A/N: Sorry to those that have waited patiently for the last three months, but I've been busy with other things in my life. Also, with this being the final chapter to the retelling of Adventure 2 I wanted it to have the right amount of epic and emotional moments without going overboard.

Disclaimer: It's obvious I don't own the franchise, or else I would actually try to make something good with it.

Chapter 29: The Final Countdown P7

Miles had finally managed to make his way inside of the Space Colony Ark, where he was reunited with Amy and Gamma; the former of which tackled him in a hug.

"Miles!" she cried out. "I'm so glad you're okay."

"I'm glad you're okay, too," said Miles with a smile as the hedgehog released him from her embrace. He then shifted his attention to the robot, his smile still on his face. "Both of you."

Seconds later, Knuckles, Tikal, and Chaos all entered the room through the door. Both groups looked at each other for a moment and could tell the other has been through a lot since they've last separated.

"So what did we miss?" Knuckles said with a smirk and his arms crossed.

"Well Amy got captured, which forced me to give Robotnik the Chaos Emerald I had on me, but then I was nearly blown up as I was launched into space," said Miles, offhandedly as he twirled his right wrist in the air. "Had another run-in and fight with Shadow before finally making it to the Eclipse Cannon and jamming in the fake Emerald I created that I brought with me in order to destroy the weapon with. And then I made my way back to Amy and Gamma, and now we're here."

"What about you guys?" said Amy, staring at the trio that were native to Angel Island.

"We basically went looking for the remaining pieces of the Master Emerald before finally finding them all," said Knuckles before shrugging his shoulders. "So the Master Emerald's back in one piece again."

"There were also these creatures that looked similar to Chaos," said Tikal, while Chaos raised his hands above his head like a child would to give emphasis to something. "They were actually rather helpful."

"They did help us find some of pieces, but the last batch were with that thieving bat," said Knuckles with less spite than expected. "She put up a pretty good fight. But in the end, we got the fragments back from her."

"She gave them back, actually," said Tikal. "It might have had something to do with Knuckles saving her life. Or perhaps that's only part of it."

"So what happened to her?" said Amy.

"She flew off somewhere," said Knuckles in an uncaring voice. "And if I see her again it will be too soon," Chaos nodded in agreement.

"Did you manage to keep the Chaos Emerald from Robotnik?" said Miles, turning to Amy and Gamma.

"Negative," said Gamma. "Enemy retrieved item and escaped."

"He did really good though!" said Amy, smiling. "He did beat Robotnik, but Gamma checked up on me right after, and neither of us were looking at him or the Emerald."

"At least you're both okay," said Miles with a soft sigh. "And it doesn't look like getting the last Emerald did Robotnik any good."

"So this Shadow guy?" said Knuckles, catching the others attentions. "Was he still as tough as the first time you fought him?"

"I've only fought him twice, but I can safely say so," said Miles, looking down with his right hand under his chin in a thinking gesture. "He didn't even have a Chaos Emerald with him, so I didn't have to worry about him using Chaos Control. We were also racing against each other the whole time, and I could barely even slow him down at times. He actually came close to killing me this time as well when kicked my back."

"When he kicked your back?" said Amy, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head in curiosity. "I know that must have hurt, but how could you have gotten close to getting killed from something like that."

"Well, there were some parts from the space colony that began falling in front of us," said Miles before rubbing the back of his head. "He was most likely trying to make me lose my footing so that I would get buried underneath all of that. But luckily it backfired, and I was kicked passed the other side before all of that stuff landed."

Amy frowned a little as she thought about what the fox said, but before anything else could be said, the entire ARK started to shake.

"What's that...that vibration?" said Knuckles as he looked around the room.

"I don't know," said Miles, doing the same as the male echidna. "But it can't be good."

Just then, Rouge jumped down from above, surprising everyone. Knuckles and Chaos took their fighting positions, while the others just stared at the bat, who was just standing there, looking like all was lost.

"You haven't given up yet?" said Knuckles, mildly annoyed while he and Chaos narrowed their eyes at her.

"It's all over for us!" said Rouge in soft, defeated tone.

Knuckles blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?" he said, dropping his guard a little.

"I've just received a message from my boss," said Rouge while avoiding making eye contact.

"You mean Robotnik?" said Tikal.

"My real boss," said Rouge, causing everyone to look taken aback. "We're all going to die anyways, so I might as well just tell you and say I'm an agent of GUN. Name's Rouge, and right now this space colony ARK is currently approaching the Earth at an incredible velocity," a chorus of "What?!" came as a response. "It probably...will impact Earth."

