Disclaimer: See last chapter.

Necromancy

"Get her out!" Whisper roared, going through the file system almost as fast as Cyan could. The wisps behind her floated in confusion, until they read the names on the holoscreens.

"Get her out, it's Tangle!" "Tangle, tangle!" "This is gonna be a big moment, I just know it!" "I hope she's okay..."

Lavender seemed mostly confused, but Whisper's mind wasn't trying to explain it. Tangle was right there she wasn't about to let something like a stupid computer get her way and even if she had to blast the entire prison apart she'd open those bars if it was the last thing she did-

"Whisper?" a hoarse voice said from the side. "I...the voices are getting to me again, Tails." it sounded tired, as if battling against herself for years and years.

"Don't let them bother you," a gruff much darker and deeper voice answered from the other side, the one labeled Miles Prower. "They only want to win. You can't let them."

"Tangle! No, it's really me this time!" Whisper answered. She put her gloves on the bars, only to rebuffed back a moment later. The bars pulsed angrily, turning a deep blood red for only a second before they turned back to the blue they had been.

"Whisper?" Tails' much older voice called out. It was still noticeably his, however deep and older it seemed. "I...you were gone."

"I'm so sorry!" Tangle's voice lashed out instantly. "It's my fault, it's all my fault, I don't even know what I did wrong-" Tangle started to say.

"It's okay. I'm breaking you all out," Whisper interrupted. "Everyone here."

"Everyone?" Tails asked. "Who's 'everyone'?"

"Found the switch!" Cyan called out from the terminal. Whisper had barely a moment to tell her to flip it when the bars glowed for a moment before they turned off, leaving the entire place a deadly silent.

"Now where's the lights?" Whisper asked, staring into Tangle's cell. The night vision still wasn't working on her mask. Had one of the batteries been busted? That was a possibility. She started to walk into the cell anyways, desperate to see her after so long. It felt like forever ago.

The lights turned on slowly, and Whisper heard the party far at the beginning start to really converse with each other, but all she had eyes for was Tangle.

She had gotten taller, of course. The gray hairs that she'd had on her body and tail were a bit darker, more black than anything. The black bits were lighter, almost as if she'd reversed coloring. The white parts had stayed the same. Her face was longer, less of the natural smile. Large bags sat around her yellowed eyes, as if she hadn't gotten much sleep.

Her tail was broken in many places, as if she'd slammed it against a wall again and again. It was curled up around her right now. Her shoes were off, and she had barely much of a blanket covering her. "Tangle...?" Whisper asked quietly as she walked in.

"WHISPER!" Tangle shouted instantly as she proved that however many years were in the cell had not gotten rid of the ability for her girlfriend to jump her at the slightest call. The blanket moved, showing the dark red vest that held hundreds of pockets.

"Your first reaction is to jump on her?" Tails' amused voice called out from behind them. Tangle had launched Whisper over to the other cell, showing that Tails had not been idle.

For one, his cell had been torn apart by some kind of tornado. Every possible thing that could possibly be used to create a machine had been dismantled, put together, and probably dismantled again. The result was a small machine that sat casually on the side, a small green light on it.

Tails himself was much, much taller than Whisper remembered him being. He had to be nearly a head taller than Sonic was. His face was gaunt and rugged, as if his fur had been thin for so long, but Whisper could see the underlying...childishness that lay beneath it.

Tangle too, now that Whisper was essentially tangled beneath her, was also far too light and thin. Her fur which had once been so smooth and neat was tangled up, with hundreds of split ends. She had not been taking care of herself.

But not in the same way that Jewel had. Jewel had been in a false depressive state, and that led to her not being able to take care of herself. It seemed as if Tangle and Tails had just been in the prison for so long that they had ceased to care.

"Well yeah! I told you that was the first thing I'd do!"

"I thought the first thing you'd do is apologize, and then jump her," Tails joked back. "Which you did," he finished. His voice was a lot deeper than she remembered it being.

"Right," Tangle said, forcing herself up abruptly. "But...you don't look...I know you said..." Tangle started, glancing at Tails and then looking back down to Whisper.

"I told you it was a Clockwatcher. It would send her to some pre-determined time," Tails answered. "And that time looked like it was not that long ago."

"A few months. And twenty three years after it was activated," Whisper said. Her eyes were still taking in Tangle's form.

"Oh...right. I..."

"You don't need to say sorry," Whisper answered, wrapping her arms around her.

