Sonic, Knuckles, Sally, etc. copyrighted by Sega and Archie comics. Slasher, Serena, Jay, Robin, Jason, Simoon, Nash, Zephyer and the rest of the gang copyrighted by K. M. Hollar. Spark Hedgehog copyrighted by Ace Castle. Used with permission.

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The fox was running through the forest in terror, fur plastered to his body with sweat. He carried a knapsack over one shoulder, from which came a dull greenish glow.

He stumbled over a root and hit the mud face-first. He was up again almost instantly, mud adding to his grimy complexion. He only resumed running, wiping the muck from his eyes and re-shouldering his pack.

A strange sound floated through the dark rainforest--a deep- throated trumpet blast, almost a conch-shell sound. He looked back but could see nothing. The note died away and total silence resumed ... an unnatural silence.

Light ahead. Perhaps he was nearing the edge of the forest. He tried to increase his speed through the swampy terrain.

Another low trumpet blast. The fox's breath was coming shorter and shorter, a painful stitch developing in his side. It seemed his heart would burst from his body, but the light ahead kept him going. He was almost there. He could almost see the awaiting team of horses--just a few more yards--

He leaped into the open and saw the entire forest spread out below him, stretching for miles in every direction, shot through with silver rivers.

Then he began dropping and realized his mistake. He was completely turned around--this was the five-hundred foot cliff on the other side of the jungle. He had made a wrong turn.

His body struck a protruding tree branch, knocking the breath from him and wreaking havoc on his torso. The knapsack was torn from his hand with the impact, and the two continued to fall unchecked all the way to the stony ground below. Instant death was inevitable.

Ten minutes later another figure stepped from the trees and approached the fallen fox. Gingerly it knelt and lifted the knapsack with a thumb and forefinger, turned it over and dumped its contents on the ground. His eyes went immediately to the yellow-green stone, perhaps as big as a peach-pit, but glowing like fire. The figure reached into its pocket and pulled out a small grey box and a cloth. He edged the stone into the box with the rag, careful not to touch the gem directly. He snapped the box's lid shut, twirled the locks, then pulled out a strange gun and fired it at the foot of the cliffs. A glowing blue slit appeared and a cold wind whipped out of it. The figure hurled the little box into it, then shot his gun at the rip again to close it. "There," he said, "now nobody in the entire history of Mobius knows the cursed thing's location."

"He turned and vanished, never to be seen again," Knuckles said, the firelight shining in his eyes. "And to this day, nobody knows where the eighth chaos emerald is. It's smaller than any of the others, but if you have it, you can control the seven completely."

The Freedom Fighters sat back, eyes fixed on the echidna. He was staring into the flames, reliving the story as his father had related it to him.

After a few minutes Tails broke the spell with a question. "Is that true?"

Knux jumped a little and looked at him. "Huh? Is what true?"

"That. That story you just told."

He shrugged. "Dad said it was. It's just a legend. That's the thing about legends--they might be true or they might not be."

The bunch watched the dancing golden flames in silence. The darkness to their backs held the nip of early autumn; a few weeks more and it would be too cold to sit outside and tell stories.

Tails was leaning against Serena, the violet hedgehog, for warmth, his double tails draped across his legs for warmth. Slasher was crouched nearby, Sally and Bunnie Rabbot reclining against her side. All were relaxed and pondering in one way or another the legend Knuckles had just told.

Suddenly there came a strange sound, loud and out of place. Everyone turned with a gasp. A tree trunk twenty feet away seemed to have split in two, the interior glowing a rich blue. Two figures appeared, flying out of the expanse and landing on their feet. One came forward without hesitation, but the other remained behind, standing with one foot on solid ground and the other inside the time rip to hold it open. Neither appeared to be Time Rippers, for they lacked the customary equipment.

The one who had come forward stopped and lifted one hand. The hand was clenched tightly around what looked like a metal shoebox. "I--we come in peace," it said. "This object I carry must be given to Sonic Hedgehog and Knuckles Echidna."

The two named leaped to their feet and stood at attention. The others did the same and watched without a word.

The figure looked at Sonic and Knuckles with surprise. They could not see him very well, as they had been staring into the fire and their eyes were dazzled. Knuckles held out a hand, palm upward. "What is it?"

To their surprise the stranger bowed his head and moved back a few steps. "I can't do it," they heard him mumble. He looked over his shoulder at his companion. "I can't do it!"

"You have to!" the other called. "It'll undo everything you did!"

Sonic squinted at the silhouette against the blue rip. He was almost certain it was a hedgehog--

The other figure moved forward again and thrust the little box into Knuckles's hands. As he did, Knuckles realized why he hadn't been able to identify his species. It was a dark red echidna, but the whole right side of his face had been burned past all recognition. His right eye and that side of his mouth appeared to have been erased by the injury, but his hair had grown back, showing it had been that way for years.

Knuckles drew back in shock, staring. The dark echidna automatically turned so only the left side of his face was visible. His good eye gazed at Knuckles's face with a strange expression ... longing? Fear? Desperation? Perhaps all three, and with an odd sort of recognition.

The stranger began to tremble. "Whatever you do, don't open the box. Destroy it as soon as possible. If you open it--" His hand strayed up and touched his scarred face. "Everything depends on you. I--" He stopped and looked down.

Sonic jumped on the opportunity. "Who are you? Did the Time Rippers send you?"

The echidna looked at him; he seemed about to faint. "We can't tell you who we are ... it would ruin everything ... no, we never met the Time Rippers. Please, don't open the box. If you do--"

He was interrupted by the hedgehog standing in the rip, who yelled, "Hurry up! It's starting to close!"

The echidna ran to him, paused and looked back. "The future depends on you!" Then the two plunged into the blue light and were gone, the rip closing an instant later. The only evidence of the visit was the five-by-three box Knuckles was clutching with both hands.

"It was the weirdest thing," Sonic said.

He, Serena and Tails were sitting in the sun on a log, idly watching Knothole Village go about its business. It was one of those bright, hazy fall days when a mist seems suspended in the air. The trees were beginning to lose their leaves, turning maroon, red, orange and yellow in the process.

The three were waiting for Sally to finish testing the mysterious box. It was hope that Nichole, the little computer, would be able to identify its contents.

Sonic yawned with boredom. "Did you two see that echidna's face? Looked like one half got burned off."

Serena and Tails nodded. Then Tails said, "You know, I never saw an orange hedgehog before."

Sonic looked at him with a little interest. "Huh?"

"That hedgehog in the rip," the fox explained. "He was orange."

"Real orange," Serena added. "I noticed that too, Tails." She reached down and picked up a leaf. "Almost this color."

Before Sonic could comment, the door of the hut across from them opened and Sally stepped out, a disgusted look on her face. She saw them and walked over. Her movements spoke of her discouragement. She sat down beside Sonic and sighed.

"Well?" the blue hedgehog asked, although he could see things had not gone well.

The squirrel looked at him and brushed her brown hair out of her face. "The outside of the box is aluminum, but the inside is lined with a substance scanners can't penetrate. I got a picture of a box inside the box." She sounded tired and frustrated. She folded her hands and looked down at them. "The best I could do was pick up a reading on some sort of energy inside. It must be pretty powerful to penetrate the insulation or whatever. But that's ALL."

"I don't think that means we should open it," Serena said, thinking of the disfigured echidna's warning.

Sally shook her head. "You can't just pop it open. It's got a combination lock like on a suitcase, and we don't have the combination. You'd have to break it open, and who knows what rough handling would trigger."

Tails poked Serena in the ribs. "What if it were terbium?"

The hedgehog looked at her brother and Sally. "Could it?"

Sally shook her head. "Nah. Terbium produces radiation, but not that much."

Terbium was a mildly radioactive element with strange atomic properties. It also grew and reproduced in an oddly plant-like fashion. It had effectively destroyed Robotropolis and all it contained before being stopped. Unfortunately, Robotnik, Metal Sonic and Robo Knuckles had made good their escape beforehand. But it had resulted in one good thing; blueprints for a de-robotizer had been secured, and the machine was operating in Knothole's spare village of Eagles' Nest, ten miles to the south.

But their enemies being routed did not mean less work for the Freedom Fighters. There were the several thousand robotized animals, rescued from destruction by Sonic's Uncle Chuck, who inhabited Eagles Nest and were de-robotized day by day.

"Where's the box now?" Sonic asked Sally.

She shrugged. "Slasher's trying a few things. It worried her that that guy gave it to you and Knux." She cracked a smile. "I'm not surprised. You two get into more trouble ..."

By this she meant the adventure Sonic, Serena, Knuckles and Slasher had had when they flew out to investigate a mysterious island that had appeared out of nowhere. As it had turned out, the island was populated wit dinosaurs, who protected the flickies that inhabited it. Metal Sonic, however, had come up with a blood-thirsty scheme that would exterminate the little birds. The Freedom Fighters, along with an partially robotized echidna named Zephyer, had trashed Mecha's operation and run him off. But Zephyer had drowned protecting them from one of Mecha's henchmen, giving a rather sad ending to that particular episode.

Sonic glanced at his sister. She too had though of their brief acquaintance, for she was gazing at the ground with a mournful expression on her face.

Sally and Tails didn't notice, for Sally's hut had opened and Slasher had stepped into the mild sunshine. She was holding the little grey box in one clawed hand. After a second she spotted them and approached. Sonic stood and took the box from her. "Find anything?"

"Nope," the big velociraptor replied. "Nothing I did could penetrate the inner layer. But you're right, Sally--there IS some sort of energy getting through." She folded her arms and shifted her weight to one foot. "You should probably do what those two characters wanted you to do--destroy it."

Sonic looked down and touched the box thoughtfully. "How?"

Slasher was quiet a moment, then said, "Knuckles is going out to the Floating Island in a few days--gonna spend a couple weeks out there. How about you go with him and dunk this thing in the lava in Lava Reef?"

Sonic shrugged. "That'd pry work. Think he'd mind if I went?"

"Nah. You're a big hit with the Chaotix, and he needs every extra pair of hands he can get."

"I'll ask him next time I se him." Sonic handed the box to the raptor. "Can you put this away somewhere? It's be a real bummer if somebody opened it."

"Okay."

And that seemed to be the end of that.

But it was only the beginning.

Sonic and Knuckles were not perfect. There was a constant curiosity in the back of their minds, fed by the strange clues. Why had they been warned not to open the box? Was whatever was inside the reason for the strange echidna's disfigurement? What could be small enough to fit inside that box and yet be powerful enough to penetrate the insulation? Who the heck WERE those two strangers?

Neither said a word to the other about their questions and wild theories. Perhaps things would have turned out differently if they had.

The day of Sonic and Knuckles's departure dawned bright and clear. It had frosted lightly overnight, sucking most of the moisture from the air. Everything had a blue tinge to it, as if the air were extra-clean.

The hedgehog and echidna both wore jackets against the cool of the morning. Sonic carried a backpack, which contained the mystery box and a few other things. He had carefully donned his emerald belt, just in case. He was aware of its solid clasp about his waist as they waved goodbye and set off down the wide trail that led out of Knothole.

As soon as they were out of sight of the village, Knuckles asked, "Gotcha belt?

"Yup. I wished for it on Flicky Island--I ain't forgetten' it again." Sonic adjusted the backpack on his shoulders.

The two walked in silence for a few moments, matching strides.

Knuckles spoke. "I wish I knew what was in that box."

Sonic glanced at him, wondering if they had been thinking the same things. "Why don't we open it? You know, out in the sticks, where it wouldn't hurt anybody."

Knuckles shot him a sharp glance. "I hope you don't mean on the island. It hasn't even recovered from the terbium."

Sonic looked up at the clear sky innocently. "We could be good and melt the thing like those guys wanted."

He sneaked a glance at his companion. Knux seemed to be weakening. He wanted to see the contents of the box as badly as Sonic did, but his sense of responsibility was strong. He stalled. "Well, we can't right now. We gonna try your little stunt?"

Sonic looked around at the forest. "Looks like we'd have enough room if we stuck to the trail. Once we hit the plains it'll be no big deal. Want me to 'come hyper?"

"Naw. You can run fast enough normal."

The echidna stepped behind the hedgehog and grasped his upper arms. Sonic helped him get positioned, then crouched and dug his toes into the dirt, creating temporary starting blocks. "One, two, three!" and he leaped into a run.

Knuckles ran with him a little at first, but once the hedgehog topped seventy miles per hour he let his feet fly out behind. Sonic changed when he began to really run--every muscle tensed and his body became streamlined, his eyes shining with his love of speed. Trees whipped by on either hand and the dirt road became a blur. The cold wind bit sharply into Knuckles' eyes, but he didn't care. There were times he loved this as much as Sonic did.

Abruptly the trees fell away and the morning sun shown down on them. They had entered the five miles of open space that separated the Great Forest from Robotropolis. The two planned to gain as much speed as possible during these five miles, then Knuckles would take over and glide, carrying Sonic. Theoretically they would be able to cross the entire city without touching down once.

"Hang on," Sonic called to Knuckles, "we're shifting into second gear!" According to Sonic, he had three gears and referred to them as 'Fast, Really Fast and What Was That?'.

Knux watched the ground, trying to estimate their speed. When he guessed he called, "How fast?" Each word was torn from his mouth by the sharp wind, but Sonic heard him and yelled back, "Bullet!" Knux had been way off and made note of it.

A grey smudge appeared on the horizon, growing rapidly and spreading out to either side; the remains of Robotropolis. "Get ready!" the hedgehog shouted. Knuckles did, preparing for liftoff by stiffening his body and turning his head so his dreadlocks spread out in the wind. A few seconds later Sonic yelled, "Go!" and leaped into the air. Knux's hair was like a hang glider; it caught the air and sent them hurling upward. Sonic locked wrists with his friend and pulled up his feet, trying to balance. They were really moving and steadily gaining altitude. The grey debris of the city spread out below them like a monstrous junkyard. "Can we make it?" Sonic called.

"I don't know yet," Knuckles replied, banking this way and that to climb into the sky. "Think so, but I don't know how the high-altitude winds're blowing today."

There were several minutes of carefree flight before they hit the wind. Unfortunately that day it was against them, slowing them down.

"Aw heck," Knuckles said, panting a little. "We're not gonna make it. Look for a place to land."

Sonic was just as disappointed. "Darn it, we're never gonna find out if this works." He watched the distant ground and said after a moment, "There's a flat wall. We could land there--it makes kind of a platform."

Knuckles gazed around until he spotted it. "That'll work. Going down."

They zigzagged, dropped and finally landed on the strip of fallen wall. Knuckles dusted his hands off against his jacket. "Light as a feather."

Sonic picked himself up and glared at the echidna. "Did you hafta drop me like that?"

"Sorry."

The two looked around. They were surrounded for miles in every direction with the rotting debris of the dead city. Knuckles put his hands on his hips. "Wow. I haven't been here since before the terbium got it. Leveled it, didn't it?"

Sonic began to pick his way westward. "Sure enough. C'mon. Man, this is gonna take all day!"

They two began to work their way across the rubble. "You mean you can't run across this?" Knux asked his companion. Sonic looked at him. "Could you?"

"Uh ... no."

"They only way I could run here is if I paid no attention to what happened to my feet and legs," Sonic explained.

"What about your belt?"

"Then you'd be the one with the injuries. I'd go so fast, I'd slam you into everything."

They walked along in silence for a few moments. Suddenly Sonic stopped and looked at Knuckles. "Let's open the box."

"You're crazy, man."

"No, I want to do it here, now. It won't hurt anything in this junkyard. Nobody'll ever know."

Knuckles knew that, but the warning of the strange echidna was still fresh on his mind. He threw up his last argument. "Remember what Sally said about the lock?"

Sonic grinned. "I have the combination."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do. Eight sixty-three. I ran a sneak-check with Nichole the other night."

Knuckles stared at him in disbelief. "You didn't."

The hedgehog nodded proudly. "Yep. Any other objections?"

"Well," said the echidna weakly, "they SAID not to open it ..."

Sonic had convinced himself it would do no harm. "But it was just advice, wasn't it? And you don't HAVE to follow advice ..."

Knux recalled the terror on the stranger's disfigured face. "Sonic, we really shouldn't ..."

The hedgehog already had his pack off and opened. He pulled out the box and looked at it. "C'mon, Knux."

If the echidna had put his foot down and staunchly refused, Sonic would not have opened the box and the dreadful things which followed would not have been. But Knuckles gave in, making it as much his fault as Sonic's.

"Well, just a crack," the echidna said. "And be careful it doesn't burn you or something."

Sonic excitedly turned each dial on the lock, forming the number 863. But as the last number snapped into place the unexpected happened. The lid flew open and Sonic was hit in the face with a bright green light and the heat of a blast furnace. He threw the box down and reeled backward, arms over his face. Knuckles felt the heatwave pass over him-- it was pouring out of the little box like nuclear fission. An object inside was glowing like the sun, too brilliant to see. In an instant Knuckles knew what it was; the mystical eighth chaos emerald.

Knux moved behind the box, sprang at it, clapped the lid shut and twirled the locks. The heat and power were gone in a second, again contained. He absently shoved the box under an up-ended slab of cement and dashed to Sonic, who was doubled up on the ground, hiding his face.

"Sonic!"

The hedgehog was rocking back and forth in agonized silence. Knuckles knelt beside him. "Sonic! Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Sonic whimpered.

Knuckles tried to pry his arms away from his face. Sonic, I've gotta see how bad the burn is. C'mon Sonic, let me see--" In his head he envisioned the raw burned flesh, Sonic's eyes burned out of his head, the blood--"

But when Sonic finally finally relented and lowered his arms, Knuckles was even more shocked than he had imagined.

Sonic's face was completely unharmed.

He was trembling as he looked up at his friend. "How--how bad is it?"

