Author's note: Many words of gratitude to 000Marie198, E-Rank, Noonui for their faithful reviewing, it is amazingly appreciated! The details in this chapter fought me tooth and nail, but—behold, I prevailed!

(This winning is upheld by strings of mozzarella cheese at this point, but a win is a win.)

Also, asdfghjkl FANART from E-Rank THAAAANK YOOUUU: www dot deviantart dot com/whatisthisdefiance/art/Zenith-Ch-11-Amazing-Powers-892885575

Chapter 11: The Hornet's Nest

"Chaos Control!"

Sonic held the orange, fake Chaos Emerald high into the air with both hands, eyes clenched shut and Knuckles with one gloved mitt on the hedgehog's shoulder. The rest of the crew stood nearby, watching on with at least some level of interest. Well, aside from Eggman, who kept his seat on the makeshift Cubot chair and pretended not to care.

That was, until absolutely nothing happened, in which case the doctor haughtily chuckled.

"Huh," Sonic said, opening his eyes. Giving Knuckles' death glare a sheepish grin, he cleared his throat and tried again. "Chaos Control!"

The emerald merely taunted him, dully pulsing as it always had. Awkward silence followed, before Rouge hummed, stretched, and languidly walked away. Shadow opted to join Knuckles in his scowling.

"Chaos Control?" Sonic attempted a third time, now holding the fake gem at eye-level. He shook it like a rattle and inspected its surface. Had Tails put a power switch on this thing?

Knuckles let go of Sonic's shoulder and groaned, "So much for your amazing powers, hedgehog."

Sonic shot the echidna an exasperated face. "Look, give me a break. I've done this exactly once before, and my life was sorta in peril." He tossed the orange Chaos Emerald to Shadow. "Here, you do it."

Like playing a game of hot potato, it was launched right back at the blue hedgehog. "I cannot," Shadow declared simply.

Exasperation shifted to annoyance. "So don't hold me to it!" This time he shoved it into Knuckles' giant gloves. "Here ya go."

Knuckles' frown could've wilted flowers. "Uh, no, this is not how it works." The unwanted jewel got thrusted into Sonic's arms, with enough force to get the wind knocked out of the hero.

"Why does it have to be me?" said hero whined.

"You're the one that makes magic out of abominations."

"Excuse me?"

"It's our only way out, Sonic," Tails offered, gracefully ignoring the echidna's crass opinion of his invention.

Sonic's irritation did not ease up and the fake jewel found its way into Shadow's hands. "You're the negative energy hog, why can't you do it?" he complained further.

"This is not negative energy," Shadow answered plainly, chucking it to his rival.

Another, heavier grunt escaped as the fake emerald slammed into Sonic's chest. Frustration morphed into an audible growl and he argued, "Of course it is!"

"It's not," Tails interjected, wincing when Sonic's aggravated expression focused on him. He quickly added, "Well, it is, but not like Shadow's level of it." Rubbing behind his neck anxiously, he clarified, "I think that when you make a fake Chaos Emerald, negative energy might be the easier stream to capture?"

Sonic closed his eyes briefly, trying his best to regain his composure through the fog of information being thrown his way. "Of course it is," he said again, tone quite the opposite of that testament.

The fox's restless hands went to his tails. "But it's still that mix of energies. The Chaos energy we're familiar with, plus this Chaos from another space and time, you know—"

"I really don't," Sonic cut off futilely.

"—and because of that, Shadow's negative energy neutralizes too much of it." Tails had gathered Knuckles and Shadow's attention as well, though Sonic was the one that appeared done with just about everything. "Since the, um, fake Chaos Emerald doesn't hold the amount of energy a real one does."

No one responded. With three pairs of eyes attached to blank looks staring him down, Tails surmised, "I'm … going to stop talking now."

Sonic let out a long, drawn-out sigh, before determinedly looking at Shadow and tossing the orange jewel to him. "Here."

