There was a brief pause in the images of the past the figure said he had forgotten... the older fox had a question on his mind since he saw his younger self and Sonic talking in the icey plain.

"So, did Sonic ever tell me?" The older two tailed fox asked the mysterous figure.

"Of what?" The figure responded.

It was hard to word it, but Selim did his best with it. "That I was... well... me."

"As I have told you before you don't have to ask questions such as that. They will answer themselves in time. Let's continue..."

VVVVVVV

Snively waited, as impatiently as ever, for the last elder to arrive. "What could be taking that miserable bucket of bolts so long?" The human asked as he looked toward the machine he had built to achieve his goal of time travel. It had a square platform with a circular frame in the center, the elders, were to be held in cylinders at each of the four corners on the platform. Three of them were already there; Snively wished that that slow robot would hurry up with that fourth one.

"Target acquired sir." A robotic call came from behind the human. The short pointy-nosed man spun around to see the robot, with the final elder in tow. "At last…" He laughed with his crazy cackle. "Soon I'll go to the past and destroy that miserable hedgehog, along with my insane uncle, and I shall rule this miserable planet without any opposition."

The birds look upon the human with anger, and fear, wishing that someone would come to save them, but they didn't think anyone would. This human had come in with a great many robots, and none of their people would be able to stand up to them, it would take an army and then some to get through them.

The army of two was now at the top of the volcano's creator. The fox and hedgehog looked down the side of the mountain; they could see the ocean on all sides. "Wow, this is really up here." Came Sonic's voice.

"Yeah, sure is." The kit responded, he wasn't afraid of heights at all, in fact he loved them, he was just happy to get out of the snow the feeling starting to come back to his furry toes. "It looks as if the volcano is about to go dormant."

The hedgehog cocked his head. "It's what?"

The fox sighed and shook his head; 'dormant' would never be part of Sonic's vocabulary. "Most of the magma in there looks cooled off; it looks like the volcano is going to 'sleep'. There are still some lava pools though… we'll have to watch our step Sonic."

"Tails? Are you telling moi to be careful?" the hedgehog retorted with a laugh. "You're soundin' more and more like Sal all the time little bro. You feelin' alright?"

The young vulpine sighed lightly. "I'm just being cautious Sonic. We still have to find Buttnik's base."

"10-4 big guy," Sonic said nodding once. "Nichole can probably help us with that."

The hedgehog whipped out the gadget and it started to evaluate the request. After a series of blips and processing sounds Nicole had come out with the response. "High concentrations of metallic alloys have been located in this proximity." After the data had been processed, a map projected out of the machine with a map of the valley, a blinking grey dot displayed on it.

"Nicole… I couldn't understand a thing you said." The hedgehog whined, scratching behind his ear.

"It probably means that the blinking grey dot is where the base is Sonic." Tails translated.

"Oh… I knew that…" Sonic smiled and he started to make his way down into the valley, Tails followed behind, knowing that the hot air would not make it any easier to use his tails to fly since hot air is thin.

"Wait up, Sonic!" The kit cried as they had made their way closer to the base. It didn't take too long to get there, with the speed they were traveling. The hedgehog smiled as Tails was right behind him, trying to catch up. He turned around to see that the grey dot on the computer's screen showed that they were almost on top of the base. He ducked behind a pile of dried magma. Tails saw that Sonic had stopped and changed his course to join his friend in what apparently was supposed to be a hiding spot, or look out point of some kind.

As Sonic peeked over the crevice, his friend did so as well. The base was nearly invisible; it was obviously made out of heat resistant alloys for it to be laying in such a hot area. The tracks of robots could be seen coming to and from the structure.

"It looks as if they took the elders in there." The hedgehog stated, to which his vulpine partner nodded. Sonic turned to the fox. "I'm gonna go check it out Tails, maybe find a way in, could you watch my back?" He asked.

Tails was a bit hesitant, but then nodded, at least Sonic was thinking for once, this seemed good a plan as any. "Ok Sonic." He stated as he took a pair of binoculars the hedgehog handed him. The fox instantly realized them as the gift he received on his 9th birthday. He used them a lot but lost them when he turned 11. He thought they had burnt with Knothole. He smiled up at the hedgehog.

"I knew I could count on you Tails, you've always been a great lookout." Sonic said smiling back.

With that the hedgehog ran down the ridge to the base, hiding in any crevice he could find. As the kit looked trough his binoculars he got this strange déjà vu feeling.

"Why can't I go?" The ten year old kit whined to the hedgehog. The air was dry, the sky dark in color.

