Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Myla and Sonic left the City hand in hand, playfully bickering about whether or not six-thirty in the morning was a good time to get ice cream. They ultimately decided ‘no’, mostly because there was nowhere serving ice cream at six-thirty in the morning, and ended up stopping at a small café outside the City and getting pancakes.

The trip out to Angel Island had been fantastic; they spent the whole first week just being tourists during the day and camping at night. Myla had her guitar with her and would play late into the night, singing whatever came to mind. Sometimes, if he recognized the song, Sonic sang along with her. They went to bed every night with their sleeping bags side by side, and every morning Myla always found herself waking up in Sonic’s arms.

Sonic took advantage of the fact Myla had spent most of her life in Sunset Heights to show her everything he’d loved from his travels; the old Marble Gardens outside of Green Hills, the beaches around Emerald Hills, the gorgeous architecture of Apotos… he promised her that after she recovered from her surgery, he would take her even more places.

That promise was the only part of surgery that Myla was looking forward to.

Angel Island was still grounded when they got there and seemed to be completely empty of badniks. Sonic presumed that everything there must have been an illusion made by Metal and with him gone, Eggman didn’t care about the island anymore. Myla hoped he was right.

“Looks like no one’s been here since we left,” she said, looking around at the Hidden Palace when they arrived, early one morning before the sun had risen. “Everything looks the same.” Sonic nodded.

“Yeah, weird for Eggman to just leave an emerald alone… so, what’s your plan?”

“I love that you think I have a plan.” He laughed.

“Yeah, I haven’t got one either.” Myla raised her hand for a high five, which Sonic gave to her.

“We are good at this.” She looked at the Master Emerald, setting her bag and wispon on the floor. “The Master Emerald was supposedly attracted to the ruby’s energy… I’m gonna try touching it; maybe I’ll get a reaction.”

“Alright,” he agreed with a nod. “Be careful.”

The most unfair part was she hadn’t even touched the Emerald when the portal opened. It just appeared in front of her as she was moving forward; she had no choice but to fall into it. It looked like a tunnel to Null Space had formed around her, but there was no sound of a reality warp.

“Myla!” She was falling face first through oblivion when she heard Sonic yell her name, getting herself turned around just in time to see him dive through the portal after her. She reached out towards him, tried to make herself fall slower. She knew she could use the ruby’s powers… her powers now, but had no idea what they’d do in a place like this. Sonic was getting farther and farther away from her, there was nothing for him to run on… a couple platforms, that wouldn’t be bad, right? It wouldn’t hurt her…

Before she could make the attempt, she heard him scream.

“Sonic?!” Something was happening to him; he was curled up, clenching his stomach, shaking. “Hang on, I’m coming!”

“No! Stay back!” Myla’s eyes widened as Sonic began to change. He got bigger… his fur got darker… she felt something wrap around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides, pushing her guitar tight against her back. She looked down and found herself trapped within a giant claw.

“Let me go!” She struggled, kicking and screaming, trying to get free. She heard an ear shattering roar and looked back towards Sonic.

The Sonic coming towards her was not the Sonic she was used to; this was by far the weirdest thing she’d ever seen.

Whatever was coming towards her disappeared as she felt herself pulled backwards; the walls of energy cubes vanished, the portal closing seconds after she was pulled through. Sonic never made it out.

“Sonic!” Myla found herself dangling within the claw’s grasp, held over what looked like some sort of energy field powered by various machines. Very familiar looking machines…

“Well, well, what do we have we here?”  Myla looked around, finding herself looking down onto a large bald man with a huge mustache.

“Let me go, Eggman!” she yelled, still struggling with the claw. “I swear, if you’ve broken my guitar, I will rip your mustache off and use it as new strings!” The man raised an eyebrow.

“Eggman? That must be my counterpart in your dimension.” He grinned at her. “My name is Doctor Robotnik; I don’t know why my machine brought you here, but I am going to find out.”

***

It was a beautiful morning, Tails thought as he sat on the roof of his workshop, looking up at the sky with his camera. He’d been waiting for months for this: a meteor shower would be visible from their part of South Island early in the morning. Sonic was going to miss it of course, him not being an early morning person, but Tails was sure he’d be able to get a few good pictures to show him later.

“Hey Tails!” He looked down over the side of his roof.

“Knuckles! What brings you here?”

“I was coming over to check out that meteor shower you’ve been talking about.” The red echidna climbed up the side of Tails’ workshop, settling down next to him. “Also wanted to know if you’ve seen anything strange while you’ve been out here?”

“Strange how?” Tails asked.

“I’m not sure myself,” Knuckles admitted. “I felt some strange energies while I was heading over here.”

“Related to the Master Emerald?”

“No, I’ve got that stashed somewhere safe… honestly, one of them felt like that Phantom Ruby that Robotnik had…”

“That vanished after we defeated the Hard Boiled Heavies, didn’t it?”

“Yeah …”

“What about the other energy?” Knuckles shook his head.

“That one… that one I’m really worried about…”

“Why’s… oh look! Here comes the meteor shower!” Knuckles looked up to where Tails was pointing; sure enough, hundreds of fiery spheres were shooting through the sky. He could hear Tails’ camera clicking away as he tried to get as many pictures as he could. “What the…?”

“What’s up?”

“There’s something else up there, falling!” Tails handed Knuckles his camera, pointing. “Right there, look!” Knuckles head the viewfinder on the camera up to his eye and looked where Tails was pointing; sure enough, there was something else, something very much not a giant space rock, falling from the sky. He stared at it for a bit, trying to decide if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

“Is… is that a giant hedgehog?!” Tails let out a huge sigh of relief.

“I am so glad I’m not the only one to think that…”

“It’s coming right for us!”

“It’s going to land on the beach!” Tails jumped up, intending to fly over to it, only to be held back by Knuckles. “What’s wrong?”

“That other energy… the one I’m worried about. It’s coming from whatever that thing is.” He handed Tails back his camera. “Stay here, I’ll check it out.”

Seconds after Knuckles started to glide towards where the possible giant hedgehog was going to land, it landed. The entire beach shook, as well as the workshop and Tails himself. He barely managed to keep himself from falling off the roof; what ever the thing was, it was definitely heavy.

“Tails!” The young fox jumped. “Tails, are you alright?”

“Sonic?” He looked down off the roof; Sonic was standing in the sand, arms crossed over his chest, looking concerned. “What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean what am I doing here?! I felt that huge earthquake and came to check on you!”

“It wasn’t an earthquake… you’re not going to believe this, but a giant hedgehog just fell out of the sky!” Sonic stared at him.

“Did one of those meteors hit you on the head, buddy?”

“I’m not kidding!” Tails exclaimed, point to where the impact happened. “Knuckles is down there checking it out!”

“Well what are we waiting around here for? Let’s go!”

***

The sun was just starting to rise as Knuckles landed near the crater created by the unidentified flying hedgehog. He walked up to it slowly, peering over the edge. It was, in fact a giant hedgehog, with matching giant teeth and giant claws.  It was lying on it’s back, seemingly unconscious… and somehow it looked really familiar…

“Hey, Knuckles!”

“Sonic?” The blue hedgehog was at his side in an instant, and Knuckles could hear Tails flying behind him.

“Holy Mother of Chili Dogs,” Sonic said. “That’s a giant hedgehog….” He tilted his head slightly. “He looks kinda familiar, doesn’t he?” Before Knuckles could reply, the sun crept down into the crater and onto the monstrous hedgehog; it suddenly started to glow… and shrink.

“What’s happening?” Tails asked as he landed next to Sonic. He had barely finished his sentence when the glow faded, leaving a much smaller, but no less familiar, hedgehog behind.

“It’s Sonic!” Sonic said, jumping down into the crater. “The one from the other dimension!”

“What’s he doing here?” Knuckles asked, hopping down after him.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Tails added. Before anyone could answer, the other Sonic started to move a little.

“Easy,” Sonic said. “Take it easy…” The other Sonic opened his eyes and looked at his counter part. “It’s okay, everything’s okay…” The other Sonic shook his head a little.

“Myla… where’s my Myla…”

Chapter Text

The good news was that Myla’s guitar was not broken. The bad news was that this Robotnik took it from her moments before forcing a thick metal collar around her neck and similar looking shackles on her wrists. He then had a pair of badniks (Eggrobos, Robotnik had called them) throw her onto a metal platform. With the press of a button, walls shot up, creating a metal dome around her and trapping her inside. It was so cramped in there, she couldn’t imagine more than two or three people being in it at a time.

She would very much like to imagine herself outside of it.

“Let me out of here!” Being restrained was bad enough, but being locked in this… thing? This was so much worse. She had always hated small enclosed spaces like this, had ever since she was a child. It was one of the few vivid memories she of her childhood; being trapped inside something barely bigger than she was, completely dark and silent… she was going to lose her mind in here, she was sure of it.

“I don’t know where you came from, hedgehog,” her captor said, looking at her through the only tiny window on the capsule. “But my claw machine is designed to track and retrieve powerful energy signatures; it should have taken the Master Emerald from your dimension. Instead, it grabbed hold of you.” He smirked. “We’ll be running some tests later to find out exactly why that is.” His face disappeared from the window. Myla pounded on the window, hoping that she could break it somehow, then tried to slip out of her shackles, both to no avail. She eventually gave up, falling onto her back, panting.

Her chest hurt so much right now. Which honestly wasn’t fair, she hadn’t used her powers at all since leaving the hospital. Under any other circumstance, she probably could have used them to break free, but with the way her heart was pounding, she didn’t dare try. She’d just have to wait… for what, she didn’t know. She didn’t have her bag or her wispon, she’d dropped them at some point, her communicator had been taken by Robotnik… she was alone again. She felt broken again.

Is this what we’re doing? You could just blast your way out of here.

And she saw something happen to Sonic, something she didn’t currently have the energy to wrap her head around… and she had no idea if he had made it to wherever she was or not.

“Sonic… please be okay…”

Oh, still ignoring me, Ruby? That’s fine. I’ll wait.

***

“Who’s Myla?” Knuckles asked as he helped his friend carry this new Sonic, who had passed out shortly after asking for her, to Tails’ workshop. He’d been aware of Sonic’s various adventures in another dimension with another Sonic, but he never actually thought he’d meet them.

“She’s from his dimension,” Sonic replied. “She helped us stop their Robotnik… he goes by Eggman there, it’s really weird.”

“Eggman, really?”

“Yeah…” He helped Knuckles set Sonic on a bench in the workshop. “I don’t know why they’d be here though…” Tails came in with a pitcher of water and some glasses, setting everything down on a table.

“Has he always been a… werehog?” Tails asked. Sonic shook his head.

“Not that I know of.”

“Whatever he is,” Knuckles cut in, “there’s a darkness to him. He’s the source of one of the energies I picked up on… maybe the second one is this Myla? Should we try and look for her?” Sonic nodded.

“Yeah… she could be hurt somewhere…”

“You’re the only one that knows what she looks like,” Tails pointed out. “You and Knuckles should go see if you can find her; I’ll stay here with Sonic. The other Sonic… you know what I mean.”

***

“Are you sure they made it here?” Shadow asked as he walked with Knuckles and Amy through the Lava Reef passages towards the Hidden Palace. The moment Myla had missed her regular check in, Knuckles announced he was heading to Angel Island to look for her and Sonic; Amy volunteered to go along, and Shadow wasn’t letting her go anywhere remotely dangerous without him.

“She said yesterday that she and Sonic were planning to get here today,” Knuckles replied. “I figure we can start here at least. Maybe her communicator’s busted or ran out of batteries.”

“Hopefully that’s all it us,” Amy replied. “I was sure she packed…” She froze suddenly. “Oh no… look!” Shadow looked in the direction she was pointing and frowned.

In front of the Master Emerald was Myla’s bag and wispon. Myla and Sonic were nowhere to be seen. Amy ran over and picked up her bag, checking inside.

“Her communicator isn’t in here… and I don’t see her guitar.”

“I found Sonic’s bag,” Shadow said, picking it up off the floor a few feet away. “It’s like they just vanished.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know,” Knuckles said, frowning. “But we’re not going to find out by just standing here. Let’s look around, see if we can find anything. I’ll call Tails, have him bring the Miles Electric here to see what he can pick up.”

***

He was running. What was he running from? Or… running after? Sonic wasn’t sure.

He felt slow. Heavy somehow. But so, so powerful.

He heard footsteps. Not his own, someone else’s. He was chasing someone then, and he was getting close. He could smell their fear… he could smell something familiar.

There was a crash in front of him. He smelled blood now, heard a painful cry. He could see them now; they had tripped over something and fallen to the ground. They were picking themselves up slowly, there was blood dripping off their arms, injuries from their fall.

He was on them in seconds, tackling them back to the ground. They cried out in pain again; the voice… it was familiar somehow. He flipped them over to see their face.

It was Myla.

“Sonic,” she begged, trying to push herself away from him. He pinned her to the ground with one of his giant claws, feeling her heart race. “Sonic… Please…” She was so scared. He snarled and her, leaning down towards her throat. “No!”

Chapter Text

“MYLA!”

Sonic sat straight up, covered in sweat, his heart pounding. A dream… a nightmare… he hadn’t just turned into a wearhog and killed his Myla, it was just a nightmare.

But he had turned into the werehog again. He remembered that vividly; that familiar pain of his body contorting into that monster for the first time. It shouldn’t have been possible, he and Chip stopped Dark Gaia… Sonic looked at his wrist where Chip’s necklace usually was, worn to remind him of their adventures. He still had it, of course; he’d taken it off before the war started, wanting to keep it safe. It was back at his house, in a chest under his bed… he missed the little guy. Knowing he’d never see him again didn’t help.

On his wrist now was a bracelet made of purple and gold string, woven together in a diamond pattern. Myla had made it for him while they were in Apotos…

“Myla… Myla?!”

“She’s not here…” Sonic jumped a little before turning towards the voice. Tails was standing in a nearby doorway. A Tails was anyway.

“You’re a little short to be my Tails…” Tails grinned at him.

“That’s okay, you’re a little tall to be my Sonic.” Tails handed him a glass of water, which he accepted. “Sonic and Knuckles are out looking for Myla,” he continued. “She wasn’t with you when you fell…” Sonic nodded a little, drinking his water.

“Something brought us here,” he said. “A portal or something. She fell in first; something grabbed her before I could get to her…” He sighed, remembering the look on her face when that claw wrapped around her, when it started pulling her away from him.

“You… um… you looked different when you got here,” Tails said cautiously.

“I bet… it’s a long story…”

“I’ve got time.” Sonic chuckled a little.

“Yeah… okay.” He told Tails about how Eggman had captured him in his super form, using his energy and that of the chaos emeralds to awaken Dark Gaia. He told him about how he and Chip defeated Dark Gaia, sealing him back within the planet. “When I jumped in after Myla,” he continued, “something triggered the transformation. I don’t know what, but now… I’m probably going to change every night until we figure out what happened.”

“We can work on that once we find your friend,” Tails promised. “Like I said, Sonic and Knuckles are out looking for her now. We could probably meet up with them if you want?” Sonic nodded.

“Yeah… how long until nightfall?”

“Three or four hours; we found you right at sunrise, but you slept for a while.” Sonic got to his feet and stretched.

“Lets see if we can at least meet up with them before I change again… hopefully Myla recognizes me when we find her.” Tails nodded.

“You’re really worried about her huh?”

“Yeah, she’s… she’s my Myla…” Tails nodded, smiling. Understanding. Girlfriend would have been so much easier to say, but it somehow didn’t fit. It wasn’t enough somehow… “She also has a heart condition,” he continued. “She’s supposed to have surgery in a few days…”

“We should get going then; come on!” Sonic followed Tails outside, looking at this new world he was in; the beach they were on was beautiful, Myla was going to love it.

They just needed to find her.

***

The collar around Myla’s neck and shackles around her wrists would send a paralytic energy through her if she tried to run, something she discovered when she was let out of her prison and made a break for it. It didn’t hurt, yet as Robotnik had put it, but it would soon enough if she didn’t ‘behave’. She now found herself strapped to an examination table, being scanned by a large machine that he claimed analyzed energy signatures. She hated the fact that she was kind of impressed with the whole thing.

“How interesting!” Robotnik declared as he looked at the scans he had taken. “You are infused with the powers of the Phantom Ruby, that explains why the claw went after you instead on the Master Emerald.”

“Sonic destroyed the Phantom Ruby,” Myla said. “I’m not infused with anything.”

Way to sell that, Ruby, he’s definitely going to let you go now.

“Lying doesn’t become you.” He grinned down at her. He had a cartoonish look about him, it somehow made him creepier than Eggman in Myla’s mind. “There are many out there who would be interested in this power of yours; you’re lucky I found you before any of them did.”

“Why’s that?”

“I know to keep you alive.”

“How comforting,” Myla said flatly.

“I would hope so,” he replied, turning off the scanners. “Eggrobos! Take her back to the capsule.”

“You said you were after the Master Emerald,” Myla said quickly, trying to buy time before they locked her up again. “Why would you steal one from another dimension, you have to have one here!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Robotnik replied with a smirk. The Eggrobos unstrapped her from the table, each one holding her tightly by the arm.

“Please don’t put me back in there!” Myla begged. She wasn’t actively struggling with them, but she wasn’t making it easy for them to take her back. “You got these things on me, you don’t have to put me in there again!”

Oh yes, that’s really going to convince him.

“I know.” She was thrown onto the platform again, the walls coming up around her before she could move. “We’ll see what else you can do later, hedgehog.” She looked out the small window just in time to see him and the Eggrobos leave, one of the bots turning out the lights, leaving her in complete darkness. She rested her forehead against the small window, pounding on it once with one of her fists.

She wanted to cry. Scream. Something. She didn’t have the energy for any of it. She looked out the window one last time before letting herself fall to the floor, curling up as tight as she could, trying to make herself as small as possible in the tiny prison. He would be back soon, she was sure. Back to run more scans, run those tests he kept mentioning…

Until then, all she could do was try to stay calm and hope her Sonic was somewhere out there.

He’s going to kill you, Ruby, and you’re not even lifting a hand to stop him.

Chapter Text

Sonic and Knuckles did a quick search of the area around Tails workshop; when they didn’t find Myla there, they headed for Robotnik’s lair. The place wasn’t well hidden, being that it looked like a giant metal replica of his head, so it didn’t take them long to get there. They climbed up to a window high on the dome that looked down into one of Eggman’s laboratories.

“Is that her?” Knuckles whispered. Sonic looked down and sure enough, there was Myla. She was different from what he remembered; her hair was longer, her tie dye shirt was replaced with a simple grey one, and she seemed to have some sort of collar around her neck. Looking further, she also had shackles around her wrists. She was running, chased by two of Robotnik’s Eggrobos, clearly trying to escape.

“We should get in there,” Sonic said. As Knuckles nodded his agreement, Myla suddenly stopped moving; her entire body went stiff, the collar and shackles were glowing. She remained still as the Eggrobos got to her, grabbing her by the arms and taking her over to an exam table, where they strapped her down. Once she was secured, the glowing on her restraints had stopped and she appeared to be able to move again.

“I wouldn’t do that again, hedgehog,” Robotnik said. Sonic glared down at him, listening intently. “The restraints are currently programmed to paralyze you if you try to escape. If you don’t start to behave, that will change.”

“Noted,” Myla replied, glaring back at him.

“Jerk,” Knuckles muttered. “If we went down and got her, he’d just flip a switch and she’d be stuck.” Sonic nodded, still watching what was happening in the laboratory below. He was doing some sort of scan on her, yellow lights moving up and down her body.

“We’ll have to go get Tails,” he said after a moment. “He’ll probably be able to those off of her…”

The two of them listened as Robotnik touted his discovery of the Phantom Ruby energy inside Myla, her denial about it, his dismissal of her denial… his orders to the Eggrobos to put her back in the capsule.

“Please don’t put me back in there!” Myla’s plea was chilling. She sounded so scared… she looked so scared. “You got theses things on me, you don’t have to put me in there again!”

“I know.” The Eggrobos unceremoniously dropped her on the platform, the capsule quickly forming around her. Sonic could see her face in the small window, her forehead resting on the glass.

“She looks terrified…”

“Claustrophobic,” Knuckles replied with a frown. “We’ll need to work fast.” Sonic watched as one of the Eggrobos shut off the lights in the room, leaving Myla in darkness.

“Let’s go get Sonic and Tails.”

***

“There they are!” Tails yelled. “Sonic! Knuckles!” He watched his friends slow to a stop as he flew down to them, the other Sonic arriving shortly after. Tails couldn’t help thinking things were about to get complicated.

“Good to see you again, Sonic,” Big Sonic said, offering his hand to his counterpart, who took it and gave it a shake.

“Likewise, man. You know Knuckles.”

“You are smaller than the one I know,” Big Sonic replied with a grin.

“Bet I punch just as hard!” Knuckles replied with a glare.

“We can talk about that later,” Little Sonic cut in. “Sonic, we’ve found Myla; Robotnik has her.” He quickly explained what he and Knuckles had saw, noticing how his double’s fists clenched as he told the story. “We wanted to go after her, but she’s got those restraints on her…”

“It wouldn’t have made any sense, he could have kept hurting her,” Big Sonic finished. “I get it…” He closed his eyes, trying to remain as calm as possible. Myla being claustrophobic was no news to him; it was honestly one of the first things he learned about her.

***

“So Tails was running scans with his Miles Electric,” Sonic said, hands behind his head, looking up at the ceiling of the shuttle back to the planet. He was seated beside the rookie—Myla, he remembered; happy to have literally anyone to talk to, he just started running his mouth about how he ended up on the Death Egg in the first place. “And he wasn’t getting anything, which of course should have been the first clue that things were about to go horribly wrong… hey, where is Tails?”

“I’m sorry,” Myla replied softly, her voice strangely muffled. “I don’t know… I don’t think I’ve met him…”

“Really? That doesn’t seem like him at all…”

Sonic turned to look at her; she had her feet up on her seat, her arms wrapped around her legs, hugging them close to her with her face buried into her knees. She was shaking, he could hear her breathing hard...

“Hey, buddy?” Sonic asked softly, gently resting his hand on her shoulder. “You okay?” She didn’t say anything, just shook her head. “Are you hurt?”

“No… sorry. I’ll be fine.” Sonic frowned, trying to figure out what was happening. She’d been okay aboard the Death Egg, same with when they ran into the shuttle… before the shuttle closed up…

“It’s tight in here, isn’t it?” She turned her head a little to look at him. “I’ve never liked being cooped up,” he continued. “The smaller the place, the worse it is…” He smiled at her. “Same for you?”

“Yeah.” She lifted her head up a little, her shaking having subsided slightly. “I… I got shoved in a locker when I was a kid; some older kids at school thought it’d be funny. It was the end of the day, everyone else had left… I don’t know how long I was in there before a janitor found me.”

“Deep breaths,” Sonic told her. “Nice and slow; in through your nose, out of your mouth. Close your eyes; don’t think about where you are, think about where you’d rather be.” She nodded a little, breathing as he instructed, her eyes closing. “There you go… so, where would you rather be right now?” He watched her eyelids clench a little as she thought about it.

“There’s this street in Sunset Heights,” she said after a moment. “If you go behind the Spagonian restaurant, you can get up to the rooftops. They’re mostly flat, but there’s a couple places where you need to jump up or down…”

“I know those rooftops,” Sonic replied with a grin. “If you get up there at the right time, it’s the most beautiful thing.” Myla nodded.

“Gloaming… you start at the restaurant, and head east towards the clock tower…”

“There’s that old staircase that spirals up the upper half of clock tower, you can only get to it from the rooftops; when you get to the top, the moon is up and the stars are out, and you feel…”

“Like you could run up into the stars.” She’d stopped shaking, Sonic noticed, her breathing had slowed… and when she opened her eyes, she was smiling the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen. “I thought I was the only one that knew about that… how come I’ve never seen you running there?” He shrugged.

“Guess I was never lucky enough to be there when you were… how about we go together some time?” Myla nodded.

“Yeah… I’d like that a lot.”

***

“Sonic? Did you hear me?” Sonic shook his head, looking down at the young fox. He and Myla hadn’t gotten to run those rooftops together yet… that place Myla felt that only the two of them knew about…

“Sorry, Tails,” he replied. “Guess I spaced out there for a second.” Tails nodded.

“I get it; she’s your Myla, you’re worried about her.” Sonic smiled, playfully punching Tails on the shoulder. Little Sonic watched them with an amused look on his face. Sonic grinned back; some things, like his friendship with Tails, were just universal.

“Thanks buddy; what were you saying?”

“If we can get to Myla without Robotnik knowing,” Tails continued, “I can probably get all the restraints off of her, but I’ll need to go grab my tools…” Sonic shook his head.

“I wouldn’t put it past him to have the thing rigged, it would just be putting you in danger too…” He looked up at the sky; the sun was heading towards the west and would be setting soon. “I’ve got another idea…”

***

Myla was pulled from her prison a few more times. Once she was given food, which she ate begrudgingly, the other times were for Robotnik’s ‘tests’.

First was a mental endurance test, which she didn’t understand the point of;  he asked her various mathematical and scientific questions, activating the paralytic energies if she refused to answer him. He was able to paralyze specific parts of her body, such as her lungs and heart. Once he’d demonstrated that, she stopped resisting as much. She was smart, not as smart as Tails, but she was able to keep up with the questions for a while.

Oh come on, you can’t be this stupid.

After that was a physical endurance test; he locked her in a room and sent wave after wave of badniks at her. She was still wearing the restraints, which did nothing to help her; she was decent at hand to hand combat, but was much better with her wispon. Her tactics for a while were just to dodge, let badniks run into each other, destroy themselves.

This worked fine until an Eggrobo slammed into her, sending her flying into the waiting legs of a Grabber Spider.  It held her tight while everything else in the room started attacking her at once.

“You have power, hedgehog!” Robotnik yelled at her. “You want to continue to live? Use it!”

For the love of all that is holy, will you just listen to the man?!

“You’re the one that says you need to keep me alive!” One wall of energy cubes would stop this assault and she knew it… but it would be giving him what he wanted. Myla wasn’t sure what he was trying to get out of this beyond proof she was able use the power she held, but… well, given the choice between dying and giving him what he wanted, she was going to choose the former. The real question, of course: was Robotnik bluffing about letting her die?

Hopefully she’d find out when she woke up.

Chapter Text

Knuckles kept watch as Sonic and Tails slipped into Robotnik’s base. The laboratory was easy to get to, being that it was at the top of the dome; one open window later and they were inside, heading for the capsule.

“Myla?” Sonic whispered, looking through the small window. She was facing away from him, slumped against the wall, not moving. Asleep, he assumed. She wasn’t wearing the collar or shackles, which was strange… made things easier in the long run though. “Myla, can you hear me?”

“It’s a regular capsule,” Tails said as he looked the device over. “One hit to the top and the walls should come down.”

“Get ready to grab her and get out of here,” Sonic replied. He jumped on the roof of the capsule, the walls coming down a second later. Myla started to fall backwards, Tails barely managing to catch her.

The rotten coconut acting as her head fell off the shoulders and smashed on the ground. The entire thing was a decoy, made out of spare robot parts thrown together into a vague Myla-like shape.

“Fools! Did you really think I would make things so easy on you?” Sonic’s head shot up; Robotnik was standing on a catwalk above the rest of the lab, smirking down at them. Next to him was Myla; on her knees, still restrained, now gagged as well. Her shirt was tattered, she was definitely injured… around the glow of her restraints, Sonic could just barely make out how she was quivering; she was in pain.

“Let her go, Robotnik!” Tails yelled up at him.

“No, I don’t think I will,” Robotnik replied, holding up a small remote. “And I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you… unless you want to see how how well she can behave with the proper motivation.” Sonic took a step backwards.

“Don’t…” Robotnik smirked, pressing a button on the remote. Myla reacted instantly; her back arched as she started screaming. Even with the gag in her mouth, her screams were near deafening. Robotnik pushed the button again and she fell forward, lying facedown.

“I think we’re all on the same page now,” Robotnik said.

“What do you want, Robotnik?” Sonic yelled, his hands clenched into fists. Anytime now… anytime now would be great…

“What I always want, Sonic,” came the reply. “The chaos emeralds.”

“I don’t have any of them!”

“Then you best start looking for them, hadn’t you?”

***

Well, now you’re really in for it, Ruby.

Myla’s realization that she hadn’t died came when she’d been awoken by the inability to breathe; it was as though her lungs couldn’t move anymore. Her eyes opened to see a trio of Eggrobos standing over her. Two of them dragged her to her feet while the third shoved something into her mouth; it was hard, tasted like metal and was strapped around the back of her head. A gag of some sort? Why would they need to gag her?

Now that she felt like she was being stabbed by a million fiery needles, she completely understood.

When that specific pain subsided, she’d fallen face first onto the floor. She was vaguely aware of Sonic and Tails’ presence. Not her Sonic and Tails though. They sounded different. From what little she could see, they also looked different. The Tails she’d never seen before, but the Sonic was unmistakably the one that had helped her and her Sonic during the war… she was in his dimension then. That… that was reassuring, actually. She had at least one friend here.

“What do you want, Robotnik?” she heard Sonic yell.

“What I always want, Sonic; the chaos emeralds.”

“I don’t have any of them!”

“Then you best start looking for them, hadn’t you?” Myla managed to get back into a kneeling position, one of her shackled hands clutching her chest. She looked down at Sonic, shaking her head violently.

You make way too many bad decisions to be as alive as you are.

She was back on the floor seconds later, the pain surging through her again. Something was pressing down on her neck; she was able to glance up just enough to see Robotnik with his foot on her throat.

“Stop it!” Sonic yelled. “That’s enough!” She could hear Robotnik laughing over his pleas… but she also heard something else. Something soft, yet sinister… growls…

Then she heard the howl.

What the actual fuck is that?!

The pressure on her throat vanished with a yell; not her, someone else. Robotnik, maybe? Something lifted her into the air. She felt large furry knuckles rub against her throat as something grabbed hold of the collar and squeezed. The collar exploded off her neck, the shackles following shortly after. The stabbing pain was gone; she collapsed against whoever was holding her, gasping. Everything else still hurt, but at least that was over…

“Myla?” She looked up at her rescuer; his face was full of concern, hesitation… he carefully unstrapped the gag from behind her head and took it out of her mouth, tossing it aside before gently cupping her cheek with his giant clawed hand. “Myla…?”

***

Sonic had taken another route into lab, which sadly wasn’t a straight shot and gave him too much time to think about what he was about to unleash. To tell the truth, he had been worried about turning into the werehog again; there had been so many times during his travels with Chip that he felt like a monster was inside of him, something he couldn’t control. If he couldn’t, someone was going to get hurt… his Myla might get hurt.

When he heard Myla scream the first time, the monster inside of him had only one thing to say: “What are we waiting for?”

He’d come into the lab behind Robotnik; Myla was lying on the floor and he had the audacity to step on  her neck. He felt the anger welling inside of him as he started to growl. How dare this man treat his Myla this way.

The howl came to him as natural as running, loud and hopefully terrifying to his intended target. He didn’t give Robotnik a chance to turn around, backhanding him off of Myla and into what looked like a pile of robot parts. While he wasted no time in picking Myla up, grabbing hold of the collar around her neck and squeezing until it exploded and doing the same with her shackles, he was worried she’d be frightened of him. Not that he’d blame her if she was…

“Myla?” He asked gently. When she looked up at him, his stomach dropped; that maniac had gagged her with some sort metal ball. He found the buckle holding the straps behind her head, unbuckled it carefully and took the gag out, throwing it towards Robotnik. He was pretty sure it hit him in the head. “Myla..?” He cupped her cheek in his hand, bracing himself for her to scream, to struggle…

She used what energy she had left to throw her arms around his neck and hug him tight.

“Sonic,” she whispered, burying her face into his neck. “You’re okay…” He hugged back, carefully, like he was scared of his own strength.

“You’re not,” he replied, his voice gruff to match his appearance. “Hang on; we’re getting out of here.”

“He took my guitar,” Myla mumbled. She felt him shake his head, the rumble of laughter in his chest

“Tails!” He yelled. “Do you see a guitar anywhere?”

“A guitar?!” came the bewildered reply.

“Acoustic; light brown body, dark red neck!”

“Is this seriously a priority right now?!”

“Priority is a strong word,” Myla admitted. She could hear alarms going off; this place would be full of badniks soon enough. “We should go… I can get another guitar.”

