Indeed, it is good to be back. The chapters in the second half of this story are easier to write than the first half so far. I'm already working on 13, so 12 will certainly be up on time. I think it's because all of the required set-up is out of the way and now the story is focusing solely on the main plot… which, obviously, is about saving Tails and halting the progress of Eggman's empire.

Don't get me wrong; all the other chapters were necessary in their own way, whether it be to set up things that are going to happen now or to show some character development. I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm having a lot of fun typing right now, and I hope the rest of this story is just as intriguing to the readers as it is to me.

Enjoy.

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Chapter 11: Darkest Before Dawn

"I've come to know that thinking things through isn't a particular talent of yours, so you best heed these words as you try to find a Chaos Drive: altering any events of this time might drastically change our present time. Every little thing you do has the potential for large consequences."

Sonic came to a halt and turned to stare into Shadow's serious face. "It's bad enough already with the empire, isn't it?" The blue hedgehog asked. "This can't possibly make things any worse."

Black and red quills swayed slightly as the Ultimate Life-form shook his head. "That's how it appears. Things can always be worse." Sonic felt as if he was being talked down to, like a child, as the other hedgehog scolded him. "You, of all people, should know that life isn't that predictable. For all we know, this could lead to a chain of events that will have you long dead in the present. And if you suddenly don't exist after we teleport back to the empire, you won't be able to help anybody. That includes all the victims of the Eggman Empire that you claim to care about, and that includes Tails." And that includes myself.

Sonic sighed loudly. "Shad, how come you don't tell me all this beforehand? We had a deal. You're supposed to be helping me."

"Because I thought you were bright enough to work it out for yourself. And as far as I remember, I agreed to take you to the past. I did not agree to help you."

For a moment, the blue hedgehog thought about what Shadow had said before, weighing the options. A moment later, he said, "I haven't done everything I've done in this life by avoiding risks. I won't start now. This is a chance I'm going to take."

"You still haven't told me how."

Suddenly, Sonic knew exactly how. Feeling the workings of a plan coming together in his head, he looked off into the sky. "For one thing, I know that more Chaos Drives definitely do exist." Shadow didn't ask how he knew, figuring he would go on to explain. He did. "A while back, Eggman managed to find me without having a Chaos Emerald. He knew where I was before even approaching me, and set up a field of robots to trap me so he could fight me. That was how I ended up with the broken hand."

"You think he used the Chaos energy in a Chaos Drive to track you down."

"Exactly. But we don't even have to find Eggman to find a Chaos Drive…" Sonic pointed to where he had been gazing. "Grand Metropolis is that way, in the sky. Eggman kept us imprisoned there for six months out of the seven we were poisoned. The place floats. How do you imagine it stays afloat?"

Shadow folded his arms. "Chaos Emeralds," he said. "You seem to have forgotten they play a part in all this. Don't disregard them."

"Not possible," the blue blur said in a tone that let Shadow know he had been prepared for that argument. "Five Emeralds are part of the barrier, and we have the sixth. There's only one left out there, and even if it is on Grand Metropolis, one Chaos Emerald alone can't hold a whole city. The liquid energy that flows through Grand Metropolis's roads is coming from somewhere else. It's coming from Chaos Drives. Eggman must have reserved energy from the Emeralds a long time ago, and planned to use that energy to keep the city afloat. The Chaos Emeralds themselves have regenerated that lost energy by now, but the Chaos Drives still have the energy they were granted.

"I can't waste any more time. Shadow, can you make me visible in this world? I need to communicate with Tails when I see him. I have to make sure he drinks the antidote when I get it."

"You're lucky I don't give a damn about our present," Shadow said. "Because you're increasing your chance of screwing it up… if you didn't already."

"I won't get caught," Sonic assured him. "Shadow… I honestly believe that what we do here can't make it any worse. If it does, I'll just find a way to fix it."

Shadow sighed, then did a silent Chaos Control. He nodded that he had done what Sonic had requested.

