95 MINUTES REMAINING.

It had been said somewhere that it took three days for humans to get from the Earth to the Moon. Thanks to a high-powered rocket, and the fact that the ARK was placed within the atmosphere of the planet, it only took a little over thirteen hours to reach the space colony.

The rocket's cabin had remained relatively silent during the trip up, which allowed the group to finally get some rest- literally, as they all took naps to make sure they had all their strength. Sonic had helped himself to the rations that Ivo was transporting to the ARK in the first place, while Tails silently did some readings and worked by himself towards the front end of the rocket.

While tossing a pretzel in the air and catching it in his mouth, Sonic walked into the larger, open part of the rocket's cabin. Sitting in there was Knuckles and Amy.

It had remained awkward between the group after Knuckles' sudden revelations upon liftoff. Mostly because Knuckles clearly didn't know what to say to follow up after that reveal. The rest of Team Sonic stayed around Knuckles during this time, waiting for whenever he was ready to talk about it.

The vibe had shifted in the cabin of the spacecraft when they entered the stasis field that contained the "meteor herd" of debris caught by Ivo. Tails was in awe at the technological marvel that was creating a gravity-controlled space… in space. Not only that, but one that was up and running in months.

It was obvious now that the Robotniks had been known for making extreme (and unethical) advancements in science that, in the right areas with the right ideas, would have them win Nobel Prizes. But they didn't want to get Nobels for their work. They wanted to create varying amounts of mutated animals and sometimes rule the world, apparently.

Speaking of Robotnik, the aspect of Maria being killed by GUN still lingered in the air. It was a horrifying discovery, which helped click why the debrief on Project Eclipse was completely redacted. Didn't want anyone finding out that one of the agents took the life of an innocent teenager, or the subsequent amount of deaths that happened from the chaos blast that happened after, both on Earth and in space.

In a weird, twisted way, Sonic understood why Shadow was doing this. When Aleena was killed by Julian Robotnik, Sonic was ready to kill him. Unlike the scenario with Aleena, however, Shadow wasn't seeking vengeance on a single person, but the entire human race. Sonic could understand what Shadow was feeling, but to punish the entire world for the mistakes of a few?

It wasn't like Ivo, who Sonic had been fighting since he was sixteen. He just met Shadow. He didn't know if there was a shred of goodness inside of the dark hedgehog, like he knew that was deep inside Ivo somewhere. But regardless for both adversaries of his- if the world is in danger, he would take care of the issue, no matter the backstory.

Sonic just wasn't sure how he would be able to take care of Shadow. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Shadow was right about him. Sonic was holding back. And he wasn't keeping himself held back in a "I don't know if I'll ever be able to hold back again" Batman cop out kind of way, it was because he was afraid of what would follow for him emotionally after letting his inner fury be unleashed. Four years of anger, fear, resentment and sadness- once you open the floodgates, you can't close them again. Did he really want to put that on his friends? Did he really need this before his vacation? If he ever got to go on that vacation, anyways. The doomsday clock was ticking ever so closer to zero.

Sonic's train of thought was finally taken away when Amy put her hand on his leg, making him snap back to reality. Wow, he really tore through that bag of pretzels. His autopilot eating just didn't stop, apparently. Sonic also noticed that Tails was now in the sitting part of the cabin with them, still on his tablet, but putting it up when he saw Amy touch Sonic.

"Knuckles is ready to talk now."

Crumpling up the bag he had, Sonic tossed it behind him to land in the trash bin near the door. It instead landed directly behind his seat. He'd get that later.

Knuckles had his mitts off, his fingers interlaced with one another as he rested his arms on his legs. His fingers and hands were still partially white from the paint he had reapplied to his quills and his friends on the trip up to the ARK. Never too late to touch up a bit.

It was still quiet for a moment. Sonic leaned back in his chair, resting an elbow on the chair's back as he did.

"So what's up, Knux? You said you want to go back to Angel Island?"

The echidna sighed.

"I've been feeling lately that… I've been neglecting the mission I was raised to do." He said. "Chaos is gone, sure, and is so docile he doesn't even want to deal with the current crisis at hand, but… even if I was told I had to guard it so Chaos wouldn't get out, it still needs protecting, doesn't it?"

"The other guardians are still on Angel Island."

"They weren't raised to protect the emerald, Amy. They were raised by Moss to survive. I'm from a lineage that was dedicated to the Master Emerald… it's my legacy to protect it."

"Legacies and traditions are peer pressure from old guys." Sonic replied. "You don't have to follow it to a T, Knuckles."

"Maybe not. But… I feel like the story I had on Angel Island isn't done. I mean, I didn't even know about the lost world under the pyramid structure until we investigated it. There's probably so many more things that's on Angel Island that need to be explored."

Knuckles tapped his knees nervously, sitting up again.

"I want to go back. I want to be the Master Emerald's guardian again… I've had fun, but… Station Square and the life you all follow isn't for me. Maybe for a while, but for too long."

Sonic, Amy and Tails looked at one another. After a second, Sonic moved his arm down from the chair to sit normally again.

"...alright." He said.

"Are you… all upset?"

"I mean, yeah, I know I'm a little upset."

"I liked having someone strong to lift my shopping bags with…"

"We're not going to have funny comments from you anymore!"

Knuckles' eyes trailed to the floor, the echidna feeling dejected. "I didn't want to make you all upset."

"Knuckles, you're our friend." Sonic replied to him. "We're upset because you're leaving, not because you chose to leave. We did kind of pry you out of your old world into the modern world, there was bound to be some homesickness."

"It was your choice to stay, and it's your choice to go back." Amy said.

"Besides, you're only a plane ride away." Tails shrugged.

"So you all aren't angry about my decision?"

The other three all said things that gave an offended, but also firm, "no" to the echidna.

Amy put her hand on Knuckles' back. "It's not like you're Blaze or Silver. If we want to visit you, we can."

"And if the world is ever placed in danger that's too much for us to handle, we'll know the first guy to contact." Sonic shot a finger gun to Knuckles. "And if the Master Emerald is taken, you know who you can call."

"Yeah… yeah, that's true." The echidna nodded. "I just didn't want you all to be upset. I know you all have had a lot of fun with me here. But my little mainland vacation is gonna have to come to an end."

"Just because you're not in town, doesn't mean our friendship is over."

"I see that now. Thank you… all of you."

Sonic held his palm out for Knuckles, who pressed his fist into it to do their handshake with a smile.

Nearby, the Miles Thunderbolt beeped loudly. He pulled it out, unfolding it with a flick of his hand.

"What's the beeping, Tails?"

"I'm glad you asked! I'm also glad this happened to finish in time." Tails replied to Amy. "While we were fighting Shadow and Rouge, I managed to snag a quill from Shadow. I did a scan on it to try and get a read of his biometrics."

"Better late than never, I suppose. Not being sarcastic, I'm literally saying, since we're about to fight Shadow in order to save the entire planet." Knuckles said.

"You're good Knuckles. According to this… huh."

"What is it, Tails?"

"Well, there's a lot of alien DNA in this, that's to be expected. But from the looks of his cells, running simulations, they don't seem to be able to withstand chaos energy for too long. Once the energy reaches a certain point, it seems to be transmuting organic matter into chaos energy as well. It looks similar to evaporation, but it has to do with energy."

"So what's that mean?"

"Well, I was telling Amy before that Shadow doesn't create unique chaos energy like you do, Sonic. He just generates normal, stabilized chaos energy, that's the gold energy he uses." He turned the Thunderbolt around, showing the others diagrams of both Sonic and Shadow. "But your physiology is tuned to withstand the power of your unique energy signature. Shadow's, whether it's because of the Black Arms DNA or not, isn't able to withstand a lot of generated chaos energy because his body wasn't made to withstand it. If Shadow uses or generates too much chaos energy for too long… he could become chaos energy, and fade away into nothing."

"If that's the case, why hasn't he faded away when he used the Chaos Emeralds?" Knuckles asked.

"Because the emerald was working like a battery for him. He didn't need to generate any chaos energy himself to make it work. If he does too many of those techniques- the chaos spear, the chaos magic bubble thing, the chaos control or the chaos blast- without an emerald, he puts himself at risk. It's basically only if he overexerts himself to generate energy."

"And what could keep himself from doing that?"

"Anything that prevents him from using too much power, I'd suppose."

Amy could think of one thing. She rubbed her empty wrist in silent thought.

Suddenly, the shuttle rocked violently, a long series of bangs skipping on the roof above them. The cockpit console started beeping loudly.

Everyone was up on their feet and rushing to the front. Knuckles pulled his mitts on again, just in case. As they got to the front, Tails slid into the pilot's seat, looking over the console.

"Oh no."

"What's wrong, Tails?"

"We must've hit one of the pieces of debris out here. From the looks of it, the top hull was damaged, and it even knocked out one of our rear thrusters."

"How much of a bad thing is that?"

"Very. Without all the thrusters working, the weight in the shuttle will cause it to slow down. We probably won't make it for like another hour at this rate."

"Is there any way to make it there in time with one of the thrusters out?"

"We would need to get rid of a bunch of weight."

"The cargo hold!" Sonic said. "Ivo is bringing up a bunch of supplies. We can eject them into the meteor herd to lighten the load."

"What kind of stuff is he bringing up?"

"Food, furniture. I think I saw a lot of machinery in that too."

"Good enough!"

Tails hit the "CARGO EJECT" button immediately. The top of the shuttle opened, releasing everything in the gravity-lightened meteor herd, floating out into the contained space.

"Wait, no!" Knuckles said. "The Master Emerald shards are in there!"

"Why didn't you just keep them on you?"

"I didn't know we would get hit by a meteor out here, Tails! We need to go back!"

Knuckles leaned in front of Tails, hanging onto the yoke. He tried prying the controls either which way, but the autopilot in the rocket kept him from steering it anywhere. Amy pulled him away from the controls.

"Knuckles, chill out, they'll just stay in the meteor herd!"

"They could float out into space, Sonic! I have to go after them!"

The echidna left the cockpit, followed by the others. Knuckles reached the door of the cargo bay inside of the shuttle, looking through the door and watching everything in there fly out into space. He grabbed the door and tried to pry it open.

"Knuckles, stop!" Amy said.

Knuckles didn't even notice what Amy said. He saw next to the door that there was a lever meant to open the pressurized door. Sonic saw that Knuckles was looking at it.

"Whoa, whoa! No! Don't touch that lever!"

Knuckles did, and pulled it open to access the cargo bay. The echidna watched as the Master Emerald pieces flew out of the shuttle and into the gravity-controlled meteor herd. Instinctively, Knuckles went after it, flying out of the shuttle and into space.

The release of pressure within the cabin started spinning the shuttle out of control. Sonic, Tails and Amy- all who were left within the spacecraft- screamed as the automatic controls continued to carry them to the ARK.

80 MINUTES REMAINING.

"Ugh, I can't believe that knucklehead would take over the controls like that!" Sonic said as he wiped off his sleeves. "I thought we were toast for sure!"

The shuttle managed to make it within the downward facing docking station of the satellite with only a few minor hiccups after Knuckles' departure. The only issue the group had right now was navigating through the massive space colony, especially now that they were down a team member that could literally track the energy of the emeralds.

"Ugh, this place is so dusty. I don't think anyone's been around here since… well, fifty years ago. You said Ivo just remodeled this place?" Amy wiped her gloved hands on a surface and looked at the dust on her fingers. She made a face and wiped the dust on her hammer bag.

"He probably made robots to clean up the place. But, since they're Ivo creations, they probably don't really work all too well."

"True, true."

