"Tails?"
"Hey Sonic, I've been so distracted by the Prism lately, I forgot about the Emeralds. So I decided to do a quick scan to check on them, and five of them are at one of Eggman's bases! It looks like he's collecting them again."
"Guess he couldn't stay down for long! Want me to bust in and grab them?"
"Not yet, I've already asked Rouge to go. She was pretty eager… Anyway, I've tracked down the sixth. I'm sending you the coordinates, can you go get it?"
"I'm on it!"
When Sonic arrived at the Emerald's location, it was to find an army of robots and one particularly gleeful Eggman inspecting the cyan Chaos Emerald.
"Looks like you were too slow on this one hedgehog!" He cackled as he soared away. Sonic groaned and called Tails.
"He got to it first? This is all my fault, if I hadn't been so focused on the Prism-"
"Hey don't sweat it bro! We'll handle it the way we always do."
"You running off on your own, getting distracted by something, and arriving late?"
"Heh, uh, I'll try to avoid that again. Still not sure what made me late last time…"
"I'll call Amy and Knuckles, and let Rouge know we're on the way."
"I'll take care of these bots and meet you there!"
By the time he made it to Eggman's base, the others had already taken down most of the defenses.
"At least you're here for the main event this time!" Amy called at him while Knuckles started punching the doors down. He forced them out of the way to find Rouge leaning against the wall on the other side, several broken bots sprawled along the hallway.
"You're all late as far as I'm concerned." She flapped her wings. "Come on, he's locked himself in the main atrium!"
Tails held up his datapad as they ran. "There's a huge power buildup ahead. Be careful everyone!"
"There's a weak spot near the top of the atrium." Rouge pointed it out on approach. "If we focus our combined attacks there we should be able to break through."
"Sounds good, give me a lift!" Amy grasped her hammer as Rouge took her up, while Sonic spindashed along the wall and Knuckles climbed. Together they unleashed a barrage of blows until, with a giant creak, the roof caved in, landing them all in front of a buzzing machine chock full of Chaos Emeralds.
Eggman barely glanced at them. "Not now, I'm troubleshooting! Robots, attack!"
While everyone else engaged the bots, Tails snuck up behind Eggman and peered at his monitor.
"Looks like he's remotely beaming Chaos Energy to a force field emitter… In orbit?" He muttered to himself, glancing at the machinery. "The energy stream is paused at about eighty-six percent… But the Emeralds are fully charged up! Why hasn't he activated it yet?" He leaned closer. "Did the transmission overload his systems?"
"That's what 'he' is trying to figure out!" Tails was plucked off the ground with a yelp. Eggman continued his tirade, fox in one hand and computer mouse in the other. "It doesn't make sense! I have all the Chaos Emeralds together but they aren't enough to power my machine. Has that ever happened before?" He rounded on Tails. "Have you seen that happen before? Can that even happen?!"
"Hey, let him go Egghead!"
Sonic smashed through the crowd of bots and skidded to a stop in front of them. Eggman threw the (now-contemplative) fox at him as he continued clicking through the data and muttering under his breath.
"I've used this exact schematic in the past, it's never failed before… Are the Emeralds moving against me? Perhaps I need to dig up that old theory on Emerald sentience. But that shouldn't explain the missing power draw…"
Sonic checked Tails over to make sure he was alright, before turning back to Eggman. "Maybe the Emeralds are just as sick of you as I am!" Revving up, he slammed into the machine, which started sparking. Bouncing off the walls, he continued to smack and rattle it, while everyone else took cover.
"Blasted hedgehog, you're going to make it explode! Again!" Eggman yelled as he dove into a nearby escape hatch. Sonic laughed.
"Keep up Egghead, that's what I do!"
"Sonic, stop!" Tails yelled from behind the pile of smashed bots. "We don't want a repeat of the Paradox Prism!"
At this, Sonic slowed down and ceased hitting the machine, though he continued darting around the room to keep the remaining forces at bay. Rouge took the opportunity to land in front of the monitor. With a few deft clicks, she released the Emeralds from their sockets, and scooped up the white one to admire it.
"You know, I bet I could find someplace safe to store this one-"
Sonic snatched from her (eliciting a "hey!") as well as the others with a quick "sorry Rouge, but I'm gonna need to borrow those first!"
Surrounding himself with the Emeralds, he put his hands on his hips and grinned at the window of the escape hatch, through which they could all see Eggman bolting off.
"Sorry Egghead!" Sonic called after him. "But since you were super nice enough to collect all of these for me, I can't just let them go to waste!" He stretched his arms out and waited for the familiar energy to course through him.
…And continued waiting for several seconds.
"Uh, Tails?" He surveyed the six glowing gems still lying on the ground. "I think the Emeralds are broken."
"Any luck?"
"Not yet." The fox leaned back in his chair and fiddled with his namesakes. "It just doesn't make sense. Their individual power levels haven't changed, their readings are correct, it's the same set we've been working with for years now… Right?"
Sonic counted them off. Red, yellow, white, purple, light blue, dark blue. All six were accounted for. "Looks right to me. Did Knuckles get back to you?"
"He said the Master Emerald doesn't seem to be acting up. He and Amy are looking through the ancient scrolls on the island to see if anything similar has happened before."
