Part 1
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Silver looked over his old diary. Tikal claimed it didn't change along with the timeline, but he wasn't so sure. It was certainly possible he and Blaze hadn't changed the past enough to rewrite their memories, but he and Blaze stopped quite a few seemingly world-ending threats.
While it was possible, in fact probable, that those threats could've been taken care of without him or Blaze, he still had his doubts. Sure Shadow was a force to be reckoned with, but it seemed unlikely that anyone with telekinesis or flame powers would have negligible effects on the world.
There was one action he was sure would change events, but even with the future as it was, he wasn't sure it was worth the gamble. Tikal didn't know who he had been in the future. He and Blaze had agreed not to tell Tikal about her future self, but Silver was starting to doubt the wisdom of that action. If Tikal was alive thousands of years in the future, it was fair to assume she was immortal. Still, there were no guarantees, and Silver wasn't sure he could live with putting his last living family at risk. Blaze would never forgive him if he killed the closest thing the two had to a mother; Silver wasn't even sure he'd be able to forgive himself.
Not that he would act without Blaze's approval. The head guardian had the final say in what happened, she knew better than anyone how the flow of time would be affected.
Silver pulled a phone out of his pocket, and called Blaze. "Hey Princess."
A huff came from the device before Blaze answered. "Would you quit calling me that?"
"It's your title, isn't it?" Silver snickered.
"Oh for crying out loud. You just say it to annoy me."
"Yep."
"Hate you so much." Blaze sighed.
"Love you too." Silver tried to keep his laughter at a minimum. "Hey, I think I had a breakthrough on the Chaos situation."
There was silence for a few moments. "What!? Seriously!? What is it?"
"Well, you know how we've been looking for individuals who might have the ability to alter the timeline in a significant way?" Silver paused for a moment before continuing. "I had an idea…" Silver paused again. "Tikal."
Silver waited for a response. Then he waited some more. Finally he spoke up. "Blaze?"
Again there was no response, and a thumping sound came through. "Blaze, are you ok?"
Silver got nervous. "Blaze!"
Finally a response came. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just…" Another pause followed. "I thought about it and…you might be right. No, not might. I'm almost certain she could change the timeline. But I-I don't know." Blaze sighed. "I need to think this over. What exactly is your plan?"
"Tell her the truth, the whole truth."
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Part 2
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Tikal kept her eyes trained on the master emerald. Chaos would escape eventually, and she had to be ready. The other guardians were gone, so if she failed, no one could stop that monster. Well, no, there might be one individual who stood a chance.
Shadow seemed to have some of the old powers inside him. That was certainly worth noting. But if she was right about Chaos, even Shadow wouldn't be enough. While his abilities were impressive, they didn't exceed those of her people. Chaos had wiped them out, why would Shadow do any better?
She wanted to believe in the hedgehog, but she'd seen Silver's diary. The future was burning, and this era's heroes had failed. Then Tikal thought of something. Silver and Blaze were from the far future, and Shadow wasn't immortal. Perhaps he would die of old age before Chaos escaped. That meant there was still a chance Shadow could win.
Tikal walked over to the master emerald. Maybe if Chaos were released now…NO! She was not about to release that creature, not now, not ever.
The fact that she'd even considered such a terrible idea was concerning. What if Chaos had influenced her mind to think about releasing it. Perhaps she should ask Blaze to do some of the watching, just to make sure no one could be controlled by Chaos.
The creature had never shown any indication of such an ability, but Tikal couldn't afford even that risk when the result could be world destruction.
She would prevent that fate, no matter the cost. Then again, if that future fate was already certain there was no harm in changing the present.
Releasing Chaos was out of the question, but maybe there was an alternative. Tikal couldn't release Chaos in the present, but what if she sent Shadow and some of the others to the future. After all, if Silver and Blaze had traveled back in time, why couldn't someone go forwards?
It didn't have to be just Shadow either. Silver, Blaze, herself, maybe someone else too. Perhaps Silver and Blaze would know of a way. All Tikal would have to do is ask.
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Part 3
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Chief Oran sat at his office looking through several files on his computer, and adding them to a flash drive. After a few minutes he ejected the flash drive, handing it to an officer with thick black hair and brown eyes. The officer put the drive in his pocket and walked out of Oran's office. He headed to the elevator, and was soon outside on the street. The sun glared down on the sidewalk, sending sweat down the officer's face.
He glanced around to make sure no one was watching him before getting into an armored car, and driving off. In the distance, a young man in a blue police jacket looked at the car. He had curly brown hair and brown eyes. He scrolled through a list on his wrist before speaking into a radio. "Hey James. Did we have a departure scheduled for an armored vehicle?"
"Armored vehicle? That's odd, let me check." The radio went silent for about a minute before responding again. "I'm not seeing anything. And you just saw someone leave in one?"
"Yeah, license plate AJB 007. I'll send you a picture of the guy's face." The young officer tapped a device on his wrist.
"Thanks Percy. Let's see...black hair, brown eyes, about 182 cm, has kind of a pudgy face for someone so thin. I don't recognize this guy's face. Let me take a look in the database." There was another pause. "I may need to check more, but I'm not seeing this guy in our files anywhere. His uniform did look a little old. I'll check some of the older files. In the meantime, you might want to check with the chief. Maybe he knows what's going on. Could just be one of the feds, you know how secretive they are."
"Right...I'll head up now."
Percy entered chief Oran's office to find him talking to Dr. Robotnick. They didn't seem to notice him, talking about updates on the Metal Sonic project.
"Uh, sir." Percy said.
Oran and Robotnick turned to Percy. Oran growled. "This better be important, I'm in the middle of something."
"Possible security breach. Wanted to check this with you in case of an issue." Oran nodded and Percy took his wrist watch off, handing it to the chief.
Oran looked at a picture of the officer he'd just sent out. He lazily raised his head to meet Percy's eyes. "Way above your pay grade."
Percy looked visibly startled. He had the fourth highest clearance in the entire sector, just two ranks under chief Oran. How could something be far enough above his pay grade for that statement?
Oran shook his head chuckling. "Come on. You didn't really think your clearance was that high did you?" He handed Percy the device back.
Percy took the watch back. "Well now I can't help wondering what level of clearance something like that requires."
Oran shrugged. "To be honest. I don't have clearance for that stuff most of the time either. And that's all I'm allowed to tell you. Still, good work, caution and follow up on possible threats keeps this city safe."
Percy nodded and headed out of the office. Oran watched him leave, turning back to his computer and opening a file with several notes on city officers. Under information on Percy he added
-exceptional insight and perception, most likely to notice if something is off
-follows protocol and doesn't seem likely to question orders
-appears trusting of those in authority
Oran closed the file and began looking over security footage of his office. He'd felt something he'd left away days ago, and there was a portion of the footage that didn't quite seem right. There was a glitch at two points in the video, potentially a result of tampering. He had to find out what had happened. Someone had been in his office, and he needed to know who and why.
Now that he thought about. Percy might be able to pull something like that off. And there was no telling if the young man knew about Oran's associates. Percy wasn't high on his suspicion list though. Oran could burn that bridge if he got there.
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A/N
Comment responses
@momojifan: Yeah they've done some pretty messed up stuff. But it brings up an interesting ethical dilemma. Does suffering of a few for the benefit of many allow for greater prosperity for the general public. Or does such action give an excuse for atrocities that harm more people than they ever would have helped?