Author's Note: A new chapter is here, but before we begin, I have some...well, decent but mostly bad news.
Sega recently revealed in the latest interview back in July that the new Sonic Prime TV series is canon to the games, but it's very little details on that. Also, Sonic Origins, the new compilation of the first five Sonic games(Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles, and Sonic CD) that was originally supposed to come out this year is now confirmed for next year, and unfortunately, the new Sonic game may end up being released in either late 2022 or the most likely case, sometime in 2023 due to the trailer shown back at the Sonic Central was announced a bit too early.
In which case we'll be waiting for the new game for another year longer.
Anyway, let's continue on as we are getting closer to the end of this story.
I do not own Sonic The Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Chapter 21: Reality Can Be Really Harsh.
Earlier, back with Silver's group...
It's only been at least ten minutes since Sonic, Young Sonic, Tails and Young Tails entered the landscape of, according to Amy, Knuckles, Shadow and Rouge, Planet Wisp, they, Young Amy, Red, Sun, Kintobor, Silver, Big, Cream and Cheese, Vector, Espio, Charmy and Blaze were still working out on how to return everything back to normal once Sonic's group got the last two Emeralds and how to confront Scourge, Robotnik, the Time Eater, Cormain and even Tikal's father Pachamac who was just as the same as he had been before he and his soldiers were banished into the Prison of Evil by Chaos's enraged state.
Up ahead near where they currently were, was another gateway, except this one had multiple gears that seemed to be out of commission and broken, along with slots that looked difficult to make out. Kintobor, Blaze, Shadow and Rouge attempted to examine it despite that it was best to wait for their friends to return and restore Star, which Sun was still standing in front of with a forlon expression, gently caressing his lover's frozen face. While waiting, Silver's thoughts were still onto revealing his past which was far into the future to everyone, and both Sonic and Vector's and even Kintobor's theories about Dr. Nega.
'Could it really be true, though? I don't understand. Why would...why would Dr. Nega lie to me? Doesn't he want to change the future for the better? He said that killing Scourge was the only way...but is it the right way?' The silver hedgehog thought as he gazed at three of the purple, green and yellow Sol Emeralds that Sonic had given him, but earlier the hedgehog from the future had given the blue hedgehog of Mobius the other two just in case as he felt that something was off. Regardless in Sonic letting Scourge go, maybe he should've given all of them since Sonic still had the blue one that the mysterious Octosaur alien Soloman had given him when the sixteen year old was taken to the Prison of Evil.
"Silver, is everything okay?"
"Huh?" The fourteen year old time-traveller blinked out of his thoughts, and turned to see that it had been Amy who asked him, having to have noticed his own troubled expression. The thirteen year old pink hedgehog held a concerned look on her face, while in the background Young Amy, Red, Cream and Cheese were playing as much as they could, or just talking. Possibly both the alternate-young pink hedgehog and the seven year old rabbit girl telling the eight year old red-brown hedgehog about each adventures they had with both Young Sonic and Sonic through out the years.
"Uh...y-yes, I'm fine. Just thinking." Silver nodded.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Amy asked, gently.
"Um..." The silver hedgehog hesitated, not sure if he should tell her or not. So far when he first met her, she had been really nice despite being terrifying with her anger and, Oh Aurora, was she strong with that hammer of hers. Still, while he didn't know much of romantic feelings, having grown up in a ruined world where virtually 80% of life has been wiped out and the future Moebius was beyond saving, overrun with terrifying monsters, Silver thought that Sonic was somewhat lucky even though he and Young Sonic don't seem to share said feelings with Amy and Young Amy who are obviously in love with them, according to Tails and Young Tails.
"You don't have to. But if you do, just know that you're not alone in this, okay? But what I also know is that talking about your troubles and letting it out of your chest makes you feel better. If you keep bottling it up and let those negatives get to you, they would only eat you alive from the inside. Or...something like that." The young teenage pink hedgehog reassured him.
Silver blinked, remembering what Sonic had mentioned earlier with his own troubles for the past five months, or just two before the blue hedgehog's adventure up in Eggman's Interstellar Amusement Park.
"Did Sonic...tell you that?" He asked reluctantly.
Amy sighed. "Well, that and...he had been in so much emotional pain ever since Eggman split our world apart to try and use Dark Gaia. Sonic tried to hide it, but I could tell that it hurt him that badly that...he wasn't the same as he had been before. He was even so scared of losing us because he thought what happened then was all his fault. He loves all of us and Mobius so much, that seeing it crumble before he, Sun and Chip put it back together..."
She paused with tears starting to form in her eyes, remembering how her dear sweet and brave Sonic nearly broke down crying in front of her, having come to believe that she wouldn't want to be with him anymore and even having a heartbroken look on his handsome face and beautiful eyes broke her heart, and the two months of struggling to recover from the terrible trauma, which the adventure in saving the Wisps caused him to hallucinate for two days didn't help matters, it had been so hard on him.
"I...I had no idea." Silver admitted, his ears drooping. When he heard Sonic's story about his world's version of Kaiser, he had been horrified and even angry with how the sixteen year old could have been so reckless. But when he saw the look of lingering guilt in the Mobian's eyes, he reluctantly refrained himself from lashing out on him.
Sonic already had enough beating due to a misunderstanding when they first met, because the hero of Mobius had proven that he was the complete opposite of Scourge. Plus, for so long Silver tried to do this on his own, even with Blaze and Kintobor being there, yet he promised to protect them.
Which all things considering since coming to the past in Moebius, he just made things worse, and he been alone, trying to do things himself but was completely useless. That was when he remembered what Sonic told him at the Chemical Plant.
"What I'm saying is that sometimes you can't do everything on your own. I know that more than anyone."
"I don't know what to do anymore." The fourteen year old Moebian finally admitted, shrugging as he decided to take up Sonic's advice. "All my life, I've lived in a terrible world of nothing but ruins, monsters made of fire, fighting for survival. I would've died too and unable to control my powers, if it wasn't for Dr. Nega. He found me when I was just a small child. He raised me, and taught me about the history of the past, and we worked together coming up with solutions on how to save the world."
"I...didn't realize it was that bad." Amy muttered, lowering her gaze in guilt and sympathy. Hearing that made her think of how Sonic feared the end of the world or if the world would be taken over by Eggman, and frankly, she shared his fears, because most people wouldn't want that.
"Be lucky that you never have to. At least, I hope you won't. Eventually, we came to a conclusion that defeating Scourge and keeping him away from the Sol Emeralds was the only way to change the future. Even if, well, it would be different for me. But I'd rather that than spend the rest of my life in a world where everything is destroyed."
Silver shook his head, turning away as a rising guilt formed in his chest. "But...what if I've been decieved? If what Sonic and Vector said about my mentor, the man who was like a father for me, is right, then...What could it mean? Why would Dr. Nega lie to me?"
"...I don't know. I don't know what Dr. Nega is like, and if he is the future self of Dr. Kintobor who's the total opposite of Dr. Eggman and his Robotnik self from the other me's world, but somehow got corrupted with the Sol Emeralds kinda like what the Chaos Emeralds did to Chaos, well...what I can say is that Eggman's always been a big, fat liar. I can't even count how many times he always manages to get Knuckles to believe in all of those lies." Amy responded with a sad sigh.
"No offense, but for a tough guy, Knuckles sounds pretty gullible." The silver hedgehog remarked with a sweat drop.
"Yeah, but he has a big heart. I guess it's to do with him growing up all by himself on Angel Island with nobody to talk to or trust, it makes it easier to be tricked and misjudge people. Sonic and Tails had trouble making Knuckles realize that it was Eggman who was the bad guy when they first met. Then again, maybe there's a different reason and Dr. Nega might not be Dr. Kintobor's future-self after all. I'm not an expert with Time Travel and I've been on Little Planet for a long time." The pink hedgehog continued, smiling softly.
"Maybe. Up until now, after I traveled back in time, Blaze and Dr. Kintobor had been the only friends I ever had. It's, kind of strange to be in so much company and with people from two other worlds with heroes fighting evil almost every day and keeping those worlds peaceful. Don't get me wrong, it's been the best company I've ever had in my entire life. I'm just...not used to it." Silver shrugged.
Amy smiled warmly and gently held the future hedgehog's hand into both of her own. "I know what you mean, and maybe you should talk to Knuckles before this is all over. It took him a while to get used to being around use for a while too. Same with Shadow."
"...Thanks, Amy. You're a good friend." Silver replied, feeling a little bit better.
"Well, Sonic's the one who brought us together and made us all happier too. He didn't have much of a way of friends either until he met Tails, but he always stayed positive and hoped to have friends when he was growing up with his parents, and playing with all of the Mobini until he was eleven." The thirteen year old blushed, smiling in her usual cute way.
'The more I hear about Sonic, the more I admire his positive energy and friendship. Staying positive while growing up with a mother and father, only having friends with, um, Mobini animals, and then becoming a hero against Dr. Eggman and then met Tails and soon everybody else...he's something else.' Silver thought to himself, reminded more of how much Sonic and Kintobor were alike in any sort of way.
Their conversation then came to a complete halt when they and everybody else, including Shadow, Kintobor, Rouge and Blaze who had returned to report to the others, heard Young Amy, Red, Cream and Cheese scream out in fear, causing everyone to quickly turn when they then saw the three youngsters and little Chao staring up in fear at the sight of a shockingly sudden giant robotic spider emerge from a dark portal. Amy couldn't help but scream in fear as well as the robot emerged, before Shadow and Espio quickly hurried to rescue the children, while Knuckles leaped up and punched away one of the legs that had a grabbing claw that made to capture the two young hedgehogs and little rabbit girl and Chao who were then grabbed by the Ultimate Lifeform and purple Chameleon Ninja, Shadow carrying the two girls while Espio carried Cheese and Red and leaped back to the others.
