Chapter Text
The day that Sonic the Hedgehog's life went completely off the rails had started out simply enough.
Eggman attack: check. Not an everyday thing, that would be samey, but they'd done this song and dance enough times that he was barely paying attention to the steps.
…in hindsight, that was mistake number one.
New magic rock: check. After the Chaos Emeralds, Time Stones, Master Emerald, Phantom Ruby, Precioustone, Sol Emeralds… Sonic might have forgotten one or two, but the point was still that they seemed to find a new kind of these things every second adventure. It wasn't a big deal.
Thinking that: mistake number two.
Everyone had been smashing up badniks in a small cave where the "Paradox Prism" was. It had seemed, for once, that they might be able to cut Eggman off before he got his evil plan really going. Only, the badniks had been keeping everyone occupied, and Sonic had seen Eggman pulling the prism out of the ground in his new mech.
So, he'd done the first thing to pop into his head, and spin-dashed the prism.
He'd barely even heard his friends screaming "Sonic, no!"
The Paradox Prism shattered –
And then, just as suddenly, the shards of the Prism halted in their explosion. Each of them was glowing with a bright cyan aura.
Thrown back by the force of the explosion, Sonic crashed into the ground and skidded several meters. With a groan, he pulled himself upright and shook his head. "Uh… did we win?"
"…seriously?" A nearby familiar voice chocked out, voice straining with effort. "Look around. Does this look like victory to you?!"
Sonic glanced over. Silver the Hedgehog, the visitor from the future who dropped back into the present from time to time (heh), was floating in the air next to him, glowing bright cyan with psychokinetic force.
"Look at whaaaaaaa oh man." Sonic trailed off, looking around himself properly. The cave had been dark, but it hadn't been black like it now was. Knuckles, Amy, Tails, Rouge and even Eggman were frozen, floating in midair, but something was wrong. Each of them had several after-images of different colours – red, green, yellow, blue – floating behind them, like…
Like light filtered through a prism.
Like the fragments of the Paradox Prism that were currently the only other thing visible in the darkness, held in place by Silver's psychic powers.
Sonic winced. "Uh, hey, Silver… what's going on?"
"Exactly what I knew would happen. What I was trying to warn you about." Growled another familiar voice, and Sonic flinched. Great, on top of everything else, he had to get an earful from –
Shadow the Hedgehog strode into the lit area, his body alternating between transparency and opacity for a moment before he growled, formed a fist, and seemed to rip the transparency right out of his body in a flashy discharge of Chaos Energy.
"Gack… hey, Shadow…" Silver said, his face screwed up in concentration. "I've got my hands full here, so you'll have to be the one to punch Sonic."
"Understood." Shadow growled, cracking his knuckles.
"Uh, hey guys, let's not be hasty here –!"
Thwack! Sonic rocked backwards as Shadow clocked him right in the jaw. With a yelp of pain, Sonic fell over backwards. Rubbing his cheek, Sonic looked up in annoyance at Shadow, who grabbed him by his chest-fur and pulled him upright.
"Do you have the slightest idea what you've done?!" Shadow growled, so close Sonic could smell what he had for breakfast.
Sonic's eyes looked between Shadow and Silver, flicking back and forth rapidly. "Uh… no?"
"Useless!" Shadow shoved Sonic away with a huff. He stared at the scattered pieces of prism for a moment, then turned to address Silver. "Can you fix it?"
"Fix it?" Silver replied, sweat starting to roll down his facial fur. "Shadow, it's mid-explosion! It's taking everything I have just to – agh – hold it still like this! If I let go, our timeline is going to shatter! It's already started!"
"Ugh…" Sonic looked between the other two hedgehogs again. "And that would be bad, right?"
"Yes." Both growled, clearly very angry with him right now.
"Heh heh… eh…" Sonic backed up, hands held up in apology. "… my bad?"
"…Shadow, punch him again."
