A/N: Welcome to another chapter of "A Light in Darkness", boy I'm just blowing through these chapters aren't I? I think it helps that I already have the general plot in mind, it's just a matter of putting it together. I won't lie, Aurora is a big part of why this seems to be going so quickly. I love her character and I'm so grateful to E-vay for letting me use her. If you haven't checked out her Tumblr account yet to get a good look at who Aurora is from the creator's own imagination, I question what you're waiting for. I'd leave a link for you guys but ya know...they don't allow that here.

So before we get started, I'd like to thank the reviewers from last chapter. Huge thanks to Yago, Emeraldalex123 and sonamylikeduh for their reviews, they're always much appreciated! And to address something Yago asked, this is three years from the time of canon. So take everyone's canon ages and add three. e.g. Amy's canon age is 12, so here she's 15...so no, Aurora won't be born for a long while yet.

Anyways, when we last left off, Ba'Gan had just taken control of Sonic's body, and now the Sonic Team has to deal with their friend and leader being used against them by an alien whose intentions are clearly evil. So without further ado, enjoy the latest chapter! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay. (Seriously, go check out her Tumblr, you won't be disappointed)
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There are times in life when you see or hear something that has you completely numb and in shock, something so utterly impossible to believe that when you see it actually happened, you're left frozen in place and speechless. For Tails, Knuckles and Amy, that time was now.

Their leader and friend, Sonic the Hedgehog, had just been turned against them.

"I can't believe this is happening." Amy held her head in-between her palms and shook it woefully. "Sonic can't just be...gone."

Ignoring the heroes completely, Eggman walked over to Ba'Gan, who immediately tensed upon seeing the scientist approach him. "Ah, no need to be alarmed." Eggman said. "I am the man responsible for your rebirth."

"Oh are you?" Ba'Gan crossed his new arms and scoffed. "If this host's memories are anything to go by, you're an old fool whose pitiful attempts at world domination are beyond laughable. I find it rather difficult to believe that you are the one responsible for my resurrection."

"He's got a point there boss!" Cubot exclaimed.

"Silence you imbecile!" Eggman glared at the yellow robot who retreated back into his own body. The doctor then turned back to Ba'Gan. "Those memories aren't an accurate depiction of who I really am. They're all jaundiced accounts I assure you." Eggman smirked. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the greatest scientific genius in all the known universe, and I've gone through a lot of trouble to bring you back to life."

"I see." Ba'Gan raised an eyebrow. "And for what purpose did you commit this gracious act of charity?"

"It's quite simple really, I have plans to conquer the universe, and now that you've taken care of my little rodent problem, you and I will work together to bring the universe to its knees!" Eggman exclaimed with a dramatic flair.

Ba'Gan just scoffed and turned to leave. "I have no use for the likes of you, you and all of creation will soon be mine to do with as I please."

"Very well." Eggman shrugged and turned around as well. "Of course, I find it difficult to believe that you'll even be able to find a way off this station without my help."

Ba'Gan stopped. "And why is that?" he asked without turning around.

Eggman's glasses gleamed. "Simple. Your host's friends won't be willing to let you escape." he turned to the furious heroes. "Isn't that right Sonic Team?"

"I hate it when he's right." Knuckles growled.

"Tails, what do we do?" Amy asked with a desperate expression on her face. "We can't just let that thing take Sonic from us!"

"We won't." Tails looked up at Knuckles. "I know you and Sonic usually wind up pretty evenly-matched whenever you spar, but I need you to take on...Ba'Gan, and knock him out so we can find a way to bring Sonic back!"

"If it's a fight you want me to put up, then you got it!" Knuckles wasted no time rushing forward and unleashing a mighty punch that sent Ba'Gan flying across the room. "Alright you slime, let's dance!"

With Knuckles taking on Ba'Gan, Amy and Tails turned to face off against Metal Sonic, but was shocked to find that not only was Metal Sonic not attacking, he didn't even seem interested. And neither did his creator for that matter. "Eggman's...not ordering him to attack?" Amy tilted her head in confusion.

