Chapter 23

With our skills, we managed to prove how tough we were by destroying over 100 different baddies, saving some villagers in the castle from wrongful imprisonment by the baddies, and we gave rings to the downtrodden and poor in the castle town and in the woods. And we had done all of them within the span of 10 hours. We were well on our way back to the lake to report what we'd done, when we saw a little girl on the road... I knew what was going on, but the others didn't. The girl was crying and she looked very adorable, almost like what Cream looked like in her human disguise at the carnival I met Blaze at.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying, little one?" I asked, her then looking at me with a sniffle.

"A great big dragon attacked my village!" she cried.

"A dragon?!" Shahra gawked.

"I-It took my mommy, my daddy, everyone! It took them to the cave to the southeast... I don't want them to be eaten..." the girl cried as I looked at the others and smiled.

"Well, we can't very well let that happen. Let's go off to slay a dragon!" I smirked widely.

"What?! What of the ladie's tests! You will never get there and back in time!" Caliburn said in retort.

"Who cares about that? When there's a little girl asking for help to rescue an entire village from a dragon, I can't very well ignore it! We'll be there and back in no time flat!" I said, me then looking at the little girl with seriousness. "You stay right there, young one. We'll go get that your family and friends back," I smiled.

"T-Thank you," the little girl said as we then proceeded to the east towards the Titanic Plains, following Caliburn's instruction.

"If you're willing to go through with this, then the dragon in question might be the one in the Crystal Cave. The only way to get there is by land through the Titanic Plains, as it's impassable mountains are hard to navigate from the waters," Caliburn stated.

"Thanks for the directions, bub! Time to rush!" I smiled widely.

"Oh yeah! This is gonna be fun!" Sticks smirked as we spent nearly an hour running until we got to the plains, where we had to defeat numerous spear-holding demons on our way to the location, where we then proceeded due south... and then, when we came to a certain place that looked like a shine, we were stopped by yet another change to the story. Instead of Sir Gawain being Knuckles... it was none other than the most badass bunny ever!

"Huh?... Aw, you look adorable!" Shahra smiled at her. But we were surprised when she brandished her two swords with a growl.

"You dare mock Sir Gawain, knightess of the Round Table?!" she asked with a very mean-sounding voice as far as Cream the Rabbit was concerned. "Then let us duel to regain my honor!" she said.

"Wait, wait, we don't want any trouble, Gawain," said Lancelot... and that caused the rabbit knight to be surprised and holster her weapons again.

"Lancelot?... What are you doing with these criminals? I thought you of all people would've slain them the moment you saw them!" Gawain asked in surprise... and for those of you wondering, Gawain looked exactly like Cream the Rabbit... if she were 10 years old. Which, coincidentally, was her age as of now. And for Mobian rabbits, that meant she was a teenager. So imagine Cream being roughly 4 feet tall instead of 2 feet, her ears even longer, and her being more powerful than when she was as a 6 year old. But I also noted that Gawain had a small pet as well, but not in the form of a Chao like Cheese. Rather, her pet was of a small demon creature... one that, by this game's standards, was adorable. It looked almost like a smaller, winged Midna from Twilight Princess, but with no arms.

"Boring! Beat up baddies, hee!' the small imp said, which Gawain frowned at.

"Shush, Keese... tell me, Lancelot, why did you spare them instead of slay them, as King Arthur ordered?" the adorable knightess asked.

"The weird-looking one with the cat ears and tail defeated me in battle. And she showed mercy on me... she said that there's more to a knight than just serving a king and I'm on a mission from Nemue herself to learn how to do so," Lancelot said, that making Gawain look at him and then at me... and only then did I notice that even Gawain had a Secret Ring on her. And it was in the form of the white one.

"I see... and I see that the one in question holds not only Caliburn, but three of the Sacred Rings as well... I shall give you a deal, owner of Caliburn. If you can best me in battle, I shall join your group in your endeavors as well as give you my own Sacred Ring," she said, me smiling at that.

"Sounds like a deal to me! Everyone, watch and learn," I smiled as I then put up my stance and smiled.

