The Soul of a Weapon

by Thrippa

Shadow, chasing fragments of the Black Comet, is knocked out by an explosion of Chaos energy and finds a being from his past haunting both his nightmares and his waking moments.

16. The Death of a Weapon

15. The Death of a Weapon

Two days later, Shadow got an alarmed call from Knuckles. "Hey, Shadow! This humongous thing just appeared over Mystic Ruins. Can you see if you can find Sonic and let him know? I called Tails already, but you might find him faster. I think this may be the Final Eggbeater thing that Eggman was talking about!" The echidna hung up before the hedgehog could say anything.

Shadow hung up the phone, then tried to call Rouge, but she was out. So he skated across town at his best speed, guessing Sonic would be at the beach with Emerl, unless he'd already left town. The blue hedgehog had a habit of disappearing without warning when he got bored, and now that Emerl was supposedly 'safe', he would probably be leaving soon, if Shadow was any judge.

Today, though, Sonic was still in the vicinity, and Shadow found him on the beach as expected. "So, I said you are still far from being perfect!" he was telling Emerl, as the Ultimate Life-form paused atop one of the rocky outcrops. To Shadow's disgust, the formerly gold-and-tan Emerl was now the same shade of blue as Sonic, with red trim. Shadow dropped flat on the rough stone as the Eggmobile whined around the base of another sandstone cliff.

The old scientist cackled as he made his appearance. "Well, well, well," he concluded, "how are you doing, my dirty little spiked rat, and my useless weapon?"

Sonic bristled, looking very spiky indeed as his quills roused, and interposed himself between the robot and the human. "Eggman! Did you come all the way here just to mess with Emerl again? You know, being overly persistent won't win you any popularity contests!"

The Doctor laughed again. Then he roared, "Enough with the small talk! I have no use for this pile of junk anyway! I have completed the perfect weapon! I have installed the Final Egg Blaster on the ultimate planet-destroying battleship: the Death Egg!! Hah ha hah ha! It's stupendous! It's wonderful, I tell you, my greatest creation ever! With this, I will finally accomplish my goal of world domination! I can see it now - the world will bow before me! You can do naught but wait, cowering in fear, you poor weaklings. So long, my loud-mouthed, spiky, rat friend! The next time we meet, I shall be king of the world!" With a final cackle, he soared off in his hover pod.

Shadow stared after the man, stunned. I knew that Doctor Eggman was . . . obsessed, but I didn't think he was that insane. He looked back at Sonic, who predictably (and reassuringly, although Shadow would die before he admitted it) seemed unconcerned by the scientist's mad pronouncements. The blue hedgehog snorted, and said to Emerl, "The old guy sure seems excited. Well, it looks like that 'Final Something-or-other' that Knuckles was telling me about is finally finished." He stretched his pale-skinned arms, lacing his fingers together in front of him. "I suppose we'd better do something about it."

"Sonic!" Tails came skidding around a corner, his tails spinning madly behind him. "Emerl! Have you seen it?" He slid to a stop in front of them, panting. "A giant battleship has appeared over Mystic Ruins! Right over the summit of that echidnan pyramid!"

"Hey, Tails! Yeah, we heard. I swear, that old guy just doesn't know when to give up! He couldn't get his hands on Emerl, so he goes and whips up another one of his weird inventions, and now," again, his tone implied, "he's talking about taking over the world."

"Well," said Emerl, "he was the one that woke me up in the first place. But now he calls me useless and a pile of junk? I'll show him just how useless this pile of junk is - if he's threatening the planet, I 've got a few things to settle with him!"

"You really have grown up, Emerl!" crowed Sonic, highlighting his own immaturity in Shadow's mind. Emerl's speech hadn't sounded particularly adult to him, although the dark hedgehog was in agreement with the robot about the need to defend the planet. "Looks like we've gotta hike to Mystic Ruins, Emerl, Tails!"

"All right!" cheered Emerl.

But the fox cub once again proved his intelligence by objecting, "But something's not right. Why would he be so out-and-out honest about his plans?" He then demonstrated his innocence by continuing, "Even the government keeps some things a secret." Shadow, all too familiar with governmental 'wisdom', nearly choked, and almost missed the next sentence. "It feels too deliberate, like he's trying to lure us into following him. I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Oh, come on, Tails," said Sonic, "You know Egghead always has to boast about his plans! He doesn't think it's any fun unless we're trying to stop him. You'd think he'd learn that we always do stop him, though."