Tails smacked his forehead with his palm. "Of course he's not, he wants Ba'Gan to lose to Knuckles to prove he needs his help." the fox boy pounded his forehead with the side of his fist over and over. "I'm really getting tired of playing right into his hands." Tails then looked around the room and saw the pile of leftover ooze Ba'Gan's previous form had left behind. "Maybe there's something I can learn from that stuff. Cover me Amy."

"Got it."

When Tails went over to analyze the sample of Ba'Gan's original body, Orbot tapped the working doctor on the shoulder. "Eh...boss?"

"What is it now? Can't you see I'm busy with-" Eggman spotted Tails using his scanner on Ba'Gan's leftovers. "Oh no you don't! Metal Sonic, eviscerate them!"

Immediately the robot came to life and charged towards Tails, but Amy managed to trip up the robot by holding out her hammer low to the ground and letting it trip over the handle. The result was Metal Sonic crashing into the short glass wall of the balcony and falling to the ground below after the glass shattered. "Next time watch where you're going."

"That's playing dirty." Tails smirked at the pink hedgehog before getting back to work, and he took a small microscope slide and used an eye dropper to slurp up some of the ooze and place it on the slide. "This is enough to make you wanna hurl." Tails gagged a moment and placed the sample into a slot in the side of his scanner, and immediately the computer got to work on analyzing the remains of the evil creature's original body. "Analyzing now, let's hope Knuckles can hold Ba'Gan off long enough for me to get a good reading."

Suddenly a laser beam went off, scorching the ground next to Tails and Amy's feet, and the two jumped back and saw Eggman pressing several keys on what was left of his control panel, and then they looked up and saw numerous laser blasters hanging from the ceiling, all aiming at them. "I think he means business!" Amy exclaimed as she ducked to dodge another blast.

"Yow!" Tails barely got out of the way of another blast by tilting his head ever-so-slightly. "What was your first clue?!" Another few blasts caused them to separate and begin running around the room trying to keep out of the laser sights of the Death Egg's defense system.

Meanwhile down below, Knuckles and Ba'Gan were trading blows and trying to get the upper hand on each other. "Gotta say, I'm surprised how easy this is!" Knuckles easily dodged the pedestrian kick Ba'Gan launched before reeling his fist back and clocking the alien being in the side of his head with a punch that knocked him to the ground. "If I were fighting Sonic," he stood over Ba'Gan and cracked his knuckles. "This would be a lot tougher!" the emerald guardian picked up the helpless form of Sonic and unloaded a vicious uppercut that sent him flying back up to the balcony. "No cont-aargh!" Knuckles was suddenly knocked off his feet by a laser blast courtesy of Metal Sonic, who clearly didn't appear happy after being humiliated by Amy. "Oh great."

As for Ba'Gan, he inadvertently took out the blasters by crashing into them before he wound up hitting a wall and falling to the ground, groaning in pain as he tried to get up. Eggman walked over to the alien and shook his head in disappointment. "My my, that won't do at all." he clicked his tongue at Ba'Gan. "You simply have no idea how to utilize Sonic's strengths and abilities. At this rate, your new life will end before it ever truly has a chance to begin."

Ba'Gan found the willpower to force Sonic's battered body back onto its feet. His battle with Knuckles had not been pleasant. "Do not patronize me you prattling fool," he glared at Eggman. "If you have a solution then I demand you give it to me!"

"You're in no position to make demands." the doctor smirked evilly. "However, I would be willing to offer an ally some assistance...provided he agrees to become my ally."

Ba'Gan got into a wobbly fighting stance and stared down Tails and Amy, who had since caught their breath after their perilous adventure with the Death Egg's automatic security measures. "I do not need your charity." he growled. But then Ba'Gan fell to one knee and groaned, as his new body began to rebel from the strain. "Very well Doctor...it would appear that I have no choice...I will accept your help."

"Excellent." Eggman sneered and snapped his fingers, and moments later Orbot and Cubot hovered over with the Chaos Emeralds in their arms.

"No! Give those back!" Amy charged and got ready to swing her hammer, but she was suddenly blindsided by Metal Sonic, who stood over her and stepped on her head to keep her from getting up. "Lemme go you hunk of junk!" she struggled to get back up, but Metal Sonic's robot strength was too much for her to overcome.

