This fanfic exists for the sake of a contest hosted on a Sonic Amino I'm a member of!

Basically the contest was to write a one-shot epilogue for Sonic Forces in one of three ways: rebuilding after the war, what happened to Infinite and what happened to Buddy/Gadget the Wolf (though the contest demands that he be called Gadget). I already have a few Forces related fanfics swirling around in my head along with a bunch of ideas for my original writing and analytical essays for several Sonic games BUT because the contest asks for a one-shot, a one-shot this must be!

And while I would love to rewrite Forces as a whole, this is an epilogue taking place after the canon ending we are given in Forces so I can't experiment with the story as a whole here (that's another story for another day). Due to that requirement my chosen theme for the contest was our favorite jackal full of lost potential: Infinite!

This fanfic will attempt to give him an epilogue since his defeat at the end of Forces was so disappointing. For a villain that was hyped as "being faster than Sonic" and being "The Ultimate Mercenary" like was a Danganronpa Ultimate his defeat leaves much to be desired and we don't know what in the world happens to him. But I can complain about how Forces could've been better in an analysis I'm working on for it that I hope to record, post on the Youtubes, etc.

Now for the fanfic:

Phantom of the Phantom Ruby

I am not weak...

I am not weak...

I can still fight... I can keep going...

I am... not... weak...

He was lost in Null Space, body shattered into quintillions of red cubes that floated adrift in a sea of swirling lights and darkness without an end in any direction. His dismantled form swirled around the Phantom Ruby, the only thing still keeping him alive. The further away he was from the precious and cursed gem the more unstable he felt. He could feel himself fading, losing... weakening...

He was not weak...

He would never call himself weak...

He tried to call upon his limbs, his digits, his claws and every other part of his body that were locked away in the cubes that drifted through the space. They flew to him: some slow with fading red glows and others rushing to his side again glowing with such exuberance and magnificence that it calmed him as he watched them rush by. Though shattered he somehow felt whole.

While he was burning he was freezing.

While he stood still he was moving.

While he was dead, he was alive in the Null Space depending on this cursed gem to sustain him.

He was billions of contradictions all at the same time and still living while clinging to this horrible gem... this THING that promised him limitless power but ended up reducing him to nothing but these cubes.

He willed the remainder of his body to swirl around his head – a clump of red and black cubes that surrounded the ruby. Watching them go by he recalled the power he had. How he toyed with reality itself! What joy it gave him! He could salivate and breath heavily recalling his blood lust and craving for having that sort of power again but he had no physical body to do so. No physical body to enjoy such pleasures again. How he needed a body...

His head was absorbed by the Phantom Ruby, the inside of the stone completely black. Hot nor cold, it simply was. It existed. A tiny space inside of the ruby that now kept him prisoner and unable to see what was going on in Null Space – unable to see all of the cubes that were once his body spinning wildly, exploding into a light show of red and black and giving birth to smaller cubes. This process repeating and repeating. Death. Life. Repeating in the space where he was Schrodinger's Jackal: alive and dead at the same time – a being that could and could not be.

The fallen god among gods that he was unable to see his own death, birth and reincarnation, kept inside a tiny cell within Phantom Ruby. How cruel. As though the stone itself wanted to be a god it locked him away here where he had no access to any of his senses. He simply was and was not.

The light show faded with every small cube fading into nothing, joining with the rest of Null Space and it's decadence of darkness and swirling lights.

Only a cursed ruby floated in Null Space.

And finally feeling the sensation of only being a consciousness with no physical body (flesh, fur and bone or cubes) he screamed in a cosmic horror without making a sound. Screaming with no vocal chords he sought to destroy everything but lacked the claws and power to do so, thrashing about like a puppy having a tantrum and having no body to physically vent and destroy while also having nothing physically there to destroy. Damn it. Damn it all.