"Yeah, come on, Tails," echoed Emerl. "You don't wanna let Egghead take over the planet, do you? He called me a pile of junk!"

Two older friends were too much for the young fox's doubts to stand against. Although he was clearly not happy, he gave in. "I'll go fetch a warp transporter so we can reach the battleship. You go on to Mystic Ruins, and I'll meet you there!"

In a cloud of sand, Sonic and Emerl were gone. Tails stared after them a moment, then turned and headed at a much slower pace towards his lab. Shadow jumped down from his rocky perch to join him. "You're quite right, you know," he told the startled fox. "The Doctor is being much too boastful about his plans."

Tails looked up at the red eyes hopefully. "Do you think you can stop him from going?" Shadow raised an eyebrow and Tails grimaced and looked down, and answered his own question. "No, of course not. Once Sonic sets his mind on something, no one can talk him out of it." The cub heaved a huge sigh. "Will you come with me, at least?"

"I was planning to," answered Shadow. He was surprised that Tails wanted his company, but rather flattered as well. The two picked up the pace, heading to the lab at Tails' top speed. Shadow considered his Chaos energy-level while Tails hunted for his device. The hedgehog had decided he had enough for a part-way teleport when he heard the cub groan. "What's wrong?"

"Darn!" Tails scowled at the metal disk he'd extracted from a cabinet. "I'd hooked this up to recharge when we got back from the Black Comet, but it got unplugged somehow from the charger." He pulled on a backpack that had also been in the cabinet, then stood up and tucked the teleport unit under his arm. "No help for it now, but we're not gonna be able to all go up there. Sonic and Emerl'll have to fight it out between them."

Shadow nodded and placed a hand on the fox's shoulder. "Chaos Control!" He didn't really have to say the words, but it seemed to help his focus. Tails looked around the Emerald Town train station, surprised at their landing place. "Since Emerl has the Chaos Emeralds, I thought I'd better conserve my energy," Shadow explained, "and, I've never ridden on a train before."

The cub giggled at the Ultimate Life-form's sheepish explanation, and showed him where to buy a ticket to Mystic Ruins. "We shouldn't be too late," he assured Shadow, "Sonic'll have to take the train, too, unless he wants to run all the way around the bay. We'll stop at Station Square, but then the train runs right across the water to Mystic Ruins."

Shadow was a bit surprised by that, but when they left Station Square, he realized that in fact it was the train tracks that ran out across the water on a long bridge, and not the train itself. The way Tails had phrased it, he'd wondered if it would turn into a boat, or something. There is still so much about this world I don't know, he thought. Or at least understand properly. He watched the light ripple across the waves below, and the beam of golden light that stretched from the mid-morning sun keep pace with the train. A group of ungainly looking birds flapped over the water, while another far more aerodynamic-looking type hung in the winds as if suspended by a thread. Pelicans and seagulls, said his flash-memories. Hunting for fish.

When the train arrived, Tails guided Shadow through from the station to the jungle with easy familiarity, and thence through the dense trees to the ruined remnants of the echidna city. "It's not the whole city," the orange cub explained. "The shrine on Angel Island used to be a part of it too, and there are other ruins up there as well." He waved a hand at the closer of the two massive objects currently shading the jungle. Angel Island seen from below was a dramatic and unnerving sight. The rocky underparts looked like a small mountain range hanging upside down in the sky, with small flashes of green around the edges where grass or a stubborn bush hung over the rim. From where they stood, Shadow could also see the smaller island, connected to the main mass by a bridge, that held the aforementioned shrine of the Master Emerald. Shadow sternly repressed an urge to hunch his shoulders and run before the mass fell on him, but he increased his pace slightly. Tails smothered a grin, but wisely said nothing, merely increasing his own jog. The other object dominating the sky was a silvery hemisphere, that looked to be modeled after the Space Colony ARK. Sonic and Knuckles were looking at it from the top tier of the ziggurat that formed the most noticeable of the Mystic Ruins.

"Sonic!" called Tails, waving, as they reached the foot of the ancient structure. He and Shadow made their way up the crumbled stone steps to join the other two. After they reached the top, Shadow spotted Emerl standing halfway down far side of the pyramid, inspecting a pair of small statues beside what appeared to be a trapdoor.

