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Emerald Madness

Part 3

Time Travel and the Consequences Thereof

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The very moment Sonic and Zephyer disappeared out of the third dimension, far off in Knothole, Spark and Sally were manning the de- robotizer.

They had the usual bunch of robotized Mobians lined up and waiting patiently behind the big glass tube, red, yellow, and green eyes glowing. The two Freedom Fighters worked without a word, which was unusual. They were brooding over Nash's sinister appearance that morning, and the mangled backpack he had given them. It was certain that it was indeed Sonic's pack, but no one knew whether or not to believe Sonic was truly dead.

"I'm putting in 3776," Spark said. Sally nodded and watched the green hedgehog cross the little room, take the arm of a robot and lead it to the pedestal beneath the de-robotizer beam. He stepped away from it and nodded to her. She pulled a lever, lowering the glass tube around the robot. She turned and fixed her eyes on it absently as Spark approached and began the process. It was a robot hedgehog; she wondered if they had ever met him. The robot only stared through the glass at them, green eyes unwavering.

"All right," Spark said, "I'm starting the software scanning and deleting process." He whistled tunelessly through his teeth as he pressed various buttons, causing the machine behind him to light up and begin humming. Sally rested her elbows on the edge of the control panel behind her and idly watched the motionless robot. Spark always handed this part by himself--he took pleasure in stripping the electronic chains from captive minds, having once struggled with them himself. And, as the computer freed the victim, it vaporized the metal shell section by section.

"Okay," Spark announced after a moment, brushing his forelock out of his eyes and scratching beneath his headband, "we're on a roll. Software deletation is synced with the de-metalization. He'll be about half-free when he wakes up."

Sally nodded. "The usual."

She liked watching this part--seeing a new face for the first time--their surprise was almost comical. Slowly the top of the hedgehog's head became visible, the vanishing metal surrounded by a halo of golden light, the edges of the metal glowing like molten gold. The silver shell crept down the hedgehog's face like a flame eating at newspaper, finally revealing the face. It was a strange hedgehog. His dark eyes were vacant, staring straight ahead--the software was not yet gone.

About the time the vanishing-line reached his waist a light seemed to come on. The hedgehog's eyes blinked and focused for the first time, and he drew a deep breath like one awakened from sleep. He looked around in bewilderment, then down at himself. Sally smiled--that moment of dawning realization was the best part. The hedgehog realized, perhaps for the first time, that he had been robotized and was at that second being freed. He stood stock-still, watching the plating dissolve from his waist, legs and feet with wonder and shock.

Spark turned and looked at their subject for the first time. "He's in good shape," he observed. Some of their patients had not been so. He squinted and said, "I'd say he's about twelve or thirteen and has only been robotized a year."

"You're on," Sally smiled. The two had a standing bet--Spark would try to guess the newcomer's age and how long he had been in robot form. Sally would bet simply that he was wrong, and the loser would have to maintain the machinery for two hours. Spark was getting rather good at his estimates.

Sally pushed up the lever to retract the glass tube. It did, leaving the stranger standing on the octagonal platform, staring around in confusion. Sally walked up to him and extended a hand. "Hello, I'm Princess Sally," she began. "Are you feeling any ill effects from the de-robotizer?" This was the traditional greeting and reactions were always unpredictable. Some would fall at her feet, others would burst into tears of joy. The hedgehog did neither. He stared into her face for a long moment, moved back a step and said faintly, "No, I ... I feel okay."

"What's your name?"

The hedgehog didn't answer, but turned and drifted away, muttering under his breath and looking around the room as if in a dream. Sally looked at Spark, who moved a finger in a circle around his ear and shrugged.

* * *

"So this is the future," Sonic said, gazing out the window. "Sure don't look like much." Like a dump, he added to himself. Through the windows of the apartment he could see down into a street of grey, dingy buildings, rigid and unwelcoming. It appeared to him to be an inhabited Robotropolis. The building they were in was cold, as if the heating had been turned off for weeks.

He folded his arms and turned. Simoon the echidna was slumped on a threadbare sofa, looking bored. Zephyer sat beside him, legs crossed, toying with her ripped cloak. Jason had locked himself into a back bedroom when they arrived and had not yet reappeared.

Sonic was not feeling well from the stunner, but they had at last removed the cumbersome bandage on his neck; all that was left of the wound was a large ugly scab that would heal in time. All the same he was restless--he felt they should be out doing something. He leaned against the wall and thrust his hands in the pockets of his cloak. "So what do we do now?"

Zephyer looked at Simoon, who shrugged. "I donno. That's J's department."

"We're just supposed to hang around here 'til Nash gives up?" Sonic pressed.

Again the one-eyed echidna shrugged. "I guess."

There was a long moment of silence. Sonic's eyes fell on Zephyer's metallic hands as they played with her torn garment. He watched idly for a second, then stood erect and pulled off his own cloak. "Here," he said, handing it to her. "Trade me."

She looked at him blankly. "Why?"

"Yours has a big ol' chunk out of it," the blue hedgehog replied. "You don't want people to see you're robotized, do ya?"

She hesitated a moment, then climbed to her feet, pulled of her own cloak and took his. "Thanks," she said, deftly slipping it on and returning to her seat. Sonic donned hers, noticing it only came to his waist, while before it had been full-length. He also realized that his cape still had all his stuff in the pockets, but decided to let it go for the moment.

Again he leaned against the wall, dug his hands inside his cape and said, "Where'd Jason go, anyhow?"

Simoon, who had watched the entire exchange without a word, said, "This is where he used to live; he's in his old bedroom."

"Ah," said Sonic, pretending to be totally uninterested. After a moment he said, "Did his family move or something?"

"Nope," the maroon echidna replied. "Nash broke 'em up. Put him and his sisters in foster homes and his parents in prison ... we think." This last ended on an ominous note, and Sonic decided to drop it there.

Zephyer, however, did not. Leaning her head on the back of the sofa, she asked of the ceiling, "What about YOUR family, Si?"

There was a long silence and it seemed as if Simoon had not heard. Then, with a hand over his eye, he said, "They're dead."

Still directing her question to the ceiling, Zephyer asked, "What happened?"

There was an even longer silence this time, and street noise could be heard outside. Simoon's voice was husky. "I opened the box."

Sonic snapped erect, staring. "YOU opened the box?" he exclaimed.

Simoon nodded miserably.

"Why aren't you targeted?"

"It didn't get my eyes," the echidna replied quietly. He touched the scarred side of his face. "I turned away so it burned me instead."

Zephyer's question was quick as lightning. "Is that what happened to your mom and dad?" Sonic shot her a sharp glance for her to shut up, but it was already asked.

It never occurred to Simoon to stop talking. "Not exactly," he said, his voice lowering in pain. "It screwed up the Master Emerald. When the island crashed, Mom and Dad were down in Hidden Palace, trying to stop it in time. They didn't."

Sonic and Zephyer gasped at the same time and locked eyes. There was only one person his father could be. "Simoon," Zephyer said gently, "was your dad Knuckles?"

The echidna nodded, tears welling up in his one eye. He pulled his knees up to his chest, buried his head in his arms and sobbed.

Sonic didn't know whether to be shocked or angry. So that was how one of his best friends ended, and this was Knux's orphaned son. What a horrible future! and all because of the eighth chaos emerald.

Hardly knowing what he was doing, he sat down beside Simoon and put his arms around him. The echidna leaned against him and wept into his chest. As Sonic held him, something connected in his head. Because of what had happened here, Jason and Simoon had taken the emerald to the past. But now Nash, the power-hungry dictator of the future (he had the seven chaos emeralds?!?) had also travelled to the past and thereby scrambled the future. It made Sonic's head whirl to think of it, but if he looked, he would see a direct consequence here to everything he had ever done in the past.

"Oh God," he prayed silently, "don't let me mess up. Show me what to do so I can fix this!"

He had hardly finished his thought when Zephyer said, "I think somebody should go check on Jason. He's been back there an awful long time."

Simoon, still shaken up, let go of Sonic and sat back with a nod. Sonic jumped up. "I will. I want to talk to him, anyway."

The apartment was small and bare, and it didn't take long to locate the bedroom with the closed door. Sonic knocked and called, "Jason?" No answer. He tried the doorknob, found it unlocked and pushed it open.

The first thing he saw was the orange hedgehog sitting on the bed inside, his face as white as a sheet. The next thing he saw was the open window, and then the armed bobcat stepped into view.

The soldier stopped and stared at Sonic in disbelief for an instant, the muzzle of his machine gun drooping toward the floor. Sonic recovered his wits first.

With his characteristic blinding speed he dove into the bobcat, socking him in the stomach and trying to wrench the gun from his hands. He succeeded, kicked it out of sight under the bed so the guard wouldn't find it in a hurry, then grabbed Jason's hand. The entire time Sonic was shouting at the top of his lungs, "Get out of here, get out! They've found us! Everybody get out!" He didn't want to call Zephyer and Simoon by name in case the guard didn't know about them.

Half a second later Sonic (with Jason in tow) was out the door, down the stairs and pelting down the street. Zephyer and Simoon were already out and running hard. Sonic overtook them, grabbed the girl echidna's hand and began to pour on the speed.

"They're gonna shoot us!" Jason was wailing. "It's the death penalty if you assault one of Nash's men! We're all gonna DIE!"

"Shut up!" Sonic snarled. "We're not gonna get shot 'cause we're not gonna get caught!" He turned a sharp right down a side-street, snapping the others' heads and arms as if their line were a whiplash.

"Ow!" Zephyer yelped. "Take it easy, you maniac!"

But Sonic was paying little attention to his companions. His attention was focused on the street; he was determined not to get caught in another trap. But there was one detail the hedgehog did not take into account; this city was inhabited.

A blind intersection ahead. Sonic, used to running in the middle of the road from his years of travelling Robotropolis, swung wide to the left, keeping to the center. Then he gasped in horror--they had come out not fifteen feet ahead of an oncoming bus.

Adrenaline already pumping, Sonic leaped hard to the right, shoving Zephyer and Simoon into the clear, but pulling himself and Jason right into the vehicle's path.

There was the screech of brakes--a roar of engines--the startled face of the driver--then a loud, hollow thunk.

The next thing Sonic knew he was scrambling to his feet, more stunned than hurt. The bus had stopped, people had appeared out of nowhere, and a group was huddled over a motionless figure on the ground.

Sonic shoved his way through the crowd, sick at his stomach and a bit light-headed. He knew who it was even before he saw him--the orange hedgehog was lying on his back, eyes closed, face colorless, and very, very still. "Somebody call an ambulance!" someone yelled. Sonic knelt beside Jason and clumsily felt for a heartbeat. It was there, but it was weak and fluttery.

Suddenly the world whirled around and went dark. Sonic lowered his head to keep from passing out. He felt hands pulling him away from the fallen hedgehog and voices saying, "He was hit, too, but it only knocked him over. Here, get him out of the way."

He was yanked roughly to his feet, his hands pulled behind him. He felt the sensation of cold metal on his wrists. He looked up--into the faces of three grim bobcats, all wearing Nash's violet military uniforms. His heart gave a leap, then plummeted straight to his ankles. He looked over his shoulder, wondering where the echidnas were. He spotted them standing in the mouth of an alley, looking bewildered and concerned. "Go!" he mouthed. Zephyer nodded reluctantly, pulled at Simoon's hand and disappeared into the alley.

* * *

Sonic heard later that Jason was taken to the hospital and treated for a major concussion and a collapsed lung. Sonic's treatment was far less hospitable.

He was taken to a large, grand building that turned out to be Nash's military headquarters. He was shown into a small office, shoved into a chair and told to stay there. The guard told the secretary to blast him if he moved, then left the room.

For the first time Sonic had a chance to sit still and notice things. First he noticed the tingling pain under his left arm that grew and lessened with each breath; probably a cracked rib or two. Next he noticed how chafed his wrist were from the handcuffs.

He let his eyes trace around the room. Typical office--there was a computer on the desk, a big, sunny window in one wall and an artificial houseplant in the corner. The red fox behind the desk was clicking away at the keyboard, one eye on what he was doing and the other on Sonic. He said nothing until, far away in the building, there was the sound of a door closing. Then the fox turned his full attention to the prisoner.

"You got caught, huh?" the fox asked.

Sonic nodded miserably. "Yeah. I wouldn't have, though, if not for that bus. It hit me and my friend, and he's bad hurt."

Something about his voice startled the fox. He gazed at the hedgehog for a long moment, then said, "Is that you, Sonic?"

Sonic nodded without speaking, eyes on the grey carpet.

