Chapter -1

The very first thing Sonic noticed was that he wasn't dead. A quick check told him that Tails, Knuckles, Espio, and Shadow were none the worse for wear, but Tails was still trembling. After a moment, they broke their little huddle (Tails still staying firmly in the center), and looked around.

There was very little to see. Nothing but a featureless white floor, and floating debris, clouded in white fog.

"… What is this freaky place?" Knuckles asked.

"... I'm kind of scared, Sonic."

"Has Armageddon come? Has the world ended? Are we but spirits now?" Espio asked.

"... I'm not sure," Sonic said. "… This place is dang bleak, though."

Shadow growled in a very unbecoming, threatening way. "That egg-shaped… He's done this, too. Taken everything from me… My sister… Grandfather… And now, sent us here. I am leaving!" he yelled. "I am going to see him burn in hell!" And with that, Shadow dashed off, faster than any could possibly follow.

"… Should we try and follow Shadow?" Tails asked.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Sonic said. "He seemed pretty angry... We've got to figure out what to do, though, and where we are. Any ideas?"

"I know where we are," an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

"SONIC!" A much more familiar voice, this time, screaming in joy. Sonic was subsequently squashed in a hug, courtesy of Amy Rose.

Sonic managed to extract himself, and saw the newcomer for the first time. He was a hedgehog, like Sonic himself, maybe a couple of years older. His fur was a silvery-grey color, and his spines almost looked like a leaf.

"Hey…"

"Silver," the hedgehog introduced himself. "My name is Silver. So… Well, what's going on here? Time's completely screwed up. It's not the first or last time, as far as those even apply… Though this time it looks REALLY bad. I don't even know what caused it…"

"Eggman," Tails said. "It was Eggman."

"… Of course it was," Silver deadpanned. "What did he do THIS time?"

"Well, apparently he's time traveled before, and managed to wipe an entire island off the map four thousand years ago," Knuckles said. "He destroyed Cocoa Island."

"Cocoa Island?" Silver asked. "But… that doesn't… Never mind. That's certainly a big problem, but I don't think it's enough to actually crash Time."

"Then he sent his Sonic-y robot to the past," Tails said. "He told it to do somethin' right before all this happened."

"… Probably had an instant-Robo-Utopia plan in place," Silver said. "And the people of that time weren't well equipped to deal with it… I don't think even that would actually cause this much instability… Hmm… I'll figure it out eventually. Right now, we need to fix this."

"And how would you propose we do that?" Espio asked. "My awesome ninjutsu skills cannot simply transport us into the time stream."

"Wouldn't help even if they could," Silver said. "Maybe with the Chaos Emeralds… I think, between my time travel experience - I have a lot of it - and the fact that Tails is a living temporal anomaly -"

"Wait, what?" Sonic asked.

"He's not attatched to the timeline the same way most people are, Sonic-"

"My ninja instincts told me this last week," Espio said. "They are very perceptive."

"… Right. Anyway, the point is, if Tails and I can get our hands on the Emeralds and go Super - Don't worry if you haven't done it before, it's easy - We should be able to induce a Chaos Control that can fix our problems. I hope."

"You hope?" Knuckles asked. "This might not work?"

"It may not," Silver admitted. "But it's our best bet, by a long shot. We need to find the Emeralds. Are you with me?"

"My ninja instincts say trust the teenage boy going grey-"

"Hey!"

"-So, I am in. Espio, ninja chameleon and master of espionage, extraordinaire of good, great, awesome, outstanding, and amazing, shall help you to the ends of Mobius!"

"... He makes a lot more sense when he's older," Silver said. "I'm not even sure what that's supposed to even mean…" he muttered.

"Hey, I'm all for saving the world," Sonic said. "Count me in!"

"If Sonic's in, so am I!" Amy yelled.

"Eh… Well, I don't exactly want the world to end, do I?" Knuckles asked.

