what you noticed in case it's important? I could get him to back off if he asks more than you want to answer."

Mephiles was still for another moment, then let out a heavy sigh. "You really don't," he said, so quiet Sonic almost thought he'd imagined it. He finally raised his head to meet Sonic's eyes. "You didn't already tell him?"

Sonic stared at him with wide eyes. "When you were that upset already? I'm not gonna tell anyone that kinda stuff without your okay first. What kind of friend do you take me for?"

Mephiles' expression relaxed a bit, eyes tilting at the corners. "A good one, obviously. Nobody would mistake you for anything else." He paused, expression shifting just a bit. "Though I can't say that looks particularly comfortable. How long do you plan to remain mostly sideways?"

"Kinda forgot, honestly. But now that you mention it..." Sonic let his supporting arm buckle, bringing relief to strained muscles and sending him rolling to the floor.

Mephiles facepalmed in an attempt to hide his smile.

Knuckles sat on the steps of the emerald shrine in a vaguely meditative state, arms crossed and eyes closed. The emerald itself was tucked away, hidden in a pocket of the island only used when he had errands to run away from his guardian duties. Which couldn't be too often, but he had reason today.

He opened his eyes at the sound of approaching footsteps. Silver stopped on the top step of the middle tier and waved. "Hey. Made it without getting hit by the defense system."

"First time for everything," Knuckles shot back without venom. Silver just laughed. "Alright, it's mostly the east where there's been issues, so we should be good to stick together."

"Alright," Silver agreed. He waited for Knuckles to rise and stretch a bit before following him down the steps and toward the section of the island he'd mentioned.

They weren't the most coordinated team, but for cleaning up a few undirected bots, they were a perfectly adequate team. Knuckles smashed bots and tossed them toward Silver, who caught them with his powers and used them to knock holes in the robotic formation. Not that there was much of one. The whole thing was a fairly routine mop up of Eggman's abandoned badniks. A not infrequent event in places like Angel Island, where he liked to visit and scatter his most minor minions like dandelion seeds. No rhyme or reason, really, except that it seemed to please him. He certainly wasn't doing it to pose an actual threat, with how little time it took to mop them up. The things weren't even a particularly effective stall nowadays.

"That's the last of 'em," Knuckles said with the certainty of one who knows every inch of the island and would notice for sure if there was anything else lurking nearby. He dusted his hands off and held one out toward Silver. "Thanks for the help."

Silver smacked his hand in the sort of high-five Sonic often gave, eyes still glowing with leftover adrenaline. "No problem. Needed to work out some energy anyway. Feel free to call me next time you need a little help on disassembly duty."

"Will do."

Since they were decently close to the island's border already, Silver said his goodbyes and flew until he reached the beaches at the island's edge, pausing briefly to get his bearings before letting himself drop into gravity's ready hands.

One... two... three... four... always keeping an eye on the ground, don't want to drop too far... five... six... seven... eight... falling into the rhythms of counting...

He caught himself meters from a nasty impact, slowing his descent and dropping softly to the ground. (The slowing, he'd discovered, was absolutely necessary, unless he wanted a horribly jarring stop to greet him.) He glanced up at the island still hovering above him, running numbers through his head. Physics wasn't his strong suit, but he could tell he'd gotten to a pretty good speed. (Not exactly Tails' level of accuracy there, but it wasn't like he'd had much formal schooling.)

After a moment to let the adrenaline settle in, Silver lifted off the ground and shot away toward home. He might detour on the way, there wasn't much reason not to at this point. There probably wasn't even anyone home to notice he was gone.

Mephiles came home to an empty house. To anyone else, this might have seemed like less of an issue, but it was noticeable to him. A prickling realization that took just long enough to be unsettling.

Arriving to a quiet house wasn't that unusual. If those home were reading or listening to music in their rooms, then there wouldn't be much noise. It was when Mephiles extended his shadow senses to check who was home that he discovered there were no shadows to check.

His first thought, as he stood there in front of the door, was to worry about what might have happened. But he quickly calmed that thought. First off, if something happened, they'd find out soon enough, and he was in the circle of people that would actually know things. Second, every one of his roommates was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Third, it wasn't like anyone had said they would be home. He'd just... gotten used to having someone around.

Besides, Silver had said this was pretty typical before he'd shown up, and Mephiles was doing his best to take him at face value. Last time he'd jumped to conclusions hadn't gone too well, and he wasn't about to let himself overthink things again. (Certainly not this soon after.)

The quiet seemed to echo as he walked into the kitchen, pulling out some leftovers and eating them cold. Running the microwave sounded... uncomfortable when it was that quiet. Hunger sated, he headed upstairs, trying not to wince at every creaking board.

The dark being stood in his room for a moment before closing the door behind him. Immediately, he relaxed as the quiet went from empty-absent-wrong to the ordinary ambiance of his room. Their walls weren't that thick, in the interest of always being in shouting (or banging, in some cases) distance of each other, but thick enough that the absence of background noise was less grating. Senses appeased for the moment, he wandered over to check his sticky notes and paused.

There was another note. He hadn't had a regression in some days, so he must have forgotten to check last time. Or the time before, for that matter. There had been two during the week Sonic and Shadow were away, and he'd been a bit... scattered during that time. But better late than never. He read the last two notes.

Feelings are hard.

You said it.

Blink. Blink. What?

He settled into the desk chair, thoughts beginning to cycle through his head. His second regression had been spent mostly with Tails (as the fox had informed him later). The first was a bit less certain, but Silver had made a comment that convinced him that they'd been together at least part of the time. Although...

Now that he thought about it, Silver hadn't actually said anything about the regression. He'd thought it was just a bad topic, and with the last week on top of his regressed self's attitude, he hadn't pressed. But there was that other time as well, when he'd apparently taken Silver home while regressed. He certainly didn't remember doing it. Meaning...

What? What, really, did that mean? That Silver couldn't tell them apart? Well... maybe. The more recent incident, anyway. But there was another side to that. It meant he was enough alike regressed and not for the mistake to occur in the first place. Which could just be because he had all his memories when regressed, and could figure out how to act to seem not regressed, but... it's not like he'd acted quite the same during the adventure. He'd always acted with intent, even more so than today. Few insults, a lot of insincere flattery, always manipulating.

Manipulating.

What would make him put on that kind of act normally? What intent could he be furthering by pushing them away one time, and acting like everything was normal the next?

In the next moment, he realized the answer. Then another energy wave hit.

Silver yawned as he finally arrived home. He could understand the appeal of wandering whatever zone you landed in, but man was it tiring. He'd stopped to explore a bit in a few of the zones he'd passed, and while it wasn't his favorite activity, it had been fun. But it delayed him quite a bit, and it was pretty late now. Already dark. Still worth it, just. He was tired.

He decided not to call a greeting in case there were people sleeping. Instead he grabbed a snack from the cupboard and headed upstairs. Nobody to call him out on bad eating habits today.

Unsurprisingly, all three of his housemates' doors were closed. Sonic and Shadow were probably out somewhere, and Mephiles was protective of his privacy. He turned to enter his room.

And paused.

Something niggled at the back of his mind. Nothing concrete, just a funny feeling. But funny feelings had saved lives, his and those of his friends.

He approached Mephiles' door with a hint of trepidation and knocked. "Meph? You in there?"

A beat of silence that seemed to last much longer than the second or two it probably did. "Yeah. Need something?"

The bad feeling didn't go away. "Uh... kinda. Can I come in?"

"Door's unlocked."

He opened the door and peered in, still hesitant. Mephiles was sitting in his desk chair, staring expressionlessly at the wall. Silver's eyes drifted briefly to the column of sticky notes on the desk's far edge, observing the dense text on the last one before snapping back to Mephiles. Who still hadn't moved. "Uh. Hey. You okay?"

Mephiles blinked, finally turning to look at him. "Yes. I'm fine. I just, had a bit of an odd moment earlier." He paused briefly, then added, "Regressed for about five minutes. It was unsettling."

"Oh." Silver didn't know what else to say, so he didn't say anything.

The lack of words seemed to summon Meph's normal curiosity. "What about you? You usually don't come knocking unless something's wrong."

Silver blinked, then managed a half smile. "Yeah. You know me pretty well, huh."

"I... suppose I do," Mephiles said, enunciating the words carefully. "Why?"

"No reason. And I just had a weird feeling. But if everything's okay, I'll just get going."

"Alright, nice talking to you," Mephiles said as Silver retreated, shutting the door behind him.

For a long moment, Silver just stood there, trying to sort his thoughts. Then he shook his head and headed for his room.

When Mephiles got up the next morning, Sonic was off somewhere, Silver headed out shortly with a vague comment about lending a hand to one of their friends, and Shadow had yet to reappear unless he ghosted through during the night (which honestly wouldn't surprise him too much).

Which led to him returning to a meadow he'd visited before. Normally he'd prefer looking at some of the many places he hadn't had time to visit previously, but he was in the mood for a bit of familiarity, and besides he'd become partial to this particular location.

(It may or may not have been the one he'd run into Cream and Amy in. Though, to be fair, it was obviously one of their preferred locations for a reason - even with winter coming on, a fair few hardy blooms still speckled the meadow.)

Once at his destination, he located a nice tree near the edge of the sunny space and settled down for a nap, using a particularly mossy root as a pillow. In no time at all his breathing evened out, his body relaxing into the slumped position of a truly deep sleeper.

He didn't so much as twitch at the soft thudding of footsteps across the grassy earth, even when they stopped right beside his ear, but his ear flicked when someone spoke.

"Why were you at GUN headquarters?"

Mephiles finally cracked an eye open to peer upwards, but otherwise remained still. "Hello to you too Shadow," he said, not the slightest trace of sleepiness in his tone.

Shadow stood above him, arms crossed, visibly unimpressed. "I asked a question."

There was a pause. "Would you repeat it? I'm not sure I understood correctly."

Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I was informed that some other agents saw me wandering around at headquarters while I was on vacation, though they indicated that my coloration was different from usual. Since it's not hard to guess who they saw, what brought you there of all places?" He paused, hand dropping away and eyes narrowing with realization. "Unless you don't remember being there."

Mephiles was quiet for a moment before he sighed and pushed himself upright to give Shadow an irritated look. "Maybe I was curious. Does it really matter? I didn't go anywhere I shouldn't have."

"You shouldn't have been there at all," Shadow said, even as he relaxed slightly.

Mephiles shrugged. "True. I'll say instead I didn't look at anything I shouldn't know about."

Shadow looked like he was going to say something further, then sighed and shook his head. "Don't do it again. You're at least more likely to listen than Sonic."

"Does he even stay long enough to hear the whole sentence?"

"Occasionally. Usually when I have him in a choke hold." He nodded, then turned and walked away without further farewells.

Mephiles watched him leave before laying back down with a sigh. "I hope you appreciate me covering for you," he said to himself. "And that you won't do anything too stupid if you're going to get caught like this."

Mephiles appeared in the lab holding a heavy-looking satchel. "Where-?"

Eggman gestured at a nearby workbench without looking up. Mephiles set the satchel down and walked up behind him, close enough to see what he was doing but not so close that Eggman could protest him getting in the way. "How long would you say?"

"Are you telling me you don't already know, with your hold on time?"

Mephiles' expression remained impassive. "Humor me."

Eggman grumbled something about dallying and tapped a few buttons, pulling up a series of charts. "Assuming the installation went exactly right... maybe two weeks."

Mephiles hummed, a pleased glint in his eyes. "Excellent. Will that be enough time to-"

"It will be plenty if you stop interrupting me!"

Eggman glared at Mephiles, but only received a neutral stare in return. After several seconds he turned to his computer with as much nonchalance as someone could manage while visibly sweating.

Mephiles turned and walked a few steps away, examining a drafting table covered in books that mysteriously managed to not slide off its angled surface. He brushed aside a few papers covered in childish doodles to examine the chart beneath. Eyes traced the lines of a diagram, theories and potentials scribbled in the margins, all leading to...

"Bees."

Eggman paused to look over his shoulder. Mephiles had the look of one who had had an epiphany and rather regretted the experience. "...Bees?"

"Bees," Mephiles agreed, more firmly as he began to look more grounded in reality.

Eggman was about to point out that this told him nothing when it finally hit him. "Ah. Bees."

"Mhm."

"...This may be the most ludicrous thing I've ever done. And that's saying something."

"No need. Do recall that I'm handling the implementation personally. You need to focus on the designs and material aspects."

"Hmph. How do you even come up with these things?"

Mephiles regarded him flatly. "Doctor, consider my history. I'm a being formed of liquid darkness, one half of a time god, and capable of many feats that ought to be impossible by any normal type of physics, including but not limited to aforementioned default form. Besides that, despite the fact that every trace of said time god form was supposed to be erased from existence, I still exist. Playing by the rules isn't exactly my specialty."

"You have a point there."

Mephiles made a vague sound of acknowledgment. "By the way, what external effects will your little alteration have?"

Eggman frowned. "External-? Ah, of course. It might allow for greater variations in intensity, so that process of yours will likely speed up."

"Much as I appreciate the confirmation, I was wondering about less obvious side effects."

There was a pause, and Eggman turned to tap at his screen. "Hard to say. Much as I hate to admit it, I haven't seen a setup quite like this, so predictions are... difficult."

"Unpredictable side effects then," Mephiles stated, tone perfectly even.

"Well... yes. But didn't you just say something about not playing by the rules?"

Mephiles paused for a moment. His eyes tilted in something almost but not quite a smile. "I suppose I did."

Chapter Text

A newer-looking chain of sticky notes on Mephiles' desk:

Stop asking nosy questions. That's not your job.

I wasn't aware I had a job.

Of course you do. Your job is to find a hobby before you blow something up out of boredom.

And yours?

You'll know soon enough.

Mephiles opened his eyes to a leafy canopy above him. He lay still for a moment, watching the branches sway, before slowly moving to an upright position and wincing when his body gave several unhappy twinges. A quick assessment told him that he had a slightly tender spot on his head as well as some soreness in his shoulder and thigh on one side. Not bad, really. He must have been close to the ground before the regression ended and knocked him flat. Literally, in this case.

He pulled himself upright, ignoring his body's protests in favor of assessing his surroundings. It wasn't the first time in the past couple days that he'd come to after a regression in some remote area, though it was never the same place, and rarely anywhere he recognized. He wondered if he'd found these areas during past regressions and was taking advantage of them now, or was doing some exploration in those blank bits of time. Somehow he found the former more likely.

For once, he vaguely recognized the forest he was in, mostly because it wasn't far from the area where everyone lived. He was a bit surprised by that - the other places he'd woken up in had all been rather out of the way, even by their group's standards - but shrugged it off. The fact that he wasn't waking up at home after regressions was strange to begin with. No need to worry about a new oddity when he didn't have an explanation for the larger one.

(Or at least, no proof. He had that suspicion, fed by the memories he was slowly regaining, but what good was that if he kept any solid evidence from himself?)

Stretching his aching muscles, trying not to wince as his frame cracked, he held out a hand and focused. A tiny ball of greenish gold energy formed and swirled for a moment before dissipating. He clenched his fist and nodded decisively, letting it drop to his side before melting into the shadows.

"Amy, I'm not sure that's a good idea." Silver glanced over at Mephiles, sitting on the kitchen island and watching him with a curious expression. "I know you're just trying to help, but most of us don't need it, y'know? ...No, you're right, but I don't think it'll help with him."

Silver winced as the next burst of excited chatter came through the phone. "Alright, I'll ask, but I'm not gonna push it if he says no, okay?" He covered the receiver with his free hand and turned to Mephiles. "She wants the whole gang to gather for some sort of teambuilding activity. Are you-"

"Why wouldn't I be willing to go?"

The question was curious, not accusing, but Silver still looked almost pained. "Well, she's trying to get everyone to gather. So obviously me, you, Sonic, Shadow..." he ticked off names on his fingers as he continued. "Tails, Blaze, Rouge, maybe Omega but who knows, and, uh... Knuckles."

There was a beat of silence as that processed.

Mephiles sighed after a moment. "I suppose that's why she decided to plan this event. Not that I expect it to do much good, from what I know of him."

Silver nodded, frowning slightly. "That's kind of what I was thinking. I appreciate her trying to help, but... I can't help thinking this'll just be stressful." The phone in his hand let out a screech, and he quickly raised it back to his ear. "Sorry, just taking a minute to explain things. No, I'm not-"

"I'll do it."

