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wolfinitethewolf · 6 months ago

Text

It's here!

Alright! After a long time I can reveal my fic for @sthbigbang, Memories in the Sky!

Really hope you'll all enjoy it, and a really big thanks to the amazing artists who've all done an amazing piece for it! Please do go and check them out! I'll be rebloggin' their amazing work here, but I declare that you go and see it yourself! Actually, another thanks to 'em for putting up with how long it took for me to actually finish it, :D Asides from that, here is the lovely talent behind the amazing artwork for this:

@fleetways Their art @grimly-arts Their art @bittersweet-cj Their art

Heres the link to the AO3 version: MEMORIES IN THE SKY

But if you wanna read it here, a small summary, and under the cut shall be the fic itself :D

Sonic and Tails have had many adventures over the few years that they've known each over. Of course, when you have so many battles, even the painful, adrenaline boosting, and heartfelt battles are easy to move on from.

After battling against Dr. Eggman once again, the classic duo Sonic and Tails sit down together to catch a break and relax. However, as the two look up to the sky, some certain star formations begin to emerge, alongside with a few of their past adventures.

For the STH Big Bang 2024!

Sonic and Tails were sitting together on top of one of the many floating platforms that occupy green hill. Some stray blades of grass were gently blowing in the breeze. The sun was setting, casting its final orange light over the sea right before Sonic and Tails’ eyes. The stars were beginning to come out as the darkness rose over the horizon.

“Haha that was fun, wasn’t it lil’ buddy?” Sonic turned his head towards Tails, smiling in joy at the thrilling conclusion of another battle. “Yeah! Eggman stood no chance! Not when we are both around!” Sonic laughed, sitting up straight, shuffling the grass underneath him. “Haha, right you are! Besides, a few bots is nothing compared to literally anything else you and I have taken down without a problem!”

Tails gives Sonic a cheeky grin. “Oh really? You sure nothing at all has been a hassle for you?” Sonic grins, crossing his arms. “I am certain of it! Nothing can beat me! Now or ever!” After giving his statement, he picks up a blade of grass and fiddles with it in between his fingers.

As the two had their conversation, the sun was finally out of view. Only black with various shades of purple behind the many stars sitting in the sky. Time seemed to freeze, with Sonic and Tails being the only ones still moving and awake.

“Well… What about that time when Knuckles one shot you and took all the Chaos Emeralds?” Sonic gave a short laugh. “Well to be fair, I did not use them as much as I do now. Also he got me by surprise really…” Tails rolled his eyes. “Ok… What about the various races you lost to Jet?” “Hahaha I won a lot more races than he did! Besides, I was letting him win. After all, gotta let him think he won something.” Tails looks over at Sonic with a doubting look. “Ok. Then what about Mecha Sonic? That was more recent.” “C’mon, I had a broken ankle, you can’t count that! Also to make it fair, didn’t you also lose to him when trying to save me?” Sonic grinned, jabbing an elbow at Tails too quick for him to block with either of his tails.

“Haha, well why don’t you ask Mecha what he has to say about that?” Sonic lowered his eyelids. “Ehh, don’t want to bother him, y’know?” Sonic let go of the blade of grass he was playing with, letting it glide through the air into the ocean below them. “Whatever you say…” Just as Tails was about to add on something else, he held his breath, lowering his ears slightly. Changing his mind on whatever he was about to speak.

“Hm? Tails, you all good?” Tails perked back up. “Yeah! I’m all good!” Sonic gave a doubtful look, but moved on anyway. Tails closed his eyes, relaxing and enjoying the quiet.

The stars began to shine and sparkle, illuminating the night as the clouds covered the moon in a blanket.

“Heh. Hey Tails, don’t you think those stars over there look like the Chaos Emeralds? Like, the basic outline of them.” Sonic held a finger up to a group of stars, as Tails opened his eyes and followed where he was looking. “Huh, I guess they do kinda look like them…” Sonic and Tails stare at them in silence before Sonic speaks up. “They sure have come in handy, huh? I mean, we’ve done so much with them! Took down Eggman with them, multiple times may I add. Chaos, Time Eater, Dragon looking Metal Sonic- twice, all the Titans and the End on Starfall Island, and got rid of the Metal Virus! That's just to name a few!” Sonic had both hands on his hip, grinning in pride looking at Tails.

“Well yeah, but- wait, most of your victories were won due to the Chaos Emeralds! So you did technically get help after all!” Tails grinned at Sonic, mimicking what Sonic was doing and placing his hands on his hips in a similar manner. They both sat there in silence for a brief moment before Sonic came up with a response. “Well I mean, who wouldn’t want to fly around golden and all? C’mon, admit it, it's super cool. Pun intended.”

Tails gave Sonic an annoyed look. “First. You did need them. There is no way you would have otherwise. Second. Yeah, it is really cool. Third, That was a really bad pun. I would give that a 2/10.” Sonic gave Tails a dramatic response, pulling a “disheartened” face and resting his palm on his head. “Oh c’mon. That's quite the harsh review. I guess I’ll never do a pun ever again. This world is too cruel to say anything without judgment!” Sonic fell back onto the grass. “I guess that's the end of Sonic. His true enemy is a bad critic review.”

Sonic closed his eyes and smirked. “A bad critic review indeed.” Tails flicked a round stone at Sonic, landing on his forehead. Sonic got up, the stone falling back onto the ground from where Tails picked it up. “Ah. Enough of that. Truth is I am glad to have your help. You, Knuckles, Amy, heck even Shadow! You are all my friends! There is no one else I’d rather have my back than you all!”

“I knew that. Just waited for you to admit it.” Sonic gave a small laugh, smiling. “Ah well. You win some and you lose some.” Just as Sonic said that a stray leaf glided in out of nowhere and smacked itself into Sonic’s face, catching him off guard. Just as quickly as it landed, it took off, following the breeze. Sonic and Tails sat there for no less than a second before going into a fit of laughter, despite it not overall being that funny to begin with.

“Woah! Look at the ocean!” Tails joined in with Sonic gazing at the sea to see the beautiful sight of the stars reflected by the ocean's surface, with various ocean life illuminated underneath submerged by water. “Wait, aren't you supposed to be afraid of water?” Tails gave Sonic a sly side glance. “Well when I am in it. I mean, it can be beautiful. But from afar, and not too close to me…” Tails snickered. “I mean, you say that while we are sitting on a small floating platform almost right above the ocean…” Sonic wrapped one arm around Tails’ shoulder. “Ahh shut it you. You’ll make me wanna run off.” “Don’t be dramatic…”

Sonic and Tails continued to admire the stars as Tails decided to turn Sonic’s earlier comment into a game of sorts. “Look! Don’t those stars look like Trip’s helmet! When you look at it reflected in the water!” Sonic pointed his head downwards. “Yeah they do buddy!”

Sonic picked up a stone off the ground and skilfully tossed it at the ocean, as it skipped across the sea. “The highlight of it all was I remember in Cyber Station when Knuckles knocked me down a platform and sent me flying! Man, now that I think back on it that happened quite a bit, with you having to catch me. Heh. What fun…” Tails gave Sonic an irritated look. “I am pretty sure that was you being stubborn and just leaping before you looked, which then led me to having to catch you…. Quite a few times…” Sonic shrugged. “Eh, same story…”

“Well what about in Speed Jungle when you ran off so fast you were stuck having to beat that robot at the end of the zone all by yourself? You were having a hard time until me, Amy, and Knuckles arrived.” Sonic held a finger up to his chin, rethinking the scenario. “I don’t believe that exactly happened. More like that Knucklehead could not keep up…” As Sonic said that he tossed another stone at the sea, skipping like the previous one. “Oh yeah? You sure about that? Why don’t you sit back and think for a minute?” Tails questioned, as Sonic sat there with his arms folded, reimagining the event.

Sonic had blazed through the jungle, scattering vines, fog, and leaves everywhere. He skillfully jumped in between platforms or walls, not coming to a halt for even a mere second. While he was having a fun time, the rest of his crew was not.

Tails, Amy, and Knuckles were trying their best to keep up with their blue friend, as he left them behind in the dust. It was very easy to see where he was going due to his speed leaving quite the trail behind him. Vines he used to get across were still swinging, wooden bridges still swaying wildly.

“Sonic! Wait up!” Tails cupped his hands around his mouth in an attempt to make himself louder. However, the hedgehog was either ignoring him, or was too far ahead to hear anything the group was saying. Tails spinned his namesakes faster, in hopes of catching up. “Sonic!”

After many failed attempts to catch up, the trio came to a halt to catch their breaths. Amy had her hands on her knees, Tails was gasping for air, and Knuckles stood there, not out of breath but irritated about being left behind. Amy let out a sigh of defeat. “Why does Sonic keep running off like that?” While she finally had the chance to stop running, she picked out stray twigs from her quills and dress, scratches all over her.

Knuckles had his nose to the ground, not saying anything more than a grunt, leaning up against a tall and rounded off rock. Tails was sitting on the ground plucking out all the twigs tangled in his tails’ fur, mattered and rough. “Hopefully he’ll be alright until we reach him…” Amy said as she sat down to catch her breath.

The sound of leaves crunching and twigs snapping echoed around as the blue blur slowed to a walk when in a darker space. Of course, he was speed walking. But nonetheless walking. There was only a little light source guiding him. Only just enough to see his own hands and legs in front of him. For the most part he was feeling his way around.

The jungle surrounding smelt damp and moist; thick warm air making it somewhat hard to breathe. As Sonic guided himself using the smooth stones and rough bark of the trees, he saw a small light up ahead. Getting excited, he dashed forward, finally about to get out. But just as he was halfway there, he tripped over a loose stone, which sent him flying into a vine, launching him upwards as he smacked himself into an overhanging platform. The sound of stones cracking against each other rang out as pebbles and dirt fell alongside Sonic.

Sonic fell with a thud. He got up and tried wiping away the dirt that had gotten into his eyes. He shook any remaining dirt and stones that had gotten stuck to him. Coughing out what had gotten into his mouth, he went at a steady pace towards the exit, rubbing his watering eyes.

Stumbling over his own footing as he readjusted to the dark terrain, eyes still watering, he finally made it out of the dark space, sneezing out the dust that had gotten up his nose. “Gah!” He had to shield his eyes as he stepped out into the sunlight. Shaking it off, he sprinted forwards, only to immediately bump into something cold and smooth. A badnik. It was shaped as an egg, (to no one’s surprise) and had two robotic arms coming out of it.

Sonic grinned, standing up straight as he dashed forwards, trying to get a hit only for it to grapple the above terrain and lift itself up much too high for Sonic to reach. As it gripped the branches of some trees and vines, some fell down gently onto the ground, which would include an oversized leaf falling onto his face, blocking his view.

Unfortunately for Sonic, that was much more than enough time for the badnik to throw itself back onto the ground and send a nasty hit right at him with one of its arms, sending Sonic soaring through the air, rings scattering across the ground. He hits the side of some terrain, cracking the wall underneath him as he tumbles amongst chunks of earth, crunching, sliding and cracking. He lands on his chest, getting buried alive.

Before Sonic could even get out of the rubble, he was grabbed with force and slammed into the ground. A web pattern formed underneath him in the terrain as it cracked open, dust and dirt flying up into the air. Sonic trembling, tries to get back up only for a flurry of hits to keep coming at him. The smell of dust and earth becoming more clear with each his as the sound of earth splitting apart booms through the jungle.

Amy was fidgeting with her hammer while Knuckles and Tails sat together resting up a bit before some loud sounds burst out from up ahead. Clearly Sonic got himself into trouble. “Looks like he needs our help again…” Knuckles mumbled out as he started to walk forward, with Amy getting up to follow along. Tails was already spinning his tails madly, trying to reach Sonic as fast as he could. “Tails wait!” Amy called out as her and Knuckles followed along, the three following the sounds of earth shattering.

Sonic was receiving hit after hit, sending him further into the ground as the small crater in the ground got deeper and deeper. It felt as if in slow motion that a window opened; astray grass speeding through the wind came to a halt, the dust and debris froze, and the robot paused. Quickly, Sonic curled up into a ball, spinning as fast as he could.

The robot sent another hit, however that would be its downfall as once it made contact with the hedgehog, its arm was sawed clean off, sparks and metal flying through the air with a loud screech. An upside for Sonic which he was not prepared for was that the pressure from the hit also sent Sonic flying out of danger, like a slingshot. Still curled tightly in a ball, he cleaved a line of trees right in half until he landed harshly into the ground.

Sonic got up almost in an instant, ignoring the pain all over his body and the sharp ringing in his ears and pumped his fists into the air, happy that he disabled one arm. He sped right back to the fightzone, ready to hit it again when another arm took place of the damaged one and hit Sonic midair. Sonic let out a startled yelp as he was hit once again, tumbling through the ground.

By now due to all the attacks on the poor terrain, there was a very thick cloud of dust going through the air, which was making Sonic’s throat dry and giving him the urge to sneeze more and more. Determined to win, Sonic leapt at the robot once more, attempting to smash clean through another arm.

