The ARK floated lazily through space, cruising through its high orbit around the tranquil planet below. Lights from the orbital elevator glittered a faint red and white. Busy robots and construction ships flittered along the nascent orbital ring like worker bees. From such a high vantage point, the cloudy world below seemed to peaceful, so large… and so perfect, like a diamond in the sky. Sometimes, Shadow just stared down at it and wondered. A part of him understood that it was the most valuable thing there was.

He supposed that was probably why everyone fought over it so often.

Next to him, a young girl with blonde hair and a blue ribbon also watched the slowly spinning world. She was the real reason he was here. Metaphysical questions were not his natural preference; there were never any good answers to them. He wanted absolutes. He needed absolutes. Something that he didn't need to question or doubt. Maria, on the other hand, always seemed to be thinking… and wondering.

She was the one who brought out the wonder in him, as well. She was the one who talked to him and made him question why he was made and what he was doing. Maria never judged him. She simply accepted him. He couldn't count how many times he'd found comfort in her arms. He looked at her shyly, simply remembering when she'd hugged him and cheered him up without so much as a word.

Life – existence itself – was cruel.

Only in Maria was there kindness.

That was the world he knew: they tested him in the labs, poking and prodding and simulating. They tested him in the atelier, pitting him against Biolizards and Artificial Chaos and other prototype Shadows. They drilled him and trained him and forced open his eyes and showed him everything he had to hate and fight for. Then the blood stains and the tears would be washed away with water and soap and he'd return to his room and wait for tomorrow. But they couldn't wash away the confusion or the fear or the other feelings he wasn't supposed to have, but secretly did.

Maria.

Only Maria made it bearable to exist.

When he was little, before he had proven himself as the ultimate life form, he would find contentment buried in her chest, and the tears he couldn't explain would go away. She was always so gentle, so warm, and she smelled so different from the other humans and combat androids and artificial life forms. She smelt sweet and inviting, and it made the fear go away.

As he grew, she taught him the things Professor Gerald and the other humans wouldn't or didn't care to. She taught him about Mobius, about art, about life, about living. She gave him pencils and paper. She read to him and with him, not about the things the Masters wanted, but about fairy tales and make-believe worlds. These were 'meaningless things' to some, but he found them to be a wonder of their own.

Why do I exist?

Why am I alive?

I've been built to harness all this power! Why? It is only to serve others? It is to help the humans learn to harness the power themselves? Is it to help cure Maria's disease? It is to help fight the Black Arms when they come to Mobius? Are these the reasons I have to survive? Is this what I look forward to with every passing day?

Is this what I want?!

"Maria, why," he asked, not for the first time. "Why do you think we're here?"

Maria turned and smiled at him; her smile was the real reason he always asked that question. She always gave the same answer, and he never did truly understand it.

"To make the world a better place, Shadow," she replied.

And her smile made him smile, if only for a little while. Then they both went back to the planet below. After a few seconds of deep thought, Shadow's eyebrows turned upwards in a look of confusion. This time, he had a new question to share with her.

"Maria… the doctors say I'm designed to help people. To protect them. Even if I am a failure…"

"You're not a failure, Shadow." Maria quickly cut in.

"Thank you… Maria…" He felt her reach out, take his gloved hand in her own and give it a reassuring squeeze. Something in her eyes glistened, and he saw that she was about to cry. Why did she always cry when he talked about being a failure? It was like he had told her that he was dying or something.

"Maria…" he said the name softly, reverentially. "The Professor… he said that the power of science can make people happy some day. But… but how can weapons like me make people happy? Even if all the mobians were killed…"

He didn't miss the look on Maria's face as he said that.

"Even if that happens… will it make people happy, Maria?"

Is that why I exist?

Is that what I want?

Maria took a step closer to him, and shook her head sadly. "No, Shadow. It won't. I don't think killing anyone… has ever made anyone else happy."

"Maria, what makes people happy, then? What makes you happy?"

She smiled at him, sadness behind her eyes.

Then, one day, soon after all the fights and tests earned him the title he had suffered so much for, the title of ultimate life form, he began to feel something new. He didn't understand it and couldn't describe it, not then, so he worked harder and pushed himself to his limits. He was the Ultimate! He was Shadow the Hedgehog! He would prove he deserved to exist!

