Lux Volcano

Amy stumbles backwards. Her foot slips as she reaches the sheer edge of the platform. At the last moment, she manages to grab onto the lip of the cliff with one hand, dangling dangerously above the magma as Eggman's mech crashes into the pool below her. Amy tries to pull herself up, but only ends up loosening her grip. "Sonic! Help me!"

Sonic looks up as he hears the shout. "Amy!" He runs for her as fast as he can go.

Inch by inch, Amy's fingers slip away from the cliff face. She finally loses her grip altogether, and starts to fall. She shuts her eyes in fear of what's to come. Then a hand grabs onto hers, arresting her fall. "Oh, Sonic, you…" She opens her eyes. "Tails?"

Tails gives her a smirk as he flies her back onto solid ground. "Sorry, that was my bad. I didn't mean to make it go quite that crazy."

Sonic meets them as Tails lets Amy back down on solid ground. "Amy, are you alright?"

Amy can't help but blush. "Yeah. I'm okay. I guess…I have Tails to thank for that."

"Well, I'm glad you're safe. And Tails…nice work." Tails gives a beaming smile at the praise. "Now come on. The show's about to start."

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Chaos Project

Season 0, Episode 25

Dawn of Chaos, Part 6: Light and Dark Part 2

Written by ChaosProjectAuthor

Chaos looks Knuckles in the eyes. "Are you sure that you have it? I can repeat it again, if you need me to."

"No, I've got it this time."

"Then begin."

"Right." He once again takes a deep breath. "The servers are…the seven Chaos…"

Eggman flies up towards the opening in the volcano in his ejected Egg Mobile, until he floats face-to-face with Lumis. "Hey! Hey, Lumis! Aren't you paying attention!? We're losing down there!"

"Silence. I require concentration."

"And I require the power you promised me! Give me the Emerald, and I can finish them!"

"The anchor is necessary for the ritual."

"If I don't get the power you promised, there won't be any ritual!"

"No."

"What!?

"I said no! Don't you understand, you disgusting fool!? This power was never intended for you! Now get out of my sight, and await your deserved fate, villain!"

Knuckles continues, "Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart!" Chaos begins to mouth along with him, "The heart…is the spring…from which emotion flows. Emotion exists…in the Light, and in the Dark. The Light and the Dark live in ever-shifting Balance. The Balance must be maintained by a Controller. The Controller serves to unify the Chaos! And the seven Chaos Emeralds are the servers! In this circle, a great power is born! The power to prevent the world's destruction!" The Master Emerald has long since lifted from its place on the ground, and begun rotating rapidly through the air. But still, the Chaos Emeralds are unaffected.

Chaos nods. "Again."

Knuckles starts from the beginning, and this time Chaos speaks the chant as well. "The servers are the seven Chaos! Chaos is power enriched by the heart! The heart is the spring from which emotion flows! Emotion exists in the Light and in the Dark! The Light and Dark live in ever-shifting Balance! The Balance must be maintained by a Controller! The Controller serves to unify the Chaos! And the seven Chaos Emeralds are the servers! In this circle, a great power is born! The power to prevent the world's destruction!" Seven arcs of lightning-like energy fly from the Master Emerald, impacting each of the seven dull Chaos Emeralds, and causing them to lift up into the air along with it. Despite the blinding light, Knuckles concludes on his own, "Great and powerful Master Emerald, we need your power! Now, restore the energy of the Chaos Emeralds!"

In the most brilliant rainbow-colored flash yet seen, the Chaos Emeralds light up with the Master Emerald's power. As the light clears, Sonic gapes in awe. "Wow." Each Chaos Emerald, floating slowly around the Master Emerald, casts out an Emerald-shaped aura, many times its own size. Sonic and Knuckles glance at each other for a moment in recollection. "What's happening to them?"

Chaos nods slowly. "Of course…the True Power of the Emeralds."

"True Power? What does that mean?"

"The Master Emerald…the Controller…the Guardian…and the Lords of Chaos. When all concur that the fate of the Balance is at stake…the Super power of the Chaos Emeralds is unlocked." He stares deeply at the large Emerald auras. "Even now, the Super Emeralds have not taken on their true form. The time is not yet right. But I can replace that power. Now, Controller…take the Emeralds."

