This is inspired by Marvel's What If...? episode What If... Dr. Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? Enjoy.
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On the world Moebius, Anarchy is seen starring down at a castle from a far hilltop. The wind blew through his long hair, making the purple locks sway a bit as Anarchy closes his eyes to enjoy the feeling of coldness running down his shirtless skin. Then he sighs and opens his eyes, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small locket without a chain. It was chipped all around the edges, its golden skin dulled from not being cleaned for three years. He opens it to reveal a photo of his universe's Maria holding his arm, both of them having a smile on their faces. The picture was covered by a small plane of glass that had a faint but still noticeable crack running over Maria.
He gritted his teeth as he gripped the small locket, his face being reflected in the glass as it soon shifts to be a mirror reflecting the face and body of a younger Anarchy. He was four years younger than the seventeen-year-old Anarachy, and was only referred to as Y/n back then.
He adjusts the tie around his neck, a black suit being worn on his body as he prepared for the annual ball in the Space Colony Ark. His hair was much shorter and cleaner, being (H/C) instead of purple with his eyes being a normal and sane (E/C). His skin was a still a bit paler than that average human's, but that was because of the lack of sunlight he got, even in space. He was a bit uncomfortable with the suit on since his thin exoskeleton that allowed him to move his upper body made it difficult to wear tighter clothing
The door opens, making Y/n turn to see Gerald Robotnik in a nice suit who smiles at the boy.
"Ah! You look great, Y/n," Gerald tells the twelve-year-old Y/n. "You look just like your father."
"Thank you, Professor Robotnik," Y/n smiles at the scientist. "And thank you for inviting me to the party. I've never personally seen Haley's Comet."
"You shouldn't be thanking me, son," Gerald states.
This confuses Y/n before Gerald steps aside to reveal Shadow wearing a bowtie around his neck and Maria, Gerald's granddaughter, wearing a lovely purple dress.
"O-oh..." a blush grows on Y/n's face as he holds his tie. "H-hi, Maria."
Maria giggles as she walks up to Y/n.
"Hi, N/n," she greets her friend. "You look great."
"Th-thank you, M-Maria," Y/n stutters. "Y-you look great, t-too."
Maria giggles as she spins around in her dress once.
"Thank you, N/n."
Y/n smiles stupidly to himself as Gerald chuckles to himself while Shadow lets a small smile show.
"I think we'll give you two some time alone," Gerald says and turns to Shadow. "Shall we go, Shadow?"
"We shall," Shadow nods and leaves with Gerald, leaving Maria and Y/n alone.
"So, uh... you're the one who invited me to the Comet Ball?" Y/n nervously asks his best friend.
Maria nods in confirmation.
"I found out you've never been to the ball, so I wanted you to join me and Grandfather," the blonde states. "Plus, it gives me more time to be with you."
Y/n blushes again at these words, scratching his cheek as he looks away, flustered.
"Th-that means so much to me, M-Maria," Y/n says, making Maria giggle. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, N/n," Maria says and offers to link arms with Y/n. "Shall we go?"
Smiling, Y/n nods and links his arm with Maria's, the two walking out of Y/n's room together as they walk down the hallway. As they walk, Maria looked over at the windows and gazed at the stars. Y/n follows her gaze and looks at the stars as well.
"I can never get used to this," Y/n states with a smile.
"You've been here for two years, N/n," Maria says, looking at her friend now. "How are you not used to it?"
"I don't know," Y/n admits. "Just feels... special."
Maria giggles a bit before leaning forward, and placing her lips on Y/n's cheek for a kiss. Y/n's cheeks flare red as he looks away flustered, making Maria laugh out loud this time instead of giggling which causes Y/n to blush even harder.
Then heavy footsteps begin to be heard at the end of the hallway, making Y/n and Maria stop walking as they grew curious. Then they saw Shadow running towards them with a panicked expression.
"Shadow?" Y/n questions.
"Shadow, what's wrong?" Maria asks the hedgehog.
However, he just grabs Maria and Y/n's hands and pulls them along as they struggle to keep up with the Ultimate Lifeform.
"Shadow?! What's going on?!"
"It's the Military!" Shadow states. "They're here to take me and kill everyone here!"
Maria and Y/n's eyes widen in shock as Y/n looks back to see soliders running after them.
Gunshots go off as the three narrowly avoid them, Shadow sending off some small attacks to keep them at bay as he pulled Y/n and Maria along with him. Then they make it to the escape pod bay, all three quickly entering and Y/n immediately goes to close the door.
"That won't keep them back for long!" Y/n states and begins to take off his suit for better movement and revealing his exoskeleton. "We gotta be quick!"
