Chapter 10: Unmarked Grounds

Edge of the Universe: Hidden Sanctuary

Knuckles had trained every day his whole life. He made use of various workout techniques back at Angel Island and developed a tempered routine that was meant to break him down. But here, at this temple, under new instruction from Dial, Knuckles had never been this sore before. By the end of the training, he lay down on the soft grass, spreading his limbs as far as possible to stretch, and it felt like they were about to pop off. Dial's training wasn't just physical exertion, but an entire mental hammering. While he was benching 500 tons of stone, Dial poked into his brain and aimed to tear down his worldview. He chastised his lack of outgoingness due to his obsessive isolation, and his lack of drive to fix it. He didn't understand how any of it was going to unlock their potential, but he just had to trust the system for now. He wanted to give a little payback to those apostles once he left this place.

Tails, on the other hand, wasn't fairing much better. Knuckles saw him resting on a tree branch, dangling idly like wet clothes pinned to a line. Knuckles didn't hear what Dial had to say to the fox, but he saw the frustration in Tails' eyes during the lecture. He saw that frustration elevate when the training continued, and when Tails struggled to keep up. He didn't want to fall behind, but he was so far out of his element that it hardly mattered what his desire was. "How are you doing?" Knuckles called to Tails from the ground. "Our break ends in five."

"Every bone in my body has turned to jelly." Tails' responded with a muffled voice. "I don't know if I can do this."

"That's nonsense. I'm taking a beating here as much as you are. I know you can keep up."

"He's right, it is nonsense." Suddenly, Dial was right between them. Popped into existence without so much as a flash. A habit he'd been doing recently. "Break's over, time to train." Tails and Knuckles groaned, but their sobbing was drowned out by an overly cheery holler.

"Oh yeah!" Sonic dashed next to Dial and eagerly awaited instructions. His unduly enthusiasm was even more of a headache to Tails and Knuckles than the training was. He was like a golden child for Dial, effortlessly blazing through every course Dial presented. Knuckles thought of it as nothing more than him being a showoff, but Tails took it to a deep meaning. His success and their failure were only proving his point. He wasn't changing. He could never compete with someone like Sonic. He was incapable because he wasn't born to achieve what he could. Of course Sonic was breezing through this because this was what he was meant to be. "So what's next? More obstacle courses? A race across a black hole? How about the wheel again?"

"NO!" Tails and Knuckles said in unison. Never the wheel. Never again.

"Ok, maybe too soon." Sonic chuckled as he softened his tone. "I just never had a workout this intense before. It's kind of exciting."

"I'm glad you're having fun," Dial said. "But this is more than petty training. You're here to unlock something deep inside you. To remedy the weaknesses that hold you back. To gain an understanding of the universe. So do take this a tad more seriously."

Sonic rubbed his hand along the back of his head, embarrassed with his show of excitement. "Alright, that works for me."

With a simple snap from Dial, a wooden door manifests in the middle of the field. It was time for their next exercise, and Tails and Knuckles were not excited about what was behind that door. They crawled back to their feet and approached the door. On its own, the doorknob turns and the whole door swings open, letting in a gust of freezing wind that nearly blew away all of Team Sonic. The other side revealed a mountainous region, currently experiencing a nasty blizzard unlike any of them had ever seen.

"Law of the Universe, section four: The most constant element of existence is chaos. Controlled, varied, chaos. Conquer the heart of it, and your understanding of the universe will become clearer." Tails and Knuckles' mouths were fully open. Did Dial actually expect them to go through that door? "At the top of the highest peak rests your objective: Three frozen gemstones for each of you to retrieve. This requires haste, as the storm surrounding this region is intensifying by the minute." Dial's hand motions a small push, and a sudden wave of force pushes Team Sonic through the door and into the bitter snow. "Remember, chaos is evenhanded and will not hesitate to lay its wrath upon you, but that doesn't make it your enemy." The door slams shut, leaving Team Sonic nowhere to go but through the storm.

Meanwhile, back at the temple, Dial finds Sage surrounded by floating monitors and endless texts that she rapidly scrolls through. "Have you found a way to contact him?" Dial referred to Eggman. While Sage couldn't participate in the training the rest were going through, she was still needed to connect to the Eggnet and warn Eggman to refrain from using the Time Eater.

"I still can't get in range of the Eggnet. If you would only allow me to go back to the planet, I could easily reconnect and tell him of the Time Eater's danger."

