Sonic and the Harmony of Chaos (UNDER EDITING)

by CGMayra

An ancient trickery has caused the Gods of Order to be separated, but believing in an old Echidna fable, Eggman discovers the lost 8th Emerald, the Harmony Crystal. History reveals heartache, and Chaos is desperate for Sonic's aid to free his friend from her long-suffering and bring Balanced Order back to the world as one. (Sonamy, ChaosxHarmony) CONTAINS:Mentions deaths/Sacrifices

2. Chapter 2

Sonic and The Harmony of Chaos

Chapter 2

By: Cutegirlmayra (I split these chapters up. Tell me if you like smaller chapters, yeah? Two in one night! Baller~ Hey, hey, hey! I'm excited about these new updates! As always, stay tuned~ EDIT: I'm combining them all again XD)

"Shadow!" A familiar voice rang through the air, like a comet or arrow piercing through the sky.

"Grr... Rghk… R-Rouge?" Shadow opened one strained eye that was shut, holding Chaos's watery, taloned crab-arm as it choked his neck.

While he struggled, his feet dangling in the air, oxygen passed by his throat at wavering intervals... he could hear the flapping of large bat wings.

"Let him go, you big bully!" Rouge spun a kick into Chaos's head, drilling her sharp-ended heart-shoe right into his brain, piercing his liquid hide and causing him to release Shadow from his bonds.

Chaos reeled back with another roar of metallic shrieks, causing Knuckles to somewhat cover his ears from it. Chaos turned away and had his watery appendage morph back into his tall pillared self once more, his eyes blaring green.

He swiftly changed his sights from Shadow to Rouge, shaking his head at the damage done to his watery skull as Rouge caught her falling friend and flew him safely down.

"Rouge! I should have known you were behind this, too!" Knuckles removed his hands from his head and rushed up to them, accusing her and shaking his fist around, flapping his gums off…

"Oh, Shut up!" she hollered back over her shoulder, "You really should learn to not cry out random garbage before you understand what's really going on!" she scolded.

"Why you-!" Knuckles's face flared in puffs of red, his muzzle showing his angered and flustered expression, but Rouge just saw Shadow hold up his eyes to her own.

"Rouge…" Shadow twitched his head up, seeing his vision blurred from lack of oxygen. "You came back?" He asked.

"Heh, you seem surprised." Rouge smiled, "An old partner is still a partner, Shadow." She took her hand and moved his arm over her shoulders, "It's okay, Shadow… I'm here." Rouge looked down kindly towards him, helping him up to his feet again, "And that's saying something... G.U.N doesn't know I'm here... though, they would probably want me to be. I've been charged with investigating this strange phenomenon. Thought you could use some help."

Shadow nodded to her, giving her a faint smile through the apparent weakness in his voice from being momentarily strangled, but was ready to fight again. Hits don't do much against the Ultimate Lifeform... he was ready to swing and duke it out again within seconds.

"Also... I saw those flashing lights bounce off from here." Rouge, once seeing he could stand on his own again, let him go and honestly spoke her mind. "I figured something must have happened... knowing you were coming here."

Knuckles turned back to notice the sweet exchange, before flipping out and approaching the two again after blinking his eyes back and frowning at the closeness. "I-I don't understand! Why are you both sneaking around Angel Island?!"

She kept her eyes fixed on Shadow before turning to Knuckles, frowning and narrowing one eyebrow to the dummy, "You really think now's the time to accuse people? What about you, Knuckle-head? It's not like you have any brains in that noggin of yours to know anything about what's going on with those lights, do you?" Her abrasive question left Knuckles stumbling and twitching an eyebrow at her boldness in insulting him.

"W-What did you say..!?" Knuckles flinched back, his fingers twitching too as his anger rose. He flopped his fists down and folded his arms once he saw Rouge take her focus off of him again, looking away from the two as he smushed his lips back and forth over the other in a grumpy fashion. Being 'called out' on his lack of information during this... strange event of sorts... Left a sour taste in his mouth.

who wouldn't feel that way? But it wasn't as awful as that returned beam of light made him feel...

"Ugh, The ruins… they didn't have anything." Shadow tried to grab at his head, rubbing it a moment to get clarity again and quickly explain to Knuckles the full account they had, but Chaos was quick to intervene. He turned back around and looked as though about to lunge at them again, causing the three to brace themselves for a battle, before a ball of light spun out from the Master Emerald.

It dangled its red self around his head, stopping him, and speaking, "They know not the cause for your aggression, Chaos! Please… I beg of you… let me help them understand… They simply seek clarity." and spirited passed him towards the trio.

Her words coaxed the revered and abused god back… as she hovered just slightly closer to him. "We will truly restore Harmony this time… I have given you my vow…" as the light withdrew from his face, Chaos returned to his original form, and looked away, bubbling as he stomped off towards the edge of the Altar's highest foundation, and waited.

"Did that light… speak?" Rouge felt something familiar stir in her memories, but Tikal's spirit dangled over them and circled, not allowing memory time to resurface as she was in a haste.

Her spark of red light suddenly flared out to encompass them, the three trying to shield their faces before blinking and adjusting their pupils to the new tone of foggy sight. "What is this?" Shadow looked out and tried to gently swat his hand through the fog, but nothing.

"A vision." Tikal reverently answered, flying in between the trio, their small flashlight in the fog. "I have momentarily teleported each one of you into the past memories of Chaos... from the Master Emerald's power, this is briefly possible."

The three saw the fog part in front of them, moving like a misty curtain before falling to the ground somewhat and showing them a devastating scene.

"These are the ruins of my people… the destruction of Order, which was the unity of the world… Harmony and Chaos…" All around them, they saw they were above large fires and people screaming. Ultimate Chaos bellowed out a powerful blast that carved large ridges into the earth. A massacre...

Knuckles's eyes shook as his teeth gritted, raising his head up as his eyes remained looking on the scene, "Chaos..." His anger was filled to the brim.

Rouge had to turn away, as Shadow just stood and looked about, studying the scene of Chaos's massive powers...

"I couldn't stop my father… and Chaos destroyed and destroyed… Without Harmony able to restore what was lost, balance became distorted, and Chaos's rage grew and grew… as their creations began controlling more and more of his will." Her voice sounded as though the emphasis was of deep regret and sorrow, as though none of this should be taken lightly... and seeing all the poor souls... crying out... knowing their own people did this to them...

"All the tribes were destroyed... but some were punished in other ways... The Twilight Cage..." The vision revealed Ultimate Chaos flinging his head up and summoning forth the portal, and people being shot into it or being sucked helplessly into its core.

"... It looks nothing like him..." Shadow commented, never before having seen Ultimate Chaos in all his grand and terrifying power.

"It's because it's not him." Tikal's voice rang true, "It was the desires of my father and those who sought power and control... instead of peace and Order."

"You've been saying that..." Rouge finally was able to look up, tears in her eyes, still not watching the scene as she put a hand over her mouth, disgusted and shaken by what she was hearing... Her bat ears absorbing every helpless cry and cruel death... "But what exactly does that mean..? It doesn't sound figurative when you speak of it..."

The water dragon shook its mighty head, an ear-piercing sound as Rouge covered her ears and flinched, turning around as her eyes widened to see that before the suffering tribes and people... the Chief grinned and held up an Emerald. "By Harmony's light!" he cried out, "Chaos… be controlled!"

Chaos reeled his head back but looked at the cowering tribes below, shaking himself but unable to stop his mouth from opening wide...

"Wipeout our enemies! Give us the land we have come to claim for rightly better hands!"

A child clung to its mother…

"In that moment… Chaos's heart became hardened to all its creations…" Tikal moved her light back, as Chaos's eyes—sharp and now dulled from the lighted shine that used to be in them—swung his head back, before firing down on the village again... His eyes saw the mother and child... before his beam covered his vision... and the vision faded with it...

"No..." Rouge collapsed down on her legs... "That just... couldn't be..."

Knuckles closed his eyes, "Tsch.., Kerk...!" The tears in his eyes began to grow larger... his large fists shaking before lowering down and more towards his body, near his waist, " PACHACAMAC! IX!" he blasted from his chest's lungs out through his mouth like a megaphone...

Shadow just lowered his eyes in respect for the dead, before turning back to look at Tikal by his side. "What then?" he asked, "After this all occurred... it still doesn't explain what is happening in our time... right now."

"Could this... be a premonition?" Rouge rose up to a knee, spinning around and glaring at the speck of red light with a shaking fist. "Are those lights trying to warn us that this will happen again!?"

Tikal didn't reply to either, but continued after a moment of pause, "The destruction left only grief and ruin… Another Emerald was forgotten… the only one that could appease nature's delicate Order was lost… for what seemed like forever."

"There she goes again," Rouge softened her anger, now more confused, "Calling this 'Order' like it's something real and tangible..."

"Without her gift of life, Chaos's destructive rage could not be challenged nor appeased, and his heart sank deeper and deeper into its darkened state…" Tikal shined her light once more out to encompass the three, who were already pretty shaken by the image they had witnessed but looked to see Chaos bound to the Master Emerald, huddled in darkness before turning his head to a metallic ring.

"The Chaos Emeralds may have been a deceit to wield the power of the Gods… but one Emerald remained uncontrolled." The image turned to the survivors of other tribes, some even Hedgehogs... working together to seal the Echidna shrine cave and carrying a pink crystal...

"Those are..." Rouge could tell it wasn't the Echidna people...

"Only a few remained..." Tikal floated by Knuckles, "Including your ancestors..."

Knuckles watched the scene... before seeing a small group of Echidna's waving their hands along to show support and guide the way of the other tribes of different species, helping them to hide the crystal...

"There was no anger in their hearts... only misery... and the deep, unwavering desire to make right their people's wrongs... mend and atone for what they had done."

Knuckles lowered his head, the tears finally, softly rolling down his cheeks...

Rouge caringly looked at him, worried. "Do you recognize them?" She had never seen him so emotional like that...

"No." Knuckles swallowed hard and used his arm to wipe his eyes, "But I can feel that I do..."

Tikal waited patiently... before speaking again the further truth she had carried, "Since she'd been weakened when Chaos was forced to destroy a piece of her power,… she had been in isolation within the very caves my brothern mined the Chaos Emeralds… before she granted power unto the lifeless stones…"

"Mined?" Shadow questioned, but tried to not interrupt. "If power like that can still be forged..."

"Without Order, there cannot be an Era of New Life, and the Planet Egg cannot sustain its powers... Currently, no such power can be made again... for the Planet Egg wanes in its life..." Tikal solemnly declared the first answer the three had gotten in a while...

"Life... is waning?" Rouge didn't understand, "What are you talking about?"

"And what does this have to do with Chaos and those lights?" Knuckles pivoted back to Tikal, "I'm starting to realize... this 'Lost Emerald' is extremely important, isn't it? And it's causing events to come to a conclusion, not a repeated tragedy,... but an even worser one... right?!" He stepped forward, boldly, "That's what you've been trying to say?"

Tikal moved forward after a moment of pause yet again, and the three began to move like a ghost-image through the center of the large cavern within the mountain, traveling at quickened speeds without obstruction through the rock and stone...

Deep in the tunnel's belly lay the sparkling cave, but the past flashed before the three's eyes and suddenly... there wasn't a Crystal anymore. Hanging from the cave's ceiling was now only the fallen rock... and beneath them, The Eggman Empire's logo upon some forgotten, metallic scraps. "This forgotten Deity has been freed from her exile… but the abilities she gave to wield Chaos have once again been used for wicked purposes by her creations. Order has been challenged. History will repeat its duel if Chaos is to battle her once more. She mustn't be injured again. If she is destroyed, then all life will cease to exist!" the vision blasted the three, causing them to cry out in a bit of fright and shock, as they were quickly taken to what seemed like a futuristic time.

"All the lives that she had given the breath of life to… will be drained in hopes of granting her power to fight against Chaos for strength," Tikal revealed herself, before millions of girls behind her… falling over and fainting. "All life she created… will forever be... no more. And the longer her power drains the Planet Egg, the more this world will remain completely desolate of all life that renews..."

Rouge's knees suddenly quaked and she felt weak, toppling over as Shadow and Knuckles quickly rushed to her aid, holding her up. "Rouge!" they cried out in unison.

She twitched under an unknown power… "Hnh... Uhn... uhh..." her sounds of pain and struggling to remain conscious made both Shadow and Knuckles's eyes shake in understanding...

"Anything that bears the mockup of life..." Shadow repeated, clarifying or making sure he understood Tikal's words.

"... So... anything that can produce it... but... can't we-?" Knuckles looked to Shadow but he shook his head.

"We're only one vital element of the process... we do not have the means to create life." Shadow explained, "Although important... we cannot carry life in the same capacity as... they can." He looked up to Knuckles, as though this was worse than he could have imagined.

Tikal waited once more in absolute patience, before drifting over to Rouge, placing a ghostly hand on her dipping head. "Although men are the source of great power in this world... Harmony controls that which creates life, not what sustains it." she looked to the two men, "You are born of water... as dust and oxygen gave you life, you remain in life by the water and substances found therein." She then looked back to the weakened Rouge, who gripped her heart as she could feel it slowing down... "Without Order, we are all doomed... Man... and Woman... Plant... and Beast..."

"It's all interconnected." Shadow realized then, looking to Tikal, "If we don't stop Harmony... the world will become infertile."

Tikal nodded, "That is correct." and removed her hand from Rouge. "Life will cease to exist... and the life that was here... barely able to hold on."

"She means us." Knuckles tightened a fist up as he scanned the ground, still using his other hand to help with Rouge. "My people... didn't just destroy other civilizations... they almost destroyed the very fabric of the world!" He swiped his hand out, "I can't stand the shame of my people's blunders any longer! I have to do something!"

Tikal's face grew hardened in compassionate fear, "Harmony will pull that life… unwillingly out of every female that still breathes… Out of every plant, out of every substance that gives life such as air that remains in the skies or in the waters… Soon, every creature or life form will perish... For it is Blood that gives life… and water that sustains that life. This is how Order is run. By the waters of destruction… that fill what is needed for life to begin."

