And we're back with another chapter of Trials of War and I know exactly how I'm gonna do this one, just not sure how long it's gonna be since there isn't much ground to cover here. But it's always a lot of fun with the Classic Trio, so let's see where we go here.

Everyone:

It's so cute that none of you really know what's going on with Shadow. You guys are right about some things but have missed the major point. Honestly, I was scared that I made the why too obvious, but guess I'm safe there. For now, Shadow fights for his own reasons, that's all you need to know. We'll discover the real truth in Episode Shadow but that's a long ways away, so buckle up.

SharpDragonKlaw:

Thank you so much, I'm so glad you liked this chapter. The interactions were the best part to write and Mighty and Ray were a surprise I loved bringing into the mix.

Alexandria Prime:

Glad you loved Mighty and Ray's appearance. They were definitely the highlight of the chapter. And as for Tails, I did that intentionally to make the surprise bigger that it was Mighty and Ray.

It's gonna be a long while till we get the reunion. Like, Episode Shadow long while. But I will say that when the reunion happens, it's gonna be big and you're all gonna love it. It's one of the scenes I'm looking for most looking forward to writing and it happens after such a big event in this story. You're all gonna love it, but you're gonna have to wait a while.

Poor Rouge too. I feel so bad for what I had to do to her last time.

tekina fiction:

Haha, we talked on Discord but I'll reply to this too.

I'm glad the last chapter won you over. Seems to have been a favorite for a lot of people and honestly? It's one of my favorites too even when I didn't expect it to be.

Celeste is pure and I love her too. Rouge and Shadow are an emotional bunch. Weird since they're supposed to be the mature ones.

I'm glad you liked the little details. While Sonic's world is already an established place, I like to put in even more details to make sure that it's my version of Sonic's world to give it make it more personal for both myself and the reader to enjoy.

Infinite's Ruby:

Yep, seems like everybody loves this story now. Hahaha. I'm so glad that you're enjoying it so much and Mighty and Ray were a big surprise that I loved adding in here.

Shadow and Rouge were a big part of the last chapter and honestly, it hurt as much to write as I'm sure it did for all of you to read. I poured a lot of heart into their interaction as well as Sonic and Celeste's. Since they seem to be such a big hit I would say I was successful in my mission to break all your hearts.

Celeste is a precious child and she deserves to be protected. It's too bad that she's going to go through even worse in the future- I mean, what? Celeste will be fine. Probably. ;)

You're gonna get a lot more to love with this story soon since we haven't even hit the halfway point yet. Get ready for more fun with this and the next chapter.

SpiderDom321:

Dude, don't worry about it. Life happens and you've got your own stuff to do. As always, I'm thankful that you and everybody else take the time to read this story and even review it. Whether it's today or 20 years from now, I appreciate the support so don't worry at all about it. As for your stories, we talked in DMs.

Haha, thank you. But if you think those are the last tricks that I've got up my sleeves then you are mistaken. Keep an eye out for more surprises to come.

Ohohoho, you think his allegiance is fake? Well… that's partially true. Shadow doesn't like what he's doing but he's still doing it. The reasons will be revealed soon, all I'll say is that you should take a look at more clues. Shadow's got some issues right now and he's not letting anybody in, even Rouge.

Character was a big part of the last chapter and I'm so glad that you guys are loving what I'm doing with these guys. Heart is one of the biggest reasons I'm writing this story in the first place and it's what drives me to take it all the way into the end. Forces didn't deliver on the amount of heart that I wanted it to have among other things and this story is to bring all of what it's missing. More heartfelt moments are coming in the future and I can't wait for you guys to see all of them. If you thought Shadow and Rouge and Celeste and Sonic were heartfelt moments then you should wait and see the stuff I have planned for the future. Oh! I'm so excited and I can't wait to play with all of your emotions some more.

Mighty and Ray! They're here! The bois! Yep, these two were planned from the very beginning even before Mania Plus was announced and I'm glad to finally bring them in here. As for the Classic and Modern Dimension thing, I'm fine with them being separate dimensions, the issue is you can't have characters exclusive to Classic just up and vanish in the modern timeline because the Classics still happened to Sonic. Just ugh. But luckily, I've rectified that and they're here and I'm gonna have so much fun with them. Expect more shenanigans with Mighty and Ray to come in the future.

I hope you enjoy what I have with them here. Always appreciate for the support man, thank so much.

