Author's Note: Nothing much to say here really, except that we are now one step closer into reaching the climax of this story! Be sure you have lots of tissue boxes as this will be yet another emotional chapter, so here we go!

I do not own Sonic The Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.


Chapter 22: "Be Careful What you Wish For."

Traveling through the portal to locate Sonic and his group who were still looking for the last Sol Emerald and the last Chaos Emerald, seemingly unaware that Dr. Nega was coming for the two hedgehogs and two foxes to steal the ones they had. Nega was a clever man, more clever than he ever was in his previous life, the evil scientist that was once the kindly Dr. Kintobor from the original timeline was traversing through it with his past-self and Blaze held captive.

'This is going very well, just as I predicted. Once I gain my Sol Emeralds, everything will cease to exist and I will be able to end my miserable, good and bad lives. That fool Sonic made a mistake in the second timeline, or in this case, he will. Soon nothing will stop me. Nothing!' Nega thought to himself, grinning wickedly in the same way his other alternate selves Dr. Eggman/Dr. Robotnik always did.

"Why are you doing this!? This is against everything I've known for years!" Kintobor demanded pleadingly, as he and the still injured Blaze were struggling to break free from the Spider Robot's grasp.

"Oh, past-me. Fighting against evil and attempting to erase it was your biggest mistake." Nega sneered at his past-self. "This is who we truly are deep inside, and it's thanks to the Sol Emeralds, I have been freed and very soon you will too. Once I encounter Sonic the Hedgehog, I will use the Emeralds to open up the evil you have foolishly hidden for years and destroy him in many ways than one!"

"You don't know Sonic-Er, wait, y-you have dual memories, or else you really wouldn't know, would you?" Kintobor attempted to protest, before he realized what he was about to say and now felt even more horrified.

His evil future-self cackled. "That's correct, Ovi. While my dual memories are a bit of a mess, I remember clearly of what happened in both cases, because either way, you were always meant to be evil, gain become immortal and erase everything. Life is pathetic, so why protect it when everything ends and then there would be no more pain, no more agony, no sadness, happiness, anger, fear, hunger, or thirst? That is all humanity and other living creatures know. Such a waste."

'No...He's insane...He is what will become...this is wrong!' Kintobor thought, more and more horrified the more he and Blaze, who's eyes widened in equal horror while gazing at him with her heart dropping, heard on what Nega was saying. 'Scourge is right...I have caused all of this to happen...! What will I do to stop myself? Oh, Sonic...I am deeply sorry. Please, do not fall into my evil self's trap.'

"Even though the rules of time do not apply and anything could happen because timelines do not flow separetely or in the normal matter as in the Tunnel of Realties, because a new third time-line can be created under the circumstances, in the one I now reside because of Silver's actions, my plan is for that Sonic will wish of you, Princess Blaze and the Sol Emeralds to be brought to him so I will know where he and his friends are! Because with you there, I will find you and everything will be gone forever, before he has a chance to defeat me just like the current timeline is already set but I intend on changing it to my liking! AH HA HA HA HA HA!" Nega declared with victory.

"NO! If that is true then..." Blaze's eyes widened in horror as a realization came into her and Kintobor's minds. Silver...he was still alive and was found by the two Sonics and two of Tails who would tell them about what was going on and then make the risky move in using the Sol Emeralds! They had already fallen into Nega's trap!

"Yes, that blue hedgehog will making his wish any moment now because time is on MY SIDE!" The evil future scientist declared, grinning even more insanely than he already was.

The two captives were beyond horrified as all was now lost; when they thought that the main threats were Scourge, Robotnik, the Time Eater and Cormain, now it was clear that it was Kintobor all along and he didn't even know it until it was too late, in both timelines, because he was the catalyst of each and every disaster that is to happen.

Pleased with the results even though there was something fading in his mind in both memories of the timelines he couldn't place, Nega grinned as he waited with the three Sol Emeralds already in place. They passed through a portal and grinned, emerging into the future he was fully aware of as it was a place he had come to know as a nightmare home, filled with dangerous monsters and the city in ruins and in most parts on fire. Both Kintobor and Blaze were beyond horrified of what they seeing.

"This is...this is the future of Moebius?" Blaze asked shakily, unable to believe what she was witnessing. This was the future Silver warned her and Kintobor about? It was worse than she had imagined. No wonder the silver hedgehog was terrified of fire and wanted to change the future badly! This world, while brought into the White Space like other places through out space and time, was far too gone for anybody to live in and survive. It was dominated by monsters, most likely and accidentally created by the fiery powers of the Sol Emeralds. It was a nightmare that no one can wake up from.

"It can't be...! This is just...this is just too horrible!" Kintobor exclaimed in dismay, wishing that this was all just a terrible dream. If this is the result of his and Scourge's actions, then he really is the trigger of the apocalypse!

"Now then, little hedgehog...make your wish...and show me your hiding location!" Nega commanded, scanning through out the city to find the teenage hero of Mobius to kill him and destroy all realities.

Yet what he didn't expect to see was that while the three Sol Emeralds he stole from Silver began to glow and vanish, making him and his captives who gasped in shock before the latter two screamed in dismay, knowing that Sonic had just made a mistake. Or...so they thought. Because the next thing that happened, Blaze gave out a startled cry before she disappeared as well, leaving the claw that held her to grasp empty air.

"Princess Blaze!" Kintobor exclaimed, before muttering as he gazed skyward in horror. "No! Sonic, don't! You've just doomed us and gave Nega what he wanted!"

"Yes, now it's your turn to go where he is, Kintobor! You will be joining them any moment now!" Nega laughed manically, waiting for his memories to become more clear and for his past-self to disappear as well...

Several minutes of waiting...and yet Kintobor remained where he was even as the kindly doctor had tried to brace himself to feel strange and vanish to where the young Mobians and Moebians were...Yet still he remained trapped within the grasp of his future-self's robot.

"Hm? What's this? Why are you still here?" Nega asked, noticing that he still had no idea where Sonic was. Kintobor noticed this as well and blinked in confusion.

"Hm? That's strange, I thought I would be joining them..." Kintobor muttered, noticing that he wasn't being teleported himself, before his eyes widened behind as glasses as a glimmer of cleverness and hope rose. "Unless...Sonic has figured it out himself...!"

"What!? How can this be!?" The evil future scientist exclaimed in horror, before realizing what this meant. He still had memories of the two timelines...but something wasn't right. He couldn't remember anything about Sonic battling him in the future or in his case, the past, he only remembered mostly of the first timeline which was starting to fade, and the second timeline...he saw a figure vision of himself...disappearing and...something within him rising, something awfully familiar...but even then his vision was becoming very hazy.

'Sonic...did you...change both timelines by knowing what to do?' Kintobor thought to himself, realizing the meaning of his future-self's words. 'Of course! Dr. Nega is me from a fused and soon to be erased timelines where I become evil! Because time changing doesn't effect here yet! Because it is collapsing unless things return to normal! Sonic is the chosen savior of Space and Time!'

This thought was not shared by Nega who came to realize what was going on and yelled furiously for the first time in his life, realizing that the prophecy was coming true.

"NO! NOOOO! How can this be!? This isn't what I wanted!" Nega roared angrily, pounding his fists onto the dashboard in a similar manner to Eggman. "Curse you, Sonic the Hedgehog of the alternate universe!"

"Well, you know as they say, Nega. Be careful what you wish for. It's perfectly clear that Sonic was being careful after all. More than I ever was." Kintobor teasingly grinned, glad that while himself was still in danger, that the others and the Sol Emeralds were now relatively safe out of both his and his future-self's hands.

Nega glared at him and despite knowing that he would feel the effects as well, pushed a button to zap his past-self while snapping. "Oh, shut up!"

Like before, Kintobor was zapped with the electricity and screamed out in agony which echoed through out the entire city.


The moment Sonic had finished making his wish and the blue Sol Emerald glowing brightly to make it come true, suddenly to his and everyone else's surprise as the sixteen year old opened his eyes slightly to see without blinding himself, the three stolen Emeralds taken from Silver appeared in glowing lights of purple, green and yellow appeared, before gently descending onto the ground, and then a few seconds later, Blaze appeared as she landed on the floor with a bit of a fall and yelp.

"Blaze!" Sonic and the others exclaimed in relief but also in shock to see electrical burns on the Moebian cat's body, just as the blue Sol Emerald stopped glowing, having finished it's job in making his wish. Tucking it away into his quills before quickly picking up the others as well just in case, he and the others, even the injured Silver who winced in discomfort over his injuries, hurried over to their friend.

"Blaze, are you alright!?" Silver asked worriedly as he and Sonic both knelt beside her, while Tails, Young Sonic and Young Tails surrounded her to check her injuries.

