Chapter Thirty-Four: Often Go Away
Amy's eyes are the last thing I focus on as I lift the vent cover and settle it into place, her on one side and me on the other. It strikes me that her eyes are a similar green to Sonic's. So then I see him too. See all the friends not by my side right now. All the backup I don't have.
If this is a mistake, it's one I'm making.
Once the vent cover was secured back in place, once Amy was safely back within the vent so that she could follow the other Chaos Emerald's signal, Tails climbed to his feet and stepped to the end of the hallway, just beyond the observation of the scanning cameras. He still held the Chaos Emerald he had carried onboard with him. Now, he tightened his grip on it and begged that it grant him the strength he didn't quite feel, even if this plan was his own.
He spun his tails behind him until they gathered the speed they needed to lift him from the ground. He kept himself as close to the wall as he could manage. He didn't know for sure the range of the cameras so it was best to assume the worst. His hand slid along the wall to keep him steady. He rose as high as he could manage, high enough that his tails occasionally slid along the ceiling, like a threat. If he made connection too often, he'd lose height. If he lost height, he would slip into camera range. If he slipped into camera range, well…
With his hand brushing along the wall as a steadying guide, Tails started the slow journey forward. When he passed above a camera, he held his breath, trying to eliminate any risk of accidental movement brushing against it. The heart battering inside his chest seemed determined to disturb that steadiness.
One camera, two cameras, ten cameras Tails passed. They hung on alternating sides of the hallway, each one scanning back and forth. Weariness drenched the fur at Tails's temples with sweat. And still the empty hallway with its scanning cameras stretched on ahead. Tails choked for air and begged his tails to keep him aloft and kept going and kept going and even as it felt like knives dug into his tailbone and right between his eyes he kept going.
Then there was a branch in the hallway. The blood streak, now lighter and petering out, went down one of them. The same one also appeared to have no cameras at its entrance.
Tails's eyes fixed immediately on the opportunity for relief. Like an oasis in the desert. Like fresh air after climbing through a sewer beneath one of Eggman's bases. Tails forced himself not to accelerate. He was near the finish. He couldn't make a mistake. Not now. He was too close. He started counting seconds like a pace, like the rhythm of a song.
He crossed the threshold of the next hallway and immediately dropped like a stone.
Tails slammed bodily to the ground. He hardly noticed the impact. He sucked down air and just lay still as wave after wave of overexertion swept over his body. He shuddered with it. He squeezed his eyes against it. And after a few moments of allowing his body to simply dissolve, he forced himself back up into a seated position. And then after allowing himself the few seconds to stare blankly down the hallway from which he had come, he used the doorway to drag himself back to his feet.
Though Tails no longer had his radar with him, he remembered enough about the signal to know which of the branching hallways he needed to travel down in order to continue following the Chaos Emerald. However, he wasn't sure if the fact that it meant following the path with streaked blood was a good thing or a bad thing. Two birds, one stone, perhaps?
Tails still had the presence of mind to scan the hallway walls for cameras before he continued on his way. Unlike the hallway he'd been heading down before, this hallway was straight, not curved. Like it didn't circle the outside of the craft but cut right in toward the center. He didn't see any cameras but that didn't mean there weren't any.
Tails looked down to the Chaos Emerald he held at his side, like it was a travelling companion. But it wasn't as though it would tell him whether or not the path in front of him was a trap.
That much he could figure out on his own.
Tails tightened his grip on the Chaos Emerald and stiffened his shoulders. He wished for Sonic at his side. But Tails could fight too; Sonic had made sure of that. He could stand on his own.
So even knowing he was walking right into a trap, Tails proceeded down that hallway.
-X-X-X-
Amy's View
Amy continued scrambling through the vents. The only difference now from before was that a certain percentage of her consciousness was dedicated to grumbling about Tails's plan. How many times did they have to split up and end up in danger before they realized that they would be better off making any other plan? Not that Amy had another idea to offer.
