A/N: Oh geez, I know it has been forever since I last updated this. I could give multiple apologies and reasons for why it has taken a decade to post the final chapter…but I think my readers would rather get straight to the story itself. As for the voting I had way back when…the general consensus seemed to be a mix of a sad and happy ending, so that's what I went with. I was actually given a very good idea by reviewer Kyle XY, so go thank him for the inspiration! And now…finally…the final chapter.


Blaze put her hands on Silver's shoulders and shook him, forcing the young hedgehog to look up at her. He couldn't identify the expression on her face. It was some sort of strange mix of relief and sorrow, as if she knew something important that she wasn't sure if Silver should know. That was exactly her problem, but she decided to tell him the news anyway.

"Silver, your dad…is still alive."

Silver stiffened at this. He must have been hit by Iblis harder than he thought. He couldn't have heard her right. "What did you say?"

"I said, your dad is alive," the purple cat repeated. "He's…not doing good, but he's alive."

Silver was off as fast as he could go. Jumping up from his crouched position, he rushed off to where he had left his father when he had taken off to attack Iblis. He leaped over the rubble that was left of the colony, weaving between the few people who had returned. Silver was panting hard, but the burning in his lungs was nothing compared to the thoughts running through his mind.

His father was alive! What had Blaze meant when she said he wasn't "doing good"? Silver was sure that he was badly injured, but just how badly? Was it fatal? Was he going to be all right? He remembers that Daxx has been horribly cut on his abdomen, and there has been a lot of blood. There were no means or methods to healing injuries, so Silver hoped that it wasn't as bad as he was imagining.


Polo watched from a distance as Silver finally reached his recumbant father. The younger hedgehog wrapped his arms around the elder one, and took a better look at the injury to his father's stomach. Polo could only stare in misery as the two conversed, being too far away to hear their words. Despite this, Polo knew exactly what Daxx was telling his young son; he had told Polo moments ago. He could almost read Daxx's lips as he explained to his son the extent of the damage.

It was a horrible chest and stomach injury. Breathing alone was hard enough, and there was no way Daxx would ever be able to stand on his own again. The few cloth rags that Polo has scavanged from around the colony ruins were pressed into the wound, staunching the blood as much as possible, but they were already deep red from the profuse bleeding. The edges of the laceration were becoming ragged with infection and dirt. There was no way to heal Daxx, and the wound was too great for his own body to heal itself. If the bleeding didn't kill him, the infection certainly would.

Daxx had survived the attack by Iblis, but he was still going to die.

Polo had to turn away as tears spilled from Silver's eyes again. He tried looking everywhere but at the pair of hedgehogs. This unfortunately forced him to look around at the damage that Iblis had done to the colony. The top floor was completely decimated, and there were many holes leading down to the second and first floors, where people were beginning to gather what was left of their belongings…and the other members of the colony. The weapon was of course destroyed, with the gemstones (Polo wasn't sure if they were still considered Chaos Emeralds like Daxx has claimed) still sparkling in the rubble. Ironic really, that they would have such light in the midst of such distress.

A pair of raccoons passed the anteater, carrying something wrapped in a brown sheet between them. Looking around again, Polo could see others carrying similar packages. He knew what those were. He had carried one himself, containing his best friend, a year ago. Watching these people deal with their allies this way…Polo felt oddly detached. Later on, he would suppose that was his coping mechanism. If he was detached from the events around him he wouldn't feel that grief that hung so heavily in the air, and he knew that he needed to be strong for Silver and Blaze at that time.

The anteater was still trying to not think about his best friend's son behind him when Elder Dolph walked up to him. The eldest member of the colony shook his wolf head at the anteater's blank expression and gave out a sigh.

"I suppose you want to say 'I told you so'," Dolph said, although there was no malice present in his voice. "You did always argue with Daxx about large groups living together attracting Iblis."