Shadow snarled, "I told you—"

"Chaos Control 101," Sonic lightly interrupted.

"—I … what?"

The blue hedgehog crossed his arms. "You might not be able to do it with Creamsicle there, but you're obviously a pro with the other emeralds, yeah?"

Shadow's anger slowly dissolved into reluctant understanding. Sonic glanced towards the fake Chaos Emerald in his grasp and concluded, "So … teach me."

Sonic's rival took a while to digest that request, before he finally—if not dishearteningly—nodded once.

"We're never getting out of here," Knuckles declared, walking past a surprised Tails and into the static of nothingness. Sonic frowned in his direction before sticking his tongue out.

Eggman rubbed the bridge of his nose, shifting on his Cubot seat and causing the smaller robot to warningly creak. "For once, I agree with the echidna."

"Okay," Sonic said with a deep breath, "I need to want it." His focus was on the orange gem in his hands and nothing else. It still faintly pulsed, a reminder that its existence was only a fraction of the Chaos Emeralds' power.

No, bad thinking. Think positively. Sonic cleared his mind and repeated Shadow's previous instructions. "I need to have a location in mind." Green Hills was instantly visualized, but Shadow had also clarified that the distance could not be far. That didn't leave a lot of options, so the ARK it was.

Granted, Sonic didn't have fond memories of the giant space station, either, but he tried to think about the storage room, where the fractured Master Emerald was haphazardly hiding.

"Use any of my senses to remember it," Sonic added. His eyes started hurting and he realized he was forgetting to blink. Blinking was sort of necessary, so he clenched them shut to ease the burn, before refocusing yet again.

Dude, this was hard. "Sight, smell, hearing…" he spoke aloud as he remembered, "anything to bring it to the beginning—"

"Forefront," Shadow corrected.

"—forefront of my mind." Sonic shot the black hedgehog a scornful glimpse at the unneeded interruption. Concentration slowly returned to the orange atrocity—er, Chaos Emerald. He had to believe in it.

No, wait. He needed to believe in himself. Ugh, this had been way easier when the fakey was yellow and at least Sonic could pretend it was real.

Well, and the fact that when he had previously accomplished Chaos Control, it had been a pivotal "do it or die trying" moment; that certainly put jet fuel in the ambition tank.

Stop straying! With only a small amount of irritation lining his voice, Sonic recited, "When I have it, I'll know beforehand." Ha! Yeah, right. Helpful advice, Shadow.

Sonic found himself having a stare-down with the inanimate object in his hands. "I will know," he repeated. Waiting too long to blink again, he grumbled, "Or not."

"It will glow," Shadow countered, arms crossed as he watched Sonic. A brief, pensive expression crossed the darker hedgehog's features, catching Sonic's attention. "At least, a real emerald will glow."

Internally reciting many bad words at the black hedgehog, Sonic took another deep breath. Stay. Positive. Afterall, he had done this before so it had to be possible.

Right? Right.

Shifting in his stance—he was starting to feel his knees lock up out of frustration—Sonic shook the tension out of his arms and legs before holding his token-out-of-here at eye level. He could do this.

He also sort of had to do this. None of these things were helping his confidence. "So Creamsicle here needs to look like a jack-o'-lantern; got it."

No problem. He could do this.

"Show me."

Sonic floundered at that demand. Arching a confused brow at his temporary mentor, he asked, "Uh, isn't this like a non-rechargeable battery?"

Another deadpanned expression was all he got out of that. Not backing down, Sonic's brows only raised farther. "You know, as in a one-time use-it-and-lose-it? I'd rather not drain it before we even make our break."

"You only need to make it glow. Do not say the words."

Shadow had said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and Sonic was starting to wonder how he had ever managed to perform Chaos Control in the first place.

Both Shadow and Knuckles put way too much thought and preparation into this stuff. Wouldn't it just be easier to … not do that?

