[Author's note: Thank you so much for the wait! I had some job shenanigans to deal with and needless to say I got the job! Now back to your hopefully scheduled programming.]

Maria wandered the hallways, glancing around each corner in search of the beast in the halls. She was no longer relying on throwaway clothes for her attempts. Dressed in what she wore on that fateful day, she navigated the corridors like an expert sailor without a lighthouse. She wasn't quite sure where the rocky bluffs of the beast were, but she could see where they clearly weren't.

A whisper sent the blonde against the wall as she tried to avoid detection. She wasn't by any means willing to admit how silly she looked doing so considering that hiding meant life or death. Or rather, whether or not the number on her arm would tick up.

She read it for a moment just to catch up and frowned. 18,137. She'd gone through almost 90 cycles between when she last saw Shadow and now.

She walked around the corner, faced yet again with the bitter stench of the hallucination. She didn't even bother stepping through, as with a flick of her arm it vanished. She wasn't sure why she had this power or how she picked it up so quick, but nonetheless she reckoned she ought to save the questions for when she broke out.

"Hello? Maria?" a familiar voice called. The feminine lilt of Sonata rang clear and clean through the air.

"Maria?" another feminine voice called. It was that bat girl. Rouge? The human girl had trouble remembering the name from what Shadow had said due to how many times she had upticked since then, but she was sure it was something like that.

Maria turned and called back. "I'm here! Is that you, or another illusion?" She cautiously drew her hand up, as though she could do something like fire a beam or suspend someone in space. At first it seemed normal, almost natural, even. But as she registered her strange pose, the two birds and the bat came into vision at the other end of the hall.

Akshi frowned and began to run towards her at blinding speed. He appeared to be staring right through Maria, and as the human girl turned to look at what the parakeet could possibly be concerned about, her answer came in the form of a spike grazing the edge of her cheek, taking a few drops of blood in the process.

The girl threw her arms up and frowned. "I've had enough of you!" she shouted. The mass of slime and spikes seemed to shake violently as she pushed her hands closer and closer together. "Stay out of… my way…"

Sonata ran to her brother's side as he came to a stop. "What on Earth?" she asked.

Rouge concurred. "What is she doing?"

"She has power over the beast," he said. "But how?"

"I don't know, either," Maria said, catching their conversation. She continued to press her hands closer as she backed up towards them. "It's hard to explain, but I'm nearly at a hundred rounds of waking up in here since we last saw each other."

Rouge backed up a bit as she approached, even though Maria was facing away from her. She could still feel the stab wound.

The human girl frowned. "I'm sorry, I have no idea what was wrong with me." She clapped her hands together, forcing the writhing mass in front of her to collapse in on itself before she fell to her knees.

Akshi walked forward and offered a hand. "Interesting," he said. "You have Chaos Powers, though I don't think I've seen this kind." He looked down at his hands. "I think I understand why my powers don't work here now- yours negate positive forces. They negate positive effects like these hallucinations, and probably more."

"Is that so?"

"I guess that would explain why I couldn't use my own Chaos Control without permission," Sonata replied. "Once you said I could seal the door, I was able to do it with far less effort. Well, as little effort as a lackluster user like me could manage."

Maria smiled. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Sonata," she said. "I'm certain that with practice you could make it work."

"I'm not gonna be around long enough to improve," the bird girl replied with a cold stare. The human squirmed in the limelight of her frigid gaze before apologizing profusely over such a poor choice of words, which only made Sonata feel worse.

Rouge frowned. "Why don't we get back on track," she said, walking forward and past the human girl. She crouched down and grabbed a small blackened marble. "Is this…?"

Maria nodded. "Iteration 18,072 was where I learned this one. It's not dead, just compressed."

"It can't feel pain, either," Akshi said as he walked towards Rouge. "It's a bend in the space around it- from its perspective, it's still unfolded." He held out his hand. "Can I have it?"

