Author's note: I made a mistake. I said the last chapter was the final chapter. I sorta lied. I meant this file. It's the last one. Yup. Last. L.A.S.T. NOW WILL YOU STOP IMing me!
In all seriousness, I'm so upset about it ending because I had fun writing this story… TT And with SDA as my greatest reviewer person ever (who is awesome and deserves an award for her coolness) and all you other anonymous (and awesome) reviewers, and the signed reviews too… I couldn't have had a better time. Thanks guys, you're all awesome.
File 10 This is Where it All Ends
Entry 2 All's Fair in Love, War, and Nuclear Explosions
Miserie widened her eyes. "…Violet." She murmured.
"Eh?" Tails looked up from his inspection of the walls. Miserie turned around with a huge smile.
"It's Violet! I found him!" Miserie pointed up at a shrine like area, where the purple emerald was hovering. Tails took a look and gasped.
"What in the..." He paused and looked back at the wall. "It has to be Eggman. He's behind the whole thing!"
"What do you mean?" Miserie asked. She looked at the emerald. "How do you know Eggman is behind all of this?"
"Look at the shrine. That fat happy face there, with the orange hair sticking out of it is his logo. I couldn't decide before, but now it all makes a little bit of sense!"
"It does?" Miserie asked. She walked over to Tails and took his hand in both of hers. "But he's not gonna get away with it, right? You've beaten him before, haven't you?"
Tails looked at her and for a second, he looked sad. Then he smiled. "Yeah. We'll beat him again."
Miserie smiled. "Okay. Good." She said. But she didn't let go of Tails' hand. "Will it hurt us…if we go in there?"
"I don't know. I can't be sure." Tails said. "Let's go closer and check it out."
Miserie nodded. "Alright."
Both of them crept towards the shrine with Eggman's logo on it, taking small steps. Tails kept looking at the walls and the floor, but Miserie had one target only…The emerald, Violet.
"…Nothing's happened and we're here." Miserie said, softly.
"The shrine could be some sort of trap. Is that the real Emerald?"
"It must be. It's calling to me. It has to be the real thing."
"There has to be something guarding it." Tails said.
Miserie nodded. "I agree." She said. Tails smiled.
"Well…I don't know about you, but I think we should reach in and get it."
"…Yeah." Miserie let go of Tails' hand and started to walk towards the emerald. As soon as her whole body was inside the shrine, a barrier activated. Miserie felt a world of hurt, but she couldn't scream, couldn't hear, couldn't see. Everything was numb and black and gone.
Is this death? She thought. Is this where I'm headed? Why am I here? Why am I here?
Do you really want to know why you're here? Miserie's eyes snapped open at the noise, but she could only see white sparks and crackles of yellow and red. The voice was in her head?
Who are you? Miserie asked. What do you want? Why is this happening? Why am I here?
It's really simple, actually. I am Violet. The emerald? You know me. The reason you're here is easy too. You came to save me. But even more so…You came to die. Didn't you?
Did I?
Didn't you, Miserie? Didn't you come here to die? Miserie found it disturbing that the Emerald was happy about the situation.
You aren't Violet, are you? Violet…can't be this way.
You said it yourself a long time ago. We emeralds must get used to one another. You're like the eighth Chaos emerald, and I don't like it. The wavelengths aren't gonna be the same until I get used to you. The emerald said, snottily.
You have to listen! They want to use you for something bad.
Bad….good…it makes no difference anymore. If we are all meant to die, one way or another, we will. There is no bad and there is no good. You of all people should know.
Why me? Miserie asked, confused.
Because. You are bad, aren't you?
I'm not.
Well. How do you know that? The emerald said.
I don't…I don't do bad things.
Things aren't 'bad'. Things aren't 'good'. There is no real definition for bad or good.
Why are you telling me this?
Because you need to know this if you want to free me.
Do you want to be free? Miserie soothed.
Maybe I do, and maybe I don't.
Let me free you. Let me show you what it's like with the people with purer hearts.
Pure, now. Do you think you're pure?
I'm not pure. Miserie sighed. But he is.
"This is stupid!" Sonic cried, as the two hedgehogs finally knocked out the army around them.
Shadow silently agreed. He felt some strings were being pulled, and he didn't like it. "We need to get moving. We have to shut down the citadel."
"That's a good idea. But we don't know where Amy, Knuckles, or Talon are."
"Guys!" Amy yelled, and Shadow saw her across a clearing. "Hurry! This way!"
"No time to lose, I guess." Sonic said.
"…Shit." Shadow cursed.
"What?" Sonic asked.
"Talon. Oh shit, Talon has the emeralds." Shadow grimaced as he remembered when Talon told him he would watch out for the emeralds.
"HE has the emeralds?" Sonic asked.
