Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A war so long fought, it was really hard to tell how long it's been. 

Sonic was captured when no one was around, thanks to Infinite's sickening illusions of Zavok, Metal Sonic, Chaos, and Shadow. 

Amy took charge of the resistance as the war began to save the world. Eggman continued his conquest and took down every single aspect of the world.

The team worked together to gather the Chaos Emeralds, fight back Infinite's illusions, restore the world out of the Eggman Empire's control, and finally put an end to this mess. 

Eventually, they got Sonic back thanks to the Rookie's help, who they've learnt is named Gadget. 

Sonic and Gadget escaped Null Space together by defeating Infinite, while everyone else evacuated. So, with the ARK now unfortunately gone from their original plan, everyone returned back to Earth. 

And now... They were so close to finishing this war. All the resistance had to do, through it all, was stop Infinite from using the Phantom Ruby one last time. 

He survived his encounter with Sonic and Gadget, he returned to Eggman's side with one last plan:

To shatter Chaos Energy completely.

Sonic and the rest of the resistance rushed to the scene, to see Infinite and Eggman at the battlefield once more.

"Now, Infinite. Took care of those- ARGH! Come on! You failed me again!" Eggman barked, yelling at Infinite.

"I have one last trick up my sleeve, don't worry Doctor." Infinite calmly said, holding onto the Phantom Ruby in his chest.

Gadget signed to everyone, directing their attention to Infinite and what he was about to do. 

"Sonic. Take the emeralds. We need your help." Amy said, taking the collected emeralds from each team and handing them over to Sonic.

"Thanks. I'll be sure to settle the score, once and for all!" Sonic said, directing his attention back to Infinite.

"Ah, that is not necessary. In fact, throw those emeralds away. They are no longer important." Infinite said.

"What do you mean?"

"Why don't I show you all?" Infinite smirked.

He lifted the chaos emeralds out of Sonic's grasp and up to him. The Phantom Ruby began to glow with an unstable form of power before the blue skies became dyed with a warm magenta. A crack in the fabric of reality itself began to form, bringing about a shockwave of power.

The wave threw the entire resistance back as Infinite struggled to maintain it, seeing as his own body was glowing and lighting up with cracks. He kept his focus, tearing open the rift more and more. 

The chaos emeralds shook in the air, growing dull before they shattered, turned to dust, and the dust itself ceased to exist. 

"NO!" Sonic and many others cried out as the emeralds ceased to exist.

A ripple in reality shook the entire battlefield, throwing everyone off balance as Angel Island was heard crashing into the water. The Master Emerald was now gone, too. 

Infinite kept trying to maintain the rift, but his form was growing more unstable. If he continued, he'd die! 

Well... At least Eggman can honor him for his sacrifice, he supposed.

Infinite saw his own body begin to break apart, as he kept trying to hold the rift open. The Phantom Ruby cracked, it's energy vibrating into instability before... 

It shattered. And Infinite ceased to exist.

The entire battlefield fell into silence, as the clouds cleared and the rift was fully sealed back up.

Not only did Chaos Energy cease, but so did Infinite and the Phantom Ruby itself. 

The entire thing was just too powerful for Infinite to handle... And he died in the process.

Shadow silently clicked at his air shoes, nothing activating them. Tails tried to fly, but he just couldn't get himself off the ground. Silver tried his psychokinesis, Amy attempted to summon her hammer, and Sonic tried to go fast. 

Nothing happened. Their powers were gone.

Eggman was tempted to laugh, but coughed. "Blast it all! I needed those emeralds for my machines! Now what?"

"I don't know! Figure it out yourself, Eggface! Because we're still gonna stop you!" Sonic declared.

"Oh, I'd like to see you try, rodent!" Eggman flew away before Sonic could properly attack.

"Argh! Now what do we do?!"

"I... Don't know. Our powers are gone, chaos energy is now gone... We're at a standstill." Tails said.

"Then we... Oh, I don't know! We need to think of something! Anything that could help us!" Sonic pleaded.

"Well... We could try to figure out something. Um... How does everyone feel?"

"I feel fine." Shadow commented.

"I can't summon my hammer anymore." Amy said.

"I can't lift things like I usually can." Silver said.

"And I... Feel... Dizzy..." Sonic felt his voice slur as he wobbled. Tails immediately caught him.

"Sonic! Are you...?" Tails began, concerned for his brother. 

"I'm... Fine." Sonic exhaled shakily, trying to get himself to stand up.