Carefully navigating the dark, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles safely made it to the exit, where they could already see that quite the fight was going down. Debris was soaring everywhere, a thick coating of dust was making it harder to breath in the area, and the ground was trembling wildly. To top it off, the group could hear Sonic’s iconic spindash bouncing off metal and making an impact in the ground. “We have to help him!” Amy shouted out over the chaos as she grabbed her piko piko hammer out and charged forward, as Knuckles and Tails followed into the battle.

Sonic could not even see where he was going anymore; there was too much dust and dirt fogging the field. While stumbling around to get his footing he was getting attacked from every direction and slammed back into the ground. It was getting far too intense for him to deal with at this rate, with the ground looking like a minefield, and the wildlife facing the consequences. Just as the robot prepares for another blow, it’s knocked right over, landing in one of the many craters in the terrain below, dense, hollow metal making a low clang as the ground shifted beneath it.

“There you are.” Knuckles made his way towards Sonic, head turned down. “Look what happens when you run off.” Amy ran into the scene, treading lightly over gaps in the ground or smoking pits. “Knuckles, don’t be like that, just help him up.” Knuckles grunted in response, waving his arm through the thick smoke as he went to lift Sonic up. However, his arm was shoved aside as Sonic struggled to get up himself, coughing out smoke that he had inhaled during the fight.

As he stood up, shaking under the pressure of the cuts and bruises he had received from the attacks, he turned to face Knuckles, annoyed with the idea of needing help. “M’kay, dealt with worse.” Once up he shook his head and body off, as stones and debris rolled off and clattered on the ground. Coughing too much, he gestures with his hand to the robot getting back up.

Gears and metal clacked together as the metal frames grinded in its strain to get back up. A curved, smooth dent in the side of its body from the hit Knuckles delivered. Lighting up its eyes, the engines whirred loud and fast, as it prepared for the new opponents.

Amy sprinted ahead, mad at it for harming Sonic. Before she could get a swing with her hammer however, the robot grabbed an overhanging tree that had been knocked right down and lifted itself up high, far out of reach from Amy. “Hey, that's not fair! Get back down here!” Amy pouted helplessly as she stared furiously at it.”Tails! Lift me up there so I can give him a taste of my hammer!” However, Tails was instead gazing up at it with a finger up to his chin, lost in thought.” Sonic dragged his right foot through the rubble, the terrain crunching with each step. He put a hand over his friend's shoulder and tilted his head. Tails looked at him, his tails swaying softly in the dirt, dust sticking to his fur and glinting in the lighting. “I think I-”

Tails was pushed out of the way by Sonic when one of the arms launched at them. More dirt flying into the air and all over the group. Tails had protectively shield him and Sonic with his namesakes in reaction to the sudden movement. All the fur on his tails became rough and mattered, feeling like cotton candy as more dirt clung onto them.

Knuckles’ eyes lit up in rage as he lifted up a chunk of rock and threw it at the badnik’s arm, snapping it as the sound of static popping and crackling rang out. The rest of the arm hangs limp, shards of metal falling onto the rest of the arm like rain; static springing out of both ends. It retracted the arm as two new ones took its place.

“Great! How do we disable this thing!” Knuckles clenched his fists and glared at the badnik with pure rage. Another arm launched itself at where Sonic and Tails had landed, as they narrowly dodge it by a hair, jumping opposite directions. Recoiling the new arm fast, as it snapped back to its base.

Amy, Knuckles, and Sonic start dodging the fast attacks, rolling out of harm's way. However, Tails was focusing on the robot more, analyzing its movements. Everything was moving in a pattern for him. Seeing outcomes and logic to use against it.

Sonic was running as best as he could, due to the beating from before. However, his shoe skidded across a loose stone, and he face planted into a deep crater. Seeing another arm target him, he rolled onto his side just in time. The gears clicked over and over as it struggled to pull the arm back. Tails looked closer, and saw what had happened. Because of the crater taking in a lot of damage, there was still loose rubble and terrain that was barely holding up at the edges. So when the arm had dug itself into the ground with force, all that rubble had come down and buried the arm.

The only downside to that was that Sonic had not rolled fully out of the crater, and had his left leg and arm buried. Tails knew what to do. “Knuckles! Climb up the arm and attack the robot from where you impacted it before!” Knuckles nodded, not hesitating for a second, stumbling in small gaps or indents in the ground.

Gripping onto the cold, silky surface of the arm, he dragged himself upwards, digging the tip of his shoes into the small gaps so he did not slide or slip. As the badnik tried to free itself, shaking and jolting, Knuckles pressed himself closer, so he would not go free falling with every movement.

He got higher and higher to the base, his leather shoes squeaking with every step, it became easier to move up, as the base was more stiff and solid unlike the middle and end where it's unstable. Almost able to stand, he started to run up, seeing the small dent on the side of it.

Jumping into the air, he threw a huge hit at the mark, a loud boom as a giant hole revealed gears and wires, metal sheets rattling inside it, resting at the bottom.. Static popped as the robot's arms stopped moving. Knuckles seeing it shut down gilded off it, gracefully landing on the damaged ground as the robot creaked and loosened its grip on the above canopy. Falling with a massive thud that shook the nearby ground, the lights illuminating the eyes dimmed.

Knuckles grunted, as Amy and Tails helped get Sonic’s limbs out of the rubble. “Well that takes care of it.” Brushing off dust, he made his way to the three and grabbed Sonic with one hand, lifting him out without any effort. “This is what happens when you run off. Next time, wait.” Knuckles left it at that and turned his back away, waiting for what they would do next.

Tails ran in front of Sonic, worried. “Are you alright Sonic, that looked like a pretty nasty beating…” Sonic merely closed his eyes and grinned, holding a thumbs up to his pal, assuring he was ok. Sonic then gestured to the path ahead, ready to move on.

Relaying the memory, hand cupping his mouth, he turned to Tails, as his buddy finished ‘correcting’ what Sonic had ended on. “Well I don't remember Knuckles having to step in. Are you sure you remembered that correctly?” Tails rolled his eyes, knowing that Sonic was just lying to keep up his ego. “Regardless, you needed our help when you faced it off alone.” “Ehhh, I think I still had dust in my eye…” Tails laughed it off. “Whatever you want to believe, since I’ll have the correct memory here.” Tails tapped his forehead, taunting Sonic with the fact that he was very much going to bring it up another time.

“Actually another thing I really remember was that giant dragon thing!” Tails shifted. “Do you mean Trip’s superform, or the one you fought?” Sonic picked a stray quill out of his head. “The giant purple one. Don’t really remember much of it now, since it was a while ago, but yeah.” Sonic flicked the quill out of his hand, falling into the ocean with a small splash. Sonic slouched over a little, resting his face in his hands.

Tails gave Sonic a confused stare for a solid 10 seconds. “You mean to tell me you remember Speed Jungle more than something you fought in your superform?” Sonic laughed, his warm breath visible in the cold, sharp air. “Yeah. Wasn’t the coolest thing I fought…” Tails still in disbelief moved on, thinking about how Sonic could forget that so easily.

A cold sharp breeze blew by, raising the fur on Tails’ back. He wrapped both of his tails around his torso. Sonic sat back upright. “Gettin’ pretty cold, huh?” Tails’ ears perked up a little. “No, just a cold breeze. Nothing much…” Sonic looked down at the sea, and behind him at the terrain. “Well I mean I would get something warm like a blanket, but we are sitting on a platform high up so…” Tails glanced down at the scenery below. “Nonono it’s fine! Like I said, just a small breeze.” Sonic shrugged. “Eh, if you say so…”

As the night went on, a small, thin sheet of fog covered the ground and sea, made visible by the various lighting all around. Only just visible.

“Oh Tails, don’t you think that looks like Chaos when he consumed all the Emeralds” Tails corrected Sonic, unfolding his Tails from his body. “You mean Perfect Chaos?” Sonic rolled his eyes at the correction. “Same difference…” “No not really…” Sonic folded his arms. “Moving on from that…” Tails sighed.

“Man, now that I think about it, Chaos did a heck lot of damage. Like, he tore down all of Station Square, huh?” Tails drew in a breath. “I mean, he was like, very big and the flooding did not help. He also drained all the Chaos Emeralds too.” Sonic and Tails both visualized that very event, looking up into the stars as if they were watching the event right before their eyes.

Everything was in ruin. Towers and skyscrapers had tilted over and banged into other buildings, causing collateral damage. Flames from gas stations and electronics flickered and spread, smoke rising through the air and making it hard to breathe or see, as it burned everyone's eyes.

Lights from street lamps and stores flickered on and off, reflecting in the rising water. Streets and pathways had crumbled and caved in, sinking beneath the water. Car alarms were blaring all around, making a loud and distressing sound. However, above all was the deep, piercing roar that Chaos let out as he laid waste to anything still standing, turrets of water blazing through the streets.

G.U.N helicopters circled around, whirring and piercing through the wind.Attempting to disarm the creature, they had sent missiles and rockets at it, screeching as they sped past. No explosions or bangs were heard however as they did no damage to the creature made of water, sinking down to the base of him and floating out to sea.

Finding the attackers, Chaos sent sharp and precise jets of water at the vehicles occupying the skies, cutting clean through. Each one making a loud bang or pop as they all blew up, whatever was left of the frame falling into the water or structures and causing further damage.

Everyone was screaming and running in terror, hiding in toppled buildings that could no longer fall, or evacuating the area, footsteps rippling the water.

However, a few did not flee; standing on a fallen road was Sonic, watching Perfect Chaos continue his reign of terror. As the water levels rise, the smell of salt water and oil becomes more overwhelming by the second, burning at Sonic’s throat. His fur had become damp and heavy, pointing more downwards. His gloves and socks were soaked, darker in color.

He watched as Eggman’s ship slowly flew in, the engines working at a high pitch. “Eggman! Looks like he’s after the Chaos Emeralds too!” Unable to do anything from down below, he watched as Eggman flew in closer to the main scene. Static rings out at a high frequency before they adjust, Eggman’s voice blaring though. “This Egg Carrier Two was made because something like this could happen. You have defied your master, stupid beast. Now you must be destroyed at all costs!”

Facing Perfect Chaos, Eggman prepares to launch something, alarms going off. Chaos sees this and opens his mouth wide open. A ball of energy grows at quick speeds, before a massive laser of blue and purple goes forth, cutting the stress and towers in half as he raises it up to the Egg Carrier, not stopping until it’s facing the sky. Smoke bellows out from the gaps of the Egg Carrier, as sparks follow suit. Purple particles fade out from where the laser was last.

Emergency alarms go out as the ship begins to fall downwards, gliding in between structures, no longer in sight. Last thing to be seen of the ship was the giant ball of fire that shot out from wherever it landed, a giant boom rattling the skies. Before Sonic could make a taunt about that bening the end of him, a small scream is heard as he goes flying high up into the sky, seated in his Eggmobile.

Sonic had seen too much damage in one day for his liking, clenching his fists and gritting his teeth. “I’ve had enough! Who do you think you are anyway?” Chaos however, could not hear his angry shouts as he was too tall and too far away. What he did not prepare for was a small, red neon orb to gently fall from the sky towards him. Red particles flickered off the light, fading into the air.

Shuddering above the ground, Sonic holds his hand underneath it, palm facing upwards. “Oh, it’s you, the one who sealed Chaos… In the Master Emerald! Tikal!” As the red light hovered there above his hand, red light reflected with ease over Sonic as water dripped down his fur, glinting and highlighting the dark shadows. Despite his senses burning under the intensifying smell of salt water and smoke, he kept his focus on the moment happening right before him.

A bright flash consumed Sonic’s line of vision as it died out to reveal Tikal standing in front of him, grasping both of her hands. Drawing in a breath, she spoke to the hedgehog. “My heart has always been in the Master Emerald along with chaos’. Now he is filled with anger and sadness.” She looks up at Chaos, in fear and worry, voice quivering. “If it goes on, he’ll eventually destroy the world like he did before!” As she says those final words, Chaos lets out a long, ear-splitting roar as the Chaos Emeralds emerge from him, circling above him.

Lowering his head as he let out a low rumble, the Emeralds blast forward like shooting stars, scattering everywhere. Dark blue plummeted down, clattering like an empty glass bottle as it hit the pavement, scraping the concrete as it rolled on its side, resting at Sonic’s shoe. Before Sonic could even dare to pick it up, the light diminished, dulling to a dark and lifeless gray. Any energy radiating from it faded as its neon pulse slowed. Its final breath was visible in the vivid blue static that bounced off it and onto the ground, jittering across the water.

Tikal in pure dismay, stared down at the cold Emerald, covering her mouth with her hands. “He’s absorbed the Emeralds power! He must be sealed in the Master Emerald, now!” Sonic, looking down at his reflection in the glass Emerald, shook his head. “How can that help?” Sonic looked up to face Tikal, clenching his fist in front of his chest as he stepped forwards, scuffing the Emerald on the ground. “It won't change how he feels inside. His heart will still remain in turmoil and his anger just won’t vanish! He’ll just be trapped forever!”

As he finishes his sentence, the ground below shakes and quivers as Chaos does more damage close by, bellowing cries of rage. Tikal, trying to talk over the commotion, steps closer to Sonic, making herself more easy to hear. “What choice do we have?” Her voice becomes more filled with worry each time the sounds of something being torn apart echoed through the scene.

