A/N: All of the following is a week later.

Last Time On Inverted Mistakes. . . The Chaotix, Team Sonic, and Team Dark all clashed at Volcano Island as they all were meaning to rescue Cream. Or so they state. With everyone holding secrets and disguised identities, who can trust who? It's a shame none of them know they should be apprehensive with who they tell who.

What If?

"I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." ― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

Cream woke up hazily. She opened her eyes to see a soft olive color engulf her. Her heart began speeding rapidly. She blinked quickly to ensure she wasn't hallucinating. Cheese quickly flew over to her.

"Chao?" Cheese looked at her with a worried expression.

"Cream?" Another figure rose from the opposite end of the bed. "Cream. . ." The furry lilac figure helped the bunny sit up and embraced her, feeling the small bunny's heart rate slowly beat back into normality. Cheese floated to the bed and landed with a soft 'plop' on the bedspread.

As soon as Cream calmed down, she spoke. "I...keep forgetting I am here, Miss Blaze." The bunny hugged Blaze harder. "I want to go home." Cheese nuzzled onto Cream's lap.

Blaze gently caressed Cream's head. "Cream you cannot risk your mother's safety and we'll only keep you here for one day more. It'll be a week by then."

Cream popped her head up from Blaze's embrace, the bunny looked into Blaze's eyes sadly. "Pinky promise?" Her small fuzzy finger extended out to Blaze's.

"I promise." Blaze took the solemn oath as her and Cream's fingers intertwined. "Now," The lilac cat pulled away from Cream and got off the bed. "Wanna help me make breakfast?" Cheese the Chao perked in his one word language as the cat extended her hand out to the small bunny.

"Yes, ma'am!" Cream grabbed into Blaze's hand and hopped off. "Let's go, Cheese!" The chao danced in the air to convey his emotions.

"Good. Because I am unsure how to, the servants usually cooked for me back home." Cream giggled.

"I remember, Miss Blaze." Cream beamed a smile as the trio went to prepare a hearty meal.

~xXx~

"Shadow!" A familiar voice faintly yells. Shadow's eyes flicker as he stirs and finally blinks his eyes open. He sees Maria running over to him happily over a field of aerial pastel colored flowers.

"Maria?" Shadow quickly scrambles to his feet. His vision clears up and sees her clear slim figure.

He couldn't even believe it.

She was ever so vivid in her blue dress: just ironed and spotless, like back when she bought it from her favorite store that breezy April day. Her long hair: still ever so sunny and flowing like June. Her smile: still beautiful like the first spring sunrise on a March morning. Her skin: ever so full of life, as if she was free of illness and free like leaves on a September evening.

"Maria!" Shadow rushes over to her in a heartbeat. It's her. It is actually her.

But then Maria's pace slowly goes to a stop. Her face distorts to a frightened face. It was grotesque and hyperbolized then what it actually would have been. Her voice morphed into a darker dead tone. "You're not Shadow." Her blue dress shreds into a madness of a slick black color, the dress rising with the rapidly rising wind until it tears off into a murder of crows. Her skin peels off into a blinding paper white as her hair slowly begins coming off, first in bits but eventually accumulating to piles around her. Her smile morphed into an eerie clownish smile that gave even Shadow chills that ran from the base of his vertebrae to the superior section of it. Her eyes went completely black. "I don't like you." She charges toward him.

Shadow was at loss but he knew that was no longer Maria. "Chaos spear!" But no spear ever came. Maria knocked him back with her crow dress. He looked down at himself. He was gray with yellow. He was Terios. Not Shadow.

"And you'll never ever get to be Shadow again, right Terios?" Maria giggled. The phrase "right Terios?" kept panging inside his head like a monstrous bell.

"Shadow?" Shadow blinks his eyes open. He was sweating like a pig. Rouge was sitting up in her infirmary bed with a worried expression and her legs hanging out as she sat facing him.

"You called me Shadow?" He groggily said as he sat up and regained his composure.

"Yeah, that is still your name." If anyone ever questioned that Rouge could smile tenderly she just did, but it lasted only but a blink. "The real questions here are: Why are you visiting me? And why were you panting in your sleep? It looked like you were having an awful nightmare." Rouge smirked. "I didn't know you actually had feelings."

