This story arc starts with "Chapter 20: Lack of Strength".
Chapter 23: Block Out the Negativity
Sapphire and Big were delving into the underbelly of the warehouse, hoping to catch up to Knuckles and Silver. Saph figured that they would all end up in the same place, since they were effectively both going after Eggman Nega.
They were following the path of broken robots, likely done by Knuckles, considering the broken limbs or missing heads, given that was the only way he could take them down.
Eventually, they found an open doorway, where it looked like the door had just broken down.
That's when they heard it.
"YOU HAVE A SISTER!?" It sounded like Knuckles.
Sapphire quickly approached the door, and sneakily looked inside, where she saw Knuckles and Silver, standing in front of a large man who looked like Eggman, but with a white mustache, and the colors of his outfit inverted, being a black coat and red jumpsuit, and silver and cyan hedgehog girl, who looked a lot like Silver, trapped in a mechanical chair by him.
And the girl happened to look like Silver.
"I... I didn't... I was trying to protect her," Silver said. "You don't understand!"
"Let's see what she has to say," the Eggman look-alike said, taking off a gag that the hedgehog girl had on her.
...Only for her to immediately go off on the Eggman look-alike.
"Let me go, you Egghead wannabe!" she shouted, "so I can give you some just desserts. Evil people like you shouldn't be allowed to mess with people as you please! And what the heck is all this about 'future' and 'time'? You're a moron!"
"Hm, brash aren't you! And rude," the 'Egghead' replied.
"Let her go, Eggman Nega," Silver warned.
This is when Nega pulled out a laser pistol, aiming it at the silver hedgehog girl. "Neither of you are in a position to give me demands."
...Then the hedgehog girl spit in his face.
Wow, this girl isn't afraid of anything, Sapphire thought. She thought that was admirable.
"Why... why are you doing this?" Knuckles asked. Even he didn't like this threatening act.
"Do you remember the last time we met, Silver?" Eggman Nega asked.
"You were trying to unleash an Ifrit to destroy the world," Silver replied, unhappy.
"And you left me trapped in that dimension. You and that Espio fellow," Nega affirmed. "I begged for you to help me, and you abandoned me in that fiery landscape."
This line shocked Sapphire. Silver looked like the good guy, a hero to Saph.
But... that wasn't right. Why would Silver do that? And Espio was involved? ...Would Sonic do this? ...Is this... something she would ever want to do?
"Let me repeat, you tried to destroy the world!" Silver countered.
"Oh, you and your heroic, righteous views," Nega said. "Do you know what happened after that? I was able to escape that dimension, and found myself in the Sol Dimension. No one knew of me, or about my genius legacy, and how it was ruined by my descendant, Dr. Eggman. So, I was able to start anew. But here's the interesting thing about traveling from one dimension to another, without first establishing a proper, stable connection. Time and space warp in interesting ways."
"Years after establishing myself as a citizen and future conqueror of the Sol Dimension," Nega continued, "I got an interesting message. Dr. Eggman, the same one that ruined our legacy, contacted me from my home dimension. He wanted to work together to conquer both our worlds. And he didn't seem to recognize me! Apparently, upon traveling to my new home, I was thrown into the recent past, before he ever encountered me as I remembered. I decided to take the opportunity to work with him, maybe understand him... as equals, rather than as a ruinous legacy, before my past self inevitably 'betrayed' him."
"Oh, wow, how super interesting," the captured girl responded, bored.
"What does this have to do with Silvia?" Silver shot back.
"Because, eventually, Eggman betrayed ME," Eggman Nega said with vile disdain. "I thought we had a shared vision, after working with him. But no, apparently I was too 'radical'. Those on both sides tossed me aside. So I thought it was time to tear them down. Starting with you... And lucky me, you've already given me everything I need."
"Huh?" Silver sounded
Even Sapphire was confused. What did Nega have that Silver left?
"Tell me, Silvia," Nega said, "What do you know about your brother?"
Silvia sighed. "He's a nerd, got psychic powers, but he's not as cool as I am. Though I love him anyway. Now, let me go so I can punch you in the face already!"
"...She's so cool," Sapphire said quietly.
Nega snickered. "Oh Silvia, I've heard how you've always wanted to go on an adventure, just like your ancestor."
"That's creepy. I don't know you, or anything about you, other than no one likes you," Silvia retorted.
