Chapter 24

After spending a couple hours resting off the headache, Espio was back in the central room of Eggman's base. The Doctor told Espio that he was able to convince some people to help him when he traveled to the future, but did not say who which made Espio suspicious at his obscure details. The Doctor also did not tell him how exactly they would be sent to the future, only raising his tentative feelings.

"Ah, there they are." Eggman said, standing up from his chair after typing away at his computer for what he claimed was 'a way to solve the problem with Sonic'.

Espio looked around, leaning against the wall at the entrance. Instead of seeing figures walk to down the incline, he heard the sound of Extreme Gears in the air.

Oh, you can't be serious. Espio thought as soon as he realized who Eggman sent for help.

The Babylons slowed down to the ground when they reached the entrance of the base. The hawk was leading the way, with Wave and Storm behind him.

"Just so you know," Jet said to Espio, getting off his board and pointing at him. "This doesn't mean we're friends chameleon."

"Same to you." Espio remarked under his breath.

Eggman clapped his hands together. "I'm glad you three could come here. Because, as I told you, everyone is in hot water here."

Espio couldn't help but scoff a little. "That's a way to put it lightly."

"And don't forget that the only reason that we're here is that we've made negotiations." Jet said, knowing that it would annoy the Doctor even more.

"I know, I know. I don't want to be in this situation as much as any of you want to, but this is a problem that needs to be fixed. Black Doom has Shadow under his control, he was able to control Silver was a mind control gas, and he undoubtedly will get a hold of Sonic soon enough."

Jet rose an eyebrow, "How is this Black Doom guy able to get a hold of Shadow and Sonic? Is he using that mind control stuff or...?"

"No." Espio pushed himself from the wall and straightened up. "They both have some of Black Doom's blood in their veins, and so he can control them if he desires. He already has Shadow, and he will take Sonic if we don't hurry."

"Wait," Jet said again, his voice softer than Espio thought was possible for him. "Sonic's related to these Black Arms creatures?"

A moment passed by before Espio spoke up once again, confused at his questions, "Yes, you were there when we found out. You don't remember that?"

Wave stepped up and spoke in place of Jet, "That stupid commander erased our memories from when we were on the ARK. He claimed that us knowing the information would have been too dangerous or something like that."

Espio studied the girl for a moment before telling them what was on the file. No point in hiding the information that felt like common knowledge at this point. "Yes, he was one of the prototypes for the Ultimate Lifeform. But something went wrong with him, so Shadow ended up being the final product."

"And we need to repress Sonic's power before Black Doom takes advantage of it and destroys the future. Not just for the world, but since Sonic has never possessed that kind of power, the intensity of it could...". Eggman didn't need to finish, and Espio would be lying to himself if he thought he didn't sense genuine concern for his arch-nemesis in not saying 'death'.

Eggman shook his head and walked outside of the base, turning to a bush a few meters away from the entrance. He bent down and brushed aside the grass to see a...small compartment that was about the size of a breadbox.

"Wait..." Espio trailed off, as Eggman typed something on a tiny screen. The box opened to reveal the light blue and gray glows of Chaos Emeralds.

"I had a feeling that Black Doom would end up betraying me once he came to Earth. So I hid these Emeralds in this box where they could not be tracked or felt, in case something like this happened." He handed the box to Espio, who examined the two Emeralds that he and Silver got.

"What will you do while we're gone?" Espio asked, setting the box on the ground and picking up the gray Emerald, Jet grabbing the other one.

"I'll be working on a serum to 'turn-off' the Black Arms gene in Sonic. Hopefully by the time you come back, Sonic will at least be calm enough to let me inject it in. He has been losing more control of himself as that gene becomes dominant.

"Now, go before it's too late," Eggman said, walking back into his base and heading through a door past the left side of his computer, most likely to a lab to start work on the serum.

An awkward silence passed between Espio and the Babylons, thanks to their past encounters. Espio held out his Chaos Emerald, ready to yell Chaos Control and create a portal.

Jet rolled his eyes, before holding his own out next to the gray one. They made eye contact and then they both screamed out "CHAOS CONTROL!!!", with the thought of the future in their minds.

A few moments later, they both stepped back as a portal opened up, a lavender and light yellow spiral of time and space.

"We better go." Wave said, jumping into the portal. Storm followed her shortly after, calling for her to wait for him even though she wouldn't be able to hear him.

Espio and Jet grimaced at each other for a moment, before Jet sighed and went into the portal with Espio jumping in a second later.

---

Sonic woke up greeted by a dark-purple ceiling. After the fog in his brain passed by, he realized that he'd seen that color and texture before. But he couldn't place his finger on it...

"I see you're finally awake, my son." Sonic heard Black Doom's bass voice speak to him.

He felt the urge to get up and attack Black Doom. After all, he was the bad guy and was planning on to do awful things if he didn't stop him...

But Sonic couldn't move a muscle. He felt a darkness that had been in his chest for a while freeze him from any and all movements. Sonic could barely twitch his hand due to the grasp it had on him.

"Oh, I see you want to move." Black Doom taunted him, somehow reading his thoughts. "Well, I'm afraid I can't let you do that yet."

"W-why?" Sonic managed to say, but his voice was almost as deep as Shadow's with the struggle he was trying to get through.

Black Doom chuckled at that comment. "Oh, how futile your efforts are, my son. You have been repressed from your true potential, missing the power that could truly make this universe great again."

