Chapter Text
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Bronze was prepared to die, right there on the top of the government building in the middle of Metropolis City. To think, her first time visiting the capital city, and she was doomed to die there.
Rejecting her brother’s offer was dooming herself. Claiming she had work to do and a girl to ask out was wishful thinking.
She was going to die. No way around it.
Despite the scary thought, she kept her head held high as she dried her eyes and braced for the oncoming fight. She’d either be murdered in the fray, or the world would disappear in a blink and the world would hardly know she was ever there to begin with.
She hoped for the latter, frankly.
The window shattered. Silver escaped. And chaos broke out.
She yelped as the guards in front of the elevator charged, tightening her grip on the club-baton thing she had stolen from a downed guard. Shadow snarled and braced to fight, while Mephiles began to take shaky steps back.
She bared her teeth at them, tensing as she prepared to fight. She didn’t know how to, but that wouldn’t stop her. Truthfully, she had no clue how to fight properly in the way others had, but hopefully her survival instinct would kick in and she’d figure it out. Even if her luck ran out, at least she went down fighting.
In a blur, two guards barreled towards her, one with a shield, and the other from earlier She snarled at them, quills raised defensively as she attempted to jump out of the way.
She wasn’t fast enough.
The baton in the guard’s hand smacked square into her shoulder, the surprising power behind sending her tumbling to the ground.
She rolled to sit up, only to realize the guard raised their arm to strike again. She flinched to cover her head and squint her eyes, bracing for the pain to come.
“Stop! I need that one alive.”
Bronze’s ears flicked back as a shadow cast itself over her, looking up and being met with the ever smug Dr. Foam behind her. He wore a sharp grin, his arms behind his back as his Robo-Chao floated noisily nearby.
She turned to face him on her knees, scowling. Before she could bite out an insult, he crouched in front of her and took her chin in one of his hands, firmly forcing eye contact.
“Once the others are dealt with, this one’s the first one to the lab. I have so much I want to know, and since her foolish brother is gone, she’ll have to do…” Dr. Foam purred, grip tightening on her face as she growled. He was talking as if she weren’t able to understand him, and it was ticking her off.
“I’m going to kill you,” She threatened lowly, shaking. “I swear. I’m going to kill-”
“Right, right,” He dismissed, a faux sweetness dripping from his voice. Bronze very much wanted to punch him in the face.
Wait. If all of this is never going to happen when Silver erases the timeline… She realized. He must have noticed her expression shift, as his grin fell ever so slightly.
“What? Why are you-”
Bronze let the baton in her grip clatter to the ground, shifted her weight, and decked him right in the snout.
He fell back, using the hand he was holding her muzzle with to grip his own where he was hit, groaning. Using the shock of the moment, she grabbed her abandoned weapon, whipped around, and swept the guard with the shield’s legs with it.
The guard cried out as they fell to the ground, their leg making a sickening crack,giving her enough time to jump to her feet.
The baton wielding guard came swinging again, aiming for the side of her head. With only a moment to process, caught the baton as it swung, sending a jolt of pain up her arm. She yanked it from the guard’s hands with all her might, and sent it flying.
An idea zipped through her mind, and she used the continued momentum of the moment to make a break for the broken window.
Silver had really done a number on it, for being a relatively lithe hedgehog. The whole window was shattered, from the floor to the metal frame above. Broken glass littered the ground around her, as she approached the edge.
“Damn you, brat!” Dr Foam shouted angrily from across the room. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”
Bronze cast a look down below, to the city hundreds of feet below. Her stomach flipped, the height dizzying.
Despite the sun having only just then risen, a crowd of little dots below were forming. They must have seen the shattered glass and come to check out what was going on.
She was going to die anyway. If she was going to spend her last living moments in a lab, then she was going to cut to the chase and go on her own terms.
If they charge me again, I’ll jump. Last hurrah. I won’t be compliant, right to the bitter end. She thought grimly.
She turned her back to the outside world, looking back to the pandemonium in the hallway. Shadow was taking out guards left and right, and Mephiles continued to gracefully dance around the violence, watching her with interest.
She’d probably traumatize the poor citizens below if she jumped, but none of it would matter in the end anyway. She wasn’t going to exist within the hour, probably.
Dr. Foam got to his feet, nursing his sore snout as he glared her down. She tore her eyes away from the commander to stare right back at Dr. Foam defiantly. A violent crack filled the air, followed by a clatter.
Bronze shifted her attention back to Mephiles, who seemed baffled as they stared at their wrist.
