Part 1

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Shadow knocked on the wooden door of an old barn. After a few moments a silver hedgehog opened the door. "Shadow? What are you doing all the way out here?"

Shadow handed him a usb drive. "I need your help with cracking some codes."

Silver inspected the usb. "All right." He waved Shadow into the barn and the two walked between some stables. A few cows looked at Shadow, and one even reached over her pen to nudge Shadow with her nose.

"Hey Butter." Shadow scratched the cow under her neck before following Silver over to a wooden desk with a white monitor screen.

On the desk with a keyboard with multiple language sets available. There was common, avian, mobian, and some bizzare language with shapes Shadow didn't even recognize.

Silver sat down at the desk and plugged the usb into a central processing unit on the floor, and turned in the on. The monitor came to life as Silver started working on the device. He searched through the files, running them through a decoding program to check for any consistencies between file codes.

As he waited, he turned to Shadow. "So, what exactly am I looking for?"

"Anything incriminating about police chief Oran, and any connections he might have. Also, anything having to do with Sonic."

Silver raised an eyebrow. "Sonic?" A smirk formed on his lips.

"What?" Shadow asked.

"Nothing." Silver turned back to the screen chuckling to himself. "So even Mr. Professional will bend the rules to help his brother."

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Part 2

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A purple cat sat alone in a massive stone ruin. A rainbow of color shrouded it's tails and head. Stairs led down from a platform at the top of a massive pyramid of granite and sandstone. The cat kept her eyes trained on a massive green emerald. The gem stone shone upon a cracked black obsidian with glowing red cracks.

The stone shimmered and faded, as though caught between its current location and somewhere else. The purple cat kept staring at it, blinking, but never losing focus.

A hedgehog with faded orange fur walked up behind the cat. The hedgehog held two steaming cups of coffee. "Any changes?"

The cat turned around, looked at the hedgehog, and then back at the emerald. "Fading in and out of reality every now and then. But it hasn't done anything concerning yet."

The hedgehog handed the cat one of the cups. "Blaze, you should get some rest. I can handle watch for a few hours."

Blaze nodded. "All right. Let me know if anything happens." She headed down the stairs of the pyramid. At the base of the ancient structure, several tents clumped together around a camp of soldiers. They were armed with guns, tanks, helicopters, and even armed robots.

Blaze walked into a tent where two people were arguing. "General with all due respect, we don't apocalypse level personnel guarding the Master Emerald 24/7. This is a waste of resources."

"If that thing escapes. No one else can stop it before it's too late. You know as well as I do what will happen if Chaos gets ahold of all seven chaos emeralds."

"But agent Shadow"

"Barely stopped it when it had 3. Even he doesn't stand a chance against a fully powered Chaos. I will not risk our civilization being destroyed like Tikal's."

Blaze lay down on a cot, looking up at the tent ceiling. She tried to sleep, but all she could think about was the future. She remembered the place she came from, a hellscape filled with darkness and destruction.

Her memories had changed slightly, she could feel it. And that was a good sign, because maybe she could save her home. The problem was, it was still a wasteland. Chaos was still all powerful there, and no one could stop it. She had to find a way to save her home, and her friends. But she didn't know what to do.

Every time an event would change things, she'd see her different childhoods, but she hadn't seen the time change much recently. Maybe this was the wrong place to be. But what was the right place, the right action?

How could she stop Chaos permanently? How could she undo the end of her world?

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Part 3

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Dr. Robotnick worked on modifications for metal Sonic. He'd managed to improve the cooling system to allow greater energy production, so it would be capable of speeds over 200 m/s.

James had added a new version of Sonic's kill signal, so it should be able to collect him without too much issue. Though Robotnick didn't see why this was necessary.

As far as he knew, Sonic was already offline. He regretted not telling Shadow about his brother's predicament. Of course, if Shadow found out about the overwrite system for Sonic's memories and personality, there was no telling what he'd do.

He couldn't risk Shadow going against him too. No one, and nothing on the planet was a match for Shadow. That hedgehog could destroy a city if he wanted, and he couldn't just be turned off.

Dr. Robotnick couldn't help feeling a twinge of pride at that. He'd raised the most competent soldier in the world. Even those future hoppers didn't stand a chance against him.

Even Metal Sonic, which could run faster than Sonic and punch gander than Knuckles now, was no match for Shadow.

Still, if he could convince Shadow of the need, he might help stop Sonic. Maybe his eldest would listen. He was a patriot after all, even if he refused to carry weapons when defending his country.

Guilt krept up his neck as Ivo placed the final piece of Metal Sonic's head together. He'd promised Sonic and Shadow a long time ago that he'd protect them, and he was pretty sure he'd already broken that promise.

He kept trying to reason with himself that this was protecting Sonic. He tried to argue that reprogramming Sonic would keep the powers that be from having him killed. But would he really be alive anymore?

His thoughts kept bothering him. They didn't just end when he finished his work and went home. When he got there, the empty house kept reminding him, his youngest son was gone. And Robotnick had pushed him away.

He could've tried reasoning with Sonic, trying to look for a solution, some sort of compromise. But he hadn't listened. He'd cared so much about protecting his position, that he didn't realize what he was doing.

He'd see this project through, and keep the city safe at all costs, but he was having a hard time looking in the mirror. As Robotnick sat down to eat dinner, he looked across the table.

Doubts gnawed at his psyche. Sonic had always played by the rules and told the truth, so why was he going against all that. There had to be a reason.

Perhaps it'd be best to let Shadow handle it.

Even from a young age the hedgehog had always known what was right. Sure he was reckless, but he always managed to get to the bottom of things.

When he thought about it, Shadow seemed uncomfortable around Chief Oran. Maybe there was something there worth investigating.

A/N:

Feedback responses

@ momojifan: yeah it really was a big gap between new story posts. Thanks for being patient and hope you keep enjoying the story.

@dianapinto: thanks, glad your enjoying the story

@supernovastorm: I thought since Sonic and Shadow have such similar powers, a sibling relationship could be really interesting.

@cvwjames: glad you're enjoying the story, always appreciate feedback. Hope you keep enjoying reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it.

@ faithmckoy: thanks for the feedback, it's always to nice know someone likes my story

@ jurassicdinodrew: it's interesting, and cool to get a fan theory on my Fanfiction (fanception). Thanks for the feedback.