"I don't get it," Sonic mumbled, watching a vague holographic body glitching out in the tank in front of him, hooked up to Tails' supercomputer. "It doesn't even look like her. Can you restore Sage at all?" Sonic leaned beside Tails' chair, anxiously tapping his fingers against the desk.
"I'm trying, Sonic, but… I think the cloud upload data from her last instance was completely lost," Tails sighed. "I can't say for sure. There's thousands of archives listed here, so it's hard to locate the last backup date. The battle against The End went on for entire years down here on Erius. But since we were in outer space, it only felt like a few minutes… a few agonizing minutes." A chill ran down the fox's spine and made his tails flutter. Sonic felt his heart sink, had his Super Form really destroyed everything that made Sage… Sage?
"So this clump o' voxels is all that's left of her," Sonic muttered, clenching the desk so hard he might take a chunk out of it.
"Not necessarily, it's just all we can access from Erius, at least in the next 100 years with these download speeds. Lemme see if I can steal the files from a strong enough databank in orbit…" Tails mumbled, typing away at the keyboard.
"What, like you're getting free Satellite TV?" Sonic asked. The monitor pinged a deep red.
"Woof… no, more like directly interfacing with the Egg Fortress by accident!" Tails exclaimed, rolling back in his chair as error popups and alarms blared. "Looks like Eggman's firewall detected us trying to get in, it's purposely bottlenecking transfers to my drive and slowing down the machine! I need to shut it off before whoever's operating it wises up and installs malware to my computer. Sorry, Sonic, but can you run outside and cut the power?" Sonic glared at Tails.
"What are you, crazy?! What'll happen to the Sage data we have loaded?" Sonic asked.
"It'll be completely lost if we let Eggman scramble the hard drive! I'll salvage what I can, but it's not like she's alive in there or anything!" Tails shouted. Sonic grumbled, and took one step… before he heard something pounding on the glass.
"Father? Father, can you hear me?" Sage's voice asked.
"I can hear you," Sonic said, staring into the tank. "Sage? Sage, speak to me!"
"Please… look after… father," Sage repeated, her voice cutting between different frequencies and speeds. "Please… look after…"
"OHHHohohoho!" Eggman exclaimed, her face showing up on the monitor. It looked like she was using her phone on a selfie stick at the Oil Ocean beach, and dressed for the occasion. Sage's voxel form split apart into raw data. "Greetings, Agent Sonic and Agent Tails! Are you having fun in the sun, or rotting away in that dark little laboratory of yours?"
"You nasty old bat! Give it a rest, give me Sage, and put those saggy things away!" Sonic shouted, slamming the desk with his fist.
"SONIC!! Eggman, just hold on! We're not trying to pick a fight this time," Tails exclaimed, waving his hands in front of his webcam and sweating. "We're just trying to access backup data for Sonic's friend from the Starfall Islands. Think you can help us and NOT freeze my computer?"
"Hmm… so you're saying… you want me to help save one of your annoying friends for free?" Eggman asked, glaring right into the camera. "If you're both so eager to access my data, why don't you call it quits on this long-drawn-out adventure… and come back to my Empire?" Eggman laughed, Sonic looked to Tails solemnly, knowing what had to be done.
Just then, the computer crashed. The tank opened, and out tumbled the collection of voxels vaguely representing Sage. Sonic rushed over to her, trying to grasp her hand but phasing through each time. She then floated up to her feet on her own, regaining some of her old form.
"Sage, is that you?" Sonic asked, standing up. An iris opened on her forehead, and the two made direct eye contact for the first time since that day. She was looking right at him, he could hold her hand. But she wasn't saying a word or physically reacting at all. "Tails, I'm gonna try to get her back to her old self first. But if that doesn't work, I'm going back to the Empire to restore her. For real, this time."
…
Sonic was walking down the sidewalk, Sage's single eye piercing through the quills on his back. "Sage, do you remember running together on Ares Island?" Sonic asked, gradually quickening his step. Sage began floating faster, Sonic smiled. He drifted around the corner, then into an alleyway. It was only after he emerged back onto the sidewalk that he realized… she was nowhere to be found. "... Sage?" Sonic asked, looking around. Just as soon as the anxiety that he lost her again set in, she phased through the wall and floated back to his side.
Sonic kept walking, until he realized Sage was nowhere to be found. "Sage?!" Sonic asked, looking right to left in fear. "No… not again. Come on out!" Sage didn't appear, until Sonic looked behind him. She had been there the whole time.
Sonic crossed the street, and noticed the light had turned red before Sage could catch up. He was halfway across, so he zoomed to the other side. Sage was already there, looking down at a small patch of fenced-off daisies.
"Follow… by any means necessary," Sage said, in a flat monotone voice that wasn't quite her own yet. She stretched a mess of voxels from her wrist to the daisies, and completely enveloped them. She tore them out from the dirt, giving them to Sonic with clumps of soil at the bottom of their roots. Sonic's heart nearly exploded.
"Your first words all over again, huh?" Sonic asked, taking the flowers. "I wasn't there to hear them last time. I guess Eggman and Cyberspace were all you had at first. I wonder… now that you can grow up in the United Federation, could you be happier? Better off? Less… apocalyptic?"
Sonic and Sage were at the beachfront candy store. Sonic's palette was getting too mature for most of this colored sugar, but he realized Sage never had anything sweet on the Starfalls. "Pick anything you'd like… maybe not the ones from Obuericos, though. They can be kind of spicy," Sonic said. Sage picked up some cinnamon candy, despite Sonic's warning.
"Spicy. Chili dogs?" Sage asked. "I want this candy. You'd like it, too, according to my simulations."
At Emerald Beach, they watched the end of the sunset while eating their Red Bursts candy. "Nothing beats this view. I think you'll like it here in Emerald Town. It's the perfect place for a new start," Sonic said, finally relaxed. At this rate, getting Sage back was in the bag. It was then that a swarm of colored meteors lit up the sky. "No way… the Starfall Plus! Sage, remember catching Star Pieces?"
"The Starfall…?" Sage asked, her voice finally starting to resemble the one Sonic recognized. "Sonic, that reminds me." She tugged on the cuff of his glove.
"Yeah? What is it?" Sonic asked.
"I think we need to go back, to the Empire," Sage said. Sonic felt cold water fall down the inside of his skin. "You're looking for my memories, we'll find them there."
"I was trying to start clean, to be honest," Sonic said, sweat forming on his forehead. "I think you'll be happier here. Plus, it looks like you're starting to get a hang of things! Just keep trying, and you'll be back in no time."
"Without all of my memories, am I really me?" Sage asked, huddling against her knees. "You grew to care about the personality you met on the Starfall Islands. I am but a remnant of the base code. I am not your Sage, and won't be until we retrieve that data." Sonic sat in silence, staring red-eyed directly into the last sliver of sunlight. "The Sonic on the Starfall Islands isn't the same one who is sitting with me now. He died on the tower, then you got your memories back. You stole your body back from him. You are defined by your adventures, so he could not be you, because he lacked that definition. We are similar in this regard." Sonic frowned. "Now, I am but code belonging to the Eggman Empire. I will run away from this place, disappear, and return to the Empire by sunrise tomorrow. Will you be accompanying me?"