This is an authorised crossover with Prince of Shadows by Dayle S, aka Firehedgehog. Chris Atola, Joonatan Leijona and the crew of the Explorer belong to me, everyone (and everything) else belong to their respective owners. If you'd like to use one of my ideas or characters, please let me know, I'd prefer to know who's using my ideas.

(AN: If I get anything wrong, like typical speech patterns of certain characters, or information, it's because I only know what I've read on the internet; we never had any of the Sonic cartoons, or anything else, for that matter, here in Finland. The only things I've seen related to that topic were some _and only a few_ video games, which came out when I was still in my nappies, screaming my head off. By the way, these * mean emphasis or a flashback.

I'll probably have to write this a million times, but still. This story takes place in an alternate dimension. I mentioned it in passing in Dimensions, but this is an alternate version of what was mentioned. In other words, Chris Atola's a time-guardian, she sorts out paradoxes in timelines and tries to keep more from forming. In this case, though, Chris has to deal with something different.

Alternate Dimension

*1st Person P.O.V.*

I was staying at my home in the countryside, the only difference being that I was three hundred years in the future. I heard the voice of the Guardian of Forever, my supervisor in my time-guardian duties tell me to expect a guest. Moments later, a black form materialised in front of me. I looked closer to discover that I was looking at a Mobian hedgehog with black quills and red highlights. I recognised him as Shadow the Hedgehog, having watched my younger brother play Sonic Adventure 2: Battle before I became time-guardian. I decided not to move him, instead I waited. Shadow woke up in a couple of minutes, and asked, "Where am I?"

I answered, "You're in a small country called Finland on the planet Earth. I'm Chris Atola. I already know all about you! You're Shadow, you don't remember created you or when."

"How do you know that?!"

"I'm a time-guardian, so I see more than most people. My job is to make sure everything happens when and how it should, not how people want it to. Right now, I'm supposed to set you on the right track. I've watched everything you've ever done from the moment Eggman found you, and I've read some records of what happened before. What can you remember?"

"All I remember is blowing up that reptilian creature that had attached itself to ARK, then I was in a pod. A voice spoke to me, it told me I have a job to do elsewhere. Then I blacked out, and you were standing over me."

"That voice was my supervisor, the Guardian of Forever. You'll find out what that job is later."

It just so happened that a friend of mine by the name of Telltale to- Vensre, the Sivaoan captain of the starship Universal Explorer, beamed down at that moment. "Hi, TellTale! I don't suppose you could do me a favour. Shadow here, and I, need to get to an alternate Mobius. could you give us a lift?"

"Alright, Chris. Which dimension?"

"I'll tell you on board."

TellTale hailed the Explorer, and we were beamed on board. I took TellTale aside for a moment and whispered the dubbed name of the dimension I wanted to go to. TellTale called the bridge and told them where to head for. He led Shadow and I to a waiting room, where I told Shadow more about my job.

When we were within a few lightyears of our destination, TellTale handed me a comlink, incase something went wrong and I needed help.

When we beamed down to Mobius, Shadow and I found ourselves on top of a cliff, overlooking a valley with a small village. As we watched, a blue hedgehog, whom I recognised as Sonic, moving exceedingly slowly, tried to escape from an extremely fat human in a hovering vehicle, and a new, strange looking robot. The fat man, whom I knew to be Robotnik, ordered the robot to fire a missile of some sort at Sonic, which broke the cliffside, covering him in stones and rubble. Robotnik stayed where he was for a moment to make sure Sonic stayed under the rubble, then he and his Swatbot left.

Shadow and I hurried down the side of the cliff, to see if we could still save Sonic. I had to let LongTail, my Sivaoan counterpart who I shared my body with, take control, as I couldn't move even the smallest rocks. Working quickly, Shadow and LongTail managed to get the rubble off Sonic in about a minute, after which LongTail returned me my body. I signalled the Explorer, and told them to beam us directly to sickbay.

In sickbay, I asked the doctors to move Sonic into a stasis tube, to repair the broken bones, and hoped it wasn't too late. He had to spend a month in that tube, so they had to set up an IV system to keep him alive, supplying oxygen and nutrients.

In a month's time, when they were finally able to remove him from the tube and place him on one of the ward beds, I asked the doctors to strap him down, since I reckoned he was likely to try and get up before he was healed, and probably end up relapsing. Sonic came to that evening, and was extremely confused.