"With Solaris' fragments fully returned to the mortal plane, my interference and presence with it comes at a higher risk of an unraveling. I will only open a gateway back once those three are ready." Dial explained.

"How long will that take?" Sage questioned with skepticism and disbelief. "If I can't make contact with my father, the outcome of the future you wish to avoid increases exponentially."

"Then what do you need?"

"What?"

"What do you need to help boost your communication range?" Sage went through the materials and tech she needed within mere seconds through her advanced processors.

"Well, to start, I need fiber optics with new-gen channels to maximize the bandwidth. Nothing too big but a radar grid with a speed rating of 6.4 GS/s." Like a genie, Dial snaps his fingers, and an array of tech appears in an aura of bright light. Radar dishes, wires, and other various computers and processors. "How can you-"

"The equation contains everything ever made." Dial interrupted. "And I hold the equation through my fingertips. If there is anything else you need, you let me know."

The trip up the mountain wasn't going to be easy. Normally, Sonic could just run to the peak and head back in a matter of seconds, but the snow was thick and condensed and scaled up to a foot. His legs were weighed down, hindering his overall agility. The best course of action was for Tails to fly up and carry all of them to the top. The problem was that it was a long way away, and Tails' endurance had already waned. But there wasn't much choice, as the fox grabbed Sonic and lifted him in the air, followed by Knuckles grappling Sonic's legs.

The fierce gale deviated Tails' flight pathing, forcing abnormal corrections and movements to stay on track, which caused a stinging strain in Tails' abdomen. The conditions were worsening, as the sharp fall of snow started to dampen Tails' bandages. The binding around his eye tattered and fell apart due to the moisture, revealing a Lichtenberg figure on the left side of his face. The bandages around his lower torso also started to peel off. It all shredded like thin ribbons. It left the exposed wound on Tails' gut to take in the harsh elements around them. He became lightheaded as the pain numbed his sight. He felt the warmth leave his body as he looked down to see his wound gush blood. "Oh no…" Tails loses strength in his arms and body, dropping all three of them into the deep powder.

Sonic immediately ran to Tails, trying to keep him conscious. "Tails! What's going on?"

With the last of Tails' awareness, he warned Sonic of his injury. "The wound… it reopened." Tails' body went into shock and he quickly lost consciousness. Sonic told Knuckles to stay by him while he ran back down the mountain to find the door. Sonic turned the handle, but it wouldn't budge. It was locked. He tried using his strength to break through the frame, but it was protected by some arcane energy.

"Dial! Open this door now! Tails is hurt!" But no matter how loud he cried, no matter his plea, no one was there to answer. Was this supposed to be a part of the test? It was all too excessive if it was. If this was a lesson of hardship that they must learn, what good would the lesson be if Tails was out of it the whole way? Sonic's repeated knocking was swiftly interrupted by a distressing shout from Knuckles.

"Sonic! Look!" Sonic turned over to Knuckles, who was pointing toward the mountain. A shift in the snow along the walls of the peak started a cascade. It was an avalanche. The best route to avoid all of it was to make a mad dash to the side of the mountain, due to the avalanche being narrow. But they had to move quickly, and as Knuckles placed Tails on his back, he and Sonic moved as quickly as they could through the deep snow. Their desperate wills allowed them to push through, but the tall snow still heavily slowed them down, and with Knuckles carrying Tails, he had to make sure no more harm came to him.

However, the avalanche wasn't carrying just snow, small boulders and rocks were carried away from the mountain's edge. One stray boulder emerges from below the veil of powder and is headed straight for Knuckles. With the echidna's eyes set forward, he fails to see it in time, and it knocks into him. Sonic watched in horror as Knuckles and Tails were now both out cold, tumbling down, and in danger from the rest of the cascade.

"Oh come one." Sonic's voice quivered as he changed course and ran uphill to grab both Knuckles and Tails. "Come on, come on, come one!" He dragged them with all of his might, but it wasn't going to be enough in time before the wave of snow collapsed on them. Sonic realized he couldn't brute force through this chaos, he had to work around it. His plan changed, and instead of moving out of the way, he did what any other hedgehog does: Burrow. He jumped into the air and curled into a ball, slamming into the ground and creating a tunnel. He then changed directions and started digging to the side, creating a big enough pocket for all of them to take shelter.

