Chapter 9: The Twilight Zone
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Tachyon and Tails huddled in the floor under the watchful eye of Beast. Twilight was seated a few feet away with Tails' gadget in his lap, staring into the screen. It was very quiet.
Tachyon looked at Tails and whispered in the quietest of whispers, "Are you all right?"
Tails nodded, and mouthed, "They haven't hurt me."
"I informed Knothole," whispered Tachyon, hardly opening his beak. "If Sonic is there, he'll come."
Tails looked up at Beast, who was standing with her weight on one foot and had a yellow eye fixed on them. "I wish I could warn him."
There was silence a moment. Tachyon shifted his wings and ruffled his feathers against a faint draft along the cement floor. "Who are they?"
Tails opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted as Twilight remarked, "Aha, here he comes."
Tails sprang from the floor and bolted for the door with such speed that Beast was taken by surprise. She turned to pursue him, but Tachyon flew into her face and slashed at her eyes with his hooked beak. "Run Tails!" the falcon screeched, amazed at his own bravery.
Twilight sat where he was and grinned.
Tails reached the factory door, panting, and heaved it open. He had one thought in his head--to warn Sonic. He dashed into the overcast morning air, and ran into Sonic himself, who was standing outside the door.
"Tails!" Sonic exclaimed, catching his sidekick before he could fall over. "What--I thought you were captured--"
"Don't go in!" Tails gasped, clinging to Sonic with strength borne of terror. Above all, Sonic must stay away from them. "Twilight and Beast are in there, and Twilight wants you!"
Sonic held him, alarmed and excited all at once. "Is he Shadow?"
Tails heard a footstep behind him, and Twilight's voice said to him, "He can call me Shadow if he likes, little bro."
Sonic flung Tails behind him and stood still, spines bristling. He and Twilight faced each other, silent. Twilight was smiling.
"No," Tails panted softly, "that's not Shadow."
"I haven't been called Shadow in years, but you may call me that," said Twilight. "What did you used to call me? Dark Sonic? Anti Sonic?"
"I killed you," said Sonic through his teeth. "The rocket exploded while you were standing on it."
"I survived because I ran," replied Twilight, still smiling his infuriating smile. "Although I was burned, and had to have my fur re-grafted from a black-furred donor." He motioned to the sky. "I survived it the same way I did the ARK and those nuts Gerald and Maria. Maria was a bio-engineered android who tried to crash the station, and it about killed me stopping her."
Sonic stared. So Shadow was dead. He felt a combination of rage and grief rising in him.
Twilight's grin widened. "In my world, I am both Sonic and Shadow. So you can call me either one."
Beast stepped into the doorway behind Twilight, carrying Tachyon in her forepaws. He was rumpled and angry-looking, but unhurt. Without turning to look at her, Twilight said, "Come inside, Sonic. If you don't, I'll order Beast to eat Tachyon. Seeing as the Slasher here didn't do the job."
Tachyon's feathers sucked in and he gave Sonic a look of stark terror. Sonic looked at Twilight. "If I come with you, will you let Tachyon and Tails go?"
"Of course," said Twilight idly. "Come in." He stood aside, and Sonic cautiously walked past the black hedgehog and velociraptor into the dark factory.
Beast pitched Tachyon out into the courtyard with Tails, and Twilight slammed the door. Tails and Tachyon heard the locks slam home, and three pairs of footsteps walk off inside the building.
"What do we do now?" asked Tails as the falcon stood up and dusted himself off.
"Anything that does not involve attacking the dark Slasher," said Tachyon, trying to sound prim. He was shaking all over.
"Well, they won't hurt me," said Tails stubbornly. "Fly home and get help. I'm going to watch and make sure they don't hurt Sonic." He spun his tails and helicoptered up to a window ledge.
Tachyon was only too glad to oblige. He opened his wings and shot northwards.
Tails could see the two hedgehogs and raptor. They were standing still, talking. He pressed his ear against the glass.
