Notes: Hope you all enjoyed that little intermission! Now that we know what Zonic and Scourge are up to, let's check in on the Workshop. Thanks so much for the reviews and favorites, guys! I really do appreciate them.

"You WHAT?" It was morning in the workshop, and Tails had let his older brother back into the house, only to hear some very distressing news. "You LOST the Chaos Emeralds?!" Sonic could practically see the smoke puffing out of the fox's ears.

"I said I was sorry, didn't I?" he said with a corny whoopsie-daisy smile, his ears falling flat against his head. Tails shook his head and frowned.

"Sonic... Come on, we need those! How could you just lose them?"

"I dunno! I don't even know when I lost them. And besides, how do you know for sure that we need them? Maybe we can figure out this whole time travel thing all on our own."

"Yeah, maybe. But you know the drill," Tails stated. "Whenever anything big goes down, we need all seven Chaos Emeralds to make things right again. It's practically a law of physics at this point; the only way to get anything done is with the Emeralds."

"You have a good point there," Sonic admitted, putting a finger to his chin in thought. "I'm sure we can find them again, though. We always do. And besides, this time there are two of me and two of you! We can get the job done, double time."

Tails glanced back at the couch, where the two time-travelers were still asleep. Lil' T had curled himself up into the young Sonic's lap, and the two were sleeping soundly. "You had better hope so," the older fox said. "I don't know what these two being here will do to the timeline. This whole household has practically become a walking time paradox overnight."

Sonic scoffed. "Oh, come on. It can't be that damaging to the timeline if they're here for a little while, can it?"

"I'm not sure. But... remember yesterday, when they were playing Super Mega Blasteroids 9? They beat the boss at level 10," Tails stated. Sonic was confused.

"Yeah... What's your point?"

"My point is that we couldn't beat that level when we were their age. We beat it when we were older- by a few years, in fact. I know it's not a very big time paradox, but it still counts!"

"Really? It took us THAT LONG to get past level 10? Man. We are sad, sad individuals, Tails."

"Sonic! Look at the big picture, please."

"Okay, okay! Right, yeah. Time paradox, got it. I still don't see how it's such a huge deal. They beat the level before we did, so what. I don't see the universe falling apart at the seams or anything," the hedgehog pointed out.

"Hey, I'm not claiming to know the exact science of how paradoxes work. All I'm saying is, the longer they're here, the more we're in danger of something bad happening with the flow of time. I can just feel it," Tails protested. Sonic nodded.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to get the Emeralds back before that 'something bad' happens!" he said with a cocky grin. He rubbed the fox's head reassuringly. "I'm gonna take a shower. That's the bad thing about sleeping on the roof, I get all kinds of sticks and stuff stuck in my quills." He pulled a small twig out from behind his head to emphasize his point. He climbed the stairs and entered the bathroom, leaving Tails in the living room with the younger incarnations of themselves. The kit's namesakes swished about in frustration.

'I don't even know where we should start looking for the Chaos Emeralds! They have a tendency to spread out all over the place, so they could be anywhere on Mobius right about now,' he thought with a groan. It was looking like he was going to have to boot up his old Emerald-locating equipment again. The gems had all been relatively easy to find when they were saving the world from the Time-Eater yesterday (Tails could barely believe that all that had happened less than twenty-four hours ago. It felt like weeks), as they were only so many places for them to hide. Now, they had the whole planet to spread out across. Even with the extra help from their past-selves, Tails estimated that it would take him and Sonic at least one week, maybe two, to gather up all the Emeralds again. He didn't feel very good about the whole situation, but that might have just been a consequence of being one of the only people who was worried.

'As long as the time stream holds up... I should really look into that as well, and make sure nothing is getting screwed up with all the time shenanigans taking place here.' Tails sighed. It was going to be a long day.

He went into the kitchen and grabbed an apple out of the bowl on the counter. He took a bite out of it, the juice running down his muzzle. He wiped it off with the back of his hand and went back into the living room. He sat down in one of the armchairs and turned on the TV. He would start on his work once the sleeping forms on the couch woke up. Tails didn't really want to leave them alone; they were still in a fairly foreign environment, after all.