"As charming as this is, we should get going. No word on how long it would be before the Enforcers get here. Jammer won't last forever," Tails reminded. He pulled Tangle up easily...Whisper wasn't sure when he'd gotten actual muscles on his arms and while he was nothing like Knuckles he certainly wasn't the child she remembered, before he picked up the single device on the bed.

"Ah, right! Whisper, we need to go! If you get caught too, then the whole timeline's in trouble!" Tangle said, hopping around and grabbing Whisper hard with her tail.

"Oh no, a timeline trouble..." Orange muttered off to the side. "Certainly nothing we've never dealt with before..." she deadpanned.

"Oh, hi wisps. Sorry, I don't have a translator on me," Tails said carefully, a pale imitation of his child self.

"That's fine, it was mostly meant for Whisper I think," Blue answered in Orange's stead.

"WHAT!?" Whisper heard Sonic's voice call out from the far side of the corridor. Tails took a deep breath, before he turned to Whisper.

"How many people did you bring with you?" he asked quietly. Whisper was already on the way back, and she wasn't surprised by the way both Tails and Tangle were keeping up with her. How they were still so capable after being locked up for years upon years, she didn't know.

"It was just supposed to be Shadow. Then..." Whisper started. This was going to be bad. "Then Violet joined us in Green Hill-"

Tails didn't even blink. "Violet? You don't mean my-" he started, before Tangle started to laugh.

"Ha! I knew it, you totally owe me! I told you that one of your kids was going to try to rescue you, I know I told you!" Tangle was laughing.

There was more shouting down the way, and Tails stopped abruptly as the small yellow cat with two tails was being shouted down by Sonic and the others.

"Neko?" Tails asked quietly, before he darted in so fast that Whisper was certain he'd have broken the sound barrier.

Tangle glanced towards Whisper, still running towards the group. "You didn't tell us you brought her with you," Tangle said quietly. "She was supposed to stay far, far away from this. With Blaze."

"I hadn't gotten to that point," Whisper answered. Tangle nodded.

"Fair 'nough. We didn't give you much time," Tangle said. She seemed...a lot more chilled than before. Colder. Not nearly as active as she'd been before. There were still remnants of that excitability, especially in the beginning, but now the wear of ages had started to show itself again. The lines in her face were shallow and gave her a much more haunted look.

The group was silent as Tails hugged Mata close, and it took him only a second for him to see Violet next to Shadow, and for him to draw her in close too. Words were quieter, and Whisper couldn't hear what was being said before she got there.

"-what happened, but you're here now and that's all that matters," Tails was saying as he held both of his kids close.

Eggman was nowhere to be seen, but there was a slight cold to the air that said he was probably still around. The fact that he was still here...it rankled on her.

Especially if Mata couldn't voluntarily dispel. That also meant the more she did it, the more spirits would be hanging around whenever. Was each one successive for how much life was drained?

"Whisper," Shadow said from the far side. "What all happened?" he asked instantly. Tails kept up his hug, slowly moving them out of whatever circle had been from whatever had been going on.

He looked the same as he always had, so at least they weren't in there for all that long. "It's a bit of a story, and I don't know if we have time," Whisper answered quietly.

"We've been hearing the howling and roaring from in here. Something's been trying to break in," Amy said. "That's not the Time Eater, is it?"

"I think so. The one I met was mechanically augmented. Although we could just ask-" Sonic said, before he started to snarl and look into the cell that Mata had been in.

"The difference between my Time Eater and a natural one is that mine actually listened to instructions," Eggman spat out, finally stepping out into the light. Whisper's head started to pound the more she looked at him, as if something was there that shouldn't be. "Interesting. You can still see me, can't you?" he asked, gently roving one hand down his mustache.

"We can all see you," Shadow said. "What I want to know, among other things, is how do we get out of here?"

"We can get out the same way we got in!" Cyan chirped up. Only Shadow and Violet's ears perked up, having been so long used to the wisps that they still had their translators. Sonic blinked before his hands reached to his own earpiece. Whisper supposed he must have turned it off at some point, although why that was, she would have no idea why.

"The Time Eater is right out there though. Why can't it come in?" Orange asked. "I didn't feel some kind of barrier on the way in..."

"There's a barrier between the prison and the rest of the place," Tangle answered. Whisper couldn't help but notice that she was the same height as she'd been way back when, if not a few inches taller at most.

"As long as the barrier isn't taken down, we're safe from it. Not from the Enforcers. That's what this is for," Tails said, motioning to the jammer at his belt. The light flickered again, causing Tails to frown as he hit it lightly.

"The Enforcers have other problems," Whisper murmured, trying to hide the smirk from coming on her face.

