"Ruby, please calm down," Tails asked the silver eyed girl. He and the young human were in a mostly intact house, near the dormant Omega. Tails had taken shelter here during his repair attempts. And now he tried in vain to calm his upset guest, who was stomping wildly back and forth.

"Calm down? You just told me that I'm on another world and there's no way you can take me home! And to make matters worse, there is a war going on here?!"

"Okay look, I know it's very overwhelming, but you have to try to stay calm. Try to tell me what happened to you and maybe I can figure out a way of how to bring you back."

Of course the little fox was right. Still, it was difficult for Ruby to pull herself together. She breathed deeply in and out several times, and stopped pacing the room like a caged animal.

"Sorry for shouting."

"Its okay. The whole situation here must be very overwhelming for you."

"And for you not?"

Tails chuckled slightly. "To be honest, I'm used to such bizarre incidents. That doctor I was telling you about, Eggman, he's done all sorts of things that messed up the space-time continuum.

"So it's his fault I'm stranded here?"

Tails nodded. "It's possible. His newest… weapon clearly exhibits reality manipulation abilities. It could be that this power affects other worlds as well. But to be sure, I need to know what happened to you."

Ruby slightly hesitated. The memories of all the chaos during the Vytal festival were still fresh on her mind. It wasn't memories she particular wanted to recount, but she knew that she would be better of with telling the fox mobian everything, if she really wanted a chance of returning home.

"Well... my city was under a massive Grimm attack."

"Grimm?"

"I guess that kind of thing doesn't exist in here. They are soulless creatures of darkness drawn and empowered by humanity's negative feelings. They are death and destruction incarnated."

To Tails, what was being said had similarities to Dark Gaia, but he chose not to mention it to Ruby so he wouldn't interrupt her narration.

"Me and my friends tried to help others. We are hunters in training. People trained to hunt the Grimm. But these were not the only danger. There was someone who had caused the Grimm attack and a friend, Pyrrha, tried to stop her, but… she couldn't." The tone in which Ruby spoke made it clear to Tails what had happened. He could empathize with Ruby's pain and had to think back to what happened to Sonic.

"Hey, if you don't want to continue, that's okay." But Ruby didn't seem to hear Tails. She was lost in the memories of the fateful moment.

"I... I tried to rush to Pyrrha's aid, but I wasn't fast enough. As I watched her die, I got this feeling… this desire… swell up."

"What desire?"

"I wanted to stop all these dangers. I wanted to protect the rest of my friends from death. And after that... this may sound strange, but some kind of light manifested from my eyes, damaging Pyrrha's killer and a nearby Grimm. And after that I passed out. At some point I woke up in a void and tried to escape from it. When I did that… well you saw what happened."

"Can you remember anything else before you passed out?"

"I think… yes, there was this weird vibrating noise and purple mist that appeared. Now that I think about it, that noise was similar to when the remnants of this Chaos guy disappeared. Does that make sense to you?"

Tails pondered for a moment about the stuff the silver eyed girl had just told him.

"I get it...I think. In several accounts where people have encountered the masked entity, they have spoken of him changing the environment or manifesting things out of thin air. There was always talk of a booming noise that made the air vibrate. You getting sucked in that void and the abilities of Eggman's ally definitely go together. I just can't explain in what context exactly. Or why it affected you of all people."

"You said that the mask guy summoned things out of thin air. If Chaos simply disappeared, that means..."

"Yeah, that wasn't the real Chaos that everyone in my world knows. That was fake. A phantom. However, the fact that a perfect copy of such a powerful being can be created only means that our opponent is more powerful than previously thought."

Ruby shook her head. Other worlds? Reality manipulation? And, if she understood Tails´ explanation correctly, apparently gods?! This world, Mobius, was something like from one of her comic books! The kind of crazy adventure that Ruby always dreamed of to have. But after what just happened during the Vytal festival and her fight with Phantom Chaos, Ruby was far from excited but rather scared and anxious.

"How did you manage to defeat that Eggman guy when he'd done similar crazy things in the past?"

Tails looked down.

"We had someone special who took care of him. His name… is… was… Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. He was the hero of Mobius. But unfortunately he couldn't manage to defeat Eggman this time."

"… did… did he end up like my friend?."

Tails nodded, only to then shake his head

"I… don't know. I want to have hope that he is alive… but it was bad when I left him. I've never seen Sonic so scared. Maybe I could have done something, but he told me to run and the masked entity and all the other bad guys were there..." Again the memories flooded him how he couldn't do anything but run away and Sonic was beaten up by their enemies.

Seeing how close Sonic´s fate seemed to hit how to Tails, Ruby asked: "Tails… was Sonic more than just a hero to you?"

"He was my best friend and practically my brother. He had always been looking out for me. And I just abandoned him."

Before Tails knew it, Ruby keeled down and hugged him.

"I'm sorry you had to go through this. I know losing family, not knowing what happened to them, is the worst thing that can happen to you. But don´t blame yourself for what happened. I´m sure you did your best to help your brother, just like you tried to help me. And if he himself told you to run… then maybe it really was the only thing you could've done."

At first, Tails was very stiff in Ruby's arms. Then he returned the hug while tears slowly welled up in his eyes. Tears that he had wanted to hide from all the others so as not to worry them. And yet he showed them to this stranger. But at the same time, there was something about Ruby that made Tails feel comfortable. Like Amy, she seemed compassionate and understanding. Someone who was there for you and listened when you had something on your mind.

Eventually the fox mobian calmed down and let go of Ruby. Tails wiped his tears from his eyes. "Thanks."

