So I post today since I wont be able to upload this on saturday. Also I think it´s better I say this:

WARNING TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE FEARS OR TRAUMA RELATED TO DROWNING. DONT READ THE PARAGRAPH OF THE SECOND ILLUSION INFINITE GIVES TO SONIC IF YOU ARE UNCOMFTABLE WITH STUFF LIKE THIS.

Sonic kept looking around as he sped through Metropolis. But he couldn't see Ruby anywhere. When she came into contact with the cubes, she seemed to lose control over her Semblance. Or at least it appeared so.

She just darted away and Sonic couldn't go after her, because the constructs behind him kept him running, and behind Ruby more cubes had blocked the way for him. Whenever he tried to escape into a side alley, Infinite just made it disappear.

So Sonic ran. He ran and ran until he came to a circular square in the center of which stood a golden statue of Eggman, posing triumphantly over the defeated body of Sonic.

The blue hedgehog just looked at this monument with a shake of his head, then he wanted to continue running. However, he realized that there was no way out of this place. All the paths, including the one Sonic had came from, where now blocked by walls made of the red cubes. Infinite materialized over the statue of Eggman. He stared down at Sonic with his arms crossed.

"Already tired?"

Sonic wanted to snap at the masked entity and ask him where Ruby was. But he forced himself to maintain a calm demeanor. Fighting Eggman and other villains had taught him to appear easy-going and carefree. In this way, his opponents were prone to get more easily irritated, especially if he made some cheeky remarks and jokes at their expense.

So making himself grin and mimicking his opponent´s posture, Sonic commented, "Nope. I'm not one bit tired. That act you just pulled off was a nice warm-up, but nothing more. Are you even trying to defeat me? And here I was, worried because you beat me the first time we met. Seems you're pretty weak without your phantoms."

"Weak?" Infinite tilted his head, his golden eye staring directly into Sonic´s soul. His body trembled and some weird noises came from behind the mask. For a second Sonic thought the entity was having some kind of break down, being close to trowing a fit, that he managed to hit a nerve. But as the noise grew louder, Sonic realized the opposite was true. Infinite was laughing.

"Weak?" The masked entity repeated, before trowing his head back and continued to laugh. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Such foolishness, to call a being of infinite power such as I, weak. Tell me Sonic, is this weak?"

He spread his arms as the Phantom Ruby glowed and moved them around, forming an infinity symbol. The reality vibrated and the ground shook. The earth glowed. Then the circular place they were standing on erupted out of the ground and flew high into the air. The newly formed platform floated above the tops of the skyscrapers. Red glitches twisted the air.

"No, I'm not weak. I am Infinite, as in never ending, for such is the potential of my strength. But you… I'll show you what it means to be truly weak and helpless."

"Hello little rose."

Ruby ignored both the phantom pain in her back and looked at the enemy in front of her. Unlike her previous outfits, the cloak Cinder was wearing was rather concealed and not really stylish. But the Fall Maiden´s fashion choices weren't really on number one of Ruby´s priority list right now.

"Infinite told me you now something about my mother?" Her usually open and kind eyes narrowed into slits. "Explain."

Cinder just chuckled in amusement. "Oh, I wasn't there personally, but I was told about Summer Rose. How valiantly she fought. How even the power she was unfairly given, just like you, was useless. How she…" Cinder hummed. "To be honest, I don´t know if she died or wished she did."

Ruby´s brows furrowed. Her grip around Crescent Rose tightened so hard, her knuckles became more white than the metal of the platform the tow girls were standing on.

"What do you mean?"

Cinder tipped the finger of her, for some reason, gloved hand, on her chin.

"You know, despite everything you´ve done to me, I´m not actually sure if you really deserve to know that. I guess I must feel merciful today. After all, I´ve got quite the surprise I want to show you and… say, where is your little mutant pup?"

"That's none of your business and don't go of topic. What happened to my mom?!", Ruby hissed.

