Tales from the Phantom volume II

Tail's Episode

"I'm coming for you"
Sonic turned in his sleep, trying to block out that voice again, waking up.

"I'm so close." A face appeared in the darkest shadows, a creature snaking out of it.
A long dark and ghostly body ending in a large bushy tail.
Two large arms and claws grating at the walls.
And lastly, a pointed head with two gleaming eyes, different in color, a large ruby-red scar across the right one.

"Infinite" Sonic breathed, before eyeing the bedside cabinet.
His shard was still there, the blue's eyes opening wide.

He was in one of Infinite's nightmares again

"I've been chasing you all this time." He laughed, covering his scarred eye.
"No- but how- you was trapped in tha-"

The jackal laughed in a low tone.
"Oh come on. Do you really think that prison could hold me? You set me free yourself in fact"
"No-" Sonic couldn't no, didn't want to believe it, "this is all just another nightmare. I just need to wake up again"

"Do you forget the powers of the Phantom Ruby?" Infinite sneered, the other Möbian raising his head.
"But.. you don't have yours"

"Hahaha" he removed the hand of his eye, once again revealing the scar, "Do you not recognise the mark of yourself?"
Sonic's heart skipped a beat again.

"Why do you think everyone hated me? Hated you? I got this as just a young pup. After that, I was a reject to everyone. They tried to kill me. So I did the same. And now, history repeats itself."

"But why?" Sonic wondered, "I'm not.."
"Because of what we're capable of. We can crush mountains, we can flood cities with waves of fury. Things people see as 'to powerful' for there own good"
The jackal breathed.
"We're monsters Sonic."

"No," he wouldn't believe it. He couldn't believe it.

"We're just... shells of the Ruby's true power," Infinite growled, the scar over his eye glowing with the power of that dreaded source, "And now, they're slowly killing you. Restricted that power to your body. It's tearing you from the inside out"

Infinite held out a clawed hand to Sonic "Join me. We'll tear this place down. Make them pay for everything."
The two locked eyes.
"All I need is your body"

"NO!" Sonic jumped up, screaming, "I will never be like you! Never!"
"It's not stoppable"
"Never!"
"The power crawls inside you! UNLEASH IT!"

"NEVER!"

Sonic's eyes opened with a start, and he found a fuzzy orange-yellow character in front of him, two friendly yet worried blue eyes staring out at him.
"Sonic? Sonic are you okay?"

"Tails..?" He questioned, sitting up, "You're here.."
"I said I'd be here as soon as possible," the fox smiled.
Sonic had no more words. He wrapped his arms around his friend, "missed you buddy"

"Missed you too" the fox responded, "How you been holding up?"
"Eh" Sonic shrugged.

"Oh, well.. I got you something," Tails went into one of his bags, pulling out a small fur tree, "Well, it's Christmas, and I thought it would make this place seem a bit more... homely" he looked around at the white walls, cringing at the bright fluorescent light.

"Thanks bud" the blue grinned as a doctor walked in, Sonic pulling a face, "Oh no"
"Huh?" Tails panicked, wondering what was wrong.

"Morning check-ups" he sighed, watching the man find a large needle, "And let me guess, you need more blood"
"Yes." The Doctor laughed at his face.
"I'm not going to have any left soon" Sonic turned to Tails, joking, the cub laughing.

"Well, we're actually going to send this to Benjamin West" the doctor stated matter-of-factly.
"Wait" Tails' head shot up, "Can I have some?"

"Oh yeah sure just pass my blood around like a pass the parcel" Sonic rolled his eyes, before smiling at Tails again, "But I guess I shouldn't say no"

***

Tails got straight to work.
The hospital had let him take one of their rooms to study, therefore Sonic ventured in with him.
Both Tails and Sonic knew things about the Phantom Ruby more then anyone else, and he was desperate to get to the bottom of this.

As he watched through this microscope, he shuddered.
"The Ruby's power is literally taking over you bloodstream. But why?" He jotted some notes down, trying to think of an answer, "Even Eggman's been working with this, and even he doesn't know yet"
"I always thought it was because of that time I teleported but.." Sonic started, but Tails suddenly shot up.
"Wait!" A lightbulb hit him, "those limitors!" He pointed to the metal braces on Sonic's wrists and ankles, "They completely stop all powers right?"
"Yeah..." Sonic shuddered at the memory, "Where you going with this bud?"

"Well, if that's the case, then where's all the excess energy from the Phantom Ruby going?" Tails coldly realized.
"Oh my chaos you're right!" Sonic held a hand to his head in surprise.

"You know what that means, don't you?" Tails' anger bubbled up, snapping his pencil, worrying Sonic.
"That G.U.N. Have some of the smartest people working for them. They knew. They knew putting those damn limitors on you would kill you eventually. They wasn't playing nice, they was playing smart." He stood up, starting to pace.

"I mean, I thought it was strange when they seemed to bent on killing me to suddenly decide not to," Sonic wondered out loud, "I just thought Topaz must have said something.."

"But why? WHY ARE THEY KILLING YOU!" Tails bellowed, "After everything you did for them, they just decided to kick you when you was down at your lowest!" He held Sonic tight, burying his head in his chest, "Why? WHY!"
"I know why" Sonic closed his eyes, "There was another before me Tails... another.. scarred by the Ruby's powers. Society shunned them. Called them a monster. Called us monsters. He did things they didn't mean to. Couldn't control the power. It ate him up."

"No no no!" Tails tried to pull the cuffs of, "You're different though! I've seen it. We've got to get these things of you!"
"Ow! No Tails!" Sonic stepped back, "It's impossible. They're wielded to my skin. And even if I did get them of, you don't think the G.U.N. would come back? You think I'd actually finally be free from this nightmare? From these ghosts?"

He turned to face the window, "I think it's finally time to just face it. I lost. The villains won. And I am going to die."

Tails stopped fighting and sank to the floor.
"No. No. We've worked to hard to just give up now. If we could just.."

"I'm done fighting Tails," a single tear rolled down Sonic's cheek, "Just let me go. All I want to now is rest"

"Oh.." Tails hugged him again, crying, "..Oh Sonic.."