Summary: To get his final revenge, Infinite puts the Phantom Ruby inside Sonic. This warps the hedgehog's perception until he's fighting his friends without any hesitation— aiming to kill.
On the inside, Sonic fights against Infinite's manipulation and the Phantom Ruby's illusory influences.

During Sonic Forces / Rewrite of Sonic Forces
Trigger Warnings: Death, Blood, Gore, Violence/Fighting

Ships: None

Part 1 of 2

—

For one brief moment, there is silence. The entire world holds its breath. As the seconds tick by, certain noises start to echo through the destroyed streets. Flames flicker nearby, cackling in low and soft tones. Buildings start to settle with chunks of them missing. Occasionally, rocks will drop onto the cracked sidewalks, creating a quiet noise that is easily dismissed as nothingness. The world's breathing picks up with a light breeze winding between the rubble and the fallen robots, and the reason behind those dismantled automatons and possibly a fair portion of the collapsing buildings are starting to breathe as well. Victory tastes sweet, but it's overpowered by the ash lingering in the air with each labored inhale. On top of that, responsibility comes crashing down in the form of thoughts that echo so loud that each soldier seems to be telepathically linked.

Among the enemies left on the ground, there is one that is not a robot. The general of Eggman's former empire stares at the rebellion between the cracks in his mask. Infinite knows that he is going to die. He's overtaxed his body, and there are several wounds littering his body that are going to be left to bleed out. He knows that the majority of the rebels won't let him die, mainly because they have anti-killing ethics or they want him to serve time for his supposed crimes. Infinite is not going to be their prisoner, so he makes no effort to save himself. Or, rather, he makes no effort to save this body he's lying inside. He has survived too long to let death claim him now. Survival must be achieved at any cost, and he doesn't mind doing that by usurping someone else's body.

And the perfect candidate is standing right beside him. Infinite tilts his head back to see the blue hedgehog kneeling down on one knee with his arms wrapped around his midsection. Infinite knows who it is— Sonic, the hero of Mobius. It would be difficult not to know him after Infinite spent six months torturing him while he was kept captive on the Death Egg. Sonic escaped, unfortunately, and he almost immediately started working with the rebellion. His liberation is the most prominent reason the empire started crumbling. Infinite might want to take the greatest revenge on the ebony hedgehog for philosophical reasons, but he still has a score to settle with this hedgehog for broader reasons. Still, Infinite acknowledges Sonic's power, so what better target is there?

Infinite braces himself as his claws dig into his chest. He feels flesh and blood against his paw. This isn't a new sensation, but the pain accompanying makes him realize why so many of his targets fell unconscious almost as soon as he began hurting them. Unfortunately, he feels no remorse because he's still conscious right now. He's stronger than they are, and he will be stronger still as his fingers wrap around the edges of the Phantom Ruby. Infinite pulls it out of his chest. His crimson blood slides across the dark red surface of the ruby, covering most of but not all of the light shining from somewhere inside the ruby.

Infinite pushes himself onto his elbow. His movement causes a few eyes to move toward him. Sonic, however, continues looking forward with a goofy smile on his face. Infinite grits his teeth. He uses some of his strength to push his lips into a cruel smirk, but the majority of the strength goes to pushing the Phantom Ruby into Sonic's back. Infinite leans his body weight against Sonic's shoulder. Some of his blood smears across Sonic's fur and quills, mixing with the oil left from the broken machines. This oil drips down, mixing with Infinite's blood. The Phantom Ruby settles into its new host. Sonic's eyes widen as he whips to look at Infinite on his shoulder. Infinite hopes his smirk can be seen as life completely ebbs out his body. He slides off Sonic's arm, landing roughly on the street in a pool of his own blood.

Sonic stumbles to his feet. His arms fall to his side. He takes a deep breath, somewhat aware that something foreign is settling inside his body. He presses his eyes shut. The chaos energy inside him swirls around in a frenzied state. It is frantic after being disrupted by an external source integrating into the system. Sonic feels this happening like a storm brewing inside his body. His fur stands on end, and his quills stretch out as if he's preparing to launch into a spindash. And maybe it is.