Sonic grabbed his friends and dragged them into the hole and took cover in the small pocket. The avalanche finally came cruising over, filling in the hole but failed to enter through the side tunnel. Team Sonic managed to avoid the catastrophe, but Sonic was left in a bad spot. Both of his friends were knocked out, and he still had to climb the mountain to retrieve the gem. He couldn't leave them here, as if another avalanche came, it would be impossible to find them again, and Tails would die of his wounds. He had to bring them along.

Sonic dug out into the surface and grabbed Tails and Knuckles. He put both of them on his back, which would slow him down further, but he had to do it. He pressed upwards, one small step at a time. His speed wouldn't be able to save him now as long as he had his friends to carry. But perhaps that could be used as a point. Tails will almost certainly beat himself up about his injury and failure to help out, but if Sonic could prove that he could make it with his speed, he might be able to convince his buddy that it wasn't always about who yielded the most power and gifts, but the strength of one's will. But he had to make it back first in order to prove that.

The further Sonic went, the more he gathered the logic behind this lesson. Dial said chaos wasn't the enemy. The way he described it was just a force of unbiased nature. Perhaps through that perspective, Sonic might be able to find a way to utilize the chaos to save their skin.

He pushed his legs through the razor-sharp snow, and his senses numbed as the blizzard threw more and more frozen rain that cut his quills and skin like they were pieces of broken barb. The weight of his friends sunk him further down into the snow, covering half his body as the incline rose further with each step. He could see a blinking blue light from the peak, as he made it close to a frozen temple residing within the stone wall. Time passed so quickly that Sonic barely made out what he was looking at. It all felt like minutes when the process might have been almost an hour. Changes in the wind were not met by force, but rather Sonic changed the angle at which he climbed the mountain, making the hike somewhat bearable.

As he entered through the ruinous temple, he set Tails and Knuckles in a safe place where the walls shielded them from the bleak wind. Sonic saw a few dangling bandages left on Tails' body, damp but salvageable for use. He quickly repurposed them to close the wound, but it wouldn't last long if they stayed much longer. Sonic didn't have to look far to see an altar of three pillars, all holding an icy crystal with an erratic shape and ominous glow. These must've been the gems Dial wanted them to get. Now it was only a matter of taking them and bringing them back. Sonic walked up to the middle pillar and grabbed the crystal by one of its tips, and a sudden feeling entered his body. The illuminating gemstone dims slowly as its light is channeled through Sonic's eyes.

He felt like he was seeing double. He saw glimpses of the immediate past. Glimpses that were only seconds ago. He saw that in conjunction with the present, like a double vision of some kind. As he let go of the crystal, his senses returned to him, and his vision was set on the present, where the crystal was drained of its hue. He tapped the other crystals, but they didn't have the same effect as the one that invaded his mind. He took that as a notice to take them.

With their objective complete, Sonic walked back outside, carrying Tails and Knuckles again. However, he stayed clear of yet another avalanche cruising down the mountain. He waited it out inside the confines of the temple but kept his eye out for any drifting objects being carried down in the avalanche. Walking down this mountain would take too long, and Tails didn't have the time to hold out.

There it was, a broken log of a tree surfing down with the snow. It was just big enough for all of them. With all that was left of his brittle strength, Sonic leaped forward and landed on the log. He secured Tails and Knuckles while maintaining his balance as well. It was like one big snowboard if the board was uncontrollable and could flip over at the slightest disturbance in the ground. But it was their best and quickest way out of here. Sonic saw the door at the low point of the mountain. Their freedom was right there. But as the gap between them and the door tightened, the log clipped against a rogue rock forked in the middle of the slope, launching the tree into the air. Sonic lost control and Tails and Knuckles were knocked away from him as he kept spiraling in the air, overshooting the door as Tails and Knuckles landed beside it. The abrupt landing stirs a response in Tails, as he subconsciously fights for survival. He groaned and pried his eyes open, watching Sonic hurling through the air.

There was nothing Sonic could do to stop himself, he had already overshot the door, and worse yet, he had passed the edge of the cliff and was headed straight for the bottom of the chasm. But before he could plummet, something stopped his fall and carried him back to the ledge. Sonic looks up and sees Tails holding onto his leg, using all of his might to fly back. His eyes were pale and his fur dulled in color. Despite his blood loss, he managed to will his way to save Sonic. It only lasted for a moment, as once they reached the door, Tails fell unconscious again and tumbled across the ground.

