Chapter Nine – Reversal

Dimension – 22306

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who was the greatest of them all?

Unfortunately, the Sapphire Dragon passed out. The pain and blood loss was just too much. Where would he land, he had no idea, but right now he didn't care, he had to be better then where he left. Through the darkness, he finally came too, lying in dirt. Scattered sunlight streaming down in him, from the trees above him. He was in a forest. He smelled the clean, beautiful warm air. It was wonderful. As he felt around, he noticed the ground beneath him had buckled under his enormous weight as he landed from the portal, and as the blurriness cleared Saffie found himself looking straight down an almighty blade of a spear being pointed right up against his nose. Saffie could have cried. He genuinely didn't know how much longer he could take this. Going from one horrendous situation to another. Right now, he didn't want to be alone anymore, and for the first time since he left, he really missed home. His own dimension.

Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, Charlie and Uncle Chuck. The Mutant Movement. He was now desperate to go home, and knew he no longer could. But as he lay there, he noticed that finally he was no longer in pain. His body could instantly heal, but only the organic parts, the machine or cyborg parts he may have to use his abilities in Robotisation Energy Manipulation to rebuild those. Using the ability on himself again like with the upgrade and right now just he didn't have the strength. This included the enormous gashes on his sides and the hugely reenforced skin between the spines of his wings and tail. He couldn't fly right now, but he didn't really want to. His organic skin had healed everywhere so at least he wasn't gushing blood and oil everywhere. But as he sat up and looked around, this didn't stop him from being stared at being both feared and loathed.

A monster.

But he wasn't. He had the heart of a hero but he'd just given up trying to explain. The previous dimension had all but broken him. As he looked around, he was surrounded by people in long black cloaks and hoods, all brandishing spears at him. He took a deep sigh.

'Here we go again.' He thought, as he held out his hands, bowed his head, allowing himself to be taken. He wasn't going to fight. He didn't have the heart, and he knew, that despite how injured he was, they were of no threat to him. He still had the speed and power to rip these people to pieces if he choose. But now he realised, that that was the point. If he choose. He almost literally had all the power in all the world, but it was what he did with it, that really mattered. He said nothing, as his captors dragged him to his feet and lead him off to who knows where. They too said nothing. He could really feel the fear on them, considering he stood head and shoulders above them all.

The mighty Sapphire Dragon was a mess. Battered, bruised, and stripped of his wings, he too was frightened but then became intensely curious when they lead him away through the forrest. It was definitely not one he knew. Suddenly, a black cloth bag was put over his head, and now Saffie curiosity was really peaked. He didn't resist in any way, though he very easily could have done. It was supposed to hide where they were taking him. But it didn't work, Saffie could still see everything, especially with his mechanically enhanced eyes, but heavily darkened. Suddenly he was taken into a cave and down a long tunnel, with a very low hanging ceiling. He could feel brush to very top of his quills. After a while, it opened out into a small cavern, but the lighting was so dim, and now Saffie really couldn't see anything.

Suddenly he heard voices, all around him. Voices he recogised. All working together. People whom he knew shouldn't be. Saffie frowned as he was forced to his knees. Well, they tried to force him to his knees, but then Saffie grinned at the total and utter absurdity of the entire situation that to everyone's surprised, still with the cloth over his head, he just plonked his bottom on the floor. This shocked everyone, but made Saffie giggle. Finally, the cloth was removed and Saffie found himself looking at the weirdest situation of his life.

He was looking up at Robotnik, but no Robotnik he'd never seen before. He was thin and extremely well kept. The mustache was gone, he was clean shaven and still dressed in the now very familiar red and black. He had no glasses, but he had big scarlet red eyes, but had a full head of bright red hair, long, straight, and tied in a low ponytail. It looked rather good. To his left, was Shadow, looking like his did in the first dimension, but with bright orange eyes rather then the glowing blood red, and the other side Tails, who had a huge scar across one eye and was staring at him like nothing on Mobius. Behind him was everyone. Literally. Silver, Blaze, Bunnie, Antroine, The Chaotix, Rotor, Amy, Cream, Vanilla, and finally he saw her. Sally, looking at him, terrified at the monster he was.

