STH AskVerse

The Cast

[Read from the beginning here!]

Sonic the Hedgehog:

Age: 29yr

Residence: None

Affiliation(s): Team Sonic

Miles "Tails" Prower:

Age: 23yr

Residence: South Island, Green Hill Zone

Affiliation(s): Team Sonic

Knuckles the Echidna:

Age: 30yr

Residence: Angel Island

Affiliation(s): Team Sonic

Amy Rose:

Age: 26yr

Residence: South Island, Central City, Downtown

Affiliation(s): Team Sonic, Team Rose

Eve Robotnik-Rose:

Age: 4yr

Residence: Primarily resides with Amy

Affiliations(s): None

Shadow Robotnik:

Age: 27yr

Residence: South Island, Central City, Night Babylon district

Affiliation(s): Team Dark

Rouge the Bat:

Age: 27yr

Residence: South Island, Central City, Night Babylon district

Affiliation(s): Team Dark

E-123 Omega:

Age: 26yr

Residence: South Island, Central City, Night Babylon district

Affiliation(s): Team Dark

Blaze the Cat:

Age: 28yr

Residence: Sol Empire, Imperial Palace

Affiliation(s): Sol Empire

Silver the Hedgehog:

Age: 25yr

Residence: United Federations, Westopolis, Downtown

Affiliation(s): Sol Empire, Team Chaotix

Espio the Chameleon:

Age: 27yr

Residence: United Federations, Westopolis, Downtown

Affiliation(s): Team Chaotix

Dr. Ivo Robotnik:

Age: 65yr

Residence: REDACTED

Affiliation(s): Egg Empire

Agent Stone:

Age: 52yr

Residence: REDACTED

Affiliation(s): Egg Empire

Special/Event Cast

King Arthur Pendragon:

Age: 43yr

Residence: Albion, Kingdom of Camelot

Affiliation(s): Knights of the Round Table; the Pendragon family

Click for Individual Cast Cards!

Other characters can also reply, and special visitors may pop in from time to time- with interdimensional rifts opening up, you never know who might stop in...

✨Ongoing Storylines ✨

All the King's horses and all the King's men...

Operation: Sunshine

✨Tag List ✨

Mod yaps - not a reply/mod yappin'

Introductions - posts involved in character introductions/ first posts

Rifts - replies mentioning the rifts

Lore Lessons - insights into past events from games/comics/etc

Soft hedgies - the hedgehogs being soft n' sweet

Dark Chaos- the cast mentioning the Dark form/corrupted Super

The Gaia Incident - werehog mentions

Ethics and Project Shadow - all about Project Shadow

Sonic at Rock Bottom - Mentions of a darker time for Hero of Mobius

Sonic has Feelings, Too - Sonic expressing Emotions

Shadow goes to therapy - mentions of Shadow getting his shit together

Shadow the Veggiehog - mentions of Shadow's vegetarianism

Bullying - cast being bullied by "sky-mailers"/the Anon

Gifts from above - gifts (and gags-) sent from above

Pat pat - the blorbos getting affection from Anons

Unbreakable bond - replies where Sonic and Tails are featured

Gossip girls - replies with Sonic and Rouge, or mentioning their friendship

Three's Company... - mentions of a certain couple gaining a third for a time

Dadow - Shadow being the ultimate Papa

Ultimate Co-parents - Shadow and Amy being awesome parents

Tailsnip - it's just mint, officer!

Pilot Sonic - Sonic being an ace flyer

Quarter life crisis - Sonic coming to terms (poorly) with his age

Mystery Egg - Pertaining to Eggman's disappearance for months

A Stone's Throw - The backstory of Agent Stone's Arrival to this world

Crash Landing - That time the Tornado 1's engine stalled and stranded Sonadow on a "deserted" island for a bit

Ship tags and Character tags can be found by searching "tag: x" where x is the character name/ship name! This also applies to teams ("tag: team x").

✨Info✨

16+ rating, for mildly suggestive content but never outright NSFW

You have some anon powers that can be used to a certain extent, so feel free to mess with characters!

These are aged up characters! Most are adults by this point

Shipping is a guarantee, with some characters currently together and some having been together in the past- all of the characters have gone through some pretty major life events at this point.

There is lore in this verse to figure out, ask questions and see where it gets you!

Overall plot is very loose; this is mostly domestic slice-of-life stuff

Domestic drama awaits! There's some new, original characters that may also step in from time to time, in addition to other canon characters...

Inspiration taken from 90s, 00s, and 10s sitcoms (Friends, The Office UK, Modern Family, namely)

✨Guidelines✨

Like I said, no NSFW will posted here

Feel free to be mean to the characters if you want, it's a RP blog after all; however, answering the ask is at my discretion, and be prepared for the appropriate response depending on who you decided to beef with lol

Also as stated, ships are fine! Feel free to mention ones even that aren't featured here; but sibling and adult/minor ships are explicitly excluded

Again, being weird is fine, you are of course allowed to send whatever you want and the final decision is up to me as mod as to if it gets posted; but know that anything getting too creepy/suggestive is definitely not getting posted

All this being said, besides anyone regularly sending truly nasty shit, I'm not a big believer in bans; so don't feel too scared to send anything in. This blog is meant to be about exploring these characters how you guys want to explore them, and I'm here to facilitate that and guide some loose plot here and there, lol

The air was hot, near boiling. Screams of legions rang out all around them, the Hive speaking through their new master in language long since lost; suddenly Sonic was flying through the air, the Black Knight flinging him in some attempt to save himself the creature's wrath. The Knight was thrown back, away from the battle.

Red sky, rapidly falling away from him. That was Sonic's view as he plummeted to the earth below, reaching out to grab desperately at the air; he had survived long falls, but full of chaos; now he was no more indestructible than a regularly Mobian.

The new master of the Black Arms followed. The red sky was obscured by wings of black smoke, a void that seemed to swallow the heavens above. No face, no body to make discern; only the night. He closed his eyes.

Warmth enveloped him, cradled his form as he fell. There was a softness to it he did not expect as he braced for the bone-break ground below, and then the whistling of the wind in his quills slowed to a whisper.

---

Amy had never felt such power before, and yet still she felt helpless to help her friends and family. The badniks were dispersing, which would have meant the battle was turning in their favor; but it was in fear of the daemon of smoke and rage bearing down from on high.

She watched the Black Knight be thrown, and Sonic, too. The mast of the Black Arms, their Hive King, turned for the silver-quilled Sonic, and the hedgehog was lost in its veil of darkness. The form plummeted, its dragon-esque image lost now in a disjointed plume of black smoke, and then broke over the ground.

Amy was the first to make it to the impact site, smoke and soot still billowing. Heart racing in her throat, she used the power of the Chaos Emeralds to call down the light and burn the dark away; the roiling tendrils of smoke cleared.

An impact crater, she registered first. A hard fall, then. Deep pink eyes scanned the ground, heart still hammering; they met exhausted, glowing crimson.

Shadow the Hedgehog; Shadow the Hiveking, in his own form once more, wings out and covering the steel-furred hedgehog bundled to his chest, knelt on the ground and panting from pain and exertion.

Alive. They were both alive.

---

The Hive had never been so loud, not since the first invasion. But...

They spoke in tandem with their King. And Shadow was their King. Their Heart aligned with his own; and it beat for one purpose.

Escape. Protect.

The Chaos Energy Robotnik had drained from him to fuel the army set to aid the Black Knight's rise only made room for the power of his Black Arms blood to come to the fore. When finally the drain outpaced his own native generation...

The Hiveking was born.

But it was not like before. Shadow mind was his own, sharp and enraged, but completely his. The cell he was kept in was little match against the might of his new power; when the dark energy enveloped him, it may as well have been made of sticks and twine. The facility came down easily.

Seeing the Black Knight with Sonic, high in the air, fueled his flight. He gathered the Hive, flew with their power bolstering his wings and obscuring him a smoke form like that of a dragon. Though he longed to tear flesh from bone from the Old King, catching Sonic from his fall took priority.

And now, here was was, exhausted, tapped of all energy, but alive and himself again, freed from the facility, Sonic in his arms-

A Sonic who looked exhausted himself, dark cirled beneath his eyes, quills unkempt. Green irises flashed open, dulled with lethargy but a spark remained.

"...Shadow?"

The dark hybrid nodded wordlessly. "I am me, yes. All of me."

The kiss came unexpectedly, perhaps, but certainly it was not unwanted. Sonic threw his arms around Shadow's neck, the kiss rough and depserate, before crushing against him with bruising force. The hedgehog was on his knees in a moment, hugging Shadow close, face tucked into the crook of his shoulder.

Shadow's wings receded slowly and he wrapped his arms around Sonic; only then did he notice the golden form standing at the rim of the impact zone above the. Amy Rose, fiery quills pointed skyward-

Sonic pulled back, still on his knees but feeling Shadow relax in his arms, and turned to follow his gaze. He laughed tiredly and slumped.

"Amy Rose. Full of surprises...," Sonic began. After checking on Shadow once more, he pushed hismelf to his feet and turned to her fully stepping forward to meet her as she floated down the rim of the small crater. He reached out to take her hands. "You look good in gold, Ames."

Amy was shaking, tears collected at the corner of her eyes, as she took Sonic's hands softly in hers. She laughed wetly. "Thank you," she said, dipping her head. "I... I didn't think..."

Knuckles, Rouge, and Tails ran up and frozen near the group, eyes wide and fixed on Amy.

Shadow fell back, siting with one leg up just in front of him, shoulders slumped, but smiling in this small window of respite. "You've always had it in you," he said with a small nod.

His Rose was special. He'd always known it to be true. She could do anything; and now, she knew it, too.

---

Amy swallowed thickly, looked to Sonic- something seemed to click behind her dark pink eyes. Her grip on his hand tightened. "...You look good in steel, too, Sonic."

Sonic tilted his head. He could feel sharp energy at his palms, it burned, surging up his arms. He tried to pull from Amy's grasp; he couldn't break her hold.

"But... gotta say, I like you better in blue."

And so, he was.

The energy crackled through him, awaking pathways asleep for the last month; a burst of air and sound around them kicked up a a dust cloud that obscured both hedgehogs from view. When it settled, there stood Amy Rose, still resplendent in gold, next to Sonic- dark cobalt quills sparking with cyan energy, eyes alight with a blue-green glow.

"...Much better," Amy whispered, soft smile on her face.

Sonic closed his eyes, took a breath. All at once, he could feel the the Chaos in his veins, could sense its pulse in the earth below. He opened them, sharp and full of the kind of life his friends had not seen in an age.

The whirring and clanking of badniks reengaging with Tails' own bots sounds all around the, fire ad bullets and the destruction of metal against metal.

Amy stepped back, dropping Sonic's hands as she did, floating up just a bit above them all but still deferring to the blue hedgehog's judgement, as she always had.

Sonic grinned, feral and toothy, and looked between his friends gathered around him behind the veil of smoke and dust.

"Now that that's settled," he began. Knuckles punched a first in his other hand, red energy sparking off his gloves and wicked grin over his face like he knew what was coming next-

From behind, where Rouge was helping Shadow to his face, the hybrid said in an exhausted sigh, "Don't say it-"

"Oh, he's gonna say it-"

"Gotta go fast."

Flash kicks Rift’s leg for the ‘tiny’ comment, and shrugs to the first question. “Lotsa stuff, I guess. You’re all way taller than me and my friends. Your world is bigger, too. Proportional, probably.” He hums in thought, smiles at Tails’ question. “My Tails? He’s the best kid in the world. Crazy smart, but he won’t remember to eat if I don’t remind him. Has no concept of time passing but he’s never late to anything. He’s got a great sense of humour, but not everybody understands it.” He inhales a chilling dog and sets out assembling another, waving his hand around as he talks animatedly about his brother. “He’s a whiz with technology, of course, and he likes puzzles, but he also loves to dance! He’s…” Flash trails off, realising he's been rambling, “He’s my little bro, you know?”

Tails flushes as though the praise is angled at him, though mostly because his own brother is leveling him with a ‘told you so’ grin.

As Flash trails off, Rift sighs. He reaches to make another chili dog. “Huh. Guess some things aren’t so different, then.”

“I think it’s the same across the whole multiverse. The Tails from the last place I went was awesome too!” Flash watches Rift to gauge his opinion on the ‘bacon bits on a chilli dog’ suggestion. “Well?”

“It’s good,” Rift said, finishing off the dog in a few quick bites. He blows softly and sits back. “Think I’m full, though.”

Tails’ furrowed his brow. “You’ve had like. Three.”

“That’s a perfectly respectable number-!”

“Not for you, though!”

Rift snorted and shook his head. “Guess my metabolism’s running slower too, then. Just, not hungry. You guys finish up, though; I’m just gonna go get ready to turn in. Need to make a pallet somewhere anyway, since Flash’ll be in the hammock.” He stood and carried off his plate to the kitchen to rinse.

Tails watched him go with folded ears and sighed. “...S’not like before, right?”

Still close enough to hear, Rift set a sharp glare as he flicked water off his hands. He’d taken his gloves off for a moment to wash up, mostly hidden from view by the wall, but walked out before he had replaced them, the worn white fabric clenched in his teeth. His hands were a darker, warmed tone from wrist down than his arms, fading just where his glove cuffs normally rested; the fur of his palms a lighter cream with small, sharp, translucent nails. His pads, like his nose, were a mix of pigment-less pink and liver, speckled over their surface, scarred and rough from a life well lived. He gave each hand another cursory drying flick before taking the gloves from his mouth and tugging each on.

“No, Tails. Not like before. Promise, I really am just full.”

Tails sighed and nodded, unbothered by the display of hands. “Okay, if you’re sure.”

“No rush, Flash, but, I’m gonna go set up sleeping stuff, ‘kay?” Rift said to them both, throwing a now gloved hand up as he made for the loft ladder.

Flash eyes Rift as he declares he’s full, but he doesn’t press the issue. He is curious about what ‘before’ is, though. Tails is the second person to mention it. He wants to ask what it means but doesn’t want to pry, instead he makes another chilli dog and focuses on eating it carefully. He looks up with curiosity as Rift returns from the kitchen and blinks in surprise at how the older hedgehog is gloveless. 

He tries not to stare at Rift’s exposed hands, but they’re so different from his own that he can’t help but look. At least until he realises he’s being rude and refocuses on his food. He’s just shoved another chilli dog in when Rift speaks to him and he swallows quickly. “Oh, yeah, ok!” He clears his throat. “Are you sure you don’t want the hammock?” He smirks. “You are getting old, after all. Sleeping on the floor can’t be good for your old bones.”

Rift pauses on the ladder and looks back with a snort. “Watch it, half-pint, or I’ll show you what I can still do with these old bones.” He grins and shakes his head as he climbs up and disappears over the edge of the loft and down the short hall that separated the two halves of the roof. He turned into his room, ducking through the door, and starting setting out a nest-like pallet on the floor.

He wouldn’t say it, not even to Flash, but… the nest reminded him of the way Shadow liked to keep his pillows and blankets in heaps and piles around him as he slept. It made him feel closer, even if only in spirit.

Flash beams at Rift as he departs. “Bring it, old man!” He calls after the older hedgehog’s retreating form, before returning his attention to the chilli dog feast in front of him. “Hey, Tails?” He asks, deliberately not looking up from the chilli dog he’s now meticulously assembling. “What was ‘before’?” He sets his chilli dog down on his plate. “You don’t have to tell me. I just…Amy said something earlier. About a mech? And Rift - Sonic - said this isn’t the same as ‘back then’. Did something…happen to him?”

Tails look in surprise to Flash. He turned his gaze away just as quickly, though. “He, uh… I don’t know if it’s my place to tell you any of this. But. Um.. yeah. Kinda. He had a rough patch, but, he’s okay now! Totally okay now.  Sometimes he just gets in a mood and everyone gets a little worried, but, he’s fine. He’s fine.” The fox nodded, mostly to himself, and stood to carry his plate off to the kitchenette. He paused and looked back to Flash for a moment, looking him over quickly before turning his head.

“You’re about as old as he was, before everything sorta… blew up. Um. So just… remember your friends care about you, okay? And remember your Tails cares about you? And… if anything happened to you, they would miss you, and they would  never be able to live with themselves, and…” The fox closed his eyes and took a deep breath, ears back. He counted softly, just under audible range, and opened his eyes again a moment later to head to the sink. His fur was raised, though he was actively trying to calm himself.

He did not remove his gloves, opting to wait to rinse his dish later, and stepped back out. “If you want to know anything else, you should ask Rift. I know you’re… basically the same, but, it still feels wrong to talk about him like that with someone else. Um… like he said, no rush, but I’m gonna head down to work on some more stuff before going to bed. When you’re done, just, leave everything here and I’l come clean it up in a bit.”

With that, the fox headed for the stairs and back down to the workshop floor below.

Flash nods slowly as he processes the information, feeling guilty for asking. “I’ll, uh, remember that. Sorry I brought it up. I’ll…see you later.” He watches Tails head down the stairs and looks around at the remains of dinner. There’s nobody here so he removes his borrowed gloves and sets about tidying up; packing away the leftovers and washing the dishes. He catches sight of the silver band on his ring finger as he’s drying a plate and suppresses the sudden sob that builds in his throat. “It’s not forever. I’ll...I’ll be home soon.” With as much of the tidying that he can do done, he tugs his gloves back on and heads for the loft ladder. 

The bedroom is quiet as he shuffles in and carefully removes his shoes before climbing into the hammock.  He lies on his back and stares out of the window at the sky, wondering - as he often does - whether Shadow is doing the same. He can almost hear the soft, velvet voice describing constellations and pointing out stars as they stare at the twinkling lights. He sighs and swallows heavily, closing his eyes and trying to sleep. 

Rift is up before the sun the next morning. He shifts on soft, socked feet, moving quietly so as not to disturb the other hedgehog in the room. He gathers a change of gloves, picks up his shoes, the gauntlet, and makes for the workshop floor.

Tails is there, curled up still on the cot near the consoles. Rift smiles warmly at him as he changes his gloves; he pads off softly to better arrange the covers about his brother’s sleeping form before setting the gauntlet down by the Caliburn and slipping on his shoes. When they’re laced up and the wraps he used to keep the sole together at the center are tight, he takes a water bottle from the minifridge downstairs and uses it to down his morning medications. Then, he goes outside, to wait.

Wait for sunrise, the dawn of the final day.

Flash, unused to sleeping in a hammock again, falls out of it when he stretches after the sun shining in through the window wakes him. He flails for a moment, and hits the floor with a soft thump and a groan of pain. Seeing no Rift in the pile (nest) of blankets on the floor he yawns and stretches, helps himself to clean gloves, and pulls on the Riftwalkers. Like the day before they hum with power of some kind, and seem to shrink to fit his feet. 

There’s nothing else here for him to take with him, even Sprout is nowhere to be seen, so he heads back  down the ladder to find Tails still asleep in the workshop. He watches for a moment, then shakes himself and heads outside. “Figured I’d find you here.” He murmurs as he stops beside Rift, staring out over the landscape as the sun continues to rise. “You ready?”

“More than,” Rift sighs, voice still low and rough from poor sleep. Well, lower even than before, given compared to Flash his voice was already quite low even in its normal timber. “Slept like shit. Don’t wanna hear it; wasn’t to do with the nest versus the hammock. You ready?” Hazel eyes turned on the younger hedgehog.

Flash huffs a soft snort of a laugh and kicks the toes of each shoe against the ground, hops from foot to foot. Itches with nervous energy about the day ahead of them, his foot tapping quickly. “I fell outta the hammock. So. I’d have done better in a nest.” He’s no longer embarrassed about calling it a nest, he just wishes he was in it right now instead of however many universe-miles away he is. 

“Are we ever really ready for this shit? Flying by the seat of our pants is usually how it works out best for us.” He bends to perform a few stretches, jogs off down the path. Calls over his shoulder: “Back in a flash!” He gets far enough away from the Workshop that he won’t disturb Tails with a sonic boom, then takes off. He does several laps of the wider perimeter and returns to Rift’s side in a few minutes. “Better. Shall we get this show on the road!”

Rift snorts and tries to hide the jealousy behind his eyes; he nearly succeeds. “Alright, Flash, cool it. I already talked to Ames; she’s on her way with Silv, and Knuckles is working on convincing Rouge out of bed. Sun’s only barely about to rise.”

Movement behind them signals the arrival of Tails blinking blearily at them both and rubbing his eyes. He yawns, showing off massive canines and carnassials even Shadow might find impressive, before grunting and squinting at the two Sonics. 

“Insanity. Insanity has got to be universal among Sonics, right? It’s still yesterday….”

