Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Noah made a promise to remember.

But he was fated to forget. All of us were.

Everything we did, falling away bit by bit as the haziness in our eyes started to well up.

It was almost funny. So many things left unsaid and so much left undone, only for the one thing to reunite us to be an accident.

Even after his promise. Even after he swore that he'd never forget. It wasn't even supposed to happen.

…Spark it all. I'd say we got lucky. 

But I wouldn't want to count out Eunie or Riku either.

We all made the same promise. Hell, all of the others did as well.

It was the way that it was acted on, though, which made it all the more unbelievable.

A sheer accident. Bringin' out a whole 'nother world. 

What a time to be alive.

| Current Day

| 10:49 PM

| Egg Carrier 

| Above Toranis Heights      

"Taion!"

Lanz called out to his downed friend, rushing in front of him to cast his shield while gunfire cascaded off the transparent cover. The incoming bullets were flying at such a high speed that they ripped right through Taion's Mondo, the bird-like coils falling to the ground all to his chagrin. Describing this as a tight spot wouldn't even cut it, the fact they were even on the Egg Carrier at all being the one opportunity they had to make this work. Not to mention Riku having narrowly been caught by a flurry of gunfire, now effectively out of the running and having to be healed substantially more than Eunie and Manana were used to healing.

"T-thank you, Lanz."

"Get back up! We're not doin' so hot here!"

Sonic and the others still hadn't arrived, and with Riku injured, they were very well on the cusp of being defeated–even so, Noah kept cutting through the opposition that stood in their way, spinning in a circle and sliding inward to mince all three firing bots while Lanz helped Taion to his feet. Robotnik was so, so close; they just had to make one right move and force their way through that glass door. 

"I can't get inside! They just keep coming!"

Noah proclaimed, turning back to the door in front of them that stood a ways away from the position of the three. There were about eight or nine Egg Gunners all closing in on them, and though they had good firepower, Lanz's shield and Taion's Mondo were their only means of defense while the number of enemies grew the more they took out. They couldn't last forever with only one healer, but Riku's current state had to take top priority; even if it jeopardized their chances.

"Ghk…Eunie, Manana, continue to heal Riku! We'll think of something over here!"

For only a moment did Eunie pause her healing effect, looking up at Taion with a dumbfounded expression.

"Are you crazy? Like this, we'll never get anywhere!"

Taion persisted, however, pushing up his glasses and once again summoning his Mondo.

"All we need is a plan!"

The enemy encroached on their position further, drawing out a nervous exhale from Noah who had to be pulled back to his senses by Lanz grabbing his shoulder. Just hold out, he kept telling himself. Mio and Sena were in the ship's bottom hanger, so they just needed to wait for them. Just hold out. 

On Ground Level….

| Mystic Ruins Zone

| 10:54 PM

Sonic hadn't felt pressure like this in his entire life . Everything was riding on this one mission, and if it were a success, they would finally be able to put an end to the nightmare that Robotnik had started. The sky fell red with black clouds hanging high, rain pouring from their dark visage while the hedgehog, carrying Amy in his arms, picked up speed as much as he could to try and get out of the Mystic Ruins as fast as his legs would allow him. In the middle of his run he'd be contacted through an earpiece, pressing it on with two fingers and speaking to the other end.

"Tangle, I'm here! What's up?"

"White Acropolis is empty! Whisper's not here!"

Sonic's determined expression fell to worry as soon as he heard that. Everything was calculated one to one…right?

"But Tails' data said-"

"I know what Tails' data said, Sonic! It's nothing but a bunch o' robots and empty cells! W-we must've been lied to, or… something!"

So not only did they have a Falling Eclipse to deal with on the Egg Carrier, but the one person who knew anything about their newest adversary was gone . She was captured, Tails tracked her, and relayed back to everyone White Acropolis. 

So what did they do wrong? 

Where was Whisper?

"Shit…!"

Sonic swore under his breath, stopping his run and skidding to a halt before he turned north to try and make the run on his own two feet. He expected himself to make it to Acropolis in about five minutes, but what he didn't expect was for Shadow to stop him before he could even start moving again.

"Wh-Shadow!"

"Let me go to White Acropolis. I can make it there faster."

And he was right. Shadow could make it there faster, but Sonic wasn't thinking with portals right now. His mind was going as fast as he did, and all that was on that one track of thought was helping Tangle before she got lit up in smoke. 

"But-"

" Listen to me , Sonic!"