Silver blinked, the chatter from the phone falling away from his attention. "You what?"

Mephiles shifted, arms folded over his chest and eyes darting away. "I'll go to the event. At least that shows I'm trying, correct?"

Silver grinned and gave an encouraging nod. "Yeah, he's in. We'll see you in a bit."

Several of the others were already there when they arrived at Tails' house. Mephiles noted Shadow talking on his com in one corner, Knuckles leaning against the wall with his eyes shut in another, Sonic's unusually high pitched voice floating out of the game room, and some odd clicking noises coming from the lab.

Shadow ended the call and tucked his com away. "Rouge can't come," he announced. "She's had extra work lately, while I am on leave." He sounded more than a little bitter, but didn't elaborate.

Silver smiled nervously. "Well Blaze probably won't make it either, so it's fine."

Shadow humphed, but didn't respond further.

A few worryingly loud crashes came from the lab, and a moment later a (slightly sooty) fox face appeared at the doorway. "Oh great, you're here!" Tails said, the rest of him following. He wiped his face with a rag as he spoke. "I think that's everyone who's coming, so we can get started now."

A whoosh and a blur signaled Sonic's entrance. His grin was a bit twitchier than usual, which was explained when Amy followed him out. "Great! So what's the plan?"

"Well-" Tails began, only to be interrupted.

"We're doing trust exercises!" Amy chirped, clapping her hands together with a bright smile. "Trust falls, and walks, and that kind of thing. We're all off doing our own thing so much, I thought we could all use some team building exercises. It'll be fun!"

Silver recalled her mentioning this plan a few days back and wondered whether he should have tried to talk her out of it. He discarded the thought, since even if he did decide to regret it he couldn't do anything now. "Well, okay. But that stuff usually requires pairing up. How were you going to pick pairs? Especially with an odd number," he added, having already counted up heads when everyone began appearing.

Tails managed to grab and hold the floor this time. "I'm not doing the trust fall part, to even up numbers. For the walks we'll rotate a group of three. And we're deciding by randomizer." He held up a small tablet. "Unless there's any other questions, let's get started." He tapped the screen a few times, waiting a second for the device to finish calculating before continuing. "First name in the pair is caught by second name, then switch. Pairs are Silver and Mephiles, Sonic and Knuckles, and Shadow and Amy. Start when you're ready."

Silver turned to Mephiles, ignoring the others for the moment. "Do you know how trust falls work?"

"I have a guess, but you might as well explain."

"Sure. It's pretty simple really. One person falls backwards toward the other, who catches them."

Mephiles' face scrunched up. "Sounds pointless. It's not as though a fall that minor would harm anyone here."

Silver shrugged. "It's symbolic I guess. Trusting the other person to catch you if you fall." He paused, then smiled just a bit too innocently. "What, you don't trust me?"

Mephiles scoffed, though he did look the slightest bit more prickly after the almost taunt. "Don't be ridiculous. Regardless, you're falling first, so shouldn't I be the one asking that?"

"Nah, not really. I mean it's obvious I trust you. Anyway, ready whenever."

Silver turned away just a bit too quickly, missing the mix of emotions that crossed Mephiles' face before being stowed away somewhere unseen. "Call it when you're ready."

"Now."

Silver went rigid and let himself fall backward, the air moving past him for a moment before Mephiles caught him and pushed him back upright.

"That's one," Mephiles said, pointedly paying no attention to the others, especially not any yelling between Sonic and Knuckles related to probably literal pain in the rear. "My turn, then?"

"That's how they said to do it. I think some versions involve doing the same thing several times with increasing spaces, but." He shrugged.

Mephiles grimaced. "I'd rather stick with the instructed method, thank you. I don't want to risk dropping you." He paused, then added, "Or you dropping me, for that matter."

Silver quickly concealed his smile. "Alright, say when you're ready."

Their second 'fall' was likewise uneventful (albeit a little more unsettling to the fallee - not that Mephiles would admit it even under torture), and the pair concluded that this was kind of a boring activity slash waste of time before glancing at the others.

Knuckles and Sonic were arguing again, apparently over Sonic's (allegedly justified) revenge, and Amy was digging herself a hole with an unconcerned Shadow ("I hadn't expected you to weigh that much, I mean you wouldn't know it looking at you, not to say you're fat or anything because I know you aren't, but you really do weigh a ton, er, that is-"). Tails just looked completely done with everything.

Eventually the group made their way outside, where the next activity was already set up. A collection of tires, posts, strings, and various bits of less identifiable equipment were strewn across the yard, creating a simple obstacle course - too simple to pose any challenge to any of them. At least, under normal circumstances.

"We'll be doing the course blindfolded," Tails explained, holding up several strips of cloth. "One partner calls instructions while the other navigates blind. You start over if you run into anything. We're doing new partners this time, and I'll be taking part so the last three will rotate as a trio." He tapped his tablet again. "New pairs are Mephiles and Knuckles, Shadow and Silver, and Sonic, Amy, and me." He made a face, but didn't say anything to indicate what it was aimed at. "Alright, everyone take a blindfold. First person leads the second, then switch."

Knuckles growled and snatched a blindfold, glaring at Mephiles briefly before stomping to the other side of the course as the others did much the same (if with a bit less force). "Alright dark, let's get this over with."

Mephiles blinked, momentarily thrown by the form of address before recalling that Knuckles sometimes addressed people by their species. He decided that he didn't much care for it when applied to himself.

"Well? You gonna make me stand here all day?"

A firm reminder that he didn't really need to give Knuckles any new reasons to dislike him was all that kept Mephiles from directing the echidna into a pole.

Mephiles' mood only worsened as the activity went on. He knew Knuckles didn't trust him, but was shuffling around so slowly really necessary? It wasn't like running into anything here would actually injure him, they'd just have to restart the walk. At this rate even the trio would have finished all three walks by the time they'd finished their first.

Eventually, though, Knuckles did manage to reach Mephiles. He yanked the blindfold off, looking annoyed by something. Mephiles wondered what on this damn planet had him in a snit, considering he'd been the one wasting time, but wasn't given time to really think about it before the blindfold was shoved in his face. "Your turn."

Mephiles gingerly took the blindfold and stepped around Knuckles' fist. He'd been about to say something disparaging about Knuckles' courage, but perhaps now wasn't the best time for that. Even if it was justified.

He felt Knuckles watching him as he crossed the yard and held the blindfold up to his eyes. And paused.

Knuckles scowled. "What now?"

"I'm not the one who decided to move at a snail's pace for the last fifteen minutes," Mephiles sniped back without turning. He removed the blindfold and looked at it, laying innocently in his hands.

He clenched a fist around the cloth and turned to face Knuckles. "Would it be acceptable if I closed my eyes instead?"

Knuckles eyed him suspiciously. "Why, so you can peek?"

"I have no intention of cheating. But I would rather not use the blindfold." He pretended not to notice someone watching him from the other side of the yard.

After a last long moment, Knuckles shrugged. "Whatever. Do what you want."

"Thank you."

Mephiles closed his eyes, missing the flash of surprise that crossed Knuckles' face at the genuine gratitude. The echidna shook it off quickly enough and began calling instructions, which Mephiles responded to as exactly as possible. It wasn't very, working blind (ha) as he was, but at least he could give it more effort than his partner had.

Right as he was wondering how close to the end he was (decently based on where Knuckles' voice was coming from), he caught his shoe on an uneven bit of footing, letting out a startled yelp as he pitched forward. Before he fell far, though, a strong grip caught him by the shoulders and helped him regain his balance before pulling away.

"I think that's close enough. Go ahead and open your eyes now."

Mephiles blinked his eyes open, realizing that Knuckles had apparently kept him from falling. He shook off the moment of surprise quickly enough and tucked the information away for later. "Thank you."

"No problem," Knuckles replied, tone gruff but in a different way somehow from before. He turned to rejoin the others, who were finishing up their own walks. Mephiles gave him a considering look, then moved to follow.

"Get your foot out of my ear!"

"I will if whoever's got their head under my knee moves!"

"Sorry, almost thr- ow, that's my tail!"

Mephiles somehow managed to keep from rolling his eyes. As brilliant as the idea was, there was clearly a reason this exercise was called a human knot and not a sapient knot. Namely, the taller set's more convenient proportions.

After a few more minutes of futility (and Mephiles being the only one able to maneuver painlessly by half melting), they finally gave up and stopped to stretch their aching limbs.

"So we were planning to do a nature walk after this," Tails said while rolling his neck with a wince, "but maybe we should take a break first."

Nobody voiced a complaint, so they settled on various bits of junk to relax a bit while the soreness faded.

Mephiles also took the opportunity to relax, though he wasn't in pain like the others. It was nice having a short break from all the people, if only because nobody had the energy to talk. There was a reason he preferred to spend his free time alone. And it wasn't just because he didn't get the prickling feeling of being watched that he was feeling once more.

He turned to glare at his observer. "Do you mind?"

Knuckles flinched, then turned away quickly, acting (poorly) as though he'd been idly watching the sky the whole time.

Mephiles sighed and leaned back, closing his eyes. Better to focus on more important things. Like thinking of nothing at all.

Silver watched Knuckles, who in turn watched Mephiles and pretended (badly) not to, and sighed. "You know, you could just tell him you changed your mind."

Knuckles startled and turned to him, visibly surprised at being caught staring. The surprise quickly melted into grumpy irritation, but Silver knew him well enough to know it wasn't directed at him. "Yeah, sure. Cause I'm absolutely going to act like I trust him unconditionally when he's still doing that regression thing."

Silver quickly glanced over to make sure Amy hadn't heard the mention of the regressions, then glared at Knuckles. At least from the slightly sheepish look he got in response Knuckles knew he'd said too much. He sighed and let the glare fall. "I get that. But I don't think he's as bad as you believe, even... like that. He's changed from the person we saw during the adventure."

"That may be so, but I know he can hold a grudge, and I bet he's got a grudge against us."

"Not us exactly," Silver muttered, either missing or ignoring Knuckles' confused expression. "But he won't act on that. Like I said, he's changed. He wouldn't try to hurt us unless we gave him a reason."

Knuckles seemed about to say something else, but they were interrupted by the neighboring conversation suddenly increasing in volume.

"No means no, Rose! I am not wasting my time on either of these frivolous expeditions."

"Ever the indoors-hog, eh, Shads?"

"Faker, if you wish to keep your jaw unbroken, I would keep it shut."

"Guys, come on, we're supposed to be getting along. We could just hang out here, how's that?"

"No way, I want my nature walk! And if we're not doing that then we can at least go to the mall!"

"Good luck getting Shadow to agree to that. You know he hates malls."

"And whose fault is that?"

"Not mine, I didn't do anything."

"Oh, you did something alright."

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that!"

"Will all of you shut up?" Mephiles snapped, opening his eyes long enough to glare at them. "I do not care in the least what you decide to do next, but I would appreciate if you could decide quietly." He fixed them with one last glare, then turned on his side to face away from them.

Silver winced a little, then turned back to the others, suddenly curious. "Something happened at the mall?"

Shadow's scowl deepened, and even Sonic's ever-present grin dimmed slightly. The speedster scratched his ear, glancing away. "It was before you got here. Shadow had a blackout that caused some, uh, issues. We try not to talk about it."

Shadow muttered something about hypocrisy, but it wasn't clear who it was about or directed at. Sonic's expression went blank, then snapped back to his usual bright grin.

"So," he said, jumping to his feet, "what say we pull up some Netflix for a bit? That'll let Meph have his nap and give the rest of us something to do."

Amy didn't look too pleased with that idea, but with everyone else agreeing easily, she ended up going with it anyway.

"Any luck, doctor?" Mephiles asked, appearing without warning in the middle of the lab.

Eggman cursed and spun to glare at him. "I told you to quit doing that!"

Mephiles didn't seem impressed. "And I told you no. I'm smart enough not to startle you when doing sensitive work, so if that's your concern then you needn't worry."

"That's hardly the only issue," he said, but it was quiet enough that Mephiles chose to ignore it. "In any case, all of this work is sensitive. That's obvious even with surface level knowledge. Which we both know you possess."

The dark being resisted a sigh. Lovely. More probing. "Indeed."

"Then why help?" Eggman pressed, as though hoping the opening had been left by chance. (They both knew better.) "Why would you help me, knowing what this means for you?"

There was a long pause as Mephiles simply stared at him, expression perfectly neutral. The moment broke when Mephiles turned away, examining some of the blueprints on a nearby screen. "Do you want the truth, or the answer you'll like?"

Eggman paused, ferocity dropped instantly. "What?"

"I can give you the truth, or the answer you'll like. Frankly I've gotten tired of you asking the same thing constantly so I thought it wise to offer a simple choice like this." He tilted his head slightly. "Though like isn't quite the word. Believe, perhaps."

"In that case, what's the answer I'll like?"

"I have my own plans," Mephiles replied promptly, "plans that diverge from yours at a critical point and include betrayal when you no longer provide what I need from you. But I'm willing to use you as a stepping stone for those plans up until you prove more trouble than you're worth."

Eggman's eyes narrowed - not at the words, but at the implications. "And the truth?"

Mephiles turned to look him straight in the eye. "I don't know."

The room seemed to freeze in place.

"You... what?"

"You heard me," Mephiles said, seemingly quite relaxed about it. "I plan to keep my part of our little agreement, of course, but as you've observed on numerous occasions, working with you in this instance would seem to go against logic. Then again, my existence isn't entirely in the bounds of logic either, is it?"

Eggman decided it was best not to respond.

There was a period of non-interaction, though not silence, as Eggman resumed working and Mephiles looked on. The dark being was unusually quiet considering his apparent appreciation for banter and pointing out where Eggman could have done better with his designs. Though that may just have been because he was busy contemplating how true his answer really was.

It wasn't a lie. But it certainly wasn't the whole truth. After all, Eggman wouldn't know what to do with this truth even if he had it.

Shadow opened the door slowly, careful not to make too much noise. Everyone was a bit on edge lately and waking someone out of an already light sleep was something to avoid.

Though, he noted with a glance toward the back, it clearly wouldn't be an issue for at least one of the house's other occupants.

He walked back to the kitchen with just enough force in his footsteps that Mephiles was looking up when he came into view. He nodded once, then returned to staring at a mug of something that smelled like lavender and chamomile.

"Trouble sleeping?" Shadow asked in a neutral tone.

"More or less." Mephiles looked up again. "Were you at work all this time?"

"More or less." Shadow paused, realizing he'd inadvertently copied Mephiles, then shrugged it off and continued. "How long has-?"

"This is only the second time." Mephiles' tone was noticeably clipped.

Shadow eyed him dubiously, but didn't pursue the subject. "If you aren't fond of that blend, Amy might be able to help. She likes to collect teas, if I recall."

Mephiles blinked, surprise quickly fading to something harder to read. "I'll speak to her if this keeps up."

Shadow nodded and turned to head upstairs, pausing to make one last comment. "None of us are strangers to nightmares, Mephiles. If you ever ask for help, someone will be available."

He didn't turn to see Mephiles' reaction before continuing on to his room.

Chapter Text

Mephiles stared at the fence as he walked, carefully measuring each step even as he forced himself to move at a normal pace. The topmost bar was maybe an inch wide, requiring careful attention to maintain his balance, but that was the point. He only had so long before the energy wave passed and his mind reverted to its other state. He wanted - he needed to make the most of this time.

"Oh hey Meph, what - whoa!" Silver jumped forward to catch Mephiles as he slipped off the fence, startled out of his focus. "Sorry, didn't mean to distract you," he said a bit sheepishly, setting Mephiles back on his feet.

Mephiles brushed imaginary dust off his arms and cast Silver a Look from the corner of his eye. "Did you need something? I'm a bit busy."

Silver blinked. "Busy doing what?

He sighed and climbed back on the fence, adjusting himself to resume his balancing act. He heard a scuffing noise that told him Silver was following. "Practicing balance. You should try it - you rely on your powers to maintain stability more than I ever have."

"Wait, you use your powers to...?"

Mephiles stopped, fortunately on a more solid post, as he immediately spun with wide eyes to stare at Silver. "You didn't know-?" Even in his other state, he'd been sure that everyone had noticed.