"Silver...You are alive." Blaze half-whispered, feeling relieved that her close friend was here, and she noticed that while he too was hurt, the fourteen year old hedgehog was already bandaged up. She then noticed the four Mobians of two different realities, muttering their names before realizing where she was and looked around. "What is this place?"

"It's an old hospital Nega and I would come to sometimes to get medical supplies that survived after 200 years." Silver explained, gently hugging the Princess in sheer relief and guilt. "Oh, Blaze. I'm so sorry. This is...this is all my fault...!"

The guardian of the Sol Emeralds could only gaze at him sympathetically, knowing that her friend from the future wasn't to blame. He had been tricked by the man who was the corrupted future self of the same man whom she had trusted for a part of her life, and who had taken in Red to look after him. Nobody even knew, and now things had been taken for the worst. Sighing, she could only hug him in return while the other four watched on sympathetically.

"Silver, it wasn't your fault." Sonic spoke gently.

What he didn't expect was Blaze glaring suddenly at the blue hedgehog and with a slight glow of her eyes, she slapped him across the right side of his face and nearly knocking him over, making everyone else gasp in shock.

"OW!" The sixteen year old yelped, covering the small bruise he knew would develop on his cheek and demanded in annoyance. "Hey, what was that for!?"

"Do you realize what you have just done, Sonic!? You used the Sol Emeralds to save me and Kintobor and bring back the Sol Emeralds! Dr. Nega will surely find us, destroy us and all realities because of the risk you took! Do you realize you had just fallen into his trap!?" Blaze snapped angrily, flames beginning to form around her body in fury which made the three hedgehogs and two foxes flinch in fright before slowly back away. "You have destroyed us all, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"W-what!? Blaze, c'mon! I was careful and really, I didn't have much a choice!" Sonic protested, terrified as he held up his hands in defense. "Silver told us what happened and we kind of figured out that Nega had dual memories! How else was I supposed to stop Nega!?"

"Chill, Blaze! He didn't want to use the Sol Emeralds." Young Sonic quickly stepped in, standing in front of his older, alternate self. "It was my idea since we couldn't figure out another way in stopping Kintobor's crazy future-self!"

"What!?" The Princess snapped, now turning her glare to the younger blue hedgehog who shrank back in fear. "Then you're the one who caused this to happen! Nega will know where to find us because Dr. Kintobor is here, and thus will know where we are!"

"Um...I don't think so, because Kintobor isn't here at all." Young Tails pointed out, before a fiery fight, and he and Tails were both certain that there would be one which would alert the monsters to where they were, would break out.

"He's right. Ovi should've been brought here like you and Sol Emeralds did." The older two-tailed fox added.

A moment of silence followed as Blaze, realizing the lack of the human scientist's words and movements around, looked around and saw indeed that he wasn't here at all. Now confused with a different kind of anger, she turned her gaze to the two of Sonic and demanded. "What did you do?"

"W-Well, I sorta figured that if Nega really did have dual memories, then he'd know we were here if I'd wish Kintobor was brought here with us and that would give him an advantage against us. Look, I didn't want to use the Sol Emeralds, but at this stage there wasn't a choice anymore. So I made a wish to have you and the other three Sol Emeralds brought here so I can go out and rescue Kintobor while beating up Nega, even asking the Emeralds to cancel his wishes and the stop him from cancelling my power and the power of the Sol Emeralds too." Sonic nervously explained.

"That would make sense." Tails agreed, smiling a little in relief as he realized what his older brother's plan was. "If Kintobor was brought here, then Nega would remember everything that would've happened as we speak."

"I'm sorry for not saving Kintobor that way, but I promise that I'll bring him back and make sure he doesn't become Nega at all, and I'm really sorry for using the Emeralds. I know I promised I wouldn't use them, but we were running out of time and running out of hope." The blue hedgehog continued apologetically, lowering his gaze in guilt. "To tell the truth, I was close in giving up after we figured it out. I was so scared that Nega had won already that I had no idea what to do."

He then smiled sadly and gratefully at Young Sonic while adding. "But Sonic here reminded me that I shouldn't give up and that sometimes you have to take the risk in whatever you've got. I normally use the Chaos Emeralds only for emergency, and using the Sol Emeralds now was an emergency as well. It's our only chance in setting things right and I just hope that Kintobor will understand, because I'd hate the idea of him becoming our enemy...when he had always been everybody's friend."

"So as long as Kintobor isn't here, Nega won't know where we are...but he could still be aware of what is happening." Silver pointed out with a shrug.

"Or maybe not." Blaze murmured, as she began to realize that she had been wrong in accusing Sonic when memories of what Nega said formed into her mind. "'Even though the rules of time do not apply and anything could happen because timelines do not flow separately or in the normal matter as in the Tunnel of Realties, because a new third time-line can be created under the circumstances'...Which means here in the White Space we can stop him because the dual memories won't help him!"

"All right! That means we can still save Kintobor and stop his evil Eggman-future self!" Young Sonic cheered happily, as he and the others began to feel relieved they were right back on track, especially since now they had twelve Emeralds back in hand.

Sonic, knowing that time was still running out for Kintobor, nodded as he then stood up. "Right. I'll take it from here and save Ovi. You guys stay together and find the last Chaos Emerald and maybe even the last Sol Emerald just in case Scourge and Ro-butt-nik attack."

"What!?" Everyone else exclaimed in shock. Sonic was going all by himself!?

"No, it's too dangerous! Nega's robot will destroy you!" Blaze protested.

"I'm not gonna let anybody else I care about so much to get hurt or captured. I've beaten tons of giant robots before." The blue hedgehog said firmly. "The reason Nega got the three Sol Emeralds was because I thought they would be safe with Silver, but he caught us off guard. I promise once we've restored Star after we find the last two emeralds of both kinds, I'm never using the ones from your world ever again."

"No way! I'm goin' with you!" Young Sonic protested, shaking his head. He didn't want any horrible happen to Sonic, not again, not after when the latter almost got digested to death by the Werehog swallowing him and Scourge whole alive.

The teenage hero shook his head, kneeling on one knee and told him as firmly but gently as possible. "I know you wanna help, buddy, and you're strong and really fast just like me. But I need you to keep the others safe. I'll be fine this time. Trust me."

Even though the eleven year old hedgehog looked a bit doubtful and really worried with his ears drooping a little, too scared with the thought Nega being one step ahead despite that they now had six Sol Emeralds and six Chaos Emeralds again, Sonic, sensing his younger, alternate self's hesitation, gently placed comforting hands on his shoulders.

"I'll be okay. Just promise me that you and the others will be alright too." Sonic reassured with a soft, warm smile.

Sensing the truth in Sonic's words, Young Sonic smiled back, forcing back his doubts and even wiping away tears that developed in his eyes, then nodded back with a determined smirk. "I promise."

Sonic smiled wider, standing up as the two shared a high-five despite that he too was unsure if he can really save Kintobor without him being corrupted by the evils of the Sol Emeralds which would transform him into Nega, but he had to do this or else they would be losing a friend and...his smile faded as he realized what he was about to do. Fighting Knuckles and Shadow were one thing, but they weren't friends until after the misunderstanding was all cleared up and while the blue hedgehog was still at odds with the Ultimate Lifeform, he still considered him as a friend and the red echidna was one of his best friends and secretly an older brother to him...But to fight Dr. Eggman Nega knowing that he is the evil future self of the good alternate self that was Kintobor, who had just became one of Sonic's new friends he finally began to trust.

Who was also a close friend to both Silver and Blaze...That was a whole new level of an emotional fight. The sixteen year old then realized and knew, in that instant, this was going to be a battle worse than when he fought Eggman for the very last time in the Prison of Evil. Can Sonic really do that? Fight against a friend who had also become one of his worst enemies? Who had, in the original timeline, killed Blaze and tricked Silver into causing all of this to happen? Then he remembered what Kintobor said to him earlier when the kindly doctor realized the error of his actions.


"Sonic, you had every right to be furious with me. It's because of me that you, your friends, and your other good alternate-selves were brought into this mess, when you all should be in your own worlds living in peace." Kintobor shook his head. He lowered his gaze once more. "Perhaps Scourge is right about me. Perhaps I should just disappear, then none of this would have happened."


Maybe Kintobor was about right that. But no, Sonic could never, EVER, kill anyone. He wasn't a murderer. He didn't want to kill. It wasn't what he wanted. He fought to protect others and bring people to justice, not fight to kill villains or anyone in general. Sonic the Hedgehog was an adventurer with a free spirit, dedicating his life for freedom, not destruction. He wasn't with GUN who still had the corrupted killing policy under behalf of the law because they didn't believe what he believed in. He wasn't like Eggman either, though. Robots and monsters that were with Dark Gaia were one thing, and Shadow had been the one who destroyed Black Doom. All Sonic did was help out to save the people.