Maria and Shadow nod in agreement and Maria turns to Shadow.
"You're going first."
"What?" Shadow questions. "No way, you and Y/n are going."
"Shadow, if they get you, it's all over," Maria tells the hedgehog.
"You're more important, Shadow," Y/n states. "You're going."
Hesitantly, Shadow nods and goes to an escape pop, stepping inside of it as Maria goes to the control panel. Since she knew how to use the controls better than Y/n, she was the one to prepare the escape pods for jettison.
Y/n walked up to Shadow and placed his hand on the glass.
"I'll see you on the ground, Shadow."
"See you on the ground, kid," Shadow says, also placing his hand on the glass to mimick Y/n.
"The escape pod is ready," Maria states. "We just need to--"
The bay doors suddenly get blown off, soldiers stepping in as they aimed their guns around the room. Then one sees Shadow in an escape pod and looks to see Maria at the controls. He aims his gun at her.
"Maria! No!"
Maria quickly goes to slam the button that jettisons the escape pods down as Y/n reaches out for her, but they were both too slow. A gunshot goes off and Maria gasps in pain, falling to the ground as blood starts to stain her dress.
Y/n runs over to her in fear and holds up her body as Shadow cries from inside his escape pod.
"Maria! No!" Y/n cries out as tears start to appear in his eyes. "Please, no! Don't go!"
"Y/n..." Maria weakly says as she looks up her best friend.
Y/n then looks up when he hears a gun cocking, seeing the same solider aim his gun at him which makes the (H/C)-haired boy widen his eyes in fear.
"NO! PLEASE!" Shadow begs as he slams his fist on the glass, cracking it. "HE'S INNOCENT! DON'T DO IT!"
"Sorry, kid," the solider says. "Nothing personal. Just business."
He begins to pull the trigger as Y/n holds Maria's now lifeless body close to him. He braces himself for the bullet before...
"NO!"
Shadow suddenly teleports out of the escape pod and kicks the soldier away, sending him crashing into a wall and knocks him out.
"Shadow!" Y/n calls out in shock.
"Get him!"
"Take him out!"
All of the soldiers aim at Shadow and open fire, only for the Ultimate Lifeform to easily doge the bullets and take out the soliders one by one. However, one aims at Y/n to take him out which Shadows sees.
"No!" he calls out in fear.
Y/n cries as he looks at the soldier in front of him, ready to kill him without regret. The man pulls the trigger...
... but Y/n doesn't feel a bullet pierce his body. Instead, he felt two arms holding his and Maria's body. Y/n's eyes dilate in shock and fear as he looks at who saved him.
"Y/n... I'm so sorry..." Shadow weakly says as blood leaks from the bullet wound in his back.
"Shadow..." Y/n begins to cry even harder as he feels the hedgehog's grip on his loosen. "Please.... no..."
"See you on the ground... kid..."
Shadow then collapses in front of Y/n and lies limp on his body. Y/n can't even look down at the dead bodies of his only two friends on the Ark, his body frozen in a state of shock as tears drop on their bodies.
"What do we do with the kid?" one of the remaining soliders in the bay ask. "Kill him?"
"Nah, we'll leave him," another says. "We'll just jettison the escape pods so he can't leave. Everyone else here is dead. He'll die in a week."
Following their orders, the soliders jettison the pods and let them drift off into space before leaving Y/n in the escape pod bay. As they leave, Y/n finally grabs on to both Maria and Shadow's body and brings them close to him, sobbing as he couldn't believe that his closest friends were gone... forever.
After some time, Y/n began to find a way back to his planet to tell the truth about what had happened on the Ark. Using blueprints made by Gerald himself, Y/n created a teleportation device that uses Anarchy Energy as its power source. He succeeds and makes it to the solider dirt, but not the dirt that belongs to his planet. It was an alien world, and he wasn't even in his own time, either. The device had malfunctioned and sent him forward fifty years in time as well.
However, that is where he met Sonic.
"Oi, kid," the blue hedgehog wearing a leather jacket calls out to Y/n. "What are you doing in a place like this?"
After that, Y/n became fast friends with Sonic and traveled all around Moebius with him, helping the villainous Blue Blur commit crimes and other stuff. Y/n even gained access to a shard of Anarchy Beryl which he wears around his neck with his locket, giving him power to do almost anything.
Two years had passed since that day on the Ark, and Y/n's hair has grown out a bit and reached his shoulders with a faint purple color tinting it. He had become a bit of an outlaw with Sonic, a lot of people knowing who he was and even feared him. Not as much as Sonic, but sill.
