Want to know what happens when I mix Alterniverse and Splintered Shadows? You get this.

172, AKA "The truth of the heart", is without a doubt my most hated story in the entirety of the comic's run, so when it came time to write the inevitable Alterniverse for it, I invited my friend Battlebrothertherix along for the ride. Like with Splintered Shadows, we alternated parts on DA, but I'm uploading all of them here, for your convenience, and ours. Still, he deserves a lot of the credit, and he's a much better writer than me, so go check his stuff out.

Hurry up!

That was the only thing on the mind of young Miles 'Tails' Prower. It was only a few minutes since he had burst into Freedom HQ, and warned Sonic, Sally, and all the others that Fiona and Amy were fighting. Sonic, being Sonic, had taken off, immediately, leaving Sally to ask Tails himself all the questions.

For once, the fox hadn't really had an answer that was favourable. His only appraisal was that the fight had started from a combination of Amy's short temper, Fiona's snarky attitude, and the fact that Fiona herself was currently dating Sonic.

Now Tails found himself having to hurry to catch up. Sally had kept him longer than he wanted, and he knew that Sonic's skill with diplomacy was, quite frankly, pathetic. It was something the blue hedgehog had always relied on Sally for, and thus had never learned to do himself. Sonic's verbal skills were limited to further aggravating his opponents until they flipped out and the argument became physical, at which point Sonic would put the other combatant on the ground in extreme pain in about five seconds.

Of course, when breaking up a catfight between his equally sarcastic girlfriend and his...jealous admirer, Sonic's brand of arguing was useless.

Soon, the clearing came into view, and he dropped, lowering himself to better see the ground below.

Empty?

Now he was worried. If they weren't there, then was the fight over? Sonic couldn't have broken it up that easily, could he? Then... who had won? Fiona was not as skilled a fighter as many liked to think. Her presence on missions was generally welcomed because of her medical skills. At the same time, Amy was not only stronger, but armed. He had seen what that hammer could do to a SWATbot, let alone a soft, squishy Mobian, and several times he had pressed the weapon to be replaced with one made from a softer material with an EMP inside it, but Amy's frenzied swings broke everything except the Megatal one she currently carried. If Fiona had taken even a single hit from that...

Tails pushed those thoughts from his mind, and swung himself around in the air. He kept low, hoping to catch sight of Fiona, or Sonic, or even Amy, just so he could find out what happened.

Soon enough, he got his answer. He saw two of them, Sonic and Fiona, standing in a clearing, with another figure, this one green. Drawing nearer, he realised that it was him, Sonic's foul counterpart, Scourge. He was standing behind Fiona, grinning, leaning on a tree. At first, Tails thought he was about to attack them, but he realised that both were aware of the hedgehog, and worse, Fiona was smiling.

It didn't take an IQ of four hundred to work out what was going on. Fiona was in a league with Scourge. She was betraying the Freedom Fighters for him. Maybe he had charmed her, maybe he had pretended to be Sonic, and by the time she found out, she was infatuated, it didn't matter. What mattered was Scourge's nature. What he became once he wasn't trying to play someone. His true nature. It all pointed to one thing- If Fiona left with Scourge, he would kill her.

He started planning. Sonic probably knew as well as Tails himself did that Fiona was unwittingly walking into the arms of her own would-be killer. However, fi there was one person Sonic couldn't fight, it was himself. Scourge had a slightly different fighting style, yes, but that was only because he had absorbed more power, and if anything, it made him more dangerous.

Amy wasn't there, which meant she was probably already on her way back to Knothole. This meant that Sonic would be getting backup, but they would only know Amy's side of of the story, and thus, would probably perceive Fiona as an enemy as well.

Reaching out mentally, he felt the warm, arcane glow of the seven, synthetic Chaos Emeralds in his backpack. He was the only fully-informed backup that Sonic would be receiving, and he would have to make it count.

He cut the motion in his namesakes, and dropped, then brought them to life again, this time spinning in the opposite direction, pushing him forward, and downward. He quickly hit his highest speed, his own natural capabilities driven further by gravity.

He curled up into a tight ball, again stopping the motion of his tails, and wrapped them around his tightly-balled form. The outward-facing edges hardened and sharpened, and he brought his entire form down on the head of Scourge the Hedgehog.

