Recursion Error
Episode 83- F!#k the future
Sorun hadn't known what to expect. Really. Walked up to the house with zero expectations whatsoever. How Tails would react, how the family would react. Tails would probably be upset. Mina, he didn't know, the two of them barely ever spoke, it'd been twenty-five years, and Tails probably told her about him. The kids he was blank on. Really he was ready for anything.
Being ushered into the house with a warm smile somehow still managed to surprise Sorun. It was a pleasant one, granted, but still unexpected. He was still in a bit of a stupor when he'd been sat down in one of the most bog-standard living rooms he'd ever been inside of in his entire life, sitting down on a couch while being handed a sandwich. He hadn't even asked for one was the thing, not after what happened last time. He was just being offered one out of courtesy.
The hunger made it so he couldn't refuse, so he'd at least gone through and requested under no circumstances was so much as a molecule of mayonnaise to touch it.
"... Thanks," Sorun said, a bit awkwardly as he took the piece of food. He was sitting on the couch, so the Mobian woman standing next to him stood taller. Of all the future versions of Mobians he'd seen Mina had probably visually aged the least out of all of them, Shadow aside. There was still visible aging, mostly in the eyes, her demeanor, but then again he hardly knew her so he didn't even know if that was due to age.
She offered him a tentative smile, brushing locks of purple hair so it spilled over her shoulder. "It's no problem," she assured him. "It's just nice having someone visit from the... you know, the before time. It's been so long now that the kids have finally calmed down from it, so..." She trailed off, smile falling a bit when she saw Sorun was staring up at her blankly. She tried picking her smile back up. "It's just nice. Seeing you again. I know I can't really complain since you must be dealing with a lot more than a sudden case of double-memories, but if you need someone to talk to my husband and I are here."
They weren't friends. Sorun knew that, Mina would probably disagree despite the fact they'd barely ever known each other, but Mobians would be Mobians. Even if he wasn't committed to his plan Sorun still wouldn't take her up on that offer because he was Sorun, so he didn't so much as give her an acknowledging blink. He instead turned his head around, towards the open entranceway that separate the living room they were in and into the kitchen. He saw two small, yellow forms dart passed. Mina caught him staring and saw the two children.
"Er, sorry. Need to be a mom for a bit." She began stepping towards the kitchen. "I-I'll go get Tails when I get a chance."
Sorun watched her go off, silently. Saw Mina disappear around the corner, and then silently turned back forwards, blinking once as he looked down at the sandwich. He took a bite.
... Halfway decent.
By the time he'd finished the sandwich to calm the hunger pains he felt Tails had entered his vision. He made a small sigh, sitting down in the couch opposite of Sorun so they faced each other. His hands were clasped together, features tight and wound as he looked up into Sorun's eyes. The human kept his face blank.
"What took you so long?" Tails asked. "How long did it take you to close the loop?"
The question caught Sorun a bit off guard. He had to think a bit for the answer. "Like an hour? Hour and ten minutes?" he guessed.
"Okay, and you finished it? It's done?"
"I don't think we'd be here talking about it if I didn't finish it," Sorun answered. "Yeah. It's done. Loop's closed."
That seemed to be the answer Tails was looking for. Relief washed over his face as his entire body relaxed, sinking further into the couch as he let his arms flop to his side. Sorun blinked a couple of times as he stared at the fox, neutral expression discarded in place of some confusion on his face, and Tails offered the barest smiles and shook his head.
"Sorry, it's just... I've been wound up over that ever since you left," he apologized, sitting up straighter. "Waking up every day wondering if I was gonna look out the window and see the entire world disappear because of a time paradox. Thanks for everything, Sorun. I know it likely wasn't easy."
It'd been shockingly easy for Sorun to bend someone into a living pretzel. He didn't know what he felt on that. "It's fine." Sorun couldn't even tell if he'd said a lie. "How long was I gone that you're reacting like this?"
"You left for the past five months ago after we finished talking."
Sorun's lips thinned a bit. He'd gone a bit more forwards than he'd liked. "Time traveling's a new skill for me." Truth concealing a lie. It felt like he didn't even have to think of it anymore. "That's not gonna affect the loop, is it?"
Tails shook his head. "No, as long as you set up events so that the next Sorun in the loop can do the exact same thing you did to preserve the loop infinitely and you went back forwards to a point in time after you went back to close the loop, we should be good. You said it yourself: the fact we're still talking confirms it. We're set."
"Oh. Okay. Alright." Sorun still didn't know what his feelings were regarding the loop. How he'd condemned some past version of himself to repeat the same thing he'd done, only for them to do the same thing to another past Sorun. An infinite chain of repeating events. He tried likening it to how there was a Sorun a second in the past, who was sit still for a second until he was in the present, so now there was another second-in-the-past Sorun. Or something similar.
Time. The loop itself and the implication of infinitely repeating events was irrelevant since time flowed ever onwards. So it didn't much matter as long as time and the universe remained intact. He'd move on, they'd move on, everything would infinitely move on because time was time. The point was he fixed things so it wasn't something Sorun had to worry about.
Except now he was fixing to break everything he'd just saved.
"Um, I'm sorry." Sorun's attention was focused back on Tails. He was giving the human an apologetic look, which he found surprising. "I know this must be really hectic for you, how your life went from being in this one place to another, how everything's different. The future, the alternate timeline, all that."
"Mm. Wouldn't be the first time," Sorun commented, making Tails pause. "You would know since you were there for it the first time. Even facilitated in it. Made the portal, dragged me through." A long, uncomfortable silence stretched. "But that's in the past," Sorun finished, the response allowing Tails to breath again.
"Whew, yeah, uh... mmmmHM." He coughed into his fist to clear his throat. "Again, I'm sorry. I know you must be going through a lot."
"You didn't sound very apologetic after what happened at the castle," Sorun pointed out. "There's children present in the house so I won't get into specifics but you know what I mean." How he killed someone.
"Yeah, about that." Tails cleared his throat again, suddenly looking a bit more uncomfortable. "Look, I get tensions were fairly high, and you were probably dealing with a lot at the time. Your nerves were frayed, you were still coming down from fighting Enerjak and getting sent here, and I get even before that you'd been through, well... more than someone could be reasonably expected to handle. But it's been a while, and now that Sonic's the king again he's been fixing a lot of the things King Shadow twisted, so..." He fidgeted under Sorun's empty glare. "Yeah. Everything's going back to normal. I still don't agree at all with what you did, but everything worked out in the end."
Was it just denial? Tails claiming Sorun was in so much mental disarray at the time his judgement had been that skewed? Hell, he was probably right if that was the case; Sorun didn't know. Or had so much time passed it was all a distant memory and he found forgiveness in his heart? Because they were friends? Because everything was fine - everything was not fine - now they could just drop it? Sorun didn't even know if he should feel relieved or spiteful.
"Uh. Okay." It took some moments for Sorun to articulate sentences in light of Tails' words. "It's been difficult, wrapping my head around it all, how things are just gone and replaced by other things, memories, events." His eyes darted towards a nearby window. "It's like I don't even exist in this world. I didn't."
"I know. I know it's rough." The tight smile Tails wore dropped, his eyes turning sympathetic. "I know you put a lot of yourself into getting a new life on Mobius-"
"Yeah, Tails, I did," Sorun interrupted. Frustration, the first actual emotion he'd shown since entering the house after being greeted by Mina, creeped into his tone. "I had my life shattered into a million pieces and just when I finally start fixing things everything I had, everything I ever did, it just gets erased? Again? Like Earth? I worked my a-" He paused abruptly, and then turned towards the kitchen entrance. A yellow-furred head darted out of the doorway from where blue eyes had been peeking at Sorun. He turned back towards Tails. "I worked really hard," he reiterated. "Fixing everything. Fixing myself. It's all gone now. Again. What about that sounds okay to you?"
Tails' ears fell a bit. "I know, Sorun. It's awful," he admitted to him. "Sonic was kind of going through the same thing, but things have gone stable for him. If things were different I'd come up with some way to fix the timeline, maybe try and emulate Robotnik's time machine and make my own to make things the way they used to be, but it's just too big a risk. When Sonic did it the timeline almost tore itself apart and in the process of fixing itself we were left with an alternate history. We only risk making things even worse by pushing it further, or even worse just destroying time, and by extension, the entire zone." Tails shook his head. "No. I know it's not ideal, but this is what we have." The corners of his mouth turned a bit upwards. He had the gall to look hopeful. "And hey, things aren't so bad now, are they? Sonic's back in the throne, things are going back to normal, and now we can all just pick up where we left off. All things considered we could be in way worse shape."
"That's easy for you to say, Tails. You got to keep your family."
"... Sorun, it's not like anyone outside of our group even remembers that timeline," Tails reminded him. "I'm not gonna lie and say I don't have it the easiest, but regardless there's nothing to be done about it."
"Yeah. I know. I'm gonna go ahead and change everything back anyways."
The first reaction Tails had was confusion. Incredulity, a raise of one of his furred eye ridges as he examined Sorun and the completely straight face he was making. Interestingly the first thing that came out of his mouth was a small, nervous chuckle followed by the odd look Tails gave Sorun.
"Sorun, um... I get you're upset, but really, you need to let it go. You can't go back to that timeline. None of us can," Tails said to him, slowly, like he was explaining this to a child. Sorun began wondering if Tails was thinking he just didn't understand. "I'm not telling you this to be mean, I'm telling you this because it's literally impossible."
For the first time since Sorun entered the house he looked to the left, at his left hand that continued to clench its fingers around Yamato. He rose it up a bit for Tails to see, and then turned his head to him, saying, "Nah. I got this, remember?"
Tails shook his head, and the nervous grin widened. "Sorun, I don't think you're getting this. It's not like the timeline we're on got tacked onto the original timeline or something like that. It was overwritten with this one, supplanted. It's gone. The only past you can travel back to is this timeline's past."
Sorun made a noncommittal hum of acknowledgement.
