Notes: Happy Halloween! Muahahahaaaa! This chapter won't be nearly as Scourge-centric as the last one, but he's still got a big chunk to himself near the end... I can't help it, he's too fun to write! Enjoy!

The whole team was gathered in the living room of the dusty mansion, circled around the coffee table where Zonic's helmet and gauntlets sat. It was the first time they'd all been together since they'd arrived. Built into the top of one of the gauntlets was small electrical keypad, and next to that was a small hologram projector. Floating above the table was a live feed of Zector and Zespio, flickering in the cyan light of the projector.

"Please tell me you guys have some good news for us," Sonic said, taking a seat on the couch, right in front of the hologram. He noticed Zector and Zespio wince when they saw his scar, but they said nothing about it. Moving right on to the task at hand, Zector looked down at the data tablet in his hand.

"Good news, coming right up," the croc said as Zespio fidgeted beside him. "Given the short notice we had and how quickly the Time Eater tore up the planet, we were able to evacuate a surprising number of Mobians. A few large cities' worth of people, at least-"

"That's it?!" the younger version of Sonic exclaimed, positively livid. He'd spent a lot of the past couple of days being upset and angry, and this wasn't helping. "You call that good news? Of all the people on my world, you only got a few cities out?!" His heart sank, as did everyone else's. They'd worked so hard, fought so hard… and all that was left of Mobius Prime was a handful of people.

Zonic sighed. "Evacuating people is ridiculously hard, you guys," he said, disrupting the smallest blue one's fuming. "Especially when you're wearing weird uniforms, teleporting into people's houses without warning, and they don't always think you're there to help. Having portals for Zone Cops to use is great for moving people quickly, but still… The fact that that many people got out at all is a miracle." The room fell silent, and the young Sonic looked very uncomfortable; like he wanted to say something but couldn't form any words. Zonic glanced between his companions and his partners in the holographic feed. "If it weren't for the Zone Cops… we would be the only survivors."

Zespio smiled wide. "And that, my dear Zonic," he said, "is where you are wrong."

"Wait, what?" Zonic blinked.

"We're still picking up plenty of life signs on Mobius Prime," the chameleon grinned excitedly. "Life signs that we don't think are any sort of monster. We can't tell you how "okay" any of them are, but the vast majority of Mobius' population is still alive."

The cheering that erupted was so loud, it sounded like there were twenty people in that living room instead of six. Both Sonics and Tailses were hugging, Zonic and Scourge high fived multiple times, and everyone felt truly happy for the first time in days. If people were still alive, if everyone was still alive, then Mobius still had to be largely in one piece. If Mobius was still there, so too would the last Chaos Emerald. They still had a chance. They hadn't lost, they could defeat the time Eater, they could fix this whole mess. They could still win.

ooo

They didn't celebrate for long. There was work to be done. The team of six sat gathered around the coffee table, but instead of looking at Zonic's hologram projector, they were looking down at pads upon pads of yellowed paper that the older Tails had scrounged up from somewhere around the house, all of which had ideas and plans of attack scrawled across them. None of those plans were entirely relevant anymore, but the fox was trying to mix and match them all into something that might work. Also spread out on the table were the six Chaos Emeralds they had collected. The gems glowed brightly, happy to be with each other out in the open.

"Alright troops," Sonic said confidently, fire in his eyes (eye?). "First things first- how we're getting to Mobius. Zonic, we good on transportation?"

"I can't imagine my belt has much charge left, since we've been 'porting around for days and I didn't think to plug it in when I was last in No Zone. I should be able to get us there, but I'm not so sure about a return trip," the No Zoner reported.

Sonic nodded. "With any luck, we won't need to make a return trip. I've never Chaos Controlled to a different dimension before, but I imagine it's not exactly easy. But like I said, hopefully we won't even have to worry about that."

"So," his past self spoke up, "what's our plan of attack?"

Tails was fervently scribbling revisions over all of his notes on the table. "None of these accounted for the possibility of us going back to Mobius and getting the seventh Emerald. Just… ignore all of this for now," he said, scribbling through the lines of notes. "Maybe as a backup plan… Plan B… Hm…" he muttered under his breath, burying himself in the papers.

Scourge shrugged, one hand on his chin. "I dunno how much planning we can do. We don't know what Mobius is like, where the Emerald is, where the Time Eater will be. We're goin' in totally blind. I say we go in, find the Emerald, and we all go Super and just go for an all-out attack."

"No way," Mini-Sonic shook his head. "Not gonna work."

"Why? 'Cause I came up with it?" Scourge demanded, rising from his seat. "And everything I come up with is bad, right?"

"As a matter of fact," the child said, moving to get up before his older self pushed him back down into his seat.

"Cut it out, you guys," the heavily scarred hedgehog said firmly. "There's been enough fighting going on around here, I think." Lil' T, sitting hidden next to Zonic, nodded quietly.

"Scourge aside, I still don't think rushing the Time Eater is a good idea," past-Sonic said, crossing his arms.

"Isn't that how we did it last time?"

"Yeah, and look how well that worked out!"

"Yeah, but," Scourge was quick to add, "this time there's four of us who can go Super. That's twice as much fire power! It could work."

"Um," Zonic said before he could stop himself, "it might only be three of us. Who can go Super, that is."

The older Sonic furrowed his brow. "Whaddaya mean, Z? You talkin' about me?" he asked, putting a hand against his chest. "This thing sucks, but I think I can still-"

"I was actually talking about me," the small Zone Cop said, looking down at the Emeralds on the table. "I can't sense the Emeralds like you guys can. Like, at all. I held one up to my chest the other day and I didn't feel a thing. I don't think I can go Super."

Everyone stared at him, their expressions a mix of surprise and confusion. Zonic regretted having said anything. He suddenly felt rather useless. What good would he be against the Time Eater if he couldn't harness the Emeralds' power? At least he could have pretended to be able to do something, but now the cat was out of the bag.

