Silver was taking too long, and Saga was getting impatient. At least, that was the story she was going with when she found that she had shifted again.

Shifting was a special power the Mobian feline had- one that she hated with every fiber in her body. Like hiccups, Saga would 'shift' into a different point in time or even a different reality altogether. She never had control of where she would be, and it was the part of her shifting that scared her the most. Sometimes, people she didn't know would recognize her, other times it would be the other way around and she would recognize someone else.

This shift placed her in the past. How far in the past was something Saga had to figure out for herself. The environment around wasn't going to be much of a help- practically a barren wasteland in the middle of nowhere. Cursing under her breath, Saga held herself as she started to move forward for some kind of civilization. Never in control of her shifting, the cat blissfully hoped that she would shift back to her proper time before she had to engage with whatever was out there. After an hour of wandering, it quickly became apparent that this little luxury was not going to grace her today.

When Saga had found a place to catch her breath, the jackal shifted a little from his state and weakly looked over at her. There was a small spark of recognition in his eyes- but Saga couldn't tell if it was a spark of hope or betrayal.

"You..." the jackal muttered before letting out a small groan of pain. "Why are you here…? Of all… of all the people..."

Saga glared at him. "What are you talking about?" she demanded. "We've never met."

Wearily, Infinite gave a small chuckle. He didn't answer, however, as he slipped out of consciousness soon after, leaving Saga to glare at him with even more confusion than before.

Just who was this guy anyway?

. . .

The search for Infinite was taking too long, and Silver was getting impatient. He had to admit that the repairs after Eggman's defeat was going smoothly, he just couldn't find himself able to rest until the jackal was found. No matter the case, Resistance base was the hub of repairing the world: Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles were tasked with finding Infinite to secure his fate while everyone else helped with cleanup, ration control, general pep talks, and whatever else people needed to help recover. Silver, much to his chagrin, was assigned with the repair crew.

That didn't stop him from finding excuses to hang out base, however. The tiniest speck wasn't safe from Silver as he found more and more ridiculous reasons to stick around. He knew Knuckles didn't care, he wondered if Sonic even noticed, and he was pretty confident that Shadow was starting to catch on. It was during one of these light excuses that a beeper on Silver started to go off. The hedgehog jumped a good foot in the air in surprise, and quickly looked down at his gold cuffs.

In his time, Silver had a friend named Saga, a blue cat that had the ability to shift through moments in time for a certain period. She didn't have much control over this, and she could appear and disappear at a moment's notice. So, a professor from their time made Silver a special attachment to his golden cuffs- whenever Saga had appeared in the same timeline as Silver, then a special beeper would go off. Right now, all it was doing was giving away that his shirking responsibility.

"What was that?" Knuckles eventually questioned, looking around the room for the source of the noise.

At the moment, Silver wasn't paying attention, more distressed that Saga's signal was being picked up when she shouldn't have been in this time period.

Unless…

"Silver," the deadpan voice of Shadow broke the white hedgehog's concentration, "Do you know where that noise is coming from?"

"It's… uh, me." Silver sheepishly admitted, not that everyone didn't know that already. He just now realized that everyone was looking at him, making Silver look away for a moment in embarrassment.

"Is everything alright?" Knuckles then asked.

"I..." Silver started to say, still finding himself distracted by the tracker. "I, um, need to… go somewhere. To find someone. Now. Do you mind if I…?"

"Depends." Shadow glared as he folded his arms. "Are you going to return to your actual post after?"

The black hedgehog's only answer was a sheepish laughter before the silver hedgehog departed without another word.

Oh Shadow definitely knew that Silver was shirking from his duties. Big time.

Scrubbing Shadow from his mind and keeping focus to the holographic display for Saga's location, Silver used his powers to speed as fast as he could to her. The tracker brought him out to a desert area, and just as Silver was starting to fear for the worst, he soon spotted Saga's light blue fur against the orange landscape. She wasn't alone either; when Silver realized who was with her, he immediately shouted,

"Saga, get away from him! He's dangerous!"

Silver saw the cat jump in surprise at his sudden presence, and looked at him while she still worked to sling Infinite's arm around her neck. The near white hedgehog almost made himself skid to a stop when he was closer to Saga, holding out his hands to her like she held a dangerous weapon in her hands. In some way, she actually did.

"Saga..." Silver tried again, "Please just leave him alone."

"Okay, first off," the unnerved cat informed Silver, "I freaking hate shifting- you know why? This idiot thinks he knows me so I'm going to pretend that helping him is an act of gratis, and now you're freaking telling me that he's a safety hazard?! Are you going to explain to me some time what happened in this timeline?!"

"Yes. Everything." sighed Silver. "And I can understand you wanting to help him. I do. But, if he wakes up and becomes a severe danger again, I don't want you in harm's way when that happens."

Saga looked at her friend for a good while before giving an annoyed huff. "Fine," she eventually agreed, "Take him."

"Thank you." Silver then graciously said as he started to use his telekinesis to take Infinite off of Saga's shoulders. Binding the unconscious jackal with his powers, Silver then gestured for Saga to follow him- with little else to do, she did so and they left with Infinite floating behind them. On their way back to base, Silver explained as much as he could to Saga about this timeline. Saga absorbed what she could with a nod, and ignored the rest because she found it didn't matter; when Silver told a story, he sometimes brought in too much detail than giving an actual plot.

When they returned to base, Infinite was taken by Shadow to some undisclosed location while Silver gave the cat a tour. It wasn't much, and at the end, he promised to make her a cup of coffee- her favorite drink.

"Oh, you're so cute!" Amy (who had finished her shift outside for the day) gushed after Saga gave her introductions. "So tell me, are you and Silver dating?"

"What? No!" the cat immediately denied, her face even scrunching up in disgust.

"Ditto." Silver cut in as he returned with Saga's coffee. This caused Amy to let out a knowing little giggle in observation. Saga didn't care as she turned her attention to her friend.

"Saga want her coffee now." the cat told Silver, holding her fingers out in an enviously grabby fashion toward the mug in his hand. Silver complied, handing her the mug without further instruction. Without thinking of a single consequence on how hot the beverage was, Saga took a long sip from the mug.

"Look at her go." Sonic marveled with a sense of humor. "Can you even taste it drinking that fast?"

"Yeah." Saga rasped, looking at Sonic for a moment. "There was creamer added. French vanilla. It's about to expire- you should go to the store and get more."

For a moment, all the blue hedgehog could do was stare before giving an approving nod. "Duly noted."

After Saga had downed the entire cup, she looked at the bottom thoughtfully before asking, "Where did you guys take Infinite?"

"To a temporary detention cell before we can get him to the Death Egg for correction." Knuckles informed her.

"The Death Egg?" the cat repeated with a raise of her eyebrow.

"It's where we plan on holding war criminals," Silver exclaimed- feeling pretty confident he had told her this earlier, "Mostly Infinite."

"Ah." Saga nodded. She absently traced the rim of the cup in an even deeper thought. It took some time, but she soon asked Knuckles, "Do you guys allow visitors in your POW camp, then?"