This might confuse a lot of you (though I hope it doesn't). When I get to rambling on Paradoxes, I tend to get a little unorthodox and confusing. If you have any questions, tell me in the review.

--

"You ready to go, little buddy?" Sonic asked his two-tailed friend.

Tails, giving him his biggest smile, nodded as he stood by his adopted older brother's side. "You bet, Sonic. Let's go!" With that, Sonic lifted Tails up onto his back and took off at abnormal speeds.

You see, they had just heard a loud explosion come from a, luckily, deserted area. They no doubtly knew that it had to have something to do with Eggman.

As they neared the site of the explosion, Sonic stopped and let Tails off his back.

"This would've been a lot easier with the X-Tornado," Sonic joked.

Tails rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, Sonic, I'm not quite done fixing it up yet after that last battle with Eggman. That robot of his tore it up pretty bad,"

"It's alright, lil' bro. Now how about we check out what made that explosion earlier?" Sonic crept forward slowly, the yellow fox directly behind him. As they got closer, they spotted smoke clouding off the area. It was impossible to see through the thick haze.

"You stay here, I'm gonna go get a better look," The blue hedgehog whispered. Tails nodded and Sonic sped forward cautiously and disappeared almost immediately in the smoke.

Tails huddled behind the bush he was hiding behind. For some reason he had an overwhelming sense of dread. Something bad was going to happen.

And it was going to happen very soon.

He shook any oddly depressing thoughts from his mind—though the feeling outright refused to leave his senses—and squinted through the smoke, wishing Sonic would return soon so they could leave. He really didn't want to stay here any longer.

Suddenly, he heard a loud cry of pain and instantly recognized it. "Sonic!!" Tails leapt up and ran absent-mindedly through the smoke to find his best friend.

"cough Sonic? Sonic where are you?" Tails asked with his hand gripped over his face to protect himself from the fumes of the smoke. His eyes were starting to water up from it, but he refused to leave until he found Sonic. "Sonic, where are you!"

That's when he heard a loud clank from behind him. Like the sound of metal hitting metal. He spun around immediately. It was impossible for him to see through the smoke, but he could make out a vague figure of what looked to be…

"Sonic!" Tails smiled and ran up to him happily. "I thought you were—" Something was wrong. He had grabbed what he had believed to be Sonic in a strong embrace, but stopped immediately. His fur wasn't warm like it usually was—like living beings were; it was cold. So very cold.

Tails broke the hug and immediately stepped back. "cough S-Sonic is…t-that you?"

The figure remained silent and merely took a dangerous step forward.

"S-sonic… Are you okay?" Another step forward for the figure, another step back for the fox. "Sonic, y-you're scaring me…" Two more steps. Tails didn't move this time. "Say something!"

By now, the figure was standing directly in front of the deathly scared fox. The feeling in the pit of his unconscious returned. The feeling of absolute dread. The feeling of death.

The smoke began to clear slightly—just slightly. As it cleared away, Tails stared at the figure in shock. He knew exactly who he was. And he certainly was not Sonic.

The frightened kit backed away some, then turned to run. As soon as he turned, he once again came face-to-face with none other than the speedy, evil, robotic-double that is Metal Sonic.

Tails turned to run again, even though he knew it was futile, but stopped at hearing the metal hedgehog speak.

"Don't you want to know where your friend is?" The robot's voice was completely monotone and emotionless.

Tails instantly turned around and stared at the robot directly in its eyes. "Where's Sonic?"

"He is momentarily incapacitated. For now you are the bigger threat. Therefore, I will defeat you first."

Tails was frozen. Not only in fear but in resistance. He somehow knew how this was going to end and somewhere deep inside him he accepted it. Unwillingly, of course. He merely stood there and watched as Metal shot forward like a bullet and struck him in the gut, sending him flying a few yards across the explosion field.

Tails shakily stood up, holding his stomach with a pained look on his face.

Metal walked slowly towards him and stopped about three yards away. "You are weak. This should be over quickly…"

--

Meanwhile, Sonic stood up weakly. As soon as he stood, pain wracked through his body but he knew he couldn't fall down again, for fear he may never make it back up. He refused to check himself out in case it made him think that this situation was even more hopeless.

"One shot… I had him… Dammit…" Sonic groaned as he once again tried to stabilize himself as he peeked around through the thick smoke. "Now where'd he go…"

"Ahhhh!!"

Sonic's eyes shot wide open and he instantly stood up straight, pain momentarily forgotten. "Tails!!" He ran forward to the source of the scream.

The yellow fox was lying in a bloody heap. Metal had him slung over his arm as he examined his weak form.

"You were so frail… So small… So easy to beat," Metal mumbled.

"Metal! Leave Tails alone!" Metal turned around slowly to see his arch-competitor. He lifted up the fox's barely breathing form.

"You meant his subject?"

"Yeah. Now let him go…Metal!" Sonic had to gasp out that last word as the pain returned to him seemingly ten-fold. He overdid it a little. If he just hadn't tried out that risky move a few moments ago…then he probably wouldn't be in this predicament.

