Ancient Ruin's Forest
All was eerily still in the forest. Nothing moved, everything seemed frozen in time.
Suddenly, A blue and gold portal seemed to materialize in the middle of a tiny clearing, before Silver the hedgehog stepped through. The stillness seemed to dissipate after the portal disappeared, only leaving a bewildered and heavily irritated Silver.
"One week. I went back home for one week and already the future's in danger again. I can't even take a vacation to go back home at this point…" Silver was muttering to himself angrily, before he took stock of his surroundings. "Wait, where am I? I thought the portal was bringing me to Restoration HQ, like always? Wait, don't tell me I landed in the wrong time again!" He said, exasperated.
Silver would never admit this to anyone, but Time Travel wasn't an exact science. When he did it on his own, he sometimes had the tendency to go too far back or not far enough to stop whatever cataclysm that caused the future to go bad. Honestly, the first time he got it right was more of a fluke than anything.
Silver sighed, about to open the portal again, when he noticed a glint in the trees. He looked over and saw something blue sticking out of the ground, seemingly having buried itself from a high altitude. He cautiously approached until he could get a clear view of what it was, and it surprised him.
"The Guardian Angel's wispon?" Silver muttered, both worried and excited. Even in the future, only one of these variable wispons were ever made. Whisper truly was one of a kind. Maybe Silver should tell her that one of these days.
Silver shook his head out of his ramblings, before picking it up and dusting it off. It was badly cracked and looked like it could fall apart any second. He suddenly got a horrible feeling that maybe the time he arrived in was after the main cataclysm happened, and he just picked up the fallen Guardian Angel's wispon. It very sadly wouldn't have been the first time he went back only to find signs that everyone had already been killed by Eggman and the time he popped out of was too late to help.
He carefully examined it, trying to see signs of how old it was, before he heard the shuffling of leaves. He dropped it and quickly went into a defensive stance. He watched warily, but instead of an enemy, or even a regular islander, all that popped out was a group of wisps.
Silver looked at them before looking down at the Guardian Angel's wispon, and connected the dots. He looked up excitedly at the wisps, "You guys must be the Guardian Angel's wisps! Wow, it's great to see you guys again! Say, do you know where she might be?" He asked happily.
His cheerfulness suddenly evaporated when he saw the looks on the wisps faces, ranging from sorrow to full out panic. The wisps turned around and gestured for Silver to follow them. The horrible feeling returned stronger than before, and he very reluctantly followed them.
After clearing through a bunch of trees, Silver and the wisps finally entered a small clearing in the woods, where Whisper was lying on the ground, her face mask cracked. Silver was horrified, and he quickly sped over to check her pulse. She was alive, thankfully, and he breathed out a sigh of relief. She was clearly in bad shape though, there were cuts and bruises all over her body, and when he removed her mask, her face seemed to have taken the worst of the damage. A black eye was clearly forming, and her face was just full of other bruises.
She also seemed to be having trouble breathing. Silver was horrified at who would do something like this, but more than that, he was pissed. Someone had hurt the person who saved his life almost more times than he could count, and he was going to make them regret it.
He used his telekinesis to gently lift her up, determined to carry her to safety and preferably a hospital. The gentle feel of energy seemed to elicit some kind of unconscious muttering from Whisper, "Tangle, no…".
Silver could only look at her with more horror. Had whatever done this to Whisper also had done it to Tangle? He looked at the wisps, who were just watching Whisper sadly.
"Hey, is Tangle ok?" He asked, worried. When he said that, something strange happened. The wisps looked at him with what could only be described as incredulousness. Then, they just looked angry. Some of them shook their heads no, angrily, while others just looked away.
Silver, being from some of the worst futures possible, just automatically assumed the worst. He looked at Whisper with anguish. "Oh Whisper, I am so sorry…" He said quietly, thinking that the wisps were angry at him for asking about their deceased friend. The looks of sorrow on the wisps faces when he said that just confirmed it for him.
He looked up resolute, determined to get Whisper help. More than that though, "I promise, I will make whoever did this pay." he said angrily, completely missing the shocked faces on the wisps. He started to stride in a direction, thinking that any direction would get them out of this forest, not wanting to fly in case Whisper woke up suddenly high in the air.