Silver shook his head, his expression confused with no hint of deception. "I can't tell at all. What's the big deal, though? I use my powers to keep my balance, you use yours for the same thing. Nothing wrong with that."

Well at least he wasn't responding poorly. Fortunately there was no need to make sure his counterpart knew of this development, since he wouldn't realize that Silver had ever not known. Though you'd think that going from shambling like something out of a zombie movie to walking as smoothly as a natural being in the space of days, weeks if he was generous, would spark at least some curiosity. Maybe Tails or Shadow realized, they were at least better at noticing when he was regressed...

Which reminded him that he'd been staring Silver in the eyes for too long, risking recognition of his slit-eyed state. He turned away and resumed walking. "It's a bit different for me. Explaining is... it's complicated, and a bit personal, but it would be best if I learned to move without needing to balance myself artificially." A bit closer to the truth than he was strictly comfortable with, but every good lie - even a lie by omission - contains some grain of truth.

Silver made a thoughtful sound but didn't say anything, apparently content to follow just behind Mephiles in silence.

The fence ended, replaced by a brick wall. It wouldn't make for good practice, but Mephiles continued anyway, unwilling to face toward Silver again.

Silver spoke suddenly, breaking through the quiet with a suddenness that almost startled Mephiles off the fence again. "I was actually headed over to Tails' place, so I'm going to go now. You're welcome to join though."

Mephiles felt a pang of - of some indistinct feeling that he refused to identify. He shook his head and looked vaguely in Silver's direction. "I'll stay here, but thank you for the offer."

Silver lifted off the ground and gave a wave. "Alright, see you around!" he said before flying off at a frankly impressive pace.

Mephiles watched him leave, then closed his eyes and heaved a heavy sigh. When he opened them again, they shone with quiet purpose. He vanished a moment later.

Mephiles examined the sticky notes on his desk, a conversation with himself held through several hours and two separate regressions. The number of episodes had increased over the past several days, though they weren't any longer as far as he could tell.

While they made taking time to himself a bit difficult, and almost always left him drained of energy, he at least appreciated the chance for more of these little conversations. Realizations regarding his mindset during regressions had left him craving answers, answers that he could only provide himself. But the latest sticky notes were an answer to a question he hadn't intended to ask.

He considered writing a return note, then decided against it. The conversation had more or less concluded itself, and he'd know how he felt about this either way when the next regression came. So he left the notes in their neat column and turned to his computer.

Silver didn't notice. If he mentions fence walking, it was during a regression.

Can they not tell anymore?

I don't know.

Mephiles leaned back against the chimney, one hand steadying himself on the roof tiles as he summoned a ball of black-purple energy in the other. He watched the ball swirl for a moment before pulling on a less innate set of powers, adding streaks of yellow green crisscrossing the surface, caressing and caging.

"What are you plotting?"

He watched the energy swirl above his hand for another moment before turning reptilian eyes toward the speaker. "You're assuming I'm plotting anything."

Shadow snorted. He balanced on the peak of the roof as easily as if he were on flat ground, and paid it as much attention. "I know you well enough to be sure you are."

Mephiles' eyes tilted. "What happened to me and my counterpart being the same? Do you assume he's plotting too?"

"Of course I do."

That made Mephiles pause for a moment. He closed his hand, banishing the entwined energies. "Oh?"

Shadow sighed, shifting his position the slightest bit. "You're the same person we fought before. You don't know how to interact with the world without manipulation."

Mephiles blinked, head tilting to the side. "Well that's hardly my fault, is it?"

Shadow went silent and very, very still. Then he sighed again with a different tone and let his shoulders drop, raising one hand to massage his forehead. "Just don't let whatever this keep you from meeting your own needs. Don't think I haven't noticed." He looked up, eyes narrowing. "Because if this keeps up I will not hesitate to make you take a nap the hard way."

Mephiles stared as Shadow turned to swing down off the roof. A few moments passed before he shook his head and returned to his previous activities.

Silver paused before entering his room, hearing sounds echoing from Mephiles' slightly open door. He considered for a split second before crossing the hall and knocking. "Meph? You there?"

No response beyond the tinny sounds of voices.

This presented a slight dilemma, as Silver didn't want to intrude, but dang it he was curious. At the same time, he was a little concerned now...

He cracked the door open and peeked in.

Mephiles was laying on his desk, eyes closed. The sound was coming from his laptop. Seeing this, it wasn't hard to figure out what happened.

Silver opened the door the rest of the way, careful of the creaking, and stepped inside. He paused the video Mephiles had left playing with barely a glance at the contents and put the computer to sleep before turning to Mephiles himself. Fortunately he'd fallen asleep in an easy enough position to pick him up without too much jostling. Silver did just that, using his powers to both ease the strain and reduce jarring. He'd noticed how tired Mephiles seemed lately; he wasn't going to wake him up if he'd finally gotten to sleep.

A few steps over and Silver set Mephiles on the bed with as much care as he'd taken picking him up. He pulled a loose blanket over him, smiling a bit as Mephiles hugged the blanket closer in his sleep. Task completed, he slipped out of the room as quietly as possible.

He missed a pair of sleepy green eyes blinking open for a moment to watch the door swing shut. Their owner made a thoughtful noise, looking at the door for another moment before his eyes slid shut once more.

Tails scanned the lines of data progressively faster, thoughts blurring into a mess that could only be summarized as oh shoot we're screwed. If he was more of a coder than an engineer maybe he would have seen it sooner, but - no, he'd seen in a while ago, he just hadn't believed it. Because it wasn't possible, Sonic had -

But it was possible. He already had proof that not everything was gone. No explanation yet, maybe never, but he did have an example.

Tails turned to the table beside him, having to dig for a moment before finding his com and starting a call with fumbling fingers. The call was answered quickly, and he didn't wait for the other's greeting before blurting, "I need you to come to the lab right now."

There was a beat of silence, then the tone of the call ending.

Barely a second later Mephiles materialized in the middle of the lab, visibly concerned. "What did-"

"Did you know?" Tails asked, pointing at the screens with a shaking hand.

Mephiles, to his credit, managed to put two and two together without wasting time on either elaboration or deflection. "I suspected, but I didn't have proof."

"Then why didn't you say something?"

The question was more pleading than accusing, but Mephiles still flinched. "I didn't - it was obviously possible, considering myself, and some of what I recall - but it doesn't make sense, and I couldn't be sure-"

"But now we barely have any time to do something! How are we supposed to-"

"That's why I'm trying to fix it myself!"

That shut both of them up for a split second before both of them spoke at the same time.

"You are?"

"Wait, I am?"

Mephiles' eyes went wide. He spit out something that would probably have raised some ratings and grabbed a sticky note pad and pen from Tails' desk.

"What's going on?" Tails asked, wincing immediately after at how childish he sounded. Not that Mephiles seemed to notice.

"Not now," he hissed under his breath, more to himself than Tails. "I'm not-" He froze, cursed again, and vanished, the pad and pen falling to the ground with a thud and clatter.

Tails stood frozen for a moment, then managed to take a few steps forward to retrieve and recap the pen before reaching for the pad. He didn't think Mephiles had finished writing it, but what he had written was barely legible, letters shaky and smeared from writing too fast.

He stared at the note for a second, then reached for his com again,  calling someone he could thankfully dial by heart at this point. "Sonic, I need your help."

Silver flew over the streets as fast as he could toward the coordinates Tails shared. The fox had messaged Sonic, Shadow, and himself about Mephiles' sudden departure, though he hadn't said much aside from expressing concern about his state of mind. Silver hadn't pushed for details, though the rapid pinging from his watch indicated that at least one other person probably was. For now, he was probably the closest to where Tails said Mephiles reappeared, and he needed to make sure his friend was okay.

He touched down when he reached the place, checking that nobody was staring at him before beginning to scan the area. His eyes were drawn to a passage between buildings that was just the kind of shadowy space Mephiles seemed to prefer.

Silver entered the alley, giving his eyes a moment to adjust from the bright sunlight outside as he glanced around. He noticed a familiar figure to one side and focused on that. "Meph?"

The figure turned slightly. "Silver? Why are - never mind, just go away!"

Silver did a double take as his vision adjusted. Mephiles was leaning against the wall with one hand clutching at the dusty brick like it was all that held him upright, the other half covering his face but not fully concealing how wide his eyes were. Even his tone was less angry and more - more something else.

"Mephiles, what's wrong?" Silver tried, his voice carefully soft. He took a step forward, trying to keep his movements slow and even, like he knew what he was doing. (He really didn't. Last time he'd been in this particular situation had been on the other end, and under no circumstance was he copying Sonic's solution.)

"None of your concern," Mephiles said through gritted teeth. Impressive considering he had no teeth. "If you could just leave, I will be perfectly fine."

He took another step forward, then a third when Mephiles didn't react. "No way! You look like you're about to collapse. At least let me-"

"I said go away!"

Silver barely registered being yanked backward, eyes still focused on Mephiles as he made a sharp gesture with energy flashing at his fingertips. He stood for several seconds, trying to process what just happened, and why Mephiles was now looking at him like...

He dimly registered the pulsing heat on his face, vaguely aware that it had probably been there the whole time. He raised one hand to touch it, looking down to find his glove stained red, then back up at Mephiles.

Mephiles, whose eyes were wider than before if possible, the hand that had covered his face half dropped so that his expression was fully visible, horrified shock, reptilian pupils, and all. In the next instant he blurred into a shadow and vanished.

"Wait-" Silver reached out, far too late, then looked again at the color on his outstretched hand. He probably could have stared at his own blood for an hour if someone hadn't taken him by the shoulder and turned him around.

Shadow stared intently at his face, nodding after a moment. "Long, but superficial. You're lucky I pulled you out of the way or it could have been much worse."

"We need to find him," Silver said, barely hearing what Shadow said. "We-"

"What we need," Shadow cut in, tone brooking no arguments, "is to get you medical attention before this gets infected. Mephiles can wait."

"But it wasn't his fault! He was-"

"Silver." That one word was spoken with enough force to knock him halfway back to the present. Shadow took a deep breath. "Right now, Mephiles is acting like a cornered animal. He needs to calm down, and you need a bandage. Do you really think going after him looking like this will help him at all?"

What Shadow was saying made sense, but... "I'm scared." The words didn't nearly convey what Silver really meant, but it was the best he had.

Shadow looked at him, then turned away as he dug a chaos emerald out of his quills with one hand and took Silver by the arm with the other. "Don't be."

Chapter Text

Opening his eyes again was almost painful. Of course it was. He wasn't a creature of shadows anymore; he was something between, a strange amalgamation of shadow and organic being. Staying in that form for this long (minutes? hours? days?) seemed to be the most he could do. In the end, all his attempt to dissolve had done was confuse his mind and damage his form.

Escape thwarted, he fell against something – a wall, maybe, not that he could really tell – and curled as small as he could. Maybe he could vanish into the darkness there and cease to exist.

Or maybe another regression would come, and his other self could deal with this. Maybe he still was the other self. He wasn't sure anymore. His mind was too mixed up to distinguish between memories he should have and memories he shouldn't. All he knew was that he was tired, and confused, and everything hurt.

 Time seemed as fluid as everything else, so he wasn't sure how long he'd been attempting to exist when someone approached him. He didn't move to look at them, but he could feel their presence. Silver-gray touched with teal, warm and shining. But why would he come here? Was he angry for the injury done to him?

It seemed he wasn't, as he only hesitated for a moment before settling on the ground, leaning against the dark being's side just enough to convey his presence through touch. But he didn't speak, or do anything else. He only sat there radiating gentle warmth.

Eventually the quiet presence at his side helped the dark being calm his scattered mind into something more organized and controllable. But the exhaustion from pushing his energy too hard finally caught up with him, and he didn't even try to open his eyes as his head dropped onto his friend's shoulder and his senses went blessedly blank.

Mephiles hadn't woken up yet. It wasn't surprising, with how he'd been acting and the fact that (according to Tails' theory) he'd been hiding out as a shadow for the hours he was missing, but it had been a good twelve hours since they recovered him and Silver was almost as twitchy as Sonic. Tails seemed just as jittery as them, and Knuckles (who they'd collectively forgotten was in their regressions group chat) was snapping at every little irritant. Shadow was the only one who retained some semblance of sanity, and Silver finally asked him about it when the dark hedgehog insisted on checking his injury.

"How are you so - ow - so calm about all this?" Silver asked as Shadow pulled the tape off with about as much care as could be expected of him.

Shadow picked up a cloth, a bit gentler as he cleaned the scratches. He murmured something about chaos energy, sounding almost pleased, before responding to Silver's question. "Someone has to be, and none of you are making the effort."

Silver felt a twinge of annoyance at that - how could he be expected to stay calm when this was happening, especially since Tails still wasn't telling any of them what had happened before Mephiles ran off? But he knew by now that it was just Shadow being Shadow, and getting mad wouldn't do anything but frustrate them both. Instead he asked, "Is that why you're the one checking in on me?"

"Well nobody else has the sense to do it." He taped a fresh gauze pad in place and pulled his gloves back on. "It's healing fast, like our injuries usually do, but you'll need to change the pad once a day for at least a week or two until it's safe to uncover. Ask someone for help, you won't get a good angle."

Silver nodded through the explanation, all things he already knew but he let Shadow finish anyway. It was beginning to occur to him that maybe Shadow wasn't as calm and collected as he was trying to seem, and if this helped, it wasn't going to be Silver that made him stop.

Outside, there came a series of rapid thuds, then a shhhp-ing noise that ended with Tails skidding to a halt outside the bathroom door. "He's waking up!"

Silver stood up so fast he bashed his head against Shadow's.

Mephiles stared at the ceiling, in particular the fan. There was something oddly fascinating about the swirling of the fan blades in his current state of mind even as watching the continuous movement made him feel almost ill. Still, he couldn't force his eyes away. It was like hypnosis. The fan had hypnotized him, and now he would be doomed to watch it spin for the rest of his days.

Or at least until an angry shout from outside the room gave him enough of a jolt to resettle his focus.

He turned his head a bit to look at the door, ignoring the room swirling as best he could. The shout was quickly followed by a "Sorry, sorry!" and Silver appearing at the door, looking at him with a mix of relief and almost disbelief. "You're awake," he said, voice soft.

Mephiles couldn't quite hide his wince as Silver moved toward him. He immediately froze, concern and hurt warring in his expression. Mephiles closed his eyes and forced out a single word. "Motion."

"Oh." That single word held a world of relief, but a fair share of worry too.

(Mephiles wondered when he'd gotten so good at reading the others' thoughts from such little things.)

(Maybe when they'd started learning to read him back.)

There was a brushing sound and then a faint scrape as Silver approached and sat in the chair next to Mephiles' bed, clearly trying to be quiet. The care was appreciated, even if he didn't understand why Silver would do anything nice for him right now. Whatever the reason, he could fully recall the events of that pseudo-regression. And on that note.

He cracked an eye open to look at Silver, trying to convey his confusion. The hedgehog blinked. "Are... why am I not mad?"

Mephiles didn't want to risk a nod, but he managed an affirmative noise.

Silver considered the question for a moment. "I am a bit," he finally admitted. "But I'm more mad you did this to yourself again. I know you didn't do it on purpose, and nobody got hurt." He seemed to catch Mephiles' eyes darting to the bandage on his cheek and quickly added, "Nobody got seriously hurt I mean. Besides you." He raised a hand, then laid it back in his lap, lacing his fingers together in an attempt to cover the motion.

Mephiles watched him for another moment, then let his eyes fall shut again. He really had pushed too hard this time, and much as he knew time was limited right now, he'd have to take a bit more before he could do anything about it.

But one thing was sure. If the energy waves were going to become an active problem, it was time to do something about this.

"Alright Tails, it's time you told us what the heck is going on." Knuckles' tone was serious, his narrowed eyes and tense stance indicative of how close he was to unleashing his explosive anger. Honestly, nobody could entirely blame him.

It had been a couple hours since Mephiles first woke up, and he'd slipped in and out of sleep since then, only communicating in monosyllables and refusing any food or drink they offered. While it still made sense that Tails wanted to wait for his input to talk about this, it was increasingly looking like that could take a long while.

Tails still shook his head. "We need to wait for Mephiles."

"Tails is right," Shadow said. "Without his input, we'll have an incomplete version of events and likely jump to conclusions."

Knuckles bristled. "Whatever it is got Silver hurt! I don't think jumping to conclusions is our only problem here!"