Rouge nodded and handed it over. "It feels weird in my hands."

"It's a creation from the other Eye," Sonata said. "You might be capable of feeling the effects even when it's not attached." She paused before turning back to the human girl. "If you're able to control it, then it's safe to assume that the Eye has you in its clutches."

"That's why I've been trekking through the Colony," Maria said. "I saw a giant black gem during a few rounds that we might be able to break, but it appeared to be at the heart of the ARK, inside the Cannon's Core. I've never been down there, so I don't know what it looks like. I'm not even sure if you can get down there…"

Akshi frowned. "A giant black gem," he said.

"Sounds like the green one hanging in the sky above the city," Rouge said.

"Indeed," Sonata said. "But we can't just stroll down there."

Akshi and Rouge turned to her. "Why not?" they asked in unison.

"Well, if she doesn't know what it looks like," Sonata reasoned, "it'd be like trying to enter a locked room. Your knowledge of the space is like a key, and without it your mind will only stick to places you know."

"You've lost me," Rouge said.

"No, no, I think I'm understanding it right," Maria said. "Grandfather told me some facts about sleeping when I had a really bad night terror. He said that every face you see in a dream is recognizable because you've seen it when you're awake."

Akshi nodded. "You can't make new faces out of nothing- anytime you try, at best you get a haphazard blend of people you know." He looked at Rouge. "You don't even draw faces on a lot of the people in the city because you don't tend to associate with a lot of people on that level. You don't have the key to their faces." He gingerly touched his necklace. "The police officers, the waitress, the dining guests… all of their faces were featureless."

Rouge frowned. "But you said it's possible I could build a space," she said. "Couldn't I just build the place myself and we can reach the gem?"

"I mean, sure, but you'd be building it off of what you think it looks like- you'd already have a layout in mind. Any of those blank apartments, what's the first think you'd think they'd look like?"

The bat thought for a moment. "Well, I suppose I'd start with the same layout as my place."

"Well, that's the problem- if you build it based on how you think it would look, you will likely imagine the gem for yourself, and it would be fake." Akshi paused. "None of us have a layout of that area, there'd be no bridge to reach the gem."

Rouge frowned and her ears folded. Though she was lost in thought, it was clear that there was a loss of confidence mixed in.

"What if someone knew the layout of the Core? The real layout?" Maria asked.

Rouge's ears perked up again as she listened.

"Well, then we'd have that bridge, no problem," Sonata said. "But none of us have been there."

Rouge clenched her fist and nodded, a fire relit in her eyes. She shot them all a grin. "I've been there."

Sonic drowsily sat up in his seat. The aircraft had made a proper launch and they were still two hours from reaching the ARK. Sitting in one place was torture when he wasn't tired.

He looked over at Tails and Blue, who were both sound asleep and leaning on each other. He smiled, happy that the fox, after the scuffle she had and the long night before, was finally getting some rest. As for Blue, he could see her eyes flicking back and forth beneath her closed eyelids.

Sonic focused, wondering if there was some way to hear what she was thinking. She'd done it before with him, after all. What did she say? he wondered. Something about letting my guard down, maybe?

Her guard was down, after all- she was asleep.

He leaned in and narrowed his eyes a little bit more. I wish I knew how this stuff works, he thought.

Hello? Shadow? a voice called. The sweet and airy tone was familiar.

Sonic paused. Wait a second, he thought.

"What are you doing?" Shadow asked.

Sonic shot up and stared at Shadow from across the narrow cabin of the craft, giving him an elevator glance as he registered the situation they were both in again. Every time Shadow spoke it sounded wrong with his tone of voice.

"N-nothing!" Sonic said. "I just… nothing…"

"You don't need to look at her like that." Shadow looked away for a moment.

"Shadz, are you feelin' alright, pal?" Sonic asked. "You're watching her like a dog watches a baby. It's protective."

Shadow's eyes widened. "I'm not being protective, I just think you're being creepy!" he said.