"Great," Silver said. "… What about you, Tails? I don't think we can do this without you."

"Huh? Oh… You didn't hafta ask!" Tails said, happily. "I'm always happy to help!"

"Right on," Sonic said. "Chaos Emeralds, here we come!"

Shadow the Hedgehog skated onward, as fast as he could. Even as fury filled him, he noticed something very strange about the void he'd found himself in. He could feel all seven Chaos Emeralds - They felt close, but who knew in a place like this?

That wasn't what was strange, though. What was strange was that he could feel something similar, but far, far more powerful than the Chaos Emeralds combined. Its power was so great, even a weak adept should've had no trouble finding it.

He needed it. He had to have that power. Almost in a trance, Shadow turned to it.

Within a few seconds, he had found its source. It was a massive glowing green gem - A Chaos Emerald, a thousand times larger.

Shadow, however, was more concerned with the hovercar carrying it, and its occupant. It was a monster the world was better off without.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow yelled, sending a bolt of lightning out at Eggman's hovercar. There was no way Eggman could have dodged in time, no escape. And Shadow's aim was perfect.

The Chaos Spear missed, hitting a spot several feet behind Shadow. He was too angry to even think about how that had happened, he just shot another spear at Eggman.

Eggman sat there, mildly amused by the futility of Shadow's attacks. The hedgehog just kept getting angrier and angrier, firing spear after spear, but none of them hit.

"You are aware that won't work here, aren't you?" Eggman finally asked, after a few minutes of Shadow's onslaught.

Shadow stopped for a moment, glaring daggers at Eggman. "And why not, you-"

"Now now, no need to be like that."

"YOU KILLED MY SISTER!" Shadow screamed. "YOUR COUSIN!"

"I've killed a lot of people in my way," Eggman said. "The only reason you're still here is because I have a special hatred for you, Shadow the Hedgehog. I want you to know how hopeless your situation is. This place is Chaos, the primordial force from which our universe formed; and to which its dust has now returned! No Chaos powers will function properly here." Eggman grinned evilly at Shadow paling slightly. "Which means… You are totally helpless."

"… So you destroyed the world, just to get at me?" Shadow asked.

"What? No. I never wanted to destroy the world. I need somewhere to build my utopia, after all. I had to completely re-adjust my plans. I'm going to use THIS to sail to the Prime world, where I'll start my new utopia. I'll expand it through the Prime world's ample supply of wormholes, creating the Universe's first multiversal utopia! But first, I'm going to kill you. Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Shadow had little time to react as Eggman blasted him with a laser using the huge Emerald's power. On reflex, he vanished and reappeared ten feet away.

Shadow was confused - Chaos Control was impossible without touching an Emerald - But he had no time to think as Eggman shot again. Shadow repeated his earlier feat, somehow. This time, he could feel that he was pulling power from the massive Emerald, somehow initiating something akin to a short-range Chaos Control.

He had to do it again as soon as he re-appeared, over and over. It was getting easier, though that Eggman was predicting where he would appear when he had no idea himself was concerning. Shadow took a risk, and tried guiding his reappearance. If it didn't work, he'd be dead. If it did, he might be able to return the favor to the fat man.

Shadow went into a mid-air spinning kick as soon as he appeared, hearing a satisfying crunch as the metal arm holding the Emerald was ripped from Eggman's vehicle.

The giant green gem landed on the ground, miraculously balancing on its tip. Shadow landed on top of it, somehow not causing it to overbalance. Shadow nearly fainted from the sheer rush of power he felt through his shoes - just what was this thing? - but held firm, glaring at Eggman.

"... EVERY TIME!" Eggman screamed, startling Shadow into toppiling backwards off the Emerald. "EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! AS SOON AS MY PERFECT PLAN NEARS COMPLETION, ONE OF YOU… STUPID RAINBOW ANIMALS SHOWS UP! Do you have any idea how many times I've had to adjust my plans because of your stupid interference?"