Rift snorted and moved to sling an arm over Tails’ shoulder. “Buck up, buttercup~ it’s a bright shiny new day~!”

“Ughh….”

Flash’s fur prickles with guilt at the look on Rift’s face - once again he’s done something without thinking. “Right. Sorry.”

He smiles as Tails arrives beside them and yawns, huffing a laugh at his morning mood. “And what time did you get to sleep?” His own Tails has never been good at going to bed early. There have been times where he’s found his brother passed out basically on top of whatever project he’s working on. 

“Mmnn…,” Tails grumbled, ducking under Rift’s arm to shove his face into his brother’s neck- it was a much easier thing to do when he was shorter. “Didn’t look. Didn’t wanna-”

Rift snorts and tries to shift to accommodate the taller, lankier fox- his mind supplied ‘fox kit’ even though he knew that didn’t fit, anymore. “C’mon, let’s get inside, get some breakfast, feed the littles, and get going. We need to call Vector ‘n ‘Nilla, too, so they can come over and look after the kids while we’re.. while we’re out.”

The threat that none of them might make it back hung unspoken. Tails sighed and pulled away, turning to shuffle back towards the shop. Rift turned to go with him, glancing back at Flash and nodding him to follow.

‘While we’re out’ was a mild way of putting their plans for the day. Flash followed the brothers inside to help make breakfast, trying not to think about all the things that could go wrong with their plan. A difficult task, as the more he tried not to think about it, the more his brain supplied a helpful list of everything that could go wrong and how. It didn’t offer any useful solutions, though, and Flash zoned out as he opened a cupboard to grab plates. 

Breakfast was a simple, quick affair, wolfed down in hurried, cloying silence. Even the littles sensed the tension in the air; the young Sonic protested greatly at the notion of Vanilla and Vector keeping them but was won over by the notion of someone being there to fight by Shade’s side.

And someone to protect the world, if something happened. If the worst happened. Gaia, Rift hoped it wouldn’t come to that…

They packed the planes soon after, and made plans to meet the others near the facility; Silver would come up with the Chaotix further south, hitting a few strongholds along the way, forward bases that had sprung up in the last month. Amy would travel with Tails in the Cyclone; Rift had the Tornado with Flash. Rouge and Knuckles would fly from the north to meet them.

They were in the sky not long after, Amy having met with them a bit before, and heading to the coordinates Rouge sent. Rift flew point, Tails in the Cyclone not far behind; they had a rendezvous point near the facility to meet and bring the Chaos Emeralds together at last.

Flash goes though the motions of breakfast and last minute planning in a sort of haze of terrified excitement. They have a plan, a good one, and he was sure it would work but so much depends on him that he feels a little queasy. It isn’t the first time a fight felt like it would be made or broken by his input, and it wouldn’t be the last, but after the Paradox Prism the idea of his actions affecting another parallel world sits ill with him. 

By the time they’re in the Tornado and heading for the rendezvous point he’s managed to calm himself down enough that he feels more focused than scared, and he leans forward to speak to Rift as they approach. “You sure you’re ok with me doing this?” He knows in Rift’s position he’d be throwing a fit about being out on the sidelines, especially with Shadow’s life potentially on the line, but it is the best option out of a host of bad ones. 

Rift nods stiffly, eyes focused ahead, quills raised as they had been all morning. “...The gang’s right. It’s the best option. I’d just get in the way; and right now, my pride’s not the important thing, it’s stopping Arthur and getting Shadow out alive. Alive, and…”

The hedgehog swallowed, ears pinning. Still looking straight forward, he asked, “Flash… the Black Arms invasion. What was that… what was it like, in your world?”

“What was it like?” Flash tilts his head in consideration, watches clouds roll by the Tornado. “Uh…well it wasn’t good. Shadow…we thought we lost him for a bit. He…well he doesn’t talk about it very much, but it really fucked with his mind.” He huffs a breath and stares out over the landscape. “It’s the only time that I ever thought for a second that he might…do something.” He coughs, plucks at the cuff of his glove. “I trust him. Completely. But he wasn’t himself and I thought we’d lose him. And if we lost him…it would’ve been over for everyone. What…was it like here?” 

Rift drew in a breath. “A lot like that,” he said. “And… also different. After the Neo Metal incident, Shadow disappeared. No one knew where he went, or if he’d even survived Neo… until the invasion started. He was there, in the first wave… leading it, but, under a new name. He called himself the Vanguard.”

Old memories raced through Rift’s mind: haunted red eyes, hateful and angry and in pain, horns that grew and spiraled, sprouting up through haphazard, broken quills; feet with talons big and long and hooked, dragging over the ground; a terrible, awful, burning eye, resting in the center of a drawn, angry brow-

Doom’s Vanguard, here to bring the world to heel.

Rift blinked, and the memories faded, the screams from the pens of captured humans and mobians alike echoing in his mind the way he knew they echoed in Shadow’s, too. “We did lose him, for a while. He didn’t know who he was, only knew what Doom told him. He was one of them, one of the Black Arms, Doom’s most loyal servant- a general, in his army. And he led with no mercy. GUN and the rest of us… we hatched a plot t-to… to kill him, but, I couldn’t- I knew Shadow, I knew the hedgehog I faced the final hazard alongside and he wasn’t the fucking Vanguard. I had an opening, I chose not to take it, and instead used the Chaos Emeralds in a super form to burn Doom’s influence out of him; with some help from the Chaotix blasting old files from the Professor over comms, we brought him back. Dragged him. And he took on Doom, won- the rest is history.

“The reason I bring it up, though, is… I’m worried whatever they’re doing to him is like what happened to Arthur; and that’s a lot like what happened before. If they try to drain his chaos and his Black Arms side reacts? He could be lost to the Vanguard again, or worse… whatever Vessel form Doom envisioned for him, back in White Space. That’s what I’m most afraid of finding, out there… not Arthur, not the Black Knight, not an army of bots… I’m scared of what happens if he’s already gone. I couldn’t… I couldn’t do it, before, and that was without him being my fucking everything- I know I won’t be able to do it, now. If he’s gone… then what’s the point? Am I- am I making sense?”

Flash listens to Rift talk with mounting horror, able to picture the whole thing so clearly in his mind because it almost happened to him too. Shadow was so close to being lost to the Black Arms forever, it isn’t hard to picture how he was in this world. 

He sets a hand on Rift’s shoulder and squeezes. “Yeah…that’s…I don’t think I could…” He clears his throat, shakes his head and draws up that inner self who’s endlessly positive. “But it’s not gonna happen. Shadow’s the strongest person we know. He’s not gonna let that happen to him again.” Of course he has no way of knowing that anything he says is true, but it’s what Rift needs to hear now…he thinks. “We’re gonna get him back. And he’s gonna be pissed that it took us so long and also that there’s a younger, more handsome version of you that he missed out on.” Make a joke. Lighten the mood. That’s always worked in the past. 

Flash lets out a sigh. Maybe sharing how he’s feeling will help. “I’m…” maybe it won’t, though. He doesn’t want Rift and the others to lose faith in him. Not now. They need him. “…sure we’ll get him back.”

Rift lets out a breath. “... I know. You’re right.” Lie. And a second. His heart knows better; but crushes down that part of him that drowns under a wave of uncertainty and fear, conjuring up the barest suggestion of determination. “We’ll get him back.”

The facility loomed up ahead, bleak and grey atop cracked, strata-painted badlands, with other factories and bases built up around it. A signal on the comms told Rift to land on a hidden bluff nearby; he obliged, but only after staring longingly towards the bleak, industrial skyline of Eggman’s headquarters.

Flash nods determinedly, even though Rift can’t see him. The looming threat of the facility in the distance sends a shiver down his spine and he keeps his eyes on it as long as he can until it disappears behind the tree line as they land. 

The little bluff they’ve landed on is hardly big enough for the Tornado and the Cyclone, let alone any other transport, but their pilots are the best in the business for a reason. Flash tries to smile with confidence at everyone who he’s introduced to (as if he doesn’t know them already), but some of them definitely look doubtful. Not that he blames them. He’s not the Sonic they want or need; he’s wrong, and too small, and not confident like their Sonic, but he’s what they’ve got and that will have to do. 

He wonders if he should say something? It’s not his world or his plan or even his group of friends, but someone should. He looks to Rift, gestures with a tilt of his head. 

Rift hops down from the Tornado and nods at Flash’s gesture; he takes a breath, and steps forward.

Amy is there with Tails, Knuckles and Rouge have made it, too. Silver isn’t yet, the Chaotix making their way through bases to flank the factory base on the side, but he’s on his way, and Rift knows that. He takes another breath.

“We’ve been here before,” he began. “We know this fight. It’s a little different, but… the beats are the same. And the stakes… well, the stakes for me have never been higher, honestly.”

Amy swallowed thickly and nodded. “...Or for me.” Tails hugged her close to his side, and Rouge put a steadying hand on her shoulder. Knuckles leaned around his partner to give her a reassuring nod.

“We have the emeralds; didn’t even give Egghead a chance at ‘em, and boy did that piss him right off,” Rift continued, managing a grin. “Plan’s simple enough. Half-pint here powers up with ‘em, powers up Cal, and we kick ass like always. Me and Tails’ll give aerial support. Any questions?”

Rouge turned to give Knuckles a sharp look and he sighed. “...Not a question but. Just in case somethin’ happens, and I know I know, we’ll be fine, but… Sonic,” he began, addressing Rift with a steady gaze and furrowed brow. “I wanted to apologize. I was mad, yeah, and I still think that was valid, but… I’ve been on your case. Truth is, I care about you, you stupid fucker, and your lie of omission nearly cost us, well, you. So. There.” He turned his head and crossed his arms over his chest. Rouge sighed wearily but patted his shoulder nonetheless.

Rift blinked. “...Thank you, I think? Apology… confusing, but accepted. Okay! Emeralds?”

Tails  nodded and moved to the Cyclone’s holding compartment as Rift moved to the Tornado’s. They each produced emeralds from the holds; 2 from the Cyclone, 3 from the Tornado. Knuckles and Rouge each also brought out one of their own.

The Emeralds hummed with power, and Rift waited for that familiar resonating of his own energy with theirs… but it never came. He swallowed, and stepped back, looking to Flash.

Flash takes a breath and reaches out for the Emeralds, feels their familiar hum in the back of his mind. It isn’t quite the same as he’s used to, they feel hotter and less comforting, but he knows it’ll  work. “Right.” He unsheathes Caliburn and tucks the scabbard into the Tornado - he’s not going to need it now - and closes his eyes. 

Going Super is basically second nature to him and he lets out a relieved breath as the feeling washes over him. When he opens his eyes he is glowing bright silver and he blinks in surprise. “O…kay. Well. That’s unexpected.” He feels tingly and hot with nerves, and focuses his attention on Caliburn in his hands. Extends his senses towards the sword and breathes. “Hey, Cal. I know I’m not who you expected, but Arthur needs your help. My help. Let me help you get him back.” The sword doesn’t talk to him in the same way as before, but he gets a vague sense of agreement and then a burning-tingling sensation crawls over his fur. 

It’s not an Excalibur form in the traditional sense, but if he squints Flash can see an outline of armour hovering just above his skin. He’s crackling with silver-blue energy and he flashes Rift a grin, relieved that it actually worked. “So. Shall we?” 

Rift feels a spark of jealousy at the ease in which the Emeralds accepted Flash, but tamps it down and nods. Reminds himself he’d rather be powerless forever than risk their chance at saving Shadow. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

The others nod, too. “You feel okay, Flash?” Amy asks, ever concerned for her crew. “Feels stable?”

Tails and Rift were already making for their planes; Tails piped up after looking at the Cyclone’s radar. “Let us know quick, Flash- we’ve got incoming. Badniks; and something big.”

Rift snarled. “Arthur.”

Flash nods quickly, tosses Caliburn from hand to hand. “Feels good, same as always!” Even if he didn’t feel good he wouldn’t have told Amy. 

He turns his attention to Tails as the fox speaks and grits his teeth. Caliburn feels light as a feather in his hand as he slashes it through the air. “If I go to him we lose our advantage of surprise. Are we sure Shads is in there?”

Rouge nods. “Yes, positive. But we might have to fight our way through.”

“That’s fine,” Rift growls. “As long as we get him, I don’t care.”

“Then let’s go,” Amy says, lifting her hammer.

In the distance over the rising mesas, a dark smudge against the rusty cliffs and steel blue sky stands, dark purple aura staining the air around it. The Black Knight. Behind him, an army of badniks.

The battle was beginning again.

Flash nods once and tries to smile reassuringly at them all. “Ok, then. Let’s do this!. See you on the other side!” He takes off running, heading for Arthur and the distant army behind him. It’s not going to be an easy fight, but he tries to put any thought except the current moment out of his mind. 

The aura surrounding the Black Knight is tangible and Flash suppresses the urge to wince or cough as he stops a few feet away, Caliburn held out in front of him but not raised.. “It’s not too late to save you, Arthur. Let me help.” He always has to offer a foe the chance for redemption. It’s just who he is.  

The Black Knight lifted his head, dark armor glinting in the sun, visor covering his face. Over his chest, where the sword wielded before him now once pierced, a crossed scar in the armor was carved in. A memento. He grinned, teeth sharp, dark quills raised.

“Arthur’s gone, finished. As you will soon be.” The shade tilted his head, eyes still hidden, but his gaze would have been burning nonetheless. “...Your energy is… corrupted, outlander. It’s all wrong- can’t you feel it?”

The knight ripped his own sword free of its scabbard, turning it in his hand and readying himself for the fight. “Let me show you, if you can’t-”

Flash shivers at the voice of the Black Knight. It’s been years since he heard it and he’d have preferred to never hear it again. “You can’t talk to me about my energy, ghostie, when you look like…” gestures at the knight  up and down with his sword… “that. Pot. Kettle. Black.” He raises his sword to block the attack he knows is coming, and it’s a horrible fight from there on. 

Flash isn’t a match for the Black Knight, but he puts up a good enough fight  that the shade can’t focus on anything - or anyone - else. He attacks and parries and dodges with determination and calculated moves, opposite to how he normally would, but this isn’t a normal fight. 

The Knight is right about one thing, though; something about this energy is wrong. It’s not quite painful, but it doesn’t feel good. 

The Knight fought hard against this new Sonic, teeth bared and slashing with his sword both to try to catch the Mobian on the blade’s edge or by the sweeping dark energy it cast at every swing. 

Around them and down beside the raised crag where the pair dueled, the battle was raging; the others had caught up and were engaging the badniks that surged like a flood around the raised prominence. In the air above, Rift and Tails laid down cover fire; thus far, the Chaotix and Silver were nowhere to be seen.

As the fight with the Black Knight continues, Flash spends a lot more of it on the defensive, blocking hits and parrying sword swipes to the best of his ability. He’s lucky he’s fast, because the Knight is 100% fighting to kill. There’s not even any time or breath to trade witty banter, which is somewhat disappointing, and Flash daren’t look away for even a second to check on anyone else. 

The longer the fight goes on the worse Flash feels; his fur starts to feel like it’s boiling, and then burning. He almost drops his sword once after blocking a particularly strong swipe and has to drop to a knee to brace with the other hand to prevent being cleaved in two. 

Flash starts breathing hard and his movements start getting slower, and he must slow enough to miss a block because if not for the Emeralds the last stab would’ve gone right through him. It still knocks the wind out of him, and he coughs and almost drops Caliburn. “Just a little longer.” He looks up just in time for the Black Knight to catch him around the throat and all the Chaos Emeralds in the world couldn’t protect his windpipe from the iron grip around it. “Ar…thur…don’t…”

Hands finally on the loathsome golden rat, the Black  Knight snarls and begins to squeeze. “I’d rather all my loathsome counters watch the burning of their worlds, but you are proving annoying- best to remove you while I have the chance-”

The battle around them was fairing little better. Arhur’s power coursed through the badniks, shielding them from most blows and granting them speed and strength hardly matched by the heroes. Silver and the Chaotix had yet to arrive, as well, finding the same struggle in the forward bases.

Amy stands panting, hammer held before her, launching between attack after attack; she can hear her friends fighting for every inch around them, but, she can’t stop to find them or offer aid; The twin firing of the Cyclone’s and Tornado’s air canon tell her at least the brothers were alright, but, the glimpses she’s caught in the meantime revealed aerial badniks had joined the fray-

And then, the badniks faltered. It was almost imperceptible; a stutter, and perhaps she was only imagining things-

Her eyes fell to the battle between Flash and the Black Knight. The hedgehog’s quills were steaming, and the Knight had a death grip around his throat-

Amy had little time to think. She was running for them both that next moment, screaming warnings into the communicators for anyone not bogged down in their fights to the death to listen.

“Flash!”

From above, Rift laid down cover fire near the battling hedgehogs; enough to send the Black Knight, whos power he channeled almost exclusively into clawing through the shielding Flash’s super form lent, toppling back. 

The Knight released Flash as he fell and Rift brought down the Tornado, too- some notion of running to Flash, taking the power from him so it didn’t consume him, his own safety be damned- His thoughts ran too fast, he did for a moment consider what he would do when he arrived and was unable to help-

Two things happened in very quick succession. The first, Amy reached Flash before Rift could throw himself from the Tornado. She gripped his shoulders fiercely, and great burst of light erupted to obscure them both from view. Rift shielded his eyes-

And then widened them. Flash’s quills had dulled back blue, but Amy- Amy stood in rose-gold splendor, short quills erect, staring in awe and shock at her own hands and arms. Her eyes were a brilliant pink. The Emeralds heard her wish, and deemed her heart True and Pure; her own Super Form.

Rift froze, wanted to reach out, call out to his oldest friend- then, the world shook. The second thing to happen in that moment was an explosion of fire and smoke from the holding facility in the base’s nearby skyline. It rocked the mesa, sending heroes and badniks alike tumbling.

Rift fell to a knee, ears pinned to block the sounds of clanking, scraping metal, and the screams of his friends. His comm link crackled. 

“Sonic! Sonic-” Tails voice was shaky; the fox was terrified- Rift looked up.

Rising above the base, a void of fire and smoke and endless abyss- the creature was almost formless, roiling and billowing, shadowing the ruined facility beneath it with its immense size. It opened its mouth, four parts peeling away in an agonized scream- and then it rocketted towards the battlefield, smoke streaming from wings of oozing black pitch, maw agape, terrible light building from within and a long, red-and-black tail trailing behind. The sky above their heads turned black, red light behind the clouds and wind whipping over the mesa.

The Vanguard had been reborn, the King rising in its place. Shadow was lost.

Flash tried hard to keep his grip on Caliburn, but his hands felt weak as he gasped for air. Everything was a haze of heat and pain and he spared a thought that perhaps, this time, he couldn’t win. And then he was falling back to the ground and he could breathe but he was still burning. Steam and smoke wafted off him in waves and his grip fell slack on the sword as Amy skidded to a halt at his side. 

“Am…es?” Flash could hardly see her amidst the smoke, but he felt her hands on his shoulders and then suddenly everything hurt a little less and she was glowing. Everything else was blurry but his - not his, not really - friend was resplendent in rose gold and she was all he could see. Some part of him understood that she’d taken the Chaos Emeralds from him, but the rest of him was trying to focus on not dying right now. He coughed as she looked at herself. 

And then the world blew up. Again. 

Flash could only just lift his head to see what was happening, and everything was still blurry, but it looked like Shadow. Except. Enormous and terrifying. Flash swallowed soot and smoke and coughed again. Was this what Rift had called The Vanguard? Maybe…maybe they wouldn’t win. He would never get home to Shadow. Or Tails. Or any of the rest of his friends. 

A high-pitched shriek vibrated through him as Sprout dive-bombed from up…wherever they’d been for the rest of the battle. The prehistoric Chao settled on his chest and warbled sadly at him, then flared its wings and shrieked again at the approaching badniks as they started to recover. 

They couldn’t win. They’d already lost-

Slowly, Rift reached for the communicator in his ear, hands shaking as he did. “...Tails- hit the failsafe.”

The reply came breathy and trembling, panic barely contained, “We can still win this, we- can’t we? Sonic?”

“...The failsafe- and then go.”

“No! I won’t- I won’t-”

Tears pricked the corner of Rift’s eyes. He did not bother to stop them falling as he watched the smoke-form of the King of the Black Arms racing towards them all. “...You and Flash deserve a chance. Send him away, and then go-”

A sharp intake of breath- and the failsafe was pressed. Rift caught the warning on his wristband; a Rift opened beneath Flash and ripped him through, then sealed it self shut. 

“... I won’t leave you.”

