The three boys find themselves sitting at a table. Red neon lights making for an intense atmosphere, Tails is still trying his best to supress his rage as he looks across at Nine, he has all his mechanical tails outstretched, his pointer finger tapping on the side of his blaster, Sonic is sitting in between the two making sure they don't go at each others throats.

Sonic notices neither one of them budging so he clears his throat and speaks.

"Okay, so uh... Tails... Nine says that you killed his version of Sonic, the one that came to this universe before me. Did you murder him?"

"No. This is my first time in this reality"

"I tracked you for a month before I finally made my first attempt on your sorry ass... That's lie #1"

Tails scoffs.

"How would you know it was me who murdered him when I don't even remember doing it" Tails answers, crossing his arms.

"I know you, you're slick, heartless and you don't give a fuck about anyone else, not even this Sonic you care about so much-"

"I love Sonic more then anything else in the world!" Tails snarls.

"I loved the one I met too, but you ripped him from my arms like a heartless monster"

"Ugh! Look I'm sorry you lost your Sonic but you have no justification to target me and Sonic for something I didn't do. Like, use your brain, what if the Tails who killed your Sonic came from another universe that's not the one me and Sonic come from-"

"I've been tracking you for pretty long time, if I lost sight of you I'd know"

"You've been WHAT?!" Tails screams raising the blaster at Nines face.

Nine aims his own at Tails, Sonic seeing it's about to get ugly slams his hands on their weapons forcing them downwards from the table.

"Guys, let's not kill each other now, let me hold on to your weapons" Sonic says.

Tails and Nine reluctantly give up their blasters and Sonic takes them from their hands, resting both of them on the floor.

"Nine, do you maybe have any equipment that could prove if this is the Tails you're looking for?" Sonic asks, looking at him with pleading eyes.

Nine sighs and crosses his arms, "Yes"

"Great, can we use it?" Sonic asks.

"We might be able to-"

"That's good enough for me, why don't you go get it ready while me and Tails talk" Sonic asks.

"But-"

"I'll be fine"

Nine stubbornly agrees to go start up the device leaving him and Tails in the room. Sonic looks over at Tails, his fox boy still livid and shaking angrily. Sonic gently moves forwards and puts his gloved hand on his face, Tails looks up at him as Sonic gets closer and wraps his arms around him trying his best to calm his partner down.

"It's infuriating... Why does shit like this keep happening to me?! Am I cursed or something?-"

"Tails, you're not cursed. And even if you were I'd still love you"

"Sonic I don't remember doing any of what Nine claims I've done. You've gotta believe me-"

"I... Let's just see what he finds" Sonic answers.

Tails shivers, Nine has planted seeds of doubt in Sonic's mind, and those seeds were becoming saplings... Tails has to tread carefully, he doesn't want the love of his life to discover that he's an unhinged killer, great way to end a relationship.

Nine knocks on the door and gestures for him and Tails to come into his lab. They both follow Nine into the lab, both are impressed by what they see, various inventions of all kinds, different chemicals and parts scattered about.

Nine remembers a time when his Sonic was bringing in parts so he could work on a project and he tripped on the floor spilling the parts all over the place, he scolds Sonic for his clumsiness but kisses him on the cheek when he's done doing so, Sonic is left blushing and bewildered while Nine laughs and helps him pick up the tools.

The memory makes a tear flow down his cheek so he wipes his face. At the far end of the room is a chair with wires hooked up to a glowing holographic monitor. Sonic and Tails stop walking a few feet from the chair.

"Sit" Nine says as he sits down at the monitor.

Tails flinches and growls quietly.

"Sit in the chair" Nine says, this time more firmly.

Sonic puts his hand on his head and looks into his eyes, "It's going to be okay"

Tails sighs and walks over to the seat so he can sit in it, he sits down and sighs.

"Sonic can you attach that thing on the headrest to his head please" Nine requests as he types on the screen.

"O-Okay"

Sonic walks over to the headrest and moves a small metal, bowl shaped contraption from behind the headrest and lays it on top of Tails' head.

"Be strong" Sonic encourages.

"Mm" Tails moans.

Nine takes Sonic by the arm and leads him to a chair next to him. Tails takes a deep breath as Nine starts up the machine, a red light shines on Tails' head, the heat it's giving off intense in some aspect.

"So uh how does this work?" Sonic asks.

"It's scanning his brain for abnormal activity, when Sonic's murderer was here I found that he left a unique energy signature. It's like he's glowing red but at the same time he doesn't give off any heat, he's as cold as ice" Nine explains.

