Tales from the Phantom

Night Terrors

Tw: trauma, PTSD

"Hey, Sonic, are you awake? I can't sleep..." but when Tails turned into the room, he was shocked at what he found.

Sonic was tossing and turning in his sleep, face clenched up, his whole body tense. He just generally seemed distressed.
He's having a nightmare again, Tails realized. He knew better than to wake up someone from one, but he was worried about his friend, and adrenaline kicked in.
"Hey, Sonic, Sonic? Wake up!" He gently shook his shoulders, bringing him to, him looking absolutely terrified before sighing as he saw Tails, seemingly relieved.
Tails spied the phantom ruby shard sitting on the table beside the bright lamp that was placed next to the couch, and handed it to the hedgehog.
"You wanna talk about it?" He carefully asked.
"No, not really." Sonic's voice came out shaky, Tails knew immediately that it was related to whatever Eggman had done to him in the six-month war.
The blue's PTSD has been especially bad recently, ever since that storm upon Angel Island, Tails was sure that that was definitely the trigger. He just sat by his brother, and as he gently rubbed his back, the fox could feel him trembling all over, his body tense.

Tails grabbed the blanket that had been violently kicked to the floor in the hedgehog's struggle, wrapping it loosely around his friend's shoulders, before getting up and walking quietly into the kitchen.
Sonic didn't look behind him but he could hear Tails making lots of noise in there. It's a good job that Knuckles isn't here anymore. He doesn't take kindly to being woken up.
The echidna had returned to Angel Island right after the power had returned to the Master Emerald. Tails and Sonic, on the other hand, had to wait until their house had been repaired.

A few minutes later, Tails returned with a cup in hand, "Here," he handed the cup over, "It's lavender tea, it's apparently good for calming down."

Tails then continued to sit there for about ten minutes in complete silence, until Sonic spoke up,
"You couldn't even imagine the kinds of things he did to me," this shocking Tails. This was the first time he'd spoken about it to.. well.. anyone.
Whenever people asked him, he'd just go quiet and tense up, almost like he was having a flashback.
The doctors had agreed that whatever happened was just too traumatic, and talking or thinking about it was just too painful. That was when they'd come to Tails to tell him that they believed that his friend was suffering from PTSD.
That had been a lot for Tails to take in. During the last few days of the war, he seemed completely fine. But when he thought about it, he probably just sucked it up.

Tails looked at him with a sad, compassionate look, watching as he reached down his left leg, sighing heavily, moving his fur to the side, clearly showing a massive scar that started at the knee and extended all the way down his leg.
The cub gasped, he never realized that they'd physically touched him. He felt angry. At Eggman, at Infinite, at himself especially. He was the one that let all of this happen.
Sonic looked around the room nervously, his eyes darting everywhere, checking every nook and cranny, his ears perked up. Tails noticed this and put a hand on his, and the blue jumped a bit.
"Sonic? What's wrong?" He asked, wondering what in the world he was doing. He was acting as skittish as he would in his werewolf form.
"Nothing, Tails," he sighed, "You can go back to sleep now." That was where the fox his foot down.
"I'm not leaving you when you're clearly scared. You would never do that to me, and I clearly owe you a lot." He looked at his watch. "Well, would you look at that? It's 3:30. What did I say yesterday? Also, it's Tuesday, you like to go to Apotos to get ice cream, right? I'll come with you, it hardly seems like we spend any time together anymore..." but when he turned to the hedgehog, he was fast asleep, snoring gently, "Ok. Goodnight Sonic."

That next morning, Tails breathed in that salty sea air; they were almost in Apotos. The cub looked onto the left-wing of the plane and saw his brother sitting on the edge of it, looking out towards the small seaside town, a small smile on his face. He most certainly seemed better today. Tails got the feeling that it was the events the day before that had really triggered him. There was one thing everyone knew about Sonic's captivity, and that was he was shackled 24/7.
Tails assumed that the police putting handcuffs on him had been the tipping point.

Parking the small bi-plane on the outskirts, the two ventured towards the village, Tails marvelling at the beauty. He'd only been here once, and that was in Autumn. Now it was just after Spring, and everyone was alive.
Tails followed Sonic; he knew exactly where he was going. A few minutes later, they reached a small ice cream stand by the cliff edge.
"Sonic! Good the see you, I knew that you'd show up today. You brought a friend as well? Well, two ice cream sundae supremes coming right up!" The owner addressed in a jolly tone, smiling at the two.
Sonic smiled back at him gratefully, before jumping at a noise behind him, staring intensely at the place where the noise had come from; one of the alleyways.
"He heard me,"
"What was that Sonic?" Tails turned to his brother, holding both ice-creams, Sonic taking one of his hands.
Sonic's eyes darted around once more, carefully scanning the corners of every building, "Nothing," he sighed.
Tails sighed as well, "No, it's something. But I understand if you don't want to tell me..."
"EggmansaidthatifIevertoldanyoneaboutwhathedidtomehewouldendusall,"
Tail's eyes grew wide. "He said that!?" Tails could feel his blood boiling in anger, "He really told you that? You're telling me that this whole time you wanted to tell us what was wrong, but you couldn't, so you had no choice but to suffer in silence?"
Sonic nodded, "I had to protect you, Tails. And everyone else. I couldn't bear to think what he'd do to you."
"I don't think he would have heard us, he can't be following us wherever we go. But, we should tell the G.U.N. if you're that worried about it,"

Tails was wrong, Eggman had been watching them. He'd placed a camera at every one of Tails' workshops. Thank goodness it was late at night, and only Orbot and Cubot were in the room, sweeping up, keeping an eye on the monitors. That was when it happened. The two robots looked each other dead in the eye, "We don't tell the boss about this." Orbot warned his square counterpart, "got it?"
Cubot nodded. For once, he understood. They'd made a promise to Sonic.
That still wasn't good enough for Orbot. What if he says something again and the boss is in here? His robot brain was thinking. No, he'd have to take action against this.

That was when he had an idea