Rest had been harder than Shadic expected.
Not because he wasn't tired—he was EXHAUSTED, his body running on fumes and determination. But every time he closed his eyes, he saw Nazo. That half-formed specter of dark red fur and yellow eyes, slowly pulling itself together somewhere in the void between dimensions.
Getting stronger.
Getting angrier.
Getting closer.
You're doing that thing again, Sonic-brain observed. The thing where you think too hard and don't sleep.
"I'm aware."
Worrying about Nazo doesn't slow his reformation, Shadow-brain pointed out. It only weakens US.
"I KNOW. I just..."
Can't turn your brain off?
"Something like that."
He'd eventually managed a few hours of fitful sleep, punctuated by dreams of darkness and too many teeth. When dawn came, he was already awake, sitting on the cliff overlooking the ocean, watching the sun rise.
Amy found him there.
"You didn't sleep, did you?" It wasn't really a question.
"I slept a little."
"A little isn't enough."
"It's going to have to be." Shadic stood, stretching muscles that ached despite his accelerated healing. "We're running out of time. I can feel it. Every day Nazo gets stronger. Every day the odds shift in his favor."
"And running yourself into the ground helps how, exactly?"
"It doesn't. But sitting here waiting doesn't help either."
Amy sighed, but she didn't argue. She knew the stakes as well as he did.
"Fine. But after this dimension, you're taking a REAL break. Two days minimum. No arguments."
"What if—"
"NO ARGUMENTS."
"...fine."
The team gathered around the dimensional breach generator for what felt like the hundredth time.
Tails was more nervous than usual, his twin tails twitching erratically as he ran final checks on his equipment.
"This dimension is... different," he said, pulling up holographic displays that pulsed with readings. "The Chaos Energy saturation is off the charts. Like, DANGEROUSLY off the charts. The entire reality is soaked in raw power."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning everything there runs on Chaos Energy. The air, the ground, the water—all of it is infused with power that would normally require Emeralds to access. It's like... imagine if Super forms were the DEFAULT state. If everyone and everything was constantly powered up to maximum."
That sounds awesome, Sonic-brain said enthusiastically.
That sounds unstable, Shadow-brain countered.
"Both," Tails confirmed. "The beings that live there—if any beings LIVE there—would be incredibly powerful. But also incredibly volatile. Too much Chaos Energy in one place causes reality to break down. Things become... fluid. Unpredictable."
"So I'll be walking into a dimension where everything is overpowered and reality is falling apart."
"Essentially, yes."
"Great. Anything else?"
"Your OWN power might be affected. Chaos Energy is responsive—it feeds on itself. In an environment that saturated, your abilities could be amplified exponentially. Or they could become impossible to control. Or both."
Knuckles crossed his arms. "So he might become a god or he might explode. Wonderful options."
"I'm not going to explode," Shadic said firmly.
"You can't KNOW that."
"I'm choosing to believe it very hard."
Rouge examined her nails with practiced disinterest. "The confidence is admirable, darling. Misplaced, but admirable."
"PROBABILITY OF DETONATION: 12.3%," Omega announced. "ACCEPTABLE RISK PARAMETERS."
"Omega, that's not—"
"I HAVE RUN THE CALCULATIONS. 12.3% IS ACCEPTABLE."
"Define 'acceptable.'"
"ANYTHING BELOW 50%."
Shadic decided not to pursue that line of questioning.
"The Emerald," he said, refocusing. "Do you know where it is?"
Tails nodded. "The purple Chaos Emerald. Its signature is coming from what appears to be the center of the dimension—some kind of nexus point where the energy is most concentrated."
"So I have to go to the place with the MOST Chaos Energy in a dimension that's already drowning in it."
"That's the situation, yes."
"Of course it is."
Look on the bright side, Sonic-brain offered. At least we'll have plenty of power to work with.
The concern isn't having power, Shadow-brain replied. It's having TOO MUCH power. We've seen what happens when Chaos Energy goes out of control.
They had. The wasteland dimension. The corrupted Emerald. The hero who had exploded and taken his entire world with him.
Shadic pushed the thought aside.
"Let's do this."
The generator hummed to life.
The breach opened.
And Shadic stepped into chaos.
The transition was VIOLENT.
Previous dimensional crossings had been disorienting—uncomfortable, even painful. But this was something else entirely. Shadic felt like he was being pulled apart and put back together simultaneously, his atoms vibrating at frequencies that shouldn't exist.
And then he was THROUGH.
He stumbled out of the breach and immediately fell to his knees, gasping.