It was the firmest tone Tails had taken since the battle. Rift opened his mouth, but had no time to argue. He was snatched to his feet by some great force, then found himself in the grip of the recovered Black Knight as they rose high, high above the ground-

The smoke-creature screamed at them, its flight in the sky speeding up. The Black Knight, dark visor broken and half missing, snarled with venom at the hedgehog in his grip, “What is that?!”

Rift only stared the racing cloud of teeth and fire barreling towards them, eyes dull, fight gone. “... The end.”

Flash heard almost no words anyone was saying, only vague sounds that might’ve been them. He saw Rift arrive nearby, but his attention was mostly on Shadow’s monstrous form streaking his way towards them. “M’sorry.” He muttered to anyone that was listening. And then the world squeezed and boiled and rolled, a kaleidoscope of colours and ringing bells. Sprout shrieked and gripped onto him with their sharp talons, and they were gone.

There’s no other solution than to slide into the fight himself and he’s fast enough that by the time Knuckles has drawn a fist back, Flash has managed to get between them, blue chaos crackling in his quills and down his back. He takes the hit intended for Rift with a pained gasp and only really registers it when his back and head hit the far wall and he slides down it. That is a punch the Knuckles from his world hasn’t aimed at him before. “Ugh.” He opens one eye to find the world is spinning a little, but drags himself to his feet to throw himself between them again. Just in case. 

“Knuckles!” Rouge shouted, watching the smaller Flash get sent flying across the workshop.

The echidna’s hold on Rift loosens in shock, Knuckles left frozen as he watches the consequences of a hit he knows his Sonic could take any day, chaos or no chaos, knock the other clear across the floor. Rift looks back to make sure the hedgehog’s still standing, himself panting against the slowly abating pain in his chest.

When Flash runs back to stand between them, obviously still disoriented from the hit, Rift growls, “Stay outta fights that don’t involve you, kid.”

“How about no more fighting at all, please?” a voice shouts from the garage entrance; Amy Rose, relaxed quills tied back in a bun at the top of her head, pieces falling out from her trek home. She’s glaring down both Knuckles and Rift; at the sight of Flash, she blinks in surprise. “...Oh!”

Flash is obviously about to come out with a clever retort about how he’s not a kid, and he wouldn’t have had to get in the fight if Rift hadn’t provoked Knuckles, when Amy calls to them from the doorway. “Ah. Hey, Ames.” He’s a little wobbly on his feet as he straightens up out of the defensive crouch he’s taken in front of Rift, but he beams at Amy (or where it looks like she’s standing, anyway). “Um. Nice to see you?”

 Knuckles looks back, too, and grumbles as he steps away from the two hedgehogs. “You’re boy started it,” he griped.

Amy snorted. “My boy starts a lot, Knuckles, but you’ll take anything as bait these days. Who’s this, then? Are you from the rifts?” the pink hedgehog asked, walking up to Flash with no trepidation, no wariness. She was around his height, her fringe giving her perhaps half an inch on him, and not so different than the Amy he might have known from his own world save for longer quills and wider hips courtesy of carrying Eve.

Rift stood. “Uh, yeah- Ames, Flash. Flash, Ames. We’re calling me Rift for a bit; better than, Sonic one, two, and three, y’know?”

Amy smiled and looked back to Flash. “Well, nice to meet you! Sort of, I guess; you’ll have known your own Amy, though, right?”

Flash shakes his head a little to clear it as Amy steps up to him and is relieved to meet someone on eye level. And also someone who doesn’t look afraid or mistrustful of him. This Amy looks much like his own, with some minor differences, and he returns her smile eagerly. “Yeah! One of my best friends, of course! It’s…nice to meet you too, Amy.” If Amy is here then hopefully that means she’s got the Chaos Emerald and they can get their plan for rescuing Shadow sorted before Rift and Knuckles kill each other. “I guess you’re used to seeing Sonic variants by now?”

Amy nodded. “You could say that…,” she sighed tiredly, though she still smiled.

Rift stood and brushed himself off, stepping around Flash and trying to hide that fact his limp was worse than before. Knuckles, for his part, looked at least a little regretful of this. “Ames, you know I always love to see you, but…?”

“The Chaos Emerald, yes! I have it.” Amy pulled her messenger bag around and pulled out the Emerald, wrapped up in paper to dampen its bright cyan glow. She passed it to Sonic, who held it for a moment, as though waiting for something, anything… 

He blinked. Nothing changed; he turned and passed it along to Tails, schooling his features away from the disappointment that would otherwise drop them.

“I’ll get started on the rest of these calibrations,” Tails said with a nod. “And I’ll be careful to keep the Emeralds apart, now that we have them all.”

Amy nodded and looked to Flash and Rift. “So… you have chaos still, right, Flash? Does that mean…?”

Rift pinned his ears, but nodded. “We hope so. That, and powering the sword. It’s… probably our only hope, actually.”

Amy nodded, a somber expression on her face.

Flash watches Rift take the Chaos Emerald and pause for a second before passing it on, smothering his disappointment on Rift’s behalf that nothing happened. He didn’t think it would.. He turns his attention back to Amy and nods quickly, eagerly almost. This is why he's still here. This is going to make being away from home and Shadow worth it. He can help.  “Yeah. S’why I’ve not been booted off back to my world yet.” He tries to make a joke out of it, wants to ease the tension in the room. 

Amy laughs at that and, perhaps because a Sonic in any form feels familiar enough to her to be a brother, reaches out to quickly hug him tightly. “Happy you’re here to help us, Flash.” There was a tightness in her muscle, a tension she hid with the ease all mothers do.

“Ames?” Rift interject. When the hedgehog stepped back from Flash to look up. “Rouge found Shadow.”

Green eyes widened, and the base of her relaxed quills shifted as though trying to lift. “Is he…?” She looked to Rouge.

The bat nodded. “Some kind of holding facility; the reports I found were energy readouts. They’re keeping him drained, trying to replicate what Arthur did to Sonic, but…”

Rift’s face took on a stormy appearance. Snarl pulling at his muzzle as he rounded on Rouge. “He’s a generator, they only way to take his chaos is to kill him-”

The bat put up her hands ina soothing gesture. “Easy, Big Blue. We have the emeralds now, right? Foxy’s running his numbers, and then we can make our play.”

Rift let out a breath and made a conscious effort to relax his quills. He looked to Flash. 

“...Right. Flash? Any input on a gameplan? You mentioned before trying to resonate with the Emeralds- maybe… maybe when we reach the facility, you do that, and then try to power Caliburn-”

“That could work!” Tails calls from his console, turning to look at the group. “I mean, I don’t know about Flash being able to use the emeralds like normal, but, if he can, then from what my readouts say the sword can use their power. It won’t be a full… what’d you call it? Excalibur form, but definitely a powered up version of how it is now. It can take the juice.”

Flash swallows heavily and hugs Amy back quickly. It’s the first hug he’s had in a long time. He clears his throat. “Happy to be here.”  He blanches at hearing what’s happening to Shadow, knowing they don’t have long before Eggman comes to the same conclusion. He worries about what they’re doing with the energy…are they storing it? 

He stands taller as Rift looks to him, trying to feel braver than he does. He’s not usually one for plans, but one Sonic trying to go off the rails is more than enough. 

Flash nods as Tails finishes speaking, dashing over to stand by the Emeralds. They hum in his mind, as they always do, when he’s near them, eager to help with his wishes. “Right. If I can go Super with them, I can channel the energy into Caliburn.” He’s not good at channeling. Or resonating. But there isn’t time to not be able to do it. He keeps his face carefully neutral. “I can fight without an Excalibur form.” He’s good enough with a sword that at least that part doesn’t concern him. 

“I think it’s best if we don’t show our hand right off the bat - forgive the phrasing, Rouge. As far as Eggman and this Stone guy know, they’ve taken Sonic out of the fight so there’s nobody to challenge the Black Knight.” He tugs at the cuff of one glove, flexes his fingers and presses his thumb against the ring hidden beneath the torn fabric - he hasn’t had time to change the gloves yet - to remind himself that Shadow is waiting for him so he doesn’t do something stupid. “They’re not gonna be expecting me. Definitely not with the Emeralds and Caliburn. If we can get them on the back foot we can press an advantage, so I…” he trails off and looks between them all, aware he’s almost trying to take charge, it's second nature sometimes, “uh...that is to say…well I’ll occupy Arthur. You guys can go for Shadow, right?”

Rouge smiled and stepped up to knock shoulders with Rift. “Guess you’re all born leaders then, huh?” 

Rift snorted and rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “One problem, Flash. I’ll need to wield Cal once he’s juiced up; don’t really have a fighting advantage otherwise.”

Amy’s ears pinned and she looked stormy. “Come again?”

“I said I-”

“No, I heard you, I was just hoping I’d misunderstood. You’re going to wield Caliburn? Sonic- Rift, you shouldn’t even be in this fight, not like this-”

Rift turned to level the pink hedgehog with a surly glare. “I’m not helpless, Ames. I still know how to fight, just not-”

“Do you? You throw yourself headfirst into every fight you come across, reckless and relying on speed to get you out. Or maybe not caring if it can, sometimes- and that’s on a good day. This fight you won’t have that speed, and honestly? I don’t know where your  mind is, but… it scares me. It feels like that fight with Robotnik’s mech all over-”

Rift looked like he’d been slapped, head lowered and quills in disarray, ears pinned harshly. Dulled hazel eyes search Amy’s. “...You think one month of a slump is the same as back then?” he asked quietly. His braced knee twinged with the memory.

Knuckles watched with crossed arms from under a lowered brow. “Amy’s right. You’re too much of a loose cannon right now; and one firing dummy rounds at that. You’d be a liability on the field.”

Rift rounded on him to snarl, feeling small and trapped and pitied and babied under his friends’ gazes. His pelt crawled with heat and residual shame. “I’m not getting sidelined. Shadow is in that facility and I won’t-”

“It’s gonna be a big fight,” Tails interjected, voice tight with anxiety. He hated speaking out in meetings like this; even if they weren’t formal Resistance meetings. “We’ll need Silver there, too- that’s another fighter we can count on. There’ll be plenty on the ground… but we need air support. I can only cover so much in the Cyclone, and… we all know who the best pilot is.”

Rift looked to his brother, face softening and harried posture relaxing somewhat. Leave it to Tails to find a way to make everyone happy… “...Can’t fly your crazy mechs, you know that…”

“No, but it’s been too long since the Tornado saw action, don’t you think?”

Flash knows how Rift feels, but he nods in agreement with Amy. They can’t risk him being  on the frontline - he’ll get killed. Tails’ plan to have him fly the Tornado is the best solution; it allows Rift to be in the fight but not in the fight. And they do need all the help they can get, from what Flash has heard this won’t be an easy fight. 

“Tails is right.” He resists the urge to shrink again when they look at him. “I’ve never seen the Tornado move like she did yesterday…and I thought I was a great pilot.” He flashes a cocky grin and taps his foot as he talks, nervous excitement flooding through him and turning into restless energy. He starts to pace quickly. 

“Plus they won’t be expecting that, either! The more surprises we throw at them, the better chance we have, right? They’ll be so distracted by all this that we’ll have Shadow back in no time, save Arthur, and I…” he trails off, pauses his pacing, “well. Everyone can go home, yeah?”

Rift looked to Flash for a long moment, holding his gaze, and nodded. “Yeah. Everyone; that’s the plan.”

Amy sighed softly, sound relieved; Rift at least still sounded enough like her Sonic, if weary and drained.

“Tails? You wanna let Flash in on the basics of the Riftwalkers?”

Tails nodded, sharing a significant look with Rift as he nodded to the pair of teched-out sneakers near the console. “Yeah… I made those as a prototype to test out for Rift a couple months ago, way before the fight with Arthur. They’re not complete yet, and have no re-homing function to bring you back, but… they should in theory be able to lock onto your energy signature and use that to get you home,” the fox said, looking to Flash with a nod. After a moment he added, “Though… I can’t make any promises. Like I said, the tech is prototypal at best, and untested. I know it can open rifts, but, where they lead… my best guess is your energy will direct them. You don’t have to use them, and maybe after the fight I can refine them to a better margin of error, but… they’re all we’ve got for right now.”

Flash raises a brow and goes to look at the shoes, hovers a hand over them but doesn’t touch just yet. His way home… “Hey, no, I trust you, Tails. I’m sure they’ll work great!” He lifts one to examine it, being careful of the technology attached to it. “Won’t be the first time your tech hops me from universe to universe, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”

Rift blew softly. “Okay, so, I’m air support. Fine. Agreed. Flash goes super; Silv too, maybe?”

“That’s a good call,” Rift said. He looked to Flash. “Two golden hedgehogs are always better than one, right? You remember going super with Silver, right?” He angled up his ears and raised a brow; he knew Flash remembered Mephiles, but metal virus was another story. He hoped the younger hedgehog had fought alongside his version of Silver in at least one of those.

“Of course I do, he’ll be a great help in the fight!” Silver was always a good ally, and going super with him had saved everyone from the Metal Virus, so he held a soft-spot for the pale hedgehog. “Sounds like we’ve got most of a plan sorted, then. When this is all over I’ll happily test the Riftwalkers to get home.” It’s almost like being home with his friends, but not quite. 

Rift glanced to Tails, who looked again to Flash. “Actually, Flash- it would help if you wore them in the fight. You’ll be using your powers a lot, and that will help the compass learn your signature. Just wearing them is enough!”

Rift nodded to Flash encouragingly.

Flash tilts his head to consider that, shrugs, and picks the shoes up. “Yeah, ok. I guess that makes sense.” They look to be close enough to his regular size that they won’t hinder his running. He feels a bit self-conscious changing his shoes in front of everyone. “I’m gonna- go get changed?” He salutes them with two fingers and heads for the stairs. “Thanks. Again. For these. I’ll be right back.” He dashes up the stairs and finally changes his gloves and socks, discarding the very old ones in the trash and pulling clean ones on before slipping into the Riftwalkers. They make a tingling feeling travel up his legs and he’s sure they tighten to fit him perfectly. “Weird.”

Rift leans back against the console and lets out a breath. “... So. C’mon. Everyone’s thoughts?”

Amy was the first to reply. “He’s a cutie! It’s been awhile since you’ve looked anything like that, before. Gahhh, your quills used to be so bright- er, I mean, they, not like they are now, I mean before Arthur- … nevermind.”

Rift smiled tightly and decided not to take her blunder to heart. His usual quills were darker blue than Flash’s, certainly; they’d come in that color after he quilled while dating Jet.

Knuckles remained surly, weight shifted to on foot and arms crossed over his chest. “... He can take a punch, at least. Good to know.”

“He’s a good leader,” Rouge said thoughtfully, “but, definitely not as sure of himself as I’m used to, Blue.” Her eyes found Rift’s and bore into them, a challenge behind them. He snorted.

Tails hummed. “I… want to trust him. But after Arthur…”

“Can’t trust any Sonics,” Knuckles growled, glaring at Rift.

“Hey, will you lay off? It’s not like I was hiding anything from you guys; so he has a dark form; so do I, and you’ve all seen it!” Rift snarled. “It isn’t his fault, anyway. Arthur’s good; remember how he was with the littles? Shade lived by his side the whole time he was with us.”

Amy’s face set with determination. “Yes, he did. Do you really think we can bring him back? I mean, even with Ruby, you came back…”

Rift pinned his ears and swallowed thickly. He nodded. “I do. I know we can.”

He could not hold Rouge’s gaze when cyan irises bore once more into his own.

“Can’t trust any Sonics.” Knuckles’ words drift up the stairs to Flash as he heads for them, and he winces. Ok so he knew they’d be suspicious, after what Rift has told him, but it still stings a little to hear it.  He  doesn’t want to interrupt but he also doesn’t want to be seen as eavesdropping so he waits for a lull in the conversation before coming back down the stairs, plastering a smile on as he reaches the bottom. “These are pretty neat, Tails! I think they’re working already? I can feel something. I think.”

Tails tilted his head, eyes wide and grinning despite his reservations. “Great! That’s a good sign-,” he said, turning immediately to his console to look through remote readouts.

Rift smiled at the Fox; leave it to a good tech problem to occupy him enough to stifle his anxiety. He looked to the others. “Rouge, based on your intel, when do you think our strike window peaks?”

The bat shuffled her wings and tilted her head. “Soon as,” she replied. “I think the new dynamic duo and Arthur realize we were gathering the emeralds; they want in, and they’re luring us out to get them from us. We should keep that in mind.”

Rift nodded. “So… tomorrow?”

The group stiffened, but, none of Rift’s crew could argue with the accelerated timeline; Shadow’s safety, and that of their entire world, was at stake. Rift looked to Flash for his approval.

Flash gravitates back towards Rift, who at least seems to want him there - rather than tolerates his presence because he’s useful. He nodded in response. “Tomorrow.” It felt like both not enough time, and too much time. If they waited too much longer their advantage would mean nothing, but if they went too soon and Flash couldn’t do all he’d promised… “We’ll be ready.”

Rift nodded. “Yeah, we will. Okay! Who’s bunking where?” he said, clapping his hands together. “Me, Tails, and Flash are staying here with the littles.”

Rouge sighed. “Love a pre-battle slumber party, but unfortunately, I’m on Auntie Rouge duty to Riot while Shadow’s gone,” she said. She smirked at Rift. “Unless you’re feeling especially step-dad-ish to your future chao?”

Rift grimaced and shrank, shoulders rising up. “Er… no, I’m, I’m good. You have fun…”

Rouge shrugged and pulled on Knuckles’ arm to get him to follow her. The echidna cast one last hard look Rift and Flash’s way before doing so. Over his shoulder he threw a, “Sorry for the right-hook, kid. Was aiming for your uglier half,” over his shoulder. His hand went up in a wave as he followed his partner out.

Amy sighed. “I need to get back to Sol and talk with Blaze… I don’t know if I should let Eve know about Shadow or not. This past month has been so hard on her, I…” She trailed, eyes cutting up to Flash suddenly.

“S’okay,” Rift soothed. “He knows about Eve. And you and Shads. And me and Shads. Wow that is… more complicated when I put it all together like that-”

Amy snorted and crossed her arms over her chest. She pinned her ears, but smiled at Flash anyway. “She’d be excited to see you, you know. And Classic. Arthur, too, before… well. Before all this. More Nickys to sneak her treats and teach her mischief, heh…” 

Flash huffs a soft laugh. “No lasting harm done, Knucklehead!” He calls after the echidna’s retreating back. 

Flash smiles warmly at the mention of Eve, about to reassure Amy that he’s up to speed before Rift did it for him. “I’d…be excited to meet her, too. She’s a real cutie.” He can’t deny that he loves kids, and a kid of Amy and Shadow is bound to be a sweetheart. “I bet she’s got her hands full mischief-wise already, yeah?”

“Could definitely say that,” Amy laughed. She sighed. “Okay… well, it was nice meeting you! And… I guess I’ll see all you tomorrow?”

Rift nodded, and subtly shifted his arms to allow the pink hedgehog to run into them for a hug. She needed no more invitation that that; he held her close and buried his nose in her quills. “Gonna get him back, Ames,” Rift said quietly into them.

Amy only squeezed harder before finally letting go to head back outside.

Rift blew softly and turned to Tails and Flash. “Okay. So. Dinner, yeah? I put a pot of chili on up in the kitchenette before the crew got here. Who wants dogs?”

“You, too.” Flash looks away as Amy and Rift embrace, always feeling like he’s intruding on something when he’s around for a sweet moment between Rift and his friends. He waves as Amy departs and nods at the mention of food, his stomach giving a rumble. “You even have to ask?” Flash follows Rift to the kitchenette, leans in the doorframe. “You want a hand?”

Rift snorts. “It’s all done, pretty much. I had a pot I made for Tails before I left for Caliburn- ‘course the brat didn’t touch so much as a bowl of it.”

“Hey, you know I don’t eat when I’m stressed,” came Tails’ voice as came up the stairs. He stepped carefully past Flash to pull bowls down. “The littles liked it, anyway.”

The pot on the stove was indeed slightly more empty than the previous night when Rift had set it in the fridge. He grinned and stirred it, looking back over his shoulder at Flash, he said, “You wanna get some dogs going? Warning: I will judge your entire universe based solely on how you warm ‘em.”

“Mine is the same. I guess he gets that from me…” Flash steps back to allow Tails to pass him, still unused to his little brother being older and taller than him. He huffs a laugh at Rift’s comment and glances at the kitchen counter where the dogs are waiting. “Uh…what are these?” He’s never seen hotdogs packaged like this; the strange plastic vacuum packed packaging, with liquid inside. How was he supposed to open it without that going everywhere? He picks it up and turns it over in his hands. “They don’t…come in a tin? Or a jar?”

