Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this fanfic nor do I own Sonic the Hedgehog. All copyright claims of Sonic the Hedgehog and all its material rightfully belongs to Sega and Sonic Team. I am not making money off of this, it is a story written for enjoyment and fun for fans of the series.

Sonic the Hedgehog

CHAPTER 4: LAST STORY

Act 1: End of the World: Part 1

After suffering defeat at the hands of Shadow, Mephiles retreated from his battle with the cover of his clones that were destroyed by Shadow. Seeing that Silver had given up on trying to destroy Sonic and Sally's death was prevented, his plans were foiled. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself," he said to himself. Holding an emerald that he kept from losing to Shadow, he began formulating his next dark plan to release Iblis.

After escaping the crash of the Egg-Carrier, Sally and Sonic began their long trek back to Soleanna. At Sally's request, Sonic walked at a normal pace to allow the princess to admire the scenery around them and spend some time together after the adventures they had. While looking around, a bright flashing light caught their attentions. Being so bright, the 2 of them held out their arms and closed their eyes to block the light. Unbeknownst to them, Mephiles emerged from the shadows behind them. He aimed at them while they were distracted by the light. Sonic caught a glimpse of him and called out to Sally. "Sally! Watch out!" he yelled. Mephiles shot a spear of light at the princess, coming toward her at breakneck speed. Sonic pushed her out of the way and quickly jumped himself. "What's your deal?!" Sonic yelled at Mephiles. "My deal?" Mephiles asked, "My deal is, I want you to die, Sonic the Hedgehog!" "Everyone's out to kill me," said Sonic, "First Silver, now Crystal the Hedgehog. I'm a pretty popular guy around here." "I'm Mephiles the Dark!" he said, "Remember it well, as it's the name of the one that ends your life, pitiful mortal." "Heh, I like to see you try," said Sonic. "Sonic, be careful," said Sally.

Sonic started his spin attack and dashed at Mephiles. The attack was useless as Mephiles disappeared in a puff of smoke upon contact. "Where'd he go?" Sonic asked. "So you're willing to die fighting," said Mephiles as the black smoke, "I admire your will to fight against the inevitable." Within the smoke, the glow of a Chaos Emerald shined through. "He has an emerald!" Sonic realized. The smoke rose into the sky, growing more and more into a dark cloud that blocked out the sun. "Feel the wraith of a god!" a booming voice yelled. Spears of light rained down onto Sonic, plunging deep into the ground and leaving enormous craters from the impact. Sonic ran in random directions, trying to avoid the onslaught. "Hey, hey, hey!" he yelled, "Can't a hedgehog catch a break?!" As another round of spears came down one more before Sonic thought of using the spears to reach Mephiles. With a powerful Spin Dash, he started to create a swirl within the storm cloud, mixing it together and forcing Mephiles to change into a solid form to escape capture. "Now I got you!" Sonic yelled. "So, you've proven to defeat my true form, that was powered by a Chaos Emerald," Mephiles said, "An excellent try for you, Hedgehog." After they landed back on the ground, Sonic smirked. "I don't need a Chaos Emerald to beat you!" he said, "Even if you have all 7, it wouldn't matter." "So you're claiming to be more powerful than the 7 Chaos Emeralds," Mephiles asked, "You sound confident. Truth of the matter, I don't need all 7 to defeat you or even 1. I just need 1 certain 'thing' to achieve victory." "Oh yeah? What is this 1 thing?" Sonic asked. "I'm glad you asked," Mephiles answered.

Mephiles raised his hand against Sonic who stood on his guard, looking as if he was about to attack. Light started to emit from his palm as Sonic thought, "As soon as he fires it, he's beaten!" At the last moment before firing, Mephiles aimed at something else other than Sonic: Princess Sally who was standing back outside of the fight. His attack fired at her just as Sonic realized what he was after. "Sally, run!" he yelled. He ran to her as the spear was gaining to her. Everything went completely black in that instance when the spear was about to strike Sally. When Sally opened her eyes, she was in for the shock of her life. Sonic was standing just in front of her with the spear of light impaling through his chest. "S-Sonic?" she gasped at the sight, "W-Why?" The spear retracted back to Mephiles' palm, letting Sonic drop to the ground as his shocked eyes started to close. On the ground, Sally tried to wake him up, "Sonic! Sonic!" she cried. "Why? Why did you protect me? I could have protected myself with my force field!" As she continued the futile attempt to wake him, Mephiles just stood at the event, accomplishing his dark deed. Feeling joy from it, he started to laugh evilly at the sight of the deceased Sonic. "Eh, Heh, Heh, Heh, Heh....Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha....AH, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA!"

"N-No..." Sally said when she realized the terrible truth. For the first time, she felt a heavy sadness upon her heart that weighed so much on her. Her father's words repeated in her minds not to cry, no matter what. But after seeing someone close to her that was a dear friend to her die in front of her to save her own life, she couldn't hold it back any longer. Sally began to cry. As her tears ran down her face, flames emitted from them as well; The flames of Iblis. The flames flew up into the air as Mephiles looked at it with content. "The seal is finally broken! At long last, I'll be able to join with you. Iblis!" Holding the Chaos Emerald in his hand, Mephiles said, "Now, Chaos Emerald, it's time for the final curtain call!" The Emerald's shine started to turn black as it rose into the air along with Mephiles and Iblis' flames that joined them.

