Chapter 22 A Different Time a Different Life
*As you can probably tell, I have a thing for dream sequences, so sue me, they seem very important in my opinion and carry a lot of weight in the decisions we make whether we realize it or not!
Anyway, this time, we're going to take a peek at Eggman's dreams. A small comic partially inspired this sequence I found on Deviant art that quite frankly broke my heart. Check it out here: djanubis/art/Two-sides-One-coin-cover-284037498
I promise this is the last dream chapter for this story. Enjoy!*

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A cloaked figure emerged from the edge of the forest in the dark of night, the rays of the full moon providing the light they needed to see the path to their destination. They gazed upon their goal in the distance.
The object shines brightly like a lighthouse alerting all drifting ships of a safe shore nearby, providing refuge from a raging storm.
Moving swiftly, the dark character exits the safety of the forest and enters the open grassy knoll making its way for the large grey building that shines in the silver moonlight. Minutes later, they stop before the large doorway catching their breath; raising their head, the figure takes in the sight of the building with a feeling of awe and a little bit of jealously. Their package would get to stay in this place; they could not.
A click startles them from their revere; a security camera had turned on; they quickly find it turning to their direction, making a whirring noise as it adjusts its focus to get a better view of who dared to approach. With a silent gasp, the figure acts quickly, taking out a basket and laying it before the door.
The sudden swinging movement stirs whatever is inside, and it gripes at being disturbed from its slumber.
With its cargo delivered, the figure raced off before it can be discovered, leaving the basket behind; they accidentally kicked the package as they go. The movement upsets the basket further, and whatever is inside cried out, moving underneath the blanket covering. The cloaked figure doesn't turn back at the noise as now whatever was inside now was no longer their responsibility. With their mission accomplished, they disappeared back into the forest without a trace.
A few minutes later, the door swooshes open, and Eggman steps out in his pajamas with a growl and a disgruntled look on his face, "What the hell is going on at this ungodly hour?" He gripes as he looks around to see who had set off the alarm that someone was at his door at this late hour or early morning (depending on your view). His brows furrow in annoyance, not finding anyone nearby.
"Darned lousy no good-"
A shrill cry makes him jump; Eggman swiftly looks around, trying to find its origin. At last, his gaze falls to the ground, where he sees the moving basket. He warily bends down, watching the blanket covering move erratically as something shrieks, obviously upset. The doctor slowly picks up a corner lifting the blanket to see a baby blue hedgehoglet kicking its legs, banging them against the basket, and crying out for its mother.
Eggman gasps in horror, letting the cloth go, and stands up, looking out to the dark knoll as far as he can see for any sign of who had left the child. Even with the light of the full moon, he can't see much farther than the edge of the forest. There is no one but him out there with the basket and the cold night wind stirring the tall grass like a dark green wavy ocean.
His stomach dropped as he realized the child had been abandoned, "Oh dear..." he muttered.
His attention is drawn back to the basket as the baby cries out again, sadly sighing; Eggman picks the basket up by the handle and carries the poor creature into his home.
Entering the lounge, he sets the baby basket on the coffee table, sits down, and lifts the blanket from the basket again to get a better look at the abandoned baby inside. The child ceases its crying when the covering is removed, whimpering with puffy, shiny eyes; it stares confusedly at the man who might as well have been a giant from its perspective.
The doctor rubs a hand under his chin, "Hmmm...Atelerix albiventris, cobalt, and peach coloration with emerald green eyes, about 7 inches long, looks to be approximately 30 ounces, sex...unknown, age...?" he gently leans forward and prods the hoglet to open its mouth with his index finger. Other than a poor attempt of a growl and a disgruntled kick, the hedgie opens its mouth and doesn't fight further, which surprises him. Eggman casts the hoglet's mouth a peek and gently feels its gums. "Hmmmm...definitely under a year old, perhaps no more than one or two months?" The hoglet catches him off guard from his musings when it clamps down and begins sucking on his index finger. Thankfully the baby lacks teeth, so the bite doesn't hurt Eggman. "Oh! I bet you're hungry." The doctor exclaims; he radio's for one of his robots to bring a bottle of milk.
"While we wait, will you let me see what you are if I let you suck on my finger?" He gets no response from the hoglet, who continued to hold his hand, not letting its makeshift pacifier go. Slowly Eggman untapped the diaper and lowered it to see what lay underneath; the hoglet cooed curiously, watching the human examining it.
Smiling with satisfaction, Eggman rediapers the baby, "A little male hoglet. Hmph, we should get along just fine then." the hoglet smiles back, still sucking on his finger.
