Tails frowned. "Listen, I'm sorry that I blew it up, okay?" she said.

"That was three years of hard work just… ugh," Sylphic said as he rounded the corner. "You should have told me on the flight."

"I would have, but the Black Arms could have been listening in," Tails said.

"How did you even manage to make fake Emeralds?" the hybrid asked.

"It was a trick I picked up during the time when Shadow got released," she replied. "They're not as powerful, but a machine can't really tell the difference. Especially the Cannon." She brushed off the Emeralds that were nestled in the bracelets around her wrists. "I've been using them as a power source for my machines ever since."

"I think what he means is how did you find the time?" Bastette said. "There's no way you could have pulled off making one from scratch in so little time."

They rounded another corner into the control room.

"Of course not," Tails said. "That's one I used the ones from my-"

"Well, well… what do we have here?" a voice called. A tall but rotund figure stood looming at the central control panel. A smaller figure stood at his shins with his spines raised- Retrograde. "Your little setback isn't going to keep me from crushing you like ants. And what's this? The facsimile of my own grandfather, here to fight with me?"

Sylphic grimaced and unscrewed his canteen. "I may not be him but I can still discipline you, Ivo," he said.

"Oh ho ho, big talk from a creature like you, Sylphic," he said. "And you, Tails, I'll say I'm impressed with pulling the wool over Retro's eyes like that- clever."

"Yeah? Well, I'm only gonna be making bigger waves from now on," she said, starting up her shoes. The Straightwinds unfolded and covered her feet, and the Supercells unfolded, revealing a set of Emeralds- one on each gauntlet. "You thought I couldn't trick you with those fake Emeralds."

"As I said before- clever. But not quite smart enough." He pressed a button and closed the door behind them. A loud siren wailed before a series of clicks could be heard within the door. "Hand over the real ones, fox."

"The only way you're gonna pry those suckers off her hands is by going through us," Bastette said, widening her stance.

"Gladly. Retrograde, do your thing."

"Don't boss me, terrestrial," he replied. He was clearly more put out by how much the Emeralds had destroyed the device, but he made a quick move as Sylphic lunged forward, an ice spear in hand. He kicked Sylphic, launching him at full speed into the Emerald receptacle. As his back slammed against it, his neck made a quick cracking noise and he collapsed onto the platform.

Eggman jumped into the pit nearby and rose in his Egg Carrier. An arm descended down from the bottom of the spherical vehicle and grabbed Bastette around the ponytail. The cat screeched, realizing that perhaps she should have tied her hair a little better.

"You know, there's a reason you tie your hair back in a scientific setting, cat," Eggman said. He held her up to his eye level and frowned. "It's basic lab safety. Otherwise, you could get it burned. Or in this case, caught."

He threw her up towards the ceiling, where a fan was ready to greet her. She frowned. Gripping her long ponytail, she carefully twisted her body until she could get her feet to hit one of the parts of the metal frame that held the fan up there. Her toes grazed the fan, tearing away at the tip of the rubber on the bottom of her shoes, but she quickly turned around and launched off, directly moving downwards towards his craft. "Hey, jerkwad," she said, aiming herself headfirst at the control panel in the cockpit. "Don't mind me dropping in!"

Eggman barely had any time to look up and realize his mistake before she slammed headfirst into his Egg Carrier. He managed to leap out as it was sent careening into the wall before clattering down into the pit below. A few moments sooner and he'd be going right along with it.

Bastette dusted off her skirt and stood over him. "How's that for lab safety?"

"Oh, come on now, please don't do anything brash," he said.

"Showing remorse? Please," she said. "Since when have you shown remorse?"

"Bastette," Tails said.

As soon as the cat turned around, Eggman pulled her ponytail again and brought her close enough to lock her in his arms. She kicked and shouted, demanding he unhand her.

"Unlikely," he said, gripping her tighter. He could hear her gasp as he squeezed. "The only thing you're gonna get is a front-row seat."

