Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Confusion

Fourteen years ago? That was long before Mata was even born. That was long before she was even conceived! So how did Metal Sonic and Sage know who she was, or rather who she was going to be?

"That's not possible. Two tailed cats can't be that rare," Violet said instantly. Whisper agreed but at the same time knew that it was wrong. Just as there had only been one two tailed fox that she'd ever known, except in myths and legends where they had up to nine, there was only one two tailed cat that she knew of.

Kit shrugged. "No idea. This is the first I've heard about it though. Surge and I keep track of Metal Sonic's movements though, and he's in one of the nearby villages. We can just head out in the morning and ask him directly."

"Metal Sonic can't talk," Shadow pointed out. Whisper wanted to point out that not only could the robot not talk, but he was one of Eggman's robots. Were they seriously considering that part?

"Not easily, but Surge and he came to...an understanding at one point. Basically he sends email, and I have a connection here that can be read almost anywhere. As long as we go together we can communicate with him just fine."

"Also there's, you know, us," Cyan whispered from right next to Whisper. When the wisp had come out from her canister, Whisper didn't know. She was also hiding from Kit, it looked like. Lavender though was still having a ball being held by Violet, and their shared fur color was kind of off-putting to Whisper a bit. It made it hard to see the nega-wisp.

Should she volunteer that information? Should she not? In the end she kept it in her corner, not speaking up. She would trust that Cyan understood, and by the way the wisp didn't immediately speak up and say the exact same thing but louder showed she probably agreed with the wolf.

"I do need some time to fix the Tornado..." Violet said, "But at the same time I want to see this 'Metal Sonic' that Mr. Sonic was always going on about. I want to come with!"

Kit nodded. "Okay," he said, looking over another screen. This one had a few maps up, and Whisper could vaguely tell that it was a map of the surrounding area. It looked like a more advanced version of the maps that Jewel had given them, and probably far more accurate. It also had four dots on it. One red and large, a small blue one, and a medium green dot that was split in two. "Shoot, it's getting two readings from him. Satellites don't want to work again."

Violet's attention was finally taken from the fake prosthetic leg and was moved to the computer. "Are those trackers? Why would you need that?" she asked.

Kit looked at her. "For precisely this reason? Red is Surge, I'm blue, and green is Metal Sonic. But we're so far removed from most places that we don't get accurate readings sometimes. Like this, incidentally."

"So we split in two parties! There's five of us, it can't be that hard."

"Violet I don't think that having you alone with Kit or Surge is a good idea," Shadow spoke up instantly. Violet looked to Kit, as if the fennec would be offended by it. Whisper knew better; that was, if anything, a compliment to the duo.

"Then have me and you with one of them, and Whisper can take the other!"

Whisper's mind was inundated with the amount of ways that the duo could end up next to her, and the thought that all the wisps agreed with her presumed that it was probably a bad idea. But she'd had those before. Besides, she had will.

"That's probably a bad idea," Whisper commented idly. "Surge and I..."

Kit whistled. "Yeah, that's a bad idea. I don't want to know who'd win. But I know I'd lose," Kit answered. "Alright, Shadow and myself then? Violet and Whisper with Surge?"

"You four are still up?" Surge's voice called out as she walked back in, her hair flowing around her head rather than the usual style she had it in. "I realize geek's gotta geek, but that seems a bit much."

"Remember Metal Sonic's message about the two tailed cat?"

"No. I threw it out because it was nonsense," Surge answered instantly, her arms behind her head. "Cats have one tail. That's final."

"Apparently her sister is a two tailed cat," Kit said, pointing to Violet. The vixen gave a small wave, complete with teasing smirk.

"Wait, hold up. You mean you have a sister!?" Surge asked, taken aback. "You mean foxboy not only got laid once, but twice!?"

Why was Surge so focused on that? Whisper didn't want to think about that. At all.

"Is that such a shock to you!? Sonic and Amy have two kids too!"

"Of course those two would, Pinky was basically a hanger-on for years. She'd do anything to jump into his pants. But the cat? I only met her the once, and I don't care to again," Surge said, rubbing one of her elbows gently. Whisper smirked; if she had met Blaze, it'd explain the small burn marks in her fur.