"All right," Sonic finally answered, mentally and physically shaking the distractions away. He fixated his gaze on the orange replica and forced himself to remember the old, worn-down storage unit. There was that weird smell of stale air, particles of dust intermingling with the Master Emerald's heated green mist…

…countered with that mild hint of chill in the room, from a barely functioning air system…

"Focus," Shadow commanded.

"I am," Sonic insisted, trying to maintain his concentration. The dripping condensation from old pipes accosted his ears, as well as that weird electric hum that exuded from the Master Emerald's cracks.

And that uber creepy groaning that seemed to characterize every abandoned facility, no matter how old it was.

"Think of nothing else."

"I am!"

"You are not focusing. Do you wish to stay here forever?"

"I am focusing!" the blue hedgehog yelled, eyes opening to glare at Shadow. "And what kind of question is that?! Of course I want out of this blank canvas of boredom."

A loud growl emitted into the space, but it came from neither hedgehog's mouth. Sonic brought a free hand to his stomach and patted it pitifully. "Actually, what I really want is a chili dog from that stand that's on the corner of Metro and Third. You think the kitchen here has any edible food? Dude, even if I could find a can of chili and add their secret spice in—Chaos that's some great—"

Shadow snatched the fake emerald out of Sonic's hands, its shine so bright it definitely surpassed the feat of a jack-o'-lantern, and then some.

"—hey!" Sonic exclaimed, before realizing what he had just almost done. "Oh."

"What part of 'do not say the words' did you fail to grasp?"

"Uh," Sonic reasoned, then shrugged. "Half?"

For what was hopefully the last time, Sonic found the wind knocked out of him by a (thankfully) dimly pulsing orange rock. He took ahold of it, feeling accomplished, despite the fact that he'd almost made a short trip to the ARK's kitchen.

Which, really, wouldn't be such a bad idea—

Sonic's train of thought died with the blazing glow of his emerald.

"You are ready," Shadow stated, already turning and walking away.

"Huh," Sonic articulately answered, mesmerized by this new form of control. As quickly as the gem had lit up like a torch, however, Sonic's loss of concentration had already brought it down to its usual muted presence.

"Neato." He tossed the glass replica into the air, and by the time he caught it his fulfillment had waned to uneasiness, considering Knuckles' harsh opinion of the 'abomination'.

Was it weird, or wrong, to be able to do Chaos Control with a fake emerald?

Dwelling on it wasn't going to help their situation now. Watching his rival's retreating form momentarily, Sonic noticed Rouge in the distance, partially visible through the fog and apparently reapplying her eye makeup.

Wait, where did she get—er, never mind.

Eggman was in his tiny corner of the blank slate, though at least now he'd given Cubot some breathing room by standing. Sonic snickered when he noticed the unnatural bend in the yellow robot's neck.

Orbot seemed to be assisting with that, at least, but was having a hard time keeping the easily distracted Cubot immobile long enough to reshape the joints.

Tails had wandered over to where Knuckles had plopped to the ground, and was sitting beside him. Despite the echidna's previous sour attitude (after all, it wasn't Sonic's idea to bring Big Greenie to the ARK), he seemed to be conversing lightly with the fox, the kit laughing at something and the Guardian even cracking the tiniest hint of a smile.

Another thought crossed the hero's mind, his mood sobering further. Eyes drifting over to the retreating black hedgehog, Sonic called, "Hey, uh—Shadow?"

The only acknowledgement to his name was a slowness in his departure, head shifted to the side to catch Sonic in his peripheral vision.

Taking the initiative, Sonic zipped up closer to avoid being louder than necessary in this empty box of madness. "Can you do me a favor and—um, when I'm gone, keep an eye on Tails?"

Shadow did manage to fully turn towards Sonic at that. "He does not need looking after," he responded flatly.

"I know that!" Sonic defended annoyedly, then softened his voice. "I just mean I'm taking Knux with me, and it'll be, uh—" he paused, trying to find the right words. Eventually he rephrased, "Well, Eggman will still be here."

