SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: VELOCITY'S END
A fanfiction by Mythick Voices
Chapter 5
The young elven wizard turned from the tower window with a sigh, brushing her braided, magenta-colored hair back over her slender shoulders. Her large, blue eyes seemed to droop, weary of rule, the guilt of regret, and dark visions of the future. To add to that, the granddaughter of the great and powerful Merlin had begun to sense unusual and disturbing magical fluctuations. She hadn't felt an ominous feeling quite like this since the corruption of King Arthur.
Merlina went over to her vanity desk, gathered up her long gown, then took a seat. She studied herself in the dusky mirror a few moments. You look tired, she thought, before wrapping her delicate fingers around the handle of a hairbrush, trying to busy herself working out the tangles in her hair. Then, the once-and-future queen heard a faint-but-escalating ruckus. The commotion grew louder—shouts, jangling metal, swords leaving scabbards—culminating with a bright crackle and blue flash of light that passed through her chamber door and stopped directly in front of the window where Merlina had been previously standing. Before the scrolls and papers blown off desks and tables even touched the floor, the wizard had leapt out of her seat and telekinetically pulled her magical heirloom quarterstaff to her hand.
"Sonic!" she gasped as the blur of blue reclarified into his usual form.
"Surprise!" the hedgehog said, a bit sheepishly. "Sorry to drop in unannounced, but in about three seconds, we're about to have a lot of company, so if you wouldn't mind…"
As if on cue, the door to Merlina's chamber practically exploded off its hinges as half a dozen personal guardsmen struggled to force their way through the small archway all at once.
"My queen!"
"Are you alright?!"
"Seize the villain!"
"Protect the Queen!"
Sonic, for his part, completely ignored the soldiers, plucking an apple from the desk nearby and inspected it curiously in the light of the castle window.
"It's alright!" the Queen laughed, soothing her soldiers with gentle words but commanding calm. "Sonic is a friend! He is already known to most of you. And even if he is not, his deeds here in Camelot are certainly the stuff of bards' songs by now."
"I did kinda save you guys from complete destruction," the hedgehog observed cooly.
"My lady," began the captain of her guard in protest.
"It's alright. Really. Please go and make sure that all of our fortifications are strong and holding, thank you, Ser Fenley."
Begrudgingly, the tower guard captain summoned his men and waddled out the Queen's chamber in a cacophony of clattering platemail and brandished weapons. When the last of them had exited the room, Merlina used her magic to close the door behind them, then turned to Sonic.
"I had a suspicion I might see you again," she said at last.
"How's the kingdom coming along?" Sonic deflected. "Everything still holding up? No more Knights of the Underworld giving you trouble, right?"
"I've been having bad dreams," Merlina admitted. "You showing up here… now… You know I believe in signs and omens, Sonic."
Sonic sniffed the apple then placed it back down on the desk before strutting over to where the Queen sat at her vanity. He pulled up a stool opposite her. "The effects of a great catastrophe from my dimension are still rippling out and affecting others. I'm trying to figure it all out. Control it. But I don't know if I can."
"So why come to see me?" the sorceress wondered. "Is it something you think I can reverse?"
The blue hedgehog shook his head. "No, I know this one's beyond your skill—powerful as you are. No, I came here because you're the wisest wizard I know. If anyone knows a spell or a ritual or a way to bring someone back from…"
Sonic's voice trailed off, and Merlina studied her friend carefully. "Sonic?"
"A good friend of mine was transformed… transformed into something terrible, and I'm looking for a way to change 'em back. I thought maybe you could help me."
Merlina rose from her desk and walked across the room to a large desk that had previously been covered in scrolls prior to Sonic's arrival. Now, all that remained was a map of the kingdom weighed down by a large, old book resting atop it. She blew across its surface, sending a cloud of golden dust into the air that sparkled in the afternoon light radiating through the tower windows. She pushed the book aside with magic and stared at the map of Camelot.
