Sonic defeated The End. They watched him pierce through the husk of Supreme and the threat in the sky, all in a second, colored cyan and shooting into the night like a star. First came joy. They waited for him to return to them, Emeralds in hand. Then came worry.
Across dimensions, the Ancients were victorious. The Pilots vanquished The End, and got to return to their certain, alive, after fighting the greatest battle their people had ever witnessed. Crane can return to helping the people, Dragon to guiding the next generation, Snake to helping their troops recover, and Tiger to building the greatest machines to ever be made by their people. That, however, is all cut short when a boy comes falling from the sky, wrenching the Emeralds from their systems and sending the Islands into chaos. Their scans say he is ill, hurt, as if he'd just gone through great turmoil. The Emeralds answer to him like they have never answered their machines. He speaks of having defeated The End.
A child from another dimension.
Sonic is stuck in a dimension were the Ancients lived, victorious. They promised him a way to return home if he can simply wait for them to build it. And in the meantime, they show him what life was like for the civilization that has long since passed. They show him their homes and their weapons and their research and their customs. It seems like nothing more than a peaceful hiccup before he can get back to his friends.
But something is lurking in the shadows. Something sinister. Maybe this won't be a simple pit stop.
That's right folks! This year, I joined the Big Bang! I've had a blast cooking up the 126k monstrosity for everyone to enjoy. Thank you to the absolutely lovely @sthbigbang folks for having the patience of saints and tolerating my total insanity.
Also, HUGE thanks to my CRAZY TALENTED artist @eggswords and @satwo. You'll see their lovely art both in the fic and also floating around here on Tumblr. We have a whole comic for this! So go check them out, and please! Please give them so love.
Also thanks to my lovely betas, @cosmiicats, @alephzdraws, and Aster for tolerating literal hell. I'm very sorry. I didn't think it'd get this big but we pulled through.
Now folks, without further ado, hop on over to AO3, and enjoy what I've been working on for half a year. There's twenty chapters, and they'll be releasing bi-weekly, so make sure to stick around! I promise this is a story like you've never seen before.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/87205211/chapters/230963711