Luff: Hello! This update is very quick compared the last one!
S. Chensu: That's because I'm so happy that my bit's finally over!
Luff: Yeah, we made an agreement that as long as she did the battle episode, I would do the last episode!
S. Chensu: Yes, the next episode is the last one! But there is an epilogue too.
Luff: But don't think sad things! Let's reply to the lovely reviewers who've waited so long for this and then start the episode!
Yugi and Mai- If you're having a heart attack then how come you could write a review? We're sorry about the cliff-hanger, Chen felt like being nasty! And, to quote: 'Question what could be better then a Yami with chocolate? A naked Yami covered in Chocolate of course!' That was the thing about chocolate you put in a review. And the tongue thing was in retaliation about you saying your precious tomby smelt! Not with the active service your tongue provides at least… And you'll find out whether he's ok in this episode. And it was a nice and quick update too. And we don't want to know what Mai is doing with…Tala… And you said to not ask who he was and then you told us anyway! You are very weird! And how can he be more important than our story!
the funk master- We're very sorry about the appalling joke, Chen came up with it when she was very young and stupid and decided to put it in anyway! How stupid can she be? Glad to know you note about the episode overall at the end…heh.
Dragon Master Naya- Well, we've got the next episode up today and the next one will be Christmas day and then the last one sometime at the beginning of January and then it's all done! We think we know the tune you're talking about (haven't been on SA2B for AGES) and yeah, it does fit quite well!
S. Chensu: We don't own Sonic. You already know this.
Luff: We would just like to warn you that this episode is quite light hearted. If you don't like happy endings, then don't read this.
S. Chensu: Now on you go!
Episode thirty-six: The end to the war
Through the mist loomed a shadowy figure, peering around slowly although this place was well known to him. He had been coming here since the beginning of time, endless people passing through this place, never staying here for long. The smoke withdrew slightly from the person, as though it feared him and eventually he came to a rest in front of something lying on the floor. He leant on his scythe, studying the figure from his height of roughly four feet before grabbing the tool and hitting the person with the butt of it.
Shadow's sight suddenly filled, although there wasn't much to see. He wondered if this was due to his eyes opening or whether there wasn't anything left to stop him from looking. He felt a great nothingness, only aware that something had come into contact with him, although he couldn't tell what it was or how hard it had touched him. Somehow he was able to change his view so the source of the feeling was in front of him and he stared at the figure in wonder, somehow they were familiar…
"Hmm, it must be around here somewhere…" It muttered, starting to pull out strands from what must have been his head area with his scythe. Shadow tensed slightly, wondering whether it would cut the stuff coming from him, still trying to remember the name of the person. It wasn't like it looked normal, after all, how many four feet skeletons did he know?
Gregg… This name floated in front of him and suddenly Shadow's mind was filled with information, like a light had been turned on and he was no longer blinded by doubt.
"GREGG!" Shadow screamed, hoping he could hear him. It was important that he realised he was still alive or…well, he didn't know what would happen to him but he'd rather not think about it. He ignored him though, continuing to search through the strands of what Shadow realised must be his mind.
"Hmm, he certainly has a lot of history…" Gregg commented, the memories becoming longer and longer.
"PLEASE GREGG! I'M ALIVE!" Shadow cried out in annoyance when he still got no response when a thought suddenly occurred to him: what if he was dead? Maybe Gregg was merely confirming it and once that happened, his soul would be released… "NO, I CAN'T BE DEAD!"
Gregg suddenly let go of the strand he had and leant on his scythe again, as though greatly considering something which had only just occurred in his mind. Shadow waited, hoping something would happened soon-
"No, he ain't dead yet!" He cackled and Shadow knew then that he had been joking the whole time, doing this to merely wind him up. And it had worked.
"GREGG!" Shadow yelled, sitting up as they appeared in the cave where the battle had started. "Wait until I get you!"
"Oops…" Gregg said quietly, sidling away from him quickly.
"Don't tell me he was alive the whole time? Gregg, that was a really nasty thing to do!" Kensa scolded, dragging the skeleton off to shout at him some more.
"Poor old Gregg…" Shaylea giggled, swimming into Shadow's view. "Hey, are you ok?" She added, noticing the blank look on Shadow's face.
"Am I alive?" Everything seemed like a dream, slower than it should be.
"Of course you are! Come on, I can't restrain the others for much longer!" She said cheerfully, helping him up.
Wondering what she meant, he peered behind her and saw the rest of the group staring despondently at the ground. He smiled, surprised that they would be that upset over him when Sonic happened to look up in his direction. They stared at each other, seconds passing by before Sonic suddenly leapt up, running towards him.