A few moments of Sorun silently staring at Tails found the fox's grin lowering somewhat. "Hey," he said, reaching a hand forwards, "why don't you just hand me that-"
The blue ribbon on the sword's scabbard reached up to wrap around Sorun's wrist. The movements were quick enough to wrap around the wrist in a blink, but the way they curled around the appendage was slow, almost protective. Sorun watched it without any change in his expression while Tails had yanked his arm back in shock.
"I'm fine," Sorun told Tails, still looking down at the sword. "Don't look so alarmed. It's only semi-sentient, no will of its own. Just enough to do what I want it to. Technically all Devil Arms are alive since they're made with still-living souls, but Yamato is special in that it was only made from a third of a soul. And even if it's just an artificial recreation the rules still apply it seems."
"I-I don't understand," Tails stammered out, eyes still staring straight at the sword. "A Devil... Arm? Sorun, you're not making any sens-"
"You know the weird thing about Chaos Emeralds and how they interact with me is I can make anything from that piece of fiction," Sorun continued, more to himself, like he wasn't even talking to Tails who listened on. "Weapons, powers, maybe even certain demons if I really tried. 'Cept Devil Trigger. Still haven't cracked that one," he added bitterly. "I thought about making the Beastheads, at the least maybe the statue form, since it has the ability to teleport people to alternate timelines and I could just use that, but that thing eats human souls and I'm not sure I could actually control it. Too unreliable, too dangerous. Never gonna be an option.
"But that's unnecessary anyways. I experimented around with Yamato, and I found a way. A way to go back."
"Sorun, you're talking crazy." Tails had straightened up, face turned into a deep frown as his eyes went from the sword to Sorun, who met eyes with the fox. "I don't know what all the talk about monsters is, but there is. No. Way. Back. It's impossible."
It took some seconds for Sorun to respond. He'd leaned forwards on the couch to get closer to Tails, clasping his hands together with the Yamato between his fingers. His eyes didn't leave Tails'. "The Yamato's power is to separate," Sorun intoned. "I don't think you're appreciating what that actually means, Tails. How broad that description is. The depth of it."
"I'm not seeing a lot of depth in a sword that can cut through anything, Sorun."
"I think I see the problem. You're a genius, Tails, no one can deny that. But all that knowledge of yours sits with practical things. Machines, science, math. But the esoteric nonsense around these powers is where I shine because of all the fiction I've consumed in the past. Mobius just doesn't have the same media," Sorun told him. "What you're failing to grasp is that the sword's power to 'cut through anything' is a singular function under its separation power. The limit of separation is limited to my perspective of how that singular word can apply to something. I think the fact it's a Chaos Emerald is to blame for that." He tiled his hands a bit so that the end of the sword's handle pointed at Tails. "For example. If I stabbed you with the Yamato, I could use it to separate you from your ability to speak. I'm not saying that like it'd take your vocal cords or carve your speaking knowledge out of your brain or something like that; the idea, the simple concept of speaking, would be taken from you. Even if you were physically able to speak, and had full knowledge of speaking, you wouldn't be able to ever talk again. Because the Yamato separated out your ability to talk from you.
"Or I could separate other things. Separate out your intelligence, rob you of your genius status. Take certain memories away. Memories of your children, your family, but leave the intelligence. Separate out your inhibitions so you couldn't say no. I could wipe away your entire personality and lobotomize you into being a little genius slave. That's pretty gross, huh?"
There was a ruffling sound as Tails' fingers squeezed down on the couch cushions, the gloves he wore making a slight squeaking noise. Tails' eyes were alert, focused solely on Sorun with his ears straightened up. The rest of his body, even his tails, was still, and there was no hiding the tenseness in his entire body. Sorun himself remained calm, though a small, almost teasing smile did play across his lips.
"Tails, relax. I'm just kidding around. I'd never do that. What do I look like, Robotnik?" he asked him. "I'm just giving examples to help explain away Yamato."
The Mobian relaxed, albeit only slightly. He maintained his glare into Sorun's eyes, and his gloved hands didn't stop squeezing the cushions. "Examples. Right," Tails muttered out. "You had to make them so creepy?"
"Just trying to get the idea of separating ideas across."
"Well I get it. What does this have to do with anything?" Tails quietly snapped out.
"Hmm..." Sorun's eyes dipped down to the Yamato. "You know I tried going back there using the Yamato already? Didn't work because you're right: there's only this one timeline. But you need to realize that, at one point, our old timeline did exist. A timeline that isn't this timeline. Two separate things. Regardless if it isn't here or not, it at one point did, and because of that there's an idea that the two timelines are mutually exclusive from one another." His fingers tapped on the sword's scabbard. "I can use the Yamato to get back there. Just like how I use it to cut through space to make portals, or cut through time to time travel."
He could see gears turning in Tails' head as he processed Sorun's own words. The implication behind them, Sorun's meaning. There were periods where he would shift slightly in his seat as he intensely thoughts, eyes widening and narrowing in brief interims along with slight mumbles escaping his lips. The only thing that remained constant was the fox's breathing steadily increasing.
After a bit, Tails shook his head. "No, that doesn't make sense. You shouldn't be able-"
"I think," Sorun interrupted, "it might have something to do with the fact that the Chaos Emeralds, Chaos energy as a whole, is immune to time. Time just doesn't touch it. The only reason I'm even here and didn't get erased is because I was inside the Master Emerald and it shielded me. If you really think about it all the Emeralds here aren't just identical duplicates. The containers, sure, but the energy within? It's the same from our timeline. Combine that with the Yamato's separation ability, maybe even entertain the idea that, since the Emeralds' energies are originally from our time, there's a tangible link back there through them. With how insane all this Chaos stuff can get is it really that hard for you to believe, Tails?"
Tails shook his head. Roughly and quickly. Almost in denial, which had Sorun sit up straighter. "Even if you could, even if all of what you just said is right, a single Chaos Emerald wouldn't have the power-"
"Yeah, I know, when I tried it couldn't do it. Yamato doesn't have the power," Sorun finished. "So what you're saying is I just need more power and I could do it?"
The question didn't cause much reaction out of Tails at first. He seemed to think it over, and then something dawned on the Mobian. He sat back against the couch, eyes opening as wide as they could as he stared at Sorun. There was hurt in his expression, betrayal.
"Did..." Tails began, voice sounding hoarse, "did... you come all the here to my house just to ask me that? You didn't come just to visit me?"
Sorun gave the fox a confused look. "Why would I want to visit you? We're not friends. You're not Tails. You're just a stranger with his name and face."
Tails recoiled like he'd been struck. There was pain in his eyes, some anger as well, but mainly pain. "Sorun, that's not true, that's... how could you say that-?"
"You think the Master Emerald would work?" Once again Sorun interrupted Tails, carrying on like he hadn't said anything offending with a bored expression. "I could try using it as a means of amplifying my powers, stab Yamato into it, use the sword as a power conduit. I have enough control to do something like that now."
He could see Tails stiffen, some things like his ears and tails twitch. A moment where, even unconsciously, Tails had considered Sorun's theory, and then reacted in some way. Realization? It had to be, from the way Tails' visual nervousness just increased. Like Sorun had just said something concerning.
"So it is the key. Yamato can do it. I just need more power from the Master Emerald."
"Sorun, what are you hoping to accomplish with this?" Tails' voice had gone lower, his expression becoming startlingly calm. Something like acceptance passed over him before he fixed Sorun with a cold look. "Even if you manage to temporarily boost the sword's power, and even if you manage to cut your way into the past timeline, what do you plan on doing about it?" he asked. "Are you forgetting about the time anomaly that almost tore the zone apart? The reason Sonic ended up inadvertently altering the timeline in the first place? If you try to stop that alteration from happening we'll all die."
In a nonchalant gesture that seemed to frustrate Tails further, Sorun shrugged. "I'll separate the time anomaly from the zone with Yamato," he suggested. "I have no idea where it'll end up if I do that, though. Throw it in the space between worlds, maybe. It's a time anomaly, so for all we know if we remove it from the timeline it was affecting that alone will be enough to neutralize it completely."
"You don't know that, though."
"Does it even matter?" Sorun asked. "Why are you being so aggressive about this? I thought you'd be on board with me. I'm trying to fix the world."
"The world's as fixed as it's going to be!"
"No, it isn't." For the first time since entering the house sparks of anger began to appear on Sorun's face. He himself was beginning to feel frustration, at Tails, at the stance he was taking. "This isn't okay. None of this is okay. I promised Sonic I would make everything normal again, and I can do that." He shook his head, looking confused when he asked Tails, "Why are you so against this when I can make everything normal? Things can go back to how they were, everything-"
"Because you don't know what you're doing!" Tails exploded, rising out of his seat in a standing position. "You don't know the consequences of opening a portal that bypasses so many laws of time and space you'll be connecting to a timeline that doesn't exist anymore! You don't know if you can dispose of the time anomaly with the sword! You'll have to go back in time to before Sonic changed the timeline, you realize that, don't you, Sorun? You know you'll be changing the timeline, and the consequences could mean destruction of the whole zone!" He collapsed back onto the couch, sighing while shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Sorun. Yes, I'll admit that Chaos energy... well, it can do anything, so if you're right about the sword then theoretically, yes, you could do all this. But it would possibly mean disaster. You can't, Sorun."
It made Sorun wonder what Tails was playing at. Confirming to Sorun that he probably could do what he was proposing and trying to dissuade him. Why? Because Sorun would just try anyway? Was he trying to lead him with the truth and convince him not to commit because it could mean death for the whole universe? Trying to be transparent with Sorun to have the best chance of convincing him? He'd like to think it, but Sorun very much doubted that, even at a subconscious level, Tails was trying to subtly nudge Sorun towards trying it. Not when he looked this afraid. Not with his family to consider.
Whatever Tails' reasoning was wouldn't matter, though. Sorun had already made his mind up on this.
"I'm still going to do it," Sorun said. "I didn't come here to ask permission. I'm doing it regardless of what you say."
"Sorun, I am begging you to listen to me," Tails pleaded. "I know you think you can fix everything, but you can't, you really can't. I know this hasn't been the easiest time for you, I know it's almost never an easy time with you, but just because things are bad now doesn't mean we can't help you-!"