"He could have already put them in the citadel. We have to get going fast." Shadow said, tightening his fist.
"How could we have trusted him?" Sonic asked, taking off, with Shadow catching up only seconds after.
"I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. This is bad." Shadow said. He looked at Sonic. "This is really really bad.
"Damn straight." Sonic said, under his breath. "If we don't get those emeralds back, I don't know what will happen."
"Miserie!" Tails cried, reaching for her, only to get shocked. She had stopped moving a while ago, had stopped screaming years ago. To Tails, this was an eternity. "Miserie, please!"
She didn't respond. Her green eye had long since dulled and was staring blankly at the Emerald.
It should have been me…I must have killed her. I killed Miserie.. Tails moaned to himself, taking a step forward.
Suddenly the electric shield that had caught Miserie broke, and in a quick move, Miserie was holding the Purple Emerald. And then she fainted.
"…Miserie!" Tails rushed over and picked her up. "…Miserie?"
"…I'm so so…sorry I…I'm…so use...less…" Miserie opened her eye a little bit, and Tails shook his head.
"You're not useless, Erie-chan." He told her, stroking back some of her fur. "Are you alright?"
"…Never…been…better." Miserie said. Then she paused. "You…you cal…led me…Erie-chan…?"
Tails smiled. "A nickname."
She looked happy. "A nick…name."
Tails put her on his back and said, "Erie-chan, let me protect you."
"…Alright." She said, softly.
"Thanks." Tails said.
Amy threw her hands in the air. "What do you mean HE'S GONE?"
"Have you seen the fox anywhere?" Shadow asked her.
"No…"
"Knuckles, have you seen Talon?" Sonic asked.
"I haven't either." Knuckles said.
"We have to find him. Now." Shadow said.
Amy looked around. "But…But…" She said, looking at the citadel. "What about that?"
"We…I…" Sonic looked at Shadow. "What do you think, Shadow?"
"Look." Shadow said. "Not to be evil, but we don't have the time to be civil about this. Knuckles, you go with Sonic and get into the thing there and find either Tails or Miserie, a Chaos Emerald, or the brains of this whole operation. Me and Amy will stay out here and search for Talon, then we'll follow you."
"Not to butt in or anything, but that wasn't really evil." Knuckles said. Shadow sneered at him.
"Look." Amy said. "The citadel, it's…" The citadel's shiny, silver cover was now duller.
"…Did you just see what I saw?" Sonic poked Shadow.
"If you mean the citadel getting considerably duller, yes."
"Guys!" Knuckles cried. "I can punch through the cover without setting off the alarm!"
Amy blinked. "My hammer could do just about the same damage. Maybe I should go with Knuckles!"
"Good idea." Sonic said. "Me and Shadow'll look for Talon."
"Then it's settled. Let's go." Shadow said.
"Wait." Knuckles said, and the trio turned to stare at him. "There has to be a reason for the alarm to go off."
"…" The group was silent.
Shadow widened his eyes. "Miserie and Tails!" He said.
"What about them?"
"THEY deactivated it! They took down the alarm!" shadow said.
"So they must be inside! They probably already have one or two emeralds!" Sonic said.
"Right. We have to hurry!"
The group of four nodded at each other. "Let's go!" They cried.
Are you awake? Miserie was startled at the emerald penetrating her thoughts
I am. She replied.
You must have helped whomever you're working with very much.
Miserie was confused. Why do you say that?
You deactivated the alarm. The emerald laughed. Isn't that good?
…Why are you acting so different? Miserie asked.
Oh I'm usually this way. It's your heart. It's letting me be me.
Miserie smiled. "That's good." She said out loud, and Tails looked up at her.
"What's good?"
She showed him the Emerald. "This." She said. Tails smiled.
"You had me worried." She told her, and she stared into his sapphire eyes.
"I did?" she asked.
"I was calling, but you weren't responding…Your eye got dull…I thought you died."
"Oh no." She said. She smiled. "I was afraid…but it was relaxing."
"Do you think you can walk?" Tails asked. He put her down. "You've been sleeping for a while now, and I'm kinda tired."
He stopped walking. Miserie put the emerald in her pocket and touched his shoulders. It wasn't to her surprise that he was very tense.
"…You aren't relaxed." She told him, and he nodded.
"While you were sleeping, we almost got caught three times. We're in the main trunk of the citadel now."
"…" Miserie sighed. "I don't know how to help you."
"It's alright."
"But you'll need to be relaxed."
"…I know." Tails said, and he sat down. "Are you alright?"
"Fine." Miserie said.
Tails smiled. "Erie-chan," he said, looking up at her. "We're inside the citadel."
Miserie nodded. "That's right." She said.
"Do you think Sonic and everyone else is here too?"
