#the pacing and shadow as she walks through Chaldea hall

[empty-dream]

[lo-55]

Shattered Chains or Fate Ch. 6

Isle of Towers, Glass, and Stone

     The answers might lie within.  

   Great. Now the problem is, how does he find those answers at all? How does he go ‘within’ when most of the time he’s going ‘outside’ of his body. Projecting his soul was one thing. He’d done it a dozen times, if not more. Going inside of it? Or his mind? Or whatever within the cryptic asshole of a mage had suggested, was a totally different matter.

   “Fucking everyone’s so damn cryptic all the time,” Ichigo scowled, pacing around the house. The cat was still there, watching him with her tail twitching back and forth.

 Ichigo still doesn’t know who she’s working for.

   There’s about three mage families in the country that are prominent. Tohsaka’s work with gems, the Matou are mostly fallen, and he doesn’t know anything about the other one. Ichigo should probably be more concerned, but he’s got bigger things to worry about right now.

   Mainly, figuring out how to find his answers on the inside.

   Inside.

   Ichigo kept walking in circles, trying to figure it out. Over and over, he walked around and around. In a spiral.

   Finally he sat hard on the floor and leaned back.

   Jeanne would pray. But she was guided by a god, and an Agent of Counterforce (or some approximation of it).  Sanzang followed the voice of buddha/her future self. And Ichigo…

   Ichigo has an ever cryptic sage telling him to look inside himself for answers, like something out of a bad movie. Hell, his life at this point might as well be just that. Who else gets into these kinds of situations constantly?

   Just him, that’s who.

   Ichigo tilts his head back. He’s spent time outside his body. How will he get inside it?

   “A backwards… Rayshift?”

   Is that even possible? It’s the best idea he has. Ichigo closes his eyes and thinks of Rashifting. The first time it had happened, he had been on the verge of death. Mash had been all but a corpse at his side. Fire had licked across them and CHALDEAS had glowed bloody above their heads. It had vanished, the red turned blue and bright and the fire clearing for a few brief seconds between Chaldea and Fuyuki.

   Ichigo breathes, focusing on that.

   On the blue, the soft light and the feeling of being weightless. On the knowledge that someone, even if it wasn’t Roman anymore, was out there looking after the integrity of his soul. He breathed in, tasting the air, tasting no ash.

   Ichigo breathed out.

   He thought of the feeling of Rukia’s gloved hand pushing him out with a rough pop. He thought of the feeling of Kon, sliding into his limbs and chest and head until he was squeezed with no room and no place to go but out.  

   Ichigo felt the swirl of the shift, the gravity, the whirlpool of energy.

   The swirl to the halo of the past. Out, out, out.

   Ichigo breathed in and pulled the whirlpool with him. He inverted the spiral of blue and white and light and gravity and twisted it not out of himself but      in    .  

   It was the feeling of falling. It was the feeling of flying. It was a pull that he didn’t quite understand, the tug of his instinct dragging him out of danger.

   It was the feeling of cement under his feet. It was the feeling of glass against his cheek.

   It was a pale blue sky, with smokey puffs of rain clouds floating high above him.

   *

   “The fact that you are not more afraid of this man really only leads credibility to my idea that you are insane . He’s at least ten times stronger than all of your companions.”

   Ichigo glances sideways, and Kyo. He leans against the wall, watching Karna with something like respect, or maybe admiration in his gaze. Ichigo can understand. Even from as far away as they are, he can feel the heat radiating off of the son of the sun god. It blooms against his skin, but doesn’t scorch him. Not yet, in any case.

   It feels strange. This Karna is not the Karna that Ichigo had met and fought against and within his dream of Trifas. They were the same, at their core, but this one didn’t know him. This one wasn’t his friend. This one hadn’t fought a vampire and a near endless supply of false Servants with him.

   Instead, this one was here to stop him from going to Edison. To stop him from forcibly beating sense into the insane american presi-king.

   It would have been intimidating, but even now Ichigo can tell that Karna doesn’t actually want to kill them.

   Like all of those heroes born in the Age of Gods, Karna is insanely powerful. Before him Ichigo is little more than an ant to be stepped on. This Hero of Charity is a legend in every sense, and his reputation is earned. The spikes on his collar speak of danger and death. The spear in his hands pulses with the power and radiates heat like pavement on a summer day.

