Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"So what're you looking for, again?" Sonic asks, striding confidently alongside Tails, who holds up a sort of radar the hedgehog never fully understood when he asked about it. Put simply, it can sense high energies of some sort of signal. "Well, we're looking for whatever's causing such a huge surge of energy on my monitor." Tails explains, gesturing vaguely to the device. Sonic suggested it may have picked up a Chaos Emerald, although Tails has a few doubts. The signal looks too strong, in his opinion. "Oh." Sonic accepts this explanation, putting his hands behind his head and stretching. The two pause when they reach the mouth of their destination: a cave. In a fight with Eggman two weeks ago, they discovered this cavern, and after Tails did some digging and research, they found it has something the Doctor must want. The little fox wanted to explore on his own, but Sonic was all too eager to go explore, too. It's not that he didn't think his best friend, his little brother, couldn't handle himself, but more he wanted to go on an adventure with him. "So, this is it. You ready?" Sonic asks, glancing at him. Tails nods, reaching up to flick on a flashlight he'd attached to his head. "Yep! Let's go." Sonic motions towards the cave. "Lead the way, buddy." He encourages. Tails steps forward, shining his light into the darkness, and heads in. For the first little while, it's a normal walk; stone walls and a few side tunnels. After about 15 minutes, Tails stops. "The readings say it's somewhere around here, but I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary..." he muses, looking a little closer at some of the rocks nearest his feet. "That's weird...is there something we're missing? Or are we in the wrong spot?" Sonic wonders, rapidly tapping his foot on the ground as he thinks. The fox shakes his head, checking his monitor for the 4th time to be absolutely sure: "This is where it says it is." He confirms, then frowns as a new sound reaches his ears: a cracking, shifting sound that sounds like stone.

His eyes widen as he realizes what it is, and reaches forward to try and pull Sonic away. "Look out!" He exclaims, and despite his attempt to prevent it, the ground splits open underneath the hedgehog, and he falls with a shout. Jumping up and using his tails to hover above the new chasm, he barely hesitates before diving into it as well, noting that it's sloped, but dismisses it when he hears splashing and coughing. Sonic's fallen in the water. Following the sounds, he locates his friend struggling in what appears to be a sort of underground lake, only lit by a few glow-worms that remain a fair distance away from the water. "Sonic!" He calls, reaching out to offer his hand for assistance. After a few seconds of floundering, Sonic manages to grasp onto Tails' hand and lets him drag him out of the water, where he spends a moment catching his breath, then flopping to lay on his back, panting and breathing heavily. "Whooo! That was fun!" He chuckles breathlessly, Tails nodding silently. "Are you okay? That fall must've hurt." Sonic sits up, starting to try his best to dry off, wringing out his gloves and fixing his quills. "Meh, I've bounced back from worse with less. I'm fine, really." He assures him, chipper and happy. "If you're sure..." Tails looks back at the slope they came from. The flashlight illuminates what appear to be the rough, very weathered and old shapes of carved stone. Was this place important at some time? It would explain why Sonic fell through so easily, maybe the roof wasn't covered before. Tails also notices that in his haste, he'd dropped the monitor; he'll have to pick it up again afterwards. That can wait, though, he'll get it when they walk back up to the top part of the cavern. "Are you up for walking back up?" Sonic nods, standing, though he wobbles for a moment as he does. "Ah...guess I'm not entirely used to actual legs." He mumbles, chuckling under his breath. "What was that?" Tails asks, unsure if he heard correctly.

"Huh? Oh, I was saying that I'm not all too used to having actual legs yet. It'll come to me, though." The hedgehog replies, stretching out his hand to inspect it. "For such a small body, it is quite efficient." Tails' brow furrows, and he tilts his head in confusion. "What do you mean? Did the water mess with your head somehow?" Sonic shakes his head, grinning. "No, no, little fox...I've never had such a clear mind. But I thought you would have figured it out by now, what with you being a so-called 'genius'. Honestly, didn't you learn anything about what you were walking into?" He sighs, then shrugs. "Doesn't matter to me, honestly. Not like it makes a difference to anything." Tails twitches his tails, a small motion, wary and on edge. "Why not? Sonic, what are you talking about?" The fox is struggling to understand. Was there something bad in the water? Is it some sort of joke he's trying to pull? "If you don't understand it by now, I'm not going to explain it to you. I have a plan, I think I'm going to put it into action." Sonic steps forward, but the way he does causes Tails to instinctively take a step back. "See, your friend, he has quite the free spirit. Very strong-willed. Even now, I can sense him, feel him fighting a losing battle." He taps the side of his head. "And while he can't do anything at all where he is, he can still see what I see." The hedgehog breaks into a wide grin, like a child who's excited to play with a new toy. Suddenly, he's right in Tails' face, something in his green eyes unsettling and unnatural, so Tails jumps back. "The first thing I'm going to do is break that spirit. Starting with you." That's all the warning he gets before Sonic leaps at him, hands outstretched as though reaching to claw him. But Mobians don't have claws. Luckily, the fox manages to just barely dodge out of the way, charging up the slope and ignoring the device he'd dropped. He has no time. Whatever's happened to his best friend, he's still faster than Tails, meaning every second counts. To his surprise, he manages to make it all the way to the cave entrance, a feat that confuses him. Did Sonic get stuck, or lost? Daring not to pause and check, he keeps going, intending to try and lose him by air. Just as he's about to leap off the ground, however, something jerks him back, keeping him from freedom. Sonic has caught him quite literally by the tail, and pulled him back before taking the opportunity to attack. Yanking the fox again, he catches him by the throat, lifting him up and tightening his grip. Tails grunts, swaying his tails and kicking his feet to try and break free. "I can hear him, you know. He's begging for your life. He's your planet's hero, isn't he? Sort of pathetic, if he's so quickly neutralized." Sonic shakes his head a moment, then brightens up again, a wild excitement in his eyes. "But it'll be interesting to see how he reacts when you die. That'll break him at LEAST a little bit, don't you think?"

Tails, unable to respond, gives a choked gasp, lungs beginning to burn, mind still swimming with confusion, vision starting to blur and dark spots gathering around the edges. 

Chapter Text

Shadow paces, ill at ease. He's recently discovered something, something potentially catastrophic. He's conflicted between searching for it, hopefully even destroy it before it can be found and cause havoc, and leaving it alone in the hopes to ensure it won't. He'll come to a decision once Rouge tells him where it is. She's good at digging up these sorts of things. "You should stop pacing. You'll wear a hole in the floor." Speaking of the devil(or in this case, the bat), Rouge lands on an outcropping a few feet away. "Well?" He asks, turning to face her. "Yeah, yeah, I got the thing." She rolls her eyes and holds up a small USB. "Eggman's got so much information on old things he's not even looked at yet, I'm surprised he's so committed to getting it at all." She comments, leaning forward to pass it to him. Without replying, Shadow takes it and goes to the computer they're sharing. While Shadow's here on a mission for G.U.N, Rouge is here for whatever Eggman was after, apparently somewhere in the area. "A thank you would be nice, I went out of my way for this, you know. And I didn't even find anything worth stealing." Shadow grunts, more focused on the text appearing on the screen. "Well?" He scans over the words one more time, then answers. "It's buried underground, 'hidden away from the face of the sun so that no living creature may disturb its waters'. Whatever it is, it's been trapped or sealed in a lake, it seems." Rouge makes a contemplative noise. "Tails mentioned something about going to a cave with Sonic today. Apparently Eggman thought he'd found something underground, which as you know, was what drew me to investigate in the first place." Shadow lifts his head, alert. "What?" He asks sharply. "Tails said something about going to a cave. It's probably not even the same one; Eggman never touched these files." Rouge shrugs, then pauses. "They always seem drawn straight into the thick of trouble. I have to make sure." Shadow insists. "If I go now, I might manage to stop them in time." Shadow steps away, passing the bat as he heads for the entrance. "And thank you." He mutters, returning the USB to her. Before she can say anything, he fires up his air shoes and speeds away. If he keeps at the speed he's at right now, he should be able to get there in about 5 minutes. He would use Chaos Control, but if they've uncovered it, he may need as much energy as he can.

Coming up to the cave, Shadow can already see something is horribly wrong. From what the hedgehog can tell, Sonic is...attacking Tails? He's holding the little fox up by the throat, clearly choking him as the younger Mobian struggles weakly, straining for breath. The dark, dreary clouds overhead do nothing to help with the setting, creating a mood of something dark and unpleasant. Pausing momentarily to be sure of what he's seeing, Shadow uses Chaos Control, intending to kick Sonic in the back of the head. He is unprepared for when Sonic uses his free hand to catch and entirely stop the attack, however, stopping his momentum instantly. "You certainly have a strong kick...why is that, I wonder? For anyone else, that would have been quite the headache, but unfortunately, I'm not so easy to take down." Dropping Tails, who collapses in a heap on the ground before gasping for air, Sonic turns to face the other hedgehog. At least he's alive. That's good. Sonic has all but forgotten Tails, entirely fixated on Shadow. He points at the darker hedgehog. "You. The so-called 'Ultimate Life-Form', right? You look like one of these..." he indicates to himself. "...but you aren't. You were made, by some other species. And that alien, Black Doom's help. It's the Black Arm's blood running through your veins right now, isn't it? Does that make you immortal, then?" Shadow puts his fists up to his face, refusing to respond. "Too bad it didn't work for your little girl, though. What was her name? Mary? Marie? Oh, yes, that's right! It was Maria!" Shadow clenches his teeth, getting into a fighting stance. "How dare you mention her?!" He snarls, struggling to control his anger. "Oh no, did I hurt your feelings?" Sonic mocks, still grinning wide. There's a crazed look in his eyes, almost giddy, as though he enjoys provoking Shadow. Seeing Tails stir behind the hedgehog, he snaps back to his senses, forcing himself to calm down and focus on saving the fox. Clearly, Sonic's able to deal with Chaos Control-based attacks, which he wasn't wholly expecting. He'd thought he held the element of surprise, though it doesn't matter much. But the fact he was able to use Chaos Control at all is still useful. He hates it, but he recognizes that as he is now, he won't be able to fight Sonic...or whatever he's become. "So, Shads..." Sonic drawls, leaning forward a little bit. The way he says it sounds off, not just the fact he drew it out, it's as though he's never said it before, and instead is trying to echo someone else who said it. "Are we going to fight, or are you going to stand there and keep thinking about poor Maria? After all, I've not met a creature that claims such immortality. I'd like to test that theory out." Shadow steps back, jumping to one side as Sonic attacks, a move unlike the blue hedgehog normally would use. He prefers to use his feet or to curl up into a ball to cause damage, never does he outright leap at an enemy. As he spins to face him again, Shadow uses Chaos Control to disappear, reappear for a moment to grab Tails, then disappears again, intending to get as far as he can before reappearing. This puts him just inside the base, coincidentally another cave, a momentarily safe place...unless Sonic finds them. Tails is unconscious in his arms, but Shadow is grateful the little fox is even breathing.

"Rouge!" He calls, looking around. "Rouge!" The bat lands in front of him; from the expression on her face she must've been sleeping, although it softens to shock and surprise when she lands eyes on Tails. "What happened?" She demands, taking over Shadow's hold on the kid. "I was too late. Something's happened to Sonic; he tried to kill Tails." She swivels one ear to continue listening as she moves towards the only bed in the room, used only for Shadow. She lays the young Mobian to rest there, checking for any injuries. "He's fine, just unconscious. Whatever injuries he's got, he'll have to heal on his own." Rouge tells him, sitting on the edge of the bed to face the hedgehog. "So, what's the story?" She motions for Shadow to sit down, which he does. "I don't think we really have the time–" He starts. "You sat down, you're telling me this." She insists, and Shadow sighs, as does Rouge. "Look, if you're really worried, I can have Omega keep watch." She offers, looking at the robot that had been silent up until that point. Omega leaves, his mission a minor comfort to Shadow. "I suppose it is just a waiting game now...fine. When I left, I found Sonic and Tails fighting just outside the cave. I assume Sonic used his speed to catch Tails, and begun trying to kill him." He shrugs. "Why would Sonic start trying to kill his best friend??" Rouge wonders, perturbed. "They must have found whatever was in that lake, and it did something to Sonic." Shadow replies, mulling over what he knows. "We'd probably be smart to figure out what's happened to him. Rouge, can you–" Shadow begins. "Yeah, yeah, I'll go see what I can find. But you owe me for this. Breaking into Eggman's base isn't the easiest walk in the park." Rouge waves a hand dismissively, standing up. "If you run into Sonic, don't engage. If he tried to hurt his best friend, I doubt he'll care about leaving anyone else safe either." Shadow advises, watching her leave. "Oh? Are you finally admitting you care about me?" Rouge teases, spreading her wings with a sly smirk. "Just go." Shadow sighs, waving her off.

For the next little while, Shadow debates leaving with Tails again, maybe find someplace better. The fact Sonic hadn't found them yet was impressive, if not lucky, but he doesn't know how long that 'luck' will hold up, and he's not willing to find out.

Chapter Text

When Tails wakes up, the first thing he notices is that he's not on the ground anymore. Instead, he's someplace a little softer but still firm, and covered by a blanket. Then, he realizes that must mean he's not in the cave anymore. This makes him sit up abruptly, looking around for somebody, anybody, before his eyes land on Shadow, who has stood up, and is watching him with an unreadable expression. "Shadow??" He asks. He vaguely remembers him trying to attack Sonic. The hedgehog had somehow managed to stop him, but released Tails in the process. "Yes?" Shadow replies, then seems to realize what he meant and corrects himself. "I took you away from Sonic. You're lucky I did; seeing as he almost killed you." Tails looks down. Calling the structure he sits in a bed would be being kind; it's more of a cot. "Thank you." He says quietly. Shadow, recognizing that the fox is still processing what happened, sits back down on the crate he'd dragged over. He lets a few more moments pass; while Shadow may not hold anything against the young Mobian, they haven't had the best of interactions. He's unsure of what to say. "Why'd you come? How did you know to?" Tails inquires, looking up at him once more. "Rouge had found something while searching for some gems, thinking that's what Robotnik had found. Instead, she found some ancient texts speaking of a great evil under the ground. Coincidentally, the exact cave the doctor had dug up. He didn't know about it, only that there was a big source of energy in the area. He must have assumed it was a Chaos Emerald. When she said you two were going to explore it, I knew you'd end up causing trouble, so I came to stop it. It appears I was too late. Whatever was in that lake, it's been released." Shadow explains, gesturing in accordance with his words. "Do you know if Sonic's okay? Or where he is?" Tails' hopeful query is shut down as the dark hedgehog shakes his head. "I don't know where he is. And I wouldn't suggest that you seek him out, either. Whatever that thing is, it's clearly no longer Sonic, if it ever was at all." Tails tilts his head, frowning. "What do you mean? From what I understand, Sonic's just possessed...right?" He says.