But no matter what he did: no matter how high he scored in his tests, no matter how well the synchronizations and experiments went, no matter decisively he defeated the other weapons and enemies he faced… the feeling never went away. It never went away! Even when Maria hugged him and talked to him and held his hand it never went away!

"What is it I want? I don't understand! What does this feeling mean?" In the shadows of his room, he clutched his stomach, fighting it. But unlike every other enemy, he couldn't win.

Thinking about Maria only made it worse.

"That can't be what I want is it?" He held his head in his hands, tears streaming down his cheeks. "That can't be what I want!!"

I want ---

Her soft hair.

I want –

Her sweet voice.

I want –

He warm embrace.

I want –

Her soft chest.

I want –

In the darkness of his room, he screamed.

I want something from her and I don't know what!!

Oh God!

I THINK I WANT TO KILL HER

.

Hot tears ran from his eyes as he remembered. There was fire everywhere, white and hot and unyielding, like a molten pool great enough to heat Hell itself. His grip on someone's arm tightened, but not in anger. Why was he here? Why was he remembering this? The fear came back. The guilt. The sickness. He had tried to fight it! He had tried to! Didn't that absolve him!?

Gerald's voice boomed, like that of God himself.

"Shadow. What did you do?"

"We were… just playing! I didn't mean to hurt her! It was an accident! I'm so sorry! I – I would never hurt her! You created me to help her! She's alright, isn't she? She'll get better, won't she?"

He nodded, once.

"Yes." Gerald looked away. Far away. "She told me… she forgives you."

.

"Maria…" Shadow took a deep breath, as if to calm himself. "Maria was too good for this world. This world that repaid her kindness with cruelty. This world whose response to a gentle touch was… No… No. I can not forgive this world! And no one can redeem it! No one can return its lost innocence. It is too late to turn back, too late to question…"

"Make the world a better place, Shadow."

"Even Maria… even she… would not understand this cause I have in her name…"

He turned to face the glow of Chaos that was building up within the Eclipse Chamber. There was a darkness deep within it: a terrifying abyss of ageless hatred and madness. Six burning eyes cut through the white fire. Indistinct but terrible, living lakes of fire reached for the heavens. It was almost free.

.

~ This world does not deserve to be saved ~

Pushing through the energy was like moving through molasses. Around Miles, all existence seemed to be just smoke and mirrors. Through the thick mist flashed the occasional color, and in the distance an intricate web of lines stretched up and around for what seemed like infinity. Still, without even thinking, Miles moved forward in the only direction he could. It was like walking down a narrow invisible path, but his body… his body felt light. Weightless. Unhindered by injuries or fatigue.

~ This world is a flawed mistake ~

Moving through the mist, pictures assailed him. Scenes of murder and torture and rape – scenes of all the world's diverse and degenerate crimes. He saw, on a mirror floating nearby, a family of mobians herded into a roboticizer. He saw, in another, the systematic execution of those too young to be efficiently roboticized, the bodies left to rot in the hot noon sun. He saw scenes from wars new and old, from the worst that the world had to offer.

~ It is a living Hell ~

Pushing forward, he saw a shape ahead of him. Floating in place, Shadow was in his normal body – black with dark red highlights. Lights twisted and turned around him, and he looked up as the younger mobian approached. His eyes had lost their glow, and now seemed to have a hazy and glazed look to them.

~ Oh God! I think I want to kill her ~

"Miles… Prower…" he said, slowly. "You've come to stop me? To defend this world?"

"Shadow…" The kitsune drifted closer, but it became more and more difficult as he approached the other mobian.

"You cannot approach me…" Shadow warned. "I know what you're thinking. I saw what you saw, so you must know. You must know…"

"I know."

The world shifted, and the two were side by side again: Shadow still had him by the arm. Boosted by the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds and his own Super Form, Super Shadow's Chaos Requiem tore into the two tailed fox, stripping away molecules and cells, layer by layer. Miles could feel it working, saw how it worked, knew why it worked. Shadow winced as he, too, became caught in the distortion. Skin and fur began to disassociate, forming a fine dust.

It had been clear from the moment they met here, that only one would survive.