"But you were just..."

"Just what?"

"Your eyes... They turned cyan!"

"They did?" Sonic asked, confused. He didn't realize that happened until Tails pointed it out to him.

"Yes! Somehow, I think magic is returning. But... Considering everyone, it's probably not going to be the same type of magic." Tails began.

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked.

"What I mean is... If we're somehow getting new magic, then something is definitely going to change."

"Like what?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know, exactly! Does anyone else feel different? Can they try something to show their powers?" Tails asked.

"Um... Maybe?" Sonic tried to run to the nearest cliff and back, only to realize his speed still hadn't returned.

"Ah, so it's starting. Perhaps, this form of magic has its own power too. All we gotta do is find the power source!"

"Well, it's worth a shot. C'mon!" Sonic ran ahead of everyone else.

"Wait! We need a plan!" Amy pointed out. Sonic screeched to a halt, turning back to them.

"Okay, shoot."

"What would these new relics look like? How do their powers gravitate towards one another?"

Suddenly, a beacon of light shot off in the distance. 

Sonic smirked. "There's your answer."

"Resistance! Come with! Let's finish this war... Once and for all!" Amy said.

The entire resistance ran through the broken down cities, with some looking around at the sights. 

"Woah... I mean, I've barely been in these cities ever since I was captured but this is..." Sonic paused, speechless at the amount of destruction Eggman had caused.

"Yeah... We're fighting to save this world. So let's keep going, and stop Eggman for good!" Amy commanded.

"Right. Let's do this." Sonic was about to go on ahead before an army of badniks began to come down the roads.

He backed up, the rest of the resistance standing their guard. 

"So... Wanna take a swing at this?" Sonic smirked.

"It would be my pleasure." Amy tore off a lamp post.

"You all go! We'll hold them here!" Vector said.

"Yeah! Let's do this!" Charmy cheered.

"Okay. Vector, Espio, and Charmy will deal with the badniks. Squad six, stay behind as well." Amy ordered.

"Roger that." Espio said.

Amy nodded as the small team began to pummel through the badniks, letting them get through the city. Gadget directed them to a clearing to the open fields.

"Thank you, Gadget." Amy thanked.

Gadget gave a quick thumbs up before leaping down from the building. 

Everyone made their way to the grassy field, the sky still filled with smoke and ash. 

"At this rate, we'll never stop Eggman!" Knuckles said.

"Then we keep fighting on! The resistance never quits!" Amy said.

"Yeah! Let's do this!" Sonic ran ahead, only to stumble directly into a web of vines in the jungle.

"Ow..."

"Sonic! Are you okay?" Amy asked, rushing to his aid. She quickly tore through the vines using the broken metal of the sign.

"Y-Yeah... Thank you." Sonic thanked as Amy helped him up. He brushed off the rest of the vines.

"Now, we just gotta find where the beam came from." he turned to the forest.

"Yeah. As long as we're not slowed down... We'll be fine." Tails said.

"Um... Tails?"

"Yeah?"

"You're flying again."

Tails stopped, realizing he was floating off the ground.

"Oh! I'm flying?! I'm flying! Yes!" he cheered.

"It seems that as we're getting closer to the new power source, our powers are returning." Amy pointed out.

"Yeah! I feel... Okay, I still feel slow." Sonic said.

"Um... Then how are Tails' powers returning?" she questioned.

"No idea. But we should hurry." Tails said.

"You're right. Resistance, let's go."

The resistance made their way through the broken down and dark forest, trying to not get into any traps. Right now, they certainly didn't need them.

Just then, the sound of snapping rang through the forest as many soldiers shrieked from falling into pits or getting swept up in nets. 

"Argh! Stupid nets won't break!" Knuckles grunted, trying to get out of the net.

"Knuckles! You okay?" Sonic ran over.

"We'll be fine! Just go! You need those things, whatever they are, more than us! You have to save the world!" he urged.

Sonic nodded, turning back as Amy directed the remaining resistance forward. They were already losing members, and they weren't even halfway there.

Eventually, they reached a clearing to a massive lake, which was surrounded by broken down metal pipes, meaning that the only way through was over the water.

Tails looked over it, then back at Sonic. 

"We need a bridge, or only two of us can go over. I can fly, and I can carry everyone over." Tails said.

"But Tails! You'll get exhausted!" Amy said.

"We're doing a bridge." Shadow said.

