Chapter 42: Angel Island

Author's note: all information about certain characters and Angel Island is my own interpretation, and is not accurate to all cannon sources. Happy reading : )__________________________________

Sonic's POV:

After a few more days of snorkeling, smoothies, and long midnight walks on the beaches we all finally returned home. With Eggman and his robots no longer a threat, we were able to help the town rebuild what they had lost.

With the towns people taken care of, the only thing left on my list is to ask Knuckles to use the Master Emerald to defeat Calix. Or I guess... beg is a better word.

Tapping my foot anxiously as we wait for Knuckles, Shadow shoots me a disgruntled glare.

"Stop that."

Awkwardly smiling, the tapping slows. Despite that I still receive an eye roll from Shadow before Knuckles walks in.

Eyeing the two of us suspiciously, he sighs as he crosses his arms.

"You can't use the Master Emerald."

Although I'm not surprised that he knew exactly why we called a meeting with only him, I'm still stunned that it was an automatic no. Glancing at me when he realizes I don't have a response, Shadow motions to the couch for Knuckles to sit down.

"We may not have a choice, although I'm sure you're already aware of that."

Reluctantly, Knuckles sits down across from me.

"You should know just as well as I do that the connection I have to the Master Emerald is ancient. Just like the connection that you have with the chaos emeralds, Shadow."

Sitting in an awkward silence as the two of them stare at each other, I finally bring myself to look at Knuckles.

"This time is different, Knuckles."

Raising an eyebrow, his fiery attitude never did change as we got older. Emphasis on the attitude.

"And why is that?"

"... Because I can't beat him."

Watching his expression turn from annoyed to shocked, he stares at me in disbelief. Not once have I ever admitted that I can't win a fight. I've fought battles that nearly got me killed because I was too proud to admit that I wasn't strong enough... But this time it isn't only about me. It's also about Amy.

"The chaos emeralds are the only way that Shadow and I can beat him, but Eggman broke three of them in his experiments. Is there any way that there could be more than seven?"

Rubbing his temples, he's silent for several minutes until he finally says "I don't know".

Thinking for a few more seconds, he adds "the Drakons originally brought the chaos emeralds to our world millions of years ago, they used them as power sources. But even if there were more there's no way of knowing for sure if Eggman found them. And even if he didn't, the time that it would take for us to find them would never be enough before Calix attacks".

Pausing, he looks at me with uneasy expression.

"Can you really not beat him on your own? Neither of you?"

Taking a long, deep breath as I look to Shadow; We both shake our heads.

"My speed won't be able to keep up with his soul teleportations. I can barely keep up with Shadow, and he uses regular chaos magic." Adding on to my explanation, Shadow adds "Calix's soul energy allows him to access untapped energy without the need for a chaos emerald. Without one, I'm limited to a very small range of chaos magic. Not to mention we've only seen Calix scrape the surface of his abilities. Robotnik wanted an all powerful life form, for all we know he has access to a super form without even needing the chaos emeralds".

Starting to grasp the severity of the situation, Knuckles looks to me and asks "so what do you need from me? The Master Emerald can't create more chaos emeralds, it's powers render chaos emeralds useless anyways. I have no idea how to allow you to use its power".

Exchanging a glance with Shadow, I prepare myself for the yelling and screaming that I know is about to follow.

"We want to shatter it."

Flattening my ears as Knuckles stands up, I realize I should have taken up Shadow's offer on those ear plugs.

"If you shatter the Master Emerald Angel Island will fall! AGAIN!! The chao's home will be destroyed for what, the fourth time?? I can't believe you'd even suggest--"

"And the chao will die if we don't. Calix doesn't want to take over our world, he wants to destroy it. We can deal with the repercussions of the island falling, and provide a safe home for the chao when it does. As for predicting how the Master Emerald will react to being used, Tikal has been inside of the emerald for longer than you've been its protector. If there was any Mobian to ask, it would be her."

His face twists at the mention of the chao going extinct, but nonetheless sits back down. Shadow may be cold in the way that he delivers information, but I'll admit that it's always been pretty effective.

"No, we leave Tikal out of this. She's been through enough already, and her memory has already been erased by Ebony once. Not to mention she lives in the ancestral zone now. However I will allow you to use the Master Emerald, on the condition that we relocate the chao and all of the fragments of the Master Emerald are immediately found after the battle."

Releasing a sigh of relief, I hear Shadow do the same. I never thought I would see him worry the way that he does about Amy, I've watched over her for as long as I can remember. With Shadow protecting her, I know that he'll stop at no end to keep her safe.

"Done and done. I'd like to leave for Angel Island as soon as possible, I'd rather not be the ones who are surprised when he decides to attack."

...

Amy's POV:

Soaring above the clouds, being safely inside of the plane almost makes me miss the old days of me and Sonic walking along the wings of the Tornado. Back then, it was only the three of us fighting Eggman. Dropping onto his robots from the sky and watching Sonic spin dash through them with ease. Looking down at the darkened sky now, it feels like such a long time ago.