Shadow, having recovered, saw a chance. While Eggman was distacted, he quickly hopped over to the giant Emerald, and tugged at its power.

"First, it was that fat cat that sat on my prototype time machine! Then the crocodile who trashed my computer room! Then you, and your stupid sidekick, with his stupid fedora! I FINALLY make it back in time to build my utopia, and you follow me! You screwed everything up! INSTEAD OF A UTOPIA, I GET A BIG DUMB WORLD WITH EVEN MORE OF YOU DUMB SUPERPOWERED FREAKS! AND THEN THAT HEDGEHOG! I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!"

As soon as he felt he had enough, Shadow began bracing himself. He'd never done this before… He wasn't even sure he himself would survive. But if he could take out Eggman, it'd all be worth it… And he'd see Maria again…

"DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HIS LITTLE MUTANT! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGH! I'LL KILL YOU ALL! I HATE YOU! DIE! DIE! DIE!" Eggman was pounding on his console, shooting lases everywhere. None even came close to Shadow.

Shadow knew now was the time to act. As Eggman continued his breakdown, Shadow jumped onto the Eggmobile. Eggman barely seemed to notice, and just continued screaming in rage.

"CHAOS… BLAST!" Shadow yelled, releasing all the stored power at once.

Sonic and Tails saw it long before they heard it. A massive explosion went off in the distance, in the direction they'd seen Shadow run.

The sound - Almost like thunder - hit them a few seconds later, and they shared a look before dashing off, blue, yellow, and green Emeralds in tow.

Knuckles was on the ground, reeling from a sudden headache, when Sonic and Tails came across him and Espio. He'd dropped the red Chaos Emerald, and Espio had set down the cyan Emerald he'd found to check on him.

"What's up, Espio?" Sonic asked. "Did you see the-"

"Explosion? Yes, my ninja senses told me about it. Knuckles appears to be in great pain, though, which I thought may be a more pressing matter."

"… Something… Something's happened to the Master Emerald," Knuckles said, as he pulled himself up.

"… You alright, Knux?" Sonic asked.

"Don't call me that. And I'm okay… now. But something's wrong with the Master Emerald! We need to find it!"

"Guys!" Silver's voice called from above. The four on the ground looked up to see Silver and Amy, glowing with green light and flying through the air. Each had an Emerald in hand, Silver the white and Amy the purple. "Did you see that explosion?" Silver asked, as he set down on the ground.

"Hard to miss… I think it might have something to do with Shadow and the Master Emerald, though," Sonic said.

"Uh… You were flying," Knuckles pointed out.

"… Did it break again?" Silver asked. "… Uh, never mind, ignore that. So… I'm assuming you think we should go check it out before trying to save the world?"

"YES!" Knuckles yelled. "Master Emerald! Guardian!"

"Hey, we gotta make sure Shads is alright, too. Gotta speed!"

"I'll take us," Silver said. All six began glowing and levitating, along with the Emeralds. Soon, they were rushing through the air, towards the site of the explosion.

Shadow came to for a moment, just barely. Everything hurt, he couldn't remember how he got here or what was going on. When had grandfather dyed his mustache? Why was there glittery green dust everywhere?

He tried his hardest to remember…

GUN Raid…

Maria dead…

Revenge…

He didn't get any further in his thoughts before he passed out.

The group arrived to a scene of destruction.

Shadow lay in the center of it, covered in various injuries and passed out. He was breathing evenly, but didn't seem like he was waking up anytime soon.

Not far from him lay Eggman. His outfit was burned off and ripped in places, and he was surrounded with shrapnel that had once been his Eggmobile. Apart from half his mustache being burned off, he seemed unharmed.

The entire scene was coated with a glittering green powder that was all that remained of the Master Emerald.

"… What on Earth happened here?" Silver asked. "It's like Shadow's Chaos Blast, but I know he's not that powerful…"

"What's all this green stuff?" Tails asked, rubbing some of it between his fingers. "It's all shiny."

