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Chapter 7: Return to Our Time

When I jumped out of the wormhole, I found myself back where I left Shadow's friend some time ago. Or was it just a second ago? No, he was gone. It had to be at least some time ago.

"Silver!"

I started in happiness on hearing the familiar voice. "Dawn!"

"Are you okay?" she asked coming up to me, fear in her blue eyes.

"I'm fine, Dawn," I grinned. "No need to worry!"

"Hey!" she put her hands on her hips. "I thought I copyrighted that!" She then looked surprised. "I've never seen you so happy. What's going on?"

My face turned serious again. "We were wrong about the Disturbance. We were wrong about...um...what's his name? That blue hedgehog…"

"His name is Sonic."

The voice was familiar, but it no longer sounded hostile. I turned to see Shadow's friend standing before me, now dressed much like the other people I'd seen.

"You," I muttered, wondering.

"Dawn was talking to me about your future," he explained.

"What?!" I exclaimed. "Dawn –!?"

"It's okay," she smiled at me. "He can be trusted, right Ash?"

"Right," he nodded.

"As I was saying," I continued, "we were wrong about Sonic. Mephiles lied to us. I still don't know why, but he did."

"Why would he do that?" Dawn wondered.

"And what motivation did he have to even get involved in your future in the first place?" Ash wondered aloud.

There was silence for a moment as we pondered this. "Well, what has Sonic been up to? He's been pursuing Eggman for a while to save Misty."

"Misty?" I perked at that.

"Yeah," Ash nodded. "You think this Mephiles guy wanted to stop him from stopping Eggman?"

"Why would he do that?" Dawn wondered.

"Hm," I wondered, then something hit me. "He has the power to travel through time. What if Eggman will do something to trigger something else that Mephiles wants to happen?"

"Like...the Disturbance of harmony?" Ash quipped.

Silver looked at him in surprise. "You know?"

"You may be from the future, but I'm a few steps ahead of you," he grinned, holding two orbs in his hands: the Lightning Orb and the Ice Orb!"

"What?!" I exclaimed. "How did you get them?!"

"Eggman had them," he explained. "I managed to salvage them, though. You should onto them. You probably need them more than we do right now."

Dawn took them. "Thank you, Ash."

"So, now what?" I wondered.

"Sonic's going to save Misty," Ash explained. "We're going to help."

"Count me in," I nodded, putting my hand out. He clasped it, and energy surged through both of us.

Truth be told, I think it was more like synergy than energy.

As soon as we came up with a plan, I went off to catch up with Sonic. I found him as he confronted a small horde of Raticate. I wasted no time in showing my intentions by blasting them away with my power. "You look like you're in a hurry."

Sonic cringed on hearing me, and who could blame him? "Silver," he muttered, turning to face me. "Back for more, huh?"

"I guess that's one way of putting it," I shrugged. "Actually, circumstances have changed. You're trying to save Misty, right?"

Sonic's eyes widened. "How – what, now you have mind-reading powers?!"

"No," I shook my head. "That's not the point. I'm trying to save her, too."

"Oh, yeah, very funny," Sonic rolled his eyes. "What, are you my new sidekick, courtesy of SEGA? That's Tails' bid, so I suggest you bail out! Besides, nobody likes you, and your fur is making me hallucinate!"

I was offended. "Hey!" I snapped back. "It's a rebel style! Anyways, I don't have time to bicker with you. I need to save Misty."

"Not a chance," Sonic growled. "She's in my boat, so I suggest you stay out of the way!"

"Sonic, I'm trying to help you," I just decided to spill it. "I know I tried to kill you before, but I was mistaken about who you were. Now I know who our real enemy is, and unless you help me, there's no way we can stop him!"

Sonic looked like he was considering this for a moment, but then he shook his head. "No big. I can stop Eggman all on my own." With that, he took off.

I wasted no time pursuing him. In a few minutes, I managed to catch him in my telekinesis. "Aw, come on!" he groaned. "Really?!"

"I told you, I need your help!" I insisted. "And the truth is, like it or not, you need mine, too!"

"I'll be just fine without you, two-face!" he snapped back. "I know you're manipulating me just so you can double-cross me!"

"You've got it wrong, just like I did!"

"No, I'm pretty sure I –"

"HEY!"

I started on hearing this and turned towards the owner of the sudden voice, who turned out to be none other than Ash.

