"This doesn't make sense, what is this? This never happened, this is not my past." Selim said to the air as the images took a pause.

"But it is. It is the past you thought you made for yourself, but really it is the one you had forgot."

"You're not making any sense, why can't I just go home? Can't you just give me my memories back without making me live through them again?"

"You cannot determine your future without knowing where you had come from. Regaining one's memory is not as simple as loosing it… if I showed you too much at once, you'd go into mental shock, like a dam breaking and the water crushing everything in it's path. You must drain the water slowly. Time has no meaning here, so we look for years. But too long and your molecules might alter in the time continuum, so let us hurry."

The colors returned.

VVVVVVVVVVVV

"That looks like a good place to land, right over there Tails." Sonic said pointing at an open spot at the edge of the island. The fox nodded, the island looked so much bigger then he would had ever had thought. The size on the map hardly did it justice. Like the island hovering nearby this one had a volcano almost at its center. It was big, however it was a dwarf compared to the floating island.

The area Sonic had been pointing to was a quiet seeming meadow, or at least it would have been quite if there wasn't smoke jutting into the sky nearby. Tails came into the island low, hoping to avoid detection; Sonic said that Aunt Sally sent them here because they could move quickly. There was a possibility of hostage situations, and it was important to save as many as possible, the kit would not let them down.

The ground was a soft brown, with thriving green grass growing out of it. The fox was very used to landing on soft ground, since he had done many landings on the Great Forest's floor. The plane landed smoothly on the ground. Sonic smiled as he climbed out of the cockpit. "Not bad big guy that was some great flying."

"Thanks Sonic…" he said scratching the back of his head as he got out of the cockpit as well. He sighed as he looked at the gauges before jumping down. "We have less then half a tank left. This isn't looking good.

The hedgehog nodded and thought, "Well we'll worry about it after we're done here, but for now we should hide the plane so that ol' Buttnick don't know we're here."

Tails nods and helps Sonic push the plane behind a thick brush, which the grove seemed to be so heavy with. When they were finished covering the craft in leaves they left the brush. "I hope he doesn't find it…" The fox said worried on what would happen to his plane if Robotnik discovered it.

Sonic smiled. "Don't worry big guy. He couldn't find clouds in a sky, no less a plane in a thicket."

The vulpine smiled and nodded as they walked deeper into the grove.

They head for the smoke, when every other intelligent creature would probably move away from it. As they moved along a cliff side, they saw green bushels of leaves grew out from the base, a light roaring could be heard, and Sonic could instantly identify it as a waterfall. Every time he heard one now he thought of hydrocity, the closest he'd ever been to death and the most scared he could ever recall being. Well, before the Uncle Chuck incident two weeks ago. He didn't like water in the first place, but that experience had given him almost an absolute fear of it. Not that he was afraid to drink it or touch it, but he couldn't immerse himself into it, unless it was a small bath of course.

Tails rushed ahead a bit, and Sonic followed. "Tails hold on, we have to be care…" He then looked around and the scene about him instantly made him silent. There was a large blue waterfall that fell from the high cliff. A large study wooden bridge was a good distance from it, crossing the river that flowed below. Large blue flowers grew by the fistful nearby, a rainbow streaked out in front of the mist. It was awing, and very blissful.

Tails moved to the bridge and looked up at the waterfall's peak, "Wow, that's so beautiful."

Sonic let out a whistle. "Sure is."

The fox sat down at the bridge's edge, his feet dangling off the side as he continued to stare at the mist as it came up. "This is the best part of adventuring; going to new places. Don't you think Sonic?"

Sonic nodded. "Ya, it's always nice to see new places, meet new people." He looked down into the river, shivering a little bit though he wasn't really cold. "Unfortunately since ol' Buttnik came to town the pickings have been kind of slim where you can find beautiful places like this."

The vulpine nodded. "Knuckles once said, that the rarer the gem, the more people wanted it. Maybe that's why something like this just stands out… because places of this kind of beauty, where nothing has been touched, keeps getting rarer and rarer."

