My apologies for the seriously long delay in updating! That hadn't been my intention, but wow, life, amirite?

Okay, yes, please ignore me. Got a new one for you now. Time to continue with the nightmare...

Chapter Two: Full Stop

I don't have time to process what's happening, but I have to act now. This is Sonic's thing, acting before you can blink, but even he stands frozen in place. I'm the captain; I need to handle this. But how?

Minutes ago, we were home. Just talking. War suspiciously over. But then there was the light and we're back in 2006 on the day Cosmo died. Again.

I need a second. I need time to take a breath.

But the Metarex are right outside.

Time's up.

"We fight? We fight?" Amy demanding, parroting Tails's words back at him. "I know it's been a few years, but this is now our third time here."

"I know," Tails replied.

"No, I don't think you do!" Amy said. "The Sonic Driver's destroyed, which means we have no weapons. The Master Emerald's destroyed, which means we have no power. And since Sonic and Shadow just used the Chaos Emeralds, they scattered, which means we have no miracles."

"I know," Tails replied again. But it's fight or die, is what he didn't say. They were out of other options.

Amy was right; this was their third time back in 2006 at the moment of Cosmo's death. And never before had there been a Metarex armada waiting outside their window.

He took a deep breath.

He took Cosmo's hand, though he didn't meet her frightened eyes.

And after he took that pause, that time they didn't have, he finally continued. "Let's focus on what we do have. We know we got home last time. Eggman's ship was able to give us the energy we needed."

"But that took hours!" Amy exclaimed.

"We'll see if he can put a rush on it," Tails said, though it required him to ignore the technical voice inside himself that told him it was impossible. They would have to make it possible. "And for weapons, we still have the X-Tornado and Cream's ship. And maybe the Hyper Tornado, if it's not too badly damaged."

What else? They had to have more than that. Tails narrowed his eyes to glare down at the ground at their feet, forcing his mind to remember his now present. For most of his life, he had known time travel to be possible. The Chaos Emeralds made manipulation of time-space possible. But what he had never considered was how disconcerting it was to be displaced in time. It was hard to react to a present situation when it felt more like a story than reality. Your mind rebuilt the details in your memory over time and so when you showed back up in the situation, it felt unreal and unlike your memory at all.

"We have Eggman and Rouge and the Chaotix too," he added. "It's a pretty decent crew."

But that was still an armada outside their window. And it was getting closer.

Tails realized his hand was tightening more and more around Cosmo's. Deep breath, he told himself. He eased the tightness away. What can we do? Even if it's farfetched, what can we try to survive?

"We need the Master Emerald back," he said finally.

"That took months," Amy said.

He made a concerted effort not to wince. He pushed on. "The Chaos Emeralds work based our hearts and what we want and need. Maybe the Master Emerald can work the same way. It's at least worth a shot."

Tails looked at Sonic for confirmation. Only then did he realize Sonic had held silent through the conversation thus far. Tails saw Sonic's jaw twitching, he held it so tight. Sonic didn't quite look at any of them, or at anything at all.

Not good.

Tails knew Sonic was damaged by his years being tortured by the Metarex. He knew how the fake Chaos Emeralds called to Sonic's soul. He knew that just before they had been thrown back in time, they had realized the war they were fighting was just a massive experiment of the Metarex to figure out how Sonic would react to the fake Emeralds.

But still…how could Sonic just be standing still?

"Sonic?" Tails said in a small voice.

Sonic's eyes focused instantly. "What do you need me to do, bud?"

At least he tried to cover up his disconcerting disconnection. That much at least seemed consistent with his personality. A small relief. "Get to Knuckles and see what he can do to get the Master Emerald back together. Then come back here for the next step." Which would give Tails all of thirty seconds to figure out what that step was.

A smirk flickered across Sonic's lips—though Tails expected he forced it—before he dashed away, leaving nothing more than a breeze behind.

The lights on the bridge started to brighten as new life grew within them. A sigh of relief escaped Tails's lungs, though that was quickly followed by his chest tightening once more. "That's a start," he said anyway. "Eggman must be on the same page we are."

"Only to save himself," Amy scoffed.

"I'll take what we can get," Tails muttered, racing over to his console. He hesitated, hands drifting just above his controls. It had been years since he was faced with the controls of the Blue Typhoon's backup bridge and for an instant, the sight was foreign to him. He gritted his teeth and urged his rusty memories back into place. He slowly moved his hands across the buttons and switches until his fingers caught on some, muscle memory kicking in where his active memory failed.