The vents protested gently beneath Amy's weight as she crawled on. Every few yards, she paused long enough to check Tails's communicator around her wrist. She was supposed to be looking at the signal of the Chaos Emerald further away, the one she was after, but the nearer signal kept drawing her attention.
Was Tails okay? She knew Tails could handle himself, but still she wondered. She had known the same about Sonic and then he had gotten himself trapped in that capsule and—
Amy paused. Closed her eyes. Took the moment to slowly inhale, counting the seconds.
When she opened her eyes again, she continued crawling through the vents. If she got to the Chaos Emerald, that meant she could double back and help Tails. No time to waste.
She would be fast enough to make even Sonic proud.
-X-X-X-
Nova's View
Knuckles and C2 had no interest in continuing down the same hallways the rest of the team had traveled down before. What had appeared to be the only option for routing from the docking bay they had landed in was, on second glance, apparently an intentional routing maneuver the Metarex had pulled. Knuckles was the first to notice.
"If the Metarex don't want us to go this way, then that's the way we're going!" Knuckles announced, just a moment before he slammed his fist through what before had looked to be a wall. Instead, the metal hid a doorway that opened up to a second hall branching away from the dock.
Behind which lesser Metarex milled about at work.
The sudden crash in the wall pulled their attention. For a second, time hung. Neither the Blue Typhoon team nor the Metarex moved, all too shocked by the disruption to their universe.
Nova supposed they might not catch up with Tails and Amy as quickly as they would have hoped.
-X-X-X-
Tails's View
Tails hoped he looked larger than he felt. The walls seemed to tower over his head. The sconces on the walls seemed to follow him with their spotlights. The blood continued to lead his way, and he was beginning to believe the Metarex had left it intentionally, like the darkest version of a trail of breadcrumbs. Or maybe that was just the part of his brain overanalyzing and catastrophizing. At least feeling small and fearing the worst meant he wouldn't underestimate the Metarex.
Not that such a thing had ever been a risk.
No Sonic, no Shadow. Nova and Angel exhausted to their limits. And Amy didn't have enough experience with Chaos Emeralds. Tails was the best chance they had, even if Tails himself knew just how small that chance was. But still he walked forward.
At least, until he heard the wail of metal scraping against metal. Tails yanked the Chaos Emerald in toward himself to press against his chest. The ridges dug into his flesh enough that he could think beyond his fear, if only because he felt pain in addition. The Emerald's unsteady light pinged distraction in his brain as his peripheral vision caught it. But no matter how long he stared, the hallway in front of Tails remained empty.
After a moment in stillness, it became clear that Tails had no choice but to continue. He edged his way down the hall. If there really were cameras hidden in this hallway, he figured the Metarex were surely having a laugh at the sight of him. Little kid, holding a Chaos Emerald to his chest like it was a stuffed toy, thinking he could stand up against the same Metarex that had claimed Sonic the Hedgehog.
His whole body shivered. He wished the warmth of the Chaos Emerald he held would radiate into his cold skin. But apparently the strength of whatever number of fake Chaos Emeralds surrounded him outweighed the strength of one.
The hallway dead-ended but there was a wide-open door on Tails's right from which the screech of metal was coming. Where the streak of blood seemed to disappear into, through the streak was so light by now that it was barely a suggestion. Tails sucked in a deep breath and held it, hoping it would steady him, and dared to peek inside.
His eyes immediately landed on Shadow in a heap at the center of the floor.
Tails felt his body try to go through the motions of a gasp, though he held his breath. Shadow's eyes were closed and Tails couldn't tell if his chest was still rising and falling with air. Shadow lay still and unguarded at the center of the room. Surely a Metarex guard would have been posted if Shadow was just knocked out as opposed to—
No.
No.
Tails refused to even consider the words.
Instead, he forced his eyes to consider the room beyond Shadow. Because the room wasn't empty. Computer consoles lined the walls of the wide rectangular room. But as he slid his eyes up to give the computers themselves a more focused look, he realized he wasn't looking at normal computers.
