AN: Here we are again! If you follow both of my current stories, I know what you're thinking: "Hey Syao, what's up? Why are you updating RotP out of order?" I caved in and decided I wanted to sprint to the end of this novel. I have too many irons in the fire for me to cool them down now.

Special note to my super, fantastic, grand, inspiring... (ad infinitum) Beta reader, dark-phoenix-loves-kai! She knows I would would make twice as many mistakes without her. As I type this note, I'm making mistakes.

Anyway, on with the show, and the final segment of the Full Circle arc!

~ ("The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."—Martin Luther King, Jr.) ~

Syaoron the Fox presents

Following the Events of Sonic '06

Accompanied by Various Music and Themes

Remnants of the Past

Chapter 16

Full Circle Pt. 3

^/\^|v\/v

Castle Usha

September-28-2506

21:30 Mobius Time

[Now Playing: "Trails" by: Homestuck]

Imperious' eyes sifted through the barraging images of the timeline. While his omniscience of the timeline was normally a benefactor, the constant stream of different times and places were distracting him from focusing on what had really caught his gaze. A smirk grew on his face, splitting his lips wide open and revealing his toothy maw. Yes, everything was coming together now.

"Chameleon," his voice boomed down the empty, dim-lit hall. The echoes of his shout rang throughout the castle. "Bring her in."

Imperious watched with his sharp dragon eyes as Chameleon came down the hall, dressed all in black as was his assassin attire. Chained and bound, hardly clothed and hardly walking, Samantha stumbled behind him. Roughly, Chameleon shoved her to the floor before Imperious. She fell, holding herself up on her hands and knees.

"What have you brought me here for?" she asked in a pitiful, weak voice. She looked up at him indignantly despite her pain.

Smirking, Imperious leaned on one arm and eyed the much smaller woman. "You should not speak so harshly to the one who holds your life in his hands," he mocked her.

"Why you—"

"I said, be silent, woman!" Imperious bellowed. She shuddered at his powerful voice and held her tongue. "You're a smart girl, Samantha. I like that. I'm sure John liked it too," he mumbled. "Tell me, do you know what a kitsune is?"

"A Japanese folklore spirit," she replied in fear of another shout. "It's depicted often as a fox with plural tails. Some farmers would worship a kitsune so it would protect their crops."

"And do you know what elemental sphere kitsune encompass?"

The woman's eyes widened. Now with the strength to sit back, she looked up at Imperious with a nervous gaze. "Surely you don't expect me to answer that," she said.

"Oh, I very much do expect you to respond with an answer."

She was silent for a moment, not sure whether to speak up or to be silent. "I… I don't—"

"Don't present me with a falsehood, Samantha."

"Why are you asking me all these questions?" she barked back, nervous and afraid. Her whole body was on edge; the soft warmth of the blue flames felt to her like a thousand suns. "You're so knowledgeable, you don't need me to answer!"

"Oh, but it is much more fun this way."

More silence, more pondering. "Fire. Kitsune would be affiliated with fire," she finally replied.

"Very good," Imperious growled in approval. He scratched his chin, as if he were suddenly drawn to a faraway place deep inside his mind. When his dreadful gaze once again fixed on her, he spoke, "Then I do believe we've just affirmed our candidate for the flames of Iblis."

Samantha paled when she heard his words. "You… you don't expect me to believe that you have actually found a kitsune. They're spirits; they don't even exist!"

"Ah, but I have found one," Imperious said, revealing an image of the timeline to her. Before her were the anachronistic travelers standing on the bridge of the Blue Typhoon.

She gasped at the sight of the fox. A vague remembrance of the fox became clear to her: he was the kit who Imperious had imprisoned for a short time before John rescued him and the echidna. "No…" she muttered, crumbling to the ground under shock.

Imperious had already won.