Rift and Tails both froze, looked to each other, blinked, and turned to looked back at Flash. “... What?” came their tandem retort.

“A… jar? Of hot dogs? What like, pickles?” Rift asked, tilted his head and pinned one ear.

“Next he’ll be asking why our milk’s not in a bag,” Tails sighed, shaking his head as he turned back to preparing toppings for the dogs.

Rift blew and stepped over to help Flash with the pack. “Like this, dude,” he said, carefully peeling back the top of the sealed pack while it was still in Flash’s hands, stabilizing it with his other. “Just don’t tip it. We’ll put the extras we don’t cook in a tupperware when we’re through.”

He stepped back to man the chili once more.

Flash stares back at them with equal confusion. “…yes?” He blinks as Rift steps up to him and peels open the bag, staring down in confusion at the packaging.“But…that’s so difficult. Why wouldn’t they be in something that stands on its own that you can re-seal?” He holds the bag carefully to ensure it doesn’t tip or spill, and looks around for a saucepan. “I usually…boil mine. Please tell me these can be boiled. I think I’ve had enough chilli-dog related shocks for the day.”

“Dramatic much,” Rift snorted. “You’ve had like, one. And yeah sure, boiling is fine; I usually do that anyway. Sometimes I finish ‘em in a pan to give ‘em a sear.”

“When he’s being extra,” Tails quipped under his breath.

Rift shot him a glare and pouted. “Hey! We could die tomorrow, let me be extra!”

Tails snorted and flicked Rift with a tail tip as the hedgehog moved to get a pot and a flat pan down for Flash.

“One is more than enough!” Flash rolls his eyes at the other’s antics, but it makes his chest ache to think about his own Tails, who is probably sick with worry about where he is. “Heh. Preferably not.”

He tips about half the bag of dogs into the pot with some brine, then reconsiders and adds another couple. He looks around for some Tupperware, gripping the top of the bag tightly to prevent any liquid spilling, and, after rummaging through several cupboards and drawers, finally locates what he was searching for and empties the bag into it. “Whose idea was it to put hotdogs in a bag? That makes no sense.”

“I dunno,” Rift replied. “CEO of hot dogs. I don’t ask questions.”

“That’s a lie.”

“Coming from Mr. Questions Everything!"

Tails laughed, lightly for the first time that night and shouldered his older brother lightly. He shook his head and set aside cut up jalepeños and grated cheese.

“CEO of hotdogs is my dream job.” Flash pushes aside the pang of jealousy he feels for the other two and focuses on not exploding the hotdogs in the pan. When he deems them sufficiently boiled he locates a fork and transfers them over to the flat pan to sear them. “You guys got crispy bacon bits?” He glances at Rift out of the corner of his eye, not wanting to take too much attention off the hotdogs and burn them. 

“We got bacon in the fridge, if you wanna make some,” Rift replied, grinning. “Sounds good!”

Tails snorted. “What happened to a good old fashion unadulterated chili dog?”

“You eat sweet relish and pepper jelly on yours, I don’t wanna hear it-”

“You crush up corn chips on yours!”

“Yeah! ‘Cause it’s delicious!”

The brothers resorted to trading a few light blows to one another, laughing and grinning as they roughhoused through their mutual tasks. Rift stopped the horseplay first, pushing Tails back as he picked up the chili pot to move it off the burner and onto a potholder on the counter. He went to the fridge and pulled out the pack of bacon strips. “Now you got me wanting to try it, though, so.” He pulled down another pan to heat up and started frying the strips.

“I agree with the corn chips. Something about that extra crunch is just awesome. But. Bacon is better.” Flash flashes a smile as Rift starts frying up the bacon, stepping to the side slightly to allow him room in front of the cooker and flipping the hotdogs sequentially to ensure they all get cooked equally. “You gotta have a bit of crunch. And cheese. Lots of cheese.” He wonders if it’s too much to ask for sour cream too and looks between Rift and Tails before turning the burner off and going to check the fridge himself. He’s in luck; a pot of sour cream is waiting for him in there and he pulls it out with a grin. “S’it ok if I use this?” 

Tails is the one to glance back, still grinning from his banter with his brother, and nods, “S’fine!” he replies easily, like speaking to Flash is no different than to his own brother. He moves from the small kitchenette to the futon and chair to set plates out on the coffee table; a chili dog bar is perhaps overkill for the three, but, well, it was the night before a big battle…

Flash warms at the easy way Tails smiles at him. “Thanks!” He sets the sour cream on the coffee table, collects the pan of hotdogs and brings them over as well. “Man, I’m starving. This new speed is really eating my energy.” He waits for the other two to sit down before joining them, initially unsure where he should sit. When they’re all situated he builds himself a dog, throwing the chilli on top, followed by the cheese and then the  sour cream and bacon bits. “Perfect.”

Rift laughs and follows suit soon after. It was late, or else he would get the littles up for chili dog night, too; luckily they’d eaten before he and Flash got back.

Classic watches him with an inquisitive gaze. Tails looked to him and sighed. “I know, know… Let’s just keep working, okay? I’ll… talk to Sonic later. Er, sorry… Rift.”

Upstairs, Rift was moving a few things around upstairs to make room for Flash. There was no bed; instead, a hammock was strung to hang beside the large round window in the loft. A small closet with a curtain across it held all of Sonic’s hangable clothes, and an old, beaten down dresser held socks and gloves. An old trunk was against the wall by the closet, closed up and locked with a blanket thrown over it to act like a soft seat. Various bits were on the flat shelf under the round window, to act like an end table for the hammock. A large rug covered the old wooden floor, and various pictures were taped or thumbtacked to the wall with string lights hung loosely from the ceiling along the edges.

Rift turned from picking up the clothes of his Arthur had borrowed. “Heh, sorry it’s not much, but it’s a place to rest, at least. I’ve got a spot like this in the bungalow on the beach, too.” Shade was at his side, close to his legs and looking around with interest.

Flash finds Rift and Shade in the little room, the former rearranging things and the latter gazing around at everything. “This is great. Looks a bit like my room at my Tails’.” Right down to the photos on the wall and the hammock by the window. “You sure it’s ok for me to stay here? Tails…didn’t seem thrilled about it.” He approaches the dresser and jerks his head to gesture to the drawers. “Don’t suppose you’ve got anything that’d fit me? Mine are…well.” He holds his hands up to show how his gloves are falling apart and stained from being worn for so long. “I went without ‘em after a couple weeks, easier to get around when you’ve gotta climb, but thought I’d better put them back on when I tried to go home.”

“Might have! Our hands can’t be that different, y’know? Least neither of us are like Shads, with his talons. Heh, I’ve definitely had a nasty scr… er,” Rift stops suddenly and glances at Shade, then clears his throat and thinks better of what polite conversation means in front of a child. “Anyway. Um. But, yeah, socks are a maybe, but gloves I’m pretty sure will work.”

He spotted one of Arthur’s gauntlets lying on top of the dresser and walked over. He picked it up and turned it over a few times, old memories of his gauntlet he wore while wielding Caliburn. He lifted it and slipped it over his hand; it fit, well, like a glove. He hummed and slipped it back off. “...Yeah. I can do this…”

“Yours are probably bigger. Because. Well.” Flash gestures to Rift with a casual all-encompassing motion to emphasise his height and size. “But thanks.” He helps himself to some gloves, setting them  on the hammock for later. Even though Rift is a version of him, showing hands is still something intimate. He huffs a laugh at how Rift has to cut himself off to avoid saying something rude in front of Shade, and watches as the taller hedgehog slips the gauntlet on for a moment. “Do you think the Chaos Emeralds can power Caliburn properly, then?”

Rift looks to Flash and licks his lips, then glances to Shade. “...Shade, bud, uh, you think you can maybe go find some more blankets for Flash here?”

Shade looked between the hedgehogs and nodded, hurrying from the room.

Rift blew softly through his nose and turned to lean against the dresser, hands braced on its edges. “...I didn’t want to bring this up before, but… I talked to Lancelot, before I left to search for Caliburn. He… seems to think they can, but, I don’t know. Tails’ analysis will be able to figure that part out.”

Flash raises a brow as Rift sends Shade for more blankets and taps his fingers against his thigh whilst he waits for the other to speak. “That’s…that’s good then, right?” He pauses, thinks that over. “Is Lance here, then?” 

Rift shook his head. “No, he sorta, appeared in a bonfire I had going at the bungalow. Just kinda. Made in flames it was hot actually- heh pun not intended- anyway…” The hedgehog clears his throat and takes a breath. “It’s good as long as he’s right, sure, but, I mean, you remember the Excalibur form, right? Felt like going super, but to the left. If I can’t resonate with the energy in Caliburn, what good can its power do? And… it means… killing Arthur, again. For good, this time, no magical Lake resurrections. And this time, in front of Tails, Ames…” 

Rift turned his head, crossing his arms over his chest tightly. “They watched me kill before. I never wanted them to see it again, and definitely not a former ally.”

Flash laughs quietly at the accidental pun but sobers quickly as Rift continues to talk. He nods in agreement about the Excalibur form, he remembers that well enough. “You’ve…” He swallows. Covers in with a cough. “…killed before?” Flash has only ever fought to stop people from hurting innocents or his friends, he’s never had to go so far as killing someone before. “If it comes to that…can you do it?” He’s not sure he could. 

“I don’t want it to, but, yeah. I… I can.” He closed his eyes, took a breath, let it out. Again. He opened his eyes. “That time before, where I went full Dark? I killed Infinite.”

Flash nods grimly in acceptance of that fact, and blanches at the mention of Infinite. “Oh.” His voice comes out small and quiet and he clears his throat. “Is that… that’s good? Well. He’s - he was - a bad. Dude.” He takes another breath.  “So. I mean. I dunno that anyone deserves to die. But. He’s about as close as someone comes to it.”

 Rift took in a breath, blowing it out his nose and concentrating on the feeling of air moving through his body. He could see feel it, the echoes in his head, the illusions, the horrors Infinite danced before him night after night after night- the death, the failure, the burning-

Another breath. Rift shook his quills. “Yeah,” he replied at length, standing from the dresser. He forced himself to look at Flash. “So. I can do it. Push comes to shove. But I don’t want you walking in blind, here; if the Black Knight figures out how to traverse the Rifts, there’s a real risk that, if he’s not stopped here, he travels to other worlds, too. Yours, even. He’s already threatened to burn Camelot. So, just know… if it comes to it, leave the blood to me, okay? Like I said before. I’m already drenched; you keep your hands clean.”

Flash watches Rift take a deep breath and knows he’s reliving the Death Egg. Gaia knows he’s done it enough times himself. When the taller hedgehog steps away from the dresser to meet his gaze, Flash tips his head back to make eye contact. “I get it. This world. My world. They’re all in danger but…” His hand twitches at his side, normally this is the part where he’d put a hand on someone’s shoulder to offer comfort and support, “…look I’m not. Innocent here. My hands aren’t clean.” 

So he’s never killed anyone directly. Doesn’t mean he isn’t responsible for a death, even if it was someone who he thinks deserved it. “You don’t have to protect me, I’m not actually a kid. I’m you. You know I can handle myself. So if…” He puffs his cheeks out on a sharp exhale “if you can’t resonate…without your chaos. Maybe I can. And if it means protecting the multiverse then I can…I will do that.”

“Heh… and I know I can’t stop you. But you aren’t me, not yet, and if I can help it, you won’t have to be. Don’t think too much on it tonight, alright? Just… get some rest. I’ll see if I can sort us out some chili dogs, maybe we’ll grab Classic and eat up on the roof later. By tomorrow, hopefully everyone will be back and we can figure out the chaos problem… but. You might just have to be the one to go super. I just hope our energies are close enough it’ll work.”

Shade appeared quiet at the door then, carrying an armful of blankets. He peeked in, ears folded. “...Okay?”

Rift leaned around Flash and smiled easily at the hoglet. “Great job, Shade, thanks!”

Even though he knows mentioning food is just a distraction tactic, Flash’s stomach rumbles. He hasn’t eaten since yesterday, and now he thinks about it he doesn’t know where the pack of supplies the other Sonic and Shadow gave him went. Possibly lost through the rift he came through. “I can do that.” He hopes so, too. 

At the sound of Shade’s quiet voice Flash turns and offers him a soft smile, crouching down to take the bundle of blankets. “Thanks, these will be nice and warm for me.” He sets them on the hammock, hops into it to test the comfort. “Perfect.” He jumps down again, heads for the stairs. “I’m gonna get a quick run in, I think. If that’s cool?” He looks to Rift for permission. 

Rift nods, and only barely feels the pang of jealousy at the request. “Sure, someone’s gotta. I’ll get on rustling up something to eat.”

Shade wagged his tail and purred at the praise, purr already sounding every bit of the clicking, geiger-counter purr it would remain well into adulthood. He moved back to stand by Rift, closing his eyes and accepting a soft pat on the head.

Flash nods and makes his way downstairs, turning back before he disappears from view to eye Shade with a smile. “Hey, Shade? Wanna see how fast I can go? Gotta test out this new speed without crashing into anyone.” He winks playfully at Rift as he darts down the last stairs and back into the workshop, stopping a safe distance away from Tails. “Uh. I’m gonna go for a run, Classic still awake? Thought he might wanna watch. I dunno if you heard but I’m…well I’m unexpectedly fast recently so I gotta test it out.”

Shade’s ears perked and he looked to Rift, who laughed and nodded after Flash. “Go on, I’ll get everyone dinner.”

The hoglet grinned and went after Flash.

Downstairs, Tails looked back at the sound of Flash coming down the stairs. He pinned his ears. “Yeah, Classic’s still up- he’s, Sonic, I mean- that is to say, he’s you, and y’know, I don’t have to tell you… uh, look, um, can I- I want to apologize for earlier.” The fox turned to him fully, ears still back and gaze dropped. “I still don’t trust you, not really, but, maybe… maybe you can be what we need in this fight. So. I’m sorry I was so… standoffish, before.” He blew softly and forced himself to look up, though his gaze tracked just beside Flash instead of head on. “Are we… okay?”

Classic hopped down from the counter by the console, yawning, though he perked when Shade appeared down the steps and ran to stand by him.

Flash pauses to let Tails get his thoughts out, playing with the cuff of one of his gloves. “I get it. You don’t gotta apologise to me, bud-uh-Tails. Rift told me what happened with Arthur, and then here I come; barrelling through a rift and acting like he did and offering to help. So. I understand. We’re fine. You don’t gotta trust me to work with me, I guess?” Gaia knows he’s worked with plenty of people he doesn’t fully trust before. He laments the lack of eye contact, but supposed this is the best he’s going to get out of this (rightfully) wary version of his brother. “We’ll stick close by.” He gestures to the kids to follow him outside and makes his way far enough from the workshop that a sonic boom won’t shatter the windows. 

“Right. I’m gonna run in a wide circle around the house first, either of you think you can keep a time count for me?” He hops from foot to foot, stops to stretch his legs and arms out. “You guys might wanna cover your ears when I take off.”

The kids followed him eagerly, and Classic hopped foot to foot in time with Flash. Shade was more wary, but being near Classic seemed to sooth him.

Classic began rapidly signing, and Shade leaned around to watch. He looked to Flash, and incase the older hedgehog wasn’t paying close enough attention while he stretched, said, “Classic will count! …and I’ll count, too, in case he gets distracted.”

Classic turned to give Shade a grumpy look, to which the hybrid hoglet only flicked an over-large ear and grinned. “Just in case-”

Flash was half paying attention, and was glad for the translation. “Good idea. Always good to have multiple people help!” He taps his toes on the ground a few times, bends and stretches again. “Ok you guys ready?” He waits for affirmation. “Cover your ears, ok? Sonic boom’s a bit different when you’re not the one making it.” He watches them to make sure they cover them, gives them a nod, and takes a slow breath before pushing off. He breaks the sound barrier in half a second and rockets around the wide perimeter he’s set himself as a course. 

Shade struggles a bit with clamping down his overlarge ears, but does manage it before Flash takes off. Classic, hands clamped down over his own pinna, whoops and leaps beside Shade before taking off after Flash.

He cannot hope to catch him, but he makes his own barrier break regardless. Shade watches them both with wide eyes, turning in a circle to track them as they ran. 

Flash accelerates as he curves his path, hearing a second boom behind him and turning to see Classic running too. He waits until he’s completed one lap, grinning at Shade as he passes, before slowing down so Classic can catch up to him. “Hey, bud!” He signs as he runs. “What do you think? Pretty fast, huh?” 

Classic nods, eyes bright and wide, grin feral, short quills whipping along his head wildly. He tries to put on another burst, but he’s at his max; it’ll be sometime before he can match the speed of either big Sonics, except of course Rift’s current form.

Inside, Rift takes the opportunity of Flash’s distraction and goes down to the workshop floor, where Tails is still working with Caliburn.

“...Hey, bud?”

Tails glances up, then looks back to his console. “Hey, Sonic. Sorry. Rift.”

“C’mon, you know it’s a good idea to differentiate; Arthur kinda came with a new name built in.”

Tails blew, but then his face softened. “...Can we trust him? I mean, really?”

“Trust me, still? After everything?”

Tails nodded with no hesitation. “Always.”

Rift smiled. “Then, yeah. We can. Within reason, I mean, but… there’s something I need to talk to you about. You think you’ve cracked the rifts enough to use them? I mean, to get all these guys home?” The hedgehog nodded to the garage door, where the speeding hedgehogs and Shade’s bright laugh could still be heard.

Tails followed his gaze for a moment, his own trained on the distant lights of the rifts in the sky. “...I, I think I did. But, that was before…” He looked back to his brother, eyes darting over silver quills, before he swallowed thickly and turned from the console. “Follow me.”

Back outside, Flash beams down at Classic as they run, bouncing around him in a circle, rolling into a spin-dash to rebound off a tree. It feels good to run with someone, it’s been over a year for him by technicality, and he lets out a loud ‘whoop!’ After a few  minutes  he slows to a stop in front of Shade, feeling more in control of his speed, and puts a hand out to catch Classic in case he needs it. “Well, I feel great.” He continues to sign as he speaks, dropping to a crouch in front of the kids and grinning with excitement. “Anyone fancy a ride?” 

The kids both looked to each other before grinning and running up to Flash’s sides, both eager. Shade seemed to hesitate, but only a bit; he’d never run so fast before, after all.

Inside, Tails lead Rift to a counter with something covered by old tarp. He pulled the tarp free; underneath, a pair of roughly-rigged sneakers, clearly a prototype, but from their looks, a working one.

“I call them Riftwalkers,” the fox explained. “They tap the energy of the wearer, convert to rift energy, and allow the wearer to slip through a small, temporary rift. I haven’t perfected it yet; I still can’t be sure how exactly the destination of the other side is determined, but… they could be the key. Or, they were…”

“Before I lost my speed.”

“Yeah… I was hoping you could use them to run the others to their worlds.”

Rift contemplated the sneakers for a moment, then hummed. “...But. In a pinch… could these as a prototype just get one hedgehog across?”

Tails folded an ear and looked confused. “One?”

Rift nodded. “Yeah. We need an insurance policy… if things go south at the battle, I need a back door for Flash. I’m not dragging him down with us; not when he’s got a shot at a real happy ending.”

The fox pinned both ears as his brother stepped around him to look over the Riftwalkers; but he nodded, gaze set and determined. “Understood. I’ll get them working… with a failsafe.”

“Good. And… keep it between us?”

“...Yeah. Between us.”

Flash looks between the kids with a grin. “Both of you? Hm. I can probably carry two…ok let’s see.” He sits down on the floor for a moment to think, then nods. “Ok what we’ll do is I’ll carry one of you on my back, and one on the front.” He worries if he tries to carry one in each arm it will affect his aerodynamics by making him less streamlined, and he doesn’t want to put the kids in danger by not being in control. “So which would you prefer, guys?”

Classic doesn’t give anyone the chance to dither; he leaps onto Flash’s back and clambers up until he’s holding on around Flash’s neck, the way he’d done Rift when the oldest Sonic first found him.

Shade is a bit more shy stepping up to Flash and averting his faze, hands politely behind his back. “Only if it’s okay-”

Flash barks a laugh as Classic scrambles onto his back, making sure to keep his quills relaxed and smoothed down. “Well I guess that solves that.” He adjusts Classic’s legs a little so they’re sitting comfortably around his middle and the kid can hang on tightly, then bends down to Shade. “It’s more than ok, Shade. Is it ok if I pick you up?” He holds out his arms, a friendly smile on his face. 

