Kintobor escaped from the palace and managed to lose the party that had chased after him. Sonic hoped that that was the end of it, but he couldn't think on it for too long. Too many people were injured, himself included, covered in several blade slashes. Quite honestly it was a miracle he hadn't bled out, and on top of that, Amy wasn't faring so well either.

Shadow did what he could to stop the bleeding, but she had a fever, and lay unconscious on the floor of the throne room. He didn't have enough energy to heal her or Sonic any further without collapsing, having already expended quite a bit just to heal Sonia's eye earlier.

A little ways away, Sonia tended to Manic's bullet wound, pulling the bullet out and bandaging it the best she could, though they all knew that it wouldn't heal unless they could use magic or find a way to stitch it closed. Tails had returned a little bit ago, bringing Tikal with him, who was still unconscious. He brought her over to them, panting and looking exhausted.

Sonic looked to Shadow, his vision blurring as the adrenaline finally began to drain from his system, leaving him fighting just to stay on his feet. "We have to get Amy back to Knothole," he said, his words slurred just a little.

Shadow nodded in agreement, but then gestured to Tails and Tikal. "What about the girl?" he asked. "She and Kintobor both mentioned a prophecy."

"It would be good to try and get as much information from her as we can if we can get her to wake up," Tails said. "We should bring her back with us." He looked over at Amy, his ears dropping a little. "We should get going, she's really not looking so good," he finished tiredly.

Sonic nodded, then gently scooped Amy up in his arms, nearly dropping her before Shadow grabbed him by the shoulder, helping him steady himself. "Thanks," he said. Then he tilted his head to Tikal. "Could you bring her with you?"

Shadow nodded, gently brushing Amy's bangs out of the way before kissing her forehead gently, then he pressed a kiss to Sonic's cheek. "I'll be there soon," he said, softly caressing Sonic's cheek for a moment.

Sonic nodded and leaned into Shadow's touch, into the small comfort it brought him before he turned and took off. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. You're gonna be okay. You have to be okay.

Tears streamed down his face, from worry and exhaustion both. He'd never seen Amy like this, so limp, so still. Even when she'd been hurt, she would still fire back with her sassy attitude, her firm care.

This just wasn't right.

They reached Knothole within half an hour, and Sonic immediately took her to the infirmary, but as the medics took her from him, he swayed on his feet. Moments later he collapsed, darkness finally pulling him in.

The foliage around him was dense, little chao crying as they ran through the undergrowth. A monstrous screech sounded behind him, and Sonic turned to see a dragon-like creature, almost as if the sea had taken physical form to unleash its wrath upon the world. A voice shouted, "Chaos, I beg of you, no more destruction!"

The monster turned its head towards the voice, towards Sonic, as a girl stepped in front of him. Tikal held her arms out to her sides, pleading with the creature as it seemed to consider her. "Please!" She shouted, her voice on the verge of tears as the monster let out another ear splitting screech.

Six other mobians that looked like her gathered in front of Sonic, each one holding a gem that shone like nothing Sonic had ever seen before, their colorful light almost blinding. One, an elderly mobian with tribal markings on the fur all over his body, handed Tikal a gem of her own, and she took it as the monster let out another horrible roar and dived toward them, like a snake striking to kill.

Sonic woke in the infirmary, in the bed next to Amy's. He looked over at her, his vision still hazy, but she already looked like she was doing better, though she was still asleep. He reached out and grasped her hand, squeezing it gently. It was warm, but no longer hot, and a sheen of sweat on her forehead indicated her fever had been broken. He rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand, along her fingers as he drifted back to sleep.

Tikal stood in front of him, turquoise eyes staring imploringly at him. "I know where he goes next," she said. "Please, you must help my people. You must bring me back to Angel Island."

"Angel… what?" Sonic asked. "I've never heard of that place."

"Please," pleaded Tikal. "If I do not go back, there will be no chance of stopping them before it is too late."

"Who's them?"

"You must take me to Angel Island!"

Sonic woke again, this time to find crimson eyes staring worriedly at him. Shadow sighed with relief as his eyes fluttered open. "You've been out for a couple days now," he said. "I was starting to worry."

Sonic grunted, still disoriented from the dream, his throat dry. He looked over towards Amy's bed to find her still there, her chest rising and falling easily. "How's–" he croaked, then coughed, and Shadow gestured for him to stay there as he got up and left. He came back a minute later with a glass full of water, which Sonic drank greedily, nearly choking on it. He took a breath and cleared his throat. "How's she doing?"