"Sonic," the fox repeated, "don't you recognize me?"

The hedgehog lifted his eyes to his face, then shook his head.

The fox rose to his feet, stepped out from behind the desk and walked out in front of it. "How about now?" he asked.

Again Sonic shook his head; he wasn't in the mood to wrack his brains. He might not even have met this fox yet.

The fox turned sideways and swished his tail--no, he had TWO tails! Sonic recognized him with a start. "Tails!"

Yes, it was Tails, but now in his early 20s. He grinned hugely in his familiar way.

"Tails!" Sonic gasped again, staring at him, "you're so ... tall!"

The fox nodded, still grinning. "I haven't seen you in ages," he said. "Last I heard Nash had a price on your head for re-banding the Freedom Fighters against him. I even heard a rumor you were captured, but I didn't believe it." Tails sobered abruptly. "I'll help you escape," he whispered. "I'm still a Freedom Fighter, even if I DO work for the Panther."

"He think's I'm from this time," Sonic thought with a mild shock. "I wonder what my future self has been up to?" Aloud he said, "Okay, but don't let them know you did it."

"Oh, of course not," Tails replied with a look of surprised horror. Suddenly his ears pricked up--a door slammed off in a hallway somewhere. He darted back to his chair and was studiously working away when the office door opened.

One of the usual bobcats stepped in, but was followed by a big, burly lynx. The lynx was about twice the size of the bobcats and his ears were tipped with a tuft of long black fur. His green eyes had the same cold, ruthless look as Nash's. He wore a dark blue-violet uniform and a short cape; obviously the second-in-command.

He crossed his arms and coolly looked Sonic over from head to toe. Then he purred, "Hello, Sonic Hedgehog."

Sonic returned his gaze and didn't answer.

The lynx said, "You were to have been executed long ago, but I see you must have escaped. I would like to have the honor of putting a bullet through your skull, but Nash prefers to kill the rebels himself. Because of that you must be in good condition. You will remain in prison until Nash is notified and returns for you."

Sonic remained defiantly silent, but his eyes were burning with anger. He snuck a glance in Tails's direction and saw that the fox was watching everything out of the corner of his eye. Then he was pulled to his feet and shoved roughly down the hallway.

* * *

Zephyer and Simoon, meanwhile, were slowly making their way through New Mobitropolis. Simoon spoke little; it had been rather traumatic for him to see Jason's body being put onto a stretcher and lifted into the ambulance, and to see the ashen Sonic led away in handcuffs. He was holding one of Zephyer's hands tightly, as if he would never let go.

Zephyer, being older, recovered from the shock quicker and was trying to think. They were all in danger. She could do nothing for either Sonic or Jason, but maybe they could find someone who could. "Si," she asked softly, "are there any Freedom Fighters left?"

"No," came the toneless, automatic reply.

She sighed heavily, then rubbed a metal hand over her face. "There's gotta be someone from Sonic's time here. Who gave you guys the time-ring?"

For the first time in a long while Simoon lifted his scarred face and looked at her. "Slasher did."

"Slasher!" Zephyer exclaimed. "I didn't think of her! Where is she?"

Simoon stood still for a long moment, trying to make his mind work. Finally he murmured, "The Great Forest."

"Great!" Zephyer said. "Let's go!"

"No," said Simoon, refusing to move. "It's protected."

"Huh?"

"Those people who wanted to save the environment and all that. They worked with Nash in what Dad called a 'land grab', and now they own the whole forest. It's surrounded by fences and guards. You can't get in."

"How does Slasher get in?"

"Duh. She flies. Ooo, she gives me the creeps!" He shivered. "With those big ol' claws and everything. Dad always said she was the smartest thing alive, though."

Zephyer wasn't going to be foiled so easily. "Isn't there some way to contact her?"

"Well ..." Simoon looked down and dug one toe into the snow. "Sort of."

"How?"

"When I was born she made me a whistle, like the ones she had made for Mr. Hedgehog and Tails and Dad. I've still got it, but I'm not 'spost to blow it 'cept in an emergency."

The girl echidna put her hands on her hips. "What do you think THIS is? A picnic?"

"Well, no ..."

"C'mon, deliver."

Simoon paused, looked at her for a long moment, then slowly reached down inside his shirt and pulled out a little silver whistle on a string. Never taking his eyes from hers, he lifted it to his lips and blew three silent blasts on it.

"Hello ..."

The two whipped around to see a large figure standing behind them, arms folded. Without a doubt it was Slasher. She had changed little with the years and her green eyes were as bright as ever. Somehow she seemed bigger than Zephyer remembered.

The big raptor extended a clawed hand and Zephyer hesitantly shook it. "Good to see you again," Slasher said, gazing into her eyes for a second. She offered a hand to Simoon, who shrank away in fright. She pulled her hand away as Zephyer asked, "Where'd you come from?"

"Around," the brown raptor said vaguely, adjusting her wings against her sides. "I've been trailing you. I know what happened to past-Sonic and Jason."

"What do we do?"

"Nothing," Slasher replied calmly. "It will be at least twenty- four hours before Nash gets back to this time. Sonic'll be okay, and Jason'll be patched up without a question. You two are the ones in trouble at the moment. The reason I was tracking you is because the cops are trying to find you. You'd better come with me. The rebels are having a meeting tonight and you ought to be there."

"But Sonic--" Zephyer said, trying to remain loyal to her friend. "He was hit, too--shouldn't we try to rescue him?"

A look of pain flashed through Slasher's eyes and was gone. "No," she said firmly. "Not now. Maybe once you two are safe ... come with me, and no more talking for a while."

* * *

The prison, although cold and gloomy, was not as bad as the dungeons in Robotropolis. The cement floor was reasonably clean and there were thin cushions on the beds. It didn't appear that prisoners were chained up here--there were no rings in the walls to that purpose.

Sonic was miserable. He lay on his right side--it hurt too much to lay on his left--and stared at the barred window. There was no possible way he could break out, and if he did he would have to make his way through two floors without being caught.

He still didn't feel right and his head ached. His only hope now was that Zephyer and Simoon would rescue him. He was in no condition to escape on his own. For the second time that day the hedgehog closed his eyes and whispered, "Lord, help ..."

* * *

Slasher led the two echidnas out of Mobitropolis by back streets and alleys, eyes and nose constantly working, stopping often to listen. It was rather nerve-wracking for her two companions, but it paid off in the end; they made it out of the city without being spotted.

Once in the clear Slasher crouched and motioned for them to climb on her back. They did, but not without hesitation. "Hang on," the big velociraptor instructed. "I'm going to be running for a while and I don't want you falling off." They gripped with their knees and ankles as she told them; once they were settled she began to jog in her queer, liquid fashion, feet hardly touching the ground. Every so often she would stop and rear up for a look around. Each time she seemed pleased-- "There's nobody out there," she reassured the echidnas.

It was mid-afternoon by this time, the sun slanting across the snowy countryside in mild winter rays. There was a house here and there, but no Mobians to be seen. "This is good," Slasher commented. "Not that the commies are very popular, but there ARE spies."

"Commies?" Zephyer asked.

"Not now," he mount replied. "Wait until we can talk in safety."

At last they came into sight of the Great Forest--and of the towering chain-link fence around its borders. Slasher gave a snort of disgust. "A lot of good it does," she growled. "They put it under restriction, claiming that people would destroy the 'pristine condition of the woods', then build a bio-weapons lab right smack in the middle of it. You don't want to know some of the things we've stopped them from doing out there." As she spoke, she knelt and dug her long claws into the snow. To their surprise she lifted a section of sod right out of the ground--a door covered with earth, dead grass and snow. Beneath were a series of earthen steps leading down into darkness. A warm, damp smell rose out of it. "Keep your heads down," Slasher warned, then descended into the tunnel, letting the door fall shut above them.

It was completely black. The air smelled damp, earthy and dark. It was surprisingly warm and stuffy after the crisp cold they had just left. Slasher moved forward without hesitation. "We use this tunnel a lot," she explained.

"Where does it go?" Simoon asked.

"To Knothole," was the nonchalant reply.

Simoon gasped. "Knothole? I thought it was dismantled!"

"True, it was dismantled when we dis-banded," the big raptor said. They felt her turn right and continue walking. "But a few of us wanted something left, just in case any of Robotnik's cronies came back around and made trouble. So Knuckles, pretty much single-handedly, excavated this whole tunnel and reinforced it. It won't cave in anytime soon--he did a good job."

Zephyer, arms around Simoon's waist, felt him draw a trembling breath and hold it to keep from sobbing.

Slasher gave no sign she noticed, although she did. She shifted tracks slightly. "Our Knothole Complex is built underground now, but we do have guardposts here and there. We're having a meeting there tonight."

Light appeared far off. Slasher quickened her strides, and in a few moments they were stepping out of the darkness into a small room, lit warmly with kerosene lamps. "Anybody here?" she called as Zephyer and Simoon blinked in the light.

"Back here, Slasher!" a voice called.

"Ah, good," the big raptor smiled, looking over her shoulder at her passengers. "You'll get to meet some of the Freedom Fighters."

They dismounted and followed Slasher down a short, round-walled hall to another, larger room. Maps covered the walls. There was a large table in the center of the room surrounded with chairs. Three of these were occupied.

Zephyer only recognized one of those present; a violet hedgehog, dressed in a faded sweatshirt and jeans. "Serena!" she exclaimed in surprise.

The two others were a porcupine with spines on his head resembling a mohawk, and a well-dressed female squirrel with a small laptop computer on the table in front of her. The three looked at Zephyer in shock, but Slasher spoke first. "This is Zephyer Winstrom," she explained, making eye-contact with the three Freedom Fighters. "Jason and Simoon brought her from the past."

"Oh," said the squirrel, blinking. "Right. Um ..." She stood and awkwardly extended a hand. "I'm Sally. Nice, uh, to meet you, Zephyer."

"Yeah," Serena said, standing and leaning across the table to shake the echidna's hand. "Nice to see you again, Zeff."

The porcupine only nodded and said, "Just call me Spike."

"Have a seat," Slasher said, and the two echidnas obeyed. Simoon gazed steadily at Sally and said, "Weren't you and Mr. Hedgehog in prison?"

She nodded. "Slasher broke us out shortly before we were to be executed." She looked at the big raptor. "Did you say you'd seen Jason? No one knows where he is ..."

Slasher glanced at Zephyer and Simoon and said, "He's safe at the moment."

Sally leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief. "Oh good ... I've been so worried ..." she looked again at Zephyer and trailed off. It made Zephyer uncomfortable--Serena and Spike were also looking at her as if they were afraid of her and pitied her at the same time. Trying to break the ice, she asked, "Slasher said something about commies. What are they and what's going on?"

The Freedom Fighters seemed to relax and explained that 'commie' is slang for 'communists'. It seemed that Nash was a power-hungry dictator who had gradually taken control of Mobitropolis. He slowly, underhandedly, abolished all the Mobians' rights, finally confiscating all weapons and declaring Mobitropolis to be a communist capital. His bobcat-and-lynx army was hated and feared by most. Everyone was poor and forced to live in cheap government housing, and depended on the government for everything from transportation to food. It was perfectly dreadful.

This was the reason that the Freedom Fighters had quietly regrouped, and their supporters and rebellion was spreading like wildfire.

As they talked, Slasher was constantly coming in and out, always busy with something. Now, as they finished, she poked her head in the doorway and said, "The others are here, guys."

"Good," Sally said, standing. "Is Sonic with them?"

"Yeah."

Zephyer sat very still, confused. Sonic? but Sonic had been captured! Had he escaped already or turned loose for some reason? She turned and fixed her eyes on the doorway, looking for the hedgehog.

A rabbit entered, then a brown fox, two skunks, a green hedgehog, Slasher and finally ... Sonic.

But it was not the Sonic she was familiar with. This was a Sonic in his early thirties. His blue seemed darker. His face was haggard and weary, as if he had been under heavy stress all day long. He went to the table, pulled out a chair on the end and sat down. Zephyer watched as Sally went to him and kissed him on the mouth ... it occurred to the echidna that they must be married. Sally said something in a low voice to him, and Zephyer pricked up her ears to hear his reply.

"No," he said quietly. "They won't listen to me."

Something in Sally's attitude seemed to flicker out. She silently returned to her seat and covered her face with her hands. Zephyer watched both of them, puzzled. Who wouldn't listen to Sonic? The Freedom Fighters? She wasn't allowed to ponder long. Serena, the violet hedgehog, looked over at Sonic and said, "Have any luck?"

