Last chapter, wraps up a few loose ends, then promptly ends with a for-kicks ending. Anyway, want to take this chance to thank everyone for reading, and for following and enjoying this fanfic on to the end! Many thanks indeed! :D

25.

Destined Flight

A week had passed since that eventful night. The first day of which had been spent finishing the repairs to Tails's workshop for any of the remaining damage it had received in all of these events, and checking Jet over one final time at Wave's insistence to insure that he had truly been brought back to normal. Once that was confirmed and the work was finished, life moved on.

Work on the rogues's new airship resumed from where it had been left off, and progressed nicely. Tails worked at cataloging all of the new information he had learned from this experience, including all the information Jet had jotted down during the time his powers influenced his thinking. The fox still wasn't much closer to figuring out nearly all of it, though. He tried to get Jet to help, hoping that Jet might remember something that could be used as a key to decrypt the mysterious equations, but the only thing Jet succeeded in doing by staring at the equations was give himself a headache. The knowledge he had once held that could've provided the answers was clearly gone now.

But in the end, no one really minded that. Once Jet had adjusted back to going without all that information crammed in his head, he was glad to have it gone, and be able to think straight again. Wave and Storm also didn't care much about the information just so long as they had their boss safe and sound, making it clear that they'd rather have Jet than pages of information they couldn't even interpret. Even Tails had to concede in the end that it was probably better this way that the leftover information went unsolved, saying that for them to figure it out now in their generation would probably be "too soon."

Sonic, Storm, and Knuckles had also spent the first couple days trying to figure out what had become of Eggman, seeing that they all hadn't seen or heard from the rotund scientist since the night he had tried and failed to commandeer the Lunar Fox and capture Sonic and Jet on Babylon Garden. Ultimately, they didn't find Eggman, but they did catch wind of a building fire that had started on the night in question and upon being put out by local firefighters, the remains had every indication of having once been an Eggman base of some sort, but no one living had been inside at the time. So Sonic figured that seeing he had probably lost everything of value in that fire, Eggman had gone into hiding somewhere to mope and begin work on his next evil plan, as he usually did.

It was upon coming to that conclusion that Knuckles bid farewell to everyone and departed to return back to Angel Island, and in turn, the Master Emerald. Sonic had urged the echidna to stick around a visit a little while longer, but Knuckles felt there was no need for him to stay now that the situation had been resolved, and anyway, he felt uncomfortable being away from the Master Emerald for so long. And the fact that he had left the guarding of the emerald to Vector while he was away, Knuckles felt even further uneasy, knowing just how much of a slacker Vector could be at times. So he departed, but he did remember to say his goodbyes before going nonetheless.

Beyond that, everybody else pretty much just milled around, keeping busy. Tails went back to the various research projects he had been working on before all of this started. Wave assisted him every now and then, but she also focused more on getting back to her own projects. One of the things she did during the week was rebuild Jet's lost Extreme Gear board, which Jet was pleased to have, deciding that while it wasn't like his former flight powers, it was still good to be on a board again and racing.

Sonic also dug his own Extreme Gear out from storage and soon the two had challenged each other to a race, like before. Only this time the competing was much less serious and vicious. Instead, it was done more for the fun of it, just because they had nothing better to do to pass the time.

And because that's what friends do.

Crossing their imaginary finish line again, the two slowed to a stop on their boards to converse the results of their latest race.

"I do believe I won that one, Jet!" Sonic called to the hawk.

"No way!" Jet retorted, giving Sonic a mischievous grin, "I saw you before I crossed the finish line, you were easily a foot behind me there!"

"Where did you learn to measure, because I'm pretty sure I was a good foot in front of you, Jet," Sonic argued back, grinning cockily.

Jet thought for a moment. "Well, maybe to settle this, we need to have another race," he said.

"Hey, I'm game," Sonic said, stopping to check the time. "But…Tails is going to want us back at the workshop by now. Remember he said that he'd have things wrapped up and ready by now. Besides, you won three races, and I've won three races now, so we're even."

Jet sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right," he admitted, starting to fly his board back towards the workshop. "But don't think I couldn't have beaten you in another race."