"… It's the Master Emerald," Knuckles said, his voice faint with shock.

"Wait, what?" Silver asked. "Holy crap! I mean, I know it's broken before, but-"

"I'm a failure." Knuckles said.

"Okay, okay, stop," Silver said. "Don't go any further than that. The Master Emerald's been broken before, and stolen, too. But you always fix it and get in back, right? Knuckles, I know you wouldn't be half as good a guardian as you are without all the mistakes you've made. I'm sure you can fix it, you always do. Now… What on Earth happened here?"

"Ho… ho… ho… I'll tell you…" Everyone (except Espio) jumped, startled by Eggman being conscious. The rotund man pulled himself up, glaring at the heroes through his now-shattered glasses. "This idiot tried to kill me with some sort of Chaos Bomb, powered by the Master Emerald."

"It's called Chaos Blast," Silver said. "… How are you even standing?"

Eggman laughed again. There was no mirth to it. It was very unlike the laughs Silver knew the man for, and very unnerving. Silver got the distinct feeling that, somehow, this wasn't the same person as the goofy villain he was familiar with.

Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy were all on edge too, showing it to various degrees. Eggman's laugh was hollow, and empty - There was none of the gloating pride, no hint of Eggman's ego.

"Years ago, I decided to build my utopia… After repeated failures in the present, I looked to the past. I created a machine, capable of drawing power from Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones, and transferring it into a living being."

Silver's eyes widened. He hadn't really, had he? That was one of the most stupidly dangerous things Silver had ever heard. There was no way something like that could've distinguished between the negative and positive energies of the Emeralds… And combining it with the very unstable Time Stone energy was a recipe for disaster.

"I became invincible! Immortal! Immune to the sands of time!" Eggman laughed that same hollow laugh. "But you… all of you… kept getting in the way of utopia."

"… You're insane," Silver realized. "You drove yourself insane."

"I am very sane… You idiotic Chaos Adepts just kept stopping me from bringing Mobius onto a new path of light! A mechanical world, where life is perfect for all machines! Everyone will become a robot, and everyone will be happy forever!"

"… What does that mean?" Silver asked.

"My utopia will never-"

"No, I got that part," Silver said, impatiently. "What do Chaos Adept and Mobius mean?"

"… Idiots, like I said. Mobius. The name of the planet. Idiot. Chaos Adepts. People with a spark of Chaos Energy who can use Chaos Emeralds. Idiot. It doesn't even matter now. I have no more backup plans. Mobius is gone forever… The only thing to do is wait here for eternity."

… Silver prided himself on being something of an expert on the Chaos Emeralds and their workings. He'd worked long and hard researching everything about them, in hopes of meeting Sonic and friends once again after fixing the timeline. Not once had he found a shred of evidence that the Chaos Emeralds were picky, anyone with enough practice or talent could use them effectively. And he sure as heck knew that Earth had never been called Mobius.

"… Well, at least I get to kill you all!" Eggman said brightly, and lunged at Knuckles.

Despite his girth, Eggman was fast - and, as Knuckles found out as he tried to jump out of the way, very strong. A grazing hit to Knuckles' left shoulder produced a sickening sound as it dislocated. Gritting his teeth through the pain, Knuckles punched Eggman in the face, shattering his goggles completely.

There was a sharp pain in Knuckles' shoulder, but it stopped after a second, and he could move his arm again. Silver gave him a thumbs up as he dodged out of the way of Eggman attempting to flatten him. Espio wasn't quite so lucky, having Eggman land on his leg and bounce off. Sonic quickly rushed over to help the chameleon with his injuries.

Eggman turned on the spot, looking for his next target, and found Amy Rose, completely defenseless with no hammer. He grinned and dashed for her, readying a kick to the head that should've killed the brat instantly.