"Interesting"

Tails squeezes his eyes shut and tries to relax but the burning feeling on his head makes it near impossible.

Sonic can't help but worry about Tails as he watches him fidget around softly, Nine meanwhile observes the readings the machine is showing on the computer, Tails' head was warm and exhibiting a greenish yellowish glow, he sighs and turns off the machine.

When the scanner above Tails' head finally raises itself from off his head the first thing he does is run over grab Sonic by the arm, and pull him in for a squeeze all the while glaring at Nine who rests his head on his hand, somewhat annoyed with the results he found.

"You were right... It's not him"

Sonic breathes a sigh of relief, "Well now that we've established that, why don't I help you find the actual gu-"

"Sonic no!"

"Oh come on Tails-"

"I don't trust him"

"I don't know, I kinda feel like I should make it up to him somehow" Sonic says, scratching the back of his head.

"Make it up?! Sonic-"

"He lost the love of his life... He's been trying to get his revenge on the psycho that killed him for a while. Let's at least help him in the right direction"

Sonic puts his hand on his face and kisses him on the mouth, Tails moans and grabs hold of his other hand. Sonic separates from him and Sonic looks into his eyes.

"You trust me right?" Sonic asks.

Tails seeing no way to change Sonic's mind decideds to just follow along for now, the fox already plotting a way to eliminate Nine as now he proved to be a potentially dangerous thorn in his side.

"Three days-" Tails responds.

"Thank you" Sonic says.

"I can't believe we're missing the festival for this shit"

Sonic lets go of Tails and pats his head before scooting over to Nine who's looking down at the floor.

"You good?"

A tear streams down Nines face making Sonic flinch.

"I-I feel wanted"

He jumps off the chair and squeezes Sonic, Tails squeezes his fist when he sees Nine do this, as if a blazing inferno of rage was consuming his body. Sonic wraps his arms around him too while the fox sobs in his arms.

"Being alone for all those years must've sucked huh?" Sonic says.

"I hated it... I hated it so much" Nine sobs.

While Sonic continues to comfort Nine, he notices an open journal with a picture of him and his Sonic kissing each other on what looks to be a barren planet.

"Where did you take that?"

Nine looks behind him and picks up the book, sniffling as he stares at the picture.

"It's called The Grim... Me and Sonic were supposed to go live there the month after he died. It would have been just the two of us... Together. While me and him were fighting the Chaos Council I came across it, it was a perfect place... For both of us"

"Man, you and him must have had plans huh"

"Ever since I fell in love with him..."

Tails walks around the lab while Sonic and Nine continue to converse with one another, finding several interesting pieces of technology that catch his eye. He has to resist the urge to take however, for him and Nine still weren't on solid ground with each other. Tails walks by a bookshelf and feels weak gust of wind from behind him. He stops and turns to the bookshelf, the fox takes off one of his gloves and puts his hand infront of a crack between the shelves.

"What the-"

He looks at the books on the shelf, noticing they all had to do with genetics, none of them seemed out of place... Except for one, a book about minerals. Nine notices Tails looking at the bookshelf and reaching for the book, he jumps in fright and shouts.

"Hey! What are you-"

Tails pulls the book and a mechanical whirring sound can be heard as the bookshelf swings open slowly like a door.

"Whoa, secret lair-" Sonic says.

Tails starts walking into the dark room while Nine runs around the tables with his lab stuff still on it.

"Stop! This Is where my private research is!"

Tails however doesn't answer, but keeps walking down the hall as Nine follows behind him, Sonic catches up soon after. As they approach a staircase leading downwards Nine finally jumps in front of Tails extending his arms out.

"That's far enough!" Nine shouts.

Tails gives Nine the chilliest stare ever, colder then the South Pole, he shoves Nine to the wall and approaches the steps, stopping to turn back and look and his groaning doppelganger, Sonic is shocked when he sees Tails carelessly discard of him as if he was a toy.

"Get in front of me again and It'll be more than a shove"

Nine snarls and lunges at Tails, Sonic grabs Nine and squeezes him tightly as he growls and shouts angrily still trying to swing at Tails with his fists.

"Tails... That was cold" Sonic says.

Tails looks at Sonic for a moment before continuing down the steps into the dark. When he's far enough, Sonic takes a struggling and angry Nine by his left hand, Nine gasps and looks up at Sonic, it got his attention... It also got him to stop squirming around like an angry child.

"It's okay, I gotcha"

Nine sighs and kisses Sonic on the lips briefly.

