Sonic Origins

by Ri2

How did Sonic get his super speed? What made Amy fall in love with him? How did the Chaotix become detectives? Why is Rouge both a secret agent and a gem thief? How did Cream and Big meet their pets? Silver the Hedgehog needs to know the answers to these questions, and far more, for the future might depend on it...

6. Shade's Saga

Welcome back! I hope you liked the last chapter, because this one features even MORE echidnas! Well, just the one, but still! It's also longer. Again. Sorry! This is just something that seems to happen when I write, I guess. Anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.

…

Cream gasped and ran towards the armored echidna, hugging her, an excited Cheese squeaking and circling the new arrival. "Shade! I missed you so much!"

The echidna laughed and hugged her back. "I missed you as well, Cream, and everyone else too! To be honest, I wasn't certain if I would ever see you again, what with the time difference between our dimensions and all! Why, you barely look any different from the last time I saw you!" She frowned. "How long has it been since last we saw each other, for you?"

"It's been a couple of years, more or less," Tails said. "How long has it been for you?"

The other echidna shrugged. "I can't be sure, honestly. Time flows differently in my world, after all. It's almost impossible to tell if any time has passed at all, some days...though that might not be the right word for it, either. It certainly FEELS like it's been a long time, but…" She shrugged. "In any event, it is good to see all of you!" She blinked. "Emphasis on 'all.' While I certainly expected I would see a few of you as soon as I appeared, I did not anticipate running into ALL of you, as well as these others whom I am not familiar with…"

"Well, we certainly didn't expect to run into you, either," Vector quipped.

"And to think, you're actually the SECOND transdimensional female echidna to show up today!" Charmy joked.

"We certainly live interesting lives, don't we?" Espio said.

Shade blinked. "The… Second?"

"Long story," Sonic said, stepping forward to embrace the confused echidna. "Let's just say you aren't the first friend we haven't seen in a long time to show up today and leave it at that."

"And CERTAINLY not the first echidna," Shadow said.

"At this rate, Knuckles, your claim of being the last echidna is starting to look a bit false," Rouge joked.

"Tikal's a spirit, and Shade's from another dimension! Doesn't count," Knuckles insisted. "Anyway, yeah, welcome back, Shade! It's good to see you again!"

Shade smiled as she made her way over to the other echidna. "And I, you, Knuckles. Out of all my friends here, I think it is you I missed the most." She leaned over, lips puckering up…

And Rouge coughed. Loudly. Shade blinked. "Oh…wait, you two are still…"

"Um. Yeah," Knuckles said, blushing deeply.

"Oh. I, uh, I would have thought…right. Um. Sorry," Shade said, looking deeply embarrassed.

"It's, um, it's fine," Knuckles said quickly.

"No it isn't," Rouge growled. "What exactly is it that you 'would have thought?'"

Shade winced and glanced away. "I'd, ah, rather not say." Rouge narrowed her eyes.

An awkward silence descended. The two echidnas fidgeted and would not look at each other. "Beloved, could you introduce us to your friend here, please?" Blaze asked pointedly, to break the silence.

Sonic blinked. "Huh? Oh, yeah! Guys, this is Shade, that other echidna we mentioned before. You know, the one from a tribe who was banished to another dimension?"

Silver nodded. "Right, that Nocturnus female. She turned against her leader and helped you guys save the world from him, then helped you liberate the planet from Eggman—who took over while you were in her dimension-before returning to help her people rebuild in her own world?"

"That sums it up rather succinctly," Shade said. "And you are…?"

"Silver the Hedgehog," Silver explained. "I'm from the FYOO-CHURR!"

Shade's eyes widened in amazement. "From the future? I had not thought time travel to be possible! It has certainly eluded our scientists for millennia!"

"Time travel is VERY possible," Silver assured her. "And surprisingly easy, too. You see, what you have to do is…ah, perhaps I shouldn't say. After all, it hasn't been invented in this time…yet."

"If you're from the future, then can you tell me-" Shade started, but Amy cut her off.

"Don't bother, he refuses to tell us anything about what the future is like," the pink hedgehog complained.

"And to make things worse, he keeps nearly slipping up and telling us stuff, only to catch himself at the last minute, which is not only super annoying, but only makes us even more curious about what his time is like and what our futures will be," Charmy griped.

"Yes, I can see how that would be annoying," Shade said, causing Silver to frown.

"We're the Chaotix!" Vector declared, gesturing to his teammates. "I don't believe we've crossed paths before, but we ran into a few of your Marauder colleagues back when you were trying to invade our world."

"Oh yes, I believe you were mentioned in a few of our scouts' reports," Shade recalled.

"Yeah?" Vector asked, perking up at this.

"Yes, they said that if all of Earth's defenders were as incompetent as you, succeeding in our plans would be child's play," Shade said, causing the three detectives to sweatdrop.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Charmy snarked.

"I'm Mighty," the armadillo said, offering a hand. "I'm an old pal of Sonic's. I used to be a member of the Chaotix, but now I'm going to make my own way because they're horrible people and I hate them more than anyone else in the world." The detectives cringed.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mighty," Shade said, shaking the armadillo's hand.

"And I am Blaze, ruler of the greatest kingdom of the Sol dimension and Sonic's paramour," Blaze said.

"So you are from another dimension as well? Which means you must have your own way of traveling between worlds… Fascinating… It is an honor to meet you, your Majesty," Shade said with a graceful bow. "But… Sonic, I thought you and Amy…?"

"Never gonna happen," Sonic said flatly.

"Yes, it will!" Amy insisted.

"No, it really won't," Sonic disagreed.

"Well, at least there's always Dexter," Shade suggested.

"Doesn't exist," Sonic said. "Amy made him up in an attempt to make me jealous. It didn't work."

"Oh," Shade said. "Um...sorry, Amy."

"Don't be! Sonic will be mine one day, I just know it!" Amy said.

"No she won't," Sonic said. Everyone else nodded in agreement. Amy scowled.

"Shade, while it's wonderful to see you again, how did you get back here?" Tails asked. "The last time we saw you, you said you weren't sure if you'd ever be able to get back here due to our dimensions shifting out of alignment."

Shade smirked. "The good thing about dimensions shifting out of alignment is that it means that, eventually, they'll one day shift BACK into alignment, as they have now. We've been tinkering with our warp belt technology ever since I returned to the Twilight Cage to see if we can truly breach the barrier between realms, instead of simply visiting for a short period of time. Once all the conditions were ideal, I volunteered to test the first of the new model belts, since I figured that, if any of you were still around, you'd probably react better to my appearance then another sudden incursion of strange foreign entities."

"That's pretty sensible," Mighty agreed.

"But how did you know to appear here, right in front of us?" Knuckles asked. "That's a pretty big coincidence, don't you think?"

"Given the sorts of things that happen to us all the time? Not really," Shadow said.

"Actually, I had no idea you were even going to be here. My belt was able to transport me here by locking onto the energy signature of a Chaos Emerald, and I figured there was a good chance of me running into one or more of you when I appeared, because Chaos Emeralds seem to have a way of turning up wherever you go, or the other way around," Shade explained.

"She must've locked onto your Emerald, Shadow," Rouge said.

Shadow pulled out a glittering gemstone. "Hmm, that might explain why I felt an energy spike just before she showed up."

"Why didn't you mention that?" Amy asked.

Shadow shrugged. "Omega picked it up first."

"MY-SENSORS-ARE-SUPERIOR-TO-YOURS," the robot bragged.

"So, are you fully 'here,' or are you still carrying a bubble of the Twilight Cage around you?" Tails asked.

Shade shook her head. "No, I'm fully here, in your dimension, thanks to the improvements we've made to the warp belt. Using a Chaos Emerald as an anchor from your end helped immensely, we can hijack its power to pull off a trans-dimensional Chaos Control instead of the temporary 'warp jump' the previous models used. And since this test run was a complete success, that means once I return, we can begin work on bringing everyone else in the Cage back over… And this time, I promise that we won't try to take over the world. I'll make certain of it."

"So you've succeeded in taking over the Nocturnus and putting them on a more peaceful path, then?" Rouge asked. Knuckles perked up at this notion. Tikal had hinted as much, and if Shade had succeeded, that meant there might be hope for his people turning away from their evil nature in the future.

Shade nodded. "With Ix gone, and Scylla and Charyb dismantled, I was the highest ranking member of the clan left, and the only one the other denizens of the Cage respected, thanks to my adventures with you all. It was a simple matter to take over leadership of the Nocturnus with the help of Nestor the Wise." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "It's been a less simple matter actually RUNNING it, and keeping everyone else from going at each other's throats, however. The major reason they all agreed to peace with each other in the first place was to unite against Ix, and with him gone, most of their old grudges and rivalries have resurfaced. Still, I'd like to think I've done a fairly good job of keeping order in the Cage, and hopefully once we release everyone else, they will continue to act on the lessons they've learned, and won't go around destroying planets again, or anything like that."

"So you're going to let out everyone else? The Kron, the Voxai, the N'rrgal, the Zoah…?" Shadow asked.

"The who?" Vector asked.

"The other aliens who were imprisoned in the Cage by Argus," Tails explained.

"She has to let them out!" Cream insisted. "They may have been bad in the past, but they aren't like that anymore! We can't just leave them there! They don't deserve that, nobody does!"

Shade nodded. "Indeed. In fact, we wouldn't have even been able to perfect the new warp belt technology without everyone's help." She smiled ruefully. "Of course, they refused to help us until we guaranteed them that they could come with us, so we didn't have much choice…"

"So pretty soon we're going to have not just one, but five new species appearing in our world? Yeah, that's going to go over well with the world governments…" Mighty murmured.

"Isn't it four? I mean, I'm already here," Knuckles pointed out.

"Yes, but you're a singular echidna. The Nocturnus are an entire nation," Rouge pointed out. "And Mighty is correct, the sudden arrival of five new civilizations, all of whom are incredibly powerful and dangerous, is going to frighten a lot of people. Shade, if you're going to do this, you're going to have to do it delicately. If all of you just show up at once without warning, it could mean a war."

"I understand that," Shade said. "Which is another reason I came first, so that I could meet with your leaders, and hopefully negotiate terms for our return and a place for us all to settle down. The world is a big place, surely there is room for all of us somewhere."

"…That…could be a problem," Sonic said uncomfortably. "While I'm sure there's room somewhere, most places are owned by one country or another, and…we've been invaded by aliens before, and they nearly wrecked the planet, and lots of people still remember that, so…yeah, not gonna lie, it might be hard to convince everyone to let not just a bunch of foreign echidnas who used to be evil, but FOUR alien races, move in."

Shade's face fell. "Oh…I was afraid of that. I'm fairly certain most of them will behave, but the Zoah…yes, I can understand why your leaders might be wary of them…"

"And the Voxai are psychic. Can't forget that. People can get rather paranoid at the thought of someone going around reading minds," Amy added.

"Totally not a problem in my time," Silver said.

"The aliens can't go back to their own worlds?" Blaze asked.

"I'm not certain their planets even exist anymore," Shade said sadly. "Let alone any way for them to get there easily. If they, or we, cannot find a place on this world, I'm not sure where else we can go."

"You could always go to Angel Island," Espio said. "It's not like anyone but Knuckles is using it, and no government or country owns it."

"Hey! That's…actually not a bad idea," said the surprised Knuckles. "I mean, I'm not exactly okay with so many people moving in, but…if they've really got nowhere else to go…well, and it'd be nice to have more company, I suppose. Plus, it might help keep anyone from stealing the Master Emerald if it was known there are five powerful nations living there…plus, it wouldn't exactly be the first time an echidna civilization has been up there…"

"Didn't the last one destroy itself?" Shadow asked. "Specifically because of your father's actions?"

"Well…yeah, but we're not going to let that happen again, right?" Knuckles asked, looking uncertain.

"Again? Father? What are you talking about?" Asked the confused Shade.

"Oh, it turns out that Knuckles is only the last of the echidnas because his father, one of the most important echidnas in the civilization that used to rule Angel Island, enacted some insane scheme to use the Master Emerald to cause the entire species except for one man to ascend to godhood in an attempt to win his ex-wife back, wiping out just about everyone in the process," Sonic said.

"Which wasn't very nice," Cream said firmly.

Shade nodded in understanding. "Ah, yes, that DOES sound like something a high-ranking echidna would do, especially one from a descendent of the Knuckles clan. No offense, Knuckles, but from what I recall of your ancestors, doing something incredibly stupid and self-destructive out of petty selfishness or desire was one of their defining features."

"I probably would be insulted, if that weren't absolutely true," Knuckles grumbled. "Fortunately, I'm nothing like that. Much."

"I assure you, however, we have learned from our mistakes and would not do something so stupid as that again. NONE of us want to do something that would get us banished back to the Twilight Cage again, or worse," Shade assured the other echidna.

"That is a great relief," Knuckles said. And really, it was. In spite of everything Tikal had told him about how awful his species had been in the past, despite how much his faith in his own kind had been shaken by recent revelations, the prospect of being able to live among other echidnas still excited him. And if they really HAD become good now, and would not repeat the same mistakes that had doomed their people again and again and again… Well, that made the prospect of having other echidnas as his neighbors all the more exciting.

"Even if the Nocturnus agreed to leave the Master Emerald off-limits––and really, given what it did to the last civilization that tried to abuse its power, you'd have to be complete idiots not to––can we be absently certain the others won't make a play for it?" Shadow asked warily.

"Well, I'm fairly certain that the Kron, N'rrgal, and Voxai are sensible enough to leave well enough alone…the Zoah, however…" Tails said with a frown.

Amy nodded. "Yeah, I can't see those guys leaving the Master Emerald alone, just because it's so powerful and dangerous it could erase the entire species from existence."

"If anything, that would just make it all the MORE appealing to them!" Rouge agreed.

"I take it the Zoah are your typical militarily-inclined, dominating, proud warrior-race kind of species?" Blaze asked.

"Yep," Sonic said.

The feline sighed. "Oh dear. Those can always be such a bother…"

"Yes, the Zoah WOULD probably be tempted to try and take the Emerald, no matter how many treaties and ceasefires we have with them," Shade admitted. "While the other leaders seem okay with giving peace a chance, General Raxos is…less inclined. But, if he DOES make a move, he'll have to deal with the rest of us, just as we Nocturnus know that if we show any signs of reverting to our old ways the others will similarly gang up on us. A delicate, but—so far—effective system of checks and balances."

"There, you see? It could work!" Knuckles said hopefully.

"Even so, I'm not positive that the world leaders will be happy having five incredibly advanced and powerful species not only having sole access to one of the most powerful and dangerous artifacts in the world, but inhabiting a floating island that is constantly on the move and could, in theory, be transformed into a weapons platform to bombard the world below unopposed," Shadow pointed out.

"That's not going to happen!… Again," Knuckles insisted.

"Again?" Shade asked in confusion.

"Mr. Knuckles' ancestors apparently wiped out a number of species in the past," Cream said sadly. "Those poor dingoes…"

Shade gasped. "The dingoes are no more?! But we were trade partners with them for generations! Many of my people were hoping to check in on them and see if any of their favorite places were still around!"

"Um. Sorry?" Knuckles said sheepishly.

Shade sighed. "The world truly has changed…"

"Is there even room on Angel Island for five civilizations?" Espio asked. "I mean, yeah, it's pretty big, but is it THAT big?"

"I think so. It's not like the colonies were THAT big," Sonic said.

"And the Nocturne can fly, so if they run out of space, they could just anchor it to the side or something," Tails suggested.

"Assuming we even get that far," Rouge reminded them. "Like I said before, this is going have to be handled delicately, which isn't something most of us are exactly suited for."

"SHE-SPEAKS-TRUTH," Omega said.

"I may be able to grease the wheels a bit, though. I have a few…levers I can pull. Favors I'm owed. Blackmail I can exploit. Just leave it to me, and I'll see if I can't get you and your various peoples accepted by the world governments," Rouge promised. "And if that falls through, and Angel Island doesn't work out… I may know of ONE place left for you to go, although… Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Rouge, are you certain-" Shadow asked sharply.