Finally did the blue speedster relent, staring at his rival with real, genuine fear in his eyes. It could have been Tails, Knuckles, Amy…but they all prioritized the Egg Carrier instead. Noah and his crew had gone ahead of them and Tangle insisted on going alone. Why did he listen to her? How many more decisions would he have to regret making?

"We all have a part to play in this. You told me that. Everyone going after the Doctor– you're their ace in the hole. Don't make a choice that you can't take back when we're this close."

Neither one of them said anything for a moment after Shadow talked him down. Sonic grit his teeth and looked away, being hugged tight by Amy who sat up in his arms.

"You're not the only one doing this anymore. You aren't alone."

"If this is going to work–if any of this is going to work, then I need you to trust me."

Shadow knew the stakes as much as Sonic did. He knew his part and he had to play it. Sonic responded in kind by giving an affirming nod and keeping up on the path towards Toranis Heights. As much as he wanted to thank Shadow and potentially warn him of how Whisper thought of him, there was no time. It was now or never, and Shadow promptly activated Chaos Control to make his way north in Sonic's stead.

But in that moment, Sonic began to reminisce at how all of this happened. How exactly they got here, fighting for the salvation of a brand new world. 

He had to think, and for once in his life, slow down. But to do that, he had to go back to the beginning.

A full calendar month in the past.

| 30 Days Prior 

| 11:02 AM 

| Valak Mountain

| Bionis

The snow of Valak Mountain was Eunie's least favorite part of it. Yeah, she knew what she was getting herself into when she signed along with Noah and Lanz to take on this training course, but for their first jaunt into the field to be in freezing cold weather with an active snowfall? She was better off taking a dip in steaming hot water than dealing with this–not to mention the falling snow getting stuck in her wings.

Lanz, on the other hand, was made of sterner stuff; able to keep himself warm through his normal routine of fifty push-ups, fifty crunches, and an hour-long session on a punching bag without a break until he was made to take one. He'd often make fun of Eunie for not being able to keep up with him, but in her defense, she didn't have to. She was a healer, so being nimble and lean was what she had to be to be effective on the field. It didn't make Lanz any less annoying, though.

And then there was Noah. The leader of their training unit, by order of the queen, and wielder of a hand-made sword in replication of one he was slowly forgetting. It was a bright red with a centered handle and asymmetric ends, one protruding out on the top and the other sticking inwards on the bottom with a lock in the middle to fuse them into one blade. Lanz kept his signature turret-implanted greatsword as well as Eunie sticking to her staff-sniper for controlling a battles flow, but Noah? He wasn't going to let them get an upgrade without him getting one as well. His sword folded in on itself from the blades and jutted out afterward into a barrel, firing a shell off into the air that fell to the ground once loaded out of the chamber.

A shotgun.

And as seamlessly as it folded, it unfolded back into a sword, Noah soon sheathing it onto his back once he was done swinging at the air.

"How are you two holding up?"

He'd turn to ask his friends, side-eying Eunie and Lanz who waved off the cold with a soon to be made fire. Their Nopon engineering friend Riku eventually showed his face once they were settled in, helping the Machina continue his regiment while the High Entia and Homs beside him spoke amongst themselves.

"You've been feelin' it too, aye?"

That question was so ambiguous that Noah couldn't help but wonder what she meant.

"Huh? What do you…mean?"

"It's an odd feeling. You suddenly begin to see and hear stuff that ya' swear you could'a never 'ave recognized. And then you begin to remember names…and faces…and then they all fade away in seconds."

Her description worried Noah, but he understood. He was experiencing the same thing, and if both him and Eunie felt it, who was to say that Lanz didn't? Or Riku?

"...Ah. Yeah, that. I'm glad I'm not the only one."

" Now you get me, Noah."

"If…If I could ask, what is it that you're hearing? O-or seeing?"

She let out a playful "hmm…" For a good long while, before finally coming to recollect a name she could've sworn she had heard before.

"Taion. That's the name I keep hearing. And I keep seeing some… super uncool scarf."

Noah chuckled and leaned forward in his seat after hearing her explanation, doing the same now in trying to recollect a name of some kind that could go with a vision he was seeing.

"Ah, um…I think…I think mine was named...I…I don't know. I can't remember."

Eunie chuckled, lightly punching his shoulder.

"Sucks t' be you, aye? But that's what makes a good mystery."

"Hehe! I, uh, I guess you're right."

