Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Salty sea air mingled with the earthy smell of the island’s fauna. Not a single animal roamed the land. The Egg Mobile’s engine hum felt far louder in the deathly quiet. The only sound besides the hover craft in the quiet forest was the lapping of the ocean in the distance.

Branches snapped and scratched against his vehicle as Eggman flew through the trees. He paid no mind to the limbs which fell with loud crashing to the short grass below, but he did take note of when bark landed on stone rather than dirt.

The air rushed faster around Eggman as he tore through the trees. The Egg Mobile came out into a small clearing. Stone structures surrounded him on both sides, slanted inward and choked over with greenery. Eggman sneered at the overgrowth; he’d see that it was burned away in due time.

The doctor floated his vehicle down to land and jumped out. A brief shock went up his legs with the impact on the smooth black metal path, but he ignored it. Walking forward, he reached the focus of the ancient structure.

It resembled a massive chair. Perhaps something that panda oaf would construct for himself in the Special Zone. But Eggman cared little for who might’ve occupied the ‘chair,’ and more with what it contained. Studying similar structures across the islands had revealed circuitry, ancient circuitry.

Ancient circuitry on a chain of five islands that didn’t show up on satellite imaging and seemingly untouched for hundreds of years. Oh yes, that mystery had warranted his full attention.

Climbing atop the center structure the doctor approached the back of the ‘chair.’ A black stripe ran down the middle, ending in a series of branching lines that ended just above a slot which housed a large metal gear. Everything he’d found suggested this was some sort of portal generator, but all attempts at access thus far had been in vain.

The doctor’s lips peeled back in a wide grin as he hefted a circular black and red device the size of a dinner plate. He slapped the gadget against the smooth black surface of the structure. The device magnetized to the metal, letting out small sparks of red electricity as it activated. The stripes along the black metal began to glow a bright red in response.

An automated feminine voice echoed from the device. “Uploading A.I. program… now.” As the red light spread across the structure, a slowly building sound emanated from the old terminal. What sounded like a muffled crowd of voices were screaming in pain and despair. Eggman began cackling at the delightful sound.

At the top of the ‘chair’ there was an empty circular ring, which was suddenly filled with a bright orb of red light, casting off sputtering sparks. The screaming grew louder as far above the structure Eggman occupied, filling the night sky, a huge grid pattern of triangular shapes appeared. From the doctor’s vantage point, it looked like it took up the whole night sky.

The sound of sparking electricity made Eggman twirl around to face behind him. A glowing red circle began to form in the ground, and another, and another. As they took shape, robots began spawning up and out of them.

They were sleek and silver, with thin waists and bulky arms and legs that came to fine points. Their heads were single triangular holes with a red triangle glowing from within. The robots continued appearing far off into the forest away from the ‘chair’ shaped structure. And even further out, outside the forest entirely and almost obscured by the darkness of night, was a towering several stories tall humanoid robot. All the machines stared up at Eggman, silently standing at attention.

Eggman’s grin grew wider. “Yes! It’s all coming online! The Ancients’ secrets will be mine!” The device Eggman had attached to the ancient structure sparked behind him, making him whip back around. The A.I. should’ve finished uploading by now.

“Status report. Answer me!” Eggman demanded.

“Simulations complete. Executing protective initiative,” the automated voice answered.

“What? No! NO!” Eggman reached forward and tried to pry the device off the ancient structure. Rather than come free, the device sank inward to metal and stonework.

The doctor’s arm was yanked inward, and even as he tried to brace himself with his other arm to get free, it was no use. Eggman was pulled off his feet and into the glowing red particles of the structure. When he was gone, the red light faded, and the conduit became dark.

One day later…

The Babylon Garden was a strange thing. A circular ring structure the size of a small city, its surface and exterior were covered in the crumbling remains of an ancient civilization, beige stone buildings, simple and sturdy. These decaying structures would have you believe they were made by a race of modest builders, not primitive, but also not advanced like the echidnas or ancient humans of old. This would be a false assumption.

The true nature of the Babylon Garden was beneath these simple structures. Beige stone gave way to cold metal hallways of gold and blue. The technology was advanced too, housing all manner of rooms such as sleeping and living quarters, barracks, and a swath of control rooms housing all manner of screens and control panels. These were all geared toward the main purpose of the Babylon Garden, the transport of a species across space.

The Babylon Garden was a massive spaceship that had found Mobius many years ago. Due to an unfixable problem with their engine, the ancient Babylonians landed and settled on the planet. Years passed, and their ship, the Babylon Garden, was buried beneath the dirt.

More recently, it had been discovered the Battle Bird Armada were the descendants of this alien race. With the passage of time, the Babylon Garden had become legend among the birds of Mobius, and they sought to reclaim what their misinformed legends said was their original homeland.

Eventually, events would transpire so that a new group unknowingly settled above the buried Babylon Garden; the nanite city of New Mobotropolis. The Battle Birds, having learned of the city’s location, attacked the home of Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends, unearthing the ancient spaceship with great destruction. When the ship’s onboard robotic pilot informed everyone that it would have to open a wormhole that would destroy Mobius to return to its home planet, an enraged Sonic destroyed the ignition matrix of the ship, sending it crashing into the nearby mountains of New Mobotropolis.

With no method of getting the ship to fly again and having taken serious damage to their own ship during the attack on New Mobotropolis, the Battle Bird Armada was forced to flee, vowing revenge. Now, the ancient spaceship was being buried anew, this time by the snow and ice of the mountains. With its ignition matrix destroyed, its secrets would likely remain hidden forever.

That is, unless a determined little fox had anything to say about it.

Tails flung the panel cover away with a loud clang that echoed through the derelict ship. The fox heaved a sigh that created a small cloud of breath in the mountain cold. Thankfully the winds blustering outside didn’t snake their way this far into the ship’s interior. Kneeling down on the cold metal, Tails adjusted his portable rectangular work light to shine deeper into the control console he’d just gotten into. Before Tails could begin probing into the mess of wires and circuit boards the tell-tale sound of blasting wind and sneakers reached his ears.

Sonic skid to a stop and shook off the snow he’d collected on his way up the mountain. “These the things you wanted?” Sonic held two devices, one in each hand. In his left was the replacement handheld for Nicole Tails and Rotor had been working on together, now sporting a shining purple exterior. In the other was a much larger, flat, rectangular device sporting a bright yellow color-scheme with two green bulbs on top and a black handle on the side.

“Yes,” Tails confirmed, taking both devices. Laying the handheld down, he then turned to the larger one.

“And what is that?” Sonic pointed to the new gadget which was roughly the size of a notebook.

“Something I’ve been working on,” Tails said with an excited shiver. “It’s a portable computer. Not as advanced as Nicole, obviously, but I’ve outfitted it with everything we might need on a mission.”

Sonic leaned over the fox’s shoulder to look over the thing. “Don’t get me wrong bro, it’s cool, but couldn’t it be, smaller? If you want to take it on missions?”

“Making it this big was the only way to include the hardware necessary for it to run without Nicole,” Tails answered, unfazed by the criticism.

Sonic’s eyes widened, “It can do all the same stuff as Nicole without her?”

“For the most part,” Tails smirked as his device booted up.

As the green bulbs on top of the yellow device began to glow, a small hologram sparked to life from the screen. “Well I hope I’ve not become totally obsolete yet.” Nicole materialized as a stuttering green hologram.

“Yes!” Tails pumped his fist at the signal reaching back to New Mobotropolis. Nicole’s hologram folded her arms and frowned at the affirmative to her question.

Sonic leaned in from the side. “He means about the device working, not you being obsolete.”

“Oh right, yeah, sorry,” Tails corrected.

Nicole chuckled before continuing, “The signal is strong, but not enough for a full download of my program I’m afraid.” Tails wilted, but only a little. “It was a good effort, but I’m afraid I can’t risk an incomplete download.”

“Right,” Tails nodded, leaning back against the metal wall with a sigh.

Sonic looked between the tiny hologram and the fox. “Can someone give me the dumbed down version or is it too high techian for me to understand?”

“We were trying to see if Nicole could download into her new handheld from New Mobo, but there’s still too much of a risk of her being digitally cut in half,” Tails summarized.

“Yeah, let’s uh… let’s not do that,” Sonic agreed as he picked up the new purple handheld. “Still, at least you’ll be riding in style when you’re on board.”

Nicole rubbed her arm and muttered under her breath, “I told them they didn’t need to customize it.”

Sonic grinned at Nicole’s sheepishness. “Nothing wrong with looking your best while fighting evil.” Sonic gestured to his shoes. “You think I’d fight Eggman in any old ratty sneakers?”

“Well… I appreciate it Tails,” Nicole thanked the fox. “How goes your excavation?”

Tails gave an angry glare towards the panel he’d just pried loose. “Slow,” he admitted, and added with an annoyed mutter, “Of course it would go a lot faster with help.”

“I’ve tried to convince the council to send a research team, but unless you can prove there’s anything worth salvaging…” Nicole trailed off.

Sonic folded his arms and leaned on the wall. “At the risk of making myself gag, I think I’m in agreement with the council for once. That robot pilot said nothing works on this tub without the ignition matrix, which I would apologize for destroying but, you know, end of the world and stuff.”

Tails had already started in on messing with the wiring while Sonic voiced his thoughts. “Just because a car is missing its key doesn’t mean it can’t start,” the fox’s voice echoed from inside the console. “Imagine what we could do with this thing if we could get it flying again.”

“Would that really work? From the outside it looked like most of the ring had broken off,” Sonic asked.

“From what I’ve found, the ship wasn’t made all at once. The inner most rooms are older, meaning it’s possible the superstructure was built around a pre-existing, much smaller ship, that was added on later to accommodate the Babylonian settlers.”

Sonic held his chin in thought. “Why not just make a new transport ship from scratch?”

“Speed. I’ve found signs of rushed welding and wire work that are much sloppier than the sleek design of the rest of the ship. I think they were in a hurry to launch when it was built,” Tails theorized.

“I will make another appeal for a research team,” Nicole said. “See you back in the city.” Nicole’s hologram flickered away.

Sonic leaned down to peer inside the open console that Tails was halfway inside. “So, this ‘inner’ spaceship. Would it be good in a fight?” Sonic asked.

Tails peered over his shoulder with a sly smile. “By the time me, Rotor, and Nicole were done with it, we might have a way to fight back the Death Egg.”

Tails grin slipped a little as he saw Sonic become stone faced. The hedgehog was staring down, his eyes narrowed in thought. Sonic noticed the fox’s concerned look. “Then keep at it,” Sonic adopted a smile, “Cause I don’t know which sounds more satisfying, Eggman’s reaction to us keeping up with him in the sky, or the Battle Birds seeing us fly around in their ancestors’ ship.”

Before Tails could comment on Sonic’s momentary dark expression, the hedgehog had pulled his head out of the open console. “Lemme know if you need anything else bro, I’m off to pick up Sal from her folk’s place.” With that, Sonic grabbed the purple handheld and sped out of the derelict ship, and down the mountain.

A bright sun and clear blue sky shined down on New Mobotropolis. The city hummed with more activity than Sonic could remember. With all the signs of Naugus’ attack scrubbed clear of the city, the citizens walked with restored calm. Things had finally returned to normal.

Sonic sped across the nanite imitation grass, kicking up clods of dirt as he took in the place. He smiled and waved to people who managed to see his speeding form, but when alone his expression was flat with a furrowed brow.

The other reason the city was so at ease was the prolonged absence of Robotnik. The vile doctor hadn’t been seen in months, not just in New Mobotropolis, or even the Republic of Acorn, but the whole of Mobius. After his latest failed attempt to steal the Master Emerald, Robotnik had disappeared off the face of Mobius.

What rankled Sonic so much was that the last time Eggman had disappeared for this long, was right before unveiling the new Death Egg. Everyone, and especially Sally and Elias, had shared his sentiment, and put out calls to all their allies for info on the doctor, but nothing had come of it.

On a positive note, without its leader the Eggman Empire was showing signs of strain around the world. With no second in command in his stead, the Grandmasters had devolved into selfishly hoarding resources without a figurehead to make them cooperate. This had further led to boosted morale for the freedom fighters and governments in opposition to the Empire, who now struck more boldly knowing their respective factions wouldn’t be receiving any sudden reinforcements.

But while Sonic wouldn’t rain on anyone’s parade, he also couldn’t bring himself to celebrate the renewed hope around the globe for the war turning in their favor. He knew Eggman, maybe better than anyone. He knew the doctor would return. He knew he would rapidly get all his cowardly henchmen back in line. And he knew he’d be wielding some devastating new weapon that the hero of Mobius and the freedom fighters would have to take down.

Sonic didn’t give much fear to whatever weapon Eggman might return with. No, what scared him was who would stop it. Antoine was in a coma. Bunnie was missing. Amy was trapped on Little Planet. Sally was still recovering.

Even after their small string of victories from restoring Elias, to the saving of the echidnas, it all felt hollow to Sonic. Not just because he hadn’t taken direct action in most of it, but also because it felt less like victories and more like clawing back what they’d already had.

Sonic took on a bitter smirk as he wondered whether he’d be this bitter about things if he’d managed to claw back the original team of freedom fighters. Maybe there was some merit to the idea which had been nagging him ever since rescuing Sally from the arctic, and which had been reinforced while guarding the Master Emerald. The idea that he was…

The speeding hedgehog’s thoughts cut short as he arrived at the Acorn household. He checked his watch beneath his glove and smiled at his punctuality. After greetings were shared between Sonic and Sally’s family, the princess and hedgehog were soon strolling away from the home of the royal family.

“So what did your folks think of the new racing stripe?” Sonic indicated the new stripe of darker fur down Sally’s back which had resulted from her getting a new body.

Sally rubbed her arm sheepishly. “Elias was complimentary. Dad… was a bit out of it today. And mom…” Sally hesitated as a flickering smile reached her face. “She almost cried. She said her grandmother, my great grandmother, had it. She said after it had skipped her, everyone thought it was gone.”

“Hey, that’s pretty cool right?” Sonic gave a gentle nudge to Sally’s arm. Sally looped her arm around Sonic’s.

The two spent the remainder of their walk in quiet silence. Sonic’s inner doubts were quelled by the person next to him. Sally was on the mend, and for now, that was victory enough for him.

Soon, the sun sank low on the horizon. Purple and yellow colored the sinking orb, the first twinkling of stars began to show through, and the cool breeze of night began to settle into the city.

The walk ended at Sally’s hut, which was now above ground. The chipmunk’s time underground in her recovery bunker had come to an end. Nicole would still be monitoring her vitals of course, but by this point the worry over medical emergencies was over.

Sonic, with an exaggerated bow, opened the door for Sally. “Are you certain you wouldn’t want to stay at the castle your highness?” Sonic asked with a hoity-toity voice.

Sally gave a lopsided grin to her boyfriend. “Oh it is a shame,” Sally held the back of her hand to her forehead, “But I’m afraid I can’t shake my love of the peasant’s life.”

“Oh yeah, the rich purple sheets are sooo peasantly,” Sonic deadpanned. The flicker and gathering of green pixels next to them made both Sonic and Sally stand straight and lose their sarcastic expressions.

Nicole’s hologram finished materializing. “We just received a message from G.U.N. They have detected a burst of chaos energy from the middle of the great mobocean.” The hedgehog and chipmunk tensed.

Sonic’s hand tightened where he was still holding the hut’s doorknob. “Eggman.”

“There’s no way to tell from the energy readings but…” Nicole trailed off.

“It’s him,” Sonic stated flatly.

“Is G.U.N. investigating?” Sally asked.

“Their satellites show nothing but open ocean where the energy spike took place. As for direct investigation… they asked if we could fly over the suspected origin of the energy shadow.”

Sally folded her arms and frowned. “They have the sum of all military might in the United Federation and they’re asking us to do a fly by?”

“They’re scared of whatever Ro-butt-nik’s cooked up Sal,” Sonic shrugged, letting the door to Sally’s hut half close. “Besides, pretty much everybody knows the fat man will monologue to us, but anyone else gets shot down on site.”

Sally held her chin in thought, staring vaguely at the ground. “No, something different is going on. Robotnik never does anything half-measure. An energy spike followed by silence is too vague. This wasn’t planned, which means…”

Sonic’s eyes sparked. “It was a mistake! Whatever he’s cookin isn’t done yet!” Sonic slammed Sally’s hut door shut and turned to Nicole. “Do we know where to go?”

“They gave us the suspected point of origin.”

“Alright then,” Sonic rubbed his hands together, “I’ll prep the Tornado, grab Tails and Amy and…” Sonic stopped the moment he realized what he’d said. Sally and Nicole stared with haunted looks at the hedgehog’s silence. “Sorry, force of habit,” Sonic muttered.

“Sonic…?” Sally reached halfway to touching the hedgehog’s shoulder.

Sonic shook his head, rustling his quills. “Actually, I’ve got a better idea. How bout us three go check it out?” The strain in Sonic’s face dissipated as he gestured to Sally and Nicole.

“Us?” Sally and Nicole said simultaneously.

“Is there an echo?” Sonic quipped, “But yeah, why not us? It… It could be like old times. Sonic and Sally doing recon on Ro-butt-nik’s latest scheme with their trusty handheld Nicole.”

“I… suppose it would be a good test of my new handheld, but…” Nicole turned to Sally.

The chipmunk folded her arms, running her fingers up and down her fur. “I’m not sure if I’m ready yet…” Sally mumbled.

Sonic placed his hand on Sally’s shoulder. “That’s why this is a good mission for you Sal. It’s just recon. We’ve proven the Tornado is faster than anything Ro-butt-nik’s got. Plus, we know whatever he’s doing isn’t ready. Worst case scenario we have to pull a retreat, then report what we saw to G.U.N. and the council. An easy mission to ease back into field work.”

Sonic took the princess’ hand, easing her into unfolding her arms. Sally closed her eyes and sighed through her nose. She had to start somewhere. “Alright, let’s do it. Should… we ask Tails to come along?”

Sonic had known Sally long enough to detect the old hint of worry for Tails’ safety in her voice. As far as Sonic was concerned, Tails had long since proven himself. Sally had long since acknowledged it too, but she’d never really stopped worrying about him on missions.

Sonic decided Sally had enough to worry about right now. “He’s busy being a genius up in the mountains,” Sonic waved his hand. “He’ll be happier here, and knowing him, he’ll probably have cobbled together some new weapons that he’ll be dying to show off by the time we get back.”

Sally nodded, letting out a covert sigh. “Right, yes… his work here is more important right now.” Now Sonic knew Sally was preoccupied; otherwise, she never would’ve missed his giving her an out in not inviting Tails. He would have to apologize to his brother later, but he knew Tails would understand.

“Cool, I’ll grab Nicole’s new handheld from Rotor’s lab, tell him where we’re going. See you two at the airfield.” Sonic sped away.

Nicole turned to Sally. “And I’ll inform the council and pass off city controls to them. They can invoke partial Iron Dominion protocol.”

The council, Rotor, and Nicole had worked out a backup system in the wake of Nicole being incapacitated by the Iron Queen as well as Metal Sonic’s virus. It gave over city system controls to the council with any restructuring of the city requiring all the councilors and king to vote, and gave ALL of the councilors the ability to raise the city shield in an emergency.

Nicole hesitated to dissipate seeing Sally hug herself again. “Sally… Are you sure you want to do this?”

Sally shook her head and clenched her fists at her sides. “Yes. Sonic’s right. A recon flight is a good way to ease back into the fight. Go tell the council. I’ll head for the airfield.” Nicole nodded and dissipated into pixels.

Sally marched with a leaned over, determined posture as she made her way to the plane. It was time to show that fat wretch he had failed to break her spirit. It was time for Sally Acorn to get back in the fight.

Several hours later…

“Sally, Sonic? Wake up, we’re approaching the coordinates.” Sally squirmed in the Tornado’s cockpit. However comfortable the padded seats were, there were only so many ways you could lie down before bumping into the hard metal sides of the bi-plane.

As she lifted her head, a rush of air blew Sally’s hair backward and pulled at her eyelids. She gave a wide yawn before responding. “Thanks for flying us through the night Nicole.”