Sonic nods, and reaches his hand out towards the Emeralds. One by one, they leave their orbit of the Master Emerald, and begin to circle him instead. He once again closes his eyes, and clenches a fist.

Eggman's Egg Mobile crashes into the wall, and Eggman tumbles out onto the ground. In a fury, he climbs to his feet, and reaches for something in his back pocket. But he freezes as he notices Tails and Amy standing directly in front of him. Amy shakes her head at him. "We won't let you get in Sonic's way!"

Eggman chuckles a bit as he relaxes his hand. "You know what? You're right. Someone needs to knock that traitor down a peg. And as much as I hate to admit it, Sonic is the best one to do it. Can't I at least watch?"

Tails glares at him suspectingly. "We'll be keeping an eye on you."

Sonic is lifted into the air by the power of the Emeralds. As they circle around him faster and faster, his fur first takes on a golden glow, which progressively grows brighter and whiter. As he opens his violet-red eyes, the Emeralds are absorbed into his very being.

On the ground, the large pile of golden fluid that once made up the Lumis clones begins to bubble. By a magnetic-like force, it starts to be pulled away from the ground in streams, rising as if in a cyclone towards Lumis.

Chaos offers his hand out to Sonic, and Sonic takes it. Chaos pulls Sonic's hand closer to him, and lays it on the Moonstone in his chest. Then he closes his eyes, and begins to fade away. Sonic tightens his grip on the Moonstone as Chaos' body disappears entirely. Then the Moonstone's rainbow-colored aura begins to wash over him, until he too takes on a flashing, seven-colored aura. Chaos' voice calls out in his head, "You are ready."

As the flying gold material reaches Lumis, it begins to circle him in a continuous stream. Suddenly, all of it is absorbed into him at once. The extra material causes his limbs to lengthen, his edges to sharpen, and many more sharp points to be created. Over all, he becomes much larger. "Ah…finally whole again."

Hyper Sonic floats up to meet him at eye level. "One last chance, Lumis. Hand over the fake Emerald, and we can still make this right."

"You offer me an ultimatum? How cute. Now, here is my counterproposal. Sit back down, and enjoy yourself as fear and pain are removed from your world. Seriously, why do you want to make this so difficult?" Lumis looks up into the air. The backwards eclipse is now over halfway completed. "The ritual is already near completion. I've at last gathered enough power to defend the ritual on my own. And although I don't wish to bring serious harm to you, be assured that I will defend it to my last breath on this Earth." To prove the point, Lumis directs his hand at the ever-darkening fake Emerald, and a spherical barrier of yellow energy forms around it.

"Too bad. We might have to make that happen." Almost instantaneously, Hyper Sonic flashes into a strike directly at Lumis, knocking him back only slightly.

"Is that all you can do?" Lumis charges an orb of light between his hands, and releases it as a beam at Hyper Sonic.

Hyper Sonic flashes out of the way of the attack, soaring in circles around Lumis as he keeps ahead of the beam. The beam causes tons of rock to tumble down from the walls it carves circles into, and the rubble splashes into the magma below. Chaos speaks into Sonic's head, "Let's show him something else, shall we?" Sonic nods. He holds his hand out to the side, and begins to charge it with yellow energy. He shouts as Chaos thinks, "Chaos Spear!"

As the impressively large spear attack flies at Lumis, he crosses his arms in front of him, creating another golden barrier. The attack shatters the shield, but leaves Lumis unharmed.

Sonic thinks, "Cool. Remind me to tell Shadow that I stole another one of his moves."

Chaos thinks back, "That was my doing. You wouldn't be able to perform that move under your own power. And who is Shadow?"

Hyper Sonic flashes out of the way of a series of swipes from Lumis' glowing claws. "I'll explain later." He dashes in for another strike, once again knocking Lumis back only slightly.

Lumis taunts, "Please, keep wasting your time with such useless attacks. Every moment is another closer to my victory."