Nearby, while Sonic had his conversation to Tikal, his friends had seen the displaced Emeralds shoot out and had gone after them. Big had found one by pure chance, as it had drifted through the water and plinked against the cold metal hook of his fishing rod. Neon red fizzling out as if the water was draining it and fading off to sea. Grabbing it out, as water slid down the smooth Emerald, he calmly made his way towards his dear blue friend.

Tails, knowing very well about the situation, did not hesitate to go and fly towards the one that had fallen closest to him. Finding it wedged between the windshield of a car. Glass fragments lay atop the Emerald and hood. Tails grabbed it firmly and yanked it out, small shards of glass flying outwards from the force, chattering on the ground. He brushed off any remaining glass with the side of his hand briskly. With no time to lose, he sped towards Sonic, his tails whirring behind.

Amy had been watching Chaos from afar, standing on a relatively straight tower watching him ditch the Emeralds. Various colors reflecting off of the metal structures and flooding water. In a mere second, a blinding streak of cyan light whipped right past her head and landed with a bang as small chunks of rubble bounced off her hand, protecting her face in reaction.

Opening her eyes and moving her hands to her sides, she saw cyan static pop and fizzle as a darkened Chaos Emerald was left behind. No longer warm or pulsing, but dead and gray. Grabbing it in her palm, she swiftly went to find Sonic.

Knuckles had already known beforehand. So in advancement, he already had a stale Emerald in one hand, clenching it firmly to assure that it would not be going anywhere else. Using only one hand to cling onto the surface of an unstable pillar, he located the other Emerald.

It was drifting away from the city as the water levels had risen. Retracting his namesakes that he had dug into the pillar, as concrete burst outward, he glided downwards towards the lost Emerald. Nabbing the last one, he landed with a splash. To his luck, the water was shallow since he was standing on a sunken bridge. Slowly, he began to make his way back to his friends, water above his waist.

Sonic and Tikal had stood there in silence as Sonic watched Tikal fear the worst about the situation. Hearing slow footsteps, he turned to see Big with an Emerald in hand. Big, oddly calm and happy, reached his arm out, a Chaos Emerald in hand. “Sonic! I found this in the water and thought you could use it!” Big's low voice rattled off the Emerald as Sonic carefully took it out of his hand, not knowing what to say as he saw his other friends arrive with the rest of the Emeralds.

“Hey, Sonic!” Amy cheerfully waved to him as she ran up with another Emerald. “Here, take this!” She enthusiastically shoved it into his other hand, hoping that he could fix everything. Knuckles casually dropped in with two in tow, grinning. “Hey guys, what's up?” Tails joined in next to Knuckles staring at awe at the ones he had collected.

Another loud roar rippled the water as the skies shook and trembled. Tails, seeing this as his chance, walked closer to Sonic, explained what needed to be said. “Chaos only used the negative powers of the Chaos Emeralds.” Locking eyes with Sonic, as Knuckles moved in closer, he continued. “Sonic, you should be able to harness their real power!” Knuckles drew in a heavy breath, stubbornly agreeing. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think Tails is right about this.”

Tails nodding to what he said, finished what he was saying. “Negative forces aren’t the only way to empower the Chaos Emeralds. Our positive feelings toward each other can make them work. Our hearts together form a stronger power!” Knuckles walked up to face Sonic, as he handed over both Emeralds. Sonic cradling them in one arm as he reached over to pick up the one that had fallen beside him earlier.

He looked up to face Tails, as the last Chaos Emerald was offered in the base of both his hands, arms outstretched. Sonic reached out to grab it, holding on for a second. “Thank you.” Gripping onto it and lifting it from Tails, the Chaos Emeralds began to pulse in their lost colors, like a heartbeat.

In a mere second after, a golden light spiked outwards from the hedgehog, growing stronger and bigger each second. A burst of energy sprang outwards, a loud boom as Sonic was no longer on the ground. Rather, he was hovering above it. His now golden quills turned upright. Warmth radiated off of him as the water on his shoes slid onto the ground. A golden aura covered him as the air surrounding him quivered and became disoriented. Looking up to the sky, his eyes now a crimson red, he took, knowing what to do.

Flying above broken streets and upturned roads, he blasted across the terrain, dodging broken glass or metal that was sticking out from every direction. Darting in between buildings searching for Chaos, his golden light trailing behind. Each time he zoomed across the water, it split at the very surface, spraying outwards, fizzling if the water droplets came in close contact to Sonic.

Blazing through a cloud of thick smoke, he spotted Chaos’ emerald eyes. Making a sharp turn, he made a straight beeline at him. Halfway there, he started to drift off and feel dizzy. He was losing the energy to keep going. He needed more rings. Almost bouncing off the water, he spotted a group of golden rings. He took a detour and grabbed them off the ground, cold metal contrasting the warmth of his aura. Feeling a boost of energy, he picked back up the pace, hovering higher up over the sea, he made his way back to Chaos.

Reaching Chaos, he collided with the base of his form, water spraying outwards from where he went blazing into it. Now inside the body of water, he started to spiral right around his base, going higher and higher up, bubbles bursting out from behind in a cyclone. He held his breath deeply, not certain on his ability to breath underwater in a Superform. Sonic’s golden light illuminated Chaos from the inside, bouncing around and making him look like a night lamp. Reaching his neck, his spiral narrowed, until he reached his mind, floating stiffly above his eyes, the only organic things visible inside Chaos.

Chaos screamed in pure agony as Sonic spin dashed into his brain, being vulnerable and out in the open. Loud, high-pitched wails rung out, over all the alarms going off and fire crackling. Flailing his head around, as water gushed out, he slunk into the water, retreating from the scene. Sonic had burst out of Chaos before he sunk down with him too, his gloves and socks heavy from the water absorbed into them.

Sonic looked around in between the toppled towers for where he had gone. A stiff silence filled the air as nothing but the warm buzz off the Chaos Emeralds energy radiated from him. Seeing a tall figure reform in the distance, Sonic shook his head. “Gonna take more than that to leave the battle.” He went forwards, ducking inbetween buildings and windows, not letting anything stop him from reaching Chaos.

Enraged by the attack, as he saw Sonic rapidly jet towards him, he began to act out. Raising his head to the sky, screeching slow and deep, he summoned golden orbs of light around him, launching them forwards at the hedgehog, looking similar to Sonic dashing about in his form. “Well that's not good!” Rolling around in the air, he dodged the attacks, as they collided with the background instead. Since Chaos was not being direct with where they hit, rather, sending them in one general direction, some collided into the buildings ahead of Sonic.

Groaning under the weight of the many walls of metal, as one energy blast hit a tower, the top of its frame began to slide downwards, before the sound of metal screaming against metal rumbled. It came falling down, metal wires and poles snapping as it crashed into the side of another tower. Glass blew outwards from the pressure, bouncing off of Sonic as he sumersalted just quick enough to avoid being crushed between the two structures.

Now with nothing stopping him, he made his way towards Chaos’ head, instead of trailing up the base of him like last time. Curled into a ball, he sliced clean through the water as he made a direct hit to his brain once again, causing more wails and screams. More water gushed out of Chaos as his head dramatically dangled around, banging into the sides of structures. He slowly slunk back down once again, disappearing into the water. From all the chaos and screams, Sonic’s ears had begun to ring loudly, muffling the sounds of anything else.

While Sonic floated there in the spot, arms crossed as he scanned the terrain for where Chaos had popped back up, the water underneath him bubbled. Out of nowhere, Chaos’ tentacles had burst out of the water, attempting to grab Sonic. Sonic merely batted an eye as he watched Chaos grab him, only for the tentacle-shaped water to fizzle and evaporate, not even touching him. Sonic laughed at the attempt, as he whipped his body right around to see Chaos had rised back up behind the attack.

Not even bothering to curl up and hit him with force, he zoomed right up to him, and sent a kick right at his head once more, dealing the final blow. All the water-formed tentacles had burst, falling back into the sea as Chaos screeched once again in a high pitch, much longer than the last two. Water dripped back down into the ocean, as if he was melting. Going down, he faced his head high up into the sky, letting out his final cry as he sunk back down. Once gone, a giant blue flash filled the air, blinding Sonic, and everyone watching nearby.

Sonic, feeling light-headed, knew that his Superform was coming to an end, raced across the landscape to reach his friends, watching as the water flooding the area started to sink down. Only just making it to his friends, he fell through the sky, as Knuckles and Tails caught him, watching as their friend's golden glow almost melted off, fading away along with the warmth of the Chaos energy. “You alright Sonic?” Tails softly asked, wanting to know if he had sustained any injuries from the fight.

Sonic, getting up and leaving his friends grasp, stood up, dusting off some rubble that was stuck in his quills. “I think if anything my shoes took more damage than I did.” Laughing it off, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, turned to see Chaos in his regular form confronted by some chao. “Chaos has changed again. This time, for the better.” Knuckles filled in, seeing him peacefully watch the chao happily call out to him. “Yeah! Super Sonic must have neutralized it, so it’s nice again.” Tails added, watching the happy conclusion.

“Well at the end of the day, I was left with having to buy new gloves, since they forever more smelt like salt water.” Sonic had joked to Tails, as they finished recapping the memory to each other. Tails just laughed at Sonic’s remark, cold air soothing his throat. “At least you had your Superform, that kept you dry. We all got soaked. My tails looked all thin and shaggy!” That time they both laughed.

While sitting there in silence, Sonic took a long breath. “2 to 1.” Tails turned around, hummed in confusion. “I mean, I’ve spotted two shapes in the sky, and you’ve seen one. So that means I am in the lead.” Tails lowered his eyelids in a skeptical way. “Oh really? I can make it 2 to 3, just watch.” Sonic grinned. “Heh, let's see then.”

Both were intensely staring up at the sky for another cluster of stars that were shaped in the image of something familiar to them. As the night moved on, the wind gently whistling by, fog receding back into the air, Tails almost jumped, pointing right above him and Sonic. Sonic squinted his eyes, leaning back as he could not crane his neck up that far. “Don’t you think that looks like Starline’s glove?” Now on his back to see it clearly, Sonic could indeed make that out to be the doctor's glove. “Yeah, but how’d you see that? It’s right above us?”

Tails held up a finger. “I told you I’d get you 2 to 3!” Sonic shrugged, letting out a long exhale. “Well actually 2 to 2.” Sonic said under his breath before saying something else on top of that. “He sure did a lot of messed up things while he was around. Even went after you, didn’t he?” Tails hummed in response, nodding his head stiffly. “What even happened back there? Since me and Shadow were outside dealing with other things. “Honestly not much, he just tried to grab me again, which failed.” “Surely he did more than that!” Sonic doubted Starline turning over just like that. “Honestly, apart from when he had me tied up on the rollercoaster, he did nearly nothing.”

The chateau’s smell of pine wood wafted through the air as Tails, Belle, Rouge, and everyone else there evacuated the people staying to a safer location, as Starline had sent down an avalanche as part of his plan. The ground was faintly rumbling, already giving the warning to leave. Footsteps echoed around the fancy building as everyone ran out. However, while the main crowd was going one way, someone was walking forwards, towards the group of heroes.

Omega’s static voice rang out as he ‘encouraged’ the guests to leave. Tails was covering his ears since he was right beside him. He could, however, hear Rouge. “We should get going, too.” Before they could even take a step, someone announced themselves. “No, you’re not going anywhere.” Starline was standing there, facing down Tails.

“I am having a very long day, so I’ll keep this simple. All I need is young master Prower there… Hand him over and you can go. Deal?” Amy clenched her hammer tightly. “Dream on, jerk!” Amy and Rouge jumped forward to attack the deranged doctor, floorboard creaking as they both stepped forward. Belle just watched, mouth open as she became confused. “Who is that guy?” “Dr. Starline? An Eggman wannabe.”

As Tails says that, Starline presses something on his glove, as a red, loose aura forms around him, deflecting both Rouge and Amy’s attacks easily. Belle, getting worried, steps back a little, the wooden planks on the ground groaning under her weight. “That doesn't look like a wannabe to me…” “Don’t worry. Nobody can beat Amy when she’s made up her mind!” As if to show, Amy gets a direct hit to Starline’s jaw, cracking loudly. Rouge also gets some pretty good hits in too, winding him as she gets him in the chest with a kick.

Getting irritated with the halt in his plans, he pressed something on his glove again, as a blue aura danced around his body. In a flash, he was in front of Tails, a loud boom as he came to a stop. Even Tails had jumped in shock, his namesakes wildly spinning behind him. Starline grabbed onto said tails, pulling at his fur roughly. “Time to go, fox.” He said that last word with a hind of venom, clearly annoyed. Tails, gritting his teeth so hard that he heard them click. “I dont think so.”

Quickly facing Belle, he grabbed her tail, rough rope rubbing against his gloves as he tugged it. Wooden gears clicking into place as the sound of a thin, tight rope quivered. Starline only just noticed her presence right then. “What in the world…?” Belle got scared, voice shaking. “Ah, my tail-” Before she could finish, her legs jumped up in front of her, getting Starline right under the jaw, teeth clashing up as they gritted against each other painfully.