"Yeah, yeah," Shadow stood up as he waved his hand with his words. "I came to check up on you only because the doctor told me to come get you now. We have another mission."

"And what of my other questions?" Rouge pursed her lips. Shadow looked at her: she wasn't wearing makeup. Her usual shimmery fur was dull and bruised. She had bandages wrapped around her legs and it made them look like candy canes. The minty hospital garment she wore correlated along with the dullness of her fur. Yet, she was still herself.

"They aren't important." Shadow put on his aviators and headed out the door. "Just call the doctor when you need a ride."

"Did he give you a ride?" Rouge crossed her arms with attitude.

"You could say that." Shadow smirked at her and got one last look at her before he changed himself mentally back into Terios. "See ya around, Rougey."

Rouge got shivers down her spine and blushed. Shadow didn't get to see her in this state thank goodness. She hated showing this. And she hated knowing that Shadow couldn't be his gloomy self. . .somehow.

~xXx~

"I have another favor to ask of you two." Kiro fell into the blue colored armchair and sighed. "And I don't think you'll be as willing this time."

Blaze and Silver exchanged a look. "You can ask anything of us. You've been only good to us." Silver reassured. Blaze scanned the study room and was lost in thought.

Kiro took a few deep breaths. "A Chaos Emerald." Blaze's glance went and met Kiro's. "I am sure you know what it is? It looks like a-"

Blaze cut him off. "Yes, we are aware." Blaze took a step forward. "What of them?" Blaze didn't like the sound of this. She enjoyed Kiro and his kindness but Chaos Emeralds meant power, and that wasn't necessarily always a good thing. Blaze would know.

"I know how suspicious this must sound to you both. GUN had the emerald according to my research but it seems to have disappeared an hour ago. The doctor had a chaos emerald radar installed right here in his study," Kiro pressed a button under the desk to reveal a screen with a neon green radar with a magenta dot on the screen beeping furiously. "And the screen has been beeping furiously because the emerald in on the property."

"We are not stealing it back." Blaze immidiately said. "I am not sure if you are aware of what those gems are capable of." Blaze shook her head. "They are not meant to be meddled with."

Silver had been silent throughout all this but finally spoke. "But someone is," He looked over at Blaze. "The least we can figure out is his or her affiliations."

"Well," Kiro interrupted. "They don't look so good." Kiro got up from the armchair and tapped on the beeping magenta dot twice. A video camera showed on the screen. A red robot powerjetted his way through the forest.

"That looks like an Eggman robo!" Silver exclaimed. Kiro nodded.

"This is why I was worried. I wouldn't have meddled if I didn't know." He looked over at a thoughtful Blaze.

"Fine. We will be swift about it." She nodded at Silver.

"Be are careful, you two. " Kiro said as the two furries walked out of the study. Cream was eavesdropping outside the study and was soon discovered.

"Cream?" Blaze asked accusingly.

"I'm going!" Cream stood her ground. Cheese stood by her crossing his tiny chao arms.

"No," Blaze stepped down to get on Cream's level. "You are not." Cream and Cheese began to pout.

"Blaze," Silver was already heading outside. "We'll be there. It'll be fine." He smiled reassuringly before setting off.

"Fine." Blaze ran after him and looked back only once to assure that Cream and Cheese were following.

The foursome ran out, Silver was levitating steady as he engulfed himself in his power. Cream and Cheese were flying not to far behind him. Blaze sped with her long paced steps, with hints of fire trailing behind her.

They went into the jungle. Birds and other creatures clamored and this acted as ambivalent background noise. Trees rose to magnificent heights. Deeper parts of the forest had strange neon color combinations: electric blue terrain with pink sticky water, chartreuse mud with neon red leaves on their respective foliage, even the frogs had weird color changing properties. Silver found himself having to do several loop-de-loops in order to get into higher ground and avoid touching any of the weird neon liquids. Blaze ran through several vine hoops in order to catch up while Cream and Cheese swung on the neon vines.

"There!" Cream yelled. The hedgehog looked at where she was pointing. Above, in a pointy hill, a bright red robot was jet-packing his way through the foliage.

Once Silver got a better look at the robot, he was shocked. We know him. . .that's E123-Omega!