Power.
So much POWER.
It was everywhere. In the air he breathed, in the ground beneath his hands, in the light that filled this impossible sky. Chaos Energy saturated every molecule, every atom, every CONCEPT. It pressed against his consciousness like a physical weight, demanding to be used, to be RELEASED.
Holy— Sonic-brain's voice was awed and terrified. This is INTENSE.
Control, Shadow-brain commanded. Focus on control. Don't let the energy overwhelm us.
Shadic forced himself to breathe. Slowly. Steadily.
In. Out.
In. Out.
Gradually, the pressure eased. Not because the energy had diminished, but because he was learning to exist within it. To let it flow through him without being swept away.
He opened his eyes.
The dimension was beautiful.
And wrong.
The landscape was crystalline—every surface formed from what looked like solidified Chaos Energy, refracting light in colors that didn't have names. The sky above was a swirling aurora of power, constantly shifting, constantly moving. And everything PULSED with a rhythm that felt almost like a heartbeat.
The heartbeat of a dimension that was very much ALIVE.
"Okay," Shadic muttered. "Okay, this is... manageable."
He stood slowly, testing his legs. They felt strange—stronger than usual, more responsive. The ambient energy was already affecting him, amplifying his natural abilities.
The Anchor beeped: 4:45.
Still working. Good.
He reached out with his Chaos senses to locate the Emerald.
And immediately regretted it.
Pain.
Blinding, overwhelming PAIN as his senses were flooded with MORE input than they could process. The Emerald's signature was there—he could feel it—but it was lost in a sea of noise. Everything in this dimension registered as Chaos Energy. Finding one specific source was like trying to hear a whisper in a hurricane.
Pull back! Sonic-brain urged. You're going to fry your brain!
Shadic withdrew his senses, gasping.
"Okay. New plan. Can't track the Emerald directly. Have to find another way."
The center of the dimension, Shadow-brain reminded him. Tails said the nexus point. We navigate by geography, not energy signature.
"Navigate to the center. Right. And which way is the center?"
He looked around.
Every direction looked exactly the same. Crystalline landscape stretching to infinity, aurora sky swirling overhead, no landmarks, no distinguishing features.
Well, Sonic-brain said slowly. This is a problem.
"No kidding."
Shadic started walking.
He picked a direction at random and moved forward, keeping his pace slow and controlled. Every step felt different—sometimes the ground was solid, sometimes it gave slightly beneath his feet, sometimes it seemed to MOVE with him, carrying him faster than he was actually walking.
Time passed.
Or maybe it didn't.
In a dimension this saturated with Chaos Energy, even the concept of time seemed fluid. Shadic couldn't tell if he'd been walking for minutes or hours. The landscape didn't change. The sky didn't shift. Everything was exactly the same.
Until it wasn't.
He crested a rise of crystallized energy and stopped.
Below him, in a vast depression that stretched for miles, was a city.
A city made entirely of light.
Buildings that towered toward the sky, their structures formed from woven strands of pure power. Streets that glowed with internal radiance. And everywhere—EVERYWHERE—there were people.
Or what passed for people here.
They were humanoid, mostly. Some looked almost normal—mobians and humans walking through the streets, going about their business. Others were... more. Beings of pure energy given form, crackling with power that bled off them in waves.
And they were all looking at him.
Uh, Sonic-brain said nervously. We have an audience.
Stay calm, Shadow-brain advised. We don't know if they're hostile.
One of the beings—a figure that seemed to be made of living lightning—rose from the city and floated toward Shadic. As it approached, it took on a more defined shape: vaguely hedgehog-like, with features that kept shifting and reforming.
"Outsider," the being said, and its voice crackled with electricity. "You do not belong here."
"I know," Shadic replied carefully. "I'm looking for something. A Chaos Emerald. Once I find it, I'll leave."
"The Emerald." The being's shifting features twisted into something like a smile. "Yes. We know of it. The Concentrated One. The Seed of our reality."
"Seed?"
"This dimension was not always as it is. Once, it was empty. Void. Then the Emerald arrived—fell from somewhere else, somewhere OUTSIDE. And from its power, all of this grew."
The being gestured at the city below, at the crystalline landscape beyond.
"We are children of the Emerald. Born from its energy. And we protect it as it protected us."
So the entire dimension is Emerald-powered, Sonic-brain realized. The Emerald didn't just land here—it CREATED here.
Which means taking it could be... problematic, Shadow-brain concluded.
Shadic's heart sank. "If I take the Emerald... what happens to all of this? To all of YOU?"
