Author's note: This chapter is a bit of a filler as we prepare for the next segment of the story (the first part was hopping the universes). Apologies for the delay in getting it up. I hit a bit of a writer's block, and I also had college to keep me busy. If you enjoy this story and would like to see me keep it going, please consider leaving a review. It motivates me endlessly to know that the words I write are reaching your eyes; it gives me a greater purpose for writing, and I'm sure I'm not alone in this sentiment. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe FanFiction allows you to leave reviews anonymously, so you may not even have to create an account. I may even give you a shout-out in my notes at the beginning of each chapter. :)

Long time followers of this story will know that I had around a 2-year hiatus between Chapters 2 and 3 that came to an end because someone decided either to leave a review or send me a PM (I forget exactly which, but I suspect both motivated me). If this story ever goes on another lengthy hiatus, leaving a review will go a long way to getting me to continue, even if it's literally been years since the last update. Regardless of whether you choose to review, thank you so much for reading. It's been a way past cool writing experience so far.

When Chris woke the next morning, the autumn air was unusually fresh and the sky was a beautiful blue – not a cloud in sight. Groggily, Chris got out of bed and stretched, rubbing his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, he realized that he was in his old room at his parents' mansion. Chris was momentarily perplexed, as he had expected to wake up in his dorm room at the Station Square Institute of Science (SSISci, pronounced "sigh-sigh"). The events of the previous day came rushing back into his memory, hitting him like a freight train.

Sonic!

Chris had to think hard to convince himself it wasn't just a dream. He recalled the events of the past 36 hours. A government agent had appeared and told Grandpa that Sonic didn't have to go back to his world after all back when he was last in Station Square. After this, Chris and his friends had raced to the SSISci laboratory, where they confirmed that the connection between their world and Sonic's was still broken indefinitely. Following this, the group had gone to get ice cream and donuts at a place Ella recommended, where Sonic had showed up after hopping universes with Shadow.

No, this wasn't a dream! Chris immediately broke into a run, yanking the door open and sprinting down the hallway toward the stairwell that led to the garage attic, where they had left Sonic to rest after his battle with Shadow.

The attic was empty.

The bed was made, and the entire room looked undisturbed. If Sonic had slept in the room the previous night, he didn't leave any trace of having done so.

Confused, Chris descended the stairs back to the hallway. Maybe it was a dream after all...

Once he made his way back into the main house, he could smell a rich aroma emanating from the kitchen. Ella was likely cooking breakfast. Stomach growling, Chris instinctively made his way to the dining room. There, he found his parents and his grandfather already sitting at the table, eating.

"Good afternoon, sleepyhead," said his mother.

"Aftern— wait, what time is it?" replied Chris.

"Twelve thirty PM," answered Chuck. "Sonic woke up earlier in the morning. He said he was going out for a run."

So it wasn't a dream!

This was classic Sonic behavior: running off without even saying hello. Although Chris felt slightly miffed that he would not be able to reconnect immediately with his best childhood friend, he understood that Sonic lived to run. Besides, Chris had probably been still asleep at the time Sonic went out. He would be back eventually.

"In the meantime," his mother was saying, "come have a bite of Ella's delightful brunch."

"Okay," said Chris.

"The news is all over Sonic right now," said Chuck. "There were journalists at the opening of that ice cream and donuts shop, and at least one of them recorded Sonic and Shadow's entry into our world live." Chuck reached into the inner pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a newspaper. In giant letters, the front page headline read, "SONIC RETURNS", with a picture of Chuck, Chris, Tanaka, and Sam all carrying Sonic to Sam's car.

"Some people are actually a little worried," Chuck continued. "The last time Sonic showed up, he brought with him a lot of trouble, such as Eggman, who in turn brought Shadow and the Chaos creature into the mix. There was a lot of destruction."

"But it was Sonic who saved the day in the end," defended Chris. "Without him, we might all be living under the Eggman Empire right now."

"But what if Sonic had never brought himself and Eggman to this world to begin with?" Chuck replied.