The robot however, stopped. He faced the foursome from his distant height. "New life forms spotted." He analyzed them quickly. "Affiliations unknown. Silver the Hedgehog and Blaze the Cat: Time unknown. Cream the Rabbit and companion: Disappeared from home, worried mother, Team Sonic and Chaotix currently pursing, campaign recently set up called 'Save CreamCheese' throughout the 20,000 mile radius."

"'Save CreamCheese'?" Silver raised his eyebrow.

"My mother?" Cream felt remorse.

"E123-Omega," Blaze shot herself up to the hill in which Omega was on with her fire. "The Chaos Emerald which you possess has been stolen from the Guardian Unit of Nations about less than two hours ago. Why?" Blaze clenched her fists.

"Classified." The robot revealed a series of missles and aimed at Blaze.

"You crashed the ceremony with Shadow! Many people were hurt!" Cream and Cheese flew up next to Blaze and pointed at the robot accusingly. "You almost hurt Sonic and Amy!"

"GUN is not to be trusted. Get out of my way or you shall suffer the consequences. NOW." Omega's right arm transformed into a bazooka. "You have five seconds or-"

"Or what?!" Silver hopped up and got in front of Cream and Blaze.

"You will be annihilated." More missiles were placed ready to shoot.

"Mister robot, just tell us why you attacked-" Cream never got to finish.

E123-Omega attacked. Missles glowed as they launched toward the group. A missile flew past Cream but the explosion still made her hop several feet above the floor and land harshly.

"Cream!" Blaze yelled. Next thing she knew Omega punched her in the stomach. Blaze was launched several tens of feet up against a rock wall.

"No!" Silver used his abilities to revert the missiles but they failed to hit Omega. Omega started releasing smoke and soon the battlefield was a blind fight.

Blaze began to fall off the rock wall in her almost subconscious state, but Cream had flown up and caught her. She rested Blaze on a smoke free zone. Cream coughed. She had been badly scraped.

"Blaze?" She shook her and Blaze soon snapped out of her state.

"I-I am alright. Thank you for your aid." She looked into the immense cloud of thick smoke. "And Silver?" Cream looked terrified. They both looked into the smoke but soon noticed they couldn't even see a shadow.

"Come on out! You coward!" Silver challenged the robot. He was so mad. He hurt Blaze and Cream. No one hurts his friends like that.

Omega came out from the looming clouds and charged at him with a chainsaw. Silver hopped over him, at the same time lifted a nearby boulder, and once he landed, he launched it onto Omega's back. The robot was pushed forward and fell, the Chaos Emerald rolled out of wherever the robo was keeping it. Omega punched it into the smoke, so Silver wouldn't pick it up. Silver used this as an opportunity. He jumped on the to the robo's back and began punching his metallic body, managing only scrapes and dents onto the robust surface. Omega got up and Silver slid onto the ground but quickly regained his fighting stance. Omega launched more missles. Silver collected them all with his power and this time, used them wiser.

"I don't know whether you really do have good reasons but attacking like this is just plain wrong!" He was hoping his plan would work; praying to any gods or anything because he wasn't sure how much longer he's last before his power drained completely. "Really? Is that seriously all you got?"

"Challenge," Omega began unloading all the possible weapons he had on him; to the point here his entire metallic body was covered by a veil of firearms. Lights began blinking green and soon turned red to signal that aim was taken. "Accepted." Omega shot everything on him, all aiming for Silver.

Silver launches the missiles to defend him as he jumped into the air. But it wasn't enough.

Then, several whips of fire appeared from beyond the smoke, making all the shots implode.

"Silver!" Blaze tossed him the Chaos Emerald with her left hand as her right kept slashing at the robot which made him momentarily lose his balance. But those few moments cost him the battle. "You shall pay the consequences now." Blaze yelled at the robot. She linked her arm with Silver as he held the Chaos Emerald high in the sky, her hand held the powerful magenta gem in all it's glory. The duo looked at each other and nodded as they held the gem.

"Chaos Control!" They yelled in unison. Time froze.