The lightning being's smile didn't waver.
"We die. This reality collapses. Everything that exists here ceases to be."
Silence.
Shadic stared at the being, hoping he'd misheard.
He hadn't.
"You're saying... if I take the Emerald, everyone here dies."
"Correct."
"Everyone. The entire dimension."
"Also correct."
Well, Sonic-brain said weakly. This is... this is bad.
This is unacceptable, Shadow-brain agreed. We cannot destroy an entire dimension to save our own.
But even as the thought formed, another one followed: What was the alternative?
Leave the Emerald. Return home empty-handed. Face Nazo with only six Emeralds instead of seven.
Would that be enough?
Tails had said they needed ALL seven to create a seal. Without the complete set, the ritual wouldn't work. Nazo would reform, attack, and eventually win.
Millions in his dimension versus... how many here? Thousands? Millions more?
How did you weigh one world against another?
"I see the conflict in you," the lightning being observed. "The calculus of lives. The mathematics of sacrifice. You wonder if your world is worth more than ours."
"I don't want to destroy anyone," Shadic said. "Either world. There has to be another way."
"There is no other way. The Emerald IS this dimension. Without it, nothing here can exist."
"Then... can you create a new power source? Something to replace the Emerald once it's gone?"
"We have tried. For eons, we have searched for alternatives. None exist. The Emerald's power is unique—fundamental. It cannot be replicated."
What about the other Emeralds? Sonic-brain suggested desperately. We have four. Maybe one of them could—
No, Shadow-brain cut him off. Each Emerald has its own signature. They're not interchangeable. A substitute wouldn't work.
Shadic's mind raced, searching for options.
He could leave. Walk away. Accept that this Emerald was beyond his reach.
But then Nazo wins. Eventually. And who knows how many dimensions HE'LL destroy once he's at full power?
He could take the Emerald. Doom this dimension to save his own.
But how could he live with that? How could he look Amy and Tails and the others in the eye, knowing he'd murdered an entire reality to save them?
He could...
Wait.
An idea. Crazy. Probably impossible.
But maybe...
"The Emerald created this dimension," Shadic said slowly. "Its power gave birth to everything here. But the Emerald still EXISTS separately from everything it created, right? It's the SOURCE, not the SUBSTANCE."
The lightning being tilted its head. "I do not understand your distinction."
"The Emerald is like... like a sun. It radiates energy, and that energy formed everything here. But the sun isn't the SAME as the light it produces. If you removed the sun, the light would fade—but only because there's no ongoing source."
"And?"
"What if the energy didn't need an ongoing source? What if I could... stabilize it? Make it self-sustaining?" Shadic's heart was pounding now. "In my dimension, we have something called Chaos Control. It can bend reality, manipulate energy in ways that shouldn't be possible. What if I used it to LOCK the energy in place? Freeze it at its current state so it doesn't need the Emerald anymore?"
Is that even possible? Sonic-brain asked doubtfully.
Theoretically, Shadow-brain said slowly. Chaos Control can manipulate the flow of energy and time. If we could create a stable loop—a self-perpetuating cycle that maintains the dimensional structure without external input...
The lightning being's shifting features had gone still.
"You propose... to remake our reality. To transform it from something dependent on the Emerald to something self-sustaining."
"I propose to TRY. I don't know if it'll work. But it's better than the alternatives."
"And if you fail?"
"Then you're no worse off than you are now. The Emerald stays, your dimension survives, and I go home empty-handed."
The being considered this.
Around them, other energy creatures had gathered—hundreds of them, drawn by the conversation, watching with expressions that ranged from curiosity to fear to hope.
"It has never been attempted," the lightning being said finally. "In all the eons since our creation, no one has tried to free us from our dependence on the Emerald."
"Then let's try now."
"The power required would be immense. You would have to channel more Chaos Energy than any single being has ever controlled. The strain could destroy you."
Shadic thought about the wasteland dimension. About the hero who had tried to channel too much power and exploded.
But he also thought about what Serenity had shown him. His fears, accepted. His darkness, integrated.
He wasn't running from the possibility of failure anymore.
He was running TOWARD the chance of success.
"I'll take that risk."
The lightning being studied him for a long moment.
Then, slowly, it drifted aside—revealing a path down into the city.
"The Emerald is at the nexus. The heart of our reality. If you are to attempt this madness... that is where it must happen."
"Thank you."
"Do not thank me yet, outsider. You may be walking to your death."
"Wouldn't be the first time."
That's... actually true, Sonic-brain admitted. We DID die already.