Before he could take more than a few steps though, a fiery kind of portal appeared in front of them. Silver once again tried to take a battle stance, but before he could really do anything, the portal forcefully pulled him, Whisper, and the wisps through the portal. Silver tried to escape it, but the pull was too strong, and he was the last one through, accidently dropping Whisper's wispon on the ground. After all the damage the wispon had taken before, it being once again being suddenly dropped onto the ground seemed to be the final straw, and it crumbled into pieces. The portal closed as suddenly as it appeared, only leaving ash and a scorch mark where it was, right next to the broken wispon.
There it layed, silently in pieces, for about ten minutes.
Suddenly a blue blur seemed to crash through into the clearing, yelling. "Whisper!? Are you out here!? We've been all over this forest! Then we heard some loud noises and we couldn't find you anywhere else so-" Sonic stopped suddenly, looking at the destroyed wispon.
He just stared at it and the scorch mark silently, before more crashing could be heard behind him. "Hey, are you ok? Did you find her-" Tails started, before he saw the same scene as Sonic.
Behind Tails stood Mimic and Lanolin. When Lanolin saw the scene, she covered her mouth in horror, while Mimic seemed to just stare blankly at the scene, his thoughts unknowable. Sonic slowly moved over to the wispon's pieces, slowly picking up a large piece and seemingly staring at it.
Tails was looking at the same piece that was in Sonic's hands, his mind feeling as if it wasn't working correctly. Nevertheless, his mouth seemed to move while his mind didn't, "It- The wispon-... Sonic, Whisper wouldn't just leave her wispon if she could have… It means too much to her." He said quietly, and hesitantly.
Sonic seemed to look at him in denial. "What if she got hit with that morality ray or whatever, wouldn't a Dark Whisper just leave it?" He asked, a tad desperate.
Tails just looked away, and to Sonic's surprise it was Mimic who answered him, with that same blank look. "No. Even if Dark Whisper didn't give a damn about sentimental value, the variable wispon is still a formidable tool. Not even an evil Whisper would leave it behind if she could help it." Mimic explained quietly.
"Ok, so, Whisper was just taken prisoner!" Sonic said, sounding more desperate by the second. This time Lanolin looked at him with tears starting to pool around her eyes. "Sonic, how? There was nothing out here to capture her with, and Tangle was clearly limping out of the forest alone. Even if she wanted to, I don't think Tangle had the strength left to take Whisper prisoner. Besides, when would she have had the time?" Lanolin said, her voice feeling scratchy.
"Face it Sonic, I don't think Whisper is ok." She said, the tears now silently sliding down her face. Sonic turned over to look at the scorch mark that was next to the wispon, a dark look coming over his face.
The Sol Dimension
The fiery portal seemed to unceremoniously dump Silver, Whisper, and the wisps on the ground. The floor seemed to be made out of marble, and Silver was currently laying face down on… was this purple carpet? Silver quickly looked up to get his bearings, and when he did, he was face to face with a purple cat wearing a crown.
"Well, can't say I expected us meeting like this." Said Blaze the cat, looking down at Silver with a concerned expression. Behind Blaze stood Gardon the koala, her personal guard.
He seemed to be standing in a defensive pose, his sword pointing towards Silver, until he sighed and sheathed his sword. "Ah, it's just young master Silver." he said, the tenseness of his shoulders falling away.
"Blaze…? What are we- Wait, Whisper! Blaze, you have to help her!" Silver said, confusion turning to panic. Blaze's eyes widened, before looking at Whisper, who was groaning and in obviously terrible shape.
Blaze quickly turned to Gardon, who had already seemed to be rushing out to get medical staff. She sighed in relief. Gardon wasn't her royal guard for nothing, after all. She then turned back to SIlver, helping him up.
"What happened to her, Silver?" Blaze asked in concern. Silver looked at her, his eyes furrowing. "I don't know. I was just pulled back to the past when I happened across her in a forest, already like that." He said, a dark look flitting across his face. Blaze looked at Whisper in dismay, "Oh, poor Whisper." She said quietly.
Silver glanced at the wisps, who were both simultaneously looking at Whisper in concern, and looking around what Silver came to realize as a throne room in awe. He turned back to Blaze, lowering his voice so the wisps wouldn't hear, "Blaze, I was pulled back in time because my future once again went bad. When I happened across Whisper, I learned that things had already gotten bad there too." Silver said, the dark look returning to his face again.
