Chapter Text
You stare at the open fridge dejectedly, a sigh escaping your lips. There is absolutely nothing to eat, besides a moldy container of leftover casserole you're fairly sure isn't edible.
You shuffle your sock-covered feet on the tile of the kitchen and slam the fridge door. Time to go shopping.
You head out to the main room of your apartment, which is nothing special. It houses a few framed photos, a couch, an outdated television, and a bookshelf that could really use some more books. On the bookshelf is your Wispon, an object you doubt you will ever have to use again.
You pull on a pair of shoes and open the door, stepping out into the carpeted hallway of your apartment. Heading towards the elevators, you notice your neighbor, Sparks the Crow, and wonder if perhaps you should take the stairs instead.
There's nothing wrong with Sparks, and it's not that you dislike her, but she has this habit of talking, and talking, and talking, locking you in conversations that are interesting but endless. And right now, you're hungry, and all you want is to get food from the market.
But it's too late, she's seen you.
"[y/n]!" Sparks exclaims, rushing towards you. She's a black crow with yellow eyes. She wears overalls, hiking boots, and protective glasses on top of her head. She makes and repairs Extreme Gear for a living, and she's good at it, too; if you ever decided to get some gear, you'd get it from her.
"Hey there, Sparks," you say, waving and stepping forward. You eye the elevators. "What's up?"
"I was just heading out to the market to see if they needed any help with repairs, you know?" Sparks says, waving her hands wildly as she speaks. "Ever since we won the war I've been helping out here and there."
"That's nice of you," you say. "I'm heading to the market, too."
"Oh!" Sparks says, clapping her hands together. "We can go together!"
You laugh nervously. "Yeah, sure."
Together, you wait for the elevator. It arrives quickly, and you both step inside.
You feel your stomach drop as the elevator descends. Sparks rattles on about the latest Extreme Gear she's building, and you listen politely.
The market is fairly close to the apartment building. The two of you step out into the warm, dusty air, and walk down the road towards it. The market is an indoor building that houses almost any food item you can imagine, plus some you can't imagine. It's big and has automatic doors, but is almost in ruins ever since the war. It's still in business, but you worry it won't be for long. Maybe Sparks can help.
The both of you approach the market, and you notice something on the side of the building. You abscond from the conversation to go look.
They're wanted posters, a familiar, masked face plastered on them. Infinite.
You squint at the text.
WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, it says, $100,000 REWARD.
That's a hefty reward , you think. Sparks is now standing at your side.
"What'cha looking at?" She asks.
"These wanted posters," you say, pointing towards them.
"I thought Infinite was dead?" Sparks asks, tilting her head confusedly. "You did kill him, didn't you?"
"I thought I did," you say. "But whoever put up these posters must think otherwise."
"Well, who put them up?" Sparks asks.
You stare at the posters, looking at any sort of inkling of who might have posted them. The only thing that gives any sort of indication is a phone number.
You pull out your phone and consider calling it for a good, solid moment.
"Are you going to call the number?" Sparks asks. "Cause if you won't, I will. I'm curious about this."
"Here," you say, handing the phone to her. She quickly dials the number and puts it up to her ear.
It rings for a moment, and then someone on the other end starts talking. Sparks listens intently.
"It went to an answering machine," Sparks says, ending the call and handing the phone back to you. "G.U.N., it said."
"G.U.N.?" You ask. "Aren't they a government organization? Why are they looking for a dead person?"
"Maybe they know something you don't," Sparks suggests.
"Maybe? I don't know," you say. "I really thought he was gone for good."
You grab your things at the market and leave Sparks there (they did need help with repairs, and she was happy to do so). On your way home, you wonder about G.U.N.; why do they want Infinite? What do they know that you don't?
Clearly, G.U.N. thought that Infinite had survived your and Sonic's attacks. But how? And what had happened to him?
You head back to your apartment and eat breakfast, head swimming the entire time. Something wasn't adding up.
That night, you receive a text from Sparks.
Sparky
8:19 PM
hiya! so, im still at the market, and i dont wanna walk home alone in the dark, so i was wondering if maybe a hero who saved the world would like to come walk me home?
