-Chapter 174-

Bad Ending


Mobius, 200 years in the Future…

In the year 3437, an unknown cataclysm had struck Mobius and devastated the planet, reducing it to a harsh, bleak place with clouds blotting out the sky, ruins dotting the landscape, and lava pits over most of the world. One of the few safe places left in the world was Angel Island, now known as Onyx Island, which had long since fallen into the sea and stood at a slanted angle, part of its surface submerged.

On the island, an old lady was standing in the middle of the ruins of Echidnaopolis, a worn, brown robe wrapped around her wizened body. Snow white hair cascaded down her back, tied back in a tight braid and a faded echidna headband holding the rest. Her left arm was covered in old burns, a scar that identified her as none other than Kat Winters, now well in her 200's. Despite her age, there was still a fire in her eyes, a fierceness that was currently directed at two young Mobians bowing before her.

One was a silver hedgehog with yellow eyes and long spines on his head that looked almost like a fern. He was wearing a black overcoat with fingerless gloves, dark pants with several patches, and old, scuffed boots. A scarf was wrapped around his neck, and a pair of goggles rested on his head, making him look like the post-apocalyptic warrior he was. This was Silver Venice, one of the last hedgehogs on Mobius.

The other was an echidna with pink hair atop her head. Cracked glasses were perched on her nose, held together with tape and a sap-based glue. She was wearing a ragged traditional echidna dress, bandages around her hands and feet. This was Lara-Su, Old Kat's protege and surrogate daughter.

Old Kat looked at the two Mobians before her, sliding into a fighting stance before giving them a grin.

"Alright you two, don't you dare hold back," she told them. "Because the enemy sure as hell won't."

The two immediately rushed in, Lara-Su tunneling into the ground as Silver went on the defensive, unleashing knife-like waves of psychic energy that Old Kat casually dodged. At that moment, Lara-Su burst out of the ground, fist raised in an uppercut with her knuckle-spurs extended. Old Kat jumped back, grabbing Lara-Su's arm and sending her into the wall. She let out a grunt as Old Kat looked her over, arms behind her back.

"Tell me what you did wrong." she ordered.

"Well," Lara-Su began, "I was thinking you were gonna-"

"Exactly!" Old Kat cut off sternly. "You were thinking. Go again."

She then felt a familiar thrum of power surround her and she snorted. Her hair began to glow and her eyes flashed, her energy clashing with Silver's and snapping it.

"What did I tell you, Silver?" She launched herself forward, grabbing his quills and shoving him down into the dirt. "Never use your telekinesis on a person unless you know you can withstand their will."

Silver managed to break free, leaving Lara-Su to engage in a flurry of punches with Old Kat while he focused his power on debris around them. As multiple objects glowed, Silver clapped his hands together, slamming the rubble and whatnot around Old Kat and trapping her inside. A few moments passed before Old Kat smashed through the rocky cocoon, stepping out and grabbing him. Silver sighed in resignation.

"Well… it was worth a shot."

By the time that the fight was over, both Mobians were utterly exhausted and sore, pulling rocks and dirt out of their clothes. Old Kat lounged on a rock, letting out a sigh.

"Alright kids, what did you learn?" she asked.

"That we're still way outmatched by you and keep getting tossed around like ragdolls?" Lara-Su questioned.

Old Kat snorted. "Not bad for a 212-year-old lady, eh? Imagine me in my prime. I would've destroyed you."

"I'm pretty sure you did," Silver said flatly.

"Guess so," Old Kat chuckled. "But, if you're gonna live up to the heroic legacy of the Hedgehogs, you gotta be tough. And that means dealing with my old, ornery ass."

As they sat, Lara-Su turned to Old Kat.

"Master, I know I've asked this before, but what happened to the world?" she questioned.

"I told ya before, my memory of that day ain't the best," Old Kat replied. "All I remember is fire. Endless fire that burns to this very day."

"The Flames of Disaster…" Silver recalled. "Iblis."

Old Kat nodded solemnly. "We Freedom Fighters fought to our last man to try and stop them. Generation after generation, all the way up to you two."

Silver's expression soured at the reminder of what seemed to be a hopeless war, but he was unable to retort before they heard footsteps running in. They turned to see none other than Blaze the Cat skidding to a stop, panting. Unlike the others, she didn't look like a struggling survivor. Aside from being a bit skinnier and her dress being covered in ash, she looked the way she did when she left Mobius oh so long ago.