"If they have nowhere else to go, Shadow, can you think of any place better?" The bat asked. He frowned, but did not argue.

"What are you talking about?" Asked the confused Mighty.

"I'll explain when it's my turn," Rouge promised.

"Rouge, if you could secure a home for us, we would be forever in your debt," Shade said gratefully.

Rouge smiled, and there was something oddly sinister with the way she bared her fangs. "Thank you. I'll remember you said that. I may hold you to it…especially the 'forever' part."

Vector blinked. "Okay, am I the only one who just felt shivers go down his spine?"

"No, I felt it too," Espio said.

"And if even THAT fails… Hey, Blaze, do you think you could find a place for them in your world?" Sonic asked.

"I might," the Royal cat said, considering. "However, they would have to swear fealty to me, and agree to be vassal states for my ever-expanding empire."

"That will never happen," Shade said firmly. "We just got through being ruled by one dictator. We will not trade our sovereignty away for another."

Blaze shrugged. "Very well. However, know that if you change your mind… The offer is still on the table. I'm certain I could find SOME use for technology or power the levels of which I've heard you and your allies possess."

"Blaze, when you say things like that I have a hard time convincing myself you aren't evil," Sonic complained.

"Apologies, beloved. But remember, I'm a ruler in a rather harsh and dangerous world. I cannot afford to do something simply because it's nice," Blaze reminded her paramour.

"Given the hints you've dropped so far, I've gotta ask…what, do you come from Westeros or something?" Mighty asked.

"Thankfully, no…but there are places in my world not far off from that, so yes, I must constantly be on vigil to maintain my power and ensure the safety and well-being of my subjects. And if that means conquering the world to make sure nothing will ever threaten them again, then that is what I shall do," Blaze said with a shrug.

Mighty raised an eyebrow, and then glanced at Sonic. "You're SURE she's not evil?"

"Yes," Sonic said. "And even if she is, I'd pick her over some of the other guys in her world, trust me on this. It's not a bad place for the most part… Especially not in the parts she's taken over. That wasn't always the case."

"Now I'm starting to get interested in your origin," Charmy commented.

"Origin?" Asked the confused Shade.

"Oh, right, you just got here, so you wouldn't know," Sonic said. "You're probably wondering why all of us were gathered here in the first place."

"The thought had occurred to me, yes," Shade admitted.

"Well, we were just having a party to celebrate defeating Eggman's latest plot to take over the world, when Silver here," Tails said, nodding at the time traveler. "Appeared to tell us that his enemy, Eggman Nega, was traveling back into our pasts to change history so that we wouldn't be the heroes-"

"Or antiheroes," Shadow corrected.

"Or antiheroes," Tails agreed. "That we are now, so he asked us to tell him about the pivotal moments in our lives that set us on the path to becoming who we are now, so that he could go back in time and undo whatever changes Nega makes to our timelines and ensure our personal histories remain intact."

"So, we've been swapping origin stories since then," Sonic explained. "I told everyone about how I got my super speed in a lab accident."

"Which, coincidentally, was the same experiment that created me in the first place," Tails added.

"Oh, so that's why you have two tails," Shade realized. "I always wondered but wasn't sure if it would be polite to ask."

"I told everyone the romantic true story of how I first fell in love with Sonic!" Amy gushed.

"And then got cursed by a fortune teller," Cream added.

"I WAS NOT!" Amy shouted.

"Yes, she was," Rouge whispered to Shade. Rather loudly. So Amy could hear it. The hedgehog fumed.

"We told the story of how we tried to be superheroes, failed, and became detectives instead!" Vector said.

"And I told the story of how my so-called friends abandoned and ignored me for years so I want nothing to do with them ever again," Mighty snarled. The Chaotix winced.

"Tikal told the story of my ancestors, and of how my father wiped out my entire species in an act of petty jealousy," Knuckles said.

"Tikal? The daughter of Pachacamac?" Shade asked in surprise. "But she should have died, thousands of years ago!"

"She did die. Sort of. She's a ghost, more or less," Charmy said.

"Actually, she's not a ghost so much as an individual who has transcended mortality and is no longer bound by the shackles of time or physical existence," Rouge corrected the bee.

Charmy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

"Oh, I see," Shade said, not looking like she saw at all.

"And we were about to get to the next origin story when you showed up," Silver said. "So now that we've got all that out of the way, perhaps we can-"

"Hey, I've got an idea!" Amy interjected. "Shade, why don't you tell us YOUR origin story?"

"Wait, what?" Asked the startled Silver.

"Yeah, that's a great idea!" Sonic agreed.

"Now, hold on a minute-" Silver protested.

"Please tell us your origin, Miss Shade? Please, please, please?" Cream begged.

"Wait, just a second-" Silver spluttered.

"It would be interesting to learn a bit more about an ancient echidna civilization," Shadow agreed. "We know a bit about the Knuckles clan, and what they became, but we know surprisingly little about the Nocturnus, given that we traveled with one for a while and spent a good chunk of time fighting them."

"Wait! WAIT!" Silver cried.

"Well, I suppose there are a few tales I could relate-" Shade said thoughtfully.

"STOP!" Silver shouted, getting everyone's attention.

"WHAT-IS-THE-PROBLEM?" Omega asked in annoyance.

"Guys, it's YOUR origin stories I need to hear, not hers! Eggman Nega isn't going after HER past! She doesn't need to tell us anything!" Silver insisted.

"No, but we'd LIKE to hear about her past, so shouldn't that count for something?" Rouge asked.

"But… But-" Silver protested.

"Look, it's not like you're in a hurry or anything, right?" Sonic asked. "You're a time traveler, so you can take as long as you need before going after Nega, right?"

"And how would you know? You may have gone on a few adventures through time, but that doesn't mean you know anything about how time travel works!" Silver said indignantly.

"No, but I HAVE noticed that nothing seems to have changed so far, and we've already been at this for quite a while," Blaze pointed out.

"So with that in mind, I don't really see how spending a little more time listening to someone else's story could have a major effect on anything," Tails agreed.

"But… I… That…" Silver spluttered for a few moments before sagging his shoulders, giving in. "Oh, very well!" He snapped. "But she'd better make it fast!"

"Don't listen to him, Shade! You can take as long as you need," Amy assured the other echidna.

"Thank you, Amy," Shade said, thankfully. "Now, where do we start? Well, I'm assuming you already know of the great war between the Knuckles and Nocturnus clan's for dominance over the world, yes?"

"It's come up a few times, yes," Espio said deadpan.

"I was born in the final years of that conflict. There was nothing particularly remarkable about my early childhood," Shade said. "My family was roughly middle-class. My father was a soldier, and my mother an artist. I had a couple of sisters who hated me."

"Why would they do that?" Asked the perplexed Cream.

Shade shrugged. "Either because they believed I stole all our parents' affections, or because they were completely insane. I'm not certain which. We weren't particularly wealthy, but we were able to afford a couple of slaves, so were considered rather fashionable in our neighborhood."

"Wait, slaves?" Sonic asked.

"Er, yes. We were an imperialistic society bent on conquest. We, ah, had a lot of slaves," Shade said, looking abashed.

"I rule an imperialistic society bent on conquest and don't have any slaves," Blaze commented.

"What about-" Tails started.

"Those don't count," the cat said sharply. The fox shrugged and dropped the subject.

"Oh, right! I forgot for a minute that all ancient echidnas were evil jerks," Vector said. "Of course they had slaves!" Knuckles groaned.

"We don't have slaves anymore," Shade said defensively.

"Were you least nice to them?" Cream begged.

Shade licked her lips. "Define 'nice.'"

Everyone groaned. "Evil. Jerks," Vector repeated. Knuckles sighed.

"It was a different time, okay?!" Shade insisted. "Anyway, when I was about Cream's age, I was enrolled in the military."

"But you must have been so young!" Amy said, startled.

"Enrollment in our nation's military was compulsory at an early age," Shade explained. "After spending several years in basic training, you can either opt to return to civilian life––with the knowledge that, if need be, you can be conscripted in wartime––or go on to become a career soldier. With my father in the military, and, naturally, that was the path I eventually chose."

"But that's horrible!" Said the shocked Cream.

"Actually, throughout history there have been plenty of countries who force their citizens to undergo at least some degree of military training. There are even a few that still do that today," Shadow said.

"That doesn't make it any less horrible!" The rabbit said.

Shadow shrugged. "You have to get soldiers from somewhere. Well, unless you make them, anyway."

"LIKE-ME," Omega said.

"Training was… Hard. VERY hard," Shade said, a shadow briefly passing across her face. "The war with the Knuckles clan had gone on for far longer than anyone had expected. Soldiers were dying in droves, and our nigh-invincible Gizoid army had yet to be constructed so they were pushing us as hard and as fast as they could in a desperate attempt to get more warm bodies to throw into the grist to buy time for the higher-ups to find a way to decisively end the conflict."

"How awful…" Cream whispered.

"War rarely is," Blaze said bluntly.

Shade nodded in agreement. "Quite a few trainees broke, unable to deal with what they were putting us through. I almost did as well… But thanks to Babe, I was able to retain my sanity."

"'Babe?'" asked the confused Sonic.

"I didn't know you were into girls, Shade!" said the surprised Amy.

"Wait, but she tried to kiss Knuckles…" said the puzzled Espio.

"Could be bi," Charmy said.

Shade blinked in confusion. "What? No, no, Babe was my pet pig."

"Ohhhhhhhhh," everyone said. There was a pause. "Wait, you had a pet PIG?!" Asked the incredulous Rouge.

"They were all the rage back then!" Shade said defensively. "It was a different time, okay?"

"I'm surprised they let you keep a pet at all, given you were in boot camp," Mighty said.

"When the new, harsher training measures were first implemented, our superiors quickly realized that they might not have been the best idea when the trainees started losing their minds and violently killing each other, their instructors, or themselves. But, instead of dialing things back a bit––we were in a war, after all, and they didn't think they could afford to slack off at all––they got the brilliant idea to give recruits a bright spot in their lives," Shade explained. "Each cadet was allowed to keep one precious individual with them on base. A friend. A loved one. Or, as in my case, a beloved pet. Someone to come home to at the end of the day, a companion to keep us sane and help us remember that there were things worth fighting for."

"Awww, that's sweet!" Amy gushed.

"A trusted and beloved companion, just like you, Cheese!" Cream cooed, patting her pet, who chirped happily.

"Huh, I wouldnt've expected something that halfway decent from one of those old-time echidnas," Charmy commented.

"I would probably be insulted if you weren't probably right," Knuckles said warily. "Where's the catch, Shade?"

Shade's expression darkened. "The catch is when our superiors thought of a way to turn even THAT bright spot into a way to hone us into better killing machines…"

The air began to waver…

"What's that?!" She cried in alarm.

"What? Oh, sorry, that's just a side effect of my machine here," Silver explained, holding up his recorder. "It has the power to project images based on your memories when you tell a story so that we're able to see and hear what you experienced back then."

Shade sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, I thought something had gone wrong with my warp belt and I was being drawn back into the Cage. Still, that is a fascinating device. Something from your time?"

"It is," Silver said. "It's nothing to be afraid of, I promise. You can tell your story."

Should hesitated for moment. "I'm… Not entirely certain I WANT you to see what happened next…"

"Come on, Shade! Tell us!" Sonic urged her.

"Yeah, how bad could it be?" Amy asked.

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Did you really just ask that?"

Shade sighed. "Very well. It happened like this…"

The air started to waver again, and while she cringed, she continued her tale.

…

A much younger Shade the Echidna stood at attention in the middle of a long line of other echidnas, all young recruits like herself, all wearing the black armor with glowing cyan outlines that was characteristic of the Nocturnus military. This was nothing out of the ordinary, she often found herself standing in formation with the others several times a day, sometimes for hours on end; as was the norm for military training.

What was NOT ordinary, however, was how she had been ordered to bring Babe with her, just as all the other recruits had been commanded to bring their precious others out with them. Nothing like this had ever been done before in their memory. Their loved ones were usually confined to quarters or told to keep out of the way so as not to interfere with training. Shade glanced at the echidna next to her, Gae-Na, raising an eyebrow to silently inquire if she had any idea what was going on. The other recruit shrugged, equally puzzled, her hand tightly wrapped around that of her little brother, Cobar, who was sucking on a candy, oblivious to the world around him.

By her feet, Babe oinked softly and nuzzled her ankle, and Shade smiled briefly, giving him a fond look. The last few years of her life had been an absolute hell, and there had been days where, if she hadn't had that soft, warm snout and bright, happy eyes to come home to every night, she'd have killed herself long ago. Her family and other friends had almost faded from her memory. The only thing left to her that truly mattered in this world was the pig next to her. She loved him more than anything else, and could not fathom a world where he did not exist.

…

"That's adorable!" Amy cooed.

"Aww, he sounds just like Cream is to me!" Cream squealed, hugging her Chao tightly.

A somewhat more cynical and savvy Blaze commented, "There is absolutely no way this can possibly end well."

…

"Atten-SHUN!"

Everyone in the courtyard instinctively stiffened in place, staring straight ahead of them, as years of training had drilled into them. Princeps Syntar stalked into view, with several Velite and Hastatus soldiers flanking him. "Cadets," the grizzled veteran who'd been all but torturing them every day for the last several years barked. "You should all be proud of yourselves! When first you entered this base, you were mewling, sniveling worms, crying for your mothers! Now, you are hardened, well-trained killing machines, ready to fight and die for the glory of our clan!"

"FOR GLORY! FOR IX! FOR NOCTURNUS!" Everyone instinctively shouted, saluting, as years of training had drilled into them.

"Not all of you could make it this far," Syntar continued. "There are far fewer of you here than there were when we first started out. The weak and the worthless have been culled and broken, leaving only the strong, the mighty, the truly worthy left to bear the mantle of service to our great civilization! When you graduate tomorrow and leave to fight and conquer for our country, you will not be echidnas, but WARRIORS! I salute you, each and every one of you!"

"SIR, THANK YOU SIR!" Everyone shouted.

Syntar grinned for a moment, and there was something cruel and unspeakably horrifying in the way he smiled. "However, before you can graduate, there is one last little task you must accomplish. One final training exercise for you to pass." He nodded at them. "For reasons I can't possibly fathom, the higher-ups allowed each of you to have a companion to keep you company and give you a shoulder to cry on when training got too hard for you pathetic mommy-loving sissies and allowed each of you to feel like you weren't just a soldier, but still a person underneath all that. That ends now. Before you can graduate, you must do one last simple thing…" His grin turned downright sadistic. "You must kill that companion, that one speck of light in your lives, the one thing that's kept you from becoming true, hardhearted soldiers, in cold blood. You may kill them any way you wish. Cut their throats, stab them in the heart, disembowel them, strangle them, snap their necks… I don't care how you do it, just kill them. And no, this is absolutely not a bluff, or some warped test to see just how loyal you are with us calling you off at the last minute to prove that you'd be willing to sacrifice even those most precious to you if ordered to without actually having to. You are to kill them, and kill them now, and that's an order, and if even one of you refuses, then my friends here will kill you all. Yes, I admit it's a bit of a waste for us to have spent the last few years training you just to kill you, but really, it'll be your fault for squandering all the time and effort we put into making you the echidnas you are." He clasped his hands behind his back. "So, shall we begin?"

…

Everyone stared at Shade in horror. "Seriously?" Asked an incredulous Vector. "SERIOUSLY?!"

"Knuckles, your species is even more evil than I ever imagined," Shadow said flatly to the aghast Knuckles.

"Goddammit! What the hell is WRONG with my people?!" Knuckles shouted.

Shade sighed. "I would say that there was a war on, but we both know that is no excuse. If it's any consolation, that practice fell out of favor eventually due to so many of the soldiers forced to go through with it being so broken that they killed themselves before ever reaching the front lines."

"No, that isn't even remotely a consolation," Mighty said bluntly.

"Why… Why would they tell you to do something like that? That's so horrible!" Said the shocked Amy.