Tears welled up in his eyes, as he grasped his bill, shaking from the shock. “Oh come on! What even was that!” He started to see stars, the hit being a lot more powerful than Tails expected. As the three stood there, with Amy and Rouge approaching fast, the ground shook violently, as rumbling got closer to where they were. “Wait, what is that Sound?” Starline muttered, still feeling sore, a metal taste filling his mouth.

Rouge, Amy, and Tails ran out of the scene as fast as they could, with Tails holding onto Belle’s arm. Starline however, was still disoriented, and could not get out of the way, head beginning to ring, and still seeing stars, making it impossible for him to tell where to go. As Tails and co were safely out of the way, the snow began to build up on the giant glass windows, pressure building up in seconds as more and more snow, trees, and debris piled up.

Starline then realized what would happen, shielding his face with his palms. As if on queue, the glass and wooden beams gave in, snapping like a twig as glass shattered and mixed in with the snow, clattering against the wooden roof and remaining walls. As the snow reached Starline, along with all the shards of glass and splinters of wood, giving Starline nasty cuts, he yelled out as he was buried alive. Underneath the cold, he began to shiver violently, frostbite starting and making the pain in his bill worse. It did not help that some snow had lodged itself up his fancy jacket, giving him a nasty shock.

Tails and everyone else, including the guests, were safe on the higher floors, looking outside as everything down below was buried in thick, solid snow. Even some trees had snapped and fallen down with it. All the fresh snow, being high up the mountains, gave the air a cold, damp, metal smell.

“Huh, I guess not much really happened after all…” Tails just nodded. “Yeah, thankfully his avalanche backfired at just the right time.” Sonic just burst out laughing, almost choking as the night air made his throat dry and hoarse. Coughing a little, he grinned, still chucking. “But you and Belle gave him a good hit! He had it coming if he tried to mess with any of you!” Tails just gave a small laugh, avoiding hurting his throat from the piercing cold. “Yeah, Belle can defend herself much more than she’ll give herself credit. After all, her frame is pretty sturdy and can withstand a lot of damage.”

Sonic sat upright shivering, pressing his knees to his chest and wrapping. “Wow, getting a lot more cold than before!” Tails had his namesakes lightly pressed up to his sides, as he had thicker fur that was withstanding the cold much better. “Well yeah, it's late at night and the sun has gone down. It’s not like there's going to be warm rays of moonlight.” Tails sassed off Sonic, in a know-it-all voice, winding him up.

“Well with all the crazy things going on around us, there might be a moon that acts as the sun!.” He had his hands to his hips, grinning. Of course Sonic was just saying that to be annoying. But Tails played along. “Whatever floats your boat…”“Ahh Tails, why so mean!” They both sat there, as they laughed.

All the fog that was on the ground disappeared, making the reflections in the water much more clear. Sonic and Tails were still holding their heads up to the sky. While the glove and helmet were still fairly easy to see, the stars appearing like Chaos had disappeared somewhere else. Sonic opened a single eye to the glove, lying back down on the ground with his arms propping his head back up. “Well, Starline did much more than try to take you.”

Rather than answering, Tails just focused primarily on the glove. “I mean, he did some pretty bad things. He brought Eggman back to his old self, which then brought the Metal Virus, he then, like we just talked about, tried to take you. He then kidnapped Belle until the Chaotix got there. To top it all off, he then did something to Surge and Kit. It’s a shame that we still don’t know the full story to that either, only that he used a bunch of stuff to make them…”

Sonic’s face had gone from calm to more focused and thoughtful, still not happy with Starlines actions. “Well I am pretty sure he also broke Zavok, Mimic, and Rough and Tumble out too…” Tails had his finger to his chin while Sonic sat upright. “Wait, he was the one who did that?!” Sonic, genuinely confused, stared at Tails with his mouth agape. “Yeah, I thought you knew that already…?” Tails lowered his eyelids as Sonic shook his head. “Nope, too focused on other things to realize that…”

“Well now you know…” Sonic just hummed. “Well I guess it's good now that he is gone.” Sonic held his breath as he stared down into the water. “Do you think Surge and Kit rea-” “Warp Topaz!” Sonic turned an ear to Tails in confusion. “I don't recall Starline using the Warp Topaz on them-” Tails shook his head frantically. “No, I can see the Warp Topaz! When reflected in the water, the stars look like the Warp Topaz! So now it’s 2 to 3, putting me in the lead!” “Oooh. Wait, if you see the Warp Topaz reflected in the water, would that not make the stars show an upside down version of it?” Tails shook his head, humming a no.

“It’s like when you flip a drawing, it looks odd or incorrect one way, and perfect another way.” Sonic squinted his eyes, darting from the sky to the sea. “I mean they both kinda look the same either way-” “Nope!” Tails butted in. Sonic looked up to Tails. “Well I mean, can we really say you get another point? There are a whole heap of stars that look round. You could say any of them are the Topaz.” Rolling his eyes, Tails pointed to the silhouette in the water. “No look, there is the spiral, curling inwards, and the smaller stars further apart look almost like a gradient, which makes sense given the material it's made of.” Sonic, letting out a long sign. “Well I guess that makes me second place now…”

Tails pumped his fists discreetly, whispering under his breath victory. Sonic had leaned back into the soft grass, feeling it brush up against him lightly. Resting with his eyes closed, and taking in another breath, he turned his head to face Tails. “Didn’t we use the Topaz to get all the Chaos Emeralds at once during the Metal Virus?” Tails turned his face down to Sonic, picking off fluff and dirt stuck in his glove. “Yeah, me and Amy had gone after Zomom, while everyone else went after different Zeti.” “Oh yeah! I kinda forgot since I was getting tired. Although I think I only got Cream’s side of the story when she jumped in to help Gemerl with Zeena.��

Still keeping his eyes shut, he turned his head back to the sky, repositioning his head as his quills settled behind his head in an odd way, sticking out in funny angles and poking at his head. “That's an idea. Why don’t you tell me about Zomom? See how you and Amy fought him compared to me?”

Tails stared down at him in a funny way. Sonic did not notice though as he still had his eyes closed to the sky. “Well he had an Emerald and we were not too experienced with fighting him…” “You came back to us, can’t have been that much of a hassle. I mean, it’s Zomom of all people.” “Ok, but still, remember when you fought him he had no Emerald!” Chuckling, Sonic nodded, agreeing.

Wind was whirring by, ears buzzing as he and Amy fell out of the warp portal. His skin was prickling and his fur was standing on end. Getting back to his senses, he reactively grabbed Amy by the arm with both hands, just before they fell onto the ground. “Woah! That was pretty close!” Amy quietly said, looking down to the ground. Smashed glass bottles were scattered everywhere, light glinting off them. Tables were turned or snapped, objects broken on the ground nearby.

“What happened here?” Tails, darting his eyes around until he found a spot on the ground that had no broken glass, flew over slowly, his tails chopping in the wind. “Looks like either the Zombots tore this place apart, or Zomom.”

Landing on the concrete path they both looked around for any signs of Zombots. Something clattered and smashed behind Amy, as she turned around, gripping her hammer tightly, ready to hit the incoming attacker. “Amy wait! I just knocked something over when I landed on the ground with my tails.” He whispered, hand on her shoulder as she dropped her arms downwards. “Tails! You gave me a fright!” Grinning sheepishly, he put a hand behind his head, scratching it. “Sorry…”

Amy sighed as her hammer disappeared from her hands, looking around. “So, where is he?” “Well…” Tails’ ear swiveled around to his right, picking up something. Watching closely, he saw a small group of Zombots inside a crumbled building walking in a line, carrying small plates of food. He pointed to them, catching Amy’s attention. “Judging from the fact that he likes to eat, we follow that.” He whispered at her, as the two stepped around broken glass, heading towards the door of the building they were in.

Tails led the way, ducking under toppled tables and chunks of stone that had fallen from some kind of structure. Using his soft tails like a duster, he briskly shoved aside glass or objects that they could stand on and cause a bit of noise. Only soft scratching of the glass could be heard, scraping against other glass shards or the rough stone underneath them. Amy was pinning her dress down, worried of it snagging onto something and getting caught or dragging it down and making a loud sound.

“Ok, gotta be even more careful here.” He whispered almost under his breath, with Amy only just hearing him. Grabbing the door knob he froze, feeling the inward metal patterns on the fancy handle through his thick glove. He shook his head lightly as he gestured with his hand for Amy to follow.

Walking along the wall, he found a broken window that reached the floor to the ceiling. Pressing their shoes firmly against the ground, leather squeaking with the slow pressure, they both darted towards a vending machine, hiding behind the side of it as they saw the Zombots leaving through another broken door, hanging by a single hinge. Tails had his hand out, stretched in front of Amy as he waited a few more seconds before giving a thumbs up as the two cautiously jogged down the hallway, reaching the door frame and looking outside.

There was Zomom, in the far end of the room, eating non-stop as the group of Zombots they followed dropped their plates down in front of Zomom, leaving almost instantly in their sluggish walk. Confused on what to do, Amy shrugged, holding her palms up to the ceiling. Tails shrugged too, not having a plan as they could not just sneak up on him in the open. They both turned their heads towards Zomom again, watching as they tried to come up with a plan.

Tails sighed, looking at Amy. She gave him a confused look before Tails stepped forwards, brushing debris away with the side of his shoe. “Um…” Tails cleared his throat, as Amy gave tails a concerned look. “Hey Zomom. Long time no see…” His voice was all over the show, shaking in fright of not having a better idea.

He turned his head at a freakish angle, facing the two as Tails bumped his shoulder into Amy, trying to get her to play along. They both took one step forward, sweat trickling down their heads. Zomom, with his mouth full, spoke to them with his thick voice. “Huh? Oh. You’re Sonic’s friend with the weird tail.” He had his gaze on Tails’ shifting namesakes, as he folded them behind his back, keeping them stiff. Uncertain, Tails wiped his head with the side of his glove, trying to put on a fake smile. “Uh yeah, sure. Listen, Zavok sent us to find you.”

In the middle of chewing he spat out; “He did?” Amy looked to Tails, more sweat dripping down the sides of their heads. She too put on a nervous fake smile as she spoke up. “That's right! He needs the Chaos Emerald back. If you give it to us, we’ll take it to him for you.” Her voice was shaking, and Tails could even hear her heart starting to race. He added on to Amy’s sentence. “You won’t even need to stop eating!”

Clutching his fists, Zomom yelled out, angry. “No way! I’ve got Zombots bringing me food from all over!” Standing up, towering over Amy and Tails, spitting out food from his mouth as he yelled. “You two already interrupted my post-lunch pre-dinner snack! So now, I’m gonna squash you!” Tails and Amy backed up, as Tails bumped into an upright bottle on a bench, falling to the ground and smashing, getting the attention of nearby Zombots.

“Run!” Tails and Amy both jumped over the bench, and through the hallway they came through as Zomom jumped after them, swinging his arms around like crazy. Almost out the window that they came through, Zomom landed, caving in the ground he was on and thundering the area, sending the two running away to the ground. Tails banged his head against one of the toppled tables, as a throbbing sensation grew at his temples.

“C’mon Tails, we gotta get out of here!” Grabbing Tails by the shoulder, she lifted him up as she ran, avoiding the further collapsing building as Zomom’s arms hit the walls around, caving in the roof. As he and Amy made it out, Zomom jumped through the hole above, soaring through the air as he chased after the duo.

“How is someone that big that fast?” Amy yelled out as the jumped over obstacles blocking their path on the road. Zomom landed with a thud on the ground once again, toppling Amy and Tails, sending astray items flying. Tails, getting up on his own, hand pushing against his knee, turned to Amy. “Just keep running! Amy grabbed her hammer, swinging around to face Zomom. “No! We came here to get that Chaos Emerald and end this nightmare!” As she ran up to the Zeti, her footsteps heavy as she carried her weapon over her shoulder, Tails flew up. “Wait! Amy, no!” He pinned his ears back, hand outstretched as he tried to get her to stop.

Swinging her hammer, scraping against the tiles on the floor, upturning them as they flew alongside her hit, she got Zomom right in the face, digging into his skin. Holding her hammer in place, looking to Tails as he landed besides her, she gave a confused glance. “I… I can’t believe that worked!”

Raising his head upwards, Zomom had his mouth wrapped around her weapon, teeth scraping against the sturdy material. “Hrmm… Weird flavor…” Tails was starting with his mouth hanging open, not having anything to say, as Amy went pale with disgust and anger. Digging her heels into the tiles on the ground, she pulled really hard on the handle, trying to get it out of his mouth. “Stop that you gross weirdo!” Tails sighed, as he jumped into the air, spinning his tails hard at the back of Zavok’s head. Yelling at the sudden hit, Amy fell backwards, the force of her pulling it out slingshot her onto the pavement, scattering the tiles she hit before.

“Ow! I’m gonna chew you extra hard before swallowing!” Spit flew out of his mouth as he spoke. Amy looked up, her ears tilted back. “Hes… He’s being metaphorical, right?” Tails just smiled, eyes closed, folding his arms. “Why bother with us when you can have my lunch?” Zomom froze as Tails flew up, closer to his head. “I dropped it while you were chasing us. Which is too bad, because it looked really yummy!” Getting up he thundered down the path that he came from, ground shaking with each step. “Ooh! Where?! Where?! I’m starving!”