You
8:20 PM
i guess
You
8:20 PM
ill be there in a few
You don't think you'll need it, but you grab your Wispon off the shelf before you leave.
You arrive at the market quickly, but you sort of cheated; you used your Wispon to homing-attack onto things and get there quickly. Sparks is standing outside waiting for you.
"Hey," you say, running up to her.
"Hiya!" She says. "Thanks for coming to get me."
"No problem," you say as the two of you begin to walk back towards the apartment building. You wish you could use your Wispon to get back as well, but Sparks is with you, and you don't want to leave her in the dust.
You can hear crickets chirping as the two of you walk. It's mostly silent other than that, which is weird because Sparks is always so talkative. You think she must be tired.
Crack .
You freeze and keep your hand on your Wispon. It's probably nothing, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
"Something wrong?" Sparks whispers.
You pause, listening for a moment. No more noises.
You shake your head and continue walking.
Thump.
The sound of someone hissing in pain wracks the air. Immediately, you grab Sparks' hand and decamp behind a building.
"What's going on?" Sparks whispers. "It sounded like someone got hurt, why are we hiding?"
You glance at her. You really don't know. You're just paranoid; what if someone really did get hurt? You're hiding from them because, why, exactly?
Slowly, you come out from behind the building. The two of you begin to look along the side of the road to see if you can find anyone.
Suddenly, a flash of white hair catches your attention. It stands out against the dark. Someone is lying face down on the ground, breathing slow, pained breaths.
You keel down. "Sparks," you say, motioning for her to join you, "over here."
She bounds over to you and kneels down as well. "Are they alive?"
"They're breathing," you say. "I think they're unconscious."
"What do we do?" Sparks asks. You shake your head.
"I don't know," you say. "Should we try to wake them up?"
Without answering, Sparks shakes the unconscious Mobian's shoulder. A grunt sounds, and you recognize it immediately.
It's Infinite.
You gasp, reaching for your Wispon, but Sparks grabs your arm and stops you.
"Are you insane ? They're clearly hurt!" Sparks says. "What were you going to do, put them out of their misery?"
"I might as well, there's a one-hundred-thousand dollar bounty on his head," you blurt.
Sparks gasps loudly. Infinite tries to push himself up and fails, plunging back towards the ground. He's in no state to fight. You could end this, right now, get the one-hundred-thousand dollars, and be done with all of this forever.
"This is Infinite ?" Sparks whispers loudly.
"I can hear you," Infinite says, his voice raspy and weak.
Both you and Sparks snap your heads towards him. He's trying to push himself up again.
"What do we do?" Sparks mouths silently at you. You shrug. Would it be morally wrong to kill him right now? He's done so much evil, and you've done so much good, one black mark on your record wouldn't ruin things, would it?
Infinite has pushed himself up to a sitting position. He's maskless, and you can see that he's injured—there's a clot of blood on his chest where the Phantom Ruby used to reside, and several scratches across his face. He has one blue eye and one yellow eye, a scar going through the blue eye. You can tell now that he's a Jackal, not some kind of robot as you'd previously thought.
Sparks stares at you with a grimace. You stare at Infinite, contemplating what to do.
He's trying not to show weakness. He's failing.
"If...if you kill me," he stutters, looking down at the ground, "you'll never get it off your conscience."
He's right , you think.
You look back at Sparks. She has stopped grimacing and is now sitting on her heels, hands on her knees, eyes closed in thought.
"We have to help him," she says, turning to you and opening her eyes.
"I'm sorry?" You say, thinking that perhaps you haven't heard her correctly.
"We have to help him," she repeats. "Sure, he's done a lot of bad things, but now he's injured and wanted by G.U.N., and I think we should help him because it's the right thing to do."
"The right thing to do is to turn him in to G.U.N.!" You exclaim.
"And why?" Sparks says. "You don't know his motives for helping Eggman. You don't know anything about him other than what he did. Maybe he regrets it. Maybe turning him into G.U.N. will do more harm than good."