Knux stared at him. "Didn't it hit you in the face?"

"Yeah--it is bad? Do I look like that kid?"

"No ... Sonic, you don't even have a scratch."

Sonic gingerly felt his face, relieved. "Oh, it didn't burn me after all. I could have sworn it did." He climbed to his feet, looking around warily. "What happened to the box?"

"I shut it. It's under a slab over there." Knux jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"Did you see what was in it?"

"Didn't you?"

Sonic shook his head. "All I saw was the light. What was it?"

Without thinking, Knuckles said, "The eighth chaos emerald."

In a flash Sonic attacked him. His blows were calculated and accurate, and Knuckles could barely block them. "Sonic!" Knux yelled in alarm. "Sonic, what's wrong with you?"

"Stay back," the hedgehog snarled. "I want that emerald and nobody's gonna stop me."

Knuckles held up his hands. "Okay okay, I'm not gonna fight you!"

Sonic stopped immediately and stood still, panting. His face had changed so much he was hardly recognizable; he appeared insane. He whirled and dashed to the spot Knuckles had indicated, his movements jerky and unnatural.

Knux realized Sonic hadn't quite seen where he had pointed--he was trying to dig under a half-buried wall. This was a good thing-- Sonic dug with all his frenzied strength. As he wasn't used to that kind of exercise, he soon tired and had to rest. Knuckles watched him like a hawk, hoping desperately Sonic wouldn't remember his emerald belt.

But as Sonic sat there the crazy look left his eyes and he appeared himself again. He shook his head and looked around. "Gosh, what happened?"

Knuckles was wary. "Sonic, are you for real?"

The hedgehog climbed to his feet. "Whaddya mean? What happened? Did I go hyper or something?" He looked around suspiciously. "What happened to the box? Did you see what was in it?"

Knuckles felt sick. "I just told you and you went berserk."

Sonic gazed at him, thinking hard. "Wait. I know what it was. The 8CE?" Eighth chaos emerald. Knux nodded.

Sonic shuddered. "Don't say it. If you do it'll get me again. It wants me--it nailed me when it blasted my face."

Knuckles looked at him with grave concern. "Should we go back to Knothole?"

"No, I'm okay. Let's go on out to the island. Just don't mention IT."

Meanwhile, fifteen years in the future ...

The cougar stood before the hedgehog, hands folded behind his back and legs braced. "What did you do with the emerald?"

The hedgehog stared at the floor and would not answer.

There was a hint of a growl in the cougar's voice. "I will ask you again, Jason. What--did--you--do--with--it?"

The hedgehog didn't stir.

The tip of the big cat's tail twitched once. He glowered down at the hedgehog with a fury that surpassed Dr. Robotnik's. "Very well," he said, his smooth voice like ice. "You will never see your parents again."

The hedgehog looked up in horror. "No sir, please--" He was cut off by a slap from a huge paw that sent him flying. As he picked himself up, his ringing ears made out the cougar's command to one of the nearby soldiers. "Take him to social services and put him in foster care, along with his two sisters. I will see to his parents myself."

The orange hedgehog tried to fight the guards who grabbed him, but they were too strong. As they dragged him from the room, he yelled defiantly, "I'll never tell you where the emerald is! Never never never!"

As the door closed behind him, the cougar fingered his long whiskers and said to his henchman (a lynx), "Bring in the little echidna. If Jason will not talk, Simoon certainly will."

"Yes sir, Commander Nash," the lynx replied.

It took several hours for Sonic and Knuckles to get out of Robotropolis. Sonic acted normally, but got a little jumpy at any mention of the number eight.

As they entered the low coastal mountains and began to run again, Sonic said guardedly, "Knux, can you research IT for me? It grabbed my mind just like the sword did. I'll bet there's a connection."

The red echidna nodded. "Okay. I hope there isn't ..."

Sonic looked at him. "Yeah, I know. If so I've been exposed to its power before."

The sword they spoke of had been found in the depths of the Sandopolis pyramid. The blade was made of pure emerald, and had the power to control the mind of whoever wielded it. Sonic was the only one in history ever to break free of the mind-control on his own, but somehow, being opened to it once left him vulnerable for more of the same, and found it harder and harder to free himself.

Nothing worth mentioning happened until they reached the teleporter on the coast and warped out to the Floating Island.

Sonic had not been to the island since his quest for the terbium antidote during the summer. This he noticed immediately that the forests were beginning to regrow.

Knuckles noticed his examination of the grass underfoot. "It's not what it looks like," he said with a wry grin. "We've had to totally reseed the grass and tear out lots and lots of trees. I'll be providing firewood for Knothole for about ten years."

Sonic stared at him. "That much? Just you and the Chaotix?"

Knux nodded. "Yeah, technically. See, I've taught Mighty, Vector and Espio how to use the super emeralds. We get a collective charge for a couple hours and work as fast as we can. We can knock out about four acres a day."

Sonic looked back at the mainland, a faint shadow along the horizon, and drew a deep breath. "It sure doesn't smell anything like it did."

The echidna sniffed. "No, I guess it doesn't. Ha, you should have been here when we had to tear out the rotting pods. I've never smelled anything so bad in my life! Not even the flies could stand it."

They began to walk along one of the sandy paths. Here and there were clumps of grass, some of which were sheltered from the frost and brilliant green. Everywhere there were bare, naked trees, like a forest of telephone poles. Knuckles pointed out certain ones with big green stripes painted on their trunks. "Those are the ones that survived and aren't to be cut down under any circumstances. I'm surprised any lived at all." His eyes darkened as he recalled how far the terbium had advanced before being stopped.

"How long before it looks like it did before?" Sonic asked.

Knuckles looked at him. "Well, our most conservative estimate is: Not until my kids are in charge, give or take fifty years."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Tell me about it."

They walked along in silence. Sonic sensed that this was not a good subject to talk about and changed the subject. "Where's the Chaotix?"

Knux shrugged. "They're around here somewhere. We'll check Chaotix Central first, though. Somebody'll be there."

After ten minutes' walk, Knuckles turned left and led Sonic into the barren forest. Here and there were big hole dug in the ground where terbium pods had been removed. Knuckles seemed to read Sonic's thoughts. "We dug out a bunch of 'em, then realized we could burn 'em out with no trouble. So the rest of 'em look like bar-B-Q pits."

They stepped into what had been a big clearing, but now looked more like a gap in the mutilated woods. Grass did its best to cover the bare ground, but there were many large brown patches. Knuckles gazed around. "I think Espio's here," he murmured. He called, "Espio, come on out! It's just me'n Sonic!"

"Duh, I can see that," came a voice off to their right. Sonic looked, but could see no one.

"Es, knock it off," Knuckles said, folding his arms. "Be polite."

Again the voice from nowhere, but now behind them. "Why? It's just Sonic."

The two turned, but still could see no one. Sonic looked at Knuckles. "Slasher could find him."

"Yeah, but she ain't here. I can find him, anyhow ..." Knux turned slowly to the right, eyes locked on what seemed to be empty space. "I can see you, chameleon. Want me to catch you myself?"

Suddenly Espio's familiar shape faded into sight. He was a solid green--his default color on certain days. He was a skinny lizard with a long tail, big tennis shoes and a spike on his snout. He was smirking. "Forget it, Knux. I don't care to have my head smashed in again." He thrust out a hand to Sonic. "Hey Sonic. How ya doin'?"

"Okay I guess." Sonic shook his hand.

"Where's the other guys?" Knuckles asked, unzipping his jacket a few inches.

Espio pointed into the bare forest. "Mighty's cleaning the south- west canal--brush got washed in and clogged it up. Vector and Charmy're trying to cut down those trees you wanted out. Heh, you ever seen Vector use an axe? He's not gonna have any limbs left, pun intended."

Knuckles nodded. "Sounds okay ... but your four should have had those trees out days ago. You forget or something?"

Espio clasped his hands behind his back and rocked up on his toes. "Well ... yeah, you could say we forgot."

Knux looked at him narrowly. "Uh-huh, as in, 'didn't remember until this morning'?"

"Yap."

"Thought so. Well, c'mon Sonic, Espio, might as well lend 'em a hand."

Up until this time the eighth chaos emerald had been the farthest thing from Sonic's thoughts. Thus his red flag was slow in going up when Espio said, "Hey Knux, can you finish that story you were telling before you left?"

"Which one?"

"The one about where the eighth chaos emerald came fro--"

In the space of half a second Sonic went insane.

Before anyone had time to realize the slip, the hedgehog had attacked the chameleon. Knuckles froze in his tracks, bewildered mind making the connection. Espio was trying to defend himself and failing. He was yelling, "Sonic, what're you DOING? You're nuts! Leggo, you idiot! You trying to kill me or somethin'?" Sonic made no sound, but his teeth were bared in a wild-beast snarl.

Knuckles sprang into the fray and grabbed the hedgehog from behind--a bad choice. Sonic threw himself backward, driving his sharp quills into the echidna's chest and neck. Knux let go and jumped away. Sonic leaped up and whirled to face him, back arched and poised for battle. "Stay away," he hissed. "I want that emerald, and nobody, least of all you, are gonna stop me!" He turned and raced down the trail as only he could, vanishing almost at once.

Espio scrambled to his feet and brushed himself off. Knuckles had several cuts on his neck and rips in his coat from Sonic's spikes and was raging mad. "C'mon, Es," he said, breaking into a run in the direction the hedgehog had gone, "we've gotta stop him before he does serious damage to somebody else!"

Meanwhile, two and a half thousand years in the past ...

The Floating Island was a busy place. The so-called ancient civilizations (of which there were ruins in Sonic and Knuckles's time) were just getting started. In reality, the guardian of that time had invited the echidna clan to come live there, and they were in the process of building and zoning.

A single echidna beamed down in the teleporter station. (It was still a rather new technology.) He stepped off the glass stand (crystal farming had not yet become popular), shook his head and walked outside to get his bearings. He was lightly built and walked with a spring in his step. He wore an instrument-laden belt around his wait and had two strange-looking contraptions strapped to his wrists. His color was bright red. His hair was cropped short, and his eyes burned with a fiery enthusiasm for life.

Spontaneously he burst into a run and fled down the paved road. He had important news for the Guardian of the Floating Island that would not wait.

After a few minutes he came to a row of low, comfortable houses. He turned at the biggest one, ran up to the front door and knocked loudly. A few seconds later it was opened and a female echidna looked out at him. "Jay! What're you doing here?"

He ignored the question. "Is Robin here, Jessie?"

"Yes. Come on in." She opened the screen door and Jay stepped inside. His eyes swept the dim room. "Where's Rob?"

"Right here." The echidna named Robin stepped into the room. He was a raspberry red and wore a purple headband. "What do you need, Jay?"

Jay dug a crumpled scrap of paper out of his pocket and handed it to his brother. Robin read the few lines, then read it again. "Jay," he said slowly, "is this some sort of joke?"

Jay shook his head. "I wish it was. Dad told me specifically to get you."

Robin turned away and crumpled the note in one hand, exasperated. He looked at his younger brother. "Jay, this is ridiculous. I've been retired from the Time Rippers for six years now! I haven't been in the Time Stream in as long. My licence is expired, I've got a whole island to run, and a wife to look after." He cast a glance at the nearby female echidna, who was listening intently. "Get dad and Philip to go. I can't ..."

Jay drooped and looked at the floor a moment. He had one more ace up his sleeve. He stood, looked his brother in the eye and said, "Rob, those kinds messed up Sonic Hedgehog's time."

Robin whirled and gaped at him. "Sonic's? But that would mean--"

"--they broke one of the main laws of time travel," Jay finished for him.

Robin was trapped. He stood still, looking from his brother to his wife and back again, an agony of indecision written across his face. Finally he gave a deep sigh and looked at his wife. "Jess ..." His tone pled forgiveness for his choice. She nodded. "Go ahead, Rob. I'll take care of things until you get back."

Jay perked up. "You mean you'll do it? You'll come?"

Robin rolled his eyes in disgust that was only half pretend. "Yes, I'll do it. Meet you at mom and dad's in--" he checked his watch "--fifteen minutes.

"Still have all your gear? Remember how to put it on?"

"YES, I remember how to use it. Get lost, Jay. I'll be along pretty soon."

"All right!" Jay hit the door running and was gone.

Robin turned and walked to his bedroom. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered as he opened a little locked chest by the door. He pulled out his belt and electronic gear, dusty from long disuse. He buckled them on a bit clumsily; his hands had forgotten all the motions.

Jessie Echidna walked in to help him get things balanced. "You never said much about being a Time Ripper," she said.

He nodded. "I know. Did it for years."

"Who is 'Sonic Hedgehog'?"

Robin smiled a little at the memory. "Oh, nobody special. He only saved Little Planet twice. I haven't seen him in years."

"I'll say; if he's from the future you won't see him for a long time yet."

Robin reached into the bottom of the chest and pulled out a bulky object wrapped in brown paper. He unwrapped it carefully, revealing an thing that resembled a souped-up hairdryer: his personal time-gun. His fingers caressed the barrel lovingly for a moment--it brought back a flood of memories. He thrust it into the holster at his hip and glanced at his watch. "Oh gosh, Jess, I've gotta run." He gave his wife a brief kiss and bolted for the door.

"Will you be in time?" she called, pursuing him as far as the front door.

He paused on the porch. "Jess, TIME is now the name of the game."

Knuckles had tracks the crazed Sonic across the Floating Island for hours. The hedgehog appeared to be running with no purpose or direction--simply running. Espio had left Knuckles to gather the rest of the Chaotix; they had regrouped on the edge of the river.

"Can you tell where he's headed?" Vector the crocodile asked. For once he had removed his headphones and was awaiting instructions with all his attention.

Knuckles shrugged despairingly. "No, and I don't think he knows, either."

"What happened to him, anyway?" Mighty the armadillo questioned, hands on his hips.

"Long story," Knuckles replied, flipping his dreadlocks out of his eyes. "The gist of it is that--well--we discovered a chaos emerald and it did something to his mind. Mention it and he goes berserk."

"Which emerald?" Charmy Bee asked from nearby.

Knuckles sideyed him. "It's green. Anyway, we'd better get a move on. Charmy, you fly high and see if you can spot him. Mighty, cut across the center of the island and see if you can intercept his path. Vector, circle back and make sure he doesn't come up behind us, and Espio'll come with me."

The Chaotix gave their leader a thumbs-up and scattered in four directions.

At that moment two blue time rips formed in two different locations. One opened in the heart of Robotropolis and the other on a gigantic boulder on the Floating Island.

The echidna who stepped onto the island was Robin. He had been nominated to scope out the situation there, being its guardian in his time. His first reaction as he closed the rip and looked around was shock. The forest had been almost completely destroyed! A fire? No, the trees were not burned. It looked more like a fatal disease had swept through. He moved into the open, gazing around in horror. If this was the future of his island, then he would have to have a word with the present guardian ...

A beep from his wrist computer drew him back to reality. Robin punched a button and spoke. "Jay, you there?"

"Yeah."

"I made it to the island and it's a wreck. Where are you?"

Jay's face appeared on the screen. "I'm in what used to be Robotropolis, but it's been completely leveled. Looks like a nuke went off."

"Are the radiation levels stable?"

"Yeah--my gear's not picking up anything. Are we in the right time?"

"My computer claims we are."

"Well, letcha know if I find anything, Rob," Jay said. "See ya in time."

"Right."

The two broke off radio contact and began exploring.

Robin took a few more minutes to stare around at the devastated island, then dug out his area scanner. It was not as slick as the ones in this particular time zone, but it could tell him the exact location of anyone within a ten mile radius. He flicked it on. After a moment the little green screen lit up, showing him as a green dot and his surroundings in lighter green. All other life forms were marked in various shades of red. There were not many--a bird here and there. Robin began walking.

Knuckles and Espio were hiking along, eyes on the ground. Espio could see nothing of interest, but Knux seemed to be able to see every step Sonic had taken.

A voice from the air stopped them. "Knux, Knux!" Charmy. The two looked up.

"You find him?" Knuckles asked eagerly.

The honeybee shook his head. "No, but there's somebody else here. An echidna with a bunch of weird gear on him."

The question leaped out before Knuckles could stop it. "Robotized?"

He kicked himself mentally as Charmy replied, "No, just carrying a bunch of stuff."

He and Espio looked at Knuckles curiously. "Why would he be robotized?" Espio asked.

Knux shrugged, feeling his face grow hot with embarrassment. "I donno. C'mon. I don't like strangers on my island, even if they ARE echidnas." He had never told his friends of Zephyer, and knowing her to be dead, figured he never would. Besides, he thought Charmy must be mistaken.

Robin was picking his way through the dead forest, his mind everywhere but on what he had come for. Thus it was a shock when his scanner beeped; it only did so when a sentient life form was within three hundred feet. He checked--a red blip was coming up on him from the north, and fast. It would cross paths with him directly.

Footsteps, ragged panting. Robin turned and gazed toward it. He was startled to see Sonic Hedgehog stumble into view, eyes wide and staring, gasping so hard he was nearly wheezing.

"Sonic!" Robin said, lifting a hand.

The hedgehog stopped and looked at him, stooped like an old man. His eyes, although open, did not seem to grasp what was before him. Robin immediately sensed something was wrong, but stood his ground. "Sonic, it's Robin. Remember me?"

For a long moment Sonic stared at him, body rocking slightly with each breath. Then he murmured faintly, "Robin Echidna?" As if the effort had been too much, he sank to the ground and lay still.

Robin knelt beside him, concerned but not particularly worried. He rolled the hedgehog over on his back and looked at his pale face. Sonic's eyes were closed, but his mouth was open and panting.

"You okay?" the echidna asked quietly.

Sonic nodded slightly and murmured, "I will be."

A few moments passed as Robin let him rest. "What happened?"