"This is the only happiness, the only justice, I can give her! Even if she wouldn't have wanted it, even if she wouldn't have understood, I - I…" Shadow gritted his teeth, his left eye coming apart at the molecular level.

"I want it!" he screamed. "That's right! This is what I want! More than anything, I want this world to die!"

"I can see that." Miles closed his eyes, wisps of ash rising up from his cheeks.

Shadow cringed as yellow crackles of energy appeared around his body, running up his arms and down his torso. Then he, too, closed his eyes. Chaos Energy coursed through their blood, through their minds, through their souls, seeking to consume the weaker of the two.

"How can you of all mobians defend this world? What is it that brings you here? Was it duty? Was it Rouge? Is it your friends or your adopted family?" Miles heard Shadow ask. "Don't you see that it is all useless? Don't you see that it's all a lie? How can you not see my cause for what it is?"

"I see your cause for what it is, Shadow," Miles responded with vehemence. "I simply reject it!"

"How can you? I know you have suffered…"

His mother.

His father.

He saw himself, standing amid the bodies. He remembered crying for his mother to wake up, and for his father to help her. He had cried for days before he ran from the scene, mad with grief and panicked with loneliness. All around him, Miles heard her dying scream. All around him, he smelt the stench of death. And he knew he was responsible.

"What has this world given you that it will not take away?"

The kitsune's brows lowered into a frown. "I never said that this world was fair. Or kind. But…"

"What?" Shadow gasped, as he saw himself on the ARK, next to Maria.

"Shadow!" Miles' voice cut into the serenity of the moment.

Shadow saw himself in the escape pod and Maria by the controls. His face turned pale as the memory played out. She was supposed to leave him and save herself! That was why he existed! That was what he…

That was what he wanted.

"You selfish bastard!"

"This world is guilty!" Shadow yelled back. "See what they did to her? She's dead! My Maria is dead! Dead! What kind of world kills its angels and preserves its devils?! I never even got the chance to... to...!"

"You lived while she died, and you blame the world for it?" Miles appeared, near to where Maria lay against the control panel, near death. "There is only one person to blame for that, Shadow: Maria herself!"

"No!" The hedgehog snapped back.

"She saved you while you wanted to die. You wanted to prove yourself by dying to save her. Because you loved her! But she didn't want that, did she? She let a creature like you go… do you honestly think she did it to avenge her death? Not only wouldn't she understand you, not only isn't this what she wanted…"

Shadow bristled at the accusation. "She was too good for this world…"

"Shadow…" Miles spoke softly, and reached out to where Maria stood, next to him. Gently cupping her chin on his right hand, he lifted her face. The black hedgehog looked from the kitsune fox to the human girl. From her resting place, he could see her rise, great white wings lifting her into the air. Lower lips trembling, he took a step back when he saw her face. Her cheeks were stained by tears.

Tears shed for all those he had killed.

"Look at what you're doing, Shadow. If you really want to say, 'this is what I want' then face what you're afraid to admit: that the one who made her cry is you!"

No: tears shed not just for those who he killed, but...

For him, as well.

"no…" Shadow held out his hand to ward away the truth, his eyes wide. "Maria… don't… don't…"

"You wanted to know why I'm fighting for this world, Shadow, as shitty as it is?" Miles continued. "All my life, I have been what others wanted me to be: their sidekick, their sibling, their weapon, their hope. I thought that being what others wanted would make me happy, but it never did. I don't blame anyone for this except myself."

"As selfish as this sounds… I'm not fighting you for the sake of the world, or my friends, or anyone I thought I loved. I'm not fighting for Rouge or Amy or Knothole. I'm fighting to find out what really makes me happy. I'm fighting for a fresh start, even if it is in a flawed and imperfect world."

Tails smiled.

"Even if it is in a living Hell. Even if it's only a dream I'm destined never to reach… I believe you can find purpose and happiness for just a little while, and that makes it worth trying!"

Shadow felt a tug from deep within his body. It felt warm and soothing; not painful at all. Holding up his hands, he could see them smoking, as layer after layer of his body disintegrated. The crackling Chaos energy was consuming him, and breaking him into his component atoms. This was the Chaos Control. This was Entropy. This was the end.

It had chosen its victim.