"Sonic, my primary concern… my first love has always been and will always be this kingdom. The Kingdom of Camelot. In trying to protect and ensure the survival of my one and only love, I've done terrible, terrible things. I… I know I must pay for the things that I've done, but I… I don't know if I can use magic in repayment of that debt. I'm afraid it just brings out the worst in me…"
The hedgehog hopped off the stool and followed Merlina, reaching behind his back, and producing a fuchsia-colored straw chrysanthemum. This shifted her mood immediately from despondent to nostalgic.
"You remembered!" the sorceress nearly whispered, taking the bloom the hedgehog offered.
"A flower I saw back in my dimension's made me think of you actually," Sonic admitted. "I remembered that you liked these, so I thought I'd bring you one. I'd hoped it would make the favor I'm going to ask of you go down a little easier."
"Please… no more magic," Merlina pleaded softly.
"No. But I need you to figure out how to reverse a transformation. Or how to go back through time without changing the past. Tell me how to do either of those?—I'll consider us round about square." Sonic pantomimed the outline of a square with the index fingers of his hands.
"Sonic, meddling with time…" the Queen shook her head. "That's more dangerous than meddling with dark magic. I may not be a time-traveler, or from a dimension where such things are possible, but I know enough about Chaos to know time-traveling is antithetical to everything good in this world."
"There has to be a way to save Sally Acorn," Sonic muttered, mostly to himself.
"How was this person transformed? And into what?" Merlina wondered. "There are counter-curses and rituals of reversion, depending on your friend's situation…"
Sonic didn't even know where to begin to explain the events surrounding the Death Egg Mark 2. In fact, in the past few weeks, some of his memories had begun to grow hazy, blurry even. The finer details of some of his recent exploits seemed to be taking longer and longer to recall whenever he stopped to try to focus on them. Whether the lingering effects of Chaos Control, or something far more intrinsic to the fabric of the multiverse itself, there was this feeling of slipping away into nothingness that had haunted Sonic for days. It caused him to slip into spells of morose brooding that increased in length with each spell. In a way, he was feeling less and less like himself.
"She's been… corrupted," the Blue Blur said at last. "Kinda how you were by the magic of the Underworld. That's why I thought you could help. You've been in a similar spot. And you're one of the wisest, most powerful people I know."
The Queen sighed deeply. "But your friend is from another dimension, Sonic. I mean, how can we be sure anything I do would even affect her?"
"I don't know, but I've gotta do something, Merlina. I owe it to Sally to bring her back. She sacrificed herself so that we all could…" The hedgehog's eyes started to grow a little misty. The sorceress gently rested her hand on Sonic's knee.
"If there's one thing I know for sure, it's that if Sonic the Hedgehog truly cares about a friend, then he'll do everything in his power to help them until his very last breath," she said with genuine admiration. "You've pushed yourself harder and farther than most in the service of others. And you deserve much more than you've been given for all your hard work. But… something is happening between dimensions, Sonic. Magic is becoming unstable. I think it would be very unwise to try to use the magic of this dimension to help your friend in another."
"I know," Sonic groaned, "but what other choice have I got? If you can't help me, Merlina, then I might really be out of options."
The Queen thought a moment, then considered her next words very carefully before speaking, such that, when she finally did, each word fell from her mouth with deliberate and marked caution.
"The only power known to me capable of doing what you seek, recorded only once by my grandfather himself in the ancient scrolls, is the power of Chaos."
As the final word of her sentence reached Sonic's ears, the hedgehog felt as if something had died in his heart. It was the absolute last thing he'd wanted to hear from the sorceress, and what he'd feared most. With the seven Chaos Emeralds missing, he had no viable means either of becoming Super Sonic or defending the realms and kingdoms of Mobius with their energy. If the Emeralds somehow held the secret to Sally's transformation, it meant he'd have to track them all down again. Which meant another adventure. Which meant more badniks, Eggman, and more lost friends. The singular thing Sonic had been trying to avoid at all costs.
"In my world," Sonic countered, "the Chaos power has been… lost to us for the moment."
