Though covered in darkness for at least twenty minutes, the Space Colony ARK's reserve power from the energies of the Chaos Emeralds soon came back on. As soon as they came back on, a punch from a red echidna slammed a black alien into the wall.

Knuckles had managed to escape the initial rush of Black Arms Warriors, he was still pursued as he headed down into the deepest recesses of the Space Colony ARK.

He tried not to think about what had happened just a few minutes ago. Knuckles, much like his friends, had witnessed the apparent death of Sonic. The echidna knew he was strong enough to take down all the creatures in the observation deck, maybe even Shadow and Black Doom himself- but he wouldn't be fast enough to stop them from hurting and maybe even killing Tails, Amy and/or Rouge. Speed was Sonic's thing.

They also would've probably hurt Ivo, but since the doctor did kind of cause this predicament with the Black Arms, Knuckles wasn't exactly the biggest fan of Robotnik at this point in time. He did want to help Ivo, but he wasn't exactly rooting for the man to stay safe right now.

The Black Arms had followed him down to the bottom half of the ARK. Due to Knuckles' strength, they had sent the most elite soldiers of the Black Arms to pursue him- unknown to Knuckles, these creatures were groups of Black Arms Warriors called "Assassins." They were covered in orange-gold metallic chest armor, ones that powered red hand guns called "refractors."

To Knuckles, however, they were just enemies. Knuckles slid under a refractor blast and kicked into the stomach of one of the Assassins, knocking it backwards. Knuckles slammed his fists back into the ground, propelling himself to his feet in time to punch the Assassin into the nearby wall, creating a dent with its body.

A blast of blue energy hit Knuckles, forcing his attention upwards. A few of the Assassins had pet Black Arms Hawks, which were screeching and firing projectiles at Knuckles as well.

The echidna dodged another refractor blast from the pursuing four Assassins. Only two Hawks were in the air, and it gave Knuckles a bit of an idea.

Running from the refractor fire that was showering around him, Knuckles got to the wall and quickly climbed up it. The Hawks were pursuing as he got higher- it was exactly what he wanted. The echidna kicked off the wall, above the Hawks, and drill clawed down into them.

The Assassins all scattered to get out of the way of the slam into the ground caused by Knuckles. Knuckles hadn't destroyed the Hawks, merely grabbing onto their tails with each hand. He swung the Hawks around his head and used them as makeshift weapons, hitting three of the Assassins and knocking them far, far out of the way and through the nearby wall.

Unfortunately, Knuckles discovered very soon that he had forgotten to take care of one of the Assassins. The echidna turned around in time for the remaining one to point the red refractor at Knuckles, about to fire.

Before the Assassin could fire his refractor, a blue blur hit the creature in its chest. The chest plate shattered, in time for the blue streak to rocket back into the Assassin on his rebound, knocking the creature across the room. It stilled when it landed on its stomach, and the blue streak stilled near Knuckles.

"Heh… you're too slow." Sonic said, leaning on one of his knees and grinning a bit.

"Sonic!"

Knuckles rushed in, grabbing onto Sonic's arms as the hedgehog stumbled forwards a bit.

"I thought you were dead! How are you here?"

"Tails made a fake Chaos Emerald. It has similar properties. I managed to harness the power to perform chaos control, like Shadow did."

Sonic pulled the fake emerald out of his pocket, showing it to Knuckles. He pulled it out in time for both of them to watch it turn to ash, fluttering in the wind as the emerald was destroyed from the overuse of chaos energy.

"Are the others okay?" Sonic asked.

"They should still be in that observation room. I think they're still paralyzed." Knuckles replied. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, just… took a lot out of me to do chaos control. I'll be good."

Sonic stood up straight, taking a deep breath and grinning at Knuckles.

"Let's go. They haven't gotten the best of us yet."

The echidna smiled back and nodded.

By the time they had gotten to the observation deck… nothing really changed between the normal mortal lifeforms, but the watch duty had been handed over to a Black Oak. Tails, Amy, Ivo and Rouge were all still frozen, their vitality being drained slowly by the leeches attached to their bodies. The entire walls were coated with the red conduit gel, providing nesting to the other leeches that had been placed on the wall.

The Black Oak was carrying a large, almost ax-shaped indigo weapon. It was known internally as a dark hammer. Amy, who was still able to see as she was paralyzed, was a bit jealous that he got to carry such a weapon.

It hadn't been too long since the leeches had been placed on the mobians (and Ivo) so luckily they weren't really that affected by the time the boys opened the door again.

Knuckles was carrying Sonic, currently curled in a spindash. The echidna threw the spindash at the Black Oak as soon as the door opened, taking the giant Black Arms by surprise. The Black Oak grabbed its dark hammer with both hands and began to swing, but Knuckles rushed in and grabbed the hammer itself, ending the swing. Because Knuckles wasn't anywhere close to being as big as the Black Oak, he needed some help- Sonic slid in and kicked one of the legs out from under the creature, making it fall to one knee.

While the Black Oak was kneeling, Knuckles brought his fist back and uppercutting the creature with all his strength, knocking the Black Oak backwards and making it let go of the dark hammer.

Sonic hit it one last time with a homing attack, hard enough to knock the Black Oak into the conduit gel nesting. The Black Oak became paralyzed by the latching leeches, and sank into the nesting after a moment.

The pair split, with Sonic going to Tails first and tearing the leech from his body, throwing it to the ground and stomping on it.

"Sonic!"

"Tails!"

With newfound freedom, Tails hugged Sonic.

Knuckles got the leech off of Amy, who immediately started rushing to Sonic as well.

"Sonic, you're alive!"

"Get over here, Aims!" Sonic replied.

Amy hugged both Sonic and Tails. After a second, Amy pulled away and punched Sonic in the shoulder, frowning.

"I told you no more death fakeouts!"

"Hey, c'mon, I'm kind of iconic for it at this point." He grinned.

The Death Leech was taken off of Rouge next, by Knuckles. The bat rubbed her arm, sighing a bit and looking downtrodden. Knuckles took notice, his eyebrow raising.

"Rouge? Are you alright, bat girl?"

"...yeah. Fine."

"...is your wing okay?"

"It's fine Knuckles. Thanks."

The last leech was taken off of Ivo next by Sonic. The doctor blinked and shook his head, before looking at all the mobians that were staring directly at him. Ivo grunted, crossing his arms and turning his head to look away.

"Thanks." He grumbled.

"And?"

"And… I'm sorry for not believing you originally." Ivo said through his teeth.

"Good."

Nearby, Amy picked up the Black Oak's dark hammer and held it in her hands. The size, the color, the weight to it? Oh, yeah. This was happenin'. She would be using this puppy for a while.

"The Black Arms are more than likely taking over the Earth." Knuckles said, speaking for everyone to hear. "They need to reconnect the piece of Mobius within the Black Comet to the rest of his body in the Earth."

"What happens when they do that?" Tails asked.

"The Black Arms become super powerful. At least, the ones that stay close to the Black Comet itself are super powerful. They won't be able to die."

"So, we have to find a way to destroy the Black Comet and sever the connection to Mobius. After that… the Black Arms will probably be easy to take care of. Maybe not Black Doom, but certainly everyone under that. Shadow will be a hassle too."

"We don't have to worry about Shadow." Amy replied to Sonic.

"How do you know?"

"I…" Amy turned slowly to Rouge after her question. "I'm not sure. I think… my mind is somewhere else right now."

"How will we destroy the comet?"

"Oh, what a question. If only there was a giant, satellite-sized weapon somewhere capable of destroying celestial bodies." Ivo deadpanned.

"The Eclipse Cannon, of course!" Tails exclaimed. "We can fire it at the comet and destroy it. Though we'll have to be careful not to destroy the Earth when we do it."

"It'll be easy! At this point, the situation can't get any worse than this!"

At Sonic's words, the universe laughed. At least, that's what it felt like, because the ARK suddenly started to shake and rumble beneath them. After a moment, the group stumbled, feeling as if the entire world was shifting under their feet.

"CORE FULLY INITIALIZED. PROTOCOL SEVEN, TITLED LAST WAY, IN PROGRESS."

"Are we…" Amy spoke, looking around. "...moving?"

"What's going on here?" Ivo thought aloud.

The computer screen that was hanging from the ceiling at the end of the observation deck suddenly cut on to show static. Unbeknownst to the group in the deck, every working screen did the same, all showing the exact same thing.

Through the static, a figure was made out. This person was in a chair, his head hanging. After a few minutes of tuning out the static, it was made clear who this person- tied to a chair with chains and stark white facial hair- was.

"Grandfather?" Ivo whispered in horror.

"This… is a message, directed to those who have reactivated the Eclipse Cannon's core with all seven Chaos Emeralds." Gerald, who was clearly much much older than he was in any of Amy's visions, spoke weakly. "I know that the seven Chaos Emeralds' power is the only thing that can assist the Black Arms in reaching the Earth.

"The act of rebuilding the Eclipse Cannon and using all seven emeralds to allow the Black Arms to invade is set to activate a protocol, my final project: to collide the Space Colony ARK with the Earth. The power of the Chaos Emeralds shall destroy the Black Arms, annihilating all, including Black Doom. To Black Doom, if you are watching this, I want you to know that I hope you perish slowly.

"And to the ungrateful humans that have taken everything from me through greed and vanity, I offer you my final gift after all these years: extinction. If my calculations are correct, the Space Colony ARK will collide with the Earth in twenty-seven minutes and fifty three seconds from the start of this video. All life on Earth will be destroyed.

"This cannot be disabled or reversed. Don't even look for the Chaos Emeralds- they will not be where you placed them. Every one of you humans who took my darling Maria away from me will feel my loss and despair. May all of you in death drown in your helplessness, much like I will. To Maria, to my dear son, and to my mother Evelyn… I will see you very soon."

There was silence in the video for a few moments. Soon, another voice spoke offscreen:

"Is there anything else you want to say?"

"No." Gerald rasped.

"Ready!"

The sound of multiple guns being raised was heard. The video transferred to static once more before anything else could happen. The entire space colony began shaking harder.

"Hey, the vibrations are getting worse, guys!" Knuckles said.

"We have to stop this protocol." Sonic said as the shaking got less violent.

"How? The guy just said it can't be disabled." Rouge replied.

"We need all hands on deck. I don't believe there isn't a way we can reverse this- we just need to put our heads together and think. Tails, Amy, Knuckles- even Rouge. And you too… Ivo?"

The scientist was sitting in the corner now, his back to the wall and his head resting on his knees, his arms wrapped around his head. His glasses were set beside him, the reflection of light from the lens catching Sonic's eye first.

Slowly, the hedgehog walked over to Ivo. Sonic crouched down.

"Ivo…" He said softly.

"Gerald Robotnik. The greatest scientific mind in the world. The man who gave his life for science." Ivo's voice was muffled, but he spoke. "He was my hero when I was a little kid, you know. When I was little, I used to pretend I was actually a clone of Gerald's and he was my father instead of my real father. But those dreams only helped me for so long. I studied so much about his projects, and his work. I was honored to restore this space colony that he designed by himself. It was like I was working with him… something I always wanted."

Ivo pulled his head back, letting it rest against the wall behind him.

"But that man on that screen… that wasn't the grandfather I remembered. That wasn't the Gerald Robotnik I'd seen in old newspapers and interviews. The death of my cousin Maria destroyed him. It's understandable, but… to destroy all of humanity in revenge… It's my father. It's me."

The doctor's eyes trailed to look at Sonic directly.

"We've spent so many years fighting against each other. I've done so many things to become even a fraction similar to my father… to become like a man who didn't even love me. And for what?" He asked. "Is this all there is? Is the Robotnik legacy just pain, and revenge, ad infinitum? Is it all just a cycle of madness… for all eternity?"

