Chapter Text
Sonic’s last thought before plummeting to Earth was not one of victory, or hope, or triumph.
It was a silent apology, one of pure exhaustion. It was a plea that his pain, everything that he had gone through to get to where he was now, would be enough for the people on the planet below.
When he eventually awoke in Knuckles’ strong arms, Tails opposite him, he was confused, to say the least. Surely, he was dead. There was no way he survived that fall. But when Tails called to Sonic, his big, blue-eyed gaze focused on something in the sky, he confirmed that he was, in fact, very much alive.
The Eclipse Cannon’s “death ray”, as they were calling it, had miraculously missed Earth. However, it hit the moon instead, slicing the bottom fourth right off. And before the destruction of the Eclipse Cannon could further affect Earth, Shadow and Robotnik had sacrificed their lives in order to save the world, doing all they could to get the weapon as far from Earth as possible. The Eclipse Cannon’s inevitable explosion had created a mini supernova in the sky above them, another permanent sign of Robotnik and Shadow’s final good deed.
“You always have a choice,” Sonic remembered muttering, a new heavy feeling in his chest.
He turned to his brothers, beaten and worn just like him, nearly stumbling over his apologies for going off without them, begging for forgiveness. Especially from the oldest of the two, who only seemed to glare in response. Eventually, he raised a fist as if he were aiming for a power bump, softly reciting the team name G.U.N. had proposed earlier. All Sonic could manage in that moment was to hug his older brother, stunning him momentarily. He then pulled back and invited Tails into the hug, as well. They all leaned into one another, synchronized breaths settling the adrenaline still coursing through their veins.
Sonic didn’t want to be the namesake of a team anymore. They were just a team, no ifs or buts.
Knuckles had soon revealed that they had used their last ring in order to save Sonic, so the journey back to Tom and Maddie would likely be mostly on foot. They weren’t even sure exactly where they landed. Tails’ Miles Electric was damaged in the fall, so the three were truly in the dark. Despite this, he still tried to send out a signal. Whether or not it worked, only time would tell. He’d have to spend some time fidgeting with it if he wanted to get any readings, or at least get a proper signal out to someone, but that would have to wait.
Linked together, hand in hand, Knuckles led his brothers out of the cornfield, searching for any sign of society around them. Sonic tried to ignore the shaking in his knees and the pounding in his head. He tried to ignore the strange sorrow he felt for Shadow, and subsequently tried to ignore the gnawing anxiety that Tom their dad might not even be alive.
Meanwhile, Maddie Wachowski sat at her unconscious husband’s bedside in a barren and sterile hospital room in London, silently praying to anyone who was listening that her sons were safe and were finding their way back to her. She couldn’t handle another heartbreak.
Tom’s injuries were severe — a concussion, two collapsed lungs, broken ribs, some internal bleeding, and a dislocated shoulder — but he was expected to make a full recovery, in time.
Regardless, that didn’t change the fact that his cold, heavy hand didn’t squeeze back, like it always did. The only response she was met with was rhythmic beeping from his heart monitor.
—
The sun was setting during the brothers’ journey in the middle of nowhere, and the slow arrival of darkness was doing nothing to quell their exhaustion. Wherever Knuckles thought of was nearly completely barren. And despite the growing desire to get back to their parents, their best bet was to stay away from main roads. The last thing they needed was some freaked out farmer chasing them down unfamiliar roads with a pitchfork.
Knuckles eventually made the decision to stop their trek to take a bit of a breather. It was almost completely dark, and the next town was still a ways away. He could feel Sonic’s trembling hand in his own, and he was certain Tails wasn’t doing much better. He located an abandoned wooden shed on the outskirts of a tree-filled landscape and wordlessly led his brothers inside. No one seemed to question him, because Tails almost immediately plopped down on the ground. He was about to use his backpack as a pillow, but Knuckles pulled the fox kit into his lap, letting his littlest brother rest against his body.
“Tails,” Sonic started, shakily sliding down the wall next to Knuckles. “I wanted to apologize fo—”
“The fox is asleep,” Knuckles hummed. There was no bite to his words, but Sonic still felt a pang of shame in his chest. Though, Knuckles was right. They were both sure Tails had fallen asleep before Knuckles had even pulled him against his chest.