Sonic held out his hand and Shadow tossed him the Emerald, though hesitantly. "I just need it to teleport up to Grand Metropolis. I can handle that much."

Shadow watched the blue blur disappear in a gust of wind. Dirt and grass swirled around him in a whoosh before settling back to the ground.

It didn't take Sonic long to reach the grounds beneath airborne city. He had never noticed before because he hadn't been looking for it, but the Emerald was slightly warmer to the touch. He wondered if it was because there were Chaos Drives near by.

Driven by thoughts of his adopted little brother, Sonic closed his eyes and said, "Chaos Control."

Hardly anything happened. There were no intense sensations, no white lights. All he felt was a brief hot sensation, as if the Emerald had tried to teleport him and then had been interrupted just as it was about to succeed. When he opened his eyes, though, he was standing in the middle of the industrial but majestic Grand Metropolis. He smiled at the small triumph.

He was getting better at this.

…Or it was just easier because he was only warping through space, not time. He wasn't sure which, but either way, he was somewhat proud of how easily he had manipulated Chaos energy.

Sonic could see through the transparent blue path beneath him. There were clear pipes on the sides with a bright red liquid gushing through them. The energy gave the street a certain pull to it; he was moving forward without walking. It was the same energy that kept the city afloat. The same energy that came from Chaos Drives stored long ago. Hexagonal skyscrapers stood tall all around him. Minions, most robotic but some human, wandered all over the place. All in all, the city hadn't changed dramatically since he had last been there.

He wondered where to start.

There had to be streets that had energy pulling from the opposite direction, so that people could travel either way. He wondered if all the red energy came from one source, or two, since there had to be two directions. He supposed it didn't matter. Where a source was, there were likely to be Chaos Drives, too. If he was to reach it, he would have to run in the opposite direction the street wanted him to; that's where the red liquid was coming from.

He recalled being in an area with Tails once that had so much of the bright red energy, it had looked like nothing so much as a huge pool of lava. It had been right after he had woken up from being in a coma, and he had carried the still unconscious Tails through most of Grand Metropolis to get out. It had been on that arduous journey that they had encountered the giant structure. But that had been the outlet; where all of it went to after it travelled through the pipe system on the streets. There, it was probably sent back to the beginning for reuse. The energy he needed would be in the outlet area, but he couldn't very well pick up the stuff with his own hands and carry it back. He needed the containers that had been created to store it; the container of a Chaos Drive.

Already facing the other way, he began running against the current of energy beneath him. It took him a few minutes to build up speedy momentum. He had to work the muscles in his legs several times as hard as normal. He clenched his fists with the effort, then flinched, the pain reminding him of his sore hand. It was still finishing up the healing process, even though Shadow had sped up the bulk of it with Chaos energy. He wrung it out, shaking the ache away as he continued to accelerate. It was getting easier by the second. Running was his element.

Even though Sonic couldn't quite reach the sound barrier, it took him less than five minutes to get to the end of the monumental city. Once there, he slowed his pace to match that of the current of energy so that he would remain in the same spot. The effect was rather treadmill-like. Not too far ahead of him, the street dropped off into an enormous glass pit. The pipes descended into the hot energy in that pit, drawing the stuff up out of it. Just before that, on the side of the street, a simple, rectangular building appeared to be floating of its own accord. There was what looked like an automatic door facing the street.

At first, Sonic was surprised and a little suspicious. It seemed to him like there should be more protection in an area like this. Why were there not several minions guarding the area, so the energy supply couldn't be interfered with? Then he realized why. Thee energy current of the street went in the opposite direction; nobody was supposed to be able to get to where he was. There would be no need for such guards.

He grinned in spite of himself. Eggman had forgotten one crucial detail: him. Even geniuses made mistakes.

Sonic approached the area. The doors slid open, allowing entrance. He hopped over the red pipe and landed inside the building.

