CHAPTER 2: SILVER

12:30PM, JUNE 8TH 219 AS

Green Hill

The Tornado was heading towards the crash cite of the mysterious Egg-carrier that had crashed somewhere in the Green Hills, Tails kept looking around trying to look for the massive wreck shouldn't really be so hard to miss.

"So, tell me buddy… you're tellin' me you saw Eggman's one and only Egg-carrier crash somewhere around here?" Sonic asked, standing on the wing of the Tornado. "Yeah, I did! And it's really weird too since Eggman only has one Egg-carrier… right?" Sonic pondered on this for a few seconds before nodding, "Yeah, he only has one Egg-carrier and a ton of battleships."

Tails leaned back on his seat, diving into thought. Maybe he had built a new one in secret…

In the distance, Sonic spotted plumes of smoke rising into the sky. "Hey, I think I see it over there." He pointed over towards the smoke. Tails would turn, heading down towards the wreckage. Once the plane had landed, Sonic hopped off and sped closer to the wreck. He'd skid to a stop, nearly speeding off a cliff.

Tails would follow, landing beside the blue blur. They both gazed down at the massive wreck. "Woah, that is one massive Egg-carrier… it's bigger than the one he has now." Sonic muttered in surprise, his eyes widening. Tails on the other hand stared with narrowed eyes, how did he build something like this with the resources he has now?

"I say we take a closer look," Sonic said glancing over at Tails, "Might have some interestin' stuff inside it." Sonic then hopped off and ran down the cliffside, speeding towards the wreck, Tails following behind.

Once the reached the wreck, it had become even more apparent how gigantic this ship was. "Jeez, who knew Eggy could make titans like these… ?" Sonic said as they approached a large gaping hole in the ship. "Yeah… it's pretty huge." Tails replied as they stopped right at the hole.

"Well, this ship has been through one heck of a beating." Sonic and Tails walked through the hole, entering a corridor. As they walked, Sonic took notice of the countless badniks that lay across the hall, broken and ripped apart. "Dang… " He muttered.

Sonic and Tails continued walking before the came across a door that had been blown open, they'd step over the door and glance into the room.

Both their eyes widened like saucers once they glanced into the chamber, there in the middle was the Master Emerald however it was grey as stone. Beside the Master Emerald, a silver hedgehog lay unconscious. Sonic and Tails rushed to the hedgehog and the emerald, "Woah, that's the Master Emerald…. And who's this?" Sonic wondered, glancing at the hedgehog who lay beside it. Tails would lay his head on the hedgehog's chest, checking for a heartbeat.

Fortunately, the were heartbeats, the hedgehog was still alive.

Tails let out a sigh of relief, before glancing up at Sonic with a smile "He's still breathing." Sonic nodded, "We should call Sally and let her know about this."

Tails nodded, hoisting the hedgehog up.

The two would head out of the chamber and back to the Tornado, not realizing there had been a separate entity in the corner of the chamber watching them closely.

12:40 PM, JUNE 8TH 219 AS

Angel Island

Knuckles the Echidna the last of his kind, stood on the alter of the all-powerful Master Emerald, guarding the gem. He remained still; his eyes closed as he meditated.

Then he felt something, something was off. He was sensing unusual chaos energy from the Master Emerald, as if it was reacting to something. The Master Emerald began to glow bright, as a being began to materialize on top of it. Knuckles shielded his eyes from the intense light, wondering what the hell was going on.

Once the light had died down, he saw something he never thought he'd see in his entire life… it was another one of his kind, an echidna.

"Who… how… ?" He approached the echidna, he glanced down at the echidna, seeing that they were female- wait, he knew this echidna. "Tikal… ?" He muttered, kneeling beside the unconscious Tikal. Knuckles remembered that time Eggman had tried to use the god, Chaos, to take over the world… he remembered the many weird dreams he had as he looked back and saw what his kind had done. "Tikal... hey, Tikal?" he tried shaking her, seeing if she would awaken.

She'd grunt, her eyes fluttering open. Her vision was blurry, she couldn't make out where she was. "Hey, hey you alright?" Knuckles asked, gazing at her with a hint of worry in his voice. Tikal recognized the voice, glancing up at the red echidna. "Knuckles… where am I, where is Sonic… and Silver?" She asked, her eyes narrowed as she gazed at him. Knuckles raised a brow "I don't know where Sonic is right now and who is this 'Silver'?" Knuckles asked. Tikal inhaled deeply, she had used up a lot of energy to get back to this point in time, she needed rest.

