Chapter Text
Gadget
The meeting was tense, with the majority of the members staunchly against keeping Infinite within the Restoration and wanting him under the highest security level possible.
Sonic, Tails, and Amy spearheaded the group in favor of giving the jackal a chance. Gadget himself was honestly still on the fence, but he trusted Sonic’s judgement and backed him.
He was initially surprised that Amy was on board, but after further explanation during the meeting, he found out that Shadow was once a powerful force that had opposed them. She and sonic had made an effort in befriending him and he eventually came around, helping to save the planet. She believed that if there was a chance for infinite to come around and do some good then it was worth a shot.
The opposing side was much larger, with Knuckles being the loudest voice in the group. He was actively arguing at Sonic, with the blue hedgehog trying to placate the other with reassurances. The other key members opposing were the Chaotix, Silver, Blaze, and a few newer members he personally didn't know. He couldn't help but think of the busted up jackal that was a few buildings over, still unconscious even after all of these hours. The doctors had mentioned something about a medically induced coma that would last a few days, leaving Gadget free to participate in this meeting without too large a fear of him waking up when the other wasn't around.
Obviously they had set up a rotating shift for monitoring the incapacitated villain, this consisted of Gadget and two other members of the Restoration. The bulk of the day would be helmed by the scarlet wolf, while the other two would take the shifts when he needed to sleep or take care of any pressing tasks. This was a decision made by Gadget himself, he was hoping to be the first contact for Infinite when he woke up.
Eventually the meeting ended with a tense agreement to wait and see how the Jackal reacted to the opportunity and go from there, the wolf was just grateful that a concrete resolution was attained.
He honestly didn't know what to expect when the other finally gained consciousness, it could be anything from an explosive and violent outburst to silent resignation. The doctors said that he would be out for a week or two while the worst of his injuries healed. He had decided to stay in the Headquarters while everything was slowly set in motion, opting to work remotely through a laptop while watching over the other. Thankfully there was only minor damage to the structures from the wind in the seaside town with no casualties.
The first few days were pretty uneventful, with the only real action being the changing of shifts and occasional news segments on what happened or what sonic and his crew were up to. The Jackal had remained completely still and dead to the world as the nurses shuffled around him with medicines and bandage changes.
Eventually though he started moving a little bit here and there, never anything substantial though. Always a slight shift before seemingly passing back out either from drugs or the pain. Gadget was starting to feel a little sorry for the other canine, he couldn't imagine the levels of pain that such deep wounds could inflict. Made even worse by the fact that it compromised his airways, shifting stitches with every breath. His control over his own breathing was growing stronger with the passage of time, allowing for the doctors to remove the machine that kept his lungs functioning and replacing it with a simple oxygen mask. All in all things seemed to be going very well on healing for what should have been a death sentence.
After about a week and a half of waiting it finally happened. It was a little after nine in the morning, Gadget was typing away at an email regarding sending supplies out to a site he was once personally working. The heart rate monitor that had kept a constant steady wave of beeps slowly started to pick up speed, Gadget paused what he was doing and looked up.
Infinite was blearily staring at the ceiling, his breathing starting to come in labored huffs as he started gaining lucidity. His gaze seemed far away, the wolf wondered if the drugs were affecting his perception of where he was, he assumed the Jackal would have noticed him shifting to look up if he was fully there.
The wolf gently closed his laptop and walked over to the bedside, trying to gauge how present the other was. There was no reaction from the other until he started to lean over the bed, placing his hands on the side railings. Infinite jolted backwards as soon as he noticed the rusty toned wolf above him, ears pinning to his skull as he tried his best to lean away from the intruding presence. He looked lost, unsure of what was happening but trying to ground himself in the real world by anchoring his gaze on Gadget.
The silence was incredibly loud. He was unsure how to start this conversation, how do you talk to a dangerous villain that you somehow need to convince to turn over a new leaf? Now that the moment was actually here he didn't know why he thought he could pull anything close to this off.