"You remind me so much of him" Nine says, squeezing Sonic's hand tighter.

"Sonic! I think you should see this!" Tails voice shouts.

Sonic scoops Nine up and dashes down the dark staircase until he's being Tails, he sets Nine down on his feet and looks in Tails' general direction, when he sees what the fox is seeing his heart throb a with anxiousness.

All across the dark, damp, cold room were large holding capsules, there's steam leaking from the pipes connects to the metal containers, the glass on each one is frosted. Sonic and Tails can tell there's something in there because they can make out an object behind the frost covered glass of one of these capsules.

"What the hell is this" Tails says looking around the room with terror in his eyes.

"Something I wanted to forget about" Nine responds looking down at the ground.

Sonic slowly walks up to one of the freezing cold machines and reaches his hand out so he can wipe the condensation and snow from off the glass, what he sees makes his heart stop.

"Gah!" Sonic shouts, backing up from capsule.

Behind the fogged up glass is what looks to be an alternate version of Sonic, dried blood on his chin, the eye that's visable looks pale like he was dead for a while. Tails can't stand what he's seeing and he turns away, vomiting on the floor, even though it wasn't his beloved Sonic, the fox still feared a similar outcome with his Sonic.

"Tails!"

"Bah, I'm fine-"

"You don't look fine"

"I'm okay Sonic, don't worry about me"

The fox coughs and takes a tissue from his utility belt so he could wipe his mouth.

"N-Nine... What the hell is this?!" Sonic shouts, demanding an explanation.

"Alternate versions of you... And him. I bought the bodies here at first to study what kind of technology the killer had, to see if I could find any clues that might've given me a lead. But then I wondered if I could try and bring them back, send them back home. I achieved neither of these goals so I just put them in cryogenic pods and called it a day"

"O-of me?!" Tails goes, squeezing his stomach.

"Yeah... Of us. There were a few alternates of us that either sacraficed themselves to try and save their Sonic, were killed first to draw out their Sonic, fought alongside their Sonic to the end, or they offed themselves because they couldn't deal with their loss" Nine explains.

Tails runs over to Sonic and squeezes him tightly, he's never been so overwhelmed in his life, because after all you wouldn't want to be surrounded by dead alternate versions of your boyfriend. Sonic holds onto him tightly too, seeing the pods with the frozen alternate versions of Tails made him anxious as well.

"Th-These are all the versions of us you claim Tails murdered?" Sonic says, unable to comprehend the gravity of his discovery.

"Yes" Nine responds, his voice devoid of any emotion.

"How many of these are there?" Tails asks.

"195, 150 versions of Sonic, 45 versions of Tails" Nine answers.

"This guy must be really hellbent on tipping the scales in his favour"

"This is genocide... But aimed at one person in particular" Tails says, squeezing his churning stomach.

"I can't help but think I'm next..." Sonic goes.

"That's the thing... He suddenly disappeared not too long ago, I know this because I haven't found any new realities missing their Sonic's. Who knows what he's doing nowadays" Nine explains.

"Huh, that's a relief I guess" Sonic responds.

"Y'know what, maybe coming back to this room may have been a good idea because I just remembered something that could maybe give us a clue, I found something interesting about each of their deaths-"

Nine opens one of the pods with a cryogenically frozen Sonic and uses a tool to snip off a bit of fur next to what looked to be a large stab wound. Seeing the large hole in his alternative self made Sonic's skin crawl and itch with discomfort, he squeezes the spot on his body where the actual wound would have been, when Nine gets what he needs he presses a button on the capsule and it seals itself shut again.

The fox moves some stuff from off a dusty desk and sets the bit of fur he snipped off onto the stage of a microscope, Tails looks into it and notices red crystal like particles on his fur.

"What's the red stuff" Tails asks as he steps back from the telescope.

"When I initially came into contact with him, he had this gem, it was dark red and I think it's what made him such an unkillable piece of shit" Nine answers.

"Gem?! Like a chaos emerald?" Sonic says.

Nine shakes his head, "Something far more ancient... And deadly"

"What is it?" Tails asks.

"It's called The Ruby of Lust. Legend has it that if you lose the one you love most, the ruby will grant you any wish you want for as long as you want. My theory is: An alternate version of Tails found the ruby, at least the one in his universe, and used it to try and kill every version of Sonic that ever existed as a way of taking some sort of revenge for losing his"

"That's some messed up mentality he's got" Sonic says, still on edge.

"Thing is, there are millions of other Sonic's in the millions of different realities. Why did he suddenly stop?" Nine asks himself.