"Sonic?" Tails calls out from the end of the street, looking away from the machine he was getting scrapped parts from. A frown pulls Tails' lips down as he leaps down from the top of the robot. His tails spin around to lessen the impact when his feet touch the ground. He holds the scanner he was using against his chest like a protective shield as his light blue eyes look over his brother's form for what the problem could be.

His answer does not come in the form of words or even a thumbs up. Instead, Tails blinks and suddenly Sonic is gone. Rather, Sonic is running towards him at a speed his eyes can hardly comprehend as anything more than a translucent blue blur similar to the distorted air above a fire. As Tails realizes what this blur could possibly be, someone crashes into his side to tackle him out of the way. Tails feels a pair of arms wrap around him as they roll together. When they stop rolling, the person— Shadow— releases Tails. He rises onto his feet, leaving Tails prone but safe on the ground. Tails pulls his head off the street to look at what Shadow supposedly saved him from.

Sonic stands in the wreckage of the machine Tails was checking with his scanner. While the robot was broken beforehand, Sonic's launch towards it caused the entire machine to crumple to the ground like a bomb went off inside of it. The lightning that often arcs between Sonic's quills is a blood-red color, and it bounces off Sonic's body to touch the metal shrapnel left all around him. There is no expression on his face as he tilts his head to the side. His irises are still a shimmering emerald green, but there is a thick ring of dark red surrounding the outer edges, bleeding towards the pupil. Sonic shifts on his feet, fully turning his attention towards Tails and Shadow.

While no one knows what exactly is happening or why it is, everyone knows that Sonic is now their enemy.

Sonic stalks toward Tails and Shadow. Before he can start running, rubble suddenly drops down in front of him with a cyan silhouette. The cyan disappears as the metal and stone settles on the ground. Sonic looks over his shoulder, tracing the cyan energy to its source. Silver stands with his gloved hands extended, a cyan lighting coating his fingertips. Blaze slides into place right beside him with her own hands raised. The air around her flickers with warmth, and gold-orange sparks flutter across her fur.

"What are you doing?!" Silver yells. The expression adorning his face makes it obvious that he doesn't want to do this. His hesitation is made clearer by the way he shifts subtly, getting out of an offensive position. The cyan light disappears. He reaches his hand toward Sonic, offering him a chance to say this was all an elaborate prank that involved terrifying the rebellion after the war was supposed to be over. Really, that is what Silver is hoping this all is because the alternative sends a spike of fear through his body.

Sonic does not acknowledge the offered hand or the weakness demonstrated by Silver. He launches himself forward. Blaze— who has not dropped her guard once— stands in front of Silver to take the hit for him. Whether she expects it or not, she flies across the street. She slams directly into a pillar of a nearby building. The skyscraper groans immediately, ready to come tumbling down to the ground. Blaze coughs in pain. She feels it radiating through her body, and she knows that she would have kept flying if not for the building and Silver's psychokinetic abilities slowing her down. As Blaze pushes herself onto her paws and knees, she feels someone grab onto her. She recognizes Rouge only after she is set on the ground far away from the building that collapses without the structural support Blaze unintentionally knocked out.

Rouge gestures to herself then to Shadow and Tails. Her hand sweeps around the buildings. She opens her mouth to speak, but Blaze nods with understanding flashing in her eyes. Rouge, Shadow, and Tails are going to make sure everyone has left the area. The news of victory must have spread, so people might be returning to their homes. No one should be around here. Not only because it would tarnish Sonic's reputation, but they would also be collateral damage. Everyone has some passing awareness of how powerful Sonic is under the surface, and Rouge has a terrible feeling they are about to witness it on full display. Even without the chaos emeralds empowering him, Sonic is about to level this entire city block. Blaze and Silver will have to keep him here and busy until the others can return— hopefully with reinforcements.