Sonic thinks, "He's right. If we don't find some kind of weakness, we'll never be able to get to that Emerald in time."

"We already know his weakness. Darkness."

Sonic thinks sarcastically, "Sure, let's just put out the sun. That'll solve our problems." Sonic dodges again as Lumis slices vertically with an energy beam, sending more earth splashing into the magma below. "Hey, look down there!" He points down at the magma, where a few shards of grey gem float.

"I'm using your eyes, remember?"

"Yeah, whatever. Those are shards from the fake Emeralds. If the heat from the magma was able to shatter them like that, maybe it'll do the same to him!"

"It's worth a try."

Already acting, Hyper Sonic soars straight upwards, out of the volcano, at an incredible speed. Lumis looks up after him. "Finally decided to flee? I'm glad you could see it my way."

Sonic soars up and up, faster than sound, faster than light, past the planet's atmosphere, finally stopping beneath the light of the eclipse. Then he dives straight back downwards.

Knuckles looks up through the opening in the volcano, shielding his eyes from the eclipse's light. "He's coming back…right?"

Amy jabs him in the side with an elbow. "Of course he's coming back! What kind of question is that?"

Tails points up excitedly. "Look, I see him!"

Hyper Sonic creates ripples through the air as he flies downwards at incredible speeds. Lumis looks up at him in surprise. He once again crosses his arms in front of him, somewhat frantically shouting, "Chaos Shield!" Sonic impacts the shield at full force, pushing Lumis down and away from the volcano's opening. He pushes back hard enough to stop moving just inches away from the surface of the magma. Sonic continues to drive against the shield, but they appear to be at a dead standoff. Until Lumis forces one arm past the shield, sending Sonic flying into the rock wall.

"Enough!" He soars back up to the encapsulated Emerald, now seeming to leak shadowy energy out into its bubble. "I will not let you interfere! I will do whatever it takes! Even if it means…" He reaches a trembling claw for the Emerald, passing through the bubble. "How disgusting…" Turning his head away, he wraps his entire hand around the shadowy gem. Instantly, the color of the gem washes over Lumis' golden exterior, turning him purple and black. Many more sharp points jut out from throughout his body, giving him a much more menacing appearance.

Sonic, recovering from his crash, wipes off the corner of his mouth. "Going for a new style? It's about time. That old one was way out of date." He dashes at Black Lumis.

Wordlessly, Lumis fires a massive, continuous blast of dark energy.

"Whoa!" At the last moment, he crosses his own arms in front of him, as both he and Chaos shout, "Chaos Shield!" The attack is diverted around the barrier he creates in front of him, blasting the wall behind him instead. The moment Lumis' attack relents, he attacks back. "Chaos Spear!"

Lumis effortlessly swats the attack away, and readies for another dark blast. With a moment more to prepare, Hyper Sonic flashes out of the way in anticipation of the attack. But the attack never comes. Lumis growls and shields his face from the flash that Hyper Sonic created.

Chaos calls out, "Of course! His new power has come with a new vulnerability! He's become weak to your light!"

Sonic looks up. "And the longer this takes, the more light there'll be."

"We can't waste time like that. We're running out of time, and I sense that we're running out of energy as well. We must finish this."

Sonic makes another flash as he dashes to the other side of Lumis. He continues to circle around him in a triangular pattern, creating flashes all around him, dazing and confusing him. In a sudden change, he flashes upwards, then strikes down, knocking Lumis down slightly. In an instant, he's back up, striking down again, making another flash with each movement, forcing Lumis back towards the magma inch by inch. After one powerful strike, he flies up higher before directing his hands downwards. "Chaos Shield!"

Lumis becomes trapped on all sides by the barrier of light. Realizing this, he lets out a terrifying screech, and begins to slash at the barrier over and over again.

Sonic, clearly strained by each of the slashes, still pushes harder with his hands, as the barrier begins to push Lumis further downwards, forcing his feet into the magma as he lets out an even louder screech. The crystal of his legs begins to crack as he's pushed ever further downwards. Sonic mutters quietly, "I'm sorry." With one final push, Black Lumis is forced all the way under.

