Chapter 16
Going Home
"How many people do we have Tails?" asked Sonic.
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Kaira had been flying around all day picking people up from the different continents and collecting the color emeralds. They had eventually found everyone other than Shadow, Rouge, and Jack. They were going to get them.
"We have all but three. You try to figure out who gets what color emeralds. I'll continue flying in the same direction we've been going all day…," Tails told Sonic.
Sonic found the color emeralds. Everyone was either squishing themselves inside the X-tornado, or taking their chances outside of it. Sonic looked at the emeralds.
"We have them all collected but one. I don't know what that color is. Okay… So that dark blue emerald is glowing at me… Nothing strange…," Sonic said to himself.
Lily knocked on the window. Sonic looked at her. She pointed at the color emerald and told him to touch it. Sonic shrugged and did as she said. When he did, a mysterious power came over him and the emerald slammed into his chest and it felt like it had merged with Sonic's heart. Sonic stood breathing hard. The dark blue color emerald had found its vessel apparently.
"Yay… I have my color emerald…," Sonic said weakly.
"It may take you a moment to get over the side effects…," Lily explained to Sonic.
The next few hours were spent flying. Nobody said a word. The silence was odd, but what was more odd was Tails' anticipation.
"Tails, is there something wrong?" asked Sonic.
"There may be… Those tears that Kaira was talking about are real. They've been appearing in the air and I've been trying to avoid them, but you can only imagine how hard that is," Tails replied.
"The tears?" asked Sonic.
"Yeah. The time pocket is slowly dissolving! That doesn't mean that the days are going to loop. That only means that the days are going to at some point disappear all together. That world mean that this entire dimension would be destroyed. I can't tell what that would do to all the other dimensions as well. It could destroy all life in all dimensions!" Tails yelled.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't listening. Could you tell me everything again?" asked Sonic.
Tails growled with exasperation. A tear appeared in front of him. Tails swerved away from it. Sonic crashed into the window and the others outside were holding on for dear life. Tails sighed with relief.
"That was close! We need to get the last color emerald and fast," Tails sighed to himself.
"Hang on a sec! I think we've made it!" Sonic exclaimed. He pointed at the large white mass that rose up out of the ocean.
"Finally! I needed some good news! We need to find Shadow, Rouge, and Jack now!" Tails yelled.
He lowered the plane. Everyone searched around frantically. It was late in the evening and they still couldn't find anything Sonic was taking a nap behind Tails. His snoring was the only thing keeping Tails awake.
"TAILS! TAILS!" yelled someone from outside the ship.
"Yeah?"
"I saw a light! In a cave! It looks like fire! I think I found them!" yelled the person. It was Rabby. She pointed somewhere north of them. Tails looked harder and saw it too. He nearly screamed with happiness.
"Thanks Rabby! I would've missed it if you didn't point it out!" Tails replied.
They landed down onto the ground outside of the cave. Jack came running to greet Tails.
"Jack! I'm sorry to leave you here with them, but someone else had to go!" Tails greeted.
"Nevermind that! We need help! I think he's in trouble!" Jack shouted urgently. Everyone was hopping off the plane to see what the commotion was about.
"What's wrong?"
"Me and Rouge think Shadow's got hypothermia!" Jack replied.
With those simple words, everybody scurried into the cave. Shadow was lying next to the fire, but he didn't look like he was in a simple sleep. He wasn't shivering at all and he was completely unresponsive to anything they tried to do to wake him up.
"His temperature is below normal… What is his temperature?" asked Tails.
"I don't know why! He's gone down to 65 degrees Fahrenheit! It's slowly dropping…," Rouge replied.
"It's almost like he's dormant… Like he was put into hypersleep or something. Where his body would completely stop, but he's still alive. What do you think could have caused this?" asked Tails.
"He was thinking about the owner of the color emerald we found. I don't know why he would spend so much time thinking about it… He jumped up to his feet from deep thought suddenly talking about voices. Voices that wouldn't stop speaking to him… And… he collapsed!" Jack finished. Tails began to wonder.
"It might have been too much strain on his brain. So many things were happening, that his brain needed to shut down and have a break. His brain shut down so much that he was put into a state of being suspended. That's why his body temperature is getting so low. He isn't making any body body temperature to heat him up," Tails explained.
"Okay. Well, what now?" asked Knuckles.
"We must get him to some place warmer. He should eventually wake up if he gets warmed up and enough rest," Tails told him.
"Poor Shadow. I wonder what Zaira would say to this," Kaira said.
"She wouldn't care."
That's not true! I'm devastated! They don't even know anything! Shadow, where are you…?
Shadow's POV
"Where am I? It's dark… And cold… Almost as if I've been dragged to the deepest parts of my mind…," Shadow said to himself. He looked around.
There will be a fight…
Shadow will bring light…
Shadow will bring light…
"What are you saying?! Who are you?!" demanded Shadow. He looked around. No one was there.
Save her…
Save her…
"I'd love to, but Zaira is currently not in the state of mind to be saved," Shadow replied to the air.
"You know spirit…," the air told him.
"Yes. I know it all. Is that why I'm here?" asked Shadow.