"What in the world is happening world!?" Kintobor exclaimed in horror, as Red, Young Amy, Cream and Cheese, being gently set down, quickly hid behind him in fear.
"Is it Eggman?" Charmy asked, shocked and horrified.
"Either that and he may have actually escaped from the Prison of Evil, or it could be Robotnik from the other Mobius." Espio grunted.
"Well, either way, if it is either one of that Mustached Moron, if he thinks he's gonna get to us, he's got another thing comin'!" Vector declared, glaring at the giant robot.
"Yeah, who else would build a robot like that?" Rouge agreed, narrowing her eyes in anger.
"Can't you just give us a break for once, Ro-butt-nik!?" Sun shouted angrily as he stood beside Knuckles, Shadow and Espio, ready to fight the deadly machine.
"If it is you, Eggman, then we're gonna send you right back into the Prison of Evil! And if you're Robotnik from the Alternate Mobius, then you're gonna be sorry to mess with us!" Knuckles declared, clutching his fists rightly.
"Wait!" Silver exclaimed, taking a step forward as he felt a case of deja vu and familiarity from the design of the machine. "That design...I've seen it before. But...it couldn't be...!"
"Actually, now that you mention it Silver, I can't help but feel like it's..." Kintobor paled as he realized that he somehow recognized it as well, but at the same time it was more horrible and evil. "Oh no...!"
Then, the group heard a dark, evil laughter that sounded a bit like Eggman, but rather more calm and chillingly more terrifying, coming from the cockpit of the giant robot as it opened up to reveal who the pilot truly was.
"Well, it seems that there is only two that have figured this out, I should say." The owner said in a gentlement like tone, grinning evilly as he was revealed to be...
A man of a splitting image of Eggman, except the colours of his outfit were in reverse, his clothes were a black military-styled jacket with long coattails, red jumpsuit with a metallic-looking vertical silver stripe going up the middle and black and yellow-striped boots with gray soles, goggles black with similar sunglasses, egg-shaped belly, white gloves and a thick white mustache.
"I-Is that...?" Chris asked, shakily, taking a step back in horror and fear.
"I don't think that is Dr. Eggman. He's more scary." Cream whispered fearfully.
The Eggman-look-like heard her, but instead of being angry, he simply smiled in a chilling way. "Why, thank you, young lady. How very kind of you to notice my terrifying appearance."
"D-Dr. Nega...! It can't be!" Silver exclaimed, shocked upon seeing the man whom had been his mentor. At his words, both Kintobor and Blaze both paled as they heard the future hedgehog's mentor's name, and everyone else glanced at him in shock and disbelief.
"THAT'S DR. NEGA!?" The Mobians, Red and Chris shouted in unison.
"No way!" Vector exclaimed, his eyes nearly bugging out in shock.
The man in the robot, now fully identified as Dr. Nega, smirked upon seeing his student. "Silver, you have done well. I am pleased to see how far you have come."
"Dr. Nega, what-what do you mean? How could you be pleased with this when you're trapped here as much as we are? Why are you here? I thought you were still in the future! I thought you died!" Silver demanded, taking a step forward. "You pushed me into the Time Machine with the Sol Emeralds to stop Scourge and save the world by changing history! You sacrificed yourself when the lab was being overrun by the monsters! What happened!?"
"Which is exactly what happened, yet the future is already changing. However, our future where we came from is also dragged into the White Space, and I am certain your new friend Sonic the Hedgehog would be seeing it very soon." Nega explained.
"What!?" The fourteen year old hedgehog exclaimed, his eyes widening. "How could you know about Sonic? He's-"
"Scourge's heroic, alternate self. Yes, I am aware of that, which is why he too must be destroyed." The future scientist declared, horrifying everyone even further.
"What!? Doctor, you can't! Sonic's our only hope now! If he's killed before everything's restored and our future is changed for the better, everything will cease to exist as we know it! Scourge would remain evil and take over Moebius! Or do you think that Sonic saving Scourge's life is the wrong way and he has to die? We know the true cause of all of this!" Silver protested and demanded.
Nega just remained calm as he frowned darkly. "You are a fool, Silver. Reckless and utterly naive. You have played into my game for years ever since I have found you. You think you are saving the future, and yes it is true that when history changes and Moebius would be saved, you and I would cease to exist."
"Cease to..." Knuckles trailed off before he and his friends realized the meaning of these words and the red echidna glared at the silver hedgehog, demanding angrily and in horror. "You knew about this, didn't you? You knew that changing history would make people in the future disappear! That's why you said you would disappear, because you'll be erased from history!"
Silver lowered his gaze. "Yes...It's the risk I was willing to take, for the sake of the future. I accepted that I would never be able to live in a peaceful world, but it was better that I was never born and the world would remain peaceful and happy, and lives would go on like what I've seen when I first came to the present in Moebius. When I first went there, I understood what life was really like. I grew to love it already, and for Blaze and Kintobor, for Red even though he was thought to have died...I was more than ready to sacrifice myself to change history."
"Why didn't you tell us sooner!?" Knuckles snapped, grabbing hold of Silver's shoulder, furious and, more than anything, devastated as were most of the rest of the group even as Kintobor and Blaze both lowered their heads in guilt, as they too had known yet there hadn't been a thing they could do to stop it in order to save the world.
"I thought you guys figured it out! I'm sorry, okay!? But it's better if I disappeared then the world remaining in it's horrible state or even worse! That's what I've been fighting for! To make sure the world and time wouldn't be destroyed!" Silver snapped back, tears beginning to form in his eyes. "It's always been my dream to live in a world full of life, but the best thing I could get out of that was see it by traveling back in time and protect it by changing the future! Neither of you have any idea what it's like to live in a world where everything's been destroyed!"
"Calm down! Both of you!" Blaze exclaimed, stepping between both her best friend and the angry guardian of the Master Emerald. "Now isn't the time for this! We'll discuss this later!"
"Ah, Princess Blaze. Just as fiery as ever." Nega interrupted, causing everyone to gaze up at him once more. "It's been too long since I have seen your face, your highness."
"What? How do you know about me?" The Guardian of the Sol Emeralds demanded, glaring at the future human.
That was when Kintobor finally gasped in complete horror and devastation. "No...It can't be...I was right. Sonic and Vector were right all along...!"
Hearing this was enough to make everyone pale in horror that even Shadow felt a bit of a twisted deja vu, before the black hedgehog gritted his teeth in fury and anger, glaring back up at Nega who began to cackle in a more darker and twisted way.
"You really are Dr. Kintobor's future-self, exposed by the corrupted side of the Sol Emeralds...Is it true, Dr. Nega?" Shadow demanded deeply.
"So you have figured it out. Yes, I am or originally, I was Dr. Ovi Kintobor. But much more powerful and free than I ever was!" Nega declared, causing his now fully confirmed past-self to collapse onto his knees in despair, which made the future-twisted doctor frown slightly. "And I forgot just how pathetic and weak I was back then before the Sol Emeralds opened up my mind to the bigger picture."
"NO! That can't be true!" Red protested, shaking his head fearfully, clinging onto Kintobor in dismay. "You can't be Ovi's future self! Ovi would never turn mean or horrible! He saved my life!"
Nega frowned darkly even further at the young hedgehog. "Maurice Red Hedgehog. So Sonic has saved your life. Yet all of this started because of you."
"Hey, don't go blame Red for this, you big bully!" Young Amy snapped, even though she was petrified, she still was brave enough to at least try and defend her friends. "It was Cormain, Finitevus or whatever his name was from the alternate, scarier universe, and the Time Eater that started all of this!"
"That's right! You can't blame Red for everything's that happened, Eggman Nega! I can't believe Silver trusted you, when it's becoming obvious that you're just as horrible as our Eggman was!" Amy added, summoning her Hammer, her beautiful jade green eyes flaring.
"You're not very nice at all, Dr. Nega." Big commented, angrily as he stood in front of the younger people. "I won't let you hurt my friends!"
"Yes, I am aware of that, with my new memories mixing in with my old ones, which disgusts me." Nega growled darkly, shocking everyone even further as he was revealing his true colours. "Yet, if that little brat hadn't came into my life, Scourge wouldn't have felt betrayed and turned to evil. On the other hand, things couldn't have turned out more perfectly, except the main problem now is that annoying blue hedgehog and his younger alternate self."
"I knew there was somethin' fishy about this! You really did get corrupted with the Sol Emeralds!" Vector shouted, explaining his own theory. "You're from the timeline where Silver didn't come into the past, an experiment with the Sol Emeralds went wrong, changing you into a guy worse than Eggman, like a more darker version of his brother Julius, and I didn't know any better, you wished for immortality to wreck the world until it wasn't for your satisfaction. You tricked Silver so that things would get messed up and we all got dragged into this and you were hoping to destroy everything to your own liking."
A moment of silence.
Then Nega began to once again laugh evilly and calmly. "Ha ha ha ha ha...Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! Very good. You have figured it all out, my reptilian friend."
"I'm a detective. It's part of the job." The green crocodile growled angrily, clutching his fists.
"While it is true I wanted everything to be destroyed, I came to realize I made the biggest mistake; wishing for immorality to carry out destruction. I grew tired of living forever, yet I knew that if I remained the same kind and weak self that you are all foolishly friends with, it would make it worse as the world would remain in peace. So I found Silver and learned of his great abilities, trained him to control of while deceiving the boy into thinking that with Scourge's death, everything would be peaceful. But my true plan was for all of this to happen and it couldn't have gone any better than I hoped." Nega continued, ignoring Vector's comment.
"Yet, what I didn't count on was Scourge making the wish to merge three worlds which unleashed Cormain and the Time Eater, bringing in his alternate heroic self Sonic the Hedgehog, the chosen one foretold in the legends which speak of a savior from an alternate reality, a blue hedgehog along with another version of himself, two who along with Scourge and another blue hedgehog existing in a reality where humans and talking animals live in two seperate worlds are immune to roboticization, would save all space and time. It would erase me...but not what I wanted!" The twisted evil scientist added in anger.