It looked like a guard had just tried to hit them, and they had blocked with their forearm. The attacking guard stumbled back, not expecting the resistance, nor the sudden snap. The cuff around Mephiles’ wrist had snapped, and clattered to the ground noisily.
She didn’t have time to really think about that, as Dr Foam stormed up to her, tailed by the guard who had been assaulting her since the start.
“Seize her before she jumps!” He snarled.
That was her cue.
Shadow shouted something as well, but she couldn’t hear it over the rush of blood in her ears. No turning back.
Bronze let gravity take her, stomach flipping, and began to fall.
She heard various startled screams and cries as the wind began to whistle around her ears, regret immediately hitting her like a truck as horror dawned on her. She had jumped. Gods, why had she done that?
She felt frozen, as if she were a ragdoll falling from a shelf. Her eyes were glued to the early morning sky, the bright blue above providing enough depth to know she was falling, and falling fast.
Tears pricked at her eyes. This was it. This was the end of Bronze the Hedgehog.
She clenched her jaw and stared up at the floor from where she had jumped. The hedgehog squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, a silent prayer to whatever god was out there. She was never religious,certainly not after the whole ‘raised in a cult’ thing, but…
Whatever happens, please let Silver be okay.
She opened them, and-
Another figure was falling from the building, arms stretched out towards her. She couldn’t tell who it was just yet, they were just a blob. Maybe an angel?
They came into focus.
Okay, definitely not an angel.
Mephiles dove towards her, falling much faster than her and catching up to her in a matter of moments. Before she could sputter out a confused yelp, they snatched one of her wrists and dug their claws into her glove. Ow.
“Hang on!” They shouted against the wind.
She spun to face the ground, the concrete below creeping closer and closer into view with every passing minute. Mephiles extended a hand towards it, flickers of a strange purple glow beginning to dance along their arm. They seemed to have a plan of some kind.
“You’re freaking crazy!!” She yowled.
Mephiles ignored her cry as an odd purple cloud produced itself from thin air a few meters below them. She gasped as they fell into it, Mephiles’ grasp on her wrist finally slipping as they limply let go. Their descent slowed, as they fell through the weird mist.
The light from the sky above faded away, replaced by an eerie purple glow as it thinned underneath them, seemingly.
They fell lightly now, as the mist began to fade. A strange feeling sunk its teeth into her, almost like she was somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be. She glanced around the cloud, finding nothing but an endless amount of mist around her and the commander in freefall.
She chalked it up to adrenaline and looked back to the ground and- her brain short circuited.
Below them was a grassy, green field, now coming very close with the mist fading away.
They gently drifted to the ground, giving her enough time to orient herself to land on her feet and bend her knees.
Seconds passed, and before she knew it, her boots landed on the grass below, while Mephiles flopped clumsily onto the ground next to her.
She winced, but drew her attention to the fog hanging above their heads. It dissipated slowly in the air, and through it, she could see the traces of the city they had been in, before it faded and was carried into the distance by the wind.
What the heck was that?
Her knees gave out under her, adrenaline running high in her system as she attempted to slow her frantic heart and calm her breathing.
Okay. Scariest moment of my life. Remind me to never do that again, She thought, slouching as she gripped at her vest and gasped for air. I really thought I was a goner.
Her instinct was to get mad at Mephiles, for whatever weird teleportation stunt they had just pulled. It scared the daylights out of her, and completely thwarted her plan! Now they were both going to get hunted by that stupid shark and it was all their fault and-
Deep breath in. Deep breath out. She was freaked out, reasonably so, but now was not the time to let panic trump logic.
She didn’t know where she was or how she got there. Or… anything about the situation, honestly. Other than she had just survived something she certainly shouldn’t have been able to, and a weird feeling settled over her.
Almost… apprehension? Or, like the feeling of the air before a thunderstorm, or something. It was hard to place, okay?
She turned her attention to Mephiles. They laid face down in the grass, but seemed to be breathing. Crouching, she prodded their ear.
“Hello? Are you there?”
No response.
Bronze hummed, hands trembling far too much for her taste. She was shaken, duh, but c’mon.
“You care to tell me what just happened?” She tried. Still, nothing. Mephiles appeared to be out cold, if they were even still alive. And really, a fall with such slow momentum was hardly something that would probably take out someone like Mephiles.
Admittedly, she didn’t know much about the strange crystalized hedgehog, but she gathered a few things. They were powerful, they were buddies with Silver at some point. The works.
With a shaky breath in, she nudged their shoulder. “Hey, get up, I need you to tell me what just happened.”
