Geo took a deep breath, hands folded between his knees as he sat leaning forward at the edge of his cotton couch.

"My instructions were to tell you everything first, then give you this Chaos Emerald. I know this isn't from your world, but I was told that by giving it to you, there would be a better outcome in the future." Sora concluded, taking the green Emerald out of his pocket.

"Who sent you here, kid?" asked Geo.

"Master Yen Sid."

"Mm, never heard of him."

"Didn't think you would; he's a pretty powerful wizard, so he can see the future and stuff."

"To see the future is one thing; to see the future and know the names of the strangers involved, that's impressive..." Geo offered his palm, "May I?"

Sora arose from his seat and placed the Emerald in Geo's hand. Geo immediately beheld its lively power in his hand, and entire body. The energy flowed deep enough to lift his spirit, enough to raise the hairs on his neck, enough to feel a connection with it.

"This- These Chaos Emeralds," he spread his fingers to let the gem levitate on its own above his hand, "They're celestial."

Sora frowned, "What does that mean?"

"Meaning, these were created when the universe was created, or they were later created by one or more celestial beings using their powers. Although, as a celestial myself, I couldn't tell you which, they're not from my universe."

"Oh yeah, Master Yen Sid said something about them belonging to some heroes...Uh, what did he call them?..."

"'Mobians?'"

"Yeah, 'Mobian heroes,' that's it!"

Geo could feel doubt beginning to settle within him. "Did he say anything else about them?"

"Not really," Sora scratched his head. "Just what I've already told you: that there's conflict with several dimensions, theirs and yours more so, and the root of everything comes from that and Ansem. I was actually hoping you would fill in the blanks here a bit. Would you know of any conflict between you and that other dimension?"

Geo's eyes went wide and shot to Sora, as he was just struck with an epiphany. "Wait, you said the Heartless are invading the other dimensions involved too?"

Sora nodded, "Yep, mostly yours and the Mobians', though."

"Of course, it all makes sense now!...I...may have made a mistake..."

"Oh?"

"I sent two people to their world to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds. Initially, I thought the Mobians were abusing their power, but I remember one of them insisting they've done no damage, and any damage caused by those Emeralds can be corrected just the same. I believe him now that I have one in my hand, and with your master calling them 'heroes'...But, how does that explain the Heartless?"

"No dimension is free of darkness. Wherever it is, the Heartless can be too. It's just this time they've found newer places to go."

"Yeah, but they've only been showing up recently; we've had contact with one of the Mobians years ago, which is why I initially blamed them for all this."

"Maybe it wasn't the Emeralds that caused this. Maybe it was something else that caused all of this."

"Perhaps...This is all so confusing, my guys haven't been responding on their ship, it's been a month-and-a-half now."

"'Month-and-a-half?' This issue only escalated like a week ago, in my dimension at least."

"That sounds about right, but for some reason, this crisis is affecting the way time works; time in the Mobian's dimension is moving significantly slower. So, what'll feel like a day to them could be a week or two to us. I can't be sure, their ship's clock isn't consistent."

"Do they know?"

"No, but I couldn't tell them anyway because no one has answered...It's been empty for a while."

"What makes you think they'll ever return?" The grave voice came from the entrance of the cabin.

"Ansem." Instinctively, Geo let the Chaos Emerald phase into his body to secure it, "What have you done?"

Ansem's mug sterned, "Sora."

A flash of light engulfed Sora's right arm, and when it faded, he was holding a weapon: a giant key, with the height of sword; it even had a golden circular crossguard with a long keychain and a charm of what looked like a silhouette of a mouse's head. Geo could now visibly see why Sora had two great energies within him: aside from Sora's own energy, this weapon seemed enchanted.

"I'll give you one chance to leave this world, Ansem!" Sora declared.

Ansem chuckled, "You just don't learn."

Geo felt the Chaos energy rise within him, but he didn't command it. Instead, it was more as if the Chaos Emerald sensed something close, and Geo promptly understood. "Then allow me to teach you a new lesson: hand over those Chaos Emeralds you have, or face the wrath of a Guardian!"

"'Guardian' you say?" Ansem's symbiotic Guardian Heartless spawned from his back, "Let us see who does it better."

Meanwhile...