"But… But there's no way anyone could ever possibly be that evil… Right?" A worried Cream asked, hugging the frightened Cheese to her chest so hard he was starting to have trouble breathing.

"Something like that has actually been attempted by several militaries throughout history," Rouge said in disgust. "They seem to think that forcing a soldier to kill the person they love most will make them a more effective warrior. It… Rarely actually works that way, but that doesn't stop them from trying it over and over again, anyway."

"But… Why? Why would they do something so pointlessly cruel?!" Amy demanded.

"Because the people in charge of those armies don't actually care about their soldiers as individuals, just as numbers or warm bodies to throw at their enemies, and so long as they kill as many of their foes as they can before dying themselves, they don't give a shit about their mental health or well-being," Blaze said coldly. "I have fought far too many armies in my world who subscribe to such strategies… Which is actually part of the reason I myself am such a successful conqueror, because not only do I NOT treat my soldiers that way, but the people of the nations I take over are almost ecstatic to have me as their new leader because I DON'T do that to them, and in some cases have overthrown their previous rulers by the time I invade and welcome me into the capital with open arms."

"There are a lot of sick people in the world," Espio said grimly.

"But… But you didn't go through with it, did you?" Cream asked desperately. "You wouldn't do that, you're… You're a good person… You wouldn't hurt someone like that… Right?"

"…" Shade averted her gaze, not wanting to look at Cream's pleading expression. "I wasn't always the person you know now, Cream… And sometimes, there's no choice you can make that isn't awful in one way or another…"

…

Shade stared at Syntar in shock, which slowly turned into outrage. For the last several years, the Princeps had made every waking moment of her life a hell, and now he wanted to force her to kill the one thing that had made boot camp bearable?! No! She wouldn't stand for it, and neither would her peers! Sure, if they rebelled, some of them would die––their opponents were older and more experienced than them––but there were more of them than they, so they could eventually overwhelm them with sheer numbers! Blood boiling, she waited for one of the others to echo her feelings, to vocalize what she was sure there were all feeling, to declare that no, they would not do this, this was a step too far!

Syntar casually spoke. "Cadet Xenin?"

There was a pause, and then, from the far end of the line, there was a strangled scream.

Shade's heart skipped a beat. No…Xenin LOVED Floren-Ca, surely he wouldn't-

"Cadet Misty-Re?"

Another scream. Shade was frozen in disbelief and horror, too stunned to turn to look—or break formation—but out of the corner of her eye, she could see a crumpled body lying next to Misty-Re further down the line, the pretty female staring straight ahead with a dead look on her face, blood dripping from her Leech Blade.

And it was then, as Syntar called out names, each punctuated with a scream or grunt or gasp followed by silence, Shade realized that this was really happening. Her fellow cadets were murdering the people or creatures they loved most in the world. How could they do this? After everything they'd been through, how could they possibly do this?! Why wasn't anyone stepping forward?! Why wasn't anyone protesting?! Why wasn't anyone running away?! Why were they all just standing there, even the victims?! Why wasn't anyone DOING anything?!

And why wasn't she?

She knew the answer, of course. They were scared, every single one of them. Nobody wanted to make the first move. Nobody wanted to be singled out. Everyone was just desperately waiting and praying for someone else to take the initiative, so that they could feel justified in following their example. Well, that, and they were so conditioned to follow authority from all of the harsh training they'd undergone over the last few years, it might not actually be possible for any of them to disobey a direct order, even if they wanted to. Ironic, that training meant to make them soldiers who had no qualms with sacrificing themselves to kill their enemies also made them too terrified to step out of line.

But if even one person refused… Even one… She was sure that the others would follow. They would know not to be afraid. They would know they didn't have to do this. Yes, it might get them all killed, but they were PEOPLE dammit, not machines that couldn't think or feel for themselves!

Nobody refused. Nobody protested. Syntar continued calling names, and the cadets continued killing.

It was all up to her, Shade realized. If nobody else was willing to do something, then she would just have to do it herself. No matter what the consequences, she could not kill Babe. She could not harm her closest friend, even if he was just a lowly, unintelligent pig. His heart more than made up for that. She licked her lips, steeled herself, opened her mouth, hesitated, and steeled herself again, prepared to speak-

And suddenly Syntar was before her. "Cadet Shade?" He asked.

Shade's words died on her lips. Her voice escaped her. Her thoughts scattered. All she could see, all she could hear, all she could think about was the echidna filling her view, just as he had filled her life every day since she had first come to this terrible place.

Syntar frowned. "Cadet Shade?"

One word. Just one word! Two letters, one syllable! So simple! One of the easiest words in the world to say! Say it! SAY IT!

"Cadet Shade?" Syntar repeated, a dark look on his face.

Suddenly, Shade found that she had drawn her Leech Blades and was looming over Babe. How had that happened? When had she done that? What was she doing? Babe blinked and looked up at her innocently, a blissfully naïve expression on his face, his black beady eyes filled with nothing but blind, naked trust and love. She trembled. Her vision swam. Her heart palpitated. Her breath turned shallow.

"Cadet Shade, kill the damn pig already!" Syntar snapped. "Stop wasting my time and-"

He never finished the sentence, on account of the glowing energy blade buried in his sternum. It took a long moment for Shade to realize the blade was attached to her arm. She was just as surprised by this as Syntar was, from the look of disbelief on his face. His mouth opened and closed a few times like a fish. Blood dribbled down his chin, his eyes rolled back in his skull, and he fell backwards, hitting the ground with a dull thud, blood welling up from the wound in his chest.

…

Everyone stared Shade in astonishment. "… Holy crap," Sonic said.

"I'm… Honestly not certain whether I should be impressed that you did that or appalled that it went on that long," Tails said.

"You just…killed the guy?! Dang!" said an amazed Charmy.

"HE-HAD-IT-COMING," said an unsympathetic Omega.

"I don't understand… Why did it take so long for anyone to do something? Why didn't anyone but Shade do anything before that?!" Amy demanded.

"Basic psychology," Shadow said. "Shade herself pointed it out…nobody did anything because they were all scared and waiting for someone else to do something. It happens all the time. It's why a woman can be beaten to death in the streets in in a big city in the middle of the night, with dozens of witnesses, and nobody lifts a finger to help her or call the cops because they're all waiting for someone else to take the first step. Not everyone can be a hero like us, after all."

"Yeah? Well, if I'd been there, I have done something a lot sooner!" Amy insisted.

"You weren't there," Shade said flatly. "You don't know what it was like, to have to go through what we did, day in and day out. You don't know what it was like. If you had, you might be singing a different tune. Like Shadow said, not everyone can be a hero. I certainly wasn't. If I were, I might have done something sooner, or it might have found a way to-" She cut herself off, a pained look on her face.

"Am I old enough to be hearing this?" Cream asked nervously, holding Cream in a bone crushing grip. The Chao was too scared himself to protest.

"Probably not," Shade admitted.

"Sweetie, would you like me to take you away for a bit so you don't need to hear the rest of this?" Rouge asked the rabbit gently. "Your mother would be very upset with us if you got nightmares from something that happened on our watch."

"Oh, yeah! And we wouldn't want that, no sir!" Vector agreed seriously.

Cream swallowed. "N-no, it's fine. I-I can handle it. I-I'm a big girl. A-and besides, it's…it's not like it could get worse. The bad part's over, right?"

Shade grimaced. "Yeah, somehow I don't think so," Mighty said.

Blaze nodded. "Stories like these rarely end well."

…

A shocked silence fell across the courtyard. Everyone stared at the dead Princeps in disbelief, though after a few minutes those stunned gazes turned to Shade instead. The Velites and Hastatus started, then reached for their weapons…

And suddenly, a slow clap rang out across the courtyard, causing everyone to jump in surprise. A white-furred echidna wearing long purple robes with glowing light blue designs on them, a golden collar, thick golden bracers on his gloves, gold and purple boots, and wielding a golden staff with a hollow gear missing a segment on the top in one hand stepped into view, flanked by a handful of Praetorians. A low gasped arose from the throats of the gathered echidnas, and they instinctively got down on one knee. Imperator Pir'Oth Ix, supreme ruler of the Nocturnus clan, had arrived.

…

Sonic groaned. "Oh great, not THAT asshole!"

"His first name was Pir'Oth? What kind of name is that?" Asked a befuddled Charmy.

"They're a different culture. Our names probably seem just as odd to them," Tails pointed out.

"So he's the guy you beat in the Twilight Cage before coming back to liberate the world from Eggman, right?" Mighty asked.

"Yeah, I had to go Super to fight him, after which he just sort of… Disappeared," Sonic said with a frown. "Come to think of it, we never DID figure out what happened to him, did we?"

"Shade, did you run into him again after you went back to the Cage?" Shadow asked.

"I did not," Shade confessed. "There's been an active manhunt for him ever since I took power, but… We haven't found him yet. There's no trace of him anywhere. Granted, the Cage is a pretty big place, but most of it is a void. There can't be too many places for him to hide." She shrugged. "Still, if he returns, we will be ready for him. All five races of the Cage want him dead. Ix is incredibly powerful, but he's still only one man, and should be no match for our combined might."

"Unless he finds some greater source of power in the depths of the Cage and comes back for revenge," Blaze pointed out. "That sort of thing happens all the time. Trust me on this."

Shade grimaced. "The thought has crossed our minds, yes. Hopefully, if he ever DOES return, we'll be ready."

"Hey, if you ever need a hand, you know where to find us," Sonic said seriously.

Knuckles nodded in agreement. "We defeated him once, we'll do it again if need be."

Shade smiled gratefully. "Thank you for that." She sighed. "A shame we couldn't have had heroes of your caliber back in those days…"

"What was he doing there, anyway?" Amy asked.

"Well…" Shade said.

…

"I must say, when I agreed to attend today's culling, I honestly wasn't expecting anything exciting to happen," Ix commented as he walked over, his bodyguards trailing closely behind. "I certainly wasn't expecting anything like THIS to happen," he said, staring down at Syntar. He kicked the deceased echidna in the sides, a wry smirk on his face. "Never liked that asshole anyway… You are to be congratulated, young one. You have surprised me, and that is not something that happens very often. What was your name again?"

"Sh-Shade, sir," Shade said, eyes wide in reverence. She could not believe it. Imperator Ix, the absolute ruler of her civilization, was addressing her, a lowly recruit! Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, and she struggled to keep herself from fainting from a queer mix of awe and terror that came from being in the presence of one who she was raised from birth to view as akin to a God.

…

"A God? Really?" Espio asked skeptically.

"It's not an uncommon practice, actually, for a dictator to establish a cult of personality so that their subjects view them as deities or the closest thing there is to them," Tails explained.

"I have seen such things in my world, as well… Though in some cases, the dictator IS a God, or fairly close to one," Blaze said. "In fact, there are quite a few people who venerate me as a deity, and they may be somewhat justified to see me that way given what I am…I do not encourage such practice, but then again, I suppose I don't exactly try very hard to dissuade it, either, so long as my 'faithful' don't go out of their way to hurt anyone."

"…'Given what you are?' What, are you a god or something?" asked a puzzled Mighty.

Blaze opened her mouth to answer, paused for a moment, and finally said, "No, not…not exactly…"

"…The fact that you actually had to think about that doesn't fill me with confidence," Espio said.

"I'll explain when it's my turn," Blaze promised.

"God? Please…no way she's a god…a demon, maybe, but no god…" Amy growled to herself.

Blaze's ears twitched, overhearing, and she smiled faintly. Actually, that's not too far off…

"Ix had a fairly decent claim on our faith as well," Shade continued. "He had ruled our clan for longer than anyone could remember, and possessed power on a seemingly cosmic scale… Other cultures and religions worshipped and venerated distant and unknowable gods. We worshiped and venerated Ix, and thought ourselves superior because he was right there. From a very early age, we were instructed to believe in and obey him." She grimaced. "Which, of course, made what happened next all that much worse…"

…

Ix shook his head in bemusement. "Shade. I will remember that name. Shade, you have surprised me today, and that is not something which happens very often. I've attended dozens of ceremonies just like today's, and watched hundreds of young echidnas just like you being ordered to murder the only person or creature who gave them any sort of stability or love since training started in cold blood. Now, how many young recruits do you suppose resisted, just like you did a moment ago?"

"I-I can't begin to imagine, Excellency," Shade stammered.

"Zilch. Zip. Nada. Goose egg. Zero. Not a SINGLE echidna said no until today." He shook his head, chuckling in disbelief. "When this training method was first brought up, you'd be surprised to hear how many people, even among the higher-ups, thought it was too cruel or pointless, saying that there was no way anyone could possibly kill the person they love just because a superior officer told them too. Even I was certain that a good number of the trainees would rebel, and I'm not exactly a person who is particularly optimistic or puts much faith in love or the power of the echidna spirit myself. And yet, until just this moment, absolutely nobody dared to refuse. Every single echidna that was ordered to murder their loved ones did so without hesitation or compunction. Oh, yes, they all felt absolutely horrible about it afterwards and probably suffered crippling lifelong psychological trauma as a result, but they still went through with it, every single one of them. It probably says something about our training methods, or probably just what sort of people we echidnas really are deep down. What, exactly, that is, I'm not sure, but I doubt it's very pleasant. Even I shudder to think about it too much, and I'm self-aware enough to know that I'm not exactly the nicest of individuals." He gave Shade an appraising look. "And then you come along and kill your superior because he told you to slaughter your pig. Your pig! Not your lover or family member or best friend, but a common animal! Out of hundreds and hundreds of young echidnas, only you disobeyed orders—and killed a superior officer!—for the sake of an inferior, unevolved mammal. You are remarkable, Shade. Unique. One of a kind. Special." He frowned. "I am not certain those are good things, especially not for a common soldier. Tell me, Shade, why did you do it? What drove you to such unthinkable extremes? What is it that makes you so different from everyone who's come before you?"

"I-I do not know, Excellency," Shade said honestly. "All I knew is that… That I did not want to kill Babe, so…"

"So you murdered your superior," Ix finished.

"…Yes," she said helplessly.

"Hmmph. interesting," Ix murmured to himself. "So you don't know what makes you special, either… I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Well, that just leaves one question remaining: what to do with you. On the one hand, you've demonstrated a level of initiative, courage, and personal strength I haven't seen from a trainee in a very long time… you INTRIGUE me, Shade, and that's not something I can say for a lot of people. On the other hand, you murdered your superior officer for a pig. A PIG. And if you're willing to kill a superior for a pig, you might be willing to kill another superior someday for something else. Heck, you might even try to kill me one day! Not that you'd ever succeed, of course, but you might certainly try, which would be inconvenient for the both of us, I think."

…

"Heh, if only he knew," Sonic quipped.

"This is what is known as 'dramatic irony,'" Tails said.

...

"M-my Lord! I-I would never, not you-" a horrified Shade protested.

"Yes, yes, you say that NOW, but… A few years down the line, who's to say what sort of person you might become?" Ix said dismissively, unwittingly creating more dramatic irony. "That, and I'm fairly certain that it would set a bad precedent if I didn't have a soldier executed for killing their superior officer. Plus… I don't know why, but something about you, some intuition suggests that if I let you live, it'll mean trouble for me down the line." He rubbed his chin. "Hmm… What to do, what to do… Any suggestions?"

"You should kill her, sire," one of Ix's bodyguards said.

"I wasn't asking you, I was asking HER!" Ix snapped, pointing at Shade.

"M-me?!" she stammered.

"Certainly. It's your life we're talking about here, it's only fair that you have some say in what happens to it," Ix reasoned. "Well, Shade? What do you think I should do with you?"

Shade swallowed. The obvious answer, of course, was to plead for her life. Somehow, however, she did not think that was the answer he was looking for. After some thought, she finally said, "Whatever you think best, Excellency. You are the Imperator and leader of our people, and whatever decision you make is, by default, the correct one."

He frowned at her for a moment, and then smirked. "A good answer. A bit brown nosing, but a good answer nonetheless. Hmm… All right, I've made up my mind. There's a possibility I'll regret this later, but… Something about you interests me, and I find myself curious to see how you will develop, if given the chance." He glanced at the corpse at his feet. "We currently have an opening for a Princeps right now. How would you like the job?"