The hedgehog scratched his head. Tails had his moments where what he said was deep, especially for a twelve year old. He could never think like that, he was too quick minded. He was better at quickly throwing insults, making sentences that were made of only a few words. While Tails and Sally thought slowly, contemplating things that were so small and combining those into a long and deep thought. He nodded. "Yea, so we better not sit round all day while the big round guy add another spot to his list."

The twin tailed kit stood back up as he nodded. "We'll do it Sonic, so we can see this again, right?" He said as he smiled back at him.

"Right on big guy!" Sonic said with a nod, he starts to walk over to the other side of the bridge, and the vulpine followed. As they crossed another field of flowers the hedgehog frowned. Why was everything burning? He wished he could be free, to explore every inch of Mobius to see all the beauty it had to offer, but as long as Robotnik was here he couldn't do that. Don't get him wrong he liked playing hero, but sometimes he wished he could just run. No purpose or reason, just run because he could. Anywhere, for any reason, he'd bring Tails with him. Ever since the day he found the kit they've been great friends, and he would do anything for the little guy. He'd been through a lot of shit for having two tails, and it made the hedgehog angry every time he thought of it. He was glad that the fox had found a way in which his deformity could be used to help him, now the fox was as obsessed with flying as the hedgehog was with running. Together, they would be able to do this mission with no problems; Sonic knew he could count on Tails more then anyone in the world.

The smoke rose up into the sky as they made their way over to a ledge that seemed to lead down into another valley. They were getting closer to the source of the fire that was for sure. From here they could smell the burning. It reminded Sonic a lot of when they were escaping from Knothole. He looked down off the small cliff into the valley, crouched down so no one would see him. He wouldn't let the same thing happen here that happened to their home.

His two tailed partner was kneeled down beside him, looking down into the valley. "So what do we do now Sonic?" He asked as he looked off in the direction of the smoke.

The hedgehog takes out the little palm computer from his pack that he had gotten from Lower Mobius, his other one had burned in the fire when the Swatbots attacked. He used to keep stuff like power rings in it. He had one in there right now, and he knew he'd need it sooner or later on this mission.

"Yo Nicole… got a map or somethin' we can check out?" Sonic asked.

"Here you are Hedgehog my man." Nicole said laying out a holographic display of the whole grove.

Sonic sighed and shook his head. "Like I can read this… come on Nicole, where are we?"

"Right here my main man." She stated a red dot blinking.

He still looked baffled and scratched his head. "And where do we need to go?"

"The Flickie are rumored to live in the far western part of the grove." The computer chimed. A picture of a flickie flashed on the projection, surprisingly nearby, just to the north west of their current position.

"That's more like it Nicole." The hedgehog said as he stood up, "That's where the fire is coming from, so we should probably go check it out. Now help me down the ledge, Tails."

The fox nods and smiles. "Sure thing Sonic." He said as he also got up and used his tails as a propeller, flying up a little bit in the air as the hedgehog held up his hands so Tails could grab hold. The vulpine moved forward and caught the hedgehog's wrists with his hands and lifted him off the ground. There was a little difficulty as he moved forward and slowly descended down the cliff face. It had been awhile since the vulpine had done this. They made it down into the valley as the hold was starting to slip. The fox let go as they made it to the ground, he breathed a bit heavily as he had to stop spinning his tails, and they were burning from the weight.

"Tails, you all right big guy?" Sonic asked as the fox caught his breath.

The fox nodded, "Just haven't done that in awhile is all…" He said as he panted a little and stood up. "I'll be fine Sonic, no problem."

Suddenly there was a shrill peep, almost like a scream only higher in pitch; the two Freedom Fighters looked to the northwest. Without a doubt, that is where the sound had come from. They both then looked at each other and nodded, as if they both agreed on an unasked order. The hedgehog and fox made their way through the undergrowth and followed a flowing river toward the sound and the smoke, ready for the conflict that was sure to come.