Chris shrugged. "Well, it doesn't seem like Eggman is here now."

"True," said Chuck. "Besides, I think the majority of people are excited he's back. He made a lot of fans the last time he was here."

Chris grinned. He remembered the days when many people were obsessing over Sonic and imitating him: growing their hair out and dying it blue, sleeping on their roofs, running around with their hands behind them, attempting sometimes to stalk him.

When Chris was finished with his brunch, he went to Chuck's laboratory inside the basement of the mansion. There, he took out some blueprint paper and began to design some schematics for a new device, occasionally using the computer to test a few algorithms.

After some time, Chuck descended into the basement as well and asked Chris what he was working on.

"I figure Sonic needs help finding the Chaos emeralds," Chris explained, "so I'm designing a device that would help detect the presence of a nearby Chaos emerald."

Chuck smiled. "You know, you've come a long way since you were twelve years old. You're only 19, and you already have such a superior understanding of electrical and mechanical engineering. To design these projects at your age... that's something even I couldn't do."

Chris blushed and rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. "Heh, I guess I had a good teacher," he said, looking at Chuck intently. "And plus, you and Tails did most of the work already. I'm just improving on designs that you guys pioneered."

Chuck shook his head in response. "I'm proud of you, Chris, and I always will be."

Chris smiled. "Thanks, Grandpa."

Chuck shifted his eyes toward the blueprints. "A device to find Chaos emeralds, huh? You know, Tails worked on a similar project back in the day. I think I might still have his schematics lying around somewhere. I'd be happy to help if you want an old geezer like me with you."

Chris's lips began to move into a grin, but after a brief moment, they stopped. Chris felt something, something deep down that stopped him from fully enjoying this moment. His eyebrows tightened into a frown.

Chris was confused. He couldn't pinpoint exactly why he felt this way, but for some reason, a very small part of him told him that he did not really want to work with his grandfather today. The other part, the more rational part, told him that nothing was wrong. Sonic was back, after all!

"Chris?" Chuck said, noticing his lengthy silence. "Is everything all right?"

"Y-yeah," said Chris, shaking off the nagging feeling and forcing a smile. "Yeah, let's do it."

Chuck raised an eyebrow in confusion, but decided not to press the matter. The two set off to work on the Chaos emerald device.

Back in Sonic's world, a tall, egg-shaped human being stepped back into his command center. Pieces of shattered glass crunched beneath his feet, and there were some broken wires and instrumentation that lay scattered throughout the room.

Eggman groaned. "For the love of… look who has to clean up this mess!"

He paused, remembering something. "Bocoe! Decoe! Where are you idiots?"

Behind him, Eggman heard the sound of his metallic subordinates clanking up the stairs and entering the room.

"We're here, Doctor!" said Decoe.

"We were hiding," said Bocoe. "Once Shadow appeared and attacked Sonic, we snuck out the door and hid in the closet. Are they gone now?"

Eggman turned around and inspected the window that was shattered by Sonic. "Yes," he said. "So it seems. Now the question is: where have they gone to?"

Eggman walked up and activated his central console. Fortunately, Sonic and Shadow had spent little of their time fighting in the command room, so much of the equipment was left undamaged, save for the broken window and some dented instruments. On the console before him, Eggman pressed a button which illuminated a holographic map of the terrain surrounding his base.

"I'm checking our scanners, and neither hedgehog appears to be anywhere nearby," said Decoe.

"At the rate they were traveling, they might be all the way across the continent by now," said Bocoe.

Eggman chuckled. "No matter. It's unlikely that either Sonic or Shadow would have been able to defeat the other. My guess is, they fought to a stalemate, or maybe one is hiding from the other. Either way, this won't be the last we see of that Shadow."

On his keyboard, Eggman entered a combination of letters which changed the map to one of the entire globe.

He squinted his eyes. "How strange," he remarked. "I should be able to detect him on this map."

Bocoe and Decoe exchanged confused glances. "Uh, are you talking about Shadow, Doctor?" asked Decoe. "Our scanners can only pick up living creatures approaching from around our base. There's no way they could cover the entire planet!"

