Notes: Hi everyone! I just wanted to talk about a few things, so I hope you read this before diving into the chapter.

First Item of Chat: It’s not yet, but in upcoming chapters, what I have planned for this story is to have multiple endings. They kind of all tie together and make sense later on. I will give another notification of that when it gets closer as there’s still some time and chapters before I get to the endings.

Second Item of Chat: I recently created an account on Deviantart. I also put that info on my profile, but thought I’d post something here since it’s pretty recent. While DA will only have my stories that are not rated Mature, I will have journals and updates on there for upcoming stories and projects, so if you’re ever curious about what might be coming out or want a little more information about something, you can stop by there. My DA name is also eeveelover92.

Thanks for reading all of this stuff. Without further adieu, let’s get into the chapter. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

*Tails POV 3rd person 

Clicks sounded in a dingy office as a young fox typed away at a computer, determined to find something that could be of help. Anything really. Everyone was busy doing their part to get settled into the new base. Tails figured since Sonic was unable to look for Gadget right now, then he would.

Their systems wouldn’t have that information of course, but he did have past Eggman bases saved on a special drive in case he ever needed it. Sometimes, the doctor will send copies of important information to old, run down bases; as he never expects anyone to look in those sections for his secret plans. Eggman still hasn’t caught on that Tails get about half of his information about the doctor and his plans from those outdated bases. But, of course, he’ll never tell him that.

The door opened, causing sea blue eyes to glance up from the screen to see Sonic, the other generation Sonic he means, walk in before shutting the door and approaching him. Tails hadn’t expected anyone to come, but he didn’t mind the company.

“Hi Sonic. How’s it going out there?”

He gave a thumbs up to answer, as he rarely spoke.

“Good.”

A questioning look was then shown as Sonic pointed to the computer screen.

“What am I searching?” Sonic nodded, “Well, I’m looking for old Eggman bases.”

A brow raised at that, clearly still lost.

“Sometimes Eggman keeps important current data in abandoned bases of his. He never expects anyone to check those so he’ll hide information sometimes like that, and he hasn’t figured out that I know. So, I was hoping to track down any nearby bases that I can go hack into.”

??

“What am I hoping to find?”

Again, he nodded.

“I was hoping to find where they are keeping Gadget.” 

Eyes widened in surprise.

“Everyone is so busy, and I know how much Sonic, I mean this world’s Sonic, wants to go find him, but he can’t because of his responsibilities here,” Sonic nodded in understanding, continuing to listen, “And, Gadget saved my life. He almost got raped because he came for me…”

A hand softly landed on his, causing Tails to jolt a bit before seeing a sad expression on Sonic’s face while shaking his head in disagreement.

“You’re right. Infinite was the one who still chose to do those things…. I’m not sure how much help I can be, but if I could at least figure out his location, a group of us could go and rescue him.”

Grinning, Sonic gave a thumbs up.

“You’ll help me?”

Nodding once more, Sonic then gave a light hug to the uncertain fox, before it ended as quickly as it started. Smiling, Tails replied, “Thanks Sonic.”

——-

“You sure about this Tails?” Knuckles asked as Tails had proposed going out and finding an old Eggman base that was further up the mountains.

“Yes, Sonic from the other dimension agreed to come with me. I doubt we’d run into Infinite there as he already has what he wants.”

“True…”

“It’s not too far from here either. I figure if we leave now, as should be back by midday the latest. It is still early morning now after all.”

“Alright, but keep me posted. Don’t stay too long and be careful.”

“Yes Commander.”

And off the duo went.

———

*Infinite POV 3rd person 

“Are you ready?”

Eggman asked as Infinite had placed his comm on, able to now hear anytime the Doctor spoke to him. Usually, he just wore a watch he could speak into and hear from, but Eggman insisted on an earpiece today. So, one settled comfortably in his ear while he still wore the hidden watch under his glove, just in case he needed it.

“Yes. I checked the army of robots this morning. That should be plenty I would think. I will also have my own army of illusions sent out against the Resistance.”

“Perfect.”

“I will take my leave then.”

“Wait,” Eggman grabbed his attention, “Don’t get distracted. You have who you want here. So, do not hold back now that the wolf is no longer with them, and don’t let them distract you from the task at hand with whatever they say. They may try just about anything if they feel there’s no hope.”