   Karna is the child of a god, and they are, in the end, little more than human.

   Kyo isn’t. He’s strong, Ichigo knows that too. He’s at least as strong as some Servants, and Ichigo is certain he’s stronger than he’s letting them think he is. Not only is he strong, he’s smart, and good as playing at being harmless. Even if Ichigo is the only one who can see him regularly, he won’t drop the fake smile on his lips.

   How annoying.

   “You should withdraw at once!” Nightingale calls to their foe. Ichigo has no intention of letting him stay an enemy, but for now he can’t do anything. They have to beat him first, and then beat Edison over the head.

   “Perhaps you’re right. I am infected by an illness called ‘loyalty’. Figuring that out so fast, is it because you’re a nurse?” his head cocks just so.

   Nightingale huffs. “No. You’re just easy to understand.”

   Ichigo watches Karna deflate, looking upset. “Oh no, we ruined his mystery,” Ichgo couldn’t help teasing.

   Mash looked equally put off. “He seems somewhat depressed…”

   “Thank you for pointing that out. But no matter. He asked for my help first, and that is all I need to know. The king of inventions knelt before a worthless man like me and asked my help. Besides,” A smile, as warm as his magic, spread across Karna’s face. “He reminds me of a friend. And I am only human, don’t forget.”

   “‘Only      human’    says the demigod,” Ichigo mutters to Kyo, who snorts elegantly. “We should get this over with.”

   “You can’t hope to win,” Kyo argues, but he’s clearly getting used to ichigo’s stubborn nature.

   “Fucking watch us.”

   Ichigo draws up, prepared to fight-

   And Karna turns and walks back down the hallway, called away by Edison.

   “Huh. So it’s going to be a trap?” Ichigo muses.

   “ ‘ow can is be a trap, if ya know i’s gonna happen?” Cu asks, propping his elbow on Ichigo’s shoulder and leaning on his master. Ichigo scowls at him and shoves him off, but it’s more playful than anything else.

   “If it is a trap, it’s wiser for you not to spring it,” Kyo ads.

   “Okay, fine. You’re invisible. Go in there and see what we’re up against.” Ichigo points towards the high door to the throne room, at the end of the hall. Kyo just gives him a look.

   “Do I look like a servant?” Kyo arches a brow at him regally, and Ichigo shoots him a baleful glare. “Fine. But I expect you to do something for me, in return.”

   “Oh joy,” Ichigo rolls his eyes as Kyo walks through the walls, towards the presi-kings throne room. Now he owed a dead man a debt. Just once in his life couldn't one of these people be cooperative? He’d kill to have Chad here with him, even if it was just as emotional support in all this madness.

   “Poor master,” Mash mourns. “You look rather mad when you stand there talking at thin air.”

   “Hmm?” Medusa cocks her head. “I don’t know, the longer I’m attached to him, the more I think I see faint shadows about where he’s talking at. But that could be my imagination…:

   “It could make sense,” Ichigo admitted, “I have poison resistance thanks to Mash. Maybe you guys get to see dead people.”

   “Master,” she says slowly, “      We     are dead people.”

   Ichigo scowls. “Don’t be a smart ass.”

   “It’s better than a dumb ass.”

   He jumps when Kyo’s voice comes from behind him, smooth and full of amusement. Ichigo turns to scowl at him, but the man is unphased.

   “It does seem like it will be a straightforward confrontation. My, you must all be terrible at assassinations.”

   Ichigo smacks his arm when Robin winces, missing the fact that Robin must have been able to hear the jibe at his failure. With a frown at Kyo, he leads the way to battle.

   * *

   He’s laying on a building. Sideways on a building, if he wants to be picky about it.

   Ichigo sits up, slowly, looking down at the streets. It’s not the weirdest thing to ever happen. But still weird. Below him looks like a small Karakura town, and outwards are other skyscrapers, and towers of stone and glass. He can recognize turrets of castles that crash haphazardly into pillars of a familiar roman theatre. A flag with a fleur de lis floats in the distance, small atop a dusty building of the Old West. Between some wind long mountain roads that hitch into the metal and stone unnaturally. He can’t see the street, it’s flooded with water and dark shapes move beneath the surface.