The world became his enemy and yet all he could do was blame himself. How blind he was to trust that awful doctor. Though the ruby showed him visions of a barren world reduced to nothing he still let himself be persuaded into becoming a pawn. For all the power he had he let himself be treated like a dog. How FOOLISH he was! He had so much power and yet he let himself be used and abused by some doctor with a lack of vision with no creativity or actual plans!

He could kick himself. He could punch himself. He could tear into his own flesh and fur and give himself new scars. If only he had a body...

He needed to destroy something – anything – so long as it bled and screamed to satiate his sadism! He continued screaming, feeling a change in himself – something changing inside of his ruby prison!

He was floating...

He was floating upward but to where he did not know.

He felt himself being stretched out, formless and only existing as a concept yet being pulled in all directions and feeling the sensation of something growing on his non existent face and flesh. He was torn apart and put back together, changing forms constantly – taking a different form every second before being forced into mush in endless repetition until it suddenly stopped...

Something stuck...

He felt somewhat stable again, feeling eyelids that were closed with mucus that he needed to fight to open. He felt gloves on his hands and boots on his feet. He could feel a tail that began to move from left to right to prove it was there.

Hearing and feeling hot wind blowing over and around him he was convinced he was no longer in Null Space. He covered his eyes, protecting them from the grains of sand and debris flying past.

His right eye opened, greeted with darkness and a stinging sensation – from what he had no clue.

Removing his hands from his face his left eye opened and both eyes witnessed the large expanse of desert he was standing in. Nothing but harsh, hot wind and flying grains of sand trying to fly somewhere other than here.

But the nothingness of it all got him to smirk, coughing up black dust as sharp as diamonds that cut his throat – drops of blood staining the sand.

"Ah, so there's nothing here..." his voice returned to him. He could hear it ringing through his ears. He was no longer just a voice in his own head. " To think this was all I wanted from the start but now that I actually have it it's just..."

Boring was the word...

It was boring.

He stumbled, only walking forward and never looking back. The few times he looked down at his feet he also noticed the Phantom Ruby no longer on his chest as though he had never made that deal with the mad doctor to begin with. His hair flew in all directions, occasionally obstructing his visions but the jackal kept walking. He walked the desert as the being formerly known as Infinite. He was a fallen god without any power, swallowing his own blood and eyes burning not from the hot wind but some something else irritating his eye that could not be rubbed out no matter how hard he tried.

It wasn't until he stumbled upon a shell of a house that he was able to see what he had become. In what used to be a bathroom with only a cracked ceramic sink and a mirror above it left standing he saw that the whites of his eyes were completely red. Not just bloodshot but solid red.

There was a slight burning sensation in every vein in his body, causing him to bite his wrists, ripping fur out and spitting saliva and fur onto the cracked tile beneath him and pulsing against white skin were veins that had turned black. And biting into his wrist to draw a bit of blood presented him with some liquid that tried to pass off as blood but it cut his tongue and came out a dark red with something that looked metallic that made it sparkle. Pulsing in his chest soon followed. The vein he bit into closed up and the fur he had ripped out grew back.

"What the hell have I become?" he asked himself. "That damn gemstone... For all of the power it gave me and all the power it took back..."

He couldn't dare to experiment if this was all just another illusion from the ruby or some dream, virtual reality, what have you! He considered ripping his own legs off to see if they would grow back but how could he test such a thing? He had just come back from non-existence in a void of nothing! And if this had been the world he just recently destroyed no doubt the former ultimate mercenary and being known as Infinite would have a bounty on his head – wanted DEAD and pushed back into the realm of non-existence.

He clawed at his head, scratching scars into his scalp and dyeing his hair a metallic red. Though given a second chance at existence he was a wanted criminal on a universal if not cosmic scale. Looking back at himself in the mirror somehow left in perfect condition despite the surrounding disaster he smirked a twisted smirk, fangs bared and growling at his reflection.

The mirror cracked by his gloved hand...

The shattered being formerly known as Infinite stood there with his hand in the broken mirror and laughed maniacally, crackling so loud that it echoed in the wind and in the shell of a house he stood in as the desert slowly consumed it.