"I'm... tired, I'll explain… later." She fell asleep. Knuckles blinked, he was confused, why did Tikal show up suddenly and who is this Silver she speaks off? She did mention Sonic, maybe he knows what's going on….

Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails were currently on the Tornado, making their way back to Mobotropolis, the great city of the mobians that stood proudly in Mobia, a large country ruled by the royal Acorn family.

''So… let me get this straight." Sally said, speaking to Sonic through her own version of the Miles Electric. "You came across this massive Egg-cruiser like ship in Green Hill and it was all 'wrecked up' and an was pretty much an 'oversized piece of trash'?"

"That sums it up pretty well, Sal." Sonic answered.

"I'm finding this all very hard to believe, I mean, a massive ship suddenly appearing out of nowhere and crashing in Green Hill is quite much to believe-"

"Sally, I'm the very same guy who can use 7 glowy gems to power myself up, turn yellow, and destroy a giant floating battle-station with the face of a narcissistic mad doctor, I find a random ship appearing out of nowhere quite easier to believe." Sonic said, interrupting her.

On the other end, Sally sighed "Alright… good point, so, you were also saying you found somebody else there?". "Yeah, this light gray-ish hedgehog was lying there knocked out beside some dark gray looking Master Eme-" Before Sonic could finish, Sally had cut in.

"THE MASTER EMERALD?!" She exclaimed in shock, Sonic covering his ears in pain. "Ow… Sal, you have got to chill out... dang!"

Sally re-composed herself, inhaling deeply before repeating.

"The Master Emerald, are you absolutely sure the Master Emerald was there?" She asked, still very surprised and shocked. "Without a doubt, Sal." Sonic clarified

"Alright, I'll see if I can find a chamber in the palace for the emerald, I'll see you soon." She said, before disconnecting from the call.

"Maybe we should speak to Knuckles about this, he knows a lot more about the emeralds than we do." Tails suggested, making the Tornado descend below the clouds.

"Yeah, we'll hit 'em up later. First, let's get this other hedgehog here to Mobotropolis." Sonic said, glancing back at the hedgehog.

13:00 PM, JUNE 8TH 219 AS

A G.U.N BASE

Shadow the Hedgehog, the ultimate life form… was having a really shitty day.

The ultimate lifeform was tired of everyone's shit, especially that annoying narcissistic Eggman. He wanted to spend some time in his lonesome, instead of doing joint missions with other G.U.N operatives, the only exceptions being Rouge and Omega of course. Join missions with the other operatives have been annoying since they kept slowing him down, he could easily finish the mission without having to deal with the nonsense of others, especially rookie operatives.

He wouldn't admit it, but the only time he was not very annoyed was when he joined Sonic in retrieving three of the Chaos Emeralds.

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around his left. "How you doin' Shads?" A rather smoky voice asked. Shadow took one glance to his left and found his fellow operative Rouge walking beside him. "I'm doing just fine, now can you let go of me?" Rouge let go with a pout, "You're such a grumpy one, have you ever tried to just relax and have some fun?" Shadow scoffed and didn't spare her another glance as he kept walking.

"I can relax and have some fun, it's just these damn missions I keep being sent on." Rouge smiled as she walked beside him, nodding. She understood his pain. "Well, you know how it is. GUN wants to make sure the new recruits get a good taste of working with veterans like us." Rouge said.

"It would be much better than if they were grouped with other veteran operatives and not me, it slows me down." He replied, his eyes narrowing.

"Oh boo-hoo, the great Shadow the Hedgehog gets annoyed this easily?" Rouge said with a sly smile, folding her arms. "Shut up."

"Any way, how did your mission go? Did you retrieve the emeralds?" She asked, changing the subject. "No, we only got three, the doctor escaped with the other four." Shadow answered.

"Only three, well that's a new low for the ultimate lifeform." Rouge said, yawning.

"We had to deal with some resistance, alright?" Shadow quickly responded, glancing at Rouge. "Mhm, yeah yeah… anyway you better bring these emeralds back to containment before our superiors get impatient. I'd accompany you, but I got a mission to go deal with, later Shads!" She waved, before heading down a separate corridor.