"I don't think that's how it works." Rouge interjects, making her entrance. "I managed to scrape together some more details for you; hope you're happy." She hands Shadow the USB again, which he takes to the computer, bringing it over so Tails can see. "Seems like it wasn't just the Echidna that were in on this. There was a far more ancient race that had a part to play. I guess whatever these Ancients started, the Echidna finished it, or tried to. But that's beside the point–it's not Sonic. Or, I don't think so." Rouge steps forward and types something into the computer, pulling up a certain set of words and images onto the screen. The primary image shows a dark cloud with glowing eyes and a monstrous grin attacking what appear to be creatures like Chaos, with strange markings that look like they have eyes in their chests. "These Ancients seem to have led this threat to Mobius with them, albeit unknowingly. They talk about a sort of dark cloud falling from the stars, giving it the nickname 'the Starfallen', and infecting the waters of a nearby lake. When it infected one of these beings, it was because it fell into the lake. This thing was apparently meant to help another enemy, a far greater threat, destroy those Titans Sonic fought. After successfully killing and causing the suffering of many, they found a way to trap it, sealing its consciousness into the surface of that same lake. The trapped Ancient was returned, explaining the thing was already chained to the lake from the start, and rambling on about seeing things through reflections and another sort of pocket dimension. Flash forward to the Echidna..." Rouge taps the keyboard and the screen shifts, Tails identifying some of the ruins in the imagery to be very much like the ones Knuckles once showed him on a tour. "They had a legend of this lake, passed down through their generations, and that caused them to dispatch two warriors to protect it at all times, just like how our Echidna protects the Master Emerald." She explains. Shadow crosses his arms, regarding her with a grim yet closed expression. "You think this thing and Sonic switched places?" He infers. The bat nods, waving to indicate the computer, which Tails is now reading on, but still half-paying attention to the conversation. "Makes sense. when it was trapped back in the lake, that Ancient was freed, and the way it's explained sounds like this 'Starfallen' thing just impersonated them." Shadow nods, thinking hard. "Rouge may be correct. They never say anything about it inhabiting a body, they mostly focus on its ties to the lake." Tails muses, ear twitching in contemplation. "So...we get that thing back in the lake, and we free Sonic?" Shadow confirms, and Rouge shrugs. "Sounds like it, anyway." He scowls, thinking it over for a minute. "Then Tails, you should hide. I may not like that blue hedgehog, but it doesn't mean I won't protect his friends if they're in danger like this." The little fox looks up from the computer, listening as Shadow speaks. "Is there a safe place he can even go? Does this Starfallen have Sonic's speed?" Rouge inquires. "I think so, it's just figuring out how to use the new form it's copied." Shadow answers, taking back the computer. "Then nowhere on this planet is truly safe." Rouge points out. Shadow groans, running a hand over his face.

"Yes, this body's speed proves to be a bit of a problem for you, doesn't it?" Shadow whips around, and the thing impersonating Sonic–the Starfallen–stalks in, pausing to grab and drag something along with it. "It's useful, but difficult to control and manage. By the way, does this belong to someone?" It throws the broken, lifeless heap of Omega's body on the floor between them, and Rouge's eyes widen. "Please, Ultimate Life-Form," The Starfallen spits out the title in a mocking, venomous tone. While it still sounds like Sonic, there is a strange effect, like there's a new voice hiding underneath it, even a little like that version of Metal Sonic that the hedgehog had fought during the whole 'shattered reality' thing. "Were you REALLY hoping THAT thing would stop me? This body is small, but it is capable, like your friend was. He was worthy of his title of 'hero'...for a time. No longer." As it releases what appears to be a metal limb, Shadow growls quietly under his breath, more evaluating his options than listening to what it has to say. "And you." It turns its attention back to Tails, pointing at him. "You escaped me once, I wouldn't count on you being so lucky again." Shadow steps in front of the young fox, blocking him from the Starfallen's sight. "You aren't getting anywhere near him." He says, a statement of finality. "Oh, no? And I'm guessing that you intend to stop me? Go on, try it. I'd love to see you fall, too." It sneers, spreading its arms wide in a clear challenge, daring, even goading Shadow into attacking. Instead, the hedgehog grabs Rouge and Tails by the arms, and uses Chaos Control to get out of the cave, already running when they rematerialize. "What about Omega?" Rouge asks, flying to try and keep up, rather than running. "With luck, we can go back and fix him later. That's CLEARLY not happening right now. Tails. Do you know any place Sonic wouldn't be able to get at easily?" Shadow asks, only turning his head to make sure the fox hears him. Tails considers. "I don't think he'd be able to reach Angel Island on his own." He offers. "Then we go there." Shadow announces. Using Chaos Control once more, he takes them all the way to Angel Island, regardless of how far and how much energy that may have taken from him.

Knuckles is there, so he jumps back with his hands up when they appear. "What are you doing here?!" He exclaims, shocked and wary expression softening a little when he takes a moment to take in the group. "Something is coming." Shadow groans, standing up to address the Echidna. "We need to keep Tails safe, and as far as we know, this is the safest place." Knuckles narrows his eyes, confused. "What're you talking about? Tails, what happened? Where's Sonic?" Rouge folds in her wings. "Well, that's the problem...among other things." She starts. "Just get to the point." Knuckles growls. "Sonic isn't Sonic anymore. Now, there's some sort of thing that looks like him, but isn't." She briefly summarizes the situation, concerning the Echidna. "I think I recognize the name 'Starfallen'...vaguely, but I do. Some of the ruins here mention it...I think." Knuckles recalls, falling silent. "Whatever you can give us on it is helpful." Rouge presses, from a lofty perch on a boulder a few feet away. "I can do better than that...I can show you. Come on." Knuckles waves them on, encouraging the trio to follow him. After a few seconds' hesitation, they get up and walk after the Echidna, as he leads them through forest trails and dark tunnels, until eventually, they enter into a space where there are stone walls rising up in front and to the sides, a pool of water at the furthest end,, the rest a nice little meadow. Scattered around are various figures, stonework and semi-crumbling frames to hint that this place may have served a great purpose, once.

"According to what I could gather, there was a ritual done where someone would come here, pretty much every day, and watch the water's reflection. These people usually lived here, in seclusion, because the things this Starfallen would say were horrible, and they often had horrible dreams. Oddly, it only seemed willing to speak here. What I really don't understand is how and why it's connected to that other lake you mentioned, though. That's pretty far from here, after all. How would that work?" Rouge puts her hands on her hips, frowning thoughtfully. "Well, that Ancient was said to have talked about a pocket dimension or something, right? Maybe the Starfallen had access to other bodies of water through it?" Tails suggests, motioning to the serene body of water behind the Echidna. "I can see the logic in that: a sort of dimension that allows you to peer in and see ours." Shadow agrees, tilting his head slightly in approval. "Well, now what? You came here with a problem and no solutions, a half-baked understanding of it, and no way to beat it, otherwise you'd have gone and done it already." Knuckles crosses his arms. "I'm not gonna just LET you lead this thing to the Master Emerald, either." He adds. Rouge puts up her hands in a placative gesture. "I understand that. We hope it won't manage to get up here, but on the off-chance that it does, we should be prepared." She states, looking up and around for a moment before turning back to Knuckles. "This place looks hidden. I sure wouldn't have found it without help. Would you allow us to use this as a safe place to fall back, or hide if we needed to?" Knuckles considers, but nods. "Yeah, alright. I'll see what we can do to be ready." As the Echidna walks off, Rouge decides to follow him, leaving Tails and Shadow alone. "I'm going to go keep an eye out for the Starfallen. You stay here." Shadow announces, leaving before Tails can respond. The little fox sighs, glancing back at, then walking over to, the pool of water. It's very clear, cool and inviting. Tails stares glumly at his reflection for a few minutes, his thoughts circling around and around. Sonic's trapped, and Tails, everyone, is powerless to help him. He misses his friend, and feels restless, like he wants to do something more, something that would actually help, rather than getting dragged along by Shadow and the others all the time. He can have an important role in this, rather than just be the thing they need to keep safe, hidden, and protected. As his frustration and hidden emotions build, Tails hits the water, sending ripples across, and soaking his arm. The young Mobian stands up, looking for something to dry off with. "Tails?" He stops, a few steps away, and debates turning around. "Tails, was that you? Can you hear me? Please, buddy, I've been looking all over for you..." He turns around, expecting that Starfallen thing to be there, but instead, he doesn't see anything...

Until a shadow in the pool moves.

"Sonic?!" Returning to the water immediately, Tails kneels, confused and relieved. "Tails, you're alive! I'd hug you if I could. Where are you? I don't recognize this." Sonic waves at the air, probably indicating to the grove. His voice sounds as though he were sitting beside the young Mobian, but also like he's on the other side of a glass enclosure; sort of muffled. "Somewhere on Angel Island. Hiding from the...thing." Sonic nods. "Is Shadow with you?" He asks. Tails looks back at the entrance. "He went out to go make sure it didn't follow us." He explains, and fills the blue hedgehog in on what they'd found out so far. "Yeah, he's not...he's not in my body. I mean, I feel real. But, I can see what he sees, and sometimes he'll come in here to talk to me, though mostly he leaves me alone." Sonic confirms, poking the reflection. The water ripples where he touched it, but doesn't move otherwise. "I didn't know he had a name, he just told me to call him Sonic. He's a bigger faker than Shadow is!" Sonic huffs, obviously a little offended at the thought of this entity replacing him. "Can you...see where it is now? What's it doing?" Sonic pauses, eyes giving a glassed–over look. "Yeah. He's running. Not fast, but normal running. He's, um...killing things." Sonic says, gaze coming back into focus before he looks down. "Do you always see what it's doing? Are you okay?" Tails asks, worried. Sonic falters for a moment, but manages a smile and shrugs it off. "I'll be okay, so long as you and everyone else are safe." He assures him, with only a smidgen less of his confidence and bravado. "And I don't think he knows how to get to Angel Island, what with how he's wandering around. Which gives us SOME time. Some." Sonic inhales deeply, nods once, and continues. "I might have a plan. At the very least, I have a smart idea: I need you to go find the Chaos Emeralds. Even if we don't use them, if we can keep them out of the Starfallen's hands, that's a good thing. Shadow has one, right?" Tails nods. "Yeah, I thought so. I don't know where the other ones are, but I'm planning on enlisting some help." Sonic grins, a real, bright one this time. "This isn't the only reflection I can talk to you through. There's a lot of them here, so I think it's any reflection around that I can use. Once I figured this out, I started looking for you, or anyone, who could help. In my travels, I found some people. A trio, and if I had to guess, thieves of some kind. I didn't stick around with them for too long, but they might be able to help, what with the finding gems and all that." He explains, Tails listening attentively. "Did you see any clues about where they are, or where they're headed?" Sonic makes a gesture with his hand. "I think they were hunting through the mystic ruins, actually." He replies, then tenses up. "I should go. He's up to something, now. Think you can get Knuckles, Rouge, and Shads in on it, too?" Tails nods, standing up. "You can count on me!" He assures the hedgehog. "Great! Good luck, if I find you again, we'll catch up." Turning away from the reflection, Sonic disappears, and Tails sighs. He's still all amounts worried and concerned as before, but he's already got a little hope starting to bubble up again.

Chapter Text

"Look out!" Tails exclaims, just in time for the stone to give way under Sonic. Caught off-guard, the hedgehog plummets, landing on a steep, sloped path and sliding/tumbling the rest of the way down, before being unceremoniously dropped into a lake, or at least, some other body of water of considerable size. The moment he hits the surface, however, he can tell something is wrong. Instead of being surrounded by cold and the pressing weight of liquid, he feels a slight chill, like an autumn morning, and light, as though gravity was either lessened or gone entirely. Not just that, but something goes THROUGH him–a dark thing, faintly familiar, but ancient and full of vile things like hate and bitter, unbridled fury. Everything pauses, and now he's levitating, as though Silver had used his telekinetic abilities on him. "Wh–hello?" He yells, looking around the dark space.

"Hello." Out of black and dark purple mist appears...him? They look identical in every way, not so much as a singular difference to be seen between the two hedgehogs. Other than the grin this other one has plastered on his–assuming they're male–face. "Who are you? What happened? Is this like, my subconscious?" He laughs, an unnerving sound that decidedly puts Sonic on edge. "No, I'm not your subconscious. I'll be far more prominent than that...I'll ensure it." He promises, stepping forward. "Okay, but who ARE you?" Sonic insists, crossing his arms. He smiles, one that shows no teeth, and performs a slight bowing motion, clearly mocking. "Call me...Sonic." He says, breaking back into a wide grin, looking giddy, and like someone told him the funniest thing he'd ever heard, and is struggling to keep from laughing. "You have no idea what you have done...I can't wait." With that, the strange look-alike disappears, and Sonic returns to his weird falling thing. He abruptly lands on a flat surface, smooth but hard and unforgiving, not to mention invisible among the black surroundings. Groaning, Sonic rolls onto his back. Then, forgetting the pain of his fall and tumble, he cries out and stands, stumbling as his equilibrium shifts. Above him is what appears to be a reflection, but it's him, floundering in the water. But he's...wherever this is, so surely it's not him? Another odd thing is that now, he can see in his mind's eye very clearly, even when he's not trying to, what appears to be what's reflected in the space above him, but from the weird not-him-but-looks-like-him's perspective. He refuses to call him Sonic. That's his name, not theirs!