Upon seeing Metal Sonic arrive, Tails rushed over to the edge of the balcony and saw Knuckles laying on the ground, struggling to use his arm to push himself back up. "Knuckles!" Tails flew down and helped the guardian stand, and was forced to offer support as Knuckles hunched over and groaned. "You alright?"

"Fighting Ba'Gan was easy, but that robot has Sonic's speed and almost my strength." the echidna grumbled. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing yet, but if we don't do something now, it'll be too late to do much of anything!" Tails flew up to the balcony with Knuckles in tow, but upon landing, his eyes widened in horror at what he was seeing. "Oh no!"

The downed heroes watched as the Chaos Emeralds swirled around Ba'Gan, whose red eyes were closed as the energy flowed directly into his body and strengthened him. "Yes...I can feel the power!" his eyes opened and a maniacal grin appeared on his face as he rose into the air. "Prepare to meet your doom, heroes, for I am invincible!" With a flash of light bright enough to blind everyone, Ba'Gan took on the form of Super Sonic, his red eyes now even more menacing as they seemed to pulse with energy.

"This is really, really bad." Tails gulped.

"There's gotta be a way to get to Sonic, some way to get him to fight back!" Knuckles said desperately.

Amy's eyes widened at that, Knuckles had just given her an idea. Using all the strength she had left, she managed to get just enough leverage so she could push herself up enough to be able to turn her head towards Ba'Gan before Metal Sonic applied more pressure and nearly cracked her skull between his foot and the floor. "Sonic! I know you're in there somewhere! Please, you've gotta fight this!" Suddenly Metal Sonic began applying even more pressure, and Amy let out a pained yelp as her head started feeling like it was in an ever-tightening vice.

"Get off her!" Knuckles ran to help the pink hedgehog who was futilely swinging her arms to try and get Metal Sonic off of her, but the emerald guardian was intercepted by the sudden appearance of a red Metal Sonic replica, who punched him down to the ground and stood over him menacingly. "Sonic, fight back!"

"Come on Sonic, I know you can beat him!" Tails added on to the encouragement.

"Oh spare me your pitiful attempts at bringing your friend back to the surface. I have never lost control of a host before, and I don't plan on starting now. I..." Ba'Gan looked down at Amy and his eyes widened, then he grabbed his head and screamed at the top of his lungs as a massive headache suddenly hit him.

"Doctor, what's happening?" Orbot asked worriedly.

Eggman scowled. "It's Sonic."

When the screaming stopped, eyes opened, and revealed that the red in those eyes were no longer of the sinister variety. Instead, they were filled with genuine concern. "Amy!" Now back in control, Sonic charged an energy blast and fired a large ball of chaos energy that knocked Metal Sonic right off of Amy, and also managed to take out the solid light construct that was assaulting the weakened Knuckles. "Guys, what's happening to-aaaaarrrrggh!" Sonic grabbed his head as the pain returned. "No...I won't...I won't..."

Another scream, and Sonic's body went limp and floated in the air as such for a moment before returning to normal. The eyes opened, and the pulsing red energy had returned. "Relinquish control." Ba'Gan frowned and looked down at the heartbroken Sonic Team. "I salute your friend, Sonic Team." the monster said seriously. "No host has ever had enough willpower to resist my control for even the slightest of moments. I assure you, it won't happen again."

"You're wrong!" Amy pointed an accusing finger. "Sonic will never give up! He'll fight you forever if he has to, that's just who he is." Amy lowered her arm and bowed her head slightly. "It's part of the reason I love him." she said that last part too quietly for it to be audible to anyone else, but thinking on it buoyed her spirits somewhat as she regained her fire and glared at Ba'Gan. "I know Sonic better than anyone, and if there's one thing I know for sure, he'll fight for freedom to the death! So you better believe he will beat you eventually!"

"Amy?"

The pink hedgehog beamed when she heard Sonic's voice emerge from his body, but it was short-lived as Ba'Gan shook Sonic's head and snarled. "Submit to my will you insufferable rat!" he seemed to shout to himself.

"Never!"

As the two personalities fought for control of the one body, everyone watched in fascination as the battle took place, with Sonic's body jerking in all directions in midair as Sonic and Ba'Gan continued to alternate control over each other. "What's going on Tails?" Knuckles looked down at the young genius.