Cinder seemed unbothered by Ruby´s tone. Instead the Fall Maiden smiled and snapped her fingers.

"Ah, now I´ve got it! The perfect way to show you if your dear mommy is alive or not. By giving you a one-way-ticket straight to the afterlife!"

She started stepping toward Ruby, activating her magic enhanced Semblance. Little flames ignited and burned Cinders cloak and gloves away, revealing her new body.

"Wha- huh!?", Ruby took a step away, her aggression disappearing upon seeing the changes Pyrrha´s killer had undergone trough since the last time she saw her.

No longer was it just Cinder´s left arm that was replaced by a cyborgenic prosthetic, but all of her limbs. They were of a smooth, blackish and flexible design. Ruby didn't know if there where any changes to the Fall Maiden´s main body, since she was wearing an attire similiar to the one she wore when Cinder infiltrated the CCT Tower, but with some dark red symbols and patterns. Mechanical reinforcements that had been implanted on her shoulder, around her neck and part of the back, on which were four additional pairs of robotic arms!

"W-what? You´re now a full cyborg? Why are you a cyborg?!"

Up until now Cinder had been wearing a malicious smile or smirk. Now, however, a dark frown appeared.

"What? Didn't your new friends tell you want they´ve done to me? Especially that stupid, STUPID TIN CAN! It took the power of my attack and dared to just use it against me, even though I was the one who worked hard to gain the abilities of the Fall Maiden magic and not it! The machine burned away my Aura and my body. The resulting explosion threw me away and smashed my body into a wall and the ground, breaking my bones! But despite my damaged body, I still managed to crawl away and survive. I didn't come this far just to perish! And then came Infinite." Cinder visibly calmed down. "I thought he was mocking me, but he opened my eyes and gave me an offer. To become truly strong, so I could get what I desire. He brought me to the Doctor, who used a upgraded version of my previous cybernetics to not just restore my body, but overhaul so that I was able to utilize the potential of my power at its fullest!"

Smiling, Cinder raised all of her arms and flames flickered to live over the palms of her metal hands. "Not only that, but he trained me and made true on his deal of herding you to me. And this time…"

One of her lower hands extinguished its flame and snapped its fingers. A signal was send to the mechanism of the platform and a force field was activated around it.

"Crap", Ruby quietly muttered as she looked around in a panic. She and the Wisps were completely locked in with the person that wanted to make the silver-eyed girl suffer the most. Still, she tried to held onto her hope.

"I may be alone, but I have also gotten stronger, and unlike you I didn't need to turn myself part machine. Maybe I should be the one calling you tin can. And I have Sonic and the Resistance on my si-"

"Where do you think Infinite and the Doctors forces are? No, all of them are to busy fighting for their lives to worry about a mere rose. But funny that you mentioned the topic tin can. I was informed that the one who attacked me was original of Eggman´s design. But he didn't give it any electrical powers. And to be honest, the shocks felt awfully similar to the ones from lightning Dust." Cinder´s organic eye narrowed at Ruby. "Now how can a machine from Mobius be properly upgraded with a resource from Remnant?"

Ruby blinked nervously, suddenly feeling less confident about this encounter, especially after opening her mouth and being all hostile towards the Cyborg Maiden.

"I… uh… m-maybe… uhm...eh… Murphy's Law, which has nothing to do with me?", she stammered with a nervous smile.

Cinder´s eye glowed as magic energy blazed from her iris.

"Oh I´m so going to enjoy this. I promise you: You WILL be envious of Pyrrha Nikos´ destiny!"

Cinder threw her arms forward, each of them firing a beam of flames at Ruby. She dodged, but barely. Tightly gripping Crescent Rose, the huntress-in-training knew this would be one of the hardest battles of her life. But she couldn´t give up now. She would make sure to survive this mission and return to her friends, both here on Mobius and the ones waiting for her on Remnant!

Alrigth, let´s see how much my training improved me in the face of THIS opponent, Ruby tought.

