Chapter Text
The Grim was a quiet place.
No commotion from an overcrowded city, no roar of crashing waves, no screeches from any wildlife,
No noise, save for a gentle wind that blew every once in a while.
Just the way he liked it.
After all, no noise meant no people, and no people meant no one to hurt him. No one who would corner him in an alleyway to beat him up, no one who would laugh as they stole his stuff and destroyed it just to see his reaction, no crowds who would whisper horrible things about him under their breath, just because he was different, just to feel a little better about themselves in that horrible city…
Zap!
Nine shot up, startled. The circuit board he was working on was letting off sparks where he accidentally broke a connection in the wrong place. Already, one of the alphas (alpha knuckles, it looked like) was working to stomp out the tiny fire that started when one of the sparks landed on some papers on the floor. “ Well, that was stupid…”
Ever since that final battle for the fate of the shatterverse, and the departure of everyone to their shatterspaces after making a promise to leave Nine alone, he had a lot of time on hands, and created many useful inventions since then. Even without the use of the paradox prism shards, there was still enough residual energy in the Grim to make the place more livable. While it wasn’t the paradise Nine initially envisioned, it was a home, and that was much more than he could say about his old place in New Yoke with those enforcer robots breathing down his neck. So far, he had created a plumbing system utilizing a huge lake he found a few miles away and a water purifier, a biosynthesizer so that he could make his own food (as a backup, he had a ton of canned food and drinks he stole from New Yoke), and some solar panels so that he wouldn’t have to worry about running out of power for everything. At the moment, he was working on creating a better defense system for his base after a lot of it was destroyed in that battle, at least until that circuit board got fried.
“Note to self, make a fireproof mat. And maybe some fire extinguishers while I’m at it…” Nine grumbled as he opened the door to the lab and ventured into the storage area.
Between the hundreds of smashed grim robots and the remains of the chaos council’s machines, there was no shortage of spare parts for Nine to use to his whim. If he recalled correctly, there was a similar circuit board right in the chest cavity of what remained of that old grim birdie robot-
BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Nine jumped, and then bolted back towards the lab. While the defense system wasn’t done yet, he did manage to finish making a forcefield around the base, as well as a radar system for potential threats.
And right now, its alarm was going off.
“Computer, show what the radar is indicating!” The screen lit up accordingly, and Nine ran up to the controls to shoot a laser at the threat if necessary.
On the screen, everything seemed normal outside at first glance. The sky was still a dark blue crossed with green where the auroras were active, and periodically dotted with a few stars in some spots. Only, one of them seemed to shine brighter than the others…
Uh oh.
The “star” shined even brighter, and the sky around it seemed to shimmer for a moment, kind of like how it was…before a portal to the void was opened.
“ShootShootSHOOT…!” Nine quickly slammed a button on his console to activate the forcefield so that the fortress would be protected, and then braced himself for a tear to appear in the sky again to rip apart the shatterspace, or a portal with the chaos council coming through to destroy him once and for all, or the ship with all of the shatterspace variants coming to mount an assault on his home again, because why the heck would they actually keep that promise to leave him alone in the grim after they attacked him, after he attacked them-
…Boom!
Out of that shimmering part of the sky, something small appeared and started falling. Something small, round, and metal that gleamed as it plummeted to the surface until it crashed with a distant noise.
Nine opened his eyes. That…wasn’t a robot. At least, it didn’t look like one. It more closely resembled some sort of capsule, with a strange plaque engraved on its surface. “ What…is that??” Nine wondered, still a little shaken. “Even if it doesn’t look like a robot, it could still be some sort of trap, maybe a robot in disguise or a bomb or SOMETHING”. Nine muttered. He began to pace around, his finger hovering over the button to activate the metal tails out of habit. “Whatever it is… I won’t let anything destroy my home .”. Nine pushed a button on the console to summon some of the alpha robots, and within seconds Alpha Sonic, Amy, and Birdie showed up and lined up in front of Nine. “Alphas, go to where that capsule crashed and scan it to see if it’s hiding anything. Report that data to the main computer.” The robots each did a quick salute and then flew off.
After a couple of minutes, the alpha robots reached the site of the crash. Nine watched the screen as they started to investigate the capsule, with alpha Birdie picking it up with their metallic talons and flying up a foot while alpha Amy and Sonic scanned it. “Ok, so it didn’t explode when you touched it, that still doesn’t mean it’s not some kind of trap. It’s gotta be something bad.” Nine was repeating this to himself as he looked, until the computer lit up with a new alert. “The scanner indicates that the inside of this capsule contains…uh…” It contained..a bunch of random stuff. The x-rays only showed vague outlines, but there were no mechanical parts in the walls or in the interior, just a mix of cloth bundles, wooden boxes, metal cans, what looked like a pole with something tied to it?
“....Maybe I should take a closer look.” Nine mumbled, pushing some more buttons on the console. “Alphas, bring the capsule into the hangar room.