"But-"

"That's an order. We either make a bridge or else Tails carries Sonic over. There's no way he'll be able to fly back and forth and carry all of us over the water."

"Or... Ya'll can swim?" Sonic piped up.

Everyone just stared at him blankly, like he just said something wrong.

"... What?"

"Look, what if something is in the water? It could trap us, drag us down, anything like that." Amy pointed out.

"Oh. Um... Oops?"

"It's fine. We need to make the bridge." Amy directed.

"Everyone! Cut down the trees! We need all the wood we can get!"

"But the would could break, we'd be-"

"We need to work together, Sonic! Unless you'd suggest another bright idea!" Amy said.

"Fly over?"

"Sonic!"

"What? It avoids getting stuck in the water."

"We need to stick together."

"Or we'll just get past this place! Eggman could've reached whatever is over there!" Sonic urged.

Amy stopped, silently signaling everyone to work on the bridge. 

"Fine. Tails, help carry Sonic over. You two reach the beam's location. Once you do, return to us. Deal with Eggman if he arrives." she ordered.

"Got it!" Tails swiftly picked up Sonic, flying over the water.

Just then, a kelp vine wrapped around Sonic's leg, yanking him out of Tails' grip and into the water.

"Sonic!" Tails yelped, flying back down into the water.

Tails reached down to grab Sonic, as the blue hedgehog desperately reached his little brother. They needed to survive, they needed to... 

Tails felt his twin tails get bunched together by the kelp, getting yanked down as well as the kelp tightened it's grip at his ankles.

Sonic was quickly losing consciousness as the vines wrapped themselves all over his body. 

He was drowning... 

... 

... 

.. 

. 

. 

. 

. 

.

. 

.. 

... 

... 

... Sonic gasped, breaking the surface as Tails coughed up the remaining water in his lungs.

"Ow... Definitely not going back underwater." Tails wheezed.

"No! Definitely not!" Sonic quickly said, backing up from the edge of the lake.

"So... We're the only ones able to get across." Tails mumbled. The rest of the resistance stopped building the bridge the moment the kelp snagged Sonic and dragged him underwater.

Guess Amy was right after all... There was a threat in the water. 

"C'mon! We gotta go!" Tails urged.

"We can't just leave them behind!" Sonic protested.

"Look, if we don't go Eggman could reach whatever is there! We need to get there first. They'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Now c'mon!" Tails ran off.

Sonic quickly followed, stumbling a little to his feet. They pushed through the foliage, making sure to avoid any more traps. They needed to reach the location before anyone else.

Suddenly, the cliffside ended as Sonic toppled down to the ground below, his fur and quills riddled with dust and dirt as he groggily got back up. 

"Sonic! You okay?" Tails called out from above.

Sonic gave a weak smile, showing his little bro a thumbs up. He got up, gripping the side of his arm before noticing a faint glimmer in the dirt ahead. 

Cautiously, he walked up to it. He wasn't sure what this entire thing was about, but it could be their key to stopping the Eggman Empire. 

Sonic carefully knelt down and began to push the dirt away. The glimmer grew brighter, as crystals were revealed. They all looked... Different. They were elongated hexagons, each in variating colors.

Red... Magenta... Blue... Green... Yellow...

Sonic noticed a point. Not thinking much, he began to dig the last crystal out. It presented itself as a magenta hexagonal star. He held it up, feeling it's radiating energy. 

Just like the chaos emeralds... 

What kind of magic even was this?

Sonic held up the crystals, hearing the rocks tumbling behind him as Tails slid down the cliffside. He headed over to the blue hedgehog, gazing at the odd crystals. 

"What are these?" Sonic asked.

"I... Don't know." Tails said after a moment.

"Well, whatever they are... They might just be our key to saving the world."

Chapter Text

Sonic and Tails carried the new crystals with them back to the resistance, who were waiting at the other end of the lake. 

"Amy, come in. We got the crystals." Tails said through his communicator.

"I hear you loud and clear. Head back to Resistance HQ. We'll discuss further details there."

"Right. Let's go." Tails picked up Sonic, flying higher than before as the kelp vines began to rise up. He quickly threw Sonic over the rest of the distance, with him landing swiftly once after.

"So... What do they look like?" Amy asked.

Sonic pulled out the crystals from behind his quills. Amy paused, staring at them in shock.

"These are... What do they do, exactly?"

"We don't know. We're hoping to find out back at Restoration HQ." Tails said.