Joseph stopped atop the hill of dead grass. Just down the hill was the start of a windy and narrow path along the larger hill of rocks, topped by a small brick castle that was ruddy brown with age. As Joseph skipped down the hill, he began his transformation. The sudden increase in height and weight made him trip, but he followed through by continuing to barrel roll down. He completed his transformation halfway down the slope, and the moment his feet met the ground again, he launched himself out into a front flip that landed him at the start of the trail.

He took to all fours to quickly make his way to the decrepit castle, stopping a few times at every abnormal sound his steps may or may not have made. The area was oddly quiet, there was a light wind, but it sounded louder than it should have been as it brushed Joe's ears. A breath, a step, or even a sparrow's wings were heard as clearly as if an ear was brought close.

Joe made it to the first limestone step of the stairs and rose upright. Before taking his next step, his hairs rose all over him. There was a presence in this castle that rubbed Joseph's instincts the wrong way.

"This don't feel right."

Nonetheless, Joe proceeded up the stairs and stopped at the black wooden door. He froze for a moment, remembering the last words Drake told him before he was taken back to this dimension. The name "Booker Gardel" echoed in his mind, fueling his pent-up rage from years of never avenging his parents.- to then be told he was falsely doing so for so long, that he's been chasing a lie.

He grabbed and twisted the rusted black knob, and pulled. The door wasn't opening, so he kept pulling and shaking the knob until it did. He yelled a curse and hit the door, which then glided open towards inside.

"Push, not pull; a sign would be nice for idiots like me who are used to just busting down people's doors!" Joe called out, hoping Drake heard him.

As he expected- although small for a castle- the space was dark and dimly lit by a fireplace across the room. Joseph made it to the other side of the room in seconds, as he went to observe the unlabeled wine bottle on the center table. He popped open the cork and the metallic waft of blood confirmed its content. He set the bottle down and chose to take the spiraling wooden stairs behind the couch next to him. After several seconds, his wide stature was becoming too large for him to proceed through the narrowing walls. He morphed back into his normal form and continued his squeaky walk up the long stairway.

For what felt like an entire minute of walking, he made it to a much larger room, but with absolutely nothing but a piano and a stool at the far end of the room near the window, and a bookshelf on the right side of the room. Right next to it was another doorway to another set of spiraling stairs.

"Shiiiiit. Drake?" Joseph called, "Are you here?"

There was no response but the audible silence. He glanced around the room for any other doorway to avoid the stairs. To no avail, he sighed and proceeded on to the stairs. Suddenly, a hollow thrum resonated from behind, raising Joe's forearm hairs again. He turned to find a Large Body Heartless behind him.

Joe hulked up again, "You again!"

He lifted the bookshelf and blindly hoisted it at the Heartless, as a book fell on his eye as he picked it up. "Ah, fuck! Wait, stop, don't hit me yet!"

Not learning from his previous encounter, he aimed for the Large Body's abdomen again. With his vision obscured, the entire bookshelf bounced off the Large Body's stomach and returned to Joseph with the same force. Joseph stumbled back slightly, irritation rising as he let out a short gruff bark. But, before he could react, the Large Body leaped and let itself belly flop on the floor. Its impact released a shockwave that broke through the floor and blew Joseph back into the wall, with a splintered plank of wood from the bookshelf skewering into his elbow. He then plummeted back down to the first level, landing face-first on concrete floor.

Joe realized he must've overlooked a door in the beginning, as he was now in a whole new room. It was still the first floor, but it looked like a big basement. The walls were also concrete, with a few gothic lanterns on each wall. Various articles of furniture were scattered about, such as a tipped over chair, a fractured vase, a two-legged table- all abandoned to this room in dust and cobwebs. Most notably, however, there was also a small collection of swords and axes displayed on the opposite wall behind Joseph.

The wall in front of Joseph collapsed as the Large Body bashed through it. From behind, another Large Body spawned, along with a few Neoshadows near it. The Large Bodies pounded their round chests and charged towards the werewolf. Before they could squash him, Joe backflipped over the one behind him. As soon as Joe landed, the former bounced off its ally and Joe caught it on time to flip it over and toss it at the three Neoshadows behind him. The two at the sides leapt away and the middle one flattened into the ground, resembling a regular one-dimensional shadow. The other two pounced at Joseph, but they were both caught in each of his hands before they could touch him. The Neoshadow in the ground slunk closer and sprung out and tackled Joseph down, causing him to release the others. It managed to slash its claws over Joseph's throat, but before it could land another, Joseph yanked it closer by its limber torso and snapped all of his teeth through its head, the Heartless vanishing in a black mist.