The question hung in the air. Sonic looked down in thought, choosing his words carefully before he spoke, returning the eye contact once he did.

"Ivo… when my mom died, all I felt was this… anger. I felt like my world stopped moving. I felt that the only way to make the world balanced again was for your father to die. And I got what I wanted… but it didn't make the pain better." The hedgehog said. "Ever since my mother died, and your father died, we've both been running. We've been tied down by what happened in our pasts, and it's been running us into the ground. We can't let ourselves be controlled by something that was out of our hands. I know there's a good part of you still in there, that hasn't been destroyed by Julian's abuse."

He paused another moment to think, before he continued.

"Look, I… I can't control whether you get arrested and thrown in jail. You literally shot a laser at the moon, and you need to be punished for it. But I want to help you get better. And the only way to do that is to make sure there's a world you can get better in. We can use all the help we can get right now. So please, let's fix your grandfather's mistake… together."

Sonic reached out, offering his hand to Ivo. The doctor looked at Sonic, then gazed at the hand offered to him in thought. It took a moment, some real consideration, and a lot of reluctance, but… eventually, Ivo reached back. He and Sonic gripped each other in a forearm handshake, which allowed Sonic to help him to his feet- at least as much as he could.

When offered them by Sonic, Ivo took back his glasses and put them on. He took a deep breath, before nodding his thanks to the blue hedgehog. Sonic nodded back.

"So what do we do?" Tails asked.

Ivo walked over to his computer setup, interrupting the video replaying to look through everything happening in the Space Colony ARK at that moment.

"The emeralds have moved." He said, reading the screen. "They aren't in the control room anymore. They've shifted down into the cannon's core, which is placed right behind the base of the Eclipse Cannon. I didn't even know they could do that."

"How did you rebuild this thing and not even know that could happen?"

"The part of the ARK destroyed by what happened with Shadow wasn't the part that contained the control room and the core." Ivo said to Amy. "The core had other uses that made me believe it didn't need to be touched."

"How do we stop the ARK from falling?"

"It's less falling, and more that the Chaos Emeralds are altering gravity to push the ARK towards the Earth. From the designs I'm seeing…" Ivo twiddled his mustache as he read. "It seems they're completely dependent on the Chaos Emeralds to work. The only option we have is to take out the emeralds."

"I don't think it'll be an easy feat." Sonic commented. "Even if they're removed, the energies of the Chaos Emeralds will probably still be in use."

"The cannon's core has gathered enough energy to generate a worldwide extinction-level event when it collides with the Earth's surface. We need to find a way to shut everything down completely."

"Wait… Knuckles," Rouge turned to the echidna. "You could use the Master Emerald."

"The Master Emerald?"

Knuckles took out the shrunken emerald, looking at it in his hand.

"You told me it neutralizes the Chaos Emeralds, rendering them powerless." The bat continued. "If we can get to the Chaos Emeralds, we can use the Master Emerald to cut off all power to the ARK from them. It'll render the protocol useless."

Tails walked up and stood behind Ivo, standing on his tiptoes to look at the schematics work he had onscreen.

"Is the area with the Chaos Emeralds locked down?"

"It should be, especially with this protocol." Ivo replied to him. "We have to find a way to get there."

"What was the original purpose of that room? The one you believed."

"It houses and disposes of the greywater of the entire colony."

"Ewww, like… human waste?" Amy made a face.

"No, we shoot that in a container into deep space. I mean the shower water, the sink water, all of that." The doctor said. "It gathers up in that area to be sprayed out into space."

"So, if the greywater has to get there, there has to be a route to get there through the piping or service areas." Tails moved up and typed into the computer. After a minute, his searches highlighted a path directly to the top. "Look! There's a route to the cannon's core through the greywater disposal systems."

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that?"

"I personally don't want to swim in used bathwater." Amy spoke up.

"Me neither." Rouge agreed.

"Third-ed." Tails added.

"Well, luckily for you all, we won't all be going." Ivo pressed buttons on the base of his palm. After a few seconds, his E-Mech ran into the room, stopping near the doctor. "We will need to access the service tunnels and force the systems to redirect it all to the cannon's core to be expelled. When that path opens, we'll be led directly to the core."

"How many people would get to the emeralds?"

"About two, if we're lucky. Unless anyone else here can teleport like Shadow."

"I'll go." Sonic said. "I mean, obviously. If there's anything in the way of the Chaos Emeralds, someone has to take it down."

"I'll go with him." Knuckles added. "Nobody else is getting their hands on the Master Emerald today."

Ivo climbed into his E-Mech, tossing Amy's hammer bag to her once he was inside.

"An opening to the service tunnels is underneath this room. Let's head there now before we waste any more time here!"

"Yeah, let's blast—"

Sonic's fun catchphrase was interrupted by the appearance of… another Amy. This Amy looked just like the normal Amy, except she was kind of glowing. She stood in front of where Amy was when the original Amy turned around, making the non-glowing pink hedgehog stop in surprise.

When she tilted her head, the fake Amy did as well.

"Amy, what…?" Rouge eyed Ivo. "Your grandfather didn't create any pink hedgehogs did he?"

"I'm starting to believe I idolized my grandfather too much, so I can't answer your question without opening even more baggage."

"Quick, Amy, call it a faker. People love it when doppelgangers do that." Sonic said, leaning against her shoulder a bit. The psychic pushed him off, rolling his eyes.

Amy approached the glowing her, slowly starting to raise her hand. In a mirror to Amy, the glowing her raised the opposite hand, allowing their fingers to touch in the middle spot between them.

When they touched, the glowing Amy suddenly disintegrated into pink rose petals, which flew into the real Amy and passed into her body. She pressed her hands to herself while watching the petals enter her.

She was flooded with memories. A certain memory. It wasn't even new material, it was like she was recalling something she did just earlier that day- and in a way, it was.

"I spoke to Shadow." Amy said.

"You… did?"

"But you've been here this whole time."

"I know, but…" Amy looked at her hands. "I projected myself down there and talked to him. Directly. Like I responded and everything."

"How is that even possible?"

"What did he say?" Rouge ignored Ivo's question to ask her own.

"He said he wants to keep the promise he made to Maria… and one he wanted to make to me."

Suddenly, the ARK started to shake harder. Everyone looked up and around.

"Look, this is cool and all, but we need to go." Tails said.

"...Right."

"Then let's get to work!" Ivo added.

Amy held the dark hammer she collected with both hands. Letting Sonic take the lead, the group all filed out of the room one by one- Amy had a bit of trouble getting through the door with the massive weapon, but she eventually made it work. Unbeknownst to them, due to the lockdown shutters blocking the window of the observation deck, a golden streak of energy was heading up towards the space colony.

They reached the entrance of the service tunnels in record time, even for someone like Ivo who was using the E-Mech to reach it. Ivo had to input a special code in order to open the door to it.

"MA… RI… A." He said as he put the code in.

The doors opened, letting the six of them look into the massive service tunnels. They were greeted by the appearance of multiple Artificial Chaos. Their helmets were similar to how Ivo's looked, but rusted and worn down. The watery creatures were made out of old water, with pieces of rubble floating inside them.

On the front of each one of the beings' helmets were chaos drives of varying colors.

Everyone immediately looked at Ivo with a disappointed expression.

"...What? I didn't make these ones this time!" He said, defensively.

These creatures weren't bothering anybody. In fact, the Artificial Chaos were working on the service tunnel ahead of them, turned to the wall and working on pipes. It was like they didn't realize, or even care, that the ARK was hurtling towards Earth.

"They're not even reacting to the ARK falling." Tails observed, rubbing his chin.

"From the rust on their helmets, and the color of their water… I think these things have been here a very long time." Ivo added.

"But… why?"

As soon as Amy's question was asked, the ARK rumbled again. Suddenly, from above them, the speakers inside the service tunnels began to ring out, with Gerald Robotnik's voice echoing out throughout the entire space colony.

"Every one of you humans who took my darling Maria away from me will feel my loss and despair!"

Though the rumbling only died down a little, the Artificial Chaos in the tunnels all reacted to the sudden announcement. The lens of their helmets all turned red, glowing brightly, the top of their bodies snapping to look towards the group of six at the entrance of the service tunnels. The answer Amy was looking for was evident: they were here to carry out Gerald's will, no matter how long it took.

Lasers fired towards the intrepid explorers, causing them to scatter- all except Ivo, who instead ducked down into the E-Mech to shield himself. He reached up and pressed a button on top of the console, one of the larger ones on there. Missile slots under each clawed arm flipped upwards, firing off a dozen small missiles each, leaving trails of smoke behind them.

A bunch of the missiles were shot out of the air by the lasers fired by the Artificial Chaos, but some managed to hit the helmets of a few creatures, shattering the rusted metal instantly and destroying the Artificial Chaos.

From the haze and confusion of the smoke created by the missiles that were shot from the air, Amy was out first, holding the dark hammer with both hands and letting out a loud roar as she swung it into a few unsuspecting Artificial Chaos. Though the giant purple weapon sliced through the watery bodies of the creatures in front of her without harming them, the hit was enough for the helmets to fall to the ground.

Amy stomped on one, destroying it instantly, and brought the dark hammer down onto the others all at once, smashing them. Across the hall, a few feet away, she saw an Artificial Chaos descending onto Knuckles from behind. With a powerful swing, Amy threw the dark hammer almost like a frisbee.

Knuckles turned around in time to watch the dark hammer slam into the wall of the tunnel behind him. The echidna grabbed the handle of the giant purple club, swinging it around and smashing two Artificial Chaos' helmets with a single swing.

He turned in time to block a stabbing tendril of water from another nearby Artificial Chaos, which he blocked using the dark hammer. The water started to spread over the end of the hammer, threatening to pull it out of the hands of the guardian.

Rouge, putting a hand on Knuckles' shoulder to make him turn a little, pushed past the echidna. She jumped up to kick off the end of the dark hammer, spinning around and kicking the helmet of the attacking Artificial Chaos hard enough to send it flying into the wall to destroy it.

Another watery beast from nearby saw Rouge land. With floating debris and rocks in its gullet, it brought it up to the surface, creating an artificial mouth to upchuck the debris as projectiles. Before it could hit Rouge, Knuckles swung the dark hammer and destroyed them in air. With the hammer's head down behind him, the bat stepped onto the hammer's edge like a platform.

Knuckles swung the dark hammer over his head, catapulting Rouge towards the Artificial Chaos that hurled debris at her. Rouge reached into her leg bags, pulling out a few of the small black and pink balls she had for her bat crackers.

She hit the rubbery water creature, grabbing onto its helmet to come to a stop. Rouge shoved the spheres into the mouth-like opening made from the Artificial Chaos, forcing the bat crackers into the belly of the beast. The bunch of bat crackers expanded, forcing the body of the Artificial Chaos to get wider.

Though Knuckles was beginning to move forwards, he was intercepted by Tails flying in, his namesake spinning faster than any helicopter on the planet below. The fox zoomed towards the expanded Artificial Chaos, bringing his arms over his face and swinging them away when he hit the creature, the force of his double arm swing and momentum enough to send the creature flying back. The bat crackers exploded when the Artificial Chaos was yards back, destroying that creature and damaging two others on either side of it.

Tails activated Vulcan Cannons on both hands, immediately firing dummy rings from each one and energy balls right after. The rings pierced either Artificial Chaos, and the energy ball that hit the rings remotely activated the ring tether between them. The tether contracted immediately, pulling the two creatures together and smashing their helmets together.