"I dunno, splitting one-hundred-thousand dollars with you sounds pretty good right about now," you say.
"Well, I'm not turning him in," Sparks says, crossing her arms. You sit on your heels and look at Infinite. He's still looking down at the ground.
"Decide already!" He growls. "Kill me, turn me in, or help me. Those are your options. Now decide before I kill the both of you."
"I've decided!" Sparks exclaims, putting her hands on her hips and smiling. "We help you, and, if it turns out you're really just an evil person and not a misguided soul, we turn you in. How does that sound, [y/n]?"
You sigh. She's not letting this go, is she?
"Fine," you groan. Sparks squeals loudly and stands up. You stand up as well. Infinite struggles for a moment.
"A little help, here?" He grumbles. You roll your eyes and bend down. He wraps his arm around your shoulder and you wrap your arm around his waist. Together, you stand up.
He smells gross, like sweat and blood. But you don't complain.
The three of you walk home slowly, Sparks babbling the whole way about R.I.C.E. and bandages and how she has a several scars from gear-repairing accidents. You listen intently, but can tell that Infinite is ignoring her.
The walk home is long, and boring, and tense. When you finally arrive, Sparks opens the doors for the both of you using her key.
"So, where's he staying?" You ask, almost as if he isn't there.
"Well, I have all my gear taking up space," Sparks says, "so I was thinking he could stay at your place until I can move the gear to my garage."
"What?!" You exclaim, nearly dropping Infinite. "No. Not happening."
The three of you stand in front of the elevators and wait.
"Yes. Yes happening," Sparks mocks you playfully. She laughs. "C'mon. It'll be fine."
The elevator arrives and you all step on, setting course for the ninth floor where you and Sparks live.
"This guy tried to kill me , remember?" You blurt. "And I tried to kill him . This isn't going to work out."
"You don't know until you try, [y/n]," Sparks says, putting her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, I agree with her," Infinite says. "By the way, I don't have the pleasure of knowing the name of my savior."
"Sparks!" Sparks exclaims. "I'm one of the best Extreme Gear mechanics around."
She's exaggerating, you know this. She's not quite as good as Miles "Tails" Prower or Wave the Swallow.
"I'm…" you start, but Infinite interrupts you.
"I know your name, [y/n]," he says. You're a bit taken aback. You don't remember him knowing your name. Perhaps he picked it up from Sonic when you two were fighting together.
The elevator arrives. You part ways with Sparks, cart Infinite back to your apartment, open your door with your key, and dump him on the couch the first chance you get.
"Okay," you say, putting your hands on your hips. "Sparks was talking about R.I.C.E., and I think you need a bit of that. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. We can only do three-fourths of it, though, because I don't have any compression bandages."
Infinite shifts his position on the couch to be more comfortable. "Get me a towel, I'll do the compression part."
You roll your eyes. Is he going to be this difficult the whole time he's staying here? God, you sure hope not.
"You're…" You stutter, "...you're in no place to be doctoring yourself. I'll get a towel, some ice, and a couple pillows. And I'll take care of the compression, mister."
Infinite crosses his arms and scowls, but doesn't say anything.
You head to the kitchen, first, grabbing a towel from the oven handle and an ice pack from the freezer. Then you head to the hall closet by your bedroom, which contains extra pillows and blankets. You grab two pillows and one blanket, by now having such a stack of things in your arms that you can barely see in front of you. Luckily, it's only a few steps to the main room.
You set everything down on the floor in front of the couch and pick out a pillow first.
"Which leg is it?" You ask.
Infinite sticks up his left leg. You shove the pillow underneath it and he rests his foot down on the pillow. You can see now; his ankle is incredibly swollen.
You take the towel and wrap it around his ankle tightly, and tie a knot. Then you rest the ice pack on top. He jumps a little from the shock of the cold, but relaxes quickly.
You shove a pillow under his head and throw the blanket in a ball on top of him. He can sort that out himself.
"You're welcome," you say. He doesn't thank you.
You go to bed soon after that, praying to whatever deity is up there that you don't wake up dead.