Tails, Knuckles, and Amy all cheer as Sonic, rapidly losing his color, floats gently to the ground. In a flash, one hedgehog is split back into two, both panting and kneeling on the ground. The seven Emeralds, returned to their normal forms, orbit around them for a moment, before scattering in all directions. Still, Chaos walks to the edge of the platform, and looks down into the bubbling magma. Out of the turmoil, a strange black and purple gemstone rises. Mostly spherical at the center, it has many points jutting out of it, resembling a star. It moves until it floats slightly above his open hand. "Not even you deserve this level of corruption." He places his other hand near the side of the gem, and begins to draw out from it the blackened fake Emerald. The star gem is returned to Lumis' natural gold color. "Now…return to whence you came, Outlaw." He lifts the star gem slightly higher, and it begins to dissolve into a fine yellow dust, which scatters, sparkling, into the air before disappearing from view.

Sonic steps up behind him. "So is that it? Did we do it?"

Chaos looks up into the sky. Only the tiniest sliver of darkness remains behind the near-full sun. "Without the Outlaw, the Ritual of Illumination cannot progress any further. It is over."

Sonic looks up with him, and breathes a sigh. "Chaos…when I was…up there, with Lumis… He showed me…he showed me a perfect world. He showed me what he was creating. And it was…beautiful. I can't help but think…that we did the wrong thing by stopping him."

Chaos closes his eyes and nods slowly. "I see… Perhaps another hypothetical scenario is in order." He continues to stare into the frozen sun. "Lumis wished to create a world of nothing but Light. Imagine a world…with day, but no night. Sunlight is the fuel of entire ecosystems on this planet. The warmth it provides allows for life to exist. But if there were no night to balance it…the heat would grow out of proportion. Water would dry away. Without the water, plant life would die. Eventually, the world would become completely uninhabitable. Meanwhile…the opposite side of the planet could see only night. Water would freeze, and plant life would die without energy from the sun. The Balance would still find a way. Despite the concept of increasing the Light in the world, the Balance would remain the same, and yet everything would end up dead. That is the world that Lumis wanted to create."

"But…what about…"

"Perhaps something more drastic? Very well. Imagine a world with life, but no death. It sounds like a miracle, doesn't it? Give it a century, maybe less. Life would grow, and grow, and grow, never countered in the slightest. There's no room on this planet for such life. There aren't enough resources. Life would abound, but the quality of life would be practically zero. Conditions would be so poor as to make many, even most, wish for death, rather than such suffering. Does that sound like a perfect world to you?"

Sonic closes his eyes and thinks. Then he looks up as Knuckles puts a hand on his shoulder. "No need to make it so complicated. No one who steals the Master Emerald is with worth giving a second thought." Tails and Amy also give him supportive smiles.

Sonic gives Knuckles a smirk. "I'm sure Rouge would be very offended." Everyone gives a laugh, except for Chaos, who lets out a grunt, and clenches his eyes. Sonic looks over at him. "Everything alright?"

Chaos stares at the fake black Emerald still in his hand. "Once this anchor is destroyed…the world will be returned to Balance."

Eggman interjects, "I'm afraid I'll have to stop you there!" High in the air, he holds some sort of remote. With a smirk and a chuckle, he presses his thumb on a button.

Suddenly, Chaos collapses to his hands and knees.

"Chaos! What's wrong!?" Sonic tries to put a hand on his shoulder, but he suddenly turns at him, baring sharp fangs and glaring with ominously glowing eyes. Sonic looks down to the Moonstone on his chest. The purple color at its center seems to bleed outwards, completely enveloping the six other colors, until the Moonstone matches the color of the fake Emerald in his hand. Attached to the top of the Moonstone, almost unnoticeable before, is a tiny device bearing the emblem of Eggman. His fur turns pitch black, as he takes on a shadowy aura. Then the bones in his body seem to break as he grows to monstrous proportions. Suddenly, he swats Sonic away with the back of one hand, sending him flying back.

"Sonic!" Amy runs after him.

Knuckles charges angrily at Eggman. "What did you do to Chaos!?"

