Spoilers from included and/or represented works abound. Please read this fiction carefully.
With the 20th floor taken over (alongside the front half of the 21st floor), the gang coming in person and Kado and Tai-Aztiluth joining the unified army, things looked the best they did to date. It was evening, and all of them had dinner together, taking from lower floors and supplies throughout.
"It feel good to steal your enemies' foods, right?" Robotnik eating the chili dogs made of material used to feed corrupted soldiers of organic biology.
"Ok, did you enjoy our... chili dogs?" Sonic ate some.
"Spicy hot dog! The name's literal. And that's cool!" Sukuna enjoyed a bite.
"You came from the very far future? Milliennia?" X examined Volnutt. "You're an outright cyborg!"
"Technically. Carbons are artificial humans, made of organic stuffs but fully compatible with machinery and cybernetics." Volnutt explained. "But I myself isn't actually a Carbon. Oh wait, I didn't tell you how I got here."
"Mr. Trigger, what happened?" Mina asked.
"When the rocket arrived and I was rescued. Leaving the Elysium, and then... a flash came when I got back. I was deactivated... and then came back, arrived on this strange world." Volnutt explained. "Nightmare Rose caught me, and examined my system. I was chosen to be... sacrificed."
"Mr. Izanagi... why are your... other allies missing?" Sonic asked Habaki.
"It's simple: We tried to find them - Soujirou, Shiori, Keishirou, Sakuya, Ryuusui, even Yakou..." Habaki recalled. "All of them were missing. We tried to find them all, but the evil ones... they ambushed us and put us on tubes!"
"Well, we can help you find them. And kill the team 'Shatter'." Sonic reassured.
Few hours later...
"Cyber Dream, active and loaded." Nicole arrived at a recreation of New Mobotropolis.
"Home sweet home!" Sally stepped in. "Let's search for our Team Freedom!"
"Sally! We've gathered!" Sonic brought the unified army here. "We only need to rescue you!"
"Sonic! I'm finding you to give you an update." Sally reported. "You know Team Shatter would do anything to keep us from saving multiverses?"
"I finally got to know what exactly do the mysterious hedgehog look like." Sonic revealed. "He is me but with crystalline quills seemingly integrating the Paradox Prism Shards, he has Phantom Ruby for right eye, and said eye and left hand and right leg are robotic, cyber, and have claw and Chaos Sonic joints. And his hands and forearms covered in compact forest, like roots and leaves. And he has some crimson marks resembling Thorn's but with crimson glow, and his left eye is prismatic magenta. Talk about... Shatter state?"
"Shatter Sonic?" Boom!Sonic shrugged.
"He looks like a freakin' patchwork." Sonic replied. "I wonder what did that have to do with the Paradox Prism."
"They're going to kill off all possible oppositions!" Sally continued. "Which means we might be killed off!"
"We'll be heading to the top floors tomorrow!" Sonic is shocked. "Oh my goodness... We need to be fast!"
"Wait... They're going to try and kill us?" Team Superstars.
"They're planning to have us all dead, and then some!" Sonic called. "In the morning, we wake up early, and get going quick!"
"And it's as part of the-" Sally was then interrupted.
"Cleansing program. Right?" Nightmare Rose intercepted. "You will die soon. All your allies, then and now and later, will all die. All of you fall apart, one by one..."
"You!" Sonic confronted Nightmare Rose. "Enough killing."
"It's never enough until my Sonic gets what he desires. And I gladly help him with it." Nightmare Rose rises her axe.
Suddenly, the recreation of New Mobotropolis glitched, peeling into the Cyber Space, complete with... THE END.
"THE END..." Sage recognized the eldritch stuff.
"It's... Everyone, hide in my shadow!" Numahime/Malleus casted her Aztiluth/Taikyoku.
Everyone hides into the shadow the Mother of Distortions casted.
"Pathetic. Cowardly." Nightmare Rose left the scene, snapping her fingers to shut off.
Cut to the blank void of darkness, trapping everyone for the rest of their sleep.
Day 17.
"Ah... Where..." A cyborg rabbit in literal pink-tard woke up.
"Bunnie Rabbot, wake up!" A voice of Shadow woke her up.
"Hah? Where am ah?" The rabbit, with her Southern accent. "Mah world? Gone!?"
"Fight. Your uncle in the reboot world is going to bring you back, which would require you hijacking the body of your rebooted self, when both of you are clearly separate individuals sharing the same body. Therefore, I'm sure you would be horrified and disgusted at how you was to be brought back and hate him." The voice explained. "By that logic, because your uncle loves you no matter the time... wouldn't you hate your rebooted self? Especially with what she has become?"