Still...How was he going to stop Nega unless the future of Moebius changed? Especially now that the future evil version of Kintobor came from a merged parallel universe?

"Sonic..." Silver began, apparently reading the troubled blue hedgehog's mind, especially when he and everyone else noticed that the hero of Mobius now looked uncertain himself. "I know what you're thinking. You're afraid of fighting Nega, aren't you?"

"Uh...Y-yeah. It's just...He's Ovi from the future, and he's your mentor, both in the future and the present. Not only that, the guy's our friend here. How can I find myself facing Nega knowing that used to be a guy I finally managed to trust?" Sonic confessed, feeling his heart sink and his chest, throat and eyes swell up with tears. "It's already-It's already bad enough that we're gonna lose you, Silver...! I don't know if I can handle in losing more friends...!"

The future Moebian narrowed his eyes before asking firmly. "Would you rather risk the world to save me? Or just one person?"

"No, I'd risk my life to save my friends and family and the world!" Sonic argued.

"Well, there's nothing you can do to save me, Sonic! Don't you get it? I'm going to disappear either way, so my existence doesn't matter! I dedicated my entire life to change the future, to save Moebius, knowing that I'm doomed from the start and I'm okay with it! Nega isn't Ovi anymore, and it's my fault that he's almost gained what he wanted. Stopping him is the only way to solve this, but you can at least still save him by preventing him from turning evil in my place! You have to make that sacrifice, whether you like it or not!" Silver snapped, shocking his friends of the past and alternate universes.

But he wasn't done there yet.

"Kintobor knew that, and so did Blaze. You have to accept the fact that I'm beyond saving. If I had known, I would've stopped Nega on the spot. That's why I'm going with you. You save Ovi, and I take him on. And don't you say no to me, Sonic the Hedgehog! But the reality is that you can't save everyone, and I learned that the hard way, so you have to accept that too!" He continued.

Sonic bit his lip, knowing that his friend was right. For years people die, even before he was born. That he forgot. Shadow's first and true friend Maria died because of GUN's actions, the blue hedgehog himself had spent almost ten years without Uncle Chuck with the belief that the older hedgehog had died, the teenager only having been six at the time, Knuckles is the last of his kind, Kaiser, having grown up twisted, sick and evil, had been beyond saving and had destroyed himself by inadvertently allowing the Werehog-Beast to devour him, and Eggman had been swallowed by the Nega-Mother Wisp which lead him and his five robot minions to become trapped within the Prison of Evil for all eternity.

Just when Sonic had finally been reunited with his beloved uncle after years of wishing he could see him again while having come to accept that Uncle Chuck was gone forever, yet the older blue hedgehog was somewhere back at home now, waiting to be reunited with his family including the teenage hero himself, now he had to lose a friend in Silver and, while hoping not, potentially in losing Dr. Ovi Kintobor who had also become a friend, yet at the same time in the future was one of his greatest enemies he was about to meet and battle face to face.

Unable to hold it back, Sonic pulled Silver a tightening embracing and sobbed, babbling his apologies, and wept. "I'm-I'm sorry, S-Silver! It's not fair...! It's just not fair...!"

"...I'm sorry too, Sonic." The younger hedgehog whispered, reluctantly but longingly hugging the heroic blue hedgehog who he now knew was everyone's only hope left.

Young Sonic, Tails, Young Tails, and Blaze, all tearful with their hearts breaking at this difficult choice and decision, all joined in on the embrace knowing that it would take them and Sonic forever to recover the loss of Silver the Hedgehog, who would cease to exist once everything was back to normal and Moebius was saved, it's fiery dark future prevented from ever happening. Then there was the question on Ovi can survive this and prevent himself from turning into Dr. Nega...or if he had to be sacrificed as well for the sake of Space and Time. All of them wept silently with tears falling free, knowing that very soon they would have to say goodbye to their future friend who would never be born.

Never to meet any of them. But it was the only way to save all realities and finally go home.


Stomping through the destroyed streets of Crisis City, Nega's giant Spider Bot smashed and squashed any lingering fire monsters while using it's lasers to take out the giant Colossal Worms in the process while Kintobor cried out in terror at the sight of the horrible beasts, still injured and trapped within the clutches while his future self sneered as he searched for the sixteen year old blue hedgehog and take the Sol Emeralds back to make his own wish come true.

"Where are you, little blue hedgehog? I know you're hiding here somewhere...!" Nega hissed darkly, navigating his way through the ruins with every intention on killing Sonic, knowing that he was the blue savior meant to save all Space and Time and erase the evil scientist himself for good. He will get what he wants, no matter what.

Kintobor on the other hand, wanted the opposite. All of his research to try and rid the world of evil only to become Moebius' worst enemy, or he will if nothing was done soon. He hoped that Sonic and the others would be alright. He considered on remaining trapped in the White Space, but then he realized it would only drive him insane due to the constant solitude and then he'd still become Nega. But being erased from history would only make things worse for both Scourge and Red. Which meant the only way to stop it now...was for his life to end sooner than he would want, but for the sake of the world, all of the young people including the red-brown hedgehog who had been like his own son, his friends Princess Blaze and Silver, and now Sonic and all of his friends, there was no other option.

'Sonic...Please, don't let Nega get the Sol Emeralds.' The kindly doctor pleaded in his mind, only to grunt in pain when the robot's grip on him tightened, threatening on squeezing him to death.

"If Sonic does not come, this proves that he still hates and fears you, Kintobor..." Nega warned darkly.

Kintobor grunted, before glaring up at his evil self, snapping. "I don't care! I deserve to be hated because of all of the horrible mistakes that I've made, not just to my adoptive son Red, his brother Scourge, Princess Blaze, Silver, to but to Sonic and all of his family and friends! I'd rather be dead than all of Space and Time to be destroyed! Why not just do us both a favor and you kill me, that way you destroy yourself!"

"It won't work like that, you senial fool! If I destroyed you, it would only cause a time loop and you would be spared and then I would still exist! I cannot let you die, because I plan on turning you into me anyway so that way everything will be destroyed!" The future evil scientist pointed out, and when he saw his past self turn pale at that, he cackled. "Oh, come now. This is what is always meant to happen, no matter what timeline you and I exist in. We are one and the same. You should know that. Once a scientist, always a scientist."

Realizing that his future-self made a good point, Kintobor then hissed. "Then I wish I'd never interacted with the Sol Emeralds. You and the future are everything I'm against!"

"Me too!" A young familiar voice shouted from the side.

"Huh!?" The two men gaped in shock, just as a blue blurry ball appeared from the left and bashed into side of the giant robot which stumbled a bit almost losing it's balance, causing Kintobor and Nega to yelp in alarm. "YAUGH!"

The ball, using Sonic's Homing Attack, then attacked the leg/claw that held the kinder scientist and while it didn't break instantly, it seemed to be beginning to lose it's grip on him. The ball then uncurled itself and revealed to be Sonic who landed onto the 'fingers' of the claw, holding on with one hand to avoid in falling over.

"Hi there. Sorry I'm late, Ovi." Sonic greeted casually, saluting with two fingers with his left hand.

"Sonic!? What are you doing!?" Kintobor exclaimed, both relieved that one of his new young friends was safe, but shocked that the very boy had just put himself right where Nega wanted him to be.

"I'm savin' you, of course." The blue birthday-hedgehog replied, hiding the fact that, earlier he had to calm down and came up with a plan in order to try and make this work out. He then added in a whisper. "Don't worry, the Sol Emeralds are safe in a secret place."

That only made his friend panic. "Sonic, you shouldn't have said that! Nega will remember it for sure!"

Flinching as he realized that he made a bit of a slip, the sixteen year old shrugged sheepishly, only managing to mutter. "Oops."

"Well, well." Nega's voice sneered evilly in a hint of laughter, causing both Sonic and Kintobor to gaze at him. "So you have decided to come to me, little hedgehog of an alternate universe. I've got you just where I want you!"

The coblat speedster just glared with gritted teeth, knowing that the risk was greatly high and if he didn't get the kind scientist out of here now, there would be even more trouble. Then as the evil future scientist controlled the robot to move and capture the hero of Mobius, Sonic quickly held on while attempting to pull the claws open to get Kintobor free, only to yelp and nearly lost his grip when the giant Spider Bot moved it's arms and legs, stomping about to try and force him to let go. But Sonic managed to hold on with struggle and planted his feet onto the metal, proceeding in attempting to pull harder and harder.