Down in the shadowed gloom of the factory floor, Sonic was listening to his evil double and grinding his teeth. Twilight was detailing his plan. "As I stated in my letters, Sonic, I cannot harm you. We are the same person in two worlds, like two sides of a coin. If I die, you die, and vice versa. I have come to ensure that you do not die."
"Like how?" Sonic had forgotten how sleek and oily the alter-Slasher was, or the horror of seeing her with bat wings. He had also forgotten the shock of looking into his double's eyes and knowing that their lives were entwined like fibers in a string.
Twilight's eyes were half-closed with satisfaction. "This world is about to end. When it does, all life on it will be erased, including yours. When it does, I will sicken mysteriously and die. I do not want that to happen. I propose that you return to my world. Together, we will live forever." Twilight gestured to the device that Tails had built. "When the final flux comes, it will reopen the portal I used to travel here. All we have to do is step through." He held out a hand. "What do you say?"
Sonic spat on the ground. "I say you suck. I wouldn't live forever in your world or anywhere else, and I've been there before. I hate your world."
Twilight withdrew his hand, unperturbed. "I knew you would refuse. Thus I took advantage of your world's rising Chaos Levels, and chanced befriending an old friend of yours. He arrived this morning." He lifted a hand and waved. "Say hello, Mecha."
Sonic spun around and saw Metal Sonic standing behind him, clawed hands at his sides, red eyes glowing.
"Make sure he does not escape," said Twilight.
* * *
Tails yelled and beat his fists against the window as Metal Sonic chased Sonic around the factory, but all he did was attract Twilight's attention. Twilight pointed at Tails and laughed.
The fox leaped from the window ledge and strained to open the door, but it was locked on the inside. Half blinded with angry tears, Tails ran around the building, looking for a way in. Every door was locked and barred. A few minutes later he was back where he started, listening to bangs and thumps as Mecha and Sonic tore the place apart. As Tails stood outside the door, it rattled and Sonic yelled through, "Tails! Open it!"
"It's locked!" Tails cried, yanking the handle anyway. He heard Sonic fumbling with the latches, then there was a thud, and the door stopped rattling. A moment later Tails heard Metal Sonic's metallic feet move away from the door. "No!" Tails cried, and attacked the door in panicked fury.
That was how Tachyon and Slasher found him, five minutes later. "Tails!" exclaimed Slasher, panting. She caught his flailing arms and held him still. He was sobbing and fighting mad. "Let me go!" he cried. "They got Sonic!"
Slasher pressed him against the wall and held a hand over his mouth. "Hush!" she said softly. "Cool it, it's me. Calm down."
Tails stopped struggling and blinked up at her. She uncovered his mouth, and he gripped her hand. "Slasher," he whispered, "the evil Sonic and Slasher are in there!"
"I know, Tachyon told me." The raptor jerked her head toward Tachyon, sitting on the top rung of a ladder twenty feet away. "Are the doors locked?"
"Yeah, and Mecha's in there," panted Tails, wiping his eyes with the back of one hand.
Slasher walked off a few steps, peering at the windows. "Have you tried breaking one of those?"
Before Tails could answer, all the windows were blown out by an immense concussion from inside the factory. Glass showered to the ground, and the fox and dinosaur covered their heads. As the noise subsided, Slasher remarked, "Well, that was convenient," and leaped into one of the windows.
* * *
Metal Sonic had pounced on Sonic, stunned him with a blow to the head, then dragged him to the center of the room, where Twilight and Beast were standing. "Well done, Mecha," said Twilight. The green emerald in his torc glinted on his chest as he moved. It was flickering.
Sonic was flung on the floor, and lay with his eyes half open, staring at the green emerald. A knot was forming on his head where Mecha had struck him, and for the moment he was content to lie still and watch the hypnotic flicker of his emerald. Twilight spoke and waved his hand, and a moment later Metal Sonic moved into Sonic's range of vision, carrying Sonic's knapsack in his hands.