Above Sally, Sonic stretched out flat on the wing of the plane, prevented from falling by the magnet bracelet on his wrist. Sonic removed the device and tossed it back into the backseat of the Tornado.

“Alrighty,” Sonic stood and stretched, cracking his back, “A chaos blast happened around here right? Let’s see what… caused it…” Sonic trailed off as he looked out over the ocean that was supposed to be empty for as far as the eye could see, but instead, a small chain of islands rested beneath them.

“Uh Nicole? Were you gunna mention the islands?” Sonic asked.

“What islands?” Nicole’s voice came from her handheld. Sally fished the device out of the cockpit’s glove box. With no cameras on the Tornado, Nicole had been flying them via satellite. She opened the purple handheld and pointed its camera towards the five islands beneath them.

“That… is not possible,” Nicole’s voice buzzed from the handheld. “The satellites show nothing but open ocean. Those should not exist.”

“If we’re flying blind, we better fly by visual.” Sally took the controls of the plane, but as she did, the vehicle jostled beneath them, and readouts from the plane began flashing red and beeping alarms.

The Tornado began spinning out of control, forcing Sonic to cling to the wing for dear life. “There’s some kind of atmospheric charge!” Nicole shouted over the rushing air and the plane’s beeping console.

“Hang on!” Sally shouted as she wrestled with the controls, trying to level out the plane and regain control.

The plane spun faster and began to nosedive towards the ocean. The two organic passengers felt the salty sea spray reach their faces as they plummeted. Sally strained on the control yoke until her arms burned with the effort. The plane leveled off and began to climb again just as it neared the ocean.

Just ahead of them, a huge, sparkling red circle formed in the sky. The circle housed a triangular grid pattern that shimmered in the sun. The dazzling display was there one moment, then gone the next, and replaced with a huge swirling red circle with a blue interior.

Air began rushing into the glowing portal, and it caught the Tornado in its grip. Sally strained against the new force, but this time the Tornado would not, or could not, resist. The plane became a tumbling object, hurtling toward the vortex.

The spinning of the vehicle finally made Sonic lose his grip. The hedgehog was thrown from the wing and sent into a tumbling flight of his own. Sally and Sonic screamed as they were dragged inside. Once the plane and its occupants had disappeared into the portal, the glowing ring shrank into nothingness, leaving a clear blue sky.

Chapter Text

Sonic gasped as he became conscious again. Air was rushing through his quills as he was in free fall. Angling his arms, he got himself upright just in time to land on his feet, his shoes slamming into grassy turf.

Sonic was surprised by the lack of shock that went through his legs. He could take a fall better than most, but from how high he’d just fallen it should’ve hurt more. The hedgehog quickly forgot that question though, as he looked around and gasped.

Huge oak trees surrounded him. Thick green grass blew in the wind. The sound of running water from various streams filtered through the bird’s chirping in the air. Further into the forest was a small village comprised of wooden huts with log walls and thatch roofs of straw. A village that would one day become something more. That one day would be reduced to ash and ruin.

“Knothole?” Sonic sped down and into the village proper and quickly noticed something was off about it. It was empty of any inhabitants, and the layout was all wrong. He’d run through this place enough times to never forget it. Freedom HQ and the Lake of Rings were missing, and his friends’ huts were out of order, and… duplicated? As Sonic looked the place over, he happened to stare upward and caught the most glaring difference.

The sky was a pure white, and filled with strange, morphing cubes. There were also floating masses scattered around above the false village. Unless Knuckles had been hiding several more floating islands, this place wasn’t the real world. Sonic was no computer expert, but he’d been inside a digital realm before.

“Is this one of your sick jokes Ro-butt-nik!” Sonic shouted at the sky, testing. No answer. No gloating. That ruled out Eggman.

Sonic took a fresh look around the place. It may have been a fake but…

The hedgehog took tentative steps towards the hut with deep tread marks in the dirt leading in and out of the front door. “No,” Sonic shook his head, turning away. “Stay focused, find the girls.” Sonic picked a random direction, spun up a peel out, then launched into super speed. If this place was digital like he thought, there would be a boundary to it, and hopefully an exit.

The hedgehog ducked and weaved through the village, leaping from tree to tree and grinding along fences like they were rails. Despite the chunks of the village being weirdly duplicated in varying patterns as he went, it was still a blast from the past. The air had the same earthy, crisp smell and the ground had the same texture of dirt beneath his shoes. Sonic hadn’t realized how much he missed the original Knothole.

His fond memories were briefly interrupted by the appearance of three tall, gray-armored, humanoid robots. “What up, Swat-‘Butts?’” Sonic quipped. The dome-headed machines turned their glowing red visors toward the hedgehog and extended their arms. Lasers shot from their gauntlets, which Sonic was able to dodge before they even fired.

Sonic started to question whether Eggman was behind this after all, until he destroyed the outdated badniks. Instead of collapsing into scrap metal, they disappeared in a flash of light. They had also failed to identify him in their robotic voices as the, ‘priority one hedgehog.’ Sonic frowned at the places where the swat bots had disappeared and resumed his run.

After blitzing through several more duplications of the village, he reached a long dirt road straightway in the Great Forest that he definitely didn’t remember. At the end of the straightaway was a bizarre white circle who’s edge was made up of a thousand tiny silver plates that were all rotating in various directions.

“Here’s hoping that’s a portal,” Sonic whispered to himself, before rocketing through the glowing white circle.

Sonic blearily woke up to the smell of moist earth. Soft raindrops were landing across his back. He already missed the warm sun of the false Knothole. Flicking his tongue to get a blade of grass out of his mouth, he got to hands and knees, groaning, as if the fall from before had just now caught up with him.

“Sal? Nicole?” Sonic got his shaking knees under himself and stood. Looking around, he saw he was still alone. “Looks like I’m the only one who made it out of that… whatever it was.”

Sonic stood in front of a massive, chair-like structure that towered over him, hemmed in on either side by two huge cliff walls. Behind the ‘chair’ was the dead end of the small canyon he was in but ahead was a path of green grass that led out.

A glitching, vibrational sound echoed through the canyon. “Mortal,” a distorted voice startled the hedgehog.

“Hello?”

“You have done the impossible,” the distorted voice continued. Sonic couldn’t decide whether it was male or female. “You have escaped Cyber Space through your own power.” The voice had no identifiable source either, only coming from the general direction of the sky. “You, are the key.”

Sonic frowned up into the raining sky. “Key huh? Sure beats being called a ‘rodent.’ Are you saying I can rescue my friends?”

“Find the Chaos Emeralds. Destroy the Titans. Tear down the walls between dimensions.”

Sonic folded his arms and began tapping his foot. “Yeah—okay—sure… Here’s the thing. Judging by your voice I’m assuming you’re some kinda digital person. Maybe you were offline when it happened, but the Chaos Emeralds were all smooshed together into seven and thrown into the Special Zone. Emeralds aren’t just lying around anymore. And who or what are the Titans? A little context please…? Hello…?”

The rainy sky gave no reply. Sonic growled under his breath, clenching his fists at his sides. “Fine! Be needlessly cryptic!” Sonic threw his hands in the air, before speeding off down the small canyon.

Jumping over a short cliff of rock, Sonic sped out of the canyon. He halted his pace when he spotted the ocean sprawling out before him off a cliff edge. Luckily the level ground continued to the right, sandwiched between a sharp drop off to the ocean on the left and a sheer cliff on the right. Now wary of speeding into the salty waters below, Sonic slowed his pace.

A few paces farther led him to three black circles imbedded in the ground. They were a smooth black metal, with a ring of ancient grey stone around each of them. Driven by mild curiosity, Sonic jumped on each of them. When all had been pressed, a flat blue shockwave emanated out from them and spread out and across the grassy land like a ripple in water, creating an afterglow of a grid pattern.

Sonic shook his head when the ripple ended. He felt like he’d just seen a location different to his own flash across his vision, like being in a vivid dream then suddenly slamming awake to find your real surroundings. But the location that had just flashed across his vision hadn’t been familiar. At least… only familiar in that it looked like the segment of the island he’d seen thus far.

Sonic looked between the ground and the path forward with a sneaking suspicion. “Okay…” He sped a little farther and encountered four strange triangular pods resting in the grass. As he drew near, the pods sparked with red electricity and stood up.

The four pods transformed into robots. They were sleek and silver, with thin waists and bulky arms and legs that came to fine points. Their heads were single triangular holes with a red triangle glowing from within. These robots cast their triangular gaze towards the hedgehog, and after a moment of staring, broke into a sprint towards him.

Sonic leaned his head to either side, cracking his neck. “Since you guys aren’t Eggman bots, I suppose I should try reasoning with you.” The first of the robots reached Sonic and reared back its pointed arms ready to spear the hedgehog.

Sonic leapt above the attack, then slammed downward onto the machine’s head. The robot shattered open, dissipating into red pixels, and then nothingness. “But right now, I’m in the mood to obliterate something.” Sonic made short work of the other three bots, reducing them all to vanishing pixels.

Continuing around the side of the island, Sonic encountered an ancient triangular temple with four more of the same robots. He dispatched these too but lingered near the structure they’d come from. It looked like the flash of imagery that had played across his vision after pushing the buttons, but that wasn’t what concerned him. Inside the temple was a metallic crate that looked brand new. It had no markings, but Sonic already knew who it belonged to.

Moving on, Sonic found a new variant of angular robot with floating disembodied arms. This one proved a little tougher, but not by much. Unlike the others though, this one left something behind when it fragmented into pixels. A single, large gear the size of a car steering wheel, sporting a light blue pattern. Grabbing the gear, it flashed into pixels too, but Sonic could feel its converted energy pass into him, like the Chaos Emeralds or rings, though far less powerful. Ahead of him, a large circular door unlocked with a shuddering click and disappeared.

Beyond that was a strange puzzle that involved turning a statue to get another towering, locked door open. He passed through, and still he was stuck in the curving edge of the island.

Becoming fed up with the tedium of skirting the perimeter, Sonic started to pick up speed. As he rounded another turn, a flare of blue light appeared behind him. “Woah!” Sonic looked over his shoulder to see a trail of light blue streaking behind him where he ran, sending off tiny sparks of white.

Just to be sure, Sonic did several loops in place, and confirmed the energy trail was from himself. As he did, sparks lit off from the ground and the grass stood on end for just a moment inside his drawn circle. He’d left energy trails before, but never quite like that. It had the same sparking as the robots and portal that had sucked in the Tornado. Was this what the sky voice had meant by ‘his own power?’

Just ahead of him, three more robot pods transformed and started running toward him. Sonic’s eyes darted between the patch of grass he’d just caused a reaction in with his new power, and the approaching robots.

“Yo fellas! Ever seen a blue streak speed by?” Sonic bolted into a run and circled the three robots in seconds with his new energy trail. The three mechanical beings shuddered, then were catapulted high into the sky, becoming limp and defenseless. Sonic spin dashed up into the air and destroyed all three before they could hit the ground.

Sonic landed with a kneel as a small shower of dissipating red sparks rained over him. “Now that, is something I could get used to.”

Speeding up a narrow cliff incline, Sonic allowed himself a moment of smugness for his cool new speed trail. Reaching the top he gained an even bigger smile when he saw that the land had finally opened up from the sheer cliff and the drop off, though he grunted in annoyance again when he saw the massive chasm between his sliver of land and another mountain incline across the gap.

Once he’d taken in the wider land, he noticed the square stone platform topped with another cyberspace gate… cyberspace gate? Where had that name come from? When had he learned they were called that? Sonic looked back over his shoulder in the direction of the stone buttons, then shrugged.

Suddenly, the sky voice returned, echoing from nowhere. “Return to the digital dimension again. Use that gear to bridge the gap between dimensions.” Again, Sonic shrugged and hopped up onto the gate, Sonic noticed for the first time the gear shaped slot at the back of the ‘chair.’ Raising his hand, he focused and made the gear re-materialize. Once it had, it floated to its position and sank into place.

“It is not enough to make the connection. One gear will not suffice. Hunt down another target and take its gear,” the sky voice stated.

Sonic clicked his teeth with a flat expression. “And just where would you suggest I get another…?”

The hedgehog was interrupted by a circular, sparking red portal opening in the sky several hundred feet up in the air. A massive, metallic black pillar fell straight out of the portal and crashed into the ground, kicking up a huge plume of dirt and making Sonic shudder on his feet.

The thing stood at least three stories tall with a pointed blank face at the top with red lines in place of eyes. It let off a deep electronic humming sound as it cast its vacant gaze towards the hedgehog. “Well I guess that’ll do.”

Speeding towards the malevolent tower, the machine revealed its primary weapon. A spinning, spiked ring rose up from its base, cycling up and down. When Sonic got close, the ring sent off a black spike with a glowing hod red tip towards its foe.

Sonic ducked beneath the projectile, but it followed up with several dozen more. The impacts of the various spikes sent off miniature explosions and clouds of turf. Sonic ran wider of the tower’s range, circling, when an idea occurred to him.

The blue trail sparked to life behind him. The tower let off several more spikes, which he leapt above. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the trail had vanished the moment he had left the ground.

Sonic waited until the current barrage of spikes ended. “Let’s try this again.” Timing things carefully, Sonic blitzed in close, circling the tower base and crossing his cyber loop trail, then speeding back out of the line of fire.

The tower shuddered as a sparking red explosion took out a large, circular chunk of the bottom of the machine. “Ha!” Sonic jeered as he got into a running start position to topple the tower over. Unfortunately he never got the chance as the tower pulled its spiked bottom out of the ground, and began to hover in place.

“Ah crap…”

Sonic became a zipping fly on the ground as the tower began chasing and barraging him from the air. “Oh come on! There is no way you should be able to fly!”

Sonic ran beneath the tower to escape three spikes. The entire structure slammed downward in an attempt to flatten him. Sonic nearly tripped as the ground shook beneath his feet and clods of dirt landed on his spines. When no further spikes flew at him he turned around and saw the tower slamming into the ground had forced the spinning ring to the bottom, briefly rendering it useless.

A manic grin spread across the hedgehog’s face as he performed another cyber loop around the tower, causing another destroyed segment. The tower again rose into the air and began firing off spikes, but Sonic had it figured out now.

After several more repeats of tricking the machine into attempting to crush him, Sonic had the tower whittled down to three chunks. As it slammed once more though, he decided he was done with this exercise. Leaping upward before the ring could be re-aligned, he repeatedly spin dashed into the machine’s face, until its head was knocked off its body.

The severed top became inert as it fell to the ground with a metallic tumble. The body similarly fell to its side. Both pieces then sparked with a huge build up of red energy, before exploding, and dissipating into pixels. All that was left was another blue glowing gear.

“Use the gear as you have done before,” came the sky voice again.

Sonic rolled his eyes. “Thank you disembodied-voice-of-the-obvious.” He returned to the cyberspace gate and set the gear in place.

“Return to cyberspace. As many times as it takes.”

Sonic chewed at his lip, staring at the sky. He knew better than to ask with these types. Not sure what to do to enter, he raised his hand. Above him, in a circle mounted at the top of the gate, sparking red energy began to gather. The red traced down the lines engraved in the black metal, ending just above the gear slot. The sparking orbs of red emanated out from the gears, then enveloped him, and he was gone in an instant.

Sonic blinked and he was somewhere new. A quick glance at the sky showed the same floating landmasses and morphing white squares, but that wasn’t what interested him. Stretching before him were wide acres of farmland.

Where he stood now, atop a small hill of short sunbleached grass, he saw endless rows of wheat blowing in the wind, stretching out before him. To the left and right too, more wheat, planted in neat rows and within huge squares of land, segmented only by paths wide enough for a tractor.

Despite the morphing digital sky, he could feel the brutal heat of the sun beating down on him. His eyes and nose stung slightly at the chaff blowing in the wind. Squinting through the sun rays that weren’t there but could be felt, he saw an iron bar fence in the distance; beyond that, he couldn’t identify the buildings within.

“Okay… Well it sure ain’t Knothole, and it’s not something Eggman would ever do, so where did this fake place come from?” Sonic looked around with the slim hope that maybe this place had some inhabitants.

He sped his way through the wheat field and stopped at the iron fence. Peering through, Sonic let out a low whistle. The buildings beyond weren’t houses, but mansions. Huge three-to-four story structures, gleaming white, some with carved pillars flanking the entrances.

Sonic sped along the outside of the fence until reaching a gate, which was unlocked. Entering, he began running through the grounds of this richly kept place. Ornate balconies, outdoor pools and fountains, and well-kept lawns with topiaries of various mobini flashed by.

Sonic had been around fancy stuff before. He dated a princess for goodness sake, but this wasn’t quite like anything he’d ever seen before. The Acorn castle was grand, and far bigger than anything here, but this felt different. The castle and its grounds served a purpose, showing strength to the citizens; he’d learned that much from Sally.

But here, this was wealth for wealth’s sake. Nothing here had a purpose outside of entertainment. It reminded him a little of the casinos and carnivals he’d visited, only here it wasn’t to trap tourists. This was personal, only meant to be enjoyed by those who could afford it.

Never having been much of a fan of snobs, and seeing as it was all fake anyway, Sonic sped through the digital mansions with reckless abandonment. Grinding along balcony rails and using fountains as springboards. And when he spin dashed through large windows inside the lavish mansions, the grandiose only intensified.

Rich, dark colored fabrics, gold trim on the walls and doorways, large portraits hanging from the walls. Sonic skid to a dead stop on his run, causing a red carpet to unstick from its place on the floor and gather in a heap ahead of him.

He’d done a double take at the portrait he’d just passed. He almost did another as he looked at it properly. Two rabbit mobians, one a woman dressed in a frankly absurdly layered pink dress holding a fan. The other, a man in a green suit with bushy eyebrows raised way too high and a thin moustache.

The resemblance wasn’t immediately obvious. After all Sonic could never recall her looking this high-and-mighty in any situation. But still, between the two of them…

“Bunnie…” Sonic whispered under his breath, “When you said you were from the south… you never mentioned your folks were rolling in it.”

As the initial revelation wore off, a darker thought entered Sonic’s mind. “But why would this be here… unless…” Sonic’s eyes widened, and he looked around the mansion anew. He shouted for Bunnie, for anyone, but there was nothing… except the swat bot marching down the hall and aiming its laser at his head.

Sonic dashed from the mansion and doubled his speed through the digital landscape. Bunnie was here; he was sure of it. That made three of his friends trapped on these islands he needed to find asap.

After a short run through the rest of the duplicating mansion grounds of the Southern Baronies, Sonic was back in the real world as light droplets of rain pelted his quills. The cyberspace gate gave a quiet hum behind him as it powered down, and its red lights were replaced with soft blue. Above the hedgehog’s head, a tiny spark of white light appeared, which resolved itself into a silver, ornate key.

Not really being surprised by anything at this point, Sonic held out his hand. The key flickered, hovering above his open palm, before dissipating into energy, and being absorbed within him. After the key was taken, two things happened.

Off in the distance, just over the edge of a mountain face that stood opposite the gap Sonic was on, a huge shaft of green light fired into the sky. Sonic barely noted it though, because closer to him, two stone towers on either side of a stone platform at the edge of the gap separating him from the rest of the island came to life.

The two towers glowed and sent two beams of cyan out into each other. The combined beams then shot downward and traced a path through the air across the gap to the rest of the island. Sonic watched in silent awe as the beam traced, because as it passed over empty air, a bridge of stone and the shiny black ancient metal materialized. When the beams flickered away, they left a fully formed bridge in their wake.

Sonic crossed the bridge in seconds before zig-zagging his way up the narrow ledges of the cliff in front of him. When he reached the top, he gasped. At the top of the cliff was the origin of the green beam of energy shooting into the sky.

It was a strange structure made up of moss covered stone with six plates of the black metal stabbing upward towards the sky. Three of these plates were small and on the outside, but the other three were four times as tall as Sonic and rotated around the structure’s center. Resting within that center, contained in some strange spherical energy shield, was a green chaos emerald.

Sonic climbed the three small steps up to the platform of the structure. “How in the world…? A.D.A.M. said he’d collected them all… How is this…?”