Blaze looked at him with worry, also lowering her tone."What did you learn? What happened?" She asked, concerned. To her shock, a downright hateful look appeared on Silver's face. Blaze didn't even know Silver knew how to get that angry. "When I started to help Whisper, she muttered about Tangle. I asked the wisps and…" he said, looking away. "And they said that she wasn't ok" He muttered, just loud enough for Blaze to hear.
Usually, Blaze would assume that Tangle was as badly hurt as Whisper, or maybe even captured. However, Silver's tone told her something different. It took a moment, before she gasped in shock. "Silver, Tangle isn't…?" She asked in dismay. Blaze could only feel her heart wrench when he just nodded sadly.
Blaze looked back at her throne. "I knew I should've ignored the Sol Emerald's warnings." She muttered. Silver's head snapped over to look at Blaze. "What are you talking about?" He said, surprised, "what warnings?"
Blaze looked at him, conflicted, before a resolute look appeared on her face. "For about a week now, I started to feel as if something was going wrong in Sonic's dimension. The Sol Emeralds, at first, seemed to just confirm the feeling. Suddenly though, the Sol Emeralds started to send me warnings, as if they were begging me to stay here and not help." She said, to which Silver just kinda looked on in shock.
Blaze told him the Sol Emeralds could be flaky at times, but when there was a problem that Blaze felt she could help, they usually just let her do so. Warning her to stay home? That was new to Silver. He just stared at her in surprise, "Have the emeralds ever done that before?" he asked.
Blaze just shook her head, "Not like this, no. There was only one time in the past where it was something similar. When the Metal Virus was supposedly going on, If I even attempted to open a portal to Sonic's dimension, I would experience horrible backlash and the portal wouldn't even flicker open. That one I could explain away easily enough though, as the emeralds have an ancient defensive measure that blocks travel from dimensions when said dimension would directly put the Sol Dimension at risk. The Metal Virus would've ravaged the Sol Dimension if even a tiny fleck of the virus were to enter through the portal." Blaze explained, to Silver's sudden horror at the idea of the Metal Virus spreading here. He shook those thoughts clear, the Metal Virus was gone, and it was never coming back.
"However-" Blaze continued, "I've never experienced a time where the Sol Emeralds have outright warned me against going to another dimension, especially Sonic's. The truly confusing thing is that it wouldn't outright put the Sol Dimension at risk, as the Sol Emeralds still allow me to open a portal there. It's like… The emeralds are begging me specifically not to go there." Blaze said, a concerned look on her face.
"So, is that how we came to be here? You were about to ignore the warnings and travel anyway?" SIlver asked, the pieces starting to connect for him. He noticed some sounds and turned around, only to see Whisper gently carried out of the room by several official looking Islanders. The wisps just followed.
"Actually, no." Blaze said, making Silver turn over in surprise again. "I was actually asking the emeralds for guidance, when the emeralds opened up the portal on their own, seemingly pulling you and Whisper here." She said, pointing to something behind Silver.
Silver turned around, before looking down and seeing the seven Sol Emeralds on the floor, seemingly in a circular formation. He turned back to Blaze, the question clear on his face, 'why would they do that?'
Blaze just sighed, "I do not understand why the Sol Emeralds would pull you here either, Silver. But I did ask for guidance. Perhaps the Sol Emeralds are trying to show me why I shouldn't cross over?" She asked, a spark of hope entering her voice. Silver just shrugged.
"I don't really have an answer to that one, princess. I could tell you what my future looked like when I left it, but it didn't seem to be much worse than when the Eggman Empire took over the first time, during the war. Nothing like when the Metal Virus ravaged the world. That time there was simply nothing left." Silver said, suppressing a shudder. It was just eerie the first time when he went back to that future, but after finding out what actually caused it… Well, Silver can confidently say that the empty future of the Metal Virus still gave him a few nightmares, all these months later.
Blaze just looked back at the doorway Whisper was led through previously. "Then perhaps it wasn't you who the emeralds sent for, but Whisper. And if what you told me about Tangle is true, I have a feeling that what Whisper will tell us won't be pleasant news." She said, dark thoughts circling through her head.