"SHADOW!" As he got nearer, Shadow wondered what Sonic was going to do. Hugging him during the battle had seemed like a natural thing to do but now…he didn't know what would happen. He felt awkward, standing there but he seemed to go into autopilot as soon as Sonic arrived, high fiving him. "I knew you weren't dead!"
"Yeah, it was no problem." Shadow said coolly and Sonic raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms.
"Uh huh."
Shadow gasped in shock when he felt himself being bowled over by something white and girly, sobbing uncontrollably as they held onto him as tightly as they could while Shadow struggled to breathe. He turned his head, with trouble, to watch the tears pour down Rouge's face, Knuckles standing at the side, staring at her with concern.
"Don't ever do that again!" She wailed, looking like she could carry on crying for several more hours.
"I'm sorry…" Shadow whispered, hugging her back. "I'm not going anywhere now, I'm right here." He soothed and she leaned back slightly to gaze into his eyes.
"Good." She said, nodding her head in approval as she took Knuckles' hand. "Because you'll have to do deal with me otherwise." She threatened, although the big smile on her face told Shadow that she was only joking.
"I'll bear that in mind." He gulped, noticing that everyone was now standing together. Including a certain skeleton who had played a joke on him… "So then Gregg, where were we?"
"Uh…nowhere! You were just about to thank me for getting you back to the real world…" He chuckled nervously, his escape route blocked by Kensa.
"Gregg, apologise to him for scaring him." She said sternly and he hung his head, sighing.
"Ok, ok…I'm sorry. It was just a joke; at least it woke him up…" He muttered and then looked up. "He didn't realise he was still alive until I started looking around his memories."
"You did what…?"
"Don't worry, there wasn't a lot there. Bit boring really." Gregg didn't realise he was digging himself a nice big hole and continued talking. "Yeah, but there was an interesting bit with-"
"Gregg."
"What?" He asked, looking up at Kensa who was glaring at him.
"Shut up."
The others laughed at the confused look on Gregg's face when Shadow felt something watching him. He spun around, only to find that the Book of Knowledge was lying on the floor, open at a page near the end of the tome. He walked over and knelt down in front of it, flicking through the pages until he got to the picture of him and Sonic standing together. Not that it had really ended up like that… Was there any truth in it?
"There's nothing else after that…" Shaylea said, a little sadly. "Shame really, now that all of this is over, things are going to get boring again. I enjoyed this in a way." Seeing the puzzled expressions, she laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Now we've just got school and you can't really compare it to this, can you?"
"Wait, I wanted to ask you, before we entered here!" Shadow suddenly said, turning to Kensa. "You said something that someone else said before and I recognised it but I've only just realised it…"
"Shadow, what are you talking about?" Sonic asked, acting like he had gone delusional.
"You said the same words when we were on Kikuyu. But you were Zelgan then…" Shadow pointed at Kensa and everyone's eyes widened in typical soap fashion, gasping at the same time.
"Well how long did it take for you to work that out then?" Shaylea said suddenly, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I mean, how else did you think we knew you all so well? /Someone/ had to look after you."
"Wait, /you're/ Gelest?" Eggman said, thinking about this carefully. Somehow it seemed obvious now…
"And Sammie too. This is Emily." She added, causing everyone's expressions to become even more exaggerated.
"So you're all the same person? Why did you have three different disguises? All that trouble just for us?"
"Ok, I can tell this is going to take some time…" Kensa muttered, sitting down on the ground. "Right, we'll go through our story but no interruptions or anything like that?"
They nodded in agreement and following her example, settled themselves for what they hoped would be a long and /very/ good explanation. After all, not many people could change their appearance as radically as they had done without it being too obvious. But somehow it was and that was most irritating thing, that they had been fooled so easily.
"Basically the stuff about us being on the research station is true. And the thing with us finding Kikuyu and Mewtwo is true too. However, some time before you arrived, Norton came to us and told us what was going to happen. I don't know why us but we listened to him and agreed to his plan. We'd enrol at the local high school where you were going to and protect you until it was time." Kensa stopped, hoping they would be satisfied with this and Shaylea sighed, rolling her eyes.
"It's all a bit complicated and it would take us several years to explain this but after we enrolled, we stayed on Earth until Shadow stopped the ARK crashing into the planet. We'd been told that this was the sign which would signal the start of the plan so we went back to Kikuyu, helping you when you came along." Shaylea looked thoughtful at their story. "In a way, we're your guardian angels."
"So…you're not really Sammie and Emily?" Marie asked quietly, somehow feeling that a part of her had been lost. Her friends weren't real…
"Well, we are because it's our personalities but no, we weren't born them." Kensa said bluntly and Shaylea sighed, suddenly realising how Marie must had felt.
