Speedy's note: A last time I may welcome you to another chapter of this story. I don't think there is much to say; I'll leave it at a THANK YOU to all of you supporting me and this story with reviews and favs. :-) I had a great time writing this story (again...) and if you had an as great time reading it, I'll be all pleased. Feel free to leave comments - on the epilogue itself, or the whole story, or your favorite soccer team, or the weather... whatever floats your boat ;-) ... though I'm a little more interested in the first two options. However, if you liked this story (or didn't), tell me... and maybe check out my next one in a while!
Dusk
Shadow's eyes opened blinded by reddish brightness. Grunting, the black hedgehog turned over in sleepy reflex before hesitantly blinking again to find his vision filled by dark purple. "What the…?", he mumbled and lifted himself up on his elbows, for a moment just blankly staring at the backrest of the sofa he found himself lying on.
The next few seconds had the Ultimate Lifeform looking around in the room. Across of him was a wall full of glass cabinets, their contents twinkling and glittering in all possible colors in the evening light that fell through the big windows. Shadow lightly shook his head at Rouge's collection of gemstones while he tried in vain to remember how and when he had gotten on her sofa. Failing completely, he pushed the lilac blanket off himself with a brief oncome of embarrassment and sat on the edge of the couch. His shoes stood at the sofa's bottom… but where in the world had she put his socks and gloves?
Shadow sighed as he got up and slowly strolled over to the window, taking a short look at the setting sun before walking over to the door. Opening it, the black hedgehog stepped into a not quite well-lit corridor and followed the slight sound of music from downstairs.
He stopped on the threshold to Rouge's training room. From across the room, his hostess smiled at him out of one of the weirdest positions he'd ever seen. The white bat was dressed in a blue top and casual long pants, and currently from her knees on hanging upside-down on a horizontal rod attached to a wall, her feet crossed at the ankles and her hands leisurely behind her neck.
"Hey, Shadow! How're you doing?", she asked without showing any intention of leaving her strange position.
"Fine I guess," the hedgehog replied. "Apart from a few little things like having woken up in your living room without any idea how I got there."
"You entered standby mode during transport," Omega's snarling voice replied out of a corner of the room before Rouge got a chance to say anything.
Shadow felt a smirk dart over his face at the robot's description for 'falling asleep', all the while he found an assuring sense of familiarity sweep over him. "Okay, next question: What did you do to my stuff?"
Rouge grinned charmingly. "Are you familiar with the concept of washing clothes? Your socks reeked, so I put them in the washing machine. You'll get them back in an hour, I promise."
"My socks don't-", Shadow started but stopped mid-sentence when his stomach painfully cramped up with an angry growl and he instinctively grabbed it.
"It appears Shadow requires refuelling," Omega commented.
Rouge nodded. "We'll make some dinner." With one beat of her powerful wings the bat sat on top of her rod and smoothly jumped down to the floor.
Shadow had closely followed her movements, now he frowned and pointed at the rod. "May I ask what you were doing there, Rouge?"
The bat shrugged. "Relaxing."
"You find that relaxing?"
She nodded. "Yeah, it's great." A grin crossed her face again and her turquoise eyes twinkled in amusement. "Maybe you should try that out too."
"According to the anatomical differences between the Mobian Bat that didn't lose the special physical make-up of being adapted to head-down positions throughout evolution and Project Shadow's physiology it is unlikely," Omega remarked.
Rouge giggled. "I guess so." She walked over to Shadow. "Now let's get you some dinner."
"I'd appreciate if it didn't take too long…" Shadow nodded.
The bat raised her eyebrows. "That hungry?"
"Very, yes," Shadow admitted, "but it isn't the main reason. I have some more plans for today."
Curiously Rouge looked at him for a moment and smirked. "Do you mind if I join you when you pay old Egghead a friendly visit?"
Shadow regarded her with just a second of surprise. "No."
"I request to assist the mission as well," Omega put in, his red optics glowing in a slightly deeper shade.
For a moment Shadow looked between his team members and a rare smile spread on his face as he inclined his head at the robot. "Affirmed."
Rouge giggled at the hedgehog-hybrid's attempt adapting Omega's language. "Eggman better find some good hide-out…"
Shadow's smile grew grim, fitting the growl of his voice. "You bet."
A light breeze caressed through his blue quills and Sonic leisurely leaned his back against one of the ancient pillars on top of the Emerald Shrine. Aside of him, Tails was happily wagging his namesakes. Fox and hedgehog exchanged a bright smile and their gazes wandered over to the center of the round altar's top.
Shining as brightly as ever was the giant form of the Master Emerald. Knuckles still held his hands on it where he'd held it to carry it here and now let out a sigh and dropped his forehead against the green gemstone and the Master Emerald's glow pulsed brighter than bright for a second. Sonic couldn't help the feeling this was its way to say: 'Thank you guardian and welcome back'.