"She's fine," Shadow replied. "She's still recovering, but she's been awake a few times, and she seems like she's doing alright. I think all the magic she'd been doing was taking a toll."

Sonic nodded. "What about Tikal?"

Shadow grimaced. "She still hasn't woken up," he said. "But the medics are trying to get her to gain the weight she lost in the dungeons, and she seems to be breathing a little bit easier than before, but… Only time will tell." Shadow reached out and gently grasped Sonic's hand. "But I'm glad you're alright."

They were silent for a moment, Sonic's mind still reeling from the dream about Tikal. What did it mean? Had been speaking to him like she had back at the palace? But if that was the case, why wasn't she doing it now? And what had that monster thing even been?

Before he could think about it any further, Shadow asked, "Why did you… go berserk back there?"

Sonic blinked, trying to remember what Shadow was talking about, then it dawned on him, and he gestured to Amy. "I saw… I saw it happen," he said quietly. "I barely remember what happened after that."

Shadow frowned, humming in thought. "I've never seen you move that fast… or do so much damage…"

Sonic's heart sank, and the silence hung in the air. He knew what Shadow was implying, and part of him felt horrible for doing it, for hurting people, maybe even killing them. But… He'd tried. He'd been trying to protect the people he loved, and get rid of what was hurting them. He'd tried to end the suffering of hundreds. But that didn't get rid of the guilt of hurting innocent people.

Shadow seemed to understand, squeezing his hands gently and leaning over to kiss him. "It's all over now," he said softly.

Sonic nodded, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that it wasn't.

Hours later, long after the sun had set, Amy stirred, groaning softly as she opened her eyes. Sonic and Shadow both looked over at her, and Sonic felt all the worry of the past few hours wash away, and he let out a quiet laugh. "You're awake," he said with a smile.

Amy looked over at him and smiled back. "So are you," she said. "Ya know, for being really fast on your feet, you sure took a while."

"Oh shut up," Sonic said dryly, earning a giggle.

They both stayed in the infirmary for a couple days, just so the medics could keep an eye on them. Once they'd both been given permission to leave, Sonic was immediately pulled into discussions with Sally and the others about their next steps, leaving him with little time to catch up with the rest of Shadow's crew. His dreams every night were the same thing, always Tikal pleading with either him or the monster, sometimes they would show the destruction the monster left in its wake. Tikal never told him anything else. Just the same thing over and over. "Take me back to Angel Island." But because of the meetings he couldn't even look up where Angel Island was, if it even existed.

But that was usually far from his mind when he was in the meetings. Sonic was surprised to see Tails become a regular member of the meetings, the fox sitting right next to Rotor and helping with blueprints when needed and giving advice on how to improve designs. He still seemed distant, and Sonic would catch him staring into space, lost in thought, until someone called his name for his input on something. Unfortunately, there was so much that needed to be done that Sonic never got to talk to him outside of the meetings either, so he wasn't able to check up on him. But he was sure most of it stemmed from Martin. The kid had been through a lot.

"Do we have any idea where Kintobor is right now?" Sally asked at the beginning of their latest meeting.

Sonic shook his head. "I didn't see where he went. I was focused on taking care of Amy and making sure my siblings were okay."

Antoine sighed and rubbed his temples. "C'est très important, Sonic. Why did you not think to pay attention to zat, mmm?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it's important, Ant, I know, but I had other priorities. And now that they're all safe and I'm back on my feet, we can focus more on Kintobor and tracking him down."

"Right," Bunnie said. "We need to get movin' now if we want to actually find him."

Tails nodded. "Yeah," he said. "I've actually already been working on something with Espio." He pulled a compass out of his satchel, only instead of having the cardinal directions on it, it was blank. It only had a needle, one half bronze, the other painted black. "He can send out spirits to look for him, but if Kintobor leaves South Island–which is a distinct possibility if he wants to hide and regroup–then we've been trying to figure out how to put a spell on this that will make it point to whatever direction the spirits go in."

Sonic smiled. "Nice, kiddo!" he said.

Tails smiled, then it faded. "Yeah, except we haven't been able to test it. It takes strong magic to configure it, and neither of us can do it."

