Thankfully this update didn't take over three months like the last one. I'm actually pretty excited about this chapter. I don't know why. Maybe because it's my longest chapter to date?

So... yeah. That's all I have to say for now. Here it is.

The group followed the very strange orb of light, mainly identifying it by its loud buzzing noise. It wasn't very hard for them to trail, however, because the light the sun was casting off was very dim, making the orb seem brighter in the afternoon glow.

"Where's it going?" Clementine wondered aloud. "It's just floating around everywhere."

Clementine was soon proven wrong, however. When the orb reached a cluster of shrubs, it dove straight in, and the buzzing suddenly stopped.

Crash jumped into the small grove with it, and Knuckles and Clementine followed. All three of them gasped to find a large green emerald shard that was glowing with a harsh light.

"I knew it had something to do with the Master Emerald!" Crash said, pumping his fist. "We found one!"

"Oh, awesome!" Knuckles said, kneeling down beside the shard to examine it. "But what's it-"

Suddenly, the surrounding bushes began to rustle. The whole group froze, their eyes widening as something came forward. Just then, two figures jumped through the leaves and branches, landing right in front of the emerald shard.

Surprisingly, the two were quite the same, yet different as well. Both were young peach-orange female echidnas with wide violet eyes. One, though, was wearing a white shirt and a gold necklace with a green skirt decorated with a strange diamond pattern. Around her head was a headband-like tiara, and some of her dreadlocks were wrapped in cloth.

The other echidna was quite different. She was covered in an all black bodysuit, and her wristbands glowed purple, along with a design on her headband. Her dreadlocks were swept up by the headband, and her boots had a stripe that glowed pink running down the front.

Knuckles gasped, recognizing the two immediately. "Tikal? Shade? What are you doing here?"

Clementine sighed. "Great. More echidnas."

"Hello, Knuckles," Tikal said, giving him a nod of acknowledgement. "Hello, Crash and Clementine."

"Uh... yes," Shade said, smiling. "Hello."

Clementine blinked in surprise. "Whoa! You know who we are! But how?" She tilted her head to one side, staring at them with a confused expression on her face. "I thought we came to the past. Are you from our time? If you are, I don't think we've met."

"No," Knuckles said, "they're not."

"Well, if you want to look at it that way, then that's entirely true," Tikal said. "I live in the Master Emerald, remember? I am alive in your time as well as hers. However, Genesis broke it, so I was released."

"You know Genesis, too?" Crash asked, his eyes widening. "Where is she?"

"Why, she's right there," Tikal said. With her gloved hand, she pointed right at the emerald shard.

Crash didn't seem to understand and began to look around wildly for any trace of the woman. "What? Where? Where is she?"

"Right there," Shade said, grabbing hold of Crash's head and forcing it to look at the shard.

Understanding, Crash grinned. "No way! That's cool!"

Knuckles picked up the gem, staring at it in awe. "No... that's impossible!"

"It's entirely possible," Tikal said. "You all came here to the past. You weren't meant to do so. The people of your past," she looked Clementine's way, "now know some events of your time. Therefore, some things are happening that were never meant to happen, and they are preventing your very existence."

Knuckles dropped the shard. Crash and Clementine's mouths dropped open. No one said a word.

"So... is that why Crash has been acting so weird lately?" Clementine asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm afraid so," Tikal confirmed. "Genesis came to the Master Emerald because she caused so much chaos in trying to find these shards that she made herself disappear. Hers was much faster than yours, Crash, because she caused so many more preventing events."

"So the past must be kept perfectly intact in order for the future to come true," Knuckles whispered.

"Precisely," Shade said. She turned to her companion. "Is there more to this? Please, I'd like to know if there's anything else. You didn't tell me much."

"Don't worry," said Tikal, "everything will become clear in a moment. But Genesis does not have much longer, I'm afraid. Look, her light is fading."

It was true. The light the emerald was shining was fading quickly, and a large black shape could be seen struggling against its holds.

"She's taking shape!" Shade exclaimed. "We're going to need to find the emerald shards if you want to stay alive, Crash."

Crash's eyes widened further. "What do you mean?! Am I going to end up like... like HER?!"

"Well, it's possible," Tikal said. "I should tell you about that."

"Well, what else is there?" Clementine snapped. "This is already confusing enough!"

"Do you want to know about it or not?" Knuckles barked back.

"All right, let's not argue!" Tikal said, stepping between them.

"You're depleting her disappearing time as you speak!" Shade hollered.