Tails, looking shocked, as blood rushed to his head,he landed besides Amy; “That was.. A lot easier than I thought it would work out!” Amy was holding her hammer briskly in front of her, watching in disgust as a thick coating of saliva dripped off it and onto the ground. She lowered the head of it to the ground, keeping it away from her. “Tails, what are we going to do? Zomom is too strong for us to take down, and too stupid to outwit!” Cupping his mouth, Tails looked around for where he had run off too. “I don’t know. Sonic made this look way easier before.”

Tails darted an eye behind him, thinking he heard something. “He seems easily distracted. What if one of us baited him while the other grabs the Emerald?” Tails scratched his head, focusing on the scene around him. “It’s risky, but it's worth a shot!” A loud scream shook the ground as Amy whipped her head around, still keeping her hammer a spaced distance from her. Tails’ pupils shrunk, heart racing and blood rushing around, making him go warm.

Watching Zomom smash everything around him in a fit of rage, buildings clattering and rumbling as he hit the walls and pillars, everything crumbling down besides him. “There's nothing here!” Ripping a door right out of its frame, he threw it at Tails, rolling out of the way as it split in two, skyrocketing through the air. “You lied to me!”

Tails and Amy backed up, watching Zomom. “Now you made me hungry and angry. I’m hangry! You wouldn’t like me when I’m hangry!” As he says that, a group of Zombots begin to emerge from the sides of buildings, groaning. “Ah! Time to get to higher ground!” Tails grabbed Amy swiftly, as he lifted her up by the arms. “I don’t think that's going to work!” Amy called out, as Tails glanced down. All the Zombots were climbing the walls of the building Tails was trying to land on. “Grr. Hang on!” Tails flew even higher up, soaring through the sky as he tried to get away.

Holding Amy up was straining his arms, as he started to tire, falling slowly. “I’m gonna have to land!” Before he could, his arms gave out, blood flowing through them fast. Pins and needles were stabbing at his forearm as he watched Amy fall. “Gah!” His namesakes chopping through the air came to a slow halt as he too started to fall downwards.

Amy used her hammer to wedge the head between a chimney and the side of the roof, dangling off the handle. She looked up to see Tails falling slowly. “Hang on, I got you!” Moving her hammer out of the gap, she jumped up, catching Tails in both of her arms as she landed on her feet, a small thud as the leather soles on her shoes absorbed the impact.

“Thanks.” Tails slid out of Amy’s arms, hovering above the ground before landing back down, wind pushed outwards. Tails looked behind Amy’s shoulder, seeing shiny green glint behind her. “Look out!” Without even looking back to see what it was, she swung her hammer around her torso, getting the Zombot right in the chest as the substance formed a giant hole where she hit it. “We gotta keep moving!” Amy nodded as the two started to navigate the buildings, watching as a wave of Zombots followed behind.

Launching her hammer onto the ground, as she propelled herself upwards onto the tiles of a red roof, she wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. Nearly out of breath, she saw Tails fly in besides her, staring at her sudden stop. “We can’t keep this up!” Hearing a Zombot grab a tile, as it slid down and clattered on the ground, she ran forwards, alongside with Tails. “I’m thinking! I’m thinking!”

Zomom, watching from the ground, clenched his fists. “Argh! You two are so annoying!” Jumping up into the ground, he lowered his fists into the pavement, shaking the whole town. Tables, tiles, and stones all flew upwards, alongside the Zombots, Amy, and Tails.

Amy was tripping over, about to fall off the roof she was on. “Tails!” As the ground continued to shake, Tails flew in and grabbed Amy under her arms, straining to lift her up. Flying above the commotion, he dropped Amy on some stable ground, collapsing besides her. She looked down at him. “Are you ok?” Tails got up, dusting off the glass that had launched into his tails. “Yeah, just worn out.” “But we got to kep moving!” “No, we need to stay right here!” His voice quivered, as he stood up.

He looked down to the ground, as the dust settled. They were standing atop of the portcullis, the walls connecting to it cracked and damaged. Hearing Zomon run up to them, Tails signaled for Amy to stand at the left wheel, while Tails stood at the right wheel. Holding his arm out, he watched Zomom get closer. “Hold it… Wait for it…”

Zomom, almost underneath them, ground shaking each step. Tails’ namesakes twitched. “Now!” Curling up and smashing into the wheel, chains clattering against the wall as they broke apart. Amy hit her hammer right into the wheel, spinning wildly. With both doing it at the same time, the gate closed at a rapid speed, almost hitting the ground in a mere second.

Zomom cried out as he got winded, the gate closed with him underneath it, metal bars jammed into the ground. Tails grabbed Amy as he flew down, almost feeling pity for the Zeti crushed in such a way. Almost. He was dazzled, groaning as he lay there, not even trying to get back up. “How do you like that? Overpowered.” Tails patted the blue Emerald, adding onto what Amy said,, “and outsmarted!”

Tails yanked out the Emerald, scratching against the metal that had it held in place. Tails and Amy ran off, heading back into the portal. “Hey! Get back here! Without that I can’t control the-!” Zomom cried out, only to be interrupted by the Zombots groans as they circled him.

Tails and Amy jumped into the Warp Portal, feeling their senses become distorted as their vision blanks out, only to be met with the sight of emerald green grass, falling down. Tails landed on his soft namesakes, cushioning his fall.

“Ha! He stood no chance against my lil bro!” Sonic had his arm around Tails, beaming as he listened into Tails’ story. “Well Amy was there too…” He sheepishly grinned, looking away as he had a hand to the back of his head. “But you also did it! Neither of you could pull it off solo!” Looking up to Sonic, Tails smiled, nodding.

“Wait what is the score so far?” “Uhh… I’m in the lead with 3, and you have… 2?” Sonic jumps up to his feet, darting his head back and forth, scanning the sky cartoonishly. “Welp, gonna have to change that-” Tails shook his head. “I don’t think rapidly looking around is going to help push you in the lead…”

Sonic crossed his arms, pressing them close to his body, feeling the warmth from his breath brush up against his chest. “Well I don’t see you pointing out any more soo… I’ll go ahead and say this is a good method!” Sonic had his hand over his head, scouting the sky. “Well I’d like to see that happen…” Sonic pouted, in a mocking tone; “I’d like to see you get one over me!” Tails’’ namesake whacked Sonic’s leg.

Most of the shapes that the duo pointed out had scattered into the distance, no longer visible. At this point, the sky was clear of any clouds, none above, around, or below them. Glaring down was the moon, acting like a beacon. Tails, by this point, had slumped forwards, in a light sleep. It had only been 10 minutes, but as it was late into the night, it became very hard to stay awake.

Something stood tall over Tails, wrapping him in darkness. “I found one!” Sonic burst forwards, over Tails, as he jolted upright. Tails froze for a second, before turning his head around to see Sonic. “C’mon, was that really necessary?” “Haha sure was, since now I have 3 points!” Tails cocked his head. “Oh really?” Sonic pointed up over the horizon.”I present to you, the Chocolate Chipped Cream Sundae Supreme!”

Tails sat there, looking up at where Sonic was pointing, confused. “What Cream Sundae?” “Right up there! See?” Tails lowered his eyelids. “Yeah, I see the ice cream, but what did you say?” Sonic froze, looking down at Tails, eyes open, before laughing into the night. “Oh yeah! You weren't there! Me and Chip met someone who was making some sundaes! Chip really liked them. Heh, actually that's why I nicknamed him that while he had his lost memory.”

Tails lit up. “Oh Chip! I miss him…” Sonic jumped down, crossing his legs as he looked up to the sky. “Yeah, me too. A real big shame too that we know for a fact we can’t see him again, since he won’t be here for a good few hundred years, but that’s why our time interacting with him was even more special.”

“I guess that is true. But like, what kind of sundae is called that?” Sonic hummed a confused sound, shrugging gently. I guess explaining it all in the title? Either way, I just called it a supreme sundae, since that name is far too long for me to bother ‘round with.” “I mean it would be a pain to write out, but saying it is not exactly a problem…” “Says the one who writes in advanced code hourly!” Sonic quipped in.

“Yet here you are, unable to.” Tails remarked to himself, holding up three fingers to his forehead. Sonic stared back at him, holding his breath in as he thought of a reply. Letting his breath go, releasing the small strain on his chest as he took another breath in, his throat dry from the cold air. “Ehh, sure. I mean, after all, I’ve never done anything at all that is so much cooler than being able to read a buncha 0’s and 1’s. Yet let’s both agree on that.”

Tails had pressed his knees close into his chest, wrapping his arms around them, his namesake’s folded in against his sides. Most of the cold air was not affecting him much to any degree, the only shivers he would get were down his spine, as it was more exposed to the sharp air. Sonic managed to somehow sit there with his legs dangling down the side of the platform, rubbing up against the dirt on the sides of the platform, rough small clusters of dirt, sticking to the back of his legs.

“How’re you not cold at all?” Tails looked directly at Sonic, a cloud of fog escaping his mouth. “Well when you think as much as I do, that's enough willpower to fight off against any kinda weather.” Tails frowned. “With actual facts.” Tails unfolded his left tail to gently whack Sonic’s arm. “Well then I dunno, I just don’t notice it I guess?” Tails shrugged, but before he was able to turn his head back to the sea, Sonic added on, “I even remember Chip asking me that haha!”

Tails pressed himself even more closer, as the night air dropped in temperature. “Was that when you were in Holoska?” “Indeed it was! I explicitly remember Chip’s wings freezing up badly whenever he followed behind me, so sometimes I carried him over to where we were heading off.” “Really?” “Yeah! We were looking for a Moon Medallion to open up the gates to get to the next temple, but it was taking a while to get through since the ice was making it hard to run.”

Sonic and Chip were making an advancement through the white blurs of snowfalls whizzing by as they ran, no sounds other than the piercing wind and Sonic’s footfalls. Running down the path through the thick snow, Sonic only left faint footprints behind, running at such high speeds that he left near no weight for each step as he burst forwards.

Chip’s little wings were slicing through the snow, beating fast as he tried to keep up with Sonic. Although he was not going full speed, the snow and frost was making it difficult for Chip to manage flight at all. Constantly wavering alongside, he came to a sudden slow, lowering to the ground. Sonic felt a change in winds, as he dug his heels into the snow, sinking down slightly as his weight settled atop of the fluffy powder.

Turning his head around, he looked for his companion, only to see Chip submerged in the thick snow, facedown. “Hey, you alright there Chip?” Sonic crouched down on one knee, resting his palm atop of his leg. Sticking his hand out of the snow, as it crumbled down to the sides, Chip held a thumbs up. Freeing his other hand from the snow, he attempted to drag the rest of his body out from the snow.

Sonic sighed, as he went ahead and lifted Chip out of the ground, some snow falling down his palms. “There you go.” Sonic dusted off some of the remaining fluffy powder from his friend's back, using the side of his other hand. “All good?”

Chip cartoonishly shook himself off, standing back up, as some astray snow went flying. Sonic lowered his eyelids, flinching away as some snow flew right at his eyes. “Much better!” Sonic let out a soft laugh, as some snow fell down his head. “Alright then, lets get goin’!”

Just as Sonic went to turn around and continue with their path, Chip grabbed Sonic’s glove tightly. “Sonic wait!” Sonic paused himself, whipping his head around. “Yeah?” Chip, expecting Sonic to not have heard him in time before running off, loosened his grip on his glove. “I don’t think I can fly any further, it’s too cold.”

“Huh, well hold on!” Chip looked up at Sonic, confused. “What do you mean by that-” Just as he said that, Sonic held Chip firmly in both hands, as he blasted off, snow getting kicked up as he ran forth, leaving behind a big pile of snow where he stood.

“Woohooo!” Sonic began to slide down the slope of the mountain, big chunks of snow falling down with him. Echoing through the terrain were the loud booms and rolling of snow, kicking up trees, snapping and bending to the force of the avalanche. Digging his heels into the snow, as he maneuvered around large stones and trees, he went further and further down the hillside. Behind him were feint marks that were left behind his shoes.

Sonic had Chip held secure in his hands, pressed up against his chest. Chip was holding onto Sonic’s arms as hard as he could, frozen in fear. “Wooo! Isn’t this fun Chip?” Sonic called out, over the commotion following behind him. Chip dared to turn his head around, feeling the wind whipping past him as Sonic advanced further down. “I dunno Sonic, what if we get hit by the avalanche?” Chip’s voice quivered, getting cut short with the velocity that Sonic was going down at.

“Huh? I can’t hear you over all the noise behind me!” Sonic shouted out, looking downwards at Chip, keeping his head forwards. “Try speaking up a bit!” Chip turned his head to face Sonic, then down to the ground. “Uhh, nevermind!” He called out, the pitch of his voice unstable. Chip sunk down further into his hands as he heard something loud crash down near where they were sliding down.

Looking back, Chip saw the snow and ice catching up to the duo, nearly at Sonic’s heels. “Uh, Sonic-” Before Chip could warn the hedgehog however, an upturned log soared through the air, landing a few feet ahead of them. “That's no good. Hang on!” Sonic called out, as he fell down to his side, skidding across the snow, as he held Chip up from the ground. Positioning himself, he quickly slid right through the hollowed out segment of the log.

