The (*) symbol used once signals the beginning of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.

Chapter 7

*Before Sonic and Amy had gone to Chun-Nan, Amy was staring up at the stars through the largest window onboard The Trident. Sonic sat down on the bench next to her.

"What are you doing?" Sonic asked. Amy smiled, but didn't look at him.

"Watching the stars," she simply replied. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"Mobius is in danger of being taken over by that egghead Ivo, and you're watching the stars," he said. Amy shrugged.

"Sure," she said. Sonic sighed and gave up. Amy was an impossible girl, he had figured out that much. He had so much on his mind, that he never felt relaxed. It had been five days since his encounter with Ivo on the ARK, and he hadn't been sent on a mission since then. He had been confronted by the Chairman for disobeying orders when he had told him not to pursue the ARK after the factories in Westopolis were destroyed. But of course, Sonic had gone on ahead and boarded the ARK anyway. The Chairman had pointed out to Sonic that he would give Amy orders when they were on missions together and expected her to obey them, but when he himself was given orders, Sonic would rebel. Over the past few weeks, Sonic was surprised at his own ability to give orders, and he and Amy had done rather well at working together because of them.

He had been craving for action so much, that over the past few days, he would go out and take practice runs across the field. But then, Amy made a good point. Besides, the stars did look beautiful. That night was indeed a gorgeous one. But it was only a few minutes before Sonic groaned.

"It's too quiet, I can't stand it anymore," he admitted, looking down at the floor. Amy looked at him.

"It's important to have moments of peace and quiet, otherwise we will never get used to the day when the conflict finally ends. You do want the G.U.N. forces overthrown, don't you?" Amy asked. Sonic's head shot up to look at her. With one hand, Amy was fingering the chipped piece of rock on her necklace.

"Of course I do Amy, it's just that…I feel like we're not doing enough," he admitted.

"That new rookie Daisy was recently sent on a mission," Amy pointed out.

"What about everybody else? What about me?" Sonic demanded. Amy sighed. Sonic was lucky to have a friend that was patient with him. Everybody else in the Heroes of Today didn't seem to have that same kind of patience that Amy had. Sonic had noticed that even Luigi was growing more and more agitated, and it was becoming harder to talk to him.

"I don't have all the answers Sonic, I really don't," Amy admitted, and she didn't say another word to Sonic on the bench that night, and Sonic didn't say another word to Amy.

*Sonic and Amy were unaware that Miles was watching them. He walked away with tears in his eyes. It was true then. Sonic didn't remember him. What had happened? What caused Sonic to lose his memory? He never asked about the Freedom Fighters...

Miles stumbled into his room, where the floor was littered with tools. Mechanical engineering was what he did best. It was his passion. He swept a tear that was going down his cheek away and tried to occupy himself with a part that would go to a new plane he was building. This one was going to be unlike any plane he had ever built before. He thought about the Freedom Fighters. He had run away from them so that he could find Sonic and hopefully rekindle their long-forgotten friendship. Now, he had to wait and see if Sonic's amnesia would pass. If Sonic's old memories didn't return soon, he would say something about it. He was desperate to say something.

Though his name was Miles, everybody, including Sonic, had called him Tails.**

*Within the thickness of the Dark Gaia energy, Sonic believed he saw shapes, which became clearer each second, until Sonic found himself looking at colorful images, familiar ones and unfamiliar ones. He could see Shadow the Android sleeping fitfully under a tree. He could see Chairman Neeko, but he was looking down at something. He could also see a medallion, or an amulet, he couldn't tell. He saw several beings he didn't recognize, but one looked like a hedgehog, but it wasn't Shadow. It had a different color…

But the images vanished before he could make any guesses, and he stared down at Knuckles, whom he had taken down with him to the ground inside the shrine in Chun-Nan. Knuckles grabbed him and, with much effort, he pulled Sonic off of him and staggered up, looking around at the Dark Gaia energy that began to swirl around them quicker like a funnel. Finally, the ground trembled violently, throwing Knuckles off his feet again. Somewhere outside the funnel of Dark Gaia energy, Sonic could hear Amy shouting his name in raw fear.

"I will not be a monster," Sonic muttered. Before he was able to cry it out, the Dark energy began to fade, until it all finally spiraled into the Stone. Thunder roared over them, and rain began to fall from the clouds and pelt Sonic and Knuckles, and everybody watching. The Sword Caliburn gave off one last glow, brighter than usual, which blinded Sonic's eyes. Mercifully however, the blinding lights eventually faded completely to nothing. After a moment of awkward silence, Knuckles finally found his voice.