So much was hinging on this, Infinite's freedom and future was to be decided solely on how this conversation went. It was probably best to wait on the whole redemption speech until after a doctor has looked him over and deemed him well enough to hold such a complex conversation, but he needed to start this off on a good foot to try and get the best outcome possible.
And like the socially awkward nerd of a guy he was, he starts it off with the tried and true simple
“Hey.”
It wasn't the worst starter but it definitely did not help at all, that's for sure. As soon as the obsidian coat canine registered the word he sent the nastiest glare at the wolf, his body language giving a clear message of seething hatred and disdain.
Gadget mentally cringed as he stuttered through his next words.
“H-how are you feeling?”
More silence.
“Okay, that's fair… um… do you know how you got here?”
Again, more silence.
The wolf sighs, knowing this is gonna be like pulling teeth.
“Im gonna call in a nurse to let them know you woke up and let them assess you, try to relax as best as you can okay?”
The Jackal continued to glare as Gadget tapped the call button and notified them of Infinite's lucid state, not long after that a large group of doctors and nurses flooded in. It was an overwhelming amount of people all crammed into one room, but they did their due diligence and gave the all clear on his current state, even going as far as to replenish pain killers and change out bedsheets. Every movement was an obvious strain on the jackal as they maneuvered him around for tests, it seemed like he couldn't really move his left side while his right was riddled with tremors. He refused to look any of the staff in the eye.
Eventually they all trickled out, the supervisors talking about notifying Sonic and crew as soon as they were back in.
Gadget let out a sigh of relief when the room returned to its former peace -well, as peaceful as it could get with a murderous criminal watching your every move. During all the chaos, Gadget decided to tuck himself away on the couch again to stay out of the foot traffic and continued to stay there even after the two were left alone again.
Infinite seemed to be trying his best to ignore the other’s presence, he was on his back again staring at a reflection that was being bounced from the light of the window. Intentionally avoiding eye contact with the wolf as the silence stretched on.
And with such an oppressive air to deal with, he tried again.
“Youve been out for eleven days, twelve if you count the day we found you where you weren't fully there.”
Nothing.
“... you left quite the mess behind where you showed up, thankfully it wasn't in a town.”
Again, more nothing.
…He sighed, this was getting old real fast.
“Do you remember any of-”
“Why are we here.” The jackal interrupted.
Hearing the other’s voice was a shock to the system, it was raspy and fried, as though it was stressed to the point of breaking. Nothing like the cocky supervillain that he had once fought, his tone of speaking now bitter and defeated.
Gadget realized that he let the silence bleed on for too long, jolting back to form and replying.
“When we found you, you were in bad shape and-”
“No- why am I alive.” he snapped, Gadget went quiet.
“Why didn't you let me die, why are you sitting here acting like you give a damn about my wellbeing, we’re enemies.”
The wolf pauses, trying to think of what he could say to calm the other down and segue into why they were actually there. Before he could say anything though, Infinite continued.
“So what then, I'm so miniscule of a threat now that I’m just tossed aside into some poorly guarded room? Knowing that I can't do shit about it while I sit and wait to be ‘well enough’ to be locked up for life?”
The rust toned wolf was taken aback. “What? No- that’s not-”
“Don't lie to me, that’s exactly what this is.” Infinite snarled while trying to force himself into a sitting position, Gadget shot up, trying to stop the other from hurting himself.
“It's not! I promise it's not. You aren’t gonna be jailed- well hopefully at least.” he placates while holding his hands up in a non threatening manner.
The jackal scoffed, baring his teeth as he spoke.
“Bullshit, You and I both know that there's only two ways for this to end. Either I die or-”
He’s interrupted by a sudden wave of wet reverberating coughs, curling into himself as he hacks up a lung. Gadget panics and tries to put a hand on the others back only for it to be harshly slapped away with a growl from the injured jackal, his face contorted in poorly concealed pain.
“Stop trying to play hero and fuck off. I'm not interested in your false niceties.”