Sonic grinned and didn't reply as he followed Jet. Once he caught up with the hawk, he felt compelled to bring up a different subject instead.

"Hey Jet," he began, "don't take this the wrong way, because I like what I see, but…after everything that has happened, you've seem to have come out of it…changed. For the better, I mean."

Jet didn't reply for a moment. "I guess it would be a little obvious," he admitted finally. He considered how to describe what he had gone through to end up this way. "Let's just say that I realized a few things when we were at the Babylonian home world. Important things that I had realized I had been neglecting."

"Well, you won't hear me complaining," Sonic stated. "You seem so much…happier. And you're friendlier too. You're no longer always trying to pick a fight with me, and are instead more sporting about things. You've made me realize you're actually kind of fun to have around."

Jet glanced in the hedgehog's direction. "Well, after everything that's happened, I've realized you aren't as bad as I first thought, Sonic," he admitted. "And no matter how one looks at it, I do owe you a lot, including my life."

"Aw, that just counts to one of the several times you saved my life during all of this," Sonic said shrugging it off. "Besides, I was just doing what I do best."

"Exactly what I've come to realize about you," Jet stated. "I've realized you do all these great and amazing things for the good of the world, to protect people and keep them safe, and you act so…modest about it." He looked at the hedgehog admiringly. "I have to envy you for that, Sonic. I don't think I could do everything you do and act the same way about it."

Sonic glanced at the hawk, a little surprise, though he hid it a little behind another cocky grin. "You really have changed," he said. "What happened?"

Jet hesitated for a moment, thinking back to what he could remember about his experiences with his powers and the later visit to the Babylonian home world. "Like I said, Sonic, I made a lot of discoveries about myself, that I was just kind of…drifting through life, letting all these great opportunities that would not only benefit me, but also probably lead to an even better life, slip right through my fingers. And it took nearly dying for me to see that. So I'm not about to let them get away from me anymore."

Sonic nodded, understanding. "I see what you mean," he said. "I think everybody got something out of all of this." He chuckled. "Except Eggman, of course."

"Of course," Jet agreed, also chuckling.

"This whole mess was really something to get out of, too," Sonic continued. "I mean, I've seen some weird things in my life but, seriously, I think this one just about takes the cake."

Sonic suddenly stopped dead in his tracks on his board, almost letting jet fly on without him, but Jet caught on and flew back to the hedgehog.

"I just realized something!" Sonic declared.

"What?" Jet asked, wondering what it could be that could make Sonic stop so abruptly, wondering if it was something important they had all overlooked.

But it was nothing of the sort. "We left Babylon Garden behind at that planet!" he declared.

Jet looked at him for a moment, before rolling his eyes and continuing onward. "Well, at least it's back home where it belongs at long last," he pointed out.

"Back home," Sonic repeated, then suddenly flew in front of Jet on his board, blocking Jet's path. "Hey, wouldn't that make it your home, too?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, seeing that you're related to the Babylonians and everything, wouldn't that kind of make it a second home for you?"

"Well…I suppose…" Jet admitted, flying around Sonic, "but…" he looked around at their surroundings, "this is my home."

"Well, yeah, of course it is," Sonic agreed, catching up with Jet yet again, "but wouldn't you have wanted to stay and look around some more? I mean, all you ever got to see was that one room, which was pretty sparse of details, to be honest. I got to see a little of what was outside that room, and know that's just a mere taste of what was on that planet. Doesn't it bug you that you didn't get the chance to see more?"

Jet was silent for a moment. "More than you know," he admitted. "And maybe someday I'll get the chance to go back and have that look around, because something tells me I haven't seen the last of the Babylonians, especially now that they know I'm out there. But my life isn't there, it's here. So here I'll stay. And I'm not going a thing like a missed chance to go sightseeing bug me. I have more important things to worry about right here. Like Wave and Storm. Things are going to be different between us now, and I want to make sure it's for the best."

Sonic looked at Jet for a long moment, almost scrutinizing him before Jet realized that was exactly what the hedgehog was doing, before, apparently satisfied, grinned. "Good," he stated. "Because your place really is here, Jet. I think we'd all be missing out if you weren't."

