Thanks for all your review thus far, 71 is very good for 17 chapters. I found a recent one by Kittsgruff interesting. Yeah, I might have made Knuckles a little too over the top (It's the first time I put him in the story last chapter). He usually is more calm and collective, however he seems to lose a bit of that in Sonic's presence, whenever I see him around Sonic he always seems more quick to temper. I think the guy can be pretty bi-polar especially around Sonic, calm one minute and screaming his head off the next and even more so when it involves his emeralds (From what I saw on Sonic X anyway) what do you guys think?

Anyways, now that that interesting rambling is done let's get on with the Story.

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"I guess we both wanted to talk." The ground squirrel stated. "So what did you want to talk about?"

The fox and Sally were alone in the communication room, Grif and Sonic were asked to leave, and though Sonic was a bit hesitant he conceded. The fox was gonna let it all spill now, he couldn't let his Aunt Sally or Sonic be killed, and he didn't care what Sally said.

"Listen Sally, I know what you're up to, and I know you don't want to know about your future, but I know if you make this attack you and Sonic-"

"Selim no! We talked about this. I'm under a lot of pressure to go through with this, we need to strike back, before we become so down that we just give up. If you were in my shoes you'd know it is for the best. What happens to us, is for the greater good, and on top of that you've already changed things enough don't you think?" The vulpine had never seen the princess in this matter before, an ignorant conflicting part of her personality that probably only Sonic knew of, because as a leader she played her role well and kept her true personality locked away.

"I don't want Tails to live through what I have Sally, it isn't fair to him." He said standing up, a little upset at this conflict that he wish he could be rid of, he was going to stop this.

"Listen Miles, things have already changed, so what happened in your time might not happen here, you can't stick around until you think we're safe from harm, then you'll never go home, you have to trust in us, like you used to. You can help, until we find a way to send you back home. I talked to Knuckles about the Chaos Emeralds and the possibility that they can send someone through time. Of course he could only let out a nod before Sonic and Grif came in, so he might be able to tell you how to go back. Of course he won't be here until we go to move on Robotropolis… so you can help in the mission if you want. Actually I think some of the Freedom Fighters expect you to go since you led the delay force in Knothole." The princess stated.

Selim knew he couldn't argue for them not to go, but at least he could be involved in the mission, he might be able to save Sonic and Sally, but he had to plan carefully or all his efforts would be in vain, and he'd have to live through the nightmare once again. "Alright Sally, I'll help where I can, and when this is over I'm gone, but weather you guys succeed is not my goal. It's that the kit grows up not having to go through what I did."

Sally nods. "And I respect that, we'll figure out how the Chaos Emeralds can cause time travel if Knuckles knows about it, and then we'll see you home."

The fox nods, "Alright now that we've reached an agreement, I'll see what I can do to prepare for the attack." He said standing up and heading toward the door.

The ground squirrel turns to face the vulpine. "Do you need me to go over what I have come up with so far in the plan?"

The older Tails looked down and shook his head. "I've already gone over it hundreds of times after its execution, to see where it went wrong..."

The princess nods. "Then you know it better then any of us, your help would be very useful."

Miles was through talking, he was already planning ahead, to prevent their deaths. He simply nodded as he walked out the door, leaving the leader of the Freedom Fighters to continue to concoct her plans that she now knew were what Selim was here to stop. She wished she could stop it herself, but if she faltered here then people would question her backbone, her nerve that gave her the leadership that she had maintained for years. Her panic could send the Freedom Fighters into frenzy, the ones that thirst for revenge on those they lost would charge headlong into battle, and probably die. All those lives would be on her head. The fox only knew of one possible future, and she would rather it be just her and Sonic be the ones to die then a handful of others just to defend themselves, for that is how she operated throughout her leadership. No one should be sacrificed because of another's cowardous.

The younger Tails was finishing setting up his little workshop, he and Rotor would set up their technical workshop in a small stretch of piping that pretty much had an exit right to the surface. It was a large enough hole to allow the Tornado to use the piping as a sort of runway. It also had room for their hover trucks, which had been collected. The ring generator had been taken out of the truck and merged with the life support system of Lower Mobius. Both the young fox and the walrus were both bewildered by the newcomer's skill in technology. He said it was his old girlfriend who had taught him, it was too bad she had been killed by the same technology in which she had known so well.