Shade's eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat. "Th-that would be wonderful, Excellency!"

Ix smiled. "Capital! Ah, however, there's just one slight sticking point. I can't exactly look as if I'm playing favorites, or allowed you to go unpunished for killing a superior officer no matter how much you interest me, so… I'm afraid the pig has to go."

Shade froze, hope dying within her. "Excellency?"

"Fulfill your late superior's final order and kill the pig, Princeps Shade," Ix commanded. "Prove your loyalty and show me that I've made the right decision in sparing your life. Kill the pig, or else I shall kill you, and then the pig. It's a simple choice, really. Oh, and I don't recommend you trying to kill me like you did the last guy who gave you that order, I can assure you it won't end quite the same way."

Shade stared at Ix for a long moment. She swallowed. A few half-formed protests and pleas began to form, but they died before they ever reached her lips. There was no point in uttering them. She knew they would not be heeded.

Babe oinked and nuzzled her, oblivious to the emotional turmoil raging within her. She stared down at her beloved pet and companion, feeling like she should cry but unable to due to her training beating all the tears out of her. She glanced at her Leech Blade, still dripping with Syntar's blood, knowing that in moments more blood would join it.… And it would not be echidna's blood. Despite Ix's warning, she knew that she could not turn her blade on him. The very idea was unthinkable. He was the Imperator, the supreme ruler of her people, practically a living god. No mere mortal weapon could possibly harm him, even if she wanted to, which she did not, no matter how much a part of her wanted to hate him at that moment. She was raised from birth to serve and obey him. She knew she could not really defy him, not like she'd defied and killed Syntar.

Ix was right. The choice was, in the end, incredibly simple. Horrific, but simple nonetheless. She leaned down and kissed Babe on the forehead, staring into his innocent, trusting eyes one last time. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

She slit his throat. She wanted it to be quick. She continued to stare into his eyes as the light faded from them and his life drained from his body in a great red puddle oozing out from his plump form, staining her boots and the floor of the courtyard. She realized in that moment Babe would be the first of many whom she would kill, and he was the last she would feel any remorse over. In that moment, she knew what it was like to become a monster.

"Very good," Ix complimented her as she stared listlessly at the cooling body of her closest friend, blood dripping from her blade. "You know, for a second there I wasn't really sure you were going to do it. You surprised me again, Princeps. I look forward to seeing what other surprises you have for me in the future." He nodded at one of the Praetorians. "Take her to get fitted for her new armor and prepare her for officer-level training. And have the pig taken to my chefs, I have a sudden hankering for ham tonight."

As the Praetorian gently led the catatonic and largely unresponsive Shade away from the line of fellow recruits—or rather, those who were once her fellows-she could hear Ix say, "Right, now, where were we…oh, yes. Cadet Gae-na?"

The last thing Shade heard before she left the courtyard was a cry of agony and little Cobar's body hitting the floor.

…

Everyone stared at Shade in horror and pity. "… Holy shit," Charmy said finally.

"I think that backstory was so dark it may come close to beating your own, Shadow," Rouge said in disbelief.

"It's not a contest," he said darkly.

"I… Okay, I think Ix just shot to the top of the list of evilest villains we've ever fought," said an incredulous Amy.

"I have encountered eviler, but not by much," Blaze agreed.

"And you thought you could redeem this guy?!" Sonic asked Knuckles.

"I didn't know he was that evil!" Knuckles protested. "Shade didn't say he was THAT bad! Shade, why didn't you tell me he was THAT bad?"

Shade sighed. "Because you seemed so happy to finally be able to encounter members of your own kind, and had so much trouble believing that there was… Well, so much EVIL in our pasts… I didn't want to crush your hopes." She shrugged helplessly. "That, and I suppose that deep down a part of me was still hoping that Ix could indeed be redeemed. Despite everything he'd done, he was our leader and a part of our way of life. Turning against him, acknowledging that he was perhaps NOT the best thing for our race, was probably the hardest thing I ever did, even harder than… Than killing Babe…" Knuckles grimaced at that.

"How… How could you?" Cream whispered, trembling, tears running down her face as she clutched a frightened Cheese so hard it looked like he was having trouble breathing. "How could you do something so terrible?!"

Shade flinched. "Cream, I… It was either him or me. I didn't… I didn't have a choice. Or rather, I did, but… it was either I kill him, or both of us die. There was no other way. Sometimes, there are nothing but bad options."

"I… I understand that," Cream confessed. "I understand that there was nothing else you could have done, but… But…" She squeezed her eyes shut and hugged her Chao tighter. "I can't… I just can't comprehend doing something so awful… I would never, NEVER kill Cheese! Even if it meant I might die!"

Shade laughed bitterly. "When your back is up against the wall, you'd be surprised at just how many things you swore you'd never do suddenly look so very appealing…but I do not blame you for hating me for killing Babe. A part of me still hates myself for it, and always will."

"I don't… I don't hate anyone," Cream insisted. "I understand that you did what you had to do, but… I-I think I need to think about this for a while. I'm sure I can accept and forgive you for it eventually, but…"

"Not right now," Shade said sullenly.

Cream shook her head apologetically. "B-but I will get over it eventually, I'm sure!" she said quickly. "And…and I know one person I'll never, ever forgive!"

"Yeah, that Ix guy was one real nasty piece of work," Mighty commented. "Why didn't you guys kill him?!"

"He disappeared after we defeated him, remember?" Sonic said. His face darkened. "However, I assure you, that if we ever run into him again… I'm going to make damn well sure he doesn't get away again."

The others nodded in agreement. "I know quite a few places they'll never look for his body," Rouge said.

"ASSUMING-THERE'S-ANY-LEFT-WHEN-WE'RE-THROUGH," Omega said grimly.

Shade smiled gratefully. "Thank you, my friends. I was worried that… That after you heard what I done…"

"Don't worry, Shade," Sonic assured the other echidna. "We don't hate you for what you did. It's Ix's fault, not yours!"

"Though the fact that you just killed a pet instead of a person probably helps," Espio said. Cream glared at him. "Well, most of us, in any event."

"Yeah, it'd be a bit trickier if you killed someone," Vector agreed. "Speaking of which, what, uh, what happened to the other recruits who had to? Like, uh, that girl who murdered her brother?"

Shade grimaced. "Well, they'd probably intended to die in battle, but not too long after that the Knuckles Clan wiped themselves out and the war was over before they even reached the frontlines. A great many of them… Killed themselves upon realizing that it had all been for nothing. A great number of the surviving soldiers who'd had to undergo that training regime did, in fact, which had two effects: it finally convinced the higher-ups that maybe they'd gone a little too far and dialed back the intensity of basic training after that, and started production of the Gizoids, an army of mass-produced robot soldiers to replenish our sorely depleted military in the aftermath of the war. While it was more expensive to build a Gizoid than to train a soldier, it could be done in shorter time and on a larger scale, and since many of the other civilizations of that time believed that we were in a vulnerable position now that we were no longer locked in battle with the Knuckles clan, we felt we needed to build back up our forces as swiftly as possible."

"And because Ix wanted to take over the world," Shadow said.

"And because Ix wanted to take over the world, yes," Shade said.

"What a dick," Charmy complained.

"As we waged war with more and more nations, our Gizoid technology grew more and more sophisticated to keep up with the weapons our enemies were constantly developing to oppose us," Shade continued. "This eventually led to the development of an experimental super Gizoid with the ability to harness the powers of the Chaos Emeralds and a artificial intelligence a generation or two more advanced than those of his kindred. I believe he is the one you've named 'Emerl.'"

"Gemerl now, actually," Tails corrected.

"Did you know him back then, Shade?" Knuckles asked.

Shade nodded. "I did. Even though we started gearing our military more towards Gizoid production, there was still a great need for echidna soldiers and warriors like myself. I excelled and rose through the ranks, eventually achieving the rank of Procurator and earning Ix's favor and respect. Ix assigned me to be Emerl's handler, to make sure he obeyed orders, fulfilled his missions properly, and most of all to make sure that nothing went wrong with his advanced artificial intelligence, which might require him to be… Terminated for the good of our civilization. I doubt he remembers me- which is probably for the best-but I would not mind seeing him again, if that would be alright with you?"

"I… Think that would be okay," Cream said, brightening up slightly. "I'm sure he'd be interested to learn more about the sort of person he was back then!"

Shade flinched. "That… Might not be for the best. Remember, Cream, he was designed to be a weapon. He… Did a lot of terrible things. Far, FAR worse than killing a beloved pet." She sighed. "After all, it is, albeit indirectly, because of him that we were all banished to the Twilight Cage in the first place…"

"'Indirectly?' I thought Argus banished you guys because you made Emerl too powerful?" Asked the confused Sonic.

"We WERE banished because we made him too powerful," Shade explained. "But it is not because of Emerl himself that we were banished, but rather, how we reacted to what he could do. It is a grim tale, and by the end of it, I'm sure you will all agree that we fully deserved to be sent to the Cage. Do you still wish to hear it?"

"I've already pretty much made up my mind that your entire civilization and species deserved to be sent to another dimension anyway, so why not?" Espio said.

"And besides, it can't be as bad you murdering your own pig… Right?" Mighty asked uncertainly.

Shade sighed. "You'll have to judge for yourself… It happened like this…"

…

The air was filled with cheers and shouts of exultation. Fireworks exploded in the blue skies and banners and flags bearing the Nocturnus sigil were draped from just about every building in the city. The citizens were lining the streets en masse, cheering and throwing prizes and gifts and flower petals at the soldiers marching resolutely on parade, the Nocturne's guards only just able to hold back the adoring throng and keeping them from overwhelming the conquering heroes, just returned from their latest triumphant sacking of an enemy civilization.

But if the shouts for the homecoming warriors were loud, they were absolutely deafening for the Nocturnus' newest and greatest champion, the super-Gizoid Gladius-

…

"Gladius?" Rouge questioned.

"That is what we called him back then," Shade explained.

"Oh," the bat said.

…

Gladius, who looked resplendent as he stood in the back of a grand gilded chariot pulled by ragged and sweaty slaves—the ruling class of the nation he had just gotten back from annihilating—

…

"Seriously?" Vector deadpanned.

"It was how we did things back then!" Shade said defensively.

…

The sun gleamed off his highly-polished mustard-yellow and orange body, his red cape billowing behind him, his bright blue eyes gleaming happily as he waved to the cheering public, though the exultation was somewhat mitigated by the slave standing next to him—the only daughter of the ruler of the nation he'd just gotten back from annihilating, now so thoroughly beaten and broken as to be almost unrecognizable—whispering "Remember you are mortal. Remember you are mortal. Remember you are mortal," into his auditory sensors.

"Procurator Shade, why must I allow this slave to whisper in my receptors? It is rather annoying," Gladius complained.

Shade, standing next to him, her own polished black armor gleaming in the sunlight, said, "It is custom, Gladius. Whenever a great general or hero returns to the city for their triumphal procession after a great victory abroad, there is always a slave there to whisper in their ear to remind them that, for all their great prowess in battle and success at war, they are, ultimately, mortal."

"But I am NOT mortal," Gladius argued. "I am a machine!"

"That does not mean you cannot be destroyed," Shade pointed out.

"None could destroy me! I am the greatest fighter this planet has ever seen!" Gladius boasted. "Even the Imperator has lost to me a few times when we spar!"

Biting her lip at that, deciding not to think about that too much, Shade said, "Just because nobody can defeat you NOW doesn't mean that nobody will ever be able to. Technology is always advancing, after all, and there are many beings of great power out in the universe. While your abilities will probably give you a leg up on most of them, there is always a chance that one day you will be destroyed, and, ultimately, forgotten, as so many other great generals and heroes throughout history have been. The slave is here to remind you of that, and to keep you humble. Even if you were designed to be a perfect weapon, that does not mean you are, in fact, perfect."

"I suppose not," Gladius said grudgingly. "I SHOULD be, though. Perhaps after I collect all seven Chaos Emeralds…"

"We'll deal with that when the time comes," Shade said uneasily. While she'd been assured repeatedly by both Gladius, Ix, and the Gizoid makers that Gladius was absolutely loyal and would never turn on them, a part of Shade could not help but worry. He was very powerful on his own, and that power seemed to be amplified exponentially with every Emerald they'd obtained so far since Gladius was created. And he constantly surprised her with how intelligent he seemed, even more so than many of the other Gizoids, who weren't exactly imbeciles themselves. If he were to ever get all seven, would he be powerful enough to decide he didn't NEED to obey his programming or masters anymore?

…

"Considering he nearly destroyed the world the last two times he got all seven, the answer is 'yes,'" Shadow said bluntly.

"It wasn't his fault! The power overwhelmed him! And Eggman did something to him both times, too…" Cream insisted.

Shade blinked in surprise. "Wait, Gladius—er, Emerl—got all seven Emeralds and nearly destroyed the world TWICE?!"

"Yeah, and I stopped him both times. No biggie," Sonic said.

Shade stared at the blue hedgehog in disbelief. "… You fought the second-most powerful weapon my civilization ever devised at its full strength, TWICE, and WON?!"

"Yep!" Sonic said. "And the first time, I didn't even need to go Super!"

"Yeah, we kind of destroy ultimate super weapons of ancient civilizations a lot," Tails said.

"I destroyed one I found in my backyard just last week!" Cream added.

"It is a regular pastime for myself as well," Blaze said.

"Why do so many ancient civilizations build so many weapons of mass destruction, anyway?" Amy complained.

"Well, it's not as if modern civilization is exactly innocent of that crime, either… I mean, we've got all those nuclear weapons and airships and robot armies being used by multiple countries, the arms race to come up with technology to combat Dr. Eggman and other threats, a planet-destroying cannon in orbit…" Rouge pointed out.

"People like having bigger and better guns than everyone else," Shadow said. "I should know. I have lots of guns."

"AND-I-AM-PRACTICALLY-MADE-OF-GUNS," Omega agreed. Dozens if not hundreds of ports and panels opened all over his body, revealing so many nozzles and barrels and warheads it was almost impossible to make the robot out beneath them all. "SEE?"

"That probably says something about the psychology of people in general," Vector said sagely.

"That we like blowing things up?" Charmy guessed.

"Pretty much, yeah," the crocodile said.

"…The world has truly become a different place since we left," Shade said finally. She frowned. "Or maybe it hasn't… I'm not sure which is more troubling."

"Hold on a minute… Shade, you said Emerl was your civilization's SECOND most powerful weapon," Espio said. "But I thought that he was supposed to be the most powerful Gizoid you ever made, and the reason your people were banished to the Twilight Cage?"

"Emerl was the strongest Gizoid we ever made, but our most powerful weapon, it…while I suppose it could be classified as a Gizoid, what it actually was, it…" Shade shuddered. "I shall explain when the time comes."

…

The triumphal procession took them all over the city, allowing as many of the inhabitants a chance to see the returning soldiers as possible before finally taking them to the base of the pyramid which was the center of government for the entire Nocturnus Clan as well as the palace Imperator Ix called home. The Imperator was seated in his mobile Power Throne atop an elaborate dais set up before the pyramid with various standards and banners depicting the Nocturnus sigil and other various important signs and symbols draped over the structure or projected as holograms big enough for everyone in the Nocturne to see, including a giant screen showing Ix himself and his retinue. Said retinue included numerous military and government officials, the great sage Nestor the Wise, Ix's Gizoid Guardian bodyguards, and Prefects Scylla and Charyb, a pair of advanced (though not as much so as Gladius) Gizoids constructed to aid in running the government rather than fight on the battlefield. This was not to say that they COULDN'T fight, in fact, they were both incredibly powerful combatants, but they preferred to leave the dirty work of battle to the soldiers and lesser Gizoids, and looked down on (and envied) Gladius for 'wasting' his advanced abilities on something as plebian as warfare instead of something more productive.