And with that, Sonic suddenly flew on ahead, shooting for Tails's workshop. Shaking his head, and grinning, Jet pursued Sonic.

When they arrived in the cavern workroom underneath the main structure of Tails's workshop, they found Tails, Wave, and Storm waiting for them, standing before the newly completed replacement airship for the Babylon Rogues, looking very identical on the outside to their original minus various minor details. The group turned to face Sonic and Jet as they entered the room.

"You're late," Wave noted.

"So we were having fun!" Jet retorted in his defense. "Can you blame us?"

Wave half-grinned. "I suppose not."

"So I take it we're ready to send them off, then?" Sonic asked Tails, as he set aside his board.

Tails nodded. "Ready and able," he stated, "their new airship is complete, and all of its systems check out. There shouldn't be any problems at all."

"You mean we have to go now?" Storm bemoaned slightly. "But I was just getting used to hanging out here."

Jet patted the albatross on the arm. "I know what you mean, Storm," he assured him.

Storm grinned at the hawk. "Thanks, boss," he said.

"You don't have to go now, you know," Tails pointed out. "We don't mind having you three here. Stay as long as you'd like."

"Well true, but I think we really should be going now anyway," Wave spoke up. "Not that all of this hasn't been…shall we say…fun, but we can't really stay here forever."

"Wave's right," Jet agreed. "I think it's time we got back on the road to doing…whatever."

"Well then, I wish you three well," Sonic said. "It's been fun, really. We should do it again sometime."

"Oh heavens, no!" Wave bemoaned, paling at just the idea alone.

Jet snickered at her reaction. "Don't worry Wave," he assured the swallow, "I highly doubt we'll have anything like that happen to us again anytime soon."

"Anyway," Sonic continued, "Goodbye, to all of you."

"Goodbye Sonic, Tails," Jet stated as the trio moved to start to board the airship.

Storm and Wave echoed their own goodbyes as they boarded the airship. Jet hung back to see them aboard first before stepping inside himself, bringing up the rear. He held back for a moment just before he entered the airship and turned to look back at the Sonic and Tails.

"Sonic," Jet began, offering a hand out towards the hedgehog, "Thanks. For everything."

Sonic accepted the hand and shook it warmly. "Glad we could be of service," he said. "And if you ever get in a rough situation again…you know where to find us."

Jet nodded in understanding, and then with one final wave goodbye, boarded the airship, closing the hatch behind him. Shortly thereafter, the craft's engines started up with a roar, and gently rose into the air slightly. The large hanger bay doors that opened to the tunnel that led out of the cavern workroom already opened, the airship then slowly started to navigate itself forward and out these doors. The fit was a little tight; the tunnel hadn't really been built with something the size of the Babylon Rogues's airship to slip through it. But the craft managed nonetheless, and slipped outside without event.

Once outside, the craft went to full throttle and started to fly off and into the horizon.

Sonic and Tails stood where they were long enough to watch the airship fly away far enough that it appeared as a mere speck over the ocean, before Tails solemnly closed the hanger doors again.

"Well," he remarked to Sonic once he had done this, "we've sent them off now. Guess it's just me and you again."

"Yeah, I guess so," Sonic replied, ruffling the yellow fur on Tails's head good humoredly, "which means we can get back to the matters we need to focus on."

Tails glanced at the blue hedgehog, not being able to think of any such thing. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, as I do recall, you do owe a favor for a certain black hedgehog acquaintance of ours for borrowing GUN's Chaos Emerald…"

Tails groaned, having forgotten all about the deal he had struck with Shadow over that matter. "Great," he muttered, "how the heck do you repay a favor for the ultimate lifeform?"

"Very carefully, Tails. Very carefully."

The rogues's new airship flew silently on a fairly aimless course as its crew gave it a shakedown, to make sure everything was truly in order. But their construction of the new craft proved to be very sturdy, and few flaws could be found, and what flaws they could find were relatively minor. Examples included a wall panel missing a single bolt (which wasn't even enough to make it wobble), Storm's door having a squeaky hinge (which was quickly fixed with a little oil), and one of the burner's for their stove in the kitchen not working due to an accidently crossed wire. It seemed everything was in working order.