"Really? What happened? When we came here the Enforcers were everywhere on us in seconds!" Tangle said, her eyes lighting up. Whisper ignored the ways the wisps gave knowing glances to each other.

"They had bigger problems. Time Eater based problems, combined with wisp-induced problems," Whisper answered. Tangle only tilted her head, before she glanced over at the wisps.

"Can they do that...?"

"None of us had ever seen an angry wisp before. They reshaped Green Hill entirely," Shadow answered.

"There was a reason I used them for their hyper go-on energy," Eggman reasoned, his voice grating into Whisper's mind.

"Seriously!? That's impressive. That's super impressive. I might even say-" Tangle started, before Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles just shouted at her 'No!'.

Whisper didn't quite get it, but that was fine. She was alright now. She had Tangle back. It might not be her Tangle, but she had her. And that was enough for the stress ball that had been building in her gut for months at this point to slowly fade away.

Things were looking up. She had Tangle. Violet and Mata had their dad back, both of them, and-

Surge came roaring out of the cell, her eyes a piercing green as she ran at Sonic. "Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!" She was shouting, her arms coated in electricity. She was smirking psychotically, as if she knew that no one could stop her. There was a part of her that told Whisper that she wasn't quite all there.

Whisper had only half a second to move. Her eyes lay hidden on Metal Sonic, his red eyes barely acknowledging the attacker of Surge as his own jet was forming, heading towards Amy.

She had no time to call out for the wisps to help. Surge was quick as lightning, and even if she had the wisps were still naturally afraid of the tenrec. Cyan was already heading for her canister, where she'd be 'safe ish'.

No time. No way to get in the middle. Where was Kit? He could stop her, but he was...Whisper hoped that he wasn't trying to attack Tails or Knuckles.

Only one thing for it, really. She slammed the wispon into Surge's face just as she passed by, sending her flying away. "Amy!" Whisper shouted as a warning.

Metal Sonic flew right past Amy, past Sonic, and even past Whisper as he stopped himself right between Surge and the others. He said nothing, even to Whisper's mask, instead staring down the green tenrec.

"Oh? Now this is interesting. Tell me, Metal. I wasn't expecting to see you still active. What is your prime directive?" Eggman asked. Whisper concentrated on avoiding the headache.

"To ensure that your status as the most powerful genius in the world is not taken away. Surge is a creation of Starline," Metal Sonic's voice called out. Unlike the type used in her mask, it was extremely robotic, without any tone or rush. The tone in her mask was that of a child who understood where they stood in the world.

"And thus, logically, you leap to his defense," Eggman said. He started to laugh, that same laugh that haunted Whisper's nightmares, and she could tell from the visages on everyone else's face that he haunted theirs too.

"Shut up! You were supposed to be on my side! You want to get in my way!?" Surge snarled. "You don't know what I've lost because of them!"

"We know plenty enough," Sonic said, standing up. The image was lost a bit as he stumbled onto one side, where Amy held him up. "Thanks Ames," he muttered.

The pink hedgehog nodded, her eyes narrowed onto the tenrec. "Haven't you done enough already?" she asked.

Violet was wrapping up telling her dad all the things that she'd been through just on this trip alone. "Sounds like quite an adventure alright..." Tails was saying. "But uh...if you don't mind me asking, where's your mom?" he asked.

"She went into the Emerald Chamber," Violet answered quietly. "She dropped us off with Sonic and Amy, just in case, but she was only expecting to be gone a short time-"

"That must have been after Timeroot came back," Tails responded. "That would set up the soul lock. And without the keys to override, it must have locked her in there."

"Don't...she's not gone..." Mata was saying, burying her head into her dad's shirt.

"Oh, I know. She's in the Sol Dimension," Tails answered. "It just locks it from us so that way Eggman or Timeroot or someone like them can't try to get the Sol Emeralds. If they did that it's quite likely the world would be ashes right now."

"And yet I've only caused minor devastation since I've come back. If I'm hearing right, you managed to ruin both of your daughter's lives," Eggman snarked from the side. Tails ignored him, as Whisper assumed he'd be right to do.

"Where are the keys?" Violet asked, and Tails' eyes turned away. "You...did make extras right?"

"No, we were prepared, but...she must have forgotten. Somehow...I told her...argh. It requires two keys. One from me, one from you, or...one from Mata."

"What?"

"I told her...just have two of the three of us stand in front of the door at the same time. It unlocks the override code panel-"

"Huh. I didn't even know that panel was there!" Cyan chirped from the other side of Whisper.