   Ichigo stands, slowly, trying to focus on staying attached to the building he’s on. He doesn’t dare jump. He might die.

   He might actually be dead for all he knows. Did he just accidentally kill himself? This doesn’t look like any afterlife he’s ever heard of…

   It was certainly not Kur. Ichigo hopes he hasn’t died. He has promises he needs to keep, and dying would be a conflict of interests right now.

   All around him are remnants of places he’s known, of his home and the lands he’s seen. The sky scrapers reach high into the sky, like the fingers of some great giant trying to grasp the clouds themselves.

   Ichigo turns his face to the sky. There’s no sun, and far off in the horizon storm clouds brew in dark, angry shades of grey.

   “Okay. This is not great,” he says at last. “Where am I?”

   Something ruffles the back of his neck, like wind only the air is still and he spins around on his heel, until he sees something dark and flicking behind him. A person. A man, in a black coak that billows around his ankles. It’s edged in red.

   “Hey, old man!” Ichigo spins to face him fully. “Who are you?”

   “Who am I? I am _____”

   Ichigo stares. He couldn’t hear him. He heard every word but his name. Why? What cut it off? There’s no wind, no sound, nothing that would do that.

   Even though the strangers face is largely impassive, Ichigo can still see the slightest slanting of his eyes. His disappointment.

   “I see. How sad, even now you can’t hear my voice. You, who knows me better than anyone else.”

   “What are you talking about?” Ichigo crosses his arms over his chest as the man walks down the pole he’d been standing on and onto the side of the building in front of Ichigo. The distance between them feels like a chasm. “I’ve never met you before.”

   Snow flutters around them, small flakes that stick to nothing. It’s just a playful flurry, flickering cold across his skin before it disappears again.

   “You’ve known me all your life, even if you don’t know it. And I have known you. I know why you’re here. You’re looking to become another Shinigami, aren’t you?”

   Ichigo pauses, but nods in the end. Who is this man? How does he know this? He does feel familiar. More familiar than Chad. More familiar than Mash, even. Why…?

   “The old man in the hat said it’s possible, but I have to die. And I can’t do that. I have a promise to keep, so I have to stay alive and save Rukia before I fulfill it. And to do that, I need power I don’t have. Rukia lent me hers, but that’s gone now. There’s no one else anymore.”

   No Rukia. No Mash. No Medusa, or Cu. No Romani.

   Just him.

   “I have no one else to rely on. I have to stand on my own two feet. I have to fight with my own two hands.”

   “That’s not true.”

   The man walks towards him slow, his heels clicking on the glass of the building.

   “Rukia’s power may be gone, but Urahara Kisuke was no wrong when he declared that you have your own Shinigami powers. And you do not fight alone, Ichigo. I fight with you. I always have.”

   There’s a vicious vow somewhere in his level voice. A yearning that Ichigo almost misses.

   “I don’t understand. Who are you?” Ichigo shakes his head, trying to make sense of everything that’s happening.

   The man looks at him, and opens his mouth to repeat his name.

   “I am _____”

   * * *

   They’re the only ones awake.

   Ichigo is used to late nights. Sleep is hard to come by these days, and he usually only gets it when he’s too tired to even think, or when Mash’s solid shield lays beside him. The others are doing better than he is. They’re heroes and legends and myths. They have stronger hearts than he does.

   Ichigo walks quietly, not so far from the camp that he’ll get himself killed, but far enough that his movements won’t disturb his friends. Medusa is on watch at the perimeter, and she tosses him a somewhat concerned look, but doesn’t try to interrupt him when he sits beside Kyo.

   He’s got questions. About a million of them about the afterlife, but he doesn’t really have time for all of them at one time.

   And one top of questions about the afterlife, he has just as many about Kyo himself. He’s a mystery. He’s not a heroic spirit. And really, he has no reason to be following Ichigo around besides the fact that Ichigo has forcefully dragged him along.

   Not that Kyo couldn’t get away if he wanted to. Ichigo is no fool. Everyone here could kill him with a napkin.

   Kyo doesn’t acknowledge him when he sits beside him. Instead he keeps his eyes on the sky. On the stars haloed by the light in the sky. Even with it, there’s a thousand stars in the sky that Ichigo would never be able to see in Karakura. There’s too much light, even in a small city to be able to see this many stars.