They were scared of him. All of them, and Saffie was himself wondering what had happened here. He gulped. He put up both his hands.

"I swear, I mean you no harm." He stammered. Nobody believed him, obviously, but Tails bent down to him, examining the gashes on his side. They still went down the his silvery Adamantium skeleton, and exquisitely showing his muscles between the skin and bones, where were intertwined with organic tissue and mechanical wiring. His ability to heal, had only extended the organic elements, stopping the bleeding and pain, but the mechanical elements would have to be done manually. He heaved as the Fox's jaw dropped.

"He's a machine." He stammered. But Saffie sniggered, he couldn't help it.

"Cyborg, actually. Big difference." He winked at the Fox. "Long story, involving robots, dragons, one long coma, one digital battle and his ugly nephew." He spat, pointing at Robotnik. He was cocky for a reason. He wanted to see how this Human would react, plus Saffie was extremely careful not to mention any Robotisation. He'd learned through his travels that it wasn't possible in every dimension. He didn't want to chance it here, or even worse, introduce the technology. It wasn't exactly pleasant.

Several people giggled at the cockiness, but Robotnik was less then amused. He growled and bent right down to Saffie, who was still sat on the floor.

"You killed my nephew." He hissed. Saffie's eyes widened, and got to his feet so quickly that everyone immediately backed away.

"Hey!" He defended, only to smack his head on the low hanging cavern. He was that tall. "Ow! Ceiling." He frowned, rubbing his head. There were more giggles, but Saffie didn't really noticed. He growled. "I've never killed anyone." He hissed. The two versions of Robotnik he did kill were both pure machines. Both had lost their organic body's a long time before Saffie personally took them out. The memories of the fight a top the tower was still very raw, and he was still hating himself for loosing his temper so badly, but the Grid and the whole situation had just grounded down on him so much that he just snapped, and he did it, spectacularly.

However, he'd never injured, harmed or killed anything purely organic. In other words, drawn blood, so there was some truth to his claim. Again, he wasn't believed. Saffie and Robotnik found themselves staring eye-to-eye, completely level, Saffie desperately trying to work out what was going on. He was staring at the Human and yet didn't see or feel a single drop of evil in him. He turned to Shadow, and again, the same with him. No evil at all, and he distinctly remembered feeling it on his counterpart in the first dimension he travelled to. Then as he looked around the room. He gulped. Again, there was someone inconspicuous by his absence, and as the cogs in his head began to turn, spikes of dread and absolute pure horror as the realisation was beginning to creep in, of the real truth of what he was seeing. His worse fear imaginable, and now he was potentially looking straight at it. He was panting heavily, backing off, as Robotnik growled at him. But he was cut across, but Rotor, of all people. The last person Saffie expected. He heaved.

"Ivo, stop." He spat, grabbing the Human's arm. Saffie raised an eyebrow. Ivo? That's new. His Robotnik was called Julian, so definitely some changes here. Saffie had been concentrating so much on the Human that he'd completely failed to noticed that the Walrus had been scanning him with a device the entire time. Rotor stared at the device, Tails immediately joined him, pointing and tapping at it, in deep conversation with the Walrus. It seemed that there were two engineers here, working perfectly together, in this dimension. Saffie smiled, it was nice to see. But he gulped when they both rounded on him. Tails growled.

"Your signature. It's like nothing I've ever seen before." He gasped, but Rotor cut across him. He squealed in excitement.

"I have. I get it from items I've pulled through those portals." He grinned, but Tails exploded at him. Throughly unimpressed. He growled

"That's fantasy. Rotor. Inter-dimensional travel wasn't possible." He declared, but Saffie put up his hand and silenced the both of them. He sighed.

"Actually, it is. I've done it three times." He heaved. They all stared. He was not enjoying being such a traveller at all. Suddenly he was grabbed by Rotor, who was desperate for information. He panted.

"Then it's true then?" He bounced. But Saffie rolled his eyes. He smiled.