[Stop Music]

^/\^|v\/v

Center of the Known Universe

September-20-2503

15:00 Mobius Time

[Now Playing: "Rust Servant" by: Homestuck]

The end of a war—a journey, a fall, a triumph, a corruption, a purification—was about to come to an end. The Metarex had been granted the power of a space-time energy collapse, the likes of which had not occurred in over a millennia. Their opponent was the Blue Typhoon and its passengers, standing stoic in the face of the challenge. The Metarex leader Dark Oak had condensed all the power of the combined Planet Eggs into a massive, planet seed which would destroy the fauna of the entire universe, bringing rise to a kingdom of flora. It was a time of heroism and villainy, of strength and weakness, of courage and fear. The time had come for the battle which would ultimately decide the fate of an entire kingdom of beings.

It is at this time which the anachronistic travelers find themselves. They hid in the debris from a crashed ship on the deck of the Blue Typhoon. The deck was wide and grey, accentuated only by artificial palm trees along the runway. "This is it, huh?" Silver mumbled under his breath as he peered out at the supermassive dragons at the center of the universe. "This is the final battle against the Metarex…"

"How come we can still breathe?" Cynthia wondered.

Tails answered shortly, focusing the remainder of his attention on the Metarex planet. He clenched his fist as he grumbled, "The rift in space-time creates a void of near limitless life. As long as we remain in here, we neither need to breathe nor eat."

"Tails... Will you be okay?" Knuckles asked, patting the kit on the shoulder.

Tails shrugged off his hand, barring his canines in a bestial growl. "I'm fine.

"Let's not start fighting now," Ghost reminded the two before gathering everyone in a semicircle about him. "The way I see this, the Sol Emerald could be in one of two places: either on this ship or over on the Metarex planet. I would prefer not to deal with that seed right now, so our best option would be to sneak around the Blue Typhoon and see what we can find out.

"It's a big battleship, so we'll have to split up. Tails, you know this ship better than any of us, so you'll take Knuckles and Silver into the ventilation system to see what you can find out. The rest of us will find the cargo bay and search it top to bottom."

A few nods went around and Ghost set off with Cynthia and Thunder. Meanwhile, Silver knelt down to help up Tails. The kit resisted. "We need to go, Tails," Silver insisted. "We have to look for the emerald."

"I don't want to go in there," Tails whispered. "She is in there."

"You won't have to interact with her, Tails," Silver reminded him. "We'll go in there, look for the emerald, and come back out. Don't worry about her."

"But… I will want to talk to her. When I saw her before, I wanted to talk to her and be with her again. I'll want the same thing when we go in there."

Silver frowned. "Tails, I—"

"You couldn't understand, Silver. You could never understand. For you, love is the goal, the point B to your point A. For me, love is always there—love is the journey, and love is the suffering. But no matter what I do, no matter where I go or what time I go to, she is always and forever just inches from my reach. Love is something impalpable to me."

Stunned by the manifestation of his true feelings, Silver was unable to form a coherent response. "I… Tails, but—"

"Shut up, Silver!" Tails shouted then. He leaped up and pinned Silver against some of the debris in anger. "You know nothing about the hardships I've been through. Don't talk like you know anything!"

"But I do know!" Silver shouted back, equally as angry at the kit's claim. "Blaze was taken from me by the fires of Iblis. I know what it's like to feel love, and I know what it's like to lose it. You're not alone in this, Tails. Do not criticize my feelings just because I have a chance to restore them and you do not!"

Tails cried out in anger, clenching a fist and poising his tails to strike Silver. Silver winced. He closed his eyes and heard the anguish of the fox lashing out at everything around him.

In a moment, Tails was silent. Silver opened his eyes to find that Knuckles had struck Tails in the gut with a fist and in the back of Tails' head with an elbow. When the fox was rendered unconscious, Knuckles held his hand out to Silver to help him stabilize. "It's alright," the rough echidna spoke. "He'll be better off this way."

Reluctantly, Silver nodded. He looked at the fox as he lay on the floor and breathed a wistful sigh. When they had both calmed down, they rushed for the nearest vent and climbed into the chamber.

^/\^|v\/v

Down below the deck was the cargo bay where Thunder, Ghost, and Cynthia began their search for the Sol Emerald. "Are you sure it was wise to leave Tails with Knuckles and Silver?" Cynthia asked her older brother, still uncertain about these events.