No, along the walls, trapped behind glass in stiff rows like soldiers were hundreds of Chaos Emeralds.
They had to be fake. If the sheer number alone wasn't enough of an indication, then the communicator Tails had before been wearing only detecting three Chaos Emeralds on the ship certainly threw the authenticity of these Emeralds into question.
There seemed to be three rows of the fake Chaos Emeralds ringing the room in total. They sparkled beneath the lights and from here, Tails couldn't tell if they were in glass cases for a reason beyond simply display.
They did explain why Tails was beginning to see his breath as a warm cloud in cold air when he exhaled.
A door at the back of the room slid open, and Tails shrank back from the doorway in which he stood. He wished he could hide away entirely, but then what chance would Shadow stand? There was no way Tails was leaving anyone else in the hands of the Metarex, not if he could help it. So he forced himself to look back inside the room.
In time to see both Shining Birch and Rusted Maple enter the room.
Tails jumped back out of sight. He pressed his back against the wall behind him. He gasped for oxygen he suddenly couldn't get enough of. He squeezed his eyes shut just so he could snap them wide open once more. Maybe that would be enough to wake himself up. Because this had to be another Metarex nightmare. Shining Birch was the Metarex leader Tails had defeated through the power of the seven Chaos Emeralds during the Changed War. Rusted Maple was the Metarex leader during the war just previous to the current one, whose defeat required all seven Chaos Emeralds and five individuals to use them to the full extent of their strength.
And here, they stood together.
And on the other side of the room, the singular Tails stood hidden with a singular Chaos Emerald.
And between them, Shadow's life—if he was indeed still alive—hung in the balance.
Tails had to look. He knew he had to look and see what he was up against. His entire body seized and stiffened in protest. So he gave himself until the count of ten just to breathe, just to grab whatever grip on himself he could manage, and then he edged his gaze back around the doorway.
Behind the two massive Metarex leaders followed a pair of lesser Metarex wheeling some sort of pallet across the floor, on top of which lay an empty Metarex shell with black matte plating. If not for the color, Tails would have thought it was the same Metarex shell Sonic was forced to inhabit as Blue Seed. And then, a heartbeat later, Tails's panicked brain pieced two and two together.
The Metarex were about to turn Shadow into one of them. Just like they'd done to Sonic.
Tails's heart jumped to his throat and made quick work of strangling him. Every muscle of his body stiffened to stone. His brain that needed to be manufacturing a plan—any sort of plan—dissolved into screaming a sort of keening noise that Tails struggled to weave a thought around.
It took him a moment to remember anything in the world beyond his own panic. But when his senses opened once more, he grew aware of Shining Birch's voice. "And your own findings confirm mine, correct?"
"Your findings? My findings? You talk as if we have influence! As if our discoveries are anything independent of what the universe has offered!" Rusted Maple ranted.
Shining Birch's sigh in reply sounded more like the purr of a running engine than a tired breath. After a moment, the Metarex rephrased, "Then you confirm that the creature's body should respond to the process similar to Blue Seed's, without requiring this creature to be aware of Metarex secrets, unlike Blue Seed?"
Sonic. An itch burned in Tails's throat. He wanted to scream Sonic's name. He was not Blue Seed but Sonic the Hedgehog. Not a small spec that was a tiny piece in a larger plan but a hero with a personality larger than the universe could contain. Not an ornament to stand at the edge of the room while others talked about him like he wasn't there at all, but the star of the show stealing every spotlight.
"Yes, yes," Rusted Maple confirmed breezily. "You seem so concerned with overthinking. You must grow bored of paranoia."
"You seem to forget which of our reigns was longer lasting," Shining Birch replied tonelessly.
"Ah, but mine was never meant to last!" Rusted Maple said, sounding more like a self-assured scientist than an army general. "And now, the research we executed comes to fruition for the sake of Black Thorn's reign, as is our ultimate goal. Is it not, Shining Brich?"