Silver turns around as soon as he stops Blaze from flying through the buildings to the neighboring streets. He uses his abilities to hold Sonic in place. The cyan outline starkly contrasts Sonic's darkening quills and the red lightning bustling across his body. Silver focuses all his attention on keeping Sonic frozen in place as he assesses the situation. There were a few people here to stop Infinite, but now there is only Silver, Blaze, Rouge, Tails, Shadow, and Sonic. The others are either defeating Eggman, or they are helping civilians. Silver knows they can call for back-up right now, but he doesn't know how they are going to explain this situation. He doesn't know who to call, either. Who could handle this situation?

Silver's thoughts are disrupted by the sound of breaking glass. It sounds similar to that, anyway, and Silver only makes the connection because he's never seen someone break his psychokinetic abilities before. But the cyan silhouette around Sonic's body shatters like it actually is glass. The pieces fall to the ground, dissipating into nothingness after they've made shallow cuts on Sonic's body. He doesn't even acknowledge the blood as he kicks Silver's side, knocking the hedgehog down the street. Silver hits the asphalt a few times, creating a few more hair-line cracks. He eventually regains control over his body through activating his abilities to telekinetically hold himself above the ground.

Sonic turns toward him, but he's stopped by another obstacle. A wall of fire bursts from the ground right in front of him like a red, orange, and yellow curtain closing over this sorry production known as a fight. Sonic whirls around to see Blaze staring directly at him with a narrowed expression. Wordlessly, she gets into a fighting stance with fire flicking across her body in the same way lightning cackles around Sonic. He inclines his head toward her, a silent question passing from his firmly shut lips. She does not give him an emotional reaction, but she does launch herself towards him.

Sonic shoves the punch aimed for his head away, but she lands her other fist against his stomach with flames sputtering across his fur. Part of him can feel the burns. The other part of him feels nothing at all as he engages in hand-to-hand combat with Blaze. While Blaze has superior skill in the art, Sonic is not completely inept. He amplifies his abilities with his speed. Blaze could defeat him if it wasn't for his increased strength and speed, but it is remarkable that she's able to keep up with him for as long as she has. Unfortunately, Sonic quickly puts her on the defensive as she tries to remain in the fight rather than getting batted away.

Earlier, Sonic made the mistake of not knowing what was happening directly behind him. He does not make this mistake again. He doesn't even need to glance behind him to grab onto Blaze's shoulders. Her eyes widen slightly as Sonic spins them both around. Her feet leave the ground as he throws her toward the collection of scrapped parts Silver is throwing at Sonic with his telekinetic abilities.

Silver realizes belatedly that he is about to hurt Blaze instead of Sonic. His feet slide on the ground as he tries to pull the objects back. His abilities are powerful, but inertia and momentum are always forces he needs to pay attention to. Silver grits his teeth as he slows the ascent.

Sonic whips around the side of Blaze and the rubble at his usually intense speed. He twists his body in the air. Silver's eyes slide away from the impact at the end of the street to see the shadows falling across Sonic's face, except for the unnatural red glow radiating across his irises. Silver doesn't have enough time to switch his abilities from one place to another. He only has enough time to feel crippling, primal fear shoot through his body, somehow worse than any of the anxiety he's ever dealt with in his life.

After doing their best to remove any civilians still in the area, Rouge, Shadow, and Tails return. Rouge immediately flies to Sonic's body. She wraps her arms underneath his armpits. Rouge pulls Sonic's back against her chest, ignoring the way the red lightning hurts in a way his usual blue lightning never did. Rouge braces herself for the pain, but nothing can prepare her for the shadowed look Sonic casts her way. She can only see part of his face because of their position, but it is enough.

