Chapter Text
The fire burned all around him. That was nothing new. Silver had been surrounded by the flames for as long as he could remember. Frankly he wasn’t sure how he’d even survived long enough to start making conscious memories. He supposed someone must have cared for him, for some time at least. Whether it was his parents or someone else he didn’t know. He had learned several unspoken rules from his time on mobius though. One was you stayed in groups as little as possible. There weren’t many resources to go around, and the bigger your group the less likely you were to find enough for everyone. As such he had rarely found himself in the presence of others.
Why was he thinking about this now? Well it was because he saw a human being surrounded by the flaming creatures of Iblis. Which wouldn’t be all that strange. He’d rescued his fair share of people. Humans and mobians alike, but this man was… well he was round. Silver had never seen a person with a shape like that. The stomach was so big, he idly wondered how the man ever found enough food to fill it. He shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to be worrying about that. He shot forward using his powers to quickly place himself in front of the man before wrapping all of the beasts in a cyan glow.
He crossed his arms and then quickly swiped both of his arms outward sending all the creatures flying into surrounding buildings so hard the creatures popped. Leaving rocks and magma burning in their place. “Oh ho? That’s quite the ability you have there.” The man spoke, his white mustache flapping wildly with his enthusiasm. He was mildly uncomfortable with the man, especially because he couldn’t see his eyes behind his shaded glasses, but Silver always did his best to help others so he ignored the weird feeling he was getting.
“We should get going, there is bound to be more of those beasts on their way.” He knew better than to waste time on pleasantries. Those beasts wouldn’t be gone for long, and Iblis likely wouldn’t be far behind them. He could beat Iblis if he had too, but fighting that monster while protecting someone would not only be difficult, but also incredibly exhausting.
“Not to worry. I have a base near here. I have a feeling we might be able to prove very useful to each other.” The man laughed as he walked away. Silver watched the human walk away completely confused. That… Was not how people normally reacted to being saved. Also how did the man have a base? There were so few resources no one could afford to stay in one place. Did the man just mean a camp? “Here, have some water.” The man handed him a strange metal cylinder.
It was oddly clean. There wasn’t any rust, and it appeared completely undamaged. Silver looked at it for a moment curiously before he found a piece pushed out of the top. When he moved it a hole opened in the top and he saw liquid inside. He drank it without hesitation and was absolutely shocked. The water was… clean? He didn’t taste any mud, or metal. He’d never had water that tasted this good before. “Where did you get this?” He doubted the man would tell him. He couldn’t even blame him. A pure water source was infinitely valuable, and the less people knew about it the longer it would last.
“Well to answer that in a way you will understand I’ll have to show you.” The man kept walking, not even attempting to get the water back. Silver followed him a lot of his earlier tension fading. He carefully observed the man he had rescued. Being round wasn’t the only thing that set him apart from the few other people Silver had seen. His water wasn’t the only thing that was clean. Even his clothes looked clean, without a hint of ash. They also looked to be made out of an odd material, not the standard stuff you’d occasionally find lying around. “I’ve been trying to find a way to escape this trash heap for decades, and I think you might finally be the key to that.”
Silver turned to the man curiously. He had traveled all over the planet, he could confidently say there was no place where one could truly escape from the flames. Besides, even if there was. “I don’t plan to run away. Some day, I’ll find a way to defeat Iblis for good. A future where the people here can live without fear of that monster and his creatures. Until I accomplish that I can’t leave.” He hadn’t given up yet. Despite Iblis having already resurrected countless times, Silver continued to hope. He beat Iblis in different ways, with more and less force. He tore Iblis to pieces and spread the pieces across the planet. He flattened the monster under several tons of metal and stone, he even tried burying the monster miles under the surface. That one in particular had taken Silver a long time to set up, so he was especially disappointed when it hadn’t worked.
“You misunderstand me, my friend. I don’t mean leaving this place, I meant leaving this time. If we can go back to an earlier time, perhaps we can prevent this tragedy altogether.” What? His eyes widened as he turned towards the older man. “You see, my ancestor created a bunker before this whole thing happened, and my family has been living there for generations. Cowering away worthlessly. I refuse to waste my life away like a rat in a cage. So unlike the failures in my family. I’ll find a way to make this the kind of world I want to live in.” A bunker? Was there even such a thing as a bunker secure enough to still be standing? Not to mention what about food, and water. Well the man did say he would show Silver where he got the water from. No wait, none of that really mattered. Time travel? Could it really be possible? A way to fix this broken place before it ever came to be?