Tails was using his Miles Thunderbolt to scan the metal and stone walls, staring closely at the tablet with the device held only a few inches from his face.

"This is incredible!" He said, not processing what Sonic and Amy had been saying. "From the looks of it, Gerald Robotnik mimicked the designs of a Bernal sphere space colony, but he made the entire top half of the ARK a layered colony to make up for the bottom half holding the Eclipse Cannon! This is seriously a marvel of aeronautic living."

They reached the end of the corridor. At the very end of the hall, it split into two different directions. On the wall between the two opposite corridors, there was a painting on the wall of the ARK eclipsing the sun. Below it there was text that said:

THE NEXT STEP IN SCIENCE AND LIVING!

ADVANCEMENT - RESEARCH - KNOWLEDGE

Those last three words must be what the "ARK" stood for, Sonic thought. Or maybe it was written there for people to believe it was what ARK stood for, and the workers just added it post-creation to be clever.

"This place was the most advanced laboratory ever designed when it first launched fifty years ago." Tails added, looking at the wall from his tablet. "Looking at it now…"

"It's a shell of what it used to be." Amy finished, looking over at Tails.

"Yeah."

"Hey, since it was made fifty years ago, the science stuff here is probably mega outdated." Sonic slipped into the conversation. "Looks like you should take the spot of making the most advanced lab in the world."

"Me?"

"Yeah! I mean, your workshop over in the Mystic Ruins is pretty much that anyways. Just needs a little improvement, add a few more people, and you're there."

"I've always been interested in expanding my research and stuff. Hopefully, once we clear our names here, I could get a grant from the state to start looking into that."

"Ohhh, what would you have them study here?"

"Just general applied sciences. Probably stuff with technology. I'd like to find a way to use the powers of the emeralds for transportation to reduce fossil fuel use…"

As Sonic and Tails talked to each other, Amy slowed down to a stop. Too engrossed in their conversation, the boys didn't notice Amy being left behind by them.

There was something eating at Amy's mind. She could feel herself pulled to turn around, looking down the opposite corridor heading the wrong direction. Something was in there, calling out to her. She turned around, slowly walking to the opposite corridor.

As soon as she crossed the boundary to enter the opposite corridor, Amy felt something cover her, almost like a blanket. The feeling of cold, the overwhelming sense of chill that traveled down Amy's body. Her breath was visible in that moment, even if nobody else felt a temperature drop anywhere in the ARK.

Amy collapsed to her knees, her arms holding herself as she shivered from the cold. This wasn't just an ordinary cold flash, or a sudden cross under the path of a powerful air condition vent, this was something else.

She felt a chill of evil when she met Julian Robotnik years ago. She felt a more intense chill when she saw that vision that came after touching Shadow at Prison Island. This wasn't either of that. This was so much worse. It was so cold it was hot. Whatever made this chill, it was something far beyond anything Ivo or Shadow could do that was considered evil.

"What is that you said?"

At the sound of someone's voice, Amy looked up. She could see there was a light coming from a room at the far end of the hall, right before it curved away. From the signage hanging from the ceiling a few feet away from her, Amy saw that this was the wing with all the biology labs in it.

With shaking hands, Amy reached into her bag and pulled on her red cardigan. It only helped a little, but it was enough to help the hedgehog up to her feet. Amy pushed forwards, gripping tightly onto the strap of her bag as she did.

She reached the door and peered inside. From the change in light and the renewed decor in the room of interest, Amy knew there wasn't anybody actually in the room- she was having a psychic vision by merely stepping in this direction within the Space Colony ARK.

"I said, this was found on the outside of the ARK's zenith face." It was a scientist, but not anybody that Amy could recognize. "We don't know what this substance is, but it might have something to do with the Black Comet, since it's coming within our reach. We don't know much about the meteor anyway, so that's our best guess."

"Hmmm. Interesting."

Amy knew who the other man was, because she'd seen him before- it was Gerald Robotnik. His mustache was beginning to gray, and he combed it between his fingers as he looked at something inside of a petri dish.

Though it still felt chilly, Amy slipped into the room to get a closer look at the vision. She stepped up behind the two scientists- the unnamed one was standing, and Gerald was sitting, seated in front of one of the workbenches.

"We experimented a bit with it. Since it's so slimy, we assumed it was some kind of metallic substance, and we shocked it with a wire."

"What were the results?"

"Nothing. However, when we connected another wire on the end, the electricity traveled through the weird goo and created a circuit. It was able to keep a lightbulb lit without any degradation overtime. It's like… some kind of conduit."

"My stars… That's incredible."

"Precisely. We wanted to get your take on it, so we brought it to you."

"Hm… I would like to think of something else after our… most recent failure, with the cure. Allow me to study this on my own. Once I have some results, I'll bring it to all of you. You and the others should return to testing on Mister Needlemouse to try and make any advancements with a cure."

"Mister Needlemouse…" Amy murmured. "Was that… what Shadow was called back then?"

The scientist nodded, leaving the biology lab right after. The automatic door was shut tightly behind the scientist as he left, leaving Gerald all alone with his thoughts and the red goop in the petri dish he had in his hand.

Gerald turned around, setting the dish down. He leaned down to open a cabinet below the workstation, and from there he pulled out a microscope.

Amy stood behind Gerald, watching him slip the petri dish under the stage of the scope and peer inside the lens. As he looked at the substance in the dish, he twisted the nosepiece of the microscope, changing the magnification from the lenses right above the stage.

"Amazing." He mumbled. "I've never seen anything like this before… If this really came from the Black Comet, this changes everything. This substance is moving like it's alive!"

Gerald leaned back away from the microscope.

"I need to get my supplies. This deserves a full round of testing."

The professor got up, slipping out of his seat and heading to exit the room. Amy watched him, still in place near the workbench.

GERALD.

The muffled voice caused Amy to feel the rush of cold across her quills again, even through the cardigan. She let out a shaky breath, visibly curling in the air. Gerald stopped in his tracks.

Gerald looked around, clearly hearing the voice as well. He looked over at the closed door- since the voice was muffled, it probably came from there.

The professor opened the door, looking into the hallway.

"Dr. Hanlin?" He asked. That must've been the scientist that was just in here. "Hello? …Kirk, I swear if this is another one of your little pranks…"

GERALD.

The small voice came from behind Gerald now.

Amy followed the professor with her eyes as he slowly moved away from the door, closing it behind him. He went back to the microscope, pulling the petri dish from the stage and looking at it.

OPEN IT.

The muffled voice was coming from the dish. Hesitantly, Gerald did what was asked of him, opening the petri dish.

"What in sam hill is the meaning of this? Are you… alive?"

A dark chuckle made Amy feel a sense of dread.

THE CONDUIT GEL YOU HAVE IN THIS DISH IS MERELY A MEANS TO CHANNEL INFORMATION THROUGH IT. THOUGHTS, DATA, ANYTHING IT TOUCHES. EVEN IF THE GEL DOES NOT FORM A CONNECTED CIRCUIT.

"So this is a conduit." Gerald remarked. "Who are you then, if you're speaking through this gel?"

I AM BLACK DOOM, THE CHILD OF MOBIUS. YOU ARE PROFESSOR GERALD ROBOTNIK.

"How do you know…?"

I HAVE HEARD OF THE STUDIES MADE BY THE EARTH'S MOST INTELLIGENT MIND. YOUR STUDIES HAVE LED YOU TO EVEN DISCOVERING THE ISLAND DEDICATED TO MY GRANDPARENT, CHAOS.

"A demigod. On Earth?"

NO. OUTSIDE YOUR WINDOW.

Gerald looked out of the shaded window. He walked closer to peer through the shaded glass- there was only space and stars… alongside the Black Comet, which was floating through space, towards the Earth.

"The Black Comet…" Gerald murmured. "There's life on the Black Comet?"

YES, THERE IS. AND I AM VERY INTERESTED IN ASSISTING YOU WITH YOUR PROJECT. I HAVE HEARD OF YOUR ATTEMPT TO CREATE WHAT YOU REFER TO AS "THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM," BUT ARE HAVING DIFFICULTIES GETTING THE RESULTS YOU DESIRE.

"…yes. The serum I create from the blood of the Ultimate Lifeform degrades too quickly."

IT IS BECAUSE THE CHAOS ENERGY IN THE SPECIMEN'S BODY OVEREXERTS ITSELF TOO QUICKLY. IT DISAPPEARS WITHIN MOMENTS. YOU NEED A STABILIZING ELEMENT TO ALLOW THE CHAOS ENERGY TO SUSTAIN ITSELF.

"A stabilizing element? Like what?"

I HAVE SOMETHING IN MIND. BUT IF YOU WANT MY ASSISTANCE, YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DO SOMETHING FOR ME AS WELL.

"Who said we were ever making a deal? Why would I ever deal with someone named Black Doom?"

BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE. I HEARD WHAT YOUR UNDERLINGS SAY WITHOUT YOU PRESENT- YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER IS FADING FAST. HER CONDITION IS WORSENING. DON'T YOU WANT TO SAVE HER?

"More than anything."

THEN TRUST ME.

Black Doom's voice almost sounded snakelike as he enticed the professor into his cause.

I JUST WANT ONE THING. SOMETHING THAT NEITHER YOU, NOR MARIA WILL MOST LIKELY BE AROUND TO BE A PART OF. BUT IT WILL BE AFTER YOU AND MARIA LIVE A FULL, COMPLETE LIFE. DO WE HAVE A DEAL?

"…I don't have any other choice. I'll do what you want. But if you ever speak of my granddaughter again, this deal is off."

VERY WELL. WE WILL DISCUSS MORE WHEN YOU MAKE AN EXPEDITION TO THE BLACK COMET. I WILL SEE YOU SOON, PROFESSOR.

Amy heard the chuckle coming from Black Doom after the final message. Gerald continued to stare into the petri dish, his eyebrows furrowed from thought and discomfort from this communion.

Then, as soon as Amy blinked again, she found herself standing in an abandoned biology lab. It was still mildly chilly, but not as freezing as it was before.

Outside, in the same spot it was in the vision, was the Black Comet. Amy gripped onto her bag strap tighter as she saw it floating ever so closer to the ARK, and the Earth.

Something in the back of her mind whispered, making Amy turn around. She saw more light headed further down the hall, and further away from Sonic and Tails.

Tightening her cardigan, Amy quickly rushed out, turning to follow the whispers left in this deserted space station.

When Rouge and the others got back to the ARK, they immediately scattered to collect things for the big final confrontation. They had planned to gather once again in the observation deck after they had everything they needed, to come up with something to survive the last hour or so before the laser is supposed to fire.

Ivo had figured (correctly) that Sonic and his friends would find a way up to space no matter what. However, since they needed the heroes to come aboard in order for them to retrieve the final Chaos Emerald, nobody on the dark side was that torn up about being followed.

As soon as she came onboard the Space Colony ARK, Rouge immediately emptied her stomach in the restroom connected to her room.

They killed a kid. GUN killed a kid. She worked for a company that once killed a kid and then covered up that death so nobody would find out. Part of Rouge knew GUN was shifty, but only like felony tax evasion bad. But this? This was unimaginably vile.

Did Topaz know? Did she know the whole time? She knew Topaz was a GUN agent longer than Rouge was. She was Tower's Number One for Chaos' sake!

Leaning against the sink in her bathroom, the bat took deep breaths to steady herself once again. There was very little time left before the laser was meant to fire at the Earth. Once that happened, it would become infinitely more difficult to evade Team Sonic and the others if she was to continue her life on Earth. She definitely didn't want to be cooped up in the Space Colony ARK up in space.

Her makeup needed some touching up, which she did while she thought to herself.