Before anymore could be said, everyone in the room took notice of the monitor in the room showing a video. In it was an old bald human man with a mustache similar to that of their enemy's. He wore all white and a pair of pence-nez style glasses, giving him the appearance of a scientist. He was tied up with some chains to a chair. Behind him looked to be a wall, sketched with formulas and equations that only a few brilliant minds would understand.

The man in the video began talking, and from the sound of it, the entire fee was being broadcast to the planet as well. He talked about revenge, and how the people of the planet took everything from him. That the Chaos Emeralds were used as the trigger that was currently sending the entire space colony plunging to Earth to destroy it. He said there was no way to stop it, and that impact should happen in less than half an hour.

"Who is that?" said Amy, feeling a bit frighten.

"Searching data..." said Gamma as he went through every data file he had in search of the new face. "Data not found."

"That's because all files of his existence has been erased years ago, you fool," said Robotnik as he began to enter the room. "Or, most of them I should say. You can never really erase true genius from the world."

"So who is he?" said Amy, narrowing both eye at the doctor.

"Professor Gerald Robotnik," said Ivo Robotnik, receiving slightly surprised looks from everyone. After all, the resemblance was uncanny. "One of the greatest scientific minds in the world, and my grandfather."

"So this has been your plan all along," said Knuckles as he glared and tensed at the human. "Stop it right now, or else!"

"This wasn't part of my plan, but it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me that this is what my grandfather had intended the whole time," said Robotnik with a humorless smirk.

"What are you talking about?" said Miles, both eyes narrowed in anticipation for what he believed would be bad news.

"So you are still alive, Fox Boy," said Robotnik. "I was beginning to think I was seeing a ghost."

"Just answer the question, please," said Miles in exasperation.

"Everything you need to know is in here," said Robotnik as he pulled out a disk of some kind before handing it to Rouge. "It's my grandfather's diary."

The bat moved to the monitor and inserted the disk. The screen filled up with words that she read out loud. Gerald mentioned in his diary how once he had completed his project known as Shadow, the military came in to shut the space colony down. Though, not with peaceful methods. Many of his colleagues had been killed while he narrowly escaped. The official story was that an accident had occurred in order to justify the sudden end to the ARK. When he had learned of the death of his granddaughter, Maria, he had lost his mind and began formulating his revenge. He had found out that Shadow had been captured by the government, and somehow managed to relay his plan to the hedgehog that was in suspended animation-knowing full well that he could hear him-before he too was captured.

"So that's why you released Shadow from the base!" said Rouge in realization.

"Destroying the world was never part of my plan," corrected Robotnik, waving his right hand in a dismissal manner. "I just figured that if my grandfather believed Shadow was capable of destroying the world, then surely he would be more than enough to help me take it over. But now the Eclipse Cannon is highly reactive and explosive due to the energy of the Chaos Emerald being too much for it. If the colony collides with Earth, it will shatter into pieces like my grandfather predicted," a look of approval appeared on his face as he nearly laughed. "That mad scientist!"

"That should be you, right?" said Amy, sarcastically with her arms crossed.

"We have to stop the space colony, now!" said Miles in urgency.

"The space colony ARK position may have shifted due to the amount of energy given off by the Emeralds," said Robotnik, raising a fist up to the same level as his face. "We have to stop the energy!"

"But how?" said Miles as he took up a thinking pose.

"Hmmm...That's it!" said Rouge in a eureka type fashion. "There is a way to stop the energy," she then turned to the Guardian of the Master Emerald. "We have to use your Emerald!"

"My Emerald?" said Knuckles, staring at the bat in confusion.

"You're the one that told me that the Master Emerald has the power to stop the Chaos Emeralds!" said Rouge with a genuine smile.

"She's right," said Tikal, excitedly before turning to her fellow echidna, who pulled out the shrunken jewel from his quills. "We might be able to stop the Chaos Emeralds if you use it!"

Miles soon brought up a digital map of the space colony that was showing signs of a powerful energy moving about. "The reaction of the Chaos Emeralds is moving towards the Cannon's Core!" he said in a mixture of frustration and panic. "It may be too late!"

"There still may be some time left, if we pull together," said Robotnik, catching everyone's attention. "We might be able to get to the shortcut that leads to the core."

Miles studied the map for a bit longer, and a hopeful smile showed on his face. "You're right!" he said before giving a more business kind of look when he turned to face everybody. "But there are three security doors that each need to be open. And they're far away from each other in different locations."