Sonic hit an Artificial Chaos coming in behind Tails, destroying it and landing behind the fox. A few other Artificial Chaos reformed around the pair. Back to back, the duo looked at each other over their shoulders- Sonic gave Tails a thumbs up and a prolonged wink, Tails grinned in reply.

The fox fired a barrage of energy balls at the descending beasts of water, destroying a bunch of rusted helmets at once. Sonic powered up a spindash, launching upwards and bouncing across a few Artificial Chaos in a ball and destroying them one by one.

As the spinning Sonic hit the ground, Tails activated a ring tether and wrapped it around the balled up hedgehog. The ring attached to its own energy tether like a magnet, the enerbeam not interrupting the rapid spindash Sonic was doing.

Yanking the energy cannon back, Tails pulled Sonic up and over, the tether curving around the unused cannon on the fox's other arm. The spindash landed on the tether, allowing Tails to work the spinning Sonic like he was doing a yo-yo trick. Tails contracted his hands to fling Sonic away in an eli hop trick, launching Sonic forwards.

Though he was heading full speed at another Artificial Chaos, it was clear the creatures were adapting to the fight. The helmet of the creature sunk into its body of water to guard its weak point. Sonic's foot landed in the water, bringing him to a screeching halt. The hedgehog watched with raised eyebrows as he was slowly sinking further into the water.

Something grabbed his bicep- it was the E-Mech Ivo was in. Ivo directed the mech to pull Sonic out, the pod and arms of the E-Mech gyrating a full revolution, swinging Sonic back around so he could use his feet to kick the sunken helmet out of the watery body of Artificial Chaos, sending it into the nearby wall to destroy it.

When Ivo's arms stopped, Sonic flipped back and landed on the edge of the open pod, perching right at the rim of the mech's open carriage next to where Ivo was seated.

The vibe of the room shifted. The water below started swirling around, headed towards a helmet that was starting to be reformed using tendrils of water, combining multiple chaos drives into one. The water gathered into a giant floating orb, using the chaos power from multiple drives to levitate itself.

The Artificial Chaos P-100 directed its red eyes at Sonic and Ivo. Suddenly, it unleashed multiple cells of water from its body, creating balls of water and volatile raw chaos energy that was bound to explode sometime soon. The duo side-eyed each other at the appearance of the advanced being, neither of them expecting that. Ivo simply adjusted his glasses and hovered his finger over the "missile barrage" button. Sonic might not have had the same idea that Ivo had, but he knew it was time to act.

The button was pressed, unleashing another dozen of missiles from the E-Mech. Time slowed to a stop as Sonic began moving at supersonic speeds, suspending the missiles and the chaos cells in midair.

Sonic rushed forwards, the slowed physics allowing him to step across the missiles like stepping stones. He soon transitioned to the chaos cells, hopping from either one, the cells bursting like bubbles behind him after he stepped off.

With a flip up in the air, Sonic brought his feet down to the bare helmet and "spine" of the P-100, letting his weight do the rest of the work. He was brought back to normal speed as he smashed the helmet under his feet, the chaos cells bursting around him and destroying the missiles above him as a small fanfare to his victory.

The Artificial Chaos were gone. In this area, at least. Sonic and Ivo casually joined the others as they stood at the very end of the slightly curved service tunnel, reaching a large closed sliding door made of metal. Amy felt the split in the center of the door's two sides, trying to see if it was cracked open any.

"Don't bother." Ivo said. "We need to manually activate the door by overloading the disposal systems in the service tunnel path running parallel to this one. As you can see, the entrance is right to our left."

The doctor used the claw hand of the E-Mech to gesture to the side, showing how the elongated pipe secured into the floor of the tunnel was split off to head down a separate path. A blue light was shining beside the pipe leading down this split path, showing how there was water heading down this tube and not down the main service tunnel.

"Usually these giant doors would be open at all times, but lockdown from that protocol seven is keeping them closed. The only override is if the water was forced to head down the main pipe towards the disposal area in the cannon's core, as there must be a path to access the primary disposal pipes at all times."

"Alright, so we need to get in there and overload the system… or maybe flood the area." Tails rubbed his chin again, his tails turning in thought. "One of us can head down there, maybe switch on the stopper to force it to switch to the main pipe. Then the first door should open. We just need to decide who'll go and…"

The fox turned to the others, and was surprised to see his companions were participating in a silent game of "nose goes." Starting with Ivo, everyone had placed a finger on their nose except for Tails; and as the game rules says, no nose goes.

"...seriously?" Tails deadpanned. He looked at his blue compatriot. "Et tu, Sonic?"

"Hey man, I gotta head into the cannon's core anyway. I just wanted to make sure I would get there. I'm big on insurance."

"How progressive of you." The fox sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. Me first."

"Be careful Tails." Amy said.

"When you finish with blocking the pipe, the door to that room will most likely shut." Ivo added. "Use the ventilation shaft to return to the primary hallway. We'll reconvene in the observation deck once we're sure Sonic and Knuckles make it down to the cannon's core… the same goes for the rest of you, including me. Though I'm not sure how I'll fit in those vents…"

"Right. Alright… I'll do my best."

Tails turned and headed down the narrow corridor with the redirected pipe heading down below, soon disappearing into darkness and out of the other's view.

The fox had to turn and shuffle down the thin corridor, eventually squeezing through to where the corridor widened again. He passed through the opened doorway to the main disposal area, his eyes following the pipe to the far end of the room.

As soon as he entered the room, all eyes were on Tails- metaphorically, as the Artificial Chaos only directed their red glowing lens to stare at the entering lifeform.

Both Vulcan Cannons were activated at once, Tails firing energy blasts at them that shattered at least one of the Artificial Chaos' helmets upon contact. The other Artificial Chaos- there were three more- all sunk their heads into their watery bodies to guard them.

Tails flew forwards, heading to one of the remaining three Artificial Chaos. He spun in the air, his tails swiping into the body of the creature- though the P-0 managed to shift its helmet somewhere else inside of its body to evade the hit.

A ring tether was activated, Tails using it as a flail as always, whipping hit after hit into the body of the Artificial Chaos. His keen fox ears heard the other P-0s beginning to fire eye blasts of chaos energy towards him.

The fox flew upwards, tricking the creatures into unintentionally peppering their friend with the laser blasts. The lasers tore into the sunken helmet of the abandoned Artificial Chaos, destroying it and making it fall into a puddle onto the floor.

One of the other P-0s began spitting out the debris in its gullet towards the soaring Tails. A master of the skies, Tails was able to turn his body to evade the projectiles, before firing a dummy ring directly at the helmet of the beast.

The ring hooked onto the helmet, and Tails activated the ring tether to hank it away, making the water left behind slap against the ground. As the fox fell to the ground, he swung the helmet around and brought it down to crash into the ground, destroying it instantly.

The remaining Artificial Chaos hit Tails with a water tentacle, which instantly constricted around Tails. The fox was pulled back and upwards, up in front of the Artificial Chaos, who stared at him with unemotional red lenses.

Tails wiggled around. With one of his arms at his sides, he turned his hand around and firmly pressed a button on the underside of his backpack as he watched the P-0s eyes powering up to fire a laser directly at him.

From the left side of his backpack, a scissor-spring-loaded robotic fist ejected out. The fist and the spring curved around Tails' body, curling upwards so it delivered a punch downwards over Tails' right shoulder. The punch landed directly between the eyes of the Artificial Chaos, shattering the helmet instantly.

Tails landed as the water dropped onto the ground. He watched the robot fist, the fingers and plating broken from the powerful punch, slowly retract to his backpack again. This is why he hadn't used the magic hand, as he called it, until this point- it was still a prototype, and was bound to break.

At the wall across from the entrance to the room, Tails saw a valve. It took some powerful elbow grease, but the fox managed to twist the valve to close the stopper on the pipe below. The light below him around the pipe turned red, indicating that the pipe was closed.

A loud siren was heard above. The opening to the room was suddenly shut off with a large metal door coming down from the ceiling. Tails could feel rumbling as the first door in the main service tunnel was pulling open, his job done.

He looked up- there was a vent opening above him. Tails' tails started whirring as he began to fly upwards to his path out of the room.

Ivo was beaten at his own game when the second round of "nose goes" occurred. He cursed himself for introducing that game to those others.

This corridor was wider than the one that Tails had to head into, but only for a moment or two. Eventually, the corridor began to narrow, enough that it was a tight squeeze to make it further down. Eventually, the E-Mech was forced into a stop right at the opening of the path, so close yet too wide to make it out of the doorway.

The doctor growled in annoyance. He began to climb out of the mech, carefully putting his leg over the side to try and lower himself down to the floor below.

Suddenly, the entire space colony shook. Ivo, at that moment, assumed it was turbulence- he didn't know that the shaking was caused by a strange black and red mass smacking against one end of the Space Colony ARK, beginning to slowly sink itself into the satellite. The force of the hit, however, sent Ivo to the floor, landing on his stomach.

As he picked himself up and adjusted his glasses, he looked down at the pipe that was leading the water to the center of the room. The pipe turned and went to the right, suspended above the ground with the valve right beside it.

Much like the areas with exposed energies and wiring in the gravity testing wing of the ARK, wires and energy tubing were cracked and exposed in this area of the service tunnel were present all around. Though Ivo was safe on a small, suspended platform, the lowered area around it was covered in violent green energy, almost like a swamp.

On other, higher raised platforms, two Artificial Chaos in floating orb forms turned their attention to Ivo when they heard the doctor stumble to his feet. Ivo quickly got up and stumbled away from the lasers that were firing at him.

Ivo pressed his fists together, activating his Big Arms. He extended the nanite arm upwards for the fingers to sink into the wall, bringing him upwards to try and swing towards the higher platforms.

The floating Artificial Chaos that was on the platform he was headed towards immediately extended a water tendril to Ivo, hitting him square in the gut. Ivo let out a strain groan as his swing was interrupted, his arm retracting instantly and forcing him to fall down towards the green energy below.

Extending his arm out, Ivo grabbed the edge of the higher stage, pulled to it in time to grip onto the edge. His dangling feet just barely touched the volatile chaos energy in the pit below, and he slowly started to pull himself up.

Once his arms were on the raised floor, he saw the floating Artificial Chaos staring down at him. When it fired an eye laser towards him, Ivo raised his hand, his Big Arm forming in time for the laser to hit the palm and shield his face.

He grunted and reached the nanite arm out, his hand grabbing onto the helmet of the Artificial Chaos, blocking another eye blast unintentionally. Ivo immediately made the hand close into a fist, crushing the helmet in his nanite grip.

Ivo scrambled up onto the terrace as the other Chaos began firing upon him with more eye lasers. The doctor got to his feet, both his Big Arms activating as he faced the remaining P-0 across the gap.

The doctor launched his Big Arms into the ground below him, rocketing himself upwards into the air, his arms and legs flailing. The Artificial Chaos below shot out two tentacles, both curving around to try and grab Ivo from either side.

Having to move fast to avoid the tendrils, Ivo brought his arms back and swung them hard, the arms extending out and whipping around towards the Artificial Chaos. Ivo brought the hands together in a clap, the nanite hands crushing the helmet between their palms before the tendrils could reach him.

The Big Arms deactivated as the doctor continued his flailing, falling through the air and landing on the opposite platform on his side with a loud grunt. Ivo got up again, the pipe and the valve on the wall ahead of him, suspended over the green energy below.

Ivo extended the nanite arm and grabbed the valve, whipping his arm down to use the force of his arm swing to make the valve turn. There was a loud beeping, and Ivo could hear the door slowly begin to open in the main service tunnel.

The door that was supposed to close couldn't. It appeared that Ivo, when trying to get his E-Mech into the room with him, created a suitable blockade that kept the emergency door from coming down all the way.