An echoing footstep could be heard and Tails looked up from washing the Tornado of the mud that covered the bottom and landing gears. He saw Selim coming his way, so the little fox turned off the water and waved. The older vulpine smiled and nodded, "Hey there."

Tails smiles, obviously eager to show Selim his own invention, the Tornado. He was always proud of it; Selim was too, it was symbolic of what he did during the two months of free time. The ruins of Robotropolis provided some great raw materials for building the airplane. It was defiantly much more stable and better built then the Freedom Stormer, which was made mostly of light materials, when Sonic landed it on the way back he had smashed it up pretty good, and it never took flight again.

Tails let Selim sit in the cockpit, and the older fox absorbed the control panel he had pretty much drilled in his head. He could go through the controls with his eyes closed, which was good because what he had in mind he was going to need to do that. The fox looked down the runway, it would be easy to take off from this position, he smiled at the fox as he pretended to have no clue about what anything did and the little guy was happy to show him everything. Selim found himself wondering where he had lost all this energy, even after something this tragic happened his younger self was chipper and happy. The older fox found himself wishing he had such ignorance, that he could be chipper again, but he had to sacrifice it in order to give this kit the chance he didn't. Tails would not die this time and Miles would not be born.

"Thanks for showing me around, you're a really smart kid, and you have a lot of potential." He said shaking his hand, causing the kid to chuckle and scratch the back of his head with the other hand.

He wrote more then when he had first filled out the Freedom Fighter paper work, he spent most of his day scribbling in his journal, filling the book with the history that he was familiar with, the one he was going to prevent from occurring. He would leave it as a memento, because he didn't plan to live through this mission. Like Sally he was ready to die for what he wanted to protect, and he knew he just might have to die in order to prevent the death of Sonic and Sally.

He went to bed early; he was going to need his rest, because tomorrow he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, because he wouldn't have the time. He would finish what he could tomorrow; he had already almost filled the book up with his 'history' which hopefully was just that and not a preamble of the events to come.

He remembered as much as he could about that day, he remembered that Aunt Sally had contacted Knuckles about bringing the Chaos Emeralds. The Echidna never showed up, and it resulted in the plan going wrong. Selim had looked for the guardian soon afterward, kind of pissed off that he chickened out or lied, however he was never found, ever. He knew then that he didn't pull out, he just was stopped, and that was what he had to do. Make sure whatever had stopped Knuckles the last time didn't do it this time, and hopefully that would change everything.

Sleep snuck up on him, it'd be the first time he slept in about thirty six hours and he'd happily take it.

One person was still up though, in the mechanical metropolis Snively was sitting and waiting, for the message he knew would come. If the princess were still alive she would try to contact the other freedom fighter factions in order to tell them to steer clear of the Great Forest. As if right on cue a swatbot comes in to report. "Picked up transmission sir." The metallic voice called as he didn't wait for the order to put it on screen and just did.

The echidna was on the screen, and he seemed to be talking about the Chaos Emeralds and of assisting in a plan of some kind, it seemed like the recording only captured the guardian's side of the conversation. It was more then enough though; he knew that they were after the Chaos Emeralds, he couldn't allow what happened to the Death Egg to happen now, whatever that yellow hedgehog was it was a wrathful power he wished not to see again.

On top of that he could use those Emeralds to his own advantage, that kind of power. If he could harness the power that Sonic did, he could be unstoppable. He laughed his little crazy laugh, it echoed through the walls of the metal room to be heard by none but himself. He would send one of the new 'recruits' on this mission, one that would have a lot of tactical advantage over the close ranged attacking echidna, while the Gizoid would stay behind and wait for the other Freedom Fighters.

It was perfect; all he had to do was wait for their arrival. They'd be right in the palm of his hand.

The next day went by very quickly, Selim didn't stop writing, he wrote until the sun went down, or at least until the lighting system turned down to imitate a starless night. Another horrible tragedy that they would have to overcome was that of not being able to see the twinkling of stars at night, to look up and have their hopeful light twinkle down upon them. Now when you looked up you could see granite and other hard minerals. He could see now why Dulcy wouldn't come down here, for he too was a creature of the skies.

The figure made its way through the darkness and snuck into the workshop that he had seen the day before. The plane's shadow stuck out in the room like a soar thumb and it was easy to climb in, the fox had remembered everything about his greatest aviational creation, even where the keys were hidden. When he sat in the cockpit earlier he noted that the seat cushion was a little loose, as he had expected. Before sitting down he lifted the seating up and in a little square hole the shimmering keys lay in wait.