"Then it's no problem," said Knuckles with a shrug. "We just split up to three different locations."

"It's also a matter of who goes where," said Miles before giving his attention to Gamma and Robotnik. "Gamma, you take the first door, while Robotnik takes the second."

"What about the third door?" said Amy.

"That one's kind of tricky," said Miles with a frown. "The liquid from the core needs to be released first in order to open it."

"Leave that to me," said Rouge, pointing to herself with a thumb as she smirked in triumph. "Finding things of importance is one of my specialty. Though it would probably be faster if it were a gem I was looking for."

"I thought you were an agent working for the United Federation," said Knuckles in a deadpan tone, while Chaos crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at the bat.

"I'm a lot of things, hun," said Rouge, her smirk never leaving her face as she gave a flirtatious wink. This had the male echidna "hmphing" while the female echidna blushed a little.

"Okay, Knuckles?" said Miles, now looking at the three natives of Angel Island. "Do you think you, Tikal, and Chaos can get into position by the time Rouge does her part, and then open the final door?"

"That's easy enough for me to do it alone," said Knuckles with a grin as he let out a confident laugh. The God of Destruction then tapped him on the shoulder and glared at him. As soon as the red fellow stared back at him, the watery being made a lot of gestures while pointing to himself. "Hey, just because you don't need to breath like I do, doesn't mean you'll find it any faster," the liquid-like being soon made movements that most could only guess meant he was displeased. "I could find the door ten times faster than you ever could!"

"Knuckles! Chaos! Enough!" said Tikal, halting the two's staring match. She continued to stare at them for a bit longer, frowning at their behavior. "All three of us are going, so that we can cover more ground that way. That's final."

"Once all three are open, there's going to be an energy field that'll need to be taken care of," said Miles before giving a determine look. "I'll handle that."

"What about me?" said Amy in an almost desperate manner.

"Sorry Amy," said Miles, giving the hedgehog an apologetic frown. "But with you still being unable to summon your hammer, you're better off staying here where it's safe," the pink girl pouted and crossed her arms.

"Then what are we waiting for?" said Robotnik, impatiently. "Let's get to work!"

With that, everyone took off to enact the plan, leaving Amy by herself. Of course she wasn't content to just stand around and wait, so she decided to walk about the halls and check the other rooms. She knew she couldn't help anyone as is, but she would drive herself crazy if she was left to do with nothing but worry about the others. When it had been almost ten minutes since the plan started, she came across an abandon lab, and nearly gasped at the sight of Shadow staring out the window in the distance before her.

'What to do? What to do?' she thought as she quickly hid herself from view outside of the room. She took a quick peek inside, and saw that the black hedgehog was still standing still, paying no mind to anyone else as far as she could tell. 'Huh...he doesn't look too happy for someone that just finished their goal,' her eyes widen as she came to a conclusion. 'Maybe he really doesn't want to destroy the world. He was just following the professor's orders. I'm sure if I talk to him, he'll be happy to help,' she then frowned at her own thought and shook her head. 'No. I know he'd help. Miles' story is proof of that. I just know it.'

The female hedgehog then ran up to the male, a look of urgency on her face. Shadow didn't look like he had taken notice of her yet, but that would easily be changed.

"Shadow," she began, the black hedgehog still showing no signs of acknowledgement. "Please, we need your help to stop the space colony. The others are attempting to do so right now, but they could use all the help they can get."

"I have no reason to help them," he said, keeping his eyes on the window. "Besides, even if I had one, there's no way to save anyone. It's all going according to plan."

"There has to be!" she said in a mixture of desperation and hope. "I know people fight over the most trivial things. Some people may be selfish like the professor said...but they're basically good."

"Oh? And where exactly were these 'good people' at when my home was attacked unprovoked?" said Shadow, his tone becoming a bit harsher while still refusing to make eye contact. "Where were they when everyone I knew got murdered?!" he slammed one fist against the glass. "Not just the men and women of science that worked their whole lives towards making the world better either. There were also families that day! With children!" he was practically snarling by this point. "They murdered them! They murdered every single last one of them! THEY MURDERED HER!" he began breathing heavily, and then slowly removed his hand from the glass and placed it at his side as he began to calm down and gave a more depressing look. "Where were they?"