"That… That makes no sense. How can you not feel the Emeralds, when…?" Sonic said quietly, trying to wrap his brain around what Zonic had just said.

"I dunno," the No Zoner sounded defeated. "I guess I just don't have any sort of Chaos Powers like you guys have."

The older Sonic looked like he was about to have an aneurysm, and the younger one shook his head, eyes wide. "That's impossible," the child said. "Of course you have a connection to Chaos, why do you think we can run at the speed of sound? By default, you should have a connection to the Emeralds… but why can't you tap it?"

"All I know is," Scourge said, "is that it took me a bit to get used to the Emeralds. I'm more used to Anarchy Beryl, my world's stuff. They're pretty similar, but still… Maybe he just needs to get used to 'em?"

Zonic sat up a little straighter, realization starting to dawn on his face. "My world doesn't have Emeralds of its own," he said slowly. "We harness Chaos Energy from other zones instead… Could that be the reason why?"

"Not sure," Mini-Sonic said, picking up one of the Emeralds off the table. "Knuckles would know better than me. Sounds like a possible reason, though."

His older self smiled. "So it sounds like what you need is a crash course in Chaos Emeralds."

"You think that'll work?" Zonic asked uncertainly. "That I can just… learn this stuff?"

"Absolutely! I needed a lot of practice before I got as good as I am now. You'd be surprised how much of it has to do with just learning. Here," he said, picking up another one of the Emeralds and holding it in both hands. "Don't take it yet, just put your hand on it. I'm gonna push and pull a little on its energy with my own, you tell me if you can feel anything. Alright?"

"I'm not even gonna try and pretend I understand, just go for it." The Zone Cop did as he was instructed, and placed a hand on top of the Emerald. Sonic closed his eyes, and the Emerald slowly grew brighter, then dimmed again. It's light fluctuated as its power mingled with Sonic's. Zonic thought he could feel a slight warmth, a tingling in his fingertips, which came and went with the Emerald's glow. He smiled. "I can feel it… Not a whole lot, but it feels… warm."

"Bingo! That's it, that's totally it," Sonic beamed. "See? I told you you could do it."

"Yeah," Zonic removed his hand from the gem, "but I could only barely feel it, with your help. You guys can sense these things from a mile away."

"Baby steps, broseph. You'll get there," the older hedgehog reassured him.

The younger Sonic reached for some of the papers strewn about on the table. "Don't worry, you got time to practice. If this is gonna be a one-way trip, we're gonna need to get food and supplies, come up with something remotely resembling a plan…"

Tails nodded, still scribbling away at his notes. "Right, but we also can't waste too much time. Who knows what the Time Eater might do next? We should leave here by tomorrow morning, at the latest."

"Awesome," Scourge said, "can't wait to leave this dump behind."

Sonic pounded a fist into his open hand. "Alright! That gives us a little time for Chaos Emerald Boot Camp. Anyone else wanna sign up?"

Mini-Sonic raised his hand. "Sure," he said. "I mean, if I can already lightspeed dash, maybe I can learn Chaos Control too."

"Oh yeah, that's right! Almost forgot about that," his older self grinned. "Well, c'mon, let's get started!"

ooo

They spent what was left of the day training, practicing with the Emeralds to form as strong of a bond as possible. Zonic went from not being able to sense the Emeralds at all to being able to feel them all the way from the other end of the living room. The young Sonic made progress as well, having successfully used Chaos Control to teleport himself outside, and then back in. Scourge had refused to participate, but he stuck around to watch anyway. The two foxes watched as well, and also gathered supplies and old backpacks from around the house. By the end of the day, everyone was feeling beat, particularly Lil' T. Despite having done very little all day, he was exhausted. Soon after dinner, he was yawning and having a hard time keeping his eyes open.

The smallest hedgehog looked over as he noticed his brother nodding off. "Gettin' a little sleepy there, short stuff?" he asked, setting down the Chaos Emerald he was holding. Tails shook his head.

"Nuh-uh, I'm… I'm fine," the child said, stifling a yawn. The young Sonic smirked.

"Nice try bud, caught ya red handed," he said, getting to his feet. "C'mon, let's get you to bed."

"Um, actually," Zonic said, setting down his Chaos Emerald as well, "I can take him up, if you want. I could use a break."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, okay," Sonic stammered, having been caught off guard by the offer. "If that's okay with you, Tails."

The kit's eyes lit up. "Yeah! Space police!" he said, pumping his fists in the air before slowly falling backwards in his chair. "Plop."

Zonic grinned, standing up as Sonic sat back down. "I'll take that as a yes. C'mon, Lil' T. Up you go." He helped the kid out of the chair, but Tails still held his arms up. "What, do you want me to carry you upstairs?" the Zone Cop asked, hands on his hips.

"Yeah. You're taller than Sonic is!" the fox exclaimed, making grabby hands.

Zonic snorted. "Yeah, barely. Like this, I'm not even a full year older than him." But he relented, and lifted the child up onto his shoulders. "All aboard the train to sleepytime junction!"

"Choo choooo," Tails whistled sleepily. The two made their way upstairs, Zonic holding a candle in one hand and taking his time so Tails wouldn't fall. When they got up to the second floor, the fox directed him to the bedroom he had claimed as his own.

"I'm still amazed that all the furniture in this house is still in decent shape," Zonic said, picking Tails up off of him and setting him down on the old bed. "You don't need a bedtime story, do ya? You're a big kid."

"Yeah, I'm good," he nodded. "Can… I see your badge, though? I just wanna look."

"Sure thing." The young officer pulled his badge out of his pocket and handed it over. The child held it in his hands and looked it over front and back, holding it up to the light of the candle.

"No Zone Police Department…" he murmured, reading the inscribed text. "What's it like bein' a space policeman, Zonic?"

"It's a lot of hard work." The hedgehog took a seat on the bed next to him. "I have to keep an eye on a whole bunch of different dimensions, and make sure everyone is safe."

"That does sound hard," Tails said quietly. He opened his mouth to say something else, but the changed his mind and looked down at his lap.