What was there left to do? From the sounds of it, Shadow and Ivo wanted to get the Chaos Emerald themselves. Rouge had offered to both of them to retrieve the yellow emerald from Tails, but both men separately told the bat not to even bother. Why even have a thief if you're not going to utilize her?

The Master Emerald. That was it. If Knuckles was coming up here with Team Sonic to help, like she assumed he would, she could easily take the Master Emerald shards he has and complete it for herself. She would need it after the entire world goes into chaos post-laser.

If Ivo would ever shoot it, that is. It seemed like he was very conflicted with firing the laser at the moon in the first place, would he be willing to shoot it at the Earth? Even if he shot it into the oceans to avoid immediate casualties, the waves created from the blast would be enough to drown people on seaside towns like Station Square.

Would the president's pardon be able to keep her from suffering the consequences of this laser firing? She hadn't been instructed to stop Ivo yet from President Sky… she had total faith that Sonic would stop the doctor by any means necessary. She was sent up here to investigate the ARK and why it was reactivated in the first place, then it changed to assisting Ivo as a means of furthering the development of the dormant Space Colony.

That last mission was from GUN specifically. It blew her mind that they could participate in the destruction of something, then want to use it for themselves again once they were sure everyone had forgotten about their own actions.

The United Federation? Being underhanded? Groundbreaking.

She finished her makeup. In the back of her mind she mused that she had to look good for Knuckles for what could very much be their final outing. She didn't know why the echidna didn't sell her out when they were confronted by Tower- even if Rouge told Team Sonic that Knuckles was leaving them, they probably wouldn't believe her- but she was grateful regardless. That guardian was way too good to someone like her.

Well, some people probably think I'm out of his league, so that evens the playing field.

She tightened up her iron boots. Rouge had on her best, most durable and (more importantly) most pristine jumpsuit. The bat took a deep breath as she approached her door- showtime.

As she walked down the hall, she heard Ivo speaking. It seemed that he was speaking to himself- or, more specifically, he was speaking to the manifestation of his grandfather that he believed was haunting the Space Colony ARK.

Rouge had kept an open mind during the little misadventure she had been on with Shadow and the doctor, considering she had literally talked to a spirit with Knuckles a while back, but the way that Ivo was blubbering to this hidden figure made him seem… how could Rouge put it nicely… absolutely insane.

But, well, Julian Robotnik was a crazy person, so… maybe it just ran in the family.

"Those infernal rodents are trying to mess up my plans once again!" Ivo said, finishing a rant as Rouge entered the observation deck. "They're not going to try and get the drop on me this time!"

Silence. Ivo's back was to Rouge, but he turned his head like someone next to him was speaking- definitely the aforementioned spirit of Gerald.

"I won't! I won't! I'll make sure I get that Chaos Emerald and destroy those pests for good!"

"What's happening, doctor?"

Ivo jumped a bit at Rouge's voice, whipping around quickly to look at her. He looked fairly disheveled, which he certainly didn't look like when they came up to the ARK in the first place.

"Sonic and his friends have docked in the Space Colony ARK." He answered her, adjusting his blue glasses. "They're making their way in to try and find the control room."

"As to be expected."

"Where is Shadow? We need to make a plan of action!"

"I'm here."

The rasp took Ivo and Rouge by surprise. From the shadows of the room, the dark hedgehog crept out into the light of the room, his red eye only visible through the shade before he made his way out.

"I don't know how long you've been in there, but it doesn't matter." Ivo said, waving his hand aimlessly as if to wave away the possible question. "Sonic and his friends cannot reach the control room. If they do…"

"They won't." The hedgehog replied. "They don't know where it is. Besides, I've sensed they're currently down two members. The feeling of chaos energy has become dispersed through the Space Colony ARK. Only the blue hedgehog and his annoying fox sidekick are the only ones trying to find the control room."

"Amy might be following a vibe, but Knuckles…" Rouge crossed her arms, her patagium draping over her body. "He doesn't usually leave Sonic or Tails."

"You would know, troublemaker."

Rouge side eyed Shadow. Was that… teasing? From the grouchiest guy she's ever met?

Suddenly, the bat's treasure tracker beeped loudly and came down over her eye. She was prompted to walk to the window of the observation deck, past Ivo, to look out into the gravity-shifted meteor herd that was connected to the Space Colony ARK.

She was getting multiple hits of different chaos energy signatures all across the closed off area filled with debris. This wasn't just normal chaos energy though, this was the energy signature from the Master Emerald.

"The Master Emerald pieces…" Rouge said. "They're floating outside the ARK."

"How is that even possible?"

"They must've lost the pieces while arriving at the ARK." The bat replied to Ivo. The treasure scope flipped back up above her head before she turned away, starting to walk out.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to get the pieces of the Master Emerald. I'd like to have something nice to look at if I'm going to become an international fugitive because of your actions, doctor."

"But we need to get the last emerald!"

"You two both told me you don't need me to get it." Rouge pointed out. "I'm getting my emerald. If you two still need help after I'm done, maybe I'll help out. But right now… I have some collecting to do."

With that, the bat left the observation deck, leaving the doctor and hedgehog alone.

"Ugh!" Ivo huffed. "I can't believe this! I guess it's up to you and I, Shadow."

"...no."

"No? What do you mean no?"

"I have… some thinking to do. By myself." Shadow rumbled softly. "I still don't believe Sonic and his fox friend can make it to the control room all by themselves. If Sonic becomes a problem, I will take care of it. But until then… this is your plan. You decide what to do, doctor."

Shadow slowly turned and walked out of the observation deck alone.

"...fine then!" Ivo shouted. He huffed once more. "I have to do this myself."

"Do not mess this up, grandson." Gerald's spirit appeared over his shoulder, staring at him from his side. "If you do, you will bring shame to everyone that's come before you. Don't be a disappointment and finally do something good for your family."

"...right."

Ivo hesitated, before leaving the observation deck himself. He still had Maria on his mind- he hadn't brought it up to Gerald yet, but he was planning on doing it soon. He just needed to make a plan for Team Sonic first.

On the trip up towards the Space Colony ARK, Tails had told Knuckles about how the gravity field situated around the satellite- the one containing the meteor herd- was an amazing work of genius from both Gerald and Ivo Robotnik. Gerald had developed a gravity diverter himself, used to alter gravity if and when the Space Colony ARK were to rotate and spin, and Ivo had managed to expand it to contain the debris around the ARK in a contained space so they weren't floating anywhere.

Knuckles wasn't that big of a fan. He knew he wasn't that big of a fan when he tried gliding through the meteor herd and got pulled into the gravity of a rounded floating meteor, slammed downwards into it.

It was like each moderately sized floating object had its own gravitational pull within the herd. Sure, it made it easy to walk all over the surface of it at any angle, but it made gliding past them pretty hard.

Luckily Tails was right. The Master Emerald shards were contained within the meteor herd area, thanks to the heavier gravity within the field than it was in actual space. Knuckles wasn't sure what he would do if any of the pieces actually flew out into space.

The echidna picked himself up. He reached one of the small labs on the large meteor and grabbed onto the basket lift that was parked there. He held onto it as it zipped over to another meteor, one he could tell had a Master Emerald somewhere on it due to the energy ring made around it.

From the stations set up on a few of the floating meteors and debris, it was clear he had been taking materials from them in order to completely rebuild the ARK. Thanks to this, there were automatic trolleys moving from different floating debris to make it all automated. Knuckles, super-strong, was able to move the baskets in any direction he wanted.

He reached a separate, but smaller floating landmass. It was hard to land, as it was like a wall that was actually the ground, forcing Knuckles' body around to slam him face-down once more.

The shard of the Master Emerald on the floating landmass floated around, in orbit around the meteor. When it floated above Knuckles, the echidna lifted his hand for it to land in the palm of his mitt almost perfectly, not even having to look up to detect it.

Knuckles groaned as he slowly picked himself up. Stupid space. If there was any floating surface he had to work on, he only wanted it to be like Angel Island.

As he got to his feet, he slipped the emerald shard into his jacket. Because he flew out of the rocket right behind the shards, he was able to grab a bunch of them before he hit the center of the meteor herd. He had just about forty out of the one-hundred-and-eighty there was. Could've been worse, he supposed. Luckily the shards liked to stay together.

He stood on the planet, standing at an angle that looked down at the largest meteor in the gravity field. This one had a sprawling mining system on it, including a giant excavation area that had a tall support tower jutting upwards from it.

There was a shard down on the surface of the mining meteor, right in front of where the giant excavation structure was. It was standing still, luckily. Knuckles didn't see it before- maybe it just appeared there a minute ago.

He used his strength to spring off the side of the meteor he was on, enough to clear the gravitational pull it had, gliding downwards towards the emerald shard in sight.

Before he could reach it, however, someone else swooped in and stole it. Knuckles, for the third time in the last fifteen minutes, slammed stomach-down into the ground with a loud grunt. He was very angry now; he picked himself up, immediately looking for the figure that took it, finding it fly around and land on one of the beams of the excavation structure.

Rouge had her back to Knuckles, but turned around to show that she had the emerald shard in her hand. She wiggled her fingers to wave at the echidna playfully, the same smirk on her face as always when it came to the guardian.

"Hi, big red." She said. In the gravitational field it was eerily silent- much like the rest of space- so it was easy to hear her from further away.

"Rouge!" Knuckles exclaimed. "This isn't funny! We don't have time for games, you need to give me that emerald shard right now!"

"Just this one? Okay."

Rouge tossed the emerald shard like she was tossing something nonchalantly, letting it hop across the stony surface of the meteor and land yards in front of the echidna. He quickly ran over and picked it up.

"Satisfied now?"

"Not until I have all the pieces of the Master Emerald!"

"Oh, you mean like these?"

Rouge opened her wings, revealing that there were dozens of shards hanging down under her arms like… well, you know. She had many, many more than Knuckles did, making his mouth go agape from shock.

"How did you…?"

"Well, when I saw that you carelessly lost the pieces of my emerald, I figured it was time for me to finally step in. You can't send a guardian to do a thief's job, after all."

"You need to give me those pieces now! The Master Emerald is much more than just a pretty rock, it can control and neutralize the energies of the Chaos Emeralds!"

"Wait, so it can neutralize the Chaos Emeralds?"

"That's literally what I just said!"

"So I could, hypothetically, make them powerless?"

"Yes!"

"So then, I could make people believe the Chaos Emeralds no longer work, meaning I could steal them even easier?"

Knuckles was quiet, his eyebrows furrowing as he thought for a moment.

"...I just made you want the Master Emerald more, didn't I?"

"You always were so perceptive." The bat leaned down, gripping the edge of the beam she was on to look down at Knuckles. "You could just make this easy on yourself and give me the shards of my emerald. Like I said, I'd be more than happy to split custody."

"Like I said, this isn't a game right now. The world could be destroyed at any minute!"

"Which is why I need my emerald back as soon as possible."

"You're not going to get it, bat girl! Nothing will stop me from finding the other pieces of that emerald!"

There was a BOOM and a small rumble that both Knuckles and Rouge felt, thanks to the meteor herd's artificial atmosphere. They both looked upwards- entering the field was what appeared, to Rouge at least, to be a cargo spacecraft. It was a large pod-shaped spacecraft that was all black, except for one thing both the mobians recognized: the "G" symbol of the Guardian Units of Nations.

"Oh no."

"Oh, brother." Rouge rolled her eyes.

The bottom of the pod opened up as it soared overhead. From the opened part of the spacecraft, a dark capsule-shaped object was dropped out, falling downwards at high speeds.

