Chapter Text
“Sonic, you’re going to start scaring my customers away with your moping.” The hedgehog in question groaned, voice muffled by the hardwood of the counter he was trying to merge with his forehead. True to her words, there were few customers in the bakery despite it being prime sugary-sweet breakfast time. A few had entered, the bell above the door tinkling merrily, before seeing one of the Princes of Mobius slumped over at the counter caused them to hastily shuffle out. “Seriously, knock it off.” This time Amy’s voice was punctuated with a firm thump to the top of his head.
“I could have you imprisoned for treason for that, you know,” Sonic grumbled, finally sitting up and rubbing the top of his head. Amy gave him an unimpressed look before sliding a raspberry filled pastry in front of him.
“You’re going to be too busy kissing on the Prince of Black Comet to have anyone imprisoned for treason,” Sally teased as she emerged from the back of the bakery.
“First of all: ew,” Sonic said as crumbs fell from his mouth, “second: you’re going to be my sister-in-law, shouldn’t you be more supportive in my time of need?” Amy held her fist up in warning and Sonic quickly scooped the crumbs off the counter and into his hand. Sally came around to lean beside Amy, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Are you actually going to tell us what has your quills in a twist or keep dodging,” Sally asked. The princess had always been able to read Sonic like a book, even in their childhood. Usually Sonic was grateful for such a close bond, but right now he found himself wishing Sally hadn’t been in Mobitopolis for a visit right this moment.
“What shouldn’t I be upset about? Mom wants me to go to a fancy-shmancy party, which we all know is an awful idea for me to go to in the first place, and not just any party: the coming of age party for the Prince of Black Comet that is also serving as a way for him to find a wife.” Sonic shuddered at just the thought.
“Pretty bold of you to think he would want you as a wife,” Amy grinned.
“I’ll have you know I would make an excellent wife,” Sonic huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Amy rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to respond, but Sally quickly jumped in, sensing the conversation was rapidly devolving.
“So you’re being sent to a fancy party to potentially be the evil overlord of Mobius’s son’s wife. Emphasis on potentially. That alone wouldn’t have you this stressed.” Sonic’s gaze flicked to the side, uncomfortable with it being pointed out that he was, in fact, stressed. No, not stressed: freaking out.
The morning had begun fairly normal: he had gotten out of bed, dodged the servants that his mother always sent to “assist him become presentable,” and went on his morning run. After that, he had snagged a quick snack from the kitchens and had wandered towards his siblings’ rooms. However, on his way there, he had been intercepted by one of his mother’s personal guards.
In the throne room, his mother had sat poised and elegant as always…minus the exasperated look wrinkling her face.
“I had wanted to meet with you over an hour ago,” she had admonished, not even bothering with a greeting.
“Good morning, mother,” Sonic had responded, “it’s nice to see you, too. The weather outside is lovely today.” She had fixed him with an unimpressed look and he briefly wondered if she had learned that from Amy or the other way around.
“You dodged your attendants again this morning,” she stated.
“I don’t need help getting dressed,” Sonic gestured to his body. He had even managed to put pants on this morning!
“Perhaps not,” her derisive sniff made it sound false, “but they would have told you that I needed to meet with you some time ago.”
“Well I’m here now,” Sonic shrugged. Couldn't they just get this over with? He got it. Once again, Sonic was not living up to his image as a prince. Alert the town criers. Queen Aleena did not respond verbally, instead choosing to rise from her throne and step down the flight of stairs to come before her son. She had a letter in her hand, the creases from a previous fold causing it to curve in towards her hands. However, it couldn’t disguise the broken seal of Black Comet on the outside. Sonic took the letter and rapidly skimmed over it. Were they being threatened with war? Were the taxes rising again? The demand for produce? Has their secret with the Freedom Fighters been discovered?
“A party…” Somehow this was worse.
“Not just any party. The coming of age ceremony for Prince Shadow.”
“And hopefully you’re showing me this so we can have a bonding moment making fun of it, right?” His voice wobbled. Allena appraised him before stating, “You’re going to the party as Mobotropolis’s representative and to request the honor of courting Prince Shadow.” Sonic blinked at Aleena. Aleena gazed firmly back. Sonic blinked again.