Chip, as he had his eyes firmly shut, opened them up to see that he was fine. “Oh, that wasn’t so bad-” Wind whistling, the avalanche catched up, mere inches away from the two. Branches from toppled trees flung outwards, as a big boulder went soaring right at the two. Crashing into the snow, Sonic had lost his grip on Chip, flying through the air, along with Sonic. Chip was quick to use his wings to the best of his ability, managing to avoid a big fall.

Trying to keep up with the head of the falling snow, he darted his eyes around to find the blue blur. “Sonic! Sonic, where are you?!” His voice echoed through the mountains, until he spotted his friend tumbling out of control amongst the avalanche. Flying as fast as he could, he approached Sonic, hovering nearby. “Sonic, you gotta find something to hold onto!” Still rolling, he yelled out; “I don’t think that’ll be of much hel-'' Shaking his head, Chip spoke over him. “No, the mountain is coming to an end! You’re about to fall!” Although dizzy, Sonic tried to look ahead of him, focusing despite spinning about the snow.

Attempting to slow his descent, he dug his heels back into the snow, finding an open window once his body stopped ragdolling around. Seeing the debris kicked up, he grabbed onto the branch of a pine tree, the strong, fresh smell of it’s leaves and bark filling his senses along with the violent spinning. Climbing on, he ran up the base of the trunk, jumping up and landing on another falling tree, repeating the steps until he saw up ahead some stable ground.

Rolling up into a ball, he propelled himself forwards, only just landing on the safe platform. Falling on his back, Chip landed beside him. “Sonic, are you alright?” Looking at the hedgehogs face, he had his eyelids lowered. “Uhh yeahh, just very dizzy…” Chip looked down to see the remains of the avalanche fall down the slope of the mountain. Sonic shook himself off, as he got back up, wobbling a little. “Ok, let's get back.”

Chip flew up to his face. “But what about the moon medal we need?” Sonic messed around with his quills, pulling out the said medal. “Saw it falling down along with the snow and grabbed onto it. Don’t know how it ended up there though… But anyways, we got it!” Sonic held it up triumphantly. Chip just looked at him awestruck, seeing the mess of his quills, with snow and sticks stuck into his spines. “Alright.”

Sonic looked at Chip. “You all good though, I feel that was a little much when it caught up…” Chip shook his head frantically. “No! That was really fun! Well not at first, but nonetheless exciting!” Sonic let out a breath of relief. “Oh, that's good to hear… Want to do it again?” “Yeah!”

Sonic squinted at Chip, scratching his head, with some of the remaining snow rubbing off onto his gloves. “Since when did you have eight wings?” Chip froze for a moment, holding his breath. “We should probably sit down for a moment before heading back…” Sonic looked at his hands confused, nodding his head, as he sprung himself down. “Yeah, that would be a better idea…”

“...I mean, we got the moon medal in the end! Just cost my ability to see an object as just one object haha!” Tails was just looking at Sonic oddly. “Even when covered in a heft of snow and ice, you were not cold, but you ended up dizzy?” “I mean I was spinning about for a good while until I did some totally cool platforming to safety!” Tails rolled his eyes. “Another great mystery yet to be solved…”

“Eh, but anyways now I’m tied with you, so the actual mystery to be solved here is who is going to get the next point and end the tie!” Sonic held his arms up in a dramatic fashion, determined to win the game that Tails forgot they were playing each and every time Sonic rambled on about an adventure. “Oh yeah! Lucky you were keeping count, I nearly forgot about it…”

Tails put both of his arms above his head, stretching upwards as he let out a yawn. Sonic smirked, cocky. “I thought you were all in it for numbers?” Shutting his eyes, Tails turned his head the other way. “Only the important numbers…” “Now that is harsh.”

In the distance some birds were chirping, the sounds faint, echoing through the high mountains. Above the line of the sea, some orange was glistening, stars fading away. Tails was sleeping on his back, in a deep slumber, curled up. Sonic was snoring, leaning forwards , back arched and arms dangling down. As the warm sun rose from the sea, light hitting the two, Sonic and Tails’ communicator went off.

Sonic jolted upwards, startled as Tails calmy got up. Sonic, regaining his balance, throwing his arms up into the air. Avoiding his fall into the water, he crawled back, keeping his shoes on the ground. “Oh man, we fell asleep!” Tails rubbed his eyes as Sonic continued on. “That;s a shame, I didn’t get to break the tie… Oh well.” Moving his glove back, Sonic fiddled with his communicator.

“Hey Tails, looks like Egghead is already back!” Tails let out an annoyed moan. “Well we should’ve seen that coming…” Sonic shrugged it off. “Well I guess that leaves our little game for later to break the tie.” Jumping back up, Sonic waved his hand at Tails for him to follow. “We can have round two tonight, but not all the way until morning.” Tails replied, standing besides Sonic. “Well let's get going!”

Jumping down, wind whipping through Sonic’s quills, Tails followed suit. Whipping his Tails in the air, he caught the hedgehog, as the two took off, speeding away, orange light hitting their backs. As the last of the stars died out, two vague shapes simmered. A hedgehog and a fox, playing together, standing out from all the little stars scattered near the ocean.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonicthehedgehog #sonic fandom #idw sonic #miles tails prower #sonic and tails #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #sth big bang #fandom event #big bang

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rosepetalgold · 1 year ago

Text

the art of saying goodbye

Summary: Remus expects a lot of things from the Queen Anne Victorian house he’s just purchased—a restoration project to occupy his time, some peace and quiet from nosy neighbors, a chance to brag about being a homeowner before his goody two-shoes brother.

What he doesn’t expect is for the property to come with a very real, very curious ghost. But what is he supposed to do, just ignore the spirit? That'd be nothing short of rude, especially considering that the specter's fascination with modern science and penchant for hijacking Remus' technology proves unfairly endearing.

But even as their unlikely friendship grows, so too do the questions swirling in Remus’ mind: Why is Logan still haunting the place he used to live? Who is the mysterious Janus he refuses to talk about? And what will it take for the ghost to finally find peace with the life and the love that were stolen from him so long ago?

Relationships: Platonic Intrulogical, past romantic Loceit, background romantic Prinxiety

Warnings for this chapter: None!

Word Count: 7000

Notes: My fic for this year's @sandersidesbigbang, aka another angsty tale that inexplicably grew out of a single fluffy scene, aka a prime excuse to procrastinate by poring through countless photos of beautiful Queen Anne houses my beloved. I hope you enjoy this ghostie story as much I enjoyed writing it! A big shoutout to my wonderful beta reader @dragonsaphirareads for all their feedback on this fic, and don't miss the amazing art by the incredible @casart and @onthevirgeofdestruction—you can check out their pieces here and here! (Seriously, even if you don't read the fic, go feast your eyes on their work because it is straight-up stunning. Go look, you'll see.)

Read on Ao3 Masterpost

start (you’re here!) - next

“This place is definitely haunted.”

Remus snorts, giving his brother a friendly sock in the arm.

“Oh come on, Ro, you scared of a few ghosties now? Afraid a floating white sheet is gonna jump out and yell boo?”

Roman doesn’t answer, just eyes the Queen Anne Victorian home in front of them with the amount of trepidation he usually reserved for any time Remus started a sentence with ‘I have an idea.’ The house does give off distinctly spooky vibes, Remus has to admit, what with its boards in desperate need of a new coat of paint and its broken window in the attic, not to mention the porch that looks liable to send someone plummeting to the ground if they take a single wrong step, but what was wrong with any of that? It all just added to the building’s character, and the risk of falling through the veranda was a delightful way to keep visitors on their toes, in his superior opinion.

And besides, he couldn’t turn his nose up at the property’s many flaws when they made it dirt-cheap. He wasn’t exactly a millionaire.

He grabs Roman’s arm, tugging him forward.

“C’mon, there’s some wicked spindlework on the back you gotta check out.”

His brother makes a sound of protest, dragging his feet as Remus hauls him onward.

“Aren’t we going to go inside?”

“Nah, I don’t have the keys yet. Everything’s still pending or whatever.”

Roman shifts his incredulous gaze from the house to Remus.

“You made me come all this way just to look at the outside of a house you haven’t even officially bought yet?”

Why yes, he had. He was such a good brother.

“Don’t act like it’s such a burden to drive twenty minutes out of the way to get here, especially when it means you’re twenty minutes closer to a booty call with Virgil.”

Roman splutters, face flushing a splendidly scandalized shade of crimson, and Remus cackles. That was more like it.

“Now c’mon c’mon c’mon, the sooner you ooh and aah over all my cool house shit, the sooner you can get some of that good di—”

“Don’t even finish that sentence,” Roman interrupts, slapping his hands over his ears, but he doesn’t protest as Remus pulls him around to the back of the house and points out the expansive if overgrown backyard, the plethora of decorative elements adorning the home, the leaded glass windows that have survived well over a century.

“I don’t get it, though,” Roman says as he eyes the tower gracing the corner of the house, something Remus would swear is a hint of jealousy in his gaze. Made sense. He knows for a fact his brother would sell his soul to be Rapunzel. “If this is such a nice place, why has it sat empty for so long?”

“Dunno. The realtor just said it stayed in the family of the guy who built it for a while before changing hands a bunch. Apparently every time it’s been on the market it’s taken ages to find a buyer, but she didn’t really say why no one wanted to live here for too long.” Probably just her trying not to scare him away from what was clearly a substantial restoration project so she wouldn’t lose her commission. Either that or there was some kind of toxic fungus in the walls that had taken over all the previous residents’ brains and turned them into zombies and Remus was about to become its next victim.

What a delightful gamble to find out which one it was.

“Can we please go now before some serial killer comes charging out of this place and we both end up on the news?” Roman asks, already edging back towards the front of the house.

“Sure, if you really want to give up your one shot of having your fifteen minutes of fame in the media,” Remus replies, dancing away with a grin as Roman aims a kick at his shins. “Fine, fine, we’ll go. I wouldn’t want to keep you from a hot date and some—”

Something catches his attention, a flash of movement out of the very corner of his eye, and he pauses mid-stride, doing a double-take at the second-story balcony overlooking the backyard.

Nothing. Not even a curtain blowing in the non-existent breeze.

“What?” Roman questions from where he’s also stopped a few yards ahead of him.

Remus looks a moment longer, searching for anything out of place, but all is still.

“Nothing. Probably just a bat or something. Wouldn’t that be cool as shit, to have bats as roommates? Hey, maybe they have rabies if they’re out in the daytime. Did you know…”

He launches into a spiel of the most gruesome and fascinating facts he knows about the disease, joyfully watching his brother’s face grow increasingly horrified with each one as they make their way back across the yard, and by the time they reach the driveway, the flicker of movement is barely a blip on his mental radar.

Just a trick of his eyes, surely.

It wasn’t like houses could actually be haunted, after all.

---

Home sweet home.

Or home rundown-and-slightly-musty-smelling home, as the case may be, but who was Remus to nitpick?

He fits his shiny new key into the lock and steps inside, letting the door click shut solidly behind him as he pauses just over the threshold, taking a moment to survey the foyer. His foyer now, in his very own home. The sale had been endless offers and counteroffers and a mountain of paperwork so large he’s positive he could have buried himself beneath it and never been seen again, but the place is finally his.

Him, a homeowner. Who’d have thunk it. He’ll be rubbing this in Roman’s apartment-renting face every chance he can get, thank you very much. It’s the least he can do, really.

He unceremoniously deposits the cardboard box in his arms on the floor and wanders further inside, trailing his hand along the smooth wood of the stair banister as he passes. He’s supposed to be meeting some of his friends back at his old place shortly—or now, actually, but that was wholly irrelevant—to start moving all of his worldly possessions into his fancy new abode, but he hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of taking the first load of boxes alone just to have the place to himself for a bit; he could use a few minutes to enjoy the space in peace before it’s filled with Roman and Virgil squabbling about the worst Disney movie heroes or whatever argument they were bound to get into.

Despite its well-worn exterior, the house is in surprisingly good condition inside, he muses as he roams through the empty rooms. There’s clearly extensive work that needs to be done if he wants to restore the place to its Victorian glory, an ambitious undertaking he knows will be neither cheap nor easy, but the bones of the structure are all solid, especially considering how many years it’s stood empty.

He finishes his meandering loop around the first floor and heads up the stairs, the tread of his steps entirely too loud for the pervasive quiet as he continues his exploratory wandering through the second story rooms. He pauses as he reaches what is clearly the master bedroom, surveying the original fireplace, the century-old hardwood, the attached balcony that was just begging to be used to pour water onto his unsuspecting brother’s head. Shit, his new house was cool as fuck.

It’d make the most sense to start hauling his load of boxes here, considering that’s where most of his crap is going to end up eventually, but the longer he hovers in the doorway, the more something feels … off. Just the slightest tingle prickling down his spine, and not the good kind. He steps inside and the temperature drops noticeably, a chill raising the hair on his arms.

“The fuck?” he mutters, raking his gaze over the windows in search of damaged panes letting in a breeze, but everything is intact.