Shade eyes Flash’s arms a moment, then, upon deciding it was, in fact, okay, he stepped into them and let himself be picked up.

Classic wriggled on Flash’s back and laughed in his ear. He let go for a second to sign something encouraging to Shade, but upon nearly slipping from the hedgehog’s back, thought better and instead just smiled at the dark hoglet and nodded.

Flash lifts Shade carefully into his arms and settles him comfortably against his chest; one arm supporting his knees and one around his back. He’s carried his Shadow like this many times, but this Shadow is so much smaller and more fragile. “Woah, kiddo, don’t slip!” He leans forward to compensate for Classic slipping down a little and waits for him to get readjusted before standing up straight again. “Everybody ready?” 

When he gets an affirmative from both of them he makes sure they’re both secure before taking off. He can’t quite get up to full speed holding both of them, but he’d rather be safe than sorry. They still break the sound barrier a couple of times on their way around, Flash being careful to make sure both kids are safe and secure at all times. When he slows to a stop after a few laps he crouches down to set Shade back on his feet and let Classic climb down off his back safely. 

Classic is laughing the whole run, eyes closed and screaming in joy. Shade laughs too, though in a quieter giggle against Flash’s chest, clinging to him closely.

Classic hops down and runs in a few excited circles around both Shade and Flash, still laughing. Shade watches him a moment, before his attention is pulled upward; two figures approach overhead, headed for the workshop’s wide garage doors. They don’t seem to notice the group outside, and both touch down on the tarmac before sprinting inside- Rouge and Knuckles, back from their hunt and clearly with news to share.

Flash turns in a circle to watch Classic run around, grin wide on his face and eyes alight with joy. “You guys have fun?” He catches sight of Shade, who has stopped to look at something in the sky, and follows his eyeline to see Knuckles and Rouge land and run inside. His smile drops and he takes a breath. “Uh…you guys wanna head inside or…? Wanna take turns? I dunno if…” He clears his throat, remembering these are kids, “…if I wanna go back inside yet.” 

Shade looks to Flash and tilts his head. “...I can hold your hand, if you’re scared? Like I do for my sister.” He holds out a hand to the older hedgehog shyly.

Classic watches in confusion, signing questions to Shade and Flash. He jumps forward, looks back, and then hops back to Flash, as though to indicate he wants to run again side-by-side.

Warmth blooms in Flash’s chest and he takes the offered hand, giving it a little squeeze. “Thanks, Shade.” He watches Classic with a fond little smile and looks down at Shade. “Whaddaya say, kiddo? Wanna go for another run?” 

Shade smiles and nods, if only because he assumes it will make Flash happy. Classic laughs and takes off running.

At the garage entrance, Rift appears, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. His ears are back and he looks unsettled, shifting even as he’s leaned back. He watches the group from a distance.

“C’mon then.” Flash holds his arms out and waits until Shade approaches to lift him up into them again. “You ok like this or you wanna get on my back?” He watches Classic get further away but isn’t worried about catching him until Shade is happy. 

Shade bits his lip and shyly reaches to be picked up again; he preferred it to trying to cling as Classic did to the hedgehog’s back. Clinging to much at all made his fingers ache.

Classic zipped around the workshop and back pausing for a moment to tap his foot before taking off again.

Flash waits until Shade is settled properly in his arms, wrapping them around him as before, before searching Classic out and following after him. Only carrying one hoglet means he can go a little faster without worrying about dropping one, and he catches up to Classic quickly. “Tag,” He nudges the kid gently, “You’re it!” And speeds off, making sure he’s not going so fast that Classic can’t catch him. 

Classic laughs and speeds after Flash, pushing himself to go as fast as he can. He reaches out and just manages to shove his fingers against Flash’s thigh.

Shade bundles against Flash, giggling again. He hides his face in the hedgehog’s chest.

“Aw, dang! Got me!” Flash pretends to lament, skidding into a turn way better than he has before and tearing after Classic, grinning at Shade’s tinkling laughter. “Get him, Shade!” He calls as they get closer to Classic - not before giving him a good head start for a bit - and leans down as much as he can to allow Shade within arms reach. 

Shade turned and, trusting Flash to keep him steady, reached out to tag Classic. The hoglet yelped and tried to jump ahead, but to no avail; Shade laughed in victory as he bundled back up against Flash.

Classic came to a sliding stop not far before Rift, who had stepped from the doorway now. His arms were still crossed, face awash in poorly masked anxiety. “...Having a good time, you three?”

“Great job!” Flash pulls Shade tightly back against his chest once they’ve tagged Classic and watches him stop, following him over to the warehouse and sliding to a stop beside him. “Oh hey, uh, Rift. Yeah. Just…doing some…running.” He crouches so set Shade back on the floor and gives him a reassuring smile. “Everything ok?”

Rift smiled tightly. “Peachy! Rouge and Knux got back with their Chaos Emeralds, so, just waiting on Amy now. And… some news, heh! Good news! Sorta! Hey, kids, it’s getting late, don’t ya think?”

Classic tilted his head and scowled. He signed in protest, not used to anyone telling him when to go to bed. No one to tell forest orphans much of anything, after all.

Shade frowned but was much more conditioned to accept instruction from adults than Classic. He took the blue hoglet’s hand, much like he’d done with Flash, and walked him inside before any argument could erupt. Classic was too stunned to protest, and followed blinking owlishly at the hybrid.

Rift drew in a deep breath, watched them go in, and looked back to Flash. “...Okay. Ready? I kinda gave Knux and Rouge the basics on our situation. Also please ignore anything and everything Knuckles has to say, he’s being extra asshole-y. Not that that’s new. But. They have news that’s apparently sorta good and sorta bad but they won’t spill until you’re in there too; or, rather, Rouge won’t, Knux won’t talk much to me anyway. Am I rambling? I feel like I’m rambling-” Rift pinned his ears and took a breath.

Flash watched the kids go inside with a mix of joy and trepidation, because whatever Rift had to say clearly wasn’t going to be for small ears. He taps a foot as Rift spills all of his thoughts out, nodding to show he’s listening. “Yeah. A little. But… I got the jist of it. Ignore Knux, Rouge is in charge, the world might not be ending. Got it. Shall we?” He gestures to the door for Rift to lead the way and falls into step behind him. 

“Yeah, yeah, let’s-... let’s go.” Rift turned and headed into the workshop.

Knuckles and Rouge waited by Tails in the center of the workshop; the fox had already set up the Chaos emeralds with their others. The bat was the first of the three to look up at the incoming hedgehogs, and angled tall, pointed ears their way. Long, wavy white hair from her head was tied up in a loose bun above the nape of her neck, thin pieces left free around her face. She tilted her head, leaf-blade nose twitching at the sight of the new hedgehog, and vaulted into the air to fly around behind the two and land to follow them in.

“Well, well, well… Been awhile since you were this pint-sized, Big Blue.”

Rift blew. “Rouge, Flash. Flash, Rouge. For the foreseeable future, I’m Rift. And Knux,” the hedgehog began, nodding towards the echidna who stood by Tails glaring daggers Rift’s way, “Flash. Flash? The world’s grumpiest pin cushion. Great! Everyone’s here; let’s hear the news?”

“Now boys…,” Rouge sighed, rolling her eyes.

“You hear somethin’? Swear I heard this annoying drone, comin’ from somewhere over your way, Roo’.”

“Knuckles for the love of Gaia-”

Flash smiled awkwardly as Rouge looked up at them, resisting the urge to cower behind his taller counterpart. He sighed and rolled his eyes at being called pint-sized again, but offered Rouge a nod and a grin as they were ‘introduced’. Knuckles looked like he was trying to explode Rift with his mind. Which. Was how he often looked, when Flash thought about it. He didn’t smile at the echidna, because he didn’t want to be exploded via mind-powers, but he did wave. “Uh…hi, guys.” What else was he supposed to say? “Rift - Sonic - said you’d got news?”

“So impatience is universal to you, good to know,” Rouge teased, dodging smoothly around Flash to poke at Rift’s side as she went to stand by Knuckles again. When she’d turned, though, all playful demeanor was gone from her face. Her turquoise eyes had hardened, and she drew up to her full height. “Sonic- er, Rift- we found more than the Chaos emeralds, when we were out hunting. While I was tracking my emerald, I came across intel on the location where they’re keeping Shadow.”

Rift froze, ears back- but only for a moment. “Then why are we standing around?” he asked, looking to Tails. “Where are you with the calibrations between Caliburn and the emeralds? We should go as soon as-”

“Rift. That’s not all.”

The hedgehog stopped and turned toward Rouge again as the bat continued, “Arthur has also taken up in that same location. That intel I believe truly was meant to remain out of my hands; but the knowledge of Shadow was far too easy to recover.”

Tails shifted uncomfortably. “What she’s saying is, it’s an obvious trap.”

Rift looked  between them both, blinked, and snorted. “And? We’ve walked into way more obvious traps- this is Shadow we’re talking about! Rouge, c’mon, you and me both know we’d walk into Hell willingly for Shads, what’s different-?”

“Nothing, Blue… at least, nothing like that. I’m willing, so are you. But… able is a different story.”

“No! No, we’re good, that’s why Flash is still here- Flash, tell ‘em our plan, c’mon-”

Flash cringes as pleading green eyes turn to him, feeling small and quite useless. He doesn’t want to drive a wedge between himself and Rift, but - “I’m here to help, Rift, but…not at the risk of your life. We at least need to wait for the rest of the Chaos Emeralds. If we go in there now we might not even get to Shadow. Even with me being here…I can’t take an army on myself if it’s headed by the Black Knight. You know how that almost turned out for us before. We’ve…we’ve gotta be smart about this. I don’t think they’ll do anything to Shads until they know,” He huffs an irritated breath, quills rising slightly, “Until they know you’re watching.” He reaches out to put a hand on Rift’s arm. “But I’m with you. Soon as we’ve got an actual plan we’ll go but not before. Uh. Ok?”

Rift pins his ears and nearly snarls, but catches himself and blows roughly. “...Fine. Fine. You’re both right.”

Knuckles snorts and shakes his head. “Whaddya know. A Sonic with more than two braincells to rub together-”

Rift narrowed his eyes. Ah. An outlet for his frustration- “Alright, knucklehead, that’s enough quips outta you, I’ve taken it for a month-”

“So do something about it, huh? Oh, wait, no, you can’t, because your masterplan to not warn us about Arthur’s fucking dark form backfired and now you’re juiced. I forgot,” the echidna snarled, stepping past Rift, shoulder checking him harshly as he did.

Rift growled and spun, grabbing the echidna’s shoulder and shoving him back. Knuckles bared his teeth and shoved the hedgehog back; Rift stumbled more than he would have a month ago, but stay upright; he slid to a kneeling position to stop his backslide, looked up, and charged the echidna with a loud shout.

Knuckles was ready for him, arms out to lock Rift in a grapple, red Chaos sparking along his quills. It burned at Rift’s silvery fur, but the hedgehog would not relent; not until Knuckles twisted him by the arms, forcing his torso to contort and sending blinding pain through his ribcage, forcing him to a knee.

AV stopped and laughed, nodding through it wordlessly until he could collect himself enough to reply. “Yeah! Yeah, about my reaction, too! Um, I dunno, I guess how most hoglet happens? Heh. ‘Course, they found out after an ugly breakup… thank Gaia they’re both adults who sorted themselves out before the kid was born- back to best friends now. Kid’s name is Eve, by the way; cute as hell. She calls me Nicky, and since Ames started a thing with Blaze, she calls her ‘BB’. Ames is Mama, Shads is Papa, it, it fits ‘em both. You wanna see pictures?”

He was more than aware he was on the precipice of gushing as though Eve was his daughter; he couldn’t bring himself to care. He pulled down his phone in anticipation of a go-ahead, eyes lighter and smile easier than it had been before.

BB pulled a face at the thought of Shadow with Amy, shaking his head slightly to clear the mental image. “I just…can’t picture it. But. Amy and Blaze. That I can see happening. Amy - my Amy, that is - thinks she’s being all subtle about her crush but she’s not.” He isn’t sure if he does want to see pictures, but the other Sonic seems so excited to share - like the kid is his - and he can’t bring himself to deny him this joy when he’s clearly having a horrible time elsewise. “…ok, yeah. I can’t imagine a kid of Shads or Amy being anything other than adorable. So. Guess I’m curious.” He returns the smile as he agrees. 

AV pulls up pictures of the hoglet and passes his phone to the other- he has an album already sorted and ready to share. Most were of silly pictures he’d take of the hoglet to send to Amy or Shadow on the rare instances where they resorted an unsupervised ‘day with Nicky’: pictures of Eve with a comically large mug of hot chocolate, or blurred selfies taken from AV’s back as he ran with the hoglet. Pictures of her sleeping soundly in AV’s arms, of her playing in a field of spring flowers. Pictures of Shadow, quills in rare disarray, sleeping with the hoglet passed out on his chest; of her standing atop Omega’s back, over-large ears inherited from her father up, brilliant smile inherited from her mother plastered across her face. There others, plenty of them, some with Amy, with Blaze, or her aunt Rouge; some with Tails or Knuckles- the child was obviously well loved by all.

BB scrolls through the pictures, soft smile on his face. He can’t deny that the kid is cute. And she looks just like her parents. “Ok, yeah. She’s a cutie. You clearly love her, I guess I can see why.” The pictures of her with Shadow make his chest ache with how he misses his own Shadow, but he tries to focus on the thought that he’ll see his own soon. He hopes. 

“You said her name is Eve?” He can’t help but think that the name rings a bell, but he’s not sure why. None of his friends back home have kids, and he’s not sure he’s ever met an Eve before. He knows it’ll bug him until he remembers where he heard it. “Who picked that?”

AV nodded. “Shadow and Amy sorta hit on it at the same time, I think. Kinda like… she's the end of something, but also the start of something greater. I guess. Sounds like something Shadow would say, heh.” 

His ears fold at the fond memories, bittersweet though they may be at the moment. “She's staying with Blaze in Sol right now… someone sent a bomb through the Rifts and- yeah. Amy was pissed, Shadow fucking lost it. She's safe there, at least.”

“That’s a really nice thought. And yeah, that’s definitely something he’d say.” He blanches at the mention of someone sending a bomb through the Rift. “A bomb!? Why the hell would someone do that?! Was she ok?” 

AV blew and shook out his quills. “No clue. They sent it to her, too, like, she’s four. A toddler- Amy decided to take her after that. She was with Shadow, too, at Team Dark’s apartment, so… you can imagine how he took it. She’s okay; he jumped in and protected her with his doomwings, shielded the bomb too with a Chaos field- apparently Eve tried, as well, and had a small one going before he took over.”

The memory of how Shadow was after that, sulky and broken, the drunken night on the roof… AV frowned, but, if not for that night, he might not have gotten the push to confess his true feelings. He folded his ears and kept walking.

“That’s insane. I’m glad she’s ok, and I totally get why they’d take her somewhere safe.” What kind of world was this? Where people thought sending an explosive to a child was an ok thing to do? “Shads is…he’s a good dad, huh? Not that I can picture a world where he isn’t. But. He’s happy? And you’re happy too? And the kid - Eve - she’s ok with you and him..?” 

“Oh, yeah, Shadow’s incredible!” AV replied, face lighting up and smiling brightly. His melancholy, for the time, was put aside in the blinding brilliance of his love for his partner. “He’s so soft with her, just, gentle and… understanding. Patient, so patient… He talks to her every night, every night, even nights she’s with Amy. Gaia, he loves that kid so much… It killed him when Amy took her to Sol, even if he understood why.” 

AV turned to look at the other as he talked, ears up, face animated. “And yeah, heh, she, uh… So, I, okay, don’t laugh? But I have a… name for Shadow. I dunno! I just, I call him Sunshine. It sorta started as a joke, y’know, cause he’s so dour and grumpy all the time, but… after we started seeing each other, even before we made things official, it stuck. And Eve picked up on it, and started saying Shadow was my sunshine.” His smile softened as he turned back to face the path. The trees were thinning, and they were nearing the meadow with the Tornado on its other side, still out of sight. “She, uh… she’s also the reason I found out about his name for me. I’m only telling you this ‘cause we’re like, literally the same person, okay? But… sometimes, usually just when he’s tired, he calls me ‘angel’.”

BB isn’t expecting to hear anything less, but its nice to have confirmation that Shadow is a good dad. Sonic knew he would be. “I can tell you really love him.” He wonders if this is how he looks when he’s talking about his Shadow. “Hey, I’m not gonna laugh at you, and it’s sweet that she calls him that.” His face softens at hearing Shadow’s nickname for this version of him, and she shakes his head fondly. “My Shads doesn’t really do nicknames. But. He calls me ‘love’ sometimes. He’s so old fashioned and it’s…it makes me all warm inside. I call him Starlight sometimes, and he absolutely melts. It’s…I don’t use it a lot. It’s special, I guess?” He takes a shaky breath in and lets it out, resolutely staring ahead. “I miss him. It’s weird because we spent six months trapped in that bunker together, and then had like a month where I was home with Tails and Shads was out there lookin’ for Eggman - and I was being a coward, hiding in the house so that Eggman couldn’t take me again - and then one day I get up the courage to go outside and I’m blasted to the past for six months.” He’s speaking so fast he has to take a moment to catch his breath, hands threaded into his quills, catching broken ones and tugging them slightly. 

AV’s eyes widen and he reaches out to put a hand on one of the hedgehog’s arms, gentle pressure to stop him pulling out his quills. “Hey, hey, listen, it’s okay, alright? We’re gonna get you home; more than anyone, I get it, dude. But… like you said. Shads is tough, and- and they’ll both be okay, got me? Yours, and mine. And we’ll see them again; I swear to you, nothing is gonna get in the way of me making sure you get home. Nothing, okay?”

He wanted to believe his own words about his own Shadow, but the chill running down his spine made it hard. Push come to shove… he would make sure at least one Sonic, at least one Shadow, got their happy ending, in the end, regardless of how much he knew the younger hedgehog would rail against the suggestion of bowing out of a fight. 

He’d have a talk with Tails, he decided then. However they got the other home, whatever method they found; even if his world burned, he to know at least some version of him got it right, in the end.

BB flinches for a moment at the unexpected touch, but releases the hold he has on his quills and slowly lets his arms drop. He hadn’t even realised he’d stopped walking, but once again they’ve paused so he can have a moment. He hates that he’s slowing them down. “Yeah.” He’s not sure he believes that, especially since this world seems to be in a lot more danger than his own has been for a while, but he wants to. His desire to see Shadow is counterbalanced by the urge to help. “We’ll get yours back, right? And then I’ll get back to mine and apologise for running off again and hope he only punches me into next week and not next year…” He clears his throat, shakes the other’s hand off his arm. “We should keep moving, yeah?”

AV nodded and started forward again. “We’re nearly there, Tornado’s just ahead- can about see her, now.” 

Up ahead, through the last of the trees, a brilliant red sheen could be spotted in a broad clearing. The Tornado, shining bright, newly fixed up. “Fixed her up, all new parts. She’s running better than ever… heh, guess one of us has to.”

BB focusses on where he can see the shape of the plane as it comes into view, and lets out an appreciative whistle. “She’s looking good!” He can’t help but speed over to the Tornado and dash about checking out all the improvements. He runs an appreciative hand over her shiny new paint job whilst he waits for the older Sonic to catch up. “Show me, then. I wanna see how well she runs.” He hops up onto the wings and darts back and forth eagerly. “Been ages since I’ve flown.”

“You got it!” AV replies, throwing himself over the side and into the cockpit. He starts her up and grins at the hedgehog on the wings. “Might not can beat you in a footrace right now, but, I dare anyone, even another me, to outfly me! Let’s go-” He taxied her around, the widest expanse of the clearing before them, and gunned her forward into the wind.

She lifted smoothly, accelerating through the sky and into the lowest cloud layer. A mach-speed-level jet she was not, but, even still, AV pushed her speed as her biwings carved through the air like a freshly sharpened blade. Her propellor hummed, droning and whining, singing as her pilot put her through age-old paces long since second nature to the both of them.

BB watches from the wings as the other hedgehog starts the Tornado up with sure hands and it makes him smile to hear the old plane purr. “I’ll believe it when I see it!” He calls as they start to move, leaning into the wind with practiced ease as they take to the skies. He lets out a whoop as she reaches speed and walks carefully from one side of the wings to the other before dropping down to lie flat so he can call to his counterpart; “She moves like a dream! Listen to that engine, man!” The wind stings his eyes and blows through his quills and it feels freeing in the way running often does. “You still do tricks, old man?” 