KelWelPower:

A new reviewer! Sweet! Glad to see you're enjoying the story and thank you so much for the review. I really appreciate it.

I'm so glad you think it's one of the best Forces fics, really makes me happy to see that people love seem to be enjoying this so much. Characters are always important and I've made very careful to do as much as I can to bring them to life in the best way that I can. Sonic and Tails are really nice too and I love writing them in this situation. Tails is just a kid and he's having as tough a time as anybody especially with what happened with Sonic. He's gonna have more rough times ahead. And as for the reunion, long way away but it's so gonna be worth it, I promise. Sonic's speed is okay but let's just say his issues are a little more personal than that. Stay tuned and once again, thanks so much for the support.

With that said, let's get into it!

Trials of War: A Sonic Forces Rewrite

Chapter 11:

The Forgotten Spotlight

To the younger Sonic, it was mere days ago when he, Tails and Knuckles had popped out of the pipe from Chemical Plant Zone and into the spotlight that was Studiopolis Zone. Everything was big and bright and left him in absolute awe. Yeah, it was one of Eggman's places, but he couldn't help but admit that the doc had style when it came to Studiopolis. Studiopolis Zone was probably one of his favorite places to trash.

So you could imagine Sonic's surprise when the place was already a wreck.

Gone were the bright lights and the whimsical music of the zone, no longer was everything pristine and perfect, offering a good time. Now… everything was gone. Buildings were left in ruin with holes torn into them, a lot of the lights were left shattered and the signs of battle imminent what with scorch marks and the like all around. Studiopolis Zone definitely wasn't what it used to be.

Sonic shook his head, actually a little disappointed. "Man, this place was totally trashed!"

Tails nodded. "Yeah, looks like whatever happened with the resistance, they did a number on the place."

"No kidding. And here I thought that you, me and Knux were the kings of wrecking Studiopolis, but I guess not."

Tails still looked confusedly at him at that but said nothing.

"Looks like Eggman rebuilt the place, but still… I don't remember this being in Metropolis…"

Sonic shook his head. "It's not. When he built it last time, Studiopolis was on Westside Island. Not sure why he stuck it smack dab in the middle of the United Federation this time. I was hoping you'd have the answer to that."

"Not really. It looks like he just felt like it, I guess. It's close to Metropolis which everybody knows is the capital of his empire, so it's probably important."

"Well… was until it looks like me and the rest of the resistance came in and busted it up."

Tails quietly nodded at that.

"Speaking of the resistance though… what made you leave? I know you saw me go down and everything, but what really scared you off?"

Tails sighed, he knew this question was coming at some point and was honestly surprised that it had taken Sonic three whole days to ask. But looking into his friend's big black eyes, he knew he had to answer.

"Well…"

~Trials of War~

And with that, Sonic's eyes closed as Infinite landed next to him.

"SONIC!"

"Even in his prime, the world's greatest hero is still no match for the Phantom Ruby's power." Infinite shook his head. "How pathetic."

Sonic laid on the floor, motionless as the villains gathered around him, looking down on the defeated hero. Zavok grinned at this, looking ready to finish him off himself; Metal was as he always was, cold and emotionless as usual, but anyone could see the way his eyes locked on his double; Shadow was absolutely unreadable as he stared down at his rival and Chaos, just confused.

Eggman hovered down to them, beaming at the sight of it all. "Success! Success! A brilliant success! This plan went off even better than I ever could've imagined! The brilliant genius that is Doctor Eggman has triumphed over all once again!"

"Of course, master. With our powers combined, Sonic the Hedgehog was absolutely no match for us. We owe it all to you."

The others rolled their eyes at this.

It was Zavok who spoke up. "So what do we do now. Do we dispose of him? Please, allow me to be the one to deliver the finishing blow."

Eggman shook his head. "No. Sonic will live for now, but not for long."

Zavok sagged at that.

"You three, will destroy the city though. Chaos, head to Sunset University, I want to make sure you wipe that miserable school off the map; Zavok, you will be going to the Red Gate Bridge, make sure that no one gets out of Sunset; and Shadow… you will be taking out the resistance base. I've finally found it within the city and I'm tasking you to destroy it to further prove your loyalty to us."

They all nodded at this and left to continue the destruction.

This left, Eggman, Infinite and Sonic's battered body alone.

Eggman then turned to Infinite. "You know what to do."

Infinite nodded and his clawed hand towards Sonic as a miasmic energy surrounded it with glitchy particles floating around as well.