Knuckles jumped backwards to dodge the load, which slammed into the spot he was standing at just before. The sides of the capsule opened up, flipping over and sinking down into the ground, opening it up to reveal a gaggle of Swat-Bots inside.

"MONOTREME MOBIAN IDENTIFIED. SECONDARY CHIROPTERA MOBIAN DETECTED."

"Destroy them both!" Knuckles could hear Tower's voice, hoarse from his screaming, through the comm link inside of the talking Swat-Bot. Rouge, with super-strong hearing, could hear it as well.

"So much for a friendly work environment." The bat commented. "That's my cue to ski-doo…"

She turned and began to run across the beam to head somewhere else- before she could make her escape, a Swat-Bot landed in front of her, having acted quick and jumped over to intercept her. Rouge skidded to a stop, before turning and running away.

The Swat-Bot fired at her, barely missing her. As she retreated. Up ahead of her, the bat could see a metal crate that was partially blocking her path to the corner column of the excavation site. Rouge vaulted it, sliding to the other side.

She slipped her boot's end under the edge of it and pulled the box upwards to spin in the air. Rouge did a jump kick on the box, sending it flying into the Swat-Bot across the beam. The box hit the bot, knocking it off balance and sending it down to the rocky land below.

Rouge quickly ascended the corner column to the top, where one of the ends of the automatic trolley was, leading somewhere upwards. She grabbed the end of the transport basket, turning around to look down at Knuckles.

"Good luck, big Knux!" She shouted. "I'll be rooting for you from up here!"

The bat blew a kiss towards the guardian before kicking upwards, using the trolley to propel herself upwards to some of the meteors floating up above, where more shards of the Master Emerald pieces resided, no doubt.

Knuckles grunted, frowning deeply from irritation from the bat's flippant attitude. He didn't have time to pursue, however, as he was being ganged up on by the group of Swat-Bots that now focused purely on him.

One of the Swat-Bot's arms was stuck out to shoot him. Knuckles grabbed the wrist of the robot, punching into the arm near the shoulder to completely tear it off. He swung the arm like a baseball bat, causing the robot to fling backwards from the force of the hit and destroying the makeshift weapon in one single attack.

He had to hold one of his arms up to block a barrage of energy blasts, grunting as they all hit the back of his arm. It hurt, but he could take it, as his quills were made to be durable- kind of like Sonic's.

With a loud roar, he rushed forwards like a football player, slamming into the front Swat-Bot and knocking them back into the capsule, shattering the robot and knocking over the transport load. He clasped his hands together and sent a swing into the body of another Swat-Bot, knocking the entire midsection of the robot out from under it, the head of the Swat-Bot landing on its remaining legs before it all toppled over.

The echidna ducked under another energy blast, crawling forwards for a moment before standing back up to go after the firing robot. He pulled off his adventure hat, pushing it into the face of the Swat-Bot and obscuring its visual sensors. While the android was confused, Knuckles wound up a punch and hit directly into the center of the android's chest, making it explode into bits instantly.

He caught his hat as it fluttered down, slipping it back onto his head.

"SWAT-BOT MODELS INEFFECTIVE…" The head of one of the Swat-Bots said, slowly powering down. "ASSISTANCE FROM LZ-12R… RESQUESTEDDDD…"

Up above, the back of the slowly soaring GUN cargo spacecraft opened up. With a THUNK sound that made Knuckles look up, something shot out of the end of the spacecraft, something nearly the same size as the cargo ship itself.

The thing landed down on the meteor near Knuckles. This capsule didn't open, instead it quickly reassembled itself. It became a large disk-like machine, a deep slate gray in color, with a large cobalt blue bird painted on the front of it. On top of the machine were six cannon-like weapons, one on each side of it. It had a window that was supposed to look into a cockpit, but the glass was shaded- nobody was probably in there anyways.

"BLUE FALCON PROTOCOL INITIATED." The machine said in a deep robotic voice. "PARTICLE BEAM CANNON… ACTIVE."

Suddenly, from the bottom of the "Blue Falcon," a shockwave of electric blue energy rippled outwards. Knuckles was unable to move in time, and when the shockwave hit him, Knuckles was propelled backwards by the force, slamming into the platform the excavation site was set up on.

"CHARGING."

The bottom half of the Blue Falcon suddenly came alight as thrusters activated underneath it, allowing the machine to float through the air. As Knuckles pulled himself from the wall, the cannons on the side of the Blue Falcon raised upwards and fired missiles into the air. It was clear that these missiles were automatically seeking, as they turned in air and all came towards Knuckles.

Knuckles was able to punch three of the missiles from the air with wide swings. However, the last three all came in at the same time, making the echidna dive forwards to evade them all. The wall exploded behind him, the force pushing Knuckles away and across the ground.

The floating machine turned around to face the tinted glass towards Knuckles. It fired again, launching six more missiles towards the echidna. Knuckles was up on his feet quickly, sprinting away from the pursuing missiles- one hit the wall again and blew up.

While followed by five missiles, Knuckles rushed to one of the trolleys and grabbed the basket, pushing off the ground of the meteor to fly upwards. However, as he was pulled upwards, one of the missiles was unable to turn in time and destroyed the piece connecting the trolley line to the meteor.

The line became loose, making Knuckles enter free fall. He flipped backwards, hitting a glide to soar across the air and away from the pursuing missiles. When one came up on him, the echidna rolled out of the way in time for it to hit one of the floating debris in the air.

When one of the pieces of the exploded debris came towards him, Knuckles pulled his body around to hit it with his feet, kicking off of the floating rock to head in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, one of the remaining three missiles didn't hit any more debris, all turning around to follow Knuckles wherever he was going.

The echidna had a feeling of where to go, and it was flying through the air following where Knuckles was going. Knuckles saw that the missiles were gaining on him over his shoulder- he focused harder on gliding faster, silently praying the wind spirits would hear him and help him, even far above the Earth.

He reached the Blue Falcon. Knuckles did just as he did before- he pressed his feet to the glass and kicked off of it, flying through the missiles to dodge them all. The machine was giant enough for all three to hit the glass, creating an explosion that knocked out the controls to the thrusters. The propulsion ended, making the Blue Falcon drop to the ground with a loud thud. Knuckles landed on his feet nearby.

The dark tinted glass of the cockpit was now shattered, revealing what Knuckles already knew- that the cockpit was completely empty. With the missiles knocking out the controls and the thrusters of the Blue Falcon, Knuckles began to rush towards the grounded machine to finish it off.

"PARTICLE BEAM CANNON… ACTIVE."

Just as Knuckles was getting a headstart on the Blue Falcon, the blue shockwave of particle beam energy came out again, a steady pulsing of energy that froze the charging echidna in his spot. Knuckles was ready this time, pushing back against it with the strength in his body.

Knuckles slammed his spiked fists into the ground to give himself a bit more security in his spot. He growled as he kept himself in place from the powerful pulsing energy, his jacket flapping in the force of the cannon's power.

"Shift, rock, yeah… shift, rock, yeah…"

He felt his body heat up. Knuckles knew he probably wouldn't be able to hold himself still for much longer, especially since it was waves of energy instead of a steady blast. Knuckles' quills glowed red, slowly going to a red-violet as his body reached a maximum heat, a red aura covering his body as he gathered up his strength to create a fiery surge through his arms.

The echidna couldn't power through the waves of energy, but it appeared that it was only above the ground. He looked downwards, seeing how easy it was to press his knuckles into the stony meteor landscape below him.

With a small lean backwards, Knuckles used the power of his maximum heat to dive down into the ground, digging under the surface in a straight line towards the Blue Falcon, a path of raised turf created from Knuckles' digging heading directly under the machine.

As soon as he was below the Blue Falcon, there was a loud CRASH as the echidna shot upwards through the machine in an uppercut that made the disk-shaped machine into a donut-shaped machine.

The Blue Falcon vibrated, jostling around before collapsing onto the ground, completely dead. Knuckles landed down near the defeated machine, letting out a long breath after exerting so much concentrated energy.

A wolf whistle came from above.

Knuckles stood up, seeing Rouge on the top beam of the excavation site, laying on her stomach to watch the fight from far away.

"Impressive as always, big red." She said. "Thanks for clearing out the robots for me."

"Rouge, give me the emerald shards."

"How about you give me the shards?"

"You know I can't do that."

Rouge sighed.

"Yeah, I know." She sounded disappointed. "I think I have just the right amount of emerald pieces to finish out the amount you have."

"And?"

"And…"

Rouge rolled off the edge of the beam, landing on her feet inside of the excavation structure. She walked over to one of the corner columns of the site, looking down at Knuckles from it. She flipped a switch that was there. Suddenly, the bottom tier space of the excavation site started glowing red, creating a force field wall that blocked off the area.

"If you want these emerald pieces so bad… come and get 'em."

"C'mon, Mister Needlemouse!"

Amy trailed down the hall, watching the pair running around and playing. She had learned quickly, through information that randomly entered the back of her mind, that these two figures were Maria Robotnik and a younger, not-scarred Shadow. It was finally confirmed that Mister Needlemouse and Shadow were the same person, which connected the dots of why Shadow was so freaked out hearing that name on Prison Island.

The two were almost dancing, laughing as they pranced through the hall of the ARK. Amy was brought back to her playing with Sonic and Tails when they were growing up on the compound, running around and doing nothing. Just wasting time together. Those times were the best.

Her eyes flicked up as she noticed one of the room's lights was on up ahead. Maria and young Shadow were headed right towards it. When they noticed the light on in the room, Maria and Shadow hurried over to it specifically.

With their backs against the wall right next to the door opening, Maria brought a finger to her lips to tell Shadow to keep quiet. Amy stayed back, coming to a stop as she watched the pair curiously.

The blonde teenager slowly turned around to peek into the room. As soon as she did, someone who was hidden on the other side of the wall jumped out.

"RAAAAH!"

Maria burst into laughter as the surprising man, a bespectacled man with copper hair and a similarly colored verdi beard, grabbed onto Maria and lifted her up. Even though Maria was a teenager, the man picked her up like she weighed nothing, spinning around with her.

"The mighty hunter has caught his prey once more! No matter where she goes, the prey can never escape the mighty grasp of the apex predator!"

"Daaaaaad, stoooppp! You're making me dizzy!"

The man, Maria's father, chuckled as he came to a stop. He set Maria down, letting out a breath. It looked like it was easy to pick Maria up, but he was still worn out pretty easily. After setting Maria down, he noticed Shadow peeking out into the room.

"Oh! Hey, you. Still playing around with Maria, huh?"

Shadow shrank back, only partially peeking out now, clearly shy.

"Awww, c'mon Mister Needlemouse, dad doesn't bite."

"Tell that to my steaks!"

Maria rolled her eyes, though clearly amused at the gag her father was laughing lightly at.

A hand grabbed onto Maria's dad's shoulder, making him turn. An older woman who looked a lot like Maria, complete with long blonde hair, stepped out from beside the man to look at both Maria and Shadow.

"Don't let us interrupt your fun, kids." She said. "We're just having a chat here. We'll see you later for lunch, okay?"

"Alright mom! We'll see you later then."

Maria reached over and grabbed the young Shadow's hand. She pulled the Ultimate Lifeform along, the hedgehog looking up at Maria's parents in surprise. Maria's mom did a little wave to Shadow as they passed by.

Amy walked up, stopping in front of the doorway to the room. Though she intended on following Maria and Shadow, she was surprised to find that the pair disappeared into the hallway. Amy could still feel the light on her face, and she saw that the part of the vision having to do with Maria's parents was still going.

The back of Amy's head knew who they were: Professor Theodore Robotnik and Dr. Miriam Robotnik. Both college professors, like Gerald once was; they had met each other through teaching at the same university. Theodore followed his father's footsteps and entered biology, while Miriam was a mathematics professor.