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, alright! I shouldn't have broken the magic rock!" Sonic zipped back out of swinging range of Shadow's fists. "Look, all we gotta do is put it back together, right? Knuckles does this with the Master Emerald all the time!"
"Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, he's the only one who can do that!" Silver rejected. "This isn't something you can fix with glue, Sonic! This is the Paradox Prism! Surely you've heard about it before?!"
"…" Sonic had in fact never heard of this thing before Rouge brought it up earlier. He glanced up at Knuckles and Rouge – yep, still frozen in place. No help would be coming from there.
Shadow grunted. "I have a Chaos Emerald, for whatever that's worth."
"E-eh…" Silver seemed to consider the answer, but his voice was still strained. "It's not just a matter of power, n-not like the Time Eater – I'm starting to think it c-can't be fixed until it finishes breaking."
Shadow scowled. "So, there was no point to you grabbing it, then?"
"I was trying to stop Sonic from breaking it in the first place, but I – gah – guess he just had to be faster than I thought at the worst possible time…!" Silver's arms were starting to shake. "I won't be able to hold it much longer…!"
"Nothing for it, then." Shadow pulled out the Chaos Emerald. "I'll just have to take it back to before Sonic broke it."
"You're going to try and manipulate the time of the Paradox Prism?!" Silver cried in disbelief, before deflating slightly. "Sure. Why not. Not like I have any better ideas…"
"Um, should I be doing something…?" Sonic ventured, before flinching at the fury in Shadow's retaliatory glare.
"Don't move." He ordered. "Don't touch anything – and maybe we can fix your disaster!"
Sonic wilted. "Yes, mom…" He replied sarcastically, but made no attempt to move.
Shadow let go of the Chaos Emerald, letting it float in the air before him. He grabbed the hands of Sonic and Silver, closing his eyes in concentration. "Chaos –"
Zonic the Zone Cop fell backwards out of his chair, startled out of his nap by the sound of every alarm on his desk going off at once –
Paulie took off his flight jacket and draped it over a chair… then had a double-take, as he realised that the Sonic the Hedgehog logo on the back had changed such that Sonic was frowning –
Deep in the engine room of the Blue Typhoon, Knuckles's prayers to the Master Emerald were interrupted as Tikal manifested as an orb of light, fear choking her frantic words –
The metal frame of the Omni-Viewer halted in space, the digital face within suddenly focusing on something only it could see –
Sticks the Badger suddenly sat upright in bed, her eyes wide with panic as they locked onto yours –
Their medallions glowing brightly, Sonia and Manic both turned to ask Sonic what was wrong –
Imperator Ix gazed out at the starry expanse of the Twilight Cage, then out of nowhere started laughing –
Agents Grey and Orange desperately pleaded their case before the Science Council, warning the Organisers that the protections of the Fourth Dimension were straining –
The Keeper of the Time Stones grumbled to himself, wishing he still had his charges –
The Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad continued to argue with each other, blissfully unaware of what was coming –
As three children played baseball under the watchful eyes of Tom and Maddie, the Miles Electric started beeping out an alarm –
Gold the Tenrec gave a start as the Genesis Portal she had been examining suddenly turned bright red, Professor Von Schlemmer crying out in dismay –
Sara looked puzzled as she stared at the Warp Zone leading out of the North Pole, turning to Sonic and Knuckles to ask if it was supposed to ripple like that –
Forgotten on a side table, two storybooks began to glow with otherworldly magic –
"– Control!"
The fragments of the Paradox Prism vibrated in place. Silver dropped his psychokinetic hold, falling to the ground in exhaustion. Slowly, but with increasing speed, the shards started to move back together.
"Woo! Go Shadow, you brooding edgelord! You're actually doing it!" Sonic cheered.
"Quiet!" Shadow snapped, still concentrating.
Light was coming back to the cave. The coloured after-images behind the others were fading away, though for now they were still locked in place. Shadow smirked with satisfaction as the Prism's fragments fully reassembled themselves.
Then Shadow's grin suddenly turned to a frown.