"Shadow..." said Amy as she stared at him, feeling like she wanted to cry on his behalf. "I know what it's like to lose your home because of someone else's doing," the male still didn't turn to face her, but that didn't matter. "It's happened to me twice. The first time was on South Island, but it got overran by Badniks-they're a type of robot-and the land was in so much ruin that it's still recovering to this day. The second time was in Station Square due to the attempt of trying to control someone of great power, which ended up flooding the entire city," she closed her eyes as she thought of the most horrible parts of those events. "Both times, many people died all because of one man. One man that just wanted to control everything. Ivo Robotnik," the black hedgehog closed his eyes slowly and let out a soft breath. If he was giving his condolence, she wasn't sure. "But despite all of the horrible things he's done, and horrible things he might do...I can't find it in myself to want him dead. I want him to pay for what he's done, but it's not that I want him to live so that he can suffer either. It's hard to explain."

"That's all well and good for you," he said without a trace of mockery in his tone. "But I'm not like you. I have to do this. I have to bring everything to an end."

"But you don't want to...do you?" she stated more than asked, which finally caused him to glance at her sideways, if only for a moment. "I know you don't want to kill anyone. And you don't have to."

"What do you know?" he said as he stared down at nothing, his tone sounding more solemn. "Maybe this is exactly what I want."

"Then why did you save Miles?" she said, causing the other hedgehog to snap his head to attention. Surprising enough, he didn't even so much as glance at her this time. "In his perspective, you were trying to kill him. But from what he said, it sounds like you were trying to save him. That falling wreckage that you were both trying to run passed...you're both aware that he would have been crushed if you hadn't of kicked him."

She's right, and he knew that she was right. If he had done nothing, then the fox would have just died. He knew it too. So why? Why did he do it? What possessed him? He was going to end all life on Earth anyways, so what difference did it make? This wasn't the first time something like this has happened either. Back when he was first freed by the grandson of his creator, he stopped himself from killing the GUN agent that tried to subdue him. He even made sure not to kill any of them that he came across during his hunt for the Emeralds, despite their use of lethal force. He's not even sure he would have been entirely okay with blowing up Prison Island if he didn't have his hunch about Rouge at the time, and that she would relay their plan to her superiors in order to evacuate as many people as they could.

He, he made a promise...didn't he? He promised her revenge...right? So then why couldn't he go through with it any of those times? Why was he filled with doubt now? No, not now; always. He's always had doubts about fulfilling his promise, but he couldn't understand why. Maria had been shot to death before his eyes as she used the last of her strength to help him escape, and she asked him to, she asked him to...to...to.

"That's what it was," he said as a single tear fell down from his eye. He then turned to the pink hedgehog, and gave her a thankful smile. "Thank you. Now I have to go. I have to keep my promise to Maria."

Before he was out of earshot, Amy called out. "Promise me you'll come visit us when this is all over."

"I promise!" he called back, while skating away. After he was much further away from her, a fond smile appeared on his face. "I'm going to do what I should have done this whole time, Maria. What you asked of me. I'm going to give everyone a chance to live a happy life. Because, everyone deserves that chance."

It took him less than five minutes to make it to the Core. By that time, he could already see Miles and some red echidna standing before what Rouge had speculated to him awhile back what was supposed to be the real ultimate life form. It was just as the picture showed: a giant reptilian creature with a long neck with some cables running along it from some sort of disk-shaped machine on its back, and it really, really big.

"Could this be the prototype of the ultimate life form that was supposed to be encapsulated that Rouge told us about on the way here?" said Knuckles in shock, completely unaware of the new arrival behind him and the twin tailed fox.

"Leave this one to me!" said Shadow, finally making his presence known as he walked passed between the two other anthropomorphic beings.

"Shadow?" said Miles, wide eyes in complete surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Shadow now stood between them and the prototype. "I'll take care of this, while you run to get the Chaos Emeralds!" he said after looking over his shoulder at the two. The urgency in his voice left no room for argument.

"Right," said Miles with a nod before turning to Knuckles. "Come on!"

"So we're just going to trust him now?" said Knuckles, skeptically. "He is the reason this is all happening after all."

"We don't exactly have much choice, and we don't have time to waste to start fighting him and that thing," said Miles, while he and the red fellow raced towards the replica of the Master Emerald's Altar where the Chaos Emeralds were currently being held.

"So you're what the professor tried to make before me, huh?" said Shadow, looking up at the giant reptilian creature. "Otherwise known as the Biolizard, if the documents I've read were correct," the prototype let out a roar at nothing in particular. "You're little more than a wild animal. I can see why the doctor moved on to other projects. Perhaps that's why he kept you here though. Because you can't be reason with like I can. You're his last line of defense to make sure his plan comes to fruition," he smiled confidently. "Though I doubt he prepared for this kind of possibility. Because if he had, then he has seriously underestimated me if he thinks I can't beat you in time."

