Nine yawns loudly as he finally wakes up, when Sonic hears him yawning he looks over in his direction, he looks at Sonic in the eyes and just grunts as if he's annoyed with his existence.

"Good morning, I think-"

"Why are you here?"

"You fell asleep on me in the shower... And I couldn't leave because you grabbed onto my hand... And you held it tightly at one point, I'm not gonna lie, it felt like you were gonna crush it" Sonic explains.

Nine looks down to see his hand holding onto Sonic's, his face turns crimson and he lets go of Sonic's hand, "Sorry"

"You were out for 14 hours by the way"

"14 hours?!"

Sonic nods.

"I gotta confess something to you, I haven't slept a wink since he died"

"You were that dedicated to finding his killer weren't you?" Sonic asks, smirking at his dedication.

Nine nods, "Combine that and the nightmares I'd have of that night, I just couldn't get any sleep... I'm starting to think meeting you was the best thing that's happened to me in a while. I haven't felt this fortunate in a long time"

Sonic's face softens, Nine takes his hand and squeezes it tightly.

"I have nothing left in this world... So maybe I could come back to yours. Please, don't want to be alone again, I hate it so much"

"I-I'll talk about it with Tails" Sonic responds.

"Okay" Nine responds, he leans in and kisses Sonic on the lips, when he's done he jumps off the bed and puts on some fresh clothes.

Sonic stretches his arms and walks outside, Nine follows behind him staying as close to Sonic as he can. Sonic comes into the lab and sees Tails is hard at work on what looks like some sort of scanner, Tails turns around and when he sees Sonic coming in he smiles.

"You sure are hard at work?"

Tails grabs onto Sonic and hugs him tightly, "I could use a bit of de-stress"

Sonic could tell what he meant by that, his face warms up and he looks away from Tails making the fox break out into laughter. While Sonic and Tails have their banter, Nine strolls on over to the desk to observe what Tails has made so far and he's genuinely impressed with his work.

"How close is it to being done?" Nine asks.

"I just need a few more parts" Tails responds while touching noses with Sonic who's making no effort to try and move away from him.

Eventually Sonic has enough of the nuzzling and cuddling and moves back from Tails.

"I'm gonna go crash on the couch and take a nap, you guys try to not kill eachother while I'm sleeping"

"Uh huh" Nine says walking over to another desk so he can work on something.

"You got it Sonic!" Tails says.

Sonic leaves the room and yawns as he goes down the diamond plate steps to the living room. A few minutes goes by, both foxes work in silence on their respective creations. Nine turns around so he can grab a wrench but he sees Tails isn't behind him working on the scanner so he figures he just left the room so he turns around and starts working on his contraption again...

A hand grabs him by the back of the head and slams his face into the table, Nine is then lifted up and slammed onto the desk aggressively. Standing over him with freezing cold eyes is Tails, Nine tries to move his mechanical tails but Tails' feet are holding them down, the fox reaches into his utility belt and pulls out a combat knife he leans down and gets in Nines face while holding the knife to his throat.

"Agh! Get the fuck off me! Have you lost your mind?!"

"You're quite the spider aren't you, can't wait to see how useless you are without those ugly ass mechanical limbs of yours" Tails says, a hint of malice in his voice.

"What do you want?!" Nine grunts as he punches the uncouthly calm Tails in the gut to try and get him off him.

"I know you're fucking Sonic" Tails says.

When Nine hears this his eyes go wide and his heart freezes up, he doesn't know how Tails knew, after all he did everything he could to make sure his thing with Sonic stayed a secret.

"H-How did you know...?" Nine asks, trying to stay calm.

Tails laughs at his face while grinning like an anime villain.

"Your scent was all over him, his scent is all over you. I smelled it the moment I saw Sonic again... You were such a little fucking sad sack of shit that you used someone else's boyfriend as your toy, just because he looks like your dead boyfriend" Tails says, his cold jealousy filled eyes piercing Nine's usually fearless ones.

Tails adjusts his goggles and presses the blade of the knife against Nine's neck.

"Let's get one thing clear, your Sonic is dead, don't you dare use my Sonic as your way of coping with your loss. If I catch you again, I'll fucking kill you... Are we clear?"