Instead of meeting hedgehog, the boot met fox. Tails had tackled Amy out of the way at the last second, receiving the blow meant for her head in his own stomach. Eggman looked at the fox, amused. One down, five to go…

Except Tails was getting up, in spite of his mortal injuries. He stood in front of Amy, his arms held wide.

"L-leave her alone, Eggman," Tails said. "You.. y-you don' have anythin' else to take over… So… j-just… st-stop." As he spoke, his injuries faded, as if they had never happened in the first place.

"… So you're the anomaly my instruments keep showing. Makes things… more interesting, shall we say?" Eggman whipped his arm forward to grab the little fox's neck - but ended up smacking his hand into something extremely hard. In Amy Rose's hand, a yellow and red hammer had appeared out of nowhere, and she was using it to protect Tails. She was looking at it, bewildered but thankful for its appearance.

"Stop making this hard!" Eggman yelled. Before he could do anything else, an iron chain wrapped around him, trapping him neatly. He roared as he toppled to see Sonic supporting Espio, who was holding the other end of the chain.

"Game over, Eggman," Sonic said. "Esp, keep him there. Silver, still got the Emeralds? Do your thing."

Silver stood there for a moment, deep in thought. "Actually… Sonic, here," Silver tossed the Emeralds to Sonic. "You go Super. I realized that we'll need Knuckles' help, too, and I'm not even sure I could've shared my transformation with one person, let alone two. But you've got the talent to share with… Probably five or six other people, at once."

"It's not going to work, idiots!" Eggman yelled. "Mobius is gone forever! Damn you, listen to me!"

Everyone ignored him as Sonic transformed into Super Sonic once more. Everyone except for Silver, that is. He'd figured it out - Eggman was right. The world was gone forever, and there was no getting it back. Somehow, Amy had been cast outside of time altogether, between two timestreams that had never coexisted (so much as the term applied). And when hers collapsed, she dragged him down with her.

Tails and Knuckles transformed as well - Tails gaining a red cape, and Knuckles turning pink (Silver sniggered a bit), further confirming that this timestream truly was a different reality entirely. Silver felt the power wash over him as his fur turned golden and his eyes turned red - He'd only done this once before, but it technically hadn't happened. It was a good feeling.

"Alright, Knuckles," Silver said to the pink Echidna next to him. "I need you to focus, and… Well, re-build the Master Emerald."

"… I can do that?"

"Well, I've seen you do it without transforming," Silver confirmed. "It wasn't in as many pieces… So, as Super Knuckles, you should be able to even now."

Knuckles closed his eyes in concentration, and the green dust started swirling, gathering into the shape of the Master Emerald. Within twenty seconds, the gleaming green gem had returned to its former glory.

"It worked!" Knuckles exclaimed, eyes gleaming in joy.

The big tip-off had been the mention of Chaos Adepts. What little he got from the explanation meant that the rules of this timestream's reality were fundamentally different from his own. And what he gathered from Amy was that everything else was near-identical… Which meant that the two timestreams almost certainly couldn't coexist.

"Alright, all of us should place our hands on the Master Emerald… Not necessary, but it's easier to feel its power that way. Sonic, I need you to try and channel some of the raw Chaos of this place to me… You can feel how much there is, right? We need as much as possible."

"Right, gotcha!" Sonic said, as they followed Silver's instructions. "On it! Time to save the world!"

"Tails, I need you to try and send a bit of your power, what makes you different, to me. Not all of it, that would… Not be good for you."

"Okay…" Tails said, closing his eyes.

"Alright, good. And all of us need to focus on what our world means to us, and what it is. Thoughts, memories, feelings… Pour them into the Master Emerald, and on my mark, will it and shout 'chaos control'. Amy, Espio… You two focus on making sure Eggman doesn't try and do anything to this, okay? This is critical."