"What is it, Blaze?" Silver questioned.

"The Crisis City Zone…" Blaze caught her breath. "He's appeared again!"

"Go," Old Kat ordered. "Save what remains of this husk of a world."

The trio stood up, hurrying out.


Crisis City Zone

In no time at all, they arrived in the Crisis City Zone. Once the city-state of Soleanna, teeming with life, it was now in pure ruin, charred by the Flames of Disaster. Fire ravaged the infernal metropolis, searing the sky and belching voluminous smoke into the night air. As they headed in, they were confronted by numerous beasts composed of lava and rock, roaring and snarling as they burned the surroundings.

"Iblis' Minions!" Lara-Su exclaimed. "C'mon!"

"We're coming!" Silver shouted.

Together, the three warriors charged at the monsters, old hands at beating them after a lifetime of similar battles. They fought through the city and monsters, eventually making it to the center of a particularly huge lava pit. From it emerged a monstrous beast resembling Perfect Chaos, but composed of magma and rock armor, along with four arms.

"Iblis…" Blaze let out.

"C'mon, you monster!" Silver shouted.

The beast roared, spewing fire and magma from its mouth. The trio deftly dodged the attack, going at it with every trick and move at their disposal. Blaze was able to dissipate most of the flames sent their way with her own power, while Silver levitated multiple debris and threw them at Iblis, chipping away at his rocky armor before exposing his fiery core. Lara-Su popped out her fist spikes, focusing as a green aura surrounded her.

"The servers are the seven Chaos," she recited. "Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller serves to unify the Chaos."

She jumped into the air, gliding at high speed with her fists extended before spinning like a drill and plowing through Iblis' core. The monster sank into the lava, retreating for the moment. Silver and the girls watch him do so solemnly, all three tired beyond reproach.

"Looks like we stopped him for now," said Blaze.

"But he'll be back," Silver grumbled. "He always comes back."

He punches the wall in frustration. "What's the point of all this, you guys? It's never gonna end!"

"Don't lose hope now, Silver," Lara-Su insisted. "We will find a way to beat him for good. One day, the fires will be extinguished."

"I'm just so tired, Lara," Silver sighed. "What should we do? How can we completely destroy Iblis?!"

Lara couldn't find a response, and then, a new voice cut in.

"By knowing the truth, of course."

They blinked, looking up to see a hedgehog similar to Shadow, but blue where he had red, and with green eyes with slitted pupils and no visible mouth.

"Just as a flower comes from a seed, or a chicken comes from an egg, everything has an origin. You need to find the being originally responsible for this catastrophe."

They looked at him in confusion.

"Who the hell are you?" Lara-Su demanded.

"Shadow?" Blaze questioned. "No... the coloring is off... Just who are you?"

"They call me Mephiles," the figure replied. "Mephiles the Dark. And I am in a position to aid you in your endeavors."

Blaze and Lara exchanged looks, wary. While Silver was suspicious himself, his desperation to end the fight won out, and he looked up.

"Is that really the answer to our problem?" he asked. "Tell me, do you know who it is?"

"I do, yes," Mephiles confirmed. "He is known as the Iblis Trigger, and his actions led to the burnt husk of a planet on which you now reside."

Seeing the look in Silver's eyes, Blaze and Lara-Su looked up at Mephiles.

"Will you excuse us for a minute?" Blaze requested.

Both girls grabbed Silver, dragging him behind a nearby wall before the mouthless hedgehog had a chance to reply.

"Silver, please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking," Lara-Su begged.

"I'm thinking if there's a fraction of a chance he's telling the truth, we need to look into it," Silver insisted.

"Silver, c'mon-" Blaze insisted.

"Look around, you two!" Silver exclaimed, gesturing to the blasted, charred landscape. "Mobius is a shell of its former self! A charred corpse! There's no way to fix it, there's nothing to fight for! And I won't spend the rest of my life fighting a hopeless war against Iblis in this forsaken time!"

"We've been trying our best, Silver!" Lara-Su told him. "What more do you want from us?!"

Silver's expression softened.

"I want it to end," he sighed. "C'mon... aren't you tired? Wouldn't it be great to be free of all of this?"

"Of course I am," Lara-Su replied. "You forget, I live in this world too. But I'm not about to trust some mouthless hedgehog we just met."

"Look," Silver began, "we've tried killing Iblis again and again, but it hasn't done a lick of good or changed a thing. It can't hurt to hear him out and see what he knows. Take things slow, come to a conclusion."