Sonic didn't stir. "I was running."

"Since when do you run yourself into the ground?"

"I didn't mean to." Sonic opened his eyes and say up slowly. His lungs were on fire and his legs felt like limp noodles. For the first time he realized who he was talking to and his eyes widened. "R-Robin? Is that you?"

"The one and only."

"What're YOU doing here? Is Jay here, too?"

"Uh-huh." Robin brushed a hand through his hair. "As for why we're here, well, we heard some kids dropped off an ... unconventional item."

A look of fear passed over Sonic's face. "Don't say it, please. Anytime anybody mentions it I go nuts. Call it the 8CE."

"Is that why you were running hell-bent for leather?"

"Uh, yeah, whatever." Sonic carefully picked himself up and leaned against a nearby tree.

Robin gazed at him. "It shouldn't do that."

"Yeah, well ..." Sonic looked away in regret. "I opened the box and got a power surge in the face. Now it's got it in for me.

The Time Ripper drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "That's not good, Sonic. In fact it's probably a lot worse than you realize."

"How's that?"

"Because--" The beep of the scanner interrupted him. Robin lifted it and glanced at the screen. "Three people coming from that way. Hope you know 'em."

In a few seconds Charmy, Espio and Knuckles came into view. All three looked up at the same time, saw Sonic and Robin and stopped in their tracks. Knuckles's face turned chalk-white at the sight of another echidna, then his eyes rolled back and he fainted dead away.

Knux was only out for a few minutes. When he awoke and was introduced he was so excited he had to track down the rest of the Chaotix and have them meet the Time Ripper. Knuckles and Robin hit it off, and talked for a long time about the time stream, alternate dimensions, physics and the power emeralds.

It was not until that evening that the reason for Sonic's insanity was explained.

That night, as they sat around the bonfire in Chaotix Central, Sonic and Knuckles told about the eighth chaos emerald and its deadly effect upon Sonic. Sonic finished pleadingly, "Is there anything I can do to stop it?"

Robin said quietly, "There are only two ways, Sonic, and neither are easy."

"What?"

Robin stared down at his hands in his lap. "To break it's spell, you have to either destroy it ... or its victim."

Everyone sat in shocked silence for a long moment. Then Sonic blurted, "You mean I'd have to DIE to get out of this? That's not fair!" The group erupted into talking. Robin finally hushed them by standing up, lifting his beeping scanner and saying, "Somebody's coming!"

Abruptly the quieted and gazed in the indicated direction. After a few tense seconds, A large shape stepped out of the trees and moved into the light. Slasher. Robin's brother was sitting on her back, balanced easily and looked relaxed. "Hey Jay," Sonic spoke up, "I didn't know you could ride!"

Jay dismounted and grinned. "'course I can. I ride Syd bareback all the time at home."

"And quite well," Slasher added, who seemed to know. They both sobered and took their seats beside the fire. "Jay filled me in on your problem, Sonic," Slasher said, gazing at the hedgehog, who looked away guiltily. "And we heard a bit as we walked up." The big raptor looked at Jay, transferring attention to him.

Jay looked at Sonic and said, "I called up Dad, and he said that it IS true that the only cures are your death or the emerald's. But--" Here Sonic (and everyone else) looked at him with complete attention. Jay spoke deliberately. "--Slasher told me about your past adventures. And it seemed to Dad that, because you were exposed to this kind of power before and pulled out of it, you could again."

Silence reigned for a moment as the group digested that information.

"What's the catch?" Sonic queried at last. "There's always some sort of catch with the emeralds."

Slasher spoke, the firelight making her eyes shine like moonstones. "The catch, Sonic, is that you must leave everything and travel five hundred miles or more away from the emerald's location. The minimum time requirement is four to six months."

Sonic stared into the fire as this soaked in, a rock forming in the pit of his stomach. "Leave ...?" he murmured, eyes glazing slightly. "You mean like on my own and can't come back?"

"But how could that work?" Vector protested. "What would we DO without Sonic for six months?"

"Why couldn't he stay here, on the island?" Knuckles suggested, alarmed at the prospect of his friend's exile. "I mean, you can live here for ages and never see a soul ..."

"Too close to the other emeralds," Robin said firmly. "It's like UV light rays. You don't see or feel them, but they're there and they effect you. He has to get out of range to recover."

"What'll happen if I stay here?" Sonic asked, daring to hope he could stick it out.

Robin shook his head. "We've seen the results of this before. You would go crazy more and more, until you wouldn't come out of it at all. You would become the most evil being Mobius has ever seen. It's like tooth decay. The longer it goes the worse it gets until all your teeth fall out. Besides, exile is a lot more hospitable than solitary confinement, which is your other option. When your time's up you get to come home."

Silence a few minutes. Then Sonic wailed, "But where would I GO?"

This sensible question resulted in an atlas being brought out and a circle of 500 miles drawn around Knothole and the Floating Island. The western edge extended out into the ocean. The northern edge cut through the mountainous country of what was known collectively as North Mobius. The eastern edge cut through two valleys and three mountain ridges-- rough, unpopulated country. The south end arched down toward the equator and the more densely populated areas.

At one point someone asked why they couldn't take the emerald someplace 500 miles away and let Sonic stay in Knothole. Knuckles explained with exaggerated patience that there was nowhere they could hide it without risking someone finding it, thereby setting the whole loop off again. At least it was reasonably safe here. "But what do we do with it, ultimately?" Slasher inquired. "Somebody will always find it, in a manner of speaking."

"Well," said Robin, "after this little episode, we Time Rippers will probable drop it into the Void or the Interweb."

"Why not now?"

"Because it has to register that Sonic is no longer requiring its power flow. If we did it now, it would never pick up and would aim its power at him as long as he lives."

Sonic was the quietest one present. He was weary from his double madness bouts that day, and was none too happy at the thought of living alone for half a year. On the other hand, his friends were having a grand time planning places for him to go.

"Look," said Jay, tapping a page in the atlas, "this place called 'Riverbase'. It's built right where our town is, Rob! Do you think ...?"

"Probably. Lots of things happen in two and a half millennium."

"Cool. Hey Sonic, you could head south and have plenty places to buy food and stuff."

"Yeah," Mighty put in, "but steer clear of Diablo, down here. It means Devil, and it's one of the worst places for crime there is. You get that, Sonic? Yo, you listening?"

Sonic was curled up on the grass, fast asleep.

The following day the group went back to Knothole and explained the situation. The reactions were mixed. Some were horrified, others angry, still others felt betrayed. Sonic, sick of the question, "But why did you open the box?", fled for the solitude of the woods.

Spark found him an hour later, standing on the riverbank, throwing rocks into the water.

Sonic whirled and glared at his older brother as he approached. "Whaddya want? Gonna rip me for my stupidity?"

The green hedgehog smiled and pushed his crimson headband higher on his forehead. "I didn't intend to."

Sonic threw a stone halfway across the river. "You might as well. Everybody else has taken a shot at me."

Spark selected a flat rock and skipped it four times across the water's surface. "You scared?"

Sonic viciously hurled a large pebble into the water, creating a large splash. "Scared? What's to be scared of? Who'd be afraid to live on their own for months with no contact with their family? Not me!"

"You're scared."

"So? What do you care? You wanted me dead last winter."

"That was last winter, Sonic. It's different now."

The threw rocks in tandem for a few minutes, not speaking. Sonic's eyes were still clouded. "Since when are you so high and mighty, Spark? A lot you know about emerald madness."

"Actually ..." there was a fine edge in the older hedgehog's voice. "... you forget. Why do I have black around my eyes? Why do I pack my knife? Why DID I want to kill you?"

No answer.

"That's why I came out here, bro. I was berserk for ten years. I know how it feels. I was in a sort of exile, myself."

Still no answer. Sonic's face was like stone.

"At least you won't be mad ALL the time."

Sonic skipped a rock twice. "Doggone it, how do you skip a rock like that?"

"Like this." Spark demonstrated. "You have to make the rock spin, like a frisbee."

It was quiet a moment as Sonic practiced. Finally he muttered, "I'm so scared I'm sick."

"You'll get over it."

"Yeah right."

"Gimme a break, Sonic." Spark stopped and gazed directly at his younger brother. "Stop thinking of it as an exile. Think of it as a vacation. After all, what do you do on a vacation? You leave your home and go someplace different and see new things! It's not really so horrible. You and Slasher went on that big trip a while back to pull Mobius out of the other continuum. Weren't you an awful long way from Knothole then?"

Sonic succeeded in skipping a rock three times. "I was with my friends. I've almost always been with my friends. The only time I wasn't was when I went to Little Planet, and then I made friends with A.P. I'm going to be all by myself this time. I can't call home at all and I can't take my belt. What could be worse?"

"Zucchini."

Sonic raised an eyebrow and peered at his brother. "Huh?"

Spark shrugged. "I'd rather be exiled than eat zucchini any day. Or eggplant. Eggplant has got to be the lowest form of food there is, excluding algae and vegetable casseroles."

"You're weird."

"No more than you."

"What does food have to do with exile?" Sonic questioned, some of his ferocity returning. He tossed a rock from hand to hand, then chunked it as far as he could. "I'm gonna be scared stiff no matter what."

"One more thing," Spark said, glancing at his watch, "and I'm outta here. How fast is the speed of sound?"

"Seven hundred miles an hour, give or take."

"If you travelled at the speed of sound, which you do regularly, you'd only be forty-five minutes from home."

Sonic stared at him. "What a good idea! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because it was a good idea," Spark smirked. "I'm headin' back. You coming?"

"I guess."

As the hedgehogs walked back to Knothole, Sonic remarked that it might not be as bad as he thought. His brother had given him a ray of hope to cling to, and his spirits began to lift. Spark told him that the Time Rippers had departed shortly before he had come to find Sonic. Jay had told them he had hidden the box with the emerald in it, and did not tell them where he put it. "It's just as well," Sonic said. "All you need is somebody else going nuts on you." He sighed. "I wish I could take my belt, though."

"Why can't you take your belt?" Spark asked, pushing his forelock out of his eyes.

Sonic shook his head. "I can't be exposed to any emerald power at all. Jay and Robin said I'll have one chance at this, and if I blow it I'll basically lose my mind." He looked down. "The stinking emeralds ... wish I'd never heard of them." Abruptly he stopped, gasped and pressed a hand to his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Spark asked.

Sonic blinked and shook his head rapidly. "I donno ... I feel really weird all of a sudden--" Suddenly he recognized it and yelled frantically, "Spark, get out of here! Get away from me!"

"Why? I don't--"

The madness took full hold. Sonic charged at his brother like a rabid beast, knocked him sprawling and took off into the forest.

It was hours before Sonic returned to his senses. As the haze and crazy colors faded from his mind, he realized he had once again run himself into the ground. He opened his eyes. He was lying on his back somewhere in the woods. Trees arched over him into the dull grey sky. It hadn't been cloudy that morning--it must be late afternoon.

Gingerly he moved his arms and legs. Nothing broken, but his left leg ached terribly. He sat up and saw it was bruised, as if he had cracked his shin against something. He was exhausted and wanted only to go back to sleep, but first he had to get back to Knothole and apologize to Spark--find out if he had done any damage to anyone else.

He climbed to his feet and began to limp through the trees, looking for a landmark of some kind. He had no idea where he was.

Ten minutes later he still had no idea where he was. He stopped, sat down on a log and blew his sliver whistle once. Sitting still felt good; his body ached in every joint. Maybe he SHOULD do this exile thing--he would end up killing himself before long. Boy, his leg hurt--

A low chirr overhead. He looked up and saw Slasher's winged shape soaring above the treetops. She was calling him in her own language. He waved. "Slash, down here." She flew by again, then dropped and landed before him. She knew at a glance that he was sane again. She sighed and crouched. He clumsily mounted her, his bruised leg hurting and stiff.

"I'm lost," he said as she stood. "Where are we?"

"The south end of the Great Forest," Slasher replied quietly, breaking into a long lope. "You ran like a madman. I assume you don't remember anything."

"No. I sure am beat up, though."

The big raptor ran in silence for a moment, then said, "Well, nobody'll object to kicking you out now."

"Why? Did I hurt Spark?"

"Er ... no ... you circled back through Knothole."

"Oh," Sonic gulped, feeling a cold dread knot his stomach. "What-- what did I do?"

Slasher did not relish the list. "Mowed down three people, smashed several huts, assaulted Knuckles, then me when I interfered."

"_I_ attacked YOU?"

"I didn't want to hurt you," Slasher said apologetically, "but you would have killed Knux, so I kick-boxed you a little."

Sonic swallowed--he was lucky to be in one piece. "Is that how my leg got so beat up?"

"Yeah."

"Did you fight me off?"

"Yeah."

Silence but for the thud-thud of Slasher's feet.

"How long was I crazy?"

"About six hours. It doubled from last time. The first time you were only nuts a few minutes. The next time, about three hours. This, about six. Next time it will be twelve hours, then twenty-four, then forty-eight ..."

She felt a tremor run through the hedgehog. "Slash, I'd better get out of here."

"Yes, and before it's too late."

It was to be the following day.

Everything was happening too fast. In only a few day's time Sonic had encountered the eighth chaos emerald, been cursed with a madness and had the cure pronounced by echidnas from the past. It seemed only yesterday that his life had been normal--now everything was topsy-turvy.

He felt detached from the whirlwind of events, as if they were happening to someone else. He sat at a table with his friends while they plotted his course on a map, but his heart was not in it. Was this really happening to him?

He packed and repacked his backpack in a daze. What should he take that he would need for six months? He found he found himself repeating motions over and over, such as picking something up, setting it down, picking it up again, setting it down again ... It was a relief when his sister came in and helped him pack, although he remembered it little afterward.

Tails gave him a compass that velcroed to his wrist like watch and waterproof. Rotor gave him a tiny pocket scanner, the construction of which he had only just finished. Sally gave him a computer like Nichole that connected directly to Knothole's system, and had an electronic mail network set up.

There were more gifts as well, but the haze in Sonic's head had increased so much by that time that he barely acknowledged them.

Then it was morning and he was saying goodbye to the Freedom Fighter. There was a heavy fog and visibility was perhaps ten feet. It was bitterly cold. Sonic turned up the collar on his jacket, hugged his brother and sister goodbye, waved to the others and walked out into the mist.

A week dragged by, then two. The weather grew colder and colder, and finally, in the middle of brown November, Knothole was transformed by a light snowfall. But even in the midst of the resulting play, Sonic's absence was felt. The blue hedgehog was not there to start snowball fights, then tear away at sixty miles an hour, laughing.

Sally had checked Nichole's email box several times a day at first, but as time went on, less and less often. Perhaps Sonic couldn't figure out the program. Maybe he lost the computer. At any rate she despaired of ever hearing from him.

But the first day it snowed, Sally was startled to see that Nichole had a 'message waiting' box on the screen. She opened it and read the few lines. "I'm in town called Xixa. Everything is fine. It's cold here. How're the freedom fighters doin'? I will write more tomorrow. Sonic."

The Freedom Fighters were overjoyed. While Sally and Slasher composed a reply, Knuckles and Spark dug out a dusty atlas and looked up 'Xixa'. At last they located it. It was roughly 550 miles from Knothole, located in the mountains and had a population of 75.

The correspondence flew thick and fast for several days. Sonic reported that his madness bouts had grown worse, but came and went, giving him weeks of total sanity. This was one of those weeks and he was terrible homesick. He said that he would keep moving southeast, if only so he had something to do.

Abruptly the letters petered out, and again several weeks went by with no word from the lonely hedgehog. It was December before he wrote again.

This time he was in a city by the name of Ironhedge, some 900 miles southeast. He commented that it was really hot and the city was busy. The tone of his letters was different, somehow. It came across that he was miserably depressed and didn't know why. He said that his illness (as he called it) hadn't changed much. The only difference was that he could tell when a fit was coming on, like a headache. He had taken to handcuffing himself to a tree somewhere where he could rage and storm and fight without hurting anyone, and would awaken in the same spot. His last note mentioned that he wished there was a letup in this darn thing so he could come home for Christmas. But there wasn't, and he didn't.

January came, and so did the coldest days of winter. The temperature lowered until the mercury was hovering just over the bottom of the thermometer. The coldsnap hung on for two weeks--something blown down from the northern wilds. Sonic only wrote once during that month. He spoke of something funny going on, and that he would be heading across country to a little town called Joston.

This was the last letter they received from him. January dragged by, and February came and went with no word. But as March started with a thaw, spirits revived and they began to look for a letter.

In the first week of March, a stranger came to Knothole.

He was a great tawny cougar with eyes like sulfur. He wore a midnight blue cape, a violet uniform, and heavy black boots for trudging through the slush. He was six feet tall--an imposing figure.

He demanded to see the leader of the Freedom Fighters. Sally and Slasher came out to meet him. Sally was struck by the impulse to hide from his probing eyes, but Slasher, as tall as he was, looked him straight in the face and was not cowed.

The cougar spoke to Slasher with a flash of long fangs, cold hatred in his eyes. "I am Commander Nash. I have heard that this village shelters the eighth chaos emerald."

Silence descended over the gathered crowd. Nash gazed at Slasher, trying to stare her down. She did not flinch, but folded her forearms. "What of it?"

"You have it?"

"You seem to think so."

The cougar's whiskers twitched and his cold eyes shifted to Sally. All there saw the faint flicker of recognition in his face. His lips curled in a sort of savage smile. "Hello, princess. Will you tell your bodyguard that I wish to take the emerald?"

Sally's voice caught in her throat. The big cat's gaze terrified her. He was evil and she could not answer him.

Slasher's voice was nearly a growl. "The emerald is not up for grabs. It is hidden and will remain so for another two and a half months."

Nash looked at her with pure loathing. "There is no reason for that, raptor. I have exterminated the reason and here is my proof."