Tails, who had been watching all of this had been frozen in fear at the very sight of it all. Eggman was here, he had defeated Sonic, he had all these bad guys here including one of their friends and some mysterious new threat and now? He was going to do something to Sonic.

Tails didn't know what happened, his feet just moved. He found himself standing between Sonic and Infinite, standing with fists shakily clenched in front of him.

"No! I won't let you hurt him anymore."

Eggman laughed. "Come now, Tails. You saw what happened to him just now and then you still stand against us? I know you're smarter than that."

"I'm smart enough to know that I'm not letting you touch him."

"Have it your way then."

Eggman snapped his fingers.

Tails didn't have the time to prepare for battle when both Infinite's mask and ruby flashed red along with the sound of distortion ringing out around them.

Immediately, the jackal was upon him, seemingly appearing out of nowhere and slamming a fist into his stomach with such force that not only did it knock the wind out of him but it sent him flying across the square.

He wished he had slammed into the wall instead of what had happened next. Infinite had somehow appeared yet again and plucked him out of the air by his namesakes. Infinite then spun around in a circle at such speeds before punting the fox off into the distance and he finally got his wish of actually being thrown into one of the walls.

Tails crumbled to the floor in a heap, quivering in pain.

Infinite looked down at him, his visible eye furrowing at the sight of the downed fox. "To think that you could defeat me when even your champion has failed? You only have your own foolishness to blame for your pain."

"Well done." Eggman grinned. "Now, the hedgehog."

Infinite nodded and turned back to Sonic, the same miasmic energy and particles from before appearing.

But Tails, wouldn't allow this. Teeth grit and legs ready to give out, the kit slowly rose to his feet, glaring down the two. "No… I won't-" He coughed. "I won't let you do this."

Eggman sighed. "Can you?"

Without a word, Infinite raised the other hand and aimed it up above Tails. He then fired a laser blast that hit an awning above him and caused the rubble to all come tumbling down on him.

After that, everything went black.

~Trials of War~

"When I finally came to… everything was gone. Eggman, Infinite, you, the resistance. I didn't know what to do. I tried to go back to base but it was all destroyed, even the Tornado was gone. Then eventually, I ran into Omega and without anything to do, I tried to bring him back to life. I'd failed for months until you came along."

"Tails, I'm sorry… I had no idea."

Tails just shook his head. "It's fine. The important thing is you're here now and when we fix Omega we can start looking for the other you, we just have to keep moving on."

Sonic nodded. "Right."

And with that, the trio continued on in silence for the most part, taking in everything that was the broken Studiopolis Zone.

Eventually Sonic spoke up again. "Hey Tails?"

"Hm?"

"How long has it been exactly?"

"The world has been like this for six months. I told you that already."

"Yeah… but I mean, how long has it been exactly since the whole Time Eater thing?" Sonic asked. "I know that between my time and the whole time eater thing, there's like four years, but what about after that?"

"Well… after your birthday we had this whole big thing on the Lost Hex where there were these big monster lizard guys called the Zeti who could control machines."

"That sounds weird. Why is the future so weird?" Sonic sighed.

Tails laughed. "What's weird to you is normal to us and it looks like it'll be normal to you soon."

Sonic shook his head "Right? What's next, a magical board game in another dimension?"

"Well…"

"Are you kidding me?"

Tails laughed.

"Moving on… what happened after the weird stuff?"

"Well… Eggman went quiet for a while. Not much happened for a few months until Team Dark started saying that they were planning something big and that GUN was looking into it, then Knuckles came off his island with Silver panicking about Eggman and that we needed to get everyone together to stop him, then Eggman took down GUN and we were fighting with him for the rest of the year after that. Then… well, you were believed to be dead and six months went by. I'd say it's been almost two years since the whole Time Eater thing."

Sonic nodded. "Right. So that means, older me is about seventeen now, right?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "You'll actually be turning eighteen soon."

"Right. Then that would make you…" Sonic began counting on his fingers and his face sunk. "No… that can't be right…" He counted again and again and again. Each time more frantic before it finally dawned on him. "Y-you-you're 13?!"

"Yeah… what's wrong with that?"

"You're older than me!"

"I am?!" Tails gasped. "Wait, that means you're still twelve?!"

"Uh, yeah. I met Knuckles and everything like you guys said I would, but I haven't gone and done the whole chaos thing or met that edgy hedgy like you guys said I would yet because last I checked, I'm still 12, but I'm almost 13."