"Cheryl, Knight of the Rings, versus Gawain, Knightess of the Round Table... Three, two, one, DUEL!" I shouted, Gawain then rushing towards me without any haste and proceeding to use her ears to her advantage and gain an aerial approach to the fight. She tried to fly above me before then slamming her swords into the ground to try and skewer me, but I was quicker. I faked her out and proceeded to send out the powers of the yellow ring at her, which I could see was imbued with the power of sunlight! I had managed to blind her temporarily as she closed her eyes and looked very disoriented.

"C-Can't see... Where are you?" she asked in confusion as I then rushed in and yanked her Sacred Swords from her hands before then drop-kicking her. She looked surprised at my skills as she finally gained her composure and looked surprised at how I now had her swords in my possession. "Hmm, impressive skills... for an apprentice knight," Gawain said with a smug smirk. I was confused at her saying that before I noticed that her little imp friend wasn't around! I then instinctively felt a danger to my right and dodged out of the way of an attack from said imp! I then used my reflexes to grab the imp with two fingers, which it didn't like at all.

"Hey! Leggo!" it said in annoyance as I looked at the knightess ancestor of Cream and Vanilla with a smile.

"Looks like I win," I smirked as I then placed the imp back on her head and she frowned.

"Looks like it. Fine, you have proven you are capable of a knight. Take this ring and I shall follow you wherever you go," she said, me smiling as she gave me the ring while kneeling, which was a sign of marriage where I came from. But I simply took it and, when it touched my skin, I felt the overwhelming sense of my deepest wishes and dreams... they included all of the good and all of the bad and everything in between. And just as before, it was very hard to stay focused during it, but somehow, I managed to endure it for the full 10 seconds before waking back to the real world.

"Whoo... that was the trippiest one yet... all of my dreams and wishes coming all at once for ten seconds straight... and I've had some crazy dreams," I admitted with a halfhearted smile.

"If I may ask a question, miss Gawain, that small creature you have with you... would it happen to be a Djinn?" Shahra asked her, which Gawain smiled at widely.

"Why yes, it is. Keese is a Djinn of mischief, but I rescued her from getting eaten by a frog, so she is loyal to me," Gawain smiled.

"Now I think I got it... the Chao from our world must've been evolved creatures of Djinn similar to this one, over thousands of years old," Maria said with a smile.

"Whaddaya talkin' 'bout?" Keese asked in annoyance. I then felt her aura with the white ring similar to the silver emerald and saw it for myself.

"We mean that you are one of the most ancient of ancestors to a race of creature in our timeline called the Chao, nearly 10 thousand years in the future... imagine a creature just a tad bigger than you with a blob-like body and being able to adapt to any environment," I smiled, which made the little Djinn surprised.

"Huh... neat!" she said, me smirking at how she said it exactly like in the Dorkly videos of old.

"So you come from a different world? That explains your odd choice of clothing attire," Gawain said, me smirking at her.

"If you weren't so cute yet deadly, I'd ask to pet your head," I smiled, Gawain then blushing at me.

"Are we done yet? We need people to save from a dragon, after all! To the crystal cave! Come on!" Sticks shouted as she rushed headlong into danger, us then following after her, since she looked like that one World of Warcraft person that did the barbarian charge into a high-level dungeon... I wonder if that video is still up or not?... Probably not, since the world had regressed to the Medieval Age after a radioactive explosion that covered the whole planet... I still wanted to know more, and I knew that either Maria's mother or Meryl would be the ones to talk to about that.

Meanwhile, back at the lake where Nimue resided, the former queen, the wizardess, Nimue, and the two from the future were speaking amongst themselves about certain things.

"So, you come from our timeline, yet you were sent back in time accidentally? And that this lake granted you eternal youth and immortality?" Blaze asked the lady of the lake, her nodding at that.

"And as I said, Maria is my daughter... I feel bad for what happened to her in the future, as she gets turned into a robot... but at least it's better than being killed from a debilitating disease or a gunshot wound," Nimue smiled. "Also, before I renamed myself to Nimue, I went by the name Barbara Robotnik, which was my maiden name... my husband loved me to the point he adopted my last name as opposed to me changing mine," she smiled.

