( A day before the crash.)

"These angels are pretty cool guys. They're armor is unreal!" Sonic says as he watches them fly about, interacting with the mobians.

"Yeah, very kind and light hearted folks. There's one who actually shared some of life's most greatest secrets with me." Tails says as Knuckles punches his shoulder playfully.

"I don't even have to watch over the Master Emerald anymore. They're doing it for me. It's weird... I just couldn't say no to such capable people."

"It's been very laid back without Eggman, or Mephiles and Iris. It's like a vacation." Sonic says as he puts on his sunglasses and leans back on his arm to relax. "We should all head to the beach. I just got my new car and we should take it out for a spin."

"It's that sleek bodied, navy blue one right? The one I told you about in the papers?" Tails asked as Sonic nodded. "I knew you liked it!"

The angels who had been interacting with the masses came down and formed a straight line on either side of the pavement, bringing themselves at attention as the Virtues walked through one by one. The sky had parted it's caramel clouds as the archangels descended gracefully and touched the earth. The sweet beings looked upon the purest mortals and smiled.

"We have come to tell you the origin of our kind. The old stories that only a few remember. These will help you understand the situation we currently find ourselves in." Thein said to them as they all nodded simultaneously.

"But, isn't this a good situation we are in? Everyone is happy, everyone is satisfied. What else is there?" Tails asks as Kanterlin speaks up.

"That's just it. Because the purity of the world has improved drastically, they will find it more and more tempting to break through to corrupt it. We can only seal it for so long. Eventually, we will exhaust that power and they will pour through in the thousands. From devils to archdemons, they will destroy all in their wake. They have been waiting eons for this coming."

"What do we need to know." Sonic says as his heroism swells tenfold. "What must we know in order to defeat them."

"Not here. We will take you all into the innermost sanctum of our city. Only there may we share with you this information. Also there is an archangel there you must meet. She is our beloved leader and ruler."

"Royalty huh? I didn't even bring my best suit." Knuckles said as the angels giggled.

"It doesn't matter what you look like, as long as your soul is pure she will enjoy your company." Jewel says with a smile. "She will love having you all there."

"Come now, no more time to dawdle. Time is a precious commodity." Thein says as he picks up Sonic and flies with him towards the sky.

Amberlin and Kanterlin do the same, picking up Tails and Knuckles as they follow behind their brother. They rise up over the clouds and over the ancient spirit that keeps their city afloat. Suddenly, they plummet into what seems to be a field of orange pink clouds. They land on the smooth glassy floor with ease as their mortal passengers hop off. A fantastical snow leopard of sunrise light seems to be resting on a golden throne. Her heavy necklace sparkles as she stands up from her position and stretches out her four sets of wings just as two halos appear above her head.

"Mother, these heroes need to know our story. Though there are some aspects only you will be able to tell them, if you so wish."

"So they have brought you here so that I may tell you our story? Very well, thousands of years ago I was the only one that existed in this universe. But the day came that I had decided to create life of my own. I mothered many majestic creatures all made of purest light. But what I had not expected, was that from my light there had been shadows cast. Shadows that had harbored the first and most volatile form of evil. Vaefora had been created, inadvertently through my byproduct. When I had realized she was mine, I at first tried to help her anyway I could. Then she had started to show her true colors. She warped a few of my creations to her own will and forced them to obey her. She was corrupting the very purity of my life and making it something darker. It came to the point where I no longer could bear it, so I tore a rift into the molten earth and threw her in. There, without my knowing, she had formed her own sinister kingdom. She then started to make her own abominable creations and started to fill up the hellscape. The one monster she cared for the most was Dark Gaia. You have all met him before, right?"

Sonic remembered when he traveled to the core of Mobious to defeat Dark Gaia, and with the help of Chip the Light Gaia, he did.

"No. Tails and Knuckles didn't, but I have."

"Hey wait, your calling them monsters. I thought they were demons." Knuckles said matter of factly as he pointed that out.

She gave an airy laugh. "Knuckles, both of those words describe them perfectly. Although, they themselves coined the word "demon." I guess they just wanted a label of their own."

"So, Dark Gaia and Vaefora had children I'm assuming. And because she had children, she had technically formed her own powerful bloodline." Tails said.

She nodded. "That's exactly right, Tails. But she only had one child. Nandraina. And when she became old enough to have kids, she did. The Sins. Then I created The Virtues to battle against them. But heh, you know what's funny?" The question trailed off sadly as she addressed it to them.

"What?" Tails asked as she looked at them wistfully.

"Irisatine would have been my daughter, if not for Vaefora's meddling with life. Again."

Everybody was quiet. No one could believe that. Who would have thought, that Iris could have been an angel after all.