"Somethin' on your mind, kiddo?"

"Well…" Lil' T fiddled with the badge in his hands. "You're a police officer, and Scourge… was in jail, so…"

Zonic nodded, understanding what he was getting at. "Seems pretty weird that Sonic and I would get him out of prison to help us save the world, huh?" he said. "Trust me, I'd been keeping a special eye on him for a long time. I wouldn't have even thought about bringing him out if I didn't think he could change."

"Okay. 'Cause I know he did really bad stuff, and big bro said I shouldn't trust him, but… I dunno what I should do. It's all really confusing," the fox said, his voice growing softer near the end.

The hedgehog felt a pang in his heart. Lil' T was was only six years old. He'd experienced a lot in those six years, but the world was still a very black and white place for him. Someone like Scourge didn't fit too neatly into either of those categories. Zonic exhaled slowly, trying to think of what to say. "I know what you mean, Tails. But I think Scourge really is trying to be better. From what he's told me, he doesn't want people to hate him or be afraid of him anymore. I personally think you should give him another shot, but… you're a good kid, a smart kid. Whatever you choose to do, I know things'll turn out okay." As he talked, he stood up and pulled up the blankets on the bed, dragging them over Lil' T. The child crawled underneath the covers, making himself comfortable. Zonic smiled kind of sadly. "Look, don't sweat it, okay? What you need to do is go to sleep." The hedgehog rubbed a hand over the kit's belly, and he stopped fidgeting and let out a yawn. Zonic finished tucking him in snugly, and picked up his candle to leave.

"Oh, did you want your badge back?" the bundled up fox asked sleepily.

"Hmm… Why don't you keep it safe for me?" Zonic smiled back at him.

"Okay!" Tails nodded. "Goodnight, Zonic," he said, snuggling deep into his pillow.

"'Night, Tails." Zonic silently left the bedroom, turning out the light and leaving the door open a crack to let just a bit of light from the hallway in. To his surprise, Sonic was standing by the door, his back leaning against the wall. He wore a sly, yet almost tired smile on his face.

"Never would have guessed you'd be so good with kids," he said quietly, so as to not disturb the young one inside.

"Tails is easy," the No-Zoner smiled, matching his hushed tone. "Just gotta rub his belly, and he calms right down."

The older hedgehog nodded in agreement before his words actually sunk in. "Wait, how do you know that?" he frowned, his eyes narrowing.

Zonic opened his mouth to reply, but quickly shut it again. He tensed up, though it was barely visible, and tried to hide the frown that formed on his face for a split second. "My, uh… my world's Tails was the same way."

Sonic's eyes went wide. Of course it made sense that No Zone had a version of Tails, but Zonic had never talked about him before, and Sonic never saw him. Why hadn't Z ever mentioned him before? And why did he seem so uncomfortable? "Uh, you okay dude?" Sonic asked, trying to look the shorter hedgehog in the eye. Zonic was staring down at his hand, opening and closing it with a stern expression.

"Yeah, I'm… I'm fine. Just… remembering something that feels a lot more recent than it actually was." He looked vaguely upset as his eyes lingered on his small fist.

"Well, I hate to pry, but…" the Prime Zoner smiled slyly. "Mind telling me what's going on?"

"It's okay, Sonic. It's nothing."

"Sure doesn't seem like nothing," the older hog said quietly. "C'mon kid, I'm your Chaos teacher- basically your Jedi master. No secrets."

Zonic sighed, seeing there would apparently be no easy way out of this. "Alright, fine. But it's kind of a long story, so…" His eyes darted towards the door the younger Tails was behind. He sure as hell didn't want the kid hearing any of what he had to say. Sonic took the hint, and the two hedgehogs moved to an empty guest room at the other end of the hall. One of the windows in the room was completely devoid of wooden boards and dirt (and glass), letting moonlight pour in from outside. They could hear the faint sound of crickets chirping outside as they closed the door behind them.

Sonic dragged a chair from the corner of the room into the light and sat backwards in it, arms crossed over the back. "So what ails you, young padawan?"

Zonic sighed, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jacket. "I… don't really know where to start. I guess the beginning, but…"

Sonic shrugged. "Well, to be honest, I don't know much about your past. Or, anything about it, actually. We haven't done a ton of hanging out before this whole Time Eater thing started, after all. Not a lot of chances for conversation. But if you want to just cut to the chase, that's fine by me."

"Uh, okay. Um…" the Zone Cop thought aloud, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "Just, don't freak out or anything, alright? 'Cause Zails… he… he died."

The older hedgehog's eyes went wide. "No… No, Z, are you serious?"

"You're freaking out. I told you not to freak out."

"Of course I'm freaking out! That's… I mean, that's… Zonic, I'm sorry, I had no idea…" Sonic's gut wrenched at the thought. The idea of Tails getting hurt was one that terrified him, but for his younger brother to die… And Zonic's job was to keep an eye on the other Sonics of the multiverse, all the Sonics who still had their Tails around. What that must feel like…

"It's okay," the Zone Cop said. "It was around seven years ago. I hate to say it, but… it gets easier after a while. It took a long time, but I've accepted that he's gone. I'm okay." His gaze shifted towards the closed door. "It's just that, me being seven years younger right now… Tucking Tails in, I got a major case of deja vu."

"I can imagine." All traces of Sonic's chipper mood were gone. He didn't know what else to say. For once, he was at a loss for words. 'No wonder Z's usually so serious all the time,' he thought. 'If anything ever happened to Tails, I can't even begin to imagine what I'd do, or what I'd be like afterwards.'

"I should probably tell you the whole story." Zonic crossed his legs and played with the sleeve of his jacket. "Like you said, you don't know a whole lot about me, not really. Plus, if we go back to your world tomorrow… we might not come back at all. Doesn't seem like there would be a better time to share a little bit of my backstory, huh?"