At once the talk at the table quieted and everyone looked at Sonic. He leaned his elbows on the table and said heavily, "No. None at all. Social services is under strict instructions not to give me any information regarding my children. April and June, that is. Nobody knows where Zip is ..."

Suddenly there came the sound of pounding footsteps in the hall and a young red fox burst in, eyes wide, gasping for breath. Everyone half-rose and several voices exclaimed, "Tails! It's Tails!" The general appearance of the group was that no one had seen him in a long while.

"Let me talk!" he yelled. The deadly terror in his voice achieved instant silence in the room. He brushed his forelock out of his eyes and said, "We've gotta start praying. Nash is back and he just got Jason and Sonic in to see him. He--he--well, Jason's not dead yet, and I untied Sonic and he attacked Nash to stop him and--" His eyes fell upon the elder Sonic at the table and he froze.

In the ensuing silence, Simoon spoke softly. "It's past-Sonic from fifteen years ago. Jason and I brought him and Zeff here."

Elder-Sonic drew a sharp breath and sat up straight. Then he closed his eyes and slumped back in his chair with a moan of deep anguish. Without stirring from this position he snarled, "Simoon, I ought to wring your neck."

Slasher said, "Join hands everybody. We're gonna need the Lord's help big-time on this one."

The prayer only lasted a moment, but was extremely heartfelt. Then the Freedom Fighters grabbed their coats and headed above-ground to do some emergency reconnaissance at Nash's headquarters.

* * *

To learn what was happening to Sonic, we must go back a bit.

The blue hedgehog dozed off and on for the three hours he was in his cell, his injured ribs preventing him from really resting. Just as he would begin to doze off, he would see either the front of the bus coming at him, Jason's crumpled shape on the pavement, or Nash's eyes glowing in the darkness. He would start painfully and look around in fright.

The rattling of a key in a lock aroused him. Two bobcat guards were opening his cell door. "C'mon," one said gruffly. "Nash is here."

Sonic slowly climbed to his feet, feeling rather weak in the knees. If he didn't come up with something in a matter of seconds he was going to be murdered.

But nothing came to mind, and the thought of aggravating his side by rough movement sickened him. He stood meekly while his hands were bound behind him. Then the two soldiers escorted him through the prison to Nash's interrogation room, two floor above. Sonic, dazed, remembered little of the lengthy walk afterward.

The interrogation room was a large, sound-proofed room with a very high ceiling. There were no windows and only one heavy steel door. It was the place where Nash practiced the art of extracting information from unwilling informants--in a word, a torture chamber.

Sonic was shoved into the cold room and the door clanged shut behind him. He saw that there were three objects in the room; Nash, yellow eyes shining in cruel anticipation, a strange flat object on the floor, and an orange hedgehog sitting wearily in a chair near it, wearing an oxygen mask. "Jason!" Sonic gasped. The youngster's face was milk-white, his eyes dull and glazed, staring at nothing. He had not recovered from his concussion and had been removed from the hospital too soon.

Nash approached Sonic, white fangs showing in a cold smile. "Hello, Sonic Hedgehog," he purred. He took Sonic by the shoulder and led him across the room to where a steel bar was mounted on the wall at waist-height, like a towel-rack. He matter-of-factly removed the handcuffs, shoved Sonic up against the bar, thrust the hedgehog's arms through it, bending his elbows over it behind his back. The cougar than re-snapped the handcuffs on Sonic's wrists, thereby preventing all further struggle. The position he was forced to hold pulled on Sonic's cracked ribs, making him gasp and pant in pain. The big cat noticed this with approval. It would make the following that much worse.

Nash stood eight feet away from the hedgehog, braced his legs, and clasped his hands behind his back. "I assume you know why you're here," he said smoothly.

"Yeah," Sonic snapped through clenched teeth. "You're gonna try to get me to tell you stuff."

"Correct," the mountain lion said with a nod. "I understand you have encountered the eighth chaos emerald before."

"Sure, and you know it or I wouldn't be here."

Nash gazed into Sonic's eyes with blinding intensity. For an instant Sonic glimpsed the black depths of his captor's soul, then was forced to drop his eyes. He couldn't face that kind of evil--it made his skin crawl.

"You see, Sonic," Nash crooned, "I too have had the Madness."

Sonic didn't look at him. "Sure."

"In fact," the cougar said, his voice dropping to a guttural growl, "I still have it."

Sonic looked up, startled, but Nash had turned away and was beginning to pace the room. "I don't suppose Jason here, or Simoon, ever told you the whole story behind them." He turned, cape flowing out behind him like a dark wind. "Did Simoon tell you exactly how his face was burned?"

Sonic answered without thinking, "He said he opened the box."

Nash gave him that heartless smile. "Ah, so they DID tell you. He resumed pacing. "Simoon opened the box out of curiosity--and against his father's orders. I understand his father was a friend of yours."

Sonic chose not to answer, and the cougar continued his dialogue.

"Yes, Knuckles knew what was in that box and forbade anyone to touch it, for it spelled doom for all involved. And yet it was his own young son who deciphered the combination and opened the box. It seared off half the youngster's face. He fled the scene, leaving the box open." He faced Sonic directly and thumped a fist against his uniformed chest. "I was the one who mastered it by will alone. In return it gave me great power."

His ears flattened to his head and his eyes flashed. "But a blue hedgehog with the speed of a Concord jet stole it from me and returned it to the box. The echidna who had opened it in the first place, along with the blue hedgehog's eldest child, travelled back in time to hide the emerald from me."

This made little sense to Sonic--his side was hurting too much-- until Nash pointed a finger at Jason and roared, "HE is YOUR son, Sonic!"

The hedgehog was very still for a long moment, staring at the other hedgehog. If that was who Jason was, then it explained his terror of Sonic (he was afraid of altering his own future), and his insistence on no questions asked. It explained why he could run so fast and why he resembled Sonic. It also explained why Simoon called Sonic 'Mr. Hedgehog'. This was a different feeling from when he had found Serena to be his sister--this was a much nastier feeling--he was not supposed to know these things yet.

He had little time for further thought, as Nash had observed his shock. The cougar turned and stalked across the room to the odd contraption on the floor. He knelt beside it a moment, heavy paws manipulating the controls on its top. Then he backed away and watched it fire up, one hand playing nervously at his collar.

Sweat broke out on Sonic's forehead as his side gave a sharp pang. Somehow he sensed that whatever was about to happen would not be healthy, and his tensing muscles irritated his ribs. He forced himself to relax and drew several deep breaths. "God, help me," he prayed silently. "Don't let Nash win--"

The machine, which had been quiet, suddenly gave a loud whirring hum and projected a glowing disk into the air above it. At first Sonic thought it was a holo-projector, then wondered why it was so large. His eyes focused on the glowing point of light beneath the image--it was blue. Suddenly his insides seemed to scramble themselves into a solid knot in his throat--it was a chaos emerald. That machine would do something strange, to be sure.

The disk began to glow a brilliant green, nearly too bright to look at. After a few seconds of this, a dark patch appeared in its center. It grew slowly until the green disk was a black void. A blue speck appeared in the black and began to grow, as had the black before it.

With this blue patch came the sensation of an airlock opening. All the air in the room was sucked into the slowly widening blue hole. Sonic was momentarily glad the bar to his back was bolted to the wall; Nash had to grab at the vacantly staring Jason to keep him from being pulled into the thing, cape whipping about them. The suction was so great that the heavy metal door was pulled open and banged into the wall. "There's my way out," Sonic thought. "Thanks, God. Now can you get the handcuffs off?"

Even as he prayed the disk ceased its pull on the air and the blue enveloped the black. Nash let go of Jason, stood before the glaring portal (if that was what it was) and shouted, "Doctor, are you ready?"

Sonic's heart flip-flopped as he heard a voice he had hoped never to hear again.

"Of course, Lieutenant. The robotizer has been warmed up and ready for the past half hour."

The blue wavered and shifted, like when a television channel is just beginning to tune in. Slowly the picture came into focus. Sonic stared in shocked horror; it was the robotizer room in the fortress of Robotropolis. Robotnik was standing in front of the notorious machine, arms folded in impatience.

"But it was all destroyed!" Sonic cried without meaning to.

Nash turned his head and flashed him a nasty smile. "Fool ... this is a time portal. It opened a full year before the city fell. And my good friend Robotnik is always glad to accommodate my prisoners."

Sonic nearly choked. To be thrown backward through time and robotized! How long would it be before the terbium flattened everything, and how much longer before his friends finally de-robotized him? How would he explain leaving into exile, than showing up in Knothole as a robot?

He watched Nash with sick eyes as the cougar lifted Jason in his arms and again looked at Sonic. "Just so you know," the cat purred, "he is still robotized in your time."

Sonic had to think about that a moment before it hit him--HE was not to be robotized; JASON was!

He flung himself forward, hurting his arms and side dreadfully but not caring. "NO!" he screamed, checked by the bar. "Don't do it! Robotize me--not him! He's hurt! DON'T!"

Nash gave him a scornful, pitying look. "Heroic, aren't we? If I did it to you, this time would be affected. If I do it to him nobody cares."

"_I_ care!" Sonic yelped. "Drop him you dirt-crawling worm!"

Nash seemed about to put Jason down, but at the last second he intentionally stumbled forward and dropped the hedgehog through the time portal. "Oops," he said, shrugging with mock remorse. "Sorry, Sonic."

"NOOO!" the blue hedgehog cried, struggling wildly, unmindful of the damage he inflicted upon himself. "Robotnik, don't do it, don't do it!"

"He can't hear you," the cougar smiled. "Here, I'll just stand aside so you can watch."

The torture was well planned. Sonic could only watch helplessly as his future son was flung into the past and put into Dr. Robotnik's hands for robotization. The agony was extreme.

Sonic stared at Robotnik, hating him. He was nearly forgotten the malice in the black eyes, the sickeningly robot arm and the frizzy orange mustache. He hated the rough way he grabbed the prostrate Jason by the arm and tossed him carelessly into the robotizer's glass tube. And most of all, Sonic hate the cruel chuckle Ivo gave as the machine started up.

All his agonized attention foxed on the contents of the portal, the blue hedgehog failed to notice the slight figure creep through the open door and up to him. He didn't feel the soft touch of nervous fingers on his, or the faint jungle of the handcuffs. Neither did Nash; the dictator's yellow eyes were also fixed on the portal, watching the robotizer with interest and admiration. "Ingenious machine," he muttered.

It wasn't until Jason had been robotized from the waist down that a voice whispered in Sonic's ear, "There, you're loose." Startled, he looked around. There stood Tails, looking very, very scared. Sonic moved his fingers, then slowly pulled his arms out from behind the bar. Letting them hang limp to restore circulation, he whispered, "Get out of the building, little bro. Things are going to get violent around here."

The fox nodded and bolted for the door. Sonic stared after him for a second, wondering when he had called him 'little bro' when Tails was at least five years older than he was.

The blue hedgehog charged at the glowing portal, intending to leap through and stop the robotization. Nash saw him at the last minute, but instead of trying to stop him, he leaped forward and kicked the side of the portal generator. Sonic leaped for the portal--and passed right through it as if it were a mist. He whirled around on the other side, panting, hurting and furious. Even as he did he saw the image of Robotropolis from the reverse side fading into blue, then shrinking into the black.

Nash was laughing in triumph. "It's too late! I cut the power--you will never have access to that moment again. Your SON is gone! By the time he reappears here, he will be the same age as his father!"

The horror of this truth and the stress Sonic had just undergone took their toll--the hedgehog snapped.

He sprang at the cougar with a scream not unlike Slasher's, eyes like balls of fire. Nash ducked and Sonic struck him a glancing blow, bounced off and was on his feet in an instant. Again he launched himself into the air, curling into a spin halfway through and struck his enemy squarely. The two went down with a grunting thud, Sonic on top.

Nash had not achieved his position without brawn to match his brains. His big fist met Sonic's upper lip with such force the hedgehog was sent flying across the room. Sonic landed on his feet as if he had not felt it. He attacked again and again without a sound. Nash began to worry slightly. If this kept up even he would wear out, and the hedgehog gave no signs of tiring.

Sonic was in a frenzy. He was fighting on instinct, not even attempting to block the cougar's blows. His rational mind had conveniently shut down, as it did under the emerald madness. Perhaps this was a relapse. At any rate, he showed no intelligence whatsoever until Nash began shouting for help. For some reason he seemed to come out of it somewhat. He backed away from the big cat and snarled in loathing, "You're gonna pay for this, you (expletive deleted)." (He had no memory of saying anything at all afterward.) Then he whirled and fled from the room.