Ignoring her comment, Eggman Nega continued, "well, tell me, what does your brother do with his time?"
Silvia was about to retort again, but then stopped, looking at Silver. "What DO you do?"
"Silvia... you really need to understand, I have to do this, to protect what we have. I didn't... I didn't want to... disappoint you."
"What...?"
Then Nega started to laugh maniacally...
...Before Knuckles rushed up, and punched him in the stomach.
"Enough of this! Silver can handle his sister. Where is the Master Emerald!?" he shouted.
"...Have patience... dear Knuckles," Nega replied, trying to recover from getting the wind knocked out of him. Then he began to back away.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going!?" Knuckles retorted.
"...Oh, nowhere, my dear echidna... I'm right where I want to be."
Suddenly, the floor opened up, and Nega descended below.
Knuckles had to back up, and something began to rise up.
A large robot... a humanoid, black and red, hulking machine, with a cockpit where the head and neck would be, though there was still the design of a mustache wrapped around the front, with a pointed nose, and two beady green lights acting as eyes. And Eggman Nega smugly sitting inside. And inserted into its chest...
A massive, glowing emerald, probably five times the size of Sapphire (or two or three times the size of Big). Sapphire couldn't make out the cut of the gem, since she could only see its top in the machine, but from what she saw, she figured that it was a diamond cut.
"...Is that... the Master Emerald?" Sapphire asked.
"Yup," Big confirmed. "Really pretty."
Eggman Nega laughed maniacally. "Impressed, Knuckles? You should be proud! Your Emerald has now reached its full potential. Serving my vengeance against Silver, Eggman, all of them. Unfortunately, that does include... you." The robot raised a fist, aimed toward the echidna. "Time to return the favor."
And then the robot punched the ground, where Knuckles was. The echidna managed to leap out of the way, however... on the impact of the strike, it released a large blast of green energy, which launched the echidna back... far.
As Knuckles hit the wall, the blast washed over Silvia. The back of her metal chair protected her from the attack, but being unable to escape, she screamed in fear, knowing if the next attack hit her, she couldn't do anything about it.
"Silvia!" Silver screamed, as he made his way to his sister.
"Nah-ah-ah," Nega berated as the chest of his robot opened up several holes, glowing green inside of them. Then, emerald energy orbs shot out of them, all homing in on Silver. They struck the ground around Silver, bursting on impact, and forcing Silver to leap away, keeping him from the captive hedgehog.
"We have to help them! I- I can... uh... uh-uh," Sapphire spoke up, but she found she couldn't move. She was terrified.
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. Big's hand.
"I think you can be brave," he said. "I really do! You're here to help your friends, right?"
Sapphire sniffled. "How are you so nice?" She then switched her arrow mode, took aim...
A deep breath... She could do this...
Focus. You have only one target.
"You're looking distressed, Silver," Nega exclaimed from his robot. "Let me help..." And he reached his hand towards the psychic hedgehog.
Silver tried to use his power to hold the giant hand in place... only to find it could not take hold.
"What!?" he exclaimed.
"Ha ha!" Nega started. "My robot was made to be immune to your pathetic-"
Sapphire let loose her arrow... and it flew true.
A hardlight projectile, glowing brighter than usual, struck the front of Nega's cockpit, ...and then burst into blue energy, knocking the robot back and away from Silver.
"Explosive burst arrows," Sapphire exclaimed, brimming with excitement. "A classic. I knew that it might be helpful."
Before Silver could speak, he saw Big barreling past him, following up on Sapphire's attack. The robot was still standing, but not for long, as Big made a shoulder charge into its leg, using his sheer weight to knock it over!
As the robot fell over, Sapphires made her way to Silvia, along with Silver.
"Hey guys. You didn't hear me scream earlier, right?" Silvia announced.
"U-um, well, I was scared too. Actually, I feel the fear coming back, and-" Sapphire started.
"If you're going to say it's alright, we both were scared, so that's not helping," Silvia jested.
"Glad to see you're in good spirits," Silver said, as he finally got to use his psychokinesis on her restraints. With some effort, he was able to break them off, freeing his sister.
Silvia jumped out of the seat, and hugged her brother. "Finally! Now a can show that stupid mustached freak what's what!"
"Silvia, I-"
"Sapphire," a voice called out. Looking over, Knuckles had recovered, and was addressing the yellow hedgehog. "Wow, you really did a number on him... dang..."