"Where am I? What happened?"

"You're among friends. My name's Chris Atola, and this is Shadow. We found you buried under a pile of rocks, after Robotnik nearly killed you."

"Why'm I tied down?"

"Because I figured you'd try to get up, and get hurt even worse. If you give me your word you'll stay put, I'll get rid of the straps. Deal?"

"Alright, deal. Say, you got anything to eat? I'm starved!"

I went to get a dish of boiled rice and chicken gravy from the kitchen, thinking it would be easier on his stomach if he started with lightly flavoured food, after not having eaten in a month.

"Start slow," I cautioned him, "or you'll end up being sick. You've been out of it for a month, so your stomach won't take kindly to having a tonne of food suddenly thrown in."

After two days of observation, the doctors decided Sonic was fit to return home, and I let both him and Shadow know to get ready for the next day. The following morning, we met in the transporter room.

"Right, when we beam down, we'll be in the are outside the underground hideout. By now, I'm pretty sure everyone thinks you're dead, Sonic, so you can expect to get mobbed by relieved siblings. Let me do the explaining." I smiled at the thought of watching Sonic being mobbed.

"But let me introduce you first. A human appearing out of thin air might not be received very well!" responded Sonic.

"What does this have to do with me?" asked Shadow.

"You'll find out soon enough, and won't expect what you find out!" My smile widened further.

As we beamed down, I noticed we'd materialised *inside* the resistance headquarters, instead of outside. Sonic's siblings, Sonia and Manic, were shocked to have three people suddenly appear in their midst, one of which had seemingly risen from the grave.

Two seconds later, my prediction was proven correct; Sonic was surrounded by his siblings and friends. I watched and wore an 'I told you so' look on my face.

"Lemme go, I'm fine! Besides, we've got guests, in case you didn't notice!" Sonic tried to work himself free. Eventually, he succeeded in getting away, and launched into an introduction. "Sonia, Manic, this is Christina Atola, and Shadow. They saved my life."

We all shook hands; I then spoke up. "There's something you should finally find out about. It's a long story, it might be a good idea to sit down. I don't know about you, but if I stand that long, I'll be limping for a week!"

Everyone sat down, and I launched into the story.

(Fade out to the story.)

*Joonatan Leijona, Chris's predecessor as time-guardian, entered a hospital ward on the planet Mobius. The queen of the planet, Aleena, was scheduled for an embryo removal. Joonatan was the one to perform the operation. Later, he implanted into everyone's memories that a man called Gerald Robotnik did it.

Joonatan returned to his ship, the Tutkija, (that's Finnish for 'researcher' or 'scientist',) taking the embryo with him. He entered a laboratory, where he met up with his friend Midnight, a Sivaoan female.

"Joonatan! So, you're back! Did you get what you need?"

"Yes. Please help me set up the tank, 'Night."

"Sure."

Two minutes later the tank was set up, ready to be occupied. Joonatan set up an artficial umbilical cord between the embryo and a machine which would supply the young prince with nutrients.

Later on, when Joonatan asked the lab computer for an analysis of what the youngster would look like in a few months' time, he was surprised to see that the image before him looked familiar. It showed a black hedgehog with red stripes on the quills of his head, a white patch of fur on his chest and crimson eyes. The image reminded Joonatan of something the Guardian of Forever had shown him the week before; the image of his successor, an unidentified fifteen-year-old human girl with dark grey, shade-shifting eyes, as well as light brown hair. She was rather short, only a little more than a metre and a half tall, barely taller than the figure next to her; the same hedgehog he, Joonatan, was raising.The girl called her friend 'Shadow', so Joonatan, not wanting to create a paradox, named his charge likewise.

That evening, Joonatan talked to his colleague, Midnight, about what he was trying to do, why, and where he intended to take Shadow in five months.

Five months later:

Joonatan moved young Shadow into a small pod with a temporary life-support system, while he beamed down to ARK, into a lab with a similar tank. He had the transporter chief beam Shadow into the tank, on the ARK, while the current occupant of the tube was beamed to the Tutkija. Joonatan changed the memories of everyone on the colony, so that they wouldn't notice the change of subjects in the tank, after which he returned to the Tutkija. The real 'Ultimate Life-form' had to be put down soon after, when it threatened the ship's crew.*

(Fade back in.)

"So that's the story. Any questions?" There were none.

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