"Approaching Angel Island, prepare for touchdown. It's going to be a bumpy ride."

Fastening my landing gear, I've learned to listen to Tails when he says we're going to have a rough landing. One too many times being launched out of an airplane will do that I guess.

Listening to the hum of the engine and the peaceful sound of rain hitting the exterior metal as we descend below the cloud line, a crack of thunder loud enough to rattle your skull sounds dangerously close to the plane. As a flash of lighting sends the sirens in the plane wailing, Cream shrieks at the loud boom following shortly behind it.

"Is she okay?"

Surprised to hear Tails' concerned yell from the cockpit, Rouge replies "she's fine darling, just a little lightning is all". Glancing to Cream, she seems just as surprised that he checked on her.

Both Rouge and Knuckles briefly check that Cream is strapped in correctly before securing their own harnesses, just in time before the turbulence begins to violently shake the plane. With the alarms still whooping, Shadow reaches over to try and stabilize my head as it's thrown around by the plane struggling to break through the gusts of wind. Being trashed back and forth himself, I reach up and place my hand over his before we brace for impact.

With how severe the weather is, we're all jolted in our seats as the landing gear is ripped from the bottom of the plane. The sound of creaking metal slows to a stop, lurching the plane forwards as the ground stops our momentum.

As we all begin unbuckling ourselves, I notice Cream in a fit of a panic trying to get her buckle unstuck to release her from the harness. Before anyone else can help her, Tails notices as he comes stumbling from the cockpit and rushes over to help her. I watch her long fluffy ears fall flat as she looks away from him, despite his smile as he un-jams the harness.

"There we go, all free."

Without a word, she shakily stands from her seat and brushes past him to the exit without even giving him a second glance.

Sighing to myself as I watch him run after her, I wonder to myself how long it will take him to realize that he's running out of second chances.

Feeling a warm, gloved hand enter lace between my fingers, I look up to see Shadow's doting red gaze staring down at me. Surprised at the sudden show of affection, I look away embarrassed as I feel my face begin to grow warm.

Chuckling quietly before pulling me towards the exit, the rain is coming down heavily enough that the droplets sting ever so slightly as they pelt my skin. Watching everyone else stand uncomfortably in the rain, I open my palms as a pale pink orb begins to illuminate softly. During our last training session, Shadow worked with me on a way to better control my soul energy. We started with holding things such as barriers made up of our energy for long periods of time. And luckily for the group, a stretched out shield works perfectly as an umbrella.

Extending my arms as the shape manifests, the gang looks gratefully back at me before continuing towards the Master Emerald.

Illuminated by the gentle glow of my soul energy, Silver looks at me before giving me a cheeky thumbs up. Returning his smile, my abilities to function as a walking umbrella are not the only reason I was asked to come on this expedition.

Our plan to prevent Angel Island from being completely destroyed when it falls into the ocean consists of me and Silver using our abilities to keep it intact. Ideally, lowering the island with a cushiony decent would be the best course of action. But even with hundreds of telekinesis-wielding Mobians like Silver the island is too heavy to lower safely.

But what we can do is coat the island in a layer of energy to prevent the mountains, trees, and ecosystems of the chao from being completely destroyed in the crash. And even that is an ambitious plan from the get-go.

I may not have telekinesis, but I do have energy that be stretched thin enough to cover a certain vicinity. The way Silver explained it to me it would essentially be a very thin, very large shield. And while Silver and I are prepping the island, Knuckles has entrusted Rouge and Tails to safely fly the chao to a nearby holding unit. When they're secured inside, propellers will deploy so that the unit can be guided by the plane to their relocation site: Green Hill Zone.

Before the Master Emerald is shattered, Sonic and Shadow will run in unison to create a vortex to suck the fragments down before they completely scatter across Mobius. They'll grab whatever fragments they can, while Silver and I remain on the island to hold everything intact as it falls.

Shadow was completely against the idea of me staying on the island, but with the reassurance of threatening Silver with multiple possibilities of death if anything happened to me; He finally agreed to our plan.

"The Master Emerald is right up ahead. Are you ready Rouge?"

Nodding to her partner, Knuckles gives a very gentle tap to the radiating green emerald. With a very lovely ding, what seems to be hundreds of chao emerge from the bushes around us.

Guiding Rouge down from the air by her arm, he pulls her face to his before pressing his lips to her forehead.

"Please be careful."

Smiling at the gesture, she replies "of course darling" before flying after Tails and the floating chao.

With them taken care of, I glance to Shadow, who already seems to be feeling the affects of the Master Emerald. Knuckles warned him that being imbued with chaos energy would most likely dampen his powers when near the Master Emerald, but Sonic can't create a vortex strong enough to keep the shattered pieces stationary. He's created vortex's hundreds of times, but the Master Emerald has a mind of its own. And a powerful one at that.

