Reason had worn many faces over the centuries.

She had been an avenger, set to bring Miles back to Doodle before she, and her shadows with her, died of old age.

She had been a survivor, watching as Miles heralded the fall of everything she knew, pulling her from her fate by an act of sheet impossibility.

She had been a caretaker, a gaoler and an escapee, all for the same prison.

And she had watched this hedgehog die.

Slowly, over the course of decades, settling into a slow, happy twilight of old age and a comfortable, painless death after a life defined by freedom, exploration, and speed… while dying trapped in the same bottle for most of his life.

And she had loved him. And what part of her had still been mobian enough to feel had tried to weep for him.

And here was her child, that had never died, never grown old, never been lost.

And hadn't been killed by the girl sleeping in the next room.

"Alright." Reason nodded, touching her hand to Sonic's arm with a smile. "I understand. So we need to stop an alien invasion, find Knuckles and… Rouge?" Unfamiliar name, hopefully to the person she was impersonating too. "Save them, solve whatever's going on with your body, find Shadow, beat up these 'Zeti', possibly save them, fix the portal, get future me home, and prevent the apocalypse… right?"

"You got it in one little buddy." Sonic grinned, raising a tattered glove in a thumbs up. "And maybe fix the TV. It's getting real boring in here lately."

Reason sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

She'd just wanted a boy to tell her he liked her.

Fine, she needed to start somewhere. Reason glanced at the ring portal. A quiet sunny glade. No sign of Miles through it, mixed blessing. If Doodle saw him she'd probably do something drastic at the first opportunity, an apocalyptic world with Miles was infinitely preferable to a stable world without. Time dilation was extreme so… She'd need a way to circumvent the issue when communicating as well. Difficult to procure samples from everything Sonic had said, but…

Sonic cleared his throat.

"So… uh… anything you need me to do?"

"Oh, sorry, Sonic. I was just thinking."

She'd spent so long watching others living that she wasn't used to being watched while she was thinking either.

"Never change, little buddy." Sonic grinned, rubbing her head roughly.

She flinched, Sept's addled memories flashing through her brain. Sonic recoiled, hurt on his face.

"Sorry, too rough?"

"It's fine just… How about you take a shower?"

"Oh, you saying I smell? Is that it?"

"Well you do smell pretty bad… Fish maybe?" She tilted her head.

Sonic laid his long nose against a shoulder, taking a long sniff. He recoiled.

"Whoof, yeah, maybe. I was pretending to be one long enough anyway"

"Mainly it's so I can take a tissue sample. You're the only specimen we have with both red and purple contaminants to test. It's apparently stable in you so we might be able to devise a counter agent with your blood."
Sonic made a face. "So needles?"

"Afraid so."

He sighed.

"Alright, back in two shakes of a hogs tail!" He bolted.

"Use soap!" Reason called after him.

She should probably get clean herself. And Amy. Doodle's mind was mechanically stable as only an AI could be, but Amy…

Reason sighed. She was going to have to deal with that sooner or later as well, though exactly how was beyond her. Doodle had had a month here with all her genius, with free access to Miles' lab and an intelligence programmed into her that was beyond even Miles' own. In effect she needed to convince her past self that she was herself before she killed her...self.

The pronoun use was probably the thing she missed least from her days as one of endless Doodleclones.

Still, her short term strategy at least was clear. Keep a low profile, maintain a quiet background role as she got up to speed with Miles' work and the situation at hand, and avoid attracting any more attention to herself than possible.

A massive figure smashed open the front door, beady yellow eyes staring unblinking at the room within. Purple and white fur wrapped around an obscenely large body. One hand carried a morning star glowing an unholy midnight hue while the other held aloft a dead mobian woman. The giant opened his mouth, revealing his sharp fangs as he bellowed across the lab.

"Breakfast time!"

Reason screamed.


Shadow opened his eyes to a splitting headache and a foul temper, his arms bound to a mechanical table by thick metal restraints. Machinery hung above him, familiar and foreboding. A roboticisation array.

He'd… Eggman? Why was Eggman here?

No, the answer was obvious. The guardian was out of commission, Eggman was never one to let a crisis go to waste. He needed to get out of here and take Eggman out before things got any worse.

He strained, his restraints creaking until electricity crackled through his body.

"Ugh..." Smoke rose from his fur.

This wasn't good. He could maybe use Chaos Control even without one of his- wait, his other inhibitor ring was missing too. In normal circumstances this might have even been a good thing. But right now it would probably just leave him with an uncontrolled chaos blast, this time with him in the middle.

Maybe he could… Shadow strained with a leg, at least attempting to land a kick on the machinery above with no success.

"... Damnit."

"Ah, you're awake?" An unfamiliar voice spoke from the corner of the room.

Shadow twisted in his restraints, pressing against his own spines to try and catch a glimpse of the speaker.

"Who's there?!" He snarled. Sounded like a woman's voice. Young. The doctor got himself a helper?

"A friend." The speaker stepped into view, a young echidna with glittering blue eyes and traditional tribal garb leaned over him, a small smile on her lips.

"What the-" Shadow's lip curled in confusion. "Who are you?"

Echidna were almost extinct on Earth. Apart from Knuckles, the only other echidna was Shade, a lone defector from the Twilight Cage's Nocturne clan.

And this wasn't her.

"Like I said, a friend." The girl's smile didn't so much as twitch as she walked close to the table. "I would be your guide, child of the Black Arms."

Shadow took a sharp breath, a dozen questions ran through his head, but he needed to focus on what was important right now.

"Can you get me out of here?"

"Of course." Her blue eyes glowed even when her face was in shadow. "Do you seek power?"

"... What do you want?"

"Only for you to say yes." Her lips split into a glittering white smile.

For some reason her expression set unease deep in Shadow's stomach, even though he'd thrown in with worse than some weird echidna girl before to get what he wanted. He shrugged it off as best he could with his arms bound.

"Fine, yes. Now get me out of here."

"Then I choose you, Shadow the Hedgehog. Until my very end." The echidna pulled a bottle of translucent blue liquid from nowhere, holding it aloft. "I will show you the way."

The girl swigged the bottle and leaned forward, pressing her lips against Shadow's own as he struggled. Icy liquid prickled against his lips, those glittering blue eyes calmly staring into his own until he grudgingly allowed it to flow into his mouth. A bitter taste touched his tongue.

And then he was free. His hands unbound, the world fading all around him as he was falling through space. The echidna girl smiling at him was the only thing still present, her glistening lips once more split into a grin.

"You will be a fine champion indeed, Shadow the Hedgehog."

Shadow landed on softness. He surged upright, pistol in his hands…

He was in his own apartment, the crumpled sheets of his unmade bed trampled beneath his feet. There was no sign of the girl to be found beyond the icy chill that lingered on his lips.

And the bitterness that clung to his throat.