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Chapter 41 - Timelines

Exhausted, terrified, and shaken from repeating the conversation with her father over and over in her head, Itara jumped one final time through the shadows towards the gradually appearing neighborhood on the horizon. She had hoped to reach the house, despite the distance, but only got so far as the destroyed train station. But when she attempted to walk the rest of the way, the uneven, broken roads proved more tiring to climb over than expected and she dropped back against the slab she’d been climbing over to rest. Just for a moment. She was so close; the house was right there at the end of the road. She just had to go a few feet more.

Her eyes closed only a moment as the world suddenly rushed around her. She figured it was from exhaustion and kept her eyes closed, afraid that opening them would disorient her, and waited for the spinning to stop. It did, almost as quickly as it came, but it wasn’t until she heard voices that she opened her eyes again.

“Turns out she wasn’t far, after all. I barely made it out of the neighborhood before I found her cowering behind a broken slab of road.” That was… Metal’s voice?

It was only then she realized she was no longer on the hard ground and that she was being passed from one pair of cold, hard arms to another pair of slightly fluffier arms. She opened her eyes to see RK and Metal, though Metal moved out of her sight as RK walked over to do something on the computer. But she made it. She was back home. She’d never been happier to see RK or their lab in her life. She didn’t know how long it had been for them, but for her, it had been months.

Her brief moment of elation was immediately shattered though, as RK turned to her and, after a quick study of her current state, absolutely unloaded on her. She’d never seen him so mad and panicked. It caught her so off-guard that all she could do was stare up in shock, her ears flattened against the furious yelling.

“Itara, where have you been?! Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been?! With everything going on?! Look at you, you barely look alive! What have you been doing?! Why didn’t you just come home right away?! How was I supposed to keep track of you with you traveling through time all willy-nilly again?!”

Itara wasn’t the only one caught off-guard as both Metal and Zero jerked from the sudden outburst but while Zero was blindsided by the reaction, Metal recovered much quicker and burst into a fit of laughter. Momma Bear Mode was activated and in full swing, apparently. He almost felt sorry for the tiny child as RK continued berating her reckless behavior and how easily she could have died. Zero looked to Metal for answers, but he only shook his head and threw his hands up in defense, backing away. It was safer to remain silent and out of reach at the moment. Though admittedly, he was also glad the tiny child was finally home. Besides, he knew RK would properly take care of her once he calmed down again, but it was also hilarious to watch her get the full force of his apparent panic. He never expected RK being overly attached to a time traveler would be funny.

While RK continued his rant, apparently his outburst was heard all the way upstairs as both Lynda and Mira came down to see what was going on. Itara couldn’t see them from her position and RK was too distracted to notice, but Metal spotted them right away and waved a hand to warn them to hide. “Momma Bear’s in a fury, I would stay back for another minute if I were you.”

His comment caught the attention of said Momma Bear, however, as he whipped back around towards them and finally took a deep breath to calm himself. The cringing focus of his fury opened an eye to see if he was done yelling at her before shifting to see who Metal was talking to, though it was difficult from her position due to her arm. A double yell for her name echoed around the lab, as they could see her just fine, and she cringed yet again.

Lynda came into her sight first, though Itara expected as much from the unmistakably shrill voice of the human woman who battered her with just as many – if not the exact same – questions as RK while Metal laughed at her from afar. Itara hadn’t seen Zero yet, either, as he followed Metal and backed further away from the situation. Eventually, RK informed Lynda that he’d already covered what she was saying and she quieted down, if only for a second. It was then that the second presence finally came into Itara’s view.

Her eyes widened and she froze.

Mira.

She knew she saved them, that had been her entire purpose of traveling back so far. But to see him again, in the present, with RK and Metal and Lynda, nearly broke her into tears. She managed to hiccup them back and hold her breath until she was sure they were gone, but when RK lowered her back to her feet so she could fully face him again, the tears burst forth unhindered. She broke down into hysterical bawls as Mira reached over and wrapped his arms tightly around her, petting her head softly, but remained silent. Even when she blubbered out apologies, he let her continue, uninterrupted, for several minutes until it became quiet whimpers. The mobian parents she’d gone so far back for, that she’d gotten stuck in the past for. They were still alive, and they made it. They got to the base.

RK stepped back to let them have a moment, knowing they both needed it, and answered Lynda’s confused stare with a shake of his head. When Itara finally quieted down, another set of steps wandered down into the lab, though Metal gave no response this time and, instead, moved back to the computer having lost his amusement with the situation. He, like RK, had an idea what was about to come next and wanted even less to do with it.

