Rouge was taken aback. "R-really?"

"Shut up and do it before I change my mind." Mephiles didn't look at her. Just stared blankly at Silver, who was glaring at him through the glass on the door.

"Okay." She removed the necklace from Shadow's corpse and set it down on a small table that held various medical instruments.

Mephiles took a deep breath, cracked his knuckles, and proceeded to set his hands, one atop the other, over Shadow's heart. He gritted his teeth in pain; electrical pulses seemed to be transferring through their touch, right into Mephiles.

The deity suddenly began to chant in Latin. "Paenitet vere contritus sum: Reditum! Reditum! Reditum!"

He paused for a moment to cry out in pain and take a few shallow breaths, then repeated his chant.

"Paenitet vere contritus sum: Reditum! Reditum! Reditum!" He closed his eyes tightly and ground his teeth together before saying one last time, "Reditum! Reditum!"

Suddenly, the demon dropped to the ground.

"...Mephiles…?" Rouge called, kneeling down next to him. "Mephiles?" She repeated.

His ear twitched slightly.

"Can you hear me?"

He groaned slightly.

"Are you alright…?"

"I… can't believe… I did this… for a mortal…"

"Did it work?"

"...Yes."

She smiled. "And you're still alive, too."

"...Not for long… I can feel… my own life force… being drained away…" His eyes opened slightly and he looked up to the surface above him. "...And brought into him…"

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

"I hope… it was worth it… because now I… suffer… eternal damnation…"

Rouge actually began to feel bad for the demon. Just a little.

"After all you've done..." Rouge extended a hand and gingerly touched his crystalline chest. His body emitted no heat, but she was confident in her next sentence. "I never knew you had a heart in there after all."

"I don't… care what… you think… of me…" Despite his words, Mephiles had the slightest hint of a smile on his face as his body went limp and his eyes lost their life.

Shadow suddenly jolted into a sitting position. "Rouge! Rouge!" He was screaming at the top of his lungs.

She jumped off the ground and immediately came to his side. "I'm here! I'm here, Baby, I'm here."

He was panting heavily. "I-I almost didn't make it…" She hugged him tightly.

"What do you mean?"

"I could hear him. He was talking in some different language, but I could understand him anyway. It was… Mephiles. Why was it-"

She pointed at the floor, where the deity's body laid.

He was quiet for a moment. "...I-I don't..."

"He gave you his life."

"Why?"

"I guess he felt… guilty."

"You're kidding, right?"

She sighed, studying the body. "When I ran in here to see you one more time, he was standing next to your body, and he said, 'I didn't mean for this to happen.'" She looked back at Shadow. "I swear."

Shadow swung his legs over the side of the table he'd once laid on and jumped off. He proceeded to walk over next to Mephiles. "You crazy, unpredictable, incomprehensible son of a bitch." Shadow's bandages weren't on him anymore. When his heart stopped beating, his wounds stopped bleeding, and the doctors threw away what protected them. But now, the blood began to drip from his skin again. He didn't appear to notice.

The ebony hedgehog chuckled as he looked down at the one who'd made him a victim. Shadow lifted his foot off the ground and brought his leg back to kick Mephiles in the ribs.

Rouge ran up and attempted to push him away, but Shadow shoved her single-handedly and she stumbled backward into the table. "Shadow, no! He's better than we thought he was!"

"I can't just force myself to forgive him after all he did to me! Even if he said he was sorry…" Shadow kicked the body and it was knocked away slightly.

Rouge came at him again. This time Shadow let her push him away. "Wait, what do you mean, 'Even after he said he was sorry?'"

"When I was dead, his voice guided me out of the light. Like I said, it wasn't English, but I could somehow understand what he was saying. It was, 'I'm sorry, truly I am afflicted: he returneth! back! back!'."

"That wasn't a normal resurrection chant." Rouge thought aloud.

Shadow scoffed. "What's a normal resurrection chant?!"

"I mean, it was him calling out for you to return to your body, but…" She stared down at Mephiles. "He was apologizing too."

There was a small silence before Shadow rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Yeah. That was pretty clear."

He walked over to the door and extended his arm to the push bar, only to find that it wouldn't budge. The door was still locked. He threw his shoulder against it until it broke open and hit the wall sharply.

Meanwhile, Silver had been sitting against the wall, feeling hopeless. Sonic and Amy were pacing back and forth in the hallway, wondering what to do. If they didn't get Rouge out of there, she'd either freeze to death or be killed by Mephiles. All the staff with keys had tried to get the door open, but nothing seemed to be working. Amy had explained how Rouge kicked the door open in her living room, so they all decided that it must have to be dealt with from the inside.

Then, to everyone's shock and dismay, the left door was suddenly thrown into the wall. Silver stumbled to his feet and the group turned to see who was behind the disturbance. It was Shadow.

Everyone gasped. "Y-you're alive?!" Silver exclaimed.

"Damn right I am. Now move." Shadow began to walk down the halls of the hospital, bright red dropping to the floor everywhere he stepped. Doctors began to run out of their room and stare in shock. His friends were in too much disbelief to follow him. Except for Rouge.

She ran out of the morgue and looked around at everyone. "Mephiles… he's in there."

Sonic readied himself into a battle stance. "Don't worry. Silver and I will take care of it."

She shook her head. "Don't bother. He's dead."

Sonic slowly stood up straight again. "...Seriously?"

She nodded.

Silver stepped forward. "But, how is any of this possible? Shadow's alive again, and Mephiles is-"

"-Dead because he traded his life for Shadow's."

Everyone looked at her, confused.

"No time to explain. I have to find that hedgehog!" She ran past them and left the hospital. Said Ultimate Life Form was standing outside on the sidewalk, staring into the rows of traffic on the streets. The sun was setting and he stood against the bright orange sky, becoming nothing more than a dark silhouette. "Shadow!" She called out, "Where are you going?" Rouge continued to approach him as she saw his figure turn around to see her.

"Chaos Control!" He yelled, leaving nothing behind but drops of blood on the grey concrete.

She fell to her knees just as her friends stepped out into the cool evening air. Sonic held out a hand to help her up, but she didn't take it.