Rouge and Knuckles stood at the door of Tails Workshop. The night had transitioned into day while they were looking for them. Knuckles would have followed Shadow to help watch but...that was kinda hard considering he didn't even know where he went, and they couldn't find him even when looking. They had however felt it was also important to tell Tails that they had seen Metal Sonic carry off one of the hedgehogs.

Knuckles didn't bother knocking; striding through the door as if it was his own home. Technically it was the closest thing he had to a home. However he stopped in place when he saw all who were in the room. Rouge had to force her way around Knuckles to get in.

"What's the deal, sugah, let me through! There now-" Rouge also froze when she saw them.

Tails was sitting by his desk, working alongside Eggman on a medium sized ray gun. Silver was playing with dominos. Blaze apparently was meditating. Everyone had glasses of milk and cookies. It looked a little too cozy to any on looker.

"What...what is this?" Knuckles asked, his shock bleeding through, "Wait a minute. Why is Eggman here!? He sent Metal Sonic after the hedgehogs!"

"You did what!?" Silver asked in shock, knocking down his line of dominos in the process. He then stared at them sadly.

"I did no such thing." Eggman turned to them, his face bursting into anger, "Metal's gone AWOL again! I don't believe this!"

Tails chuckled under his breathe. Looking up from his work he managed a smile; do to Eggman helping work he had gotten some sleep. Not much however, there was work to be done. "You say that as if he's never done it before."

Eggman only scowled at this. Blaze suddenly opened her eyes from her meditation. "Something's happening. Do you still have something to view the camera's on Triste and Asher?"

"Hmm? I uh-"

"Don't worry Eggman, got it on my monitor." Tails turned to said monitor. Pressing a button brought up a series of streets, obviously from the view of a street camera. "Give the system a second to...find them."

Triste, Asher and Shadow were walking down the street like normal people. "Are you sure something's wrong, Blaze?" Silver looked at his friend. She just nodded. Suddenly Triste stopped walking, completely frozen.

"What? Do we have sound?" Knuckles inquired. Tails nodded pressing a few keys on his keyboard.

Shadow looked towards Triste. "What are you doing? We've been lost in this city all night, we're almost to the train station!"

"Yeah, Tris? Wait- Tr- Tris? Tris!?" Asher's eyes widened as he saw Triste. His jaw was clenched and all the color was draining from his face. The light blue hedgehog ran to the darker one, but before than Triste's knees gave out.

"Tris?" Asher asked as he cradled his other part. "Dude!? Shadow! We need to get to the Mystic Ruins!"

"Apparently." Shadow grabbed the other two hedgehogs. The light of a sudden chaos control faded into the room. All who were previously watching the screen suddenly jumped at the arrival of the others.

"Well, what are you waiting for!? Help us." Shadow growled. As they rushed to help Triste, the victim himself was witnessing something. Something he didn't quite understand.

Triste braced the cold air of Icecap zone. It was a odd place considering the temperature difference of it and the rest of the island. He readjusted his brown vest, the inside wool his only source of warmth. Well, unless you counted the rings he had, those things were good heat sources.

He grabbed the icicle hanging, quickly turning to jump backwards to the next one. He repeated this until he got to the other side of the gap. Hesitate for just a moment, he then kicked the wall, and watched as previously frozen snow fell. He quickly ascended the now revealed rock wall. The knee high boots he wore were perfect for climbing. However they were also a constant reminder of what he had lost.

As he finally got to the top of the cliff he pulled himself up, standing on the slick ice. He let out a ragged breath, putting his hands on his knees.

"You're finally here. I thought you would have been here faster." Triste looked up. There was Asher.

He looked different, maybe it was the scar running over his lip, or maybe how he looked a little sad. Perhaps it was the shiny blackish purple jacket that went to his knees. The familiar red and white shoes were covered in duct tape, and possibly electric tape as well.

"We both know that's not possible." Triste smiled up at him. "How are you Asher?"

"Heh, no one's called me that in a long time." He replied grasping Triste in a hug.

"Yes...Ashes...just doesn't have the same ring to it."

"It's more true."

"It wasn't your fault Asher. When you broke our bond, you went insane! That's not your fault, you were already falling into-"

"Into what? The Crazy Pit?" Asher laughed lightly.

"So what have you been doing? I haven't seen you in two years!"

