AN: Alright, folks! This is the part where I screw with your heads, and a few of the characters as well. Make a prediction, see how it will affect the story!

Disclaimer: I neither claim nor own that which is copyright of Sega, Sonic Team, Sonic '06, or any other affiliated companies. Imperious, Chameleon, Ghost, Cynthia, Samantha, and Jack are copyright of Nobel 6 (Wow, that's a lengthy list). Thunder is copyright of Gnat1. All music is owned by it's given artist. Please support the official releases.

Claimer: I claim and own this plot and all characters not affiliated with the above mentioned.

Temporal Vestige

Time unknown

Science was booming in the most recent age. Cures were being discovered in the medical field; new species of flora and fauna were discovered in the biological field; even the chemical field was crafting an array of artificially fabricated elements. In the field of physics, the most recent development was a phenomenal one: time travel sans an emerald of power.

Truthfully though, it was only a prototype. The only current model was installed into the cybernetic enhancements of one Jack Makarov. As he floated through the Temporal Vestige, his mind remained constantly vigilant and always on the lookout for the man he was assigned to find: one John Murray. The princess had requested the apprehension of this particular vigilante for a reason that was unclear to him; however, that was simply how they acted. She gave the order; he pulled the trigger.

The cybernetic mercenary glanced around at scenes and times that whizzed by in the vestige. He had been in here for a seemingly endless amount of time, or maybe even no time at all. Time seemed nonexistent in this place.

He blinked as he came over an image that was blurred and faded slightly and furrowed his brow. It was unlike any of the others he had seen. Was it distorted? Maybe something had gone wrong at that time.

His eyes widened as a group of individuals was shown, among which he recognized one as his vigilante target. "Now, why would you be in this distorted world?" he mused, scratching his chin in thought.

He came to the most clear conclusion soon after. John was undoubtedly connected to this distortion somehow. Whether he was the cause, solution, or some other affiliate, Jack knew that what was to come would not be good. Nonetheless, he drew closer to the portal in time before he vanished completely within it.

^/\^|v\/v

~ ("You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."—Mathew 7:5) ~

Syaoron the Fox presents

Following the Events of Sonic '06

Accompanied by Various Music and Themes

Remnants of the Past

Chapter 12

The Crystal Palace

^/\^|v\/v

Lethos

January-6-140

5:37 Mobius Time

[Now Playing: "Thunder and Lightning" by: We Were Promised Jetpacks]

"I told you not to jump through the portal so hastily, Knuckles. This always happens when you do."

"Shut up. I don't understand why this always happens."

It was a classic arrival for the anachronistic travelers. Knuckles had, as usual, jumped through the portal into the new realm with too much haste. Thusly, the vestige had to cough up the remainder of its passengers, landing them all on the echidna's back. "You don't need to know why," Tails groaned as he pulled one of his tails out from under Cynthia's feet. "You should just adapt to the consistent fact that if you go through ahead of us, we will land on you."

Knuckles groaned and looked over to the kit with a piercing glare. "Don't talk to me with that psycho-babble. I'll fix it next time."

"But that was what you said last time," Silver whined as he stretched his back, nursing a bent quill.

Meanwhile, a puzzled onlooker was observing the strange visitors. Needless to say, the appearance of a fox, echidna, hedgehog, lion, and two humans shocked the young man out of his wits. The lad was a growing mouse, perhaps in his fourteenth year at the most, and he was adorned in raggedy cloth that functioned for clothing. "Well, craft me a grave and strike me dead, I've never seen blokes quite like you!"

The time travelers looked back and forth between each other before nodding to the kid. He smiled and went on. "You lot must be the heroes that me ma always talked about! Come, come, le' me sit you down for a cup o' tea."

With less words and more confusion, the anachronistic group followed this young child. An exchange of introductions went round the small camaraderie before the boy spoke his name. "Me name is James, fellows. James O'Connor is me full name."