It wasn’t like she really expected anything to happen. It was more just to say that she had tried to wake them up. They remained unconscious on the ground, the slow rise and fall of their abdomen the only real sign of life.
She huffed, nudging them harder, rolling them over onto their back. They limply complied, flopping over almost comically. Their face was far from relaxed, eyes squeezed shut and muzzle scrunched up. They appeared almost to be in pain, but still did not react when she touched them.
Impatiently, she leaned in and blew in their ear.
It flicked (good, another sign of life), but they remained still.
Bummer. Normally that worked on people. Not that she blew in people’s ears very often! She would never!!
…Cough.
Now sure that they were out cold, she hopped back to her feet and surveyed the area. The field they had landed in appeared to be on top of a hill, with similar dips and rises in the land around for miles.
Great. No tree cover. No towns. Just her, a (former?) government official-thing, and the wide open beyond.
She smacked a hand to the side of her face, an audible groan slipping out of her mouth. What even was her life. She was supposed to be sneaking out and talking back to her parents, not involved in… whatever this was.
(I act like I wasn’t a cult baby, She thought bitterly. Doomed by my birth to live a weird life, I guess.)
She collapsed to the ground, deciding that her legs were too shaky to be able to do much then. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to go either way. And besides…
She bit her lip, looking at the other hedgehog. She couldn’t leave them alone. Certainly not until they explained what was going on.
The young hedgehog could feel the gears turning in her brain, processing her freshly gained near-death-experience.
She sat there on her knees on the ground, staring up at the sky above.
The red of early morning had melted nearly fully into dusty blue. The weather there, wherever she was, was different though. Clouds laced the sky in the distance, telling of the possibility of a gloomy day.
Bronze thought for a moment. The sun’s still out though. Which means we can at least find East and West. Good to know.
She drew in another heavy breath, letting her eyes fall shut. She had expected a lot to happen, given her brother had been back in town. But this… this was not what she expected.
She had made it.
She had expected to die, but she had made it.
Good gods. At least she had gotten to punch Dr Foam in the face.
___
It took two hours for Mephiles to awaken. In that time, Bronze had to have counted past ten thousand, picked the grass she sat upon to its roots, and eventually gave up on waiting.
She resorted to primitive measures of transport, because she wasn’t going to waste daylight sitting around waiting for this loser to wake up if the nearest down was hours away.
Mephiles finally made a noise of protest as she dragged their limp body behind her by the hand, eyes beginning to flutter open. Much to her amusement.
“Mn… what?”
Bronze dropped their arm, causing them to flop to the ground less than gracefully. They winced, before sitting up and looking her up and down with faint recognition. They seemed to still be half asleep, as they rubbed their eyes and adjusted their maroon cloak around one shoulder.
She put her hands on her hips, frowning. “Well that took forever.”
“Where are we?” Mephiles groaned sleepily, squinting against the harsh light of the risen sun at the young hedgehog.
“I dunno, you’re the one who brought us here,” Bronze grumbled, opting to cross her arms instead as a glare crept into her gaze. It wasn’t her fault she was getting impatient. “So yeah.What the heck was up with that?!”
Mephiles simply stared at her blankly, words processing at the speed of molasses.
“Well? Wanna tell me what’s goin’ on?”
“Going on with what?” They asked plainly.
“DUDE!” Bronze snapped. “You jumped off a building with me? Hello?? Where are we? How did we get here? What-”
“Slow down,” Mephiles held up a crystalized hand to silence her. They happened to raise the wrist absent of a cuff, and noticed immediately. Their ears perked right up, eyes widening as they rolled their wrist.
“Your cuff thing,” Bronze observed out loud. “It broke in the fight.”
“It did indeed,” They breathed, awe in their eyes as they flexed their claws. “It did indeed…”
“Why do you seem so happy about that? Are they inhibitor rings? You still haven’t told me where we are,” Bronze questioned. Mephiles’ eye twitched, and they sighed harshly.
“Goodness gracious child, you talk a lot,” They huffed, pushing themselves carefully to their feet. They still seemed a little disoriented, their balance wobbling a little as they stood, but ultimately regained their composure. “When are we?”
Bronze’s cheeks puffed out, scowling. “What the heck does that even mean?”
Their ears twitched, casting a bored look at their surroundings. They seemed to stand there and think for a moment.
“Well, the last thing I recall is opening a rift in time, so frankly? We could be anywhere, anywhen.” They hummed, tail flicking. “I took us back as far as I could physically manage.”