"Who knows" Sonic answers, "Maybe he finally came to his senses and just disappeared"

Nine turns off the microscope and starts to walk towards the exit, Sonic notices his shift in mood so he runs up to him and puts his hand on his shoulder. Nine looks up at him and takes a shaky breath.

"What if we helped you find the ruby?" Sonic suggests.

"I don't know how to find it" Nine answers, crossing his arms.

"Tails can build some of the best gadgets in the world! And trust me they'll knock your socks off-"

Tails heart jumps when he hears Sonic say that, he's happy to hear him say that, it makes his face go red, his blood burning with flames of passion, he can feel the tips of his ears getting warm as he looks back at Sonic.

"-He can build you something in no time!" Sonic says, as if he's bragging about something.

Nine turns to Tails who's doing his best to resist the urge to jump on Sonic.

"You can do it right Tai-"

The fox boy can't hold it in anymore so he jumps onto Sonic and squeezes him tightly while kissing his passionately, a surprised Sonic loses his balance and tumbles to the floor. Nine wants to look away from what Tails is doing to Sonic but he can't avert his gaze, after all it does remind him of the relationship him and the Sonic he loved had together. When Tails is done kissing Sonic up for his words of praise he licks lips and presses Sonic's confused, blushing face on his soft chest fur.

"Yeah, I can build pretty much anything" Tails says, his two fluffy tails wagging excitedly.

"T-Tails, I know you love me to death but can you let go of me... And why do you smell so good..."

"Nah" Tails says, teasingly.

He pulls Sonic from off the ground and moans as he lays his head on Sonic's chest. Sonic looks up at Nine and sees he's just frozen there, his entire face red, when Nine realises Sonic's looking at him he snaps out of his day dream and shakes his head.

"Are you sure he can do it?"

"Yep!" Sonic says, patting Tails' head gently.

"Mm" Tails goes, nuzzling Sonic's ribcage.

There's silence between the three, the sound of Tails cuddling up to Sonic the only thing audible in the room besides the hum from the pod generators and the hissing from the pipes feeding the cryogenic fluid to the tubes.

"Do you need a moment"

"Y-Yeah, it takes a while for him to get this out of his system. He really likes it when I praise his work"

"I-Ill be in my room, can you two go get lovey dovey on the couch or something and not the one room where I keep frozen corpses" Nine says.

"O-Oh... Yeah" Sonic says.

The blue hedgehog leads the smitten fox boy out of the room and smiles at him. Tails still feeling super energetic and affectionate so when they get back upstairs to Nine's lab the fox shoves him against a desk.

"You're sure are hyper" Sonic says with a nervous smile.

"But I know what I want" Tails responds, stroking Sonic's face.

Tails goes back in to taste his lips, Sonic puts his hands on his waist and hoists him into his lap, Sonic can feel Tails getting started on him, he grunts and lets his head fall onto the concrete desk, his hands holding on firm to Tails'waist.

"Gah fuck" Sonic grunts, unable to keep his composure, the sound of Tails moaning is almost entrancing.

"Sonic! I love you!" Tails shouts.

"N-Ngh, I love you too" Sonic responds through grunts.

Tails starts to go faster and Sonic's grunting and yelling gets louder to. Little do the boys know that while they're in the heat of their passion, they had another party was taking advantage of the situation, from behind a shelve of books Nine watches them go at it on the desk, the sounds they make reminded him of him and his lover's first night. He takes off his white glove and pulls down his trousers and starts to get off to what they're doing, he uses the glove to cover his mouth, just incase he made a loud sound.

"T-Tails, take it easy, f-fuck"

"Shut up" Tails says aggressively, he presses his hands on the lower part of Sonic's stomach and moans loudly, the pleasure too much for him to handle.

Sonic can feel it coming, Tails can feel it too, even Nine who's taking advantage of them can feel himself getting closer to release. Sometime later, Tails finally lets out a loud moan, Sonic grunts and kisses his forehead whil squeezing the twitching and giggling little fox lovingly.

"You satisfied now?" Sonic asks.

"Haha, mmmm" Tails goes, still twitching and laying on Sonic's chest, he enjoyed every last bit of what him and Sonic did, "Give me a bit"

Sonic sighs, kisses Tails on the forehead, and gets off the desk, his crotch feels like it's burning but it wasn't the worst feeling ever. Tails can barely stand but he manages to get on his feet anyway. Nine fixes his trousers and sighs as he puts his gloves back on, he's not keen on admitting it but he wishes it was him instead of Tails.