Instead of answering, Tails ran over to Amy who was watching the form of her beloved Sonic have spasms as the battle for control raged on. "Amy, you got through to him! Do you know what this means?" Tails got a shake of her head in response. "It means that Sonic really is still in there, and there's hope we can bring him back!"

"Hate to spoil the mood, but look!" Knuckles pointed up at the golden form of Super Sonic, and with a determined roar, Ba'Gan finally regained control of Sonic's body. "Clearly I haven't regained my full strength, that is the only explanation for this continual resistance to my control."

"In that case, I suggest we leave while we can," Eggman ran over to Ba'Gan with Orbot and Cubot rushing after him. "I can help you eliminate Sonic's resistance and allow you to take full control of his body, but first we'll have to get out of here. Use the power of the Emeralds, teleport us to the hangar bay where my Egg Carrier is being held!"

Ba'Gan stared the doctor down for a moment before finally nodding. "Very well." Ba'Gan raised his arm, and seconds later he and Eggman - along with his two cronies - vanished without a trace.

"They used Chaos Control!" Knuckles exclaimed. "But how?"

"Ba'Gan has Sonic's memories, and the longer he stays in control of Sonic's body, the more he'll learn how to use his powers." Tails reasoned. Suddenly an explosion went off that rumbled the whole room and nearly caused the team to lose their footing.

"What's happening?!" Amy shouted.

Tails ran over to the computer console and saw a ticking countdown on the screen, which caused the fox boy's eyes to widen in fear. "Eggman activated the self-destruct sequence on the way out!" Tails jumped down from the balcony and ran for the door, and he motioned for his other two friends to follow. "Come on! We've gotta get to the X-Tornado before the whole place blows!"

Knuckles and Amy didn't need any more coaxing. The two leaped down as well and followed Tails through the darkened corridors where more explosions seemed to be going off behind them as they ran. "There's the plane!" Knuckles pointed at the X-Tornado which could be seen through the open hangar bay door. Once they got through, they wasted no time in starting the plane and preparing for takeoff, Knuckles of course had perched himself on the wing. "Egg Carrier's gone, looks like Eggman bolted after all!"

"Tails, will this thing fly without the Chaos Emerald?" Amy leaned up from her seat and glanced worriedly at Tails.

Tails continued to pull levers and twist knobs as he got his plane going. "It'll be able to maintain normal speed for approximately an hour without the Chaos Emerald directly powering it thanks to its energy reserves, and that's more than enough time to get us back to Mobius." he replied. "Now sit back, we're outta here!" Tails pulled the left yoke back and the X-Tornado blasted forwards just seconds before a huge explosion destroyed the hangar bay.

"We made it!" Knuckles pumped a fist in celebration.

"Don't celebrate yet, when the Death Egg blows altogether, we need to be out of range of the shockwave!" Tails looked down at his dashboard where a clock he'd set was ticking down. "Five...four...three...two..." the team braced themselves. "One!"

A huge explosion was heard, and the flash forced them to look away and shield their eyes. "I can't believe Eggman would just destroy his own-" Knuckles cut himself off, as he lowered his hand away from his face and stared in disbelief at what he saw. "The Death Egg's still there!" he looked back at his friends and pointed behind him.

Tails activated a rearview camera with a push of a small button, and sure enough, Eggman's enormous fortress had apparently been left unharmed. "He thought of everything." the fox boy growled to himself before he turned around in his seat to face his friends. "Now I know why those corridors we went through were shut down, Eggman rigged them for a contained self-destruct that would chase us out of here in case he needed to escape."

"But why bother?" Amy asked.

"He probably figured he'd be able to use it again in the future. I can't imagine he'd spend years building it and then just blow it up."

Knuckles clenched a fist. "Then let's take it out ourselves! You can rig it to self-destruct for real!"

"Are you crazy?!" Amy whipped her head around and gave the echidna a death glare to end all death glares. "Sonic needs our help! We can't waste any time!"

"It wouldn't be a waste!" Knuckles contested. "If we blow up the Death Egg now, then we won't have to worry about it coming back to bite us later!"

"And if we don't help Sonic now, we may not be able to at all!"