“Yeah… Skip the guitar, Tails! Let’s get out of here!” She felt Sonic’s embrace tighten around her. “Hang on tight, sweetheart.”

“Won’t be a problem; you’re super fluffy now.” She snuggled against him, as if trying to drive the point home. She felt him kiss the top of her head.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I know; you love me anyway.”

“Yeah I do.”

***

Robotnik was trying to figure out what the heck just happened; he was so close to winning, as he had been many times before, but this time should have been it. He had the girl hedgehog completely at his mercy; she was important to Sonic and his friends, enough so that they came to rescue her. He should have been able to threaten them into getting the emeralds for him in exchange for her safety. He wouldn’t give her up, of course; there was too much power in her for that. But he desperately wanted to know what would happen to her when given the power of the seven chaos emeralds. An overload, most likely, but hopefully it came with an interesting explosion.

Then that… thing appeared. He wasn’t sure what it was, though it appeared to be a giant monstrous hedgehog… the girl seemed to recognize it, was actually glad to see it. This was all very interesting and likely something he could use to his advantage.

As soon as he could move again.

Chapter Text

Myla held tight to her Sonic as they made their way out of Robotnik’s base. She could hear badniks explode around her, Sonic and Tails cracking jokes, her Sonic joking right along with them. She felt herself relax, felt the pain in her chest slowly subside…

How do you manage to keep living through all this? Is it just sheer dumb luck? That would make sense, it being you and all.

“We’re out!” her Sonic yelled as they burst through a door. “Knuckles, you alright out here?”

“Peachy!” Knuckles replied. He seemed to have taken care of a good deal of badniks on his own, judging by the debris everywhere. “Is everyone okay?”

“I’m good!” Tails called. “Sonic took a detour, he should be here soon…”

“Detour?” Myla’s Sonic asked.

“Found it!” The smaller Sonic was suddenly next to his large werehog counterpart, holding something in his hands.

“My guitar!” Myla said happily, taking it from him. “Thanks, Sonic.” She offered her fist to him, which he happily bumped with his own.

“Lets get you somewhere safe,” Tails said. “You don’t look too good… no offense…” Myla grinned back at him.

“None taken; I don’t feel too good.”

With her guitar strapped across his back, Sonic the Werehog held Myla close as he followed Sonic, Knuckles and Tails through the forest around Robotnik’s lair, heading towards a ‘secret hideout’ that Knuckles claimed would be safe for Myla to recover in.  She had already admitted that she wasn’t feeling great, but the werehog found himself worrying that she was doing worse than she let on. After hearing her let out a few pained gasps and whimpers when he would jump over something or ran at his (admittedly limited) top speed, he ended up slowing down to a walk.

“Still with me, gorgeous?” he asked as they continued on. He had long ago lost track of Knuckles and his smaller counterpart, but Tails would circle back to check on them and give directions.

“Flatterer,” she replied, her voice soft and exhausted. “I look anything but gorgeous right now…”

“Yeah, well.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “You always look gorgeous to me.” She giggled softly, cuddling closer to him. He could feel her fingers in his fur, stroking tactilely. “I missed you…”

“I wasn’t gone that long,” she teased.

“I miss you whenever you’re gone.” She laughed, flinching a little. “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” she admitted. “I… didn’t have a great time today…” Sonic listened with repressed rage as Myla told him about everything that had happened that day. His embrace on her tightened as a soft growl rumbled in his chest; much to his surprise, the growl seemed to soothe Myla. “I still don’t understand it…”

“Understand what?”

“His tests… I don’t know what he was trying to accomplish…” She shifted a little, groaning softly.

“I’m going to rip his mustache off,” the werehog said decidedly.

“I’ve already called dibs on that.” She was silent for a moment, still stroking his fur. “So… what’s going on here?” Sonic laughed, shaking his head.

“I’m not sure… I wasn’t supposed to be able to change into this again.” He told her about his adventure with Chip, defeating Dark Gaia. She frowned a little. “What’s wrong..?”

“This… this sounds really familiar… but I don’t remember any of that happening.” She sighed. “There’s a lot of gaps in my memory. I don’t understand it…”

“I’m sorry.” Myla nodded a little.

“Does it hurt when you change?” she asked.

“Only the first time.” He shuddered a little. “I don’t know why that is, but when I started changing in that portal? I knew exactly what was happening.”

“That’s… I’m not sure if ‘good’ is the right way to describe that.”

“It was good to know what what happening,” Sonic agreed. “How did you know it was me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” He shrugged.

“When it happened before, Amy didn’t know who I was at first. It… it hurt a little. But you knew it was me right away… how?”

“You’re going to say this is ridiculous.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She rolled her eyes, smiling a little.

“When I saw Metal at Hidden Palace, every fiber of my being was screaming that there was something wrong. But I was so happy to see ‘you’, I ignored it until it was too late. There was none of that back in the lab; when I saw you, I just…” She sighed. “My heart knew it was you.”

“That is ridiculous,” Sonic agreed.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“It’s also cheesy and adorable.”

“You’re adorable.”

You two are nauseating. Seriously, I’m going to throw up.

Sonic laughed, feeling himself relax. His Myla was back with him. They were in a different world, but they were there together; that’s all that mattered right now. He had her back and he was never going to let her go…

“You’re okay though?” He looked down at her, confused.

“After everything you’ve been through, you’re seriously asking me if I’m okay?”

“Of course I am…” She reached up to cup his cheek in her hand. “The last time I saw you, you were screaming in pain… then, after that claw grabbed me, the portal closed and you were gone… I thought I’d lost you.” She stroked his cheek with her thumb and he leaned into her touch. This was their thing now; an action so simple, but somehow so comforting for the both of them. “So, humor me, handsome; are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he promised. “Yeah, sweetheart, I’m okay.”

***

Heavy King added whipped cream to his latest sundae creation; a chocolate covered pound cake base, two scoops each of every single ice cream in existence (and a couple that weren’t) arranged in a pyramid, then topped with marshmallow, caramel, whipped cream and one maraschino cherry atop each scoop of ice cream; the perfect cherry to scoop ratio. It was a special occasion sundae, made for birthdays and celebrations. It was excessive, but the look of happiness on his customers’ faces was always worth it.

He never meant to become a sorbettiere; he’d been an Eggrobo, loyal to Doctor Robotnik. Then came the Phantom Ruby, changing himself and his compatriots into their current forms… the battles with Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends. Those had been some good times, but this small ice cream café in the Mirage Desert? This was his happiness now.

He took a step back and admired his creation; it needed something… sprinkles maybe?  He’d gotten in a new shipment of chocolate jimmies that would be perfect for this. He was at the cabinet when he heard the sound. The same sound that he’d heard the day they found the Phantom Ruby… no, it couldn’t be.

King felt himself shiver; he was unaware he could do that. If the Phantom Ruby was back, things could get ugly… he didn’t want ugly. He sighed, shaking his head.

“Scooper?”

“Yeah, boss?” A small robot resembling a waffle cone with mint chip ice cream came into the kitchen, bringing some dirty dishes with him. Heavy King had made him from discarded badniks; a pleasant little thing that could make children laugh and wait tables. King couldn’t have asked for a better assistant.

“Scooper, I’m going to be away for a few days. Mage should be here soon, let her know I’ll be back.”

“If you think you’re going anywhere without me, you’re crazy.” King smiled, looking past Scooper to his friend. Heavy Magician had used the Phantom Ruby to resurrect him and their other friends. She had stayed with him, while Gunner, Shinobi and Rider had gone their own ways.

“You heard it too?” he asked.

“Yeah… I like freedom too much to let the Phantom Ruby end up in Robotnik’s hands again.” She held out her hand with a grin. “Shall we?” He smiled, taking her hand.

“We shall.”

Chapter Text

“There’s definitely some residual energy here,” Tails said as he scanned the Master Emerald. “But it’s not all unknown.” He looked up from the Miles Electric. “While there’s some energy here that I’m not familiar with, there are two signatures that I’ve scanned before.”

“The first one being the Phantom Ruby?” Knuckles asked.

“Correct… the other, interestingly enough, is Dark Gaia.”  Everyone just stared at him.

“You have to be kidding me,” Shadow replied.  They all remembered Dark Gaia: the physical embodiment of destruction, darkness, negativity… all of that in one being.

“Sonic defeated Dark Gaia,” Knuckles said after a moment. “You don’t think it’s gotten to him again somehow?”

“It’s not impossible,” Tails admitted. “Whatever these other energy signatures are, they may have somehow attracted the Dark Gaia energy to Sonic. It’s also possible that Sonic still had some of the energy within him…”

“Let’s not speculate to hard on this right now,” Shadow cut in. “If it’s not going to help us find them, there’s no need.”

“Agreed,” Knuckles said with a nod. “Tails, what do you need to analyze the foreign energies?”

“I’ll need to get back to my workshop,” Tails replied. “I’ve got enough samples, now I just need the right equipment.”

“Alright, head on back then. I’ll stay here in case Myla and Sonic return somehow.”

“I will too,” Amy added. “Someone should talk to Doctor Zell; Myla’s surgery is scheduled for the end of the week, it’s not her fault if she misses it…”

“I’ll talk to her,” Tails promised, looking at Shadow. The dark hedgehog nodded once; if Amy was staying here, so was he.

***

“This is your hiding place?” Tails asked.

“Would you think anyone would be living here?” Knuckles replied. Myla, still being carried by her Sonic, looked up at the old treehouse in front of them. It looked to be in good shape and well camouflaged; despite the large porch on the front, Myla probably would never have noticed the treehouse if Knuckles hadn’t pointed it out.

“I spent three months living in a giant mushroom forest,” she remarked. “I don’t think anywhere could be as bad as that.” Little Sonic looked at her, an eyebrow raised.

“What were you doing there?”

“Eating raw mushrooms, mostly.” This seemed to upset the small hedgehog, but he didn’t say anything else.

“There’s a ladder up to the treehouse,” Knuckles said. “But it might be hard to carry someone up. Sonic, can you get up there okay with Myla?” The werehog looked at the treehouse, considering things for a moment before adjusting his grip on Myla.

“Hold tight,” he said before leaping into the air, doing a small turn at the height of his jump to gain more height. Most surprising was when his arm stretched out, grabbing hold of the floor of the porch and pulling himself and Myla up.

“Holy crap,” said everyone on the ground. Myla looked up at him, concerned.

“That doesn’t hurt or anything, does it?” she asked.

“No, doesn’t hurt at all… Knuckles, are you seriously hiding the Master Emerald in here?!”

“No one has found it yet!” Knuckles climbed up onto the porch, followed by Tails carrying little Sonic. He led the group inside; the main room did hold the Master Emerald, placed on a small alter in the center of the room. “There’s a bedroom over there,” Knuckles continued, pointing off to the left. “And there’s access to a hot spring under the treehouse. It’s not the most secure, I’ll give you that, but it’s well hidden. This is as good of a place as any for for Myla to hide out while she rests up.”

“It shouldn’t take long,” Myla added. “Few days maybe.”

“Because of the Phantom Ruby?” Little Sonic asked. “We heard Robotnik mention that…” Myla nodded.

“Yeah, apparently I absorbed it’s power when it was destroyed. It’s hard to use, takes a ton of energy… I try not to use it if I don’t have to.”

“That has to be hard on your heart too,” Tails said.

“Yeah…” She slapped her hand against her forehead. “Ugh… the surgery…” Her Sonic hugged her gently.

“We’ll figure it out,” he promised. Myla nodded, yawning a little. “Ready to call it a night?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “Put me down for a second?” Her Sonic obliged, making sure she was standing steadily before fully letting go. She walked over to Knuckles, Tails and Little Sonic, giving each of them a hug. “Thanks for coming to get me.” All three of them seemed surprised by this, just standing there as Myla retreated to the bedroom.

“You boys going to be okay?” Sonic the Werehog asked with a grin. They nodded. “Alright, well… I’m going to bed. See you all in the morning.”

The bedroom had an old mirror hanging on the wall; when Sonic went in, he found Myla standing in front of it. She had taken out her pigtails, letting her long hair rest on her shoulders, removed her shoes and what was left of her shirt, leaving her in just her shorts and a sports bra. She was looking at some dark bruises on her side that he recognized the pattern of; a Grabber Spider had had her in it’s grasp. Sonic felt anger burning inside of him, his fists clenching. He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself… he felt a gentle hand on his arm.

“Hey handsome… still with me?” He opened his eyes; Myla was in front of him, looking up at him. He was usually taller than her, but now he towered over her like she was a child.

“He hurt you,” he finally said, hearing the rage in his voice. “He hurt you, and I wasn’t there…” She leaned against his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. He gently rested one of his giant hands on the back of her head. “I’m sorry, My…”

“I’m going to get hurt now and then, Sonic,” she said softly. “I know you want to protect me from everything…” She looked up at him, smiling. “I want to do the same for you… but we’re both need to accept that accidents happen. We’d have to stop fighting if we never wanted each other to get hurt again, and I think that would kill us both.” He chuckled a little.

“Yeah… you’re probably right.” He stroked her hair gently. “But still…” He looked down at her, blinking a little. “How long have you had a tattoo?” She looked at her shoulder, grinning a little at the heart shaped sunflower that was tattooed there.

“Shirt sleeves usually cover it…” She sighed. “The thing is… I don’t remember getting it. I’ve just always had it… another gap I can’t explain…”

“It’s very you,” Sonic told her, picking her up gently and carrying her over to the bed. It was late, she was tired, he was tired… this conversation could wait until morning. He settled down on the bed, holding her on his chest. She giggled softly, snuggling against him.

“Robotnik was after our Master Emerald,” she said sleepily. “His claw grabbed me because… energy something or other.”

“I’m just awake enough for that to make sense,” Sonic replied. He kissed her forehead gently. “Good night, sunflower.”

Chapter Text

“Grandpa, I’m home! Are you here?” Myla set her bag on on the stairs leading up to her room before heading to the kitchen. “Grandpa?”

“I’m down in the workshop, pumpkin!”

“Okay, I’ll be down in a sec!” She grabbed two cans of iced coffee from the fridge along with some cookies from the cupboard before heading down into the workshop.

The stairs heading down were old and Myla often worried that she was going to fall down them one day. The workshop at the bottom was more of a laboratory; various computers and other machines lined the walls, the tables were covered with electronics, tools, and empty coffee mugs; standing in front of one of the tables, their back to the stairs, was an older, yellowish brown hedgehog.

“I was wondering where all of our mugs went,” Myla said teasingly.

“I was going to bring them up tonight!”

“And would have left them right where they are.”

“Probably!” The older hedgehog turned towards her. He wore glasses, had an old scar across his left eye, and a wide smile across his face as he walked over to her. “How was school, pumpkin?”

“Boring, as usual.” She handed him one of the cans of coffee, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Might be a little less boring if you took time to make some friends.” Myla gave him a look. “I’m just saying, friends make the boring less mundane…”

“And then I’ll just vanish if she finds us again; that’s not fair to anyone else.”

“Its better to have loved then lost, then never to have loved at all.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” He wrapped an arm around her, giving her a squeeze.

“She’s not going to be a problem forever, Myla-my-love,” he said gently. “You don’t need to be alone like this…”

“I’m not alone, Grandpa,” she replied with a grin. “I’ve got you.” He chuckled, shaking his head.

“Hey, I’ve got something for you.” He walked back over to the bench he’d been working at, picking up a gorgeous hollow body electric guitar.

“Oh wow,” Myla said, her eyes wide. “That… is that..?”

“The one you’ve had your eye on?” He asked with a grin. “No; it’s similar, but I had a few modifications made.” He handed the guitar over to her, watching as she inspected every detail. The body was purple with a flamed finish, rosewood fretboard inlaid with reddish gold sunflowers…

“You had sunflowers put on for me…”

“It wouldn’t be yours without them,” he said with a grin. “Go on, give it a try.” She looked at him, confused.

“I don’t have an amp for it…”

“Oh, you won’t need that; I’ve made a few modifications of my own.” Myla grinned at him, settling down on a nearby stool with the guitar. She checked the tune, making slight adjustments before starting to play; nothing specific, just some simple notes to test everything.

You never would have known she didn’t have an amp the way that guitar sang.

“I love her, Grandpa,” Myla said happily. “Thank you…”

“Yeah, she’s pretty good,” he replied, a mischievous grin on his face. “But is that the best you can do?”

“Oh, I don’t know if you can handle my best, old man.” He threw back his head and laughed.

“The sass I get from you! Why don’t you give me what you go-“ Myla started into a song before he could finish speaking. It was slow, soulful, a perfect fit for the person playing with the guitar in her hands.

“Am I brave enough,” she sang, her head down a little. “Am I strong enough to follow the desire that burns from within? To push away my fear, to stand where I’m afraid, ‘cause I am more than this…I promise to myself, alone and no one else, my flame is rising higher…”

She looked up at him, grinning.

“I am the fire! I am burning brighter, roaring like a storm! And I am the one I’ve been waiting for, screaming like a siren, alive and burning brighter! I am the fire!”

“Okay, yeah,” her grandpa said with a smile. “Was not ready for that.”

“Alright, now what else did you do?”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“I know you Grandpa,” Myla replied, her eyes twinkling. She pointed to a little antenna near the tuning pegs. “You really think I didn’t notice this? What’s it do?” He grinned.

“That, Myla-my-love, is something I think you’ll really enjoy.”

***

Sonic opened his eyes groggily, staring at the ceiling above him. This… this was not his house. This was Knuckles’ weird treehouse hideout in the alternate dimension he and Myla had gotten transported to. He looked at his hand, glad to see it wasn’t gigantic with huge claws anymore; it must be morning. He sat up, stretching his arms over his head.

What the heck was that dream he’d just had?

Sonic remembered it like it was a memory rather than a dream; Myla, a little younger than she is now (“note to self,” he thought, “find out how old your Myla is.”), living with someone she called Grandpa. Myla had always told him she’d always been at the orphanage, she didn’t remember not being there. Was this another one of those memory gaps she mentioned? No, this was more than a gap… this felt like an entire lifetime…

Sonic thought about other things the grandfather had said; “she’s not going to be a problem forever”… who was this she? The way Myla talked, this person was dangerous, enough to force Myla and her grandfather into hiding… enough to keep Myla from trying to make friends.

Speaking of which… where did she go?

Sonic looked around the room; her shirt and shoes were gone as well, which was probably a good sign? He felt like she must have put those back on before leaving, rather than someone taking her somehow. He hated that her being taken was his first assumption, but right now? It wasn’t unreasonable. She had said something about Robotnik wanting the Master Emerald from their dimension; the Phantom Ruby had been much more powerful and it’s power was now inside her. He sighed, shaking his head. She was right though; they both would get hurt from time to time, especially if they continued the fight against Robotnik, or Eggman back home… not fighting wasn’t an option for him, and it didn’t sound like one for her either.

He loved her so much.

Chattering was coming from the main room; he wouldn’t really call it an argument if not for the fact that “argument” was the only word Sonic could think of for what he was hearing.

“There’s no way he could pull the Master Emerald from another dimension!” Knuckles said defiantly as Sonic entered the room. He and Myla were seated on the floor by the Master Emerald, both of them eating some cut up fruit and drinking water. “There are safe guards to prevent this!”

“Okay, what are these safeguards?” Myla asked. She smiled at Sonic, waving to him to sit next to her. Once he did, she handed him some fruit and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Tails brought breakfast; he and Sonic had to go look into something, they’ll be back later.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.” Pet names were difficult; Sonic had heard Shadow and Amy use a number of different ones, but with Myla… a lot of the ones Sonic would use for her had been used by Metal Sonic and hearing her Sonic say them made her flinch. Sweetheart was safe, he tended to use that the most. Sunflower was cheesy, but Myla seemed to like it. He had another one he might try later…

“Knuckles is trying to tell me it would be impossible to bring the Master Emerald from our dimension into this one,” Myla explained. “He was about to tell me about the safeguards that would prevent that. I sincerely hope there’s more than just himself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Knuckles asked. She looked over at him, a grin on her face.

“How many times has the emerald been stolen? Or broken?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN BROKEN?!” Sonic sat back, ate his fruit and listened to them run logic circles around one another, a smile on his face.

“Knuckles,” he eventually interrupted, right about the time he thought someone was going to start swinging fists. “You said there’s a hot spring around here somewhere?”

“Oh yeah,” Knuckles said. “There’s a path behind the ladder, it’s pretty well hidden.” Sonic looked over at Myla.

“What do you think, pumpkin?” He asked. “Soak in a hot spring might be good for you.” She tilted her head slightly, looking at him curiously.

“You’ve never called me that before,” she replied, her tone half questioning, half stating facts.

“No, I haven’t,” he agreed. “I can stop…” She shook her head.

“No, I like it; it’s just… familiar somehow.” She got to her feet slowly, clearly stiff and still in pain. “Yeah, a soak sounds really good,” she agreed. “Let’s see if I can get down the ladder without killing myself.”

Chapter Text

Knuckles opted to stay back at the treehouse to wait for Sonic and Tails, letting Myla and Sonic head to the hot spring alone. Sonic went down the ladder first, waiting down at the bottom in case Myla needed help. After reaching the bottom without incident, they strolled hand in hand down to the spring.

The hot spring was completely surrounded by trees and brush. Someone had taken the time to dam off a small section with smooth stones, creating a small pool that looked just deep enough to sit in. Sonic took his shoes and socks off quickly, but Myla hesitated.

“My?” He asked. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “I just… need you to turn around. So I can get undressed…” He started to laugh, which she didn’t seem to appreciate.

“Wait… you’re serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious!”

“I saw you in your bra last night!”

“Which is still clothing and my shorts were still on! Also it was dark!” She crossed her arms in front of her chest, shrinking herself down a little, looking at the ground.  He frowned.

“I’m sorry, My,” he said honestly. “I’ll turn around, let me know when you’re ready.”

“Thank you…” Sonic turned around, listening to her undress. He heard her whimper and gasp a few times. She must have been having issues getting things off with her injuries.

“My, this is ridiculous,” he said, turning around. “You’re in pain, let me… help…”

Myla, naked at this point, stared back at him with what he could only describe as a “flicky in the badnik headlights” look, which he couldn’t help but return. She was beautiful, that went without saying; curves he didn’t know she had, long hidden behind the loose fitting clothes she wore… faint scars he had missed in the dim light last night covering her shoulders, chest and stomach, the largest of which was on her left shoulder. She was shaking now, looking nervous… scared…

Oh this is going to go well.

“Oh,” he managed to say before going over to her, hugging her gently. He expected her to pull away, slap him, get angry… he would have deserved it, honestly. Instead she hugged back, burying her face into his chest; when she did, he noticed with horror that the scar on her shoulder had a matching one on her back, as if something had gone straight through. “You didn’t want me to see these.” She nodded. “Why not?”

“Because you’d want me to explain,” she replied. “And I can’t… I can’t explain any of them. I don’t know what happened…” She looked up at him sadly. “There is so much I don’t know about myself, so many things I can’t remember…” She sighed. “It wasn’t a problem before…”

“Before?”

“…do not take this the wrong way, this is literally the only way I have to explain this.”

“Okay…” Myla took a deep breath, resting her head on his chest again.

“It wasn’t a problem before I met you.” She felt Sonic tense up slightly. “I didn’t have anyone that would care about it. I didn’t have a family, or friends… so I didn’t care about it either…” He tightened his embrace.

“And you know I care very much… and that’s when you started caring about it too.” She nodded again. “How did the doctors not see this?”

“Oh, they did… I told them it was from the war and they went with it.”

“Why not just tell me that then?”

“Because I can lie to them.” Myla looked up at him again, a shy smile on her face. “I can’t lie to you; physically incapable, believe me. I’ve tried.” He chuckled.

Yes, good job, Ruby; admit that you can’t lie to him, that won’t come back to bite you or anything. Probably.

“I’m glad to hear that… come on, lets get you in for that soak.” Sonic helped Myla into the pool, sliding in behind her. He put his arm around her, cradling her head against his shoulder. They sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke up again.

“Go on, ask.”

“Hm?” He looked down at her; she was grinning up at him.

“I know you want to ask, go ahead.” He grinned.

“Okay, smarty pants; what have you failed to lie to me about?” She chuckled.

“A few things,” she admitted. “First one was when we were leaving the Death Egg, you asked me if I was okay?”

“I remember that; you admitted you weren’t okay.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to do that… you didn’t know me, I didn’t want to bother you…” He kissed the top of her head.

“We still need to go running in Sunset Heights.” She smiled, snuggling him a little.

“Yeah, we do.” She bit her lip, thinking. “What else was there…”

“There was more?”

“Look, lying is a skill that I worked hard to hone; I was really confused that I couldn’t lie to you so yes, there was more.” She thought for a moment. “I’m also… really surprised that I feel like that suddenly… I feel like I’ve always been a terrible liar…” Sonic frowned a little; something was wrong, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out exactly what.

You really are the worst liar, the fact people keep believing you is a travesty.

“What else was there?”

“When you asked me if I’d ever gone camping with my parents,” Myla continued. “That time I hurt my shoulder in Arsenal Pyramid; when you asked me about getting my stuff from the orphanage… Hydrocity…”

It’s pronounced ‘Hydrocity’.

“Hydrocity?”

“Yeah… I was going to swap with M-2 at the last minute, take the sunflowers out of my hair and put them in hers…”

“Why didn’t you?” He didn’t bother asking why she wanted to make the switch, he knew the answer; she wanted to save him, to make sure he was okay.

“Because it would have meant lying to you. Not only that, it would have been the biggest lie I could ever tell you: to have you think that I was safe with you, when really I’d put myself in more danger.”

“I appreciate you not doing that.”

“You’re welcome.” They were silent for a few minutes, listening to the sounds of the world around them.

“How old are you?” Sonic asked suddenly. Myla thought about it a moment.

“Um… seventeen maybe? They thought I was five or six when I was left at the orphanage, that was ten-ish years ago… let’s go with seventeen?” She looked worried for a moment. “Is that a problem?”

“What? No, I’m eighteen… I just never asked you.” He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “There’s a lot you don’t know about yourself, but there’s also a lot I don’t know about you either. I know you love tacos, and sunflowers. You have a beautiful singing voice and are amazing on the guitar. You mentioned that you played soccer as a kid.”

“So you know all the interesting stuff already,” Myla teased. “What else can I tell you?”

Sonic and Myla sat in the hot spring for what seemed like forever, just talking. Sonic asked questions, Myla answered and asked some of her own. Sonic learned that Myla loved to bake, loved coffee as much as tacos, and had been knitting since she was a kid; Myla learned that after his parents died, Sonic had been raised by his Uncle Chuck, who passed away a few years ago, loved traveling to places with a lot of nature, and break dancing.

“Break dancing, really?” Myla asked, a grin on her face. “That seems really you, honestly.”

“What about you? Any dancing you like to do?”

“I’ve never really gone dancing…”

“What?” Sonic looked at her, surprised. “Never?”

“Never. I mean, I’d kind of dance with my guitar when I was playing for money on the street, but that was more of just a sway with the music kind of thing. Have you seen me move, I have no rhythm at all.”

“I’m taking you dancing,” Sonic said decidedly.

“You better wear some good shoes, I’ll probably end up stepping on your feet more than once.” She stretched her arms over her head. “Okay, I think I’ve soaked enough.”

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah; still a little sore, but better.”

“Good.” He got out of the pool and grabbed her clothes, placing them where she could get them easily. He stood with his back to her. When she was dressed, she hugged him from behind.

“Thank you.”

“Of course.” They slowly strolled back towards the treehouse hand in hand, in no hurry to be anywhere.

“It honestly doesn’t hurt you when you change into the werehog?” Myla asked.

“You’re really concerned about that, aren’t you?” She nodded. “Why?”

“Honey, I’d never heard you scream like you did when you changed… I thought you were dying…” Sonic leaned down and kissed her cheek.

“I promise, it doesn’t hurt. It’s startling, but doesn’t hurt.” He looked up at the sky, thinking. “Honestly, I don’t mind the change. The extra strength is nice, the ability to stretch my arms to grab things is weird but super useful…”

“You’re super cuddly.”

“I am indeed super cuddly,” he agreed. “The problem though… it’s a dark power. It comes from a being that is the embodiment of darkness and destruction… I worry that it’ll take me over.”

“It didn’t before,” Myla pointed out.

“Yeah… Chip told me that would never happen, that I was too strong to lose myself…” Myla squeezed his hand.

“I wish I could have met him; he sounds like he knew what he was talking about.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah; I’ve never seen you doubt yourself the entire time I’ve known you. You were always the one to keep me going when things got bleak…” She sighed. “I think I have more chance of falling to darkness than you do.”

Oh, if only.

Sonic stopped so suddenly that Myla, who had kept moving forward, was jerked backwards and into his arms. He held her close, one arm wrapped protectively around her waist while his other hand rested on the back of her head.

“I would never let that happen, My,” he said softly. “Never.”

Chapter Text

“Unfortunately, the results I’m getting make no sense,” Tails said into his communicator. “The foreign energy I found? It’s more Dark Gaia.”

“How is that possible?” Shadow asked. He and Knuckles were looking around Eggman’s Hydrocity base to see if there might be anything useful about, while Amy stayed in Hidden Palace in case Myla and Sonic somehow returned.

“The signature is just different enough that at a glance, it registers as something new. It wasn’t until I got everything back to my workshop that I was able to see the similarities.”

“So what are we looking at?” Knuckles asked. “Another Dark Gaia getting ready to rise up?”

“I don’t think so,” replied Tails. “This energy was weak, like it was pulled from something that had been a carrier for it… my theory is that something inside the portal was containing this energy and it reacted to Sonic.”

“Why would it do that though? Dark Gaia took back all of it’s energy that had been inside Sonic…”

“And one of our friends now holds all the power of the Phantom Ruby because she used a prototype once. All of this is weird, I’m doing the best I can.”

“…what if that’s it?” Shadow asked. “What if it’s Myla?”

“I’m not following,” Knuckles admitted.

“Could Myla have had the new Dark Gaia energy within her somehow?”

“It’s possible,” Tails agreed. “But how would she have been exposed to it?”

“I don’t know… we’ll have to find her to find out.”

***

Coming up to the treehouse and hearing explosions was not ideal for Sonic, especially since Myla let go of his hand and ran towards said explosions. He chased after her, catching up just as they both reached the the edge of the beach. She stood hidden in the bushes around the trees, looking at the scene before them. Little Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were near the water, facing down a group of Eggrobos, one of which had someone struggling in their grasp.

“Is that Amy?” Myla asked.

“I think so,” Sonic replied. “She hasn’t worn that in years, this might be a younger version of her…”

“So much for Knuckle’s secret hiding spot…” She looked at him, nervously. “How do we do this?”

“We need to get Amy away from them, and keep you away from them…” Myla sighed, shaking her head. “What is it?”

“I’ve got an idea. It’s the worst idea, but will probably work the best.”

I love your bad ideas; they’re always so entertaining.

***

Sonic had gotten the message from a friendly flicky that Amy Rose was in danger before Knuckles, Myla and her Sonic had woken up; he and Tails headed out to find her, but she was nowhere to be found. They even went to Robotnik’s Lab to see if she was there.

Robotnik has pink bunny pajamas; Sonic could have gone his entire life without knowing this and been very, veryhappy.

He and Tails came back to the treehouse to regroup with everyone, try to figure out the next move, when he heard Amy scream his name and tell him to look out. He barely avoided the laser blast that hit the ground at his feet; hovering above the water was a group of Eggrobos, one of which had a tight grip on Amy.

They hadn’t just kidnapped Amy; they used her to trick Sonic into leading them to Myla.

“You will give us the Phantom Ruby hedgehog,” the one holding Amy said. “Give her to us and we will let this one go.”

“She’s not here!” Sonic said. Technically that was true; Myla and her Sonic went to the hot spring, they weren’t at the treehouse… as long as these bolt-brains didn’t think too hard on that, they’d be fine.

“Then we will take this one to the Doctor.” Ah. That was also an option, wasn’t it? Sonic glared up at them; Amy looked like they were hurting her. He had to do something…

“What’s that sound?” Knuckles asked softly. Sonic looked over at him, wondering what he was talking about, when he heard it. The sound the Phantom Ruby made, but different… less ominous, somehow.

“Amy’s gone!” Tails yelled, pointing at the Eggrobo that had once been holding her. Its arms were empty, and it somehow looked very confused about it.