The fox started to flip through the channels on the television, unsuccessfully checking to see if anything good was on. He put on the news channel. If he was lucky, maybe there would be a report on someone who had found a Chaos Emerald. The odds in favor of that happening were infinitely low, but the two-tailed fox could hope.

The sound of the television caused the ear of the hedgehog asleep on the couch to prick up. He yawned, his eyes slowly opening. He rubbed the sleep out of them with his free hand- his little brother was curled up with the other one. He massaged the back of his neck, sore after sleeping at an odd angle.

"Hey, you're awake," Tails said, smiling. The twelve-year-old nodded.

"Mmmh," he said groggily. 'So it wasn't just some dream after all. Looks like we really are stuck eight years in the future,' he thought, looking around the room. "Where's older-me?"

"Takin' a showah," Tails responded after taking a bite out of his apple. He chewed and swallowed in frustration. "Would you believe that he actually went and lost the Emeralds he was carrying?" he exclaimed angrily.

"Oh, yeah, I lost mine too," the younger Sonic nodded.

"Are you serious?"

"Uh-huh. I noticed they were gone once we left that white, empty dimension. I think going through that portal must have sent them away or something? I'm not really sure. I figured we were done with them, so I didn't think it was important enough to bring up. Why, do we need them?" the hedgehog asked. Tails shrugged.

"I'm not exactly sure right now. As of right now, we don't have a way to get you and the younger-me back to your own time. When it comes to stuff like this, the Emeralds usually hold the key to the solution, so I would've liked to have them around," he said, scratching the back of his head.

"You have a good point there," Sonic agreed. He looked up at the TV. The volume was low, so he couldn't tell what was going on, but the news anchor looked serious about something. Tails followed the young speedster's gaze and turned up the volume on the TV.

"-completely dark. We repeat: Windy Valley is completely dark. For some reason, the suns' rays are not entering the area, and it still appears as if it is nighttime. We will continue to bring you updates as we get them, but let me tell you, experts are baffled by this strange occurrence."

"Well, that's something you don't see every day," Tails said curiously. The sun not rising in one region of the Mystic Ruins? That was scientifically impossible.

"I get the feeling that this has something to do with me and Tails being here," Sonic said, referring to the child still asleep in his lap. The older Tails frowned.

"You might be right about that. We should look into this, maybe we can find out what's going on over there."

"Alright, I'm game. Can we have breakfast first, though?" Sonic asked.

"Haha, yeah, sure. We've gotta wait for your older-self to get his butt out of the shower, anyway. C'mon, let's see what we've got in the kitchen." The fox pressed the mute button on the TV remote, silencing the current news broadcast, and stood up. Mini-Sonic gently nudged the small kit who was cuddling up on his lap.

"C'mon kiddo, time to wake up," he said, shaking the child's shoulder. Tiny Tails yawned, showing all his teeth.

"Mmm... Hi Sawnik," he said sleepily, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Whassup?"

"You want some breakfast, Squirt?" Sonic lifted the six-year-old up off of his lap and set him down on the couch. "We've got a lot of stuff to do today."

"Like what?" Lil'T asked.

"Like solving a mystery. Come on, let's get some grub." The hedgehog hopped off the couch and led his friend into the kitchen.

The older Sonic returned downstairs about fifteen minutes later, his fur still a little damp from his shower. He glanced sideways at the muted television and entered the kitchen to find the Tailses and his twelve-year-old self.

"What, you guys couldn't wait for me before you decided to have breakfast?" the royal blue hedgehog said with a grin. He rubbed the younger Tails' head as he walked over to the fridge. He opened the door and reached his hand inside, pulling out a carton of orange juice. He took a swig of the juice right from the carton before offering some to his younger self.

"Ew, no way dude, gross," the small hedgehog said, making a face in disgust.

"You do realize that we have the same germs, right?" the older one said with a chuckle. When his double refused the orange juice again, he simply shrugged, took another gulp of the juice, and put it back into the fridge. "So, what's up? We have any plans today, or what?"

