Chapter One

The Future

Silver the Hedgehog shivered in his sleep and pulled his blanket tighter around his body, curling into a fetal position. He opened his eyes slowly and saw his breath as little puffs of fog. The cold was so intense that he thought his very bones would turn to ice. He gasped in fear as he suddenly realized the last time he felt such cold and rolled over onto his back. Hovering above his bed was a black, wispy cloud. Silver screamed.

"Silvy, my dear, what is it? Did you have a nightmare?" said the cloud.

"Mephiles!"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing here? Why are you calling me Silvy?" Silver got out of bed and began backing towards the door.

Mephiles laughed and descended to the ground, morphing into his solid form. "I call you that because I love you. And as for why I'm here, I live here, you silly thing." His red slitted eyes sparkled with amusement. "You're funny, Silver!"

"I don't know what kind of trick you're trying to pull—-"

"Trick? Why would I trick you?"

"Because you've done it before!"

Mephiles tilted his head to one side, staring at Silver, then sighed. "I thought we talked about this already, Silvy. I don't do that type of thing any more. Not since I fell in love with you." He smiled.

Silver scooted further towards the door. Thinking it was the safest thing to do, the hedgehog feigned a smile of understanding and nodded. "Uh...yeah. Why were you in my room watching me?"

Mephiles' face lit up with excitement. "Oh Silvy, I have the greatest news. I couldn't wait for you to wake up so I could tell you."

"So you were staring at me until I woke up?" Silver reached for the doorknob and Mephiles nodded. The thought of Mephiles the Dark watching him while he slept sent shivers down his spine. "Fine. Tell me. What is it?"

"I'm pregnant!"

"What?" Silver's hand dropped to his side. "That's not possible! You're a man!"

Mephiles laughed. "I'm a god. I can make anything happen. Besides, I thought you said that you wanted to raise a baby with me. You do, don't you? You haven't changed your mind?" He looked on the verge of tears.

Silver was astonished. Mephiles was quite insane, that was for sure, but it was the "I'm going to burn up every living thing on the planet" type of insanity, not this. Silver noticed that Mephiles's eyes looked empty, as if he were in a trance, and understood. It had gotten to him, too. All the people who had changed had that look, those strange alien eyes. Tears ran down Mephiles's cheeks.

"Uh, Mephiles, don't cry. Why don't you go to the bathroom and wipe your face off?" Mephiles walked away to the bathroom and Silver could hear him blowing his nose.

Silver hurriedly put on his boots and opened the front door. Hearing it squeak, Mephiles came out of the bathroom. "Silvy, are you going to school already?" His face was still wet from crying.

"School?" Silver remembered that today was his first day of high school. How could he have forgotten? "Uh, yeah, I'm going to school."

"Without eating breakfast? And without your backpack?"

"I don't want breakfast. I'm not hungry. And as for the backpack, um, I forgot?"

Mephiles look at him suspiciously. "If I didn't know better, I would think that you're trying to avoid me, Silver." Silver saw a glimmer of Mephiles's old malice burning in his eyes and felt a bolt of fear go through his heart. However, that look quickly disappeared and his eyes returned to that dull, lifeless appearance. "But I trust you enough to know that you wouldn't do that. If something was wrong, you would talk to me, right?"

"Uh...sure..."

Mephiles smiled. "I thought so." He picked up Silver's backpack, which was leaning against the sofa, and gave it to him. "Have a fun first day of school!" Silver took it from him slowly, staring at Mephiles in disbelief. This is not happening to me, he thought.

Silver walked to school slowly, deep in thought. Some mysterious force had been changing his world, warping it until it was no longer recognizable. He had watched Mobius start changing suddenly, and it was driving him mad that he couldn't figure out the source of this horror. As he passed a pasture that a yesterday had held dairy cows and today held purple unicorns, he pondered on how for the last few months not only was the planet itself changing, but so were the people themselves, one by one, transforming into a vague shell of their former selves until they were only recognizable by name. It was like that movie he had watched with Tails last week, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Silver arrived at school and went to his first class, Mobian History I. He was one of the first people here, and he sat quietly in the front row, wondering if anyone he knew would be in his class. He soon regretted thinking that. Shadow walked into the room, headphones blaring, and took a seat next to Silver. "Shadow?"

Shadow looked at him, frowned, and pulled the earbuds out of his ears. "What?"

"What are you...are you...why...how..."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"You are in my class?"

"Like, duh."

"Why? Aren't you way too old to be in high school?"

Shadow looked at him as if he were speaking complete nonsense. "I got a letter from the government that said I had to go to school because I've never been."