It was after this exchange that they decided to take not of their surroundings. They had landed in a fairly nice city, with fine, oriental architecture. The clouds hung over in a dull, foreboding presence, but that was hardly what bothered them. Through all the fine buildings, as economically prosperous as this place seemed, there wasn't a soul around besides them. The streets were barren and cracked from the lack of maintenance; buildings were scarred with the peel and rot of old age.

When they arrived at James' small house, the only well-kept residence in this dingy ghost town, they sat down and in the comfortable living room. Seated around a small table, the group thanked the young mouse for the Earl Grey that he soon poured them. A strange silence existed in the room. Questions were waiting to be asked, but no one wanted to make the first move.

Silver broke the silence, "So, where is everyone?"

"Well, ain't it obvious that I own this whole city for me self?" James remarked. Though the joke was light, his voice was heavy. "That's the first question most blokes ask. Where in the bloody 'ell is the rest o' the people? They're all gone, disappeared long ago."

"You're just here, all alone?" Tails asked, to which the boy nodded. The kit nodded and frowned. He had been there before, all alone with no one to look out for him. "Well… what happened to everyone then?"

"Now that, lad, is a brilliant question," he responded. "That's the second question most people ask."

Knuckles narrowed his gaze at the brat. He didn't have to act so stuck up like that. "Hey, you don't have to act so sarcastic. Can't you ease up and show some respect?"

"There's the third question."

"Hey, watch it kid!" Knuckles said, crossing his arms. There weren't a lot of things that Knuckles demanded in his ascetic lifestyle, but one thing he tended to demand was respect.

It wasn't surprising, of course, when James accidentally doused Knuckles' lap with boiling hot water. Knuckles would have risen in self-defense when Cynthia and Ghost held him down in reprimand. Meanwhile, the echidna silently fumed.

Stupid kids…

James stepped out to the veranda in the rear of the house. As he looked outward, the anachronistic travelers suddenly noticed that a looming fortress that shined with blue towered over the town, blocking out the sun. "Tha' there's where they all disappeared to. It appeared all o' a sudden. Some great loot was s'posed to be there, or a wish or something. Everyone went ta it, no one came out. Even me own parents couldn't resist. So, here I am, all by me lonesomeness."

Thunder nodded and chuckled. "I don't know about you guys, but…" the lion spoke up as he analyzed the palace, "I only know one recipe for a looming epic palace of doom and disaster to appear out of the middle of nowhere."

"A Sol Emerald, you mean?" Ghost suggested as he gazed at the towering castle. Crystalline bushes jutted out from spots of the palace, and he could only assume that the remainder of the palace was constructed of such crystal. Judging solely on the color, they'd be looking for the cyan emerald.

"Well, we should get going then, shouldn't we?" Silver suggested.

Tails nodded, his brow furrowed. "We should, but… something is off," he said. "Whenever the emeralds of power are involved, something always goes wrong. I think only three of us should go in first, just in case."

Before Silver could object, Tails raised a hand so as to continue. "Besides, we need someone else to stay here and look out for James."

Cynthia nodded, looking over the rest of them before turning to her brother. "What do you think we should do? They seem to have a good idea."

"Yes, it's a logical assessment," Ghost mused before pointing at the fox, lion, and echidna. "You three, you seem to have the most experience with how Chaos Energy works. You can go investigate, while we stay here."

James smiled when he heard their agreement. Maybe, finally, he'd find out what was going on in that castle. "Thank ya, chaps," he said to them, grateful and thankful. "Ya 'ave no idea how much I 'preciate ya 'elping me out 'ere. It's be forever since I've seen me parents."

Knuckles only huffed. Though he was still upset at the child for his immaturity—and slightly for his own—he was glad that James had finally shown something akin to gratitude. Maybe he wasn't such a bad kid after all, just looking for someone to help him. Tails, however, responded with a confident smile. "We'll be back in no time. Just you watch."

Soon after, with a departing wave, Knuckles, Tails, and Thunder were on their way to the crystal palace.

[Stop Music]

With the trio of Mobians gone, the others decided to sit back and await any news of them. If they weren't back in a few hours, the others would go in after them. In the meanwhile, however…

"John?" Cynthia asked to her burly, blond brother as they around the worn table again. "Why, exactly, are we hunting down the Sol Emeralds?"