Agreeance on the fault in their memory was something the two of them could easily laugh about–but the laughter soon came to a screeching pause when a pulsing explosion rang out from outside Valak Mountain. Riku was the first to notice it, pointing out an after effect of the explosion that stuck out like a butterfly in a hornets nest.

"Red…pillar?"

A massive wave of red was shot into the sky, and the energy it protruded was so vast that even the group within Valak Mountain could feel its pressure. 

"This not good. If only Riku knew what was…"

"Don't feel bad about this, Riku. Whatever that is, it…it could be a problem for all of us. Toss me Redguard."

Without a moment of hesitation did Riku toss Noah his sword, the boy gesturing for his fellow trainees to follow him down to whatever the hell that was that shot up. And the worst part of it? Noah was right. It would be a problem.

But he had no idea just how much of a problem it already was.

| 11:02 AM 

| Urayan Hills

| Alrest

That red pillar was spanning worlds. On the complete opposite end of the universe did another group of four stand directly in front of theirs, staring right into its hue and trying to make sense of the thing while a crowd surrounded them, all of the same mind. One of them, the tallest of the four, spoke up, rubbing his right arm almost worriedly.

"This isn't some kind of stray light, it's…it's almost like water."

"Where did it come from, though?"

One of the girls of the group asked him, her embered hair beginning to sway in the wind of the pillar.

"I couldn't tell you even if I tried. Mio?"

The Gormotti girl in question put a hand on her chest, expression tightening up while she stood silent between her friends. 

What was this feeling?

| 11:02 AM 

| Station Square

| Planet Mobius

Shadow saw the same thing from atop a building he was stood on, behind him being Rouge who had come to check in on his friend only to find the rising fountain of red firing off into the sky from afar. No doubt Sonic was already on his way there, but as for Shadow? He had other plans.

He had his own way of seeing this through. 

Chapter Text

| 11:14 AM 
| Colony 9
| Bionis

The sight of the fountain in the middle of Colony 9's plaza was a beast to take in, but what came as more of a shock were the crowds surrounding it. Lanz, Eunie, and Noah all had to shove themselves past a sea of people to see the red pillar in all of its glory, jutting themselves to the front and getting a brief chance to take it in with their own eyes. There was no mistaking the water-like viscosity it implored in its flow, Eunie having a mind to reach out and touch it with Riku smacking her leg to keep her from doing so. They still didn't know what exactly this thing was, and no matter how entrancing it got, they couldn't try to risk anything without knowing something more.

But that very point was what got their attention in the first place. The entrancing nature of this fountain, in which its true purpose was put out right in front of them. 

Memories. Images from their pasts were being shown within its core. That's why there was a crowd–everybody could see it, and chatter was starting up as to what exactly they were seeing. 

For everyone, it was different. Nobody saw the same two things, save for some familial exceptions here and there. 

But for what Noah, Eunie, Lanz and Riku all saw? It was something worth losing their breath over. 

Memories they didn't recognize, of people they didn't know and things they don't remember doing. Someone who had Noah's eyes and hair, another person with a set of chakrams and a gem in her chest–they were even seeing places and events of varying intensity, all to their confusion and growing curiosity.

"I-is that-"

"...Lanzy, huh?"

Eunie and Lanz both reminisced while peering in, the former bringing a hand to her chest and the latter slowly clenching his fist. Parts of their lives that they didn't remember, that this fountain did. What the hell could any of it mean?

Alas, there was no time to dwell on the possibilities, for their thoughts were cut off by the sound of whirring metal and breaking ground behind them. The crowd dispersed in a panic, revealing a legion of robots having landed from the sky, all rotund in shape and kitted with turrets on both arms. They were dropping in all around the Colony, and were beaming with yellow eyes and red shells that made it clear they weren't from around here.

"Who the–an enemy colony?"

Noah predicted, equipping Redguard to his hands and gritting his teeth. 

"At time like now!?"

"Who cares!? Just whack 'em!"

Riku and Lanz interjected before the fight began, not much changing here than they would go through during a normal training regiment. Ducking, weaving, and striking of all different natures depending on how they fought; Noah being the most active on the field while Lanz took up arms in defending those at range, that being Eunie and Riku where the former focused on healing Noah as the latter kept to dealing damage from afar. They'd manage on their own, there was no doubt about it, but soon did they notice that these machines, however weak, kept coming regardless of what ends were met to cut them down. Lanz in particular was starting to get worried because of this.