Once, Shadow-brain corrected. Let's not make it a habit.
The walk to the nexus was surreal.
Energy beings parted before Shadic like waves, watching him with eyes made of lightning and starlight and raw power. Some whispered—crackling sounds that might have been words in a language he couldn't understand. Others simply stared, their expressions unreadable.
The city itself was overwhelming.
Every building was a masterpiece of woven energy, structures that defied physics and logic. Streets flowed like rivers of light, carrying beings from place to place. And everywhere, EVERYWHERE, the pulse of the Emerald's power beat like a heart.
At the center of the city, the nexus waited.
It was a tower—if something that size could be called a tower. It stretched infinitely upward, disappearing into the aurora sky, its surface constantly shifting and reforming. The base was a perfect circle of solidified energy, and at its center, floating serenely, was the purple Chaos Emerald.
It was BEAUTIFUL.
Even among the other Emeralds Shadic had collected, this one stood out. Its purple light was deep and rich, pulsing with a rhythm that matched the heartbeat of the dimension itself. Power radiated from it in waves—visible, tangible, overwhelming.
The Anchor beeped: 1:30.
Ninety seconds until calibration completed.
"You understand what you must do," the lightning being said. It had followed him to the nexus, along with hundreds of others. "Channel your power into the dimension itself. Create a stable loop that maintains our existence without the Emerald's direct input."
"I understand."
"The process will be agonizing. The energy you must control is beyond anything you have experienced. Many who have tried lesser feats have been consumed."
"I know."
"And yet you persist."
"I don't have a choice." Shadic stepped toward the Emerald. "Not if I want to live with myself afterward."
He reached out with his Chaos senses—carefully this time, filtering the input, focusing specifically on the Emerald and its connection to the dimension.
The connection was VAST. Billions of threads of energy, each one leading to a different aspect of this reality. The beings. The landscape. The city. The sky. All of it, tied to the Emerald, dependent on its power.
To free them, he would have to touch each thread.
Transform each connection from a dependency into a self-sustaining cycle.
Billions of threads.
One at a time.
This is insane, Sonic-brain breathed.
This is necessary, Shadow-brain countered.
"Chaos Control."
Shadic's power surged outward.
Pain.
Immediate, overwhelming PAIN.
The energy of the dimension flooded into him, and for a moment, Shadic was certain he was going to die. His body felt like it was tearing apart, his consciousness fragmenting under the weight of a billion connections suddenly pressing against his mind.
HOLD ON! Sonic-brain screamed.
FOCUS! Shadow-brain commanded. ONE THREAD AT A TIME! DON'T TRY TO DO EVERYTHING AT ONCE!
One thread.
Shadic grabbed the nearest connection—a being of living flame, watching from the crowd—and PUSHED his power into it.
The thread resisted. It was designed to draw from the Emerald, not to sustain itself. But Shadic didn't stop. He forced his Chaos Energy into the connection, reshaping it, bending it into a loop that fed itself.
The flame being gasped.
Its connection to the Emerald severed—and it didn't die.
It stood there, burning brightly, powered by its own self-sustaining cycle.
It WORKED, Sonic-brain breathed.
One down, Shadow-brain said grimly. Billions to go.
Shadic reached for the next thread.
And the next.
And the next.
Time lost meaning. Reality blurred. He was no longer Shadic—he was a conduit, a living channel for more power than any single being should be able to control. The Emerald's energy flowed through him, and he transformed it, one connection at a time.
The pain never stopped.
It just became... background. Constant. Something he existed alongside rather than something he fought against.
Hundreds of threads.
Thousands.
Hundreds of thousands.
The city transformed around him. Buildings that had been dependent on the Emerald became self-sustaining. Streets that had drawn power from the nexus began generating their own light. Beings that had been born from the Emerald's radiation became independent entities, their existence no longer tied to a single source.
Millions of threads.
Billions.
How much longer? Sonic-brain asked, his mental voice strained.
Unknown, Shadow-brain replied. But we CANNOT stop. Leaving this incomplete would destabilize everything we've already done.
Shadic pushed harder.
His Hyper form activated—not consciously, but instinctively. His body turned pure white, rainbow energy cascading around him as he drew on every scrap of power he possessed. The inhibitor rings on his wrists and ankles glowed, not restraining his power but CHANNELING it, helping him direct the impossible flow of energy.
The last thread.
The connection between the Emerald and the dimension itself—the final link that held everything together.
This one was different from the others.
It wasn't a thread—it was a CHAIN. Massive. Unbreakable. The fundamental bond between source and creation.
