Five years later a heavy blanket of fog covered the top of Station Square. Docks were filled with abounded ships and cars were parked idly around a desolate baseball stadium. In a church a sign read "Where do we go, now that they're gone?" with an image of empty chairs. In a large room tables and chairs surrounded the wall. In the middle of the room Shadow sat in a circle with a small group. A brown echidna was speaking "So, I, uh, went on a date the other day. It's the first time in five years. You know?". He struggles to continue, and he takes a breath "I'm sitting there at dinner. I didn't even know what to talk about". Shadow nods understanding "What did you talk about?" "Eh, same old crap. You know, how things have changed. My job, his job. How much we miss the Diamonds". He gives a brief smile but then frowns "And then things got quiet" he glances at a Pronghorn opposite him who averts his gaze. He sighed "He cries when they were serving salads" "What about you?" an ox asked. The echidna gave a smirk "I lasted till dessert. But I'm seeing him again tomorrow, so... You know". Shadow nods "That's great. You did the hardest part. You took the jump. You didn't know where you were gonna come down. And that's it". He looks around at the others, a penguin was trying to hold back his tears "That's those little brave baby steps we gotta take to try and become whole again, try and find purpose". He gave a smirk "I went in the ice in '45. Right after I met the love of my life. Woke up 70 years later". He shrugs "You gotta move on. Gotta move on". He smiles encouragingly at the others "The world is in our hands. It's left to us, guys. And we gotta do something with it. Otherwise… Infinite might as well have killed all of us" he stares into empty space with his face turning somber.
Elsewhere in the morning a large multi-story car park was full of abandoned cars, bikes, and vans. Two men, a bee and a frog entered the car park with one holding a clip board "Alright. Let's get started". They walk over to the closest car and the frog gets inside and begins emptying everything inside. The bee put everything in different bags. "Alright. Charlie said the pickup area's for this one's on the south side". The frog nodded and drove the car out of the building and parked it on the south side to be picked up later for scrap. The bee takes the bags to three large metal containers. He throws two bags into the rubbish container and then throws another in the donation container. The next few hours the two repeated this with a half a dozen other vehicles. They headed to the next and the frog had a glum face "How far are we?" "We've done six so far. Have you lost count already?" "I meant as a whole". The bee glanced at him confused, "We've been at this for three years now can you tell me we've made some leeway". The bee paused "I've been told we're a third of the way there". The frog needed a second to take this in and he leaned his head against the van "Gaia dammit". The bee rolled his eyes "No. Not that again. Look, let's do a few more then we're on lunch break. There's a burger van near here". They went to the back of the van and opened it up to find the Quantum Tunnel inside "What the hell?" "What's this?". The bee checked his log for this car park "Unknown. Van was unmarked when they found it" "Well, that's helpful". The frog went to the driver's seat and found a control console "Maybe it still works" "Hey, don't mess with it". He pressed a red button and the tunnel powered up. The frog quickly got out of the van and they both backed away. Manic the Hedgehog in his suit was shot out of the tunnel and landed on the ground groaning. The Bee stared at him opened mouth "I, uh, take it this is yours" he points to the van. Manic sat up taking off his helmet. He looked around confused at where he was.
Later the two men were kind enough to fix up the van. Manic drove it out and waved back to the two still very confused men. Manic headed for the city passing dilapidated houses, buildings and piles of garbage next to the road. Manic struggled to watch the road as his eyes kept glancing around at everything around him that had changed. He then saw a sign "Wall of the Vanished" the sign told him to go right.
Manic arrives at a park where towering stone slabs stand in rows. On each slab said "The vanished" followed by a list of names. There were already dozens of people walking around the park paying respects. Manic stared out at the slabs "Oh, Gaia" a terrifying thought entered his head. He ran over to the slabs that were for hedgehogs "Please, no. Oh, Tania, no. Excuse me, sorry" he pushed past two people. He doesn't find her but then discovers his own name on the slab "What?".