"And what happened to your husband?" Elise asked, that causing Nimue to sigh.

"He died to a different disease shortly after Maria was born... his family line was very susceptible to disease, which is why Maria contracted NIDS at a young age... but now for my question. Meryl, you say you are a descendant of Cheryl's family line... and that you were the one to teleport her to the future far beyond this one? Care to explain?" Nimue asked the wizardess. And Meryl simply smiled at that.

"I foresaw that there were going to be troubles ahead for her in the past, so I sent her to a future timeline... one that she knew mostly about for some odd reason," Meryl said. And that made Blaze gasp.

"What? She... she knew about our timeline? How much of it?" Blaze asked.

"Most of it... but some of it was changed because of her involvement. Such as your group getting pregnant from her through the genie's magic, the fact that she completely changed the events that were supposed to take place in Soleanna, and her finding out about Maria Robotnik so early on... but despite that, I can sense that she feels guilt for not telling any of you... but she won't tell you the truth because she thinks you won't believe her," Meryl smiled, which surprised Elise specifically, about how Cheryl was lying about stuff to her face... but then she remembered the second thing, that things changed completely in Soleanna.

"What specifically changed in Soleanna? I'm asking just because I don't know if I should be angry or not that she lied to me," Elise asked.

"You were going to be kidnapped by Eggman roughly 10 times in a row, you would've developed a relationship with Sonic the Hedgehog instead, Mephiles would've merged with Iblis when both were filled with malice, and the merger would've threatened the entirety of time and space... then you would've collected the Chaos Emeralds to resurrect a dead Sonic by kissing him on the lips, and then-" Meryl was about to finish, but Elise stopped her.

"Okay, okay, stop, stop, that's enough... yikes... now I see why she kept it secret from me... I never told anyone this, but I actually despise Sonic the Hedgehog for being a cocky smartypants anytime I see him," Elise said with a blush of embarrassment and annoyance. But her annoyance was more at the fact that, had Cheryl not interfered, she would've kissed Sonic's corpse to bring him back to life. She couldn't imagine doing that for anyone, since she was very queazy with anything that was dead unless they were plants.

"I see why she changed it drastically as well... she was willing to possibly die from Mephiles entering her body in order to protect the world from an evil Solaris... but what would've happened after that resurrection of Sonic?" Blaze asked.

"Then Sonic would be revived and he'd use his Super form along with Shadow and Silver to defeat Solaris. Then, Sonic and Elise would be sent back to when Solaris was just a flicker of flame, shortly before Elise II's death. You, Elise, would contemplate weather or not to blow out the flame to prevent the Flames of Disaster and Mephiles from doing any of their evil... but then you'd say a line along the lines of "I don't care what happens to everyone in the world, I want to live a life where I'm in love with Sonic."... And then, Sonic would kindly get you to blow the flame out," Meryl said with a sigh. And Elise looked to be upset at that.

"To think that, if things were different, I'd put a snarky hedgehog over the entire universe in terms of importance... when Cheryl comes back from her hero work, I need to give her something that I want her to have... something to let her know that I thank her for never telling me the truth," Elise said as she held a ring in her hand... and when Barbara saw it, she looked at it in surprise.

"Oh my! You've had one of the Sacred Rings this whole time?" she asked, which made Elise smile at that.

"It is a very secretive treasure of my home country... we give it to whomever we wish to marry, but it also tests them, like the ones in this timeline have been testing Cheryl already... it tests how much pleasure that they feel. But not the kind from sex. The kind they feel from within the soul for whoever they love. If it doesn't align with the one to give the ring, then it will be too much for them. That's how we know if our boyfriends or girlfriends are fit to be part of the royal house. We don't take kindly to cheaters," Elise said. But it was then that Blaze frowned at that.

"So... it's a proposal, then?... Does that mean the rest of us are out of the clique?" Blaze asked.

"Of course not. I know she cares for me as she does for everyone else in our group. So when we do get married, it'll be a mass-marriage. All of us get married to each other, essentially," Elise smirked.