"I… I guess not," Sonic sighed. He wasn't sure he was ready for this conversation; just hearing about Zails had really shaken him. But Zonic was right, there wouldn't really be another good time to talk about this. The Zone Cop sounded like he wanted to get this story off of his chest, so Sonic was determined to listen anyway. He just hoped he wouldn't freak out or lose his temper over anything; he'd been slowly but steadily losing his grasp on his emotions, and didn't want to get set off by anything. "Uh, yeah, go ahead, tell me about yourself! Can't say I haven't been curious. I've been wondering why you became a Zone Cop in the first place for ages."

"Heh, alright," the young officer said, sitting up a little straighter. "Well, I guess I should start with my parents, because I did grow up knowing them. Luckily, they weren't anything like Scourge's parents, I'll say that for them. Though I always felt like there was something they wouldn't tell me... But aside from that, they were great. We were one happy, loving family."

Sonic scratched the back of his neck. "What, um, what're their names?" he asked sheepishly. In a way, they were his parents too, and he felt awkward not knowing a thing about them.

"Zules and Zernadette. Yours would have been Jules and Bernadette," Zonic said understandingly. "My parents were both Zone Cops back in the day. But they went on a mission when I was a little kid, and... they never came back. Went missing, no one knows what happened to them, but it's pretty unlikely they're alive after all this time."

"Oh jeez, dude," the older hedgehog breathed. "I'm sorry. I mean, you were always a pretty serious dude compared to me, so I figured you had it rougher than I did growin' up, but... losing your parents and your bro... I didn't think... "

"At least I knew my parents," the cop said, awkwardly playing with his spatial stabilizer. "You grew up in an orphanage, right? That's gotta be its own unique brand of suck. But like I said before, this was a long time ago. It was really hard to keep going on without them, and it took a long time for me to adjust, but... I did. I don't wanna come off as cold-hearted, but... y'know. Gotta keep moving forward, don't look back."

"Hey, that's what I always say." A small smirked graced Sonic's lips.

"Yeah. No Zone culture revolves a lot about other Zones, and our other selves... You were kind of a big inspiration to me growing up."

"No kiddin'?" the older one smiled. "That's pretty cool! I'm glad I could help you out of a tough spot like that."

"Heh, yeah. I should probably thank you for that. So, uh, thanks!"

"Not a problem," Sonic gave him a thumbs up. 'I knew that I was well-known on Mobius, but… I inspired myself from an alternate dimension. That's pretty incredible!"

"Yeah. Yeah, so uh… I met Zails shortly after my folks disappeared. I think we met around the same time you and Tails met, actually. And we were just as close. He was sort of like my lifeline, he helped me take my mind off Mom and Dad, and we just did everything together." The Zone Cop's eyes were fixed, unfocused, on his stabilizer. "Doctor Nega was an issue even back then, though he wasn't as strong. Every once in a while we liked to "pull a Prime," as we called it, and go after him and his goons. And this was when I still had my speed, so we were a force to be reckoned with. But… nothing can last forever.

"Nega finally got sick of Zails and I ruining his plans. He got serious. He kidnapped Zails to set a trap for me." Zonic's voice started to lose its confidence, and his fingers gripped his stabilizer more tightly. "Nega had Zails tied up, with a laser pointed at his head. So I ran in there, guns ablazing, and I got my ass captured too. And then, the doc made a "deal" with me."

"Uh oh," Sonic said, leaning forward in his seat. "That doesn't sound good."

"Yeah, it wasn't. I think you can see where this is going," Zonic looked over at him, trying to smile a little bit. "The deal was, either I let him zap my speed away, or he'd kill Zails."

"Chaos… that's as evil as it gets," the older hedgehog breathed. "Well, I guess that explains how you lost your speed when you were thirteen. But then…!"

"Yep. Zails still died. Nega… wasn't above playing dirty."

"That's terrible! Eggman wouldn't even think of stooping so low… I'm guessing you joined the Zone Cops pretty soon after."

Zonic raised an eyeridge. "How'd you guess?"

"It's what I would've done," Sonic shrugged. "If I had no one, no powers, but still wanted to protect and help people… Law enforcement seems like it would be the way to go, as much as I hate being told what to do."

"Heh. Kind of hit the nail right on the head there, Prime," the No Zoner smiled lightly. "Now you know why I am the way that I am, and why I got hit so hard with that deja vu."

"I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. You've been hanging out with two Tailses for days now. Are you sure you're doing okay, pal?" Sonic got up from his chair and stepped over to the bed where Zonic sat.

"I'm fine, I promise," the teenager nodded. "I'm from No Zone, I grew up knowing about alternate dimensions. Alternate Tailses aren't that new to me. Again, not to sound cold hearted, but I'm kind of used to it."

"Mmm," Sonic hummed. He wasn't really sure where the conversation should go from there. Zonic didn't seem to need comforting, and talking about his own past seemed pointless, since the Zone Cop seemed to know most of his past already. There didn't seem to be a natural segue into any other topic of conversation, so he sat quietly, listening to the crickets outside, and processed everything he'd just been told. 'Zonic… He lost his parents, his brother, his speed… I can't even image what going through that must've been like. I started from pretty much nothing, but he… He lost everything and then had to start over. He said that I inspired him… He always says that I'm Sonic Prime, that I'm the big hero. He probably deserves that title more than I do.' He ran his fingers along the scar tissue on his chest. Zonic was suffering from the time stream's collapse, just like he was… and he was handling his transformation a lot more gracefully than Sonic was handling his. The older hedgehog smiled. "Thanks for telling me all that, Z. I think I really needed to hear it."

"What?" Zonic said, his ears perked up. "What do you mean?"

"Well, now I have someone to look up to when things look bad. You're the one who pulled through all those bad times to become an inter-dimensional butt-kicker, after all!" Sonic playfully slapped his friend on the back. Zonic looked genuinely surprised by it.

"I… you…. what? No, that's… I mean, that's really nice of you to say, but…" he stammered, growing flustered. "I mean, you're Sonic Prime! I'm just the version of you from No Zone, I'm really not all that high on the dimensional pecking order. You're the Sonic. You shouldn't be looking up to me." He glanced down at the floor, his fingers twisting together into knots.