"Sonic, it's no use! There's nothing you can do to! Save yourself, or else you will suffer and die because of me!" Kintobor pleaded, not wanting another young life to die because of his actions.

"NO!" Sonic snapped, causing his friend to gaze up at him, seeing the strong determination in the blue hedgehog's emerald green eyes which flared up brightly, refusing to back down now. "I won't let you die, Kintobor! Because I never abandon any of my friends!"

"But Nega is me! Which means I'm your enemy!"

"I DON'T CARE! Just becase Eggman Nega's you from the future, doesn't mean you've turned into him yet! We can still prevent that transformation from happening! It's not too late and I'm not giving up on you!" The teenage Mobian argued, pulling even harder and began to feel the claws loosen their grip.

"Sonic..." Kintobor murmured, unable to believe that the young hedgehog was risking his life to save him despite knowing what would happen.

"You've just made your biggest mistake, hedgehog!" Nega growled, controlling the robot which had another claw leg that was about to grab the hero of Mobius from behind, Kintobor noticed and gasped in horror.

"Sonic! Look out!" Kintobor exclaimed in horror.

"Huh!?" Sonic gasped as he looked over his shoulder, and gasped louder in fright when he saw too late as the other claw was about to grab him. Sweating nervously, he attempted to pull harder to free the kind human while ignoring the future evil scientist's laughter of victory.

Just then, the robot suddenly glowed in a cyan light which forced the robot to end up freezing in it's tracks, much to the two humans' confusion and, secretly, Sonic's relief. To make things more confusing for the men, the claw that held Kintobor trapped finally loosened enough for the blue hedgehog to pull it further away and allowed the kind scientist to be free.

"C'mon, let's juice!" Sonic cried out, pulling his friend out and had him wrap his arms around the hedgehog's shoulders, telling him to hold on and then leaped off the robot while Kintobor screamed in alarm, hanging on for dear life. The cobalt Mobian landed safely and gave whoever was close by around the corner of a building using telekinesis that kept the giant Spider Robot stuck in place a thumbs up, earning a nod in return.

"What is this!?" Nega demanded, before realizing what was going on and snarled in fury, gazing up ahead to see his past-self as well as his target about to get away, and caught sight of something cyan and whitely-silver at the corner of a building. "SILVER! YOU TREACHEROUS BRAT! YOU AND THAT BLUE HEDGEHOG HAVE TRICKED ME!"

Deciding to reveal himself as it was part of the plan he, Sonic, and the others came up with a little while ago after ceasing their crying despite still being upset about it, but came up with a plan on how to save Kintobor, Silver used his ability to hover over to the giant robot and stopped half way across it, glaring back at the future self of the man who had been his friend, but turned to evil due to corruption and intended on destroying everything. He stood beside Sonic who had Kintobor behind him as the two hedgehogs shielded their human friend.

"Treacherous? That is what you should be describing yourself, Nega." Silver responded coldly, not loosening up despite the injuries which made him unable to hold on for long. "You were once a great man that was Dr. Ovi Kintobor, but the corruption destroyed his soul, creating you so that you ended up taking over his body. You are not the Kintobor who I became true friends with alongside Blaze, Sonic and everybody else. You're a monster, the same as all of these creatures that destroyed our world!"

"You are a young orphan, Silver. Children who lose their families at such an early age would readily trust those whom would save their lives. Just as I had told you before. It is what had Red unintentionally cause his brother Scourge to go down the path of evil as well." Nega stated otherwise.

"That's not true!" Sonic declared, taking a step forward. "All of this started because of an accident and maybe it would've been better if the Sol Emeralds were never studied in the first place. But then who else would try to do what Kintobor tried to do, or even use them to their own evil purposes, like the guy I used to know back in my world who died because an evil plot he schemed destroyed him? I can think of one guy and that would be that jerk Snively who killed Scourge's girlfriend and wanted turned many innocent people into robots!"

"Those two fools were less regarded than I am, boy. But I, I am more powerful, more intelligent than any other being across Space and Time. My only mistake is making myself immortal as I grew tired of how I destroyed the world the moment I created the Ifritions." The evil future scientist said evilly and calmly.

"What!? You created those things!?" Silver exclaimed in horror, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"Ifritions?" Sonic asked, blinking in confusion. He gazed at Kintobor and asked in confusion. "What's an Ifrition?"

"I've got no ide-Wait, Ifrition...it sounds like an extension of Ifrit, a Fire Demon described as a devil of Evil, a fearsome beast imprisoned by the earliest ancestors of those who used the Sol Emeralds to seal it away. Yet those would be gifted or cursed by the fire power with each chosen one to protect or use the Sol Emeralds with pyrokinesis...which is what Princess Blaze is, given her ability over fire powers." Kintobor realized, then came to a horrified realization.

As did Sonic who, shocked by the legend which was true given Blaze's ability, muttered as he came to the same conclusion. "So that's what those monsters in this city are; They're the Ifritions..."

He gasped and turned back to Nega while adding in horror. "That means Nega must've freed Ifrit's corpse and used it to create these things and set them loose across the planet, destroying almost everything except for survivors! No wonder they're made out of fire!"

"Ah ha ha ha ha! It seems you Mobians are more intelligent and careful observers than Moebians. You really are Sonic the Hedgehog, the hero of the alternate universe and the chosen savior to save all of Space and Time." Nega laughed manically.

"And you're the dark evil spirit who had taken over Dr. Kintobor's body, just like Silver said!" Sonic hissed accusingly. "Not only that, you created those monsters to destroy the world, and yet that wasn't enough for you, because you decided to try and destroy everything else including yourself."

"Very good, child. It began when not long after I killed Princess Blaze and made myself immortal, I used her body and the Sol Emeralds to locate the remains of Ifrit as it has died out after thousands of years. So I used my research and advanced technology to create multiple species of the beast as well as the girl's blood and power and the Emeralds themselves to create an army to rule the world. I called them Ifritions as they are not the true Ifrit but close enough. However, the moment I set them lose, I was unable to control them as their anger and rage were beyond my comprehension and thus I was forced to send in survivors including myself to hide for 200 years, yet the lives of humanity and animals decreased and I knew that in order to change everything and destroy everything including myself, I had to change history." The evil future scientist explained.

"And that is when you secretly followed Silver and became trapped here in the Prison of Evil as well, causing all of this to happen without everyone even realizing it." Kintobor muttered in horror and dismay, lowering his gaze. "It's because of our actions that Space and Time are on the verge of being destroyed by the Time Eater and Cormain, as well as you, Scourge and Dr. Robotnik."

"That, and it's also to prevent the prophecy from coming true, as Sonic the Hedgehog is the benevolent, pure heartened alternate self of Scourge who is a hero, a very powerful boy unlike any other. I know I will disappear, but I will disappear once all of you and everything vanish!" Nega declared in a twisted manner.

"Your threats don't scare me, Nega! You're not Kintobor at all! I feel horrible in making you and Silver disappear, but I won't let you destroy Space and Time and I'm gonna save not just my planet or universe, but Ovi's universe too! There's no way anybody's gonna disappear and before you ask, I won't tell you where the Sol Emeralds are!" Sonic argued as he stood ready to fight.

Nega grinned wickedly. "Very well, Sonic the Hedgehog. I will grant you your death and come after Silver and all of your friends!"

With a bit of a struggle as Silver's powers are wavering, the evil scientist pushed a button which surged electricity which forced towards the white hedgehog who under Sonic's instruction cancelled out his power and the two of them grabbed hold of Kintobor before leaping back, avoiding in getting caught by the leg-claws. Sonic then held them both by the wrists and ran away with his two friends as fast as he could, causing both Silver and Kintobor to scream in fright, not being used to the blue hedgehog's speed despite that the white hedgehog had been carried by Young Sonic earlier.

"You won't be getting away, hedgehog!" The evil future scientist declared, flicking a switch which caused the cannon section on the belly of the giant robot to open up into a capsule and opened fire, shooting out several missiles at the trio whom noticed this and two of them cried out in alarm.

Thankfully Sonic, being used to dodging missiles and lasers in all of the years he fought against Eggman's giant robots, easily zig-zagged out of the way as he ran, leaping and jumping over broken pieces of buildings and roads and even dodging and ignoring more of the monsters which he and the others now knew of being called the Ifritions, creations of Nega who didn't even give out the name to Silver at all. Knowing that situation was becoming dangerous, Sonic then turned around a corner to try and get his two friends to safety, only to skid to a stop when they saw another giant Colossal Worm with it's mouth wide open, ready to engulf Sonic, Silver and Kintobor who all froze in fear briefly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Sonic, Silver and Kintobor all screamed, their hearts pounding furiously.