Sonic wasted no time and approached the door, holding the gems he collected to release the arcane lock and open the frame.

The equipment upgrades were a huge help to Sage's efforts. The range was noticeably better, but there still was one more problem. The base Eggman resided in wasn't exactly intact. Most communication devices were either faulty or outdated. She would keep trying to force a connection, but it wouldn't be a secure message if she could. If Infinite was hunting Eggman, he could pick up on the message if he was at any of the other Eggman bases. Being discreet was the best approach to this.

While Sage was lost in thought, the door left in the middle of the field burst open, letting another gust of cold air through. Sonic emerges from the ridged outskirts, dragging Tails and Knuckles into the warmth of the meadow. "Dial! We need help!" Sonic yelled as Dial appeared beside him. "He's hurt. Can you help him?" Dial examines Tails' injuries and makes a quick assessment.

"I can." Dial snaps his fingers and creates another door next to them, leading into the infirmary. He takes Tails away from Sonic, carrying him in his arms. The warm environment around them instantly sets off a reaction within Knuckles, as his blood pumps into his head and he jolts back awake. His anger was off the charts and his boiling blood rivaled the heat of the foreign star above. "When he wakes, I'll talk to him. No need for you to worry about it."

"Yeah, it's a miracle that he survives that death trap you put us through." Knuckles rose to his feet and got into Dial's face. "What was that even about? Are you just trying to get us killed?"

"I would do no such thing. The calculations I made ensured that the test wouldn't kill any of you. What would an impossible simulation teach? Why would I go to such drastic lengths? I made sure everything was suited to prove my point."

"Your point? How about I prove a point of mine?" Knuckles wound his fist back and was ready to hit Dial, but as he did, Dial stopped spinning the pocket watch in his hand, ceasing all motion of time, and creating a standstill in which everything was frozen except Sonic and Dial. Dial then turned to Sonic as he adjusted Knuckles' fist to the side. "Can't you see what I'm trying to do?" Dial started to spin the watch, resuming time. Knuckles' momentum from his altered punch sent him flying forward and away from Dial. "If you can't work and bleed for your merits, and simply inherit them, then you are no different from those apostles. They lack the discipline and understanding of what was given to them and are only driven by psychotic thirst." Dial steps through the door and into the infirmary, bringing Tails with him. "That's what the universe means to them: Unresolved conflict. It's been such in the mortal view for millennia. So… what does the universe mean to you?" Dial looked at Sonic and Knuckles one last time before closing the door and vanishing from sight.

Knuckles picked himself off the ground and brushed off the dirt he contracted. He sighed as he walked over to Sonic. His face is chill and he bumps Sonic on the shoulder in a sign of gratitude. "Thanks for getting us out of there. I sure hope you learned something valuable in there because we were nothing short of useless."

"I'm with you on this. These courses are more geared toward me." Sonic said.

"You sure seem to be his favorite. You can keep pace with all the mess he throws at us."

"I don't know about favorite. He hasn't been telling me everything. When he first brought me here, he told me I had an episode, but he hasn't elaborated on it since. That and his relationship with Solaris. He's leaving details out, and I think we can come to an understanding if we find out what it is." Sonic proposed, but approaching this plan left him stumped. How were they going to pry that information out of a god?

"I can help you with that." Sage spoke up. "He told me earlier that the equation contains everything that was ever made. He emphasized 'every' a lot. Perhaps that includes the past and history. If we know what we're looking for, we can find the answers within the equation."

"So what? We just jump right into the equation?" Knuckles asked with a dumbfounded look.

"I would advise against that. There is no telling what all the information of the universe will do to a normal person's mind. You would be dissected and thrown across all corners of space before you could even count to five, that's if you could do so at all." Sage closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "No… This is a job only I can handle."

"What are you saying?" Sonic had concern shudder from his throat.

"My 'brain' can handle parameters a hundred times more efficiently than any other computer, or anyone else for that matter. It's still not enough to withstand all that information, but I can process enough to be in and out with what we're looking for. But if I stay for too long, I might…" That lapse in clarification made Sonic raise an eyebrow. His expression alone was enough to say 'no'.

"You might what?"

"I might lose concentration with who I am. I would break apart and scatter across the endless universe."