Adjusting his glasses at the sight of the partially crushed mech blocking the door, Ivo could see there was still enough room between the mech's legs for him to crawl out. He smiled. Looks like he wouldn't have to try and squeeze through a vent after all.

After losing in a game of rock paper scissors, Rouge was the next to head into the service tunnels instead of Amy. She really should've thrown paper instead of scissors.

She pulled herself through a thin hallway into the primary disposal area, grunting as she did. The bat groaned with displeasure as her iron boots stepped into some of the water gathered below- it was sealed tight enough so no water could get in, but she hated that she was stepping in this gross greywater regardless.

The pipe that led into this room bent upwards, headed up to the ceiling and entering up there. Around here were multiple pillars, and at the top of one of the pillars, the valve for the pipe was placed on the ceiling near where the pipe passed into it.

Three floating Artificial Chaos were above her. Unlike the ones that Ivo faced, these belonged to the P-100 subtype, made up of multiple Artificial Chaos into one.

The P-100s immediately started raining chaos cells down onto the ground as soon as Rouge was seen. The bat ran away, trying to dodge some of the bursting cells but hit by at least one of them.

When she hit the ground after being hit from the blast, Rouge reached into her leg bag and pulled out her mini-bombs, tossing them upwards. The explosion made good cover for Rouge to get up to her feet and to one of the pillars- it appeared these pillars were just made of concrete, so the bat could dig her iron boots into them and begin to climb up.

Rouge knew she couldn't stay on the pillar forever, and she found her time was exceeded when one of the P-100s shot out a tendril towards her. Rouge kicked off the pillar, spreading her wings to soar across the room and past the floating Artificial Chaos.

She turned and corkscrewed through the air to evade lasers fired upon her. Rouge swung her body around, kicking both feet into one of the helmets of the P-100 and sending it into a nearby pillar, shattering it.

More tendrils fired at her, Rouge barely evading it in time as they started hitting the wall beside her. Rouge turned and soared across the air towards one of them, heading towards them head on. The back of her throat started to glow purple, letting out a cry as she got close to another one of them.

The energy ball created from Rouge's beauty shock hit the P-100's helmet, destroying it in a powerful burst of energy. Rouge turned to soar around another pillar, her feet hitting the wall for her to walk around it as she headed towards the last remaining Artificial Chaos.

Once more, she curved through the air as she flew directly towards the last P-100 at top speeds. She flapped her wings, propelling herself faster and faster to give the creature less and less time to attack.

Rouge dove her body downwards to flip forwards. She brought the heel of her boot down over her head, her foot slicing down into the head of the Artificial Chaos. The helmet and "spine" attached to it were sent downwards to shatter against the ground.

The bat landed nearby as water slapped down onto the ground. She looked up again- the valve was still in its spot, it's not like it could move.

Ascending the nearest pillar, Rouge eventually pushed herself off to reach the ceiling. She dug her feet into the ceiling to suspend herself there, now looking downwards at the valve to get a better grip on it.

It took a solid moment of force, but Rouge twisted the valve and activated the stopper. Sirens blared, and she could feel the third door open in the service tunnel below. Rouge sighed, glad that was over.

She glanced at the vent on the wall nearby. At least she didn't have to go into the shallow waters below again.

Amy was up last, giving a hug to Sonic and Knuckles before she left. The service tunnel reached a ladder that led upwards, and when she pushed through the hole at the end, Amy found the pipe she was following curved around in the air and plugged into the wall far ahead of her.

She had such trouble getting the dark hammer through the small corridor, she wasn't able to properly evade a tendril from one of the four P-0s that were ruminating in the area. Amy was yanked out, her hands out and reaching for the weapon left behind by the exit shaft.

The psychic was flung into a nearby wall, though Amy was able to land on her hands and knees, giving her enough leeway to dodge another tendril shot out at her.

With the dark hammer left behind, Amy decided to use the OG- she pulled her hammer bag around and let it form in her hands. With both hands on the handle, Amy squeezed her bottom hand, and quickly pulled it away. Her hammer split in two like it had a while back, creating the two hammers for Amy to duel wield.

When more tendrils were fired, Amy swung both hammers to hit them from midair, ending the stream that was headed towards her. She spun her body around to hit each tendril that whipped towards her, bursting them in the air before they could even touch her.

As a nearby Artificial Chaos fired off an ocular laser towards her, Amy crossed the hammers in front of each other, both of the hammerheads creating a shield that blocked the laser without anything getting through.

Amy slid towards the P-0, swinging the smaller red-ended hammer upwards. The helmet and spine contraption was forced into the air, creating a projectile that Amy hit with her larger hammer. The helmet was flung towards another Artificial Chaos, but the creature sunk its helmet into its watery body again, bouncing it off its form.

The rebounded helmet missed Amy just barely when the psychic ducked down under it, letting the rusty helmet shatter against the nearby wall.

She blitzed through a barrage of laser blasts. Amy knocked another tendril from the air that was coming from her, before leaping upwards into the air and bringing both hammers down onto another P-0.

Retracting the helmet into its water body didn't help. Amy's strength passed the hammers down into the water and pushed the hammer into the ground, shattering it within the watery body of the Artificial Chaos.

The psychic ran towards one of the two remaining P-0s. She brought both hammers up and slammed them down into the ground, using the force of the swing into the ground to propel herself upwards, evading two curving tendrils as she did.

Flipping through the air, Amy landed down on top of the helmet of the Artificial Chaos, stomping down on the helmet to destroy it, luckily just evading the water that came down after. She turned her head to look at the last remaining Artificial Chaos- this one sunk its head into its body to guard the helmet. Amy rushed forwards, bringing her arms back so her hammers were behind her.

Amy swung her two hammers together to hit the sunken helmet, but found it was a trick- the helmet passed upwards as soon as the hammers entered the water, trapping both hammers in the body of the Artificial Chaos.

The psychic forced the handles of her hammers together, making them fuse into a single hammer once more. She gripped onto the handle with both hands and squeezed- from one end of the hammerhead, pink energy erupted, propelling the hammer to the side and out of the water.

Swinging the hammer around and using the force made from the energy thruster, Amy spun around and brought her hammer above her, slamming it down in an overhead swing that smashed down onto the rusted helmet of the remaining P-0. The force of the downward swing sliced the watery body in half before it splashed down onto the ground.

The danger was gone. Amy started heading over to the valve, but was stopped in her tracks.

During the barrage of eye lasers, Amy had neglected to notice that a bunch of them hit the turnwheel. Most of it was melted off, and the pieces that remained certainly didn't have enough grip for her to spin it around.

She quickly looked around for a solution. Amy came this far, and everyone was counting on her! She couldn't come back empty handed! They couldn't stop now!

Her eyes eventually rested on the dark hammer. Then, slowly, they turned to look at the pipe Amy needed to shut off, which was suspended in the air to reach the nearby wall. She got an idea, and though it was barbaric, she didn't really have a choice.

Amy grabbed the dark hammer, lifting it above her head and rushing to the pipe, where she slammed the massive purple club down. The pipe bent all the way to the floor from the force of the hit, contouring around the hammer as it slammed down and creating a crease that nothing could get through.

There was a second of silence. Then, sirens started going off. Amy could hear the final door opening in the main service tunnel- she did it.

No good deed went unpunished, however. Amy tried prying the dark hammer from the pipe, but found that since the metal pipe curved around it, it was really stuck in there. She didn't have the strength to pull it out, and it wasn't like she could get Knuckles to come in here.

She had to make the ultimate sacrifice.

"I'll never forget you, you amazing hammer you." Amy kissed her fingers and pressed it to the handle of the dark hammer in a farewell smooch.

Amy lifted up her hammer and whipped the pole across her chest, which automatically turned it back into its bag form. After making sure it was secure, Amy sped away, heading towards her exit vent with one last sad glance at what she had to leave behind.

After the last door opened, Sonic and Knuckles were surprised to find that the main water line led to a cliff-like area, one that shot all the water out onto a ramp heading downwards. The two looked down at the rushing water, seeing it was headed further down into the ARK.

Ivo never said anything about Sonic and Knuckles being spared from the water. With little time most likely left until the ARK would hit the Earth, the hedgehog and the echidna spared the complaints and leapt into the rushing water.

They were pushed down, with Sonic gripping onto Knuckles' arm to keep himself from possibly drowning. The duo were tossed from ramp to ramp as they continued downwards.

One final ramp narrowed before jutting out as a half-pipe into the cannon's core. Sonic and Knuckles were launched out, both of them landing on the small pathway that was at the side of the small stream of greywater that the half-pipe was feeding into. It led into a small pool ahead, one with an unseen drain leading down and out of the ARK.

That wasn't their point of interest. Two things were a point of interest for them, one for each.

Knuckles saw, at the far end of the cannon's core, that the Chaos Emeralds were placed on a large structure that looked insanely familiar- it was just like the emerald shrine on Angel Island, and the one he saw in that abandoned Gaia Temple.

On top of each pillar around the central shrine, the Chaos Emeralds were placed, glowing brightly as their energy was used. There was no emerald in the shrine at the center- it was made for the Master Emerald.

Sonic was staring at the fossil.

A giant skeleton, mutated nearly beyond recognition, lay in the pool the greywater led to. It was reptilian, Sonic could tell because it almost looked like a giant dinosaur skeleton. The bones, unbeknownst to the duo, were ones of a mutated komodo dragon, mutated from a failed experiment to discover the Ultimate Lifeform- posthumously titled "the Biolizard." Its lifeless body was abandoned due to its massive size, its final resting place now the cannon's core.

"Holy…" Sonic murmured.

"The cannon's core looks like the shrine on Angel Island!" Knuckles stated his observation. "We can use the Master Emerald there to neutralize the Chaos Emeralds! C'mon!"

Sonic was hesitant, but ran behind Knuckles along the stream of greywater, heading to the small pool towards the center of the cannon's core. The room was massive, so it would take a minute or two to reach the shrine-like structure on the other side.

The hedgehog's attention was pulled away from rattling all around them. The pipes heading down into the greywater disposal area of the cannon's core all began to shake as it appeared that something was heading down through them violently. The pieces where the pipes were bolted together started coming loose from the violent shaking, with black and red ooze starting to spray out when gaps were made.

There was a deep gurgle as bubbles and blackness came up from the drain of the pool. The black sludge started moving, creating tendrils that whipped around the bones of the Biolizard in the pool. As soon as they did, the bones slowly started to disintegrate, as all the life and organic matter was sucked clean out of the skeleton of the fallen creature.

Sonic and Knuckles both skidded to a stop near the small pool's edge, looking upwards and seeing the skull of the fossil crushed between two mounds of the now giant black and red ooze like a toothless mouth, absorbing that too. Red, slimy wings erupted from the body first, stretching upwards and out, though the being was still confined to the pool.

Arms were made next, two for the front facing the heroes and two facing the back, all holding the edge of the pool to lift itself up. Rapidly whipping feelers, each glowing a blue-purple, appeared on the back of the creature's arms and on top of its head like hair, almost giving it a mohawk. A long horizontal horn with red ends made the unibrow for a massive, orange slitted eye that opened to stare down at the pair.

YOU.Black Doom's voice shook the slime-covered room as it stared at Sonic. PERHAPS YOU ARE MORE RESILIENT THAN I THOUGHT. NO MATTER. I AM IN MY TRUE FORM NOW. I WILL PLUCK THE QUILLS FROM YOUR BODY AND STICK THEM BACK INTO YOUR BODY THE OPPOSITE WAY, ONE AT A TIME.

"Jeez. Edgy much?" Sonic used humor to cope with the horrifying situation.

"Leave this one to me."