Sonic, who'd been uncharacteristically quiet for most of the conversation, finally put his two cents in. "Chill, Knuckles. I thought you and Mephiles were finally getting along in some weird mutual toleration way."

There was a beat of silence before Knuckles replied. "He's not that bad, I guess. But that has nothing to do with this. Someone almost got seriously hurt, and I am damn well going to do something so it doesn't happen again no matter whose fault it was."

Sonic and Tails looked surprised by that, while Shadow looked of all things faintly smug. Silver continued keeping his thoughts to himself in case they needed a neutral party. Which was probably why he was the only one to notice the faint creaking overhead.

He glanced around, seeing everyone else was engrossed in the discussion, and slipped away up the stairs.

Mephiles was awake again, now sitting up on the edge of the bed. He looked up when Silver entered. "Silver. I assume the others are busy?"

Silver was delighted to hear a full sentence out of him, but tried to contain his excitement as he settled in the chair at Mephiles' bedside. "Yeah, they're arguing. Tails didn't want to talk about whatever happened until you were really awake to help."

Something flashed in Mephiles' eyes. "He should have... but I guess it doesn't matter now. Tell him it's fine, and he should explain without me."

Silver blinked. "But you're awake now, couldn't you just..." His voice trailed off as he noticed the look in Mephiles' eyes. "You're not going to tell them, are you."

Mephiles turned away, not before Silver caught the flicker of regret in his eyes. "I can't. I need to..." He trailed off, then looked back up at Silver. "I wasn't able to say it properly before, but I apologize for injuring you. I never-"

"It's okay, I forgive you," Silver quickly cut in. "I told you I'm not mad and I meant it. It's nothing serious, and besides, you were in weird head space right? It's at least partly on me for pushing you."

Something about Mephiles' expression went determined, but in a way that made Silver concerned more than anything. "I'm not going to blame this on the regressions. Do you realize I'm the same person whether I'm regressed or not?"

Silver shrugged. "I mean, yeah. Every time I've seen you regressed for the last... week, maybe? I don't think I saw you regressed as much before that. Anyway, you didn't act that much different from when you're not anymore. I meant how weird you were acting generally, not the regressions."

Mephiles looked startled. "You noticed? But, I thought..."

"I mean I wasn't going to say anything if you weren't. I assumed you had a reason for not bringing it up."

"Obviously," he said, too quietly to be as scathing as it might have been. "Though... it seems somewhat ridiculous now."

"Sometimes reasons are like that. Though I did want to ask." Mephiles tensed slightly, but Silver continued as if he hadn't noticed. "You're a lot more... driven, when you're regressed. I don't think I ever saw you not training. Or something like training anyway. What's up with that?"

Mephiles relaxed again. "That's simple enough. Tell me, what's the main difference between me in this state and when regressed?"

"Um, you don't have all your memories like this?"

"Yes, but more than that... you know I don't like to act without careful thought. During regressions, I have all my memories, and thus all the details needed to form a fuller picture. On top of having had more time with those memories to consider their impact." He took a breath before finishing. "So I'm willing to take action. And we don't have a lot of time to waste at this point."

"Time before what?"

Mephiles shook his head. "Ask Tails. He knows as much as me in this state, and I have other ways I need to spend this time. I need to..." He trailed off partway, head tilting as his eyes focused on something far beyond the room. "I need to..."

Suddenly things clicked for Silver. He still wasn't sure exactly what Mephiles was planning, but he understood just enough to guess what he would do next, and knew Mephiles well enough to know there wasn't any point arguing with him. "Can I still message you?"

Mephiles jerked out of his reverie, staring at Silver like he'd forgotten he wasn't alone. The look faded quickly, and he nodded. "Of course. As long as you don't try to follow me, or find out where I went. We... I... can't afford interruptions."

Silver nodded, standing up and turning to leave, but pausing at the door. "Stay safe, okay? We're here if there's anything we can do to help." Mephiles didn't respond, so he continued downstairs, where the conversation continued much as when he'd left. Though now Knuckles seemed to be raging at Shadow, Tails had disappeared, and Sonic looked somewhere between endlessly entertained and seriously ticked off. Silver settled in to watch, ready to step in if things took a turn for the violent.

By the time he checked the upstairs again, Mephiles was already gone.

It took some convincing before Knuckles agreed to respect Mephiles' request for privacy. That being said, he fought them on it far less than anyone expected, which was such a welcome relief that nobody questioned it too deeply (though Shadow shot him a few skeptical looks when nobody was watching). But that left them with the other part of his request, for Tails to relay his new information. Which turned out to have gotten more complicated while Silver was upstairs.

"So you're telling me Shadow already knows what Tails found," Silver deadpanned.

"I can't be sure," Shadow said with tightly restrained patience, "but I've had suspicions since I gave him this data. Telling anyone wouldn't have done anything but scare people, which is the last thing we need in a potential crisis."

Knuckles pounded a fist on the table, bouncing it off the ground a good couple inches. "Well quit stalling! We have confirmation now, so what's happening?"

Tails had been tapping at a handheld and ignoring the conversation, but looked up at that. "Iblis still exists. Whatever kept Mephiles from being erased seems to have saved it too. It's the source of those weird energy waves, and from how frequent and strong they've been getting, I think it's about to break free of whatever's keeping it contained."

There was a brief but profound silence as everyone processed the new information, excluding Shadow who just looked pained.

Sonic was the first to find words that summed up the situation. "Well shoot."

Chapter Text

Mephiles narrowed his eyes, watching the goings-on below him. Did those idiots actually think they were accomplishing anything with their experiments? Though, to be fair, they'd lasted longer than last time. He looked up from them to the room's centerpiece, what looked to be a simple glass tube. He wasn't a scientist, had only the barest idea what went into making and reinforcing the thing, but it must have been well done to hold up as well as it had.

He huffed quietly and leaned back against the wall. The ledge he sat on was recessed a bit and just out of sight of the windows circling the room, just in case. Not that anyone would be back there. Even with the lab continuing to function somewhat in this timeline, it was really only this one project that persisted. Mostly because all but a few of the workers had left, the shadows of memory haunting them until they couldn't stand to be here.

Well that was one thing they could all agree on. Mephiles didn't particularly want to be here either. But unlike those who fled, he chose to stay despite the memories. This was the only way to settle things with and within himself.

He shifted as the feeling of an approaching wave came over him, the scientists on the ground calling to each other over the sounds of their sensors going crazy. The regression didn't even knock him out fully this time, though for the next several moments it might as well have, senses going blank but for the feeling of the world churning and swirling but only inside, tearing something apart and stitching it back together-

When he regained his senses, he was curled in a small, spiky ball, eyes shut tight. He forced them open but didn't try to uncurl as he fought back the last of the nausea. Being conscious through that was not worth it, he concluded, as his mind settled into its new state. Though the fact that he had maintained a train of thought likely meant he'd regressed again, not the other way round. Checking the state of the energy around him would confirm it, but he'd do that in a minute. Probably.

His watch beeped, and he risked moving a bit to see who was messaging him this time. Most of the group had messaged him over the last day, including those who weren't in on the regressions before. The rest had probably decided everyone needed to know the situation in light of new developments. Or maybe they hadn't mentioned the regressions at all, and the other parts on its own had been enough to make them worry.

He mostly ignored those messages. As long as none of them came looking for him, he had more important things to focus on.

This time the message was from Silver, so he opened it and examined the contents.

Made some of your favorites for dinner, can leave some leftovers in your room.

...

Well food was certainly a thing he forgot existed for the last however long he'd been here and he should probably take the chance to get some.

He sent an affirmative response and resettled into a more comfortable position. He'd do a retrieval when he had a spare moment. For now, all there was to do was wait.

Shadow and Sonic were curled up on the couch, the TV playing some cartoon that neither of them was really watching. They were both too stressed to care about much at the moment. That was how they'd ended up in that position in the first place.

Shadow had been sitting and reading, though he hadn't flipped a page in several minutes, when Sonic came up and flopped gracelessly against his side in an exhausted heap. Shadow didn't even give him a token glare, just adjusted his position so Sonic's chin wasn't digging into his arm and grabbed the remote with his free hand, book set aside for a moment in favor of turning on some mindless television. Sonic simply sagged further against him so he was half laying in Shadow's lap.

They remained that way for several minutes and were on the verge of falling asleep when Silver came downstairs. He noted the pair dozing on the couch and headed for the kitchen as quietly as possible. He knew their coping mechanisms. Best let them rest after whatever stupid thing they'd worn themselves out doing this time. Shadow looked up briefly at the sound of cupboards and pans being opened and moved, but relaxed when Silver shot him a quick smile and returned to staring blankly at the screen.

By the time Silver finished the hot chocolate, Sonic was asleep, and Shadow had slipped back into a light doze. He woke up a bit when Silver set the mugs on the coffee table in front of them. Silver gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."

"It's fine," he said, holding his free hand out. Silver passed him a mug, and he sipped at the warm drink as his attention turned inward once more.

Silver smiled, but it dimmed slightly as he looked to his other side. The empty space beside him reminded him that there was someone missing.

A light touch on his shoulder tore his attention from the dark thoughts that threatened to consume him again. He looked over to see red eyes watching him.

He shook his head and forced a smile, trying for reassuring, but Shadow's eyes narrowed in response. He took a firmer hold of Silver's shoulder and pulled him closer, finding no resistance as Silver willingly joined them.

Tails scanned the screen of his computer, typing in a few new values before turning to peer through a nearby lens and maneuver the minuscule parts beneath it. "Don't you have an emerald to watch or something?" he asked without looking up.

Knuckles straightened, cheek still resting on his fist but more alert. He relaxed again when Tails' words sank in. "It's handled. Figured I'm more needed here."

A part of Tails wanted to bristle at the implication that he needed someone staying with him, but he resisted. It was no different from being shaken up when a bad fight landed someone in the hospital for more than a checkup. At least, no different besides the fact that Mephiles wasn't injured, just... absent.

Somehow that was almost worse. At least injured was predictable. They didn't even know how long Mephiles planned to be gone.

The tools in his hands were still. They had been for several seconds.

"He'll be fine," Tails said, though he wasn't quite sure who he was saying it to.

Knuckles snorted, shifting to lean back in his chair with his arms crossed. "Course he will be. Bastard's tough. Slippery too. Bet he's worse than Sonic."

The fox peered over his shoulder, more than happy to take the distraction. "You think about it a lot?"

"Some. Enough to figure it'd be a waste of my time sparring."

"It's a good thing he's not as eager with the challenges as Sonic," Tails said without malice.

Knuckles snorted, and Tails smiled. The smile faded as he looked back at the work he was supposed to be doing.

"Yeah," he said softly. "He'll be fine."

Silver stared at the screen, eyes unfocused for a long moment before he cleared his head with a quick shake. It wasn't like today was different from yesterday, or the day before. Check with Tails for updates, make sure the others were eating and getting their scrapes treated, let Shadow fuss about his own scrape, and send the occasional message to Mephiles.

They didn't mean much, really. They were mostly little nothings, random thoughts he'd had, things he probably wouldn't even bother saying under normal circumstances. But the responses assured him that wherever he was, whatever he was doing, Mephiles was still okay. At least okay enough to message back.

Still, it took him another few minutes of hesitating before he managed to send his message.

S: I miss you.

He waited a few minutes, finally heaving a heavy sigh as he concluded Mephiles was done responding for the moment. Maybe there would be a message waiting when he checked back later.

The light ping of a new message stopped him. He jabbed the button to open it faster than was probably good for the machine, but he didn't much care, especially when he saw the message.

M: Tomorrow

Mephiles woke in a cold sweat, eyes snapping open to stare at the other side of his nook. At once his gaze darted to the gently pulsing orb in the center of the room. After a moment of staring, he huffed and turned away again, eyes glinting with something between frustration and disappointment.

He didn't bother standing before melting into the shadows. It was time he explained things to the others. Though he had one brief stop to make before heading back to the lab.

Moments after he'd vanished, the gentle pulsing began to change, the beats quicker but more spread out, each brighter than the last. The scientists running around on the ground began to panic and question each other about the strange occurrence. Not that it would do them any good when Iblis finally broke free...

Chapter Text

A knock on the lab door had almost everyone jumping to answer it. To nobody's surprise, Sonic managed to reach it first despite not being closest. His whole being seemed to brighten when he saw who was on the other side. "Meph!" he cried, grabbing the startled being in a tight hug. "Chaos it's good to see you buddy."

"Er... you too?" Mephiles awkwardly patted his shoulder and pulled free to stare at him. "It's been less than three days, though. No need to get excited."

"You did kind of vanish into the unknown without a proper goodbye," Silver said, smile already more relaxed than it had been five minutes ago.

Mephiles made a vague sound, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"So are the regressions over with?" Knuckles asked.

Mephiles turned to him, something in his expression drawing back a bit. "In a sense. I'll still have the same physical responses to the energy waves, like my eyes changing, but my memories will remain constant."

Knuckles frowned. "Doesn't that mean you're always regressed?"

"If you want to think of it that way."

Knuckles narrowed his eyes, preparing to stare Mephiles down, but the other turned away before they could get into a proper staring match. "By the way, I figure I should get this out of the way since I know none of you are going to like it."

He pulled out a small device vaguely like a thick CD case and tossed it to Tails, who half fumbled the catch before examining it. His head whipped up toward Mephiles. "This is-"

Mephiles shrugged and folded his hands neatly behind his back in an almost casual motion. "Press the button or don't, you would know better than me if the device itself is a trap. But I recommend deciding soon."

Everyone else exchanged a look as Tails studied the device, pulling out what looked like a high tech monocle to examine it before setting the device on the table. "Knuckles, if I tell you to, smash that thing fast and don't worry about the table."

"What's going on?" Knuckles asked as he moved to the other side of the table.

"Not many people design tech with these materials or components," Tails explained. "I've seen it repurposed by other people, but the only one I know who makes these things from scratch is Eggman." Before anyone could react, he pressed the button and took a large step back.

A foot-high hologram of Eggman appeared above the device. "Ah, good morning my fine pesky nemeses! I assume you've already noticed that this projector contains no tricks or traps, but I'll assume for the moment that you don't trust that. It's understandable. I wouldn't trust such a diabolical mind either, ohohoho!"

"Eggman," Knuckles gritted, leaning heavily on the table. "What do you want?"

The miniature Eggman spun around and waggled a finger at him. "All in good time, my fine furious friend." He ignored the various choking sounds (and hissed "wait was that supposed to be a pun" from Sonic's corner of the room) and spun again to face Mephiles. "Well, then? Are we all on the same side here?" There was an odd note to that question that made everyone else quiet and turn to face Mephiles.

Mephiles, of course, seemed utterly unfazed by the attention and simply rolled his eyes. "For the final time, yes. Not the same page, though, so you really should start talking."

"You can't blame me for checking, considering your history."

Mephiles scoffed and began to say something, but was cut off by a full body shudder. He squeezed his eyes shut, shoulders hunching, one eye opening long enough for the slit pupil to be visible before snapping shut as another shudder wracked his frame.

The whole thing lasted maybe two or three seconds, but the way Mephiles slumped when it ended made it seem like it had been much longer. He took a slow, shuddering breath and opened his eyes, once again with round pupils, visibly forcing his head up. "That," he said, almost to himself, "really was much easier to handle unconscious." He noticed everyone staring at him and narrowed his eyes. "Don't ask. We don't have time to spare for unimportant explanations."

"Indeed," Eggman said, though he sounded almost unsettled. His voice was back to normal with the next words he spoke. "Now then, I assume you already know Iblis is still in this reality and about to break free, correct?"

"Yeah, we caught that," Sonic said in an almost casual drawl. "Got anything we don't?"

"Patience! I have to be sure I don't skip anything. I do like this planet not covered in flames you know." The hologram clapped. "Now, at this moment, the creature is contained by a mediocre bit of tech built by some lab workers cleverly combined with my own brilliant shielding technology. This should hold it back long enough to explain the solution we've come up with, even with as complex as any plan created by such a-"

"It's bees."

Everyone blinked at Mephiles, except for Eggman who scowled. "I was going to explain that in a much better and more logical way."

Mephiles uncrossed his arms and started forward, taking a step toward the table with each word. "We. Don't. Have. Time!!!" He slammed his hands on the table, rocking the device a bit. "We can't afford to fool around, you-"

"Why are you so worried about running out of time?" Sonic cut in. "I thought you could time travel."