"Well, I'm sorry, but that's a big honkin' load of baloney," Sonic laughed, putting an arm around the smaller hedgehog's shoulders. "If you think I care about all that, then you really don't know me. I coudn't give a crap about the "dimensional pecking order." You're a cool guy, Z. A cool guy who's managed to pick himself up and keep on going, over and over and over again. I've been knocked down before, but not like you have. I'm just giving props where props are due, bro. And you are well overdue for some props."

Zonic laughed, his cheeks starting to turn red. "Oh my gods you are such a cheeseball. Only you… Actually, I think literally only you would say something like that. As far as I know, No Zoners don't usually get along all that well with our other selves, especially not our Prime selves. Of course, you would be the odd one out. And by extension, me. And Scourge too, I guess. Gods, us Sonics used to be respectable! Look what you did!" He jokingly gave Sonic a shove, smiling wide.

"Haha, hey, the multiverse is on the brink of destruction, and the power of friendship prevails over dumb trans-dimensional societal conventions. Or should I say… the superpower of teamwork prevails!"

"Dear gods make it stop! I can't take the corny speeches! Nooooo!"

The two laughed, trying not to be too loud so as not to disturb Tails, but that just made them want to laugh even harder. Soon, they were both busting a gut, laughing more at their own stifled laughter than anything else. Even once they'd calmed down and regained their breath, one of them snorted and sent them back into another laughing fit. They only stopped when Sonic started to really hurt, his scar starting to burn from the strain on his lungs and stomach. Even then, it took them a little bit to calm down and to stop giggling at everything.

Zonic sniffed, his arm curled around his gut. "I needed that. I so, so needed that. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. What the hell were we even laughing about?!" he wheezed. He was lying on the bed now, instead of lying down, and was trying very hard not to start laughing again.

"I don't even know," Sonic coughed. He wiped a stray tear from his eye. "Oh gods, I need a freaking nap after that one. What were we talking about before?!"

"I dunno. I was talking about myself, some shit happened, I lost track," the No Zoner shrugged. "Oh! I got something cool I can tell you, though. And I know you're not gonna believe me, but…!" he paused for dramatic effect before revealing, "I have a tattoo."

The older hedgehog blinked in surprise. "You have a what now?" he asked, his face incredulous. "Where? Don't tell me it's a tramp stamp-"

"It's not a freaking tramp stamp oh my gods Sonic," Zonic practically cried, giving his counterpart a kick. "It's on my wrist. And no, before you ask to see it, you can't. I got it when I was eighteen, it's not on this body."

"Alright, so what is it? Describe it to my eyes." Sonic closed his eyes, waving his fingers over them.

"Okay, okay," the Zone Cop chuckled, "it's like a striped bracelet, it goes all the way around. It's like, you know friendship bracelets that kids make? The string ones? It's like that, orange and blue stripes." He held his wrist up to his face and pushed aside his stabilizer, revealing the bare skin underneath. He'd gotten used to seeing the colorful marks there, and his arm felt naked without them.

"Orange and blue for you and Zails?" Sonic said, opening his eyes and looking down at Zonic.

"Yeah. He made us matching bracelets one day. I still have mine, but if I wore it all the time, it would have fallen apart a long time ago." Zonic set his arm down and looked up at the ceiling, trying to use the moonlight to make out any patterns in the plaster. "So I got it inked on. That way, I can always "wear" it. Well, until now that is."

"Until we get you back to your regular self again," Sonic said reassuringly. He stood up and stretched his back. "It shouldn't be long now."

"Yeah. Tomorrow's the day, right?"

"Tomorrow's the day. We should get some rest."

The No Zoner sat up again. "But what about the Chaos Emeralds? You're my Jedi master, remember?"

"I'd say you made plenty of progress today, young Padawan," the older hedgehog winked. "Going Super isn't as hard as you think it is. You can definitely sense the Emeralds better now that you've been focusing on their Energies, and that's the hardest part. Trust me, when the seven Emeralds get together, all they want to do is make you turn Super. We're as ready as we'll ever be, and we can't afford to wait around forever. So yeah. Tomorrow…"

"Tomorrow," Zonic nodded nervously. "Um, Sonic? Thanks. For everything."

Sonic smiled wide as he went to leave the room. "You're welcome for everything. Thank you for everything." And without even waiting for Zonic to reply, he gave a short wave and walked back out into the hall.

ooo

Scourge cursed when he found himself in the ominous hallway again. He was really starting to get sick of this. Couldn't he just have a good night's sleep for once? Why the hell did he keep having these nightmares?

Before he had time to even think, something cold grabbed around both his ankles and pulled, hard. Scourge hit the ground, his head spinning from the sudden impact. He was being dragged backwards, the carpeted floor rubbing harshly against his bare skin. He quickly turned around as much as he could to see what had grabbed his feet, and he screamed. It was the Time Eater, laughing monstrously, and pulling him backwards through the hallway at breakneck speeds. The hedgehog struggled to free himself from the monster's grip, but the Time Eater seemed to be getting bigger and stronger by the second. In fact, the hallway seemed taller and wider than it was before, too. Scourge gripped at the carpet, trying to find something to latch onto, but his hands barely escaped the sleeves of his leather jacket, and they were swallowed up by his gloves.

"What the-!" Scourge gasped. His voice was different… and his size… The Time Eater was making him younger again. Fan-freaking-tastic. The green hedgehog tried to break free as he shrunk further and further, until his gloves had slipped off of his hands and his leather jacket had become huge and baggy on him. The Time Eater's cold snaked up his short legs as rug burn scathed his chest and face. The beast let out a shrieking roar that shook the walls as it tossed Scourge unceremoniously into an open room.