When the two were quiet, Tikal began. "Thank you, Shade. All right. I will explain this matter to you in as much detail as I can, and I do not want to repeat myself. You children, who come from twenty-three years from today, are in danger of disappearing forever. One by one, you will all be captured by an emerald shard from oldest to youngest, until the emerald is complete and it can capture you as a whole. On the chance that you are taken into the emerald, your age will decrease until you are no longer alive, and you will be erased from existence forever. Even if your friends go back to your time, you will not. If, however, your companions manage to get to their own time before you go away completely, you will get out of the Master Emerald at the age you stopped shrinking."

"But if we can use the whole Master Emerald to put them back where they came from," Knuckles clarified, "I suppose we can use whatever method Crash used to come here to have whoever came here go back there?"

Everyone was silent as Tikal and Shade tried to process what the crimson echidna had just said. "I guess..." Shade replied hesitantly.

"Wow," Clementine said. "So if Crash is next..." She began to count with her fingers. "That means next will be Luna... then Justice... then Dash... then ME!" She gasped. "We've got to get these pieces back together! Tikal, do you know where the pieces are?"

"I am a part of the emerald," Tikal said. "I know all about it."

"Good," Knuckles said, "because I'm not sure I can see it right now."

"Lead the way," Shade said, making way for Tikal. "Now, tell me about yourselves. What's life like where you come from?" The question was directed towards both Crash and Clementine, but she was mainly focusing on Crash.

"All right," Tikal sighed, picking up Genesis's shard. "I suppose I don't want you to die. Let us go and find those shards. Hopefully Crash will not have been captured by then."

**********

"...And that's when I met you," Tails said, continuing to bang two stones together right next to Zach's ear. "Which brings us right where we are now! Now, pay attention, kid! Come on!"

Amy rolled her eyes. "I could hardly even hear your story, Tails. Now stop it! He's probably just tired or something and doesn't feel like paying attention to you."

"Oh, fine," he said, dropping the rocks. "But I'm keeping my eye on him. Obviously, there's something wrong with him, and I'm determined to find out what."

Justice and Dash glanced at each other, but said nothing. Tyler was staring at the rocks, trying to contemplate why the fox would be banging rocks next to Zach's ear in the first place.

"You know, I'm amazed at Tyler's behavior," Amy commented, looking back at Justice. "We haven't heard him-"

Just then, Tyler's eyes began to water. His lip quivered for a moment, and he burst into tears.

"...Cry ...once..." Amy finished, sighing.

Tails slapped his forehead. "Oh, great! We've got a bawling baby on our hands and we don't know how to deal with it!"

"Whoever said we didn't know what to do?" Dash asked, tossing the emerald shard back and forth between himself. "I say that he's hungry. Who's got food?"

Amy grimaced. "As hungry as we ALL are, we've got no food. Now, find a way to get him to be quiet!"

Justice came closer to the pink hedgehog. "You're his mom! You figure out what to do!"

Meanwhile, Rouge was still watching from the trees above the group, but she was holding her ears closed with her hands in an attempt to block out Tyler's shrieks. "Shut up!" she growled, closing her eyes. "I'll break my eardrum at the rate that kid's going!"

Opening her eyes, she spotted something hanging from a tree branch not far off from where she was - an acorn. Stealthily jumping from her current tree to the acorn, she grabbed it and hurled it at Tyler.

However, the baby's crying must have made her aim slightly off, because instead of hitting Tyler, she hit Tails right on his forehead.

Suddenly, Tyler stopped crying. He began to laugh when he saw the acorn hit Tails's head. Everyone in the small group stared upward.

"Where'd that come from?" Tails wondered.

"Beats me," Dash said with a shrug. "The trees, most likely. Looks like they're oak trees. But look! Tyler's stopped crying! And we've got food now!" He snatched the acorn up from off the ground, and before anyone could stop him, popped it into his mouth. As he chewed, his face took on a disgusted expression and he spit out the bits of acorn he had eaten. "Don't eat those," he advised everyone.

Tyler began to laugh even harder, and Rouge began to form a plan. It was a simple plan, but she believed it would work. Spying more acorns, she gathered them, her eyes locked on Tails. If she continued to throw the acorns at him, she'd get the child to shut up, she'd trail them all to Angel Island, and she'd get to have some fun while doing it. She'd kill THREE birds with one stone!

Grinning evilly, she plucked another acorn and hurled it directly at Tails. This time, her aim was right, and she hit him on the head.

"All right, who's doing that?" Tails demanded, looking upward. "Huh? I know you're up there! Don't make me go get you!"