Infinite summoned red cubes and launched them at Sonic. He ran around and in between the projectiles. The ground glitched beneath him and he jumped backwards. A column of cubes shot up in front of him. Other parts of the floor also began to glitch. Sonic dodged the pillars while Infinite fired lasers at the blue hedgehog´s feet to trip him up. The entity managed to be successful and the speedster stumbled into a single cube.

It was enough.

A red haze covered everything and massive orbs of iron and spikes rolled towards Sonic. He avoided them. From his fight against Infinite in Mystic Jungle, he knew that everything here was just an illusion and couldn't really hurt him. But the pain felt exceedingly real, and the Phantom Ruby wielder used this to wear his victims psyche out. But Sonic weaved around every orb that rolled his way in time. Until the illusion was over.

Infinite flexed a gloved claw as energy surged around it and raised it in an upward motion. The same Phantom monsters that had hunted Ruby down, manifested around the hovering platform. Their bizarrely elongated heads, necks and upper bodies were towering over everything as their empty gazes stared Sonic down. His eyes widened.

"Woah, I didn't now this was a family gathering. But-"

Whatever joke he wanted to say at Infinite´s and his creations expense, was interrupted. One of the Phantoms raised its tentacle like arm and slashed it down. Sonic barely managed to jump back and not end up as blueberry pancake. But the red shock waves, coming from when the claw hit the ground, managed to hurt him and made him nearly lose his balance. All the other Phantoms followed the example of the first one. They tried to squad Sonic like a fly or slashed directly at him with their claws. He jumped over the shock waves, ducked and weaved under the sharp claws.

Infinite raised his hands and focused energy into the palms. He sent a mental command to his Phantoms and they did the same with the tips of their heads. Lasers erupted and Sonic ran all over the platform to avoid getting hit.

As a creature tried to stop his run by slashing at him again, Sonic jumped onto the arm and ran up the creature's long body. With a Spindash, he tore through the Phantom's head. It flickered and dissolved in a red glitch. Sonic landed on the ground and grinned triumphantly before Infinite teleported right in front of him and kicked him hard into the grip of another Phantom. The elongated creature's claw gripped Sonic's body tightly, squeezing the air out of him before violently throwing the Mobian into the ground. The impact caused the platform to lowered a level. Shaking, Sonic got up from the crater. Infinite dashed toward him, shrouded in red energies, and Sonic barely dodged aside with a side roll.

The entity moved passed his intended goal, stopped and saw Sonic speeding away from him.

"You can't escape, so stop running!"

The masked menace flew after Sonic, he started running several laps around the Eggman statue, Infinite close behind him. The latter used his powers and made obstacles appear in front of them. Spikes erupted through the floor of the platform. Pitfalls with boiling water opened up. Sonic just about jumped over her. Pillars of red cubes were used again, causing the hedgehog to swerve left or right. The long Phantoms took turns smashing their claws down. Sonic barely managed to run under their attacks with his head ducked, the ground behind him erupting with red shock waves.

Sonic dared to look over his shoulder for a moment. Infinite almost caught up with him, sticking out a claw. Energy gathered in it. Sonic quickly moved aside to avoid the laser beam. Then when he looked ahead, red took up his entire field of vision.

He ran right into one of the pillars… into a second illusion...

Water. Brackish dark water everywhere, slowing down his movements. Panicking, Sonic tried to get out by swimming upward, but he couldn't. Only now he noticed the chain of a mine wrapped around his ankle, keeping him below the depths. Unforgiving iron clunk to him, held him. The water pressed against Sonic´s entire being, but especially on his face area, like it tried to actively find a way to get inside and drown him. His lungs seemed to burst, but he didn't give in. Even if it was just an illusion, he didn't want to know what it felt like to drown. With all his determination Sonic kept on fighting upwards from this prison borne from his fears, until…

He was finally free. Sonic gasped and stumbled around. Before he could enjoy the breeze of the fresh and dry air around him, Infinite dashed into him from behind. Sonic slammed on his face hard. He turned and kicked at his pursuer's mask, but Infinite grabbed Sonic's foot, turned around and slammed him into the base of the Eggman statue. Dazed, Sonic layed in front of it. His body ached, his head pounded. But he didn't want to show any weakness in front of Infinite. Not him, the guy who defeated him and had helped Eggman to world domination. Who had traumatized Tails and tore Ruby from her friends when they needed her the most.