The child yelped as he landed in a painful heap inside the dark room. He was burning, freezing, tiny, vulnerable. The groaned weakly, his young voice echoing through the space. The Time Eater was gone, and so was the door he'd been thrown through. The floor, the walls, everything in the room was pitch black, but Scourge could still see himself as if he were well-lit. Seeing himself in a younger body was still weird, but not new. This dream wasn't too bad… so far. He knew this couldn't be it.

A dark laughter came from a distant corner of the room. 'Yup, I knew there had to be more to this…' Scourge thought. The laughter was gravelly and low, and it echoed as its owner approached. Heavy footsteps made the floor shake. Scourge scrambled to his feet, his legs shaking and still hurting from the Time Eater's touch. The owner of the footsteps came into view, and the small hedgehog's heart nearly stopped. It was Smalls, and he was huge. He pounded his fists together, each one bigger than the green one's head. Scourge tried to back away, to run, but found himself frozen to the spot.

"Hey there, Snot," the massive cat grinned, his voice positively booming. "Long time no see. Almost didn't recognize you. You were always a puny little shit, but you're missin' your bruises!" He grinned evilly, picking the small hedgehog up by his jacket. Scourge tried to kick and wriggle his way out of the big jacket, but for some reason, he was stuck. He was starting to panic. Smalls was enormous, and Scourge could very easily be killed in his current state. He just wanted to run, to escape, to be rescued by someone. But it didn't look like anyone was coming.

Without further adieu, Smalls planted a solid fist in Scourge's gut, hitting hard again and again. He would occasionally switch it up and nail him in the head, hitting the hedgehog's jaw, nose, ears, eyes. Before long, Scourge's nose was busted, he'd lost a tooth, bruised and/or broken a number of ribs, and was sporting a black eye. Smalls dropped him on the ground, sniffling, bleeding, and struggling to crawl away. Everything hurt. He thought that being younger and smaller would mean less surface area to be hurt, but clearly he was wrong. He felt like he'd gotten a month's worth of beatings in… minutes? Hours? He didn't know. The pain had turned to numbness, he wasn't sure what was going on anymore. The green hog spat blood out on the floor, his whole body shaking. 'I… I gotta get out of here…' he thought, feeling dizzy. HIs vision was dark and fuzzy, like it gets when you stand up too fast, but it wasn't going away. 'There has to be something I can do to get out of here…' He tried to drag himself up to his knees, the movement hurting his ribs but not enough to stop him. After what felt like an eternity, he finally got up to a position where he could crawl. As he slowly pulled himself away from Smalls, the cat didn't come after him or kick him, or do anything other than laugh. Scourge did his best to block him out, to forget about the entire year he'd spent being terrorized by Smalls. But the sick laughter only seemed to multiply. The Time Eater's otherworldly laughter joined in, though the creature and Smalls were no longer in view. They'd been absorbed by the chamber's darkness, and their howls seemed to come from every direction.

As their ethereal voices grew louder and louder, Scourge became aware of a presence directly ahead of him. He looked up to see a blue hedgehog, and his hopes lifted for a split second before his heart sank even lower. In front of him wasn't Sonic or Zonic, but his father. The older hedgehog glared down at his child, disgust in his eyes.

"Pathetic," he spat, kicking Scourge in the side just hard enough so that he fell over. "You're so weak, so stupid… You really think you can get out of here? As if you could do anything right. Useless." He kicked the green hedgehog again, this time hard enough to send him tumbling across the floor. Scourge gasped for breath, one of his broken ribs poking into a lung. The voices laughed even louder, joined by his father this time. The child lay helplessly on the floor, still bleeding and shivering. His vision was so shaky he could barely make out his own tiny hand in front of him.

'There's no way out of here,' he thought weakly. Where was he? He couldn't remember. Was he going to die here? In the dark, surrounded by some of his worst nightmares? It certainly felt like it. His dad was walking towards him, and Smalls and the Time Eater had come out of the shadows to join him. As they stalked closer to the quivering hedgehog, there was a sudden, small light that came from behind them. Scourge looked up. The light was coming from a doorway- the same one he came in from. He had a way out. He had a chance. Finding a second wind, he pushed his pain out of his mind as he shoved himself up to his feet and made a mad dash/limp towards the door. His three enemies were caught off guard as the young child ran in between them, moving surprisingly fast despite the condition he was in.

The next thing Scourge knew, he was on the other side of the door, holding it shut with all of his might as Smalls, his dad, and the Time Eater were all pounding on it furiously. 'I never got back to the hallway before,' he thought, his mind clearer but still frantic. 'Where do I go from here? How the hell do I get out of here?!' He looked around, looking for something, anything that was different in the classy hallway. The corridor stretched on to both his left and his right, but on the right side there was something he'd never seen before. An end to the hallway. Scourge's heart started to beat faster. This place had always been endless, but there, not too far away, was an end to the hall, with a set of ornate double doors beckoning to him. the only problem was that as soon as he let go of the door, his nightmares would get out and attack him, drag him back in. But freedom… It was so close. He could get out of here. He could get away from the hell that existed behind these doors, he could rest. He had to at least try, right?

He steeled his nerve, took a deep breath (minding the pain shooting his through his chest), and let go of the door.

Scourge took off running as fast as he could, not stopping or looking back, no matter how much his body was screaming at him to slow down. The door burst open, and the time Eater's ferocious roar made the wall shake, the doors rattle, and the lights flicker. Smalls and his dad were yelling something to him, but he was determined not to hear it. He needed to get to that door. He hurt everywhere, but for some reason it wasn't limiting his movement. He was running at top speed, as fast as his small legs could carry him. He felt something grab at the back of his huge baggy jacket, but the child easily slipped out of it and didn't look back. He was so close. He was going to make it-

He was grabbed from behind by three pairs of hands. Scourge's fingers were gripped around the door handle, and he held on tightly as he was pulled backward. "No!" he cried out, his heart pounding in his ears. He had to get out of here. He didn't want to die. He was so close! He got dragged back harder and harder, and he struggled to maintain his grip on the handle of the door. He kicked and screamed, trying to get the monsters to let go.