That was part of the reason Silver was so sure it would work, too. If the two timestreams couldn't coexist, there shouldn't have been a way for him to come here. If there was no way to recover the original world - and there wasn't - the only thing to do was create a new world.

Silver didn't tell any of his friends this. Not yet, not until it was done. If he did, he didn't know what the effects could be. He also didn't tell them what he was planning for Eggman - He was going to restore him to normal, before he drove himself insane with the Emeralds, and wipe his memory of all the alternate timelines.

Silver felt the energies of his friends, of the Chaos around him, and of the Emeralds themselves, and readied himself. It was a big job, rewriting the rules of reality and creating the very world he'd been born in.

"Ready?" Silver asked, and the other three responded with nods.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

Chapter 0

After the disastrous raid on the Space Colony ARK (the soldier responsible for the girl's death had been dishonorably discharged within the hour, but sadly little more could be done), the GUN Commander was taking a much needed drive in his car. Just as he was wondering if anything could possibly fix this rotten day, he noticed a certain black hedgehog, injured and passed out by the road.

He then proceeded to wonder aloud if a million dollars, a powerful weapon, and a girl who wanted to marry him were going to show up out of nowhere. Predictably, it didn't, but he loaded his prize into the trunk, anyway, and drove off. Within a few hours, it'd be locked inside a stasis pod on Prison Island, where it would stay for the next fifty years.

Amy Rose was suddenly in her bed as the sun peeked through the window. She got up immediately, noticing that her dress had changed - Green and orange? Really? - And wondered if it had been a dream.

… It couldn't have been, right? She clearly remembered two different lives. In one, she'd gone to bed last night, thinking about Sonic. In another, she'd helped save the world in a white void of nothing.

She furrowed her brows, and thought back. Both lives were pretty similar, but in one she'd always had this green dress, and her meeting with Sonic had been a bit different.

She decided to consult her tarot cards, reading her own fortune. That wasn't generally the best idea, but it was a very weird situation.

When she did, she got the strangest fortune she ever had. A fork in the road, one side broken, the other newly paved, coming together and leading towards a better destination.

… The boys had created another world entirely, plopping them down in it seamlessly.

"Wow…" Amy said. "… That's… Gonna be a bit weird."

She couldn't help but feel it was an understatement.

Espio the Chameleon came to in a motel bathroom. Quickly, he sorted through his memories, because he was quite sure he hadn't been right here a second before.

Two sets of memories - One where he was the calm and serious member of the Chaotix, and one where he was a total goofball. The latter was more familiar to him, but both seemed real.

The first set of memories - The one that seemed a little less normal - led to his current situation. They'd been called in on a case, and were currently investigating. He'd gotten up before Vector and Charmy, as usual, to take some time to himself to assess the situation and figure out where to go next.

… He was a little shocked to find that his more calm and serious demeanor had led to the Chaotix being fairly well-known and somewhat successful, as opposed to flaunting his total ninja-ness everywhere. But that hadn't been entirely without merit, either.

… Perhaps, what he truly needed was a happy medium. Whether it was a dream, or something else, Espio was greatful for it. He resolved to try and find a medium, to help the Chaotix be the best that it could be.

Silver immediately recognized where he, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles appeared. They were floating a bit above Angel Island, still in their Super forms. Silver noted with satisfaction that Tails and Knuckles now looked completely normal, apart from having golden shields around them - Just as he knew their Super forms should look.

The Master Emerald was resting on its altar, just as it should be.

"Hey, I'm not pink!" Knuckles said. "Cool! Uh... But, why?"

"I'll explain on the ground," Silver said, flying down next to the Master Emerald. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles followed. Sonic ended the transformation, causing all four to revert as the Chaos Emeralds re-appeared around him.