"RUN!" Sonic exclaimed, running away with his friends holding on and continued onward down the road, yet the giant monster was then blasted into nothing when Nega, also seeing this and flinched, fired missiles at it's eyes and causing it to shriek in agony before collapsing onto the ground unconscious, while the Spider Bot used it's electricity to finish it off before giving chase after the trio once again.

"The future has these horrible creatures everywhere!" Kintobor screeched in horror.

"This is why I hate fire!" Silver exclaimed, feeling frozen while trying to hold onto his lunch, wishing that the blue hedgehog would slow down a little.

"To me, this is worse than the time Elise and I were saving the world from those S.N.A.K.E.S guys and trying to find the Sun Stone!" Sonic admitted, focusing on watching out for danger as well as trying to find a place to get his companions to safety while glad that Tails, Young Sonic, Young Tails and Blaze were already somewhere more safer and hopefully back on Planet Wisp.

Finally finding a somewhat decent area where he knew that Silver can take Kintobor to safety, the hero of Mobius ran around the corner again and didn't stop until they were on the other side of the building and skid to a stop, gently putting his friends down while the white hedgehog and the kindly scientist groaned.

"...I'm not used to this..." Silver moaned.

"I'm beginning to feel nauseous..." Kintobor confessed, placing a hand to his stomach.

"Sorry. Sonic Boom and all." Sonic shrugged apologetically, before telling them firmly. "I'm gonna lead Nega away from you guys. Try and find a way out and we'll meet up later. Don't worry, Tails and the others are trying to find the last Chaos Emerald, but they're okay."

"Sonic...You sure this plan will work? I'll stop Nega. You take Ovi to safety." Silver protested.

"No, you're still recovering, Silver. Ovi's your responsibility, and that's final." The sixteen year old responded. 'I'm really glad that I didn't tell anybody that I gave the Sol Emeralds to Tails, just in case.'

Earlier as they had discussed the plan on how to rescue Kintobor, Sonic had secretly handed the six Emeralds to Tails while giving the two Chaos Emeralds back to Young Sonic just in case, with the two-tailed fox telling the blue hedgehog to be careful as he was worried about his safety. The hero of Mobius promised that he will and told him to get going, before he and the white hedgehog went to find the two humans. He wasn't sure if Blaze managed to somehow get back to everybody else in the White Space while Tails, Young Sonic and Young Tails went to find the last Chaos Emerald and if they had any luck, the last Sol Emerald as well, but he hoped that they did.

"Sonic...You will get killed!" Kintobor protested.

"I'll be fine. I'm not gonna let you turn evil and I definitely won't let you die either. I'd never forgive myself if either one did happen. It's already bad enough that I have to make a hard choice with Nega, even though he's you from a new alternate universe that's been created, but there's no other way of doing this." Sonic replied, placing his hands onto the human's soldiers, seemingly struggling with his emotions, not sure what he should say to his human friend, who was the past-alternate self of a new Eggman of Moebius.

"Kintobor...Ovi..." He began.

"Hm?" The kind scientist murmured.

"I don't...I don't want you to die. Just please, please don't become evil. Don't become Nega. Please." The sixteen year old muttered pleadingly, with tears beginning to form in his eyes which he struggled to hold back.

Kintobor could only mutter Sonic's name, just as the ground shook and alarmed both of them and Silver, making them gasp in shock as they heard loud bangs and clutter of metal and stomps nearing where they were hiding.

"There's not much time left. Get outta here now. GO!" Sonic quickly instructed, knowing that he had to end this now. "GO!"

Hesitant as he knew now that he would never see Nega again, Silver squeezed his eyes shut before realizing nothing was going to change Sonic's mind, then opened them and nodded, muttering his friend to be careful which the latter promised that he will, before the fourteen year old used his powers once more to levitate himself and the shocked Kintobor, then flew away despite the human scientist's protests.

"I'll meet up with you guys later." Sonic called out, before turning back to where he came from with determination and sped out, ignoring the pillars of rock and dust falling while outside, Nega was firing more missiles at the monsters that emerged and made things more difficult for the evil man to find his targets including his past-self.


"WHERE ARE YOU, HEDGEHOGS AND KINTOBOR!? COME AND FACE ME, YOU COWARDS!" Nega shouted in utter fury as his patience were running thinner than ever before. He heard a loud whistle echo through the air coming from above and his right.

"Hey, Neggaman!" Sonic called out, which made the evil scientist glare up and saw the hero of Mobius stand on top of a ruined five story building, the teenager waving tauntingly at him. "Over here!"

"There you are, child." The evil scientist growled.

"You want the Sol Emeralds, do ya? Come and get me!" The blue hedgehog taunted, sticking his tongue out while pulling his lower eye-lid again before racing off to lead his opponent away from where his friends ran off to.

"You can run, boy, but you cannot hide from me!" Nega declared, switching the Spider Bot's mode into flight and gave chase after the sixteen year old to destroy him and gain the Sol Emeralds.

Sonic noticed this as he looked over his shoulder, his eyes widening in shock as he gasped when he saw that six of the legs formed into insect like wings and was causing the giant robot to fly in high speed, with missile cannons, and claws ready and all. Realizing that he was in for a majorly huge fight, the blue hedgehog sweat dropped, and unconsciously gulped in fear.

"I...think this is gonna hurt really bad. Maybe I should stop with the taunting thing." The hero of Mobius muttered to himself as he ran, looking straight ahead again as he dodged more broken pieces of the road, eventually finding himself nearing a huge make-shift giant river of lava that had buildings partially stuck within without actually melting them which was very unusual.

Wasting no time, however, Sonic made a daring jump and landed onto melted but cooled off lamp posts which made up into a make-shift grind rails, grinding his way up, down and around towards and past several buildings with lava sprouting all over the place like an active volcano. All the while Nega's Spider Bot fired several missiles to destroy him or at least cut off his rails and path to send him to be burnt to death. But the blue hedgehog relied on his speed to get him to at least a safer spot to fight against the evil future scientist. He jumped off the grind rail as he felt it shatter behind him, landing and jump-boosting from one building to another, all the while more missiles fired at him but missed the sixteen year old by five seconds. As Sonic went higher, he landed inside another building through an already broken window in a crouch, before racing away when he heard Nega about to catch up to him.

"You have nowhere to fun, blue savior. You death will suffice." Nega grinned wickedly, this time firing lasers from the missile cannons which sliced through the building that Sonic was in and making it begin to topple over.

Screaming as he felt the floor began to tilt to the right, Sonic sped up while trying to regain his balance before racing up to the left, Spin Jumping with his boost ability to smash his way through the other side, leaping and jumping onto another building and raced along the side of the walls while the building he was in toppled and crashed into the pool of lava with a humungous splash. But the evil future scientist noticed a blue streak trail vanishing into the distance and growled before powering up his robot to chase after the blue hedgehog who by then jumped and langed onto strangely flying platforms powered by the lava gysers.

"I've seen water gysers before, but never lava gysers!" Sonic remarked to himself, racing and jumping from one platform that held poles and destroyed vehicles to another, using his Homing Attack against emerging Ifritions that appeared attempting to burn or devour him, smashing them back without getting 50 degree burns and continued to race away.

But as he landed on another platform and could see, at long last, a road leading to dry and cool land, another huge Colossal Worm, due to being made of fire itself, emerged from the lava and roared, towering over the blue hedgehog who skid to a stop and let out a terrified gasp, finding himself trapped between the enormous hungry beast and the evil scientist who caused it's creation. Finding himself really scared and not sure what to do if he wanted to avoid in being captured, shot, vaporized or eaten to death, Sonic whimpered as he backed away a little, before quickly shaking away his fear to calm down despite that he was stuck and glared at the monster bravely. Then had an idea and waited.

"You're trapped, Sonic! Your choice in death is either devourment by the Colossal Worm, or by my Spider Bot." Nega declared as he flew in closer and closer, his robot's claws ready for an attack and the laser/missile cannons ready to kill.

"Let me think...I choose...JUMP!" Sonic shouted, hearing what his opponent said while having pretended to think, and just as the giant monster lunged in with it's mouth wide open to swallow him whole, he made a risky boost Spin Jump just as Nega's machine fired and stretched out it's claws to attack. But both missed and instead the beast chomped down onto the lasers and the claw but ended up being attacked by the weapons and screeched in agony.

Sonic in the meantime flipped before landing onto the giant Worm's back, then raced away down it's body and leaped once again, using the buildings to make it as quickly as possible while Nega was busy being forced to extract the eaten robotic leg after electrocuting the Colossal Monster which the blue hedgehog kind of felt sorry for it having to go through such a terrible demise. But he had to focus while grabbing hold of poles sticking out and flipped and spun like an athletic before letting go and used the speed and gravity to get him to safety, finally landing on the solid ground and raced away from the river of lava. Nega in the meantime, freeing himself from the Colossal Worm, sped up to catch the blue hedgehog and end this once and for all.