“Will do Doctor. I will be back soon.”

Infinite disappeared.

——-

*Gadget POV 3rd person 

Morning came and the sun was shining brightly from a small round window as Gadget sat at the kitchen table with coffee in a new ‘Gadget’ mug. Flipping a page, he scanned the passage as he took in the words that flowed together to tell a compelling story.

Last night had been like a dream as he reminisced about the romantic dance, a delicious dinner, and an adventure movie to finish the night off. Zero hadn’t come to bed with him that night, which he wasn’t sure how to feel about that at first, but after waking up this morning, there was a sort of relief there.

While Gadget had allowed himself to fall into the fantasy of wonderful romance yesterday, his dreams from his slumber and his thoughts this morning, haunted him, telling him otherwise as reminders of the war, death, and the abandoned warehouse, rushed to the forefront of his mind. The fact that he let himself succumb to Infinite so easily, he wasn’t sure if he should feel disgusted with himself, or even be surprised by it.

If everyone knew, they’d leave him here to rot, never coming to rescue him. Honestly, it probably was safer that they didn’t come. Maybe if he could find a way out, he could stay in hiding, distracting Infinite away from the Resistance. However, Zero would probably assume they were hiding him and annihilate them anyway. Perhaps that wasn’t the best plan.

Crap. He couldn’t focus.

Slamming the book shut, he stood from his seat before retreating to the living room. Picking out a light hearted film, he slipped it in the DVD player and selected play. The movie was boring honestly, but it seemed to dub his thoughts out; just enough to where he fell asleep on the couch.

———-

*Sonic POV 3rd person 

After Tails left, it seemed pretty slow as most were still asleep from the attack and then the night long trek from the ruins of the old base to the new one. Sonic had stayed up all night and stood watch today so everyone could get some rest. Knuckles walked in; exhaustion could be seen a mile away on him. He’d also stayed up all night and planned to today as well.

“How about getting some rest Commander?”

“Hearing you call me Commander makes me cringe. Please don’t do that.”

Holding an amused grin, he listened to the other’s request and didn’t say it again, “But really, you look beat Knuckles.”

“So do you wise ass.”

“I’d say someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed except you didn’t sleep last night.”

“I’m gonna punch you.”

Beeps sounded from the monitor as a call was coming in. Sonic answered it. It was Shadow and Rouge; the bat giving a friendly wave while Shadow looked like he could care less.

“Hey guys,” Knuckles greeted.

Rouge replied, “Good to see you’re both still in one piece. Sorry we couldn’t be there last night. We were in the middle of exploring an Eggman facility we’d just found and didn’t have much signal there. We had no idea the main base blew up and everyone moved until this morning.”

“That’s alright. Everything’s fine here. No one was hurt and everyone got here safely. Did you find anything?”

“We found where some Phantom Ruby testing was done.” Shadow replied.

“Phantom Ruby testing?”

“We found a little information before, but not much,” Rouge spoke, “But we found more details this time. We’re planning to head to your location to check in and show you what we found.”

“Sounds good.”

Alarms suddenly blared throughout the base. Shadow and Rouge look shocked as Sonic checked the alarms to see what caused the outburst… It wasn’t good.

“Shit!”

Shadow asked, “What’s going on over there Sonic?”

“Infinite’s approaching the base. He has a huge robot army, and an even larger army of his illusions.”

“We’re on our way.”

The line was cut. It was time to prepare for a battle.

———-

Many soldiers stood away from the base; creating a line to block the incoming army. It wasn’t good since they were greatly outnumbered, but all they could do was try their best and hope things turn out well. Amy volunteered to stay with the wounded inside, leaving everyone else outside to prepare for the fight ahead.

The enemy stood within range; Infinite with an army of many and was ready to kill. He floated above the robots and illusions that traveled along the ground, before cubes formed all around him. Determined, a hand shot up as some red squares flew in various directions, altering the atmosphere. Before the scene was completed, the jackal yelled out.

“Charge! Destroy everything and everyone! Leave nothing intact or alive! GO!!!”

Robots fired missiles and bullets as the illusions appeared before the Resistance, all at once attacking their targets. Multiple versions of Shadow, Metal Sonic, Chaos, and Zavok all struck at the enemy forces.