As she left, Shadow went back into his train of thought. He then felt a sudden spike of chaos energy; it was unnatural and weird… and it scared him. It was a very strange sensation.

He glanced around the corridor, "The felt like the Master Emerald… " He muttered, but why the hell did it feel so... off?" He wondered, before continuing down the corridor.

Meanwhile with Knuckles, the red guardian was sitting by the steps of the alter as he waited for Tikal to wake up. He was currently sensing for any other chaos disturbances, trying to see if any other strange things were happening.

He then felt a sudden spike, it felt weird and terrifying. He stood up quickly, trying to pinpoint the location of this sudden energy spike. He heard a grunt behind him, seeing Tikal finally waking up. He'd turn around again, glancing at the sky before focusing on Tikal.

Tikal would sit up, rubbing her eyes as she leaned against the Master Emerald. "Hey, take it easy there." Knuckles said, approaching her. Tikal lowered her hands, blinking as her vision became clear.

"Knuckles… you are Knuckles, right?" She asked, staring at the red echidna. Knuckles nodded, "Yeah, I am. Now do you mind tellin' me what the hell is going on and why you suddenly appeared, who is this Silver guy?" Tikal would gaze around her, quickly figuring out she was on Angel Island, she then focused on Knuckles. "What year is it?" She asked, "What… ?" Knuckles asked.

She stood up, "What year is it?" She asked again.

"219 After Solaris, why?" Tikal continued to stare at him, before letting out a sigh of relief. "What I'm about to tell you will sound very… very unbelievable but…"

"I came from the future, about a few weeks from now, to stop the world from being taken over by Dr. Eggman."

Knuckles stared; his eyes slightly widened. "You came from the future, to stop Eggman?" He repeated. "What the- how… ?"

"By using the Master Emerald's power in the future, me and Silver travelled back here to prevent the bad future from ever coming to pass… the problem is, I lost Silver during the way here… " Knuckles processed all of this, assuming all she is saying is true, he asked "What does Eggman do? How does he take over Etra?"

"The doctor had suddenly amassed a gigantic army in the span of weeks and began to conquer the world. He then declared war on the entire world, he started doing all-out invasions on multiple countries across Etra, beginning The Etra Wars. One by one, your comrades have fallen in the war, Mobotropolis had been destroyed and turned into Robotropolis and Station Square was one of the final cities left that had not been taken over. In the future I was summoned by you, Sonic and Silver. The future you asked me to travel back in time alongside the strongest of the three of you to prevent the bad future from passing, Silver being the strongest."

Knuckles was slack jawed; it took him a while, but he had processed the information. He'd nod, inhaling deeply. "Alright, I'll take you to Sonic and the rest of the Freedom Fighters." Knuckles walked to the Master Emerald, placing the palm of his hand on it. The emerald began to glow brightly, as the ground began to tremble.

Angel island began to move, heading towards Mobotropolis.

13:20 PM, JUNE 8TH 219 AS

MOBOTROPOLIS, ROYAL ACORN PALACE

Sonic and Tails had landed the Tornado and were waiting in the hanger underneath the royal palace. "When do you think sleepin' beauty here will wake up?" Sonic asked, leaning against the Tornado while Tails was working on the Miles Electric. Tails glanced up at the light-gray hedgehog again who was still unconscious, "I don't know, it has almost been an hour and he is still out… "

The two gazed at the hedgehog in silence

"Sonic, Tails!" Both freedom fighters turned to see Sally Acorn heading there way, waving. Sonic smiled, turning completely to face her. "How's it goin' Sal, you good?" Sonic asked, "It's a lot quieter here when you two aren't around." She responded, Tails chuckling nervously. "Oh please, you make it sound like you find it better when it's quiet." Sonic said, folding his arms as he wore a sly smile. "Maybe I do." Sally shrugged, before glancing over towards the Tornado and the light gray-hedgehog who lay in the backseat.

Her eyes narrowed, before she glanced back at Tails "So he's the guy, from what I see he's been knocked out ever since you found him?" Tails nodded, "Yeah, hasn't woken up for almost an hour and It's starting to worry me."

