A/N: Ending spoilers for Sonic Generations.

Respected characters belong to their respected owners, respectively.

Where The Long Road Goes

by QuinKylar

Prologue

The Walker

- 0:0:0:4:24.

Four hours. Four hours. To think all this will end where it all began.

Four hours, twenty-three minutes.

I've waited this long, four hours is nothing.

I mean, all I gotta do is sit through the Time Eater event and the rest of the party and then

Well, that's where the Zero Mark is. 0-0-0-0-0-0.

I'm not entirely sure what I should be feeling. Should I be anxious? Should I be calm? Should I be breaking out into tears because this is the first time I can talk to my friends in six years?

I don't have all the pages with me right now in my little tree—I'm camped out right above the party. They shouldn't see me in the upper part of the branches and there's enough of a wind to mask my scribbling but…

I've filled… what, seven-twelve notebooks over the years? Seven-twelve notebooks with this being the last in the series. Funny, I still got about twenty pages left in the thing; I really don't plan on filling those… not if I can help it.

I'll be honest. Every so often, usually once a month, I read them all from the start. Yesterday was spent just reading through the hundreds of pages.

All day, steaming at myself for being so dense, so stupid. Proud of myself when I pushed through the shock and horror of it all. Remembering so much and reliving it all again. Everything went in the journals for the sake of sanity coming out of it.

I've come far, I think. I mean, it worked. I made it. Okay, sure. It's another hour to the party and when the Time Eater first shows up and another three after they all get back until Zero Mark. But then I'll finally be able to see what happened for myself.

The Long Road of time will be over, and I walked every meter of it.

I'm not angry with what happened. I'm not blaming anyone—it's not like anyone could do anything about it. Okay, I know I've been over that dozens of times over the pages. I just feel inclined on wrapping everything up in this one.

I mean… it's over.

It's the beginning of the end: nine figures just walked over the hill.

Six years ago…. it's finally here. Party time.

- 0:0:0:3:31.

It's hilarious. All this time I was up here, knowing what will happen and no one bothered looking up to check the tree. Not a single one of them looked up.

Instead. Set up the table; deploy the cake, the silverware, the plates, the napkins; hand out the party-poppers; off he goes to lead Sonic over here.

It's a waiting game. It's always a waiting game.

I am shivering, I'm excited, I'm terrified. I've been waiting for this for a long, long time and the only thing that stands in the way is a temporal monstrosity. Nothing major, Sonic defeated it last time and the two of them can do it again.

I just realized something. After Zero Mark… I don't know what's going to happen. After six years of knowing how everything played out—globally, of course—it all lead up to this moment. After Zero passes, I have no idea what's going to happen next.

I'm getting an odd feeling of terrified respite in the idea. I've made fortunes knowing the stock market and lost most of them trying to cheat time only to fail; I've saved lives by evac'ing areas hit by Eggman, Perfect Chaos, the ARK, the Moon Meteorites, Black Arms; I watched everything happen from the safest and most secluded spot, silently screaming as watching was the only damn thing I could do.

It ends at Zero and Zero is in

Here they come….

This is horrifying. Thank god, this is horrifying.

+0:0:0:1:08

4:45 PM.

With my friends around me, I write this last note.

My name is Miles "Tails" Prower.

Today, I was attending my best friend's eighteenth birthday party. During it, a temporal monster attacked and, during the following events, Sonic and I met past-versions of ourselves from six years ago—when I was six and he was twelve himself.

With both Sonics teaming up, they defeated the monster and space-time returned to normal. We continued the birthday party, plus two special guests. When it came time for them to leave to their own time, the tem—time portal blinked and sucked me through to the time of old.

After my first instincts of trying to find past Sonic (and myself), I created a temporal paradox that brought the Eggman of old from the void he was stuck in and wiped the memories of him and our past selves of the entire Time Eater event.

Six years later, here I am again, attending the same birthday party. Only I'm eighteen now and, legally, Miles Prowler—something Sonic can't stop laughing over. I'll be changing it back before long.

Six years later, I'm finally among friends. I can finally go home and sleep in the bed I only left this morning. And lastly, I'm finally getting some of that cake

"Oh, my goodness, isn't he adorable?"

Miles jumped, snapping his journal shut as he looked up. An elderly lady had taken the seat across from him on the train while he was absorbed reading his journal.

"Oh, he's just precious," She continued, leaning over to see the sleeping kit on Miles' lap. She looked up at him, if age was directly proportional to the lines on one's face, the old bat had to be a few hundred years old. "What's his name?"

"….um… Skye, his name's Skye. He's… uh, my little brother," Miles said, slowly at first. He ruffled Skye's headfur.

The little fox responded by swatting his hand away, shifting a little bit.

"Oh, he's just the sweetest thing," The old lady cooed, sitting back and reaching into her bag. Miles quickly rolled his eyes, his lip bit with a silent groan at himself. The lady pulled out a pair of crocheting needles, a square of crocheted yarn, and the yarn ball it was still attached to. She looked up at them, "I'm… oh—oh! I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting him to have two tails!"

"Um, y—yes. We, uh. We both do." Miles moved his into view.