"You're just going to go with him and listen to his story regardless of what we say, aren't you?" Blaze questioned.

"He's offering us our first real chance at finally making a difference," Silver pointed out. "I have to hear him out."

"You're so damn naïve…" Lara-Su sighed. "Alright, we'll go with you. If only so you don't do something stupider than usual."

"If you three are done wasting time…"

The trio jumped, finding Mephiles standing right beside them.

"Shall we go?" he asked.

"Yes," Silver nodded. "Tell us what you know."


They were led to an old base bearing the faded insignia of the Robotnik Empire. Mephiles led them into the computer room, still largely intact if not aged.

"There is only one way to fix this present timeline," Mephiles told them. "You need to change the past, and undo the future that is Iblis."

"Time travel?" Lara-Su asked. "Without the Little Planet's Time Stones, that's impossible."

"I have been graced with the ability to send beings across the vast expanse of time," Mephiles explained. "Alas, I cannot use it on myself. I must remain as a temporal anchor, lest the subject of my power be lost to the past."

Blaze looked skeptical, but said nothing as Mephiles went on.

"To change the past, you must find and destroy the individual who released Iblis in the first place. The Iblis Trigger."

He went over to the computer, trying away.

"So if we eliminate this person, our world will be saved?" Silver questioned.

"Yes," Mephiles confirmed. "Here are my records of the Day of Disaster. This was when Iblis was freed and his flames were released into the world."

He showed them multiple pictures of Soleanna.

"And you have this person to blame for it."

He pressed another key, and an image slowly loaded, depicting a Mobian standing amongst a raging fire with a malevolent smirk and an evil look in his eyes. Blaze squinted, realizing who it was.

"Sonic?!" she let out.

"Wait, that's Sonic?" Lara-Su questioned. "The same Sonic from all of Master's stories? How is this possible?"

"It's not," Blaze insisted. "I only knew Sonic for a short time, but I know he would never allow such a fate to befall this world."

She turned on Mephiles, scowling.

"This is horse-shit!" she shouted. "I fought side-by-side with Sonic! He helped me save my world and his! He can't possibly be the Iblis Trigger! No way!"

Mephiles shrugged. "Well, as they say, you either die a hero... or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

"Silver, you can't possibly be buying this!" Blaze objected.

"I don't want to," Silver admitted. "But Lara's master herself admitted her memories of the events leading up to Iblis' release and who did it are hazy, and it's been two hundred years. For all we know... Sonic could be the Iblis Trigger."

"No!" Lara-Su screamed. "It's not true! Sonic was a hero! He fought alongside my parents in the fight that took their lives! He was one of the best, and he would never let this happen!" She stamped her foot. "I don't believe it! It can't be!"

With that, she turned tail and ran out of the base.

"Lara!" Blaze screamed.

"Let her go," Mephiles insisted. "The window we have to fix this mess is rapidly closing. Choose now: stay here in this burning waste, or go to the past, and destroy the Iblis Trigger."

"I'll go back to the past," Silver decided. "I need to fix this world."

"If he's in, I'm in," Blaze said.

"Excellent," Mephiles replied. "I'll send you back in time to the point when the Iblis Trigger was alive."

Mephiles generated a sphere with his hands, placed it over Silver and Blaze, and the three of them vanished.


Onyx Island

Back on Onyx Island, Old Kat was meditating before the Master Emerald. The massive gem's glow was duller, and it was sporting a few cracks, but the power was still there. As she meditated, Old Kat could feel her age. Her bones ached and her muscles were weary. She sighed as she pulled a necklace out from under her robe, revealing a dented, old Power Ring capsule. She popped it open, revealing a folded piece of paper inside. She unfolded it, showing it to be an old photograph of herself and Keith when they were kids. Both were covered in what looked like white dust and were laughing, holding each other.

"I wonder if you're still waiting for me, or if we'll see each other again," she pondered. "Either way... I think I'm going to find out soon."

Rapidly approaching footsteps snapped her out of her meditation, and she turned to see Lara-Su skidding to a stop.

"Lara-Su?" she let out. "What's wrong? Where are Silver and Blaze?"

Calming herself down, Lara-Su quickly explained what had happened with Mephiles and what he had told them, before grabbing her mentor by the shoulders.