Mephiles suddenly seemed very focused on the table. "That's correct."

There was a beat of silence before Sonic spoke again. "So...?"

"Past tense," Tails said, barely loud enough for everyone to hear.

Mephiles' silence spoke for itself.

Eggman made a hrmphing noise. "I thought as much. Whatever those fools used to contain Iblis this time must have separated Mephiles' consciousness from the main mass, but only enough energy for him to continue living. Thus his powers have been greatly reduced, and his form this time is partially organic in an instinctual attempt to conserve energy."

Mephiles shuddered again, eyes squeezing shut for a few seconds before opening, back to slit pupils. It didn't make his expression any easier to read. His voice was equally inscrutable, but the flatness itself was telling. "As interesting as analyzing those scans you took is - don't think I didn't notice, you aren't as subtle as you think - we need to stay on topic. Let me summarize my part in events: a few weeks back, I went to Eggman with an offer of information, for reasons I'll leave out until we have time. I worked with him to sneak some of his tech into Iblis' current container, which is most likely the only reason said container is still working. Then, a few days ago, I..." His eyes flickered to Silver, then fell to the table. "I realized that the way I was handling regressions was too much of a risk and left to recover my memories fully."

"How did you do that?" Tails asked, scientist's curiosity overwhelming his sense of urgency for a moment.

Mephiles released a sigh, eyes falling closed. They were round again when he opened them to look at Tails. "I went to the place where Iblis is being kept for more direct exposure to the energy waves."

Amidst everyone's clamoring responses, Eggman tapped his chin with one hand. "Effective. A bit brute force, but effective. And a fine summary too. But you left out one critical point."

Mephiles made a sound that, while inarguably angry, couldn't really be described with any other term. "Are you really choosing now to push this?"

"Well we'll hardly have another chance, and I like to know these things about my allies. So." He steepled his fingers, paying no attention to the others watching them from around the room. "Why exactly are you, a being who once swore to destroy all of time and space, attempting to seal away the being that is both your ticket to doing so and the other half of your complete form?"

The room was blanketed in the silence of four people holding their breath in unison.

Mephiles hardly seemed to notice, narrowed eyes still fixed on the hologram. "I answered that question, if you recall."

"You said you don't know. That's hardly an answer, especially when we all know that's not true. You aren't the sort to act without careful consideration, correct?"

Mephiles gripped the edge of the table so hard the wood creaked. "True, but that doesn't mean what you seem to think. Maybe this is the one exception, and I felt like a change. Maybe I really don't know. Or maybe I do know in part, maybe I realized that I don't want to destroy everything anymore, and maybe what I don't know is why the hell not!"

Even Eggman seemed taken aback now. Everyone fell silent and still as Mephiles took several heaving breaths. Everyone but Silver, that is, who took a half step forward, keeping well out of Mephiles' blind spot. "Meph..."

Mephiles looked up for a moment, then back down at the table. "Or maybe I do know," he said, much quieter than before. "Maybe what I don't know is why it happened."

The silence this time only lasted moments before multiple things happened at once. The projector's speakers began projecting a cacophony of distant beeping, Eggman turned to face something they couldn't see with a yell of "What's that? There should be more time!", and Mephiles collapsed face first onto the table.

Silver and Sonic both moved to help, but Shadow grabbed Sonic by the arm and Mephiles popped back up before Silver could get close. He turned to Silver for a moment, eyes wild and reptilian once more, before facing the holographic Eggman. "Time's up. Get things ready as fast as you can, I'll stall ." And he vanished before anyone else could get a word in.

Eggman was still busy yelling at something off camera, so Silver took the last step to the table and slammed a hand down to get his attention. "Hey! If we're out of time, stop wasting it!" He paused. "That sounded better in my head."

At least it startled Eggman out of his fit. He shook himself and straightened. "Right then. You, fox and echidna, we need someone who can assist a drone in moving a large fragile object. The rest of you should go assist Mephiles as quickly as-"

"Wait one second!" Knuckles snapped. "That's all well and good, but we need details. Move what? Why? And where even is Mephiles?"

Eggman blinked. "I thought that much was obvious. He went to the Aquatic Base."

Mephiles appeared just inside the doors of the base. Ideally he would have teleported deeper to start with but...

Broken glass, screaming, dark dark dark-

He shoved the memories back to the depths of his mind where they belonged before the flashback could get a proper hold on him. No, teleporting right to the heart of things would not be the best plan with Iblis newly broken free and his memories only mostly settled.

Instead, he took stock of his surroundings, noting that a couple of familiar fiery creatures had already wandered out in this direction and quickly slipping through a nearby doorway before one of them sensed him.

Already the lab was a total mess, though it was unclear how much of the damage came from the creatures and how much was from the tremor that rattled the building immediately after the container broke. Fine cracks lined the building's decorative features, ash covered those that were spared, and what little furniture there had been was now either upended, destroyed, or both.

Though if he remembered right, the bottomless pit was there before. He wasn't going to pretend he understood Soleannan architects.

He pulled out a small device and pressed a button, examining the holographic map that appeared for a moment before tucking it away again. He'd studied the map until it was burned into his eyelids already but it never hurt to check. There was a reason he'd requested a portable version.

Now then, enough stalling. It's time to do this.

Chapter Text

Alright. Before anything else, check senses.

Sight: eyes still closed, never mind.

Sound: low roaring, a mix of machinery churning and creatures making various noises.

Smell: hot metal and ash.

Taste: oh ew no moving on

Touch: ow.

Mephiles groaned and kicked a loose bit of rubble, finally forcing his eyes open only to see darkness. The damn ceiling collapsed just as he passed under it. Fortunately nothing seemed broken, because he didn't want to find out how fast (or slow) a fracture would heal in his current form.

Instead of forcing his way through the debris, he merged with the shadows just long enough to escape and reemerge outside the pile of concrete and steel. The few creatures in the hall had apparently lost interest in him during his momentary disappearance, so he stepped sideways into what shadows the wall provided before moving forward.

The one nearby flying beast didn't have time to squawk before a kick to the head knocked it into the wall. The other creatures in the room finally noticed him, but he ignored them in favor of dashing toward the door. A worm popped up directly in front of him and roared.

He barely slowed as he bent his knees and pushed, his leap carrying him onto the creature's head. He immediately jumped again, repeating the maneuver twice more on a couple of nearby fliers and landing on a platform just above the next door. With one last glance at the creatures, he swung through the doorway and perched atop the frame.

The chamber was his original destination, but it was immediately obvious that Iblis had already vacated the premises. He looked around, careful only to focus on anything that didn't feel familiar. No broken glass, no blood, no - actually that injured-but-not-dead scientist there was worth noting, though he wouldn't be if that lizard reached him.

The idiot didn't even look up from his keyboard when his attempted assassin was blasted away. Much as Mephiles gave him some credit for dedication, he needed directions.

At least the scientist couldn't miss being yanked round by his coat. "Huh, wha- wait, you?"

Mephiles' expression darkened. "I should be the one saying that," he said to the duke of Soleanna. He shook his head quickly. "Never mind, I'll deal with you later. Where did Iblis go?"

He raised a shaky hand to point. "That way, but you won't-"

"Everything has been accounted for. The seal will work this time."

The duke had been half leaning on the cracked console, but at this point finally slid to the floor. "You- how- we tried everything, what-"

"Everything except thinking outside the box," Mephiles replied, unimpressed. "Then again, you never were particularly good at that, were you? Never even noticed the additions to your equipment, much less thinking of..." He glanced up as the room trembled, then back at the human in front of him. "I'm going to go fix your mistakes now. Don't die before I get back - I have a lot to say to you in particular."

He turned and ran off without a backwards glance.

Mephiles dashed to the end of the platform, triangle jumped off the wall, and used a pair of conveniently positioned fliers to make it the rest of the way to a small post. "This is a lot more fun to watch than do," he muttered, scowling at the bottomless pit below him. The pit didn't respond.

Something smacked him in the back, knocking his breath away and almost throwing him off the platform. He turned to scowl at one of the fliers he'd used as a bridge, now floating much closer and readying another projectile. "That. Hurt."

One ball of energy later, the bird-like creature was reduced to ash.

Mephiles dusted his hands off and looked toward the other end of the room. One of the nice things about Iblis was that it was easy to track indoors. Just keep heading forward, and change directions if it stops getting hotter. With how hot it was now, he had to be getting close, and the occasional fire that had yet to go out was a good indicator as well. Iblis couldn't be more than a couple rooms away.

But before he could think about that, he needed to get the rest of the way across this room.

A moment of calculation and an annoyed huff later, Mephiles resigned himself to risking the barely visible platform around the corner and returned to his shadow form to reach it. Which of course had him landing right next to a lizard.

The creature's mouth opened, energy already building, but before it could finish the maneuver rapid gunshots rang out and it collapsed into the pit. Mephiles winced, as much at the lack of an impact sound as at the shooting, and turned to the Eggman robot standing just past the door. "So are you an ally or was that a fortunate coincidence?"

It reloaded and aimed at him.

Mephiles sighed. "Bad planning. Honestly."

The robot followed the lizard into the pit.

Dusting his hands off, Mephiles entered the next room. It was one of the large circular ones, with this door and one other on the upper level. Which was fortunate because the ground was on fire.

Iblis was definitely nearby, he thought, peering over the edge. It hadn't recovered enough to really start rebuilding its fiery wasteland, but it had done a pretty good job in here. This was going to be tricky.

He took a breath and stepped to the edge of his platform. He bent his knees briefly, readying himself before springing up into the air, grabbing onto a jutting pipe, and using his momentum to swing around and land on the next platform.

The concrete promptly gave way, and he made a startled noise as his footing vanished. He grabbed at the platform as he slipped, but it crumbled in his hand and there aren't enough shadows this close to fire-

He stopped falling, something wrapping around his arm and holding him steady. That gave him the time he needed to grab a new handhold - steel reinforcement this time, thank chaos - and kick one foot up high enough to get some friction, then shove himself up onto the platform proper with the help of an upward yank.

Back on solid ground, he took a few deep breaths and turned to his rescuer. "Not that I don't appreciate it, but why are you here?"

Silver grinned. "We weren't going to leave you to do this all yourself."

Sonic, ever the drama hog, chose that moment to bounce on a nearby flier and homing attack over to them. "Took a while to reach you though. You move fast for someone so slow."

Mephiles rolled his eyes and climbed to his feet. "I'll take that as a compliment. Where are the others? And how are you here, for that matter?"

"Shadow dropped us in the big room, and we followed the trail of damaged creatures while he went back to help Knuckles and Tails move the... uh..." Sonic made a face. "Okay, gonna be honest here, I can't take this plan seriously. And this is me we're talking about. Is this really going to work?"

"It better," Mephiles said, looking out at the room. "Or we're back to Silver's old future."

There was a beat of silence as they all stared at the flames. While the fires on the way had seemed to fade with every passing moment, these almost seemed to grow.

"We need to go," Silver said. Nobody argued.

Sonic used his homing attack to cross the second gap, while Silver lifted himself and Mephiles across. The hedgehogs stopped to spare a glance at Mephiles when they landed, but he was already walking through the door. They looked at each other and hurried after.

Iblis hovered in the center of the chamber, a brilliant ball of flame that gave the impression of looking down on them even without eyes. It burned brighter than any of them had seen before in any time. More important, there wasn't any particularly obvious way to reach it, or any indicator of what to do if they managed.

Sonic looked at Silver. "So, stalling. Any ideas?"

Silver shrugged. They both looked at Mephiles once more.

Mephiles barely seemed aware they were there, his eyes for the flames alone. "Yes. And, no. It's..." He trailed off and heaved a sigh. "It's different now."

The others exchanged another look, this one more confused. Sonic moved up beside Mephiles, tilting his head like he thought looking from his position would let him see something different. "Are you two... talking?"

Mephiles spared a moment to glare at him. Sonic held his hands up while backing up a step, and Mephiles turned back to Iblis. He was silent for a moment before tilting his head just so. "What? I... You think that..." He shook his head. "No, that hasn't changed." Another pause. "But that might have," he added, slow, almost begrudging.

"What's going on?" Silver asked, voice coming out softer than he'd planned.

Mephiles continued to keep his eyes forward. Iblis almost seemed calm, for a giant ball of fire. "We're two halves of one being. It shouldn't be surprising that we can communicate."

"Not exactly what I meant."

He didn't respond this time. At least, not to Silver. "It's not the same, it can't be. It's a physical impossibility. But different isn't always bad, is it?" There was a pause, then a frustrated huff. "You aren't capable of deliberately misunderstanding me so why do you keep saying that?!"

There was a longer pause this time. After several seconds, Mephiles turned slowly to look over his shoulder at Silver and Sonic, then down at his shoes. "I'm sorry."

For a moment it wasn't clear who Mephiles was talking to - Silver and Sonic, Iblis, or himself. In the next moment Mephiles spun to face them, eyes wide. "Beh-"

He cut himself off at a thud. The pair looked back to see a collapsed golem turning to ash, revealing Shadow with fire still dancing across his fingertips. "You really should pay better attention to your surroundings," he said, extinguishing the last traces of energy and striding forward. "The others should be here soon. What's your status?"

Silver looked at Mephiles, who was now facing Iblis and hissing something inaudible. "Iblis is talking to Mephiles, I think? But I'm not sure what it's saying, especially after... that." It had seemed like an almost calm conversation up until they'd been attacked.

"Come back to the dark side, we have cookies," Sonic muttered, followed by a quiet "ow" when Silver elbowed him. Hard.

Looking around now, there were more creatures scattered around the room than just the wannabe assassin, previously concealed behind posts or laying flat against platforms. Sonic cracked his knuckles and grinned. "Well, I may not know what's going on, but I know a fight when I see one. I'll keep them distracted." He took off like a shot, running up the wall to reach the nearest platform.

Mephiles turned very slightly as he passed. He waved a hand, and a half dozen shadowy figures formed around them. "Go help him," he instructed, and the shades took off, most in the general direction Sonic had gone, a few the opposite.

Silver blinked, then shook his head. "Since when could - never mind. Why didn't you do that earlier?"

"It takes a lot of energy. A bit wasteful as I am currently, but..." His voice took on an odd note, different from how he'd spoken before. "We don't have time."

Someone took his hand and pressed something into it. He turned to stare at Shadow, who simply folded his fingers more securely around the chaos emerald and pulled away. "See if you can regain some energy from this. I shouldn't need it for something like this." He turned and took off in the opposite direction from Sonic.

Mephiles stared after him, then down at the gem in his hand, then over at Silver. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Silver looked far too amused by the situation. "Try to get energy from it? What else?"

He looked down at the gem again. "That's not what I meant exactly."

Silver rested a hand on his shoulder, offering him a half smile. "We trust you, remember?"

His gaze shifted once more, now back to Iblis. "You really shouldn't."

Silver was silent for a half second. Then - "You know, I think we already had this argument."

"We did." He shook his head before refocusing. "And I stand by what I said. But we don't have time to argue about this. It's only a matter of time before Iblis creates a more complete form or melts its way out of this base, and even if they destroy the creatures it's not hard to make more."

Silver made an agreeing noise. "Sure, but we can keep their numbers down until the others get here, and maybe provide a distraction. What were you planning to do as a stall?"

"Talk to it, actually. Which would have gone better if you all hadn't been here." He paused, then added, "That's not entirely a bad thing."

A sort of crunching noise caught their attention, and they turned back to see Knuckles dashing across the last platform with a metal crate held over his head and Tails flying after. "Still don't get why Shadow couldn't have taken us in too," Knuckles grumbled, setting the crate down with surprising care for him. It buzzed angrily, but nobody paid much attention.

"Because of the chaos residue," Tails said with the air of someone who had already said this several times. "The extra energy would subvert-"

"Alright, it's important, I get it!" Knuckles threw up his hands, barely missing the box. He gave it a worried look, then crossed his arms firmly. "So who's doing this? Whatever it is, I'm just the delivery guy."

Mephiles' eyes darted away briefly, but his voice was even when he spoke. "I suppose that's me, since nobody else had a chance to examine the ritual, much less practice."

The sound of distant fighting and fire crackling prevented it from being silent, but for a moment it didn't feel like it.