"Would you look at that…. You know, I wasn't aware that Tails had family," she said casually as the needles started to loop the yarn onto the square. "Poor child."

Miles hesitated.

"…we're… cousins of his."

He bit his tongue and mentally cursed himself for the hole he was digging himself into.

She glanced up over her bifocals, "Oh, but you look just like him—both of you do."

"Er, that's… it get's…" Miles sighed. "Alright, let's try it this way. Our dad was Tails' uncle—his father's identical twin brother. Tails' mother also had a identical twin sister and…" Miles shook his head. "Except our parents met first and Tails' met through ours and it's a kinda a long story."

"Hmm love is strange, young man. But that means you're genetically identical to him, then."

"That's… an odd thing to say," Miles suddenly felt like his fur was being rubbed the wrong way. "…I—"

"Oh, ignore this old bag of bones," She laughed, waving dismissively. "I think of the strangest things sometimes and it just comes out before I can stop myself. My son thinks I'm fading but I've got enough kick in me to rip him a new one! " She laughed and held up the square, tilting it several times. "Does this look square to you?"

"Two more on the left and it will be."

"Eh, it's fine," She waved dismissively and started to finish the square. "I still need to edge the things. I still need twelve more for a quilt for the grandkids. I plan on it being a birthday gift for one of them but all kids want these days are those videogames." She sighed and put down everything. "You know, I've got a question for your cousin."

"Uh, we haven't talked in a long… he barely remembered me when I finally got a hold of him. I… don't know what happened to his parents but we… lost ours in the Black Arms attack. When we finally heard that our cuz was a hero we figured it'd be good to get in contact with him but… it's taken me this long to get enough together to get over here."

The lady's face fell, "I'm sorry to hear that…?"

"…Myles—with a 'y.' Don't ask, we're not too sure why our uncle named Tails 'Miles' as well. But… well…"

"Well, family is family. Tails has a good heart and is sure to help you both out."

Skye shifted again, burying his muzzle into one of Miles' tails.

"Yeah well… as much as I hate to admit it, that's the plan." He pulled his other tail over Skye. He nodded at the tike, "The little guy idolizes both of us—we had our reunion at Sonic's birthday party. He insisted on it. It was the best day we've had in a long while…" he drifted off as the train slowed.

"Now arriving at: Westopolis," The PA announced.

The old lady stood up, "Well, here's my stop. It's been wonderful talking to you, Myles. I hope your little reunion goes well. Maybe we'll be seeing you on these newspapers as well." She started laughing, "You know, maybe I'll send you the quilt for the little one."

Miles laughed himself, shaking his head, "No, that's not necessary, but thanks. But, uh, what was that question you wanted me to relay…?"

"Oh, it's… well, I lived here in Westopolis since I was your age. My little home stood through everything…. I was here for the Black Arms attacks and… it was terrifying." She shook her head and shuddered. "And then there's that Doctor Eggman and his attacks every so often. And his amusement park thing—I actually wanted to go there but now… well."

The station pulled up outside.

The lady picked up her things, "I just want to know. …many of us want to know… with Sonic and all his friends… why don't they put an end to all of it—make sure that that lousy Eggman won't attack again."

The doors opened.

"I've lived a good, long, blessed life, Myles," She said, a sadness in her eyes, "But I worry for my grandkids. All they want is the latest videogame. But they're growing up in such a violent and dangerous world and I can't do much but make these quilts and worry…. Forget what GUN says, Tails and Sonic and their friends are the only ones we can rely on in the grand scheme of things, but why aren't they making sure they it doesn't come back…? ...maybe you can ask them all that one day. For both my grandkid's sake and little Skye's as well. Oh, listen to me ramble, I got to get moving—Thank-you, Myles. It was nice talking to you." She smiled pleasantly one last time and nodded before quickly hobbling through the closing doors.

"Now leaving: Westopolis. Next stop: Mystic Ruins."

Miles stared out the window, blinking, then slowly looked to the small fox sleeping on his lap, blissfully unaware of everything going on.

Slowly, Miles opened his journal to the very last page of the book and grabbed his pen.

I just had a talk with an old lady on the train back home. During it, I realized something.

All this time, I've been worrying about getting to today—staying sane, staying out of sight, and staying alive. I was a bystander in time with nothing to do but wait and survive until this all ended. But now that Zero Mark has passed…

I dreamed of my life snapping back to the way it was... but now I see that that's not going to happen. Life… won't go back to the way it was.

But now I know something… something that means I can't just be who I was. There's nothing much I could do about it.

The normal everyday Joe can believe that I'm a long-lost cousin of Tails with a little brother—refugees from the Black Arms attacks from some far-off land, coming to live with Tails and start a new life here.

He'll believe that Tails had disappeared on his way back from the party and that his friends and cousins are trying to find him the best they can until the time comes for them to stop.

But. He will not believe that I'm really him. I'm Tails—that I got stuck in a time warp and had to wait six years for the present.

He will not believe that the little fox kit sleeping in my lap is a six-year-old version of me.

No one.

I was worried so much on walking the Long Road and surviving it that I never considered where it actually went—where it actually goes.

I certainly wasn't expecting this.