There were thousands upon Chaos Drives in front of him, laying on their sides, stacked on top of each other. They came in every color he had ever seen, and each had a slight glow, just like the Emeralds. The cause of the glow was the liquefied Chaos energy. There was another substance in the tubes; it was a clear, thin sheet that laid on top of the red stuff like oil on water. Sonic had never known what it was, only that it was responsible in part for giving his life back to him. He would make sure it did the same for Tails.

For the first time, he stopped to wonder just why there was another substance mixed in with the Chaos energy anyway. It had never mattered before, and he supposed it didn't matter now, but what was the point? Aside from being an antidote, the energy of Chaos Drives was what kept the city afloat. Perhaps, he thought, the oily layer was some kind of storage preservative. Perhaps it was needed to keep the energy potent now that it was away from the Chaos Emeralds.

It could have been so easy, all along, Sonic thought. It was so ironic that the antidote to the poison he and Tails had been cursed with was in the place they had woken up in the first place. He realized that it was a genius idea. Eggman had counted on them not suspecting the cure to be in front of their noses.

He taken long enough to catch on, but at least it was not too late.

His blood turned to ice as he realized how easily it could become too late. Trying to stay calm, he snatched a Chaos Drive, then grabbed several more for good measure, stuffing all but one in his quills. It would be safer, he figured, to hold onto one. It wasn't very often something fell out of the storage area that was his quills, but if there was anything that would fall out, it was something small and smooth like a Chaos Drive. He couldn't risk such a thing, not when he was finally so close.

In a moment of frantic impulsiveness, Sonic leapt over the edge of the road.

It wasn't very often he willingly jumped thousands of feet. He had never pulled off such a landing without hurting himself somewhere, he recalled… but he had always pulled it off without dying.

That was Sonic's way of thinking.

He spread out his arms and legs to slow his fall as much as he could. Then, as he neared the ground, he pulled all four limbs inward and pressed his chin to his chest. As his speed increased, he tightened his ball-form and began to spin. Feeling a cool gust against his left side, he turned, arcing in the direction the wind was going, letting it guide him. If he executed his plan properly, he would land on the ground gracefully, like a plane coming in for a landing. It rarely worked that way, he knew, but practice made perfect.

In no time, he felt chunks of dirt shredding beneath his spikes. It had been a smooth transition from air to ground. He had never done it so well, or so painlessly.

Then he smacked into something. His body was in just the wrong spot to sandwich his injured hand between himself and the obstacle for a split second. Then he rebounded forcefully backwards. He felt his body uncurl, and then the ground was beneath him again. The contact was infinitely more harsh the second time.

He cried out briefly between shallow breaths. The world went a little blurry around him as he tried to get up, not only from being dizzy, but from the sudden jolt of agony in his hand. It was so shockingly painful that he felt sick. After a moment he allowed himself to collapse back to the ground. He would get nowhere fast in such a state of vertigo. Better to rest and get a hold of himself.

Only after the dizziness went away and the sharp edge of pain diminished did he dare to get up. He hoped he hadn't messed up his hand's healing process, but he couldn't worry about it right now. Once sure he could support himself, he walked cautiously forward, searching for whatever it was he had slammed into. He couldn't see anything.

After a few moments, though, he felt it. It was the barrier, just as present in the past as it was in the present. He wondered how such a thing was possible, then remembered that the barrier was made using the Chaos Emeralds. Of course it would be present in all time periods; the Chaos Emeralds could teleport.

"So I'm still stuck here either way," the hedgehog muttered to himself. "At least I know."

And at least Tails's house was within the boundaries.

Ignoring the lingering pain in his hand – and in his whole body, for that matter – he shot off in a dead run for Tails's workshop.

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When Sonic rushed in the door ten minutes later, the Chaos Drive in his good hand, Tails was on his front on the floor. At first glance, a scene like that was a scary sight, but only for a second. The fox, though not appearing to be in good condition at all, was alive and awake.