"What?" He questioned. "I'm not a mind reader." He grinned, to yet more giggles from around the room. But Rotor faced palmed. That was a rather stupid question. He heaved.

"Sorry." He apologised. "Is it true that there's a Hero, a Villain and a Sidekick in every dimension." He asked. Saffie nodded.

"From what I've have seen, yes. Though please be aware I've not seen every dimension, but I suspect it was true for all of them. I have no idea what happened in the multiverse to cause such a repetition. But from what I can tell, there was always a Robotnik." He added, indicating the Human. "A Tails." He heaved, indicating the now terrified Fox. "And a..." He sighed, indicating himself, not really wanted to finish the sentence. But Rotor gulped.

"A Sonic!" He stammered. Saffie nodded but he hung his head, almost in shame.

"I was once, but not anymore." He breathed. Ivo stared. He, like the Fox, was stunned to have his name said by Saffie, as one of the sides of the triangle and walked away pacing the room. Three names, three sides, the question was, who was who?

"Tell me." He demanded. "Which one of us was the Villain?" He growled. Saffie gulped again, going absolutely white. He pointed at the Human, bitting his lip. He heaved.

"Sorry!" He apologised. Ivo stared, but then deeply sighed.

"I knew it. You really are him, aren't you?" He asked. Saffie nodded. Ivo continued. "I remembered when you used to be like this, so playful, so cocky. Before you turned on us." He spat. Saffie stared in absolutely horror. It was his worse fear coming true. He placed a hand over his mouth. He screamed.

"Wait." He gasped. "Are you saying that your the good guys and I'm the bad guy?" He stammered. Absolutely everyone nodded. Now everything made sense, the fear, the cautiousness. This time, in this dimension, it was the Sonic who was the evil one.

Saffie swore, very loudly. Ivo sniggered.

"Finally, you understand." He leered. But Saffie rounded on him.

"Oh yeah." He growled. "I know exactly what I'm capable of." He spat. "I'm impressed you managed to survive this far." He heaved but then sighed. "Back in my own dimension, turning to the dark side, was my absolute worse fear, knowing the world was instantly fall, if I did." He cried, as the tears fell. "And I very nearly did." He added. Everyone was staring at Saffie but he couldn't have cared less. It was the truth and that was what mattered. He turned his back on them all. He'd had enough but he felt a hand on his side and Saffie turned round. It was Rotor. He gulped.

"But you didn't, did you?" He breathed. Saffie shook his head.

"No." He sighed. "I had to fight with every ounce of my being, but no, I didn't turn. It was actually my friends that got me through it. This was what I have been finding so difficult about inter-dimensional travel. I'm doing it entirely alone, and my own dimension was blocked from me, so I can't even go home. I'm moving on before I can even make a friend and truthfully, I'm finding it really tough." He sniffed. Saffie, at this point was exhausted. He may have been a Cyborg, who didn't need to eat, drink or sleep much but he still had organic elements in him, and they were waning. He needed to rest. Plus the constant alienation from not being known or trusted as he arrived in each new dimension he found to be intently lonely. He didn't care to begin with, but upon seeing yet another version of Sally, he did now.

Ivo walked back to Saffie. He heaved but he was beginning to believe him. No one evil, would ever say that. He, like everyone else there, had believed that Saffie was league with his evil counterpart, but now they had all realised that that might not the case. There was something about this weird looking Blue monster, that meant that he might be trusted. His eyes. There was something about them. Ivo could see that there were severely war torn, and he'd dreaded to think what his evil counterparts had done to him. He was now hating himself. He looked down at the gashes on his torso and placed his hand in him, but Saffie immediately backed away. This version of Robotnik may not be evil but he still didn't trust him. Ivo wasn't, however, any threat to Saffie. He sighed.

"What happened to you? Why are you here?" He asked, genuinely curious. Saffie heaved. He knew this Robotnik wasn't his Robotnik but the whole situation was still super strange. Seeing the Human so close to him triggered his anger, Saffie grabbed the Human's hand and moved it away. Suddenly, he blinked and immediately snapped out of it, letting the Human go. He growled.