Enough to terrify her and to distract her. Sonic twists his body. He kicks his feet upward, and his body swings above Rouge's body. She tilts her head back to look at him as his hands lock into place on either side of her head. He squeezes as his body hurtles back to the ground. He angles for his feet to hit first, but then he suddenly swings Rouge to make her hit the ground first. She makes a terribly pained noise. Sonic ignores it as he lands in a roll. He continues rolling, letting himself build up speed until he's a blue blur yet again, this time with red lightning hitting the ground all around him with enough force to create miniature explosions.

Sonic stops when another blur crashes into him. Sonic is launched back, but he lands steadily on his feet. Shadow glares at him, lips curling into a snarl. Unlike their usual sparring exchanges, Shadow is dripping with emotions and Sonic seems unbothered by it all. And, unlike those moments, Sonic is fighting to draw blood. Shadow does not care if blood is drawn, but his main priority is to stop Sonic.

Although Sonic and Shadow looked evenly matched from the outside, Sonic does not struggle at all when Rouge, Blaze, and Silver join the fight. Rouge and Blaze get close to fight hand-to-hand (with a fireball here and there from Blaze), Silver maintains his distance. He uses his abilities to grab chunks from the ground to launch at Sonic. Eventually, he pulls out his psychic blade. Unfortunately, his actions prove to be more of a hindrance as a help as Shadow dodges another attack that was meant for Sonic yet was effortlessly dodged. Shadow turns his glare to Silver. He points at the silver hedgehog, "Stop it!"

"Sorry!" Silver yells back with a sheepish expression crossing his sweaty, panicked face for a second. Shadow's momentary distraction makes him miss Sonic kicking him in the head. Shadow's body rolls across the ground. Silver uses his abilities to stop Shadow from moving too far. Shadow drops onto his feet. He doesn't look Silver's way as he rushes back into the fight, but Silver gets the feeling that his abilities are better used this way. Since he can't get a clean hit on Sonic without almost hurting the others, Silver uses his telekinesis to keep them from getting thrown around so much. He can't keep them from getting hurt, but he does feel like he's minimizing the damage this way.

Minimizing being the key word because it is still being wrought on the others. Sonic doesn't slow. He is like a fountain of energy— both electrical and chaotic and whatever the evilness inside of him is sending forth. Silver can sense it, but he doesn't believe it. Why would the Phantom Ruby's signature be inside Sonic's body? Probably the same reason it isn't in Infinite's body anymore. Unfortunately, Silver doesn't know for certain. He doesn't know how to remove it, either. He doesn't know how he can help beyond keeping his allies from slamming into the nearby buildings.

Silver is not the only person that has somehow figured out the connection between Sonic and Infinite. Tails kneels beside the general's body. He shoves it aside, lying Infinite flat on his back. Tails activates his scanner. As he suspected, the energy signature of the Phantom Ruby is no longer there. A few wisps remain, implying that it was here recently. Tails holds his breath as he leans closer, peering into the hole that Infinite dug into his own chest. Tails immediately turns to gag. He manages to hold back his vomit, however, by sheer force of will. Sonic needs his help, and he's willing to feel the soft burn of tears in his eyes as he tries to keep the smell from knocking him out. Tails might not be able to fight his older brother (for mental and logistic reasons. Tails doesn't have the skill to fight Sonic— especially in an empowered, careless state like this— and he also wouldn't be able to bring himself to fight him, either), but he is going to be one of the people to help him.

Sonic was presumed dead for six months. He came back to them. Sonic came back to Tails. So, forgive Tails if he refuses to let his older brother die on him for a second time.

His older brother is incapable of sharing such sentiments at the moment. Through a series of complicated moves and an increasingly frenetic power level, Sonic leaves all of his opponents on the ground. He breathes heavily as he turns his attention away from their pained cries. They struggle to rise back on their feet as Sonic's entirely red eyes land on Tails' form. The kit's attention is split between Infinite and preserving the contents of his stomach. His faith in the four people at Sonic's feet must be unshakeable as he doesn't give a single glance to the fight. Sonic proves why this is a bad idea when he runs toward Tails.