She spread out her arms, the vision glowing around them before they were transported back to the shrine, her body forming into a prayer-like stance as her hands came together… then her body faded into a glowing ball of light again.

"Blood gives life… Water sustains that life… Harmony is peaceful existence manifested… Destruction paves ways for constant renewal of that peace..."

Shadow and Knuckles watched Tikal's light fade in horror, as Rouge slowly came too.

"U…Ugh…" she gripped her head, "What on earth was that..?" She started to gain power back to her legs, and her heart beat mightily as she began to rise with the help of Shadow and Knuckles, still somewhat taken aback by Tikal's declaration and words...

"Rouge…" After Knuckles's worried reply, Shadow looked down as Knuckles matched his concern with the same avoiding gesture, keeping his eyes lowered to the ground.

"If Chaos is the water that sustains the balance of life and death… then… this other god… she wields the balance of what is able to give life and use the powers of that which lives. In other words… She is creation itself..." Shadow began to get up, helping Rouge to her feet.

"You mean…" Knuckles also helped her from behind, seeing she was still a bit wobbly from before, but looked around her to speak to Shadow in front.

"The extinction of all life… The stale state of existence with no birth… no livable substance." Shadow shook his head, turning angrily to Chaos, a fist tightening as he held it up. "Which means… tsk. This is bigger than just Eggman! What is he doing with a power that can create anything!?"

"If that… thing can do all that… Then in order to restore balance to the world's.. uh… Order… she'll have to suck dry the entirety of the planet to equal what she lost from Chaos's attack?" Rouge thought she had gathered something from the vision of the two fighting, and all those women collapsing… but the aches that swelled in her kept her from fully being attentive.

"Not just women... plants... anything that can hold and create new life." Knuckles scratched his head, "If men are water, and women air and dust... uhh... Blood..? I'm a little lost, confused, but I think I get it..?" He held his head a moment, trying to better find words to explain what he thought he knew from Tikal's warning.

"Seems so," Shadow responded, his teeth gritted as he glared at Chaos, seeing him doing nothing in his eyes as he stared at the three... He never looked back at Rouge or Knuckles but kept his eyes fixated on how to help the world continue living... and Chaos seemed a huge threat to that planning and ultimate goal.

Knuckles still looked worried, seeing Shadow's reaction, his anger directed at Chaos, he didn't know what to expect after all this revelation... "But then…" he looped one of Rouge's arms over his shoulders, hoisting her up halfway, and then kept his words to Shadow alone, having Rouge look at him with a blush from his kindness. She may be recovering, but he was still willing to aid her while she needed time to fully restore her strength.

His chivalry didn't go unnoticed by her…

"We need to find Sonic and Tails!" Knuckles bolded tried to turn Shadow's anger from Chaos to something useful and more significant. "Tell them what Eggman's up to and stop this deity from doing exactly what Chaos started! Destroying the world!"

Shadow stood up from his bent, fighting stance... " What is Eggman up to? With so much power at his fingertips..." He muttered to himself, before looking behind him, calming down to be rational, somewhat. "In a way, I suppose that's what they both will do." Shadow looked down at the ground, lowering his fist as he thought of Maria's life being taken away… of how Rouge looked…

Only he knew what dying looked like…

"I can't stand a being with so much strength... that it picks on the weak of this world." He closed his eyes, remembering the day she was shot by a full-grown man... and she was just a child. "We have to stop it," His eyes opened with a vindictive spirit in this statement. "Before it leaves all mankind without any hope of survival, of generations to come." He began to walk passed Rouge and Knuckles, "... We have to kill it." His eyes squinted, narrowed in his sights. "Anything that threatens the hopes of this world..." Maria's promise... Amy's renewal of that promise... his life's purpose... the reason he remains the ultimate lifeform... "If everyone on this planet is dead-" he stepped firmly to the ground, dust flying up in his wake at such a strong footfall to stop his forward progression...

"Then there will be no dreams to be had... or to protect."

He looked up to the clouds...

The eerie world seeming drained of bright colors, muted by the new story unfolding for this world...

This planet...

And all those that dwelled in it, herein.

"Taking life already made… using it to power herself… You don't think that spirit was suggesting that Eggman would use this god to purposefully fight Chaos?" As Rouge spoke, Shadow still wasn't looking back at the two, just sending a straight message through to Chaos, a death threat that with any wrong move... he'd be forced into direct action. "She said that god wasn't strong enough to do so!" Rouge looked annoyed, not seeing the facts add up. "How on earth are we supposed to bring those two together then?"

"Unwillingly…" Shadow growled out.

He then continued as his gloves made a tightening sound with their fabric, his fists clenching even further at how useless and pathetic Chaos was... just standing there... observing their world crashing and burning before his stony, emerald eyes. "The spirit implied the fight wouldn't be by choice… If we somehow freed this deity from Eggman's grasp… she could combine her strength with Chaos to restore what has been lost." Shadow looked down to his side, addressing the two at last behind him more directly. "…Would that be suggesting resurrection?" he wondered a moment out loud before his thoughts became only directed toward himself, 'A renewal of all life..?'

'Maria... was it too good to be true?'

"Shadow…" Rouge noticed him deep in thought, worried that his mind would suddenly rampage with thoughts of Maria's life being returned to her. It was exactly what she had feared, and Shadow's eyes suddenly darted to reality and nodded to her concern.

"Knuckles is right… we need to find Sonic." Shadow quelled his curiosity nad maddening hope for a moment. He needed more answers, first... Chaos would have to wait...

"Then… you'll join the cause?" Rouge was now speaking more about G.U.N. "We could really use you on this one." She got up, but didn't part from Knuckles's help, which he didn't seem to notice was an issue anyway…

Her arm slid lightly from his back, almost like a gentle reassurance that she was gaining her footing back, but he still loosely kept his arm around her, lowering the other mitten that had been holding her hand in place, letting it rest on his back.

"… I'll take your offer." Shadow turned back to her, holding out his hand, "If you abandon G.U.N's mission."

"What?!" She stepped back, now letting go of Knuckles's hold on her as his arm caught her waist briefly as though he was worried she would trip, his large hold on her waist gave her somewhat a subliminal comfort, and she continued to address Shadow as she rebalanced herself. Knuckles looked to see her hand immediately place itself on his own, where he was holding her, and it caused him to innocently double-take from her face to her hand, before realizing she didn't even notice her actions at all. Her mind was too focused on Shadow's behavior... it wasn't like him to get so wrapped up in world affairs with such anger and animosity.

She knew then... Shadow was thinking about Maria... this just became oddly personal.

"For now… anyway." Shadow kept his hand extended, "I'll need you to do something far more important for me..."

"Hmm?" She rose her eyebrow up, "Like… what?"

Rouge stepped out of Knuckles's hold, "You can't seriously expect the dead to rise again, Shadow." but while she tried to speak reason, Knuckles's eyes widened as he naively thought she needed his support, but it turned out she faked needing more of it. "Hey!" he let her fully go as she ignored him, but he gritted his teeth in annoyance at her deception... she had been keeping him close this entire time, just wanting his arms around her. "Tsk..!"

How long had she been playing weak on him for!?

Shadow didn't respond to her, but just gestured his hand down more to show he wanted something, "First… I'll need my software back." Shadow looked a little annoyed he had to wait for so long.

"Ah! Ohh..! Haven't you learned anything!?" she looked extremely insulted, swiping her arms up to shake them by her face and then down to her sides, bending her back in her frustrations at him. "You're not selfish, Shadow! Quit acting like it's all about you when you know it's-!" She cut herself off... he'd never admit how worried he was about her, would he? Huffing and holding back the reins on her anger, Rouge took the device out and smirked smugly as she held it with two fingers,… swaying it up by her face. "How do you ask a lady..?" she teased, wanting him to show her that winning smile that proved he had a heart made for others...

He just stared at her... a strange sense of entitlement that suggested he wasn't going to beg.

Her eye twitched then in fury, seeing he wasn't willing to play along at all right now.

"Properly." She declared.

-Eggman's Hidden Headquarters-

Back in the large, empty, hallowed rooms of Eggman's domain…

Robots remained motionless as lights flared out with cries of horrific torture from within a holding area.

Eggman's goggles shone with each color that passed them, safely behind what looked like a slanted glass, peering into a chamber where the crystal was hoisted up by three claws near the bottom of it. A perfectly, stainless white covered that room, except for the flares of light as Eggman clicked a button down and the crystal was shocked by the three Chaos Emeralds.

They were held up by what looked like metallic pedestals. Each had a laser equipped to it, as he seemed to be trying to get the mysterious power to work under his power and control...

Orbot and Cubot flinch with each painful, metallic ringing of a cry as their whole circuits were affected by her screeches.

"Make it stop…" Cubot whined, flopping his stem-like arms up over his head, as though to hide from the sight. "Such beautiful lights... for such dastardly purposes!" Little did he know the significance of that poetic line...

"This is outrageous!" Orbot removed his hands from where his ears would have been placed and floated over to Eggman.

"Hurts… doesn't it?" Eggman grinned devilishly. "This is nothing… compared to what I have in store for you…"

"Doctor, this is torture!" Orbot gestured his arms up to Eggman, as though pleading.

"I know." Eggman leaned back a bit, as though stiff but trying to relax.

"Please, see reason..!" Orbot continued his plight for empathy. "This isn't like you..."

"Is it?" Eggman held up the button that his thumb was firmly holding down again, moving the wire it was attached to out of the way so he could lift a leg up over the other, "She's being stubborn and won't come out... how else do I devise a way to tap into her power? Even by force if I have to... I'll find a way to secure the power of spontaneous creation, yet!"

"But you're not even giving her any instruction on what you want her to create! At least… give her a blueprint to fashion your creation out of! What are you thinking? Are you just… expecting her to create it out of thin air!?" Orbot swayed his arms about in differing circles, "She may not even fathom your genius designs, Boss... Please, give her at least the understanding to accomplish that much!" He put his hands together, his eyelights bending in compassion, "This just... seems illogically unsupported... Like spraying a dog's face before it even learned what you wanted it to do right."

"…Oh?" he let the button his thumb was pressing down release, as the crystal's ringing cry slowly monotoned out and bounced along the walls, like an echoed hum. "I'm not asking her to make me anything, yet, Orbot."

"B-but… the torture…" he twiddled his fingers, "I don't understand…"

Eggman's lips curled.

"This is just intimidation."

He pressed the button again.

Another painful ringing of agony escaped the holding chamber, rattling the slanted glass as a beautiful display of shaking, almost like floating fabric lights danced in pain around the white, geometric room. The electric, color-coordinated with each Chaos Emerald's pulses shocked the Crystal, and the goddess trapped in its metal case. "How does one control an all-powerful being, Orbot?" Eggman asked, "A rhetorical question, mind you." He got up and spread his arms out wide, his goggles still on and blocking his delicate, beady eyes from the harmful rays of light, "Behold! Gods CAN feel pain!" he laughed, "And what better way to teach a god that greater power exists more than themselves?!"

The ringing began to increase in volume and pitch, causing Eggman's body to twitch as he suddenly couldn't handle the high frequency.

He released the button, falling back to his chair, as though jarred out of his moment of arrogant tyranny.

"Ugh, a light show for sure. But any more of that ringing in my ear and I might just go deaf." He wiggled his pinkie finger in his ear as he grumbled from being unable to sustain any more of Harmony's piercing cries.

He pouted, "Guess that's all I'm getting out of her for today..." He stood up to walk to the door. "Alright, enough fun." he put his hands behind his back, the button still in them...

He smirked and removed his goggles, adjusting his glasses for a second before putting his hands on some levers and contraptions, "Now,… I'm fairly certain there's a way to remove you from that crystal… considering Chaos had a weaker form before being in physical contact with the rest of his powerful body... Of which, I'll remind everyone present, you locked in the Master Emerald, using the Chaos Emeralds as types of 'keys' to utilize his power through. So that the poor, abused mortals you cared so much about could still wield the power of the unfair god. However... no such 'keys' exist for your prison, now, does it, my dear?" He moved a few things around, looking at them with a sneer of excellence in evil. "Oh, how little did I know, then! What little the ancients knew compared to me, and how awfully dreadful your tragic 'little knowledge' was of their betrayal and lies to you, Harmony dear... But good thing I like to keep an open mind about sequels to these eventful, fateful phenomena of history..."

He laughed as he pulled the three Chaos Emeralds to one side on their platforms, looking like a metal waiter's dish. The metal casing folded away like a flower from the crystal and opened the room up to its deadly powers, as it was now obvious to Orbot that Eggman was using the Chaos Emeralds to try and 'tap' into Harmony's crystal and pull her out.

"AHHH!" Orbot and Cubot held one another. "H-he's releasing her from the crystal!" Cubot whimpered a simulated cry, as Orbot just shook in fear at Eggman's planning. "You really are a genius! Though, you may have just unlocked your execution!"

The two trembled as Eggman pulled down the cranks and shoved up more levers, "The 8th Emerald is a terrible name." he began, spinning other devices and pressing multiple buttons, stepping on something like a pump beneath him as another machine came down, looking like it was to extract the god… "There were multiple Emeralds… I've seen them myself. Stole a few in the past, too, back when Sonic was but a hoglet in my shoe!" he moved to observe her closer, looking still as confident in his power over 'the goddess of nature' still,... "But over time they began to die and dwindle off… And you know why, don't you, my little.. Haaaarrmony? He purposefully emphasized that part of her name, before charging up what looked like a descending laser. Massive around its back, but precise and tight in its front barrel.

He shoved his face up against the glass, the button now supercharged and glowing at the tip of his hand-held, wired-up device...

"I don't like it when I can't see the face of my 'ethereal' slave…"

A power-trip...

Over an ancient being with such power as to be called a goddess...

What a madman.

A legend.

He shot out the laser, which split into five energy beams that zigzagged like the electricity out of the Chaos Emeralds. Using the Emeralds as a barrier from any 'backlash' she may throw, Eggman grinned even wider in excitement when the forcefield from the three's power was activated, powering the beam.

The energies moved like long, pinballing fingers that slowly concentrated themselves on the crystal, digging easily through its hot surface and reaching into where the blood and air mixed.