Everyone was utterly horrified by this, while Red, feeling that the whole thing really was his fault, struggled to hold it in before he began to cry in sheer guilt and despair.
"This can't be...this is everything I have always been against... I wish I never studied the Sol Emeralds..." Kintobor muttered in despair, feeling just as crushed with guilt, punching the ground in self-hate. "This is all my fault!"
"Everything we had worked so hard for...was it really our fault that it had come to this? Forcing Sonic to be our true light of hope? I heard of the legend, but I never thought it would be true, let alone Sonic was the chosen one...How could this be?" Blaze whispered, shaking her head.
"Nega...Why?" Silver felt utterly crushed with complete betrayal, falling onto his knees, tears of frustration and guilt forming in his eyes. He glared up at the man whom he foolishly trusted. "You lied to me! You liar! I trusted you! I did everything with you for the future! You used used me! I thought I finally found someone who protected me from the horrors of the outside world in the future! You gave me hope! You were the father I never had! Everything...everything we've been through together...WAS IT ALL A LIE!?"
Nega just grinned, enjoying this moment. "Reality can be cruel, Silver. For people like you, with no family or true friends to turn to in a heartless, dying world, it makes it more simple for orphans like you to easily trust someone just because they saved your life, without knowing it was all a ploy, or however else people like me would treat children who don't know better."
While Knuckles knew that statement was directly at Silver, the seventeen year old couldn't help but feel like he'd been punched in the gut at least three times, giving him a horrible memory of the time when he discovered that Eggman lied to him the first time he first met the evil scientist who had tricked him into thinking that Sonic and Tails were after the Master Emerald and the doctor wanted to protect it, when it was the other way around.
Knuckles' Flash-Back: A little over four years ago...
"Dr. Robotnik!? What do you think you're doing!?" A younger Knuckles demanded, as he, a younger Sonic and a younger Tails hurried to the bottom steps of the Altar as Robotnik was in the middle of taking the Master Emerald, the very gem he had sworn to protect all his life.
"Sorry, Knuckles, but I'm taking the Master Emerald with me, to continue my plans in taking over Mobius and build my Robotnik Empire!" Robotnik grinned evilly.
"Give that back, Ro-butt-nik!" Sonic demanded, his emerald green eyes flaring in anger. First the Chaos Emeralds, now the Master Emerald, all so that the evil man he had been fighting for months now on and off could rule Mobius. The blue hedgehog was sick of his enemy attempting to take over everybody's home world.
"It doesn't belong to you! It belongs to Sky Sanctuary! It belongs to Knuckles!" Tails added, clutching his fists tightly.
Robotnik just laughed. "Oh ho ho ho ho! You and your two-tailed brat friend can't defeat me now, Sonic! Finally, you will see what it's like to lose and soon the entire planet will be at my feet and all of the Mobini animals will be the perfect energy source along with the Master Emerald controling the Chaos Emeralds for my Badniks and robots!"
"What is going on here!?" Knuckles shouted, feeling horrified by this.
"And you, Knucklehead! If this is how gullible you and your people are, it's no wonder Mobian Echidnas have gone almost fully extinct, and with you out of the way along with that annoying blue hedgehog and his little fox companion, nobody will stop me! In truth, I'm the one who is the villain here! You have been fighting the world's greatest hero who is just a child just like you are, and yet he and the little cub know better to trust people than you do." The evil scientist ranted on.
He couldn't believe it. Knuckles couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had really...been on the wrong side? Had Sonic and Tails been telling the truth all along?
"See? Robotnik's the real bad guy." Sonic turned to the older Mobian, who was only one year away in becoming a teenager. "He's nothing but a rotten trickster and monster!"
"Robotnik's been using you, Knuckles, so that he could get the Master Emerald to take over the whole world! Sonic's been fighting him for almost a year to stop him from ruling Mobius!" Tails added.
The twelve year old echidna felt crushed. Devastated, furious, guilt and failure. All of these feelings that made him now see the truth and while he still couldn't fully trust Sonic and Tails, he realized that they really had been telling the truth all along. He had been decieved. Tricked so easily. What kind of a Guardian would be tricked like that? Robotnik made a fool out of him. He ashamed himself and his people who were no longer in this world. Tears of frustration formed in his eyes.
"You...YOU LYING MONSTER!" Knuckles roared furiously, glaring back up at Robotnik, wanting nothing more now than to rip the human man into pieces, not just because he had been used, but also for wanting to take over the entire planet itself, one that Sonic the Hedgehog, an eleven year old blue kid born with super fast speed, had fought long and hard for to protect.
End of Flash-Back:
Even though Knuckles helped Sonic and Tails to save Mobius that day, again and again he had been tricked whenever Eggman had the chance to use him only for those plans to bite him on the backside once the red echidna realized the truth, mainly due to Sonic trying to get him to realize the truth and/or the evil scientist admitting that he lied, until eventually the last time was at Station Square two years ago. Since then the evil scientist hasn't lied to him even though he tried, and it was the ever last time because Eggman was trapped in the Prison of Evil.
But seeing Silver having been used and looking at his devastated and crushed expression, the seventeen year old knew what it was like and couldn't help but sympathize with the fourteen year old hedgehog.
"You..." Knuckles began, glaring up at Nega. "You rotten son of an egg!"
"I suggest you direct your anger towards Kintobor, echidna. He is my past self, after all." The future man suggested wickedly.
"No way! 'Cause you're just an alternate version of the man who's already beginning to learn his lesson!" The red echidna growled. "As far as reality goes, you're Eggman Nega that's about to disappear! I know that Silver can't be saved, as much as we want to since he's our friend, just like Red's mentor is, but we're going to finish what Silver started, and make his dream in saving Moebius from destruction come true!"
"You had been corrupted by the evils and negative power of the Sol Emeralds in the original timeline of Moebius, and yet because of what is happening, you still exist and you seek out the Emeralds to destroy yourself and everything in all of Space and Time. We will stop you, and if not us, then Sonic will." Espio agreed, standing ready to fight.
"Yeah! Bad guys from alternate dimensions have to be punished!" Charmy added, pointing accusingly at Nega.
Everyone stood ready while most of them stood in front of the distraught Kintobor, the horrified and guilt-ridden Red who just hugged his human best friend and silently shed tears, the terrified Cream and Cheese, the worried Young Amy, and the shocked Chris. Even Silver who, angered by the betrayal, stood up ready to fight the man who had lied to him all this time.
"You think you can all stop me? Once I get the Sol Emeralds, you will all be destroyed and so will I!" Nega challenged, fiddling with the controls of his Spider-Bot.
"We'll see about that, Nega-Eggman!" Sun hissed while Vector cracked his knuckles.
"Charge!" Amy commanded, ready to attack.
Yet as the group of fighters prepared to charge, Silver and Shadow both noticed something about the robot that was different and Nega grinned evilly, pushing a button which not only had three of the spider's front legs open up and descend towards the group who made to dodge, but also a cannon that opened up some kind of laser device.
"Look out!" Silver shouted, quickly using his psychokinesis to try and stop the machine from firing the very one attack he knew Nega was capable of building.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow shouted as he fired his attack at the giant robot.
"Not so fast, hedgehogs!" Nega declared, pushing another button which sent out some kind of radio-active wave that knocked everyone back so hard that it also caused them to scream out in pain before they all hit the ground hard, and also cancelling both of Silver and Shadow's attacks. The laser then formed into some kind of electrical field and entrapped the group.
But not before three spider legs formed into grabbing claws and snatched the helpless and injured Silver, Blaze and Kintobor who were all held tightly in the robot's grasp and lifted up into the air while the rest of the group found themselves trapped within the field, much to their horror as they cried out the captured trio's names. Shadow tried to use his Chaos Spear again, but to his horror, a zap from the force field cancelled it out and zapped him painfully, causing the black hedgehog to cry out in agony.
"Shadow!" Sun exclaimed in horror, hissing as he tried to ignore his own pain, and hurried over to his rival and friend along with almost everybody else.
"Are you okay?" Cream asked, worriedly.
"I'm fine...but my powers have been disabled somehow." Shadow grunted, glaring up at the evil scientist who had his past-self, Silver and Blaze trapped in his robot's clutches as the trio tried to break free.
"What'd you do!?" Knuckles demanded angrily.
"Heh heh heh heh heh heh...This robot was created to cancel any born abilities of Psychokinesis and powers of Sol and Chaos Energy planted inside living organic and artificial bodies. I took my time to study both without Silver even realizing it, spend my time within this place and studying other realities ever since this started. But neither of you will ever know how I came here and survived." Nega explained, before controlling the robot to bring up the captured Silver up close while the teenage future hedgehog struggled to break free.
"Please, let them go! It's not fair!" Red pleaded, racing over to try and break through the barrier, only to be slightly electrocuted by the barrier and bounced back, hitting the floor hard while crying out in pain.
"Red!" Amy screamed out in horror, she, her youngerself, Cream and Cheese, and Chris hurrying to help the eight year old male hedgehog, carefully lifting him up.
"Chao, chao!" Cheese exclaimed.
"Future Ovi...Please!" The Moebian hedgehog continued, looking up at his friend's futureself pleadingly, before whimpering in pain.
"Red, take it easy. You're hurt." Chris informed him, carefully cradling the young hedgehog in his arms.
Nega ignored Red's plea despite that there was a familiar feeling within his chest that lingered slightly, but he shook it off and focused on the struggling Silver, before opening up a panel which had more robotic, smaller hands emerge from the keyboard and ruffled into the silver hedgehog's quills before taking out the Sol Emeralds he had.
