Chapter 11.

The Doctor leaned back from the TARDIS screens, pocketing his specs and mugging his chin. He'd just finished looking over the result of Sonic's MIT scan. The final prognosis was not good. Not good at all.

He set the time machine to automatic, letting her drift through the Time Vortex to her hearts content, a chance to relax and re-charge before the big show-down when they landed at the home of the Nazo Serpent.

The Doctor shivered recalling the name that flickered on-screen: The Black Asteroid and with good reason. The region of space where it resided was an area that even the Time Lords didn't dare go. The area was a very weak spot for any kind of Spacey-Wacey, Timey-Whimey stuff. If you wanted to, you could stop time there forever, trapping your enemy in a time-less prison.

With a sigh the Time Lord straightened, shrugging off his ruined jacket and leaving the Control Room in search of a bed-room where he could change. Now, the Doctor knew his ship like the back of his hand, so he was a little stunned to find him-self standing in the corridor that held the sleeping quarters belonging to his companions. He was about to head the other way when the second door to his right softly clicked open. Always the curious he peered through the gap and blinked spotting the black and purple décor of Rouge.

The white bat was oblivious to him and was packing her ruck-sack that sat on the bed. She was folding her long woollen coat, the same one she wore at The Lost Library, tucking it into the already stuffed bag when she stopped suddenly. Slowly she sat down, her turquoise eyes narrowing as she pulled something towards her.

The Doctor's own eyes widened when she flipped open the gift box and pulled out the item inside.

It was a long, stripy scarf in her colours of purple and black with pink fringes at the ends. Rouge blushed a perfect pink, holding the scarf to her chest she whispered, "Thank-you."

The Doctor stepped away as the TARDIS hummed in response, softly closing the door and opening another one: this time to his left. When the Doctor peaked inside he recognised the pink and cream furnishings of Amy Rose.

Amy was dancing along to the radio as she packed, her pink head bobbing in time with the music. She came to her bed and stopped like Rouge. On the flowered covers was an identical box wrapped with a red ribbon. The pink hedgehog lifted the lid carefully and her eyes widened taking out a large leather bound book.

She blushed too as she read the title. "I was gonna take it back…one day." She turned the book in her hands with a head-shake but smiling anyways as she sat down and began to read. From his place by the door the Doctor could just make out the title picked out in golden letters: Sonic and the Black Knight—Collector's Edition.

"I take it this was your idea?" The Doctor quickly stood and turned finding Shadow wearing a thunderous expression. The black hedgehog stormed forwards and shoved something into his hands. "Well…is it?"

The Doctor looked at the silver framed photo in his palms: it was of a man and a young woman. The man looked just like Eggman, only his whiskers were grey and not ginger. The girl was blue-eyed and fair haired. The older version of Eggman was seated at a Lab table of some kind while the girl was standing behind him with a hand on his shoulder. "I don't know who these people are. Do you?"

Shadow snatched the photo back and looked at it, his expression softened a little. "Gerald Robotnik and his grand-daughter Maria. They were my family on board The ARK. When I lost my memory I thought…I…"

"The TARDIS gave you that because they are important to you, Shadow. They are, as you said, your family. In giving you this special gift she's letting you know that you are part of her family and hopes that one day you'll feel the same."

Shadow blinked, his fingertips ghosting over the glass, "Maybe…Maybe one day." Meeting the Doctor's gaze the dark hedgehog smirked slightly, "I better help Amy with her packing. Knowing her she's trying to sneak away some alien body wash or something." With a nod he left, but the Doctor noticed that he patted the wall panel beside Amy's door before he entered.

The Doctor scratched his cheek heading down the corridor. The TARDIS opened another door, but this time the room inside was blank: just a double bed, a single wardrobe and a connecting door that led to the bathroom. He muttered his thanks, closing the door behind him, dumping his jacket on the bed, unknotting his tie, shedding his torn and bloodied shirt before heading to en-suite to wash-up and change. He reappeared half an hour later refreshed, wiping the last of the shaving cream off his face when he stopped in the doorway.

Sonic sat on the bed, the Doctor's shirt in his hands, at his cough the blue hedgehog looked up eyes widening and a blush covering his muzzle taking in his current state of un-dress. "I…I didn't know this was your room."

The Doctor shook his head with a smile, draping the towel over his shoulders. "It's not. Just a spare." He strolled over to the wardrobe in search of a clean shirt, "You get lost?" He asked finding a familiar sky-blue shirt and slipping it on but not doing up the buttons. When Sonic didn't answer he looked over his shoulder, a frown appearing on his face seeing Sonic sitting with his back to him, "What's wrong?"