Theodore and Miriam returned to the room- it was another lab room, and sitting at one of the lab stations was Gerald. He had a few documents, a few opened folders and a closed notebook nearby. Theodore and Miriam sat across from Gerald.

Amy walked into the room, standing a few feet away from the station the three were seated at.

"You're sure Maria is safe with… what was he called, Mister Needlemouse?"

"Mister Needlemouse, yes." Gerald replied to Miriam, not looking up from the notes he was reading. "Maria is safer with him than she would be with any scientist or GUN Agent around here."

The couple looked at one another. Amy took notice, her head tilting a bit.

"So…" Theodore cleared his throat. "What have you found about a cure?"

"...not much. I've been attempting to synthesize a cure, but any serums created by Mister Needlemouse's DNA are deteriorating too quickly to be used. But…"

"But?"

"I think I've found something that could help." Gerald finally looked up at his son and daughter-in-law. "I've… been contacted by somebody. Someone who has told me they have the means of stabilizing the serum so it could work."

"You… have? Who?"

Gerald was quiet for a moment. He returned to his notes.

"...I can't share that with you. I can't even tell you what their means of stabilizing the serum is."

Theodore and Miriam looked at one another again, before they took each other's hand, holding it on the table.

"Father. We… need to talk."

Gerald looked up again. He looked at the pair holding hands, before looking between their faces.

"What? Don't tell me you two are pregnant again."

"No, father. We just… We feel that…"

"We want you to stop the project and come back home." Miriam finished for her husband.

Gerald's face dropped. He let go of the paper in his hand.

"Wh… what? What are you talking about?"

"Father, it's been two years since you started this project." Theodore continued. "You've gotten nowhere. The only thing you've gotten from this project is the beginning signs of insanity. You've been running yourself ragged looking for a cure."

"I'm trying to save Maria!"

"Maria has accepted what's happening to her." Miriam pulled Theodore's hand closer to her. "There's still a chance she'll live to be fifty, or even sixty. We don't want those days to be spent up here."

"It helps her move better when she's up here."

"She's away from her home and her family. She had friends at home, and they barely hear from her now. The only friend she has is Mister Needlemouse up here, she needs more friends than just him."

"Not to mention what Mister Needlemouse is." Theodore added. "You experimented on animals, father. Was it just him? Are there other animals you've experimented on that I need to know about? That nobody else knows about?"

Gerald was quiet, but soon hung his head, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes.

"I'm doing what I can to help her. So she can have a better life."

"She doesn't want a better life. She just wants to live like a normal teenager. Is all of this really worth it?" Theodore replied to him. "I know you feel bad about what happened with Julian. What happened to mom. But you don't need to make up for it by uprooting your life and Maria's life to be a savior."

"Theodore, Miriam, please." Gerald put his glasses down, clasping his hands together to beg with them. "I'm so close to something. I know I've done… awful things, for science. I know I've created something terrible before. I know I've ruined our family. But I need to do this. You and Miriam are the only part of the family left. You can't lose your daughter. We can't lose our Maria. Please."

Gerald started crying silently, still holding his hands together to beg the couple. Theodore and Miriam looked at each other again in silence, before turning back to Gerald. Miriam wanted to talk, but looked away towards the ground beside the station. Theodore wiped a tear from his eye under his glasses.

"Okay, father." He said quietly. "Okay."

At his son's answer, Gerald started crying again. He reached out towards Theodore, pulling him in and hugging him. Theodore's glasses became askew as he was pressed against his father, and the look on the man's face made it clear he wasn't sure if he made the right decision.

Suddenly, when she blinked, Amy was left alone in the room. She thought to herself as she stood alone with no vision, thinking about why she was being shown these things.

A laugh was heard from outside. Amy's interest was piqued, and she went to the door. There was a light somewhere down the hallway, the laughter and whispering increasing as she looked at the light.

Amy quickly left the room to follow.

Sonic dipped under gunfire from a Swat-Bot, boosting upwards and obliterating it with a homing attack that tore clean through the robot.

While Knuckles and Amy were able to evade any altercation with the emerging GUN forces, due to Sonic and Tails being on the lower levels near the docking station still, that meant that the androids sent to the ARK were going after them. Since Sonic was apparently one of Tower's #1 targets, it made sense.

Tails whipped around his ring tether, hitting the head of a Swat-Bot hard enough to knock its head clean off. The fox swung the tether back towards Sonic, who caught it while speeding by.

Pulled along by the speeding hedgehog, Tails jumped up in time to hit the body of the headless Swat-Bot, using it as a kind of wakeboard as he was pulled across the stone floor of the ARK hallway.

More Swat-Bots were shuffling in ahead. Sonic sped past them- Tails jumped up, bringing the robot with him. While he soared over the robots, he let the android he skated on fly into the small quartet of robots, crashing into them and destroying them instantly. That checked out, considering they were made by Snively Robotnik.

While Sonic and Tails weren't successful in finding the control room, they did find something a bit more interesting- they found the engine room. They were following the trail to try and reach the engine room in order to knock out power to the ARK. That way, even if the Chaos Emeralds were a reserve power, once they retrieved the emeralds there would be no real way for Ivo to escape. Except the escape pods that Tails had found, but they'd catch him long before those would be put in use.

Flying through the air, pulled along by his supersonic best friend, Tails spotted a large group of Swat-Bots entering the hallway up ahead. There were ten of them, in a pyramid formation- almost like something you'd see at the end of a bowling lane.

Sonic looked back at Tails, grinning at him. Tails grinned back. They both got the same idea.

Still running, Sonic pulled the ring tether as hard as he could, flinging Tails forwards. As Tails soared by, Sonic grabbed onto the fox's ankles, and though it was a bit awkward for them at first, both Sonic and Tails managed to grab onto each others' ankles. They tumbled forwards, creating a rolling combo that ripped across the hallway, looking almost like a blue and yellow tire from the shape alone.

The rolling combo crashed into the front Swat-Bot. You could almost hear the sounds of bowling pins crashing as they slammed into the group of robots. All the robots were destroyed from the hit, their parts scattering around the ground.

Both Sonic and Tails came to a stop together, laughing as they both hit the ground. Looking up, they saw the door to the engine room was right ahead.

The engine room wasn't too flashy or anything. There were some computers, sure, but it looked like a standard generator that ran on some kind of energy. Most likely, it was running on solar energy, since they were in space and all.

"Would you like to do the honors?" Sonic asked Tails.

The fox smiled. He activated Vulcan Cannons on both hands, and started rapid firing into the engine. Since it ran on energy, there wasn't any real danger of it exploding… probably. Tails probably should've thought of that before he started firing wildly at it.

Either way, eventually after one of the many shots of energy balls, the power went out. Though Sonic and Tails stood in darkness for a minute, light soon came back to the pair as the emergency backup lights started up.

"Now all we need to do is stop that laser."

"I think I have a way to do that."

Tails pulled his backpack around, reaching in and presenting Sonic with… a yellow emerald.

"...Tails, this is like the opposite of what we should do."

"It's not the real emerald! I created a copy of it using the notes on the chaos drives I found." Tails handed the fake emerald to Sonic. "It has similar properties to a normal Chaos Emerald, but a key difference- when it's placed into whatever is holding the other emeralds, it'll reverse the energy field of the other emeralds and explode, destroying the laser's energy source and scatter the Chaos Emeralds."

"Tails, that's brilliant!"

"I know right? There's just one catch though- I don't think we can access the control room, you're going to have to travel into the core of the Eclipse Cannon by rushing through the chase of the cannon. That means… traveling around to the tip and running in through there."

"You're telling me… I get to run around through space… and then into the barrel of a cannon?"

"That's the gist of it, yes."

Sonic held the side of his fist to his mouth, his eyes closing.

"Everything that's happened these last few weeks was worth it…" He murmured sincerely.

Tails chuckled at Sonic's reaction. Sonic smiled, but it soon fell as he remembered just how much had been going on these last few weeks. He looked down at the fake emerald for a moment, before looking back at Tails.

"Hey man, I… I'm sorry about all the stress that's been happening through this mess."

"Huh? Oh, Sonic, it's fine."

"No, it's… It's really not fine. You all have put your lives and your reputations on the line to help me. You all didn't need to do that. You shouldn't do that."

"We chose to do it though. We chose to do it because you're our friend, Sonic."

"Yeah, I get it, but… I just feel I'm supposed to be better. I'm supposed to be this kind of perfect hero, who saves the world and does commercials for toothpaste after it. Nobody saw my flaws when I was the international superhero, but… now it's different. Now it's harder for me to do anything without feeling like I'm going to make a mistake."

"You're not going to make a mistake."

"Am I?" Sonic looked at Tails directly. "I'm having this… anxiety, deep within me. I'm going to face Shadow soon, one-on-one, I just know it. When I do, it's going to decide the fate of the world. The fate of everyone I know and love. Shadow was right when he said I've been holding back. I can't hold back against him now, but… if I don't hold it back… I'll just open the floodgates to all these bad feelings I've been having over the past few years. All the sadness, all the anger. Once I open that… I don't know if I'll be able to go back to who I was before."

"Who you were before was hurting, Sonic." Tails replied. "Amy, Knuckles and I could see it. I could see it all throughout us having to hop house to house during this whole debacle. You've been acting so strong for all of us, you're afraid of actually letting yourself feel bad for everything that's been happening."

"I just… want to be the best I can be."

"You don't have to be. We don't want you to be perfect, Sonny. We just want you to be you. And no matter what you're feeling, or who you become after everything that happens here… we're going to be here for you. Amy and I at the least, since Knuckles is leaving. But still- we're going to be your support, whether you like it or not."

"That sounds like a threat."

"It kinda is!"

Sonic scoffed a bit, amused. After a second, the pair moved in and hugged one another.

"I'm going away on a vacation after this." Sonic said during the extended hug.

"That's probably for the best. You've been doing a lot of work all around Station Square."

"I want you to come with me."

The pair parted after that, Tails' eyebrows furrowed in a puzzled look.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You and me. Just the two of us." Sonic said, smiling a bit. "Amy could use a break from us anyways. But you deserve a break from all of this just as much as I do."

"C'mon, I haven't been that important."

"Yes, you have. There can't be a Sonic The Hedgehog without Tails The Fox."

Tails smiled again after that. He hugged Sonic again. Sonic, not expecting it this time, patted the fox on the head.

"I love you, Sonny."

"I love you too, little bro."

The fox parted again, stepping back. Sonic turned around, looking out into the hallway in front of him. He tossed the fake emerald in the air to get it in a better grip in his palm, before leaning forward to get into a starting position.

"Sonic."

Sonic stopped himself to look over at Tails once again. The fox was grinning.

"Beat the brakes off of Shadow for me."

The hedgehog grinned back. He looked forwards again before boosting off, becoming a blue streak as he passed through the ARK to find a way into the space around it.

Although Sonic and Tails had destroyed the generator inside, the lights in the meteor herd were still working. Besides being able to find the Master Emerald through his hearing and the trail of light, the illuminated excavation site made it easy to see the thieving bat.

Knuckles scaled the side of the structure and climbed inside, dropping down to the metal floor of the site. It seemed to be made of four triangles- maybe it was a hatch door of some kind. Knuckles didn't know if he wanted to find out.

With the walls of the bottom part of the site blocked by the red force field, it almost made this a kind of cage match. Rouge stood with a hand on her hip, watching as the echidna dropped down to her level.

"Last chance to back out, Knuckie."

"I'm not handing over the emerald pieces! They aren't yours!"

"They'll be mine soon enough!"

