Chapter 37: The Space Between Futures

Marty's eyes opened up with pure joy and happiness.

"We did it!" he said in a pleased voice. "I can't believe It., so many timeless years have gone by, and while I stayed the same time went forward. Day after day of fixing and changing things. And now, it's all worth it! I can't believe it! It's FINALLY OVER!"

Amadeus smiled behind his hood. "Yes boy, it's finally over."

He gently placed the six chaos emeralds on the metal reflecting floor.

"Put the seventh one down, but enough away so it won't react to the others," said Amadeus.

Marty happily obeyed.

But, there was another question laid in his mind, he now knew his last duty would have to be fulfilled.

"I must sacrifice my life, as the connector…" said Marty.

Amadeus took a moment of silence, without saying a word.

Marty thought he was just thinking the right course of actions over.

Amadeus let out a quiet, gleeful laugh.

It sounded odd with his deep voice, and ever since Marty had met him he heard Amadeus in a very aggressive tone.

The chaos emeralds were all beautiful in their own special way, like small stars.

Amadeus set the Time-Stone in Marty's hand.

"Do I need to destroy this too?" Marty said. "I know for the Futures to revert in the right order or fix each other, that the Chaos Emeralds must be destroyed and one of us needs to die as the connector,"

Amadeus continued to be silent, his hood moving brilliantly against the dead wind of the room between rooms.

"How should I carry this out…? Is there a special way it's to be done?" said Marty.

Amadeus chuckled shortly; like he would taking on an enemy.

Marty just stood there looking at him, the hooded hedgehog standing brilliantly.

There was something Marty always thought familiar about him.

It was the way he was when he was silent, and the sound of his deep voice, he never understood it before.

The cloaked hedgehog came closer to the emeralds, his face and body hidden.

But just then, Marty saw Amadeus' hand come out through his sleeves.

He removed his brown gloves, showing two golden rings with a pattern on them around his wrists.

Marty knew he saw them somewhere before.

Amadeus reached into the pocket inside his cape, taking out a long…golden sword…

It shined from the light of the Chaos Emeralds.

The hedgehog placed his hands at the top of his hood, and took it off his head, showing his dark red eyes and sarcastic smile.

Marty trembled…all this time…it was Blake the hedgehog.

The hedgehog had spikes out in front, with streaks of red among them.

He wore golden armor around his legs and arms; his fur was black as the night sky.

Marty's mind wondered in thought. "Is this the Blake from Future 2? Or Future 1 maybe? Had he done all of this to find the Chaos Emeralds?!"

But, his eyes were not the way he saw them before, they were changed somehow, as if he'd never committed the wrong he had.

This was in reality, not the Blake from either future, this was the Blake that should have been, and the Blake that would have been if he'd never killed his wife.

He was the way he used to be, never tainted black in the heart, never changed by circumstances.

He was pulled out of the very past he'd lived in.

The Blake that would have been was destroyed when his darker self interfered, and he ended up in the room between rooms, so as not to destroy time itself.

But Blake knew all along what he would become in the future, he knew of the worser self that would dominate a world and destroy all that was good and kind.

Blake came up to the emeralds, and took out his long sword.

With a fast swipe, he cut through the mighty emeralds.

There was a flash of vibrant beautiful colors twirling around Blake, the chaos emeralds were destroyed, and the energy from within them were let out.

They were shocking Blake intensely, not having anything to filter the boundless energy.

"AMADEUS!" Marty shouted out, trying hard to see with the bright light and thick darkness.

Blake was sacrificing himself as a connector…

The Chaos Energy was taking his life with the electric-like shocks.

It was blowing into the nothingness sky of the room between rooms, letting out nothing but light and darkness.

Blake's spines were flowing, as if they would on a windy day.

He kept himself silent, though feeling the pain.

Marty could do absolutely nothing at this moment, Blake had already committed to doing the right thing.

His golden sword fell and twanged on the metal-like floor, Marty pushed his eyes to see, risking blindness.

Blake smiled kindly, his red eyes watering from the shock.

And that was the last Marty saw of him…

The light immediately vanished, out of sight and out of mind.

It was as if he'd never been there in the first place.

Marty hung his head out of respect.

The sliced pieces of the 'now useless' chaos emeralds were lying on the floor beside his sword.

Even after time had split apart, and started to rift against one another, Blake had been readying to fix it.

He knew exactly what had to be done, and even after his two other selves destroyed both futures, he fixed them in this one act.

To Marty, this was not Blake, this was a different person.

This was Amadeus, and Marty would be the only one to know what he did to save their world.

Marty did not know what would become of time, which one would play out rather then the other, or that a new future would come after his sacrifice.

All he did know was the one who destroyed their world as they knew it…was also the one to save it.

The end

Epilogue:

It is unclear weather Future 1 or Future 2 came true, or what happened to those in them, many things were changed thereafter.

Marty afterwards used the Time-Stone to return to time.

Then he hid the Time-Stone, not to time-travel anymore, and dedicated the remainder of his life to keeping anything chaotic like that from ever happening again.

Only Marty ever had knowledge of all of this, and he kept it like that ever after.