Sonic held a finger to his lips. "They're trying to sleep."

Shadow rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair. "I can't wait to be back in my own body. Everything in this one is uncomfortable. It's too hot or too cold, it's always raring to go, and it's… ugh…" He laid an arm against his abdomen. "Is this normal?"

"Oh, that…" Sonic said flatly. "Yeah. I'd offer a heat pack, but I don't think anybody brought one."

"Are you always in pain?"

"No, not really. I have a pretty high pain tolerance and you happened to switch at just the wrong time." Sonic cracked a grin. "I'm actually surprised you can't handle it- it's not even that bad."

"I can handle it!" Shadow said, clearly defensive. "I'm just used to temporary pain that isn't sustained."

Sonic snickered. "It's fine. Honestly, I used to think it was a curse. Now it's just another thing I get to try before I kick the bucket."

Shadow smirked. "Yeah, I guess it is."

Syll walked up towards the front where they were sitting and frowned. "You look ill, Shadow." He peeled back his glove and felt his friend's forehead with the back of his hand. "You're not sick are you?"

Sonic beckoned him to come in close before whispering something to him. After a moment, Sylphic nodded in understanding. "Be right back.

Shadow narrowed his eyes. "What did you tell him?" he asked.

"Relax, I just asked him for some stuff to help with your pain. No need to get so touchy." Sonic smiled softly. "What's gotten into you?"

"I think you know why I'm upset," Shadow said.

"Mm, my mind's drawin' a blank," Sonic said. "Well, maybe that isn't really right. It's drawing too many things."

Shadow looked out the window at the ARK. "I can't imagine what it's been like being up there for so long," he muttered. "All alone. At least I was asleep for most of that time, but…"

Sonic could see Shadow digging his fingernails into the seat. He felt like he needed to be closer. This had to be hard on him, it just had to. "At least we know she's alive, right?" he said.

"I'm not sure how long that'll be true," Shadow said. "For all I know, she's grown old. She could be…" The nails dug deeper.

Sylphic returned. "Um… Shadow?" he asked. "I hate to be indelicate, but you're going to tear through the seat and-"

Shadow looked him in the face. His eyes glistened and there was red along their edges, but not a single tear was shed. The medic frowned and offered the heat pack in silence, along with a tablet and a glass of water. Shadow quickly took the supplies and swallowed the pill along with a heavy gulp of water.

Sonic looked back over at Tails, who was beginning to stir. He noticed a notebook that sat at her side, and he wondered what sort of notes she had been taking, so carefully he leaned over to her and began using one of his fingers to slide it out from under her hand.

Her other hand shot out and gripped his arm. Sonic looked up to see Tails staring at him. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked, voice firm but calm.

"I…" Sonic frowned. "I'm just curious, that's all."

"I'd love to tell you, Sonic but now isn't the time," Tails said. "It's imperative that I keep these details private. I don't think that you'd like it if I pried into your room without asking."

"I mean, the one thing in there I had to hide isn't a secret to you anymore, so…" Sonic pulled his arm back and sighed. "I just don't get it, Tails," he said. "I thought we weren't gonna hide stuff from each other."

"I'm not hiding it from you, " she replied. "It's complicated."

"It sounds like you're hiding it from me," he replied. His voice was getting a little cross. "I mean, I'm your best friend, right? Why are you going back to a month ago?"

"I'm not," Tails said. Her lip was quivering slightly as she searched for the right words. "You need to trust me, Sonic. I can't tell you, and I can't tell Blue. If you think about it for a second, you'll understand-"

Sonic crossed his arms. "You're not making any sense."

"Please," Tails said. "I know I betrayed your trust once, and I made you feel like you couldn't be trusted. I didn't think about how it would hurt you, I only thought about how scared I was. But this is nothing like that- I am not trying to hurt you, I'm not even trying to slight you. You're my friend and I'm certain you know how much I care about you. Please trust me, and I promise once everything falls into place, I'll tell you exactly why I can't share details."