"Tails!" Sonic greeted the cub without looking away from the metal object overhead. Knuckles nodded to Shadow as he and the cub joined the echidna and the blue hedgehog. The stela that crowned the ziggurat made a strange centerpiece for the cluster of dokan. Emerl looked up at the greetings, and clambered up the ledges of the step pyramid to join the others.

"I've brought the transporter," Tails told the others, "but . . . it takes a while to charge up, and it only has enough power for one person to go."

"Really?" Sonic considered for a fraction of a moment, than turned to the robot. "Well, Emerl? You should be the one to go, shouldn't you?"

"You bet!" said Emerl instantly.

"Why don't you go pay the old man a visit, and 'thank' him?"

"Yeah!" The robot jumped onto the metal disk as Tails set it down.

Tails looped a communications device around Emerl's neck, instructing him to push the yellow button when he was ready to return. The cub fiddled with the transporter's control box, then said, "Emerl, are you ready? Then I'll turn on the transporter . . . On!" The robot vanished in a smear of light.

Tails shrugged out of the backpack and opened it to reveal a receiver unit. The screen showed a standard Eggman control room, with the Doctor himself looking rather disgruntled as he faced the screen. "Hey Emerl," Sonic yelled, right in Shadow's ear. He ignored the glare from the darker hedgehog and continued, "Can you hear me? We're watching from a monitor down here! We can project our voices to your location, so we'll be cheering you on! Amy, Cream, and Rouge should be here soon too!"

Shadow rubbed his ear. "You don't have to yell loud enough for your voice to carry up there," he grumbled. "That's the point of the radio."

Sonic flashed that stupid grin at him, and a quick "Sorry!"

"Hey! Doctor!" Emerl was saying up on the Death Egg, "Long time no see!!"

"Gii-zoid." You could have greased a pan with the Doctor's voice. "Looks like you've changed." The rotund figure in the monitor strolled closer, then stepped off screen, apparently circling the Gizoid before stepping back into view from the other side. He grunted, "From your new looks, I can tell you're not a war machine any longer."

"Yeah that's right!" answered Emerl defiantly. "My friends helped me!"

"That is very good. Very good indeed!" The human laughed delightedly as he studied a bank of readouts on one wall.

"You can laugh all you want," the Gizoid challenged him. "I'm here to defeat you and bring this to an end!"

Doctor Eggman's trademark moustache curled up at the ends as he grinned. Shadow felt a chill run through him. We've been set up. The Doctor's voice hardened as he said, "Let's just see how powerful you really are. It's time to test whether or not the legends of the Gizoid's strength are true!" He sat down, and his Eggmobile rose up around his chair. The hover car advanced on the Gizoid, launching small rockets as it approached. Emerl backed up, out of the control room into a larger, arena-like area. As soon as the Eggmobile was inside, the doors slid shut. "Ohohoho!" crowed Eggman, "You've gone right where I wanted you."

It wasn't a very long battle. The rockets seemed to be the Eggmobile's only weapons, and Emerl had no problem avoiding them, but they did make it difficult to get close to the vehicle. Ultimately, the robot had to simply absorb several hits to get close enough to attack the other machine. Pummeling one set of launching ports closed or nonfunctional didn't help, though, because another set opened elsewhere on the round vehicle. There also appeared to be a forcefield shielding the doctor himself, although it was a bit difficult for the watchers at Mystic Ruins to be certain. The end was a foregone conclusion, though; eventually the Doctor ran out of rockets or ways to launch them, and suddenly reverted to 'sniveling coward'.

"Please, I- I beg of you! Forgive me! Please have a heart! I swear I will never do this again!" the scientist whined, hiding behind his hands. Shadow felt an alarm ringing in his head. This is it! Whatever he's planned, he's going to do it now! He grabbed for the microphone, but Sonic waved it out of reach, like it was some stupid game.

"Hmmph," came Emerl's voice over the receiver, "You're not very cool Eggman. See you later! Try not to do anything bad anymore, okay? If you're smart enough to build battleships like this, I'm sure you can find other things to do!" No! thought Shadow desperately, trying again to grab the microphone, he's going to let him go!

"But, I wanted to thank you for waking me up. Thanks to you, I've learned the true meaning of friendship. I'm not just a weapon - I'm a living being with a heart and free will!" Emerl raised a hand to trigger the return button - and the Doctor pounced.