"Yes, I have a sister. But she's younger than when Metal Sonic sent that message, so Kit tracked him to one of the nearby towns."

"And so you just want to go ask him those things and see if that's the one he meant, right? I know you goody goods do things. And let me guess, Kit's tracker stuff is failing to do its job and now says he's in five different places at once."

"Two, actually," Kit supplied.

"...Better than I'm giving you credit for," Surge answered instantly. "Let me guess, you want to go with the fox, pick at her brain and see what makes her tick?"

"I'm going with Kit. You're with Whisper and Violet," Shadow retorted. Surge started at him, before she stared at Whisper, meeting the wolf's gaze head on.

"That's not a good idea..." she started.

Whisper and in her mind every wisp in the world echoed at once, "We know."

"Well, fine! I can go with foxboy's kid and the punk. But uh...which towns we going to?"

Kit looked over the maps again. "He usually stays in one place for a while, so I'm thinking Snowdrift or Mt. Mary's."

"I call Snowdrift," Surge said instantly. "I can't stand Mt. Mary's, it's like a school of circus animals all dancing for their monkeys." She met Shadow and Violet's gaze. "That can't be new to you two, I've been saying stuff like that all night."

"We'll head out in the morning after breakfast. I don't think there's that much of a hurry."

"Except for the Time Eater thing," Violet brought up. Surge and Kit shared a glance, before they turned unanimously to Shadow. "Aw come on!" the vixen protested.

"Whisper's being followed by a Time Eater, a natural djinn that eats time travelers and the energy around them," Shadow said.

Surge blinked at him, before she turned to Whisper. "How do you get in these messes? Seriously, I thought Max Overload was bad. Was that lemur involved in all this? What was her name, bad hair day?"

"Tangle," Whisper growled out.

"Yeah, that was it. Tangle. This seems like something that was her fault and you're reaping the benefits for it," Surge smirked. Whisper stared, before she headed back to the couch, and very cautiously put down the wispon and the wisp canisters, making sure that they could freely get out if they so chose. She wasn't going to answer the tenrec. At all.

"Just ignoring me, huh? Yeah, silence is an answer too. Good to know I'm right on the money," Surge crowed. "So when we leaving?"

"In the morning," Kit answered. "Metal Sonic likes to stay around the villages for a few days before he moves on, unless something needs his attention elsewhere."

Whisper closed her eyes, trying to drown out the four of the other voices. She'd wake up early. Her ears tilted back, and slightly folded onto themselves in a way to ensure she couldn't hear things any better.

She wasn't sure what time she woke up again. There was a fading sound of dying dream, a lost voice on the wind calling her name. It was repeating the two words she knew. Will. Undo. Was it a sentence? As soon as she thought it, the words and thoughts fluttered out of her mind, forcibly made out of reach.

No one else was up yet, it looked like. She was on the couch, Violet was curled up on the chair with a few blankets covering her. Shadow was resting his eyes, leaning against Kit's computer system. Surge and Kit were nowhere to be found. Her back wasn't in as much pain but it was still there, still present.

She knocked on the wisp canisters. "Status update?" Orange asked as she hovered nearby. Lavender was still sleeping on top of Violet's fur, just underneath the blankets, but it was obvious she was listening in as she flew out of them. Green caught the blankets that flew off and gently put them back on the fox.

"Yes. We're looking after Metal Sonic. I just want to hurry to Fern Valley, but I'm not leaving my back open to those two," Whisper said. The wisps nodded. They had no qualms with that, considering what they knew of what Surge had done last time.

Max Overload, she'd called it. When she'd forcibly drained Cyan of all of her power, almost killing her. The other wisps, too, had been caught and drained during that time, using a special cage designed by Eggman. Sonic and Tails managed to beat her, or at least knock the device off of Surge long enough for Cyan to imbue Sonic, allowing him to drive her off for a good while.

They had meaningfully recovered from the event, but it was still scarring to all of them. It was another reason that Whisper made sure that her friends stayed safe. And if that meant she had to wait longer to see Tangle...well, she would wait.