"Pathetic," his father said darkly behind him, the words snaking into his ears. "Useless."

"Get some new material, old man!" Scourge yelled angrily, kicking at the hands holding onto him. "Let GO!"

As he shouted, the doors suddenly blasted open, blowing his attackers backwards and freeing the small hedgehog from their grip. Not even thinking about what the hell just happened, Scourge pushed through the doors, and everything went white.

He shot up into a sitting position, breathing heavily. He was back in the living room of his parent's mansion, sun shining through the cracks in the boarded-up windows. Everyone else was in the room with him, pouring over plans of attack for how to tackle the Time Eater. Scourge's hands ran over every inch of his face. He wasn't a kid. His nose wasn't broken, he wasn't missing any teeth, he didn't have any bruises. All of his ribs were intact. It was just another dream.

'It all felt real… I knew it was just a dream at first, but I forgot pretty quick... Dammit, this is getting bad,' he thought. His hands were still shaking, and his body felt sore, as if he really had been getting beaten up all night. 'My dad, Smalls, and the Time Eater… talk about a triple threat. I seriously thought I was going to die back there. I can't do this anymore, I can't…'

He looked around to the others, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. They didn't even look like they'd noticed his frantic awakening; were they just used to it by now? It wouldn't be surprising. If the dreams weren't so freakin' traumatizing, Scourge would be used to them by now as well. But no, they had to keep getting worse, throwing something new at him every time. Or, this time, throwing everything at him at once. 'Is there anything else I'm afraid of? Anything else that'll jump out at me in my sleep?' He sincerely hoped not. He didn't think anything else scared him that deeply. Maybe water, but a dream where he was drowning didn't sound as bad as what he'd just went through. He was so tired. If the events from the past few days weren't exhausting enough, the fact that he was barely getting any sleep definitely wasn't helping matters. He couldn't keep going on like this. If he did, there was a pretty good chance that he'd pass out in the middle of the day, just from exhaustion. He hated admitting it, but he couldn't just pretend like nothing was wrong anymore. He needed help.

"Guys," Scourge said hoarsely, "There's something that I think I gotta tell you." But no one looked up. It was like they didn't even hear him. They all just continued happily chatting and discussing plans, as if he hadn't said anything at all. "Uh, hello? Scourge to chumps, come in chumps. Ya read me?" he asked again, getting up from the couch. Still no response. He rolled his eyes. "Oh, very funny guys. Givin' me the silent treatment, classic. Can you cut it out? I really need your… help…" Nothing. No one even glanced in his direction. Annoyed, the green hedgehog reached a hand out to nudge Zonic on the shoulder, only to find that he phased right through the Zone Cop. Scourge immediately pulled back, and fell back down into the couch. "What the fuck!" he gasped, horrified. He looked at his hand. It certainly looked normal, and so did Zonic, who didn't even notice what had happened. What the hell was going on? Gulping nervously, Scourge reached his hand out again, trying to find anyone who was solid. None of them were- or, were they all solid, but he was… like a ghost? "They can't see me or hear me… I can't touch them… This is so messed up…" He was frozen to the spot, a terrified expression on his face. He didn't know what was happening, but he didn't like it. "Why can't they see me? Why can't they see me?!"

The door to the living room opened behind him, and everyone turned to look. Entering the room was… Scourge?! It was another green hedgehog, that looked exactly like him in every way. Everyone waved and greeted the newcomer casually as he walked into the room. At first it seemed like the new Scourge couldn't see ghostly hedgehog either, but he definitely winked at him as he walked past. 'What… the… fuck…' the original Scourge thought, unable to fully process what he was seeing. There were… two of him? Talk about an out of body experience. His mouth went completely dry, and his palms were starting to sweat. He'd been with alternate versions of himself for the past number of days, but this was something else entirely. What was going on?!

The other Scourge reached inside his jacket pocket and grinned maliciously. "Hey, you guys'll never guess what I just found," he said, gathering everyone's attention. He revealed a small, multicolored gem that radiated a familiar power. "Anarchy Beryl."

Sonic smiled excitedly. "Yo, awesome! We can use that stuff to go Super, right? We can take the fight right to the Time Eater now!"

"Yeah, we could," the new Scourge said, closing his fingers around the stone. "Or…" All of a sudden, he erupted in a flash of purple, dark power exploding off of him. The doppelganger's fur turned a deep magenta-violet color, and his quills swooped upwards. The whites of his eyes turned pure black, and his irises changed from bright blue to a piercing red. He'd gone Super. "Or, I could beat the life out of every single one of you."

He was suddenly everywhere at once, beating everyone to the ground. Sonic, Tails, Z, Lil' T and the younger Sonic… before Scourge knew it, his double had them all on the floor, bleeding and afraid. They were no match for him. Scourges's eyes widened as he saw his allies get beaten and tossed to a pulp, trying to fight back against Super Scourge to no avail. The green hedgehog stumbled backward, his legs suddenly feeling extremely weak. He felt like he was going to be sick. He couldn't watch this. How was this happening? He couldn't really be watching himself do this, right?

Super Scourge didn't seem to have a problem hurting everyone else. In fact, he looked to be seriously enjoying himself. He easily tossed Sonic across the room before picking Zonic up by the collar of his jacket, the young teen struggling to free himself. "Scourge, what the hell are you doing?!" the Zone Cop choked out, fear and uncertainty in his eyes. "I thought we on the same side!"

"Well, Captain, looks like you thought wrong," the violet hedgehog smirked, tightening his grip. "The only side I'm on, and always have been on, is my own!" Super Scourge slammed Z into a wall, and a sickening crack rang out through the room. The young officer slid to the ground, silent but clearly in a lot of pain. He looked utterly terrified. As Super Scourge turned away to find another victim to throttle, Scourge rushed to Zonic's side without even thinking.