"I would say that, but I think you all have enough to think about," Polo replied, gesturing to the bodies that were being retrieved from the various parts of the ruins, the reasons for death varying between being crushed to being scorched. Polo forced his attention on the wolf. "What will you do now?"

"Rebuild," the elder answered simply. "This isn't the first time we've been attacked by Iblis with these results, but we press on."

"Do any of your members decide that living in groups isn't for them and leave?"

"Some do of course, and I wouldn't blame them," responded Dolph. "But so many stay as well. Each member has to make his own decision."

"Why do you stay?" Polo wondered, more as a rhetorical question. "Is it really worth it?"

"We stay because we pray that we can find a way to defeat Iblis for good," Dolph answered him anyway. "Don't you believe that it can be destroyed?"

Polo was silent for a long while, honestly considering the question. Could he really hope that Iblis would be destroyed? After everything he had been through in his life, and what he knew future generations would go through, like Silver and Blaze…

"No," Polo said, his face still expressionless. "I don't think it can be destroyed."

Dolph gave a nod of acquiescence and left. It was a silent agreement to disagree, Polo realized.

At some point, Blaze had come over and tugged on Polo's hand. He looked down at the purple cat. "Blaze?"

"Do you think anyone here would mind if I took the Chaos Emeralds back home?" she asked. Polo was a bit surprised by this and asked her why she wanted them. Blaze shrugged. "They've been bothering me ever since I found that one a few days ago, and remember that weird reaction I had when they were used with Daxx's weapon? There's something important about them, and I'm connected."

"Yes, I remember," replied the anteater, who just rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "I don't think anyone would mind. Chances are they can't use them again. Or if they could use them, they wouldn't want to anyway."

Blaze nodded in agreement with his logic, and went to retrieve the seven gems. Polo scratched his head. It was odd that contact with Iblis would cause the Chaos Emeralds to change shape and power like that. Then again, he didn't know much about this kind of thing, so Polo just supposed anything could happen. And if Blaze was going to be keeping them, it was very likely that he would learn more about them soon enough. Knowing that he was going to be in close range of these powerful stones made him feel a little anxious, but he wasn't going to tell Blaze that.


As Blaze went to retrieve the seven gemstones, Polo walked back over to Silver and Daxx. The two had fallen into an uneasy silence, obviously brought about by their sorrow of Daxx's looming death. Silver kept his head laid on the uninjured part of Daxx's chest, while the older of the two stared off at the darkly clouded sky, one hand rubbing his son's back. If it wasn't for the blood seeping from Daxx's wound, Polo would have thought it was a pretty nice sight to look at.

Polo uneasily cleared his throat, bringing the hedgehogs' attention to him.

"Silver, Blaze says she wants to take the Chaos Emeralds—or the transformed ones, whatever they are—back home," the anteater infomed him. "We were just wondering what your plans were?"

Silver couldn't bring his voice to form words. He wanted to stay with his father until his dying breath, but he knew he should travel back home with Blaze and Polo. If only he had a little more time…

Luckily for him, his father made the decision for him, albeit indirectly.

"Polo," Daxx said, his voice rough with the pain he was enduring. The named one turned his attention to him. "I have a favor to ask."

Polo just nodded, indicating for him to ask away. Who was he to deny a dying hedgehog's wish?

"Since I'm going to die, no matter where I am, I want to be buried next to Aria," Daxx pleaded. He gave a small cry of pain as Silver lifted his head from his father's chest. "Could you do that for me?"

"…Of course." Polo forced himself to ignore Silver's pained face as he said this. This was not a topic he wanted to have in front of Aria's son.

"Can you give me a hand then?" Daxx asked. "I don't think I can stand."

Polo walked over to the pair and pulled one of Daxx's arms around his shoulder. He struggled to pull him up, as he had enough trouble putting weight on his own twisted leg. Aria would have been proud to see the two getting along, regardless of however short the time.

