"Darn! Why do they always leave a sweet, innocent girl like me alone?"

The voice of Amy Rose filtered through the hall, making Eggman pause. He strained his ears, listening for any hushed breaths or shuffling of feet, in case this was a ruse coined by Tails, but only a frustrated huff from the young girl registered.

If Amy truly was alone, Eggman figured that he could easily use her to bait out the others. Tails idolized Sonic in a way that meant that he would come running at a plea for help, and as for the blue blur himself… didn't he have a thing for the girl? Yes, something like that. And even if he didn't, there was no way he would let her get in harm's way. Sonic was predictable in that way.

The doctor opened a compartment in his mech and took out a gun. He needed to keep this as simple and concise as possible; if the girl got at him with her hammer, everything would fall apart, but she wouldn't be foolish enough to use it when staring down the barrel of a handgun. Once he had her, the rest would fall into place; all he had to do next was outsmart the others and pick out the fake emerald.

That should be no problem for me, he thought with a grin, filling up the magazine and loading it in. I'm the greatest genius there is!

He considered jumping right in, but where was the fun, the theatrics, the pizazz in that?

"Well well, young lady? Is there something I can help you with?" he asked, making sure his voice came through the door before he did. As it slid open to reveal that Amy was indeed alone, he was greeted with the sight of her already standing with her hammer at the ready, but her hands shook and her eyes went wide when she saw the gun pointed right at her head. "D-Doctor Eggman?" The look in her eyes turned into something akin to a trapped animal, which Eggman supposed she was. Right then, it seemed as though she was wondering if her hammer could deflect bullets.

Was she foolish enough to find out?

Amy bit her lip, glancing at her weapon and then back at his. The doctor had the advantage of range and firepower, and though Amy was plenty strong, she was no speed demon like Sonic or Shadow. He could knock her down before she came close enough to deal a blow on him. It seemed as though she realized this, because a look of bitter defeat registered in her eyes and her grip on her weapon slackened. Eggman grinned. Victory was his this time, and it tasted just as sweet as he imagined, but now he needed more!

"If you value your life, you will tell me where Sonic and Tails are."


The cannon's core was unguarded. It struck Sonic as odd, but he didn't have time to look a gift horse in the mouth. The fake emerald was in his hand, and six out of seven precious, powerful gems rested in the machine before him.

His gut twisted in unease. Blowing up a chunk of the moon was already five steps too far for his comfort, but knowing that his home would be next? It made his spines start to stand on end.

Why couldn't old Egghead just chill out and stop trying to take over and make machines reign supreme?

His little brother's voice came in through a burst of static, and Sonic lifted his communicator up to his ear, ready to carry out the fox's plan. "Okay Sonic, now put that emerald-"

There was the sound of a cry and a scuffle, and then the voice of Doctor Eggman growled into his ear, making his eyes widen in shock. "Tails, tell Sonic to meet you back at the research facility! Now!"

"Sonic!" Tails' voice returned with a frantic edge to it. "Amy is-"

The last part of his sentence was muffled before it cut out abruptly. Sonic pressed the button on the side of his communicator, vaguely aware that his teeth were painfully clenched together before he started talking. "I didn't get that, Tails. What happened to Amy?"

There was no response, and a sense of trepidation overcame the blue hero. That cry earlier… had that been Amy? Or Tails? Sonic supposed it didn't really matter, because either way, his friends were in danger. He glanced back at the core, pulsing with energy, and back down at the fake emerald in his hand.

He could do it. Just… shove it in there and hope for the best. But Tails' plan had been long and complicated, with big words that Sonic hadn't been able to follow for the life of him 一 he really regretted giving Tails that thesaurus nowadays 一 and there were probably crucial instructions on what to do after he put it in and…

Screw it. He had 45 minutes before this thing was set to fire again. He could rescue his friends and get the plan back in motion long before he ran out of time.

He put the emerald away and dashed from the core. His friends came first.


Things were tense in the research facility.

On one side, by the window, was Eggman with his gun still pointed at Amy's head, while the girl clenched her fists and stared daggers at the ground, face twisted in fear and anger. Near the door, Tails sat in his own mech, his thumbs on the controls that he wouldn't dare use. Not while Amy was still in obvious danger. Not when a missile attack could potentially shatter the window behind them and suck them all out into certain death.

Eggman couldn't help but chuckle as he waited. All the cards were in his hand, and he was about to deal the final bluff. All Sonic had to do was show up.

And wouldn't you know it, right on schedule, the blue hedgehog walked in, his eyes taking in everything, Tails, Amy, Eggman, the gun…

Oh how fantastic this was going to be!

"Let's take care of business first, shall we, Sonic?" the doctor suggested, keeping his tone light and sweet as honey. He needed to play this calmly. "Hand over the Chaos Emerald, slowly, and then we'll talk about your girlfriend." An odd look passed over the hedgehog's face, one that Eggman couldn't read from so far away, so he tacked on a taunting little, "That is, if you really care for her…"

That did the trick; if there was one thing Eggman enjoyed about Sonic's incredible predictability, it was that he could always use his friends to his advantage. Eggman would never be like that. He surrounded himself with robots, replaceable pawns, never providing such a weakness to exploit. Rouge was a living weapon. Shadow was a means to an end, and their partnership had an expiration date. Soon, Eggman would be alone at the top, where he always dreamed of being.

He saw Sonic pull out the emerald and stare at it for a moment. The hero's eyes flickered over to Tails, then back to him. His hand started sweating with anticipation.

"Put the emerald down right there, and back off," he ordered, nodding at the center of the room.