The air was shrill with cries for help when the two arrived on the scene. They peered through the brush; the fires could be seen as they roared, apparently obliterating a type of nesting ground. The birds were scattered about, some apparently trying to take offensive against the attacking robots, while the others appeared to be fleeing. An uncanny feeling came down upon the hedgehog, but this wouldn't end up like Knothole, this attack could easily be stopped. There was only a few bots, and they were of lower make, a few buzzbombers and catakillers, nothing he wasn't capable of handling, with his best bud Tails here, it would be merely child's play.

"Alright Tails, we're gonna take em' out. You take care of those buzzers, and I'll take the cats." Sonic said, getting ready to spring their surprise attack. The fox nodded, this would be the first time he was given permission to attack something, the other times he did it without being told and the one time he did that with a buzzbomber he ended up finding himself in trouble. He had studied the robots though, and he knew their exact capabilities. Sally and Rotor had taught him well, and his own interest in the subject caused him to excel far beyond his mentors' expectations.

They jumped out of the brush, Sonic instantly going into a razor spin cutting the head off a catakiller as it chased after a flickie who seemed to have a broken wing. The head flew into the river nearby as the rest of the body squirmed about like a worm.

Meanwhile, the fox flew into the center of the bees and gave them a raspberry, taunting them and catching their attention rather quickly. One aimed their stinger for the fox, firing a laser blast, to which the vulpine responded by raising his altitude causing the beam to go underneath him and hit the buzzbomber on the opposite side. The robotic bee broke apart as the beam cut through it, one down and two to go.

Tails flew away, taking the flyers with him into the trees as Sonic quickly moved to the next worm like robot. The hedgehog went into his spin dash attack and cut the robot in half. The two segments flopped around before they stopped dead.

The vulpine flew through the trees skillfully, the two buzz bombers right behind him. The fox quickly moved through the thickening foliage and thinks about how he would lose or destroy them. He then quickly spun around and flew backward, grabbing onto a jutting branch. Bending it back, he waited patiently as the buzzbombers tried their best to catch up. Just as they passed by the tree the vulpine let go of the branch causing it to snap back and hit the robots causing him to hear one get flung away and smash into a tree.

"Yes!" Tails said as he flew out and saw the smashed robot. There was only one though, where was the other…?

Just then a buzz filled the fox's ears and he turned around, the stinker flashed in his eyes as it was pointing straight at him.

Sonic had one more robot to destroy, and he quickly made his way toward it. He suddenly is forced to stop as the robot opened its jaws and closed it around a flickie, threatening to crush the bird in its jaws. The hedgehog stayed absolutely still, he wouldn't do anything that would make the catakiller kill the creature. It started to back away slowly, Sonic began to think quickly, he couldn't let it get away, but he couldn't attack it. He felt himself start to have a headache; he couldn't decide what to do.

0000000000

That finishes up this season, I got a lot done this year, thanks to all those that have continued to review. If all of you recall last year I stopped posting during the summer because I didn't really have access from my laptop. The good new is though, is that this year I'm going to make updates over the summer. However, they will be at a slower pace. The next chapter will be updated on June 3rd. Sorry it's so far away, but it's better then what I did last year, then you would have had to have waited until late August.

The beginning of this chapter did not really exist until I read through the reviews. So they do affect the story (Not the 'past' though, you can't change the past), but I'll be sure not to reveal too much to fast.

Also a reviewer for A Hole in Fabric made a good point, and thus made me think about how to cover my tracks, this is a good thing, and it's always welcome. I made a new section on my profile page for such reviews, and do my best to explain how I see the matter (And since this is fiction, it is probably far from Sonic Team 'truth').

Sorry about the 'VVVVVVVVV' Breaker. I needed something different then the dash, and I tried many other things to no avail. I'm a Computer Scientist, but the how keeps seeing seeing all my breaks as bad strings really boggles my mind.

Anyways, enough notes, see you next update.