"Well, that was easy enough." Rouge remarked as Shadow collected his rings and put them back on.

"That was awesome!" Charmy cheered.

"So, Mephiles is gone just like that?" Espio asked.

Everyone glanced at me.

"Well, other than the black smear on the floor, he's not here anymore," I replied, "Right now he's probably-"

I cut myself off.

His last fight with Shadow, that was the final scene in Shadow's story. After this was the final story, which started with-

"We gotta find Sonic!" I suddenly yelled, taking off for the exit.

"Hey wait! What's going on?" Rouge yelled after me.

Shadow grabbed the two Chaos emeralds Mephiles had dropped, and they all followed after me.

They caught up with me outside the temple, and Shadow grabbed my arm to stop me.

"What's wrong?" he demanded.

"We gotta find Sonic! Mephiles is going after him!" I replied.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know, somewhere outside Soleanna! Come on we gotta hurry!"

Everyone nodded, Shadow picked me up, and we took off as fast as we could for Soleanna.

::::::::::::::::::::::::

Soleanna was in sight when the emeralds suddenly flashed, and vanished.

"What happened?" Shadow asked.

"Oh no…" I murmured.

"What's wrong?"

We all glanced behind Shadow, and our mouths dropped open.

"What?" he asked.

"Uhhhh…." I pointed behind him, and he whipped around.

Clouds were swirling above Soleanna, a soft light coming from them. The light pulsated, and something started lowering out of the clouds.

"Um, is that…normal?" Charmy asked nervously.

"Hmm, I'm not sure," I replied sarcastically, "DOES A GIANT MONSTER COMING FROM THE SKY LOOK NORMAL TO YOU!"

"What is that?" Rouge asked.

"Solaris…" Shadow murmured.

There was another burst of light, and it engulfed all of Soleanna, and us too. Everything went white.

::::::::::::::::::

When I was able to see again, everything was dark. Chunks of rock and other objects were suspended in midair, and the only source of light came from a giant orb of light above us.

"Where are we?" a familiar voice asked.

We all turned to see Amy, Knuckles, and Tails.

"Hey Amy!" I called.

They turned to us, and ran over.

"What happened?" Tails asked.

"We don't know," Charmy replied, "We saw that Solaris thing come from the sky, then everything went white. Next thing we know, we're here."

"Solaris?" another voice asked.

We all turned to see Silver.

"If it was Solaris, then that must mean the seal of Iblis was broken." He continued.

"How?" Rouge asked.

I glanced over to the right, and froze.

"There was only one way for the seal to be broken."

Everyone but me turned to see Eggman.

"Whatta ya mean?" Vector asked.

"The only way for the seal to be broken was for the princess to be so consumed with despair, that she'd cry, and it seems that was accomplished."

"How?" Espio asked.

"Hey Kassie, what's wrong?" Charmy asked, seeing me completely still.

"This was what I wanted to stop…" I murmured.

Everyone looked in the direction I was, and saw what had my attention.

Elise was a few feet away, Sonic in her lap. He wasn't moving at all.

"Sonic?" Amy exclaimed in shock.

We all ran over to the duo and came to a stop.

"No…you don't think…" Tails murmured.

"Sonic!" Knuckles exclaimed in despair.

Amy dropped to her knees, covering her face with her hands and sobbing.

The others were mourning silently, except for Charmy, who was balling his eyes out.

"Mephiles played us all for fools." Eggman announced.

"It was his plan all along to make Elise cry, no matter what he had to do." I added.

There was a roar, and the area shook. We all looked up at the orb, which was glowing brighter by the minute.

"At this rate, the space time continuum will be destroyed!" Eggman yelled.

"So let's just destroy Solaris!" Charmy said.

"It's not that simple. Solaris exists in the past, present, and future. Destroying it here, now, would do nothing."

"Well if that's the case, I'll destroy it all at once!" Silver exclaimed.

"Certainly, it might have been possible, if he was still alive." Shadow muttered, glancing at Sonic.

Everyone slumped, and Amy continued crying.

"Sonic! Sonic!"

I sighed sadly, before remembering something.

"Wait a minute! I just remembered something! Sonic's not gone yet, but we need the emeralds!" I announced.

"She's right," Elise said, "I can feel his presence in the wind. It's not too late!"

"Where are the emeralds?" Espio asked.

"Solaris flung them to farthest reaches of this world." Eggman replied.

"If we split up, we should be able to find them fast."

"Great, let's get to it!" I yelled.

Everyone, minus Shadow and Eggman of course, cheered, and ran off in different directions.

"I'll stay here with Elise and Eggman to keep an eye on Solaris! Good luck guys!" I called after them.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Well, sorry I haven't updated in a while! Hope this'll quench some of your thirst until I can come up with another chapter! R&R!