Blaze had joined them again, carrying a pack on her side, which must have carried the Chaos Emeralds. Polo gave out a grunt as he struggled to move the hedgehog. Then suddenly, Daxx's weigh seemed to decrease greatly. He looked at the green hedgehog and saw that he was glowing a soft blue color. Polo turned his head to the side to see Silver standing next to his father, glowing the same color, and instantly it clicked. Silver was carrying his father himself with his psychokinesis.

The group slowly began walking, Blaze leading the way back to their home in the middle of Crisis City. It was a while before anyone spoke, and it was Daxx who broke the silence.

"Silver, I saw you flying around Iblis when you were attacking it," he said, his voice full of an odd pride. "I had never thought of levitating myself to fly. How'd you do it?"

"I'm not sure," Silver responded. He had been oddly quiet the whole time, and the scratchiness in his voice reflected this. "I just kind of did it?"

"What else do you know how to do?" asked Daxx. "Tell me everything."


The return back home was bittersweet, Blaze thought.

She had set off with Polo with the determination to come back with Silver, and she got her wish. Her best friend was back, and she never wanted to let him go again. This experience had shown her that, although she was able to keep a clear head on her shoulders, Silver did not like being separated from her and Polo. His frail emotional state had proved this to her. It was clear that Silver was pretty insecure when alone. But she would do everything in her power to make sure he never was alone again. And she had finally solved the mystery of what had been bothering her chest for weeks. Whatever the deal was with the Chaos Emeralds, she was going to guard them as she was going to guard Silver.

On the other hand, returning home meant that now she had to be there as Daxx passed. Blaze had seen her parents die, but she had taken consolation in the fact that it had been quick and painless. She knew they hadn't suffered much at their death. But with Daxx…his death was going to be drawn out, and she could tell he was in pain, both physically and mentally. She didn't want to watch someone die that way. She could only imagine what Silver thought of it.

Blaze decided to hide the Chaos Emeralds in the basement of the building where she had first met Silver. It was in the shape of a semi-circle, with a large flat area leading to a cliff right above a pool of lava. They stayed there pretty often, the place having the happy memories of their first meeting. She arranged the gems in a circle on the floor of the basement. Blaze wasn't even sure what she was doing. It just felt right.

She left the building to find Silver waiting for her. He gave her a smile, but she could tell it was strained.

"All done?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Dad says those are Chaos Emeralds," Silver recalled, as if still trying to wrap his mind around the events of the past days. "But I think they're something different now."

"I think so too," Blaze concurred. "They have a different energy. I don't know how I know that, but I can tell."

"Yeah."

"I think I'll call them Sol Emeralds instead of Chaos."

"Why Sol?"

"My mum told me a story, about the ancient ones," Blaze recited, referring to the people of the old times, before Iblis showed up and destroyed the world. "The sun shown brightly in the sky, and some people called it Sol."

"But why call them that?" Silver reiterated.

"Their sparkle," the cat explained. "It looks like how I imagine the sun looking like."

"…I want to see the sun someday," Silver dreamed aloud.

"I think we will," Blaze agreed, resolutely. "One day we will."

"I said it before, but I'll say it again," Silver swore. "One day, I'm going to destroy Iblis."

"We are going to destroy Iblis and save the world," Blaze corrected, her emphasis very clear to her companion. "At any price."

"At any price."

"…How's your dad?"

"He's lying by the lava pool over there," Silver told her, pointing to the spot where Daxx's green fur was obvious against the red and orange of the magma. "He's…not good."

"Go be with him, Silver," Blaze insisted. The white hedgehog looked at her in surprise. "Polo and I will still be here later. Don't worry about us right now."

"…Thanks, Blaze."

With that Silver did exactly what she ordered, and sat himself right next to where his dying father lay. Daxx looked up at his son, smiling as much as his pain would allow him.

"Hi, Silver."

"Hi, Dad."

Her young heart heavy, Blaze watched the two hedgehogs as they had their last moments together.