“How would I be able to help?” He didn’t know how he was supposed to help someone travel through time, but he was willing to bet everything on the chance that he might be able to prevent this disaster. No matter how slim the odds, no matter the cost.
“Well you see my family had… records of the past. One in particular is of note here.” He looked unhappy about it, whatever it was. “Ivo Robotnik, otherwise known as eggman. The father of the one who built the bunker. He had a… Rival you could say. A hedgehog, like you that hedgehog had extraordinary powers. Even more important than that though was the rod.. The hedgehog had the ability to manipulate chaos energy, and other powerful natural forces. It is that power that I need to finish my machine.”
Silver couldn’t believe it, but if he really did have that kind of power, then he’d use it. He’d save this world. He’d prove that no matter how dark things got, there was always a chance, so long as he didn’t give up hope he hadn’t lost yet.
“Now I believe I promised to show you my base.” He turned towards the man who had led him to what seemed to be a random hill before pressing something on the band around his wrist. To Silver’s shock the hill split into revealing several metal trapdoors opening to a metal platform. The man whose name he still didn’t know led him onto the platform that slowly began descending as Silver looked around in awe. “Oh and I suppose we still haven’t introduced ourselves. Well you can just call me Nega.”
***
Mephiles watched as the foolish hedgehog and the mad doctor disappeared. They would play into his hands without him even having to interfere it seemed. He would become whole again. He just needed Iblis to awaken earlier. The longer Iblis was trapped in that foolish princess the more his other half rejected their fusion. In this current timeline Iblis didn’t awaken until the princess died naturally, and even then it took him decades to properly form. By the time he had found his other half it was far too late. He needed a way to unleash Iblis much sooner if he was to become whole again, and thankfully it seemed 2 pawns had kindly stepped onto his chess board.
He’d watch them a little longer first. He had to learn about their personalities and moral codes. If he was to properly manipulate them he needed to know what their vulnerabilities were, and their goals too of course. He chuckled menacingly. He had waited over 200 years. What was a few more? Once he was complete time would cease to have any meaning anyway. He faded back into the shadows. It was not yet time.
***
Silver’s head whipped back and forth. This was unbelievable, unlike anything else he had ever seen. Nega’s base was full of pristine metal, and flashing lights. It was perfectly clean, and there was no fire or ash, or even broken stone or scorch marks. It was amazing. “How did you find all of this?” It was truly unlike anything Silver had ever imagined.
“I made it.” He looked at Nega in awe. He had made all of this? How? Where did he get all the materials? He had so many questions. Even more so when a weird sphere like robot suddenly flew in through a hole in the ceiling that immediately closed. The robot landed on a tank, and latched on for a second before flying off again. “Ahh speaking of my invention you asked where I was getting clean water yes?” He walked over to the tank and put a glass mug against a button on it. A spout appeared and clean water poured out of the tank into the mug. “You have to send the robots pretty low, or pretty high to find it, but there is plenty to be found and gathered. Purifying it is also a relatively simple matter.”
Nega handed him the cup, and he greedily drank the water. He had to start gathering people here. If Nega had a means of consistently getting clean water it was possible to actually stay in one place. There were still survivors out there who barely managed to find enough to live day to day, but with Nega’s help he could finally help them. “We need to bring people here, if you can get clean water that easily, then we can save so many people!” He excitedly fiddled with his gloves as he spoke. The gloves and boots he wore were ratty, and full of holes. Both had honestly been pretty lucky finds. They covered him enough that he could touch things without getting burned.
“It would be a waste of time.” His head whipped to Nega. A waste of time? “Now now, I just mean that we are going to change the past right. These people never would have suffered in the first place. Why waste time making their lives slightly less miserable when we can focus on actually making them good?” That… Made sense? It would take him a lot of time to find survivors, and even then there was no guarantee they would all fit in here. Fixing the world so it wasn’t a hellscape like this should be his priority… Right?
“Speaking of, how exactly am I supposed to help?” He didn’t know anything about controlling natural energies, as Nega had put it. Still he could redirect energy with his psychokinesis, so it wasn’t impossible he had that kind of ability. He’d figure it out, the fate of his world depended on it.
