Chapter Text
Infinite
All that the jackal could remember in the days before regaining consciousness was flickering flashes of color and noise, even the pain surging through his body was faded as he drifted in and out of existence. Fully waking up had felt much the same until the blurry shapes focused into a tiled ceiling and the vague sounds flowing through the space solidified into a sharp rhythmic beeping. It felt as though he was being pushed back to the surface of the water, with each second bringing more panic fueled clarity.
He was in a room, a medical room if he had to guess. The smell of disinfectant pungent and cutting as he took in a breath. There was some kind of respirator on his muzzle, providing a steady flow of oxygen.
He had no idea how he was alive, he could remember the pain in excruciating detail. There really shouldn't have been a way for him to have survived with his phantom ruby destroyed, he knew his body was completely fused to its power.
His rapid thoughts were cut off by the sudden appearance of a red wolf in his vision, the very Hero that ruined everything for him. The jackal couldn't piece together how he was in this situation, why would this hero be here of all places?
He couldn't stop the vitriol in his eyes when the other started to speak, immediately understanding that this wolf was trying to play nice in order to get something from him. The wolf’s intent was barely concealed, there was something specific he wanted out of this conversation and Infinite was not willing to play along with it.
Eventually the wolf gave up trying to communicate and called in medical staff, the jackal tried his hardest to hide the pain that was rocketing his entire body as he was moved around. He must not have hidden it well enough though as one of the staff made it their mission to restock on medicines and adjusted the iv drip to feed him more of the painkiller. He was a little surprised to see them treat him as a genuine patient given who he was, half wondering if they were even told about the monster they were treating with how gentle they were trying to be.
Once they completed their tasks they made their exit, leaving the jackal back alone with the rusty coated hero. It didn't take long for him to try and reinitiate conversation, and the reason for his persistence was quickly brought to light.
Infinite was baffled at the sheer absurdity of the Hero’s proposition, he really couldn't be so blinded by his Do-gooder complex that he thought he actually made sense, right?
He would have expected the hero’s naivete to have lessened after the events of the war but apparently not. It irritated the jackal how little the hero seemed to have thought through this ridiculous little plan of his, even if the jackal wanted to make up for his past crimes, why did he think that the world would respond in kind to that? It's obvious that everyone would take one look at Infinite and only feel some combination of fear or hatred. Nobody would trust the jackal to actually change for the better, and they would be well within reason to hold that belief.
The conversation was left off on the note of asking Infinite to consider a redemption path, the jackal internally scoffed at the idea. The world doesn't operate on ‘make nice’. It would be a pointless endeavor to try, he would rather spend his time in a prison full of criminals that feared him. Though with his current injuries he may not be able to recover enough to hide his weaknesses, which might mean it would be in his best interest to feign turning over a new leaf until he could build his power back up.
He sighed, gently bringing up his good hand to his chest as he lay on his side. There was a new gem fastened where the phantom ruby once was, he didn't ask but it was common sense that this gem didn't have anywhere near the power of his original, if it had power at all. He spent a few hours in the same position, ignoring the nurses that would check in throughout the day. The hero was still in the room with him, typing away at the laptop he had earlier. He thankfully didn't try to start anymore conversations, leaving the jackal to ruminate or nap until the day came to an end.
Once the light had dipped from the sky outside, another member of the restoration came in to replace the Hero on the couch. They explained pleasantries until the red wolf walked in front of Infinite's line of sight.
“I’m gonna head out for the night, please think on what I said okay?” the scarlet canine murmured out.
Infinite ignored him until he sighed and walked out the door.
The days following after were pretty lackluster, with Infinite sleeping away most of the days with the help of the painkillers. The doctors would consistently come in to check his vitals and redress his wounds throughout their shifts. It was a frustrating process, he couldn't move most of his right side, the doctors saying that his leg,hip and arm were shattered in several places. He had heavy damage to his ribs and upper chest from the explosion of the ruby, which meant breathing was a strain as well. When he made it to the operating room, one of his lungs had collapsed and filled with blood.