A figure began to form, looking as though it was running the opposite way before a mass of pink and red began to be pulled from the crystal. Dragging the figure from the core of the crystal, the lights tugged and pulled, as though the creature was desperately trying to fight being ripped away from its cruel prison... as though it would rather remain trapped in safety than defenseless outside of it.

The light in the crystal began to fade as the creature was finally gripped by the five energy beams and crushed out of the crystal, forcing it to be removed… shoving it against its prism prison until it gushed out in their thin but painful energy-hand hold...

"Those other Chaos Emeralds were drained of their power… slowly running dry as time went on… I wonder who could have taken and hoisted all that power..!?"

Eggman turned his face in towards her slowly morphing form, showing a round head that split out into two long triangle-like ears that rested down from her head. Patterns were formed out of the blood that moved like irregular bubbles in her pink fluid, and her eyes crystallized into the red ovals that Chaos bore, but in a different color. The texture looking like bug-eyes in a way, but solid and orbish, like stone. Her body was more feminine than that of Chaos, but still blobbish like his own. Her feet and one arm formed much like Chaos's stature, but the patterns that were associated with her head seemed only to consist there and on her triangular appendages that came down from it… The rest of her body was fluid of pink with hints of yellow, red bubbles that formed from air pockets that contained blood, and the blood vessels that formed the red triangle patterns on her head and back-'ears'... a feminine counterpart to the God of Destruction's kind...

She looked around, her eyes revealing her emotions to seem scared and hurt as her fluid morphed and bent like eyelids to express her distress.

The energy held her in as she looked down to Eggman, her blood making bubbling noises that were strangely different than Chaos's…

"... Her blood boils..?" He found that amusing.

"D-Do-Doc-Doc-Doctor..." Orbot's gears were clanking in fright, reaching shakily to Eggman's coattails.

Eggman just grumbled, a bit of a light scold for Orbot's cautious cowardness, and fanned his hand away from reaching for him from behind. Why wasn't he more concerned about the power he was unleashing back into the world..?

Her eyes bent back to reveal her suffering, and for a moment, even Orbot and Cubot fell for their pleas… as though she begged for mercy and isolation from cruelty.

Eggman was unphased, holding his hands behind his back, he revealed the button still held tightly within them, the wired chord that trailed around him was like a snake coiling around Eggman... seizing him in greed for power. "Obey?" Eggman's smirk spread widely across his egg-like complexion.

Her eyes widened, the fluid pulling back to give emotion to her rather detailless face.

He removed his thumb, his eyebrow going up. "And you don't get shocked." He explained, seeming to take Orbot's advice at last... or had he planned this all along?

She closed her eyes in relief, the pink fluid covering her stony eyes as she lowered her head, laying with her one arm tiredly down to hold her up, and her legs bent delicately as though docile in nature.

"But if you don't…" his voice grew grave as he leaned his head forward, before laughing as he clicked the button down.

Seeing her form being shocked, terrorized Orbot and Cubot, who looked away and ducked their heads, unable to bear this awful sight.

"I can't look! It's not the same as hurting a rock!" Cubot cried out, flopping his arms over his square head and clinging tightly to both sides, squinting his eyelights. "She's just a helpless girl!"

"She's no mere girl..." Eggman's merciless expression now made some sense... he saw her as power, not a lifeform... but one that was stealing power and life...

"You idiot!" Orbot shook his head to Cubot, "She's tied to the rock! She's not actually a rock!" He scolded, "The rock is made of the same material that the Chaos Emeralds are made of! She created the rock!"

"Say what!?" Cubot leaned up, looking to his friend, before turning around, "Ahh!" seeing the image again as though foolishly forgetting why he was ducking down and did so again, trembling.

"If my prediction is correct… the Chaos Emeralds still hold the power of Chaos's destructive forces. Not just time and space powers… they hold the source necessary to contain half a god's strength." Eggman watched the Chaos Emeralds' power shocking the crystal, inadvertently shocking her as she bent her body down and twitched, writhing in the painful experience as her form started looking as though it was being ripped apart. Her beating heart organ that had been stripped from the crystal pulsed in a hyper manner, mightly showing her struggle against the torture. She took her one arm and hugged it around herself, a metallic ringing and beautiful lights... the only cry she could muster now...

"I'm... not.. following~!" Cubot whined out, trying to sing through the cries of pain behind him as if saying in an obnoxious way- 'I'm not listening! Neh, neh!'.

"SHE'S BEING PULLED APART!" Orbot cried out, "The Emeralds were used to contain the power of the gods! She's being ripped from her own body by the Emeralds trying to pull her into them! By three different avenues!"

"This really is torture!" Cubot exclaimed.

"Exactly...!" Orbot proclaimed.

"On my ears! My whole metal frame is rumbling!" Cubot kept shaking his head, his lower square also trembling from the power and cries.

"Ah! You still don't get it!" Orbot stopped trying to explain the situation but just waited for it all to be over... for Eggman to be satisfied at last by her submission to his reign.

Eggman's clutch on the device shook and he suddenly released his thumb from the handle, revealing even he couldn't handle the painful shrill of metallic humming, affecting his body as well.

He had covered his eyes, but was panting…

Was something wrong?

He tried to chuckle… but felt the air in the room get a little…

Thin.

"Clever… You're-" he tried to breathe better, "Oh, so clever… hahh… haa… Taking the oxygen out of the room isn't very nice. Cutting off my flow of blood is also..." He gripped his heart, feeling like he was about to go into cardiac arrest as though that was the last she could do with her powers to fight against him.

He leaned back, bending his knees and putting a hand to one to stabilize his almost motionless body. The tendons in his body tightening and cramping from lack of oxygen, and his blood circulation slowing caused his senses to weaken, making him tingle in numbness.

He put his hand over his mouth, realizing then that as he looked up, she was twitching in the fingers of the lasers, pulled back up by the machines, to then be lowered yet against the ground once more. Up and down... once suspended in the air, then down before the button clicked again and she was raised back up in pain.

Eggman's eyes dried up, he rubbed them under his glasses and goggles... This was starting to get to him...

"… Haaa… haahahaa hoo… whooohoo…Ugh."

In a moment of compassion, he turned off the lasers.

This time, she fell harshly to the ground, splattering into liquid ooze that sizzled for a moment… but didn't steam.

She began to reform, trying to desperately lift her head up.

She looked just as spent as Eggman, who was struggling to keep his massive form still standing... bending on his knees as he looked at her, and then the button.

'It's like... torturing mother earth itself...' he wanted to toss the button but didn't... she was the breath of life... and if he pushed her too far to the edge... she'd take his life too, wouldn't she?

The soft, weakened cry of her would draw anyone to have compassion on her.

It was faint was pleasing to the ear.

The ring was musical, but also the sound of a suffering creature, still alien to the ear.

However…

Eggman stepped back,… feeling his lungs struggling, he looked to Cubot and Orbot, "Don't let her… hah haa... soft hums… haa, haa" He coughed, "F-fool you into forgetting what she actually is..." he leaned over his control panel, beginning to move to the door. "She's the mother of all living… sure… but she's not fooling me."

He waddled out of the room, gasping for air, coughing as he tried to breathe.

"She's a killer..! Haha… she's been draining power to try and regain what was forever lost... hah... hah... in her manipulated battle against Chaos." He caught his second wind, stretching out his back and trying to speak more clearly now, "To break free and restore Order… She is a threat to all life... She killed many in her quest to please her creations... Too bad I'll use all that stored energy to destroy and conquer the beings she loved most! Those that betrayed her will always be full of heartless greed and envy of the power of the gods!" he tried to laugh but choked, rushing to his eggpod and fleeing his headquarters for fresh air. For a moment, he really thought she might kill him, and looked in a mirror to realize his eyes were bloodshot, his complexion pale... He frowned deeply, his breathing now a rush of adrenaline and panic...

He had almost pushed the dainty goddess to killing him... and by some miracle, she didn't.

"She... can't drain my power..." he wiped his mouth, feeling it drying and his sweat trying to compensate as he also had to dab his forehead. "I'm a man... she can only take from beings that can carry life within them... plants, animals,... women." He shook his head, "Hoo, glad I'm what I am." He held to his eggpod controls and drove it through the air, before lowering the circular windows and letting his mustache feel the coolness of the planet's air. "Ahhh..." He breathed deep breaths. "Will be a shame when I pollute everything... I'll have to harness clean air somehow for myself." He was already planning the Eggman Empire... a stain of oil and metallic grim. His paradise, where life couldn't threaten him like she just did.

Back at the base... Once the coast was clear, Cubot and Orbot hurried down to her, feeling sorry for the Goddess.

"Your majesty?" Cubot blinked his eyes in concern, trying to lift her only arm up. "Please get up!" They weren't affected by her powers, being creatures of electricity and having no flesh to conceive any form of living substance.

The soft hum and wavering head that desperately tried to lift itself only revealed her terrible condition to be severe.

"Cubot, hold her head." Orbot lovingly directed, having slipped one hand from her only arm and pointing it to instruct Cubot. However, feeling her arm slip from his hand still holding it, he quickly returned it to her aid, trying to keep her up. "Hold on, Miss Life, hold on."

Cubot nodded and shifted, instead of trying to hold up her body with Orbot, just to her side, he moved to her front and held up her head.

"Oh! We're real sorry!" he moved quickly over to bring her head up more gently, stroking back her two large, long, and soft-edged spikes at the back of her head... They were flimsy, as though they could ripple in the wind... without bone or muscle, they were just like liquid in a thin, see-through bag.

Her gentle, half-closed gaze looked as though she was about to faint… Her head and body bobbing up and down as if trying to just keep its form together.

"Please, just do as the Doc says!" Orbot pleaded, coming over to her eyes. He held his hands together, wanting no more harm to come to her. "If you don't, he'll only hurt you more!"

She weakly opened her eyes to him, before folding her fluid over them again to look as though closing in weariness.

"Do you think she understands?" Cubot looked to his friend, who shook his head.

"I can't say…" He helped her lean against him from the other side, speaking to Cubot on the other. "We're not living, breathing creatures… We have no actual emotions for her to register at all. She probably can't understand what we're even made of." Orbot shrugged in a broken man's stance, before looking up to see the door open.

"We can't let her escape though." Orbot looked determined, "It's in our programming…"

Cubot sighed, softly switching her head to Orbot's for her to also lean again as her heart began to go back to a normal rhythm... her body moving up and down as though the bubbles were showing her breathing...

He hobbled in the air... looking back at her with crunched-up arms, not wanting to do this... but going up to the door, anyway…

With every amount of regret a robot could reveal on his face… he rubbed his hands over the other, having no conscience, but consciously understanding this was a mistake. He looked back at Orbot, who merely gave him the same grievance on his face... before Orbot reached up to the handle… closing his eyes... and slowly… closed… the door.

Tails's Workshop

Tails groaned, putting down his toolbox and locking it tightly with an added push on the lid. He hated watching this, it was like Sonic really didn't get it...

The blue blur himself had brought the drama over to Tails's house, not on purpose, though. He leaned against Tails's bedroom door, where the very epitome of drama had secluded herself—just as tightly—within.

'Hiding from him..? Probably as a way to seek attention,' Tails assumed, as he knew Amy would never usually pass up an opportunity to be with Sonic.

But this time... it was... pretty different.

"Amy…" Sonic exasperatedly spoke out, as though his voice was losing energy, and his patience for this moment was turning duller by the minute. He was at his wit's end. Emotionally drained, he moved the arm that was up and holding his forehead in place away, causing gravity to bump the front of his whole face against the door...

He mumbled against the door, his mouth squished against it in his exhaustion with this ordeal, "Please, just come out?"

"Sonic, why are you two even here?" Tails had just entered from his garage, walking into his home when Amy had barged in, hollering and crying incoherently, and then dashed to lock herself in his room when Sonic came following suit. He came down the small hallway that leads to his room, deciding that enough time had gone by and Sonic still hadn't gotten anywhere with getting Amy to open the door and come out. "And why does it have to be my room!?" He slumped forward, not wanting to be a part of their 'lover's quarrel' as he saw it. "Amy's usually pretty quick to forgive you, so whatever you did, just apologize now so I can get some sleep." He gestured his arms out for an explanation then, "If this is gonna be a while... then can you please tell me why Amy's here? And crying?" He had tried to be considerate with Amy, but now that Sonic was here...

He tried to understand Amy before Sonic speedily showed up, and by then, Tails had lost all energy to try and understand Amy to possibly help.

However... they were his dearest friends... of course, he wasn't just gonna walk away. "Do I seriously need to play the middle man, here?" he inquired. "Not that I wouldn't do it... I just really don't really want to." his ears split to the side of his head, bending back to show he really didn't want to have to mediate here.

Sonic rolled his mouth against the door to turn his attention to Tails, raising his eyebrows and looking pretty hopeless in his attempts. His eyes then rolled and a sad frown of accepting help was upon his face before he used his arms to push off the door and stand up straight again.

He then grew animated and energized when his ears flicked to hear some movement in the room, "Shh, shh, shh!" He held out a hand to Tails which he pumped towards him repeatedly, his face showing how curious he was to hear what was going on...

His head slid to the side to let his ear lean against the door. When he heard soft sniffles, his face dropped with deep lines, realizing she was still upset. "I'm sorry!" he blurted out, "Just come out! We can talk about this! You like talking!" He threw his arms out, then back to himself, "Specifically to me!"

Tails sighed, "This is gonna take a while, isn't it?" He realized he was in for the long run...

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Sonic!" The two boys suddenly straightened out their backs, hearing Amy's voice boom in a braced way from further inside the room. Now... they both leaned against the door.

To the absolute wreckage of any defense Tails may have had for his actions leading up to this point, he was really just being nosy towards his friends' affairs...

But to all graces towards Sonic, he was absolutely allowing, encouraging, and welcoming it.

"I looked like a… a…" With each stutter, the boys pressed themselves even more against the door, their eyes narrowing as though really focusing on hearing her. "A pitiful sack of unwanted… I don't know!" The boys leaned back and looked at each other, as though both were confused. "That's how bad I looked!" Her muffled reply of heartache sounded from the other side, and once again, Sonic's face drooped with a sweatdropped.

