Foolish God

He once held the power of a god in his hands—and yet now he was lying here, a forgotten no one, the zero he had been proclaimed at his birth.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.

Zero.

That was the name his own parents had given him when he was born.

He had been the runt of the family, a scrawny pup nobody had expected to survive longer than a couple of weeks—why should have someone like that be given a worthy name?

But despite the odds, he had survived more than a couple of weeks—over the months he grew and kept getting stronger and stronger. But he never managed to catch up to his siblings pace. Always slower, always weaker, always one step behind. Always the runt.

Always a disappointment.

In the oncoming years, he had faced prejudice and malice from his peers that ridiculed him for everything starting from his name to his height, all to the point that all he remembered of his first few years of life was fighting for himself and showing everybody that he was not the zero he had been thought to be at the moment of his birth. It were the worst years of his life and at that time he had greatly looked forward to leaving them all behind one day.

When he was old enough, he left his home with couple of other jackals who also were fed up with the boring life of a small village—they became the 'Jackal Squad'. They stole and did all other kinds of dirty jobs that, unfortunately, didn't really earn them the money they hoped and so most members were thinking about quitting and leaving. He convinced them to remain and raid with him a Dr. Eggman's base—which by a twist of fate actually landed himself and his squad the job of defenders of the doctor's base, which paid pretty goddamn well and so everybody from his squad was happy.

At that time, it had seemed that his life was finally taking a turn for better.

But then Shadow came and ruined all he had build for himself.

He had been livid beyond belief when he found out Shadow had decimated his squad—Had the hedgehog even realized he had ruined his life at that point? He didn't believe Shadow did—he charged into the battle with the agent blindly, too arrogant, too blinded by his rage, not realizing how many levels above him Shadow actually was—in power, speed, everything.

Unsurprisingly, he had lost the battle—but it wasn't because he was weak, he was not—Shadow was just too strong, so ridiculously strong.

After that humiliating defeat, he knew he could never defeat Shadow with his own power and so he had agreed to Dr. Eggman's scheme to implant the Phantom Ruby into him, to fuse the gem with his very body so he'd gain the power over time and space—a power that would essentially making him a god.

And it did.

A foolish god, that is.

He had been drunk with the power that he'd had, he'd had grown arrogant and toyed with his enemies instead of getting his revenge the moment he'd had the chance.

He could have killed Shadow when they met again but instead he had just toyed with him and in the end let him go; at the time, he had wanted to see Shadow suffer the same way he did, force Shadow to watch as he slaughtered all his friends one after one, all the while reminding the agent that he was powerless to stop him.

And he wanted to prove that by defeating Sonic—the only one he knew had ever defeated Shadow—he fought the hero twice and each time he won; he was convinced that he'd be able to defeat anyone with the power of the Phantom Ruby.

But Sonic had already fought gods, had defeated gods—he should have never had underestimated him or his comrades.

He fought Sonic for the third time and lost the battle miserably; his own arrogance had been his downfall. Sonic had defeated him and just like Shadow had ruined his life with it.

Dr. Eggman had used his control over the Ruby to teleport him back to the base. He had thrown his helmet away, planning to scream at the doctor to let him fight again, but before he could do anything, the gem had been literally ripped out of his chest, leaving him with an enormous hole in his torso.

He remembered reaching for the gem, with the last of his strength asking why Eggman was doing this now, but he knew he had never gotten his answer or hold of the gem—the injuries he had sustained in the fight with Sonic and his ally were numerous and the wound left after Ruby enormous; he had been losing blood too fast and as result lost consciousness as well, never getting the chance to get the Ruby back.

The next time he opened his eyes, he was in a hospital room, his body wrapped up in bandages that hid his injuries and the gaping hole where the Phantom Ruby had once resided.

He still didn't know how he had gotten into hospital or who might have brought him here. However, he was pretty sure of one thing—if it wasn't for him taking off his helmet to yell at Dr. Eggman he would have already been dead; if he had been found with his mask on he surely would have been left to die or killed by the finder or by someone else—he had hurt and killed too many to not run into someone whom his actions had harmed so much they'd wish for his death—so much they'd assure this by doing so themselves.

The realization should have been liberating—he was safe, after all—but instead it left bitter taste in his mouth. There had to be dozens of people in this hospital alone that wanted him dead and yet here he still laid, alive and breathing.

Without his mask and ruby, he was just some injured jackal, just another name on the list of patients. That was all he was now. There was no 'Infinite'. No more. That foolish god had died—was killed by his own hand—and like many other before him shall be forgotten in the eons to come.

All that remained of this once powerful god now was a weak broken body of a mortal.

Without the Phantom Ruby he was nothing—a nobody of no significance. An empty name whose owner nobody would pity or miss if he were to die at this very moment.

Just a name.

Like when he was born.

Just a name.

The name of disappointment.

Zero.