"Ugh, talking to you is pointless."

That was that. Knuckles and Rouge advanced upon each other, meeting in the spot the four pieces of the hatch door met, right in the center of the site's bottom floor.

Punch. Kick. Punch. Kick. Punch. Kick.

Each swing from the echidna was dodged, and each kick from the bat was evaded. The strength of the pair's respective limbs made their attacks fast, but both were able to process and get away from each hit before they could land.

Rouge jumped into the air and kicked with each foot, which Knuckles blocked by holding his fists in front of his face like a boxer. Knuckles brought his fist back and swung downwards, hitting the bat directly. Rouge was flung backwards, but managed to get back to her hands and feet after tumbling across the metal floor.

She leapt upwards into the air above Knuckles, whose gaze followed her. Rouge propelled herself down in a diving screw kick, headed straight for the echidna, who managed to dodge it just in time. The force of the screw kick created a dent in the metal ground, the bat hitting the three-point landing elegantly.

The bat looked up at Knuckles, frowning.

"You call yourself a guardian? Attacking a lady… shame on you!"

"What kind of 'lady' goes around stealing emeralds?"

"A woman who knows exactly what she wants!"

Before Knuckles could respond, Rouge's mouth glowed violet as she unleashed a sonic shriek upon the echidna. Knuckles ducked down to keep himself still, looking down at the metal floor- he couldn't dig his way under the power of Rouge's scream here. However, the floor was just one of four pieces of a hatch door…

Knuckles raised his fists and slammed them into the ground, causing the entire piece of the hatch door bend downwards. The sudden change in perspective caused Rouge to stumble and end her sonic shriek.

She looked up in time to see Knuckles advancing onto her. He grabbed her by the shoulders, jumping around to the other side of her to spin her around and throw her away. Rouge hit the corner column of the excavation structure back-first, and narrowly missed a direct punch from Knuckles.

The punch, however, slammed through the control panel of the metal hatch door below them. Suddenly, loud sirens blared above them, making both of them stop to look up.

This meteor in particular was special to Ivo- this was because it had a molten center, which allowed the scientist to search for metal deposits inside of it. The excavation site was here to dig down directly into the center of the meteor to its intensely hot center, but it was never intended for anyone other than heavy robots to be on top of it.

The floor split open, the heat of the molten center creating a powerful heated updraft of air that caught both Rouge's patagium and Knuckles' dreads. They were pulled upwards into the air at once, unable to escape due to the bottom tier's force field blocking them in.

Both hunters flipped through the air as they were pushed upwards. Luckily, the both of them were able to grab onto a beam that spanned across the inside of the structure, catching themselves before they could be launched out of the site.

They got onto their feet on the beam, and their fight continued as they rushed towards one another.

Rouge landed a kick on Knuckles. Knuckles landed a punch on Rouge. Rouge hit Knuckles with a sonic shock. Knuckles hit Rouge with an uppercut. Rouge hit Knuckles with an exploding bat cracker. Knuckles hit Rouge with a diving drill claw.

They were neck-to-neck as they hit one another. Both of them weren't trying to kill the other, just wear them out. It was hard, because both of them were determined to get that emerald for very different reasons, and their motivations were driving them at a force that would even make Chaos surprised.

Eventually, a kick and a punch collided, sending both backwards across the beam. They were a few yards from each other, and when they recollected themselves, they were breathing heavily and staring at one another.

Suddenly, at once, they both spoke:

"Quit messing around, and hand over MY emerald!"

The two of them stopped as they realized they spoke in unison. They both made noises of disdain and annoyance that they both spoke together.

There was another BOOM up above them. Before the GUN cargo spacecraft reached the porting station of the ARK, it fired off another capsule from below- it probably detected that the robots below were all defeated by Knuckles.

It soared around and landed in the ground near the structure Knuckles and Rouge were both in- only a few yards from where the last one had landed. It opened up, revealing another small group of Swat-Bots that emerged from the fallen capsule.

They both looked up at Knuckles and Rouge. Since their orders were to attack both of them, they all aimed at the pair and fired upon them.

Knuckles and Rouge both blocked themselves; the echidna with a boxing block, and Rouge with her patagium. Unlike Knuckles, who had the enhanced durability from the power of Chaos, Rouge didn't have the same privilege- it was why she wore kevlar. However, her patagium didn't have kevlar on them, which made them susceptible to damage.

One of the energy rounds from the Swat-Bots peppered her patagium, making Rouge shout in pain. She stumbled back, and unfortunately because the beam was so small, Rouge's foot missed the edge of the beam and slipped off. The bat fell backwards with a yelp, right off the beam and down towards the molten magma below.

Not only was she upside-down, but her patagium was damaged, meaning she would be unable to get herself ready in time to glide away from the death below. Knuckles knew this, moving his fists to look at the falling agent.

Knuckles leapt off the side, diving down and tackling Rouge. He spun around in time to kick off the side beam of the excavation structure, gliding in the opposite direction of the Swat-Bots with Rouge over his shoulder.

Because her view was down Knuckles back, Rouge saw the Swat-Bots were still firing. She reached into her thigh bag and grabbed her heart bombs, throwing a bunch of them as hard as she could. She cleared the force field wall, the tiny bombs landing around the group of attacking robots. They exploded, and so did the robots.

The echidna made it over the energy wall with Rouge, landing fairly hard as the pair tumbled across the ground of the meteor outside. Knuckles, not damaged, was able to get up first. He reached out, taking Rouge's hand as the bat started slowly getting up to her feet.

They held hands as the pair fully got up to their feet. Rouge's eyes went from Knuckles' eyes, then to the two's hands. She soon snatched her hand away with a scoff.

"Get your hands off me!" Rouge said. "I'm still upset with you for attacking a lady!"

"That's a weird way to thank someone for saving your life."

"Yeah right. You probably saved me just to feel good and be a hero, get the girl. You did all that just to hold my hand, didn't you? I'd be swooning if my wing didn't feel like death."

"Believe what you want, bat girl. At the end of the line, I did it to save the Master Emerald."

Rouge pursed her lips. After a second, she reached under her patagium, gathering up the emerald pieces under her arms.

"No matter what you say, it just sounds crazy… fine, here!"

The bat tossed the pieces she had on the ground. Knuckles knelt down immediately to pick them up, pulling out the pieces he had in his jacket to add to them.

"A lot of them smell like sweat anyways. It's messing with my perfume." Rouge commented, crossing her arms as she looked down at Knuckles.

With the emerald pieces all together again, they all began to glow. The pieces lifted into the air, swirling around. Knuckles and Rouge watched from afar as an image was made in the light: Tikal and the spirit of Chaos, taking hands again.

The Master Emerald was reformed in a bright flash of white. The emerald fell down and sank into the ground. Knuckles reached into his jacket, retrieving the black ring device Tails gave him ages ago- the downsizer. It opened up, allowing him to press the inside of one side against the Master Emerald. After a second, the Master Emerald shrank down enough to fit inside the black ring.

Knuckles put the shrunken emerald in his pocket. He looked at Rouge, who still had her arms crossed, looking away from Knuckles with a frown on her face. The echidna sighed.

"...I hope your wing's okay." He said, quietly.

After that, with the Master Emerald in his possession again, Knuckles ran away. He headed towards the ARK, grabbing one of the trolleys heading up towards one of the meteors that were floating around the bottom half of the space colony.

Rouge watched him get away. Her hands fell as she uncrossed her arms. After a second, with Knuckles out of range of her, a thoughtful smile came across her face while she watched the red mobian make his way up to the ARK.

She should probably get going. Unlike Knuckles, she had a quick way to the space colony. She would need it, to fix up her aching wing. Rouge rushed away in the opposite direction, the smile not leaving her face as she did.

By the time Ivo had a semblance of a plan for what to do about Sonic and Tails, the lights in the ARK shut off. Though the backup lights came on only a minute after, it was clear that Ivo was not happy about this development.

He sat in the cockpit of his E-Mech- the unpainted backup he had on the ARK just in case the first was destroyed, which it was- his fingers interlaced and his hands at his mouth when the emergency lights shut on. With the engine destroyed, and the power now off, any plan he had to get Sonic and/or Tails where he wanted them was squandered.

Ivo wasn't sure how much time was left for him before he was expected to blast the Earth with a laser. That was concerning, especially considering the fact that he was the one who set it up in the first place.

Maybe he was just getting cold feet about it. After all, he didn't really press the button… did he?

Part of him didn't want to believe that the spirit of Gerald did that to him. Maybe spirits were real, but the spirit of Gerald shouldn't be able to touch him. It was an incorporeal being. It was nothing. What happened to Ivo was because he did it on his own, not that a spirit touched him.

Not like it mattered. Between the lack of sleep, the stress of running the operation and the intense guilt that was weighing on him from… somewhere, it was hard for the doctor to determine what was reality and what wasn't anymore. He felt like he was on the verge of a meltdown.

Now that his little plan was uprooted by the actions of Sonic, Ivo was almost on autopilot. While sitting in the E-Mech, he wasn't thinking about anything. It was almost like you could see the static behind his eyes as he dissociated. By the time he was finally out of it… he didn't really know how long he was placed in that state.

It was still dim in the room though. However long he took, nothing really changed in his surroundings. Ivo lowered his hands.

He still felt a bit woozy when he snapped back to reality, but otherwise he was perfectly fine. He rubbed his eyes under his glasses and regained his bearings. He was back to square one, and he didn't have a lot of time.

Ivo felt around the E-Mech for anything he could use to help create a plan. He stored a lot of things in his mech, it was pretty much his walking carrying bag.

The doctor felt smooth metal under his gloves. He picked up what he could reach- it was the chaos gun, the one he used to create the portal to the Sol Zone. It was fully reloaded with new chaos drives, as Ivo had planned to use it if he needed to create another portal. That never came to fruition though.

Maybe he could use this. He didn't know how, but he could use it. He tucked it into his jumpsuit before leaning down to find anything else that could help him out.

When his hand grazed under the seat in the mech, he felt something with a paper-like texture. It felt like a folder. Ivo grabbed it and pulled it out, finding a manilla folder.

It was the file he took from Prison Island- the one on "Project: M2," the one from his father. Ivo still hadn't opened it yet, and due to it being just being stored anywhere while the doctor gathered courage to read it, the folder (and probably the papers inside) were crumpled slightly.

There were too many bad memories associated with his father that kept him from opening the project file. Working on Project Miles Per Hour with Julian was enough for Ivo to swear off doing any kind of genetic and biological testing for the rest of his life. It was why he returned to robots during his teenage years.

It seemed that Julian got the hint, too. Whatever this M2 was, Ivo was not included. He didn't even know it existed. Julian must have done it while Ivo was out getting his doctorate. Part of Ivo was glad that he didn't have to assist his father with another horrifying experiment, but there was also a part of him that wanted to know exactly what Julian was up to.

Slowly, he slipped his hand into the file, and began to open it.

"What are you doing?!"

Ivo slammed the file closed without even looking at what was inside. He quickly stuffed it into the inside of his flight suit's jacket and pulled out his chaos gun at the sudden interruption. However, all he saw was the spirit of Gerald standing in front of his mech.

"Grandfather!"

The doctor hopped over the side of the mech to land in front of Gerald, still holding the chaos gun. He kept his jumpsuit zipped up so the file wouldn't fall out anytime soon.

"I was just—"

"You were just wasting time while the dawn of the United Federation is upon us! Sitting here, doing nothing, looking around your silly little inventions without a care in the world. Is this what it was like growing up with you? Should I be glad I died before I got to know you?"