The sharp glare Sorun sent Tails cut him off immediately. He'd heard enough to know Tails stance - how he'd gone from appealing to Sorun to bargaining. He wouldn't budge from his opinion on matters and Sorun was done trying to convince him. All he had to wonder was what Tails would move on to. Would he just accept Sorun had made up his mind and let him be? Threaten him? Sorun only saw it going one of two ways forwards, but he couldn't figure out which direction Tails would lean in.
It didn't matter. He wouldn't let him stop him even if he did try. Best he could do was wish Sorun luck, but the human felt that was him being wishful.
"Tails. My mind's made up," Sorun said, with an air of finality in his voice. "I'll use the Master Emerald in conjunction with the Yamato to open a way back to the true timeline. I'll use the Yamato to get rid of the time anomaly, and things can go back to normal."
"Or you cause the complete destruction of the entire zone with how much you're messing with time." Tails' expression was hard.
"At this point I'm completely fine with that. Either I make everything normal again so I can go back to sleeping in my bed, or I die in the process and get to sleep forever. Whatever the case I absolutely refuse to spend another second longer in this place than I have to."
Tails' teeth grit in anger. "If you think for even a second I'm going to allow you to endanger-"
Whatever he was going to say was interrupted when a figure darted into the room. Small, Sorun had noted. A child. A fox that bore a striking resemblance to Tails. He made the conclusion that he was one of Tails' children when he ran up to Tails and hugged him while he was still sitting on the couch.
The older fox was caught off guard by the sudden contact, anger vanishing off his face while being replaced by a softer, albeit it confused, look. Sorun, meanwhile, simply watched the pair in silence.
"U-uh... hey, Skye," Tails mumbled out, reaching up to rub the top of the kid's head. Slowly, tenderly. "What's going on?"
The child hugged him harder. "Daddy sounded mad," he spoke, quietly.
The answer almost seemed to startle Tails. "I'm not mad at anything," he said, gripping Skye's shoulders to pull him away. "Just, um, having a small argument with my friend."
"Mm." The smaller fox turned around towards Sorun. He looked up at him, less afraid and more curious as he gazed at the human's face.
On a dime, Sorun's expression had changed entirely. From a apathetic mask hiding the smoldering frustration and anger he felt to a kind face holding the smallest of smiles, eyes completely free of malice. "Hey, champ," Sorun greeted in a light tone, reaching with his right hand to pat him on the head. "Just talking with your dad. Nothing serious," he lied.
Skye had responded by giving Sorun the same treatment he'd given his father and hugged him, close enough to bury his face in his torso.
In response, Sorun made a small chuckle. "Well, you're real friendly, aren't you?" He continued to gently ruffle Skye's hair through the hug. At the same time he looked back at Tails' face, and in a seamless transition Sorun's expression morphed back into the fusion of apathy and anger he'd had with Tails. He lifted his left hand up, showing off Yamato in plain view of Tails.
The thumb on his left hand pushed on the sword's guard and broke the seal on the scabbard, showing off a bit of the sword's blade. Tails completely froze at the sight.
"You're honestly the luckiest kid in the world to have a dad as caring as your father." Though Sorun's tone sounded kind, the face that betrayed his animosity towards Tails remained. "Really, he seems like the kind of guy that'd do everything he could to protect his family. He's a good man."
"Mhm." Skye nodded into Sorun's chest.
"Yeah, he and I go way back. Such a dependable guy you could always count on to have your back. You must love him a lot."
The compliments were doing nothing to sooth Tails. He was starting to shake with fury.
Once again, Skye nodded. "Mhm."
Sorun's thumb pushed down on the sword's guard to put the blade back in the scabbard. "Well, sounds to me like you're the luckiest person in the world to have a dad like him." When Skye pulled away from Sorun, his face morphed back into the kind one with the slight smile. He gave the child one more pet on the head. "You seem nice, but this is grown-up talk your old man and I are having, okay? Maybe go play with your sister. What was her name again?"
"Melody."
Sorun's eyes darted up to Tails'. "Melody, huh?"
"Skye. Please leave us alone." There was little to no emotion in Tails' voice when he spoke, and it sounded like he was struggling to say the words. Skye didn't seem to pick up in his shift in demeanor, and happily skipped away back towards the kitchen he came out of. Sorun watched him go, then looked back at Tails.
"Cute kid. Kinda shy-looking," he commented. His eyes lost their kindness, and the smile fell. "What?"
"Get out of my house."
"Tails-"
"Get out," Tails growled out, "and never, ever come back, Sorun. Do you hear me?"
"Fine." Shrugging in agreement, Sorun stood up off the couch. "Not like it'll be that hard since this version of your home isn't likely to make it past the hour anyways. I'm heading right to the castle."
He turned around to leave. Tails had spoke out and stopped Sorun before his right hand even managed to reach out towards his sword. "You know, I thought I knew you. I really did. I had to wonder if I really did after what you did to King Shadow, and I managed to convince myself that you were just under a lot of stress." Something appeared underneath all the anger his voice, almost akin to sadness, and when Sorun didn't respond Tails continued. "But threatening my children, Sorun? Were you just bluffing around with the sword hoping I'd drop the matter or were you actually serious?"
Sorun didn't have an answer to the question. Truthfully he didn't even know what the answer was. "I just want to go home, Tails," he said, looking over his shoulder at the Mobian glaring at him. "That's all I want."
"And you're willing to go this far to do it? Threatening my family?"
"If you're gonna make a problem of it. Maybe it'd give you perspective," Sorun responded. "I'm going to the true timeline, and I'm not going to let anyone stand in my way. And I'm surely not gonna let you ruin my life again."
By now Tails nearly looked like he was snarling. "I saved you!"
Sorun tore the sword out of its sheath. Despite his demeanor, Tails still flinched. "That wasn't the context back then. It was a byproduct. Don't act like you did something noble. You didn't." He slashed a cross into the air, and seconds later it folded inwards into a portal. "Just please do us both a favor and don't try to stop me. Don't call anyone, don't do anything. It'll all go easier if you just let me do this."
Tails shook his head. "You know I can't."
A deep frown settled on Sorun's face. He thought of saying something, but then decided against it and shook his head. "Whatever. It doesn't matter."
He stepped through the portal without another word.
He was acutely aware that he should have gone straight to the Master Emerald the second he stepped out of the portal and closed it. Less risk of outside interference. Sorun wanted to, but a lot of Tails' words stayed with him that he couldn't help but mentally go over as he slowly re-sheathed the katana.
In a way, he was right in that Sorun didn't have a full grasp on what he was doing. A lot of it was guesswork and assumptions, though, granted, he was in the best position out of anyone to make accurate educated guesses when it came to the Yamato and its powers. Ironically he was the best judge of the situation despite not being as knowledgeable of time compared to someone like Tails, who was good enough to jury-rig a time-immunity room to protect himself and his family on short notice.
But Yamato let him circumvent the lack of understanding due to the broad nature of its power and its ability to just bulldoze its way through the rules due to the nature of Chaos energy. He just needed more. But there was that risk Tails droned on about, how Sorun might end up breaking the entire universe in trying to fix it. To be fair there was truth in his words, but Sorun had been honest when he said he was at the point where he didn't really care. In the best of all worlds he'd succeed and go back home to the others, but failing that he'd rather die than stay here.
It was still causing him to hesitate, though. Because of what Tails said. Funnily enough the prospect of dying still held weight over him despite the amount of times he'd brushed so closely to death. He didn't know whether to be grateful over the fact that was one thing that wasn't desensitized about him yet, that there was at least that bit of humanity left in him, or to be annoyed on how it was making him hesitate with this.
So with all that in mind he'd portaled into the castle he'd been loathing such a short while ago, in one of the halls. Somewhere below him was dungeon full of weapons and other things he didn't really want to know about, as well as the Master Emerald. Really he didn't even need to take the stairs down there; he could just make a portal direct. And it still irked him that he should do that but wasn't.
"Not yet. In a bit. Just need to clear my head first."
To that end he began to idly wander the castle halls. Less because he wanted to and more because, quite frankly, he didn't really have anywhere else better to go in this world. It was daytime now, from all the windows he was passing while roaming the halls. Bright and sunny, a stark contrast to when Sorun first appeared here. Almost bright enough to hurt his eyes, to the point he found himself shying away from being too close to the windows.
He noticed there were some changes, at least aesthetically. Not evil paintings hanging on the wall, no reliefs of angel girls. Sorun still didn't know what her deal had been. From everything King Shadow had said he managed to piece enough together to assume she was someone he'd been close to that died, but he decided not to think any further on it than that out of respect for the real Shadow. Without all the distasteful decorations, the castle interior was admittedly... tolerable, in a way. The only thing keeping Sorun from saying it was "nice" were the memories he held of the place.
He wouldn't be shedding any tears once it was gone.
"What the- hey! Hey, Sorun!"
At hearing his name, Sorun had stopped, then he made a small groan when he recognized the voice. More out of annoyance than displeasure. He didn't even get to turn around fully before he heard a rapid set of footsteps, followed by a blue body standing right in front of him when Sorun finished turning.
"..." Sorun's eyes directly went to the top of Sonic's head. He was wearing a crown - there was some relief when he saw it was a different crown from the one King Shadow had worn. Even so Sorun still had to resist the unconscious urge to smack it off of Sonic's head, and instead looked down a bit to meet his eyes. "Hey," he stiffly greeted.
"Uh, yeah, hi." A few moments passed, each more awkward than the last. From the uncomfortable look Sonic had on he had just about as many words to say as Sorun did. So it couldn't have been that many. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "I, er, didn't hear you come in from the guards."
Sorun quirked an eyebrow. "There's guards?"
"Yeah, Sorun, I'm king now, and guards are kind of a king thing."
He blinked, and then looked around. He and Sonic were the only ones in the corridor and Sorun hadn't seen a single guard in all the time he'd been here. "I don't think they're doing a very good job," he said, turning back to Sonic.
"Probably not," he agreed. He made a sigh and pinched the space between his eyes. "You've been gone for a whole five months, man. So I'm guessing you're done with, you know, the whole time thing? That's settled? Tails filled me in after you left."
"Yeah."