Knuckles uncrossed his arms and reached behind his back. "Alright, you'll be needing this." He pulled out a chaos emerald and held it out to Mephiles. "Shadow gave you his?" Mephiles nodded, reaching out to take the emerald with no hesitance, but no words either. "You take care of this, I'll be out there." Then he, too, ran into the massive room.

Mephiles watched him go, then turned to Tails. "Are you going to run off into this pointless fight too?"

Tails looked at him for a moment, head tilted just so, then shook it in the negative. "I think being support here is more important right now than helping them fight stuff." He exchanged a look with Silver that Mephiles didn't get to dissect before the fox continued. "Besides, none of the creatures are coming over here really."

Silver looked up at a few fliers that were hovering in their general vicinity but not doing anything else. "Now that you mention it, why aren't they attacking?"

"Same reason I killed so few of them," he said.

He felt more than saw Silver's eyes return to him, too busy watching Iblis again, but he heard the telekinetic's words just fine. "Should I do it instead?"

"No," he said without looking away. "Like I said, I'm the only one who studied the plans."

There was a pause, and he knew Silver heard what he said just fine despite the parts left unspoken. Regardless, Silver took a step forward and placed a hand on his shoulder for a brief moment before retracting it and going still, a silent presence at his side.

Mephiles took a deep breath, resisting the urge to close his eyes as he did so, and held the emeralds out. "Pray we planned this right," he said simply, before focusing on the seal.

Not once did his eyes leave Iblis.

Knuckles punched a lizard creature and spun to see Sonic bounce off a bird, only to land directly in front of a golem - facing away. "Look out!"

Sonic jerked an spun around, ready to dodge the thing's attack - he wouldn't escape it but he could keep it from more than clipping his arm - when the beast suddenly roared and collapsed, the shade previously hidden by its bulk hopping away before it could get smashed by the falling rocks.

Knuckles stared. "What the-"

"I think they're Meph's," Sonic said, checking for any other nearby hostiles as he approached Knuckles. "One of 'em helped me earlier too, and they sure look like something he'd make. And thanks for the save, even if that guy made it useless."

Knuckles eyed him, then rolled his eyes and bumped the offered fist. "I'll take what I can get."

"And thanks to you too!" Sonic said, extending a hand to the shade as well. "That hit would have hurt."

The shade seemed to look at them, but otherwise didn't move.

Sonic scoffed and lowered his hand. "Fine, leave me hanging. So where's the next-"

A bright glow bursting from the entrance interrupted him. Slowly, he and Knuckles turned to face it, a grin crossing Sonic's face as he recognized the sight. "Looks like they've got things figured out."

"They'd better," Knuckles muttered, though he didn't sound as annoyed as he might have.

Across the room, Shadow likewise finished up his opponents and gave the shades a cursory glance before turning his attention to the entrance platform. His eyes narrowed as he watched, preparing himself for whatever came next.

Mephiles watched Iblis with careful intensity, fixing the flame's image in his mind as he traced the mental pathways of the sealing. He'd studied the plan carefully enough to follow the steps in his sleep. Nothing was left but to carry it out, and he poured all his energy into manipulating Iblis' down the required path.

As he worked, a series of images flashed through his mind, thoughts that weren't his but close enough to blur at the edges, memories, symbolism, vague shreds of meaning that still meant all too much -

For the slightest moment, his resolve flickered. And Iblis roared.

Chapter Text

Silver barely had time to see a brilliant flash before something grabbed him and yanked him through what felt like a world of nothing and everything at once. Except that he was part of it, part of the nothing and part of the everything, everything was nothing-

Then it was over, and he stumbled as his feet hit solid ground. A solid grip on his upper arm kept him from falling over despite the rush of wooziness. He glanced back to give Shadow a grateful look before giving his surroundings a once over.

They were in a forest, one that seemed vaguely familiar, with no sign of people or buildings in any direction, excluding the crate that had come with them. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were scattered nearby in various states of uprightness. Shadow, somehow, looked perfectly fine. Mephiles...

Mephiles was laying on his stomach, forehead pressed to the dirt and eyes squeezed shut. Silver knelt at his side, and Mephiles cracked one eye to peer up at him. "I won't be trying that again for a bit, just so you're aware."

"I'll bet. What even happened?"

Mephiles did a corner roll move that left him sitting cross legged in the grass. He looked down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them as if to get a feel for something unfamiliar. "The seal... didn't go as planned. I wasn't sure what would happen if we stayed in that room, so I grabbed everyone and dragged you through the shadows. Not the best time to try something like that for the first time, but it seemed rather necessary."

Silver looked at him, something careful in his eyes. Almost distant, or so it felt to Mephiles. "Well we're out anyway. So what do-"

"You should do the seal."

Silver blinked. "I what." Then he shook his head and frowned at Mephiles. "Wait, but you said-"

"The hive should be fine," Mephiles continued, as if Silver hadn't spoken. "It's not quite an inanimate object, but the shadows didn't leave residue when I transported it out here in the first place, so it shouldn't be an issue now. I can send it wherever works best, and you can handle the rest yourselves."

Silver started to say something, but paused when Shadow stepped forward to kneel in front of Mephiles. The dark being finally looked up, their eyes meeting for a long moment before he looked back at the ground. "You knew this would happen, didn't you."

Shadow paused briefly before speaking, voice quiet if not gentle. "I could predict your feelings on the matter, but that doesn't mean I knew how that would affect the outcome."

Mephiles continued to stare at the ground in silence.

The others appeared to have finally righted themselves and came over to join the conversation. "Thanks for the save," Sonic said to Meph. "But, uh, what happened? And are you okay?"

"The seal failed." He ignored the other question and rolled to his feet, turning to point off into the distance. "You shouldn't waste time here. Iblis is doubtless already on its way to the city, assuming it's not already there. I can call the others to help if you want, or you can handle it yourselves. Just don't linger too long."

Sonic blinked. "Aren't you coming?"

Mephiles took a second too long to respond. "I don't think that would be a good idea." He turned to Shadow, holding out the emeralds that he'd apparently managed to hold onto despite the chaos in those last few moments.

Shadow stood, arms crossed, and didn't move to take them. "Why, exactly, are you staying behind?"

Mephiles retracted his hand slightly. "I'd assume you already know the answer to that."

"Hardly. There's one of two possible reasons, and I want to know which it is."

The others looked back and forth between them, expressions mostly confused, though Silver seemed more concerned. "Shadow, maybe you shouldn't-" Shadow shot him a look, and he stopped talking, though with visible reluctance.

Mephiles narrowed his eyes. "I feel like you have more important things to do than this."

"He has a point," Tails said, a bit tentative. "I don't really get it, but if he says he's staying here-"

"Will you be satisfied with that?"

There was a beat of silence. Mephiles looked down at the gems again. "It's not that simple. You of all people should know that."

"You're not going to do anything stupid," Shadow said. "Because if you try, we'll be there to stop you. It won't be the first time."

A light bulb seemed to go off over Sonic's head, and he smiled, something softer than his trademark grin but with the same sort of playfulness. "Yeah, Amy even talked Shadow into not letting the world get blown up once."

"I'm aware." Mephiles took a breath, then looked up at Shadow. "You do realize that's not all there is to it."

Shadow's expression went a little less hard. "Obviously. But I ask again. Will you be satisfied letting someone else handle this?"

Mephiles was silent for another moment, staring at the gems in his hand. Then he tossed one of them to Shadow, keeping the other. "Get everyone to the city. I'll meet you there."

Shadow watched him for a moment, then nodded and gestured everyone closer.

The chaos control landing was a lot smoother than Mephiles' emergency extraction, with only a flash signaling the change in location. Well, that and an increase in temperature.

A roar echoed in the distance. "That sounded like Iblis," Silver said, tone dark with something more than mere anger or fear.

Tails glanced up from his handheld, a flash of concern covering his face. "We can handle protecting people from the creatures, but if Iblis gets involved it'll be a lot harder."

Silver spoke before Tails could continue. "I'll handle Iblis. I've had the most experience holding it back. The rest of you focus on protecting the Soleannans."

"Are you sure? We could try to contact Blaze, if it's experience you want, but I'm not sure anyone should be fighting it alone. Not if it's more powerful now."

"But it hasn't learned to use that power," Shadow said, neutral tone making it unclear where he stood on the matter.

"Right," Silver said with barely a pause to look at him. "Besides, there's no time. It could take her hours to respond and we can't spare anyone." He paused, then added, "And I've managed in worse circumstances. It'll be fine."

Tails eyed him for another moment, then nodded and glanced at his tablet again. "Okay. Silver's on Iblis distraction duty. Shadow, can you-?" He didn't look up at the flash of light, aware the hedgehog in question was already gone. "Taking that as a yes to getting the others. The rest of us should make sure everyone's safe. Let's go!"

Silver flew as fast as he could toward the source of the earlier roar, ignoring the creatures below unless they were already attacking someone. He couldn't stop Iblis, not any more than he'd ever been able to in the old future, but he could limit the destruction it caused until they could seal it properly.

Limit was the key word, though, he thought as he hovered above a pool of magma. The stories hadn't mentioned how long it took for the world to become so burnt out, but something told him it was going a lot faster this time. Hopefully there would still be something left of the city to rebuild when they were finished.

That said, the bright blue sky was really throwing him off right now.

He shook his head to clear it and refocused on his goal. Soleanna wasn't a huge city, and even with a good chunk of it already melted into the lava it shouldn't be hard to find a building sized hunk of fire and rock. Yet somehow he couldn't spot Iblis.

Another roar caught his attention, and he turned toward the source in time to see another building crumble under a massive fist. Iblis was in a vaguely humanoid form, allowing it to better tower over the surrounding buildings (and making Silver once again question how in the heck he hadn't spotted it earlier). It turned and emitted a sound that felt almost like a warning.

Silver dropped down onto the nearest stable looking roof and glared back. "You don't scare me, Iblis. I fought you before, I traveled through time to end your destruction, and I'll fight you again here and now if that's what it takes to stop you!" He flung a barrage of rocks and concrete at the beast, eyes glowing almost as bright as his hands.

Iblis held up an arm to block the projectiles, stopping most of them before they could hit anything. With the last of the rocks, it swung its arm wide and smashed the building Silver stood on.

Silver was already up and flying away before the walls crumbled. He landed for a moment to better focus and made the building fall down nice instead of in a big domino causing sideways heap before hopping back into the air again.

If he landed on a building, Iblis would destroy it, and there was enough destruction already. But if he kept in the air, he'd have to split his attention, not to mention using up valuable energy.

...Then again the area was already a lava pit so the point was moot. Where even was his brain.

Still on Mephiles, obviously, he thought as he dodged a rain of fire without really paying attention. He was worried for his friend, worried about his state of mind from having to deal with this alone for so long, worried about what might-

A rock caught him in the gut and knocked him into a rooftop planter, his breath leaving him in a huff. He jumped up and to the side as fast as he could, wincing at the soreness in his torso. Nothing felt cracked, but it'd bruise nicely. That's what he got for fighting distracted.

Fueled by sparks of frustration, he grabbed the rock and hurled it at Iblis' head as fast as he could. The rock hit its mark with a resounding boom.

Iblis roared, grabbing at its head before diving into the lava. Silver watched for a minute before deciding it wouldn't resurface for a while yet. He hopped into the air and flew off toward the rest of the city, though not without one last glare at the churning lava.

Mephiles sat on a roof, away from the chaos below. He kept half an eye on the humans running around panicking (the others would be sad if one of them died), but most of his attention was on the distant fires.

"They're naive, aren't they," he said to nobody in particular. He could feel his connection to Iblis, but it was distant, indistinct, the strong but thin thread of a spider's web. Nobody could hear him up here. "They think it's so simple. Silver thinks he understands, and maybe he does a bit. Though Shadow most likely understands the most." He paused, then chuckled darkly. "He would, wouldn't he. We're not as different as he might think, in this area."

He paused for a moment, then continued. "But simple or not, you were right about one thing. For whatever reason, I've somehow come to care about these idiots. And it would be very unfortunate from their point of view if the world ceased to exist."

There was a long silence, broken by the sounds of roaring and screaming. And, of, course, the buzzing from the crate behind him. He glanced back to address his next words to the creatures within. "At least you'll make a better host than that staff thing. Not that Iblis will notice, but I can appreciate it."

Something whooshed below him, and he glanced down to see Sonic run through a few more times, alternately spin dashing monsters and grabbing people to carry elsewhere. At one point he happened to look up, and a flash of surprise crossed his face before he shot Mephiles a grin and a wave. Then a lizard creature demanded his attention, and he jumped back into the fray, Mephiles apparently forgotten.

Mephiles watched him dash through a couple more times before vanishing once more and not reappearing. Most likely because there weren't any civilians left in  this corner of town. Which meant there wasn't really any excuse for Mephiles to stall with, and he debated a brief moment before pulling himself and the crate through the shadows to a new rooftop.

"Took your time, didn't you."

He jumped a bit and whirled around, relaxing a bit when he saw who it was. "Shadow. Perhaps you're right." He turned back toward the town, in particular the now much closer Iblis. "But you can't say you wouldn't do the same."

Behind him, he heard Shadow snort. "This planet should count itself lucky you chose me for a body, not a role model."

Mephiles' eyes tilted at the dark humor. "True. Though it didn't stop me from trying to destroy everything on my own."

There was a pause, then footsteps as Shadow came to stand next to him. "You should find Silver. I can watch the crate."

"I'd assume they need your help down there. And weren't you just calling me out for taking too long?"

"Last time you hesitated," Shadow said, blunt as ever. "Do what you need to stop it from happening again. The others are already here, they can manage without me for a few minutes if that's what it takes."

Mephiles looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "I'll be back."

Shadow waited for him to vanish before turning his eyes to the streets below.

A flock of birds gathered in the air, screeching as they flung fiery projectiles at a group of cowering civilians. In the next instant the projectiles took on a teal glow and paused in midair before smacking back into the creatures and crushing them with vicious force. "Go, go, get out of here!" Silver yelled, waving toward the safe areas the others had already cleared. Luckily most of the group had the presence to get moving and drag their more shell shocked companions along with them.

Silver took a deep breath and released it in a huff. "If there's one single thing I miss about my old future," he growled, "it's that people actually knew how to react in a crisis."

"Well there's a reason they survived in that place."

Silver barely kept himself from throwing something. "Meph!" he yelled, more startled than angry. "Don't just pop up like that, I could have hurt you!"

Mephiles didn't seem particularly fazed. "But you didn't."

"That's not - you know what, never mind. Why'd you come here? I thought you were preparing."

Mephiles didn't say anything right away. He stared at Silver, eyes drifting lower before he stepped forward and pressed a hand against his shoulder. Silver hissed, jerking away and looking between the blood on Mephiles' glove and the gash on his shoulder.

"Where did that come from?" Mephiles asked, his tone one of idle curiosity.

"I don't know?" Silver asked more than said, running through his memories of the recent fights. "Probably when Iblis hit me, got kind of distracted and-" He cut himself off abruptly when a shadowy band wrapped around his shoulder, covering the gash. "Uh, thanks?"

"Don't thank me," Mephiles said. Silver noticed the blood on his glove had vanished before he turned and hopped up a building, using an awning and a few window planters to aid his climb. Silver blinked, then flew up after him.

He landed on the rooftop beside Mephiles, following his gaze. Silver's expression hardened when he saw the fires in the distance. "We have to stop this," he said, keeping his voice calm as best he could. "If you can't do the seal, one of us will figure it out. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to stop my old future from happening again."

Mephiles looked at him, down to the makeshift bandage, and back out at the city. "Whatever it takes, you say?"

Silver started to nod, then paused. "Well, I guess I can't say anything, after I couldn't... I guess I should say, anything that keeps this world and my friends safe."

"Hm." With that amazing insight to Mephiles' thoughts, he fell silent once more.

Silver glanced between him and the city a few times before speaking again. "I should keep moving. Will you...?" He trailed off as Mephiles turned to fully face him, something calculating in his eyes. "Mephiles?"

Mephiles murmured something to himself and shook his head briskly. "I'll manage. I should go too." He hesitated, eyes drifting down once more, before adding, "Knock 'em dead for me."

Silver stared at the spot he'd been for several seconds after he vanished, but eventually shook himself and leapt back into the air.

Shadow was waiting patiently by the crate when Mephiles reappeared. "So did you do what you needed?"

