Heat burned all around him, through his fur and into his blood. Hissing in pain, Sonic darted away from Light Gaia's claws, sweeping his arm behind him to send a wave of dark energy at it. The wave wavered and flickered, more like a weak ripple. Light Gaia didn't even notice. The energy was seeping out of him, dragging at his movements and draining his focus.

Gritting his teeth, Sonic gathered his last dregs of energy. He couldn't lose. He wouldn't—

Light Gaia's tail whipped through the air. He tried to dodge. Not fast enough. White fire cut through him, and the transformation vanished, leaving nothing, less than nothing. The world was suddenly too close, yet at the same time, hazy and distant. He struggled to stay alert for a moment more.

His eyes slipped closed.

Sonic fell.

The light rushed eagerly to catch him and consume him. Light Gaia's call battled the wind in his ears. Its message came clearer and brighter and warmer than ever, confident in its strength and his weakness. It would purify him, it said. It would remove the dark and the bad and make him perfect.

YOU'RE bad, Sonic shot back.

Light Gaia seemed personally offended by this. I am good.

Oh, so it talked now? You hurt people.

Bad people.

Good people too. Time was acting funny, or maybe it was gravity. He was still falling, yet never coming close to the ground.

No people are good.

Yeah. You aren't good. Was it playing with him, or genuinely trying to convince him?

I am good!

Hurting people isn't good. Stealing isn't good.

I do not steal! It sounded like a petulant child.

You steal people's freedom.

Do not!

Maybe arguing with it when it was apparently the only thing keeping him from falling to his death was a bad idea. Sonic couldn't say he cared. You steal choice.

Choice is bad.

You are bad. Oh, he was actually moving again.

I am LIGHT!

Light and bad aren't mutually exclusive. The ground was getting closer now.

Dark is bad. Light is good.

Pretzel, talking him through his fear on a mission she didn't even believe in. Shadow, defying his orders because he believed in second chances. Rouge, staying behind to fight the Phoenix so the world might have a chance.

Sonic smirked. Lying is bad.

You are bad, Light Gaia spat, withdrawing to let the ground break him to pieces.

Oh, yes, joined a third voice, cool and dripping with sarcasm. The one who's fighting for the freedom of the world is the bad guy.

The shadows wrapped around Sonic, shielding him from the impact. They dropped him gently on the ground. He tried to get to his feet, but didn't have the energy and instead knelt in the ashes. A silhouette fell over him, long and deep and dark as the ocean. He looked up to see the new challenger. A huge grin split his face.

He is not "bad", Dark Gaia hissed, looking Light Gaia in the eye. But I might be.

She was raised on her hind legs, wings spread and teeth bared. Her fur had blackened to dusk, an imperfect near-black like a Coke bottle in a desert town. Her flared wings almost looked like an additional pair of arms. Her back was armored with fin-like scales that matched the violet mane on her head and the neon blue veins of her wings, and her third eye was fixed and active in her forehead, and another pair of eyes were below her first.

She was bigger, and darker, and she looked more like the monster in the pictures, but she wasn't quite there yet. She was twice his height, but that wasn't much at all compared to Light Gaia. She wasn't fully transformed; for that, Sonic knew (like he knew how to fly when the Emeralds transformed him and how to land right before the transformation left) that she would need the energy Light Gaia and Eggman had stolen. He thought, briefly, of what it would mean if she did reach her full form, but dismissed the thought easily.

Right now, she would need his help.

She glanced down at him, cold and calculating, and for a moment he identified with the mice people fed to pythons. But the next moment he knew she was still Pretzel as she hesitated, glanced again at Light Gaia, rolled her eyes and dropped to all fours.

Light Gaia shrieked, recovering from its surprise, and pounced with talons outspread. It rebounded off a shield of shadows and settled, for the moment, with circling ominously overhead.

"It'll break through soon," Sonic observed. He tried again to stand, but again his legs betrayed him. Where had all the energy of just minutes ago gone?

"The fake Emeralds," Pretzel told him. He wasn't sure if she'd read his thoughts or was just guessing. Either was equally likely. "You used their negative energies to transform. Positive energy repelled it. I'm surprised you held onto the transformation as long as you did." She moved her head closer to him, and he was suddenly struck by the size difference between them now. Maybe this was how Pretzel had felt around him before.

She cocked her head, ears twisting like she was listening to some distant song. "They still have a little more to give, if you'll take it."

Sonic winced as Light Gaia rammed against the shield again. "That would probably be good, yeah."

Pretzel gave him a considering look, tail twitching. "I can help," she said at last. "But it won't be nice."

Sonic looked up at Light Gaia circling overhead, screaming threats, then at Dark Gaia coiled around him, concerned that her help won't be "nice". His mouth quirked, but he repressed any amusement for the time being. "If it'll help me help you, then go for it."

Pretzel nodded and spread her wing. Sonic was entranced by her shadow as it slipped over his own. He gasped at the sudden chill of dark energy brushing his mind, then relaxed as it did not force its way in, but waited, calm and patient, the exact opposite of the white light that still echoed in invisible burns. Closing his eyes, Sonic focused. He drew on the fake Emeralds, nauseating though it was. He looked, for once, at the darkness, the despair and sorrow and anger. Slowly, he let the dark water in. He did not let it control him; he held it carefully, away from his heart, and shaped it into a weapon.

The transformation was painful; it had to be, this unnatural shifting in his body. He did not scream. He was sick of screaming. He was sick of not being in control. He was sick of not trusting himself. He was sick of Light Gaia and its lies.

"Okay." He said at last, standing. His voice sounded ever so slightly off. He glanced briefly at himself—murky blue quills turned up in sharp violet points, with matching spikes of fur on his wrists and ankles, claws more canine than they had been when Light Gaia transformed him—before looking at Pretzel. "Let's go."

Pretzel grinned, displaying a wide array of very sharp teeth. "This should be fun."