"You have a wonderful fear Sonic, yet you so disappointingly struggle against it. Why don't you just give up and SINK into it?"

Sonic tried to force a smile on his face, to show defiance against his enemy.

"Giving up is not my thing. Where is the fun in that?"

"Fun? Is that what you´re after?" Infinite chuckled. "Fun is INFINITE with me. So how about an illusion of all your friends getting slaughtered, including your little brother. Death because you failed them as their leader. And you will be all alone in you personal hell... just you and your tormentor... Tell me, who is gonna save you then… or rather NOW?"

Sonic just stared at Infinite while he was ranting about these deranged things, summoning cubes around him at the same time. The jackal stared at Sonic, his visible eye wide.

"Tell me Sonic, is the pain really worth fighting on?"

The person addressed took a deep breath. Then, with a loud groan, he stood up. He stared determinedly at his opponent., taking a battle ready stance.

"Yes. Yes it is."

The jackal nodded. "I… see…"

Infinite growled. "Then prepare yourself for the fiery pits of failure!"

He formed balls of energy in his hands and threw them at Sonic. The blue hedgehog jumped over the first ball and Spindashed under the second. Still curled up he rolled towards Infinite, but the entity let one of his Phantoms grab the blue orb and smash it back into the base of the statue.

Trembling and with heavy breath, Sonic went back on his feet, but for Infinite it was enough time for another trick. The Phantom Ruby glowed, creating white metal cannons that hovered over him. They all aimed their course at Sonic. He tried to get the tremble in his legs under control and ready to run before the canons fired. Infinite was about to activate his conjured weapons…

When Shadow appeared in a flash of white light on the platform and destroyed the cannons with his Chaos Spears. Infinite spun to face the black hedgehog.

"What?!"

"The time for retribution has come!" Shadow shouted, running and then jumping towards Infinite with a raised fist. The masked entity managed to catch and hold it, but struggled against the strength of the Ultimate Lifeform. With his free hand, Shadow summoned a Chaos Spear and threw it right into the mask of the reality bender. With a surprised yell he stumbled backwards and Sonic seized the moment and caught Infinite sideways with his Spindahs.

"Argh!"

The force of the attack was strong enough to throw Infinite over the edge of the platform into the depths below. Sonic managed to catch his breath, before addressing his fellow hedgehog.

"Hey Shadow, I thought you weren't showing up anymore."

"Tch, I have a score to settle with this masked fool here. He soiled the memories of Maria, I won't let him get away with that." Shadow´s furious and sharp look softened a little as he gave Sonic a glance. "Are you still up for battle? I don´t need you to drag me down while were fighting. Not against this enemy."

"I´m doing fine. Nice to see that you care", Sonic cracked.

Shadow rolled his eyes, but they retained the little warmth in them.

"I´m serious, Sonic."

The blue hedgehogs smile disappeared. "So am I."

Shadow nodded.

"Then what is the plan for this battle?"

Infinite rose from under the platform´s edge like a wraith from hell into the sky.

"The plan is that you DIE!"

On his command, the Phantoms fired their lasers. However, Sonic and Shadow dodged them, the latter even managing to push back some of the creatures with his Chaos Spears.

"Shadow, let´s try to hold him in one place. Your Chaos attacks should this way give him some heavy damage."

"Understood."

Together the hedgehogs retaliated against their enemy.

Rouge and Tails crawled trough the air vents in what felt like hours, but it couldn't have been even minutes. They were narrow and warm, and the two of them had to be careful to not make any form of suspicious noise, otherwise they might get caught. Of course, they also couldn't let themselves to be too slow, otherwise the Resistance was already defeated or forced to flee by the time they have reached their goal.