No sooner had he said that did the Biolizard fire a dark ball of energy from its mouth. Fortunately, the attack was rather slow, so Shadow was able to dodge by moving to the side of the creature rather easily. He tried to make his way behind the prototype, but its tail was coming at him, and he didn't have enough time to jump over it. However, he did manage to jump back far enough out of reach. Another dark ball of energy was fired at his back, but he skated to the side before it could be hit. The hedgehog then skated towards the head as fast as he could. Once he was close enough, he jumped on one of the cables that where attached to the giant reptile-like thing, and started grinding on it with his hover-shoes towards the disk-shape machine on the back by using the small thrusters in the soles for a boost.

As soon as he was within range, he jumped and curled himself into a ball, then starting spinning himself forward and at the center of the machine attached to the Biolizard's back. A direct hit was made, and the huge beast roared in pain. It didn't take a genius to figure out that contraption was acting as a life-support system, meaning that it was a major weak spot. However, it seemed to be made out of tougher stuff than expected because the creature was still up and about. Soon, a bunch of small pink spheres surrounded the two of them before a few of them headed towards Shadow, who jumped right at the oncoming attacks. Before he made contact, he flipped himself around to where his hover-shoes were now facing the spheres, activated the thrusters, which caused the spheres to explode, and used the explosion to rocket himself to the center of the life-support system faster than he did previously.

'Time to end this!' he thought, determinedly just before he gave a powerful axe kick to the center of the machine, breaking it into pieces and ending the fight.

It was at that moment that Miles and Knuckles managed to make it to the top of the replica altar, and place the Master Emerald at the center. After the jewel grew back to its original size, Knuckles prepared the chant.

"Are you sure you memorized it word for word?" said Miles, a bit hesitantly. Not that he thought the guy was incapable of it, but people do make slip-ups.

"Tikal's has had me recite it enough times since she and Chaos started living on the island with me," said Knuckles, staring at the giant green gem before him. "Trust me, I got this."

"Hard to believe that the door you used to get here got blocked before they got a chance to go through it with you," said Miles, casually as the echidna ignored him and began chanting.

"'The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos," Knuckles chanted, causing the Master Emerald to spin around like a top as it shined and released sparks of energy. "Now! Stop the Chaos Emeralds!"

Like servants to their master, they obeyed without delay. The power to the seven Chaos Emeralds had been cut off, so too had the cannon's power source. Before anyone could celebrate, however, a loud roar echoed in the room. Shadow was near the top of the imitated altar when he, too, heard the sound and turned to look like the other two occupants in the room did. In an instance, a flash of light appeared, and the Biolizard had vanished without a trace.

"Is it gone?" said Knuckles in a mixer of doubt and hope. It wouldn't be the first time something dangerous had slipped away only to rear its ugly head again.

"Was that, Chaos Control?!" said Shadow, now standing next to the two with his eyes slightly wide in disbelief. He then scowled in disappointment at himself. "I may have underestimate how dangerous it is after all."

The entire space station then started rocking so much that they were all lifted off of the floor and floating because of the sheer force.

"Since we've stopped the Chaos Emeralds...why is the space colony still on a crash course to Earth?" Knuckles said in annoyance before all three of them dropped back down; himself landing on his stomach.

"Shadow! Knuckles! Fox Boy!" Robotnik's voiced echoed from the intercom. "Listen up! Rouge and Amy have explained some details to us, so we're all up to speed on what's going on. Listen carefully," there was a brief pause as though waiting for the three to prepare to listen. "The prototype is still alive, and he's controlling the space colony as it's falling to Earth! He's become one with the space colony, and is determined to keep it on its collision course!"

"Great!" Knuckles said in frustration after standing back up. "All that effort to get the Master Emerald here to cut off the Chaos Emeralds' power for nothing!"

"None of us knew the prototype would do something like this, much less that it could," said Miles, trying to calm the frustrated Guardian before turning his attention towards the black hedgehog. "How did it become one with the space colony? I thought Chaos Control only manipulated time."

"I've only ever used one Emerald for Chaos Control," said Shadow, face showing more signs of displeasure by the second. "Using all seven must not only give the user the ability to manipulate time around them, but also space as well. Though perhaps even that is limited."