"Tails, relax," said Amy, "I'm sure it's just the acorns falling. Now let's go on to find those two. We've got to get to Angel Island. The sooner we can get back to Sonic, the better."

Tails looked confused. "But I thought you said... oh, never mind. OW! Stupid trees..." He rubbed his head as he was hit with another acorn. Tails was still suspicious about what was up in the trees, but he said nothing.

So the group continued their journey, with Tails being pelted by acorns with Rouge. The trip was starting to become filled with Tyler's laughter, but Zach stayed silent. No one seemed to notice, though. They were just eager to get their objective done.

**********

"I don't believe this," Arick said, throwing his hands into the air. "Our search for Genesis brought us to a freaking RIVER? Really?"

It was true. After walking (or in their case, flying) for about fifteen minutes, the group had reached a wide river with a fast current. There was nothing to do but go over it.

"All right. Fine. I'll go over first," Arick said, already beginning to fly over it. "Aithne, you follow. Uh... Silver, you fly over with us. And take... Blaze with you." He was trying hard not to call them "Mom" and "Dad," but he was successful.

Silver nodded and began to cross, but he noticed Aithne sit down beside the river. Curious, he instructed Arick to take Blaze, and he flew over to the girl.

"Hey," he said, sitting down beside her. "What's up?"

Aithne shrugged. "Nothing. This trip's just been a little tiring, that's all."

"'Kay," he replied, crossing his legs. "Listen... I kind of think we got off on the wrong foot. We didn't really have much of a proper meeting. Then again, I haven't had many good meetings..."

She snorted. "Haven't we all? I was thinking the same thing."

"I was wondering," Silver began, "if you'd like to tell me what Arick was talking about when he went on about you wanting to be 'normal.' Is there a story to that?"

"Of course there is," she said, glaring at her twin, who was slowly flying over the river. "PICK UP THE PACE!!" she screamed at him.

Silver held his ears shut at her shriek, but continued talking to her. "Well? Can you tell me?"

The twelve-year-old seemed slightly uncomfortable, but she spoke to him anyway. "You know, most people don't even have powers. They can't lift things with their minds or send flames from their hands. I found that out as I was growing up. I made friends, and I realized how weird my life was. Everyone else my age was going to school, and I was trying to go to the future and fighting Genesis and all that stuff. None of my friends are even hybrids. I don't like being different. I want to fit in." She sighed, relived to have taken the stress of that off her chest, and looked to Silver.

The ivory hedgehog had no idea where the speech had come from, but smiled. "So it's a matter of fitting in," he confirmed. "But I'm puzzled as to why you want to. I think I remember something about Blaze not fitting in when we met for the first time." He sighed, staring up at the purple feline, who had stopped for some reason above the river and was yelling at Arick. "Now, one more question, because we're going to need to go. Can you tell me about your family? Do you have any other siblings besides Arick?"

Aithne cringed. "Well... I..." She turned to him, uncertainty reflecting in her amber eyes. "I want to tell you about that. There... there's something you should probably know. But I'm not sure I should talk about it. I don't really know how to tell you, and... well, being who you are right now, I'm not sure how you'll take it."

"Uh... what?"

"Silver!" Blaze's voice called out from above the water. The two had stopped long before, and were now only staring at Silver and Aithne, waiting for them to join. "Aren't you coming?"

"Just give us a few minutes!" he shouted back. "Well, if I should know, I think we can ignore that. What's there to know?"

Aithne didn't look reassured, but she sighed and began to talk. "When I was six, Mom was having another baby." Her voice was already beginning to shake out of nervousness.

"So you've got another sibling?" Silver asked, his eyes wide. "Who are they? What's their name?"

"Will you let me finish?" Aithne asked, glaring at him. "Yes, Mom was having a baby, and we were all excited." Her expression softened, and she sighed. "It was probably one of the better times of my life. Mom was going through all this pregnancy stuff, and everything was just... normal, for once."

"Yeah, I could see how you'd like that," Silver said. "Go on. I want to know about this kid."

Aithne tossed a stone into the river with her psychokinesis. "That's it."

Sliver looked confused. "That's it? What do you mean, that's it?"

Aithne stood up and began to walk towards the river, with Silver in tow. "I mean, that's it."

"But that can't be it!" Silver shouted, flying up with Aithne over the river. "There's got to be more! When was the kid born? What's their name? What are they LIKE?"

The hedgecat sighed. "Silver," she began with no trouble, "the baby was never born. Mom had a miscarriage. That's it."

