The second cup of coffee was just a natural addition to the first; but the third cup was Silver's silent plea to stop Saga from going in the cell alone. Unfortunately for him, once Saga set her mind on something, she was going to see it through until she died.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Silver asked his friend, not holding back any worry in doing so.

"I need to know what he does." Saga confirmed. "It's not often when someone knows me from a previous shift. Just let me in Silver."

"I'll be watching for out here." the hedgehog then told her, more to himself than to her in particular. "If anything looks wrong, or if you just toss me a hand signal or something, I'll come right in."

For a moment, the cat opened her mouth to give a reply, but found she truly didn't have one. Knowing this, Silver let out a sullen sigh as he opened up the cell door and let her in. The inside of the room didn't have much too it- not much more than a solid floor and ceiling, with pretty study walls holding everything up. In the far back of the room, Saga noticed a figure slumped at the wall. Chained to the wall, it almost looked like it was sleeping. Or dead.

"Hello Infinite." Saga dimly greeted the jackal, taking a seat rather close to his unmoving form. He didn't seem to react to her right away. Taking note of this, Saga set her cup down while taking side glances at him for some sign of life. Infinite did give the tiniest notion of lifting his head when he heard the cup rest against the floor.

"You've always drank your coffee black..." he croaked to her in a voice dark and vaguely amused.

"Do I?" Saga mused. "Never noticed."

This sparked a reaction in the jackal; a definite sign that he might be more open to her. Or maybe he thought he recognized something. Infinite made a small movement to get a better look at her, and when he did, he let out a bitter chuckle.

Too young. This Saga was much younger than his. Her cheery disposition still seemed to be in check, so this must have been his Saga, just younger. What a wonderful timeline this truly ended up being- and it wasn't even finished yet!

"Silver says you're dangerous." the cat informed the restrained jackal, calmly taking a sip of her coffee shortly after. "Says that you teamed with a lunatic and took over the world for six months. Not bad for a first-timer, kinda makes Egghead look bad though..." Saga took another sip of coffee before asking, "How do you know me?"

At first, she was answered with silence. But as she was about to call him out for it, Infinite emitted a low chuckle. "You said you wouldn't remember..."

For a moment, Saga's eyes glinted in a mixture of fear and surprise at knowing that some version of her had, in fact, known this supposed criminal. She took another sip from her cup before asking, "What did she… I say about myself?"

Infinite looked up at her with a crooked half smile lined with a bemused malice. "You hail from the same plane of existence as that silver bug zapper." he informed her, simply enough. "You have the power to 'shift' through different existences and timelines, mostly through an unconscious effort. But you were older. Better in bed..."

Hearing this, Saga had gotten up so quickly that she had let her cup fall to the floor. "You're fucking with me!" she screeched. Her body was nearly shaking in rage, ready to tear the jackal apart limb from limb. Infinite only let out another unsettling chuckle in enjoying her reaction.

"Not yet my precious puss… Not quite yet..."

"Don't call me that either!" Saga demanded.

The jackal replied with a low chuckle just as the prison door opened up.

"Is everything alright?" the worried voice of Silver echoed in the tiny room.

"It's fine." Saga snapped, still fired up from her argument with Infinite. But Silver wasn't buying it.

"Saga, if he's giving you are hard time, then it's time to-"

"I said it's fine Silver!" the cat growled, spinning around to give the hedgehog a heated glare.

From behind her, Infinite started to emit a slow, amused chuckle.

"What are you laughing about now?" Silver questioned. He had always found Infinite's laughter a bit unnerving, but something about this one just rubbed the hedgehog the wrong way. And with good reason.

"I just realized," Infinite snickered, "I got your sloppy seconds..."

Saga whipped her body back around to tell him off, but she saw something that caught her off guard. She faltered for a moment, unsure of what to say.

"What really brought you here, my puss?" Infinite asked Saga, giving a rather distrustful sneer. "You really don't think that it was him, do you?"

The question seemed to take the cat aback. She refused to looked at Silver as she admitted, "Well, he was the one I was thinking of before the shift. I've done it before, that's why he's got a Saga-Tracker 2.0 slapped to his wrist."

"But why this time? Why… in an existence that holds both him and I at the same time? A time where I could have died, should it not have been for your intervention."

"Saga..." Silver softly spoke up, "I think we should go now. It… it's been a long day, for all of us."

But Saga remained where she was, still on edge but almost hypnotized by the jackal's gaze at this point. She wanted to know what he knew about her in the future. He knew more than enough than she cared to know- it was written all over his smirking face. He wanted her to know too, or else they wouldn't be in this situation…. Right?

"We share a fate, Saga." the jackal even said, as if reading her thoughts. "Don't deny it. You will be back my puss, one way or another."

This was the final straw for her as Saga backed away from him, and left the jail cell.

"Sorry I broke your cup." she mumbled to Silver before he shut the cell door.

. . .

Saga was asleep in minutes after Silver found her a place to lie down. You would have thought that after her sixth cup of coffee from being here, such a feat would have been impossible. But no, Saga's eyes were closed the same moment her head hit the pillow. Not a moment after, the gentle breathing from the cat indicated that she had reached a blissful slumber. Silver gave her a soft smile before letting it fade away, his mind drifting to more pressing matters. He worked his way back to Infinite's holding cell- he didn't enter the cell itself, instead he went to the observation room connected to Infinite's cell. It was with a delayed surprise that he noticed Sonic was there as well.

"Sup?" the blue hedgehog greeted, cheerful as ever. "Came to tease the dog behind plexiglass too?"

"It's a one sided mirror..." Silver mumbled. Sonic just gave a small shrug of indifference before turning his attention back at Infinite. The jackal just laid there in the cell, not giving any sign of life at all.

"It's too easy to beat each other anymore." Sonic idly noted, tilting his head back and forth in thought. "I mean, he caught me and now we have him. It's really… convenient. Don't cha think?"

"It would be convenient for Saga to return home before tomorrow." mumbled Silver under his breath. "Infinite's going to manipulate her to get free, I can feel it."

"He wasn't lying to her." Shadow's voice informed them, as the black hedgehog himself walked up to Silver to look him directly in the eye.

"Ah, there you are!" Sonic cheerfully greeted. "I was starting to think you went into hibernation again!"

But Shadow did not reply or seem to acknowledge the blue hedgehog, instead keeping his emotionless gaze at Silver.

"If you honestly think that he's lying to her now," Shadow then continued to tell Silver, "Then you're the one that needs to reevaluate who's lying to who."

"But he doesn't care about her!" Silver argued.

Shadow's only answer was a blink before bringing his attention to Sonic.

"If you and the red echidna aren't going to give that moron a proper trial, then at least have the cat try to prove Infinite's innocence."

"And just how do you propose we do that Shadow?" Sonic questioned with an amused raise of his eyebrow.

"Have the cat interrogate Infinite." Shadow replied, simply enough. "Have her ask questions that test his morality; Questions that test his innocence. If he truly loves something, other than the Phantom Ruby or himself, then there is a chance that he could be redeemed. Later."

"As if you could speak from experience?" Sonic smirked.

The dark look Shadow gave the blue hedgehog was as good an answer as any.