"We can discuss this more later," Knuckles sharply cuts in. "Right now we need to kick that thing's butt and stop this station from crashing."

"Right!" Miles said with a nod and determined smile. "There's no way it's going to get pass us."

"Hmph," said Shadow with his arms folded in front of himself as he frowned at the two. "As great as optimism might seem, how exactly do you plan to fight that thing as it is now?"

Miles and Knuckles looked at each other before smiling and turning to face the hedgehog. Shadow raised an eyebrow in confusion, and deepened his frown as he watched them quickly gather all of the Chaos Emeralds and bring them to the top of the imitated shrine. The fox and echidna both wore proud looks on their faces.

"Chaos Control isn't the only power these Emeralds can give, Shadow," said Miles with what sounded like hope and confidence.

After that was said, Knuckles had undone the order to have the Chaos Emeralds' powers cut off. With the seven powerful gems no longer attached to the cannon, they no longer needed to fear the weapon absorbing more energy. The hedgehog became more surprised when he saw the Emeralds begin to glow brightly until they blended together in one flash of light. After the light had died down, Shadow became in awe at the site. No longer did he see the yellow-orange fox, or the red echidna. Standing before him now were possibly the two most fearsome beings he's ever seen, radiating a golden-yellow and magenta, respectively.

"Wha-what is this?" said Shadow, eyes wide in shock.

"These are called super forms," Knuckles began to clarify. "Anyone in this state is nearly invulnerable and much more."

"I see..." said Shadow, looking intensely at the jewels. "And how does one achieve this."

"There's really no explanation for it," said Miles, rubbing the back of his head. "It kind of just happens at your will."

"Then make some room," Shadow declared, walking closer to the Emeralds with a firm look. "I'm seeing this through to the end no matter what."

Once again, all seven of the powerful gems glowed brightly before blending together in one flash of light. The two already super powered beings weren't all that surprised by what they saw. True, it was the black hedgehog's first attempt, but he has already shown to know how to use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to an extent in ways even they didn't know of. Now the black of his quills had become a lemon-yellow, while leaving the red streaks on his head, and the white patch of fur on his chest.

All three then flew off really fast to the nearest exit, and made it outside with at least five minutes to spare. This may seem like too short of a time to do anything-much less stop a giant reptilian creature with a space station attached to it from crashing into a planet-but there was not one, but three people powered by the Chaos Emeralds. If anything, it should be consider more time than they needed.

"Okay, we go in and hit him with everything we got!" said Miles as he took out his ring covered in golden flames, and his red ring bracelet converted into an arm cannon. After the other two nodded in agreement, he attached his ring to the head of his arm cannon.

The three then dashed towards the foe, who seemed to be attached by the Eclipse Cannon. Miles came to the center, Knuckles to the right, and Shadow to the left. Before this Finalhazard to the planet could decide who to attack first, the young genius fired a flame of golden energy, covering the monstrosity from front to back. As the flames roared on, so too did the roar of pain that they caused. When the attack finally stopped, the creature had some red scorch marks, but was still relatively in one piece.

"No way!" Knuckles cried out in shock. "That same attack nearly wiped Chaos out with just one hit. And Chaos was powered by the Chaos Emeralds as well. What the heck is this thing?"

Shadow shouted out "Chaos Spear" and fired an energy more powerful than he's ever done before. The attack managed to hit the target just above the right eye, causing it to flinch in discomfort. It also became apparent that the burns on its flesh were beginning to fade away.

"It's dead if I can help it," said Shadow, gritting his teeth in annoyance at the site of the enemy healing so quickly.

A pink energy beam from the top of the now broken life-support system fired at the glowing hedgehog, and repelled him back some. Knuckles took that opportunity to give a swift punch to the cheek. The impact caused the foe to go off course for a moment, but it quickly righted itself and swiped with its head at the echidna, causing the smaller adversary to grunt in pain as he was tossed backwards.

Another attempt with the flame of energy was made, but this time there was an immediate retaliation. A pink energy beam from below the reptile-like creature was shot off at the two tailed fox, cutting his attack short in favor of dodging the beam. More Chaos Spears were then fired all over at the side of the prototype, just before an uppercut was delivered by a fist with spikes at the end of it. They were slowing the enemy down a little, but they still weren't stopping it.

"The professor made this thing more powerful than expected," said Shadow, glaring at the beast. "To think we've barely made any progress even in these forms, yet it's not even using the Chaos Emeralds against us."

"That may not be the case," said Miles, while studying the huge foe. "It is connected to the Eclipse Cannon, and..."

