Chapter 4

Val awoke to find himself floating in a black abyss, nothing but pure darkness surrounded him. He gasped as he remembered what happened, "Oh my God…I'm dead." suddenly a voice rang out, "Oh, so you're finally awake." Val looked up and saw a blue fox hovering in front of him, "Cronos?"
"Yes Val…I was the one who saved you from death."
"But why?"
"You underestimate your own importance Valor….Mobius needs you, now and forever."
"What d'you mean?"
Cronos waved his hand and an image began to form beside him, it was Mobotropolis in flames, the buildings were all rubble and dead bodies lay scattered everywhere, and standing in the centre of this carnage was Demon Gabe, "This is the future of Mobius as long as Gabe continues to use your power." said Cronos, "Gabe is now fuelled by Venom, just like you were, but unlike you, Gabe is out of control, you would only be controlled for a short while, Gabe has completely submitted to Venom."
"W..what can I do?…I can't beat him like that."
"That's right..you can't."
Val hung his head, "So it's over…and it's all my fault."
"Not necessarily, there is still a chance." said Cronos, Val looked up at him, "How?"
"If you were to go back in time, you could stop Gabe from ever obtaining Venom's power…I can send you back."
"Wait!…there's some things I have to do first."
"….very well..you have one hour. When your time is up I shall come and send you back." Cronos clicked his fingers and suddenly Val jumped up, he looked around and saw he was still in the sewers. He got up and ran off, looking for a manhole to get him back to the surface.
Meanwhile, Devina sat on a rooftop with her feet hanging over the edge, she had her head in her hands, crying. As she cried, a woman in a long red dress with hair to match approached her from behind, Devina heard her footsteps and turned round, "P…Pandora?"
The woman smiled, "Yes Devina...I'm here to help you."
Devina turned back so she was looking out over the city, "No one can help me….Val…he…I don't know how to feel anymore."
Pandora stood beside her and put her hand on Devina's shoulder, "I know what he did hurt you…but he is sorry, he feels just as bad about it as you do…maybe more."
"No he doesn't, I love him…but I'm nothing to him…nothing."
"Don't be so sure." said a voice, Devina and Pandora turned to see Val standing a few metres away, his clothes torn and bloody, "Val, what happened to you?" asked Pandora
"Gabe attacked me….and I let him." answered Val
"What? Why?"
"Because I didn't care anymore…I didn't care whether I lived or died…because I hurt someone I truly love.."
Devina blushed but quickly turned away so Val wouldn't see. The brown hedgehog walked over and knelt next to Devina, "Devina..I'm so sorry..I really am…please forgive me..I…I.."
"Say it Val." said Pandora with a smile
"I..love you."
Devina slowly turned to face him, "You love me?"
Val nodded, "I do…I love you so much."
Devina threw her arms around Val and hugged him, Val hugged her back but quickly pulled away, "Come on, we don't have much time."
"Wait what?" asked Devina
"I'll explain on the way, let's go." Val stood up, as did Devina, Val turned to Pandora, "Thank you." Pandora smiled and nodded. Val and Devina then ran off together.
A few minutes later Val and Devina were running through the city, "So unless we go back and stop Gabe, Mobius is doomed?" said Devina
"Basically, yeah." replied Val
They eventually came to an apartment building, Val ran up the steps and looked down the list of names of the people who lived there, he stopped at one and pressed a button next to it, near the names was an intercom, from it came the words, "Yeah, who's there?"
"Kei-ron, it's me, Val."
"Oh…what do you want?"
"Please let me come up, I need to talk to you."
There was a pause for a few moments, and then Val heard a buzzing, he opened the front door and held it open for Devina before walking up to the apartment door with the number 27 on it. Val took a deep breath and knocked on the door, Kei-ron opened the door, "Yeah?"
"Uh..I wanted to say sorry for kicking you out before." said Val
"Oh really?"
"Yeah…can we come in?"
The robotic Mobian paused and then stepped aside, letting Val and Devina enter, "Where's Stacey?" asked Val
"In her bedroom, hang on. Stacey!" Kei-ron shouted, Val heard Stacey from another room shout back, "What!?"
"Get out here, Val wants to talk to us!"
A moment later Stacey emerged from a door at the other end of the apartment.
After a few minutes V al had explained the situation.
"So let me get this straight," said Kei-ron, "You want us to go back in time with you and help to beat your brother or else the whole world is screwed?"
"Pretty much." said Val
Kei-ron and Stacey looked at each other, "What the Hell. I'm in." said Kei-ron
"Really?" said Val
"Yeah, about time I killed something."
"Yeah, I'm coming too. Why should you get all the fun?" said Stacey
"Great..now I just need to get our transport sorted out…Cronos!" Val shouted, suddenly there was a blue flash and Cronos appeared, "We're ready."
"So you're all going?" Cronos asked
"Yep…we're a team." replied Val
"Very well…..Chaos Control!"
There was a flash of bright white light and suddenly everyone found themselves in the city centre, Val looked around for Cronos, but he was gone, "Well..I guess we can assume we're at the right time." he said. His eyes widened with horror when he looked up at the clock tower nearby, "Oh you've gotta be kidding!" he yelled
"What is it Val?" asked Devina
"Dammit Cronos!" he said angrily, "We've got less then three minutes to make it to the tower and stop Gabe!"
