Author's Note: This story is dead. I don't like saying this, but I began making this story the summer before my eighth grade, and I'm now a freshman in college. This draft of the story was begun in my high school freshman english class, and has changed far too much over these five years to have survived. Here is why I proclaim it dead:

1) Lack of interest. Continuing this has become too much of a chore, and I simply can't say to myself it deserves to be continued.

2)New and old stories. As this one waited, I have thought up newer, fresher stories, and breathed life and vigor back into the tales I have always wished to write.

3) Ending the obsession. For a long time, this story was my only real focus in life, but it could never come to anything. It's time I left that behind.

4) It's a mess. I was a beginning writer when I made this, and it is simply too complicated, with too many characters and plot lines for me to handle. I am moving back to simpler fare until I get better

Simply: I don't want to finish this. But, since I'm not an asshole, I'm giving you not just everything I've written up until now, but also an abridged form of the rest of the story. It is possible I'll come back to finish this, but not likely. It is possible I might remake this, but not likely. It is possible I will write one of the many sequels I planned, but for now I'll set my eyes on my new stories, and let this one rest in peace. It was fun while my drive lasted, but now I've changed too much to write the same way I did when I started.

I hope I don't leave you too disappointed.

Chapter 28

Knuckles slowed his pace as he reached the outskirts of the city. He didn't know what city it was, but at this point he didn't care. His grand-father had done something to him, and that change had led him here. He desperately wanted to return to the revolutionary army that he had spent so long waiting for, but with the monster called Chaos on the loose he had no choice. People and the policing machines gave him strange looks as he passed through the streets, but he ignored them, feeling the at he was getting closer with every step.

The bar's patrons twisted their heads around as the doors slammed open and light poured in. It was an old establishment, made of wood with low ceilings and creaky chairs. The red echidna scanned the room quickly before speaking. His voice was even and firm, but the tone of menace was unmistakeable.

"There's a mouse with a jewelry case in here. They have something that doesn't belong to them. A good man died because of that." The bar grew quite. Its inhabitants turned from their drinks to face the speaker that had made so brazen an entrance, even leaving the door wide open for the cop-bots to see. Everyone except one mouse, dressed in a long brown coat and a wide brimmed hat that failed to cover her ears. She kept her focus on the class of wine in her hands, quite purposefully ignoring the echidna's attempt to get attention attention. Knuckles looked down, eyes falling upon the briefcase next to her chair.

"Problem, comrade?" The white-furred mouse said, her tsarminian accent thick and obvious. In the next instant the wine glass was out of her hand and flying through the air.

Without thinking Knuckles batted it away and sent in crashing against the floor, but the mouse had already run to a door in the back of the bar. Knuckles was quick to follow, not slowing for chairs or people as he pursued his new enemy. The door stopped him for a second as he ran up against it, but a swift kick broke it down. Beyond it was a small room with wine racks lining the walls, and a door the mouse seemed desperate to pick the lock of.

"Give it up." Knuckles said, walking towards her.

"What are you even doing here." She said standing and turning to face.

"I already said that."

"You were quite vague. What led you to this bar anyways?" Knuckles paused as he thought of a way to describe it, but it was too late. The doorknob exploded and Knuckles involuntarily flinched back, giving the mouse the lead up the stairs of the building. Knuckles followed, but when he reached the door at the top it was wide open and the next was tightly shut with no sign of the mouse. He moved to the door across the room, but a blow on the back of his head sent him spinning.

He turned around with a wide punch that didn't come close to hitting the mouse. As soon as his arm was past her she moved in again, fighting with a level of skill and precision Knuckles had never seen. She easily dodge and deflected Knuckles own clumsy punches, and landing blow after blow on his body, even if he barely felt them. Filling with rage, Knuckles tried to charge her, only for her to step out of the way and leave him crashing into the peeling white paint of the empty room.

"Stay there or I shoot." Knuckles turned to see the mouse leveling a tiny handgun at him. It wouldn't have much force, but a shot to the head or the heart would still be lethal. Knuckles calmly reached down to his side and pulled a much heftier pistol of his own. His departure had been impulsive and he had travelled light, but he had the discipline to always stay armed.

"I've seen worse." He calmly said, leveling the gun at her with both hands, carefully aiming.

"You haven't. Trust me." The mouse said icily.

"The Robotnik's enforcers, assassination machines, demons... yeah, I have."

"Stop lying, meathead. A thug like you couldn't take down His machi-" The mouse paused, squinting to focus on something. "The cloak. The Mobian Royal Guard. You're one of the rebels." Knuckles didn't answer. "We're on the same side, comrade."

"This isn't about the Robotnik." Knuckles growled. "Its about you, what you stole from the old echidna, and how he died because of it." The mouse was struck by the echidna's words.