Sonic and Knuckles both turned to watch a black and red hedgehog walk up casually between them, stopping to stand right in front of them and face the one-eyed beast himself. Sonic and Knuckles noticed the dark hedgehog was different… he was glowing gold.

"Shadow?"

"I'll take care of Black Doom while you two race to the emeralds." He replied to Sonic, glancing over his shoulder with his scarred eye. "Go!"

Though they hesitated, Sonic was the first to move, grinning a bit at Shadow before running off. Knuckles was close behind, starting to open his jacket to retrieve the downsized Master Emerald.

Devil Doom attempted to swing his arm to smash the pair, but it was stopped halfway when it was hit with a barrage of rounds from Shadow's Rifle. The giant creature roared in pain, his arm swinging away from the heroes and hitting the edge of the pool behind them.

All the attention was on Shadow now, Devil Doom's eye turning to stare directly down at the hedgehog in front of him, his progeny staring directly into the giant eye.

YOU DARE?! I AM YOUR MAKER! I AM YOUR MASTER! I AM YOUR FATHER!

Shadow could feel the tendrils of Black Doom's mind control attempt to grasp his mind. With the memory of him meeting Maria, the hedgehog wiped it from his mind.

"I already had a father," Shadow defied him. "His name was Gerald Robotnik!"

Devil Doom roared- this time in fury from the defiance by Shadow. The black hedgehog returned the Shadow Rifle onto his back to reholster itself, speeding away as one of the giant creature's arms came down and smashed the edge of the black pool.

The dark hedgehog's path was interrupted with another arm coming down in front of him. Instead of slowing, Shadow jumped up, landing on the arm and speeding up the appendage towards the face. His hand was stuck out, silently and rapidly firing chaos spears towards Devil Doom's face.

Shaking his head side to side, the giant monster shrieked in mild annoyance, if not pain. Shadow leapt up into the air, flipping forwards and curling into a ball. He hadn't done this many times, but he's seen Sonic do it enough that he knew it was possible.

With a powerful, destructive boost that rippled out behind him, Shadow performed a homing attack. The spindashing hedgehog managed to zip between the closing fists of the creature reaching out towards him, landing directly onto the eye of Devil Doom and hitting it head on. Though the pulsating skin of Devil Doom was fairly impervious to damage, the eye wasn't as lucky.

As Shadow flipped back to land on his feet again, he watched as Doom's Eye detached from his face, flying back to attach between the other two arms on the opposite side of Devil Doom's body. Shadow rushed off, skating around the pool.

Sonic and Knuckles were still leaving the pool area, running unlike what they had been told at public pools for years. With the eye of Doom on the opposite side of Devil Doom's body, he directed his attention towards the running pair of heroes. The eye of Doom lit up with red, before firing a red laser directly towards them.

Noticing the incoming laser, Sonic zoomed forwards, pushing Knuckles out of the way. The laser still hit Sonic, however, knocking him away and across the ground nearby. As he got up, he felt a sharp pain in his leg- though he had his healing factor, he wouldn't be able to run well until it healed up all the way.

Passing around the massive side of Devil Doom, Shadow fired off multiple chaos spears again. Sensing the defiant black hedgehog at his side, the large godling lifted one of his red wings before slamming it down on the ground in Shadow's path. A shockwave of red energy rippled from the ground, which Shadow quickly leapt over.

He boosted forwards, landing on the wing and using it as a makeshift rail to grind up the side of Devil Doom. Shadow dove to the eye side of the monster's body once he grinded to the back, grabbing onto the horizontal horns above the eye like a balance beam to quickly turn his body around, swinging down after to kick both feet into the eye again.

Shadow kicked off and flipped back to land on the edge of the pool again. He wanted the attention on him, and only him. He looked over his shoulder to check on the others- Knuckles was helping Sonic head towards the shrine nearby.

Doom's Eye detached from the creature's body again. Shadow leapt upwards, attempting to grab onto the floating starfish-like creature but just narrowly missing. The dark hedgehog teleported down to land on the side the eye reattached to, watching the eyeball roll around in its head before resting on staring at Shadow.

Devil Doom roared again. From his body, suddenly, dark flames erupted. Fireballs of black flame shot out, suspended in air in a makeshift force field to keep Shadow away from him.

The dark hedgehog was not deterred. Shadow jumped up and kicked one of the fireballs like a soccer ball, returning it to Devil Doom and hitting him in the face with it. The black creature shrieked in pain and aggravation.

Suddenly, gravity shifted. The fireballs were shifted upwards, becoming a horizontal spiral. Shadow was also brought upwards from the shift in gravity, tumbling around the air and narrowly dodging the floating fire all around him. He boosted away, trying to regain his footing in the air and head towards Devil Doom's eye.

He reached behind him, pulling his rifle off his back. Stepping across the back of Devil Doom, Shadow pushed off as hard as he could to soar over the brow of the giant quasigod, aiming downwards and firing rapidly. Each round hit Devil Doom in his eye, which brought gravity back to normal. Shadow dropped to the ground as all four of the creature's hands covered his greatly wounded eye.

Sonic and Knuckles rushed up the steps to the central part of the shrine. As they got to the top, Knuckles tore off the downsizer, causing the Master Emerald to rapidly grow in his hand. The echidna only needed a moment to balance the emerald in his hand from the sudden growth, before grabbing with both hands.

He set the emerald down in the center of the shrine, right in the hole surrounded by red lights in the center. Knuckles held his hands on the top edge of the Master Emerald, pressing his forehead against the gem. In that moment, hearing only the ringing of the Master Emerald, Knuckles felt only himself and Chaos between them.

"The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos… Only you can do this. Stop the Chaos Emeralds!"

Knuckles felt the Master Emerald shift, making him step backwards. The large crystal started glowing, beginning to spin around in place. Around them, on the seven pillars surrounding the shrine, the Chaos Emeralds on top started glowing too.

Suddenly, all seven emeralds went dark. The Master Emerald's light slowly faded. The entire Space Colony ARK slowly stopped rumbling as Gerald's mysterious final protocol came to an end, the Chaos Emeralds no longer propelling the satellite to Earth.

The Chaos Emeralds floated off the pillars, floating down and landing in a circle against the shrine's guard walls. Knuckles could still feel the power of the Chaos Emeralds, but they were no longer altering gravity within the ARK.

Shadow turned to look up at the shrine as he felt the ARK stop. Devil Doom, also feeling the power of Chaos fleeting, roared loudly. He used the last bit of energy residing within the ARK for himself. He let out a loud shriek that shook the walls, before he disappeared in a giant flash of green.

When Sonic and Knuckles uncovered their eyes, they saw that Devil Doom was gone.

"What happened?" The blue hedgehog asked.

In a smaller flash of blue, Shadow appeared in the shrine nearby. His eyebrows were furrowed in mild confusion and bewilderment.

"I think that was chaos control." He said, quietly.

Suddenly, the ARK shook again. The same sensation had when the Chaos Emeralds were propelling the space colony downwards were felt all across the satellite once more, even though the Chaos Emeralds lay dormant on the ground.

All three mobians in the shrine looked around at the slimy walls of the cannon's core for an answer of what was going on.

"If we've stopped the Chaos Emeralds," Knuckles spoke. "Why is the ARK still headed downwards to collide with the Earth?"

"Sonic!"

At the sound coming from his mouth, the blue hedgehog touched the Communication Crown with his tongue to reactivate it. He touched his jaw with his fingers gently.

"Tails?"

"Something's latched onto the Eclipse Cannon! It's pulling the ARK towards the Earth!"

"Doom…" Sonic said. He looked at the others. "Black Doom is pulling the ARK towards the Earth to finish the job. We have to stop him."

Knuckles remembered what Tikal had told him, and repeated it. "The only thing powerful enough to defeat Black Doom is the power of Chaos, or himself. Or both."

"...both, eh?"

Sonic looked over at Shadow, who was staring down at the ground nearby. Sensing eyes on him, Shadow looked up to meet the speedster's gaze. Shadow's eyebrow raised in a silent question.

"Whaddya say, Shadow? How about we show Black Doom just what we're made of?"

It took the dark hedgehog a moment for him to understand what was being offered. He thought for a moment, but only just a moment, before grunting and nodding firmly. He reached out towards Sonic, grasping his outstretched hand in a still handshake.

The Chaos Emeralds nearby, sensing the feel of chaos energy being summoned, glowed and began to float. Knuckles watched the halo of Chaos Emeralds surround Sonic and Shadow, the pair ending their handshake to look at the emeralds surrounding them.

Slowly but surely, the Chaos Emeralds began to circle around them faster and faster, before becoming a blurry loop of multiple colors. Sonic and Shadow's clothes and quills slowly began to lift from the vortex of energy surrounding them, the multi-colored energy of Chaos passing from the spinning circle and entering their forms like streams of plasma. They were soon lifted off the ground, their feet hovering just inches above the floor.

Once the speed of the emeralds reached its peak, the circle constricted, a flash of white light emitting once the energies of the water god transferred into the two hedgehogs. While Shadow's glowing gold aura was bright, it wasn't as bright as the aura coming off of the two of them once they achieved Super, as Knuckles had to put on his sunglasses just to properly see them.

Super Sonic and Super Shadow were side by side still, floating off the ground from the chaos energy coming off of them. Sonic had returned to the shiny gold quills that he had when he faced Perfect Chaos; Shadow's black quills, however, turned to a slightly lighter shade of gold, almost a platinum blonde color. The red markings, a marking of the Black Arms, were still present on his body even in his Super form.

"You ready for this, Shadow?" Super Sonic asked.

Super Shadow eyed his companion without moving his head. After a second, he smirked a bit.

"Let's blast through with sonic speed." The dark hedgehog rumbled in reply.

That made a grin spread across Super Sonic's face from ear to ear.

Both of them moved at once, becoming gold streaks across the room before the two of them disappeared in a flash of blue. Knuckles, left behind, quickly picked up the Master Emerald to leave the cannon's core as fast as he could.

Super Sonic and Super Shadow appeared on the outside of the ARK, flying around the side of the satellite to look at the cannon's side. What Tails said was true- using chaos control, Devil Doom had merged himself with the protruding cannon of the Space Colony. If that wasn't enough, black appendages of red and black were extending out from Devil Doom's body and gripping onto the Space Colony ARK to secure him there, and to continue pulling it downwards.

The large orange eyes of the deformed and mucilaginous Devil Doom stared downwards at Super Sonic and Super Shadow. He looked at Shadow directly.

I GAVE YOU LIFE, AND YET YOU DEFY ME? SO BE IT! I WILL DESTROY THIS MISERABLE PLANET YOU LOVE SO MUCH, AND ALLOW MY GODLY FATHER TO EMERGE FROM HIS MAGMA PRISON TO START A NEW WORLD!

Devil Doom roared again from multiple mouths, a roar that sounded like several pigs and goats being slaughtered. From the side of his body, something ejected- it was a large, starfish like creature: Doom's Eye.

The eye rocketed down towards Super Sonic and Super Shadow. Though it was most likely aiming towards Shadow, Sonic zipped forwards to intercept it first, grabbing onto its body as its black and purple tentacles attempted to grab onto the powerful hedgehog.

"Ugh! You need to learn boundaries!"

Super Sonic grabbed the back of Doom's Eye's body and tore it off of himself. He threw the creature upwards, spinning around and kicking it as hard as he could. The power and strength of the Chaos-enriched hedgehog was enough to fling Doom's Eye away- and not back onto the ARK, but past it.

Both super hedgehogs watched as Doom's Eye was flung far into space, becoming a speck of light to the two of them as the kick was powerful enough to send it out of the solar system entirely.

Devil Doom roared once more. Boils from his body erupted, unleashing the balls of black fire into the space around him. From the many mouths and eyes made across his body, Devil Doom fired lasers of red energy away from him, directing them towards Super Sonic and Super Shadow directly, making the hedgehogs split up.