"What!?" shouted the others
"We gotta move, now!" Val looked around and pointed to a large stone pillar on the other side of the city, "There!" Then Val closed his eyes and focused, "Chaos Control!" In another flash, they were instantly warped to the base of the tower. Val looked around, a confused look on his face, "Why didn't you warp us to the top?" asked Kei-ron
"I dunno..somehow this place is blocking my Chaos Control." answered Val
"So what do we do now?" said Stacey
"There's no time, we'll just have to run to the top." replied Val
"Are you kidding? This thing goes on for miles, there's no way we can make it to the top in time." said Kei-ron
"Relax, I can handle it." said Val, now seemingly more confident, "I'll race ahead and stop Gabe from taking Venom, you guys just catch up as soon as you can."
And with that, Val ran in through the double doors and up the spiral staircase.
Just under three minutes later, Val could feel he was almost there, he could hear voices from above…there it is! The trapdoor. Val jumped up and spun upward, bursting through the door and landing gracefully on the roof of the edifice, he glanced around and saw Gabe standing between the two pillars, and a second Val, his former self, staring at him in disbelief, his gaze moving between Val and Gabe, then Val saw a black shape moving across the ground towards Gabe; Venom!
"No! Venom..you're mine!" shouted Val as he drew his sword and charged at the dark puddle.
Val plunged his left hand into the darkness and groaned as he felt it suddenly grip him, he watched as it started to climb up his arm, covering it in black
"No! How is this possible!?" yelled Gabe, Val looked up as Venom started to cover his shoulder, "Venom is not your power, Gabe..he's my curse."
"You bastard!" Gabe drew his sword and ran at Val, suddenly Gabe's face met the ground, Val looked around and saw his other self holding his glowing orange hand out towards Gabe, 'Chaos Spear?' thought Val, 'But how? This place blocks my own Chaos powers.' before he could ask what was happening, Val felt a rush of pain from his left arm all the way through his whole left side, he looked down and saw it was all covered in darkness, "V..Venom.." Val looked up and saw Gabe climbing to his feet, clutching the hilt of his sword tightly, "Damn you Val," he said quietly, "Damn you!" he ran at Val and thrust the blade of his sword at his brother. Val grabbed the blade with his shadow covered hand, stopping it dead, "You want Venom's power?" Val asked as his fangs grew longer and sharper, "Well here it is!" he threw Gabe back and snarled as his eyes turned poisonous yellow and his fur turned completely black.
Val watched as Venom charged up two dark energy balls; one in each hand, "Chaos Sphere!" he threw them at the two poles, which exploded on impact, before glaring at Gabe.
As Venom approached, he laughed evilly, "When I'm done with you..I'm gonna send you to Oblivion..let's see how tough you are there 'brother'." he then reached out to grab Gabe's neck as he stared in terror at his demonic sibling, suddenly Venom winced and turned to see Val holding a smoking gun, "He might've done terrible things..but he doesn't deserve Oblivion."
"How would you know?..you don't know what he would've done if he's gotten my power." replied Venom
"Maybe..but he's not as evil as you!" shouted Val as he threw a punch at Venom, who effortlessly blocked it by crossing his arm against Val's.
As their arms crossed, the pair started to glow, "What the Hell?" said Val
"It's a time paradox." answered Venom, "We're both the same thing..there can't be two of us… so time is forcing us into one."
"But which one?" asked Val
"Whichever side is dominant." replied Venom as he smirked
There was a flash of golden light which surrounded the entire roof of the tower. As it slowly faded, Venom dropped to the ground, breathing heavily, he looked around; Val was gone.
Venom stood up and smirked, "Finally…he's gone..Valor the Hedgehog is dead! And there is only Venom!" Venom then turned and started to walk towards Gabe, he was a few feet away when he suddenly froze, paralysed, "What the?"
"Don't be so sure of yourself." said a voice, Venom could hear it clearly in his head; Val's voice, "No! This can not be!" he shouted
"Time is correcting the paradox we created…everything is returning to normal…you will return to being second to me, I can control you now just as I should." said Val
Venom screeched and cried out as he glowed with a bright white light, and in a single flash, the light faded and Val fell to his knees.
Gabe stood up and looked on, 'He beat Venom? How? He can't possibly be THAT powerful…can he?….Either way, that power was my key to total domination for my master..He ruined everything!'
Gabe grabbed his sword and ran at Val, suddenly Val blocked the attack with his own blade, "Just you and me now, Gabe." Val quickly climbed to his feet and kicked his brother away. As Gabe fell back, an eerie evil yet feminine laughter filled the air. There was a green flash next to Gabe and Jade appeared, with a dark brown porcupine and a grey wolverine behind her, "Hello lover." she said as she smirked at Val, who gritted his teeth, "Jade…this time, you're going back to the Master Emerald..forever!"
"Heh, oh please..you can't win against all of us..of speaking of which, this is Ravana," she pointed to the porcupine, "And Smoke." she turned to the wolverine.
Val got into a fighting stance as the four Mobians bared down on him. Jade went to punch Val, he was about to block it when a gunshot rang out, Jade's eyes widened as she looked down at the bullet hole in her stomach, she turned to see Devina, Kei-ron and Stacy standing next to the broken trapdoor, Devina pointed her still smoking gun at the echidna, "Get away from him, you bitch."
"Devina?" said Val, "You finally made it huh?"
"Yep, the cavalry's here…seems like we're just in time for the party." Devina replied
"Uh-huh, everyone pick an opponent..and kick their ass."