“What are you guys waiting for, an engraved invitation?” Myla’s Sonic was standing next to them now, arms crossed in front of his chest. “Let’s take ‘em out!”

***

Amy Rose struggled with the badnik that was holding her. If she got free, she’d fall into the water, but she swam better than most of her friends did and felt like she had better luck there than where she was. There was also the possibility that Sonic would catch her.

She in no way expected to end up in the arms of a hedgehog she had never seen before. There had been a strange noise, a flash of light… then suddenly she was free from the Eggrobo.

“Hold on tight to me,” a female voice said to her. “Please don’t hit me with your hammer.” Amy looked up at her rescuer; another hedgehog, pale yellow, violet eyes… Amy wrapped her arms around her neck and held tight.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Not far…” The yellow hedgehog landed in the sand next to Sonic, Tails and Knuckles… and another Sonic? None of them were moving… it was like they were frozen in time somehow. The yellow hedgehog placed a hand on the other Sonic’s shoulder; the moment she did, he turned and looked at them. “I have her, get ready!”

“Got it, My!” The yellow hedgehog let go of him and he went back to being frozen. Seconds later, Amy found herself in the brush around the beach; the yellow hedgehog had collapsed with her back against a tree, Amy still in her arms. She was clutching the left side of her chest, panting hard. The sound happened again, followed by yelling and explosions.

This idea isn’t as interesting as it could have been; I want a refund.

“Are.. are you okay?” She asked Amy.

“I’m fine… thank you.” The yellow hedgehog looked at her, grinning a little. Not enough to hide how much pain she seemed to be in. “Did they hurt you?”

“No, no… this is something else. I’ll be okay, just need a minute.”

“Amy?!”

“Myla?!”

“Could you…” The yellow hedgehog—Myla—gestured vaguely, as if she couldn’t think of what she wanted to say at the moment.

“Sonic!” Amy yelled. “We’re over here! She’s hurt!” Myla  started to chuckle.

“Oh, he’s aware…” Seconds later, two Sonics came up to them; one was the Sonic that Amy knew, who came right over to her. The other was the one Myla had stopped to talk to on the beach.

“Amy, are you okay?” her Sonic asked. She nodded a little, watching the other Sonic with Myla; he was crouched on the ground beside her, a hand on her cheek, looking worried.

“I was right,” Myla said softly, a small grin on her face. “That was the worst idea…”

“It did work the best though,” Sonic replied. “Are you okay?”

“Oh absolutely not, this hurts like hell… did you have fun playing with the boys?” The other Sonic laughed.

“Yeah, I had fun. Took ‘em all out…” He leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers. “I’m so lucky to have you…” Amy could see a small, fond smile on Myla’s face. Were they together?

“Amy?” She blinked, looking at her Sonic. “You okay?”

“Yeah, sorry…”

“We need to get out of here,” he replied, turning to the other Sonic, who was helping Myla to her feet. “Myla, you okay to travel?”

“We’ll find out,” she replied, tiredly.

“What was that?” Amy asked. “You froze everything…”

“Reality warp… it’s a whole thing, I’ll be happy to explain when the world stops spinning…” She smiled at Amy. “Haven’t introduced myself; I’m Myla Robinson.” She blinked a couple times, as if she confused herself somehow.

“Your last name is Robinson?” Myla’s Sonic asked her.

“You didn’t know your girlfriend’s last name?” Amy’s Sonic asked him.

“His girlfriend didn’t know her last name,” replied Myla. “It’s been an interesting day for all of us.”

Not for me.

“Sounds right though?” Her Sonic asked.

“Yeah,” Myla agreed, smiling. “Definitely sounds right…”

Chapter Text

Robotnik watched in anger as the camera on his last Eggrobo had died out. The plan had been so simple; capture Amy Rose, let the heroes lead his robots back to where the yellow hedgehog —Myla, he remembered Sonic calling her—was hiding. It worked right up until… something happened. He pulled up all the footage gathered in separate windows, playing them all together, trying to figure out where things went wrong.

There had been one Eggrobo positioned behind the rest that had some sort of camera glitch around the time Amy vanished; Robotnik made the footage full screen and slowed it down to a frame by frame replay. It wasn’t a glitch; it was Myla, surrounded by a faint purple glow, pulling Amy out of the Eggrobo’s grasp. Robotnik looked through the other feeds for similar glitches, finding another on a different camera. Myla holding Amy, stopping to talk to a second Sonic…

Two Sonics. Great. Because one wasn’t enough.

That wasn’t important right now; the girl knew how to use the Phantom Ruby’s powers and he had proof of it. Now, he just needed to make her use them for him.

***

“You saw that right?” Mage asked. She and King had seen the Eggrobos with the small pink hedgehog following Sonic and Tails. They ended up following the whole group to the beach, observing them in the air from a distance. They both could sense the Phantom Ruby’s presence, but none of them seemed to be in possession of it. What happened next had been… interesting to say the least. The sound of the Phantom Ruby warping reality, the pink hedgehog vanishing… a second Sonic the Hedgehog appearing.

“I saw,” King agreed, watching as the two Sonics, Tails and Knuckles took out the Eggrobos. “It’s as we suspected; the Phantom Ruby is here, but it’s not with any of them…” Mage nodded, watching the two Sonics talk to each other. The smaller one called out for Amy, while the other…

“Who’s Myla?” Mage asked, watching King shrug in reply. The two Sonics ran into some brush on the edge of the beach. “I can’t see them anymore, can you?”

“No… but I can hear them; there’s a new voice with them…” King closed his eyes, focusing on the voices. “The new voice is hurt… but not by the Eggrobos, something else. One of the Sonics is very concerned… They’re coming out now.”

Seconds later, four people came out of the brush; Amy and the smaller Sonic first, followed by the second Sonic and another hedgehog, who was leaning heavily on the taller Sonic. King and Mage watched as they regrouped with Tails and Knuckles, seemingly discussing their next move. King watched the other hedgehog closely.

“That’s not just a hedgehog,” Mage said, astonished. “That’s the ruby… but how…?” Before King could answer, the hedgehog flinched slightly, like she’d heard something and turned her head towards the two Hard Boiled Heavies. Her eyes narrowed slightly, not in anger but in curiosity.

“Do I need to be afraid of you?” The female voice in King’s head was surprising, vaguely unsettling. It was soft, tired… but fierce. Vengeful. “I can’t beat you right now,” she continued. “I’ll lose if I try… but if you come after my friends, I will use everything I have left to rip your head off and punt it into the sun.” A grin curled her lips. “It would likely be the last thing I did, but I would enjoy every second of it.” King shook his head.

“No, child,” he replied. “You have no reason to fear us. Nor do your friends.”

One good shot and you could take them both out. I’m just saying…

“Good… you don’t have to call me child; my name is Myla Robinson.” He nodded. He thought he’d heard something else in there, but shrugged it off.

“I am King, my friend is Mage; perhaps we will talk again.” He turned to Mage. “Lets go.”

***

“Myla?” Tails asked nervously. “Are you okay? You look mad…” Myla shook her head; she wasn’t sure why she’d noticed the two strange robots watching her and her friends, nor why—or how—she was able to communicate with one, but assumed it was the Phantom Ruby’s doing. These two robots were connected to it somehow, meaning they were also connected to her.

“Sorry,” she replied once the robot—King, he had called himself—and his friend left. “No, sorry, I’m just… I’m really tired…” Her Sonic got one of her arms over his shoulders before picking her up. “I can walk… probably.”

That was almost a lie, you’re getting better at this.

“I know,” he replied. “But I’d feel better if you didn’t; okay?”

“Like I’d ever really complain about you holding me.”

Stop. Just… you two need to be stopped.

“Where do we go from here?” Little Sonic asked. “This place isn’t safe anymore, Robotnik could send more bots here at any moment.”

“Somewhere with tech,” Myla mumbled. “Sonic and I need to get back to our world.”

“Robotnik knows where my workshop is,” Tails said, thoughtfully. “But… I think I’ve got another place we can go.”

***

“Why are we leaving?” Mage asked as she and King retreated “Surely we could have easily taken the ruby…”

“Her name is Myla,” King replied. “She is weak… any attack against her would likely be the death of her.”

“Again, why are we leaving?”

“She’s willing to die to protect her friends; who knows what would happen to the ruby’s powers if that happened. We’ll continue to follow, at a distance.”

“She can sense us though, what’s the point?”

“We can sense her too; don’t you feel it?”

“No, I don’t…” Her eyes widened with realization. “I don’t feel anything… because she’s not using the power?” King smiled, nodded.

“Her mastery of the power is limited; she was only able to sense our presence because she had been actively using it. As long as she’s not, we’ll be able to follow her.”

“And then what?”

“We see what she does with the power; if it’s no threat to us, then we leave her alone.”

“What about Doctor Robotnik? What if he gets ahold of her?” King smiled a little.

“Then we do what we do best.”

***

“So in order to find out what’s happening with Myla and Sonic,” Amy said carefully. “We have to find Myla and Sonic?”

“Unfortunately,” Shadow replied. He and Knuckles had only just returned from the Hydrocity base, not quite empty handed but they didn’t have much they’d be able to use right now, and were filling Amy in on Tails’ report. “I am aware of how ridiculous this is.”

“No, it makes sense.” Amy sighed, leaning back against the Master Emerald. “I just don’t know how we’re going to do that…” Shadow nodded, moving next to her, leaning back…

And falling straight through.

Chapter Text

“You know who I wouldn’t mind seeing right now?” Myla said casually. She was walking again, holding Sonic’s hand as they headed towards wherever Tails was leading them. Amy, having been filled in on what all was happening, was with them, dutifully carrying Myla’s guitar for her like it was some sort of special mission.  

“Who?” Amy asked.

“Shadow.”

“Shadow?” asked Tails. “Who’s Shadow?”

“Do you not have a Shadow here?” Myla’s Sonic asked.

“That’s that broody one with the rocket shoes?” Little Sonic asked, causing Myla to erupt into giggles; so much so that her Sonic had to hold her up when she tripped over her own feet while giggling too hard.

“That is the best description of Shadow I’ve ever heard!” She rested her head against Sonic’s shoulder, laughing whole-heartedly at this point. “That’s just… that’s just the best… oh my gosh… I’m so tired.”

“You have definitely crossed the line over to punchy,” her Sonic said, amused. “Are you sure you’re okay?” She looked at him a mock glare on her face as she booped his nose with the tip of her finger.

“Stop making me tell you the truth.”

“Never, sunflower.”

“You’re ridiculous,” she told him. He smiled and kissed her cheek.

“I know.”

“Why do you want him here?” Knuckles asked.

“I don’t know,” Myla replied with a shrug. “Dude seems like he needs a vacation, he’d probably enjoy a nice chill adventure like this.”

“This is a chill adventure?” Amy asked, surprised. “You got kidnapped and tortured…”

That was the best part; can we go back to that?

“Yeah, well last week I was fighting a robot that looked exactly like my best friend and boyfriend, and would rapidly fluctuate between wanting to kiss me and wanting to murder me, and before that I was in a literal war. Yes, this is a chill adventure.” Myla stopped walking suddenly. She tilted her head to the right, her eyes looking around quickly.

“My?” Her Sonic asked. “What is it?” She gently removed herself from his assisting grasp, putting a hand on his chest as she moved forward. He nodded, staying back. Amy watched this with astonishment; this Sonic had been worried sick about Myla mere moments ago, and now was letting her do… whatever she was doing. The amount of trust that took…

“Heads up!” Myla yelled suddenly. “Stay back!” She was looking up at the sky, prompting everyone else to do the same. Something was falling… and Myla seemed to be ready to catch it. As they heard someone yelling in surprise, it was clear that it was a person. Myla’s eyes widened, a huge grin covering her face. “Oh no way…”

Oh goodie. It’s him.

Two seconds later, she was holding a black and red, and very confused hedgehog. Myla looked back up at the sky, a pleading look on her face.

“Universe,” she said, “if this is really how you work, please send me a ton of tacos.”

This is not how the universe works.

“Myla?!” Shadow flailed slightly in her arms. “Put me down!”

“Hold still, Sunshine, or I’ll end up dropping you!” Shadow sighed, allowing her to put him down on his feet. “Are you alright? Nothing broken?”

“I’m fine for someone that just fell out of the sky,” he replied, looking at her. “You’re not though…” She shrugged her shoulders. “What happened?”

“Shadow?!” Myla’s Sonic sped over and hugged him, which made Myla giggle a little. “What… how?!”

“Myla missed her check in,” Shadow replied. “Knuckles was heading out about two seconds after the call should have come in.” Myla looked at her Sonic, grinning.

“And you said there was no reason to check in at the same time every day.” Sonic rolled his eyes, smiling back.

“Yeah, yeah…”

“We found your bags and Myla’s wispon in Hidden Palace,” continued Shadow. “We got Tails to run some tests, try to figure out what happened. At some point, I touched the Master Emerald and fell straight through.”

“That lines up with what happened to us,” Myla replied. “Though I hadn’t even touched the emerald… the portal didn’t appear for you?”

“No… and it did nothing when Amy touched the emerald.”

“You have an Amy too?” asked a soft, familiarly unfamiliar voice. Shadow looked down upon the face of his girlfriend, years younger than he was used to. There was also the smaller Sonic he recognized from the war, a different Tails, and a different Knuckles.

“Oh this is so weird.”

“You’re telling me,” Myla’s Sonic said, grinning. “Tails, how far off are we from our destination?”

“If we keep going through the night,” Tails replied, “we should be there by morning.”

“Should we do that?” Knuckles asked. “Myla’s still hurt…”

“Yeah, about that,” Shadow said, turning to her. “You never answered me…” Myla was shaking a little, her eyes nervous. “Myla?”

“Shadow… did you come alone…”

“What?”

“Did you come alone, or is Amy out there somewhere…” Shadow’s eyes widened.

“I… I don’t know…”

“If she came through, she could be anywhere on the planet,” Myla’s Sonic said, obviously concerned.

“We need to check,” Myla said urgently. “We can’t just leave her out there…”

“We’ll split up,” Little Sonic said decidedly. “Tails, you get Myla and Amy to… where are we going anyway?”

“The old Flying Battery,” Tails replied. “It crashed out by the Mirage Desert, Robotnik just left it there. There’s a bunch of computers and stuff, it should work for whatever Myla has in mind.”

“That’s actually going to work perfectly,” Myla admitted.

Oh so you actually have a plan, Ruby? I’m shocked.

“Alright. I’ll take Knuckles with me, we’ll check Robotnik’s lair and the area around there.” Little Sonic turned to his counterpart and Shadow. “If you two want to head towards Press Garden, look around there…” He watched the other Sonic look at Myla, worriedly.

“My…”

“Go on.” He went over and hugged her tight.

Oh not this again.

“I don’t want to leave you…” Sonic said, resting his forehead against hers.

“And I don’t want you to,” replied Myla. “But if we send Shadow off by himself, we’ll never find Amy or him ever again.”

“HEY.”

“Oh hush, Sunshine, you know I’m right.” She kissed Sonic gently. “I’ll be okay.” He nodded.

“Don’t do anything crazy… okay? Just get to Flying Battery, we’ll meet up there…”

“You don’t do anything crazy; if you get captured again, I will come save you. Just watch me do it.” He chuckled softly.

“Yeah… I know you will.”  She smiled.

“Shadow,” she said, not looking away from her Sonic. “If anything happens to him, I will hold you personally responsible.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Shadow replied. His arms were crossed over his chest, but he was grinning.

“Alright, let’s get going,” Little Sonic cut in. “Knuckles?”

“I’m with you Sonic,” the echidna replied. “We’ll meet up at Flying Battery in three days, sooner if we find Amy.” As little Sonic and Knuckles headed off, Tails went over to Shadow and handed him a small gadget that looked like Robotnik’s head.

“Here, take this,” he said. “I haven’t had a chance to make it less… weird looking.”

“What is it?” Shadow asked, looking it over.

“A bunch of things, but most importantly, it’s a navigator. It’ll help you get to Press Garden, then to Mirage Desert.”

“Robotnik built it?”

“Yeah, I think I got most of the viral programming out of it, trackers and such, but still… be careful.”

“I will.”

“It also has an emerald tracker in it,” Tails continued. “If you come across any of those, might as well grab them. Might help in the long run.”

As the two of them continued to talk, Myla felt something slip onto her wrist. She looked down at the woven band of purple and gold.

“The bracelet I made you?” She looked up at Sonic, curiously. “Why?”

“Keep it safe for me,” Sonic replied. “I’ll come back for it, and you. I promise.” She nodded. “I love you.”

“I love you… now, get going before I do something crazy to keep you here…” Sonic kissed her cheek and ran off, Shadow following close behind him. Myla watched them until they were out of sight, her chest aching.

“Myla?” Amy asked softly. “Are you okay?” She smiled down at the young hedgehog, wiping her eyes.

“It’s never easy saying goodbye to your best friend,” Myla admitted, taking her guitar from Amy and slinging it across her back. “Even when you know you’ll see them again.” She looked down at the bracelet on her wrist, smiling a little before turning to Tails. “Lead on, bud; let’s get there as soon as we can.”

Oh thank the gods, I am spared from your epic romance for a few days at least.

***

Knuckles stood alone in Hidden Palace, staring at the Master Emerald in disbelief. That… there’s no way that just happened, right? He walked over to the Emerald and placed his hand on it. Nothing…

“Knuckles to Tails; we’ve got a problem.”

Chapter Text

Amy woke with a pounding headache and couldn’t help wondering if this is what other people felt like when she hit them with her hammer.

Her memory was fuzzy; she remembered Shadow coming to stand next to her, leaning against the emerald… and then he fell through. She grabbed his hand, intending to pull him back, only to fall through herself. She lost her grip somehow, lost him… now she was in some strange… frozen garden? She sighed, getting to her feet.

“Shadow? Are you here?” She received no reply; she didn’t really expect to. She looked around, trying to get her bearings. A few feet away was a bag… Myla’s bag. Amy had been holding it when everything happened. She hurried over to it, picking it up and slinging it over her shoulder. Hopefully she would see Myla soon to return it to her.

She had a decision to make now; did she stay put and hope someone friendly would find her, or did she move on in search of them? Her gut instinct was to go searching… but this was a world she didn’t know, filled with people she wouldn’t’ know as friend or foe. No, the best thing she could do now, was stay around this strange garden and hope for the best.

***

“Shadow touched the Emerald and fell though?” Tails asked, scanning the gem with the Miles Electric.

“Amy fell after him,” Knuckles replied. “But when I touched it, it was solid.” Tails nodded.

“Whatever’s opening this portal is attracted to energy signatures; it opened for Myla and Sonic because of the Phantom Ruby’s powers in Myla… Shadow has his own energies, which likely opened it for him and Amy.” He looked up from the Miles Electric at Knuckles. “Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you want to look at it, your energy is probably too similar to the Master Emerald for it to register you.”

“Lets go with fortunately, I’m really glad to not be traveling into the unknown.” He closed his eyes, thinking. “It needs power to open it… I’ve got an idea.”

***

“How long have you known your Sonic?” Amy asked. It had been a few hours since the party had split up; Myla hadn’t spoken a word in that time. Amy didn’t know her well, but it seemed… wrong. Her being so quiet just seemed so wrong…

“Oh, about a year now I think,” Myla replied after a moment. “Give or take…”

“And you’re… together?” Myla smiled.

“Yes, though that is more recent; almost two weeks now.”

Much to my annoyance.

“How did that happen?” Tails asked.

“There was a war on our planet,” said Myla, a sad smile on her face. “Sonic and I fought in it, together.” At first, Amy had been worried about asking about her and Sonic, thinking Myla would be upset somehow… but once she started talking, she was a whole other person. She told them such amazing stories about her and Sonic during this war; she talked with her hands, gesturing wildly at certain points in the stories. It made the trip go faster somehow.

How do they not realize what you’re doing right now?

“Tails,” Myla said suddenly. “I know you said we’d reach Flying Battery by morning, but would it be a problem if we stopped for the night?”

“If we do that, we’ll be going through the desert in the day…” Myla nodded, thinking.

“How far until the desert do you think?”

“Maybe half an hour or so?”

“Okay; let’s get to the edge of the desert and rest there; when the moon comes up, we’ll start out again.” She looked down at Amy. “Sound good?”

“Yes, that sounds good,” Amy agreed.

They reached the edge of the desert in the half an hour Tails said it would. By chance, they happened upon a small oasis containing a lake and some palm trees. Myla tasked Amy with filling the canteens they had with them, and had Tails help her get down a few coconuts and some palm fronds from the trees. Once everything was gathered, they sat down under the trees; Myla found a sharp stone and used it to make holes in a few of the coconuts, handing them to her companions.

“Drink up,” she said, then got to her feet and walked to the shores of the lake, picking long strands of grass as she went. “I can use these and the palm fronds to make us a little bit of sun protection for tomorrow. Hopefully we won’t need it.”

“How do you know all of this?” Tails asked before taking a drink. “You said you grew up in a city?”

“I did,” Myla admitted as she sat down between him and Amy. “And to be perfectly honest, I don’t know how I know this.”

“You don’t?” Amy asked. Myla shook her head.

“I was just telling Sonic, my Sonic about this… there are parts of my life I don’t remember… huge parts.” Using the grass and the fronds, she put together a makeshift hat, placing it on Amy’s head before starting on another. “Some mornings, I’ll wake up and I’ll have such vivid memories of things that can’t possibly be true…”

“What do you mean?” Myla looked at her, a sad smile on her face.

“I remember dying.”

***

Myla pushed herself to her feet again; no matter what she did, this thing just kept knocking her down, each time harder than the last. She was battered, bloody, everything around her was on fire…

So it was a Tuesday.

“Myla, you’re hurt…”

“I’m okay, Waffle,” she promised. “Its… its just a flesh wound.”  Waffle, her small flying chipmunk-esk friend, who was the actual personification of light, day and rebirth, didn’t seem to buy this. Just was well; Myla didn’t feel she was selling it particularly well.

All things considered, things were going horribly. Professor Galactnik was dead, killed by the being she had summoned in her latest bid for world domination. This thing was by far the hardest enemy Myla had ever battled, and she wasn’t sure how to defeat it. She and Waffle had been doing everything they could together, but it wasn’t going down.

She didn’t want to be negative, didn’t want to give up… but she couldn’t help wondering if maybe they weren’t supposed to win. So many people had died…

“Myla, look out!”

Myla had no time to react to Waffle’s warning; the blast hit her square in the chest, sending her flying. She felt herself slam into something, a stabbing pain through her back…

“Myla… Myla, get up… please…” She forced her eyes open; Waffle was fluttering over her, a terrified look on her face. “Myla…”

“I… I can’t, Waffle,” she whispered, looking down at the rock sticking out of her shoulder. “I can’t move…”

“Myla, no…” She closed her eyes, barely feeling tears slip down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, Waffle… I failed you… I failed everyone…” Something soft and warm wiped away her tears; she opened her eyes again to see Waffle resting one of her tiny hands on her cheek.

“You didn’t fail, Myla,” she promised. “It… sometimes its possible to do everything right, and still lose…” She looked up at the monster; it was getting closer.

“Get out of here, Waffle,” Myla begged. “Run, before… before it…”

“I’m not just leaving you here!”

“There’s nothing else you can do for me… my story’s over…” She did her best to smile. “You have so much left of yours…” Waffle shook her head.

“No… No, Myla. Your story is not ending like this.”

***

“I woke up after that,” Myla said, sewing together a third and final hat, placing it on her own head. “But it wasn’t a dream anymore, it was a memory; everything single thing that I ‘knew’ inside the dream is just… fact now.” She placed a hand on her chest, sighing. “I can feel it now, like it just happened… Sonic doesn’t know. I… the dream was just last night, I didn’t get a chance to tell him…” That was… not a lie, per say. More of a half-truth; she could have told Sonic about the dream while they talked about her scars at the hot spring, but she hadn’t been ready for that conversation. Not with everything else going on.

“You can tell him when we see him again,” Amy said, her voice full of confidence. “And that won’t be long, we’re meeting at Flying Battery in three days!” Myla smiled.

“We are…” She laid back against a tree, closing her eyes. “Let’s get some rest… it’ll be night soon, and we’ll want to head out to beat the dawn.”

I liked that story, Ruby; tell it again. You can skip right to the parts that were the worst for you.

Chapter Text

Shadow was in no way used to Sonic being the quiet one; it was by far the most unsettling thing he’d ever experienced. At first he tried to ignore his silence, filling it by telling Sonic what their Tails had learned back home. Sonic nodded occasionally, but didn’t engage. As night started to fall, Shadow had had about enough.

“So what happened to Myla?” Sonic stiffened instantly.

“She’s fine.” he said after a moment. “I wouldn’t have left her if she wasn’t.”

“I didn’t ask if she was fine; I asked what happened to her.” Shadow watched Sonic clench his fists, his shoulders tensing up. He looked down at the ground.

“You may want to back away,” he said softly. “Night is coming…” Shadow nodded, stepping back as the werehog came out. Sonic stood there for a moment, panting hard.

“Tails had mentioned picking up on Dark Gaia energy,” Shadow remarked. “I’d been wondering if it was effecting you again.”

“Well now you know.” Shadow rolled his eyes.

“You wanna go rip a tree out of the ground, or are you ready to talk?”

“What do you care?” Sonic asked, looking down at Shadow with a glare. He sighed.

“Myla,” he said seriously, “has never been anything but nice to me. I don’t think she knows anything about me, but she still decided I was worth being nice to. I care because…” He shook his head, chuckling. “Because she is my friend.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “So. What happened to Myla?” Sonic sighed, sitting down on ground suddenly.

“Robotnik got her,” he said finally. “This world’s Eggman…” Sonic recounted what Myla had told him about her time with the villain; his outright cruelty to her, the ‘tests’ he ran, the torture…

“And you weren’t there,” Shadow replied, not insensitively. “You, through no fault of your own, weren’t there to save her from that.” Sonic nodded a little. “But you were able to save her.”

“You didn’t see her,” Sonic replied. “You didn’t see her, in those restraints, gagged… shaking her head, telling the other Sonic not to do what Robotnik wanted while he was hurting her… then she saved the other Amy from Robotnik’s bots using the ruby and… that thing’s killing her. I can feel it…” Shadow raised an eyebrow.

“The doctors said it saved her life…”

“It saved her life when she wasn’t using it.” Sonic picked up a large rock, probably as big as his normal form, and hurled in against a tree, snapping the tree in two. He sat down, looking at the ground below him. “She gets weaker every time she uses it. I can’t be the only one that’s seeing it…”

Shadow thought about this. He had only seen Myla use the power twice; the first was during the final battle of the war, when she pushed back Eggman’s sun. The second was during the battle with Metal Sonic on Angel Island; she shielded them long enough for them to be ready to battle, saved Tails, stopped Metal with Sonic’s help… and ended up back in the hospital.

“A real paradox,” he said finally. “To be in possession of such power, but unable to use it without sacrificing herself…”

“And she’d do it,” Sonic said.

“Most of us would.” Sonic looked at him curiously. “Let’s face it, Omega would leave us all to die.” Sonic cracked a smile before starting to laugh.

“Oh he would… he so would…” Shadow watched with amusement as his friend—sigh, yes, that blue hedgehog was his friend—laughed until he couldn’t laugh any longer.

“We can’t stop her from using the power she’s gained,” Shadow said. “And if the roles were reversed, she wouldn’t be able to stop you.” Sonic sighed, nodding his head. “Myla doesn’t have the mechanical enhancements that Metal or Infinite had, it makes sense that she’s so weakened after using it.”

“Yeah… yeah.” Shadow put a hand on his shoulder.

“We need to get home for her surgery; we can figure out the rest later.” He looked at the machine Tails had given him. “According to this, we aren’t far from this Press Garden place.” Sonic got to his feet, nodding.

“Let’s keep moving then.” He looked up at the sky, at the moon, seemingly lost in thought. “Thanks Shadow.” Shadow grinned.

“Don’t mention it.”

“Since when does she call you Sunshine?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

***

“Find the Chaos Emeralds?” Rouge asked. “That’s your big plan to find our friends?”

“Tails said the portal is reacting to energy signatures,” Knuckles replied with a shrug. “If we have all the Chaos Emeralds, then the portal should open.”

“One should be enough,” Tails added. “If we get all seven, we should be able to use them to open the portal more than once.”

“How does that work?” asked Rouge.

“Each emerald has its own unique energy signature; when you get a couple of them together, the signature combines, and it changes based on which emeralds are being used.”

“So the more we have,” said Knuckles, “the more times we can open the portal.”

“As long as my theory is correct,” Tails agreed. “So…” He looked up at Rouge with a shy smile. “We need the two best treasure hunters in the world to go find them.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, kiddo,” Rouge replied with a smile. “Let’s go hunt some gems.”

***

As her companions slept, Myla watched the sunset in the west. She wondered how far the others had gotten; had her Sonic and Shadow made it to Press Garden yet? Were Knuckles and the other Sonic back to Robotnik’s lair?

Was everyone alright?

Probably. Unfortunately.

Myla knew she should have taken time to sleep; they’d be walking most, if not all of the night in order to make it across the desert, now was the time to rest. She wasn’t finding rest in sleep these days; only dreams she didn’t understand that lingered like old memories. A kind old man who loved her with all his heart, who gave her a special gift… a gift she wanted back more than anything, but she had no idea what it was.

When had she picked up her guitar? When had she started strumming slowly, playing whatever rhythm felt right in the darkness? She loved this beautiful guitar so much. Her friends gave the instrument to her and she had named it Aria; ironic, really. An aria was a type of solo, where as this guitar rarely sang alone.

Can you at least play something with some real energy to it?

“Why are their so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side? Rainbows are visions; only illusions… rainbows have nothing to hide. So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it… but I know they’re wrong, wait and see… someday we’ll find it, the Rainbow Connection: the lovers, the dreamers and me…”

I see the answer is ‘no’.

Amy opened her eyes a little; it was starting to get dark, they’d need to be going soon. She sat up and looked around; Tails was fast asleep… Myla was wide awake, playing her guitar and singing. She stayed quiet; Myla hadn’t played her guitar in the short time Amy had known her, and she very much wanted to hear her.

“Who said that every wish would be heard and answered, if wished on a morning star? Somebody thought of that and someone believed it, and look what it’s done so far… what’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing? What do we think we might see? Someday we’ll find it, the Rainbow Connection: the lovers, the dreamers and me…” Myla closed her eyes, smiling a little. “All of us under it’s spell… we know it’s probably magic…”

“That’s beautiful,” Amy said softly, causing Myla to look over at her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt…”

“Not at all,” Myla assured her. “I’m glad you like it.” She looked up at the stars, sighing a little. “Someone used to sing that to me… I don’t remember who. I don’t know if I actually remember someone singing that to me, or if it’s something else…” She looked back at Amy, smiling a little. “Would you like to hear the rest?”

No.

“Yes please…” Myla nodded and continued to sing.

“Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices? I’ve heard them calling my name… are these the sweet sounds that called to young sailors? I think they’re one and the same. I’ve heard it to many times to ignore it… it’s something I’m supposed to be…” Myla stopped a moment, wiping her eyes quickly. “Someday we’ll find it, the Rainbow Connection: the lovers, the dreamers… and me…”

Myla got to her feet, stretching her arms above her head. When she did, Amy saw various scars on her side; were those from the war she had mentioned? She was about to ask when Myla moved her guitar so it rested on her back, then walked over to Tails, carefully picking him up and holding him so his head rested on her shoulder.

“We should get going,” she said softly. “Got the canteens?”

“Yeah, I’ve got them,” Amy replied, hurrying over to her. “Let’s head out.”

Chapter Text

This place was so weird. Amy had been many places in her life, adventuring with her friends, but this place? This wintery garden that was somehow also a working printing press? This took the cake. Fortunately, weird places like this somehow attracted small blue hedgehogs and their friends, so hopefully someone would find her soon.

It hadn’t been a rough time for her; there were badniks of course (so this place had an Eggman of its own), but she knew how to deal with them. Her hammer was with her at all times, and these things were as cheaply made as the ones she was used to, so they went boom pretty quickly.

It wasn’t until early the next morning that problems started to arise. Amy had found a place to hole up for the night, one of the many strange towers that were placed weirdly around the place. It had seemed secluded enough, safe for her to sleep. She ate a little of the food Myla had in her bag, not sure what to trust in this strange place, and at some point had drifted off. She awoke to something cold dropping on her; she couldn’t move anything but her eyes, which shot open quickly. A badnik was above her; it reminded her of the Bombbearers that she had seen back home… but this one seemed to have dropped some sort of ice bomb on her; she was frozen solid.