"Then you must restore it. To save your friend without doing further terrible damage to time and space, you will need the most primordial magic in the universe. That's Chaos magic, Sonic."
"And then what? Even if I'm able to get Chaos Control back, how do I use that—and do it safely—to bring back my friends?"
"Well, for that, you'll need the knowledge of those far older and wiser than me," the Queen admitted.
"Who?" the hedgehog wondered.
The sorceress had an admission of her own to make. "Your timing showing up here… Sonic, I don't think it's a coincidence."
"What do you mean?"
"I've… I've been having… visions of late… flashes of… I don't know… alternate worlds… different times…"
Melina recalled the dreams and visions she'd been having of late to the Blue Blur. First, she was floating naked in a cold, black void, empty of stars, older than time. She saw a planet that looked like a pearlescent marble. Then it exploded, as billions of souls cried out, extinguished in the blink of an eye. She let out a silent scream. Next the vision showed her an island rising from the sea, high up into the clouds, powered by an immense glowing jewel. She saw an ancient shrine, ruined and abandoned save for a single adherent, a red-furred echidna keeping vigil until the end of time. Then, a terrible darkness descended upon the floating island. The clouds around it turned a menacing dark black-green, and great flashes of lightning precipitated the arrival of a great, black airship. Explosions. Bursts of energy. Flashes of kaleidoscopic light. The island began to plummet, whatever magic or power previously holding it aloft now sabotaged.
But the visions didn't stop there. Next she saw a half dozen or so tall, translucent humanoid-looking beings with large, glowing, diamond-white eyes. Their bodies appeared made of some kind of celestial plasma, like a rich syrup of stars and miniature nebulae. She saw the erection of a great tower crowned by an interdimensional portal made from technology so advanced, Merlina could scarcely comprehend any of its workings. Her eyes bulged wide as a surge of information exploded out of the portal, beaming directly into the center of her forehead. Billions upon billions of lines of code, a sea of algorithms and complex scripts, bombarded her consciousness. She focused every fiber of her being on the strange symbols flying by her vision. Blueprints. A schematic. But for what? Something big. Mechanical. And powered by Chaos. Then, she felt something wet on her shoulder that felt both burning hot and icy cold. She looked down and saw a large, three-clawed hand that looked like water-given-form. She turned, and found herself staring directly into two, featureless yellow eyes.
The figure simply gestured and pointed wordlessly. She followed its claw to where she saw an army of roboticized mobians crashing like a flood against the walls of a great city, aided by behemoth beasts of infernal metal, held together by powerful forces both unknown and unseen. A powerful warrior, clad almost entirely in bluish metal armor, tried to stave off the horde using a powerful beam weapon mounted to his arm.
Last, Merlina saw a hedgehog, like Sonic, but whose fur was the color of mithril in moonlight. Suddenly, he staggered, and let out a soundless scream, evaporating slowly into celestial mist. Then she saw dozens of others undergo the same process—complete de-atomization, like being ripped from the very fabric of their own universes. This repeated over and over until all that was left was darkness, silence, and a single world, a tiny blue marble, radiant amidst the darkness. And then, it too, fell into shadow as an even larger celestial body appeared above it. This gigantic, indigo, moon-like planet powered itself up, and in a flash, ripped apart Mobius, absorbing all of the Chaos energy within it. Billions more dead in less than an instant. The last soul to be de-atomized was Sonic himself.
She shrieked in the void. Cold, naked, alone, drifting into the heart of nothingness. The end of all things was not a last, glorious shout of defiance, but a final frail whimper of misery.
"I hardly know what any of it means, Sonic," the Queen said. "Here in Camelot, I have a great deal of power and wisdom at my disposal, but these things from your world are as unknowable to me as royal scepter is to an ant. Does any of this make sense to you?"
Sonic thought long and hard. A lot of the things the Queen had attempted to describe made little sense without proper context. Especially now, with his own memory being so unusually unreliable of late. He did however recognize immediately her description of the race of deities with whom, according to multiversal legend, the Chaos Emeralds had started.
"The Ancients," Sonic thought out loud.