"Grandfather…"

"No, no, enough. That infernal blue hedgehog and his friends are nestling into the Space Colony ARK like fleas and you're here lollygagging. Do you even care? Do you even want to be here?"

"Of course I care!"

"Then act like it! I'm starting to think those degrees of yours were given out of pity for how utterly pathetic you are, instead of a show of your merit. Get back to work!"

The spirit of Gerald turned around, clearly intending on leaving or disappearing.

"I'm sorry about Maria."

At the sound of Ivo's words, Gerald stopped. He turned his body around to face Ivo.

"What did you just say?"

"I found out about Maria. I heard about what happened. I'd heard how much you cared about her, and I know Shadow was created to cure her. I'm sure that's why you have so much disdain towards the world."

"You… pity me?" Gerald asked, his face twisting to that of disgust.

"Not pity, I'm just saying—"

"You annoying little worm!" The spirit interjected. "This entire time I had been wondering why you weren't able to work as effectively as Shadow or that other one, and now I get it- you're allowing your feelings to get in the way. You're emotional, just like that blonde brat who died here years ago. How fitting."

"Grandfather, that's your own flesh and blood!"

"I DON'T CARE! I'm so close to getting what I want, and I'm not going to let some whimpering pathetic failure of a human ruin this for me!"

Then, Gerald did something very unexpected. He smacked Ivo across the face. It was a backhanded hit, much like the backhanded hit he suffered from his father years ago.

Ivo's body twisted from the hit. Gerald hit him. He touched him. The feeling of warmth from the hit on his cheek, he had irrefutable evidence that this spirit, this… figure, wasn't just a ghost. It actually touched him. It had grabbed him earlier.

He stood upright again, his hand still on his cheek, his face dropped but his eyes starting to empty. Gerald was still there.

"You're going to get Sonic and his friends in that observation deck, and you're going to do it before the laser hits. If you don't, I'll ensure that the Ultimate Lifeform ejects you into space to die a slow, cold death. Now go!"

With that, Gerald turned around and disappeared.

Ivo had his hand still on his cheek. His body went on autopilot, the dissociated doctor starting to walk slowly from the room he was in. With eyes filled with static, and a continuously blank expression, Ivo slowly started to walk down the hall of the ARK with no idea where he was going.

Amy didn't know where she was anymore. Unbeknownst to her, she was on the living quarters level of the ARK. She was following a vibe, and the chill, further into the satellite. She was getting used to the feeling, as it felt more like a brisk winter day now than anything.

She heard more whispers. They grew louder as she got up to the housing level. She heard, out in the distance, the laughs and happy yells of who she now knew was Maria.

After turning down a winding hallway, Amy saw another light turned on in one of the rooms. That must be where she needed to go next.

The spirits couldn't see her, especially since this was just a vision, but Amy still respected the privacy of whoever was in the room by only partially peeking in until she knew that the person from the vision was decent. When she looked in, all she saw was Maria on the bed.

This must have been her room. The vision included a variety of different knicknacks, posters and clothes across the ground to replicate Maria's living space. The blonde teenager was stirring as she was waking up, slowly turning over and sitting up on her bed.

Amy slipped into the room to watch her closely. Maria sat at the edge of the bed, looking down at her feet. The teen girl slowly stepped onto the ground, clearly gauging herself for if she had enough strength that day to walk. It seems that her NIDS were being nice to her that day, as she was able to stand up on her two feet and keep her balance.

If Amy was there, she would offer to help Maria. The psychic had to remind herself that she wasn't there- that these memories were old. That these memories were from a time decades before.

Reaching to her nightstand, Maria grabbed a small white remote and pressed the only button on there. After putting the remote down again, she slipped on a blue headband she had next to the remote. She didn't bother to switch out of her pajamas.

After a minute or two, Amy sensed another presence behind her. She looked in the doorway, seeing a very nicely dressed woman there. From the little ID clipped to her shirt, Amy found out this woman was a nurse.

"Maria. It's nice to see you're awake and walking."

"Yeah, I know. I didn't mean to worry everyone with how dizzy I got earlier." Maria replied. "Where's my grandfather?"

"He took Eclipse down for some testing."

"Eclipse? Mister Needlemouse is finally awake again?"

"Yes, but he's currently busy with testing. It might not be best to visit him right now."

"Right, I know how grandfather gets when I do that. Where is my grandfather?"

"I believe he's currently in the stasis room, the one Eclipse is held in. I think he's just looking over some of his biometrics before returning to the testing labs."

"I'm going to visit him."

"Of course, Maria. Do you need any help?"

"No, no, I'm alright. Thank you for the offer, and thanks for the help."

The nurse nodded. After a moment's hesitation, making sure Maria was walking right, the nurse left. Amy watched Maria walk by, headed in the opposite direction the nurse went. Amy left the room, the ethereal illusion disappearing behind her as she exited, following the blonde teenager down the hallway.

After a short walk, they reached a larger door. The psychic vision fixed the sign that was right next to it- it said "Project: Eclipse" on it. Maria went up to the door, reaching towards the button to open it, but paused when she looked through the window of the large doors.

Amy's head tilted curiously. She slowly walked up and stood beside Maria, looking at her to get a read on the horrified look on the teen's face.

That intense cold hit Amy's side. She turned to look through the door, and her face mimicked the look that Maria had.

At the center of the room was something that Amy immediately identified as a stasis pod for Shadow, once Eclipse. The vision filled in the blanks in her mind to identify what it was. But what she could not identify was one of the two figures in the room.

Standing there, facing away from the door like Gerald beside him, was a massive figure. It was twice as large as Gerald was, and floating off the ground. This creature had a head that formed a T-shape, pitch black with red ends, and glowing indigo feelers on the top of its head. It wore clothes, robes of tanned hides with golden chains around its neck.

The red-hot chill of malevolence overcame Amy again, her breath visible as she saw the being in the room with Gerald. This was the being that she felt before. A being of pure evil.

"From what I've seen, Eclipse is performing far beyond what you had promised." Gerald said, typing on a computer to show the other figure diagrams. "He's faster, stronger and much more perceptive than he was before."

GOOD. I EXPECTED AS SUCH.

The voice echoing through the room sent shivers down Amy's spine.

WHEN WILL HE BE READY TO FOLLOW MY COMMAND?

"Not for a small while longer. The way he's been raised, it will be harder for him to just be handed off to somebody. We need to transition him into it."

YOU FALTER. I CAN SIMPLY BREAK HIS MIND TO FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTION.

"No!" Gerald said quickly, almost instinctively. "...no. No, you won't."

YOU DARE TELL ME WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT DO? I'VE PROVIDED YOU WITH THE DNA NECESSARY TO MAKE ECLIPSE INTO A WEAPON AS WE DISCUSSED, HE BELONGS TO ME. HE IS NOT A HEDGEHOG OR A SIMPLE BLACK ARMS WARRIOR, HE IS MY SHADOW OF DOOM!

Amy felt like that statement had more weight to it than she initially thought hearing it.

"We will need a bit more time for testing to see the extent of his newfound capabilities. Then we can find a way to transition him to your side."

DO NOT FORGET THE PROMISE YOU MADE ME, GERALD.

"I haven't…. I haven't." Gerald sounded reluctant to say it. "Once we're able to locate the Chaos Emeralds, we can use them to follow through with your plan. Until then, we…"

Gerald had turned around to leave during the last sentence. When he did, he noticed Maria was in the window of the doorway. Amy knew the look on Maria's face hadn't changed since she started looking in on the small meeting, so Gerald's face dropped once he noticed Maria looking in.

Once she was found out, Maria sprinted away, down the hall. Gerald quickly rushed to the door and opened it.

"Maria! Maria!"

Amy watched Gerald leave the stasis room and run down the hall after his granddaughter. The figure stayed behind, only turning when Gerald ran out of the room, showing Amy his horrifying, three-eyed face.

In the back of her mind, Amy knew he was Black Doom.

After a moment, Black Doom disappeared. Whether it was because of the vision moving on, or Black Doom actually disappearing, Amy didn't know. The sudden disappearance of the horrifying demigod broke Amy from her trance.

She followed, running down the hall. A light was on a few doors down.

"What is that thing?!"

"Maria, please, keep your voice down…"

Amy reached the door. It was a study, probably Gerald's study. Maria was standing in the center of the room, with Gerald closer to the door, his hands up to try and keep Maria in one area. Amy slipped in to stand in front of the doorway.

"Why was it talking about Mister Needlemouse? What does it mean that it gave DNA to you? What did you do?!"

"I did what I had to, Maria!"

"Getting help from that… that thing wasn't asked of you."

"Maria…"

Gerald sighed. He walked over, behind his study's desk, sitting down in the desk chair. Amy could see that he had a camera set up to film him behind the desk, but she wasn't exactly sure what he would be filming.

"He's a Benefactor. A very important one." Gerald continued as he sat. "The serum I was attempting to make from Mister Needlemouse's blood… It couldn't sustain itself for very long. It needed an element, one that could regenerate and withstand the power of the chaos energy within Mister Needlemouse's body."

"And you asked for help from whatever that thing was? How did you even find him?"

"He contacted me." Gerald replied. "That thing… the Benefactor, he provided me with DNA that I could use in order to create a better serum. To create a concrete, Ultimate Lifeform."

"...what are you saying?"

Gerald paused, but opened a drawer that was at his desk. He pulled out a notebook and handed it to Maria, slipping his finger into a marked page to open it up there. He presented the opened notebook to his granddaughter.

"See for yourself."

Maria took the notebook. She read it over quickly, her eyes darting across the page.

"DNA provided by the Benefactor… addition to serum would not hold up… genetic…"

As she read the notebook aloud, her eyebrows furrowed tightly. She slowly looked up at Gerald, lowering the notebook.

"You… You spliced Mister Needlemouse's DNA with stuff from that… that thing?"

"It was the only way to create a serum from his blood. I had to mix the Benefactor's DNA with Mister Needlemouse's…"

"Oh my god… Oh my god."

Maria started pacing in front of the desk, one of her hands letting go of the notebook and running across her face, stopping at her mouth to cover it in shock and horror.

"Maria. Maria, it was the only way."

"The only way?" She asked, still pacing. "You made Mister Needlemouse into half of whatever that thing is. That… that monster. Does GUN know about this?"

Gerald didn't answer. Maria stopped pacing to stare at him, still in shock.

"You… You…"

Maria's hands were shaking. She looked down at the notebook, flipping it closed. After a second of shaky breathing, Maria threw the notebook, letting it hit the study wall with a loud BANG!

"Maria, stop that!"

The teenager continued to pace, running her hands over her hair to try and soothe herself. She was still breathing heavily. After a moment or two, she spoke.

"You came up here to help mankind, not to play God!"

"Maria, please! You need to calm down!"

"No! I refuse to calm down! I can't believe… I can't… UGH!"

Maria stomped her foot, but still continued to pace.

"Maria, you have to allow me to explain."

"I know those notes are for mom and dad, you don't have to explain anything to me. I saw enough. How could you risk Mister Needlemouse's life like this? I thought you wanted to help us!"

"I do, I do! I do want to help, that's why I'm doing this!"

"Grandfather, what you're doing is dangerous. What if GUN hears about this? What if GUN discovers this Benefactor you have helping you? Do you expect them to just walk away and leave us alone because you said you're doing it to help people?"

"They have to understand, they… they'll listen to me."

"No, they won't! They sent you up here to do a bunch of jobs, and you're putting us in danger by going off script with one of them! One of the most important ones!"

"You have to make sacrifices for the good of mankind."

"This isn't man, grandfather. You taught me that all scientific advancements were created with the determination and willpower of all humanity."

"This is determination and willpower!" Gerald stood up.