She was a sniper, after all.

"Why do they want to check Metal Sonic? Isn't he a bad guy?" Pink asked as he checked out the various parts of the room. "Also they've improved a lot. Surge only talks bad, she's not actively trying to hurt us this time."

"You should have heard her talking about how she hurt that Sonic person. She was absolutely loving it. And the pain and fear on Violet...no, Surge is not a good person," Lavender brought up. Whisper nodded.

"Fourteen years ago, Metal Sonic and Sage let Surge and Kit know to be on the lookout for a two tailed cat."

"Mata's only ten, isn't she?" Cyan asked. "Well, ten and a half. Or Violet's two and a half years older. One of those two."

"Violet's two and a half years older. And yes, Mata's only ten."

"So then how did Metal Sonic and Sage know of her existence before? Something about this doesn't seem right," Blue asked. "I think...are we in a -" Blue said...something. Whisper wasn't sure, but it was full of confusion, and righteous anger, mixed in with a little frustration. She had to find a way to translate what they said in their native tongue, or find a way to get used to it. Having her emotions toyed with was something she wasn't a fan of.

"That could be. But a-" Orange started, using the same word, " is a lot...less than this. We're talking about an entire world here, Blue. Not one portion, not one region. The world. And we know it affected Planet Wisp too. I don't think anything has that power, let alone the ancient Babylonians. Wasn't that who the clock thing came from?" she asked.

Whisper nodded. "I've been meaning to ask Shadow if they've been able to translate the meaning of it yet." They had the translation, but actually making it make sense? That was another question entirely.

"We haven't," the black hedgehog stated simply. Whisper wasn't surprised he was awake, although the wisps were being quiet. Pink went over to him and gently patted him on the head, which he knocked Pink's hands...arms...things...away from his head. "I've been awake."

"The ultimate life form does not need sleep," Green said, his 'voice' changing as much as the wisp could to imitate Shadow's deep growl. The black hedgehog was not amused, although Whisper had to hide the smirk. Green was good.

"Okay. So it's probably not that. But I do think something fishy is going on. But I also want to bring up the Time Eater," Cyan said. "When we fought it this last time, we couldn't hurt it...at all."

"It needed to turn physical. Once it did, we took it out," Whisper explained.

"See, that's what I don't get. When we hurt it the first time, back at Green Hill, we hurt it when it wasn't physical. Unless it managed to find a way to make sure that we couldn't hurt it or drive it off unless it got closer," Blue said. "But, that just makes new holes."

"Like what?"

"Like why change to physical form at all? Why go after the Tornado, especially if you were already hovering down? The Tornado couldn't hurt it. I doubt Violet knows how to use the weapon systems-" Blue supplied.

"She does," Shadow said. "She's actually quite good at it. Not quite as smart as Tails, but she's getting there."

"That's another thing I don't get. Violet isn't just a discount Tails. So why is everyone comparing her to him? She's her own person. Let her live out of his shadow for a bit," Blue said.

"Because most of them don't know of her. Sonic and Amy did, obviously. But everyone else...they only know of Tails. So naturally they'd compare everything she did to him," Orange countered. Blue shot him a look, before he nodded.

Kit walked out of the other room, and immediately all six of the wisps got quiet, hovering in place as the fennec fox yawned and almost robotically headed towards the kitchen. Their eyes watched him go, and they didn't start moving again until after he'd already left.

Whisper could smell the coffee starting. How old was he? And actually, why was Kit going with Shadow? Shouldn't Surge go with Shadow? "Shadow, shouldn't you-"

"I'm not going with Surge," Shadow vetoed instantly. "I was wondering if you were going to bring that up. I refuse."

Honestly, that was probably a good idea. But Whisper also had...issues with the girl. Woman, now. But it was weird to think that Surge was as old as Sonic was, maybe a year or two different, and yet looked no older than she had as a teenager.

Surge walked out too a moment later, the tenrec wearing a loose tank top and some underwear that showed off the scars on the woman's legs. Her eyes were shut, and she was moving oddly, as if she wasn't awake yet. "Kit...coffee...please..." she murmured as she headed to the kitchen.