"Ancients?"
"Aliens from long, long ago," the hedgehog did his best to explain. "They were almost wiped out, but the ones that survived fled to a place called Angel Island."
"I don't know about any Ancients, but these visions have been persistent, Sonic. They must be connected to whatever you—and our realms—have been experiencing."
The Blur heaved a troubled sigh. "Well, it's going to be pretty difficult to talk to a living Ancient," Sonic said. "They're all gone now. Only thing up at Angel Island nowadays are ruined temples, bunch 'a fairy creatures called Chao—oh, yeah, and my ol' buddy Knuckles. No Ancients, that's for sure."
The two of them sat in silence for a minute, each lost in their own respective thoughts. Then, Merlina had an idea. "You said you couldn't talk to a living Ancient," she mused.
"Yeah? What're ya thinking?"
"Well… what if… you could talk to a dead one?"
The hedgehog shook his head, nonplussed. "Whadd'ya mean?"
"Well… you know the book that took you here? To Camelot?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, there's many dimensions, as I'm sure you're aware."
"Of course."
"Well one of these dimensions exists almost exclusively for the preservation of knowledge. Anything recorded by the universe gets stored there, in case the original dimension's copy is ever destroyed. Or dies. I'm not sure why, but my guess would be it's a natural byproduct of our dimensions trying to balance themselves out."
"Cyberspace!" Sonic gasped.
Merlina nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. If these Ancients were truly as powerful and advanced as you say, then there should be a record somewhere of their knowledge and experiences in Cyberspace. If you can find that knowledge base, we may be able to reconstruct enough of it to… rebuild a golem of sorts. Through the golem, the memories and consciousness of an Ancient could theoretically speak."
The Blue Blur thought hard for a moment. "I dunno, Merlina, it sounds dangerous. Like… dark magic, Underworldy stuff."
The Queen shook her head. "You have my solemn promise that I will never dabble in such forbidden arts again. On the name of my grandfather."
"I'll hold you to that!" Sonic said, not relishing the memory of Merlina giving his behind a solid wallop while transformed into the Dark Queen.
"This isn't even magic at all, Sonic. Ironically, it's science. And you've got all the resources back in your dimension to pull this off. But you'll need your friends' help. This isn't something you'll be able to do alone."
Sonic regretted how he'd been treating his friends lately. He knew he'd been acting standoffish, cold, even jerkish at times. But ultimately he'd chosen to act now and ask for forgiveness later. He had to. Sally, and the lives of the very friends who felt ignored by him, depended on his coldness and single-minded focus. There were distractions, temptations, and chances to call it quits cropping up everywhere. Since the Super Genesis Wave, he'd had this growing feeling in his gut that he wasn't even himself anymore. That he'd one day he'd just wake up and forget why he was doing all of this in the first place. For his friends.
"I'll make them understand. If anyone can tell us how to change Sally back, it's a being with the deepest knowledge of Chaos itself. Because Chaos Control can change anything—even roboticization."
"Just remember one thing," Merlina warned the hedgehog. "You can't meddle with Chaos without consequence. For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. However much you take from Chaos, you'll have to pay the piper at some point. Maybe tomorrow, maybe ten years in the future. And that cost might be little, or it might cost you everything."
"Been there, done that," Sonic assured the sorceress. "But really, thanks for this. You put my sneakers back on the road I need to run. I needed that. Next time I visit, I'll bring you a whole bouquet of those Chrysanthemums."
Merlina knelt down so that she and the hedgehog could embrace before his departure. "Please be careful," Merlina warned him, kissing him gently on the forehead. "These visions… I'm still not sure what they all mean, but I know you are a part of all this. A big part. This universe won't survive without you in it. Take care of yourself, Sonic. For all our sakes."
"Will do," the hedgehog said, pulling his socks up his ankles in preparation. "Keep well, Queen Merlina. Remember what I told you: one day at a time."
She nodded sweetly back. "Yes. One day at a time."
Before she even finished the sentence, the hedgehog was already gone.
End of chapter five