She could hear something happening; explosions maybe? The badnik hovering above her suddenly burst into flames; definitely explosions. But where were they coming from… it was so cold… and it was so hard to keep her eyes open; eventually they fell closed again.

“AMY!” That voice… “Amy listen to me! I need you to fight, Amy, I can’t break the ice without hurting you… fight for me!” It was so cold… so hard to move. She wiggled a little, but it took so much effort. There was no way she could do this, she’d never been strong enough for such things... she felt her limbs starting to freeze. “Amy!” the voice shouted. “Amy, don’t leave me!”

The ice shattered with a yell that Amy never would have thought could come from her. She instantly felt herself pulled into a warm embrace, someone’s hand resting on the back of her head.

“Shadow…?”

“I’m here,” he promised, kissing her cheek. “I’m here, it’s okay…” He leaned back to look at her, his face awash with worry. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you’d come here too…” She just smiled at him, hugging him tight.

“I knew you’d find me.”

“Always.”

Sonic stood back from his friends, waiting for the sun to rise and change him back to his usual from.  Shadow had spotted Amy seconds before the badnik attacked her; Sonic promised to deal with the other badniks that were starting to close in, so Shadow could get to Amy. By the time he was finished, Amy was in Shadow’s arms.

“Sonic!” Amy called out, waving to him. He hurried over, smiling a little.

“You okay?

“I am now… where’s Myla?”

“She’s with Tails and… another Amy.”

“Another Amy?!”

“This has been the weirdest day of my life,” Shadow told her, tossing Tails’ navigator to Sonic before lifting her into his arms. “Let’s get going.”

***

Tails opened his eyes a little, looking around in confusion. He was moving, but… backwards?

“Hey buddy,” Myla said softly. “You awake?”

“Yeah… can you put me down?” He felt Myla kneel, letting go of her grip on him so he could slide down to the ground. When he stood back up, he realized that she was also carrying Amy. “Is Amy okay?”

“It’s been a long day,” Myla replied. “With the Eggrobos and everything, it’s a wonder she kept walking as long as she did.”

“You should have woken me up…”

“I’m sorry, buddy; Amy was awake already, so I just picked you up and we headed out.” She smiled a little, looking exhausted herself.

“You don’t look good…”

“It’s okay, I’m fine…. no, don’t frown at me like that, I’m fine.” She looked up at the star filled sky. “Can you fly up and see where we’re at? Amy said to go east…” Tails nodded.

“She’s right. I’ll be down in a sec!” Myla watched with a smile as the young fox flew into the air. She felt like death and was sure Tails knew it. Hopefully it wasn’t too much farther; once they got to the Flying Battery, she’d rest. Maybe not sleep, but definitely rest.

“We’re not far now!” Tails called as he came back down. “I can see the Flying Battery from here!”

“Good! Can you take Amy and fly over there?”

“Well yeah… but what about you?”

“I’ll be right behind you.” She carefully handed Amy over to him. “I can run faster when I’m not carrying anyone.”

“Okay… if you’re not there soon, I’m coming back for you.”

“Fair enough.”

Myla watched Tails fly off with Amy in his arms, waiting until the were well out of sight before turning back towards the way they had come.

“Alright,” she called out, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ve had just about enough of this. Why are you two still following me?” Seconds later, the two robots appeared in front of her.

What is it with you and giving away your trump cards?

“How did you know we were still following you?” One asked. Their voice was familiar; the one Myla had spoken to before. King, he had called himself.

“I’m sure you already know the answer to that,” Myla replied with a tired grin. The second robot—Mage, Myla thought—looked at her companion.

“What does she mean?”

“She’s been using the ruby’s powers for a while now,” King replied. “That’s how you and those children got so far before the morning… it’s how you’re still standing at this point. But the power is weak, as are you; I barely felt its presence, its no wonder Mage didn’t feel it at all.”

“Yeah, don’t tell my boyfriend? I didn’t actually agree to not do anything crazy, but he’s not going to see it that way.”

I will tell him. I will tell him as soon as he gets here.

“Which one is your boyfriend?” He heard that sound again… someone else talking… but who…

“The taller Sonic.” Her face turned serious. “I… think I’m going to need to sit down.”  Myla felt her legs give out from under her, something catching her before she hit the ground. “Flying Battery… I…”

“Relax, Myla,” King replied, lifting her up. “We’ll get you there.”

Maybe.

Chapter Text

Shadow followed Sonic towards the Mirage Desert, Amy in his arms for most of the trip. At some point, Sonic had given her Tails’ navigator and she’d been leading them to their destination. He’d been unable to talk Sonic into taking a rest, but if Amy was in Myla’s situation? Shadow would want to keep going as well. On the upside, they reached the Flying Battery by the next night, shortly after Sonic transformed into the werehog again. They were a little concerned to see this world’s Amy waiting outside for them.

“Holy crap that’s me,” Amy said incredulously as Shadow set her on the ground. Little Amy stared back at her, eyes wide.

“Holy crap, I look so cool!”

“Amy, why are you out here?” Sonic asked. “Everything okay?”

“Tails and I have been taking turns waiting for you guys,” she explained. “We needed to make sure you didn’t freak out about the giant robots being here.”

“…what giant robots?”

“They’re inside, guarding Myla.”

“Why are they… this is going to get explained inside, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, come on.”

Little Amy lead them into the remains of the Flying Battery; it looked very similar to the one Sonic remembered from their world, except a lot creepier. Save for some dim emergency lights, the hallways were dark, and there was no hum of machinery. At the far end of a corridor, there was an open door with light shining beyond it, which Little Amy led them through.

“Okay,” Sonic said, as he entered the room behind her. “I understand the warning about the giant robots now.” The giant robots turned to him, seeming to instantly go on the defensive.

“That’s still my boyfriend! Please don’t hurt him, I am very attached!”

Ugh, not this again.

“Myla?” The robots moved aside; Myla was sitting against the wall, looking worse than when he’d last seen her. He hurried over to her, picking her up and hugging her.

“Hey there, handsome,” she replied tiredly, hugging back. “Did you and Shadow have a fun road trip?”

“Yes, we had fun. We sang songs and talked about girls the whole time.”

“Shadow, if you roll your eyes any harder, they’re going to stick that way.”

“Noted,” Shadow replied flatly. “I thought you weren’t going to do anything crazy while we were gone?”

“What makes you think I did anything crazy?” Myla asked innocently. In response, Shadow pointed to the robots. “Why are they my fault?”

“I can attest that we are, in fact, not Myla’s fault,” one of the robots replied. “I’m King, this is Mage; we sought out Myla due to her connection to the Phantom Ruby. Mage and I have a similar connection.”

“They do,” Myla confirmed. “Sonic, put me down for a second? Amy looks like she wants to hug me.” Not two seconds after Sonic had set Myla on the ground, her Amy was hugging her tight.

Why is everyone so affectionate towards you? You’re not even that good looking.

“I’ve been so worried about you!” Amy said as Myla hugged back. “We all have been, you missed your check in.”

“Totally not my fault,” Myla promised. “Robotnik took my communicator and I honestly don’t think it would have worked here anyway.”

“Oh speaking of!” Amy took Myla’s bag off her shoulder and handed it over. “I found this at Hidden Palace, I’ve been holding on to it for you.”

“Thanks!” Myla put the bag over her shoulder. “I was worried I’d lost it…”

“Can we get back to the matter at hand?” Shadow asked. “First off, what’s with the robots; second, how are you looking worse than you did two days ago; third… where’s Tails?”

“I’m up here!” He poked his head down through a hole in the ceiling. “I’m trying to get some more power, I’ll be down in a second.”

“Okay, that’s one question down,” Myla said with a grin. “Which one are we answering next?”

“King and I used to be Eggrobos,” Mage said quickly. “We changed into our current forms after our initial exposure to the Phantom Ruby.”

“We tried to keep the gem for ourselves,” King continued. “This world’s Sonic and Tails thwarted us twice.”

“The first time was right before my Sonic went to your and Myla’s world, Sonic,” Tails called down. “The ruby from our world went with him, which is the one your Eggman had. It came back with Sonic, and started the second adventure.”

“We don’t know where the ruby is at this point,” Mage added. “After it vanished, King and I stayed in Mirage Desert.”

“They run an ice cream shop!” Little Amy added. “They have the best ice cream.” Both King and Mage looked pleased by this. Sonic had never seen a robot be flattered before; it was heartwarming somehow.

“We sensed the ruby’s power a few days ago,” said King. “We think around the same time you and Myla arrived here, Sonic. We came to investigate, not wanting it to fall into Robotnik’s hands. Mage and I like our freedom, as do the others like us.”

“We’ve been following Myla for a couple days,” Mage said. “We caught up with her in the desert, after she sent Amy and Tails on ahead.” Sonic looked down at Myla.

“Why did you send Tails and Amy ahead?”

“Because I knew we were being followed,” Myla replied. “I can sense them, and they can sense me.”

“I thought you said you wouldn’t do anything crazy…”

“If you recall, I never actually agreed to that.” Sonic stared at her for a moment, clearly thinking about the conversation.

“You didn’t, did you?” He shook his head, grinning a little. “Can you please not do anything crazy for the foreseeable future?”

“Attempts will be made.”

Did you just lie to him? I’m pretty sure you just lied to him.

“Thank you.” Myla looked up at the ceiling.

“Tails, how’s it going up there?”

“I think I’ve got it, Myla! Just one more thing… there!” The room, already lit pretty well, came to life; computers around them whirred to life, monitors turned on, lights on other machines started flashing.

“Good job Tails!” Myla walked over to one of computers, starting to look through. “We’re in the Flying Battery’s control center,” she informed everyone. “I’m hoping we can get access to Eggman’s records, figure out how he created the portal that brought us here.”

“How can you be sure he built it?” Mage asked.

“I can’t, to be honest, but he has something to do with it… here we go.” An image popped up on screen, depicting schematics of a large claw.

“That’s the thing that grabbed you,” Sonic growled.

“It is; I didn’t get much out of Robotnik while I was… there…” She shivered a little. Sonic gently placed a hand on her shoulder; she placed her hand on top of his, squeezing gently. “But he did tell me that the claw is designed to lock onto the strongest energy source, which he assumed was going to be the Master Emerald from our world.”

“But it ended up being you,” Shadow said with a nod. “That explains the claw, but not the portal.”

“Yeah… Tails, you want to come down and take over? He’s got some passwords on here, I don’t want to trigger any alarms.”

Aw, you’re not smarter than the little baby fox?

“Sure thing!” Tails flew down from the ceiling and took Myla’s place at the computer.

“There’s one more question that needs answering,” Shadow said, noticing how Myla flinched slightly.

“No, I think we got them all,” she replied quickly.

“Myla, you’re hurt,” Sonic said. “You look like you’re exhausted; what’s wrong?” She sighed, looking at him.

“Stop making me tell you the truth…”

“Never.” He placed a hand on her cheek. “What’s going on…” She leaned into his touch, sighing a little.

“Let’s take a walk, yeah?” She looked over at the rest of the group. “We’ll be back in a bit.”

“If you’re not back in an hour, I’m sending Mage after you,” King said decidedly.

“Fair enough,” Myla agreed. She took Sonic’s hand, walking out with him.

“So,” Shadow said after they’d gone, looking over at Mage and King. “What’s wrong with her?”

“We aren’t certain,” King replied. “But we have a feeling that being the ruby is starting to kill her.”

Chapter Text

Sonic and Myla walked around the ship in silence, hand in hand, careful to walk in a straight line so they could find their way back. She leaned against his shoulder a little; he could hear her breathing heavily and thought he could feel her heart racing. He wanted to ask her again what was happening, but knew that would make her clam up more. She hadn’t been comfortable talking around everyone, but would talk to him alone, at her own pace.

“I’ve been having weird dreams since I got all of the Phantom Ruby’s power,” she said a few minutes later. “They aren’t just dreams though, they’re like… memories.”

“Memories? Really?”

“They almost seem to fit in with the gaps I have, but they don’t make sense; in these memories, I have a family… a grandfather that I lived with. He’s a doctor of some sort, in robotics maybe?”

“Older, yellowish brown,” Sonic said softly. “Has a scar over one eye…” Myla looked up at him, surprised.

“Yes... how did you know?”

“I’ve had a dream with him in it… he gave you a guitar…”

“A guitar?”

“Yeah, beautiful one. Electric I think? He did something to it, something he thought you’d like… I don’t know what exactly, I woke up before he explained.” She nodded.

“I wonder if that’s what I’m looking for…”

“What do you mean?”

“I know that there was something he gave me, and I want to have it again… I just have no idea what it is…”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart…”

“I haven’t wanted to sleep since the last one… so I… haven’t slept since the last one…” She sighed. “That was the night before Shadow arrived.”

“You haven’t slept for two days…”

“Sonic, I’m pretty sure I died in that dream.” She looked up at him, her lovely face looking sad and exhausted. “Would you want to sleep again after that?” He hugged her gently.

“No, sunflower,” he admitted. “I can’t say that I would.” He kissed the top of her head. “You need to sleep though… and that doesn’t explain why you look like you’re sick.” She sighed.

“King and Mage said they didn’t just sense the ruby’s power when I got here,” she said. “They said they sensed the ruby itself.”

“So the one that disappeared…” Myla shook her head.

“No, they sensed me… I’m the ruby…” She hugged him tight, snuggling against him. “When we defeated Metal, and I got the rest of the prototype’s power… I became the ruby. Someone, if they wanted, could use me as a tool to wield the ruby’s power, like Infinite and Metal had…”

Not gonna lie, that’s the plan. Hell, that’s the dream.

“I’d never let that happen,” Sonic said firmly. “You know that.”

“Of course I do… but there’s another issue.”

“What?”

“The Phantom Ruby was never used directly by an organic life-form; Infinite was barely organic when he used the ruby; Metal, Mage and King are all fully robotic; Eggman and Robotnik both used various robotic prosthetics… I’m using me… and…” She hesitated a little. “King thinks that using it like I have been, even with as little as I have been… it might be killing me.”

I want to use you to murder your friends, I don’t know if that was clear.

“No…”

“They said their ability to sense me gets harder when the energy gets weaker; Mage said she can’t sense me anymore, King said he barely can…” She was shaking now.

“It’s okay,” Sonic promised. “It’s going to be okay, we’ll figure this out…”

“I can’t use the power anymore,” Myla replied, the sound of tears forming in her voice. “I don’t dare…”

“You don’t have to; you’re the guardian, remember? You’ll guard it until we figure out what to do.” He gently cupped her chin in his hand, tiling her head up. “You guard the power; I’ll guard you. Okay?” She nodded a little.

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Who’s guarding you?” He grinned.

“We’ll make Shadow do it, he’ll be thrilled.” Myla’s laughter, even as tired as it was, was music to his ears. She snuggled close to him.

“I’m so tired of this, Sonic…”

“Tired of what?”

“Being weak… useless… I don’t have my wispon, I have power I can’t use…” She tightened her embrace on him. “I’m… having those thoughts again… about not wanting to be here. At all.”

Oh gods, not this again.

Sonic hoped his flinch wasn’t too noticeable, not wanting to upset her any more. They’d talked about this a few times since Metal Sonic was destroyed and they’d gone off on their trip to Angel Island; it was rough territory to tread. Myla didn’t want to die, she had said that over and over.

“But sometimes?” she’d said softly, one night as they were sitting around the campfire. “Sometimes, I just wish I was gone… out of the way.” Sonic had put an arm around her, holding her and letting her talk everything out; she felt out of place, she felt useless, she hated herself for it, sometimes she hated herself in general… then she started apologizing for dumping it all on him.

Just like she was doing now.

“I’m sorry…” She pulled away from him, turning her back to him, wiping her eyes as she started walking away. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t dump all this on you, not when you’ve got your own problems…”

“No, no, no,” he said gently, his arm stretching to take her hand before she got too far away. “Don’t shut me out right now, My…”

“I’m not…”

“You are; you’re trying to walk away again.” He gently pulled her back over to him, picking her up so her head could rest on his shoulder as he hugged her. “I’m never going to have answers for you on this, Myla; as much as I want to, I won’t… but I’ll never tell you not to talk to me when you’re hurting.”

“But…”

“No buts, sunflower; you have been through so much, more than most people would be able to take in a lifetime…” He smoothed her hair gently, kissing her on the temple. “And you’ve kept it all inside, locked away so you wouldn’t be a burden. You are not a burden, Myla; not to me, not to our friends… we’ll never make you go through this alone. I’ll never let you go through this alone.” He could feel her shaking in his arms, hear her crying softly.

“I love you, Sonic,” she said quietly, her arms hugging him tight.

“I love you too, Myla.”

“I… I think I need to sleep…” He sighed, relieved.

“I think you’re right… get some sleep; I’ll be here when you wake up.”  He’d be lying if he said he didn’t panic when she didn’t answer him, but after a moment, he heard her breathing even out, felt her heartbeat slow down to normal. She was asleep; good. He shifted his hold on her so she was cradled in his arms before walking back towards the command center. Hopefully she would be able to sleep soundly, no strange dreams to vex her in the morning. When they got home, he’d talk to her again about seeing a doctor; she’d said before it was something she was willing to try, it just hadn’t happened yet.

He’d worry about it when they got home; right now, they needed to figure out how to get there.

You can’t ignore me forever, Ruby.

Chapter Text

Little Amy felt relief wash over her when Sonic the Werehog came back to the control room with Myla asleep in his arms. She had felt so guilty when she’d started to tire during their walk through the desert, even more so when Myla knelt down and picked her up, carrying both her and Tails for who knows how long, talking and singing at least until Amy had fallen asleep.

“How’s she doing?” the other Amy asked softly.

“Not great,” Sonic admitted, settling down with her in his arms. “She hasn’t been sleeping… weird dreams.”

“What a coincidence,” Shadow replied with a smirk. “You haven’t been sleeping either.”

“You should do that,” Mage said. “All of you should; King and I are here, we can keep watch.” Sonic yawned, nodding.

“Thanks Mage,” he replied. “I appreciate it.”

“We all do,” Little Amy added. Mage gently patted her on the head.

“You continue to be my favorite, little one,” Mage said decidedly. “I will go watch for Sonic and Knuckles; you said they would be here soon?”

“We agreed to meet here in three days,” Shadow said. “They should arrive at any time.” Mage nodded and headed out. As she walked past him, King put a hand on her shoulder.

“If you need help, let us know,” he said sternly.

“Yes your majesty,” she replied, bowing low.

“Don’t call me that.” King tried to look annoyed, but was clearly smiling.

“No promises.”

After Mage went outside, King went over and talked with Tails about what he was finding in Robotnik’s files, helping with passwords and such where he could, before convincing the young fox to get some sleep. Sonic was out cold by now, his large werehog head resting against Myla’s. Shadow was sitting next to his Amy, arm around her as he slept as well.

Little Amy sat quietly, unsure of what else to do. She’d been like that for a while now; exactly how long, she couldn’t be sure…

“Can’t sleep?” She looked up at the other Amy, who was smiling at her.

“I slept a lot earlier,” she admitted. “Myla…” She looked over at Sonic before lowering her voice. “Myla used those powers she has; King said it got us here faster than we should have. We’re not supposed to tell her Sonic…” Amy nodded.

“That sounds like Myla; don’t worry, I won’t tell him.”

“Thanks…” She looked over back at this over Amy, nervously. “They’re together, huh?”

“Yes, they are.”

“Not you and Sonic…”

“No, not me and Sonic.” Amy looked at Shadow, snoring next to her. “This one’s mine.”

“Oh…”

“That upsets you?”

“No!” Little Amy clapped a hand over, worried she’d woken someone, thankful when she saw she hadn’t. “I just…”

“You like your Sonic,” Big Amy replied, understandingly. “I know how that is.”

“You do?”

“Mhm; I had a crush on Sonic for a long time… I was a little crazy about it, to be honest.” She chuckled, shaking her head. “Looking back on it now, I don’t know how he managed to stand me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I went out of my way to know everything about him; favorite color, food, music… stuff that you learn about your friends. But I didn’t… I didn’t go about it the way you would with a friend. We didn’t talk, I just…” She sighed. “I got to a point where I knew him so well, but I didn’t understand him.”

“That’s different?”

“Oh yes.” She thought for a moment. “What’s your Sonic’s favorite food?”

“Chili Dogs! I’ve seen him eat like five in one setting once!”

“Okay; do you know why they’re his favorite?” Little Amy blinked at her.

“I… no, I don’t…”

“I didn’t either until a few months ago… and you know who told me?” Little Amy shook her head. “It was Myla.”

***

“You’re up early.” Myla had been looking through the cupboards of the resistance base’s kitchen when she heard Amy’s voice behind her.

“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep,” she replied, still looking through the cupboards. “My stomach’s growling, I’m so hungry.”

“Didn’t you and Sonic get dinner last night?” Amy asked, concerned. Myla chuckled, turning to face her, a sheepish grin on her face.

“I am so sick of chili dogs… I think I ate half of one last night, I couldn’t stomach any more than that.” Amy started to laugh. “Don’t tell him?”

“Never,” Amy promised. “What are you making?”

“If we have everything, I was thinking of making pancakes; people start flocking to the kitchen when they smell food, and I can make a ton of pancakes in a relatively short amount of time.”

“You don’t need to make food for everyone though…”

“I know, but if I’m already cooking, why wouldn’t I?”

“That’s… a really good point.” Amy watched with amazement as Myla pulled down ingredients and threw them together. She didn’t measure anything, it’s was literally a scoop of this, a pinch on that, dash of this other thing. “Wow you’re good at that…”

“Thanks! I taught myself a few things at some point; I read a lot of books when I’m not in the middle of a war.” Amy laughed. “That’s exactly what Sonic did when I told him that!”

“You should try to get him to read one of your cook books,” Amy suggested. “Maybe he’ll start making himself something other than chili dogs.”

“I doubt that; it’s a comfort food for him, you know? His mom teaching him how to make them and all.”

“What?” Myla looked up from her mixing bowl, confused.

“You didn’t know that?” Amy shook her head. “Oh… he told me that once when we were camping, I just assumed everyone knew. Do we have any milk?”

***

“I was really jealous of her right then,” Big Amy admitted. “She just… she’d been working with us for a week or two at that point, and she knew something about Sonic that I didn’t know after years of knowing him… it hurt.”

“I’m sorry,” Little Amy replied.

“It was hard, watching them together after that… seeing them talk and joke like they were old friends.” She sighed, looking down at the floor. “But after a while, I could see how happy he was being around her, how happy she was with him. I don’t think they realized how much they meant to each other until recently, but everyone else could see it…” She looked up at Little Amy, smiling earnestly. “Myla probably didn’t know Sonic as well as I did, but she understood him. She took the time to understand him. I didn’t know how important that was until I became friends with Shadow. We didn’t start dating until after we’d become friends, and that was something I didn’t think about when I was younger.”

“If you could do it again,” Little Amy asked. “Would you change anything?”

“I would,” Big Amy admitted. “But honestly, I think it would have turned out the same way.” She yawned a little, snuggling against Shadow. “I think Sonic and I could have become better friends if I’d done things differently, but in the end? Sonic needs a little more than me. He needs someone like Myla… and even if I’d taken time to understand him like she does, I think I still would have ended up right where I am, with Shadow.”

“Oh…”

“Hey… don’t think too hard about how things turned out with me and Sonic; we’re not you and your Sonic. Things could be completely different.” She yawned again, closing her eyes. “Try to get some sleep, okay? Who knows what’ll happen tomorrow.”

“Okay… good night Amy.”

“Good night, Amy.”  

Little Amy made herself as comfortable as possible, curling up on the floor with her head resting on her arm, thinking about what the other Amy had said. She didn’t know a lot about her Sonic… it was really time to fix that, wasn’t it? Maybe they wouldn’t be together, like Myla and her Sonic, but they could be better friends… she’d like that very much. She glanced over towards Sonic and Myla before closing her eyes, only to have them shoot open again.

“Amy… where did Myla go?”

Chapter Text

Myla sat at the kitchen table with a glass of chocolate milk and a stack of vanilla sandwich cookies, a second glass of milk and stack of cookies was waiting across from her. It was 2am, on a Saturday thankfully; school wouldn’t suffer from her lack of sleep.

“Hey pumpkin…” She looked up at the doorway; her grandfather was standing there, looking concerned. “I’m not sure what I’m more worried about; the fact you’re eating cookies at 2am, or that you’ve already set some out for me.”

“You hear it if I drop one of my wooden knitting needles on carpet,” she said tiredly. “I came down a flight of stairs and puttered around in the kitchen for five minutes. The odds of you not coming to look were in the negative.”

“Fair enough.” He sat down at his place and ate a cookie. “You have one of those dreams again?”

“Yeah.”

“About that boy?”

“Yeah… not one of the good ones.” He nodded.

“What happened?” She sighed.

“He was in trouble; some crazy doctor had him, and I…” She wiped her eyes quickly. “I couldn’t get to him…” Grandpa moved closer to her, putting his arm around her shoulders. “I know. He’s not real, I shouldn’t be upset…”

“On the contrary,” he replied gently. “You’ve been having dreams about him for what, two years now?”

“Yeah… we go on adventures… or we play soccer… sometimes we just hang out, read comics and stuff…”

“He’s very real to you, Myla-my-love; it’s only natural you’d be upset that he was in trouble and you couldn’t help. He’s your friend.”

“My best friend,” she mumbled. “He always says that I’m his best friend…”

“Sounds like a good best friend.” She nodded a little.

“I’m gonna find him someday, Grandpa. I’ll find him, and we’ll be best friends.”

“I hope you do, pumpkin.” He kissed the top of her head. “What did you say his name is?”

“Sonic.” Grandpa rolled his eyes.

“That’s not a real name.”

“That’s his name. Sonic the Hedgehog.” She smiled. “He’s my best friend… my only friend.” Grandpa hugged her tight.

“Someday,” he promised her. “We won’t be hiding from Galactnik anymore… when that day comes, I want you to go out and make friends with everyone you meet. Go find all those people you wanted to be friends with but didn’t want to hurt and be friends… Can you do that for me?” Myla nodded.

“Yeah, Grandpa; I can do that.”

***

Myla awoke with tears in her eyes and a sickness in her stomach. She barely registered the Amy’s talking to each other as she carefully slipped out of Sonic’s embrace and quietly left the room. Sonic’s voice was in her head; “We just talked about this, you don’t have to run away…” She knew that. She did, really… but right now, she didn’t want to be around anyone, not even Sonic.

It was too cramped inside the giant ship right now and she needed to get out.

Aw, what’s wrong Ruby? Too cramped in here?

She couldn’t go out the main door; Mage was there and the last thing she wanted right now was to run into her, or anyone else for that matter. She wandered through the empty halls for a while, eventually coming across a ladder built into the wall. Climbing up, she reached a hatch at the top that took some effort to open; once she did, she found herself outside, on the roof. It was dark, maybe early morning at this point. She found a place to lay down and stared up at the starry sky, feeling tears roll down her cheeks.

She missed her grandfather so much right now, and it made no sense. She had been abandoned at the orphanage when she was little, she grew up there because no one wanted to adopt her, because of her heart condition. This man had never been in her life, and now she remembered him always being there… and it hurt.

Don’t be like that; he’s just as real as I am.

Remembering him hurt so much, because she knew he was dead but she didn’t know why.

Myla closed her eyes and tried to just focus on her breathing. In through her nose, out through her mouth, just like Sonic had taught her. She thought about where she’d rather be… that didn’t help this time. Normally, she’d think of those rooftops in Sunset Heights, running along them and up the clock tower, sitting on the roof as the stars twinkled in the sky.

Now all she could think about was a small blue farmhouse outside a secluded forest town, surrounded by sunflowers. There was a small pond in the back, just deep enough to go swimming in on hot summer days… she wanted to be there so badly, but somehow knew it was impossible… knew that the house didn’t exist anymore.

“Make it stop,” she whispered to no one in particular. “Please… make it stop…”

Never.

***

“How long has she been gone?” Sonic asked, trying not to sound as panicked as she was.

“I don’t know,” Little Amy admitted. “Amy and I had been talking for a bit, she was asleep with you when we started…”

“She’s quiet when she wants to be,” Sonic assured her. “You wouldn’t have heard her if she didn’t want you to.” He closed his eyes, trying to think. “…she has to be outside; she’s claustrophobic…” He could just imagine her waking up in this small room, having a panic attack.

“Mage is still outside waiting for Sonic and Knuckles,” King said. “If she saw Myla, she’d stop her from going too far.” Sonic nodded and hurried towards the main door. The only thing he’d ever disliked about being a werehog was sacrificing his speed for strength and stretchy arms. It wasn’t that those things weren’t useful, they just weren’t right now, when he was in a hurry.

“Mage!” He called when he got to the door. “Is Myla out here with you?”

“What?” Mage replied, turning towards him. “No, she’s not here… she was with you, wasn’t she?”

“She left,” King told her as he and the rest of the group came outside. “If she’s nearby, she’s not using the ruby’s power; I can’t sense her.” Sonic looked at him.

“You can only sense her when she’s using the power?”

“…yes.”

“Is that the same for her? She can only sense you when she’s using the power?”

“I… yes.” Mage glared at him.

“You weren’t supposed to tell him that.”

“I didn’t think he’d actually ask.” Sonic sighed.

“Is this whole fascination with loopholes a Phantom Ruby thing?” He asked. “Because Myla does this too.”

“Myla has some good ideas,” King admitted. “We… may be learning from her example.” Sonic sighed.

“That’s not the point right now,” Tails said urgently. “We’ve got to find her, before Robotnik does!”

“I’m up here,” Myla’s voice called. Everyone looked up towards the roof of the old ship, unable to see her.

“I’ll be right up!” Sonic replied, getting ready to start climbing.

“Please don’t…” she begged; her voice was full of sorrow and pain. Sonic was sure she was crying.

“Are you okay?” Big Amy asked.

“No… I’m not…” Everyone listened as she tried to hold back a sob, gasping for air. “I’m not hurt, just… please leave me alone… I’m not going anywhere, just leave me alone for a bit, please…” Sonic felt everyone’s eyes on him as he tried to figure out what to do.

“Mage,” he said after a moment. “Can you stay out here?”

“Of course,” she replied with a nod. “I’ll stay here, by the door.”

“Thank you.” He looked up to the roof. “My? Mage is going to be down here, okay? She’ll tell Sonic and Knuckles to let you be when they arrive.”

“Thank you, Mage.”

“You’re welcome.” Sonic looked at everyone, shrugging his shoulders.

“Tails, have you found anything out?” Tails nodded.

“Yeah, King and I learned a few things…”

“Let’s go take a look.” He let everyone else go inside first, looking up at the roof. He didn’t want to leave her up there…

“Sonic?” Myla called suddenly.

“Yeah sunflower?”

“I’ll talk to you later, okay? I promise, I just… I need some time…” Sonic felt his entire body relax.

“Okay,” he agreed. “Take all the time you need, alright? Have Mage come get me when you’re ready?”

“I will… thanks, handsome.”

“Love you, My…”

“Love you too.”

As she watched Sonic go back inside the Flying Battery, a smile on his face, Mage realized there was so much she didn’t understand. A moment ago, Sonic seemed so sad that Myla didn’t want him around; now, after a promise that she would talk to him later, he was fine again.

Love, Mage decided, was strange and confusing.

Chapter Text

Finding the chaos emeralds, while easier than normal, still took a few days due to travel time. They hadn’t been used since Sonic and Chip re-powered them to save the planet from Dark Gaia, all scattering after that had ended. As luck would have it, though, all of the emeralds returned to the temple that had powered them; once the first one was found, it was obvious where the rest were.

“So we can open the portal,” Rouge said, carrying two of the emeralds in her bag. Knuckles had three on him and Tails held the last two. “What do we do, go in after them?”

“Sadly no,” Tails replied. “If we all go in, we might get stuck ourselves. However…”

“No,” Knuckles said sternly. “I know what you’re thinking and the answer is no: you’re not going after them alone.”

“Why not?”

“You’re the only one that knows how any of this works, how are we supposed to do anything without you?” Tails sighed.

“I guess you’re right… but we need to get a message to our friends that we can open the portal…”

“We also need to figure out where our portal is opening,” Rouge added. “What if it doesn’t open in the same place?” Knuckles thought for a moment.