In his semi-conscious state, Sonic was open to Chaos frequencies. As Twilight took the knapsack, Sonic Chaos Saw what would happen next. He curled up and covered his head. Twilight reached into the sack, and as Sonic had foreseen, pulled out the orange Chaos Emerald.
Just as with Knuckles, as soon as it was touched, the emerald released a huge energy wave. It blazed yellow in Twilight's hand, and Sonic felt the shockwave strike his back and roll over him in a wave. As it went, brief, bright images emblazoned themselves on his eyelids. It was stronger and clearer than any Chaos See could be--he saw himself battling Twilight, and directing the flux, and sinking to the ground, energized and dying, as Shadow did ...
Then it was over, and it was quiet again. Sonic lifted his head. All the factory equipment had been blasted against the walls. Beast was crouched on the floor, holding Tails' invention with her eyes closed, and Metal Sonic was lying on the floor, shorted out. Twilight was standing in the same position, spines smoking, a look of surprise on his face.
Sonic sat up and gave Twilight a sarcastic look. "Boy, are you dumb."
Twilight looked at him. "I've never used them before, okay?"
"Try that on the final flux and you'll kill yourself," said Sonic, standing up. "Give me that knapsack."
Twilight held it away from him. "These are going back to my homeworld."
"You're dumber than I thought," said Sonic. "That'll implode the universe or something." He was thinking of those visions. He didn't want to die, but something had to be done about his evil double. He looked at the green stone in Twilight's torc again. It had stopped flickering.
Sonic Chaos Saw again, owing to the extremely high level of Chaos in the vicinity. He saw the next flux, and it was not all seven emeralds together as Knuckles had said. No, there was an eighth emerald that would flux, and it would destroy the planet.
Twilight was placing each of the Chaos Emeralds in the golden torc around his neck, eyeing Sonic as he did, like a small child with forbidden candy.
"Twi," said Sonic, knowing the warning was useless, "don't do that."
The seven gems glinted from Twilight's torc. It was flashier than Sonic's emerald belt, and he guessed it would work exactly the same. "Stop, don't," said Sonic again, as Twilight swiped both hands over the torc. The seven emeralds blazed with light.
The two hedgehogs turned yellow at the same time. "It works," breathed Super Twilight, looking down at himself. "It works! I'm energized by Chaos!"
Sonic on the other hand felt as if he were playing chicken with a freight train. He could feel the Eighth Chaos Emerald's flux building from its hiding place on Mobius, and rather than feeling invincible, he was terrified. Being Super left him completely exposed to the renegade emerald's power. Within hours, maybe minutes, its condensed super-evil would pour into him and the rest of the planet.
Super Sonic looked at the green emerald in Twilight's torc. Perhaps it was because of the heightened Chaos Fields, but he saw around them not a factory building, but a honeycomb of portals to other worlds. As he was looking around, Twilight darted past him and picked up the device Tails had built. His glowing hands touched the metal port in the top.
The portals swirled and changed, a mass of blue and gold light. The light of other suns streamed across them, and the air of other worlds fanned their faces. Twilight looked at Sonic, then looked in wonder at the portals.
There. Alter-Mobius. Sonic saw Sonotropolis, and the launching pad where he and Twilight had nearly lost their lives. He pushed Twilight toward it.
"Oh no you don't!" snarled Twilight. His glowing hands curled around Sonic's, and he pulled Sonic with him toward the portal.
"You're going alone!" Sonic yelled. The two grappled and struggled next to the portal, so close that through the distorted edge of the portal, Sonic could count the blades of grass on the ground.
A dark shape pushed between them, breaking them apart. There stood Beast, teeth bared. "Come on, Sonic," she growled, and grabbed his arm. He struggled and fought, then twisted and scraped his invincible spines across her face. She recoiled and snarled.
Then the real Slasher was there. She bit Beast's arm and knocked her away from Sonic. "Get them through the portal!" Sonic yelled, forgetting to wonder if Slasher could see the portals.
