Sonic took a moment to feel guilty about all the things—laws, property, hearts—they were about to break before Shadow raised his arm.

"CHAOS SPEAR!"

The lock promptly became a non-issue. Sonic held the door open while the others trooped inside. Tails and Amy hesitated, looking at the smoking scar on the door.

"I'm sure they'll understand," Sonic assured them.

Inside, Tails quickly forgot his new life of crime and darted around the lab, squealing at all the gadgets. Sonic smiled, watching the fox set up his Miles Electric and pull up his old notes. Tails griped about his younger self's handwriting as he set to work, hooking up the purple Chaos Emerald to various machines and getting together his materials. Sonic tried to help at first, but after fritzing out a monitor with his Light Gaia energy, he retreated to a seat under the air conditioning. Shadow, shockingly, produced a stack of Go Fish cards, and Amy began lecturing Pretzel about the rules, the details of which no one could agree on. When they they tired of that, Amy and Shadow started arguing about how to play poker, and Sonic went off to read a book.

Something like two hours after they arrived, Sonic noticed Pretzel slipping out the door. He glanced around; Amy was chatting animatedly with Shadow as they gathered the supplies Tails needed, which seemed to translate to Amy gestured wildly while Shadow tried to avoid getting whacked in the face and Tails yelled at them to be careful. Sonic smiled and ducked outside.

Athens was as hot as everywhere else in the world right now, according to Tails, and Sonic grimaced as soon as he stepped out of the air conditioning. Fortunately, the laboratory was far enough from the city that the mobs hadn't noticed them yet, and if they did… well, Light Gaia couldn't hack security systems like Tails could.

"Yo, Pretz! Any last thoughts?" He called up to the roof.

Green eyes peered testily down at him. "You mean before we all go on this suicide mission?"

Sonic grinned. "We don't all have to go."

Pretzel sighed and slipped down to join him in the shade. "It's my job."

"Nah," Sonic shook his head, putting his arms behind his head as he looked up at the scorching blue sky. "Pretty sure you're on sick leave." He lowered his gaze to meet her eyes. "And I don't think you deserve to have a job as sucky as that, anyway."

Pretzel snorted. "You're the only one."

A moment passed as Sonic contemplated the sky and Pretzel contemplated her claws.

"I… I thought I would have to fight him." Pretzel admitted after a moment. "Everyone kept saying it. 'Oh, we need to get Dark Gaia, maybe the two heartless monsters will take each other out, wouldn't that be swell.'" She deepened her voice in a very bad impression of… someone. Presumably someone they both knew. She looked at her claws again, scratching at the pavement. "I should. Fight him, I mean."

Sonic dropped his arms and considered her for a moment. At last, he shook his head. "We won't force you. I won't force you." She looked up at him, and he returned it with a warm grin. "I'm sure you've realized by now that I'd much rather throw myself at the big scary monster than one of my friends."

Pretzel rolled her eyes. "Arrogance does seem to be one of your defining traits."

"Hey!" Sonic put a hand to his chest with an exaggeratedly wounded expression. "I am trying to have a heart-to-heart here, Ms. Incarnation-of-Darkness."

Pretzel rolled her eyes again. She pricked her ears as the wind gusted briefly over them, closing her eyes as the breeze swept through her fur. It was quickly gone again, but she didn't open her eyes. "I'm glad you were there. When I woke up."

Sonic blinked at her for a moment. "Really? Even with the whole 'being possessed by your worst enemy thing'? Even with how I've repeatedly tried to, y'know, kill you?"

Pretzel shrugged. "It wasn't you, though."

"Maybe it was!" Sonic threw his hands in the air. "I mean, think about it! With Amy and Tails, you broke them free and that was it! They're free! But I've been around you right from the start, and Light Gaia can still completely brainwash me whenever it feels like it!"

"It likes you," Pretzel pointed out. "It tried hard with them, but it's trying harder with you."

Sonic huffed. "And why is that? Why does it like me?"

"It think you're the same, you and it." He winced, but she kept going, opening her eyes to pin him with an icy stare. "And you have your similarities. You have light in you. You like to be the hero, you're arrogant, you believe in doing what's right, you never think things through, you always win and you never know when to quit."

Well, that did sound like him.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "But you know why I hate Light Gaia? Not because of any of that. Why I hate it— well, why I hate it now is because it plays the hero without earning it. It gets praised and worshipped, but it never does anything but what's in its nature. Every time they— we— every time the Gaias wake up, their fighting nearly destroys the world. But has Light Gaia ever tried to stop it? Has it ever tried to call it off or find another way? No. Maybe I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure it starts most of the fights. The cycle of rebirth is as much its fault as… as mine." She glanced off to the side before meeting his gaze again. "If it was like you, it would at least listen once in a while."

"Oh. Thanks." Sonic mustered. Then, "I think that's the most I've heard you talk."

"This is something I care about." She huffed tiredly and started back inside, then glanced back. "And for the record… if you're calling me Pretz, then I'm calling you Son." She scampered inside while he spluttered in outrage.

"Rude!" Sonic shouted, then, sure she was out of earshot, snickered to himself. He took a moment longer to appreciate the view (and, admittedly, regain his composure because wow, that was a lot of words) before stepping in after her.

At his work table, Tails was hooking what looked like the Chaos Emerald up to the machines, while an identical Emerald sat on a table nearby. They were almost impossible to tell apart. Probably were impossible to tell apart to anyone who hadn't been around them as long as he had, but when he looked closely at the one in the machine, he got a strange, queasy feeling in his stomach. He started to feel… cold. Like floating in that capsule. Like his first, and so far only, Chaos Control.