As Super Sonic soared around to face one horrific side of the dark godling, he heard something through his Communication Crown.

"Sonic! Can you hear me?" Ivo spoke. "We've all managed to escape the ARK! There's no need to hold back- you and Shadow can cause as much havoc as you want to!"

With that message, Super Sonic took the opportunity to kick a nearby floating chunk of debris towards Devil Doom. It slammed into one of the many eyes of the monster, causing a roar of pain. Another red laser was fired, hitting Sonic directly and making the hedgehog fly backwards and away.

On the other side, Super Shadow's hands glowed red. He launched a powerful harpoon of red chaos energy towards Devil Doom.

"Chaos LANCE!"

The lance of energy pieced the giant black creature, cutting off some of its pulsating form. All eyes turned to Shadow, and the body of Devil Doom started to reach out. Stalks with eyes and mouths at the end of them twisted from the body and extended to surround Super Shadow, continuing to fire blasts of red energy towards him.

Using the aura of gold energy from his body, Super Shadow blocked the lasers firing upon him. However, the black and red sludge that made up Devil Doom's body slapped against the spherical force field made around Shadow, pressing harder and harder until Shadow was completely covered. The slime made multiple hands that pressed around the dark hedgehog, almost like it was trapping an insect between its hands.

"Chaos BLAST!"

A burst of red energy eradicated the dark matter surrounding his force field. Super Shadow saw the retracting tendrils, seeing them pass by a makeshift path of debris and meteors headed directly towards the side of Devil Doom's body.

The chaos energy in Super Shadow's body connected to the dormant chaos energy within the debris, enriched with the power from the dark hedgehog's original chaos blast fifty years ago. A circuit was made, heading directly to Black Doom.

Super Shadow moved forwards at lightspeed, zipping between each piece of debris in a streak of glowing gold. His lightspeed attack ended with the dark hedgehog torpedoing across the side of Devil Doom, turning so his heightened speed tore through the malleable gunk that made up the horrifying beast. Shadow sliced off different appendages from Devil Doom's form, harming it a considerable amount.

As Super Shadow teleported back away, floating back a bit in the vast space of the atmosphere, he felt his hand tingling like it was asleep. He looked down at it- his hand had become a transparent gold, this appearance slowly spreading to his wrist and down towards his arm.

He was exerting too much chaos energy. It wasn't long before he faded away forever.

Super Shadow didn't have time to worry about that right now. He had to stop Devil Doom- he had to achieve the purpose he was made for. The dark hedgehog zipped forwards again, becoming a torpedo to ram into the dark eldritch monster and harm him once again.

The battle of Station Square was still raging below. Thanks to the group Vanilla brought together, people quickly found out that the ARK was falling to Earth. However, that didn't stop them from fighting against the Black Arms in the city- they wouldn't go down without a fight.

However, a few were pulled away from the fight when they saw something fall down onto the Emerald Coast. They had been looking to the skies for any indication of something coming down, and their search paid off.

Five escape pods landed, almost in a row, covered in conduit gel. The group that came up to the escape pods- Vanilla, Cream, Blaze, Tekno, Topaz and the Chaotix- watched as the doors of the escape pods lifted up, creating a safe opening for the people inside to get out gel-free.

In two closer to the center, Tails and Amy stepped out.

Amy was immediately hugged by Cream, which immediately quelled the dizziness Amy had from falling towards the Earth.

"Amy, you're back from space!"

"Heh, yeah! Did you miss me?" The pink hedgehog asked with a grin.

"Like a headache." Tekno replied, arms crossed as she watched. She smiled, however, raising her hand towards Amy. Amy smiled and accepted the high-five.

Nearby, Tails was also hugged, this one from Vanilla, which surprised him- he figured that Vanilla didn't want him to feel left out, so he smiled and hugged her back.

"It's so good to see you, Tails." Vanilla said. "I'm happy to see you're okay."

Emerging from the furthest pod, Rouge rubbed her head from the rough ride down. She stepped out, but slipped a bit on some stray conduit gel. She was caught from falling by someone grabbing onto her arms.

"Hey, girlfriend." Topaz said, grinning a bit. "Long time no see."

Rouge looked up at Topaz and scoffed, amused. "Yeah, yeah. Glad to see you're finally out of that stuffy Meh Burger outfit. Though the brown suit really did match the vibe you got going on…"

"In your dreams, Rouge."

"Maybe now that the world may not be ending, you can return to being Tower's Number One. Mercury seriously gets on my nerves."

"Oh man, you had to deal with Ziya? I pity you, really."

Though the bat was amused, when her gaze traveled to another escape pod, her face dropped. She rushed away, pushing past Amy and Tails to get to the escape pod with Knuckles emerging from it.

The echidna sighed, pulling the Master Emerald out of the escape pod. He had to share the pod with the emerald, and it was not that conscious of his space.

"You're alright!"

Knuckles turned to see Rouge rushing towards him. The echidna, taken aback, felt his face flush.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I uh…"

The bat shoulder checked Knuckles out of the way and went to the Master Emerald. She hugged the giant gem immediately, pressing her cheek against it.

"Oh, thank the universe!" She said. "I'm so glad my emerald's okay! I knew I shouldn't have trusted it in the hands of that knucklehead. You could've been damaged in the cannon's core!"

Still mostly flustered for a different reason now, Knuckles got to his feet and frowned.

"Ugh! You're batty!" He barked.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Knuckles turned, greeted by Mighty and the Chaotix behind him.

"I'm happy you're okay, Knuckles." Mighty said.

"...I'm happy you're alright too, Mighty."

With that, the guardians shared a hug. It was interrupted by Vector, grabbing Espio and Charmy, making it a group hug. Knuckles' eyes flew open, looking between the detectives, but shrugging and letting them have their weird moment- especially because Mighty didn't mind it.

The last pod opened. Ivo emerged, adjusting his glasses.

"Whoa!" Vector ended the group hug.

Him, as well as everyone else in the group that found the pods immediately got into defensive stances when they saw the doctor. Before they could advance on him, Tails flew over, standing between the doctor and the group.

"Wait, stop!" He said. "Ivo's cool, he's cool." Tails looked behind him. "Right?"

Ivo paused. He coughed to clear his throat.

"...yes." The doctor said, quietly and sheepishly.

With that answer, the group all began to grumble, upset they couldn't fight the man. Ivo watched as Vanilla made a hand movement in front of her face: I'm watching you. With a thumb sliding across her throat, Cream made it clear after what the penalty for doing anything shifty was.

She could tell that something changed within Ivo. But Cream could never be too sure.

"Is the ARK stopped?" Topaz asked the returned heroes.

"No, not yet. It's being pulled to Earth." Tails replied.

"How can we stop it? Where's Sonic?" Vanilla asked.

"He's stopping the ARK."

Amy pointed upwards towards the falling satellite. Everyone in the group looked up, witnessing the two streaks of gold attacking the giant mass coming in ever so closer. With bated breath, they all kept their eyes on the fight between good and evil above them, ignored by the Black Arms invading the city as they were out of their range to sense them.

The ends of Super Sonic's upturned spikes were starting to turn blue.

It was hard finding rings in space, but luckily Sonic and Shadow had managed to find a few formed from the leftover debris made fifty years ago. The rings were scarce, so it wasn't enough to slow down the Super forms ending any more than it was- but it gave them a bit more time.

Super Sonic soared through the gravity-less space towards Devil Doom, twisting to pass through the field of floating fireballs. He punched forwards, directly into one of the many eyes of Devil Doom, making him shriek again. Super Sonic suddenly sneezed as he floated backwards.

One of the nearby mouths on the side of the beast's body spat out its own life matter, a pulsating mass of black and red that hit Super Sonic head-on. Flung backwards, the hedgehog was only stopped when he slapped against one of the larger pieces of debris, sticking to the side of it from the black matter.

Super Shadow sensed his companion flung away and turned. He rocketed away before one of the black tentacles of Devil Doom could swipe at him, closely followed by the red lasers from the giant godling.

As he was trapped against the debris, floating away from the ARK and towards space, Super Sonic struggled against it. He wasn't down yet, he couldn't stop now. People were counting on him- and he wasn't about some overgrown mold take him out!

The anger that surged through Super Sonic was palpable. He felt adrenaline coursing through his bones at the fury he was feeling- he was letting out his anger by beating the heck out of this giant semi-god.

From his anger, raw chaos energy was born. The rainbow electricity made from the raw chaos energy crackled off his quills, hitting the ooze that was trapping him. As it did, the mass began to do something peculiar- it began to melt.

Super Shadow flew up in time to watch Super Sonic break through the melting ooze. The dark hedgehog had witnessed the multicolored power of Chaos, surprised at the reaction it had to Black Doom's matter.

"Whoa." Super Shadow remarked.

"Gonna take more than that to put me down." Super Sonic dusted off his jacket. "It's a wonder how the energy made the goop melt though."

"Chaos is the primordial being who created Mobius. Mobius created Black Doom." The dark hedgehog replied. "The raw power of Chaos must be so overwhelmingly powerful that it melts the darkness inside of Black Doom's very being!"

"I dunno if that's how science works, but I'll take whatever I can get. We found a weakness."

Super Sonic and Super Shadow flew back towards the falling ARK, around the side to face Devil Doom again. The many eyes of the creature turned to stare at the two hedgehogs.

As he flew by, Sonic wondered who would take Devil Doom down first. Him and Shadow had fought in the past, but there never seemed to be a clear winner. They always seemed to be evenly matched… dangerously, even.

An idea came to Super Sonic's head. He smirked.

"Hey Shadow," He turned to look at his fellow hedgehog. "How about we rush and see who can take Black Doom out first?"

Super Shadow raised an eyebrow. He watched Sonic make a movement with his hands, gently punching his two fists against each other before opening them and moving them away like an explosion.

After a moment, Super Shadow got the picture. He grunted and nodded in agreement.

Once the dark hedgehog flew off, Sonic rushed to the debris falling alongside the ARK again. He stepped between each one like stepping stones, kicking off of them with both feet like a little kid stomping in a puddle, the force of his stomping sending the giant debris down towards Devil Doom.

Lasers fired from the massive beast only destroyed a few, as most of the debris rained down and hit Devil Doom directly. It didn't harm him too much, though a lot of them knocked out the eyes he had on the side of his body.

A larger piece of debris was launched into the other side of Devil Doom, making his eyes turn to look at where that one came from.

Super Shadow grabbed onto another giant piece of rubble, spinning it around with a loud growl before throwing it at Devil Doom. The debris slammed into the giant mass of darkness, making Doom screech in anger and fire balls of fire and lasers at his progeny.

Before any could hit, Shadow disappeared in flashes of blue, disappearing and reappearing in different areas nearby as the fireballs started to follow him. Eventually, Super Shadow teleported near the massive body of Devil Doom.

When Devil Doom extended a mouth to chomp down on the dark hedgehog, Super Shadow teleported away in time for all the fireballs to enter the gaping maw.

The front side of Devil Doom, where his horizontal horn still resided, was suddenly blitzed from the side. Super Sonic had zoomed in, punching across the creature's "face" while flying by it. Before Devil Doom could react, Super Shadow did the same in the opposite direction.

A barrage of hits from the two hedgehogs came, one that made Devil Doom only angrier. Eventually, both hedgehogs flew back and away from the end of the cannon. They curved downwards before flying back up, the pair side by side to deliver an uppercut to Devil Doom at the same time.

The force of the massive uppercut was almost enough to knock the end of Devil Doom's head clean off. He shook his head, still dazed and disoriented, but roaring in anger.