He looked over at the robot, which Big was leaving behind as he ran back to the group. "I'm sorry. I... overreacted. I should've believed in you. You're more capable than I could've imagined."
"I..." Sapphire began to tear up. "Thank you. I just wanted to help."
Then a loud mechanical whirring sounded. The robot was getting back up.
Knuckles turned the machine, angrily shouting, "I'm not getting caught off guard again! I'm getting my emerald back!"
Silver turned to his sister. "You need to go. Get as far away as possible."
"But-" Silvia started.
"I don't want you getting hurt!"
Knuckles actually stopped his tirade to watch the scene before him. "Hey, Silver-"
"I can take her," Sapphire said. "Me and Big. We'll keep her safe. Leave the real hero work to the professionals."
"Hey! I'm not leaving," Silvia complained.
"Big, can you help me?" Sapphire asked. Big nodded, and picked up the silver twin.
"Hey! Let me go!" Silvia complained, as Sapphire and Big left the large room with her.
Knuckles approached Silver. "I don't think you've learned the same lesson."
"I know, it's just- more complicated than you realize," Silver countered.
"Is it?"
The robot finally recovered, and Nega was glaring down at the pair. "I'll see to it that you're destroyed. Forever!"
Sapphire had made back up to the main warehouse area, Big in tow as he carried Silver's sister.
"Come on. Throw me a bone here," Silvia complained.
Sapphire motioned for them to stop, as she caught her breath. "Okay, what now?"
"Can we go fishing?" Big asked.
"Boring!" Silvia replied. "Seriously, why can't I help?"
"Silver just wants to protect you," Sapphire replied.
"And you trust him?"
Sapphire looked down. "I just met him. But... my brother trusts him. But I... I couldn't imagine just... leaving someone behind to die. Even if they are a villain." She then turned to look at Silvia. "...Isn't he your brother? Don't you trust him?"
"Good point. He's... always been shifty with me. I..." she sighed. "Honestly, I feel like he's keeping things from me. But what about you?"
"I... keep getting these spurts of confidence, but then I... I start thinking-" Sapphire shook her head. "I don't know. I finally got Knuckles's approval, and Silver always believed in me, and-"
"Okay, stop," Silvia replied. "Can you drop me now?" she said to the big purple cat that had his arms wrapped around her. As Big complied, she knelt down next to Sapphire. "Your problem is that you're thinking too hard."
"H-huh?"
"You want to help and protect your friends, right?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Then just go for it! Don't overthink things. Block out all of those negative thoughts, and just do what you need to," Silvia said.
"Just... do what I need to do?"
"Yeah, that's all you need to worry about." Silvia got up. "Look, I'm tired of my brother telling me that I can't help and fight. And it seems like you've also got someone trying to keep you out, too. So, let's show them what we're made of!"
Sapphire looked up at the silver hedgehog girl. Then she slowly nodded. "O-okay, I can try..."
"Come on. Put more into that, sound confident!"
"I'll do it!" Sapphire stated.
"Awesome. Now, try to keep up!" And then Silvia... sped off in a blur.
"Wha-wha-wha- She's fast!?"
Big just stared in the direction Silvia ran. "What are we doing?" he asked, sounding confused.
Sapphire turned to Big, trying to look confident. "We're going back. And we're going help our friends!"
Eggman Nega's robot built up power, as it fired a laser out of its nose, blasting the mobian duo away.
The battle was not going well. Nega's robot would fire its laser orbs, or punch the ground with an energy burst, forcing Knuckles and Silver to stay away from the giant machine, which was especially hard for Knuckles, who needed to get close to attack. Silver couldn't grab lasers with his psychokinesis, nor could he use it on the robot, due to whatever Nega managed to pull off to make it immune to his powers.
They found a way around these disadvantages, with Knuckles using his strength to pull stuff out of the ground, and either throw it at the robot, or to Silver, who would use his more precise, if a bit weaker, psychokinesis to throw them at the robot.
Unfortunately, Nega either swatted it away, or it bounced harmlessly off of the metal shell.
...And now it had a nose laser.
"A bit disgusting, but oh so satisfying," Nega teased.
Knuckles growled. "You... STOP TREATING US LIKE YOU PLAYTHINGS, AND GIVE ME BACK THE MASTER EMERALD!"
"Why...? I already told you, it is now serving a much better purpose."