"Okay… Now, hear me out, and don't freak out… We didn't really bring the world back," Silver said. "Eggman was right, about how we couldn't. And I couldn't tell you, or we would have failed. So… We had to re-create the world. Not everything's exactly the same, and I'm sure there's going to be repercussions - tears in time and space, inconsistencies in history, etc. - down the line. Heck, I've seen some of them firsthand, even if I didn't know this was the reason at the time." He paused for a moment. "I don't know how much anyone else will remember… I don't even know if you guys will ever remember your history in this world. Sorry about that… But…"

"Hey," Sonic said. "This was the best we could've hoped for, right?"

"Yeah, more or less."

"Then it's cool. Maybe it's not all good. But it could be worse, ya know?"

"Oh, yeah, a lot worse."

"Then it's cool. Right Tails, Knux?"

"Right! All's well that ends well!" Tails said.

"Yeah. But how am I not pink when I'm super?"

"Oh, right… Okay, well… The way Chaos works has changed completely," Silver said. "I don't know why it had to be that way, but… I couldn't risk doing it another way. So… You and Tails now get golden shields when you go Super. There's a bunch of other stuff, too, but… spoilers."

"Better than pink," Knuckles said.

"Yeah…" Silver said. "And, hey, guys? I'm not sure where you're going from here, exactly. I know you and Tails live in the Mystic Ruins whenever I visit you guys in… Around four years? That's when I usually see you guys. But for now, I don't-"

"They can stay with me," Knuckles said. "Until they've got a place, they're here with me. Their plane's already here, anyway, I saw it while we were flying."

"… Oh. Okay, then," Silver said. "Well… Hey, it's been great meeting you. Next, you'll get to meet me, without me having any memory of this! Well… That's something to look forward to… Or not… Anyway, time to go home." Silver picked up one of the Chaos Emeralds - The white one, the very same he always kept in his house.

"See ya," Sonic said, giving Silver a thumbs up.

"Bye-bye," Tails said, waving.

"Don't let anything bad happen to yourself," Knuckles said, flashing a grin.

"Right. See you later, earlier, or however it goes." Silver held up the Emerald, and disappeared in a flash of light, the Chaos Emerald dropping to the floor of the Emerald Shrine.

THE END

It's finally here. I'm so sorry for how long this took - I'd get interesting in writing it, do a few paragraphs, come back, re-do them, and lose interest again. Most of this was written in the last week or two, when I feel I finally got my spark for this story back (around the same time I discovered Undertale).

If anyone's been feeling like Eggman's been making leaps of logic and that his plans aren't well put-together… That's been intentional. In his experiments with time travel, he ravaged his own mind with the Chaos Emeralds. What's left is a very smart man, who carries on his goals to the point of delusion and has an absolute lack of empathy.

I'm not sure I mentioned this before - Tails' ability to heal and store things away is a result of him being an anomaly. Because he's not quite attached to the time stream, and technically doesn't exist, injuries don't stick. Even death wouldn't. This is also why the ghosts in Sandopolis couldn't see him - Ghosts live in the past. Tails has no past, he only lives in the present.

And that's the end of this story. This world is done - And the canon world from the games takes its place. That was always my intention, right from the beginning. And the repercussions Silver mentions - Alternate Sonic universes, the Time Eater, Mephiles, etc. The Prime World Eggman mentions has little to do with Sonic - He's referring to Mario's universe, a world of chaos, where the bounds of time and space are unclear but a certain amount of order still exists. Wormoles = Warp Pipes.

Espio's antics certainly weren't planned. But, man, I'm glad for them. This story is a lot more serious, overall, than usual for me. So, having a little burst of comedy in the form of Espio was welcome. He was a blast to write.

I've had a lot of fun writing this story. As of this chapter, it's the longest story I have ever written, finally beating out my record I set with Super Mario Colors. It's also my first successful try at writing a story with little basis in an existing story, apart from what's usual for fanfiction. And I think I'm pretty happy with the result. So, what's next? I'm not sure yet. I may continue my Mario & Zelda crossover, or I may start something new. Who knows?

For now, I'm signing off.

jakeroo123