"When we go back we're going to go to school. There's no point in us staying on Kikuyu, it's pretty lonely up there and now we have friends to be with."
"Yes, we'll be Sammie and Emily from now on. After all, I think that's who we really are. And we enjoy being them too." As Kensa said this, there was a subtle change in their persons and the group realised that what they had said would hold from now on.
"Well I'm glad that's all been sorted out now…" Marie commented, stretching herself. "Now let's get out of here! I don't know about you guys but I want to go home."
"That sounds like a great idea. After being away for a couple of months it's sure going to be strange. But good too." Sammie said, smiling widely. Emily shook her head but was secretly happy that she had finally cheered up.
"You go on ahead; I'll catch up with you at some point." Gregg said sombrely as they leapt up in excitement, heading for the exit.
"But why? Don't you want to leave here?" Rouge asked in surprise, the others agreeing with her sentiment.
"Of course I do, I've just got to sort out a couple of things first. Don't worry; I'll come back to your flat sometime tomorrow." Gregg explained before he turned away and drifted into the shadows.
"Oh, ok." Sammie said quietly once he had gone.
"Come on, he'll be fine! Let's go!" Sonic said, dragging her by the arm and she nodded her head, letting herself be walked out of the room, the others following them.
The walk back to where the whole adventure had begun, outside in the crisp white snow at the side of a mountain, was a lot quicker than it had been getting to here. Somehow Emily was warping the scenery they were walking through so that they didn't see any of the ecosystems they had had to survive, which was a big relief to them all. And everything was lighter too, the Virus' aura obviously removed from the underworld known as Acumen.
They reached the entrance, stunned by the brightness of the outside world, especially as the snow reflected the sunlight. In fact, it looked like this area had hardly been disturbed since they had arrived, whenever that had been. The group looked around, wallowing in the vibrancy of everything when Tails suddenly noticed the Tornado hidden under a large pile of snow.
"No, the Tornado's ruined!" He wailed, running towards it as though getting there three seconds quicker than walking was going to make it any better.
"It's fine, there's nothing wrong with it. I mean, it didn't spend its whole time out here because you were in it in the desert. Remember?" Emily said sympathetically, easily removing the snow with her mind before allowing Tails to fuss over it some more.
"Some people and their machines…" Sonic tisked jokingly, watching as Eggman also went over to his walker, albeit slightly calmer.
"They spent a lot of time working on them; I imagine they mean a lot. Although Tails really shouldn't worry." Emily said loudly and Tails glanced over, grinning sheepishly.
"Um, sorry about that…" He said hesitantly, scratching the back of his head.
"Don't worry about it for now, let's just go already!" Rouge said impatiently and so they did, closing their eyes in relief as they left the place considered in their opinions to be closest to Hell.
Nearing London, they noticed lots of odd little things. Like how there were lots of multicoloured lights and large amounts of holly decorated everywhere. Certainly a lot more than considered healthy for most of the year, apart from near the end when…
"Is it just me or does it look like everyone's getting ready for Christmas?" Sonic said, earning a slight glare from the others. "What?! It does!"
"Well I think that's blindingly obvious. Although I didn't realise so much time had passed, it doesn't seem that long…" Shadow mused on this point while Sammie and Emily shrugged their shoulders, obviously unable to give an explanation.
"It's a bit of a shame really because we haven't got anything yet in the flat. We might still have some time though to get at least some decorations and food." Eggman suggested and Rouge's eyes lit up.
"Yeah, we can still have Christmas! I mean, there won't be any presents but we can still party! We deserve it after everything that's happened to us." She said, as though trying to justify Eggman's idea, not that it was really needed.
"Right, if we're going to this then we'll have to be quick. Me and Sammie will get the drink-" Emily started, suddenly in business mode.
"We will?" Sammie said dumbly, earning a light smack on the arm.
"Yes, we will. Eggman, you can get the tree while Knuckles and Shadow can get the food. Then Sonic and Tails can get the decorations while Rouge and Marie can go round and get some decent music." Emily stopped and coughed loudly. "Not that there's a lack of decent music at your place or anything…"
"Sounds cool." Tails said, seriously considering their shopping list. "Well there's ten of us so we'll need-"
"Tails, you're talking to yourself." Knuckles interrupted and Tails looked down so they wouldn't notice him squeeze his eyes shut in embarrassment before suddenly remembering he was supposed to be piloting a plane (Note from S. Chensu: Yes, I'd conveniently forgotten that little fact too).
"Ok, we'll drop Rouge and Marie off by the flat to look for music and the rest of you at the shopping centre while I get the tree." Eggman said and the when the others nodded in agreement, they sped off towards the flat while Emily sent Gregg a thought telling him what was going to happen.