We can't reshape this one, Sonic-brain realized. It's too strong.
Then we don't reshape it, Shadow-brain said. We REPLACE it.
Replace it. With what?
And then Shadic understood.
With HIMSELF.
The dimension needed a source. Something to anchor it, to give it stability, to ensure its continued existence. He couldn't reshape the chain—but he could redirect it. Tie it to something else.
To the same power that was currently flowing through him.
Wait, Sonic-brain said. Are you saying—
"I'm saying I become the new anchor."
That would leave a permanent connection, Shadow-brain warned. A piece of you, left behind in this dimension. You would never be fully WHOLE again.
"I know."
Shadic—
"I KNOW. But it's the only way." He reached for the chain. "And I'm okay with it."
He touched the final connection—
And let go.
A piece of his essence, his consciousness, his SELF—flowed into the chain. It wrapped around the dimension like a protective embrace, stabilizing it, anchoring it, giving it the source it needed to exist independently.
The chain transformed.
The Emerald's light flickered—and then separated from the dimension entirely, becoming its own entity again instead of the heart of a reality.
Shadic collapsed.
When he opened his eyes, the lightning being was standing over him.
"You did it," the being said, and there was awe in its crackling voice. "You actually did it."
Shadic tried to speak. His throat was raw. His body felt like it had been turned inside out and put back together wrong.
"The Emerald...?"
"Free. Unbound. You may take it." The being gestured, and the purple Chaos Emerald floated gently into Shadic's palm. "You have given us something we never thought possible. Freedom. True independence. We are no longer children of the Emerald. We are our own people."
Around him, the energy beings were celebrating—if that was the right word. Bursts of power, swirling dances of light, sounds that might have been laughter or singing or joy made manifest.
"You sacrificed a piece of yourself to save us," the lightning being continued. "A fragment of your essence, left behind to anchor our existence. We will honor that gift. We will remember you."
"Just... just make it count," Shadic managed. "Build something good. Something worth the price."
"We will." The being knelt, bringing its shifting face close to Shadic's. "You asked earlier about our nature. About what we would become without the Emerald. Now I can answer: We will become whatever we CHOOSE. And that choice is yours—your gift to us."
Shadic smiled weakly.
The Anchor beeped.
Calibration complete.
"I have to go."
"Then go, Shadic of Three. Go, and save your world as you saved ours. And know that you will never truly be alone—a part of you lives here now. Forever."
Shadic activated the Anchor.
The world dissolved into light.
He didn't just stumble out of the breach this time.
He COLLAPSED.
The moment he emerged into his home dimension, his legs gave out completely. He hit the grass face-first and didn't move, the purple Emerald clutched in his hand like a lifeline.
"SHADIC!"
Hands on him. Voices screaming. Someone rolling him over.
Amy's face swam into view, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"You're alive! Thank the stars, you're ALIVE!"
"Five down," Shadic whispered. "Two to go."
"We don't CARE about the Emeralds right now! Tails, his readings—what are his readings?!"
"His energy levels are critically low! Like, DANGEROUSLY low! He burned through almost everything he had!" Tails' voice was panicked. "But he's stable. Recovering. He's going to be okay."
That was too close, Sonic-brain said weakly. WAY too close.
But we succeeded, Shadow-brain replied. That's what matters.
"You were gone for twelve hours," Amy said, her hands cupping Shadic's face. "TWELVE HOURS. And when you didn't come back after six, we started to think—"
"I know." Shadic managed to lift one hand, covering hers. "I'm sorry. There were... complications."
"What KIND of complications?"
"The dimension was going to collapse if I took the Emerald. So I had to... I had to save it first."
Amy stared at him.
"You SAVED A DIMENSION?!"
"Sort of. It's a long story." Shadic's eyes were getting heavy. "Can I... can I sleep now? I'm very tired."
"You're sleeping for a WEEK."
"I'll settle for two days."
"A WEEK."
"...fine."
He closed his eyes.
The last thing he felt before unconsciousness claimed him was Amy's hand in his, warm and steady and real.
Five Emeralds.
Two to go.
And a piece of himself, left behind in a dimension of living light, anchoring a reality that now had a chance to grow on its own terms.
Worth it, he decided.
Definitely worth it.
Author's Note: Shadic pulled a genuine hero move and sacrificed a piece of himself to save an entire dimension. That's character growth, baby. Next chapter: Recovery, reflection, and the realization that the last two Emeralds are going to be the hardest yet—especially the one in the endless ocean.