"Are you suggesting it was unwise to leave him with his two friends?" Ghost retorted. "He's better off in the hands of people who understand him as opposed to people who know him."

"No; Cynthia has a valid argument," Thunder said. He was still irritated with Ghost's stubbornness on the issue of Tails' memories. "Remember, Silver and Tails have both lost people they love, and Knuckles went with Tails during the fight against the Metarex. It would all remind him of Cosmo. He's likely to panic."

"That's a radical scenario."

"Tails is in a radical state of mind."

"You're being melodramatic."

"You're being irrational!"

Cynthia pushed the two apart and looked back and forth betwixt them. "Both of you, be quiet!" she ordered them. "Thunder, you're concerned for Tails, I know. Be calm. John, you're disregarding the fact that Tails is troubled. Stop that."

When the two had disarmed their anger, Cynthia continued. "Before we bite each other's' heads off, we have to find the emerald."

Thunder looked around some of the crates of supplies. He had innate chaos abilities, but he still couldn't sense the presence of the emerald down here. However, he did start to feel uneasy after a bit more searching. Foreboding welled in him and he went back toward the center of the dark cargo bay. "Ghost, can you feel that?" he mumbled darkly, barring his claws.

Ghost peered out from behind one of the boxes and nodded, returning to Thunder. "Yes. There's something else inside this ship."

The sound of sheering metal echoed in the cargo bay. In fear, Cynthia also returned to the center. "Metarex," she grumbled beneath her breath as insectoid robots tore through the metal walls of the bay as though they were paper-thin.

Grimly, Ghost looked around and gritted his teeth. "Looks like we'll be busy for a while."

[Stop Music]

^/\^|v\/v

Soleanna

September-28-2506

21:30 Mobius Time

On the less busy side of the Soleanna's castle town, Jack—former captain of the royal guard—owned a small house where he lived on his own. When the rain started pouring harder, he offered to bring Sonic into his home. Since he couldn't walk very well on his own, Sonic accepted the offer for a place to stay for the night.

Now, the cyborg sat across from the hedgehog while he displayed images to Sonic. His back was plugged into the wall; what he was displaying would require much more energy than his body would be able to supply.

"What are you showing me, Jack?"

Jack strained as he concentrated on displaying the images. After he had finished showing Sonic what he had intended to, Jack fell back into the chair and the images disappeared. "What you just saw are images of your friends searching for one of the last Sol Emeralds in the Metarex battle which took place three years ago.

"As far as I know, they've returned to this time to resolve a paradox and recover one of the scattered Sol Emeralds."

"They've been solving so much trouble, and I've been doing nothing," Sonic mumbled.

Jack leaned forward and patted his shoulder. "Shut up and stop complaining," he said. "I can't stand it when others blame themselves for things that are out of their control."

Sonic folded his hands, still solemn. "If only I—"

"But you weren't," Jack retorted. "That which could have been will never be. It's illogical to worry about it."

After a moment of thought, Sonic's lips split into a smile. "I never was a logical guy," he said. "So, why did you show me that?"

Jack sat back and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one for the occasion. "You need to know that you can't always be a hero," he said. "But you should also know that there's still work for us to do."

Sonic looked up quickly to the cyborg, surprised. "There is?"

"Yes," Jack said. "We can travel through time to the point when they return to the Temporal Vestige. Once we join up with them, we'll go back and meet Imperious for our last battle."

The smirk that had once normally graced Sonic's face returned once more at the suggestion. "Sounds like a plan, Jack. I like this idea more and more already."

Now with Sonic's approval, Jack waved his hand out in front of him. The machines within whirred to life and a portal to the Temporal Vestige appeared before them. Just as they were about to jump in, Jack blew out a puff of smoke. Sonic looked critically at the man. "You know, you're going to get cancer from all that smoking."

"That's why I have cybernetic lungs," Jack replied.

"Why did you get those?"

"… Smoking."

With a laugh, the two jumped through the portal.

^/\^|v\/v

Blue Typhoon

September-20-2503

15:47 Mobius Time

[Now Playing: "Forgiven" by: Within Temptation]

"Are you sure we were right to leave Tails behind?"