"Hah!" he cried, "NOW!!" Suddenly the wall behind him was a giant viewscreen, showing part of the moon, a crescent of the Space Colony ARK, and a broad sweep of stars. "Fire Final Egg Blaster!" A blaze of blinding white light swept out across the blackness of space. When it faded, the stars had vanished across a wide swath of sky.

"That's not possible!" gasped Rouge. Shadow looked back to see that she, Amy and Cream had joined them. All three were staring at the monitor, as horrified as Sonic and Knuckles, and even Tails.

"Of course it's not," he said harshly. "Any weapon generating that much light, we'd have seen light up the sky. Remember the Eclipse Cannon! It's a trick, to fool Emerl into thinking that the Doctor's more powerful than we are."

"Shh!" hissed Tails, "It looks like it's working!" Sonic was suddenly yelling into the microphone, but no sound seemed to be arriving at the other end. "Never mind Sonic, it's jammed!" The cub tapped a small red light blinking beside the monitor. "Now, shh!"

"Eggman," said Emerl, sounding shocked to his core, "What are you doing!?"

"Hey, Emerl!" Sonic yelled again into the microphone, "Oh no!"

Shadow slammed a fist against the stone in frustration. "No! Now I understand what's going on! The Doctor planned this all along!" That was something that not even the Gizoid's creators could have imagined - a falsification of impossible, unmatchable power. Nothing Shadow could do with Chaos energy, even with all the Emeralds to back him, could compete with the elimination of a quadrant's worth of stars. If only the Professor's reprogramming held in spite of the Egg Blaster's apparent power - but Shadow was acutely certain that it would not. The picture on the monitor began to shiver.

The Doctor chuckled, the contemptuous sound of someone who knows he's won. "You're so soft!" he sneered. "That's understandable, of course. You were raised by those little wimps! Their weakness will be the end of you!" The human laughed again, and pointed at the black patch on the viewscreen. "Look! All the stars over there have been destroyed!" Then, in a more solicitous tone, "How do you feel Gizoid? Are you ready to resume capturing weaponry?"

"W-what? N-Noooooo!!!" The howl of robotic distress was suddenly cut short, as the picture began shaking violently again. Tails had yanked open the side panel of the monitor and was frantically doing something with its innards. Then the dreadful voice of the Gizoid spoke: "Initiating data acquisition." The robot marched out of the arena to the control room and began scanning the controls of the Doctor's Death Egg and Final Egg Blaster, followed by the chortling scientist. The robot began spewing out sounds, the unintelligible syllables that Shadow had heard before. Knuckles made a startled movement, but just then Tails jerked his head up from the machine.

"That's done it! Sonic, try it again!"

"Emerl? Emerl!?" Sonic yelled, and this time the sound came back from the speakers as well as from the blue hedgehog's throat, "Hey! Emerl!!"

"Show me your power, or I shall not obey. I represent all things, and shall become Gizoid, the conqueror of all." The harsh tones suddenly shifted to English. Then, as suddenly, faltered. "I shall . . . all things, and . . . conquer . . . all." Shadow felt Rouge grab his arm, and could feel her trembling.

"That's how it sounded at first," she whispered in his ear, "when Sonic found it."

Doctor Eggman had leaned in toward the camera Emerl was wearing. "Ho ho ho ho ho! There's still one little Link you guys didn't know about! The Gizoid will create a new Link if it encounters someone with overwhelming power!"

The picture shook again as the robot shivered, and the next voice was Emerl's, gasping in distress. "Power . . . overflowing . . . . Can't hold it in . . . . Can't hold it in . . . Sonic! Shadow! Help! In such pain . . . Mom! It hurts. The pain!"

"Emerl! Emerl! Hang in there!!! Emerl! Act tough like you always do! Come on, that's an order! Emerl!!!!" Sonic was shouting like a madman, although for once Shadow couldn't blame him. He knew far too well the agony of seeing someone you cared about suffering - dying - and being unable to do anything to aid them.

The Doctor was still too proud of his victory to see the danger. "Hoo ho ho ho! Now, Gizoid, establish a link with ME!

"Huh? Come on, listen to me!" Panic invaded in his voice as he realized something was wrong. "What's happening?"

The chill emotionless tone of the Gizoid: "Etherscatab po irts, po orat abey. Fire Final Egg Blaster at Earth."

Shadow nearly relaxed at that point; the Final Egg Blaster had been the fake light show that the Doctor had used on the arena viewscreen. But the Doctor didn't sound like it was a phony threat. "What!?"