Tails mouthed, 'What did you do?'

He just shrugged but gave off a sheepish smile that told Tails it was indefinitely his fault, resulting in Tails lowering his eyes as though helplessly fed up with Sonic's crap.

Tails stood annoyed, still staring Sonic down for an explanation. "Well?" he lightly whispered, "You made this mess, you fix it!" He was at least trying for Amy's sake... but also for Sonic's, too.

And for his desperately slipping and declining sleep schedule.

Sonic leaned away at last, keeping a hand on the door for much-needed support and rubbing his face, annoyed, but trying to actively remain 'chill'.

"I apparently missed a date I wasn't informed of." He put a hand to his hip and blinked at Tails as though this was utterly ridiculous and he needed some validation on that.

"I told you where to meet me!" Amy's reply seemed to scream through the wood.

"You didn't say it was a date." Sonic accusingly leaned away from the door and held out his hands out like he was insulted. "Since when is that my fault!?"

"You slept through it!" If voices could cause physical impact, that door was suffering...

"I thought my day was free!" Sonic threw his arms up, and Tails had to physically cover his face in a small, soft facepalm. "Like it's supposed to be! I was tired! A man can't sleep when he's tired!?" Sonic wasn't raising his voice, even to be heard through the door. He knew Amy was attentively honing in on his replies anyway, so he didn't feel the need to. It was more comedic defenses and light arguing for reason and mercy, but Tails just dragged his hand down his face as though he also didn't see why he had to be wrangled into this.

Sonic looked tired, seeming to just try and resolve this matter or mess he had unknowingly created for himself.

"Please, just open the door…" He slumped forward, "Tails doesn't deserve this…"

"No… I really don't." Tails, in a moment of pity for his best friend, rubbed the bridge of his brows and walked away, deciding to let whatever drama Amy wanted to play out… well… play out.

"I'm going back to work on the X-Tornado." He picked up the toolbox he had momentarily left behind.

"Tails…" Sonic looked back, a hopeless man stuck in the middle of a woman's sorrowful and idealistic complex.

Tails just waved, already having heard enough, giving him a light smile as he did so. "There's some battles you don't need me for, Sonic." Practically telling him he had to deal with this himself, "I'm outta 'ere... Good luck on this one..." he grumbled his motivational friendship speech and opened the door leading to his garage again.

Sonic crashed his shoulder against the door. Defeat meant walking away and having to fight this again another day. Winning meant finally getting through to Amy, which would take more time and effort. He rubbed his face with both hands, 'Pull yourself together, Sonic! She's your friend! She's hurting because of something that can easily be resolved if she just-' He realized then, she was talking to him...

He found some sleep at the corner of his eye and flicked it off and away from his finger, 'Okay. Time to really mean business here.' he took a deep breath, trying to allow the softer emotions to come to the front, instead of the tired and miserably helpless ones.

'Tails is right. Amy always forgives me. It's my turn to actually deserve that favor.' he summoned up his strength once more and tried again to communicate with her.

"Just let me in, Amy." His voice was gentle and entreating, "I really do want to talk to you and figure this out." he paused a moment, looking to the door, "Together." Was that all she needed to hear?

"I waited…" Her voice broke a small piece inside of him... but it was a delicate fragment that made him flinch back, feeling that pain in her voice scrunch his brows into an arch of empathy. "I waited so long that someone tried to hand me money. Money! They thought I was… was homeless or something! Ohhh-ho-hooo…" she whined out her sorrows again, crying with her signature whines, but even then it granted some sympathy to anyone who heard it.

"Oh, don't cry…" Sonic finally let the drama get to him, whining right back as he flopped the upper half of his body down, his arms dangling a moment, carrying the true weight of 'feeling bad' now.

Finally, he brought himself back to an upright position and stuck out his chest, "You're prettier when you smile..." He wasn't going to allow this to bring them both down any longer. He despised this feeling, and he was gonna do everything and anything to make it right! "I'm gonna bust down the door, Amy." he lifted both arms up and ducked down his head, as though about to ram it.

"No, he's not!" Tails's voice shouted from the garage, making Sonic's eyes lift a little and look to where the voice was coming from, before kicking a foot back as though a raging bull about to charge.

"I might!" he cried out, making a determined and funny face.

"You better NOT!" Tails cried out, as Amy just whined out once more and Sonic dropped the act.

He sighed and rubbed his fingers through his quills as though running out of ideas and getting frustrated with his lack of success... 'Amy..!' he whined in his head, 'You've never been this stubborn before!' he thought and spread out his arms again, "Come on, Amy… I didn't know!"

"How could you not know!?" It sounded like a broken heart... and Sonic couldn't take that anymore.

"Ugh..!" he walked away from the door, unable to handle the sad fact that he was the reason she was crying. He looked... so upset... his eyes trailing the ground as though contemplating... When did she ever say it was a date?

'Right now, I shouldn't be thinking about right or wrong...' he told himself, his hands bundling at his sides into loose fists. 'Amy needs me... she feels abandoned and worst of all, alone.'

He made his way to the garage, leaning against the door frame, still looking weary from trying to make amends with Amy. 'And Amy... hates being alone.' he folded his arms, trying to think about what to say next... not willing to fully give up on her.

"…They gave her money, huh?" Tails joked, trying to lighten the mood as he looked up to Sonic, raising an eyebrow. The door was open, so he just ended up sighing and walking through.

"Looks like it." he kept flicking the sleep out of his eyes, "… must have been a while."

"Yeah..." Tails looked a little sad by that fact, too... even though he tried to make a joke of it, it wasn't making the moment any lighter. "You really... didn't know?"

Sonic gestured out his hands in another sad shrug, "Wouldn't be in this mess if I did..." He admitted, "I'm not even sure what happened... I know I was supposed to meet her sometime... I didn't know 'the time', though." He scratched the back of his head. "... Do you think I-?"

"Dropped the ball?" Tails looked at him as though he already knew the answer to that. "You should have asked for clarity, then." he then shook his head, "But then again... I don't think I can blame you. It sounds hard... having a female friend that close to you,... you know?" He raised an eyebrow, trying to understand Sonic, as Sonic just smiled fondly at that, leaning against Tails's X-Tornado... originally his own biplane, before giving it over to Tails's care.

"Sometimes... I really don't understand her, Tails." He let his arms swish about as he flopped his back to the hard wooden table near the plane, flopping back and forth for that moment between the two objects. "Women are mysteries... but... it's not a bad thing." he closed his eyes and kept that smile lighting up his face... which showed Tails that he really did want to make things right with Amy, but just needed a second to think and breathe.

Tails couldn't help but smile back, finding it contagious, as he also cared about Amy and wanted her to be happy as well. He looked down a moment, trying to think of a way to cheer Sonic up... so he would have the strength to get back in there and face Amy's feelings head-on again...

"You know,…" His voice sounded a bit more chipper then, as he tapped his fingers against the metal coating of the plane, one square panel pulled out for him to work on the inner mechanics of it all, "if you really did fall asleep and forget about it, then it is your fault." Tails jumbled his head around as though making a slight point that rang true, but Sonic just looked away and out at the opened garage door… gazing at the freedom of a nice, sunny day and a rolling wind that tumbled over green, grassy fields… just waiting for him to tread along it.

He seemed highly distracted, his mind somewhere else as Tails sighed again, getting back to his work as he pulled up his spinning stool and sat on it. "Sometimes… I wonder if you hear anyone at all."

"I hear ya, Tails… But that's the problem." Sonic scratched the top of his head, bringing it down so he could do so. "I don't know what else to say or do... She won't let me in. She was talking to me... but that wasn't enough." he tucked his hands under his armpits, bobbing his body against the plane as he had once again rotated himself in a spin on one foot and then flopped against it. Sonic couldn't remain still for the life of him... even while thinking... he had to be in some kind of motion.

"If only I could get through to her..."

He wandered on over to where Tails was working, his hands now on his hips and feeling the faint breeze that passed along and into the hot workplace.

"Sometimes… Amy just…" Sonic tilted his head, perhaps restraining from saying something too harsh. "Emmm..." He looked up, straining his eyes shut as he tried to think of a 'tactful' way to approach this.

Tails turned to look over his shoulder behind himself, wondering if he'd continue. "What?" he then glared and pointed his finger out to him and then the door, "Don't say women are crazy! I've had enough of her probably crying her mascara all over my sheets!" he stated, before pursing his mouth quite closed and then silently leaning towards Sonic and saying, "No matter how true that may be..." He winked, showing him he still felt for his side of the argument as well.

Sonic motioned with his hand a constant chatter of talking, and Tails rolled his eyes but continued to watch the pantomiming.

Seemed Sonic felt Amy talked more than she really was 'being' in a moment with him...

At least, that's what Tails got out of it. Remembering their time together, and seeing how Amy gushed or fantasized out loud while with Sonic... he could definitely understand somewhat of what he meant.

"And sometimes I just…" Sonic looked off, back towards the Mystic Ruins in the distance and the train station. "Yeah… uh-huh… okay." He even put in the shrug, but then tapped his head and looked to Tails. "What else do you do or say?" He asked as Tails swiveled on his stool and looked at him earnestly.

"You talk to her. You stay emotionally present." Tails smiled. "I'm no psychiatrist, but I'm pretty sure girls appreciate it when you pay attention to them." he gave him a light chuckle as Sonic rolled his eyes but smiled with him, turning his head away and up to the ceiling.

"You're too smart for your age, Tails." he complimented, as Tails just laughed.

"I've just learned a lot from watching you two's train wreck. Haha!" Tails patted his knee as Sonic just tilted his head left and right in his face.

"Ha. Ha. Ha. Eat it up while you can, Tails." Sonic lowered his eyes and shook his head, putting his hands on his hips. "One day, you're gonna have to appease her!" He poked his head.

"Ha! Not as much as you do!" Tails snickered, swiping his hand to get Sonic to stop tapping him with his finger in such a teasing way.

"I guess you could call it whatever you want, Tails. But…" He walked towards the garage... his silhouette against the sun... back facing Tails. "I just... don't always pay attention. I get distracted. I like to… stare at the beautiful world around me." He closed his eyes and lifted his head up, letting the breeze trail and race through his quills, having his nose bend gently back against the wind like a leaf. "Amy has to … I don't know, to… talk about everything and anything!" Sonic took a few steps, talking with his hands as he motioned them about as he spoke. Then, he seemed to vent a little with his actions and show the chaos of her rambling as he threw his arms in loops all around him. "And then, it's not fun anymore! It's not 'enjoying the moment together', it's always, 'What do you think of this, Sonic? What are your thoughts on that? What are you thinking right now, Sonic? Is it not good enough to have thoughts about it, Sonic?' Yadda, yadda, yip, yip..." He rubbed the bridge of his eyes as Tails could tell he wasn't sure how to express what he was trying to say... But it did sound annoying.

"It's like... I don't need thoughts about it! I'm not thinking of anything! I'm just... trying to have this moment... with you."

He looked away, and Tails suddenly saw a side of Sonic he hadn't known existed in his friend.

Sonic walked as though all his strength was gone, holding a hand out to the sun... weakly making his way toward it.

"If Amy could remain... still... for just a moment... to see that it could be a really great memory in the making... if she just... let the moment happen, you know, Tails?"

Tails felt his body droop a bit... it was the first time... he saw Sonic care so much about Amy missing the mark with what he wanted to express.

He wanted her to find meaning in his company... and he didn't know how to say it without hurting her.

But he did care.

He really did care about Amy... it just... didn't come across that way.

Sonic lowered his head and shook it gently... folding his arms again, "Tsk... Sometimes… I wonder if I can just have a peaceful moment with Amy…" he looked up, "Just once, I'd like to hear nothing from her. Or if she does talk, it's nice to not hear her say something about what to do, something she wants me to do, or something about us all together doing something..!" he threw his arms around him again, moving quickly with his gestures before pacing back to Tails. "I don't know, Tails… It's hard. I can't tell her it's hard 'cause it'll only hurt her feelings…"

He rubbed the back of his head, looking away as though ashamed but in a predicament.

"... You two really need to learn how to communicate." Tails felt a weight in his chest, seeing how much both were suffering from not saying how they truly feel, and what they really wanted from the other. "You have… a certain way of life, Sonic." Tails bobbed his head again, keeping his eyes down and exhaling a moment, just slightly louder than normal. It could have been seen as a sigh, but it was more a reflex to stopping himself, really thinking out his words as he spun in his stool back to his plane he was tinkering with.

As he got back to work, he continued to speak, knowing Sonic was at least listening to this much. "No worries can sometimes translate to not caring. I know that's not true, and it rings true for Amy, I'm sure of it. Even I feel like you are sometimes... distant because of that 'quietness', Sonic. And it's a bit hypocritical to ask us to be still... when you yourself are always rushing about, not taking time to really be with us, either." Tails gestured out a hand, looking back to Sonic, but just seeing him back near the sun again... but his ears were back towards Tails, and it was the first heart-to-heart they've had in a long time.

He chuckled lightly, realizing that Sonic was really paying attention this time, and moved back to the plane. "There are times... where I just want to talk to you... but… it's hard to just 'talk' to you sometimes. You don't go deep. And Amy... Amy wants deep." He nodded back to Sonic, as Sonic stood feeling torn at his words.

He took a deep breath, looking towards the open fields near Tails's workshop... A hardened expression on his face, but his eyes were soft with feeling.

"Amy, and all of us, want something that same 'meaning'. We just got about it differently. We all want… invested time with you… Maybe more in Amy's case... but still." Tails tilted his head to the side, picking up a tool, and starting to crank something inside the plane.

"Heh, you got that right." Sonic kept his arms folded, but finally looked away from both scenes around him and just stared at the plane, looking up at the corners of its design. "I didn't know you all felt that way... Tails?" He looked back at him, "I'm sorry." He seemed to say that with a sincerity that bleed through glossy eyes.

Tails smiled at him, "I'm easier to please." he teased, "A girl's an entirely different matter..."

Sonic shook his head and turned back to Tails, looking more sympathetic. "How do I keep her happy without losing my own enjoyment out of life, Tails?"