Knuckles looked behind him and saw a conflicted Silver looking down at the floor. The turmoil and dread expressed by the crestfallen psychic was all too apparent. "Silver, I may not seem to be a smart guy, but I know when the decisions I've made are good," he said.

"Still…"

The echidna sighed and continued crawling down the shaft. "Look, the way I saw it, Tails could have either sat out and saved himself the torture, or he could come in, help us, and then have an emotional meltdown," he said calmly. "Still, the little genius continues to choose his emotions over a level head. He came along anyway, so I had to make the right choice for him."

Silver sighed and followed directly behind Knuckles. "You don't think it was too harsh?"

"Too harsh? Of course it was. Sometimes, you have to be harsh to get your point across," Knuckles explained. "Tails is a smart kid, but he's rash and emotional. He has his heart in the right place, but sometimes his heart gets him into trouble."

The faint sound of voices echoed from somewhere down below. Knuckles motioned for Silver to be silent and he leaned down, placing his ear to the floor of the duct to listen.

"Cosmo, please try to stay safe."

"But Tails, I have to go out and help!"

Knuckles couldn't mistake either of those voices. The soft, feminine one was Cosmo. The prepubescent, masculine voice was Tails.

"I understand you want to help fight, but please understand... your safety is one of my highest priorities."

"But, if I don't help—"

"You've helped plenty! Giving us so much information about the Metarex, leading us here, you have helped us greatly. Let us help you by protecting you. Just stay in your room until the fight dies down, and everything will be okay. Keep that Sol Emerald close; it should protect you if anything dangerous happens."

"Okay, Tails. Thank you, though. For everything."

"You're welcome, Cosmo."

Footsteps went down the hall in both directions. Silver tapped Knuckles' shoulder. "Did you hear that? Cosmo has the Sol Emerald in her room."

"That must be how she managed to survive the blast of the Sonic Power Cannon," Knuckles mused. "She probably used the space-rending powers of the Sol Emerald and the combined power of the Planet Eggs to encase herself in a dimension where she would be safe from harm. Come on, we have to get that emerald."

Further still, the sneaky duo crawled. Silver trusted Knuckles to know the way, and he noticed that he could feel the emerald's presence at the edge of his mind's grasp. He had an innate grasp on the wavelength that the emeralds of power gave off, one similar to the Master Emerald's guardian, though Silver's detection skill paled in comparison.

Knuckles peered down through another panel and kicked down the vent entrance. He hopped down into the room, and Silver followed. It was a nice room, well-kept, organized and colored a stately green; it was clearly a girl's room.

"There," Knuckles pointed to the green emerald lying atop a shelf. "Grab it and we'll be out of here."

Silver nodded and walked over to the shelf. He reached up and grabbed the glowing emerald. As soon as he touched it, he could feel the power that flowed so naturally from it. It was genuine.

Still, the two arrived at the wrong moment. The door swung open.

"Knuckles? Who is that? What are the two of you doing in my room with the emerald?"

Silver and Knuckles snapped their attention to the door where Cosmo stood, thoroughly confused. "We—uh—well, Cosmo, we… uh…" Knuckles stammered.

Silver noticed how the echidna froze up and began shaking. He clenched his fists and seemed to breathe harshly. This is unlike him, thought the hedgehog. Knuckles is normally so cool and collected. Is it because we're inadvertently sentencing Cosmo to death? That thought alone made Silver shiver as well.

"You do not need to feel so nervous around me, Knuckles," Cosmo said. "I am rather disturbed as to why you are in my room, but you can just tell me what it is you want. And how did you get all the way over here so quickly? Last I saw, you were on the bridge with Tails and the others."

"Cosmo… you see…" Knuckles mumbled. "There's not much time to explain, but Silver and I need to take this emerald. I'm not the same me that you saw on the bridge; I'm from the future, with Silver."

Cosmo staggered at his frontal request, but soon recovered. "I don't think I understand. What is going on?"