Tails poked his side and Sonic looked back at the twin tailed fox. "We did it!", the kid declared enthusiastically and hopped up, spinning his tails to lift himself and flying one time around Sonic, Knuckles and the Emerald.
Sonic reached to ruffle the fur between his ears when he touched back down at his side. "You say it." He paused for a moment and shot a glance at the setting sun. "Come on, Tails, it's a long way down... and I'm starving. I don't think we're needed here."
Tails nodded and the two turned to get down the stairway, but stopped when Knuckles cleared his throat.
"Guys? Don't."
"Huh?" Sonic turned back around.
Knuckles still had one hand on the crystal surface of the Master Emerald, but he was looking at them instead. "This is…" he cleared his throat again" …this is not thanks to me. Without the two of you, Angel Island wouldn't be floating again now and the Master Emerald would still be in pieces."
Sonic just looked at him and gave him a smile. "Well, it was teamwork I guess."
Knuckles slowly nodded and once stroked over the green gemstone before pulling away. "Guys?"
"Yes?", Sonic and Tails chorused.
"Uum… thank you."
Tails smiled. "We're friends, Knuckles. This is what we do, we help you when you need us."
"You just have the tendency to forget and oversee that," Sonic grinned, playfully blinking an eye at the echidna.
"But we like you anyway." Tails giggled. "Even if it's sometimes hard with you."
"It is?" Knuckles looked between them puzzledly.
Sonic and Tails exchanged a glance and both grinned broadly when they looked back to him. "You wouldn't be Knuckles if that'd change," Sonic noticed.
The red echidna ran a hand through his dreadlocks. "I'm not that bad, am I?"
Tails shook his head. "Don't worry, you're fine!"
Knuckles scratched his chin. "You said it's a long way down?"
"Hmm," Sonic nodded. "If we want to reach Tails' house before tomorrow at midday…"
"I'm not really fond of flying during the whole night," the fox admitted, "I'm kinda tired after all of this."
"I won't throw you off my island if you're worried about that. Those times are long over." Knuckles gave a little smile.
Sonic grinned. "Is that an invitation, Knux?"
He had to take back his thoughts of just a few days ago. It was indeed a disaster. His beautiful underground base… destroyed by that blue pest of a pincushion! Once more, his plans, his brilliant ideas of a bright future, a robotized future… all gone, vanished in dust and rubbish and smoke.
Robotnik's hand moved to his forehead, slowly, almost unconsciously rubbing the bruise there. Of course, fate had meant business with him today. Not only that he'd lost his main base, no… On his way of retreat to a second, safe and secret hideout he'd built just in case a catastrophe as today came upon him – and, as his earlier life had clued him already, those tended to come upon him good – a group of three had intercepted his way. Shadow, Rouge and that illoyal metal can of a robot, E-123 Omega… and Robotnik had found out very quickly all of them had been in a foul mood.
Maybe the only luck the scientist had today was that he'd escaped with his life, that the Eggmobile's emergency power could carry him longer and higher than that batgirl could sustain flight, and that this failure of his grandfather's cloning work had still been slightly out of condition and unable really effectively use his powers… Though they had been easily enough to smash everything Robotnik had left besides his tiny escape vessel.
Said vehicle now descended with its last power to the ground, rolling and bouncing over a carpet of grass before tilting to its side. Little elegantly dropping out of it like an overripe fruit, the beaten scientist landed on his rear. Slowly crawling to his feet, Robotnik watched the long shadows his tall form threw on the grass. He frowned, the shape of the shadow oh too well reminding him of the name the blue hedgehog had given him. Eggman…
Throwing a last glance onto his out-of-power vehicle, Robotnik started to walk the last part of his way. It was one of the things he hated the most. Useless moving around. Machines were to move, that was their use, their purpose. A genius like him… was to be moved by things of his design.
His machines, yes. But once again in Robotnik's life, they had failed him. Or hadn't they? Once more, a frown wrinkled the tall human's face. Maybe… it had been mostly an interface flaw, a non-functioning of the junction he'd used. The scientist's mind moved back a few years, to the start of his robotics, to the time he'd been using small animal creeps to give power to his machines. He'd stopped this practice after the failure of the early E-series, and the change to a technology free of biologic components had increased efficiency and reduced flaws. No, he had never been lucky with biology, not with natural life forms in general. Robotnik grimaced as the incidence with the Chaos monster turning against him, its master at the time, sprung to mind.
