BB!AU x Set in Stone Crossover Event, pt 1
Continuation from this event on STHAskVerse
Flash tumbles through the Rift and out the other side, still smouldering as he lands on something hard and warm. “Ugh.” He opens his eyes to find himself staring at a beautiful blue sky, clouds rolling gently by. Sprout makes an offended sound and flies off and Sonic finally looks around to see where he is. This isn’t where he’d come from.
He’s arrived on Angel Island. But not his Angel Island. And not the one from where he’d come from either. He doesn’t recognise some of the carvings on the stones, or the little hut off to the side. “No…no, no!” He rolls onto his knees with a pained gasp to find he’s landed atop the Master Emerald, which is warm to the touch. “Send me back!” He slams his fists down on the gem, anger and fear and pain making his voice hoarse and crackling. “You have to…you have to send me back! Please! They need me!” Nevermind that he is weak, battered and bruised, and still singed (and smoking). They need his help!
“SEND ME BACK! I HAVE TO GO BACK!” He’s aware of tears landing on the glittering gem, but he doesn’t care and can’t stop, slamming his fists down on the surface again and again - even though he is weak and wouldn’t be able to damage it should he want to. He keeps screaming until he can’t any more and then just…collapses atop the Master Emerald and cries.
Knuckles is at the top of the Altar, finally at ease leaving the burrow with Shadow slowly beginning to feel like himself again- when the Emerald let out a sudden whining hum. The echidna spun to face it, and was blinded by a burst of light from within the ancient gem.
When he could lower the arm he’d used to block the flash, he was met with the sight of a figure dropping down onto the Master Emerald. He felt its power surge, and then still; the figure roused. And then it began to scream.
“Hey! Hey- Sonic?!” Knuckle shouted. He leapt onto the Emerald and stood on a faceted edge, balancing in a low crouch while the hedgehog unleashed his assault against the gem. This… wasn’t his Sonic, he was fairly sure, this Sonic had no fringe and his colors were different. He was also… smoldering? Previously on fire?
Knuckles let the assault against the Emerald play out, aware the hedgehog was not in a state to actually damage the gem and secure in the knowledge that he, himself, had unleashed his own rage against it before without the relic coming to harm. He stayed in his crouch, arms set on his knees, and waited.
When the hedgehog collapsed, he ventured carefully, “...You done?”
Sonic flinches and looks up at Knuckles. Not his Knuckles, or the one from where he’d just been, but even an alternative version of his friend is still comforting. “Knux.” He breathes and scrambles up to a standing position, almost slipping over on the smooth surface of the Master Emerald as he makes his way over to the echidna. “You…can you send me back? I gotta go back!” He grips Knuckles’ shoulders desperately, almost hanging on to him to stay upright.
Knuckles’ eye widen and he takes a hold of Sonic’s arms to hold him steady. “Hey, hey-, send you back where? I don’t… when did you come from?” He looked Sonic over, brow furrowed, then back up to the hedgehog’s face. “I don’t recognize you from anytime before, and, you don’t look like how I’d imagine you will in years from now, either…”
Of course this Sonic had to come from some other point in time; that’s all that made sense. After all, the Emerald had done the same with Shadow, hadn’t it?
Sonic wobbles on his feet and shakes his head quickly. “Not when. It’s…” He thinks for a moment, then makes a frustrated sound before rambling out his thoughts as quickly as he can, “Ok. So. The multiverse is real and I just came from a different universe and I need to go back there because they need my help or they’re all gonna die and Shadow is…” He sucks in a breath, bites his lip, “…oh Gaia…I’ve never seen him like that.” He realises he might have lost Knuckles in the word vomit he’s just spewed. “Never mind all that. These shoes-” he gestures at the Riftwalkers “- brought me through a Rift and they should be able to take me back, I think? You’re good with Chaos energy. Can you…do something?”
Knuckles blinks and leans back to follow Sonic’s gesture towards the shoes, then looks back up. “I… Don’t think I can do that, man- I…” His mind raced. He blinked and finally really took the sight of this new Sonic in.
He was in rough condition. “Look, first thing we gotta do is get you cleaned up and your wounds looked after, okay? And- I promise you, Shadow’s fine. Literally just saw him like, an hour ago, back at the burrow.” The echidna deftly hopped down from the Emerald, ready to help the injured hedgehog down, too, should he need it.
Sonic feels like he might burst into tears again as Knuckles says he can’t help, already trying to shake his head and deny that that can be the truth. It has to be possible. “No! No, I gotta…it’s not your Shadow I’m worried about…and why is Shadow in your burrow anyway? Wait, never mind. That’s so not important right now.”
He stares down at the offered hand and seriously considers staying on top of the Emerald until Knuckles agrees to help him, but he is injured. And maybe if he heals up he can figure out the Riftwalkers. Or find - “Tails! You have a Tails, right? Maybe he can help me! Tails is the smartest person ever, that’s always true no matter the universe! Can you take me to him?” He shuffles off the edge of the Emerald and lands…well it’s not graceful. But he’s upright.
Knuckles yelped as he tried to catch the stumbled hedgehog, eyes still wide and blinking. This Sonic clearly wasn’t in his right mind…
“Yeah,” he replied, remembering something about going along with the fantasy to cause more stress to already taxed mind, “I can, sure! But, in the mean time, just while we wait, let’s- let’s get you fixed up, alright?”
Sonic breathes a small sigh of relief and practically throws himself at Knuckles to hug him. “Thanks, Knux. Can always count on you. Even if you did punch my lights out in the last place.” He chokes up thinking about the others, hoping they can hold up without him for a little while. “He’ll be ok. I just gotta get back, and the Emeralds…oh Amy! She went Super!” His eyes widen as he remembers her glowing rose gold form, brilliantly pink eyes staring in shock at herself. “But…Rift…he…I can’t leave them.”
Knuckles only barely manages to catch the hedgehog, holding him up and standing rigid. “Uh… Amy went… super? And who’s Rift? You aren’t making sense, Sonic…” So much for going along with the fantasy. The echidna was struggling to make heads or tails of anything the hedgehog was saying, now. And when was the last time he punched Sonic…? Couldn’t have been recently. He was. Mostly sure, a least.
He glanced to the steps down the Temple and added, “You, uh… You think you can manage the stairs? Or, I mean, I can carry you; won’t even give you shit for it later, promise-”
Sonic eyes up the stairs Knuckles gestures to and nods, even if he’s not 100% sure he can manage them. But. He’s proud. He continues talking as he starts walking. “Rift is…me. Well. Not me me, but like, an alternate version of me? It’s complicated. Or. Maybe it’s not, I don’t know what you know. But he’s me except he’s bigger and older! And he’s like…Silver right now. Not silver like Silver the Hedgehog silver. But. Well he is a hedgehog. But not Silver. He’s Sonic. But we called him Rift and me Flash so it wouldn’t get confusing.” He misses a step or two on the way down them but mostly remains upright.
Knuckles stays beside the rambling hedgehog the whole way down, looking more and more concerned by the moment. He grimaces at each missed step. “Uh-huh, yeah, that’s- wild. Um, can you, try not to fall, maybe?”