That question seemed to cause Tails to look straight ahead, up and away from his work.

He slowly turned back to Sonic with an open mouth, as though ready to say something, but decided against it.

He looked down, "I… can't solve your problems for you every time,… Sonic."

"…I know." Sonic turned away again, "I don't mean you to, Tails." he walked back over to him, backward at first, before swinging his head down and putting a hand to his shoulder. "... Thank you." he lightly stated, and tightened the grip on his shoulder, "For everything... and listening to me." he then let the hand slip off and looked as though he was going to walk back inside...

"Yeah… I know." Tails rubbed the back of his neck for a minute… before an idea popped into his head.

"Hey! I bet you could start by doing something that both you and Amy like to do!" He watched as Sonic stopped his retreating advances toward the door.

"Oh..!" Sonic looked mildly intrigued, turning back to Tails. "Like what?" he gestured out, showing Tails he wanted him to keep going.

Tails's excited face suddenly froze and disappeared, "…I don't know. Don't you two have anything in common?" he turned his hands as if asking for some help on the subject.

The two were so animated, trying to 'reel in' with the motion of their hands for the other to keep going... But both were finding a strange impasse.

Sonic looked at the ground, the energy built up from standing around caused his feet to 'pitter-patter' on the floor as he tapped on the arches of his feet. They never rose from the ground too much, it wasn't like he was lifting his foot. But as he quickly tapped them at different intervals, he leaned his body down, bending as he closed his eyes and thought seriously hard about this...

Tails watched the strange 'thinking' pattern that Sonic did and chuckled slightly, realizing his friend was extremely expressive, and less so with words.

"Ugh, I can't think of anything but cloud watching…" Sonic leaned up with a disappointed groan as he arched himself back to stare at the ceiling. "Does this mean I'm doomed?" he comedically spread his arms out and flopped them down limp by his sides, smacking them against himself. He certainly looked out of ideas and compromises weren't his forte.

"Haha..! You're on your own there, buddy." Tails patted his back and turned back to his work. "Though,... I'm pretty sure Amy loves adventure."

"She loves shopping adventures... highly niche market of adventurers." Sonic slouched down, sighing. He kicked his feet out as he walked back inside, while Tails looked back over at him.

He really... didn't understand Amy, and maybe Tails was beginning to realize that they both didn't quite communicate how much they really did have in common with one another...

Sonic does care about Amy, and Amy does love adventuring and doing things with Sonic... The excitement they feel is expressed differently, but if only they learned how to show it properly to one another...

They both... were so similar, yet... so stubborn and fixed in their ways...

Sonic went back to the bedroom door, smushing his face up against it once again, "Amy..." having no other comebacks but just to keep trying. Was it enough time for her to blow off some steam..? Would she be willing to talk again, but this time, to his face at least?

"Can we just … talk about this?" He decided to just get it over with. Suck up, if he had to, though his pride hurt from it.

However, when he didn't hear anything, his sad little frown suddenly rose into a curious, neutral expression. "Amy?"

He leaned slightly forward to listen through the door.

Nothing…

His eyes blinked and his face scrunched slightly, wondering if she was even still there.

He moved quietly, reaching for the knob.

He wiggled it, and it wasn't locked.

His eyes shot wide for a split second before back to wondering what was going on.

His eyes shifted to the side of his face a second,... 'If she came out, me and Tails would have heard the front door, right..? Amy wouldn't have just left... would she have?' Usually, in this situation, Sonic was the first to exit.

But not this time.

Did she unlock the door?

He slowly opened the door as it creaked out his presence, peering in—nose first—before swinging it wide open with a harsh crash, "Huh!?"

She was gone!

He walked around the room, checking under the bed, seeing that there wasn't the slightest indication that she was there.

"Hmm…" Curious about where she ran off to, he placed his hands on his hips and stopped his investigation. "Hey, Tails!" he cried out, still looking around the room while not moving much. He just leaned to try and glance into the open closet and then the window, seeing it was closed and bolted, so that wasn't an option.

"Yeah?"

"Did you see Amy walk out just now?"

"No… Is she gone?"

That was different. Even Tails was surprised to hear she wasn't still sticking around to seal the end with a happy bow on top.

'That's strange of her.' He thought to himself, worried now, as his hands slowly lifted from his work, and his butt off the stool to go and investigate with Sonic.

"Yeah… must of booked it." Sonic smiled, "She must have. Considering the door was open to the garage…" he walked around some more, looking for some clues but finding none.

He smiled only because... this was so different.

He actually found it kinda... humorous. Was that bad?

'Maybe... Amy really is upset, and this time... a simple apology just won't do.' As he bent down to pick up a fallen photo on the ground, he looked up to realize it was part of something greater and bigger...

His thoughts halted as he got distracted by Tails's collection of planes and old-time pictures of themselves… before seeing one that had been taken down and placed on the desk as well.

Taking a closer look, he picked it up and noticed it was one with everyone in it, Knuckles, Tails, himself, and…

"Oh, Amy…"

With a lovable tone, he shook his head and looked fondly at the tear marks on the photo… He rubbed it with his thumb, "... Just wanna feel loved, huh?" his smile softened and grew, feeling the wet corner and then pining both photos back up on the board.

He thought fondly of those memories with his friends in the photos while he ignored Tails for a moment, looking over more photos on the wall and reminiscing on old but good times...

Not like those days were over, though. 'What was she crying about?' he teased, his eyebrows raising as he knew now what she wanted and possibly, needed to be reminded of.

"There aren't any tears or slimy snot pockets on my pillow, are there? Sonic?"

Tails hesitated in coming in, holding his head down and having one arm over his eyes as though too grossed out and worried to comprehend any answers to that question.

Sonic had a new resolve in his eyes, speeding out the door, he barely even gave Tails the time of day now. Something far more exciting and special was bound to take place today, and Sonic was thrilled to let it happen! "See ya around, Tails!"

"H-hey! What about the mess you two made!?" Tails spun his twin tails as he raced out back to the garage's open door and saw Sonic bolt out the front, speeding off in search of Amy.

"Hmph." He let the tension in his shoulders drop and then shook his own head. "Amy,… Why do you have to make him think so much..?" Tails hovered in the air a second... before giving up the idea of chasing after the two. 'They need their alone time.' he dictated and reverted back to his work, rolling his eyes as his feet touched the ground and seemed in better spirits. 'Sonic will take care of it.' he thought to himself, before picking up his tools. "You want him to be romantic and civilized, but that's not really who he is. He's more like… Tarzan." He laughed at his joke, moving back over to his creation. "And you're like the Little Mermaid."

Amy raced into the jungle, wiping her tears as she moved loose and hanging branches out of her way.

"He's like water and air, and you're like the earth and all things green upon it."

She found herself by a huge lake and stared out over it. Birds took off from before her and she marveled at the sight, admiring a moment the world around her.

"You both find joy in coexistence, but it's hard for you to understand each other."

She heard a twig snap and quickly looked behind her, seeming a bit frightened. She took off running again, panting as she went.

"You both share the same sky… the same horizon and sunsets,… If you both stopped pushing and colliding against each other,... then…"

She heard some form of engines revving against the natural sounds around her and feared it was Eggman, ducking down and dropping to her stomach, covering her head in hopes his forces would go by and she'd remain unnoticed. Instead, Extreme Gears flew by her and she was covered by the swaying, large and green foliage being beaten down by their passing tailwinds. She had remained completely out of sight when her head popped up, gasping at seeing the Babylon Rogues heading for the Mystic Ruins. She narrowed her sights, wondering what they were up to as she got herself up on her knees.

Being led by a feeling of adventure, and after getting a good look behind her to make sure she wasn't being followed, she slowly crept out of the bushy jungle floor and took off after them. She stayed low and hunched mostly but began to make her way to where they were headed, spying on them… it wasn't something she liked, but she knew how to not be seen…

"We wouldn't have the world we live in now."

Eggman's Secret Lair

Finally showing some signs of rebellion and anger, Harmony reached her one, claw-like arm up and pulled herself against the Chaos Emeralds' energy that tried to suck her form into themselves.

Literally being pulled apart, she willed herself up, hoisting her being up to rip her only arm free of one of the Chaos Emearld's rays. She leaned up to rear her head, unleashing a bloodcurdling, metallic, piercing shriek that filled the room with utter horror. Colors danced about, gloriously beautiful, but the tone didn't match the infuriated, sorrowful, and betrayed once again goddess's cry of misery and vengeance.

Cubot and Orbot stood back as fear replaced pity. They looked back at Eggman's smirking grin...

A man with such gall... as to try and tame a being of renowned power...

"There… now we see you finally making a comeback." He clicked a button and a few more lasers came down, threatening to harm her as well as they slank in jagged lines, their electric fingers looking as though ready to grasp her again...

"Like a hydra, ho ho ho!" Eggman looked gleeful, having become better prepared this time for her counterstrike. He wore what appeared to be an astronaut's helmet almost, but metallic and grey, void of color, with a dark steampunk flare to it.

His grin, the only white besides the radiant glasses, as the air fogged up the bottom of the shield that pumped oxygen to him.

"What do you think he's trying to accomplish by splitting her up?" Orbot looked to Cubot. "Do you think he's trying to seal her in the Chaos Emeralds? Much like the Ancient Echidnas did with Chaos?"

"No, you fools." Eggman grumbled, causing them to shake back and flinch in fright, their metal-casing rattling.

"He can hear with all that shrieking?" Cubot commented as Eggman let out another signature laugh. His helmet was also blocking half her sound-frequencies, able to only detect low-registered, and just enough to hear and see the textboxes of Orbot and Cubot on his built-in screen inside... which holographically showed him the monitored state of the entrapped Harmony goddess...

"Chaos and Harmony can't exist in the Chaos Emeralds together. One is of another substance, and just like oil to water, they can't merge in this form…" he explained, stopping the button as she seemed to fall back and look afraid at the new rays that appeared to seize her if she resisted so bold and bluntly again.

"This… form?" Orbot seemed confused, putting a finger up to his metallic jawline.

"Whohoho… just like man and woman… they cannot co-exist, due to the flesh. But-!" He held up a finger, showing he had released the button to Orbot and Cubot subtly. "By forsaking and mixing their two potential energies…" he watched as Harmony struggled, growing more enraged as her eyes blared the red coloring of her eyes, once dim... then slowly growing in great intensity...

Her body began to shine in lighted auras.

"Yyyeeess…" Eggman leaned forward, his eyebrows that overlapped his glasses also looked as though he was narrowing his vision, "Release all that energy you've collected over the years… through the emeralds, the lives of this world, and the power that is so wrongfully being forced within you…" His grin only lengthened as he moved closer to the protective, sheer window… He removed the helmet, wanting to better see the colorful lights, and put an oxygen mask on instead, a safety precaution from the last time,... He still wasn't going to trust her... nor was he willing to lack faith in her abilities.

He placed shaded goggles that were broad and had no bridge but were entirely connected as one whole on, when a rectangular screen appeared with almost musical levels of rising blocks... was he... measuring something else now?

Finally succumbing to his torture, Harmony rose up one last time and bent her back, declaring out a painful sound as power suddenly shone out from her being. She was feeling herself withering, without the power stored within her... she feared she would perish, and all life would die.

The very thing she feared... that Chaos would do to her creations... was now being done unto her.

She took her one, single claw-like arm and looked at it, holding herself in her agony of both spirit and body, and began to let the power out slowly... to heal and comfort her... something... something to ease the pain...

She lifted delicately her head as though about to faint... A blast of her signal beam spread out around her... calling... beckoning for anyone... someone... to save her...

Memories of Chaos returned to her... strong and protective, magnifying the land and seas for her creatures to grow within and upon...

The gentle feel of her hands cupping his cheek as bubbles rose and she could feel their tingling sensation as they rose by her touch...

In that great and dreadful memory of the fond affection they once shared... Harmony dropped her head back, let her arm slide to the side, and dipped her back as power sprang in such a wave that's magnitude shook the very foundational footing and skylined height of Eggman's Base's rafters...

For a split second,...

everywhere…

a booming pulse dropped all women to the ground. A light rose gently out from them, like a curling and twisting ribbon of light which drifted into the sky.

Then, once reaching the sky... the energies manifested blasted all towards one particular area…

As though having been summoned to aid what originally gave them life.

The Jungles near the Mystic Ruins

"Wave!"

Jet swung his Airgear to about-face, like a small, curled arch to bring himself back around while Storm pushed his back foot down on his Extreme Gear to have it rise up and completely lose its momentum, halting in place at Jet's shocking callout. Storm looked behind him at the sudden flopping sound of something hitting the ground hard.

Stopping their rides towards the Mystic Ruins, they both immediately hopped off and tucked the rider's gear under their winged arm, rushing over to the foliage of the dense undergrowth of the rainforest. Jet immediately stopped to look about the bushes, before ripping and shoving their leaves out of his sight to try and find his lost teammate.

Wave had crashed? Was she on the ground?

Storm just looked to Jet and then the area he was ruthlessly searching in, before dropping his Airgear down with a mighty swing and plowing through the bushes, tearing both branch and twig along with the leaves that Jet had attacked. He was a steam train, bulldozing a path through as Jet quickly looked over at his progress and moved behind him to follow the trail he was paving with his massive strength and force of power. His head scanned left and right on the ground for any sign of her, his eyes darting about in an angered worry he refused to let seep through his toughened skull.

"Tsk," His beak bent into a scowl, growing more and more concerned the less he saw of her. "Move faster, Storm!" he demanded, as Storm's eyes shone with a shine of moxie and maxed-out determination. His beak's nostrils flared as he thumped his fists mightly against his chest to empower his body and grow in dexterity. He then rotated his arms so fast it was like an ape carving through the jungle.

Unknowingly, Amy also fell to the ground. Some of her life's essence rose up and blasted away, much in the same way that had befallen every other maiden in the world. Gathering all separately into the sky, like individual aurora balls of misty, glowing lights with a translucent shade of iridescence carrying a prominent color that shone through to represent each unique girl's energy within it, they immediately were thrown like comets towards something... getting sucked through the sky as though called to some origin source...