The older man shrugged, scratching his scruffy chin hairs. "Each of us has a different reason," he said. "Thunder and I want to stop Imperious at all costs, and his great plan rides on the use of Sol Emeralds, so we're trying to keep him from getting the emeralds. Tails and Knuckles were dragged into the conflict and taken hostage by Imperious' right-hand man, Chameleon."

Cynthia looked around, eyeing the white hedgehog over on the veranda. "What about him? What's his reason?"

Ghost chuckled at the amusing thought. He had never pried about why Silver had wanted the Sol Emeralds in the first place. Silver was given the option to come along on the quest, and he didn't seem to have a hero complex like Sonic or a need for revenge like Shadow.

Though Ghost respected his privacy, his sister was not quite so respectful. Cynthia was soon out on the veranda, leaning against the rail and looking over to the white hedgehog in question. Silver remained stoic in the silence, neither speaking to her nor showing any recognition of her presence. Indeed, when he did see her, he was shocked by her presence. "Do you need something?" he asked when he snapped out of his stupor.

"Why did you come with us?"

Perhaps subtlety was not Cynthia's strong suit, but Silver didn't mind the immediate question. It was better, in his opinion, than circumventive conversation that never arrived at the desired intention of the talk. "Because I need to find the Sol Emeralds."

Cynthia's brow furrowed in confusion. "Well… that would seem obvious. Why?"

Silver smiled as his resolve came back to him. He had never lost sight of his true goal. "Cynthia… how do I say this… I come from the future."

"Don't we all come from the future?"

That was poor explanation on Silver's part. "No, I come from the future of the present," he explained. "Everything I had ever known then was fire and flames, dust and destruction. I grew up in a world that was in the aftermath of Armageddon. I had a friend, an amazing friend…" He clenched his fist, shaking slightly as he smiled at his memories of her. "She was regal princess, a beautiful cat that was completely out of place in that world in all but her pyromancy capabilities."

Cynthia swore she saw a shimmer in the hedgehog's eyes. "You must have many fond memories of her if you speak so well of her."

"I really do…" he mumbled before smiling. "Blaze was my whole reason to keep on fighting. During the Solaris incident, she sealed a portion of the sun god within her to bring about an end to all the destruction. But to keep it concealed, she was forced to seal herself in an alternate dimension."

"So… you want to find the Sol Emeralds so you can get her out?" Cynthia asked for clarification.

"That's about right."

"Well, aren't you just a love-struck puppy?" she teased him.

"C'mon, she was my only friend for all my life. Cut me some slack."

Cynthia smiled as she continued to tease the young hedgehog, mocking him for his lovesick attitude. Regardless of that, she respected that aspect of him. A foolish aspect, but a respectable aspect nonetheless.

^/\^|v\/v

Crystal Palace

January-6-140

8:48 Mobius Time

[Now Playing: "A Rush of Blood to the Head" by: Coldplay]

When finally the trio arrived at the entrance to the palace after their slow ascent, they were disappointed to find that the entrance was guarded off by a growth of crystal. "Ugh, just great! Now, how are we going to get in," Thunder groaned in an exasperated tone.

Knuckles stepped forward, packing his fist tightly. "Just sit back and watch," he said with a smirk as he charged at the crystal. He launched a fierce punch that shattered the crystal instantly, sending an ominous noise throughout the castle. They had to step back from the strange summation of noises, wondering where it was coming from.

"What was that?" Tails muttered as they entered. He twitched and looked back, watching as the entrance to the palace closed up again. He saw his image in the shimmering crystal, frowning at how ominous it looked. Images refracted and reflected all over the palace, disorienting the fox as they moved on.

Knuckles sighed as he looked around, looking for holes in the reflections so that they could move on. Even in this maze, he felt drawn to the unmistakable aura of Chaos Energy. "It's a maze in here," the echidna mused as they adventured about. "Like a house of mirrors gone wrong."