The rotating points that circled the chaos emerald stopped as Sonic approached. Feeling the energy he’d absorbed tingle in his hand, Sonic extended his arm towards the structure, palm out. The key he’d gotten from the cyberspace gate re-materialized, floating above his hand, then dissipated again, only this time its particles traveled into the shield surrounding the chaos emerald.

The shield vanished, and the emerald disappeared, then reappeared over Sonic’s open palm, landing in his hand. Sonic stared at the gem, before letting it absorb into himself, savoring its energy. Before he could ponder the magnitude of this emerald escaping A.D.A.M.’s collecting of all the gems, he was blindsided by a different sight.

Moving past the emerald vault, Sonic beheld the entirety of the island. Rolling grass covered hills, waterfalls, pockets of forest, more ancient stone and metal structures, a giant tower in the distance, a floating upside-down pyramid hovering in the air, a colossal three armed robot of some kind, and a mountain peak obscured by mist. And all that was just what he could see from the top of his current hill.

Sonic blinked and ran a hand through his quills, taking it all in. “Alright then,” Sonic squared his shoulders and shook his sneakers, “Let’s do it to it.”

Chapter Text

Sonic got into a running start position to speed down the hillside into Kronos Island’s interior… Kronos Island…? Sonic shook his head. That brain download sure did a lot. But before he could burn shoe rubber, a series of tiny sounds reached his ears.

Looking at the cornerstones of the gray stone platform Sonic stood on, he spotted a strange group of creatures. Almost blending in with the stone they stood on, they were round with two stubby legs and faces comprised of two large eyes and a tiny, squeaking mouth. While they lacked arms, a ribbon of stone draped over their heads that came down to points evoked the missing appendages.

The small group of basketball sized creatures smiled up at the hedgehog, making strange squeaking and gurgling noises of greeting. Sonic knelt to one knee to greet them back. “Hey little dudes or dudettes. You seen any of my friends around here?” The little creatures showed no recognition of his words, and instead only stumbled around him, one falling and rolling over on its face.

Sonic stood the fallen critter back up before getting to his feet. “Sorry guys, but I gotta find my friends.” With that the hedgehog took a few steps away to avoid his shockwave knocking the rounded creatures over, before blasting down the hill.

Halfway down he came upon another puzzle, this time being a series of five triangular light posts. Simply touching the things made them light up, and once all five were lit, another shockwave of blue and a download of memories into his brain took place. This time, there was something round and red that flashed across his vision, and though he couldn’t place it, he felt that this round-red-thing was important.

But before he could ponder the importance of whatever he’d seen, something more pressing caught his attention. A towering, three-armed robot that would’ve loomed over Castle Acorn stood before him. The bizarrely built creation had a torso that sported two thin, chubby legs under a skirt like piece, before morphing into a three-pronged head with three long giant arms draping down to the ground.

Despite Sonic’s proximity, the robot was merely standing there, motionless. Unlike the black tower, this one wasn’t picking fights. While the hedgehog was tempted to initiate one himself to see what the machine could do, he shook his head. Speeding around the towering opponent, he continued on to the right side of the hill.

That was when he spotted it. A red and black, see-through orb, placed atop a thin black pedestal nestled among some trees. Sonic gasped when he saw what was inside.

“Sally!? Is that you?” Within the orb stood a flickering image of Sally, like one of Nicole’s holograms when it had a bad connection.

“Sonic!?” Sally pressed against the wall of her prison, staring away from Sonic, unable to see outside. “Sonic are you there!?” she sounded on the verge of tears, “Please…! if you’re real…! Help me!”

Sonic’s fists clenched at his sides and he winced at Sally’s tone. “I’m here Sal! Just… Just hang on!” In a burst of speed, Sonic ran several feet away from the red prison. Once he’d gained some distance, he revved into a spin dash and blasted back towards his girlfriend.

The blue blur collided with the red orb, which shattered into glowing rectangular pieces that hovered in the air. Sally floated in place where the prison had once stood for a moment, then slowly hovered down to the ground. The remnants of the prison did not disappear like the robots, but instead flashed over to where Sonic had landed, absorbing into the hedgehog.

Sonic hardly cared for the brief stinging sensation he felt in his joints from the energy passing into him as he was preoccupied with… “Sally?”

The hedgehog took tentative steps towards the princess. She had remained in her flickering holographic state, taking on a light blue color.

Sally herself reached toward the hedgehog. “Sonic, are you alright? That energy that was holding me prisoner went into…” Sally trailed off as she reached toward her boyfriend; she’d caught sight of her flickering, see-through arm.

The chipmunk froze in place, staring with wide, horrified eyes. Her face became slack, and her hand began to tremble.

“Sal! Sally! Don’t panic. I know how this looks but I’m working on it. It’s not permanent. I’m…” Sonic stepped forward and tried to take Sally’s hand, but his fingers passed through the chipmunk’s arm. She was nothing but light.

Sonic’s hand passing through her shattered Sally’s remaining calm. She began to hyperventilate. “No… no, no, NO!” She began to scratch at her forearms and sides of her body. She felt a slight sense of touch, but it wasn’t right. The pain reflex wasn’t there, and no marks were left on the skin beneath her fur despite her effort.

The princess became feverish in her scratching as the lack of response from her body pushed her further into her frenzy. Sonic watched on, rocking on his feet wanting to rush to her aid but knowing he couldn’t comfort her like he usually would. “Sal! Sally! You’ve gotta stop! SALLY!” Sonic screamed.

The chipmunk startled. She took a step backward from the hedgehog, panting. As her breathing slowed, tears began to gather in her eyes. She sank to her knees and began to sob. “Wh-Why… Why is this happening to me?”

“I don’t know Sal, but I’m working on it.” Sonic’s eyes took on their own sheen as he got to his knees with Sally. He tried to meet his girlfriend’s eyes, but the chipmunk had buried her face in her hands. “There’s some kind of digital voice here. It said I had the power to escape ‘cyberspace,’ which is where you are now. It told me to tear down the walls between dimensions.”

Sally still wouldn’t look at him. “Sal,” Sonic’s tone became pleading. The chipmunk finally pulled her hands away from her tear-stained face. “I’ve been in the world you’re in right now twice. I came back the same. This isn’t permanent.”

Sally looked between her boyfriend and her trembling hands in her lap. Reaching forward, Sonic cupped Sally’s cheek with his hand, lining it up so that it appeared he could touch her. Sally took a steadying breath. Her fearful expression was replaced with weariness, but Sonic would take what he could get.

“I’m sorry this happened Sal, but I’m gunna fix it,” Sonic promised.

Sally wiped her eyes, staring briefly at the tear marks on her flickering, see-through hand. “I know you will, you always do.” Sonic winced at her voice carrying a tone of defeat.

Sally grit her teeth and seemed to force back more tears as she continued. “You need to get moving. If I was trapped, then Nicole probably is too.”

“Okay,” Sonic nodded, glad that Sally was at least calmer now. “Just hang on Sal. I’ll scout around and find you later. Deal?” He wouldn’t leave until he was sure Sally wouldn’t break down again.

Sally could see Sonic’s concern. She took another steadying breath before answering, “Deal. Be careful Sonic.”

Sonic got to his feet, as did Sally. The hedgehog gave a playful smirk. “‘Careful?’ Where’s the fun in that?” Despite his quip, Sonic’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. Sally managed to give her own forced smile back before he sped away.

Sonic took on a furious scowl once he’d put distance between himself and Sally. This was the last thing she’d needed. Of all the things to go wrong on her first mission back in the field…!

And it had been him who’d suggested it.

Sonic’s anger made him forget which direction he was running. The ground shook beneath his blurred feet as one of the giant’s three draping arms slammed into the ground. Shooting out from where it had sunk its four fingers into the dirt, rings of blue energy rippled out from the giant automaton.

Before Sonic could react, the sky voice returned, echoing around him despite being in open air. “You are the key. Be impowered with these techniques.”

Sonic blinked as his vision flashed again, but these were different. He saw a white void, with one of the triangular robots ready to attack him. In his vision he performed several moves against the machine, with each one featuring that blue streak of energy he’d discovered earlier.

Shaking his head, Sonic came back to the current reality. “Asura,” Sonic barely took notice of the fact he knew the towering, three-armed robot’s name. “You picked the wrong time to pick a fight with me.”

Sonic sped through the rippling blue rings that came out from where the giant had slammed its arm. Seeing that the rings didn’t have energy contained within their perimeters, Sonic sped through them. The surge of energy he received from the rippling blue energy constructs boosted his speed, which he used to run up the side of the robot’s arm.

Blasting up the robot’s appendage, Sonic shot straight up into the air above the machine, spotting three points above the robot’s arms; as good a weak spot as any.

Sonic attacked the first of the three points and quickly reduced it to dissipating pixels. The arm beneath the pointed ‘shoulder’ fragmented along with it, vanishing from the robot’s form.

Landing back on the ground, Sonic baited the robot into slamming its next arm down. The only change came from some red rippling energy rings that gave off extreme heat, which Sonic avoided. A quick race up the robot’s arm revealed it had put up energy barriers around its pointed shoulders, but Sonic dodged those too. Soon enough, all the machine’s appendages were destroyed, and the body disappeared quickly after, leaving behind another gear.

Sonic collected the gear, absorbing it into himself. Backtracking, he quickly found another cyberspace gate and plugged in the gear. “Hang on girls, I’m on my way.”

Eggman blearily shook his head as he woke up. Getting his feet under him, he found he was standing on oil-stained concrete. The sounds of clanking gears and rattling automated trucks filled the air. Massive factory and refinery buildings surrounded him, their windows, if they had any, choked over in soot and grime. Overhead hover units driven by swat bots flew back and forth, the hum of their repulser engines fading in and out with distance.

Down the street he occupied, the doctor could spot his capital building in the distance, the egg shaped dome dominated the crowded cityscape. The capital of Robotropolis. Taking a deep breath in, Robotnik savored the scent of petroleum and exhaust permeating the air, sighing in contentment. “Ahhh, how I missed the beauty of this place.”

The only break in the illusion of the wonderous city of the future, was the lack of smog choked skies blocking out the sun. In their place, there was an expanse of pure white, with giant morphing squares dotting the sky.

Eggman held his hand over his eyes to squint into the distance. “I appear to be in a digital dimension. I’ve employed similar constructs in my own systems but… this is markedly more advanced.”

The doctor tapped one of his golden icons on his suit and spoke into the recorder. “Note to self: reverse engineer this program at my earliest convenience, then destroy the original.”

Eggman paced the street he was on, marveling at the details of the place that could only have come from his own memories. “The amount of data stored here defies quantification.” The doctor’s lips peeled back into a toothy grin. “But it won’t stop me from trying.”

Sonic’s mood did not improve with the vanquishing of Asura. The cyberspace gate he’d entered had spit him out into a re-creation of Robotropolis. He’d at least gained the satisfaction of seeing how much faster he’d gotten since the early days of fighting back against Robotnik.

Having left cyberspace with several more vault keys, Sonic sped deeper into the island’s interior to the next chaos emerald. He hoped he could find Nicole before meeting up with Sally again to give her some good news. Unfortunately, he found signs of someone else.

Sonic stopped at the edge of a river whose water level was severely lowered, leaving steep, rocky sides that went several feet down and ended in ankle deep water. Crisscrossing this depleted waterway were several red and silver metallic bridges and in-construction pathways.

“Eggman,” Sonic hissed under his breath. Traveling further in revealed the doctor’s handiwork scattered around the island, including platforms jutting out from the smooth rock wall of the island’s mountain, and round landing pods the size of a small house adorned with the Eggman Empire logo.

Luckily, it looked like most of the environment and ancient machinery was still intact despite Eggman’s presence. As Sonic stood atop one of the landing pods, a bitter smirk reached his lips. “Guess this means your stuck too Ro-butt-nik.” Sonic kicked one of the metal storage crates off the pod’s roof, making it crash and break apart on the ground below. “Maybe I can finally end this stupid war while I’m rescuing my friends.”

Leaping off the pod’s roof, Sonic continued on towards the shaft of green light and found his second green chaos emerald. He wondered how powerful this ancient tech must be for them to have resisted A.D.A.M.’s summoning tower when gems from across space had come without issue.

As Sonic sped away from the chaos emerald vault to search for another cyberspace gate, the ground shuddered beneath him harder than during any of the prior robots he’d faced. In the same instant, there was a flicker of red and pink pixels several feet in front of him, and when it was gone, a massive humanoid robot had appeared before him.

The towering machine dwarfed everything he’d seen thus far. The largest trees on the island only came to the thing’s ankles and looked like short bushes in comparison. While similarly designed to the triangle robots from the waist down, the upper torso had huge broad shoulders with long muscular arms that ended in three pointed fingers. Topping off the thing thousands of feet high was its head, sporting only a mouth, filled with grinning square teeth.

Sonic dodged one of the giant’s massive feet and rolled into a kneeling position behind it. Seeing that it was only standing still he sped around to the front again and had to crane his neck all the way back to look at its face. “Okay, that HAS to be one of the titans keeping the girls trapped.”

Far above, barely a speck to Sonic’s vision, something else materialized in a small burst of red pixels, floating next to the titan’s head. Sonic couldn’t make out what it was, but when it moved, the titan’s head and shoulders sagged, and it seemed to power down. Once that was done, the red something disappeared, then reappeared, hovering just in front of Sonic.

“Woah!” the hedgehog startled. The new arrival was, by all appearances, a little white-haired girl in a flowing black dress. She seemed to have the same flickering effect as Sally, but her pixels were red and black rather than light blue.

The floating girl spoke in a cold monotone. “You. Leave. Immediately.”

Sonic barely paid attention to her demand, still trying to figure out what she was. “Where did you come from?” Sonic’s tone became softer, “Are you trapped too?”

The girl’s expression and tone remained flat. “Do not approach the Titan.”

Sonic’s eyes darted back and forth between the floating girl and the towering robot behind her. So this was one of the titans. The same titans the sky voice had said to destroy, which would hopefully lead to saving Sally, Nicole, and Bunnie.

Sonic rolled his shoulders for whatever insane battle he was about to start. “Sorry kid, but I’ve got a job to do.” Sonic sped away before she could reply.

The floating girl rotated in place, tracing Sonic’s path towards the towering automaton. “If we are fortunate, it will destroy you.” She raised her arm, and her hand pulsed with red energy. Far above, the titan’s head groaned to life again.

Sonic shot straight for the robot’s legs. Looking up, he saw the giant’s head come back to life and leer its grit teeth down at him. The machine raised its right leg and slammed it down into the dirt of the island. The force of the stomp was so great it dislodged entire boulders up and out of the earth several hundred feet in the air.

Sonic was sent up along with the now spiraling boulders. Shaking off the sudden launch, he made the most of it and began leaping and spin dashing through the flying rocks, making his way towards the titan’s head.

Clearing the flying rock field, Sonic had a clear shot to the robot’s head. Charging up a spin dash he went straight for the titan’s teeth, hoping to burrow down inside the thing and tear it apart from the inside. But, as he bashed against the giant’s maw, instead of slicing through, he bounced harmlessly off the grinning metal plates, and backward into the air.

Before Sonic could even think about preparing for his fall, the giant reared back its arm with a speed that shouldn’t have been possible for such a massive being. Then, the three fingered hand the size of a car raced forward and grabbed Sonic.

Cold, silver-white metal closed in on all sides. Sonic grit his teeth as the pressure of the giant’s grip threatened to snap his bones. This was followed by another shuddering that rattled Sonic’s brain in his skull and a rush of air through the gaps in the robot’s fingers.

Then, with a force that Sonic hadn’t felt since his travels in space, he was thrown by the robot and sent hurdling through the air. The hedgehog traveled through two stone towers, creating a shower of stone and dust debris, before finally slamming against the wall of the island’s mountain.

The force of the impact was so great the rock caved in behind Sonic. Every inch of him felt searing pain, and a numbness began to form in his mind as the shock threatened to make him black out. Distantly, he also felt a surge of ring energy he hadn’t felt since being transformed back to normal after being roboticized. The energy of all the rings he’d collected over the years had spared him from death once again.

Sonic peeled off and out of the crater he’d made in the side of the mountain. Becoming a limp ragdoll, he tumbled down the mountain side and was, ironically, only spared a long fall by one of Eggman’s platforms jutting out from its surface. Clanking and tumbling along the hard metal, Sonic stopped just at the edge of the platform. He gave one meager attempt to prop himself up with his elbow, before grunting as pain rippled along his body, and he collapsed flat and unconscious.

Chapter Text

Sonic’s eyelids slowly blinked open, flashing between blue sky and darkness. The hedgehog sat up with a start, gasping. Pain seared down the back of his head and into his back. Numerous quills had been stabbed backward into his skin. Sonic grit his teeth and flexed his spines. He gasped again as the stabbing quills dislodged and clattered onto the metal platform under him.

The release of the quills took the last of the lingering pain away. Sonic had never appreciated speed healing this much. He sighed again as he got to his feet. Looking out over the horizon, he saw the footprints and torn up boulders left by the titan, but the behemoth robot was nowhere to be seen.

Sonic’s fists clenched at his sides and his breathing began to shake with rage. “Big mistake leaving me alive kid.”

As he got into a running position to go find the brat that had sent the titan after him, he squinted  at the sky and noticed something else. The sun had moved. How long had he been out? “Sally!” Sonic stowed his rage for the moment and blasted back toward the edge of the island he’d started from.

Sonic took to one of the half-completed metal pathways Eggman had built into the side of the mountain. His feet clanking along the metal pathway, he heaved a sigh of relief as he spotted a flickering hologram in the distance.

Skidding to a stop, Sally’s weary expression brightened a little as she spotted him. “Sonic, there you are. The island felt like it had an earthquake a few minutes ago. I’m assuming that was you?”

“Yeah,” Sonic nodded, distracted by one of the little rock creatures bobbing back and forth on its stubby legs next to Sally. “Uh, who’s your friend?”

Sally turned to the little creature with red berries and a white flower growing on its head, which began talking in its strange squeaky language. Sonic looked between the critter and Sally and saw she was reacting to the words.

“This koco says she needs to find her true love before it’s too late. She was wounded in battle and has only just recovered, and if she can’t find him now, she may never see him again.”

Sonic’s eyes darted between Sally and the bobbing critter, before becoming lidded. “You… got all that, huh?”

Sally frowned and held her chin. “I… feel like the dimension I’m in is translating for me. It’s, strange…” Sally stared at her flickering hand for a moment, “But feels natural.”

Sonic blinked, then shrugged. “Well you always were the diplomat, who am I to argue.”

Sally chuckled, a wistful look coming over her face. “Don’t worry, you’ve come a long way from picking fights with everyone.” Sonic frowned at Sally’s reassurance, but before he could comment she’d knelt down to the… Koco? That was what she’d called the little critter.

“Don’t worry little one, I’ll help you find your lost love,” Sally promised the koco.

Sonic folded his arms and tapped his foot. “Don’t we have more pressing issues to deal with?”

Sally stood up again. “I know you’ve got things covered. Besides, I wouldn’t be any help even if I was normal.”

Sonic’s frown switched from annoyed to worried. “Sal, what the heck is that supposed to mean?”

Sally hugged herself and stared at the ground. “The most I can do right now is help this koco, and maybe get some more information about the islands along the way. I know you can handle the rest.”

Sonic’s foot tapping stopped, but his scowl deepened. “I know you better than that Sal, so tell me what’s wrong.”

Sally gave her own stubborn scowl in return, then sighed through her nose. “I’ve realized something; it was a mistake for me to come here.”

Sonic’s expression became flat. “Uh yeah, I think we all regret coming here Sal,” Sonic drawled.

“Not us, Sonic. Me,” Sally whispered. “When I was trapped in that red prison… All I could see… was Robotnik’s face. Leering down at me. Disassembling me. And laughing… Always laughing.”

“Sal,” Sonic reached forward and had to stop half-way from trying to grab Sally’s arm. “This place is pulling from our memories. I’ve run through the original Knothole and Robotropolis. It’s the island that’s messing with us.”

