"What's going on?"

Sonic glanced up from where he was kneeling in the sand to see Blaze skidding to a stop beside him, her fur still patched with healing burns. Shadow followed close behind, looking at once irritated and concerned. Master of emotions, that Shadow.

"I don't… I don't know," Sonic admitted. He stared in bewilderment at Pretzel and Light Gaia, both crouched on the beach, eyes closed, facing each other.

It was a bizarre sight. Light Gaia was crouched on all four legs with its wings folded and tail tucked like the world's weirdest dog. Pretzel, bigger though she was, was already tiny next to it, and she looked smaller still curled up like she was. Her wings were folded around her, hiding her face. Brow wrinkling with concentration, Sonic reached out for her presence, the energy she had pulled from him moments ago. Nothing. Cautiously, he poked at the deep burn Light Gaia's maelstrom of energy had left in him, a permanent entry point for the white light. He could feel it, faintly, but it was turned away from him, closed off.

It might have been a peaceful scene, but though their energy wasn't in him anymore, he could still sense it, invisible as the wind but just as present and alive. Dark and light energy gathered and swirled around the Gaias, a growing cyclone that would be unleashed any minute— He blinked. The storm wasn't expanding, it was compacting, a tight ball of energy that would surely blow up any minute now and yet…

"They're… locking themselves into the cycle again." Understanding dawned and he tried to scramble to his feet, his exhausted limbs fighting him every step of the way. Blaze grabbed his arm to steady him.

"The cycle? What do you mean?" Her tail lashed as she looked from him to Pretzel and back again.

"They will rest for a century or more," Shadow's eyes narrowed, his fingers twitching and chaos energy stirring restlessly, helplessly. "And then they will resume their fight."

"We can't let Pretzel get locked into that again," Sonic glared at Dark Gaia as if she had personally offended him. "We need to stop Light Gaia, not just delay it."

"How can we stop them?" Shadow said, frowning, because he was just a killjoy like that. "You could barely scratch Light Gaia in your Dark Super Form—" (oh, is that what it was called? Wait, how the heck would Shadow know? Did he just make it up?) "—let alone when you're about to collapse."

"I am not!" Sonic insisted, though his entire body begged to differ. He tugged away from Blaze's grip and nearly fell over.

Shadow smirked, but Blaze raised a hand to stop their argument before it could continue. "Wait." She was staring intently at the purple Sol Emerald in her hand. After a moment, she looked up at them, realization in her yellow eyes. "I have an idea."

Whatever Shadow might think, it was a simple matter for Sonic to run back to Eggman's base ("Hey Rouge!" "Hey, blue. No, you don't need to nuke the island—") and grab the real Chaos Emerald, though leaving his friends alone with Light Gaia made him antsy. Sonic skirted around the shards of what had once been the fake Chaos Emeralds. The real one sat patiently, glowing with familiar light. He was pleasantly surprised when his hand touched its shimmering violet surface and its presence lit up in his mind like it has always been there. It had always been there, it insisted. He just couldn't see it through the white walls.

There was no time for a reunion. Sonic raced back to the others (ignoring the Emerald's insistence that it could get him there in an instant; geez, he'd forgotten how bossy Purple was) and skidded to a stop, taking mild pleasure in the sand thrown on Shadow's fancy shoes.

"Ready?" He asked, turning to face the Gaias and holding the Emerald aloft. Its energy flowed through him, keeping his arm from shaking. He gently pushed it away. Its energy was needed for something else.

"Ready." Shadow put his hand on the Emerald beside Sonic's.

"Ready." Blaze laid one hand over theirs and held the Sol Emerald up with the other.

"On one," Sonic grinned.

Shadow closed his eyes.

"Three!"

Blaze closed hers as well, brow furrowing with concentration.

"Two!"

Sonic shut out the world, focusing only on the hands of his friends and the Emeralds held between them.

"One!"

Energy crackled around him, lightning and fire and dark and light and all the colors in between.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

The Chaos Emerald leapt at the familiar command, its energy drawing on the image in their minds. The Sol Emerald's fierce glow piercing through his eyelids. The energies mixed, thoughts into power and soul into energy, burning through reality and, for just a moment, making two worlds one.

Sonic cracked an eyelid to see if it had worked.

Lava crackled and popped, and the sky was black above them. He felt a strange dizziness as he saw his mirror image, crouched on the stone. Beside other-him fluttered what appeared to be a small dog. It glowed with familiar yet not at all familiar light.

Dark Gaia was… big.

It loomed over them, cold and cruel. The thin arms and claws, the green eyes and brown scales, were familiar, yet completely alien. Maybe it had something to do with the teeth around its eyes Pretzel what the heck.

It lasted only for a second, and then their own reality snapped back in a nauseating instant. Sonic collapsed dizzily to his knees, gasping, hand still tight on the Chaos Emerald. Shadow knelt beside him, palms on the sand as he took deep breaths. Blaze grimaced, rubbing her forehead.

Sonic looked at the Gaias. Their eyes were open. It was difficult to read Light Gaia's expression, assuming it had one, but Pretzel was stepping back. Her expression was hard to read too, but there was doubt. He could feel her energy again, no longer blocked off. She was uncertain. She was having second thoughts. It was enough.

Sonic inhaled deeply. The Chaos Emerald gave him what energy it could after such a massive Chaos Control, urging him on. It was time for the finale.

"With me," Sonic rasped. He held out his hand, and Blaze grasped it firmly. Together they stood. Blaze raised the Sol Emerald in her shaking hand, and Sonic reluctantly turned away from the Chaos Emerald, focusing on the burn left inside him. Oh, Light Gaia. So very eager to take him and keep him, never thinking how a permanent connection like that went two ways.

It went against every bit of instinct and reason to reach through that connection for the white fire. It was wrong, wrong, wrong to pull on that energy knowing very well how it could twist his mind and body. But he did it anyway. He tugged it from Light Gaia, drawing it to himself, pulling and pulling and unraveling the energy Eggman's machine had stolen from Dark Gaia and given to her opposite. He shuddered as the light began to fill him.

Blaze's grip tightened on his hand. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Reluctantly, he redirected some of the energy to her, letting her conduct it into the Sol Emerald. The white fire was turned into violet flames easily enough, but there was too much energy to convert, too much for Blaze to safely conduct. He kept that from flowing out of him.

Familiar pain flared in his skin and in his muscles and in every part of him. He grit his teeth. As long as it didn't touch his mind, he would live with it. And if it did touch his mind… his friends would know what to do. He could rely on them.

Something dark and cold brushed him. It was a quiet, gentle thing, but unlike last time, it was firm, leaving no room to refuse it. It flowed smoothly around the light, cutting it off from his mind and cooling the burns. The two energies danced around each other, at once wary and curious. Slowly, they settled into each other, mixing. Equal.

Sonic opened his eyes.

The world was the same. The world was different.

Everyone was alive. Everyone was safe. That was all that mattered.