Shadow's eyes only narrowed. "Rouge is trustworthy."

"Sure, yeah."

"Why have you not asked her?"

Sonic's hand absently ran through some head quills. Lots of reasons came to mind, but he ultimately settled with, "Because I'm asking you?"

"And yet you have distrusted me up to this point."

Shadow was clearly not buying what Sonic was selling. To be fair, even Sonic wasn't sure what he was selling to begin with. Taking Knuckles with him out of this dimension left Tails with … not a lot of options. Rouge was nice enough, but Sonic barely knew her, Tails less so. Shadow was not far off in that regard, either, but at least both hero and sidekick had seen the rival's actions thus far, enough that Sonic had some faith he would hold true to his word.

Sonic happened to know about Maria, as well, thanks to Tails' snooping on the ARK's history, but he was smart enough to not mention what was probably a touchy subject for the broody hedgehog.

With a casual shrug, Sonic tried to act nonchalant about his decision. "Trust has to be earned, and I think you've earned it."

"Let's go, Sonic!" Knuckles yelled from afar. He and Tails had both noticed Sonic was no longer trying to command his orange rock, so were standing up and heading their direction.

Sonic waved at them but shot a pleading glance Shadow's way. "Just … please?"

Shadow did not respond. Sonic did eventually hear a low sigh from him, though—one that totally classified as yielding if Sonic had any say in it—and was probably the best he was going to get.

"Enough trials," Knuckles stated as they approached the two. "We need to get back to the Master Emerald now."

"Yeah, yeah, Knux, don't get your locks in a knot," Sonic haughtily replied.

"My locks are not—" the echidna stopped long enough to digest the idiom, then glared threateningly.

Tails calmly, tactfully, (and conveniently) pulled Sonic aside, away from the other two and before anything more heated could be said.

While there wasn't much in the way of privacy when it came to sound in this desolate existence, Tails took several respectable feet away before considerately asking the hero, "You ready?"

Sonic snorted. "No."

That earned him a smirk. "Don't think you have much of a choice."

"Do I ever?" Sonic agreed. "PSA: I still have no clue on what's going on."

"I know."

"Any words of wisdom from the resident genius of this band of misfits?"

"Uh." Tails pondered the question, opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated and apparently decided better of it. "Artificial Chaos equals bad?"

Sonic blinked, then grinned. "I can work with that."

The fox tilted his head thoughtfully. "Besides … all the emeralds are on the ARK. Once you get out of here, there's a good chance you can go Super and really kick some—!"

Sonic eyed his kid brother fiercely, to which Tails finished, "—tail. Kick some tail."

"Uh huh."

"It was totally what I was gonna say!"

"Let's go, Sonic," Knuckles demanded, walking up to the two.

"All right, all right," Sonic waved him off, instead pulling Tails into a quick hug. "See you on the flip side, bud."

The little fox reciprocated with his own tight squeeze, then pulled away and deftly grabbed Knuckles into a hug before he could escape. "Good luck to you both."

Eggman obnoxiously groaned at the sight.

"Get over it, Eggman. It's called 'friendship' and something you'll never know."

"Good luck, boys," Rouge added, standing next to Shadow. The darker hedgehog merely crossed his arms expectantly.

Tails stepped away as Knuckles' heavy glove landed on Sonic's shoulder. Studying the dim fake emerald in his hands, Sonic let out a shaky breath and faced the echidna. "Ready?"

He nodded. "Do it."

Sonic's mental focus returned to that storage room, minute details of its smell, chill, and eerie green glow invading his thoughts.

Knuckles held the sliver of Master Emerald in his other hand, a reminder to Sonic that this would not be like the last time. He had help, he had control, and he could bring them both to the Master Emerald, get it fixed, and steal back the Chaos Emeralds and get his friends (and enemies) out of TV land.