Retrograde stood there, stance wide and ready to pounce at Tails. His raspy voice rolled along as he let out a low and strong purr from his throat. "Not gonna lie, terrestrial," he said, extending a set of claws as his tail flicked back and forth. "You're just what I'd call a suitable meal."

"The only thing you're gonna eat is those words," Tails said, lowering herself to the ground. Her knuckles touched the floor as she prepared for the worst.

Retrograde smiled and fired spikes towards her, causing her to leap from the side and begin skating along the walls of the control room. Fine yellow streaks marked her path as she went, and she knew there was no way that Retro could catch her if she kept moving.

"Try to keep up," Tails shouted, letting out a playful chuckle as she touched onto the ground of the platform and landed a punch. As soon as she came down, she was back up again, skating around the opposite wall.

Retro growled and tossed spikes along the walls before launching himself onto one of them. "Gonna knock me down?" he asked.

"With pleasure," Tails replied, barreling towards him.

He smirked as he spotted her coming and hurled another spike, aiming for her head. "Dodge this," he said.

Tails smiled and spoke something, but Retrograde couldn't hear it over the sound of a strange warping noise that echoed off the walls of the room. As she vanished, Retrograde was left wondering where she went, only to be met with a firm kick to the back of the skull. He fell and rolled along the platform until he stopped beside Eggman, struggling to lift himself from the ground.

"Just who do you think you are?" Retrograde asked.

"My name is Watts Prower, and you'd best respect it," she replied, skidding to a stop on the walkway.

Retrograde growled and pulled a spike up. "Eggman, if you'd please…"

"Gladly," the Doctor replied, forcing Bastette's head to the side with his hand against her mouth. As Robotnik exposed the left side of her neck, Retrograde placed the side of the spike against it. "They say terrestrials are weak in the neck. It's where the majority of their blood pumps to their brain, this side in particular. I'm certain she'd make just as healthy of a meal."

Bastette stared at Tails for a moment, though it wasn't fear at all. Her eyes didn't glisten, they burned with intent. Tails nodded, knowing that glance from Sonic- the cat believed that she'd do the right thing, even if it seemed to be sly or underhanded.

Tails swallowed the spit in her mouth. "Let her go," she said.

"First, the Emeralds," Retrograde replied.

"Why should I give them up?" Tails asked, holding one gauntlet with the other. She felt sick even thinking about it.

"If you want your friend to suffer a slow and painful end, keep them to yourself," Retrograde said. "It doesn't matter to me. In your state of grief, I'll torture you until you give up. I'm not above it." He pushed the blunt side of the spike against Bastette's neck. "The only thing at stake here is your friend."

Tails thought for a moment before slowly collapsing the gauntlets. "No lies," she said, setting them down.

Retrograde glanced around for a moment before pointing the spike towards Tails. "Now, kick them over here," he said.

Tails carefully did so, and as Retrograde picked them up, he felt something slam into him from the side. He dropped the spike and the gauntlets and plummeted into the pit below.

Sylphic dusted himself off. "Glad I can recover quickly," he said.

Eggman yelled as Bastette bit him on the hand, releasing her from his grip. "Yuck, you smell and taste terrible. Don't you wash?" she asked, clambering upright.

The Doctor grumbled. "You're not getting away with this," he said, grabbing both of the gauntlets and rolling off the platform. He snickered as he rose again, this time prepared. "Always keep a backup vehicle," he said as levitated there, hands on a very skinny looking machine.

"Is that a Segway?" Tails asked, trying not to burst into laughter.

"Shut up," Eggman said. "It works and that's all that matters." He blasted a hole through the door at the end of the walkway and zoomed through it.

"Wow, that was disappointing," Sylphic said. "I thought for sure I would get to use my powers more."

"Tails, what were you thinking?" Bastette said. "You let him get away with two of the Emeralds."

"Correction, he has zero Emeralds," Tails replied.