"It is not! You stole it, and are using it for evil purposes!"
"You simply don't understand. AWAY WITH YOU!" And the Nega started charging another laser, this time, from the Master Emerald itself.
Knuckles wasn't going to take any of this. And he began charging the robot. He must've assumed that because it was charging for one big attack, it couldn't do anything else in the meantime.
Wrong. The chest opened up, and fired its laser orb, undeterred with charging its main laser. Knuckles noticed too late...
As the laser orbs flew towards the echidna, he felt a strange grip around him, and then he was pulled back. Silver had used his power to pull Knuckles back, and save him!
But this left him open, as the main laser fired a massive beam of emerald light traveling along the ground... towards the silver hedgehog, who was not in a position to get away quickly.
He attempted to bring up a psionic shield to protect himself, but it wouldn't be able to do anything to stop the laser...
Then suddenly, something quickly grabbed Silver, and pulled him out of the way.
"There you go, bro. No need to thank me," a voice spoke after Silver was tackled to the floor. He got up, and found it was his sister.
"Silvia, what-" Silver started, only for his sister to interject.
"I'm not standing back anymore, Silver. You know I want the chance to be a hero, and you can't take all of the spotlight."
"It's dangerous."
"I know." And then Silvia sped towards Nega's robot, at Sonic speeds, both figuratively and literally.
...Which caught Knuckles' eyes. "Wait, what? She's... she's as fast as Sonic!"
Silver just nervously smiled back. He didn't know how to explain that clearly, and quickly, given the current stakes.
Nega attempted to fire his laser orbs at Silvia, but she outpaced where they struck, and sped up to the robot. Then she started hopping up it.
"You dare!" Nega shouted.
But Silvia made her way to the cockpit, and punched Eggman Nega in the face. "That's what you get!"
Nega recoiled from the direct attack, but then grabbed something from inside his cockpit...
...And pointed his laser blaster at the silver hedgehog girl.
"Fool... Do you really think that you could stop me that easily?" Nega taunted.
Silvia simply planned on sidestepping out of the way, but then the giant robot she was standing on jostled, causing Silvia to lose her balance. She didn't fall over, but now she couldn't move quickly as she intended.
"Say goodbye to your sister, Silver," Nega teased cruelly, as he prepared to fire at her.
Silvia tried to regain her footing, only for Nega to jostle his robot's controls again. And Silver desperately tried to find a way to stop him, but he couldn't make it up there quickly enough.
Then something flew up towards Silvia...
All Silvia knew was that something hooked onto her jacket, and pulled her back. She flew off the robot, just as Eggman Nega fired his blaster, the beam flying above the girl, missing completely.
Silvia was pulled back to the ground, at an angle, but she landed into something... soft, and fuzzy. Even a little bouncy.
Looking up, she found that she was lying on the belly of Big the Cat, his fishing line still hooked to her jacket. And standing by him...
"You're right, Silvia," Sapphire said, smiling at her fellow hedgehog. "I shouldn't overthink things! I just need to act!"
Nega growled. He was tired of being interrupted by this yellow hedgehog and her big cat friend. They weren't even Blaze or her annoying raccoon friend! He immediately retaliated by preparing to fire laser orbs from his robot's chest.
Sapphire turned to him, and shouted, "you're really terrible! Can't you understand that we just want to live in happiness? Also, it's not good to steal from people. You don't know what those things might mean to people!"
She chose her target, pulled her bow back, and fired, only aiming as much as she needed to.
And her arrow flew true, striking into one of the holes that fired the laser orbs, breaking the interior. This ended up causing a disruption of energy, which caused a chain reaction, making each and every orb launcher blow up, completely disabling the weapon!
"Why you little-" Nega shouted, as he punched the ground, causing another energy burst, knocking everyone back.
Silver managed to catch Sapphire and Knuckles with his psychokinesis, allowing them all to safely land. Meanwhile, Big held tightly onto Silvia, who was still on his lap prior, as he bounced to a stop.
Nega pulled his robot's fist back up, and glared down at the group.
"Okay, that's a start," Silvia said. "But we need to really knock that thing down!"
"It's immune to my power, somehow," Silver said. "And no matter what we throw at it, it just keeps standing."
"I don't think it's going to be caught off guard by a shoulder bash again," Knuckles noted.