"Nah ah ah." Eggman waves the remote around in front him. "I can make your friend do anything I want. And I mean anything." Knuckles skids to a halt. "Come any closer, and you'll get to see for yourself." He gives a slight chuckle. As Amy helps Sonic to his feet, Eggman continues, "You didn't really think that I wasn't planning on being betrayed, did you? How many times do you think I've done this? Thanks to my genius, I now have the Lord of Chaos, and the power of Darkness, at my disposal. How about a little demonstration, new slave? Teach these fools a lesson."

Tails, the only one still near Chaos, is the first target for attack. Chaos leaps at him with incredible speed, and Tails barely lifts into the air in time to avoid. But some sort of dark spin attack knocks him back to the ground.

"Tails!" Sonic runs back at Chaos, but is once again swatted away. Chaos looks up to see Amy coming down from above with a hammer, rolls out of the way to let her smash into the ground, then delivers a kick that similarly sends her flying. Without even needing to look, he steps quickly out of the way of Knuckles' first punch. Knuckles continues to throw a flurry of punches, but Chaos is almost effortlessly able to dodge every single one, before throwing a punch of his own that sends Knuckles crashing on top of Sonic.

Eggman can't help but grin. "Nice!"

Tails and Amy help Sonic and Knuckles back to their feet. Knuckles looks to Sonic. "He's too powerful for us. How're we supposed to beat him without the Chaos Emeralds?"

Sonic looks straight at the black Moonstone on Chaos' chest. "I have an idea. You're all gonna have to hold him down, just for a few seconds. I'll take care of the rest."

Amy questions, "But how do we get that close to him?"

"We have to go in as a team, he can't fight off all of us at once."

They all nod. "Right."

"Then let's go!" At once, they all charge at Chaos.

Eggman shouts, "Enough fooling around! Finish them!"

Sonic comes in point with a spindash. But at the last moment, he leaps into the air above Chaos, avoiding another swat. While Chaos is distracted looking up at Sonic, Knuckles goes in for a punch, which Chaos still manages to sidestep, only to duck under Amy's hammer a moment later. But then, Sonic attacks straight downwards, landing a solid hit and knocking Chaos back a step. Before he can recover, Tails grabs his arms and holds them together behind his back. "Now, guys!" Knuckles and Amy each grab one of Chaos' shoulders, and push him down down to his knees. Before he can knock them away, Sonic dives at him with his arm outstretched, until he wraps his hand around the Moonstone, and everything goes black.

—–—

Much like the void of light from before, all around now lies a void of shadows and darkness. Every so often, a small swath of color appears, only to be chaotically blasted away by the darkness a moment later. Sonic calls out through the void, "Chaos! Chaos, where are you!?" Suddenly, he wraps his arms around himself and starts to shiver. But he shakes it off. He calls out again, "Chaos!"

Some distance away, curled up and shivering far more violently than Sonic, floats Chaos in his normal form, his fur a sickly green color. He mutters quietly, over and over again, "Control… Control… Control…"

"Chaos!" Sonic floats towards him, and puts a hand on his shoulder.

Startled, Chaos looks up to Sonic with a gasp. "Controller!? No, no, no, you shouldn't be here!" He wraps his hands around his head and clenches his eyes shut. "You have to leave, now!"

"I'm not leaving without you! You have to fight this!"

"Don't you get it!?" He becomes the red of his rage. "I can't fight this! The Doctor's device has destroyed my self-control! The Darkness of the world has corrupted me completely! It's all I can manage to keep control of my own mind in here! Controller, you have to destroy me! Otherwise, the thing that I've become will destroy everything!"

"I won't do that to you! You're a living person, and you're my friend! I'm not gonna let you die!"

Chaos reverts to his natural, white color. "This is the end of me, Controller. I accept that fate. I knew from the moment I volunteered to leave the Realm of Chaos that there would be such risk. My only regret is that I could not teach you more in my brief time here."

"Then teach me more! I will learn everything that you have to teach! Because this isn't the end! This is the beginning! The beginning of us! Together, we can fight this! I know we can!" Sonic extends his hand out to Chaos.