Nothing could stop his rush, so great now was his urge to escape. Anything in the hall he mowed down, including guards, tables, chairs and other objects. He turned a corner and saw light--a big plate-glassed window in one of the front offices. He made for it with all the speed he could muster.

Eight feet from the window he leaped and spun. His shoulders and back struck the glass at forty miles an hour. It caved outward as he burst through, scattering glass fragments for thirty feet in all directions. He hit the pavement on his feet and was gone, running like the wind, charged with adrenaline.

He made for the outskirts of the city. Some instinct he retained from missions in Robotropolis dictated that now he must seek the shelter of the Great Forest.

But it was not as easy as that. Even as he exited the building, Nash was notifying his entire military presence in the city to be on the lookout for a speeding blue hedgehog. "I want him dead," he snarled venomously into his communicator, favoring his left arm.

Sonic had just reached the suburbs when his ears caught the sound of sirens behind him. He tossed a glance over his shoulder; there were two hoverbike-like craft two hundred feet behind and obviously more he couldn't see. He only increased his speed recklessly. His mind was clearing somewhat, but his red fury remained. He was going to lose those creeps no matter what the cost.

The hoverbikes of the future were much more efficient than the ones in the past. They were steadily gaining on him as obstacles decreased. Sonic pressed himself to run still faster, the ground a blur beneath him, heart racing with his feet.

Then he was on the plains, only grass before him, the Great Forest a distant wall of dark grey-green. He made for it in fierce eagerness, unaware of the fence about its perimeter or the guardtowers. But Nash's men knew and figured he would be trapped.

They didn't figure on the desperate mentality of their quarry.

Sonic drew close enough to see the high chain-link fence with the coils of barbed-wire perched on top. He had no intention of slowing for a measly fence; he jumped.

He cleared the chain-link easily, but the barbed-wire was another matter. His feet caught in it as he went over. At his speed, a rapid stop was not an option. He fell, ripping the barbed-wire from the fence tops for a hundred feet in either direction. He hit the ground and rolled, further entangling himself. Too panicked to feel pain from the barbs tearing his flesh, he fought and kicked, hearing nothing but the scream of the approaching speeders. He finally ripped himself free of the wire and fled into the forest only seconds before the police appeared at the fence.

They pulled up and hovered, noticing the barbed-wire down and the tangled section where Sonic had been. "Do we go in after him, sir?" a bobcat asked his commanding officer. The other cat shook his head. "No sir. We aren't trained for that kind of pursuit. Besides, if he is as badly cut as I think he is, he won't live long anyway. Let's move out, men."

* * *

The Freedom Fighter, meanwhile, were creeping through the city, converging from all directions on Nash's headquarters. Slasher had asked future-Sonic if he wanted to go with her, and his response had been, "No, take Sal and make sure nothing happens to her." The hedgehog was extremely protective of his family and was loath to let Sally do anything even remotely dangerous.

So it was that Sally was the one on Slasher's back. As they made their way down a narrow alley, Sally whispered, "I can believe Si and Zip brought past-Sonic here, but why Zephyer?"

The big raptor shook her head. "I donno. From what I gathered they were travelling together when Sonic was picked up."

"Do you think she's figured out her future?" Sally worried. "I mean, it's pretty obvious who Knuckles's wife would have to be, don't you think?"

"She might," Slasher muttered through her teeth, pausing to look both ways at an intersection. Neither spoke until they had ducked into another alley on the other side.

"I just hope he doesn't tell her," Sally continued. "That kid couldn't keep a secret if his life depended on it."

"He hasn't called her 'mom' yet, if that's what you mean," Slasher said quietly, wrinkling her nose at the odor from s nearby dumpster. "But then he might. It wasn't a good idea to leave them in Knothole together."

"But we couldn't have brought them with us!"

"I know," the big raptor sighed. "I know."

No more was said until Slasher reached the rendezvous point; a store facing the HQ building. Sally dismounted and the two entered and pretended to browse the magazine rack in the front window. The shopkeeper paid them no attention--he was a Freedom Fighter sympathizer and had often hidden fugitives in his store.

One by one the other rebels signaled their presence around the area. Most of them were wanted criminals, so this was a dangerous task. There were several bobcat militia in sight. Slasher murmured, "It's looking hot out there. I'll go out the back. Don't look the guards in the eye," and she was gone.

Sally boldly walked out the door and down the street. She had acted as a spy many times before and knew exactly what to do. She kept her pace purposeful but casual. She kept her eyes on where she was going. Thus it was that none of the cops had cause to look her way more than once.

She stepped onto the sidewalk next to the government building her husband met her. He was dressed in slacks, a formal shirt, sunglasses and a hat--he looked nothing like his infamous hedgehog self. "Hello, miss," he said, tipping his hat. "It looks like rain, doesn't it?" This was their code for 'something's up'.

She looked up at the sky. "Doesn't to me," she said, signifying that she had seen nothing suspicious.

Sonic lowered his voice and purred, "Get a load of the front windows." He turned and walked away. Curious, Sally walked the other way, turned the corner and paused, scanning the rows of ground floor windows.

It didn't take long to spot the broken window with the glass strewn across the pavement before it. It looked like something very large had went through at very high speed. A clean-up crew was just arriving, and several guards were standing about, looking as if they wished to be elsewhere.

As Sally watched, a brown fox approached on of the bobcats and spoke to him. The guard barked a few words, and the fox continued on. He walked up to Sally, looked her in the eye, then passed her by. He had learned something. Sally reached into her purse and pretended to put on lipstick. This told the others to fall back and regroup at a certain rendezvous point.

Thirty minutes later found the Freedom Fighters in the basement of an abandoned apartment building. The fox was looking rather important as the others asked, "Well Antoine? What is it?"

Antoine drew himself up and said, "I asked ze guard what happeened to ze weendow, and he said zat a preezoner had ezcaped through eet, oond this preezoner ez steel at large."

"That glass is an inch thick to prevent this kind of thing," Slasher said. "Whatever went through that window was really moving." She looked at Sonic. "Could you go through glass that thick?"

The hedgehog nodded. "Maybe, but I'd have to be going at least forty-five, and then I'd have to spindash."

"Could Jason do it?"

Sonic and Sally glanced at each other, then shook their heads. "He hasn't learned how yet," Sonic said.

"Wall then," Bunnie said, "thet only leaves one person, don't it, sugah hog?"

Sonic nodded, then raised a hand to his forehead. "Whoa, wait a second. I ..." He paused for a moment, and everyone looked at him curiously. "... I remember doing it ..." Sonic said faintly. "I was running ... and I came to the fence ..." he suddenly looked down and rolled up his pant legs. His legs were criss-crossed with faded white scars. "I got stuck in the wire," he finished weakly. "We'd better find me, quick. The memories stop there ...!"

* * *

Zephyer and Simoon, meanwhile, had explored the underground Knothole from top to bottom. It resembled a sprawling rabbit warren with tunnels and rooms stretching in every direction.

"Is this how Knothole used to look?" Simoon asked.

Zephyer shook her head. "I don't know--I've never been there. What's it like outside?"

"I don't think we're supposed to go outside," the one-eyed echidna said, clasping his hands behind his back.

"I didn't say I wanted to GO outside," the silver echidna replied saucily. "I just want to LOOK outside." She trotted away down the hall, muttering, "I saw a stairway back here somewhere ..."

Simoon reluctantly followed her, knowing they would probably end up going outside anyway.

* * *

The hedgehog lay on his face on the forest floor, sobbing with physical and emotional pain. From the waist down his body was ripped and cut from the unforgiving barbed-wire, his dark blood staining the snow. He could run no more--his legs would carry him no further.

Sonic's hands clawed at the soft earth in agony. "The same age as me," he moaned. "Oh if only I'd never touched that stupid box! God, how could you do this to me? My past and future are totally screwed up! Just let me die--!" He burst into fresh tears at this despairing thought.

Not fifty feet from where he lay a camouflaged trapdoor lifted slowly into the air. Zephyer looked around cautiously from beneath it, saw no one, lifted the door higher and stepped out onto the snow.

Simoon's head appeared behind her. "I thought you said we weren't going out!" he hissed.

"I've never seen a forest in the snow!" she exclaimed softly. "C'mon up! We'll go back down in a minute."

Against his better judgement Simoon followed her. She closed the trapdoor and looked around at the trees. "Wow--this is a different kind of place from that forest R.K. chased us through. What's that tree called?"

"A pine," Simoon said unwillingly.

"How about those white trees?"

"Birch."

"How about that grey one?"

"Sycamore."

"What's that one?"

"I don't know," Simoon lied in exasperation. Knuckles had taught him the name of every tree in the forest, and he was not in the mood to run through them all.

Zephyer turned and gazed off through the woods for a moment. "Listen--what's that?"

Simoon rolled his eye. "A bird."

"No--it sounds like somebody crying. Hear it?"

Simoon paused and listened. After a second he too heard it. "It might be a trap," he said warningly.

"But it sounds real," she replied. "I want to see who it is." She walked away on the balls of her feet, looking all around the area. After fifteen feet she exclaimed, "Sonic!" and broke into a run.

Simoon followed her and saw that it was indeed Sonic. He was lying on his belly, face buried in his arms. Zephyer knelt beside him, gasping at his mutilated legs. "Sonic!" she said, laying a hand on his shoulder. "What happened to you?"

The hedgehog slapped her hand away and was on his feet in the same motion. His face was dirty, tear-stained and desperate. "Stay away!" he snarled. "Don't touch me!" He wobbled, buckled and sank to his knees, his face turning pale.

"You're losing blood fast," Zephyer said. "C'mon, we can help you."

He didn't look at her again, but seemed to recognize her voice. He nodded and murmured, "Don't touch my left side."

The two echidnas managed to convey Sonic to the trapdoor and down the stairs into the Knothole Complex.

* * *

Sonic ceased crying as soon as they found him, ashamed. He spoke little and kept his teeth clenched against the pain.

Zephyer had never had to deal with serious injuries, but knew a little, recalled from courses on first-aid. With Simoon as her helper she carefully wiped away the excess blood and bound pads of cotton against the cuts with adhesive tape.

"Shouldn't we, you know, put antiseptic on his cuts?" Simoon asked.

Sonic's entire body stiffened at the thought of how that would feel.

Zephyer shook her head emphatically. "Not when the cuts are this deep; it'd be the same as poisoning him." She looked down at the hedgehog, stretched out on the bed. "You really ought to have a tetanus shot, though."

Sonic returned her gaze for a moment, groaned and closed his eyes.

Zephyer was worried. She simply hadn't the medical skills Sonic needed, and she didn't know where the rest of the first-aid supplies were. She covered the hedgehog with blanket, sighed and put her hands on her hips. "That's all I can do, Sonic," she told him matter-of- factly. "Is there anything I can get you?"

He looked at her vacantly for a moment, then muttered, "No, I'm fine."

"When Slasher gets back--"

Sonic's eyes flew open wide. "Slasher? She's here?"

"Uh-huh," the echidna nodded. "And so are you."

That took a moment to sink in. A smile slowly crept across Sonic's face. "I forgot about me. So I must be married and everything. 'Course, 'cause I've got kids ..." He flinched suddenly. "Or ... HAD."

Zephyer and Simoon sideyed each other uneasily. Sonic saw this and said accusingly, "You knew, didn't you? Why didn't you TELL me who Jason was? I would have protected him more! But now it's too late ..." He trailed off helplessly, sighed and closed his eyes. "Just go away," he finished.

The two echidnas, sensing his anger, obeyed silently, closing the door behind them. Sonic was left alone.

His body was in to much pain for sleep, so he simply lay still, eyes closed, and thought. It seemed to him that somewhere along the line Jason had mentioned having two younger sisters. If so, he had three kids, not just one. Who was he married to? Sally? But there were more questions than just about his own future. Why had Nash tortured him, but asked him no questions about the emerald? Revenge? Spite? Did he have it already? The answer seemed to lie somewhere in the cougar's recounting of why he hated the Freedom Fighters.

Slowly it fell into place in his head. The eighth chaos emerald had been in Knuckles's care, for some reason, but Simoon had opened the box containing it and was burned. The box was left where it had fallen, which is where Nash had found it. He contracted the Madness and seemed to encourage it somehow. Sonic thought of how, during his running madness, he was beginning to actually think and understand during it. Perhaps at the end of it he would have remained mad, but with his full mental faculties. At any rate, something along those lines had happened to Nash.