"I'm gonna go wash up"

"Okay" The fox responds energetically.

Sonic walks off so he can go find a shower.

"I'm gonna start working on that and then wash up later" Tails says.

"Gotcha" Sonic responds as he leaves the room. When he's gone Nine emerges from behind the bookshelf as Tails looks through a box of parts, he turns around and sees Nine leaving the lab as well, Tails thinks nothing of it so he continues to sort out the parts he would need for his latest contraption.

Sonic hums a toon to himself as he washes himself off, a good shower was a great way for him to escape his stress and to refresh himself. As he washes his head he notices a shadow moving from outside the shower curtain. His first thought is that Tails changed his mind and actually came to shower, however it's soon made clear who's come in when Sonic notices whoever it is removing a shirt and then a pair of trousers, his heart jumps and he gulps. Sure enough, Nine does come in and the first thing he does is aggressively pin Sonic against marble wall with his hand.

"Oh uh... H-Hi Nine" Sonic says, trying his best to keep himself from panicking.

The fox rests his head on Sonic's soft, soaked chest and sighs.

"...So is there a reason you couldn't have waited until I was do-"

The fox covers Sonic's mouth, face red like a strawberry, "Just stop talking"

Nine moves his hand from his mouth and gestures for Sonic to put his hand on his face while looking down at the floor. Sonic reluctantly complies, when he feels the fox shake from his gentle touch he has somewhat of an idea of what he wants. Sonic kisses him on the lips, so Nine purs quietly, when Sonic hears him he can't help but smirk, but Nine is quick to notice and his face turns into a strawberry again.

"W-W-What are you smiling at?!" Nine says, flustered at Sonic's smirk.

"Did you just pur like cat" Sonic asks trying to hold his laughter.

"F-Fuck off!" Nine says brushing his hand off his face and stepping back from him.

Sonic just starts laughing his butt off, Nine growls and jumps on top of him so he can punch him, both of them collide with the plastic flooring and find themselves staring into eachothers eyes.

Sonic braces for Nine to punch him but instead the fox turns his face towards him and sits on his lap waiting for Sonic to kiss him... And the hedgehog does, but this time with more aggression, Sonic moves to his neck, causing Nine to moan and squirm even more.

"You really are a softie" Sonic says softly.

"Mm" Nine moans, somewhat aggressively.

He lets his body relax as Sonic wraps his arms around him. Nine does the same and close his eyes, resting his tired head on Sonic's shoulder.

"You may not be my Sonic... But I can see a lot of him in you. It's like he's still here"

"I just want you to be happy Nine" Sonic says petting his tired head.

"...Thank you" Nine sobs, he squeezes Sonic tighter as the water washes away his tears.

"A-Are you crying?"

"Oh whoop everyone cries" Nine sobs.

"That's not a bad thing, even I cry from time to time" Sonic says back to him.

"... I fucking love you" Nine goes.

Sonic can feel the mini fireworks going off in his chest, he can't deny his feelings for him either so he kisses him on the mouth and puts his hand on his face.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same way huh?" Sonic says.

Nine is quiet so Sonic checks on him to see if he's okay, turns out the fox fell asleep on him. Sonic can't help but chuckle at this while the water pours on down the both of them.

"Who's falls asleep in the shower?" Sonic says, smiling at him.

When Sonic is done washing himself and Nine, he takes the fox, wraps him up in a blanket and sets him down gently on his bed, he takes a moment to sit down and take his hand as he watches Nine sleep there peacefully... When Nine feels Sonic's hand a smile appears on his face that melts Sonic's heart.

"Sonic?" Tails says peaking into the room.

Sonic lets go of Nines hand and looks over at the doorway, "Hey Tails what's up?"

"Is he okay?" Tails asks.

"... I saw him knocked out against a wall so I took him to his room" Sonic says looking back down at him.

"Oh alright... I've started working on the first prototype, I'll let you know more about its progress soon"

"Alright"

Tails walks over to him, licks his cheek and then walks out so he can return to the lab. Once Tails is far enough, Sonic takes Nine's hand again and the fox shifts around and holds onto Sonic's hand tighter, his heart melting, peaceful smile returns to his face.

"I got you Nine, you don't have to worry about a thing" Sonic whispers, he gently pats his head and swings his feet on the bed so he can lay down next to him.

Sonic closes his eyes and dozes off next to him, Nine rolls over so he can hold onto him while he dreams of the one thing he wants more than anything at that moment...

Sonic.