"Ghk–kill one and three more pop up!"

"Just stay focused!"

Noah advised him, ducking a swing from a robot to his left and slicing through it in a single swing of Redguard.

"Something'll have to give eventually!"

But amidst all of it, only if they knew, the defense of Colony 9 wouldn't be the only thing they'd have to worry about.

| 11:19 AM 
| Urayan Hills 
| Alrest

"Ack, these things are all red and…ugly!"

"Sena, behind you!"

A wave of gunfire was shot at the blue haired woman, being narrowly deflected by paper birds wrapping around her to block the oncoming volley.

"Woah…T-thanks, Taion!"

The tactician stood beside her and Mio, his right hand held high while his eyes darted all around the crowded hills. Behind him was a massive dipping slope into the rising fountain, and about a mile back from the hill itself was the capital of Uraya, Fonsa Myma.

"Eunie…What could that name mean?"

The same effect was being had on every fountain that rose. Memories being played back like a movie on a screen, spreading thoughts through the minds of the trio that they never thought they'd be thinking until now. Why? What was the meaning of this? Who or what caused this?

Sena rose to her feet after Taion pulled his Mondo away from her, allowing her to bash one robot to the side and smash her hammer onto the head of another. Though her fighting style had made her much heavier than Mio, it was the Gormotti girl who focused on drawing the enemies attention, keeping Sena safe by way of pulling aggro off of her and allowing her to just be Sena, mincing and mashing without a care in the world as Taion healed any wounds that may have come to them throughout the fight.

"We need to fall back to the capital! Civilians are going to retreat there, and we can't let Fonsa Myma get overrun!"

Mio suggested to her team, turning to spy their fourth spinning through a cluster of bots to help clear a path. This was Manana, a Nopon who was known for her out of this world cooking ability rather than her fighting prowess, but even so, she was ready and willing to do what it took to assist her friends.

"Manana make way through! Friends go! Go!"

And go all three of them did, following behind Manana and through the retreating crowd to get back to the capital in time to defend it. But the effort wouldn't stop there, for they had a third party that they'd eventually have to worry about.

| 11:23 AM
| Sunset Heights
| Planet Mobius

Sonic had a feeling that the fountain of their world was emanating from within the city. He had no idea where that feeling came from, but knowing everything it had gone through in the past year of its recovery leading up to now, a part of him felt like something like this was bound to happen here. It had only been a year since Dr. Eggman took over Mobius, and in that year had himself alongside his younger incarnation and a certain rookie take him down to take back their home. 

He vaulted, rolled, and slid over and under falling streetlights and tipped benches, coming to note that the rising pillar was producing a wind that pushed back anything that got too close. He could only stand on top of a rooftop some twenty meters away from it, taking a good long look down at the fountain with a dumbfounded expression. Shadow and Rouge weren't far behind him, and when he saw those two, his worry scattered over to his other friends. Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Omega, Whisper, Tangle–where were they in all of this? Were they okay? 

"Do you suspect Egghead?"

"The doctor hasn't been seen in over a year. I doubt it."

Sonic and Shadow wasted no time predicting how this could have happened, the darker hedgehog crossing his arms while the fastest thing alive tapped his right foot on the ground and shook his hands out. Regardless of the source, there were people down there that needed help getting away from the fountain, so they were going to have to take quite the risk for the sake of saving the people beneath them.

"Regardless, we gotta evacuate these people. Rouge, can you cover us when we need a liftoff?"

Sonic asked the bat thief behind himself and Shadow, looking back to her to be received with a wink and okay sign.

"You can count on me. Just make sure you don't make me wait here too long, blue."

"Hah! Ya' got any idea who you're talkin' to?"

Shadow scoffed at their interaction before dashing down the side of the building and taking a hard right, Sonic going left and jumping just in time to shield a man from an oncoming wall of rock that flew towards him. Shadow used a plethora of his own abilities to take care of flying debris, be it a Chaos Spear disintegrating a bench or a shield of chaos energy defending somebody in harm's way, the two hedgehogs were able to secure and rescue any civilians too close for comfort in their own energetic or brooding ways. 

"Rouge!"

"On it!"

The woman in question was there to retrieve everyone Sonic and Shadow delivered to her, flying them up and away from the fountain while both blurs racked up a number of civilians that would put the Resistance to shame in such short notice. Speaking of the Resistance, soldiers of their ranks had arrived to raise a metal blockade in the way of the fountain, drawing the ire of Sonic who held a woman in his arms and stopped behind the platoons commanding officer.