Eggman sighs, laying his head on his free hand, rambling out loud while waiting for the baby's bottle. "Tsk. You poor thing. Abandoned and all alone in this cold, dark world. You know...as a doctor, I've dealt with many people and species in my profession, helped quite a few young ones such as yourself enter this world..." he soberly pauses for some time before continuing softly, "I never did understand people who could willingly give up their young leaving them alone to fight and care for themselves with no guidance."
The hoglet perks his droopy ears toward the man, though too young to understand Eggman could tell he had the hedgie's full attention. The doctor scoffs in amusement at the tiny blue thing, "Look at you...you're so small. Quite possibly the smallest baby I've ever met." the hoglet tilts his head blinking. Eggman smirks, amused by the baby's innocence, "Oh, you know I'm talking about you now, don't you? Well, since we're on the subject...what do you think I should do with you? There's quite frankly not many options." the baby blankly stares at him.
The doctor continues thinking aloud despite the silence, "I could send you to a foster home...though you are cute, I'm not too sure how soon you would be adopted." he gets no response. The human and baby engage in an impromptu staring match for a few minutes.
"Or you could stay here with me!" the doctor blurted out in revelation. "I don't really know how to take care of a child. Never had one before; I spend most of my time alone as it's just me and my robots. No real company to talk to; it would be nice to have someone else around..." He mused with a shrug then looked back at the child.
It was true. Eggman didn't really interact much with people as he was always working on his inventions; that is to say, that didn't mean he doesn't get lonely at times. Being a genius could be lonely, and while a baby wasn't much company, he was still open to the idea. After all, caring for a child was said to be one of the most rewarding experiences, that and watching and helping a little one to learn and grow would be a welcome challenge to his genius brain.
The hoglet stares back at him, and Eggman swears there is something in those green eyes that makes him want to look into them forever. The baby cooes with a smile and squeezes his finger; Eggman feels his heart warm at the precious gesture. He has only had the hoglet with him for a few minutes, and already he was becoming attached.
Some company would be really nice, even if you can't talk yet.
"I'm willing to try and learn how to take care of you if you are willing to put up with me? Whaddya say? Would you like to stay with this old man?" the doctor offers. The hoglet squeals kicking his feet happily; Eggman chuckles and smiles back as a droid comes in finally with the long-awaited bottle.
The doctor takes the milk, relinquishes his finger, and picks the baby up, cradling him before Eggman offers the drink. The hoglet, upset at losing his makeshift pacifier, pouts then looks at the bottle curiously before tentatively licking the nipple, getting a drop of milk, licks his lips, and latches on, suckling and grunting like the little hoglet he was. Eggman chuckles at the cute noise, cradling the hungry baby in one arm; he takes the empty basket and walks to his room, solidifying his decision.
"Welcome home, my baby."
The dream skips to some time a few months later.
Eggman is again woken up in the middle of the night by a baby's cries. Groaning, the doctor slowly lifts himself out of his warm, comfortable bed and, with half-closed eyes, takes three agonizing steps towards the crib stationed near his bed where he had placed it for quick, easy access to his baby hedgie.
The hoglet cries out with his eyes closed, his cries rising in volume the longer his needs go unfulfilled. Eggman gently shushes the baby reaching down into the crib going through his mental checklist, "You're dry. I just feed you not that long ago. You don't want your pacifier...what is it that you want?" he moans while the hoglet continues to cry, seeming to get more upset from not getting what he wants.
Eggman groans, rubbing his face; his brain felt fuzzy with static from sleep deprivation, unable to figure out what was wrong. The temptation to just ignore the screaming hedgie, go back to bed, and let the baby cry himself to sleep was very strong. He had work to do tomorrow and wanted so badly to go back to bed without having to deal with a fussy hoglet and, for once, get a full night's sleep.
"Ugh, forget this...I'm going back to bed." He walks away a few steps, but hedgie's continuous wails call out to his maternal instincts forcing him to pause. Unable to distance himself further, Eggman listens attentively to the baby's cries to decipher their meaning. The doctor looks over his shoulder back at the hoglet seeing the baby is turned toward his direction and reaching out for something.
[It's theorized young ones instinctively sleep in the direction their guardians appear from in their cribs and continue to do so long after they are grown.]
Observing the hoglet's behavior, Eggman wonders if this hypothesis might be true. Figuring out a baby's constant needs had been more difficult than he had thought.
Well, he did want a challenge.
