Chapter 24

With childlike glee Jet picked up every one of the airboards and inspected it, and he tried a couple of them aswell. Wave was more scrutinising in her search – she only looked at a few, and eventually decided on one. Diesel, however, was already stuck into a kart, tuning it up. Silver simply stood at the wall, shaking his head.

"Come on, playtime's running short."

"It's not me, it's my Emo friend here," Wave said, tugging on Jet's prized My Chemical Romance t-shirt.

"Fuck off," He snapped back. He grabbed a board. "I'll take this one."

"You make it sound like you're in a store,"

"Might as well be. Look at the choice!"

"Can't argue with that!" Diesel called from under the kart.

"Right. I'm outta here." Jet hopped on the board and left the room quickly. Wave followed.

"Goddamit… come on, Diesel, playtime's over." Silver jumped into a ship. It had guns mounted all over. Diesel reluctantly slid out and jumped into the gunner's seat. Silver fired up the engines, and the hangar doors opened automatically. The ship slid gracefully away and out into the dome.

"Wait… I heard you were dead. Espio killed you. Is that correct?"

"No. It was a trick. We planned to defect long in advance. I'd already lost this eye."

"So why did you, anyway?"

"Because nobody likes the mercs. They're the scum of this shit-hole. Even the regular troops hate us. Eggman was pretty much the only one who gave us any respect. It's just as well that we did when we did, because Naugus had no use for Vector by now anyway."

"So what about Mighty?"

"He was a deluded moron. He just didn't see the big picture. It's just as well your hawk friend put two bullets in him – he never knew what was going down."

"Oh? Is it bigger than it seems? Or can it get much bigger than dismantling the world's primary oppressive force?"

"Hmm. Maybe I've said too much…" With that, Blade jumped into the air, and flew away into the central cavern. Rouge tried to follow, but he was too fast. She gave up quickly. It was then that she saw in one of the hallways, a familiar purple weasel. And another figure who also looked vaguely familiar… She swooped in behind them. Nack she recognised instantly. The other figure… a green hedgehog with spiked up quills, and was that another long leather coat?

"Everybody's got these leather coats… is there a fad?"

"Hmm. Effortlessly dry wit, it has to be…" He wheeled round. "Yes it is! Rouge!" Manic bounded down the two steps and gave Rouge what was less of a hug and more of a glomp.

"Yes… daily tackle, Manic, I presume?"

"So, how did things get so bad, like, so that you had to travel to the past to try and fix it?" Tails was ever curious about the future. Blaze didn't mind obliging.
"Well, Naugus found the master emerald, despite the fact that it was in the freedom fighters base, and he used Formula T to fix it."

"Weird stuff, isn't it?"

"So with the master emerald in his power, he all but obliterated the freedom fighters, and most of his own army aswell. What are your numbers now, 50,000? 75,000?"

"Worldwide, about that… nearly 125,000 including civilians."

"In about 200 years that's down to 500."

"Five hundred?" Tails said in outright shock. "Five hundred world wide? With or without civilians?"

"With. Naugus used the emerald to make himself immortal, and we couldn't find a way to destroy him then, so we travelled back in time to before he found it."

"Slightly inconvenient time to do it, though, like, why not when he was a kid, or something? It would save everyone some time."

"We have to keep the alteration of the past to a minimum. Who knows what could have happened even just by being here? I mean, as an example, if I kick that rock over the edge… well, it seems innocent enough, right? Well, that rock could hit someone down below and kill them. Say it's… say it's my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather? That means no more me. Or, I'd be different." For some reason, Tails smiled.

"Aha. Now this is where my theory comes in."
"What?"

"I've been working on a theory about time travel, which makes it possible to go back, and change things that affect your own past, and you won't be changed."

"Do tell…"
"When you travel back in time, you enter a theoretical bubble, like a dismembered segment of time, so that regardless of how you change the past, you won't be affected. Your own past becomes separate from what the rest of the universe experiences, including an entirely separate you. Alternatively, you could have been predetermined to go back in time and the result of the war is already predetermined, we just don't know it yet. But that's not a very nice idea, is it?" Blaze looked thoroughly confused.

"Don't even bother trying to explain…" She sighed. She looked thoughtful for a moment before leaning on Tails' shoulder with a depressed look on her face.

"What is it?"

"Oh, I just thought about family for a second."

"You miss 'em?"

"Never really had one. I was always told my parents died in the wars, when I was a baby, and my brother died later aswell. There are only three cats left in the whole world… or my world, anyway." She closed her eyes. Tails could see a tear forming in the corner of one. He put his arm around her and hugged her.