"What about Rouge?" He helped himself to the fridge. "I'm surprised she isn't here."
"She's actually been keeping an eye on the Prism for me. Don't worry - she agrees it's not safe to touch or move it anywhere. I think she's just happy she gets to hang out with it alone all day. She does send me updates on the scanners I placed around it, so it's a win-win."
Sonic tossed a chili dog into the microwave. "How's that research going by the way?"
"It's amazing!" Tails pulled up some charts. "It seems to contain some kind of pocket dimension, sort of like the Special Stage. I've been calling it the Innerverse. I'm not entirely sure what its purpose is yet, but some of the frequencies I've picked up look like the x-rays that black holes emit! I'm planning to build a telescope so I can compare them directly. I think with a bit more research I might even be able to find a way to enter it. Like a spaceship!"
"...Cool!"
"Of course, the Emeralds are currently my top priority." Tails slumped over his desk. "I mean it's good that Eggman can't use them at least, but they're so intertwined with the planet that I'm worried there's a deeper issue we haven't noticed yet."
"I'm sure you'll figure it out." He ruffled his brother's head affectionately. "You always do."
Tails smiled.
A beeping from the monitor caught their attention. Tails opened up a few windows and frowned. "Now what…"
"Which is it?" Sonic sat on one of the tables and took a few bites. "The Emeralds? The Prism? Eggman?"
"Um… Reality?"
"...Reality?"
"No, no, no…!" Shadow gripped the Chaos Emerald tightly, eyes darting around the shrinking walls of the void. Fixing the Prism was supposed to stop the Shatterverse from collapsing in on itself. Why had it started again?
He took a deep breath and focused on thinking things through.
Nine said the Shatterverse wasn't stable because the worlds were trying to attract each other and become whole again, but needed an intact Prism to merge without being destroyed.
Intact Prism - check.
Merged worlds - check.
Nine said the split versions needed to be in their home worlds to recombine properly at the same time as their worlds.
Recombined Rouge, Amy, Knuckles, and Eggman - check.
Nine Chaos Controlled back to the New Yoke City portal and thrown through at the last second - check
Therefore recombined Tails - check.
Everything had been put back in place. What was he missing?
"When I realized some of the Prism's readings resembled black holes, I put up a bunch of sensors I call 'Verisimilitometers'," Tails held up a small daisy-shaped device with rotating rings. The group leaned in for a closer look. "Black holes are theorized to be able to affect reality, so I wanted to see if the Prism had any similar capabilities."
"You made sensors… To measure reality?" Amy asked in awe.
"Pretty much. They're still experimental though, I haven't had hard data to test them with." Tails gestured to the screen. "'Till now."
"So something's wrong with reality?" Knuckles crossed his arms. "That might be why the Emeralds are acting up."
"Is it because of the Prism?" Rouge asked.
"I'm not sure yet. The sensors seem to indicate a change in reality, but I haven't managed to pinpoint a source or a direct impact."
The group shared a thoughtful moment.
"Well, Knuckles and I did find something, " Amy spread a scroll out on the table. "This is the architectural plan for the Master Emerald altar."
Knuckles helped smoothen it out, taking care with the ancient creases. "I'm not sure how old it is, but according to the plan there were supposed to be seven pillars for the Emeralds, not six."
"As in, seven Chaos Emeralds?" Tails inspected the scroll closely.
"Yeah. There's only six at the altar, we couldn't find any notes why they planned to build a seventh one."
"Hmm…" Tails tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Seven pillars but six Emeralds. Shifting reality…"
He jumped as if startled, grabbed his keyboard and started pulling up files.
"Come on, where did I put it… Aha! Let's see…"
"Find somethi-"
"Sh! Just let me…"
He read through the file he'd pulled up and pumped his fists triumphantly.
"The Eclipse Cannon!"
"From the ARK?" Rouge put a hand on her hip.
"Oh yeah! The one Eggman blew up half the moon with." Amy remembered. "Though we shut that down, but then his grandfather set the whole station to crash into the planet…"
"And then we beat up a giant lizard and saved it," Sonic grinned fondly. "That was a fun one!"
"And by 'we' you mean 'you'," Knuckles playfully shoved him, "I had my hands full powering down the Emeralds." Sonic looked surprised.
"No, by we I mean me and… um…" He frowned. "Was it just me out there?"
Rouge scoffed. "Know anyone else who can go super and survive in outer space?"
"Guys, that's not the point." Tails pulled up the Cannon's schematics. "The Eclipse Cannon was made to hold seven Chaos Emeralds!"
"What?" Knuckles came over and looked at the images. "That's impossible."
It would be… If there were only six." At their confused looks, Tails explained. "The amount of energy Eggman was missing to power up his machine was roughly equal to a single Emerald. Reality seems to be changing, and now there's evidence there's supposed to be one more out there. I think something caused the seventh Emerald to be taken out of our reality. And I think… It happened recently."
They all stared at him in shock. Except for Sonic, who was fiddling with his quills.
"Like… Slammed-into-a-Prism recently?"
A/N
One more chapter to go! It'll be out next month.
Fun little poll for you readers: do you prefer Chaos Emeralds (/Energy/Control/etc) to be capitalized or lowercase? Trying out capitalized in this fic, still not sure which way I'm feeling…