"Actually," Tails said, "I was wondering if you all could go check out WindyValley, and see what's going on there. I have to stay here and start tracking down the Chaos Emeralds, seeing as how some people managed to lose track of all seven."

"I apologized for that, like, ten times already! Why does nothing please you?!" Sonic yelled dramatically, shaking his fists in the air for added emphasis. "Wait- Windy Valley? What's up with WindyValley?"

"Apparently, the sun never rose there," his younger persona said from behind him. "It's still nighttime there. No one has any idea why."

"Whoa. Sounds like fun!" The elder couldn't help but smile. He didn't care that he and his friends had just saved the world yesterday- he was always ready for a new challenge! "Wonder why the sun's not up yet, though? I mean, WindyValley is just on the other side of Mystic Ruins. The sun should be shining over there by now."

The older Tails nodded. "Which is why we need to look into this. I'll bet you anything that this has to do with all the time travel nonsense that happened yesterday." He and Sonic turned and faced their younger selves, Sonic cocking an eyeridge.

"H-hey, don't go looking at us!" the light blue hedgehog said defensively, taking a step closer towards his little brother.

"Yeah! 'Snot our fault we're stuck here," the small fox kit pouted.

"We never said we were blaming you for anything!" the older Sonic exclaimed. "Just, you know... It's one heck of a coincidence that you two are in the wrong time period, and then something like this happens. Because if I had to guess, I'd guess that time in WindyValley is frozen. Or, at least, going really really slow. That's why it's still night there," he explained.

"I was thinking about that, too, but we won't know for sure until you guys go and check it out," Tails said.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's get this show on the road! Lil' T, you gonna come with us?" Sonic asked with a grin. The young fox nodded excitedly and stood up in his chair.

"Yeah! We're gonna solve a mystery!" he cheered.

"Just don't forget to take a communicator with you," his older self said. "I want to keep in touch, just in case anything happens."

"Aye aye, captain," said the twenty-year-old hedgehog. "Come on, kids! Let's go on an adventure!" He had a huge smile plastered on his face as he swiped a stray wrist communicator up off the kitchen table. He led the way out of the house with his arms held up high above his head. Lil' T followed behind gleefully, giggling excitedly. The younger Sonic scratched the inside of his ear. He turned to face the larger fox who was still in the kitchen.

"I'll keep an eye on them," he said with a sigh.

"Good idea. Have fun, and good luck," the two-tail said. The light blue hedgehog nodded and followed the other two out the front door.

It was a warm, sunny morning- perfect for a run through the Mystic Ruins. The eldest of the group stretched his arms out to the side to take in more sunlight.

"Man, that feels good! You guys are going to like WindyValley, let me tell you," he said, walking down the front steps of the workshop. "Tons of pathways to run on, lots of stuff to jump off of, plenty of room to fly around... Usually a lot of tornadoes around there, too. Those are extra fun, but I don't think we'll see one today. It's too nice out," he said.

"Whoa whoa whoa, tornadoes? Don't you think that's a little... extreme?" his younger self said, his eyes wide open.

"Nonsense! You haven't lived until you've ran around in one of those. But like I said, I don't think there'll be any today." Sonic looked down at the crystal key that was still lying by the front door. The gemstone on top of it was lime green, and had a swirl symbol on it. He bent down and picked it up, the stone key feeling heavy in his hand. "We're gonna need this," he said to himself. "Come on you two, it's not far to the entrance. Let's roll out!"

And with that, they were off. With the older Sonic leading the way, the trio made their way down the plateau and across the grassy hills of the ruins. They ran slowly enough so that Tails could keep up, but they still managed to make good time. It wasn't long at all before they reached a crevice in the wall of a cliff. Ushering the two youngsters in, Sonic pulled out the key.

Looking around, he was surprised that more people weren't around here- after all, mobians and humans alike were curious creatures, and would no doubt want to catch a glimpse of the valley which was still enveloped in darkness. Then again, this entrance to the valley was technically a shortcut, and without the key, it was impossible to get in. He dropped the key near a small pedestal jutting out of the ground. The artifact floated up into the air, and maneuvered itself into the correct position before lowering into a square shape indent on the pedestal's surface.