Sonic was quiet then, his scraped-up knees pulled up to his own chest. Maddie would have a field day fussing over those.
“Sleep, hedgehog,” Knuckles started again. “We cannot continue our journey without proper rest.” He opened an arm for Sonic, offering to let him scootch in.
“Thanks, Knux, but I’m still riding that Chaos Emerald energy,” Sonic replied with a weary smile. “I can keep watch.”
Knuckles wanted to argue, but instead bit his tongue. “Very well.”
While it was true that Sonic was still high on Chaos Emerald adrenaline, he vowed that he wouldn’t sleep until he had eyes on Tom — alive — and Maddie.
So, he sat, and listened to the sounds of his brothers’ slow, steady breathing to his right. He thought some more about Robotnik, and whatever his assistant Agent Stone was getting up to now. He felt a little bad for the guy. However, he had a harder time extending his sympathies to the doctor. At least he did the right thing, he decided.
He was stuck in a loop in regards to Shadow. One moment, his heart burned with anger at Shadow for hurting his dad, and the next, that anger turned into a heavy feeling of sadness in his chest, wondering what would’ve happened had Shadow lived. Would they be friends? Could they be friends? He wondered what Maria was like. He figured she was pretty cool if she was able to get him to crack a smile in that one shattered photo. She kind of reminded him of Tom, in a way. His thoughts spiraled like this for God knows how long. It could’ve been minutes or hours of his head replaying certain moments on endless repeat. He thought the sun was starting to rise in the sky when he heard a distant humming.
His ears perked up at the noise as it seemingly headed closer. With a furrowed brow, he listened. It sounded like a helicopter. He started to sit up, fully prepared to step outside and investigate the noise, when Knuckles suddenly held him back with an outstretched arm.
“I hear it, too,” he whispered, pulling Tails closer to his body. Sonic had forgotten that his older brother was a light sleeper.
(He wondered if Knuckles had even slept.)
It only seemed to get louder and louder, and the noise eventually peaked right above them. Tails had awoken at this point, too, sleepily clinging onto Knuckles as the helicopter seemed to hover overhead. With a single look, the three decided to stand and investigate outside the abandoned shed.
A spotlight shined down on the trio, blinding them almost completely as they stepped outside. The wind kicked up by the helicopter greatly disturbed the foliage surrounding them, and Sonic could hear distant wildlife scurrying away. None of them had to really look at the now-landing helicopter to know that it was G.U.N., and, unlike in Green Hills, Sonic refused to quip at them. In fact, he felt an anger almost unlike any other upon seeing the aircraft. Tails still clung to Knuckles as a G.U.N. agent stepped out of the helicopter. It wasn’t Rockwell, so that eased Sonic’s bitterness and deep-seated rage ever so slightly.
“Team Sonic,” the G.U.N. agent started sternly, hands behind his back.
“Just team,” Sonic sharply corrected. He wore a heavy glare on his face, and his arms sat crossed against his chest. Strike one.
The G.U.N. agent hummed. “We received your signal. Your… humans are still in London.” Sonic didn’t like the usage of the word “humans” in his sentence. That was strike two.
“We will take you back to them,” the agent continued. “Unless, you have other means of transport?”
Tails started to pull Knuckles toward the helicopter, still feigning sleep. Knuckles followed, either too tired to sense a threat or confident that there wasn’t one, but Sonic stayed firmly in place. His brothers noticed this.
“Hedgehog, what is stopping you?” Knuckles questioned, gently pulling Tails to a stop and turning to face Sonic, who still glared at the G.U.N. agent.
He wanted nothing more than to be with Tom and Maddie — their parents. He needed them more than anything right now. The memory of finding Tom practically lifeless in that desolate hallway was burned into his mind, and it needed to be replaced with something (hopefully) more pleasant. But why did it have to be G.U.N.? What if it was a trap? What if G.U.N. was about to put him and his brothers into stasis, like they did to Shadow?
“This isn’t a trick, if that’s what you’re worried about” the G.U.N. agent sighed, seemingly reading Sonic’s mind. “We have much more pressing matters on our hands.”
Sonic still didn’t like his tone. It was almost strike three, when finally, Tails’ little voice snapped him out of his slowly boiling anger.