For Amy it was pink, for Wave it was purple…

The lights danced and morphed into fine lines or ribbony, flowy movements as they weaved through the air, collecting and spiraling down as their beautiful forms phased through Eggman's hidden headquarters. Flying in gentle but rushed strands of balled light from the metallic structure and into Harmony's enclosed chamber, they were being harnessed into the raw power of limited creation by an enraged Goddess, Harmony.

Through this gathering of her once spread-out energy, her thinned resources could now help her fight back..!

But... at what cost?

Eggman could see the legends being manifested, his face suddenly shifting into a cold and hardened state of contemplation.

The Echidnas knew she was limited... that's why they chose Chaos as their weapon and had him permanently weaken Harmony from his rankings...

Because the power of destruction is endless... it forms itself through power from within, unleashing it out.

Unlike the sapping energy force necessary for creation, which brings its power from outside itself, to forge something within.

"D'aw, ha!" Storm cried out, parting with the cracking of sturdy, healthy stems and turning roots up from the soft, moist soil below to reveal their collapsed friend... "What a wipeout!" Storm laughed, happily scooping her up from the ground to bring her up against him, hoping to give her some leverage. Did he think she was just hurt from her tumble..? It would make sense...

She had struggled on the ground and now, even with Storm's arms helping her to her feet, she still felt exceptionally weak all of a sudden. She had clawed the ground to try and move again, but now, her limp body just draped against Storm's widened chest and her numbed legs wouldn't move to hold her up.

Angered by her weariness, she twitched a brow and gritted her teeth, not liking to look like this in front of anyone, even being aware of it herself was hurting her Babylon Rogue Rider's pride.

"Gnarly crash there, Wave…" Jet was suspicious of this, he leaned around Storm's massive form to narrow his eyes at her, "Unlike you though," He moved to the front and put his Airgear down by her own, tossing it before folding his arms as though scolding her a second for not explaining anything, "Being so precise in your movements, and calculating every strain of muscle to move properly... what on earth happened to you?" Jet walks around her and subsequentially Storm as well, putting his hands behind his back as though studying her lack of composure... Still very foreign for him to see in his usually stubborn, and strong-willed friend. She never let anything pass... she wasn't stoic by any means, but she wasn't exactly the 'soft and delicate' type of girl, either...

He stopped once he reached the other side, releasing his tense squint from his eyes and looking down at her legs. Something's wrong with her... but what?

"You were fine five seconds ago... what gives Wave?"

"First,... grk... stop circling me like a scavenger!" She cawed back with less force than usual, but it was still enough to have Jet lean his head back...

"So, you're not completely paralyzed then?" He half-joked with a sarcastic sense of humor... a bit dark too. He went back to his Airgear, deciding to somewhat let it go and he tipped his board towards himself and caught it with his hand, tucking it under his arm again and looking back to her. He reached down and picked up her board, looking it over... it seemed fine... "... I hate to ask..." He grumbled, then looked back to her and winced slowly away, "Is it a... girl problem?" He knew she would still ride regardless, but maybe it hit her harder this time?

Yuck. He just tossed her own board and went to fetch Storm's. "This gonna be a problem today, Wave?" They had wanted to train on this tougher terrain today... but what now?

Storm's laugh suddenly faltered into worry, "Ha..ha..! ho, ho..." he stumbles down to the moist, ancient jungle ground and set her on her back, suddenly worried she was more hurt than they had thought.

"Wave!" Jet noticed she didn't say anything, so he rushed to kneeling at her side and tossing Storm's board to the side shaking her, "Say something! Get mad! What's wrong with you?!" Jet calling out to her only meant she was failing to keep this quiet and unnoticeable. Did she really look that bad to them? She felt horrible... but a sensitive side of herself suddenly worried about her friends... how they may see her... She was weighing the options, breathing heavily and hot to the touch, what did those signs means?

Either way, she was just gonna have to fake it till she made it.

"You ignorant, insolent-" she sped up her talk before arching her back and gripping her stomach, breathing hard again.

Jet slowly leaned back from shaking her, and relaxed his shoulders a moment. For a second there, he was seriously panicking... but he was calming himself down now... hearing her finally answering back.

She turned her head over and couldn't help but expose the deep, uncomfortability of what had befallen her. She was exhausted... why?

"Is it a concussion?" Storm nervously lifted a hand up to his mouth, attempting to bite his feathers through his gloves in stress at Jet's recent, almost desperate actions to get a typical reaction out of Wave.

Jet glared up at him, getting one leg pushing up from under him at a time before whacking Storm's trembling hand away from his mouth, "Quit griping like a baby!" he scolded, and looked down at his hurting friend... "You idiot..! This isn't normal! Go make yourself useful and find something to rest her head on!" He marched off, gathering his Airgear together and trying to help move Wave's head at least onto it, hoping to get her elevated.

It was rather... tender but quick... they had gotten somewhat hurt on their training ventures before, but he had never seen something like this...

"R-right, boss!" Storm stumbled, bouncing back on one foot for a moment as he prepared to rush off to do just that. Regaining his balance with wide, circular swings of his muscular arms, he charged off before Wave finally came to again. Her eyes were dulled before dilating again as though she was in and out of it all over again.

"No… No, don't…" Jet's voice wavered, "Wave?" He snapped his fingers, seeing only the slightest flinching of her eyes before she scowled at had just enough energy returning to her to whack his hand away from her face.

"I'm fine, I'm..." She tried to lean up, but her head got dizzy and her hand moved to stabilize herself from falling back down and hitting her head on the board again.

Jet grabbed the back of her head before her shaking arm gave way, "Yeah, right, and pigs are flying too, yeah?" he teased, but was glad she had snapped out of it... "Quit the tough girl act, are you alright?" Now that Storm was gone... his voice was slightly more mature and serious, as though really trying to be the leader she needed right now.

She looked confused but smiled teasingly and fondly at his attempt to seem manly and concerned for her health.

She wouldn't let that slide... even if she felt as though she was dying a second ago.

"What... did happen..?" she allowed herself to fall back, causing Jet to freak out and fall with her, using his whole arm now to catch her head and keep her from fully zonking out again.

"Hmm..? Did you just... catch me?" Her eyes were a little weak, but the soft, loopy batting of them made Jet blush a second in flustered rage.

"No, I didn't!" Jet kicked his feet out, and that dorky, wanna-be cool punk she knew made her chuckle lightly.

Good, he wasn't completely a changed man...

Bummer... but good.

Storm look behind him, and seeing both Wave and Jet's heads suddenly fall below the heavy foliage of the jungle floor made his beak break apart in a startled squawk of horror. He started racing back, moving things out of his way again to reach them, "Guys! D'aw-ha-ahh! I was only gone a second..! What's going on!?" It was quite cute and comical for the bumbling strength of the team to fall to his knees and catch himself with his large hands, crawling slowly towards the two of them on the ground. "She's okay!?" he seemed to cheer, seeing her look over to him but still breathing weakly, smiling at his idiot-self too.

Aww... her friends love her... whoopie, she's made it in life, eh?

"No! She's… she's… Well, I don't know what's going on! Wave?! Explain yourself!" he shook his arm from underneath her and backed off, rubbing his arm and pushing a thumb into his hand as though it still tingled a bit from being so 'gentlemanly'.

Wave relaxed back a second on the ground, trying to keep her eyes open by giving them a long, paused rest before her expression turned from weakening pain to suddenly growing agitation.

Her arched eyebrows were now sharp and fierce, and she threw herself upright causing the two men to fall back in alarm. "Quick squawking right in my face! I told you I was fine, didn't I?!" she was right back to her old self, but needed help as she tried to get on her feet. Both men waited for a second, then realized she couldn't move on her own yet and quickly went to help by grabbing one of her arms. Holding her upright, they waited for her to gather herself again... seeming very confused but willing to lend a hand if that's what she needed.

They barely ever got a chance to help Wave like this... for a moment, they both remembered she was still a girl, and finally had the opportunity to lend her aid without her resistance.

It was quite... strange for the two men.

"Ugh… uhh…" she looked around her, "Get off of me!" and tried to summon one last burst of energy, slowly creeping back to her, to tug them off of her. Her arms ripped free of them, but as she stumbled and caught herself, feeling returning to her body and legs, she grew embarrassed at looking to see her two teammates had already shot their arms out, stretched and ready to catch her if she fell down again.

It didn't seem to matter that she had thrown them off from helping her before, without hesitation, they were right there to support her first steps in recovering fully again.

That kinda patience... she hadn't seen that look on either of their faces before and didn't know how to react to it.

For now, she was up on her feet thanks to them, but she still had her face grow red in fury at how pathetic she must have looked to wager such kindness from the two buffoons.

She bit her beak down, shook her fists up, and started smashing the ground with her feet in her conflicting emotions.

"Wave…" Jet bit down on his beak, but it was clear he was calling her bluff. "Just knock it off already..."

"Y-yeah..." Storm chimed in, both having sweat lingering on the sides of their faces, "You don't have to fake it..."

Jet moved with Storm to the front of her, their arms still out, and their legs bent as though still thinking she might collapse again, "What's gotten into you today, huh?" he then realized she might need a slight 'push', "Come on, Wave! Take a step! What are you playin' at, huh!?" he seemed to be egging her on in hopes it would help her forget about what she looked like and get her back to her old self again, realizing she really was somewhat afraid of what just happened.

They all were, but they'd never show it or say it.

She breathed heavily, it was as though her energy was swiped from her by some sky assassin... She definitely had fear in her eyes as she felt her body with her hand, trying to figure out why it was so difficult to move and breathe…

Knowing something wasn't quite right… She didn't dare speak it aloud and cause more worry and concern from the two louts... though, they certainly were acting very sweet right now...

She hated that.

But at the same time... something in her heart felt a sharp bit of pain, as though that meant so much to her...

She tried to shake her head but staggered back, still remaining on her feet, but looking wobbly as the two boys prepared and stepped forward, ready if she was to crash and fall again...

Her eyes flickered a moment in pained pride, and the two men's faces hardened in understanding, realizing this was hard for her to bare such shame. She gritted through the pain and shoved their outstretched hands away from her, breaking through their 'line of defense' and stumbling to stay upright, breathing hard and leaning up from her knees.

"Don't you dare look at me like some sorry case!" Her loudness was returning. "What? A girl takes a tumble and suddenly I'm in need of male nurses!?" she ruffled her feathers off, clear body language not to touch her again, but facing her back to her most trusted friends... they lightly smiled, but their eyes still showed glossy fear...

She still wasn't explaining herself, and it didn't go unnoticed by the two men who took glances one to another and turned to get their boards.

It's best to not show her any further comforts, but let her regain herself knowing they were acting casual and normal again... even if they were also somewhat conflicted on that... they understood it was to preserve Wave's pride as a Rider and didn't show any further concern about it.

"Well, then… Pick up your board. We'll walk to the ruins from here." Jet sharply countered back with a spitfire challenge, keeping his voice down and steady, holding back emotion as he knew that was what Wave was demanding of them.

"Walking..?" she breathed out, a moment of tenderness in her eyes before shaking it away from her. "What do you mean, walking!? We're Riders! Babylon Rogues don't walk!" She walked back with hard steps, straining as she pushed her weakened body, but gaining back strength at a steady pace now. "We ride!" she clenched her fist and stomped her foot down, growing more upset as Jet turned back to her, kicking her board to let her know where it was…

She grabbed her board, groaning a moment to reach down and then pull herself back up to do so. To both the men's credits, they simply watched and made no effort to help again this time, even though it was clear their hearts were secretly reaching out to give her the strength to do it on her own. Invisibly, their arms were by her sides the whole way...

It was a while to walk… and she realized this was a quiet test… Neither Storm nor Jet could hide their slight peeks back at her condition, as though still unconvinced, but no longer willing to fight in broad-eyesight of her.

Her eyes loosened only slightly in their glare… realizing she had to prove she was alright to them…

"I'm fine... both of you, quit your silent staring." She knew her voice wasn't nearly as convincing enough... the strength that used to resonate in it could shake mountains... she was losing confidence just hearing it herself... Her arm lessened its grip on her board...

"…We'll move on ahead. Just don't hold us up too long." Jet's smirk was faked, and as soon as he passed ahead of her, it turned to a leader's worry.

Storm already looked like this was being cruel. He could visibly tell Wave was off her game, and looked between her and Jet, before stepping lively when Jet called for him to hurry up, rushing to his side.

"Is this really okay..?" He whispered to him.

"Shush!" Jet spat back, "If she wants to tough it out, let her! Why should we show care if-" he stopped a moment to look back at her, then wrapped an arm around Storm and whispered again, "If she falls again, then she can't complain if we carry her back to the blimp."

So that was his plan, wait for her to fully succumb... fight stubborn with stubborn.

Let the stubborn fall...

With them far enough away, she understood the small mercy… Seeing that they were giving her time to emote without them watching her so closely... "Heh…" she tried to grin… but then rotated her arm and squeezed her shoulder lightly, massaging the area as she did fall but...

The feeling of having her life drained from her just then... that was before she fell off the board... something had sapped her dry, and left her a shriveled shell of herself on the ground...

Jet had realized her pride wouldn't allow her to ask for help, so he walked away, giving her space to hurt and feel without them seeing it... but now her mind raced with questions... what was that? Had something targeted her? It felt like it was a pull from within that seeped out of her quickly... she barely recalled... a wave of light... ascending out of her... before she felt herself flying off her board and soaring back to hitting the ground hard and tumbling at such high-speeds.

It was a leisurely pace for her, but still... the impact would probably leave some bruises... but nothing she couldn't normally shake off.

She looked ahead again, Jet was also punishing the behavior she had demonstrated in a sense… or at least… daring her to prove she could talk that way and get away with it. She wouldn't necessarily deny it, though... "That did… feel like... a million cramps all at once." She muttered and put her free hand to her stomach, then adjusted her grip on the board under her arm and tightened her fingers under it.

Seeing they were far enough away from her, Wave finally showed some of the pain she had felt. She gripped her lower abdomen, unsure what that was, but knowing it was pain and a feeling she had never experienced before.

"I felt years of my life fade away from me… and a strange light… what was glowing all around me?" she placed a hand out in front of her, looking at it.