   The whole milky way stretched across the sky, a painted band of blue and white and pink towards the edge of the horizon.

   “Is it the same?” he finds himself asking. Kyo makes a sound of question in the back of his throat, so he elaborates. “The sky. Is it the same where you’ve come from?”

   “Seireitei,” Kyo says the words slowly. “The stars are the same, but that’s about it.”

   “How do you mean? Isn’t it supposed to be a paradise? Like, Heaven? Elysium? Tian? Valhallah?”

   “Are you going to keep listing off afterlifes until I give you a real answer?” Kyo cocks his head, looking somewhat amused.

   Ichigo shoots him a crooked grin. “I absolutely will.”

   “My, you’re a pest.”

   “And you’re rude. Fields of Yula, asphodel, f      olkvangr-    ”

   Kyo claps his hand over ichigo’s mouth to finally shut him up, and Ichigo scowls at him without heat and with smugness.

   “Soul Society isn’t exactly like those stories,” Kyo’s smile is somehow soft and bitter and sad at once. Ichigo doesn’t know what to make of it.

   “So it’s no paradise,” Ichigo surmises.

   Kyo’s brow pinches and his mouth twists. “No. Not quite.”

   “Is there some rule saying that you’re not allowed to tell me?”

   “No,” Kyo says slowly,” But it is, ill advised. We are taught to tell the souls to pass on that they will find a good place in the next world. A paradise. So they don’t fight us going into a world not so unlike their own. “

   “Wow you make death sound inviting,” Ichigo says dryly. He manages to startle a laugh out of Kyo before he sobers again, looking to the stars.

   “The closer to the seireitei you get, the better the quality of life. In the first few districts people generally want for nothing, and are elbow to elbow with nobility and their retainers, if they aren’t one of those things already. Most nobles live in Seireitei itself, safe in their walls. But further away…”

   “Further away you find the poor, the downtrodden. Poverty is prevalent. Rukongai is separated into districts. Past the fifty ninth districts, most people can’t even afford sandals.It’s violent and bloody out there, and the people who have the most power are the ones least likely to help.”  

   Kyo’s hands curl and his mouth twists.

   Ichigo leans back on his hands. “You should get tips from Robin for overthrowing governments.”

   “I couldn’t do that,” Kyo shakes his head, but there’s a light in his eyes that makes Ichigo think that the idea has already crossed his mind at least once. “This is actually my first trip to the human world. I was supposed to arrive in Kyoto, but something went wrong, and now I’m here.”

   “It’s probably because Kyoto no longer exists,” Ichigo figures, solemnly, “The only land that exists at this time is here. The United States. Everywhere else has been completely obliterated.”

   They had to reverse that. They had to stop this war.

   * * * *

 They’re caught between a rock and a hard place. Literally.

   Ichigo and his Servants, minus Scathach who’s gone ahead of them, are cornered by monsters only Ichigo and Kyo can see and touch.

   Kyo is strong. Incredibly strong. He’s already cut down more of the swarm that Ichigo would have ever imagined, and blasted even more with fierce spells of blue and red energy. Yellow chains, and dark crescents. But they just keep coming, and now there’s even stronger ones ripping their way through the sky. They’re smaller and more distinct than the first wave, and as powerful as fifty of them combined.

   Even Kyo is struggling against the dozens of them that rip through the sky.

   Then it happens.

   One of them targets Ichigo and Kyo appears in front of him, striking it down. A second comes screaming in from the side and tears into Kyo’s sword arm.

   Blood splatters against Ichigo's cheek.

   “Kyo!” Ichigo lunges for him, but Kyo puts up his good hand, stopping him.

   “Stay where you are! You’ll only get in the way if you can’t fight. Damn, why are they all here at once?” Kyo grits his teeth and lifts his left arm, shooting off more spells, but without his sword, he’s struggling more to keep up.

   Ichigo burns with the feeling of being helpless. He can’t stay there and do nothing.

   So he does the only thing he can do.

   He shoots forwards, to Kyo’s back, and claps his hand on Kyo’s shoulder. He pours all the spirit energy he possible can into Kyo’s body, until he’s glow with it, blue and white. Kyo looks back at him, stunned.

   “Don’t just stand there!” Ichigo barks. “Hit them!”

   Kyo nods, once, looking dazed, and lifts his arm at the monsters closing in on them.

