Chapter Thirty-Five: What We Must Become
When Nova pulls the other ring from my wrist, Chaos Energy floods through my body. Where once it was dammed, a waterfall pours freely. And now that I know the purity of Chaos Energy, the call of the fake Emeralds disabling me falls away.
Once you have seen the brightness of the sun, you are not fooled by the dimness of a light bulb.
Shadow's eyes snapped open. The Chaos Emerald hidden in Shadow's spines burned like a beacon now, as did the one Tails had dropped. The fake Chaos Emeralds within the walls were like dust to Shadow now. With the limiter rings removed, Shadow was more the living embodiment of Chaos Energy than anything else.
He wouldn't last long in his current state, but hopefully he wouldn't need to.
Shadow curled himself into a spin and drove his spindash toward Shining Birch. The Metarex, distracted by Dark Super Tails, didn't see Shadow coming. Shining Birch turned toward Shadow just in time for Shadow to drill straight on into his torso. The force drove Shining Birch back. Shadow heard the screech as the Metarex slid back across the floor. But the force did not drive him far.
Shadow shoved back off the Metarex to put space between them as he uncurled from his spin. As he flew back, he drove his hand down to fire off Chaos Spear. Chaos Energy cut through the air toward Shining Birch. Shining Birch raised his injured arm to guard his face, and Chaos Spear struck the metal.
Shadow used the Metarex's momentary distraction to dive for the Chaos Emerald Tails had before dropped. With his opposite hand, Shadow pulled the second Chaos Emerald free from his quills.
In the gap Shadow left behind, Dark Super Tails dove forward. He aimed a punch for the same arm that had taken the brunt of Shadow's Chaos Spear.
His fist tore through the metal.
Shining Birch screamed A sound like metal being peeled away from metal. Shadow winced at the sound. But he couldn't spare more time than that.
Instead, he turned his attention to debilitating Rusted Maple.
Knuckles, C2, and Amy weaved around each other, scarcely scoring a hit against Rusted Maple. The Metarex batted them away, cackling all the while. His metal armor glowed with the reinforcement of the fake Chaos Emeralds so that even when he was hit, hardly any damage was taken.
But if Tails was drawing on the Energy of the fake Chaos Emeralds, perhaps it limited how much was available to the Metarex.
Shadow called on Chaos Control. The Chaos Emeralds in his hands illuminated and in an instant, he flashed from one side of the room to the other. Though this time, the effort left Shadow winded and gasping. He was burning through Energy too fast, not that he had any other choice.
Shadow pulled himself into a spindash and crashed into Rusted Maple from behind. Rusted Maple cried out in surprise beneath the blow and went flying. Knuckles narrowly jumped out of the way in time. Rusted Maple slammed full force into the wall. The glass protecting a row of the fake Chaos Emeralds shattered beneath the blow. The fake Chaos Emeralds tumbled to the ground. Rusted Maple fell down after them.
Shadow stumbled on his feet. He was down to seconds. He felt eyes on him but he couldn't spare the time to see to whom they belonged.
Shadow cut his arm down through the air and let loose one more Chaos Spear. The yellow light sparked to life before him and hurdled toward Rusted Maple.
Darkness crashed down on Shadow's consciousness before he could see Chaos Spear hit its mark.
-X-X-X-
Tails's View
Tails saw red. Heat coursed through his body. He saw little more than Shining Birch before him. Shining Birch screaming, clutching the arm that Tails had put a hole through. Tails's fist stung vaguely at his side but he forced his thoughts away from it. In the same way that he ignored the tears pouring down his face.
He rushed Shining Birch again. This was for Cosmo. This was for Sonic. Hate churned like heartburn at his core. It distracted him. Shining Birch threw out another wild cord that slapped into Tails's stomach and sent him flying. He smashed into the wall behind him, head colliding for the second time that day. Then he fell and fake Chaos Emeralds crashed down around him. Some chipped, some shattered, some dropped on Tails's back. He winced beneath their blows. The Emeralds radiated cold all around him.
"Tails, Tails!"
Someone screamed his name. Reminding him of his friends in danger, his friends currently lost. Tails shoved himself up onto his hands and knees. He couldn't stop now. He couldn't. His friends deserved at least that much from him.
Then a pair of arms swung around him.
Tails froze.
"Tails, it's okay, it's okay," a voice whispered in his ear. "We need to run while we have the chance."
