-Blaze-

"We need to get someplace high up!"

Sonic must have an answer, so I will give it, glancing amongst the buildings. That is the one I will choose, so I do, not needing to see the safe climb though I know it will happen. Raising my hand for him to see, I say "That one."

"All right, let's get up there before he sends more robots after us," Amy replies. She glances back to Sonic, doubt and sorrow still in her eyes, in her heart. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"Of course I do, Amy!"

This close to the end of my vision, I cannot tell whether his confidence is good or bad, justified or otherwise. They must shape the future now, and I may only watch, unable to tell what my actions might bring. I speak for what I know will be the last time before the end of my vision.

"Let her rest here, Shadow."

He nods, setting Chess' body down by a bush in the grounds of one of the buildings. I watch. I could not have averted her death and still caused this future to come to pass, though I tried for the sake of my former self. Indirectly, the future of the resistance rested on that action, on all actions. This has brought about the futures I felt to be best, and if she did not die there then she would have fallen with many or all of the others, but I no longer have the knowledge to act, and can only follow where Sonic leads.

I follow him up the stairs of the building, feeling my brother's rage restrained only by the future that I also see, words that Sonic will speak in desperate haste, words that herald our vision's end. As we reach the roof, I see a plume of distant smoke, just as I knew I would. The Chaos Emeralds are a beacon of power that has made us an obvious target, and should those missiles reach us, we will all be destroyed, save for myself and my brother. Yet whether or not they do is hidden in the fog of a future I cannot see…

"Sonic!" Tails shouts, pointing at them.

"I see 'em, Tails! Shadow, get ready!"

"We don't have time for this, Sonic!" Amy cuts in, afraid but still determined to try and keep everyone who relies on her alive. "If we don't get out of here right now, we're done for!"

I can say nothing. I do not know who is right or what course of action we should take, only which one we will, the choices in these last few minutes narrowing ever further as they pass into the one coherent timeline that will become the past. I know that Sonic will not listen, and he does not, calling to my brother and I.

"Blaze, Crossfire, I need you over here!"

We cross to stand with him, Crossfire's silence one of anticipation, my own merely acceptance of what will be.

"Sonic!"

He still will not, does not listen to her. Tails watches in wide-eyed silence, his choice to trust Sonic already made, now seen through to its conclusion.

"I hope he knows what he's doing," Rouge says to Knuckles, who can only answer with uncertainty.

"I think so…"

"You think so?"

"Shadow, you ready?" Sonic doesn't wait for an answer, even a nod, the missiles approaching too rapidly for even his comfort. "Blaze, Crossfire – let go!"

And there is no more future.