"Ms. Prower, we just watched him take two Emeralds," Sylphic said. "How can-"

Tails pointed down at her Straightwinds. They didn't appear to have Emeralds at all, but there was a thick and round section on the inner part of each ankle. "I had a backup set of fakes in the Supercells, and I put the real ones right here and obscured them using a simple cover," she said, popping the round section open. "Ingenius, if I do say so myself."

"Wow, I'm honestly shocked," Bastette said as she caught sight of the glittering gems.. "You had a plan C and D."

Sylphic smirked. "I'm unsurprised, but impressed nonetheless. You must have dismantled a few more devices than I thought."

"Eh, only a few. Though I'll admit, I lucked out on the right colors." Tails sighed. "It's gonna take me a few more months to build another machine like the one I had to disassemble."

"Well, since I'm still not out of the woods and I have free time, maybe I could help?" Sylphic asked. "If you need me around the workshop, that is. You're the boss."

"I'll take it into consideration, thank you."

"So… Watts, huh?" Bastette asked.

"Yeah, I didn't really know what to say, so I just spat out the first one I was contemplating," Tails said. "It's not bad is it?"

Bastette smirked. "Don't ask me for invalidation, kid. You know I like it."

Tails chuckled. "So I guess we did it, huh?"

"Looks like it," Sylphic said. He turned and started tapping on the computer. "Geez this tech is old. I mean, it still works- knock on wood- but it's old. We can at least disable the collision program…"

As the hybrid worked on the computer, Bastette frowned. "Tails, is there still something you're not telling me?" she asked.

Tails smiled. "Nope, that was pretty much my entire plan. Here, you can even check my notes." She handed the cat her notepad. "Try not to crumple the pages."

"Noted," she said. She began skimming through the fox's notes, indeed finding that she had nothing to hide. Even her notes on what she'd heard Blue speaking about in her sleep seemed standard. Or at least they did until she began putting something together.

"Bastette? " Tails asked, worried about the expression on her face. "What's wrong?"

"We need to get to the observation deck."

"What?" Tails asked. "Why?"

"There was an oversight in your work. Get the Emeralds. Explaining it would waste time."

Tails looked into her eyes. It was the same fire she'd shown when she'd been threatened, only this time, it was clear that the worry was there. It became evident who she was worried about.

Tails nodded. "Sylphic, we can't mess with the collision program, we have bigger fish to fry."

"Can't it wait?" Sylphic asked.

"NO!" the girls shouted in unison.

"Okay, okay, geez," Sylphic said, powering down the device. "Get the Emeralds and we'll go."

Ragged breath. Maria felt the heat of her own breath on her face as she whizzed through it. Shadow seemed to be dragging her through the halls. She was barely able to keep up.

Where had she been before? What was going on? It felt like the seconds had been bleeding into each other, but she knew she had to remember.

She'd been navigating with other people to the central cooling system of the Cannon. Rouge had known the space, and upon entering, they'd found the black gem she'd seen for nearly a hundred iterations of the dream. The black gem had spoken to her, and the thought of what it had said sent her hoping it wasn't true. Her stomach churned, trying to find solace in the fact that she'd just woke up again.

This time, though, she hadn't awakened in her bed, or the shower, or even any of the municipal areas the ARK had to offer. Instead, she had found herself in the middle of the transfusion, right when the sirens had come on. Shadow had quickly pulled her off the table and taken her down the hall, hoping to find a pod somewhere that could keep her safe.

Every room they'd tried was hopeless- either all of the pods were gone, or they were heavily guarded. She knew that the government had come to take away her grandfather's research, and that had meant keeping anyone liable from escaping.

Including Shadow, she thought to herself. This is a dream, and he's out there. How did he manage to cope with that feeling of escaping?

She felt the Shadow of her dream pull at her harder. His voice was less gruff than the Shadow who had invaded. "Come on, Maria, we're almost there!"

As Maria turned a corner, she spotted a small group of soldiers, two of which were hesitant and the third of which seemed content on doing what it takes to secure the rest of Project Shadow. He raised his pistol and shot, sending a bullet directly into her left rib.