Nine grunts and tries yet again to get Tails off of him by kicking him but the fox doesn't budge he only glares Nine down, rage still piloting the fox like an airplane on autopilot. Nine reluctantly nods, Tails smirks at him and spins the knife around before putting it back in his utility belt.

"Was that so hard?" Tails asks, he follows his question with a giggle.

Nine growls at him, Tails responds by lightly slapping him in the face, still grinning at him like the one cool kid in school who just did something bad on purpose. He releases Nine's mechanical tails and returns to his desk so he can work on the scanner, Nine wipes the blood from his lip and rubs his aching face. Nine now recognises Tails is a threat to him, he sees Tails will do anything and everything to make sure no one else but him has Sonic. It pissed him off that Tails literally threatened to cut his neck open in his own home, that he couldn't even be near Sonic.

"I'll show you asshole" Nine says to himself, squeezing his wrench tightly.

---

Hours of both foxes working in the lab together working in silence later, Tails is finished with the scanner, while Nine finishes his mystery creation. Nine notices Tails' mood did a complete turn around and he was back to being cheery and excited, he leaves the lab and fly's down to Sonic who's passed out on the sofa, snoring obnoxiously. Tails wants to wake him up, but instead he takes a quilt and covers Sonic with it, the fox kisses him on the forehead and decides now isn't the time to wake him up so he turns on the scanner and it starts beeping, a holographic screen appears above its hilt, Tails notices a red dot on the screen pinging a location.

"Found it yet?" Nine says, leaning on the balcony railing.

"Maybe" Tails responds, "There a few more bugs I need to fix"

"Like what?" Nine asks.

"A few glitches, shouldn't take me long to solve" Tails says, then he turns it off and unscrews the top of it so he can plug it to the Miles Electric and see if that would help him find the bugs.

Nine picks something up from his work bench and slowly strolls over to Tails while the fox was looking at the error logs the Miles Electric was showing him.

"I should have the done in a few hours, why don't you go-"

Tails feels something looming over him so he turns around and sees him raising what looks like a stick in the air. It strikes Tails in the face and throws him off his chair. Tails needs a moment to process what just happened, when the realisation hits him he clenches his face. Nine spins the metal stick around like a baton and points it at Tails.

"You made a mistake threatening me" Nine says.

Tails wipes the blood from his lips and starts laughing, "You don't know the half of what I can do. But if you want to die so bad, I have no problem killing you right here and now"

"Come and try!" Nine snarls, he twists the bottom of the stick and greenish coloured electricity sparkles and crackles like thunder.

Tails reaches into his utility belt and pulls out the elastiribbons while giving Nine cold eyes, with a flick of his wrist the turn into swords, glowing a brilliant shade of red.

"The hell's that gonna do?" Nine scoffs.

Tails slices a stool and it crumbles to pieces on the floor, "I'll make you into sushi, kniving little insect"

Tails jumps at Nine and swings a sword at him, Nine blocks the attacks with his pulse baton, Tails flicks his right and the ribbons wrap around his fist and turn yellow, he throws a blow at Nine's stomach, basically gut checking him. Upon impact, Nine is electrocuted and he screams out in pain before collapsing to the ground, using his stick as support.

Tails punches him again this time hard enough to throw him into a spin and then into a table. The force of the blows combined with the electricity was taking a toll on him, but he wasn't going to go into this fight without his signature weapon though.

He pushes the button on his belt and his mechanical tails activate, one of them swings into Tails throwing him backwards, the fox tumbles across the floor into self with chemicals almost knocking them over, Nine picks him up with his robotic limbs and slams him onto a desk, he throws Tails into the cieling and the fox lands on a desk groaning in pain Nine jumps on him and raises his arm to strike Tails with the pulse baton, Tails catches the stick so Nine pushes harder so he can get the end to touch his face.

Tails can feel his arms begging for mercy so he kicks Nine in the gut and he flies off him and onto the floor. Nine gets back to his feet and is slashed in the face, he screams, stumbles backwards and clenches his face tightly, the blood trickling down his cheek was warm, he looks up at Tails who raises the blade he cut him with.

"Are you done" Tails asks coldly.

"Hardly!" Nine screams, his mechanical tails raise in the air and start jabbing at Tails, the fox dodges the attacks with grace and deflects the ones he sees coming too fast.