Dragging his gaze away from the fake, Sonic once again tried to reach out for the Emerald, the real Emerald, but even with it sitting right in front of him, it felt like it was worlds away. He tried not to sigh and instead forced a smile.

"How's it going, Tails?"

The fox looked up at him. "This Emerald is almost ready. It has the exact same properties as the real one on the surface, but its energy isn't infinite. It'll run out eventually, and it won't be easily recharged." He sighed, rubbing his face. "The thing is, this took me hours to make, and there are still five or six more to go if you want a full set. And it's exactly the same as the purple one. I'm not even sure you could go Super with seven of the same Emerald."

"We're running out of time," Shadow announced helpfully, joining them. "Light Gaia and Eggman are going to make their move, and if we don't leave soon, the mobs will find us and tear us apart. Or the world will burn to ash. Both outcomes are equally likely at this point."

Sonic grimaced. "We need to buy us some time. If we just knew where—" He glanced at the Miles Electric, and a lightbulb went off in his brain. "Tails, when you were brainwashed, you showed me a map. You seemed really determined that I go to this certain place."

Tails blinked at him. "I did?" He grabbed the Miles Electric and tapped at it for a moment, then showed Sonic the same map he had a few days ago. "Did it look like this?"

"Yes! Exactly like that!" Sonic bounced on his heels. "What coordinates are those?"

Tails squinted at it. "Somewhere near Christmas Island. Here, I'll write them down for you."

While he did that, Sonic turned to Shadow. "Do you think you could take me to Spagonia again?"

"I would need a Chaos Emerald to use Chaos Control," Shadow said, glancing at Tails.

Tails frowned thoughtfully for a moment, then shook his head. "I need both if I'm going to make more."

"We'll run, then. Keep at it, Tails. Shadow and I—" Sonic looked at Shadow. "I'm assuming you're alright with the suicidal death mission?"

Shadow shrugged. "There is no point in dragging it out."

"Great! Amy—" The pink hedgehog looked up with nervous excitement. "—you stay and protect Tails. He's going to be busy." She nodded, drawing her hammer out of subspace with a determined expression. "Pretzel, are you alright staying with them, too? To keep their minds free?"

Pretzel cocked her head. "Won't you need me to keep your own mind free?"

Sonic frowned. "I don't know. I'm hoping I've been exposed to your energies enough to last a little while, at least."

Pretzel thought for a moment, then nodded and flew over to land on Sonic's shoulder so she was almost at eye-level with Sonic. "Maybe this will help." She removed the crest with the green eye from her forehead and gave it to Sonic. "Let it's dark energy flow through you or whatever."

Sonic laughed. "Thanks, Pretz."

"You're welcome, Son."

Sonic stuck his tongue out at her and grabbed a very confused Shadow by the arm. "Let's go, Edge McHedge. We've got a world to save."

Sonic's initial plan had been to take the Tornado to Christmas Island, but when Tails told him that even with the booster engine, it would take at least four hours, he agreed to halve the distance by taking the portal to Adabat. Of course, this meant running to Spagonia, which took forty minutes in itself. Then there was fighting through the mob (thankfully, Shadow could be surprisingly gentle with brainwashed humans) to finally step through the door into Adabat. And then they had to "borrow" a plane (it was a GUN plane, so that was alright) to fly to the coordinates since apparently Shadow's hover skates didn't work so well on water. Sonic tucked that bit of information away for the next time they had a race.

All that aside, Sonic thought they were making pretty good time. They'd found a biplane (Shadow didn't trust Sonic with a jet for some reason, and even with the biplane he wasn't allowed to fly because he "didn't have a license" and "wasn't legally old enough to fly") and would arrive at their destination in an hour. That was just two hours spent traveling, as opposed to four. That was good! They were earning time!

"We are approaching the coordinates," Shadow called over the drone of the engine.

Sonic leaned over the edge of the plane to peer down at the ocean. The water was far lighter than it had been in Greenland, almost the same color as the sky. And below them, fast approaching, was an island he knew better than the back of his hand.

"South Island," he breathed. "Of course."

For a moment, he was entranced by the colors, vibrant green hills and bright blue waterfalls, with sparkling cities tucked between them. It radiated Chaos Energy… and now, light.

The white flared, blinding him, filling his eyes. It surged through him, filled him, and…

"Sonic!"

A voice shouted distantly.

"What are you doing!?"

It was getting farther away.

"Control yourself!"

Farther…

"We're going to crash!"

It didn't care.

It could fly.

Water closed around them, and for a moment Sonic fought for control, gasping for freedom and air alike. The waves tossed him on shore, and Light Gaia thrummed through him, white hot. He could see it, could feel it, it was there, inside and outside and everywhere. He scrabbled for control, wheezing, realized his claws were digging into Shadow. He jerked back. Shadow was unconscious, collapsed on the sand. Blood. Blood on the sand. He was breathing, that was good, that was good, wasn't it? Bad. This was bad. Focus.

Sonic grasped at the darkness he knew was there ("let it's dark energy flow through you" she'd said), and for just a minute cold radiated from the crest on his head. He grabbed Shadow and dragged him into a cove, a cove, how did he get there? He felt his head sizzling, ice and fire, and snatched off the crest, tucking it in Shadow's hand before racing out with his heels on fire, everything on fire.

He stumbled, surrounded by bright green grass and bobbing sunflowers. He gasped, clawing at his head, trying to fight it back, trying to resist that blinding light. The thrum increased. It sounded like bird song.

Light Gaia called.

…

It obeyed.