Maria gasped as she coughed. There was blood from her mouth, but she kept running, now completely in a haze from how drowsy she felt herself becoming. She paused and breathed in carefully, reminding herself that none of it was real before running onward towards the observation deck.

Thinking quickly, she locked the door, hoping that she could keep them out long enough to call an escape pod. Shadow had tears streaming down his face- she'd never seen him this frightened, even if she'd seen this scene again and again. There was something wrong about it all. The urgency wasn't anywhere as strong as it should have been, and by all accounts, the guards should have been trying to break the door by now. But instead it was eerily quiet.

She tried to stay on script, calling the lift and trying to get Shadow to understand that he was going to Earth alone. He didn't want to, he'd begged her not to leave him like that, but she knew that the panicked feeling she herself was experiencing was the feeling of slowly drowning from the inside out.

She coughed and smiled, bringing Shadow to the center of the room before returning to the console. She had to be strong. She had to be brave. He'd been brave for her for so long, the last thing she could give him was a parting smile. "Shadow, I beg of you," she said. "Please don't take this out on them."

As she turned to fire up the launch, her eyes spied something bizarre- the program on the screen was all wrong. It was a map of the ARK, with two small clusters of red as well as two rapidly-moving dots from different directions, one of which only lasted a few seconds before disappearing entirely.

But she was more concerned about how everything looked bigger. She looked around, trying to get a grasp on what was happening, when she realized her entire body was grey and red, she was no longer wearing her blue dress, and she had three fingers on each hand.

A wave of memory hit her for a split second- the time she'd been in Doom's grasp, the past 24 hours of evading the Doctor, the food she'd eaten- and then she looked up. There, standing awe-stricken as the seashell dropped from his hands and shattered, was Shadow, dressed to the nines in the same blue she'd seen him in before. "Shadow?" she asked.

"Maria…" he breathed, stepping forward. He didn't stop advancing, only slowing as he approached her. "You… I… I had a hunch but…"

Blue noticed he was shaking. "It's okay, Shadow, I'm here. I'm awake. You don't have to look anymore."

"You were right under my nose the whole time, and…"

"Shhh, it's alright," she said.

Shadow smiled. "I'm so glad to have you again."

"I'm glad to be… not dead, I suppose," Blue replied.

Shadow hugged her tight. "This isn't a dream, right?"

Blue looked at her left wrist- there was no number. "No, it's probably not."

Shadow picked her up and hugged her even tighter. "I'm… this is all unreal to me, I can't believe… how could Doom do this to you?" he asked.

"Geez, no need to make a scene of it," she replied. She looked up at Sonic, who'd gone deathly quiet. "Um, Shadow?" she said.

"Yes, Maria?" he asked, still holding her tight.

Blue watched as an Eye appeared above Sonic's forehead and his eyes glazed over. "Shadow, behind-"

She paused as she felt something protrude from her chest like the thorn of a rose. She felt the heat and wet sensation of blood trickle against her as she looked down.

Shadow looked at her, seeing the glowing Eye above her head as well. "I… I don't understand…" he hoarsely said.

Blue began to scream as the spike retracted into her body. "I-I…" She held her head. "W-why?"

Shadow's breath was becoming labored as the wound opened further. "Maria, don't cry, it's okay…"

"You're… you're…" she couldn't keep her words steady as she coughed violently, trying to eject something that was caught deep within her. With a wet popping sound, a black gem expelled itself from her body and clattered across the floor. As it spun a bit, the symbol above Blue's head faded, and she collapsed to her knees in front of Shadow.

"Excellent job, Blue," came Sonic's voice. It was twisted and bent, and intermixed with Concerto's songbird lilt. She grinned as she picked the stone off the ground. "You brought him so close to me."

"I didn't do this to him," Blue shouted. "You made me hurt him."

"So what if I did?" Concerto said. "It was all a means to an end."