"Yeah, but maybe... If one of us holds these crystals like the chaos emeralds, perhaps they could help us reunlock our powers?" Sonic said.

"Perhaps..." Shadow reached out to the green crystal. Sonic handed it over to him.

Shadow watched it closely, hoping for at least a pulse of power through it. 

... Nothing happened. 

Shadow sighed, handing it back to Sonic. "It's not responding to us."

"Not yet it is! We just gotta find out what these things can do!" Sonic said.

"Yeah, so let's head back. We're going to make sure Eggman is taken down for good!" Amy said.

"But first... We gotta rescue the rest of the resistance who were left behind in the traps."

"Right, let's go." Sonic headed forward.

The group began to head back through the forest, breaking out everyone in traps. They all left the woods, with Sonic keeping hold of the strange crystals in his possession.

"So... What are the crystals?" Knuckles asked once the left the woods.

Sonic dug out the relics from his quills, holding them out to Knuckles. Knuckles picked up the star shaped one, holding it closely to him.

"It appears to be... A representation of a quality. The core quality these relics latch onto will of others who fit their qualities." he said.

"Wow. Who made you then gem expert?" Sonic asked.

"Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart... The controllers are-"

"Right, right. Guardian of the Master Emerald."

"These crystals are indeed powerful. However, they must be wielded as a united force. They can be given to one user, but they won't be as powerful as six in one."

"Ah, so... Team magic?"

"Yes."

"Okay... Good to know." Sonic watched the crystals closely, unsure about their meanings individually.

"What do they represent?" Tails asked.

Knuckles paused, picking up each crystal version and holding them close individually. He picked up red. 

"Loyalty."

He picked up yellow.

"Strength."

He picked up green.

"Justice."

He picked up blue.

"Intelligence."

He picked up magenta. 

"Compassion."

He picked up the pink star.

"Forgiveness. Or the core middle; Magic."

"Magic?" Sonic tilted his head. He took the crystals back from Knuckles.

"Well... At least we know what these can do. Now just to activate them... Somehow." he paused, staring at the crystals.

Amy sighed. "Come on. Back to Resistance HQ before that base gets compromised. We'll test some things later."

"Right."

The resistance made their way through the broken down city and met up with those who stayed behind. They all grouped back up and returned to base.

Sonic placed all of the crystals down on the table as Amy typed up log notes. 

"Alright... Let's see where this goes." she looked over them for a moment, unsure on what to do for the start.

"Is anyone feeling anything?" Tails asked.

"Um... No?" Sonic didn't see a difference.

"Sonic. You're eyes are glowing cyan again."

"They are?" he asked.

A pair of luminescent wings, translucent and phasing through his back quills, were formed. The people around the scene were in awe as the wings illuminated the room. 

"Woah... Are these...?" Sonic pulled the wing close to him, feeling it's energy bounce between his fingers like tiny little dancers.

"Fascinating. It seems that these crystals are allowing us to tap into a new form of power. Something... Unusual." Tails said.

"And I got wings?"

"Yep."

"Cool! I'm gonna fly!" Sonic took off into the air, only to careen back down and crash into some empty crates.

Tails winced. "Yeah... You need to learn how to use those."

"Ow... Right, heh. My bad." Sonic got up, the wings fading out on his back.

"No no no! Where did they go?!"

"Instead of folding, they fade when not in use. They must've anticipated your curiousity and activated on their own."

"Really? Heck yeah! I'm gonna try to fly outside! Back in a flash!" Sonic began to run outside.

"Aw, dangit... No super speed..." He commented, which was faded out as he left the base.

"We... Need to get used to that." Amy sighed, turning her attention back to the crystals. She held up the magenta one curiously.

"So... Being near them seems to return a power to us. Whatever power it is, we don't know."

"We'll have to work off whatever it is from there." Shadow said.

"Yeah, I just hope I can go back to the future when my powers do come back." Silver said.

"Can't you do that normally?" Amy asked.

"Uh... No? It's part of my power set. When chaos energy disappeared, that ability went with it."

"Oh."

Amy felt an energy build inside of her as she held up the magenta stone. Her eyes were glowing a bright pink before a sudden flash created a translucent luminous hammer, one similar to her original hammer. 

She paused, staring at it in awe before positioning it down, immediately realizing how much weight it had and that it was a fully physical force, but was also able to be looked through. 

She fidgeted her finger, the hammer suddenly changing to a bow. She then made it transform into a sword, a gun, and a scythe before it dissipated. 