"You guys took your sweet time, huh?"

He'd lambast the man in front of him who turned around with a sigh.

"There's more than one fountain! Our hands are kind of tied here!"

That was news. Sonic was caught so off guard by it that Shadow had to grab his shoulder and shake him back into action, garnering Rouge's attention and getting the last three civilians they could spot out of dodge–a man, a mother, and her child. 

"That's everyone! What now?"

Rouge flew the two up to where the gathered civilians were as well, all three of them sharing a look that required no words. They needed to run, but they couldn't leave the Resistance soldiers behind. Sonic and Rouge decided to take point at this notion and leave with the people they had rescued, Shadow opting to stay behind and use Chaos Control to get himself and the platoon away from Sunset Heights.

But as soon as he got close enough to activate it, another pulsing blast of red erupted from the fountain. 

It cascaded across all of Mobius in one fell swoop, and the people of Bionis and Alrest felt it too. 

Everybody's vision fell into an endless white visage. And then, there was silence.

…

…

…

Until Whisper the Wolf awoke in the illuminated plain that was Satorl Marsh.

Chapter Text

| 1:02 AM

| Satorl Marsh 

| Bionis

Satorl Marsh wasn't something completely alien to Whisper. She recognized the energy it put off, how calming everything was despite being a place she had never been to. Places like Angel Island and Sky Sanctuary gave her that same feeling when she went there, but unlike those places, this was on ground level. And, for some reason, the butterflies were glowing blue. Nothing she hasn't seen back on Mobius, though.

Whisper wandered through the damp ends and nooks of the Marsh, watching as the trees around her illuminated into starlight and the stars above reflected off the patches of water she'd walk across every now and then. For the first time since meeting Sonic and becoming one with the resistance that he was oh-so reluctant to be a part of, she was alone. Quiet, masked, and alone. Just how she preferred her life after being a Diamond Cutter. But that kind of peace wasn't meant to last for long. 

Machines–Eggman built machines that looked like other Mobians–had stormed her position as soon as she was starting to get comfortable. They were all built from the same framing as Metal Sonic seemed to be, shaped out of innocent people and bystanders who had become emotionless killing machines thanks to the doctor and his experiments. That said, this wasn't Whisper's first rodeo with Eggman; anything he threw at her, she'd be ready for. 

But there was something… different about these. Something less alive; more sinister and cold, almost like the effects of the Metal Virus. An incident she truly wishes she could forget.

They all came at her at once only to fall all the same. For some reason, Whisper was without her Wisps, but her Wispon by itself whisked away any opposition that seemed to get too close. Whether it be the handle of the gun striking the pressure points of those she could bait and punish, or loud and echoing shots just strong enough to hold them back, but not take them down. This was effective, but not to an end. They kept getting back up. She had to retreat. And retreat was what she did.

For seconds that felt like a minute, and a minute that felt like an hour. It was dreadful .

Didn't help at all that running away like this reminded Whisper even more of the Virus. How half a year ago, it had been spawned under the visage of Dr. Starline, and while Dr. Robotnik sat missing and absent from the scene, a completely new tyrant took hold of the world and nearly brought all of Mobius to its knees. Like Eggman, Starline was gone now, but his absence as well as the doctors got Whisper thinking.

Would either of them go to lengths like this? Would either of them really subjugate the world asunder into completely new and unfamiliar lands, occupied with innocent people being used as weapons, all by their own whims and visions?

Could either of them have the attrition to do that? This was Eggman and Starline she was thinking about, but could they really go that far?

She didn't have much time to think on such a matter now, for an errant shot of yellow beamed over her head and crashed into the Mobian Machines chasing her to Satorl Marsh's back end; courtesy of one Miles Prower. He preferred Tails, though.

And Tails wasn't alone; a second figure, unfamiliar to both of them, shed his light by way of a staff that he slammed onto the ground and rose a dome of blue around them to keep the Mobian Machines away. Whisper scrambled to get in close enough to where she felt safe, falling on her behind and looking up at Tails who grinned down at her and pumped his fist. It was here that the figure he showed up alongside had introduced himself with an offering of his hand.

"Joran. Wish we could have met someplace, uh…less occupied."

| 1:20 AM 

| Fonsa Myma 

| Alrest 

…

…

…

"AH!"