He reached into a sort of pack on his back, under the cape, and pulled out--something. It appeared to be a lump of ragged fabric, stained and shredded. In case they couldn't tell what it was, Nash told them.

"It is Sonic Hedgehog's pack."

Slasher took it and held it up gingerly. Yes, it WAS Sonic's pack, but appeared to have been put through a meat grinder. It was stained with mud and bore large, rust-colored patches; dried blood.

The cougar saw the shock on their faces and approved. "The hedgehog is dead. The emerald is no longer taken up with him, and I wish to have it."

Slasher regained her composure and said quietly, "Leave the village, now. Come back in a week and maybe we'll discuss this."

Nash nodded and departed.

As Sonic walked out of Knothole that chilly, foggy morning, he had no idea what he was doing. Was this really happening? Was he dreaming? It must be real because he was never this cold in a dream. He began to run.

Stick to the trail. Where am I? Suspended in time--a ghost-world of grey mist--where am I going?--stick to the trail. Fog--can't see very far--just like my mind--can't think--just keep running--stay on the path. One foot ahead of the other, feel the hard ground under my feet--frozen--rock--everything is so hard--everything but me--pull myself along--am I moving at all? Where am I?--stick to the path. Cold wind biting into my face, my eyes, trying to stop me--am I moving?-- fog, nothing but fog, walls of grey receding in front and closing behind--alone in this mist, cold--wet--

The sun pierced through the haze in golden rays. Sonic tilted his face to it and felt his spirits lift a little--the fog was clearing. Maybe the sun could burn off the mist in his head the same way. He kept jogging, moving easily with the strength that came from long training.

The fog turned white, then gold, then disappeared altogether. Sonic saw that he was running through the forest on a sandy path. It had once been a wide road that led into Mobitropolis, but the Freedom Fighters let the woods reclaim it and only maintained a small trail so Robotnik's big crawler transports couldn't traverse it. Sonic had helped work on it closer to home, but had never followed it this far-- what direction was he going?

Remembering the wrist-compass Tails had given him, Sonic pulled up the sleeve of his jacket and consulted it. He was moving south and a little west. Let's see, where did the trail end? Fog. His mind wouldn't work that far. "Somewhere outside the Great Forest," he thought vaguely.

He ran heedlessly for a long time. His only coherent thought was that he must keep moving to stay warm. He kept himself in low gear--he didn't feel like breaking the sound barrier just then (unusual for him), and cruised along at a fast jog.

An hour passed, then another. The sun rose into the blue sky, shedding pure warmth that did not penetrate the dark shade. Sonic at last ran out of steam and slowed to a walk, panting. He sat down in a shady spot in the path to let himself cool off. The exercise had not helped his mental faculties--his brain still refused to work properly. Perhaps he had some sort of disease that wasn't related to the emeralds at all, like alkimerze. Probably those videogames he had played with Knuckles.

Suddenly his thoughts began to spin crazily out of control, whirling in wild, chaotic patterns. A madness bout--maybe that was what was wrong with him. He leaped to his feet and began to run without meaning to. "Stay on the path," he told himself over and over. "You have to stay on the path ..." Then his sanity was gone and he ran like a thing possessed.

It was dark, the sky studded with stars, brilliant as diamonds. He was cold.

The blue hedgehog sat up and looked around. He was lying in a grassy meadow. He stood. No, it was more like a plain. It was flat for as far as his eyes could see, which wasn't very far in the night. He consulted his watch, thankful that it had a light built in. 8:16 PM. He had run all day. Hadn't Slasher said twelve hours? Twelve hours of insanity, and here he was in the middle of who-knows-where. He looked at his compass, using the light in his watch to see the needle. He was facing south and a little west. Maybe he had run in a straight line for once.

The air was frosty and his breath condensed in clouds. He shivered. He was cold and hungry. He took off his backpack and opened it. He pulled out his sleeping bag, which had been smashed into a sausage a foot long and four inches thick. With it spread out between him and the damp grass, he dug around in his pack, hoping he had brought a flashlight. Oh good, he had. He pulled it out, flicked it on and murmured, "Let there be light!" By its friendly illumination he pulled out a package of rather flat hotdog buns, hotdogs and several cans of chili his sister had thoughtfully packed. He would have to have a cold meal--there wasn't a stick of firewood for miles. His gaze fell on the little computer Sally had given him. He started to pull it out, then hesitated. What would he say? 'I went nuts and have no idea where I am'? Maybe he should wait until he was someplace with a name.

He had a lonely supper, then curled up in his sleeping bag, shivering with the cold outside him and the cold food inside him. It was a long time before he finally drifted off to sleep, ending his first day of exile.

Knuckles was not resting easily, either.

He shared something of Sonic's punishment for allowing him to open the box. Not that he had the madness; he was stricken with guilt for having helped send one of his best friends into lonely exile.

Now he was back on the island, wandering through Sandopolis, trying to remember where the library's secret entrance was located. It was very cold in the desert that evening, and the echidna was dressed in heavy clothing. His breath formed a vapor cloud before his face and his eyes were dull. He was thinking of the savage murder on Sonic's face a few days previous, and of his incredible strength as he attacked Slasher. It was not the hedgehog he was familiar with; Sonic had been truly out of his head.

Knux sighed into the chilly air. He must do what Sonic had asked him to: research the eighth chaos emerald and maybe figure out why it did what it did. Now, where was that door ...?

His hands brushed the cold stone wall, feeling for the camouflaged button. His fingers encountered it at last. He pressed it firmly. A wall section a few feet away swung inward a few inches, emitting a breath of warm, stale air. Knuckles pushed it open and entered, closing it behind him.

Sandopolis, because of its dry climate, had been chosen to house the ancient writings of the echidna clan. The library was a long, cold, stone-walled-and-floored hall of shelves stacked with books, scrolls and containers of loose papers. An attempt had been made to organize it all, but one might still find an article on 'super emeralds' under 'soil managment', or a book on Old Mobian buried in a collection of memoirs from past guardians.

Hunting through the library was one of Knuckles's favorite pastimes on dull, wintry nights. But, as he built a fire in the wide stone fireplace, he felt listless. For some reason he felt as if he would rather be out battling the elements in the mountains of his island--something that required physical endurance. Anything but being indoors.

The fire leaped up beneath his hands, shedding a pleasant yellow glow on the musty room. He gave it a few large sticks and a log to burn when it got big enough, then stepped back and surveyed the room.

The eighth chaos emerald. Nothing had been heard of it for more than a century. Where should he start? Perhaps in the documentation on Hidden Palace ... He went to a shelf, took out several dusty volumes, carried them to a small table near the fire and opened them.

An hour passed, then another. Knuckles did not notice--his mind was far in the past, seeing through this guardian's eyes or that one's. For a good while he was sidetracked, reading an manual of how to build--not grow--a super emerald, then again when he stumbled across several eyewitness accounts of the dreadful deeds leading up to the closing of the underground Palace.

He was startled out of his reading as the outer door opened, emitting a gust of frigid air. It closed, and footsteps came down the entry hall to the room. It was Espio. He wore a coat and scarf, and his arms were folded tightly across his chest. His skin was a light ice-blue. "Cold!" he announced to Knuckles, darting to the fireplace and extending his hands to the warmth.

"What're you doing here?" Knuckles asked. "I didn't think you liked the cold."

"I don't," Espio said through chattering teeth. "Mighty, V-Vector and Ch-Charmy just wh-whipped my tail at cards, ss-s-so I left."

"Wanna help me?"

"D-do what?"

Knuckles slid an encyclopaedic volume in the chameleon's direction. "I'm looking for info on the eighth chaos emerald."

Espio picked up the book, sat down on the hearth and flipped it open. After a moment he complained, "Knux, this is all Old Mobian! I can't read Old Mobian!"

"Oh. Well then, trade me."

"YOU can read OM?"

"Sure. I've been learning. Dad got on my case about it the last time I went to see him, and I'd like to impress him."

The chameleon exchanged books with the echidna, but held the new book in his lap without opening it. "Knux, I thought your dad was dead."

Knuckles lifted his head and looked at him. "No, he's fine. Where's you get that?"

"Well, I've never seen him around ..."

"That's because he's retired."

"Is he on the mainland?"

"Maybe. Nobody knows where he is but me--Robotnik'd love to get his hands on him."

"Why?"

Knuckles lowered his eyes to the book before him. "Dad knows how the power emeralds work and how to use 'em better than I do. He's writing it all down for me, but in Old Mobian. Which is why he was so mad I hadn't learned it yet."

"Why don't you ask HIM about the eighth chaos emerald?"

Knuckles snapped upright in his chair, eyes on Espio. "I didn't think of that! I'll bet he could tell me everything. I'm such an idiot! Good idea, Espie. I'll ask him."

The following day found Sonic trekking across the plains. He was able to travel the entire day with a relatively clear head and no madness. He had no desire to run fast--he got enough of that while mad, and there was no hurry, anyway. He had six months to burn.

Night found him still in the flatlands, but within sight of a blue mountain range. The blue hedgehog went to sleep dreading the morrow--if he went crazy he would remain so for 24 hours. It was a prospect he did not look forward to.

After a few hours of travelling the next morning, the hedgehog came to a little settlement on the prairie. It was built near a group of freshwater springs that bubbled from the ground and fed a good-sized brook. There were several houses, a general store and a few other shops. Sonic needed no supplies, but stepped into the general store to ask where he was.

The grey cat behind the counter was helpful, if not a little curious. He pointed to a spot on a big wall map and said, "We're right here, at Fallon. The next town is in the mountains--Grass Valley, it's called. It's a bit bigger than Fallon, and you can get transport to Riverbase or wherever you're going." This ended on a question that Sonic ignored. He stood and gazed aimlessly at the map until the shopkeeper went off to help another customer, then located Robotropolis. From there he was able to guess Knothole's location, then trace his path to Fallon. He had come roughly 200 miles. Gee, he must have run like the wind. Well, he certainly didn't want to go to Riverbase--how about a town just outside his distance limit? He searched, measuring three hundred miles with the map scale, and finally found a tiny dot way up in the mountains; a town called Xixa. He would make it his destination. Then he fled the store, aware of the stares he was drawing for talking to himself under his breath.

Sonic left the little town and was standing in the open, taking a compass reading, when that strange feeling came over him. He glanced at his watch in dread. It was 1:00 in the afternoon. He began to run, heart pounding, praying that it wouldn't be 24 hours ... then went out of his mind.

Knuckles sat on the topmost peak of the island, leaning into the cold wind. The sky above was leaden and everything in sight was colorless and dull. The air held the scent of snow; it was a day best spent indoors by a fire. But Knuckles had come here to discuss a confidential subject with his father, and wanted no chance of being overheard.

He clamped the 2-D communicator/projector onto the rough stone, fingers stiff and clumsy with cold. He shook it to be sure it was secure, then flipped it on. The tiny lens slowly began to glow a bright green, and a hazy square patch came into view above it. Knux thrust his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders. He hoped this wouldn't take too long--windchill was somewhere below zero and he would be too stiff to climb back down.

"Dad," he said as the square image defined itself into higher resolution. "Dad, are you there?"

A well-known voice came from the com's speaker. "I'm here, Knux."

Abruptly the picture came into focus, and Knuckles father, Locke Echidna, was visible. His face appeared to be an older version of his son's, although he did not seem very old. He, too, was dressed in heavy clothing. "What is it? Your message was 'urgent' status."

Knuckles drew a deep breath. "I need to know about the eighth chaos emerald."

Locke stiffened. "What about it?"

Knux explained about the strangers and the box Sonic had opened, the madness and exile. Locke was silent a long moment after Knuckles finished, eyes downcast. At last he looked back at his son and said, "There's a lot to tell about it, and I can't here because this is an open frequency. Tell you what. You know the script engraved on the Master emerald's pedestal?"

"Yeah," Knuckles replied, perking up. "The stuff that doesn't make any sense?"

"Yes. Try reading it right to left, bottom to top." His eyes took on a teasing glint. "I hope you know how to read Old Mobian."

"I sure do!" Knuckles replied proudly.

"Anyway," Locke continued, "it's all about the rogue emerald and every time it has come into contact with our ancestors. You'll find everything you ever wanted to know there."

"Wow, thanks! Or, as Sonic says, 'cool'."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah Dad, thanks."

. . .

Knuckles beamed down in Hidden Palace, a notebook under one arm. He was excited; he had often tried to decipher the writing on the Master emerald's pedestal, but it made no sense. Now that he knew the secret he couldn't wait to try again.

He dashed across the polished floor, between the softly glowing super emeralds on their pedestals and to the six-foot broad Master emerald pedestal. His eyes immediately flew to the lower right corner and followed the characters to the left. "Herein is contained an account of the Controller Chaos Emerald and--" The echidna seated himself on the floor, opened his notebook and began to copy down the inscription.

When Sonic came to the following day, he was surprised to discover that he recalled sections of the previous day, which had been spent in madness. He remembered breaking the sound barrier and accelerating to Mach 2, at which speed he travelled for as long as he could. He remembered taking a broad road up the side of a mountain and being completely spent by the time he reached the top, and being horribly angry because of it.

He was lying on a steep, forested mountainside. He was surprisingly unhurt, but very hungry. He opened his backpack (he never seemed to notice it while insane) and scarfed several hotdogs, hardly bothering to slap them into buns first. It had been an entire day since he had last eaten.

It took him a month to reach Xixa. Every so often the emerald madness would hit him and throw him off course, and he would have to find his way back to the road he was following. He stopped by three different towns to buy food and supplies, and was relieved to discover he was now 500 miles from home. Maybe he could settle down someplace and wait out the winter.

Snow. A cloud front blew in and stayed for three days. When it cleared the mountains were blanketed in two feet of white. A wet, shivering Sonic made a pit stop in one of the little towns and bought himself snowpants and a pair of snowshoes. He also purchased a tent, as it was now far too cold to sleep in the open.

This exhausted what money he had brought with him, so he stayed in one place for eight days, working in a lumbermill. It was hard work, but it was a good feeling to know that he could support himself and wouldn't starve.

His insanity had toned down somewhat. He now went three or four days at a stretch without a fit, and the eternal haze had lifted from his mind. With this came something he had not yet felt--homesickness.

One bitter, windy day, he made it to Xixa.

It was a nice little town, tucked away neatly in a small valley between two ridges. Sonic checked into a motel and slept in a bed for the first time in weeks. But the next day, bored and alone, he was hit by a wave of homesickness so strong he wanted to cry. As a result, he dug out the computer Sally had given him.

It had taken some hard knocks and was a bit scratched, but still worked. Sonic figured out the mail program with a little effort, wrote a short note and sent it off into cyberspace. While he waited for a reply, the hedgehog bundled up and walked out into the snowy street. He needed a new road map for this area.

As he looked at a few maps in a coffee shop, he overheard a conversation that meant little at the time, but turned out to be very significant later. Two bobcats were sitting at the counter, drinking hot coffee and talking in low voices.

"Well, so far the search has been unsuccessful. He could be anywhere in these mountains."

"How long before it becomes critical?"

"Another four months is the maximum. He MUST be located by that time."

"Have the other teams had any luck?"

"None at all. It's as if he vanished."

Sonic assumed they were part of some search and rescue and thought no more of it.

When he arrived back at his room, the little computer had a 'message waiting' notice on the screen. Eagerly he opened it and read the letter.

Sally had written it, apparently. She wrote an enthusiastic letter telling him how worried they had been, how the Freedom Fighters were, how much it had snowed and how much they missed him. Slasher had finished it out by asking how he was, how his madness was going and if he needed anything. Tacked onto the file was an attachment. Curious, Sonic opened it.

It was a text file written by Knuckles. There was a short note in the top that said, "Sonic, I've been researching the 8CE like you asked me to, and I found a monster archive of history. It was way too long to put into the computer, so I compiled it into the following. Hope it helps."

Sonic's eyes scanned the file without much interest; then several phrases caught his attention ... 'controls the Seven' 'frenzied power-lust' 'madness' ... He went back to the beginning and began to read.

"Herein is contained an account of the Controller Chaos Emerald and its effects upon our kind.

"The Seven chaos are highly unstable and often uncontrollable. Several of our physics scientists, however, had learned of a lone emerald with the power to restrain and control the Seven.

"This took place during the Power Wars of 1960. We feared for the safety of our island; the Master Emerald was taxed greatly to keep it afloat, as the Seven Warriors of the Island had taken the Super emeralds into battle, and the Chaos Emeralds were at the peak of their most violent cycle. None of our experts could wield them safely.

"A secret expedition was sent to the Controller Emerald's location. It was collected in the end, but not without extensive loss to the team. The remaining three returned in triumph, bearing with them the thrice-accursed gem. It was given into the hands of the Guardian, whose name was Sasnak. He took the emerald to the underground Palace in an attempt to bring the Seven under his control. In this he failed; the Controller Emerald consumed his mind with a frenzied power-lust. He took the Seven for himself in his madness, and they revealed to him the hiding place of the Emerald Sword, which contains the other half of the Controller Emerald."

Sonic gasped.

"He was stopped before he could find it and restrained, but the Controller Emerald had unforeseen effects on the Master Emerald, forcing it into dormancy. Our island seemed doomed to crash into the great sea, but one of the Seven Warriors returned, bearing his Super Emerald, and reactivated the Master before all was lost.

"Sasnak never recovered from the madness, and Guardianship passed to his son. He decreed that the Controller Emerald be returned to its former location and never brought to the Floating Island again; but one of his officials, secretly thirsting for power, concealed it among his own possessions ..."

And so it went, good Guardians and bad Guardians, betrayals, murders, huge hunts for the gem and terrible things resulting once it was found. The only echidna ever to recover from the madness was the one and only ever to submit to the six-month exile. He returned fully recovered and was one of the wisest Guardians the Floating Island had ever seen. He was the one responsible for building the emerald's box and hiding it away.