Blaze charged at Omega and kicked him right in the center of his chest. It almost looked as if she were dancing ballet. The robot was sent back, which snaped the world out of Chaos Control. If you looked really hard, you could see Blaze's aura turned red. Blaze stood her ground and bent down to grab sand from the ground. "Argh...!" Blaze struggled and began sweating. Soon, columns of fire shot out of the ground, the fire burned and began melting part of Omega's surface.

"Blaze. . ." Silver began. He wasn't sure what to even say. "Blaze," He touched her shoulder gently. "Leave him be. We have the emerald." Blaze breathed in and out; soon the columns of fire dug themselves back into the cool earth.

Cream and Cheese came out of the smoke in awe. Silver went up to her. "Lets go." Cream nodded and went after him. Blaze was about to follow but looked back at the heavily damaged robot.

"Take this as a warning." Blaze growled. "Do not dare cross paths with me ever again." The cat girl ran off after her friends who were waiting for her.

The robot never responded. He stood on the ground in heaps of himself. He had never felt so useless, so stupid. He never lost a battle against a robot. How did he lose to HER? He couldn't even live with himself.

He lifted his right arm slowly and lifted a small panel on his left arm. He pressed a few buttons and soon a screen lit up. "Yes?" Eggman stood on the other side of the screen. Omega couldn't speak. He LOST. He couldn't admit it to the doctor who always tried to find his weaknesses. Why did he not call Shadow? Or Rouge? In his mind, the most efficient and logical manner to get out of his physical shredded state was to contact the Eggman, yet. . .

"123-Omega?" The doctor raised his voice in annoyance.

"I-" If robots could sigh with regret, Omega did. "I require transportation. And repairs. Many repairs."

~xXx~

"I didn't mean for a battle to happen." Kiro was basically on the verge of tears. "I saw the whole thing despite the smoke."

Blaze was silent in the edge of the living room. Kiro was cleaning Cream's cuts and bandaging the needed areas.

"We need to get her home." Blaze said. "She's in danger with us."With me, thought Blaze.

Silver came into the room with water bottles and handed each to the girls. He leaned into Blaze ears. "Can I talk to you?"

Blaze did not particularly enjoy how close people get to her but she was somehow okay with Silver's familiarity with her. She nodded and headed outside with him.

"Yes?" She asked him once they were in the courtyard facing the ocean.

"It's been a week. We haven't had any word from the Commander. Something is seriously wrong." Silver explained. "I know you didn't want me to bring it up earlier, but I think we might of screwed up something here."

"Oh, we?" Blaze shook her head. "I told you we shouldn't have meddled with Kiro."

"They were gonna murder him!" Silver argued.

"That was the way it was meant to be." Blaze sighed and faced the ocean. "We need to find Sonic and another Chaos Emerald."

"Sonic?" Silver felt as if Blaze thought he wasn't fulfilling her expectations. "For what?"

"So you two can create a Chaos Control portal." Silver felt relieve somewhat. "We need to get back. We need to find Sonic." Blaze shook her head. "Or Shadow? He might be willing to aid us."

"I really doubt it." Silver sighed. "I've been researching what exactly happened during that ceremony. Omega and Shadow almost killed the President."

Blaze couldn't put her finger on it. "Why? Did it say anything regarding that?"

Silver shook his head. "No, but I did find out everything about him." Silver quickly explained Shadow's past and all the tragedy that correlated with it.

"He must have a reason of a sort. I am still unsure as to trust him however. He and Omega are similar in nature and I am not so eager to tear off Omega's skin again." Blaze clenched her teeth. "I am such a monster. . ."

"Don't say that," Silver slowly picked up her hand. "You're beautiful." He smiled at her reassuringly. "Your power is a gift like mine. Although we're uncommon and strange, we can still be unique together. I accepted you for you as you have to me. We weirdos stick together." Blaze's heart felt lighter. She felt better about herself. She was unique and not alone. And Silver thinks she's beautiful. It's alright. It'll all be okay.

"Thank you." Blaze squeezed his hands before she let it go. She regained her composure. "We'll go bring Cream home and try to find Sonic from there."

"And the Emerald?" Silver asked.

Blaze sighed. "We brought it and fought for it. It is ours, not Kiro's. And there won't be anything he says that will stop me from taking it with us."

"He is a good guy though."

"But we don't know him," Blaze faced him as the sunset created warm auras around them. "And we better just keep to ourselves from now on."

