ERROR DURING LAST SHUTDOWN DETECTED. RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS...

PROCESSOR E8 OVERHEAT. REALLOCATING PROCESSOR DEDICATION FOR OPTIMIZED PERFORMANCE...

REALLOCATION COMPLETE.

BOOTING UP... AWAITING INPUT.

- host\loadProtocol(rcp fw)

- host\optics(enable)

- host\auditory(enable)

- host\sensory(enable)

The world around him was a sleep devoid of dreams. He was alone with himself, his thoughts, and the choir of static ringing through the air. It recited things he didn't understand, no, couldn't understand. A faint voice pierced the static. It was a voice he knew, but couldn't place. Something on the edge of a memory. The longer he listened, the louder it called. This isn't real. I'm asleep. Something about that statement felt off, but he couldn't be bothered to care. He didn't want to be asleep. He wanted to wake up. I want to wake up.

- host\setC(true)

Emptiness exploded into sounds and colors. Reality came back into focus. He was propped up against the wall, and Tails was staring right into his eyes (or where they used to be, he supposed). The fox seemed to notice Sonic had woken up, because he flinched back.

"Sonic!" He paused. "You...you are Sonic, right?" A redundant question.

They both already knew the answer.

"Yeah."

There was a silence before Tails spoke again.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. There was nothing you could've done."

"That's not true, and you know it! If we'd stayed there instead of retreating here to regroup, we could've found you. We could've stopped Eggman before he did...this. I could've saved you, but-"

"Tails." He put his hands on the fox's shoulders. "What's done is done. This isn't your fault."

"But-"

"All we can do now is adapt." Ironic, coming from him. He was barely holding any of himself together. He wanted nothing more than to claw the metal coating into pieces, in hopes that maybe he was still under there. But he had to be strong, for Tails if anything. If he broke down now, his brother would place all the blame on himself.

"I… okay." He swallowed, eyes darting around. "Do you at least want to talk about it?"

"Not now." Talking about it made it feel more real. And he absolutely did not need to unleash the torrent of emotions boiling inside on his little brother. He deserved better than that.

"Then, can I try to find out why you passed out earlier?" Of course. Tails is good with machines, he could probably figure it out. Machines. He was a machine now, wasn't he?

"Yeah. I'd rather not just collapse randomly." He didn't mention being alone with the endless expanse of static.

"Okay. Just, uh, tell me if you want me to back off. You know how I can get..." He rubbed the back of his neck, flattening his ears ever so slightly. The "with machines" hung in the air, unspoken.

Tails ducked behind Sonic.

"I'm sure there's a port or something somewhere. With that, I can probably access error logs, and find out what actually happened."

Sonic wasn't sure how he felt about the idea of someone being able to quite literally poke around in his mind. But he didn't say that. "Okay, sounds good."

It didn't take long for Tails to find whatever he was looking for. "There's two ports on the back of your neck. The circular one seems to be for a power supply, while the rectangular one looks more like it's for accessing data. Luckily, I think I have a cable that matches the data port." He paused. "Is this," he took a moment to rephrase. "Uh, are you sure you're alright with this?"

No. Not at all. Nothing about this was alright. "Yeah, it's...fine."

"If you say so. But tell me if you need me to stop, okay?"

He didn't respond.

Tails must've plugged the thing in, because he could feel the electric current surging through his neck. It felt like an itch in the back of his mind.

The voice sounded loudly.

SYSTEM ALERT: UNKNOWN CONNECTION REQUESTING ACCESS TO SYSTEM FILES.

Reflexes he'd never had caused a mental wall to flare up. Something was trying to worm into his head. It's okay, let it through.

ACCESS AUTHORIZED. And suddenly, he was part of something much larger. Tails' computer was full of data, and it was like he'd just been dropped in a library. But there was so much potential for information, raw possibilities pouring into his mind.

It hurt. He ignored the raw infinities that danced like stars in his head. They shouldn't even have existed to him. Living consciousness was never meant to coexist with or even process this sheer amount of raw data, yet here he was.

He had to focus on something else. Anything but what was literally pounding against his mind.

He didn't want to be here. It all still felt like a bad dream.

The static beckoned.

He hated it. But it was better than this.

It called again, and this time, he reached out to it. And so it dragged him in, drowning out the world around him. No light, no warmth, no sound, no feeling. It was almost too empty.

"Gahh! Sonic, wake up!"

Until there was. The static tore itself away from him, and he was thrusted back into reality.

"What?"

"You slumped over and collapsed out of nowhere while I was analyzing the error logs, I thought you'd just..."

Oh. Well, that explained why he was leaning against Tails instead of sitting up by the wall with his brother tinkering behind him.

"You passed out earlier because one of your processors overheated. Seems it fixed itself though, if the logs are anything to go by, but…" A pause.

"I… I was afraid I'd messed something up, and lost you."

The fox wrapped his arms around him tightly.

"You're not gonna lose me, I promise."

Another lie. He had already lost himself. But still, he hugged back, running a sharp claw gently through the yellow fur on his brother's back.

He wasn't sure why he bothered. He still couldn't feel it.