In the temples of the desert, Shadow had just defeated the Mephiles army, reducing them all into mere puddles. He went to put his Power Suppressers back on as Rouge collected the 2 Emeralds that was taken. "I wonder if they wouldn't mind if I take one for myself," she wondered. Lost in thought, she didn't noticed the emeralds started to glow until it became too bright. Shadow looked to see but was blinded by the light as well. "What's going on?"

Using the power of the Emerald along with his own dark powers, Mephiles gathered all the other emeralds around the world. The flames of Iblis gathered around him, covering Mephiles as the 2 powerful entities began to fuse with the power of the emeralds amplifying their powers. The 2 powers; Iblis and Mephiles the Dark, were no more as they had become Solaris, the god of Soleanna. As the god's became whole again, its mere presence to the world was enough to distort the powers of reality itself. A light started to consume everything around it. Every ocean, every bird, every small insect, and every thing in the universe couldn't escape it. Time was being destroyed in the presence of Solaris.

After being consumed in the bright light, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy found themselves in a different dimension of sorts with ruins of Soleanna around them. "What is this?" Tails asked. "Where are we?" Amy asked as well, "What's going on?" "Is this because of that light?" Knuckles asked. "The Chaos Emeralds has disappeared," said a nearby voice. Looking to the voice, Amy saw it was Silver. "Silver?" she asked him. "What are you doing here?" he asked her, confused by everything that's happening. "This is all so confusing." "It was all because of Mephiles," said another voice, revealing to be Rouge along with Omega and Shadow. "It seems that we were all caught by the spatial distortion," said yet another stranger. Turning their attention, the group saw a man walking up the stairs that none of them had seen before, except for one: Silver. "It's you!" Silver said, "You're the duke! Sally's father! But how? I thought you....and..." "That doesn't matter at the moment," said the duke, "Look up." Above their heads, they saw a bright light swallowing the sky as numerous buildings were being sucked into it. "Iblis' seal has been broken," the duke stated, "I feared that this day would come, despite my efforts. All due to Mephiles' manipulation." Following the man up the stairs, Princess Sally was with him, carrying something in her arms. After reaching the top, the group were in shock to see that she was carrying Sonic's body in her arms. "Sonic?" Amy said with a shaken tone. As she ran to his side, Sally put him down on the ground as Tails and Knuckles ran to him as well. Seeing him not breathing, they couldn't face the truth of what happened. "No," said Tails, "You don't think..." "Sonic!" Knuckles yelled. Faced with reality of Sonic's demise, Amy dropped to her knees and began to cry as Shadow and Silver just turned away from it.

"Mephiles' played us all for fools," said the duke, "His plan all along was to cause Sally to be so consumed with despair, that she'd break Iblis' seal." "So that's why he wanted me to kill Sonic before," Silver realized. The sky started to roar and shake the ground beneath them in the middle of their mourning for Sonic. "Solaris!" "This Entity will consume all existing timelines and time itself with collapse, and disappear into nothingness," the duke explained. "The instability of time caused this time-space rift," Shadow stated. "It won't remain for much longer," the duke stated. "We've no time to waste!" Knuckles stated, "We've got to defeat it now!" "No," the duke answered, "It is a transcendent life form that exists in the past, present, and future. Defeating here, now, would do nothing!" "No," Silver disagreed, "I won't give up! There has to be a way! If you say it exists in the past, present, and future, I'll destroy them all at once!" In the spite of Silver's resolve, Shadow said, "Certainly, it might have been possible, if he was still alive," referring to Sonic. As Amy still mourned for Sonic along with Sally, a presence was felt around Sally, lifting her head in attention. "Sonic..." she spoke. "What's the matter?" Silver asked. "I feel...Sonic's presence in the wind!" Sally answered, "I don't think he's dead yet." Hearing that he wasn't dead, Amy lifted her head out of her hands and wiped her tears. "I'm sure of it," Sally continued, "It's not too late!" "Of course!" Silver said, "Let's call him back with the power of the Chaos Emeralds!" As everyone looked at Silver in confusion, he explained to them, "Focus your thoughts on using its power to perform this miracle!" He walked to Sally and told her, "You can do it, Sally!" "I can?" she asked, confused by his statement. "You were the vessel that sealed Iblis," he explained, "You should be able to use the gems' power to rescue Sonic's soul!" "I'll...do it!" she answered. With that, the group resolved to find the emeralds, rescue Sonic, and help him defeat Iblis before all of time was gone forever. "Solaris flung the Chaos Emeralds into the distant corners of the distorted world," the duke said. "To collect them all in time, we'll have to split up!" Tails stated. "I'll go, too!" said Amy as she stood up, "Because it's for Sonic! So Sally, watch over him!" "I will," she answered. With their resolve, all of them: Shadow, Omega, Rouge, Silver, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy split up to search for the Chaos Emeralds in the distorted world as Sally watched over Sonic's body. "Good luck young ones," said the duke, "And Godspeed."