"I am not finished with you," he said; and with that, he jumped away into the sky and out of Sonic's eyesight. Looking down at himself, and looking at his hands, Sonic realized, much to his relief, that he was a hedgehog again. He was about to smile, say something comical, but when he saw the terrified looks on everybody, including Gideon, he stopped.

"Hey, it's a victory right?" Sonic asked. Gideon shook his head in grief.

"The balance between Dark Gaia and Light Gaia are broken and the Dark will gain power, and eventually rise out of the ground," Gideon explained, his voice grave and choked in grief.

"But, the Dark Gaia energy fled, we all saw it," Amy said, her voice trembling in fear. Gideon shook his head again.

"What you've seen with the Dark Gaia energy will only be the beginning, the Dark will eventually fully awaken and rise out of the ground, splitting the world apart," Gideon said. Sonic was speechless. He realized in horror that he must've failed and put Mobius in great danger. He watched Gideon turn to Amy.

"Sonic is cursed by Dark Gaia until the entity is driven back underground, this won't be the last time that he will turn into that beast," he admitted. Amy looked at Sonic, terror and grief all over her face.

"Amy…" Sonic stopped, and turned to Gideon, his hands balling into angry fists, "I will stop this from happening, but I need to know, am I the One in the prophecy?" Sonic demanded. There was a horrible moment of silence as he and Gideon stared at each other.

"I do not know Sonic, truthfully I don't, but I know that if you are, you're not yet ready," Gideon replied.

"Not yet…not…what's that supposed to mean?" Sonic screamed, stomping his foot on the ground. But Gideon shook his head.

"Maybe it was a mistake to introduce the prophecy to you. I really believed you were the One, but now that is still to be determined," he said. Tears welled up in Sonic's eyes. All this, transforming into a Werehog, battling Knuckles, and even possibly seeing part of the future, or the present, was for nothing? Gideon let out a shaky, heavy sigh, and motioned for Sonic to walk out of the shrine. Hanging his head in grief, Sonic slowly walked out of the shrine, but not before taking one more look at Caliburn in the stone behind him. Amy put a comforting hand on his shoulder, and helped him down the small hill back toward the ship. No one followed them.**

*Knuckles was not looking forward to confronting Ivo after failing to apprehend Sonic, but he believed that what he saw was important information for Ivo, to ensure the fall of the Heroes of Today. He boarded Ivo's new cruiser the Shunned Dealer, and headed for Ivo's personal office, ignoring the soldiers that were trying to stop him. The doors to Ivo's office slid open, revealing a small desk with a chair that had its back turned to him, so he couldn't really tell if Ivo was there or not. The chair was turned to a large screen on the wall that had a map, revealing several different villages. Some had red Xs on them, but others had the word 'CONFIRMED' over it. What was Ivo looking for?

"Mr. Robotnik, I have some information," Knuckles began, but he saw Ivo raise a hand, indicating for him to stop.

"Let me just stop you right there Knuckles. I'm sorry, but the G.U.N. forces have no further use for you," he admitted with a deadly, merciless voice. Knuckles was about to say something else, but he gasped as he felt his feet lift off the ground. He felt himself turn around so that he was looking behind him. There, standing in the doorway with his hand raised, was a silver hedgehog.

"Knuckles, meet Silver, a hedgehog from the distant future, and he is very anxious to destroy Sonic," Ivo said. Knuckles gasped as he felt himself get blown backwards against the wall next to Ivo's desk.

"Silver will be a worthy comrade to help me carry out my plans," Ivo continued, getting up from his chair. Knuckles watched Silver flick his hand to the left, and an emergency exit door slid open behind him revealing an escape pod. Knuckles felt a horrible sense of helplessness when he felt himself get lifted off the ground again, and, like a rag doll, get flung into the pod. The door slid closed by Silver's moving hand, and the pod jettisoned toward the river below him. He felt a terrible impact as the pod crashed into the river, and began sinking. Knuckles desperately tried the controls to get the door to open, but none of them worked. Looking at the spikes on his gloves, he stabbed them into the glass window on the door, and cut a big hole through it. Crawling out, he swam toward the surface. Breathing fresh air, he looked around. The evening sun was slowly setting off in the distance, and the Shunned Dealer was already at a safe distance.