The amount of force acting on the thin body of his foe should have instantly broken his neck, but Scourge was not only a Mobian, renowned for having a far greater physical strength than a human or Overlander, but an Adept, which were generally stronger still. Being a counterpart to Sonic, Scourge was now exception. Sure, he found himself in the bottom of a rather large personal crater, the edge of which was just shy of Fiona's heels, but that didn't stop him from immediately springing to his feet and kicking Tails out of it.

The fox himself was dazed by both the impact and the blow that followed, hearing a pair of voices speaking his name, presumably Sonic and Fiona, but at the time, being unable to work it out. A fist embedded itself in his gut, but Fiona's muffled voice sounded again, saying something that sounded like 'stop'. The blows did.

Taking the opportunity, Tails shook his head, regaining his bearings. Scourge was a foot away from him, rage etched on his face, with blood running from a gash on his forehead. Fiona was leaning around the green hedgehog, her mouth hanging open with surprise at Tails' violent outburst. He had to talk to her, but first, he had to get Scourge out of the way. Thankfully, he had a target.

Fixing the wound in his stare, he realised that it was a little high to hit with his tails. He would have to bring it down to his level. Thankfully, he had a way.

"Kid, you have about ten seconds to back off or I'm gonna fucking kill you." Scourge ranted, not realising why his opponent had not spoken a word. In response, Tails sharpened both of his namesakes into razor-edges, and slashed them along the the scars in Scourge's chest. Instantly, he doubled over, pain shooting through him. Tails twisted, and used the full-turn to build momentum, before striking Scourge's head wound again, knocking him into a daze, and launching him into a nearby tree.

Tails calmed himself, and turned to Fiona, approaching her carefully.

"Fiona, please, you have to listen to me. I know that you don't 'like me' like me, but that doesn't matter right now. Stay with Sonic, or whatever, I don't mind, but don't go with Scourge! Please, don't. He'll kill you."

The vixen paused, a smug smirking creeping onto her face. It was an unnatural look for her, a twisted look for someone normally sweet and caring.

"And how do you know that? You don't know Scourge at all." She pointed out.
"You're right." Tails admitted. Fiona smirked. "But I know Sonic. I've known Sonic all my life. Scourge is the Sonic from his world, and that world is the Anti-Zone. It's the opposite of ours, and he's the opposite of Sonic. So I know what he's going to be like. He'll kill you. He's everything you used to think that Sonic himself was."

Fiona paused, her eyes widening slightly as she ran through the idea in her mind. She lowered herself slightly, staring into Tails' eyes, trying to read his expression. He stood stock-still, making no attempt to break away, to hide anything from her. For a moment his eyes flicked to Scourge, still recovering from the strike. He had gained enough of a hold to stand and glare. Not long left.
"Come on…why would she stay?" Scourge spat, one hand wiping the blood away, but only succeeding in smearing it across his cheek. "Not like you gave any reason to."

"Do you mean apart from you? Apart from the fact even if you don't make her life a hell, then the world will kill her anyway? How kind, Scourge. How very kind, to condemn her to a slow death."
Scourge stopped. So did Fiona.
Tails watched them both, trying to understand, and then the irony of the situation hit him.
"You don't even know." The kitsune almost growled. "I thought you had Sonic's intelligence. I would have thought you would know what would happen, from your own experience."

"What is he talking about, Scourge?" Fiona asked, looking to get an answer straight from the horse, or rather hedgehog's mouth.

"A Mobian of any sort, Anti, No-Zone, Prime, whatever, is not meant to leave their own world. Our bodies, whether Adept or Normal, digest the Chaos Energy in the atmosphere, the radiation from the Chaos Emeralds, and now, Master Emerald." The golden fox cut in. He was in his element now, explaining complicated things to people. "But Scourge's world doesn't have those. They have a similar counterpart, yes, but not similar enough. Your body will break down, slowly, painfully, and you'll die. And Scourge will be getting to know what that feels like personally. He's filled his body with Chaos Energy. When his connection to the Emerald was severed, it saved his life, seemingly at the cost of his sanity. The green fur isn't just tacky dye job. It's a mutation."

"Oh."
"What're you going on about now? I swear, you're like Miles, but with no balls." Scourge muttered, causing Tails let out a sigh of exasperation, and clutched his forehead.
"And just when I thought you couldn't get less intelligent. Fiona, even if he doesn't try to kill you, he'll get you killed through sheer incompetence."
"Kid, you're dead meat." Scourge snarled.
"Bring it then."

That was enough for the green hedgehog. He wasn't the most patient kind to begin with, and he didn't like being insulted. He fired forward, hand outstretched towards Tails' throat. His plan was simple…break his neck. His target didn't have the speed to dodge at such close range, and the kitsune could at best see a green blur against a green background.