Metal Sonic and Surge were still glaring at each other, and Kit was nowhere to be seen. Eggman was not making any overt dangerous moves, but Whisper knew that his body wasn't the dangerous part of the man. It was his mind.

"You mean...we could've unlocked the door ourselves?"

"You know the override code, I know you do," Tails said with a gentle smile. "But...yeah. If you'd both been in front of the door...Sonic!" Tails said, turning around. "You didn't take them back home at all!?"

"I just had two kids dumped on me and had a bum leg, how was I going to get an infant and a child to your lab!?" Sonic answered, his own mouth marred by a sarcastic frown. "And no, you never told us about your backup plans."

"I didn't think I needed to!" Tails answered back. "I assumed you'd actually take them back to get their stuff at some point!"

"Tails, Sonic, knock it off!" Amy roared between the two. "Yes, we messed up," she said, turning to Tails, "but you couldn't have told anyone!? Just a quick note of 'hey, there's a plan here!' And yes, Sonic, I know we had two kids of our own, but that didn't mean we couldn't have taken them back."

"I didn't want to see them hurt..." Sonic looked to the side. Violet looked as if she was about to cry, being torn between both sides. Whisper didn't envy this position on either side. Sonic had a right, but more importantly so did Tails.

"Family drama huh?" Tangle asked behind her. "What's with the uh...you got more wisps don't you? I thought you only had the five."

"Yes," Whisper said, watching the unfolding as it continued. "Yellow and Lavender are from this time. You haven't met Yellow yet."

"No. Um...can we talk?"

"Is this regarding the fact that Surge still looks like she wants to kill us, or that Kit isn't here, or the fact that Mata is or that Knuckles has yet to say a word?" Whisper asked quietly.

"Kinda?" Tangle answered. "The trap thing made us see versions of ourselves that we want to hide. Things that make us who we are, and it finds those weak points and just needles in on us."

"Doesn't explain Kit's disappearance."

"It just means he isn't emotionally strong enough to get past it. Neither is Surge, obviously. Tails and I...we had a lot of time talking. A lot of time talking."

A jealous part of Whisper's mind that she honestly wished didn't exist flared to life, and she just as quickly stomped it down.

"And we figured out how the trap worked. So we kept ourselves sane like that, because otherwise we were just...gonna be kept here. For years. Until we died."

They were what? "That's..." Whisper started to say, but she was unsure of how to continue. How was one to respond to that? To the knowledge that someone had that they were going to die in prison, with no one around to save or help them, no one they barely knew, in complete darkness most of the time.

"So we came up with ways to try to trick it. Knuckles probably beat it by simply ignoring it, which we figured out you could do. It took me a lot longer than it did Tails," Tangle said, holding onto her tail gently. Even twenty three years later, she still had that nervous tic.

It was one more reason that Whisper was glad that she was here.

"Sonic and Amy...they're different from the ones from way back when. They're more jaded than they were when I left too," Tangle murmured. "It's been so long...the trap begins to take alternate forms if it can't break you. I think I saw you the most...Sonic and Amy the second most...I only met Violet the once so she never showed up..."

"How long...how were you caught?"

"I don't even know!" Tangle suddenly seemed to cheer up. "It's been so long that I don't even remember! I mean, I know the basics. Tails remembered most of it. But we were trying to get to Timeroot because they had some time tech, and I wanted it to try to travel back when you were there, and to stop myself from handing you the Clockwatcher..."

Something so basic essentially sundered the world.

"I waited, you know? I waited for so long. Seemingly forever," Tangle said with a sad smile.

"Knock it off, everyone!" Knuckles suddenly shouted. "Sonic, in that corner, Eggman, in that one. And unlike everyone here, I can hurt spirits, so I suggest you listen!" he said, his eyes glowing purple.

"Can you?" Eggman said, his eyes getting that maniacal glean. Mata winced off to the side. There was a slight smirk to it too, as if she knew something that she was deliberately keeping from Eggman. Knuckles remained unimpressed as he walked casually up to the spirit of their most hated enemy.

And backhanded him back into a cell. Barely had to flex an arm. Mata winced again, but Whisper could tell there was a bit of enjoyment in her eyes.

"Ow," Eggman's voice said from the dark cell. "That...I was not expecting that."

"I can't kill you, again. But I can sure make your life miserable," Knuckles said, nodding to himself. He turned to Surge and Metal Sonic, "Surge, you need to cut it out. I don't know what you saw, and to be honest, I don't care."

Surge snarled a bit, before Metal Sonic appeared before her and quickly shoved her another ten feet back. In another instant he was back at his starting position, as if he never moved.