"Stand back!" the adult hedgehog yelled, backing away towards the wall. The ground began to rumble and shake as a massive gust of air blew up through one side of the small cavern. The floor on the far side of the area was completely blown away as a geyser of wind lifted it up with intense force. The bellowing winds were incredibly loud, and Lil' T had to cover his ears. The older Sonic motioned towards his younger self and Tails to follow him, and he started to walk calmly towards the massive air current.

Little Sonic's jaw dropped. "You want us to go in there?!" he shouted. Alas, the wind was too loud, and his voice was carried away. He shook his head. 'I can't believe I'm doing this.' He grabbed Tails' hand and walked alongside his older self, who smiled at him confidently. The taller hedgehog raised his hand and held up one finger. Then he raised up a second, and a third. With the third finger up, all three of them leapt into the wind and were blown away instantly.

"Wooooohoohoohooooooo!" Macro-Sonic cheered as he soared through the air. "This never gets old!"

"GET ME DOWN GET ME DOWN GET ME DOWN GET ME DOWN!" yelled his past-self, who was clearly having less fun than he was. 'I really hope I don't become this crazy when I'm older!' he thought, knowing that the sentiment was to no avail- his future self had convinced him to do this, after all. Next to him, Tails was squealing with delight. The kid looked like he was having the time of his life. The wind blew the three of them through twisting, turning caverns and passageways, many of which had small propellers on the walls to catch the wind.

After careening at high-speeds through the various tunnels for several seconds, the trio was shot out into the open air. Lil' T grabbed a hold of the younger Sonic's hands and started to rapidly spin his twin tails, allowing for a slow and steady descent to the ground below. The older hedgehog simply dropped from the sky, landing on the ground feet-first with no difficulty. This was mainly because he loved coming to Windy Valley to run, and was used to being tossed around by the strong wind currents.

"That was fun! Let's do that again!" Lil' T exclaimed as he and his brother landed on the ground.

"Well, at least someone enjoyed it," the young Sonic stated, trying to regain his balance after the disorienting ride. He managed to steady his legs, and glanced up at the sky. It was still dark, with the moon and stars still visible. "Whoa," he gasped. "They weren't kidding when they said it was still nighttime here, were they?"

"What happened to this place...?" the older hedgehog wondered aloud. The whole area was dead silent; there were no birds chirping, or small critters scurrying about. There wasn't even any wind blowing. The whole valley was completely still.

"It's creepy here," the small fox commented, looking around. "It feels really empty."

"You said it. This place is usually full of wind, all the time. There are always tons of birds around, too, because the small floating islands scattered around here are great for them to nest on. But it doesn't look like anyone's here," the elder Sonic said, placing his hands on his hips.

"Do you think everyone left? Or... are all the people and animals in this zone frozen, just like the sky?" the golden-yellow kit asked him. Macro-Sonic shook his head.

"I'm not sure. There's only one way to find out, though. Follow me," he said, starting to walk across the cliff they were a standing on towards a large wooden bridge. The bridge connected the piece of land they were currently on with another cliff; in fact, these twisting wooden pathways sprawled across Windy Valley, connecting all the bits of land to one another. The walkways were all lightweight and made so that they resembled grates, with multitudes of small holes in the floor to allow the wind to blow through it without causing any structural damage. Sonic began to lead the two kids to a group of mountains in the distance. If the speedster remembered correctly, those mountains were the home to a number of villages. Maybe they could find some answers there.

"Be careful not to fall, you guys," he said turning back to face the two time-travelers. "It's a long way from here down to any kind of surface, and there isn't any wind blowing to catch you if you trip."

The younger Sonic took a peek over the side of the cliff and gulped. He shouldn't have looked. It wasn't just a long way down to the bottom- they were practically above the clouds! How on Mobius there was still breathable air this high up, he had no idea. And quite frankly, he wasn't complaining. Still, it was an impressive sight, to say the least.

"Wow, we're so high up!" Tails noted excitedly, kneeling down on all fours near the edge. "I can see the workshop from here!"

