Chapter 7: Maria's Heartbreaking Sacrifice
In the ruin, Shadow and Rouge have make an appearance and join in with the others.
"Dad? Rouge? What are you both doing here?" Maria asks.
"What? Can't say hello to our favorite little girl," Rouge says.
Then gives Maria kiss on the cheek.
"It's nice to see you too, but I didn't expect to see you here," Maria says.
Shadow walks over, "I had a feeling you are going to need some help. Rouge was able to have a hidden camera in Finitevus lab to observe his activity, and a stealth bot to spy on his outside activity."
"That's good," Sonia says.
"Yes. We also know how to break the hex on Yong-Ho," Rouge says.
Chomper says, "Really? That's great!"
"Yes. Unfortunately, it comes at a price. Finiteves put two hexes on this new Master Emerald. Someone has to be powerful enough to withstand the hex, and… someone will end up sacrificing their life," Shadow says.
Everyone gasp in shock.
"Their… their life!" Lara-Su shockley says.
Julie-Su says, "Looks like Finitevus wants to take extra precautions so Enerjack can stay alive."
"But what can we do?" Mystic asks.
Suddenly, Chaos Energy blast Shadow and he ends up hitting Sonic, knocking them both to the ground.
The three kids exclaim, "Dad!"
Maria and the twins turn to see Yong-Ho has his hands powered with energy and clutches his fist. He is also gritting his teeth with anger.
"Well, it looks like I'll have to take the king and the Ultimate Lifeform first," Yong-Ho says.
Maria screams, "Yong-Ho no!"
Yong-Ho flies over and passes Maria to attack Sonic and Shadow. The two hedgehogs dodges the attack and begin to attack back.
"Yong-Ho please stop!" Maria shouts.
But Yong-Ho isn't listening, and continues to attack.
Mystic then takes Maria's bag, and takes out the seven Chaos Emeralds.
"We have no choice, but to give them these," Mystic says.
Maria saddens and says, "Do it."
Mystic hurries to throw the two hedgehogs the seven Chaos Emeralds. That's when they both see the emeralds. Sonic jumps up and quickly grab the seven emeralds.
"Looks like we need to use these," Shadow says.
"Exactly," Sonic says.
The two hedgehogs focus their energy on the emeralds and they form around them. That is when they both change to their super forms.
Sally says, "I have seen this in years."
"You can say that again," Vector says.
"And it seems it's the only way to keep those two contain until we can come up with a plan," Espio says.
Charmy asks, "But how?"
"I got one way," Lien-Da's voice comes up.
Everyone turn their heads to see Knuckles, and Demitir. Lien-Da is also dragging Finitevus along with her. All of them should be angry, but Maria and her friends are scared to see the vicious look on Lien-Da's face. She's really furious with Finitevus now.
Maria nervously asks, "I'm guessing that Finitevus, huh?"
"You got that right," Lien-Da bitterly says, and pushes him forward.
Sugar scaredly says, "Um, Ms. Lien-Da can you please calm down."
"Yeah. We still need to help Yong-Ho," Twinkle says.
"I know, but we have a problem," Lien-Da says.
"Let me guess, Finitevus told you about the two hexes and someone will end up dying if it's broken?" Maria questions.
"How you know?" Dimitri asks.
"Because of our dad, and both of our fathers are fighting Yong-Ho right now," Manic says.
Then Sonia says, "And they used their super forms to do it."
"What?!" Knuckles asks, and looks at the sky.
He then sees Yong-Ho fighting with Shadow and Sonic.
"Looks like those two are able to use the abilities, but they won't last long," Dimitri says.
"We need to do something," Skye says.
Maria turns to the scientist, "Alright Finitevus, how about you remove the hexes you put on this so called New Master Emerald you made."
"So you know. I'm afraid it can not be removed by normal means, even if I wanted to," Finitevus answers.
"And we should believe you why?" Chomper asks in anger.
"Because… once the hex is placed there is no way to remove it, but to break it," Finitevus says.
"In other words, the only way to break it is for someone to sacrifice their life," Mystic suspects.
"Yes," Finitevus answers.
Chomper grits his teeth, "That's just great. In order to save one of our friends, we'll end up losing another one."
"Now what do we do?" Sonia asks.