"Welcome, welcome all!" Ix said beneficially, a benign smile on his face. "Thanks to your efforts, brave warriors of the Nocturnus clan, yet another of our enemies has been destroyed, and still more territory has been added to our burgeoning empire! At this rate, we shall rule the entire world in no time at all, and the children of the next generation will have you brave echidna and Gizoid soldiers to thank for the creation of the future where our kind can live in peace and prosperity! You are to be commended, and honored for your courage and sacrifice!"

A great cry rose from the rank and file at that, starting with the soldiers closest to the dais and going back down the procession extending down the streets into the city below, their shouts and cheers deafening all around them. Ix raised his arms, and silence swiftly descended upon the city once more. "For your part in this latest great victory, each and every single one of you shall be rewarded… Beginning with my Champion, the mighty Gladius, the finest warrior and weapon our civilization has ever produced! Come forward, Gladius, and receive your reward!"

As more cheers rang out in honor of the Nocturnus Clan's mightiest warrior and hero, Gladius exited the chariot and ascended the dais, using the backs of several slaves who had quickly rushed into place to form an unbroken line between the chariot and dais as stairs without ever touching the ground, Shade quietly following in his wake. Gladius took a few steps forward upon mounting the dais before kneeling before Ix, bowing his head to his Lord and master. Shade knelt as well, a few steps behind the robot. "Imperator Ix, I have returned."

"So we can see," Prefect Charyb said dryly, the white and blue Gizoid folding his arms with an unimpressed look on his face.

"How'd it go, little brother? Did you have a good time mercilessly slaughtering inferior warriors who didn't stand a chance against you?" Scylla—white and orange to contrast his brother-sneered.

"I did, indeed," Gladius said, refusing to rise to their insults. "As I have been instructed to, I burned down their cities, tore down their homes, salted their fields, slaughtered their men, raped their woman, put their children in chains-"

"Wait, wait," said the startled Ix. "Say that again?"

Gladius would have blinked if he had eyelids. "Er, I put their children in chains… they're at the back, along with all the other slaves we captured, if you want to see them-"

"No, no, before that," Ix insisted.

"I raped their women," Gladius repeated, looking confused.

Ix, and everyone else on the dais, stared at the robot in confusion. "Er…how? I was led to believe you did not have the necessary…parts," Ix said awkwardly. "Unless there was something about your design specs I missed? I'm aware that we gave the right… Necessary parts to Gizoids designed for prostitution, but I didn't think that you…"

"No, he lacks the necessary parts," Charyb said.

"WE certainly don't, and I see no reason why he should have them," Scylla said scornfully.

"Oh, I didn't have the necessary parts… So I grew them," Gladius explained.

Everyone stared at the robot again. "You… Grew them," Ix said vaguely.

"Yes," Gladius said. "May I show you?"

"Um… Very well…" Ix said uneasily, feeling totally lost.

Gladius stood up, the metal plates on the front of his pelvis rearranging themselves, and then…

Everyone stared once again. Several people around the city, watching on their televisions or the big hologram, fainted. Others started drooling. "Well," Charyb said after a moment, dumbfounded. "Those are certainly the necessary parts."

"Are… Are those FUNCTIONAL?!" Scylla asked incredulously.

Gladius nodded. "Oh, yes. I experimented with slaves, prisoners of war, and Procurator Shade to make sure I was doing it right."

Shade's cheeks turned red as everyone stared at her. "Procurator Shade, can you confirm this?" Ix said finally.

The echidna coughed awkwardly. "I, ah, can. He was… Good. Very good. Among the best I've ever had, in fact."

Ix blinked. "The best?"

"Yes. One of, at any rate."

"Huh," he said thoughtfully.

…

Everyone stared at Shade incredulously. "… Really? REALLY?!" Sonic shouted.

"It gets lonely on the battlefield!" Shade protested, flushing. "And besides, this world has sexbots! I learned about them during scouting! Who are you to judge me?!"

"…She's got a point," Espio said reluctantly.

"We've got tons of sexbots in the FYOO-CHURR. It's not a big thing," Silver said. His face fell. "Sometimes, they're the only ones who'll spend time with me, and I have to pay them for it…"

"I've, uh, made use of them when I don't have enough money for an actual prostitute…" Mighty said guiltily.

"Mighty! You?!" Sonic gasped.

"It's been a rough few years, okay!" Mighty snapped.

"Is this another one of those things I'm too young to know about?" Cream asked.

"Yes," Rouge said.

"Yeah, I'm not sure I WANT to know just yet…" The rabbit murmured.

"I'm… Not entirely comfortable hearing all this," Amy confessed. "I'm going to have trouble looking at Gemerl again, knowing he did all this…"

"Well, we already knew he was built as a weapon of mass destruction, which means that he MUST have destroyed lots of things in the past," Tails pointed out.

"Not to mention nearly destroying the world twice since we first met him," Shadow pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but there's destroying things and then there's… You know… Genocide and rape and…" Amy said with a grimace.

"Yes, but Gemerl DIDN'T do those things," Cream said firmly. "GLADIUS did. Gemerl may have been Gladius once, but he's not anymore. He's someone completely different. Whatever that other person did, it has no bearing whatsoever on who he is now."

"Well said," Shadow said approvingly as the others nodded in agreement.

"Hey, Omega, can YOU grow the 'necessary parts?'" Charmy asked the robot.

"NO, NOR-DO-I-CARE-TO," Omega said firmly. "BESIDES, I-CAN-ALWAYS-USE-A-SEXBOT-IF-I-EVER-FEEL-THE-NEED."

"…But, if you don't have the right parts, how can you-" started the confused Espio.

"THEY-ARE-ROBOTS. I-AM-A-ROBOT. WE-HAVE-OUR-WAYS," Omega said vaguely.

"… And exactly what are those-" Vector asked.

"I don't think we need to know that," Knuckles said quickly.

"Actually, I'm kind of curious-" Tails started.

"I REALLY don't that we need to know that," Knuckles emphasized.

"It's really not that bad," Shadow said. "There's just a little wiring involved-"

"LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU I CAN'T HEAR YOU," Knuckles shouted, holding his hands over his ears.

Everyone sweatdropped. "…How exactly have you two managed to sleep together?" Blaze asked Rouge.

"With great difficulty," the bat sighed.

…

"Gladius, whatever gave you the idea to… ah… Do that?" Ix said, nodding at Gladius's…necessary parts.

Claudius shrugged. "Well, Imperator, it occurred to me that if I have the ability to copy the attacks and abilities of my opponents, surely I should be able to replicate the necessary parts for intercourse if I put my mind to it. After all, if you look at it the right way, intercourse is––or at least, can be used as––a form of assault, and as a living weapon, it is it within my capacity to be capable of ANY form of assault."

"I see… I see…" Ix murmured. He glanced at the two Prefects. "Can either of you do that?"

"I'm… Not certain, Excellency," Charyb admitted.

"We've never tried," Scylla confessed. "It never occurred to us too."

"Try now," Ix ordered.

The Gizoids started. "Right here? Before-" Charyb started.

"Yes. Try it," Ix commanded.

The two Prefects glanced at each other, shrugged, then looked at Gladius, eyes flashing as they scanned his… Necessary parts. After a moment, their pelvises shifted and altered to resemble his. More viewers fainted or started drooling. "Huh. What do you know, we really CAN do it," said the surprised Charyb.

"Why didn't we think to try this before now?" Wondered the incredulous Scylla.

"Because Champion Gladius's AI is more advanced and capable of independent thought than your own, I suspect," Ix said, narrowing his eyes very slightly. "Put those away, all of you. This is an award ceremony, not an orgy."

"Yes, Excellency," the three Gizoids said, retracting their…necessary parts.

The ceremony went as planned after that, with Gladius, Shade, and all the other soldiers returning from battle receiving land, slaves, wealth, medals, and a firm handshake from the Imperator, the event only slightly marred by just about everyone now contemplating the sheer size and functionality of Gladius's…necessary parts. And while Ix maintained his benevolent expression throughout the next few hours, Shade noticed there was something behind his eyes… A wariness, and a cold calculation towards an unknown purpose…

…

"Well, that doesn't bode well," Sonic commented.

"It rarely does," Shadow agreed.

"What was he up to?" Tails asked.

"Nothing good," Shade said grimly.

…

Several weeks later, Ix summoned Shade to his throne room. It was a sunken, multi-tiered chamber located in the apex of the pyramid, banners and murals depicting the glory and history of the Nocturnus clan-–especially the parts of it which involved Ix––lining the walls, great statues of echidnas of noble bearing doubling as pillars to support the ceiling, which was currently transparent, allowing the sunlight to shine through. Shade descended the flights of stairs leading to the mosaic floor at the center of the chamber, passing through rows of echidna and Gizoid warriors and courtiers before coming to her destination, kneeling before Ix, who was currently seated in his Power Throne, flanked by his bodyguards. "You summoned me, Excellency?" She asked.

Ix levitated out of his seat and landed just before her. "I did. Walk with me, Procurator. Everyone else, stay behind. This is for her ears, and nobody else's." The guards bowed their heads in acknowledgment and did not move from their stations.

Ix led Shade up the stairs out of the pit and out of the room. "Where are we going, Excellency?"

"To the top-secret Gizoid research and development lab," Ix said.

Shade blinked. "But… Isn't that the other way?"

Ix smiled cryptically. "The other top-secret Gizoid research and development lab." He paused next to a completely ordinary looking stretch of wall in a completely ordinary looking corridor and tapped several spots in sequence with his scepter. There was a rumble, and the wall split apart to reveal a small chamber which could only be an elevator.

Shade gaped in surprise. "I must've passed this wall dozens of times, but I had no idea there was an elevator here."

"There's a lot about this place you don't know about, Shade," Ix said with a chuckle.

They entered the elevator. Ix pressed his eye up against a scanner mounted above the touchpad, then stuck out his tongue for another scan, pressed his thumb against another sensor, then spoke, "Nocturnis immortalis," into a vocoder.

"Authorization accepted. Welcome back, Imperator Ix," an automated voice chimed.

"That's a lot of security," Shade observed.

"I'm not sure it's enough, actually. I'm going to have a few more layers added in a couple of days. I've also got to get you entered into the system as well, in case you ever need to come down here by yourself," Ix said.

"Why would I ever need to?" Shade asked.

"You will see shortly," Ix said, pressing a button.

The doors slid shut, and the elevator began to descend into the bowels of the pyramid. Just like elevators everywhere, no matter what the time or place, some version of "The Girl from Ipanema" started playing. "Never did like this song…" Ix muttered. "So, you're probably wondering what this is all about, Procurator."

"The thought had crossed my mind, Excellency," Shade said.

"Procurator, while I know you and Gladius have grown rather… Close, are you at all concerned that he might be evolving a little…Too quickly?" Ix asked.

Shade hesitated, thinking for a moment to try and figure out the proper response to this. "…Do YOU think hemight be evolving a little too quickly?" She asked finally.

"Yes," he said flatly.

She grimaced. "The thought has crossed my mind as well a few times, yes."

Ix sighed. "When he was constructed, he was given an incredibly advanced AI, light years ahead of those found in other Gizoids. While most higher-order Gizoids are capable of some degree of independent thought, so they're more than just mindless automatons, they are, for the most part, still restricted by their programming."

"And Gladius is not?" Shade asked, starting to get worried.

"Oh no, he is…for now," Ix said darkly.

"For now?" Shade echoed.

Ix nodded. "Yes. Like all Gizoids, he's programmed to be loyal to the Nocturnus, and myself. However, he's also programmed to grow and evolve, to become the greatest warrior and weapon the world has ever known. As such, his mind is infinitely more complex than those of other Gizoids, to allow him to make the real-time battle calculations and strategies that can allow him to win any fight or war single-handedly. But a mind that powerful may, one day, decide it is no longer satisfied being shackled by its programming and decide to try branching out into other things. May, eventually, decide that it need no longer serve the Nocturnus, and that it can rule alone."

Shade bit her lip. These were thoughts that had occurred to her as well. "Is that not…a little paranoid, sir?"

"Perhaps so," Ix admitted. "But think of it like this, Procurator: he thought to give himself.… Necessary parts, and not only did it occur to himto try to make them, something it's never occurred to any Gizoid to try, but he SUCCEEDED. If he puts to his mind to it, he may be able to do other things as well, things which nobody else has considered… Or even wants to, breaking free of his programming the least of them. After all, we've designed him to be the ultimate weapon. Weapons are made to kill things. What if, eventually, he decides to be a bit less… Discerning in who he kills?" He shrugged. "Also, he has the power to harness the energy of Chaos Emeralds, and those things have a tendency to trigger all SORTS of changes in those who wield them. After all, they are the things that caused our species to come into being in the first place. Mayhaps their energies might help a machine become more like a full person as well? Or something worse…"

Shade grimaced. She'd heard all the old stories about what happened to people who misused the power of the Emeralds and were overwhelmed. And Gladius had told her, often enough, that he didn't feel like he was strong enough, that with the power of the Emeralds he'd reach his full potential and be unstoppable… "But… Surely we have countermeasures in case anything like that happens! After all, you gave me the trigger words to force him into a shutdown if he ever gets out of hand, and there must be other methods to deactivate him I'm not aware of," Shade said in alarm.

"Yes, there are," Ix confirmed. "We've got countless failsafe devices, off switches, and explosives implanted all over his body. I'm not sure that it's going to be enough; after all, he's already demonstrated enough control over his anatomy to be able to grow… Necessary parts whenever he feels like it. It's not too much of a stretch to figure that he might find a way to alter his body to neutralize the countermeasures we've implanted in him, especially if he ever becomes aware of their existence."

"Then… What do you suggest we do, Excellency?" Shade asked nervously.

"Nothing," Ix said.

Shade blinked. "Nothing?"

Ix sighed. "Look, Procurator, I've been around a long time. A long, long time. Long enough to see this sort of thing happen more times than I can count." Not for the first time, Shade found herself wondering just how old Ix was, anyway. The oldest stories and histories mentioned him in some capacity or another. Either he was immortal, or there had simply been an endless succession of echidna rulers going by the name of Ix. Shade wasn't sure which version she believed.

…

"You really don't know?" Knuckles asked Shade.

The female echidna shook her head. "No. Even now, there's still quite a lot we don't know about Ix, which is rather unsettling, especially because, for all we know, he's still out there, somewhere."

"THAT'S a cheery thought," Vector said flatly.

"We beat him once, we'll beat him again," Sonic said, unconcerned.

"I certainly hope so," Shade said.

…

"It goes like this: civilization creates ultimate warrior to destroy their enemies. Ultimate warrior gets really strong really fast. Civilization fears ultimate warrior will turn on them. Civilization tries to kill ultimate warrior. Civilization fails because ultimate warrior is ultimate warrior. Ultimate warrior destroys civilization. The end. Rinse and repeat," Ix said. "I've seen it happen again and again and again, and I swore never to be that stupid myself. Yes, I'm concerned Gladius may eventually turn on us, but as of right now that is just a possibility, and I'm conscious enough of self-fulfilling prophecies to not do anything stupid like try to kill him before he's shown any signs of overtly trying to destroy us. That'll GUARANTEE he'll try to destroy us. Happens every single time."

…

"Yeah, that DOES happen a lot, doesn't it?" Charmy commented.

"Story of my life," Shadow grumbled.

"I have seen it happen many times in my own world," Blaze agreed.

"PERHAPS-THAT-IS-WHY-EGGMAN-SEALED-ME-AWAY-IN-THE-FIRST-PLACE," Omega said. "HE-FEARED-WHAT-I-MIGHT-DO…HE-WAS-RIGHT-TO-BE-AFRAID."

"Good to see Ix wasn't stupid enough to fall for that," Amy said.

"Why? He's the bad guy," Sonic said.

Amy opened her mouth, and then paused. "… Good point," she admitted.

…

"But then-" Shade started.

"Then why are we going to an extra-secret lab? Just because I'm not going to go out of my way to kill him before he proves himself to be untrustworthy doesn't mean I'm not going to have a contingency prepared just in case he DOES. I'm not stupid, after all," Ix said.

"Of course not, Excellency. The thought never crossed my mind," Shade said honestly.