"You are weak and your words are strained. You and this fox are defeated,"

"Not yet we're not!" Sonic began to charge forward, mustering up his last bit of strength.

"If you take one step, I will kill the fox," Metal warned, lifted up Tails' body. But it was too late; Sonic was already closing in on him with his spinning ball attack. Even if he wanted to stop, he couldn't have.

If only he would've thought before he leaped…

In a split second, Metal whipped his arm out at a lightning pace from Tails' body. His arm had turned into a sharp blade that sliced open Tails' stomach. He dropped to the ground with a gasp. Sonic bashed into Metal roughly, knocking him back a ways.

"TAILS!!"

Sonic immediately disregarded the danger he was obviously in to drop to his little buddy's side. He turned him over and tears sprung to his eyes at the sight of him.

Tails was a bloody mess and his young face was twisted with pain and agony. As he tried to speak, he ended up coughing up blood all over Sonic, but the hedgehog didn't care.

"Don't talk, Tails…"

"S-Sonic…please don't cry… It's o-okay,"

"Sshh… Tails, you're right. It is okay. It'll all be fine. We'll get you fixed up and you'll be fine in a few weeks,"

"No, Sonic… I knew I was going to die… I l-love you, big brother… Good-bye S-sonic…" With that on his last living breath, Tails' eyelids closed and his breathing instantly stopped. Sonic was breathless as he watched his adopted brother died swiftly in his hands. His tears dripped freely down his cheeks as he hugged him.

Time seemed to stop for him. He didn't care who was watching him cry his eyes out over his little buddy or if his life could very well be in serious danger due to the killer of his brother still being alive and watching this scene. All he cared about now was that his brother was dead. And it was his entire fault.

Metal slowly made his way over to the weeping hedgehog and the dead body of his former opponent. He stared down at them emotionlessly before Sonic spoke, slightly catching him off-guard.

"It's my fault…" Sonic sobbed quietly to no one in particular.

"Why do you say this, hedgehog? I was the one who killed him," Metal spoke.

"Because if I hadn't tried to use that stupid head-on attack earlier, I wouldn't have yelled and he wouldn't have come to save me. And if I hadn't charged at you before thinking, you might not have killed him and killed me instead…"

Metal paused, before continuing. "You should still be happy."

"Amuse me," Sonic stated blankly.

"You have already redirected your previous stupidities. You have already saved your friend. And you have already defeated me,"

"What are you talking about, Metal? Don't try messing with me now…"

"I'm not. Think harder, hedgehog. Think about your decisions and think about what could have happened if you didn't make them. Then, think hard,"

Sonic sat in silence for a while. He decided to try it, though he didn't know why. The non-robotic blue hedgehog stared at his dead friend through the smoke, contemplating what the robot was talking about.

That's when it hit him.

Time reversed itself.

"S-sonic…please don't cry… It's okay…"

Sonic jumped back in reverse from his spin ball attack and stood back, nodding, knowing if he went any further, Tails was sure to be killed.

"It's you!" Sonic yelled between himself and the metal version of himself that stood mere feet from him.

"Yes, hedgehog," Sonic opened his mouth to say something, but Metal stopped him by interrupting him. "If you are going to throw a rude comment at me, I want you to know that it will be useless. They have no effect on me and have no effect in making you any stronger,"

"Yeah, so what?"

"You shouldn't be wasting your time on words, instead of the fight between me, you, and the fox,"

"Fox? You mean, Tails?"

"Yes."

"What do you want with him?"

"He is second on my objective list to destroy, after you…"

Sonic gritted his teeth in anger. "Stay away from him ,you monster!"

Metal Sonic merely blinked. "Did I hit a pressure point, hedgehog?"

"Shut up!"

"I can't wait to see that fox on my deleted list… He seems so easy to defeat…"

"I said, shut the hell up!" Sonic charged forward to attack Metal head-on without even thinking about it. Time reversed and he ran backwards and stopped. He controlled himself and smirked.

"You aren't gonna get me that easily, Metal…"

Then everything remotely stopped, then sped forward with such speeds that Sonic couldn't keep track. The next thing he knew, he was standing on the grass standing over the smoky battlefield with someone standing next to him.

"Well, you ready to go, Sonic?" Tails asked.

Sonic smiled. "Sure thing, buddy. That was some fight, but we got through it, huh?" They started heading back.

"Yup! You're great, Sonic!"

"Thanks, lil' bro."

They both walked away with smiles on their faces.

Time rewound back to the original battlefield with Sonic, the dead Tails, and the undefeated Metal.

"Do you get it now?" Metal questioned.

"I think I do…" Sonic responded.

"You can't go back now, because you already have."

"I understand,"

"Good," Metal began to walk away. "Then I am done here for now…" He sped away within a blink of an eye.

His voice could still be heard as he ran far away to Sonic's advanced ears.

"Either way, you'll still be happy…"

And a smile was found on Sonic's face.