"Of course it is," Shining Birch replied testily, the tone of voice revealing to Tails that perhaps Shining Birch held to a somewhat different value system than Rusted Maple.
If Rusted Maple noticed, the Metarex didn't comment. Instead, Rusted Maple turned his attention away from the Metarex leader at his side and to the lesser Metarex rolling the pallet bearing the Metarex shell to a stop beside Shadow's motionless body. "Do not remove the rings on the creature's wrists until the last possible moment. They will inhibit his connection to the armor, so they must be removed, but they also inhibit his connection to his full strength. Removing them will likely wake him up, despite the hold our Chaos Emerald copies claim over him."
Tails snapped to attention as the tiniest fragments of a plan began to fall into place.
-X-X-X-
Amy's View
Amy didn't entirely believe the radar on her wrist, even though she knew the communicator had been invented and refined through the joint efforts of Chris and Tails. But she had been crawling for a century and it seemed impossible that the Chaos Emerald blinking on her wrist might be just outside of where she hid.
She tried to peer through the slits of the vent cover to catch a glimpse of the impossible light of a Chaos Emerald but the space beyond the vent was ill-lit. Just her luck. But the faster she investigated, the sooner she might get back to Tails. The less time split up, the better. Not that Tails couldn't handle himself.
But Sonic could too, and his fate had repeatedly been the stuff of nightmares.
Amy shoved against the grate and when it didn't immediately give beneath her force, she pulled her hammer for extra leverage. The cover clattered to the ground. Amy scrambled out after it, in case the sound summoned the Metarex to a fight. But beyond Amy's own panting, the room remained still and silent. Half-lit, even. Amy didn't lower her hammer but she did relax her muscles after a handful of racing heartbeats.
The only sources of light in the room were the ambient flashes of tiny dots of color along the walls. Amy crept closer until she could tell that it looked like the walls were built out of racks of servers. She supposed that explained why sweat was starting to gather uncomfortably at the small of her back; servers gave off a huge amount of heat. It was particularly at odds with the temperature of the rest of the ship, filled as it was with the cold energy of the fake Chaos Emeralds. The warmth in here seemed to radiate right through her skin to the heart sitting at her center.
Amy lifted her wrist to check the radar display on the communicator. It seemed to glow like a beacon in such a dark room. She almost wanted to shadow the glow with her opposite hand but that would mean putting down her hammer while on her own in the middle of a Metarex craft. No, thank you. Instead, she accepted the risk and followed the directions of the radar.
Amy stepped out of the server room and into what seemed to be an adjacent utility room. The glow at her wrist continued to be her main source of illumination. The heat against Amy's skin alleviated somewhat, but the warmth at her heart remained.
That was the feeling of the Chaos Energy inside her, wasn't it?
Amy's eyes widened. She ignored the radar at her wrist and pressed that hand to her Chaos Energy-heated heart instead. She had never felt the Energy inside her like this before. She knew she had Chaos Energy within her body, of course. She could use the Chaos Emeralds and that meant she must house some amount of their Energy within herself. But she still wasn't good at using the Chaos Emeralds. She usually needed the help of someone like Sonic or Nova to help her channel the Energy. The one time she'd attempted to use a Chaos Emerald on her own, the results had been lukewarm at best.
She had never before felt her Chaos Energy blossoming inside of her like this.
It was like the Chaos Emerald sang to her a song only she could hear in a language only she could understand. Her very soul hummed along in harmony. She closed her eyes. She ignored the radar, and she followed the tune as if it were a siren song.
Her boot kicked something metal. The crash destroyed her reverie, and Amy's eyes snapped open. To see the white Chaos Emerald lying alone at a haphazard angle at her eye level.
The Emerald did not shine like a singular star, resolute in its brightness. No, instead it preserved its glow like a coal burning in the pit of a dying bonfire. Clinging to life instead of on fire like it should be. But despite that, Amy knew immediately that it was a Chaos Emerald and not a copy. Maybe it hardly burned but Amy still felt the heat radiating toward her. She scooped it into her hands. The Emerald flickered, as if in thanks, as she pulled it close to her. "What did the Metarex do to you?" she whispered to the Emerald as if it were a tiny injured flicky as opposed to one of the gems that might tear apart the universe if that was what someone wished.