"No…"
"Why then?!"
"Because Shadow will bring light. Yet, death is in sight. Although, Shadow's light will outshine all light. Save her… Or the future will be destroyed forever…"
"Why?! Why am I connected to her in everything even when she is literally not herself?" asked Shadow starting to get annoyed.
"The link…"
"That's just the greatest explanation I've ever gotten. Really, why?" he asked again. The voice didn't reply.
"Is that it?!"
"Shadow, if we tell you more, the future will for certain be destroyed. Have shadow outshine light. Shadow outshine light! Power you don't lack! Bring her back!"
"Bring her back…," Shadow copied. He didn't like lack of answers. Why couldn't life be easy?
The voice vanished completely. Shadow was standing completely alone. Alone… Ever since he had met Sonic, he realized, he had never been alone. Not until now when he was in a black void of nothingness.
So this is what it's like… Being alone… So this is how Zaira felt… No wonder she went mad…
Shadow knew that he liked being alone, but not the kind of alone that made him feel as if he were nonexistent like now. It was almost like… he was between dead and alive forever.
A memory popped up in his head. It was what someone had said to him a long while ago.
"I have a question for you Shadow. If you knew about this, would you have been so nasty? I loath you when you insult me Shadow. I loath you with the fire of a million suns… Maybe even more… You don't know what it's like to be hated so much that everyone whom you turned to wouldn't even give you a chance. Sonic gave you a chance, Rouge gave you a chance, Dr. Eggman even gave you a chance, Molly gave you a chance, Maria gave you a chance, but who gave me the right kind of chance?"
Shadow recognized the voice. Her tone filled with envy. The Zaira who completely envied him for everything he had so long ago. She was right. Everyone seemed to give him a chance, but nobody gave her a chance. Shadow realized that this was the first time he had ever felt guilt. It was clear to him now. He had to save her. She needed that second chance. They needed to battle the one who had stolen her soul.
Vivilock.
Shadow remembered that one word. Vivilock. That was her name.
He found himself waking up on a soft bed on the Blue Typhoon. How much was just a dream? How much was real?
"Hey guys! Shadow's awake!" a female voice yelled.
Knuckles, Sonic, and Tails raced into the room. The one who had yelled was Amy.
"What…?" Shadow asked looking around weakly.
"You passed out. Your brain completely shut down for some reason and I couldn't wake you up. You were dormant for a while," Tails explained.
"Dormant?"
"You were barely breathing, you weren't producing body heat, you didn't have any thoughts… Yeah," Knuckles told him.
"I've only been through the strangest of things…," Shadow mumbled.
Shadow found the strength to hop to his feet. He looked around. Alarm struck him all of the sudden.
"How long was I out?!"cried Shadow.
"A long time."
"How long?!"
"Four days…," Tails said in reply.
"Four days?!" Shadow yelled. There wasn't much time left. They had at least two days left before the world would be destroyed. Tails knew that, but none of the others would understand.
"Whoa! What's your hurry?!" asked Sonic.
"We need to make the color emerald reaction now!" Shadow yelled.
"Okay! Tails has already starting to try and figure out how to make the reaction work in our favor to take us home. Don't sweat it!" Sonic said trying to calm him down.
"How long will it take to make it?" demanded Shadow.
"About a day… We need a chaos emerald though…," Tails said. He remembered that Zaira had stolen them and the master emerald which gave them all a problem.
"Well…," Shadow started. He grabbed a chaos emerald he had been carrying around with him. Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic stared in amazement. "I thought that I'd be prepared for something like this…"
"Where'd you get that?!" the three of them said at once.
"You know… At that little meeting with Zaira on the skyscraper in Station Square, I thought that maybe she wouldn't mind if I borrowed this…," Shadow said. The emerald was red and glowing in his hand.
"You are a genius! That should be enough to send everything from our world back! We just need To give everyone their color emeralds now!" Tails said.
They scurried to the room where the chaos emeralds used to be stored, but was now used to store the color emeralds. Tails turned off the security lasers and alarms and got the color emeralds out.
"We've been trying to figure out which belongs to who. Although it's all kind of unclear at the moment," Knuckles explained. Shadow looked at them.
"There are fourteen color emeralds. What colors do we have.
"You have black, Sonic has dark blue, Lily has purple, white, red, green, rainbow, hot pink, light blue, yellow, orange, silver, regular pink, and that last gray one that you found. I wonder what happened to it…," Tails said staring deeply into it. "Almost looks dead."
That's what everyone else keeps saying…
Zaira was hovering just behind them. She had already made an attempt to grab the emerald, but it was just no use. She was beginning to lose all hope in everything. She had been a ghost for over a week. If she wasn't going to be changed back, she really would become immortal. It would be worse than anything that's ever happened before. An eternity of nothing.
"Well, based on color, Sunshine is yellow, Tails is probably orange, Knuckles is red for sure, Apple is green, Runner is light blue, I'm going to guess that Cosmo is white, Cream and Cheese are silver, Rabby is hot pink, Kaira is rainbow, and Amy is pink," Shadow replied.