"N-No! G-Give them back!" Silver demanded, wincing as the grip on him tightened, squeezing him to the point that he feared that it would break his bones.
"So, you gave the other three emeralds to Sonic while he searched for the final one. How clever of you, Silver. But not clever enough." The evil future scientist praised wickedly, commanding his robot to bring his former apprentice up closer to him, looking at the helpless hedgehog within his grasp. "What a shame. You could have done so much better. Do not worry, you will be going home...and burn in your greatest fears and you won't have to watch me destroyed Sonic and get the rest of the Sol Emeralds!"
The fourteen year old hedgehog hissed, pure anger flaring in his eyes. "Sonic will stop you, Nega...! You don't know how strong he is!"
"Everyone is weak, boy. That blue hedgehog will die and once he is erased, Dr. Eggman's death will be prevented and he will rule his dimension!" Nega declared, before commanding his robot to toss Silver right into the portal to Planet Wisp as the latter screamed before vanishing.
"SILVER!" Everyone else exclaimed in horror and dismay.
"Please, stop this madness! I beg you! This isn't right!" Kintobor shouted pleadingly, horrified beyond belief at what he would become should he get corrupted by the unstable power of the Sol Emeralds.
"You won't have a thing to worry about. I have plans for you, past-Kintobor, as well as for the Princess. First, I will need the rest of the Sol Emeralds. Come, we have a blue hedgehog to hunt down!" The future scientist declared, using the controls to open up another portal and his robot flew him and his captives right into it to find Sonic and his group.
"You won't get away with this, Nega!" Blaze shouted furiously, struggling as she tried to use her fire powers to melt the robot's hands that held her captive.
"You be quiet, spoiled brat." Nega warned, pushing another button which sent out electricity right into the Moebian Cat Princess and Kintobor who both screamed in agony, and everyone trapped below could only watch helplessly.
"Get back here!" Knuckles demanded, but it was too late as the evil future version of Kintobor had escaped with his prisoners.
"What do we do now?" Young Amy asked, dismayed. "If that mean Dr. Nega gets to both of Sonic and Tails, they're gonna get hurt!"
Shadow hissed furiously. "Correction. He's going to kill them, steal the Sol Emeralds that Sonic has and most likely the Chaos Emeralds as well."
"I'm afraid Shadow is right." Espio grimly said, lowering his head. "Unless Sonic figures this out and defeats Dr. Nega...not only he has won, but so have Scourge, Robotnik, the Time Eater and Cormain."
"You're right. Sonic's our only hope now. He's gotta be okay." Chris agreed, making everyone share horrified and fearful glances.
If Sonic and Young Sonic didn't stop Nega and save Blaze, Kintobor and hopefully Silver...they were all doomed.
Amy, horrified and fearing that everything was going to be destroyed, clasped her hands together as she gazed at the entrance of Planet Wisp, remembering how Sonic had secretly kissed her on the cheek. If he didn't save them and stop Nega, oh Chaos, their future together would be gone and...and everything would cease to exist.
'Sonic...please hang in there.' The pink teenage hedgehog pleaded in her mind, silently shedding tears.
"This is all my fault..." Red sobbed, getting everyone's attention. "Ovi's gonna turn bad, Scourge turned bad because of me and...and now everybody here including Sonic are gonna disappear...! I wish...I wish...I WISH I NEVER BORN!"
Losing all faith within himself, believing that Sonic was wrong about him, the young red-brown hedgehog cried and wailed which broke the hearts of most of the group, and even Shadow had to look away slightly, the feeling of tightness within his chest unbearable. Still, while Amy and the others, even Rouge and Sun, tried to comfort the young eight year old Moebian who was being overcome with the misplaced guilt, the black hedgehog approached the young boy and knelt down in front of him, placing a hand onto the child's shoulder.
"Don't wish that. Don't you EVER wish for something that would not make a difference." The Ultimate Lifeform told him, at first in a scolding way which startled Red. "If you were never born, it only make things worse. Scourge would still go down the path only for Sonic to fail to keeping his promise to help him change for the better. If anything, you not existing would only make things worse."
"But it's still bad...! Sonic's gonna die all because of me!" Red pointed out tearfully. "Ovi's turned bad in the future a-and...!"
"That is in the old timeline before this mess started. The future is already changing in Moebius. The reason Nega still exists because of what's going on. But when things are returned to normal and your world's been saved, it is Nega who will cease to exist, because he is the alternate version of Dr. Kintobor. Wishing to change the past isn't the answer, because you can't always get what you want. Two years ago, my mind was always messed up because the man who created me, who saw me as his own son and loved his granddaughter and my best friend Maria, who is the main reason of my existence, he lost his mind because of her death. The Chaos Emeralds had nothing to do with him turning to madness even if they were part of why I was born." Shadow explained firmly.
"Huh?"
The black hedgehog sighed, before continuing. "If it hadn't been for Amy, I would've destroyed Mobius, and if it hadn't been for her, Sonic, Rouge and everybody else, Black Doom would've used me as his weapon to destroy humanity. There had been times I wished I never existed. But after a while, I realized that things would have been worse instead of being better. Red, you are not the catalyst of what is going on, and while Dr. Kintobor was foolish to study the Sol Emeralds, I can see that with what is happening now, he's come to realize what would become of the future if he doesn't follow Sonic's advice."
"He's right, sweetie." Amy added, hugging Red as she had approached once more. "Nobody can predict the future. But you can learn from the mistakes from the past. Sometimes it's hard and impossible, other times it's easy, as long as you're careful."
"And knowing Sonic, he'll figure something out. He is an expert in performing miracles." Sun agreed. "It might look bad now, but all we can do is give full support to Sonic, because if anybody can stop Nega, it's him."
"And with the younger Sonic, Tails and his younger self, it's the double chance in solving all of this." Chris agreed optimistically.
Everyone else gave out their own agreements despite their worries, as Shadow then told Red. "Red, it's going to be alright. Sonic's too stubborn to give up easily. He never gives up, so you should not give up on believing him. Understand?"
Stunned by how much everybody had believed in Sonic who had done so much and with the help of the others, he kept going and did more miracles than he could count, Red felt the inkling renewed hope rise inside his chest despite what was happening, and smiled emotionally before wiping away his tears.
"Thanks, Mr. Shadow. You're really nice." The eight year old Moebian hedgehog replied, which made the black hedgehog blush unexpectedly before he turned away and awkwardly cleared his throat.
"Don't mention it." The Ultimate Lifeform muttered.
"Shadow's blushing!" Charmy remarked teasingly as he and everyone else (unfortunately for Shadow) noticed this, and he, Vector, Knuckles and Rouge all smirked while the girls giggled, Big looked confused, Chris looked away awkwardly, Espio shook his head and Sun just rolled his eyes at the young bee's comment.
"Aww, I knew you were really soft on the inside, Shadow." Rouge teasingly cooed.
"Shut up." Shadow ordered, only to end up blushing even harder.
"Guys, give him a break." Sun groaned, facepalming himself. "This isn't the time here."
Red tried not to giggle, even though he couldn't help but worry. Still, he had to hold onto the hope that everything would be okay. 'Sonic...I believe in you. Please be alright. You've gotta save Ovi, Blaze and Silver...and stop Ovi from turning into that mean Nega man.'
Meanwhile, back with Young Sonic and Young Tails at same time...
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Young Sonic screamed as he zig-zagged through the more pleasant side of Planet Wisp, knocking down robots that attempted to capture the Wisps but failed, and eventually came a stop just near a beautiful patch of flowers and returned to normal. The Cyan Wisp then flew out of his chest and held a beaming look at him while the eleven year old blue hedgehog stared back in awe.
"Whoa...Now I know what Big-me was talkin' about!" The hero of Altnernate-Mobius remarked, feeling a little dizzy from the scary yet exciting experience. "Way past cool!"
The cute little alien felt pleased with itself as it then flew around Young Sonic before nuzzling him, knowing that this version of Sonic was exactly like him, only younger and slightly different in appearance.
"Whoa, hey! Ha ha ha! Take it easy, little guy." The young blue hedgehog laughed, just as Young Tails finally caught up and landed beside him.
"Sonic, are you okay?" The young two-tailed fox asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It did feel kinda weird, like a rainbow energy was flowing right through me. It felt lighter than when I used the Chaos Emeralds." The eleven year old reassured and explained, as he and the four year old fox then waved a goodbye to the Cyan Wisp who waved back before flying away. "I totally understand why our otherselves love these little guys. They're really awesome, gentle, friendly and darn cute."
"The older me did say that their Hyper-Go-On powers are so strong that they hardly use them. What you felt was only a little bit of it." Young Tails explained, going by his older, alternate-self's explanation.
Hearing this made Young Sonic softly gasp before lowering his head, realizing almost immediately why Sonic felt sad earlier when he explained what happened three months ago in the latter's Mobius. "To think that Eggman kidnapped these little guys to use their powers for a mind control weapon to take over Mobius...and they lose all of their powers to turn into Nega-Aliens."
The young blue hedgehog clutched his fist in anger, to stop it from shaking while also trying to prevent himself from screaming out in fury. "That's low, even for a slimey creep like him!"
"Do you think...the same thing that happened to them could happen to us? You know, the whole space amusement park stuff and these aliens being captured. Will we go through the same thing as they did?" The young two-tailed fox asked worriedly, which made his best friend pause, before the latter sighed and placed an arm around the young cub's shoulders.
"Maybe, or maybe our future will be totally different. I don't know." Young Sonic admitted, gazing up at the sky as he then smiled softly. "Every reality is different, and so far, both ours and our other selves' world are the luckier ones. Sure we still have to handle Ro-butt-nik when we get back home, and while he won't remember, we'll remember this cool place, and if we do have to, we'll be ready for it as long as we don't mention this to anybody. But maybe someday, we can have a peaceful world with no more fighting bad guys, and until then, we might have our own adventures completely different to the others. Right?"
