"I thought you said time was not important…" Selim found a spot to interrupt the visions that had interrupted him.

Frowning as he was interrupted yet again, the fox shook his head. "For you, no, you will not age. However the one who threw you back into time in order to make the events flow as they have wants to rule all of time itself… You have seen how the short one fights to rule the world, however the world is something small. Time controls all worlds, all motion, all change. By conquering it one can make an order unlike ever before."

"Who is trying to? Nagus?" This answer brought out so many questions.

"No, the wizard may have found a way to enter the void, however he could not use it to control the outsides… Sorry, I cannot tell you who yet without breaking your mind."

"Isn't there a way to stop them?"

"There is only one hope, and the first one step is to make sure that your memories are true, let us continue."

VVVVVVVVV

Sonic sat alone in the war room. They received another message from the pointy nosed tyrant. The demands set were the same, bring the emeralds and the hedgehog was to come alone. This proved that the human still knew he was alive. No surprise there, Snively probably had a spybot to watch how perfectly his plan had worked.

Upon receiving the message, Sally called an urgent meeting. Sonic ran ahead and now he was waiting for the others to arrive. They had to be quick though, this ransom had a deadline, if he wasn't at Mount Gimmick with the emeralds in two days, Snively threatened to end Tails's life.

Why did Snively choose to establish a base on Mount Gimmick? It was bad enough that he had to rescue his best friend from the clutches of a madman, but now he had to confront Gimmick once again. Sonic remembered the stories he would tell the young fox of that place, he made up the thing about the ghosts; however the place did have a history that haunted the hedgehog. He shook his head, he couldn't think about the past now… he had to concentrate on the present, for Tails's sake.

The rest of the group then entered the room, Sally leading them in. Bunnie, Grif, Knuckles, Rotor, Roy, and an albino white mouse came into the room. Sonic looked to Jerome, who was no longer a robot. The mouse was quick to apologize for what he had done while he was under Snively's command, and was ready for payback. Seeing someone derobotisized only made Sonic think of Uncle Chuck though. If he were still alive then they could have freed him as well…

"We all know why I have called this meeting." Sally started the gathering, causing Sonic to snap out of his thoughts. "Snively has taken Tails to Mount Gimmick, and has demanded the Emeralds and Sonic for his safety."

The group nods, and Bunnie speaks up. "Ya have a plan Sally-girl?"

Everyone looked to the ground squirrel, who sat down at the end of the table and looked down, she seemed to be thinking. "I don't know right now." The princess sighed as she rubbed her forehead. "We can't just send Sonic in by himself, but we can't risk us all going in at the same time."

There was a moment of silence. Sonic then spoke up, "Why can't you send me in solo?"

Sally looked up, a bit confused. "Sonic, you remembered what happened last time you did-"

The hedgehog nods, "I know Sal. But let's make it appear that I'm goin' alone. You guys go in while I've got ol' needle nose's attention. You know like the old days…"

After a pause the princess looked up and smiled. "That just might work!" She was surprised that Sonic thought of it before she did. Maybe it was a lack of sleep.

Rotor gave a nod, "I just got done fixing the tank. We could go in that easily. I even got the engine running quieter."

Grif looked to rotor, "We also recovered something from Robotropolis awhile back that could help make your approach less detectable."

"Is this about the cloaking device you were talking about?"

The goat nods. "Ya, not sure if it will work with the tank though, we found it in a stealthbot."

"Don't see why we couldn't give it a shot." The mechanic thought to himself aloud.

Sally nods. "Alright, so let's map out our strategy then." She states, redirecting the attention in the room to her. The princess placed her small computer on the table which projected a holographic image of the Gimmick area. "He really must have planned this out. There aren't many ways to get to top of the mountain. We can assume he flew in with the Wing Fortress, so once we get to the mountain we'll have to find a way to get to the top."

She stopped for a moment noticing there was uneasiness in Sonic as she was discussing the mountain. "Are you ok Sonic?"

The hedgehog snapped up a bit and gave a nod. He felt embarrassed with everyone looking to him. "Ya Sal, was… just thinking that if I'm gonna be the distracter that I should be as far from you guys as possible right?"

With a nod the squirrel look back to the map. "The trouble is, is that the only way to the mountain is through a small stretch of land that is bordered by a massive lake. We can't take the tank over the lake, and surly Snively is going to have a massive blockade set up in that strip."

Knuckles cut in. "Well, there are high piers on the shores of the lake on the opposite side of Gimmick. We could have Sonic go over Lake Aqua, Snively probably won't be expecting that."

Sonic shook his head at the echidna. "How do you expect me to fly over that huge body of water? The Tornado is trashed. You know this."

The guardian shrugged. "You could glide over it. The wind tends to move through pier toward Gimmick. I've done it myself a few times; it's actually much faster then walking."

"I can't exactly glide Knucklehead." The hedgehog laughs.