Tails appears shortly, hovering above the water with an outstretched hand, which Other him takes, letting the young fox pull him to shore. Now that they're out of view of the lake, he can't see them in the giant sky-mirror-thing, but the mind's eye thing still works. Now, the lake looks like a sky at night; those glowy worms like distant stars. If he weren't trapped in this weird place, it'd probably be something to admire. Speaking of, Sonic figures to take this moment of respite while the other guy recovers to look around, see if he could maybe escape. At first glance, the area looks desolate and black; a void of nothingness. The ground is solid and doesn't so much as chip when he attacks it in any way. "Whooo! That was fun!" The other guy notes, laughing a little. He's laying on his back, but rolls his head to look at Tails when he speaks. "Are you okay? That fall must've hurt..." he asks, as the not-Sonic sits up and begins trying to dry off. "Meh, I've bounced back from worse with less. I'm fine, really." He promises, a little too cheerfully, if you asked Sonic. He can already tell, given the short interaction they had, this guy is probably bad news, which mean he needs to get out of here as soon as possible. "I'm a speedy hedgehog; how hard could it be?" He reasons, picking a direction and running. He listens in to the conversation between Other Guy and Tails while he does. "Well, if you're sure..." Tails decides, looking back up the way they came.

About one second later, he runs headfirst into a dark wall, lining up with where the cavern wall would be. "I guess I'm not going in this direction." He sighs, turning around and going in a new one. "Guess I'm not too used to actual legs..." Other Guy notes, chuckling lightly to himself, and Tails looks at him curiously. "What was that??" He asks, Other Guy lifting his head to disengage from his thoughts. "Hm? Oh, I was just saying I'm not all too used to legs yet. It'll come to me, though." He starts inspecting his hand, holding it out to admire. "For such a small body, it's quite efficient, isn't it?" Other Guy comments, clenching his hand slowly, turning over his wrist, and wiggling his fingers. "Eh, what do you mean? Did the water mess with your head somehow??" Other Guy snickers, shaking his head. "No, no, little fox...I've never had such a clear mind. But I thought you would have figured it out by now, what with you being called a so-called 'genius'." Other Guy sighs, then shrugs. "Doesn't matter all too much to me, honestly. It's not like it makes a difference to anything." Tails grows confused, maybe even a little nervous, tails lifted a little higher than normal. "Why not?? Sonic, what are you talking about??" Sonic can tell, this is going south, very soon. He wants to tell the young Mobian to run, that it's not him. Staring up at the lake he hasn't found the exit to, he inhales deeply, and charges for where he remembers a wall. "Well, if you don't know understand it by now, I have a plan, I think I'm going to put it into action." He announces, stepping forward, letting his arms sway limply at his sides. Tails' ears go back and down, stepping back. He's sensed something is wrong, too. "See, your friend, Sonic, he has quite the free spirit. Very strong-willed." Closing his eyes, Sonic curls into a ball and jets forward, hoping his momentum will be enough to get him up to the reflective sky, maybe even break through it. While he manages to reach the 'sky', it refuses to give under his momentum and power, sending him falling back to the ground. Sonic grunts, sitting up and rubbing his arm as he stares up once more. Other Guy makes a quiet, amused snort. "Even now, I can sense him, feel him fighting a losing battle. And while he can't do anything at all where he is, he can still see what I see." Other Guy taps his temple, grinning as he had when he'd spoken to Sonic. Bridging the distance between himself and the fox, Other Guy looms over Tails, who hops back again, surprised.

"Hey! You said you could sense me, right? Stop being creepy to my best friend!" Sonic shouts, mostly to test how much of this guy's claims were bluffs. if he hears him, he doesn't respond. "The first thing I'm going to do is break that spirit. Starting with you." Abruptly, Other Guy leaps at Tails, hands out like he's about to rake his claws across the little fox's face, despite having none present. Tails throws himself to one side, instantly getting to his feet and dashing up the slope, Other Guy(he'll figure something out eventually; he's already ruled out 'Faker' since that's what he calls Shadow.) chuckling low and dark as he watches the two-tailed fox flee. "This is going to be fun, huh? Enjoy the show." At a casual, sauntering pace, he makes his way up to the rest of the cave, picking up a little speed. "What are you doing?? I don't know what's going on, or who you are! Why'd you try to attack Tails?" Other Guy doesn't slow, now jogging, picking up the pace as he keeps going. "You'll see." He answers simply, refusing to elaborate. "I'd rather not??" Sonic replies, but doesn't pursue the conversation further.

By now, Tails must be outside, which gives him some hope. Maybe if he can escape and hide, he can find some help. Amy, or Knuckles, heck, even Shadow, though a part of him doubts the latter might help, assuming Tails can find him. "Let's try out that speed of yours, why don't we? I've always wondered how such a form could maneuver as you do with such ease." Other Guy speculates, putting on a burst of speed, nearly running into a wall, veering to the right in the nick of time to avoid crashing. "Good luck with that, you'll get no help from me!" Sonic calls back, hiding his unease. "You don't need to shout, I can hear you fine." Other Guy chastises, turning another corner with far more precision than last time. The blue hedgehog rolls his eyes, at a loss of what to do. He can't help Tails; in fact, he may as well not exist for all the use he is to him now. All he can do is wait, and explore his surroundings, or lack thereof.

In the meantime, Other Guy has caught up with Tails, and darts forward just as Sonic's friend is about to take off, grasping him by his tail. Sonic makes a face of either shock or outrage, he can't tell. He'd made a point of not touching them unless the fox had specifically said otherwise, it was still a sore point for him. Pulling him backwards, the not-Sonic now catches him by the throat, keeping him from touching the ground. "Wha–hey, what are you–stop it, stop, you're hurting him!" Sonic exclaims, opening his clenched fists like he'd drop Tails, then remembers it's not him, he's only seeing what's happening. As if in response, the grip visibly tightens, making Tails thrash a bit more, trying to swing and break free. "Stop!! Please!!" He pleads desperately. Pressing his hands over his eyes and sinking to his knees, Sonic tries to shut out the pained gasps of his friend, heart pounding against his chest. Unfortunately, since it's clearly some sort of mental link, he can still see what's happening. Other Guy tilts his head, still smiling. "I can hear him, you know. He's begging for your life. He's your planet's hero, isn't he? Sort of pathetic, if he's so quickly neutralized." He comments, shaking his head as though disappointed, before returning to that crazed, chipper attitude. "But it'll be interesting to see how he reacts when you die. That'll break him at LEAST a little bit, don't you think?" He asks Tails, who gasps, straining against the hand to his throat, eyes watering. He doesn't have much longer. "Tails..." Sonic says, tearing up himself.

Out of nowhere, though, Other Guy puts up his hand, catching something. In the corner of his mind's eye vision, Sonic can see metallic red, some of the paint scratched off due to hard, aggressive use. It's pressing hard into the hand blocking it, a familiar hissing noise accompanying it. "You certainly have a strong kick...why is that, I wonder? For anyone else, that would have been quite the headache, but unfortunately, I'm not so easy to take down." Other Guy muses, releasing Tails, allowing him to drop to the ground as an unmoving bundle. Sonic can only hope he's alive and just unconscious. He turns to face the new opponent, who makes Sonic stand back up, both surprised and hopeful.

"Shadow!" He cries, relieved. The hedgehog's angry gaze deepens, eyes flicking between Tails and the hedgehog in front of him, probably thinking about how to handle the situation. Unlike Sonic, Shadow will more often take some time to think. Other Guy points at Shadow, stepping forward. "You. The so-called 'Ultimate Life-Form', right? You look like one of these..." He motions towards himself "...but you aren't. You were MADE, by some other species. And that alien, Black Doom's help. It's the Black Arms blood running through your veins right now, isn't it? Does that make you immortal, like they are?" Shadow puts his fists up to his face, refusing to respond. "Too bad it didn't work for your little girl, though. What was her name? Mary? Marie? Oh, yes, that's right! It was Maria!" Sonic winces, he's hesitant to openly bring the girl up, at least around Shadow. He may have tried to ask Eggman about her a few times(the not-so-good doctor always said that he either didn't know, didn't care, or simply wouldn't tell him, so he gave up), though. How this guy knows about her, Sonic has no idea. He was trapped in a lake, no way out and no way to see other than the 'sky'. Unless he somehow saw what Sonic did, like he is now, but wouldn't he have interacted with him before? Whatever the case, Shadow obviously didn't enjoy this guy mentioning her, teeth clenched and moving into a fighting stance. "Oh no, did I hurt your feelings?" His counterpart asks, clearly mocking him. Shadow steps forward, as though about to engage, before thinking better of it and choosing to stay where he is. "Come on, Shads, what are you doing??" Sonic murmurs, waiting for his rival to act.

"So, Shads..." Not-Sonic stretches out the name, clearly echoing what Sonic had said. "...Are we going to fight, or are you going to stand there and keep thinking about poor Maria? After all, I've not met a creature that claims such immortality. I'd like to test that theory out." Shadow moves to one side, dodging a direct attack from Sonic's malevolent copy, once again attacking with his hands outstretched. Spinning to face him again, Shadow suddenly disappears, which Sonic recognizes as Chaos Control. He probably still has an Emerald, then. That's useful. His view spins, turning to look at Tails just in time to see Shadow scoop the unconscious Mobian up in his arms, shoot a glare at him, and disappear. Not-Sonic stands there for a moment, silent and still. Then, he bursts out laughing. "What's so funny?" Sonic demands, feeling more relieved than ever before. The tight, hot feeling in his chest is slowly releasing, but this guy doesn't need to know that he'd triggered such a visceral fear within him. "He's made this much more interesting. This'll not only give me the time to get a grip on this body, but I've had an itch for a game of chase. I do love a good hunt." Sonic shakes his head. "Remind me never to try and play tag with you." He mutters, reaching out his hand to brush the wall. He can't actually see it, it's more of an invisible barrier. But with nothing better to do, he decides to follow it. Maybe there is an exit, he just can't see it because everything is black. "What's your beef, anyway? I think I'd have remembered trapping someone in a lake somehow." He asks, noting that the angle of the floor has shifted. If he's right, he should be under the slope he fell down.

"Alright, that's something." He states, then turns around and jumps; standing behind him is the other him. "No, you haven't met me before. But you've met my reason. I'm just the one sent out to finish the job. Make it come to an End." On the last word, Sonic's surroundings shift and glitch, small hints of static buzzing in the air. "You asked what my name was? Well, as I said, you would be better off calling me Sonic. You may as well; I'm going to be what 'Sonic' is from now on." He adds. Sonic crosses his arms. "But I'M Sonic! I'm not just going to GIVE you my name! Besides, you hurt Tails! That's a very un-Sonic thing to do." Sonic objects, and the Entity(in that moment, he decides that's what he'll call it) chuckles. "That's the point, hedgehog." He says, raising a finger as if to stress said point. "Who sent you, then?? Eggman? Black Doom? Uh...the Zeti?" Sonic demands, changing the subject, and quickly realizing he doesn't have many threats that don't involve Eggman in some way. The Entity shakes his head. "Your doctor? The fact you haven't finished him off disappoints me. Besides, he is a fool. As for the Black Arms? The Zeti? I'd not work with such creatures. Too brutish, and their plans are small. No, I'm an accomplice of someone much older than that. Recent to you, but far beyond you in years. One with a plan much more everlasting and permanent." Sonic groans, rolling his eyes. "Look, I'm not good at all these riddle things. Just get to the point." The copy shakes his head, grinning. "Not yet. I'll let you think about it, first." The Entity decides. "Okay, well, whoever sent you, what if I talked to 'em? I'm sure we could work something out. Maybe something that involves...not killing my friends??" The Entity scowls, abruptly appearing in his face, cold and angry. "We're well beyond that now. You made sure of it." He replies coldly, voice dripping with a sudden, potent venom. Then, he disappears, enveloped by that blue-black mist, and momentarily displaying glowing red eyes and a jagged mouth, reminiscent of the Time Eater, if the Time Eater lost all its cogs and most of its shape. Sonic sighs, turning back and finding the wall again to remember where he is, then slowly starts continuing on. Unsure how long he spends wandering the tunnels, he eventually makes it out. Or at least, into a larger space.

A small grey shard catches his attention. The Entity seems busy with figuring out how he can use Sonic's speed efficiently, so Sonic focuses on investigating this shard. Once he gets close, he realizes it's some sort of window, allowing him to see the real world. He can't move it, but it's hard and if he had a bigger one, he'd be interested to see if it would hold his weight. But what is it that's allowing him to see through it? What is it? Once he gets over his initial revelation, Sonic moves on, half-hoping to find some more, which he does. He finds a whole collection of them, showing him what appears to be a small town of some sort. He's staring through the windows and mirrors, any reflective surface. If the Entity was here, he'd undoubtedly have known about this, and it would explain how he knows so much outright about Shadow, specifically. "If I can find one of my friends, maybe I can get their attention...get some help." He figures it's worth a shot, at the very least. Now, to find them. He isn't all too great with maps, and with nothing to go on but his own instinct(and undoubtedly plenty of bruises and running into things), it'll be harder than he likes, but he refuses to let that stop him. He sets out with new purpose, searching for another cluster of these reflections.