Smiling back as he realized that Young Sonic was right, Young Tails nodded, feeling a little bit better and reassured. "Right, Sonic!"
"And as long as we're together, things will be okay." The eleven year old hedgehog continued, only to widen his eyes the moment he said that, and lowered his gaze once more.
"Sonic? Are you okay?" The four year old kit asked, noticing the sudden change once more.
Young Sonic paused, remembering what his older self had gone through, and while all of his older, alternate-self's adventures sounded like heaps of fun, they were also very scary, and how Sonic almost lost his friends more times than he could count. Plus this adventure had been difficult and terrifying, that the young blue hedgheog's mind wandered back to how his new adoptive little brother had been frozen, almost losing him when the Time Eater swallowed them up and trapped them in the White Space. Then everything they, Sonic and Tails had been through.
A lump formed in his throat as he remembered how he and Sonic almost turned into robots, and what the older Sonic had discovered that the younger Sonic had missed in that reality-viewing tunnel place, his heart sinking into his stomach, tears beginning to form in his eyes even though he looked away and tried to hold them back, to prevent Young Tails from seeing him like this. Only one week of being together and already Young Sonic almost lost him. Yet at the same time, he couldn't send him away. He couldn't leave him behind. Leaving his new little brother to another family that could hurt him or the young two-tailed fox cub could end up rendered back to life similar to life back on Westside Island would not only make things worse, but would also be the ultimate betrayal.
"Sonic?" Young Tails tried again, becoming increasingly worried and scared, carefully tugging his big brother's glove cuff.
Realizing that he was unconsciously ignoring his little brother, Young Sonic sniffled and wiped away his tears, sighing to calm down and pulled the two-tailed fox into a comforting, warm and tightening embrace, trying hard not to cry.
"I'm so sorry, Tails. I...I don't know what to do, if I lost you..." Young Sonic whispered, his voice choking up with tears, and no matter how times he swallowed the lump, they kept coming back up. "I...I wanted to make you happy, and I still do...I wanted to be your friend, and big brother. You've been so brave in our adventures together. But if anything horrible happened to you, I'd never forgive myself..."
The young two-tailed fox was shocked to hear this, not missing the tears in his adoptive brother's voice, at first wanting to ask if he was going to be left out on future adventures despite what the older Alternate-Mobian just said, but then remembered what Tails told him earlier. How Sonic felt guilty for putting his friends in danger, and when Young Tails asked if he would be forced to be left out, the older two-tailed fox told him it wasn't the case, but lately the sixteen year old tried his best not to be overconfident or too cocky, and sometimes even heroes have their bad days.
Plus losing both of Sonic would crush them for life.
"Sonic...I...I won't wanna lose you either...!" Young Tails cried, hugging his best friend and sobbed into his brother's chest. "You're the first friend I've ever had. I-I know that I get really scared, but I wanna go with you...! I wanna be just like you when I grow up...I'm sorry that-that I'm a burden...!"
"Oh, Tails. No...No, you're not a burden at all, little buddy. I love you so much. I'm really sorry for putting you in so much danger...I...I never knew how hard it was in being a big bro...I was so excited to finally have a real friend, someone to hang out with, to play with, to go on an adventures together. Hearing what big me had gone through...I'm just as reckless as he was...It's my fault..." Young Sonic tearfully held his little brother as close as he could, gently swaying him back and forth.
"To be fair, we're still little kids...Amy too. But, well...Who else would go up to beat up Robotnik and stop his evil plans? At the same time, maybe we can still have fun, as long as we're careful..." The four year old kit sniffled.
The eleven year old hedgehog chuckled softly. "Yeah, that's true. Who wants to be a boring grown up anyway?"
Smiling emotionally at each other, Young Sonic gently gave Young Tails a soft kiss on the head, making the young cub giggle even though it felt a bit weird, but at the same time, he really liked it. "It's not your fault, big bro. This has been a very scary adventure for everybody, even our older selves."
"Again, that's true."
"And even if our adventures in our future are different, we can still use the experience we learned from the alternate universe to make sure nothing really bad happens, right?"
"Right, li'l bro. Besides, we still got plently of time when we get back home." Young Sonic playfully ruffled at his best friend's head, making the fox laugh once more. "After all, the future's unpredictable."
"Right." Young Tails nodded, wiping away his tears. "I love you, big bro."
"I love you too, li'l bro." The young blue hedgehog and his companion shared another brotherly hug, wanting to cherish it for the rest of their lives. After a few more moments, they reluctantly let go and he smirked, declaring. "C'mon. Let's go find that Chaos Emerald!"
"Yeah!" The young two-tailed fox nodded excitedly.
With that, Young Sonic and Young Tails ran and flew further towards their destination, passing by from the not yet built part of Eggman's construction site, and when they saw a bunch of robots that stood in their way, the two shared smirkes before the hero of Alternate-Mobius Spin Dashed right into them and his companion spun his tails while kicking at another Badnik so hard that it ended up tumbling and falling into the river close by despite the robot trying to keep it's balance but failed miserably.
"Nice one, Tails!" Young Sonic praised happily and proudly, running at full speed while jumping and kicked at two robots that attempted to slice him in half but he was too fast for them, and they ended up exploding into broken metal pieces.
"Sonic, gap up ahead!" Young Tails suddenly warned, even though he liked the praise.
When the eleven year old blue hedgehog this, he yelped in fright with a sweat drop, before the four year old fox told him to grab hold, holding out his hands for him. Getting the message, Young Sonic jumped and grabbed hold of his little brother's hands and Young Tails flew them over the gap which was filled with icky and smelly purple toxic liquid before they noticed, to their horror, was a capsule on the other side of the platform with trapped white Wisps inside, looking scared and wanting to be let out. Sharing a glance, the two brothers nodded before the fox cub heaved as hard as he could and tossed the young blue hedgehog who spun tightly into a ball and smashed right into capsule, cracking it open and freeing the aliens.
"Yeah! Bullseye!" Young Sonic cheered as he uncurled himself.
As the eleven year old landed on the metal platform, he was suddenly huddled and hugged by the grateful Wisps who, while noticing he was a different Sonic, were still happy and two hugged his face while one nuzzled on top of his head, sharing their gratitude and quick love for him, tickling him.
"Okay, okay! Ha ha ha! Y-You're welcome! Your uh..." He trailed off a bit awkwardly while carefully pushing them away, then shrugged as he finished his explanation, deciding to go along with it despite that they didn't seem to have any mouths. "Smiling...faces...(?) are all the thanks that I need."(1)
"Sonic, incoming!" His best friend quickly cried out, as more Beebots came zooming in to attack.
But Young Sonic wasn't fazed as a Pink Wisp, who, unbeknownst to them, was the same one that Sonic and Tails rescued a short time ago, flew in and saw what was going on, Despite the slight distrust at first, seeing the eleven year old wave a hello, the little alien decided to trust him as well and gestured at him and itself. While he didn't understand Wisp language, he got the idea on what it wanted to do.
"You wanna help out, little guy?" He asked, and the Wisp nodded, making him smirk and jumped into the air, as he taunted the robots. "Sorry, fellas! But if you wanna stop me, you'll have to catch me!"(2)
Young Sonic and the Spikes Wisp then low-fived as the latter then flew into his chest and gave him the power of the Hyper-Go-On, and he felt the need to simply curl up into a ball and spin around like crazy, much like his Spin Dash attacks.
"SPIKES!"
Transforming into a pink Spikes ball, Young Sonic sped around and smashed into one robot into another, a mixture of his Homing Attack and even though a couple of the Beebots tried to catch him, the young blue hedgehog got to them first and they were put out of commission before turning back to normal while the pink little alien emerged. Young Tails then flew in and caught Young Sonic by the arm and flew up and over the metal platforms before flying over towards the more greener parts of Planet Wisp and after saying goodbye to the little aliens who flew away, the two companions continued quickly onward to find the last Chaos Emerald.
Though as they ran, both young Alternate-Mobians then heard Eggman's annoying intercom announcements that Sonic and Tails heard as well.
"Attention guests! If you can hear this message, you are trespassing in an area still under renovation. If you are not a robot, please return to the main park areas and ignore any evil you may have seen here. Thank you."
"Gimme a break! Like anybody's gonna be dumb enough to believe that you're turning over a new leaf!" Young Sonic scoffed at the voice recording.
"I've heard from the older me that every message Dr. Eggman said three months ago weren't even all that convincing." Young Tails remarked, finding himself annoyed by the message as well.
"Please, we all know how much any version of Buttnik is a big, fat, liar." The young blue hedgehog rolled his eyes.
"Some displacement of indigenous aliens and destruction of natural resources may occur. Eggman Enterprises not responsible." The intercom blared again, this time very fast which made both of them share a deadpanned glance and then sighed.
All of the sudden, they heard a familiar voice screaming from behind them and glanced over their shoulders in confusion to see something white with hints of cyan lines along the body, long quills with black shoes and golden writs cuffs, as though the figure was being tossed hard. While the figure was too far for them, the young blue hedgehog skid to a stop while the young two-tailed fox landed next to him just as the figure was heading towards and then over them, and in that instant, they recognized who it was.
"Huh!? Silver!?" Young Sonic and Young Tails exclaimed in shock and disbelief, wondering what was going on. Sharing a worried glance as Silver hit the ground hard in the short distance, the two quickly hurried once more to see what's wrong, only for everything around them to distort and warp as they were getting closer and closer.
"Oh, come on! Not again!" The eleven year old blue hedgehog cried out, irritated, before holding out his hand to his best friend. "Tails, grab my hand!"
"Okay!" The four year old fox cub did as he was told, the two being afraid they would get separated again.