“Tails, you said the portal is opening because of energy signatures… is it possible that it would lock on to the most powerful thing in that world?”

“Maybe, but we wouldn’t know for certain…” He sighed. “And I can’t be certain we’d be able to open the portal again from the other side… we may have just went and got all the emeralds for nothing…”

“There’s never a bad reason to have the emeralds around,” Knuckles replied. “We just can’t use them for this. We keep working, we try to figure out a plan. Maybe they’ll figure something out before we do, and at the very least, we’ll be here when they return.”

***

“What’s the situation, Tails?” Sonic asked as he walked back into the control room. He felt… okay, to be honest he didn’t feel great. Myla was hurting, but she acknowledged it; she didn’t joke that he needed to stop making her tell the truth, she openly told him that she was hurting, and needed time to herself. Most importantly, she promised to talk to him later. He could work with that.

“Based on what King and I have found,” Tails replied. “We may have found your portal home.”

“Why do I feel like that’s not as good as it sounds?”

“Unfortunately, it’s not,” replied King. He typed a few things into the computer, bringing up an image of a large energy field surrounded by machines. The claw that had grabbed Myla when they first came here was dangling over it. “This is the portal; it’s somewhere inside Robotnik’s lair.”

“After the claw grabbed Myla,” Tails continued, “it pulled her out and Robotnik closed his end. You were still inside, but close enough to just be spit out randomly in our world.”

“So how did Shadow and I get here?” Big Amy asked.

“We can’t be sure,” King replied. “But it’s not unlikely that the portal is at least partially open on your end; Robotnik has no control over it, so he can’t close it.”

“It needs a huge amount of energy to open,” said Tails. “So, Shadow; when you got close to the portal, it opened.”

“Okay,” Sonic said, “as long as we keep large amounts of energy away from the portal in our world, it should stay closed…”

“The portal was literally the Master Emerald,” Shadow replied. “How are we supposed to do that?”

“One problem at a time, dear,” Big Amy said with a grin. “So the portal is in Robotnik’s lair; we just have to get there, turn it on and jump in?”

“It seems easy,” King replied. “But we have to take into account that Robotnik wants Myla; taking her into his lair puts her in danger.” Sonic sighed, shaking his head.

“I don’t like that,” he admitted. “We’ll all be there, but still…”

“Wait a second,” Tails said. “Shadow, you said the portal on your end was the Master Emerald?”

“Yeah,” Shadow replied with a nod. “I leaned against the Emerald and just fell.”

“I grabbed onto his arm to pull him back,” Big Amy added. “When I lost my grip, we got separated.” Tails nodded, clearly thinking hard about something.

“We have a Master Emerald here… and we now have Shadow and Myla here; it… with the two of you, there may be enough power to force the portal to open at our emerald.”

“KING!” Mage’s voice echoed through Flying Battery, sending chills through everyone. King was the first one speeding out the door, followed closely by Sonic and Shadow.

“Amy, Tails, stay here!” Shadow ordered.

“Both Amys!” Sonic added. He had had enough loopholes for one day. They ran outside, stopping just in front of the door. Mage was on the ground, sparks coming out of her chest; something had blasted her. Surrounding her were exploded badniks, all of them still smoking; what type was hard to tell.

“Mage!” King hurried over to her, taking her in his arms. “What happened… who did this…”

“They… they came out of nowhere,” Mage said. “I… they’re not desert bots…”

“What?”

“Newtrons…” King remembered those well; lizard shaped badniks with the ability to blend in with their surroundings; Robotnik had always deployed them in places like Green Hills, not deserts... “They appeared around me… I… I told Myla to run… I got the Newtrons, but…” She looked up at him. “There was something else with them, it shot me… I…” Her eyes started to darken. “I’m… sorry…”

“Mage… Mage?!” King felt every circuit in his body come alive with anger he never knew he could feel, letting out a scream of rage he never knew he could make. Robotnik was going to pay for this.

“Myla?!” Sonic yelled. He’d climbed up to the top of Flying Battery seconds before changing back into his normal form; she was gone. There were two sets of footprints in the sand behind the ship; one small, spaced far apart like the maker had been running. Myla. The second set was huge, triangular; a smaller gait, following Myla. He jumped down and followed the tracks, ignoring Shadow’s calls for him to come back.

He had to find Myla before that thing did.

***

“That doesn’t look good,” Knuckles said as he and Sonic approached Flying Battery. They had heard multiple explosions, some yelling, a enraged scream… now they saw smoke, badnik parts all over the sand…

“King!?” Sonic yelled, running over to him. “King what… oh no, Mage…” Since the Phantom Ruby had vanished, Sonic got along well with King and Mage, honestly considered them friends. Seeing Mage like this… hurt. “Where’s Tails… Tails can help, I’m sure he can…”

“What happened?” asked Knuckles. “Where is everyone?”

“Mage was out here waiting for you and guarding Myla,” King said softly. “They were attacked…”

“King!” Tails called, running up to them along with two Amy’s. Good, Sonic thought, they’d found Myla’s Amy… “Let’s get her inside,” Tails said. King nodded, following Tails inside the ship with Mage in his arms.

“Sonic, Knuckles,” Shadow said. “Good to see you both. No issues?”

“No, other than we couldn’t find your friend,” Knuckles replied. “Looks like you have that covered.”

“Where are  Sonic and Myla?” Sonic asked. Shadow filled them in on what Mage had said before shutting down.

“Mage didn’t get a chance to tell us what attacked her,” Shadow continued. “All we’ve got are these foot prints.” Shadow pointed to one of the footprints.

“I recognize those,” Sonic said with a glare. “They belong to Robotnik’s Death Egg Robot.” Knuckles groaned.

“Did he seriously build another one?!”

“Apparently this one has lasers,” Shadow replied. “It’s what took out Mage.”

“And now it’s chasing after Myla…”

“And Sonic’s chasing after it.”

Chapter Text

The most annoying part about all this was that Myla was about to go back inside.

She’d cried out all of her anger, her frustration, and most importantly all of her sorrow. Maybe not all of it; Myla was still mourning this grandfather she now remembered so vividly, but now she felt she could talk about it, like she promised Sonic she would. How lucky was she to have someone as understanding as he was? Her plan had been to hop down to Mage, thank her for her help and let her know she was going back inside; she’d barely gotten onto her feet when the Newtrons appeared, most of them surrounding Mage, but a few heading for Myla. Mage blasted them and told Myla to run.

In retrospect, Mage probably meant for her to get back inside the Flying Battery; Myla leapt off the back of the ship and started running through the sand towards the rising sun.

Why are you the way you are? Why do you run when you can fight?

She could hear something behind her; loud and metallic… and slow. That was mildly comforting, right up until a laser blasted right at the back of her foot, sending her flying forward. She landed face first in the sand, lying there for a second before pushing herself onto her hands and knees. She looked over her shoulder; there was a large robot Robotnik coming after her.

“You won’t escape me again, Hedgehog!” Robotnik’s voice bellowed from the robot. Myla got to her feet. His advantage was the robot’s firepower, but disadvantage was it’s lack of speed. Her advantage was her speed, but… she was so weak right now, she wouldn’t be able to outrun him for long. She just had to hope she could keep going long enough to lose him.

Myla took off running again, hearing his lasers blasting after her. This part of the desert seemed to be void of people, which Myla was glad about because it meant no one else was at risk right now. Her friends were back at Flying Battery; they were safe and she…

She felt another blast land at her feet and was suddenly surrounded by sand.

Are you serious right now?

***

Robotnik watched the hedgehog vanish in front of his eyes. He had shot a laser just behind her, sand flew up in the air and she was gone. This wasn’t possible, how could she vanish when he’d been so close?!

“Robotnik!” He felt something slam into the back of his robot. Seconds later, that other Sonic landed in front of him.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Sonic,” he said flatly. “A second one. Because I really needed that in my life.”

“Where’s Myla?”

“Myla… oh the yellow hedgehog? She has a name…” He started to laugh. “Or should I say… she had a name.”

“You’re lying!”

“Am I? Look behind you; she was standing where that crater is now. Pity; I had plans for her.” Robotnik had never seen a Sonic this angry before, it was so satisfying; if he’d known killing another hedgehog would bring out this reaction, he might have done it long before now. Maybe; he didn’t consider himself a murderer, but occasionally things happened…

Some of those things that occasionally happened were his robots getting slammed repeatedly by an enraged hedgehog, followed by explosions and himself soaring through the air. Hopefully, he would land somewhere soft, eventually.

***

Sonic felt like someone else had taken control of his body and just mercilessly destroyed Robotnik’s mechanical atrocity. He was vaguely aware of Robotnik flying off… somewhere. That didn’t matter right now. He ran over to the crater that Robotnik claimed Myla had been standing in.

“Myla?!” He yelled as he stood over it, looking down. It was empty… he… no. He couldn’t have… Sonic fell to his knees. “MYLA?!”

“Sonic!” Sonic froze. “Sonic, I’m down here!” He jumped to his feet, looking around. Her voice was so muffled, where was it coming from? He looked down in the crater… there was sand moving downwards, like it was funneling through something. He leapt down, landing right where the sand was funneling and went right through.

Sonic found himself in some sort of stone room; it was dark, slowly filling with sand from above. He managed to land atop a huge pile that was forming. It was already difficult to move in there, soon he wouldn’t be able to. But where…

“Sonic! Help!” Sonic looked down; at the bottom of the pile was Myla, on her back, buried up to her chest in sand. She was struggling to dig herself out, but it seemed like the more sand she moved away, the more came down onto her.

“Hang on My!” Sonic leapt of the pile of sand, landing beside her and getting his arms under hers. “Kick your feet!” He started to pull, watching her struggle to move her feet. She came out slowly, but finally was free. He pulled her to her feet and hugged her tight to him, kissing the top of her head.

“Kiss me later,” she said frantically. “We need to get out of here!”  Sonic looked around; there was no way they’d get out the way they came in, the sand was coming in too fast for that now. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flicker of light; the sand had pushed a few loose stones in one of the walls, just enough for light to come in.

“Over here, help me push!” They ran over to the wall and started to push; the stones fell forward, Sonic and Myla falling with them. Sonic grabbed her and pulled her close to him, holding tight as they slid down the sand. At some point they hit solid ground; Sonic held Myla tight as he got to his feet, cradling her in his arms as he started to run. He couldn’t get them back to the surface, but he didn’t need to; he just needed to get them away from the sand.

“There!” Myla yelled, pointing to what looked like railroad trestle.

“Don’t let go of me!”

“Why would you even think I’d do that?!”

He’s less aware of how clingy you are than I am.

Sonic felt her embrace tighten as she made herself as small as possible in his arms. He spotted a wall near the trestle; there were large stones sticking out in various places, just enough for him to jump them up to safety.

“We’re up,” he said, panting a little as he watched the sand rush under the trestle. It was going slower now, something must have plugged a hole somewhere. He could feel Myla shivering in his arms. “My? You still with me?”

“I should have stayed home,” she mumbled, her face buried into his chest. “Should have stayed home and just… waited for the surgery.” Sonic moved off the trestle onto solid ground, sitting down with her against a wall. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”

“Hey, it’s okay,” he promised. He tilted her head up. “We had no idea this was going to happen; you can’t blame yourself.”

“I most certainly can, we almost died!” She looked like she was about to say more; Sonic decided now was a good time to kiss her and hopefully calm her down. He felt her relax against him as she returned his kiss. “That was devious,” she whispered a few moments later. Sonic shrugged.

“Well, I need to do something to combat you and your loopholes.” She giggled softly. “Are you okay? Anything broken, new injuries?”

“…I think I lost a shoe.” Sonic looked down; sure enough, Myla was only wearing one shoe. “That’ll be an issue in the future.”

Only if you live long enough.

“Anything else?”

“Couple scratches, some bruises maybe…” She placed a hand on the back of her head, sucking air through clenched teeth. “Ow… must’ve hit my head…” She pulled her hand away, holding it up for Sonic to see; there was blood on her fingertips.

“Oh no…”

I tried to tell you to watch your head, Ruby.

“Wait, it’s okay…” Myla grabbed at something over her shoulder; her bag was there. “I’ve got bandages in here…”  Sonic breathed a sigh of relief as he helped her get her bag off. He took out the bandages, a canteen of water and carefully got to work. A few minutes later, he’d gotten her head cleaned up and wrapped.

“Good thing you had these with you,” he said. “It doesn’t look deep, but better safe than sorry…”

“I’ll just be a mummy for a bit,” Myla replied with a grin. Sonic rolled his eyes. “What about you? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” They sat there for a moment, Sonic just holding her, listening to her heartbeat.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Mage told me to run, I should have gone inside the ship.”

So you know how stupid you are, good.

“Nope, not doing that,” Sonic gently chided her. “You were told to run, so you ran.”

Don’t listen to him, you’re an idiot.

Myla sighed, nodding a little.

“Yeah… yeah you’re right.” She looked up at the ceiling. “What do we do now?”

“We rest for a bit; after we’ve done that, we’ll try to find a way out.”

Chapter Text

If Tails was honest with himself, he wasn’t sure how things could get much worse. His Sonic and Knuckles were back with the group; Myla and her Sonic were missing; Mage was hurt, but not beyond repair.

“We need to look around the ship for parts,” he said decidedly. “Anything Eggrobo related would be preferred, but anything Robotnik made is going to help.”

“What all is damaged?” King asked.

“Her entire power core has been short circuited, the blast likely overloaded her. Thankfully, her memory banks are completely isolated; once we get the power core replaced, it’ll be like nothing ever happened.”

“Tails, you and King focus on that,” Sonic said. “If you need anything else, someone can run to your workshop and get it.” Shadow nodded his agreement.

“We need to find Myla and Sonic,” he said. “I think our best bet is to follow those footprints.”

The computer started beeping.

“Did someone touch something?” Knuckles asked, looking over at the machine. Both Amy’s, standing back from the machine, shook their heads. Tails walked over and hit a couple buttons.

“It’s a message,” Tails said, surprised. An envelope appeared on the screen, the words “To: A. Rose” written on it. “Someone sent us… sent Amy a message…”

“Is it safe to open?” Sonic asked warily.

“It seems to be; if it was from Robotnik, he wouldn’t be able to send a virus or anything without risking his own systems.”

“Also, why would Robotnik send me or Amy a message?” Little Amy asked.

“Yeah, that seems odd even for him,” Big Amy agreed. Tails took a deep breath and opened the message.

“What in the world…”

***

At some point, Myla had started chuckling.

“What is it?” Sonic asked, worrying that her head injury was worse than it seemed.

“I was about to ask you where you thought we were,” she admitted. “But you haven’t any better idea than I do.” Sonic laughed.

Yeah, that’s a pretty stupid question to have right now.

“You are correct.” He sighed. “Kind of wish you were here with the other Sonic; he’d at least be able to get you out.”

“He’s too short,” Myla replied, grinning a little as she looked through her bag. “He never would have been able to pull me out of the sand, let alone carry me.”

“What are you looking for?”

“I thought I had some taco flavored cauliflower jerky in here…”

For the love of the gods, eat some actual food.

“Maybe Amy ate it?”

“Oh yeah, maybe. I’ll have to ask her how it was; I didn’t get a chance to try it…” She pulled something out of the bag, looking at it questioningly. “What’s this thing?” Sonic grinned.

“That’s the navigator Tails gave Shadow to help us to find Press Garden!”

“Oh yeah, the thing Robotnik made… what’s it doing here?”

“I gave it to Amy on the way to Flying Battery; she must have put it in your bag.”

“Lucky break for us… you said it’s a navigator? How do I pull up a map?”

“I just pushed buttons until something happened, seemed to work for me.”

“Ironic.”

“What makes you say that?” Myla grinned at him.

“You’re always pushing Eggman’s buttons.” Sonic rolled his eyes.

“That joke was awful.”

Tell him he’s awful!

“I’m aware.” She pushed one of the buttons on the Robotnik faced gadget until a map popped up on a holographic screen. “Here we go… apparently this place is called the Lost Labrynth.” She leaned over rest her head on Sonic’s shoulder, giving him a better view of the map. “There’s some notes here, says there’s a bunch of traps set up; dead ends, giant boulders, moving walls… waterways…”

“Of course,” Sonic said. “Why not… so these traps are listed on the map?” Myla shook her head.

“Unfortunately no; Robotnik is either very confident in his memory or knew this would end up in Tails’ hands, because nothing is listed.”

“So if we try to find out way out, we risk getting stuck in one of those traps or getting separated.”

“Yeah…” Myla pushed the buttons a couple more times. “Oh no way…”

“What?”

“This thing has a mail application; there’s an address book for a bunch of Robotnik bases… including Flying Battery!”

“We can send a message to our friends?”

“Yeah! I bet Sonic’s been here before, he’d be able to navigate us out.” She pushed another button, bringing up a holographic keyboard and started composing a letter.

“Wait,” Sonic said with a frown. “How are they going to know it’s from us? If I got a message on a computer I’m not supposed to be using, I’d think it was a trap.”

“You got a point…” Myla bit her bottom lip, thinking. “I’ve got an idea.”

***

“Someday we’ll find it,” Tails read. “The rainbow connection.” He looked over at the Amys. “Does that make sense to either of you?” Big Amy shook her head; Little Amy nodded eagerly.

“That’s Myla!” she said excitedly. “She was singing that song at the oasis!”

“We should reply with the next line,” King suggested. “So she knows we got the message and not Robotnik; do you remember it?” Little Amy nodded.

The conversation went as follows:

The lovers, the dreamers and me
Glad to hear from you; are you okay?

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
I hit my head, got a cut. It’s bandaged, should be fine. I’m also missing a shoe.

And what’s on the other side?
How did you lose a shoe? Where are you?

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
Long story; Sonic and I are in the Lost Labyrinth. We have the navigator Tails gave Sonic and Shadow, but there’s no indication of where traps are.

When wished on the morning star?
Sonic says he can come lead you guys out, stay where you are.

Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices
Where exactly do you think we’re going to go? Our current options all involved probable death and, as previously mentioned, I am missing a shoe.

What size shoe do you wear, we’ll bring you some! Send us your coordinates.

Nice try, Robuttnik. Myla out.

“That’s not ideal,” Knuckles remarked. “He’ll be sending out badniks to find them… Sonic, you better…” He blinked, looking around. “Where did Sonic go?”

“He already left,” Big Amy said. “Amy ran off after him…”

“She didn’t get far.” Shadow came back into the room, carrying her over his shoulder.

“Put me down!” She ordered. “I want to help Myla too!”

“Listen, short stack,” Shadow said, putting her down in front of King. “I know you want to help her, but this place sounds bad and the last thing we need is for another person to get hurt.”

“He’s right, Amy,” Tails said gently. “Besides, I’m going to need your help here getting Mage going again.” As Tails talked to the younger Amy about the help he needed, Shadow felt his Amy punch him lightly on the arm.

“Short stack, really?” She asked.

“I’m not wrong about that.”

Chapter Text

As they waited for Little Sonic to come find them, Sonic did his best to keep Myla awake. She seemed okay, but hitting her head like she did, he was worried she’d gotten a concussion. He told her about Mage being injured, which she wasn’t happy about, but Sonic assured her Tails was already working on it. After that, she was ready to talk to him about why she needed to be alone earlier. She told him more about the dreams she’d been having, about her grandfather, about the farmhouse in the forest… all the dreams she had about him.

“I’m living this whole other life in my dreams,” she said softly. “And in that life, I was having dreams about being friends with you. I remember all those dreams now like they happened in this life, and I just… I don’t understand it.” She rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

“Hey, stay awake for me,” Sonic said quickly, patting her cheek gently.

“I’m awake,” she mumbled, swatting his hand away, opening her eyes.

“Just making sure… tell me more about your grandfather?” She shrugged a little.

“He’s dead…” she said sharply, startling him a little. “I… sorry. He’s gone. I don’t know why.”

Wow, way to be a jerk about this.

“I’m sorry…”

“He’s not real!” Myla pulled away from him and got to her feet, walking away from him. “None of it is… I don’t have a family, I never did…” Sonic got up and walked over to her, hugging her from behind.

“I don’t know what’s going on, sunflower,” he admitted. “But I don’t think you should write this off as just dreams…”

“Why not?” He gently turned her towards him, holding her face in his hands.

“Because you’re remembering them so vividly; it’s not like you’re just recalling bits and pieces of a weird dream…”

“But I grew up in the orphanage,” Myla insisted. “I remember that, I can’t have grown up there and lived with Grandpa… can I?” He kissed her forehead gently.

“I don’t know… but we’ll find out, okay? Once this is over, you and I will figure this out.” She nodded a little.

No you won’t.

“Sonic! Myla!”  Sonic looked up to see his smaller counterpart running up to them. “You both okay?”

“We’re fine,” Sonic assured him.

“Is Mage okay?” Myla asked.

“I don’t know for sure,” Little Sonic replied. “Tails was working on her when I left.”

“Oh, she’ll be fine then,” said Myla, confidently with her Sonic nodding in agreement.

You put way too much faith in people you don’t know.

“We won’t be if we stay here much longer,” Little Sonic continued. “There’s a bunch of badniks heading this way.”

“Let’s get going then.” He slung Myla’s bag over his shoulder before picking her up; she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing his cheek.

“What happened to your shoe?” Little Sonic asked.

“Lost it in the sand,” she replied, her voice tired but cheerful. “Almost lost the rest of me along with it.” Little Sonic frowned.

“Let’s get going back to Flying Battery,” he said. “Stay close to me, step where I step. One false move, and we’re in deep trouble.” Sonic nodded.

“Lead on.” He looked at Myla. “Stay awake for me, okay?”

“Do my best,” she promised.

Do you think he’d forgive you if you died on him?

Sonic made sure to follow Little Sonic’s path precisely, and still had a few close calls; walls started to move seconds after they moved past them, boulders rolled between the two of them, floors gave way as they ran over them… typical underground adventure really.

Myla talked the entire time, making sure Sonic knew she was awake. When she ran out of things to say, she sang softly, like she was trying not to distract him. He didn’t notice right away when she went silent.

“Still with me, gorgeous?” Her head nodded slowly. “Stay awake for me, okay? We’re almost out…”

“M’kay…”

“Hold up!” Little Sonic said, skidding to a stop. Sonic stopped next to him, looking around. They were on a large cliff, standing in front of a solid wall.

“What’s wrong?”

“This should be the way out,” replied Little Sonic, pointing up at the wall in front of him. “But it’s closed off…”

“Is this the way you came in?” asked Sonic.

“No, places like this aren’t great when it comes to back tracking…” He turned and looked back the way they came from. “We may have to though…”

Like that’s going to happen.

“You won’t get the chance, Sonic!” Sonic felt Myla tense in his arms, her head shoot up off his shoulder, her arm raise in the air… heard the sound of her reality warp. A series of laser blasts came out of nowhere, slamming into a wall of purple cubes surrounding him, Little Sonic and Myla.

“Where is he?!” Little Sonic yelled.

“Up there!” Sonic pointed to a section of the labyrinth high above them; Robotnik was there in a smaller version of his Death Egg robot, multiple Eggrobos and other badniks with him, all of them firing at the trio of hedgehogs.

“So, you can control the power!” Robotnik’s voice echoed through the labyrinth. “How long can you keep it up, girl?”

“L-longer than you think!” Myla yelled, visibly straining.

If he only knew, Ruby.

“Myla, you have to stop,” Sonic begged. “You can’t keep this up forever…”

“I don’t have to… I just need… a little more time…”

“What…”

“Give up now, girl!” Robotnik yelled. “Surrender to me now, and I will spare your friends.”

“No you won’t!” Myla yelled back. “Besides…” She looked up at him, grinning like a madwoman. “You’re the one that will need to be spared.”

Badniks suddenly started exploding around Robotnik, much to everyone but Myla’s surprise. Standing amongst the wreckage was Heavy King.

“Sonic!” King yelled. “Get Myla out of here!”

“Right!” Both Sonic’s hollered back. Seconds later, Myla’s arm fell to her side and the shield of cubes vanished.

“GET THE GIRL!” Robotnik screamed. All of the unbroken badniks tried to descend upon the hedgehogs, most of them stopped by King before they could get close. Little Sonic ran around, looking for something to activate a door to the outside while Sonic held Myla and dodged blasts.

“Sonic, look out!” His counterpart’s warning came too late; an Eggrobo’s blast went wild, hitting a stalactite and sending it crashing down towards him and Myla, landing inches from his feet and sending him flying. He lost his grip on Myla, who fortunately landed on the ground nearby.

Unfortunately, he went off the side of the cliff, barely managing to grab a rock sticking out just below the ledge.

“Sonic!”

“Myla, stay back!” Seconds later, her face was peering over the side at him. She reached down and grabbed hold of his wrist. “I said stay back!”

“You didn’t say it fast enough! Grab on to me!” Sonic grabbed hold of her wrist, just above his bracelet that she was still wearing.

“You’re crazy, you know that?!” he said as she reached down with her other arm.

“Be mad at me later, give me your other hand…” He tried to reach up for her other hand, putting his feet on the wall before him to try to push himself up. He stepped on some loose rocks, losing his footing and jerking himself out of Myla’s grip. “SONIC!”

Looks like he’s not going to be able to be mad at you later.

King heard Myla scream Sonic’s name, looked over at her just in time to him fall away from her. He barely managed to get down to her and grab her before she dove off after him, hurting over to Little Sonic and grabbing him as well.

“Let me go!” Myla yelled, struggling with him. “Sonic!”

“Both of you hang on!” King demanded as he started flying towards the ceiling.

“No! We can’t leave him here, let me go!” Little Sonic held on to King, and Myla as well, doing his best to help keep her still. “Let me go!” she cried, still trying to get free. “We can’t leave him here!”

“Myla,” King said softly. “He’s already gone…” The sound she made caused Little Sonic’s blood to run cold. She went limp in King’s grasp, her arms dangling down by her head.

The bracelet she’d been wearing was gone.

Chapter Text

King had heard Myla’s voice in his head, asking for help. He left the rest of the group without explanation and was able to track her via their connection with the Phantom Ruby; he arrived in time to see her shielding herself and the Sonics from a Robotnik attack.

Destroying badniks had never felt so good; it all was negated when Myla watched her Sonic fall.

He had grabbed her and Little Sonic before she could dive after her Sonic, held her tight when she continuously tried to go after him… and finally told her there was no use. He’d never heard her, heard anyone cry like that before. He felt it though; when Mage had been hurt, he felt that so much.

Now, back at the Flying Battery, he and Little Sonic were explaining what happened while Myla— battered, bruised and missing a shoe—sat against a wall in silence. Both Amys were in tears; Tails, still working on repairing Mage, was tense and silent; Knuckles was mad; Shadow was… Shadow.

He’s coming, Ruby…

“Robotnik will be coming here next,” the dark hedgehog said. “We need to be ready for him; Tails, how’s Mage doing?”

“I’ve gotten the fried circuits taken out,” Tails replied. “I found a set of schematics on the computer and I think I have everything I need to start putting her back together.”

“Good, work on that, Amys, help him out; we’ll need all the help we can get.” He turned to King, Knuckles and Little Sonic… just Sonic now. “You three know Robotnik better than I do, what can we expect?”

“He’s going to come down on us hard,” King said. “We’re down a Sonic now, and he knows Myla can do what he wants.”

He’s coming, I know you can feel it.

“As long as he doesn’t have the Chaos Emeralds, we’ll be able to hold him back,” Knuckles added. “If we can defeat him here, we can get into his lair and get to his portal there.”

“We could start with our Master Emerald,” Sonic suggested. “Tails said that between you and Myla, there may be enough power to open the portal there; might as well give that a try first.”

He’ll kill everyone here to get to you.

Shadow nodded, looking over at Myla. She was on her feet, which were both shoeless now, heading towards the door. She’d taken the bandage off her head and tossed it aside.

“Myla?” he asked, starting to follow her. “Where are y-” The sound of her reality warp filled the room, just as Shadow walked into a solid wall of purple energy cubes. “What the…”

“Don’t worry,” her voice echoed down the hallway. “I’ve got it.”

“Got what?!” Alarms started sounding in the control room. “Tails, what’s going on?!” The young fox started pushing buttons on the keyboard.

“Robotnik’s approaching!” A video feed from outside the ship came up on screen; Robotnik, in his smaller Death Egg armor, was approaching the Flying Battery. In front of him were more badniks than Tails had ever seen in one place, a small army…

“No wonder he was after other Master Emeralds,” Knuckles remarked. “How much power does it take to power all of that?”

“Too much,” Sonic replied. “We need to get out there…”

“We can’t,” Shadow replied, knocking on the wall of energy cubes blocking the doorway. “Myla’s blocked us in.”

“How is she doing that?” Big Amy asked, looking at King. “You said she was running out of energy…” Heavy King just stood there, staring at the monitor before him. “King? What is it?”

“I… I was wrong,” he said finally. Shadow felt a shiver go through him, his eyes going wide with realization.

“Oh…” Shadow replied as King looked over at him.

“You feel it too, don’t you?” Shadow nodded. “It’s… insane.”

“Feel what?” Little Amy asked, watching as Myla approached exited the Flying Battery and started walking towards Robotnik.

“I thought Myla wasn’t using her powers unless she absolutely had to,” King replied. “That her using them was what was hurting her… she agreed so readily…”

“Because if she agreed, we wouldn’t learn the truth,” Shadow finished, shaking his head, a small grin curling his lips. “Her and her loopholes…”

“What truth?!” Sonic exclaimed.

“Myla’s been using her powers this entire time,” King replied. “Using them wasn’t hurting her; holding them back was.”

“What do you mean holding them back?” asked Knuckles. “She was always so tired after using her powers…”

“Because she was trying to use as little power as possible,” King said. “She was using her own organic energies to keep the Ruby powers hidden, so no one knew she was using them.”

“That’s how she knew Shadow was going to fall out of the sky,” Tails realized. “How she knew Amy was here too…”

“How she was able to contact me from Lost Labyrinth,” King replied, shaking his head.

“But why would she do that?” Knuckles asked. “Holding back was hurting her…”

“Because she was told to,” Big Amy said softly. “Doctor Zell told her using the Ruby powers was making her heart condition worse…”

“But why let loose now?” Little Amy asked. Shadow shook his head, looking at his Amy; her eyes were wide, having reached the same conclusion.

“Because Sonic’s gone…”

Chapter Text

Myla had taken off her remaining shoe because walking around on just one was awkward. She was glad of this decision when she felt Robotnik coming closer. She was honestly surprised that no one had caught on to what she had been doing sooner; she was also honestly surprised she’d been able to do it for so long.

Are we seriously doing this?

She’d had a feeling for a while that she wasn’t just a vessel, even before King and Mage told her that she was the Phantom Ruby now. Tikal had told her she could be just that, but as time went on… it was too useful to just let sit within her. She could sense energies, like the Master Emerald or Shadow’s chaos energy; she could telepathically communicate with things that had similar energy to hers, like Mage and King.

Ruby, tell me we’re doing this.

Myla didn’t sense Eggman’s portal back in Hidden Palace until she had fallen into it, which was really annoying.

She discovered early that if she focused hard enough, she could shield the power and there was no indication that she was using it; she covertly warped reality just enough to get herself, Amy and Tails to Flying Battery before the sun came up, she was able to sense King and Mage were following them… she tried to save Sonic. Tried to catch him before he fell into the darkness. She was still trying to hold back the amount of power she used and couldn’t get a grip on him as he fell; when King grabbed her, stopping her from going after him, she lost all concentration and couldn’t get it back.

There was no reason to hold back anymore.

“Well, well,” Robotnik called to her. “If it isn’t my little hedgehog friend!”

“My name is Myla Robinson,” she replied, her voice hollow, even to her own ears. Hollow and dark. “And I have had just about enough of you.”

“Have you now? Come to surrender then?” She took off what little was left of her shirt and tossed it aside.

“You wish.”

Myla’s hands, which had been clenched into fists at her sides, slowly moved up over her head; as they did, she heard reality begin warping around her and saw a dome of her energy cubes, transparent rather than their normal opaque, form around her and Robotnik’s army, conveniently trapping him just outside. She felt herself begin to rise into the cool evening air.

“You want to see what I can do?” she asked, seeing a dark purple aura form around her. “Let me show you exactly what I can do.”

Yeeeeeees.

Destruction had never been Myla’s forte; she was a defensive fighter, always preferring to counter rather than attack. It came naturally to her somehow. But now, with the ruby’s power fully unleashed… destruction was fun.