"Clever little brat..." Nega grunted under his breath, realizing that this was becoming a third timeline to which he will disappear and his original, kind and caring Kintobor self will remain for who knows how much longer, hence to why he is having trouble in figuring out the end result of this due to only have dual memories.

In the meantime, once he was certain that this part of the ruined city wouldn't break or crack open and so far there weren't any more of this Ifrition monsters, Sonic skid to a stop and turned around to finally face Nega and the giant Spider robot which hovered just about ten feet from where he was as the blue hedgehog stood ready, his eyes narrowed with determination.

"Giving up, little hedgehog? You must be exhausted from all of that running." Nega taunted cruelly.

"That was just a warm up and finding a good enough place so that we can fight, because I don't fancy in being Lava-Monster food or being cooked to death. Been there one too many times in the last five years, thanks." Sonic responded, though the heat around here wasn't really helping, but he attempted to ignore it.

"Why, Sonic. That is no way of treating me, your friend Dr. Ovi Kintobor. Or has your trust in me and my past-self really haven't fully set in?" The evil future scientist snickered, which made the blue hedgehog mentally flinch a little. "You were right in realizing how much an experiment that could go wrong can easily turn a pure heartened man into a monster. Just as same as Scourge did, and he is you from this world but from your time. Power is the key of opening one's true potential."

The teenage Mobian hissed before snapping. "You're not the Ovi I know, Nega! And if you think you can convince me to turn against everybody and everything I deeply care about and love so much, you're more crazy than Eggman was, and he died because he didn't accept the fact that his world conquests always stink! As far as we're concerned, you're a combination of him and another bad guy I fought five months ago and he hunted to kill for a living! Like I said before, you killed my friend and took over his body!"

"So what if I did? Every single reality is full of weak things such as emotions. Humans and animals are weak, planets are weak. Such a mistake in ever being created. Why waste in saving them when it's better off if nothing ever exists?" Nega questioned darkly.

"It is true that nothing lasts forever..." Sonic admitted, before declaring. "But that doesn't mean life's not worth living! You're just scared because you can't stand life anymore, you came to a false conclusion that everything means nothing, when you were once a kind man who dedicated his life to help others, just like me, but through science. You want to forget everything by taking away many people's lives, driving away families and friends from each other, and preventing such beautiful things like emotions, bonds and homes from ever happening! I won't let it end this way, Nega! Not if I can help it!"

Something within Nega seemingly surged, making the man wince in discomfort upon seeing and hearing the great bravery and determination within the young teenage Mobian, a memory that was his own and yet it wasn't. He could see it now; his Kintobor self informing Sonic that the blue hedgehog had such a powerful heart that was too strong to fall into darkness, to transform into a monster like how he did, like how Scourge did. That as long as the hero of Mobius thought for others, he was safe from corruption.

Yet he refused to give into those memories, and instead the evil future scientist snarled and slammed his fist into a button that was within the side of the cockpit, declaring darkly. "Then prove it to me, Sonic the Hedgehog; Savior of Space and Time!"

The machine suddenly sparked and glowed in ominous purple light, with dark flames seeping out from within and pouring into the cockpit which Nega then controlled the robot to close the hatch, grinning with an insane smirk, much to Sonic's shock as the latter gasped.

"What are you doing!?" Sonic demanded, suddenly feeling like this was strangely familiar, in more ways than one and he had a terrible feeling he wasn't going to like it.

Nega didn't answer, instead he laughed as fire and flames when the Spider Bot twitched and circuit, before it revealed more lasers from it's arms, another arm opening up from where the chomped one was. He snickered evilly, declaring. "This is the end of you, Sonic the Hedgehog! Soon you will cease to exist!"

Narrowing his eyes with determination as he realized that he had no choice anymore, Sonic stood ready and leaped out of the way just as more lasers and missiles were fired right at him, even to the point where he axe-kicked a couple, leading them heading towards the rest of the attacks which exploded in mid-air. The blue hedgehog sped out of the way from the lasers that hit and caused parts of the ground to explode and made several Earth-quake like cracks in the concrete, sending in dust and rock flying everywhere. When the claws attempted to grab him, Sonic spun rapidly with his Homing Attack, attacking the claws and the robot in several areas, causing it to stumble and creak and Nega yelling out in fury while struggling to keep his balance.

Focused on the fight as he knew, with a heavy heart, that nothing could change Nega's mind now...but he still held onto the hope for preventing Kintobor from changing into the man the blue hedgehog was fighting against now. The sixteen year old ducked when more lasers fired at him but missed, and he sped forward before going for a Spin Dash at one of the legs, denting it violently which caused it to steadily lose it's balance again.

"I will crush you, hedgehog!" Nega growled furiously, controlling his upgraded robot to attack again, this time successfully causing one of it's legs to hit Sonic and sent him flying backwards. The teenager screamed in pain and alarm before crashing onto the ground hard with dust flying everywhere. "You are finished, brat!"

Sonic hissed in pain, before opening his eyes and muttered. "I'm not done yet!"

He got up while wincing at the injuries, knowing that he's in for a series of bruises when he gets home and for the next week or so, but, remembering his lessons from fights with Eggman who would catch him off-guard since he didn't want to repeat those mistakes, Sonic dashed to the side, avoiding the claws that failed to clasp him and he even dodged it's attempts to stomp on him, much to Nega's frustration as he was becoming more and more agressive with the blue hedgehog's speed and abilities. With each attack, the evil future scientist was causing more damage to the area and less so on his opponent.

But to Sonic's shock as he kept on dodging the attacks, Nega played more dirty as he switched the lasers for flamethrowers in one cannon and an icy cannon in another, combing both attacks to block Sonic's attempts to get to him when the blue hedgehog returned to attack again. He yelped when the flames blocked him to his right, and part of the ground was frozen into ice to his left. Growling in frustration, the hero of Mobius glared up at Nega's giant Spider Bot which loomed over him now. Then he had another idea and smirked as this was like the times when he was fighting Eggman.

"Kill him." Nega commanded calmly, grinning evilly.

The Spider Bot made to do so with the Fire and Ice Lasers, but Sonic sped forward in the nick of time as both attacks hit the ground hard, letting out steam and preventing the evil scientist from seeing him and believed that the blue hedgehog was destroyed. But the sixteen year old was right underneath the robot and found a weak spot on it's metal belly. Narrowing his eyes, he spun into his Homing Attack again, attacking it several times which caused the giant machine to make a loud screech of what could only be described as agony, and sending in tumbling back and upward.

"What!? AAAHHHHH!" The evil future scientist exclaimed, not having expected that and held on for dear life while Sonic raced back, just in time to see the giant robot to fall onto it's back and narrowly avoiding in crushing the cockpit, but it did cause Nega to hit the back of his head, causing him to grunt in pain. "Ugh!"

Sonic stood back in a safe-ish distance, but gasped when despite that the robot was beginning to wear down, it weakly pushed itself up with Nega struggling to maintain control, yet the evil man wasn't done yet. With a nasty grin, he thrust his controls forward and launched the claws directly at the blue hedgehog who sped out of the way to avoid in getting captured, though he had to jump and use his Spin Dash to smash the claw away from him, breaking it away in an instant, much to his opponent's shock and horror.

"What!? NO!" He exclaimed.

"You know, Nega, you may be Ovi's evil self from the future, but you're just like Eggman back at home, and you're gonna disappear so that my friend to remain the same for the rest of his life!" Sonic declared, knowing that he had to end this soon as he didn't know how much longer this was going to go on.

"Insolent hedgehog! You're mine!" Nega roared, thrusting a control lever which extended the last remaining leg claw at the blue hedgehog who leaped out of the way in a cartwheel.

He had to end this now or else he would just exhaust himself. Realizing that he was playing about while wasting time since this wasn't like fighting his late enemy. The hero of Mobius was fighting an future corrupted self of one of his new friends, the good alternate self of Dr. Eggman, who had become worse than the evil scientist of Mobius. In more ways than one.

'Ovi...I hope you don't end up becoming like this in the new future. I'm sorry.' Sonic thought to himself, closing his eyes briefly before snapping them open again and charged with full speed, dodging every single attack that Nega could put up, the damage to the battlefield so intense that the building close by was leaning and toppling over dangerously.

Nega didn't like this one bit as he fired every attack he could think of, but for the first time in his existence since becoming corrupted, he was unable to do anything, as Sonic the Hedgehog, the hero of Mobius, leaped up into the air and with a battle cry, he used is Homing Attack combined with his boost ability to increase his attack, his sharpened quills slicing straight through the robot's machinery and bashed it from the inside before coming back right out, causing the Spider Bot to explode from inside out.

