When Memories Break

"What do you mean you were born here, Sonic?" Tails asked, as he and Sonic slid down the mountain into the Prison Hill. If Sonic had been born there, he must have been born into confinement like the other prisoners of the Robotnik Empire that had been put in that place. "It doesn't add up. Robotnik let you out, only to accept you as one of his greatest allies with open arms?"

"This place wasn't always a prison, Tails," Sonic answered. He and Tails jumped over the river and reached the island. "It used to just be a green hill. I was born before this place got like this."

"Then… what happened for it to 'get like this'?" Tails asked again. He had so many questions.

"G.U.N," Sonic replied, going around a loop-de-loop that looked like it was about to crumble. "They bombed the place. I hardly escaped with my life. Looks like Robotnik built this prison over the rubble." Sonic sparkled with electricity as he repeatedly sliced two unsuspecting Guard Badniks into many little pieces with a lightning beam.

"How do you know it was G.U.N?" Tails asked. "Why would they have bombed a desert in the middle-of-nowhere? They're cruel, but they don't use their LIMITED resources unless they think there's a threat."

"The battleships were green, just like all of G.U.N's weapons," Sonic stated. "Longclaw said 'they' were out to kill me and take my powers."

"Wait… who's Longclaw?" Tails asked. Sonic stopped in his tracks, and Tails stopped propelling forward. A gloomy silence fell over the immediate area save for pickaxes hitting the checkerboarded rock to a faint rhythm in the distance, and thunder growling overhead. It was now dawn, but everything was still so dark. They felt eyes on them from the prisoners, staring towards them fearfully. They thought the two were still on Robotnik's side, and the very sight of Sonic and Tails struck terror into their hearts.

Sonic turned around. "Longclaw… was the one who raised me as a child," Sonic mumbled, fists to his sides. He looked down to the ground. "I was only a little kid when she died in the bombing. That's why I worked my way up to the Robotnik Empire's top ranks in the first place, because I wanted the power necessary to get back at the UF someday." Sonic gazed to the razor-wired fencing which held malnourished prisoners weakly mining deeper into the pit they had been working on for what must have been years by then. The prisoners cowered, but kept mining "I never would have thought that Robotnik would just… build all this atop my old home."

"Sonic…" Tails replied, in horror. It seemed there was something crucial Sonic wasn't taking into account. "That was at least 18 years ago. G.U.N battleships were blue and black then, before the redesign."

"What are you implying?" Sonic snapped, glaring at Tails with a blue electric flicker in his green eye. Like that rare instance when you plug something into an outlet and it sparks a little.

"That was one of Robotnik's Flying Batteries," Tails replied. Sonic's heart nearly stopped. "Flying Batteries have always been green." It started to rain, and the thunder became louder. Sonic gripped his fists.

"That bastard…" Sonic growled, his voice shaky and in disbelief. He took off his cheap plastic mask, nearly breaking the fragile object in his uncontrolled grip. "That… BASTARD!" This had been a gift from Robotnik, but right then it meant absolutely nothing to Sonic. He broke out into a rage, almost tossing the mask into the distance. "He used me, he just wanted my power all along! It's because of that--- it's because of ME that Longclaw died!" Sonic fell to the ground and punched the dirt.

"Sonic! It's okay!" Tails scrambled, kneeling down by Sonic's side. "He won't be able to hurt you anymore once we leave the demilitarization zone. When we do, we'll be free!"

"I wouldn't count on it, fox boy!" Robotnik's voice shouted. Sonic looked over to the sound of Robotnik's voice, with pure anger stuck on his face. There was Robotnik, sitting in his Rob-O-Matic. "You two may make it to the demilitarization zone… as corpses for target practice, that is!" A spider mech crawled over to the Rob-O-Matic, which lowered into the cockpit of the giant metal arachnid. Instantly, it raised up its legs and shot webs at Sonic and Tails. "A shame I had to let Penumbra go, she would've been useful considering that I now know you can't use the Chaos Emeralds. Seems I'll have to finish you with my OWN type of spider!"

Sonic dodged out of the way, but Tails was caught by a web. Sonic wasn't about to let Robotnik kill one more person he cared about. So as Robotnik's spider mech closed in for the kill as if Tails was a fly caught in a real spider's web, Sonic bashed into the cockpit. "Agh!" Robotnik shouted. He forgot about Tails and tried to shake Sonic off of the mech. "How dare you?!"

"It was your fault!" Sonic cried, as he jumped atop the cockpit glass and began to try and break it in with his fist. "Why would you do it?!" Sonic began to punch with both fists. The glass began to crack. "I thought you were supposed to be like a father to me, but you just wanted my power this whole time! You were going to kill me no matter what, weren't you?" Sonic stopped, smashing his fists into the glass one final time. "You… I just wanted to make you proud of me, didn't that mean anything to you, Ivo?" Sonic sat there, shaking.

Robotnik stared at Sonic, who was very much defenseless. Sonic cared about him, and that was Sonic's greatest weakness… Robotnik's greatest asset. Robotnik grinned. "Sonic, you need to learn something. If it's not going to be me to harness your power, it will be someone else. I'm only doing what's best for you. You can resign your power to me right now, work for me once more, and I won't hurt a hair on your head. Believe me, I do not want to."

Sonic looked Robotnik in the eyes. Robotnik hid away his diabolical grin. "Doc… I---" Sonic said, feeling a pit in his stomach. He looked down, hiding his eyes. "I want to go home. I don't want to fight anymore." Robotnik smiled with a fake expression of care for the hedgehog. Sonic's green eye suddenly turned light blue. He narrowed his eyes. "But this isn't my home. And this will be the last time we fight. I'm not sorry." Sonic snapped his fingers, and the thunder clouds in the area struck lightning all over Robotnik's mech as Sonic backflipped onto the ground. He watched intently as Robotnik was fried within his Rob-O-Matic. Parts of the spider mech began to explode in a brilliant light. Sonic only commanded more and more lightning to gather around the now charred pile of scrap metal.

"Sonic, look!" Tails shouted. "Robotnik's getting away!" Sonic looked up, and saw the Rob-O-Matic flying away from the wreckage, burnt but still somewhat operational. Robotnik was red with burns that would heal with time. Sonic gritted his teeth, and Spin Dashed through the webs keeping Tails tied up.

"Oh no he isn't! Nobody runs away from me!" Sonic shouted. He gained no response from Tails. Sonic could run faster than anything, but he couldn't fly an inch. "Tails, fly me over to him!"

"Sonic… calm down…" Tails sighed. Sonic swung his head over to face him. Sonic's body language told of a deep-seated yet newfound hatred for Robotnik, and a desire to end his life once and for all. Gripped fists, crystalized eyes, clenched teeth and sharpened quills. "You're not going to lose control again. Not over this, are you? He's not worth it!"

Sonic took a deep and shaky breath. "I already did… back on the Death Egg," Sonic admitted, trying to calm himself down. His voice was heavy with pain. He didn't want Tails to worry, but he couldn't avoid the fact that this WAS a cause for Tails to worry.

"You WHAT?!" Tails cried. "Sonic… last time you went hyper like that, it wasn't pretty. Remember? The uprising in---"

"I know, I remember. But… I can't help it…" Sonic sighed. "That monster took everything from me. My home, my family. He wanted to… STILL wants to take my life."

"And we won't let him. When we get to the Iron Dominion, we can restart," Tails encouraged, smiling. "C'mon, let's get going. We still have a long road before we get to the de-mil zone."

Sonic nodded apprehensively, as his eyes returned to normal and his quills softened. He unclenched his fists, and gazed towards the upcoming hotlands.