Sally screwed her eyes shut, hugging herself tighter. “It’s not the island, Sonic. I’ve… been seeing his face ever since I got turned back. Every time I get scared… overwhelmed… I freeze up… and he’s there to laugh at me.”

Sonic’s face became drawn with silent horror. “Why… Why didn’t you tell me Sal?”

Several tears escaped the chipmunk’s eyes. “I know I should’ve, but… I just didn’t want to think about it. When I’m calm… When I’m safe… It doesn’t happen. I thought maybe it was gone when I was able to get into the Tornado without any problems. But when I got trapped…”

Sally fell quiet as several tears ran down her face. She wiped her eyes and sniffed before continuing in an eerily calm voice. “I can’t go back into the field, Sonic. Maybe one day I can get these visions out of my head… not freeze up… But the war can’t wait on me. And besides, you don’t need me anymore.”

Sonic had been quietly listening with a devastated silence, but the last part made him startle and shake his head. “Sal, what are you talking about? Of course I need you. We all do.”

Sally gave a watery smile to her boyfriend. “You haven’t needed me on the battlefield for a long time Sonic. I joined the team again because it was something I wanted… I do still want it… But I can’t be a liability to you or the others.”

Sonic’s fists clenched at his sides, and his frown returned. “Sal, we talked about this. Don’t start the ‘blame yourself’ game again. You…”

“That’s not what I’m doing,” Sally held up a hand for silence. “I’m just being pragmatic. Strategy and leadership was always my strength, what I brought to the team, but between you and Tails, I’m not needed in the field anymore.”

“Sally listen to yourself!” Sonic scoffed “You’re saying me, Sonic the Hedgehog, is a leader?!”

Sonic became incensed as Sally’s smile only grew. “You’ve been the leader ever since I was roboticized,” Sally said.

Sonic frowned at his girlfriend with a slack jaw. Before Sally could continue in the stunned silence, Sonic retorted, “Team Fighters wasn’t me leading, Sally!”

Sally folded her arms and raised a patient eyebrow. “You rose to the occasion after I was captured. You came up with the idea to form two new teams to deal with the current threats to the republic. You launched a campaign against Robotnik and chased him all across Mobius. And all the while you made sure to never prioritize me over saving innocent people from Robotnik’s carnage.” Sally chuckled at Sonic’s look of incredulity. “If that’s not leadership, I don’t know what is.”

Sonic opened and closed his mouth several times, but made no sound, trying to think of a rebuttal. Sally’s amused smile faded, however, as Sonic’s expression became one of fear, and sadness. “Sonic, I’m not giving up. You know that, right?” Sally asked.

Sonic took a step away from Sally, averting his eyes. “I’ll still be involved.” Sally tried to catch Sonic’s gaze, “Helping coordinate things from Mobotropolis, just… not in the field anymore… Sonic…?” The hedgehog had turned away, staring out at the rolling hills of the island, his expression hidden from Sally.

“Sonic…?” Sally reached half-heartedly toward her boyfriend, but before she could speak further a mechanized trumpeting sound reached their ears.

The source of the noise was a bizarre mechanical beast flying above them. It sported two long flipper like arms, and several tendrils flailing off its head. As it flew through the sky, undulating its round metal body, it left behind a black-and-purple trail as wide as a road. Sonic doubted he needed the brain download to tell him it was called squid.

“If you’re okay Sal, I’m gunna go knock that thing out of the sky. See if it has another gear for cyberspace.” Sonic spoke without turning around, and his voice was strained.

Sally reached forward and tried to grab his arm, forgetting her holographic state. “Sonic… What’s wrong?”

The hedgehog finally faced Sally with a sad smile of his own that didn’t reach his eyes. “I…” He reached forward and grasped at empty air, then let his hand fall to his side. “I just wish you’d told me sooner. About the visions…”

“I promise I’m not giving up Sonic,” Sally whispered, searching for truth in her boyfriend’s eyes. “I just… can’t be in the field right now.”

Sonic nodded, running a hand through his quills. “Whatever you need Sal,” Sonic turned back toward the flying squid, then sped away.

Sally watched him become a blue dot in the distance. She’d seen Sonic feel defeated before, but… this was different. What was it then? Guilt for her robotization? Fear for her mental state?

An insistent squeaking brought the chipmunk’s attention back to the little koco by her side. “Okay, alright, let’s get moving.” Sally gave a gentle pat to the creature, sending it stumbling along. She looked over her shoulder, but Sonic had sped beyond her sight.  

Sonic stared fixedly forward as he sped after the flying squid robot. Just ahead, on the opposite side of the island that he’d started on, the machine dipped in its flight path. Sonic was able to use some of Eggman’s crates as a launch point to get onto the black-and-purple trail the flying machine was leaving behind. Once on the trailing road, Sonic doubled his speed as his thoughts raced.

The squid soared high above the island. Sally had been having an even harder time than he’d thought.

The landmarks became distant specks below. She’d told him he didn’t need her anymore.

The squid went into a loop, with Sonic following behind. Sally had no idea how wrong she was.

The squid noticed its pursuer and sent alternating orbs of electricity down its trailing roadway. All Sonic had wanted was to get the team back together.

Sonic dodged back and forth between the projectiles. He’d thought he’d finally made progress with Sally.

Several more bolts, faster, as he neared the squid’s head. But Sally wasn’t coming back to the team.

The squid’s head turned fully around, sending more energy bolts. Maybe… Maybe he just had to accept it.

Sonic leapt above the projectiles and delivered a flying kick to the machine’s face. Maybe he had to accept the original freedom fighters would never come back.

The squid’s trail behind it vanished and in its place was a wide ring of the same black-and-purple platform surrounding the machine’s head. But with the team gone, where did that leave Sonic?

The squid reared back its two flipper-like arms, then lunged them forward in a slicing motion, which Sonic leapt over. Amy was gone, how soon until he lost Tails too?

Sonic sped around the back of the squid and let off a flurry of blows. And when no one was around to call him out…

The squid rotated on its axis with a wide sweep.

How long until…?

Sonic’s leap was too short. The squid backhanded him off the platform, sending him crashing back to the island below.

As Sonic sat up from where he’d fallen, he somehow wasn’t surprised he’d ended up right back near the metal pathway he’d met Sally on. Thankfully she’d moved on. Standing up at the end of the dugout he’d made on impact, Sonic shook the dirt out of his quills. After the titan, that fall felt like nothing to him.

Sonic hoisted himself up to sit on the edge of the metal pathway. Gripping the sides of the incomplete metal work, Sonic stared out at the island with a blank expression. He sat that way for a long time, until his gaze wandered to the left, and he saw he wasn’t alone.

It was another of the koco, only this one was twice as tall as him, due in large part to his ornate head decoration. The sleepy eyes of the tall koco turned to him. His trailing beard of moss swayed with the movement. “At last we meet, Sonic the Hedgehog.”

The blue blur blinked once in surprise, wondering if it was a brain download or that the koco was bilingual. Sonic gave a hesitant wave. “I don’t think we’ve met?”

The older looking koco gave a lazy wave with his draping arms. “Just like the koco, you have touched the Digital Dream. Unlike most, I know how to listen to it and hear some of its secrets. To hear it properly, though, I must keep to myself. Call me a hermit if you like. It is the path I’ve chosen.”

“Hermit, got it,” Sonic nodded. “Any chance you know where my other two friends are?”

The Hermit Koco took a steady breath before answering. “There are two others who are trapped just as your lover was, but they are each on a neighboring island.”

Sonic let out a long sigh, staring down and to the side. “I figured as much. Thanks for letting me know though.”

“You are welcome.” The Hermit Koco nodded. Seeing Sonic’s defeated posture, he continued, “Tell me, have you found any seeds in your travels?”

Sonic raised an eyebrow as he stared up at the koco. “You mean the things that the robots sometimes drop?” Sonic recalled spiky red and smooth blue seeds falling out of some of the dissipating robots’ pixels. He’d assumed they were similar to Eggman’s badnik’s; using an organic element as a power source.

“Indeed! I can unlock their power and pass it on to you. If you wish,” the Hermit Koco promised. Sonic had assumed the seeds would be hazardous to eat since they’d been housed in robots for goodness knows how long, but he wouldn’t say no to a boost right now.

“Hold that thought.” Sonic raced off to one of the sites of his robot carnage and returned with a handful of the blue and red seeds.

Closing his eyes, the Hermit Koco began to hum. The handful of seeds began to shine with a white glow, and float out of Sonic’s hands, hovering between them. There was a burst of light, and the seeds were turned into trailing lights around Sonic and the Hermit. The hedgehog sighed as he felt a soothing of muscles as well as a sense of fullness like having eaten a meal.

“Bring me more seeds, and I will give you more power in return. Seeds of power will make you strike harder. Seeds of defense will make you sturdier,” the Hermit wheezed.

Sonic shook his arms, marveling at their restored strength. Speed healing always got him back on his feet, but it took energy from him. This on the other hand had no drawbacks. “That’s pretty cool. And so are you, Hermit.”

As the wonder of the seeds’ power faded, Sonic’s original worries returned. Having less fatigue somehow only made his troubled thoughts sharper. He turned away from the Hermit and back to looking out at the island landscape. Sally probably would’ve scolded him for not making polite conversation, but he didn’t have the effort right now.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic saw the Hermit Koco make a lazy pointing gesture to him. “You are troubled, child.” The older being took slow steps towards him. Sonic wondered how he didn’t fall over.

“Three of my friends are stuck in some digital limbo, sue me,” Sonic snarked.

The Hermit Koco stood behind him on the path. “A life of solitude, is not suitable to one who carries a great burden.”

Sonic’s eyes narrowed as he stared outward. “Whatever you say big guy.” When no response came, Sonic looked over his shoulder. The Hermit Koco was nowhere to be seen.

Sonic sat on the ledge for a long while before speeding back into the island interior. He resumed his collecting of gears and keys, only this time focusing on the smaller robots of the island.

But no matter where he ran, he couldn’t see a way forward.

Chapter Text

Sonic made substantial progress in gears and keys for several hours. Zipping from fight to puzzle and puzzle to fight kept his mind occupied and let him push away his worries for the future. Along the way he found more brain downloads that eventually gave him a mental picture of half the island.

The scenery helped occupy him too. The Ancients’ mossy stone structures, while mostly repetitive, would break it up with an upside-down floating pyramid in the sky, a giant spiderweb structure spanning a large chasm, or a looming tower stabbing into the sky.

Any time he stopped though, his worries would threaten to overwhelm him again. It may have been temporary, but he wanted to keep up the pace while he could.

As he passed through an open field, his momentum was broken. “Sonic! Over here!” Sally shouted.

Sonic hesitated long enough to arrange his expression, then sped over to Sally. She’d picked up another koco, this one with a purple flower on its head.

When the hedgehog reached the group of three, Sally started to speak, but the new koco began rambling. Sally looked between Sonic and the koco, giving a quick sigh and putting aside what she’d wanted to say for later.

“This poor mother says she’s…” Sally began.

“Lost her children,” Sonic finished.

“Wha…? I thought you couldn’t understand them?”

“Eh, must be either all the brain downloads of the island or my alien translator I got stuck in my head while I was in space,” Sonic shrugged, tapping the side of his head with his fist. He was surprised it had taken this long to kick in.

Sally blinked several times, staring at him. “You have an alien transla…?”

Sally was interrupted again by the mother koco’s insistent pleas for help finding her missing kids. Sonic got down to one knee, stifling a laugh at Sally’s stunned face. “Sure thing,” he said to the worried mother, before speeding away. Sally watched after him, her stunned expression melting into a worried frown.

Sonic rounded up the children with ease. With half the island map in his head, he could’ve made up the difference if he’d had to, but the little critters were all close by. One by one, he carried the kids back to their parent.

When he brought the last one, the mother hopped back and forth on her stubby legs with happy squeaking. Then, she closed her eyes and made a concentrated murmur. Sonic and Sally started to reach for the little critter with concern, until a flash of light appeared in the air between them. When the light cleared, another green chaos emerald floated in front of Sonic.

The hedgehog grabbed the floating jewel, absorbing it into himself. Three down, four to go. Maybe Sally was onto something hanging out with these little guys.

Turning back to the koco, Sonic and Sally watched quietly as the mother made her way through the crowd of smaller stone critters. Sonic wondered how one mom could have this many kids.

One of the children rolled over to its parent, and when they met, they performed a bizarre spinning movement through the air together, like a move from a dance. When they touched back to the ground again, they nuzzled together and probably would’ve hugged if they’d had arms.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic saw Sally hug herself and give a soft smile at the display. Sonic himself was about to use the opportunity to hurriedly say goodbye and resume his gear and key collecting when the two nuzzling koco burst into bright lights.

Sonic and Sally gasped as two dazzling cyan orbs appeared over the mother and her child. Hovering over the koco for only a few seconds, the orbs then flew up and far into the sky, leaving trailing sparks of white behind them. Above the orbs, a strange symbol appeared in the sky, which Sonic and Sally thought must’ve been letters of the Ancient’s language.

When the orbs vanished upward, Sonic and Sally turned back to the mother and child, only to see their stone bodies had become cold and still, and their expressions now fixed into peaceful smiles like statues. The mother teetered on her stubby legs then toppled over, along with her child in the grass, like they were nothing more than lawn ornaments. Sonic and Sally stared in horrified silence as the rest of the gathered children and Sally’s original koco bobbed back and forth, oblivious to the two prone bodies of their fellow koco.

Eventually, Sally’s original koco began squeaking again, jumping up and down at Sally’s foot. “Okay, okay,” Sally shushed the indignant critter, “We’ll keep looking.” That satisfied the koco, who began rolling and bobbing away from the gathered group.

Sally looked between the departing koco, and the remaining children who played amongst each other in the grass. “Sonic, they… act like none of that happened.” Sally’s voice was hollow.

Sonic wasn’t much better. “Do we even know what… that… was?”

Sally turned back to the fallen koco. “No… but I got a sense of… completion? Comfort?”

Sonic avoided looking at the fallen koco. “Weird. I’m gunna get moving. I wanna wrap up our time here A.S.A.P.”

Sonic raised his foot to super speed away. “Sonic wait!” Sally reached for him.

Sonic returned his foot to the ground slowly. “Yeah Sal?”

Sally’s hands fidgeted at her sides. “Sonic… please tell me what’s wrong.”

Sonic gave a hollow chuckle and gestured wide with his arms. “Take your pick Sal.”

The chipmunk frowned, seeing through the deflection. “I mean what happened when we talked earlier,” she stated flatly.

Sonic folded his arms and stared at Sally’s boots. “It’s nothing Sal, I was just… sad, you wouldn’t be on the team again.”

Now Sally folded her arms too. Her boyfriend had spent the last few weeks calling her out for trying to close herself off into misery. She wasn’t about to let him get away with it either. “I know it’s more than that Sonic.”

The two came to a standoff. Wind rustled the grass and whistled through the bricks of the nearby temple. Even the remaining koco became silent, looking between the two mobians.

“I already tried telling you,” Sonic answered in a dark whisper.

Sally clasped her hands in front of herself, giving a small nod. “I’m sorry for talking over you before. I… was only trying to be encouraging.”

Sonic drummed his fingers on his arm. His voice lost its edge. “I know.”

Sally tried to catch Sonic’s eyes, but he stared resolutely at the ground. “I… promise I’ll listen now,” Sally said.

Sonic chewed at his lip for a moment, then finally looked Sally in the eye. “I’m at my limit Sal. I need you… the team… all of you, back.”

Sally mulled that over before answering. “What do you need us for?”

Sally asked it as delicately as possible, but Sonic exploded as if it had been an accusation. Right before he shouted, the princess could’ve sworn she’d seen lightning flash in his eyes.

“To not, DIE!” Sonic stomped his foot in the ground on the last word. Sally stumbled backward.

Seeing his girlfriend’s shock, Sonic dragged his hand down his face and turned halfway away from her.

When it became clear Sally wasn’t going to respond immediately, Sonic continued. “A while back during one of our tussles, Scourge told me something. He said since we were technically the same guy, all it would take is a little push. ‘One bad day.’ And I’d be just like him.”

Sally made an expression like she was gagging. “That’s absurd!”

“Yeah, I know,” Sonic waved over his shoulder like he was tossing away trash. “I mean come on; how many bad days have we had? And we’re not scumbags. But… there’s more to it than that. More than even Scourge realized.”

Sonic placed his hands on his hips. “After what happened with you… then Nicole’s exile… Bunnie leaving… Antoine… The bad days have been piling up lately.”

Sonic paused, sighing through his nose, then continued, “Scourge is a moron who picks fights he can’t win. Even when his speed would guarantee a victory, even when everything’s in his favor, he gets angry. He lets his enemies get under his skin, pushing him until he does something stupid.” Sonic hissed the word.

“And sooner or later…” Sonic looked back to Sally, “He’ll make a fatal mistake… and his team will go down with him.”

Sally’s face became slack with shock. She looked at her boyfriend as if she’d just noticed a grievous injury. She took a hesitant step forward, stopping short of reaching out to him. “You…? How long have you had this problem?” Sally’s voice quavered.

Sonic folded his arms and returned to staring at the ground. “Since the second genesis wave.”

“I… I’m sorry. I didn’t realize...” Sally whispered. Her expression darkened further as she thought back on recent events. “Sonic, Amy wasn’t your fault.”

Sonic’s hands tightened on his arms and his scowl deepened. He responded in a hissing whisper, “Almost disintegrating myself trying to rescue her was.” Tails had told Sally about Sonic trying to breach Little Planet’s shield right after hearing of Amy’s fate.

“You were upset, Silver stopped you,” Sally said.

Sonic responded through gritted teeth. “Just like Amy and Tails stopped me from risking the Master Emerald. Stopped me from risking losing you back to Eggman for a fight with Metal. Stopped me…” Sonic’s glare faltered and his voice shook. “… from giving up after losing all of you.”

The hedgehog’s glare returned just as quickly. “So what happens when someone isn’t there to stop me!?” he pointed at his chest with both hands, before running his hands through his quills and pacing in circles. “I have so much… rage… in me Sal. Do you remember how I felt after Eggman lost it?” Sonic didn’t wait for an answer. “I felt guilty! Despite everything, everyone, telling me I shouldn’t, I felt guilty for driving him insane! But now…”

Sonic stopped his pacing, facing away from Sally, and began grasping at something imaginary in front of him. As his hands spasmed his voice became a deathly whisper, “Now… all I want, is to spin dash his fat face into a wall… over and over… until he can’t smile anymore.”

Sally came around to be in front of Sonic. She held her hands over his grasping fingers. Despite the lack of contact, Sonic lowered them as Sally pushed down. “Sonic…” Sally spoke softly, “No one has earned those feelings more than you.”

“I don’t want these feelings Sally!” Sonic dragged his clawing fingers down his face. “All this… hate! It’s no wonder he went crazy! I just…!” Sonic’s voice wavered on the edge of tears, “I don’t know what to do Sally… That’s why I wanted you back.”

A long silence fell between the two. Sally fumed at her holographic state, though not for herself.

After Sally made several attempts to speak, all of which stopped before making any sound, Sonic continued. “There’s nothing to talk about Sal.” Sonic’s voice had lost its edge, replaced with a quiet acceptance. “You’ve got your problems, and I’ve got mine. You don’t need me weighing you down on top of everything else.”

Sonic started to lean over to go into a run and leave. “Wait!” Sally said. Sonic looked over his shoulder, but didn’t alter his pose. Sally hesitated, then said, “You never weighed me down Sonic. And you never will.”

Sonic’s face ran through several emotions but eventually settled on a tired smile. “We’ll be home soon Sal, then… we can both start moving forward.” Sonic blasted away with a shockwave of air. Somehow, Sally resented that the blast hadn’t threatened to blow her off her feet.

As Sonic resumed his hunt for gears and keys, he wasn’t sure how he felt. Wasn’t talking about your problems supposed to make you feel better? Well, he felt different… but better wasn’t what he’d call it. He still wanted to hit something. Seeing another green emerald beam Sonic headed straight for it.

The beam was shooting off the top of the weird upside-down black metal pyramid floating above the island. Surrounding this were multiple smaller floating structures crisscrossed with black metal rails, all somehow suspended in open air.

