I gently picked up the robot-copy of Sonic. It was strange, holding him in my arms. The cold copy showed no emotion in his eyes, although I could tell he was exhausted. His LED’s flickered now and his humming had grown much quieter.

It was painful to hold him because he reminded me so much of my beloved, despite being so different. Even though we fought and hated each other in the past, I could no longer see him with those unloving eyes.

I hate who I was when I met Sonic. I am thankful every day to him that he killed the old me.

I had no idea where to go. I jumped off the moon and used my chaos emerald to dash through space over to Earth. I searched the planet for Eggman’s old bases, but all had been decimated during the war.

Even though the radiation couldn’t kill me, it burned. My lungs were starting to fail and my eyes stung from the dust in the air. Metal was out cold now, his eyes two blank LED screens.

I eventually stopped running. No. There was no hope. There was no way I could fix Metal. I had no idea how he was made, let alone the materials he was built out of.

If only Sonic was still alive. He was optimistic enough to keep going. He had that insatiable drive for accomplishment. He never gave up–not on me, not on anyone–and yet there I was, completely fallen from who I was striving to be.

A few tears came out from my eyes. How long has it been since I’ve cried?

I couldn’t lose anyone else. I couldn’t let myself become defeated, but that was all I really had experience doing. I was not good at conquering my fears without Sonic. Yes, it has been done, but never in my life have I ever truly lived life without the people I loved and cared about.

Maria…

Sonic…

I grited my teeth and stood up, leaving Metal on the sand. Remember Sonic. Remember what he taught you. Remember his love and all that he stood for. Emulate that. Become that.

I could move on. Move forward. Continue without panic with my cold, calculating actions of kindness and love.

I ran across the earth again, this time with less panic. I shut my emotions out. I shut them all down. I became like my old self of long ago–the person who was never able to cry and who was reserved in all things. I knew Sonic might have been disappointed, looking at me from Heaven, but this time I wasn’t doing it from fear of connection. No, this time I had to be reserved to keep myself going, so that I could finally–

The glass door of the tech shop was shattered and the retro tech inside was probably from the 1990’s, although it looked suitable. I grabbed a tool kit and a bunch of random supplies I found in the back and stuffed them in a backpack.

An instruction manual. Of course!

I sprinted over to one of Eggman’s bases and searched the corridors more carefully than last time. There was no physical manual I could find, although… the computers might still work, as long as they received power. 

Thank goodness his bases were usually underground, or else it may be decimated like most of the buildings were.

I dropped off the backpack next to the computer, then rushed back to grab Metal. Why did I leave him there?! He could get sand inside him, or–

An indent in the sand was all that remained of Metal Sonic.

I stood there for some time, watching the sand blow away the indention. Despite the pain my body was in, I was caught in a trance of some sort.

Terror. That’s what it was.

The last person I could ever hope to know was gone. But what had happened?! There was no way he could just get up and walk away. He was almost broken and needed to be fixed.

I ran across the sand in search of Metal. Perhaps there were other Badniks up and running that took him away–which didn’t make any logical sense, although there was no way that Metal could have gotten up by himself.

I noticed a large rock protruding from the sand on the horizon and decided to make my way over to it. I squinted my eyes for a moment and realized that Metal was underneath a shelf in the rock!

I joined him under the rock. He was watching me as I made my way toward him with a menacing look in his eyes that I had not seen in many years. I slowly sat down next to him on the sand, before meeting his gaze.

“Why did you leave?” I asked.

He didn’t say anything, not even a hum. I glanced over to him after a while, the sand blowing up around us from the approaching dust storm, although Metal was no longer interested in me. No, he was staring down at his busted red feet, inspecting the chipping paint.

“I was going to fix you. Make sure that you are functioning well, so that you don’t have to… do you even feel pain?”

Metal Sonic nodded. He then returned to inspecting the sand below him.

I stood up. “Come on, Metal. I found one of Eggman’s computers–”

At the announcement of his old master’s name, he visibly flinched. His pupils contracted until they were two small circles, and his engine began humming audibly despite his frame remaining completely still.

Did he… hate Eggman?

“I found one. I could probably help you function better, that’s all. If you want it.”

I stared into his cold, emotionless red LED eyes. He looked so lonely and sad. Or maybe I was just projecting onto him.

“Do you want to be fixed?”

I’m not quite sure why I asked him that. Obviously, he would want to be fixed. He could experience pain, after all. I didn’t want to make him like me, though. I was cursed to live forever, alone. Metal couldn’t die, but he couldn’t exactly live forever, either. His body would wear out and his death would be a slow one that would take hundreds of years, although for me, no matter how long I live, I will always have the body of a young adult.

Brvvvv…

Metal shook his head slowly. His body creaked with every move.

“But… you’ll die slowly without anyone fixing you up. And you can feel pain…”

Metal hugged his body tightly, seemingly afraid to make eye contact with me.

Then it occurred to me that if he were organic like me, then maybe he would have been crying. It was difficult to tell, though. Between not having a mouth or voice, it was very difficult for him to communicate.

Then it hit me.

“If I fix you up, then I could also try to give you a voice.” I picked up a small pebble off the ground and tossed it into the sand ahead of me.

The sky was a rusty color with sand bellowing up in a giant cloud across the horizon. We needed to get out of there before the sand got to us.

I decided to give metal a little bit more time.

Metal was gazing out at the sky, too, although he nodded his head softly. He tugged my arm, then pointed out at the clouds.

“Yeah, we need to leave before it gets to us. Getting sand in your joints is the last thing we need right now.”

I helped him up, although he appeared to still be hesitant to walk on his own, so I carried him. Thunder boomed off in the distance behind us.

“Do you… still want me to help repair you?”

I stared down at Metal in my arms. He nodded.

I smiled. Good. He wanted to be alive now.