"Did… Did I get a shade lighter?" she studied the purple on her arms, then looked behind herself. Shaking her head, she refused to speculate too abstractly for now. "Ugh,… must have been all this humidity."

She felt her feet not wanting to lift off the ground… the heaviness caused her to have to go to her knees, before the board fell out of her hands and she stumbled to her knees.

Jet and Storm paused, their faces a moment of concern before seeing her hit the ground, annoyed.

Jet walked over and kicked the board farther away this time, as though saying to get up and get it...

Storm looked to Jet worriedly... not liking this 'tough love' scenario, but realizing Jet wanted her to admit in humility what had happened and stop hiding it from them.

Communication... was not strong with these two.

"Tsk…" Wave shoved his foot away, and crawled with her hand searching the bushes around her for where it went. "Come on. Where did he kick it..?" she wouldn't even address him, she knew it was just a way to wait for her to faint again, and she wouldn't allow him to see her so pathetic and weak.

"... Wave..." Storm put a hand to his beak, he wanted her to just ask for help... why didn't she?

Jet's eyes looked as though guilty of being stubborn too, but he looked away, "Let her deal with it herself, Storm!" he sounded pained to speak that so loudly, as Wave flinched but pulled her searching hands back... her fingers touching her pendant and looking down in sorrow a moment...

She wasn't hopeless... why couldn't Jet have faith she could handle whatever happened to her on her own? She didn't need their help... just that they believed she'd be alright.

... would she be alright?

She felt something soft and freaked out silently, spreading her beak back and revealing her frightened expression, "Ahh..!"

The men jumped into action, parting the bushes, "What, what is it!?" Jet cried out, with Storm quickly gawking beside him.

"What's wrong, Wavvveee!? Huh?" He blinked his eyes in confusion.

Both men leaned forward...

Wave, slowly reaching forward... moved some of the long, broad leaves away to see Amy's face, her softly breathing, and looking up at Wave with the same weak expression Wave had tried to avoid the others seeing in her, and failing beforehand.

Her eyes widened... as Amy spoke the words she couldn't say for herself...

"Help…"

Amy then seemed to faint... and Wave felt her soft quills shift from her reaching fingers, wanting to aid her on the dirt floor of the jungle...

The three Rogues were in shock.

Floating Angel Island

The light sparked the interest of Chaos, turning on the boat as Knuckles stirred the drifting wood, rowing occasionally as the waves naturally brought it closer towards the shoreline. "You know," He began, "This would be a lot easier if you could help!"

Chaos's head frantically searched the skies, seeing the lights and knowing exactly what that could mean.

"W-woah! Hey!" Knuckles, sitting on his butt, lifted his legs up and looked down to see that all of Chaos's shiting was bringing an uneven balance to the raft, making it take on water at different edges, threatening to dip into the ocean and knock him off his 'usually' safe voyage to the mainland. "Quit it! You're rocking the boat, Chaos!" He turned around, holding a fist up to him and the oar tightly gripped in his other mitten. "Can't you be a god of 'Preservation' right now!?"

Chaos seemed to roar in defiance at whatever the lights could mean, causing Knuckles to look up and stare cluelessly at the sky. "What's that over there?" His eyebrows furrowed a bit, "The northern lights… again?" before leaning back as Chaos slashed the air to let out his own signal beam of lights, rippling at a lower altitude than before, and spooking Knuckles into 'limboing' back to avoid the wave beam. "Ge-ahhh! Hey, what's the big idea?!"

The lights, similar to the last rainbowic sonic boom that desperately phoned out to Harmony now trailed off to follow the lights.

As Knuckles continued to try and get the drifting piece of shoddily constructed driftwood to move them closer to land, Chaos lowered himself and dipped a hand into the water. Against the back of the raft, a rising bubbling of water began to surface…

"Useless piece of-, W-woah!" Knuckles was pushed back as a wave rushed up underneath the raft, lifting the rear of it to sail onward at greater speeds, hurriedly accelerating them towards the shore as Chaos's anxious feelings began to look as though he was 'surfing' as fast as he could.

"Well… haha! That's more like it!" Knuckles looked up and saw how fast they were traveling now, before turning back to Chaos with a grin.

His grin faded when he saw the sheer stillness and determination that held Chaos's eyes toward the shore.

He had purpose… but Knuckles finally knew the urgency.

"Your friend's not getting any better, huh?" Knuckles's eyes bent back, trying to share empathy for the god, but failing the mark somewhat. "I can't say I don't blame ya. If I had a Miss… I certainly wouldn't want her being forced to destroy the world." Knuckles sat back up, placing a hand to the top of his head as he let out an exasperated sigh. "Let's just get this over with… save the Goddess Harmony, and restore Order to the planet." He looked a little lazily towards Tails's house. "…Hmm… Wonder if he's even home?"

Harmony compiled the stolen power, though it was originally hers anyway, as her core began to light up into an iridescent ball of energy and lights.

Just like her crystal, the colors mingled, merged, moved, and bent like a beautiful light show as they spiraled around and down into Harmony's being. Her stance demonstrated the power she was gaining, with her legs now apart and her one arm bending and the claw-like hands forming into a tight-fisted ball. Her two long appendages behind her head, which were usually arched down similar to Chaos's form, rose straight up with the amount of power she was absorbing…

It was clear this wasn't a beautiful sight at all.

"Harmony!"

Eggman directed her attention back to him as she strained her entire body into a heavy turn to stare at him, her eyes glowing with the power she now contained from the world's life force and the essence of creation powers and abilities themselves.

"Create for me..! An Eternal, Robotic Army!" he rotated his hands in a circle with tensed fingers, giving a showmanship's flare in his performance of ushering out the command.

Harmony's expression turned to one of sorrow… fluid moving over the top of her eyes in a curved way, as though eyebrows to show her emotions blatantly. Once again… she was being forced to harm the planet she loved so much…

She outstretched her hand… syncing it with his own, outstretching them skyward, his mad expression in the multicolored lights truly made this more of a dark moment than a bright one.

All at once…

A powerful energy rippled the earth…

Mystic Ruins's Jungle

Jet and Storm stopped as they saw plants around them dying randomly, wilting in a slow but consistent lowering of their stems and having their colors turn dark and brownish. Only a pocket full of them created dead spots along the jungle terrain, as though spraying the land with death.

"What the-!?" Jet lifted a foot up, seeing the patch of brown grass that was once moist and green with with jungle grass dying on the edge of his foot, but the rest looked as though it was following slowly with the growing decay around it.

"Ehh.. B-b-bah-boss..?!" Storm held his Airgear closer to him and on his side, holding it vertical as he withdrew away from the strange phenomenon.

"Grr!" Jet pivoted with a stomp towards where Wave was, "Too much is happening all at once!" He spoke through gritted beak teeth, glaring with a clear concern on his face as he saw her using her floating Extreme Gear as support while she moved, carrying Amy along its surface… It was her crutch, she had both arms on it, breathing hard as she was still recovering, and walking alongside it as it gave her body support, and carried the unconscious passenger by her side…

His eyes opened wider and he lost his glare, wondering what on earth was going on…

Within the Mineral Cave

The crystals and materials that once were mined and excavated to form and forge the Chaos Emeralds suddenly shone their protruded selves from the ground.

They were everywhere…

Along the sides of the wall, indented in crevices, sticking out from the ceiling and every which way… the shaking of the earth let ground that had been hardened for centuries suddenly tumble, crack, and fall. They crashed, smashed, and collided with sparks of magic aura unknown to this world by anything else other than Chaos Energy as the relentless shaking of the cave revealed more colorful rocks of uncut chaos crystals, emeralds, rubies, prisms, and all manner of magical stone one could possibly think of!

The robots that were still around were shaking in fear, having been abandoned from mining the cave after Eggman felt their purpose was served… Eggman had no use for the stones since no one knew how to mine and forge a Chaos Emerald anyway, except… the Rubies looked interesting…

The Robots stood around in their clanking parts from the tremors. Sitting ducks, they tried to scurry out of the cave but were being merged with the crystals, as light seemed to trip them and pull as though a ghostly hand, dragging them to be absorbed in a light that began to melt them into the powerful substances.

Could it be…? Was it Harmony's power that truly crafted the entities known as Chaos Emeralds? Or all magical stones to be used and wielded such as them?

It now made sense… why Tikal's saying included the 'Heart'.

Harmony… was heart.

Chaos… was the mind.

Eggman's Headquarters

Harmony shook herself up, the power was immense, and it was straining her physical form. Reaching her single two-clawed hand towards the Crystal that was her imprisonment… The Crystal shone and the stored power shot into it… a conduct?

The Crystal's integrity was being restored, cracks and dents began to heal up with creaking sounds and hard mallet hits showing the repair being done. It was a scary sight to see… but Harmony quivered and shook as the rays of light began to leave her being, causing her walk with uneven steps towards it, hunched as though being dragged herself. Was this… a painful misuse of power? She fell to her knees before blasting her power out… The appendages on her head dropped back down to their normal curved downward forms… she looked spent… as though birthing new life into this world…

Mystic Ruins

The Robots at the cave were mutated and glowed the same energy force, as the cave's rocks exploded with the same power Harmony had just transferred through her crystal! Chaos Stones unrefined suddenly embedded and spread themselves in odd, Frankenstein-like creations around the metal of the helpless Robots. Transforming, their rocky and metallic bodies merged unnaturally, now pumping oil and molten rock through their wires, the caverns carving half their rocky and metallic bodies. No two creatures looked the same now… one could have a robotic arm mixed with some rocky surfaces, while another could have retained its robotic eye but have a glowing green rocky socket as the other.

As each fell from being grappled against the walls and stones they now were one with, they breathed, their first dusty exhale of air. They didn't even look over their new stony and metallic prisons before marching or emerging from their fallen states, crashing through wall, glowing on their Chaos Stone energies pieces, towards Eggman's lair.

Eggman's HQ

"Emerald… Giants…" Orbot's entire frame watched in awe and horror as the monitors revealed the massive amounts of Rock and Steel marching their bulky ways in Eggman's direction.

"The boss didn't want to split her up then?" Orbot opened out his arms towards Cubot, thinking that this was a good result then.

"Stick with the program, Cubot." Orbot patted his head and rushed to see Harmony again, "This could be far worse… greater even!" he worriedly peeked over the railing to put one of his rubbery red gloves up against the windshield of their main control room… "If the Doctor keeps forcing creation… will the creation truly be controllable?" he seemed to make the most profound discovery of his circuitry's functions to communicate such a concept and idea. He rose his head up… not really looking at anything now… but realizing the madness of man and life.

"Can god really control the will of man?"

Eggman let out a low, signature chuckle… seeing the monitors also revealing something else lowering…

The monitors revealed the Emerald Giants, every step they took, sucking out life from underneath their feet. One shoulder, having a protruding piece of Chaos Stone, suddenly glowed and sapped the color and life out of leaves that touched its surface almost instantaneously.

In the Emerald Giants' wake was nothing but a massive arrow behind them of wilting death, of yellows and browns, black earth, and crumbling flecks of plant life blowing in the wind of their lifted and falling stomps.

"Look at that…" Eggman billowed as he slumped in his seat.

"The world is already starting to go infertile… unable to sustain the life upon it… unable to give any more life to it…" he took a drink and slurped the straw, letting out an 'Ah~' as he finished swallowing the delicious beverage. "The planet is dying… Its egg is being sucked dry of every little bit of power it held to sustain this world… this miserable planet… little by little… through her power…" He crushed the paper drink in his hand. "Into my army." He grinned at the empty drink, a jarring image to his two Robotic henchmen who cowered at every evil slurp of his metaphor before gasping in 'Oh no!'s together and putting their gloves up to each other's faces in their horror.

"You're misusing the powers of nature, Doctor Eggman!" Orbot dared to look up at Eggman, shaking out his hands as he removed them from Cubot's shocked expression, but Cubot didn't remove his hands from the sides of Orbots.

Orbot shaking heads and pleas phased Eggman only with a tyrannical raise of his eyebrow to show it. "Hmm..?" Eggman swiftly leaned down and looked Orbot dead in the face, "What do you care? You're not made of life. You're electricity. Man-made. You have no heart. No soul to worry about! You don't have a smidgeon of reason to be loyal to her!" He shook his fists out at him from above on his mighty, blue steel chair… a throne to his great power he now felt he alone wielded…, "You showing any amount of empathy for the girl is plain, irrational ludicrousy!"

Orbot fumbled with his hands back, and as a result, removed Cubots's hands from the sides of his head in his flailing.

Getting his bearings straight again, blinking his eyes down around the place as though to sort out his own feelings into words, he mimed dusting himself off and taking a large breath of courage. Again, only in miming, as he was still very much aware of his 'non-living' circumstances. "I may not be flesh and bone… but you created me to act like one!" Orbot stood bravely, moving away from Eggman to create some distance from him, holding himself erect and with dignity.

"Hmmm…?" Eggman leaned up but kept his body still over the chair's armrest. He seemed curious what this little 'rebellion' entailed… "And what do you plan to do about it?" a question Orbot wasn't expecting.

Orbot's bravery… soon faded away. His hands came down from their crooked raise from his elbow joints, and his 'chest' deflated and slumped as he looked away… clearly not being able to do anything about it.

"That's what I supposed." Eggman gave a muted snicker with the curling of his lips, exposing the pink of his gums, the life in him could care less about the life of others…

"By misusing this power… What do you hope to create?" Orbot hunched over, his hands drooping down, having no fight left in him at Eggman's logic and his natural functions to obey him.

"A new world."

"But…" Orbot had a thought, a thought to contend somewhat with Eggman's logic. With that thought giving him some amount of will power to speak again, he leaned up and put a softly bundled fist into his other hand as though believing he had something worth mentioning against the old mad man. "The laws of physic state that energy and life must come from somewhere!" He floated closer in a small, floating dip towards Eggman's seat, which was turned towards the wieldshield as Eggman had to look over to see him. "You can't spontaneously create something out of nothing!"

Eggman stroked his mustache… knowing his little minions couldn't go against their programmed obedience to him… but knowing he also programmed them to think and have personalities. This was just Orbot being a worrywart, "True, true…" He decided to humor his little metallic brain.