"You're chasing me for that? You gave up your revolution for a bauble?" Without even looking the mouse's left hand snaked inside of her coat and pulled out an emerald, maybe and inch tall and with an odd cut, held between two fingers as the back of her hand faced Knuckles. "You wasted your time for this?" Knuckles gazed in awe at the tiny emerald. He could somehow feel the power and... something else, anti-power perhaps, inside of it. The emerald glimmered.

"You've got a Chaos Emerald." Knuckles said.

"And now your accusing me of fairy tails!" The mouse barked. It was almost believable, but just ever so slightly forced. Knuckles glanced to the side before returning his focus to her.

"Chaos is coming. I can't let you have either of those emeralds."

"Take the bauble if you must." The mouse snarled flicking it through the air for Knuckles to catch in one hand, still keeping the gun pointed at her. "I can't go causing problems."

"Now the other one, in the brief case. Purple, if i'm not mistaken." That caused the mouse to frown.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do that. It's the only thing that Sears will take as proof of Tsarminia's alliance." She said. Knuckles snarled and glared at her. "You're not alone in your war against the Robotnik, comrade, but the U.F. And Tsarminia have been enemies for decades, and they need good reason to trust the other."

"I already told you this about more than the Robotnik." Knuckles said cooly, griping the tiny emerald tight in his hand as he kept the weight of the gun up with only one hand. "There's a monster out there and its looking for that emerald, and as long as you have it the monster will hunt you down."

"Well," The mouse said, grinning slyly. "I enjoy a good chase." With those words her seemingly empty hand through a bomb to the floor. It exploded in a cloud of smoke that stung Knuckles's eyes and forced them closed as he tried to give chase. By the time he had felt his way to the door and made it to the rooftop, he found no sight of the mouse, and there was no easy way down.

Knuckles put his gun away and punched the roof in frustration, ignoring the crater he left behind. He had gotten what he came for, but another Chaos Emerald had gotten away from him, and Chaos could get its hands on it at anytime. What was he to do now?

OOOOO

This is the end

OOOOO

And Rouge did lose the emerald to chaos, and the purple Chaos Emerald gave Chaos the emotion of Mirth, insane, nihilistic mirth. When Sonic and his siblings returned to Deppen with the freedom fighters of Acorn, they found that Sleet and Dingo had left a slaughter behind. Amy Rose's last innocence was shattered as her friend Yona died in her arms.

There was no time for mourning. Chaos had four emeralds, and was too powerful for anyone to stop. Tikal told Knuckles how to seal it, but he was needed to find the demon.

Espio's will was finally broken, and he refused to continue his mission, making Sleet and Dingo turn on him and throw him into a river. The bounty hunters encountered Chaos and tried to make a deal with it, but were instead possessed, becoming avatars of Sorrow and Anger.

The final battle was in the appropriately named city of Sanguinare. Sonic, Manic, and Sonia used the last three rings to fight Chaos and the possessed Sleet and Dingo, while Knuckles tried to arrive in time.

We saw Sleet and Dingo's past as child soldiers in Western Neworld, only ever having each other to trust, and treated like scum compared to their commander's favorite soldier, a young man with mismatched eyes.

Edward the Eggman was also in Sanguinare, and in a final confrontation Sally shot a bullet straight into the machines missile launcher, destroying it and one of Edward's arms.

During the battle, Chaos destroyed the earth and the six superpowered combatants fell down into the Tunnel Sleet had made up, but actually existed, conecting Thran and Mobius. As Sonic found himself about to fall prey to Chaos, Espio arrived to repent with martyrdom, buying sonic time to escape, but his distraction was enough for the day to be won.

After the battle, Rouge informed the Mobian freedom fighters that The United Federation had discovered from a third party that the Robotnik had created a new type of war machine that would give him command of the seas and allow him to quickly subjugate the whole world. She returns to Neworld, taking Jet, Big, and Bartleby with her.

Sally and the freedom fighters of Acorn decided to return to their home country, following the escaped Eggman, and Antoine went with, intent to not stand on the side lines.

The freedom fighters of Mobius went into the tunnel, holding the four Chaos Emeralds, ready to finish the fight.

Espio stayed behind with Sleet and Dingo, quietly excepting the three's transferral to one of the Robotnik's prison camps on an isolated island.

Act 5: Freedom's March

The Robotnik spoke thus: "My machines failed because they could not think. The hunters failed because they could not reason. But you: You are neither machine nor living being." Thus, he released the "sentient machines", Gamma-Omega and Beta-Espilon, to kill the three children of Queen Aleena.