For a while, his searches come up empty, and he certainly has run into an unspecified number of objects, but eventually, he finds people. Unfortunately, he doesn't recognize them. It's a tall wolf girl, with a sort of punk look to her, dark, ashy grey fur and dark blue edges to her hair and tail, while there is a circle on both her arms: the top goes over her shoulders and the bottom crosses just above her elbow. Walking beside her is a cat, with dull, beige fur and a hint of faded lavender on the tip of her tail and around her eyes. She has rich, dark blue pants and a red jacket, while the wolf has a purple shirt with no sleeves and dark army green pants. She also has tall, light purple boots and two small cuffs of cloth attached to ribbons around her wrists. Walking behind the two of them is..."Shadow?!" He exclaims, doing a double-take. Sensing something just outside his peripheral vision, he whips around, then relaxes when he sees nothing. Maybe this place is making him crazy. Or if the Entity can get in here, maybe he's messing with him. Turning his attention back to the trio, Sonic tries to closer observe the hedgehog. He manages to confirm it isn't Shadow, but the hedgehog looks very similar. Their quills are different colors, though–while Shadow's are primarily black, this one looks a little blue, so Sonic decides they aren't black, but some sort of almost-black in the blue, cyan, or teal range. The quills on this one's head are also pointed at a sharper degree, more triangular than the smoother shape of Shadow's. Furthermore, they lack the patch of white Shadow has on his chest, and wherever he has streaks of red, they have a tangerine orange. They also seem...off, in a way. Sonic doesn't know what it is, maybe the blank, emotionless stare, or the mechanical, almost programmed way in which they walk. "You really think this'll work? They're called the 'Mystic RUINS' for a reason." The wolf says, and the cat nods. "We don't know anything about it. If we want to find out what it is, or at least maybe where it came from, this place must surely be essential." Sonic furrows his brows, then steps back when they move too far from the reflection. Some water, Sonic's pretty sure. It ripples when he touches it, but never gives to pressure. The hedgehog frowns, and moves on. If he's around the Mystic Ruins, maybe he can find a way over to Knuckles. With luck, he'll be able to get a message across somehow to warn him of what's happening.

In the meantime, he now focuses more on whatever the weird guy is up to, having managed to ignore him up till now. It isn't perfect, he can still see what's happening at any moment, but he's convinced himself that giving himself the illusion of choice whether to acknowledge it or not is enough. The Entity is approaching a figure in front of a cavern. There's a few lights glowing inside, and Sonic is torn between hoping he is and isn't mistaking the low, barely perceptible mumble of voices. Standing guard outside is Omega, the robot from Eggman's lot that for some reason joined Rouge and Shadow. Nobody ever truly specified the details to that for him, but the machine has proved to be a formidable opponent time and time again, so he's glad he's not on Eggman's side. He turns to the Entity, who stops, backing up into the bushes again. Omega pauses for a moment, then follows. "Query: Sonic, why are you hiding in a bush?" He asks, formal and direct. The Entiry doesn't reply, only waits, until Omega is closer. "Answer: getting rid of you." The Entity replies, a little corny, but true enough as he attacks, jumping onto Omega's chest, grabbing his head, and throwing himself forward, as though trying to wrench off his head through brute force. He doesn't accomplish that, but he does manage to make Omega fall over, giving him the chance to scramble back onto Omega's chest and catch his arm, twisting it off and plunging it into the robot's chest, violently shoving it to the side to rip a hole into him. "Mmm...that feels better." He says, shifting to crack his neck for a moment. There's a double layer to his voice, now: Like someone were speaking under him at the same time in a more digital manner. Yanking it back out with a grunt, he then proceeds to wedge the tips of Omega's claws into the space between the robot's head and body, using it to push his head out and pull it off, then drops the arm, picks up the head, and sits down to inspect it. "The people of your world are very skilled in machinery, I will admit...how did you manage the programming and add emotional capacity into such things? Those humans can't claim much to AI, and yet the doctor created...this." The Entity marvels, tilting the head toward the sunlight, turning it over to look at and fiddle with the wiring. "I don't know, making robots and programming isn't my thing." Sonic replies, trying to process the brutality of what he just witnessed. Sure, Omega was a robot, but it's the implications–what if he tried that on a PERSON? On Knuckles? Or Tails? It'd be awful. Sonic shudders, pushing the dark realization out of his mind. "Well, I suppose I'll find out when I find Eggman. He may have some use." Sonic raises an eyebrow. "So...you're...not going to kill him?" The Entity shrugs, shoving the head back into its place, but damaging it more as he does, before standing up and grabbing the arm, and dragging Omega along by his neck. Or, where it would be, at least. "Why don't we return this back to your friends?" Sonic freezes. "Whatever you're planning on doing, don't do it. We can work something out, can't we?" He tries, genuinely afraid. "No can do. I told you I was itching for a good game of chase. I intend to follow through with that." Sonic frets, unwilling to experience that close call ever again. Though, now Shadow's with Tails. If the two of them were here, perhaps this would be okay. It's all the hope he has to hold on to for both of their safety, and he clings to it fervently. "...figuring out how to use the new form it's copied." Shadow's voice, low and serious states, which is not what Sonic wanted to hear when the Entity walked in. "Then nowhere on this planet is truly safe." Rouge points out. She's here, too?? Sonic groans, running a hand over his face. Even if Tails isn't here, they run the risk of being killed! The Entity stops when he spots them: Rouge and Shadow are speaking to Tails, who sits in a sort of cot. Shadow has a computer, which he's using at the moment to read something the screen's brightness won't allow the Entity to read. "Yes, this body's speed proves to be a bit of a problem for you, doesn't it?" Shadow immediately sets it down and spins around, Rouge flaring her wings in surprise, and Tails' eyes widening. The Entity moves closer, deliberately drawing attention to the body of Omega as it scrapes against the stone. "It's useful, but difficult to control and manage. By the way, does this belong to someone?" He tosses Omega at them, still holding its arm. "Please, Ultimate Life-Form," he snarls. "Were you REALLY hoping THAT thing would stop me? This body is small, but it is capable, like your friend was. He was worthy of his title of 'hero'...for a time. No longer." He drops the limb, and Shadow growls quietly under his breath, shifting his position. "And you." The Entity points at Tails. "You escaped me once, I wouldn't count on you being so lucky again." He warns, and Shadow steps in front of the fox, obscuring him from view as he stares the Entity down. "You aren't getting anywhere near him." He says, a statement of finality. "Oh, no? And I'm guessing that you intend to stop me? Go on, try it. I'd love to see you fall, too." The Entity sneers, spreading his arms wide in an open challenge. Sonic holds his breath, waiting to see what Shadow will do.

Just as Shadow moves, a darkness comes over Sonic's vision, obscuring his sight. "Hey!" He objects. He was against seeing what was happening, but he still wants to know if his friends are okay! He can't even locate those little shard patches anymore. It's as though he were put in a box with no lights whatsoever. He can't even hear anything. "What's the big idea?" He demands, reaching out as he walks around, looking for something that he can interact with again. "You didn't want to see what I would do, didn't you?" The Entity points out, though this time, his voice is changed considerably. "But, I can show you what will happen." There's a sense of being dragged somewhere, like he's frozen in place as the ground beneath his feet pulls him away. The darkness dissipates, revealing a scene he instantly turns his back on. "No." The sharp word is followed by something manually forcing his eyes open, making him look. "See what you have brought." Before him lay the scattered bodies of his friends. Amy has a savage gash on her throat, eyes open as the blood pools out and around her. Knuckles is battered, bruised, and covered in blood, either his own or someone else's, Sonic can't tell. He certainly went down fighting, either way. His hands, his knuckles, are especially damaged, one of the small spikes on his left hand chipped and broken. "Why would you show me this?!" Sonic demands, fighting to keep the tremble out of his voice. "Because you don't understand. You don't understand what you've done. You dared to oppose me, and this is what resulted of it." The hedgehog is finally released, the darkness clouding over his sight once more, and allows him to drop to the ground, breathing shakily. Of all the threats he's faced, none have made him this afraid. Concerned, sure. Worried? Absolutely. But not this level of pure, unbridled fear. He also recognizes the voice, the one laid underneath the strange entity's. "Well, I'm sorry, but you were about to destroy the planet. That I live on. That everyone else lives on. That everyone I care about lives on. I couldn't just sit idly by." He retorts, still too shaken to stand, instead sitting up with his knees close to his chest. "It isn't called the End for nothing." The Entity snorts, materializing in a smoky form. "Why do you help it?" Sonic asks, unable to fathom why something would aid in destroying worlds. "We all have no choice in doing something." He replies bitterly. "That's not true, it's always a choice." The Entity growls, then wakes his smoky hand. "You'll learn." He mutters dismissively. With that, he leaves, and everything goes back to normal. Or, whatever the established 'normal' is for this place he's in. "On with the hunt." The Entity announces, now by a stream. He's looking for something, seeking the source of various noises. "What did you do? Are they alive?" Sonic demands, a small part of him wondering if he's going to be fine without water or food. "Telling you takes the fun out of it. They might be alive, they might be dead." The Entity answers cryptically, waving his hands around. There's a red substance on them, which does not bode well for the hedgehog's hopes. Sonic pauses, then mentally slaps himself. He can't just give up. That would mean the End's won. He works best under impossible odds, and isn't Shadow immortal? For all he knows, the Entity's just bluffing. Picking himself up, he forces himself to keep going. Knuckles is close; he's still in the Mystic Ruins area. Now he just needs to find a way onto the floating island. 

Another two hours of wandering and crashing into things, and Sonic has a headache and slight progress. He's able to walk on the water below Angel Island, and if he remembers correctly, there's a waterfall flowing off of it. Assuming he can reach it, maybe he can run up the reflection to look for Knuckles. Sure enough, he comes across a long, vertical strip that stretches up into the darkness. Only staying still long enough to make sure he knows where he's going, Sonic charges, running up the strip of light and successfully reaching the island. Using the river's view there, he tries to remember the layout of the land, before heading off to the right. If he knows the Echidna, he's most likely still with the Master Emerald. Last he checked, it had at least SOME reflective properties, so now he just has to hope he can get Knuckle's attention. Before he reaches it, or maybe he'd passed it already without knowing, he stops at the sound of voices. "...while. Is there anything else you know or remember? anything at all?" That's definitely Rouge's voice, so he follows it to something in a wall, he thinks. Maybe a tree? Anyway, it's there he spots Rouge and Knuckles, patting the ground like they'd buried something. "I don't know. Whatever this Starfallen thing is, I don't think my ancestors were keen to talk about it. I mean, if it's such a big threat, I don't think they'd want other people to find it." The Echidna reasons. "Surely they left SOMETHING?" Rouge insists, and Knuckles shakes his head. "I've lived here my whole life. I know this island better than anyone else, and I haven't seen anything related to this other than the pool." Rouge frowns, putting a hand on her hip. "Now, you explain something to me." Knuckles waves at the patch of actually well-disguised earth. "You really think THAT is going to stop such a thing? I mean, it's the best we can do, but..." Rouge's expression turns grim, and she stares at it. "No." She answers finally, holding her arms. "But it might give us some time. At the end of the day, the best we can hope for is that Shadow can hold it off when we need him to, and that eventually, we'll figure something out." Sonic steps back, looking for more reflections. If Shadow's here, he's probably keeping a perimeter. While he claims to be different from Sonic, he shares that need to do something all of the time. Be it pacing or even just thinking, Shadow is almost always doing some thing or other. While he doesn't find Shadow, he does stumble into a sort of cave system, or a maze of some kind, which opens to reveal a pool, not that it reveals much. The space is closed in, though, so Sonic turns and heads back toward wherever the tunnel was. Directly behind him, he trusts. A few seconds after he's successfully located the tunnel and walked in, he hears a sound: some sort of angry grunt, and the splash of water. Racing back, he manages to catch the slightest glimpse of Tails, at least he thinks. It seemed like a pretty Tails-esque image. "Tails?" He asks, kneeling on the ground to get closer to the pool. "Tails, was that you? Can you hear me? Please, buddy, I've been looking all over for you..." he says. Just as he's beginning to suspect he was imagining it, the little fox appears, kneeling at the water's edge. "Sonic?!" The hedgehog sighs, once again we'll beyond relieved. "Tails, you're alive! I'd hug you if I could...Where are you? I don't recognize this." Sonic tries to indicate to where Tails is, however successful that may have been. "Somewhere on Angel Island. Hiding from the...thing." Sonic nods in understanding. "Is Shadow with you?" He asks, and the young Mobian glances behind him, then shakes his head. "He went out to go make sure it didn't follow us." Sonic makes a face; he'd suspected as much. "Okay. Now as glad as I am to know you're all alive and safe, this guy's still out there, and it seems like you might've found something." Tails inhales, and starts his explanation. "First and foremost, we know it's not from here. It's from the Ancient's time; and they named it the Starfallen, which we've been calling it, too. It's definitely tied to that lake somehow, though we don't understand how or why. Knuckles says that there was a connection between the Ancients who sealed the Starfallen away underground, the Echidna's involvement, and this pool here. This place was meant to keep an eye on it, but it feels more like a safe house, now. Another thing is that they suggested that it is a high likelihood that you can get out. The first time the Starfallen appeared, an Ancient fell into the lake, and they swapped places. They didn't specify how, but it seems they managed to put it back into the lake, which freed the Ancient." Sonic nods. "Which thankfully rules out possession. I was worried about fighting." Sonic waves his hand dismissively. "Yeah, he's not...he's not in my body. I mean, I feel real. But, I can see what he sees, and sometimes he'll come in here to talk to me, though mostly he leaves me alone." Sonic confirms, poking the reflection. He can see that on the other side, the water ripples where he touched it, but doesn't move otherwise. "I didn't know he had a name though, he just told me to call him Sonic. But he's a bigger faker than Shadow is!" Sonic huffs, miffed at the thought of this entity replacing him. "Can you...see where it is now? What's it doing?" Tails inquires. Sonic pauses, focusing on the Entity. "Yeah. He's running. Not fast, but normal running. He's, um...killing animals." He answers, looking down. Amy's going to be so upset... 