"…What are you forcing her to use!?" Orbot shook his hands out towards the doctor, "What power? What energy!?"

Eggman rose from his chair abruptly, having a strong and wicked presence to himself…

"Chaos once revolted against me… I won't have this power I now, solely harness, slip through my fingers once again!" he slammed the control panel as the two robots hovered away, holding one another's hands up by their faces, turning somewhat away from him and to their sides, cowering in a humorous way.

He slowly leaned himself up, taking in a breath and removing the oxygen mask, placing it down before holding his hands behind himself. There was a pause… He wiggled his fingers behind himself for a moment.

"Orbot… Cubot…"

He turned his head slightly their way, as they watched his back and the light from around them spiral away into the room where Harmony created…

"Do you know what the Ancient Echidna's did to craft the Emeralds..? What power they gave Harmony to then betray her and rule the entire planet?"

The two robots looked worriedly to each other.

"..No?"

With a strong swish of his hand, he turned his chair and jumped into it, leaning right in their faces as they flinched and withdrew back on their backs from his maliciously wicked grin, his insane genius intimidating them right along with his insanity.

"They sacrificed their own people!" He looked to Cubot, "They gave unwilling lives to give Harmony the power she needed…" he looked back to Orbot, "They gave for life for power… and power gives life to my creations!" He spun back around with a push and lift of his feet to face the monitors.

"B-But..! They went extinct!" Orbot protested, "See reason, Doctor! You won't have a planet to rule if it's all-!"

"Imagine the amount of lives they were willing to lose…" Eggman held out his open hand, "Just to wield the power of Chaos?" He crushed his hand inward, "But not just any life will do… Not everything was given… Women have the power to create life… Plants… even air has the ability to bring back life. Water and dust sustain that life… if you really want to get 'biblio-sophical' and go into the nature of religious psychology then…" he trailed off, but Orbot put a finger up to his mouthpiece and interrupted him quietly, causing Eggman to stop his train of thought and look over at him.

"So… So you're aware that the world is going to die… and you don't care?" Orbot looked disturbed and saddened. "But… it's the world you were born in…"

"I WILL CREATE MY OWN WORLD!"

Eggman turned his chair back to the lights still shining from the Harmony Crystal, opening his arms out to it and keeping that crazed grin upon his face. His teeth sparkled with the lights…

"A world… all my own…" his eyes shone with that promise of endless creation, obeying his will, at the palm of his hands…

Harmony hunched over, her one arm gripping her other shoulder as she felt years of Chaos Power she had harnessed to hopefully heal herself fade away from her in vain.

She looked down at her core… seeing her blood rippling and causing it to bubble uncontrollably in her rage. She touched the space lightly, hesitant as she twitched one of her pinchers off of her rolling and smooth, fluid chest, as though shocked by her own natural wrath.

She then felt the power of her creations… all those lives she just ripped power from… Looking up as though sensing their pain and agony from her so hazardously ripping some of her power from them…

The flashbacks of the Echidna women crying out in pain and falling to the ground, weakened and dying…

She looked up… her eyes turning to sorrow as wind swirled around her… such immense regret… she had no idea she was being deceived…

She had thought she was helping keep Order, the balance of this world's conflicting powers to work together to keep the circle of life… She was told Chaos had abandoned such a thing, the concept they both worked so hard to maintain.

Their joy… at least, all her joy came from them… the creations of her power…

She remembered the chao fondly… and water flooded over her eyes as she lowered her head, her arms coming up over her head as she remembered creating Chao, and Chaos bending down to look fondly and protectively over them.

Flowers she would grow for him to pluck and give to the Chao… then take a petal and let it fall over his head into his clear waters… watching as he fussed and squirmed to try and move the petal through his body and then out with a shake of his foot… how she laughed with air bubbles as well and thought it so cute…

Blood moved from inside her eyes to the corners of them, leaking and gushing out around the fluid of her face as though she was crying from the inside…

When the power began to fade in intensity, the lights growing dimmer in the faintness of the still, humming, and white enchamber room of Eggman's HQ… Eggman suddenly looked back down to Harmony's enclosed containment field, seeing if the performance had truly ended or not.

"Hmm?!" he got up, dancing slightly to the large, wide window. "Safe to say the preparations were complete?" he almost sounded too gleeful to be human, rubbing his massive gloved hands together and having a smile that pushed up the sides of his cheeks, as though a jolly old man.

"Oh, Harmony?" He mocked, making it seem like her actions weren't forced out of her, but putting the blame of injury to the planet and its inhabitants entirely on herself. "I hate to have you recall the sad tale of your life to your remembrance, but do hear me out."

She turned to him, her body rippling like moving water… so shaken by her circumstances, just trying to hang on and preserve her own existence…

"But I think you fail to appreciate the irony of this moment…" Was that… a blood joke?! Now of all times!? What a lunatic… enraging and kicking down a goddess, just trying to survive. The true irony was how Eggman always abused mother nature on this planet, so to speak, to turn everything into a mechanical empire where nothing could grow organically anyway. "None of your creations ever truly appreciated the 'ordered balance' you tried to give the world with Chaos right by your side…"

By her side? He probably hated her for what she had done to him now…

She shifted her head away, trying to block the beautiful image of her friend and companion from her mind and heart, as she looked disgraced by that terrible memory of being fooled into betraying him…

His powerful, hurt roar when being sealed into the Master Emerald…

Her creation… for her corrupted creations.

If only she had known the dangers lurking in their hearts… but she was clouded by her love and concern for them… that Chaos could destroy them off the face of the planet they forged together…

Did he even learn why? Did he know she was betrayed, too, soon after?

"Hohoho… You feel it, don't you? All the women you thought were willingly giving their lives to control Chaos… You thought they were being truthful, so honest and pure… just like you designed them to be…" He curled the corners of his lips and tapped in a wave-like effect the tips of his fingers against each other, lowering his head down, already having won but rubbing salt to the wound and kicking dirt in her face for good measure. Was he getting a high off of controlling and manipulating an already down and defeated being? Or did he feel jealousy at the fact that she was once known to be a deity? "But through Chaos's influences upon the world, sometimes, other forces interfere with such… happy thoughts, yes? Don't lie to yourself and say a part of you didn't want him to be sealed away…"

She immediately looked up in shock and turned to shake her head in misery to Eggman, as if pleading that wasn't the case.

Her hand gripped her chest as the bubbles kept rising and dropping within her, a vicious cycle of her emotions showing how truly intense she was feeling his words…

They swirled in her, the blood and bubbles, begging him to stop saying such horrible lies..!

She had done what she felt was to protect the life upon this planet, if only she had spoken and communicated how she felt to Chaos… her concern about his destructive powers over death and renewal… without solely trusting the entities of which they created…

Maybe… if she trusted him more than them…

The regret was overwhelming, and she seemed to violent sob, looking like a lava lamp within her, showing the true colors of the Harmony Crystal were modeled after her own body… Her arms reared up and covered her head, shaking herself back and forth in such horrible agony of soul.

Her heart seemed to contract, as though breaking from within at every beat, as small bubbles of blood moved through her body, showing her emotional state.

"No?" Eggman put his hands on his hips, raising an eyebrow, "Didn't want to be the most powerful being in the world? Well… it's still such a pity… All you wanted was to delight in your creations' peace, prosperity, and happiness… Death frightened you… as it did they, didn't it?"

She refused to look at him.

"You understand my words, don't you, Harmony? How peaceful it could have been… if Chaos was no longer a threat to your endless creation power… right?" He sneered, but that's when Orbot and Cubot looked at each other, and covered their mouths as though realizing what his ultimate goal was…

"If left to the well-being of life, which was your task, and with no more destruction plaguing the inhabitants you created, the need for renewal of a new order for every generation would be void, wouldn't it? Deleting Chaos's part in the equation… what you didn't realize was that all of this would lead to the decline of any order… Power getting sucked out of life until the Planet Egg would eventually die from lack of balance… You, unable to make more resources to flourish the natural land, and Chaos unable to sustain the flow of both life and time till a new form of life took over for the old… So, how does it feel, Harmony? Being thesole reason that death shall remain permeant forever?" He bellowed a laugh, clutching his stomach, "They should switch your roles, as you are the true goddess of destruction!"

His tone shifted, looming over the window as he gazed down to see her distraught and stressed, before flinging his arms out and shattering her very reality…

Did… Was she really just as corrupted?

That's not what she had been thinking… it couldn't have been… How could he say such cruel things..?

But she covered her eyes, the cries of the innocent women sacrificing themselves in vain… the plants withering under her being's deceptive ploy to control and manipulate her power of life…

She had taken life… whereas, Chaos had only preserved and sustained it.

W-Was… Was she truly the power that she was made to fear most?

She gripped her head and shook her body left and right, unable to control the amount of power that was now coming from her emotions.

"Such a feeling god…"

Eggman put his hands behind his back, his plan to mentally cripple her to his will was working… if she believed herself nothing more than destruction, she could cause the very wake of civilization collapse on a global scale… She could build him armies to destroy everything… and there was nothing Chaos could do about it.

Let alone Sonic, or his heroically pathetic friends, for that matter.

The light grew more intense, the Crystal ringing as Harmony crunched her body down and tried to tune out his words.

"How does it feel… to contribute to the creation of your own world's demise?"

She spiked, Her eyes now like flickering beams of light, the wind picked up around her, as though her whole being was denying it, defying his words. Her body liquidized up into the crystal, moving like fluid water that oozed back and sank into the hollow space within. Bubbling and boiling, her body splashed and ripped against the inside of her vessel and cage, now her hiding space, but in no way comforting. Powerful light shone so bright that the guns in the room were melted by it, the heat and the air were consumed in immediate fire… the literal flare of light…

"Hohoho!" Eggman laughed manically, seeing the room melting at her literal meltdown.

"Hell hath no fury…" Orbot began to quote, stepping away from the complete, white-consumed room as the three emeralds were the only thing unmelted… Metal was completely dripping to the ground, the hands that once tried to pull her apart in her torture now reduced to extremely hot goo…

The cage holding the Crystal melted and dropped it, having it crash to the center of the room, leaving a huge indent, just from its weight alone… It was tilted, spiked through the metallic, turning quickly to a liquid floor but for the most part, it was only sinking, not falling over.

"Like a woman scorned." Cubot finished, turning away and simulating crying as he sobbed into his rubber hands at how horrible the situation was. Eggman had completely shattered the feminine being to leave her nothing more than a tangible tool in his hands now…

All that torture… both mentally and physically on her… just to have her submit to his world-crippling demands.

The Crystal continued to blare its heat, creating waves in vision as Eggman fanned himself a second. Deeper into the floor it seemed to escape and sink, creating a strange lava-like substance around itself before the heat died down just slightly… and the light faded away.

All power ceased… and the Crystal remained groaning in agony of heart.

"Hmph, the cooling metal will make it hard to pull it out. I'll get some robots in there, heat-resistant ones, to pick it up before it wedges itself in there." He waved the idea as he turned around to take care of the matter. She had literally sank into despair…

On the Other Sides of Dimensions and Worlds

Blaze and Marine looked up to see a hole in the sun… an essence leaking through it… as though a cascading waterfall of… lights? Colors?

Modern World

Cream and Vanilla, still slightly recovering from the massively spread out absorption, turned to look out the window at the lights drifting in the sky… as though spheres of energies, like souls, moving with streams of mist behind them towards their maker across the endless blue…

Mystic Jungle Ruins

Amy and Wave were helped down by Storm and Jet as they had their heads leaning against each other, completely knocked out by that 'second wind' knocking them out instead of helping them back up. Unbeknownst to them, sitting under the stones of the Echidna ruins… they unknowingly rested under a depiction of women being sacrificed before the sun… strangely shaped…

Like a glowing Crystal.

Eggman's Elemental Army

The Harmony Crystal was moved to another location, being above and in the midst of her Emerald Giants, as Eggman danced and jumped around, hugging and kissing the new creations as though they were his own.

Harmony was shocked by the three emeralds at different times, before finally being blasted and pushed out of her Crystal again, falling down but gracefully, elegantly bringing herself back up… weakened but alive… as the Emerald Giants stepped back and made room for her entry.

They blinked as some tilted their heads, unsure why they felt a strange connection to her…

Eggman chuckled at her 'noble' act to try and seem revered to her new creations, but knew it was pointless to 'keep up appearances' now. He had won, too bad for you~

A light shone in through the metallic walls… it's light different from Harmony's…

…Chaos..?

She fell to her globbish knees, her arm placed out in front of her to hold her up, as her gem-like eyes–usually dried with blood–now wetted again and bleed in shed tears… Her head remained down, too ashamed before finally looking up to see the light, the signal sent by her once most treasured ally…

It blared once, a curved beam much like her own arched rainbowed that circled and expanded like a drop in water through the air, passing against the Crystal to deliver its message…

Her eyes widened in fright and she cowered as she leaned back and lifted her only arm up to cover herself from it. Whatever the message was… it seemed to make her cower before it…

Again, a hopeless look of regret and sorrow covered her body language and the red gems of her blood eyes were swelled over by her fluid, as though 'closing' her eyes to his signal.

Back with Knuckles…

Chaos's gaze remained undeterred from the skies…

Even when no answer was returned…

He narrowed his eyes into a sharp glare with the water flooding a goodly portion of it, shaking in rage…

His bubbles within himself boiled over and out of control throughout his being, lifting both his arms up as though writhing at having no response.

He hunched down before rearing himself up, crying out an angered, ringing sound of an enraged god…

Only the clouds of the sky could hear his want and longing…

Harmony…

(So intense, right!? Woo! Stay tuned as our women fall and the men must rise! But what can they all do to stop this calamity to befall… all worlds? EDITED: Speak with your heart is the THEME for this story XD It's all about communication between men and women to create a harmonized balance in the world. Cheesy? Maybe. But I love it! XD She left him on 'read' yo, I'd be pretty ticked too, lolol! Understandably relatable dude, haha! He knows you're probably going through a rough time, just say something back! Haha. ~Say something I'm giving up on you~)