"And you just went?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't have a fit?"

"No, why would I?"

"Because you like to say that no one can tell you what to do?"

"That was the old me, Silver. I'm different now. He changed me." A dreamy, far-off look clouded Shadow's eyes and he sighed. "Oh, how I love him. He's so good to me. He gave me this yesterday, you know." Shadow lifted up his iPod, then rubbed its black slick surface with his index finger. "Ooh, I like it. It's so shiny." He put the headphones back in his ears.

"Dear Solaris, it's gotten him, too," Silver muttered, burying his face in his hands.

He heard a familiar voice say, "Dad said that I couldn't go to Knuckles's party because there would be drinking. Omigod, he is so strict and it's totally ruining my social life." It was Tikal, followed by Shade.

Silver's eyes grew wide as he watched Tikal walk across the classroom, her hips swaying seductively and her nose held haughtily into the air. No longer in her tribal garb, she was wearing designer clothing that was way out of the price range of most. The boys in the class temporarily stopped whatever they were doing to gawk at her. Noticing Silver's wide-eyed stare, she stopped at his desk and looked down her nose at him. "What?"

Silver tried to think of a way to say, "Why are you not dead?" without sounding silly, but couldn't and muttered a bunch of gibberish instead.

Tikal rolled her eyes. "Come on, Shade. Let's find our seats, away from this peasant. He might have fleas."

Shade followed her and then glanced back at Silver quickly, giggling. "I think he likes you!"

"He and every other guy," she said. Her voice became a whisper. "Besides, he's taken. He likes Mephiles," she said, dragging out Mephiles's name with disgust.

"So? He could still like you, too. You don't have to have just one person, you know."

"Ew, Shade, that's so gross and slutty."

"It is not!" Tikal and Shade became so preoccupied in their argument that they didn't see what happened next. The sound of clanking metal approached the room. Thinking that it was a swatbot, Silver jumped to his feet and clenched his fists, ready for battle. However, it was only Omega.

He surveyed the room. "Silence monotreme females. It is time for class to commence." Embarrassed, Shade quickly sat down; Tikal gave him a dirty look but obeyed. "Burrowing forest creature, sit in your chair." Silver looked around before deciding that Omega was talking to him and sat down. A few students snickered.

Silver couldn't pay attention to Omega's lecture. His mind was too preoccupied with the worst and most bizarre day of his life. Things couldn't possibly get more ridiculous, could they? He heard Omega mention something about the Great Interdimensional Merge of 3021, which caught his attention. His ears perked up and he leaned forward as Omega described how various versions of Mobius had melded together. Why had he never heard of something as drastic as this? The lecture then moved onto the War of Green Hill Zone and Silver grew bored since he had heard of this subject numerous times before. He gazed intently at the clock, willing it to go faster. This was the slowest hour of his life. Finally the bell rang.

Silver hopped out of his chair and approached Omega. "Omega, why are you teaching school?"

"I was forced by G.U.N. They captured me and changed my directive. Old directive: destroy Eggman robots. New directive: teach adolescent Mobians. I must obey my directive." He watched Shadow walk out of the classroom, humming Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" to himself while listening to his iPod. "White hedgehog, I do not like the new Shadow. Perhaps someone has rewrote his programming. Shadow was my friend, but now Shadow never speaks to me"

"So you noticed that he changed, too?"

"Affirmative. Lots of the sentient organic lifeforms have become different."

Silver nodded excitedly. He thought that he was the only one who had noticed this. "Do you know why this is happening?"

"Negative. I do have a suspicion of when this began."

"You do?"

"Affirmative: the Great Interdimensional Merge of 3021. Beings not belonging to our reality began to appear at the same time as a product of a spacetime distortion. Beings deceased two hundred years ago were resurrected in our time. Mobius continued to distort. Now organic creatures are distorting."

"So you think whatever caused this merge thing is changing the people, too?"

"Affirmative."

"Where did it start?"

"Mobius Theta. Mobius Sigma merged with Theta, and then Beta merged with Theta, and then Epsilon with Theta, and then Alpha with Theta and--"

"Okay, so basically everything melted into this Mobius Theta?"

"Affirmative."

Already a plan was forming in Silver's head. "What is this Mobius Theta like?"

"You and I do not exist in Mobius Theta. Eggman has a dictatorship over Mobius Theta, and Sonic the Hedgehog has built a resistance force in a secret village called Knothole with one Princess Sally Alicia Acorn..."