They jingled as he picked them up and put the seat cover back down and sat, his tails moved to the side of the seat which had plenty of room for them thanks to the engineering done by his younger self who accounted for the pilot having two tails. He felt bad that he was going to do this, it would make his younger self worried, and maybe angry, but he would thank him some day.

He found the switch that controlled the lighting and flipped it, and suddenly the cockpit was brightened with light. Though he could probably operate it with his eyes closed, he knew he shouldn't risk it. He took a deep breath as he slipped the key in and turned.

The little fox suddenly woke up, he didn't know why; it was still the middle of the night. Maybe it was because of this big important mission that Sally and Sonic were going on in the morning, he couldn't go, like always. He could never understand why he couldn't go. He'd proven himself useful in every mission he went on, and he was now 11 years old. Not many kids his age could build a plane that flies, or come up with a distraction plan that made Robotnik think that the Power Stones was an unattainable goal which later made them obtain victory over the Doomsday Project.

It wasn't fair, he could remember what Sonic told him, 'Sorry big guy, Sal's got this one all figured out and we all need to do our part to make sure it pulls through. Your job is to stay here and make sure ol' Buttnik doesn't invade our tunnels.'

The fox sighs, like he hadn't heard that one a hundred times. It was just a way to say, 'Stay here Tails, it's too dangerous' to soften the blow by making it look like he was a look out.

Suddenly a sound cut though the little kit's thoughts, he heard what he thought was a plane starting up, and he would have thought it was his imagination if he hadn't heard the puttering of the propeller constantly humming. He jumped out of bed and ran out of his room and down the hall. He looked toward his workshop as it was now clear that someone was running his Tornado.

With speed that could only be surpassed by Sonic he ran to the workshop, and now he was not alone, the noise had woken up some others in its wake. He burst through the opening to see the plane moving down the runway. The young Tails started to run after it, but he failed to chase it down, by the time he had gotten to the end of the runway the plane had taken off into the night sky. As the plane became a smaller dot in the distance and disappeared into the twinkling stars, the kit fell onto his knees and sobbed.

Now everyone was up, it didn't take long for the news of the thievery to spread and Sally had a dread she knew who was responsible. The dread was reassured when Bunnie went to check on Selim, and found no one there. The rabbit Mobian gave Sally the only possession that was in the room at the time, which was the fox's journal. The princess took the liberty to read the last page to herself:

'I hope that I was able to stop this from happening and that you will be able to live a life not under the fear of Robotnik's rule. This is why I had to borrow the Tornado…'

She didn't have to read any further, she had found what she was looking for. Sonic tapped his foot as the princess read, he was very upset that Tails had lost his most prized possession, and he was eager to get it back. "It was Slim wasn't it?" He growled.

The princess nodded and Sonic looked like he was about to juice after him but Sally stopped him. "Sonic, don't go."

"And why not? That fox has been trouble the moment he stepped foot here." He said, Tails wasn't here at the moment, he was in his room and upset. "He's trying to disrupt us from our attack; I know he's working for them."

Sally sighed, "Sonic, the Tornado is not needed for this assault, because we are attacking from the ground."

Sonic nodded, "But my little bud needs me right now, I need to get his plane back."

Sally shook her head. "The plan won't work without you Sonic."

Sonic retorted, "My best bud is more important to me then any mission."

Sally suddenly felt something, like a mocking jab. This is what Selim had planned wasn't it? That people begin to question her leadership, that he distracts them from their missions. That if they chase the Tornado they won't die in Robotropolis. She felt outwitted, but she refused to give in to it, she knew only one thing that would stop this plan from falling apart at the seams, and that was the truth.

"Sonic… can you follow me… I have something to tell you…" Sally said as she walked out of the room, she hoped she knew what she was doing.

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Well, it's December 10th, Doomsday Day. Well, maybe it depends on perspective. It's good cause I'm done with my fall semester, it's bad for you cause that means I won't be back until January 24th, a month and a half.

Don't hit me, it's just something that happens. But when I come back I'll post the story until it's done. And it will be during the spring season.

Looks back up Ouch, I left you guys there… I didn't mean to do that… it just fell here, I swear. Ah well, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and good New Year to you all.