"Guys!" Tails threw his hands up for a moment and glared at his two teammates, instantly silencing them. He turned back to the planet below and weighed out the pros and cons of both plans, and once he made up his mind, his brow furrowed with determination and he activated the X-Tornado's boosters. "Hang on tight guys, we're gonna go save Sonic!"

While Knuckles sighed and smacked his face with his palm, Amy jumped out of her seat and leaned forward to embrace the young pilot. "Oh thank you, thank you Tails!"

"I just know we're gonna regret this." Knuckles sighed and held on tight as the X-Tornado increased its speed, hurtling back towards Mobius on its mission to save the planet's greatest hero.

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From the moment they had seen the X-Tornado take off, the small band of future (and one other-dimension) dwellers felt a sensation resembling their hearts dropping into their stomachs. Aurora especially had begun to let her anxiety get to her, as she'd spent the previous twenty minutes pacing back and forth, mumbling to herself in worry while Yukon tried to calm her down. While that was going on, Blaze was discussing what to do next with her teammates. "Perhaps we should attempt to contact Rouge over at G.U.N. and see if she can't give us some information, she always seems to know something about whatever's going on."

"You wanna call her?" Sticks wrinkled her nose at the thought. "I never understood how she could do her job with her obsession with shiny body decorations."

"You mean...jewelry?" Silver asked slowly.

"Whatever you wanna call it, it's a total waste of time."

Blaze closed her eyes and sighed. "How in the name of Sol did Shadow deal with these people?" she shook her head and focused once more on her team. "I don't know what she does in your time, but here in my time, Rouge is a valuable G.U.N. agent and she has access to information we might find useful."

"Why can't we just go in there?" Sticks pointed a thumb in the direction of Tails' lab.

"Because it's locked." Blaze deadpanned and shook her head again. She hadn't been the leader for long, but she was already beginning to lose it, Sticks wasn't making things easy for her sanity. "Hey Yukon, you got her calmed down yet?"

The sugar glider shrugged helplessly and shook his head at the cat girl. "She doesn't even seem to hear me!" he turned to the pacing Aurora once more. "Aurora, everything's gonna be ok, please just calm down and let's make a new plan." his gentle statement didn't even get an acknowledgement from the pink hedgehog, and he shrugged again at Blaze. "Nothing."

"That's because you're doing it wrong." Sticks stretched out her arms and cracked her knuckles. "Here's how you handle this." Sticks walked up to Aurora and watched her pace for a few moments, then she stepped in her way, and slapped the pink hedgehog across the face. "Aurora! Snap out of it!" she screeched.

The group stared wide-eyed at what they had just seen. They already knew that Sticks didn't exactly do subtle, but even they weren't expecting that. Meanwhile, Aurora had stopped in her tracks and blinked a few times, rubbing at the spot where Sticks had slapped her. "Sticks...I..."

"Now you listen up! We didn't come all the way out here just so you could give yourself a heart attack and die before you even had the chance to be born!" the jungle badger screeched with a finger right in Aurora's face. "We've got a mission to complete and we need you to woman up and help us! So do it!"

She blinked a couple more times before slowly turning her head so she could look at her other teammates, who still looked stunned by what they'd just seen. "Right." she mumbled. Taking a deep breath, Aurora stood tall and steeled herself once more, nodding at her best friend with a determined expression. "Thanks Sticks, I needed that."

"Eh, not a problem." Sticks waved a hand dismissively. "Someone's gotta make sure you don't lose yourself to your own paranoia and go horribly insane."

Silver discreetly leaned over to whisper in Blaze's ear. "She's one to talk." that was answered by a harsh elbow in his side. "Ow!"

Aurora and Sticks walked over to the rest of the group, who had since recovered and were now looking at her expectantly. "Sorry about that guys." she scratched the back of her neck sheepishly.

"No worries," Silver flashed a grin. "So now that we're all ready to go, what's the plan? We gonna go find what's-her-name?"

"Wait, what?" Aurora tilted her head curiously.

Sticks rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Our fearless leader wants us to find your aunt and ask for help."

The pink hedgehog let that sink in for a moment, mumbling names to herself until her head shot back up and her eyes widened in realization. "You wanna go and ask my Aunt Rouge for help?!"