Beneath the pyramid was a giant spiderweb like structure comprised of the same mossy stone and black metal as the rest of the Ancient’s buildings. And beneath that was a huge chasm that ended in ocean water below.

Zipping to the web’s center to look for a means of reaching the pyramid above, Sonic heard the same rumbling that had preceded the tower robot from the start of the day. The following fight played out with the same result, albeit taking a little longer with the cramped fighting area that was the stone and metal web.

Sonic took the machine’s fallen gear with at least a little more peace of mind after having expended some of his anger. More surprising was the pink spring that materialized in the center of the web. Sonic’s eyes darted between the spring and the above pyramid, then he shrugged and bounced into the air.

Sonic bounced, boosted, climbed, and rail grinded his way between the various structures surrounding the floating pyramid. There were a few close calls of falling, but always with a speedy recovery.

Reaching a certain point, Sonic discovered the pyramid wasn’t a solid structure, but divided into two parts, with a triangular piece below, and a square piece above with a small gap in the middle that made a wide platform.

Landing on this platform, Sonic looked at the ‘roof’ to see the same symbol he’d just witnessed when the koco had… died. Sonic shivered as a cold breeze passed through the gap, between the shadow of the cold metal structures above and below him. Then, in a flash of red sparks, eight of the mobian sized triangular robots appeared before him.

Sonic cracked his knuckles as the robots ran toward him. dispatching the machines, Sonic remembered one of the new abilities the sky voice had granted him. performing the move, Sonic unleashed a flurry of spinning kicks several feet away from one of his opponents. As he did, sparks of the same blue energy that he could trail behind him shot from his foot towards his foe.

The blasts bashed into the robot and reduced it to sparking pixels. Sonic took on a tight grin as he repeated the action on the four other nearest machines. It was rare that he got to use long ranged attacks. Maybe if he got to keep these new powers when they left the island he wouldn’t be in as bad a place as he’d thought…

One of the robots attacked from the side and sucker punched him right to the platform’s edge. Sonic teetered on his heel, but flailing his arms kept him from plummeting to ground.

The three remaining robots charged toward him as he recovered. “That’s it!” Sonic spat. In a blur of speed he created a blue circle around the robots, blasting them upward into the air. The first he spin dashed into, slicing it clean in half. The second he slid beneath, tripping it up, before punching it off the edge of the platform. The third he got above, and slammed the machine into the ground, grinding his shoe heel into its visor until he crushed its brain.

More annoyed than satisfied, Sonic continued up to the top of the pyramid, where he found a moss covered emerald vault with another of the green gems hovering inside. Sonic used some of the keys he’d collected and gathered his fourth emerald.

With his objective done, Sonic wandered to the edge of the pyramid. He could see the whole island up here, and even some of the neighboring ones in the distance. Bunnie and Nicole were somewhere on the others, trapped.

The sun was on its downward slide. As a cool breeze blew through his quills, Sonic wondered what other trials awaited him before the day’s end, and whether tomorrow would be any better.

Chapter Text

Eggman hovered in his Egg-Mobile above Sage. The girl stood on a metal platform that marked the edge of a road leading to nowhere. A collage of morphing squares dotted the sky of cyberspace, and roadways of light flashed with data flow, traveling in all directions.

“Keep tabs on the hedgehog. I want constant updates!” Eggman barked from his floating vehicle.

Sage clasped her hands, giving a small nod. “Yes sir.”

“And keep looking for a way to get me out of here!”

“I am evaluating all safe options.”

Eggman folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Fine fine, but if those fail, widen your parameters. If Sonic can access cyberspace freely, it’s only a matter of time before he finds me.”

Sage’s head tilted slightly. “You fear he will harm you, sir?”

Eggman’s lip curled into a grumbling sneer. Sage shrank under his glare. “The rodent has been more unstable of late. I’ve been meaning to exploit his new rage, but if he found me in here, things could get… problematic.”

Sage’s brow furrowed at the doctor’s dark undertone. “I will let no harm come to you, sir.”

Eggman’s sneer only grew. “And yet I’m only in this place because of your failure to override the Ancient’s firewalls.”

Sage clasped her hands in front of her, and her head lowered into her shoulders. “My apologies, sir.”

Eggman grabbed the controls of his Egg-Mobile, sparking its engines. “You can apologize by stopping your groveling and getting back to work.” The doctor angled his vehicle and blasted away. Sage remained in her hunched-over position even after the doctor had left.

The light was graying with the sun setting over the grassy field of Kronos Island. With the day more than half over, Sonic felt himself slowing down, which did not suit him at the moment. The thought of trying to sleep with all the thoughts gnawing at the inside of his mind, his doubts for the future, was not a pleasant one.

Coming down from the floating pyramid he resumed his hunting of keys and gears, eventually getting a fifth chaos emerald. He would’ve kept going, but it seemed there weren’t any more vaults with activated emerald beams, and no matter how many keys he collected, no new ones appeared. Maybe the kocos had another one?

Sonic didn’t have much time to consider whether he wanted to find Sally before running across her accidentally. Skidding to a stop, he gave a hesitant wave to his girlfriend and her tiny stone companion. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Sally nodded back. Both mobians sported worried frowns for the other. After the silence had dragged on between them for a while, Sally’s koco began squeaking and gurgling about finding her lover again.

Sally hesitated in answering the little critter, looking back and forth between her and Sonic. The hedgehog folded his arms and gave a half-shrug, then nodded to the bobbing koco in deference.

As the koco gave a rushed accounting of the last time she’d seen her lover, Sonic barely listened. Instead, he tried to prepare for what his next interaction with Sally would be. Before he got very far, a warping sound from several feet away reached his ear.

Sonic’s head snapped toward the sound. “You again!?” Sally and the koco both jumped as they turned to see a little overlander girl in a black dress hovering in the air above them.

The girl’s blank red eye, at least the one that wasn’t covered by her white hair, stared with cold intensity at Sonic. “Submit. Your reckless actions endanger the world.”

Sonic clenched his fists at his sides as he stared up at the floating child. “Listen brat! If you think I’m just gunna leave my friends trapped here, you’re in for a rude awakening. So unless you want to explain what’s going on here, I’m going right back to smashin bots!”

The girl’s hair flickered with red pixels, showing the hollow interior of her projected body. “You are an enemy combatant. I will not share data with you,” she replied.

Sally came to stand by Sonic’s side. She shared a brief sideways glance with Sonic before addressing the floating girl.

“You say Sonic is your enemy. Am I as well?” Sally asked. The floating girl blinked, a small frown appearing on her face. A smile tugged at the side of Sonic’s mouth, but he kept quiet as Sally continued, “Are you a creation of Doctor Robotnik?”

The girl’s eyes widened, and she moved a few inches backward from the two mobians. Sally felt an unexpected tug on her heart seeing the look of panic on the girl’s face. It was brief, but for a moment she resembled a child who’d been caught in the act of misbehavior.

“It’s alright sweetheart, you haven’t done anything wrong. I’m only making guesses,” Sally assured. The girl floated back to her original position. Sally smiled, “Now, you say Sonic is endangering the world, and you’re not allowed to share data. But,” Sally held up a finger, “Maybe you could advise us, without sharing any information?”

The floating girl’s face became impassive again. “I have already advised him to leave. He refused.”

Behind Sally, Sonic chewed at his lip with an annoyed scowl. “How about some advice that doesn’t have me abandon the love of my life then?” Sonic bit out.

The floating girl closed her eyes with a sigh. “‘Love.’ An emotional status too vague and varied in its definition.” The girl shook her head. “You’re both too ignorant to be helped.” With her assessment given, the girl ascended into the air, then vanished in a burst of red pixels.

“Been a while since I’ve heard you use the ‘Aunt Sally’ voice,” Sonic said after a beat.

A worried frown creased Sally’s face. “She looks young, and… Eggman couldn’t have made her that long ago.”

“She’s still an Eggman bot. You think it’s worth it to try and reason with her?” Sonic asked.

“The fact she’s talking to us at all is telling. Maybe… this place is giving her more autonomy?” Sally suggested.

Sonic shook his head, folding his arms. “More like she doesn’t fully control the island, so she’s trying to get me to back off by talking big.”

Sally shrugged with an uncertain frown. “Either way, it’s an advantage. If she finds you again, keep her talking. You might get her to slip up and reveal something like just now.”

“We kinda already knew she was Eggman’s stooge,” Sonic drawled, before becoming serious, “But I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

The two fell quiet, alternating between uncertain looks and staring at the ground. “I guess we’re not gunna talk yet?” Sonic eventually said.

“I’m sorry, Sonic, it’s just… A lot’s happened today.” Sally’s voice was dripping with weary guilt.

Sonic pinched his lips together and his eyes were tight at the edges. “Yeah, I know,” he whispered.

Sonic shook his head and squared his shoulders. “But the day’s not over yet. I was thinking about hanging with you to see if your little friends had another chaos emerald. I’ve emptied the vaults.”

Sally leaned down and gave her koco a gentle push. “Let’s find your lover little one.” The koco bobbed back and forth with a happy smile.

The berry and flower headed koco led the mobians to a nearby field of overgrown grass. The little critter made a series of squeaks too rapid for Sonic to understand.

“You uh… catch any of that?” Sonic asked. With how distressed the little critter was Sonic wasn’t keen on asking for a repeat.

Sally stared out over the overgrown grass. “She says her lover was stationed on the far side of the field to protect farmland. This is…” Sally gestured to the expanse of grass, “the field…”

Sonic clicked his teeth. “I’m not seeing a lot of farming going on.”

Sally gave a wearied sigh, before her eyes sparked with an idea. “Maybe… if you used that new technique of yours, you can clean up all this wild brush?” Sally suggested.

Sonic smirked and stood up straighter. “Been seeing my new moves in action huh? Back in a flash.”

Sonic began making wide circles in the overgrown grass, vaporizing the plant life away in an instant. Watching at the edge of the field, Sally rolled her eyes with a half-smile. He was so easy to please.

Sonic had the field cleared in short order. The only hiccup was a swarm of angry hornets he stirred up with his running, but he lured them away before doubling back and finishing the job.

When he returned to Sally and the berry-headed koco, the little critter closed her eyes and made a concentrated face. Like before, a green emerald appeared just in front of Sonic, hovering in the air. “Ha ha, yes!” Sonic snatched the gem. But before he stowed the magic stone, he remembered Sally standing nearby and took on a mischievous grin.

As soon as he’d snatched the gem he performed several impromptu dance moves before finishing with the green rock between his thumb and index finger, flashing a cocky smile at Sally. The princess attempted to give an unamused expression back but ended up laughing and holding her face in her hands.

“Cy-Loop wasn’t the only new moves I got,” Sonic winked.

Sally rolled her eyes at Sonic’s name for his new powers. “That makes six right?”

“Yup.” Sonic absorbed the sixth gemstone into his hand.

Turning back to the field he’d just cleared, Sonic’s eyes strayed farther ahead, to what looked like a graveyard with stone pillars glowing with blue light for headstones. “So all this used to be farmland, huh?”

“Yes. They make it sound like it was abundant. But now…” Sally trailed off, giving a cold stare at the graveyard.

“I mean… It’s grassy?” Sonic shrugged.

“This is the kind of recovery we’ve seen in areas ravaged by Robotnik’s pollution. Something ruined this land,” Sally hugged herself with a tight grip, “And it’s only barely begun to recover.”

Sonic moved to be at Sally’s side, putting his arm around her shoulders as best he could. “Then we need to make sure it has plenty of time to heal.”

Sally broke her gaze over the island to look at Sonic and give a gentle nod. “Right.”

Sage materialized where Eggman had summoned her, back at the metal edge of the roadway; it had become their unofficial rendezvous point in cyberspace. The doctor gave a brief account of his latest findings, then demanded a report of her own.

Sage hid her eyes behind her hair. “I am extending the range of my control, but… I can still only command a few of the Ancients’ relics at a time.”

The doctor stroked his moustache. “Disappointing,” Eggman gave a grumbling sigh, before slamming his fist onto the armrest of his Egg-Mobile. “But what about finding me a way out of this digital dimension?”

Sage flinched at the doctor’s slamming fist. “I have run one million, seven hundred thousand, and fifty simulations. There is no scenario to safely remove you from Cyberspace.”

“Unacceptable!” Eggman’s vehicle lunged downward, stopping inches from Sage’s face. “Keep looking. Widen your parameters and make it your number one priority.” The window shield of the vehicle slid over the doctor, before it sped over Sage, causing her hair to blow in the exhaust.

“But…” Sage watched the pod flying away, “Keeping you safe is my priority…”

Sonic had combed the island twice over since getting the sixth emerald from Sally’s koco. The sun was beginning its dip into the horizon of the ocean, and the cool of night was blowing across the grassy hills. Sonic caught up with Sally and became in stride with her as they trailed behind the flower-headed koco.

The two mobians didn’t have time to begin a conversation as the sky fragmented into the same red triangular grid which had preceded the Tornado’s crash. This was followed by the light of the setting sun being replaced with a strange red tint that covered the island, and the cool breeze being replaced with an eerie stillness. Sonic and Sally both blinked, but the strange tint remained.

Adding to their disorientation, the ground shook beneath their feet. Sonic offered his arm to Sally out of habit… and she took it.

Sonic and Sally looked each other up and down with wide eyes. Sally broke away and stared at her hands. Her breath caught as she flexed her fingers. She was solid again. But… it still felt wrong. Sonic tried to reach for her, but the ground shuddered again.

Huge blasts of crackling red energy rained down on the island like artillery, creating massive craters in the island, sending up plumes of dirt and rock. Sally looked back to where her koco had gone ahead of them. She started to try and run after her but stopped short at what she saw.

In the koco’s place was a tall, humanoid being made of water, and in her chest floated the koco they’d been helping. The water person reached out her undulating arm as she walked through the barrage of blasts from the sky. Sonic tried to spot the source of the attack in the sky, but this strange vision didn’t show what was above them.

Sally shook off her shock for the koco’s transformation. “Don’t! It’s too dangerous!” she shouted and started to run after her.

She was yanked into staying still by Sonic grabbing her arm. “No kidding!” Sonic retorted.

The water girl found who’d she’d been searching for. Stumbling through the blasts, she came to another water person, taller, with a masculine structure to his torso. The two stared uncertainly at each other, surrounded by the exploding earth. Finally, they embraced, just as a last final blow from whatever was shooting from above landed on them.

The final red blast sent up an explosion of rock and dirt, followed by an expanding dome of sizzling red energy. Sonic and Sally shielded their eyes as the shockwave passed over them. Neither mobian ran, each somehow sensing the blast would not harm them, due to the fact they felt no wind from the oncoming inferno.

The blast passed over them, and in a blink, the light of the setting sun and the cool breeze of night returned. Sonic looked to the sky just in time to see the red triangle grid pattern melting away to the stars. Sonic turned back to Sally, and his shoulders sagged. She was back to a hologram.

Sally regarded herself for only a moment, before rushing down the hill to where her koco had gone. Sonic rushed to join her.

They found the flower-headed koco, alongside another with a red and black helmet that must’ve belonged to the Ancient’s warriors. They both lay beside each other in the grass, smiling and unmoving.

“They were together…” Sally sniffled, “Right before the end.”

After a moment of stunned quiet, Sonic got to his feet and gestured for Sally to follow. “Come on Sal.”

Sonic led her away from the lifeless kocos to a nearby field of red, white, and pink flowers on the hillside. The two mobians sat together there, in silence, each with their own warring thoughts.

When they had sat together for a long time, and the sun was halfway below the horizon, Sally finally spoke. “How many times have we been kept apart, Sonic?”

Sonic blinked several times. He tried to study Sally’s face to gauge how he should answer, but she was staring out at the ocean. “More than I’d like,” Sonic said slowly, “But we always came back together.”

Sally’s face grew stern as she stared outward, before giving a gentle nod to herself. She turned to face Sonic. “Do you remember what you told me the night before Robotnik returned?”

A smile tugged at Sonic’s mouth for the happy memory, but he was too on edge for it to take root. “I said I could slow down for you.”

Sally’s eyes became glassy, and her voice softened. “You’ve done more than that, you’ve stood by my side, and stayed with me where I’d fallen.” Sonic’s eyes creased at the edges, unable to see where Sally was going with this.

There was a short pause as Sally took a deep breath before continuing, “So… if you can stand still for me…” Sally placed her hand over Sonic’s. “Then I can at least try to keep pace with you.”

Sonic blinked, a frown creasing his face. “Okay…?”

Sally closed her eyes with a soft chuckle. “I’m joining the team again Sonic, I want to be by your side.”

Sonic’s face became slack. He looked terrified, though of what neither of them could be certain. “Wh-What about your freezing up?” Sonic asked, forcing the question out.

Sally’s smile slipped only a little. “I’ll figure it out.”

Sonic stared back at his girlfriend as a war took place within himself. “Sal… You don’t have to come back for me… I can figure out… I can…” Sonic’s voice choked.

Sally reached up and cupped his face. “Don’t you dare feel guilty about asking me to stand with you Sonic Hedgehog.” Her voice was cracking too, but there was a sternness beneath it. “I thought there wasn’t a reason for me to come back.” Tears began spilling out of Sally’s eyes and her voice hitched. “You proved me wrong.”

Sonic squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed hard. “So, how bout this…” Sonic sniffled, “You keep me in check, I keep you safe, deal?” Sally gave a silent nod and a watery smile. Sonic gave a weak chuckle that was equal parts relief and weariness. “Just like old times then.”

As the sun slipped below the horizon and the purple of twilight rolled in, Sonic and Sally leaned in for a kiss, but ended up having their heads phase through each other. Both pulled away, sharing a moment of startled silence. But soon, Sally chuckled, followed by Sonic, and then both exploded with the laughter they had been needing for a very long time.

Chapter Text

Sonic wasn’t sure what time he’d dozed off, or for how long. The grass was flattened beneath him and the sun and fully disappeared below the horizon. Tasting the cool night air, he startled awake at Sally calling his name.

Sitting up, he scanned the island, his eyes barely having to adjust thanks to the glowing ancient architecture. He spotted Sally’s glowing hologram near the graveyard of black and gray pillar headstones and sped over to her.

“What’s up Sal?”

Sally traced her hand over one of the few black pillars nestled amongst the numerous grays. “There were mechanisms in this region I tried to access before, like the puzzles you’ve been solving, but they were locked. But now, I think they’re open.”

Sally held her hand up in front of the pillar and closed her eyes. After a moment, the pillar rotated. As it did, a beam of blue energy shot from its top, and into its neighboring pillars, bouncing between them until reflecting out of the graveyard into the distance.

Sonic grinned at his girlfriend’s bright smile for having gotten the pillar to move. As he gazed at his princess, the world seemed to fall away around him. “Thanks Sal.”

Sally turned with a small frown for Sonic’s compliment, until she saw the look in his eye. “No problem, Sonic.”

After a beat, she turned back to the stone pillars. “Now, let’s finish this puzzle.”

“Right,” Sonic began zipping between the pillars, testing the ones that could move. “Maybe this’ll finally unlock the path to the butt whooping I owe that titan.”

With much trial and error, Sonic and Sally eventually got the pillars’ lasers angled right. When all the proper light ways were lit up, the graveyard gave a small flash, followed by a rumbling in the ground.

The two mobians frantically looked around for the source and eventually spotted it. Towards the back of the island, the water fall that fed the dwindled river began to part. From the edge of the cliff where the water fell, a huge, bird-like stone structure emerged. The towering statue split the waterfall, revealing a series of ledges to climb to the top of the mountain range.

Sally stared with wide eyes at the rushing waters. “I don’t how but, I’m sensing…”

“The titan is up ahead,” Sonic finished. The hedgehog cracked his neck and shook his legs in anticipation. “Time for the big showdown.”

Sally clasped her fingers. “You only have six emeralds, maybe you should keep searching before you go?”

Sonic shook his head. “I’ve searched everywhere. No point. But who knows? Maybe there’ll be one past the mountains,” Sonic shrugged.

Sally closed the gap between them and did her best to hold Sonic’s hand. “Regardless of emeralds, I don’t know if I can follow. Will… you be alright?”