Sometime during Nash's rise to power, Sonic's future self had stolen the emerald from him and returned it to the box. Then Simoon and Jason, Knuckles and Sonic's sons, had taken the gem into the past, thereby leading directly up to the current situation.

The emerald. Everything had happened because of the emerald. If there was only some way to get rid of it ...!

Various plans played themselves out in Sonic's head, some coldly practical, others insanely wild. The only one with a chance of working he was afraid to even think about, as it would reset his life. He needed to talk to Slasher--Slasher--she was here--she could help him-- what about Serena and Spark and--

Hours passed. Sonic dozed and awakened repeatedly, thinking and thinking of what he could do. He was almost mentally sick over it--if he went into the past and got rid of the emerald, none of this would have happened. Maybe it would be good--no injuries to get over--but he would never have discovered Zephyer, realized the power God had over a situation, and worst of all, would have memory of his struggles. He couldn't stand the thought of losing everything he had learned--

A tap on the door. It opened and Zephyer peeked in. "Sonic," she said, "they're back and somebody wants to talk to you."

"Who is it?"

The door was pushed open to reveal the outline of a hedgehog. "Spark," it said. "Go away, Zeff. I need to talk to Sonic alone."

Spark entered the room and closed the door behind him. Sonic looked him over. His older brother had changed little physically--his fur remained green with the black around his eyes, and he still had his cyborg arm; but instead of his red headband, he wore a silver circlet with the black stone set in it. For an instant Sonic wondered if that stone really was a piece of the eighth chaos emerald, and if it was, why it was black and not green.

Spark sat down on the foot of the bed and gazed keenly at his brother. "What happened?"

"Barbed wire," Sonic said simply. "I was running from the cops."

Spark nodded. "Yeah, we saw the fence. I meant with Nash."

Sonic sat up, wincing at the stretching muscles in his legs. "How much do you know?"

"That something happened to Jason and you went through the window."

The blue hedgehog said nothing for a moment, hands knotting the blanket fretfully. Finally he explained about the torture, Jason and the Time Portal, Tails freeing him, and going bezerk.

The two were quiet for a moment after he finished, Spark's dark eyes downcast. His brows drew together and he said, "I was afraid of this. This are getting worse the longer you're here and Nash knows about you." He sighed heavily. "The Sonic here--you--was really close to Jason. I don't know what he'll do when he hears this."

"Do you HAVE to tell him?"

Spark gazed into Sonic's eyes. "Don't you think he had a right to know?"

Sonic looked away and bit his lower lip.

Spark stood. "Slasher'll be in in a few minutes to check you over. Take it easy." He departed, leaving Sonic sorrowful that he had caused his future self so much grief.

Then Slasher was there. She hadn't changed much--she joked and kidded Sonic about his cuts as she inspected them. He told her about his ribs, upon which she produced a strange-looking cast and strapped it around him. After a few seconds of choking pain, it faded away and Sonic found himself able to straighten and draw a breath for the first time that day. He noticed his side beginning to grow warm and asked Slasher why. She explained that it was a special kind of cast; it used a mild form of infra-red light to mend broken bones. "You'll be all right in a couple hours, depending in the injury," she concluded.

Then the big raptor became serious. "Things are bad. You'll have to recover as fast as you can so we can get you back to your own time. The longer you're here the better your chances of being killed by Nash, thereby changing history. Heck, history is already screwed up."

Sonic gazed up at her. "Is it worth screwing up a little more to set it right?"

She cocked her head. "Why, you have a plan?"

Sonic voiced his idea tenetively, doubting they could pull it off even as he explained it. To his mixture of dread and relief, Slasher pondered it for several minutes. At last she said, "It's so crazy it just might work. I'll run it by the others first, though." She moved toward the door. "If you'll excuse me ..."

Sonic lay back on his pillow and listened to her departing footsteps. The cast across his chest was remarkably comfortable and made him feel oddly secure. But as he lay there studying the warmth against his ribs, his ears caught the stealthy footfalls approaching his door. The person paused just outside and whispered, "You awake?"

"Yeah," Sonic whispered back. "Who is that?"

The person moved into the room. Sonic snapped to a sitting position with the sensation he was looking into a mirror. It was another Sonic. This Sonic's eyes were dark with deadly anger as he stared at his past self. His hands were doubled into fists at his sides. "I should kill you," he snarled through his teeth. "Unfortunately I can't."

Young-Sonic stared at elder-Sonic in cold terror. "Why? What did I do?"

"You let Nash murder my son."

"Hey," young-Sonic said defensively, "he's only robotized."

Elder-Sonic produced a paper from somewhere on his person and threw it at young-Sonic. "He's dead. He died soon after de-robotization from brain damage. That's the report."

Young-Sonic looked it over in disbelief. "But--but--"

"I ought to kick yours," elder-Sonic fumed, trembling in a combination of rage and grief. "That's the price you'll pay for opening that box. Your first-born will die at the hands of your younger self." Elder-Sonic snatched the report from young-Sonic and crumpled it. His eyes were filling with tears he would not let fall. "So go ahead," he snarled brokenly. "Try to fix this all with some wild scheme. It's always worked before, hasn't it?"

Then elder-Sonic was gone, and young-Sonic was staring at nothing with a heart on the verge of breaking.

* * *

The Freedom Fighters stayed up very late that night, furiously debating young-Sonic's proposal. Elder-Sonic did not join in. He sat in a corner and brooded, grieving over a death he held himself responsible for. Sally, too, had a tenancy to choke up and grow silent, but was very much on young-Sonic's side. If he did what he intended to do, Jason would not have died and Simoon never would have opened the emerald box. Nash may not have risen to power. At any rate, things would be shockingly different.

Slasher checked in on young-Sonic around midnight and found him sleeping. She removed the bandages from his legs and rubbed the cuts with a strong-smelling salve. If he had been awake the pain would have been excruciating; as it was, he was so tired he didn't even stir. The big raptor wrapped his wounds in soft cloths and left him. By morning the cuts would be nearly healed, but the scars would remain for months, perhaps years--an unavoidable side-effect of the salve.

"He MUST be in good condition," she explained to the others in the brightly-lit conference room. "He has to be able to handle violent exercise before we can let him into the time stream." She turned her green eyes to the purple porcupine, who was listening quietly, fingertips pressed together. "Spike, did you put out the Time Ripper alert?"

He nodded and looked at the skunk sitting across from him. "Geoffrey helped me."

Geoffrey St. John grinned at Slasher and saluted. "Done, Slash."

She nodded. "Good. We should be hearing from them by morning. Now, what objections are there to past-Sonic's idea?"

There were several.

"Won't our lives be changed?"

"Will history be altered drastically?"

"What if Nash finds out?"

"Why are we trusting our own history to Sonic's irresponsible past-self?"

The group quieted and gazed the at big raptor, awaiting her reply. She shifted her weight to one foot and half-closed her eyes. "First, our lives and history might be changed, but not too drastically and for the better. As far as we know the emerald came through the time rip directly to here. Getting rid of it will insure that a few who were directly affected will be with us still." Her eyes rested on Zephyer for a split second, who was looking elsewhere and didn't notice. "Second, we will see to it that Nash knows nothing of this until it's all over. And Sonic's 'irresponsible past-self', as you put it, will have a lot of help to accomplish his mission. He will have very little margin for error."

"All the same," Spark said from his seat beside his brother, "we're still gonna need a degree of aid from You-Know-Who. I vote we pray about this before making a decision." A murmur of agreement rippled through. Everyone stood, joined hands solemnly and bowed their heads.

* * *

Toward dawn young-Sonic had a nightmare.

He dreamed he opened the emerald box again, but instead of containing the emerald, a great darkness was released and covered everything, including himself. All his friends passed before him, belittling him for opening the box. Then he was back in the torture- chamber with Nash and Jason. Nash was about to drop Jason through the portal again, but this time Jason was crying, "Dad, don't let him hurt me! Dad, please--" Sonic struggled and fought, trying to reach him, but was wrapped in the darkness and couldn't get free.

Then he was immersed in darkness as if in a heavy spiderweb, strangling in the thickness of it, choking it into his lungs, trying to call for help and hearing his voice muffled, as if he were gagged.

Suddenly he saw a light--very small and distant, but brighter than the sun. It grew slowly, and after a time he saw a group of people in it, all with objects that seemed to be candles in their hands. Two of them stepped forward; Slasher and Zephyer. Slasher was holding two candles, one of which she held in his direction. Sonic tried to reach for it, but his arms were bound to his sides. "Please, untie me so I can have the light," he begged. Slasher moved forward, green eyes shining. "Do you really want it?"

"Yes!" he cried. "I'm tired of the dark!"

"You must ask for it," she said, "but it may be harder than you realize."

"Do what you must!" Sonic cried in desperation, "I need that light!"

He awoke with his heart racing, body soaked with sweat, and the sheets wrapped tightly around him. He untangled himself in a panic, then lay on top of the covers, trembling slightly and staring about the room. It was not as dark as his dream; a light burned on a table beside his bed. Funny, but it was not nearly as bright as the candles in his dream. It had been so real! He wasn't one for puzzling about the meanings of dreams, but this one seemed to have something behind it. He felt his flesh crawl at the memory of being smothered, and sat up to draw a breath.

He glanced down at his legs for the first time. They were patterned with heavy white scars, but there was not an open wound in sight. He touched his skin in disbelief and felt a thin coating of something sticky. He sniffed it. Whoo, some kind of medicine. Whatever it was had healed him up overnight.

Sonic rubbed the cast on his chest, then carefully stretched, expecting to feel pain. There was none. He slid off the bed and walked around the room, thinking that maybe motion would bring the hurt out of hiding, but he felt amazingly better. "I'm well," he said, sitting down to strap on his sneakers.

That dream kept haunting him. Why did Slasher and Zephyer, of all people, have to be the ones carrying light? Something strange about it--

His thought were interrupted as his door was thrown open unexpectedly. Slasher stepped in without a word, pulled him to his feet and unstrapped his cast.

"What's going down?" he asked.

"You are," the velociraptor replied. "In history, that is. Get your shoes on--you're due in the conference room in about forty seconds."

There was no time for questions. The hedgehog found himself whisked away to the room with maps on the walls and the big meeting table. All the Freedom Fighters were seated around it, watching the doorway expectantly. The first eyes to meet Sonic's were elder-Sonic's, cold and glassy with unshed tears.

Young-Sonic's eyes moved from one face to another. It was everybody--Sally, Serena, himself, Antoine, Bunnie, Geoffrey St. John, Spark, and even Simoon. There were two empty chairs, however--one beside his future self, and another beside Simoon. He felt his stomach lurch.

"Hi," he said weakly to the group. There was a unanimous mutter of half-hearted greetings; they were not happy to see him. Then one voice said cheerfully, "Good morning, Sonic." Zephyer was standing in a corner. Sonic gasped involuntarily; she was holding a candle in one hand. She was using it to light up that corner so she could read the maps there, and set it aside carelessly, not noticing Sonic's bug- eyed stare. "I'm coming with you, since this isn't my time," she explained. She paused, looking at him. "Are you okay?"

"Uh ..." he licked his lips and looked away hurriedly. "Yeah, yeah, I'm cool."

"Then let's get on with it," said a voice behind him.

Sonic turned and found himself looking into the face of Robin Echidna, the Time Ripper.

The echidna smiled good-naturedly. "We're gonna fix this mess, Sonic. Don't worry. And when it's done, everything will be the way it was before."

"But what if I don't want it to be--" Sonic began, but was cut off as Robin turned, drew his time gun and fired it at the wall of the passage. A thin thread of blue appeared, stretching from floor to ceiling, then widened into a shimmering azure rift. Before he knew what was happening, his hand was caught up in Robin's, as was Zephyer's. "See ya in time," Robin said to the Freedom Fighters, then pulled the two into the awaiting rip, thereby changing the future forever ...

* * *

"Commander Nash ..."

"What is it?" the cougar snapped. His left arm was bandaged, his right hand clenched around a large mug of steaming coffee. He was seated at a desk in his office, sulking.

Lieutenant Lynx bowed slightly and said, "Intelligence reports a time portal appeared five minutes ago in the Great Forest."

Nash's head came up, eyes a fiery topaz. "Where was it and what time was it aimed for?"

"We couldn't pinpoint the location," the lynx replied. "But the time it was aimed for was--" he consulted the paper in his hand "--thirty-eighteen."

The cougar's lips curled away from his fangs in a snarl of horrible fury. "The emerald."

"Sir?"

"The emerald," Nash repeated. "It came straight from 3018 to now. They are going to keep it from doing so." He leaped to his feet. "Initiate the Time Portal Generator. I must do a little century-hopping today."