Again, he was shocked he was alive with how bad the damage was when he was found. His left arm and leg made it out relatively unscathed but were still riddled in lacerations from the wind slamming things into him, and he felt a few scabs along his scalp but otherwise his head had avoided the worst of it.
After a few days of being awake, the doctors pulled him off of his IV diet and allowed him to take in food again.
That was a struggle in its own right,he had to use his non-dominant left hand which was still relatively shaky. This resulted in more spills than his ego could take and he ended up snapping at a nurse that tried to help feed him. The Restoration member on shift at the time shot up with a wispon in hand, acting like he was expecting the jackal to attack the staff. The blatant distrust only set him off further, with him reacting by throwing the tray of food at the wall yelling at them to leave.
The nurse scurried away but the Restoration member stood his ground, keeping the wispon aimed. Infinite's breathing was strained even with that little amount of exertion, it was excruciating to feel so powerless, so trapped in his own body that refused to keep on his level. He ended up collapsing back in bed, staring at the food slowly making its way down the wall.
He was still hungry.
Eventually a doctor came in and administered something in his IV that left him feeling drowsy, he woke up later to the room being cleaned up from its past mess and the scarlet hero sitting where the last ‘guard’ was.
The wolf noticed the other moving as he woke, pulling himself from the couch to stand by the bed. Infinite ignored the other, looking back towards the wall with a scowl. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with this idiot's pointless optimism.
There was a sudden crunching noise coming from the wolf’s direction, causing the jackals ears to twitch at the sound. He still refused to look over at the other canine, hoping that the other got the message and would leave him alone for the rest of his shift.
Unfortunately he seemed to have met his match in stubbornness, as the wolf didn't back down either. Patiently waiting at his bedside before the crunching started up again and something was nudging his shoulder. Infinite huffed exasperatedly turning towards the other with a glare, only to be met with a fruit coated danish.
“Get that out of my face before it ends up smashed in yours.” he growled.
The hero slowly exhaled before setting the danish on the standing tray directly next to the bed.
“I heard what happened, the nurse was trying to help. Not look down on you pityingly or anything like that.”
Infinite rolled his eyes and turned back to the wall.
“I can ask them to make you food that doesn't require utensils if that's what you're struggling with-”
“Or you can just leave me the hell alone and mind your own business.” the jackal snipped out.
“ they said you haven't had a lot to eat today, that's gonna affect your recovery. You need to eat more to keep your body healing-”
“Im not some little fix-it project for you to work on, what I do doesn't concern you.” he snarled, hackles rising as he spoke. “Im sick and tired of you people acting so high and mighty about saving the poor little broken villain-”
“That's not what's happening here, it’s- ugh. I know it's hard for you to believe but there are people out there that want to help just to show kindness to others. Not expecting anything out of it at all, and-”
“There's always a motive, people don't do shit unless they get something out of it. You aren't doing this because you think I can change, you either got stuck with watching over me or you’re getting some sick satisfaction in seeing me struggle.” he hissed out.
The hero pinched the bridge of his nose as he took a moment to breathe. He pulled back to watch the jackal for a moment, seemingly coming to a decision as he moved closer to the bed. Infinite scooted further from the scarlet wolf as he took a seat at the edge of the bed, keeping eyes on the other.
“Im here by choice, and I want to be here. If you really need to have a motivation behind someone's actions then fine, my motivation for this is that I want to help you back to full health so that you can hopefully help us in making this world a little safer for the people who don't have others to lean on. And help fix what you broke when you were working with eggman. If you don't want to do that, then you’ll be healthy enough to serve your full sentence in a prison locked away where you can't hurt more people.” the rust coated wolf calmly stated as he turned his gaze to the window.
Infinite decided to stay silent, and eventually the wolf shuffled back to his spot on the couch and went back to work.
The hero’s shift ends not too long after, they don't say anything to each other when he leaves.
Infinite eats the Danish.