"It's one course of action we might take, I'm open to other possibilities." Blaze responded calmly. "Although I fail to understand why this is such a big deal, the Rouge that I know may not be the most generous person in the universe, but she's not one to stand on the sidelines when the world is at stake."

"You'd be right about that." Aurora nodded. "Still, I think it'd be easier if I just got us in Uncle Tails' lab and we can use his equipment to find what we're looking for. Would save time too."

"You know how to get us in there?" Silver pointed his thumb behind him.

Aurora shrugged. "Sure. Uncle Tails has had a voice recognition security system since before I was born, he programmed the computer to recognize my voice and let me in whenever I wanted." she smiled. "He also programmed the computer to let me play all my favorite computer games once it knew I was there." she shook her head and chuckled a bit. Now was not the time for reminiscing. "Don't worry, I'll get us in there, no problem." The pink hedgehog confidently marched over to the front door of the lab and pressed the button on the speaker hanging on the wall next to the door, completely oblivious to Silver's attempts to get her attention. "Computer, voice recognition: Aurora the Hedgehog, confirm."

"Access denied!" the computer voice beeped angrily at her.

"Say what?" Aurora made an insulted face and pressed the button again. "Computer, voice recognition: Aurora the Hedgehog, confirm!"

"Access denied!"

"You stupid piece of-" she sucked in air through her teeth and clenched her fists by her sides. "Computer...voice recognition: Aurora the Hedgehog, confirm. And if the next words out of your voicebox aren't 'access granted' I will rip this speaker out of the wall and throw it through the window so we can get in that way, it wouldn't be the first time Uncle Tails has had to fix it!"

"Threat detected, activating security protocol, summoning guard."

"What are you talking about?! Computer it's me, Aurora!"

Out of the speaker suddenly came a small laser. "Move!" the pink hedgehog was saved from being vaporized on the spot by Silver, who had yanked her out of danger using his psychokinesis. Once out of range, he released her from his hold and looked at her in disbelief. "I was trying to tell you! This is the past, the computer couldn't have possibly been programmed to recognize you, you won't even be born until a few years from now!"

Aurora blinked, and that's when what Silver said clicked in her mind. "Oh yeah...well, that explains a lot."

"Um, guys? I have a question." Yukon said as he looked over in the direction of the lab. "Mind telling me what's up with that robot?"

The group looked, and they saw a black, yellow, and grey robot about their size with blue eyes with red rims, and it appeared to have several sharp blade-like objects attached to its arms, legs and head. "You've got a lotta nerve trying to break into Tails' lab!" the robot said with its synthetic voice, pointing an accusing metal finger at them. "Now you're gonna have to deal with me!"

"Uh oh." Both Blaze and Aurora said simultaneously.

"What uh oh?" Silver got the answer to his question when the robot suddenly rolled into a ball and slammed into him at high speed, knocking him back a few feet and also knocking the wind right out of him. "Oh, that uh oh." he strained.

"Back off robot!" Sticks leaped up in the air twirling her bow staff above her head, and she slammed it down on the robot's head...and was rewarded with a reverb that caused even her teeth to shake in her mouth. "W-e-e-ell th-a-a-a-a-a-t didn't w-o-o-o-rk!" before she could recover, the robot struck again, this time with a mighty left hook that sent Sticks flying backwards, right into Silver who had just gotten up seconds earlier.

"Who else wants some?!" the robot got into a fighting pose and stared Aurora down. "How 'bout you?!"

"Oh geez, he doesn't recognize me." Aurora backed up a few steps with her hands in a placating gesture.

"I'll handle this." Blaze stepped up and that got the robot's attention as it prepared to attack. "Cool it Gemerl! It's me!"

The robot seemed to freeze for a moment. "Blaze?" it took a few more moments for the robot to get out of its fighting stance. "What are you doing here?"

Before the cat girl could answer, someone else arrived. "Gemerl, what's the matter?!" the figure landed, and its eyes widened upon seeing Blaze standing in front of the robot. "Blaze?"

"Hello Cream."

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It didn't take long for Blaze to sort out the misunderstanding, and it took even less time for the group of heroes to be given access to the lab once the situation was explained...partly anyway. "Why exactly aren't we telling your aunt we're from the future?" Sticks whispered with a raised eyebrow as she stood next to her best friend who was sitting on an empty work bench. "Is it because she's actually a spy for Eggman in this time period or something?"