Sonic wasn't sure if he was fighting through the darkness well enough, or if Black Doom was loosening his control on him, but he could only laugh at Black Doom's comment. "As if. I know what you can and will do, Black Doom. I won't obey you just because you are my father."

Black Doom laughed once again, more amusement in his voice than before. "Oh, you are so much more like your brother than you realize. I remember that your brother said something similar to that when I came to Earth in your present time."

"Yeah, and I will be able to fight against your power and defeat you myself," Sonic said. He felt the words kill and destroy on his tongue, but refrained from saying those words because they weren't him.

"But there is a difference between you and your brother in this circumstance. There is one thing that he had that you don't. And it was love and passion for the human girl."

A picture of Maria flashed in Sonic's mind. Maria. He could remember how, at virtually any mention of her, Shadow almost completely closed into himself with the grief and guilt he couldn't save her. Maria was the reason Shadow was able to save the world from being destroyed by Black Doom and the Black Arms in the first place.

"He believes, and it somehow worked that time around, that he has 'unconditional love' for her. It's something that all humans want to believe in. It's wishful thinking since they will always be selfish creatures. They will only do things that support them and never act for anyone else's self-interest, despite their claims. Now tell me, if you don't have any kind of deep love for anything, do you believe in any of that unconditional love the humans try to fool themselves with?"

He felt a weight on his tongue, knowing Black Doom wanted him to really think about it or to believe that there's nothing to value in love. But that wasn't true for him; he felt love and passion for running, his friends, life in general...

He struggled to speak as he said: "What do you mean I don't feel that way for anything?"

Black Doom thought for a second before speaking. "There is always something deeper and if you get to that depth, in theory, you can go against anything. At least that was the case with Shadow. But you don't have that, my son. Smart, since you can go from one thing to the next and not waste your time crying over it."

Sonic was about to think about that, given that was what Black Doom expected of him. But then, he remembered the one thing that he had spent time and passion searching for: the truth about his past.

"Wh-what about my past?" He managed to say. Sonic expected his mouth to felt heavy to the point of numbness, but to his surprise, it loosened a bit. "I've been trying to find the answers to my past. I've been passionate about that."

Black Doom seemed to consider him for a moment, before sighing. "I'm not surprised you know nothing about the truth. After all, I can feel you were only awakened to your true heritage recently. As a generosity to ease your emotions, I will tell you the truth, my son.

"After the original prototype for the Ultimate Life Form failed, Gerald decided he wanted the creature to be on a smaller scale. He created two hedgehogs, you and your brother, but he couldn't figure out how to truly make the Ultimate Lifeform he was looking for. We made a deal that I would assist him in his research and help him create you two, in exchange for the seven Chaos Emeralds. You were meant to be that Lifeform, but you weren't responding to my DNA in the way Gerald intended. He then repressed the gene in you and observed how Shadow reacted. He became the Ultimate Lifeform that Gerald wanted, and you were left on the ARK, trapped in a tube in stasis."

He paused in his monologue, and Sonic took that moment to ask, "Then, I have no memories of the ARK?"

"Precisely. When the humans came on board to stop Gerald's plans, they saw you as one of his many projects. Instead of destroying you, they thought you would be an asset given your information and potential. They brought you back down to Earth, and decided to keep you at their base until a threat they couldn't keep under a watchful eye would rise."

"Eg-Eggman then," Sonic concluded, anger at GUN for their lies and concealment burning his blood.

Black Doom nodded. "When the time came, you were implanted with fake memories of your past, to hide the truth about what you were. But now that that's all done with, I've told you your true purpose in life. You know that you can't run around all over the place and wait for trouble to happen so you can save the day. There will always be trouble, and people will always take it for granted. Help me help you, my son." Black Doom said, holding his hand out towards Sonic even though he couldn't move a muscle. His tone was...almost fatherly. As if he actually wanted to help his son find what he was looking for.

But...

Despite learning the truth about Gerald's intentions and what his past was really like, Sonic knew Black Doom was persuading him to fall under his command.

"N-no." Sonic was barely able to say, with the darkness constricting his lungs.

After a couple of moments, Black Doom let out a heavy sigh. "I thought this might happen. Perhaps I can help you make the right decision, you know it's what you want."

Sonic felt his pulse jump when he noticed for the first time the seven Chaos Emeralds floating above him. They appeared a shade darker than they usually did, even when they glowed from the extra power.

At that, Sonic felt the darkness spread to every molecule of his body. Several thoughts relating to everything Black Doom said, everything the Black Arms stood for, a glimpse into their minds, the truth about his purpose, ran through his brain at his own running speed.

Hearing all the thoughts, Sonic realized that he found what he was looking for this entire time even if he didn't know it. After running around for so long to search for it, he finally would find it and it would be granted to him. He realized that his Father was great and his ways were the right way of order for the world.

---

"I will ask you once again, will you help me help you, my son?" His Father asked him.

The blue hedgehog, his son, blinked and stood up, power flowing through his veins and the weight of uncertainty finally off him.

"Of course, Father." He said, his voice deeper to reflect the real him. "I thank you for freeing me from the corrupt human way, to the righteousness of the Black Arms."

His Father laughed. "I knew you'd see the right way. It's time for you to meet the true side of your brother, and a servant I found. Together, you three will help me create the world we need."