Right now, Y/n was sitting in the warehouse he and Sonic was hiding in for the moment. He was looking at the picture of him and Maria from his locket, wishing so much that she was there with him. He was fifteen now, and it was also the anniversary of her and Shadow's death.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Y/n glances behind him to see Scourge walking up to him. Y/n turns back to his locket which Sonic sees.
"So... how long has it been?" he asks.
"Two years, tonight," Y/n answers as he closes the locket and lets go of it, letting it hang around his neck. "What are you doing up?"
"Heh. Needed to use the bathroom," Sonic admits. "What are you doing?"
Y/n looks away from Sonic as he not-so subtly takes hold of the Anarchy Beryl around his neck.
"Hm. I'm gonna get us something to drink," Sonic says as he turns and walks away. "I suggest you join me before you do something stupider than usual."
Sonic leaves Y/n to himself as the human doesn't follow. He just looks out the window in front of him with sadness in his eyes. Then he holds up the gemstone around his neck up to his face, looking at it for a few moments before coming to a decision.
He drops it and lets it hang around his neck again as he stands to his feet. Then, concentrating, Y/n's body begins to be surrounded by purple sparks of energy as his Anarchy Beryl begins to glow.
"Anarchy..." the sparks begin to get wilder as the wind around him picks up. "... CONTROL!"
A flash of purple light covers everything before it fades, revealing Y/n to be back in the Ark and wearing the suit he wore on the day of the Comet Ball. He laughs a bit to himself as he looks in the mirror.
The door opens, making Y/n turn to see Gerald Robotnik in a nice suit who smiles at the boy.
"Ah! You look great, Y/n," Gerald tells the twelve-year-old Y/n. "You look just like your father."
Y/n stares at Gerald for a moment before smiling.
"Thanks, Professor Robotnik," he tells the man, remembering how the day went. "And thank you for inviting me to the ball."
"Oh, it isn't me who you should be thanking," Gerald states.
"Lemme guess," Y/n says. "Maria?"
Gerald nods with a smile and moves aside to reveal Shadow wearing a bowtie around his neck and Maria who was wearing a lovely purple dress.
"Hi, N/n," Maria greets her best friend.
Y/n's heart skips a beat as he looks at Maria, not expecting to see her ever again. Gerald notices Y/n sweating and decides to say something.
"What's wrong, my boy?"
"I, uh, I think I might've just had a small heart attack," Y/n lies through his teeth with a smile as he doesn't take his eyes off of Maria. He's gotten good at lying with help from Sonic.
"A heart attack?" Gerald questions with a small chuckle.
"Well, didn't think my dress would do that much to you," Maria says with a small giggle.
She walks up to Y/n and kisses him on the cheek, making the boy blush just like last time. Y/n laughs a bit, though, before he returns the gesture, this time making Maria blush
"Say the word, Maria, and I'll give you anything you want," Y/n tells Maria as he holds her hands.
This makes Maria smile.
"I think watching Haley's Comet with you is all I want right now."
Y/n nods and walks with Maria, Shadow, and Gerald out of his room and down the hall to the ball. He forgets all about the danger ahead as he has his arm linked with Maria's, a smile on his face which the blonde notices.
"You're smiling more than usual," she points out. "Why's that?"
"Can't I smile?" Y/n asks playfully.
"It's just not like you to smile unless there's a reason," Maria states.
"Maybe..." Y/n turns to look at Maria. "Maybe you're the reason."
Maria looks a bit shocked at first as a blush forms on her face before she smiles and leans her head on Y/n's shoulder.
"You're so silly, Y/n."
Y/n smiles at this as he looks at Maria...
... only for a gunshot to ruin everything.
Gerald gasps in pain before falling to the ground, blood coming from his chest as Maria calls out to her father in fear. Then Y/n and Shadow turn to see soliders running up to them. Shadow grabs the hands of Maria and Y/n and starts running, pulling them along with him as everything two years ago repeats.
Maria dies in Y/n's arms from a solider and Shadow tries to save Y/n after, only to get shot and die in Y/n's arms again as well. The soliders jettisoned all of the escape pods and left after, leaving a crying Y/n as he held Shadow and Maria's body close to him.
"No... please, not again..." he says as tears roll down his cheeks. "Please, not again! NO!"
Y/n sobs once again before his saddened expression turns into one of anger and determination. He lets go of their bodies and stood to his feet, concentrating on using Anarchy Control again to time travel once more. With a mighty yell, purple light covers everything once more before it all fades to black.
To Be Concluded In Part 2...