"Is that legal in the future?... Because even back in her timeline, it was farily frowned upon," Elsa asked with concern.

"It's okay to do in the future, but it's not really utilized too much. And it depends based on the country you're in. For example, South America, Europe, Australia, and North America, the latter being where I reside, is fairly fine with it in all of the provinces. But in Asia and Africa, you can only do it with one guy or girl getting married to one or more of the other gender only," Elise explained.

"And meanwhile, in my universe, it's perfectly okay for you to even have kids and become a family without marriage... but then again, that's only because the world is filled with few patches of land and mostly water... and before you ask, it's because my original universe was merged to that one by a very evil man that Cheryl already took care of," Blaze said when she saw Elise was about to ask a question.

"Who was that evil man?... And how did Cheryl take care of him?" Elise asked.

"An alternate version of Eggman called Eggman Nega. And Cheryl imprisoned him in an ancient Echidna tribe castle... within a spectral zone that keeps horrible sinners there for many many years depending on how many sins they've committed. Killing an entire universe for power means he'll be there practically forever," Blaze said.

"I see... at least it wasn't death," Elise smiled.

"She's too nice to kill anyone. I should know. Literally no one in our family line since the 1700s of the original AD had killed a single human being," Meryl smiled.

"Speaking of, I wonder how she's doing with her journy..." Barbara smiled as she looked with her scrying bowl and, doing so, she saw that Cheryl and her group had not only gotten Sir Gawain and her Djinn to join their cause, but they had also rescued the villagers from the cave. The dragon wasn't in the place, which was a blessing. "She's done so, with only half an hour to spare... if she can make it back even three minutes late, I'll be very impressed," Barbara smiled.

"If she had the powers of the green emerald, she'd be able to do so with ease... but what's the significance to these Sacred Rings, anyways?" Blaze asked.

"They used to belong to Shahra's world, which is contained in the tales of the Arabian Nights. After her and Silver the Hedgehog stopped the Erazor Djinn, the 7 World Rings from the books were sent to this world to this timeline shortly after... and it seems that the aqua ring of pleasure has lasted even to 10 thousand years in the future of the house of Camelot," Meryl smiled. "They're basically ancient artifacts that contain elements of power. For example, this aqua ring in Elise's possession allows the wearer to conjure and control ice. The purple ring can raise the dead and cause death to anyone that fails to endure the pain from grabbing hold of it. And the most dangerous ring... is held by the traitorous wizard Merlina. The green ring of hatred, with the power to cast illusions and conceal the wearer from identity... to an extent," Meryl said, that making Elise gasp.

"Merlina... who is she?" Elise asked.

"A traitor to our entire kingdom... she wishes to finish what her grandfather, Merlin, did to Arthur. She wants to use the scabbard of Excalibur to make the kingdom live forever with her as the everlasting ruler," Meryl said with seriousness. "But there is nothing to fear. Though she cannot be seen, she can still be detected by another of magical prowess... she's currently in hiding near Avalon, where King Arthur resides. When the scabbard is freed from the cursed king's control, only then will she come out of hiding, as she is a coward."

"That's a relief... wait..." Blaze said as she looked at Meryl with seriousness. "Hmm... I don't sense evil intentions in you... but I have my eye on you," Blaze frowned.

"Thou art saying ye don't believe her?" Elsa asked.

"I'm not one for trusting people unless they prove themselves to be a good person... that's why I was still hesitant to be in a relationship with Cheryl even after she imprisoned Eggman Nega. She hadn't done enough to earn my trust," Blaze said.

"Tell me about it..." Elise sighed. But Meryl simply sighed with a smile at Blaze. She was telling the truth, that Merlina was in Avalon and that she was traitorous. And she was also content, knowing that she'd never do the horrid things that Merlina would do. She then decided, to prove to Blaze that she was a good person, she would ask Cheryl to join her on her next stop. And judging by her magic of knowing the future, she knew that they'd need to encounter Percival... boy would Cheryl be surprised at who Percival's ancestor was.