Her words made Silver's blood run cold. "A... a... really?" He had no idea what to say. He couldn't tell whether he should be sorry for the girl - she had only been six when it happened - or if he should feel scared for himself, because the unborn child could be Blaze and his in a matter of time.

Aithne looked to Silver mournfully. "You've got to understand just how hard it is for Mom to have kids. I'd say that Arick and I are lucky to even be alive. I mean, half of her body - half of my body - is on fire. You can't have kids easily when that's how you're made."

Still slightly stunned, Silver nodded solemnly. He said nothing more, still trying to process the news. They were approaching Blaze and Arick quickly, anyway.

"There you are," Blaze said, grabbing Silver's hand. "Now let's get going. Honestly, we've been just floating up here for nearly five minutes! What were you two talking about that couldn't wait until you got up here?"

"Well," he said, grabbing hold of his friend as Arick released her, "it was..." He glanced up at Aithne, who was staring at him with an look that he couldn't identify. "You know, she just had a lot on her mind. She just needed someone to vent to."

"If you say so."

Arick flew towards the two. "Okay, now that we're all through with this holdup, how about we stop with this stuff and get going?"

Silver nodded and let go of Blaze, levitating her so they could continue the cross above the water. "...What?" he asked, confused by the look Blaze was giving him.

"...Nothing," she replied. To herself, she muttered, "He's so naïve."

"You two," Arick pointed to Aithne and Silver, "have been stalling this thing. You've made this stupid river cross more than ten minutes long! It's not supposed to take that long to cross a freaking river! Now, we've sat here waiting for you for a while now. We're wasting time just sitting here talking! ...Aw, crap, now I'M stalling! Come on, let's go!" He turned and flew off towards the edge of the river as fast as he could go.

"Hey, genius," Aithne said, crossing her arms. "We're supposed to go that way." She pointed in the opposite direction he was flying.

Arick stopped. He stiffened, but he whirled around and rushed past the other three. "I knew that!"

Blaze sighed. "He's right. And please, Silver, just get me back to the ground, fast. I don't like floating so high above a river, of all things."

Silver nodded and sped towards the edge, carrying Blaze with him. Aithne followed, although more slowly than them.

I suppose I'm right, she thought to herself. We're lucky to be alive.

**********

"I wonder what's going to happen when we find the rest of the shards," Cream wondered. "How will everyone know that we've found everything?"

"Chao, chao," Cheese said in the same questioning manner.

Sonic shrugged. "We'll know somehow. I don't know how, but we'll know. It just does stuff like that."

"Well, let's do it soon," Luna scoffed. "I'm starting to hate all three of you."

Shadow glared. "You're not exactly the life of the party, either."

"Nope! That would be me!" Sonic said, jumping in between the two. Annoyed, Shadow punched his rival, causing Sonic to stagger sideways. The cobalt hedgehog frowned at his attacker. "Hey, no need to get pushy, Shads."

Shadow clenched his jaw. "Don't call me Shads."

Sonic shrugged. "Okay, Shads. Hey, Luna, you still got that Chaos Emerald?"

Luna reached into her utility belt and pulled out the crimson emerald. "Yeah. Why?"

"Just checking. I was kinda thinking you'd lost it or something."

The hedge-bat glowered. "I never lose my valuables. I wouldn't be a good treasure hunter if I didn't know how to keep track of my things. Why, I even have-"

"What do you mean your stuff?" Cream asked innocently. "Don't you steal stuff? Stealing doesn't make it yours. It's someone else's. You're just saying you own it to not get in trouble or something."

Luna grunted. "Well, it doesn't sound as cool when you put it that way."

"Well, it's not - OOF!" Cream ran into Sonic, who had stopped moving. "Mr. Sonic? Why'd you stop?"

Sonic's mouth had dropped open in disbelief. His emerald green eyes were wide, and he was staring straight ahead. His arms were limp at his sides, but they immediately stiffened and were slowly rising to his face, his fingers slightly curled in agony.

"What?" Luna asked. "What is... oh, crap." She, too, noticed what Sonic was gawking at.

Although Cream and Shadow felt no annoyance or disbelief, they did question why their journey had brought them to that location. The trip had taken Sonic and Luna in a circle.

They had somehow returned to the fallen Angel Island.

Unable to bear the fact that he had come right back to where he started, Sonic howled in fury. "OH, COME ON!!!"

----------

And there you have it. I'm just glad I got some of that off my chest.

I'm actually glad this one took less time to update than the last. But I'm kind of unsure of what feedback I'm going to get...

So, yeah. Thanks for reading. R&R if you can.