Doing his best to suppress his agitation, the echidna replied. "Well, it wouldn't take too long to make a glider. Like a half-hour at most, right Rotor?"

With a laugh, the mechanic scratched his head. "Ya… Golly, you guys have been keeping me busy. Kind of been tough to keep up without Tails here to help me..." Sonic looked down a bit.

Sally frowns a bit. "Yes, and we thank you for all that you've done. You should stay behind when we start the operation, I'll drive the tank. Anyone else who needs rest should also stay behind, it is essential we are all alert on this mission."

The albino mouse, Jerome, cut in. "I feel like a brand new Mobian. I would really like to be on this mission if I could."

The princess gave a nod. "That's fine."

"Great that needle-nose is going to pay for making me hurt my friends." He looked to the echidna, whose shoulder was still scared from the time Jerome attacked him while he was Robotisized. "I never got to apologize for what I did."

Knuckles shrugged. "It's alright. I know you couldn't do anything about it, at least we were able to stop you."

Rotor stands up. "Well Grif, let's get the cloaking device set up and see if it works in the tank, if that's alright with you Sally."

The ground squirrel nods. "I think we have our plan. Sonic will glide over the lake and approach the Green Hill via air. This will probably cause Snively to withdraw any blockade he sets up on the small land strip, so we can drive our tank through it undetected. Any objections?"

There was no response, and so the meeting was called to a close. Rotor went with Grif to get the cloaking devise ready. Knuckles informed Sally that he was going to go back to the island and bring it to Mount Gimmick with the emeralds, if worse came to worse then he would give up the jewels of chaos to the madman. He also let her know that it would be cutting it close to the deadline, so they should go ahead as soon as they could and he would probably be able to direct the island to the mountain. "Hopefully we won't need to give up the Emeralds and you guys can get Tails out of there." Knuckles finished talking to Sally.

"I do too Knuckles… I do too." She said patting the echidna on the shoulder before he ran off. The squirrel looked around the room to see that Sonic was still there, sitting still. "Sonic?"

The hedgehog lifted his head up. "Ya Sal?"

"You're really starting to worry me, I have never seen you act this way before."

Sonic stood up. "I'm fine Sal, really."

The princess knew he was lying. She moved in behind him and wrapped her arms around the distraught hero. "Don't be so hard on yourself. It's not your fault Tails is in danger. Everything that has occurred is because of Snively, not you."

"Why does he do this?" The hedgehog asked shakily.

"I don't know Sonic. But I don't think we're supposed to ask why. You can't explain what drives someone like Snively unless you were like him. Maybe it's for power, or maybe it's just lunacy. The important thing, though, is to know what drives us, because if we lose that… then we could lose everything."

Sonic remained silent for a bit. He then placed a hand on Sally's. "Thanks Sal."

Wind blew through the hedgehog's quills as he looked to the distance. From his view on the high pier he could see Mount Gimmick standing tall against the horizon. He thought about what Sally had told him; that he had to think of what drove him. His mind went back to before he was a Freedom Fighter, when he was living in Mobotropolis. Times when he was running around the large city without a care, chowin' on chili dogs, pestering a younger Sally, and living with his Uncle Chuck.

Things have changed a lot since then. The hedgehog's home was now a confined cavern, Sally was much older, and Uncle Chuck was now gone. If Snively got his way, his uncle would not be the last one taken from him. Sonic could only imagine what it was like for those that grew up in these times, and were robbed of what he had experienced in his youth. Tails was one of those kids. He was born in these warlike times. If anything drove the hedgehog it was to make sure everyone had a chance to experience the peace he did when he was young, even if only for a minute.

Tails had a light in him, which reminded him of those days. Even in these hard times the kit could be seen smiling, and enjoying life. Sonic wouldn't let that light fade. Snively would not take it away!

The air was just right now. He picked up his glider and ran to the edge of the pier. As the hedgehog was carried over the lake, he looked down upon the water, which was reflecting the reddish hues of the afternoon sky. The fading sun reminded Sonic that time was not on his side, Tails was counting on him and he wouldn't let him down.

There was a hovering sound coming from the Sonic's right side. The hedgehog looked over his shoulder to see that he had been spotted by a spybot. Looks like it was time for the plan to take action.

Snively laughed as the image of the gliding hedgehog took up a large video monitor. The robot minions had quickly established a make-shift base amongst the ruins of the Death Egg. Tails was being forced to watch the madman's devious schemes.

"The rodent seems to be taking a strange route, but luckily my latest creation will be able to handle him, land or air." The human sneers as a door opened and a robot stepped into the room. It was dragon in shape and the metal held a jade tint.

Tails went wide eyed as he recognized the form. "D-Dulcy?"

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Thank you all very much on the input for the last chapter. It's the most reviews I have recieved in between chapters so far. I hope you liked this one an will bring you an update on February 24th, until then.