The five metre tall red robot gave a loud groan and shudder as it crashed down onto its knees, right in front of a Mobian chipmunk and fox. Both remained stoic as the metal machine spat out clouds of smoke, instead clearly focused on something else.

The machine gave one last dramatic stutter before a spiky blue ball erupted from its chest, causing a heap of metal and oil to come gushing out. The expressions on the chipmunk and fox broke out into relief as the blue ball unravelled to reveal an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog.

"Sup Sal, Tails. Miss me already?"

"Ha, Ha" the female chipmunk laughed sarcastically and rolled her eyes whilst the male fox stepped forward and high-fived the hedgehog.

"So what took you so long?" asked the chipmunk called Sal, or Sally, curiously as the hedgehog dusted himself off. He grinned cheerfully as he produced a blue gemstone from behind. The female chipmunk's eyes widened in shock as she slowly took the object from his hands.

"I was getting milady a nice gift". He yelped slightly as she playfully punched him in the arm.

"Aww…you shouldn't have" Sally's eyes turned serious as she directed her attention to shattered body of the robot. "Still-what in the world is a Chaos Emerald doing here Sonic?"

"Heck if I know Sal" replied Sonic as he stretched his back and sat down on the hill that they both stood upon. "Though when I was in that thing-"

He pointed to the hull of the robot, which Tails currently was poking through. "-seemed like the machine had the emerald hooked onto it"

"Oh?" She eye-levelled with the blue hue of the emerald and stared into its centre. "Think it's a fake?"

"Could be for all we know" shrugged Sonic nonchalantly as he lounged in the sun. "We can't know until Rotor looks at it. Then again it's not like we've never dealt with fakes before"

"When have we've ever dealt with fakes?" asked Sally curiously. She noticed his shoulders tense up slightly.

"You know…in the old world" replied the blue speedster sadly. Sally herself felt slightly nostalgic as she remembered the world before.

"Oh…yeah"

The two of them stayed silent as they watched Tails strip the robot for technology like a kid in a candy store. Sally herself sat down next to Sonic and slowly reached out to touch Sonic's hand, flinching slightly when he caught on to what she was doing and quickly retracted his gloved hand.

"Sorry…"she said meekly while he mere grunted in response. It has been a year since they've defeated Dark Gaia with the help of Chip. And in the year that followed, each of the Freedom Fighters have been juggling with their memories from the old world. Some struggled, but most eventually found solace.

Antoine, despite being quite frightened that he nearly died in the old world, quickly bounced back to being his pompous yet caring self. Though maybe he needed a few shots of Bunnie's family whiskey to get proper motivation.

Sadly the same cannot be the same for his wife Bunnie.

Bunnie had to acknowledge the removal of her uncle Beauregard from the universe, the last living blood relative of her family, as well as the gut-wrenching fact that she once had her organic limbs restored. While the cyborg parts did grant her immense strength and abilities, they denied her the possibility of ever having a child with Antoine. The fact that she had a chance and that this was snuffed away by the Genesis Wave drove her really down the bottle. Only by Antoine's constant insistence that everything would be fine and his immense love for, did she eventually recover.

Rotor Walrus, whilst rather neutral about the different role his father has in the new world, came into appreciation that at least he still had a blood relative, albeit a servant of Eggman. He remained convinced that his father could be persuaded back and instead indulges his time into the Sky Patrol.

Nicole had to deal with a lot of conflicting data from her memory banks, a lot of her records on the old world remained and it took her quite a while to get them back in order. She's now working on a pet project involving A.D.A.M's nanites just like she did in the old world.

Amy is still...well Amy. She of course still pursues Sonic but not as desperately as before. Over the years she's matured into a fine young lady and now she acts as the Mobotropolis Freedom Fighter's contact with other Freedom Cells. In fact it was because of her that they were able to connect with many friends they thought they lost.

Tails was slightly traumatized by his recollection but quickly recovered. Course he did feel slightly depressed by his parent's removal from the new world but he relative remained as the cheery boy they grew to love. He of course spends a lot of his time as an assistant to Rotor.

But the ones that suffered the most were Sally and Sonic.

Sally was quite relieved to find that the only remnant of her family wasn't just her father, but her brother as well. While she may have lost her mother in the new world, her brother Elias was quite well and alive. Turns out he was out of country when Mobotropolis first fell to Eggman and changed his name to hide himself from any heat. Sally reconnected with him a few months after Dark Gaia and was surprised to see he was happily working as a lawyer. Elias, now dubbed 'Elijah', was genuinely happy to see his little sister grow up though he refused to return to Castle Acorn and instead remained in Station Square with his partner Megan. Not at all a problem to Sally who rather liked the change in Elias's personality.

However Sally had bigger problems, the realisation that she was roboticized and attacked her friends tore her to bits ever night she went to bed. Worst still was her failed relationship with Sonic in the old world which was currently throwing a huge wrench in their current relationship.

Sonic lamented over his parent's removal just like Tails did, but the one thing that heavily scarred him was the relationship he had with Sally. He wholeheartedly blamed himself for her suffering and despite her reassurance that it was okay, he continued to knock himself down because of it. As such, the moments between the two became extremely awkward, especially when she made advances and he'd abruptly refused them.

"All done pal?" tails cheerfully nodded to Sonic as he struggled to keep the pile of metallic knick-knacks from spilling out of his arms. Sally smiled lightly as she ruffled the fur on his head, laughing slightly when he tried to pull back and dropped a few of the things in his arms.

"Ohhh! Rotor's here!" The Mobian fox dropped all of the machines in his hands (much to the dismay of the other two) to wave enthusiastically at the Sky Patrol breaking through the clouds.

The Sky Patrol was the child of Rotor's genius hands, a granted addition to the Freedom Fighters arsenal. Besides everyone agrees that it's kind of cool and intimidating to a see an airship looming over them.

"Rotor's here eh?" said Sonic as he noticed the massive hulk of floating metal flash a signal back in their direction.

"Yeah…" Sally didn't mention it but she felt slightly disappointed that the moment of peace they had was disturbed.

"Well. Let's get going then" Sonic pushed himself up and held a hand out to Sally.
"Coming?"

Sally stared at his hand for a moment with disbelief. To her, this hedgehog remains a puzzling enigma. One moment he acts all serious and in another moment he returns to the joke-cracking male that she so fondly remembers. She scanned his eyes, checking to see if he was fooling with her.

"Thanks Sonic" She reached up, feeling content as he holstered her up. As the two of them walked side by side to the airship, (Tails already ran ahead) Sally couldn't help by feel slightly satisfied.

Sure the world as they knew it is long gone now and the many people they once knew along with it.

But it was only the original Freedom Fighters that remembers that. Best it be kept that way.

Besides, if this is all the trouble they will have for a while. How much worst can it get?

Author Notes:

I decided to have another crack at a Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic. Mostly the Archie Series as the world that the comics created is so rich in detail and lore that I really think that the SEGA Sonic should incorporate some aspects of it.

Archie Sonic in particular delves into the actually war between Eggman and the world in much more details than the games. I always loved how the comics incorporates dark themes because honestly, war is dark and depressing. The games have always been too colourful and cheery for my taste anyways.

Now the fanfic I'm doing is set one year after the events of Dark Gaia and is set Post Super Genesis Wave. Kind of sad that some many beloved characters were removed but then again there have been many new and interesting characters added.

However some characters, I believed anyways, play too much of a big role to be simply removed. E.g. Elias. That's why I'm returning some of these characters into the new world, though their roles and personalities may be slightly different to ensure there is no overlapping of lore.

As for why I'm putting A.D.A.M in my story? That's something for next time.