He advances another step on impulse and the pinpricks dancing along his vertebrae only grow stronger, now accompanied by the distinct feeling he’s being watched. He scans the room again, slower this time, but there’s no furniture, no closet, not so much as a nook or cranny for anyone or anything to hide. Even the ceiling is empty when he turns his gaze upwards on the off chance he really does have some bats hanging around that he’s somehow missed on his numerous pre-sale walk-throughs.

Nary a beady eye to be found and still the sensation of being in someone’s sights doesn’t lessen. Not that it’s a threatening feeling, exactly, just distinctly unsettling, like there’s someone behind him no matter how many times he glances over his shoulder and finds nothing but empty air.

But that was crazy. He’d read the final sale documents until his eyes had been about to start bleeding and he’s absolutely positive that the house hadn’t come with any roommates. He’s probably just imagining the feeling, the result of watching one too many horror movies in the last week or his brain making things up in an attempt to liven up the empty space.

His phone buzzes in his pocket, yanking him out of his thoughts, and he rolls his eyes without even looking at the screen, already able to see the text from Roman in his mind’s eye: where you at?? i’m not packing up all your crap for you followed by an absurdly long string of emojis that basically constituted their own Roman-specific hieroglyphic language.

Time to face the moving-day music before Roman got annoyed enough with waiting that he rescinded his promise of free manual labor, then. Any investigations of potential invisible voyeurs would have to wait, no matter how titillating such a prospect sounded when he put it like that.

“You win for now, house,” he says into the quiet as he turns to leave, an edge of coldness still dancing along the goosebumps on his skin. “Keep your secrets. I’ll figure ‘em out eventually.”

---

The afternoon passes in a blur of hauling entirely too many heavy boxes and unwieldy pieces of furniture to the new house, and by the time night settles onto the horizon, Remus is utterly exhausted. He flops back on the couch, too tired to even think about putting his bedframe together, and he’s out in minutes.

He wakes disoriented, mind scrabbling blankly for a moment before the darkness coalesces into the still-unfamiliar contours of his sitting room. He just lies there for a moment, trying to figure out what’s roused him, but all is still. Just his brain deciding to deprive him of some tantalizingly horrifying nightmares, unfortunately—

Tap tap tap.

Remus bolts upright at the unmistakable sound of footsteps on the hardwood upstairs, adrenaline surging in a dizzying rush. There hadn’t been any signs of a squatter all day, and surely he’d remembered to lock the doors so no one could steal all the crap he’d just spent a whole day of his life lugging around. He waits for a moment, holding his breath as silence falls, and just when he’s about to pass the whole thing off as his imagination playing tricks on him, the steps start up again, slow and rhythmic like someone is pacing on the upper level.

Fuck his luck. If someone is secretly living in the attic of his fancy new home, he’s not going to be pleased.

He rolls off the couch and snatches his phone off of one of the plethora of boxes waiting to be unpacked, debating whether to risk turning on the flashlight before deciding for it; he might give away any element of surprise with the beam, but he’s certain to give it away if he starts banging face-first into walls or cracking his skull open falling down the stairs. His eye catches on a glass paperweight on the coffee table, a characteristically pretentious housewarming present from Roman, who apparently thought Remus had so many papers flying about that he needed to corral them with a glorified rock, and he seizes it on a whim.

Makeshift weapon was a much more useful purpose for the thing than its intended function anyways.

He edges around the scattered boxes towards the stairs, careful to keep his steps light and his hand shielding the light from his phone as the footfalls continue overhead, and makes it all the way up the steps without so much as a creak to give him away.

Flawless. He knew all those times sneaking up behind Roman to scare the shit out of him as kids would pay off someday.

He pauses on the landing to triangulate the noise, then creeps down the hall towards the footsteps as the sound grows even more distinct. The master bedroom again? What the actual fuck was going on with that room? Had he really managed to miss someone in there when he’d investigated earlier in the day? No, he couldn’t have, but then how had someone managed to get past where he’d been sleeping on the couch? Unless he really did have somebody living in the walls—

A floorboard squeaks underneath his foot, deafeningly loud in the quiet of the night, and the footsteps abruptly stop. Remus swears under his breath. Traitorous piece of wood. Now or never, then.

He lunges forward into the doorway of the master bedroom, raising the paperweight and howling a war cry as he swings his light across the room to reveal—

Nothing. The space is as entirely and utterly empty as it had been that morning.

Well, shit. There went any element of surprise he had left.

He darts back into the hall, racing to search through the rest of the rooms on the upper level one by one, but they’re all just as vacant as the first. He even hauls himself into the attic, bracing himself to be clubbed over the head by whoever is lurking, but with the exception of innumerable shadows billowing away from his flashlight, the space proves equally empty as the rest.

Unease stirs in his gut, creeping in alongside the lingering adrenaline as he makes his way back down the precariously rickety ladder into the main house. Surely there’s no way someone could have gotten past him, not when he would have heard them in the hall or going down the stairs.

And yet, as far as he can tell, besides a few mice tucked away in the attic, there isn’t another living soul in the house.

He stops in the doorway of the master bedroom again, staring inside. He’s positive this is where the footsteps had been emanating from, lack of proof be damned. Something weird was going on with this house.

Good thing Remus had just made the biggest financial commitment of his life to buy it.

Nothing for it now but to hope some elusive, wall-dwelling ax murderer doesn’t give him the chop in his sleep, he supposes, although he has to admit that’d be a badass way to go.

He reluctantly makes his way back downstairs and shoves a pile of boxes at the foot of the stairs to trip any nefarious intruders coming down, then retreats back to the couch, all the while keeping his ears primed for so much as a whisper of sound above him.

But even though it takes him a long time to drift back to sleep, the house around him remains as silent as a grave.

---

The whole thing must have been an impressively lucid dream, Remus decides the next morning. A second investigation in the light of day doesn’t reveal anything out of place: no shoe prints on the floor, no critters, certainly no people. It was probably nothing then, he tries to convince himself, just his overactive imagination needing an outlet after being a bit too jittery from all the excitement of moving.

But he finds himself pausing in the master bedroom again, something drawing him back to the space. First the chill and the strange feeling of being watched, then the mysterious footsteps? Two separate coincidences, or something more?

God, he sounded about as paranoid as Virgil. Next thing he knew he was going to be inventing his very own conspiracy theory to explain a few bumps in the night.

It really was nothing, he tells himself, shaking off any lingering unease as he tromps back down the stairs. If he starts jumping at every little noise in his old-as-shit house, he’ll be long dead before he gets the property restored. If he starts seeing glowing red eyes in the dark, he’ll start to worry. Until then, he has a mountain of boxes to unpack.

Unfortunately, said mountain does not pull a Beauty and the Beast and begin unpacking itself, leaving Remus to spend a dreadfully dull afternoon doing it instead, only the allure of building a fort out of all the empty boxes keeping him from living out of cardboard for the rest of his life.

By the time he’s finally finished unboxing most of the downstairs and getting the tv and wifi set up, most of the day has passed him by, afternoon sunlight splaying golden fingers across the hardwood.

Break time, then. He’s earned it, if he does say so himself.

He collapses onto the couch, flipping on the tv and surfing through the channels until he finds a rerun of some low-budget horror film from the eighties. Perfect. Nothing like a bit of mindless tv to rot his brain just that much more. Settling back more comfortably into the cushions, he pops open the bag of chips he’s snagged from the kitchen and pulls out his phone, beginning to scroll through his notifications.

Modern multitasking at its finest, truly.

But he’s barely a minute into atrophying his mind via social media before the tv starts flickering, volume dropping precipitously before ratcheting back up, the picture jumping to the weather channel, then a British cooking show, then the news with Spanish subtitles flashing in and out at the bottom of the screen.

Remus freezes with a chip halfway to his mouth, staring at the remote where it’s very definitely out of his reach on the coffee table, all by its lonesome. He’s no expert, but he’s pretty sure technology was not, in fact, supposed to suddenly start functioning by itself without any human input. Was his new house secretly sitting over some freaky radioactive waste? That would certainly explain why no one had wanted to buy it. Or was this some EMP disaster? Had someone decided to take out the whole country’s power grid, starting with Remus’ shitty tv?

He sits up, reaching for the rogue remote, only to pause as a chill moves over him, then past him like it’s heading for the tv, and the screen crackles, static beginning to fuzz both the video and the audio as the picture continues to leap wildly between programs.

Fuck the remote, then. Whatever freak accident has descended upon his living room, it’s time to go straight to the source.

Abandoning his snack, he stands, striding to the outlet and yanking the plug out of the wall. Silence falls immediately, the screen fading to black, but there still lingers a noticeable chill in the air, cold energy palpable against his skin and all too reminiscent of the feeling he remembers from being in the master bedroom.

“What the hell,” he mutters under his breath, casting his gaze around the room. Empty, just as upstairs had been the last three times he’d checked. He takes a step backwards, then another, and the strange chill decreases. On a whim, he pulls out his phone, scrolling through several apps without even paying attention to them, and sure enough, the hair on his arms raises as the temperature falls again, that sparking feeling of energy growing more intense as his phone begins to flicker on its own.

“What the actual hell,” he whispers again. Roman can’t have been right—this place can’t actually be haunted. There’s absolutely no way there’s a real, live—or dead, technically, he supposes—ghost in his living room right now playing fuck-up-the-electronics.

But if there is…

“Hello?” he calls, and the flickering abruptly stops, chill retreating once more. Shit. One word in and apparently Remus has already fucked things up. “Hello?” he tries again. Did this maybe-possible-potential ghostie even speak English? “I’m Remus,” he says, feeling more than a little crazy for introducing himself to his empty living room. If Roman ever knew of this, he’d die laughing and then Remus really would have a ghost haunting his ass.

He wracks his brain for something to say. If he were a ghost and a stranger started moving all of their shit into his home, what would he want to hear from them?

“Um, cool house you have here. I’m not gonna like, fuck it up or anything.”

Silence.

“I’m planning on restoring it bit by bit as I have money so if you could tell me the original paint color or wallpaper patterns, that’d be dope.”

Still nothing. Apparently the ghost is not amused. Time for a different tactic, then.

“What’s your name?”

Not even a cricket chirping. Jesus fucking christ, Remus is really blowing this.

“That’s the tv—the television,” he explains, gesturing towards the device that had seemingly either fascinated or enraged his new housemate, he can’t quite tell which. “It works by… well, I don’t really know how it works. Something with waves and frequencies or some shit? But you can watch recordings, people acting or baking or doing dumb reality dating shows or whatever, so if there’s something that you wanna see…”

He trails off, surreptitiously scanning the room for any ethereal presences, but the house is quiet, the ghostly feeling fading bit by bit. Great. An actual paranormal experience and he’s gone and shoved his foot so far in his mouth he can practically feel his toes wiggling in his small intestine.

“Alright, that’s cool, no worries. Just lemme know if you change your mind.”

He waits a moment more, hoping for a disembodied voice to speak or an object to start moving on its own or his body to suddenly become possessed, but there’s nothing. Snagging his leather jacket off the back of the couch, he beelines for the door, forcing himself not to run as excitement begins to grow with every step, bubbling up around his bones. He has a ghost. A ghost, an actual fucking ghost, and he hadn’t even had to pay extra for it. No way he’s not going to take advantage of the universe handing him the sickest housewarming present in the world, never mind the fact that he might end up a walking meat suit for the spirit.

He pauses as he reaches the edge of the yard, then thinks better of it and pivots, heading for his car instead. Who knew how far ghost range was, and he doesn’t want his new roomie overhearing. He’s practically vibrating with energy as he makes his way down the long, winding drive, and he only makes it a few miles down the road before he’s pulling over onto the shoulder, hopefully well out of spirit range.

His first call rings through to voicemail, but Remus doesn’t bother leaving a message, just hangs up and tries again, only to be met with the same result. The third time, though, proves to be the charm.

“What,” the voice on the other end spits, cheerful as ever. “Fuck you, Remus, I’m in the middle of—”

“You’re still into all that weird stuff, right? Like the cryptids and the creepies and the ghouls and ghosties and all that?” Remus interrupts. He can deal with Virgil’s wrath another time—he has information he needs and he needs it pronto.

A pause, so long he’s sure Virgil has hung up on him and he’s going to have to keep calling until the emo answers his question.

“Yeah?” the distrustful reply finally comes, anger blunted by obvious wariness. “Why—”

“I need to pick your brain,” Remus cuts in again. “I’ll be there in twenty.”

---

Plan Contact The Resident Possibly Unfriendly Ghost Who Might Possess Him, or CTRPUGWMPH to be short and snappy about it, is officially a go.

Unfortunately, it isn’t off to a promising start.

Virgil’s knowledge had turned out to be more spirit lore than specifics about how to get a ghost to actually appear, although he’d been infinitely more helpful than Roman, who’d just stared at him and asked if he’d had the house checked for carbon monoxide poisoning. Remus had soundly ignored him and had left Virgil’s apartment with his head swimming with theories about why ghosts haunt particular places and an extensive lecture from Virgil about how to find any potential objects or reasons tying a ghost to the house that might provide a potential talking point to engage said ghost in conversation.

