"I knew you'd say that." Reason sighed, hands already sweeping across the console screen without looking.

"I'm-"

"Don't apologise." She gave a tight lipped smile. "Save your words, and speak them quickly."

She stepped back as fluid gurgled from Doodle's tank.

in the exact same moment the aged foxes stood, rustling forward with the considered movements of age. Doodle dropped out of the tube, coughs shaking her frail body. Gloved hands gently caught her, lowering her to the ground as other foxes shuffled to the lockers, pulling familiar garments free. In moments Doodle, long white hair bunched into twin ponytails, reclined upon a living sofa, her red and yellow jacket even more oversized now than when he'd first met her, though for different reasons.

A hand pushed Miles forward from behind, and he stumbled forward, into the glass antechamber which closed behind him. A white gloved hand drifted up to his cheek.

"You're as adorable as I remembered." Doodle smiled, ruffling his fur.

"Hello, Doodle." Miles smiled, pushing his head gently into her caress. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get here."

"I knew you'd come back." Her now cloudy blue eyes were wet. "I waited so long, but I knew you'd come back. I'm sorry I… got so big."

"You're still cute though."

"I love it when you lie." She laughed, brightly enough Miles almost couldn't see the pain. "Did you like my girls? I thought you might like me more that way."

"They're nice." Miles smiled. "But I always thought you were perfect just the way you are."

"They set everything up just the way you wanted. Do you remember?" Doodle flinched, her hand creeping up to her chest. "I did okay, didn't I? You saved the world?"

"You did great, Doodle." Miles leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her so delicately. Her body trembled beneath him. "You were a big help. Thank you for always taking care of me."

"No problem." Doodle smiled. "You're my dream after all. I have to-"

She grimaced, gnarled hand momentarily clenching around his fur.

System shock. Being wrenched from the Happy Days life support that had been keeping her alive, her body was now shutting down at a rapid pace. His fellow prisoner was being claimed by Happy Days at last.

"Sorry I can't-"

Miles shushed her with a finger. "You don't have to be sorry for anything." He nestled close, rubbing his furred cheek over hers. "I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere."

"My beautiful... dream. Always see you trying… so... hard." Doodle kneaded the fur on Miles' head with trembling fingers. "It's okay to… just do your best. It's okay… to... be... wrong… some..."

Doodle never finished the sentence. Miles held her close as her body stiffened, then stilled, cloudy eyes drooping closed.

"Goodbye, Doodle."

He didn't know if his whisper reached her.

But at least he was there at the end. And he held her close long after it.

Finally, after how long he didn't know, after Doodle's warmth began to fade beneath him, a hand laid on his shoulder. Reason stood by him, her blue eyes glistening.

"Thank you. I was happy."

Miles nodded.

How long had he known Doodle? From his perspective he'd first met her three months ago. They'd spent just over a week together aboard Happy Days, first escaping, then preparing to leave. And recently a few days interacting with her through clones?

But she'd been watching him her entire life. First in the dreams of Happy Days, and while he wandered the halls of the Death Egg. Then while he travelled across Little Planet. Even when he was gone, over his decades in the past, she had been surrounded by almost him this whole time. He had been part of her entire life, literally from cradle to grave.

He had barely known her. He had been her everything.

"It's time to go, Miles." Reason laid her claw on his shoulder. "Everything has to end."

Miles dashed a hand over his eyes, nodding as he straightened. As soon as he moved, Doodle's retinue of ancient foxes straightened her body out between them, settling into cross-legged repose on each side of her. Miles threaded between them, staring up at the orange time stone still dangling from the tube.

Pink, green, blue, red, yellow, purple, cyan… Orange.

Miles hand moved towards the time stone as though he was drawn to it.

Perhaps he was?

Sonic had talked about Robotnik stealing the seven time stones.

He'd never mentioned there being eight of them.

But he'd never mentioned any miracles either. And Miles could certainly use a few nowadays.

The stone disappeared in a sparkle of light, its metal halo tumbled down unsupported. An alien familiarity spread through Miles' body. Like and unlike the Chaos state, an overwhelming sense of…

Precision.

Miles could feel where he was. When he was. How he had got here. Where he was going. All to around... ten seconds or so? He looked down at his own hand, at the space where it was, and the space it would be. Fire overlaid metal overlaid empty space. A hand laid over his own and released it all at once. Miles blinked, the action repeating itself through his consciousness long before and after it occurred.

This was going to take some getting used to.

A hand grasped his own. Words tumbled over themselves in every possible order. Miles closed his eyes, trying to concentrate as he pieced the words together in his head.

"You need to leave now." Said Reason.

"Now you need to leave." Reason said.

Miles followed her, or would. Or already had. He wasn't sure where in his timeline he started dry retching either. Rhythmic beeping progressed in parallel with itself until it was a solid unbroken tone.

"Our work is done. Our time is over." Replied Reason.

"Our work is over. Our time is done." Reason replied.

Miles opened his eyes to Reason's sad face. To burning flames. To blinding light.

"What's going on?" Miles asked.

"We were always to die together. In the same order we were born."

"We were born in order to die. We were always the same together."

Miles looked at Doodle's glass chamber. The collars of the ancient foxes were/would be beeping. Miles could only watch in horror as they detonated while he watched in horror. A sea of flames engulfed the interior, the black interior empty save for blackened soot, metal flooring glowing red.

The foxes never made a sound.

"Why?!"

"Shadows cannot exist without light."

"Light cannot exist without shadows."

Miles turned on Reason, who turned to him in surprise, who looked on dispassionately at the scene in the tube.

He leapt, hands outstretched. Then he understood why he leapt. Then he leapt, hands outstretched.

"Don't you need to save me?"

"You don't need to save me."

"Don't need me to save you?"

Miles slammed into her, fingers scrabbling at her armour, trying to find a release switch. A seam he could use to tear the metal cage from her body.

"Let me go! Save yourself!"

"Let yourself go! Save me!"

"Let go! Save me yourself!"

Slowly, Miles was growing accustomed to his new lens over reality. Too slowly to be useful. He searched places he knew he'd searched, fruitlessly covering the same ground as he already covered to no avail. Batted aside Reason's resistance before it arrived, only to be pushed back when it did.

And then it came. A fiery explosion, but he wasn't hurt. A blaze of red, but he wasn't hurt. A glittering golden ring, spinning on the ground. But he had none.

Reason grabbed his shoulder in her claw, plucking a shield generator from his bandolier and smashing it into his face. Miles staggered back, fire shield blazing to life are him just before she exploded.

Miles reached out, plucking the golden ring from the floor with dreamlike certainty. It did not absorb into his hammerspace. There was no hammerspace up here in orbit, without Chaos Emeralds, without Time Stones.

But he had the time stones?

Miles reached out, pressing the ring to Reason's temple.

And Reason died in front of his eyes. Engulfed in flame.

Miles stumbled back, clutching his eyes against the blinding light that assaulted him through them and before them, watching his afterimage picking up a spinning ring again and again until it passed beyond his awareness into the past. A blackened smudge stained the floor.

And a yellow-orange vixen sat, blinking at its centre, metal armour burned away to leave unblemished fur beneath.