Miserie smiled. "Maybe." She closed her eye. "Tails…"
He replied, "Yes?"
"I was right." She said. "You're pure."
"Hmm?"
"I want to be…just like you."
Tails tapped her shoulder and she opened her eye. "There's no one more pure than you, Erie-chan." He said. "Let's get going."
Miserie agreed with him. But in her head, she told herself The purest boy in the world…
"Ha!" Amy cried. She wiped her sweaty palms on the grass and said, "Great."
Knuckles looked around. "The trees." He muttered.
Amy looked at the trees around them, wilting. "They're dying." She murmured.
"Let's hurry. We need to get inside before they all die."
"Why?" Amy asked.
She looked at Knuckles, who had his head ducked and was finishing off the job. "Because those trees were planted by my ancestors, and I don't want them to die."
Amy widened her eyes. "Then let's do it."
"I can't believe I'm working with you." Sonic said. "I mean… not as a bad thing."
Shadow sighed. "Calm down, you." He told Sonic. "I wouldn't be working with you if this didn't concern me."
Sonic laughed. "Same old, same old."
"Don't get too comfortable." Shadow said. "We need to find that traitor and kick his two tailed ass right back to where to it belongs."
"where's that?"
"Somewhere over last week." Shadow said, nonchalantly. "Hey…did you notice that we can see straight to the end of the island?"
"The trees…"
"Why are they dying?" Shadow asked.
"I don't know. Maybe that citadel is sucking the life out of everything here!" Sonic said.
Shadow crossed his arms. "What would be the point of that if they have the emeralds?"
"We don't know how long this has been here." Sonic said. "They might not have had any emeralds when they created the citadel."
"Right. That means one thing."
"What?"
"If Talon has the Emeralds, he brought them inside. We need to get in there and stop the brains of this operation."
"Then let's move!"
Tails watched Miserie, who was cringing more and more as they started towards a new chamber.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Don't be worried! We're close!" Miserie said. "Scarlet…Scarlet is close."
"Can I touch you?" Tails asked.
"Ye…Yes." Miserie said, steeling herself. "Listen, Tails. This one is worse. They must have had Scarlet before they got Violet."
It won't get the best of us." Tails said.
"Okay." Miserie said. Tails took her hand and they inched around a corner, only to hear-
"Intruders! Intruders!"
"Uh-oh!" Tails cringed.
Miserie, however, was cool about it. "Tails, fly us up there." She pointed at a beam above them.
"What?"
"Just do it." Miserie took his hands. "Fly us up there and we won't be caught."
Tails blinked. "Okay." He said, and he spun his tails, pulling Miserie up after him.
When they were both seated on the beam, Miserie pointed. "Crimson," She said, pointing to the end of the beam on their left, "Is hidden over there."
"That's why you wanted to come up here, isn't it?" Tails asked.
"No. This was." She pointed down at the guards. The foxes were all looking at each other, confused.
"Whoa!" Tails said, shaking his head. "That's Talon!"
And it was. Talon, standing in between all the guards, not looking half as confused as the rest of the guards.
"This is an order. You will find the girl. Kill the boy, but bring the girl to me." Talon said.
"Roger." The guards said.
"…He's after you." Tails said.
Miserie's eyes were narrowed. "But why?"
"Amy, get out of here NOW." Knuckles said, as he protected her from the falling pieces of the citadel.
"I can't leave you, Knuckles!" Amy cried. They had penetrated the citadel together, but they caused an explosion to go off in the root they had entered through.
"you can, will, and better." Knuckles said, before heaving a boulder of waste at a piece of falling compressed metal. The two clanged in midair and destroyed each other.
"But"
"GO." Knuckles said. Amy's lip trembled, but she started running anyway, deeper into the citadel.
"I won't leave you here, Knuckles! I'll be back!" Amy ran through the chaos that was being caused and into the citadel's depths.
By herself, Amy wasn't sure which way to go. Knuckles had known where he was heading, but Amy had no idea. Besides that, she couldn't rely on his strength anymore. She was alone, and so not loving it.
"What are we looking for?" Amy heard a voice. She looked for a place to hide, finally curling up behind a fallen piece of junk.
"The girl. The one that we had caught with that hedgehog."
"What…? The runt?"
"Yes. She has a special power."
"What is it?"
"She can sense the emeralds. She's actually an emerald herself. That's why we sensed so much power from that spaceship."
"She caused it?"
"Yes. Our top priority is to find the girl and strap her into the final cannon."
"What would that do?"
"We all know each emerald represents a different power. I wonder which she will enhance."
Amy widened her eyes. Miserie was a walking Chaos Emerald, and they were after her! Gotta find Knuckles. Gotta let him know.
So much is happening! Will our heroes be able to pull together and save the day?