"Judged… and found guilty? But I – I…" Shadow watched, resignedly, as his body drifted apart bit by bit. Then, a small hand took his own. Looking up, he stared into her eyes.

"Maria!"

Pulling him closer, he let her embrace him and wrap her arms around him.

"Oh Maria… you'll forgive me won't you? Just like before? I never meant to hurt you or make you cry, I…'

He took one last breath.

'I never got to tell you, Maria. I never told you that I think I loved you…'

Slowly, he smiled.

'I loved you so much… look down on me, Maria… from heaven…'

And then the last bonds of life that held him together vanished, and Shadow the Hedgehog fell apart into a dark black cloud of smoke. Miles Prower saw the look of peace and acceptance his enemy had borne, in the end, but felt no solace in it. Alone, amid the whirling energies of the blighted Eclipse Chamber, he knew nothing would ever bring back the dead. What was left of Shadow's body quickly dispersed, and became caught up in the currents of the spinning Emeralds that guided the flow of Chaos Energy. In only a few seconds, he was gone, and the smoke and light went with him.

He looked down and saw the damage to his body: patches of skin and muscle were gone, the molecules teleported piecemeal into the ether. He analyzed the situation, and estimated the time left before Helios impacted. He knew he had taken too long. Far too long. Perhaps he had a minute left before the city crashed. His mind also stated the obvious: he could escape and repair himself. It was possible, but it would mean leaving Helios to crash.

That was unacceptable.

"I see," he said, resigning himself. "I suppose I only have one last thing to do then."

Miles knew what had to be done. Opening his mouth, calming his breathing and his mind, he felt the Chaos absorb him and be absorbed in turn. Slowly, he began to turn, spinning along an axis that went down his body. He could feel and hear Iblis in the background, like white noise, straining to get free. The power of Chaos was everywhere, building to a point far exceeding the ability of the Chamber's Chaos Siphons itself to channel or control it.

"Sorry, Sonic, I don't think I'll be able to make that race around the world with you. I won't be coming back and I - I let Amy die… I let Rouge get hurt. I didn't make much of a hero after all... but I can finish what I started!"

He looked upwards and smiled contentedly.

"I won't let all this be for nothing."

Sally watched from the bridge of the Nor'easter as the main screen displayed Helios' descent. The Falling City had reached a speed of almost one and a half kilometers per second and was only moments from impact. Above the great yellow circle and dotted projection line superimposed on the map, a countdown ticked away in bold numbers. Hundreds of nearby dots on the screen represented ships and fighters and transports. Everything had been mobilized to try and get civilians out of Knothole before impact.

Aya sat in the center of the deathly quiet Flag Bridge, waiting.

A hushed silence hung over the room.

"Captain!" an officer manning sensor control suddenly spoke, shock and awe coloring his voice. "Detecting Dimitri-Edmund Emissions! Massive spike! Field distortions increasing exponentially!"

"Scopes on target!" Aya ordered and the main screen switched to the tumbling, burning, writhing black mass that was Helios. The Nor'easter was miles away from the impact point, but the view it had was both awe inspiring and terrible to behold. Without warning, the three kilometer wide blip superimposed on the topographic map vanished.

A heartbeat later and the Falling City followed suit.

Tempest had faced the falling city with a smile.

Standing atop a small hill of crushed combots and eviscerated badniks, he had buried his polearm into the highest point in the artificial hill and taken a seat to enjoy the show. This close, Helios blotted out both sky and sun, eclipsing all of creation. It was close enough to almost see through the poisonous black shroud surrounding it.

Nail stood nearby, looking up.

Taking a quick swig from a flask, Tempest passed the drink to the echidna. The student of Athair stared at the little metal flask for a moment, making up his mind before grabbing it and taking a quick drink. Almost immediately he stared to cough, the moonshine burning a trail down his throat.

"Brat's taking his time," Tempest observed, and shielded his eyes. "Ah…! There we go."

A mile away from them, but still well within the annihilation zone of the crash, a cream and tan colored rabbit sat up on a medical cot. Her upper body was bandaged, and her face looked pale from lack of blood. Looking in the direction of the rumbling, she covered her mouth with her hand.

