Chapter 37: Time to go home

Zelda walked out of the castle with her newborn daughter in her arms. Right behind her was Krystal, who was holding her newborn twins, closely followed by Shadow the hedgehog, and Slippy Toad. Then came a bright light equally as bright as the sun and, as soon as it appeared, it disappeared.

Right in the middle of Hyrule Field was Link, Fox McCloud, Mario, and Sonic the hedgehog. All of the Dragonoids had disappeared hours ago and the birds were beginning to sing again. All four people who stopped Ryu were floating in midair until their glows subsided and they touched ground before returning to their proper form.

"LINK! YOU DID IT!" Zelda shouted as she ran over to Link and caught him in a one-arm embrace.

Link then took notice of the bundle in her arms and his face melted.

"Sorry I couldn't be here for our baby's birth. However, I made up for it by making our universe a safe place to be." Link apologized.

"Don't worry. But I owe a good deal of debt to Shadow. If it wasn't for him, I would have died in childbirth." Zelda pointed out.

Link paused and looked at Shadow, a look of shock on his face. However, Link still had enough in him to tell the black hedgehog one thing.

"Thank you."

"I swore to protect Zelda and I kept it. I must tell you now that using Chaos Control on the infant will have some effect on it." Shadow pointed out, "Because I used Chaos Control, I put a little bit of myself in her. So, you're her biological father, but she'll have a few of my traits. So you could say I am…a third parent."

"Don't worry." Link said, "You saved my wife from certain death and you did the right thing. We'll love her anyway and tell her what happened when she's older."

Krystal hurried up to Fox and fell right into his arms. When she regained her strength, she stood up with shimmering eyes.

"Oh, you're back! All the while you were gone, I thought someone might have killed you." She said, suppressing the tears.

"It's okay. I'm here now. I'm just sorry that I couldn't stay, Krystal. I had to make the whole cosmos a safe place for our family." Fox said, taking one of the twins in his arms.

"I accept your apology." Krystal said, smiling, but with a tear running down her cheek.

The Chaotix Crew raced up to Sonic and gave him a welcome worthy of a hero. They were whooping and cheering like their favorite team won the Super Bowl.

"YOU DID IT, SONIC!" Vector cheered as he and his buddies lifted the blue hedgehog into the air.

"I had total confidence in you." Espio said, obviously trying to hide something.

"YEAH! You da' hedgehog!" Charmy cheered.

"Alright, alright. I like the attention, but could you please put me down?" Sonic asked, uneasily.

The Chaotix did so and then Sonic was met by an ongoing crowd of every character to visit Hyrule from Donkey Kong to Mewtwo. However, the time had come for most things to go where the whole adventure was leading up to. But then Sonic had an idea.

"Hey, guys! Anyone got a camera?" Sonic asked, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Falco, who had just landed in that area, hopped out of his Arwing and answered that question easily.

"Yeah, we got one, blue boy. It's in Great Fox in Peppy's room. You can't miss it." Falco said, pointing to the large ship with his thumb.

"Gotcha!" Sonic said before dashing off.

Mewtwo had slowly gone up to Shadow while everyone else was chattering and was having a telepathic conversation with the black hedgehog.

"Congratulations, Shadow." Mewtwo said, a half-smile crossing his usually dark face.

"What?" Shadow thought, knowing Mewtwo could hear him.

"You have proven yourself worthy of being a hero." Mewtwo answered, "You saved countless lives in the last two years and you defended someone close to you."

"Hmph. It was nothing." Shadow answered, a cocky half-grin on his face.

"Let's be fair, Shadow. You helped bring peace to the universe; I just fought the war." Mewtwo said, a smile on his face, though his eyes didn't shift.

Then came Sonic with the camera. He set it up and aimed the lens at a gathering of every character he met in Hyrule. Pikachu and Kirby were on Donkey Kong's shoulders, Samus had removed her helmet and was smiling right next to the big ape, and the Chaotix Crew were next to her in different poses. Shadow was right near the front with his arms folded and his eyes focused while Mewtwo on his right in a similar pose. Falco, Peppy, and Slippy were near the front of the crowd and Mario was just in front of Peppy. On Mario's immediate left was an empty space, and just on that space's left were Fox, Krystal, Link, and Zelda. Fox and Krystal were holding one of each of the twins while Zelda was holding her daughter and Link had a hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, smile!" Sonic said as he set the timer and sped right over.

The blue blur took his place next to Mario and gave the thumbs' up just before the camera flashed. Several photos of the group shot came out of the camera and Sonic sped away, handing everyone a photograph. Now came the worst part of any story.

"This is it, guys. It's time to say goodbye." Sonic pointed out.

Link looked down, but then Fox spoke up.

"Hey, Link. We'll see you again. Dimensional traveling isn't so difficult now that we've experienced it. We're bound to see Hyrule again." Fox said, a smile on his face.

"That will be the day I look forward to." Link said as he shook his friend's hand.

The Star Wolf Team glared at the Star Fox Team as Wolf stepped forward.

"Of course you realize, as soon as we get home, we're enemies again. Do you understand?" Wolf asked.

"Yeah. We'll be sure Sonic sends you guys AND Ridley back first." Fox answered.

Ridley let out a low, mechanical growl before skulking off and Sonic started to glow with a golden light as the power of the Chaos Emeralds enfused within his body. He positioned his hands so that his palms were facing Star Wolf and Ridley at the same time and in a flash of light, and the words "Chaos Control" all four of them were gone. Then, Sonic activated Chaos Control again and opened up a portal the color of the summer sun.

"Alright, it's time for all of you guys to get going." Sonic told them.

"I'll be seeing you later!" Kirby said as he waved goodbye.

"Take care, Link." Samus said before hopping in after Kirby.

"Friends forever, Link!" Mario said before waltzing into the portal.

"Adios, amigos!" Donkey Kong joked as he lumbered inside.

However, the big monkey went in, but his tie didn't. Then a hairy arm reached out of the portal and took the tie.

"Farewell." Mewtwo said as he floated inside.

"Don't forget to write!" Pikachu said happily as he disappeared as well.

As soon as Pikachu vanished, Fox, along with his team and family, went into Great Fox as Falco leapt into his Arwing and took off. Great Fox produced a strange, green laser that turned into an interdimensional portal and both spaceships vanished in its green light.

Super Sonic turned to Link and his red eyes met Link's blue ones. Strangely, Sonic was smiling.

"It's been a long and crazy journey, Link. But now it's time for me and my buddies to get going." Sonic said, glancing over at the Chaotix and Shadow.

Shadow nodded and the Chaotix were close to follow. They all gathered in a circle around Sonic as his whole body seemed to vanish in light equal to that of the sun. Link shielded his eyes as the intensity of the light increased and then decreased. When the light faded, Sonic was gone and so were his friends.

"Goodbye, Sonic." Link said as he stared into nothingness.

Zelda went up to him, a sorrowful look on her face.

"I know it's not easy, Link. However, we must move on and remember what Fox said. We will see them again someday, but not now." Zelda said in a calming voice, "Now, come on. Let's go home and prepare for family life."

A half-smile crossed Link's face as he slowly got the feeling in his legs back. When he recovered, he continued to go home. If his friends from other dimensions did visit him, he would be prepared for anything.