"Zonic? Zonic, come on man, I'm right here. Just look at me," the green hedgehog breathed, watching Z's face. The No Zoner still couldn't see or hear him, and his eyes were focused on Super Scourge. "Z, that isn't me. Listen to me dude, that guy isn't me!" But Zonic didn't know that. In his eyes, and in everyone else's, Scourge had just suddenly turned on them and was trying to kill them. Meanwhile, the real Scourge was shaking, unable to reach out to his injured teammates. 'Why is this happening? How do I make it stop?!'

The older Tails and both Sonics were now sufficiently bloodied and battered, each lying on the floor similarly to Zonic; staring up at Super Scourge, unable to do anything other than look scared and… betrayed. The Super hedgehog was slowly approaching the younger Tails, who was cowering in a corner of the room, crying and shaking. The child was curled up in a ball, unable to muster up the courage to run away.

"Don't. You. Dare," Scourge growled, standing up as his double placed a hand around Lil' T's neck. Super Scourge froze in place, an amused expression on his face. The green hedgehog was livid. "If you don't step away from him right now, I swear I'll-"

"You'll what? Punch right through me?" his purple doppelganger rolled his eyes. "You can't do anything. All you can do is watch… Watch as I snuff their lives out, one by one…" Super Scourge held Lil' T in the air with one hand and brushed the kid's bangs out of his face with the other. The small fox didn't seem to notice that his assailant was apparently talking to nobody, but that likely had something to do with the fact that he was being choked and was dangling off the ground.

Scourge was standing right behind his double now. "Listen pal, I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but-"

"Oh, I'm you. The real you. Sorry, I thought that was obvious," the other Scourge said with a laugh, watching Lil' T gasping for breath with a look of satisfaction. "Did you really think that Scourge the Hedgehog could be a hero? What a joke."

"Let him go!" the green hedgehog screamed, letting a kick fly towards Super Scourge's head. Like with everyone else though, he just phased through like he was some sort of ghost. His double laughed even more, as Scourge suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He was powerless. There was nothing he could do. They were all going to die… and they were all going to die thinking that he had killed them, that he had betrayed them…

Lil' T passed out, going limp in the violet hog's grasp. Super Scourge dropped him to the ground and placed a boot on top of the kid's chest, pushing down hard. "Well, Greenie, say goodbye to your favorite little pain in the ass," he said cooly, his grin gone. He was going to kill Tails.

"No… No, no no no no you can't, you can't do this…" Scourge choked, kneeling down next to the tiny fox. "Leave him alone, leave them all alone… Don't hurt him anymore, please…" His voice was thick and heavy, and his eyes were starting to get wet. "I don't give a shit if you're really me or not, just don't hurt them anymore…"

Super Scourge over-dramatically considered the suggestion for a moment before shrugging. "Alright," he said taking his foot off of Tails' chest. He quickly turned around and kicked Scourge square in the jaw, sending him to the floor. "Guess I'll just have to hurt you instead, wuss." He dragged the green hedgehog across the floor by the wrist, pulling him towards the living room windows. He blasted a hole through one of the boarded windows with energy from his hands. Though sunlight was pouring in through the window, it was pitch black outside, and there was no ground to be seen. The house was floating in an empty void. "Goodbye, you useless sack of shit. Congratulations on postponing your teammates' deaths for a minute or two."

Scourge got launched through the window with tremendous force and began falling, tumbling through the blackness until the house was out of sight. He could still faintly make out the sound of the others screaming his name.

Scourge screamed. He shot up, gasping for breath and covered in cold sweat. He blinked, eyes darting about frantically. He was sitting on the couch in the mansion's living room. No one was around, and it was the dead of night.

'What the fuck,' the hedgehog thought. 'How did I get back here? Where are the others, are they okay?!' He tried to get up off the couch, but he suddenly got dizzy and had to sit back down. He closed his eyes and ran his hands over his bare arms. He was covered in goosebumps. 'What the hell is going on? None of this makes any sense. Everything in here is back to normal. It's like that whole thing never… never happened…' He breathed shakily. Did it actually happen? Or was it another dream? He wouldn't be surprised. Super Scourge never showed up, never hurt anyone... It wasn't real. 'Well, if that's the case… that explains why there were two of me, and why I was like a ghost… Thank Chaos. None of them are hurt, no one's dead…'

Scourge was thoroughly freaked out, and unsure what to think. There was too much to process all at once. That dream had felt 100% real. When he "woke up" in the living room in his dream, he thought he was really awake. Was he even awake now? The dreams were getting worse and worse. He was terrified. He was terrified of the others getting hurt, of being afraid of him. Since when did he care so much about their well being, or what they thought of him? He knew that he was afraid of Smalls, the Time Eater, his father. He knew that he hated them. Did… did he feel that way about himself? Was he afraid of himself…?

'Shit,' Scourge thought, holding his face in his hands. His cheeks were wet. 'Shit shit shit! I… I can't do this anymore. I can't. I need help. It's time to put my big fuckin' ego aside and get some.' It wasn't an idea he was particularly comfortable with. Sure, his teammates had seen him more vulnerable than most others had, but still… this would be a new low for him. There was no way he was going to tell everyone at once. Just one person knowing about his little problem for now would be plenty.

'The kids are out of the question. One hates my guts, an' the other one is terrified of me. Besides, even if they did like me, I seriously doubt they know how to fix this. Sonic's out, too. He's too unpredictable lately, he might bite my head off. That leaves Zonic and Tails… kinda leaning towards Tails. I think he's less likely to give me hard time about keepin' this to myself for so long.' He clenched his fists. His mind was made up. Now came the hard part. Actually going to Tails and talking to him.

Notes: Scaring the pants off Scourge really is too much fun. He'll get hugs someday guys, I promise! Haha. And what about Zonic, huh? That scene was originally SUPER depressing, until I realized it would be back to back with Scourge's nightmare. So I rewrote the entire thing, and I honestly like this a whole lot better! I'm really happy with how this chapter turned out, so I hope you all enjoyed it too. Have a happy and safe Halloween, everyone!

Please leave a review if you liked it! Reviews always make my day, so thank you to everyone!