Sonic shrugged, "It's probably just me being silly. But…"

"In my experience, when someone says 'but' it's never a good thing." Flinging the damp towel to the floor the Doctor sat down on the other side and reached over to squeeze the hedgehog's shoulder. His brown eyes were serious, "Tell me what's wrong."

Sonic turned around, his eyes were down-cast, "I'm not right. I was with Tails at the in-door racing track, he was testing the new bit the TARDIS gave him for his Go-Kart, and…" He huffed rubbing a hand over his eyes. "I blanked out. Right near the finish line. One minute I'm on my feet, and the next second I'm sparked out on the floor with Tails standing over me muttering and shaking his head like I've done something wrong." Sonic lifted his head; faint salty traces ran down his cheeks, the image broke the Doctor's hearts. "I came to find you but you weren't in the Control-Room so I had a look around, and ended up here…" his voice broke off with a soft whimper, the ruined shirt fell from his fingers as he reached up to grabbed his head. "It hurts Doctor. It's like I'm all jumbled up inside. There's gotta be something you can do. Please, Doctor," Lowering his hands he looked the Time-Lord head on, his green eyes flashed gold. "Help me…"

The Doctor covered the hedgehog's hands with his own, "Sonic, you've got to fight this. You took regeneration energy from me. That's only happened once before, with Donna, resulting in a biological metacrisis. Look at me!" Grasping the sides of Sonic's head the Doctor tilted his head up so they were eye to eye. "Sonic, you have to fight this. You're becoming something else, something new. I can't help you the same way I helped Donna; your mind is too fragile." Sonic's eyes were still gold: his hands were now glowing. "Fight it! Use the mystical energies that binded you to this realm as Sola to find a balance. Sonic please…"

"I…I…" With a shuddering breath Sonic's eyes closed and he went limp in the Doctor's hold.

The Doctor gently set the sleeping hedgehog down on the bed. After he finished dressing he took the screwdriver from his pockets to do a quick scan. His hadn't even started it when the sonic bleeped in refusal. He frowned at it and took a quick glance at the readings. "Now, that's not right. Why are you doing that?" He took the sonic and slapped it against his palm, it whined in protest. "Look! Don't get argumentative with me, just do as I ask." He forced a smile. "Please?" The sonic tool whined again and he pouted. "Fine. Be like that. But when this is over I'm doing a full diagnosis on you." Making sure Sonic was comfortable he slipped on his jacket and headed back to the Control-Room. "Hacking into Time-Lord tech is virtually impossible and yet someone's blocked me out of certain medical programmes. I want to know why."

Elsewhere in the Time-Vortex…

"Are you sure you've got the right time and place this time, Amelia? The last two trips have been, to put it mildly, disastrous." The pilot checked and then double checked the read-out.

"I'm sure I got it right this time." Came Amelia's reply followed by a long, loud slurp.

He huffed typing on the key-pad, "I didn't mind the library, always loved a good book, but the planet entirely made of clouds I could've done without. Nice colours, but I didn't care for the pink ones when it rained. My other coat still smells of chocolate milk." He looked over the top of the control panel with the hint of a smile, "Still, it was nice to see you enjoying yourself. I guess where you're from chocolate milk must be hard to come by. It was the truth wasn't it? That you're from The Void?"

"Yep." With a final slurp of her milk-shake, Amelia looked up from the instrument she was watching. It was a funny looking thing, like an old fashioned egg timer: tiny luminous ball-bearings dropped from the top down to the bottom. When the bottom section of the hour-glass was full the whole thing flipped over and the process started again. According to the pilot of the ship it was all part of the controls to make it fly. She looked at him with a smile on her face; her jade eyes were bright with excitement. She was about to ask how long it was going to be before they landed when a large shower of sparks erupted from the control panel making her jump in surprise. "What's happening?!"

Her friend darted around the centre panel, adjusting this and that. "We're getting close! The two machines can sense each other. Hold down that lever next to you…NOW!" She did as he asked and the room stopped shaking. "OK. She's stable for now." He gave her a serious look. "I know you asked for my help but understand this: what we're about to do is very, very dangerous. If we're caught it could result in all kinds of paradoxes."

"Well then," Amelia took a familiar looking silver tube from its moorings and tossed it over to the pilot who caught it easily. "Best not get caught. Eh, Doctor?"

The plot thickens…

We're nearly there, folks, just a couple more chapters and I can put this story to bed. Let's go out with a big bang-WHOO!