The grimace subsided into a slight look of relief as the entrance of his hideout came into view, offering an end to this unwanted exposure to nature. Long fingers in a slightly burn-stained white glove rushed as if automatically over a panel of numbers. Acknowledging the code, the door gave way with the wonderful buzzing of a running device and Robotnik stepped into the small room. He leaned against the wall as the elevator took him downstairs, but directly moved away from it as the doors opened again to reveal a smooth and clean metallic corridor.
The scientist was welcomed by a tiny service robot and directly ordered it to bring him a refreshing drink. Opening another door, Robotnik advanced towards a big desk and let himself drop into an armchair. While he leaned back into the cushioning, his pondering from the way here came back to him.
It was a funny thing how different people's talents were given. His grandfather, always his idol being a great scientist, had been a lot into genetics, a genius at manipulating life forms, yes, even creating new ones. Gerald Robotnik had managed to make a powerful being even out of the strange mixture of Black Arms' DNA and hedgehog genes. An awkward smile tugged on Ivo's lips as he wondered what might have driven his grandfather to choose a hedgehog. What an ironic trait of history… that hedgehogs would be the greatest annoyance to his grandson's life long years later.
But he was not like his grandfather. As the latest events had shown him once more, everything he tried that included manipulating life forms was doomed to fail already when he started it. That seemed his fate.
The tiny servant robot clumsily walked up to him, balancing a glass on a tablet. Robotnik smiled, taking the glass before the little thing could drop it and patted its round head. It beeped contentedly before stilling into stand-by.
Thoughtfully Robotnik regarded his little creation. This was what he was good at. His thing were, and had always been, mechanical automatons, electromotive devices of all sizes and purposes. The smiled grew to a grin. Why not stick to what he was good at? Exploring other fields of science had not been the most successful thing… but…
Robotnik leaned forwards, snatching a large piece of paper from the desk. He looked down on the blank sheet just briefly, then grabbed a pencil. Seconds later the blank piece of paper was blank no more as the robotist's mind drew a whole new concept of robots onto it.
New, brilliant fighting machines, metal menaces, walking and swimming and flying pieces of perfection, gears and circuits working together, a harmony of mechanics….
Robotnik laughed, his hand not stopping its feast. It had never been winning or losing for him.
It was how to plan your REVENGE!
Small flames were shining from the pieces of wood, once or twice a minute giving a brighter flicker combined with a light cracking sound and a few sparks would be carried up into the almost dark sky. The western horizon still glowed in dark purple while the eastern part was already completely dark and showing the first stars.
Sonic looked back into their campfire and stretched his hands out towards the wonderful warmth it gave out. His green eyes slowly wandered over the small meadow and a smile spread on his face. To his left side, Tails was curled up on the soft carpet of grass, already asleep, his two tails tightly folded around himself. "I think our little rocket-building genius is tired, huh?", he grinned, looking across the fire to Knuckles.
The red echidna glanced up from the flames just briefly, a small smirk darting over his features at the look of Tails. "He deserves it, don't you think?"
Sonic nodded. "Yeah." The rather large yawn that followed betrayed just how well the hedgehog could understand his little brother. With his belly full and the nice warm fire, he was also starting to again feel the toll the past week had taken on him.
"He's not the only one, is he?" Knuckles gave a small chuckle.
Sonic shrugged. "No." He studied his friend for a moment. "I think we're all a little beat." When Knuckles didn't reply, the blue hedgehog just shrugged again and stretched out on the grass, crossed his hands in his neck and looked up at the sky. "Good night then."
"'Night." Knuckles threw some new wood into the small fire and watched the flames hungrily consuming the fresh branches. His eyes followed the small mists of smoke floating upwards to disappear into nothingness on their way up to the sky that seemed here so much nearer than elsewhere.
When he looked back down, he found Sonic rolling over and curling into a loose ball on the grass as he dozed off. Smiling at the mental note to himself that now it would be really quiet, the echidna took a deep breath of wonderful Angel Island air and his gaze dived back into the fire.
Truth be told, he was at least as tired as his friends, but he wanted to enjoy the first night back home as much as he could. So he sat and stared into the flames, listened to the small sounds of the night-time forest, the tiny, never stopping breeze of wind over the Floating Island that stroked through his long spines… and beyond everything else he could feel the presence of the Master Emerald on the shrine not far away. An all fixed and wonderfully normal Master Emerald…
Eventually even Knuckles allowed himself to follow the directions of tiredness, lying back on the ground and closing his eyes. The knowledge of everything being finally safe quickly joined forces with the relief of the last week's stress easing away, with the nice feeling of soft grass close to a warm fire and with the calming effect of a filled and satisfied stomach. In the last moments of wakefulness Knuckles reached for the soothing feeling of Master Emerald power in his mind, the green warmth from inside softly seemed to fill him, and he took it along into the first peaceful dream in weeks.
The End