"Back when Shadow was in his coma, I surgically implanted a tracking device into his body," said Eggman. "Call it insurance, if you will. There is a satellite surrounding our planet that can pick up the signal from the tracking device and transmit the device's to us. Unfortunately, the tracking device only works if Shadow is on our planet – that's why I couldn't use it during out little space adventure with the Metarex."

"But Doctor," said Bocoe, "aren't you saying that your satellite can't detect Shadow, even when we know he's on this planet?"

"That can mean two things," replied Eggman solemnly. "Either Shadow is not on this planet, or he is dead."

"No way. Absolutely not!"

Knuckles the Echidna stood atop his tower on the floating Angel Island. For a time, life had been peaceful for him. A few annoying skirmishes with Doctor Eggman here and there, but for the most part, life had been exactly how he liked it: uneventful. That is, until his twin-tailed fox friend showed up.

"Knuckles," said Tails, "it's the only way we can know where Chaos Control took Sonic."

Knuckles rubbed his forehead, then looked at Tails sympathetically. "Tails, listen. I'm sorry about Sonic, but I can't let you use the Master Emerald. It just isn't happening."

During the final battle with the Metarex, the Master Emerald had been used to power the Sonic Power Cannon, which energized the spin attacks of Sonic and Shadow working together. The combined strength was sufficient to destroy the Metarex, who had been weakened by the sacrifice of Cosmo, but it was also sufficient to shatter the Master Emerald. After some time, the Master Emerald began a process of healing itself and regaining its strength, but that process had not yet been completed fully yet, hence why Knuckles was unwilling to let Tails use it just yet to find Sonic.

"The Master Emerald looks a lot better than it did the last time I was here," observed Tails. "Last time, it was broken up into a ton of pieces, but now it's all whole again."

"And do you know when that happened?" Knuckles raised an eyebrow at Tails intently. "Last week. Until I'm sure that the Master Emerald can handle it, I'm not letting you touch it."

"How long do you think that will take?" asked Tails.

Knuckles rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I don't know. Besides, what makes you think the Master Emerald will be able to do what you want it to?"

"It was actually Amy's idea," said Tails. "The Master Emerald controls the seven Chaos emeralds, so even if the Chaos emeralds wound up in another universe, the Master Emerald should retain its connection to the emeralds, and from that, it might be possible to find out where the emeralds are."

"And knowing where the emeralds are will lead us to Sonic, if he has them," completed Knuckles. "It's a good idea in theory, but ..." Knuckles paused.

"But what?"

"It's just that this is something we've never done before," said Knuckles. "The Master Emerald has already done us so many favors. I feel like we can't just keep asking it for help – what's in it for the Emerald?"

Tails shook his head ruefully. "Knuckles, Sonic is probably in another world. He's our friend, and because of me..." Tails took a deep breath and looked away from Knuckles, somewhere off into the distance instead. "We may not see him again."

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "Because of you?"

Tails recounted what happened in the air, how he fired a shot at Shadow to distract him from Sonic and how the two disappeared afterwards thanks to Chaos Control.

"Tails, that's not your fault," said Knuckles.

"But if I hadn't fired the shot—"

"Then one of them might have caused Chaos Control anyway," finished Knuckles. "You had nothing to do with it."

Tails still looked unconvinced, and his sky blue eyes were still misty.

Knuckles closed his eyes and grunted. "Ugh, as much as I hate to admit it, Sonic is probably more important to the Master Emerald than even I am because he is important to this world. He is important to us. I promise, Tails, I'll help him once the Master Emerald is ready."

Tails smiled. "Thank you, Knuckles."

Knuckles shot a playful smirk back. "But that doesn't make him my friend."

At the moment, Sonic was running so quickly that the scenery around him blurred into linear streaks. The sky was a fantastic shade of blue, and the air was amazing – it was one of the best weather conditions for a run that he had experienced in months. Sonic came to a stop by a small field of tall grass, where a few trees were dropping the last of their brilliant orange and red leaves for autumn. He decided to lay down in the field and relax for a bit.