Sonic practically jumped in his bed as he awoke from his stupor, immediately feeling a shock of pain hit his right arm and side that made him curl inward and hold himself with his left arm. He noticed that there was something feathery on his side, flapping out an aura of green that was slowly but surely satiating the stinging pain. Whatever it was, it wasn't like anything he had seen before–he couldn't tell if it was some kind of robot or magic. Then the source of that fluttery healing came to show his face.

"Ah, you're awake."

"...And you are?"

"Taion. Healer, tactician, and the first that your friends came to when you needed my assistance."

The boy extended his hand to have it shaken by Sonic, who's right hand noticeably shivered as he rose it to give the gesture.

"S-Sonic. Pleasures…all mine."

Taion let go of the blue blur's hand and allowed him to rest, gesturing for him to do so as he laid back down and turned his head to the side. 

More humans, huh? 

Sonic had no real reason to be surprised. His escapades on earth in the past had given him some time to think about how to interact with another species outside of Mobian. In all honesty, the hedgehog was used to dealing with everyone relying on him and sitting on the sidelines while he did the heavy lifting, but judging by the fact that this guy was healing his wound with something that looked straight out of a fantasy novel was more than enough to convince him to lay off the heroics.

"Do you…have any idea what's even goin' on? I-If I'm gonna do my thing, I'm gonna need a little context first."

Pushing up his glasses, Taion gave a nod in response as his formerly placid expression fell stoic. 

"That I do."

And so did Tails. As much as Sonic needed an explanation, so did Joran and Whisper. And both parties, however far apart, were going to give them just that.

"For starters, we need to look back at how the Chaos Emeralds work to get an idea of what we're dealing with in the first place. For Joran's sake, I'll re-explain what they are in full; seven gems of completely unlimited power, able to buff someone up to the point of being unstoppable and do miraculous things that nobody could ever dream of. As strong as they are though, it shouldn't be a surprise that there are people out there who want to use them for their own gain. What this is is yet another one of those situations."

Tails began to Joran and Whisper for Taion to continue to Sonic in his stead. 

"However they may have done it, someone–or something–has sapped your world's Emeralds of their power. But interestingly enough, instead of using that power to completely overthrow the world as we know it, they have instead chosen to spawn beacons around the world that play our own memories back to us."

"Why do you think they'd do something like that?"

"That is still a mystery."

Joran rose a hand in questioning, tilting his head to the side as Tails spoke up once more.

"Are you sure it was a person who did this? If our worlds really did cross over, I don't think just the average Homs would be able to pull something like that off."

Though he was confused at the word Homs, Tails wagged his finger and adjusted his gloves.

"Eeeeexactly. Whatever we're dealing with is clearly out of the realm of normal possibility; this is gonna go a lot deeper than we already know."

While Tails was explaining, he held what looked to be a radar that blinked in an out despite no signals popping up on its interface.

"Even if they're out of energy, what we should do first and foremost is find the Chaos Emeralds. Keeping them safe regardless of their use to us is a priority that we shouldn't let slide."

"So it's gonna be another Emerald hunt, huh?"

Sonic punched his fist into his palm, wincing and having to hold his right arm again thanks to it.

"Then so be it. Still gotta find all my friends after that big light flashed me anyway."

Just then, practically barreling into the room came Amy, Knuckles, and the rest of Taion's allies; specifically Sena and Manana. While Mio was nowhere to be found, the ones who were already there were, and even while being hugged as tightly as Amy could hug him, Sonic was still worried about those left unaccounted for. Tails. Whisper. Tangle. Omega–and where were Shadow and Rouge? Weren't they just with him?

Whatever it was, someone or something had taken the power of the Chaos Emeralds for themself, and they all needed to find them. Together or apart, a new adventure was about to begin, and both groups already had a lead.

For Sonic and Taion's comrades, they planned to make the journey to a ship port made up of multiple of the lands floating Titans in one, Argentum.

As for Tails's group, they were bound for Colony 6, a separate human Colony that Joran offered to lead them to, as the path back to a different Colony was blocked off by the Mobian Machines.

It was now or never, and things were just getting started.

…

…

…

One day! 

I promise!

Noah lifted his head up from the snow of Moonstone Valley, coughing blood into his hand before he used Redguard to force himself up to his feet. He took a glance at every direction, trying to make sense of his surroundings but unable to make out anything through the coming blizzard that passed him by. All he could register was a voice behind him.

"... Noah?"

Her voice.

"... Mio…"