Sonic looked away for a second. Tails seemed really adamant about avoiding something. She was protecting her plans so strongly against him and Blue. It wasn't about him in specific, she was right about that. But there was still something wrong about this whole scheme she had hatched.

"Tails," he said. "You didn't answer my question."

"I told you," she said. "The troops are a last resort."

"The other question," Sonic said. "You never answered that one."

Tails closed her eyes and breathed out before staring Sonic straight in the face. "There's no way I'd have time to put decoys in the bag. I didn't think Retrograde would have come in to steal them."

"Yeah, but you're always thinking ahead," he replied.

"Yeah, maybe," Tails said. "But even if I had thought of that, I don't have any fakes lying around. All of my fake Emeralds are used to power my inventions." She gingerly played with the anklet around her left ankle with her right foot. "I wouldn't have time to dismantle my machines to extract them."

Sonic nodded. "Alright, I believe you."

Maria frowned as they reached the hatch. "Alright," she said to the bat at her side. "This should be the one. Rouge, I'll let you do the honors."

Rouge breathed in as she approached the wheel of the hatch. "Alright, I need some quiet for a moment." She focused on the area below her, trying to remember exactly how it looked. It wasn't going to be easy, considering she'd only been to the central cooling system a grand total of one time. But even so, she had to run through the set of circumstances that brought her to that moment.

There had maybe been twenty minutes to impact. Time had been of the essence. Tails and the Doctor had already done their parts in the operation, and she was next. She'd been told to flood the chamber with water so as to cool down the intense heat from the device that powered the Cannon. The central switch had been guarded by a field whose only switch was further back. She envisioned the pillars one by one, counting them like quadrants on a graph. "2, 4, 1, 3…" she breathed as she opened the hatch.

There it was. Far below them, in the center of the room, the black Eye sat surrounded by the field in the place of the button. Rouge nodded and grabbed Maria's hand. "Hang on tight."

"Wha-augh!" she said, yelping as she and Rouge fell through the hole in the ceiling and glided down towards the central control. "Rouge, you could have warned me."

"No time," she said.

Akshi picked up his sister and jumped through the hole after them, falling gently onto the floor. He approached the locked container and rested his hand on its surface. "How are we supposed to open this?" he asked.

Rouge set Maria on the ground. "Easy," she replied. "We hit a switch."

"But there aren't any switches to be pressed," he said. "Who designed this without a switch?"

Maria frowned. "It does seem a bit odd, doesn't it?" She spotted a control panel by the container and walked towards it. "Here, lemme see if I can remember anything that might help."

Rouge nodded. "Alright, you do that, I'll get plan B going." She jumped back into the air and headed up to the top of one of the pillars.

Sonata looked down and away. "I can hear its voice," she said. She was trying hard not to look at the gem.

Akshi frowned and held her close. "It's okay…" he reassured her.

Maria clutched her head as another error came up on the computer. "Oh no, I can't get in! And… ow…"

"What's wrong?" Sonata asked.

"This voice…" Maria said. "It's… it's frightening me."

As Rouge glided down past the water that fell over a nearby hall, Akshi nodded to his sibling and moved away for a moment, lost in thought. He looked down to his hands and held his thumb and middle finger together. Gently, he snapped, and a spark moved across his digits. "Alright," he said. "Now we are back in business."

Maria's shoulders raised up and she leaned back in nervous apprehension upon his approach. "What are you… about to do?"

"Relax, it's just to ease your mind," he said. "I can use my powers to synchronize with you. Between the both of us, we should be able to make the workload lighter, so to speak." He raised his hand up. "Do you mind if I have access to your face?"

"Um… sure? I'm not sure I understand, though."

"Like my sister, I can use Chaos Control," he explained. "I promise I won't take too long."

Maria nodded slowly and returned to a more calm stance. The bird gently placed a thumb against the center of her eyebrows and his index against her right temple. "Chaos…"

A snap struck Akshi's fingers and he stumbled back. "What was that?"