Further away, Rouge and Wave helped Sonic to his feet, the latter trying to move the hedgehog without ripping the bandage they'd hastily fixed around the bloody wound Mephiles had left in his side. Sonic was literally surviving only on ring energy. They had ended up almost sixty miles away, near one of the landing zones for evacuees. The air was thick with transports, some even bearing the insignia of GUN, unloading civilians from the far off warzone of Knothole.

Neither female said anything; Rouge still couldn't hear, anyway.

Beyond the trees and the horizon, something flashed. Rouge looked up at the pale blue sky. It was a perfect and cloudless near-twilight. This far from the lights of a city, the moon and the stars could just barely be seen.

'Miles…'

Knuckles watched from a distance atop a particularly tall spruce tree. He could feel it coming before it actually came. A great pulse washed over the land, like a contraction, but in the Chaos Force. The echidna Guardian's spines rustled in the nonexistent wind.

The Super Emerald in his hand glowed with an eerie inner light.

In her padded cell, Fiona Fox laughed.

Silence.

Where the descending Perfect Defense Fortress Helios and the majority of the robot army had once been… there was only a perfectly formed crater four kilometers wide. Around it, much of the Great Forest still stood, but ended abruptly. It was almost as if the hand of some insane god had reached down and scooped out a chunk of the planet, removing it cleanly and entirely. It was as if an area of one hundred and thirteen square kilometers had vanished in thin air.

What few clouds hung in the sky rippled away.

And then, a great rushing wind swept in, drawing millions of tons of air and water and debris into the sudden vacuum. Fifteen thousand ton flying airships struggled to fight against the current. Smaller drone craft and a handful of the remaining Eggman Legion were swept up and pulled in entirely. Amazingly, any organics within range found themselves hundreds of meters from where they had once stood.

And then, just like that, it was over.

High Orbit

One hundred and thirteen square kilometers of air and rock and steel appeared in a flash of light. The cruel vacuum of space immediately claimed what it could. Air rushed out of unsecured areas: sucked down unsealed corridors and hallways and out hangars and battle damaged holes punched into the Flying City's hull. Robots drifted in zero gravity, their opponents no longer registering on their sensors. Thousands of tons of ruined super structure, smashed buildings, melted debris, and wrecked airships floated in place before drifting away.

Within the heart of it all, surrounded by a bubble of air, Miles clung onto life.

"Trajectory… calculated," he managed to say, even as more and more of his body disintegrated. He knew he was still technically in his Super form, and that its near invulnerability was all that kept him alive. But it wouldn't last forever, and when it failed, he would come apart just like Shadow had.

Looking down, he saw his lower body was gone, too, below the waist.

"Not yet. I'm not done yet…" He turned to face Iblis, who still raged against her constraints. The Ark was almost completely shattered now, and Iblis had managed to squeeze an entire arm (or similar horrific appendage) through the gap. She was struggling furiously to get free and finish prying open the dimensional tear.

Miles reached out for her with his power.

It was a terrible to behold.

Blinding in intensity, cutting through every barrier that dared to stand against it. He had no idea how to contain it. He had put the remains of Helios into a slingshot orbit that would lead it into a rendezvous with Mobius' primary moon. It was the best he could manage on such short notice, and with so many other things to Chaos Control to so many other locations. Almost a thousand men and women needed to be teleported out of the city before he even began moving it.

He was also reluctant to send the Chaos Emeralds into the sun or deep space.

The Moon would have to do. The impact would be enough to completely vaporize most of Helios itself, and if the Emeralds didn't transition back to the Special Zone, then someone – eventually – could retrieve them. It would have to do. Now: the only thing left was this thing Shadow had planned to unleash.

Miles understood the cutting edge of dimensional physics. He knew how to build warp gates and star posts. He knew how to create pocket dimensions or access other zones. He'd even been to alternate realities. With his last iota of life and energy, he tried to study this new phenomenon: to understand it and plum its secrets. A thrill passed through him, even now, at encountering something new and fascinating to study.

But it was so… monstrous, so angry, so mad…

The last thing Miles saw, truly saw, was a halo of pure white, engulfing all the world. Then, there was nothingness, just an empty void. Everything felt numb… like his whole body only half existed. For a moment, he wondered if this was… death…

"Master," it was a girl's voice.

Who was she?

"Master," she repeated. "My name is Shahra. You have to use me."