"Do you always see what it's doing? Are you okay?" The fox worries, twitching his ear. Sonic falters for a moment, but manages a smile and shrugs it off. The Entity and the End may have definitely gotten to him a bit, but Tails doesn't need to know that. "I'll be okay, so long as you and everyone else are safe." He promises, only a little lacklustre than he normally would have been. He hopes his friend won't notice. "And I don't think he knows how to get to Angel Island, what with how he's wandering around. Which gives us SOME time. Some." Sonic takes a deep breath, pauses to confirm and collect his thoughts. "I might have a plan. At the very least, I have a smart idea: I need you to go find the Chaos Emeralds. Even if we don't use them, if we can keep them out of the Starfallen's hands, that's a good thing. Shadow has one, right?" Tails nods. "Yeah, I thought so. I don't know where the other ones are, but I'm planning on enlisting some help." Sonic grins, a real, bright one this time. "This isn't the only reflection I can talk to you through. There's a lot of them here, so I think it's any water-based reflection around that I can use. Maybe metal. At least, that's what I hope. Once I figured this out, I started looking for you, or anyone, who could help. In my travels, I found some people. A trio, and if I had to guess, thieves of some kind. I didn't stick around with them for too long, but they might be able to help." He explains, as Tails listens closely. He may be wrong, but whatever 'it' was they were talking about, he'd bet it's connected to the Chaos Emeralds. It's a loose hope, but still, a sliver of hope is better than none. "Did you see any clues about where they are, or where they're headed?" He waves his hand, mostly indicating to the relative direction he's pretty sure the Mystic Ruins are in. "I think they were hunting through the mystic ruins, actually." Sonic frowns, noting a difference in the Entity–the Starfallen's behaviour. It's found something, or it's at least figured something out. "I should go. He's up to something, now. Think you can get Knuckles, Rouge, and Shads in on it, too?" Tails dips his head, confirming his part, and Sonic grins. "You can count on me!" He assures the hedgehog. "Great! Good luck, if I find you again, we'll catch up." He stands up and backs away, moving back out and sitting in a corner to focus. "Your friend, Amy...she lives around here, doesn't she? Her and that rabbit." The Starfallen inquires. Through its eyes, Sonic can see a field, large, white flowers swaying in the breeze. "So why don't we pay her a little visit?" 

A/N 

Yeah, it's cookin.

But, in other news, this chapter has the most words I've written in a chapter ever, at 6668 words, not counting the A/N! YAY!!

Chapter Text

Shadow stalks back into the enclosed area, exiting the tunnel with winding passages and more false paths than he would think to be necessary. Just as he does, though, he sidesteps to avoid colliding with Tails. The young Mobian steps back, mumbling an apology. "Are you going somewhere?" Shadow inquires. Not because he actually cares about what the fox does, but if he ends up needing to find him again at some point, it'd be useful to have an idea of where he is. He seems to be in a slightly better mood, too. A little hopeful, in comparison to the sadness and confusion he'd given off before. "I'm-uh, I saw-I'm going to..." Fumbling over his words, Tails makes a few gestures with his hands, looks back at the pool, then stops himself and tries again. "I spoke to Sonic. In the pool." He states simply. Shadow raises his eyebrows, and while this announcement has come as a surprise to him, the longer he thinks about it the more it makes sense given what they know. He indicates for them to sit down, leaning against the stone walls. "And? Anything useful?" He prompts. "Well, he confirmed that the Starfallen is a different entity, it's just taking on a form that looks like him. He said it's also still connected to the lake, and he can see what it sees, adding up with what it was telling me, about being able to hear him. Sonic didn't tell me where it was, though. Only that it was running at a normal speed rather than his speed. He also mentioned that he's able to speak through reflective surfaces. I'll need to make sure this works, but I'd assume if we carried around a mirror, we'd have a quick way to talk with him again if we needed to." Tails explains, leaving 'and we probably will' unspoken and hanging in the air. Shadow makes a note to find something that would help achieve that goal later, and continues to focus on the young fox's explanation. "And at the end, he said he had a plan, or at least an idea: he wants us to collect the Chaos Emeralds, even if only to keep them away from the Starfallen. There's a group he said he saw; he thinks they might be able to help us, too. They're somewhere in the Mystic Ruins, so maybe they're treasure hunters, like Rouge. Or maybe they're archeologists or something." Shadow falls silent, considering. "Well, it's not his worst plan." He admits. "And we already have one here, with me." As he speaks, Shadow produces the Chaos Emerald, glowing and green. "It's a start. Do you know where any of the other ones are?" Tails asks, twitching his ear. "I might..." The hedgehog begins, only to be interrupted with the arrival of Rouge and Knuckles, who's watching the bat carefully. Shadow and Tails stand up to greet them. "Well, that's the best we could think of for now...what have you been up to?" Knuckles inquires. Tails swiftly debriefs them on the plan, and Rouge smirks.

"I do know where one is." She announces confidently. "Really? Where?" Knuckles asks. "Eggman has one. I saw it when I was there earlier. I didn't try to steal it because he was there at the time, and this seemed slightly more important." She answers. Shadow sighs quietly. He'd rather not deal with the Doctor, but whatever must be done. "If we're looking for Emeralds, it'd be a good idea to spread out. But not alone; the Starfallen will undoubtedly try to stop us if it knows our mission. If you're going out for Eggman's Emerald, or to find these people, I could use the Master Emerald to see if it can help pick out any others, in the meantime." Knuckles offers, getting a grateful nod from Tails. "On that note, I'll see if I can find this trio Sonic wanted." He decides. "Your logic is sound, but there's only four of us. If we want to do three things at once–I assume you don't want to leave the Master Emerald unguarded with such a threat around–two of us are going to be alone." Rouge points out, a valid setback. "Then we'll have to do it alone. We don't know what this thing's after specifically, and we cannot risk it getting an Emerald. We must do what we can to ensure that." Shadow states, changing his stance, and pauses for a moment. "But, I will go with Tails. I trust you can get yourself to safety on your own, Rouge." The fox flicks his two tails, confused but accepting. "We meet up back here when we're done?" He suggests. The others nod, giving their assent. "Good luck." Knuckles says, pounding his fists together. "We'll need it." Rouge mutters, before spreading her wings and flying off. Without saying any more, Knuckles leaves, too. "Well, I guess that leaves just us. Again." Tails says wryly. This is all moving quite fast, even for Shadow's liking. Without another word, he takes the fox's offered wrist, and uses Chaos Control to send them to their destination. This whole ordeal is going to take a lot out of him, he can already tell. "Any idea what we're looking for?" He queries, looking around. Nothing but a thick forest of tropical flora and fauna around them. "No...He left before I could ask." Tails sighs, looking around, too. "You see what you can find on the ground, and I'll see what I can spot from above. If I find something, I'll come find you." Shadow accepts this, reasoning that it'll save time, and this gives him a chance to possibly intercept the Starfallen without worrying about the fox too much. Assuming it's in the area. "Stay out of trouble, I don't want to have to rescue you again if I can avoid it." He advises, picking a random direction and speeding off without a farewell.

The forest is very quiet; it's the first thing Shadow notes on his search for the random group he has practically nothing on. As the hedgehog began his search, he eventually came to the conclusion that his best bet is to look for the shrine and see if they're snooping around there, and as a result, has changed course to head in its direction. Though he's not spent much, if any time here, Shadow doubts they're going to find anything, so why they'd try confuses him. On his way, he thinks he spots Tails in the sky for a moment, maybe having had the same thought as the hedgehog. Finally, he spots the ancient structure looming in the distance, making a sort of arced approach, rather than coming toward it head-on. When he gets close enough that he can see it through the trees, he slows down, intending to locate this mystery group before they locate him, assuming they're even here. After about 20 minutes, Shadow halts, listening. There's voices up ahead, not exactly engaged in an argument, but some terse conversation nonetheless. He approaches carefully, debating how to go about meeting them. He can't exactly say 'This person I'm not entirely fond of has a friend who told me that he said to find you so you can help us find Emeralds' after all. "...here. if it has a reason for being so drawn to this place, shouldn't we at least try to investigate? For them?" The voice is female, and when Shadow comes into sight of them, he sees the speaker is a cat, with a red jacket and washed-out gold wristbands. She wears dark blue jeans, and has dull and faded beige fur, a singular earring on her right ear. Standing opposite of her, a taller girl. She's a wolf, deep saturated grey fur and emerald eyes, three earrings on her left ear. She has small, cloth wristbands attached to long, pale lilac ribbons. She stands with one hand on her hip, deep, deep blue at the edges of her hair and in two circles, each on the top of her shoulders and bottom of her upper arms. "I understand, but this place has a strange feel to it. Like there was something awful that happened. I can sense it." She waves her other arm around as she speaks, indicating to the ruins they stand among. "Whoever died here, it was probably a long time ago." The cat points out, flicking her tail. "I know that, but...Amber, what are you doing?" 'Amber' is a hedgehog, though Shadow has to steel himself from any physical reaction. They look exactly like Shadow, except without the white on their chest, and the points on their quills are at a sharper angle. Another difference is that their wrists have something unlike his inhibitor rings. Instead, they have what look similar to actual shackles, they are simple and grey, and across their body, bright amber-orange where Shadow's red would be. When they turn to look at the other two, they give a mostly blank stare, like they're somewhere else. "Amber." They state. At least their voice is different from Shadow's. Despite that, it sounds off. Lifeless and empty, lacking emotion or depth. "Yeah, you, buddy. Stay here, okay? We'll go check the ruins out soon." The wolf promises gently, getting no response from the hedgehog. "What if there's nothing there? Then we're just back to square one." She worries, turning back to the cat. "Then there's nothing there. But if it helps us figure out anything about Amber, then it's worth it." She assures her friend, clapping her supportively on the shoulder. "Now come on, Amber might not wait much longer." Calling the hedgehog back, who was staring at some carvings in the stone, they start to move on.

Recognizing his opportunity starting to slip away, Shadow stands, announcing his presence with the bushes he has to walk past. The wolf reacts first, ear swiveling in his direction before the rest of her follows suit. Her eyes widen, and she looks at Amber, then back at him. The cat has much of the same reaction. Amber, realizing their friends are no longer following, stops. Still with a blank stare, they walk back over, silent. "Who are you?!" The wolf demands, stepping forward. "I'm Shadow. Who are you?" She narrows her eyes, clearly distrusting. "I don't know why I should tell you that." She replies coldly. The cat rolls her eyes and also steps forward, hand on her friend's shoulder. "My name's Elizabeth. This is Ash, and that's Amber." She says, calm and relaxed. Ash opens her mouth to argue, but closes it without saying anything, though shoots a frustrated look at Elizabeth. "What brings you here?" Elizabeth continues, ignoring the glance. "I was told there were people here." Shadow answers, being cautious of how much to say. "Really? Interesting. Are you here about the ruins, too?" She indicates to the structure nearest to her, a singular post covered in vines. "I suppose." A shadow develops on the ground, and Tails lands in between the two. Ash's fierce gaze is replaced by surprise and wariness, though Elizabeth remains unbothered. "And who might you be?" She inquires. "I'm Tails." The young Mobian replies, eyes catching on Shadow as he shifts position. "I assume you've already met Shadow." Tails does see the similarities between the two hedgehogs, he gives Shadow a quizzical look, but doesn't dwell on it. "Yeah, we did. How did you come from the sky? Foxes don't fly." Ash asks, clearly wanting to ask a different question, but smart enough not to. "I can use my two tails to fly." The fox explains, twirling them around as proof. "That's quite the gift." Elizabeth comments, then moves on. "You say you were looking for people?" Tails nods. "Yeah, we think it might be you–I scoured this place, didn't see anyone else." The last part is mostly for Shadow, who nods, crossing his arms as he addresses the trio. "We need your help. Are you treasure hunters? Historians?" Ash twitches her ear, posture challenging. "And what if we are?" Tails cuts in before Shadow can respond. "We're looking for something...a gem known as a 'Chaos Emerald.' Have you seen it, or heard of it?" Ash and Elizabeth exchange a confused look, but Amber turns their attention to Tails. "Emerald?" They say, with a hint of some emotion, causing Ash to look between the two. "What was that? They don't repeat other words. Not from other people, anyway. Only their name. What's so special about this thing?" She demands sharply. "They're gems of great power. We need to collect them for something important." Ash snorts. "Next you'll tell me that the planet's in danger. Again." There's a silence, in which she realizes and groans. "Whoever's trying to keep us safe isn't doing a very good job." Tails frowns. "He hasn't let us down before!" He points out defensively. "Then why won't it stop?" She counters. Sensing a potential argument, Shadow steps in. "Because there's always someone trying to cause trouble." She turns her burning gaze to him, which he holds with no issue. "If we can help, we'd be happy to." Elizabeth decides, a look of outrage on her friend's face. "Just one moment." She pulls Ash to the side, the two engaging in a genuine argument in hushed voices. While this happens, Amber stares at them, head tilted to the side. "Emerald?" They ask, more clearly a question this time. "Yes." Tails assents, still puzzled but unquestioning. "Okay, fine, we'll help. But we have our own interests, too." Shadow raises an eyebrow, but nods nonetheless. "Now, we should keep going. We're wasting daylight." He sighs, then pauses for a moment. "What were you even looking for, here? It's abandoned for a reason." Ash hesitates, glancing at Amber. "We had our reasons. Why don't we leave it at that, hm?" She answers, a certain gravity beneath her words. "Can one of you make a drawing of these Emeralds? Are they square, or ovular?" Elizabeth inquires, and Shadow unfolds his arms to bring out the gem. "We're looking for something like this." He explains. Ash looks much more invested in helping find another once she sees it.

"We've seen something like that before, haven't we?" She notes, looking to the cat, who nods. "You did? Do you remember where?" Tails says hopefully. "Eh...was a few months ago, at least, but I'm sure it's somewhere between that Soleanna place and...what was it? Some kind of...Square?" Ash looks to Elizabeth again for help. "Do you mean Station Square?" Tails guesses. Ash nods, ears moving in accordance to the sounds around them. "Yeah, somewhere between there. We don't really go into populated places." Tails looks at Shadow, who's more focused on what Ash said to return the eye contact. "Well, to get the Emerald, we'll have to go there." He inhales deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Is something wrong?" Ash stands a little straighter, ears pricked in an alert position. Both Tails and Shadow hesitate, before the dark hedgehog waves his hand dismissively. "We don't have time for that right now. What's important is the Emerald." He tells them, shutting down any attempts to object to this. With the speed things are progressing at, he wouldn't be surprised if Rouge is done and waiting by now. While Shadow puts the Chaos Emerald away, he notices how Amber's gaze tracks the green object. They have some sort of interest in the Chaos Emeralds, but whether that's a good or a bad thing, Shadow has yet to figure out.