"And everything about being a vessel? That was a lie, too," Blue said. Her spines flared as she glared at her deceiver.

"There never was meant to be any other vessel than Shadow," Concerto said. "I've been commanding everything remotely since before you were born, all because of these little clones of my gem." She held it in her gloved hand. "Marvelous, don't you think?" she said, crushing it between her fingers. "And now it's gone- the chains that bind you to my service are gone forever."

Shadow tried to prop himself up. "You used her… just like you tried to use me."

"And she did a damn good job, too," Concerto said. "As long as you stayed alive, I could keep coming back, Shadow. And since you live forever, it was only a matter of time before I would have destroyed you. But as fate would have it, you had a run-in with one of my sisters." She walked forward, pushing Blue and launching her across the floor before grabbing Shadow's chin. "And now that I have your body, I have no use for either of you. But don't worry, I'll let you spend your last moments watching the torture."

Shadow pulled himself up off the floor. "Don't you dare… hurt Maria!" he shouted, drowzily hurling a fist at Concerto.

"Chaos Control!" she said, holding up a hand. He slowed down mid punch, and she moved aside. "Black Arms blood is sensitive to Chaos forces. I'm proud to have chosen them to use."

A bolt of blue fire streaked across Concerto's face, causing her to hiss. "Why you little-"

Blue kicked her hard in the head, toppling her over before rushing over to Shadow. "No, no no no no no, Shadow please! Don't… don't go, I… I-I'm sorry, I was a fool, I-"

Shadow smiled. "Maria, it's okay. I'm not afraid, and you shouldn't be either."

"But you're… " She couldn't bear to acknowledge the obvious.

Shadow cough, and a glob of blood hit the floor. "Maria, please… I beg of you."

She looked into his eyes.

"Be brave for me, okay?"

Blue nodded. "Okay."

She stood up as the door to the observation deck opened, revealing a trio of strangers, each of which was primed and ready to fight. Or at least, they all were until one of them, the one with the violet fur, noticed Shadow bleeding out. He sheathed the water weapon he had in his canteen and made a made dash for him.

"Shadow…" he said, carefully propping him up. "Shadow!" He tilted his head back and listened for a moment.

Shadow coughed hard. "Syll, way to make it late…" he wheezed.

"Oh, no no no no no…" Sylphic said. "Don't die on me, Shadow, don't…"

"It's fine," Shadow said. "I found Maria. That's all that matters, right?"

"No! You're bleeding out, and…" He frowned and pulled the water from his canteen, soaking his wound in it and slowly icing it closed. "Dammit, I shouldn't have given you ibuprofen…"

"Why not, it made the cramps stop…" Shadow said, half-delirious. He hissed as the ice formed along his chest.

"Because it's a blood thinner," Sylphic replied. "I-I don't know what to-"

Shadow looked at him. "Stop," he said. "Don't worry about me."

"Shadow, I don't wanna go crazy again," Sylphic said. "It hurt the first time."

"Just make sure you talk to Blue… she… she knows…" He paused. "I feel numb."

"That's because you're in shock and you're dying, Shadow," Sylphic said. The tears began to run down his face. He watched as Blue wobbled towards Concerto. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm doing what Shadow asked. After all he's done, it's only right," she said.

Tails felt a pull from under her as her skates became warm, and then hot, and then burning. She quickly tore them off, and almost immediately the Emeralds within shredded the metal and bounded towards Blue. The rest of them seemed to fling themselves from Bastette's arms and towards the little alien as well.

Sylphic pulled Shadow to the other side of the room as he felt the forces of the Chaos Emeralds growing more and more restless. He couldn't focus on the scene in front of him though, he was too busy trying to look for a solution.

"I think I'm going to pass out," Shadow said. "So when you find out where Maria is…" he coughed. "Tell her I love her, okay?"

"Shadow…" Sylphic said, tears rolling hard down his face. He could feel the trails they left burning his cheeks. "Don't talk like that."

"Do it for me. Please. I beg of you." He smiled. "Adios."