Behind him, building and growing like a stormcloud, was the Eighth Flux. It was coming, unstoppable, enormous. Desperate, he grabbed Twilight and tried to push him through the portal. Nearby, Slasher and Beast were fighting furiously, so alike it was impossible to tell who was who. Twilight struggled. "No! You're coming, too!" He wrapped an arm around Sonic's neck and tried to put him in a headlock, but Sonic ducked out of it, spun and kicked, wishing Twilight weren't invincible.
A black blur flew past, and one of the velociraptors entered the portal and stumbled on the grass. It stood up and looked around, bewildered. Beast was through. "Get him, Sonic!" came Slasher's voice from nearby.
Sonic and Twilight pushed against each other, strength evenly matched, Chaos Power exactly the same. Sonic glared into Twilight's scarred face, the other hedgehog's teeth bared and eyes wild and orange. The golden torc swung at his throat.
"That's one souvenir you can't take," said Sonic.
"I'll take more than Chaos Emeralds," Twilight grunted. "How does a cryogenic freeze chamber sound?"
The Eighth Flux was coming. Sonic could feel it pounding in his ears, the biggest and the most lethal. "The Eighth Emerald," he panted. "Twi, you'd better go because this is going to be bad."
"I'm taking you with me for the same reason!"
It began slowly, like the rising tide. Sonic forced Twilight backward, his own yellow glow turning a sickly green. Twilight's eyes widened. "How are you doing that? You're stronger!"
"Go," whispered Sonic. "Go."
Twilight's feet slipped through the portal. Sonic released one of Twilight's hands, seized the torc, and yanked. The clasp broke and slid from Twilight's neck. At the same time, Sonic shoved him as hard as he could. Twilight fell into his own world and decharged. He leaped to his feet, snarling. "Then die!" he yelled at Sonic. "Go try to save your world! Go be a hero! Shadow is dead, but Twilight lives!"
Sonic scarcely heard him. He flew upward, mouth open in an insane yell. The roof of the factory burst away from him in flames and he flew straight up, clutching the golden torc, riding the outer wave of the Eighth Chaos Emerald's fury. He knew that if he stopped, the Eighth Flux would flow through him like light through a laser crystal, just as it had with Knuckles and Twilight. The evil power was eating at him, devouring his mind and soul with a strength that could not be resisted by mental strength.
He accelerated, clouds burning away in front of him, the atmosphere thinning. He was nearly there, nearly clear, nearly ready. He could hear the voices, the ones that had tormented him in his Emerald Madness when he first encountered the Eighth Emerald. He had not stopped screaming.
The sky was gone, and there were only stars overhead. He stopped and held up his hands. The Flux rolled on, through him and out toward the stars in a terrific wave of power, where it could travel for millions of miles, collapsing stars and splintering galaxies.
Twenty million gims of Chaos Energy travelled through Sonic's body in a single second. The three humans in their observation bunker watched in astonishment as Chaos Levels dropped to nothing. Astronomers watched in amazement as the moons moved into stable orbits. And Slasher, Tails and Tachyon watched in awe as a visible beam of green light shot up to a single bright point that was Sonic, and angled away into space.
Three seconds later it was over. Sonic descended back to them, his now yellow glow flickering like a broken neon sign. The three ran to meet him, and Tails felt a surge of emotion in his chest as he saw Sonic's eyes--a mixture of joy and panic. It looked as if the hedgehog were dead on his feet.
Sonic landed and held out his hands to Slasher and Tails. "Hi," he said, as if half asleep. His yellow quills returned to blue and drooped, and Slasher caught him as he fell. He looked up at her, Tails and Tachyon. "Hi guys," he said slowly, as if from a great distance. "Chaos ... never ... repeats ... itself ..." His voice dropped to a whisper, and his head drooped sideways.
"Sonic!" Tails cried. "Is he dead?"
Slasher groped for a heartbeat. "I--I can't tell." The raptor looked at her two friends, and for the first time in his life, Tails saw tears in the dinosaur's green eyes.