   “      Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens.”  

   Blue swirls in front of him, a ball of raw power that flashes and lashes out at the edges, dragging burn scars into the ground and drawing blood off of Kyo’s arms.

   “      Hado seventy three! Soren Sokatsui!”  

   It tears away from Kyo and Ichigo in a devastating force, ripping through the ground and shredding all the monsters in front of them into nothing more than burnt husks.

   Ichigo has time enough to register Kyo looking at him with a new light in his eyes before he falls to the ground, the world going black.

   * * * * *

 “I see.”

   The disappointment is back in the man’s face, and it makes Ichigo’s skin crawl. He doesn’t know why. This is a perfect stranger, he shouldn’t care so much what he thinks about him. But he does. It feels gross, a bur under his skin that he just can’t shake.

   “You still cannot hear me. Very well then. Perhaps you will hear my voice once you have unlocked your Shinigami powers.”

   “Uh huh. I don’t suppose you have a key for that, do you old man?” Ichigo asks, crossing his arms over his chest. The man cocks his head ever so slightly. His hair waves in time with his coat and he taps the window beneath him with the toe of his shoe.

   “This world exists inside of you. Inside of your mind. Inside of your very soul. Somewhere in here, somewhere in all these windows and bricks and everything else you’ve ever made a home for in here, you will find what you seak. You will find your shinigami powers somewhere here. Somewhere within.”

   “Just like that man said…”

   Ichigo is glad for the opportunity, but he doesn’t want to be the one to tell Merlin he was right. The Mage of Flowers will be even more smug than he already is, and Ichigo does not need that at all.

   “Fine. I just have to find it then.”

   He had no idea how he would do that. If this was inside of him, what would happen if he broke something? What would a shattered window do to he himself? He could only speculate, and he didn’t like any of the things he thought of. So he’d have to go by it delicately.

   Was that possible? The only way into the buildings would be through doors that are now thoroughly covered in water.

   Needle in a haystack much?

   Ichigo runs his fingers through his hair and tilts his head, closing his eyes in thought.

   If he was shinigami powers, where would he hide?

   Nowhere in the brackets of mountains. Nor in the theatre, or the tall castle towers. Nowhere that he was a Mage.

   That ruled out a lot.

   This guy said he’d always been with him. Did that mean he was a shinigami this whole time? Why hadn’t they come to him earlier? During the wars? In Kur?

   On the banks of the Karakura river.

   Ichigo shook his head and opened his eyes again. The old man was staring at him. Waiting. Watching. It was a little creepy. Ichigo’s hair brushed his shoulders when he turned his head to the side, looking down at the water.

   Somehow, he had to find his Shinigami powers.

   It had to be somewhere in these blue buildings. Maybe…

   Ichigo knelt down, knocking at the window under his feet curiously. It was totally solid. There didn’t seem to be so much as a hinge to open it. But inside, there, something white fluttered around.

   “...fuck it.”

   Ichigo punched his hand through the glass, ignoring the way the shards bit into his arm, and grabbed it. When he pulled his hand back he found a ribbon in his grasp.

   White ribbons. Like the ones Uryu had shown him before.

       That's it!  

   Ichigo jumped back, as high up as he could. He landed on the air, the way he had as a shinigami. This was it. This was how he could find it. He scoured the building, the windows, looking for anything that wasn’t blue and white. Anything. It had to be somewhere.

       C’mon. Red, red, red-  

   Ichigo drops back onto the building, understanding dawning. He makes his way over to the strange man and reaches out, grasping the straight sword he’d been standing on before. He pulls, and in his hand comes away a red ribbon that wraps around his wrist. As he pulls the sword from its sheath it flashes with pale blue light, until he’s holding a massive sword almost as long as his body.  

   Ichigo grins sharply at the old man, a name blossoming on his lips. They speak as one, voices merging.

   “Zangetsu.”

   Ichigo swings the sword to the side. It feels effortlessly light despite how large it is. It isn’t the foreign feeling of Rukia's power. This is his, and his alone.

   When he looks down, he’s wearing Shinigami clothes again. If Kyo could see him now.

   “Congratulations, Ichigo. You are, again, a Shinigami.” His voice is low and even. Ichigo glances at his eyes, half hidden by sunglasses.