"You don't want to know, and I'm here to help, not conquer." He spat. There was some truth in that. The events he'd lived through were so horrifying that seriously they really didn't need to know. Plus was destiny was to help people as an inter-dimensional traveller. Saffie stared back at the Human, and Ivo saw horrendous pain in his eyes. He heaved, looking down at his hand. He'd felt Saffie's incredible strength, even though he'd hadn't actually hurt him. He smiled.

"I guess I don't." He added, closing down the topic of conversation. Saffie was still heaving with anger. The Human had got a little close for comfort and finally, being underground was beginning to get to him. His Dragon instincts were now not liking it one bit and now he was getting desperate for some space, ideally outside. Dragons were creatures of the sky, being underground, was their worse nightmares. Not that Saffie could fly at the moment. His wings were still shredded, but he'd kept them and his tail folded and pressed close into his back. He'd automatically done that, as to not scare anyone. He'd done that as soon as he was surrounded by people, brandishing spears. It hadn't really worked, but at least the fear in the room was now significantly easing. Ivo noticed his discomfort, and realised that if he was truly evil, that Saffie would have killed them all by now. Time to give this strange creature a chance. He smiled as he remembered something. He grinned.

"You said that you were no longer a Sonic anyone." He asked. Looking at him, he now quite easily believed that. Saffie shook his head. Ivo frowned. "So to what should we call you?" He shrugged. Everyone looked up, also interested to know. Saffie raised an eyebrow, looking around. Was he actually getting acceptance here? He had no idea, so he decided to just go along with it. He grinned.

"Saffie." He said, proudly. But many people laughed, including Tails, Rotor and Ivo. He frowned. "What?" He demanded. But Ivo giggled.

"Thats a bit girly, wasn't it." He grinned. But Saffie rolled his eyes. Not this again. Funny the first time, but not anymore, especially when he made the joke. He growled.

"It's short for Sapphire Dragon." He declared, and got instant silence. Ivo went absolutely white. In fact, everyone did. There were major gasps around the room. Saffie gulped.

"Ok, what did I do?" He asked, and then suddenly, it was his turn to be grabbed by the hand, as Ivo went for him. Saffie stared. The Human was searching for something on his hand. The Royal Seal of Acorn. It was still there, still moulded to his finger. The Human gasped in utter shock.

"He bears the ring." He stammered, to yet further gasps around the room. Suddenly, Saffie's anger flared as he snatched his hand away from the Human's grasp. He growled.

"What's going on here?" He demanded. Saffie was dumbfounded. How would this dimension know about the ring, or even him, for that matter. Everyone looked at Ivo, and the Human looked around and nodded. He heaved.

"Follow me." He ordered, of which Saffie nodded and immediately did. The crowd immediately parted directly behind the Human and he was lead down another low hanging tunnel which, to Saffie's total and utter surprise, opened out onto an enormous and absolutely beautiful cavern. Five stories high, and at least thirty feet wide, it was full of people. A naturally formed cavern, it immediately lead the visiter straight for a manmade wall at the far end. Perfectly flat and straight, it was in complete contradiction to the rest of the area. In the expansive wall were beautiful relief carvings. In fact the entire wall was covered in them, and right in the centre of the wall, stunningly carved as if looking from above, was a creature, in full glory. It took up most of the wall. His mighty primary wings, and secondary wings were out stretched, gliding effortlessly through the sky, the tail lengthened, fins flexing, a ring on his finger, ready to protect this world. Saffie swore.

"Hey. That's me." He stammered, pointing at the carving, a hand over his mouth. The entire cavern silenced as he had entered. Absolutely everyone was staring at him. Saffie looked closer at his image. It was definitely him, it accurately portrayed the strange combination of Dragon and Hedgehog DNA he had. Around his depiction, the sun shone down on him, from above, with it incredible rays of light. To the left, Saffie saw what looked like the Master Emerald on it's alter on Angel island. To the right, he saw the seven Chaos Emeralds, carved into a perfect circle. Slightly bizarre as he'd figured that he couldn't actually wield them. Then below him, Saffie saw him. His counterpart. Evil, trying to set the world ablaze, with villages and towns depicted in the base of the wall, in fames. Around the images was writing. It was in a language that Saffie didn't understand, but it was obvious that it had be deciphered because that was how they knew his name.