“Old man? I’m not even thirty, yet, kid!” AV called, grinning almost madly. Flying left his troubles far below, and for a time, he could pretend not a single one of them existed. “Better hold on tight!”

At the other’s goading, he pushed the Tornado into a barrel roll, coming up in as sharp a climb as he dared in a propeller plane- and then sharper still. AV’s grin sharpened, he pushed her harder- her engine whined in protest, propellers stuttering, until they ceased altogether.

For one brief, fleeting moment, AV grinned up at the hedgehog on the wing, before the Tornado fell, flipping over in the air, nose over wings, gravity dragging her down, wind pelting across her wings and nose as she hurtled at speed toward the ground. AV whooped, his shout lost in the wind; the air blasting past the biplane’s nose whipped through the propellers and sent them spinning.

With a jolt, the engine roared back to life, and AV pulled the plane out of her dive and banked her up in a tight helix, building speed, before leveling her back out on their flight path.

He laughed. “Tricks enough, half-pint?”

When his challenge was met BB let out a cheer as they rolled, holding on tightly to the edge of the wing as gravity left him. At the top of the climb, with the engine silenced and gravity giving up altogether he grinned wildly down at the other Sonic, excitement and that thrill-seeking spirit he knew so well reflected right back back at him in familiar green irises until the Tornado rolled and started to fall. BB laughed as his stomach rolled along with her, fingers numb with the strength of his grip and quills raised in delighted fear until the engine caught and they lurched back up into the air, still spinning all the while. 

When he could finally see through his streaming eyes, and move his fingers again, he pulled up and rolled over the back of the wing to drop neatly into the passenger seat. He clapped a hand on the older hedgehog’s shoulder and shook it lightly, excited and thrilled and feeling a million times better. “Not bad for an old timer, man. Not bad!” It was an understatement. BB was an excellent flier, better than Tails, but he’d never flown like that before. He wasn’t going to tell his counterpart that, though. 

“Heh, not bad, he says! I’ll take it,” AV replied with a sharp grin. He pushed the Tornado on faster, but kept her level as they flew. “Kick back, it’ll be about a two hour flight.”

BB shivered with residual adrenaline as he settled back into the seat, examining the interior of the Tornado with interest. It wasn’t too dissimilar to his own plane. “Came a long way to find Caliburn, then?”

AV nodded. “Yeah. Near that lake was where Arthur fell in, ages ago. Well. Couple months, at least.” He settled back in his seat and glanced back to the other. “So… you’re kinda young to already be with Shadow, ‘least, to me anyway. I had to… swing a few misses, first. You dated anyone else, or am I alone in the ‘long string of failed relationships’ category?”

Months. BB tilts his head quizzically. How long has this world been struggling? “I think you’re alone, dude. It’s only been Shadow for me.” He shrugs. “How long of a string? Who else have you dated?” 

AV pinned his ears, though he supposed he was the one to bring up the topic. He leaned back and shrugged. “Just… a few. Girl named Sally, as like, hardly more than a kid back before the Chaos incident. Then there was… uh. We won’t. Bring that up, that was a fling, actually, and we’re good now- also I don’t wanna make things weird since you’ll probably see him at Tails’ later. Um. Then Mighty came back for a little while, that was wild, then-,” Sonic said, then trailed off. He let out a stilted breath. 

“Then Jet. Word to wise. Just. Stay away from him?” His voice was tight, anxiety visible in every stiffened quill, but anger, too. He gripped the controls harder.

BB hums noncommittally as  the older Sonic lists his dating history, intrigued that he’d found connections with so many people, and he himself had never experienced it with anyone except for Shadow. Sure, he’s liked people…but never dated them. 

He watches the other’s discoloured quills rise almost in slow motion and hesitantly puts a hand on his shoulder. Not pressing or rubbing, just gentle pressure. “Jet…asked me out, once, but I said no. What…happened with you? Uh. You don’t have to tell me…if you don’t want. But. I’ll steer clear of him anyway, if that would make you feel better?”

AV stiffened at the hand on his shoulder, pelt crawling from the contact, but he shot down the impulse to flinch away. “Good, good that you didn’t go for it, when he asked.”

He swallowed thickly and blew through his nose, taking a few deep breaths, before adding, “I… I tell you this only in case something happens in the future, and you find yourself… falling for his old tricks. I’ve had to talk about this a lot more than I’ve ever wanted to here recently, but… He’s slimy. He’s manipulative. He strikes when you’re at your lowest point and drags you down lower, he wants you… he wants you under his total control. And you’ll let him, because in the moment, he makes you feel.. Better about the bad shit that we both know has happened to us. But it’s lies. And he won’t care how badly he breaks you on his way to get whatever he wants, whenever he wants it. H-however he wants it.” AV’s hands curled tighter over the stick-steering columns, and he shivered. 

Ears back flat against his skull, he added, “I don’t usually… tell people this stuff. You know that. But. You’re young, and therefore still in your ‘stupid’ era. So. Just in case.” He forced a grin, shaky though it was.

BB considers withdrawing his hand, but his counterpart settles and doesn’t shrug him off. Maybe he needs the support to say what he’s going to say. “He…that’s real messed up. Jet’s always been a slimeball, but I don’t think he’s like that in my world. I’m sorry you went through that.” It’s easy to picture himself in the mindset of being susceptible to something like that. He’s almost glad there’s no mention of Infinite, which hopefully means that this version of him didn’t go through that too. Though whatever happened with Jet was probably worse. “I know. Thanks. For looking out for me.” He’s often wondered what it would be like to have a big brother…he thinks it might be a bit like this.  He squeezes the other’s shoulder to try and offer comfort. “But you don’t have to worry. Shads is it for me. He’s sort of stuck with me, now.”

The pressure on his shoulder is a small comfort, oddly, and he relaxes more. “Good. I… wish I’d figured that out sooner, myself, heh…” He takes a few more steadying breaths, until the memories raising the fur along his arms abate.

“You got there in the end.” BB smiles as the other hedgehog relaxes, changing his mind about taking his hand back and instead leaning against the side of the seat so he can keep it there. “Shitty way to get there. You…didn’t deserve that.”

AV snorts softly. “I dunno… I did… a lotta bad. A lot. But… maybe no one deserves that.” He glances back over his shoulder at the other and manages a firmer smile. “Anyway… like I said. Long flight. Rest if you can; I can’t promise there’ll be much time for it once we get back.”

“Nobody deserves that.” BB nods in agreement and lets his hand drop back to his lap. “Mm…I’ll try. Last time I napped I fell asleep in the bath so…guess it can’t be worse than that. Will you be alright?” He feels guilty at the thought of taking a nap whilst the other hedgehog does all the work, but he can’t deny that he is tired. Not sleeping properly for 6 months means he’s constantly exhausted. 

“I’ll keep her steady, go ahead. Get some shut eye; wings down in 2 hours,” AV replied evenly, a smile and a nod over his shoulder to show he would be fine. “Sleep, kid.” He turned back to the windscreen and set the autopilot, pulling out his phone to warn Tails he’d be coming back with more than just Caliburn.

“‘Kay.” BB returns the smile tiredly and shuffles down in his seat, leans against the familiar and comfortable side of the plane he has also lovingly restored countless times and closes his eyes. “…wake me if I’m too loud or something.” 

AV grinned forward and shook his head. “Will do,” he replied softly.

As promised, the Tornado stayed steady through the flight, and the pair were soon over more recognizable South Island territory. Far, far in the distance, the skyline of Central City could just be made out; AV banked the biplane away from these and towards Greenhills, the familiar checkerboard hills rolling gently away into the distance. Amidst some light trees, the comforting sight of Tails’ workshop stood.

BB sleeps peacefully, lulled to sleep by the hum of the engine and the wind in his quills. He doesn't wake until the Tornado tips to bank towards Greenhills, and it is a gentle awakening rather than a sudden lurch to consciousness. He yawns, stretches, and leans forward in his seat to look around the taller hedgehog - he isn’t used to the pilot being bigger than him - so he can see the lights of the workshop. Even though it isn’t his Tails, the familiar sight still makes something warm bloom in his chest. “…is he gonna be as wary of me as you were?” He asks softly, hardly raising his voice over the sounds of the Tornado in flight.

A tiny jolt passed through AV at the sudden soft voice behind him, focused as he had been on the sky and getting to the workshop, but it passed quickly as he reminded himself of his passenger. He folded one ear. “Eh… probably. He and Athur got close, while the king was staying here; Arthur was pretty fascinated by all the techy stuff, and Tails kinda took it on himself to keep an eye on him. Then the battle, I nearly died, y’know… the usual. So. We’ll see.”

The approach to the workshop’s landing strip was as familiar or more than the back of his own hand; AV was sure he could do it with his eyes closed, at this point. He brought the plane in, lined her up with the strip, and brought her down smoothly. She rolled to a stop near the garage, and AV turned her as she slowed so she faced out again, ready for a quick take-off later.

A figure stepped out of the garage, wearing a thick leather apron, worn brown leather gloves to his elbows, and a welding mask flipped up. Their fur was bright yellow-gold in the sun, a dark brown mask over their white muzzle, twin-tails tense behind them. Tails the Fox, of this world, one foot on the tarmac, leaning out warily. “Sonic…?”

AV dropped from the side of the Tornado and grinned, if only to comfort his brother. “Hey, little bro.”

The fox approached the plane slowly, ears folding back- it did nothing to reduce his height. He was taller than this Sonic, with lanky-proportions, tufted ears, and a sharp snout. “... Where are they?”

AV’s grin tensed, and he looked back towards the Tornado’s rear cockpit.

“Well. As long as he’s not gonna be too mad.” BB briefly wonders if this is going to be a surprise to Tails, or if his counterpart had the forethought to warn him, and a cold ball of anxiety replaces the warm feeling he had moments ago as they execute a beautiful, textbook landing and smooth turn to face the way they’d come. 

He resists the urge to shrink down and hide in his seat, suddenly not wanting to see this version of his brother. The older Sonic hops out of the plane and BB peers over the edge to watch him. The Tails of this world is even bigger than their Sonic, and BB stares at him for a moment, trying to find the little brother he’d left behind in this…adult. When the taller hedgehog turns back to look at him he takes a deep breath and deftly hops out of the plane, approaching slowly. 

“…he’s even bigger than you are. Seriously? Are you all eating Miracle Gro??” He addresses his counterpoint, trying to ease the tension. 

Tails’ namesakes flicked at the sight of the much smaller Sonic hopping down from the backset of the biplane. He blinked and took a wary step back, blue eyes darting to AV for some reassurance.

AV stepped up to set a hand on his shoulder; this close, their height difference was less dramatic, though Tails still retained a good few inches on his older brother. “Hey, buddy, it’s alright- Uh, younger-me? Here is cool, I promise.”

Tails’ ears pinned further, and fixed his wary eyes on the other Sonic once more. “... That’s what we thought about Arthur.”

BB winces as Tails takes a step back, and halts his approach. His brother has never looked at him with an expression so full of mistrust and something inside of him twists. He swallows heavily and tries to plaster on a smile, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Uh…hi.” He covers the urge to smack himself in the face for his awkward greeting by scratching the back of his neck instead, shakes his shoulders to try and stave off the prickling he can feel in his quills that want to stand on end. It all feels so wrong; Tails shouldn’t look at him with wariness in his gaze. Shouldn’t pin his ears or take a step back from him. Not ever. Shouldn’t tower over him, either, but everyone here seems to do that (he has met two people thus far but a pattern is a pattern).  “Sonic - uh, your Sonic - told me a bit. About that. I promise I’m not here to cause any trouble, bud-uh-Tails?” 

“... Words are cheap, these days,” Tails mutters, shrinking back still, though there’s obvious conflict in the way his eyes dart to search the other Sonic’s gaze. AV frowns; he can’t help the responsibility of Tails’ anxiety falling onto his shoulders. He did this; turned the inquisitive fox kit into the wary, anxious skeptic he was now. If he’d been faster, been stronger… if he hadn’t made so many mistakes-

Tails turned to head for the shop again, a gloved hand anxiously reaching out to tug AV along with him as he did. He cast a wary look back over his shoulder to the other. “Follow us, but don’t touch anything-”

AV moved to follow, casting a look back over his shoulder at his counterpart with a shaky, encouraging smile, nodding him to follow.

BB recoils from the flat tone and the way Tails shrinks away from him. He’s never heard his own brother talk to him like that. He feels…smaller. Maybe this was a mistake. He should’ve tried to go back through the Rift…no. He promised to help. He jumps as Tails speaks again, meeting the older Sonic’s gaze and attempting to return the smile. It more resembles a grimace. 

As they move inside BB follows them slowly, arms wrapped tightly around his middle for comfort - and also to show he’s not going to try and touch anything. When they stop in the workshop he doesn’t even try to look around, stares down at his beat-up shoes and then up at Tails with an almost longing expression. It’s not his Tails. But the sight of him makes him miss his own brother. He clears his throat, glances between Tails and his Sonic. “So…what now? We…got the sword.” Takes a breath. “And I want to help. You…you could do with the help, right?” He looks up at AV for approval. For something more reassuring than what he’s getting from Tails. 

AV nods firmly and looks to his brother. “Tails… c’mon. We do need the help-”

“You’ve got the sword, and Amy is on her way right now with two Chaos Emeralds to add to the three we already have. Knuckles is onto the sixth, and Rouge is tracking a lead for the seventh. Once we have them, we can just power Cali-whatever and you can defeat Arthur like you did before and then-”

“I can’t.”

Tails freezes, ears flat, and looks to his brother with wide eyes. “... ‘Course you can, you…”

AV blow softly and shakes his head. “I will fight. Good luck keeping me out of it. But Tails, bud… we need his speed, my speed, that I no longer have. And he’s maybe, maybe even faster than I ever was, so, heh… just. Give him a chance.”

Tails’ gaze darts to the other, still tense and wary; his reluctance to trust another Sonic from another world was understandable, and AV couldn’t fault him for it. The last few years, hell, last near decade hadn’t been easy for anyone, and that was before the Rifts.

He sets his hands on Tails’ shoulders. “...Trust me, at least?”

Tails turns back to AV, swallows thickly, but finally nods. “...Always trust you, Sonic…”

AV pulls him into a rough hug, squeezing him tightly, before releasing him to step back and take off Caliburn, hanging the sword in its scabbard near a console to the back of the workshop. Tails takes off his welding mask and sets it aside, still casting wary looks to the other Sonic.

BB looks away as Tails and the taller Sonic talk, finally allowing himself a chance to look around the workshop, though he stays standing where he is so he doesn’t freak the fox out. It doesn’t look much different from his Tails’ lab, if a little more hectic than he’s used to. He knows how his brother gets when there’s a project ongoing, though. 

He tunes back into the conversation as his counterpart tries to defend him and offers what he hopes is an encouraging smile when Tails looks over at him. He feels so much like a child who has done something wrong and is waiting for punishment. Tails’ reluctance to trust him is understandable, and at least he’s not kicking him out. “I…” What can he even say to try and show he’s here to help? “…I just want to help. It’s…it’s sort of my - our - thing.” He shifts from foot to foot, anxious at being scrutinised, searching for a distraction. 

Conveniently Sprout comes barrelling through the open door of the workshop with a squawk and BB automatically holds out an arm for them to land on. “Hey, there you are. Was almost worried you wouldn’t find us.” He forgets his anxiety for a moment and grins up at the taller Sonic. “This little beast can track me anywhere. I think they imprinted on me or something. Say, you got any Chao fruit about? They’re probably hungry…”

One ear perks at the entrance of the odd chao. “...Probably in the loft,” Tails says after a moment. His gaze is less wary, if only because it’s transitioned more to bleak resignation.

“I’ll grab some!” AV announces, and goes to the stairs up to the loft, where Tails kept a modest living space with a bed and small kitchenette.

Tails watched him go before looking back at these new Sonic. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again quickly, turning away to go back to the console near where AV hung Caliburn. A curtain near said console shifted, a pair of curious green eyes peaking out from behind it, under wild sky blue quills.

“Thanks.” Sprout squawks again, ruffling their feathers as they settle. BB watches the taller Sonic depart and turns his attention back to Tails, who looks like he’s going to say something and then changes his mind. He follows Tails with a curious gaze as he goes back to his console, and blinks in surprise as he meets another set of green eyes. They stare at each other for a moment. “…little me - uh - well. Little Sonic. Hey.” BB crouches down a little and offers a fond smile. “You must be the Little Sonic for the big guy, huh?”

Tails looks back; he can see behind the curtain properly, as he’s standing on its other side, and he fixes the tiny hedgehog with a stern look. “Classic-,” he warned, but there was no bite to his words.

The hoglet glanced back, blinked at tails, flicked an ear, and stepped out from behind the curtain anyway. He zipped up to this new Sonic, eyes searching him over, ears folding- though not in any fear or concern. He would have come to nearly this new Sonic’s torso, and craned his neck to look up. Classic lifted his hands, then lowered them again and puffed his cheeks.

Tails was watching protectively from the console, fur raised; but, he wasn’t the only one. Another set of eyes peeked from behind the curtain, too. These were a muted brown, almost amber-red; what else could be seen of the face was black quills and a warm, dark-tan muzzle. As soon as Classic met eyes with this other hoglet, they made a sound of alarm and tried to hide behind the curtain again, but Classic zipped back to them, took them by the arm, and dragged them out to greet the new Sonic.

A tiny, hoglet Shadow, around the same stature as Classic. He wore ill-fitting, white cotton gloves, held in place by his inhibitors, and a pair of old black, white, and gold sneakers that at least seemed to fit better than the gloves, by a margin. The fur on his chest was thin in a conspicuous patch, as though shaved months prior, and two long, thin scars were still visible- one over his chest running just beside his sternum, one over along the center of his abdomen. He sheltered behind Classic, peering out fearfully at this new Sonic.

“Sprout, go find the big guy. I need my hands.” BB shifts his arm to encourage the Chao to take off and they do so with an affronted look. “Hi.” He squats down to eye level as the curtain moves again and watches in awe as Classic brings out a baby Shadow. His heart breaks to see the scars his own Shadow has described receiving, and he keeps very still as Classic drags him over. “Hello, Shadow.” He speaks slowly and calmly,  raising his hands, and signs as he talks. “It’s real nice to meet you both.” 

Classic grins and begins signing rapidly, introducing himself as ‘also Sonic!’ but explaining he’s called Classic; he keeps looking excitedly to the little Shadow, ears perked, and refers to this hoglet as ‘Shade’. When the darker hoglet stares at him with wide, pleading, eyes, Classic grins sheepishly and looks back to Sonic to sign [he’s shy-].

Shade’s ears, over-large compared to the hoglet’s beside him, are pinned tight to his skull. He looks back at the Sonic before him. “...Hi.”

AV returns from the loft, wincing as Sprout had perched on his arm. He offers the primordial chao some cut up chao fruit in a bowl as walks down the steps, and looks over the scene playing out on the workshop floor. He grins and slows, hopeful that the littles would soften everyone’s mood enough to get rid of the sour tension hanging in the air.

“Classic, got it.” BB’s hands are a little slower than they’d have been when he was this age, but he remembers the signs even if he’s clumsier with them than he was. He’s out of practice. 

He tries not to stare at the other hoglet, who has tucked himself neatly behind Classic, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. He can’t help but think that this tiny Shadow is adorable, but consciously doesn’t treat him like a baby. 

“Hi.” He’s warmed by the soft voice, higher than the one he knows from his Shadow, and his grin widens. “Would you prefer me to call you Shade too? I would say you could call me Sonic but that’s gonna get real confusing real fast. Maybe you guys could come up with a name for me?”

Classic’s eyes lit and he grinned. He began firing off a barrage of names, most unflattering to some degree but certainly of a caliber a small child would come up with. Shade watched him, ears pinning at the speed of his signs, and looked to the other Sonic.

“...Shade is okay, thank you. It’s not what my sister calls me, but it’s nicer than 02.”

AV walked up to the group a second after, watching his younger counter’s signs and grinning. “Heh, what about Little Bit? Or, Itty Bitty. Tiny? Shortstack. I’m also partial to Half-pint, myself-”

Classic laughed, the only time one might hear what would become his voice. It peeled like a bell, happy and loud, before he joined in on the ‘short’ jokes. It seemed lost on him that he was only waist height to this new Sonic, himself.

BB pretends to pull faces at Classic’s suggestions, suppressing a laugh at the childlike glee the smaller hedgehog is showing at coming up with names for him. “Shade it is, then.” He rolls his eyes as the taller Sonic approaches and pins him with an unimpressed stare at the suggested names. 