Amy frowned at the Chaos Emerald. It should be a win to steal it from the Metarex's possession. But it seemed like the Metarex couldn't have cared less.
I don't have time for this.
Amy reminded herself that elsewhere on this ship, Tails was going after another Chaos Emerald. And if Amy had found the one in the Metarex's possession, then Tails was probably closing in on the Emerald that Shadow held.
The same Shadow whose blood was streaked across the floor.
-X-X-X-
Tails's View
Tails was not fast, like Sonic or Shadow.
He was not magical, like Nova or Angel.
Or strong, like Knuckles or Amy.
But he was clever. Thank goodness he was clever. He closed his eyes and called upon the Energy of the Chaos Emerald in his hands. The cold tendrils of the fake Chaos Emeralds reached for him as he called. But he focused his attention on the Chaos Emerald in his grip. He shivered as the other Energy touched him before he shrugged it off. He only had one chance to get this right. Under any other circumstances, he would dismiss such a dangerous, harebrained plan.
These were not any other circumstances.
And with that, he snapped his eyes back open and whispered, "Chaos Control."
The Emerald brightened. Tails blinked.
Then he was somewhere else.
Tails crouched down behind the cover of the black Metarex shell. He pressed his lips together before his urge to gasp revealed him. He pushed himself down further, before he glanced up to check if his cover was even momentarily safe. The two lesser Metarex had stepped away from the ends of the pallet and Tails could no longer see them from where he crouched. He could see the top of Shining Birch's head though Rusted Maple was shorter and the angle hid him from sight.
Tails inched his way forward on his hands and knees. He held his breath. He could hear his movement and prayed it was only deafening to his own ears. His neck ached as it resisted Tails's push to peer around the corner of the pallet. The lesser Metarex had moved toward Shadow, but something had caught their attention. They were looking away toward the Metarex leaders. If they had said something, Tails hadn't heard it.
He slowly shifted himself up off his knees and onto his feet, like a sprinter on the blocks before a race. His racing heartbeat shook his whole body. Thoughts in his head evaporated. All that remained was action.
Tails scrambled to his feet. He sprinted forward and slid back to the ground at Shadow's side. He grabbed one of the rings around Shadow's wrists and yanked it free. He refused to look up. He refused to think about the audience of Metarex that were witnessing this. He reached for the second ring.
He wasn't fast enough.
Cords snapped out at Tails as fast as a whip. In a heartbeat, they shoved him back. Away from Shadow. Away from the second limiter ring Tails had just reached for. As the cords shoved Tails back across the floor, they also wrapped around his torso, locking his arms to his sides. The Chaos Emerald flew from his grip and clattered across the floor. And still the cords shoved Tails back until they slammed him against the wall. Stars burst to life in front of his eyes. When the stars burst, they left the edges of his vision dusted in shadows. His head fell forward.
Wake up, wake up, Tails begged his wrecked body.
Tails was aware his feet no longer touched the floor. His arms were wrapped tight to his sides. He dragged his heavy head upright and forced his dazed eyes to focus ahead of him. Shining Birch's arm stretched out in front of him, cords erupting from his hand where fingers typically existed.
Dizzily, Tails recalled that Shining Birch had done the same when Tails had faced off against the Metarex during the Changed War. He remembered how they'd been enough to hold even his Super form in place.
And right now, Tails was very terribly mortal.
Besides Shining Birch, Rusted Maple started to cackle. The metallic body didn't shake with the sound; the sound just unnaturally filled the space as if it came from nowhere at all. "Now I'm the one who must congratulate you. You perfectly predicted the fox's movements! And here I thought allowing their team to assault our forces was foolish!"