Joe then bounded over to the first Large Body from earlier, as it was still struggling to roll to a stand. Before he could even think of what to do next, one of the Neoshadows tried to sneak attack from behind, but on reflex, Joseph used the fallen Large Body as a vault to flip with and dig his claws into its back; completing the flip lifted the Large Body off the ground to repel the Neoshadow away, and upon Joseph's land, he catapulted the massive Heartless into the next room, destroying the opposite wall along with his foe. The other one finally hoisted itself up and the recent Neoshadow had just recovered as well. However, the other Neoshadow was nowhere to be seen. The former two sauntered cautiously towards Joseph, planning their next approach.

Joseph scanned the room, "Where's the- oh."

The second Neoshadow was crawling on the ceiling in its shadow-form towards Joseph. Keen and resourceful, Joseph picked up a hand-sized block of concrete from the pile of what used to be the wall. He reeled his arm and beamed it across the room at the Large Body. His aim was perfect: just slightly above the center of its stomach, ricocheting it into the air; as soon as the Neoshadow above him grew out, before it could attack Joseph, the block struck it from behind and knocked it off balance. It tumbled down and met a vicious left jab from Joseph, its vapor trailing and disappearing over his arm.

The Moon Warrior slapped his chest, "What's next?"

The Large Body beat its chest and hastily waddled to Joseph. The last Neoshadow went to follow, but stopped and turned the other way, then phased into the ground. Joseph caught where its attention was: the blades on the wall all floated off and rotated towards the remaining Heartless. The latter was mindless and continued to charge at Joseph, but in seconds, before it could even make it halfway through the room, the blades darted through the Large Body, killing it where it stood. The Neoshadow rose after the blades rained to the floor, but immediately returned its focus to where they used to be.

"Hey, I'm over here-" Joseph called out, but then his hairs rose again. "Uh, whatcha looking at over there?"

Out of thin air, a figure in metallic red attire appeared. The Neoshadow sunk into the ground again to approach the newcomer, but was given no chance. In what seemed like overkill, a turbulent beacon of fire burst from under it and to the ceiling. In the first second, the vortex killed off the Heartless, but it still remained a bit longer than it needed to. After several seconds, it spun into nothing, leaving no flickers, no smoke- just black circles on the ground and ceiling. Now, the figure was gone.

"What the fuck?" Suddenly, Joseph felt his feet leave the ground, floating above it now. "What the fuck?!" Then, his body zipped across the room like he was thrown about. "WHAT THE FUUUCK?!"

The opposite wall was drawing too close too soon, and Joseph closed his eyes to prepare for impact. Contrarily, he felt his body stop abruptly, and he opened his eyes to find himself upside-down and facing the wall where he once stood. The collection of blades levitated off the ground again and hovered over to Joseph, organizing themselves into a dome-like enclosure around him.

Joseph tried to wriggle, but his body was trapped in a paralysis. "DRAKE! Your house is haunted! Drake! Why would you live here?!"

"The real question is, why would you come here, boy?"

As if cloaked, the figure from before reappeared in front of Joseph.

Joseph found the voice familiar, but the body didn't match. "Drake?"

The person before him had a much older, paler, and fiercer face, with forehead wrinkles and tighter jaw lines. His hair was in set in a ponytail, long and silver. The tips of his ears were pointed and his eyes were initially completely blood red, but were now lightening to a dead white. He wore appropriately sanguine-colored parts of plated armor: a cuirass with a worn gray cape bolted and chain-linked shoulder-to-shoulder, and spiked gauntlets and boots.

"What the hell happened to you? What the hell is up with your castle? I know in-home security's good and all, but this is unnecessary!" Joseph ranted.

"This is me; this is all me," Dracula toothily grinned. "The banishment from this dimension to yours somehow siphoned a large portion of my power. So, now that I've returned, behold it!"

The Lord of Vampires raised his arms and each of the surrounding blades reorganized themselves onto the wall behind Joseph- who was then released and dropped to the ground without warning.

"Still an asshole, I see..." Joe started, but trailed off upon noticing the skeleton at the corner of the wall. "You couldn't even bury that?!"

Dracula flagged a hand, "Bah, he'll be fine; don't tell me what to do with my consorts."

Joseph transformed to normal, "Consorts?...Wait, wait- you said 'he'..."