"Emerl!" hollered Sonic, "Stop! No! He can't hear us!"

"One minute before firing." The Gizoid was unperturbed by Sonic's pleas or Eggman's arguments.

"Knock it off Gizoid! If the Earth is gone, I won't be able to achieve world domination!" Eggman tried to shove the robot away from the controls, but the robot brought up a metal hand - now golden again - and punched him, hard.

"Get out of the way." No excitement or emotion, just a cold statement as the human was flung from his Eggmobile and across the room to lie still.

A green light suddenly fell across Shadow and his companions. He looked around to see an enormous green gem rising up the steps of the pyramid. Sonic broke off in mid-shout. "Emerl! E– ! What's this? The Master Emerald? Where did this come from?"

"Angel Island, stupid!" snapped Knuckles. "See, Chaos is bringing it. I see! We can use this to stop the Chaos Emeralds from getting out of control! With the power of the Master Emerald we might be able to snap Emerl out of it! We gotta give it a shot!" As Knuckles spoke the gem moved higher, until everyone could see the transparent blue figure of Chaos beneath it. The creature wasn't so much carrying the giant Emerald as steering it; the Master Emerald appeared to be floating under its own power. When Knuckles reached out and placed a hand on it, it somehow shrank to the size of a Chaos Emerald without actually changing size. Shadow wasn't the only one to blink and rub his eyes at the peculiar feat. He looked back at the Master Emerald clearly resting in the palm of Knuckles' glove, at the same time small and huge, and had to look away from the eye-twisting sight. But he could feel the Chaos energy within the stone, being drained back to wherever it had come from, in the opposite manner as the Chaos Emeralds collected it. It worked with the Biolizard. I hope it will be enough this time.

"Sonic! Knuckles!" shouted Tails, "The transporter is ready!"

"Sonic," said Amy, "please . . . ." Her voice trailed off.

Simultaneously, Cream begged, "Sonic, Knuckles . . . . You've got to stop Emerl!"

"Even though he's grown up, he's still pretty high maintenance," grumbled the echidna as he stepped onto the teleport disk with Sonic.

"You'd better rescue him quickly," said Rouge. "I still need to turn him into a master thief."

"Okay!" Sonic answered them all, "We're off to rescue Emerl!"

"Turning on warp transporter," announced Tails, "now!" Again light smeared a cylinder above the teleport disk, and the two dokan faded as it did. Every eye locked onto the monitor, where Sonic and Knuckles appeared in a flash of light.

"Hey Emerl!" called Sonic, dashing away from the echidna, trying to draw the robot's attention, "Lookin' pretty good!"

The Master Emerald flared brilliantly as Knuckles held it up, calling out the ancient chant. "The potentiators are the seven Chaos Emeralds; their chaos from strength; their strength from the heart. Restrainer, control the Chaos." The Master Emerald shone even brighter as another light haloed the monitor screen - after a moment Shadow realized that light was leaking from the Gizoid's chest plate behind the camera.

"That light!" protested the Gizoid, "Can't see!!"

The twin light sources fogged the view, but they could make out the blow that sent Sonic sprawling, and then saw Knuckles, eyes closed in concentration as he held out the again full-sized Master Emerald, become centered on the camera. A golden arm stretched into view, and transformed into one of Gamma's laser guns. It emitted a thin red beam, shifted, and fired again - and the giant gem shattered. "What!" cried Sonic, as he raced to where the echidna had been flung by the blast, "The Master Emerald!!"

"Broken," muttered Shadow, staring at the now clear screen. The light from the Gizoid's chest had died in the same instant that the Master Emerald shattered. "Into tiny little pieces."

Knuckles groaned as Sonic helped him sit up. "I can't believe this!"

The camera view swung away from the dokan to the control panel. "Thirty seconds before the Final Egg Blaster is fired," stated the Gizoid. It seemed unconcerned by the continued presence of the hedgehog and echidna, and made no attempt to harm them further.