But as everything changed around them, while they were expecting to find themselves in a different part of Moebius, where they and Silver ended up made them both stop once more and gasped in pure horror when they found themselves in an completely ruined city, aged and crumbling with buildings and skyscrapers threatening to topple over and collapse, roads destroyed, cars wrecked and burnt out, everything that described as an apocalyptic world. As Young Sonic and Young Tails looked around in horror, they found that the sky was dark and lack of sun or moonlight, clouds thick and nearly black, the air almost unbreathable.
"W-what? What is this place? What happened?" Young Sonic asked, horrified beyond belief.
"This is so horrible...I'm scared." Young Tails shivered, gulping.
"Me too, little buddy. Is this some kind of ruins in Moebius or what?" The young blue hedgehog nodded, holding his best friend close as he felt terrible goosebumps crawl into his skin.
As the two horrified brothers walked, they picked up their pace as they quickly remembered that they had a friend to find, wondering what was going on and maybe ask him if he knew where they were.
While further up ahead, Silver, recovering slightly from the torture that Nega put him into, pushed himself up while holding his left arm in pain, hissing. Opening his eyes while trying to dull the numbness of his injuries, he lowered his gaze in crushing betrayal, loss and defeat.
"Dr. Nega...I thought you shared my views. But this is what you planned all along..." The fourteen year old hedgehog didn't know what to do, before looking around to see where he landed, expecting to see a strange alien planet that Sonic and Tails were familiar with.
Instead, he found a place that was too much familiar to him and he let out a horrified gasp of dismay, glancing around at the ruined city, a place that...that he grew up in. Silver stood up slowly and looked around, feeling his heart rate increase, his blood going freezing cold, the lack of fresh air beginning to make him suffocate.
"It...it can't be! This is...this is the future of Moebius! It...it's been brought here too!?" He exclaimed, shaking his head in despair. "No...No...! NOOOOOOOOOOO!"
His scream echoed through out the entire area and onward the rest of the ruined world of the terrible future he was born and grew up in. Panting hard with the mixture of his frustration, guilt and despair, and the injuries he got, Silver knew what he had to do. He had to find and warn Sonic before Nega could find him and steal the remaining Sol Emeralds, and then figure out how to get the other three, Blaze and Kintobor back. However, before he could even make a move, the ground suddenly shook which made him almost lose his balance and then heard a cracking sound which made him freeze up in fear, his topaz yellow eyes shaking and slightly shrinking.
Nervously turning to his left, suddenly a massive giant Colossal Worm crashed through the building and roared, towering over him, it's body flaring in flames with it's mouth bellowing smoke, gazing at the terrified Moebian with a hungry look in it's eyes. Silver gasped, backing away slowly as his body didn't seem to listen to his mind's command to run for it.
"No...No, please no...A-Anything but that!" Silver pleaded, the fear of fire paralyzing him, and the fact that he was about to become either lunch or dinner just made things ten times worse.
The giant Worm roared once again, and the silver hedgehog, in a state of terror, quickly used his psychokinesis to levitate himself to fly away, while using as much mental strength as he could to lift up large broken debris and tossed them right at the monster's mouth as it breathed fire right at him. It blocked the broken debris and even gulped a couple down before charging for an attack. Silver screamed while continuously tried to attack it out of panic and fear, but already too weak from Nega's robot's attack and cancelling ability, he stumbled in mid-air and was unable to focus, much to his dismay.
"Come on, come on...! D-Don't...Don't fail me now!" The time-travelling hedgehog pleaded.
Unfortunately, the Colossal Worm breathed out more fire and while Silver barely managed to avoid in being roasted to death, he was still hit hard by the flames and made him lose focus, falling to the ground, screaming in agony. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
He crashed onto the broken road bridge with dust and dirt flying everywhere, as he laid on the ground, on his side and hissing in pain at the burns and injuries he got, cuts and bruises covering his body, and unable to move which left him vulnerable.
As Young Sonic and Young Tails continued searching for their friend, they felt the ground shake, hearing the terrifying roars of a giant monster, and despite knowing that they should get out of here, they were more concerned about Silver which increased when they heard him scream in pain and hurried to see what was going on. When they got there, they nearly screamed out in horror and fear themselves when they saw the giant black fire-breathing worm who didn't seem to notice them and focused on it's prey it was towering over.
"Whoa! That's that biggest and ugliest worm I've ever seen!" Young Sonic exclaimed in terror, while having Young Tails behind him to shield his little brother as much as possible.
"And he looks pretty hungry too!" The young two-tailed fox added, before he noticed what it was towering over and gasped. "Oh no! Look!"
"Huh?" The young blue hedgehog looked to see what his friend was pointing out and gasped in sheer horror, seeing the helpless familiar silver hedgehog on the ground and about to become the Colossal Worm's meal. "SILVER!"
But at that moment Young Sonic froze, as suddenly his mind rewinded back to when he, Sonic and Sun confronted the giant Werehog who had attempted and succeeded in swallowing up Scourge and Sonic who had risked his life and faced his fears to rescue the evil green hedgehog. If it weren't for the Chaos Emeralds, the teenage blue hedgehog wouldn't have been able to use Chaos Control to get himself and the Terror of Moebius out of the Werehog-Beast's stomach. Still, to see it actually happen, to see the furry monster slam it's mouth shut with the two hedgehogs inside and swallowed them both whole alive in one sitting, it was a sight that would haunt the eleven year old for the rest of his life.
At that moment, Young Sonic began to hyperventilate, terrified as he didn't want to get eaten, but he didn't want his friends to get eaten either. He almost got eaten by the same dragon whom had swallowed up Red who in turn sacrificed himself to save Scourge. Sonic had rescued them both by being swallowed up himself and even without the Chaos Emeralds, he managed to himself and Red out, and having prevented the eleven year old blue hedgehog from being swallowed alive himself.
"Sonic! SONIC!" Young Tails screamed out to him, trying to get his attention, tugging at the young hedgehog's arm to get him to snap out of it.
Combined with the young fox screaming out his name and then suddenly remembering what Sonic told him earlier, Young Sonic gasped sharply, recalling what the older blue hedgehog said to him earlier and what he and Sun learned before the fight against the Werehog.
"You know, in my last adventure, I learned a very important lesson. If you let guilt, fear and sorrow continue to stay in your heart, they'll eventually eat you alive and then you'll end up having an inner fight within yourself. Keep in mind that they're part of all of us, along with anger, happiness, and love." Sonic told him.
Sonic sighed, before shrugging. "I told you before, that thing also comes from me, but it's not just from my negative emotions, tears, Dark Gaia and the Chaos Emeralds that helped it grow and then was unleashed from Sun's body by Eggman. The Werehog is everything I'm scared of being, everything that Scourge is dangerously close in becoming; a monster that hurts others and only caring about themselves. That's what monsters really are. Scary appearance or not. It all depends on the dark path that was chosen."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Young Sonic screamed, narrowing his eyes and racing up ahead, pushing back his fears, focusing on making it to Silver while grabbing hold of Young Tails in one arm, causing the latter to yelp in alarm.
When Silver struggled to even roll himself onto his back, he gasped in fear when the Colossal Worm towered over him, it's mouth beginning to water for an easy meal, leaving the helpless future hedgehog unable to do anything. His heart raced in horror, knowing that this was it. He failed. He failed to change the future for the better, having made Nega's own wish come true. It was all over. Everyone in every single reality were all doomed. Everyone would cease to exist. Even Scourge and Robotnik. It was a regime of monsters, terror, evil and darkness for all eternity.
'Blaze...Kintobor...Sonic...I'm sorry...This is...this is all my fault...!' Silver thought in crushing defeat, tears forming in his eyes before sliding free as he began to cry. So he went limp and despite his pyrophobia, he accepted his punishment for being used as a tool.
Just as the Colossal Worm was about to swoop in to engulf the silver hedgehog, suddenly a blue and yellow blur came rushing in, a familiar voice screaming out Silver's name and the next thing that happened, Silver was swooped by an arm and carried away to safety, narrowly avoiding in being gobbled up whole while the huge monster's mouth gulped down two fiery monsters that formed and emerged to attack the Moebian only to unfortunately end up being the replacement meals instead.
"Silver! Are you okay?" Young Sonic's voice asked frantically.
"Huh!?" Silver snapped his eyes open, realizing that he was not only still alive, but also being carried over a small shoulder of a hedgehog boy three years younger than him, and looked over his shoulder to see that it was the Alternate-Sonic who was carrying him on his left shoulder, while holding Young Tails in his right arm as the latter held on for dear life.
"Sonic! Tails!" The future hedgehog exclaimed, wincing in pain, before asking as he noticed the lack of two other Mobians. "Where are the other Sonic and Tails?"
"Guess they haven't found the Sol Emerald yet either, since you're asking that question!" The eleven year old blue hedgehog answered, jumping and leaping up debris of the road as hard and high as he could before landing safely on the other side, stopping before gently putting his friends down and laid Silver against the ruined part of a building.
"Silver! You're hurt!" Young Tails cried out, horrified as he and Young Sonic were shocked by the injuries.
"I've...I've had worse. All things considered." The fourteen year old hissed, panting as the rush and the injuries made him slightly dizzy and disoriented.
"What happened?" Young Sonic asked, kneeling in front of him worriedly. "Did Scourge and Ro-butt-nik attack you guys? Are the others okay?"
"I-It wasn't Scourge or Robotnik..." Silver shook his head, the sheer guilt of the situation coming back with a vengeance. "It was...It was Dr. Nega..."
"What!?" Young Sonic and Young Tails exclaimed in horror.
"But how?" Young Tails questioned in disbelief.