"Yes, two years I've had my sanity back...well," Asher paused, appearing deep in thought, "Going from place to place, trying to keep my shoes in tact. I suppose, wandering. That's really it."

Triste smiled sadly. "Asher, you can still come home. Tails would love to have you."

"Triste, how is he? How did he adjust to you...not being Sonic?"

"He misses Sonic, that's evident. I'm not Sonic, but we're still brothers."

"Ah, Tris...this is all my fault. So much pain I caused just because I broke our bond. You don't even have speed anymore! How's your chaos powers, anyway."

"Still able to to do basic chaos moves without emeralds. Your speed?" In response, Asher ran at a speed it appeared there were two of him.

"The speed of light." Asher said, stopping his double act, "Not at a worthy price however."

"Do you remember that day? Ash?"

"Yes."

The memory flashed in his mind.

"W-What are you doing!? Y-You c-can't!" Triste called up to Asher, who had a chaos emerald in hand. Their bond of energy stretched out from them; the chaos emerald making it visible. A brilliant green. It was growing weak, it didn't help that Asher was powering a chaos spear.

"The right thing. You idiot! Yes. Yes-" Asher shot the chaos spear, Triste however ran in front of it. The spear hit his legs, he fell to the ground. Asher looked at him in disbelief.

"I won't-" Triste stopped talking as the pain in his legs set in, letting out a cry, "Let you do this. You have to listen to me. A-Ah, A-Asher. D-Don't d-do it for me, d-do it for T-Tails!"

Asher looked at him, his heart breaking. He had realized it too late, the bond between them growing weaker by the second. "You know what this means. Tris!? I'm can't- My head! It hurts. I can't- Agrhh! Control!"

The lighter hedgehog fell to the ground, clutching his head, "I'm sorry, Tris. I shouldn't have taken your chaos powers…"

"It's fine." Triste responded, bracing the bleeding pain in his legs, it'd be a miracle to walk again, "I don't have much use for speed anymore."

"I'd never thought any one of us would say that. Here. Let's trade once more, before it breaks."

They both closed their eyes; the colors of their bond glowing a brighter green for a moment as the transfer was made.

"Do you remember, Tris...when we could share both our powers? T'wasn't that long ago." Asher said clutching his head as their bond cracked slowly.

"Yeah, we were closer back then." Triste patted his other pa- no, his brother's back. They would never be able to be Sonic again. Never be able to go back.

As their bond snapped both screamed in pain. Triste quickly stopped; however Asher screamed even louder. The dark chaos energy from earlier was being absorbed by Asher as the hole the bond formed closed. When he stopped screaming he smiled wickedly, the goodness inside gone.

Asher frowned at the memory. "Are you ready to right this?"

"Yes...it'll create a new timeline, but hopefully a better one than this."

"A better one where we're Sonic."

"Yes. Which one of our younger selves should we send it to?"

"You. If anything the past Asher will already be showing signs of...well, you know."

"Right. Ready? What should we send?"

"I know what to send."

As Triste opened his eyes from the vision he was sent he saw baby blue eyes. "Tails? Oh my gosh, Ta-" The hedgehog tried to sit up quickly. However Tails pushed him back.

"Sit back. You gave us quite a scare."

Triste closed his eyes, opening them again quickly. Unbeknownst to him his face was a sickly white color. "Asher, where's Asher?"

"He's with Shadow in the other room." Tails raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Did you know one us is going insane from our constant unsteady Chaos Bond?"

"Uh…"

So...uh, yeah, maybe I'm revealing some stuff too quickly. Maybe I update too quickly as well? I dunno.

Reaver17: This review is without a doubt one of the best I've gotten in awhile! And you compliment me too much, it's not really anything, I actually expanded a oneshot previously called Speechless. It's not really a story, 'story' like this one. Less, story-oriented to put it at least. One of the things I've learned from this website is to not have a plan. For example one of my stories here I planned out the story, but a reviewer requested/guessed something and I liked the idea. Do to that I lost the original story plan but then twisted it into something else. So thank you, for liking this as not only a reader, but a writer as well. (I don't know what to really say, when I first read your review I was flustered)

Nova2711: Funny I was thinking of Undertale when writing that. Technically it's not a direct reference.

Wafflesbelike-NYANCAT: Not really sure what you laughing out loud zzzzing about. Hmmm...

Alright that wraps up this chapter. Also, side note, remember Future! Triste and Asher, they might be important in ACT 2.