"And you really had to be gone for five months to do this?"
Sorun offered a shrug. "Time travel's tricky," he explained.
Sonic's shoulders sagged. "Don't I know it," he murmured out, and instantly Sorun felt a bit bad.
"... I met with Tails," Sorun began. "He said you're holding things down." Remarkably the city wasn't on fire, so Sorun supposed Sonic must have been at least half-decent at this. Surprisingly.
A dry chuckle left the hedgehog. "You don't have to sound so surprised," he said. He sounded like he tried to be playful, but he just came off as sounding plain exhausted. "Yeah, it was a bit of a mess at first, after you, you know..."
"Killed that last king," Sorun finished, making Sonic jump a bit. "Yeah. Regicide. Deicide. Been getting a lot of the cides in lately." When all Sonic offered him was a blank stare, Sorun added, "It's a Latin suffix that means... oh, whatever, you don't really care."
"Hey, don't say that," Sonic chastised, watching as Sorun walked over to and leaned on the wall near one of the corridor windows. "I get a lot happened, and how... we'll say upset... you were because of this, really showed me a side of you I didn't know you had, but things worked out."
"Mm. So this isn't the part where you crucify me for committing a cardinal sin that I don't really care about?"
"I'm more concerned about the fact you don't care than about you actually doing it." Another silent pause between them. Another sigh from Sonic. "Look, what happened happened. And I know you're not a psychopath that'll go around cutting people even with a good reason, so we can't just, you know, move on? It's been months."
Sorun hummed. It was more maturity out of Sonic than he would have expected, but he was grateful for it nonetheless. And eager to get off the topic. "So things have been good?"
"As good as they can be. All the people I'm in charge of now, they're, um, they've been real supportive, actually. Dunno if that means I'm doing a good job since a lot of it's actually been Sally." He glanced off to the side, his cheeks visually heating under the fur. "We got back together. Probably already guessed it but she's queen."
Sorun's expression grew flat. "You married this timeline's Sally."
"Yeah," Sonic confirmed, "and, well... we, uh... we kind of already have kids on the way, you know? So things are finally coming back together."
Sorun's expression didn't change.
"I know it's not the same, never will be I don't think, but this is fine, right?" Sonic asked him. "World's coming back together, everyone seems happy enough, and things are just... things are going great. We're fixing everything. That's gotta count for something, right?"
"Fixing. Sure." Sorun glanced down, folding his hands over Yamato and holding it over his lap as he continued to lean his back against the wall. "None of what happened bothers you?"
"Well of course it does, but-"
"Never mind, I get it."
"O-okay." Sonic waited for Sorun to continue, but when he said nothing, he awkwardly coughed into his fist to try and gain his attention. Blue eyes flicked up to look at Sonic. "How are you doing?"
He could have stabbed him for asking that question. "Who even knows?" Sorun airily answered with a shrug. "I think I will be okay, maybe. Later. I'm glad to see you're taking it all in stride." He must have said that a bit harsher than he intended, because he saw Sonic flinch back a bit. "Sorry, I-I didn't mean it like-"
"No, I get it," Sonic assured him. "It's just... weird. Seeing this side of you. The side of you I saw back when we were dealing with Shadow."
"Yeah. And you got old and Tails married an idol. It's been weird for me, too," Sorun said.
"I get it." Sonic slowly exhaled and looked away. "We really did try, you know. To get you out of there after what happened with Enerjak. Everyone did. We didn't want to leave you in there."
"In the past. Literally. 'S fine." It wasn't really fine, but at this point, with what Sorun was planning, it didn't matter. Not a word of this conversation mattered, really, but Sorun had yet to work his nerves up to go downstairs to the Emerald.
"Can I at least ask why you did all that?" Sonic's question made Sorun pick his head up completely. "That whole thing with Enerjak?"
A bit of confusion wormed its way onto Sorun's face. "I didn't want my friends' souls to be enslaved and for the rest of the world to be conquered by an insane god. What about any of that do I need to make clear?"
"You sacrificed yourself again," the hedgehog pointed out.
"Yeah, man, I- Jesus, what do you even want from me?" An exasperated sigh left Sorun when he realized just what kind of answer he had to give. "Look, I liked you all, okay? I liked living there, in that city, with all you. Rest of the world, eh..." he tilted his head from side to side, "kinda iffy, but that was true even from where I'm from. It was home."
It was somewhat grating, admitting all this. Doubly so because it was him. Triply so because it wouldn't matter in a bit because this whole conversation would be erased. Sorun wondered if any of this even mattered, if he was really even talking to Sonic or if he was just talking to himself again and just using Sonic as an outlet this time. The blue Mobian was at least keeping quiet and letting Sorun speak his mind, and he still didn't know if he should resent him for doing that or not. He still continued regardless.
"Look, in my old life, my old home, I... I mean I had something. I had a mom, I had some friends, I had one really good friend who I'd go as far as to call a brother. I knew people in the community, neighbors, cashiers at places, that one homeless guy that got into fistfights with birds. But that's all gone now, don't know why, but it is, but with the exclusion of my mother and David I never... I was never really close to people like I was to pretty much everyone in that city. Like, close close. I dunno. It's stupid."
"I don't think it's stupid," Sonic said. Bastard sounded sincere. "Why didn't you ever tell any of us this?"
"I think humans are hardwired never to say any of this, because every sentence I speak on this is making me want to jump off a roof." It wasn't a lie; Sorun was actively fighting himself to say all this and he hated it. "Or maybe it's just me. I'm not social." He paused. "But yeah. I ll... I liked you all. Really. I did. So I didn't have to think very hard about making the choice I did."
It was the smile that did it for Sorun. That really big, wide, happy smile he saw on Sonic's face that made something twist violently in him, that made Sorun grip Yamato tighter. He had to speak before Sonic got the chance to get a word in.
"But I'm going to be completely honest with you, Sonic. Out of everyone, I liked you the least."
The smile shattered away, and he just had to look hurt at the statement. Almost crushed, even. But Sorun pressed on, and for some reason he found it easier to say all this than to admit how much he'd adored everyone back at New Mobotropolis.
"It's not because I think you're a bad person. You're not. You just... everything about you freakin' irritates me. The way you act, things you do. You did one thing to me in particular I never forgave. But... people have flaws and you were a good person, and we were friends. So if it was a question of giving my life up to save yours if it was just you on the line, I'd give the chances of me doing that a solid maybe." A lie, it was a hard yes, but Sorun couldn't find it in himself to admit that. Easier to just fib it. "And even if you do drive me up the wall, you don't deserve what happened with your life and your kids, man."
There was movement on the other side of the window that caught Sorun's attention. They were on a floor above the ground, so he had to glance down to see it. A flying car had touched down on what looked like a cross between a landing pad and parking garage. A figure was walking towards the castle, towards a pair of guards standing at a gated entrance. The red alone told Sorun it was Knuckles, if that hat didn't give it away.
He clicked his teeth together. Probably meant nothing; could just be a routine visit if he was still a chief enforcer to the king, but for all Sorun knew that position was dissolved. Could also be Tails tattled on him and for whatever reason called Knuckles first, and he was coming here to do... what? Warn Sonic, intercept Sorun before he got to the Master Emerald? Maybe all this was wrong and he was here for some other reason entirely.
Whatever the case it still jolted Sorun enough to finally work his nerves up as he watched Knuckles enter the castle. He didn't like how fast the echidna was walking. Was barely even a walk; more of a slight jog, like he was rushed. Didn't bode well. Good thing he was done talking to Sonic, anyways.
"... Anyways yeah everything sucks but hey glad you're doing well," Sorun quickly finished, pushing off the wall to face Sonic again. "Gotta go now."
"H-huh?" Sonic seemed startled by Sorun's sudden energy. "So soon?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, alright." He seemed almost disappointed somehow, though Sorun didn't know why. "Hey, you have a place to stay?" he asked him. "I get, uh, that you probably don't since, you know, new timeline, so if you need somewhere to kick your feet up a bit 'til you acclimate-"
"Nah don't worry about it. I visited Tails earlier and he's giving me a place to crash back at his home," Sorun assured him.
Sonic had visibly sagged with relief. "Oh, that's fantastic to hear. Knew I could count on him," he said, smile returning. "To be honest with you I was kind of nervous with the idea of you staying here, 'cause I raised the idea with Sally, and all she ever saw of you was after, you know..." He made a choking noise and dragged his thumb over his neck. "That. With Shadow. She has this crazy idea you're some kind of unhinged maniac. I tried to tell her different, but you kind of shot your first impression with her."
"..." Sorun made a sharp inhale. As a parting gesture he should have hugged Sonic. He settled for patting him on the shoulder with a stiff arm. "She's a smart woman, Sonic. Smarter than the both of us put together. Don't lose her, 'cause I don't know anyone else with the patience needed to deal with you."
Sonic gave him a questioning look. "What's that supposed to be mean?"
"Hey, don't worry about it." He pulled Yamato out of the sheath. He entertained the idea of cutting Sonic's legs off right now, just to be safe. He decided not to. "Some stuff I gotta go settle," he continued, cutting a portal into the air. "See you when I see you."
"Uh, yeah. Sure." Sonic didn't manage to lift his arm up all the way before Sorun vanished beyond the portal. "Bye."
Somehow Sorun wasn't surprised to find Knuckles there when he exited the portal. Standing right in front of the pit separating the room's floor from the circular platform held aloft above the pit by chains, where the Master Emerald was suspended above that by even more chains. The lighting was the same as Sorun remembered, bright, the brass/gold metal walls.
As Sorun closed the portal, standing across from Knuckles in the open entranceway to the room, he found himself wondering what was even going on. His presence alone, standing there with his arms crossed, one eye narrowed in his direction and the bionic red eye glaring at him, said enough. That he knew what Sorun was trying to do. He just couldn't figure out why, out of all the ways Knuckles could have gone about this, he chose doing this. Alone. Instead of trying to go to the king or bringing others.
Perplexing as it was confusing. And Sorun found himself wary of the sight of the lone echidna.