On the other side of the tunnel, the freedom fighters are forced to begin the final campaign on their own, Knuckles having gone on ahead to insure the Master Emerald's safety, and to heed a warning about a cataclysmic imbalance in the world. In the end, the role of leader fell on Amy Rose's shoulders, and they joked that she was "Madam General".

Meanwhile, in Mobius City itself, Queen Aleena organized a daring assassination of the Robotnik, calling upon the stealth of Ferrel and the lethality of Nack "Fang" Larkin, weasel sniper. The attack failed in the end, and Ferrel lost his life, but the Robotnik's first Master System for his network was destroyed, unfortunately, a second remained safely in hiding, and their wasn't even the slightest pause in the actions of machines made to be autonomous for all eternity.

In the city of Cowford, the Three were attacked by Gamma and Beta, but in the end Sonic was victorious. His resolve, and his appearance, awoke emotions deep within Gamma, and he was filled with doubt.

The Freedom Fighters finally arrived in Mobius City and met the Robotnik's forces in desperate battle. Moments before their mission could be completed, Gamma chose the path of justice, even if it might make a worse future, and confronted Beta, finally being forced to fight and kill her, and he tore the "core" from her chest.

The Freedom Fighters made their way to the Robotnik's final laboratory, and found his ultimate battleship, the Egg Carrier, waiting for them, in the end though, they were not strong enough, and found themselves captured, held in cells alongside Queen Aleena and an unfortunate Knuckles. Only Sonic, Manic, and Sonia escaped. Eggman held a chaos emerald with which to power the Egg Carrier and the Master Emerald, and the warship was setting sail to put an end to the North's rebellion.

In the ruins of the laboratory, the three met the Oracle of Delphius, he who speaks prophecies in the words of the past, who had hidden away in Mobius City so he could ensure Aleena and the children's survival, and he gave the Three the encouragement needed to confront the Robotnik, asking: "Can you pilot a plane made by a ten year old?"

Aboard the Tornado, the Three flew through the Egg Carrier's defenses and landed, drawing directly upon the power of the red, green, and blue emeralds to fight the Robotnik's guardian machines. They released their comrades and tasked them with breaking the Robotnik's control over his machines and disable them all, putting an end to the System. As the three approached the Robotnik's chamber, they were harried by the gunfire of the guardians, and Manic and Sonia stayed behind so Sonic could reach the Robotnik's chamber, safe from gunfire while climbing the ladder.

In an impossibly large chamber at the heart of the Egg Carrier, Sonic was confronted by Ivo Regoban, the Robotnik, who piloted his own variant of a black market war machine 40 feet tall and covered in weaponry, the machine he had named "Tyranus".

Sonic was fighting only for himself, not for any idea, belief, person, or reward, but simply out of his own, personal sense of right and wrong, and that he didn't care what happened after he had beaten the Robotnik. Such and idea was beyond the Robotnik's understanding, but he finally realized his own lust for power, and accepted the final battle against Sonic "Tyranny versus Anarchy."

Meanwhile, The freedom fighters long, hard fight had finally taken them to the control room of the Egg Carrier, where Tails finally thwarted the Robotnik's failsafes and lack of self-destruct features by over-downloading the archives of the entire System into every robot, paralyzing the entire System in an endless loading screen.

In the tiny moment of distraction when the Robotnik saw what Tails had done, Sonic delivered the critical blow, sending the Tyranus to its knees and forcing the Robotnik to open its cockpit to escape, just as Manic and Sonia arrived. The Robotnik had one last trick though.

Calling upon the power of the Master Emerald, the Robotnik disabled all of the Three's Chaos fueled powers. Sonic attacked with tooth and claw at the Robotnik's gun-holding arm, only to discover it was a mechanical implant replacing the arm that Sonic's father had injured and infected with his dying struggle.

Manic disabled the arm with one of Espio's throwing stars that he had kept. The Robotnik tried to bluff, but Sonia easily detected it, allowing Sonic to deliver the final blows and, when taunted that all the world would see how Sonic finished the war, Sonic simply walked away, knowing his personal battle with the Robotnik had been won, and that the freedom fighters could have their way with him.

As everyone exited the Egg Carrier, the United Federation fleet arrived too late to help, but their guns did silence and sink the war machine into the ocean's depths.

The war was finished. The three siblings were crowned. Far from Mobius, Gamma returned a young rabbit girl to her mother. Knuckles returned to the shrine with the Master Emerald, while the others were divided among the nations of the world. A new, international peacekeeping body was formed: The Guardian Unity of Nations – G.U.N. In Mobius, a constitutional monarchy that gave all its power away to elected officials was put in place. The prospect of rebuilding a society was daunting, but they knew they had no other choice, no matter how hard it became.

OOOOO

This is the End