"Merely fodder," Shining Birch growled. But the Metarex did not turn his gaze in the direction of Rusted Maple. Instead, Shining Birch kept his eyeless gaze fixed on his quarry. On Tails.
As the immediate disorientation of hitting the wall began to fade from Tails's body, Tails grew aware of just how tight the metallic Metarex cords wrapped around his body. His lungs didn't have the space they needed to fully inflate. And as panic built inside him, the ability to breathe drifted further and further from his reach.
Shadow lay silent and still on the floor with one limiter still securely around his wrist. The only chance Tails had otherwise was the Chaos Emerald, now out of reach and lying like discarded trash tossed aside to be buried in dust and shadows at the edge of the room.
Shining Birch, meanwhile, gestured dismissively with his free hand at Shadow. "Proceed with the installation of the other creature. This is handled."
The cords around Tails tightened. He choked. His skin burned ice cold. Darkness clawed at his vision as the Metarex approached Shadow. So Tails would have to watch the end of Shadow.
As.
Tails.
Too.
Ended.
The cold flooded through Tails. Was this what it felt like to die? Tears burst to life in his eyes, even as life slipped away from the rest of him. He was going to die like this? And fail Cosmo? Leave her in the clutches of the Metarex? Anger burned ice cold inside him at the realization of his failure. He failed her, after everything?
Light burned bright at the edges of Tails's vision now.
-X-X-X-
Amy's View
The sudden crash behind Amy set her shrieking. She wielded her hammer as she spun. Dust drifted in the air, clouding the immediate threat from view for a moment. As it started to settle, Amy could see a hole where the wall used to be.
And a fist coming directly for her face.
She swung her hammer around with another scream. The face of her hammer slammed into her target and dragged her arms through the follow-through. The force threw the target from the ground and crashing through the wall beside.
Amy sucked down frantic gasps of air and shook off the nerves that had exploded to life in her arms. Just when she was running across the Metarex ship with a Chaos Emerald in tow, of course she'd end up ambushed by the Metarex. As if she needed the delay.
"Amy!"
At the sound of her name, Amy squinted into the newly-created hole in the wall. Where was once just the shadows of shapes, she could now see C2 and Nova moving toward her. "You both okay?" Amy asked as they stepped through the hole, Nova particularly taking her time and watching her wings as she went. "Where's Knuckles? I thought you were bringing him back."
"He is in the wall that you just knocked him through!" Knuckles shouted from Amy's left. And when Amy turned in that direction, she saw him dragging his way through the hole Amy had knocked in the wall by slamming someone through it. That someone being Knuckles, Amy now realized.
"You scared me!" Amy protested.
"Where's Tails?" C2 broke in, snapping Amy back to attention as Knuckles stumbled over to them.
"He went after Shadow on his own while I went after the Chaos Emerald." Amy held up the Chaos Emerald she had found.
Nova frowned in response. Like there was a battle going on inside her, trying to decide between picturing the worst-case scenario and assuming Shadow could handle himself. Amy wasn't about to tell her about the blood she and Tails had come across; Nova would spiral.
"Where did you leave Tails?" C2 demanded suddenly.
The urgency in C2's voice did the opposite of what she likely expected from Amy: it shocked Amy into silence.
"I'm sure he's fine," Knuckles said, rolling his shoulders. "Tails can handle himself and it's not like we've come across anything we couldn't handle on this ship."
"That's my point!" C2 snapped. And her force shut even Knuckles up. "If we haven't come across a major threat yet, where do you think it is?"
-X-X-X-
Tails's View
Tails didn't die.
Tails's flesh grew colder and his breaths grew shorter and his vision grew brighter and he did not die. The cold in his bones burned until it was almost hot. The brightness in his eyes burned so bright that white spotted his vision. His limbs buzzed and burned like they were coming back to life.
And in that burning lived rage.
Tails threw out his limbs like before he couldn't. The Metarex cords wrapping him snapped beneath his sudden surge of strength. His body fell to the floor.
He felt nothing.