Amy.
Tails lifted his head and met Amy's eyes. Green, like Sonic's. It gave him pause. Amy filled the silence he left. "Let go of the fake Chaos Energy, okay? And we'll get out of here."
Fake Chaos Energy? Oh. Oh no. Tails looked down at his arms. Rather than being met with his yellow-orange fur, his fur was ashen and radiating some kind of black energy. One of Tails's gloves was stained red. The hand that stung. His blood then? How had he noticed none of this?
Tails blinked. His energy faded. The dark Energy evaporated from Tails's fur. He fell more heavily on Amy but she held him upright. "I've got you," she promised. She climbed to her feet and pulled Tails up with her, shouldering his arm around her so she could take his weight. Good thing too; Tails's knees shook beneath him.
The sight of the room around Tails offered no further steadiness. Rusted Maple lay in a heap of metal and shattered glass and fake Chaos Emeralds. He did not stir. Shining Birch remained upright but barely, consumed with his shattered arm.
His friends were no better off. Knuckles carried Shadow's unconscious form on his back. Nova was at his side, looking as drained as Angel had when they found her before. C2 sported a black eye and carried a hammer much like Amy's and looked ready to offer them cover.
"Let's go!" Amy shouted at them.
Knuckles didn't need telling twice. Nova quickly followed. Amy pulled Tails along behind them and C2 covered their exit.
Tails's head swam. His head flopped against Amy's shoulder. He lost track of if they turned. His eyes kept falling closed. He felt too hot and too cold.
When he had broken free of his nightmare and helped his friends break free of theirs back on the Blue Typhoon, Tails thought he was finally strong enough. But then he had succumbed to the call of the fake Chaos Emeralds. "C2, you take Knuckles. I've got Tails. Nova, are you okay to pilot? Okay, take Shadow," Amy instructed. Tails forced his eyes open—though he hadn't realized they were closed—to see they were in the docking bay.
"Amy! Behind!" C2 shouted suddenly.
Amy spun the both of them around. A force of lesser Metarex sprinted after them. "Can you stand?" Amy snapped at Tails.
Tails wasn't sure he could, but he choked out, "Yeah," all the same.
Amy quickly unthreaded Tails's arm from around her shoulders. He steadied as best as he could, as convincingly as he could. Amy pulled her hammer and sprinted straight for the Metarex. After a second, Knuckles rushed past him as well to back Amy up. Tails, meanwhile, lost whatever semblance of strength he had gathered. Just as he stared to fall, though, C2 appeared at his side and steadied him. "Nova, go!" C2 shouted back over her shoulder.
The engine of the X-Tornado fired off and soared for the exit. C2 turned herself and Tails toward Amy's ship and helped Tails in. "C2, I—" Tails breathed.
But C2 shook her head, cutting him off. "It's okay, Dad. We've got you."
Her words stilled Tails. A moment later, C2 jumped out of the way as Amy rushed over. "We're clear," she gasped as explanation as she frantically flipped switches and snapped her seat restraint into place.
Time slid for Tails momentarily. The next thing he knew, darkness surrounded them on all sides. And then Amy was sliding down the runway of the Blue Typhoon. "Chris, get us out of here!" she shouted. Probably in the communicator Tails had handed off to her, he realized a moment later.
Tails realized Amy's ship was still when the blast shield popped open with a hiss. His eyes startled open. His head felt too heavy. His hand screamed with pain. He supposed the red staining his glove must be his blood after all.
He blearily focused on Amy, sitting in the seat in front of him. Though they had landed back on the Blue Typhoon, she sat utterly still in the pilot's seat, her back to Tails. "Amy, I'm so sorry," Tails said, his words slurred with exhaustion. "I shouldn't have let that happen, I shouldn't have used the fake Chaos Emeralds like that. I—"
"Are you kidding?"
Tails stopped short, even as tears spilled silently down his face. Amy twisted around in her seat, ripping off the seat restraint in the process, and Tails saw the tears on his face merely mirrored the tears on hers. She threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm just glad you're okay."
Tails blinked.
A part of him hated himself. For falling into a Metarex trap, even as he'd known all the while that it was a Metarex trap. For giving into the call of the fake Chaos Emeralds and becoming a version of himself he feared.
And then there was a much larger part of Tails that was just so very tired. So he let his head fall to Amy's shoulder.
And he cried.