Sonic stared at the waterfall, letting out a short sigh, before turning to Sally. “I’m Sonic the Hedgehog. I’ll be just fine.” Sonic winked and flashed a cocky smile, but Sally knew him well enough to see genuine confidence beneath the bravado.

Sally stepped away from her boyfriend and gestured toward the waterfall. “See you, Sonic.”

Sonic got down to a running start position. “On the other side Sally.” In a blast of air, he sped toward the waterfall.

Jumping between the wet rock ledges, Sonic ascended the mountain side. Blasting upward, he cleared the statue parting the waterfall, spinning into a landing behind it. Ahead of him was the river, and to the side, a narrow passage carved into the mountain peak.

Before he could move, a guttural roar reverberated down the narrow path, causing ripples on the water. Sonic cracked his knuckles. “Game on.”

Taking a running start, he leapt into the air and cleared the river, landing at the mouth of the narrow path. Without hesitation, he sped down the narrow crevice, snaking his way ever closer to the titan, ferns and long grass whipping at his legs.

An opening soon came into view, where the starlight was drowned out by a looming, hunched over silhouette. Sonic came to the edge of a cliff face that bottomed out into a bowl-shaped valley, and in its center, stood his foe. Suddenly, Sonic’s mind presented a name for the titan before him.

“Giganto.”

The looming machine turned its eyeless face towards the mobian hedgehog. Its many rows of metal teeth parted open in a hissing grimace. Red ripples of light traveled up its body as its limbs sparked to life with the movement.

But between the cool light of the fractured moon and the rippling red, Sonic spotted another light source. Brighter, and a piercing green, resting atop the giant’s back.

Sonic’s lips curled back into a tight grin, and he chuckled. Leaping from the cliff ledge, Sonic sped down the cliff side, zipping between the trees that dotted the valley, using them as cover. The giant was slow to react, still shuddering to full power. In a burst, he reached the behemoth’s right foot.

Without a second thought, Sonic sped up the giant’s leg. Blue energy pulses rippled out from the sleek black metal. But Sonic had the powers of cyberspace, so rather than repulse, they only added to his energy.

Riding the wave with a wicked grin, he soon bounced from the leg, to the arm, and finally atop the shoulder where a few meager lethal defenses sparked at him. Sonic leapt above them all with ease and found a seventh chaos emerald vault atop the giant’s back, clearly used for charging the machine.

Sonic only needed to reach out his hand, and the emerald shuddered free of its containment, flying to his open palm. Absorbing the seventh gem, Sonic ascended into the air, savoring the rush of chaos energy. The last few times he’d gone super he’d been on missions of rescue or restoration, but not today.

Today, he could finally let loose. “Alright big boy, let’s do it to it!”

Sonic struck first, rocketing straight for Giganto’s teeth with a heavy punch that sent the giant reeling. Not letting up, he delivered a flurry of punches and kicks, further bolstered by glowing gold constructs of his fists and sneakers appearing in the air around him. Sonic spared a brief wide-eyed stare to the constructs, but just as easily accepted them with a tight smile.

Giganto roared at the flurry of hits and raked its three fingered hand out in front of itself. The giant arm slapped Sonic backward, sending him flying, far into the distance of the sky; a streak of gold across the black expanse of night. The hedgehog clenched his fists and rocketed back just as quickly.

Seeing the giant was going for a repeat of the same move, Sonic ducked beneath the hand, caught it at the wrist, and shoved, throwing the behemoth off balance. Taking the opening, Sonic flew in an upside-down loop to build momentum before landing another kick on the machine’s teeth.

Giganto swatted again, and this time Sonic slipped through his fingers before flying above his head. Once in position, he stomped downward, causing Giganto to stumble almost to its knees.

Anticipating another stomp, Giganto swung its arm upward, swatting Sonic to the side and allowing it to regain its footing. Sonic reversed hard, coming to a hovering stop. Flashing a glare over his shoulder, Sonic began spinning in place, sending off a flurry of gold energy blasts from his feet.

The shots hammered into Giganto’s face, but the behemoth barely moved. Rearing back, it swung both its arms out in front to slam the hedgehog in a clap of metal. As the three-fingered hands came from either side, Sonic waited, then threw out his clenched fists into the palms of Giganto.

The towering machine was thrown backward, not anticipating the force of Sonic’s power. Sonic used the brief stun to fly forward, slamming into the machine’s chest, causing a shockwave and sending the sound of screeching metal echoing through the valley.

Giganto buckled, letting out a deafening roar. Sonic’s proud smirk for the reaction faded, as the titan crouched and flexed its back.

Numerous red pillars sprang from the titan’s shoulders and back. The tops of these sparked with red and sent out sprawling red lasers that lit up the night sky. Sonic dodged away from the spiraling beams with a slack jaw. Retreating out of range, he finally took a moment to collect his thoughts.

What on Mobius was this thing made of!?

The titan didn’t look any worse for ware for the repeated hits he’d given it, and now a laser show!? There was no telling how long it could run off the chaos energy it had already siphoned, or even if it needed chaos energy to fully function at all. He had to pick up the pace.

Giganto went for another slashing lunge. Sonic blocked it, setting the machine off balance again, and used the opening to spin dash into the monster’s teeth, sending up sparks and flakes of metal. When he made little progress, he uncurled and flew above the head then lunged downward with his foot for another stomp, only this time, several dozen golden clones of the hedgehog joined him.

The collision made the giant stagger to being on all fours. Sonic smirked at the machine, before startling as it got to its feet just as quickly as it had fallen, and one of its lasers flashed toward him. The attack landed, sending Sonic flying again, though not as far.

Sonic grit his teeth and glared back at the machine. Rather than reverse, he used the momentum of the laser blasting him backward to fly a wide arc around the monster, as he did, he left a gold streak of energy behind himself.

With a startled grin, Sonic realized his blue streak was maintained in his super form. He doubled his pace and circled the giant with his trailing energy.

With a blast of air that threatened to topple the trees in the valley below, three golden rings several miles wide encircled Giganto. Trapped within, the titan was launched upward by air sucked in from around the valley and channeled through the rings like a gun barrel.

Now several feet in the air, Sonic became a gold streak of destruction, peppering the giant from all sides with blows and shots of golden chaos blasts. Before the giant could even begin his descent, Sonic performed the encircling move again.

This time, the monster was sucked back to ground with a devastating crash, sending up plumes of dirt and emptying the small lake of water in the valley below. From above, Sonic looked down on the prone giant, collapsed over and unmoving, but still pulsing with red energy.

“I ain’t falling for that.” Sonic sped downward like a gunshot, angling around to slam into its chest. The machine shuddered back to life and stumbled to its feet, roaring at the golden hedgehog. “Bring it on, tiny!” Sonic taunted.

Giganto swung again, but Sonic ducked beneath, flying towards the giant’s teeth. The giant sensed his intent, and this time opened its mouth wide.

Startled, Sonic braked, but not soon enough. The monster clamped its jaw down on the hedgehog. Sonic caught the upper teeth, now stuck in the machine’s maw. He gasped as he felt actual strain in his arms from the bite force of the titan.

Sonic grunted as his knees began to buckle. Another roar escaped the monster’s throat, blasting Sonic’s face with wind, but not dislodging him. Clenching his own teeth, Sonic’s eyes flashed with red lightning. With a scream, he slammed his arms and legs outward, and the giant’s jaws were thrown open with  an echoing shockwave of clanking metal.

“How’s that for a jaw dropping performance!” Sonic bellowed as he turned back to face the titan, landing another punch to its face.

Giganto clicked its jaw and swung its arms, getting Sonic to back away. Once its target was down front, its maw snapped open again, each row of teeth rolling back, and deep within, a red inferno roiled up from its throat.

Before Sonic could move, a devastating beam shot from Giganto’s mouth, bright enough to make the night look like day. Sonic held his hands in front, stopping the beam in its tracks. He winced as the heat was intense enough to be felt through his super form and make sweat appear on his brow.

Keeping his arms steady, Sonic deflected the last of the attack upward as it died out. With a clear shot, he closed the gap and gave the giant and uppercut to the chin.

Flying backward, Sonic waited for the behemoth’s next move. But none came.

The towering giant sank to its knees, its jaw and arms slack. Seeing it swaying to just stay upright, Sonic grinned.

He’d outlasted the brute.

Rearing back, Sonic sped forward, becoming a golden blur of light. The flying hedgehog bore straight through the monster’s chest, blasting out the other side and leaving the machine’s innards spraying out its back. Giganto made a final death knell roar, before its body was consumed in sparking red light, and exploded into pixel nothingness.

Sonic panted as he hovered above the torn-up valley. Right as Giganto disappeared, his vision flashed. Another brain download?

He saw another female Ancient. She floated in a strange black void, glowing with yellow light. All around her, various yellow symbols spun. Somehow, Sonic was reminded of the cyberspace back in New Mobotropolis.

The Ancient spoke with a frantic shout, staring at something beyond what Sonic could see in the vision. “No! Stay with me! I’ll think of something!”

Another flash, and Sonic was back hovering above the valley with a startled jolt as the sky voice returned, echoing everywhere and yet nowhere. “The first seal is broken. Thy next foe awaits, on the sand-scarred island.”

Sonic rolled his eyes with a weary sigh. “Right, you said ‘Titans’ earlier. Plural.”

The sound of tamping grass made Sonic float down to the valley floor. Sally ran up to meet him, still in her hologram form.

Sally looked over her glowing arm. “Guess you’re not done yet,” she shrugged with a half-smile.

Sonic’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t think it’s over until I bop all the big bots. Sorry Sal.”

“Don’t be, I’m feeling more like my old self already,” Sally assured, “Now get going before your super form wears off. We don’t know what’ll happen to the emeralds once they’re used up.”

Sonic hesitated to fly away. “You’ll be okay here?”

Sally reached up and took Sonic’s hand where he floated. “I will. And who knows? Maybe I’ll find a way to follow. But whatever happens, I’ll be by your side again soon enough.”

Sonic gave a grim nod before smiling. “Then I’ll catch ya later Sal, gotta juice!” Sally rolled her eyes at the quip as Sonic’s golden form blazed across the night sky to the next island.

Chapter Text

Sonic blazed over the ocean water towards Ares Island. Ares Island? Sonic shook his head. No time to get distracted while he still had his super form.

This island was more mountainous than Kronos. Tall, rocky buttes of various sizes rose into the sky, dotting the landscape. In between these were wide plains of sand dunes. Only a few areas sported bodies of water, but otherwise it was a dried and cracked landscape. The final detail of large canons made of the same ancient metal quickly became the most important, at least to Sonic, as they opened fire on him.

Sonic gasped as a lancing red beam shot right for his head. He dodged the first canon’s shot, but a second canon he hadn’t spotted found its mark.

Sonic went into a freefall, tumbling toward one of the sand dunes and sending up a plume with his landing. Groaning, Sonic got to his knees, shaking sand out of his quills. Looking above, he spotted his seven emeralds, floating in a circle where he’d been shot. Instead of falling, the gems began acting… strange. 

The spinning green stones slowly drew closer to each other in their rotating formation. Then, one by one, they swerved off and all shot away in the same direction, flying away from the islands to parts unknown.

Sonic let out a long sigh. “Nah. That’s cool. I didn’t want this to be easy anyway.” Hopefully the canons having any energy to fire at him meant more emeralds were in similar vaults on this island.

Rather than waste the cool night air and wait for what was sure to be grueling heat in the day, Sonic began exploring the rolling dunes. He quickly learned the sand plain bordered the ocean, but otherwise the towering orange buttes ringed the rest. In between the rocks were pathways that led to the rest of the island, but Sonic wasn’t keen on being ambushed at night by more robots.

Tracing the edge of the dune covered plain, he found a small oasis with a few palm trees and bushes. At least he had a water source. But what intrigued him was the black, vaguely human-torso shaped object resting beside it.

Expecting another robot, Sonic gave a soft kick to the thing’s side. It reacted with a flash of red pixels along its surface, but nothing more. Sonic hit it harder, and harder, earning more and more red pixels. Eventually he was using all of his new moves on the thing, until finally, it shattered. When it did, he received another brain download giving him images of the wider island.

As the images took root, Sonic gave a sideways glance at the ‘puzzle’ he’d just solved. “Guess they ran out of clever ideas that day,” he shrugged. But as the images settled, he turned back around, realizing he wasn’t alone.

It was another older koco. He looked like the rest, only far larger, standing as tall as Sonic, and twice as wide. He sported a green moss beard that took up almost his entire face and a unique head dress with five points, like a crown.

“Well hello there. Quick little fella, aren’t you?” the bearded koco wheezed.

Sonic smirked and placed his hands on his hips. “The name’s Sonic, and that says it all. You’re one of the special koco right?”

The bearded koco’s eyes became lidded as he gave a sighing reply. “My name has been lost to time, so please, simply call me, ‘Elder Koco.’ It has been my job to look after all the little ones, but overtime, I’ve lost track of so many…” Elder Koco’s eyes slid shut, and he hung his head.

“Sonic,” Elder Koco’s eyes opened with pleading. “With your speed… May I ask you to return my charges to me?”

Sonic frowned at the larger koco, before sighing himself. “If I see any while I’m helping my friends, then sure thing Gramps. I’ll bring them to you.”

“Ah! A true hero!” Elder Koco stood up straighter with a wide smile. “I will happily reward your promise. One of your friends lies within the center of the dunes.” Elder Koco gestured toward the desert, and a large black, spikey tower that dominated the skyline.

Sonic’s head snapped toward the rolling dunes that almost blended with the starry night sky. “Thanks big guy!” The Hero of Mobius sped toward the dunes’ interior, kicking up plumes of sand behind him. “Hang on Nicole, or Bunnie, I’m on my way.”

Sonic’s only break in speed came when he spotted another of Eggman’s landing pods. He skidded to a stop and waited only a second for loudspeaker gloating or badniks to pop out. But the pod was on its side and was half buried in a sand dune. He moved on without a second glance.

Between one of the huge, house-size gun turrets that had shot him down and a massive robotic tower of spinning spikes stood the prison pod. Inside, Bunnie Rabbot sat cross-legged, her head bowed, and her hands in her lap.

“Hang on Bunnie!” Sonic called without slowing his pace. Leaping into a spin dash, he smashed into the pulsing red shell of the pod.

The pod shattered into glowing, floating red rectangles like before. Skidding to a stop, Sonic threw up his hands as the energy dispelled from the prison flowed into him. The pain was greater this time, creating an ache in his joints, searing between his knuckles, knees, and neck. He gasped as the last of the stuff absorbed into him, holding his chest and sagging on his knees.

Sonic shook off his pain as Bunnie floated to the ground, swaying on her feet. While Sonic caught his breath, Bunnie stared at her flickering hologram hands.

Unbeknownst to either, far above, Sage hovered and watched.

“Sugah-hog?” Bunnie turned to Sonic with a slack expression, speaking in a deathly whisper. “What in the who-ha’s happening to me?”

“It’s… a long story. But I’m working on it, don’t worry.” Sonic’s voice was distant to Sage on the cool night breeze. She turned and floated back into cyberspace; She’d seen enough for now.

“You alright yourself sugah-hog?” Bunnie gestured to a flickering black vapor lingering where the prison pod’s energy had gone into Sonic’s hand.

The hedgehog waved away the concern and the vapor. “Nothing to worry about, just some weird energy from the islands.” Bunnie gave a reluctant nod, before an awkward silence fell between them.

“Bunnie… why…” Sonic reached half-heartedly towards his friend. “How did you get here?”

Bunnie folded her arms, staring away from the hedgehog. “I was… staying, with mah uncle. He got a new doohickey from Eggman. He said it was some kind ah portal, like Knuckles’ warp rings. Ah knew he couldn’t have something like that, so Ah tried to steal it. And then… it sent me here,” Bunnie gestured to the island.

Seeing the frown forming on Sonic’s face, Bunnie’s arms tightened around herself. “Now you mind telling me what’s going on?”

Sonic’s frown only deepened at the defensive edge in Bunnie’s voice, but he obliged. He explained everything that had happened since getting the message from G.U.N. about the chaos energy flare-up in the ocean to now.

“… And then I found you,” Sonic finished. By this point Bunnie had lost her closed-off posture and stared with wide eyes.

The southern belle blinked, then chuckled at the end of Sonic’s recount. “Only you could get up to all that in one day sugah-hog.” Her brow creased again, and her voice became softer. “Is Sally-girl really back to normal?”

Sonic took on a half-smile. “Sure is, thanks to Uncle Chuck and all the rest of the brainiacs, and a… new ally.” Sonic’s smile faded, replaced with an uncertain frown.

Bunnie saw through his silence. She lowered her head, letting her hat’s brim obscure her eyes. “Ah’m sorry Ah wasn’t there.”

Sonic winced. A tense moment of quiet passed, before he finally asked what he’d wanted to for a long time. “Why did you leave?”

Bunnie folded her arms, and her hat fully obscured her face as she stared at the ground. She answered in a bitter whisper. “Because I had to get back what was mine.”

Sonic frowned at the answer for only a moment, before realization hit him like a truck. He blinked rapidly, his stance becoming uneven. “You… You went to get legionized?”

Bunnie finally raised her head, giving a cold, steady stare to her friend. Sonic’s face melted into horror. “Bunnie… why?”

The rabbit’s eye twitched and she bared her teeth. “Because Ah couldn’t be weak anymore! All y’all kept saying was that Ah needed time. Well time wasn’t gunna make me fly! Or snipe badniks from a hundred feet! Or…!” Sonic’s horrified expression only grew, so Bunnie turned her back on him, her voice choking, “Or make me be able to keep y’all safe.”

Sonic could only stand there with a slack jaw. He’d been there when she was half-roboticized. It had been one of his greatest regrets to not have pulled her out of the machine sooner. She’d grown to accept her new form, sure, but now that she was finally free, now that the miracle they’d never thought possible had happened, she wanted to go back!?

Sonic walked around to be able to face her again. She kept her head down to avoid seeing him. “Bunnie… what happened to Antoine… that wasn’t your fault…”

The rabbit’s head snapped up with a fiery glare. “That there,” Bunnie jabbed a finger at Sonic, “Is exactly the reason I had to leave!” she hissed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sonic threw his arms wide.

“It means,” Bunnie ground out, “That y’all wouldah said Ah wasn’t thinking straight if Ah asked you for my cybernetics back. You’da said I was acting outta grief. Am Ah wrong?” Bunnie’s stare bore into Sonic. He started and stopped several times trying to respond.

Something about the way Bunnie’s glare hardened into certainty ticked Sonic off. “And would we have been wrong for saying it?” Sonic asked.

Bunnie’s glare never faltered. “Ah wanted my metal limbs back even before what happened.” That threw Sonic for a loop, his anger turning into a sad, confused frown. “And if Ah’d been stronger, Sugah-Twan would’ve still been here to tell yah that himself.”

A cold gust of sandy air blew between the freedom fighters. The first rays of the morning sun peaked over the horizon, but they brought no warmth.

Bunnie sighed as she turned away from Sonic again, staring at the horizon. “When all this is said and done Sugah-hog, Ah’m going right back to mah quest. Y’all won’t give me what Ah need, so Ah’ll find it mahself.”

Sonic’s voice had deserted him. He could only stare with a horrified frown. “You said you had stuff to do to free us?” Bunnie reminded.

Sonic’s mouth compressed into a thin line. He couldn’t decide between frustration, confusion, or sadness. “Keep an eye out for emeralds,” Sonic said in a blank monotone, “I’ll need em for whatever titan guards this island.” Sonic turned away from Bunnie, looking over the mountain range of buttes ringing half the expanse of dunes. He hesitated, then sped away, the cold rush of air shocking his senses.

He didn’t have long to travel before reaching the bizarre mechanical tower that dominated the center of the dunes. The thing was a black and red confusing mess of shapes, looking like an upside down, skyscraper sized wind chime. The part that concerned Sonic though, was its four legs.

The tower’s base had four spindly legs that connected into diamond shaped ‘feet’ planted into the sand. Within these were three huge rings, somehow hovering in place, and within those, a rotating circular apparatus sporting twelve glowing pink eyes spread across all its sides.