“Sonic, please…” the fox kit mumbled, holding out a small hand. Sonic’s brow unfurrowed just enough, and he took Tails’ hand in his own. Satisfied, the G.U.N. agent led them into the helicopter, and barely waited for them to take a seat before signalling to the pilot that it was time for liftoff again.
Watching as the sun quickly rose higher in the sky, clearly signalling that they were headed east toward London, Sonic let his nerves ease ever so lightly.
No one spoke for the majority of the flight. Tails sat in between Knuckles and Sonic, awake but with heavy eyelids. He couldn’t have even been bothered to fuss with his Miles Electric.
“Tails,” Sonic eventually started, a little hesitant. Tails looked back at him with curious blue eyes. “I wanted to apologize for snapping at you before. You were just trying to comfort me, and—”
“Sonic, it’s okay,” Tails smiled weakly.
Sonic shook his head. “No, it isn’t.” He took Tails’ hand in his own again, squeezing tight. “You were trying to help and… and I was being a jerk. You didn’t deserve that.” The hedgehog looked toward Knuckles now, a tired smirk on his face. “Neither did you, Knucklehead.”
Knuckles looked back with heavy eyes. No words were spoken back, but he offered a simple nod in acknowledgement. Sonic would take that for now.
The G.U.N. agent then informed the trio that they were preparing for landing.
Sonic sat with a pit in his stomach. They were either returning to London with both Tom and Maddie alive and well, or…
He shook off the rest of that thought before he spiraled into panic.
They were given clearance to land on the hospital’s heli-pad. The three were on their feet before the helicopter even touched down.
As the doors opened, they were escorted out by two more G.U.N. agents. It was clear pretty quickly that G.U.N. was trying to keep their return to London as under wraps as possible. The two G.U.N. agents led them inside, and immediately into an elevator. The sterile scent of the hospital attacked their nostrils before they could even get properly inside the building. It didn’t help that Sonic didn’t really like elevators, either. Knuckles was even more on edge. Sonic was pretty sure that, had it not been for his own worn demeanor, Knuckles would’ve adamantly refused to get in the elevator.
Finally, the doors opened, but the brothers were still held back. One of the G.U.N. agents had paused, assuring the hallway was clear, before leading them forward. Sonic’s whole body was shaking again, but he couldn’t tell if it was because of leftover adrenaline or horrible anxiety.
They then stopped in front of a door, and the G.U.N. agent gave it three light knocks. It opened, revealing yet another G.U.N. agent, but Sonic could see Maddie peeking just behind them.
“Mom!” Sonic cried, and he and his brothers shoved past the G.U.N. agents and into Maddie’s open arms. Maddie quickly fell to her knees to mimic their height, pulling her sons in close.
“Thank God you’re all okay,” she sniffled, tear trails lining her face as she held her kids tighter than she ever had before. “I was so worried. I’m so sorry for having to leave you all behind. When that cannon fired, I… but you’re all okay now, right?”
She pulled back to look at her sons, also in tears, (despite Knuckles’ claims of never crying), and kissed them on their foreheads. She surveyed their injuries — all three of whom sported dirty fur from not only the crash-landing, but from flailing through the atmosphere. She pointed out cuts and scratches and minor burns littered across all their bodies, and took a mental note of every single one.
“Is dad…?” The words got caught in Sonic’s throat as he tried to speak, coming out as a strained whisper. He was sure he’d break out into sobs if he dared to speak anything into existence.
Maddie blinked away tears. “He’s in rough shape, and it’ll be a little while before he’s all better, but he’s gonna be okay.” She stood and stepped back, fully revealing the sight of Tom, hospital bed-bound. He was still unconscious, but the steady beeping of his heart monitor was enough to tell him that his dad was alive.
Sonic started to take a shaky step forward, but Maddie gently held him back. “I know how badly you want to see him,” she started, dropping to his level again, “believe me, sweetheart, I do. But let’s take care of your injuries first. Last thing we need is them getting infected.”
He turned to her, wanting to argue, but he wouldn’t dare. He didn’t want to add anything more to her torment, and he was near certain she hadn’t slept, either.
Maddie sat them down on three stiff hospital chairs, while a nurse quietly wrapped their injuries one by one. Even from afar, the sight of Tom unmoving in a hospital bed made Sonic feel ill. His eyes stayed laser-focused on his dad as the nurse tended to his skinned knees and other various injuries. The literal second the nurse was done, he got down, but he felt frozen in place. A horrible voice in his head whispered how it was all his fault, that Tom wouldn’t have to be in his state if it weren’t for him.
