"Get 'em, boys! Beat them for all they got!" Crunk roared.
Sonic and Sage huddled back-to-back as the Sumos closed in. "Sonic? What are we going to do?" Sage asked.
"I dunno. Sure would be handy if I had someone who can CONTROL ROBOTS right here!" Sonic shouted, Homing Attacking into a Sumo and bouncing all around to hit the others. He began to form afterimages that appeared like a glistening star as he ricocheted off the Sumos.
"Y-your Hexi friends? In your dreams!" Sage shouted, shooting small lasers at the Sumos from overhead. It wasn't enough… their attacks were doing nothing!
"I can read you like a book, sister," Sonic sneered, doing everything he could to keep the Sumos at bay. "You were able to control Giganto, after all! You had it bowing to you and everything!"
"You weren't supposed to know—!" Sage growled. "Rrgh! Fine. Let's see here…" Sage caught sight of a large metallic fin cutting through the sand. She held out her hand, beckoning it to come closer.
"Uhh, Sage? Any luck?" Sonic asked, the ground rumbling beneath him. Suddenly, a shark-based Guardian jumped out from underneath the surface and caught many of the Sumos in its mouth. Sage lowered to Sonic's side as the enemy dispersed. "AWESOME!" Sonic exclaimed, as the Shark spat out the surprisingly stretchy Sumos like tasteless gum. Sonic grabbed Sage's hand.
"Sonic? What are you doing? Sonic? SONIC?" Sage cried, as Sonic snagged the Shark's tail. The Shark carried them along, paving a way through Crunk's legion. "Where are we supposed to go?"
"I didn't plan that far ahead. But I've been wondering… what could be over there?" Sonic asked, looking at the huge mountains running down the middle of Ares Island. Sage directed the Shark towards the mountains, Sonic holding on tightly to both her hand and the Shark's tail.
"This is a horrible idea. You know that, right?" Sage covered her eyes as she flailed about in the wind. The Shark swerved around spiked jacks as they landed all over the place, and Sonic pulled her in closer before she could collide with the sharp metal.
"Hey, don't you worry a bit!" Sonic laughed, as Sage grabbed onto Shark's tail herself. "Whatever happened to 'what doesn't kill you makes you ever so slightly stronger'?"
"It doesn't apply here! You're being reckless!" Sage screamed.
"I think you're just not used to being in the middle of the action!" Sonic hollered, Shark running up the sandy slopes of the mountain range. The sun began to rise over the horizon. Shark finally shot right into the sky, diving back down to the distant ground. Sage braced for impact, Sonic clenched his teeth into a tight grin. Shark collided with the hard ground, sending Sonic faceplanting and Sage rolling onto the rocks.
Sonic got up, wobbling around. "Hah! See, Sage? That wasn't so bad!" Sonic exclaimed. Sage got up, and spat out a tooth. As the feeling of falling dissipated, Sonic's lofty sense of adrenaline did too. "Oh… oh geez. Sage, are you okay?" Sonic asked, helping her up. Sage slapped him in the face.
"I should've known this would happen!" Sage shrieked. She held her own face, pressing her tongue to where the tooth fell out. "O-ow…" She mumbled.
"Sage, I—" Sonic mumbled. They sat in silence for a few seconds. "You can't regenerate it, or… something?"
"No, I wasn't coded to heal to that extent," Sage grumbled. "I wasn't built for this nonsense. I was created to observe you, not to play with you!"
"I'm sorry!" Sonic looked away, ashamed. "I should've known better than to—" Sonic trailed off. He realized none of this was really his doing. Sage had begun to laugh loudly. "Huh? What's so funny?"
"Nothing's funny, it's just… fun!" Sage gasped amidst bouts of giggles. "That was so awesome! We're freeee!" She jumped into the air before hovering back to her feet.
"This isn't a laughing matter, you're hurt," Sonic chuckled. He couldn't help but laugh along with her. Was it the hangover from the previous night? The carefree look on her stoic face? Sonic couldn't tell. The Sumos on the mountaintops looked down upon Sonic and Sage, before turning back. After all, they had the intel that they needed.
…
First, it was a feeling of unease that followed the two through the day.
Then, plumes of sand rising and forming blinding, burning clouds.
Then, metallic clanging.
Wyvern had returned.
Sonic and Sage blurred through the badlands. Still, their afterimages and the scent of RED-CODE in their sweat and blood clued Wyvern in to their precise location. Dodging missiles and running rampant through a crumbling Fallen Star highway, the two eventually became lost in the sandstorm.
"Sage?" Sonic whispered.