Darkness burned at the edges of Tails's vision. But Tails paid it no mind. He stared at the Metarex ahead of him.
"This is…unexpected," Shining Birch said as he stared down at the remains of his hand. It was the greatest show of vulnerability Tails had ever seen from the Metarex. The Metarex that had nearly just killed him. That had nearly stole from Tails his chance to ever see Cosmo again.
Tails's hands curled into shaking fists at his sides.
Beyond Shining Birch and Rusted Maple, the line of fake Chaos Emeralds encased in the wall shone bright like stars. Tails raised his hand to his eyes. Still, he held no Chaos Emerald there.
But his fur radiated a haze of black.
"How dare you hurt my friends," Tails snarled at the Metarex.
And with that, he pounced.
-X-X-X-
Nova's View
Nova was flagging.
Amy led the way, sprinting through the halls of the Metarex ship with no concern for secrecy or caution. Tails's wristband was wrapped around Amy's wrist and she used to guide their way. Knuckles followed a half-step behind, jumping into action before the rest of them when he spied a Metarex threat. C2 was not far behind, carrying a hammer like Amy's and using her twin tails for additional speed like Tails often did.
Nova, meanwhile, was losing lengths. While the rest of the team maintained their speed, she couldn't gather enough air to prevent lightheadedness. Her shoulders kept colliding with hallway walls when she failed to run in a straight line.
Shadow. Shadow's at the end of this, she repeated to herself like a prayer. Tails went to help Shadow so if they were running to Tails's side, they were also running to Shadow's. She would get to his side and then she could rest.
When the hallway changed around them, though, even Amy slowed her pace. Nova couldn't slow herself down without stumbling until she collided with Knuckles and he spun to steady her. "Sorry," she gasped.
But Knuckles just held her elbows until she got her feet under her again. Once she did, they followed behind Amy's creeping pace. Nova sparked an orb of pale orange magic in her palm. Normally, the light was brighter but at this point, she was just grateful any magic answered her call. She trailed her fingertips on the opposite hand along the wall beside her in order to ensure she remained upright.
Ahead of them, Amy flipped closed the cover of the communicator and instead wrapped that hand around the handle of her hammer. So they had to be practically on top of the Chaos Emerald then. Nova took a steadying breath, as if that would be enough to repair the damage Airin's had left behind.
Then a crash exploded down the hall.
They all jumped back into a sprint, even exhausted, stumbling Nova. Though she stumbled slower than the rest of them and collided with their backs when they came to a sudden halt. "Is that..?" Amy started but didn't finish her breathy thought.
Nova grabbed for the doorway to steady herself enough that she could look into the room.
"Doesn't matter; he needs help!" Knuckles snapped. And with that, he sprinted forward into action. Just as Nova's vision finally steadied.
A small figure in the wide room radiated black Energy, like Nova had previously seen from Dark Super Sonic. The figure threw themselves at one of the two Metarex generals. The Metarex swatted at the figure and threw them back to crash into the wall. Only then was Nova able to make out the details of the figure, including their two twin tails.
Nova's heart jumped to her throat and stuck there.
The creature Tails had become was the antithesis of the fox Nova had come to know. Rather than a happy orange-yellow shade, Tails's fur was drenched in inky black that seemed to drip heavily, stickily from his figure. His blue irises and black pupils had been swallowed in the sea of white his eyes had become.
Dark Super Tails, Nova's mind supplied for her.
Tails bolted for the Metarex once more, now with Knuckles throwing himself forward from the other direction. Shining Birch and Rusted Maple, Nova realized now those were the Metarex generals. Or leaders, not generals. One of Shining Birch's hands was mangled, the tips of his fingers torn away. He wielded his other arm against Tails, with cords spinning out from his hand. Rusted Maple cackled madly behind them, even as Knuckles engaged him in battle. Like Shining Birch against Dark Super Tails, Rusted Maple easily batted Knuckles away.
C2 shoved Amy's shoulder. To wake her up? To move her out of the way? "Don't think about it! Knuckles is right," she said and dove forward to join the fight.