"The Eclipse Cannon was being powered by the seven Chaos Emeralds," said Knuckles, eyes widening in realization. "You don't think it's using the energy leftover as a power source for itself?"

"That's the only thing I can think of to make sense of this," said Miles, just before two beams were shot in their direction, which they all dodged. "We could try to get it to waste what energy from the Emeralds the Cannon absorbed, but we may not have enough time for that."

The three continued their assaults against the enemy. To give himself more diversity of attacks and mobility, Miles separated his two weapons from each other and flew around while firing blasts after blasts and throwing his flaming weapon at any spots he thought looked weak enough. Shadow gave a series of combinations of kicks and punches with a few energy attacks thrown in. Knuckles strictly stuck with his fists, but he made sure every single attack count, whether it was jabbing, a left or right hook, an uppercut, or even having his spiked-fists act as drills with them being positioned above his head as he span around real fast. While this was all doing a lot of damage, the wounds would heal almost as quickly as they appeared.

A bunch of red spheres soon surrounded everyone, causing the three glowing beings to take notice and pause in their onslaught. The spheres came right at each one of them, and while not particularly fast compared to themselves, the spheres proved too numerous and overwhelmed them. As they each grunted in pain after having been blown back some ways, the radiating hedgehog saw something that he hadn't before.

Instead of waiting for the others to right themselves as well, he dived down with a dropkick on a swell that was slightly bigger than himself on the creature's long neck. The prototype roared in pain like never before as it thrashed about. Not only that, but the wound was actually staying this time.

"What's going on?" said Knuckles as he and the fox watched the hedgehog doing some major damage on the foe that has only been flinching from their attacks up until now.

"It looks like Shadow found its weak spot," said Miles, while watching the hedgehog easily dodge the enemy's desperate attacks. "The prototype may be using the residue energy left in the Eclipse Cannon by the Emeralds, but it's not actually being powered by the Emeralds themselves. Every time we've managed to hit it, every time it fought back, and every time it healed itself, it would take the leftover energy and use it. However, because the source of power isn't coming directly from the Chaos Emeralds, the power is unstable. The results being those giant swelling."

"What are we waiting for then?" said Knuckles, preparing to dive right back into the fray. "We got a monster to stop, and a space colony from crashing."

With the three of them attacking together with this new knowledge, it didn't take long before the huge beast couldn't take anymore. For their final attack, Miles shot an energy blast from his arm cannon at full power, Shadow unleashed a storm of Chaos Spears, and Knuckles literally slammed through its stomach, obliterating the prototype once and for all. Unfortunately, there wasn't any time to celebrate.

"The ARK is still falling!" said Knuckles, panic evident in his voice.

"It must be too close to the Earth's atmosphere now," said Miles, feeling his body begin to shake in despair. "I've used up just about everything I had. I don't know if I have enough in me to stop it from colliding into the planet!"

"Same here," said Knuckles with a nod.

"I can do it," said Shadow, catching the attention of the others. "Trust me. I have enough power to get it done. You two go back to the ARK. I'll take care of this."

The fox and the echidna looked at him in contemplation. It was hard to believe that out of all of them that he still had the most energy left to sustain his super form for what needed to be done. Yet his posture gave no indication of a bluff. The two wished him luck and headed back to the ARK.

On the way there, however, Miles saw something in the corner of his eyes. "I'll catch-up with you in a minute...there's something I have to take care of," he said, causing his magenta ally to turn to him with an unsure look. "I won't stray too far. And I can still fly long enough to make it back to the space colony even after I change back. Especially with my Jet Anklets on."

The twin tailed lad then went off in a different direction, while Knuckles kept going straight to the ARK. Miles' suspicions were confirmed when he saw without a doubt what was another one of Robotnik's robots. It didn't come as a surprise to the furry fellow that the mad doctor would bring a few with him. He could only guess that it was laying in wait as he, Knuckles, and Shadow all fought to the point of depleting so much power that they would revert from their super forms and strike them. He wouldn't put it past the human to take such an opportunity even after the world had just been saved.

'Nice try, Robotnik,' thought Miles, seconds before slashing through the machine with his flame covered ring, destroying it instantly. Though the effort caused him to change back to his normal orange-yellow colors, the space station was still close enough as he stated earlier.

Back with Shadow: he stared up at the space colony falling and coming down right at him and the Earth. He smiled bitterly as he knew what he was going to need to do. That was alright though. This was for her. This was for them. For the promise that he made. For the promise that he'll keep.