Miles saw only an expanse of white, but then, within that featureless void, a girl began to appear. He had seen a great many humans over his life type, of all shapes and shades and sizes, but this girl was unique. Her hair was a vibrant violet color he had never seen in a non-mobian, and her ears were even slightly pointed. A lock of her hair even curled straight upwards before falling back down.

No: she wasn't human.

She was something else. Another scientific curiosity, he immediately decided. The girl's attire was also foreign and strange. She had gold bracers around her arms and wrists, an intricate wrap around her torso the color of lightest blue, and a transparent sarong of some sort around her white pants. It was not a style of dress that the kitsune had encountered before, further adding to the mystery.

"To seal Iblis and to repair the damage done," another voice interrupted, booming in the void. "Use this one. She is the Burning Key."

That voice…

That nightmare voice…!

"I know you!" Miles called, and his voice echoed in the immeasurable nothingness. "Who are you? What is this?"

"Who are you?" the voice asked. "What is this?"

"Don't parrot me!" Miles snarled. "There's no time for this!"

"Who are you?" the voice asked again. "And what is this? You haven't figured either out yet, have you? I'll give you a hint."

Miles winced as something seeped out of his body… a red mist… before it began to coalesce in front of him. Eerily, the gas began to twist and churn into a face, but the features were constantly in flux; always changing.

"Who are you?" It repeated, mouth moving but speaking not in words, but in thoughts.

You think you know, but you have only the faintest inkling of the truth. Let me tell you who I am, so you may understand who you are.

The blood mist twisted and grew into a shadow of light and dark, formless and faceless. Two white orbs shone in the place of eyes.

I am the First and you are the Latest, perhaps even the Last. From me come the Chaos Emeralds you and your kind so desire... I have been Chosen to bear the weight of Chaos.

Miles narrowed his eyes at the apparition.

"The Chaos Force?" he speculated, and quickly looked around. "No. No! You're the anomaly…! The 'Universal Reserve' predicted by the Finitevus Theorems!"

The ghost floated, silent.

"Wait. Either you are, or…" The kitsune's eyes widened at it hit him, like a blow from Shadow himself. The echidna, Finitevus, had masterfully calculated the rates of accumulation of ambient Chaos Energy over time, and proven that it was a non-constant. He had also gone on to produce mathematical proofs supporting the existence of a so called 'Universal Reserve' of Chaos Energy to account for the waste in Chaos Energy conversions.

Tails had reviewed the math himself and agreed with the general conclusion.

Miles knew he wasn't normal, and neither were Sonic or Knuckles or Shadow. Unlike other chaos sensitive mobians who could absorb limited amounts of chaos energy, their bodies could absorb seemingly unlimited amounts. However, doing so was horrendously inefficient. More than ninety percent of Chaos Energy that what was absorbed wasn't used. It just seemed to disappear.

If Finitevus was right (and the theorem was mathematically sound) then the waste energy was shunted into a Reserve somewhere, probably within the space time of the Chaos Force itself. How much waste energy would accumulate there over the centuries, then, after millions of rings and dozens of Super transformations? Miles own speculation had always been that the energy built up could not be constant. Sooner or later, it would reach critical mass and…

You, Miles.

He was the Reserve.

"You can't mean… I'm…" Miles shook his head, trying to reason a way out of it. "Was this what Athair meant when he said I was the Chosen One? That I'm just some… accumulation of energy? That I'm just some variable in an equation governing energy conversion?"

This is what it means to be Chosen.

"Then, if I'm…" Miles looked past the shadow and saw the six burning eyes of Iblis, barely held in check. "Then this is one, too. This thing is like me! And like you!"

"Long ago," Shahra spoke up, her head still bowed in subservience. "Iblis was my sister. She, too, was Chosen."

Miles shook his head, unwilling to accept it: that this thing, this monster, this bottomless well of madness and hate… it was the same. They were the same!

Shahra continued, regardless, "She couldn't deal with what she learned. When she began to change, she… she began to forget who she was. The Master came to us and gave us a means of saving our people. The Master sealed her away. I was also Chosen to be my sister's Key."

"You were…?" Tails shoulders slumped. "This isn't what I wanted…"

"Of course not," the formless apparition stated, "Yet it is, what is. None of us wanted this. We were merely Chosen."