Turrets in the base were prepared and shot back at the missiles, bullets, and robots, taking care to distract and fend off that portion of the army while the Resistance members on the ground had to face the illusions head on.

As the fighting on the ground took place, Infinite was high above it all as he focused on changing the land; snow hardening to ice chunks before splitting up. Some cracks gave way to deep holes where anyone who fell in would fall to their death. While other cracks in the ice showed rivers gushing violently; if someone were to fall in, it would be extremely difficult to swim out of, and would most likely drown. To finish off the landscape, hands forced many cubes to surround the battleground before large gusts of wind and a mix of snow and hail blew through the sky and onto the scene.

“Ahhh!!!”

Yells filled the air as the hail pelted down, injuring many soldiers and distracting others; causing them to get hits from the illusions, as Infinite’s creations were not affected by the Phantom Ruby’s hailstorm. 

With the battle just beginning, already half of the Resistance that had been stationed at that base were whipped out. Sonic feared the worst for everyone as this got real bad, real fast.

“Knuckles!” Sonic shouted into his communicator as he was on the opposite side of the battlefield as the Commander, “We have to retreat! Everyone will die if we don’t!”

“I agree,” the echina answered as he punched a Metal Sonic out of existence, “But we’ll need someone to distract Infinite.”

“I can do that,” Sonic volunteered.

“Alright. I’ll also need a few soldiers to stay out here with me to try to fend off these guys until everyone else can escape.”

“We’re your peeps!”

Looking to the owner of that voice, Knuckles saw the Rookie’s siblings; Brian holding a laser sword with a pistol strapped to his hip and Kytra holding…

“Is that a rocket launcher?”

“Hell yeah!” She beamed proudly, “When the war first started, I found this in the trash room and asked Gadget to fix it, and modify it, and to add multiple rockets that could be shot at once instead of just one at a time, and…”

“Okay, okay! I get it.” The Commander cut her off, “Alright, you’re both with me. Once I send the command for everyone to retreat, they’ll go inside and use an escape route hidden underneath the base. Us three along with Sonic will stay out here to continue fighting for as long as we can before we retreat as well.”

“Sounds good!” They gave a thumbs up.

“Amy,” Knuckles spoke into the comm, “Start evacuating the wounded into the tunnels. Soldiers will be arriving there soon as well, and I’m sure some of them can help.”

“Roger that.”

As the three coordinated the retreat, Sonic ran through the enemies until finding exactly who he was looking for; the jackal being off to the side as he’d been watching the show. That single eye glanced at the intruder as it narrowed in his direction.

“I suppose you’ve come to bother me. Last time wasn’t enough of a failure and you just had to try to redeem yourself. Pathetic.”

“You’re the pathetic one Infinite. This time, it’s just you and me, and I plan to mop you up real good!”

“Strong statement from someone who has yet to defeat me.”

“I’m not one to give up easily.” 

Sonic grinned, having a plan on how to extremely piss the jackal off, which hopefully would distract him away from the secret retreat, but also might warrant Infinite into wanting to murder him more than he already does.

“I’m not known for giving up quickly. This time will be different. Such as, oh you know, stuffing your face into the ground and going to save Gadget from your prison afterwards?”

A snarl came from the enemy as he became tense from those words, and his fingers curled into tight fists.

“You never learn when to stop sticking your nose into my business, do you?” Zero sneered, “However, you won’t get a chance to be the blue savior for him.”

“Oh really? We’ll just see about that!”

And the fight was on as Sonic started with a spin dash. Punches, kicks, some hits landed and others not, the two were completely in-tuned with their duel. Knuckles, Kytra, and Brian were able to battle the enemies as the remaining members of the Resistance retreated inside and started through the secret escape tunnels they had that traveled all through the mountains and would eventually lead them out as Sonic did well as a distraction.

“Shouldn’t you be focused more on your ‘Resistance’ than on one lone wolf?”

“I help everyone I can to the best of my ability,” Sonic disagreed as he kicked but missed, “I failed him, but I’ll keep trying, until I finally succeed, and free him from you!”

“You cannot protect everyone rat.”

“I won’t stop trying to though!” The flying fists continued through the conversation.

“It’s not like he’s special to you. Just focus back on that puny resistance of yours as they need your help more than he does.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

“Hm?”