At the end of the report was another note from Knuckles. "So there IS hope for you, Sonic. Hang in there."

Sonic wrote a reply with a lump in his throat, longing to see his friends and more homesick than ever.

She stood before the cougar, wrapped in a heavy black robe with a hood, looking into his face but not into his eyes.

"I wish to know his location and condition, nothing more," he growled. "You will be fully compensated. Will you comply?"

She stood a moment and considered the offer, eyes on the snow under his heavy boots. "You will not hurt him?" she asked.

Nash shook his head. "Of course not. I only want to talk to him."

After another moment she lifted her head and again looked into the evil face. "I'll do it."

After examining his new map with bland interest, he selected a large dot called 'Ironhedge'. It appeared to be a fairly large city and was some 400 miles to the southeast. He wanted to keep moving and maybe outdistance the emerald's power.

A few days went by. Sonic exchanged email with Knothole several times a day, but toward the end of the week the fog began to creep into his head again, and he felt with despair that it was time to get away again.

But this time, as he packed up and began hiking through the mountains, the fog in his head reversed and 'over-focused'. His thoughts came and went at lightspeed, keeping his mind so busy he was exhausted by sunset. It seemed to be part of the madness; he had only two 12-hour crazes in his entire journey to Ironhedge.

Most of the thoughts were strange--he had no idea where they came from. He had the sensation that there were two radios and five boom-boxes in his head, all competing for attention, but the voices always won out in one way or another.

"What are you doing here? Why are you in these mountains, trudging through the snow? Seriously, how bad could becoming evil be?" Snatches of assorted music. "You went through it with the sword's mind-control and you fought it out. Why couldn't you master the emerald too? After all, it WAS the same power, right?" More music and the memory of his glimpse of light inside the box. "What does it matter? None of your friends really care, or they'd be out here with you. They just wanted you out of the village. Face it, they're probably rejoicing right now because you're gone."

These were the lightest of his thoughts.

One day the fever in his head was so intense he gazed into a deep, rocky ravine and actually considered jumping in, if only to make the voices stop.

"You're in the dark, totally and completely. Feel it, Sonic? Feel the utter blackness of it? It's evil--an evil you want. You want that emerald--it's the only way out. Exile will never work. It's hopeless."

He stopped and stood in the snow, breathing hard into the cold air. "That's wrong!" he shouted into the stillness. His echo was flung back to him from a nearby ridge--"Wrong, wrong, wrong!"

"But how do you know? Is there a light you can see? No, light is only a myth--there IS no light for the darkness inside you." He had no answer. He saw himself in his mind's eyes, floundering in darkness with nothing solid anywhere. Again, that maddening music was there, mocking him: "When I reached down inside me, I could feel the emptiness ..."

He preferred madness to this.

At last, after ages of slogging through snow, sleeping by a feeble campfire, eating cold food, listening to his thoughts and the howl of timber wolves, he topped the last ridge and saw the valley below. The mountains fell away in row upon row into hazy greenness, criss-crossed with roads and patched with plowed fields. It was a relief to his eyes, which had looked upon only white and blue and black for so long. He started forward with renewed vigor.

As he descended the mountains, he discovered with a shock that it was not cold. The lower he went the warmer it was. By the time he reached the valley floor it was a balmy 80ºF. He consulted his map and found that he was only about 2000 miles from the equator--they had a rainy season here, not really a winter. The air smelled of damp earth and mud.

And there were people. People walking, people on hoverbikes, in cars, in transports flying overhead, everywhere. It was nice to be in civilization again, but a shock to see the multitude of Mobians.

After an hour of hiking along a road in the warm sun (he had taken off his heavy clothing and snowshoes long before this), he reached a sort of bus stop with an number of animals standing around, waiting. Sonic approached a badger and asked him how to get to Ironhedge. The badger gave a grunting laugh that smelled of cigarettes and said, "Wait here 'nother minit an' the bus'll take ya there."

A moment later a towering bus roared down on them, pulled up to the curb and opened its doors. Sonic boarded it with the others and sat back for the ride.

In what seemed like a few seconds they were in the city, surrounded by buildings, powerlines and trees. Sonic stared out the big window in amazement. It reminded him vaguely of Robotropolis, but with a few differences; there were no robots, the smog wasn't bad and there were trees and other vegetation used in landscaping.

Then the bus was slowing down and everyone was disembarking. Sonic got off with them and found himself standing on the hot, glaring street, surrounded by a crowd of strangers who all wanted to be elsewhere. It was culture shock in every sense of the word.

He began to drift with the flow along the sidewalk, an inconspicuous blue hedgehog carrying a dirty backpack over one shoulder. He had never seen so many people in his life. Looking at them was so interesting he walked three blocks without realizing it. He paused only once; he spied a wanted poster on the side of a building, and with a start recognized the face it displayed--Robo Knux. The robot had killed several people for the fun of it and was regarded as 'armed and extremely dangerous'. This brought a large grin to the traveller's face. Slowly he began to notice other things: the skyscrapers high above him, the roar of traffic and smell of exhaust, the clatter of feet and the chatter of voices, the sun beating down on his head, the weight of his backpack ... He was suddenly tired. His five senses were on overload, but it was good; his mind was too busy processing to toy with insanity.

After a bit of searching he found a motel that was cheap enough for him to afford. He went to his room, locked the door, flopped on the bed and slept for three hours. He didn't realize he had slept until he awoke and looked at his watch. "Oh my gosh," he yawned, "I took a nap!" He was still bone-tired from his weeks of strenuous hiking. Perhaps he should stick around for a while and rest.

Now that he had reached his destination he ought to write home. He dug out the little computer, brushed dust from its cover, flipped the screen open and turned it on. Everything was just as he had left it. He wrote a half-hearted note, sent it off to Knothole, shut the screen, rolled over and slept for another hour.

Even though his madness was still with him, he stayed in Ironhedge for six weeks, working to earn enough cash to see him through the rest of his exile. He became miserably depressed and the letters from home seemed to add to it. Christmas was coming and he was unable to go home, even for a day. One of his lowest days was when he admitted this in a letter: "I wish there was a letup in this darn thing so I could come home for Christmas."

One of the things he learned about his insanity was that he did not like waking up in the middle of nowhere. For this reason he bought himself a pair of heavy-duty handcuffs. When his 'running madness' started coming on, he would flee the city, hide in the woods somewhere and cuff himself to a tree. Thus he would awaken hours later, wrists chafed, but in the same place.

December went by uneventfully. Sonic thought it strange for it to be warm and rainy in the middle of winter, but reminded himself that the further south you went the more the seasons reversed.

It was January before anything of interest happened.

Sonic had decided that he liked the city and would stay put until his time was up, but one day something happened that made him wary of ever staying put again.

He was sitting in the motel lobby one Saturday afternoon, gazing absently out the front windows at the people going by, listening to the voices in his head and trying not to answer them; as this drew stares from all directions. There was a multitude of pedestrians out there--it had rained all morning and the sun was now out, glaring on the wet pavement.

As Sonic sat there he half-noticed a hedgehog pass by in the crowd. Big deal; he had seen several hedgehogs while here. A moment later the same hedgehog walked back by the front of the motel. A little later he passed by again. Sonic began to watch him. Why was that guy doing that?

As the stranger walked by for the fourth time, he turned his head and gazed through the window at Sonic. Their eyes met for an instant and Sonic recognized him. He had seen him before ... an orange hedgehog ... wait, that night so long ago--a disfigured echidna and an orange hedgehog.

Trying to act nonchalant but burning with curiosity, Sonic got up and went to the door. When the orange hedgehog walked by again he stepped out and confronted him. "What do you want?"

The stranger pressed a finger to his lips, grabbed Sonic's arm and forced him to walk along beside him so as not to attract attention. "Sonic," he said urgently, keeping his voice low, "you have to get out of Ironhedge. They're gonna kill you tonight."

"Who are?" Sonic asked in disbelief.

The stranger glanced at the crowd around them and said, "I can't talk here. Get your stuff and meet me in the alley behind the motel in ten minutes." With that he released Sonic's arm and vanished down the street.

Sonic made his way back inside the motel and up to his room in a daze. All of a sudden that mad rush of thoughts was upon him again. "Kill me? Who? Why? Who IS that guy? Should I trust him? What if HE wants to hurt me? He and his friend gave me the emerald, after all. But his eyes ..." A vision of the stranger's face flashed through his head-- the pleading, terrified expression. Could that face mask someone capable of murder? Maybe not ...

Sonic slowly put his few thing into his backpack and slipped into the shoulder straps. The familiar weight dug into his shoulders as he stood. Then his feet, through no will of his own, carried him out of the building.

The other hedgehog was waiting for him in the alley, as promised, but dancing with impatience. "Hurry," he said as Sonic approached. "We have to get a move on. They're already here, watching. We've gotta get outta here. C'mon!"

He led Sonic from the alley and down a sidestreet. Sonic looked him over as they went along. The hedgehog was of a lighter build than himself, and an inch or so shorter. He was a rich pumpkin color all over but for his face, chest and arms. He wore dirty green sneakers with two yellow straps around them. With a shock Sonic realized that this kid could be his almost-identical-twin if he were blue. "What's your name?" he asked.

The stranger sideyed him, gulped and muttered something.

"What?" Sonic asked, not quite catching it.

"Jason," was the answer. "I'm Jason. Shh."

They spoke not a word as they worked their way out of Ironhedge. As soon as they reached the farmland on the outskirts of the city and were certain they were not being followed, Jason stopped. "Okay Sonic, I've got to lay down some rules. You DO NOT ask me where I'm from, got it?"

Sonic nodded.

"No questions."

Sonic nodded.

"No talking to strangers. If we get stopped _I_ do the talking. Okay?"

Sonic nodded, raising an eyebrow. This was getting interesting.

The orange hedgehog held up four fingers. "You tell me when you're gonna go crazy, got it?"

Sonic smirked. "Okay, Captain, you've got it. Now you've gotta permit me this much. Who are we running from?"

Jason started walking again and Sonic fell into step beside him. Jason glanced all around before speaking, although they were obviously alone. "Okay, I think you already know that I'm from the future. Well, there's this really bad dude in my time named Commander Nash. He has all seven chaos emeralds but needs the eighth one to make his power complete. He had just found it when--" He stopped abruptly, glanced at Sonic, then down at the ground.

"What?" Sonic prompted.

Jason licked his lips nervously. "Uh, well, we got it away from him somehow, and me and Simoon brought it to the past, thinking we'd get rid of it. But Nash found out and came here, only to find that you'd won ownership of the emerald. That's why you're nutty." He snickered. "The only way for Nash to win it for himself it to kill you. He had finally tracked you down and he was gonna get you tonight. I heard 'em talking."

"Oh." They walked along in silence for a while as Sonic's not-so- calm mind worked through this information. "What's this Nash-guy look like?"

Jason held a hand as high as he could reach. "He's a really tall cougar. He's got kind of red-gold-brown fur and a white belly and black around his eyes. He always wears his blue and purple uniform. Oh, and he has a big ol' cape that reminds me of Darth Vader."

"Uh-huh. Where're we going?"

Jason shrugged. "I donno. I was sorta thinking Joston, but it's a little far."

Sonic pulled his worn roadmap out of a pocket on his pack. "Joston? Let's see, J-O-S--oh, here it is. 'Bour two hundred miles east of here." He glanced at his companion. "Why there?"

Jason shrugged again. "Well, we've gotta keep moving so Nash's army don't find us. They're mostly bobcats."

Bobcats. Sonic remembered the two bobcats in Xixa discussing their failure in a search for a missing person. HE was the missing person! "I've seen them," Sonic said, "but I didn't know who they were."

"Did they see you?"

"I don't think so."

This seemed to trouble Jason, and he answered all other questions in monosyllabic grunts.

To reach Joston, they would have to travel over the mountains again (the range formed a crescent from north to southeast). This would take several weeks at the least, as Jason complained that he couldn't run sixty miles an hour.

Sonic didn't know what to make of his companion. Sometimes the orange hedgehog would talk freely about anything; Sonic found that his favorite sport was street hockey, he lived in what was known as New Mobitropolis, he had two younger sisters, and Simoon the echidna was his best friend. In the midst of his chatter he would suddenly clam up, drop his eyes and say no more for a long time. It kept Sonic very curious, indeed.

The mountains were lower than the northern ones and had no snow. But that did not mean they lacked freezing temperatures and strong winds. Sonic and Jason took refuge in a steep-sided gully for the night. They couldn't keep a file lit because of the wind, and so passed a night much like Sonic's first one, but with the added comfort of one another's company.

It was during this miserable night that Sonic sent his last note to Knothole: "Something funny going on. With a friend. Going to Joston. Sonic." His letters became very cryptic when the madness came on full force.

And indeed, it was running on high gear. He did not develop the running madness, thankfully, but the insanity gripped his mind with alarming intensity. He sank into depression and everything that came out of his mouth was morbid. He hit Jason with everything that was tormenting him, spreading the depression to both of them.

"I'm so dark, Jason. Everything is dark. It's sickening. How can you tell what's good and bad? Does anybody even care?" He brushed a hand over his forehead as if to wipe away cobwebs. "I need a light. I need a light or I--I'll--I'll do something I'll regret afterward."

The orange hedgehog looked at him with a sort of horror. "But Sonic ... there IS a light ..."

"Tell me." Sonic's eyes were dead. "Tell me how you know."

Jason tried and failed. He couldn't find the words to grasp the concepts he was thinking of, and Sonic's direct stare unnerved him.

In return, Sonic continued to aim his venom at him.

Day after dreary day this continued, the sane and insane plodding alongside each other, the insane one so unlike himself that the sane one lived in fear of him.

One night they camped in a little valley between ridges. The wind had dropped, clouds covered the stars and the temperature lowered. For the first time in a week they were able to keep a fire going and enjoyed a hot meal. Sonic, still tortured by his inner turmoil, was silent as they ate, then bedded down without a word. Jason was careful to sleep several feet away from him; at the moment Sonic was the last person he trusted.

Sonic's sleep was fitful and haunted by bizarre dreams. He tossed and turned, unable to get comfortable on the lumpy ground, often muttering incoherently. He awakened somewhere around midnight and lay looking at the fire. The logs had settled into a bed of glowing coals. He knew he should get up and put another log on, but the air in his face was bitterly cold and his sleeping bag was warm. His eyes lifted to the dark sky. There were no stars and the night was black as pitch. He could barely make out Jason's sleeping bag on the other side of the fire. The other hedgehog was hidden from sight, burrowed into the center of his bag, the blankets rising and falling with his breathing. Sonic's maniac thoughts were still with him.

"Who is that kid? Why is he so intent on helping me? If he wasn't so scared of me I'd say he made up that Nash person and brought me out here to kill me. But I'm older, bigger and tougher than him, so that doesn't make sense. "I wish this thing would stop. He scared of me even when I'm normal. Wonder why." Heavy-metal music from somewhere, blaring in his mind. "Wish he could answer the voices for me. If they got answered I could almost bet they'd shut up."

His eyes dropped shut, then flicked open again. He needed to put another log on or the fire would be dead by morning. He turned his head toward the fire and started to roll over and froze. Was Jason up? No, he had not moved--the night itself had become tangible and curved itself over him. Sonic lay motionless without breathing. What WAS that? Had the madness extended to his vision now? Was he dreaming? No, thing was moving--it was solid black. It seemed to be trying to locate Jason in the folds of his sleeping bag.

Rage. The instinct to protect the helpless arose in his heart. Sonic tore out of his sleeping bag, hurtled the fire and dove at the black shape, eyes afire with pure hatred of the unknown monster. His outstretched hands met something solid--someONE dressed in a heavy cloak. The force of his rush sent it tumbling backward with him on top of it, seeking a vital spot through the fabric. It struggled wildly and screamed in a whisper, "Sonic! Sonic, stop it!" An oddly familiar girl's voice. He backed off abruptly, fight burning within him. "Tell me who you are, quick, before I kill you with my bare hands." His voice was strange to his ears.

The figure sat up and pulled her hood back. In the dim light he saw her pointed face and long hair--an echidna. He couldn't quite make out her color in the dark. Her eyes were sharp and cold. "My name is Winstrom. I was trying to make sure this wasn't one of Nash's camps."

Sonic tossed another log on the fire. As it blazed up she pulled her hood back on, hiding her face.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" He was calming down. He could handle a girl echidna.

"No," she replied. "I've never seen you before." Something about her tone said otherwise, as if she weren't used to lying.

"Then how'd you know who I am?"

"Everybody knows you, Sonic."

He thought about that for a second in surprise, then asked, "What do you want?"

"I needed a place to sleep tonight. Would you mind if I rolled out my bag by the fire, here?" This was spoken as if carefully rehearsed.

Sonic wished he could see her face. "Sure," he said guardedly, "and you can come with us tomorrow, if you want."

"Where are you going?"

"Joston."

"No, I'm going to Ironhedge. Thanks anyway. I'll leave at dawn so I don't get in your way."

Sonic climbed back into his sleeping bag and watched as Winstrom unrolled hers (she had been carrying it somewhere under her robe). She climbed into it without a word, and without removing her black cloak or hood. He watched her for a long time, deeply suspicious. He was certain he had seen her before. As he began to doze, a memory leaped to life in his head--a girl echidna, robotized from the throat down. Zephyer. But no, this couldn't be her. She had drowned while trying to save them from an attacking enemy. Besides, this echidna wasn't robotized ... then he was asleep.

The next morning the echidna was gone without a trace. Jason was skeptical when Sonic told him about it. "Sonic, we haven't seen another soul for weeks. We're out here in the boonies, and you mean to tell me that some girl came and spent the night?" He gazed into Sonic's eyes searchingly. "Sure it wasn't a hallucination?"

