Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its associated characters, I do not claim ownership of Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its associated characters, nor am I making profit from this original work of fan-fiction that was created and published for entertainment purposes only. The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is created by owned by SEGA Sammy Holdings Inc. All rights of Sonic the Hedgehog belong to SEGA Sammy Holdings Inc.

The Way it Went

Written by Felicia Rondo, Published: 3/10/2021

Summary: How does someone end up working for their evil uncle bent on world domination? One nephew tries to explain how and why.

Contains: Angst, Past Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends, and Snively Redemption!

“It starts out, innocently enough, with just a feeling that you aren’t appreciated. You don’t feel seen by your father, you don’t feel loved by your mother, and you want some indication that you do in fact exist before you completely lose it. Then you’re leaving home to go be with the uncle your good-for-nothing father warned you about, thinking that if he couldn’t recognize you how could he recognize the character of his own brother?

“And that brother of his can make you feel important, oh yes, he can make you feel like you’re finally a part of something bigger than yourself. He’ll carefully guide you into his wicked world of corruption, chipping away at what boundaries you took for granted and carefully eroding others you naively believed were secure, and before long you can just faintly hear the sound of all the exits out of the situation being bolted shut.

“Once he has you where he wants you, there’s nothing he won’t do or say to make sure you feel like you’re less than nothing - like your entire existence amounts to a black hole that sucks away everything beautiful from the world whose only recourse is to make yourself smaller than a fly with the ambition of a piece of lint.

“You can point out to yourself that it’s projection, that his short-sighted cruelty will ultimately be his downfall and that at the very least he’ll be going down when he takes you down with him, but that constant abuse can wear on the densest metal… much less a short, vulnerable, balding… nephew.

“A nephew that can only have so much bellowing ring through his ears until one day he wakes up and realizes he isn’t even there. There’s no one in the room but himself, as insult after insult is tossed so cruelly like daggers into his own heart, having no one else to blame but himself for being so short-sighted and foolish to sell his soul to the side… to the man who won’t be happy until no one else is.”

By the time he finished, his head was bowed and any work he had hoped to get done was left to sit as hopelessly as the defector Robotnik did right then in the workshop.

“Hey,” a gravely old voice spoke, “Snively…”

When Snively looked up, he saw an old blue hedgehog with a silver mustache and eyes that held not just his own pitiful reflection in them… but sympathy? He honestly couldn’t recall the last time he had witnessed such a sight, it was completely alien to him.

“C’mere, son…” Chuck said, compassion coming through in his tone, as he opened his arms out to his former foe.

And just like that, Snively was sobbing into Chuck’s shoulder. It wasn’t fair - none of it was. But life didn’t seem to like working out in ways that were very fair at all, in Snively’s experience.

He knew in his miserable heart that he had no right to be there, his tears dampening the old hedgehog’s shoulder, but for some reason Sir Charles saw something in him worth caring about.

“Listen… there’s nothing you or I can say that’ll undo what’s been done, and I know you know that,” Chuck stated, “but giving yourself such a hard time when it’s over and you’re doing everything you can to help is only gonna get yourself hurt.”

“But there’s always more I could be doing!” Snively retorted, “I could be helping so much more, I could get so much more done for the Brain Trust if I’d just stop being so selfish an—”

Chuck grabbed Snively’s shoulders.

“Needing to eat and sleep isn’t being selfish, Snively, it just means you’re alive.”

Sighing, Snively’s gaze went back down to the floor.

“One day you’re gonna wake up and you’ll be able to think about other things besides what happened, or how responsible you were for it happening. You’ll smile, you’ll laugh, and you’ll even get to cry about other things besides this.

“Your story isn’t over just yet, son, and only you get to decide how this chapter of it ends.”

Looking back up at the man, Snively’s expression had lifted somewhat, though he bitterly responded, “Those words should be going to someone better than me…”

“Tch! Well, Snively, they’re my words and I get to decide who deserves them,” the old hedgehog chuckled, gently punching him in the shoulder. “Now c’mon, let’s see what else we can get done before we call it a night - gotta make sure we’re ready next time the doctor comes knocking, don’t we?”

A most unlikely of smiles intruded upon Snively’s face. “Yes, let’s, erm… do it to it, as your nephew loves to say.”

“Attaboy,” Chuck replied, as they both resumed their work, grinning while shaking his head at how awkwardly those words rolled off his colleague’s tongue.

Perhaps there was value after all in what time he had, Snively thought. Perhaps, even if he couldn’t rewrite the way it went, he could find a better ending for everyone he had let down before… including himself.

The End

Author’s Notes: Hiiiii I wrote a sad story with a happy-ish ending! Which could’ve been a metaphor for Snively’s story, IF THEY HAD ANY SENSE! But oh well.

I like Snively, and I like some of the plans that they had for him before the big change in Issue #160. I really wish he could’ve gotten better and maybe even been given a little sympathy after all he's been through, so I wrote this! Thanks for reading!

Also, the Uncle Chuck story “Forgiven” from Issue #112 of Archie Sonic was kind of in the back of my mind as I wrote all this, so I’d recommend reading that if you want all the context for this fic.