"Hey, Knuckles, how's it going?" He tried playing it casual, on the off chance Sorun was wrong and this was something else entirely. Or at the very least to sound confident to maybe try and rattle Knuckles. But his expression may as well have been stone, so it wasn't working.
"I can't believe I ever called you a friend."
Sorun started at that. "Well that's quite a thing to say to a guy. We didn't even get a chance to talk like normal people during the whole arresting me thing from five months ago. Don't want to talk about anything else, catch up? Wife, kid, job-"
"Tails called me. Told me what you did. What you're trying to do," Knuckles interrupted.
The light grin that was on Sorun's face fell off into a neutral expression. "Mhm. And what'd he tell you?"
"That you're messing with time behind everyone's backs. That you tricked him into telling you things." Knuckles shook his head, almost looking like he was in disbelief. "That you... you threatened his kids so he wouldn't tell anyone? You went that far, Sorun?"
He could have pointed out he never made any direct threats, but Sorun didn't see the point. "It didn't seem to take so well since he still called you. Surprised you came all the way down here just to greet me instead of going straight to Sonic." Risky enough to be suspicious.
"Tails called me because he knew you would never have done something so horrible. So do I. I'm here to convince you that you're making a mistake."
That was the reason? Simply because Knuckles believed reason was enough to win this situation? Sorun's shoulders sagged with disbelief. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the answer.
"Sorun, I know you're a good person. I understand this whole situation, everything, is scary and you're probably more confused than I could even imagine, but this?" Knuckles gestured back at the Master Emerald. "What you're trying to do? It's wrong."
"Why?" Sorun snapped, frustration building. "Why is it wrong? Why is me trying to fix everything wrong?"
"You mean outside of the risk that you could possibly destroy the world doing this?" Knuckles shot back. "There's no reason."
"There's no reason," Sorun repeated, tone dull and monotonous. "You really, truly, honestly believe that."
"I believe it because I'm right! What you're trying to do is wrong!" Knuckles exclaimed. "Do you even understand the gravity of what you're trying to do? You're trying to rewrite everyone's lives, their memories, reality, everything!"
"Back to what things were originally!" Sorun argued. "And you don't have a place to talk." His expression soured. "You're just like Tails, got yourself a happy little family and everything. No, why would you want the timeline to change when things here are working out so well for you, huh? You can't fucking talk. You and Tails. You're both hypocrites."
If the words hurt Knuckles any, he didn't show it. He just shook his head. "No. You're wrong," he said. "You think you know what you're doing, but you don't. You always do this, even back when you were a Freedom Fighter, thinking swinging your sword around fixes everything because you're just a kid-"
"You're really going there? What, just because you're an adult now you know so much better than me?" Sorun asked. "This doesn't mean a lot coming from the guy who let himself get possessed by an insane spirit twice. And both times I had to be the guy to solve the problem. Or are we just forgetting that little detail out of convenience?"
If Sorun wasn't angry before, he truly was now. Everything about this, people trying to stop him when he was just trying to fix everything. People thinking he didn't know any better. And now this, Knuckles talking to him, his words sounding almost patronizing to Sorun. Like he was acting like a parent scolding a child, and it honestly sickened him. He felt insulted.
"You wanna argue with me over this, I'll argue it with you," Sorun said, "but if you really think I'm gonna back down because you're twice my age and know better, we're going to have a short conversation."
Knuckles' features tightened. He bowed his head a bit, shaking it while muttering under his breath, but he remained where he was, standing across from Sorun. Only a distance of two meters, probably not even that. The echidna rose his head up and met Sorun's eyes.
"Fine, have it your way. If this is what it takes to get you to stand down," he agreed. "But tell me why. Why are you doing this? What's the point of trying to make things like they were when things here are fine?"
"Because I didn't fucking die two times to save the entire world only for it to mean jack shit because of Sonic's fuckups," Sorun heatedly answered. "Because I didn't pull my life together only for it not to mean anything anymore because nobody here asides from you, Sonic, Tails and his wife even remember who I am."
"So you're going to interfere with the lives of every single thing in the universe because of what? Your ego?" Knuckles asked, disbelief heavy in his tone. "Because nobody here will acknowledge you for everything you did?"
"No. Because back there, in that timeline, I had a life! But here? Here it's all wrong, everything's wrong," Sorun said, shaking his head. "How everything's different, everyone's changed, this world? This isn't the world I gave my life for! Not this place, not these people, none of it!" He stopped himself, and against his will his face began to look pleading. "I just want to go back. Back to the life I had, where everything was better. Why are you trying to stop me?"
"Because this isn't just about you, Sorun. It's about everyone, because if you go through with this it affects everyone in the whole zone," Knuckles answered. His face turned grim. "Have you even given any thought to what's going to happen to some people if you go through with this?"
"Why should I?"
"Do you even realize how many people in this timeline are alive compared to the one we came from?" Knuckles asked him. "Say what you will about King Shadow, even I didn't like a lot of the things he did, but the fact is he unified the world. Ended conflicts way before we ever did, saved more lives than anyone, the Freedom Fighters, the Republic of Acorn, ever did!"
"He took lives, too," Sorun pointed out. "Or did you forget that?"
Knuckles' glare hardened, and he exhaled through his nose. "Yes. He did. And because he did an uncountable number of people, of families, exist in this timeline that never had the chance in the other. You know what happens to them if you set things back to the way they were? Those people that got to live here but died in the other timeline, those families, those lives? They cease to exist because either they died over there or they were never even born."
"Yeah, but what about Sonic's kids, Knuckles, huh?" Sorun challenged, voice high and cracking. He gestured his left arm holding Yamato behind him while nearly shouting. "His children got fucking erased because of all this! His wife doesn't remember who he is! What about people that are dead here that are live there!? I'm just supposed to let them continue to be gone so people that never should have existed to begin with can live!?"
"He got back together with Sally!" Knuckles argued. "They're having kids again! He got his family back!"
"Do you even know how fucked that sounds?" Sorun asked, voice broken. "That's not his Sally, Knuckles, that's just someone else! They're not gonna be his original kids, they're gonna be someone else! Forget how even genetically they won't be completely the same, but the memories he had with them, their personalities? You can't just fucking substitute a lost family and just forget about the originals! And I can just bring them back, so why does it matter!?"
"It matters because of everyone else!" Knuckles shouted. "What about them, Sorun? The people who get erased because you chose to do this? What Sonic had to do the first time, changing the timeline, it was an accident but was necessary at the time. What you're doing? It's a choice. You're choosing to erase people. So what about them, Sorun, huh? What about the people who get erased just to bring Sonic's kids back? What about the kids Sally is pregnant with right now?"
Sorun shrugged. "Sucks to be them, I guess."
Knuckles' mouth dropped open. He looked appalled and furious at the same time. Enough that he had to take a few seconds to find the words. "You can't be serious."
"Either way you slice it one set of kids get to exist and the other doesn't, and that's just one example. It's a shitty situation all around. The only thing that matters is what I choose to do, and I choose to go back. If that means people I don't know and care about die so that people I don't know or care about can live then fine, whatever. I don't really care. Both decisions are wrong so I'm going with the wrong choice I want."
Knuckles' fists clenched at his sides. They began shaking. "What gives you the right?" he growled out. "The right to make this kind of choice, to decide who gets to exist and who doesn't? Why do you get to decide something like this?"
"Because I can," Sorun answered. Knuckles became so enraged at the answer his teeth clenched. "Because I'm the one with the magic sword. Because I'm owed a home after everything I've done and I want to go back to it. Because this timeline was never even supposed to exist in the first place and I'm just putting things back the way they're supposed to be." He sneered at Knuckles, eyes full of derision as he regarded him with contempt. "You're barely even a person. Everyone and everything here, it's all fake, mocking, wrong. Nobody'll even remember anyways so it doesn't fucking matter."
"And if you end up destroying the world? Because of this? Or if your presence end up derailing something in the timeline, ends up altering history anyways? If the zone ends because of your actions? Have you even considered that, if by some miracle you make it back, even manage to go back to the time you were put in the Master Emerald, your very presence could end up changing history when you weren't there the first time?"
"Well that's just a risk I'm willing to take, Knuckles."
"On behalf of the whole world!? Without anyone's consent!?"
Sorun only offered another shrug.
Knuckles didn't have the words at first. Something in his face shuddered, and Sorun had to wonder what it was until he saw him raise a gloved fist up to wipe something away from the one good eye he had left. He shook his head, and then looked at Sorun.
His legs spread out, knees bent. He rose his fists up to either side of his head. Readying a combat stance, Sorun realized, and he looked about as serious as could be.
"I was wrong. You really can't be talked out of this." It came out of Knuckles' mouth as a mumble, almost somber-sounding. His stance tightened, expression looking much more resolute. "I'm not letting you go through with this."
"... 'Let'...?" Sorun echoed, almost in amusement. He glanced down at his side, where he held Yamato, and then looked back up at Knuckles. "Really? You're gonna try and fight me while I have this?" He gently shook the sword.
Knuckles shook his head. "I know the powers that sword has. The basics, at least. And I know they're too dangerous to use on a living person without maiming or killing them - what you ended up doing with King Shadow says enough. And you're not nearly good enough with just the ordinary blade to beat me in a fight, Sorun."
Sorun blinked. He grew confused. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm telling you that you can't beat me using just the sword, and you can't use its powers on me because it's too lethal," Knuckles clarified. "You can either give up or run away in a portal, but either way you're not touching that Master Emerald. Even if you try to portal right to it from there I'm fast enough to stop you from doing anything."
"Oh." That's what he meant. He really didn't know how serious Sorun was over this. He almost did laugh, but he was so shocked by Knuckles' thinking all he could do was stare at him, bewildered. "You know..." he finally drawled out, looking down at Yamato and grabbing its handle, "there's another benefit to changing the timeline back. Everything'll just get overwritten again, and it's because of that none of this matters. Not this conversation, not everything I did, none of it. It'll all be erased and replaced just like it was the first time everything changed. So you know what, I really could have just slaughtered Tails and his family. Because once I turn everything back to normal that would have just been undone and they wouldn't have even remembered. Shadow'll come back, too, so no matter what I'm walking away from this with clean hands. So it doesn't really matter if I kill you right now." Sorun glanced back up at Knuckles. "You know. Since it's all just gonna be overwritten anyways."