"Huh... Able to summon weaponry using stored energy." Tails said.

"So I can create weapons on the fly?" Amy asked.

"As long as it's not restrained, yes."

"Sweet!"

"Lucky..." Shadow mumbled.

"Aw, cheer up Shadow! I'm sure we'll get something cool!" Silver said.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Maybe... We just gotta give it a shot!" Silver picked up the green and red crystals. He tossed the red one to Shadow, who caught it.

"Amy was holding hers when her powers reactivated. Maybe we're the same?"

"It's... Worth a try." Shadow looked at the red crystal in his hands.

For a moment, he felt his body tingling all over. He felt his head beginning to ring with an influx of power before his eyes began to glow red. 

A energy construct of his hand was formed, letting him hold onto the crystal through its figmentation. 

"Woah!" Tails lightly touched the hand, feeling it's power.

"This is solid! Silver, what do you have?"

"I have..." Silver tried to keep focusing, but nothing was working.

"Hm... Lemme see..." Knuckles picked up the yellow crystal, holding it up in front of him.

Silver stopped, staring at Knuckles and waiting for a power to trigger. When nothing was happening, Knuckles grew noticeably frustrated.

"Gah! Why isn't this working?!" he acted like he was punching the ground, only for a massive shock wave of electricity to send the entire base into a short earthquake.

Everyone was knocked off their feet as Knuckles held onto the table. Once it was over, he immediately put the yellow crystal back on the table.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to activate my... New... Powers like that..." He stared at his hands. He then left the base.

Silver watched, then turned back to the crystal in his hand. 

"Maybe... This is the wrong one." he said to himself, picking up the blue one instead.

He focused, with nothing happening. He tried red, with no results. Then yellow, and the same results were yielded. Then he tried magenta, without a single spark igniting.

He sighed, looking at the pink star just begging to be picked up. He held it up, trying to see what it would do... 

Nothing happened.

Silver sighed, putting it down and taking the green shard again.

"I don't get it! Why isn't this working? I'm doing everything everyone else did. Waiting, focusing... Its not enough! Why is it never enough?! I thought that at least one of these would communicate for me, but I guess not."

"Silver..." Amy tried to say.

"And then when everyone else gets it, I somehow don't despite doing the exact same thing! Like, why is this an issue? Am I not a potential bearer? Does it need to find a reason? I've been trying to save my future every single time, and I don't wanna risk the time paradox acting up because if I stay here for too long I'm gonna get erased out of existence!"

"Silver...!"

"And that's not all, because clearly no one would understand it because I'm the only time traveler here! I'm the odd one out, I'm the anomaly, I'm not supposed to exist because I'm always a time paradox! But should anyone care? No! Because I'm doing a service to the world by coming back in time and fixing it!"

"Silver!"

"Does anyone take my work for granted? I hope not, because it's such a difficult task because you don't wanna break the timeline! Are people even aware of how dangerous the time paradox is, because if something breaks the entire universe falls apart!"

"SILVER!"

"What?!" Silver stopped, immediately seeing what he was doing.

Vines had grown from the ground, wrapping up his friends in the room along with the crystals as he was busy rambling. He had Chlorokinesis. 

Silver stared wide-eyed at what he just did, trying to figure out a way to cut the vines down.

Tails spun his tails around, fireballs coming through on command as they burnt down portions of the vines, cutting everyone free and bringing them back to the ground. 

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, Silver. But at least we know what we got." Amy said.

There was a moment of silence, as the group looked over at the crystals on the table. Sonic and Knuckles finally headed back inside.

Everyone surrounded the table, staring at the gems laid out for them. 

"So... What should we call these?" Sonic asked.

"Hm... The Gems of Unity?" Tails proposed.

"Huh, not bad."

"Crystals of Friendship?" Amy said.

"That's... Too corny." Shadow commented.

"Yeah, heh."

"The... Shards of Hope?" Silver offered.

"Nah, that feels too vague." Knuckles said.

"Affinity stones!" Amy said.

"Paragon of Amity?" Sonic offered.

"Rocks of Alliance?" Knuckles said.

Everyone looked at him. 

"... Yeah, not the best name." he winced.

"Sparklers of Fondness!" Amy said.

"Crystal hearts!" Tails said.

"They aren't even hearts." Shadow commented.

"I know that."

"I got it!" Knuckles finally had an idea. Everyone looked at him in anticipation.

"The Elements of Harmony."