“You can go see him now, baby,” Maddie assured, pulling up a chair next to his bedside. Sonic staggered forward with wobbly knees, but stopped again right before pulling himself onto the chair.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” he mumbled, just loud enough for Maddie to hear. “I shouldn’t have made you guys come with us, I—”
Maddie took a quick deep breath in and knelt in front of him again, taking his face in her hands.
“Sonic,” she started, “you have nothing to apologize for. None of this is your fault. Not one bit. None of us blame you. Your dad especially doesn’t, even if he can’t say so right now. It was our choice to help you, and we’d do it over and over again.”
Her voice was firm, steady, but never harsh. Sonic could see the tears welling up in her eyes, and he so badly wanted to believe her, he just couldn’t right now.
Regardless, he let himself be lifted into her arms and set in the chair beside Tom. Maddie gave him a little kiss on his temple before setting him down.
One part of him was grateful that he finally got to observe his dad’s well-being, and another felt sick upon truly seeing him.
He almost looked like he was asleep, and for a brief moment it eased Sonic’s nerves, but he was too still. Too pale. A thin oxygen tube looped around his face and behind his ears, and Sonic also quickly noticed an abrasion on his forehead. His left arm sat snug in a sling, and chest tubes protruded from either side of his ribs.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
He was immediately taken back to the moment he found Tom laying lifeless in that empty G.U.N. hallway. He thought he could hear himself crying and begging for his dad to wake up, shaking his limp body in his arms. The only thing that broke him out of another terrible spiral was watching the slow rise and fall of Tom’s chest. Maybe he was too still and pale to look properly asleep, but at least he didn’t look half-dead anymore.
Once the nurse was finally done tending to his brothers’ wounds, Maddie led them to the opposite side of the bed, pulling up two chairs for the three of them to share.
“Neither of you are to blame, either,” she said, as Tails immediately clamored into her lap. She gave a pointed but gentle look to Knuckles, and all he could do was silently rest his head on her shoulder. She planted a quick kiss on the top of her oldest’s head, hoping he got her message, before sitting back and cradling the fox kit in her arms.
“You boys need some rest,” Maddie softly declared. Tails didn’t argue, even though he was the only one who got some level of real sleep in the abandoned shed. He simply snuggled in closer.
Knuckles released a deep sigh, his adrenaline having finally worn off, it seemed. “Thank you, Matriarch Wachowski,” he hummed, closing his eyes.
Maddie smiled a tired smile at her favorite of Knuckles’ nicknames for her. “Get some sleep, sweetheart.”
Sonic watched the three of them fall into some level of sleep, but was unable to find the will to shut his own eyes. He eventually turned his attention back to Tom, just as still as he was before. He shakily took Tom’s free hand in his own, almost afraid to touch him in such a fragile state, and bit back tears.
This was never supposed to happen.
Tom was supposed to be home, watching over Green Hills. He was supposed to be prepping for movie night with Maddie. But because of him, stumbling into their lives unannounced, he was here. Part of him wished he’d never snuck into their garage, or freaked out at the baseball field.
An uncomfortably strong part of him wished he never existed at all.
Before he knew it, he’d fallen asleep with his head resting in his arms, still holding on for dear life to his dad’s heavy hand.
—
Tom Wachowski was awoken from a cold, dreamless sleep by the sound of piercing rhythmic beeping to his right. His eyes fluttered open, brow furrowing as he felt horrible white light beaming down on his face. Tiny squirts of oxygen tickled the inside of his nose every time he took a breath. That was another thing: each breath in was painful, even the simple, even ones. He was pretty sure there were tubes coming out of his chest. And, last but definitely not least, his left arm sat tight in a sling.
It finally seemed to hit him after about a minute or two of surveying his surroundings: he was in the hospital. The last thing he remembered was getting the second key from Director Rockwell, so how in the world did he end up here?
“Tom?”
He turned his head to the source of the voice and saw Maddie, staring back at him with wide, tearful brown eyes. She stood and carefully hovered over Tom, brushing back his disheveled hair and peppering little kisses all over his face. He couldn't help but feel a little giddy at her touch.