"YOU SEE?! I CAN NEVER BE CALLED WEAK!" he thrashed about the house breaking everything he could find that nature or looters hadn't claimed for themselves. "A FALLEN GOD CAN RISE FROM IT'S ASHES! LIKE THE MIGHTY PHEONIX I MAY FALL BUT I CAN ALWAYS COME BACK!"

He roared and he rampaged, not one thing in his path safe from destruction. By his hand he tore everything left in this house apart. No chance of any looters or those seeking refuge every surviving here now; seating being turned to saw dust, leather being reduced to tattered fabric, all glasses shattered, doors and their frames torn out and reduced to scrap, walls torn so badly you could see the faulty wiring and smell the lead-laced paint in the air.

He stomped onto the torso of a child's toy – a plushie of Sonic no less! He ground it under his heel until the head popped off and revealed the stuffing inside of it.

"No one can EVER call me weak again..." breathing heavily he reveled in his destruction.

Ears twitching he heard familiar foot steps coming from behind him. Oh how it brought a smirk to his face to hear those foot steps again... How he longed to see that miserable wolf again. Even in Null space when his body was a concept and not a construct he still recalled that wolf...

Turning toward the owner of the foot steps he smiled with a tilt of the head and a friendly look in his eyes. "I haven't seen you for some time... How long has it been since our last slaughter?"

But the red wolf stood firm. Though a worried expression in his eyes, his body language was strong, defensive and unwavering as he held up his wispon and pointed it at the jackal with his hand on the trigger. At any moment he could burn him and the crumbling structure around them and yet that look in his eye made it obvious that was not his intention.

The wolf gave him no answer.

"Funny... I thought that should we meet again you would kill me instantly. You're not the weak puppy you used to be." he licked his lips, thoughts of blood lust filling his mind. "In fact I actually like the fact you're stronger than you used to be! It means that I can play with you as much as I want and seeing you weak will be that much more rewarding!"

He could see the wolf's hesitation and yet the creature spoke. "But for what reason?"

The jackal took a step toward him. "What was that?"

"Y-You don't have a reason to destroy anything anymore! The war ended a long time ago!"

"War is infinite! War never changes! Somewhere in the world whether you're there to see it or not there's always a war going on!"

"No, there isn't! The war has been over for over a year now..." the wolf spoke. "People were wondering what happened to you since then. You jut disappeared with the Phantom Ruby and-!"

"And now I'm back... Your point?"

"The point is that we don't have to fight anymore!" the wolf shouted. "You can give up being Infinite! You don't have to-. Wait... Where did the ruby go?"

"Oh? You finally noticed?" the jackal mused. "Well... I suppose coming back to this world changed me. I suppose I've fused with the ruby again but this time-." he coughed up more metallic blood, staining his mouth and his chest. But despite the pain of coughing up what very well could've been diamond dust from the ruby that reformed him he bore his fangs and smiled, the smile instantly fading when he felt someone picking him up.

He wondered if he had always been kneeling on the ground just then... Had he coughed that hard and long that he didn't realize his posture? Only a red wolf held him up.

"How naive of you. I could stab you in the heart or pin you on the ground, bite your neck and rip your fur out!" the crazed being formerly known as Infinite licked his teeth and laughed to himself but the wolf pulled him up.

"We don't have to be enemies anymore. You're just being nuts!" once the jackal was standing on his own two feet again the wolf let him go. He had dropped his wispon a few feet away in order to pick up the falling jackal but instead of going back to retrieve his shiny red flame thrower he took a few steps back and started digging through his pockets.

"Has a year really passed, child?"

The wolf nodded, bandages in his hand. "A year and then some. I've been helping rebuild the world. I've been on lots of adventures. It's really sad to see the world the way it is not but at the same time – this is everyone's chance to start over again! We can fix our past mistakes!"

"Pft. You're talking idealistic nonsense! Tell me what the world actually thinks of me! And what happened to that mad fat man?!"