He ran down a street to Komi's house which looked in slightly worse condition. Manic banged on the door desperately. He saw a figure through the glass who saw him. The figure stopped and stared at him for a moment before rushing forward and looks through the window pressing their hands to the door. The door opened and now in front of Manic stood a teenage yellow hedgehog his height. She stepped forward and held Manic's face in disbelief. She smiled with tears in her eyes. Manic stared back at her realising "Tania?" "Dad?". Manic opened mouthed cupped his daughters face and pulled her into a tight hug as she started to cry. Manic starts to sob but holds it in, he looks her in the face and smiles warmly "Yo-You're so big!". They both laugh and continue to hug. Manic sees through the door and Komi and Remington were standing there wondering what was taking Tania so long.
At the Chaotix facility Rouge cut herself a sandwich while listening to holograms of others. Wave spoke "Yeah. We boarded that highly-suspect warship Acorn pinged" "It was an infectious garbage scow" Lien-Da finished glaring at Sally. Wave nodded sarcastically "Yeah, so thanks for the help", Sally shrugged "Well, you're getting closer" "Yeah. And now we smell like garbage". Rouge rolled her eyes and looked to Lupe "You got a reading on those tremors?" "Twas a mild subduction under the Mazuri plate" "Do we have a visual. How are we handling it?". Lupe tilted her head "Rouge. It's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it". Rouge nodded looking tired "Sally, are we seeing you here next month?" "Not likely. There's a lot happening up there. You might not see me for a long time. A lots going on up here". Rouge leaned against her desk with her ears lowered "Alright, uh, well… This channel's always active. So, if anything goes sideways anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't, comes through me" they all nod. All the holograms disappear except for Mighty. Rouge sits down and notices he isn't gone "Where are you?" "Drifts". He crossed his arms "The Federales found a room full of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys. Never even had a chance to get their guns off". Rouge looked away and shrugged "It's probably a rival gang" "Except it isn't. It's definitely Whisper. What she's done here… what she's been doing… I mean, the scene that she left… I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even wanna find her". Rouge kept her eyes down and shifts her jaw "Will you find out where she's going next?". She takes a bite of her sandwich and lifts her tear-filled eyes to Mighty who sighs "Rouge?" "Please?".
Mighty reluctantly nods "Okay" his hologram fades out. Rouge breaks into tears and she shakes her head when "You know, I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already". She allows a brief smile at Shadow "You here to do your laundry" "And to see a friend" "Cleary, your friend is fine". Shadow approached the desk "You sure? Knuckles says you've barely left this place". Rouge sighed "He's mad that I'm barely home, isn't he?" "No. I brought it up to him. I doubt he's mad, he still thinks leaving the planet's worse". Rouge smirked but didn't say anything. Shadow sat down "You know, I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge". Rouge looked surprised "In the river" "There's fewer ships, cleaner water". Rouge sat back in her chair "You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side… Um… I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich". Shadow smirks and nods "Sorry. Force of habit". There was silence between them. Shadow slowly frowned "You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and grow. Some do… But not us". Rouge's lip trembles "If I move on, who does this?" "Maybe it doesn't need to be done". Rouge looks up at him "I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job. This family" she smiles wistfully "And I was better because of it. And even though they're gone I'm still trying to be better". Shadow sighed "I think we both need to get a life" "Well, I have a boyfriend so I'm ahead of you". Shadow laughed "Hey, we both know I could have had Knuckles if I wanted to". Rouge gave a genuine laugh at that. A surveillance hologram appears, and Rouge plays it without looking "Oh, hi, hi! Uh, is anyone home?". Shadow thought he recognised the voice and looked up to see Manic standing at the perimeter fence "This is, uh, Manic the Hedgehog. We met a few years ago at the airport in Echidnaopolis". Shadow got to his feet opened mouthed, "I was the guy that got really big" "Is this an old message?" "I gave you your emerald from the fox. I know you know that". Rouge smiled "It's the front gate".