As Sonic ran beneath the thing, it shuddered to life, and the middle, eye-covered apparatus split into two pieces, revealing a dark red interior engine. From this, it spat out new rings, rippling with red electricity, that hovered down to Sonic’s level.

Ready to dodge if needed, Sonic waited for the rings to get nearer, but they stopped and froze mid-air. The red electricity shut off, and they became still and cold.

Seeing that they provided easy steppingstones, Sonic shrugged and began rail grinding and jumping between them. As he did, the name of this towering robot came to him, Strider.

Sonic easily reached the three primary rings circling the multi-eyed brain of the robot, rail-grinding in circles around it, waiting for an opening. How could Bunnie want to get roboticized again?

As Sonic traveled, one of the eyes on the center spat out a tendril of red lightning that conducted along the ring he was on. How could she want to go back after all the suffering it had brought her?

Sonic switched rings and continued circling. It had to be her guilt over Antoine; no way she’d want it back otherwise.

As he neared one trip around, Sonic noticed the parts of the rings he’d gone across glowed blue behind him. But she said she’d wanted to go back even before that.

The red tendril switched to Sonic’s ring. Was she telling the truth, and did it even matter if she was?

He dodged back to the first, completing the trail of blue. She was clearly still grieving now, so… would it be right to help her go back?

When he finished a full trip on the first ring, it turned white and sent up a brief burst of blue that seemed to affect the multi-eyed center. Would he be in the right to help her go back?

Sonic completed the process on the other two rings, dodging red tendril electricity as he went. He wanted to get the original team back together.

The center split open again, only this time, a dark red-and-black platform appeared around it, and the head remained open. Bunnie getting back her cybernetics would help in the fight against Robotnik.

Sonic shot straight for the machine’s inner core, unleashing a flurry of energy blasts and flying kicks.

But… what if it was grief, and she regretted it later?

The core began to fluctuate, fragmenting in a series of explosions that traveled all the way up to the top of the tower.

Could he face himself knowing he’d enabled his grieving friend to make a terrible mistake?

Sonic zipped away from the structure expecting it to topple over, but it proved unnecessary as the explosions reduced the tower to vanishing pixels.

Or was this a time when Bunnie needed unconditional support the most?

A single glowing gear fell into the sand where the tower had once been.

Sonic absorbed the gear, closing his fist around the empty space once it was gone. His shadow under the morning sun stretched long over the sand dunes, and the first heat of the day was settling over the island.

Sonic stared back to where he’d freed Bunnie, squinting through the sun, but the rabbit had already moved elsewhere. His brow furrowed, Sonic sped towards the line of buttes ringing the desert, having no idea which path to take.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t long before Sonic missed the cool of the night. The sun was relentless, causing rippling heatwaves to rise from the sand and rock. If it wasn’t for the wind he felt from his speed, he wondered if he could endure it at all.

Exploring the dunes had revealed another cyberspace gate, and after a quick jaunt through old Knothole, he’d collected enough keys to cause another green beam to shoot into the air. Looking at its origin, Sonic realized he would have to venture into the crags of the buttes ringing the desert. Even if there was an ambush waiting for him, at least there would be some shade.

Following the energy beam, he reached a split in the rock wall. In the shade of the area was another small oasis that had seen better days. Nonetheless Sonic’s thirst was great enough to make him appreciate a drink of warm water.

Seeing another visitor to the little body of water, Sonic waved. “Hey Hermit, you managed to hop islands?”

The Hermit Koco stood in the center of the oasis, lazily trailing his feet. “The digital dream allows many things,” he answered with a wheeze.

Sonic leaned against one of the palm trees ringing the water. “Any chance you could bring my friend from the other island here?” Sonic asked. He could really use Sally’s advice about Bunnie.

The Hermit Koco wilted slightly and shook his head. “I’m afraid not child. Your friends’ conditions have been made by the interloper that proceeded you.”

Sonic’s spines flexed, stabbing into the tree behind him. “Eggman’s new brat,” Sonic muttered to himself before speaking to Hermit. “Thanks anyway dude, and if you head back to Kronos tell Sally…” Sonic hesitated, “That I freed Bunnie.”

Hermit Koco nodded. “As you wish, but now, I am tired and return to the dream. Let me rest, child.”

As the Hermit Koco’s eyes slid shut and he seemed to sleep while standing, Sonic shrugged and continued onward toward the next emerald vault. He was pleasantly surprised to find no hiding robots ready to pounce, and instead a short jog down the path between towering rock walls to the vault.

Repeating as before, he soon absorbed another green chaos emerald. Speeding from the rocky crevice back into the dunes, Sonic held out a distant hope he wouldn’t need six more emeralds; maybe the other titans might be pushovers.

Above him, a flickering burst of red took up several miles of air. When it cleared, a snaking robot as long as an entire city street filled the air. Looking like some bizarre snake, its body trailed out behind it, with long blades swaying off of it like hair, and long wispy red tails that lit up the sky. It’s only other two features were a head entirely made of crocodilian type jaws, and two hands with three, several mile long fingers each.

Sonic’s mouth fell open as the thing undulated through the air, looking like it was swimming through water instead of open sky. He tensed as the rattling of a thousand gears and a steady gust of air from the machine carried down from on high. But the flying beast didn’t alter its course. It carried onward, oblivious to the hedgehog.

Sonic heaved a sigh, holding his hand to his chest, but quickly startled again as another, much smaller adversary appeared beside him.

Sage stared down at Sonic from where she floated with a blank expression. “While I cannot fully control it, I can awaken its rage against you.” She turned and raised her hand, a small ball of red energy emanating from her palm. Far above, a cloud of red pixels clustered around the flying machine’s head, before it reversed course, heading back towards them.

Sage cast her blank gaze toward Sonic, giving a small frown, before disappearing again. Her task was accomplished. The flying beast’s crocodile mouth split open into four separate jaws as a piercing screech blasted the island and made Sonic’s ears ring.

Sonic’s fists clenched at his sides. “Talk to the kid, find out more about the islands, it’ll be great,” Sonic muttered under his breath as he broke into a sprint.

Sonic’s grumbling was interrupted by the whooshing air of a thousand missiles shooting out from the machine’s snaking body behind him. He was starting to wish he had explored the narrow paths between the buttes.

Kicking up a plume of sand and trailing blue streak, Sonic sped through the dunes as the missiles closed in. Explosions began erupting around him, clouds of sand and bursts of heat greater than the desert sun flaring on all sides.

He reached a cresting dune, planning to use the dip on the other side to gain momentum. As he neared it though, a solid black wall of metal materialized out of pixels at the top, forcing him to swerve and run the curve of the dune.

Sonic grunted through gritted teeth. Could this titan affect the ground too? Or was Sage still interfering? Another explosion nearly made him lose his footing, forcing him to push aside the question.

Swerving left around the dune he’d wanted, he chose a different path. Several half-buried rings of ancient stone protruded from the sands. Hopefully Sage, or the titan, couldn’t summon new walls if the stone work was already present. Also hopefully, the titan’s missiles would assume he was planning to run through them for cover.

As he neared the things, at the last second before running beneath them, Sonic leapt upward. Clinging to the first stone ring’s side, he launched himself upward, then bounced from one ring top to the next. As he’d planned, the missiles carried through into the rings beneath him, detonating against the sand, the rings, and themselves.

Running out of stone rings, Sonic soon hopped down to the sand again. He grimaced over his shoulder as he saw the titan’s barrage wasn’t letting up. Spotting some buttes to his right, Sonic tried to speed his way between them to escape, but another wall appeared, forcing a left turn into several rows of spike traps.

Sonic zipped between the spikes, whose silver surfaces dazzled in the sun, making him squint. The momentary distraction made him run too close to one, getting a light scratch that took off a tuft of arm fur and only just missed his skin. Clearing the spike field, more walls appeared in front, forcing another left turn.

Now forced to face toward the sea, Sonic leapt to a series of floating platforms above him. While they technically only got him closer to the missile firing death machine, he’d take more missiles over a super-speed impaling. These too ran out, dumping him out near the first oasis he’d visited, just ahead of the sheer cliff of the island that dropped off into the ocean.

The only thing besides open dunes around him now were a series of smaller boulders sticking up from the sands. Knowing he’d be turned into chili sauce if he let the full force of the missiles hit him while among the rocks, he doubled back by letting the shockwave of one of the missiles’ explosions send him flying high.

With their target in the air with them, many of the missiles detonated with each other, cutting down their number. Falling back to the rocks, Sonic panted as he zipped and weaved between the boulders. Flaring heat, deafening explosions, and shards of sand and rock assaulted his senses.

Skidding to a stop behind one of the larger boulders, Sonic collapsed against the rock as the last missile detonated a short distance away. Letting his arms and legs go limp, Sonic took gasping breaths. He only opened his eyes when the ground shook and further clouds of sand were kicked up by the flying beast rushing overhead and flying out over the ocean.

Sonic got his panting under control as he shakily got to his feet. A warping sound revealed Sage, hovering just above him. “You cannot run forever. Final warning: leave,” Sage warned, before disappearing again.

Sonic clenched his fists and grit his teeth. “Can’t run forever huh? You clearly haven’t been paying attention.”

After checking to make sure the flying titan wasn’t gunning for him, Sonic slumped over and went to sit next to the oasis pool. The Elder Koco was still there, silently bobbing back and forth.

“Mind if I join you?” Sonic asked, though he was already taking off his shoes and socks to dip his feet in the water.

“Not at all, Sonic,” The Elder replied as Sonic sighed and reclined against a palm tree.

After a long quiet of catching his breath, Sonic spoke. “You said you looked after kids.”

The Elder Koco nodded with a deep sigh. “Yes, I looked after the little ones.”

Sonic stared off into the ripples of the oasis’ water. “Any advice for dealing with a kid trying to kill me?”

Elder Koco raised a mossy eyebrow. “The interloper is a child?”

“No no, not the fat guy,” Sonic corrected, “The hologram girl. The A.I. You guys know A.I. right? Like in robots?”

“Yes,” Elder nodded, “The mind of a machine. Crafted by mortals. An artist’s creation, but not a true mind.”

Sonic frowned, propping his elbow on his knee. “Maybe you guys never got far enough, but nowadays ‘machine minds’ are full on complete people. Emotions, desires, friendships, you name it.”

The Elder’s eyes widened enough to be fully free of the overhang of mossy eyebrows. “Really? That is quite an achievement.”

Sonic chuckled as he leaned against his tree and stared at the leaves above. “Don’t look at me, it’s my friends who are the geniuses.” Sonic’s amusement faded as he looked back to the Elder. “But back to the point. The ‘interloper’ has ‘crafted’ an A.I. child that is trying to kill me and takeover your island. Any ideas how to deal with that?”

Sonic frowned as a look of profound sadness creased the Elder Koco’s face. “If you speak truth about your machine minds, and the interloper has sent a child on a warrior’s quest…” Elder Koco bowed his head, his brows knitting together. “How long has she… been awake?”

Sonic leaned on his knees, steepling his fingers. “Don’t know exactly, but… not more than a year,” Sonic answered.

Elder Koco closed his eyes and his head swayed from side to side as he gave a soft moan. “If the child seeks your annihilation, it is because her father has taught her to do so.”

Sonic felt inclined to point out he’d already known that, but the Elder’s sadness had thrown him off. “So, what should I do then?” Sonic asked instead.

The Elder gave a soft hum of thought before answering. “Speak to her. Attempt to make her see that her quest is not her own. You may yet convince her of your noble intent.”

Sonic leaned back on his tree with a thud. “To be honest, my intent is to kill her dad. After saving my friends of course.”

Elder Koco gave a slow blink. “Hmm… I would still give the same council, for I suspect the interloper is trapped much the same as your friends. For the moment, your quests are one and the same.”

Sonic sighed and gave a reluctant nod. “Let’s hope she sees it that way.”

“Indeed,” Elder nodded back, “But be prepared for her to reject your reasoning. My time watching the little ones has taught me many things. One is the sad truth, that no matter how they are mistreated, a child will always harbor a love for their parent.”

Sage materialized in a darkened, gray metallic hallway. Oil grime seeped through the walls where metal panels met. The air moved in gusts, timed with the pistons of various assembly line machinery and carrying the ever-present scent of petroleum and smelted metal.

She floated down the hallway to the main control room of the dome. The door slid open with a loud clang, revealing the rotating throne that dominated the center of the room, surrounded by numerous tv screens and control panels.

Robotnik didn’t turn around as he continued to type at the button pad on the armrest of his chair. His growling voice reverberated around the large room. “What is it, Sage?”

The hologram girl shrank under the annoyance in her father’s voice, descending into standing rather than floating. She crossed the bridge that spanned the pit beneath the throne with silent steps. “Sonic has made it to Ares Island, sir.”

Robotnik’s typing stopped only for a moment at hearing the news, before resuming. “Is he anywhere near finding me here in cyberspace?”

“Factoring in the gates that lead to this specific world, and the number of gates on the island overall; there is a 29% chance of him finding you here. But do not worry sir, I will protect you.”

Robotnik’s typing ceased, and his throne rotated around to face the hologram. Sage clasped her hands and lowered her head. “Make no mistake, Sage,” Robotnik grumbled, “Your power is nothing compared to the rodent.”

Sage wrung her hands. “I… do not understand.”

Robotnik gave a guttural sigh as he rotated back around to resume his testing of the digital Egg Dome’s systems. “I wouldn’t expect you to. The very cosmos has mandated our contest of wills to continue. It is apparently… a part of the natural order of things.”

Sage frowned at the back of her father’s chair, though in confusion rather than annoyance. “Perhaps… you could share the data that proves this? So that I might account for it?”

Robotnik growled under his breath. How ever innocent the question, he did not appreciate the insinuation he was incorrect. “You want data? Collect it yourself.” Robotnik hissed, “Go out there now. Kill the rodent where he stands. And after you’ve failed, just ensure he is kept busy while I unravel the secrets of this place.”

Sage flinched under her father’s frustration with her. “Yes sir, I’m… sure your theory is correct.”

Robotnik smirked without pausing his work or turning around. “That’s more like it, now get out there.” He cast an impatient wave over his shoulder to dismiss the little hologram.

After the flying titan had moved on to another part of the island, Sonic stretched and kicked his feet at super speed to dry them off. “Thanks for the chat big guy,” Sonic addressed the Elder Koco as he got his socks and shoes back on.

Elder Koco bowed. “It was an honor to give council to the Hero of Mobius.”

Sonic took on a proud smirk and raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t know about me?”

“The digital dream has taken new shape. While I am not as in-tune as the Hermit, your legacy shines bright enough even for my old eyes to see.”

Sonic placed his hands on his hips. “Well I better go make sure it gets even brighter. See ya around big guy!” Sonic sped away toward the wall of buttes lining the dunes.

“Yes,” Elder Koco wheezed, “Go forth hero, and may you grant future generations, the childhood you were denied.”

Sonic shot toward a path between the buttes that was marked by a large stone-and-metal archway. He barely reached it, however, before red, sparking pixels drew his eyes upward.

Sage floated in the middle of the archway, glaring down at Sonic. “Father says you are a force of the cosmos.”

Sonic blinked three times before answering. “Okay…?” Of all the things he’d been expecting the hologram to say… Had Eggman lost it again? It would make stopping him a whole lot easier. No, focus. Sage was talking, and two good authorities said that was the way forward.

“First I’ve heard of it,” Sonic admitted, “Care to elaborate?”

“He claimed the cosmos has mandated your contest with him, and that it was a part of the natural order.”

Sonic’s spines stood on end. That was almost identical to what Zonic had told him about his world ‘needing’ a Robotnik, and what he’d had to do to put the universe back together… Was it really true? Was some cosmic order resting on him and Robotnik fighting each other tooth and nail for the rest of time? And if it was… would he be risking everything if he finally finished off the jerk once and for all?

“Scans indicate you are experiencing heightened levels of stress.” Sage’s observation tore Sonic back to the present.

The hedgehog glared daggers up at the hologram. “First off, it’s rude to scan people like that. Second, your dad’s a nutcase who’s never been able to admit I’m better than him. And third,” Sonic took a steadying breath, “Why are you suddenly, ‘sharing data’ with an enemy?”

Sage’s head tilted with a sideways glance. “I wished to know if you shared father’s theory of a cosmic mandate, being the second most knowledgeable authority on the subject.”

Sage straightened up again. “Perhaps I can alleviate father’s fears, by proving his theory wrong.” The hologram raised her hand, palm toward Sonic, as sparking red energy began to build.

Sonic barely had time to crouch into a running position as a red laser beam shot from Sage’s hand. Just as the blast neared his face, the sound of running feet and a blur of pale blue pixels passed in front of him.

Standing between Sonic and Sage, Bunnie held up her left arm as if it had a shield attached. To both Sonic’s and Bunnie’s delayed shock, Sage’s laser bounced off the rabbit’s arm in all directions. Sonic could feel the heat of the scattered beams as they were diverted.

Sage’s expression remained impassive as she lowered her arm. Meanwhile, Bunnie stared at her own arm with wide eyes, before a wicked half-grin took over her face.

Bunnie copied Sage’s move, throwing her left arm palm up. A blue beam shot from the rabbit’s hand and blasted Sage right in the face.

“Woah!” Sonic half-laughed half-gasped. The hologram tumbled from her position and landed on the ground as if gravity suddenly applied to her. The two mobians raced to where she’d fallen. Sonic naturally got there first.

“Hey buddy, are we ready to use our words yet?” Sonic mocked, but his snark ebbed when the hologram girl stared up at him with utter terror. Bunnie reached them, and grabbed Sage’s arm in a vice grip, pinning her to the ground.

“Hold on Bunnie,” Sonic placed his hand between the rabbit and hologram girl. “Sally thinks we should reason with her. She might be a plan-B to get you guys back to normal.”

Bunnie sneered at the hologram, before shrugging. “If Sally-girl thinks so.” Bunnie leaned back to let Sonic be face to face with Sage, but kept the hologram pinned.

“Listen kid,” Sonic leaned on his knee as he addressed Sage. “I honestly don’t know if any of that ‘cosmic balance’ stuff is true, but after everything I’ve seen recently… its not impossible.” Sage’s eyes grew as wide as saucers. “But right now, none of that matters, because we ALL want to get off these islands and go home, your dad included.”

Sage’s expression was one of child-like terror and confusion. Sonic placed a hand as best he could on her shoulder. “I’m willing to put things between me and Butt-nik on the backburner for now. Help me defeat the titans and we can all go home to fight another day.”

Sage gasped, her brow furrowed in thought. She hesitated before answering, “No! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Before either Bunnie or Sonic could move, Sage had floated downward, passing into the sand covered rock, melting into scattered pixels.

Bunnie rose to her feet, releasing her grip on empty air. “She’s one’a Eggman’s flunkies. Ah don’t know if she’s worth the effort.”

Sonic sighed. “She wouldn’t be the first,” he reminded, but he was dispirited too. “Moving on,” Sonic took a deep breath before shouting, “How the heck did you shoot that!?”

Bunnie tested her fingers as she stared at her left arm, which by all appearances, was organic. “Don’t know sugah-hog. Ah just… acted on instinct.”

A heavy silence settled between the mobians. Neither said what they were both thinking. If Bunnie hadn’t been able to fight back like she had, Sonic might not be breathing right now.

Eventually, Sonic managed to respond. “Like I told Sage, the future can wait. Right now… let’s all focus on getting home.”

Bunnie didn’t look her friend in the eye. “Right, Ah’ll keep looking for chaos emeralds.” Bunnie turned back toward the sand dunes. “Try to stay outta any more lasers huh?” the rabbit called over her shoulder.

Sonic gave a weary chuckle. “No promises,” he answered, before speeding down the canyon.

Chapter Text

The heat of the day did not abate with time. Sonic quickly switched his mindset to being grateful for the twisting paths between the buttes, even with the occasional robot ambush. The shade from the sun was a welcome relief, as were the small gusts of sandy wind against his fur and quills as he ran.