"I did."

"And, you said he was a consort? Not 'she'?"

"My last female consort's remains are somewhere upstairs if that interests you. But, what point are you trying to make?"

"W-Wait, WAIT: Drake, are you-" Joseph blinked once and now Dracula stood face-to-face with a stern mug over him- that was another new feature, his former rival was several inches taller.

"Am I what? Is there a problem, Luno?"

Joseph shook his head, "N-No, no. No problem here!"

Dracula turned the other way and gestured Joseph to follow, "Dare I ask how you're even in this world?"

"Geo was right, there is a serious dimensional situation going on."

"Do we know the cause?"

"Yeah, do you remember that blue hedgehog, Sonic?"

"Ah, yes, what ever happened to that rodent?"

"Well, you see, they got these magic gems that can mess with time and space, which is why our dimensions collided, because of their abuse."

"You're saying this was his doing?"

"And the rest of his pals."

"There's more?"

"Right?!"

They stopped in the small room Joseph started in and sat on the tan wool sofa. Dracula reached to grab the bottle of blood and popped its cork off. He held the neck finish to his nose and smirked.

Joseph's mouth moved, but nothing came out, as he hesitated for a second and folded his hands on his lap. "So...uh-"

Dracula cut his swig short, "Come on, out with it. It's not often I let my visitors speak before killing them. I'm an evil man here, Luno, but luckily, you have my respect."

"OK...This, 'Booker'..."

"There we are!"

"You know, it's really hard to believe at this point that it was never you who killed them."

"Well, maybe if you had let me explain myself."

"I didn't think you needed to. I remember the killer, he had the same jacket as you!"

"What jacket?"

"The brown leather one, with the fur-trimmed hood."

"Brown j-...I remember that; now I see where you faulted. That was Booker's," the vampire claimed, resting his beverage on the table again. "You see, I've met him once, and he foolishly challenged me. He's a man with no honor, not even the slightest respect for his own kin. I kill to feed and teach my subordinates a lesson. Of course, I was still new to your world, I have yet to have found out about Osiris, so I was prideful. I defeated him, but I must admit, he was a strong one. But, his defeat led to his disappearance; he escaped when I had him at the brink of death. He left his coat, and I took it because I liked it. In my time in that world, I have never met a more violent vampire than Booker Gardel; I've seen him at work, he's not afraid to die, because he believes he can't.

"He is somehow capable of entering households without permission, so that makes him quite dangerous. He'll kill anyone and anything, of any age- you paint your own picture with that. After I taught him his lesson, he never showed his face in that city again. And, he claimed to be have been the only vampire there for years even before I arrived. It wasn't too long after my arrival that I met you. How old were you then?"

Joseph scoffed, "I was sixteen."

"With that said, I wouldn't doubt the one you need to look for is Booker Gardel. The only problem is, I wouldn't know where he ran off to."

Joseph sighed, carefully absorbing all of the new, clearing, information.

"I may be King of all Vampires, but I couldn't enter someone's home as so. I'm sorry, Joseph, but you've had the wrong vampire this entire time."

Joseph huffed. "My only question to you is, why didn't you just kill me earlier on? Why did you put up with me, why did you continue to seek me?"

Dracula chuckled, "My powers were reduced, I needed to keep my senses sharp to survive, and you were a worthy adversary. In addition, you were a source of entertainment for me, even if you tempted me to just kill you."

Joe scoffed, "Man, you have some issues!"

Dracula followed his laughter, then Joseph rose to a stand.

He took another deep breath, "I'm truly sorry then. For accusing you all those years for something you never did."

Dracula stood as well and shook his old rival's hand, "If I had done so, I would've owned it the first time we met. And, would have killed you right there and then."

"Pfft, fuck you!"

"OK, let us go back now. You said you're here because of the abuse of some powerful gems?"

"Correct. And Geo sent Nathan and me to retrieve them."

"Oh, so he's here too? Wonderful. Now, something doesn't quite add up."

"What do you mean?"

"You were sent to that hedgehog's world, but, you're here."

"One of the Emeralds reacted with Nathan and it sent us here."

"Now, that'll validate my point further: this dimension has never had any interaction with Sonic's. If anything, that reaction should have sent you back home. Now, if you had travelled to this one after so, then it would have made sense, because our worlds have had a connection...I'm no expert, but if you ask me, I think this phenomenon is caused by something besides those emeralds."