* * *

Sonic and Zephyer stood where they had landed, trying to re-adjust their eyes after the blue brilliance of the time rip. Robin, nearby, was adjusting his coordinence to match his new time. "It's two o' clock in the afternoon," they heard him remark. "Perfect."

Slowly Sonic's eyes made out his surroundings. They were standing in a great, dark forest. The tree canopy above blocked all view of the sky. The ground underfoot was rather muddy and there was a heavy odor of mould in the humid air. His ears were assaulted with racket from every member of the bird and insect kinds. There was very little undergrowth--it had all died out for lack of sunlight--and the bare ground was uneven from the roots of the mighty trees.

"What are we doing here?" he asked, noticing how tarnished Zephyer's metal body had become.

"Yeah," she echoed. "I thought we were going, well, home."

Robin, finished with his instruments, put his hands on his hips and gazed around at the forest. "Nope, not yet. Have you ever heard that story about that guy who was hired to find the eighth chaos emerald in that temple in the jungle, but the emerald effected his mind and he fell off the cliff?"

Sonic caught his breath. It was the story Knuckles had told the night Jason and Simoon had given them the box. He nodded. Zephyer, too, seemed to have heard about it. Her eyes widened. "Don't tell me that that's where we are."

Robin nodded solemnly and pushed his purple headband higher on his head. "We're here about a month before he found it. We are going to get to it before he does and put it into the Interweb."

Sonic and Zephyer exchanged uneasy glances. The part of the story with the temple was creepy enough to warrant a story of its own, let alone the trouble the emerald caused. "Couldn't we just teleport in?" Sonic asked weakly.

Robin shook his head. "The walls are lined with the same insulation that was in the box. The only way in is on foot."

The blue hedgehog felt a cold knot of fear twist his stomach and swallowed. How he wished for his emerald belt! One look at Zephyer's face showed she felt exactly as he did. Robin, on the other hand, appeared eager to begin.

The temple was only a short walk from their drop-off point. It didn't look like much from the outside; a low, featureless stone building covered with roots and vines. "This place was built by a group who had encountered the emerald," Robin said in his teacher- voice, "and wanted to make sure it was protected so well that it would never be found again. And it would have, too, if not for the Indiana Jones-types who want to try their hand at treasure-hunting.

The entrance was unguarded. The inner passage was dark, the walls grown over with climbing vines. Things scurried away from their feet into the darkness. As they paused for Robin to dig out his flashlight, Sonic stole a look at Zephyer's face. Her arms were folded tightly across her chest, and on her face was an expression of grim determination. She looked at him and twisted her mouth a little to let him know how much she hated loathsome crawling creatures. He offered her his hand. She looked at it, then slowly took it. Her metal hand was like ice in Sonic's warm one, and it wasn't just from the plating. As Robin flicked on his light and continued on down the passage, Zephyer gave Sonic's hand a squeeze in thanks.

"Look," Robin murmured, aiming his light at the ceiling. Sonic and Zephyer saw the bats roosting there, chirping and gibbering at the disturbance. Sonic expected Zephyer to scream or refuse to go on, but she merely closed her eyes as she walked under them.

The air was heavy with foul smells; of rot and filth and decay. Robin paused several times to point out various items of interest; a monstrous spiderweb with its architect in the middle, a jumble of bones in a corner that could have been anything, a hanging blade, its edge rusted and dulled by age. "This one was sprung," Robin said softly, indicating the loose chains dangling beside it. "Start watching for booby traps."

They had only walked a bit further when they came to a wide, high-ceilinged hall with a curiously tiled floor. "Wait a second," Sonic said. "Shine the light at the walls." Robin did, illuminating carvings of ferocious beasts with staring eyes. "Those eyes are hold for darts or something," Sonic murmured, eyes narrowing. "Get back a second." He knelt, stretched himself out of the floor and began pressing the various tiles.

It was the dark greens that triggered it. There was a whizt whizt whizt, and a dozen arrows shot out of the wall on the left and collided with the opposite wall, plinking and clattering to the floor. "Green," Sonic said, inching back into the corridor with his friends. He stood, brushed a centipede off his arm with a cold shudder, then said, "We can make it if we don't step on the green tiles."

The three picked their way through the hall on tiptoe, afraid of one wrong step that would mean instant death. But there were no wrong steps, and they made it through unharmed.

"Good one," Robin said. His eyes were bight, but it was difficult to tell if he were afraid or excited. "Those movies haven't been made yet in my time."

"What movies?" Zephyer panted.

"Indiana Jones," Sonic said grimly. "I wasn't going by them! I'm going by the story Knux told."

They continued on warily. After a while Zephyer said, "Wait a minute, guys. Something'll happen now."

They looked at her. "What?"

"Something nasty, I don't remember," she said vaguely. "Let me see the flashlight." Robin handed it to her, and they watched in silence as she played the beam over the floor, walls and ceiling. Sonic felt a chill creep over him--there she was again with a light in her hands. What did it mean?

"There," she said evenly. The light illuminated a fine wire stretched six inches above the floor across the passage. Then she turned and shown the beam at the walls on either side of them. They were criss-crossed with odd, centimeter-wide cracks. "Whatever you do," she warned, "do NOT touch that wire. I think there's some sort of sawblades that come out of those cracks."

They picked their way down the tunnel and stepped carefully over the wire. Zephyer led them for the duration of that trap, pausing every few steps to look for tripwires. Because of her adrenaline-sharpened eyes, they touched none of them.

The hall ended in a three-way intersection; left, right and straight ahead. "Uh-oh," Robin said. "My turn. Unless my memory is playing up, this is a maze with traps in every dead end."

"How do you know?" Sonic asked.

Robin shrugged. "I've heard stories, too. Let me borrow the light, Zephyer." He shown it down each passage, then consulted one of the gadgets on his wrist. "Cover your ears," he instructed. They obeyed, but were still nearly deafened by the loud, high-pitched ping! ping! ping! the gadget created. Abruptly it shut off and the echoes died away. "Got it," Robin said. "Echo-location; never fails. C'mon."

The pattern of the echoes had drawn a picture of the labyrinth's layout as they returned to the device. Robin slowly worked his way through this way, leading Sonic and Zephyer, who kept on the lookout for death-traps.

At last they came to a large, vault-ceilinged room with a round dais in the center. On this dais was a four-foot pedestal, and on this pedestal was a glowing green object.

The eighth chaos emerald.

"Suitable place for it," Sonic observed dryly.

They entered with extreme caution, for the walls were riddled with holes, the floor intricately carved, and strange shapes could be seen hanging from the ceiling--shapes that were not bats.

"Sometimes I wish I were completely robotized," Zephyer muttered through clenched teeth as she tiptoed across the floor.

"Why?" Sonic asked from a few yards away, also speaking through his teeth.

"Because I wouldn't have to worry about getting beheaded," she replied grimly.

They made it to the dais, and then to the pedestal, with no mishaps. Robin shown his light at the ceiling, panting from the tension. "When we step off this platform," he said, "everything up there is going to come down, so run for it." Sonic and Zephyer looked up, too, and saw that all the blades were swinging slightly. The dais was a giant switch.

Sonic swallowed and looked at his companions. "This is not fun anymore," he mumbled.

"Anymore?" Zephyer hissed. "It wasn't fun to begin with!"

"Hush, you two," Robin said. "Hold on to the pedestal. When I break through to the Interweb it'll try to suck us in." His eyes darkened. "But the only thing it'll get is the emerald."

"Not if I can help it," said a voice behind them.

The three whirled. There in the vault's doorway stood a tall figure in a cape. "Hey look!" Sonic exclaimed. "It's Catman!"

"Very funny," Nash growled, making as though to move forward.

"Stop!" Robin shouted. "This dais is a trap. As soon as we step off all those kitchen utensils up there will come down and get acquainted."

The cougar looked up at the dangling blades and back at them without expression. "That's too bad. Hand over the emerald."

Sonic, Zephyer and Robin exchanged an uneasy glance. To touch the emerald with exposed skin meant instant madness, and the Time Ripper and hedgehog's hands were bare. Only Zephyer with her metal-clad hands had a chance. But Sonic, alone of the three, knew what the chaos emeralds did to machinery.

"Sorry, we can't touch it," Sonic said. "We don't want to be in the same boat as you."

The cougar's tail twitched once, but his face remained perfectly calm. "Make the girl pick it up and throw it to me."

"Yeah right," Zephyer said. "Look buster, you're over there and we're over here. You can't make me."

Nash reached one hand inside his shirt and pulled out a minuscule laser pistol, which he leveled on them. "On the contrary," he said evenly. "Throw it to me and nobody gets hurt."

Sonic sideyed his companions, butterflies bouncing around in his stomach. Robin and Zephyer were pale, all impertinence gone. But Zephyer had not lost her grit. She whispered to him faintly, "I'll grab it and we'll make a break for it."

Sonic shook his head emphatically, mouthing the word No, but Robin whispered, "Go for it!"

Things began to happen very quickly. Zephyer snatched up the glowing gem from the pedestal as Sonic shot across the rigged floor and tackled Nash before he could fire. The gun went off, the laser blasting into the ceiling and ricocheting off the metal blades. Zephyer and Robin dashed from the dais, across the floor and through the doorway, arrows cutting the air behind them.

Tangling with a six-foot mountain lion is not a safe sport, Sonic was finding. When a big cat goes down on its back, all four feet become lethal weapons. Nash's feet, of course, were enclosed in his boots, but his hands were free. He ripped and tore at his attacker with fierce hatred, trying to pull Sonic close enough to bite. Sonic, fortunately, being a hedgehog, was able to turn his back, give Nash a handful of quills, then leap away and flee after his friends, scratched and smarting.

But the temple was not quiet. When the dais had been depressed, the ceiling blades came crashing down first of all. Next, the maze through which Sonic, Zephyer and Robin were wildly fleeing began to crush together, every wall moving. This was disorienting, if not deadly, but Robin led them through with his sound-generated map, and they exited with several feet to spare.

Unfortunately, Nash was only a few seconds behind them.

"Keep going!" Sonic cried, grabbing his friends' hands.

"But the saw-hall--" Zephyer panted.

"We'll just have to risk it!" Robin interrupted her. "Sonic, run!"

Sonic did, but not without noticing Zephyer's face. The emerald, clenched tightly in her fist, was pouring its energy into her metal plating, electrocuting her painfully.

"Keep the light ahead of me!" Sonic yelled at Robin, who obeyed. But not soon enough--Sonic's ankles collided with a trip-wire. "Duck!" he shouted. From around them came a rumble of ancient machinery starting and the spinning saw-blades emerged from the cracks in the walls just behind them.

Sonic's head hit another wire, and yet another dug into his stomach. Panicked, he accelerated to fifty MPH and passed the cracks before the blades could emerge. He didn't look back for fear he would see their enemy coming to a gruesome end.

A sharp left turn, three steps up, then the wide hall with the tile floor. Sonic crossed it without breaking stride, terrified of losing his friends to a chance accident. Arrows whistled from the walls only a heartbeat behind them.

It only seemed a second before they were pelting out into daylight. Sonic thought his heart would burst from his chest, or at the very least his shoes would catch fire. But neither happened, for Zephyer made a funny sound, let go of his hand and fainted.

"Quick, get the emerald out of her hand," he gasped to Robin, "but don't touch it!"

Robin knelt beside the motionless figure as Sonic stooped, rested his hands on his knees and labored for breath.

The echidna's hand was locked around the gem, so determined was she not to drop it. "I can't get her hand open!" Robin exclaimed. Sonic rushed over, still charged and jumpy with adrenaline. Between the two of them they managed to pry open the silver fist and nudge the glowing emerald out onto the muddy ground.

"Is she still breathing?" Sonic queried in terrified concern.

"Yeah," Robin replied breathlessly. "She's panting as much as you and me. She'll be okay, I think--" His words ended in a heavy grunt, and he toppled over on his face.

Sonic looked around and gasped to see Nash standing behind them, clothing ripped and dirty, eyes like live coals, a savage snarl contorting his face. He had felled Robin with a brutal kick to the back, and dealt Sonic one of the same in the wishbone.

The hedgehog slumped backward, gasping in agony, unable to draw a breath. "That's my payment for a handful of spines," the cougar spat. His right hand, Sonic saw, was clenched in a fist with a few blue spikes protruding through his fingers. It was a small grain of comfort.