Right. That's how fast Sonic had been. Whisper had almost forgotten. The Sonic of this time couldn't even dream of doing that.

"Back to the land of the waking?" Shadow snarked from the corner. "You took your time."

"Guardian things," Knuckles said with a tone that assured no questioning. "Amy, Velocity and Thunder are safe. Tikal and Chaos are watching over them. They're currently playing in the chao garden," he said. Amy's spines and shoulders drooped as the relief hit her.

"And one more thing," he said, turning to Whisper directly. "I wasn't sure how to bring this up."

"Uncle Knuckles, there has to be an easier way!" Mata started to shout from her place at Tails' side. "She already has the others!"

Whisper blinked, turning to Tangle, who also just shrugged. Cyan and Blue up top gave questioning glances to each other. Orange, Green, and Pink headed for the hole, keeping an eye on the Time Eater, probably.

"This isn't easy for me either. I know it wasn't for you," Knuckles answered. "But she has to have all of them."

"The others are already there! She doesn't need to ruminate!"

"Oh please, let her ruminate away..." Eggman's voice called out. Knuckles lifted one fist to him, his purple eyes narrowed, and Eggman gave a sly grin, his teeth and glasses the only thing capable of being seen through the cell's darkness.

"What?" Whisper asked after a moment. "Whatever it is, I can handle it."

"It's not a question of if," Knuckles said. "It's a question of whether you should. You can handle it, certainly."

"Undo..." Mata whispered under her breath. Whisper's eyes widened. There was more to it!? All will undo. Will undo all. There were only so many variations.

Another part of her mind, a backwards part she didn't want to think she had, leapt to the chance to learn it. To have more. There was something addictive about knowing these words.

Eggman started laughing. "I have no idea what's going on," Tails said after a moment. "Neko?" he asked, looking down at his youngest daughter.

The yellow cat was staring straight ahead, her eyes narrowed and forced.

"I have no idea either," Violet said. "I've been with her since Green Hill, but I've never heard anything about this."

"She never spoke about it," Shadow said. "That's the only answer I can come up with."

"Mata?" Amy asked. "Can you explain?"

"No, she can't," Eggman's voice called out again. Knuckles threw another punch his way, and he quieted down.

"You be quiet," Knuckles sneered. "But no, she can't. It's another of the rules, the rules that she told no one."

"Those ones?" Violet asked, her head tilted. "I helped figure most of them out!" Tails turned to her, his gaze questioning. "Yeah! There's a lot of rules on what Mata can and can't do. She can't pull someone's spirit who's still here, the souls she takes can only act until they choose to be dismissed-"

"Wait, that's a rule?" Sonic asked. "I thought she could just dismiss them whenever."

"I'm more surprised that she told someone," Eggman's voice called. "I was honestly betting that was a thing that she hadn't told."

"Of course I'd tell Vio!"

"She can't tell anyone more about the River," Violet said, casually checking off another one on her fingers. "She can't tell anyone summoned about anyone alive, except in person. The laws of Chaos don't affect spirits-"

"But that's impossible! Chaos and spirit are basically the same thing!" Tails asked, his eyes wide.

"Two sides of the same thing," Orange said from above. "Chaos is emotion, and spirits are pure emotion and intelligence. No logic."

Whisper repeated it. Violet nodded. Tails glanced at her with a soft smile on his face. "Huh. I didn't think of that..." he said gently.

Whisper didn't think that Violet's grin could get any bigger than it was right now. Her face quickly schooled itself, "Oh, and one more rule. Mata...?" Violet said, looking her sister in the eye.

Mata met her stare. "We're talking about this afterwards, you know that. There's a time and place for pranks, and this wasn't it," Violet said. Mata turned to stare at the ground. "The final rule is that the rules don't exist. Except that first one."

Eggman and everyone except Knuckles had just enough time to gain the same questioning looks before Mata shut her eyes in focus. Eggman's eyes widened. "No, that's impossible! Impossible! She doesn't know-"

The world became a bit lighter. And the infernal headache that had been bugging Whisper since she had seen him started to leave. Mata was laughing quietly even as Violet stared hard at her sister. The only other one to seemingly know what was going on was Knuckles. "I," he pronounced straight into her the moment the headache left.

The first thing it did was relight that same headache.

I bet everyone was expecting I'd go into some long arc about getting rid of Eggman. Trust me, I wanted to, but I also felt that this would just make too much sense. Everyone in here has beaten Eggman before, except Violet and Mata. And now they can say they did too!

Until Next Time!