Sonic took another deep breath, a triumphant hum breaking through at the orange emerald's intensifying glow. Oh yeah, he totally got this now.

"Chaos Control!"

The feeling of being dematerialized is never a joyous one, nor is the concept itself. Chaos energy might help in this regard, Sonic supposed, but with the orange Push Up-wannabe directing their teleportation, all bets were off.

Knuckles did have the shard of the Master Emerald, which Sonic was hoping might gift some brief love and care his way, but—with his feet feeling like they were made of concrete and his head pounding hard enough to compete with a brick in a washing machine—apparently not.

"Ugh," was Sonic's first response at becoming an animate being again. This was followed shortly afterwards with a pained holler, since Knuckles decided to slam him into the ground.

"WHAT the flicky, Knux! I didn't even do—"

A lightning bolt (which Sonic supposed was negative energy) flew above both their heads, close enough to make Sonic's fur stand on end.

"Ah."

Knuckles didn't give Sonic time reorient himself a second time, either, because he quite literally picked Sonic up and threw him.

His aim was scarily spot-on, because Sonic sailed over the top of the terrifying Master Emerald in all its oozing glory, smack into the far wall of the storage unit, and down to the floor with a heavy thud. His pathetic moan followed shortly thereafter.

He couldn't be mad, of course, because yet another one of those slithers of intense negative energy blasted through crates, straight into the side of the Master Emerald, before refracting off the giant broken gem as harmless as light on lens.

"Ambush!" was all Sonic heard Knuckles shout.

A familiar clinking sound distracted Sonic, his eyes following its source. The fake emerald had apparently fallen out of his hand during the collision, and rolled along its heavy end into a nearby, unscathed crate. Instead of its signature orange, it had completely dulled to a gray, with equally dark smoke escaping each joint, as if trying (and failing) to mimic its big green cousin next to it.

Well, at least it didn't spontaneously combust this time.

Struggling to his feet (and feeling like he'd been run over by a Chaos-draining bus), Sonic took a long second with his palm on the wall to yell, "Knuckles, get back here!"

He heard a very loud and very recognizable Knuckles-growl, followed by an even louder explosion of aluminum and titanium alloy. Scrambling the few feet around the giant emerald to see what was going on, he saw a very disheveled Knuckles laying in ground zero of what looked like his own destruction.

"Knux!" Sonic called, sprinting up to him. A wary periphery glance told the hero that their attackers were gone, at least for now, and—based off the giant echidna-sized hole in the wall of the storage unit—Sonic was pretty sure they managed to hightail it out of the area at just the right moment.

The Guardian was prone on the floor amidst what used to be a long wall (and door) to the storage area. Halfway between what remained of the room and one of the ARK's numerous hallways, Sonic kneeled and hoisted the heavier Mobian up by way of his arm.

"Go, Sonic," Knuckles managed to say, even as Sonic found himself the sole support for the echidna as he pulled him the rest of the way to his feet.

"Are you kidding? What makes you think you can handle what those guys throw?"

Breathing heavily, but at least standing, Knuckles' poignant glimpse at Sonic was downright withering before the echidna focused on something just over the hedgehog's shoulder. Without a warning, and what Sonic begrudgingly realized was the third time in as many minutes, his world got turned upside down as Knuckles quite literally tossed him out of the way.

Landing ungracefully on an aluminum panel that horrifically screeched as it skidded across the floor, Sonic watched with widening eyes as Knuckles held his broken piece of emerald into the air.

The offensive charge of negative energy seemed to naturally gravitate towards Knuckles' outstretched hand, straight into the green shard, and reflected off its surface into the ceiling above.

Sparks and debris rained on them from the explosion, adding intense yellow and blue electric hues to the white light saturating their surroundings. Knuckles attempted to stand firm against the assault, his stance wide, but Sonic saw his entire body shift backwards from the sheer force of the lightning strike. With teeth bared and clenched shut, the Guardian menacingly roared through the attack, desperately holding his ground as the final length of the arch deflected away from the duo, detonating elsewhere.