Knuckles tensed up, his mouth thinning. "No. I don't believe you," he said. "You're not going to kill me, Sorun. I was your friend."
Sorun's fingers drummed along the sword's handle. "I dunno. I recently found out it's way easier to kill someone than everyone ever made it out to be." He fully gripped the sword's handle, though it remained sheathed. He affixed Knuckles with the most serious expression Sorun could muster. "I'm going back," he said. "You won't stop me. Believe whatever you want about what I will or won't do."
Not another word was said between them. Knuckles just stood there, still in a fighting stance, his face morphing through so many complex expressions as he thought and tried to come to a decision, and Sorun couldn't tell what was going on in his mind. If he was trying to figure out if Sorun was bluffing or not or what the best method of attack was if he was really committed to fighting him.
As for Sorun himself, he just stood there, hands calmly gripped around his sword. His own stance eerily calm as he stared at Knuckles with a cold, empty expression. Waiting for him to make a move. Silently praying he'd just move aside.
After what could have been seconds or minutes, Knuckles moved. In a dead sprint straight towards Sorun. He settled on Sorun bluffing. He'd only gotten five steps in before his entire body was engulfed in a warped sphere of space. He was in the process of shifting his facial expression into something, whether it be betrayal or fury or surprise, but just didn't have the time to finish before the slashes from the Judgement Cut came.
It wasn't like with King Shadow, who could weather Yamato's abilities and come out with mere scratches. Knuckles' body had been rent apart completely from the slashes inside the warped space, sliced apart in dozens of places in the blink of an eye. He'd been running fast enough that, even after he'd been cut to pieces, the forward momentum carried the body parts further, making them roll and fly past Sorun.
Slowly, Sorun exhaled and stared down at the severed body parts littered around him. Half an arm there, a quarter of a torso there. He saw Knuckles' head at the corner of his vision. Completely dead, his eye glassy and jaw missing, but even still it looked like he was staring at Sorun. And Sorun didn't know what look he was supposed to give back to the head. One of sadness? Anger, regret? All he could do was shake his head in something that could be closely defined as disappointment, but that wasn't quite it. He didn't know what it was.
"Stupid call, Knuckles," Sorun whispered out. He looked ahead, up at the Emerald suspended in the air by the chains. He didn't waste any further time, swiftly walking forwards and hopping over the divide that separated it from the platform held below the giant gem.
"Ever since I got dragged onto Mobius it's done nothing but throw bullshit at me, and all I've ever been able to do is deal with it," Sorun said aloud, almost glaring at the Master Emerald as he pulled Yamato free from its scabbard. "Well, this time I brought some bullshit of my own."
Yamato flashed outwards, severing the chains that held the Master Emerald up. It slammed down onto the center of the platform, causing it to jostle roughly, the chains holding it above the pit rattling. Sorun nearly lost his footing, but fortunately managed to right himself as the platform and chains settled.
He could faintly feel his heartbeat steadily increase. The scabbard hung off his waist, right hand holding the blade while his left was empty. He'd laid a hand on the Emerald, and immediately felt it for what it was. The intrinsic connection made between it and him the moment physical contact was initiated. Boundless energy contained in a physical form, thrumming beneath his fingertips and waiting to be released by a just simple mental command.
Often, Sorun wondered what would happen if he actually absorbed this thing. It was essentially just a more powerful Chaos Emerald, how much more powerful was an answer he wasn't even sure could be quantified in the context of these things, but what would it mean for him power-wise? Would it let him make things he wouldn't be able to make with normal Chaos Emeralds? He couldn't imagine that was the case; the Yamato was pretty much the ceiling of reality-breaking things he could conjure from 'DMC'. Just more powerful versions of those things? Maybe. He was only having to rely on this because Yamato wasn't strong enough to do what he needed. Or, as a grim afterthought, maybe even for him it'd be too much energy and he'd just overload and get flash-disintegrated.
The thought caused Sorun to subtly shudder. Any ideas of turning the Master Emerald into Yamato were abandoned. Too many unknowns, too many risks. This was was safer, even if it had more steps, that added layer of complexity. But he didn't come this far just to get offed on a stupid mistake like that. An accident, after everything he'd gone through. It'd be insulting.
He plunged Yamato into the Master Emerald, halfway to the hilt. So far, nothing, which was good. He focused on the blade, closing his eyes and breathing out. To reach backwards, past the nonexistent breach that divided this timeline from the other. Reaching not past, but through time and space, to reach something that no longer existed but was, nonetheless, separate from this reality.
There was a mental twang in his mind, like pulling a string taught. The location was there, but he couldn't reach it. Too many rules said he couldn't. Space said it didn't exist, and time said it never happened. But yet it had. Time wasn't a factor when it came to Chaos energy, and the Yamato chose to ignore space at Sorun's will. Even if the location didn't exist, it was still there, and Sorun was locked onto the coordinates. Chaos energy provided the way to make anything possible. It was just a question of how much.
"Well, here goes everything." With his left hand resting on the surface of the Master Emerald, Sorun pulled at the energy underneath. Green energy, buzzing and violent, arced up along his arm, causing a harsh tingling sensation. He funneled it through his shoulders and down his right arm, right into the sword.
The change was immediate. He could feel the sword in his hand charge with energy, felt the connection to the location he was focusing on strengthen. The bond between him and the sword blurring together. The pulse of something alive in his hands.
"I don't want to be here anymore..." Sorun's voice could barely even be heard above the crackling green energy racing through his body. "Take us out of here. Out of this place. Bring us back home."
Cracks appeared along the length of the katana's blade. The cracks grew to the point the blade was segmented to tens of asymmetric pieces, each piece still held together into the rough shape of a katana by blackish-blue flesh that cemented the metal pieces together. There were eyes spread throughout the flesh holding the sword together, individually darting their vertical irises and pupils to look around the room before, all at once, they all looked down at the Emerald the sword was stabbing into.
The sword felt Sorun's will, and made it so.
Its power reached out, facilitated by the sword's user and the immeasurable energy flowing into it from the Emerald. The blue irises of the eyes along the sword, as well as Sorun's own eyes, shifted to an intense green. Fundamental, inviolable laws of the universe were bypassed and outright ignored as it reached for the destination Sorun desired. The concepts that separated the two timelines was cut through.
Sorun twisted the sword.
The Master Emerald lost its green luster, dulling to a dark gray, and the gem was split in two. The intense crackling of energy was heard, there was a bright light, and Sorun lost all his senses.
...
...
...
He came to in however long it took Sorun to recover. Feeling came back first, and Sorun felt himself laying on something soft and damp. His ears were next, registering a quiet, pulsing sound. The air smelled and tasted off in a way he couldn't form into words. Stale ozone.
When he finally opened his eyes, irises still glowing green, Sorun realized he was no longer in the room that had contained the Master Emerald. It was a tunnel, some kind of tube. Dark. Blurry, too, until Sorun realized that was just his own vision still adjusting. Blinking multiple times managed to clear it up until he managed to accurately see where he was, and it was a sight that took his breath away.
He was in a tube of meat. Dark walls of pulsating, blue-black flesh, glistening like it was almost hardened but still flexible. The walls were spotted with the eyes everywhere. Pupils slit, irises glowing green, all staring straight at Sorun.
"The fuck is my life anymore...?" Sorun whispered to himself. He looked behind him, towards the end of the tube. There was an end to it that he saw, though the sight once again stole his breath. The end of the tube looked just like the entrance to a portal: it lead back out into the room where the Master Emerald had been. He could faintly see red at the end, the diced pieces of Knuckles' corpse.
And then he looked ahead, at the other end of the tube. Faintly he could see there was a end, but unlike the one behind him there wasn't an image that told Sorun where it lead out. Just white light. Bright enough he had to squint his green eyes to see it.
"Is... is that where I want to go? The way back?" Sorun asked the eyes staring at him from the walls, silently hoping for an answer. "I need to go that way?"
All the answer the eyes gave him were to all move in unison from looking at him to looking towards the end of the flesh tunnel that lead to the white light, away from the room with Knuckles' corpse. It was about as definitive an answer as Sorun could hope for, so he took it for what it was and began walking towards the light.
He saw the eyes were changing the further he walked. Whatever power was fueling them to change the color of their eyes, all the energy from the Master Emerald he presumed for lack of a better explanation, it was beginning to wane. The irises were shifting back and forth between blue and green, with Sorun's own irises flashing the two colors in sync with the eyes on the wall. He found himself speeding up as a result, going from a light jog into a straight run towards the end of the tunnel. The flashing colors was quickening in frequency, and he didn't want to dawdle in this tunnel too long for fear of it collapsing while he was still in it. No telling what would happen to him in that case, if he'd even life to experience it.
Fortunately, the exit to the tunnel hadn't been too far away. Once he was in reach Sorun had dove right through.
He ended up landing on what felt like solid concrete. Cool, crisp air blew over his skin as the sight of an eye-filled tunnel was replaced by the view of a city block in the dead of night, with Sorun laying on the street. He groaned and rolled onto his back, spotting the portal he'd just dived through hovering in the air above him. A swirling mass of blue energy, not too dissimilar to the portals he usually made. The space-defying aperture twisted and condensed in on itself, giving shape and solidifying until the blue shape transformed from a portal into a solid object.
Sorun sputtered out when the blue Chaos Emerald dropped onto his face and rolled next to him. He shook his head, and then groped around blindly for the gem until he managed to grip it. The gem shifted into the Yamato, and he used the sword as a crutch to pick himself up.
"I... I... fuck, did I make it? This is?" Panting out heavily, Sorun glanced around him. He was in some city, somewhere, but he couldn't tell if this was in the right timeline or not. There were people on the streets around him, Mobians, all who'd stopped what they were doing to stare at him. Most questioning. A few frightful.
Ignoring the looks, Sorun made his way to the closest one, an echidna he didn't recognize. "Hey, man hey," he called out, stopping in front of the red Mobian to lay a hand on his shoulder. "King Shadow, name ring a bell to you?"