Rather than waste energy and use Chaos Control, Shadow decides to let them all walk. Sure, it's slower, but he refuses to risk it. "Look, we came along, despite the very valid reasons not to..." Ash doesn't look at Elizabeth, but it's clear the comment was pointed at her. "And I think we deserve to know at least SOMETHING. What is going on? Why are these emerald things so important? And why are you and Amber the same??" She demands, after they'd been walking for about an hour. "Your friend and I are not the same. I can say that with absolute surety. Other than that, I have no answer." He replies, then adds, "And if you're so keen to understand what we're doing, then here: Something has come up, and we're not even sure yet what it wants. All we know is that it's deadly, and our plan is to stop it before it hurts people." Ash closes her mouth, processing this information. "What do you mean? If it wanted to hurt someone, why haven't we heard about it? We did stop in a small village recently." Elizabeth, who apparently is also referred to as 'Lizzie', asks. "Well, it only appeared a day or so ago." Tails answers. Indeed, it had only been at most a day and a half since Shadow had first seen the Starfallen. "Does 'it' have a name?" Ash inquires, crossing her arms. "Amber." The odd hedgehog says. "No, no, not you, bud." Elizabeth murmurs. "We call it the Starfallen. If it has an actual name, we haven't been told." The fox explains, which is enough to satisfy Ash for the time being. "Well, you never asked!" Shadow stiffens, turning to his left to face the cursed entity. It looks much the same, the only major difference being the small smatterings of blood across its hands, limbs, and torso. It's standing in a tree, one hand on a branch above it.

"Bit early for halloween, isn't it?" Ash remarks, and the Starfallen snorts. "I don't see the point in such meaningless events." It states, hopping down from the tree. "By the way, I was wondering...there's a hedgehog, small, pink, obsessed with your friend. Have you seen her recently?" The question is aimed at Tails and Shadow, it barely glances at the new trio. "She has something I want. As do you, Shadow the Hedgehog." The Starfallen takes a step forward, and even Ash and Elizabeth tense up, sensing the danger. "Come on, make this easy on yourself! I'd hate for someone to get hurt." It says, in a falsely sweet tone. The second voice even leaves, returning it to Sonic's voice for a moment. "I will give you nothing." Shadow states, a flicker of annoyance crossing the entity's expression. "Really? That hurts, Shads." The Starfallen shakes its head, voice returning to its normal two-layers, then shrugs. "Well, fine. Have it your way." Before it can move, though, a tree slams down in front of it, followed by several more, and other pieces of rubble and objects to make a cage. Shadow steps back, caught off-guard, and looking around.

"Are you guys okay?" Silver asks, running into view. Ash's eyes widen, arms going slack at her sides. "I hope I'm not too late–we don't have long. Shadow, can you get us out of here?" Shadow nods, drawing out the green Emerald. "We have a temporary refuge on Angel Island." He informs Silver, who nods, pulls out an Emerald, the clear one, causing Amber to become alert again. Before they can do anything, though, Shadow steps forward with his own Emerald, and the two hedgehogs use Chaos Control to transport the group back to the floating island. 

Chapter Text

Okay so for those who haven't seen my Art Stuff book(which is way better than this, why are you here, go read that, it's actually a bit better than this) on Wattpad, I have three Sonic OCs: Ash, Elizabeth(Lizzie), and Amber. I'll put up their pictures here so you know what they look like. 

Here is Ash.

Elizabeth(Lizzie)

Aaaaaand Amber. I made their fur darker cuz it was a bit too blue.

Okay, now we can go to the chapter now, sorry—

Rematerializing back on Angel Island, Shadow sighs. Ash and her crew are checking on each other, or at least the wolf and cat are. Amber's still staring at the Emeralds in the other hedgehog's hands. Silver steps back, and Shadow finally takes an actual look at the hedgehog. He isn't in the best condition, looking stressed, tired, and urgent. Not only that, but he's now spotting bandages on his shoulder and arm, dark red rather than just dirt smeared all over his body, arms, and trailing down his face. "Where are we?!" Ash demands, cutting into Shadow's thoughts. "Angel Island. It's where the Starfallen can't reach us." Tails explains. "That was what the 'Starfallen' is?! It just looks like some crazy guy." Shadow steps forward, but Silver beats him to it. "Far from it. That thing is far more lethal a threat than you think. More than Infinite, more than the Metal Virus." Ash crosses her arms. "Yeah, what are those? I don't have any idea what you're talking about." She states. "What–" "We're not from around here...we don't like to stay in one place...mostly because THESE TWO are restless." Elizabeth explains kindly, catching Amber's arm as they stand up to walk away. "Oh. Uh. Well, it's a deadly foe. Either way, it's not something to take lightly." Silver deflates a little, perplexed. "Okay, NOW do I get an explanation??" Ash demands, and Shadow closes his eyes, crossing his arms. He supposes they may as well be in on it now, as much as he'd rather they just helped them find the Emerald and left. So, he recaps the story and the details, answering questions until Knuckles shows up. "Did you do it–Silver?? What are you doing here?" The Echidna exclaims, and Silver waves. "That thing, the Starfallen, it's threatening the future. I figured it'd be best to go to when and where it originated and stop it." He answers. "It started threatening your time? How long ago did it start?" Silver thinks. "About...four, five months?" He says, a rough estimate. "And yet, for us, it's only been maybe a few hours over a day, if that." Rouge muses thoughtfully. "If it survived all that time, why didn't you know about it sooner? You live in a time well past when we're all dead. Except perhaps Shadow." Shadow agrees with the bat(an annoyingly common occurrence), though he also has a few theories about why that would be. "I don't know, exactly. When it found me, it almost seemed excited, like I was what it was looking for." He replies, and Ash looks up abruptly, having been fiddling with the ribbons around her wrists.

"Well, then it's hunting." She states simply, a clear, sure tone. "What?" Ash flicks her tail at the question. "It's. Hunting. It sought someone when it appeared in the Mystic Ruins, who you obviously knew. When it first got free, the FIRST thing it did was try to kill the fox. Then, here, with Silver boy. You said it appeared after however long the time is from now to then, right? It's been around for about 5 months for you, and only after you had enough drive and reason to pursue it did you finally get a genuine report of something stalking an area. It WANTED you. And you said that your friend, Amy, likes animals? What was the Starfallen up to? Killing animals." She elaborates, putting her hands on her hips. "Honestly, it's sorta obvious. It did say it wanted to break your friend's spirit." Shadow remains stoic, but he will note that Ash is a quick learner. "In any case, that just clears up and clarifies the facts we already have. That isn't anything revolutionary." He points out. "But it is. Now, we can keep tabs on it. Guess it's next moves, maybe even outsmart it. You said Sonic can see what it's doing, and can speak to you through a pool on this island. He could update the situation for us, tell us if it does something different, or where it is, like a spy. Meanwhile we find these gem things. What even is your plan with them?? Do you put them all together and send it really far away??" Shadow shakes his head. "The abilities of Chaos Control are practically limitless, but collecting all seven can grant someone an empowered form, which we have used many times to defeat our enemies." Ash nods, still seeming a little skeptical. "Right so, one of you gets all strong and you beat it into next Tuesday, got it." Elizabeth curls her tail. "It may not be so simple. You want to free your friend, I would bet. If they simply defeated this threat, I don't think that'd do it. It sounds like a sort of one in, one out." She murmurs to her friend, who sighs. "Ugh. Okay, but we still need to drop it in a lake, don't we? It can't be moving because obviously it won't let us do that. So we still need to at least weaken it severely." She says. "The wolf is right; we aren't getting away with this without a fight...or several." Knuckles agrees, punching his fists together. "It'd also be wise to warn some people. Specifically, the Starfallen's targets. Amy, Big, Cream, maybe the Chaotix..." Tails adds, getting a nod from Shadow. "Does Eggman count, do you think?" Rouge wonders. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Shadow answers. Honestly, Shadow wouldn't care much if the doctor is killed or not. Although, Sonic wouldn't see it that way, he knows. "For now, let's go tell Sonic. Maybe he's found something, too." Knuckles once again takes the lead, remembering the passages best.

"So...new friends?" Rouge asks, keeping stride with Shadow, and her voice low enough for only him to hear. "It appears that way." He confirms, glancing at Ash, who's watching everything: ears pricked and moving to pick up as much sound as possible, gaze constantly shifting from Elizabeth to Amber, Shadow, Tails, Rouge, and Knuckles, though she especially keeps an eye on Silver. There's something important between the two, he can tell, not that he understands exactly what. She clearly wants to speak to the futuristic hedgehog, though probably somewhere quiet, without prying eyes since she hasn't said anything about his appearance. "Well? Aren't you going to ask if I was alright?" She prompts. "You're here now, aren't you?" He points out, then dips his head in an almost silent sigh. "I'm relieved you made it back safely." He admits, pointedly ignoring her grin. "Well, it's a good thing, too. Eggman's got Metal stalking around. Almost caught me." He tilts his head. "Again?" He inquires, a little wearily. "It's one of the best things he's managed to create to go up against Sonic. It makes sense he'd do his best to make sure it's functional." Rouge shrugs, pausing as she catches Shadow's expression. "What is it?" She asks, and Shadow remains silent a few minutes before speaking. "It gives Sonic a hard time because it knows what he's doing–it's MADE for his skillset, and can match his speed and strength. If we can get it to go for the Starfallen..." Rouge lifts an eyebrow. "You think after what it did to OMEGA, that Metal has a chance?" Shadow shrugs. "It's an idea. Preferably, it'd be more suited for this thing's fighting style, but Metal Sonic has the best chance to at least stall it. Other than me, and I doubt you'll let me." Rouge snorts quietly. "Well, you're right about that. But Eggman won't easily part with his precious little bucket of bolts." Shadow nods, groaning slightly in his contemplation. "It's on the table, though." She adds, nodding to the tunnels coming up while tilting her ear to indicate to Ash. He falls silent, and traverses the tunnels without another word. As soon as they enter the small, enclosed field, Tails goes up to the pool, which Ash promptly drags Silver over to a discreet corner of, behind the crumbled remains of a shack, and starts using the water to wash the stains from his fur. Elizabeth follows with Amber, helping to deal with his bandages. "He's...not here." Tails says, clearly disappointed. "He may have tried to follow us. Fast as he may be, it's a trek there and back from Mystic Ruins on foot, and however that place works, I assume it's take some time, too. It's not like we're doing anything, anyway." Rouge offers, and the kit nods, staying at the water's edge. "We're going to be waiting a lot." She adds to Shadow, quieter. Knuckles has gone to a shady corner and apparently seems to be sleeping, so he must've come to the same conclusion as well. Now that he thinks about it, Shadow, too, is tired. As much as he's loathe to admit it, he may benefit from some real rest, too. "Keep an eye out. Anything happens, or Sonic arrives, you come straight to me." He orders, and the bat nods. He trusts that she'll do this. For how much he can find her to be annoying(although much less compared to Sonic), time has proven how much he can rely on her when it counts. Moving to lean up against the dilapidated structure, he closes his eyes, allowing the pull of sleep overcome him. 

Chapter Text

He's locked in battle. 



His opponent, Silver, is already injured, a deep gash running down the meat of his shoulder from his claws digging into him, and on his forearm, where he's raked those same claws down the length of it. Despite these injuries, the young hedgehog's doing his best to hold his own. Strangely, something about all this feels off...and it's not just that he's only getting bits and pieces of this fight. He feels...excited, as though he's been waiting for hundreds of years for this, yet somehow hollow, and cold, but still guilty and close to despair, not that he ever shows that. Snapping his teeth inches away from Silver's ear, he's thrown into a tree, sending him into a new part: Chasing him. Abruptly, Silver spins, and as the two make direct eye contact, several things happen. He sees the fear and desperation in Silver's eyes, the Chaos Emerald he's drawn out, and how much blood is smudged and staining his fur. Then, his perspective shifts, and he sees what Silver sees: a monster, a terrifying creature that vaguely resembles himself, fur so covered in blood it's practically impossible to tell it was once blue, claws extended, mouth full of sharp teeth, and red, glowing eyes gleaming. Blood leaks from its eyes and down its face, the best way he could describe it is 'the stuff of nightmares.' Silver draws the Emerald close to his chest, shutting his eyes and bracing for impact,

And disappears. 

"Silver!!" Sonic wakes up with a shout, breathing heavily, able to feel and almost hear just how fast his(already typically speedy)heart is racing. He's in a cold sweat, and his neck and back feel sore. Makes sense; there's no bed in this place. Only the cold, hard ground he can't even see. Finally calming down a little, he recounts the strange dream. The Starfallen must've been fighting Silver, in his time by the looks of it. Even though Sonic only saw glimpses and fragments, he knows it felt a little too real for comfort, and while everything in that last segment seemed to play out in slow motion for him, it must've only been a matter of 2 or 3 seconds. Silver did escape, though, which is good...or so he assumes. Back in reality, the Starfallen's still trekking around. It discovered Amy was not home, and rather than wait for her to arrive, it decided to continue searching for other people Sonic knows, so for now, Amy is safe. It looks like it's actually a little closer to the Mystic Ruins right now, actually. With luck, Tails has relayed his plan to the others, and they're out looking for the Emeralds.