Hardly any less shaken than earlier, but at least managing to get down the steps without tripping, Kelly edged her way cautiously over to them. She eyed the robots and Lynda first before her eyes fell to Mira and Itara, her expression growing unsure at the sight of the hiccupping mess of a child but continued down. Once Mira realized she was there, he turned towards her with uncertainty, but it eased when Kelly offered a small smile. She crouched down beside the little girl and reached out to rest a hand on her head, getting a small jump from her before she looked over.

They remained silent as Kelly reached over to wrap her up in a hug, sending Itara back into a bawling mess of apologies. Unlike Mira, however, Kelly shook her head and smiled, interrupting her with reassurances that it was all okay and she had nothing to apologize for. She kept her close until the cries died down and Itara moved to stand up straight again, staring up at the both of them with wide, puffy red eyes.

“I-I’m s-so sorry,” she stammered, but before either of them could respond she continued, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you before. I should have woken up sooner. I should have seen it coming. I… I didn’t…,” she sniffled and Mira reached over to pet her head again.

“Stop apologizing. It wasn’t your fault. If anything, it was m-,” he winced at the thought but forced out, “It was m-mine. RK explained what happened, I should have checked the lab again.” Kelly reached over to grab his hand when she noticed his wince, offering another smile, though it only darkened the look on Mira’s face, “I’m sorry, Kelly. I should have…”

She shook her head and smiled again, “Doesn’t matter now, anyway, right?” She looked to Itara and her once shaky, unsure grin only grew in size and certainty, “we’re all here now, right? Besides, RK said you didn’t even have access to… whatever powers you apparently have now back then.”

Itara’s brows furrowed as she looked between them and RK, “You know?”

Kelly nodded, “It took me through a bit of a whirl but… hey, what’s done is done, right? Like I said, we’re all here now, and from the sounds of it there are bigger problems at hand.”

“Finally, someone made a point,” Metal grumbled from across the room. He went from amused right back to grumpy and impatient during their conversation and had leaned against the computer desk again, arms crossed, scowling at a far wall. RK shot him a glare but Metal never saw it as his attention was drawn back to the group as Itara took a deep breath, though winced when she did.

“Ow.”

“I suppose Kelly does have a point, for once, there are bigger issues,” Mira stated, readjusting himself and standing back up straight, “and first, that’s getting you taken care of, Itara. You look a wreck, what happened? Where have you been?”

Itara sighed, though winced again, “I’ll explain, but first… I need a nap. I’m exhausted.”

“You look it, come on,” RK finally cut in and reached down to pick her up. She never wanted to leave that spot again. “And what happened to your cast?”

“It… burned off,” Itara frowned. She could control them much better now, but it turned out no mortal creation could withstand the full heat of her new fire powers. She didn’t so much need the cast for the cooling effects anymore, but it did worsen her broken arm. Especially across several months when she couldn’t get it properly fixed. She knew it healed wrong in that time. But it had been worth it. Mira and Kelly were alive and they were just as happy to see her as they were before. Despite everything that had happened, everything that was still happening, despite the battling Gods just one city over that she had everything to do with, they were still happy to see her.

Going back was worth it and her decision to fight against Solaris was all the more cemented in her head. RK and Metal weren’t the only ones she had to protect: Now there was Mira and Kelly and Lynda and Simon and Ned and even Sceira. She had to keep them safe from Solaris’ destruction this time. She told RK once before, in a timeline reset, that she would fix everything and he and Kipper wouldn’t get stuck in Crisis City again and she was determined to keep good on that promise. She would keep them all alive, however she had to.

But first, she desperately needed a nap.

Unfortunately, as soon as they reached the top of the stairs and entered the main house, Itara was jolted out of her thoughts by Simon rather suddenly jumping out from around the corner.

“ITARA! You’re back! You’re okay! What happened?! Where were you?! What-?”

“Not now, Simon,” RK interrupted and continued down the hall to the bathroom, much to Itara’s relief. She was glad Simon was okay, too, but she did not have the energy to deal with him at the moment.

Lynda hushed Simon, but followed after them, herself. “RK, I feel like I may regret asking this again, but what is going on now?” She hardly sounded ready for the answer.

“I’ll explain later,” RK responded as he grabbed the first aid kit from the hallway closet before continuing to the bathroom. “How long ago did your old cast burn off? Do you need another one? How does your arm feel?”

Itara frowned, uncertain with all the attention on her so suddenly, but sighed at RK’s question. “It’s… been a while. But I… I think it needs a new one, yeah. I’ll explain it all later, there’s a lot to tell.” RK sighed at the sound of that but nodded and went about getting her cleaned and fixed up. He drew a bath, pulled out what he needed from the kit, and sent Mira and Kelly for clothes and the medical bag on the kitchen table that contained the cast replacements. He then sent a message to Metal to keep an eye on the scanners and called out for Ned, asking if he could cook something up for Itara to eat after her bath and nap, informing him on everything that was in the kitchen. There was clearly a lot to unpack and prepare for, but at least Itara was finally home. He would find relief in that.