Shadow sank down to sit on the ziggurat's stone cap. "This is the final voice of the last great war machine," he said. He should have gone himself, but he'd trusted that Sonic and Knuckles could handle it with the Master Emerald. He didn't have enough power to transport himself up to the Death Egg, especially without knowing where exactly he needed to land. He could run, assuming the weapon was aimed at the pyramid, but didn't see the point. If it was anything like as powerful as the Doctor had claimed, running wouldn't be enough to escape. Even if it wasn't, the Gizoid would just move the ship and fire as often as needed to complete the devastation it desired. Besides, he couldn't just abandon those gathered in the shadow of the battleship. "So begins the destruction of the Earth. A natural result of ignorant human desires and greed."

Rouge swatted him on the shoulder. "Hey, you'd better deal with this situation in a more positive manner! I don't want to die!!"

The other two girls gasped. Cream huddled closer to Amy, who put an arm around the little rabbit. "Are we all . . . all . . . going to die?" the bunny whispered.

Amy's reassurances were drowned out by Tails who was still working desperately on his machinery. "Sonic!! Can you hear me? Emerl has absorbed too much energy and has surpassed his limits! He's highly unstable right now! If you can inflict a great amount of damage on him, you'll put a stop to the Gizoid! But, Emerl," he faltered suddenly, "will probably be destroyed. He won't be able to control the energy that he's absorbed within his body. . . ."

From the other end of the connection, Sonic, irrepressible as ever, laughed. "Emerl," he said, "always causing trouble. Even in the end." He suddenly appeared back on the monitor as the Gizoid turned to face him. "It's time for one final party!"

What happened next was impossible to detail, as the camera was quickly destroyed by a homing attack from the blue hedgehog. But the microphone somehow survived, and the battle sounded vicious. After several minutes of staring at the blank screen and wincing at particularly loud clangs or grunts, Rouge handed Shadow an electronic notepad. Shadow looked at it curiously, then recognized the text on the screen as Professor Gerald's diary. He scanned through the entries quickly. Some of it he'd read before, but some was new, and he realized that Rouge must have added in the entries from the secret journal she'd found, because the hedgehog was quite certain that Black Doom had never been mentioned in the official logs on the ARK. And as he read the last few entries pertaining to the Gizoid, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. Accidently or not, Sonic had done exactly what was necessary by sending Emerl up to the Death Egg. The Professor had not been certain that the emotion-based AI would override the orders of the Gizoid's Master, and had enabled one final option that the original creators would never had considered. Emerl had had to smash the Master Emerald, because he needed to not be restrained. As long as he existed, there would always be the risk of someone else trying to order him to destroy. So he would destroy one final thing. That was why he had ignored Knuckles and Sonic after shattering the Master Emerald, rather than taking them out as well.

A chorus of gasps drew his attention back to the monitor. From the silence, it appeared the battle was over. Shadow knew who had won before Emerl's voice gasped and hesitated across the space between Mystic Ruins and the Death Egg. "Where . . . is here?" Several electronic crackles and buzzes interjected. "Who . . . am I?" That's my line, thought Shadow irreverently. He knew what was going to happen, but he couldn't walk away now. "Sonic . . . the pain . . . ." More crackles and hisses. "Shadow . . . . Dark . . . . Am I . . . am I . . .going to die?"

"Emerl!" Sonic sounded whole, and panicked. "Emerl!"

"Sonic," managed the robot.

"Are you all right? Come on!" Only static answered. "Can you walk? Let's return to Earth!" Shadow shook his head. Even after all that had happened, Sonic wasn't going to give up, or admit that fooling with the Gizoid had been a bad idea.

"It's . . . been fun," managed Emerl at last. "Thank you . . . Sonic." (Bzzt, crackle.) "This is . . . goodbye. I'm glad . . . I got to see everyone one last time . . ." A nasty spattering sound, with several small pops suggesting parts of the robot were exploding. Sonic yelped, as if something had hit him, but kept calling Emerl's name and encouraging him. "Has Tails . . . gotten stronger? I know he tried his hardest . . . to protect me," Emerl's voice had a peculiar, dreamy quality. Could a robot be delirious? "Thank him for me. And Knuckles . . . we had so much fun." Knuckles said something in the background that the microphone didn't quite catch. But Emerl was still talking to Sonic, and perhaps unaware of the echidna's presence. "Even though he is too . . . gullible. But he is such . . . a good guy, so, Sonic . . . don't tease him to much, okay? And Mom . . . Cream . . . . Looks like this is goodbye . . . I don't want to go!" Cream whimpered, and burst into tears at Emerl's cry, and buried her face in Amy's shoulder. Amy had tears running down her own face as she murmured something into her friend's long ears. Rouge had moved to the edge of the platform, turning her back on the group. She had her arms folded tightly to her chest, but her wings were trembling. "I'll miss all of you . . . .