Sonic glared at him in mad rage. "It wasn't a hallucination, idiot. I know the difference between what's real and what ain't. She was here and she let before we woke up. That's all."

Jason didn't trust his judgement and there was contention between them all day because of it. The next morning Jason asked Sonic half- mockingly if he had seen any pink elephants during the night, which put Sonic into a seriously bad mood for the rest of the day.

A few more days went by. Sonic was becoming increasingly fed up with the slow pace and Jason's company. He simply didn't care for the hedgehog's company, and this was intensified fourfold one fateful day.

The terrain was becoming more and more rough. Most of their time was spent climbing a hill, descending the rocky slope on the other side and struggling up the next. Sonic ached for a good run, and Jason's protests against this chafed him even worse than it would have before.

The blue hedgehog's craze was subsiding somewhat, and for hours at a time he was completely lucid. It was these times that he most loathes Jason's company and longed for the Freedom Fighters. One of these times he pulled out the little laptop, flipped it open and fired it up as they walked. Jason didn't notice him, eyes fixed on the hilltop above them. Suddenly the orange hedgehog said, "Hey Sonic, wanna race up this hill?"

The query was so unexpected that Sonic stared at him for a second, mouth hanging open. Then he replied, "Sure, be happy to!" and was off like a shot, the forgotten computer clutched in one hand.

At first Jason was left behind, but presently Sonic's ears caught the sound of pounding feet and he pulled up along side, running as Sonic did with arms held high against his sides, out of danger of his flying feet. His eyes mirrored Sonic's love of speed. As they raced up the mountainside, Sonic caught a glimpse of Jason's real personality--a kid with a crazy craving for speed. Even so, as they neared the top, Sonic began to pull ahead. "Ha!" he shouted as he crested the hill, then set his brakes with a gasp.

The far side of the hill fell away in a sheer cliff to a river far below.

Sonic couldn't stop soon enough at the speed he had achieved and skittered off the edge. Fortunately, as he fell, he was able to grab onto the overhanging brush. His momentum slammed him painfully into the side of the cliff, but he hung on and Jason was able to help him up.

The blue hedgehog was furious.

"You creep! You knew it was a cliff, didn't you? You were trying to kill me, weren't you?!?"

Jason's face was ashen--Sonic's fall had frightened him immeasurably. He held up his hands. "I--I didn't know! I'm sorry! Really!"

Sonic rubbed his side where he had hit the cliff. "Yeah, bet you are," he said darkly. Suddenly he realized his hands were empty. He looked around for the computer, then stepped to the edge of the cliff and looked down. He could just barely make out the twisted plastic shape on the rocks below. He groaned. "Oh NO! I must have dropped it when I fell!" He shot a sharp glare at his companion. "That was our only communication with the outside world. Congrats, Jase. You've just been accepted into JA--Jerks Anonymous." He stalked away from him stiff-legged, wishing he wouldn't follow but knowing he would.

The two didn't speak for hours. Sonic was nursing a deep grudge, enjoying the hate in a morbid sort of way. The only problem was that Jason didn't become angry--only more timid than ever, which intensified Sonic's disgust in him.

One day not long after this, the two semi-enemy hedgehogs topped the last wind-swept hill under an overcast sky and looked upon their destination; the little town called Joston.

"All right!" Sonic exclaimed, punching a fist into the air. "Time to get me a chili dog!" And get away from Jason the Jerk, he added to himself. Jason looked a bit grim, but fell into step beside Sonic without a word.

They only made it halfway down the hillside above the town, however. Jason said, "Uh oh. Looks like somebody's coming to greet us."

They stopped and gazed toward it uncertainly. Indeed, a lone figure was climbing the hill as hard as it could. Sonic folded his arms and leaned into the cold wind, eyes fixed on the approaching stranger. It was only fifty feet away now, running where it could and scrambling along on all fours when it couldn't. Sonic squinted. It was dressed in a dark blue coat and pants, but its head was red with long dreadlocks-- an echidna. He immediately thought of the strange girl who had caused so much strife between himself and his companion. If this was her, he thought, he would make Jason eat crow--

It wasn't her.

As it drew closer it lifted its head and looked toward them. Sonic was startled to see it had but one eye--the right side of its face had been burned away. Jason recognized the stranger before Sonic did. "Simoon!" he exclaimed, and ran out to help the echidna up the last few feet. "Si! Whaddya DOIN' here?" Sonic heard him ask.

Simoon couldn't answer at first. He put his hands on his knees, gasping oxygen into his lungs. After a moment he grabbed enough breath to gasp out, "Mr. Hedgehog, don't--go down--there!" He paused for a breath. "Nash's guys're down there waiting." Another gasp. "They knew you were coming!"

Jason shot a horrified glance at Sonic, who returned it. "Wonderful. What do we do now?"

"Get out of here," Simoon panted, his good eyes full of fear. "I'm sure I was spotted. They'll shoot anybody who so much as looks at you, Mr. Hedgehog!"

Jason punched his arm.

"Sonic," the echidna hastily corrected.

Sonic decided to ignore this for the time being and grabbed their hands. "Hold on--I'm givin' us a one-way ticket outta here." He whirled and charged across the hillside at top speed.

He ran for the better part of an hour, his flying feet putting miles between them and Joston. His mind was also going full blast. Nash must be real because of the terror he invoked in these two kids. How did they get to the past? They couldn't just time-warp, like on Little Planet. Maybe they had some kind of time-technology, like the Time Rippers. Too bad about the computer--he would have liked to have Sally run a search on 'Commander Nash'. Well, maybe not, if he was from the future, too.

Suddenly a thought hit him and his heart nearly stopped with the implication. That girl echidna--he had told her they were going to Joston. Was that how the enemy--if there was an enemy--knew their destination?

He pondered this as he ran, but by the time he ran out of energy he had also run out of answers. All he had were endless questions, some of which his companions knew the answers to. 'Mr.' Hedgehog? What was that supposed to mean?

The blue hedgehog dropped to a walk and glanced around at Jason and Simoon. The two were gasping for breath and trying to stand. "You okay?" he asked, smirking. The echidna looked at him with his one eye and seemed about to say something, but the orange hedgehog elbowed him sharply and said, "Yeah, we're fine."

Again Sonic let this slide. He would be able to weasel more info out of Simoon than Jason.

Jason ran a hand through his tangerine quills and gazed around. "Where are we now?"

Sonic looked around for the first time. They were standing on the side of a hill that blocked all view to their left. To their right the terrain fell away into a deep, forested valley, so wide they could barely see the far side. It looked rather inviting to Sonic, a native of the Great Forest. They could hear the rushing of the wind in the treetops; a roaring, like surf.

"Let's go camp down there," Simoon suggested, pretending not to notice the sudden gleam in Sonic's eyes.

"Yeah," Jason added. "We won't be so exposed and I won't lay awake nights waiting to get shot."

"Like you lay awake so much anyway," Sonic said sarcastically, shooting a pointed look at the hedgehog. The issue of the girl echidna was still fresh.

The three trekked down the hill and entered the forest, little realizing the seriousness of their mistake.

As they made they way through the windy woods, none of them thought to look up. Perched in one of the treetops was a lone bobcat, dressed in camouflage and riding the swaying limbs, watching them with piercing yellow eyes. As soon as they passed from sight he lifted a small communicator to his mouth and whispered, "They are here, Commander. They may now be taken at will."

The reply crackled softly, "Do it. I only want Sonic alive, Captain."

"Yes sir."

Now Sonic had never developed the hair-trigger senses of Slasher, and even his brother and sister were sharper than he. But suddenly he had the feeling of being watched. He glanced around, saw nothing and tried to shrug it off. Nevertheless it continued to grow, making the hair on his neck rise.

Suddenly Jason stopped, put a hand on Sonic's arm and murmured, "Something's wrong."

"Yeah," Simoon agreed, turning so his blind side was toward his companions and his good side was facing outward. "Somebody's watching us."

Maybe it wasn't his imagination after all. Almost for the first time Sonic thought of the tiny scanner Rotor had given him. "Wait a sec," he said, pulling his pack off and opening it. He finally located the scanner at the very bottom. He pulled it out and flipped it on.

He just had time to see the red dots that surrounded his green one when the laser struck his neck. Sonic staggered backward a few steps, dropped the scanner and clapped his hands to the wound. His companions didn't realize he had been hit. Jason was screaming, "No! Not again! Not again! Get down!"

More lasers zipping around them, shouts of, "Halt! Surrender!"

Sonic fell to his knees. It was so sudden--one moment he had been fine, the next he was mortally wounded. He could feel the searing heat of the blast and the warmth of his own blood on his hands. Was this how it felt to die? He coughed wrackingly and collapsed on his face in the pine needles.

But it was not a fatal blow.

The stunner had indeed ripped his flash, but being merely a stunner, harmed no major blood vessels or nerves. And thanks to his strange insanity, he did not truly lose consciousness.

"Motion. Somebody's carrying me. Harsh voices, bandages wrapped around my neck. Too tight. Too tight. I'm strangling. Breathe. Motion. A hovercraft of some kind, lying crosswise across the seat. Rough hands steadying me. Breathe. Now it's dark, lying near a campfire. Voices talking and laughing. Breathe. Heavy hands unstrapping the bandages. Gasp air into my tortured lungs. Another bandage applied, but not so tightly. Cold. Day again. Riding that hovercraft, swaying, being steadied by rough hands. Stop touching me; I won't fall off. Being lifted and carried into a dim place. My eyes won't open all the way. What's going on? Where am I? Where are Jason and Simoon? Holy smokes, who the heck was THAT? Those eyes! I've only seen eyes like that before on Mecha, or Robo Knux! Creepy. Alone now, lying in what I guess is a bed. Very quiet here. Can't wake up. Neck hurts. Those eyes ... Maybe I don't want to wake up.

"Hands again, touching my face and neck. Cold hands, heavy hands. A faint humming sound--where have I heard it before? Gone now.

"Alone. Alone with the emerald. Can't get away from it no matter how far I go. Only way out is to give up or give in. But what about the light? I've been looking for it. That's what the voices are talking about. The light I don't know. What is it? Jason knows, too chicken to explain. Slasher knows. She could tall me. She HAS told me, wish I'd paid more attention. What's the alternative? Too dark. Despair. Can't see. What IS the way out? Oh, hands again, more voices. Can't understand them--to far gone. What'll happen if I die? Where will I go? What will happen to me? I don't know. I've never known.

"Night and day. Which is which? No sense of time, trapped in the layers like this. Can't get back into my own. Might as well die--they'll kill me anyway. But I don't want to die. I'm too scared. There's no second chance once you're dead.

"Hands again, but these are gentle, like Slasher's. Cold, but gentle. Soft voice. A girl. Sally? Serena? No, I'm knot in Knothole. Who is that? What's she saying to me? Swim a little further into my layer, maybe I can understand. Can't quite get it. No, don't go. Come back. You were helping me surface. There she is again. Concentrate. That voice-- the words--c'mon, make sense. I can understand if I can just get close enough--"

Sonic's half-open eyes focused for the first time since he had been shot. He could see her, but it was some time before he recognized her as the mysterious girl echidna. She still wore the long black cloak, but her hood was off and he could see her clearly. She looked just like Zephyer--no, she couldn't be. Zephyer was dead. She was talking, not trying to make sense, just chanting things like poetry, trying to get through to him. It was working; Sonic was gradually pulling out of his stupor.

Try as he might, he couldn't build up enough strength to speak. His mouth seemed disconnected from the rest of his body and he couldn't find it. He had to content himself with looking at the stranger and listening to her voice.

Suddenly she quieted and stood. A door just out of Sonic's range of vision opened and someone entered the room. A low, sinister voice growled, "What are YOU doing here?"

Sonic thought you could ski on the ice in her voice. "I was trying help him wake up."

The person stepped into view. Sonic was glad he was too weak to move--it was a burly red robot he had hoped never to lay eyes on again. Its green crescent-eyes shimmered with displeasure as it glared at the girl, then turned and glanced at the motionless hedgehog. It placed one cold metallic hand on Sonic's chest, the eight-inch knuclaws conveniently near his throat. Come to think of it, Robo Knux had been here before-- Sonic recalled the cold, harsh touch and the soft hum of the robot's engines.

"He is not as deep as he was," Robo Knuckles observed blandly. "In fact he can probably hear us. Hello, Sonic. Nice to see you again. Get well soon. We have several interesting deaths planned for you." It was that twisted sense of humor that gave Sonic the creeps.

The robot removed his hand from Sonic's body, purred to the girl, "No double crossing, now. Ask him what I do to double-crossers," and left the room.

The echidna closed the door behind him, muttering, "I never thought I'd meet a robot who was worse than Metal Sonic." As she moved back to Sonic's bed she noticed that hie eyes followed her. "Are you awake?" she asked softly, genuinely surprised.

He managed a grunt in reply, the first sound he had made since his capture.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned toward him a little. "Don't try to talk; just listen.

"You were shot with a reverse-stunner; a weapon that stuns, then slowly kills with a kind of radiation. But you pulled through, 'cause you're awake." She drew a breath and looked at her hands in her lap. "We're in Nash's compound in a city called Diablo. We're about two thousand miles from your home. Nash wants you dead but needs to kill you himself, so he's letting you recover, stupid, isn't it? They let your two friends go. You've been out for almost a week now. I'm going to help you escape."

Sonic's first reaction was to shout, "What? Slow down--information overload, here!" But, as he couldn't do that, he simply moved his head in a nod. He had a million questions for her--Who is Nash? Why is Robo Knux here? Who are you REALLY?--but was unable to ask them. He gazed helplessly after the echidna as she rose to her feet, pulled on her hood and quietly left the room.

Several lonesome hours went by. The insanity was winding down in its usual cycle, and the hedgehog's mind was clear. He had a lot to think about. Those eyes he had seen that had given him such a start--it must have been Nash. Why hadn't he come in to check Sonic's progress? Maybe he should be glad he hadn't. The name Diablo sounded familiar. He was sure he had heard about it someplace--that it was not the model city. Why was she going to help him escape? Hadn't she ratted on him in the first place? R.K. warned her about being a double-crosser. Whose side was she on?

He dozed lightly, feeling his strength slowly recharging and hoping he would be strong enough to make good his escape. His room was featureless but for a small barred window and a door in one wall. The girl would have to help him--he had no idea where he was, even if he did somehow break out.

The light outside began to fade toward dusk. Sonic slept fitfully, one hand always playing at the bandage on his neck; it itched. Just before it grew too dark to see, the hedgehog got up and moved around a little. To his surprise his body was stronger than he had assumed--he felt almost normal. It was only his head that didn't feel right; probably an after-effect of the stunner.

The door was locked and the window too heavily barred to break through. He was trapped. Might as well play possum until somebody came.

Jason and Simoon had been released, as the girl had said. Nash's men had taken Sonic and roared away on hoverbikes, leaving the other two behind, frightened and bewildered. It was not until they were out of sight that the orange hedgehog grabbed his friend's hand and took off after them.

But even with his superb running abilities, Jason was only able to follow them for a couple hours. He finally staggered to a halt and dropped to his knees in the wiry grey grass, wheezing softly. "I can't do it, Si," he moaned. "I'm just not strong enough! Not strong enough--" The despair and frustration was evident on his face. He pounded a fist against the dry grass.

Simoon trotted to the top of the next hill and gazed into the distance. After a moment he returned. "Despite my monocular vision I can still see them. They are an average distance of twelve kilometers away. They seem to be moving in a straight line for Diablo."

Jason looked up at him. "Huh?"

Simoon rolled his eye and crossed his arms. "They're only about four and a half miles away, Jase. If they're going to Diablo we can take our time."

"TAKE our TIME?" the hedgehog exclaimed. He had regained his breath somewhat and leaped to his feet. "Si, if they kill Sonic I'm dead! Don't you understand?!?" His dark eyes were wild. "Don't you realize that everything that's happening is effecting our time directly? If they kill him things'll be so bad it'll be unreal! Robotnik would never have been defeated! Metal Sonic's strike force would have been unleashed! Chaos would have flooded Mobius!"

The dark echidna looked down. "I didn't think about that."

Discussing the possibilities had give Jason a new burst of energy. "C'mon, let's go!" And they were off again.

Sonic was standing at the barred window, trying restlessly to see out, when he heard footfalls in the hallway outside his door. He dove onto the bed, pulled the blanket up and was looking sufficiently ill when the door opened.

But it was not the girl. Instead a giant black figure stepped inside, ducking its head to avoid the doorframe. Sonic tensed himself, ready for anything, and tried to steady his breathing. The figure stood beside his bed and glowered down at him. Its eyes glowed like live coals--yellow cat-eyes--the same eyes Sonic had seen before. He could see little of its body in the darkness; only the eyes. It stared at him until he began to squirm inwardly, then placed its hands on either side of him and leaned into his face.

"I know you're faking, Sonic Hedgehog," Nash snarled.

Sonic could count the long white teeth and had to concentrate to keep from shrinking away.

"Winstrom reported you were doing better," the big cat continued, eyes like flame, hot breath in his victim's face. "I will destroy you at dawn tomorrow. You see, Sonic, I am after the eighth chaos emerald, and it is directing its' power to you. In order to direct it to me, I must kill you personally." He lifted a big hand into the light coming through the window and clenched it into a fist. "I have the strength in this one hand to crush your pitiful body to dust." He stood up, glowing eyes fixed on Sonic's terrified face. "Do not underestimate me, hedgehog."

Then he was gone, locking the door behind him.

Sonic lay perfectly still for a long time afterward, breath coming fast and heart hammering furiously.

About midnight Sonic's door again opened. This time it was the girl echidna. He sat up when he saw who it was and whispered, "Why did you tell him I was better?"