Ruby gave him a warm smile. "Don't worry, you don't have to go through this alone."

"Thanks," Tails said again. There was a brief silence as the two considered the other's words and situation. Then Tails cleared his throat.

"Well, let's keep working on the main problem. Bringing you home might be difficult as the way back is probably related to the masked one. And to find out more about him and his abilities, we'll have to break into one of Eggman's bases."

"Do you think we will meet this mask guy?"

That possibility frightened Tails more than he wanted to admit. But he tried to stay calm.

"Not necessarily. But if not him, then maybe one of his phantoms, or combat robots, or maybe Eggman himself. But we may not have to go rough this alone. Follow me."

Tails led Ruby outside to the defective Omega.

"I've been working on getting him going again for days. But so far I haven't made much progress."

"What exactly is the problem?" Ruby asked, examining the massive combat robot down to the last detail.

"The biggest problem is the lack of a compatible power source. I checked some of the surrounding Eggman robots, but none of them helped."

Ruby, still staring at Omega, asked, "So he needs power?" A crazy idea formed in her head. "Hm, maybe could…"

Ruby started thinking aloud to herself, mumbling several things. Tails noticed one word.

"Dust? You mean the stuff you used to defeat the fake Chaos? How is that supposed to help Omega?"

Ruby was pulled out of her thoughts.

"Oh I am sorry. When I get absorbed in specific thoughts, I become totally focused on them."

"Its okay. I´m actually not to different. Sometimes my friends had to remind me to sleep or eat when I´m focused on tinkering. But do your really want to use Ice Dust."

"Well, not Ice Dust." The silver eyed girl took out yellow crystal cartridges. "But Lightning Dust."

"So this Dust is something elemental?"

"Yup. In my world, Dust comes in the form of different colored crystals. Each color represents a specific element. Light blue for ice, red for fire, white for wind, and so on. It's a useful resource for us hunters in the fight against the Grimm."

"But how long does Dust last?"

"Depending on how it's processed, it can be used until someone or something destroys it. With some crafting, we could make such a change to the Blitz Dust in these cartridges. There's just one problem with that. Dust needs aura to activate."

"What is aura?" Tails couldn't help but be captivated by Ruby's explanation. His scientific mind was filled with curiosity of what kind of things could be possible in the world of Remnant.

"Aura is my life energy, it forms a shield around my skin and protects me from harm. It can also be used to enhance some physical abilities. Unfortunately, it can be depleted depending on the damage you take."

"That's why you were able to take so much damage from the fake Chaos! All the humans I know would have been crushed in his grip. But what about your other ability? The one with the rose petals."

"This is my semblance. Petal Burst. An ability that draws energy from my aura. No aura means no further use on Semblance. Everyone has their own semblance. It is based on your personality, your soul."

"Your world sounds extremely interesting, Ruby."

The huntress in training smiled.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, but I have to say living in a world without Grimm would be nice too. But back to the main thing. The Blitz Dust could help Omega, but it takes Aura to keep it active. And I don't think the robots in this world have anything like life energy."

"No, they do not have. But your suggestion gave me an idea. Can you please give me the gem you recovered from Chaos."

Ruby did as told. Tails eyed the object briefly and asked, "Where did you get that?"

"Found it in the void I described to you. Do you know what that is? I thought it was some kind of unknown dust, but I guess it's from your world, right?"

Tails nodded. "As a matter of fact. This is one of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Not necessarily dissimilar to Dust, but instead of containing elemental energies, it contains chaos energy. A power that turns your thoughts into power."

"Really?"

"Perhaps not directly in the literal sense. It will not conjure up chocolate out of thin air."

"Aw, and I like chocolate." Come to think of it, I could use some snack right now, Ruby thought. No, focus Ruby. You some more important stuff to focus on.

Tails continued. "But a Chaos Emerald can give you extra power and even allow reality itself to bend to your will."

"So like the masked one does?"

"I guess so. Whereby the power of the Chaos Emeralds seems more… natural. The red energies of our opponent appear dirty and twisted. Anyway, Chaos energy can also power machines without having to be kept in active mode by anything. We could use the Emerald alone to activate Omega."

Suddenly Ruby had another crazy idea.

"Hey, I've got something cool." With an excited grin, Ruby raised the Blitz Dust cartridges. "Why don't we put both things in Omega and see what happens? I mean double holds better."

Tails considered it. "I don't know, there are some risks involved." But Tails´ brain, already excited by Ruby's explanations of Dust and Aura, stirred and made him think about the possibilities the human girls idea holds.

"On the other hand, it would be interesting to see how Dust and Chaos energies would react with each other. Especially when they are integrated into a machine like Omega. Alright let's try it. But if the risks are too high, we just use the Emerald, understand?"

Ruby nodded to the fox mobian. The two started to work.

This chapter was more focused on the character interaction and layouts of future plot points. But don´t worry about a possible lack of action. Once Omega is activated, he will do what he does best. Destruction.

To the one Guest reviewer: Thanks for pointing out the mistake with Pyrrha´s name. I fixed it.

To the other Guest reviewer: Yes, the lack of a Chaos Boss fight was a HUGE miss in the original Forces. I did consider just using the mod fight for this chapter, but decided to do my own spin of a Chaos 0/1 boss fight.

To JeaSonDash: The thing about bravery is, that it isn´t the lack of fear but overcoming it. Tails, being a kid in a stressful and dangerous situation that put even Sonic on his edge, made him unable to overcome his fear this time. But our little fox will show that he is far from being the coward that he was in the original game.