"I don't know, you tell me!" Maria said. "I'm just as confused."

Akshi looked at her and frowned. "I can't reach," he said. "I can't reach at all."

The human girl clutched her head again. "Give me a… wait, Shadow?" she asked.

The birds titled their heads before the younger one pulled the other out of the way of a large piece of the locking mechanism, which had now been opened. Sonata nodded and approached the gem carefully, focusing on making her arms impenetrable with energy. As she felt her arms stiffening up like the weapons she wanted them to be, she lunged forward with one of them, hoping to make at least a chip in the gem.

As her fingers touched the black surface, they bent back to their old selves, and she only ended up painfully slamming her hand into it at high speed. She reeled back and yowled before sticking her fingers in her beak, hoping that she'd be able to somehow make the pain go away that way. "I can't break through to it!"

Akshi pulled up his coat sleeves. "Alright then, my turn."

He jumped forward and curled his fist into his other hand. A green spark engulfed the fist in flames, and he quickly set his other hand on fire with it. It didn't appear to give off heat or hurt, but the color of it bounced off the glowing gem.

He blew the flames out and grinned at the sight of a two triads of spikes that lined the joints of his knuckles to his hands. "Now we're talkin'. Show me what'cha got!" he shouted as he lunged.

His fists hit the gem and bounced off, breaking the spikes clean from their perch and leaving Akshi with sore hands as well. "Great, it can negate Chaos Control."

Rouge flew back in and landed next to them, inspecting as both birds were tearing up and holding their own hands. "What happened here?" she asked.

"They tried punching it," Maria said, still a bit pained from the voice that was continuing to speak. "Rouge, the gem won't stay quiet. Please… please wake up and find Shadow…"

"What?" the bat asked. "Why?"

Maria looked at her, and her tears started streaming down her face.

"Why?" she repeated.

Maria covered her hand with her mouth and shook her head. "I can't, she'll… she'll…"

Rouge leaned back into a stance as she watched the white Eye appear on Maria's forehead. "I really don't wanna fight you," she said. She took a warning swing of one of her legs but brought it as far away from the girl as she could, simultaneously giving the gem a hard kick. The gem sent a pulse through her and forced her to fall onto her back.

"R-Rouge," Maria said. "Y-you did your best, now let me…"

"Kid, you can't even hit something hard enough to-"

Maria smiled as tears ran down her face. She stared at Rouge before slamming her closed hand against its surface. She paused as a crack appeared. "This… this isn't its body?" she asked. "I don't understand!"

Rouge stood up, watching as the gem crumbled slowly. "I didn't make a fake or anything!" she said. "I swear it!"

"I don't think you did," Maria said, trying to maintain her composure. "Still, you need to find him before…" Her hand clapped to her mouth again.

"Okay," she said. "I'll do my best."

"Good…" Maria said, turning back towards the gem. "Good."

As she slammed her hand into the gem a third time, it crumbled completely. Rouge and the birds felt an intense shaking around them as they watched their surroundings whiten more and more. As the blinding light overtook them, Rouge swore she could hear something over the static of the ARK disappearing. Maria's voice, the last of her words as the trio fell downwards towards the top of a skyscraper below, seemed to burn gently into her mind like the scent of incense.

"So that's your plan, Concerto…" Maria said.

Rouge let out a sharp inhale as her back connected with the roof of the skyscraper they landed on. She frowned and twisted a bit until she felt the pop of her back realigning. "Ugh, that was the worst!" she shouted.

"Yes, but… what was that?" Akshi said. "She could smash it so easily yet none of us could!"

Sonata pondered for a second. "Perhaps a negative and a negative would cancel each other out?" she proposed. "If that foreign body and Maria are both under its influence, it would make sense that the only thing able to penetrate an Eye is the Eye itself."