So, he thought, I'm back in Chris's world.

Sonic automatically grinned. "I knew it wouldn't be the last we'd see of him," he said aloud.

Sonic's thoughts then drifted to Shadow. He remembered his brief conversation with Eggman about Shadow – they had considered that returning to Space Colony ARK might be one way to convince Shadow that they were telling the truth about his past, and now that they were lucky enough to have just ended up back in the world with the ARK, it seemed natural for that to be the goal.

Sonic wondered, however, how he was going to get his stubborn counterpart to agree to go with him back to the ARK. Shadow was almost certainly still angry with him, especially since he scattered the Chaos emeralds and delayed their return home.

Sonic felt the wind rustle the tall grass around him, and he slowly took another deep breath of the autumn air. At least I have a moment to relax a bit, he thought.

He remained there for a few minutes, thinking of Shadow and Chris, when in his periphery, he detected a faint mechanical sound that did not belong in the ambience of nature. Sonic decided to disregard it; it was probably some human mowing the lawn or something. This was a civilized world, after all. The sound grew louder, however, and he soon realized it was the sound of a helicopter.

"Sonic the Hedgehog," called a deep male voice suddenly.

Sonic jumped up immediately and turned to identify the voice that called his name. It was a tall, muscular man dressed in a black suit with a black tie and sunglasses. Above him was a helicopter – military, by the looks of it. The man took a step toward Sonic, then outstretched a hand, beckoning him towards him.

"You are to come with us," said the man.

"Who's 'us'?" asked Sonic.

"Come quietly, and I promise that you will not be hurt."

Sonic frowned. Whoever this man was, he clearly wasn't friendly. "Sorry," said Sonic, who feigned an apologetic expression, rubbing the back of his head. "Got places to go. Things to do. You know how it is. Maybe some other day?"

"You will board the chopper, then put on this blindfold and await further instructions," said the man, whose voice was stiff, like he had seen years of hard battle. It left no room for negotiation. Sonic started to back away from the man.

"Gotta go," said Sonic, who turned his back and prepared to take off away from the man. Looking backwards, he nodded his head and gave a short wave. "See ya!"

Before he could begin moving, however, he heard the sound of something firing. Then, in the blink of an eye, his arms and legs were pressed to the side of his body by a net that had wrapped itself around him. Sonic squirmed to get free, but the net was too strong. He quickly lost balance and fell to the ground, still squirming around. Around him, soldiers in military camouflage rose up out of he tall grass in a ring, each carrying a bazooka-shaped projectile launcher, each probably loaded with a hedgehog-capturing net similar to the one now trapping Sonic. He was surrounded.

Sonic cursed himself for not being more aware of his surroundings. He had just been so surprised by the sudden appearance of the man and the chopper that he didn't realize the ring of men that snuck up on him. If the man had been Doctor Eggman, he would have been more on his guard immediately.

Sonic continued to squirm, but he could not manage to move his legs, arms, or quills despite his best efforts – they were pinned with remarkable force to his body. If only I had a ring or a Chaos emerald, Sonic thought, gritting his teeth in frustration. Knowing Chris's world, material with a strength of this caliber would be available only to special branches of the military. The problem with the material was that it was heavy and expensive and required careful aim to ensure that it wrapped itself properly around its target. Under normal circumstances, Sonic would have been easily able to dodge the trap, but he had been distracted by the man. Moreover, if he had a ring or a Chaos emerald, the energy boost would probably have been enough to break the material.

Sonic heard the sound of the suited man's footsteps in the dirt coming closer, and he managed to crane his neck upwards to see what the man was doing.

The man pulled out a tranquilizer gun.

Sonic's eyes widened as he stared down the barrel of the gun. "Can't we talk about this?" he asked, smiling hopefully.

The gun fired, and Sonic gave a short yelp as he felt a sharp pain in his left leg where the tranquilizer had pierced his skin. Soon, he began seeing double, then the world around him disappeared.

This time, instead of white, it turned to black.