Unfortunately, he's also belatedly realized that none of them actually have a pin on where they all are. He knows Shadow undoubtedly has one; he saw him use Chaos Control. And wasn't Amy talking about hearing some rumour about seeing one? It would explain why she was gone, anyway. Maybe he could help them look. That might keep him busy and distracted. He's still on Angel Island, after his talk with Tails and the Starfallen, he'd fallen asleep as the energy and adrenaline finally wore off. Stumbling back out of the tunnels, he locates that stream again, hops off, and starts looking. His primary suspect is that Eggman may have one, it usually ends up that way, and then he'll go from there. "Missing your friend?" The Starfallen asks finally, pausing. It's inspecting a set of footprints it's found, though they luckily don't look like any of Sonic's friends. If they're extremely lucky, these prints are old. "You ever miss yours?" Sonic replies, not really up for another chat with this thing. "Unlike you, I don't have friends. They'd never last long enough to be worth the effort, and besides, I don't need any. They'd make me vulnerable, like you." It shrugs. Sonic frowns, momentarily sympathetic, then remembers the whole "i'm gonna kill all of you" thing and feels slightly less bad. "You know alot about me and my friends, so I'm assuming you've seen our adventures. Are you saying all that teamwork wasn't needed?" The Starfallen snorts. "If I were you, I wouldn't need help. I wouldn't have been defeated by that jackal and imprisoned, I wouldn't have been infected by that Metal Virus, and I wouldn't have been afflicted by that cyber corruption. No worrying about other people getting in the way, no taking detours for another person's sake and almost killing myself, only ruthless efficiency, which you sorely lack, even at your best." The hedgehog sighs. Trying to get any progress with it is like trying to convince a steel trap to open after it's already clamped around your leg. "Well, then, you're missing the point." The Starfallen waves a hand. "I'm not here for your 'friendship is power' spiel. It failed you, you're just refusing to see it. I've seen you do it before. You did it with that Tenrec, you did it with the Echidna, Shadow, even Eggman every now and then. You appeal to their better nature and desperation, and that convinces them that maybe your way is better. Admittedly, it didn't work with Eggman, and I have my doubts about the Tenrec. But I'm not like that, balancing on sword's edge. I am firm, immovable. You will not cause me to falter." It states, the conviction in its voice strong and clear. "You really did your homework, huh? Well, a little pop quiz: what's the most common thing in all of my battles? What never changes in the end?" It pauses, then scoffs. "You always win." The hedgehog waits for it to sink in. "No. No, I see. No, it's not going to be the same. I'll ensure it. I have outlived ALL OF YOU, MILLIONS of generations over! I have watched EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of your battles, your trials, your accomplishments, I know you as well as–no, BETTER than you know yourself! I am immune to all of your tricks. I have ONE purpose, and ONE purpose alone. I will carry it out. NOTHING will stop me." It snarls, dragging its hand across a tree. Raking into the wood, it carves deep furrows into the bark. The tips of its gloves are destroyed, replaced by claws. Big, long claws, similar to Metal Sonic's in that they aren't nails, but the actual shape of the fingers. It takes a few moments to breathe, then puts its hand down and takes a deep breath. "And in any case, it won't help you here. Shadow and Tails have rarely, if ever, truly interacted. Whatever alliance they've created, it won't last. They will break, and when they do, I will be ready." While it may be true that Shadow and Tails always seem to be on opposing sides, and that may not have given them the best of interactions, Shadow is serious and practical(not to mention indifferent so long as he accomplishes his mission),and Tails is smart and flexible. Besides, Sonic believes Shadow doesn't truly have anything against the fox. "Right." He says, slightly taken aback by the sudden display of aggression. Before he can comment on it, something in the nearest reflection catches his eye. Someone's sitting down, using a bunch of cloths as bandages and treating their wounds, although not with much time and care. When the hedgehog moves closer,(the Starfallen's ended the conversation, having not responded) he bites his tongue to keep from alerting the entity. It's Silver, tired, scared, and, somewhere in thick forestry. From the looks of it, he still sports the wounds and blood from his fight with the Starfallen in Sonic's dream, though the blood and such is older and dried, now more like a strange, poorly done shading effect from a young child in crayon. He's also doing a halfhearted job of treating his injuries, only dealing with them enough to cover them, ears up and twitching when he hears a noise. Within moments, he's swiftly finished his temporary bandaging of the worst injuries, gotten up, and left. Does this mean that Silver escaped to the past? Well, obviously it does, and he assumes it's connected to the dream he'd had. But why would he have seen it in the first place? And by extension, does that mean that his friends...failed? As much as the hedgehog is loath to admit it, the fact that Silver's mere presence means the Starfallen must have survived all that time therefore must mean it at least outlived them, too. A terrible thought, but a logical one. Shadow would have approved.

A few minutes later, as Sonic continues to attempt to get over the revelation, the Starfallen stops, crouching in a tree. "What a nice coincidence." It hisses, tilting its head to indicate to Shadow, Tails, and the trio Sonic had seen earlier. The tall wolf has her arms crossed, watching Shadow warily as the cat beside her tends to their friend. Tails is explaining something to them, arms open and moving as he speaks. "...has a name, it hasn't told us." The Starfallen huffs, glancing off to one side for a moment as though mildly offended. "Well, you never asked!" It points out, smiling as Shadow and Tails stiffen. Leaning forward a little bit, it holds onto the branch above him, relishing in their surprise. The wolf twitches her ear, tail swishing as she raises an eyebrow. "Bit early for Halloween, isn't it?" She remarks, after eyeing this newcomer for a moment. Sonic snorts, amused. "I don't see the point in such meaningless events..." The Starfallen replies, then casually jumps out of the tree, Shadow bristling and moving to be prepared for an attack as it continues. Sonic notices that the claws it had earlier are no longer present, reverted back to normal Mobian hands. Odd. "By the way, I was wondering...there's a hedgehog, small, pink, obsessed with your friend. Have you seen her recently? She has something I want, or so I last heard. As do you, Shadow the Hedgehog." It states, and even the wolf and the cat grow wary, ears up and hands tense. Their friend simply stares, but they're not getting distracted, either. The commotion must be enough to catch their continued attention. Or perhaps they, too recognize something to be off about the Starfallen–while its tone was friendly, it was false and betrayed a darker intent. "Come on, make this easy on yourself! I'd hate for you to get hurt." It wheedles in a saccharine tone, even removing the second layer to its voice, sounding more like Sonic as it had before it killed Omega. Shadow's intense gaze only darkens, settled into firm resolve. "I will give you nothing." He replies, gaining an eye roll from the Starfallen. "Really, that hurts, Shads." It sighs, pressing a hand to its chest and shaking its head. Shrugging, it perks up again a moment later, the secondary voice returning as well. "Well, fine. Have it your way." At that exact moment, a tree slams into it, then followed by several more in rapid succession to make a sort of prison. "Are you guys okay?" The voice of Silver, though muffled by all the trees and debris surrounding the Starfallen, is clear and noticeable, and the entity impersonating Sonic starts its attempt to escape. "I hope I'm not too late–Shadow, can you get us out of here?" Grunting angrily at the lack of progress, the Starfallen tries ripping into the wood, biting and carving wherever it can reach, or using brute force to dent the walls. "We have a temporary refuge on Angel Island." There's a few whirring sounds, followed by silence, and the prison falls away, no longer under the hedgehog's telekinetic influence. "Well...isn't that interesting? Your friend survived me, and made it to the past. Interesting...perhaps he's stronger than he looks." It muses, picking itself up and looking around. All of them are gone, to Angel Island. "They're on Angel Island? The one that floats in the sky. Right. The one that holds the gem your Echidna protects and that bat covets. Hm. I may not be able to reach it now, but if I found one of those Chaos Emeralds, perhaps. It doesn't interfere with my plan anyway...did you know Amy was searching for one? Now I have all the more reason to find her. Besides, I want to let Shadow figure out that other hedgehog. They're more than meets the eye, y'know." Again, Sonic does recall her mentioning a plan to go look for an emerald someone had claimed to have found.

As for the strange hedgehog, he is curious. The closest to another Shadow they've seen was those android clones Eggman made, but those had Shadow's exact color scheme. This one was different colors, save for the eyes. Not only that, but it was clearly sentient, it responded to its environment and seemed to gain fixation on things that were of little to no value were they a robot. And Sonic can just tell, in a way he can't explain. "So you know what's up with them, then? Mind enlightening me?" Sonic asks, looking for the Angel Island reflections again. If he can, he'd like to get Silver's side of the story. Maybe something he knows will help them. "I suppose it doesn't matter much...very well. Amber, as it's called, is in many ways a relative of Shadow, and yet is entirely different from him, too. Shadow has told you the bare details about his past, that which you've wheedled out of him and what he has decided to tell you on his own. He knows and remembers far more than he allows you lot to know, but even he was unaware of this. Before him, after the Biolizard, there was another. Black Doom had already reached out at this point, and the being created was the very first attempt to make what Shadow is now. It didn't work as expected, riddled with mental and physical defects, so rather than try to fix it and risk what happened to the lizard, they simply ejected it back to the planet. That was Amber. It never got a true name or gender, barely able to grasp its surroundings. Despite all its faults, it is peculiar. I watched it for a while, seeing as this was before even you or Shadow. It survived the trip, withstanding the intense heat of re-entry and the crash itself at such a lethal, uncontrolled velocity, and simply wandered, never seemed to grow hungry, cold, tired, or age. I believe it holds Shadow's immortality. I'm hoping to find out the exact details of that." The Starfallen says, brushing the dirt out of its pelt and carrying on as though it never got hit by several trees. "So they're a failed Shadow? How haven't we run into them?" It shrugs, pausing to see the little claws starting to poke the tips of Sonic's gloves again. "Those two it wanders with...I've not seen where they're from, but they're distinctly different, too. I'd bet at least Shadow knows, perhaps Silver and that Echidna. They took it in, and I was drawn away by Shadow's progress. I assume they travelled alot, coincidentally keeping it away from you." It speculates as it shields itself from the sun, having begun to climb the steps to the ruins, probably to get some sort of high ground as a vantage point. Sonic's noticed it's begun to calm down, not as bloodthirsty and insane as before. Maybe it just goes through phases like that? "Have you ever considered digging around here for clues to anything?" It asks abruptly, crouching to inspect some sort of cracked tablet. "Knux is sorta adamant we leave things here alone. It's his ancestry, after all. it'd be wrong of us to mess with it if we can avoid it." The Starfallen 'hmm's, then casts the stones aside and keeps going. "Well, I'm not held by those sorts of rules." It slams its foot down on the rocks below it, letting the floor fall through and tucking into a ball to avoid damage. "What was that for!?" Sonic cries, as the Starfallen stands. "If you're not gonna search, then I'll do it FOR you. Look." It casts its gaze around, focusing on things so Sonic can see as many details as possible: stone walls, a few burnt sticks, and a tunnel. Admittedly, not that many details. "That's what you missed. The Master Emerald wasn't just there for display, you know."

It starts forward, and must have some sort of capability to see in the dark because not once does it hesitate or falter in its path. There's a few puddles, too, Sonic can hear the splashes. "The Echidna were smart, I will admit. They managed to take some water from my prison, transport it to that Angel Island, and keep me all the more secluded from everything in that way. They had more than one place to observe me, though. Such as here." It stops, brushes the wall in front of it with its claws, then aggressively runs its shoulder into it, full-force. The wall crumbles, and it steps in as though it was never obstructed in the first place. There's no sunlight, none that's wholly natural, anyway. It has a set of mirrors instead that must lead to the surface and catch the sun that way, then bounce that light across the room. In the middle of the room is a still, unmoving pool. It's not at the exact edge of the stone, a little must have either evaporated or maybe it was never that full in the first place. "That young Echidna, the one affiliated with Chaos...she would often visit me here. I would be lying if I didn't say I feel her absence." It recalls, doing some strange sort of action with its hands. "You mean Tikal?" Sonic guesses, and it doesn't give any reaction for a moment until it's hands still, then nods. Putting them up to its face, it blows out, spreading its hands as though to dispel the air. "She made one fatal flaw, though. She had the deluded idea that she could heal me, change me to deny my purpose. In doing so, she spoke of a special creation her people had made: a small chip out of the Master Emerald, put into an earring. It would lead you to the other Emeralds, or so she told me. When Perfect Chaos killed her clan, she left the thing here." It turns to an old, wooden table, rotten and infested with holes that suggest insects must have gotten to it. "It's still in this room." And sitting on that table, is a small, copper earring with a gleam of green. "She called it the Master Earring. A little silly, but I've no other better name, and I wish to honor her decision to name it as such." 

Sonic's intrigued, but confused. On one hand, it's interesting to know Tikal spoke to the Starfallen, and they clearly knew one another well, but on the other, he can't help but wonder exactly what she had done to gain this...respect? from it. It's not like he could ask her, now. Using the pool as a mirror, it attaches the jewelry to its right ear, turning its head and flicking its ear to make sure it's on correctly. "Hm. That'll do. Now, she didn't explain how it would work, exactly, but I assume it's attracted to other Emeralds. Like when you lot piled into that spacecraft and sought out the Emeralds that had been scattered across the stars. If I get close enough, perhaps I'll sense something. Or, perhaps it is just a fashion accessory." It says, taking one last look at the pool and standing. Turning back to the tunnel it entered from, it pauses again to inspect something else. It's staring at a small wooden object, which it delicately picks up and dusts off. The object is a small, wooden snake, coiled up and eyes mere hollows in the ovular head. "It's...still here." It says, a strange note to its voice. "What is it?" Sonic asks, unable to contain his curiosity. "Nothing to you." It answers sharply, but doesn't stop holding it. "She carved this snake while she spoke with me. It was the one true thing we would agree on: how something so small and simple could be so intricate." It closes its hand around the carved serpent and starts to leave. "She spent so much time perfecting it. Never did she paint it, but she poured plenty of detail into those scales. Despite all the care she took to make it perfect, it still has a flaw: the eyes are still not the same." It turns the carving. One eye is slightly bigger than the other, and placed ahead of the smaller one by maybe a half centimetre at most. It's in remarkable condition for its age, and the scales are very intricate. Even without color, there's clear patterns in the scale shapes, each painstakingly shaped and arranged in different ways. "Well, the best things don't have to be the most perfect! That makes it unique for its faults." Sonic tries, holding his breath as the Starfallen stays quiet again. Finally, it clenches its hand tightly around the carving, and shakes its head. "That is why you are both dead." With that, it stomps down the tunnel. 