"Shadow," the dark hedgehog started, and looked futilely at the blank screen, "should I be glad that . . . I was born?" More static, more tiny pops.

"Quit playing around!" snarled Sonic, making everyone jump. "Don't get all serious on me now, Emerl!" You . . . you think this is goodbye or something? Hey, come on Emerl!" The angry tone shifted to coaxing, "Let's go play! Everyone is waiting for us back home! Tails! And even Shadow and Knuckles! Hey, I know! We can trick Knuckles into doing some stupid stuff again!" ("Hey!" said Knuckles in the background.) "We'll go home and . . . and . . . we'll all laugh and have a good time!!! Right, Emerl? Emerl!"

Suddenly Shadow realized that Sonic had never really failed before. He ran into battle with Doctor Eggman and his robots because he thought it was fun, and beat them, and ran on to do whatever else struck his fancy. His friends were there if he needed them, so he didn't concern himself much about them, and he could always rescue them if they got into trouble. He saved the world as much on a whim as anything, and had never, ever lost. Perhaps the closest had been when Shadow himself had fallen after the ARK battle with the Biolizard, but at that time Shadow had been a stranger and mostly an enemy, not a friend that Sonic had accepted responsibility for. And even then, Rouge had said Sonic had been troubled. But the desperation in the blue hedgehog's voice roused more sympathy for him than Shadow had ever thought he'd feel, because for once, Sonic wasn't playing around; it was being brought home hard that this wasn't all a game, and the good guys could lose.

There was an odd burring sound, then Sonic said, "Emerl has . . . disappeared."

There was a long silence, and suddenly the air above the warp teleporter lit up, and Knuckles and Sonic appeared. The echidna had an armful of green shards and the return device. Sonic stumbled off the disk and stood, his face nearly as pale as Rouge's fur. Amy handed the still-sobbing Cream over to Tails (who looked a bit alarmed) and ran over to hug the blue hedgehog. For once, Sonic didn't leap away; in fact he barely seemed to notice. His green eyes wandered vaguely across his assembled friends, while Knuckles did something to the heap of shards and the Master Emerald suddenly reformed itself. Chaos took the gem, rising with it into the air and back to Angel Island.

Shadow raised the digital pad Rouge had given him, attracting Sonic's attention. "This was Gerald's final program," he said quietly. Looking at the screen he started to read, "Should a weapon go out of control, the weapon will terminate itself. In the event that the emotions-based AI should fail, the Gizoid will intentionally place itself in a position where it will be destroyed, and not defend itself against that eventuality. It is my desire to bring hope to humanity."

Cream sobbed into Tails white ruff. "Emerl . . . ."

Sonic roused himself slightly, pulling away from Amy. "H-hey!" he said, with a ghastly attempt at his usual attitude, "Don't you cry, Cream!"

"Sonic!" she looked up a moment then buried her face against the fox cub again. The blue hedgehog moved over to crouch next to them.

"Come on, don't cry! Emerl is right here!" He opened his hand to reveal the crimson Chaos Emerald he held.

The little rabbit blinked at it a moment, then sniffled, "Yes! As part of the Chaos Emeralds!" She used one long lop ear to mop at her eyes, until Amy handed her a handkerchief.

After a moment Cream looked up at Sonic again. "Someday," she said, hesitantly, "if this world finally knows peace, if we no longer need weapons or fighting, if we can make this world a truly peaceful place . . . do you think we'll be able to play with Emerl again?"

"Yeah!" said Sonic patting her on the back. "Definitely."

Shadow looked away, curling his lip. "What's the matter, Shadow?" murmured Rouge, quietly enough that no one would overhear. "Don't you like fairy tales?" She followed him as he started down the steps of the pyramid.

"It's not a matter of liking," he answered quietly. "But I don't believe them. Emerl is gone, and although everyone tried their best, the Gizoid was just too dangerous. I wouldn't want it back, even if we could achieve Cream's fantasy world; its mere existence would be a threat to that peace."

"I suppose you're right," Rouge admitted. She looked up, idly watching Knuckles tacking his glide against the wind as he returned to Angel Island. "Ah, well. At least we don't have to worry about ever seeing a Gizoid again."

"True," said Shadow. "Let us be thankful for that."