To save Knuckles the time it would take for him to form a coherent answer, Silver stepped forward. "There is an enemy beyond this dimension who seeks to wreak havoc on our world. He is gathering these Sol Emeralds to complete his agenda, so we're collecting them to stop him," he said. He reached into his quills and retrieved the white Sol Emerald he kept with him. "See? This is proof that we're collecting them."

Cosmo nodded, though still unsure about the situation. "You're traveling through time to get the emeralds?" she asked, confused. "But… that would cause a paradox, would it not? Altering time, especially an event as massive as this, would certainly cause an anomaly."

Silver looked over to Knuckles, who only gave a meek nod, before he continued. "You see… the Sol Emeralds are the anomaly," he replied. "Everywhere we go, the Sol Emeralds cause a paradox, and it's our job to stitch up the paradox by removing the Sol Emerald."

Still skeptical, Cosmo queried, "On what basis am I to believe you? How am I to be sure that you two aren't causing a paradox by interacting with me right now?"

Silver was shoved aside then by Knuckles, and the echidna snatched the green emerald out from Silver's hands. Knuckles took Cosmo's hand and placed the emerald in her palm. "Cosmo, there really is very little hard evidence we have that can prove our honesty. Please though, if you have even the smallest inkling of trust in me, in the rest of us, in Tails too, then you must let us have this emerald."

Cosmo stood in shock as she held the warm emerald in her grasp. She looked down at the legendary stone and bit her lip. "Knuckles… Might I ask you a few questions?"

"Of course."

"Normally, you are brash and confident. Now, you lack that same brashness, and you even regard me in a nearly holy way," she mumbled. "If this is a paradox… what is really going to happen to me?"

Knuckles clenched his fist, looking down toward the steel floor. "We weren't powerful enough to destroy the Metarex on our own," he mumbled. "Dark Oak failed in his forestation, and decided to blow up the universe with the Planet Eggs. You flew over to Oak and transformed, trapping Oak's powers and allowing us enough time to destroy him."

"Knuckles…" Cosmo mumbled. "If I give you this emerald, will I die?"

For the longest time, Knuckles said nothing. His breath hitched and tears fell. The normally stony echidna let loose years of tears saved for this, for the anguish and shame he felt that they were not able to save her. Everyone who shared that final day on the Blue Typhoon shared this pain. "Yes," he whispered through hot tears.

Knuckles was surprised when he felt Cosmo's hands upon his this time. She enfolded his hands with the last emerald. She was crying too, but she kept a happy smile on her face. "Knuckles, if what you say is true, then I will dutifully, no, gladly accept my fate. There is a greater purpose for me; I have known it all along. If that purpose is to die, so it shall be."

She laid her hands upon his cheeks and smiled. "Don't cry for me, Knuckles. What has happened for me, has already happened for you. Take this emerald, and save the lives of millions. Knowing that you will do that makes my fate seem easier to accept. Go now, Knuckles. Go."

Feeling empty and suddenly depressed, the two walked out. They returned to a nearby vent and scuttled back to the wreckage where Tails was laid. Knuckles, who had been biting back tears for so long, slammed his fist into the hull in rage. "Damn! I never thought I would succumb to such emotion..." he berated himself. "It's just not fair."

It was at this inopportune moment that Tails recovered from consciousness. He looked over to Knuckles and glared. "Knuckles, why did you knock me—"

Tails paused, his gaze caught onto a glimmering light flying toward the dark planet which the seed had sprouted. He watched as the light enveloped the dark planet and became an enormous Sakura tree in a blinding explosion of light. He watched, dumbfounded, as he heard the echo of her words reverberate through space:

"Shoot me."

"No…" Tails mumbled, his legs wobbly, his eyes watery, his breath hitching every few seconds as he breathed rapidly. "No, no, no!"

Light charged in the power canon on the bridge of the ship. Tails, filled with unbridled fear and shame, ran for the cannon in spite of the futility of the act. He managed to get alongside the barrel of the massive cannon when the blinding shot rang out. The explosion in the chamber let of a shockwave which sent Tails flying back.

When he recovered from the explosion, he looked up and saw the rubble of a destroyed planet and a sea of scattered Sakura petals.

"Cosmo, no!"