Nonetheless, Jet, as the leader, didn't order any courses be set for any particular direction. He wasn't particularly sure where to go now anymore, or what to do when they arrived at the mysterious destination. What he did know was that the way they did things as rogues was going to change from that day forward. No more aimlessly drifting, stealing to make a living, and frittering away one's life pursuing the next Extreme Gear race. He was going to find a cause for them to pursue, a good cause, and pursue it.

He just needed to decide what it was.

But he wasn't worried. He was confident he would figure it out in due time.

So in the meantime, he sat in his new office, and pondered the matter, and had been doing so since they took off and left Tails's workshop to now, well after night had fallen. As his office was still fairly sparse in content, as he had lost everything he had owned in when his old office was destroyed in their downed airship, he looked out the office windows at the clear and starry night sky. In doing so, he couldn't help but stop and think about the Babylonian home world that was out there somewhere.

His pondering was interrupted suddenly when there was a polite knock on his office door. Glancing over at the doors, he analyzed the knock for a moment, wondering who it could be, before realizing that it could only be one person, as Storm wouldn't have even bothered to knock.

"Come in, Wave," Jet called at the door.

Apparently not surprised that Jet knew it was her, Wave let herself into the office, carrying a thin package under one arm as she stepped up to Jet's desk. She looked oddly nervous with herself, and didn't speak right away.

"What's up, Wave?" Jet asked after a moment.

Wave sighed. "Jet, I need to apologize to you," she said.

Jet blinked in surprise. "What for?" he asked. "I can't think of anything that you've done wrong."

"Well, it's more about before your powers really started to get out of hand, really," Wave explained as she sat in a chair before the desk. "Back when you just had your flight powers. And were enjoying them to death." She shook her head. "I'm sorry you had to lose them, Jet. I think I understand now just how much they meant to you."

Jet sighed himself. "Inwardly, I do miss that flight power greatly," he explained to Wave. "But it's different this time than from before. Instead of constantly longing for it, hoping against hope that it would manifest itself somehow, I'm finding myself finally coming to terms with the fact that it just wasn't meant to be." He paused for a moment. "I'm oddly at peace over the matter."

Wave seemed to understand. "I'm glad to hear that," she admitted. "It wouldn't do if you had gone through all of that, only to end up right back where you started."

Jet snorted a little at this, smiling. "Well, I'm definitely not where I was before, that's for certain," he assured her. "Things are going to be different from here on out due to what has happened."

Wave nodded, already having come to this conclusion herself. "I'm looking forward to seeing those changes manifest themselves," she stated. "But that's not what I came in here to say. I came in here to say that I wanted to apologize for…for how I responded to the whole ordeal. I…panicked, to say the least. The moment you got those flight powers, I didn't praise the event like you were inclined to do, but instead I immediately sensed something was wrong."

"But you were right," Jet pointed out. "Those powers only did lead to trouble."

"Yes, but at the time we had no reason to think that!" Wave pointed out. "But I wanted to keep you grounded and from using these powers for as long as I could until I could understand entirely how they worked, when I really just should've let you be." She looked at Jet long and hard. "I know you didn't like me trying to keep you from using those powers, Jet, don't try to deny it."

"I won't," Jet said, knowing that she was right. "But Wave, you foresaw what everybody else didn't. That the powers were going to cause problems not just for me, but for everyone else as well, and in many ways, put everyone's life on the line at least once."

"But then my reaction to it all just grew worse," Wave persisted, getting flustered. "I knew that it was jeopardizing your life greatly, and wanted to find some way—any way—to correct it. I wasn't about to stand to one side and let you and your…mystic knowledge of the universe you were rapidly developing stand in the way, I wanted to do it, so I could be sure that it was done right. I didn't dare want to lose you Jet, not…" she trailed off suddenly, realizing what she was saying, and blushed slightly.

Jet was silent for a moment. "Look," he said. "It doesn't matter now. It all worked out anyway, and we all got out of it alive. I'm not going to pin any blame on you for anything, so don't go doing it yourself." He grinned. "Besides…I suppose I can't blame you for wanting to…to look out for me."