"Alright." The two stayed silent and instead watched the sun set peacefully.

~xXx~

Omega stood strapped to a metallic hospital bed. The room was dim and electronic. A series of medical robots surrounded him, mending his wires, stripping him of his melted metal, and reapplying new layers.

The door to the room opened. A gray hedgehog in a trench coat appears along with a bat with spy gear on. The hedgehog sighs. "Omega. . ."

"I can't believe he went by himself." Rouge looked at her friend slowly.

Shadow shook his head. "This was our mission. The three of us. Not just him." Shadow was unsure as to feel angry, sad, furious, or depressed.

The robot's eyes began blinking on and soon turned red. He looked back and forth from Rouge to Shadow. "Rouge, Shadow: I apologize. Plans did not turn out the way they were programmed to. GUN was to move the Chaos Emerald to a more secure place. The chance was then, and I did not wish to waste time." The robot looked miserable. "I failed you."

"No," Shadow shook his head. "You were outnumbered, correct?"

"Three to one, yes." Omega responded in his systematic voice.

"Who were they? Sonic, Tails, and the Knucklehead?" Rouge felt anger in her. How dare they? And they melted him in such a harsh manner, was it really necessary?

"No," Omega shook his robotic head. "Silver the Hedgehog, Blaze the Cat, and Cream the Rabbit." Shadow looked up.

"Silver?" Shadow seriously did not know what to think. "What's the kid doing here?"

"And Blaze...and Cream?" Rouge looked over at Shadow. "They were looking for her on Volcano Island. She had escaped. The cell was shredded like. . ." Rouge did not need to finish. Her and Shadow looked at Omega wistfully.

"Blaze." Shadow nodded.

The Eggman came into the room with a jovial look on his face. He had been jovial ever since Omega called him for help, despite the fact he lost the Emerald. He pressed some buttons and rearranged tubes on Omega.

"I have news for you two." Eggman cleaned his hands on a rag and hung it up. "Come with me, I'll need to show you." The duo followed Ivo. Shadow and Rouge looked back at the same time.

"We'll be back, Omega." Shadow reassured his friend. Rouge shut the door.

"Now," Ivo Robotnik sat in his chair as the screen behind him blinked on and began to show images. The screen has been showing different footage from secret video camera Rouge had set up to spy on the troops and materials that were being loaded and eventually sent to the ARK. "The Space Colony Ark reopens in three days. Tomorrow they will send Rouge, and if things go to plan, Terios as well, to check up on the ARK to ensure that it's harm free. The day after that, troops will be sent up with the newly hired ignorant scientists to begin setting up. You two will be there monitoring the process. Finally the third day will come, "The opening will be highly secure and the invite list has been reduced to about fifteen." The doctor huffed as he took a breath. "Among those fifteen will be your dearest frienemies: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy Rose."

"Oh, greaaaat." Rouge said with a smile. She kinda missed the Knucklehead.

The other two ignored her comment and went on with business. "I'll need you to take this," Ivo hands Shadow a small duffel bag. "I don't care how you manage to smuggle it. There are video camera, radars, the likes, and I need you to set them up before you broadcast back to GUN. GUN has an emergency policy. If you do not contact them within the first five minutes, they will contact you. And we can't have that. Once those five minutes are up, they will turn the ARK on, as well as the security cameras." Shadow and Rouge nodded.

"What if they have them on before those five minutes?" Rouge asked the Eggman.

The Eggman cracked up. "That's where this evil genius comes in! I will monitoring GUN from here and if they initiate any plan, I'll be sure to intercede. But all I can give you is those five minutes. GUN found a more competent programmer over the year and I cannot mess with him as easy as I could with the last lead programmers." The Eggman cleared his throat. "So, can I trust you two?"

Rouge and Shadow looked at each other. Although they said nothing, they knew each other's thoughts. "Yes." They responded in unison.

"That's what I like to hear." The doctor smiled.

"Just keep in mind we aren't your minions, doctor. We will do our own sleuthing and we have our own agenda." Shadow faced the Eggman as he articulated every word.

"Oh, believe me, I know." The doctor smirked.

Sooooo hey guys. . .I know its been way past a year. But I haven't given it up! Promise! I'll update before the month ends :)