“Wh- why the heck’d ya do that?!” She felt her quills stand on end. Was that why she had been so put off when they landed? Mephiles rolled their eyes at her alarm.
“A child such as yourself could not have possibly survived a fall from such a height. Given I had the means, I simply figured it would be wise to save both of our hides before it was too late. Though, admittedly, I am rusty on my time travel abilities.”
Bronze growled. “The point was I wouldn’t survive that! I’m not about to get caught by Dr. Foam, jerk. Now we’re going to be hunted for sport and it’s all your fault!!”
Mephiles rolled their eyes again. “Fool.”
“Come again?” Bronze snapped, stepping closer with a clenched fist. She was not taking mouth from this… this walking geode.
“I said, fool,” Mephiles put their hands on their hips. “We are in the past. There is a strong possibility that the events that have transpired in the tower have yet to happen, or will not happen at all.”
“But we’re still in danger of being overwritten!” Bronze insisted. “What if we’re not far back enough? What if we took the place of our previous selves and just messed everything up? What’ll happen-”
“Respectfully, will you hush?!”
Bronze bristled, and they continued.
“It is unlikely we are in danger any longer, and we very well may be decades in the past, before you or Silver were born. I am not stupid,” Mephiles’ tail continued to swish behind them. “The best course of action will be to collect the Chaos Emeralds.”
Bronze scoffed. “Maybe for you. I’m outta here.”
Mephiles seemed taken aback, and for a slight second, they had the goofiest look of surprise on their face. “Wait,-”
“Listen. I want nothing to do with this, or you. I don’t care what you do, but I’m doin’ my own thing. I’m not helping you with dip,” She explained haughtily. It wasn’t like she had a plan, but she was pretty peeved with them for, well, everything. I didn’t ask to get time travelled, prick.
“Child, you can’t just-”
“Oh yes I can. Watch me!” She snipped, turning on her heel and beginning to walk down the hill, ignoring all of their protests for her to turn back. They weren’t demands, she wasn’t even sure they had a strong enough voice to make a demand, but they were increasingly frantic and louder as she created distance.
“Wait, hedgehog, you’ll get yourself killed! I have a plan- come back!!” They reasoned, light footsteps behind her leading her to assume that they were starting to follow her. She picked up the pace. “If we find the Emeralds, we may be able to-”
“Bla bla bla!” Bronze began to repeat, putting her hands over her ears and walking faster. “Give me a good reason not to ditch you!”
“I will bring you back to your brother!”
She stopped.
“Wait, for real?” She asked, turning back to them. They paused their step as well, nodded vehemently.
“If you are to stick with me, I can reunite you and your kin. All we would truly need are the Chaos Emeralds, to split the difference in my ability with the cuffs. The only reason I was able to bring us here is because one of my cuffs broke, but it will not be enough to bring us back 200 years,” Mephiles explained.
“Okay. How do we know he’s 200 years in the past?” She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow. She wasn’t going to be tricked by this moron. She refused.
Mephiles shrugged. “We have no way of knowing for certain, but the Chaos Emeralds work wonders; if we wish it, they may be able to bring us right to him, or him to us.”
Bronze thought for a moment, weighing her options.
Alright. On one hand, they’re a creepo and I don’t trust them. On the other; …they can bring me back to Silver, wherever he is.
Reluctantly, she sighed and offered out a hand, for a handshake. “Fine. I’ll help you find these Emeralds or whatever.”
They reached out to take her hand, but she snatched it away before they could touch her. “But. I reserve my right to ditch you if you start giving me the creeps or things start going wrong. And only if you promise to bring me to Silver.”
Mephiles offered up their own hand again. They didn’t wear gloves, which was weird, but kept their claws safely open enough for her to slot her own hand into the handshake. “I accept your terms.”
“Don’t make me regret it,” She grumbled, taking their hand and firmly shaking it.
Mephiles smiled, satisfied with their deal. “You will not. The more you cooperate, the sooner we are out of this mess.”
“So what’s first?” She withdrew her hand, crossing her arms again. “Find the nearest town and get the date?”
“Hm. Sounds good,” They nodded. “Just pick a direction and follow it-”
“Until we reach moving water, in which case, we follow that. Got it.” Bronze nodded. That was how she used to find her way back to her old tent in the Ascendancy. The same rules probably applied.
They seemed taken aback, as if that was not what they were about to say, but sighed. “Sure.”
With a final turn of her heel, she continued down the hill, with the other hedgehog in tow.
What a weird day.
Whatever. She’d catch up to Silver one way or another, even if it meant working with Sketchy McJerkface.