Super Sonic and Super Shadow paused up above, giving one more glance and nod to each other before flying off in opposite directions. They both arced downwards, heading towards each other to meet somewhere specific- inside the body of Devil Doom.

The eyes of the disoriented Devil Doom watched as the gold and blue streaks zipped across the air like meteors. They zigzagged across the air, colliding with each other with a small white burst of chaos energy emitted from their clash, hitting each other inside the blobby mass of Devil Doom each time. With each hit, and each burst of chaos energy emitted, more and more of Devil Doom's matter began to destabilize, melting down.

By the time Devil Doom was back to his senses, it was too late. Super Sonic and Super Shadow flew back and zoomed in faster than ever before, using all of their chaos energy to boost forwards towards the god at the spot their paths met. Both hedgehogs curled, hitting a homing attack that collided right in the center of Black Doom's overgrown body.

The two spindashes grinded against each other, able to sustain themselves in the air longer due to lesser gravity. The blue and gold energies grinding against each other created massive sparks and small blasts of white as the chaos energy they were emitting got larger and larger, starting to make Devil Doom melt more and more.

Eventually, as the two curled hedgehogs rolled at mach speeds, the rainbow energy of Chaos flickered off their body. The energy of the area warped from the sheer amount that was being used, and a giant blast of white chaos energy, with rainbow sparks sizzling around the edges, was created.

Super Sonic and Super Shadow were flung backwards from the blast. As he stopped, Shadow felt his body tingle- his hands, forearms, and the bottom halves of his legs were all energy now. He didn't have much time.

The energy from the blast completely covered Devil Doom, making the godling shriek in pain… and terror. Its own body was working against it, with Devil Doom unable to morph himself or attack the hedgehogs in either way.

WHAT IS THIS? NO! I AM THE GOD OF DARKNESS! I AM THE IMMORTAL LIFEFORM! I AM THE ULTIMATE POWER! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! ECLIPSE! ECLIIIIPSE!

The screaming of Devil Doom was ended by the destabilized godling's mouths being closed with the flowing ooze created by its body matter. Super Sonic and Super Shadow flew up next to each other- the former stared at the dark hedgehog with a surprised face.

"Shadow, your body… it's fading away!"

"No time." Super Shadow replied quickly. "The ARK is still being pulled in. We have to get rid of it, then get rid of the Black Comet."

Sonic was hesitant to reply because of the whole "Shadow fading away" thing, but was eventually brought to his senses. He looked down at the Earth, at the Black Comet still below them.

"Why don't we kill two birds with one stone?"

Both super hedgehogs turned to look down at the Black Comet below. With a glance towards one another, they both got the same idea. Super Shadow didn't wait, he boosted downwards and through the atmosphere, followed by Sonic.

The group of heroes on the Emerald Coast watched the golden streaks of energy soar over Station Square, the power of the flight enough to create a massive gust of wind that everyone had to shield their face from.

Super Shadow curved around to the underbelly of the Black Comet. The conduit gel underneath the meteor retracted away from where the powerful hedgehog was, allowing him to reach the real underside of the giant charred meteor. He pressed both faded hands against the comet, still feeling the tingling of energy in his palms.

"To put the past behind me!"

After a second, Super Sonic joined him, right beside Shadow. The two hedgehogs pushed as hard as they could, flying upwards, lifting the Black Comet up and away from the city. It took some powerful pushing, but the pillars of conduit gel snapped, severing the connection the Black Arms had with Mobius in the center of the Earth.

The citizens of Station Square watched, eventually bursting into cheers, as Super Sonic and Super Shadow carried the Black Comet away from the surface and tore through the atmosphere. The ARK was getting closer, creating a massive boom as it broke the speed of sound on its downfall. It was still far enough away that any explosion created wouldn't harm the surface.

Super Shadow watched as his arms continued to turn into energy. He looked over at Super Sonic- his quills were slowly turning blue from the force he was exerting. Shadow closed his eyes and pressed on further.

"Shadow…"

His eyes opened again. He heard a voice- her voice. And she spoke his name… the name he chose, for the first time. Shadow didn't comprehend how it was happening in the heat of the moment, still focusing on pressing ahead.

"Maria?" Shadow whispered.

"Give the people of Earth a chance… to be happy!"

The grip Super Shadow had on the comet slipped up, one of his hands buckling from the force. The hand was grabbed by Super Sonic, who pressed it against the comet again, pressing his own hand against Shadow's to keep it there. Both hedgehogs looked at each other.

"Together!" Super Sonic yelled.

After a second, Super Shadow nodded firmly.

Fire burned off the conduit gel as they pushed it upwards and away from the Earth. The pair didn't have much chaos energy left they could use, but they both had just enough between them for one last move.

Gold energy spread around the Black Comet, creating a force field around it. Their hands pressed against the golden sphere, the two hedgehogs roared in unison.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

Their command warped all of space. One of Black Doom's eyes, pressing out from his melting body, watched as the Black Comet became a streak of gold that was heading right towards him.

NO—

He didn't get to finish his scream before the Black Comet collided with the ARK, crushing the Eclipse Cannon and Devil Doom all at the same time. The impact from the Black Comet against the Space Colony hit the cannon's core, and the dormant chaos energy gathered up from the old professor's protocol was reawakened.

The power of the chaos energy made both the Black Comet, and the Space Colony ARK, explode in a massive blast of white. Devil Doom, and the piece of Mobius inside of the Black Comet, was eradicated instantly. Most of the Black Arms on Earth dropped dead when it happened- others were quickly dispatched, and a few managed to escape the city.

But that's not what was important. What was important was what was left behind.

The massive chaos control had snatched the Black Comet away from Super Shadow, who was still within Earth's atmosphere. He watched from afar as the ARK and the Black Comet exploded- the two halves of his life, obliterated by his own hand.

From the power he exerted in the chaos control, Shadow's body was mostly energy- his head quills, his arms, his legs. Only his face and the front side of his torso remained.

The force from the massive explosion pushed him downwards. Here he was again, falling towards the Earth, much like he was decades ago. A long time ago he fell to Earth in grief of his closest friend- now, he was falling as a savior to the world she wanted him to experience.

He closed his eyes.

"Maria… This is what you wanted, right?" He asked aloud, hoping somehow, somewhere she could hear his voice. "This is the promise… I made to you."

Shadow could feel himself falling further and further, his entire body tingling as he slowly started to succumb to the energies around him. He could begin to feel the heat of the atmosphere- yes, it was all coming back to him now.

And then, as quickly as he began to fall, he stopped.

Shadow's eyes flew open as he felt himself stop, feeling arms below him, holding him. He looked up at his savior, greeted with the fiery red eyes of Super Sonic. The speedster's head quills were half blue, his Super form fading fast.

Sonic smiled down at Shadow.

"I gotcha." He said. "You're not doing this again."

As debris flew through the outer reaches of the planet, only one thing hurtled towards the ground this time: Sonic and Shadow. Even though he didn't have that much ring energy inside him, Sonic maintained his Super form through sheer force of will, using the energy to protect him as he descended through the skies.

He knew where his friends were. Station Square soon came into view, and Sonic was headed down right to Emerald Coast, Shadow still held across his arms.

As soon as he was a few yards above, Sonic couldn't withstand the godly powers of Chaos anymore- the Chaos Emeralds erupted from Sonic, rapidly turning the hero hedgehog from gold to blue instantly, and Shadow from his light gold to black.

The Chaos Emeralds lifted into the air, spinning in a circle rapidly, until they separated in a burst of white. Each emerald soared in a different direction, far away from Station Square, hiding in order to be found once more.

Sonic landed, setting Shadow on the ground. His friends rushed towards him, but Sonic held his hands out.

"Don't crowd him!" He shouted.

The transformation into pure energy became painful once Shadow's adrenaline passed. He flipped over to his hand and knees, feeling his arms begin to buckle under the weight of his own body as he attempted to sustain himself.

Suddenly, he heard a click, and he felt someone's hands wrapping around his wrist. Shadow opened his eyes again- there were gold rings around his wrists now, and crouched in front of him was Amy.

Shadow felt his body stabilize. The pain was wiped away from the bracelets placed on his arms. He took a deep breath, flopping to his side to rub the rings now on his wrists.

"What are…?"

"Inhibitor rings." Amy interjected Shadow's question. "My mother gave them to me to curb my psychic power… I don't really need them, she gave me a better replacement." She tapped the rose gold bracelet Coral gave her. "But you… you probably need them more than I do."

The dark hedgehog watched Amy walk over to Sonic, standing beside him.

"But… Why?" Shadow asked. "After everything I've done… Why?"

"Because if anyone deserves a second chance, it's the guy who's life was dictated by others up until this point." Tails replied, walking over to stand on the other side of Sonic.

"Especially considering the fact you never got to live out your first chance to the fullest."

Sonic held out his hand at the end of his statement, wanting to help Shadow up. The dark hedgehog was hesitant, but grabbed onto Sonic's arm in a forearm grip. He was helped up to his feet, watching as the rest of his body was slowly turned from transparent gold to solid matter.

Shadow rubbed the inhibitor ring on one wrist. After a second of silence, he spoke.

"Thank you." He said quietly. Not because he was embarrassed, but because that's how he just normally spoke.

Team Sonic were all smiles. Sonic nodded in reply to Shadow, acknowledging him.

"Alright! Way to go, Sonic and Shadow!"

Vector was the first to talk. Sonic's other friends swarmed around the blue hedgehog specifically. People like Vector grabbed onto Sonic's shoulder and shook him in excitement, while someone like Cream hugged Sonic, happy he returned.

Through the haze of the crowd, Rouge looked at Shadow, who was still looking over his new inhibitor rings. She was surprised by what she saw: during the fight, something happened to open up the usually tightly zipped up jacket Shadow wore.

Underneath his jacket was the Lost Impact shirt Rouge got him. She didn't know how long ago he put it on, but… he wore it. He actually wore the shirt she got him.

She felt a nudge. It was Knuckles, who smiled at her.

"What's next for you then, Rouge?" He asked. "Back to office work?"

"...nah, I think I'm gonna give up this line of work. It's not worth it."

Knuckles watched her look at Shadow again. The echidna's eyebrows furrowed at the bat's solemn demeanor, keeping his mouth shut not to comment on it.

After the excitement, hugs and comradery, Tails noticed someone standing to the side- Ivo. The doctor was standing on the beach, staring upwards towards the sky where the ARK and Black Comet collided. The fox broke away from the crowd, knowing Sonic was too busy to check up on Ivo at the moment. At this moment, Tails decided to step in for his friend.

Tails walked up to Ivo, seeing him watch the distant debris of the collision.

"Ivo?" The fox spoke.

"...you know, I always placed my grandfather on a pedestal when I was a child. He was my hero, and I wondered so much how someone like my father could come from a brilliant man like him." Ivo said, not turning his head. "But… It seemed there was Julian inside of him after all. When Maria died, he became just as ruthless as Julian was. Even if it was to destroy Black Doom as well… would he still have activated that protocol if there were no Black Arms on the Earth? Would he have doomed the world to extinction out of sheer desire for vengeance?"

The teenager had to reflect on that for a second.

"I'm not sure, Ivo." He said. "But I do know this… you stopped him from hurting anyone in his quest for vengeance. Unlike what your father did, you ended the feedback loop of pain that Gerald wanted to inflict upon the world. In a manner of speaking, your actions… helped you break the cycle."

What was spoken by the young fox took Ivo by surprise. The doctor finally looked away from the debris, down to the horizon, before turning to look down at Tails.

"You're right." He said. "...thank you, Tails."

His job here done, Tails gave Ivo a thumbs up. He heard his name called out by some of the members of the group, which made the fox walk away from the isolated doctor.