“You are in so much trouble,” she said, though her relieved smile revealed a distinct lack of real anger.
“What happened…?” his question came out hoarse, and barely louder than a whisper. He had the need to cough, but he had a pretty good feeling that that would make him feel a heck of a lot worse.
Maddie wiped a falling tear from her cheek before sitting down again. “We aren’t sure exactly how yet, but, after getting the key from Director Rockwell, you got hurt. Bad. You… you have several broken ribs, two collapsed lungs, a dislocated shoulder, some internal bleeding, and a concussion.”
Tom stared back in bewilderment, and not even because of the loopiness his pain medication was giving him. All he had done was trick Rockwell into giving him the second key, so how…
Shadow. It came back to him, clear as day. He was disguised as Commander Walters, key in hand, and it set Shadow off. He had tried to reason with him, but in his sudden panic, there was little he could do.
And then he was here.
“How long was I out?” Tom continued, still mulling over his realization as to why he was in the state he was in.
“About a day. Like I said, you’re in pretty rough shape.”
All Maddie had to do was give Tom a certain woeful look for him to know that being in “pretty rough shape” didn’t just mean he’d be out of commission for a few days. That’d be a fun thing for Tom to get to process.
“Dad…?”
The voice rattled Tom’s bones. He looked to his right and was met with the sight of Sonic. His son stared back at him with a mix of relief and dread, and Tom was sure tears were about to spill from his big, green eyes.
“Buddy, hey,” Tom said softly with a weak lopsided grin. It started to shake Tom out of his painkiller-induced haze. He took the free hand that Sonic was still holding on to and used it to instead cup his face. He wiped a stray tear that fell from his eye with his thumb.
He could almost hear the apology about to escape from Sonic’s lips, so he stopped him before it ever could. “It’s okay, bud. I’m okay. We’re okay.” Sonic continued to hold Tom’s hand in place with a still-shaky hand of his own.
“Tom’s awake?” he heard Tails chirp from the foot of his bed. The fox kit had been curled up in a little ball, having moved from Maddie’s arms some time ago, but was now sitting up with a big smile. “Tom! Welcome back! We missed you!”
Knuckles was, surprisingly, the last to stir awake. When he did, it was with a deep hum and several rapid blinks.
“Lord of Donuts!” he beamed, having finally pulled himself out of sleep, now leaning forward. “I am pleased to see that you are awake.”
(Tom and Maddie were sure that that was the biggest they’d ever seen Knuckles smile.)
“Hey boys,” he grinned some more, feeling a release of anxiety he didn’t know he had been holding at the sight of his three sons and his wife, alive and well. Though even through bleary eyes, he could see several bandages sported across their bodies. “I missed you guys, too. So much. Tell me everything that happened.”
Shockingly, it was Knuckles and Tails who did most of the talking. Sonic would interject every now and then to offer his own details, but he stayed mostly quiet. Tom’s hand had eventually dropped to his side, with Sonic still holding on tight. He’d given his hand a quick squeeze in return, hoping it would help him to perk up a little, but he still remained silent.
He was probably just real tired. Going “golden god mode” several times was sure to leave him exhausted. He’d start seeing the bundle of blue he knew so well soon enough.
Tom spent the next week in the hospital, receiving multiple X-rays and CT scans for his wonderful myriad of injuries. He got his chest tubes taken out a couple days after he woke up, and boy, was he glad Maddie had decided to take the boys for a walk, because it was not a pretty sight. Maddie had to basically drag them out of the room, with Knuckles insisting that he should keep watch to assure that they wouldn’t hurt Tom. The only reason they finally obeyed was because Maddie promised vending machine cookies.
They were right back at his side just a few minutes later, cookies in hand.
He’d eventually gotten moved to a more comfortable room (with a TV!), was no longer on oxygen, and was taking frequent walls through the hallways with Maddie’s assistance — their boys always following close behind — but Sonic still wasn’t himself. It killed Tom every time he looked at his son. Of course, he wasn’t ignorant as to why Sonic was feeling this way. He could only imagine how he felt. He just wished he could fix it, or prove to him that everything was okay.
Once they were back in Green Hills, back home, in their house, he’d perk up some more, Tom had told himself. They just needed to get out of this hospital.