He quickly discovered and unlocked another vault within the buttes and added another emerald. Then the land opened up again, onto more sand, and a few scattered oasis ponds. But what really drew Sonic’s eye was the superstructure hovering out over the ocean near the top of the island. Twisting metal rods and rotating giant rings provided an exhilarating run through the air to another emerald vault.

With two more emeralds found and several dozen robots reduced to scrap, Sonic returned to another expanse of dunes. He found Bunnie there, with a new group of koco. They wore the same U-shaped hats as the boyfriend koco from Kronos; soldiers.

Bunnie crouched to a koco towards the front of the small group. The little guy had seen better days. The draping head ornament that functioned as the little guys’ arms was broken off on the left side, and his stone skin was riddled with cracks and chips. His helmet was different too, sporting a gold coloring unlike the other koco’s silver helmets.

“Ah understand, don’t you worry. Ah’ll help you and yer friends here to find the main force,” Bunnie soothed.

Sonic tentatively approached. “Hey Bunnie, how’s it going?”

The rabbit turned to Sonic with her hands on her hips. “These fellas got separated from the main force.” Bunnie lowered her voice, “The general,” she nodded her head to the side to indicate the koco with the missing ‘arm,’ “Took a nasty hit. These ones wouldn’t leave em behind, but the main force had to move on, and now they’re pinned down by an enemy.” Bunnie pointed to a series of smaller versions of the pillar robots Sonic had faced at the start of Krono’s island blocking their path to a towering perimeter wall set between two buttes.

Sonic surveyed the small group of koco. The soldiers were cowering and whimpering behind their leader. The general himself stood tall but had a reserved expression that told Sonic he was putting on a brave face; he’d seen the look on Sally enough times to know it.

The hedgehog turned to look at the floating pillar robots. The machines were hovering ominously in the air, waiting to crush their victims into dust. “I can move em along,” Sonic offered.

Picking up the koco two at a time, Sonic sped beneath the pillars that smashed downward behind him, kicking up plumes of sand and making the ground shudder. The plan was going fine, until one of the koco became impatient and tried to rush through on his own.

Both mobians saw the impending disaster. Bunnie was closer and rushed beneath the pillar to block with her arm, as she’d done with Sage. She’d stopped bigger gadgets with brute force than this. Sonic saw Bunnie’s intent, but snatched the koco out from under the pillar out of instinct. The pillar smashed into the sand, completely unaffected by Bunnie’s block.

“Bunnie!” Sonic shouted and raced over to the pillar as it rose back into the air. The mobian rabbit stood underneath, in the same pose as she’d started. Sonic heaved a sigh of relief. Bunnie blinked in surprise. Before either could comment, the pillar smashed down again, which Bunnie easily passed through, but Sonic was thrown backward from the shockwave, coughing on sand.

This time Bunnie walked out of the imbedded pillar, a blank expression on her face. “Is that all of em?”

Sonic coughed out the last of the sand. “Yeah,” Sonic scooped up the koco that had started the whole thing. “He’s the last.” The two marshalled the scattered koco in silence. Even the sudden appearance of a chaos emerald in mid-air didn’t break it. Sonic absorbed it without a word.

Sand crunched beneath the stubby legs of the koco and Sonic’s sneakers. Bunnie’s footsteps made no sound. With no robots threatening the koco, the two mobians fell behind, watching the chiseled general march ahead of them with his small platoon. Under difference circumstances, Sonic would’ve laughed at seeing the squeaky little guy shout stern orders to his men.

Sonic tried in vain to think of something, anything, to say to try and reason with Bunnie. She claimed she wanted her limbs back even before Antoine, but did that even matter? If Antoine was awake and well right now, and she asked to be half-roboticized again, would it be right to say yes?

Under most circumstances, Sonic would’ve answered yes to something like this without a second thought. All the way down to his core, Sonic believed in people’s right to choose. It was one of the many reasons he fought all the jerks of the world who tried to force their rule onto others.

But… he’d been roboticized. He knew what it was like, and he knew what it did. The lack of feeling, the numbness, endlessly waiting for a return of your senses that would never come. A return that you consciously knew was forever lost to you, but subconsciously you would always long for. He’d been roboticized for less than a day and even lost most of his memories of the event, but he remembered that longing.

And Bunnie said she wanted that back. Sure, it wasn’t all of her, but… Was it right to let someone do that to themselves? Was it right if they were only doing it because they felt inadequate?

Sonic’s thoughts were interrupted when the platoon ahead of them reached a larger group of helmeted koco. Getting into ordered lines, the groups merged, with the general marching up to the front. The tiny critters and the two mobians stood alongside a towering wall of grey stone and purple-black metal.

All at once, the sky fragmented into the red triangular grid which had preceded the Tornado’s crash and the island bombardment Sonic had experienced with Sally. The light of the blazing sun was replaced with a red tint that covered the island, and the scorching heat was replaced with an eerie stillness.

Bunnie gasped as she looked over her normal body. Sonic only spared a glance at his friend, before eyeing the assembled koco with a wary expression.

Bunnie saw the hedgehog’s alert stance. “Sugah-hog…?” she trailed off as she noticed the assembled koco had been replaced with humanoid water creatures three times their size. At the front, her koco, the chiseled general, was now a broad chested water creature. His right arm was ‘literally’ rippling with muscle, while his left arm was entirely missing.

To their right, the mobians noticed that the wall they’d been walking by in the real world wasn’t present, instead tall pillars ran along the line where it had been. This was quickly solved as the general faced his men and through up his right arm towards the sky. In the same moment, the ground shuddered beneath the mobians’ feet, and the missing sections of the perimeter wall burst from beneath the sand, sliding up and into place between the pillars.

The general turned and stared upward at the newly erected defenses, as his men cheered behind him. “I’ve experienced this before,” Sonic said, still holding his defensive stance, “We’re somehow seeing a battle from the past.”

Bunnie suddenly understood Sonic’s wariness and looked around for whatever enemy would require such a tall perimeter. “Okay… but it means the little guys won… right?”

The ground shuddered beneath the mobians’ feet. Massive, several mile wide red laser blasts rocketed down from the sky, tearing through the rocky buttes like butter and turning sand to shards of glass.

Ahead of them the water creatures looked at the sky with wide, horrified eyes and gave cries of anguish. Sonic and Bunnie tried to spot the cause of the lasers, but the vision wouldn’t reveal the attacker.

The general raised his arm and shouted an order for retreat to the canyon just ahead of the perimeter wall. Some of the water creatures listened and followed their general, but most gave into panic and scattered every which way. Just as the general and five of his soldiers leapt downward into the canyon, a final laser blast, stronger than all prior, traced its way across the perimeter wall. The structure glowed a fiery red, then exploded in shattered fragments, raining down on the water beings who’d stayed too close.

The explosion of the structure caused a white-out in Sonic and Bunnie’s eyes. When it cleared, the scorching heat and blazing sun returned. Ahead of them, littered around the ruined wall and half buried in the sands, were the lifeless koco.

Bunnie barely noticed her return to a holographic state. She ran past the defeated koco and knelt at the edge of the canyon cliff. Below, she spotted the general koco, gathering the five others who’d followed him off the edge, helping them up from where they’d fallen.

“They had all that, and we’re still crushed,” Bunnie whispered.

Sonic turned away from the general gathering his men and looked to the sky. The same three letters glowed against the backdrop of the blue sky, before fading away.

Sage returned to the digital landscape of Robotropolis. Clanking pistons and the hum of hoverpods punctuated the polluted air.

She returned to the throne room with reluctance. By now Eggman had restored functionality to the monitors and was overlooking the entire city.

“I… have confirmed your theory sir,” Sage reported. In truth she still wasn’t sure of the validity of Eggman’s cosmic theory. Bunnie rushing to the rescue did not lend much proof to cosmic destiny. But Sage was starting to see what challenging her father would result in and refrained.

Fortunately for the little hologram, Eggman’s prior frustration was gone now that he’d gotten the throne room’s systems up and running. “Very good,” Robotnik crooned as he rotated his throne to face her. “Now, come here, won’t you?” Robotnik rose from his chair and stood.

Sage perked up a little at her father’s good mood, taking cautious steps forward. “Now turn around,” Robotnik ordered when she stood before him. Sage did so.

The child shuddered as Robotnik placed his hand around her skull. The doctor ran his fingers roughly through her hair, searching. Sage winced but said nothing, partly out of fear, but also stunned wonder at the fact she could feel her hair at all.

“Can you manifest an access port on your avatar?” Sage’s wonder at her sense of touch was broken. She looked over her shoulder to see Robotnik had a USB drive plug held in his other hand, which led back into the throne via a long cord.

“Yes sir,” Sage complied, closing her eyes and focusing. Her hair retracted on the back of her skull, leaving a small patch of bare skin. The patch fragmented into red and black pixels, before reforming into, by all appearances, a USB port.

Robotnik shoved the cord into Sage’s head, before sitting back down and typing. Sage wrung her hands, and her head sank between her shoulders. “May I ask what you are doing, sir?”

“Don’t lie to me, child,” Robotnik hissed as he studied a fold out screen on his throne’s other arm. “I know you’re aware of what I’m doing.”

“You are… attempting to install new software in me?” Sage’s voice carried a hesitant, high pitch.

“Very good,” Robotnik drawled as he pressed a final enter key. An error message flashed across the doctor’s screen. Robotnik slammed his fist. “What do you mean incompatible!?” he shouted.

Sage tried to cower away from her father’s outburst but was yanked backward when the cord in her head ran out of slack. “P-Perhaps it is the part of me that was reconstructed by the islands’ systems?” Sage whimpered.

“Obviously!” Robotnik shouted, waving an impatient hand. The doctor grabbed the taut cord and yanked it free from Sage’s head in an angry huff.

Sage yelped as the burst of electricity shocked her simulated human skin. She lost her balance and tumbled to the floor. She stayed where she fell, on her knees, fingering the back of her head with a mute, blank expression.

Robotnik glared at the stunned child by his chair. Her hair hung low, obscuring her face from the doctor. Robotnik looked at the error message again. He wouldn’t be able to solve the issue here…

Sage flinched as her arm was gently taken and led away from touching the back of her head. She looked up through her hair to see her father kneeling down to her, a soft smile on his face. “I’m so sorry my dear,” the doctor’s voice was soft, “I shouldn’t have done that.” Robotnik helped Sage to her feet. Her blank expression remained.

“Please understand my dear,” Robotnik continued, “My frustration is with my being trapped here, not you. And as for this,” he gestured to the trailing USB cord, “You have the files on A.D.A.M., correct?” Sage nodded mutely. “Yes,” Robotnik nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid his betrayal has left me more shaken than I’d realized, and I took out that fear on you. Please,” he placed a hand on Sage’s shoulder, “Accept my sincerest apologies.”

Sage looked up at him with wide, trembling eyes, and broke into a watery smile. “Of course!” Sage rushed forward and hugged her father.

With Sage’s face buried in his coat and turned away, Robotnik sneered at the gesture. He didn’t return the hug and stood up to break the contact. Sage clasped her hands and stepped away. “Right, I’ll… return to distracting the hedgehog… sir.”

Sage ran back out the hallway with a lighter step. After a few paces, she began floating again. Her father needed help, and she would save him, no matter what.

Sage braked mid-air outside of the Egg Dome. “Sonic… perhaps…?” Sage held her chin in thought. She looked back up at the capital building with a frown, before de-materializing into vanished pixels.

Above in the command room, Robotnik waited for the notification that Sage had left. When it came, he tore out the USB cord and threw it down the pit beside his throne.

It was an arduous process for Bunnie and Sonic to get down into the canyon where the koco fell. Once they reached the bottom the shade of the rocky walls wasn’t enough to abate the sweat Sonic had worked up.

Bunnie noticed the hedgehog’s panting. “You alright sugah?”

Sonic leaned on his knees. His vision was blurring at the edges, and his joints stung with a faint pain. The same pain he’d experienced when freeing Sally and Bunnie.

Sonic saw Bunnie’s furrowed brow and waved his hand. “Yeah, just… tired and hot… is all,” he panted.

Bunnie gave a reluctant nod. “If ya need some water, Ah can handle the little ones fer now.”

Sonic took the excuse and (literally) ran with it. “Thanks. I’ll see if I can’t rustle up another emerald before swinging back around,” he panted before blasting away in a plume of sand.

The blue blur brushed off his momentary dizziness in the canyon. While he’d meant it as a way to assure Bunnie, he suspected he wasn’t entirely wrong about his heat exhaustion. After a few sips of water and unlocking some more seeds with the Hermit Koco, he felt much better. He was even true to his word and found another emerald. Only two left now, and he suspected the final emerald would be in a similar place to last time.

Sonic soon returned to Bunnie and the beleaguered koco. They were marching themselves through the blistering heat to a structure built into the side of a butte with four square pillars at the entrance.

When Sonic reached them, Bunnie and the chiseled general had gotten farther ahead. The five soldier koco lagged behind. “I’ll round up the stragglers huh?” Sonic offered.

Bunnie had been staring at the ground moving beneath her feet with her arms folded, lost in thought. She blinked and looked over her shoulder at the lagging koco. “Oh… yeah, thanks sugah-hog.”

Sonic speed carried all the koco to the weathered, four-columned structure. When he was done, the general came up to him and closed his eyes in concentration. Another emerald appeared before Sonic, floating in mid-air, which he quickly absorbed. Only one left now.

“They say it’s a bunker,” Bunnie said, gesturing to the four-columned structure. “They’re supposed to fall back now that the defenses have fallen.”

Sonic was cut off from answering as the ground shuddered beneath his feet. Behind the mobians and koco, four of the black pillar robots smashed into the ground. The koco cowered behind the mobians, except for the general who gave a barking order at his five remaining soldiers and pointed toward the bunker, before marching toward the four enemies.

Bunnie watched the little critter with a hard expression. She held up her left arm and repeated the same laser blast she’d used on Sage, but the beam went straight through the nearest pillar without any effect. Bunnie clutched her wrist like it had betrayed her. “They’re gunna assault the bunker!” she shouted, looking between the oscillating robots and the lone general standing in their way.

Sonic felt a cold shiver run down his spine at the look of anguish on Bunnie’s face, and for a moment he recalled the weight of Antoine’s body in his arms. “We’ve got this Bunnie, I’ve got your back,” Sonic promised before speeding toward the nearest pillar.

Bunnie clenched her fist and let her arms fall. “Thanks sugah-hog.”

Sonic made short work of the pillars by racing up their sides and performing a stomp move on their heads one at a time. The robots disassembled into giant disk pieces that tumbled across the sand before fragmenting into red pixels.

Sonic clapped his gloves to shake off the sand with a satisfied smirk once the last robot fell. His smile vanished, however, when he spotted the general koco, lying prone in the center of the sands, with Bunnie knelt beside him.

Bunnie’s ears were sagged over the sides of her hat, and her voice was tight with emotion. “He wouldn’t let any harm come to em, right till the end.” A gust of wind blew over the mobians, carrying the first of the sands that would eventually cover the fallen koco. Behind them, the other five koco also laid still, their souls manifesting in white orbs and flying skyward into the strange letters that dotted the sky.

Sonic urged his friend away from the battle site, and the two made their way to the stone structure’s roof. Bunnie sat on the roof’s edge, staring fixedly ahead as the sun started descending into the horizon. She rubbed her left wrist and said nothing.

Sonic sat down beside her, almost speaking before abandoning the effort and staying quiet. He still didn’t know what to say, or what to do.

Bunnie ended up breaking the silence first, still staring ahead and speaking in a low whisper. “It don’t matter what you say sugah-hog. And Ah don’t care if you don’t believe me. Ah ain’t changing mah mind.”

Sonic leaned on his knees and clasped his hands. “I believe you Bunnie,” Sonic’s hands tightened on his glove fabric. “I believe you wanted your cybernetics back before… what happened…” Bunnie turned, squinting at the hedgehog.

Sonic held her gaze, confirming his sincerity, before turning to the horizon himself. “You know, back in the old days,” a smile tugged at the side of Sonic’s mouth, “before all the emerald guardians, ultimate lifeforms, and time-traveling-telekinetics… It was us.” Sonic turned back to Bunnie, “You and me, we were the only ones with the strength to fight back the Doc’s bots. The others did what they could, helped where they could. But when push came to shove, it was you and me.”

Bunnie folded her arms, maintaining a hard stare at the hedgehog, waiting for his point. Sonic sighed. “But things are different now. We’ve got people who are on the level we were at back then. Some that are even stronger.” Bunnie’s lips compressed into a thin line, and she turned her head away.

Sonic reached half-heartedly toward her. “Bunnie… you don’t have to feel guilty about what happened. You… You don’t have to become half machine again to protect us… You… You deserve to be happy and…”

Bunnie’s head snapped back to facing Sonic. “Ah WAS happy!” Bunnie screamed. Sonic leaned back as the rabbit continued. “Ah knew who Ah was and what Ah gave to the team! To the WORLD!” Bunnie stared at her hands, which began to spasm. “It wasn’t until Ah was back to this! Back to being… normal,” she hissed the word, and her voice became a haggard whisper, “That Ah realized Ah never wanted to go back.”

“And Ah know Ah shouldn’t…” Bunnie held her face in her hands, tears beginning to form. “Ah know there are folks like yer dad, like Sally-girl when she was captured, heck, even like Nicole, who’d give anything to be me now, but…” Bunnie took a stuttering breath, “Ah miss it sugah-hog,” Bunnie sobbed, “Ah miss it… so much…”

Sonic’s mouth hung half-open as his mind ground to a halt. Was it true? Had Bunnie really always wanted it back for herself and not the team? Or was it still grief blinding her?

Sonic clicked his jaw shut and tugged on his gloves. He had to be sure. “How did it feel?” he asked.

Bunnie’s tear-stained face came away from her hands, staring at Sonic with squinted eyes. “Huh?”

“How did it feel?” Sonic’s voice was stern and demanding, with an expression to match.

Bunnie realized she was being tested. She stopped sniffling and adopted a hard stare even as a last few tears escaped her eyes. “It felt like Ah could do anything. It felt…” Bunnie grasped at air, struggling to articulate.

How could she put into words the joy of flight? The satisfaction in serving the cause of freedom to her fullest? The pride and ownership she’d taken in customizing her metal limbs with the help of her friends? Or the security of knowing that no matter what meathead tried to hurt her or her friends, she could put them in their place? But seeing Bunnie struggle to voice her thoughts was all Sonic had needed.

“It felt…” Bunnie repeated.

“Like you were free,” Sonic finished for her.

Both mobians’ stern expressions melted away. Bunnie’s became wide-eyed in understanding. Sonic’s became relaxed. The two stared at each other for a short time, before Sonic clapped his knees with a relieved sigh.

“Alright then,” Sonic stood up with a bounce in his step. “Once we wrap things up here and we all go back home…” Sonic leveled a pointing finger down at Bunnie’s face, “And you WILL be coming back with us, then I’ll help you.”

Bunnie’s mouth fell open, before she scrambled to her feet. “Help m… You mean…!?”

“Yes,” Sonic nodded with a resolute expression, “I’ll help you get your cybernetics back.”

Bunnie stared at the hedgehog with an expression like she’d been smacked across the face. But her shock faded into a frown. “But… the others…” Bunnie trailed off.

“We’ll convince them, together.” Sonic folded his arms. “But you have to come back with us Bunnie.” Sonic’s hands tightened on his arms. “I… I can’t lose anyone else.”

Bunnie rubbed her arm and lowered her head so that her hat obscured her eyes. “Ah’m… sorry I ran out on y’all.”

Sonic unfolded his arms with a sigh. “So… we have a deal?” Sonic extended his hand to shake.

Bunnie raised her head to show her face. “Sho'nuff, sugah-hog.”

Bunnie tried to seal the deal by shaking, but her hand passed through Sonic’s. The mobians stared at their hands reaching through each other for a second, then burst out laughing.

Meanwhile, below them, hidden in the shadow of the structure’s columns, Sage leaned against the stone wall. “He altered his mindset,” Sage whispered to herself. “He is willing to compromise for the sake of another. Perhaps…” Sage closed her eyes for a moment, then shook her head. “No. I have run the simulations. They are doomed.”