Sapphire studied the robot, and made a theory. "What if it's the Master Emerald preventing Silver from using his power?"
"Yes... it could be generating a field that nullifies our powers," Knuckles noted. "I could command the Emerald to weaken its power. Unfortunately, without getting close, it won't do much."
"It's also too big for me to push it over, at least not without a lot of effort," Silver added.
"Can't you just pull the giant gem OUT!?" Silvia asked her brother.
"I can't be that precise with my psychokinesis."
"Then we give you something else to focus your power on," Sapphire said. "Knuckles, can you fashion some of that scrap into a hook for Big?"
"Huh?" Knuckles sounded. "You want to...?"
"We're going to fish for Emeralds!"
"Ooh, I like fishing," Big announced, somewhat oblivious to Sapphire's plan.
Seeing as they didn't have long before Nega attacked again, Knuckles pulled out a sheet of metal from the ground, and began making a large hook.
"Big, when Knuckles is ready, you need to help Silver fish out the big gem!" Sapphire told the cat, who nodded in understanding. "Silvia, you and I need to distract Nega, so the boys can do what they need to."
"So you're a plan maker?" Silvia replied.
"Well, I studied a lot. But... battle is still completely new to me," Sapphire said, blushing. Then she started to focus again. "Okay, let's go!"
"Enough of this! TIME TO DIE!" Eggman Nega finally shouted, as he began to punch again.
Sapphire made the risk of firing a few burst arrows, hoping to not overheat her bow. Her aim struck true, and the fist was knocked away before it could even come down.
While Nega attempted to recover, Silvia ran back up the robot, and then kicked Nega, careful this time not to stay where he could shoot back. On her way down, she dropped by the Emerald. She tried to loosen it a bit, to help her brother and friends, but she wasn't strong enough, and it was pretty tightly fitting in there.
But she did find a good place for the hook to go, a gap in the metal ring around the Emerald that helped hold it in place. "Hey, Silver! Aim it here!" she shouted down.
"Got it!" Silver responded, seeing where Silvia was.
Silvia heard some mechanical motion, and noticed that the robot was moving to smush her on the chest. "Woah!" she shouted, as she jumped over the hand just in time.
"The servers are the seven Chaos," Knuckles began chanting, holding his hands out toward the Emerald, despite not being close, while Big attached his new, large, makeshift hook. "Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos. Master Emerald, answer my call, and weaken your power so we can free you!"
"Stand still, and-" Nega growled, before stopping to notice that his energy output started to slowly drop. "Huh!?"
"Now!" Silver called out, and Big threw out his custom metal hook. Guided by Silver's power, the hook grabbed onto the edge of the metal ring holding the Master Emerald. Silver then began to use his psychokinesis to both pull on the hook, and strengthen the fishing wire, so it didn't snap, while Big pulled his rod back and began to try to reel in his catch.
"What!? NO!" Nega shouted, and he began to charge up his nose laser again.
"Silvia!" Sapphire shouted.
"Got it!" the silver hedgehog girl replied.
Just as Nega was about to fire the laser, Sapphire fired another burst arrow, knocking the robot back, and causing the laser to go wide, and miss everyone. The force also helped the Master Emerald pop out a bit. It was stuck lodged in there, but now it was sticking out a bit.
Taking advantage of this, Silvia leapt back up the robot, slipped between the ring and the metal chest of the robot, and began to use her legs to push the ring out.
Knuckles, with his job done, jumped in to help Big, grabbing onto his rod, and adding his strength to Big's as they pulled together.
"N-no!" Nega cried, as he began to notice the connections to his power sources breaking off, until finally...
The Master Emerald was pulled free of the giant robot.
The force of the pull launched the massive Emerald towards the boys, and Knuckles quickly recovered, and grabbed the gem before it could hit the ground, while Big fell to the ground, looking blankly up. Silvia slipped to the ground, managed to recover in the air, and land on her feet.
Silver recoiled a bit after his psychic grip broke when the Master Emerald was freed, but quickly balanced himself, and began to build up power, as he glared up at Eggman Nega, who was beginning to panic.
"It's over, Eggman Nega!" Silver called out, as he released a powerful psionic energy wave, knocking the robot flat on its back.
"I thought you said that you couldn't push it over," Knuckles cried from below his Emerald.
"I said not without a lot of effort," Silver replied, panting.