“So just to clarify,” Sonic took a step back and held his hands up, eyes shutting as he tried to slow his thinking, “you want me,” a gesture to himself, “to go to probably the most formal party in the entire empire and parade myself in front of the most famously violent family ever…in hopes that one of them will want to marry me.” They stared at each other again.
“Not in hopes that Prince Shadow will marry you,” Aleena said, “you have to ensure that he will.” Sonic was 90% sure he physically couldn’t have a heart attack, what with the naturally increased heart rate due to traveling at supersonic speeds, but this morning he had been 99% sure. The more Aleena talked, the more his confidence dwindled.
“And this is a good idea because…?”
“Because if you are allowed to court the prince, you will be close enough to assassinate him.”
As Sonic finished retelling his morning, Amy and Sally stared at him, dumb-founded. Sonic gestured to their faces as if to say, “See?! I’m not crazy!”
“She wants you to kill the Imperial Prince,” Sally said slowly. Sonic just nodded, letting his head fall into his hands.
“What about the Freedom Fighters?” Amy asked.
“That’s what I said,” Sonic groaned, “and she said that she would have Knuckles take over on our end until…the job is done. Said she would use the papers to spread fake rumours of sightings of me to throw them off.” Sonic had been leading the Freedom Fighters in Mobotropolis since its conception, with Sally leading the Kingdom of Acorn’s branch and Blaze leading in Sol. Sonic, despite being considered the leader of the operation on Mobotropolis’s end, typically preferred to do ground work. Sightings of the Blue Blur always made the papers and never failed to agitate Black Doom and his Doom Arms. Together, they had put a dent in Doom’s presence throughout the kingdoms, and now Aleena wanted to send him off to sit around while everyone else did all the work.
The bell above Amy’s door jingled and Sonic twisted to see who was finally braving the bakery. Knuckles eyed the three at the bar of the bakery, taking in Sonic’s slumped back and folded ears.
“Is he still whining about the mission?” the echidna asked, coming to sit beside Sonic.
“Easy for you to say,” Sonic grumped, shoving Knuckles’s shoulder and almost sending his friend to the ground, “you get to do the real work while I have to go rub shoulders with people kissing up to Doom.”
“You are doing real work. If you pull this off, we might actually stand a chance at kicking the Black Arms back to Black Comet and freeing our kingdoms.”
“‘Pulling this off’ requires me murdering someone, Knuckles,” Sonic emphasized. Even in all of their battles with the Doom Arms, through all the missions they took into Robotropolis, Sonic had never killed another living creature.
“Maybe the Queen is on to something. Maybe what we’ve been doing isn’t enough and we need to start looking at more permanent solutions,” Knuckles said, staring down at the wooden counter. Sonic’s eyes widened and he looked at the side of Knuckles’s head with astonishment. None of them, despite how dire the situation, had never suggested something like this. Sally and Amy looked equally shocked, but then Amy’s eyes narrowed.
“What aren’t you telling us, Knuckles?” Knuckles sighed and ran a hand down his face, seeming to contemplate saying anything, before finally: “We got word from some of the spies on the border. It seems like Doom is planning something big.”
“When isn’t he?” Sonic half-laughed, but Knuckles didn’t join.
“There’s been rumours that he’s been hunting down some sort of power source. Everything is being kept so tightly under wraps, not even the palace servants seem to have a clue what it could be. If this is real, Doom doesn’t want anyone to know about it.” The room fell silent and Sonic felt the pressure that had been steadily building in his chest since this morning peak.
“My mom didn’t say anything about this,” he whispered, ears flattening.
“She thought that if it seemed like there was a possible threat to the kingdom, you wouldn’t leave.” Fair, Sonic thought to himself. He didn’t want to leave, not when his people and his friends might be in danger and he was too deep in enemy territory to reach them. If Doom already had this power source, who’s to say he wouldn’t decide to use it the second all of the representatives of the kingdoms left for his little party?
“Does it really have to be me?” Sonic asked, not really expecting an answer. Sally reached over, taking his hand into hers and gently rubbing the top with her thumb.
“You know Sonia can’t go, what with her being the Crown Princess and already being betrothed. Manic is even worse than you at being stuck with prissy party-goers,” Sonic snorted softly at this, “and you’re the only member of the Fighters in Mobotropolis with a high enough status to be sent and not taken as an insult.” Sonic knew she was right (Sally was always right), but it didn’t make him feel any better.
He was going to have to kill Prince Shadow.