Wave sheepishly grinned back. "It's been quite unusual these past couple of weeks, hasn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah, it kinda has," Jet admitted. "But looking back…I don't think I regret any of it."

"There is one thing I don't get, however," Wave stated, seeing they were on the subject anyway. "And that's how you knew not only where to go and how to get there to fix everything, but what you even needed to do. I mean, yeah, you were getting very intelligent there after a while, to the point you were easily the most intelligent, powerful, being on the whole planet. But still…all you had to learn all of that was from your surroundings, and that could only get you so far."

Jet pondered this for a long moment, already having an answer, but wasn't sure how to put it into terms Wave would understand. "I think it's because I already knew," he stated finally. "Don't ask me how I knew. Maybe it was instinct; maybe it was some latent aspect of the Babylonian genes that were activated in me doing their thing, or what. But I just…knew. It's…hard to really explain, especially seeing how my memories of the whole event have gotten very…sketchy. It's entirely possible I learned that knowledge from somewhere else and I'm just not remembering it. But I thinking that no matter what happened, what actually happened was meant to happen. One day those events were going to happen, and contact reestablished with our Babylonian brethren. If it didn't happen through me, then it was going to happen through someone else someday. But the point is that someday it was going to happen, no matter what. It was…shall we say…destined to happen. I mean, the Babylonians knew it was going to happen one day. It makes sense that…deep down…we all knew it was going to happen too."

Wave was silent for a long moment, pondering this. "So you're saying that we were meant to one day fly Babylon Garden back to the home world of our ancestors?" she asked.

Jet nodded. "A kind of…destined flight…so to speak."

Wave considered that for another moment. "Scientifically, it goes against nearly all the rules as I know them," she admitted. "But…even then I have to admit that…what you say does make a certain amount of sense."

She grinned at Jet, who grinned back. The two were silent for several long moments, before Wave finally rose again in preparation to leave. "Well, I need to get back to my lab," she said as she did this. "Tails was kind enough to donate some of his equipment to replace the equipment I lost when the old airship blew up, and I've been working at putting the whole lab together and ready to do some work." She turned to go, but then stopped, and pulled out the package under her arm and handed it to Jet. "Speaking of which, this is for you. Storm and I put it together for you." She gave Jet one more smile before leaving. "Good night Jet."

Jet looked up from the package he was studying and returned the smile. "Good night, Wave."

Wave then departed from the office, closing the door gently behind her. Jet turned his focus to the package then proceeded to remove the brown paper covering it. Once he had, he blinked in surprise at what lay before him. A framed picture of his late father, nearly identical to the one that had hung in his office on the old airship before it was lost. Jet ran a finger over the picture for a moment, touched, then with a grin rose from his seat to hang it on the wall above his desk, right where it belonged.

He then sat in his desk and looked up at it, grinning broadly.

It was then that Jet suddenly remembered the 'gift' the Babylonians had mentioned they had given him. He still hadn't figured out what it was per say, but with his discussion with Wave still fresh in his mind, Jet suddenly had a good idea what it was.

So a few moments later he was standing in the airship's hanger bay that sat under his office, alone, but to be sure that it stayed that way, he locked the hatch leading into the room. After that, he opened one of the control boxes in the room and disconnected the wire that alerted the airship's bridge that the hanger doors had been opened. He was confident now that what he was about to do would be kept private.

So that done, he flipped a switch that opened the hanger doors, calmly watching them slide open to reveal the cool, dark, night outside. Jet stepped up to the opening for a moment, feeling the night air gush in the room at him, his heart beating at the thought of what he was about to do. He took a moment to collect his feelings, and taking a deep breath in preparation for this.

Then with a running start, threw himself out the open hanger doors, and vanished from sight as he started to fall down to the ground below.

A long moment passed.

And then Jet reappeared as he flew back up to the airship.

Flying under his own power, and nothing else.

He considered for a moment boarding the airship again and telling Storm and Wave…but then considered that this was his gift, given to him by the Babylonians, no doubt for some greater purpose.

So he ultimately decided to keep it his little secret.

And with that, he flew off for a little joy-flight…