"Come on, hurry!" She whirled and ran, carrying Sonic, driven by wild fear that she was already too late.
* * *
In Knothole, the morning had been spent in watching the southern sky, and wondering if the world would end. Some people simply sat and cried, while others waited, resolute and silent.
Knuckles and Zephyer sat on the grass side by side, watching the sky. Neither spoke for a long while. The overcast sky lightened a bit as the sun climbed above the horizon. Above the sounds of the camp, the forest was silent, as if waiting.
"Do you think this is it?" Zephyer asked.
Knuckles shrugged. "I don't know, it depends."
Neither spoke for another moment, but they were thinking of Sonic.
"Why does he have to do it?" Zephyer burst out, turning to Knuckles. "Why couldn't someone else burn up instead?"
"Sonic has the most experience," said Knuckles. His voice was flat. Zephyer knew him well enough to know that when Knuckles was concerned about something, he became silent and introverted, which was sometimes misinterpreted as disinterest. By all the signs, the echidna was seriously worried.
Zephyer returned her attention to the south. Her conscience was needling her. She ignored it for as long as she could, then gave in and dropped her eyes to the grass. "I'm sorry I've been mad at you."
"That's okay." He spoke absently, as if he had not heard her. A moment later he added, "You were mad because I almost killed you, right?"
"Yeah."
"Sorry about that." His voice had no inflection, and Zephyer scanned his face to see if he meant it. He was not looking at her, and his eyes were troubled.
They watched the sky. A feeling of oppression was growing on the air, as if the air pressure was increasing. Zephyer forced herself to breathe deeply to dispel the impression of smothering. "What is it?" she asked.
"Last flux," said Knuckles.
Zephyer drew another breath, feeling as if her metal plating were crushing her lungs. "The Eighth Chaos Emerald, right?"
Knuckles jumped and looked at her, startled into reality. "What did you say?"
"There's eight emeralds," said Zephyer. "Won't the eighth one flux, too?"
Knuckles clapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh my gosh, I forgot about the Eighth Chaos Emerald!" He started to get up, then sat down again. "What's the use?" he muttered to himself. "I can't help him now."
The minutes passed, and the oppressive feeling grew. The gray clouds seemed to press down, crushing the atmosphere into itself. The flux was building. Knuckles lapsed into silence again, and was brooding. Zephyer's imagination painted vivid pictures of what the end of the world might be like, and she wondered whether they would die instantly, or have time to see it coming.
"Zephyer," said Knuckles suddenly, "will you marry me?"
He said it in the same flat tone he had used before, and she examined his face cautiously. "Are you serious?"
He continued to gaze at the southern sky. "Yes."
She laughed, and it sounded strange in the heavy air. "You certainly picked an odd time for a proposal."
He looked at her with a wry smile. "If the world ends, I didn't want to leave anything important unfinished. So, will you?"
"No," said Zephyer evenly. When Knuckles looked disappointed, she added, "I like you a lot, Knux, but I don't love you. If we survive this, court me a little longer, then ask me again."
"Deal." They shook on it, then returned their attention to the south.
The sky grew darker, as if a storm was coming. The air was thick and hard to breathe. "It's coming," panted Knuckles.
Then they saw a green beam shoot up into the clouds, reflecting off their undersides. A violent wind rushed over them, sweeping south, as if the beam were an immense vacuum. The pressure abated, as if the air had been released from a balloon. The sky lightened, and the green beam in the distance vanished, leaving a vapor trail that slowly faded. Everyone drew a deep breath, and a cool wind began to blow. Birds chirped in the forest, as if awakening from a long night.
Then they were on their feet, laughing, cheering and whooping. The world didn't end! We made it! Things are all right again! Hooray for Sonic!
The only person in all Knothole who was unhappy was Sally. She stood at the door of her tent, tears streaming unchecked down her cheeks.
"Bring him back, please," she whispered.