The silence lasted a brief, flitting moment before Knuckles continued his death stare from earlier. "The Master Emerald will protect me. Now go, and retrieve the Chaos Emeralds!"

Knuckles grabbed Sonic's arm, somehow finding the strength to pull the hero to his feet. He barely released Sonic before charging the two Artificial Chaos that had reappeared down the hall.

"Uh," was all Sonic got out, still discombobulated by the commotion of the last few minutes. "Um, right. The Chaos Emeralds." His eyes scanned the hallway before he let out an embarrassing squeal as another deflection of negative energy nearly singed his nose.

"Go!"

"All right, all right! Yeesh."

Sonic zoomed down the other length of the corridor, which was the only other feasible exit. Another trail of blinding-white energy followed milliseconds after, and the hero barely managed to round the corner at a junction before the blast slammed into the wall where he'd just been. A sizeable hole instantly formed from the hit, chunks of panel shrapnel shooting through the air.

When he and Shadow had traversed the space station, they had gone the other direction, where Knuckles was currently holding off the Artificial Chaos. But the station was also a giant hemisphere, supposedly, so finding a way around the ongoing battle should be easy.

Theoretically.

Granted, it would be a lot easier if Sonic could sense the Chaos Emeralds, too. With the amount of negative energy housed in the abandoned spaceship, Sonic supposed that whatever small sense of affinity he had towards them had been neutralized.

On that note, it would also be a lot easier if he didn't feel like a dried-up sponge, or if he had even been conscious when Shadow found the Chaos Emeralds previously.

Going at about a quarter of his normal pace, Sonic zipped through the long passages, stopping erratically at various doorways, searching for the telltale colorful hues.

Wow, this place was huge.

Wait, hadn't he already found the kitchen? ...Twice?

Coming down an especially long and wide hallway, a blurry red blob intersected Sonic's path, crashing into the far wall. Sonic cringed and accelerated, throwing himself into said blob whilst yelling, "Just passing through!"

Barreling into Knuckles, the duo rolled out of the way of the negative energy's deathly path.

"Sonic, what are you—why don't you have the emeralds?!"

Out of breath and shaky, the hero sheepishly grinned. "Um, got a little lost?"

Three Artificial Chaos appeared around the bend this time, their entire bodies lighting up as they advanced towards the Mobians. With a few unintended slaps and shoves against one another, Sonic and Knuckles hurriedly stood up, the latter already holding his pièce de résistance out and ready to protect them from the impending blast.

"They're that way," Knuckles growled, simultaneously pointing and pushing Sonic in the direction he'd been heading.

"I totally knew that!" the hedgehog defended, then paused when he saw Knuckles' wavering stance. A frown followed shortly afterwards when the echidna's free hand clutched his ribs. "Wait, are you hurt?"

"You'll be if you don't go!"

"Knux—"

Bolts released from all three of the manmade anarchists, joining together about halfway across and combining into one solid, formidable charge of negative energy. Sonic had grabbed Knuckles to run, but just before the lightning struck, he heard the strained whisper of what could only be echidnean language.

The sliver of Master Emerald brightened just as the strike hit, and Sonic howled from the jarring sensation of both true and negative energy chorusing through his body.

He had still been holding onto Knuckles, though whether that was his saving grace or his eternal doom was yet to be determined.

When all was said and done, both Guardian and hero fell to the floor, only the former with enough tenacity to struggle up.

Sonic felt his arm yanked on, and he tried to find balance long enough to look his old friend in the eyes. "Knux, this is—this is—"

"We've got this," he interrupted gruffly, shoving Sonic in the other direction. "You've got this. Now please, go."

Sheer determination was all that Sonic could read in those violet eyes, his own green orbs hardening in response as he nodded and ran.

Behind him, the Artificial Chaos wailed.