"I had no choice," she whispered back. "Here, put this on." She handed him a folded garment.

He stood and unfolded it. It was a black cloak and hood, like her own. He quickly slipped into it.

"Now," she whispered, handing him a pair of socks, "put these on over your shoes. It'll muffle your footsteps."

He obeyed, noticing that she too was wearing socks over her shoes. "I feel like an idiot," he whispered as he stood.

"It's better than feeling like a shish-ka-bob," she replied. "Follow me and no talking until we're out of the prison. The halls amplify all sound." She went to the door and beckoned for him to follow her. He pulled his cloak around him and did.

The hall outside was pitch black, the polished floor smooth as glass. Sonic moved cautiously; his socked feet tended to slip around. He vaguely imagined that this was the kind of place where ladies in high-heels walked with that peculiar pock, pock, pock sound.

They padded down the silent hall, paused at a junction and turned right. Sonic looked around constantly. Nash and Robo Knux were in here somewhere. What if they were spotted? Would they be gunned down on sight? Could his escort be trusted? He gulped. She might very well be leading him to his execution. But if he couldn't trust her, who COULD he trust?

The faint shuffling of their feet against the floor seemed as loud as air-traffic to Sonic's pricked ears. His heart was in his mouth every other minute. If only he had his emerald belt--

It dawned on him suddenly: Nash had mentioned the eighth chaos emerald by name and it had not disturbed Sonic. In fact, he had felt normal since awakening from the stunner. "It may be too early to tell," he thought to himself, "but I may be pulling out of the madness!"

They turned a corner and came to a large room with big glass windows composing the front wall. Streetlights outside illuminated the room and for the first time Sonic could see clearly. It looked like an office--a receptionist's desk, chairs for waiting, houseplants. Why in the heck was he in a prison? he wondered with a start.

The girl led him across the room and to one of the doors. She fiddled with the lock, then held the door open and motioned for him to step outside. He did and was struck by a wall of heat--it felt like mid-summer! He waited as she carefully shut and locked the door, then murmured to him, "You can take off your socks now."

He did, feeling stupid, and only slightly less so when she did the same.

She stood erect, glanced around furtively, then said, "Follow me, and pull your hood down." She reached out and pulled it further over his face, cutting off his vision.

"I can't see," he complained.

She pulled it around some. As she did his eyes fell on her extended arms. She wore gloves that covered her hands and wrists, but the bit that showed between that and her cloak gleamed silver in the dim light.

She noticed his stare and abruptly withdrew, hiding her hands under her robe. "C'mon," she said curtly, wheeled and strode away. He followed and fell into step beside her.

"You're robotized?" he asked softly.

She shot him a savage glare and didn't answer.

"I'll take that as a yes."

She didn't look at him.

"How much?"

No answer.

Tiring of this one-sided conversation, Sonic looked around at his surroundings. They were walking along a street in the depths of some city. All the shops were rather broken down, sporting cardboard in the windows and peeling paint. Every so often a car would go by, invisible except for the head and taillights. Ragged-looking people walked the sidewalks or stood in groups under the streetlights. It did NOT feel like a safe place to be; perhaps that was why they were wearing black.

"What's your real name?" he asked her.

She sideyed him. "I told you. Winstrom."

"Not."

She looked at him angrily. "What do you want me to say?"

"Your real name," Sonic said coolly. "You're too smart to give Nash your real name."

"Not now," she replied. "We've got company."

Sonic looked around and saw the three thugs coming up behind them. He had never seen wolverines before--they had all black fur with an orange stripe starting at their noses and tracing down to the tips of their broad tails. They wore spiked collars and black leather everything. Sonic shivered--they reminded him of the wolf Roofern he had met once in the far past.

"Keep walking," his companion whispered. "Act brave."

"I can outrun them," Sonic whispered back.

"No," she returned. "They'll remember you and might tell Nash."

In a moment the gang had caught up with them. The biggest wolverine said, "Well well, what have we here? It looks like a couple'a little kids!"

Sonic edged himself between Winstrom and the thug. The latter sneered at him. "Tryin' ta protect your sis, eh?" He shoved Sonic back a step, who bristled. "Watch who you're shoving, jerk." He pushed the thug, who also stumbled back a step and laughed nastily. "Lookit the little dude! Think's he's hot stuff!" This, of course, was mixed with several words that don't bear repeating.

"Don't touch him," came Winstrom's soft voice from behind Sonic.

The thug grinned, showing his sharp, if discolored, teeth. "Look whose talkin'! Whatcha gonna do, babe?"

Her voice was even softer than before. "I'll have to kill all of you. Just leave us alone."

The three wolverines burst into raucous laughter.

"What are you doing?" Sonic hissed to the echidna, who only looked at him calmly--then winced. Sonic turned back to see the thug's hard fist coming at him, then stars. He started to scramble up off the ground, but stopped when the echidna stepped between them and said, "I told you not to touch him." She pulled off her black cloak and tossed it aside.

Sonic stared. From the neck downward she was covered in tarnished metal. The thugs also stared, mouths hanging open.

She held up her right arm, which seemed to liquify before their eyes and reform itself into a short sword. With it she attacked the gang.

Sonic leaped to his feet and backed away to a safe distance, watching in amazement. The fight didn't last long. The three wolverines fled after a few second, each bleeding from at least one sword cut. The only one she pursued was the obnoxious leader, swatting him with the flat of her blade.

Zephyer. It HAD to be Zephyer. There was no way it could be anyone else. But wasn't she dead? Maybe she had survived somehow--he had to know. He THOUGHT he had recognized her ...

The echidna in question returned, donned her cloak once more, and without a word set out down the street. Sonic ran to catch up with her.

They walked in silence for several minutes. Then Sonic said, "Too bad you couldn't do that to Creeah, huh?"

She looked at him sharply, then turned away, pulling her hood over her face. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't ... Zeff."

No answer.

"So, how'd you keep from drowning?"

No answer. Sonic grinned in spite of himself. "Winstrom's only your LAST name, isn't it?"

She gave a deep sigh and said, "Okay Sonic, I'll talk, but not here. Wait 'til we get out of Diablo. Then we can have Old Home Week."

The two figures finally made it out of the city. Diablo was not really a big city, but its streets were as contorted as Robotropolis's had been and the inhabitants were anything but friendly.

The countryside was hilly with many small woods here and there. The air was hot and somewhat humid, the stars bright and close overhead.

"We'll take this road into the first," the girl said, "and get as far as we can by dawn."

"Sounds cool to me," Sonic shrugged. "Too bad Nash's jerks took my stuff. I had maps and a scanner and a compass and everything."

She flashed a smile at him, reached into her cloak and pulled out a handful of small objects. "Here," she said. "I grabbed the compass, the scanner and your money. Sorry I couldn't get your sleeping bag--it was too big to smuggle out."

"Wow, thanks!" He pocketed his money and strapped the scanner and compass to his wrists. "Now," he said, "pulling back his hood and looking at his companion, "time for the interrogation. Are you Zephyer?"

She pulled back her own hood, shook out her long dreadlocks and looked at him. "Yes. I nearly drowned on Flicky Island, but I got washed ashore. Ever since then I've been touring Mobius."

"How did you make your arm morph like that?"

She smiled and rolled up her sleeve. "Easy. All Mecha had for his robotizer was the bio-metal he had been using to build those robots. This stuff can phase-change, do life-support and carry full weaponry. I have a laser cannon in my left arm, but it over-heats real fast so I don't use it much. Oh yeah, and this machinery won't poison me like Robotnik's stuff." She flexed her elbow, then dropped her arm to her side. "What else do you want to know?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Why in the world were you working for Nash?"

A stony look passed over her face. "Two reasons. One, he offered to pay much-needed cash, and two, he promised he wasn't going to hurt you. Ha! What a joke." Her voice was bitter. "I DID want to see you again, Sonic, but I was horrified when he explained why he really wanted you. So I knew I had to get you out and get out myself." She looked at him with her clear blue eyes. "See, now there's a price on my head, too."

"We're even, then. Are we going to find Jason and Simoon?"

"Your two friends? It's up to you. We're a long way from where you were apprehended."

"I'd like to find them," Sonic said earnestly. "They aren't from this time and they could get hurt or something."

"Okay."

They lapsed into silence for a while. Sonic didn't know Zephyer very well, but she seemed all right. He didn't know much about her at all, really. Their meeting on Flicky Island had been rushed and introductions basic. They walked for a long time without a word, feet crunching on the dirt road. Sonic began to feel sleepy and scratched at the bandage on his neck.

Zephyer broke the silence. "You okay?"

He nodded and murmured, "I guess."

"You homesick?"

"Yeah." Sonic had tried not to think about it, but he was so homesick it hurt.

"Me too."

Sonic didn't respond--he was too tired to say much.

"It wouldn't be so bad if I couldn't see it."

That got a response. "Huh?"

She pointed upward. "See how those three bright stars form a triangle? Just down from the left corner is a kind of medium-bright red star. See it?"

"Uh-huh."

She dropped her arm and looked down. "That's our sun."

Sonic stared at her as if she had just claimed to be a boiled egg. "Yeah right."

She looked at him coolly. "Sonic, I'm not FROM Mobius. Mecha pulled me here right off my home planet. There ain't no possible way I can get back."

Sonic didn't believe her, but out of curiosity, said, "Then where ARE you from?"

"Long story."

"We got all night."

"Okay then, but remember that you asked for it." Zephyer cleared her throat and began.

"For starters, our planet is called XR-7. We're sixth from our sun, which is called XR-1. It's a desert planet, just a tad smaller than Mobius. (It was hard to move for a while when I got here.) We have weather, too. This stuff you got here is nothing compared to ours. A day was about fifteen hours long, which churned our atmosphere to a froth." She smiled at the thought. "On a good day the wind dropped to about thirty miles an hour and there weren't any tornados."

"Uh-huh," Sonic said, still thinking she was making it up. "And how did you survive?"

"We live underground, of course. We've got all sorts of tunnels and caves way down underground. That's where we grow all our food. I had never seen a tree 'til I came here. I also had a ball studying oceanography--there's no above-ground water at home. You have to dig for it, and then it's so full of sulfur you can't drink it--have to purify it."

"Did you like it?"

"Of course--I was born there, and I never knew any different. But Mobius is a much nicer place to live--I see why everybody wanted to come back."

"Come back?"

"Yup. See, a couple generations ago--" she stopped and frowned. "It's kind of complicated. Let me see if I can get this right. About fifty years ago something happened with the chaos emeralds. Roughly, I think the red chaos emerald got separated from the others, or got out of balance. Something like that. Anyway, any echidna who had had contact with the emeralds was yanked into another dimension and dispersed at random throughout the universe. That included most of us--I don't know about Knuckles or his family. My clan was dumped on XR-7 and nobody knows what happened to the others.

"Anyway, a couple eggheads started messing with a machine that could open portals into other dimensions. I was bored and so volunteered to be their test unit. That means I was strapped in to the seat and looked through the portal and told them what I saw. I saw some pretty weird things, but I didn't think anything could happen to me. Then one day they opened the portal just as Metal Sonic created the distortion to pull Flicky Island into the third dimension. I materialized, travelled through the warp and ended up in the cave at Mecha's feet." She drew a breath and let it out slowly. "That's how I got here. And as far as I've seen, Knuckles is the only echidna here."

"As far as we know," Sonic agreed. "He was really broken up when we thought you were dead. He gets real lonesome for his own kind." He didn't know if he believed her or not, but she seemed to be serious.

By this time they had walked quite a distance. The forest was now right up against the sides of the path, forming dark, mysterious walls in which insects trilled the night's chorus. It seemed strange compared to the arctic chill Sonic had travelled through until now. It seemed almost stolen--skipping winter and going straight to late summer. The stars burned down like fiery eyes, shedding a faint light on the landscape. There was no moon.

"How far should we go?" Sonic asked, opening his heavy cloak to let the air cool his sweating body.

Zephyer shook her head (she didn't seem to feel the heat at all.) "We can't stop here, that's for sure. We're still too close to Diablo-- Nash's guys'd find us for sure."

"Can't we sleep in a tree?" Sonic pled. "I'm about done in."

She looked about to refuse, then thought better of it. "Yeah, I forgot--you pry aren't recovered from the stunner yet. But how do you sleep in a tree?"

"I'll show ya." Sonic turned aside and entered the woods. Zephyer hesitated a second, then followed.

The underbrush was thick and tangled, tall shrubs grown through with vines and creepers, fallen leaves crunching underfoot, brambles and thistles tearing at their legs and clothes. Sonic helped Zephyer through the most tangled thickets, privately envying her robotic protection. All the while he kept an eye on the surrounding trees, looking for one that would suit their purpose. After a while he decided on a big old elm tree with nearly horizontal branches.

"Here," Sonic said, taking off his little scanner, "use this to find dead branches on the ground and hand 'em up to me." She obeyed wordlessly and walked off into the woods as Sonic clambered up into the tree and investigated the branches. He had just settled on two forks that were good and sturdy when Zephyer returned, dragging a large limb through the undergrowth. As she helped him lift it she said, "There's a bunch of dead wood not far off--like a windfall." She put her hands on her hips and watched as Sonic laid the branch crosswise across one of the forks, then said, "Oh, I get it. Platforms. Okay, I'll be back in a minute."

It was an hour before the two tree-platforms were completed, and the two fugitives were exhausted. They flopped on the beds and were dead to the world at once.

Dawn came, hot and clear. Sonic and Zephyer slept several hours into the morning, and it was a good thing. About sunrise three bobcats, wearing Nash's violet military uniforms, passed through, scanners going full blast. Fortunately, they were looking six feet high and under, expecting Sonic and Zephyer to be sleeping on the ground, and missed them completely.

Sonic awoke from an uneasy dream of summer heat and a landscape that bobbed and swayed. For a moment he lay absolutely still, wondering where he was, staring at the boughs above him. Gradually it came back to him. He relaxed and stretched, his joints aching from sleeping on the rough branches. After a moment he sat up and looked around.

It was still early, although the sun was a fist above the horizon. The air smelled of green leaves and humidity, and the blue sky was cloudless. He glanced toward Zephyer's nest a few feet away, saw it was empty and looked around for her. She was perched sever branches up, back resting against a big limb, legs dangling on either side of a branch, bright eyes fixed on some point in the distance. She was not wearing her cloak, and her body gleamed silver in the morning light. She looked down at him and said, "Hey, you're up. How'd ya feel?"

"Awful, to tell the truth."

"Mm, likewise. I sure could do with some chow." She began to climb down. "You're the native. Is there anything to eat in a forest like this?"

Sonic shrugged regretfully. "Well, there is, but somebody like Slash or Knux would have to find it."

"Slash? Oh, that raptor with the wings. Darn." She balanced on a branch at his level. "I wish I had thought to pack some food."

Sonic changed the subject, trying to ignore the impatient growl his stomach gave. "What were you looking at?"

The echidna shrugged. "Just trying to see if we were being tracked, but you can't see a thing through these trees. We might as well get going and take our chances."

They climbed down and headed back for the road, little dreaming what was occurring elsewhere.

Nash lifted the captain by his shirtfront and hissed in his face, "What do you MEAN you couldn't find them?!?"

"We couldn't locate them, sir," the bobcat gasped, green eyes wide. "We looked everywhere within ten miles! The hedgehog must have run--"

The cougar tightened his grasp, shutting off the bobcat's breath. The fiercely angry ones burned into the frightened green ones for an instant; then Nash opened his fist and let the soldier fall to the floor.

The tawny cat stalked around the room, dark cape flowing behind him. "This is intolerable, captain. Sonic could not have gone far--he will not recover from the stunner for another thirty hours. He MUST be located and so must the traitor. I should have known not to trust her!" His burly hands knotted into fists at his sides and his tail lashed back and forth. "I should never trust anyone I have met in my own time." He whirled on the hapless bobcat, who was just climbing to his feet. "Nevertheless my plans will proceed. His pack was to be stained with his own blood, but I suppose it must be faked. I will go to his village and demand the emerald while you and your men continue searching. I want him captured or dead by the time I get there." He bared his long fangs. "Understand?"

The grey bobcat saluted hurriedly. "Yes sir, Commander."

An hour after this, Jason and Simoon entered Diablo.

Unaware of what was going on, they stopped and inquired of the way to the prison. They were pointed rather roughly in the right direction.

"Isn't it ironic," the one-eye echidna murmured as they walked along, "that Nash set up camp in the very place he ought to be?"

The orange hedgehog nodded. "I'm more worried about Sonic. How are we supposed to rescue him? This won't be like back home where we know how everything is."

"I know."

No more was said until they came into sight of the sprawling cement complex. One of the usual bobcats was standing guard outside the door. Jason and Simoon shrank down behind a parked car--they knew the guards would recognize them, having had so may run-ins before.

"What do we do?" the echidna whispered to his companion.

"I donno--you're the brain!" Jason replied. "You tell me!"

"Well," said Simoon, standing a little and peering through the car windows at the front doors of the prison, "there goes the Panther himself."

"Where?"

Nash was just coming out of the prison with some sort of package held in one hand, a dark liquid dripping from it. The two boys stared at it in horror as Nash's car pulled up to the curb and he climbed in. It wasn't until he had driven out of sight that either could make a sound.

That package had been what was left of Sonic's backpack, dripping fresh blood.

"You desire my assistance?" Robo Knux purred, staring rudely at the bobcat captain.

"Yes," the bobcat replied. "You are an excellent hunter and my men have only this time's weapons. They are not familiar with them. And if I don't locate the traitors--" he drew a finger across his throat.

The crimson robot gazed at him for a long moment without speaking, then said, "It is not for their sake then, but your own. Why are you working for Nash? You are not his kind."

The bobcat appeared uncomfortable and looked away.