Suddenly without warning all of the mechanical tails spring towards him, Tails is left with no choice but to block the attack with the sword. Nine seizes the opportunity and strikes him in the gut with the pulse baton, Tails is hit with a surge of almost paralysing electricity and is thrown backwards into a table. Nine wipes his face and starts walking towards Tails.

Tails can feel his ears ringing, his vision fading in and out, body aching all over. Nine jabs Tails with the stick again, he can feel his body seizing from the high voltage electricity. Nine picks up his limp body and throws him at the wall, when Tails hits the ground he shouts loudly. Nine scurries across the cieling with his mechanical tails, Tails manages to flick his right hand and one of the swords turns into a loose ribbon, Nine jumps at Tails but Tails manages to muster enough energy to dodge his attack, he swings the ribbon at Nine and it wraps around his arm.

Nine tugs aggressively but the nanotech enhanced fabric doesn't give, Tails gives a strong pull and yanks him forward, he lets Nine's face collide with his fist, Nine flies passed Tails, the ribbon slacks and sends him forward this time, Nine lets his body fly into Tails knocking the fox over to his side. While Tails is down he pulls and tugs on the fabric desperately trying to get it off him. Tails is quick to get on his feet though and the first think he does is flick his wrist causing the ribbon to turn red.

Nine can feel his arm burning and he screams, dropping the pulse baton in the process. Tails flicks his other wrist and whips the other one around Nine's waist and he turns that one red as well. Nine tries to suppress his screams, but it's hard when you have two seamingly indestructible pieces of fabric burning you slowly like a barbeque.

"Pathetic" Tails says as he watches him writhe around in agony.

Tails releases one of the ribbons around his arm and whips it around Nines neck. Nine's struggling intensities as he feels his throat burn, the taste of his own blood mixing in, the smell of his burning flesh intoxicating his nose. Tail squeezes the ribbon intensifying the heat applified throughout. It's quickly becoming harder for Nine breathe as he tries to keep the scorching hot elastiribbons from killing him, gagging anderting out muffled and pained screaming, tears flow down his eyes as he feels the life leaving his body.

It hurts... I don't wanna die... Someone... Help me... PLEASE!

...

"Tails what are you doing!?" Sonic screams looking at the horrifying scene infront of him.

Tails can feel his heart drop as he snaps back to reality. Nine feels his throat easing up as Sonic runs over to him and holds him in his arms.

"Get them off Tails!"

Tails reluctantly releases Nine and flicks his wrist to turn the ribbons off. Nine weakly looks up at a worried Sonic's eyes as Sonic wipes the blood from his mouth, he sees the burn marks and bruises all over his body, it makes a tear well up in his eye seeing Nine like this.

"It hurts" Nine wheezes, barely able to speak.

Sonic squeezes him tightly, trying to fight back the tears.

"Sonic I'm-" Tails starts.

"Just don't! Don't say anything right now! I can't believe you'd do something like this! You Tails! Of all people!" Sonic shouts, distressed with the current situation and infuriated with his companion for his lack of restraint.

Tails flinches and looks down at the ground in shame.

Nine pulls on Sonic's bandana and weakly points at the shelf with the chemicals in it. Sonic dashes over to it immediately still holding Nine in his arms.

"The light purple one" He wheezes.

Sonic takes a large bottle with light purple liquid from on of the shelves them he lays Nine on a table and gives the fox the bottle, Nine gestures for Sonic to take his hand. Sonic takes it without hesitation and Nine squeezes tightly as he pours the liquid on his neck, stomach and arm, the stinging feeling is so bad he wants to screech and scream but he can't because of his scorched throat. The blue hedgehog can't watch as the fox tries to scream but he can't. Sonic can see the chemicals doing their job, slowly fixing Nine's body, healing his burnt flesh and tissue.

Tails leaves the lab, head hung low in shame.

"It's over" Tails sobs.

Sonic turns and sees Tails leaving the room, he doesn't feel any spite towards him, but all he can do is frown in disappointment, after all he expected his Tails to be more like himself instead of some angry lunatic.

---

Sonic finishes bandages Nines neck as the fox looks up at him, still weakened from his injuries and laying in his bed.

"How's your throat" Sonic asks.