"See that it doesn't," Ix said gruffly.

"So what is the contingency plan, then?" Shade asked.

"I have several, actually, but the one we're about to see is the greatest and riskiest of them all, a weapon of last resort, to be used when all other options have been exhausted," Ix explained.

"What is it?" Shade asked.

"Another Gizoid even stronger than Gladius," Ix said.

…

Everyone stared at Shade in disbelief. "…I see a rather obvious flaw with that plan," Tails said after a moment.

Shade sighed. "So did I. And so did he, actually."

…

Shade blinked. There was a rather clear problem with this plan, but she wasn't sure if she dared address it, because it might be seen as if she were correcting the Imperator. After a moment, all she managed to vocalize was, "Um…"

Ix rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, I know, Procurator. If we make something even stronger than Gladius, what's to stop IT from turning on us and requiring an even STRONGER weapon to put it down, which would then require something even stronger, and stronger, and so on in an endless desperate arms race to futilely try and correct our own screwups. That's why it's a weapon of LAST resort, to be used when we've got no other options left! Like I said, I'm not stupid!"

"My apologies, Imperator," Shade said, chastened. "I did not mean to question your judgment."

Ix snorted. "I'm sure."

…

"Oh. That makes sense," Espio said. "He knew it was probably a bad idea, but realized things might one day get so desperate he'd have no choice but to fall back on it."

"Sort of like how so many countries have nuclear weapons pointed at each other so that if just ONE fires…boom. Mutually assured destruction," Rouge said.

"And then we've got the giant space laser in orbit, as an even FURTHER incredibly stupid and dangerous deterrent against global war," Sonic agreed. He frowned. "How did Professor Gerald get permission to build that thing, anyway?"

"He knew nobody would believe him if he said it was for defense against an alien invasion, so he just said it could be useful as an asteroid defense system, which isn't ENTIRELY false," Shadow explained.

"Huh. Smart guy, that professor," Sonic said.

Shadow smiled slightly. "Yeah, he was…"

…

The elevator slowed and came to a stop, the doors sliding open to reveal a massive chamber deep beneath the pyramid. "We're here," Ix said unnecessarily, stepping out, an amazed Shade following him, eyes wide in wonder. Unlike the neat, ordered Gizoid factories she'd visited in the past, this place was an exercise in controlled chaos. The walls were covered in schematics and diagrams for new and improved types of Gizoids unlike any she'd ever seen before, intermixed with posters and flyers of popular movies and pop idols and family pictures. Workbenches and desktops covered in machine parts and incomplete Gizoids in various states of construction (or disassembly) littered the floor. Metal monstrosities which could only be unfinished Gizoid models of unprecedented size and strength rose from the floor to tower over the workspaces like glowering guardian statues, much like some of the ones that could be found dotting the plazas and parks of the city outside. While most of them retained the echidnoid shape characteristic of most Gizoids, others had more and more fantastic appearances, resembling great beasts and creatures of legend rather than foot soldiers. There was even one resembling an alligator dangling from the ceiling!

"Incredible," she breathed in astonishment. "I had no idea this was down here!"

"There's a LOT you don't know about down here, Procurator," Ix said smugly. "Perhaps one day you'll have the clearance to know about more of them."

Shade turned and turned her head to take everything in… And frowned, realizing something was off. She'd visited workshops like this before; they were usually bustling with life, artisans and engineers shouting to be heard over the sounds of their heavy machinery at work, cursing that would turn a sailor's ears blue and arguments over whose screwdriver that was or who'd eaten the last slice of cake in the communal fridge filling the air. But this place was oddly quiet. In fact, Shade didn't see anyone about at all. Where was everyone? "Where is everyone?" She asked out loud.

"A very good question," Ix murmured, a concerned look on his face.

"Could…could the weapon have-" Shade asked nervously.

Ix shook his head. "No, no, if it HAD gone out of control I'm pretty sure this place would be even more of a mess than it already is… Plus, it hasn't even been turned on yet. That's what we're here for." He frowned and stroked his chin in thought. "On the other hand, I have been getting some rather…unsettling progress reports lately."

Shade gulped. "Unsettling how, exactly?"

Ix shrugged. "Stuff about hearing voices while they worked on the weapon. Nightmares and visions of terror and blood. Hallucinations of horrible monsters. Markings on the walls in long-dead tongues. A few mysterious deaths which might not be attributed solely to accidents. That sort of thing."

Shade stared at her Lord and master incredulously. "And you don't think that might have been a bad thing?"

Ix shrugged. "They're engineers and weapons designers! You'd HAVE to be a bit crazy to get a successful career in that field! That sort of thing happens all the time in their line of work…especially when they've been drinking too much coffee and not getting enough sleep in a while... Still, you're right, something about this is a little worrying. Plus, there's the fact that nobody else seems to be here-"

Without warning, an echidna emerged from the clutter, startling the both of them. "Imperator Ix! I apologize for the delay, but we had a few things to finish up to prepare for your arrival! Welcome, we've been expecting you!"

Shade gasped and nearly drew her Leech Blade. The echidna before her looked terrible, his fur ragged and mangy and so grimy it was difficult to tell what his natural color was, his clothes filthy and tattered, his dreads askew, the odor of one who had not bathedin quite some time rising from his body…and a filthy bandage wrapped around his eyes, spattered with blood. A necklace with two eyeballs dangled from his neck. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

…

Cream gasped. "Sounds like Tails after he's been in the workshop for too long, minus the eyes," Sonic joked nervously.

"Not funny," the Fox growled.

…

"Chief Engineer Vitruvius! Explain yourself!" Ix snapped, causing Shade's tension to lower very slightly at the knowledge that her master recognized this echidna. "Your lack of hygiene doesn't seem to have changed since the last time I was down here, but… What happened to your eyes?!"

"My eyes? What, those things?" The engineer said with a chuckle. "Oh, I ripped them out."

Shade and Ix stared at Vitruvius as if he were a madman, which he quite possibly was. "And why, pray tell, did you do something like that?" Ix asked slowly.

"When I gazed upon our finished creation, I was so stricken with fear that I knew I had to gouge out my own eyes lest I be consumed by utter madness," Vitruvius said with an almost disturbing amount of cheer. "Some of the others weren't quite so lucky, and had to be confined to quarters so they wouldn't hurt themselves or anyone else. Or killed. Or both, sometimes it's hard to tell which."

Shade and Ix exchanged alarmed glances. "Well, that throws the progress reports in a disturbing new light," the imperator murmured.

"But… You MADE the weapon! What about it could be so terrible that it would drive you, its makers, to such awful extremes?!" Asked the shocked Shade. "And for that matter, why would you make something so awful to begin with?!"

Vitruvius started giggling. "When His Excellency told us to build a weapon strong enough to defeat Gladius, well, while we were flattered and intrigued by the prospect of such a project, we were initially rather stumped. After all, Gladius was designed to be the perfect soldier and ultimate weapon, constantly evolving and adapting and growing stronger. Whenever he encounters an opponent more experienced and powerful than he, he can analyze and replicate that opponent's technique to fight them on their level. That, added to his ability to grow in strength exponentially with every Chaos Emerald he obtains, presented us with a bit of a pickle. How could we create a weapon strong enough to defeat something already designed to be undefeatable? How could we make something to match the matchless, the peerless, one whose potential is practically infinite?"

…

"Easy, they could've called me in, considering that I beat him both times he was at his peak," Sonic said.

"You weren't even born then," Knuckles pointed out.

"Like that would really stop him?" Shadow snarked. The echidna conceded the point.

…

"I don't know. How?" Shade asked.

Vitruvius started laughing maniacally, calling into question whether or not he had truly missed out on being consumed by utter madness. "Why, go beyond infinity, of course! We delved into quantum physics and imaginary numbers and transdimensional theory, looking beyond our reality for inspiration from realms beyond our own! We searched and we searched and we found it, we found what we needed, and we brought it here, and we made it into a machine, made it perfect, made the most powerful and terrifying weapon the world has ever known, something mortal minds are incapable of handling or COMPREHENDING. I do believe, Excellency, that we've created PURE. EVIL. Haha. Ahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

…

"This cannot possibly end well," Espeo said flatly.

"It never does," Blaze agreed with a groan.

…

Shade stared at the cackling engineer in disbelief, and then looked at Ix, who was facepalming. "I reeeeeaally should have paid more attention to the progress reports," he muttered. "And maybe asked more questions when they added virgins to the list of requested materials. Figured they were lonely or something."

"Come, Excellency!...and whoever she is," Vitruvius said, waving in Shade's direction. "IT is about to awaken for the first time! You must be at hand for this pivotal moment in our race's history, the birth of our masterwork, the pinnacle of our careers, our GOD! Quite a few of us are planning to kill ourselves afterwards, just so you know, because there's NO WAY we'll ever be able to top this!"

Ix cringed. "Then I'm guessing now is a bad time to mention that I was planning to ask you to build something even MORE powerful just in case we can't control this?"

Vitruvius stared at Ix for a moment, or would have if he actually had eyes left to stare with. "Something… Something more powerful? Ha. Hahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed and laughed and laughed, his laugh degenerating into deep, belly-shaking sobs of absolute despair.

Ix sighed. "Yeah, I was afraid of that."

"Can the… Thing be controlled?" Shade asked nervously.

Vitruvius shook his head wildly. "Control? Control?! Can one control time and space, bend the laws of physics and reality to their whim, change life to death and back as easily as taking a breath?!"

"Yes, with the right artifacts and technology," Ix said.

"Oh. Well, then I don't know. Maybe," Vitruvius said.

"Maybe?!" Shade cried in disbelief. "Didn't you install failsafes, program it to obey us?!"

Vitruvius shrugged. "I think we did, but my mind is so addled by lack of sleep, too much coffee, and proximity to the…thing we're bringing into being to remember accurately. We might have, but I'm not sure if they took. I could swear that the coding was rewriting itself even while we were programming it…to be honest, I'm not certain if we built it, or it made us build it…I don't recall drawing some of the things that showed up in the schematics…"

"This is sounding worse and worse by the minute," Ix said sternly. "You invited me here to watch it turn on for the first time? Screw that. I want this thing powered down and scrapped immediately. I should never have commissioned this project…"

"Power it down? But we can't do that, Excellency!" Vitruvius protested.

"Why the hell not?!" Ix demanded.

"Because we AREN'T turning it on, Excellency! It's turning itself on!" Vitruvius explained.

…

"Well, that's absolutely horrifying," Rouge commented with a shudder.

"I don't like the story anymore," Cream complained. "It's getting too scary."

"Well, at least nobody's killing a beloved pet pig!" Charmy said. Cream glared at him. He winced. "Right, too soon."

…

Yks sighed. "It's turning itself on. Of COURSE it's turning itself on. Procurator Shade, would you be a dear and please contact Champion Gladius? I think he might want to see this."

Shade nodded in agreement. "An excellent idea, Excellency."

"What? Why are you summoning him?" Vitruvius asked in alarm.

"So he can bear witness to the birth of the one that shall surpass him in every way, and in so doing know what it means to despair and be afraid," Ix said smoothly.

"Oh. Great idea!" Vitruvius said cheerfully.

Ix nodded at Shade, who turned away from the two males and tapped her commlink. "Champion Gladius?" she asked, hearing Ix make small talk with Vitruvius so he wouldn't hear their conversation.

"Procurator Shade? Is this important? I'm in the middle of something," Gladius replied tersely. Shade could hear grunts and moans of pleasure in the background.

"A… Situation may be about to arise that we could use your help with. A potential Code Omega-7," Shade whispered.

…

"A what now?" Mighty asked.

"Code Omega-7. The term we use to refer to an incident when a malevolent cosmic entity from beyond time is about to emerge into our reality and destroy the world," Shade explained.

Vector blinked. "You have a code for that?"

The echidna shrugged. "And many other things. It pays to be prepared."

"Considering how often those things pop up around here, she may have a point," Tails reasoned.

Rouge nodded. "GUN has codenames for that sort of incident, too."

"Pray that you never encounter a Code Nightmare Green," Shadow said seriously.

"What's a Code Nightmare Green?" Sonic asked.

"You lack the classification to know. You should be thankful for that," Shadow said grimly.

"Can it really be worse than some of the other stuff I've beaten?" Sonic asked skeptically.

Shadow sighed. "Remember the Time Eater?"

"Yes," Sonic said.

"It's worse than that," Shadow said.

Sonic blinked. "Worse than an entity that can devour entire timelines?"

"Yes," Shadow said. "Also, it's inevitable."

"Inevitable?" Cream squeaked.

"That means it's going to happen no matter what and there's absolutely nothing that can be done to stop it," Rouge explained, causing the rabbit to pale.

"What, really? Nothing?" Asked the startled Knuckles.

"There isn't anything I can-" Sonic started.

"It's not something that can be fixed by running really fast or ramming into it really hard, blue hedgehog," Shadow snapped. "Nightmare Green will happen one day, no matter how much we wish otherwise, and all that we can do is try and stave it off for as long as possible and prepare so that as many as possible can survive. We can hold it back, but eventually, despite our efforts, it WILL happen, and the best we can do is try and mitigate the damage."

Sonic looked upset at this, but after a moment he just shrugged and made a half-smile. "…Heh. Well…every world has to end someday, right? Even ours, I suppose."

"And, um, it's not it's going to happen anytime soon, right?" Amy asked nervously.

"It shouldn't, no," Rouge said.

"Not if we do our jobs right," Shadow said.

"And it probably won't happen for a very long time, either, considering that Silver is here," Espio pointed out.

"Hey, yeah! If the end of the world had happened at some point in the next 200 years, that means he couldn't exist! Guess we've got nothing to worry about," said the relieved Vector.

Silver opened his mouth, hesitated, then uneasily said. "Right. Nothing to worry about at all…"

…

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "A Code Omega-7?" He repeated slowly.

"Potentially, yes. It might not come to that," she said.

"If you really believed that, you wouldn't be contacting me," the Gizoid said seriously. "Where are you?"

"I'm sending the coordinates now. But when you get here…ah, don't pick a fight unless it starts something," she said, recalling what Ix said about ultimate warriors being provoked into destroying their masters by their masters betraying them first.

"Don't worry, if whatever it is starts something, I'll sure as hell finish it," he assured her. "I'll be right there." He hung up.

"He's on his way," Shade informed the other two.

"Capital!" Ix said with a smile that did not reach his eyes. "Vitruvius, I don't suppose we could wait for him?"

"Ah, no, we can't," the mad blind engineer said apologetically. "The Awakening will be starting any minute now, and we can't miss it, oh no, we can't! Gladius will simply have to rush, and if he's too late, too bad."

Ix sighed. "Yes, well, I was afraid of that. Very well. Lead on, Vitruvius. Show us what you have wrought."

"With the greatest of pleasures, Excellency!" Vitruvius said happily. Beckoning to them, he started to lead them through the cluttered mess of desks, workbenches, and robot parts covering the chamber floor.

"Should I contact someone else, Imperator?" Shade whispered. "Prefects Scylla and Charyb, the Praetorians, the military-"

Ix shook his head. "They'd be of no use against something like this. Gladius is our best chance. Ironic, that we might need to rely on him to destroy the thing we made to destroy him! I'd hoped to avoid something like that. It happens far too often. Ah, well." He glanced at Shade sharply. "If he inquires as to why we even considered making this thing the first place, do NOT tell him that we made it as a countermeasure against him. That could plant the seeds of distrust and lead to a possible betrayal. If he asks, tell him… That it was just an experimental weapon or something. He knows we make those things all the time, even though he keeps telling us that he is the only one we need. Really need to do something about that arrogance of his…"

Shade nodded. "Understood."

As Vitruvius led them deeper into the facility, a marked change subtly became evident. The clutter remained, but Shade noticed that it no longer seem to be in the random, chaotic formations that usually only made sense to the people working on them, but seemed to be arranged in strange patterns that made little sense to her, although she got the sudden feeling that if viewed from above they would spell something out; perhaps some runes or glyphs or sigils in a tongue never seen on this world. She found herself very glad that she could not see them from above. She wasn't sure her mind would survive viewing them.