"Sonic?" Sage hissed, each one of her senses fading out in the sharp whirlwind. "Sonic?!" Sage passed out, not able to breathe…
A lone Motobug scraped its pincers down the perfect green grass of a windy hill. Slowly transforming the lovely fields into a drab, gray desert zoned for a factory. However, as it dragged its daggers through the dirt… it hit a stone. Its overworked, tired blade snapped right off. The Motobug looked to its broken arm. The Motobug knew without its blade, it was nothing. And so it began a long trek back to its creator.
When it arrived at Robotnik's station, it waited for repairs. For care. For love and a cure for its pain. But it didn't expect to be sent straight to the junkyard. As it sunk beneath thousands of tons of garbage, scrap metal made of other Badniks, it had to wonder if anybody was supposed to come back for it.
Sage jolted awake, the fleeting memories that belonged to another Eggman creation fading from her mind along with the sounds of metal being churned and torn apart. "Hey, you all good?" Sonic asked, as Sage hyperventilated. "Wyvern left, but… are you okay?" She tried to steady her breathing.
In… and out…
"Yes, I'm fine. It was very unwise of you to brave the storm to save me, but…" Sage trailed off. "Let us keep exploring the island."
Sonic and Sage came crashing down a sandy slope, catching Star Pieces in their hands in the midst of a vibrant, prismatic meteor shower. "That's 25! New record!" Sonic hollered.
"That is not true," Sage hummed, catching her sixteenth Star Piece that night and looking down upon it. "I can do better, and have in the past."
"Huh? How's that?" Sonic asked, skating to the bottom of the slope and catching stars on flat ground. He continued to walk ahead, the Starfall ending as the sun peeked out above the ocean. "You never played Starfall back on Kronos!" Sage looked down at the star in her hand, as it slowly melted into iridescent jelly.
"I had to be entertained by something before you arrived," Sage hummed. "I was sent here to observe you, but studying the other phenomena of the islands, such as the Starfall, proved… distracting." Sage smirked. "Perhaps I let you win."
"Uh-huh, so that's why I spent so long in Cyberspace," Sonic grumbled. Sage laughed nervously.
"Uhm… yes, that is accurate!" Sage replied. "Are you really upset by that, however? You were able to be with your friends there. You were happy, in a sense." Sonic looked to the vast empty sky.
"Yeah, but… none of it was real," Sonic sighed, smiling.
"'Is'. It WAS real at some point." The last droplets of stars slipped through Sage's fingers, disappearing into sparkles on the stone floor. Sonic glared at the sun as it continued its ascent. A burning feeling enveloped him.
"Sage?" He asked. Sage flew ever so slightly closer.
"Yes?"
"Would you call yourself real?" Sonic fidgeted with his hands. Sage thought on it.
"I ask myself that sometimes," Sage exhaled. "I am an AI, yes. But my sentience and capacity to observe is unequivocal proof that I am in fact real. 'I think, therefore I am.'" Sonic let it sink in. "Wouldn't you agree?"
"Yeah, that helps…" Sonic sighed in relief. "Cyberspace had me questioning things, even when I'm out of the simulation, it's hard to tell if this world is any realer. But I guess as long as I'm alive and can feel my feet in the sand, that's enough to make sure I'M real. Heh, in that case, guess I really AM stuck on these islands." Sonic looked down and put a hand to his head, dizzy as he let go of the last bits of denial in his mind. Sage watched as RED-CODE flashed on his arm. "I know you were trying to protect me when you told me none of it ever happened, but why didn't you say anything when Amy came back?"
"It was becoming clearer that you didn't believe my little white lie anyways. Plus, I wasn't certain if she was truly there," Sage replied. "She is a Cyber-Ghost, but she's not a construct of your memories. It's very possible that Amy's stay in her Titan lasted longer than yours, degrading her physical form until she was pure, loose data." Sonic could feel his own flesh. He was thankful for it.
"She was acting so erratic, almost demented like Big could be. Is she still degrading?"
"No, her physical condition is stable. But emotionally, she was always like that. Her lack of a physical body now allows her to be at full energy constantly," Sage said. "She only seemed softer and calmer in your encounters with her Cyberspace reconstructions because we tend to only remember the good in those we no longer have by our sides." Sage put her hands to her heart. "For instance, I didn't remember that Eggman created me just to abandon me. I remembered him as a kind man, which swayed Cyberspace into creating Mr. Tinker in his place." Sage's face soured in sorrow. "I admire your drive to save your friends and leave these islands. I wasn't given knowledge of how… wonderful… you really are. If it's not too much to ask…" Sonic glanced to her, and noticed she was crying. "I still wish to learn all about you, I wish to keep you safe. And I wish to go home with you."
"So when I escape from the Starfalls… you'll come with me?" Sonic asked, giddy. Sage suddenly leapt into a hug.
"Let's just stay here. For a while longer…" Sage pleaded. The sunrise had never seemed as promising as it did that day. The desert never felt so warm.