"That's an interesting way to put it," Thunder mumbled as they stepped out into a hallway. This hall appeared relatively normal, made of crystal that didn't reflect light. Aside from a few tables and chairs, there was little abnormal about this hall. The air glittered with crystal specks.

The room would have been entirely normal were it not for the crystal behemoth in the center. The mass heaved, as if drawing a weighty breath, before dipping down again, letting the breath out. The behemoth soon caught sight of the intruders and let out a low groan before charging them.

"Out of the way!" Knuckles shouted to his comrades, who dived out of the monster's path. When it lugged a crystalized fist at the echidna, he put up a guard for it and regretted it immediately. Strong as he was, Knuckles still felt his bones ring after the contact. After recovering from the initial blow, Knuckles launched forward and through a power-packed punch at the crystal behemoth, knocking it onto its back.

Though the crystal giant stood again, Knuckles worked easily around its slow attacks and slid in for a low kick, knocking the beast onto the ground. With a quick jump and flip, Knuckles finished the giant with an axe kick in a decisive coup de grâce.

Before the beast shattered into dust, a light shone from the inside. Once it became dust, the body of a fully grown man was left behind. He lay in the pile of crystal dust, unmoving. Knuckles approached the body skeptically, "Is he still alive?"

"Thankfully, it seems that he is," Thunder concluded when he felt for the man's pulse. "He's in a coma, I think; though, he should be okay."

Tails frowned as he peered on ahead. The hall seemed to have stretched. Whether it was originally that long or if the crystal was creating some optical illusion, he couldn't tell. "We should be careful from now on," he said. "If he got turned into crystal, the same could happen to us."

"But how did it happen?" Thunder mumbled. "That's what I would rather know."

Tails wasn't quite sure of what Knuckles answered, at that moment. It seemed he could no longer focus on them, their voices fading and blurring till they were unrecognizable, dull squabbles. He looked around for the source of his disorientation, only to find that his vision had fizzled and blurred as well. The images were fuzzy, and his hearing was dull; the fox had effectively become impaired.

And then, there was a voice, a sweet, youthful voice; it was a voice he had come to love long ago. It melted like silk in his ear and swirled blissfully. At first, he didn't recognize it. But the voice eventually grew louder, and he gasped as it called out his name.

Not long after that, he was running for the voice. He cared not where he went; he had to hear that voice again. His surroundings blurred as did his vision. "Hello?" he spoke up, looking around blindly. "Cosmo, are you there?"

Though he had heard the voice of that girl from his past, he couldn't seem to find her, or anything for that matter. He figured it was probably his imagination that had heard her. When he came around, his senses picking back up again, he found himself lost in another hallway of crystal mirrors. "Oh great… I lost them."

He meandered around the halls, feeling more and more lost as he tried navigating the confusing halls. As he began to backtrack from a sudden dead end, he looked in to a mirror and found something that shouldn't be there. At first, the thing was a shade, nothing more than a blob of shadow and mist. Then it coagulated, formed itself into something malicious.

"Why do you keep going on, little fox? You know you are nothing."

The voice it spoke with rang inside his head. He winced from its words, but shunned it. He wouldn't listen to this apparition; he was just hallucinating. Yet still, the voice nagged on.

"You shouldn't have ever been alive, you know that? Your parents never loved you. You've always been a freak, a nuisance. Even your best friends have always thought of you that way, mutant freak. Even I always thought of you that way."

Tails felt his heart clench. He didn't want to hear these things, and still he tried to find a way out. "Shut up. You're… You're not real."

"Oh, I'm not real, am I? You're being used, Tails, used by everyone around you. You're so idiotic and naïve, you don't even realize that you're a burden to your own friends. You're a burden to everyone."

"Just shut up!" the kit shouted, starting to run. He didn't even care when he bumped into walls. He just kept running, trying to escape the shade, though he couldn't seem to accomplish that.

"You're immature and impudent. You can hardly do anything on your own. Why do you keep letting your pitiful life go on? It will never turn out good anyway. Freaks like you can never have a normal life. You'll just die the same way you came into this world: Cold and lonely."