Akshi looked up behind Sonata and gawked. "You… wanna run that one by me again?" he asked.

"You never listen to me do you? I-"

"No, I heard you. You just said it in the right place at the right time," he said. "Turn around."

Sonata looked behind her and stared into the hue of a giant green gem- the facsimile of the Garnet. Her breath hitched, and she hurriedly went and grabbed her brother's arm. "I-I…"

"Shhh," he said. "I know that you're scared. Believe me, I don't wanna lose you either."

"B-But… I'm leaving you behind!" she said.

"If you aren't ready," Akshi said, "I can show you around town." He looked at Rouge. "There's this nice noodle place someone took me to, I'm sure you'd like to experience food one last time." He held out his hand. "The night is young, but you aren't. You deserve the best right now."

Sonata nodded and took his hand. "That would be nice."

Akshi nodded. "Rouge," he said. "Your dreamscape is stabilized by the rose quartz you left. I should be able to remain here with her even when you're awake. Not to mention that the city is held together by the Eye as well. Go contact Shadow- we'll be at that place you took me to."

Rouge nodded. "Alright," she said. She walked towards the edge of the building and stood with her back to the open air.

"What are you doing?" Akshi asked.

"It's how I wake up, usually," she said. "It never hurts, it's just surprising." She opened her arms and leaned back, tilting further and further as she shot the now nervous parakeet a grin. "Rouge, over and out."

The bat seemed to only fall a few stories before she stirred on her couch. "Ugh, that's gonna be a pain." She sat up, reached for her phone and dialed Shadow's number. As she waited for him to pick up, though, she heard a faint buzzing coming from the coffee table.

Shadow- or rather, Sonic- had left his phone at her house. The nervous dialing kicked into high gear as she went through her contacts list. As each call went by she was hitting voicemail after voicemail. She paced around the coffee table in her nightgown. "Oh darn it!" she muttered.

"Hello?" a voice called through the phone.

"Tails!" she said, immediately adjusting her tone of voice. "What a pleasure! Is Shadow okay?"

"He's fine, just cranky," Tails said.

"Birds fly, the sky is blue, and Shadow's cranky- that's not really news," Rouge said.

"Yeah, well he's blue, too, so…" Tails added.

"You're getting better at quips aren't you?" she teased.

"What can I say, I've learned from watching the best," she replied. "Sonic, Amy, you…"

Rouge paused. Her? Since when did I have that influence on anybody? she thought. "Thank you," she said. "Bit of an undeserved badge of honor, but I'll take it."

"If you don't feel you've earned it, then you will soon," Tails replied. "Anyway, why were you asking about Shadow?" she asked.

"Maria…" She paused. "Maria Robotnik is alive."

"I already know that. What did she say?" There was a crackle on the other end of the line. "Blue, that's space food…"

"I don't know, she just told me to warn him of… something. " She paused. "I don't like how serious she was about it."

"If it's what I predicted, then it shouldn't be an issue," the fox said. "I can't go into details, but let's just say that saying them aloud might clue a certain someone in on the game plan."

"Game plan?" she asked. "What game plan? What are you doing?"

Tails paused. "We're on our way to the ARK. Doom is back and he's going to use the Cannon."

Rouge frowned and began heading into her room. "I'll get my things and I'll be at HQ in-"

"Our craft left two hours ago, we're almost at the ARK," the fox said. "Listen, make sure things are good with Akshi. Something is fishy here and I'm still missing a few pieces."

Rouge nodded and looked into the kitchen. The Garnet was still sitting on the counter. "I'll talk to you later, just… be safe, kid. I don't wanna be putting makeup on a corpse."

"Yes, ma'am," Tails said.

Rouge smiled as she walked into the kitchen and caressed the gem with her fingers. She heard the phone hang up and she grabbed the Garnet before returning to her seat. She examined it for a second before resting her feet back onto the couch. "I can't believe I'm about to do this," she said to the stone. "You're such a pretty one, too."