"Better... Still hurts like hell... Though" Nine answers.

"Alrighty... I uh... I'm gonna go sort Tails out. I'm sorry he did this to you"

"Not the first time someone's tried to kill me... I'll get over it" Nine wheezes with a smirk.

"Yeah heh, see you in a bit" Sonic says.

Sonic gets up and leaves the room. He spends the next few minutes looking for Tails. He eventually finds him sitting in a corner of the trashed up lab, wounds from his fight with Nine dressed and treated, he's sniffling and shaking like a scared child. Sonic sighs and slowly approaches him, Tails looks up at him and immediately feels his heartbeat pick up fear and uncertainty clouding his mind.

"If your wondering, I'm not particularly happy with you right now. But I don't hate you"

"I'm sorry Sonic-"

"Why did you try to off him?"

"He was using you, just so he could feel like he had his Sonic back-" Tails says.

"Tails, I understand your anger. But trying to kill him wasn't the right move! Besides, that's an alternative version of you, it's like killing yourself in a way"

Tails is silent, Sonic sits down next to him.

"I'm also kinda to blame, I should have pushed Nine back... But I just felt so bad for him, and... Yeah, I feel like I can bond with him"

"I feel like shit" Tails sobs.

"You still think I hate you don't you?"

Sonic sighs.

"Start by apologising to Nine and trying improve relations between you two. That will show me that you're really sorry. Now question is, how can I apologise to you?"

Tails looks up at his eyes and sees Sonic's nervous grin. Tails sniffles and gives Sonic an angry glare, he punches him in the stomach and the blue hedgehog heels over in pain, Sonic squeezes his gut tightly, the pain was immense but he knew he deserved it for his behaviour.

"Or you could just give me a blow to the gut... Ow-"

"Now we're even" Tails goes, he kneels Infront of him and kisses him on the face, "I still love you though"

"Mm" Sonic grunts as Tails sits back down next to him and takes one of his hands, he may be frustrated with Sonic but his love for the blue devil hasn't died.

Tails helps Sonic back to his feet and they both leave the room. Sonic puts his hand on Tails'shoulder and guides him to Nines room. Nine looks up at Sonic and Tails, when he sees Tails he scoffs and looks back down at the book.

"Nine, I know you're still angry but if you both could maybe have a truce... Even if it's temporary. Just, please both of you, don't fight anymore... Preferably ever again but you get the point. Come on Tails, you know what you gotta do"

Tails takes a deep breath and calms himself before he speaks, "I'm sorry for attacking you earlier. Sonic's right, we shouldn't be fighting, we should be working together"

Nine messages his neck.

"If you attack me again-" Nine starts.

"I know" Tails interrupts.

Nine just looks back down at his book, Sonic pats Tails on the head, when he's done Tails goes back to the lab so he can modify the scanner and fix the bugs. Nine looks up at Sonic when he notices Tails is gone and it's just Sonic by the doorway he grunts aggressively as if he's telling Sonic to either come in or go away, Sonic chooses the former strolling into Nines room and sitting by him on the bed.

"Don't you think he's a little obsessed with you?" Nine says.

"Maybe he is... Maybe..." Sonic explains.

"I'll give him one thing... He does know how to fight"

"Yeah, he couldn't even kick a rock when I met him. But he just kept getting stronger, and I've never been so proud to watch him grow"

"I... I liked watching the Sonic I knew grow too"

Believing a chat would help Nine relax, Sonic decides to try and make conversation with him and see how it goes.

"So... Was he any different from me?" Sonic asks.

Nine looks up at him when he hears the question, "He was beautiful... I'm n-not saying you aren't-"

"I know, don't sweat it" Sonic says ruffling his head, Nine blushes and takes his hand holding it gently in his.

Nine smiles as he continues to look at Sonic

"He was unique, smart, knew how to get everyone to work together, a good leader, he was a huge pain in the ass and we ended up fighting at one point... But he won back my trust, my heart. He was the one piece of my life that I never knew I needed. With him around I never felt alone or depressed, he made me want to change myself. Throughout our time together he taught me a lot too, "

"What did he teach you?" Sonic asks

Nine takes a moment to reply to Sonic's question, "That I'm never alone"

He reaches on the night stand and shows Sonic a picture of him and his Sonic enjoying each others company in The Grim.