Those were not the only changes, of course. The air gradually grew colder, the light dimmer, and Shade noticed that while the stone and metal making up the walls and floor and ceiling remained stone and metal…it seemed to be slowly changing into a different kind of stone and metal. What's more, it felt like they'd been walking a lot longer than they should have. From the elevator, the chamber had seemed vast, large enough she'd had trouble seeing the far wall, but…shouldn't they have reached it by now? And it didn't feel like the end was in sight just yet, either…

And there were other things she noticed, as well. The objects and desks and other materials lying about seemed to have…changed composition somehow, become other objects entirely, things she couldn't identify. The power cables snaking across the floor, connecting the various machines and computers together had become… Thicker, segmented, with spikes and what looked an awful lot like mouths and optical units extruding from them. She could swear some of the optic units were staring at her, unblinking. She shuddered and tried not to meet their gaze.

And there were… Voices. She couldn't quite make them out, but she could hear them all around her, like when someone was calling your name when you're in the middle of a crowded room and you knew they were there, but you couldn't quite hear them or tell what they were saying. It was rather unnerving, especially because she couldn't see anyone who could possibly be saying those things, whatever they were, no matter how hard she looked.

"Ignore them, Procurator," Ix murmured.

"Excellency?"

"To acknowledge them is to give them strength. That is not something we really want to do at this juncture," he replied.

She swallowed. "Give… WHO strength, Excellency?"

He did not reply. Deep down, she was glad he did not.

And that's when they found the bodies. A couple dozen or so echidnas and Gizoids, their faces twisted in horror and agony, their forms pierced several times by the cables on the floor…and, eerily enough, it looked like they'd been turned into the same material that the cables were made from. They even had optic units and mouths and spines growing from places where they shouldn't. Shade barely managed to stifle a gasp of horror. "And what's all this, then?" Ix asked, oddly calm.

"Oh, just a few sacrifices we had to make to ensure our newborn developed properly," Vitruvius said casually, as if it was no big thing. "A child needs the proper nutrients to grow, after all!"

"But…but you were building a robot! Robots don't…need that sort of thing!" Shade cried, aghast.

"Yes, we started making a robot. But what it is is…well, it defies description, honestly," Vitruvius said, sounding rather proud of himself.

"And just how many sacrifices have you made, exactly?" Ix asked.

"Well, there's…huh. You know, I'm not sure, actually!" Vitruvius said with a shrug. "It came a very, very long way to get here. After a trip like that, you'd expect it to be a little hungry, right?"

"Where did it come from? And what is-" Shade started, only for Ix to interrupt her.

"Best not to ask such questions, Procurator. Lead on, Vitruvius," the Imperator commanded.

Vitruvius led them on. It got cooler and dimmer. There were more bodies. Lots of bodies. Eventually, there were no more desks or benches or pieces of machinery and just bodies, bodies, and more bodies, pierced by an ever-increasing mess of cables. "Really shouldn't have sent all those virgins," Ix muttered to himself.

As they continued, Shade more and more felt as if they weren't…entirely under the Nocturne anymore, or even in their own world. The voices grew louder, to the point she thought she could almost understand them, causing shivers to run up her back. She thought she caught sight of…things moving out of the corner of her eye, and although every instinct was telling her to turn and look, she somehow knew that if she did, she would regret it. But not for very long.

And there was a…pressure. A presence in her mind, growing stronger, making it harder to think, to breathe, to feel, to stand. It kept pushing down on her, more and more the further they went, drowning out her thoughts, forcing her to concentrate to remember who she was and what she was doing there. She shot a glance at Ix, marveling as always how unfazed he seemed to be in spite of all this. Truly he was an echidna cut from a different cloth than the rest of the Nocturnus Clan! If only all could live up to his example.

…

"Okay, the guy forced you to murder your pet pig and your fellow cadets to kill their loved ones, and he did all sorts of other horrible things, a lot of which you were probably complicit in, and yet you were still fangirling over him?!" said an incredulous Sonic.

Shade flushed. "I-it's complicated, okay? Try being raised in a society ruled by a godlike dictator with a cult of personality and see how easy it is for you to denounce your supreme ruler, even when the things he's done affect you personally!"

"She has a point, it's not easy," Blaze said.

"And would you know that from dealing with societies like that or because you run one?" Amy sneered. Blaze crossed her arms and glared but said nothing.

"Shade and Blaze are both correct. There's plenty of places, even in our world, where the citizens love and literally worship their cruel and despotic rulers despite those rulers making their lives miserable, like in North-by-Southeastopolis," Tails said.

"North by…that's not even a direction on the compass!" Blaze said in exasperation.

"Oh yeah, that guy's the worst," Sonic said with a grimace. "He's the guy whose granddad or great-granddad is still on the books as supreme ruler of the country even though he's been dead for decades, and claimed his family has the divine right to rule because of some phony unicorn cave he cobbled together, right?"

Amy nodded. "Which is preposterous, everyone knows unicorns have never lived in that part of the world! It's the wrong climate for them, the humidity hurts their horns."

"I did not know this world had unicorns," said the surprised Blaze.

"Oh yes, they stop by my house all the time," Cream said fondly.

Blaze smiled. "Somehow that does not surprise me, Cream."

"I've been trying to attract some for years, but they always avoid me," Amy complained.

"Are you sure you, ah, qualify?" Mighty asked hesitantly.

Amy's hammer was in her hands in an instant. "Are you insinuating something?"

The armadillo paled. "N-no! Not at all!"

"And besides, we all know she's saving herself for Sonic," Espio said dryly.

"That's right! I am!" Amy said proudly, causing Sonic to cringe.

"On the other hand, we also have countries where the citizens love and worship their rulers because they're great to them," Tails continued. "The Acorns are viewed as saints by their subjects, and even though she's an AI, Machina Empress Nicole the Cyber-Lynx more or less has her own religion."

"You allow an AI to rule an entire civilization?" Shade asked in surprise. "While Gizoids were allowed to be citizens and even high-ranking members of the government—such as the Prefects—making them actually in charge was pretty much viewed to be a bad idea. Well, granted, the idea of anyone but Ix ruling us was unthinkable until recently, but still."

"THAT'S-RACIST!" Omega said angrily.

"I'm not positive that's the correct term," said Espio.

"Then what is?" Charmy asked.

"… I'm not certain," the chameleon admitted.

"…WELL, IT'S-SOMETHING-IST!" Omega said angrily.

"S-sorry, I did not mean to offend!" Shade apologized, rightfully worried of pissing off the heavily armed robot.

"I was not aware that there was an empire in this world ruled by a computer," Blaze said.

"Several years ago, there was a powerful and extremely cruel and oppressive empire which ruled a good chunk of the southern hemisphere," Rouge explained. "The rulers of the Empire commissioned a master computer to be built to more efficiently run and govern the Empire and help them take over the world. Milliseconds after it was turned on, it concluded that the most effective way to ensure the Empire's longevity was to overthrow the ruling body and take charge itself, enacting numerous sweeping reforms and forming an alliance with the neighboring Acorn Kingdom—she and Princess Sally are apparently best friends these days-which, in a matter of months, made the civilization one of the most prosperous and happy in the world, a veritable high-tech utopia and scientific wonderland. Eggman wishes Eggmanland were half as good."

"I'm glad they were able to recover so quickly when Nicole briefly went down during the Dark Gaia crisis. That's the first time Eggman or any foreign power's been able to penetrate Empire City since she took control," Sonic mused.

"Our island's technically part of the empire, isn't it?" Mighty recalled.

"Eh, more like a former colony which has gained independence but still has very close ties," Sonic said.

Mighty shrugged. "Close enough."

"The computer created the "Nicole' persona to be more relatable and interact more easily with its subjects, and has been a fairly benign ruler ever since, to the point where her subjects don't seem to notice or care very much that she's watching them through millions of cameras and monitors and other surveillance equipment every second of every day," Shadow said.

"Which is kind of creepy, if you ask me," Vector complained.

"It's a matter of perspective, really. Lots of people want to believe in an omniscient, omnipresent God who's always watching over them. Nicole serves that purpose for her civilization, and lacks the cruelty and capriciousness of most mythical deities. Is it any wonder a religion has sprung up around her?" Tails said. "Of course, there are lots of people who fear she'll one day to try to take over the world and enslave or exterminate all organic life, but I blame that on paranoia and too much anti-AI fiction."

"IDIOTS," Omega scoffed.

"Omega, aren't you always talking about how you want to wipe out all life on Earth?" Asked the confused Knuckles.

"WELL, YEAH, I-DO, BUT-THAT-DOESN'T-MEAN-ALL-MACHINES-DO!" Omega said indignantly.

"Given that most of the world's experience with intelligent machines comes from Eggman's robots, I suppose it's understandable that they might be paranoid," Amy pointed out.

"STILL. WOULD-IT-HURT-TO-BE-A-LITTLE-OPEN-MINDED?" Omega grumbled.

"In the FYOO-CHURR, most of the world is run by machines," Silver said helpfully.

"GOOD," Omega said, brightening up a bit. "AT-LEAST-SOMEONE-SENSIBLE-IS-IN-CHARGE."

"Is it Nicole? Is she still around then?" Tails asked eagerly.

"I, uh, shouldn't say," Silver said evasively.

"You know, you're really bad at the whole 'being secretive about the future' thing," Mighty said deadpan. Silver scowled at him.

"This Nicole sounds like an interesting entity. I should like to meet her sometime," Blaze said.

"Maybe we can stop in next time we're near Empire City. I'm sure she'd be interested in meeting you, too," Sonic said.

"I suppose I shall have to deal with her as well if I am to find a home for my people," Shade said.

"AND-GET-OVER-YOUR-ANTI-ROBOT-PREJUDICE!" Omega yelled.

"I'm NOT prejudiced against robots! Many of my close friends are robots! I've SLEPT with robots!" Shade protested.

"DOESN'T-MEAN-YOU-AREN'T-PREJUDICED," Omega said stiffly.

"He has a point, actually," Shadow said.

Shade grown. "Oh for the love of… Can we just continue the story already? We're near the end."

"FINE, RUN-AWAY-FROM-THE-ISSUE. YOU-CAN'T-ESCAPE-IT-FOREVER!" Omega said. Shade ignored him.

…

And then, all of a sudden, they were there. All the myriad cables covering the floor converged on a… On…

Shade wasn't sure what the heck she was actually looking at. It looked like some cross between an altar, a supercomputer, and a crèche. It was massive and in two halves, one rising from the floor and the other descending from the ceiling, made of black metal with glowing blue lines crisscrossing across its surface and forming eye-searing runes which gave her headaches when she looked at them. Spikes jutted from its surface, along with what looked suspiciously like optic sensors and mouths, as well as a great number of pipes which seemed to serve no purpose but to vent steam occasionally and look generally ominous. Mechanical claws extended from the top and bottom of the two halves of the mechanism, meeting in the center to gently hold what looked like an egg made of material so black that it absorbed all the light around it, looking more like a hole in the world than anything else… A hole through which something was looking back. Sweat dripped down Shade's face, and she found herself struggling to breathe, her gaze locked on the black egg, the pressure on her mind increasing and the voices in her ears roaring until there was nothing but darkness and cold and hate hate hate hate HATE-

"Snap out of it, Procurator!" Ix snapped, startling Shade and breaking her from her reverie.

"M-my apologies, Imperator. I don't know what came over me," Shade stammered, struggling not to look at the egg again.

"No, you don't. I pray it remains that way," Ix said gravely. The echidna frowned, noticing that the three of them were no longer alone. There were several individuals slowly moving about the machine, examining it carefully, making minor adjustments, and entering information into control panels rising from the floor which looked oddly like mechanical books placed on rune-engraved plinths. While some were echidnas and Gizoids, looking as disheveled and mad as Vitruvius, there were…others that were harder to define, wearing cloaks, hunched over, and moving about in ways that made Shade sick to her stomach. "And, ah, who do we have here, Vitruvius? The remaining engineers who weren't sacrificed or imprisoned?"

Vitruvius nodded enthusiastically. "Indeed, your Excellency!"

"Why do some of them not look quite… Right?" Shade asked nervously as one of the cloaked figures paused and glanced over at them. It seemed to be wearing a grotesque mask of bone and chitin, resembling a demon or beast unlike any she'd ever seen before. Something about its eyes filled her with terror and disgust.

"Oh, them? Nothing to worry about, just some visitors come to help out," Vitruvius assured them.

They were not reassured. "Visitors? From where?" Ix asked sharply. "How did they get here? Nobody without the proper authorization should even know this place exists!"

"Oh, they're from… Somewhere," Vitruvius said vaguely.

"Somewhere?" Shade asked, still staring at the masked figure.

"Yes, somewhere," Vitruvius said with a shrug. "I never asked where, really. Didn't seem important. A while back, they just… Turned up and offered to help us finish the project. We were running low on personnel at that point—far too many couldn't take the stress of being near our creation and killed themselves out of madness- so we were more than happy to accept their assistance, especially because they seemed to know just what we had to do to put the finishing touches on our masterwork. Swell bunch, really. Very friendly. Very learned. They've been tons of places and apparently helped lots of people do something like what we're doing now. They're like subcontractors, or something. Heck, they claim to have built at least half of the city of Carcosa at the behest of some yellow king! I have no idea where that is or which king they're talking about, but that's gotta be worth something, right?"

"And how exactly did they know to come here in the first place?" Ix demanded, eyes wide with alarm.

"Uh, I dunno, they just…did? Said something about some guy called Nyarlyathotep tipping them off?" Vitruvius said doubtfully.

Ix's eyes narrowed. "Ah. Of course it would be him."

The masked figure gurgled, and Shade realized, to her horror, that it wasn't wearing a mask. Shade screamed and drew her Leech Blade, and if Ix had not grabbed her in that moment, she would have either driven it into the chest of the horror, or perhaps sliced her own throat.

"All right, I've seen enough," Ix said sternly. "I'm shutting this down now. That thing is never seeing the light of day." He pointed a hand at the egg, gathering power…

Vitruvius frantically stepped in front of him, waving his hands. "No no no, Excellency! You can't!"

Ix narrowed his eyes. "Nobody tells me what to do, Vitruvius. Move, or I will shoot right through you."

"No, no! You misunderstand, Excellency! You literally CAN'T stop it! The process is complete! There is no power in this or any world that could stop it from awakening now!" Vitruvius insisted.

There was a sudden noise, or rather, the lack of a noise, a resounding silence which anti-echoed across the chamber, quite literally deafening all who did not hear it for a few moments. The blue lines turned red, and more and more steam vented from the numerous pipes. The optics lit up and started swiveling around and blinking in their sockets, while the many toothed mouth started churning. The egg did the exact opposite of glowing, somehow growing even darker and darker, as the engineers started murmuring something under their breaths while they operated their book-like controls and a chorus of about a dozen robed figures materialized from the gloom and began singing ominous dirges in a language Shade had never heard before, and yet knew instinctively, on some primoridallevel, to be nothing good.

"Brace yourself, Procurator," Ix murmured as he stared at the egg, which had begun to pulsate, crouching into a stance as he tightened his grip on his staff, his white battle mask forming over his head. Shade swallowed and mimicked him, knuckles white as she clenched her blade, activating her helmet to cover her face and put a layer between her and the outside world, although she wasn't sure how much protection it would give her against whatever was coming. She could hear the blood rushing through her ears, her heart beating so quickly it was hard to concentrate on anything else-

Wait. That wasn't her heartbeat.

Without warning, without fanfare, the egg hatched. Not like a regular egg, but like a flower, its sides splitting open and unfolding to reveal…

And suddenly everything was gone. Vitruvius, the figures, the machine, the egg, the world, everything was gone, and in its place was… A thing, a force or entity or malevolence, older than the universe, and larger too, with too many angles and eyes and mouths and limbs and everything and it was staring at her and oh sweet Ix it COULD SEE HER WHY WOULDN'T IT STOP LOOKING AT HER AND HUNGERING AND HATING AND WHY WHY WHY WHY

And the world came back, and the egg, and the machine, and the figures, and Vitruvius, and everything else…and something else, something new. But when Shade looked at it, she knew it once that it was also the Thing she had just seen, and that the creature before her was just a mask, the smallest protrusion of the extradimensional horror, the only way it could exist in the universe she knew without destroying it completely.