Silver listened with rapt attention and left, thanking Omega. The rest of the school day dragged on tortuously slow. Silver walked home from school and opened his front door only to see Mephiles. With a yelp of surprise, he slammed the door shut and ran. He had forgotten all about Mephiles as he had been preoccupied with reviewing his idea of getting to Mobius Theta.

Silver ran as fast as he could; Mephiles stepped out of the house and shouted, "Silver the Hedgehog! Now I know that you're avoiding me! I'm going to find you and we will talk about this!"

-----

Silver landed on the Floating Island, gasping. Never before had he flown or ran so fast. He sat down on a moss covered log for a few minutes to catch his breath, then continued on. He reached the Mystic Ruins and his jaw dropped open in disbelief. Where Chaos's temple once stood was a Catholic church. Silver could hear chanting coming from inside.

Chaos materialized in front of him. "Chaos! I'm so glad to see you! What happened to your temple?"

Chaos looked confused. "My temple?"

"Yes, your temple. It was right there, and now that is there," said Silver, pointing.

Chaos looked over his shoulder at the Church. "Oh, that. It's been there for six months. You don't come here often, do you?"

"Why? Why is the temple gone?"

Chaos sighed. "Silver, I realized that I'm a false god. I feel so horrible for misleading the humans and furries with my delusions of grandeur. That's all it was, you know, delusions of grandeur. I've felt so guilty, but I've finally worked up the courage to go to confession. Have you seen Mephiles? He should go with me. Enerjak is the priest. He's seen the error of his ways, too."

Silver felt sick at his stomach. It had gotten to Chaos, too. "Actually, I have and---"

"Silvy!" Silver cringed and turned around. It was Mephiles. He put his hands on his hips. "Why are you avoiding me and running away, Silvy? It's the baby; I know it is. We can talk this out. You don't have to act so childish."

"Baby?" said Chaos.

Mephiles' annoyance disappeared and his face lit up. "I suppose I should go ahead and tell you. We're having a baby!"

Chaos clapped his three-fingered hands together and did a little jump, squealing like teenage girl. Silver winced in disgust. "That's so exciting! Do you want a boy or a girl? Have you thought of any names yet?" he said quickly, the words running together.

Mephiles laughed. "Chaos, I just found out that I'm pregnant. I haven't thought about those things yet."

"Oh." Chaos looked down at the ground and shuffled his feet nervously. He was trying to work up the courage to tell Mephiles his secret. It was now or never. Mephiles would find out soon any way, and it would probably be better to just tell him now.

Seeing Chaos's anxiety, Mephiles asked, "What is it?"

After a long silence, Chaos said, "I've been meaning to tell you something."

"What?" Chaos's reply was so soft that Mephiles had to ask him to repeat himself.

"I have a crush on Iblis," Chaos spat out. There! He had said it! He sent a nervous glance towards Mephiles, not knowing how the god of time would react.

"That's wonderful!" he said.

"You're not upset?"

"No! Why would I be?"

Chaos breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought it might be weird, you know. After all, Iblis is your other aspect. It would be so weird to date my best friend's other half."

Mephiles blinked, not understanding what he was talking about. "No, Chaos, it's great, really. You're perfect for each other." He caught a glimpse of Silver out of the corner of his eye. His skin was pale, as if he had seen a ghost. What was wrong with him today?

"You think so?"

Mephiles nodded. "You would be great together because opposites attract, and you're opposites! He's made of fire and you're made of water---"

"But that's the problem!" said Chaos, throwing up his hands. "I can't even touch him without getting hurt! What are we going to do?"

Mephiles smiled broadly. "I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that everything will work out in the end for true love. You can find the answer."

Silver decided that he had had enough. He felt like he was going to vomit. He didn't which was worse: the new versions of Chaos and Mephiles, or the old fastidious ones who liked to smite anyone who crossed them with fire and brimstone. While Mephiles continued his conversation with Chaos, he slowly back away into the cover of a thicket of brush, then ran as fast as his feet would carry him.

----

Silver arrived in the ancient ruins and walked to the familiar megalith. With a flick of his wrist, he levitated the stone upwards and to the side, setting it gently on the ground. He bent down and lifted up a shale flagstone, revealing a rickety wooden box hidden beneath. He opened the lid carefully and sighed with relief. They were still here. No one had discovered his secret hiding place. He gathered the seven time stones into his arms and closed his eyes. He would fix it all. Everything would be okay. "Great time stones! Take me back to the time and place where all our sorrows began! Back before Mobius began warping into this nightmare!" The stones glowed dimly at first, and with burst of energy they emitted a blinding light, and they, along with Silver, vanished.