"Even though he's gone and I'm probably never gonna get him back, I know he's watching over me"

Sonic notices a tear stream down his face so he puts his hand on his shoulder.

"You need a tissue?"

Nine shakes his head and wipes his face, "Maybe I'll find the right person, someone just like him... But sometimes I wonder, what if you are that person?"

Nine moves Sonic's hand from his shoulder to his face, the blue hedgehog's heartbeat picks up when he does this.

"Remember when you said you didn't want to be enemies? I still want it to be like that, I want to be your ally... I just don't want to have another encounter like that with Tails again, if we do I don't think-"

"I'll make sure you don't have to fight him anymore, and he doesn't have to fight you, I promise" Sonic says.

Nine smiles at him, Sonic curious to see how Nines injuries were lifts the bandages around his neck and is impressed to see it was healed, but there was a noticeable scar around the skin on his neck.

"Does your throat still hurt?"

Nine shakes his head, "Not as much, but it still hurts to move"

"Get some rest" Sonic says standing up and moving his hand from his face.

Nine growls aggressively, Sonic gulps and looks down into the fox's eyes, he sighs and puts his hand back on Nine's cheek, instead of snarling aggressively he purrs kind of like a cat. Sonic sits back down on the bed and grumbles.

"How long do you want me to stay"

Nine doesn't answer, he only purrs almost like a cat while holding Sonic's hand to his face, a big smile on his face as he closes his eyes so he can relax.

"Oh man" He goes.

---

A few hours later Sonic finally manages to get free from Nine and go into the lab. Tails is there running some final tests with the scanner, Sonic walks up from behind him and scratches his chin as he looks down at the test equipment Tails made. His companion turns around and then looks back down at the scanner watching it ping the location of the ruby.

"How's it going?" Sonic asks.

"The scanner works perfectly, all the bugs have been ironed out so it should be ready to go now" Tails responds.

"Awesome, we're that much closer to finding the answers we're looking for then"

Tails sighs and looks down at the table, Sonic's smiles goes away when he notices his companions mood.

"Tails what's wrong? Are you still bummed out about-"

"No it's not that, I just realised we missed half of the Glastonbury Festival back on Earth" Tails says.

"O-Oh" Sonic says, also realising that as well.

"I was really looking forward to singing with you. And now that opportunity is probably gone" Tails answers, head hung low.

Sonic puts his hand on his shoulder.

"We'll figure something out Tails. I promise"

Tails turns around and kisses Sonic, "I'll hold you to that"

"I'd expect nothing less" Sonic answers checking the fox's chin.

The two share another passionate kiss, but before they could go any further...

"Are you two lovebirds done yet?" Nine says standing by the doorway.

When they hear his voice Tails and Sonic move away from each other quicker then you could blink. Sonic looks back at Nine seeing he's barely able to stand so he runs over and takes his shoulder.

"Ngh"

"Why did you get out of bed dude"

"I got antsy" Nine responds, shifting slightly in embarrassment.

"Tails is done with the scanner. But Nine you should rest, your wounds aren't healed completely"

"Im ok" Nine says.

"You don't look ok"

"It's not a big deal, don't treat me like a child"

"I-I'm not, I just don't think you should be out of bed"

Sonic gives up trying and sighs, "Okay, the ruby scanning thingy is over there"

Though he held some resentment towards Nine, Tails admired his perseverance. It reminded him of himself in a way. Sonic sighs and gives up trying to get Nine back into bed, he helps Nine over to the table and pulls a chair out for him so he can sit down next to Tails.

"Well... Where is it" Nine asks.

Tails types a command on a computer and the device chirps as the computer loads a geographic map of the world they're in. A red dot appears showing the location of the ruby.

"Doesn't look far" Nine says.

"Well where is it?" Sonic asks leaning on the desk.

"The Baronoa Forest..."

Images of the forest appear when Tails clicks on the name tag, "This reminds me of the Green Seaside Zone..."

"Here it's called the Alturia Coast, it's located south of the Baronoa Forest. I can take you there... But we gotta go, and fast" Nine says.

"What are we waiting for then, let's go!" Sonic shouts, punching his fist high in the air with excitement.