   “Thanks. Although to be honest…. I was kind of hoping I’d be a Quincy, like my mother.”

   He doesn’t miss the startled jerk of Zangetsu’s head.

* * * * * *

[getters-blog-index]

It was a cold, cloudy day, light fog hung over the landscape, not obscuring the landscape, but still visible to the eye. There was utter silence as the wind stayed soft and still. The pointy-eared mags wondered why she felt such great unease. Since the departure of the Knight of the Wind, there had been peace in the land. The knights were able to protect that peace as just warriors. However, something ominous looms over the horizon. A sensation of dread washed over her.

“The Doom of Britain is at hand...we must make haste if we are to prevent its destruction.” She turned to her companion, a warrior from another time. The man’s face was completely hidden and obscured behind bandages beneath a red hood. He seemed cold and detached, but there seemed to be a gentle warmth to him that was hidden away. The mage knew she had summoned a noble warrior from a far off time.

She recalled how she did the same with the Knight of the Wind, and how he stood up to the Knights of the Round Table and slew the false King Arthur, and how he defeated her when she had lost her way and tried to preserve the kingdom as it was forever. She took the lesson to heart. No kingdom would last forever. However, even so, if the kingdom were to fall, she would prefer a peaceful passing as opposed to the darkness that she senses.

The pair would head back to Camelot to see if there was anything they could do about the rising tide of Darkness. Unfortunately, only Sir Galahad lives to defend Camelot from its enemies. The rest had passed on, save for the Knight of the Lake. In fact, it was the fault of the Knight of the Lake that all the others had been slain. His mad roars can still be heard from the castle.....

The mage wondered what hope they had of victory. Two warriors and a mage were hardly enough to fight an army.

“You’re having doubts?” The masked figure asks, picking up on her feelings.

“No, I just....” The mage trailed off as her thoughts scattered. His voice had broken the silence and she didn’t have time to think of a response.

“Don’t worry, Master. Just supply me with enough Mana and I’ll handle the rest.” He spoke with...a cold confidence that shook the mage. There was no enthusiasm or pride. Just a man stating facts. She wondered if he had emotions. She knows there’s a warm and kind heart in him, but this mask he puts on....it seems as though he wishes to separate what he does from who he is. She wished to know more, but she was, honestly frightened of what he might do if she tried to ask.

Perhaps, for now, it would be best to focus on reaching Camelot. “Right, very well. We can’t waste any more time.” The pair would pick up speed as they hurried back to the castle.

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In a far flung future, a chase down a long metal corridor ensues between an evil scientist in his flying machine and a blue creature of incredible speed. The scientist cursed his luck. He had been so close to getting away scott free, yet his nemesis had appeared just in time. “You miserable rodent. How many times must you interfere with my work!?”

“As many times as it takes to make sure you give up, Eggman!” The creature responded with his go to nickname for the evil scientist. He bounced off the wall of the corridor to try and reach the scientist, only to get repelled by a shield. The creature landed on his feet and resumed the chase with a quick recovery time.

Eggman tapped furiously against the console of his machine. “Looks like your Time has run out, Sonic! AHAHAHAHA!” The scientist gloated as the corridor lit up. Traps of all kinds came out of the walls. Spikes, turrets, and lasers littered the hall to an extreme degree. With such confidence in his assured victory, the scientist pushed his machine to speed up, cackling the entire way.

The creature, Sonic, smirked, enjoying a challenge. He used the closed space to bounce off the walls, avoiding spikes and crashing into turrets and lasers. The creature curled into a ball, spinning faster and faster until he launched, crashing through the remaining traps to catch up with his quarry. 

The hallway ends, reaching a large open room with an enormous machine. Sonic uncurled and walked into the room with swagger. “Nice try, Eggman, but it’s going to take more than that to....beat this.....hog?” Usually, he’d see the scientist in the room, or at the very least, there’d be some hint of the doctor. This is strange. He’d have retorted by now.... “Did he just, disappear?” Sonic wondered as he traversed the room.

He was able to get a better view of what was here. The middle of the room had a large gyroscope-like thing, with what looked like a mini Mobius, his planet, inside. It shined a dull blue as the rings of the gyroscope rotated around it. Something seemed strange. None of the continents on the mini planet looked familiar to him. There wasn’t really anything else in the room. No hatches, no secret entrance, nothing. “He couldn’t have just....vanished....I need to get Tails. Maybe he can figure it out.