"No one in the resistance could find your or Eggman so everyone's just moved on to try getting things back to normal again!" the wolf pleaded. "That's the honest truth! The war is over! You're not Infinite anymore!"

"And why do you care about who I am, huh kid?"

The wolf took a step back, fear plain as day plastered on his face. "I... I think you could use a second chance..."

The jackal stood silent. Second chance at getting back to where I was perhaps, but the 'second chance' you're thinking of means leaving me locked in a jail cell to rot!

"You were just a pawn of Eggman and that ruby after all. Everyone deserves at least one more chance!"

The jackal felt is body breaking apart again. He was freezing cold to the point or burning and boiling hot to the point of freezing over. He wrapped his arms around himself, chest pulsing with some pain he couldn't put a finger on.

The ruby that had given him this new body and 'second chance' at existence was screaming inside of him. It wanted him to move forward with his life. It craved some action to be taken but it told him nothing in regards to WHAT action it wanted to happen. In his own mind he the voices in his head – one of the mercenary with no permanent name and the other of Infinite who was born by the hand of Eggman – having their own argument with one another, trying to kill each other for dominance and establish their identities but neither one winning the battle.

He felt sick, unstable and something was leaking out of him. This had to be an illusion of the ruby! Was this what it was like for those he had tortured with Infinite's power? Pain so real that one could not distinguish fact from fiction?

A hand on his shoulder woke him up.

"Infinite, you don't look so good..."

"I'm fine. I do not require your feeble attempts at helping me..." he growled, arms still wrapped around himself when the thought occurred to him: Unlike the god I became I'm no more than a phantom now... Perhaps I'm not meant to exist in this world.

"Infinite, you need help! Let me bring you back to the resistance! We have doctors that can help you and figure out what's going on with you and the-!"

"No..."

"No?"

Bearing his teeth the jackal growled. "I don't need your help. I am beyond help."

"You're not beyond help! We can try to fix you! Whatever the Phantom Ruby did to you we can-!"

"You cannot help me, child." he placed a hand on his heart, about to burst out of his chest. "Though I may have been Infinite at one point, I've been reduced to a phantom of the ruby... It's no wonder that fat pig of a doctor didn't use this on himself. He must've known all the drawbacks!"

"You were just being used! It's not entirely your fault Infinite!"

"You're such a child. To believe that all of your problems can be pinned on someone else is foolish, naive! You're weak!" the jackal took a step back. "And for everything the Phantom Ruby gave to me, it's taken just as much away from me."

The wolf looked at him curiously. "Well if-!"

"I cannot go back, child. I am no longer Infinite, but the public won't see me that way." his smirk melted down into a neutral expression conveying no particular emotion. "As much as I would love to return the world to anarchy I no longer have control over-."

Half of his body began glitching in and out of reality. Half of his body looked cut into pieces with his insides glowing red. His voice grew unstable, attempting to speak but his words coming out of his mouth in backwards tongues and his eyes glowed so bright flashing from red to white so rapidly that the poor wolf had to shield his eyes.

I am not weak... But I can no longer exist here...

Walking toward the wolf with a hand extended he tried and between his glitching speech he managed to say clear as day: "I hope one day we can meet again on the battlefield. Next time we meet we'll see who wins!"

And just as the wolf dropped his things and tried to catch the falling jackal, he faded out of existence again just as he did a year or so earlier but with his body bursting into cubes that quickly went transparent as they floated to the sky... A voice drifted as the hot desert winds hit the wolf's back.

Your ultimate hope against my ultimate despair... I hope I can see the day where I can fight you one on one again...

The End?

That concludes the tiny one-shot! I highly doubt I'd win the fanfic contest but I just wanted to do this for the sake of fun, making a place for myself in the Sonic community and also just getting more of my work out there be it fanfic or original stuff. I just want to write as much as possible and one day have enough fans to help me sustain myself just based on that.

But sentimental sap aside, hope you enjoyed the one shot! Have a nice day!