"I believe so." He paused, giving Shadow the same calculating look he'd given Silver. "Did you mean it when you said you'd stop me from doing anything stupid?"

Shadow's expression shifted from puzzled, to surprised, to narrow eyed scrutiny. "Obviously."

Mephiles nodded and stepped up to the crate. "Then we're ready. I assume you're taking yourself there?"

"Naturally. But first..."

Mephiles turned to him, blinking. "What-" He fell silent when Shadow held up his emerald, nodding for him to do the same. He did so, watching curiously as Shadow tucked his own away and cupped Mephiles' hand in both of his.

"I realized," he said, "that I told you to recharge energy without explaining how. We don't have time to teach you properly, but this should suffice."

Mephiles watched, curious, as the gem began to glow softly. At first it seemed like it wasn't doing anything, the cool material slowly warming from his body heat, but as the seconds ticked past it grew warmer still until it was actively radiating heat. He was dimly aware of the movement of something more than heat, probably chaos energy, but he couldn't feel it very clearly.

A moment later Shadow pulled away, the emerald already beginning to cool. Mephiles stared at the gem, then at Shadow, feeling deeply unsettled but not quite bad.

Shadow seemed to understand whatever his expression conveyed and smirked. "It's a bit disorienting the first time, but I only transfered a little so that should wear off soon. Give it a moment."

Mephiles nodded, noting that the feeling was already easing. "I'm not sure how this energy helps, though. Recall that chaos isn't what I draw on naturally."

"It may not, but if you do need it you have it." He paused, then added, "You won't do anything stupid, but I'll be there if you do." He pulled his emerald back out and folded his arms. "Whenever you're ready."

Mephiles blinked at him, then tilted his eyes in an almost smile. "Now seems like a good time."

"Then let's go."

Silver actually did throw something this time, but it was just a cardboard box. He wasn't about to hurt Mephiles even if he was ticked. "I told you not to do that!"

Mephiles stood with the box on his head for a moment, then sighed and knocked it off, brushing a bit of packing foam off his quills. "I don't think having to get these off later is punishment equal to the crime. Also, Shadow should be here any moment. Consider yourself warned."

Sure enough, Shadow arrived in a halo of green fire as he finished speaking. He gave Silver a nod and turned to Mephiles. "Now?"

Mephiles looked out toward Iblis' little nest. With fewer buildings in the way the edges of the lava pool were now visible, hissing and spitting where the molten rock hit water instead of stone. "Not yet. In this form, we'll have to weaken it before we can seal it."

"Makes sense, it worked the same way when me and Blaze did this."

Mephiles bowed his head, closing his eyes for a moment. He pointed at Shadow without looking. "Keep the emerald until it's time. Don't get hit."

Shadow snorted as if to say 'of course' and vanished in a flash.

Next Mephiles turned to Silver, only tilting his head just enough to catch his eye. "Same to you. Let's all come out of this in one piece." His eyes flicked to Silver's shoulder, almost pointed.

Silver nodded, a bit unnerved, but pure determination replaced it as he turned and flew away.

Mephiles took a breath, then straightened, eyes cold and hard as they'd ever been.

Silver landed on a partially collapsed building above the lava pool, watching the ripples in the molten rock. Iblis hadn't emerged since it first immersed itself, and now that he thought about it how were they supposed to get it out? In his old future they'd usually just waited for Iblis to show up on its own, but they needed something faster here. The creatures were still running amok, and that pool looked suspiciously like it might be growing.

A flash of motion caught his eye, and he looked over to see Mephiles standing on a diagonal wall, eyes trained on the lava's surface. He glanced over and caught Silver's eye before holding up a finger, looking down again.

Something rumbled, the lava churning, and Iblis erupted forth with a roar. It shifted to glare at Mephiles for a moment before it began twisting around, apparently looking for something. It stopped when its eyes fell on Silver.

He didn't get a chance to be confused before another roar brought forth a rain of fiery rocks and all his attention was diverted to dodging. A few came a little too close to avoid; those he grabbed with his powers instead and set them hovering behind him. When the rain ended, he shot Iblis a smirk and threw its rocks right back.

It hadn't even finished howling when a sharp beam of golden energy hit it right in the gut. Silver looked up in time to see Shadow dusting his hands off, mouth moving but the likely cutting remark lost in the background noise.

Apparently Iblis didn't care for their shenanigans. It hissed and roared, energy gathering near its torso in a move that Silver took just a moment too long to recognize.

Before it released the blast, Iblis froze. Then it shrieked, a higher, more pained sound than its usual angry roaring, the energy dissipating unused and one massive arm crashing into a building.

Silver didn't waste any time zipping over to Shadow's building. The other turned sharply as he approached. "What did-"

"I don't know, but we can't let it use that attack, that energy wave could destroy what's left of the city."

Shadow nodded grimly. They both turned as the shadows beside them condensed and melted into Mephiles.

"I caught it off guard," he said, looking almost harried. "Next time we may not be so lucky."

Silver stared at him. "That was - what did-"

"Mental equivalent of yelling in someone's ear. As I said, caught off guard. Though that didn't stop it lashing out at the source."

"Wait, didn't you say it wouldn't-"

"I hurt it first."

There was an edge to Mephiles' voice that had Silver backing off in a hurry. "Right, so, ideas?"

Mephiles looked up at the still writhing Iblis, pointing as he spoke. "Catch it by surprise. You can find weak points where it's not finished forming itself there, there, and there. Shots aimed well will do much more damage."

Shadow regarded him with an inscrutable air. "You chased Iblis into the open earlier, didn't you?"

Mephiles let his arm fall to his side. He nodded.

Shadow nodded back, but more like he was confirming something to himself. "Keep the hive safe. If Iblis starts gathering energy again, wait until the last moment to act. We'll handle it if possible."

There was a moment of frozen time where they both looked at each other, an unspoken understanding passing between them. The moment shattered when Iblis finally shook off its shock and bellowed its anger to the world.

They all looked up together. Mephiles melted away and the others dove aside as a massive hand came crashing down, claws raking the concrete and leaving massive gouges in what remained of the building. Silver checked to be sure Shadow had teleported away, then flew for a perch that wasn't about to break and vanish beneath the lava.

From there the fight was a blur of dodging and throwing rocks while keeping an eye out for any sign that Iblis was trying something more. He was surprised to notice that Shadow attacked just as vehemently as himself whenever there was even a hint of Iblis trying that attack again. Shadow wasn't really one to care for property damage, so why was he so...?

Silver's eyes flickered toward where he'd last seen Mephiles, now long gone and nowhere to be seen. He resolved to ask later and refocused on the fight in time to see Iblis dig its claws into a nearby building.

He let out a string of curses as Iblis raised the building and threw it. Somehow he managed to catch it, but it took all his energy, and he couldn't just drop it because what if there were people-

Someone was behind him, speaking to him, "-nobody in there, drop it on its head now-" and he did as told.

The building cracked over Iblis' head, and it roared weakly one final time before slowly collapsing into the lava. Silver huffed before turning to check the others on autopilot, an old habit ingrained after countless fights with a partner.

Mephiles was staring at the lava with a frozen, almost stricken expression, eyes wide and muzzle pale. He wasn't hurt that Silver could see, but his face...

Shadow appeared and shoved his emerald at Mephiles. "Go now, move it!"

Mephiles took the emerald and vanished, but his expression remained unchanged. Silver stared at Shadow. "What was that for?"

Shadow looked down, watching the lava swirl. "He needs to keep moving right now. If he loses momentum, it will take far too long to regain it."

Silver started to reply, but a ball of flame rising from the lava distracted him. It hovered for a moment before tendrils swirled out of it, streaking toward a point just out of sight atop one of the taller buildings still standing.

"Now," Shadow said, "we wait."

Mephiles watched the flames rise, emeralds held ready in front of him. "Destruction is your reason for existence now. Not that I'm much better. But some things matter more than the past, or what we are." He paused briefly, his gaze wavering for a moment before he shook his head to clear it. When he looked back, his expression was hard once more. "I made my choice some time ago, and I won't change my mind."

He closed his eyes. "Goodbye."

Chapter Text

Several minutes passed without movement. Silver darted glances at Shadow every so often, but the other hedgehog kept his eyes upward, narrowed in concentration, and he didn't dare interrupt whatever thoughts were going on in there.

The stillness finally broke at the arrival of a familiar blue blur. Sonic landed at their side and whistled, twisting his head to look at all the carnage surrounding them. "Wow, it really did a number on this place. Good thing it all went so fast, the rest of the city is in pretty good condition. Relatively. But, uh, where's Meph?"

Shadow finally spoke, but it was as if he hadn't even noticed Sonic's arrival. "Go to him, Silver."

Silver blinked at him, Sonic doing the same in his peripheral. "I thought we weren't supposed to distract him?"

"During the actual process," Shadow corrected. "It's done now. Go."

It didn't take any more than that to convince Silver. He took off, glancing back to see Sonic looking frustrated as he spoke to an impassive Shadow, but he didn't stick around to see what they were arguing about now. They could deal with their own messes.

When he reached the top of the building, it took him a moment to spot Mephiles, and then it was only because one of his shoes was visible around the corner of the bee crate. He hurried over to peer around the corner.

Mephiles was sitting with his back to the crate, staring at nothing. He didn't react when Silver came into view, nor when the telekinetic knelt on the ground across from him. It was as though he wasn't aware of the world at all.

Silver hesitated to speak. This seemed different from their blackouts, but... "Mephiles?"

The dark being blinked once, then a few more times, eyes still fixed on the middle distance but losing some of the blurriness. Once more, and he looked over at Silver.

Even that little movement was a relief. "Hey there. Can you hear me?"

Mephiles looked at him for another moment, then away once more. "I can." He paused, just a little longer than was quite comfortable, before speaking again. "I. May have used more energy than expected. I'm not as in tune with the emeralds as the rest of you."

Silver relaxed a bit. Energy drain. That would fix itself in time, if Mephiles was already talking almost normally. He'd ask Shadow and Tails to take a look anyway, just to be safe (and Mephiles had better cooperate with the checkup or Silver would make him), but for the moment this would do.

He turned his focus to the crate Mephiles was half leaning against. "It's done, then?"

Mephiles didn't tense up exactly, but his eyes hazed over briefly in a way that felt almost the same. "Yes. Iblis is sealed." He paused again, then added, "I'd rather wait until later to explain the details, to do it all at once. But as long as this" his arm swung up in an almost robotic motion to knock on the crate "is kept safe, we shouldn't have any issues."

"And I'll be taking care of that, thank you."

They both looked over at the voice only to see an Eggman pod extend an arm and grab the crate. Before it could move far, though, the whole contraption took on a familiar teal glow.

"Yeah, let's just not do this," Silver said, not even trying to disguise his irritation. "We all worked together to save the future again, none of us want a repeat, and all that. So let's keep this with someone who won't be tempted, okay?"

"How dare you suggest-"

"And Eggman?"

Mephiles' voice cut through Eggman's protests surprisingly easily for how calm his tone was. Which is perhaps why the man fell silent immediately.

Mephiles stared directly at the pod with an expression just as calm as his tone. "I'll say this once, so I recommend listening closely. I appreciate your help during our time working together, but the only thing that will buy you is this warning. If I ever hear so much as a rumor that you plan to use Iblis in one of your schemes, I can promise that you will live to regret it."

And even with as weakened as he was at that moment, something in his voice sent a shiver down each listener's spine.

"Well," Silver finally said, "you heard him. I'll just dispose of this for you." And Eggman's spluttering was cut off with a wave and a satisfying crunch.

Mephiles closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the crate. Silver eyed him, but restrained his urge to start fussing. He could hold off a little longer. As long as Mephiles didn't actually pass out. "Should I call the others over? To figure out what we're doing next?"

Mephiles hmmed and reopened his eyes partway. "Maybe in a minute. I know we can't take too long, they'll start to worry, but..."

The silence stretched on for over a minute, but as much as he wanted to Silver kept from prodding. If it was him he wasn't sure he'd want to talk. He wouldn't have after Blaze, if all existence hadn't been ending. It wasn't the same, obviously, but from what little he could tell about Mephiles and Iblis' connection it was  probably close enough.

At length, Mephiles sighed and pulled one knee to his chest, resting his chin on it to better look at nothing. "I need a moment to myself before anything else."

"Okay." His response came immediately, no hesitation or thought required. "Do you want me to go too?"

"No." Again, the response was near instantaneous, though something in Mephiles' eyes flickered when he gave it. "You may stay, if you want."

Silver adjusted his position from kneeling to sitting. If this took a while, he wanted to be ready for it. "Then I want."

There was another flicker, but this time Silver was pretty sure it meant something good.

Silver insisted on carrying them both down along with the crate. Mephiles didn't protest as much as he could have, which only made the telekinetic more sure that he was justified in his worrying. (Not that he'd mention that to Mephiles. The other might pay closer attention to him, thus foiling any potential plans to scoop him up at the first sign of difficulty.)

They found Sonic and Shadow standing on the nearest piece of solid ground. Still bickering, but more lighthearted banter than anything. Silver smiled at the familiar sight. Some things never changed.

Sonic was the first to notice their approach. His whole face lit up and he waved wildly. "Over here!"

Silver landed them, letting Mephiles stand on his own power but watching him carefully. The crate he deposited to the side, where it was out of the way but well within their collective awareness. "It's not like there's anywhere else to go," he pointed out, tilting his head toward the lava behind them.

"It should start reverting soon," Mephiles said. "With Iblis sealed its energy won't be able to fuel its fires. It should stop the flashbacks too."

From the surprised and confused looks everyone shot him, it was clear only Mephiles had known that part. "You mean the regressions?" Silver asked.

Mephiles blinked at him, his expression still blank but nonetheless managing to convey a sense of 'no, you idiot'. "No, I mean the blackout flashbacks everyone has had since time was first disaligned. Now that all the missing pieces have been returned to the field, in some form anyway, the only reason you should get a flashback is if you never relearned something in the first place." He paused, then added, "Or trauma. I wouldn't discount it anyway."

"Right," Silver said slowly, darting a glance at Shadow to be sure they were on the same page here. "I think you'd better explain that more, but right now what you need is rest."

Mephiles narrowed his eyes, giving Silver a pointed I know what you're doing look. Otherwise he didn't argue. Much. "We need to deal with the hive first," he said. "Leaving it here would just be asking for trouble. As you've noticed."

Silver grimaced, remembering the brief encounter with Eggman. "You're right about that."

"Maybe store it in Tails' yard?" Sonic said. "There's always someone there to keep an eye on things."

Mephiles shook his head, eyes glazing as he thought. "No, that's too obvious. Anyone looking for it would think to check there first. I know a place that could work-"

"And we can look into it later," Shadow stated. "For the short term Tails' house will be fine. Chaos control should be safe now, correct?"

Mephiles narrowed his eyes. "You wouldn't dare."

"I'll take that as a yes." He stepped forward to grab Silver and Mephiles, warping before they could pull away and depositing them in the entry hall of their home before vanishing again.

Mephiles made a series of sounds that, were they comprehensible, would not have been at all G-rated. Silver blinked a few times as he reoriented before sighing and grabbing Mephiles' arm to pull him along toward the living room. "Come on grumpy, he has a point. You're going to fall over if you don't sit down soon."

"I am not," he muttered. At the same time, he didn't fight being tugged to sit on the couch.

"Oh really," Silver said, turning to dig through the hall closet.

"Of course not. If anything my form would dissolve until I could regain enough energy to sustain it."

There was a pause as Silver stared at him, mildly disturbed. "You... don't really have much of a filter right now, do you?"

"Seems not."

"Huh." He pulled out a few blankets and a large plastic mass, setting the latter aside and carrying the blankets to the couch. "Isn't staying dissolved for too long bad for you though?"

"Mentally, yes. Physically it reduces my energy consumption, but the switch between forms takes too much energy to be worth using regularly. I tested it. But you don't actually want to talk about this, do you?"

"Not really. I just... thought we should talk about something."

Mephiles' eyes dropped to his hands, folded neatly in his lap. He jumped and looked up again when Silver draped a blanket over his shoulders. "They'll handle things," Silver said, soft but certain. "And they'll make sure you're informed." His tone became a bit more lighthearted. "If they don't, I'll make them. How's that?"