"Too dangerous down there… Hey! Freedom Fighters always follow orders, Right?" Sonic asked with a smile.

The fox nodded returning the smile, "Right." He said as the hedgehog left with an 'outta here'. The blast from the sheer speed caused the vulpine's fur to ruffle lightly. The fox picked up his binoculars and looked through them as the hedgehog went behind a ledge. Then suddenly he saw something, to which he gasped to himself. Swatbots were closing in behind the hedgehog…

"Sonic… Oh no…"

Tails remembered those days well, some things didn't change. More so then the kit thought as he suddenly spotted two metallic forms close in behind the hedgehog… "Sonic…" He gasped; getting ready to fly and warn Sonic.

His namesakes whirled as he was about to lift off the ground when he had another recollection from that day.

"Sonic, watch out!" The kitsune yelled down the cliff to the spying hedgehog.

As the blue one turned around though, he didn't look to the two swatbot that were close behind, he was instead looking to the ten year old kit with a fearful stare. Tails was kind of confused as to wat. Suddenly he flew forward without the use of his appendages and he knew he was captured.

He was later rescued by Sonic, it didn't surprise him, but he did feel bad that he let himself be taken like that. It was very embarrassing and he wouldn't let it happen again.

He shook his head as he looked over his shoulder, there was nothing behind him, and he had to hurry up before… Sonic… he looked into his binoculars again… it was too late; a swatbot had him unconscious and was dragging him into the base. "SONIC! NO!"

The fox burst out of his hiding spot running with all his might as his friend was dragged into the complex. As the robot entered the facility the door swooshed shut. Tails was so close to the door that he couldn't stop himself from hitting it. When the fox noted he was going to slam into the door, he put his gloved hand out in front of him to stop himself from smacking square into it. He hit the door with a smack, the impact throwing him back a bit, but if he had not put his hand out if could have been much worse.

As Tails stood in silence before the door everything seemed to go cold, it all felt surreal. He really blew it bad this time. Sonic trusted him to watch his back, and now he was captured. What was he going to do?

The young kit pounded on the metal door with his gloved fist, over and over again. The fox knew he could count on Sonic if he. himself, was ever in danger... but now the shoe was on the other foot. He never ever dreamed of being in such a tough position, and it was a task he couldn't imagine how to accomplish. "Take me instead…" Tails cried as his arm became tired from pounding so hard. He sniffled as he turned around. His mind raced his felt his blood run cold. If anything happened to his best friend, it'd be all his fault. He would never forgive himself.

What was he going to do? Maybe he could fly back to get the other Freedom Fighters to help. The fox sighed. No, that would take too long. By the time they got back… Sonic could be dead, or robotisized. He couldn't just go charging into the facility, that would be suicide, and he wouldn't help Sonic by getting captured. He looked up into the sky and asked the wind. "Sonic, what should I do?"

There was a sudden blip that broke the vulpine's thoughts. The fox looked down by his foot and noticed that Nicole was on the ground, Sonic must have dropped it when he was rendered unconscious. He crouched down and picked it up; it looked as if it wasn't damaged by the fall. It was a strange sensation having it in his hands. As long back as he could remember Sally would never let him touch it, whether it was because he could break it, lose it, or mess with its programming he would never know.

"Nichole?" He asked seemingly without thought, just something to break the silence.

The computer responded with. "Voice print unidentified, please state your name."

"Um… Tails." The fox responded.

After a second of processing the computer came up with, "One alias matched 'Tails', are you Miles 'Tails' Prower."

The fox was surprised it would know him through nickname; he knew Nichole was full of data, but it was still sometimes creepy. "Yes." He responded.

A few more blips. "New user: Miles "Tails" Prower confirmed, please enter voice password."

Tails thought for a moment and came with the first thought that ran to his mind. It was his wish to save Sonic, and in order to do so he'd have to quickly become the best freedom fighter he could, soaring higher then he ever had before. His other feeling was how afraid he was, and how much he just wanted to run back to his plane.

Through all these thoughts and feelings only one phrase could describe what he was feeling. "I wanna fly." He stated.

"Password received, welcome Miles Prower."

With that his course was set. Sonic's life and the future itself was in his hands. He would not let them down, not Sonic, or the Freedom Fighters. If he failed, he'd never be able to live with himself. A sudden after thought hit the fox.

"Nichole… call me Tails."

"You got it."

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Sorry this one was a bit late, life caught up with me a bit today. Anyways this will probably be the shortest chapter in the whole thing, the next update will be on August 19th and will be the last 'summer season update' that means the chapters afterward will be put up on a regular basis.