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With the scientist missing, it was much easier to return to the large strange room with his friends. Sonic paced around the room as a yellow fox creature with two tails accessed a panel at the bottom of the gyroscopic machine. They were both accompanied by a pink hedgehog who was watching Sonic pace.

“And he just....vanished?” The pink hedgehog asked, with clear confusion in her voice. “You don’t think this might be some kind of portal machine or something? We’ve dealt with all kinds of things like that before.”

Sonic nodded as he continued, never breaking his stride as he responded. “That’s what I was thinking. There’s no exits to this place, so it makes no sense for him not to be here unless he used Chaos Control like Shadow, or if he used something like a Time Stone or that...Time Eaty thing from a year ago.”

“Don’t remind me of that. Being stuck in this weird space between time was, so cold and unsettling. I don’t think I want to know what would’ve happened if I was stuck there for any longer.” The pink hedgehog answered back, clearly unsettled by that event of the past. “Any luck, Tails?”

The fox smiled as he looked at his device’s screen, plugged into the larger gyroscope. “You’re not going to believe this. This is a machine from back before Mobius!”

The two hedgehogs stopped and stared. “BEFORE Mobius?”

Tails was beaming as he accessed the records. “Not just that, but this has access to almost the ENTIRE human history before the Xorda invasion! All that lost knowledge and history, here in one place! Okeanos, London, Rome, China, America. I don’t know ANY of these places, but they’re all mapped out on the continents almost like ours. We can even see how Plate Tectonics changed between then and now. Kinda weird though, for the continents to change like that in 3000 years.”

Sonic interrupted. “Ok, ok, so we got a nice new history textbook. Is there anything else?”

“Oh, Absolutely! It says that this thing is called Chaldeas. It’s a device used to observe all of human history. It’s supposed to be used with other devices called Sheba and Laplace. I’m gonna see if I can find them, but basically, this thing can Time Travel people into parts of human history.” Tails looks like an excited child as he discovered so much new technology in such a short amount of time.

Sonic on the other hand looks frustrated. “Great, so he time traveled, again, for the third time. Has he not learned about not messing with time by now?”

The pink hedgehog looks more concerned than frustrated. “Not just that, but now he went to a time we don’t even know, and in another era by all accounts. Before Mobians, before Mobius. We can’t even begin to predict where he would go!”

“Not to worry, Amy. The beauty of technology is I can just repeat the last command.” Tails reassured the pink hedgehog. “I just need to keep a connection with Chaldea and I’m sure we can get back no problem. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut, just in case, I am going to call a few people to secure this facility and make sure that they can track us.” Tails holds up the device screen to show old security footage. “It seems like people who went back in time had people that were still here to help manage them and provide logistical support. All the more reason for us to be more prepared than Eggman.”

That got the two hedgehogs in better spirits. “So now, all we need to do is follow Eggman, kick his can and his badniks to the scrapyard, and back in time for lunch.” Sonic emphasized with some kicks to the air. 

The pink hedgehog, Amy shook her head but with a smile. “I’m just glad we’re not absolutely clueless about what we’re doing this time. So, how does this work?”

“That’s easy. I just need to begin the Rayshift process. The destination is sometime in the Human Middle Ages. It’s going to be a bit intense so brace yourselves. I’ll leave instructions for our back up for when they get here. Are we ready?” Tails was eager to try this out. Considering all the research and how successful it seemed to be, all his worries were put to rest. They were going to get to do controlled Time Travel! This was revolutionary technology!

He began tapping the commands, and the three mobians watched as the machine activated. They were all pumped up as they got ready to go.

[Unsummon Program Start] [Spiritron Conversion Start]

“Hey, uh, Tails? What does that mean?” Sonic asks with....notable concern at these odd terms.

“I think they’re part of the normal process.” 

“You THINK?”

[Rayshift commencing in 3, 2, 1.....] Amy notices, red marks forming on her forearm. It didn’t hurt, but she couldn’t wipe it off. “What is this? What the heck?”

[All Procedures Cleared]

[Grand Order Commencing Operation.]

And in a flash of light, the three mobians were gone, leaving the room empty and silent once more.