"Then no." Sonic put his foot down. "Forget that I even asked to look into this guy. It's not worth the risk."

"It's only not worth it if you trust Dial. Do you trust Dial?" Sonic was hesitant to answer. He was there to save not only his life, but his friends, and knows about their enemy. But on the other hand, everything they went through today proves that something else is hiding behind this conflict. To not learn about Dial and Solaris to their full extent would keep them further in the dark, and Sonic was not willing to blindly charge into the enemy without knowing who they were.

"One minute." He muttered. "You get one minute in the equation, and then you're coming back out."

Infirmary: Later

The familiar cushion beneath his back, the blinding light hovering above him, and the thin yet soft sheets reminded Tails of where he was. He was here before after the skirmish with the apostles, and he suspected he would be here again after the incident on the mountain. He peaked down at his abdomen and saw the fresh white bandages looped around his torso. However, the bandages on his face were never replaced and he slid his hand across the left side to feel the scars left behind. He would never heal from this. He would never wash away the shame that came from it.

"I'm glad to see you awake." Tails turned to see Dial sitting on a modest wooden chair next to his bed. Tails sat up and leaned against the headboard. "The wound may have reopened but I think I did a better job stitching this time. You should be able to move much more free-"

"Did you know?" Tails interrupted Dial's buoyant reflection, leading him to mellow out. "Did you know what would happen on that mountain?" Dial looks down and rubs his hands together, contemplating his answer.

"I knew there was a layer of unpredictability. But what happened to you wasn't in my vision. I'm sorry." His response seemed genuine, but Tails delved further into self-loathing.

"I couldn't help them. I failed them again."

"You can't do everything all the time."

Tails looked away and mentally counted all the times he screwed up in the past. From his naivety to his incompetence, he dug these ideas into his brain. "I can't…" Tails tightened his grip on the sheets, sending a soft ripple through the leveled white cotton. "I can't hold onto anything important without losing it. I can't fight for myself or my friends no matter how brave I trick myself into being. I can't even stay out of the way- I'm just dead weight. I can't do anything!" Tails unclenches his hands and gives up. No hope is left in his eyes as he blankly stares down. "Sonic. Knuckles. They've always had what it takes. I'm never going to be like them."

"Do not take it that way!" Dial's booming voice caused Tails to raise his head in an instant. "Sonic's speed served him nothing during the trial. He kept moving forward and improvised on the fly to save both of you. He wasn't quick on his feet, he was quick in his mind."

"But if it weren't for my mistakes that got me hurt, he wouldn't have had to struggle."

"He doesn't care about the struggle," Dial stated. "He cares that you're alive. And he's doing everything he can to show you that you can be like him." Tails' heart skipped a beat. He felt at ease knowing what was driving Sonic through all of this trouble. It was for him. He pressed his hand against his forehead, still in declination that he had the potential to achieve such a feat.

"But how? All I got is this dumb brain of mine and some gimmicky gadgets."

"True, but that's not why you stumble." Tails tilted his head, curious because he only ever thought that was the reason he couldn't be as strong as Sonic was because that's all he had. No bodily advantages except his rotor-like tails. "Sure, you can devise a plan, play tricky and out of reach while pestering your enemy, but there are conditions to that. You're in your prime when they are in your territory, anywhere else and you're out of your element. Listen carefully because I'm about to propose something that can change all of that, but it will change you."

"How?"

"Well, it's already half done. The gems gathered from the latest trial will open your mind to what has yet to come. Every after will become second nature to you. But we don't have the time." Dial stands from the chair and walks to the footboard of the bed. He turns away from Tails and waves his hand across, creating a golden mirror that shows images of the world through the glass. Westopolis, the Emerald Hill Village, all ravaged and on the verge of annihilation. Tails' eyes popped in anguish, he couldn't fathom what he was seeing. "I'm afraid that at the pace where we're going, you would be ready after the ashes fall. I knew for some time that this was a possibility, but after I picked up your AI friend, I got an idea."

"What does Sage have to do with any of this?" Tails asked.

"Not her, but the dimension I found her in. See, the void is… unique. Its passage of time isn't adjacent to yours. Think of time as a motion." Dial holds out his right hand, showcasing the spinning pocket watch. "It can continue as is with no alteration to its essence. However, it can be delayed or prolonged." Dial slows the spinning of the watch and subsequently slows time as well from his perspective. But from Tails', he sees Dial's movements have hastened and quickened. He returns the watch to its previous motion and reverts time to its proper pace. "But a motion can't be changed, or else it loses what it is meant to be. That is important to note. You, Miles Prower, are already in motion. We just have to manipulate the passage of it."

