He punched right, then left. He spun through the machines, always keeping away from the patiently stalking Emblems. After he had destroyed about forty of them, the robots abruptly retreated. "Uh oh…" he thought. "I'd better get back to Green Hill before-" He turned to jump back into the Zone when an Emblem blocked him. "Crap." He turned again, and the other two stepped in to complete the circle. Checkmate. He tensed. "Not my lucky day." he thought grimly. A robotic voice speared the air. "Did you think you could evade us forever? We are eternally patient, and have developed means of living almost as long as yours, cursed and bedamned one. You may escape, even after this, but we will ceaselessly hunt you, until either you, we, or all are dead."

He stood up straight. "Go to h-."

He could swear one almost smiled, even through the suit. "But of course- after you."

A fist slammed into his side and he went flying. He spun to stop his momentum, then homed in on the ground for some space. He dodged as several rockets rushed by and jumped out of the path of the energy bullets. A wave of crackling blue electricity barely missed him, scorching his nose. He looked over, and saw that only one machine was attacking. The other two stood stock still. On a hunch, he sped over, dodging the live one, and attempted to hit a nonmoving one. He froze in midair, the holograms disappearing and the other two appearing out of the darkness behind him. He cursed. Hunch: incorrect. These two quickly bound him in energy cuffs and began dragging him off to the Citadel.

"Goddamn." he thought. "This is it. I will finally completely the death of my home. No one will be left to save the world, or even keep up a resistance." He grinned, truly for the first time since that day, long ago. "But if there's nothing left to lose, I can only gain! And I won't give up without a fight worthy of Sonic, the Supersonic Hedgehog!" He spun, the chains electrifying him, but he ignored the pain. Faster, faster, until not even the mech-suits could hold on. He dropped to the ground, chains evaporating, and flashed a smile at the three Emblems. "I'm not done yet, you tin cans! Come and get me!"

One grew spikes out of its hands, the second (smaller, he noticed) grew black boots, and the third long maces out of its back. "We would be pleased to comply."

The three sprang forward and he dodged their reckless charge. The spiky one punched at him while the maces swung above him. He slipped below the two, lashed a foot into one's side, and rolled out of the way of a black boot. A missile roared out and he adroitly vaulted over. Bullets swept over, hitting the area he had just left. An electric wave glided over the ground, avoided by a Spin Dash. He bounced like a pinball, always one step ahead of the attacks. He jumped a vicious kick, spun through a hail of lightning, dashed through a laser storm. He slid and swayed through the relentless attack, landing feet and fists time after time. The realization that he would stop lying to himself and truly be a hero as he could instinctively had released him to a measure of his former glory. Instead of playing it safe, he flowed with the battle as it came, not planning or cautious, but natural and free. He backed off for a moment and examined his three enemies. The short one had a severe limp and three large dents in its head casing. The one with maces had a broken faceplate, and the last one's spikes were broken, as well as owning a long gash in the front. All were spouting sparks in several places. He grinned and pulled a thumbs up. "You're not looking so hot. Better hurry up or I'll get serious on your butts." He felt energized by the battle, like he had gotten a Ring Boost, like he was with his friends once more. He bounced on his toes and rolled his neck, waiting not-very-patiently for them to make a move.

All three stiffened, then, with a flow of black energy, repaired themselves completely. They became surrounded by the darkness, and all growled deeply. He smirked. "Gonna have to do better than that!"

The symbol on their suits began to flash, and then suddenly there was a globe of absolute darkness surrounding them. He flipped out of the way, and when he could see again, the mechs had combined into one enormous machine, with all their weapons combined. He simply grinned all the harder. He no longer wished to stay secure, or to think it through. He returned to the thoughts of his friends. "I will avenge you, all of you." he said softly. He had finally remembered what it felt like to be a hero, to be… Sonic, the Supersonic Hedgehog.

/

Cosmo was back. True, she was quiet, but she looked completely content leaning on Tails, holding his hand and ignoring all the rest of us. I chuckled. He really did love her, even if he referred to her as 'his friend'.

I looked over to where Shadow was picking up his Emerald, the grassy green sparkling in the daylight. All the Emeralds (as well as their users!) were drained, the stones lifeless looking, but they were pulsing softly, regaining energy. It was interesting to note that the massive amount of power inherent in them had been so exhausted that they hadn't separated and hidden themselves, as usually they did afterwards. The ragged hedgehog reached at the others, glanced at me, and stood back up. He nodded to the crowd, and strolled out of the backyard.

By this time, Amy and Cream had stirred up a full fledged party. Cream even invited Doc Eggman to join! He simply made a grumbling comment about stupid hedgehogs doing everything and walked away, the Eggmobile veering down and picking up him and the still-sleeping group.

As for me, I decided it was high time for me to split and take a nap. I was walking away slowly, making sure that no one was watching when Amy jumped up out of a hiding place in a bush and said, "Hah! I knew you were going to try to leave, but I stationed here after Shadow left." She must have taken cues from Eggman! I shook my head. That was all I needed, Amy getting tips from a villain on how to capture me.

"Why didn't you stop Shadow? I mean he was a major part of this too."

She sniffed. "Hmph! Good riddance to the depressed party-pooper. That copy-cat's no match for the original. Now Sonic dearest," here she looked me in the eye and commented, ever so sweetly, "I could pull out my hammer and make sure you didn't run from me for the next few years, or you could stay and celebrate."

I laughed uneasily, taking a step back and eyeing the potential leg-breaker. "You wouldn't do that…"

She lifted her hammer. "Which leg would you like whole?"

"No no no! That's okay, really, I heading back. Just stretching." I said quickly, raising both hands defensively.

"Good. Now go talk to Cream. She asked for you awhile back when I snuck over to see how Tails was doing."