Nova saw Amy wince when she was shoved. She squeezed her eyes shut tight enough that her forehead wrinkled with tension. Nova slid her eyes from Amy back to the fight at hand. But her eyes caught on movement in the foreground of the scene. Two silver lesser Metarex moved about in front of the fight near an open Metarex shell. They moved away from the shell to crouch on either side of something on the ground.
On either side of Shadow's still body.
Nova screamed.
She dove forward. Twitches of her wings kept her upright. She let the orb of magic in her palm fly. Her aim failed and her magic merely skimmed the shoulder of one of the lesser Metarex. But it was enough to draw their attention.
Nova gathered more magic in her palm. It sparked wildly, those sparks jumping from her hand to fall like sparks from a sparkler to the ground. Nova slid to a stop in order to steady her arm before she let the wild magic fly again.
This time, she hit her mark. Her magic tore through the lesser Metarex and left a charred hole behind. It halted where it stood before gravity took hold and dragged the now defunct Metarex to the ground.
Nova squared up against the other Metarex. It advanced on her now, leaving Shadow behind on the floor. Nova pulled more magic into her palm. This time, the magic sparked but did not illuminate, did not solidify into an orb. Sweat beaded on her forehead. The Metarex advanced on her. Nova stumbled back. She again tried to spark magic in her palm. Light flashed there and died, quick as a flash, like a lighter trying to spark a flame. Her wings drooped heavily behind her like a warning. She was dry. She was already dry.
Magic sparked. Failed. Nova stumbled further back. She collided with the wall behind her. The Metarex advanced further. Panic. Panic. The others were focused on Shining Birch and Rusted Maple. Nova should have been able to handle two lesser Metarex easily, all without breaking a sweat. Now sweat dripped from her forehead and slid down the sides of her face. She stared at her hands. Focused on her magic rather than the threat.
Magic sparked again. Died.
Sparked again. Died.
A Metarex claw closed around Nova's throat. The sole survivor of her kind, to perish now? After everything?
Nova kept her focus on her hand. Not the Metarex. On life, not death. Shadow needed her.
Another spark of magic lit up Nova's palm. The light caught and burst to life, swelling to an orb. The orange light burned.
And Nova clapped the magic-filled hand down on the Metarex's face.
The magic burned through in an instant. The metal plating heated and brightened with the heat. The tips of Nova's fingers burned, but she gritted her teeth and pushed through. The fingers around her throat went limp and fell away before they could do damage. And then the whole Metarex fell away. It dropped with a clatter to the ground, a hole burned clear through its face plating.
Nova hesitated only a heartbeat to stare at the lesser Metarex, to make sure it wasn't about to climb back to its feet despite the damage Nova had inflicted. When it didn't stir, her eyes snapped back to the prone form of Shadow. She jumped forward and dropped to the ground beside him.
For a moment, her hands just hovered above Shadow at a loss. His eyes were closed but beyond blood matted at his shoulder, he didn't look particularly injured. Had his head been struck?
"Nova."
Nova's heart jumped. Her eyes snapped to Shadow's eyes. And she found them to be open to narrow, glossy slits.
"Shadow!" she exclaimed. She scrambled for his hand and clutched it between both her own. She pulled his hand toward her and pressed a breath of a kiss to his knuckles. "What do you need? What do I do?"
"The other limiter ring. Remove it."
Nova furrowed her brow. But then she realized the hand of Shadow's she held was missing the limiter ring around his wrist. "Is that safe?" she asked.
Shadow said nothing. Just kept his heavily-lidded eyes fixed on Nova.
Of course it wasn't safe. But they had long left safe behind.
Nova lowered the hand of Shadow's that she held back to his side. She reached over to Shadow's other arm with her own trembling hands. She wrapped her fingers around the limiter ring. Paused. "I love you," she whispered.
Shadow's eyes closed. Tired tension built between his eyes. And Nova understood.
She yanked the limiter ring from Shadow's other wrist.