(Gregg, we're having a party so make sure you dress in your best.) Emily said, imaging the look of disgust on his face at the thought of dressing up.
(Oh great, a party. Whoopee. Remind me to be late.) Came the sour reply and Emily shook her head.
(Less of the sarcasm Gregg please. We'll see you there.) There was a snort from the other end so Emily finished the conversation, grinning evilly at the thought of getting drink and what they could do with it, especially to the others…
Rouge and Marie had got together some good music quite quickly so they spent the rest of the time glamming themselves up i.e. enjoying a proper wash for the first time in a few weeks while they waited for some people to arrive. Soon they were bored enough to clean up the flat too, noticing with slight distaste the amount of dust that had built up.
"The food has arrived!" Knuckles said happily, which was unusual for him as he came in, with Tails following him. Both of them were carrying large amounts of shopping and the girls wondered how they were going to diet for long enough to get rid of it all.
"You went for the full works too. There's enough to last us all for the rest of the holiday here!" Marie said in awe and Tails giggled.
"Well we thought we'd do the week's shopping at the same time…" He explained, placing his bags on the kitchen table, stepping away to let Rouge put it in the right places, not trusting the boys to do it.
"Thanks for…opening the door for me…" They suddenly heard a voice call out and they quickly realised it was Eggman. "Now…if only you could have…helped with this stupid…thing too…" He grunted as a rather large tree entered the flat, legs barely visible beneath it.
"Well you didn't have to get one that was so big you know." Rouge pointed out while Knuckles picked up the lagging trunk that was causing a nice line of dirt to form on the floor. "And you're messing the place up! Me and Marie only just cleaned it up!" She scolded and Eggman threw her an annoyed look.
"Well I'm sorry I'm a bit busy trying to not do my back in!" He snapped as he finally reached a corner of the living room, nearly dumping the tree and setting it straight. "There, that looks good."
"Don't worry Rouge; I'll clean the mess up!" Marie said, her good mood seemingly unbreakable as she set off for the dustpan and brush.
"Just Sonic and Shadow to wait for now. I wonder where they've got to?" Tails asked aloud as they relaxed on the sofas.
"Shadow's probably trying to strangle Sonic with some tinsel by now…" Knuckles muttered to himself, closing his eyes in relief.
"Hey don't think you're finished yet! You haven't washed for ages and you lot too! I think you should have a shower while we're waiting." Rouge snapped and the guys hung their heads before heading off to their rooms.
While they were busy refreshing themselves, Sonic and Shadow came back with decorations. True to Knuckles' thinking, sonic did indeed have tinsel around his neck but it was improbable that Shadow had tried to strangle him with it, instead shaking his head as he watched Sonic in his overly happy mood.
"Decorations for everyone! Let's get them on the tree quick!" He did a flying leap for the tree but was stopped by Rouge who held her hands out.
"I'll do the decorating I think. If I leave it then everything will totally clash."
"But it's supposed to clash…" Sonic said sadly, handing over the bags.
"Well you can put the things up as long as you do as I tell you." Rouge said in her superior tone and Sonic was laid back enough to agree to her words as the first bauble of many was held out to him.
Tails wobbled for a moment on top of Sonic's shoulders and the sway travelled downwards as Tails finally got the golden star on top of the tree. He jumped down, admiring it twinkling in the light when the door burst open and Sammie and Emily came through, several bottles in their hands. Goodness knows how they managed to get it considering they were underage.
"Let's party!" Sammie announced and the others cheered in agreement, helping them with the bottles into the living room. This was going to be /very/ interesting…
S. Chensu: Yay, my bit is finished!
Luff: Now I've got to do the last two episodes and then no more STREKS!
S. Chensu: However, I have been busy thinking about a little reward for all of you faithful reviewers out there.
Luff: Yeah, unfortunately I'm the only one who can do the reward because Chen can't draw to save her life.
S. Chensu: Yeah, she laughed at my last drawing!
Luff: Yes, there are drawings for all of you! Simply e-mail or leave us a signed review with a request and we'll e-mail the pictures I've done of the STREKS (some in school uniform) and Sammie, Emily and their alter egos.
S. Chensu: Now if that isn't an incentive to review, I don't know what is! However, you won't get them until the story is done because then you'll give us lovely long reviews!
Luff: So she hopes…
S. Chensu: So review us to encourage us to get to the end.
Luff: Ironically, the fact that the next episode takes place on Christmas day (when it is being posted too) is a complete coincidence.
Luff: Yes, read it and cheer, the next episode is a present from us to you! So until Saturday…
S. Chensu: Review and enjoy your holidays!