Sighing, he gives it another go. He walks back to the crib; the doctor reaches down and picks up the crying infant bouncing a little, hoping that he will calm down. "There there, it's alright, my little one. I'm here Shhhhh." the hoglet ceases his crying and whimpers in the doctor's hold; his little black nose twitches as he picks up his guardian's scent and cooes happily in recognition. Eggman lovingly smiles, his ears and instincts both glad that his baby was no longer crying.
"Did you just miss me? Hmm? Were you just lonely? Don't worry, Eggman's got you." the blue hoglet hiccups with a smile and cooes at the doctor's voice. Eggman gently pats the baby's back as the hoglet nuzzles his fuzzy face against the human's chest, settling down with a high-pitched yawn in his caretaker's arms, feeling safe and secure. The doctor takes the baby with him to a rocker he has sitting in the corner of the room.
The human sits down, continuing to hold and cuddle his charge; he rocks slowly in the rocker watching as the hoglet hums with satisfaction before they both fall back asleep.
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Eggman woke up to find Sonic no longer in his arms. Instead, the hedgehog was curled up on top of his chest, looking quite content where he was. Splayed out like a starfish and still sucking on his pacifier, the doctor softly smiled and rubbed one of Sonic's ears. His heart swelled when he heard soft purring; it was absolutely adorable!
Eggman gazed over the small hedgehog taking in his features; he loved how fluffy, and soft Sonic's fur was and the way his beautiful coat now shined with his healthier diet the doctor had established. The blue blur's wet black nose and long lashes that hid wide innocent eyes, Eggman felt like he could stare into them forever. Like he wanted to now just stay in bed all day and watch the peaceful expression on his baby's face while he slept.
Too bad they had to get up.
Gently he begins scratching Sonic's back waking him, "Mph...?"
"Morning sunshine." the doctor greets; the blue blur lets out a big yawn letting his pacifier fall, and stretches, "Morn'g Eggman." Sonic mumbles as Eggman sits up and he slides off the doctor's chest, landing into his lap. "Did you sleep better?" Eggman inquires, ruffling the hedgie's quills to stir him up, "Yeah, much better...thanks for letting me stay with you." he says with a crooked smile.
"Anytime, baby. Though I'm curious, what had you so scared? This didn't seem like one of your usual nightmares, was it?" Sonic turned away from the doctor timidly, his ears turned down, fiddling with the cuffs of his gloves, he quietly said, "Not...exactly. It was...different this time." he felt a large hand rub his back in comfort, "Do you want to talk about it?"
The blue devil nods, taking a deep breath; he explains what happened in the dream; Eggman listens quietly, taking in all the hedgehog had to say. "And then I woke up...I just-I know there's no way my friends will find out about this, but I guess I'm just...scared about how they'd react if they did. I mean, I didn't take it well at first! I can't imagine how they would react if they saw me acting like this. I know they wouldn't physically hurt me, but...maybe they wouldn't want to be my friends anymore?" he trails off at the end and hugs himself. Confusion and worry are written all over his face; Sonic looks up to his caregiver for guidance.
"Well..." Eggman begins rubbing his chin, "This was just a dream, you know."
"Yeah, I know. I'm just worried that somehow some way, they'll figure it out."
"Sonic, you have nothing to worry about. So long as you control yourself around them, you should be just fine, and you have much self-discipline."
"But I'm not perfect. What if I slip up? What if I say or do something and-"
"And what? They're going to assume automatically that you enjoy behaving like a baby at times? My dear little one, very few know of this kind of behavior. Frankly, even if you did act Little on accident, I don't think anything like that would even come up in their minds."
"Y-you-you think so?" Sonic blushed, "I know so..." Eggman pulled the hedgie into a hug, "As long as your with me, your secret will stay safe, I promise."
"Ok." the blue blur mumbles, hugging back after a minute, growing confidant that Eggman was right. Sonic deeply inhales and lets it out, feeling the tension leave as he pulls back and asks apprehensively, "Um...Eggman? I don't think I want to be little for a while. I'd like to be big and take a break."
"That's ok. Thank you for telling me." the doctor releases his hold and tenderly caresses the blue devil's face, "After a dream like that, I think I'd want to take a break too. Besides, we have our interview today, and then you have your visit with Tails tomorrow; you won't have any time to be little anyway."
"That's true," Sonic smirks good naturally at the doctor, beginning to gain his usual cocky mood back, and rubs a finger under his nose.
He was glad that Eggman was flexible and respected his desire to be Big when he wanted to be. Not that he didn't enjoy being Eggman's baby, but sometimes it was nice to be able to do things yourself.