"Maybe Amy could do it? If she's up to it," Sonic added quickly. The others nodded. "In the meantime, I think we should be thinking about who's going to rule South Island while Kintobor's absent. And I'm thinking that someone should be Sally."

Sally's eyes widened. "Me?" She laughed and shook her head. "No way. I wouldn't even know where to start. I—"

"Start with a look through our constitution," said a voice, and Sonic looked to find Shadow standing in the doorway. "I think you're our best option at the moment. At the very least, you could start by reading. A lot."

"How do you know?" Sally asked.

"Princess Maria," Shadow replied. "I often accompanied her to her lessons and tutoring, which included law and diplomacy and the like. I can show you where those books were kept when I lived in the palace."

Sally's eyes widened. "Well then wouldn't you be a better fit to rule?" she asked.

Shadow shook his head and looked at Sonic. "I have a crew to look after," he said. "And I'm not much of a people person."

Sonic snickered. "You got that right," he said, earning a playful glare from his partner.

Sally sighed. "Well… I can't think of anyone else," she admitted. She turned her gaze around the table, looking at everyone else. "What do you guys all think?"

"Je pense que c'est une bonne idée,"Antoine replied. "You 'ave been running zis resistance well. Not perfect, non, but you 'ave been amazing."

"That's right, sugar," Bunnie said. "You've made sure we've had everything we needed, and even when we were losing, you still kept fighting. You still kept us all goin'. And when Sonic brought all the gals back, you made sure they were all eatin' best they could and you tried to keep 'em all safe. I think you'd make a real good queen, Sally girl."

Sally shook her head. "If anything I think Sonic would—"

"Hold it right there, Sal," Sonic cut in. "I would go stir crazy on day one and probably leave the kingdom worse off than when I came in. No, you should be doing the ruling. We should be finding Kintobor and making sure he doesn't come back and make another big mess to clean up."

Sally chuckled. "Alright, you've got a point," she admitted. Then her smile faded and she sighed. "We'll come back to it," she said.

The meeting continued for a while, ending a couple hours later. Everyone had voted for Sally to take charge of the island and become its new ruler, and Shadow took her back to the palace to get started. But before she left, Sonic asked them to look into anything on Angel Island if they could, to which they agreed, and then left.

After that, Sonic approached Tails as he was about to leave. "Hey, bud," he said. "How're you holding up?"

Tails sighed. "I don't know…" he said. "I just… It's weird… I hadn't seen him in a couple years, and then… I don't know what I was expecting. That he would just magically get better if I reasoned with him? That… And now… He's just gone… and I don't…"

He took a shuddery breath, and Sonic put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey," he said. "I get it. And what you're feeling is valid, I'd probably feel the same way. But… maybe it's for the better."

Tails looked at him, his face hardening. "It's for the better that he's dead?" he asked, his tone cold. Before Sonic could backtrack, Tails pushed his hand off his shoulder and walked away.

Well shit… Nice going, Sonic.

Minutes later, Sonia and Manic found him walking through the halls. This was the first time he'd seen both of them since they'd been at the palace, he'd been so busy until now and hadn't even known where they were. Sonia now sported an eye patch, and Manic still had bandages wrapped around his arm. But the moment they saw him, they both tackled him in a hug.

"Dude, you had us terrified!" Manic said, his voice thick. "Don't do that!"

Sonic laughed. "Do what?"

Sonia glared at him, and with her new eye patch it looked even more intimidating now. "That stupid hero thing! You almost got yourself killed–"

"And if I hadn't, you guys wouldn't be here chewing me out," Sonic cut in, and his siblings both shut up. "And I'm fine. Took me a bit, but I'm okay." He smirked. "Your big brother–"

"Not this again!" Manic exclaimed, though he didn't seem as annoyed by Sonic's teasing as he usually was; he still seemed on edge. It made Sonic feel a little guilty that he'd scared them both that badly, especially knowing how scared he'd been before he'd saved them.

He pulled them both back into a hug. "We're all okay," he said. "And nothing's gonna separate us ever again, right?"

Sonia and Manic squeezed him tight. "Right," they both said.

Manic pulled away first. "Alright, enough mushy stuff," he said. "I wanna know what happened while we were gone."

"That's gonna take us all day to explain," Sonia said.

Sonic shrugged. "Eh, it's not like we've got anything better to do now."