Another breeze ruffled Tails's fur just as he managed to get diagnostics running. He lifted his head to see the grim expression on Sonic's face. Never a good sign.

"Knuckles is pessimistic," he said.

"How pessimistic?" Tails asked tightly.

Sonic's frown deepened. "He cussed me out."

Tails winced. "Is he going to try anyway?"

Sonic shrugged. "He's not stupid enough to think there's a plan B. But he said we need to buy him a couple years-worth of time."

Tails's fingers tightened around the edge of his console. They couldn't afford Knuckles writing the plan off as a lost cause already. It was the only one they had.

His eyes snapped to Amy's. "Amy, I need you to take Sonic and the X-Tornado and buy us any time you can. Have Cream take her ship and do the same. Rouge and the Chaotix too. If they don't have another ship, take them on yours. Get Chris repairing the Hyper Tornado. I'll work with Eggman and Knuckles to do whatever we can to get us moving again, but we're going to need whatever time you can buy us."

"It's an armada!" Amy exclaimed. "We won't be able to do more than buy minutes."

Sonic stiffened at Amy's words, and Tails's eyes cut sideways to see the empty expression returning to Sonic's face. It sent Tails shaking. Where was his big brother's optimism? His exhilaration? His effortless smirk? Had the Metarex left any piece of him undamaged?

So, since Sonic couldn't lead, Tails straightened and steadied his shaking breaths as much as he could manage before he said, "Amy, we either live or we die here. We escape or we die. Hopelessness won't get us anywhere and neither will standing still. We have to try something, and this is all we've got."

Tails could see Amy's jaw tighten. Her eyes flicked over to Sonic, like Tails's had before, and she saw the same frozen expression on the hedgehog's face. Tails hoped Amy understood without Tails saying it in front of Sonic: Sonic's shattering. We have to give him hope or we'll lose him whether or not we get away.

And finally, Amy reached out, taking Sonic's hand in her own. Sonic blinked at her touch, looking to come alive from his stupor. Amy said, "We'll do what we can. But we're counting on you to make this happen."

"I know," Tails replied grimly. He tried to push back against the weight easing its way onto his chest, threatening to suffocate him beneath its pressure. They didn't have time for fear. All they had time for was action. And fast.

The Metarex sure were determined to test every single aspect of "the fastest thing alive."

-X-X-X-

Amy's View

Amy was missing something. It wasn't Sonic; he remained at her side for the time being, though it was only a matter of time before he dashed off. It took her until they reached the docking bay to realize it was her headset she was missing. The headset Tails hadn't invented yet.

Great, one more odd to be stacked against them. If only they could collect those things like cards in a trading card game. But no, all it meant here was that the odds were not in their favor.

Not a single one.

But then her eyes cut over to Sonic again. She took in the empty expression on his face. And reminded herself she needed to hold onto hope for his sake.

She slid to a stop in front of him, and his numb expression vanished in favor of sudden surprise as he suddenly had to stop in order to avoid slamming into her. "I'll work on getting the X-Tornado prepped. You get Rouge and the Chaotix and find out if we need to bring them with us to the fight," Amy demanded.

"Bossy as always," Sonic quipped, but his expression didn't match his words. But before Amy could snap anything in reply, Sonic dashed off.

Amy turned her attention to the X-Tornado, now that Sonic had a task to keep his anxious mind occupied. She spun on the spot and headed for the hangar. Her heartbeat thumped painfully in her throat. She thought she could feel the throbbing of blood rushing through her veins at her wrists. Her body became anxiety incarnate, fear in the shape of a hedgehog.

And still, she failed to shrug off the feeling of missing something, though she had already identified the missing headset.

She reached the Blue Typhoon's hangar and pounded the button for the bay doors. As she stood there, waiting for the huge doors to slide open, the wall held Amy upright while she gasped for air. The doors screeched in their rails. Amy winced at the painful noise. Certainly not a noise the doors were supposed to make.

The doors turned to shove past the screeching, but after a couple of seconds of struggling, they slowed to an eerie halt.

Amy stared at the gap between them. Her heard now thudded in a hollow chest. It took her a moment to urge herself into movement for that gap. The gap was a fine size, big enough for three of her to walk through side-by-side.

But that wasn't the problem.

She forced her suddenly stiff legs to carry her forward. Her knees knocked against each other. She lifted her arm up so she could flip open the communicator wrapped around her wrist. It felt more like a child's toy after years of using the headsets Tails invented during the Changed War.

"Tails, you better have a Plan B," she barked into the communicator. At least that was a tone of voice that could hide shaking.