Within a second, Sonic is leaning over Infinite's body. Tails' head snaps back at the same moment he falls onto his rear end. His tails wrap around his midsection in a comforting motion. Sonic raises his hand, prepared to punch the kit (or even tear the heart from his chest as seen in the example of the unfamiliar body at Sonic's feet). He does not complete this action for three reasons. The first is because Silver's power falls across him for a few seconds. It flickers, too weak to hold, but enough to give Sonic pause. This pause allows him to hear someone call out Tails' name. The name causes some recognition to break through Sonic's state, and it only increases when he looks into Tails' eyes. While he has never seen them wearing this expression— something far more personal than fear— he knows that blue shade. It stirs millions of memories in Sonic. Muscle memory, especially, kicks in, and Sonic's fist opens to reveal his palm like he wants a high-five or he's going to pet Tails' head.

He doesn't do either action. He only freezes. Tails remains stuck on the ground, unable to move away from the intense stare. Tails holds his breath. His chest begins aching. His limbs are tensing. His chest is forced to remain motionless. His thoughts are whirling a thousand miles a minute. The anticipation is the worst symptom of them all. He despises waiting for Sonic to hurt him.

Sonic's hand whips forward suddenly. Tails cries out, flinching so hard that his back lands on the street beneath him. Sonic's hand does not strike Tails, however. It suddenly turns, and Sonic sticks it into his own chest. He makes a breathy noise at the same moment green cracks appear in his red irises. Sonic's blood spills into the pool of blood Infinite left behind. His fingers, eventually, wrap around the Phantom Ruby. He tears it from his chest as if he doesn't care what happens to him. Sonic's knees buckle together. His breathing increases tenfold, but it also isn't stable in the slightest. Sonic lifts the Phantom Ruby in the air. The blood slides off the surface down Sonic's arm. The red light shines brighter, tangled so intimately with Sonic's chaos energy. The gemstone pulsates. Sonic doesn't know what to do. His body is torn between throwing it as far away as he can or sticking it back into his chest. A small part of him whispers to shove it into Tails' chest, but Sonic manages to wholeheartedly keep that one desire at bay.

Fortunately for Sonic, he doesn't have to make a decision. On a nearby rooftop, the rookie of the rebellion— Gadget— sucks in a tight breath. He puts his finger against the trigger of a long-ranged weapon Tails made at some point or another. It isn't Gadget's, technically, but he knows how to use it. He would say he's pretty good with it, and he hopes that skill will carry him forward as he looks at the beacon of light in the distance. His scope gives him a decent view of it. Gadget hesitates a second, but he knows that he cannot afford to. He pushes aside his doubt and incompetency to pull the trigger. He continues watching through the scope as the energy bullet (if that is what it is. Like Gadget said, this isn't his weapon. He wasn't there when Tails explained how it worked) launches through the Phantom Ruby, shattering it as if it weren't anything special.

Sonic's fingers close into a fist. A few shards fall from his grasp, landing in the pool of blood. Some shards remain in Sonic's hand as he stumbles forward. He nearly trips over Infinite's body, but Tails suddenly finds the strength in his body to pull himself to his feet. He braces his paws against Sonic's chest to keep him upright. The smell is so much worse than it was on Infinite's body, but Tails refuses to look away from Sonic's face as those emerald eyes stare at him with recognition and fondness and guilt. Sonic moves one hand to touch the side of Tails' muzzle with a tired expression sliding across his features. "Hey... buddy... I know I gotta... apologize... but I'm gonna... take a nap... real quick..."

With those words, Sonic's body pitches to the side. Before he can hit the ground, Shadow catches him. Shadow leans down to hear Sonic's heartbeat fluttering in his chest. Tails rushes to Sonic's side. Silver and Blaze support each other's weight in the distance. Rouge rifles through a dismantled machine to find the communication device inside of it. Gadget breathes out in relief, slumping to the side. He radios the other rebellion members, telling them about how the threat has been removed in this area.

For another brief moment, there is silence.