“Is this your doing?” she heard her voice in her head ask.

“Oh?” came the smug reply. “After ignoring me for all these months, now you’re ready to talk to me?”

“Well, you’re not actually real, you should be happy I’m acknowledging you at all.”

“But I am real enough for you to acknowledge me, sunflower.”

“Okay, first off: do not ever call me that again. Second, I can go back to ignoring you.” He started to laugh.

“Oh, I don’t think you can, Ruby.” Myla sighed internally as an Eggrobo slammed her into her dome of energy cubes; she drove her fist into its chest, pulling out… something electronic before picking the entire thing up and hurling it into a group of its compatriots.

Three months; three months of being alone with him, unable to block him out, barely able to ignore him… and now she was actively talking to him. At first she blamed it on eating the wrong mushrooms in Mushroom Hills. Then she blamed it on her loneliness, blamed it on her guilt, and decided that in the end, she was going insane, especially when she was certain he’d tried to choke her to death...

And then she found out about her connection to the Phantom Ruby, and it all made sense; Infinite had used the prototypes as well, his energy was within them… and now, it was also within her. He was within her. He had been the voice in her head all this time, the one she’d ignored for so long… the voice she couldn’t ignore any longer.

“Destruction is cathartic, Ruby,” Infinite continued. Myla could feel him around her, guiding her movements. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, a ghostly figure mimicking the exact same movements. She didn’t… she couldn’t say that she liked it, but she also couldn’t say she hated it either. His fighting style—attack first, worry about backlash never—fit here much better than her own ‘don’t act; react’. “It’s like taking every ounce of pain inflicted upon you and passing it on.”

“I didn’t think you felt anything,” she scoffed, “let alone pain.”

“It only hurts if you let it.” He scowled softly; Myla could see him shaking his head at her. “You move too much; let them come to you, then attack before they can.”

“I usually let them come to me, you’re the one moving me towards them!”

“I’m moving you in for the attack, there’s a difference! You wait for them to attack first; you can’t expect to be able to react to everything that comes at you!”

“Why are you trying to help me?” she asked, her voice exasperated. “You spent months trying to kill me, then more trying to convince me to kill myself…”

“And yet you’re still here; clearly I’ve met my match with you.”

“Flattery gets you absolutely nowhere, Infinite; tell me the truth.”

“Fine; I have a keen interest in your continued survival, as it directly correlates with my own.” She rolled her eyes.

“I have some bad news for you; I have no interest in your survival.”

“You really think that you can survive this battle without me?”

“Who said that was the plan?”  He didn’t say anything for a moment, leaving Myla to hold her own, go back to her own normal style.

“You wouldn’t let him kill you,” Infinite replied firmly.

“Oh, wouldn’t I?” Myla asked. She felt him… he wasn’t controlling her, not really. She felt his guidance again, but she was able to move her own way despite his interference.

“You didn’t let me.”

“You almost killed me once, it’s not my fault you didn’t finish the job. The rest of the time, I had an advantage against you.”

“What was that?” She sighed sadly.

“I still had hope I’d see Sonic again.”

“You are not dying because of that.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do?” Infinite sighed angrily.

“Apparently, I’m the one that’s going to keep us alive.”

Chapter Text

“Holy moly,” Little Amy whispered as the dome started to rise from the ground, surrounding Myla and the badniks. “Has she always been able to do that?”

“Probably,” Shadow admitted. “She’s never gone all out like this before…”

“You want to see what I can do?” a dark, distorted version of Myla’s voice asked, a dark purple aura forming around her as she rose into the air. “Let me show you exactly what I can do.”

“Badniks!” Robotnik yelled. “Attack!”

Everyone watched as Myla charged head first into the army of badniks, flying directly into the center, surrounding herself with them. She moved with a speed that rivaled Sonic as she destroyed everything in front of her. Energy balls matching the aura around her flew from her hands, exploding badniks left and right. Some of them she just punched, kicked, stomped into the ground. A Grabber Spider latched onto her; she broke out of it with a scream, taking one of it’s severed legs and using it to hit Turbinauts like they were baseballs at other badniks. An Eggrobo got a lucky hit on her, slamming her into the wall of the dome; she drove her fist into its chest, ripping parts out before using thing as a projectile.

That was when things got interesting

“Am I seeing things,” Shadow said slowly, his eyes narrowing, “or is she changing…”

“She’s changing,” Sonic confirmed, barely able to believe it: Myla’s fur began to change color, starting at her feet and slowly moving up her body; the pale yellow vanished underneath a stormy grey, black flame-like designs appeared on her arms, over the scars on her chest and around her right eye. Her eyes had gone from violet to an eerie gold.

“That’s not Myla,” Tails said slowly, mildly terrified of what he was seeing. “Is it..?”

“It’s Myla,” Shadow confirmed. “Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s just Myla.”

“What do you mean?” Big Amy asked. He looked down at the floor, shaking his head a little.

“Myla is full of sorrow and anger… and she’s dealing with it through chaos and destruction…” He looked up at his Amy. “Who did we know that craved chaos and destruction, wielded the Phantom Ruby and just happened to be shades of grey.”

“Infinite…” Shadow nodded.

“Who is this Infinite?” King asked, not taking his eyes off the monitor. Myla had gone back to hurling punches and energy balls. Robotnik was in the background, screaming about the destruction Myla was causing.

“He was an assassin that started working with Eggman,” Shadow told them. He filled them in on what was known about the jackal’s past, what he did during the War For the Planet… his defeat at the hands of the Sonics and Myla. “The ruby gives people what they want,” he continued. “Infinite wanted chaos and destruction, and the ruby gave it to him…”

“And now that’s what Myla wants,” Knuckles said, eyes wide. “How long is she going to keep this up?”

“Until she’s done… whenever that is.”

“What if she’s never done…” Everyone looked over at Little Amy, who looked sad and genuinely frightened. “What if she’s never done? How are we supposed to stop her?”

A huge explosion rattled the Flying Battery, drawing everyone’s attention back to the monitor. The dome was filled with a thick black smoke that didn’t start to dissipate until the dome vanished. Once it cleared, all that was left was Myla, surrounded by broken badniks. Her purple aura moved around her like flames around a burning building, her now golden eyes glowing… an unsettling smirk on her face.

“Well, old man; you like what you see?” she asked, her voice sounding nothing like the one her friends knew and loved. It was in there, somewhere, faintly, but mostly…

“That’s Infinite’s voice,” Shadow said. “That’s Infinite’s voice, over Myla’s…”

“How can that be?” His Amy asked.

“I don’t know…”

“What do we do?” Shadow shook his head.

“Hope that Myla is more powerful than Infinite or whatever is talking over her.”

***

“Well, old man,” Myla said with a smirk. “You like what you see?”

“Oh, very much so,” Robotnik sneered at her. “That power of yours will keep my machines going for a long time to come.” Myla crossed her arms over her chest, looking thoroughly unimpressed with him.

“That’s what this is all about? You want a freaking battery?!” Rather than answering, one of the claw-like hands on the Death Egg armor shot out and grasped Myla, pulling her over to Robotnik.

“Not just a battery, hedgehog,” he taunted her. Myla tried to break free, as she had with the Grabber Spider, but to no avail. “An unlimited source of power, more than enough to run machines that I’ve only ever dreamed about.”

“My name is Myla,” she hissed at him. “And you’re forgetting one thing.”

“Am I? And what might that be?” The flame-like aura around her slowly changed from purple to black as another energy dome formed around just the two of them.

“You’ll need me alive for that.”

***

“What’s happening?!” Big Amy cried as Myla’s aura turned black, another dome forming around her and Robotnik.

“She’s charging power,” King replied, his voice full of panic. “If she unleashes it all now, she’ll kill Robotnik and herself!”

“We need to get out there and stop her!” Sonic yelled, running for the door. He slammed into the wall of energy cubes Myla had created earlier, falling flat on his back.

“She’s got us trapped in here,” Knuckles said as he helped Sonic to his feet. “Making sure we’re safe…”

“What do we do then?!” Shadow opened his mouth to respond, closing it when another voice began to speak.

“MYLA! DON’T!”

Chapter Text

Sonic the Hedgehog had never been so happy to hit water in his entire life.

He listed to Myla scream after him, felt the Phantom Ruby energy surround him for a moment before vanishing completely.

“No!” He heard Myla scream, her voice getting quieter as he fell. “We can’t leave him here, let me go!” Everything went silent for a moment; though he could feel wind whipping past him, Sonic wondered if he had died. Then he heard the sound; a deep, guttural scream that morphed into an anguished sob. It was the last thing he heard before he hit the water.

The water was warm, but it was still water and Sonic hated everything about it. Still, it was slightly familiar; there was a solid floor to him to run on, with the occasionally air bubble coming out. He eventually found his way to the surface, pulling himself onto dry land and just lying there for a bit, catching his breath. He was alive, somehow. His fist was clenched around something. He opened his hand; his bracelet. He must have pulled it off Myla’s wrist when he fell. He tied it around his wrist again, not wanting to lose it now after having gone through all that with it.

Something was beeping.

Sonic sat up, taking Myla’s bag off his shoulder and looking inside. The navigator was going wild for some reason. He pulled it out and pushed one of the buttons, bringing up the map. There was an X on one section, which Sonic assumed was where he was, and an arrow pointing straight ahead. He got to his feet and started running; it wasn’t like he had any better ideas.

The path led him through a few tunnels, all of which were dry, and eventually out into an abandoned factory like building that he didn’t recognize. Not that he’d recognize anything in this world. He checked the map; he was a good five hundred miles from the Flying Battery wreckage, which was hopefully where everyone still was. He wasn’t sure how that had happened, but it would take about an hour of top speed running to get back.

That sounded nice. Relaxing.

The sun started to set as he approached the wrecked ship and started to hear explosions, which was never a good sign. By the time he reached the Flying Battery, he had transformed into the werehog, allowing him to easily stretch his arms to the roof of the ship and pull himself up. Seconds later, a massive explosion rocked the entire ship, almost knocking him off.

“What the…” Sonic looked around, his eyes landing on the massive dome in front of him. It was purple? Maybe black? It wasn’t until the dome vanished that he realized it was a purple dome filled black smoke. Once it had cleared… “Wow, that’s a lot of badniks…”

In the center of the destroyed robots was a hedgehog he didn’t recognize; grey fur strangely accented with black flames, wearing what looked like just a bra and cargo shorts, no shoes, surrounded by a purple flame-like aura… had they done all this?

“Well, old man; you like what you see?” Sonic’s eyes widened. That voice… it sounded like Infinite, but what would he be doing here… how would he be here?!

“Oh, very much so,” he heard Robotnik say. He was just beyond the badnik bodies, wearing the smaller Death Egg Armor he’d had in Lost Labyrinth. “That power of yours will keep my machines going for a long time to come.” The hedgehog crossed their arms over their chest.

“That’s what this is all about? You want a freaking battery?!” That voice was definitely Infinite, Sonic realized, but there was another voice there as well, just barely audible under Infinite’s. He watched warily as one of the claw-like hands on the Death Egg armor shot out and grasped Infinite the Hedgehog—why was that the worst thing Sonic had ever heard of?—and pulled them over to Robotnik.

“Not just a battery, hedgehog,” said Robotnik as the hedgehog tried to break out of the claw’s grasp. “An unlimited source of power, more than enough to run machines that I’ve only ever dreamed about.”

“My name is Myla.” Sonic felt his heart skip a beat. That… this dark hedgehog… that was his Myla…? “And you’re forgetting one thing.” Robotnik smirked at her.

“Am I? And what might that be?” Sonic watched in horror as the flames around her morphed from purple to black. Seconds later, an energy dome formed around her and Robotnik.

“You’ll need me alive for that.” Sonic’s eyes widened.

“Oh no…”

***

“What are you doing?!” Infinite yelled at her. “You’ve got the power, break free!”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” Myla replied. “I’m going to stop him, and my friends will be safe.”

“And you’ll be dead, do you think that’s what your friends want?!”

“You only want me alive for your own sake, you don’t get to try to use that on me!” She could feel him trying to take control, not just guide her this time. She wasn’t going to let him. This was what she wanted; to protect her friends when she couldn’t protect Sonic. If it was the last thing she ever did, her friends were going to be safe.

She wouldn’t be, but if you want to dance with the devil, you have to deal with it when he sets you on fire.

“MYLA! DON’T!”

The voice shook Myla’s concentration so much that the dome collapsed around her and Robotnik as she was still trying to power up. Now she was hallucinating Sonic’s voice, which was really putting a damper on things.

“Myla, listen to me!” There it was again… this was a persistent hallucination. “Don’t do this!”

Oh thank god, someone with sense has arrived.

“Well, well, well!” Robotnik said with malicious glee. He pushed a button on the armor; the arm holding Myla moved so she was now facing the Flying Battery instead of Robotnik. “Look who decided to show up.” Myla stared at the figure in disbelief, feeling all the anger that she’d been channeling into destruction melt into relief. She felt tears trickling down her cheeks.

Well, there goes all of that.

“Sonic!” The werehog leapt down off the top of the Flying Battery and charged towards them, stopping short when the claw squeezed Myla. “Gah!”

“Let her go, Robotnik!” Sonic growled. “Set her down now, and I won’t rip your mustache off.”

“I already called dibs on that!” Myla yelled. Her voice was slowly becoming less Infinite and more her own, much to Sonic’s relief, but she maintained the grey fur and golden eyes.

“No one is ripping my mustache off!” Robotnik hollered, moving the claw arm so Myla was between him and Sonic. “You’re in no position to make demands, Sonic; come one step closer, and I snap her in two!”

“He won’t do it, Sonic!” Myla said, letting out a cry when the claw tightened around her. “He’s the one who keeps saying he needs me alive…”

“I’m beginning to rethink that,” Robotnik said flatly. “I could probably get enough power out of your corpse to run the Death Egg for years!” He glared over the top of Myla’s head down at Sonic. “What’s it going to be, Sonic? Am I taking her with me dead or alive?” Myla started to chuckle.

“I think it’s hilarious that you think you’re taking me anywhere.” Sonic held perfectly still as he heard Myla’s reality warp go into effect; seconds later she was standing next to him, and Robotnik was trapped in his own claw.

“What the… hey?!”

Really?! All this power and THAT is what you do?!

Myla looked up at Sonic, still grinning.

“You want to fastball special him to his Death Egg?” she asked. “Or should I see if I can warp him into a black hole?” Sonic grinned, lifting the armor over his head with both hands and hurling it with all his might. “Where do you think he’s going to land?”

“Hopefully somewhere it’s going to take forever for him to return from. Maybe the ocean or something.”

“That sounds good to me…” She looked down at her hands, then at the rest of her body, seeming to just now realize that she’d changed somehow. She looked horrified for a moment… then really, really sad.

“My? What’s wrong?”

“Is it really you?” she asked softly, still looking down. “You’re not some… illusion I made..?” Sonic gently cupped her chin in his hand, tilting her head her head up to look at him. Her golden eyes were unsure and wet with tears.

“What’s your heart tell you, Myla?”

Seconds later, Sonic felt her arms around his neck, hugging him tight as she pulled him down and kissed him. He put an arm around her waist, pulling her up and holding her against his chest as he kissed back, feeling her legs wrap around him. He felt a warmth about her, something he couldn’t describe better than that. When the kiss broke, he found himself looking into her violet eyes. Her usual pale yellow fur was back, the black flame markings around her eye and on her arms and chest had disappeared. He put a hand on her cheek.

“Hey there gorgeous.”

“Hey yourself, handsome.” She put a hand over his, squeezing gently. Her other hand rested on his wrist, atop the bracelet she’d made him. “I thought I lost you… I tried to grab you…”

“I know,” he promised, grinning at her. “You have a lot of explaining to do; you realize that, right?”

“Can it wait like… ten minutes? I need to find my shirt…” She smiled slyly, blushing a little. “Also, I kind of locked all of our friends inside the control room; we should probably let them out.”

Chapter Text

After finding her shirt in a completely unwearable state and heading back inside the Flying Battery, Myla was expecting her friends to be mad when she and Sonic returned to the control room. It was completely understandable considering the circumstances; she’d locked them up and left with the full intention of dying if she needed to.

She was not expecting everyone but Shadow and Knuckles to hug her at once.

Oh gods why.

She was not expecting them to all start talking at once.

Are we supposed to understand this?!

They were not expecting her boyfriend to pick her up and hold her in the air above their heads.

“She’s claustrophobic you guys,” he said flatly. “Let’s give her some breathing room.”

“Are you okay?” Big Amy asked after the werehog placed Myla back on the floor.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said, her voice tired but cheerful. “Hey, did you eat the cauliflower jerky I had in my bag? I hadn’t tried it yet, was it good?”

“A little spicy for me; you’ll probably love it.”

“Awesome, I’ll grab some more when we get home...”

“I have a question,” Shadow said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Is it regarding my shirt or lack thereof?”

“It is not.”

“Then it can probably wait… hey, I remember that thing.” Myla looked past Shadow at the screen behind him, which was still displaying an image of the Robotnik’s transdimensional portal. “It was in a lower level of Robotnik’s base; I remember getting dragged up two or three flights of stairs while Robotnik took an elevator.”

“We think that’s the portal,” Tails replied. “If you can get us back in there, we can get you home!”

“Robotnik should be out of commission for a while,” Myla’s Sonic replied. “It shouldn’t be hard to get in there, send us home and then blow everything up somehow.”

“Think we’ve missed my surgery yet?” Myla asked. “I don’t even know how long we’ve been here at this point.”

Too. Long.

“We should get you back then,” Tails said. “Sooner rather than later.”

“What about Mage?” asked Myla. “Is she okay?”

“I’m just fine, Myla.” Tails stepped away from where he had been standing, revealing Mage; she was seated on the floor next to the computer terminal, a cord connecting her to it. “Thanks to Tails, once I’ve charged up, I’ll be good as new…” Mage suddenly found herself with her arms full of Myla, who was hugging her tight.

Is hugging everyone a requirement?!

“Thank you,” Myla said earnestly. Mage hugged her back.

“You’re welcome, Myla.”

***

Tails sat by the Master Emerald, looking up at the ceiling. Rouge had gone back to the City for the night to grab supplies, but Knuckles was snoring beside him. He sighed sadly; his friends weren’t back yet. The plan to open the portal with the Chaos Emeralds was on hold, as Knuckles didn’t want to risk anyone getting sent in and then being trapped somehow.

Myla’s surgery was scheduled to be performed in less than two days. Doctor Zell had been reasonably understanding when she was told what was happening and had agreed to wait as long as she could, but if Myla didn’t make it in time, she would have to wait until another opening in the schedule. There was no guarantee on when that would be.

“Come on guys,” he whispered. “You can figure it out…”

***

“If you remember back to the conversation,” Myla said, before taking a bite of her mango lime ice cream sundae. “I never said that the ruby powers were killing me, I said that King and Mage thought they were.”

“You and your loopholes,” her Sonic teased as he booped her nose with a whipped cream covered finger, grinning as she giggled and grabbed a napkin to wipe it off. “You need to stop doing this, it’s going to drive me insane.”

He doesn’t know the half of it.

“You’re already insane, handsome; you’re dating me.”

“Yeah I am.” Myla laughed, shaking her head. She looked much better than she had when they’d left Flying Battery, and for that he was very thankful. Mage and King, wanting to get back to their shop and make sure Scooper hadn’t accidentally burned the place to the ground, invited everyone to stay over there for the night before heading on to Robotnik’s lair in the morning; there was an apartment above the shop that held more than enough room for everyone, so that ended up becoming the plan.

She was still short a shirt, but that was a problem for later. No one asked about the various scars she had, which she was thankful for; she didn’t have it in her to lie to anyone right now.

The two robots had retired for the night, presumably to charge, but had insisted they have some ice cream and relax after the day’s events. So now, after Scooper had set them all up with their orders, Shadow and his Amy were enjoying a milkshake a few tables away from Myla and her Sonic, while this world’s Sonic was seated with his friends. It was nice, seeing everyone relaxed and happy.

“It’s going to be strange,” Myla remarked. “Going home, I mean. It’ll be so different from here.”

“Is that bad?” Sonic asked, worriedly.

“No, of course not. I miss home, our friends… I’ll miss my surgery if we’re not careful…”

“How are you feeling, by the way?”

“I’m okay,” she promised. “It hurts, but in a like, ‘hey, I’m still an issue’ sort of way and not a ‘you are going to die’ way?” Sonic nodded.

Yes, thanks to him, we’re not dead yet.

“That makes way more sense than it really should.” He took another bite of his sundae; vanilla ice cream with cherry cola syrup and whipped cream. “So, tell me the truth… how long have you been using the power?”

“Pretty much constantly since we saved Amy on the beach,” she admitted. “But, as I’m sure everyone else has figured out, I’ve been… hiding it.”

“And that’s what has been hurting you, not using the power.”

“Yeah… I think I was hiding it unintentionally at first, because…” She sighed, taking another bite of her sundae. “I was afraid of it, honestly.”

“Why? You were using it so well on Angel Island.”

Are you seriously ignoring me again?

“Because I didn’t want it. Even after Tikal said I could just be a vessel, I didn’t want this power. On top of that, everyone was telling me that using the power was making my heart condition worse, so I tried to stop. But eventually I realized that I was using it without trying; after we saved Amy on the beach, I thought I’d stopped, but then I sensed Mage and King watching that happen, and was able to talk to King…” She shrugged. “At that point I kind of went ‘screw it’ and used what I could while trying to hide it. That’s how I sensed Shadow’s energies before he fell from the sky…”

“And Amy’s?”

“Oh no, Amy was a hunch.”

“A hunch?” Myla gave him a look that clearly asked if he was serious.

“Oh handsome,” she said. “If we were anywhere near each other and you suddenly fell through the world, what do you think I’d do?” She grinned, setting her spoon down in her bowl. “I’ll give you a hint…” She reached across the table and grabbed onto his wrist, holding on tight, her grin widening when Sonic automatically held her wrist in the same way. “I’ve done it at least twice.” Sonic smiled, shaking his head.

“Yeah… probably should have thought of that.”

You can’t escape me, Ruby.

“What about you?” Myla asked, letting go of his wrist to just hold his hand.

“What about me?” She gestured to his werehog appearance.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh! Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay.” He finished up his ice cream. “I never minded this form. It’s slower than I’m used to, but the extra strength comes in handy, as does the stretchy arms. And before you ask, again, no it doesn’t hurt.”

“It looks painful as all get out, you can’t blame me for worrying.”

“It like the Phantom Ruby,” Sonic continued. “It’s something I was afraid of at first, but now… it’s part of me.” He smiled at her, gently squeezing her hand. “I think if you can handle me like this, I can too.” Myla smiled back.

“I don’t care what you look like, Sonic; I’ll always love you as you are.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s getting late,” Shadow said suddenly. “We should probably call it a night.” A chorus of agreement came from the group, all of them picking up their dishes and taking them into the kitchen.

“I’ll wash these up,” Myla said as this world’s Sonic Team retired to the apartment upstairs. “I’m not tired enough to sleep and it won’t take long.”

He knows, Ruby.

“I’ll help,” her Sonic offered.

“Me too!” Her Amy added.

“Guys, there’s not that much,” Myla protested as she started filling the sink with hot water. “It’ll take me less than ten minutes to get these done.”

“Well then,” Shadow replied. “While we finish it up, you can explain something to me.”

“What’s that?”

You’re not going to like this.

“How long has he been with you?”

Chapter Text

Myla washed the dishes in silence, not looking up from the sink in front of her.

I told you so.

“Myla,” Shadow said in a voice that sounded like he was trying very hard not to lose his patience. “How long has he been with you?” Myla picked up a dish towel and dried off her hands. She then took a deep breath, letting it out in a huff before turning away from the sink and looking Shadow dead in the eye.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Shadow narrowed his eyes before turning to Sonic.

“Ask her.”

“What?” Sonic replied, confused.

“Ask her the same question I just did.”

“That’s low, Sunshine” Myla replied. “Even for you, that’s low.” Shadow grinned, shrugging his shoulders.

“Fight fire with fire, Biscuit.”

“That’s just going to burn a forest down.”

“Myla.” She turned to Sonic, looking so sad and tired.

“Don’t,” she said softly. “Don’t make me tell you the truth…” The way she said it this time wasn’t like any other. Before, it had been more of a joke, like she was annoyed Sonic had caught on to her half-truths but was okay telling him everything. This time, however, Sonic felt like she was begging him not to ask her the question.

“How long has he been with you, My?” She closed her eyes, hanging her head a little.

“Since the day we beat Eggman…”

“You’ve been dealing with him this entire time?” Shadow asked, the impatience in his voice fading into incredulousness. Myla nodded slowly.

“I don’t understand,” Amy said, much to Sonic’s relief; he didn’t understand either but at this point was kind of afraid of asking. “Who’s been with her?” Myla and Shadow responded together.

“Infinite.”

Myla could feel everyone’s eyes on her when she made her admittance and during the silence that followed. It was probably only a few seconds, but to her it might as well been an eternity.

“How do you see this working out for you, Ruby?” Infinite asked her. “Do you think they’re going to be happy you’ve been hiding me for months?”

“I’ve been ignoring you for months, there’s a difference.”

“Fine; do you think they’ll be happy you’ve been ignoring me for months?” She didn’t answer. “Well?”

“Would you please,” she replied softly, “make up your mind…”

“About?”

“Whether you’re trying to help me or kill me.”

“What do you mean he’s been with her?” Amy asked, looking at Shadow.

“I’m not sure what the extent is,” Shadow admitted. “But he’s with her; he’s part of her.”

“How did you know?” Myla whispered, not looking up at any of them.

“You’re not an offensive player, Biscuit,” replied Shadow. “But in your battle with Robotnik tonight? You were always on offense, even more so after you changed… after you became Infinite in a Myla suit.” She visibly shuddered.

“I need you to not phrase it like that ever again, it makes the whole thing so much worse than it is.” Infinite, of course, took offense to this statement; Myla ignored him.

“Why didn’t you say anything?!” Sonic exclaimed, regretting it instantly why he saw Myla flinch.

“What was I supposed to say?” she asked. “Hey everyone, I know we’ve got problems with literally everything right now, but that robo-jackal that tried to murder us? He’s in my head constantly now.” She sighed. “Yeah. That would have gone well…”

“What has he been doing?” Amy asked; her sweet voice full of concern was like a punch to the stomach somehow. Myla didn’t want to answer her. In the end, she just shrugged.

“Oh go on, Ruby,” Infinite teased. “Go ahead and tell them, it can’t get any worse, can it?” Myla could feel herself shaking as she balled up her left fist, raising her hand up in front of her chest.

“You want them to know,” she said, aloud, to the confusion of everyone. “Then why don’t you tell them.” She flung her hand to the left, opening it towards the end as if she were throwing away trash.

Which was when Infinite appeared and slammed into an ice cream freezer on the far wall.

Myla put her hand back down to her side, still not looking up. She stood there for a moment, just breathing, trying to get a handle on herself.

“I’m going outside,” she said decidedly. “Please don’t follow me. I’ll come pick him up when you’re done.” She started walking towards the kitchen’s back door but was soon sprinting out before anyone could stop her.

“Wait, you can’t leave me here!” Everyone’s attention turned to the jackal against the wall. He looked different… there was nothing robotic about him. Before his tail had been the only fuzzy thing, everything else covered in a robotic shell, but now he was covered in fur; mostly black, white around his muzzle, his neck, the tips of his tail and his long hair, and some triangular patches on his sides and forehead. His eyes were heterochromic, one blue and one gold… the same gold Myla’s eyes had been earlier that evening. When he noticed them all staring, he took a look at himself, his eyes widening with what may have been horror. “What the hell did she do to me?!” Shadow started to chuckle.

“I don’t think this is Myla’s doing,” he replied with a grin. “Not consciously anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Amy asked.

“Myla’s only ever known Infinite as the cyborg monster he let Eggman turn him into; she wouldn’t have had any way to know what he used to look like… but the Phantom Ruby would. And Myla is the ruby now.” Infinite snarled, getting to his feet.

“Just wait until I get my hands on he-” Sonic charged Infinite, slamming him into the freezer and pinning him there with one of his arms against the jackal’s throat.

“You’re not going to do anything to her,” Sonic hissed. “I will kill you before I let you hurt her again.”

“You can’t kill me, hedgehog,” Infinite taunted. “As long as she lives, so will I.” Sonic leaned in, applying more pressure on Infinite’s throat.

“I’m willing to test that theory.”

“What did you do to her?” Shadow asked, coming to stand at Sonic’s side. The jackal glared at him.

“Why should I tell you anything?” Shadow grinned.

“Because I’m the only one here that would be able to stop Sonic from finding out if he can kill you.” Infinite glared, his eyes darting back and forth between Sonic and Shadow, clearly trying to decide if he wanted to find out if Sonic could actually hurt him. After a moment, he started to smirk.

“Would you like to see?” Before anyone could answer, they heard the sound of Infinite’s reality warp. “I unfortunately have very limited control over the ruby’s power now… but I have enough for this.”

Sonic, suddenly no longer pinning Infinite to anything, looked around; this was Mushroom Hills, just as he had seen when he and Myla passed through on their way to Hidden Palace. Speaking of Myla, there she was. She looked like she had when they parted after the war; her hair was short, she looked healthy, her old tie dye shirt wasn’t falling apart. She was gathering mushrooms, putting them in her old bag.

“Really? Mushrooms again?” Myla flinched as Infinite, in his cyborg form with a strange ghostly appearance to him, strolled along beside her. “Little hero can’t be bothered to go hunt for some real food?” Myla walked away quickly, her shoulders hunched, trying to get away from him. “Aw, still not talking to me, Ruby?”

Sonic felt his hands clench into fists as he watched Myla do her best to ignore the jackal. The scene kept changing but it did little more than indicate a passing of time, as every scene showed basically the same thing: when Myla was awake, Infinite taunted her, and she continued to ignore him. He called her names—coward, stupid, and worthless, among others— insulted everything she did, taunted her about the war… about the day he told her to run, and she did.

“What would your precious Sonic say if he knew the truth?” He asked, his dark voice in almost a sing-song tone. Myla was curled up on the ground under a large mushroom, her hands over her ears as if that would silence him somehow. “Do you really think he’d still be friends with you when he finds out you left all those people to die?”

Sonic watched with a sinking feeling in his stomach; over the course of her time in Mushroom Hills, Myla started fading. She stopped smiling. She barely slept and when she tried, she had dreams of the war, of Infinite… and much to Sonic’s dismay, she had so many dreams of him being in trouble and her being unable to save him.

The scene suddenly changed again; Myla, looking exactly like she had when he and Shadow found her at Hidden Place with Metal, was standing atop a large mushroom, right at the edge of the cap, looking down at the ground far below her. She’d been crying; her eyes were bright red, and she was gasping for air.

“Is today the day, Ruby?” Infinite asked, floating just off the side of the mushroom she was standing on. “This is, what? The sixth day straight you’ve climbed one of these?” He looked down towards the ground, a considering look on her face. “Will this one be high enough, or will you have to find another tomorrow?”

Myla hadn’t moved; Sonic could see tears roll down her cheeks, some of them falling away from her pretty face and soaring towards the ground below. Her right foot moved slightly, inching towards the edge of the cap. Sonic knew how this would end, that she wouldn’t jump… but then realized that he didn’t know that at all. She was alive now, of course, but he had no proof she didn’t jump…

“Don’t…” he whispered. “Don’t do it…” To his relief, Myla backed away from the edge, wiping her eyes furiously.

“Aw, is this one not good enough?” Infinite asked as she walked towards the back of the mushroom, where there were other, lower mushrooms she was able to easily climb back down. “Pity, I thought this was a good one. You know, there’s a volcano nearby; that would certainly do the trick, no matter which way you jumped.” He hurried over to float in front of her as she descended the mushrooms. “How would you do it, Ruby? Would you jump outward? Let yourself hit all the rocks on the way down, hoping for one to impale you?” He grinned. “No… no, you’d jump inside, wouldn’t you? Aim straight for the lava, end it all quickly.” He waited until she got to the ground before getting right up into her face, not letting her look away from him. “Why do you prolong this? You know it’s what you want; why not end your pain, Ruby?”