At this point, Knuckles didn't know what to do. He wanted the Sword, to receive power beyond anyone's understanding, but now Chun-Nan would be more alert now that they have seen him. He realized that going back to The Trident was not a good idea either. No doubt Sonic would tell the Chairman about his betrayal. He would no longer be welcomed. He realized that it was time to begin his search for Shadow; and once he would find him, the two of them could try to weaken both sides together, and more importantly, use Project 60 for their own use. The overwhelming power of the experiment was so comforting a thought that Knuckles found himself salivating at. Power was his own goal, and no one had the freedom to take that goal from him. He began swimming across the river, not quite sure where to start in his search for the Android, but he knew he would find him eventually, even if it took him years.**

*Sonic sat in the co-pilot's seat of the small ship as Amy flew their way back to the Trident. In all his life, at least as much as he could remember, Sonic had never felt so depressed. He had joined the Heroes of Today in the hopes of bringing Mobius back to peace, but now it seemed that he had brought a danger more dangerous than the G.U.N. forces into the world. When will he become a Werehog again? When will Dark Gaia rise out of the ground? He was, however, satisfied that he had figured out who the spy was that could have caused more destruction on them. But…

"When we were on The Tyrant, back when we had our first mission together, I found a warning inside Mario's cell. It said that there was a spy in our midst," Sonic confessed to Amy. Amy looked at him in shock.

"How come you never told me?" She asked. Sonic groaned. He knew that was coming.

"I didn't want everybody to distrust each other and grow bitter. That's the last thing we need in order to win this war," he admitted.

"But we know now, right? It was Knuckles," Amy replied. Sonic sat back, his head against the chair with his eyes closed, his mind deep in thought. As he thought back to the events at Chun-Nan, he tried to remember something. Something that Knuckles had said.

Almost ten minutes ago I came crawling to Ivo Robotnik begging for an opportunity to please him, and now, in less than that, you will be crawling to me begging for mercy.

"No, he's not the real spy!" Sonic shouted his realization out loud. Sweat was dripping down Amy's face now, her face turning red.

"He's…no?" She asked. Sonic shook his head.

"Knuckles said that he had met with Ivo for an opportunity to prove his worth ten minutes before he confronted me. I found the warning about a week and a half ago," Sonic realized. Amy's hands were trembling at the steering yoke now.

"Amy…" But Sonic didn't get to say another word before he felt a terrible blow to the side of his head, and everything went black.**

Journal Entry by Nick

11:00 Hours

There are lots of things that keep me on edge. It is the strange, vast world I live in, the magic behind it, and the discoveries that no other man from Earth has made, at least, no records have been made of those discoveries.

So much guilt has plagued me in the last twenty years of my life. I have often pondered over these memories. Sometimes they've come in the form of nightmares. Most of the time, among so many other memories, I always think back to that terrible day when I was separated from my partner, my best friend Amy. Being sucked into a funnel, which took me here, and being snatched away from her is not something I consider to be a good day. But I have a way to get back to her, and I will do whatever it takes to do it, even if it means the deaths of innocents who dare step in my way.

Here, these people gave me a new name, and though I do not strike out at people when they address me by that name, I choose to call myself by the name I was given on Earth, and that is not something that this world can take away from me.

In conclusion, I write down my hopes that I will find Amy again. If that fails, I might as well be dead, because I cannot get her image out of my head. That necklace with the chipped piece of meteorite around her neck is one image that has burned into my brain for so long. It was something that never came to be, but I dream that it did. It's horrible enough that I took that away from her and gave it to someone else, something that was my own creation.

Nick

Or, as they call me here, Ivo Robotnik

NOTES: So, at this point you finally get answers to some of your questions. I had originally planned for the reader to not find out about the mystery behind the boy and girl at the beginning of this season until halfway through "Season Two", but the original ending for Season One wasn't very satisfying, leaving almost nothing to be excited for. Originally, Sonic wasn't going to learn about the exact wording of the prophecy until "Season Two" as well. However, this was of course moved so that the season could end giving the reader a tension that would make them want to keep reading to see what happens next. Is he really the One? Or is it someone else entirely?

To clear things up in case there's confusion, Ivo is the boy that fell into the lake at the beginning of Chapter One, and was separated from the girl that tried to save him who's the love of his life, a girl named Amy. He built Amy the hedgehog so that he had a resemblance of the REAL Amy around. There's still so much to Ivo that I haven't revealed yet, ha ha! You'll just have to keep reading!