“Please just listen to me, I'm not lying.” the wolf pleaded.
This conversation wasn't going exactly how he wanted, but he could work with this… probably…
“There is an option three, it's- god, ok so…” Gadget took a breath in.
“Yes, you did a lot of damage. So many innocent people are dead because of what you directly had a hand in, and that should not be pushed aside when talking about this. But locking you up to rot in a cell really isn't doing much about that.” the wolf places his hands on the bed’s railings.
“I feel that you can make the most change by helping fix what you destroyed. You can’t change what's been done, but you can at least lessen the hurt that it's caused by making an effort to rebuild what's been broken and help the restorations cause.”
As Gadget spoke, Infinite listened with a type of stunned silence. Though that didn't last long, the jackals' expression taking on a look of snarky disbelief. He starts to mockingly laugh mid speech, cutting off the scarlet wolf.
“You can't be serious with this, you’re making an awful lot of assumptions about my character. What makes you think I want to undo anything I've done?” the jackal darkly laughed.
“If I have even the slightest chance to regain my powers, I'm going to take it. And I’m not gonna use them for the ‘power of friendship and happiness’ or whatever the hell you've deluded yourself into thinking. You’re better off just killing me right here, right now.”
Gadget took a moment to really take in the jackal. He was still hunched from his coughing fit, haggard in appearance but trying to mask it with some kind of false bravado. Even with his act he looked tired, and with his despondent attitude before, Gadget could wager a guess that this was an empty threat meant to keep things clean cut. Black and White, no room for nuance, no room for change.
No room for Infinite to get his hopes up and get hurt again.
He really couldn't imagine what the other went through to get to where he was today, what could have possibly happened to push him to the point of becoming who he was now.
“What, didn't expect your sad little lecture to fail you?” the jackal snarked.
Gadget didn't say anything, watching Infinite as the jackal watched back, a weird stalemate manifesting in the space between them.
The silence dragged on for what felt like minutes, the tension thick enough to cut. Eventually Gadget came to a decision and stepped closer.
“I don't know anything about your past, but you must know the feeling of wanting the people you care about to be safe. Wanting the world to be kind to them and for them to meet others that want the same.”
Infinite rolls his eyes, breaking contact and glaring off to the side. “I don’t know what you're hoping to achieve with this-”
“I’m sorry if the world wasn't kind to you in that way… but wouldn't you want to help break that cycle? What I've seen while working with Sonic and his friends is that even just one person can completely change the way the world can affect someone. That going against the worst parts of the world can keep the people you love safe, and the people they love safe as well.”
Infinite scoffs, his voice growing more irritated.
“It’s disgusting how naive you can be about this world you want to fix so badly, It's reallllly not that easy. It's so easy to think you’re making a difference when you’re sitting in your little echo chambers of praise and good standing. Well news flash, the worst of the world isn't sitting on the surface for you to stumble across and magically make better.”
“I know that, but that doesn't mean that what we do doesn't make a difference. Yes, it's a small step in the grand scheme of things. But when you have a crowd making small steps together it makes noise.”
“God you’re giving me a headache with your pathetic mass produced motivational quotes, Don't you have anything better to do than harass me while I'm supposed to be recovering?” the jackal called dismissingly as he awkwardly shifted positions so that he could lay down with his back to the wolf.
Gadget stands there for a moment, calmly watching the rise and fall of the jackal’s back.
“I know you don't believe me, but I do genuinely think that you could make a change for the better in this world. Make it a little less horrible to live in, but ultimately the decision is yours. If you want to spend your time in jail instead then I won’t stop you. But please, give this some real thought before you choose.” he turns back to the couch, landing with a soft ‘plop’ before pulling his laptop back in front of him.
“You have until the end of your recovery here to decide, so take your time on it. For now I'm gonna finish up my work, if you need me just call.”
With that, Gadget gets back to work typing while Infinite lays exactly where he fell, watching the door with an absent stare.