Nash stepped over Zephyer, who was beginning to come around, snatched up the emerald and gave a savage laugh. "HA! Even after all that I still win! You--" Suddenly he stopped and stared around, ears cocking this way and that, as if listening to a sound Sonic could not hear. Sonic stared at him, sucking a bit of air into his lungs at last. He didn't understand what was happening, but Robin did. The echidna stood, both hands pressed to the small of his back, pretending to hear whatever it was that Nash did. "You're dead," he panted. "They--they'll get you."

"No!" the cat snarled. "They'll never take me alive!" He whirled and raced away into the dim forest.

Robin winked at Sonic and helped Zephyer sit up. "What did he hear?" Sonic questioned, still yawping for air.

"The horns," Robin replied calmly. "This is the end of the curse. He will hear nothing but the trumpets of an imaginary pursuer as the emerald hounds him to his death."

Sonic remembered the account of the sound in the story and shivered. Then he straightened and said, "Rob, where's the cliffs?"

The Time Ripper looked at him for a second, then said, "To the east, I think. That way." He pointed right. Nash had went left.

The hedgehog stood up, holding his chest and coughing a little. "Nash'll run in a circle. We can get ahead of him and--"

"Keep him from committing suicide!" Zephyer finished. "It's just like that story. We can change history." She jumped to her feet. "C'mon!"

* * *

The cougar was running through the forest in terror, fur plastered to his body with sweat, both hands clenched into fists. From his left fist came a dull greenish glow.

He stumbled over a root and went into the mud headfirst. He was on his feet again in an instant, muck adding to his grimy complexion. He simply wiped the mud from his yellow eyes and continued his flight.

A strange sound floated through the jungle--another conch-shell blast. Where it came from was a mystery, but the sound built on Nash's already rising fear level. He looked back, but could see nothing. The woods were unnaturally silent as well, like something out of a nightmare.

Light ahead. Perhaps he was nearing the edge of the forest. He tried to run faster over the swampy ground. His breath was coming shorter and shorter, a painful stitch developing in his side, but the light ahead kept him going. He could almost see the awaiting time portal--just a few more yards--

"Stop! Stop!" voices shouted. The shapes of two echidnas and a hedgehog rose up before him, waving their arms. "Nash, stop!" Sonic yelled. "It's a cliff! Stop!"

But the emerald had been in the panther's grip too long--he could no longer understand reason. The evil gem gave his maddened mind its final instructions--attack them.

Nash sprang at Sonic with a wild-beast roar, jaws wide, teeth gleaming. Sonic instinctively ducked, but the power of the emerald streaming through Nash's mind made his reflexes much sharper. He extended his arms toward Sonic as he passed over him, struck him and sent him flying.

Sonic clawed wildly at the muddy ground, trying to stop himself, aware of tumbling dangerously near to the edge of that cliff. He may have saved himself even then, but the cougar came down on top of him, clutched at him and rolled.

For an instant Sonic caught a glimpse of the rest of the jungle spread out below in shades of brown and tropical green, shot through with rivers of quicksilver. Then he began falling, Nash's claws clenched deep into his quills.

The hedgehog was a quick thinker, even in mid-air. His eyes flew to the trees growing out of the cliff face below; in the story that guy had hit one. In an instant a plan formed in his mind.

Sonic writhed and fought Nash madly, knowing that the cat's weight would drag him down with savage force. Try as he might, he couldn't dislodge the claws.

His falling body smote one of the treetrunks. It hit him across the midsection with rib-cracking force. He recoiled and clutched at the branches, trying to keep from falling off.

Nash's full weight came up against the resistance of the hedgehog's quills. Sonic's head was snapped back with an involuntary wail and released just as quickly. The cougar's talons raked right on through, tearing a chunk out of Sonic's hairdo, but leaving him in the tree. They had fallen for precisely four seconds.

Sonic pulled himself up onto the tree's nearly horizontal trunk, smarting from both blows and wondering how many ribs had re-broken. He was gasping for breath and coughing a little. "Well," he decided as he checked himself over, "I guess I'm not hurt too seriously. But Nash--" He leaned to one side and looked down, then wished he had not. Let us say that the cougar was dead and leave it at that.

"Sonic!"

He looked up. Robin and Zephyer were looking down at him, frightened. "Are you okay?" Robin called.

Sonic gingerly felt at his torn and missing quills, then called up, "I think so."

The two looked down toward Nash; Zephyer went pale and pulled out of view. Robin too looked sick, but said, "Well, his troubles are over. He ought to have a decent burial, I guess. Sonic, can you get down from there?"

The hedgehog looked around, evaluating his position. The cliff beneath him was rough and at more of an angle. It appeared navigable. "I think I can climb down," he said, edging himself closer to the cliff face.

"Wait a minute and I'll help you," Robin said, turning and climbing backward down the precipice. He used his knuclaws as Knuckles did and proceeded as if he had done it all his life.

Sonic was got safely down the cliff, and together the two buried the cougar in a nearby gully. Then Zephyer joined them, and they set about disposing of the eighth chaos emerald once and for all.

"Like I said before," Robin said, toying idly with his time gun, I'm going to throw the thing into the Interweb. It's sorta like a vacuum--it sucks in anything it can. Hang onto something."

Sonic, who had felt sick since helping bury his enemy, was apprehensive. "Rob," he asked, "um, do you have any rope?"

"What for?"

"A safety line."

Robin stared at him for a moment, then opened one of the pouches strapped to his belt and pulled out a length of what looked like clothesline. He tossed it to Sonic, who caught it and looked at it witheringly. "I asked for rope, not string."

"That IS rope," Robin interjected. "Its really strong. That's why we T.R.s carry it."

Sonic and Zephyer exchanged glances and shrugged. Sonic tossed one end back to Robin. "Here, tie this around your waist."

Robin looked at him like had crazy. "Sonic, the Interweb doesn't assault the one who opens it. Just everything else." He turned away, fiddling with the dials on his gun.

Sonic and Zephyer moved to a tree some ten feet away from the foot of the cliffs. "Stand against the tree," Sonic told the echidna. "I'm gonna tie you down."

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'm tying myself up, too," he replied. "I've been in the Inter--in that place before." He shivered.

Zephyer saw the horror on his face and submitted to being lashed to the tree trunk. She was puzzled, however, to see that he left three-fourths of the line loose and tied the end around his waist. "What are you doing?"

He glanced at her grimly. "You know how when divers go into a dangerous place, they have a line tied to them so they can be pulled up if something happens?"

"Yeah, and?"

"I ain't losin' any of my friends to that place again."

"Again?"

They were interrupted by Robin saying, "Brace yourselves." He was standing with his feet apart, time gun in one hand and the cloth- wrapped gem in the other. "You guys ready? I'm opening the portal."

Sonic's mouth was suddenly so dry he couldn't speak, and simply gave his friend a thumbs-up.

Robin fired.

The rift was no mere time portal--it spread into a twenty-foot circle, swirling green, black and grey, a whirlpool of time and space. It began to suck air into it like a tornado, making the trees whip frantically and clouds of dust billow into it. Robin stood before it solidly, unafraid, the emerald held ready in his lifted hand.

"Hurry!" Zephyer screams, her hair whipping about her face. She recognized the Interweb--she had travelled through it to reach Mobius. As for Sonic, he was clinging to the tree trunk with all his might, staring into the portal in an agony of terror. "Close it, close it," he murmured, his voice drowned in the clamor of the wind. "It'll take us all--"

Robin flung the emerald into the maw of the portal. The tiny object did not vanish like one imagined it would into an ocean--it shot away into the darkness as if falling down a well, finally becoming lost to sight. It was the last Mobius saw of it for a good long while.

Then the treacherous dimension proceeded to turn on its operator.

A tree was uprooted by the wind and almost maliciously scraped toward the portal and hit Robin from behind. It knocked him over and rolled past him, dragging him toward the Interweb. Winded, he couldn't call for help, but Zephyer cried, "Oh Sonic, help him!"

Sonic couldn't think. He was paralyzed with an animal terror of that portal, but Robin was being sucked into it before his eyes. He MUST help. Dimly he remembered that he was tied down ... he could fight his way back to safety against the wind.

He took one step away from the tree, was caught in the wind and flung forward. He leaned back, dug in his heels and managed to stop at Robin's side. A backward glance showed that there were several yards of slack in the rope. Good. He knelt, grabbed the echidna's hand--

An especially strong gust of wind struck him from an angle. Still clinging to Robin's hands like a drowning swimmer, he tumbled sideways, felt his feet churn at the ground--then at nothing. Flying-- falling into the Interweb--nothing to touch or grab--

With a jerk that nearly cut him in half, his body hit the end of the rope. He groaned, gasped and realized he was still holding Robin's hands. The echidna was hanging on like grim death, eyes wide with something beyond terror. His lips moved, but there was no sound--the wind accelerated to jet-speed a few feet inside the portal's mouth and speech was impossible. They swung back and forth a little like a reed in the wind. Sonic prayed desperately that he had tied the knots securely, that the rope would hold, and that Zephyer would be able to pull them out. Zeff! She was still tied to the tree!

As this rather dampening thought crossed his mind, Sonic lifted his eyes above Robin's terrified face and looked beyond, into the depths of the Interweb. He immediately wished he had not, for there it was; the spiderweb stretching in every directions, ten-dimensional, all the colors of the rainbow, filled with portals and linking threads. There were only three outward-leading portals in the whole maze.

But as Sonic stared into it, unable to tear his eyes away, a colored mist appeared between him and it, scarcely beyond Robin's toes. It formed itself into a wide rectangle, then snapped into focus. Sonic gasped and held his breath without realizing it.

It was something like a video. He recognized himself and Sally standing side by side and gazing off into the forest--the woods around Knothole, to be precise. As he watched, three small figures raced up to his other self and Sally. He recognized Jason, eyes bright with laughter, panting from his play. The two others appeared to be miniatures of Sally; Jason's younger sisters.

Then himself and Sally turned and waved to someone who was just moving into the 'screen'--present-Sonic's jaw dropped. There came Knuckles and a de-robotized Zephyer, leading a little echidna by the hand. Sonic had to stare at his face for a second to realize that _that was Simoon_ before he was burned. The little echidna let go his father's hand, ran up to Jason, and gave him a high-five. Then the two raced off into the woods together, Jason's sisters pursuing.

Abruptly the picture changed and Sonic saw a great, beautiful city--New Mobitropolis. Then he saw the Floating Island, fully recovered from all the terbium damage, lush and tropical once again. Then the image faded to black with a single star shining in the center. His heart gave a queer lurch--it was a candle.

At that moment Sonic felt a tug on the rope. He tossed a glance over his shoulder, out the portal's mouth. There was Zephyer, back set against the tree trunk, pulling with all her might. He looked back at Robin and smiled to let him know it was all right.

Zephyer was having a terrible time. Sonic had done a good job of tying her down, and she didn't dare try to untie herself for fear of untying the whole kit and caboodle. She found, however, that she could work herself sideways around the tree, under the rope. This she did until she was on the side directly facing the portal, with the rope stretched taut and quivering into it. She wound it around her metal-clad hands and began to pull.

The wind holding the victims was to intense that pulling them against it was like trying to lift a thousand pounds from a standstill. They were HEAVY. She braced herself and pulled hand over hand, sweating under her metal plating, grunting with the effort. She almost wasn't strong enough, and had her adrenaline not been pumping she could not have done it at all. Each new foot of slack she looped around her metal waist, using herself as a winch so she would lose none of the ground she had gained.

Sonic emerged from the portal feet first. As soon as he touched the ground he too scrambled backward, pulling Robin out of danger. The portal shrank and closed on itself not a second after they emerged. The wind stopped as if someone had flipped a switch, and a deep, tangible silence settled over the forest.

Zephyer slumped against the tree, arms limp, eyes closed, breathing heavily. Sonic and Robin flopped on the ground, glad to be safe once more. After a few minutes of silence Robin said aloud, "Praise God, we did it!"

Without opening her eyes, Zephyer said, "He's a great God ..."

"A righteous King ..." Robin added.

"Ruler over everything," Zephyer concluded. It was an old rhyme, one they had all learned while very young. Even Sonic could recall snatches of it. He sat up and recited the last verse: "He's a great God; we will proclaim honor and glory to his name." This drew wide grins from both echidnas.

Sonic's thoughts flew back to the vision in the Interweb. His future, now altered for the better. Knuckles and Zephyer? He couldn't even imagine it. But everything seemed to have worked out ... he recalled the candle at the very end. A direct reference to his dream. He had better ask about this before they got ready to go home. "Zeff ..."

"Huh?"

"Do you have light?"

"No, Robin has it."