Silver leaned back. "Sonic and Vector...and Dr. Kintobor...They were right. Nega is Ovi's future-self, turned evil and immortal...when the Sol Emeralds, in the original timeline, became corrupted. He planned this all along. Using me to destroy everything, tricking me into travelling back in time to stop and kill Scourge, only to have wanted this. He's...he's insane. He wants to destroy the world, the past and the future...and...and destroy himself, too. He knows about Sonic-the other Sonic, I mean-and wants to kill him. He took Blaze and Kintobor, trapped everyone else inside a barrier, and stole the Sol Emeralds I had with me..."
"No...!" The hero of Alternate-Mobius whispered in horror, unable to believe what he was hearing. Nega...really was Kintobor's evil self, and now he had three of the Sol Emeralds, kidnapped both his past self and Blaze...and was out to try and find Sonic, to kill him, steal the rest of the Sol Emearlds and...and destroy everything!
Suddenly Sonic's idea of splitting up earlier was a bad idea, because now that left him and Tails vulnerable to be hunted down by an insane future scientist thta was once the kindly man Dr. Ovi Kintobor who devoted his life to erase all evil in Moebius, only to end up becoming the planet's-no, all of Space and Time's worst enemy, almost as bad as both the Time Eater and Cormain.
"Sonic, we've gotta get Silver some treatment and then find our otherselves!" Young Tails frantically informed him, and the young blue hedgehog nodded firmly.
"There's a...ruined hospital a few miles from here. That is where Nega and I get medical supplies all the time..." Silver instructed helpfully.
"Right. Just hang in there, Silver. It's gonna be okay." Young Sonic reassured him, gently scooping him up into his arms and despite that the silver hedgehog was taller than him, he still managed to hold him in a bridal style. "Let's get goin', before those creeps-!"
There was another rock and shake of the ground and bulidings tumbling, before another roar filled the air, making all three of them scream while crouching down low. They looked over their shoulders and screamed louder in terror then they saw, even with the broken windows to their left, that the giant worm monster was slowly approaching them despite that it couldn't see.
"-Find us!" The young blue speedster finished with a squeak, before instructing his best friend. "Tails, grab onto my shoulders and don't let go!"
"Okay!" The four year old kit nodded, quickly doing as he was told.
"Ready? Go!" Young Sonic shouted and ran as fast as he could, dodging fallen rocks and tumbling buildings, even avoiding more monsters that emerged and jumped and leaped onto their heads to knock them down, following Silver's sense of direction, their hearts pounding into the rib cages of their chests, terrified out of their minds while hoping to find the hospital that could hopefully shelter them for a little while.
They screamed when fire broke out and Silver screamed the loudest, which made Young Sonic comment. "For the record, I know that fire can be very dangerous, but now I know why you're scared of it! These monsters could burn anybody into animal or human pieces of toast! No offense!"
"N-None taken!" Silver winced and yelped, before noticing a familiar building and pointed as carefully as he could. "There!"
"Okay! Hold on!"
The young blue hedgehog sped up as fast as he could before he raced right into the building, smashing right into the doors and winced at the damage, but decided to worry about that later and hurried down the corridor with Young Tails letting go and flew alongside him before they came to the nearest closed room and the young fox sliding them open quickly and he and Young Sonic, with Silver still in his arms, immediately burst into the room before the young two-tailed fox slammed the door shut, all three of them panting, feeling a bit more safe and exhausted from out-running the giant hungry fire-breathing worms.
"Oh man, that was close..." The eleven year old hedgehog breathed, before gazing at the future hedgehog he carried in his arms despite being a bit smaller. "How are you doing, Silver?"
"...All things considered, I've had worse." The silver hedgehog grunted, hissing in pain at his injuries.
"Sonic? Tails? Silver?" Two familiar voices asked in shocked unison in front of them, and when Young Sonic, Young Tails and Silver looked up, to their surprise, they saw Sonic and Tails, the latter sitting on a medical bed and the former standing in front of him as though expecting monsters coming in to attack.
"Huh? Where'd you guys come from?" Young Sonic asked, his eyes wide as he, his best friend/little brother and the hedgehog from this horrific future world were all bewildered. All things considered, relief washed over him and his two companions. If Sonic and Tails were here, then that meant Nega didn't get to them or the Sol Emeralds yet, and they didn't have much in a way of injuries.
"It's a long story, but let's worry about that later." The older blue hedgehog replied as he and Tails hopped off the bed and hurried to the other two hedgehogs while the four year old fox, making sure that they were safe, joined them quickly.
What Sonic and Tails heard next sent them into complete shock.
Back in the Present...
"...And that's what happened." Young Sonic finished explaining his, Young Tails and Silver's stories to the two older Mobians who listened in, absolutely shocked. A little while earlier, Sonic and Tails searched through the building under Silver's instructions to find the medical equipment that managed to survive and came back before the trio explained what transpired.
Needless to say, the sixteen year old blue hedgehog and the nine year old two-tailed fox were beyond horrified, while they and their younger, alternate-selves saw to the future Moebian's injuries, patching him up with warm and cold water, seeing to his burns, cleaning the cuts with disinfectant, and finally wrapping up the bandages around the silver hedgehog.
"So Eggman Nega somehow found out about all of this, wants to kill me to use the Sol Emeralds and destroy all of Space and Time? Just like the Time Eater and Cormain?" Sonic questioned, narrowing his eyes in anger over what was happening. More than anything, he felt guilt rise up and down like a wave in a ferious storm raging.
Tails on the other hand, thought differently and said. "I wouldn't say somehow found out, Sonic. If my theory is correct, and it would make more sense, the effects of this place and Space and Time going out of sorts because of the Time Eater and Cormain, and what Scourge did, it may be beginning to effect Dr. Nega's mind into having him duel memories, first from the original timeline, and the one that's happening right now."
"Duel memories?" Young Sonic asked, confused.
"Of course! Because he's existing in both timelines, he's remembering both and that's how he knows about what's happening right now. To certain extent." Young Tails realized, agreeing with his older, alternate-self's logic.
Sonic softly gasped as his eyes widened, before he thought back to what he saw in the universe-timeline where in the world where one Sonic turned into a robot briefly, it's world Robotnik was killed before he was replaced by his more successful Eggman self who caused some kind of reality-altering wave where everything changed, erasing some people, yet Finitevus managed to escape, and yet the Sonic there as well as others still had some memories of the timeline that is forever gone, left as blank and trapped within the time-tunnel viewing place.
"Then that means...Our other selves that went through their entire history changing had duel memories too, right?" The hero of Mobius half-whispered. "Hey, Tails. Is it possible for those memories to allow a person who escaped from history changing to survive and travel to other realities?"
"Uh...I'm not really sure." Tails muttered uncertainly at first, before he softly gasped as he suddenly realized what his older brother was talking about. "But given how Finitevus managed to survive and caused all of the things that happened in our world, the Alternate-Mobius and in Moebius, it makes kind of sense!"
The five of them, despite Silver still feeling guilt with the situation, came to the same conclusion of how all of this mess started and shared firm glances.
"So it's all Finitevus's fault. He killed Scourge's parents, he trapped my parents and your Uncle Chuck in the Prison of Evil, and because of all of that, we're stuck like this and Kintobor is gonna turn into Eggman Nega...!" Young Sonic grunted angrily, clutching his fist. "I really hate that guy...!"
"No. Finitevus did this because not just him, or how he managed to survive and escape from his old reality that would've erased him." Sonic correctedly firmly, confusing his younger self and friends, as he glared at the wall, knowing who was truly responsible. "It's Eggman. He's the one that caused all of this."
"What do you mean?" Silver asked, blinking in confusion.
"Remember what I told you guys about that weird place that showed me and Mini-me of other realities of us? There was a version of Eggman who won, took over the entire planet by turning himself into a robot. I've seem glimpses of it, but I guess he got bored and invaded the universe where his losing Robotnik self died, the universe where he took over a kingdom and took his place to fight the other Sonic and his friends. Then as years went by, he caused the time-changing waves or whatever. He did win once, but it returned to normal, but the second time, when the other Sonic tried to set everything back to the way they were, Eggman interrupted which caused everything to reboot itself. Then during that, Finitevus somehow managed to escape during the chaos." The hero of Mobius explained, clutching the sheets of the bed tightly.
"So then...it was that version of Eggman who won and did all of this...and nobody even realized it until now." Tails realized, lowering his gaze in horror, while the younger, alternate-Mobians shared shocked and horrified glances, and Silver looked just as shocked.
Sonic gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut to try and control his anger. Now it made perfect sense. Everything wounded back to not just Cormain, but also the much more and successful version of Eggman who despite still losing the more successful version of the hero of Mobius, did this without realizing it. Oh, how Sonic wanted nothing more than to go into that universe and tear that Eggman into shreds, and even though his own enemy was trapped inside the Prison of Evil, and Robotnik from the Alternate-Mobius wasn't as dangerous yet was still a problem, the teenager felt that he was still fighting the evil scientist in this quest.
To make things worse, he had been so close in finishing his quest, so close in finding the last Sol Emerald, to defeat and destroy the Time Eater and Cormain, send Robotnik back to his world where he would lose his memories of these events, and bring Scourge to his senses. Now...now Sonic was four Sol Emeralds short again, and unless he got the stolen three back while going out to find the last one somewhere in the memory of Planet Wisp, they were back to locating five Emeralds, four of the Sol Emeralds while at least trying to locate the last Chaos Emerald, but they were falling short none the less.
"Why!?" Sonic shouted suddenly, punching the edge of the bed, making his friends jump in fright over his ouburst. "Why did all of this happen!? All I wanted was the world be in peace and free, everybody to be safe, free and happy! I just want to be with my family and friends! I wanted to explore Mobius! Is that too much to ask!?"