"I just wow." Tails was surprised.

"Tell me about it. I can't believe you're older than me. You're supposed to be my cute and adorable little bro."

"Well, I still am. I'm just older than you."

"I hate Time Travel."

"Tell me about it." Tails agreed.

The three continued on down the path for a while before Tails finally spoke up again.

"Sonic can you tell me a bit about what you've been up to since the whole Time Eater thing?"

"Well, I went back in time and nothing happened for a while until eventually you and I ended up on Angel Island where we met Knuckles and fought Eggman again and everything. It was even crazier then you guys said it would be. And then, everything went quiet with Eggman for a while until you started picking up on this weird energy thing back on Angel Island and we went back but it looked like Eggman already beat us to the punch. He dug up the Phantom Ruby and then we ended up all over the place fighting off these robots called the Hard Boiled Heavies before it all finally ended on Little Planet."

"Wait, Little Planet? But I thought you said you already did the thing with the time stones before you met us."

"Yeah, Little Planet. And I did, but Eggman took us back to Stardust Speedway, I kicked Metal's butt again and later he brought us to Metallic Madness and from there, we climbed on this giant robot that he called the Titanic Monarch. He said it was built to rule or whatever, I dunno. But we stopped him and then the Ruby flipped out, I fought Eggman and the Heavy King at the same time while they played hot potato with the Phantom Ruby and I won, then the Ruby brought me here."

Tails scratched his head. "That's bizarre…"

"What's so weird about it?" Sonic asked. "All of that stuff happened to you before but you sound like this is the first time you're ever hearing any of it."

"What?" Tails let out an awkward laugh. "Pfft… no, of course not. I'm just so surprised because I didn't expect all of that stuff to happen so soon. I figured you'd have only met Knuckles at this point, but I had no idea you had already run into the Phantom Ruby."

Tails raised an eyeridge at him. "Right…"

"Yep! Just didn't know you had already done all of that stuff, wow!" Tails lied.

Sonic could see right through it but didn't press. Why was it that anytime Sonic brought any of that up, Tails didn't seem to have a clue? It confused him to no end and it looked like the foxkit didn't want to talk about it so he decided not to push.

They pressed on and soon they found their way to the end of Studiopolis Zone and with it, they found the pile of busted robot parts that was the Hard Boiled Heavies.

Sonic ran over to the pieces of robots surprised to see them there. "Woah, the Hard Boiled Heavies?! Looks like Eggman really did spring all the stops on them down in Studiopolis."

"Man, these things look like they really packed a punch, that would explain why this place is in so much ruin." Tails said.

"No kidding, I can't wait to fight them all again. Man, remember Tails, it was right here, you me and Knux were going up against the Heavy Gunner and he was firing all kinds of crazy rockets and stuff and it was awesome. I wish I could've fought all these guys again."

Tails shrugged. "Yeah… I remember. It was crazy. But at least we don't have to worry about them now."

And with that, the pile began to shudder and shake and with it the Heavy Magician began to rise out of the pile. The three stood ready to take on the robot and then, just as it was about to raise a hand towards them, it fell apart into millions of pieces. It's not time for an encore yet.

"Well… that was a rip." Sonic shook his head.

"Oh well, at least we don't have to do anymore fighting. We've cleared Studiopolis and got a lot more to get through before we get to the Mystic Ruins."

"Alright, then where are we headed next?" Sonic asked.

"Well a lot of unpopulated areas from here on out, villages here and there and things like that, but the next major area should be Station Square which'll take a couple of days to get to."

"Well, we've got plenty of time so let's go!"

Together, the three ran off into the distance ready to get into the world and continue their quest across the globe. Their next stop: Station Square.

And… that's it for this chapter. I know it's shorter and doesn't have as much action but I needed to include this one for some exposition. So… yeah. We learned more about what's going on with the world, the timeline and things like that. Use Modern Sonic's age as a base for everyone else's ages in this story since I kinda changed Tails for my own convenience. I just wanted him to be older than our Classic Boi.

I actually started writing this one and finished it and got like halfway done with the next one but was an idiot who didn't save and lost a good chunk of this chapter so had to rewrite a lot of it which is annoying. Remember to always save as you go, kids.

But yeah, next time we'll be having a much more action packed chapter as we return to Modern Sonic and the Avatar in one of the Forces Exclusive locations. Which one, you'll have to wait and see. But that's all for now.

And who knows? It might be sooner than you think.

R&R