"No! NO! NOOOOOO!" Nega exclaimed in horror, just as his robot exploded, dust, smoke and metal flying everywhere, forcing Sonic who landed shield himself with his arms to prevent himself from being blown away.

Once it died down, the blue hedgehog hesitantly looked up while fearing that he may have actually killed the evil future scientist after realizing that he didn't eject himself from the machine, but saw that it was laying in half with fire and smoke almost everywhere, while the front half was still intact but badly damaged, and the last leg claw twitching, and Nega, his clothes having rips, burns and tears, emerged half way out of his giant robot, and was grinning like mad with an insane expression before he began to laugh like a maniac.

"What's so funny!? I've beaten your robot! You've lost!" Sonic demanded, wondering what was wrong with the guy.

"Beautiful...this is...the first time anyone's beaten me, without any source of power. Only using the skills you trained yourself with, and a gift of speed you were born with. You impress me, Sonic the Hedgehog. You truly are a hero of your timeline." Nega grinned, as the corruption he felt for 200 years was finally beginning to ease, feeling lost, yet at the same time, satisfied.

Pushing a button to open up a hatch, the evil future scientist weakly go out, all bruised and battered, but otherwise still alive. Yet he began wobbling as though he had been severely weakened which made Sonic mentally flinch, wondering if Nega had any broken bones.

"I can...remember new...memories now...replacing every single one...that I had...up until...until..." The evil future scientist muttered, breathing heavily, his vision becoming all dark and fuzzy.

"Nega?" The blue hedgehog muttered, now feeling a little scared as he wondered if the guy had really lost his mind. He softly gasped as Nega continued to approach him with the terrifying expression, making Sonic began to back away slowly in fear and confusion.

"Sonic...Silver..." Nega rambled randomly now, slowly getting closer and closer to now terrified sixteen year old.

"Nega? W-What's wrong?" Sonic asked worriedly, and yelped a bit in fright when the man who had once been Kintobor fell onto his knees and gazed at him like a lunatic, not sure what to make of this. He found himself frozen, flinching when Nega slowly raised his hands upward...then rested onto the hedgehog's shoulders.

"...What have I...done?" The scientist muttered, and for the first time since meeting this man to rescue the past-version of him, his voice sounded mostly familiar. Like there was a sudden change within him that somehow began to creep back up. As though he was accepting his defeat and coming to realize the horrors of his actions.

Because through the sunglasses, Sonic saw hints of red and black fading away which he never even noticed before, and his eyes widened when he saw actual human life, a hint of blue of human eyes, yet something was wrong. Deathly wrong, in many, many ways. The blue hedgehog's emerald green eyes could see a familiar soul begin to emerge and the monster who replaced him disappear.

"K-Kintobor? O...Ovi?" Sonic began uneasily, yet deep within his heart he knew, right there and then, this was the man who he became friends with, who he didn't trust at first due to his resemblance to Eggman and what has been happening, but now trusted a whole lot because unlike his enemy, this man was the complete opposite. A kind scientist who wished for evil to disappear forever, for the world to be in eternal peace.

Breathing heavily, Nega nodded weakly, before wincing in pain before collapsing into Sonic's arms, making the blue hedgehog to gasp as he held onto him, suddenly feeling that the man's body was alarmingly cold, before he gently turned him so that he could cradle him in his arms, and gently half-laid him on the ground, sitting on both knees.

"Ovi? Ovi, are you okay?" The blue hedgehog asked, sensing that his friend's future-self had finally managed to break free from the corruption but now feared that had accidentally killed him when he didn't want to.

"I-I am fine, Son...ic..." Nega began weakly, his breathing becoming wheezy and heavy.

Guilt flooded his chest as Sonic feared for the worst. "Oh no...! No, please, this can't be happening! Ovi, I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen!"

"Shhh..." Nega shushed softly, placing his teared up gloved finger onto the young hedgehog's lips, silencing him which surprised the teenage Mobian. "I am not dying because of our...our battle, Sonic. You...You did what you c-could...My body would have time to recover...but the future is...is changing."

"I don't understand...What do you mean by that?" Sonic asked once the finger was removed after a moment or two, confused and scared on the situation.

"The experience of...of being erased from the timeline...ceasing to exist...it was never...proven or remembered, because no one...would ever know what it's like or even tell the tale of the...of the experi-experi...experience..." The weak future scientist explained.

The blue hedgehog began to tear up, not sure what to say about that. "Ovi, c'mon, you've gotta be trying to scare me a whole lot here...You're still out of it from being Nega. I'm sorry for all of the bad things I've said to you, both to your past-self, and to you when we were fighting. You've gotta pull yourself together, man!"

"Sonic...look at my...feet." Nega weakly advised.

Not sure why the man in his arms would suggest that, Sonic hesitantly did so, and as he looked at Nega's legs, he gasped in shock and horror to see that the man's red shoed-feet and ankles were beginning to dissolve away into unusual white sparkles, drifting away into the winds. He turned back to Nega's head and his eyes widened when he saw that the rest of the man's body began to turn invisible.

"O-Ovi! You-You're turning see-through! You're...You're disappe-"

"Disappearing...yes. My days as Dr. Nega are...over. Oh, Lord...I have made such a terrible...Mis-mistake..." Nega confirmed, nodding as his face and voice turned that into full regret and sheer guilt. "The explosion that day...I was a fool...to have studied the Sol Emeralds...the corruption sealed away my soul...creating a new one made out of pure evil. I was too weak to fight...to fight it."

"Hey, hey. It's not your fault, Kintobor. I'm sure it was all an accident." Sonic tried to reassure, smiling sadly even though he was terrified to see the act of history changing and to see someone disappear right before his very eyes. While he knew that Kintobor of the present would be okay, this was would be happening to Silver next once everything is alright.

For years apart from Little Planet, he never thought changing history would be possible. But today proved how wrong he was.

"Even so...I wish I never...ever dealt with the...with the Sol Emeralds...I had...Red killed...Scourge's anger was because of a misunderstanding...his actions were...due to my actions that I...deeply re-regret. The second timeline...Everything was worse, one that Silver is...unaware of. But somehow, you have prevented all of that, Sonic." Nega explained.

"Me? What'd I do?" The blue hedgehog was now confused.

"You have fully convinced my...my past-self to stop experimenting on the...Sol...Emeralds. You and your young, alternate self were unaffected by what has happened, thus you were able to make the correct choices...t-through out your-your journey. You have the...the most p-purest heart...in all existence...The second timeline was only beginning...but now that...and the ori-original dark future...are ceasing to-to exist..." The vanishing man told him, with his legs now fully gone and his waist was vanishing as well.

"Wait, does that mean Silver's disappearing now too already!?" Sonic exclaimed in horror, while even more scared when continued to helplessly watch his friend's future-self disappear.

"No, Sonic...he-he still has...a chance...to live. Only two realities...can have chosen few to gain d-dual memories...Who knows? Perhaps S-Silver can...experience it and...survive...I myself...will move on because...well, ceasing the Sol Project would mean...I would never come...i-immortal...thus I...cannot live f-for...200 y-years..." Nega smiled weakly.

"Ovi? Ovi, please, don't go! Y-You can't leave yet!" The blue hedgehog pleaded, tears leaking in his eyes. He still didn't understand and he wanted to know more. The act of being erased from time frightened him to the core, especially when he had to witness this with one of his friends.

Nega just smiled, raising his vanishing hand to the distraught and devastated teenager's left cheek as the hero of Mobius was on the urge to cry, tears already falling. "Sonic...It's going to-to be...al...alright..."

"D-Don't leave me...!" Sonic begged, sniffling and sobbing.

"Shhh...Y-You still...have me, my d-dear boy...M-My past-self...he will go on..." Nega whispered reassuringly, smiling tearfully himself. "Tell Silver...I am...deeply...sorry."

While knowing that Nega was right about Kintobor, it didn't make this any less heart-breaking. Still, Sonic was a hedgehog of his word, and the least he could do for Silver before the telepathic hedgehog would suffer the same fate was tell him how sorry his mentor was for his actions.

"I'll tell him, Ovi...I promise." The blue hedgehog nodded with a sad smile, gently placing his gloved hand over the one that was on his face even though it began to feel like air at this point.

"Thank you, S-Sonic...F-farewell...my y-young friend..." The future scientist nodded, shedding silent tears of his own as soon it was only his head left visible.

"Goodnight, Ovi...May you have a brighter, more peaceful future..." Sonic replied back, sniffling as he gently hugged his friend's future-self, sobbing.