Saffie walked right up to the wall, but he didn't touch it. The way the wall was cleaned and beautifully maintained despite it's ancient status, told him how much it was well loved. He was left panting. He turned back to Ivo, who'd fallen behind him.

"How do you know this?" He asked, indicating the wall. Ivo smiled.

"That wall was thousands of years old. It was carved as a direct result of a prophesy told by a seer to the then king that the Great Dragon would come and save us. The Hero. Through the generations the story was passed down and now all that left was the beautifully carved wall." He explained, but Saffie sighed.

"Er, Dragon, yes." He paused. "Great, not so much." He added, but then he frowned. "A seer? Is that someone with the gift of foresight?" He asked. Ivo nodded.

"Yes, why do you ask?" He wondered. Saffie heaved.

"Every dimension I've been to so far, had had a seer seen me coming. How or why, or what it all means, I don't know." He breathed, but then rounds on Ivo. "I swear I will do what I can to help you, if I can." He added. Ivo nodded and then frowned.

"What do you mean 'if'?" He leered. Saffie looked behind him. He'd noticed that both Tails and Rotor had followed them to the larger cavern, and had been examining his back, looking for what made a Dragon, a Dragon. It's wings. Saffie's were so tightly folded into his back, that very little could be seen beyond the spines. What they didn't know was that was all there was left. His tail was long and thin. His secondary wings and fins all but gone. The Sapphire Dragon was grounded. That was, until he fixed it. With Robotisation Energy Manipulation. He could use on himself and repair all the mechanical damage. Heal all the gashes in his torso and regrow both sets of wings and tail fins. But Saffie was still incredibly reluctant to use the energy in this dimension, because now knew his counterpart was evil, with that technology, he'd destroy this world. Saffie just couldn't risk it, and looking around he saw absolutely nobody robotised, so he suspected that the technology didn't exist here, and quite frankly, he didn't want it to.

Saffie was about to answer Ivo's question, but got cut across by someone noisily tunneling from above. They were digging down to them and doing it fast. Absolute panic exploded in the cavern as everyone ran for their lives. Even Ivo stammered, swearing.

"It's him. How did he find us?" He squealed in utter fright. Saffie looked up, he didn't need to ask who. His counterpart. But Ivo grabbed both the Sapphire Dragon's shoulders.

"Please." He begged. "Help us. The world had fallen at his feet with his incredible superpower and now he rules with an iron fist. Controlling and dominating through fear and intimidation. Absolutely nobody can stop him." He cried. Saffie gulped and looked around. Panic was still everywhere as people ran to the tunnels leading off the cavern. He nodded, finally acknowledging Ivo for what he was. A good guy. He nodded, the professional soldier in him kicking in, despite his tiredness.

"Go." He ordered. "Get your people safe." He growled. Ivo agreed, and immediately letting Saffie go, he gathered his fellow Freedom Fighters and ran for the tunnels. Within minutes, the enormous cavern was empty but Saffie decided to also make himself scarce. To hide just out of sight of his counterpart, in one of the openings of the tunnels leading off the cavern, so he could size up exactly what he was dealing with. Saffie had fought a great many demons in his time, including his own, be had never fought anything quite like this, and as the Hedgehog punched through the ceiling of the cavern, Saffie could really feel the intense evil in him.

He growled. The Freedom Fighters were right. He really was the bad guy here and now Saffie had to face his worse nightmare. There and then, Saffie decided that whatever happened, his counterpart was not winning. No one, especially with his mighty power and strength should be allowed to turn. But Saffie had an advantage. He knew his counterpart, aka himself, better then anyone, just like he did on the Grid, except this one had superpowers. Saffie shrugged. That shouldn't matter, as he sighed and waited for his counterpart, his mirror image, to arrive.