"Tails, you back away from there right now!" the young hedgehog yelled, pulling his little brother away from the edge. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry Sonic, I just wanted to see, is all," the child said innocently, pulling his tails up close to his chest. He frowned apologetically, and looked up at Sonic with large, puppy dog eyes. The face would have been enough to make even Eggman melt. The light blue hedgehog sighed.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. Just please try and be careful from now on, okay Squirt?" he said, rubbing the fox kit's head.

"Deal!" he said with an enthusiastic nod.

Meanwhile, ignoring the advice of his past-self, the twenty-year-old hedgehog was glimpsing curiously over the side of the cliff. 'Everything in the distance is light... It's like it's daytime everywhere but here,' he noticed. He looked back down over at everything, hundreds of feet below.

"Ooh, there's the workshop! And that must be the train station, and that's Station Square..." he said to himself, pointing and listing all the places he could make out. "Oh no, not you too," his younger self moaned, slapping a palm to his face.

"What? I'm just lookin', lighten up!" the adult hedgehog replied. The communicator he was wearing on his wrist began to ring. He pressed a small button on the side of it, turning on the microphone and speaker.

"Talk to me," he said, speaking into the watch-esque device.

"Hi, Sonic! Did you and the littles make it to Windy Valley okay?" Tails said from the other end. His voice was a bit grainy, but still understandable.

"Yeah, we got here just fine. It's so weird here, though! Everything seems so... bleak. It's dark, there's no living creatures around, and there's no wind blowing. Not even a breeze."

"Wow. I think that's a first for Windy Valley. That's definitely interesting, though. Does sound like stuff that would happen if time really did freeze."

"Totally. We were going to check out the villages around here, see what the deal is over there. Do you have any leads on the Chaos Emeralds yet?"

"Nothing definite yet, but I am picking up some energy readings not too far from you. Keep a look out for anything out of the ordinary."

"Can do, Tails. Thanks for the heads-up. Talk to you later, pal!" the hedgehog said enthusiastically before pressing a small button on the watch, ending the call. He slipped the watch back under his glove and turned to face the two children who had come with him. "C'mon you two, let's his the road. Time's a wastin'! Not, you know, literally. Duh. But who cares, let's keep going!" He motioned for his younger-self and Lil' T to follow, and then took off speeding down one of the many winding bridges, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. The other two were off mere seconds later, quickly catching up and matching the older hedgehog's speed. Tails flew alongside the bridge, taking advantage of boost rings in the air to give him quick bursts of speed. Seeing his little bro flying above what was essentially a bottomless pit made the younger sonic nervous, but he believed that the fox could handle himself, and he didn't want to be a total killjoy.

After running through a few loops and rocketing across several platforms, they were forced to a stop. Screeching to a halt, the two hedgehogs left skid marks on the grass. Tails landed on the ground next to them, breathing heavily. "Great, its a dead end," the adolescent hedgehog huffed.

"It's not supposed to be, though." his older self said, frowning. He inspected the two signposts standing at the cliff's edge. There were propellers on top of each of them, as well as various flags and windsocks, frozen in mid-air, used to determine the direction of the wind. He patted one of the posts with his hand. "These mark areas where the wind currents get crazy strong. Normally, the wind is so powerful that you can run on it if you're fast enough. But now..." He placed a tentative foot over the edge of the cliff. Just has he had expected- no wind. He sighed, he hated seeing WindyValley like this. It was such a fun place to run, but now it felt dead.

"Well, what do we do now?" asked the lighter blue hedgehog. He looked around. There was seemingly no way off the small island they were standing on, besides the bridge they ran in on. There was a red spring near the island's hedge, perfect for jumping off of and getting some air. Unfortunately, this spring was pointed straight up, leading to nothing but a trail of rings leading off into the distance. The older Sonic followed the younger's gaze and smiled. "That will do just fine," he said, bouncing on his feet. "Lil' me, you know how to light-speed dash?"

"Light-speed what?"