"It's coming, Surge. I started it only a few minutes ago."

"Coff...ee..." Surge droned on. The wisps froze as she came back out, sitting on the same chair that Violet was sleeping on, earning a small howl from the vixen. The tenrec jumped at least ten feet in the air and let out some of the worst curses that Whisper had ever heard. The wisps took that moment, exception Lavender, to head back into their canisters.

"At least let me wake up, you don't need to sit on me!" Violet was shouting, the blankets falling off the girl.

"Sorry, sheesh, I was partially asleep!" Surge shouted back, her eyes wide and her hands wide. "Kit! We have guests!"

"Surge," Kit said calmly as he handed her a small mug. Whisper could smell the caffeine from where she was, nearly twenty feet away. That was some strong coffee. The tenrec blinked, before she took a sip.

There was an electrical feeling in the air. She blinked at Violet again, as if seeing her for the first time. "Oh yeah, the guests! Foxboy's kid, Shadow the Edgehog, and the one who'd kill me if she had the chance!" Surge smirked towards Whisper.

Well, she wasn't lying, Whisper had to admit.

Kit walked out with another few cups of 'coffee'. Whisper had to put it in quotes in her head, because normal coffee did not smell like straight caffeine. He was sipping one in his other hand, the water tendrils holding the other's. "Yeah, Surge acts weird if she hasn't had her coffee. Anyone else want some? I made a full pot," Kit explained.

"You made more, just for me!? Knew I kept you around for a reason!" Surge said, bolting to the kitchen.

"Is that where her electric powers come from? Coffee addiction?" Shadow snarked. "Violet, are you alright?"

"Yeah, just surprised. Wasn't expecting to be sat down on by a rogue...whatever she is."

"A tenrec," Kit explained. "Just like how you're a red fox and I'm a fennec."

"Technically I'm violet colored...same color as Mom was," Violet protested. "Although what color is a fennec?"

"Generally, yellow, brown, or white. See, humans long ago found a bunch of the Islanders had similar genetics to the non-sapient animals. That's where the species designation comes from."

"Oh. That's weird."

"Yeah, I've never agreed with it, but Starline did so that's why we use it," Kit shrugged. "Surge, Shadow and I are heading out to Mt. Mary's!" he called out.

"I can't use Chaos Control to get there. I've never been there."

"Well, you will now," Kit said, picking up the black hedgehog in a small platform of water, and using the water tendrils to literally climb up the ladder, even though it was obvious he didn't need to.

Surge walked back out of the kitchen, her eyes looked far more awake than she had going in. "Right. Give me three. No. Five minutes," Surge said, bolting, literally, into the bedroom.

"This is going to be a normal thing, isn't it? Maybe we can ask her how to get to Fern Valley," Lavender brought up. Whisper nodded, although she hadn't planned on asking that. Not of Surge of all people. Kit...she was on the fence about. Surge though...

"That's a good idea. I mean, we are on the Snow Cap Mountains, right?" Violet brought up. "I do need to go to the Tornado for just a second. I want to change into something clean," she said, pointing to the small shirt and pants she was currently wearing. "I bet she knows how to get to that lost desert area."

"Sorry kid, I don't," Surge said as she walked back out, looking much the same as she did from Whisper's memories. "Don't really care though. Wolf, you gonna be alright or are you planning to survive through sheer bouts of anger?" Surge asked.

She could hear Cyan and Pink in her head immediately. Not literally, but she knew what they'd say, "Anger! Anger, anger, anger all the time!"

"Yeah, okay, wolfy's gonna be fine," Surge decided after she couldn't take the heat of Whisper's glare. Or at least, that's what Whisper was hoping for.

"What do you mean? Of course she's going to be fine," Violet brought up. Surge gave her a look before ascending up the ladder, followed promptly by the violet vixen. Whisper followed them up, admittedly half-heartedly.

"Kid, it's cold out there. Like middle of winter, cold biting at your every inch of skin cold. Middle of a blizzard in the antarctic circle with ice cubes everywhere cold. It is-"

"Thanks, I got it."

