Sonic landed on his feet, and the Emeralds clinked to the ground as the power left him and he returned to his normal coloration. He was no longer burned, and his fur was whole again. But he was tired. "Tails?" he said to the young fox on the ground.

"Yeah, Sonic?" Tails replied.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"That's nice. Let's sleep here tonight…" Sonic said, and he was asleep before he hit the ground.

The next day, Omega woke early, at around 9 A.M. He was tired, and hungry, but his mechanical arm was intact. He hadn't been getting enough sleep for his species. When he got back to the mansion, he was going to sleep for 2 days in a row…

Sonic and Tails both awoke refreshed and ready to move, aside from a slight limp in Tails's case. But there was still a problem. The Tornado II was still built for 2, tops. By general agreement, Sonic, Tails, and most of the Chaos Emeralds left in the plane. But one Chaos Emerald had to stay behind. There just wasn't enough room. Omega wanted to see if he could talk to it, anyway… so Chaos Cyan stayed behind with him.

As he waited for the Tornado II to return for him, he gazed into the depths of the bright bluish Emerald. After a small interval of about an hour or so, the world went gray, with him and the Emerald the only source of color. "Yes?" the sexless, emotionless voice of Chaos Cyan came.

"Cyan… what happened, yesterday? Why did you give me such power?" he asked.

"Because you needed it. You had all of us in one place, and your thought was powerful enough to summon our power from its slumber. You used the Power of Life to your advantage, just as Robotnik would have. We don't particularly care how we are used, so long as the thought and emotion is powerful enough to awaken our Spirits."

"So, your power can be used by anyone?"

"Anyone who is capable of the intensity of thought and emotion, yes."

"So… why can I speak to you? And why can you speak to me?"

"That is the mystery here. I don't know. None of the Chaos Spirits do. The Master might, though. You'll have to ask the spirit that resides within it."

"I'll do that. Thank you," Omega replied as color returned to the world.

Now, all there was to do was to wait. Eventually, he heard the sound of the approaching Tornado II, and saw the telltale color scheme. It came in for a landing, close by. Omega stood, and walked over to the plane. He got in, holding the Chaos Emerald tightly. The entire trip passed uneventfully. Omega was silent, and Tails concentrated on flying. As they landed near the mansion, Omega jumped out of the plane, landing on his feet. He headed inside, closely guarding the Emerald.

Sonic came out of the mansion as Omega approached. He was still singed, but he looked much better than before. The blue hedgehog held out his hand for the Emerald. "Give it to me," he said. "I'll put it in the vault, with the others."

Omega reluctantly handed the emerald to Sonic, who turned and walked back inside. The cyborg cat had only one more thing to do before curling up to sleep in the room he had claimed as his own. He headed down the hall to the place Knuckles was sleeping, and touched him on the arm that wasn't clutching the Master Emerald. "Knuckles," he said firmly.

Knuckles snapped awake and looked at Omega with a glare. "What do you want, cyborg?" he demanded, sitting up straight.

"I need to hold the Master Emerald… only for a second, but I need to hold it," Omega replied.

Knuckles shook his head. "No way. I don't trust you…"

"I had hoped to do this with your permission… but…" Omega said, and snatched the Emerald from Knuckle's grip with cat speed. The world went gray as Knuckles cried out. The Master Emerald was glowing in his grasp, and its voice came from nowhere, "Cyan told me you might want to speak with me… what is it that you want to know?"

"I want to know why I can sense you, and the Chaos Emeralds. I want to know why I can hear your voices in this place. And I'd REALLY like to know what this place is!" Omega said, gesturing at the frozen echidna.

"Oh, is that all? This place is simply a piece of time that has become separated from Reality, that's all. This is the place that the Chaos Spirits and myself actually exist. We cannot be on the same plane at the same time as our physical forms, the Emeralds. That would be disastrous."

"So… why can you speak with me, that I can hear?"

"As far as I can tell… it is because you were once animal, closer to the Chaos, and to Life in general. As for why you can sense us, I don't know. Perhaps it is because we disrupt electromagnetic fields?"

Omega nodded, unsure. "That makes sense, I guess…"

"Yes. Now would you please stop upsetting the Guardian? He's not in the best of mental states…"

The World came back, and Knuckles finished crying out. Omega handed the Emerald back to him, and Knuckles glared more angrily than before at the cyborg. "What do you think you're doing, snatching the Master Emerald from me like that? If I were at full strength, you'd have no teeth right now…!" Knuckles shouted.

"All right, all right… no need to get violent… I'm sorry that I did that, if it's any consolation," Omega said, holding his hands up placatingly.

Knuckles looked suspicious for a moment, then his face softened. "I suppose I'll forgive you… this time. But don't try anything like that again!"

"Don't worry, Knuckles… I'm not going to try to take the Master Emerald from you."

"Then we'll probably get along just fine…"

Omega nodded, turned, and left. He went down the hall to the room he had slept in earlier, opened the door, and found a surprise. There was an actual bed… there was a workbench, with all sorts of mechanical equipment… and there was a computer. Also, the room was much, much larger than before. He looked around, puzzled, and found a note, folded on the workbench. He opened it, and read, "Dear Omega, I'm not sure if you'll like this surprise or not, but it was the only way I could think of to repay you. If you surrendered the Power to him, Sonic and I would be dead right now, and the Chaos Emeralds would belong to Eggman. I phoned Chris during the night, and told him what had happened. He told his grandfather, who had this built for you. Again, thank you. –Tails."

Omega set the note back down, and looked around again. He felt a bit… odd. He felt… good. For once, the bitterness of his foolishness wasn't foremost in his mind. It was still there, but behind something far more positive. It was something he had never had, even as a cat. He felt… like he was HOME. Either that, or he was delirious due to fatigue and exposure to short-wave radiation.

Omega flopped down on the bed, and fell asleep nearly immediately.