Myla moved around him and started walking away. Within seconds, he was on her again, this time grabbing her by the arm and flinging her into the stem of the mushroom she had been standing on moments before. The back of her head slammed into the stem with a sickening thud, leaving her dazed. She whimpered softly, trying to push herself up, but Infinite soon had her by the throat, pinning her in place. Myla gasped for air, her eyes wide with fear. One of her hands grasped at the one that he had around her throat, the other pushing at the mask on his face.

“It’s only me and you,” Infinite informed her. She gagged slightly as he tightened his grip, her eyes rolling back into her head, her hands dropping to her sides. “No one’s going to save you now.”

The illusion ended suddenly, followed by a loud crash. Sonic looked around; Infinite was against a completely different wall, looking like he just gotten hit by an Egg Tank. Amy was standing over him, her hammer in her hands. She was shaking a little, looking down at the floor. Shadow went over and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him, her green eyes narrowed in anger, red with tears.

“Nice hit, beautiful.”

Chapter Text

Sonic walked outside, looking around for Myla. Shadow had found an extra-long tablecloth and some fabric napkins to bind and gag Infinite with before throwing him into a supply closet in the dining room and locking him inside. It seemed a little cruel, but in the end? So was Infinite. They’d put a sign on the closet to make sure no one opened it in the morning, before they figured out what to do with him. The jackal didn’t resist, likely due to not having the energy to do so after showing off three months’ worth of mental and physical torture in vivid detail and being bashed by Amy’s hammer.

It was no wonder to Sonic now that Myla had been in such bad shape when they found her; not only was she contending with her own guilt, but she had someone actively feeding into it, encouraging her to take her own life. Someone telling her that her friends would never come for her… that he wouldn’t come for her. Someone that had a chance to kill her himself but didn’t. Sonic wished he could somehow be less curious about that as he continued looking for her.

“My?” he called. “Sweetheart, where are you?” When she didn’t answer, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. It took a few tries, but eventually he caught hold of her scent; it was heading back towards the Flying Battery. Why would she go back there?

“Sonic?” Amy asked, coming outside. “Is Myla okay?”

“I don’t know,” Sonic admitted. “I think she went back to the wreckage… I’m going to head after her.”

“Okay… if you’re not back in the morning, we’re coming after you.” Sonic smiled.

“Thanks, Amy.”

The trip back to Flying Battery was quick, even in his werehog form; Sonic used his stretchy arms to reach out as far as they would go, grab hold of whatever he could and basically hurl himself as far as possible. It was strangely fun and would like to try it back home when they got there.

When he arrived at the wreckage and went inside, he found destruction everywhere: walls that had previously been unscathed were now peppered with blast marks and, in some cases, giant holes; sliding doors were ripped off their tracts and tossed aside; a poster of Robotnik had a hole punched right through his face… but where was Myla?

Sonic made his way back to the control room, not knowing where else to go. The light was on in there, though Tails had taken time to shut everything down before leaving. Sonic looked inside; Myla was sitting in a far corner, hugging her legs to her chest. Her forehead was resting against her knees, her shoulders shaking… as he stood there, Sonic heard a soft sob. He went over to her and carefully pulled her up and into his arms, cradling her as he took her outside. With a few precise jumps, they were up on the roof. He found a place to sit, resting his back against a large propellor with her sitting in his lap, her head against his chest, still crying softly.

He didn’t say anything; just held her close and let her cry.

***

Returning to Flying Battery hadn’t been Myla’s plan. Honestly, leaving the general vicinity of the ice cream shop hadn’t been her plan, but suddenly she found herself surrounded by broken badniks and decided this wasn’t the worst place in the world she could end up. When Infinite didn’t comment on that as she walked inside, she counted it as a small mercy.

The jackal had gone quiet for a time; when Metal showed up, he silenced. Myla had hoped he was gone forever, but the moment Metal was defeated, Infinite was back in her head. She had been hanging off the cliff in the canyon on Angel Island when he came back; the entire time she had been trying to pull herself up, he told her she wouldn’t make it, that she was going to die…

Myla hadn’t realized she was punching walls inside the Flying Battery until her hands started to hurt. Of course she was the one hurting; she was always the one hurting. She was trying to keep everything together when all she wanted to do was fall apart, and she was just so tired. So tired and so, so angry. Between Robotnik and Infinite and all these dreams turned memories she didn’t understand…

It didn’t surprise her when she was firing energy cubes at everything in sight, especially at the random poster of Robotnik’s face. It didn’t surprise her that when she came across doors that wouldn’t open without the power on, she just ripped them off their tracts and threw them as hard as she could at the nearest wall.  Nothing about the path of destruction she paved throughout the ship, eventually leading her to the control room surprised her. When she finally, literally hit a wall, Myla turned so her back was against it, sliding down it until she was seated on the floor. She hugged her knees to her chest and started to cry, remembering everything that happened in Mushroom Hills.

It took her completely by surprise when her amazing werehog boyfriend picked her up off the floor and held her close as he took her outside, finding a place on the roof of the wreckage for them to sit. He held her in his lap. She rested her head against his chest and cried.

“He’s not here,” Myla said eventually, her voice hoarse and exhausted. “He’s… if I’d known giving him a body would shut him up…” Sonic kissed the top of her head, gently rubbing her back.

“He’s locked up,” Sonic promised her. “Amy hammered his dumb mug into next week, Shadow locked him in a closet.”

“I don’t know if anything will hold him… I don’t know what he can do now…” Sonic felt her start to shake again, heard her breathing stagger.

“It’s okay, My. I’m not going to let him hurt you again.”

“I gave him a body… why did I do that… he didn’t need a body, he could already…” She didn’t finish, but she didn’t have to. Sonic knew what she meant: he didn’t need a body because he could already hurt people. He could already hurt her.

“He’s not with you now,” Sonic reminded her. “He told us he doesn’t have much control over the ruby’s power…”

“But he still showed you everything,” she said softly. “Didn’t he?”

“Not everything…” She looked up at him. “He was able to physically hurt you… how?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Before that, I thought he was just a voice in my head; he never said anything I hadn’t said to myself before.” She failed to hold back another sob as she wiped her eyes. “When he started to choke me, I knew I wasn’t going to get away but … even after climbing up so high to jump, I… I didn’t want to die.”

“I’m so sorry, My,” Sonic said. She didn’t say anything for a moment; if he didn’t hear her crying softly into his chest, he would have hoped that she’d fallen asleep.

“I remember blacking out and thinking that was it,” she continued. “But then I woke up, and other than a sore neck, I was fine. He still harassed me after that, but it was different; he stopped trying to talk me into… suicide.”

“That wouldn’t have been suicide, sunflower,” Sonic said gently. “Him manipulating you that way? That would have been murder. You would’ve been the weapon he used, not the killer.” She shrugged a little; Sonic knew she didn’t fully believe him, but that was okay. The idea was out there, it was something for her to think about.

“Are you mad at me?” Her voice, barely a whisper, still conveyed so much anxiety, so much fear.

“I’m not happy about the situation,” Sonic admitted. “I wish you would have said something. But no, sweetheart, I’m not mad at you. I’m furious with Infinite… with Eggman too, to be honest. All this comes back to him in the end.”

“What do we do with him?” she asked. “If he’s like the illusions he used to make, he’ll probably just… become part of me again… I don’t if I can do that anymore…”

“I think you’re forgetting something.” Myla looked up at him, confused. “You’ve beaten him before, sunflower. You’ve been beating him this whole time. You are the one in control here.” He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead. “I don’t think that… thing is fully Infinite; it could be a fragment of him, maybe even some sort of ghost…”

“Shadow doesn’t believe in ghosts.”

“Well, he’s the crazy one here, isn’t he?” Hearing her giggle was the best thing he had heard all day. “You’re stronger than he is, sunflower; you can beat him…”

“You’re so sure of that,” she replied softly. “I… I wish I believed you.” Sonic gave her a squeeze.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Not lying to me just now.” She laughed softly, which turned into a yawn.

“Well, you know me,” she said, snuggling against him, closing her eyes. “I can’t lie to you.”

“But you can dance loopholes around me?” Myla shook her head tiredly.

“Absolutely not… you know I can’t dance.”

“I don’t know that at all, sunflower,” he replied. “I haven’t taken you dancing yet.”

Before he fell asleep, Sonic was sure Myla muttered something about “steel toed dancing shoes”.

Chapter Text

“So let me get this straight,” King said slowly. He and Mage were in their apartment’s living room with most of their companions, with Shadow and Amy filling them in on all that had happened the night before. “In addition to everything else that’s been going on, there’s an insane jackal locked in my storage closet.”

“And this jackal,” Mage continued, “has been harassing Myla for months, trying to drive her to killing herself.”

“Only stopping when he realized that if she dies, so does he,” Shadow finished. “That’s about where we’re at.” Little Amy looked up at him, frowning a little.

“I understand why you’re so broody now,” she said decidedly. Shadow could hear his Amy holding back giggles next to him; he was just going to let this one go.

“Where are Myla and Sonic now?” Tails asked.

“Sonic said he thought Myla headed back to Flying Battery,” Big Amy replied. “He went after her; I told him we’d come looking if they weren’t back in the morning.”

“How are we defining morning?” Little Sonic asked. “It’s after seven…”

“Let’s give them a bit,” Shadow said. “Knowing Sonic, he’s not even awake yet and… I know nothing about Myla’s sleeping habits.”

“Did you seriously call her ‘Biscuit’ last night?” Big Amy asked. “That wasn’t some weird hallucination?” Shadow shrugged.

“It seems just as absurd as her calling me Sunshine. Do you mind?” She smiled, shaking her head.

“Not at all.”

“So what are we doing about the jackal in the closet?” Knuckles asked. “Are we sure he’s still there? He isn’t just one of those illusions you told us about?”

“He was pretty solid when I hit him with my hammer,” Big Amy said. “I’m willing to do it again.”

“Me too!” Little Amy added. “For science.”

“And because he deserves it.”

“While I would pay to see that,” Mage said with a grin. “We should probably make sure he’s still there.”

Everyone traveled down to the ice cream shop’s dining room, where Scooper was standing guard, only backing down once King said it was okay. Shadow opened the door; Infinite was still inside, looking more annoyed than anything.

“I’m going to take your gag out,” Shadow said coldly. “Do not make me regret it.” Infinite nodded once, allowing Shadow to take the napkin out.

“I hate all of you,” he said flatly.

“The feeling is mutual,” Big Amy assured him. He looked at her, grinning.

“Well, hello there. Who might you be?” She rolled her eyes.

“Someone who is thoroughly unimpressed with you.” Little Amy, meanwhile, was hiding behind her Sonic, doing her best to stay quiet. She noticed how he held his hand out, as if shielding her from the jackal.

“How many times will I need to hit you before you disappear?” Shadow asked, his eyes narrowed. Infinite grinned.

“I would advise against finding out; who knows what it might do to my Ruby?”

“Why do you call her that?” Little Sonic asked, glaring at him. Infinite grinned.

“Because she hates it; why else?” Shadow shoved the napkin gag back in his mouth and closed the door.

“Okay, he’s still there; who wants waffles?”

***

Myla walked home with her guitar strapped across her back. It was after midnight; Grandpa wasn’t going to like that she was so late, but being a Friday night, the show had run a little long. People had stopped her to ask about her guitar, where she’d gotten it, why all the sunflowers, how she made it sing the way it did? She always told them the same things: Grandpa got it from the Brass Bassoon here in town, all the sunflowers were because she loved sunflowers, and a lot of practice. No one ever seemed to believe that last one.

The smoky red glow in the sky was suspicious to her. It was a warm autumn evening, so someone having a bonfire wasn’t unheard of, but it just seemed too big for that… Myla started running towards her home, feeling her guitar slam against her back with every step.

The house was engulfed in flames.

“Grandpa!” She ran towards the front door, only to have flames burst through the door and front windows, stopping her in her tracks. “Grandpa?!” Myla screamed. “Grandpa, where are you?!”

The rest of the night was a blur. She ran around the house, trying to find a way inside. She heard sirens in the distance. She heard sirens around the house. Someone grabbed her when she tried to get in through the back door, refusing to let her go.

“My grandfather’s inside!” she screamed. “Let me go, we can’t leave him there!”

“If anyone’s in there, they’re already gone!”

***

“Sonic? Sonic, honey, wake up…” Sonic opened his eyes slowly; he was at the Flying Battery, he remembered. He had tracked Myla here; they fell asleep against a propellor on the roof… which explained why he felt so stiff. He was looking forward to a night in a real bed after all of this.

Speaking of Myla, she was kneeling next to him, a hand on his shoulder—which appeared to be back normal, so it was morning—her lovely face full of concern.

“My?” he asked, sleepily. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you okay?” she asked. “You were calling my name in your sleep…”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you…” Myla shook her head, placing her hand on his cheek.

“You didn’t wake me,” she promised. He leaned into her hand, sighing softly.

“I keep having weird dreams about you,” he admitted. “It’s like the ones you were talking about, with those memories you have now; I’m watching this life you lead somewhere else…” He sat himself up better, wrapping his arms around her, resting his head against her chest. “Tonight, I dreamt about your grandfather… I know how he died…”

“Oh handsome,” Myla replied, smoothing his hair down.

“There was a fire at your house,” Sonic continued. “You tried to get inside but couldn’t. Some firefighter finally pulled you away, saying anyone inside was gone…”

“That explains a few things,” Myla admitted as Sonic hugged her tighter. “But there’s more bothering you…” He sighed, nodding.

“I hate that I’m having dreams about a life you didn’t get to have. You don’t know your family; you’re missing huge chunks of your memory…” He looked up at her. “I want you to have had the life that I’m dreaming about you having…” She smiled, putting her hands on his cheeks before kissing him deeply.

“I love you,” she whispered, resting her forehead against his. “And I love that you want me to have this life… but based on my own dreams? You’re not in that life, outside of some random dreams that version of me has. I don’t think I could take a life like that.” He smiled a little, kissing her again, feeling her smile against his lips.. “We should probably get heading back, it’s morning…”

“Yeah…” He pulled her down into his arms, holding her close, his chin resting on her shoulder. “In a few minutes…” She laughed.

“No complaints from me; it’s been nice, not having… him here. Commenting on everything I do.”

“We’ll figure that out, sunflower,” he promised.  She nodded a little, snuggling against him.

“He hates it when we’re like this; constantly tells me he’s going to be sick.”

“Not our fault no one loves him.” Myla started laughing whole heartedly, which was slowly becoming one of Sonic’s favorite sounds. “Hey, what about your dream?”

“What about it?”

“What was it about?” She sighed.

“Oh, you were in trouble and I couldn’t find you. I have that one a lot.” He kissed her neck gently, making her giggle.

“Don’t worry,” he said softly. “I’m right here. I’ll always be right here.”

Chapter Text

Infinite managed to spit the gag out of his mouth and started singing every dirty song he could think of until Shadow came in and threatened to duct tape his mouth shut.

“This is cruel and unusual punishment,” Infinite informed him. “Locking me in here like this; you haven’t even fed me!”

“Do you actually need to eat?” Shadow asked curiously, dragging him out of the closet.

“Unfortunately, I do; Ruby tends to make clones instead of illusions…” He began to grin. “Oh, should I tell her that M-2 felt everything before Metal destroyed her?”

“Oh good,” said a voice behind them. “He’s still here. Peachy.” Myla was standing in the back doorway with Sonic, hand in hand.

“Ruby!” Infinite said, mock cheerfully. “You came back for me!”

“I came back for my friends,” Myla replied. “And coffee, is there coffee? Oh yes, there is coffee.” King poured her a cup and handed it to her, watching with amusement as she sipped it happily. “Thank you, King.”

“You’re welcome, Myla.”

“How’s everything here?” Myla’s Sonic asked as Mage handed him a plate of waffles. He sat down at one of the smaller tables, followed by Myla who offered him some of her coffee, which he cautiously accepted. “…do you drink it black?”

“Most of the time.” He took a small swig, his face contorting from the bitterness, then handed the cup back to her.

“Infinite was telling us that he needs to be fed,” Big Amy replied. She was seated at a longer table with the rest of the group; Myla noticed that it was as far away from Infinite as possible.

“Yeah, Ruby, you made me into a clone,” he said flatly, clearly taking pleasure in seeing how unnerved she was getting. “A living, breathing thing that needs to be fed and can die, just like M-2 when she…”

“Shut up, Infinite!” Myla yelled, slamming her fist down on the table in front of her, some of her coffee splashing up out of her cup.

There was silence. Not just from the friends she had startled, but from Infinite as well. Myla stared at him, waiting for him to say something; a smart remark, a taunt, anything… but he didn’t. There was a look in his eyes that was unfamiliar on him. Myla’s eyes lit up as a huge grin covered her face. She got to her feet and walked over to him.

“Oh… you have to listen to me, don’t you…” Infinite glared back at her, that unfamiliar look intensifying. “Answer me!”

“Yes,” he replied with a snarl. “I have to listen to you; I have no choice.”

“Because I’m the ruby,” she continued. “And you’re just a phantom… how long have you known that?” He looked like he was trying to refrain from answering for a moment, but something compelled him to.

“Since you told me not to call you sunflower.”

“He called you sunflower?” Sonic asked as he came to stand beside her, visibly angered.

“Once,” Myla replied, her eyes still on Infinite, still grinning. “Oh, Infinite… you are so lucky I didn’t find out about this months ago.” He took a step back from her. “Stay. Put.”

“You don’t scare me,” he spat at her, but stayed where he was.

“I’m not trying to scare you,” she replied cheerfully. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to pay you back for everything you’ve done to my friends. Everything you’ve done to our world. Everything you’ve done to me.”

“What…”

“The moment we get back to the City… you’re going to help fix everything you destroyed.” Sonic looked at her, grinning. “You might even need to take up gardening. And you will not harm a single soul unless I say you can.”

“Y-you can’t be serious,” Infinite stammered.

“I’ve only been more serious about one thing in my entire life. You’re also going to stay out of my head unless I speak to you first. If I hear that anyone thinks you’ve been trying to mess with them in any way, I will let literally everyone here use you as a punching bag.”

“You would never…”

“In a heartbeat.” Myla’s hands were clenched into fists now; Shadow wondered if she was going to take a swing at Infinite herself. “I’m going to ask Shadow to untie you, Infinite; do not make me regret it. Have some breakfast and mind whatever manners you might have.”

“Yes, Ruby,” he replied through gritted teeth as Shadow untied him.

“He said he calls you that because you hate it,” Mage said helpfully as she gave Infinite some waffles.

“Is that what you think?” Myla asked him as she and Sonic sat back down at their table. “I really don’t care, that’s probably the least offensive thing you’ve ever said to me.” Infinite said nothing, just sat down at a table alone and angrily ate his breakfast. “To be honest, I just assumed you didn’t know my name.”

“I didn’t,” he muttered through a mouthful of waffle.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Myla chided him. “It’s disgusting.” Infinite didn’t bother replying at this point.

“How long is it going to take to get to Robotnik’s base from here?” Shadow asked as he sat down by his Amy.

“Couple hours at top speed,” Little Sonic replied. “Longer than that if we walk.”

“I’m up for a good run if everyone else is,” Myla said with a grin. “Haven’t really had a chance to do that since we’ve gotten here.”

“How fast can you run?” Little Sonic asked. She nodded her head at her Sonic.

“I manage to keep up with this guy.”

“She does,” her Sonic agreed.

“We can get going after we help clean up,” Myla continued. “King, if you and Mage wanted to stay here, I understand.”

“Thank you, Myla,” King replied. “I think we’ll take you up on that… I’m not keen on ever returning to that place.”

“Me either,” Mage admitted. “It… will also be hard to see you go.” Myla smiled, shrugging her shoulders.

“Hey, you never know; I could be back someday, depending on how things go. If I am, I’ll definitely come see you.” She looked at the rest of the group. “Right now though? I’m really ready to get home.”

“What’d I tell you?” Sonic said softly as the rest of their friends went back to eating their breakfast and chatting. “You’re in control here.” She smiled a little, shrugging her shoulders.

“I guess so…” She chuckled a little. “Sometimes it takes a little darkness to show you the light.”

Chapter Text

Getting Infinite from the ice cream shop to Robotnik’s lair took strategy. Cunning. A strict order from Myla to “keep up and don’t try anything”.

“I can keep up just fine, Ruby,” he snarled.

“Good,” Myla replied earnestly. “Because if you don’t, I’m going to let Shadow take matters into his own hands.” She grinned. “And I know how much you’d hate that.”

“Please just kill me.”

“Absolutely not; you have a lot of work to do when we get home.” She turned to Big Amy. “How many apartments do we have left at the base?”

“There’s a few one bedroom set ups left,” she replied. “Why do you ask?”

“Infinite’s going to need a place.” Everyone but her Sonic stared at her in disbelief. “What?”

“You… want to give him his own place?” Shadow asked in disbelief.

“Well he’s not staying with me!”

“But he doesn’t need his own apartment!” Myla crossed her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes.

“We are not treating him like Eggman treated his prisoners,” she said firmly. “He’s not a prisoner, he’s…” She sighed. “He’s the unfortunate byproduct of various things coming together that really shouldn’t have and then I went and gave him a real body.”

“Yeah, thanks for that Ruby,” Infinite chimed in. She rolled her eyes.

“Anyway. He’s a living breathing thing, and until he seriously messes up, we’re treating him like one. If it’s a matter of space, he can have my place and I’ll move somewhere else.”

“He tortured you for months,” Amy reminded her.

“I know; I was there.”

“And you’re rewarding him for that!?”

“If I was rewarding him, I’d let Sonic and Shadow have at him. That’s what he wants. More anger, more destruction.” Little Amy’s eyes widened.

“I get it!” She said cheerfully. “You being nice to him is the worst punishment of all, isn’t it?” Myla grinned, ruffling her hair.

“Good observation, kiddo.” Infinite fumed slightly.

“I don’t need your kindness or charity, Ruby,” he informed her.

“I’m aware.”

***

Robotnik’s lair was eerily silent; no patrols outside, no lights on inside.

“I think this is where we part ways,” Myla said sadly, looking at her new friends.

“What do you mean?” asked Knuckles. “We’re going in with you…”

“We’re hopefully going to rig that portal to blow,” Myla’s Sonic replied. “It’s best for you all not to be in there.”

“You mean we’ll never see you again?” Little Amy asked sadly. Myla knelt down and hugged her.

“I didn’t say that,” she assured her. “We still have a portal on our end; once we figure out how to control it, we’ll come visit again.”

“You promise?” Myla released her embrace and held a fist out to her, which Little Amy bumped enthusiastically.

“Promise.”

As everyone went about saying their goodbyes, Myla looked over at Little Sonic, who was standing back from the rest of the group, arms crossed over his chest, looking away. She’d felt bad that she’d never really had a chance to chat with him about… literally anything. It felt weird, having a Sonic she didn’t feel close to. Even after they’d saved the world together, she didn’t know him at all. He looked up suddenly, catching her watching him. He flashed her a grin, winking at her. She smiled at him, nodding once. It wasn’t their time to get to know each other; maybe someday, but not today.

“Do you think we’ll be able to figure out the portal?” Big Amy asked as their new friends hurried away, waving as they went.

“I hope so,” replied Myla. “I’d really love to come visit when I’m not supposed to have surgery.”

Finding the room with the portal was absurdly simple; down three flights of stairs and there it was. Infinite lagged along behind the rest, whistling as he went.

“Could you take this a little more seriously?” Myla asked him. “We’re trying to escape with our lives right now.”

“Only if I have to,” he replied with a grin.

“You have to. Not only do you have to, but congratulations: if I’m not around, you have to listen to Amy.”

“Me?” Amy squeaked. “Why me?”

“Because I trust you to give him something constructive to do, whereas both of our boyfriends won’t.”

“How are we defining constructive?” Shadow asked. Myla rolled her eyes.

“Questions like that are just proving my point, Sunshine.” She looked down at the portal, which appeared to be off. “There should be something on the wall by the control panel to turn all this on…” She looked around, her eyes landing on a large lever, which she went over and pulled down. The room lit up instantly as the portal whirred the life. “Okay. That sounds familiar…”

“Fantastic,” Sonic said. “Now what?”

“We need to warn anyone waiting for us not to kill Infinite the moment he comes through,” Myla said, taking her guitar off her shoulder. “I need something to write on.” Sonic looked around and found a notepad and a pen, tossing both to her.

“What’s your plan?” he asked as she wrote something on the notepad, tore off the top sheet and slipped under the strings on Aria’s neck. She then, after some slight hesitation, dropped the guitar into the portal.

***

Seconds after the portal opened, Knuckles found himself lying on the ground with a guitar in his face.

“Ow.”

“That’s Myla’s guitar!” Tails exclaimed, picking it up. “There’s a note too!”

“What’s it say?” Rouge asked as she helped Knuckles to his feet.

“Stay back from the portal,” Tails read. “Do not maim the jackal I’m about to throw through, I will explain later. Tacos on me if we survive, Myla.” Tails tilted his head, confused. “Do not maim the jackal…?” Before anyone could say anything more, a body came flying through the portal, landing face first on the floor. “…that’s a jackal all right.”

“I will kill her someday,” the jackal muttered as he pushed himself to his feet. “I will kill her, and I will enjoy it.” No one recognized the face; everyone recognized the voice.

“Infinite?!” Everyone yelled.

“I’m right here, I can hear you.” He dusted himself off. “Amy and Shadow will be following me shortly. I am under orders to wait for Amy, as she is in charge of me until Ruby arrives.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Any questions?”

“Yeah,” Knuckles said. “Who’s Ruby?”

***

“Okay,” Shadow said from the control panel. “I’ve got this thing set to blow as soon as the portal’s clear; we need to move fast.”

“Alright!” Sonic yelled. “Let’s go!” Myla watched Shadow jump in with Amy before taking Sonic’s hand and following them. This was it; they were going home. She would make her surgery, hopefully, then they’d all hang out and have tacos and she’d find something to do with Infinite and she could not shake the feeling that everything was going way too well. Maybe that was why she looked up towards the opening they’d just leapt through…

And saw Robotnik’s claw machine coming at them; Myla let out a yell seconds before it latched on around her torso and started pulling her back.

“Are you kidding me right now?!”

“Myla!” Sonic clung to her hand, trying to pull her out of the claw’s grasp. “I’ve got you, just hang on!” She reached out to him with her other hand, grabbing hold of him.

“Sonic, it’s pulling you back!”

“Don’t worry about that, just hang on to me!” He felt Myla’s grip tighten, watched her straining to hang on as she tried to wiggle free. The claw held tight, not giving her any room to move. Sonic maneuvered to get his feet on something solid; once he did, he found himself able to pull Myla forward a little… only to have her yanked from his grasp.

Everything went into slow motion. Her arms flailing as she moved farther and farther from him. Her screaming his name. His own fruitless attempt to grab for her again. Seconds later, he was in Hidden Palace, Knuckles and Tails helping him to his feet.

“Myla… Myla!” He ran back towards the Emerald, only to slam into it. The portal was closed… Myla was gone. He sank to his knees, pounding on the Emerald with his fist. “No…”

“Well, that’s not surprising at all,” Infinite mumbled. “All that work and in the end? Didn’t even matter.”

“What happened?” Amy cried, ignoring Infinite. “Where’s Myla…”

“Robotnik… he…” He turned to Tails. “Buddy, please tell me we can get that open again…”

“We should be able to,” Tails told him. “We have all seven Chaos Emeralds, if we use them all together…” Sonic nodded, looking to Shadow and Knuckles.

“I need one of you two to go super, get the portal open and keep it open as long as you can…”

“What are you going to do?” asked Knuckles.

“I’m going after her, what do you think I’m doing?” Shadow narrowed his eyes.

“What if you can’t get back?” Sonic just stared at him.

“Do you expect me to leave her there?!”

“I expect you to have a better plan than “run in and hope we get back”.”

“Do you have anything better?!”

“Yeah; don’t go alone.”

***

After struggling with the claw as it pulled her back into Robotnik’s lair, Myla found herself trapped in some sort of machinery; a large circle with shackles that held her in an X position inside, arms above her head and legs spread. She’d given up on hiding her powers and fully intended to use everything she had to blast her way out of this, but all that did was make her chest hurt and weaken the rest of her. Whatever she was trapped in was insulated in some way, pulling energy out of her whenever she tried to use it.

She really hated it when she was impressed by Robotnik.

“Foolish hedgehog,” he cackled at her. “Did you really think you would escape me?”

“Yeah, actually,” Myla replied. “For being a doctor, you’re kind of an idiot and I’m really questioning your credentials.”

“Laugh while you can, hedgehog. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, my machine absorbs whatever energy you attempt to use to escape; once everything’s ready, I’ll be draining you of every bit of Phantom Ruby energy you have left. If you survive…” He smirked. “What am I saying, you won’t survive.”

Myla started to tune him out at this point. She wanted to believe this wasn’t the end for her, that Sonic was going to come out of nowhere and rescue her… but she knew she’d used up all of her luck at this point. But that was okay, wasn’t it? Amy was in charge of Infinite; if he somehow survived Myla’s death, he wouldn’t be a problem to anyone. Sonic… would move on. He had their friends, and he would be okay; he didn’t need her as much as she needed him.

So… this was it.

“Are you ready, Hedgehog?” Robotnik asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, I think we’re ready.” Myla’s head shot up.

“Sonic?!” He was there… not only was he there, but he was glowing yellow… he’d gone super, but how?

“Let her go, Robotnik,” Sonic said angrily. “Let her go now, and I won’t tear this place apart.”

“You’re too late, Sonic!” Robotnik yelled, flipping a switch in front of him. “This machine won’t turn off until it’s drained her of everything!” Myla felt the machine’s power coursing through her, like fire through a dry forest, trying to take her own energy out with it. It hurt more than anything, but she wasn’t giving Robotnik the satisfaction of hearing her scream again. She just needed to hang on…

Everything started exploding around her. She looked around; Sonic was completely trashing the place… no… that wasn’t Sonic.

It was Shadow.

And Knuckles.

And Tails.

All of them, in their super forms, destroying everything in sight. Nothing they did stopped the machine.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Robotnik yelled over the chaos. “You’d have to destroy this entire base to stop my machine!”

“You act like that isn’t an option,” Shadow yelled back. Myla watched in awe as he began to charge; if asked, everyone here would (begrudgingly) admit that Shadow was the most powerful. If he let loose…

Myla felt the shackles get ripped off her wrists and ankles before she fell forward into someone’s arms.

“I’ve got her!” Sonic yelled, holding Myla close. “Everyone run to the portal!”

“What portal!?” Myla asked, weakly wrapping her arms around him. “We already broke it!”

“We broke Robotnik’s! We still have our own. Hang on tight!”

“What about Shadow?!”

“Don’t worry, he knows what to do!”

Myla buried her face into Sonic’s shoulder, holding on with every bit of energy she had left. She heard a large explosion, felt the force of it propel her and Sonic forward. Moments later, she and Sonic landed on something hard, rolling over each other a few times before finally stopping, lying side by side.

“Is everyone here?!” Sonic yelled.

“I’m here, Sonic!” Tails cried.

“Me too,” called Knuckles.

“Shadow’s here too,” Amy added. “He’s out cold!”

“What about the Chaos Emeralds?”

“They scatted as soon as we were all back here,” Tails said. “Just like we planned. The portal’s closed too!”

“Good… good… Myla, are you alright? Myla?” Myla lay on the floor next to him, eyes closed, clutching the left side of her chest.

“Sonic,” she whispered. “M-my heart…”

“Oh no… we have to get her to the hospital…”

“We’ve got a shuttle parked nearby,” Knuckles said, picking up Shadow and slinging him over his shoulder.

“A shuttle?” Sonic asked, lifting Myla into his arms. “Why?”

“Not all of us like running between Angel Island and the City.” Sonic looked around.

“Where’s Infinite?”

“Already aboard the shuttle with Rouge,” Amy said. “Probably still unconscious.”

“Do I want to know what he did this time?”

“He made a remark about Myla dying before he could kill her; I wasn’t on board with that.”

“Thank you”

“Wait,” Myla whispered, opening her eyes. “The Master Emerald… l-let me touch it quick…”

“What?”

“I am not leaving here without at least trying to get the Island back in the air!” Sonic shook his head, hurrying her over to the Master Emerald. Myla placed her hand on the Emerald, causing it to glow. There was no portal that opened this time, just a rumble that shook the entire room, followed by everyone experiencing the strange feeling of being lifted into the air.

“She’s done it,” Knuckles yelled, excited. “The island is rising!” Sonic looked down at her as she pulled her hand away, a smile on her face.