The echidna gave him a confused, if not frightful look as a response. "Wha- who? I've never heard of- you mean King Soni-?"
"I fuckin' made it." Sorun shoved the Mobian away, turning around as low chuckles made their way to Sorun's throat. The Mobian had scrambled away from Sorun as a result, turning around and running away from Sorun. All the other Mobians that had been around him did the same in an effort to get away from the stranger that was quietly cackling in the street. A quiet, wheezy laugh broken up by coughs that betrayed how exhausted Sorun was.
Exhausted, but elated. Even if he could register all the people that had run away from him he wouldn't care they saw him as a loon. They didn't matter at all. He'd made it. Made it back to the right timeline. Nothing mattered but that.
"He-he-he-ghk-chk..." A few more coughs wracked Sorun's throat, throwing the laughs off completely. He made a small shouting noise, shaking his head and then breathing in deeply to try and clear his head. "Ah... ah, man..." He looked down at Yamato. "The hell even happened with the Master Emerald? Did I... shit, did it break?"
He'd managed to see it before he got sent to the meat-tube. The way the color left the Emerald, how its shine dimmed. The actual Chaos Emerald used to create Yamato seemed to be completely intact by all means, but the Master Emerald, the way it'd broken apart before that transition... just how much energy was needed to literally breech the impossible and separate the bounds between one timeline and a nonexistent timeline that had, at one point, been reality? Enough he'd burned through a well of what Sorun was lead to believe was infinite energy?
How did that even work?
"Whatever, long as it worked," Sorun mumbled to himself. He pulled the sword out halfway to examine his reflection. His eyes had mainly returned to their blue color, but, interestingly, there was still an occasional flash of green energy that would color his irises. Residual energy from when he shattered the Master Emerald? The flesh and eyes were gone, leaving a clean blade...
Somehow it still felt like the sword was looking at Sorun.
A distant sound of thunder dragged Sorun from his observations. "No, not thunder," he realized seconds later. Something similar, but there was something wrong with it. The pitch of the sound being too low, with a strange warbling after-effect heard behind it. There was a flash of light in the sky and another boom of the off-sounding thunder, and Sorun felt something prickling the surface of his skin.
Looking up revealed the problem. A storm brewing in the darkened sky above. Not any kind of storm Sorun had ever seen. Normal storms didn't make clouds move that quickly, so chaotically. Lightning bolts weren't that luminous and numerous. He felt the ground tremble every time a bolt sparked off in the sky, and Sorun pretty sure that earthquakes weren't meant to coincide with storms. He'd been on Mobius long enough to know.
This was something else. And he knew what.
"So this is the big, bad time anomaly that caused Sonic to mess it all up, huh...?" Sorun mused to himself. He honestly didn't know what to expect from how everyone had described the time anomaly. He almost pictured a Final Fantasy-esque final boss monster that personified the time anomaly. Something he could fight.
But this wasn't that. This was a monster on a whole different scale: a literal force of nature shaking the very foundations of the universe apart. Couldn't fight it in the same way you couldn't fight a tsunami or a hurricane, only this was on an even larger scale. How did you fight time itself breaking apart?
"... Okay, fine, Sonic, maybe you were a bit justified in what you pulled after all. Fate of the world and all that." It rankled Sorun to admit it, but he'd concede Sonic that much if this was really the state of things. It didn't change the fact him and his running through dimensions with his power was the cause of it to begin with, but the guy had suffered enough and Sorun could fix it. So he'd let it slide if it meant he was the winner over Sonic, even if it was just on a tangential level.
Yamato was fully pulled out of its sheath. "Still got a bit of juice left," Sorun noted, commenting on how his eyes were still flickering between blue and green in the reflection. "If I just get rid of the time anomaly now before Sonic uses that time machine, that other timeline will never come to pass. Dunno how long before he sets it off, though, miracle I even made it to this point," he murmured to himself. "Ideally I'd just go to where the time machine is and break it just to make sure, but I forgot to ask anyone where the fucking thing even is." He glanced back up at the sky. "Shouldn't matter. Just need to get rid of this and it should work out. Hopefully."
Realistically speaking he didn't know how good his chances were at using the Yamato to separate out the concept of a time anomaly from the universe it was affecting, but considering all the impossible shit he pulled literally five minutes ago this somehow seemed like small potatoes in comparison. Which was enough to startle Sorun, somewhat. Seeing this as small potatoes. Like the opposite of humbling in some weird way.
Well, not matter how he felt he still had to get rid of this thing, because otherwise he'd just end up right back in that godforsaken timeline.
"Fuck it, I'm game for pulling out a second miracle." A cross was cut into the air in front of him which then folded into a portal. "Man, I hope this works."
He jumped through the portal. It spit him out on the other side, resulting in Sorun tumbling through the air. Wasn't hard to see why when he made the other end of the portal connect high into the sky, right in the center of the clouds where the storm was taking place. The time storm quite literally shaking the world apart.
Frigid air whipped past Sorun as he fell through the dark clouds. He felt moisture fly into his face, forcing him to squint. Lightning was rapidly firing off all around him, powerful enough that he felt his bones shake.
With two hands gripping the handle, he held Yamato out it front of him. He could still feel the vestiges of the Master Emerald's power flowing through it, still plentiful but ebbing away at a rapid pace. He'd moved quick, not wanting to find out if the Yamato on its own would be sufficient in this undertaking or not, not wanting the energy to run out because he'd been too slow.
"Separate this time anomaly that's wrecking everything from this zone." Blue arcs of electricity began flowing down the blade in response to Sorun's thoughts. "You don't even need to put it in another zone. Just put it in the empty space between universes where it can fizzle out and die or just exist without hurting anyone. Just get it out of here."
There was a pull, the sword responding to the request as it locked onto the target. Through the blade Sorun could feel it - the time anomaly itself. A force, not quite defined in shape or design but by mere existence, permeating not just the skies but the world. Spreading at a rate that almost felt exponential. At its size now it only encapsulated the planet Mobius, even then just barely.
But through the sword he felt it. Its growth, how it threatened to swallow this world. Would it go beyond the planet? Consume the solar system, then the galaxy, grow beyond that and consume other galaxies, not stopping until the entire zone itself shattered? Likely. It was the scenario Tails had pitched, the reason Sonic was forced to alter the timeline in the first place.
The sword was interfering, though. Not just the blade and its power, but the waning Chaos energies from the Master Emerald, intertwining with something as abstract as the time anomaly. Working in congruent with the Yamato: filling in voids where the sword was slowly peeling away the time anomaly from the fabric of reality.
It was... fixing it? Why? Because Sorun simply wanted it to?
Bolts of lightning passed by Sorun. He grit his teeth as he fell, arms shaking as he maintained his grip on the blade. More lightning striking out from the clouds, striking the blade itself as if in defiance for what Sorun was doing, for what he was succeeding at. Some of the lightning-
The tower loomed in the center of the dead city, its highest point scraping against the clouds.
- struck Sorun, and he was assaulted by flashes and images that failed to take hold in his memory. Momentary glimpses that were completely forgotten. There was no time to think on the short blank in his perceptions he'd suddenly experienced or the fact getting hit by lightning should have hurt worse than that.
Was this even lightning? Some derivative? Time lightning? Was that even a thing?
Pointless questions. Didn't matter.
The storm only intensified the further Sorun went. By now the Yamato was a shining beacon, its glowing blue blade shining like a lighthouse in the midst of a dark fog. Continuous bolts of energy surrounded the blade, and by now Sorun couldn't even tell if those bolts was a result of the Yamato emitting energy or the storm striking the blade. Maybe both. He redoubled his efforts as more bolts-
The white hedgehog kept pleading past it all. Being smashed through walls, limbs broken, stabbed and pinned to the floor with an eye gouged out.
- rolled off Sorun's body and caused more of those momentary lapses. Not enough to divert his focus from the task on hand. Nothing as important as this.
He felt it fading. The target of his sword, the time anomaly. Felt as it was extracted from the very fabric of the zone, like a scalpel being used to cut away a tumor. Could feel it as it was discarded in the boundaries between zones, left to whatever fate was in store for it now as the Chaos energies from the Master Emerald mended the leftover rifts.
That'd been the end of the Master Emerald's energies' rope, though. He felt it leave the sword as it set off to do its final requested task after the time anomaly had been discarded, and in the process Sorun's eyes had finally settled for their blue color. Relief, warm and inviting, washed over him as he continued to fall, as he felt the strain leave the sword as its work concluded. Almost enough he'd accidentally let go of it, but he'd managed a firm grip.
The dark clouds were beginning to clear away. From here Sorun was surprised to find it wasn't even night at all - the clouds had just been that dark. As he continued to fall through the sky, finally having passed the clouds, he saw them part from above him to reveal a deep, blue sky with a sun that shone down on him. The warmth was enough he could have cried. He'd let out an exhausted half-chuckle instead.
"Holy hell... I think I actually managed it..." There were no storms, no earthquakes, nothing. A clear sky above him, a shining city far down below towards where Sorun was falling. To him it may as well have been paradise. Anything would be if it marked the end of this screwed up journey he'd been set on. It was enough that Sorun would have kicked back while falling down in the sky, taken the moment to soak it all in, his victory and the sunlight, to enjoy the wind rushing past him as it finally sunk in that he did it.
But then he'd made the mistake of looking forwards.
His heart stilled when he saw it. White. As far as one could look up, stretching to every corner of the horizon. An all-encompassing white while of... well, just white. Washing over everything. Spreading. Getting closer to where he was, threatening to consume everything around.
The thought of what Tails had told Sorun about jumped out at him when he saw that white wall approaching. Time paradoxes, the danger of messing with time. The potential consequences. But Sorun had been so sure he'd done everything right, that he'd been careful enough to avoid something like this.
Had he been wrong? Did he mess up and now the whole zone was going to suffer for it? Was it something else entirely?
He didn't know. Sorun didn't even have time to think on it, not managing more than a startled gasp as the white wall reached him and overpowered him, overriding all his senses and filling it nothing but white and noise and everything was shifting and-
"Project Recursion... It's honestly the worst name for a plan I've ever heard of in my entire life."