A bunch of holographic displays show the rebooted Bunnie being considered burden, later disowned because she got the cybernetics, and had to live a criminal life. This Bunnie had her faith shattered, her trust ruined, and cared about money just to pay off debt. This Bunnie is way more violent and more mean, having joined the Hooligans the criminal group.
"This is... me...?" Bunnie is horrified. "But... how!?"
"Gaia's religious stuffs abused by your parents will have led you to a dark path. And that will have contributed to how far your uncle will have gone to provide you a better life." The voice smugly remarked, with Bunnie none the wiser. "How about this? You kill your rebooted self altogether, and become the real Bunnie. That way, your reboot will be handled properly, and your uncle will be pleased. It's two birds in one stone!"
"Kill... mah... other... Kill... mah... variant?" Bunnie recalled. "Mah... crimes... Her... existence?"
"You'll be meeting your rebooted self soon, and remember this: she's a twisted reflection of your existence." The voice himself, with him directly approaching the cyborg. "Hate her with all your care. She's better off as you, not herself. If you kill her, your uncle will be happy. He'll be proud of you, fighting against your own shadow."
"Crimes? No... no... Gaia..." Bunnie trembles. "I... will have... done all... that...?"
"Why so scared!" The figure - a Shadow in drowned pirate attire - kicked Bunnie out.
The cyborg rabbit crashed down into an arena, watched by another Shadow - wearing a longcoat and an eyepatch.
"Ah don't know where am ah, t'wan!" Bunnie panicked.
"Once one or both of them die, any survivor will die by our hands." The drowned pirate whispered. "Anyways, where's the rebooted one?"
A rabbit cyborg girl in mercernary clothes and with a hat, came to the arena, reluctant and aloof. She looked just like Bunnie herself, much to her shock.
"This is... the old me?" This Bunnie is bored.
"You... are you a bad me!?" Bunnie whipped cannon from her arm.
"Fine. Ah'm a bad... you?" She gasped. "Wait..."
"You're rebooted me? Your uncle bringing mah back... by assimilating you!? What!?" Bunnie starts getting angry. "You, a criminal!?"
"Ah have been. Doing money by missions, all to repay debt. So much dark past." The rebooted Bunnie shrugged. "Mah parents believed too much in Gaia for nah."
"You... So you're... criminal me... Ah'll be a criminal, and mah uncle will... No!" Bunnie snapped, screaming in horror in shock.
"Hey, what do ya want?" The rebooted Bunnie patted her past's head, trying to calm her down.
Suddenly, a bunch of memories of both old world and new worlds ended up overwheling the old Bunnie, enraging her even more.
"AAARGH! Yah!" Bunnie went mad, much to the drowned pirate's amusement.
"Good, good, good... fight!"
The rabbit from old world is overwhelmed with rage and contempt towards the reboot which the newer one and her uncle underwent and dealt with, specfically new Bunnie's criminal acts and uncle Beauregard's attempt to deboot Bunnie back.
"Oh mah Gaia. So you couldn't get over the fact that we're separate beings sharing the original body." The rebooted Bunnie is surprised.
"So he is imposing me onto you, a criminal who violently strike out for money... And mah mind going to replace and erase yours..." Bunnie blasted to her rebooted self, whop evaded the projectile. "Now ah know... Ah should just kill you, saving mah uncle from all the horrible and inhumane stuffs he will have to go... only then, aur lives will be better..."
"What!? You're going to..." The rebooted Bunnie is shocked. "Ah... gonna die... for real!?"
"AH'LL KILL YOU! AH'LL KILL YA TO DEATH!" Bunnie brutally attacked her rebooted self.
Meanwhile...
"Authorizing... complete. Access granted."
They came back to the 22nd floor, which was Silver Man's starting path. There's no sign of mooks anywhere.
"Nah, I think all the mooks came outside to kill off any remaining survivor outside this castle." Julie-Su running along.
"That's plausible." Robotnik kept up with his makeshift flying cockpit. "The evil ones must have some reason to command the mooks out."
"I'm keeping an eye on all the files regarding the empire the evil hedgehog made." Tails scanning as he follows. "That way, I can upload to Sage, and we all can learn more."
"No! What are you doing!?" The rebooted Bunnie using her cybernetics to her advantage.