"This is wrong, and dangerous! Those scientific endeavors were made with control groups and experimentation. What you're doing is diving headfirst into a pool and hoping they kept the water in past summer!"

"Maria, I… You don't understand. I have to do this. This is the only way."

"No it's not!"

"Yes, it is! The sooner you understand that, the better!"

Maria had stopped in her tracks. She shook her head slowly, staring at Gerald.

"So, what, after all the research done in the ARK, you're willing to just throw it all away? And for what? For the Ultimate Lifeform? For some dream you had of the ultimate blood donor?"

Gerald lunged over the desk, making Amy jump. He grabbed his granddaughter's arms, making her look him in the eyes.

"I did this for you! All of this! The ARK, the research, it's all to save you! I don't care about the colony being open to the public, or the Eclipse Cannon, or anything! I will always take the risk to save you, no matter the cost to myself."

Maria thrashed her body around, pulling herself from Gerald's arms and shoving him away. Amy could see she was starting to cry, making the psychic feel a twinge of sadness in her stomach.

"I didn't ask to be researched! I never asked for any of this! I don't care about the stupid NIDS or anything like that! I just… I just came up here to spend time with you, before I left. To spend just a moment with you, so you couldn't run away to some lab like you did the first decade of my life."

"Maria…"

"I can't… I can't do this right now. Just leave me—"

Maria turned to leave, but stopped, her face dropping. Amy was worried that the teenager had seen the psychic for a moment, before Amy turned around to see someone else in the doorway. It was Shadow, still as young as he was last time Amy saw him.

There was a pause, but Amy saw Maria pass through her, grabbing Shadow's hand and running away, pulling Shadow down the hall quickly.

"Maria. Maria! MARIA!"

A warping noise made Amy turn around again. Gerald had left his desk, but before he could leave the room, Black Doom grabbed onto his shoulder to stop him.

LET THEM GO. SHE WAS BOUND TO LEARN THE TRUTH SOMETIME.

"I didn't want her to. I told you I wanted her to stay in the dark!"

AND LOOK WHERE IT GOT YOU.

Gerald stopped resisting against Black Doom. He sighed, his body slouching forwards. He placed a hand on his face, his glasses becoming crooked as he did.

WE MUST CONTINUE OUR TESTING TO ENSURE ECLIPSE IS READY.

"I know. I know…"

I SENSE RESISTANCE WITHIN YOU, GERALD. WE HAD A DEAL.

"I know, but…"

BUT NOTHING. WHEN YOU AGREED TO MY TERMS, YOU FORSAKEN YOUR RIGHT TO EVER MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT ECLIPSE AGAIN. YOU MADE HIM THIS WAY FOR ME. HE HAS MY DNA RUNNING THROUGH HIS BODY. I KNOW YOU SEE HIM AS A SON, BUT HE IS NOT. HE WILL NEVER BE. HE IS MINE. HE IS MY WEAPON. IF YOU HAVE RESERVATIONS ABOUT THE PROMISE YOU MADE, I CAN ALWAYS TAKE YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER AS LIABILITY.

Gerald quickly turned around, facing him.

"I told you to keep your hands off of her!"

THEN YOU BEST DO AS I SAY.

The professor shrunk a bit at the response. He sighed.

SUCH CONTEMPT AND REGRET FOR THE CONSEQUENCES OF A DEAL YOU MADE YOURSELF. YOU PITIFUL HUMANS ARE ALL THE SAME. GET BACK TO WORK.

With that, Black Doom disappeared. Gerald was left alone. After a moment, he brought both his hands to cover his face, his glasses dropping to the ground as he began to cry.

Amy watched in silence, until the vision disappeared. She was left alone in the room herself, staring at the wall that Gerald's body used to block.

The crying didn't stop, however. The sound of crying was heard somewhere down the hallway. Amy turned her head, leaning backwards to look down the hall.

There was someone there. The figure was obscured by the darkness created by the shadows in the decrepit ARK, clearly kneeling down.

After a quick second glance into the empty room, Amy decided to take a leap of faith and step out into the hallway. She gripped onto her bag's strap tightly as she slowly began to approach the obscured person.

Just from looking at the person, Amy could tell this wasn't a part of a vision. The person was solid, not translucent. The cries were real, and there was no other vision surrounding the area. This was someone who was actually in the ARK.

The red jumpsuit gave away who it was. Before she could change her mind, she spoke.

"Ivo?"

The crying stopped. The kneeling person slowly straightened his back. Ivo turned his head slightly, clearly looking at Amy from his peripheral vision.

"Ivo… What are you doing? Are you alright?"

There was silence once more. Amy heard a shuffling as Ivo retrieved something nearby. Soon enough, the doctor was standing up, turning around to face Amy. It was obvious he was crying from the tear marks on his face until he wiped off his cheeks with his sleeve. One of his cheeks was… red.

He had a gun. Three chaos drives were in the gun, spinning around and glowing white to create a blast of chaos energy. Ivo hadn't pulled the trigger yet, just pointing it at the psychic. Amy's eyebrows raised, her eyes going from the chaos gun to Ivo's face.

"You won't be if you don't come with me." He growled.

Shadow's meditation was interrupted by sudden darkness overtaking his room.

He could already tell that Sonic was the reason the power went out. He was kicking himself for mentioning earlier that he would get up and do something if Sonic became a nuisance- of course something like that would happen.

The hedgehog had been spending the time reflecting over what had happened in Ivo's pyramid base on Earth, just hours ago. How Tower had held him at gunpoint, had told him what happened in Diablon fifty years ago, and how Shadow was apparently the reason it happened.

He hadn't even considered that the chaos blast he created affected anyone but himself and the GUN agents he destroyed. Shadow hadn't considered that, since the ARK is just in the exosphere, the debris would be pulled to Earth.

The revelation that Tower was the last living person from a disaster Shadow created… that he continued the cycle Shadow was going on to find revenge… Tower had dedicated his life to hating Shadow, to the point of apparently hating Mobians like Sonic and his friends.

Was any of this really worth it? Sure, the planet would be decimated within the hour, but… he still affected somebody while he was gone, unconscious under the Earth. In a way, he became the GUN Agent that murdered Maria in front of him.

That's what bugged him the most. What would Maria think about what he did?

There was still a piece of Shadow deep down that couldn't make sense of what was asked of him. The request from Maria to be a monster, not the cure for humanity like he was made to be. It didn't add up. It didn't make sense.

WHY ARE YOU HIDING YOUR MIND FROM ME, ECLIPSE?

Shadow's eyes flew open.

"I'm… not. I'm simply meditating. I'm clearing my mind."

It was a lie. But Black Doom wouldn't be able to know that right off the bat. Shadow still wasn't sure why he was able to hide himself from Black Doom, but he didn't want to be thrown around telekinetically like he was before.

It was quiet for a moment.

IT IS ALMOST TIME FOR OUR RECKONING.

"How much longer is there?"

THE BLACK COMET SHALL REACH THE EARTH'S VICINITY WITHIN THE HOUR.

Shadow nodded.

"What now?"

FIND THE FINAL EMERALD. USE IT AS I TAUGHT YOU.

"And then?"

ALL LIFE ON EARTH… SHALL FALL TO THE BLACK ARMS.

Shadow didn't visibly react to that, but he felt conflicted on the inside. He had been blindly following these orders from Black Doom until he remembered Maria fully. She had been so open to assisting people on Earth, even those who didn't deserve it. Did he really have to do this?

No. He did have to. Black Doom still had a grip on him because he was part Black Arms.

But he wasn't a member of the Black Arms, that was the thing. He looked like a normal mobian. He looked just like Sonic, who was loved by pretty much everyone on Earth. At least, before Shadow got involved. Whoops.

He still had a chance. A chance to live a life that Maria never had. He dedicated himself to destroying the planet, but he never considered that maybe… he could have just lived his life. He knew that's something Maria would've wanted… right?

The shadows continued to cover the room, making Shadow look up. The Black Comet was just outside, slowly floating along through space to enter Earth's orbit. Shadow didn't have much time left.

A sigh left Shadow's lips. He was on his knees for his meditation, but upon seeing the Black Comet outside, he moved a leg up to turn into a kneel.

Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his body. He winced a bit, grabbing onto his chest.

The pain grew higher. Shadow opened his mouth in a silent scream as it suddenly became unbearable in his body. It was like lava was injected directly into his chest, spreading out to every part of his body, every quill over his skin.

The dark hedgehog gasped and collapsed onto his hands and knees. He squeezed his eyes shut, tears forming and starting to drip down his nose.

Black Doom chuckled in his ear.

"What… is happening to me?" Shadow got out.

YOUR FINAL TRANSFORMATION. YOUR TRUE METAMORPHOSIS. YOU HAVE MATURED AND EVOLVED PAST BEING SIMPLY PART BLACK ARMS, AND ARE TAKING FORM AS YOUR OWN VERSION OF A BLACK OAK WARRIOR.

Shadow let out a groan as the pain continued. His eyes opened for a moment, and he saw the quills across his body darken. He closed his eyes again, the tears continuing to fall onto the ground as the pain didn't subside.

He almost felt like his body was morphing into something worse. He felt his body ripple, the spikes on the back of his head starting to curve upwards like the large thorns on the back of a Black Oak.

Eventually, the pain died down. Shadow was left there, breathing heavily, his eyes still closed for the moment as he tried to get over what just happened.

He opened his eyes. He saw the sleeves and the gloves on his hands, but he didn't see any change right now.

Though a pain was still resonating through his chest, Shadow picked himself up slowly. He put his hand over his eye instinctively, almost expecting it to start throbbing… but it wasn't. In fact… he could see through his scarred eye again.

He blinked both eyes, experiencing 20/20 vision for the first time in fifty years. He saw the window in the distance, darkened by the shadow of the Black Comet coming into view of the Space Colony ARK.

Shadow slowly walked to the window. He could see why he was able to see really well now, as he could see two red irises reflecting in the tinted glass. He got closer, seeing that his scarred and clouded eye was now completely fixed… but the scar was still there.

He touched it gently. Whatever just happened healed him, but… it didn't heal the scar. He didn't understand it. The scar he got when Maria died wasn't able to be mended… the scar of what happened to her couldn't fade away, even if he got better.

As he reached up to touch the scar, his sleeve slipped down a little, showing a black arm underneath. Shadow noticed immediately. He pulled his sleeve back and took off the white glove on his hand.

His quills had been turned black. Not only that, but there was now a spike of red formed on his forearm, leading down to his middle and ring fingers being red as well. The only thing that stopped the trail of red was the inhibitor band on his wrist.

He looked back into the reflection of the glass. It had happened all over his body. His quills were now a pitch black color across his body, however, there was red on his upper eyelids, and red markings on top of his head and the spikes on the back of his head. These spikes were now curved upwards- as mentioned before, like the curved spikes on the back of a Black Oak. What was once pale blue quilless skin on his face was now turned a deep tan.

Shadow was now marked for good. He was a member of the Black Arms. No matter how much running or fighting he did… he would always be seen as a member of the Black Arms.

OUR FINAL PHASE IS HERE. GO… FACE THE BLUE HEDGEHOG.

After the pain that he just felt, adrenaline was still passing through the hedgehog's body. He closed his eyes after hearing what Black Doom said, remembering what the consequences could be if he didn't follow directions.

He still had his reservations. But as long as he looked like this… as long as he was helping Black Doom… what other choice did he have?

Shadow slipped his gloves back on. He gave one final glance to the Black Comet coming into view of the Earth. Finally, once he felt ready… the blackened hedgehog left to face his destiny.

30 MINUTES REMAINING.

UP NEXT: Final Race!