Ivo watched Tails be celebrated by his peers for his job in saving the world. The doctor knew, in his heart, that he wouldn't be celebrated the same way- he destroyed part of the moon after all. He was just a villain that did good after causing so much pain.

He looked back up at the debris. Man, he was gonna miss the ARK. It was nice and quiet there. That, and it had so much room in it for his computers, inventions, and files…

Wait. Files. The file!

Ivo patted across the front of his jacket before he felt what he was looking for through the fabric. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the still intact, yet crumpled up, file he took from Prison Island: Project M2.

It was high time he opened the file. No more running.

The doctor paged through the file, looking through everything inside of it. As he did, his face slowly dropped more and more. His face slowly morphed to one of horror as he realized what he had been neglecting to read this entire time.

Ivo looked at Sonic, staring at him with the same expression. Slowly, he closed the file.

Sonic and his friends were too busy still talking.

"What are you going to do now, Shadow?" Sonic asked him.

"...I'm not sure." The dark hedgehog replied, all but returned to a solid state thanks to the inhibitor rings. "Maria always wanted me to experience this world with her. I've always wanted that. But… she's not here."

"Don't you think she wanted you to live out a life on Earth for yourself?"

"Maybe."

"...I know what it's like. To lose someone you wanted to explore the world with." Sonic said to him. "It hurts. It feels like doing anything without them, for the first time, is disgracing their memory. But it isn't. My mom wanted me to live out my life, even without her… and I know Maria wanted you to live your life here, too."

Shadow heard Sonic, feeling the words prod at his mind. He stopped messing with his inhibitor rings, turning his head to look at Sonic and his friends.

"...you're right." He said. "I'm no longer the hedgehog I was when I woke up… I don't even look like him anymore. Both Gerald and Black Doom are gone. Now… I can finally choose what to do with my life on my own terms."

The dark hedgehog nodded to Sonic. The blue hedgehog nodded back. Shadow's eyes glanced at Rouge, who was staring at him. Shadow, much like Rouge, wasn't sure what to say.

Slowly, Shadow turned, starting to walk away. It was clear that nobody knew where he was going- not even Shadow, probably. But he was choosing it for himself, and he would discover what he was going to do with his life on his journey.

They watched him walk. Sonic called out to him.

"If you ever need any help… you know where to find me."

"I know." Shadow replied, not even turning. "The same goes for you."

With that, the dark hedgehog walked away. They watched Shadow leave, headed down the beach, further and further away.

"Alright, now that that's outta the way." Vector clapped his hands. "Sonic and co. just saved the world! Let's celebrate!"

"Wait, Sonic!" Tails said to his companion. "We should invite Ivo. I mean, he's going to be arrested, but… He still helped us."

"Yeah, you're right, little bro." Sonic rustled the fur between Tails' ears. He turned to face where Ivo was standing. "Alright Ivo, since you helped us out here, I think it's only fair to… Ivo?"

The doctor was gone. He had apparently snuck away when the group was all looking at Shadow. Left in his place, resting on top of the sand, was the crumpled file he had just a few moments before.

Amy retrieved the file, bringing it over to Sonic.

"Sonic, look."

There was writing on the front of the file. Sonic read it aloud.

"Sonic… I'm so sorry. I didn't know… Ivo."

Slowly, Sonic opened the file. It was pretty thick, with a bunch of papers of diagrams, testing and the like inside of it. All of them were from Julian and Julian alone.

Project: M2 was a continuation of Project: Mobius after Aleena had organized an escape with the other mobians. Unlike the first project, however, this one only had three subjects: one fully adult, and two infantile.

The diagrams and pictures showed an adult hedgehog Sonic could remember. He could remember the face of this man as his portrait hung on the wall behind Aleena's desk. As he flipped through the pages quicker and quicker, tears started stinging his eyes.

He reached the last paper in the file: Project M2 terminated. All three subjects escaped.

"Sonic?" Tails asked softly, seeing his face.

Sonic's hands were shaky. He turned, looking at both his friends and the rest of the people around him. He opened and closed his mouth for a moment, before he finally spoke.

"They survived." Sonic said. "My uncle and siblings survived my mom's escape attempt… They were captured, but they escaped Julian, too. My uncle and siblings… They're alive!"

The news shook the group. Though someone like Topaz or Tekno had mildly concerned looks on their faces, someone like Vanilla- with ties back to Charles and everyone from Project Mobius- covered her mouth in horror, feeling the blood drain from her face.

Everyone was left speechless. Sonic turned back to the file, flipping to the front.

He looked at the picture of his Uncle Chuck pinned to the front page, holding his infant brother and sister in his arms. Eventually, as teardrops fell onto the picture, Sonic knew he had to move on from this… he had to find them.

Sonic closed the file.

Maria Robotnik's grave was between each of her parent's. Gerald's gravestone was placed next to Theodore's a few feet away, not connected like the parents and daughter's gravestones were.

The front of the tombstone was covered in some dirt and moss, but the inscription was still very much readable.

MARIA DAWN ROBOTNIK
FRIEND TO MANY, LOVED BY ALL

Slowly and carefully, at the foot of the gravestone, a CD album was placed. It wasn't just any album, but one that contained all the songs made by the rock band Lost Impact.

Shadow stepped back, standing at the foot of the grave, his hands folded in front of him. He was given shade from the tree that was lining the nearby dirt path, the one that separated the graveyard. The tree was behind him, the branches stretching out over the Robotnik graves to give them shade.

He had been advised not to place physical possessions on the grave that could be stolen. But Shadow didn't care if it was stolen. He placed it there for closure.

The dark hedgehog had listened to the album before placing it on the grave. Some songs he enjoyed, some he didn't enjoy. Some he cried over. Some he was left amazed by.

Maria would've loved all of them.

As he stood at the grave, Shadow closed his eyes. He took a deep breath.

He remembered her. The dancing they did, the playing they did. He remembered staying up watching movies and videos. He remembered watching the stars with her. He remembered sleeping next to her until Gerald found him and returned him to stasis.

Shadow remembered it. He felt it. He felt it all.

A tear trickled down his face, following the path Maria's scar made on his cheek until it dripped off his jaw and to the ground below. His face didn't change, his cry silent, standing in quiet solitude at the foot of his closest friend's grave.

He heard a snap from above. Shadow knew someone was there, but now it appeared they were making themselves known. Shadow opened his eyes, using his thumb to wipe away the tear from his scarred cheek.

"I know you're there." He flicked the tear off his fingers. "I can sense you. Come out."

After a second, there was a soft thud behind him as something dropped from the tree. Shadow turned, seeing his mysterious stalker: it was Rouge. She was still in her body armored jumpsuit from everything that happened… The last Shadow saw her was a week ago.

When Shadow saw it was her, his mind flashed back to everything he said and did with the Black Arms. He averted his eyes, looking away just as soon as he gazed at her.

The dark hedgehog turned to look at Maria's grave again. Slowly, Rouge walked up to stand beside him, the two of them looking at the grave together.

It was quiet between them, still awkward. Eventually, Rouge took the plunge.

"She shouldn't have died."

"...no. She shouldn't have."

"The world can be an unfair place." Rouge said. "Sometimes you don't really know what you've got until it's gone. But if what I heard was true… if Maria really did save you from the GUN agents invading the ARK… then she wanted you to have this chance to live, even without her. She truly, truly… loved you."

Shadow felt his eyes watering again, but he blinked them away. His sadness was replaced with anger as he remembered what happened fifty years ago.

"This world has been controlled and ensnared by the grip of the Guardian Units of Nations for too long. They can do whatever they want, give as much or little defense as they want, with no repercussions. They can kill someone and erase her from history. I promised Maria I would give the people of this planet a chance to be happy… but they can't be happy until GUN is destroyed. Until their grip on the planet is gone."

The statement from the hedgehog was followed with another silence. Shadow turned his head to look at Rouge, not averting his eyes this time.

"I'm sorry it has to come to this. But if you get in my way…"

"Me?" Rouge raised an eyebrow, before laughing lightly. "No, I quit GUN."

"You… did?"

"I did. Handed in my credentials as soon as I left Station Square." She nodded. "They killed an innocent teenager, then covered it up. Acted like they weren't in the wrong. They allowed someone as psychotic as Tower rise to Commander. I might be on the fence of hero and villain with very concerning signs of having kleptomania, but even I have standards."

Shadow was surprised. He felt something in his stomach again, churning there. It was… gratitude, maybe?

"...Rouge, I'm sorry about what I said on the ARK."

"Hey, hey, no apologies. Then you'll make me start feeling bad. You said what you did because Black Doom manipulated you into feeling that way… I understand." Rouge said. "But… I'm sorry too. I didn't have all the facts, and presented it to you in a way to freak you out… I was lashing out in anger. All things considered, you are the Ultimate Lifeform. To me, at least."

She paused, her facial expression changing from warm to serious.

"I want to help you, smiles." The bat continued. "GUN has been running around unchecked for far too long. If you want to take them down, you'll need help from someone that was on the inside."

Shadow's face dropped at that. He slowly turned his head to look down at Maria's grave.

"...Rouge, I can't ask you to do that." He said, not looking at her. "This road… this path I'm about to go on… I will be facing and fighting against people who are simply contributing to a corrupt system. Not all of them will be guilty. Not all of them will be willing to stay down. This next step… it's a route paved in pure darkness."

It was quiet for another moment after that. When someone touched his arm, Shadow looked away from the grave, watching Rouge loop her arm around Shadow's. His eyes met hers, seeing the compassion and determination inside the bat.

"Then we can go dark… together." She said, smiling softly.

The Ultimate Lifeform stared at Rouge. After a second, the corners of his lips tugged, and his namesake finally came true for the bat- a small smile appeared on his face.

Both of them turned, though Shadow had one last glance towards the grave before walking away. They walked between the trees to the dirt road of the graveyard, arm in arm, headed towards the thing Shadow came in on.

It was a chopper. The motorcycle was painted black and red, matching Shadow's quills. On the side of the front suspension, the Shadow Rifle was attached with conduit gel, keeping it holstered there for the time being.

Shadow climbed onto his motorcycle first. He reached over and grabbed two helmets hanging from the side- he put the black one on for himself, while he gave a purple one to Rouge. Rouge climbed on behind Shadow, tucking her ears in securely inside the helmet she was given.

It was convenient that Shadow had this bike, and had the helmets. Rouge wondered where Shadow got the money to afford this. She also wondered how he knew to get two helmets… the more she thought of it, the more it made less sense.

Eventually, Rouge came to a conclusion- but she had to confirm it.

"Did you steal this motorcycle?"

"Yup."

Shadow pressed the button on his handlebars to start up the chopper, letting it roar to life and purr underneath them. Rouge scoffed in amusement- a route paved in pure darkness, indeed.

From the open radio of the chopper, a song played: Never Turn Back by Lost Impact. They sat as the piano intro played over the sound of the chopper's engine.

The bat wrapped her arms around Shadow's midsection tightly, to make sure no wind caught in her patagium. As she was so close, she could feel Shadow's body, and she swore he said one final thing as he glanced over at the grave one more time.

"Sayonara, Mister Needlemouse."

The piano intro ended and the guitars came in as Shadow revved up the chopper, pulling off and away down the dirt road. The dark duo exited the graveyard together, turning down the road and cutting off a car as they headed towards the setting sun.

As they drove further and further, they became specks in the sun from where Maria's graveyard was placed, putting it behind them. Up above, as it was just becoming dusk, the partially destroyed moon was visible in the sky.

And around the planet, glimmering in the sunlight, was a ring made from the remains of the lives Shadow left behind.

UP NEXT: Season Four! Sonic Chaos Underground!