"Baseball Head?" Sonic exclaimed. "Oh, thank goodness you're here! Would you please do me a favor and get rid of this –"

"Zip it, Sonic," Ash stopped him. "I've had enough of this pointless bickering. Believe me, it gets you nowhere fast." He turned to me. "I told you it was a long-shot, Silver. If Sonic won't help us, then we'll just have to go it on our own."

"Wait, what?!" Sonic exclaimed. "What's going on here?!"

"I'd tell you, but you don't seem to be willing to listen," I rolled my eyes. "So I'll let Ash do the talking."

Ash nodded and stepped forward. "Silver thought you were going to cause the destruction of the world," he explained.

"Oh, THERE'S a big surprise!" Sonic retorted. "That's an incredi–I think I'm gonna have a heart attack and DIE from that surprise!"

"I said zip it!" Ash snapped, and he then proceeded to explain everything that went down between us. Sonic soaked all of this in and finally nodded. With a sigh of relief, I let him down.

"A disturbance, hm?" he mused. Then his eyes widened. "'Disturb not the harmony of fire, ice, or lightning,'" he breathed, visibly paling.

"What?" I asked, puzzled. "Is something wrong?" Then something occurred to me. "Oh, come on! My fur should not have that effect on you!"

"HURRY!" Sonic suddenly shouted, running off, leaving us standing there, dumbfounded.

"I guess he still doesn't trust me," I sighed, downcast. "Can't say that I blame him."

"No," Ash shook his head. "I know those words. Something's about to go terribly wrong." He looked me in the eye urgently. "Come on. We've got to catch up to him." With that, we took off.

But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that sometimes, the hero doesn't win. Sometimes, the hero doesn't make it. Sometimes, even a hero can be...too late.

When we caught up to Sonic, he was staring in horror at an explosion in the sky that slowly careened towards a nearby island. I realized instantly what it meant. "Oh no!" I exclaimed. "We were too late!"

"No," Ash clenched his fists. "Not if I can help it!" With that, he ran forward towards the edge of the cliff.

"Ash, wait!"

The next thing we saw was Ash plummeting down the cliff.

"NO!" Sonic screamed. "ASH!"

"SONIC!" he screamed as he fell. "Grab this!" He threw something up. Sonic reached for it, but judging by his expression when he looked up, I could tell he missed it. It fell down with Ash, and they plummeted into the ocean. A large rock, dislodged from Eggman's ship crashing into the island, fell after them.

"Hang on!" I cried, jumping down after them. I desperately searched for any signs of life, but all I found was a red cap floating on the surface, along with a bit of blood. I stared in shock and floated back up sadly. When Sonic saw my face, he felt more pain than I did.

"No," he whispered. "It can't be...not Ash."

"That rock fell on top of him and killed him instantly," I explained.

"What about the Silver Wing?"

So that's what it was. "It's gone. I couldn't find it."

Sonic looked up as an explosion from Eggman's ship shook the island it crashed into, followed by a horrid shrieking sound that I recognized all too well: "Moltres."

"No," Sonic clenched his fists, falling to his knees. "How could this happen? Ash...Misty...please, no!"

For a moment, we remained still and did nothing. I just stood there in disbelief while Sonic stayed on the ground, pounding his fists in anger and sadness and doing everything he could to hold back his anguished sobs.

"I guess fate doesn't want to change," I sighed. Sonic looked up, tears falling down his face. "The world's gonna turn to ash."

"We can't give up," he shook his head. "But what can we do?"

I clenched my fist, trying to think of a solution. Then an idea struck me.

"Wait a minute," I said. "We can change this."

"Huh?"

I looked him in the eye. "We can change history!"

"Change history," Sonic blinked a moment as he processed this, then he wiped his tears away and stood up. "I get it," he nodded. "We go back in time to stop Eggman from sealing Misty's fate." He pulled out a Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos Control!"

With that, a small glow appeared in between us, slowly growing more intense until a spinning wormhole appeared, humming a futuristic sound. Sonic looked back at me one last time. "I'm going to change Misty's fate, and that in turn should change Ash's fate...and your future."

"Good luck, Sonic," I replied.

"Thank you, Silver," the blue blur replied. With that, he jumped into the time-space rift, leaving me behind. I looked on as the fire bird emerged from the wreckage of the island, beginning its reign of terror. Not wanting to witness any more, I jumped into the wormhole, ready to finish what I started.

Next: A futuristic finale!