Mephiles' eyes crinkled at the corners. He looked past Silver to the plastic mass from earlier. "What is that?"

Silver followed his gaze and went to retrieve it, laying it out somewhat flat on the floor. "Air mattress. I'm calling a sleepover day, and you can fit maybe two people on that couch to sleep. Two not spiny people."

"Is it really a sleepover if we all live in the same house?"

"Absolutely. And where do you think you're going?"

Mephiles stopped halfway through climbing to his feet. "Upstairs. I have some things to do."

Silver eyed him carefully, thinking something over, before nodding. "Okay. Don't take too long though, or I'll assume you've collapsed and come to carry you back down."

"Duly noted."

"And Mephiles?"

He paused and glanced back, already halfway down the hall.

Silver hesitated briefly before finishing. "I'll be here if you feel like talking."

Mephiles watched him for a moment before turning and continuing on without a word.

Mephiles walked up the stairs, steps slow and even as he entered his room and closed the door. He left a hand resting on the doorknob for a moment before moving to the desk.

Neat columns of sticky notes covered one side, and he looked at them for a long moment, reading over the many conversations he'd had with himself. He reached for the bottom one, peeling it off at an angle so its edges didn't curl, examining the words like they were some form of alien cipher. Then, in one quick motion, he crumpled it in his fist and dropped it in the trash.

The next note in the column received the same treatment, and the next, on up the column and continuing through the others, written words observed and discarded far more easily than events and memories could ever be. He paused briefly at the last one, staring unseeing at the ink, before dropping it on the others without crushing it.

The desk seemed so much emptier without the colorful paper covering it, even with what there was of his rock collection on the other edge. He knocked one of the stones out of alignment just because, then put another in its place and straightened the line.

Someone called out downstairs, and he glanced over his shoulder for a moment before heading for the bathroom.

Silver's eyes flickered to Mephiles when he reappeared. He'd gotten his shoulder properly bandaged in the last few minutes, and was messing with some kind of food dish. "What took you so long?"

"Shower. You couldn't hear it?"

"I could, but how did you get dry so fast?"

"Mag-OW!" He rubbed the back of his head, glaring at Shadow. "What was that for?"

"For spending energy on stupid things. Sit down."

Mephiles considered for a moment, then took a few more steps and leaned pointedly against the counter.

Shadow sighed and shook his head but didn't say anything further.

"Sonic already passed out," Silver said, nodding at the single red shoe visible over the couch back. "I imagine everyone else is doing similar in their own homes. But I figured some of us might need to eat something before sleeping, so I heated some frozen... uh..." He squinted at the package. "Something involving potatoes that looks really unhealthy."

"You had Sonic in mind when you bought that didn't you."

"Probably. I can't really remember anymore, but it's not past the use by date so it's fine."

Mephiles leaned back to peer dubiously at the dish. "I'll pass, thank you. I doubt I could eat at the moment anyway."

"Yeah, me neither."

Shadow huffed, glaring at them both. Silver rolled his eyes and pulled out a roll of plastic wrap. "I'll leave this in the fridge in case someone wants a snack later. And then we should all sleep." He met Shadow's glare with one of his own.

Mephiles looked at both of them, shrugged, and went to lie down on the mattress. He contemplated Sonic laying in a decidedly uncomfortable looking position on the couch for a moment before rolling over and letting his eyes drift shut.

Chapter Text

The living room was dark and quiet. Threads of starlight snuck through the blinds and stained everything shades of white and blue. Everyone had eventually settled on the air mattress in a row, plus some more blankets to make a proper pile, and by now even those who didn't sleep as much were taking the chance to regain some energy.

A pair of lime green eyes blinked open, their owner staring at the ceiling for a moment before glancing around. Silver had settled to one side of him, with Sonic on the other and Shadow past him on the outside edge. Which wasn't an issue except that he'd kind of like to get up without waking anyone.

He glanced over and froze when his eyes met another pair. Shadow held a finger to his lips before getting up, moving to the other edge of the mattress, and simply scooping Mephiles up.

Mephiles nodded his thanks as he was placed back on his feet, then tilted his head toward the rarely used dining area. Shadow followed him over. "They'll still wake up if we're loud," he warned in the barest whisper.

"I know," Mephiles replied at the same volume. "But if we're both awake, I thought now would be as good a time as any to talk."

There was a brief silence, broken when Shadow spoke. "I told you that you wouldn't do anything stupid."

"And I still don't understand how you could be certain," Mephiles shot back. "Perhaps I couldn't have merged with Iblis in that form, but leaving it free is another story." His eyes gained a haunted look. "Before anything else, Iblis is my other half. You of all people should understand how easy it would have been to let the seal fail, let the consequences happen..." He trailed off, letting the rest of that sentence speak itself. "Do you really think you can afford to trust me?"

"Why shouldn't we?"

Mephiles stared at him, his unflinching calm, for a long moment before responding. "I was a villain, one who would have destroyed all of spacetime had you not stopped me. If things hadn't gone the way they did in this timeline, I probably would have done the same. And I could so easily decide to change my mind. I didn't do any of this because it was the right thing, you know."

Shadow didn't even blink, almost unnervingly calm. "Granted. But would the you of before do what you did today?"

There was another pause. Mephiles straightened slightly, his eyes slipping to a corner of the room as if he couldn't quite keep them on Shadow. One hand slid to the other wrist, squeezing subtly, rhythmically.

Shadow broke the silence to speak again. "You didn't do these things because they're right. You did them because you knew someone else believed they were right, and you did them for that someone. And you will continue to do the right thing for that person, because you want to do right by them." His expression finally shifted, a hint of melancholy softening his gaze. "That's something I understand very well."

They were quiet for another few minutes. When Mephiles spoke, his words were slow, and his eyes remained fixed away from Shadow's. "I can't tell you what to think. I can't stop you from trusting me. But I can say, I'm not the same person I was in my memories. And perhaps..." He finally shifted his gaze to Shadow's. "Perhaps this me is someone worth trusting."

They stood in quiet for a while before slipping back to bed with their housemates none the wiser.

Mephiles woke up when Sonic bounced rather violently off the bed. He hissed something decidedly unhappy and glared up at the beaming hedgehog. "Do you mind?"

"Nope!" Sonic said cheerfully. "I'll start breakfast while you sleepy hogs get your eyes open, we got things to do today."

He took about two steps before a teal glow stopped him in his tracks. "Don't you dare," Silver said, voice muffled by the pillow he was still faceplanted in. His raised hand was the only thing that moved. "You and Shadow aren't allowed to cook anymore."

Sonic gave Silver a pleading look. "I thought that only counted when both of us were cooking together?"

"Intent of the law, not word, Sonic. Don't try me. It's too early."

"It's like nine already! Come on Silv, you know my metabolism, I'm half starved!"

"There's a pan of stuff in the fridge, you're allowed to use the damn microwave. Now shut up!"

Sonic huffed, but headed for the fridge as soon as the glow faded. Silver let his hand drop to the mattress and continued to not move. Mephiles glanced at him, then over to Shadow, currently sitting on the couch and messing with his phone. They met eyes for a moment before returning to their respective forms of doing nothing.

They headed over to Tails' house as soon as everyone was marginally awake. (Silver made a comment about overusing his powers the previous day and agreed to go along anyway.) Sonic went on his own way, saying something about getting the sparknotes from Tails later as he sped off, leaving the others to get things settled.

"So what exactly did you do with the whole bees and sealing thing?" Tails asked as he set up his scanner. They'd already checked in on the hive, currently still in the crate out back until they could move it somewhere better.

Mephiles watched him work with an air of resignation. "I can explain the details later if you're curious. Basically, the requirement was that the vessel be royalty. Since that's a fairly arbitrary standard to begin with, bending the rules to include a queen bee wasn't too hard. The complicated bit was setting up a sort of reincarnating loop - as long as there's at least one queen in the hive, the seal will still work."

"Huh. I'll have to hear those details, I'm curious about the manipulations required. That's why you needed Eggman, though, right? To figure out the details?"

"Correct. It may be more magic than technology, but he was able to help. The rest was just a matter of making sure I knew what to do and had the skills to pull it off."

"But why not ask Tails?" Silver asked. "It would've been way less risky."

There was a pause, interrupted by a loud beep as the scanner finished prepping. "We should probably do the scan now," Tails suggested with a slightly sheepish smile. "It'll take a while to process the data, so..."

Mephiles nodded and stepped forward, steadfastly looking away from Silver's face.

Silver looked at Shadow, but couldn't read his expression. But that itself told him that Shadow did have some opinion.

Shadow glanced over at that moment, perhaps feeling eyes on him. He huffed softly when he noticed Silver looking and proceeded to ignore him. Silver frowned and waited in silence for the remaining minutes it took Tails to complete the scan.

Mephiles emerged looking uncomfortable and rubbing at his arm. "That is never pleasant," he muttered.

"I think everyone here can agree with that," Tails said, already back at his console. "Speaking of, Silver I'd like to check you too once Mephiles' results come back. Just to be safe."

Silver grimaced, but nodded. He trusted Tails' judgment even if he'd rather avoid the scanner.

"About your question," Mephiles said, calling their attention back to him. "The simplest explanation is, even Eggman doesn't want the world destroyed, at least not unless he's the one doing the destroying. I could trust him to a point with the planning required. And if I came to anyone here... there was a risk that people wouldn't trust me, considering my actions regarding Iblis the last time. I couldn't risk the delay."

Silver opened his mouth to protest, then slowly shut it as he realized that Mephiles was absolutely right. Knuckles had been the most vocal, but he wouldn't have been the only one to be concerned at a situation too remniscent of past events. But it bothered him that Mephiles hadn't told anyone.

(It bothered him that Mephiles hadn't told him. Selfish as it felt, that was the part that really stung.)

Mephiles looked at him, then turned away. "In any case, what's done is done. You all know now, Iblis is sealed, and the regressions are over with it." His eyes clouded a bit.

"Guess we'll never find out how the eyes thing worked," Silver joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Mephiles blinked at him. "...I can change my form at will. I wanted people to notice, at least I did during the regressions."

"Wait, you did? Why?"

The only answer he got was a shrug.

"So what will you do now?"

They all turned to Shadow. "What do you mean?" Mephiles asked.

Shadow adjusted his position to lean more comfortably against the wall. "Most of your energy was sealed with Iblis. What are-"

"I'm not going to do anything," he said, his harsh tone making even Shadow jump a bit. He closed his eyes, taking a slow breath before opening them. "The sealed energy was a piece of me, so it's not something I can regain over time, any more than one of you could regrow a limb. But the fact that it's sealed means there's no getting it back, either."

"I can see if there's a way to siphon off energy?" Tails asked, his voice hesitant. "I wouldn't want to risk something that could hurt you, but if there's a chance..."

Mephiles stared at him, looking like he'd maybe not seen the fox properly before. He shook his head, but slowly, almost reluctant. "Not the best of plans. A misstep could release Iblis as a whole, obviously undesirable." He paused only a moment before adding, "But... thank you." And it was clear he meant it.

Silver waited a moment before speaking up. "There's one other thing I wanted to ask. You said the flashbacks will stop now, right? How's that even work?"

Mephiles was quiet for a minute, but it seemed more thoughtful than anything. "It's hard to explain," he finally said. "It has to do with the way me and Iblis still exist, even though we should have been removed from the time stream entirely. We're... too important, somehow, to just cease existing." His eyes dimmed. "It's part of the reason I never suggested trying to completely destroy Iblis."

"The other reason being that you didn't want to."

Mephiles looked at Shadow. "That, and Iblis being immortal in much the same fashion I am. Impracticality at its finest."

"Um," Tails said, waving to get their attention. "Mephiles' scans look fine, so... Silver?"

Mephiles took advantage of the distraction to vanish. Silver blinked, then sighed and moved forward to get his own scan done.

Silver found Mephiles sitting on the back patio, leaning against the wall and looking at nothing in particular. He waited for a moment and, when Mephiles didn't react to his presence, sat down next to him.

It was a nice enough day out, Silver thought. Calm, clear, a hint of breeze but not enough to make the chill of the season unbearable. At least not if you were moving around a bit. It would be too cold in no more than a few minutes, as far as Silver was concerned.

"Anger was one of my earliest emotions."

Silver jumped and spun back to Mephiles, who didn't even look at him as he went on. "Fear was the first, though. Not that I recognized it as such until later. The lab where I came into being... especially right then, when I barely knew what I was..." He paused, then continued, his voice empty, emotionless. "After the fear, though. Then all I felt was anger. Anger at the people who split me apart, at the ones who sealed us without a second thought, at the world for letting it happen when we'd never even had a chance to do wrong. That anger... it was all that fueled me through ten years of absolute nothing. That, and knowing Iblis was out there somewhere, waiting for me as our mind to free us."

There was another pause. Silver kept quiet and waited to see if Mephiles had more to say.

He continued after less than a minute. "I spent most of that time plotting my revenge, biding my time til some hapless fool ended my imprisonment. I'd actually intended to spare the sucker, as long as they stayed out of my way thereafter, but plans change. Destroying all of time and space wasn't my plan either, but once it was suggested... well I could put the blame on Shadow, but I didn't exactly try to stop myself either. I was so, so angry, so ready to give every last being in this cursed world a taste of what I suffered. If not for the seal on those memories, doubtless I would have felt the same this time too."

The silence this time lasted long enough that Silver ventured a tentative question. "But you have all your memories back now. So... what changed?"

Mephiles finally turned to meet his eyes with an unblinking stare. "Very little. But at the same time, everything."

With that, he rolled onto his feet and offered Silver a hand. "Come on. We should figure out what we'll tell the others."

Silver almost protested, wanted badly to say 'that's it???', to try and get an explanation at least for where that came from. Instead he took Mephiles' hand and stood up beside him. "Okay. Let's go."

A cool breeze blew in from over the ocean, carrying the scent of salt and the sound of rippling waves over the nearby beaches and cliffs. Mephiles closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening them as he leaned forward on the fence bordering the cliff.

"Thought I'd find you here."

He glanced back over his shoulder. "And how did you figure that?"

Silver walked up to him, footsteps crunching softly in the grass. "A hunch. Also Shadow may have mentioned he felt your energy around the Mystic Ruins a few times recently. And that GUN finally stopped confusing you for him."

Mephiles snorted and turned forward again. "It's about time. Am I no longer allowed visitation rights?"

There was a pause, long enough that Mephiles glanced over briefly to see Silver looking... uncertain. He rolled his eyes and added, "That was a joke. I don't give a damn what they say I can or can't do, the only reason they're guarding the hive at all is because Shadow knows the right people to deal with it, and unless they can figure out how my powers work without help there's not a whole lot they can do to stop me doing exactly as I like."

Silver gave a startled laugh. "Guess not, huh? Actually, uh, from what Shadow told me they wanted him to make you stop, and he said basically the same thing."

"I don't know what they expect. Sealed or not, Iblis is still my other half. I'm not about to give up something as harmless as being close to the hive because they don't approve for whatever reason."

"GUN's history of understanding people is pretty bad, but they won't be able to do much. Waste of government funding and all."

"Well at least they have that much sense."

Silver laughed, but his smile faded quickly after. Mephiles noticed too. "Something on your mind?"

Silver sighed and came to lean on the fence next to Mephiles. "Sort of. It just seems like a lot's happened, but at the same time not much. You know? I mean, everything with Iblis was only a couple weeks ago, repairs in Soleanna are well under way... with the flashbacks ending everyone's getting back to their old routines too. I haven't seen Sonic since the repair crews kicked us out, Shadow's doing GUN things most days, I assume the others are doing the same..."

They both looked up at a crashing sound followed by a yell that could have been either frustrated or excited, both coming from the lab on the hill. Mephiles sighed. "Yes, it seems like things are going back to the old normal. Inasmuch as anyone in this group can achieve normalcy."

"It's the norm for us."

"True. And?"

"And what?"

Mephiles turned to face Silver. "And you're here for a reason."

Silver sighed, returning his gaze out toward the sea. "I don't know what I'll do next. The only normal I have is either for disasters, or for the sort of setup we had established. I'm not part of this time the way the others are... I don't know how to find a new normal."

Mephiles considered him for a moment, then returned to leaning on the fence, nudging Silver's arm as he did. "Then it's a good thing we'll be figuring it out together, isn't it?"

Silver blinked at him for a moment, then let a small smile form. "Yeah."