The backstory according to Archie author Ian Flynn is that the Time Eater is Archie-verse's Mephiles, or what was left of him after the Archie-version of the Solaris boss battle; escaping through some crack in time, but severely weakened, eventually transforming into the feral, half-machinal beast seen in Generations. (note that all of this '06 stuff never happened on-page but is only mentioned in background material like the Archie Sonic Encyclopedia released a while back and Flynn's ramblings). o3o