"With the void, you can do that." Tails started to click with what Dial was implying.

"Precisely. Now you're starting to see how it all works. Since the void has its own pace of time, anything in there will not be affected when I slow down my watch. Now tell me, if I slowed my watch four-eighths of a second, how long would an hour here be in the void?"

Tails mentally did the math while occasionally mumbling to himself. "If x proves the value of y… carry over that to… divided-" A lightbulb pops in his head, he had the answer. "One hour here would mean…one year in there." Dial looked pleased at Tails' conclusion, as it was exactly right.

"Good. Now, I am once again saying that you listen carefully. We only have one hour to spare. Do you want me to continue?" Tails hesitated, as he had an idea of where this was going. But he thought of the stakes here and knew that a drastic step had to be made. He musters his confidence and nods.

Hidden Sanctuary: Later

Sonic and Knuckles idly wait as Sage continues to work on the communication device. Their plan to infiltrate the equation was at a standstill until they were sure Dial wouldn't notice them. And it was a good thing they decided not to act on it now, because the door leading into the infirmary manifests and opens, letting Dial and Tails walk onto the soft grass once again. Sonic perked his head up and ran toward Tails. "Are you ok?" Tails nodded, but he was withholding something in his gut. He didn't want to spill it yet, but Sonic knew something was up. "What is it? Is something the matter?" Suddenly, Tails lunges forward and wraps his arms tightly around Sonic. He tenses the hug as his eyes close, holding back tears.

"I'm sorry. You only wanted to help me but I was too stubborn to realize."

"Tails… You don't have to apologize." Sonic still suspected that this wasn't all that Tails was keeping to himself. He and Dial talked about something, and he wanted to know what. "What's going on? Are you feeling alright?" Tails lets go and takes a step back. He held in his emotion, becoming content with what he planned to do.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Listen, it's going to be a while. Not for you, it'll only be an hour, but...I need time. I need to figure things out."

"What are you talking about?:

Tails took in a deep breath. "In the void, I'll be able to complete the training. But there's a catch. It can only be done if Dial slows down time here, but the void won't be affected." Sonic started to grasp what Tails was implying.

"How long?" Sonic asked. "How long will you be in there?" Tails glues his mouth, still reluctant to say. But the bandaid had to be ripped off some time.

"A year." He murmured. Sonic and co widened their eyes, not believing what he had just said.

"By yourself?" Sonic said, bewildered to the point where his voice slightly raised. "What would you even do in there?"

"He will be supplied with anything at his command. I can offer that to him once he enters the void." Dial spoke up. Sonic was in distraught, he couldn't comfortably fathom the reality that Tails accepted. He wanted to talk him out of it, but what would that make him in his buddy's eyes? To be someone who constricted the chains for someone who wanted to be free. Tails wouldn't forgive him if he denied the help he needed.

"Then let me go with him." Knuckles' stern voice called out as he stepped forward. "I'm going to be honest, I'm in the same boat you're in too. Sonic seems like he has this covered for himself, but I don't think I have an hour to prove that I'm with him." Tails was shocked that he would volunteer, and even admit that he was slower than Sonic. "You're not gonna be alone in there." Knuckles faced Dial, seeing if he had any objections. "What say you, clock-face?"

Dial nodded, approving the proposition. Sonic pulled Knuckles aside and whispered to conceal their conversation from Dial. "What are you thinking? Have you forgotten our plan?"

Knuckles chuckled. "Think you need a musclehead like me for that? Nah, you two got this. Besides, I'm familiar with working in isolation. I've done so most of my life. But this time, I'm not alone." Seeing that he made up his mind, Sonic let Knuckles go. The echidna stepped next to Tails and waited for Dial to open the gateway through. "Well, I'm ready."

Dial snapped his fingers and created a whitened door in front of them. As it opens, it leads to the blankness of the void. With one last goodbye, Tails looks at Sonic and smiles. "See you in a year." Sonic somberly smiles back.

"See you in an hour." Both Tails and Knuckles walk through and disappear as the door shuts and vanishes. The timer starts now for the final stretch of their training.

To be continued…

Up Next: The Truth!