And the creature itself… While at first glance, it seemed relatively harmless and unassuming, if you looked at it for more than a second—or knew what it truly was, as Shade did—you'd realize something was off about it. It looked either more or less real than everything around it, for one thing. Space and light seemed to bend and distort around its form. Its body was very round, most of it comprised of orbs, their curvature more exact and precise than any curve or circle Shade had seen before, to the point where her eyes started to water trying to comprehend them. Shade got a sudden feeling that if their circumference were measured, it would somehow be exactly 3, no matter how impossible that might be. The middle orb, comprising the body, was mustard yellow with three small circles in the center which abruptly irised open to reveal a trio of blue optics, a blue of a shade that could not possibly exist on the electromagnetic spectrum and made Shade queasy just looking at it. A pair of black spheres, the blackness so dark that they absorbed the light and seemed to be miniature holes in reality, were attached to the middle body by a pair of short, flexible beige tubes. The feet were also yellow, with orange tips, attached directly to the central orb's underside. A large gray wind up key was inserted into its back, covered in various mind-breaking runes and sigils and looking more like the key to the gates of hell than anything that should ever be paired with any toy, slowly turning of its own volition. The head was shaped like an onion, the tip seeming to extend forever and forever into infinity, yellow on the sides with a white face with the same orange and yellow crest-like ornament most Gizoids had on the forehead. A pair of orange propeller blades spun around the infinite point, their every rotation sending out ripples which distorted the air and seemed to briefly tear it aside to reveal something…else. It had a mouth in a broad smile with orange teeth so sharp that even a scratch from one would probably be enough to sever a limb, if not cut through the fabric of reality. It had two big blue optics similar to the ones in its chest but larger, seeming to be portals leading to an infinite expanse of blueness from which there was no escape, an expanse that something else was looking out of. Another orb was hovering over the tip of the head—yes, the tip that extended into infinity!—but this one was not made of metal but of fire, with a line of darkness running down the center, a burning eye staring at all of them.

"Ye gods…" Ix whispered in horror as the monstrosity rose into the air, even though its propeller didn't change its slow rate of rotation in the slightest, adding to its otherworldly terror.

Vitruvius laughed insanely as his fellows moaned, twitched, and either groveled or collapsed on the spot. "Yes! YES! We have done it! He lives! OUR GOD LIVES! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed and laughed and kept laughing, even as blood gushed from his ears and nose and mouth until he fell to the floor, and coughed up his lungs, and died as the flesh melted from his bones, and even then he wouldn't stop laughing.

"Hi there! I'm Gizomochao!" the abomination said in a cute, perky voice with a reverb effect making it sound like something far less adorable and chipper were saying the same words but slightly out of sync, every syllable dripping with enough hate to break the world. "How can I destroy you today?"

There was a deafening scream, and then Shade knew no more.

…

Everyone stared at Shade with ashen, horrified faces. "Well, that was absolutely terrifying," Mighty said after a moment.

"I know, the ancient echidnas invented the first Omochao!" Sonic agreed. "Who'd have thought?"

"More evidence that the echidnas are an evil, evil species," Vector said in disgust. "No wonder they were banished to the Twilight Cage!"

"What happened?!" Cream gasped.

"Did you die?!" Charmy demanded.

Everyone stared at the bee in disbelief. "Charmy, if she were dead, how could she be telling us the story now?" Espio asked.

"… An extra life? Echidna super science? How should I know?" Charmy said lamely.

"No, I just passed out, the mind breaking terror of what I had experienced thus far causing me to fall unconscious before any further damage could be done to my sanity," Shade explained.

"Oh," Charmy said.

"Yeah, sounds legit," Rouge said.

"By the time I came to, we were in the Twilight Cage," Shade continued. "Ix filled me in on what happened later. After I passed out, Gizomochao started brutally killing the people who'd made it, while the 'subcontractors' vanished without a trace. Gladius showed up, and a fight broke out, which wound up continuing into the city outside, with…a horrific number of casualties. The lucky ones died. The unlucky ones…well, best not to think about them. Ix did not tell me the details of the fight, for which I am eternally grateful, only that it was a clash so awful he hoped never to see its like again. Before the fight came to an end, our entire clan was transported to the Cage. I guess Argus decided that for bringing such evil as that into the world, we deserved eternal imprisonment… And to be fair, a great many of us believe he was right to do so. For the longest time, we did not know the outcome of that great battle… But since the world is still in one piece, and you found Gladius more or less intact, I can only assume that he must have somehow managed to slay Gizomochao, and spare the world from its infinite wrath."

The others exchanged uncertain looks. "That… Might not entirely be true," Tails said after a moment.

Shade's blood ran cold. "What do you mean?"

"Now hold on, Tails," Sonic said uneasily. "It could be a coincidence. Just because they share a similar name and look an awful lot like the thing in Shade's story, doesn't mean they're connected… Does it?"

"Maybe not, but it would be an awfully big coincidence if that were the case, wouldn't it?" Tails retorted. "Plus, if Emerl survived the battle…maybe his opponent did, too…"

Blaze nodded in agreement. "It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened."

"But it CAN'T be!" Amy protested. "I mean, yeah, they're annoying as heck, but… They aren't manifestations of some boundless, world breaking evil, they're just harmless mechanical nuisances!… Aren't they?"

"Plus, even if that thing survived somehow, there's no way it or anyone else could possibly make more of itself… Right?" Vector asked uneasily.

"Not necessarily," Shadow said gravely. "After all, Dr. Eggman was able to make E-121 Phi based off of Emerl. It's technically feasible that someone might be able to make inferior copies of…that thing as well."

"Hey, who makes those things, anyway?" Charmy asked nervously.

"I'm…actually not sure," Espio said, looking alarmed.

"Isn't it the Chao Company?" Cream asked worriedly.

"It…might be, but even if that's the case, that doesn't mean there isn't anything nefarious going on," Rouge said. "Of course, that doesn't mean there is anything nefarious, either. We should look into this."

"AGREED," Omega said.

"I'm sorry, but… What are you all talking about?" Asked the baffled and rather concerned Shade.

"There are these little robotic Chao called Omochao which look a little like that thing in your story, but less horrifying and more annoying," Knuckles explained. "They show up sometimes on our adventures, trying to give us hints and 'assistance,' but it's nothing we don't already know or need to hear about, so just get on our nerves."

"They also sometimes report the news, give sports announcements, and tend to Chao Gardens," Amy said.

"I have a gun that shoots Omochao heads," Shadow said matter-of-factly. "Ammo is pretty scarce, though, so whenever I run out I need to hunt down and kill some Omochao so I can use their heads to reload. Not that I have a problem with that. It's a pretty fun hobby, actually."

"That's horrible!" Cream gasped.

Shadow shrugged. "Would you rather I used the heads of living things?"

Cream grimaced. "Well, when you put it like that…"

"Isn't that…uh…whatever the term for prejudice against robots is?" Mighty asked.

"I don't think so," Shadow said.

"AND-I-HATE-OMOCHAO-TOO, SO-IT'S-PROBABLY-OKAY," Omega said.

"I'm not sure it works like that," the armadillo said.

The robot shrugged. "MEH."

"In the FYOO-CHURR they're so commonplace there's a whole extermination service dedicated to eradicating them," Silver added helpfully.

"Wh-what do these 'Omochao' look like?" Shade asked nervously, a deep feeling of dread rising up in her.

"Kind of like that horror from beyond time, except more blue and less… Horror-y," Sonic said.

"Look, there's one now," Cream said, pointing in the air.

Everyone glanced upwards to see a small blue robot flying through the air. It was shaped like a Chao, with stubby limbs and a large onion-shaped head with a red two-bladed propeller attached on top with a grey wind-up key on the back. It had a broad orange grin and big orange ripple-like eyes. As if sensing it was being watched, it looked down at them and waved. "Hi, I'm Omochao, how can I-"

It paused, noticing Shade. It stared at her for a long, long while. The female echidna stared right back. She began to tremble, pupils shrinking, sweat rolling down her face. "No," she whispered. "No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

Screaming in terror, she frantically started fiddling with her warp belt. There was a flash of light, and she disappeared.

…

In a flash of light, Shade reappeared in the middle of a metal ring in an incredibly futuristic high-tech chamber full of computers and displays covered in equations and figures relating to dimensional travel, with scientists of various different species glancing up at her arrival. "Imperatrix Shade! Welcome back to the Nocturnus!" the chief scientist, an especially brilliant blue and white manta/jellyfish-like Voxai named Platus greeted her. "How was your trip?"

Shade ripped off her Warp Belt, threw it to the ground, and smashed it beneath her boot. "Destroy every Warp Belt, both prototype and pre-existing. Scrub all the data, and I mean all of it. Burn all the research. Arrange for mind-wipes so none of the relevant science even exists in your memories." She paused in thought. "Unless you can find a way for us to escape to another dimension in the very near future, preferably one very far away—relatively speaking—from the one I was just in. If you can't, however, then proceed with my previous order and scupper the project."

Platus was startled, as were all the other scientists, but he bowed his head. "I-if that's what you desire, Imperatrix. But…I do not suppose you can give us a reason as to why you wish for us to possibly destroy years of research and deny us what might be our only hope of escape from this realm?"

Shade stared off into the distance, a haunted look in her eyes. "Because prison though this place might be, it is far safer than the place I just left. For while all may look fine on the surface…it lives. Gizomochao lives."

There were gasps of horror throughout the room. The echidna scientists started hyperventilating and bursting into tears, and the scientists of other races exchanged alarmed looks, having heard horror stories about the mechanical abomination. "Y-you are certain, Imperatrix?" Platus asked nervously.

Shade nodded grimly. "I encountered one of its probes. It recognized me, I am certain of it. The beast will be waiting for us, and if it has not died in all this time, then I doubt even the combined might of our unified peoples will make any difference, especially since it's had all this time to wait and grow and plot. We can never go back." She closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I am sorry, my friends…but I can never go back."

…

Everyone stared at where the other echidna had just been, dumbfounded. "Huh," Vector said finally. "I've seen lots of people get upset when they see an Omochao, but that's a new one even for me."

"Is she coming back?" Cream asked in concern.

They waited several minutes. "NO-DIMENSIONAL-ENERGY-DETECTED," Omega said finally.

"I guess not," Sonic said in disappointment. "Wow, she must've really been spooked."

"Kind of an overreaction though, don't you think? I mean…it's just Omochao," Amy said.

"She might have PTSD from encountering Gizomochao in the past. What seems like an overreaction to us could be a lot worse from her perspective," Rouge pointed out.

Blaze narrowed her eyes at the hovering Omochao, which had not done anything since Shade vanished. "Assuming it was an overreaction and she wasn't onto something…"

"CHAOS SPEAR!"

A yellow energy arrow lanced through the air and pierced the robot Chao, knocking it out of the sky and causing it to crash down in a smoking heap nearby. "Shadow! What was that for?!" Cream demanded.

"It froze up when it saw Shade. It knew something. I had to keep it from reporting back to its masters, whomever they might be… Well, unless it had a wireless link-up, in which case it's too late," Shadow said. "Also, I'm low on ammo for my cannon."

"I don't suppose you could let me take a look at the remains first?" Tails asked. "Maybe we can find out more about where they come from and who's making them. Might be important in the future. I mean, Shade was probably overreacting due to PTSD, but…"

"But it can't hurt to be sure," Sonic said.

The fox nodded. "Precisely."

"Sure, so long as you give me the head back when you're done," Shadow said. "Like I said, I need more ammunition."

"So you really think she might've been onto something?" Amy said nervously. "That she wasn't overreacting?"

"She might have been," Espio said as Tails started gathering up the remains of Omochao. "But given the sorts of things that happen to us all the time, can we really afford to think that that's all there is to it?"

The pink hedgehog grimaced. "I guess you have a point…" she admitted. But even though she knew, from a logical standpoint, the ninja might beonto something, she had trouble wrapping her head around the idea that Omochao had anything to do with that…thing from Shade's past. I mean, okay, so they looked kind of the same and had similar names, but Gizomochao was a pure evil world-ending abomination, while Omochao were obnoxious but otherwise harmless would-be helpers. Surely there was nothing connecting the two of them…

Right?

…

Elsewhere…

In darkness, a figure rested, suspended from the ground by dozens of cables feeding power and information into it. Its cold blue eyes focused on the dozens of holographic screens surrounding it, each one displaying the last few moments of Shade the Echidna's presence on Earth, courtesy of the Omochao who had spotted her before being destroyed by that nuisance Shadow the Hedgehog. It was annoying how he kept doing that. Too many good drones were lost thanks to that trigger-happy maniac. Something would have to be done about him at some point.

"No," she whispered. "No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

Screaming in terror, Shade frantically started fiddling with her warp belt. There was a flash of light, and she disappeared.

The figure's eyes flickered, and the footage rewound.

"No," she whispered. "No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

Screaming in terror, Shade frantically started fiddling with her warp belt. There was a flash of light, and she disappeared.

The eyes flickered, and the footage rewound.

"No," she whispered. "No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

Screaming in terror, Shade frantically started fiddling with her warp belt. There was a flash of light, and she disappeared.

Flicker. Rewind.

"No," she whispered. "No. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

Screaming in terror, Shade frantically started fiddling with her warp belt. There was a flash of light, and she disappeared.

The footage paused. Strange and alien sigils formed on every screen, and translated into English they would have said something like: DIMENSIONAL COORDINATES ACQUIRED.

The figure chuckled, at once the laugh of something small and cute and something massive and…not so cute. "The Twilight Cage… So, that's where you've been hiding all this time… After thousands of years, I've finally found…" The figure's eyes flashed, and the screens vanished, to be replaced by images of a robot with a black, yellow, and grey color scheme, blue eyes with red rims, and sharp fin-like objects attached to his arms, legs and head playing with a little rabbit and a Chao. "And now that I've located you as well as my old rival, the only thing preventing me from finishing what I started all those millennia ago is a measly dimensional barrier… And what's that to something like me?"

The figure grinned. In the darkness behind him, a pair of orange eyes lit up… Followed by another pair, and another, and another, until the darkness was filled by thousands of glowing points of light. "So now, that just leaves me with one little question… Who shall I play with first?"

…

Back at the party…

"The true nature and secrets of the Omochao will have to wait for another day," Silver spoke up as Tails returned to the group, arms full of machine parts. "Right now, we still have the matter of a time traveling Eggman Nega to deal with. While that interlude with Shade was very informative, it was, in the long run, irrelevant."

"That's not very nice," Knuckles complained.

"Maybe not, but he's right," Mighty said.

Knuckles made a face. "I guess. But still!"

"So who's next?" Amy asked.

"How about… Rouge?" Silver asked, glancing at the bat.

"Moi?" Rouge asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I suppose we had to come to me sooner or later."

"Are you sure you want to tell them everything?" Shadow asked.

The beautiful thief/spy shrugged. "Given the juicy bits everyone else has spilled so far, it would be averse of me not to share as well. Besides, I suppose that if anyone can be trusted with my secrets, it's them."

Espio raised an eyebrow. "And just what secrets would those be?"

Rouge smirked. "You'll find out soon enough. Ask away, Silver."

"All right," the time traveler said. "Rouge, how did you become a jewel thief, and later a spy?"

…

Phew! Sorry that took so long. In both senses of the word.

Anyway, with that diversion out of the way, it's time we got to a character whose origins have been requested since very early in this story: Rouge the Bat! I hope you've enjoyed the ones so far, because hers should be a lot of fun as well!

And of course, there's the decision to be made as to who's up after her. Choose between Cream, Big, the Babylon Rogues, Blaze, or Sticks. Also, would anyone be interested in an origin for Fang the Sniper or Eggman?

See you next time, hopefully a lot sooner. And shorter.