"Sonic, why can't you do that?" asked Tails.
Sonic shrugged. How was he supposed to know? Tails summoned everyone to the room. Sonic told them their colors. They each touched their color emeralds. The room exploded with light. Sonic, Shadow, and Lily were fascinated by the extreme light. It only lasted a minute, but seemed like a long eternity.
"I ache all over…," Runner complained.
"Stop your complaining… You now have ultimate power…," Sunshine mumbled to him.
"I must admit… When it happens, it sure does suck the energy right out of you…," Apple commented.
Rabby stood up. She was a little wobbly, but she quickly regained her strength. The bright pink fox walked over to Lily.
"Do I look any different?" she asked.
"No. You look exactly the same." she told her.
"Good."
Everyone slowly got to their feet. They all looked around. What now?
"Uh… Now what? I think we're supposed to make some sort of reaction," Sonic said.
"It's the last color emerald… The one that is gray and doesn't have any power… What do we do about it? It's probably the reason. We just needed to get all the color emeralds and the chaos emeralds in one room. The last color emerald is what's keeping us here!" Tails exclaimed pointing at the emerald.
"That's our problem. I know who it belongs to," Shadow said.
"You do?" asked Sunshine.
"Yes."
No! He can't tell them! Not yet!
Zaira flew up to it in a panic. She summoned the courage to believe that she could touch it. It began to light up slightly. She grabbed it and it burst to life. An emerald green color flooded from the jewel and everyone else in the room gasped. They still couldn't see Zaira or even know that she was there, but Shadow swore he saw a faint outline of her wings in the light. A portal appeared above them.
"Are you sure that this will send us home?!" asked Pink franticly looking around.
"Yes! Everything from our world! It'll all be sent back! Even the Metarex, the Metaltrons, and Zaira!" yelled Tails.
"Vivilock…," Shadow corrected to himself. Nobody heard what he said.
The portal slowly began to grow bigger and bigger. They could feel the Blue Typhoon slowly being sucked into it. Eggman's ship was following. Eggman didn't seem to care.
"The fact that all I have to do is sit around and do nothing while Sonic saves the day again is just disturbing…," is all that Eggman said.
"Shouldn't you be concerned?" asked Cubot.
"Well, if he's not freaking out about it, I guess that we shouldn't either…," Orbot said slowly.
Sonic was the first to float into the air and into the portal. He flew all the way making a Superman pose. Amy giggled. He disappeared in the portal. Everyone else began to float from the ground as well.
"Looks like it's working!" Kaira yelled to them.
Okay. They're getting sent back, but how am I supposed to get through?
Zaira was hovering in front of the portal and didn't feel anything trying to pull her in. There was only one way for her to travel. She would have to shove herself into someone else and share a ride with them. She flung herself into Runner. He shivered.
"H-Hey guys! I-I think something just flew inside of me… It's cold…," Runner said getting sort of scared.
"Probably just a cold draft. It's more than likely nothing," Tails told him. They were sucked into the portal.
Many purples and blues flew past them. It was terrifying, but also exciting.
"This is the best thing ever!" screamed Runner.
It totally is!
"Wha-? I could have swore I just heard someone! In my head? My conscience?" asked Runner.
YES! I am your conscience! Now be quiet!
"Uh… Okay… You're the conscience!"
They all flew through a glowing white ring and they fell on the ground. Zaira zipped away from Runner as fast as he could.
"Hey guys… The odd presence has left me all of the sudden… Speaking of odd, where are we?" asked Runner.
Kaira closed her eyes and felt the truth telling atmosphere surrounding them. They were back on Greengate. She looked around. It didn't look like Greengate…
"Look up there!" Amy exclaimed pointing up.
Right as she said that, everything else tumbled through the portal. The bad thing was that Vivilock came tumbling through with them. She found herself on top of Gold the hedgehog. He glared at her for a moment and crawled over to Sonic.
"It looks like we are many miles away from the surface…," Amy said pointing to a hole above them. Light was flickering down from the hole. They all turned around and saw Vivilock and the metarex standing from the ground.
"Well… I guess I should the radar for giant portals more often. Where are you going to do now?" she asked taking a step forward.
"Um…," Sonic looked around. Up was the only way out. There was only one thing to do.
"Up and out!"
Everyone scrambled over to Sonic. Sonic, Shadow, Cream, Runner, and Rouge began to run people to the top. Vivilock came after them of course, but she didn't get to them quick enough. They sprinted across the open clearing.
"We can't battle her now! Not with the last emerald not working! We have to get to Gold's house! It's the only way! We'll stay there for now!" Sonic commanded.
Everyone obeyed. They bolted to the mansion with Vivilock in close pursuit. Kaira turns around and puts up a force field to keep her out. Vivilock bangs on the force field angrily.
"You can't hide in there forever! When you come out, I'll be waiting for you!" she yelled.
"Waiting for us… I don't like the sound of that…," Lily mumbled.
"How long are we staying here?" asked Vector.
"Until we find the owner of the last emerald…," Tails answered.
"The problem is… we can't give the emerald to its rightful owner," Shadow mumbled to himself.