My arms were trembling, dirt covering my black fur. I stiffened. There was a gigantic hole in the ground below me, traveling down to a sheet of metal that could only be the vault's ceiling. Metal had done it. He managed not to destroy the vault but remove the soil above it. Now I could easily get to Metal's parts.

If he were still alive.

Blue scarps of metal littered the landscape. I dropped to my knees. Metal, who I had just spoken to, was gone.

What would be my reason to live?

After all of this time, when I had finally gotten hope, God had to kill the only friend I had?! Did I really need to be put into such loneliness and isolation?! My face grew hot and wet from tears, and I was left collapsed on the ground. I glanced out to the surrounding area. Mummified animals and parts of Metal littered the area.

I only wanted to give him a voice.

I glanced beside me. By my side was Metal's charred head, his computer chips visible from the cavity on the side of his head. Hesitating slightly, I carefully lifted the head off the ground and inspected it. Metal's sharp eyes were replaced by a blank LED screen, the same as any on a common calculator.

The blue color was the worst; it felt as if I held Sonic's head in my hand.

I cried for the first hour. Night was falling, although the swirling clouds decided to curse me further by pouring acid rain upon my head. I sheltered Metal's decapitated head from the rain, slowly trudging my feet over to a nearby tree.

I almost fell asleep hugging Metal's head, although I couldn't rest my head on it due to the jagged edges of titanium and the protrusions from the exposed circuit board inside. I touched one of the black transistors poking out of the PCB. Next to it was a bunch of wires coming from a large silver rectangle, almost as large as a playing card. It didn't seem to belong with the rest of the circuitry, although it felt important, so I carefully pried it from its housing. On the back of the thin silver rectangle were densely-packed pins that connected it to the motherboard.

I froze. This was the CPU–Metal's brain. Or at least part of it. If I hadn't been careful, I could have destroyed his mind forever. I carefully connected it back into the slot and tried my best to put everything back where it had gone. My heart raced. The CPU didn't look damaged at all, only the surrounding connections. Sure, Metal's body was falling apart, but if I could get the important bits–the ones responsible for his personality–then I could fix him!

There was hope. Even if I didn't know anything about computers, I could learn and I could make it work. As long as I knew what to keep, I could put all the important components in a new motherboard and Metal could go back to his usual self. If I had the time, I could even figure out how to give him a voice.

I had to go with the riskier option after all–replacing Metal's entire body. Sure, I could end up with a fiend endlessly seeking out my death, but for Metal, it was worth the risk.

There was always hope. Sonic taught me that.

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Hello! I'm so sorry for leaving this fic on such a terrible cliffhanger for so long. I got really busy and forgot it existed, but hopefully I should update it more soon. My schedule will probably be terrible, but I'll try not to leave it for a month again (Or at least I'll put it on hiatus if I do).

I also have another fic on the way. Again, it probably won't come out for a while, but I want to write and plan it all before it's released so there won't be huge update gaps like with this one. Hopefully that works out, but I never want to be the writer that just abandons everything without some form of ending, even if it's not what was originally intended.

Hope everyone has a lovely day

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