He had a pen in his hand and a piece of paper in front of him. His whole body was trembling. Sonic knew from his own experience that it was either in weakness or excruciating pain. He hoped it was the former, but somehow knew it was the latter.

There were teardrops falling on the floor around the paper as the fox pressed the pen down hard, making himself write.

"Stop that, stop," Sonic said in a whisper. Even though he said it as gently as he could, the fox jumped and turned around fast. "Tails, shh… it's just me. It's just who it always is."

"Sonic…! How… how could you stand this? It happened to you so much… so much more than it's happening to me." The fox gasped, suddenly looking even more terrified. To Sonic, he looked like a child again. It wasn't a side of Tails he saw often anymore. He wanted to comfort that scared, panicked child inside. "That's because it's not done yet, is it? It's going to get worse, isn't it? Like it did for you… oh Sonic, I knew it had to be unbearable, but I could never have fathomed…"

Sonic leaned down and pressed a finger to his lips to silence him. He knew Tails would have kept on talking. Tails thought he was going to die, and there were things he wanted to say. Despite the pain, he was determined to say them.

But it was no longer necessary.

"Look," the hedgehog said quietly, holding out the antidote. "Open your mouth, bro." Tails did. He started pouring the liquid in slowly. "Swallow every bit of it."

Tails gulped it down like he had never had anything to drink in his life. He knew what it was. The look of agony remained on his face for several long, torturous seconds – torturous for both of them. Then, Sonic could see the pain leaving his eyes. It didn't go away completely, or enough, but it was on its way.

As Tails had his life returned to him, Sonic brushed his fingers against the side of the fox's face, silently helping him through the last of the pain. Sonic felt that something had been returned to him, as well.

Those bright blue eyes that Sonic had missed so much finally rose up to meet his gaze. At first, he looked as if he still couldn't process what had just happened. Slowly, disbelief settled in, followed by an overwhelming collection of emotions that Sonic could only empathize with because he felt the exact same way. It was amazing to look into Tails's eyes again, and feel him looking back. It was merely eye contact, but to Sonic, it was the most precious thing in the whole world. "Thank you, my brother," the fox said in a voice saturated with sincerity and love. Sonic smiled at him, becoming absorbed in their shared gaze, for the moment having no desire to do anything more.

Finally, he said softly, "Where've you been all my life, Tails?"

"…What?"

The hedgehog laughed a pleasant, quiet, relieved laugh. "Never mind. I'll be back, okay?" Or at least, the other me will be right back.

"What? But… but I want you to stay. You can't go off on another adventure now, not after all…"

Again, Sonic silenced him. "Don't worry. I meant, I'll be back in a few minutes." The other Sonic would be there any second now, never mind minutes, and since he was playing an active role in the past now instead of just observing it, that would not go over well. "I promise. Okay?"

"Okay, Sonic." Tails smiled.

The blue blur rushed out the door and back towards where he had left Shadow. As he ran, he reminisced, something that he was doing an awful lot of lately. He had never lost sight of himself and his life while dealing with his best friend's death, even though it had deeply upset him for a while. After that, he had come to realize that he could still enjoy life like he did before. Life was too precious to miss out on for any reason. But still, now that the deed was sealed, Sonic felt happier than he had in a long, long time.

On that short run back, it felt as if everything was all right in the world, even though it wasn't. When he and Shadow went back to the present in a few minutes, he had no doubt that Tails would be there. Tails, his brother, his best friend, was the factor that made everything all right in his world.

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...No, of COURSE it's not this simple. I hope you didn't honestly think they're just going to go defeat Eggman now and everything's going to be okay.

It's peculiar that FFN's edit/preview system thinks that 'teleport' is not a word. It always has that squiggly red line under it. Hmph.

At any rate... thanks for reading (and reviewing?). Looking forward to seeing you all next time for Chapter 12: Unnatural. Aside from realizing he just changed the world, Sonic gets unexpectedly ambushed… and neither Shadow nor Tails are around to help.