The unified army rushes through the 22nd floor, and went to the gate. Tails immediately uploaded his scans to Sage, which showed off who the 'Tails', 'Knuckles' and 'Amy' really were.
"Ok, boom!" Sonic straight out went through the gate and knocked a Gemerl copy off.
"Wait!" The damaged copy screamed.
"What do you want? We're on our way!" Sonic stopped.
"Thanks to Ms. Nikki of sorts, I was able to possess this machine." It was Ghost Shadow.
"Prime Shadow! What do you want to tell me?" Sonic then faced the biometrics, opening the gates. "Tell me and others."
"I see it. A Gemerl copy!" Vector pointed it out.
"It's me, the prime one!" Ghost Shadow called.
"Shadow!?" Prime!Rouge gasped.
"Tell us what you have." Prim Rouge with her spear, in front of the copy body.
"Ye. Arrr, any updates?" Black Rose squinted.
"Ok, I'll load on what I found." Tails then connected to the Gemerl copy, providing Ghost Shadow with the files.
Uploading the files added infos into the ghostly mindthat's currently residing within the copy's AI.
"Ok, thanks for your report. I'll tell you about the Shatterverse." Ghost Shadow access. "Now, let me tell you about Sonic's variants. Yes, me right now is my own variant, and I got the memories of my original which is why I can recognize the Shatterspaces and stuffs."
"New Yoke." Nine suggested.
"In New Yoke, there was to be a blue hedgehog named Hot Shot. He wanted to protect Green Hills, and he tried, but the Chaos Council were numerous and skilled. He was defeated easily, and Green Hills became New Yoke City." Ghost Shadow explaining the New Yoke. "No one cared. He got turned into a cyborg, similar to Rusty Rose. He became apathetic to anything other than the Chaos Council, and he had no friends. As his own remnant, he failed the Chaos Council within their second year of rule, and he was casted away. He was to be hiding somewhere."
"Boscage Maze." Thorn Rose suggested.
"In Boscage, there was to be a wild blue hedgehog named Wild Blur. He went insane from the isolation resulting from you, Thorn, pushing the scavengers up out, leading to the hedgehog running away with some food and newfound horror." Ghost Shadow explaining the Boscage. "He lost contact with both sides and in the now- covered forest, and his already feral state and wild demeanors became even worse. Oh, he has claws, just like Werehog's but retractable."
"What about No Place!" The Dread laughed.
"Fine. In No Place, Tidal Wave used to be part of your old crew. The second-in-command to Dread yourself, he was also the only version of Sonic I'm aware of that can really swim." Ghost Shadow revealed. "He was one of the victims of your initial failed search for Devil's Lighthouse, having been injured from the crash before nearly drowning because his limbs could no longer snychronize properly. You cared about the treasure more than your crew and their safety, and it should've threatened Tidal's life."
"Tidal Wave? Who?" Dread is confused.
"Wild Blur... another monster? Wait... oh no. I don't remember him at all." Prim realized.
"Who is Hot Shot?" Renegade Knucks questioned. "Where is he!?"
"Because my Sonic was the one shattering the original, those variants got assimilated into him! They stopped existing!" Ghost Shadow clarified. "He's fused with them all, and the only things left of them was activated by Nine's device!"
"What about restoring the Green Hills?" Sonic questioned. "You saved your Sonic by bringing him back to the home! Your home!"
"It's horrifying in hindsight. Using the Prism and extracting him actually released them and faded him." Ghost Shadow recalled. "Once I brought him back, he's finally fully functional... but by saving him, I've unknowingly purged the variants. Now I wonder... Nine, have you extracted too much of Sonic's energy!?"
This shook Nine, who misused the Prism into nearly destroying the Shatterspaces, having to extract Prime!Sonic to fix everything. The revelation scared him.
"And how about the overclocked Ruby?" Infinite asked. "How did it end up alongside the Prism?"
"It poofed into existence while I was carrying the Prism. Both crystals reacted, and the overclocked showed me of the world shattering again." Ghost Shadow recalled. "Then the Ruby formed a cube on the Shards' joint, and BOOM! It's shattered again. I got shattered into variants too, and lost the memories of the original incident. I only regained memories after the Hyper Genesis Wave crushed the entire multiverse!"
"We're wasting time here. So please move the Gemerl body!" Sonic rushed to the 23rd floor. "The explanation will continue on the go."
The unified army and the Gemerl copy possessed by Ghost Shadow followed. Meanwhile... Bunnie and Bunnie are killing each other in fear!
To be continued...