I could see them all gathering below me, from the edge of the ship we were on. So far in the clouds it was hard not to see it all. Warships as far as the eye could see, all of various designs and models. Legions of machines gathered among some of the ships, while others were operated by more organic hands. Machines and Mobians and Overlanders marching side-by-side.
All for me.
His voice spoke out from behind me. "Perhaps if you'd been around more during the key moments of the planning phase you could have had a hand in coming up with a name." There was pride in his aged voice, but whenever he spoke to me it sounded like a mix of being playful and mocking. "Besides. It's as fitting a title as possible, and I fail to see how you could come up with something better."
"Well, you'll have to excuse me. I was a bit too busy running around following the plan we agreed on to waste time on a name."
"And I haven't been busy setting everything up? Can you even fathom the complexity of this undertaking? You should be overjoyed your place isn't at the technical end of things. I'd fear it'd be the end of us otherwise."
I rolled my eyes. "Then I guess we should count ourselves lucky you're not the one out there fighting, getting shot at. You'd be dead so many times over I couldn't count that high."
"Well, it couldn't possibly be that large a number if that's the case."
A momentary pause. A small, dry chuckle left my mouth, uncontrollable. A similar sound came from the man behind me, though the quick grunt I heard afterwards implied he tried to stifle it. Too late. I'd already heard.
"Forget the name for a moment," I said, "but can we actually talk about the plan itself and how horrible it is?"
"We're doomed otherwise." I turned around to the person standing behind me. That tall, rotund Overlander looking down at me. The wild mustache looked more frazzled than it ought to have, and the mouth attached to it was set in a deep frown. "This plan is all we have."
"It's still a terrible plan."
"May I remind you that it is your mistakes that brought this upon us to begin with?" I managed a straight face, but inside I couldn't help but feel something ugly twist in me at that scathing tone he was using on me. Because of how right he was. "Your mistakes, your errors, your shortsightedness, incompetence and ignorance is what caused all this. You should be thankful my brilliance is sufficient enough in providing us a way out of this mess you've dragged us into."
A wry grin spread over my mouth as I glanced off to the side. "I'll admit I didn't make the best decisions. Neither did you, but hey, it's all good. 'Cause we're gonna fix it all."
"Hmph." There was something clutched in his hand. A bundle of purple cloth. "Well, we won't be fixing anything if you get yourself killed out there. Here. Your battle coat," he said, tossing the item towards me.
"My battle coat." I felt amused on how silly that was. The name itself and the concept. I'd still caught it out of the air, giving the man a bemused look as I waved the coat around a bit. "You call it a battle coat. That's cute. I mean I'm insulted you think I need armor with all the things I'm capable of, but I'm willing to overlook that because you went out your way to call it a battle coat."
Oh, he looked irritated at that. I liked doing that, putting him outside of his comfort zone, making him act differently than his norm. Signs of stress, that he only had the faintest bit of control over the situation, only putting up with me because he had to. I was in the same boat, granted, but in this situation he was out of his comfort zone. Me, though, at this point I'd learned to roll with it. He hadn't, and he was flustered. That look, that small bit of irritation, was proof of that. I'd keep irritating him as long as I could.
Plus it was funny.
"That battle coat is no mere coat," he nearly spat out. "That exquisite piece of armor was weaved with graphene composite polymers and coated with a nanolaminate solution I personally-!"
"Yadda yadda yadda, yeah, super coat, I get it." I grinned wider when he sputtered out at me, though the disinterest I'd displayed was feigned. The coat certainly sounded impressive, at least. The way he hyped it up it was probably the sturdiest piece of clothing around even though it felt and weighed like a normal coat.
When I turned the coat over, though, I found my smile dipping down a bit. Figures. He'd put his logo on the back of the purple coat, grinning out at me.
"I was fine with you giving me a purple coat, but this? You really had to put this eyesore on it?"
"Humph!" He crossed his arms and turned his nose up at me. "It wouldn't do not to sign my work."
"This isn't the time to be pushing an ego, and I really don't think anyone will care."
"If nobody will care then I don't see why you're protesting the matter. If you're that against it then you're free to design your own battle coat with your own bleeding-edge technology." A beat passed, and I nearly sighed knowing what he was setting up. "Oh, but you can't."
"Ah-huh. And you're so capable of doing at least half the things I can do?"
"..."
"Thought so."
"Just put the coat on."
Shrugging, I'd put the coat on. Immediately I found it was just a tad bit too tight. Not enough to inhibit functionality in any way, but juuust enough to be noticeable.
I didn't know if he fitted it this way on purpose just to annoy me or if he was just a shit tailor on top of being a mad scientist.
A passing gust of wind blew the coat's twin coattails behind me as I turned around and looked back down. My smile broadened seeing the legion of ships approaching closer to us. Just how much effort they were putting into all this. I really couldn't understand why they were fighting so hard for this. Out of spite? Blind hope where there was none? One or the other; couldn't be anything else, not with what was on the line.
"Looks like I'm super public enemy number one," I laughed out, nearly taken aback by the sheer size of the fleet below. "The entire planet is rallied against me, all just to stop me from getting to Silver."
"Are you going to be able to do this?" It was more serious than I'd ever heard him speak. "I mean, actually?"
"... They're stalling," I said, my own voice going serious and smile dropping off. I creased my eyebrows in concentration as I observed the scene down below, thoughts racing through my mind. "If they really wanted to stop me from getting the thing, they'd just shatter it like I shattered all of Blaze's Sol Emeralds."
"Yes, about that. I trust you've sufficiently recovered from that bout of yours?"
"Ah, from nearly getting incinerated? Yeah, just peachy." I wasn't really. It'd probably be a while before I'd manage going to sleep without seeing that deranged Mobian's face. "Pyrokinetics are a pain and a half to deal with, but the actual fire itself is still limited to conventional laws of physics. I learned all sorts of tips and tricks for dealing with that back where I'm from."
"And yet she still lives."
My back straightened a bit at hearing that. I felt my ego prickle at the words, felt my skin itch and fingers unconsciously curl. I turned my head over my shoulder to look at him and gave him an easy, lighthearted grin. "Hey, don't worry about it. One more Mobian in the pile's a non-issue.
"Anyways," I continued, turning back to look down at the coming fleet, "the way they're playing this is telling. If they're coming at me this hard, it's either out of spite or hope. Can't be spite, 'cause I don't know Mobians to be this petty. Everyone else, maybe, but not them. So they must think there's still a way out of this besides what we're planning, and since Silver's the only one that knows how to use it, they're-"
"Playing keep-away with Silver as they try to figure something out," the man finished. "We destroyed every means of getting out of this zone and finished off anyone with the ability, and you destroyed Blaze's means of traveling, so they're throwing everything and the kitchen sink at you while they themselves are probably scrambling to cobble something together to get Silver as far away from you as possible."
"... Yeah, my thoughts exactly." I felt a twinge of annoyance at having my own thoughts finished for me, but the sight below helped distract me. It was honestly impressive how something could unify a whole planet like this. The fact I was the cause was almost comical. I really couldn't help but laugh at it all, because to not would almost be a disservice.
I spun around to address him, playfully kicking a leg back and forth. "But what I want to know," I said, eyes narrowing a bit, the corners of my mouth tightening to reveal the teeth in my smirk, "is if everything is set up on your end? Because this whole thing hinges on a lot of factors and the ones you're in charge of are arguably more important than mine."
He almost looked like I'd slapped him in the face. Like even implying I doubted his ability was a severe slight against him. "Of course I managed everything on my end. Everything is set up and prepped, and all that's left is the final pieces. It's only after you pull your own weight the real work begins."
I rolled my eyes again, not really knowing what else I expected. It was kind of refreshing, I realized. In a small way it was a bit of normalcy in the center of all this chaos.
"So, I feel it prudent I ask a third time," he continued. "Can you do this?"
Before I answered, I spun back around, to look out towards the sky. Up there, far above the fleet, was a massive floating island.
My smile broadened.
"Well, I'll need a new sword."
...
...
...
Sorun opened his eyes.
"... What even..." He made a groan and lifted a hand up to his head. His thoughts felt like a slurry, running slower than it should in the same way eyes were blurry when first awaking. There was a dull throb, too, though thankfully that was calming down over time. Slower than he'd like. "Ugh, sheesh, the hell happened to me?"
He thought back to what happened. Used Yamato on the Master Emerald, made it back to the right timeline, stopped the time anomaly, the white, waking up here-
Sorun bolted straight up. The white. Time paradox? Something happened, but a quick inspection of Sorun's own body revealed he was completely intact, much to his own relief. A bit more dusty than he'd like, but otherwise fine.
And then he blinked in question. Dusty? Why? And come to think of it, why was the air so stuffy?
He looked around, and then did a double-take. He was in... well, he didn't even know where. Some kind of bookstore? Except the shelves all around him were toppled or broken, with so many books scattered along the ground he couldn't even see the floor. There was a thick veneer of dust over everything, enough he saw dust motes floating through the air, and everything was dark, only the orange light of either dusk or dawn flooding through shattered windows and a broken doorway.
Also, the ceiling was caved in. Woods, metal girders, and other types of debris had seemingly smashed in through the center of the roof, punching through to make a pillar of trash in the center of the shop.
"What?" He shook his head and blinked a few times, but the sight remained the same. He noticed a glow in his peripheral, glanced down to see the blue Emerald sitting next to him, and snatched it up to transmute it into the Yamato before standing up. Maneuvering past all the books and debris found him to the destroyed entrance of the shop, in which he had to duck his head to make it through the partially-collapsed doorway just to make it outside.
It wasn't any better outside.
"What!?"
The shop had been a single building nestled between other, larger buildings in a packed city square. All the buildings around Sorun were in the same state as the book store had been in that they were just as wrecked. Every building was either halfway collapsed or completely destroyed. The streets were cracked with some segments missing entirely. Rusted out, hollowed vehicles were spread out there and there. But more alarmingly than that there wasn't so much as a single living thing in sight that Sorun could see.
He'd walked out all alone into what looked like the apocalypse.
"WHAT!"