“How?” She looked up at him with a tired smile.

“You’d never… believe… me…” As she went limp in his arms, Sonic hurried towards the shuttle, leaping inside just after Knuckles brought Shadow inside, Amy and Tails right behind him.

“Rouge, to the hospital! Hurry!”

Chapter Text

Myla opened her eyes and looked around. This wasn’t Robotnik’s lab. This wasn’t her apartment. This wasn’t anywhere she recognized…

Wait. Yes it was.

“Am I in the hospital?” She mumbled.

“Hopefully for the last time for a while.” She turned her head to the right; Doctor Zell was standing over her, a kind smile on her face.

“Hey Doc… did I miss my surgery?” The doctor laughed, shaking her head.

“No, you didn’t miss it; we just finished… not a moment too soon either.”

“I really did try not to make things worse,” Myla promised.

“That’s what I heard from your friends. Thank you.” Myla looked down at her chest; a small bandage was on the left side, just above her breast, next to the other scar she had there.

“Is that from surgery? It’s so small…”

“Open heart surgery is much less invasive as it used to be,” Doctor Zell assured her. “You’ll still have a scar, but it won’t be anywhere as big as it would have been even a few years ago.” Myla nodded, thankful; she honestly had enough scars to last her a lifetime.

“Where are my friends… are they okay?”

“They’re fine; you’re in recovery right now, we’ll be moving you to a room soon. Before you ask, you’re not going home today.”

“I figured… how’s tomorrow look?”

“You’ll probably be here for a few days, just to make sure everything is okay. Full recovery will take a few months, but that can be done outside the hospital.” Myla nodded tiredly.

“Okay… I think I’m falling back to sleep now.”

“That’s probably a good idea, you need to rest.”

“Can you tell Sonic something for me?”

“Sure, he’s out in the waiting room.”

“Also, I… need a favor…”

***

“Her exact words were “Tell Infinite he still has to listen to Amy”,” Doctor Zell replied. “She said you’d know what she meant.” Sonic sighed with relief. They had gotten Myla to the hospital with plenty of time to spare, but he had spent the last five hours waiting for Myla to get out of surgery. Their friends had tried to convince him to head back to his house or at least to the base to clean up and get something to eat, but after everything that happened? He didn’t want to be too far from Myla.

“Yeah,” he said, turning to Amy. “I know what she means.” Amy smiled.

“As suggested,” she replied, “he’s learning how to garden right now.”

“How’s that going?”

“Oh, he absolutely hates it.”

“Regardless,” Doctor Zell cut in. “Surgery went as expected, no complications whatsoever. She’s sleeping in recovery right now; we’ll be moving her to a room soon.”

“How long does she have to stay?” asked Amy.

“At least a few days, but it’ll be a few months for a full recovery. She’ll need to take it easy.”

“I’ll make sure she does,” Sonic promised.

“You should go home,” Doctor Zell said firmly. “Get some rest yourself.”

“I’ll…”

“Go. Home. Clean up, eat some food, rest… or I’ll have you escorted out.” Sonic put his hands up in defeat.

“Alright, alright… if she wakes up while I’m gone…”

“If she wakes up,” Doctor Zell said kindly, “I will tell her you were sent home under extreme protest. To be honest though? She just had open heart surgery; I expect her to sleep a good long time.”

***

Shadow slowly opened his eyes, smiling at the sight before him; Amy, in her favorite pajamas, lying on the bed beside him, reading a book.

“Hey beautiful,” he said. Amy turned to him and smiled.

“Hey you,” she replied. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired… I’m judging by the pajamas we made it home in once piece?”

“We did; Myla’s at the hospital, her surgery went fine. She’ll be there for a few days.”

“And Infinite?”

“He has an apartment on base, far away from Myla’s; did some gardening earlier, but now he’s there for the night.” She sighed, shaking her head. “I don’t understand any of this,” she admitted. “Infinite tortured her for months, he would have killed her if…” Shadow sat up and put an arm around her, hugging her close to him.

“I know,” he replied. “It’s not completely logical… but I suppose one must attain vengeance in whatever way they are most comfortable; Myla wants him to pay for what he did by forcing him to help those in need. It’s… rather merciful in a way.”

“I suppose…” She snuggled close to him. “Nothing we really have to worry about tonight… I may have asked Omega to keep an eye on Infinite. And authorized him to use whatever means necessary to keep him in line.” Shadow laughed, kissing her gently.

“Gods, I love you.”

***

After stopping at his own place to grab a few things, Sonic ended up at Myla’s apartment; it was closer than his house to the hospital and honestly a lot homier. That was his own fault, of course; he was hardly ever at the bungalow, so he didn’t really take time to decorate it. He knew Amy and Rouge had done a lot of the decorating at Myla’s place rather than Myla herself, but still; stuff was done. Myla’s apartment was more comfortable and he was going to clean up, grab some chili dogs and hang out on her couch until he was allowed to go back to the hospital.

Myla was going to be fine. He had told himself that multiple times while he cleaned up, multiple times more when he ate the chili dogs he ordered for dinner, and again as he felt himself dozing off. Doctor Zell said the surgery went fine. Myla was fine. And he… he really needed a nap.

Chapter Text

Somehow, Sonic knew he was dreaming; it was probably because he was in a strange space of nothing but white. There was no sound; when he called out to ask if anyone was there, his voice didn’t echo. So either he was dreaming, or he was dead. Tails always joked that chili dogs would be the death of him…

“You look lost.” Sonic looked around for the source of the voice; fluttering around just above him was a small pink chipmunk-like creature. Sonic felt himself start choking up.

“Chip..?”

“Hi Sonic!” Sonic jumped up and grabbed him, hugging him tight. “It’s so good to see you.”

“Chip… how?”

“I don’t have a lot of time… we need to finish up with Myla.”

“Myla? My Myla? What’s wrong…?”

“It’ll be easier to show you…” Chip wiggled out of Sonic’s hug and put a hand on his shoulder. “Just so you know, you won’t be able to interact with anything we’re about to see; it’s already happened and cannot be changed.” Once Sonic nodded, Chip closed his eyes; things began to change around them. Instead of a vast white void, there was suddenly a small town in the middle of a lush forest. People were walking around, chattering away with one another. Everything was so peaceful.

“Where are we?” Sonic asked.

“This town was called Everton,” Chip replied. “It was in the Forest Hill zone of the planet Dracadnia, in a universe mostly parallel to your own.”

“Was..?” Before Chip could say anything more, explosions started happening around them. A large fleet of aerial robots were descending upon the village, firing lasers at everything in their path. More robots came from the forest; they reminded Sonic of Eggman’s badniks, but the design was different. The creator of these used a lot of silver, green and white; where Eggman would have used spikes or sharp edges, there were curves and an excessive amount of lasers. As people started running and screaming, Sonic readied himself for a battle. Chip shook his head.

“This has already happened,” he reminded him. Sonic sighed, watching helplessly as people were hurt, homes were destroyed. “Don’t worry; she’s almost here.”

“Who?”

A maniacal laughter filled the air; coming up behind the fleet of robots was a large mech, piloted by a woman that could have been Eggman’s sister for all Sonic knew; her hair was red and frazzled, she wore a pair of thick goggles atop her head, and she was clothed in the same silver, green and white that adorned her robots.

“Who the heck is that?”

“Professor Ava Galactnik,” Chip replied. “The ‘Eggman’ of this world.”

“So this world is completely parallel to mine?” Chip shook his head.

“Nothing is ever completely parallel; there are always some things that are off slightly.”

“But if there’s an Eggman here, there has someone to stop them… where are they…”

Out of nowhere came the scream of an electric guitar; it wasn’t playing a specific song, just someone showing off their skills. Much to Sonic’s surprise, some of the robots started to short circuit, then explode. The Galactnik lady didn’t seem pleased by this, but Chip just smiled.

“Here they come.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” called a voice from somewhere in the trees. “But leaving all this garbage around is littering, and that’s illegal in Forest Hills. Comes with a pretty hefty fine…” Another riff on the guitar; another batch of robots exploded. “Oooh, I think that fine just doubled.” Galactnik glared.

“Oh it’s you,” she sneered. “What an unpleasant surprise.” A figure leapt out of the trees, doing a forward flip in the air before landing in front of the mech, down on one knee. Sonic’s jaw dropped as they got to their feet.

“Myla…” It was the Myla he had been seeing in his dreams; a little younger than his own Myla, her long hair done up in spiky pigtails, determination in her violet eyes. In her hands was the guitar he’d watched her grandfather give her, fastened to a strap over her shoulder.

“Okay, first off,” Myla yelled up at the Professor. “I am an absolute delight. Second, surprise?! You come out here and start destroying things and don’t expect me to show up?!”

“Oh, my mistake hedgehog,” Galactnik replied, a sickeningly wicked grin spreading across her face. “I’m actually quite happy to see you.” She pressed a button on her mech, launching dozens of missiles at Myla. The young hedgehog grinned and strummed her guitar again; missiles started exploding left and right, with Myla literally dancing around any that got close.

“How is she doing that?” Sonic asked, awestruck.

“Her guitar,” Chip replied. “Her grandfather gave it to her.”

“Yeah, I saw that… dreamed it… Myla said he’d done something to it, but I never found out what.”

“Doctor M. Jonah Robinson was a technological genius,” Chip informed him. “While he worked in robotics, developing ones that could assist those who were elderly or disabled, most of his work was in the biomedical engineering field; artificial limbs with organic skin, stuff like that. He and Galactnik had worked together before she went insane…”

“He worked in the medical field,” Sonic cut in, “but he didn’t fix Myla’s heart condition?” Chip winced a little.

“Yeah… we’ll get to that…” He seemed a little ashamed but pushed on before Sonic could ask more. “He began applying his skills to music when Myla started playing guitar. The one he fixed up for her has the ability to scramble frequencies within a good number of Galactnik’s bots and weapons. Unfortunately, nobody is one hundred percent sure how it works beyond that. Sometimes it works against newer creations, others it doesn’t. There are even older bots that are immune to the guitar’s effects. Galactnik has been trying to reverse engineer it for years, but without actually getting ahold of the guitar, she’s had no luck…”

“Wow… what about Doctor Robinson? Can’t he…?” Chip shook his head. “Oh… he’s already dead at this point, isn’t he?”

“He died shortly after giving Myla the guitar, at the hands of Galactnik…”

“Oh no…”

“They had been on the run from her for years; she was after the technology that Jonah put into Myla’s guitar. Galactnik found Jonah at home when Myla was out, burned the place down with him trapped inside.” Sonic felt his fist clench, remembering his dream, remembering Myla’s anguish when she couldn’t get inside. “When he died, Myla… I can’t say she lost it, but she stopped running and started fighting. She was fifteen and became Galactnik Enemy Number One.”

“Good.” Sonic felt anger boil inside of him as he watched Myla, having dodged or destroyed all the missiles, gracefully land in front of Galactnik, a huge grin on her face.

“When has that strategy ever worked out for you?” she asked Galactnik, very condescendingly.

“You wouldn’t be so cocky without that guitar, hedgehog,” Galactnik hissed. Myla raised an eyebrow before moving the guitar so it rested against her back. She moved into a fighting stance, her fists raised in front of her.

“We both know that’s not true.” Sonic watched in awe as Myla moved from music to combat. He had always thought her to be strong, graceful despite her insistence to the contrary. This one also preferred to work defensively, countering rather than attacking, and she was good at it. The robots not destroyed by the effects of her guitar tended to run into or blast each other when she moved at just the right moment.

“How long has she been doing this?” Sonic asked.

“Fighting? At this point, about a year. She and Jonah had been on the run since her parents died; they were also scientists, also worked with Galactnik. There was an explosion in the facility; it was ruled an accident, but Galactnik later admitted to causing it… Myla was five I believe.”

“Same age my Myla was left at the orphanage…” He looked at Chip. “I don’t understand… why are we here? What does this have to do with my Myla?”

“Your Myla,” Chip replied, “is the one fighting Galactnik.”

“What? How?!”

“Universes are never completely parallel; there are small differences to make them unique, but there are also constants… one of those constants is you and Myla. The two of you have known each other in every universe that exists.”

“We… what.”

“Your friendship holds universes together.” The scene around them froze as other scenes began to play; multiple versions of Sonic and Myla were interacting around them. Some were nearly identical to Sonic and his Myla, others were more different. He saw at least two versions of himself as a woman, along with at least three male Mylas; there was even a version where they all were human. Some were romantic, some were platonic… there was one where Myla seemed to be evil; Sonic wasn’t sure what to think about that.

“…okay, let’s say I buy this,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Which this is a pretty hard sell… but if that’s true, where am I right now? Where is her version of me?” Chip smiled sadly.

“That’s where things get complicated,” he admitted. He looked back at Myla, watching her fight. “That Myla there is your Myla… and you are her Sonic.”

“What the heck does that mean?!”

“Something went wrong during your universe’s creation; it was supposed to be part of this one I’m showing you, not a parallel. We haven’t figured out what yet… but because of that, this universe I’m showing you was living on borrowed time.”

“…you mean it’s going to end?”

“Ended now.”

“How?”

“Dark Gaia.”

The scene suddenly changed to one Sonic knew too well: the underworld where he and Chip battled Dark Gaia. There was fire, lava… and Myla. No Gaia Temple piloted by Chip, no chaos emeralds… just Myla, trying to fight the monster before her.

“Is that you with her?” Sonic asked, spotting a familiar Chip-like form flying around Myla.

“Yes… but no,” Chip replied. “Like Dark Gaia, Light Gaia exists across the multiverse; we mostly kept to ourselves, despite being a single entity. I’m aware of everything Myla did to try and save this world, but it’s not me there with her. Myla named her version of Light Gaia Waffle.”

“Myla’s not a werehog though…”

“No, she’s not. Galactnik summoned Dark Gaia through different means; this universe doesn’t have Chaos Emeralds, so she just… fired as much energy as she could at the planet and got lucky. Myla didn’t come into contact with Dark Gaia until this battle.”

“This isn’t like when we fought Dark Gaia; how is she supposed to win this?”

“She’s not…” Sonic looked at him, horrified. “Waffle tried to tell her it was hopeless, that she couldn’t save this world… Myla wouldn’t accept that. She watched Dark Gaia completely annihilate her greatest enemy, and still tried to stop him… she genuinely thought she could…” Sonic watched in horror as Myla took a blast from Dark Gaia, sending her flying into a wall, a rock piercing through her shoulder. Her scream made him sick to his stomach.

“The scars she has,” he said softly. “They’re from this, aren’t they?”

“As is the heart condition,” Chip confirmed. “That rock in her shoulder… we couldn’t fix it before the merge…”

“Myla!” He was suddenly closer to Myla, watching Waffle hover over her. “Myla…” Waffle begged as Myla’s eyes opened a little. “Myla, get up… please…”

“I… I can’t, Waffle,” she whispered. “I can’t move…” She looked at the rock sticking out of her.

“Myla, no…” Myla closed her eyes, tears slipping down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, Waffle… I failed you… I failed everyone…” Waffle rested one of her tiny hands on Myla’s cheek.

“You didn’t fail, Myla,” she promised. “It… sometimes its possible to do everything right, and still lose…”

“Get out of here, Waffle,” Myla begged. “Run, before… before it…”

“I’m not just leaving you here!”

“There’s nothing else you can do for me… my story’s over…” She did her best to smile. “You have so much left of yours…” Waffle shook her head.

“No… No, Myla. Your story is not ending like this.”

“We never knew she’d fight so hard for this world,” Chip said sadly. “The plan had been to let this world go to save yours… but she fought for it.”

“The gaps in her memory,” Sonic said. “It’s because of this, isn’t it?” Chip nodded.

“We had to work fast; if she died before we got her merged over to your world, that would be the end of it… there were things we couldn’t let her remember because it would hurt…”

“Her family…”

“Yes… other small things, but that was the most significant.”

“But she grew up at the orphanage, there’s records of it.”

“There are…” he sighed. “What we did…”

“You keep saying we, who is we?”

“Light Gaia,” Chip replied. “As I said before, we are different across the multiverse, but also the same… we came together when we realized this was happening; see for yourself…” Sonic watched as a group of Chip-like creatures appeared around Myla and Waffle, one of them being Chip himself, who was down by Waffle, talking to a weak and confused Myla. They rest formed a circle around her, holding hands, glowing.

“There’s only…” Sonic counted. “Ten of you?”

“Oh no, there’s many more; these are the strongest of us, those who have been fighting Dark Gaia the longest. I needed to be here because Myla would be moving to our universe; I’m explaining it all to her right now…”

“What about Waffle?”

“But what about Waffle?” Myla asked weakly, drawing Sonic’s attention back to her. “You can’t just stay here…”

“I won’t, Myla,” Waffle promised. “I’ll be moving on… there’s another universe forming as we speak, I’ll be going there.”

“…I’ll never see you again?”

“No…”

“But if everything works properly,” past Chip cut in. “You… won’t remember her. You won’t remember anything from this world…”

“But…” She moved her arm slowly, eventually taking Waffle’s hand. “You’re the only friend I’ve had in forever… I don’t want to forget you…”

“You’ve got one more friend out there,” Waffle promised. “And we’re going to do everything we can to make sure you find him… trust me, Myla? Trust me, one last time…” Tears slid down Myla’s cheeks as she nodded.

“Goodbye, Waffle…”

“Everything went off without a hitch, mostly,” Chip said as the glow around Myla intensified. When it vanished, so had she, along with everything around her. Sonic and Chip were alone in the vast white space. “We first got her into your world just before the war started, but then realized we couldn’t just leave her there without some sort of past. I wanted to find you…”

“Me?” Sonic asked. “Why?”

“Because you would have helped; I knew that if I could have told you what was happening, you would have made sure Myla was safe.” Sonic nodded, because yes, that’s what would have happened. “Everyone else agreed but wanted the meeting between you and Myla to be more organic.”

“Organic?”

“We were already in the middle of a situation that was never supposed to happen, so a lot of rules were getting broken. It was agreed that you would help the best you could, but Myla was unpredictable. We had already lost time with her being determined to save her original universe, one that would not have survived even if she had managed to stop Dark Gaia; we couldn’t be sure that she would just accept that you two were friends.”

“Unfortunately, I understand that completely,” Sonic admitted. “So, what did you do?”

“We went back in time in your world so we could try to create a seamless past that would still line up with her meeting you; we ended up jumping around to key points in order to get her established. While we were doing that, she was still living a life in the present and by the grace of who knows what, she ended up meeting you without our interference. When that happened… we didn’t worry about her past anymore, because her present and future were secure.”

Sonic took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He hated what he was hearing; he hated how messy it all seemed, how careless. At the same time though, he couldn’t figure out a better way for it to have been done. There was no point in arguing, it wouldn’t change or fix anything.

“Alright,” Sonic said calmly. “Real question: why are you telling me all of this?”

“She’s starting to remember,” Chip replied. “She’s having dreams about her past, she’s sharing them with you; she’ll see or hear certain things that trigger memories…”

“She’s sharing the dreams with me?”

“Not intentionally; you’re the person she loves and trusts the most. Deep down, she wants you to know these things. In the end, it’s because of the Phantom Ruby; it gives people what they want…”

“And all Myla wants is friends… and a family.” Sonic sighed, shaking his head. “So her powers are unlocking the memories.” Chip nodded.

“Unfortunately, we can’t stop what’s happening. We can unlock her everything for her, get it over with at once… but she’s going to need help dealing with it all.” He sighed, nodding.

“Of course I’ll help her…”

“Can you start by helping me up?” Both Sonic and Chip froze, staring at each other.  They turned to where Myla’s body had been before the memory ended; she was staring back at them, no rock through her shoulder, but looking extremely exhausted.

“Myla!” Sonic zipped over to her, helping her up and holding her close. “What are you doing here?”

“Beats me… I was having a great dream about you and me having tacos, and then suddenly I’m reliving parts of my life I apparently don’t remember.” She looked over at Chip. “You’re… Chip. I remember you, but…”

“It’s okay,” Chip replied. “I’m just… it’s so good to see you again.” Myla smiled.

“I feel that too, honestly… there’s just… I don’t know why.”

“You will, eventually… I’m sorry, we can’t stop that.” She shrugged.

“That’s fine.”

“Wait,” Sonic said, bewilderment in his voice. “You’re… you’re okay with all this?”

“What?” Myla replied. “Oh no, I am not at all okay with all this. I am angry, no, I am furious about this. I had an entire life taken away from me because something went wrong somewhere in the universe, completely beyond my control, and this was the only way to fix it!” She was shaking at this point; Sonic felt her arms wrap around him. “But… I can be furious and still understand that it had to be done… I can be angry and still know this is the way things had to be. Besides…” She looked up at him. “If the alternative meant that I never got to meet you? Then that alternative sucks.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Sonic told her, a smile curling his lips.

“I know; you love me anyway.”

“Yeah I do.”

“Chip,” Myla said, turning her attention to him. “The whole thing with Dark Gaia, my battle with him; is that why Sonic can transform again?” Chip nodded.

“The portal that took you to the other dimension was opened using strong energy signatures,” Chip replied. “When you both were inside, the small amount of Dark Gaia energy that was still within you was attracted to Sonic, being that his connection had been stronger. I think it’ll always be within him now…” Myla looked back at Sonic.

“Sorry about that…”

“Nothing to be sorry about, sunflower,” he assured her. “I’ve already told you I don’t mind the werehog. As long as you like him too, that’s all I care about.”

“Well, there werehog is you, I don’t think there’s any possibility of me not liking him.”

“Myla,” Chip interrupted. “About the rest of your memories… we can unlock them all now, but…”

“Oh, please don’t do that?” she asked. “I really don’t think I’d be able to handle it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure; I know what’s happening now, it’ll be less… overwhelming. Easier to talk to a therapist about.” Sonic kissed the top of her head.

“And me,” he reminded her. “You know I’ll be here…” She looked up at him, smiling.

“That’s the one thing I’ve always been sure of.” She twitched suddenly. “I think I’m waking up…”

“I’ll be there soon, okay?” Sonic promised.

“Take your time, handsome; get some rest.” She turned to Chip, smiling. “Goodbye Chip… it was good to see you again…”

“You too, Myla…” Once she faded away, Chip wiped his eyes.

“What’s the matter?” Sonic asked.

“Everything went so wrong,” Chip replied softly. “We were trying so hard to fix everything, and we just made it worse for her in the end… and she’s… she’s mad, but she’s okay with it all. How?” Sonic shrugged.

“Just how she is…” He felt a shiver go through him. “Something’s happening…” Chip looked around.

“Things are changing…” The two of them watched as the white space around them transformed; it was now Apotos and the two of them were standing on the street in front of the ice cream vendor. “Hey… it’s…” Sonic smiled, shaking his head.

“Someone is making sure I rest…” He looked at Chip. “What do you say? Have time for some ice cream before you have to go? Maybe a quick adventure?” Chip smiled back.

“Yeah. I think I can make time for that.”

Chapter Text

Myla had awoken to a room empty of people except for herself and was honestly okay with that. She was still tired, though not enough to sleep, and it had been literal months since she’d been completely alone. Infinite wasn’t in her head now; she didn’t need to try to think of other things to drown him out, she could just sit, in the quiet, and relax.

On the table beside her bed was a medium sized plain brown box with a card that had her name on it. The card had been from her friends, all of them signing their names around the pre-printed get-well sentiment with little notes of their own. One was from Cream the Rabbit; Myla didn’t know the little one very well, only having met her once or twice, but she’d apparently made enough of an impression for her to offer well wishes.

“Get well soon, Miss Myla!” The note read. “Thank you again for the cupcakes! Don’t forget, you promised to show me how to make more!”

Myla chuckled softly; she’d forgotten about that day she came into the base’s kitchen and found it, the rabbit and her chao companion, Cheese, completely covered in flour. Cream had explained that it was her mother’s birthday and she wanted to make her cupcakes, but accidentally dropped the flour. Myla, having been told not to go on any missions until cleared by medical (stupid Arsenal Pyramid), helped her make some simple chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. She’d yet to meet Cream’s mother, but also saw a note from her on the card thanking her for the cupcakes.

A note from Amy on the card said that the contents of the box were meant to keep her busy while she was in the hospital. There was also a request for her to not “let Knuckles toss you out a window again”. That seemed like a vast oversimplification of events, but who was Myla to argue, especially if she was getting gifts out of the whole thing.  She opened the box and looked inside, smiling at the contents: a few different colored balls of yarn and a pair of knitting needles. Sonic must have had his hand in this somehow, as she didn’t remember telling anyone else that she could knit.

Myla picked up one of the balls at random, grinning when it ended up being red, and started to cast on. There had always been something about the clicking of her knitting needles against each other that was so soothing to her. The simple act of creation was a pleasure of its own, but the sound that went along with knitting would always be a source of comfort for her.

She had vague memories of knitting things for her grandfather. A hat, scarf and mittens for the cold winters in Forest Hills, done in a simple black and yellow argyle pattern, a pair of brown socks that matched his favorite loafers… a small teddy bear she’d made out of scrap yarn and was about ten different random colors. That had been one of the first plushies she’d ever tried to make…

“Miss Robinson?” Myla looked up; standing in the doorway was a dark blue parakeet, wearing a doctor’s lab coat and an ID badge that Myla couldn’t read from here. “I’m Doctor Moira Nightingale, from the Behavioral Health and Psychiatric department; Doctor Zell said you had asked to speak to someone and she recommended that I come and have a chat with you.” Myla smiled a little nodding.

“Did she warn you?” Myla asked.

“She mentioned that you fought in the war directly with Sonic the Hedgehog and had seen some interesting things.”

“That’s putting it mildly…” Doctor Nightingale grinned, coming into the room and sitting down.

“Well then, why don’t you tell me all about it?”

***

Sonic had slept hard that night on Myla’s couch, not realizing how much time had passed until Tails had come in to check on him. He spent the night dreaming of Chip, just as Myla had arranged; the two of them had ice cream in Apotos, visited the university in Spagonia, ran through the treetops of Mazuri… waking up was bittersweet, as that meant another goodbye to his friend.

“It was so good to see you again, Chip,” Sonic said sadly. “I wish it didn’t have to be like this…”

“I know,” Chip replied. “But you never know… maybe we will see each other again. But, until then?” He smiled as he began to fade away. “I’ll be here by you, always. A part of the earth you tread… goodbye, Sonic… tell Myla thank you for me…”

“Goodbye Chip.”

Now, having fully woken up, Sonic walked into the hospital, trying not to draw attention to the bag of food and drink carrier he was holding. He was hoping if he acted casually enough, no one would ask where he was going. Tails had told him what room Myla was in, and he made his way there quickly. When he arrived, Myla was sitting up in bed, her hands working away on something in her lap.

“There she is,” he said, grinning when she looked up at him and smiled.

“Hey there, handsome; did you have a good night?”

“I did, thank you.” He set the bag and drinks down on a table beside her bed before leaning down to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close.

“I missed you,” she said wholeheartedly.

“I wasn’t gone that long,” he teased. She grinned, kissing him again.

“I miss you whenever you’re gone.”

“I missed you too, sunflower.” He stood up and grabbed one of the cups he brought with him. “Coffee?”

“Oh, you do love me.” She took the cup and sipped it happily. “Oh this is good.”

“Tex Tubb’s does brunch on the weekends now,” he said with a grin, taking some food containers out of the bag. “I have no idea what most of it is, but I figured you’d be able to tell me.”

Myla made room for him on the bed next to her, careful not to unplug anything vital. He grinned, settling beside her with their breakfast. They sat together, eating blue cornmeal pancakes with ghost pepper maple syrup, huevos rancheros and drinking their coffee, chatting like they hadn’t just had the weirdest past few days in the history in past few days.

“So how did you get Angel Island in the air?” he asked through bites of pancake. “You just touched it and up it went.” Myla chuckled a little.

“I just asked,” she replied, rolling her eyes when Sonic started laughing. “I know, it sounds silly, but… in my head, I just asked the Master Emerald to raise the island again.”

“It does sound silly,” he admitted. “But honestly, it makes sense; the island came down because it was attracted to the Ruby’s power. Your power now. Why wouldn’t the Emerald respond to your request?”

“I suppose… I need to talk to Knuckles about it eventually.”

“Why?”

“I can feel it. The emerald I mean. I just know it’s safe? It’s really weird.” Sonic nodded.

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea… what’s this?” He carefully picked up her knitting. “Oh hey, they did get you some yarn! You’ve already started on something?”

“Oh yeah, I started on it last night.” She took the project from him and got back to work. “It’s almost done, just need to cast off.”

“Those are definitely words you said…” Myla rolled her eyes, finishing her work. Seconds later, she was wrapping a red and blue argyle scarf around his neck. “You made me a scarf!”

“I did!”

“Why? I love it, but it’s still summer…”

“Because you promised to take me traveling after my surgery, and I’ve never been to Holoska.” She sighed. “Doc said it’ll be a couple months before I’ve fully recovered, so… plenty of time to make you some mittens. Maybe even a hat. And something for me.” He smiled, kissing her cheek.

“Sounds perfect… oh, speaking of something for you…” He took her hand and slipped something on her wrist. She held her arm up and admired the bracelet; a silver band with a green gem.

“This looks like Chip’s necklace,” she said.

“It is,” Sonic agreed. “After we beat Dark Gaia, he left it for me. I stopped wearing it when the war started, I didn’t want to lose it… honestly, Eggman or Infinite would have taken it away if I’d had it on the Death Egg.” Myla put an arm around him, hugging him close, his head resting on her shoulder.  

“Why give it to me?” She asked. Sonic looked up at her, grinning a little.

“Isn’t it obvious? I want both my precious jewels together.” Myla laughed shaking her head.

“You’re ridiculous; you know that, right?”

“I know, sunflower; you love me anyway.”

“Of course I do…” She leaned forward, resting her forehead against his. “You’re my best friend.”

Chapter Text

Sonic strolled down the beach away from Tails’ workshop, watching the waves roll in. Myla and her friends were gone; they had gone back to their own universe a few days ago now. While he would miss them all, part of him hoped he never saw them again. They only ever met up when there was trouble, and he’d like trouble to stay away from Myla for a long time.

Myla. Strangely, he was going to miss her the most. He didn’t love her the way her Sonic did, and he hadn’t had the chance to bond with her the way some his friends did. Still, he would miss her smile, her laugh, that determination she wielded like a sword… it was nice having her around. A bit of extra sunlight in a world that could often seem so dark was never a bad thing.

Though to be honest, judging by the size of the explosion at Robotnik’s base, he didn’t expect to see them again.

As he continued down the beach, he heard someone playing music. He didn’t think anyone else lived on this beach; there was a building down the way from Tails’ workshop, it had been an aquatic research center in the past, but it had been abandoned for years. It was still in good shape though, maybe someone had moved in. Sonic sped up, heading towards the source of the music. He could see someone sitting on the beach in front of the research center, seated in a beach chair under an umbrella, a guitar in their hands. As Sonic got closer, he could see the person was a hedgehog; a girl with pale yellow fur.

No… it couldn’t be.

“I know I spend a lot of time with the boys,” he heard her start to sing as he skid to a stop a few yards away. “But girl you know I need to have you near. Deep inside of me I feel you fill the void. You are my atmosphere. You make it hard, so hard to breathe without you. Even when I’m not thinking about you. You make it hard, so hard to breathe without you. You gave me life on the first day I found you.”

The girl happened to look over at Sonic at this point, allowing him to see her violet eyes. She set her guitar down and got to her feet; she was a little shorter than he was, with sunflowers in her blonde hair, which was pulled up into short pigtails.

“Hi!” her unfamiliarly familiar voice called to him, waving enthusiastically. “You live around here?” He nodded. “You can come closer, I don’t bite!”

“Hey,” he replied as he walked over to her, still not sure he wasn’t dreaming. “I’m Sonic; I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before?”

“No, Grandpa and I just started moving in yesterday.” She held out her fist, grinning. “I’m Myla, nice to meet you!” He bumped her fist with his own as he smiled back.

“Nice to meet you too. I’ve got some other friends around here if you want to meet them?” Her eyes lit up, her smile widening.

“That sounds great! I gotta go tell Grandpa though, he’ll worry if I just run off. Come on, I’ll introduce you to him!” She grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the research center. “Grandpa was worried I wasn’t going to make friends here,” Myla said. “He’ll be glad to see he was wrong.” Sonic grinned back at her.

“Yeah… I’m glad too.”