Classic’s laughter at joining in on the jokes has BB laughing too, he shifts to sit cross-legged on the floor opposite the kids whilst keeping AV in his view so he can participate in the conversation. “I did not get thrown into this world to be bullied by alternative versions of myself.” He mock-laments, sighing dramatically. “Why don’t we come up with some names for you, Gigantor? Sasquatch? Old Timer? Grandpa? Whaddaya say, Classic, Shade? We need a good one for the old man, too.”

Shade laughed softly and tapped Classic’s shoulder. The little hoglet paused his signing to swivel an ear Shade’s way; he didn’t turn his head, but leaned back as Shade pulled him a bit closer to whisper something. His eyes widened at the contact, but, surprisingly, he didn't pull away.

Then he grinned. Classic signed so fast his hands tripped over themselves and he had to start over. 

“Wow, Shade, and here I thought I was your favorite,” AV teased, standing with a hand on his hip by the group. “Old Man? And I’m nowhere near as old as the Professor, that guy’s ancient!”

Shade giggled and stayed tucked against Classic’s back, hiding his face and only barely peeking out from behind the other hoglet’s quills.

AV blew, but he was smiling. “I’ll settle it. I’ll be Rifts, for Rift world Sonic. Half-pint, you wanna settle up yours? Or I guess we can just go with my idea-”

BB smiles at the older Sonic’s easy manner with the kids, and at how Classic seems to know how to be around Shade so naturally. “I dunno, I think Old Man fits much better.” He rolls his eyes at the suggested names for himself - he figures he’ll be doing this a lot around this Sonic - and shakes his head. “You said I was faster than you, right? So clearly I should be Best. For Best Sonic.” He glances at Classic, drops him a wink. “Or Second Best Sonic. Can’t beat the Classic, right?” 

“Pfft,” Rift, blew. “More like third best. Alright, since you’re so fast- how about Flash?”

Classic’s eyes lit up and he nodded, looking to the other Sonic with excitement, shifting foot to foot.

Tails had turned to watch the display from his console, ears still back and arms crossed over his chest.

“Flash? You been watching superhero movies?” BB shakes his head, shrugs. “Flash, hm.” He tests it out, it seems as good a suggestion as any. And Classic seems pretty pleased about it. “Yeah, ok. Guess I’ll be Flash.” 

“Heh. What can I say, I’m a sucker for the good ol’ days. Well, now that that’s sorted…,” AV- Rift- looked back to Tails, ears perked. “What’s the ETA for everyone?”

Tails shifted, eyed the other Sonic- Flash- with trepidation, before pushing off from where he had been leaning back on his console. “Amy should be arriving soon, and hopefully Knuckles and Rouge won’t be far behind. I’m running calibrations between Caliburn and our current Emeralds to gauge how it will react to the full set.”

“He.”

“Huh?”

“Cal’s a guy. He… can’t talk to me, right now, like this, I can’t communicate with his energy, but… he used to be, anyway.”

Tails folded his ears and looked back to the sword. He seemed to want to argue at first, but, given his brother had turned out to be right about Camelot all along, well… He inclined his head as he turned back to his console. “Well. Sorry, then, er… Cal.”

Rift smiled, and looked to Flash. “Okay. As for you, though… let’s get you set up someplace you can get some actual rest, alright? My old loft should do the trick.”

“Arthur’s stuff is still in there. I… haven’t brought myself to throw any of it out, yet. If you’re right that we can maybe pull him out of this…,” Tails paused and looked back over his shoulder, not to either Sonic, but speaking more generally.

Rift nodded. “That’s okay, he didn’t have much, anyway. C’mon, Flash- kids, you wanna come up, too?”

Classic shook his head at the same time as Shade nodded; the darker hoglet nearly back pedaled, but after only a moment's hesitation, stepped up to follow Rift. He glanced back shyly to Flash. Classic snorted, stuck his tongue out at Shade and Rift both, waved to Flash, and then zipped over to Tails to clamber up beside the screens and peek at the console.

Flash wishes Tails would stop looking at him like he was going to attack everyone, or explode or something. He looks back and forth between Rift and Tails as they discuss the sword - Flash agrees; Caliburn is definitely a guy - and smothers a laugh when Tails apologises to him. He’s not super keen on staying where Arthur has clearly made a little home for himself, but it’s better than having nowhere to rest.

BB!Sonic doesn’t like the portal. It’s simultaneously boiling hot and freezing cold and it feels a bit like being stretched and compressed like an accordion. He’s glad for a moment when it spits him out, but that very quickly fades and is replaced by anger as he tumbles towards the ground. Sprout, who has wisely  detached himself from Sonic’s arm and is flying alongside him as he hurtles towards the ground, makes a squawking sound of delight and circles him happily. The ground meets him quickly and he just manages to curl into a spindash to ricochet off and land somewhat more safely a few metres away. “Ow. Fuck.” He picks himself up off the floor, frowning at Sprout as the Chao settles on his arm, and looks around at where he landed. “This…isn’t home either.”

AV frowns at the sight of something small and suspiciously him-shaped getting hurled from the Rift. “Great,” he sighed. “Here we go again… Who’s this gonna be, then? Me but raised by Eggman?” He starts towards where he assumes the impact site must be.

“Why is everything here so huge?” BB asks nobody in particular - or perhaps Sprout, who is flying alongside him quite happily - as he tries to figure out where the next magical portal rock may be. 

AV freezes at the distant voice. His own but… higher. More… annoying? Did he really used to sound that way? Ears swivel towards the source, and he picks up his pace. As much as he can, at least, in this de-powered form… And his still-healing ribs make even “normal” running a painful consideration. He pushes through the brush to a clearing.

BB looks up as he hears something approaching and grabs Sprout - who lets out an undignified squawk and bites at his hand - and ducks behind a tree. “Oh Gaia please don’t be another dinosaur.” He peers around the trunk and spots…well he’s not sure who. It looks a little bit like him. But. Wrong. The colour (or lack thereof), the black streaks standing out against quills frosted silver, the size. “Is that supposed to be me..?”

AV blinks, shakes his head, and blinks again. When that doesn’t clear the sight of a… smaller him in front of him, he repeats the process. When still there is another blue hedgehog staring back at him, he stands taller and blows harshly through his nose.

“...I hate being right, sometimes. Also, did you just call me a fucking dinosaur?”

BB steps out from behind the tree, releasing Sprout and getting another displeased nip in the process, and pulls himself up to his full height in response. “No. What I said was I hoped you weren’t a dinosaur. Which. You’re not. So that’s good. But who are you? And what were you right about?”

The sight of the… chao?- was unexpected. AV couldn’t remember a time in his past when he’d met a creature like them, so, this couldn’t be from his past the way Arthur was. He tilted his head and moved to circled the newcomer slowly, ears pinned and quills lifted as he did.

He nearly retorted about this younger hedgehog not even being able to recognize himself, but stopped short. Did he even look like himself, anymore, really? Instead he stopped in front of the newcomer, glowering distrustfully. “... I’m Sonic. This world’s Sonic, to be precise. And what I’m right about is that’s also your name, too, isn’t it? Question is, what kind of Sonic. I’ve met all sorts- and I’ve liked very few.” He tensed, and his eyes narrowed.

BB turns in a circle to ensure his eyes always remain on the stranger, and he feels his own quills raising in anticipation of an attack. None comes, however, and the stranger stops in front of him and glares. BB glares right back. “It is…but you don’t look like me.” How could this stranger be an equivalent of him? The last Sonic had looked like him. “What’s that supposed to mean? What kind? I’m just Sonic? I mean. Obviously not this world’s Sonic, because apparently you are, but. Just..Sonic. From my world.” He folds his arms defensively, returning the icy gaze and hating that he has to look up to do so. “And stop glaring at me! I haven’t done anything!”

“Yet. You haven’t done anything yet. Doesn’t mean you won’t. It’s courtesy of the last Sonic I don’t look more like.. Myself. Put it that way.” He was nearly baring teeth by the end, and his heart-rate was up. Anxiety prickled along his pelt.

“So what I mean is, what kinda problems are you about to cause for everyone this side of the Rifts? We’re dealing with enough as it is.” His raised quills gave him more height, more size in general. The distinct lack of crackling chaos energy that would normally have accompanied this display left him feeling exposed and vulnerable.

BB winces at the thought of another Sonic hurting one of their own counterparts, but keeps his quills up and his fists loosely clenched at his sides as he’s essentially berated for accidentally visiting. “I’m not here to cause any problems! I’m not even here on purpose! I was trying to get home!” Even with the lack of chaos energy, the taller Sonic is intimidating. Luckily BB doesn’t scare easily; he’s fought foes hundreds of times bigger than himself. Not that he wants to fight himself, even if he’s confident in his own abilities and this guy looks…almost sick, he just wants to find a way out of here. A way back to Shadow “…and what are ‘Rifts’, anyway?”

The response makes AV lean back, eyes searching the hedgehog in front of him for any sign of ill intent; but, then again, Arthur had only shame and pleading across his face until the Darkness won out. Could this Sonic be different?

AV swallowed and lowered his head; not submissively, but enough to protect his throat and keep his gaze on the smaller hedgehog, some old instinct still keeping his pelt crawling in discomfort. “... I’ve heard that one before. Trying to get home. They’re all just.. Trying to get home. Fine- know what? I’m gonna help you, because I also would like you to go home.”

He nodded upwards, to the sky, where the Rifts glowed and hummed high, high above their heads. “And those are the Rifts. They started opening up around here almost six months ago and haven’t stopped fucking it all up since.”

BB tries to keep his frustration down whilst the bigger hedgehog scrutinizes him, not wanting whatever was bubbling beneath his raised fur to boil over. “Um. Thank you?” 

‘I’m gonna help you’ sounds a lot like ‘I’m gonna get rid of you’ to BB, but he can’t deny that he needs help. So he’ll try to work with this bigger, angrier version of himself. He wonders how many others had visited before him and follows the taller Sonic’s gaze upwards, towards the…he doesn’t have a word to describe the Rifts, they defy any attempt to categorise them. “Fucking things up how? And is that how I got here?”

“Yeah,” AV replied with a nod. “Watched you falling through. And that’s how they fuck things up- anything and everything can come through them; not the mention, people like Eggman can’t seem able to keep their mitts off their potential as an energy source.”

He blew roughly and shook, letting his quills lie flat. “Look, kid,” he began, growling the word roughly, “I have to find something around here first, then I can take us both back to Tails on the Tornado, okay? But, I really can’t leave here without what I came for, so, stick close or not at all, got it?” With another shaking out of his quills, he turned and headed off, back towards the path. With the Rift having finished spitting up this latest Sonic, the ambient energy had calmed enough to follow a steady reading once more.

“…that does sound like…him.” He’s not avoiding the name. He just. Doesn’t want to think about it. Or him. At being called ‘kid’ BB’s quills fluff back up in indignation. “I’m not a kid. I’m twenty one!” He hisses, sounding and behaving exactly like the teenager he just said he wasn’t. He’s half-tempted to throw his hands up and shout ‘fine!’ Before speeding off the opposite direction, but he does need help, and if there’s a Tails here that’s even half as good as his own little bro then that’s the best chance he’s got of getting out of here. With a sigh fit for a teenager he speeds after the taller Sonic and falls into step beside him. “So…what are you looking for?” Maybe if he helps search for it then he can speed up the finding of it. Speaking of speeding up “…‘s’there a reason you’re not running?”

AV’s steps faltered and he ran through a few thoughts very quickly in his mind. Of course the other Sonic would find it odd he wasn’t running, but telling him about his losing access to chaos was asking for trouble. It would leave him vulnerable and undefended. What to say, then, that would keep this other hedgehog’s suspicions down?

“... Busted my ribs,” he replied blandly, ears back and shooting the younger Sonic a look from the corner of his eye as they walked. “Makes running hurt. And reinjured my knee when I did, so. Better not to press it right now, unless I have reason to. Also, twenty-one? Yeah. Child. Infant, even. I’m nearly thirty, dude.”

“Oh.” It makes sense. BB has run on a broken leg before, but maybe he gets soft in his older age? Running with broken bones definitely isn’t fun, though, so he gets it. He does wonder if this version of him, with his strange colouring, doesn’t heal as well as he does. A bad knee never bothers him for long, broken ribs have healed in a couple of weeks before. Why is this Sonic so different? “Nearly thirty, hm? So you are a dinosaur.” 

“I want to bite you, you know that?” AV growled, feeling prickly and tense. “What’s with all the dino talk? And the… cave-chao or whatever you’ve got.”

“Join the queue.” BB resists sticking his tongue out but it is a near thing. He misses a step at the dinosaur question and flails for a half second. “Oh. Well I just…I got blasted back to the past. Spent about six months basically reenacting Jurassic Park. Trying not to be eaten.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal. An average adventure. “Cave-ch…oh, Sprout?” The Chao in question lands on his arm as he stretches it out and allows him to scratch under its chin. “I rescued ‘em in Dino World and they’ve stuck with me ever since. Didn’t want to leave ‘em behind and they didn’t want to stay. So.” He holds his arm out so the other Sonic can take a closer look. Sprout appears unimpressed, much as he was with the previous Sonic they visited. “I think modern chao are descendants of ones like them.”

AV leans away instinctively from Sprout, ears back and eyes wary. “Yeah… I like chao as much as any, but, that thing looks like if Shadow’s chao was doing a Land Before Time-horror cosplay, and… I don’t feel like cleaning a chao bite. Again.” After a moment, he added quietly, “Dino World sounds cool, though…”

“They’re not so bad if you get to know ‘em. And. I wouldn’t have survived as long as I did without ‘em. They hunted for me and everything.” Trying to find things that were safe to eat in a world that was determined to eat him hadn’t been exactly easy. Sprout had brought him small animals and fish, and fetched fruits from high in trees. BB huffs a bitter laugh. “It was, for like two days. But running from dinosaurs almost as fast as me, through terrain I wasn’t made to run, so I didn’t become lunch. For six months. Sucked.”

AV tilted his head back and forth. “Sounds like a skill issue, personally.” He flicked an ear and glanced back at BB with a teasing grin. He decided if he was going to be forced to trust this new Sonic for now, he could at least have fun messing with him. Maybe it would be cathartic.

The trees and shrubs around the narrow gametrail were beginning to thin at last, and the glittering of the lake was visible up ahead.

“I’d love to see you up against one, with your crappy knee and busted ribs, old man.” BB snarks back, his return grin settling on the friendlier side of feral. His grin faltered as the glittering in front of them materialised into a lake and he felt his pace slow as they approached it.  He suddenly wished he’d decided to go the other way, because there was no way that where they were going wasn’t going to be the lake. He wasn’t that lucky. 

AV snorted. “Hey, soon as I’m healed up, I bet I could take ‘em. Crappy knee and all!” he retorted, elbowing the smaller Sonic sharply. He paused at the faltering grin on his companion’s face, though, and followed his gaze to the water.

“Huh. Yeah, I know, I know. Water, right? Like Indy and snakes. Why’s it always gotta be water.”

“Like I said. Love to see you try.” BB winced at the sharp stab of an elbow and tried not to show the overwhelming fear he was feeling on his face as they got closer and closer to the lake. “Heh. Yeah. S’always water. Uh. Is what you’re looking for here, then?” 

AV looked down at his phone, then back up at the lake. Across its surface, he could just make the glint of metal sticking out from a small, muddy island at the water’s center.

He sighed. “Gaia hates me. And by extension, us. That’s what I’m after- a sword, and I think it might just lodge in the island… Guess I’m just lucky it didn’t fall to the lakebed.” He tilted his head. Any other time, he would have just run across the water to the island, but now that was off the table.

Or, was it…? He looked to the other Sonic with a narrowed gaze. “...So, I can’t hit speed to cross right now, but… you get that sword, and the two of us can make for the Tornado and get to Tails. Whaddya say?”

“A sword? In the middle of a lake?” …again? BB isn’t sure it feels very lucky, in fact he feels the cold finger of dread slide down his spine. There’s a rushing sound in his ears and his breathing quickens. His quills raise automatically and he suppresses a shudder, dragging his gaze away from the water and looking somewhere above the other Sonic’s eyes. “Uh. Are you sure that’s what you’re looking for?” Please Gaia let him be wrong. 

AV pinned his ears. “...Yes. I’m sure. You trust your Tails’ tech? ‘Cause I trust mine; and his tech is telling me it’s there on that island. If you don’t wanna grab it, that’s fine; but otherwise I’m gonna have to find some other way over the water and we’re gonna be here way longer. I’m not leaving the sword behind for Ar… for someone else to find.”

“…you know that I do.” BB can’t bring himself to get any closer to the lake. He might’ve been alright if not for the bathtub yesterday, but he slips back into the memory of the darkness and the water and the drowning. He latches on to the half-name that the other Sonic says. Anything to distract him from the lake. “Someone else? Who else could be looking for it?” 

AV turned to the other and snarled. “Not your business,” he snapped; then he forced himself to cool. It was this other Sonic’s business, though, wasn’t it? He was making their business, selfishly, perhaps. But he needed the sword; without Caliburn, there was no hope of defeating Arthur; and without defeating Arthur, no hope of bringing Shadow home.

He blew softly. “... Sorry. It’s… one of those other Sonics I mentioned. Probably met your version of him… His name’s Arthur.”

BB takes a half-step back as the taller hedgehog turns around to snap at him, trying to will his quills back down  from where they are stubbornly sticking up in fear. “The…the black knight? From Camelot? What…is…the sword? Is it..?” His shoulders sink slightly. If that sword is Caliburn, and this Sonic needs it, then… “Oh, shit.” He turns back towards the lake, and can just about make out something shiny on the island. “Ok. Ok. I’ll do it.”

AV folded an ear, but nodded approvingly. “Yeah, it is. Caliburn.” He looked back towards the island, gauging the distance. “It’s not too far a sprint, at least; we’ve definitely had to traverse farther.

It ate at him deeply to be sending this younger version of himself to do so simple a task; but he was helpless, here. He let out a breath.

“Not too far. Right. It’s just…it’s just water.” BB still hasn’t moved any closer. “I’ll just…go and get it.” He tries to psych himself up, stares at the distant glint of metal to envision himself running over there. “I’m gonna…run. Now.” He doesn’t move. He can’t. 

AV tilted his head and crossed his arms over his chest. He tapped a foot slowly against the ground, then tilted his head the other way, one brow raised. “You, a… you aren’t- you aren’t moving. I don’t know if you knew that, or…?”

“Oh.” BB looks down at his legs, which indeed are not moving, and back up at the distant island. “No. I guess I’m not. Uh. Feels a bit like my legs are stone. Which! Isn’t good! I just gotta…put one foot in front of the other. Easy.” Still he doesn’t move, except for a minor tremble that takes over him. “How…uh. Do you think this is the closest the shore gets to the island?”

AV looks around the shoreline. “...Probably. Dude, we’ve done way longer stretches of water than this. What’s your hang up?”

BB tries to slow his breathing down, sucks in a deep breath. “Nothing! No, I’m good! I’m totally fine! I’m just gonna.” He hops from foot to foot. “Gonna…gonna do a lap of the perimeter. Yeah.” He takes off, blasting a sonic boom behind him without realising it. He circles the lake a few times, and before he can change his mind he steps on to the water. There’s no time to stop for panicking; if he stops he’ll sink. His eyes are wide and terrified as he skids to a stop on the muddy island and doubles over to pant for breath. 

AV has to drop to a knee and bury his face in the crook of an arm to weather the blast that races across the shore. “I could definitely control my speed better at your age!” he shouted above the wind.

When it abated, he glanced up and saw the other Sonic had finally made it over. He sighed. Good, now he just needed to grab the sword and carry it back. And… hand it over, and not suddenly turn dark and use to to destroy whatever good’s left in this world-

BB allows himself a moment to breathe before straightening up. He’s not winded from running, he could run hundreds of miles without being winded, but from fear. Fear he’s going to have to push down again to get back across the water. He looks around the little island and spots the hilt of Caliburn sticking up out of the mud, the scabbard is nowhere to be seen at the moment. He clasps both hands around the hilt of the sword - doesn’t remember it being this long but the Sonic of this world is huge so of course everything else is, too - and heaves it from the ground. Despite the overly large size, Caliburn feels like an old friend as he holds it, and once he’s located the scabbard he dons the belt and looks back across to the shore and the figure waiting for him to deliver it. “Ok. Don’t think. Just go. Just…run. You love running. You can’t stay here. Three. Two. One.” He aims himself for his taller counterpoint and screws his eyes shut before taking off. 