Chaos look up into Sonic's determined eyes, as his fur shifts to a soft purple. "If you believe it…it must be possible." He firmly takes Sonic's hand.

—–—

The Realm of Chaos

Lumis looks out into the empty void. "So…here we are again. Ten thousand years later, and it's all the same. So what're you going to do to me? Silence me like last time, just so that I can break out again in another ten thousand years? Or are you going to get rid of me once and for all, breaking your precious morals?" He waits in silence. "Well? Answer me!"

After a long pause, a chorus of voices answers back from nowhere, "No…"

"No!? What do you mean, 'no'!?"

"For ten thousand years…you waited in silence…and all the while, thought of nothing but how to save the world. Your methods are misguided. But your conviction is sound. We imprisoned you for wanting exactly what we ourselves desire. For that, we were in error."

"I'm sorry, did I hear that right? Did you, the Lords of Chaos, just admit that you were wrong?"

"That is correct. So long as you agree to respect the wishes of the collective…we wish to reinstate your position among us. We have long been missing a voice for the Light."

"Uh…I…"

"We see it in your heart. When you touched the mind of the Controller, you too were touched by him. You were willing to use the Darkness to protect your Light. You took a step towards Balance."

"The Darkness…I created a weapon of Darkness! It must be destroyed! The Controller, did he destroy it!?"

"As we speak…the Controller is trapped in a realm between realms, locked in battle against the Darkness." With those words, a hazy image appears off in the distance, of Sonic clasping hands with Chaos.

"Just them against all the Darkness of the world!? They'll never survive!"

"Then affirm your place as the voice of Light. Assist them."

"Of course…" Lumis looks back to the image. "Sonic! Sonic!" As if in slow motion, the hazy image of Sonic turns his head to look at him. "Take my Light! Use it as your own! Use it to destroy the Darkness!"

Lumis directs his hands at the image of Sonic, and generates a blinding flash of light that encompasses everything.

The chorus of voices, Lumis included, echoes, "Good luck…Chaos…"

—–—

A cake shaped like Sonic's head lies flat on the table. A knife cuts down, slicing off one of the spikes. Tails hands the plate of cake to Sonic. "It's been sitting out here for…almost two days. Are you sure?"

In answer, Sonic digs his fork in, and takes a comically large bite. Still chewing, he starts, "Mm! Tails, this cake is delicious! Better than last year's!"

Knuckles pounds his fist on the opposite side of the table. "Well, don't be a cake-hog! Send some of that over here!"

Tails happily cuts two more slices for Knuckles and Amy before turning back to Sonic. "I guess a lot of things've been better this year. I'm just sorry that we couldn't do a proper celebration yesterday."

Still with a mouthful of cake, Sonic answers, "Are you kidding? What kind of 'proper celebration' would it've been without my best friends here?" Knuckles and Amy both take pride in this.

"Please…" Chaos, seemingly returned to normal, steps from the back of the room. "…the consumption of one's head…is it symbolic? The passage of knowledge, perhaps?" Pretty much everyone in the room facepalms.

"No, it's not a symbol. It's a tradition, you eat cake on your birthday." He waves him over with a smile. "Get over here, have some. It's your birthday too."

"This 'birthday'…refers to the anniversary of one's coming into existence, yes?" Sonic nods, as Chaos somewhat reluctantly takes a slice from Tails. "You do realize, I am tens of thousands of years old?"

"Yeah, yeah, but you were born yesterday. Like me. Now shut up and eat your cake, birthday boy."

Holding the fork somewhat awkwardly, Chaos slowly takes a small bite of cake up to his mouth. The moment the food touches his tongue, his face lights up, as his fur turns to the same light cyan-blue color of the frosting. "This…" He starts to chew slowly, savoring every moment. "This is…" He swallows loudly. "This is Light like I've never experienced before. People eat head cakes like this every day?"

Sonic chuckles. "Well, they're not all shaped like heads, but yeah. There are lots of people with lots of birthdays."

"Well in that case…" He gently sets the plate down. "…I genuinely fear for the Balance of this world."