"Thanks...um...do you mind?" He then gestured to the diaper around his waist. Eggman obliged, gently pushing the hedgehog down and took the unused diaper off; Sonic gave his thanks again before he and the doctor leave to grab a bite to eat before Shadow and Rouge arrive.
The next couple of hours go by quickly, and after the 2 G.U.N. agents arrive, both parties separate to conduct their interviews.
"Ok. So do you have anything new to report?" Shadow asks with half-lidded eyes looking at the blue blur across the table from him, "Nope! Same old same old!" Sonic cheerfully replies with his hands behind his head and legs crossed.
The black hog scans over his rival with concern filling his features; he clears his throat and folds his hands together on the table as if to prepare himself to deliver bad news. The blue blur tilts his head ever so slightly, wondering what brought on the sudden, sullen mood change in his rival.
"Sonic...I know that when we go over these interviews, most of what I ask and what we discuss is how Eggman is treating you. And from what you've told me, he's done so quite well." he says slowly; Sonic now quirks his brow and nods slowly, puzzled as to why his rival was acting like he was interested in what was going on with him.
"Uhhh...yeah, he has?" Shadow cuts him off, "But I want you to know this is a safe space you can tell me about anything that's going on. I won't judge."
The blue blur felt his stomach twist into knots, and he bit his lip; what Shadow was saying and the tone used made him nervous.
Why did he say that? Does he think something is going on between Eggman and me? Does Shadow know about the babying and is trying to get me to confess? Nah! There's no way Shadow knows. Eggman promised! Shadz is probably just...making sure nothing is wrong. It is his job, after all, right now, to make sure I'm ok. Yeah!
Sitting back and dispensing his worry, Sonic puts on his cool confidant smirk, "Nooope! Nothing has changed. Don't worry, Shadz, everything with Eggman has gone well so far and...I trust him. You don't have to worry about little ol' me." he winks teasing slightly. Shadow sighs in a mixture of annoyance and disappointment at the blue devil brushing off the subject so lightly, "Alright, I just wanted to be sure. By the way, there are only a few weeks left before the 6-month trial is up. Have you made your decision yet?"
"Oh yeah! I have...um." Sonic sat up straight in excitement before drawing back and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, looking away. He hadn't told anyone but the doctor, and he was nervous about telling everyone else, but he would have to at some point. Might as well start spreading the news now. "I decided...I want to...stay with Eggman." The blue devil looked back, expecting to see shock, confusion, anger, or a mix of the three, but he was taken back to see a rare warm smile instead.
"Hmmm." Shadow hums, "Very well. Are you sure this is what you want?" Sonic nods, slightly stunned by the non-hostile reaction. "Yeah, I really do!" He says quietly, "You're um...taking this really well?" he questions. The dark hog just shrugs half-heartedly and gives a slight smirk before asking, "When are you planning to tell your friends?"
"I...uh...I haven't figured that part out yet, hehe." the blue devil nervously chuckles and gulps, "I don't think they'll as react well as you have, honestly. Especially Tails, he'll be really mad, I think."
"That's understandable, but if I may offer some advice?" Sonic blinks at the ebony hog in surprise, "Oh! Sure man, go ahead!"
"I suggest you tell them as soon as possible, preferably tomorrow. The sooner you tell them, the sooner you all have time to reconcile and adjust. Keep the damage to a minimum. If you delay and they hear the announcement through other sources, the damages to your friendships will be more difficult to patch."
Sonic tapped a finger on his chin, thinking over Shadow's advice. He was shocked with how well his rival was taking this news and was a little suspicious about how quickly he had deflected the conversation in concern to the blue blur's friends. Perhaps though Sonic was reading too much into it, still being paranoid from his nightmare? He decided to let it go and take Shadow's advice, "Your right. The longer I go without telling them, the more I'll hurt them. But...what would I say? Hey guys! I decided I want to live with my worst enemy?!" he asked, putting much sarcasm in the last sentence.
Shadow rolls his eyes, "Come on, hedgehog, you don't have to say it like that. I know you can come up with something better." the blue blur just shrugs with uncertainly, "Put some thought into it. You have the rest of the day today to think about it. I'm sure you'll come up with something before you see them all tomorrow."
"Ok...I will!" the dark hog scoffs, taking his papers before getting up and making his way for the dining room doors. He puts a hand on the door but pauses when Sonic calls out to him, "Yo Ultimate Lifeform!" Shadow looks back over his shoulder to see the blue devil warmly smiling at him and saying with all sincerity. "Thanks for all your help, man." the dark hog gives a small smirk before it vanishes, and he leaves. "No problem, hedgehog."