"How long until we´re there?", asked Tails.

"I´m not sure. We don't really have the best intel about the inner layer of this base. Actually scratch that. We have no intel at all. I keep looking trough the grates of the vent, hoping there will be a room with a computer terminal, but up until now I´ve seen nothing you?"

Tails shook his head. "No, I-"

He stopped. Both he and Rouge´s ears perked up as they distantly heard the sounds of a ranting. And even though it was far away, and the echo of the vents kinda distorted any sounds they heard, they would recognize that angry voice anywhere. They had been hearing it since years after all.

It was Eggman.

"What´s gotten him so worked up?", wondered the bat.

"Well, we are attacking his city after all. But knowing him, it could also be something minor as losing in Angry Flicky."

"True", Rouge snickered. "But wherever Eggman is, there may also be some usable tech. Let´s see were the good doctor currently resides. We may overhear some useful information if he keeps raging."

After managing to locate the source of the sounds, the Mobians crawled towards it and reached a grate that offered view over a wide hall. Conveyor belts criss-crossed the space of this place, transporting parts and resources to various machines for processing. They were all handled by computer terminals. On one of them stood Eggman, tipping, or rather hammering, with his fingers commands. His back blocked most of the screen from Rouge´s and Tails´ view, but whatever appeared on it must have aggregated the mad doctor further.

"No no no no! Not matter what, the damage is so heavy it would take months if not a whole year for a complete reconstruction! Even if I go only for the base form. It´s…"

Whatever was said next couldn't be heard by the Mobians, as Eggman quietly grumbled it in his mustache in frustration. He closed the tap on the computer and paced back and for in front of it. Finally he went to a conveyor belt close by on which lay some blue, white and silver shards. With grievance in his voice Eggman said, "My boy… look how they massacred my boy. That annoying blue red and the equally bothersome red brat! I will take care them once and for all once everything is put in motion." He scratched his head. "That said, I should probably look how Cinder and Infinite are faring. And once they gotten the pests out of my city, I will finally have some peace and quit to brainstorm a proper solution as to what I should do with the remnants."

Eggman nodded to himself and deactivated the computer. Then he went towards the exit of the hall. He tipped in some code and the door closed behind him, once the doctor was trough.

The lights went out, only here and there was some illumination thanks to the lamps on the processing machines… and the glowing eyes of the Egg Watchers.

The machines descended from hatches on the ceiling, once the light went out, and started crawling and jumping trough the hall, guarding the machinery and computer terminals.

Tails and Rouge shared a look.

"So… I know there are some guards, but I say we wont get a better opportunity than this."

Tails agreed. Still… "What are we going to do about the Egg Watchers?"

"Hm, could you maybe do something like you did to the ones outside the base?"

"Maybe, but I´m worried they would send an alarm to Eggman and cause a whole battalion of Badniks to storm this place if there would be a suspicious signal."

"Maybe you could make a… not so suspicious signal?" Noticing Tails confused expression, the bat added, "We both know the doctor to be not the most patient man in the world. So I assume he would program his robots to investigate before giving false alarm and waste his time. As long as whatever sets them off isn't to grand."

Tails thought about it before nodding.

"I think I get where you coming from, Rouge. If I hack into their systems and give them signals of some suspicious movement, instead of high Chaos Energy, then this may work. But it will take a while."

He took out the Miles-Electric (not an easy task inside a cramped vent) and began typing in it.

Rouge remained close on the grate, watching the movement of the Egg Watcher closely. After a while, all of their heads turned at once to a far corner of the hall and they all stormed towards it, while at the same time Tails said: "Now Rouge."

She quickly took out a gadget that had served her well during her services at G.U.N. A laser hidden inside lipstick. She used it to sever the bars of the grate and pull them outwards. During this, Tails kept the robots feeding some false information, but he wasn't sure how long he could keep at it, until part of their A.I.s noted that something was amiss.