Everyone bursts out laughing. Chaos looks around at them in confusion as they continue to laugh. Knuckles jests, "Don't worry, you just haven't tried any spicy food yet. You'll get that Balance figured out."

Sonic continues, "Somebody get this guy a chili dog, let's get it over with now."

Chaos at first scratches his head at all of the laughter, but then cracks a smile, and finally starts to laugh along with them.

"There we go, that's the smile I was looking for!" Finally, the laughter in the room starts to die back down. "Now you pick that cake back up, and you finish it."

"But–"

"Ah!" Sonic puts a hand up to silence him. "I know that you want to finish the cake, so finish the cake. Trust me."

Tails and Amy cheer, "Yeah, eat it!"

Chaos picks his plate back up, and steals a few glances around as if in guilt. Then he starts to shovel huge bites of the cake into his mouth as quickly as he possibly can. Everyone starts to laugh again.

Tails approaches Sonic. "Umm…Sonic?"

"What's up?"

"As part of the celebration…I was thinking about maybe having that beach day we've been talking about all year. Do you think maybe tomorrow?"

"Oh…I'd love to, but…I promised Chaos that we'd start training tomorrow. He has a lot to teach me."

Chaos, his cake nearly finished, freezes and looks up at the sound of his name, still with a mouth stuffed full. When he realizes that no one is talking to him, he looks longingly back down at what little cake he has left, and prepares to dig in, only to be stopped again as Knuckles approaches him.

"Chaos…back there…in that fight…you really…"

Chaos once again swallows loudly. "I only gave you the words. It was you who unlocked the power of the Emeralds. You make an excellent Guardian, K'waqochu."

"You can call me Knuckles. There's a reason I don't use that name."

Chaos gives him an affirmative nod before returning his attention to his cake. But he is once again interrupted as Amy approaches him.

"Hey…I know that things have been pretty crazy ever since we met…and I wanted to make sure that you're doing alright."
"You're hoping that my first experiences in this world didn't leave a…bad taste in my mouth, so to speak?"

"There's a lot to love about this world, and the worst of it was one of the first things you ever saw. I just…hope you understand that."

"Trust me…" He takes the last of his cake, and shoves into his mouth in one big mouthful. "…I know now how sweet this life is." He swallows. "And I have you to thank for it."

"Me?"

"Of course. You were the one who kept my destructive emotions in check. You were the one who convinced me, against my instincts, to calm my mind, and thus find the truth. You helped me find my purpose in this life. Imagine if you hadn't been there. I would never have calmed by the time my mind was corrupted. I would have made no bonds. The Controller wouldn't have saved me, he likely would have destroyed me. In that sense, you've saved my life. Sincerely, thank you."

As Tails takes the first bite of the slice he's cut for himself, he questions to Sonic, "So where are you two gonna go?"

Sonic puts a hand to his chin. "Good question. I guess I hadn't thought of that."

"Well, you're always welcome here at the lab."

"That's nice, but I think Chaos had something a little more…quiet, in mind."

"In that case…there's this old shack a little ways out into the jungle. It's a little rudimentary, but it's nice and secluded, and it's not too far from here either."

"Sounds great. We'll have to check it out. Right, Chaos?"

Chaos is holding his plate out to Tails. "I would like more of the head cake, please." Everyone, including Chaos, shares in one last good laugh.

The end of one adventure…

And the beginning of another.

I know it's been a while since I first said this, but now that this arc is done, the series is officially on break. I don't expect there to be any more episodes for the remainder of 2017. Once I finally play and finish Sonic Forces, I will then have to start a new episode from scratch. On the bright side, there will be a lot more Forces tie-ins to come, once this break is over.

In the meantime, please, drop some reviews! I need your feedback, good or bad, or this series can never get any better! Now would be the perfect time, since any advice I get from you could be implemented in the very next episode! It doesn't even have to be advice, just tell me about a scene you liked or didn't like, and I can work from there! Anything at all would be much appreciated. And as always, thank you very much for being a reader! Your support makes this all feel worthwhile, and encourages me to always keep on going.

-And before I say goodbye to you, one more last fist bump!