Iblis roared, breaking through the last of her seals. Red and black fire crept over the white featureless void, tearing and burning and raging out of control. Shahra looked up with wide, frightened violet eyes. She held up her small hands, pleadingly.

"Use me, Master!" she implored. "Use me!"

Miles reared back, hesitant.

"Use her," the apparition demanded. "Repair the Prison!"

Iblis roared again, straining madly to be free.

"Do it!" the formless smoke ordered.

"Please!" Shahra cried. "This is… why I exist… Use me!"

"Use her!"

"Use me!"

Iblis' gaze fell on him, and for an instant, Miles saw her as she used to be. Like Shahra, she had been vaguely human, with soft blue hair and eyes. He saw her reaching for him from behind her bars. He saw the pain, the neglect, the fear and the despair that had consumed her. Just the merest trace of it moved him to tears.

"What do you want, Chosen One?" the formless ghost thundered. "This is the nature of your existence!"

Iblis' human features peeled away, revealing six glowing embers of burning hate. Her scream became an inhuman howl, and her hair became wreaths of black flame. The soul of Mephiles squirmed and burned within her pitch black maw.

Miles took Shahra's hands.

"My choice…"

He felt the numbness subside. Blinking, Tails saw the emptiness fill to brimming with life – a line of mobians, faces, bodies, a veritable crowd… lined up in front of him. Everyone he could remember, some long dead… everyone he had ever cared for, everyone he had ever hated. Friends. Enemies. They all stood, waiting, watching. The apparition appeared at the forefront of the throng, rising out of the ground like a ghost.

"You accept this, don't you?" it asked. "After this, you can never go back to what you were before. What do you want, and what are you willing to give up?"

Tails looked into the crowd as they filed by, one by one.

What do you want?

Rouge sauntered up to him. Pressing her soft curves against his body, she whispered into his ear. "Do you want pleasure, Miles?"

Cream then stood before him, holding out her left hand. On it, a gold wedding band twinkled with tiny inlaid gemstones. "Or would you rather be loved, my dear Tails?"

Sonic smirked, tapping his foot impatiently. "How about respect, Tails? Would ya like that?"

"How about adulation?" Amy looked at him dreamily, hearts in her eyes.

Tempest seemed occupied cleaning a small knife, but he looked up at his student with a knowing smile. "Does the simple ascetic lifestyle of the kitsune appeal to you?"

Eggman crossed his arm and chuckled. "Why settle for what life gives you, when you can make the world into what you want?"

"You have the power, now!" Shadow raised a gloved fist, wet with blood. "You can do as you please. I know the secret thrill you get, seeing fear in the eyes of those weaker than yourself…"

Bunnie held out her hands, a serene look on her face. "Yah want to be accepted, even though yah'are different. Deep down, ah know yah just want to be normal…"

"Do you want knowledge?" Rotor proposed.

"Or understanding?" Nail countered.

"A sacred duty?" Knuckles asked, and leaned against Angel Island's Master Emerald. "And a sense of continuity?"

"To Hell with that!" Fiona cracked her knuckles, smirking viciously. "How about just going and doing whatever ya feel like!"

Mina posed from behind a microphone. "Isn't it enough to just make people happy?"

"Don't forget!" Sally stood with her hands on her hips. "You have a responsibility to protect those who can't protect themselves!"

Nicole's holographic form shimmered. "Flesh is weak, after all. Existence is just another word for sensory data."

"What do you want?" They asked as one, a great chorus of voices. "Is this what you want?"

They vanished behind him.

Is this what you're willing to give up?

He still held Shahra's trembling hands. Iblis filled the sky.

It was upon them.

"Shahra," he said, holding her hands in one of his own. "I don't know what will happen to you. Is this what you really want?"

The imprisoned genie, the so called Burning Key, looked up at the coming fire.

"Yes," she dared to say.

Miles squeezed her small hands, and she vanished in a puff of light. Her soul – the most basic and intrinsic chaos energy within what had once been her body – ripped free of the tiny golden ring that had been left behind. She had hidden with Sonic, knowing she would end up here, knowing that this would happen. She had chosen.

Tails balled his right hand into a fist, and felt Shahra within it.

"So be it," he decided. "I've made my choice, too."