"Maybe he just did something very tiring and he needs one big nap for it." Sonic said, "Anyway, let's get him and the weird lookin' Master Emerald out of this hanger." Tails would walk around to the back of the Tornado, where the dark Master Emerald was being magnetically connected to by a long and cord.

He'd press a button on the Miles Electric, disconnecting the dark Master Emerald from the cord. A bunch of Acorn guards grabbed onto the emerald and started dragging it off to the chamber, Sally, Tails and Sonic following behind with a guard carrying the light gray-hedgehog over their shoulder.

Once they reached the chamber, the emerald was placed in the middle. Sonic approached the emerald and began to inspect it while the guard carrying the other hedgehog set him down beside Sally and Tails. "Y'know, maybe he needs medical attention?" Sally asked, glancing at the hedgehog. Tails blinked, before facepalming. Just when he was about to call for Sonic, the hedgehog coughed.

Sally and Tails gazed down, Sonic turning around. "Is he wakin' up?" The blue blur asked, approaching. "I think so… " Tails responded, still focusing on the hedgehog.

The hedgehog slowly got up, grunting in pain.

"D-damn… did I make it?" the hedgehog muttered, clutching his chest as he opened his eyes. The gray hedgehog was met with the stares of Sonic, Tails and Sally. "Huh… ?" He glanced around the room, seeing he was in a chamber.

"Am I… in the royal palace?" He asked, this surprising the other three people with him. "Uh… how does he know that?" Sonic whispered, glancing at Tails and Sally. Tails met his gaze and shrugged while Sally raised a brow.

The gray hedgehog faced the other three, recognizing one of them almost instantly, "Sonic?!" He shouted in surprise, Sonic himself folding his arms whilst smiling. "It seems I'm famous everywhere now-a-days." This comment earning him a 'are you serious' look from both Sally while Tails chuckled nervously.

"How do you know that you're in the royal palace right now?" Sally interrogated, gazing at the gray hedgehog. The Hedgehog shivered before responding, "I've been here before… uh, in the future." He explained; the trio stared at him as if he grew a third head. "You what?" they all asked at the same time.

"Okay, this may seem very strange and weird and probably very hard to believe, but I'm from the future." Sonic for the first time was at a loss for words, Tails was slack-jawed, and Sally stared with a raised brow. "What uh... year is it?" The gray hedgehog asked. "219 AS, 8TH of June… " Tails answered.

The gray hedgehog blinked, before sighing. "Only got three weeks to prepare… " He muttered. "What do you mean?" Sally asked, folding her arms. "Three weeks from now, Eggman is going to appear again with a massive army of badniks and fleets of battleships… he is going to invade multiple countries and cities across Etra and take over the world." He explained, the trio of freedom fighters going wide-eyed. "I and Tikal, my… partner in all this, sent ourselves back in time to prevent all that from happening."

The hedgehog then looked at Sonic. "In three weeks, the Freedom Fighters will be taken out one by one, until only me, Sonic and Knuckles are left… Sonic, you and Knuckles sacrificed yourselves in order for me to be here right now."

Sonic just stared, he had a lot to process, what this guy was saying sounded ridiculous… but he couldn't deny it. There was a weird looking Master Emerald here and a random Egg-carrier crashed into Green Hill… there was too much evidence here.

"Wait, but if you are here now. Shouldn't there be another version of you in this… time period as well?" Sally asked, the gray hedgehog shook his head. "No, you see, I was always from the future, never this time period. In the… original timeline I guess we should call it, I went back in order to help the Freedom Fighters stop Dr. Eggman from taking over the world, and I failed." He explained, "I went back when it was too late, so in the final hours of the original timeline, we used the limitless power of the Master Emerald to displace me and Tikal from the timeline and send us back here, where we have a better chance of preventing the bad future."

"Wait, final hours… ? Does that mean that the original timeline ended the moment you were sent back here? Doesn't that mean you should… cease to exist?" Sonic asked. "That would be the case, but thanks to the power of the Master Emerald, a new timeline has been created and I'm now a separate entity that can exist on all planes.… if that makes sense."

The three freedom fighters were shocked into silence, this was a lot to take in.

After a few seconds of an uncomfortable silence for the gray hedgehog, Tails asked him question. "What's your name?"

"Silver, Silver the Hedgehog."