"No Sticks." Aurora sighed. "Silver explained it to me a while back, he seems to be the resident expert on time travel." she said as she waved a hand dismissively. "We have to be careful that we don't let anyone we meet in this time period know we're from the future, it could be catastrophic to the time stream." the pink hedgehog turned her head to look at the young rabbit tending to Silver's minor wounds. "Imagine if Auntie Cream ever found out I was her niece, that could clue her in that she married Uncle Tails, and she might freak out and then that might affect the future in ways we never intended."

Seems like a bunch of baloney to me." Sticks crossed her arms. "Silver is so paranoid, it's crazy! He needs to relax, not everything in life is a conspiracy."

Aurora smirked and gave her friend a side-eye look. "You're one to talk."

"My conspiracies are based on fact, not theory." Sticks chose to ignore Aurora rolling her eyes at her. "It's just unnatural...I mean, look how young she is!" she gestured both arms in Cream's direction, who was blissfully unaware of the conversation taking place about her as she bandaged Silver's arm.

"It's funny you think you have to point that out to me." the pink hedgehog gave a dry chuckle. "I'm having a hard enough time trying to get myself to not call her 'auntie', I've called her that since I was two years old." she internally marveled at how small her aunt seemed now. "Now I'm almost ten years her elder...considering what she looks like as an adult, puberty must've hit her like a truck."

The rabbit girl had changed substantially as well over the course of three years. She too had grown taller, and she was beginning to grow out her bangs; in a few more years they would probably cover her right eye. The most dramatic transformation though was her voice. Three years earlier, her squeaky voice was an audible representation of just how young she was, but now at nine years old, her voice had balanced out somewhat so that most of the traces of her old voice had vanished, leaving behind a light, silvery and yet unmistakably young sound that was pleasing to the ear. "There you go Mr. Silver, all better." she gently patted his arm and smiled up at him.

"Thanks kid." the silver hedgehog gave a thumbs-up, and once Cream turned around to put her medical supplies back into her backpack which she'd brought with her, Silver hovered over to Aurora and Sticks who were still talking in hushed whispers. They stopped when he approached them. "She seems nice."

"Nice doesn't even begin to cover it." Aurora replied. "Auntie Cream is the sweetest person you'll ever meet in any timeline." she looked up at the ceiling with a reminiscent smile, kicking her feet back and forth while sitting on the workbench. "Some of my fondest childhood memories are from when she babysat me whenever Mom and Dad would go out on a date. We'd do arts and crafts, she'd take me to her favorite Chao Garden so we could play with all the Chao that Cheese had made friends with." she chuckled. "She even taught me how to recreate my favorite flavor of ice cream!" Aurora's eyes became half-lidded at the thought. "I still don't know how she managed to come up with a perfect recipe for Cherry Jubilee."

Blissfully unaware of the conversation taking place behind her back, Cream closed up her backpack and handed it to Cheese, who took it and flew it over to a different table with ease. "Thanks Cheese." With that done, the rabbit walked over to Blaze who was busy trying to figure out Tails' computer, and by the heat radiating from her body, it was evident that the cat girl was getting frustrated. "What's the matter Blaze?"

"I can't get this...thing to turn on." Blaze nearly slammed her fists into the console but she took a deep breath and calmed herself before she could lose her self control. After ten minutes of futility though, she'd had enough of wrestling with Tails' contraption. She cast a weary glance in the young rabbit's direction. "How have you been Cream? You look well."

"Thanks." she beamed at her friend. Gone was the old orange dress and instead she now wore something less formal looking: a simple orange t-shirt and blue jeans with white sneakers. "I've been doing well," she looked over her shoulder at Cheese who was enjoying the attention Aurora was now giving him. "Cheese recently reincarnated, I was afraid that he'd forget all about me when he hatched from his egg again, but luckily he remembered who I was and we pretty much picked up right where we left off."

"Good to hear, I know the last time we saw each other you were worried about what would happen to him." Blaze nodded and gave a faint smile to her young friend, but it soon faded as she turned back to the computer console that was silently mocking her. "Ok...let me try this again."

"You have to press the on switch first."