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Nine landed a few feet away from the capsule, where the alpha robots were just standing around staring into space after bringing it in. Scanning it with his own scanner brought the same results as before: not a robot or a bomb. “...How the heck did this get here in the first place? Sonic better not have broken the prism again…”. He walked slowly around the capsule until he noticed something shine in the corner of his eye. “Oh right, there was some sort of plaque on the surface. Let’s see…”. Alpha Amy tipped over the capsule until the plaque was fully visible, and Nine began reading it.
“Dear Nine,
This letter is from the members of the shatterspaces who participated in the battle for the paradox prism (Except the chaos council, good riddance to them)
Reading that, Nine felt an immediate flash of anger. “Those guys?! They wanted to play one last trick on me, didn’t they!” For a moment he had an urge to order the alphas to blow it to bits, or take the capsule apart himself with his metal tails, but something made him stop for a moment. Inhale…Exhale… “Calm down Nine, you might as well read the rest before destroying this.” He started reading the plaque again.
“We understand if you don’t care, but each of us were able to return to our homes. With the chaos council gone for good this time, we in New Yoke are actually making some progress in getting this city back to the peaceful green place it used to be”
Me crew managed to get back to the seas of No Place in one piece as well, and we’re workin on cleaning up as well. With Black Rose as the new captain, this ship has never been heartier.
Us folks in the Boscage were able to get back, and we were able to finally finish fixing the damage from that last attack. However, it was sad saying goodbye to everyone else, especially my fellow Roses…but then something amazing happened.
So, it turns out that when those dunderheads of the chaos council attacked our homes back then, they left their communicators behind. Even with the portals closed, they still managed to work. That means that we were able to talk to each other again!
It was mighty fine to catch up with everyone! But the more we talked, the more we realized that there was something weighing on all of our minds after that final battle two weeks ago.
It was a month on our end, but yeah, you get the point. After that final battle, we all made a promise to Sonic to let you live in the Grim in peace, and never bother you again. Don’t worry, none of us intend on breaking that promise.
But, after a long time to think and reflect, we realized that it didn’t feel good to just leave you behind like that. We know that’s what you wanted, and we know this is kind of selfish of us, but in the end a lot of us wanted a chance to apologize to you. There was a ton of residual shard energy left behind by all those portals even after the prism was stabilized, meaning that each of us in the shatterspaces had a way to at least pass stuff to each other, even if we can’t see each other in person.
We aren’t gonna visit ye in the Grim, just getting that out of the way. We know ye hate us, and we don’t blame ya. But, we all decided to pitch in and make this capsule. Because what’s a new home without a housewarming gift?
Each one of us put a present in this capsule before sending it to the next shatterspace, and by the time you’re reading this, it probably crashed somewhere in the Grim.
You are free to do whatever you want with this capsule and its contents. If you wish to destroy it, along with this plaque, go right ahead. We won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do . At the end of the day, it’s your choice.
The end of the plaque was engraved with a whole bunch of names. The Roses, Dread, Sails, Catfish, Batten, Commander Rouge and Renegade Knucks, the rest of the resistance, even the scavengers. Nine was silent after reading the whole thing.
“ They…actually think I buy this? That they just felt bad for me, the guy that nearly destroyed them, their homes, and nearly all of reality? Are they serious?!”
The more he thought about it, the more furious he became. His ears flattened and he started growling.
“Did they actually think I’d accept this, after EVERYTHING that happened?! Why would they start caring now? Why’d they think I’D believe in them after they wanted to kill me? Of course they’d start caring after everything was over, after they got to go back to their homes all safe and stable, after Sonic-”
Nine stopped. His breath hitched for a second. Thinking about Sonic still hurt, even after all was said and done. He…helped everyone. Sonic helped everyone grow and develop in the short time he knew them, including Nine, even if he didn’t realize it. Even though he hurt him, Sonic apologized, no one had ever apologized…
There was no way they all actually cared about him. The bruise he got from that punch by Renegade Knucks took a long time to heal, and he still woke up in a cold sweat thinking about those attacks trying to break his barrier. He wasn’t like the Roses, he couldn’t become fast friends with his own variants, he nearly blew those two up for crying out loud.
Nine realized that he had started pacing again, and sat down in a nearby swivel chair. He turned to a nearby robot, Alpha Rouge, who had started organizing some spare parts the other robots had brought in the day before. “What do you think I should do with this?” The robot turned to look at him and tilted its head for a second at the question, then went right back to working. It didn’t talk. None of them did. And Nine was ok with that.
Nine took a quick glance at the window, and realized that it was starting to get late. At the end of a “day” in the grim, the green light on the horizon died down, and the sky would begin to turn from a dark blue to almost blackish purple, with even more stars popping up. “I’ll figure out what to do with this thing tomorrow. Alphas, stand guard over it” He started flying towards the door. “We scanned it a bunch of times already, but just to be safe, if that capsule grows robot legs or something like that, shoot it on sight.” The alphas that gathered there all saluted as Nine went out the door and through the hallway towards his bedroom. “... Worse case scenario, I can just melt it down for scrap”.