"Master, you always spoke of Sonic as the Hero of Mobius," she recalled. "The greatest of them all. Please, tell me it isn't true. Tell me he didn't release Iblis and cause this mess!"

Old Kat got to her feet, eyes blazing.

"Now you listen here, young lady. My memories of that day may be fuzzy, but I remember one thing clear as crystal! Sonic gave his life trying to stop Iblis! Him, and all the other Freedom Fighters over the past two hundred years. Sonic was the best of us, and there's no way he'd ever willingly or knowingly bring this down upon us, so get those thoughts out of your head this instant!"

Lara-Su recoiled, but relaxed at her master's words.

"I needed to be sure. But Silver…" she sighed. "He's sick of fighting Iblis only for him to keep coming back. He's desperate, Master. If there's even a one percent chance that going back and killing Sonic will change this future, he's gonna take it."

Old Kat let out a groan, rubbing her eyes in annoyance.

"That damn mammoth... he taught that kid how to use his power, but never thought to teach him a lick of common sense." She then got to her feet, popping her back before inhaling deeply. "Alright, get up. We've got to fix this before Silver does something monumentally stupid and makes this situation even worse than it already is, if such a thing is possible."

"If what Mephiles is true, he's probably sent Silver back in time by now. Without the Time Stones, we have no way of following him…" Lara-Su hesitated before glancing up at her Master. "Do we?"

Old Kat smirked, letting out a cackle.

"Everything you know, kiddo, I've taught you." She approached the Master Emerald, placing her hands on its surface. "But I haven't taught you everything I know."

Lara-Su placed her hands on the Emerald as well.

"Now focus," Old Kat ordered. "Channel every ounce of Chaos Energy you have. I'll handle the time and place, you just get it open."

They focused, reciting Tikal's Prayer. The Master Emerald began to glow, before Old Kat and Lara-Su threw their heads back.

"Chaos… Control!"

The glow flowed upward from the Emerald, forming into a swirling rift above them.

"What the...?" Lara-Su let out.

"Chaos Control allows one to manipulate both space and time," Old Kat explained. "What you see here is a time portal leading back to Soleanna on November 12, 3237. The exact date and time my friends and I went there on vacation. I put you in the woods so you won't draw attention to yourself. You just need to go to the city, find my younger self, and have her bring you to Sonic. Tell him what's happened and to be ready."

"How will I get them to believe me?" Lara-Su asked.

"Give them this."

Old Kat removed the capsule from around her neck, handing it to her protege. As soon as she did, they heard an ominous rumbling and turned to see Iblis' Minions appear, swarming in.

"Damn it…" Old Kat growled. "Chaos Control alerted Iblis to our presence here."

"What do we do?!" Lara-Su demanded.

"You will go through with the mission," Old Kat insisted. "I'll hold the monsters at bay."

"What?!" Lara-Su shrieked. "I can't just leave you here to fight them alone! I won't!"

"I know," Old Kat smiled, placing a hand on the young Mobian's shoulder. "So I'm not giving you a choice."

She shoved Lara-Su through the portal. Lara-Su landed in the forest beyond the portal as Kat undid her braid, her hair rising up and turning red from power, rippling like fire.

"You will not take this world!" she swore.

Lara-Su jumped to her feet, running for the rapidly closing portal.

"Master, no!" she screamed. "Please, don't do this!"

Old Kat charged into the fray as the portal closed. This left Lara-Su alone in the past..

"No…" she let out, barely audible. After a minute, she scowled in rage and sorrow. "NO!"

She punched the ground, fracturing it before clutching the necklace, breaking into sobs. "Master…"

After a minute, she composed herself, wiping her eyes.

"I'll find you, and I'll save the future," she swore. "I promise."


Author's Note:

And thus, the Sonic 06 adaptation has begun. Archie fans may recognize Lara-Su, Knuckles and Julie-Su's future daughter. As for how she's still their daughter when she originates from two hundred years in the future, it's the same reason Kat is still alive in that time; the Guardians' connection to the Chaos Force grants them extreme longevity. As for Blaze being there, just stay tuned; it'll be revealed in the future.

Voice cast for this chapter:

* Old Kat - Philece Sampler (Old Toph in The Legend of Korra, Mimi Tachikawa from Digimon, Tsuruko Aoyama from Love Hina)

* Lara-Su- Erica Lindbeck (Menat from Street Fighter V, Cheelai from Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Jessie in Final Fantasy VII Remake)

Please R&R. Until next time!