And then Sonic did that annoying thing that he always did. That stupid smirk that would sometimes evolve into a grin.

That was almost definitely the fake emerald in his hand.

"You've turned into a big-time villain, doctor!" Sonic's voice sounded akin to mockery as he sauntered his way forward, and goodness, who did he think he was fooling? Eggman thwarted the urge to scoff as the hedgehog walked up, stepping onto the platform in the middle of the room and crouching down to put the emerald on the floor.

Now!

The doctor slammed a button, and a pod shot down from above, trapping his nemesis in a glass dome with the emerald still in his hand. The hedgehog blinked, his mouth opening in surprise and his hand reaching out, only to touch the reinforced glass.

Everyone seemed to be stunned. Sonic the Hedgehog had been caught.

Eggman finally let a grin of his own form as he broke the silence. Just one more little bluff. "You thought you could trick me with that fake emerald, didn't you?" he accused softly. All Sonic had to do was make one slip of the tongue…

...yet to his utter delight, it was Tails who triggered his trap!

"So… how did you know it wasn't the real one?" The boy was looking at him in confusion, his forehead creasing as his brain tried to piece everything together, and it was absolutely fantastic!

"Tails!" Sonic cried out in horror, and that was just as golden.

The victorious doctor savored every word as it left his mouth, grinning like a shark. "Because you just told me, fox-boy."

The priceless look of absolute mortification on Tails' face was the cherry on the top, and it was still only going to get better!

"Now for a little space ride," Eggman announced, with a small flourish of his free hand. "The capsule clears the colony, and BAM!" He raised the hand, closed it into a fist, and reopened it, making a soft explosion noise with his mouth as he did so, and the reality of the situation seemed to dawn on all three of the mobians at once.

Sonic kept a brave face, admirably enough. "I'm counting on you, Tails!" he announced, looking over at the horror-struck fox before turning forward again. "And Amy… take care of yourself."

Eggman decided that was enough. He didn't care to hear the cries and screams of Sonic's teammates. He had finally won! He would be rid of that blue nuisance for good! "Farewell, Sonic the Hedgehog!" he taunted as he hit the EJECT button with his fist.

And just like that, the hero slipped away, shooting out of the colony, down, down, down, closer and closer to the planet's atmosphere.

"Sonic!" Amy cried out in frantic terror. "Sonic!"

The explosion lit up the void between the ARK and the planet below the very next second, and for just one fleeting moment, Eggman felt almost… not sad, exactly, but... disappointed? Maybe the first pangs of nostalgia? It was hard to tell with all the adrenaline still rushing through his veins.

"Farewell, Sonic… My admirable adversary."

He would give him that, at least. An acknowledgement for the end of an era.

But right now, he had two grief-driven mobians to take care of, and a final emerald to secure.

His gun pointed back at Tails, while Amy broke down in front of the window, sobbing into her hands. "Now we have some unfinished business to take care of," he claimed, his voice quieter than he had hoped. Damn it, this was no time to be going soft! But all the same, he didn't have the time, energy, or desire to set up more pods and shoot the others out, so he would have to settle for bargaining, in the hopes that Tails and Amy were too upset to do anything to encumber his plans any further. "If you give me the real emerald, I will release you both. You have my promise!"

Tails was staring blankly down at his controls. Multicolored lights from the panels flashed in his eyes, and for a while, that was the only thing even remotely resembling life in the fox, until his lips parted, with Sonic's name slipping out from between them.

After that, it was a remarkable change; Eggman saw the boy's eyes harden, still sad, still shocked, but focused beyond measure, and his voice grew strong as he spoke again. "Sonic asked me, for the first time, to do something for him, and I won't let him down." Pointed canines bared in a snarl as Tails gripped his controls, eyes and weapons locked on to Eggman's mech. "I won't give up!"

The doctor growled under his breath, putting aside his gun and preparing his own machine for battle. It seemed as though this was still far from over.


In one of the observation rooms, Rouge looked out the window, arms crossed. She had decided to come up in case Ivo's bluff was called and backup was needed, but as she saw the capsule eject and explode, it seemed as though it wasn't necessary.

There was a heaviness that descended on her as she saw the pod get destroyed; she had hardly known Sonic, and she knew it was for the best, but all the same… She had seen so much potential in him, the same potential that she had. It had been a thread of sorts, connecting them in a way that she wouldn't be able to find in another person, and to lose that was…

She looked away from the window. "I guess he was just a regular hedgehog after all…"

"What?"

Rouge jumped at the voice, whirling around to see Shadow standing in the doorway, eyes wide.

How long had he been there? How had he managed to come up behind her without her noticing? Had she really been so deep in thought that she had missed his entrance?

The bat's mouth went dry as she saw the last reflected flickers of light from the explosion die in Shadow's eyes.

"Rouge. Who was in that pod?"

Shadow's voice sounded faint, like he was only just holding on to the last threads of his self-control, and Rouge's treacherous brain remembered Prison Island, how Shadow had rambled on and on about Sonic, about how he seemed to hold the other hedgehog in high esteem, about how he had dropped the Chaos Emeralds to the ground when he learned that Sonic had cared enough to mention him. How could she tell him? How could she possibly-

"Rouge!"

She had barely drawn in a breath before wild teal eyes were boring into her own, rapidly filling with tears, though they were already heavy-lidded and speckled with capillaries, as though Shadow had only just finished a crying session. Hands grabbed her shoulders, and fingers dug into the muscles and bones as though he was trying to crush her in his hands.

How could she tell him?

"TELL ME RIGHT NOW! WHO WAS IN THAT POD?!"


Next chapter: Shadow makes every worst decision he could possibly make.