"Umm, okay." I walked away from Amy

"Does thine love usually command thee so, Lord?" I had forgotten Negatem. He seemed to be recovering.

"Well, pretty much. Would you mess with a hammer the size of your head?" Realizing his words, I added, "And I wouldn't say love, exactly…"

"Tis unseemly to be commanded by a woman, and you are less likely than most to be commanded. Therefore, either she is your passion or you are of weak mind and spirit."

"Shaddup you!" I grumbled. "How would you know? You've lived in a bloody casket for God-only-knows how many years." Feeling irritated, I ambled over to the buffet table, where Cream was frantically making more and more food for the ever-increasing amount of people who were eating. She looked up and said cheerily, "Hi Sonic! How're you feeling?"

I smiled, annoyance evaporating. Cream always cared about others before herself. "I'm good, but you looked fried! Why don't you ask Amy to help?"

Cream turned bright red. "Uh, well, she, eh, seemed busy, so, I was trying to help, and…"

I held up my hands, amused. Amy had been busy catching me, apparently. "Okay, okay, I was just curious." Cream hadn't wanted to disturb the pink menace's 'Keep-Sonic-In-Party' mission.

She smiled sheepishly.

"Say," I said, "how long was I out, anyway?"

"You stayed down for about two hours. We weren't sure you'd make it. Shadow woke up about a half hour before you, and Amy almost killed him." She started to fidget a little. "Um, Sonic? Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"Well, I know we've only seen you turn Shadic maybe twice but… you usually turn bright white. This time… you had this weird little cloud of shadows around you. It was scary."

I raised my eyebrow and looked at Cream oddly. "Really? Hmm… Well, thanks for letting me know. I'm sure it was nothing."

She nodded and started churning out food again. I walked over to the side of the yard where I could see Tails and Cosmo still holding hands, staring out at the sunset. Cosmo looked over at me and smiled serenely. She leaned down to Tails, whispered something, then got up and walked over to me.

"Hey Cosmo, it's been awhile, huh?" I said blandly.

She smiled again. "Yes, it has been. But I'm back and it's all thanks to you."

I shrugged modestly. "Don't forget Shadow, he played a big part too. We might not have gotten back without him."

"Of course I would not forget, but without you they never would have tried. Thank you." With that she stepped up to me and hugged me, hard. I awkwardly patted her on the back.

"Now now, Tails might get the wrong idea, then your savior might end up with a few shiny new bruises!"

She stepped back and shook her head. "No, Tails is too much a good person for that."

I rubbed the back of my head. "Hey Cosmo, this is kinda odd, but… how did it feel?"

She looked down. "I remember very little, but what I do is this feeling like a river was flowing over me. Then just… cold." She shivered.

"Okay, don't worry. You've returned to the land of the living now, and I think someone's getting antsy to see you." She turned and looked longingly at Tails, who gazed just as yearningly at her. I gently pushed her. "Go on, now. We'll leave you alone, and if you want to go inside Amy'll have a few beds set up."

She said dreamily, "Thank you Sonic." She walked, floated almost, toward Tails.

I chuckled. "No prob." I said to myself. I walked back to where Amy was stationed (ensuring I didn't leave the party until it was over). I spoke quickly before she could threaten me again, "Listen! I'm not running out, I'm just asking you to make a bed for Cosmo and Tails, and if you could generally send the message to leave them alone, at least for today. I think they deserve that long to be together."

She nodded fiercely. "No one'll bother them, or they'll deal with me."

I smiled. Nobody would get past a pissed Amy Rose. A voice echoed in my head. "Milord, we must speak." Negatem sounded… bigger, somehow.

"Okay Amy, I'll see you later." I walked to the side of the yard and sat down. "Okay Negatem, what's rolling? Good job with Cosmo, P.S. Couldn't have done it without'cha."

I sensed a sort of bow in my head. "But of course. However, I believe that you should begin fulfilling my other promise."

"Huh? What's that now?" I responded confusedly, wondering if someone else had died and I had forgotten.

"Peace, remember? I can help you achieve a paradise like nothing you could ever imagine."

Oh. I thought to myself for a moment. Well, he'd been straight so far. I mean, why bring Cosmo if he was gonna betray us? I decided it was worth hearing, at least. To Negatem I said, "Okay then. Whatcha thinking?"

"Milord, do not forget I speak in earnest, so please take no offense at these words. The creatures around us seem to treat you as a hero, but in the fashion that you must save them fairly often. You should take command, here. You could show them how to stay safe, so that you may help more people, and know that they are without harm."

I raised an eyebrow, physically and mentally. "Umm, like a dictator?"

"No no! Like a peacemaker, a diplomat, bringing people together so they may prosper more fully. You already have their allegiance, just begin build a structure for emergencies. Ask help here and there, cement your leadership."

I felt a little resistant toward the idea, but a sly voice in me said, "Yes, help them. Help them as you helped Tails."

I sighed. "Yeah, alright, let's do it." I got up and walked back to the party. For some reason, I didn't trust myself. I had some vain hope that someone would ask a favor of me, but they all respectfully left me alone. I sighed again. Being a hero can be a drag. Negatem started whispering about that reinforcing his point, but I just ignored him and looked up at the moon, looking for an answer.

/

A ghostly figure formed in, and somehow from the darkness. It linked to the blue hero by a shady tendril snaking across the ground. A hedgehog, cloaked in the darkness that surrounded it. The ominous figure laughed softly. "You will complete my plans better than you could imagine… And leave me the victor in this little game. Beware, fool, I am growing in power. You shall too, but it will be mine, to take away in the end." It laughed again and the shadows dissipated, leaving only two clawed footprints in the earth.

///