Stopping himself from storming out of the room knowing that Nega could easily find him and catch him off-guard, probably force him to hand over the Sol Emeralds for Blaze and Kintobor's freedom and...oh, Chaos, Nega could use the Emeralds to change everything into his liking, maybe even erase Sonic himself from existance, which terrified him as now they were all at the risk of ceasing to exist, the guilt-ridden and shaken birthday-boy stepped away from the bed, went to one corner of the small room, punching the wall behind him and slid down onto the floor, curling up slightly while hugging his knees and buried his face into his arms, where he began to cry.
"It's not fair...! Why...? I-I don't wanna disappear...I don't want everything to be destroyed...! We were so close...we're were almost there...We were one step closer in getting back home. But Eggman...Nega...Cormain...the Time Eater...and Scourge...they have...every single advantage against us. Tikal was wrong...Soloman was wrong...the legend was wrong...I'm no savior. I...I can't even use the Sol Emeralds...I can't even use the Chaos Emeralds like this...! We've lost...!" Sonic wept, feeling utterly crushed and defeated, as his friends muttered his name in worry.
This was much worse than his worst nightmares of Eggman winning. Even worse, even if Mobius did survive, Sonic would never exist, his friends would be worse off; Tails would still be bullied, Amy would be all alone, Knuckles would remain on Angel Island, the Iron Empire would take over by using Cream and Cheese and the Chao, or Eggman taking over Mobius before that, and Shadow...he would wake up to Black Doom finding him and destroy the entire planet. Dark Gaia might then wake up and destroy Chip/Light Gaia. All of these horrible possiblities raced through the teenager's mind and it terrified him, making him cry even harder.
While Silver laid their in utter guilt and crushing hopelessness, and Tails and Young Tails tearfully looked on, Young Sonic, while horrified and feeling the similar crushing defeat himself even to the point of seeing the similar thing he unknowingly was doing like his older, alternate-self, then remembered everything he's learned, and that despite the situation and the fears of using the Sol Emeralds, he came to an idea that may be risky, but at the moment, it may be their only hope left in preventing Nega from erasing all of them, even himself. Narrowing his eyes despite the tears, he glared at Sonic with determination and walked over to him.
"Hey, quit the 'We've-lost' stuff, Sonic! We made this far, and now you're just gonna sit there, let Nega find us and let all of our hard work go for nothing!?" Young Sonic snapped in anger and disbelief. "What happened to the determination and bravery?"
"It left me behind to go find somebody else...Someone more reliable to set things right. A real hero that isn't a screw up like me." Sonic replied, lifting his head up, tears sliding free and he didn't even bother to stop them. "Everything I did, with all my friends, even you...it was all for nothing. The Werehog was right...All I ever do was let everybody down...I...I am a monster, and now...we're all gonna disappear."
"What? You? A monster who lets everybody down?" The younger Sonic asked in disbelief, before scoffing. "That's the lamest thing I've ever heard, let alone coming from another version of me."
"But he's right. On top that, I didn't even make this mess, yet I feel like I'm the Sonic from that world where Eggman screwed space and time. I'm nothing but a failure. Worst part is, if I disappear and cease to exist, even if Mobius survives, Eggman wins. Black Doom wins. All of the bad guys we've got have won. Nega wanted this and he's gonna get his wish." The distraught sixteen year old croaked.
But Young Sonic shook his head, cupping his older self's face and gently made the latter to look at him, his own eyes now spilling tears as he pointed out. "That's not true. Monsters don't feel regret and say that they let everybody down. They hurt others on purpose for fun, they don't regret a single thing, they do what they want for horrible entertainment, or sometimes even just go eat people up for a meal or even just for a snack. You're not responsible for this, Sonic, and neither am I. Nobody here in this room, or Blaze, or the nicer version of Kintobor, or any of our friends did any of this. This is all done by one version of Eggman who messed everything up. He's the real monster. He caused this to happen to us, heck, he even caused the other Time Eater to mess things up with two other versions of us too."
Sonic could only gaze at his younger, alternate-self who was speaking words that were much like his own, yet he never thought of at the same time.
"I'm not just gonna sit here waiting for the end, and I'm not gonna let you just give up just because Eggman Nega stole three of the Sol Emeralds, and kidnapped both himself-which is kind of weird-and Blaze. We still have three Sol Emeralds and six of the Chaos Emeralds. We just need to figure this out, okay? And, as much as you're gonna hate me for this, but maybe we should use the Sol Emeralds to help us get them back. Just this once." The hero of Alternate-Mobius continued.
"What!?" Sonic exclaimed over the idea of using the Sol Emeralds. "No! No, I can't do that! I made the mistake of using them once when I wished I was Super Sonic to fight Perfect Chaos, and I was terrified, especially with what they can do! I promised myself to never do that again!"
"Sonic, this is crazy...!" Silver agreed, sitting up slightly. "It's too dangerous. Neither of you know how to properly use them! You're Mobians, not Moebians!"
"But they still reacted to Sonic, right?" Young Sonic pointed out, adding to Sonic. "And you used your wish for one battle, which was a good thing. You used the Sol Emeralds to turn everybody back to normal. If that's not for good, then I don't know what is."
The blue hedgehog lowered his gaze, somber, guilty and scared. "I just don't want to rely on power. I'm scared of myself. That's why I'm always careful when it comes to the Chaos Emeralds, to avoid in using them unless it's for an emergency."
"Well then, use the Sol Emeralds for emergency too. They're the counterparts of the Chaos Emeralds, right? Like them, their powers are based on thoughts and emotions, and sure they're a bit more powerful on the wishing and thoughts part, and Scourge did mess this up. But not once have I seen or heard you make a mistake with them and the one time you did, it's because you knew that Chaos was tough to beat. Have you ever made wishes that helped you before, Sonic? Wishes that you knew were for others?" The young blue hedgehog continued.
Sonic paused, trying to think of when he did use wishes that were for good and for the right thing. Then he remembered that yes, he did use wishes that were mainly for good and convenience. When he was in the book of the Arabian Nights, Shahra made him her master, and twice he wished for hankerchiefs, first time was because he sneezed since he had caught a cold the day before, then with his final wish he wished for a mountain of hankerchiefs, but only because it was for Shahra to cry her tears. His other wishes were mainly to help him out to get to places, and unconsciously turn the blob she gave him back into Erazor Djinn's lamp after she sacrificed herself to save him.
There he used his three wishes to bring her back, to restore the Arabian Nights back to the way they were, and imprison the evil genie back inside said lamp for the rest of Time itself and never escape. Then when Yacker died briefly three months ago, it had been luck as Sonic had tearfully wished and prayed for the sweet, kind and most adorable little Wisp to be brought back, and the Chaos Emeralds that Eggman had before losing them during the battle turned those thoughts and prayers into a miracle resurrection ceremony, and still allowed him to use their power to restore the Nega-Mother Wisp back to normal.
Like Young Sonic said, Sonic had always been careful whenever he used the Chaos Emeralds, and he had been careful in using the Sol Emeralds even though they were much more risky. While he was scared that Nega could find them by making a wish, or even find them, maybe if he was fast enough to think about, maybe it was time to take the bigger risks to prevent the evil future version of Kintobor from getting what he wanted.
"I know that we can't risk it, but Nega could find us with the other Sol Emeralds. But if we're careful, maybe we can use this to our advantage. Just this once." Young Sonic continued.
"Hate to say it, Sonic, but he's right." Tails agreed as he and Young Tails approached. "It's our only hope left and we're running short on time."
Even Silver, realizing that this was their only chance, sighed and reluctantly added. "They're right, Sonic. The Sol Emeralds react to you somehow, which makes it clear that you're the only one to use them for good and not evil. It's time to take the risk."
"And if you do start going a little crazy, you got me to snap you right out of it with the Chaos Emeralds." Young Sonic added, winking. "I promise!"
Realizing now that they were right, feeling hope and his old self coming back, all negative thoughts and feelings being pushed away knowing that this was a risk they had to take, Sonic wiped away his tears and smiled back at his friends and family.
"You're right. I can't just sit here doing nothing. Even if it means using the Sol Emeralds just this once, we have to do this." Sonic nodded, then carefully ruffled at his younger, alternate-self's head which made the latter laugh a little. "Thanks, buddy. I needed to hear that."
"Hey, you kept on cheering me up. Don't ya' think I wouldn't do the same?" The eleven year old shrugged.
"We'd better hurry. Nega could use his wish to find us at any moment now." Young Tails informed them.
"Right." Sonic nodded, standing up and pulled out of the Sol Emeralds he still had, the blue one he recently found and thought on what to wish for. At first he thought about wishing for the stolen three Emeralds along with both Blaze and Kintobor to be brought here, but quickly thought against it. If Nega really did have duel memories, then he would already know where they are, and since he hasn't yet, had to try again.
Maybe if he could go and rescue Ovi himself after the other wish, then it would give them a better chance despite the risks. He could only hope he wouldn't end up accidentally killing the kind doctor, since he really liked Kintobor as his old self. Knowing what do now, and hoping he wouldn't mess up, Sonic closed his eyes and clutched the Sol Emerald in his head.
'Sol Emeralds, if you can grant me my wish, please, all I ask is this to come true; I wish for Princess Blaze and the three other Sol Emeralds Dr. Nega had stolen to be brought to me, and prevent Nega from cancelling your and my powers out, and to cancel his wishes.' The hero of Mobius thought long and hard.
It worked, as the Sol Emerald in his hand and the ones within his quills began to glow brightly under his more reasonable wishes, and Young Sonic, Tails, Young Tails, and Silver, who was familiar with this, all watched on in awe as the wish by Sonic the Hedgehog was about to be granted.
His wish about to come true.
A/N: Sorry that this chapter was long, Young Sonic and Young Tails' moment was shorter than Sonic and Tails, and that this ended up being a cliff-hanger, but we are nearing the climax of this story which again I'm sorry for the delay.
Anyway, the battle of Sonic VS Nega is about to happen in the next chapter. Will he succeed and rescue Kintobor? Only Space and Time will tell.
See you later!