"Just making sure, kid," Surge smirked as she opened up the door, grabbing herself a jacket. Violet took a step back, her arms suddenly moving to her waist to try to conserve heat. "I did say it was cold."

Whisper had felt worse, and promptly walked through the open door with Lavender following her. The nega-wisp seemingly enjoyed the cold, diving into the snow and playing with it, small bits flowing into the large maw that was her mouth.

"Huh. Wasn't expecting that," Surge said as she came out too. She'd changed into a large snow jacket with baggy pants, made for keeping the heat in. Violet, just in her shirt and simple pants, wasn't going to be warm.

"On second thought, I'll just...stay here," Violet said. Lavender protested furiously, mostly by then hovering behind the girl and slowly pushing her out into the snow. "Hey, Lavender!" she shouted as the door closed as soon as she crossed the threshold.

Surge grinned. "Welp, guess you're out here with us. Not to mention you're supposed to keep Wolfy over there from murdering me, just as you're supposed to keep me from trying to kill her," she explained.

Whisper didn't think it was that bad. Although at least Surge had said she would only 'try' to kill Whisper, while giving the wolf the benefit of the doubt of murdering her, no 'try' about it.

"F-F-Fine. Hold on though, I need more c-clothes," Violet shuddered, heading towards the totaled carcass of the Tornado.

Whisper had seen it the previous day, but admittedly not by much. The Time Eater had done a job on it, with the wings torn in two and the fuselage having large streaks of broken metal. It didn't look like anything was majorly hurt, just pure damage, but more than enough to bring her out of the sky. It wasn't leaking any fluids at least, but Whisper could easily see the steel container that was its fuel tank…torn in half.

Violet ducked into the storage area, bringing out a small cloth bag that Whisper recognized as one of Tails' bail bags. It was a small unit that was similar to her own tent that he'd given her, with a lot of vitally important material all on the inside. Cold weather gear, the water tablets, anything needed to survive out in the wilds for about a week. After that, it couldn't give much help.

She fished out the cold weather gear, a large puffy jacket that was a dark purple in color, contrasting easily against the snow. The pants, too, were black and puffy. They zipped all the way down, where they could be cinched to ensure that heat didn't escape easily. The vixen looked around. "I...uh...need to change."

Surge made a show of looking around. "I don't see anyone else here but us. Come on, we're all women here."

"Surge," Whisper growled out, and the tenrec rolled her eyes as she went behind the small cabin. Whisper followed her a moment later, making sure to call Lavender over. If nothing else, she could probably mediate the both of them long enough for Violet to get there, but really, if Surge pissed her off enough Whisper doubted even Violet could stop her.

"You're going way too easy on the kid," Surge said instantly. "She needs to learn to grow up. She's, what, fourteen?"

"Twelve."

Surge looked at her. "Right, I knew that," she said. "Either way, she's part of your little gang now. And unlike the Retro Diamond Cutters-"

"Neo."

"Yeah, them. Between your girlfriend and the sheep, and that...you know, where is Silver? I'd have thought the kid would have had a field day talking to another time traveler."

"Haven't seen him."

"Huh. More you learn, you done back there...woah," Surge said as Violet turned the corner. The puffy jacket and snow pants were there, but they fit her near perfectly. Whisper could also tell they were form-fitting on the inside, so she'd be plenty warm. There was even a small layer of haze near her shoes. Had Tails perfected some kind of shoe-warmer?

Wait, his best friend was Sonic, so most likely.

Surge made a show of shaking her head out. "Right we're heading for Snowdrift. Follow me. Or don't. I don't care," Surge said, her arms behind her head, before she realized that doing so made the back of her head cold.

Whisper glanced back at Lavender. This was going to be an annoying trip. And based on the wreckage that was the Tornado...a long one, too.

Wonderful.

So if anyone has played Sonic X Shadow Generations and wants to know, that game is not in this story's canon. The original generations is, certainly, but the Shadow Generations has portions of its story that would not mesh well with this fic. I'm avoiding spoilers, but it's a good game in my mind. They did rewrite a few scenes, which I appreciate. However, that game is not in this story's past history.

Until Next Time!