Disclaimer: None of the authors own Sonic the Hedgehog or Mass Effect.

Another wonderful snip brought to you by Masterweaver, and quite frankly one I adore. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

APOCRYPHA: Quantum Foam – by Masterweaver

Miles took one look at Vilmis and sighed. "Alright, before we go any further-let's talk about the chaos emeralds."

"I am unsure whether to thank you or curse you."

"You'll probably want to do both," Miles admitted wryly. "Do the words 'quantum foam' translate properly?"

"...Quantum relates to certain branches of subatomic physics," Vilmis said. "Foam... a kind of bubbly liquid?"

"That's... not the exact meaning, but I guess it doesn't matter." Miles cleared his throat. "As you know, on the smallest level things are made up of particles and waves. Molecues that can be divided into atoms that can be divided into protons and neutrons and electrons that can be divided into quarks-you understand that, right?"

Vilmis nodded his confirmation.

"And you're from an FTL society, so you've probably heard about how photons are particles and waves at the same time."

"It's not my area of expertise, but yes."

"Alright, I'm going to be simplifying things a lot here, but! Particles and waves are the foundation of the laws of physics. They obey those laws-or rather, they act in limited ways that we interpreted into laws... the point is, the physical world exists, it has rules, and those rules apply to particles and waves. You with me so far?"

"It doesn't seem revolutionary."

"Well, underlying the existence of particles and waves are quantum strings-vibrations in the very fabric of reality. The weave of spacetime, if you want to get poetic. It's these vibrations that generate particles and waves. A photon is a particular vibration traveling a particular direction in a particular way. Same with any quark. And objects are collections of vibrations that sync up to form a greater whole."

Vilmis nodded slowly. "Alright... I think I understand."

"Good." Miles took a breath. "Here comes the hard part. Those vibrations-or rather, the cause of those vibrations-are not waves or particles. They don't have to obey physics. They're just something, a chaotic 'beginning' that has no start or end and can shift on a whim. They're the border of reality and unreality, the edge between the physical and the metaphysical, a shoreline constantly beat upon by the seafoam of invisible waves. Hence the concept: Quantum Foam."

"...This is sounding a little esoteric," Vilmis admitted. "But I think I'm still following."

"Okay. So let me posit you a hypothetical: What if you could control the quantum foam? Even just a little bit. What if you could reach out and adjust the chaos underlying reality, the beginning of the physical world, that does not itself need to obey the laws of physics?"

Vilmis's eyes widened. "That... sounds like you could manipulate reality," he breathed. "Make new particles out of nothing-disrupt the existence of existing particles. Are you suggesting that the chaos emeralds allow you to do that?"

"To a degree, yes. It would be more accurate to say they allow us to connect to the quantum foam, but the actual manipulation still has to come from our end. Technology, willpower, the intelligence to actually figure out exactly what you're doing..." Miles shrugged. "Ordinary chaos drives essentially just disturb the quantum foam to create infinite electrons, and they're still highly complicated and precision engineered. The Chaos emeralds directly connect one's mind to the quantum foam-get all seven, and you can basically become a temporary demigod."

"That... sounds dangerous," Vilmis pointed out. "What if somebody gets all seven and decides to, I don't know, shut off the concept of gravity?"

"Two things stopping that. One, the chaos emeralds only connect you to the quantum foam in the very local area. You could hypothetically use them to shoot a death beam across the galaxy, sure, but you'd need to calculate your position, your target's position, the energy output, the cohesiveness... in the end, most minds just can't process all the minutiae well enough to break reality. Which leads to the second problem, the mind itself. Sure, you can do almost anything you can imagine with the chaos emeralds, but most minds just aren't built to imagine things that cannot, fundamentally, exist in the universe they live in. 'Anything you can imagine' is actually a much smaller box than most people realize." Miles allowed himself a wry grin. "And the few minds capable of summoning eldritch monstrosities into being tend to belong to people who are either unable or unwilling to seek the emeralds out in the first place."

"...That's not as relieving as you make it out to be," Vilmis pointed out. "There's still a collection of rocks out there that basically let anybody do magic."

"Actually," Amy piped in, "most magic boils down to using your own soul to affect the quantum foam."

"...what?"

"Souls exist in the quantum foam. It's a sort of cyclical thing-the brain grows a pattern that becomes reflected in the vibrations which then becomes the center of identity for the person, which then leads to the development of the brain that caused the soul to exist." Amy waved a hand vaguely. "At least I think that's how it works? I'm more familiar with the usage of the soul then the development-"

"Sorry, what? Souls? Magic?"

"Well, yes. Souls exist in the quantum foam, and magic is souls manipulating the quantum foam. Generally by believing hard enough to cause an effect." Amy frowned. "Are there really no magicians where you come from? Sorcerers, wizards, nothing?"

"I-no, I don't think so," Vilmis stammered.

"Huh." Sonic frowned. "What about gods?"

"What?!"

"You know, those identities generated by collective belief? The whole 'personification of physical laws' or whatever-that's how it works, right Tails?"

Miles sighed. "Yes and no, there's... kind of a semi-stable cyclical cause effect loop there, sure, but the quantum foam exists outside of time. Which is why time travel and travel to other dimensions is possible-"

"WHAT?!"

Sonic snorted at Vilmis's shocked exclamation. "Come on dude, you've met Silver."

"I'm-I'm still stuck on the 'souls and gods are real' thing, if I'm honest."

"Relax. If any god tries to start something, I'll just beat their ass." Sonic crossed his legs. "I've done it before."

"You've WHAT?!"

"Aaaand I think we need to give Vilmis some time to process things again," Amy deadpanned.