But despite digging into every crack and crevice on the internet, emailing the local historical society, even calling his realtor to ask again about the history of the property, Remus comes up with precious little. The house had originally been built in the 1880s by a local merchant, everyone seems to agree, and had been inherited by his nephew soon after, but beyond that there’s frustratingly scant information available, and he can’t find so much as a whisper about anyone dying in the home. His ghostie could be anyone, then: A Victorian builder who’d taken a tumble, a flapper girl who’d partied a tad too hard, a hapless victim of some modern serial killer who’d taken advantage of the place sitting abandoned for years to do a bit of light murdering.

With precisely zero context clues as to his new housemate’s identity, then, Remus embraces his remarkable talent of keeping up an entirely one-sided conversation as he works around the house the next few days, rambling about anything and everything related to the property he can think of, hoping something will pique the ghost’s interest. But besides a few more cold spots and flickering screens, the house remains stubbornly quiet. Maybe his ghost just needed a bit of help in communicating, though; drifting around an empty building with no one to talk to for the past god-knew-how-many years can’t have done good things to their incorporeal vocal cords.

Which brings him to Plan B: The infamous Ouija board, favorite tool of grifters and bullshit paranormalists everywhere.

And yet despite the makeshift, very high-budget seance he conducts with the two dollar board and the zero dollar candles he’s lovingly stolen from his brother, there’s once again no reply from beyond the veil besides a chill in the room that somehow radiates disapproval. Apparently his ghost isn’t a fan of pseudoscientific games any more than he is. At least they had standards, whoever they were.

But Remus is a stubborn bastard if he does say so himself, so on to Plan C it is. The used EMF meter he snags off of ebay has definitely seen better days, given the prominent crack across its screen, but the thing had been cheap and still seemed to work, so Remus wasn’t complaining. Fancy equipment was for fancy people, after all, and of all the things he’s ever been called, he’s positive fancy isn’t one of them. He sets up the device behind the tv, which still seems to intrigue his ghost every time it’s turned on, puts on the first show he can find, and forces himself to walk away. His little trap is set. Now all he has to do is bide his time pretending to busy himself unpacking a box of books in the next room—

He barely has the chance to register the tv screen flickering out of the corner of his eye before an ear-splitting shriek is rending the air, startling him so violently that he promptly drops a hefty tome on his foot.

“Shit,” he breathes, surging back into the living room, but the noise has already stopped just as suddenly as it began, replaced by a frigid chill permeating the room. Maybe he should have thought twice about scaring the resident phantom without first hiding any of his valuables. Hopefully he won’t wake up tomorrow to find his tv shattered. “It won’t hurt you,” he calls, though the EMF meter indicates a distinct lack of any supernatural presences. “It just makes noise to let me know when you’re nearby, yeah? Totally harmless.”

No response, but for once he doesn’t mind, not when there’s excitement dancing white-hot across his nerves. There really is a ghost or spirit or demon or something here, and he hasn’t just been imagining things.

Fuck, this house is single-handedly the coolest thing that’s ever happened to him, even if he does now have to worry about his haunting buddy getting a bit of revenge on him in the middle of the night.

But Remus survives safe and sound into the next day without so much as a supernatural scratch on his skin. Bloody payback didn’t seem like his ghost’s style anyways, not when their favorite activity seemed to be pressing as many buttons as possible on the tv remote at once. Curiosity is still nipping impatiently at his heels though, urging him to explore this latest avenue of potential communication more, so he sets up the EMF meter again, this time in the master bedroom where the spirit seems most inclined to spend time if the continued pacing in the middle of the night is anything to go by.

A brilliant plan, only minorly ruined by the fact that the device is nowhere to be found when he goes searching for it the next morning.

“Are you disappearing things, ghostie?” he asks the empty bedroom. “Gonna zap me into another dimension next?”

He’s joking, but as his hunt through the house reveals neither hide nor hair of the EMF meter, he can’t help but wonder. Had the ghost really just yeeted the thing into the ether? Or maybe it was right where he’d left it in the middle of the bedroom, but had been turned invisible like the spirit themself? What kind of ghostly superpowers did he even have, if any—

He comes to an abrupt halt as he emerges out the back door onto the porch, a laugh spilling past his lips as he surveys the myriad bits of metal and broken plastic strewn around him. Looks like he’s found his EMF meter. Apparently his ghost wasn’t nearly as endeared to this technology as he was anything with a screen. He glances up to the master bedroom window over his head, shading his eyes from the sun.

“Fair enough,” he calls, still fighting down amusement despite himself, and there’s the faintest shimmer in the air above the balcony, reminiscent of a heat mirage despite the cool morning air. “No more screeching little boxes.”

Left with zero information about his ghost’s identity, a useless Ouija board better repurposed as a doorstop, and the remains of his one piece of official ghost-hunting equipment, Remus concludes his only option is to embark on Plan D. Said plan isn’t so much an strategic approach as it is a wild hail mary to find any way to communicate with his ghost that didn’t involved hurling objects from balconies, as much fun as such an activity was, but then again, Plan D did sound delightfully dirty, so he’ll take the trade-off.

The internet, of course, is the place to turn to for highly questionable ghost advice, and it only takes a single google search to find message boards teeming with it. Half of it is clearly bullshit, he quickly discovers as he trawls through post after useless post, and the other half is baseless theories without any semblance of evidence to back them up, but just as he’s about to call it quits and move on to whatever the hell Plan E is, an old thread catches his eye.

‘Old Ghost Caught By Photography?’ the title reads, and Remus skims through the post, intrigued despite himself at the detailed claims the author had been able to capture the image of a Victorian spirit by using an antique camera and photography methods from the end of the nineteenth century. He pores over the attached images, searching for the slightest hint of photoshop or manipulation, but everything seems legit. And it made sense in some weird, probably illogical way, he supposes, that ghosts might only be spotted by using technology from their day and age—historical continuity in the metaphysical realm or some shit.

It’s the best lead he has after hours of searching, and really, he’s just spent a very hefty chunk of change buying a whole-ass house; what was the harm in dropping a few more dollars on some vintage photography equipment?

Which is precisely how he finds himself crammed into his makeshift darkroom in the tiny closet under the stairs several weeks later, holding his breath as he carefully begins to look through the latest batch of negatives he’s just finished processing. It had taken an obscene amount of research, a healthy dose of trial-and-error, and more than a few failures to figure out the intricacies of the dry plate photography process, but he’d gotten there in the end, even if the most he has to show for it is a few suspicious blurs in a couple of images.

Maybe this whole idea of capturing ghosts in photos was just as bullshit as the others, he muses as he examines yet another empty picture of the dining room, or maybe his ghost wasn’t from the same era as the camera he’d bought. Maybe his ghost simply didn’t want to have his photo taken, or maybe—

His train of thought abruptly derails as he picks up the next plate.

Holy shit. Holy shit.

The image is still a negative, the reversed colors lending a certain eeriness to the picture under the red darkroom lights, but there, right smack in the middle of the photo—a figure. An actual human figure, clear as day, looking right at the camera. Remus whoops, nearly knocking over a vial of chemicals with his elbow as he dances backwards in pure giddiness. Oh fuck yes , there is a ghost haunting the place. His ghost, now that he owns the house. His ghost who is…

He pauses, forcing himself to focus on the figure in the photo even as he feels like he’s about to vibrate right off of his bones with excitement. Spectacles, clean-shaven, dark hair neatly styled. Neat trousers, white shirt, trim waistcoat, and a decidedly fancy ascot, the whole ensemble distinctly old-fashioned. Victorian, then? Or Edwardian? Or some historical reenactor who’d met an untimely demise in costume? And it does seem to be an untimely demise; the man looks to be in his mid- to late-twenties, unless he’d found some ability to look whatever age he wanted in the afterlife.

Regardless, he can’t make himself focus on fashion for long. He has a ghost to talk to. Fighting his way out of the cramped closet, he bounds up the stairs, forcing himself to slow to a respectable jog as he darts into the master bedroom. He stops in the middle of the still-bare room, trying and utterly failing to keep his hopes in check.

“Hello? Ghostie?”

No response.

“Mr. Glasses and White Shirt?”

His skin prickles, the hair on the back of his neck raising. Aha. There he was.

“Hey, what’s up?” He turns in a slow circle, searching for any sign of his specter, any flicker of light off a spectacle lens or a flash of a shirtsleeve, but the room is as empty as ever.

“I have a photo if you’d like to see it.” Could ghosts not see themselves in mirrors or was that only vampire lore? And if he couldn’t see his own reflection, did the ghost even remember what he looked like?

He raises the picture, proferring the negative to the vacant room, and holds his breath. Nothing, for several long moments, and then the chill edges closer. Remus bites his lip, barely able to keep himself from bouncing on the balls of his feet at the prospect of a ghost being within arm’s reach.

“I wasn’t trying to be creepy or anything, I just wanted to see if you were real or if I needed to go check myself into a padded room, you know? I’m Remus, if I haven’t said that. What’s your name?”

Several more excruciatingly long moments that Remus is sure has to be the longest span of silence in history, then—

“Hello.”

The voice is thin and slightly hoarse, quiet enough that Remus has to strain to make it out, but it’s as unmistakably real as the form that flickers into existence right in front of his eyes, identical to the man in the photo. He’s distinctly transparent, the edges of him not quite defined, fuzzing out around the edges like the ambient glow of neon signs, but he’s here and he’s real and this is so fucking cool that Remus could keel over right here and now from excitement and join the ghost in wandering around the house for all eternity.

“Holy shit,” he breathes, because if there was ever a time for swearing, by god this is fucking it, and the spirit withdraws slightly, already guarded expression closing in further. “No no no, it’s good,” he rushes to assure him, resisting the urge to reach out and try to touch him. “Good holy shit. Complimentary holy shit.”

The ghost doesn’t seem entirely appeased, but he tilts his head slightly, something like curiosity sparking in his eyes as he evaluates Remus.

“Why are you not frightened of me?” he finally asks, and Remus has to fight back the absurd laugh bubbling up in his chest. He’s being questioned by a century-old ghost in the middle of his haunted home. Life really was delightfully freaky.

“No offense, man, but you’re not exactly terrifying. I mean, I’ve been here what? A solid month? And you haven’t even tried to pluck my eyeballs out or anything.”

Another unreadable pause. Is he just giving the spirit ideas? Were his eyes about to be forcibly unmarried from his skull à la eagles tearing out Prometheus’ liver?

“Do you want me to be afraid of you?” he asks after a further absolutely unbearable five seconds of silence.

“No,” the ghost admits after a moment of clear hesitation, “but previous residents certainly have not appreciated my presence here.”

Remus scoffs. “That’s their problem. Some of us are smarter than that.”

The other man’s head tilt deepens, something akin to puzzlement furrowing his brow, as if he can’t fathom why having a ghost is actually the most badass shit on the face of the planet.

“Can I ask you some questions?” Remus asks, exhilaration still racing along the underside of his skin so intensely that he can barely stand it. “You can ask me whatever you want, too.”

The ghost nods, although he still seems cautious as one hand fiddles absently with his ascot. “I suppose that would be alright.”

Twenty questions with an undead spirit. Remus’ life really was getting better by the minute.

“Did you used to live here?”

“I did, many years ago.”

“Did you own the place?”

“At one point in time, yes. It was truly a beautiful house in its day, and a wonderful place to reside.”

Oh fuck yes. If having an old-timey ghost who can give him historically accurate advice about restoring the house isn’t the coolest fucking thing that’s ever happened to him, he isn’t sure what is. He has half a mind to start grilling him on paint colors and wallpaper prints and the original hardwood, but—

“Did you die here?”

The words are blurting out of his mouth without even bothering to detour through his brain on the way out, burning curiosity eclipsing any thought that perhaps asking about death isn’t exactly acceptable ghost etiquette. He barely has time to register the change in the spirit’s expression, the visceral upset written across his features clear as day, before he’s gone in between one breath and the next, vanishing back into whatever thin air he’d come from and leaving nothing but a biting chill in his wake.

Shit shit shit. He’s finally gotten the ghost to trust him enough to show up and talk and then he’s gone and ruined it within the span of two minutes all because he had all the self-control of a sieve trying to retain water.

“Wait,” he calls, casting about in vain. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” Well, apparently his subconscious had, but that hadn’t been his intention. “Please come back. You can ask me as many invasive questions as you like.” Nothing. “You can haunt me for revenge, if you want.” Utter silence. “Are you gonna hurl me off the balcony like my EMF meter?”

There he goes again, giving the specter ideas, although really, being yeeted out of a window by a ghost would be a damn cool end if he does say so himself. He lingers in the room for several long minutes, forcing himself to keep quiet lest he miss the spirit’s hushed voice, but there’s nothing but the faint sound of a bird twittering outside.

“Alright,” he finally relents, disappointment pooling in his stomach as he glances down at the photography plate still in his hand, the negative serving as indisputable evidence that the encounter hadn’t just been a fever dream. He’ll find a way to make things right with the ghost somehow, one way or another. He has to. “Just come spook me if you change your mind.”

Taglist (let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!): @darth-does-stuff

#thomas sanders sides big bang 2023 #tssbb2023 #sanders sides #ts remus #remus sanders #ts logan #logan sanders #ts roman #roman sanders #ts virgil #virgil sanders #intrulogical #loceit #ts fanfic #the art of saying goodbye #my fic #rosepetal writes

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