The moment he did that, Nega then went limp and with his final breath, he laid still for a few seconds, before he disappeared entirely into white sparkles, leaving the blue hedgehog to no longer hold onto him, gasping in horror and dismay to see the future-self of Dr. Ovi Kintobor gone just like that. It reminded him too much of when Shahra died. Except nothing was going to bring back Nega. He was gone, replaced by his more mortal, kindly self who would past on long before Silver would be born.

Still, even though Kintobor was still here, it didn't make it any less painful, and the fact that he would be experiencing the same thing with Silver once this was all over, and that was the price that had to be paid in order for everything to return to normal since Sonic didn't want to risk everything just so he could save one friend who was beyond saving, he was heartbroken, feeling a piece of him slip away. It was too much like when he thought Uncle Chuck was dead, and just when he finally reunited with him, he had to lose one or two friends to make it all happen.

It wasn't fair!

Weeping and sobbing, Sonic buried his face into his gloved hands and cried, his tears once again seeping through his gloves, soaking them and dripping onto the ground like rain drops. So lost in his sorrow and grief, while feeling guilt as though he had killed one of his friends when he hadn't meant to, the devastated blue hedgehog didn't even notice that everything was shifting again, as the dreaded apocalyptic future world vanished all around him and soon returned him to Planet Wisp from his past. He did notice that he no longer felt the heat from the lava and fires, no longer was the air suffocating but fresh and clean with a scent of green grass, trees and beautiful flowers, the ground underneath him so soft and alive.

"Sonic!" A familiar boy's voice called out from above, making the blue hedgehog look up tearfully in slight confusion.

Looking up with tears still falling, Sonic saw that it was Tails who had called out as he carried Blaze by one hand while spinning his name-sakes as he drifted down towards him. Beside him was Young Tails who was doing the same with Young Sonic, and to the blue hedgehog's surprise, guilt, fear and sheer relief, Silver who was using his telekinesis to carry himself and the still alive, still kind and caring and respected Dr. Kintobor, all six of them hovering towards the sixteen year old.

"Hey, you're okay! That's a real big relief!" Young Sonic greeted happily as he, Blaze and Kintobor were gently set onto the ground while their three flying friends landed beside them.

"Looks like you managed to settle things. Good news, we still have the two sets of the Emeralds." Young Tails added happily.

"Though we didn't find the last Sol or Chaos Emeralds, but they gotta be around here somewhere." Tails added. "Then we met up with Silver and Kintobor and told us that you were fighting...Dr...Nega..."

The nine year old fox then trailed off when he and everybody else saw, to their great concern, that Sonic looked tearful, guilt-ridden, and grieving. Then they began to realize what happened and gently approached him while the hero of Mobius sniffled.

"You are alright, Sonic?" Blaze asked, gently.

"No...Not really. I...I fought Nega and won, but...he somehow changed. Maybe even broke free." Sonic croakily confessed, cringing over how he sounded.

"Whaddya mean?" Young Sonic asked, worriedly as he felt like he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear.

"When I beaten him...the real future Kintobor finally broke free from the corruption. Then he...he felt horrible for the things he did when he was Nega and...and then..." The older Sonic trailed off, beginning to tear up further again, the memory of seeing Nega cease to exist before his eyes still too fresh and would haunt him in his memories for the rest of his life.

"...He's gone?" Tails asked, feeling his heart sink while both his younger, alternate self and the eleven year old blue hedgehog gasped in shock and horror.

Sonic could only nod and explained what happened, what Nega told him, and even told Silver just how sorry the corrupted future scientist was for everything that's happened. Even though the fourteen year old hedgehog was still feeling very betrayed by his mentor's lies, the fact that he was gone and would soon follow, he felt his whole life shatter and he felt even worse when he saw that the blue hedgehog had to be the one to see Nega vanish before his eyes. Despite that Kintobor was still around and would now ever become Nega at all, it still shocked and devastated everyone. By then, now Tails, Young Tail and even Young Sonic who struggled not to cry in grief all began to weep and sob. Even Blaze lowered her eyes in sorrow, a few tears sliding free.

"Oh, Sonic...I am deeply sorry." Kintobor muttered, not because of his future-self's death, but because of his own horrible actions in both timelines that caused the teenage blue hedgehog to take on this burden. He knelt onto one knee and gently placed his hand onto the griefing hero's shoulder. "It's all my fault..."

Just hearing the man's voice, and even just by looking at him, Sonic couldn't help but be reminded of what he had to do, and what he and everyone else would have to face next, and, unable to handle it anymore, the blue hedgehog stood up and leaped into Kintobor's arms and cried really hard, hugging him tightly and not wanting to let go.

"Don't go, Ovi! Don't become Dr. Nega! Don't leave us! Please! Please, Ovi, please! Don't go...!" Sonic wept, burying his face into the human's shoulder.

"Sonic..." The kind scientist could only whisper, gently hugging the crying teenager to comfort him, feeling his heart ache in guilt, sympathy and sorrow, carefully stroking the blue hedgehog's head and quills. "Shhhh...It's alright, Sonic...I'm not going anywhere...I promise you that..."

Tails and the others, all of them with tears sliding free, could only join in on the emotional embrace as the nine year old cub, his four year old alternate self, Young Sonic, and even both Silver and Blaze cried themselves, all of them traumatized from what they experienced and heard. But none of them were more traumatized than Sonic the Hedgehog, the hero of Mobius.

They all wanted this nightmare to end, they all wanted Moebius to be in peace and not experience the horrible future that Silver came from and desperately wanted to change, even at the cost of his existence which would forever break everyone's hearts. They all wanted to go home.

"Sonic...I'm still here. It's goint to be alright." Kintobor whispered in a soothing voice.

Eventually what felt like several hours, they all began to calm down and reluctantly stepped away from the hug, the young Mobians and Moebians still tearful, and while Sonic was still shakily from what he saw, upon seeing the Kintobor he knew and became friends with along with everybody else, still the same and very much alive, not at the risk of disappearing, it made him realize that he didn't lose his friend after all. They still had a chance in setting things right. Everything will be okay.

"Thanks, Ovi...I'm so glad that you're still here." Sonic whispered.

"I know. Thank you, Sonic. For showing me the truth over my mistakes. Once we all return home, I will abandon all projects relating to the Sol Emeralds to ensure what could have happened in Silver's future will never happen. You have my word, my boy." Kintobor vowed.

That was more than what the sixteen year old wanted to hear and smiled warmly once again, wiping away his tears and nodded. His sorrow, grief and guilt fading away and while those feelings were still there, he knew that everything will be alright. As everyone else began to calm down as well, because thought about the next course of their task.

"Sonic. You okay?" Tails asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I think I'll be okay. Sorry 'bout that." The blue hedgehog shrugged apologetically at his best friend/little brother. Sighing, he admitted. "It's just...seeing something like that is enough to give anybody nightmares."

"Sonic...I'm really sorry. I should've been there to done it." Silver muttered, guilty that his mentor in his future was now gone forever, ceased to be. Despite the confusion on what Nega meant, at least he had an idea on what to expect once his time comes.

"It's not your fault, Silver. Nobody can predict anything. Even psychics can't always see the future." Sonic replied, patting his future friend on the back, to which he nodded with a sad smile.

Just then, all seven of them felt and heard something strangely familiar. Gazing to the same direction of the forest of the Wisps which Sonic and Tails both realized it was the same one where they slept in for the night a few months ago, two glimmering lights shone almost separately from each other.

"Could it be?" Young Tails wondered aloud.

"The Sol and Chaos Emeralds?" Tails guessed.

"I thought they were in two different areas." Young Sonic, cluelessly. "We were led to a weird wild goose chase or somethin'?"

"Only one way to find out." Sonic declared, taking a lead. "C'mon!"

Deciding that they needed to find out for themselves, Young Sonic and the others shared a nod before they hurried after the blue hedgehog with Silver once again using his ability to carry Kintobor and Blaze to keep up with the speed of the two blue hedgehogs and the two young foxes.

They seem to be one step closer in completing their goal despite the traumatic experience. But as they raced towards the lights, while Sonic knew that seeing Nega disappear before his eyes would terrify him for a very long time, he was glad that Kintobor was still himself and alive.

Though he was confused on what Nega meant by Silver.


A/N: Thus Sonic defeats Dr. Nega who in his final moments in mentally reverting back into Kintobor, vanishes without a trace as a sign that the grim future of Moebius is changing. But as Sonic and the others are about to locate the final two Emeralds in the next chapter, their troubles are not over yet as they still have Scourge, Robotnik, the Time Eater, Cormain, Tikal's father and his tribe to face again in order to save Space and Time.

How will that play out? Only Space and Time will tell.

See you later!