“Gadget isn’t just anybody. He’s kind, sincere, always tries to do the right thing, even when it’s hard, and he’s been my partner out in the field; always having my back.”

“Hmph, you almost sound like you care about him.”

A rough punch landed in the hedgehog’s abdomen, making him suddenly fall to the ground. Shakily getting back to his feet, Sonic answered him.

“It’s because I do care about him,” determination glowed in those emerald eyes, “I’m going to save him and protect him from you!”

Tackled to the ground, Infinite straddled Sonic’s waist as fingers tightly wrapped around his throat; causing him to cough.

“YOU CAN’T HAVE HIM! He belongs to ME!”

“That’s not up to you to decide,” Sonic wheezed out, “That’s Gadget’s choice.”

“He already made his choice all those years ago when he decided to love me.”

“Perhaps back then, but what about now? You can’t force love.”

Smirking evilly, though unseen because of the mask, his grip tightened more. The jackal replied, “I don’t have to.”

Grunts left the hedgehog as he was running short on breath. He tried to move his legs but unfortunately realized they were restrained to the ground, most likely by Infinite’s cubes. Azure hands gripped the jackal’s arms, trying to shove him off, but those were quickly pulled to the snow and binded by the red squares as well. Shit…

“How are you going to save Gadget if you cannot even save yourself?” Zero sneered down at him as he continued to choke the life out of the hero. “Tell me... Who’s going to save you now?”

Sight flickered as black started forming in the corners of his eyes.

No! He can’t! Not yet!

No.

Gadget…

.

.

.

.

.

.

“Gah!”

As if having dejavu, Infinite got knocked off his prey again. It was the smaller Sonic, just as before. He glowered at not just the shorter Sonic, but also the modern Sonic who was getting help from a yellow fox and a white bat. A black and red hedgehog stood by the other dimension Sonic; both looking ready to murder.

“You all piss me off.”

Ruby cubes readied, they flew in front of the jackal as they mixed with the snow and ice; suddenly creating large snow like giants that were just waiting to crush their opponents.

“Abominable snowmen? Really?” Sonic groaned as he was finally on his feet. 

Sight stealthily looked back to see everyone was evacuated, including Knuckles and Gadget’s siblings. Perfect timing.

“I’ll destroy them myself,” Shadow snarled out.

“Shadow,” Sonic caught his attention, “We succeeded in what we were trying to do. Now we just need to think of a plan to get out of here ourselves.”

Seriously considering the Faker’s words, he abruptly nodded as his gaze settled back on the ice monsters. Fingers began to glow yellow before yellow glowing diamonds like the sun shaped around his hands. Having a good number of them, Shadow smirked.

“Chaos Spear!”

All the diamonds, or spears, all at once went towards the snow monsters. Slicing and splitting them all through and through, all that remained was a thick layer of snow in the air. Once the white disappeared, however, Sonic and his friends were gone.

“What?!”

Infinite looked to and fro, before noticing everything and everyone but the remains of dead resistance members and shattered robot parts laid scattered along the battlefield. There’s no way the fight was done yet.

No… Sonic came to distract him so everyone could escape. That’s why he came up here and taunted him. Eyes burned with fury as clenched fists shook.

“FUCK!!!”

————

After explaining that only half of the Resistance at the base had perished, Eggman didn’t seem too upset as he thought it was a pretty good amount all things considering, and it was better than none dying. Zero made sure to leave out the distraction part and only that he battled Sonic but that he managed to escape in the end. If the Doctor suspected anything, he didn’t inquired on it.

Now he returned to the inter-dimensional space. Metal dropped on the front porch before he entered the cabin. Steps sounded as the door creaked closed. Right then he noticed Gadget asleep on the couch. Eyes closed as soft snores left his lips; looking totally at peace. 

Entering the living room, he saw the menu screen for a light hearted family film on the television. He’d seen it maybe once or something, he couldn’t remember. They weren’t really his type of movies. Heterchromia gaze looked away from the television to stare at the slumbering wolf. No matter what he was doing, Gadget always appeared cute to him.

“You can’t force love.”

That stupid hedgehog doesn’t know anything about them.

“I do care… I’m going to save him and protect him from you.”

Gadget needs protection from the world. If anyone got a hold of Gadget, they’d use him against Zero, doing who knows what to him. He can’t lose Gadget. Not again!

“I do care.”

Never again.