Chapter Text

Shadow wakes to Rouge discreetly brushing his shoulder with her wing, gentle but disruptive enough to get his attention. She glances over at the pool, clearly in indication to Tails and Knuckles, who have knelt down and appear to have begun speaking to Sonic. "How long was I asleep?" He asks quietly, trying to convince himself that he doesn't need any more. Rouge looks up at the light let in by the canopy, twitches her ear, then answers. "I'd guess about three, three and a half hours? More sleep than I've ever seen you catch at any given time, anyway. Sonic hasn't been here long. Apparently, Sonic can't actually see his surroundings, but there's objects there that reflect what the actual place around him looks like, so he gets lost and runs into obstacles easily." She steps back to allow him the space to stand up. Ash is crouched on a broken pillar, watching Knuckles and Tails, refusing to get closer but still intrigued, tail swaying slowly. Amber is poking the dirt below her, watched closely by Silver. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is approaching the Echidna and kit curiously, undoubtedly intrigued by the sight of a blue hedgehog being trapped in a reflection somehow. "Silver and Ash had a serious talk while she was helping him actually treat those wounds. At least, it sounded that way. Kept bringing up someone named 'Pyre'. The two clearly know each other, but I'm still unsure exactly how. Anyway, Sonic's just asked about you. Something about needing the use of Chaos Control." Rouge fills him in on what she'd picked up while he slept, an unspoken request that Shadow appreciates her compliance of. Sighing, he dips his head in acknowledgement and starts forward. "...weird. It's...sort of calmed down now? It's been a sort of roller coaster, but not a good one. Like one of Eggman's rides." Sonic laments, catching sight of Shadow and vigorously waving him over. "Shadow! Long time no see, buddy!" He greets, somehow just as energetic and cheerful as always. Shadow is sure that's probably comforting for Tails, though, as much as he may wish Sonic had seemed a little more serious. It's not exactly how the hedgehog rolls, either, to be fair. "Sonic." He says in response, intending to cut to the chase. "I'm glad you're up. There's something VERY important I need you to do." Sonic states, changing the tone practically on a dime. Shadow slightly raises an eyebrow. He expected a few jokes before Sonic got THIS serious about something. Maybe he'd missed the jokes, which he can very easily live without. "I was told. What is it you need?" The blue hedgehog wastes no time getting into his story: "After you all escaped with Silver, the Starfallen moved on almost instantly. Those trees didn't seem to do much other than restrain it at least until you guys left. It walked right up the steps to that big set of ruins that used to hold the Master Emerald..." As he describes the place, he occasionally glances at Knuckles, who listens with intent. "...and smashed the flooring at the top. Apparently, there was some sort of secret passageway that led under it, and the Starfallen ended up in this underground room, with another pool in it like this one. This one was a circular pool just below the floor level, like it was carved into the ground." Sonic taps the water, which ripples, but doesn't move much more than that. "It'd talk to Tikal there." This gets a shocked grunt from Knuckles. "She knew about this thing??" Sonic nods. "I guess so. Anyway, there was a table in the corner, where a little earring was. The Starfallen explained that Tikal had claimed it was capable of finding the Chaos Emeralds. It has it on right now, a little copper teardrop with a small shard of the Master Emerald inside, and so far, it's not sure how to use it." Sonic twitches his ear, most likely indicating which side the earring's on. Shadow nods, Rouge also paying acute attention. Since Sonic mentioned an earring, the bat had surreptitiously sidled up beside Shadow and was listening in. "I assume you want Shadow to use Chaos Control to steal it and keep the Emeralds away?" She infers, Sonic nodding "It's still looking for Amy, since it knows she's looking for a Chaos Emerald herself, and anyone else in general, so be careful, but hurry." Ash looks up. "Let me do it." She says, taking them all by surprise. "A few hours ago, you were against helping us at all." Tails objects, Knuckles crossing his arms. 

Ash scoffs, and leaps down from her perch, landing in a crouch and striding over. "I may not know much about you lot, but I know myself, and I suggest you let me to go retrieve this earring." She states, but Shadow shakes his head. "You don't know the true extent of what this thing can do–NONE of us do. But without the use of Chaos Control, you wouldn't stand a chance. Even I have only a slight chance of getting it. But at least I have one." Ash rolls her eyes. "If I'm gonna be part of this team, you should learn to accept my skills. Trust me, I can do it." She insists. "What makes you so sure?" Shadow challenges. "I'm what you'd call a master thief. If it can be stolen, you can bet I'll be able to take it. Stealing an earring off some hedgehog demon's ear? No trouble." She assures them, and Elizabeth nods a little. "Are you sure? When I fought it, it was strong enough to break out of my telekinesis. Maybe it's less powerful now, but even so, a straight fact is that you can't compete against Sonic's speed." Silver points out. "I'm well aware." She replies darkly, then points at Shadow. "You. You're fast. Those rockets on your shoes can't be just for show. You don't seem the showy type." Shadow growls quietly, but stays silent to allow her to continue. "Are you as fast as that one?" She points at Sonic. "Yes." He confirms. "What are you planning?" Sonic inquires, having moved up to see the interaction better. Or maybe he's sitting on it? Shadow can't truly tell. "If I'm not fast enough to hold my own against this Starfallen thing, then MAKE me fast enough." Elizabeth's ears go up, then lay flat down, then lift a little, tail twitching nervously, marking the first time Shadow has seen the cat give some sort of actual emotion compared to her normally very sweet demeanor. "We don't have time for that." Shadow says, though Ash waves her hand dismissively. "Then make some damned time. We have this ancient, otherwordly threat that almost killed my friend, and you're all too scared or weak to face it head-on. I'm not. But, I am cautious. If I'm going to engage something, I'm gonna do it RIGHT." She leans forward a little, seeing as she's taller than everyone else. Her height is comparable to Maria's, somewhere around 3'9" or at most 4'2". Taller than the average Mobian, for sure. "Even if you could beat me in a fight, that doesn't mean that you can have a shot at defeating the Starfallen." The wolf grins. "Good thing I don't need to beat it, then. All I need is to have a strategy for evading and anticipating attacks, then I'll find a way to counteract them. I need to give myself openings to get this bauble from it." Shadow and Rouge share a glance. The bat smirks at him. She clearly likes how the girl thinks. "Now, we have a directive, thanks to Sonic: Steal this earring. Stealing shiny jewels are my specialty, but even so, this won't be easy. Do we have any ideas? Other than the one you've already stated. I want to evaluate all our options before we rule anything out." Rouge inquires. They all stay silent, considering. "Tails, remember that machine you made? To catch me if I was on a rampage, or running too fast for whatever reason?" Sonic starts. The young fox nods. While it seems insignificant to Shadow, he does recognize it due to one sole fact: He's the only one able to rival or surpass Sonic's speed.

The device was made after the whole debacle of the Metal Virus. Apparently Sonic had some qualms of a similar problem happening, and having almost been consumed by the virus himself, wanted some sort of measure against it so his speed wouldn't be an issue for others. Shadow understands that, to a certain extent. While he wasn't directly scared for anyone specifically, he sure didn't like the notion that he was mindless, and would attack without thinking. He may be dangerous, but he doesn't want to be a constant danger to EVERYONE. He didn't like that he wasn't in control of himself. As for what it is, it's a cannon made to track Sonic at any speed, and entangle him in a net. Even if it doesn't wholly stop him, it's enough to slow him down and allow better measures to be taken. If the net were to miss, there's a patch of land Sonic would have to run over, which would open up beneath him and drop him into a cage of sorts. They made sure the material was strong enough that he wouldn't be able to break though it, so with luck, it'd work. There's one issue with the second method, though: there isn't a door out or in other than the trap door itself. If someone needed to go in there in order to, say, get the earring, they'd need to hope the Starfallen doesn't manage to escape or kill them in the process. "You want me to bait it into chasing me through the range of fire." Shadow says. "Normally, I'd say yes, but...it told me it's seen EVERYTHING. All the moments of our lives–specifically yours and mine, Shads. I don't know the exact extent to its memory, but I worry it might grow suspicious. We'll need to be smart. It can't suspect we'd be leading it somewhere." Sonic points out. Knuckles grins. "So we jump it as a group and beat it into a pulp!" He suggests, punching his fists together. "Love the enthusiasm, Knux, but we also should avoid a head-on assault." Sonic adds, and Elizabeth steps forward. "Perhaps it's not my place to ask, but I am curious, what specifically are your abilities and strengths? If we can make a sort of list of them, maybe we can pull off some sort of team effort." She points at Silver, then continues to point at them one by one as she continues. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I understand, you have telekinesis and one of those emerald things, which allowed us to teleport here, and so do you, Shadow. In addition, Ash was right–I highly doubt the special shoes you sport are a simple fashion trend. You share almost identical physical traits to Sonic, of whom I know is fast and has a record of being able to go up against any number of foes with impeccable speed, accuracy, and agility, not to mention keen reflexes. I'd assume you therefore share similar prowess in battle, too. You can use whatever 'Chaos Control' is, and from the way you hold yourself, you're practical and methodical with your actions, although you won't hesitate to use brute force if needed. Tails is smart, a technological genius of sorts from all the gadgets he'd mentioned to me earlier, and can use his extra tail to fly. You specialize in thievery and some sort of espionage, rather than be the main star of the show, you would rather hang back in the shadows to gain information, and I assume you have impressive hand-to-hand combat skills as well as extensive historical knowledge and understanding. Did I miss anything?"

She's met with stunned silence, she had managed to glean all of this in a handful of hours, going solely off intuition, her own actual sense, and whatever little things she'd picked up along the way. "Wow. Uh, yeah, basically. There's a little more nuance to a few things, like Shadow's use of Chaos Control and the Chaos Emeralds, but almost...almost directly on the nose." Sonic replies, the first to respond. "You picked up on all of that? Even I'm a little jealous." Rouge admits. Elizabeth smiles shyly, and Ash glances between the two with a suspicious gaze for a moment. "Chaos Control, what's that all about, then?" She asks, crossing her arms. "Sometimes, a Chaos Emerald is used to do something we can't do by ourselves. Often times, it's Shadow, using it to teleport from place to place, temporarily freeze time, or summon bolts of energy, but as the 'Chaos' part implies, there isn't really a known limit to what they can do. It's been said they can turn thoughts into power, if that's anything to go by." Rouge answers, and Ash nods. "Cool." She mutters, looking at the ground as though lost in thought. "Would it be helpful if we told you what we could do?" Elizabeth offers, and Shadow dips his head once, confirming he'd like to know. In theory, it'd make the planning of this a lot easier. "Alright. So, I usually work well in the background, I'm pretty observant, I often prefer to fight with a special mallet I have, but I can also do this." She holds up her hand, and with her other, brushes it. Instantly, a layer of ice begins to spread over her hand, encasing it. "I have a very specific mastery over ice. It's admittedly a little strange–I can create it, but I can't make objects entirely out of it, only cover the surface area. However, I can choose how thick it is, when or if it will melt, how clear it is, all sorts of meticulous little things like that. When I put them into little disks like this..." She holds up a gold-rimmed, ovular object, which she then throws at a wall. Upon impact, it shatters, then spreads, making a patch of ice about as big as a human. "Interesting...are you a sharpshooter, then?" Sonic asks. She shrugs. "I suppose. Ash has more to offer, though." She nods to her companion. "Well, for one thing, first and foremost, I can manipulate and create fire." She holds up her hand, allowing it to burst into green flames, matching the color of her eyes. "Not only that, but it burns hotter than normal fire. I also have these." She holds up her arms, making sure the ribbons are clearly visible. "These are a set of ribbons I've used since I first started travelling. They work like whips, but I can also tie these little blades I have to them in order to cause more damage or get a grip on most flat surfaces. I use them for most of my combat, but that doesn't mean I'm weak. I practice my agility and strength, leaving me flexible and nimble, but still able to throw around plenty of weight." She explains, and Shadow's able to see that. For one, she may be built thin, but there's clear muscle in her arms, and the fact earlier she scaled the pillar and jumped down from it so effortlessly says something about how sure she is of her own abilities. "What does Amber do?" Silver asks, the hedgehog looking up to stare at him for a second before returning to digging. "It doesn't do anything,as far as we can tell. It knows to stay out of our way, though, so we don't worry about them all too much, if I'm being honest." Elizabeth admits. "Oh..." Sonic murmurs, some unidentified expression crossing his face. "Well, here's what I'm thinking." Tails ventures, gaining the group's attention. Amber is busy staring at Sonic now, who has taken notice of them, but has decided to listen to Tails for the time being. "I think we might have a good shot with the machine Sonic mentioned, but it's going to be very difficult. Sonic's right, we should avoid attacking it, if we can. Instead, we just keep it distracted. We let it stalk a group of us, acting like we're either lost or we're looking for something in the area. Shadow, you'll have to be part of that group, the main target it goes for. I would volunteer myself, but I'll need to get the cannon ready." He explains, and Shadow nods. "And what about whoever else is in that group?" "They're more like background characters. We want the Starfallen focused on you. Their job will be to help drive the Starfallen into the trap." Tails turns to Ash. "And that should allow you to help take it down. Does that work for you?" Ash takes a moment to consider, then nods slowly. "You may be young, but your plans are as good as Lizzie's." She comments. Sonic smiles in the background, proud for his friend. "It's not perfect yet, I have to make sure there's no mistakes or ways to get it wrong, but it's an idea." Tails clarifies, ears lowered slightly. "How much time do you need to plan?" Shadow asks, waiting patiently for the young Mobian to think. "About...an hour, maybe two?" He grunts, then shifts positions. "How about a day?" Tails blinks, then nods cautiously. "Okay...any specific reason why?" The dark-colored hedgehog turns to Ash, who catches his gaze and holds it like a challenge. "You want to learn how to hold your own against this thing? Well, I can't show you all that it's capable of, but I can easily show you its speed."