The skies were smoldering, the ground shattered and crumbled, the sea floors flooded inland. Violent tendrils snapped at the last remnants of ground and air forces, ending defenses in explosive destruction. Fires ripped through the few remaining shelters, tearing down bases and filling the last hopes of survivors with deadly smoke as they scrambled out into hordes of waiting monsters. Roaring floods snatched unsuspecting victims trying to overrun cities away to sea, never to be seen again.

A hero hedgehog beaten to an inch of his life.

A fox smashed out of the air.

An echidna buried rubble.

G.U.N. units laid to waste in droves by massive golems.

A black hedgehog surrounded by swimming darkness.

And a robot, broken, shattered, in pieces.

Itara darted from her bed with a yelp and looked frantically around the dark room, filled with the somber red glow from beyond the drawn curtains. A candle, blown out hours ago, sat beside her on the nightstand, next to a thick, black brand-new book. Soft, muffled chatter drifted through the closed bedroom door, several voices she didn’t recognize right away, that quieted after a moment, followed by a pair of footsteps that drew near. She sat, rigid, staring the door down with wide eyes until it creaked open to reveal the elder fox. She sighed and relaxed at the sight and leaned back against the bed’s headboard as Ned walked cautiously over.

“You alright there, girly?”

“Y-Yeah… yeah, I’m fine.”

“You need anything?”

She remained silent as he approached, unsure of the answer at first. Eventually she shook her head and moved to get up, Ned watching over her every move, “I need to talk with everyone. Where’s RK?”

“He’s downstairs with the other robots,” he explained, helping her off the bed and checking that she was alright. “Glad to see you home and in one piece, little one. We were worried.”

Itara gave him a small, forced smile before leading the way out of the bedroom, “Y-yeah… me too. I’m glad to see you got here alright, too, Ned. I wasn’t sure if my warning got through or not.”

“So that was you, then,” the fox nodded as Simon bound up to them. Itara turned a bit red in the face but said nothing.

“Itara! You’re up… uh,” Simon frowned and gave her a quick look over before his gaze went to the ground, his face flushing up, “I’m… glad you’re okay. I don’t know what happened but…,” he turned back towards her again with the most pitiful look she’d ever seen on the human boy, “Itara, we’re so sorry about what happened at the festival. We didn’t mean it, I promise. We were just scared, we… Camilla didn’t…”

“It’s fine,” Itara frowned, her own gaze drifted off elsewhere. Admittedly, she was still upset about the ordeal, but knew better than to blame them. “It was… a stressful situation. But I guess you guys know now, I’m not a normal hedgehog. I’m… a part of Solaris. I’m… I’m sorry I scared you.” She looked back, wary of his reaction and studied the shocked expression on his face for some time. But, with a great amount of relief, Simon grinned again.

“I guess it makes sense, you’ve never really been normal.” Itara hitched at the accusation, but Simon just laughed, “it’s kind of cool, actually. Can you show me your powers sometime again?”

Itara’s face flushed again as she struggled to regain her composure but gave him a nervous laugh, “Uh, y-yeah, I guess… later, though.” She shook her head and continued towards the lab door, “I have to talk to RK now.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, glad you’re okay though, Itara,” Simon threw out as she nodded and headed downstairs where she could already hear the robots talking. Though, there appeared to be one more than she was expecting.

“-idiot faker and his role in all this, but we aren’t safe from this rampaging, even here. These barriers can take a number of hits, but if the ground around us starts melting, these walls mean nothing.” That was Metal’s voice, for sure. He sounded as disgruntled as ever, she was sure that would never change.

“Other than the reset timeline, has this happened before?” Itara didn’t recognize that voice right away, but it sent a shiver up her spine.

RK and Metal glanced back at the newcomer robot, realizing he hadn’t been around for Chaos’ first awakening or the lessons on Gaia, prompting RK to explain, “Yes, technically, though separately. Chaos was risen once before by Robotnik about twenty years back. He attacked Station Square after absorbing the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds, but Sonic was able to use the remaining energy of the Emeralds to fight him.”

“And if the tales are to be believed, it’s been a few hundred years since Dark and Light Gaia last arose,” Metal added, “According to the manuscripts, Dark Gaia destroys the world and Light Gaia remakes it, they both go back to sleep, and the cycle repeats. They apparently do this on a regular basis every thousand years so this is early for them.”

“And Solaris was released, in a past timeline, in the form of this Mephiles and Iblis?” Zero questioned.

