The following is a work of fan fiction by Joshua D. Tarwater and is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.*
*SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS retains full rights over the Sonic the Hedgehog™ intellectual property and can terminate or take control of this work at any time.

~EPISODE OF NEW HISTORY 02~

         ★Life is but a dream, one we wake to again and again.

A[JT1]  start
Darkness given way to daylight
Eyelids blinking
Waves crashing on white sand
Blue skies and bright sunlight
A colorful beach umbrella
A red beach chair
Music playing over radio on a side table
Ice slowly melting in a glass
A name on a sapient hedgehog’s lips

         “Amy.”

         “What’s that Sonic?” A sapient red fox boy with two tails asked Sonic, stopping to do so. Still carrying the jet powered bodyboard he held above his head, he blinked slowly and stared at Sonic curiously. Then a mischievous grin spread across the fox boy’s face.

         “Hey, wait, Amy is a girl’s name! Dreaming about your girlfriend Sonic?”

         “Not on your life, Tails,” Sonic scoffed at his best friend’s remark. But his ear twitched as he fully processed what Tails said. “And what do you mean ‘Amy’ is a girl’s name. Like that rascal hasn’t caused us more than enough trouble. I was actually just thinking I bet it’d be quite an adventure looking for her.”

         Leaning back in his beach chair, Sonic rubbed his nose smugly. Tails however did not answer, and Sonic’s ear flicked irritably. Opening one green eye, he saw the fox boy looking very confused.

         “Um, Sonic–”

         “Come on Tails, this isn’t funny. You can’t make me think you’ve forgotten Amy.”

         Despite Sonic’s confidence however, a bead of sweat ran down his cheek. And Tails, Tails simply stared at Sonic as though his idol and hero must have been half asleep speaking from a lingering dream. And in that stare, Sonic saw no dishonesty. No pranks. Only the confusion of someone who had no idea who Sonic was talking about.

         Sitting up Sonic scratched at his ear irritably and took a moment to take in the scene. He was obviously relaxing on a beach, an activity he did more often than not, but he knew this beach. Both in the present and from sometime in the distant past. Or perhaps it was from a dream.

         “Give me a sec, Tails,” Sonic instructed the two-tailed fox as he made his way down to the water’s edge.

         Curiously, Tails watched Sonic as the water washed over his shoes before receding away. Sonic stood there for a long moment until something caught his eye and he squatted down to pick it up.

         “What’s that Sonic?” Tails asked inquisitively as he ran over and squatted down beside Sonic.

         “Looks like an ancient Ring, “Sonic filled in the fox as he turned it around and showed off the ancient etchings.

         “Wow! That’s really rare for a Ring not to return to the Earth after so long. I bet we could learn a lot from it if we could translate the writing.”

         “I bet I know someone who can read it,” Sonic admitted as he stood up, “as long as he wasn’t just a dream too.”

         “You’re talking weird again Sonic,” Tails confessed his confusion rather directly as he stood with his body board held above his head.

         “What about you?” Sonic asked as he studied the fox. “I could have sworn you were off working on a Chaos Emerald radar.”

         “Well, I was,” Tails admitted meekly. “It’s just since you lost them when you fell from the Death Egg… I mean considering you used them to survive reentry it makes sense you wouldn’t have held onto them…

         “Anyway,” Tails laughed trying to hide his nervousness. “I figured I’d take a break and work on the Tornado and making the rocket I fixed to it work better and thought I’d run some test with this to get some ideas going.”

         Nervously Tails held the rocket powered body board he clung to out to Sonic and was surprised when Sonic roughly rubbed his head.

         “Sounds like you could use that break and like I could go for a run to clear my head,” Sonic smirked, but also rubbed his nose with the pointer finger of his free hand.

         Tails would not have been familiar with it yet, having really only known Sonic for one adventure, but Sonic had a sense for danger that would cause him to sneeze. As such, his lifestyle led to his nose constantly itching, a problem paired with his allergies able to both sour and excite Sonic’s mood.

         “Whatever dream I was having was way too vivid.”

         Closing his eyes a moment, he saw that unclear image of the pink hedgehog girl whose name he called out upon waking. He could not put her image together well at all, but he knew the blue eyes he last saw her with were a shift from the green he was sure she always had. But his thoughts were soon interrupted by Tails. “Maybe it’s a side effect of using the Chaos Emeralds’ power.”

         “I guess we could always stop by your lab here and see if maybe I’m giving off weird readings,” Sonic joked as he stretched his arms above his head and walked away from Tails.

         “Hehe,” Tails laughed and spun his namesake about like a helicopter rotor and took himself into the air. “It’s more just a little workshop and it’s a couple of islands over from this one–”

         “I haven’t forgotten that’s where you left the Tornado,” Sonic cut Tails off and earned a nervous laugh in response. Not wanting to discourage the fox he offered him a comforting smirk. “The problem is I remember that dream too well and just need to put my thoughts in order. So why don’t you go on ahead and I’ll take a short run and catch up?”

         “Yeah, that sounds good,” Tails nodded and smiled himself. “But Sonic…”

         “Hmm?”

         “Don’t take too long. If you really have lingering energy from the Chaos Emeralds clinging onto you, we’ll want to pick it up as soon as possible so I don’t lose a chance to calibrate my radar.”

         “Come on Tails,” Sonic laughed. “If my reputation didn’t say it, I’d think running all over West Side Island with me would have shown you I’m not one to be slow.”

         “Hehe, yeah,” Tails laughed again before lifting himself up higher into the sky. “Alright then, I’ll see you there Sonic!”

         Waving and receiving a wave in kind, Tails flew off as fast as he could. Sonic watched him for only a moment longer before lowering his free hand and lifting up the one that still held the ancient Ring. “No way that could have been a dream. It’s like Solaris all over again. But jumping back all the way to only a week after I first stopped Eggman from launching the Death Egg? And what happened to Amy? Why are my memories of her all over the place when I can even remember something like a god of time and space causing time to be rewritten when it was put down? I’m pretty she she’s never been a shadowy blob before either, and I definitely never saw her after fighting Eggman up on the Death Egg."

         Weighing the ancient Ring before spinning it on the tip of his index finger, Sonic let his thoughts wander a bit before he let the Ring be absorbed into his body with a twinkling of golden motes of light.