Blaze's fingers were only inches away from the console when the rabbit spoke up, and she slowly lifted her hands away from the console and just as slowly turned her head towards the nine-year old. "You know how to work this thing?"

Cream nodded. "Yes, Tails taught me how some time ago...we've been..." her cheeks went ever-so-slightly pink. "Hanging out more recently."

"I see." Blaze chose to ignore Cream's bashful expression and simply got up from the chair and gestured for Cream to take a seat. "Well in that case, if you would be so kind."

Grateful that her friend had decided not to comment on her blush, Cream nodded and took a seat in front of the computer console. "There's a specific combination of keys you have to press in order to activate the computer, Tails said he didn't want anyone to be able to hack into it and steal all his blueprints for all his inventions." Cream began pressing keys on the holographic keyboard, and sure enough, the computer activated and a screen came up asking for a password.

"Are you serious?" Blaze deadpanned.

The rabbit giggled at that. "Tails can be a little bit paranoid sometimes."

"Well considering these people tried to break into his lab, I'd say it's justified!" Gemerl suddenly piped up. The gizoid had been sulking in the far corner of the lab after Cream had lectured him about fighting before thinking.

"Hush Gemerl," Cream scolded gently before typing in another password. Once that was done, the computer went to its default desktop, which happened to be a recent picture of the whole gang outside Twinkle Park. "There you go, I hope you don't mind that I logged you into my account, I don't know the password to Tails'."

Now this caught Blaze off guard as her eyes widened a bit. "Tails gave you your own account for his computer?"

"Uhh..." before Cream could answer though, they heard voices coming from outside the lab, rather frantic ones at that.

"Someone broke into my lab!"

"So let's break whoever did!"

"Uh oh, it's Uncle Tails!" Aurora whispered urgently to her teammates.

"He sounds upset." Silver gulped.

Suddenly Tails burst through the front door with Knuckles and Amy backing him up, and when he saw just how many strange people were in his lab, he quickly reached into his tool belt and grabbed a hurricane bomb, which instantly got everyone to put their hands up. "You've got five seconds to tell me who you are and then clear out!"

"They're with me Tails."

That voice was familiar to the fox boy, and he turned his head to see Blaze standing next to his computer with her arms crossed over her chest. "Blaze?" he lowered his weapon just a bit. "How'd you get in here?"

"I let them in Tails."

Tails turned his head a bit to the left, and he saw his chair swivel around and reveal a rather guilty looking young rabbit. "Cream?" he finally placed the hurricane bomb back into his tool belt before walking over to Cream, who refused to meet his gaze. "Cream, what is going on?" he asked gently. "Who are these guys?" he gestured to the large group of unfamiliar individuals.

"They're with me." Blaze repeated, gaining the fox's attention. "We needed access to your computer because we need information...the fate of both our universes are at stake."
_

A/N: Yes I know, my chapter titles need work. Anyways, Cream and Gemerl are in the house! I remember some folks saying how they didn't necessarily wanna see background information explained for characters they already knew, and I can see where they're coming from. However, it's necessary because this is a "three years later" story when placed next to canon, so a little description is needed. Cream has also grown up some in three years, and it'll show as the story goes on. I like the design that's used for her older self, the long bangs and all, but I do wonder where that originated from.

Also, Gemerl. I hate how he's so unused in stories, especially action ones. At the end of Sonic Advance 3, Tails fixed him up for Cream and he went to live with them there as the "reincarnation" of Emerl so to speak. So he exists, but folks just choose not to use him, which is a shame, because the idea of Emerl (he's from Sonic Battle if you don't know who I'm talking about) coming back in the form of Gemerl is a good one, and I for one plan to take full advantage.

Now then, Aurora. Her favorite flavor of ice cream isn't made up by me, I asked E-vay personally and that's the answer she gave me. I'm the one writing the story but I've been trying to stay as true to her character as possible. The way she develops her characters in her comics and drawings is second to none, and I feel sorry for anyone who hasn't had a chance to see her work yet.

I've talked enough. So we've got our action, our down time...and a small sample of implied romance between Tails and Cream. How serious is it? Well you'll have to find out. It's obvious Cream likes Tails now, but what's Tails' take? More will be revealed in future chapters. As always, please leave a review and let me know what you think!