Chapter Text
“Thomas.”
Tom jerked upright, gasping. He felt like his heartbeat could rival Sonic’s, and his surroundings weren’t helping. He was sitting, but there didn’t seem to be ground. There didn’t seem to be anything at all. Just a big white empty nothingness with him at the center. And…a voice, he’d heard a voice.
“Hello?” He called. The nothingness swallowed his words as soon as they left his mouth.
“Hello.” It didn’t seem to come from any specific direction. Tom looked around anyway, but he was still alone.
“Where am I?” he asked. “Who are you?”
“You are in between dimensions, a space where the Chaos Emeralds were birthed. And I…” There was a shimmering in front of him, like the formation of a heat mirage. A figure emerged – an echidna like Knuckles, but smaller and lighter in coloring. Or maybe that was just the transparency. And – if he was judging the voice right, which was a big if – it was a female. She was wearing a thick necklace, a headband, a wrap around her chest, and a skirt. It was strange to see a Mobian with clothes on. “…am Tikal.”
“Okay.” Tom nodded, his standard response to situations he didn’t understand. “Nice to meet you. Did you bring me here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re dying.” The statement sucker-punched him, knocking the air from his lungs.
“What?” He looked around again, like he was expecting someone else to appear and contradict Tikal. “Wha-how? What happened?”
Despite the nonchalance of her voice, Tikal looked sympathetic. “You sacrificed yourself to try and save your son.”
“My—” Tom cut himself off as the memory resurfaced.
Knuckles was worried about the Chaos Emeralds being scattered around randomly, so Tails recalibrated his Miles Electric to detect Chaos Energy. Then he repaired his Miles Electric and re-recalibrated it to ignore Sonic’s unique and overpowering signature. For about a week, the boys portaled around and collected all seven Emeralds.
While it solved the “making sure no random bad guy finds them” problem, it created another problem. If a bad guy really wanted the Chaos Emeralds, they were now all in the same place. So, after bouncing around a bunch of well-intentioned but overall dumb ideas, they finally decided to hide them in a pocket dimension called Hammerspace.
“Why is it called that?” Maddie asked.
“People used to mainly use it for storing giant hammers,” Sonic replied.
Tom and Maddie looked at each other. “Why…?” Tom asked.
Tails looked up at them like they were crazy. “Because giant hammers are a pain to carry around all the time.”
“Obviously,” Knuckles intoned, rolling his eyes.
Tom and Maddie decided to nod and pretend to understand.
Knuckles spent the next few weeks coaching Sonic on how to safely manipulate the Chaos Emeralds from a semi-transformed state. It was dangerous, Knuckles warned, because Chaos Energy was supposed to flow through the user like a conduit. It wasn’t supposed to be manipulated from the outside. If it seemed too much like tampering or interference, the Chaos Emeralds could react badly and violently.
“It would probably wipe out Green Hills,” Knuckles told Sonic. “But you would not have to worry about that, because you would be dead.”
When the time came, they decided to head out into the forest. Just in case. At first, it was beautiful. Sonic was breathing evenly, still in the way he only was during a crisis. The Emeralds were in a circle around him. After a minute, they rose into the air, drifting around Sonic in a lazy circle. It looked like art.
Then it all went wrong.
Lightning bolts arched between the Emeralds and Sonic, and Tom’s little boy opened his eyes and started to scream. Sonic seized and writhed, but whatever he'd started didn’t need his help to keep going.
“What’s happening?!” Maddie screamed.
Tails tapped frantically at his Miles Electric, shouting a bunch of technical terms Tom didn’t understand. The only thing he was able to get from the gibberish was that the Emeralds were draining Sonic’s personal stash of chaos energy, that place deep inside him where he drew his speed from. And someone like Sonic couldn’t survive without Chaos Energy.
Tom hadn’t waited around for the others to make a plan. He’d just sprinted towards Sonic. He’d hoped that, if he could build up enough speed, he could jump and knock Sonic out of the circle. He didn’t remember thinking about his own safety. He didn’t remember thinking of himself at all. He just remembered his world narrowing down to one goal and one goal only: saving his son.
Tom looked at Tikal. “Did it work? Is Sonic safe?”
“He will live,” she said in a soothing voice. “But your body was never meant to channel Chaos Energy. It is breaking down.”
“Oh.” Tom wrapped his arms around himself and bowed his head. “That’s…” He was shaking. “That’s okay. If Sonic’s okay, then…then it was worth it.”
He just wished he wasn’t alone. Tears began to build in his eyes as longing tore through him. He wanted to see his family. He wanted to hug all three of his boys. He wanted to kiss his wife. He wanted to pet his dog. He wanted to tell Sonic not to blame himself. (He wanted to live.)
“However,” Tikal continued. “The Chaos Emeralds have seen your sacrifice and agreed to offer you a chance to save yourself.”
His head shot up. “Really?!” Her words completely caught up with him and he blinked. “Wait, the Emeralds are alive?”
“In a way.” Tikal waved a hand, clearly uninterested in explaining that. “The Emeralds have the ability to reach across dimensions and universes. They will bring you different versions of your son. All you have to do is convince each Sonic to give you some of his energy.”
Tom narrowed his eyes. “Isn’t putting Chaos Energy in my body the reason I’m dying in the first place?” And, wow, that had not been fun to say.
“The Chaos Energy is what damaged your body, yes, but with careful manipulation it can undo what has been done.”
Tom nodded. “Yeah, I still don’t understand.”
Tikal pressed her lips together, brow furrowed in irritation. “Chaos Energy can be utilized in many different ways. It can be used to destroy, but it can also be used to heal. When you took Sonic’s place inside the circle, it was in the process of tearing him apart. It then began to tear you apart. If you get Chaos Energy from each of the Sonics you meet, the Emeralds will use it to put you back together.”
Tom pressed his fingers to his temples. It was all too much. He was dying. Did his body even exist right now, or...?
“Okay.” He nodded. “It sounds a little weird, but if it’ll get me back to my family, I’ll jump through whatever weird hoops you want.”
Tikal’s lips twitched up in what might have been a smile. “Then we shall begin.”
"Wait!" Because there was something even more important than being with his family: his family. "This isn't going to hurt Sonic, right? He needs that Chaos Energy."
"No," she said. "As long as he doesn't give you what can't be spared."