“Sort of,” RK frowned, “Solaris split into Mephiles and Iblis and were then sealed individually. Mephiles was released first thanks to Robotnik and went about releasing Iblis to become Solaris again. He attempted to destroy time, itself, but Shadow, Metal, and I fought him using the Emeralds and managed to… talk him down, per se. Through Itara.”

Zero’s brows furrowed as he considered all this, but looked to Metal after a moment with a glare, “Wait, the manuscripts?”

A grin spread across Metal’s face but RK was the first to respond, wanting to avoid another fight and knowing full-well that Metal would cause one entirely on purpose. “Yes, Metal managed to grab them and it’s good he did, otherwise they’d be at the bottom of the ocean in a destroyed base now. But that’s beside the point. The point is, in every case, the Emeralds are needed to even have a shot at fighting them, and that’s usually just to put them back to sleep, but we don’t have them. Chaos absorbed them whole this time so as far as anyone’s concerned, they’re lost to us. Not only are all three of them rampaging at full power, at the same time, but the only option for facing them is gone.”

Metal leaned back against the computer desk and crossed his arms, going into silent thought about the situation, his own eyes narrowing after some time. “Is it even possible to fight them at this point?”

“I’m… not sure,” RK frowned, looking up at him, his frustration replaced with uncertainty.

“They can’t simply be cut down?” Zero questioned.

“Yeah, you go ahead and try to cut down an actual time-altering God with that laser sword of yours,” Metal scoffed, “We’ll be sure to recycle your leftover parts. If there even are any.” He rolled his eyes while Zero glared and RK shot him a dirty look. Metal only responded by throwing his arms in the air in frustration, “We have the tiny child back and she’s got her powers back, we should be asking her this!”

“And we will, when she wakes up,” RK responded, but was soon interrupted by said tiny child making her presence known by approaching.

“I’m up,” she frowned, grabbing the attention of all three robots, though RK was the only one to move as he quickly swept her up in his arms.

“Did you get enough rest?”

“It’s about time, brat,” Metal scoffed, though his tone had noticeably lightened.

Itara resisted a smirk as RK sat back down at the computer, “I missed you too, Metal.” But her mood dropped as she glared at Zero, “what is he doing here?”

“I’m here to help,” Zero explained as flatly as ever. “As it happens, you’ve become my most likely ticket home.”

Itara’s face scrunched up in distaste, but turned her attention back to Metal and RK, “well, in any case, there’s a lot we need to talk about.” She wasn’t looking forward to the coming conversation, though. It wouldn’t be what they wanted to hear. But they needed to know, if they were going to survive. “Firstly, that you’re right. Not having the Chaos Emeralds makes things… difficult.”

“But there is another way to defeat them, right?” Metal questioned, however, Itara’s elongated silence made his already grumpy nature grow dark as he repeated, “Right?”

Itara visibly hitched but took a deep breath and let it out slowly, “There… isn’t.” She looked up to study their faces, but even the strangely expressive robots turned unreadable, causing her to cringe. “Unfortunately, as it stands, there’s no means of defeating them. Not all of them, not as they are. Right now, our best chance is to just survive.”

Metal’s face was the first to show his thoughts as his eyes narrowed into a scowl. However, before he could voice whatever threat was coming, RK spoke up first, “For now?” He’d known Itara’s habits well enough by now to know there was more to the story. The other two turned questioning gazes to her and she nodded in response. She was glad RK picked up on the hidden meaning.

“I wanted to let you know first before I told the others, it’ll be harder to explain to them. They’ll want to try and fight, but if we do, we’ll die. No matter what we do right now, it won’t work. The Gods are going to fight it out and no one, not even me, not even Sonic has the power to do anything about it. The emeralds can stop one of them on their own, but not only do we not have them, but not even the Master Emerald has the power to stop all three. Of course, you know Sonic is trying, but he’ll run himself into the ground long before he succeeds.” She studied the robots, wanting to ensure they understood her as her voice grew more serious, “G.U.N. will fall. The Freedom Fighters will fall. Even Sonic will fall.”

“And you know this for sure?” Zero questioned, the most disbelieving of the three.

“I’m a time traveler. My powers are limited, but I can see that far, at least.”

“But you said ‘for now’,” Metal growled, reiterating RK’s earlier point. He was growing frustrated with the news and Itara realized it was best to get to the point before he attacked something. Or someone.

“Right, yes,” she nodded, losing the dark tone again, “for now, our best bet is to just survive. This base is well protected, if we use the emergency defense system, the bigger one, and avoid as much exposure to the battle as possible, we have a better chance. If we can survive long enough, there’s…,” she looked off in thought, trying to figure out how to explain it, “there may be a solution in the future.” She eyed RK and Metal as she finished, “but we’re going to need to find Shadow.”

END

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