Finally, Rouge was done. Tails tipped some stuff, put his gadget away, and the two of them flew quietly into the hall. The Egg Watcher were still busy in a corner, their mechanical eyes locked towards the ground. The Mobian duo landed close to a computer terminal that was somewhat hidden between some machinery, which gave them some cover from the Egg Watchers. Tails activated the computer, before turning to Rouge.

"Okay, you will be the lookout. Warn me if one of the Watchers comes to close, so I can quickly shut the computer down, as to not raise any suspicion, before we hide."

"Understood. Don't forget that I have some expertise in hacking as well, so if you need any help, whisper my name and, if the situation allows it, I will come over and see if I can help out."

Tails nodded. Rouge gave him an encouraging smile, then went around the corner of one of the machines around them and peeked around. Since she didn't gave any form of alarm, Tails took a nervous breath and went to work.

Alright, he thought, let´s see what I can find.

The refrences are strong in this one, I wonder how many can be found.

So yeah, I couldnt round up the Arc this chapter, I coulnt even make it a slong as I wished, because this week I had to take care of some other stuff, before me and my family goes to vacation. I will be gone for two weeks, the week after, where I´m back, I will be busy fixing every grammar and other type of error. So it will be in total three entire weeks, before I post the next chapter with the imporved version of the story.

Before I move on to the reviews, to any Metal Gear Rising Revengeance fans: Yes, Cinder´s cyborg design is based on Mistral. I went for it because I think having multiple arms woukld help Cinder better utilize her rather diverse abilites. Things will be more clear next chapter, but I can spoil one thing; despite her training, Ruby will have trouble. I also gave Cinder ten arms instead of Mistral´s fourteen. It´s supposed to be a refrence to Kali, a godess of destruction from indian mythology, since RWBY is full of stuff that is based on fairytales and mythology. That, and many stories describe Kali as pretty bloodthirsty and destructive, so rather fitting towards Cinder.

To Guest: Whenever someone is hit by the cubes and it shifts to bold and italic, it´s an illusion. The rest is reality bending.

To ArguableReader: Yeah, the chase scene was based on the one from the Avatar´s level inside Metropolis. The one before Infinite. Of course here it is Sonic and Shadow who square of against him, since a reality manipulator would be leagues of what Ruby could fight. One can give children serious stories and I think the Advenure games are a good example of that. But for that it requires writers who understand the source material and have a clear idea of what they want to write and present. Sadly, Forces didnt have that.

Yeah, Tails being sneaky is a new area for him, which is why he has Rouge with him. And as this chapter has shown, two heads are always better then one.

To Guest: I see that my wording back then had made things come of different than I intended. Me saying the Ultimate Lifeform is the perfect guinea pig for Infinite testing his abilities was more along the line of him being physically resilient. Sure, Shadow being also mentally strong was also one of the deciding factors on why he was used, but that has less to do with him being the Ultimate Lifeform, and more with him being a stubborn and stronwilled person. It also doesnt mean anyone who is not Shadow will instantly just break down. It all depends on the psyche of the person. Sonic is similair to Shadow. Ruby has shown to be pretty strong willed too, but often at the cost of putting others safety and physical and meental health before her own. It´s what she did last chapter: Trying to shake her terror of for the sake of others. This mentalitly will be adressed later down the line more.

As for why Infinite knew about stuff from Remnant, yeah no, it really is just because Cinder told him everything in detail. Dont forget with her being on Salem´s side, she knews a lot about Remnant and probably traveled around. Not to forget, she hacked into the schools systems to gather Data from the students, to find someone suitable to cause mayhem during the Vytal festival.

To Guest: Thanks again. I have no idea how that last error happened. Then again, I was pretty tired and burned out when I wrote that chapter. Hopefully I will make everything better once I go trough with the fixing of every chapter.

To Guest: Thank you very much :)

To Monster King: I will... after taking my break.