Robo Knux lifted a hand to his chest and touched the small metal patch there. "Very well, I will track them for you, but not because of you. It is because of a deep grudge I carry against Sonic Hedgehog." His green crescent-eyes shimmered slightly. "You want them alive? Dead would be very entertaining."

"No, we need them alive."

"You seem bent on removing all pleasure from this job. Oh well, I will depart momentarily."

The orange hedgehog and one-eyed echidna were seated on a bench in a bus terminal a block away from the prison. Jason had his hands over his face and was weeping silently. Simoon sat with him, distressed at his friend's grief, an arm around his shoulders. "Don't cry, Jase--" he pled.

"But Sonic," moaned the hedgehog. "They well-nigh killed him to get that much blood! He might be dying now and there's nothing I can do! Oh Dad, I didn't mean for things to happen like this--"

"But Jason--"

Jason turned on him in sudden tearful wrath. "Just shut up! This never would have happened if you hadn't opened that stupid box in the first place!"

Simoon abruptly withdrew and looked away, grief coming into his eye. He sat in silence as Jason's sobs diminished, broken once in a while with, "I blew it Sonic, I blew it ... now we're both dead ... so sorry ..."

After a few minutes the hedgehog had himself under control, but still bore a look of stark anguish. "What do we do now?" he asked his companion. "We can't go home, now that we've made such a mess of the past."

Simoon gazed down at his folded hands, still stung. "I donno. We could try to find Knuckles ..."

"No, that'd mess things up even more."

Simoon glared suddenly at the hedgehog. "I may have messed up our lives, Zip, but I'm sick of messing up other people's. Nash was never supposed to come to the past. The rebellion would have overthrown him-- but no-o-o, YOU had the bright idea to toss the box into another time!"

"Excuse me ..."

The two turned to see a big, heavily built robot echidna standing behind their bench, green crescent-eyes shining. "Did I just hear you mention the name 'Zip'?"

Jason shot a killing glance at Simoon and said, "No sir, nobody here said anything like that."

"Well," said the robot, leaning his elbows on the bench's backrest, "if you happen to see this 'Zip' fellow, tell him that the accursed Sonic is still alive and on the lam. Affirmative?"

Jason gulped and nodded. Something about the robot set his heart to racing in his chest. The robot gave a mechanical nod and clanked away. As soon as he was out of sight, Jason turned and hissed savagely, "How many times did I tell you--we CAN'T use our nicknames in this time! That robot is probably WORKING for Nash!"

"Sorry," Simoon replied. "It just slipped out."

"Yeah, like when you kept calling Sonic 'Mr. Hedgehog'."

"That's what I'm used to calling him! It's not polite to call adults by their first names!"

"He's not an adult here, idiot. He's still a kid!"

Simoon saw his chance to head off an argument. "Did that robot say he escaped?"

The ferocity faded from Jason's face as it dawned on him. "He sure did!" Then his eyes darkened. "It could be a trick, though. We start looking for Sonic and Nash's guys mug us."

"Yeah, but that robot might be looking for Mr.--for Sonic, too. We could follow him ..."

"Gimme a break. You can't follow a robot without it knowing. And what about the--well, you know, what Nash had?"

"It coulda been faked ..." Simoon said doubtfully. "Besides, what about your ring? We could travel partially materialized and the robot would never know."

Jason stood, looking hopeful. "It might work. Let's trail that robot!"

"Did you know that today is March first?" Zephyer said.

Sonic shrugged. "Nope. My watch don't keep track of the date."

"Well, mine does," said the echidna. She looked up at the sky. "They say that when March comes in like a lamb it goes out like a lion, and vice versa."

Sonic glanced at the calm, bright day around them. "This be the lamb, then."

The two were walking along a thin path through the woods, once again wearing their black cloaks. The late morning sun glared down through the treetops, already hot as a late-summer heat-wave can be. Birds chirped and sang in the dusty greenness around them, and insects buzzed and sawed. "Wow," Sonic commented. "It's almost as noisy as the Floating Island in the springtime!" He winced a little. "Well, like the Floating Island USED to be."

"Why?" Zephyer asked. "What happened to it?"

Sonic gave her an abbreviated overview of the terbium and of its deadly effects on Knuckles's home. When he finished Zephyer looked pained and sympathetic. "Gee, I didn't know Knuckles had it so hard. Imagine not only being the last of your kind, but to lose your inheritance, too ..."

"He didn't lose it," Sonic hedged. "It just got kind of messed up."

They walked along in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds being their feet on the dirt path. Suddenly Zephyer lifted her head and slowed to a stop. "Sonic, what's that sound?"

He pricked his ears. "What sound? ... oh ..." He heard it and identified it instantly. It was a high, airy whine--a jet-engine far off. He whirled, searching the sky through the green canopy above. "Robo Knux," he growled through his teeth.

"Oh great!" Zephyer exclaimed, following his example and scanning the sky. "We'd better hide!"

"Too late," Sonic said grimly. "If you can hear his engines then you've been spotted."

Zephyer set her teeth and her eyes narrowed. "I'm not going down without a fight." Under her cloak, Sonic saw her arms morph into a sword and laser cannon. He shook his head; she had spunk, but she was no match for the ruthless, unpredictable robot. "Change back," he said. "As soon as he lands, grab on to me and don't let go. I can outrun anything."

The echidna gazed at him uncertainly for a moment. Then, perhaps knowing that she stood little chance in combat, morphed her arms back into their original shapes.

The scream of the robot's engines was very close now. Before long they glimpsed his red form through the trees above. He flew with his arms out to the sides, wing-like, and the jets in his deadlocks going strong. His green crescent-eyes were fixed on the forest below, watching with every instrument he had. Sonic waved to him cockily. Robo Knux abruptly cut his thrust, hovered, then slowly descended to land on his feet five yards away from them.

"Don't look at his eyes," Sonic whispered out of the corner of his mouth as the robot began to move forward. Indeed, Robo Knux's green eyes were wavering and shimmering in his most hypnotic patterns. His favorite method of subduing an enemy was to mesmerize them and lead them captive without chains.

"Hello, Sonic Hedgehog and Zephyer Winstrom," he purred, lifting a clawed hand in greeting. "Nice to see you again."

Sonic quietly took ahold of Zephyer's wrist and backed away a step. "Hi, R.K.," he replied evenly. "I didn't expect to ever see you again."

"Yes, I do get around," Robo Knux returned, moving up a step.

Sonic backed away accordingly, pulling Zephyer along with him.

"And how is my old friend Metal Sonic?"

Sonic sideyed his companion and didn't answer.

Robo Knux saw this and asked with approval, "Ah, so HE is the one who robotized you, eh Zephyer?"

Her eyes burned and she clenched her teeth to keep from answering.

Again the robot moved forward, and again the two moved back. "I have been bidden to bring the two of you back alive," the robot said peaceably. "But how much alive remains to be seen. Will you come quietly?"

This was too much; Sonic's fury bubbled over. "After all the things you've done," he spat, "I'll never come quietly with you ANYWHERE."

"You are much like your brother," Robo Knux said coolly.

Sonic somehow sensed that the robot would attack. He tightened his grip on Zephyer's wrist, whirled and began to run. There was a roar of engines, a sharp clank, a gasp from Zephyer and the sound of tearing cloth. Sonic glanced back to see that Robo Knux had sprang and dug his knuclaws into Zephyer's back. But, as her back was clad in metal, his claws were repelled and he merely ripped a section out of her cloak.

Then Sonic was flying and Robo Knux was lost from sight behind them. Zephyer was doing her best to keep up with him, but her eyes were wild. "He won't give up so easily," she panted. "I know him."

"I know him better," Sonic replied grimly, eyes on the path ahead. "He'll be furious and I don't have my belt this time."

"Belt?"

"I'll explain later."

Trees flashed by on either side, blurred by their speed. Sonic was hard put to keep from slamming his companion into obstacles and so kept his speed to a low forty miles an hour. He tossed an occasional nervous glance over his shoulder, expecting any moment to see the red robot bearing down on them.

Abruptly the terrain sloped uphill and rocks appeared. They could not see very far ahead because of the forest. "Keep and eye out for R.K.," Sonic instructed. "I gotta concentrate on navigation!"

The ground became steeper and rockier. The trees began to thin out, the light around them brightening. Sonic wished he could see further ahead--he couldn't plan his course unless he could see--

"Go left!" Zephyer shrieked.

Sonic glanced to the right and saw Robo Knux flying at them from the side, eyes a fiery emerald green. Immediately the hedgehog swerved left to avoid him, mentally kicking himself for not remembering the robot's keen strategy programming.

Because of the uphill terrain and trees, Robo Knuckles might have overtaken them, but Zephyer was a quick thinker. Sonic had her by the right arm--her left arm was free. She morphed it into her laser and began sniping at their pursuer. Some of her wild shots came uncomfortably close to their mark, making the robot duck to the side. Once he dodged a laser and slammed head-first into a tree, losing considerable ground.

Bright, unfiltered sunlight ahead. Sonic made for it, heart thundering in his ears. He was tiring, and Zephyer was focused more on target-practice than running with him. He was towing her weight and running on reserves.

They burst into the sun. Sonic glanced around and felt a shock of horror race through him. They had come out of the forest in the bottom of a rocky, steep-sided canyon. The ground was so rough he could never get enough speed to scale the cliffs. Robo Knux had seen this with his scanners and herded them in. Again, Sonic kicked himself for not seeing the robot's intention.

His echidna companion voiced his thoughts. "I think we're trapped." She too was looking around at their predicament. "Where did this ravine come from?"

"Who knows," Sonic panted. As he slowed he suddenly realized he didn't feel right. It was the long-reaching after-effects of the stunner; he had not yet fully recovered and was bone-tired and dizzy.

Robo Knux had stopped just outside the forest and was hovering five feet in the air, arms folded, watching them smugly. He had them buffaloed and knew it. Let them look for an avenue of escape--his scanners told him there were none. Maybe once they realized that they would be a little more reasonable.

Sonic, seeing that the robot was not pursuing, leaned wearily against a boulder. He was winded and somehow the spirit had gone out of him. Zephyer moved off a few steps, turning around and around, scrutinizing the walls for a way out. Finally she turned back to the hedgehog. "Can you get us out?"

He shook his head. "I can't run fast enough in these rocks. Besides, I'm too tired to run anymore ..."

"HA!" came Robo Knux's shout. "The stunner is functioning correctly!"

Sonic shot a hateful look in his direction, then looked down at the ground. "I can't go anymore, Zeff. You might be able to climb out. They really only want me, I guess ..."

"What is the MATTER with you?!"

The absolute exasperation in her voice made him look up. Her hands were on her hips, red hair ablaze in the sun, blue eyes like an iceberg.

"I didn't come this far on my own, Sonic. I did this to save YOU. And there is absolutely no way I'm gonna let HIM take you away! I'll die first!" Her voice trembled with fury, then lowered into scornful tones. "And here I thought you were some kind of hero ..."

"Bravo!" Robo Knux called, clapping his metallic hands. "Brilliant speech, Zeff! Now Sonic, would you like to go back rare, medium or well done?"

Sonic slowly stood erect and faced the robot. Zephyer's heated words had reawakened the fight in him, if only for a short time. "Forget it, jerk-o-matic!" he yelled, hands doubled into fists at his sides. "I'll never give up! Never never never!"

Suddenly the world around him faded into a grey mist. His own words: "Never, never!" were echoing in his ears. Then his voice merged with another: a younger voice yelling the same words. In the mist before him he saw an orange hedgehog--Jason--being dragged away into darkness, shouting, "I'll never tell you where the emerald is! Never never never!"

The vision vanished, but Sonic remained suspended in grey nothing, like an empty sheet of paper. Sudden terror stabbed through him--was he dead? "What is this?" he yelled. His voice rang and echoed, as if he were in a vast tunnel. He turned his head and saw to his vast relief that Zephyer was a few feet away, looking bewildered as he was. "Are we dead?" he asked her.

"I have no idea," she replied. "Maybe this is some hypnotic invention of Robo Knux's?"

"No it's not."

They turned. There in the mist stood--or floated--Jason and Simoon.

"Hey," Sonic exclaimed. "What're you guys doing here? Where are we?"

Jason looked at Simoon and said, "We're between the third and fourth dimensions."

"The void?"

"No ... just an in-between place. We pulled you here just in time--Robo Knux was going to torch you with his flame-jets. That's why he asked you how much you'd like to be cooked."

"He doesn't have a flamethrower," Sonic said.

"Yes he does," Simoon contradicted. "He installed it himself."

"So what good is this place?" Zephyer broke in, pulling her torn cloak around her nervously. "Put us back on Mobius, you two."

"Actually," Jason said, looking down, "we were going to hide you where Nash would never find you."

"Yeah right," Sonic said scornfully. "There's nowhere in the world we could hide from that guy."

"You could if you were in our time."

Simoon gasped as if he had just taken a blow to the stomach. "Jase, no! Not our time! That's ZEPHYER, Jase--"

"But isn't Nash FROM your time?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah," the orange hedgehog replied, ignoring his friend. "That's why it'd be so perfect! He'd NEVER look for you THERE!"

Sonic felt Zephyer grab his arm, afraid. He couldn't say he was too wild about sudden time-travel, either. He swallowed, looked around at the blank mist and said, "Just get us out of this place. Then we'll talk."

Jason held out his right hand. He wore a gold ring on one finger. It was quite simple with one clear, round stone in it, like a moonstone. He rubbed his fingers over it and the mist faded away.

Sonic blinked and looked around. They were standing on a paved road through a snowy plain. He could see nothing more--wait, there seemed to be building of some kind a mile off. The sun was shining, glaring off the white snow. It was cold.

"Jason," Simoon muttered, "you'd better learn to control that thing better."

"I got us here, didn't I?" the orange hedgehog snapped. He turned and seemed about to say something to Sonic, but saw Zephyer for the first time and stiffened. She looked at him, then down at herself uneasily. "What?"

"You--you're--" he stuttered.

Simoon punched his arm. "See?" he hissed. "I told you not to bring 'em here!"

"It's Zephyer!" Jason finally managed. "I didn't notice--"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Here we go again. Just ignore 'em, Zeff. They carry on like that, then tell you they can't answer any questions."

"Oh." She brushed her hair out of her face and looked at the one- eyed echidna with pity. "You poor kid. What happened to your eye?"

"It got burned," Simoon replied automatically.

Jason bristled, hissed a savage, "Shut up!" and said politely, "Sorry Zephyer, but no questions while we're here."

"See?" Sonic muttered, then fell into step behind the two as they began to walk toward the town in the distance. He was sick of the secrecy, and his odd weariness combined with this to put him in a rather irascible mood. He pestered Simoon and Jason with questions as they went along. He got Jason to admit that they had got the ring from a friend who was familiar with inter-dimensional travel, that this was indeed a future in Sonic and Zephyer's lifetime, and that Nash was the one currently in command. There he refused to talk anymore and wouldn't let Simoon speak, either.

Only Zephyer, with her female observation, noticed the look of terrible stress on the orange hedgehog's face.

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

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

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

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

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

Sally nodded. "The usual."

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

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

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

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

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

"What's your name?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She looked at him blankly. "Why?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Simoon nodded miserably.

"Why aren't you targeted?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sonic nodded without speaking, eyes on the grey carpet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sonic returned his gaze and didn't answer.

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

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

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

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

"No," came the toneless, automatic reply.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Huh?"

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

"How does Slasher get in?"

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

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

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

"How?"

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

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

"Well, no ..."

"C'mon, deliver."

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

"Hello ..."

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

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

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

"What do we do?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Commies?" Zephyer asked.

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

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

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

"Where does it go?" Simoon asked.

"To Knothole," was the nonchalant reply.

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

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

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

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

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

"Back here, Slasher!" a voice called.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Yeah."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Could Jason do it?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"A pine," Simoon said unwillingly.

"How about those white trees?"

"Birch."

"How about that grey one?"

"Sycamore."

"What's that one?"

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

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

Simoon rolled his eye. "A bird."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"When Slasher gets back--"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Who is it?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Do you HAVE to tell him?"

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

Sonic looked away and bit his lower lip.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You let Nash murder my son."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There were several.

"Won't our lives be changed?"

"Will history be altered drastically?"

"What if Nash finds out?"

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

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

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

Toward dawn young-Sonic had a nightmare.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What's going down?" he asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Commander Nash ..."

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

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

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

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

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

"Sir?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What movies?" Zephyer panted.

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

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

They looked at her. "What?"

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

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

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

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

"How do you know?" Sonic asked.

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

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

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

The eighth chaos emerald.

"Suitable place for it," Sonic observed dryly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unfortunately, Nash was only a few seconds behind them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Sonic!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What for?"

"A safety line."

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

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

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

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

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

"What about you?" she asked.

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

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

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

"Yeah, and?"

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

"Again?"

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

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

Robin fired.

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

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

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

Then the treacherous dimension proceeded to turn on its operator.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"A righteous King ..." Robin added.

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

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

"Huh?"

"Do you have light?"

"No, Robin has it."

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

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

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

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

"What do you mean?"

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

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

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

"What will happen?"

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

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

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

"Why?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"All righty then. Here you go!"

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

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

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

"You heard, eh?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Of course. How many people live there?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She considered a moment, then finally agreed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Are you recovered?"

"Straight up!"

"What happened to your legs?"

"Got caught in some barbed-wire."

"What happened to your hair?"

"I had a heck of a barber."

"We heard you were murdered!"

"Not quite, obviously."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The echidna shrugged. "Nothing much."

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

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

"That desert planet? Yeah."

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

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

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

"This'll be an interesting summer."

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

"Do you know if Knux has the light?"

"No. He's never said."

"Should I tell him about mine?"

"Of course."

"Who after that?"

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

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

The End