"Uh, no, wrong kind," Sonic said, shaking his head.

She sat up and stared at him as if he were something in a circus sideshow. "What DO you mean?"

"I had this dream ..." Sonic proceeded to relate it to her, conscious of Robin listening and hoping they wouldn't laugh at him. They didn't. They were very serious when he finished.

"Sonic," Zephyer said slowly, "the light is Jesus."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, Sonic, Jesus lives in my heart and He is my light. He's in Slasher's heart and He is her light. And if you let him in yours, He'll get rid of the dark and give you a light, too."

A clear picture of the God he had been praying to all this time! He wanted more. "How--how do I--you know--let him in?" he stumbled over the words clumsily. "Do I have to do some kind of initiation?"

The echidna shook her head. "No. All you need to do is admit you're sinful and need His forgiveness for the bad things you've done, and ask Him to come in and make you clean."

"What will happen?"

"His spirit will come into your heart and give you light." Zephyer shrugged. "Simple."

Sonic couldn't grasp it. "But--it's too simple. There's gotta be a catch."

"There's no catch. It's a free gift because He loves you. Did I mention that Jesus loves you more than anybody else ever could?"

"Why?"

"Because he made you, that's why."

"He loves everybody," Robin added. "I've asked him into my heart, Sonic. It's no trick. Your life might change instantly, or it might change very gradually. Anyway, you're never alone again."

Sonic thought about this for a long moment, eyes on the ground. It was the final cure to his emerald madness ... the healing his soul needed after the horrible thoughts he had courted. He looked up, eyes bright. "I want to ask Him in right now. Can--will you guys help me?"

There at the foot of the cliff, sometime in the past, Sonic made a timeless decision and asked Jesus Christ into his heart, kindling the spiritual light that would burn within him forever. * * * Epilogue * * *

Sonic stood in the time stream, blue surrounding him, two blindingly white portals open before him. Zephyer was standing somewhere to his left, but he couldn't see her. He was listening to the invisible Robin with every ounce of attention he possessed.

"Because you changed your own time, you have a choice of how you want to go back. You can go back to before it all started with a clean slate; no memories, no injuries, no emerald. Or you can go back to the end of your exile and journey home with memories, injuries and all. The only hitch is that your friends may or may not remember your incident. Which do you prefer?"

Sonic had been over this a million times in his head; he wanted to remember everything. If he had to recover from his adventure, then so be it. "Does this affect Zephyer?" he asked.

"Yes. If you pick the former you will not have met her and she will still be wandering Mobius. The latter and she will still be with you. Make up your mind?"

"Yes!" Sonic exclaimed. "I want to remember it all, no matter how bad it hurts me!"

"All righty then. Here you go!"

The portal to the right enlarged, grew, enveloped him, blinded him--

* * *

He opened his eyes and found himself standing on a dirt road through an open wood. The air was cool, the ground muddy with melting snow. Grass poked up here and there in misty patches, and handfuls of early spring flowers poked up wherever they could. The light was coming at an angle--it was late afternoon.

Sonic looked around and saw Zephyer standing beside him, blinking as if she had just awakened from a deep sleep. She wore no cloak, which came a surprise to her companion. She looked at him. "You decided to remember it all, huh?"

"You heard, eh?"

"No, I guessed. You're wearing your backpack again and you've got every mark Nash gave you."

Sonic glanced down at himself ruefully, noticing the scars on his legs and the red scratches on his arms. His waist still burned from where the rope had saved him from the Interweb, as well. "If I can remember everything, I guess the same goes fro you. Where's your cape?"

She shook her dreadlocks out of her face. "I only put it on to keep Nash from guessing I was robotized. No Nash, no cape. Where are we?"

Sonic drew a deep breath of the pine-scented air and gazed around him. "I'm not sure. Let's see if I have any of my toys." He pulled off his backpack and unzipped it. "Wow," he exclaimed as he dug around in it. "I've got everything! I've even got Sally's computer! Cool, let's see if I have that scanner-thing ..." He located it and pulled it out. "I lost it when we went forward in time with Jason and Simoon, but I guess ... really ... I never did." It was an odd feeling. He flicked the gadget on and watched the screen flicker to life. After a moment he made a sound of surprise. "Oh man!"

"Why? Where are we?" the echidna inquired.

"The Great Forest," Sonic replied, turning in circles to get the widest possible sweep. "We're about an hour's walk west of Knothole. All right!"

They set off down the little muddy path, Sonic exclaiming every few seconds about some forgotten object in his backpack. After a while he tired of it, donned his pack again and, as an afterthought, checked his watch. "It's March eleventh," he observed. "Last time we were here it was the first. Did we spend ten days in the future?"

"I don't think so," Zephyer said, puzzled. "I'll bet it had something to do with going into the past like we did. By the way, is Knothole underground here?"

"Nope," Sonic replied. "We're just a normal above-ground village; but hidden, of course."

"Of course. How many people live there?"

The hedgehog shrugged. "Maybe a hundred, counting the Freedom Fighters. We've really grown. Why?"

Zephyer didn't answer for several minutes, chewing her lower lip. Then she said, "Sonic, I'm hardly presentable. Maybe I should, you know, hold off going with you."

"Hardly presentable?" Sonic said, looking her over critically. "What's wrong with you?"

"My hair's a mess, I haven't had a bath in days, I'm covered in dirt from head to toe ..."

Sonic had forgotten, in all the excitement, that the echidna was a female to the core.

"So'm I," he said defensively. "Nobody's gonna begrudge ya a little dirt. You've just been through a major experience."

She stopped and faced him. "Sonic, I've never met the Freedom Fighters--what will they think when I show up looking like a refugee from a junkyard?"

"Gimme a break," Sonic said, throwing up his hands and continuing on down the trail. "You look fine to me."

"That's 'cause you're a guy," she replied, falling into step beside him.

"Look," he said, faintly nettled, "I'll have them let you clean up as soon as we get home, and THEN you can meet everybody. Cool?"

She considered a moment, then finally agreed.

They walked for another 15 minutes without saying much. Sonic couldn't wait to get back to the village and see his brother and sister--his uncle--Sally--Slasher--would they remember why he had left? He hoped they would.

His nose caught the smell of woodsmoke drifting through the trees. "Oh, we're almost home," he exclaimed, grabbing Zephyer's arm and breaking into a run. Suddenly he was so homesick he couldn't stand it.

"Slow up!" she cried. "I don't want to run into somebody at eighty miles an hour!"

He slowed reluctantly, heart racing with excitement. He couldn't wait ...

The familiar huts came into view through the trees ahead, the setting sun washing them with gold. Someone stepped onto the path ahead and gazed toward them, shading his eyes with one knuclawed hand. "Sonic?" he called uncertainly.

"Knux!" Sonic yelled, breaking into a run. He grabbed the startled echidna in a bear-hug, then pounded him on the back. "I'm so glad to see you!" the hedgehog said ecstatically. "You'll never know how much!"

Knuckles looked at him, blinking. "You mean you're back? You're not crazy anymore?"

"NO! Boy do I have a story to tell--" Sonic raced off a few steps, then tore back. "Oh, I almost forgot. Zephyer, c'mere."

She was standing at a distance, watching Sonic and Knuckles's reunion with reservation. Now she approached slowly. Knuckles stared at her in disbelief. "Sonic," he said out of the corner of his mouth, "that's not THE Zephyer, is it? The one from Flicky Island?"

Sonic nodded emphatically. "Yeah--she didn't die. I met her when I was out running around. She saved me, actually. Zeff, you remember Knux?"

She nodded slightly, uncomfortable under Knuckles's amazed stare. "Uh-huh. Hi, Knuckles."

Sonic grabbed their hands and pulled. "C'mon, I want to see the others!"

Knuckles grinned and remarked, "I'll make a prediction-- everybody'll stay up very late tonight. We all thought you were dead, Sonic."

Sonic looked at him in surprise. "You did? Why?"

"Because ..." Knux stopped and frowned. "Well ... it seems like somebody said you were dead and showed us your mangled backpack, but that doesn't make sense because you've got it on. I don't know."

Sonic looked at Zephyer and said in unison with her, "They remember."

They stepped off the path into Knothole. Sonic saw everything sharp and clear, as if he were seeing his home for the first time. He immediately noticed the buds on the trees, the green where had been dead brown,the three new huts in the end of the row and the patches on some of the roofs. The street was empty. Bursting with excitement, Sonic yelled, "Hey, where is everybody?"

Doors opened, people looked out. Then somebody shouted, "It's Sonic!"

In a moment the hedgehog was surrounded by a crowd of Mobians, all as excited as himself. The questions flew thick and fast:

"Are you recovered?"

"Straight up!"

"What happened to your legs?"

"Got caught in some barbed-wire."

"What happened to your hair?"

"I had a heck of a barber."

"We heard you were murdered!"

"Not quite, obviously."

Sonic was nearly knocked down at this point as Serena threw herself at him and hugged him so tight he choked. After a second he gasped, "'Rena, leggo! I can't breathe--" She released him but held on to his hands, teary-eyed. "Oh Sonie, you're back!" He gave her a mock glare. "Don't call me 'Sonie'!"

Then Spark was there, walloping his back and grinning from ear to ear. Sonic returned it, half expecting to take off and fly for joy.

Everyone greeted him, including Sally and Slasher. She only hugged him once, then stepped back and watched him, eyes very bright.

"Hey guys," Sonic called over the noisy chatter, "I want to introduce you to Zephyer. Zeff, come over here!"

She gave him an icy glare and came forward very slowly. Sonic pulled her into the middle of the crowd and said, "This is Zephyer Winstrom, and I wouldn't be here today if not for her." Applause. Serena and Slasher stared at the echidna, question marks in their eyes. They, too, had met her on Flicky Island.

Zephyer was embarrassed to be the center of attention. "Sonic," she whispered ferociously, "get me out of here before I smash your face!"

"Okay, okay," he whispered back, "don't be so touchy. Break it up!" he called to the others. "Zeff wants to get cleaned up."

Sally, seeing the echidna's face turn bright red, took pity on her and led her away to her hut. Serena watched them go and whispered to her brother, "She's mortified. You'll be lucky if she ever speaks to you again."

Sonic only smirked and said, "I'm not too worried about that."

All the same, it was hours before Zephyer finally spoke to him.

Knuckles's prediction came true; the Freedom Fighters stayed up very late, celebrating the prodigal's return.

As it was too cold and wet to gather outside and talk, a roaring fire was built in the fireplace of the community hut. Sonic sat on the hearth (the designated spot for storytellers) and recounted his adventures from beginning to end. He didn't mention who Jason and Simoon were, as it would mess with his friends' minds as much as it had his. Besides, now that he knew exactly how things would turn out, he preferred not to say anything for fear of altering the future any more.

Zephyer came in and mingled with the crowd, wearing shoes, pants, a coat and gloves, covering every inch of metal. Most of the group didn't recognize her at all. Knuckles did, however, and offered her a seat beside him in the corner. There they talked for hours, hardly noticing when Sonic finished his story and the crowd began to drift away to their huts. At last she, too, yawned and asked leave of Knuckles. He sat in one place for a long time after she left, gazing into the fire.

Sonic, who had been chatting with Slasher (telling her the parts he had left out), noticed his friend and walked over. "Hey Knux," he said in greeting, sitting down beside him. "Saw you talkin' to Zeff. What were you talking about?"

The echidna shrugged. "Nothing much."

"Well, you talked about 'nothing much' for about three hours."

Kunckles glanced at his friend. "She was telling me about where she's from. Did she tell you?"

"That desert planet? Yeah."

Knux pressed his fingertips together. "It's what I thought happened to my ancestors when they disappeared. I wish I could find a way to--" he broke off. "Anyway," he finished, "I'm gonna see if I can find anything about how to reverse what happened." He stood and stretched. "Man, I sat in one place too long." He yawned. "G'night, Sonic."

Sonic watched him as he left the hut, then looked at Slasher, who was banking the fire and pretending not to listen. "Slash ...?"

She tossed him a glance over her shoulder. "Hmm?"

"This'll be an interesting summer."

The big raptor flashed him a white smile. "You said it, kid. Just keep your light burning and you'll be fine."

"Do you know if Knux has the light?"

"No. He's never said."

"Should I tell him about mine?"

"Of course."

"Who after that?"

"The world, Sonic. Tell the whole world."

And so our tale ends. The eighth chaos emerald is buried in the depths of the Interweb, where it belongs, totally inaccessible. But there is a portal where the adventurous may view it. Simply enter the following passcode: http://www.netraptor.org/8ce.html

The End