"Maria..." he said as his smile became more genuine. "Everyone will get their chance to be happy, just as I promised," he then recalled another promise he made not long. "Heh, sorry...I guess I won't be visiting after all."

The super powered hedgehog then removed his gold rings on each of his wrists. He could feel his true power coursing through him; something he hasn't done in a long time. Though with the power of Chaos energy in him as well, it was beyond even that by this point. He reached out above with both of his hands opened and shouted "CHAOS CONTROL!" at the top of his lungs. Before his eyes, the falling space station had teleported away, and placed back where it belonged. However, there was no longer any Chaos energy within himself, and so he began plummeting to Earth.

Moments after the space colony had been teleported, Miles made his way into the control room where everyone else-including Knuckles, who had gotten there before him-was. Everyone stared at him in silence, expecting to have seen two people instead of one. After Rouge had finally asked where Shadow was, the fox just simply walked up to her and handed one of the black hedgehog's discarded gold rings.

"I found it on my way back over," said Miles in a depressing tone. "It was just floating all by itself."

"Do you think that the professor ever once thought that he would use him, Shadow, to carry out the revenge on all those that live here on Earth while he was creating him?" said Rouge as she looked sadly at the ring in her hands.

"It doesn't matter what he originally made him for, or what he attended him to do," said Miles, while closing his eyes before beginning to walk pass the group. "In the end, Shadow made the choice to save everyone at the cost of his own life."

"I guess you're right," said Rouge with a light sigh before she, too, walked away from the group.

Not long after, the natives of Angle Island followed after the bat, while Robotnik went to the fox. Amy just stood in the middle with Gamma and watched everyone else, while she took her own moment of silence to mourn the loss of a good person for just a bit longer.

Robotnik was soon standing next to the young fox, both staring out the window. "As a child, I looked up to my grandfather because of all the great things he accomplished in his life," he said, causing the twin tailed boy to look at him. "He was my hero, and I wanted to be a great scientist like him. But..." his expression turned grim. "Did he really mean to destroy us?"

"Maybe," said Miles, pausing for a moment as he thought deeply as he could about it. "People can do unexpected things when they're hurting. Though, if there was a trace of the old him before planning his revenge, I think he would be proud that it was stopped."

"That sounds like him," said Robotnik, staring out the window as he nodded at the fox's answer.

"You know...we all worked pretty well together, surprisingly," said Miles with a small smile. "If things had turned out differently, maybe we could have been friends."

"Not likely, Miles, not likely," Robotnik barely more than whispered.

Over with Rouge: she was staring out a different window, deep in her thoughts before being pulled away from them.

"So what's next for you Rouge?" said Knuckles, nonchalantly as he, Tikal, and Chaos all stared at the bat. "Off again to find those jewels you love so much?"

"Or are you going back to GUN for your next assignment?" said Tikal, in pure curiosity.

"Nah, I think I'm gonna give up this line of work. Too much work, for too little pay," Rouge said with a small smile. "Also...I've got something better than jewels that I'm thinking about right now," she turned to the three, her smile getting just a bit bigger to the point of almost being a smirk when looking at the two echidnas. "It'll all work out, you'll see."

"Any idea what she's talking about?" Knuckles whispered to Tikal, whose cheeks he hasn't noticed were beginning to show signs of pink.

"I think I don't want to," said Tikal without thinking, but then quickly said. "That is to say, I don't want to assume too much right away."

After a bit longer, everyone in the room was ready to go home. They were going to use the transporter that Robotnik and Rouge had used before, and they all knew that the mad scientist wasn't stupid enough to try anything against so many people when he wasn't prepared. Soon enough, it was just Amy standing in the center, and Miles near the window that was opposite to the exit.

"What are you doing?" said Amy, causing the lad to turn to her.

"It's nothing," said Miles before walking up to her. "Just saying goodbye, I guess. Despite my first impression of him, I kind of wish I would have gotten to know him a bit more."

"He promised that he would visit us after all of this," she quietly said, sniffing a few times.

Without her noticed, one of her hands had been grabbed by one of his. "Come on Amy. Let's go home," he said with a smile as soft and warm as the hand he was holding hers with right now.

The two walked off, hand in hand, with him leading the way and her face just a bit pinker than usual.

A/N: And thus the retelling of Adventure 2 ends. Now chronologically, Sonic Heroes would be next. However, there is no Metal Sonic, nor will there be a metal Tails/Miles. That being said, the next adventure isn't going to be a retelling from any of the games.