"I guess not. Okay then, time for a piggy-back ride. Tails, you fly close, okay? We're getting outta here, and we're getting outta here fast." He lifted the surprised twelve-year-old speedster onto his back and relaxed his quills so he wouldn't impale the kid by accident. He took a few steps back before running up to the spring, jumping, and landing square on its center. The spring sent the two Sonics high into the air, right towards the rings. The older one closed his eyes and focused on the golden circlets in the air. He reached out and touched one of them. It made a bling noise as it disappeared and its energy got absorbed by the hedgehog. Just that small dose of energy was enough to allow him to instantly speed across the path of rings that was floating in mid-air in front of him. While he wasn't exactly traveling at the speed of light, he was moving with a velocity of several machs. Before the smaller hedgehog even knew what was happening, they had reached the end of the line of rings and landed safely on solid ground.

"... What just happened," he gasped, shakily climbing off of the older Sonic's back.

"Pretty cool move, huh? It comes in handy when you get in a pinch like that!" the taller 'hog said with a cocky grin. Tiny Tails flew over and landed a few feet away.

"That was TOTALLY WICKED!" he shouted, running over to the two Sonics. "You ran in, and then, SPROING! You're in the air, and then, and then you go WHOOOOSH, you take off and you're going all over the place and it was AWESOME!"

"Oh, stop it, you're making me blush," the adult quickster joked. "Come on you two, let's get going. We're almost at the village." Once again, he led the way as they started off down the bridges again. The two Sonics ran side-by-side as Tails flew on ahead, taking advantage of his un-obstructed flight path.

"So," the smaller hedgehog asked his future self, "how did you do that? That speed of light ring thing."

"You mean the light-speed dash?" the elder corrected. "It's not easy. I only used to be able to do it if I attached a special machine to my shoes. Eventually, I learned that I could use rings to give myself a boost of speed, and if there's a trail of rings, I can boost across them at high speeds. All it takes is a little concentration," he explained.

"Cool. I'm going to have to try that one of these days. Sounds like it would come in handy."

"Oh, definitely! You won't be able to do it for a few years yet, but it's never too early to start practicing!"

"Guys!" Lil' T shouted back at them, still flying ahead. "I can see the village!" He landed on the ground below him, and the two Sonics were soon standing at his side. The fox pointed to a large, nearby island. This island, unlike the others, had houses made of stone, windmills with the propellers frozen still, and lampposts that were still glowing bright.

The older Sonic nodded, silently giving the word for everyone to follow him across the wooden bridge connecting the two islands, and into the town. He went at a slow jog, going much slower than he would normally. The village, even with lights still lit, felt like a ghost town.

The place seemed even spookier when the trio started to walk around the village. There were still people walking about, frozen in mid-step. Two lovers were frozen in mid-kiss. A child who tripped on his shoelace, suspended in mid-fall.

"I think it's safe to assume that time has stopped here," Mini-Sonic whispered, waving his hand in front of the face of an unresponsive townsperson.

"This is really freaky," his double said, inspecting a fountain. The water shooting up and cascading down into the basin was completely still. The hedgehog dipped his finger in one of the small waterfalls. He could feel his glove and digit getting wet, but the water didn't splash. "Weird."

Lil' T was exploring closer to the end of the island, inspecting a group of gold rings that someone must have dropped. There were about fifty of the rings scattered around on the ground. The fox kit looked over the edge of the cliff to see that a large number of rings had spilled off the island. They were suspended in mid-air, floating instead of falling, as they should have been. It was truly fascinating to the young child, seeing as the physics of time-space were being altered right in front of him. Even as a fun-loving kid, Tails still had a passion for science.

Unfortunately, his curiosity got the best of him. He scooted closer and closer to the edge of the cliff to get a better look at the rings, not realizing that the ground beneath his feet wasn't particularly stable. A few pebbles crumbled away underneath his feet, and the ground suddenly shifted. Before the child had a chance to reach, the floor underneath him fell, and he tumbled down through the air.

Notes: Dun dun dun! Oh no! What's going to happen to little Tails? Sorry for the very literal cliffhanger, but I just couldn't resist. I'd love to read any reviews you guys have for this chapter! See you all next week~