Tails was running blindly. Tears streamed from his eyes. Why was it her who was saying these things? Why did it have to be Cosmo's voice? He tried to cover his ears, but the voice penetrated straight into his mind.

"And you know it too, don't you? You know that no one will ever truly accept you. You're tolerated, simply a nuisance that people talk to in public but secretly deject. You'll never be accepted, only tolerated as an annoying little insect."

Tails was bawling now. He really did feel alone, confined almost. He ran blindly and wailed, crying out for his friends. Where were they? Didn't they know that he was crying? He was in pain? Where were they when he needed their help?

"They're not going to come help you. You will never get help, pitiful runt. I never loved you, you know that right? Why would I ever love someone like you? I used you for help. Everyone just uses you, little Miles. They bend you until you snap. You have no friends."

Tails reeled back in pain, clutching his head. He had run into a wall blindly at full speed, and now he was feeling the results. Blood flooded from a bludgeoned spot on his forehead as he wept. The kit assumed a fetal position and cried and cried and cried…

Maybe the voice was right? Maybe he was just a useless pile of garbage? Was he really so wretched? Did everyone use him like she said? He didn't know any of these things himself as he blacked out and felt cold darkness enswathe his butchered mind.

[Stop Music]

^/\^|v\/v

Lethos

January-6-140

12:47 Mobius Time

"You think they're doing alright in there?"

Silver looked over to Cynthia and smiled at her question. "Nice to know that I'm not the only one who worries," he said with a short chuckle. As he leaned on the veranda's fencing, gazing up at the palace of crystal, he too wondered how his friends were doing. He had trusted in them during the Solaris crises though. He knew he could trust them again. "Don't worry about them. They'll come out okay."

"Oh, they might come out okay, but they might not come out okay."

Silver looked back and noticed James standing there, a dark expression upon his face. Silver could feel the vibes of upset that the child emanated. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"I told ya that e'eryone who went in there never came out," James reiterated, rubbing at his eyes. Was he tearing up? "There was one bloke that did come out. He was a right fine man before he went in, upstanding and all that. But when he came out, he was… changed."

"Changed?"

James nodded solemnly. "Me pa was never the same. He 'ardly even recognized me when 'e finally came out. Never recognized much else either. It was like 'e was an 'ole other person; 'e didn't even know up from down. He was driven mad and ran away somewhere. I never saw 'im again…"

Cynthia was appalled. To have one's father ripped away from them was a harsh experience, that enough she knew. But to have that father returned in some grotesque fashion… It was horrifying. "That's awful," she muttered. "You don't think that will happen to them… do you?"

"That's hard ta say," James mumbled. "It might, and it mightn't."

"Even if they do lose their minds, it's our responsibility to help them back up again," Ghost spoke up, having overheard them from within. "We don't abandon our own."

His words were strangely encouraging to the white hedgehog as he stepped back inside. Silver was about to sit down when he heard an unexpected knock at the door. "Hey, James, I thought you said everyone else was gone."

"Everyone else is gone, nitwit."

Though only slightly irritated by the boy's rude response, Silver was more concerned by the visitor at the door. "Should I answer it?"

Ghost shook his head as he retrieved his Jericho pistol from the holster. "Open it with your psychokinesis," he instructed the hedgehog as he kept the pistol trained on the door. "And, do step aside so that I don't shoot you."

Silver nodded slowly. He was still confused by the odd sense of hostility toward the mystery man at the door, but he followed instructions and stepped to the side, slowly opening the door with his power. However, as soon as the door creaked open, a figure dressed in a sun orange cloak burst through the door. The exploding opening of the front door knocked back Silver in a daze.

Ghost kept his pistol trained on the intruder. He noted the golden sun on the breast of the cloak, a symbol of Soleanna's royal family. "Who are you?" the grizzled blonde man demanded.

The figure peeled back his hood, revealing a greasy, black haired male with a thin face and black shades over his eyes. He held his own pistol up with incomprehensible lightning speed. "I'm Jack Makarov," he said. "You must be John Murray. I'm here to bring you to justice."