"Amy, we don't have time for 'I-told-you-so,'" Tails snapped back. "Just tell me the problem."

Amy lifted her eyes back up so that once more they landed on the X-Tornado. On its decimated landing gear, its shredded siding, its shattered blast shield. "The X-Tornado's not an option," Amy said. "It's too damaged to fly. We forgot Shadow trashed it when he was trying to kill Cosmo."

And of course, that was the moment Sonic had to walk in.

-X-X-X-

Sonic's View

Just when he thought the situation couldn't possibly worsen, Sonic snagged the Chaotix and Rouge only to walk in on the X-Tornado damaged beyond quick repair.

Were there fake Chaos Emeralds nearby? He could almost feel them…

"So what's Plan B, honey?" Rouge asked.

Sonic gritted his teeth, doing the best he could to hide the expression as he glanced at the X-Tornado. Did he think he could glare it out of disrepair? Of course not, but there was no more productive thought in his head.

"We don't exactly have time to waste," Espio reminded them, his low voice making him sound calmer than Sonic assumed he was.

"I know, Espio," Sonic snapped, squeezing his eyes shut.

One could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed.

Sonic curled his fingers into fists at his sides, hoping that gesture of strength would smother the chill rising up his spine. But it didn't. His heart felt oddly heavy, his thoughts oddly flat.

"We…" He hesitated. His voice was hardly more than a breath. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Tails said we fight so we're going to fight."

But when he opened his eyes again, he saw Rouge looking at him with a raised eyebrow. She said nothing but there was enough doubt in her expression that it quickened the pace of Sonic's heart.

He spun to Amy. "The Hyper Tornado. It's on the runway. Tails said we could use that."

But he didn't wait on any reassurance in Amy's expression; he didn't expect to find any. Instead, he bolted from the docking bay as fast as his legs could carry him and headed for the runway. He tried to keep his eyes guided forward, tried to ignore the damage ruining the walls of the hallways already. Tried to ignore the ruin they were already in while the Metarex flew toward them in fresh ships.

How was this possible? Sonic wouldn't pretend for a second that he understood anything about time travel but this didn't make sense. How could they return to a past they had lived through before and find it so different? How could the Metarex have the power to change time itself?

Sonic sprinted out onto the runway of the Blue Typhoon—

Or what was left of it.

He skidded to a stop at the sight of the crumpled remains of the Sonic Driver. No, no, not this too.

He managed to drag his eyes away from the damage long enough to scan the scene. After a moment of heart-clenching dread, he caught sight of the Hyper Tornado. In the midst of its crash landing that Sonic dimly remembered, it had skidded far down the runway, far enough that the opening of the runway for the Sonic Driver hadn't sent it plummeting to its destruction. But it also didn't mean it had been spared of damage. There was the attack that had sent it skidding down the runway in the first place. And then there were the remains of their cannon.

With a hole in the pit of his stomach, Sonic dashed forward toward the craft. He shoved the debris from the plane to reveal the wing beneath. And the pit in Sonic's stomach dropped only lower. Cracks fractured the surface of the wing. While it hadn't snapped away from the rest of the plane completely, Sonic knew enough to recognize that the plane wasn't safe to fly. Probably couldn't leave the artificial gravity in its current state.

Sonic turned away from the damaged craft to face the Metarex armada slowly heading their way. Still distance separated them, but the Metarex were close enough now to be seen with the naked eye. Which meant they could only be minutes away at most from the Metarex opening fire.

One fight-ready craft.

No Chaos Emeralds.

No Master Emerald.

No power.

Versus a Metarex army that appeared to control time itself.

Sonic struggled to breathe out as much as a single breath through the straw that his throat had become. He had nothing left to hold on to. This wasn't even a situation where he could sacrifice himself to save his friends.

And that was when he realized the pit in the bottom of his stomach wasn't a pit at all. It was a tug.

He really could feel the pull of the fake Chaos Emeralds.

All the way from the Metarex armada, Sonic could feel their twisted power pulling at the Chaos Energy within him. Sonic recalled what Tails had said just before time travel redefined their present: "The real Chaos Emeralds allowed us to jump dimensions, so the fake ones could definitely cause time travel. It means we gave the Metarex exactly what they wanted. We gave them a way to win the war."

Sonic gritted his teeth. "It's the only option we've got left," he muttered to himself.

"Sonic?"

Sonic's shoulders rose—though he stopped himself short of jumping—at the sound of Amy's voice behind him. He slowly twisted to face her. "I have a bad plan," he said.

Amy shrugged. "Better than no plan at all."

"Not sure I'd say that."