"How can you be sure?"

"Just a hunch. It should also be noted, upon my return, Geo mentioned that he'd make certain that there were no loopholes for me- or anyone else for that matter- to use to traverse the dimensions. Ever since I've been here, the air, the atmosphere, it's felt different. Something is very wrong, and it's dark; there's an ambience of pure darkness looming, I can feel it. In fact, I feel it more whenever those dark creatures from earlier appear. They've been quite a nuisance as of late."

"Geo was on the case to find out what they were when we were in Sonic's world. He doesn't even know where we are."

"They're nothing native to this world, and certainly not yours- although, now that we're on the topic, I do remember feeling such energy there. I met a tall, white-haired man. I'm not even sure if he was human, I didn't smell blood. However, his energy was very similar to those creatures."

Joe frowned, "Wait, did he have this weird heart symbol on his chest?"

Dracula crossed his arms, "He did, you know of him?"

"His name is Ansem, he stole one of the Chaos Emeralds from us."

"He was also in Sonic's world? He's jumping through dimensions..."

Joseph thought about this for a moment, now questioning his objectives.

"What?" asked Dracula.

Joseph shook his head, "Nothing. Anyway, what I'm really here for is your help, we'll need a few more numbers against these hedgehogs."

"They're here too?"

"Unfortunately, and they're fast, so it makes our job significantly harder."

"I've faced Sonic before, so I know what you mean. Normally, I would care less and reject the offer, but I don't really like the idea of more competition."

"With what?"

"There's been enough darkness in this world, as there still is. Adding this 'Ansem' to the picture could only lead to greater problems with the Hell Lords."

"Who are they?"

Dracula snickered. "Never mind them. Now, what are we going to do then?"

"Stick to the mission. One of those hedgehogs is heading to Hohenberg, Austria right now to locate a Chaos Emerald."

"How many of them are there?"

"Er, seven."

"Do you have an idea of where the others are?"

"Nope. Nate and I had a ship, but it's in the Mobians' dimension. S.H.I.E.L.D. will probably help us find the others."

"You're working with S.H.I.E.L.D.?!"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? They're on their way to pick us up right now; they can hear what we're saying."

"What?! How dare-," Dracula stroked his forehead and puffed. "At least it's temporary..."

"Yeah man, chill."

The deep hum of an aircraft's thrusters echoed from outside of the castle. It was at a distance, around where the grassy hill was, but Joseph and Dracula could hear it from such distance.

"Let us go then," Dracula spoke bitterly, leading the way out of the castle, "The quicker we get this done, the less time I spend working with these fucks."

"Just don't eat anyone," quipped Joseph, following Dracula.

"No promises. Where is Nathaniel, is he with them?"

"Oh, we'll meet him in Austria. He was out looking for the Ghost Rider, then they ran into some more trouble. Haven't heard back yet."

"Ghost Rider? La naiba [Shit], this just keeps getting interesting."

"La what?"

"Just stop talking before I hurt you, Luno."

"OK, that is fair..."

On the Mobian's Earth...

The Tornado landed on the same roof the giant boulder-like vessel was hidden.

"You sure this it?" asked Tails, shutting off his biplane. "It just looks like a huge rock."

"Why would a rock of that size be on some random rooftop? How would it even get up here?" Knuckles returned, jumping off onto the blacktop.

"You have a point there."

After Tails hopped off the cockpit, him and Knuckles walked over to the round, but slightly ellipsed standing boulder. Tails stepped closer and raised his arm towards the twenty-foot vessel, allowing his watch to scan it, as four green laser beams danced around it.

The beams disappeared after several seconds and Tails analyzed his watch. "It's made of rock, but there's also parts that the scanner doesn't recognize."

Knuckles placed his hands on his hips, "Mmk?"

"It's made of materials not found on this planet, and they're very durable."

"Oh yeah? I bet I can dent it."

"I don't know, Knuckles. Whatever this is, it looks way stronger than the likes of titanium and tungsten...Maybe even diamond!"

"Oh, just lemme at it!"

"Knuckles, no! Wait until we're done investigating!"

"Fine. There was a door somewhere around here."

The two paced around it looking for an entrance, when finally, on the opposite side, steam released, and a door glided upwards. They gave each other a look, then proceeded into the ship.

*Thank you for reading; all feedback would be appreciated!