Silvia ran around to avoid her brother's powerful attack, and grabbed onto Sapphire's arm. "Ready for a finishing trick shot?"
"Wh-what? N-no, I just figured out how to aim properly, I'm not ready for-" Sapphire stammered.
"No overthinking! Let's go!" Silvia interjected, and she grabbed Sapphire's other arm, lifted Sapphire onto her back, and then shot off towards the robot at Sonic speeds.
Silvia leapt onto the robot's leg, which was bent, allowing the speedy hedgehog to run up at an angle, and jump high into the air. Then she tossed Sapphire above her, shouting, "GO!"
Sapphire was freaked out, but she quickly realized that she didn't have the time to worry, so she readied a burst arrow, aimed down...
And fired it straight into the slot where the Master Emerald was. In her quick thinking, she figured that if the Emerald was meant as the main power source, then everything should be connected there. So if she could blow it up...
BOOM! As the core exploded, the whole thing went up into flames, and the blasts continued down the limbs of the machine, breaking thoroughly.
Sapphire began to fall to the ground. And this is where her freak-out reached its peak. She didn't exactly know how to safely land.
That's when a red blur shot by and grabbed her!
Sapphire's eyes were squeezed shut, but once she felt herself being grabbed, and her falling momentum shifting to a gentle glide, she opened them, and found that Knuckles had grabbed her!
"I got you, Saph," he told her. He had her in one arm, his free arm stretched outward, as he used his dreadlocks to catch the air currents, and gilded slowly down.
Knuckles dropped Sapphire on her feet as he landed himself. "Thank you, Knuckles," Sapphire told him.
"Yeah. You did good," Knuckles replied.
"O-of course."
Silvia and Big, the latter of whom was carrying the Master Emerald for Knuckles, came up to meet the group. Silver took a bit longer, but it was clear as to why, as he came over with Eggman Nega hovering behind him, trapped in his psychokinesis, and was also burned, beaten, and thoroughly knocked out.
"I'm glad to have my Emerald back!" Knuckles exclaimed, as he took it from Big. Turning to Silver, "So, what's going to happen to him?"
"I'll probably be taking him back, so I-" Silver started, before getting interrupted.
"Silver," Silvia interjected flatly. "We need to talk. What is it exactly that you do? And you can't hide anything from me. I saw you fight. You're WAY more than the nerdy psychic I thought you were. And you've been fighting things like this, without me knowing!?"
"Silvia..." Silver started. "I'm sorry, but what I do is to protect you. You and our whole world."
"Protect me, huh? So I can't join in and help? You know that I've been wanting to go out adventuring, you know, to follow in the footsteps of our ancestors? And you've been doing it yourself, behind my back, and you're saying that I can't be a part of it because it 'protects me'?"
Silver tensed at that, which Sapphire picked up on. It seemed like Silvia said something that he didn't want her to say. "Sis, I'm sorry, but it's a lot more complicated than you-"
"Complicated!?" Silvia shouted. "It's complicated? Seriously!"
"Silver, I think we should go, so you two can finish this argument without us hearing," Sapphire said. "I know it's-"
"Wait, hang on, I have something I want to know," Knuckles interjected. "What is your ancestry, Silvia?"
"Um, Knuckles, I... don't think now is a good time..." Sapphire said, hoping to urge Knuckles to drop the question.
"What? But ancestry is important to me. Can you blame me for being curious? Besides, this might be the last time I could see her before she goes back to the future, and Silver-"
"Sonic the Hedgehog," Silvia stated.
"Huh? What about Sonic?" Knuckles replied, confused.
"Sonic... the... Hedgehog... is... mine... and... Silver's... ancestor," Silver said slowly.
"Hey! You don't have to treat me like I'm an idiot! ...And wait, did you say Sonic!?"
"Yeah, where do you think my speed came from! Inherited from the long line of the Blue Blur's descendants!" Silvia said proudly. "...And Silver got psychic powers instead, which is probably cooler, but I think my speed is awesome! It bonds me with my history. That's why I want to be an adventurer, to be just like him."
Sapphire was also shocked, trying to process what she just heard. The part of wanting to be an adventurer, she understood. That's what Sapphire originally wanted to do, as well. But Silvia was the descendant of Sonic? Her own brother?
Silver fell to the ground, almost losing his grip on Nega. "You just had to say it... didn't you, Silvia..."