“Let me show you. The preparations have been complete for a while, I was just lacking someone with the necessary abilities to jumpstart the portal.” He followed nega to a giant ring looking thing placed on a raised platform with stairs leading up to it. Countless consoles and other machines littered the area around the ring. A glowing yellow gem was embedded on the bottom part of the ring. “The gem you see on the bottom has special properties that allow it to bend space, there is another embedded power source that should allow it to bend time as well. So long as someone is capable of controlling the energy it should create a stable portal to the past.”
He stared at the complex device in amazement. This was it. His chance to fix everything. If this fiery hellscape was the world's fate, then he finally had the tools he needed to properly defy destiny. “Let’s try it then.”
“What? No it’s too early, I have more tests to run, and I have to measure your output-” His body glowed cyan as he released his power causing Nega to go silent.
“The people have waited long enough, we do this now.” Nega for the first time looked mildly unsure before a smirk appeared on his face.
“Very well, but if we attempt it like this you will die without making the portal. Give me a few minutes and I will have you properly equipped to handle the temporal energies.” Nega began typing on one of the machines. A hologram of 4 rings appeared on the screen. The round man glanced furiously between him and the screen. “Hmm, a little thinner than expected, but close enough that no severe adjustments need to be made. He clicked a few more keys before he walked off, coming back with a pair of boots and gloves that were much nicer than the pair he had on now, and each had that same ring, with a gray line running through it. “Put these on.”
The clothes were tossed at him and he casually caught them with his psychokinesis. The cyan aura enveloped them and the grey line began glowing in the same color. “What does it matter?” He took off the tattered boots and gloves he had been wearing, and replaced them with the new ones. Clicking the rings into place. He didn’t feel any different after putting them on, but he did notice that the cyan glow didn’t fade.
“They are necessary for you to open the portal, you won’t have time to harness the energy otherwise. Now stand just behind the ring, that’s where the power is channeled, you can’t allow the energy to destabilize or the world's last hope will destroy itself.” He nodded as he prepared himself to rein in the energy. He was pushing his powers to their limit in preparation. Nega flipped open a glass case and pressed a big button and then Silver understood what Nega had meant by output.
He didn’t know what these power sources were, but they were much stronger than his own powers, and much less controlled. Still despite the pain as these foreign energies coursed through him Silver didn’t lose control for a second. He shaped the energy and allowed a swirling portal to form in the ring Nega had created. “I can’t believe this. I never would have imagined you would succeed on your first try.” Nega began confidently walking towards the swirling portal.
“Wait! How do I go through?! If I move, the energy will explode!” Silver closed his eyes and grit his teeth. The chaotic energy was surprisingly fine, but the gem on the bottom of the portal was rejecting his control. Whatever it was it certainly didn’t seem to take to him like the other energy source did.
Nega laughed loudly. “You don't, my dear boy. You’ve done everything you need to do! Now you will get to enjoy the future where I am the supreme ruler of all, and my ancestors' stupidity is wiped from history.” His shock almost caused him to lose control, but not before Nega walked through the portal. He grit his teeth even harder. He had been duped. Tears of frustration threatened to fall from his eyes.
“No.” He wouldn’t let that man get away with this. He screamed as he stopped letting the energy form the portal in front of him instead focusing the warp energy on himself. He’d catch Nega and he’d fix the past. He held onto those thoughts with all of his will as the energy exploded and his world went dark.
***
Blaze chased after the egg salamander in her burning form carefully dodging its seemingly endless attacks. Her new friend Sonic helped her battle the mad doctors twisted machines. He seemed far more experienced in his transformed state than she was, but she was holding her own. “I won’t allow you to harm this world!” That was when Nega laughed.
“Maybe you can save this one, but what about your own!” I made a little insurance policy when I was in your world before I got my hands on the Sol emeralds. If I don’t send the command to stop it, your kingdom will be nothing but ashes when you return!” Her eyes widened. No, that was impossible, wasn’t it. Wasn’t Nega from her world to begin with? How could he do that to his own home?
“That’s a lie!” She blasted a beam of fire at the egg salamander which countered her attack with a beam of its own. Sonic flew past her as a golden ball aiming to hit the egg salamander with full force, but he was knocked away by a flick of its tail. Glowing balls of energy were shot after the thrown hedgehog.
“Wait, you what?! What's the point of taking over a pile of ashes?!” Eggman yelled at Nega.