Scourge was fast. His mind was naturally tuned to making decisions fast, whether or not they were the right ones. Tails was just smart. The instant he saw Scourge move, he fell backwards, the time taken for the hedgehog to move being long enough for him to drop below his hand, and send both his feet into the blur's stomach. There was a satisfying whoosh of air as his lungs deflated, and a grunt in pain, both as his feet connected and then as Scourge sailed into a tree just outside his field of vision.

He turned the kick into a recovery, using his own momentum to push to his feet and spin, keeping his movements tight and controlled. He hated Scourge, but he wasn't about to lose his cool just yet.

Scourge, however, had already lost his cool entirely. He rocketed back into Tails' field of view, leaving the fox with barely a second to react, as he went for the neck again. He dove to the side, leaving the hedgehog to screech to a halt again. Tails pushed himself up again, and, to his surprise, noticed Fiona doing the same nearby. Were the others here already, and attacking her? Or had Scourge himself done it?

The answer quickly came, as he heard Scourge break into a top-speed run again, letting off a sonic boom, and Fiona collapsed again.
The shockwaves are hurting her. He thought, as another blow crashed into his back, flooring him once more. And I'm too tied up to do anything about it.

Thankfully, Tails was not alone in noticing the vixen's struggle, Sonic appearing apparently from nowhere, grabbing Fiona's arm.

"What are you doing?" She growled, trying to pull her arm away.

"Getting you out of here. We're not exactly gonna see eye to eye at the moment, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't help you. Come on." He shot down her arguments, and pulled her over into the next clearing, before letting her go. He then turned, and started to rub his chin thoughtfully.

"Now what?"
"Trying to work out whether I can get the others here before Scourge rips Tails into multiple messy bits. And the answer is probably 'no'."

Sonic ran off, not at his fastest – he actually cared about Fiona's well-being - back towards the clearing where Tails was fighting Scourge. As soon as he was out of range of Fiona, he accelerated again. He wasn't going to give Scourge any chance to hurt his friend, if he could help it.

The blue hedgehog broke through the treeline, in time to see Tails sidestep Scourge, stick his namesakes out, and send his foe tumbling head-over-paws in a cloud of obscenities, for what was probably the fourth time. As Scourge stood up again, though, Tails' backpack was ripped open from the inside, as seven gems, each with a dull green lustre, floated out, and began to revolve around the fox's body.

"Is anything I'm saying sinking in Scourge?" Tails asked, locking eyes with his opponent. "Have you been listening to even a word I'm saying?"
Scourge didn't listen – he didn't care. Of course…he charged again, and met Tails' fist midway, the force of the impact slamming the green Mobian into the ground.
"Of course you haven't." The kitsune's foot shot out and hit Scourge's side, kicking him away with a cracking sound that meant at least one broken rib. "You don't care. You wouldn't! You might have Sonic's speed, his cocksure bloody attitude, but you don't give two shits about anyone except yourself."

Sonic shouted something, but Tails couldn't hear. He was barely keeping himself in check as it was…and even that control was slipping by the second.
"Grow some balls kid…life isn't fair on anyone." Even with a broken rib and a bloody face, Scourge couldn't resist taunting Tails. "Least of all-" He didn't get to finish his sentence. A wave of concussive force pushed him painfully to the ground again.
"Keep that spiteful little mouth of yours shut, Scourge." Tails continued, stopping a few feet away from his target, veins standing out along his arms and forehead as he kept himself reigned in for at least a few seconds more. "I'm not interested in anything you have to say. I'm here because you're just here fucking with my life and those around me, all because it makes you feel good about yourself. Superior. Take a reality check Scourge. All we see is a pathetic little waste of my time, and a waste of space. I could put you in a chamber and leave you to rot on this world for as long as it takes, but you'd take up too much space, even if I made it a very small box."

The emeralds, still orbiting him throughout, flickered suddenly, a change subtle enough for Tails to miss, even as they closed with him, and disappeared.
"I think I'll finish you quickly."

A sudden gale tore through the forest around them, and in the movement Tails' fur rippled, each hair shading to black, the colour being drained out of it until no light left it, leaving only an outline and silhouette, two demonic red eyes the only glaring, searing detail on his face. True to it, his vision was red, and Scourge was right in his path.

"Come on Scourge. You're stupid, retarded even. But you should have realised that you can piss anyone off. Rest assured, I won't let them find enough of you to bury."