Sonic has gotten faster over the years, but not fast enough to outrun the broken pieces. But the extra added speed from Shadow, even being slowed significantly, we're hoping that it will be enough the get the shards and go home.

How they managed to convince Knuckles to shatter the Master Emerald, I probably don't want to know.

Slowly drawing out more and more soul energy, Shadow explained to me that the faster we release the energy the faster it will drain, and potentially harm us. He explained it as diving down the center of our powers, slowly expelling more and more of it until you physically can't draw out anymore. When you begin to near the limit of your abilities, your body will let you know that it can't allow anymore energy to be taken. If you push it past the breaking point, you risk death.

Looking to Shadow as we both slowly begin to delve down into our abilities, I walk over to him and quickly kiss him on the cheek. Watching his cheeks flush ever so slightly at the unexpected peck, remnants of my energy spark on his cheek in reaction to his own chaos magic.

Exchanging one more quick glance before we part ways, I follow Silver deeper into the heart of Angel Island.

...

Silver's POV:

Feeling the air begin to grow more and more staticky, the pale pink light that's been slowly stretching thinner and thinner stops. Amy is painting, even visibly shaking as she attempts to pull the energy even thinner.

Patting her on the shoulder, she looks at me with a weak smile before saying "your turn".

Focusing my mind, a teal colored energy begins to form around the trees. My psychokinesis is actually a lot more similar to Amy's abilities than I originally thought, and being that she hasn't had her new found power for very long the fact that she managed to cover almost half the island is astonishing in and of itself.

But because our powers are slightly different, I don't have trouble necessarily spreading my barrier. Instead, I have to think about properly protecting the trees by offsetting the gravity. It's a lot of ground to cover even with Amy securing the other half of the island, and while I'm no where near powerful enough to hold the entire island; I can hold the rocks and trees to keep them from being smashed in the fall.

Glancing to my communicator watch as it buzzes, I see a message from Sonic asking if we're ready. Watching the edges of my teal abilities meet Amy's pale pink barrier, I respond yes before preparing myself to also hold the weight of myself and Amy for the decent down.

Within seconds of my reply, the island begins to shake violently before my heart drops into my stomach. Abruptly catching Amy as we fall towards the plummeting island, it's falling must faster than we are.

Straining to float us above the island, the feeling of trying to hold the trees and rocks in place while also keeping them tethered to the island feels nearly impossible. It's like trying to fly with an object that's too heavy for you to carry.

And I've used my powers to its limits enough times to know that I've reached it.

I just hope that Sonic and Shadow are fairing better than we are.

...

Sonic's POV:

With cracks quickly forming down the Master Emerald, the vortex isn't gaining enough momentum to be able to suck the shattered fragments down.

As I run circles around Shadow, I've never seen him so slow before. The blur of black and red fur is barely apparent as he pants, gritting his teeth. We knew that the Master Emerald would take a toll on the chaos energy inside of him, but I had no idea it would be so severe.

At this rate... We won't be able to grab all of the pieces that we need.

Watching the cracks on the Master Emerald spread all the way to the sharp point at the bottom, I dig my heels into the dirt as it shatters completely.

Launching from the ground, I grab the closest shard before bouncing off of the pedestal that the emerald was sitting on. Grabbing the second nearest chunk, I realize that I have nothing else to jump off of.

Without a second to spare, I see two of the green shards lining up in a way that I would be able to grab them both.

When I run, everything feels like it's in slow motion because of how fast I'm actually moving. And as I glance around from object to object, the closest thing that I can jump off of is.... Shadow's head...

If I die doing this, at least I was able to grab four shards.

Watching his red eyes slowly look up at me in one of the most menacing glares that I've ever seen, the force from me launching off of him is enough to fling him face first into the dirt.

Wincing to myself at the sound of the impact, I turn my attention back to the two pieces that I'm trying to grab.

Snatching one, I realize that the other shard is farther away than I realized.

Straining as I reach for it, my fingers brush the side of the sparkly green fragment before zipping out of my reach.

Before I can even reach the ground, Shadow is angrily swinging at me.

Ducking out of the way, I send up a grateful prayer that he's currently slower than me. I've had my jaw fractured by one of his punches, and I'd rather not live through the pain of drinking smoothies for three months straight again.

"You blue FAKER! I could have grabbed another one had you not launching me into the DIRT!"

Angrily launching a shard at me, even being severely weakened by the Master Emerald the impact is enough to knock the wind out of me. And as I look down at the green mineral, I realize that it's the only one that he managed to grab.

Nearly dropping to his knees, he moves farther away from the four shards that are in my arms. Watching as his chest rapidly rises and falls as he tries to catch his breath, I'm not unfamiliar with his uncontrollable anger.

"DAMMIT!"

But as he slams his fist into the ground, I realize that I'm not the one that he's angry with.

Muttering under his breath, he says "she's going to have to fight him". Looking up at me, his eyes are no longer full of rage, but have been replaced with a look of panic.

"... She's going to have to fight him."