Finitevus says, "There's nothing you can do. Once Enerjack finish off those two hedgehogs, he will reshape the world. He'll free everyone from corruption that the beings have done on this planet."
"But this is wrong… so very wrong…" Maria says.
Then says in anger, "You forced Yong-Ho to become a god that detest technology and warped his mind into what you envisioned! Sure, there has been bad people and corruption, but that doesn't mean everyone or everything is corrupted! There are still good people in this world who are willing to fight for peace! Your type of peace ends up destroying everything around it! I don't want Yong-Ho to go through this because of your own eyes of creating sanctuary in this world!"
"And by the way, thanks for telling me how to break the hex!" Maria says, walking to Finitevus.
Maria then gras his arm, and takes one of his Warp Rings from his wrist.
Maria then throws it and quickly goes through it because anyone can have a say in it.
"Where is Maria going?" Sugar asks.
"She sounds upset about it!" Twinkle adds.
"And she sounds serious when she said that she doesn't want Yong-Ho to become Enerjack," Chomper adds.
Suddenly, Knuckles gasps in realization , "She wouldn't…!"
Maria jumps through the ring and reaches the other side, then the ring shrink and the girl takes it in her hand.
She turns her head to see the New Master Emerald on the altar.
"This must be it," Maria says to herself.
She climbs up the alter to see the New Master Emerald. It looks almost like the real one. Then Maria walks right towards it until she is only a feet away. Maria looks at the New Master Emerald to see it's glow, and it's the key that has changed Yong-Ho to Enerjack and it's the only way to change it back. She then reaches her hand out to touch it to break the awful spell.
Suddenly, Maria stops, "If I touch the emerald and tap to its power to release the spell, I'll never see Yong-Ho, my family, and my friends again. I'll lose my life."
Maria then looks up in the sky to see Shadow and Sonic fighting off Yong-Ho, and they aren't lasting very long.
Maria shakes her head and says, "I have to… there's no other way. Yong-Ho! Everyone! I'm sorry!"
Maria then climbs on the New Master Emerald and begins to tap into its power. That is when the Chaos Emeralds appear around the New Master Emerald. Suddenly, an electric shock appears and causes her to scream, but Maria decides to hang on and says the ritual Lara-Su says to her.
"The servers are the seven chaos…!" Maria calls out.
As he punches Yong-Ho, Sonic begins to notice that he's weaking.
Maria continues the ritual on the stone, "Chaos is power, enriched by the heart…"
Sonic and Shadow stop fighting to see Yong-Ho is clutching his head in pain, and feels he is losing his power.
Maria continues to feel the hex on the Emerald and the pain of it. Maria begins to shed tears from her, but continues to hang on.
She says, "Please, release Yong-Ho! Give him back his life! Free my true love from this this dark power!"
Suddenly, a large blow of Chaos Energy surround the area. Yong-Ho suddenly, feels something.
Then hears Maria's voice, "I love you, Yong-Ho!"
"Maria!" Yong-Ho speaks.
Hearing her voice, Yong-Ho flies back down to the island and to find where Maria is. At the Emerald, Maria then lets out tears with a smile on her face. Finally, Yong-Ho reaches the New Master Emerald, as he loses the Enerjack powers and is back to his original self. Then he hurries to climb the stairs. At the same time, everyone else hurry out of the forest to see Yong-Ho running up the stairs to the altar.
When Yong-Ho reaches the top, he gasps in shock and devastation. He sees Maria laying on the ground besides the New Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds, but her body is transparent. Maria is unconscious and her body begins to disappear in shimmering sparkles.
"Maria!" Yong-Ho screams, and runs to her.
He then tries to pick her up, but goes past his hands. He then sees the small box that has Yong-Ho's name on it. He opens it to reveal red metal brace knuckle. The one that he wants for his birthday. Yong-Ho soon begins to shed tears as everyone are able to reach the top and are stunned to see Maria fading. Yong-Ho then places his hand on Maria as the last bit of her body fades away.
Yong-Ho begins to shed tears, "Maria…"
Suddenly, a large green energy begins to surround his body. Then explodes when he begins to scream in tears. The energy is so powerful that is blind everyone and almost knock them over. The light doesn't last long. Everyone look to see Yong-Ho crying as he hugs himself in devastation, knowing that the girl he love is gone forever.
Then screams on the top of his lunges, "MARIA!"