“Oh relax, it's not your world, what do you care? If it gets the cat to retreat then we can kill the hedgehog!” Nega shouted back
“I can handle the 2 of you even without backup. Go save your city Blaze, I got this!” Sonic smirked and gave her a thumbs up as he charged at the egg salamander again. Her anxiety spiked as she struggled to decide what to do. She’d be leaving Sonic to fight something alone, that was giving both of them a hard time. If it was a bluff then that would weigh on her conscience forever, but what if it wasn’t a bluff? She couldn’t allow her kingdom to be destroyed.
“No, we beat them together, let’s just do it quickly.” She prayed for the safety of her home, and prepared to take out the 2 mad scientists threatening both worlds. If she abandoned the fight and Sonic lost, both worlds would likely be destroyed anyway. She’d just have to rush.
***
Consciousness was slow to return to Silver. His head was killing him, and he felt as if he had just decided to fight Iblis again, but didn’t use his powers at all. He groaned at the pounding headache that he felt. What had he even been… doing… Where the hell was he? He looked around, and was shocked to find himself surrounded by greenery. A dense forest greeted him no matter which direction he turned his head. His memories swiftly returned as he remembered meeting, and swiftly being betrayed by Nega. Perhaps the right question wasn’t where, but when?
Something felt wrong, but he couldn’t quite place it. He shook his head. He’d worry about that later, first he had to find Nega. Who knew what kind of twisted changes that man was making to the past. If he went back to his time, and it was somehow worse then he’d never forgive himself. He flew up into the air, managing to keep a hold on his powers despite the raging headache. Only to be shocked speechless once again at finding out he was completely surrounded by water. An island? He had read about those at some point, but it hadn’t occurred to him that the oceans would be around in the past. Still the endless ocean spreading out in every direction didn’t exactly help him figure out where to go.
He shrugged, he’d just have to do what he always did. He picked a direction at random and flew off at full speed. Thankfully it didn’t take too long before he found another island, but this one one was actually populated. He touched down on the beach away from the small town and began walking towards it. Now the question was what would he ask them? He doubted any of them would know anything about Nega. Well he supposed Nega did say something about taking over the world, so it might be best just to ask where the capital was.
It didn’t take him long to find a koala walking around. “Where is the capital?” He asked bluntly after he grabbed the koala’s shoulder. The koala looked at him with minor curiosity, before turning back the way he was going before.
“It’s a straight shot north from here, can’t miss it.” The figure left after answering his question, not even giving him a second glance. That was good, he didn’t want to draw too much attention until he knew what he was actually supposed to do. So with his question answered and his headache finally beginning to fade Silver shot off to the north. Only the occasional boat or small island broke up the monotony of the seemingly endless expanse of water. At least that’s how it was for a while, but before long he started seeing a huge landmass up ahead, and the ridiculously high towers of the castle made it pretty clear he was in the right place. It wasn’t until he neared the castle that his survival instinct flared and his gaze shot up to see a red light descending on the castle.
***
Blaze was exhausted, but she was pushing herself to her limit. She and Sonic had defeated the vile robot the Eggman had been piloting, but they both managed to escape, not that she could afford to give chase right now. She was too worried about Nega’s threat, and as she rushed to her kingdom she saw that she was right to be. A red light from above shot towards her kingdom, and she knew no matter how much she hurried she wouldn’t make it in time. Her people would die because she wasn’t good enough. She screamed, only to be silenced when the devastating explosion she expected didn’t happen.
Instead the red laser met a cyan shield, and they clashed violently just above her castle. She was so mystified she didn’t even step into help. Cracks began appearing on the cyan shield, and that finally kicked her into gear, but she was too late; the shield finally shattered just in time as the laser had been reduced to nothing. A figure behind where the shield had been began to fall. She raced down, determined to catch the person who had just saved her kingdom. With her exhausted state she barely made it to their landing spot before they did, and she didn’t even have the strength to stay on her feet after being hit by the falling savior. They tumbled onto the ground together, and she finally got a good look at the person she owed a debt that couldn’t possibly be repaid.
2 hedgehogs wielding powers like her own in just a few days. What were the odds? Was this one from Sonic’s world or her own? She supposed she’d have to ask him, but she’d have to wait until he recovered. At least he didn’t look too injured. She gently lifted the white hedgehog and made her way to the castle