AV has only just straightened up when he hears the other Sonic taking off once more; his eyes widened and he braces for the coming impact, the thought already in the back of his mind that this was going to destroy his barely healed ribs-

He takes the impact with an aborted yelp, tumbling backwards with the other Sonic.

BB doesn’t expect to collide with something (someone) solid, and as they go tumbling to the ground he hears the other make a sound of pain. “Shit. Fuck. Your ribs.” He scrambles to climb off the other, pressing hands to his shoulders to keep him down. “I’m so sorry. Shit. Just. Lie down a second. I didn’t mean to- I thought I was further away. I’m…not usually. That fast? I think? I don’t know what’s… Gaia I shouldn’t have closed my eyes but the water I-” He cuts himself off, takes a breath to compensate for the rapidly panicked jumble of words he’s just spewed out. Tries to meet the other’s gaze. “Are you…are you ok?”

There’s no answer for awhile; AV’s face is screwed up in pain, ears back and quills pressed harshly against the dirt under him as he tries to let the horrible spikes of red-hot fire burning up from his chest. He struggled through a few shallow, halting breaths, before finally stuttering, “S-s f-f-fin-ne- ngh-! M’f-fine-”

He tries to push himself up to a sitting position, but finds firm hands holding down his shoulders. He squints up at the other Sonic, quills haloed by sunlight, and despite the grimace of pain seemingly permanently etched into his muzzle, tries for a shaky grin. “G-got the- ngh- sword?”

“You’re not fine! Gaia, please tell me I didn’t re-break your ribs!” BB bites his lip at the other’s attempt at a grin, which ends up looking more like a snarl of pain. “The-? Oh. Yeah. I got it.” He releases the other’s shoulders and sits up, shuffling to the side and hesitantly hovering a hand over his middle. “Just. Don’t move for a bit. We…I should check your ribs.” He doesn't dare to touch, though. He’s fucked up enough, the least he can do is wait to be allowed to try and fix his mistake. Or lessen it at least. “Gaia, this is all my fault.”

AV takes another few shallow breaths; they’re quick, and he can’t hide the pained gasp behind each, but even still he ignores the direction to stay put and tries pushing himself up anyway. Finding a hand blocking his way over his middle only makes him pause half risen and grunt in annoyance, fixing the panicking hedgehog with an unamused raised brow.

“...?” He  cuts his eyes down to the hand on him and back to the younger Sonic, flicking an ear impatiently.

“Don’t!” BB doesn’t put any pressure with his hand, but he also doesn’t move it away. “Don’t try to sit up, you’ll make it worse!” His hand shakes where it hovers over the fur he’s deliberately not making contact with. “Just. Lie down. For a minute. I hit you at like. Mach 3. Take a breath, for fucks sake.” He can’t even think about how to explain what was going through his head that meant he wasn’t brave enough to open his eyes to run. Doesn’t want to feel like he’s making excuses. “I’m. I’m really sorry. I should’ve been paying attention.”

AV lowers himself back down; he attempts a blow of frustration from his nose, but upon second thought of what that would mean in terms of taking a deeper breath through aching ribs, settles on an eye roll. “...S’fine,” he grunts petulantly. He cuts his eyes to meet his counterpart’s, some part of him unable to stomach seeing anyone upset on his account, even if that someone was… him. Sort of. 

He swallowed, took a few slightly deeper breaths to test his ribs, and said with a tight voice, “... Don’t beat yourself up. Didn’t crack ‘em again, I was ready.” He tried to hold the younger’s gaze to impart some notion he meant this genuinely.

BB huffs a relieved little breath as the older Sonic lies back down, removing his hand at last once he’s sure the other isn’t going to try shooting up to a sitting position. He struggles to meet the other’s gaze, staring down at his hands where they rest on his knees, fingers clenched in the short fur there. “That’s…that’s good. But. It was still stupid. Shouldn’t have had to catch me at all. It’s not like I’m some kid who’s new to this. But the fucking water. I…it had to be water, didn’t it?”

“...Yeah. Had to be water.” He frowned and, after taking a few more experimental breaths to be sure his ribs weren’t, in fact, broken again, slowly rose to a sitting position. He tilted his head and considered the other.

He gave a bittersweet smile. “...Kid. It’s okay; don’t- don’t gotta carry the world around, okay? Gotta catch my breath a little more… wanna… I dunno… tell me about… the water? Why it… or. Or whatever else you want. Get your mind off it.”

BB shuffles back a little further as his counterpart sits up, restraining himself from hovering concerned hands to help in case it’s needed. He wilts a little under the gaze and gentle tone from the older Sonic, eyes cast down and away still. “Heh. So. You know how we…actually I don’t know if you have…? Uh.” He tugs at the cuff of one glove, scratches the back of his neck, then lets out a long breath. “You ever died?”

The metaphorical breath was knocked from AV’s lungs, to join the literal breath he’d only just caught. His eyes widened and he grunted as though physically impacted. “...Uh… y-yeah. Once. Uh, Mephiles… do you… did that... happen to you, too?”

BB grimaces. He rubs a hand on his chest where the spear pierced.  “Ah. Yeah. That…sucked.” He takes a deep breath and holds it for a moment. “I…I died again. Not that long ago. It’s a long, long story. But. Shads and I were stuck in an underground bunker. Eggman set a trap for me and Shads he tried to help but he just got himself stuck with me. And we. Eggman had us do challenges and shit and we couldn’t get out because he had Chaos Emeralds and..” He pauses for breath, can’t bring himself to look the older Sonic in the face for fear of seeing pity or something worse there. “…turned out it wasn’t just underground it was under the ocean. And it flooded. So. I’m. A bit wary of water right now.” He huffs a bitter laugh. “Can’t even have a fucking bath in peace.”

AV’s eyes widen as the younger tells his story. He can feel the fear as acutely as if it were his own; the rush of black water, the burning in his lungs, he’d felt that before. It just… hadn’t killed him. He swallowed thickly.

“...And you. Drowned? But… you’re still alive. And Shadow…?” Something about yet another Shadow facing danger and ruin in another universe made AV feel ever colder than the knowledge of his younger counterpart’s drowning.

“We...died down there. But Shads woke up. I don’t really know how it works, something to do with his alien DNA, but he got us outta there and Tails revived me and I’m here but sometimes I’m still down there and the water is coming in and it’s cold and dark and there’s nowhere to go. So…yeah. I…can’t handle water right now. M’sorry I fucked up.” BB isn’t sure if he feels worse or better for sharing, but at least he’s explained himself somehow. He’s a little fed up of having to relive it all over again in every new universe, though. 

“Dude,” AV began carefully. “I’m gonna bite you if you keep apologizing for your trauma. Chill, okay? You died. You drowned. And you still ran across that lake for the sword. Something, something, ‘bravery isn’t the absence of fear, it’s in taking action despite fear’, right?”

He sat up straighter, grunting at the last dregs of ache in his chest. “In fact… fair trade; you told me your thing, I’ll.. tell you mine. The reason I need the sword is… Arthur came back. And he was fine, until- until he wasn’t. Eggman used the Rifts’ energy to turn him Dark, and he used his powers as the Black Knight to…” Sonic closed his eyes and looked away, ears folding. He leaned back on his hands, and even his quills seemed to droop. “To take my chaos. I… It’s not because of my ribs or my knee I can’t run, it’s… I just. Can’t.” He looked back up to the younger hedgehog. “So. Y’know. The sword is maybe the only way I can defeat him. And even then, maybe… maybe I can’t get my powers back. But he also took something else, or, let Eggman take something else- my Shadow. And I’m gonna get him back, one way or another.”

“Heh. Sorry.” BB can’t help apologizing again. “Wise words. Guess we get wiser in our old age.” He pulls his knees up to his chest to rest his head on them as the older Sonic sits up and starts to speak. “He…all of it? Is that why you look-?” He berates himself mentally. “Gaia. That’s. I can’t imagine how you even survived that.” There’s a moment where they make eye contact where BB realises that this version of him might actually have it worse than he does. “He took Shadow? Is he-? To you? I…I don’t know what I’d do if he took…Shadow’s my…are you?” 

AV folds his ears and watches his younger counter struggle with his final statement. He swallows and his muzzle flames. “... Yeah. He’s. He’s kinda everything. And I only just let myself recognize how much I needed him, and now he’s gone…” AV pulls his legs in carefully and set his arms over his knees, ears pinned miserably. “And I can’t do shit about it like I am. So. Who’s really the fuck up, here?”

“…yeah. He…he’s everything to me, too. But I…I don’t think you can blame yourself for what Eggman did, dude. If your Shadow is anything like mine then he’s tough as nails and he’ll…you’ve got the sword.” BB unhooks the belt from his waist and offers the sword out, flat on his hands. “…and. I…I could stay. To help. I’ve got…well I’ve got speed. And chaos energy. I could help you get him back.”

That took AV by surprise. He lifted his head and looked over the sword offered to him, then back up at the younger Sonic. “...But, you gotta get home. To your Shadow- Gaia, dude, he must be worried sick, right? And your Tails-”

The thought of what Arthur would do, given the knowledge of yet more Sonics in the greater multiverse, made AV’s gut twist with anxiety. To put this version of himself, this version with a chance at a real happy ending, in danger…? Could he?

… Could he afford not to? He swallowed thickly, eyes darting, searching the younger’s gaze as his mind scrambled to make itself up.

“Yeah. He probably is. But…he’d understand. Tails too. S’our thing, really, isn’t it?” And Shadow would understand. He’d probably help, if he could. BB sets his determined gaze on the older Sonic. “You thought about it. I can stay. I can help.” He flashes a cocky smile. “And anyway. Two Sonics are better than one, right?”

AV can’t help the weary smile that stretches across his muzzle, nor the halted laugh that bubbles up from within. “Yeah, yeah, guess it is kinda our thing…” He looks away again, this time to hide the way his eyes mist and tears threaten to spill in relief at the hope the other’s words bring him.

“...Thanks,” he breaths shakily. “And when it’s over, I’m gonna get you home to your Shadow, got it?”

BB grins at having his offer to help accepted  and nods eagerly. “Got it.” He unfolds his arms from around his knees and sits cross-legged on the floor. Cracks his knuckles. “So. What can I do to help?”

AV sighs and looks back towards the path. “First thing’s first… help me up. I might scream in pain, not gonna lie, ignore that, you didn’t hear it. Then we get to the Tornado, and to Tails, and see how the others are doing; they were out collecting Chaos Emeralds to try to use to power the sword, since we don’t have access to the other swords here. Sounds like a plan?”

He held his hand out to the other Sonic, tired smile still on his face. “Oh, and, one more thing: promise not to get overwhelmed by dark chaos and go full Super Dark on me, please? One darkmode Sonic is enough around here…”

“…that’s not reassuring…but I know us well enough to know you’ll say no if I tell you to rest more so. I dunno. Bite down on a glove? …Rest of it sounds good, though.” BB briefly wonders if he could offer to try to power or wield Caliburn, or even the chaos emeralds, but he’s not sure if that would even work if he’s not from the same universe. He takes the outstretched hand. “Uh. I promise to do my best not to do that. Yeah.” He tugs the older Sonic up as carefully as he can - he might not be as strong as Shadow but he’s not weak - and hovers nearby for a moment when he’s upright. “I’ve…gone dark before. Once. I don’t want a repeat performance.”

Sonic did scream, but softly, as he was pulled up; his ribcage cramped terribly, but abated soon enough he didn’t crumple back to the ground. He stood straighter slowly, testing his limits before letting out a breath.

“And, yeah, me too,” he sighed. “Once. Full dark. I guess it’s why I can’t hate Arthur… Even as the Black Knight. I know it’s not him… not really. Part of me wants to save him, too, like, if I can save him then I can save me- it’s. It’s complicated.” He shook his quills out carefully, shaking off the dirt and sand from the shoreline, and nodded. “Okay. Ready?”

BB makes sure AV can stand alone before he allows his arms to drop. “No I…I get it. I hope we can save him, too.” He hopes he can help to save everyone. “Oh, hang on.” He whistles loudly, and after a moment Spout appears, descending rapidly to land neatly on BB’s  arm. “Sprout, Sonic. Sonic, Sprout.” He gestures at them in turn. Sprout smiles with their very sharp teeth. “Ok, we’re ready.”

“...Yeah. Riot, but, caveman. Hey, Sprout… Uh… promise not to bite me?” AV greeted.. He looks down to Caliburn gestures for it. “Before we go, could I…? I trust you! But, it’s been a minute… kinda wanna see if he can still talk to me like this, you know?”

Sprout makes no such promises, but they don’t bare their teeth either. They ruffle their feathers and fold their wings, eyeing AV steadily. “Oh.” BB hasn’t really registered he’s still holding the sword. He turns it to offer the hilt to his older counterpart, a smirk slipping onto his face as he bows. “My liege.” 

This startles a halted laugh from AV, aggravating his ribs a bit. He bows his head and takes the hilt. “Pfft… we both know we hated that shit. Even if it did come from the hottest knight at the Round Table.”

The thought of Lance made his ears pin. “Wonder how beside himself Lancelot is, thinking about it… Guess… there’s three of us worried sick over our partners, now. Makes you wonder if its just fate Sonics and Shadows are all just constantly heading for disaster.” He holds Caliburn in its scabbard in both hands, feeling comforted by its familiar weight. It felt so much bigger the last time he held it… though, he had been little more than a child, then. He fasted the belt around his waist and turned towards the path, nodding the younger hedgehog to follow.

BB relinquishes his hold on the sword as AV takes it, grinning in response. “He was real hot.” He nods in agreement. Looking back he can recognise that, but at the time he’d never have admitted finding someone that looked like Shadow attractive. “I don’t think it’s fate. And we’re not heading for disaster. Nothings ever so broken we can’t fix it, right? We’ve done the impossible before.” He falls into step beside the taller hedgehog, looking around as they walk and trying to decide if anything is familiar. “So… we’re heading to Tails?” He wonders how this Tails will take the appearance of another Sonic. Will he be as cautious as his brother?  

AV took a breath and nodded. “You’re right, you’re right… Sorry. Amy’s already accused me of letting Shadow’s pessimism rub off too much; guess it’s just been one thing after another since the Rifts opened. But… yeah. We can fix this. Okay.” He nodded again, firmer this time, and set a determined gaze forward.

“Yeah, to Tails. I brought the Tornado out here to search for Caliburn, so, we’ll take it back to his workshop. The others should be back soon, too, I hope; and then… We figure out what to do about the Black Knight, I guess. It’s been over a month since Arthur lost against the darkness, so, who knows what he’s been up to in the meantime.” The question of what had been happening to Shadow during that time made his quills flare along his back, but he would not voice the anxiety.

BB smiles up at the taller Sonic and nods decisively. Pep talk successful. He’s used to having to bring the optimism to partnerships, but it’s still weird to pep himself but not himself up. “A month…that’s a long time to go Dark for. You haven’t heard anything?” He notices the other’s quills start to rise and almost puts a hand on his arm but changes his mind, letting his arm fall back to his side. It’s so strange to try and comfort someone he assumes must have the same hang ups about being touched that he does. Most people he needs to comfort welcome the touch. And he’s gotten used to people touching him - even if he’d really rather they didn’t. Maybe talking it out will help. Who could understand what he’s going through better than himself? “You’re worried about Shads, hm? You said Arthur took him?”

“Sorta,” AV sighed. “He traded him to Eggman for the assurance he could use Eggman’s army for global reach. Shadow… went willingly. Arthur wanted me alive to ‘witness the burning of my world’, but he didn’t care what state I was in; that’s when he broke my ribs. I wasn’t super conscious at the time, but, from what Amy’s said, Shadow looked ready to go full Doom-morph to stop Arthur from hurting me. Turning himself over to whatever Eggman wanted was… the only real option.” 

AV’s brow furrowed and his gaze sharpened to a burning glare. “...I want to save Arthur. But, there’s someone working with Eggman now, his partner or husband or something- someone I’ve never met before. Someone who has it out for Shadow,” he began. His lips drew into a snarl, tight on his muzzle, and he looked to his side to the hedgehog. “I’m warning you now; when we get out there, whatever that battle looks like? Besides the slightest chance we might have to save Arthur… I don’t care about taking prisoners. I’m done giving Eggman second, third, thirty chances. If he gets in my way, and I have an opening? He’s mine. Him and that fucking Stone.”

His pelt prickled, and he forced his quills to relax again as he looked ahead. “But… you don’t have to worry about that. Just. So you know.”

“…yeah. I can see him doing that.” BB bites his lip at the thought of Shadow going willingly to save his…whatever this Sonic was to him. The last versions he’d met had been married, but Sonic had said they’d only recently gotten together so it was confusing. “Eggman? Married? Gross. And what has he got against Shadow if you’ve never heard of him?” 

The tone of the other Sonic’s voice let him know that there wouldn’t be any arguing for another chance for this Eggman. Honestly he wasn’t sure he’d give the Eggman from his own world another chance after everything. Capture and torture me once? Shame on me. Capture and torture me twice? Shame on you. He won’t risk a third. BB takes a breath, let’s it out. Nods in agreement. “Ok. I…don’t know that I could take the chance if it came my way. Whatever battle is coming I want to help, but I don’t think…well…I don’t know. If I could. But. I…for Shads I could. For yours, too. I think.” Even if this Sonic doesn’t want him to worry it doesn’t mean that he won’t. And he’s not the type of fighter to be put on the sidelines. He knows AV knows this. 

AV pushes a branch out of their way as they enter the thick of the forest, holding it back for the other Sonic. “I wouldn’t put you in a position you’d have to make that call, don’t worry. If anyone’s getting blood on their hands, it’s me; I’m already soaked in the stuff, anyway. Little more won’t change that.” He flicked an ear and added, “And, I dunno what Stone’s beef is with Shadow. But he was zeroed in on him the whole fight.”

“I know. But. If the chance is there, and you can’t…?” BB can’t just sit idly by if it means getting Shadow back. A Shadow. Not his. His Shadow is waiting for him, he hopes. An uncomfortable twinge settles in his stomach at delaying his return home, but he hopes Shadow will understand when he gets back. He knows Sonic. He wouldn’t expect him to leave when he can help. “Huh. Weird. Do you think he…came from somewhere else too?”

“Dunno. Maybe? I mean, it’s possible; me and Shads found this old spot where some Rifts opened up years ago, and we found Sage hanging around there. Or, he did, I was… kinda busy. One of the Sky-mailers- er, anons…? Uh, one of ‘em decided to throw my werehog powers back on me and… well. Heh. ‘Least I kept my mind! Sucked not being able to speak though, ‘specially since that was of course the precise fucking moment Shadow wanted to talk about us…” AV pinned his ears. His eyes misted again, and he snarled at the emotions so easily running away from him. He took deep breaths, more so for the pain of his ribcage expanding to distract himself than to actually calm his racing heart, and said, “Shoulda… shoulda been ready before then. Shouldn’t have dragged him along so far… I know how much he hates shit being up in the air. I was a coward.”

He looked to the other. “Guess not you though, huh? You and your Shadow… you guys are together, right? Already?”

“Sage hanging around is always suspicious.” BB could never fully trust her, with how she and Eggman were, so her involvement wouldn’t be a surprise. He huffs a small laugh at ‘sky-mailers’ and wonders how they get their messages. Maybe they do actually come from the sky. The other Sonic seems to be wrestling with his emotions, so BB waits until he’s cooled off a little before speaking. “Maybe you were, but you can’t change the past and make yourself ready before you are. You got where you needed to be now, hm?” At the question about his own Shadow BB flushes, still unused to speaking to people in person about it. “We’re engaged, actually.” He rubs his thumb over the band through his glove, as if to reassure himself it’s still there.

“And as for the werehog thing…they did that to me too. And the other guy from the other universe. Gave it to Shads there, too. What is it with them and inflicting that on us?” 

“Heh who knows, maybe they like it as much as Shadow doe-,” AV freezes mid sentence  and blinks rapidly. Then turns his attention to the other Sonic, eyes wide. “I’m sorry, I think- I think I misheard… I swear you said engaged?!”

BB ducks his shoulders and shrinks into himself a little at the surprise in the older Sonic’s tone, suddenly self conscious. “Uh, yes? He asked me in the hospital when I woke up.”

AV stares. Blinks. Stares some more. The old anxiety he always felt at the thought of commitment flared… only for a moment. He wondered how much of that was the fact it wasn’t really him committing versus… him just. Being okay with it, now. He turned to keep walking, still a bit shell-shocked. “Sorry, just… took me by surprise. I mean… I guess, after what you went through, it’s not that crazy, you know? Six months forced together in a bunker probably let you speedrun the relationship pretty good.”