Silvia looked around, confused and annoyed. Everyone (except for Big, who was absent-mindedly looking around) had reacted with surprise or despondence. "Okay, look, I get it, Sonic is a legend. But it's not that big of a deal. And you too, Silver, you know this, we're siblings! Twins! What's wrong with you!?"
Silver motioned to Knuckles. "Knuckles hinted at it, and for them, what you said is..."
"What? What are you-"
"Silvia, your brother says he's a time traveler, and that he, and by extension, you, are from the future," Sapphire finally said. "And we... know Sonic, personally. You're in the period of time where he's in his prime. A-at least I assume his prime." She didn't want to say that, but at this point, it couldn't be avoided.
"Wh-what...?" Silvia sounded. "Y-you're kidding, right?"
"...Are we in your history?" Knuckles asked.
"Um... Knuckles, right?" she thought about it, and then her eyes widened. "You mean THE Knuckles, the Idiot Guardian?"
"Excuse me!?"
Silvia turned to Silver. "You're... really a time traveler? We're... in the past?"
Silver's gaze fell. "Y-yeah..."
Silvia's eyes actually teared up at this point. "Silver... you... you've not only been living my dream life, but you've... been having the chance to have the best one ever. You even got to meet our ancestor, MY ICON, didn't you!?"
"Sis, it wasn't my choice. I was chosen-"
"No. No, there is no excuse. I-I can't- I-" Then Silvia ran off, tears falling through the air, as she ran faster than the liquid could fall to the ground.
Sapphire turned to Knuckles. "See... I think that this should've been left alone."
"W-wait, you think this is MY fault!?" Knuckles countered.
"Knuckles, do you understand the implications of time travel?"
Knuckles was going to say something, but stopped. She was right. He didn't know anything about that.
Sapphire looked at the exit, which Silvia escaped through. "I... I want to find her."
"Sapphire?" Silver asked.
"I want to talk to her, okay?"
Silver nodded, and Sapphire left, hoping to find the descendant of the Blue Blur.
Author's Note: So that was a lot. It was so long that, for the second time in this story, I figured that I needed to split this into two chapters (the first time being Chapters 18 and 19). So, yeah... there's even more! Also, sorry this took so long to write...
So, for what I have in this chapter, at first, I only have part of an idea of what Nega's robot was going to be. But I happened to go see the Sonic 2 movie in theaters, and I got inspired.
Now, if you haven't seen the movie yet (which you really should, it's really good), you can see in the trailers the big robot, so I don't think it's a spoiler, and it's clearly based on the Death Egg Robot. That was never MY intention to make Nega's unnamed robot based on that, but it worked for me. Besides, I got hooked on that laser nose.
Seriously, to talk about the movie a bit, and my experience with it, during the movie, I was noting to my brother (with a hushed voice, since we were in a theater) every little Sonic reference that I saw. Now, this is a slight spoiler, but not big enough to be a big deal out of, since it is not story important, but Eggman's robot had a nose laser, which reminded me of the nose flamethrower the final boss has in Sonic and Knuckles had. And that stuck with me, so I gave Nega's bot a nose laser, too!
Now, what do you think of the story I made for Eggman Nega? Remember that I was talking about this as a theory about two chapters ago. Yeah, I think that somehow, Eggman Nega escaped from the Ifrit's dimension into the Sol Dimension, with a little time travel backward. I know it's a bit shaky of a theory, like can traveling dimensions really cause time travel? But it's not impossible, right? And at least he's going back to where he belongs now.
(By the way, I do think that this would also apply to Blaze, going from Sonic 06 to Rush, except now there is reincarnation involved somehow, maybe caused by the erasure of that timeline. Also, in Sonic Colors DS, Silver and Blaze wonder why it feels they'd worked together before, very obviously referring to the lost and forgotten timeline of 06. So that supports my theory.)
Anyways, the title of this chapter is so inspired. It certainly refers to Eggman Nega, since he is the final fight here, but it also alludes to Silvia's talk to Sapphire.
A lot of this fight, especially the end, I just came up with all of it on the spot. I think the final working together was great, and Silvia's impromptu finisher with Sapphire is a great way to establish their friendship going forward, since they were meant to be besties. And Knuckles saving Saph after that was a good way to finish up the plotline of their rift that this story started on.
I'll get into Silvia in the next chapter, as her part in this story is more established in what was originally meant to be the end of this chapter. So, see you there!