Something was wrong.
The light that was banished from the cave continued to increase and increase, now as bright as a sunny afternoon outside, and still increasing.
"Uh, Shadow?" Silver's tired voice asked. "You can stop now."
"I'm trying." Shadow spat. "It's… something else is…!"
Sonic looked around. It might have been a trick of the increasing light, but he thought he could see more after-images of his friends – only, they seemed to be moving towards his friends, rather than out from them as they had been before.
In addition, some of them didn't even look that much like his friends. That Amy had a Mohawk. That Knuckles was taller, and way buffer.
Then he looked down, and saw that he had after-images too – Shadow and Silver, too.
"Uh, guys…?" Sonic asked, his mouth suddenly dry.
Silver reached out a hand, a cyan aura spluttering around it. "Gah… it's like when it was breaking. It doesn't want to stop part-way…!"
The cave walls, briefly visible as the light returned, were now washed out by the bright light as it started to become painful to look at.
"Guys, look!" Sonic pointed.
More chunks of crystal – the same size and rainbow colouration as the original Prism – were drifting in from beyond the bright light. Based on where they were and where they were moving, it seemed that they would join together with the original to form one absolutely massive crystal.
"No way…!" Silver breathed.
"Are you telling me this isn't the first time it's been broken?!" Shadow growled. "No! I refuse to be overwritten by some other me! Chaos – gah!"
One of the afterimages had touched Shadow's foot.
No! Black Death is dead! The Black Arms are gone! Why am I seeing –!
Shadow flinched, the foreign memory of his own voice breaking his concentration.
He joined Silver in collapsing to the floor, their heads clutched in their hands, as the light grew to blinding intensities.
"N-no…" Silver cried, shaking his head. "I can hear other mes… but why can I hear silence as well…?"
A loud click noise echoed throughout the cave – assuming it was even still there – as the other fragments of the Paradox Prism joined back together.
For one, painful instant, there was no sound at all.
Then the explosion – the one the Silver had halted on arrival – finally had its chance to finish. The shockwave blasted the two of them backwards, through where the wall of the cave should have been, out into the bright light…
Shadow recovered before Silver. Perks of being the Ultimate Lifeform.
"Gaaaahhh…" He growled as he pulled himself to his feet. With a fur coat, it was difficult to tell if he was going to bruise or not – unlike a human or Overlander, he couldn't easily check his skin for discolouration.
Shadow paused. That word – Overlander – had flickered out of his consciousness just as suddenly as it had flickered in.
He looked down at himself. He looked normal enough – no, there! He could see the moment his form flickered and wavered, reality disagreeing with itself about what form he should take. It was just like when he had been caught up in Sonic's breaking of the Paradox Prism, only he hadn't been mid-teleport this time.
A groan to his right drew his attention to Silver, laying sprawled out on the ground. As he watched the other hedgehog pull himself to his feet, he could see Silver's outline also waver, fading in and out.
For a moment, Silver turned almost completely transparent, nearly disappearing altogether, before snapping back into opacity.
Narrowing his eyes, Shadow looked around. They were still in Green Hills Zone, so there was at least that much –
For an instant, the landscape flickered, the checker patterned grass and natural loop-de-loops replaced with a suburban town, before flickering back.
Shadow growled, casting his gaze around for Sonic. He owed that idiot more blows to the head…!
Seeing a blue hedgehog sprawled in the dirt nearby, Shadow grabbed him by the back of his neck and hauled him up with one hand, the other curled into a fist. "Look at what you've done!" He roared. "Look at what…" He trailed off. "You're not Sonic."
He had the right colouration and general build, but this hedgehog had a rounder face, a tuft of fur above his eyebrows, and a pair of thick black-rimmed glasses perched over his nose.
"N-no, sir!" This new hedgehog squeaked, looking about ready to wet himself – fearful tears were streaming down his face. "M-my name's Nicky – I-I've never met Sonic, no s-sir!"